No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Republicans' "groomer" attacks backfire spectacularly

Episode Date: April 10, 2022

Republicans begin to attack anyone who doesn’t agree with their politics as "pedophiles" and "groomers," only to watch it backfire in spectacular fashion. Brian interviews Senator Amy Klobuchar about her bill to finally deliver some relief for supply chains in ocean shipping, her response to Republicans who are quick to complain about high prices but won’t vote for any measures to lower costs, and her thoughts on Clarence Thomas recusing himself on matters involving January 6. And Fox LA’s Elex Michaelson joins to discuss why the White House isn’t getting credit for the strong jobs numbers, how the theatrics by some Republicans during the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings backfired, the state of the LA mayoral race, and the journey to episode 100 on this show.Donate to the "Don't Be A Mitch" fund: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dontbeamitchShop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about the Republican attack that anyone who doesn't agree with their politics are now suddenly pedophiles and groomers. I interview Senator Amy Klobuchar about her bill to finally deliver some relief for supply chains and ocean shipping. Her response to Republicans who are quick to complain about high prices but won't vote for any measures to lower costs, and her thoughts on Clarence Thomas recusing himself on matters involving January 6th. And I'm joined by Fox L.A.'s Alex Michelson to discuss why the White House isn't getting

credit for the strong jobs numbers, how the theatrics by some of the theatrics by some of the some Republicans during the Katanshi Brown Jackson hearings backfired the state of the L.A. mayoral race, and we chat about the journey to episode 100 on this show. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Okay, so this is episode 100. I know that's just like an arbitrary milestone, but I don't know, it's pretty cool to think back 100 episodes ago. I would literally DM random members of Congress on Twitter to beg for interviews. I'm still definitely begging for interviews, but now I beg on email. So yeah, really, really moving up in the world. Anyway, for those of you who've listened from the beginning and those of you who are new and

only recently listening, thank you, honestly, for giving me a little bit of time each week. I know podcasts are a heavy lift. It's not like stumbling across a five-minute YouTube video or something. It's a 40-minute commitment. So I don't take that for granted in the slightest. So please know that I'm really grateful that you're listening to this show. Okay, so jumping in here during Katanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings, well, now Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson after a 53 to 47 vote, Republicans had floated this idea that she's soft on child sex offenders because of sentences that she passed down that were perfectly mainstream and also perfectly in line with other judges who Republicans voted to confirm. So clearly just

a desperate Hail Mary to try and sink her nomination. Didn't work. She got confirmed. But a few Republicans decided that this was actually an effective attack. And so they started railing against anyone who supported Donji Brown Jackson as being pro-petophile. Then you look over at Florida, where Republicans in Florida signed the don't say gay bill into law, and when Disney spoke out against it, belatedly, I should add, now Republicans are calling Disney groomers, Disney. And so these Republicans have just decided that anyone who doesn't agree with their agenda, their politics, is now a pedophile. Which sounds ridiculous. right? It sounds so bad shit crazy that I'm actually pretty sure it'll stick. Why? Because if you'd

asked anyone 10 years ago what they would say if you told them that the host of the apprentice would become president and then stage a coup when he lost re-election, I'm pretty sure they would say that you're out of your mind. And so by now, I've learned my lesson that when something seems too insane for Republicans to latch onto, guess what? They're going to. And so on this idea that the left is all just pedophiles and groomers for the crime of not agreeing with with Republicans backwards anti-LGBT bills or supporting liberal Supreme Court nominees. Two things here.

One is, I think it's incumbent on all of us to breathlessly reject the idea that anything LGBT-related can be equated to pedophilia. Like, being gay or being pro-LGBT doesn't mean you are grooming kids to be gay. What an insane, baseless suggestion that homophobes desperately rely on to justify their bigotry.

Gay people don't turn straight kids gay by exposing them to LGBT culture or ideas just like gay kids don't turn straight when they watch the notebook or sleepless in Seattle. What it does is eliminate the stigma that comes with pretending that LGBT Americans don't exist. And for those kids who already have higher rates of depression or suicide, eliminating those stigmas can mean the difference between life or death.

But the people who are reintroducing those stigmas by equating LGBT Americans with pedophiles will undoubtedly have blood on their hands, undoubtedly. But second of all, and I know this is going to knock you off your feet, but if the Republican Party was actually concerned about kids' safety, you might think they'd be concerned about someone like Matt Gates, who was currently under investigation for child sex trafficking, people like Roy Moore,

who Ted Cruz promised his support if he'd been elected to serve in the Senate from Alabama, despite the fact that he molested God knows how many underage girls. People like Jim Jordan, who allegedly turned a blind eye to hundreds of student athletes who were getting molested at Ohio State University by a team doctor while he was the coach. People like RNC strategist and Trump re-election campaign strategist, Ruben Verastigy, who was arrested as part of a federal child exploitation investigation and just sentenced to 12 years in prison. Or former Kentucky judge and Trump delegate Tim Nolan, who was charged with multiple human trafficking offenses and paid minors for sex.

