No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump finally meets his match as his campaign craters

Episode Date: April 14, 2024

Trump tries to have it both ways on abortion, a move that's failing in brutal fashion. Brian interviews Tim Miller as part of his new YouTuber series, Inside the Right, about the Arizona Supreme Court allowing an 1864 abortion ban to stand and US Senate candidate Kari Lake’s attempt to flip flop on the issue.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 Trump trying to have it both ways on abortion and how that is failing in brutal fashion. And for my interview, I've got an episode of my new YouTube series, Inside the Right with Tim Miller, where we discussed the Arizona Supreme Court allowing an 1864 abortion ban to stand, and U.S. Senate candidate Carrie Lake's attempt to flip-flop on the issue. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Another week means another right-wing state Supreme Court has upheld some draconian abortion ban. Two weeks ago, it was Florida, which paved the way for Ron DeSantis's six-bron.

abortion ban to stand? This week, Arizona allowed an 1864 abortion ban to take effect, which included no exceptions for rape or incest, and which was written half a century before Arizona even became a state. Republicans are adopting laws written when the U.S. was still a smattering of territories, and when women, of course, didn't have the right to vote. And it goes without saying, but the optics of that are just about as miserable as it gets. Which is why even the hardline Republicans, most outspoken MAGA Republicans, including Donald Trump himself are in a tailspin over this. Trump himself has been desperately trying to have it both ways and trying to tow the line between pandering to the far right who wants

a full nationwide band and the rest of the country that is absolutely appalled by these moves. Here was his answer when he was asked for some clarity. Just a follow-up. Over the last few decades, Mr. President, you have both considered yourself pro-choice and pro-life. Which one is it? Well, you know exactly which one it is. And when I was in New York and when I was a Democrat also, just like Ronald Reagan. You know, Ronald Reagan was a Democrat, which sort of followed a very similar path. But if you look at what we've done with Roe v. Wade, we did something that everyone said couldn't be done, and we got it done, and I give great credit to the Supreme Court

and the justices for having the courage to do it. What they did is very simply give it back to the state. And I'll tell you, the Democrats are the radicals on this, because they're willing to have abortions in the seventh, eighth, ninth month. That's it. Just word salad about Reagan and then eventually just descending into some tired fear-mongering about the Democrats. And if you watch my videos on YouTube, you've probably heard me say this before, but it's worth repeating a thousand times if I have to. Certainly, as long as Republicans are going to keep propping up this claim about Democrats pushing for abortions into the ninth month. If you look at the CDC data, 99% of abortions happened before 21 weeks. 99%. As for those last 1% of women having abortions after 21 weeks, reasons range from fetal anomalies to health risks to the state.

the mother. That's why the women who have late-term abortions are actually doing it. Not because they want to, not because abortion is fun, or because they just don't give a shit and so why not? They're doing it because they have to. And if you ask any of these women, it is heartbreaking and devastating and traumatic and crushing. And so when these abortion bans are passed, those are the women who are impacted. It's women like Kate Cox, the Texas woman whose fetus had a genetic condition known as trisomy 18, who had to flee the state for an abortion. She didn't do it because she's some liberal who casually decided to end her pregnancy. She did it because her pregnancy wasn't viable, and continuing to carry the fetus would endanger her ability to have a baby in the future.

That's what Republicans are doing, hurting the ability of these women to actually have families when they want to because they can't help but impose their theocratic agenda onto them. And let's be clear, those politicians know this. I promise you that they all know the truth when it comes to their hysteria over ninth month abortions. But they perpetuate this bullshit anyway because they think it'll be an effective talking point to manipulate their base with. They knowingly lie to their supporters because they don't have any actual arguments, and so they'll exploit them with a fire hose of bullshit instead. And look, I'm offering that rebuttal when people clearly know that anyway. Like if the best that Trump can do is just some desperate what aboutism

and claim that actually it's the Democrats who are extreme, but I think that goes to show how bad of an issue this is for him. Because not for nothing, but it's not the Democrats who are forcing rape victims to give birth. It's not the Democrats who are forcing some little girl who is molested by a family member to give birth. It's not the Democrats who are forcing women to carry non-viable pregnancies to term, only to give birth to a stillborn fetus. Not Democrats are trying to imprison doctors. It's not Democrats who are trying to ban interstate travel like the fucking Gestapo.