Or a Republican state senator and Trump's Oklahoma campaign chair, Ralph Schroen. Shorty, who was convicted of child sex trafficking, or Ben Gibson, a 2020 Republican congressional candidate from Louisiana who got arrested on four counts of pornography involving juveniles, or Trump Commerce Department official Adam Hageman, who's accused of sharing child pornography. I mean, just this past week, tendency to Republicans introduced a bill establishing common law marriage between one man and one woman that eliminated the age requirement for marriage. So not only an attack on same-sex marriage, but literally, literally legalizing child marriage. There was so much backlash that they finally had to offer an amendment bringing that age up to 18.

But dear God, this is a pretty devastating showing from a political party that is currently crying pedophilia against everyone else. And that's not to say that there aren't absolute creeps on both ends of the political spectrum because there are. But let's not pretend that Republicans aren't really, really, really well represented on that list. So maybe, just maybe, we start treating these accusations as the projection that they seem to be. So look, I know that it can feel like we're in a political environment, where nothing matters, but if one thing is true,

it's that pushing back against these smears but the truth is going to make it really, really hard for Republicans to keep calling everyone else pedophiles. Because I can promise you the last thing they want is to be reminded that their hands aren't in the least bit clean here. Next up is my interview with Amy Klobuchar. Today we have the U.S. Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar. Thank you so much for coming back on.

Well, thank you so much, Brian. And a happy 100th episode. That's incredible. Thanks so much. I won't ask you what your favorite episode was. This one will be my favorite. Oh, there we are. Yes.

All have political diplomatic answers here. So let's jump in because I know you don't have a ton of time. But one major bottleneck that we're seeing right now in international supply chains comes from ocean shipping. And now you just sponsored legislation that passed the Senate with unanimous support. Could you speak about that? Yeah, it just shows how bad the problem is. To get unanimous, I mean, it's got to be like a volleyball resolution that usually does that. Senator Thune and I came together on this because we were hearing from our farmers, manufacturers,

everyday citizens who are saying, wait a minute, how come we're suddenly paying so much for things at the grocery store? There's a lot of reasons and problems with the supply chain, but one of the major ones is the shipping cost, just to put your stuff in a container, has gone up three, four times what it used to be. And meanwhile, these international shipping conglomerates, all of which are based in other countries, their profit has gone up sevenfold. Sevenfold in just from one year to the next.

So they're basically patting their pockets at the expense of manufacturers who are trying to ship their things to other countries and also farmers, and then that gets translated into consumer prices. Well, no, you've said that these shipping companies have to take our goods just like they take foreign goods and that they've got to charge fair prices, which means significantly less prices for the containers that they've been doing right now. Who dictates what those fair prices are? Like, who has that kind of oversight over these companies? Who's going to be the one to

say, like, you have to, you know, you have to charge X, Y, and Z? Well, good question. So right now they're clearly doing it themselves, but the Federal Maritime, Commission has jurisdiction over these companies. The problem is there's not a lot of spying in some of their rules and so what we did here with this bill that unanimously passed the Senate is say okay you need to pass a rule and this is a direction of Congress the House has a similar bill that basically says you've got to charge fair prices and wait two other things you cannot export back to other countries air you have to fill your containers with American-made goods

They literally are bringing in over a bunch of stuff from China, unloading it, and then they're in such a hurry to go back that they don't even put goods in some of the crates. That's what I mean. They're exporting air, and we have got things mounting up and waiting to be sent overseas. And by the way, we're going to be a country that makes stuff, invents things, exports to the world.

That's good for American jobs. And the third thing in the bill is that you can't retaliate against companies that call attention to this and go to the commission with the problems because there's been all kinds of bullying behavior going on from the shippers. Well, now you have this bill, you have Biden who announced that he'll be releasing

180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. You have Senator Maggie Hassan, who introduced the bill to suspend the gas tax until the end of the year, and then that was blocked by a Republican. So there are people who are trying to fix these high prices. And then you have the vast, vast majority of Republicans

who refuse to do anything to help because hurting Democrats is more important than helping Americans. So what's your message to those Republicans who are, you know, super quick to go on Fox News to blame every nickel of high prices on the Democrats and yet can't be bothered to lift a finger to actually help alleviate those prices and alleviate those high costs for Americans? You know, it really is hypocritical if you don't join us on working on. Here's a good one that you didn't mention. Pharmaceutical prices. How about letting Medicare negotiate, which we would.

pass out of our caucus, and if we could get a few of them on board, we could get this done. Letting them bring down pharmaceutical prices to what the VA gets to charge our courageous veterans, we could do the same for seniors, and it would help everybody. That's 46 million seniors. Once those prices go down for things like Symbicor or for so many other drugs where we have seen these escalating prices, it helps everyone. So we're working to put a cap on insulin, but we also want to see the negotiation of prices. That's a good example.

I can't explain why they want to play politics with this stuff when, in fact, this is a uniquely American moment where we are coming out of the pandemic, where people are seeing each other again, and we don't want to be 300 million plus silos. We want to find common ground or with what's happening in Ukraine, this patriotic moment. And I think one of the things that I see, and with Judge Jackson's confirmation that we just saw, incredible moment of joy and just exuberant for her on the court is that people are starting to talk to each other again. So instead of just looking at your own TV station or looking at your own thing, they're starting to see each other at family gatherings at work. And of course,

they don't always agree. But at least there's another voice in their ear that says, you know, I didn't think that was fair when Judge Jackson got that question to someone who is just watching Fox News or someone says, you know what, I think actually it's really good that President Biden got all the world behind us. It's a reality check, right? And we weren't having it during this pandemic. So I'm very hopeful in Judge Jackson's approval ratings show it after the hearing that this is going to be a moment where we're going to see a bit more democracy in action in a positive way because people are connecting again. I did want to talk about that exact issue. You know, we just saw Judge Katanji Brown Jackson get confirmed only a few hours ago as if this is recording.

Now, her confirmation was basically a given, and yet that didn't stop Republicans from peddling some bat-shit crazy narratives just because, right? Like, she was never, her confirmation was never really at risk. They just decided why not. Well, they thought it would catch on especially some of them, not all of them, and including certainly not the three that voted for her, Collins, Murkowski, and Romney. But there were also others that behaved more civilly. But no, they thought they could get political hay out of it. And honestly, it backfired in a big way. Because, like, oh, yeah, the numbers show in the 60s percent for people that wanted her confirmed.

And part of it was her. It was all about her, the pillar of strength, how she showed grace under pressure and taking the questions, how she answered that question about being a mom or her faith with such honesty. You know, yeah, I'm not perfect as a mom. I try my best. I'm so proud of my kids. I mean, just like anyone would answer it, that was a human being. And I think that she captured her people's hearts.

And the fact that that happened while she was getting this assault of hundreds of mean questions, basically, including ones that were just way over the top, basically associating her somehow liking porn or liking people that like porn. And it was really something. And I think that it was a lesson to them. that that didn't really work. And sure, a few people raised money off it on their side. But overall, people did the gut check

and they wanted her on the bench. Do you think that there was any sense of shame or embarrassment over the Josh Hawley's and Ted Cruz's or Marsha Blackburns? Well, sure there was when Ben Sask called it, the newest noun ever, Jack Assery. We got another Republican senator. That's what he called it.

He went out right after Ted Cruz. And so, you know, I think that was, And also, we were able to hit back with facts. One of my favorite facts is that only 3% of her opinions were ever overturned. At one point, it was overturned by the D.C. circuit. And then the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed her original opinion of a case. So, you know, there's all kinds of examples of that that we were able to get out there, as well as her, you know, being a federal public defender,

but also having a brother who's a police officer, an uncle who's a police chief, support from the fraternal order of police. And we were really able to make that strong case. Yeah. And I think that that was made abundantly clear. I don't think there was anybody who denies her, you know, her qualifications to be on the court. Speaking of the Supreme Court, we recently found out that Ginny Thomas had been texting then chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to steal the last election. You know, Democrats are working on a bill governing ethics and recusal guidelines for the Supreme Court. What's the state of that bill? And do you believe that Clarence Thomas should recuse himself on matters involving January 6th.

I do, and that is because of the clear ethics rules that basically apply to every other federal judge, not just state judges, federal judges, that say if there's any appearance of impropriety involving a family member in a case that would make people believe that you can't be impartial, then you should recuse yourself. And actually, Thomas himself did it. there was a case in front of him in the mid-90s about a school that his kid went to. Or Justice Breyer did it when his wife, Joanna, was on a board of a college or a nonprofit and the case came before the court.

So you see that all the time that judges recuse themselves. And so I think that's a pretty straightforward ask. My second asked, and yeah, I've respect for Justice Roberts, who once again, by the way this week came out with the Democratic appointed justices, the liberal justices, and said he was, did not agree that a shadow docket should have been used to decide a certain case, environmental case, because so many of the cases are now, by that conservative majority, are being shoved into what's called a shadow docket. I brought this up in the hearing because Jackson, Judge Jackson, is so transparent in her opinion. That's what they did with the Texas abortion case. That's what they

did with a voting case out of Wisconsin. It's outrageous. So what you've seen going on in the court is, one, you got this example of what Thomas did, but two, they need ethics rules. If you really want to be transparent, you should have ethics rules in place. So you can see if people are getting paid for speeches or paid for books or who's giving them lodging. I mean, come on, this is really straightforward. Members of Congress either can't do that stuff or they have to show where they got paid. And in this case, those nine justices, you never know what's happening.

There's no ethics rules about what's appearance of impropriety or not. Yet every single other federal judge in the country, including in the circuit court, has to provide that information. By the way, if you're worried about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court like John Roberts purports to be, then issuing all of these decisions on the shadow docket is not doing anything to help his cause. No, but, I mean, that's what's so interesting. He actually this week criticized, this week he actually criticized them again for using it. He sided with the liberal justices and said that it shouldn't be done in that shadow docket

where you kind of make a temporary decision and no one that's not really thoroughly briefed and there's no oral arguments for the public to see. So let's finish off with this. You've introduced a bill with Chuck Grassley to help regulate big tech. It's the first tech competition bill to advance since the dawn of the internet. Yes, that is exactly right. That is exactly right, Brian. So what does this bill seek to do?

And we hear so often the whining about censorship from conservatives, is this going to assuage any of those complaints or is this dealing with a separate issue entirely? I think what is amazing about this bill is that some of those conservatives supported it, but so did people like Chuck Rossi and so did people like Steve Danes and other people, as as well as Democrats, right? You've got Dick Durbin and Corey Booker and Maisie Hirona who are co-sponsored of the bill. Samantha B called it the Oceans 11 of co-sponsors.

So what the bill does is it basically says, you know, when you are a dominant tech company, and we're here talking about companies like Google and Amazon, and you have, like in the case of Google, 90% market share, okay, that doesn't seem right, and the Justice Department's looking into the whole thing. But if you have that market chair, then you can make it.

products which they do all the time you know everything from Amazon making their own products to Google having Google Maps okay but you can't always put your product at the top as the clearly only option and then shove everything else down and that's why for instance Yelp it feels so strongly about that because they've got good restaurant reviews yet they're dealing with a company that's putting their stuff at the top secondly you can't copy people's secret data the best example Amazon literally luggage organizer for company, four-person company out of Brooklyn, New York had to put their

plans in place so they could put their luggage organizers on their site. They stole it and created their own Amazon rip-off luggage carrier and then put it on Amazon basics. That happened. Wall Street Journal uncovered it. Or you can't charge 30 percent. This is a different bill on the app stores to just willy-nilly certain companies. So this kind of thing is going on all the time. And what we're saying is you can't do that self-preferencing, we'll call it. You cannot copy people's private stuff for your own competitive advantage. And then you can't retaliate against companies who complain about it. So we're pretty excited about the bill. It got through Judiciary Committee on a 16-6 vote. Both Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer have pled

to bring these bills to the floor. I'd say two other things to note is that there's also a need to invest in the agencies, and now that we have Lena Con at the FTC and Jonathan Cantor heading up justice, they're ready to go. We've also passed a bill

through the Senate that significantly increases the budget of the agencies. Final thing I'll note, newspapers. Dwindling, in part because our content isn't being paid for small radio stations, small TV stations. we've got a great bill on that that's bipartisan with senator kennedy of louisiana um and buck

and cicillini have it in the house that would basically say you've got to allow these outlets these small outlets to be able to negotiate and gain leverage by doing it together to get better rates when they when the big tech companies especially google and facebook use their content uh they took australia took them on and they literally threatened to leave an entire industrialized nation and one of them shut down some of their links. And then the world got so mad that they couldn't do that. That's what we're dealing with when you talk about bullying behavior. Well, Senator Klobuchar, we'll leave it there.

Thank you so much. I don't think anybody in the Senate does as much as you. So keep kicking ass and thank you for joining me today. I appreciate it. Okay. Thank you so much. And we're so excited about our new Supreme Court justice. It was just pure joy when that vote got completed, 53, 47, even higher with the American people.

and she will have her head high when she walks into that courthouse. And we are so excited about her. Thanks again to Amy Klobuchar. Now we've got the host of The Issue is on Fox L.A. And The Issue is Podcast. My good friend Alex, Michaelson, Alex, thanks for coming back on. Brian, congratulations on podcast number 100. This is a big moment, not only for you, but for everybody.

that is a podcast listener. So I'm honored to be here on your big show. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. And, you know, it's fitting because you've been on more than anybody else. So, you know, a lot of the thanks goes to you too for being there for the listeners for as long as you have. Are you saying that I need a better agent to get me a paid contributor gig? I'm just saying you could have negotiated that at any point in the last hundred episodes.

Well, I mean, I remember being with you at lunch when you came to me. me and said that you want to do a podcast and how do we call people to interview people. And, you know, now you've interviewed literally the president of the United States in the White House. You've interviewed basically every member of Congress, the speaker of the house, a lot of the top people. This is a destination, which is something that you've built and should be proud of. And also, you know, a shout out to everybody that listens week in and week out and are loyal followers of you and clearly focused and interested in politics and wanting to get, you know, reliable information and a serious discourse. And I think it's a pleasure to be

able to talk to your audience as well. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I second everything you said. So with that said, let's jump in. Something that was really striking to me this past week was I saw polling that showed that half of the country is under the impression that we We've lost jobs in the United States, when in reality, the unemployment rate is at 3.6 percent. That's a 50-year low. Jobless claims are at a 54-year low, the second lowest they've been in history. We've added back all the jobs that were lost during the pandemic and record time.

Where is that disconnect coming from, and how do Democrats overcome that? Well, the disconnect is because prices are up. And so most people don't see a lot of what you're talking about. When they go to the gas pump, which is what Americans do, you know, some of them several times a week and they see the number going up every day when they see the price of groceries at the store when they you know see so many aspects of their everyday life getting more expensive housing is more expensive you know and so the jobs number is a real objective win for the Biden administration but if the price of everything going up you know doesn't compare with you know the salary increases People feel like they're losing money. And so people feel like things are going in the wrong direction because their life is getting more expensive.

You know, there's been a lot of instances where Democrats are trying to lower the costs of things, you know, from build back better, which I know that you have your own issues with in terms of like how this whole thing was marketed, which was clearly poorly enough that it, you know, didn't even make it to the finish line. But, you know, there were cost-cutting measures.

There were price-saving measures with, these bills. You know, those same measures are being put out on the floor individually. I mean, we have things like allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices. We have, you know, elements like Biden releasing a million barrels a day from the strategic petroleum reserves. And yet, you know, you have Republicans who aren't helping Democrats or, you know, helping Democrats, but in reality helping Americans, do you think that they're relying on these prices being high and keeping them that way so that they could use this as an attack against Democrats and the upcoming elections?

I mean, that's pretty cynical. I think they're clearly... Oh, yeah. Well, welcome, you know, if you're looking for a place that's not cynical, you're at the wrong place. Of course, there are some people on the right that are rooting for people on the left to fail. Just like there were plenty of people on the left that were rooting for Donald Trump to fail as well. And I don't want to make false equivalencies because they're not exactly the same thing. But there clearly are people on both sides of the aisle that, that, you know,

root against the party in power when they're not in power. But yeah, no, I mean, Democrats have made messaging mistakes. You know, I've made the point that build back better sounds, you know, to borrow a phrase from my friend Mike Murphy, like a chiropractic chain. You know, why didn't they call it the cutting cost bill? Yeah. Or, you know, make America, you know, something like that. I mean, that's really what Democrats are trying to prove, right? We're going to make life for you less expensive. We're going to do things that make it easier for your daily life. That is what a lot of aspects of build back better actually do.

But because in a lot of ways, the marketing in it was so bad and the outreach to Mansion and cinema was so fraught from the beginning, that never really happened. Now you're kind of getting the worst of all worlds, which is you're not getting the benefit from the legislation and you're dealing with, you know, the concept in some people's minds that you can't get your own team behind something, much less getting Republicans on board. Yeah. Well, I guess we'll see in the coming months, you know, it was just reported that the top priority for Democrats now that Katanji Brown Jackson's been confirmed as the Supreme Court justice. The next priority is going to be passing a reconciliation bill, obviously, you know, we've heard

that Joe Manchin is on board. We'll see how far that goes. We've heard that story before. The challenge is, you know, it's not just Joe Manchin. I mean, he's one vote, but you also got Kristen Sinema. So there were some reporting this week that, you know, Democrats have basically going to Joe Mansion and say, what could you, what will you agree to? And then, like, let's just pass that.

But then cinema was sort of hinting at the fact, well, I might not be for that. Right. So it is complicated and tough when you've got a 50 vote Senate when, you know not all the senators are on the same page yeah uh switching gears a little bit there's this whole groomer pedophile talking point servicing on the right i talk about it my monologue just prior to this to this interview here and that's that anyone who doesn't agree with republican politics is just being labeled a pedophile now and this stems from disney's opposition to the don't say gay bill in florida it stems from opposition to those who supported katachi brown

Jackson. Now, this suggestion on its face feels so fringe, so Q&on adjacent. Like, it's very online. Is this the kind of thing that's breaking into the mainstream? Like, is this something that's actually going to reach or potentially influence regular Republicans and not just the Q&ONN nuts who are espousing this to begin with? I mean, it doesn't feel like Q&ONN. It is Q&ON. Literally, the whole point of Q&ON is all based off of a child pedophile ring. So, you know, I mean, clearly there, it is becoming more mainstream now. I mean, even look at some of the lines of attack that were focused on Katanji Brown Jackson, who is one of the most qualified people ever to be brought before the Supreme Court.

Somebody with a, you know, approval rating from the American public now of like 66%, which is higher than many of the last few justices that have been brought up. And yet that was sort of the line of attack focused on some. about that or not being tough enough on child porn or things like that there seems to be this obsession with that line of attack as it totally broke broken through to the mainstream so far not yet but you know the problem is so many people are just getting their information in these information silos and there's a huge chunk of the population certainly a huge huge chunk of republicans that that is breaking through with because that's what they hear over and over and over and over again in

their media environment and you know i hate to break it to you a lot of them aren't listening to your podcast um so they may not be hearing your version of events or they may not even be frankly um watching the quote unquote mainstream media version of events on like an NBC news or an ABC news or a CBS news because they've kind of tuned that out um and that has consequences when people don't hear other sides of the story, they're sort of more vulnerable to disinformation. And we're seeing that in so many ways, that we saw that with a lot of the January 6th protesters themselves.

And look at what's happening in Russia, where Vladimir Putin's poll numbers are going up because the people there are not getting reliable information on the ground. They're getting propaganda and censored information. So I think you're seeing all over. the world these information silos and how devastating and damaging they are and for people like me that are trying to literally dedicate their lives to defeating things like that it's a tall order because the more you know reliant on this sort of technology we all become the more

we're all living in our own universes what's interesting too is what you were just talking about you know is so influenced by the fact i just saw reporting the other day that 70 70% up from 49% of the world is living under autocratic rule. I mean, it just, they rely on these information silos just perpetuating, you know, state-sponsored disinformation to continue running those autocratic governments like they are. We've never had more access to information. It's never been easier for us to communicate with each other because of all of the social media tools, including some of the tools that are used for people to listen to this podcast right now.

But then, you know, it's somebody like, look at somebody like you. You wouldn't have a career, basically doing this on your own, getting better numbers than a lot of the mainstream media does. If you didn't have access to pretty cheap tools and an ability to get the information out in social media and, you know, you have done, I think, a lot of good and informing people over the years. And, you know, I don't always agree with you on everything you say, but that's okay. That's all part of the process. But, you know, there's also a potential for a lot of bad in that as well. And there are a lot of consequences that I don't think we've all fully grasped. And it's something that is a society we really need to think about.

Yeah. Now, we'd spoken about Katanji Brown Jackson a few times. She was just confirmed to the Supreme Court. Let's talk about this a little bit with Senator Klobuchar just prior to this interview. But I'm curious whether you think that the attacks that were launched by people like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz about her being soft on crime could have had the opposite effect of what was intended. Like, is there a point where people, even on their own side, recognize the theatrics and are just turned off by it and it actually backfires? I mean, I'm sure there are some people

that are turned off by it. I don't know how much every sort of mainstream regular person is paying attention to the real in the weeds back and forth of Senate hearings. I think a lot of people are like oh she got nominated and oh she's an african-american woman and that's nice and she seems good yeah yeah that's probably most people's you know understanding if you asked most people in the country to name two or three justices on the supreme court they probably couldn't right and the and the supreme court kind of likes it that way which is why they don't have televised hearings and they try to keep a lot of you know themselves out of the limelight as compared to politicians so what are they doing what is ted cruz doing what is josh holly doing they're

creating what they perceive as viral moments that they can send to fundraisers send to donors put on their own you know information you know silos um and that they can cut up in their own way and try to raise some money off of it and what are the the audience that they really care about if you're ted cruz or josh holly at this point you want to run for president right yeah Those guys want to be president, and their way of doing that is they're hoping in praying or whatever they do at night that Donald Trump doesn't run, so they don't have to run against him, and that if he doesn't run, that they can be seen as sort of a natural successor to him. And so all of this sort of base politics, rev up people, you know, F the libs, mock them, that whole thing, that stick. And it is performative because both of them are, you know, Ivy League educated, wealthy elites themselves who act like they, you know, have so much scorn for the elites and then live in the elite world. But their brand is to try to mock liberals because they think that the Republican base loves that stuff.

And guess what? They do. So for their limited purposes, which is to raise money and to try to make a name for yourself with Republican-based primary voters, they think that doing the theatrics is helpful. And they may be right from a raw politics perspective. My gut tells me that the average person isn't, it just doesn't really care. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's exactly right. Let's do this one last question.

I know that you cover California more than anybody else that I speak to. What's the state of the L.A. mayoral race? You know, you've been covering that closely. And I know I know you've mentioned in the past while speaking with me that someone like Eric Adams in New York could possibly be a model for Democratic candidates moving forward. Have you seen that to be the case in L.A.? I don't know if there's anybody quite like Eric Adams in the L.A. mayor's race, but there are a lot of interesting characters in the race for LA mayor. Of course,

Los Angeles is the second biggest city in the country. And this race really matters. I recently moderated debate with a partner with our station and the LA Times and USC and if people want to check it out and learn more, they go to YouTube.com slash Alex Michelson and watch it. But on the one hand, you got Karen Bass, who so many of your listeners are familiar with. Congresswoman, almost became Joe Biden's vice president, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, longtime progressive activists formed the Community Coalition in South L.A. She's seen as a frontrunner, but then you've got this other sort of massive figure that entered the race late named Rick Caruso, developer of a lot of the biggest malls, outdoor

luxury places in Los Angeles, spending millions and millions of his own money, just became a Democrat literally a month before announcing. And so he is more conservative, was a Republican, his father was a Republican, but he's trying to run as a moderate. And the big issues here are homelessness and crime. And the situation has gotten so bad that people that were used to be a little bit more on the left on those issues are becoming a little bit more right on those particular issues. All of the major candidates want to increase the number of police, All of the major candidates say that homelessness needs to be taken care of in a more urgent way.

They all have a little bit different solutions to that. And then there are members of the city council and the city attorney that are also in this race. But Karen Bass would become the first African-American woman to be the mayor of Los Angeles. Los Angeles has also never had a female mayor. And Rick Caruso would be kind of a throwback to a different kind of mayor.

It's going to be a really, really fascinating to watch in the weeks and months ahead. And we've got a lot of reporting on that if people want to check out some of my content to dig deeper into those candidates. I would highly recommend people check out the debate that you moderated. I watched the whole thing. It was super interesting. Would you say that Caruso and Karen Bass are the frontrunners as right now?

No doubt that Caruso and Bass are the frontrunners right now. But keep an eye out as well for Kevin DeLeon, who's the LA City Councilman. you know, there's, there's certainly a path where he could end up in the top two as well. The way it works in Los Angeles is we have a primary in June, the top two finishers, regardless of party, although in this case they're all Democrats anyways, would then advance to a runoff in November. So the key is who's going to be the top two, and it's probably going to be Caruso and Bass, but, you know, you never know.

That's why they vote. Yeah, yeah. It's going to be super interesting. I know that the whole country was watching the New York mayoral race. So, you know, I expect just as many people to be focused on the LA one. With that said, Alex, I know that you wanted to, you know, we've done this before where you kind of like take over from here. So, okay, Brian, thank you very much.

So this is the 100th episode of the podcast. And I wanted you to take us back to the moment when you were first thinking about doing this podcast. I know you were trying to get talking to Beto O'Rourke, you're talking to Ron Clayne, who became your first guest who was out of power at the time. That turned out to be a smart booking. But walk us through your thinking at the beginning of this, what you were trying to accomplish with it,

and could you have ever imagined that it would become what it has become? I just kind of wanted to have something of a platform to actually talk to people that were actually doing the things that I had been covering for so many months and hundreds and hundreds of videos to actually be able to talk to these people. talk to these people and also to kind of make something of a platform to kind of counter what we see on the right. I mean, the right is so good to their to their social media personalities. They are constantly on all of those podcasts, all of those fringe shows. I mean, anybody that has

a, you know, a microphone at the garage, Matt Gates will go on their show. Jim Jordan ends up on their show. And I'm like, we don't have anything like that because the left really just kind of relies on mainstream media, right? And so if you don't watch that, if you're not sitting at your house and watching CNN, which a lot of people aren't, and I think the fact that a lot of people do watch my YouTube channel, for instance,

is a testament to that. A lot of people aren't watching these shows. And so they don't hear from these people. They don't hear from anybody on our side. And we have really talented, really passionate, really, people with a ton of integrity and intelligence on our side that just don't reach people. And so that was my.

goal from the beginning. I think since then we've seen a lot of, you know, non-traditional media folks on the progressive side come out from, you know, the crookeds of the world to the Midas Touch guys who I know that you know and you've had them on your show as well. And that's great. And we should have as many people, as many groups as we can on the left. But the goal in starting all of this was just to kind of introduce people who don't watch the regular mainstream media channels to the people who are, you know, actually enacting our agenda on the left. And I always love coming on here and trying to plug a mainstream media show, too, which is really effective.

Okay, so take us back, though. Week one, you start, were you nervous at starting this? And you kind of not know what you were doing? What did you think at the beginning of this process? Yeah, so week one, I had Ron Clayne. I had no clue what I was doing. I'd never interviewed anybody about anything. And then all of a sudden, I have, you know, Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff,

who's like a big deal, you know, and yeah, I had no clue what I was doing. But I remember, like, the night before, I was super nervous. I didn't want to screw it up. I thought, like, this was my one shot. I have my agents listening to this thing. And I just didn't want to blow it. But Ron was super gracious, and, you know, he's such a pro that he just kind of knocked it out of the park. And we did well together.

And then the next week, I had Beto, who I just kind of. You know, I think I DMed him on Twitter, just begging him to, begging him to be my guest on the thing. And, you know, to his credit, he was the first member of Congress who said yes. And I've seen him do that for other shows, too. And, you know, these people deserve a lot of credit who just kind of put themselves out there and help people who are just trying to, you know, trying to ultimately help progressives, help the Democratic Party. And, you know, it's got to start somewhere. And a lot of times people don't want to be the first ones.

Like, they're happy to go on a more established show. But, like, there's a lot to be said for those people who are willing to help those of us who needed to get off the ground. And for the Ron Klains and Beto O'Rourke's of the world, I was really grateful for people like that. Did you have a moment where you're like, okay, this is working? Let's see. Did I have a moment like that?

Yeah, actually, I did. A few weeks in. I had a pretty good run. I just got lucky. I had a pretty good run where right after Beto, I think not long after that, I had Katie Porter and then maybe the next week was Nancy Pelosi. And I remember that was like all over again. I was nervous and didn't want to screw that up.

Because, you know, now it's the speaker of the house. And so once I got Nancy Pelosi, I was like, oh, this thing might work. You know, and, you know, granted, they're, I'm constantly being served humble pie because, you know, some weeks I'll think like, okay, I've talked to all these people. I can get anybody and then, and then I get, you know, 10 rejections in a row. And I know you've dealt with the same thing, too, because, you know, you do all of the bookings on your show also. And so, like, it never gets easier. Usually I get a call from you very late in the week when everybody else has said no. And then I have a solution. So we know that politicians tend to stick to the script of talking points. Yeah. I'm not going to ask you who is the worst at that in terms of the most boring guest, although if you want to say that would be interesting.

But who is the most fun guest because they don't stick to the talking points? John Federman doesn't have any talking points that he sticks to. He just says whatever, whatever he can. Yeah, who's running for Pennsylvania stuff. Yes. And also, you know, Jamie Raskin. But Jamie, who I've interviewed, I think, I think four times now. He is just so incredibly, like remarkably smart that there are no talking points that could constrain him. I mean, he's just a wealth of knowledge. And I think he may very well be the smartest person in Congress. And so I think when you have someone like that, I mean, like what? What talking points do you have? He knows everything. He knows the history backwards and forwards.

And so, you know, when you talk to someone like him, I mean, he's a professor too, and you could just tell that he lives and breathes this stuff. And so, yeah, there's no talking points that can constrain that guy. I think Adam Schiff and Katie Porter just called and said, I thought that we were the smartest. Any really fun moment or funny moment or standout moment?

Oh, yeah. I think the most embarrassing moment. I interviewed Jeff Daniel. early on because he was in the Showtime movie Comey and we were doing the interview and I had a new setup where I had a bigger monitor behind my main my main laptop screen and I wasn't used to that and I was just focused on the big monitor because that's where his picture was blown up and at the end of the interview I asked if we could take a selfie it's I'd taken selfies with like a few people but I have Jeff Daniels who I've been a fan of forever since the

dumb and dumber days. I wanted to take a picture with him. And I wanted to take a picture with his face on the big monitor. And so I lowered my laptop screen, but I was using the laptop camera. So when I lowered the laptop screen to get it out of the way, the camera went down into my lap where I was not wearing where I was not wearing pants. I think I was wearing like gym shorts with a full suit. And they were, they had ridden all the way up. So it was just thigh. It was just all white thigh, and I lower the camera. So now Jeff Daniels is staring straight into my lap. And this was like the early days of COVID.

And the first thing he said was I didn't need to see that. And I was like, I didn't know how to tell him that I was like, I was like, no, I'm definitely wearing pants. It was just, I mean, that was that one, it's really hard for me to like get embarrassed. That was legitimately horrifying for me. I was like, no, Jeff, like you don't understand. I'm wearing pants. They've just ridden all the way up my legs. So, yeah, that was probably the most embarrassing thing.

I think it was pretty careful with my camera after that. My motto is, God, it's laundered. Yeah, that's it. Well, if anybody's looking for some white legs, got those. Okay, so now you've done 100. What's the future look like? Where do we go from? Yeah, I guess.

Well, you know, I have some goals. There's some people that I really like to interview. I'd really like to interview Bernie Sanders and AOC, Stacey Abrams, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who you've interviewed, and you've had some great moments with Arnold. Well, I'm with Bernie, too. We did more interviews with Bernie than anybody else. Probably interviewed him a dozen times. I'd like to interview the Georgia senators, John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. John Stewart, who's always been a huge hero of mine.

and of course, Barack Obama. I think that would be icing on the cake. So we'll see. You know, we got a we got a hundred more. So that'll put us about two years out from now. I think that'll, that'll be just heading up to the, to the 2024 elections. So hopefully, hopefully people will still be interested in politics and still be listening to the podcast by then. Well, it's going to be an interesting thing. I feel like I should wrap things up, but I forgot this isn't my show. So, yeah, no, take it away. This is, this is, you're doing great. Thanks for listening to No Lie. If you like this, you should subscribe, tell your friends about it.

Leave us a nice review because that's how we get paid. And if you want to throw some money in the tip jar, as Larry Elder says, feel free. Yeah. I'm Elton, along with Brian Tyler Cohen. And Brian, throwing it back to you. Well, thank you. And if anybody wants to hear more from Elex, of course, you can check out The Issue is podcast or check out Elex on Fox, L.A., including his Friday show.

the issue is where I've been a few times and hope to be again soon. So, Alex, honestly, thank you for everything. Like I said, at the top, you know, you've been on this show more than any other guests that I've had. So I appreciate it. I'm sure that my listeners appreciate hearing from you too. So thanks. Yeah, thank you. And if you guys want to give me a follow in social media or send messages or let me know, or it'd be great to get connected with you all as well. Brian Todd Cohen, well done. Congratulations. Thanks again to Elex. And thank you to my producer, Sam. Thank you to the team at Art 19 and UTA.

And thank you all for listening. Here's to another 100 episodes, and I'll talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, interviews captured and edited for YouTube and Facebook by Nicholas 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 own. other channels.