So Republicans can fingerpoint all they want, but Americans are smarter than Republicans give them credit for. And by the way, that is bearing itself out in election after election. In the six states where abortion referendums have been on the ballot, Republicans have lost every single one. Add that to the raft of elections since stops, from Kansas to Ohio, to Virginia, to Alabama. And it becomes immediately clear that Republicans have a major issue on their hands when it comes to abortion, which they can see clearly, and which is why they are throwing a ton of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

But it's not moving the needle. It is just betraying how desperate they are. So frankly, for as long as they want to lie about this issue, I'm happy to keep litigating it. Because not only is abortion a dismal issue for Republicans, but it puts on full display how dangerously extreme they've become. Abortion may be the most potent example, but it's just one slice of a larger pie that is their danger as a political party. The good news is that Americans can plainly see that, and it's only becoming more and more apparent every day. Next up is my discussion with Tim Miller. So, Tim, we've got some major news out of Arizona. We've got yet another far-right state

Supreme Court, which is ruled to allow a draconian abortion ban to take effect. This one written in 1864. So Kerry Lake quickly came out with a statement disavowing the decision, which of course was to disguise her true position, which she shared. here. New law banning abortion in Arizona after 15 weeks. There's that law and there's a territorial era law which bans all abortion Zippo over. Which law do you think should take effect? My personal belief is that all life matters, all life counts, and all life is precious and I don't believe in abortion. I think the older law is going to go into effect. That's what I believe will happen. Okay, but you approve of that. What? At conception? I believe life.

begins at conception okay what do we do about abortion pills what do we do about i don't think abortion pills should be legal that's a very not in arizona all right tim is she going to be able to run away from this doesn't get much clearer than that brian uh boy uh you know a lot of times trump is good at kind of using weasel words and he has his word salad and his sentences are like streams that turn left to turn right and so but carry lake is like that's like eight words right there it's just a straight thing yes i support it i support the territorial ban territorial it's important to get that. It's because the law was in effect when Arizona was a territory. Arizona didn't become a state until 1912. So this is from before Arizona was a state,

this law. I don't know. I think one of the punishments was that you had to have a duel, you know, out there. Like this shit was written. I mean, it's crazy that they, that they upheld this as all Republicans on the Supreme Court there. And it was four that were appointed by the most recent Governor Ducey and two. They were appointed by the previous governor jambruer um and so you know i think that carey lake is in a huge bind here she can try to get out of it um but the ads are that reuben geago her democratic opponent are going to be able to run are going to be absolutely devastating um on this front and and geago has more money than lakes is similar to the trump situation lake uh has not had as uh you know has not done as well

fundraising and so geago is already on tv i wouldn't be surprised to see an ad with that clip on Phoenix TV by the time this thing gets up on YouTube. Who knows how quick? Do you think voters buy it when these politicians revise their positions on blatantly unpopular issues like abortion? Like, is that redefinition that they're going for possible? Or do you think that voters know what they're trying to pull? Sometimes situationally it's possible. You know, I think I'm thinking about a gay marriage, for example. A lot of people change their views. If voters can say, oh, man, I change my view on this too, right? So I get it. You'd evolved over time. But But in issues, it's just as blatant as this, with somebody like Carrie Lake, who's so phony, obviously, I just think it's hard for her to get away with that.

You know, and we've seen this time and again where Trump has really done better than a lot of, like, the Trump imitators. Because because of just the nature of him being, you know, a former reality show guy and like the whole taking him literally not seriously thing, like Trump gets some leash to get away with this stuff. And I think we can talk about him and how much he'll be damaged by this as well. But I don't, Carrie Lake doesn't get any leash, you know, and I think that the voters are going to see right through this. And it was just an abundantly clear statement that she supported the zero week ban, no exception, only life of the mother exception. And I just don't know how you wiggle out of it, especially when you see, when you now are going to be dealing with, if you're these Republicans, real life consequences from this, you know, in Arizona, in an election year. I mean, I think it's just disastrous for Carrie Lake. Right. There's going to be more videos, more instances, more anecdotes of people who are having their rights restricted. And it's only going to get worse for Republicans, not better as we head into November when more of these stories are going to come out. You know, more rape victims, more incest victims, more, you know, people who were forced to carry non-viable fetuses to term. I mean, that's just going to get, it's going to compound for Republicans. It's only going to get worse, not better. You had mentioned Trump. Can you talk about the timing of the fact that he had come out just one day prior and tried to head. his bets by saying, well, I support making this a state's rights issue only for Arizona to turn around and implement an 1864 abortion ban. You know, that asshole Trump has gotten good luck a couple of times recently, you know, in these court cases and whatnot. And so it's nice when he gets some

bad luck. And the timing on this for Trump is just a nightmare. I mean, literally, he thought, he knew abortion was a big problem for him. He privately, if you talk to anybody that speaks to Trump advisors or to anyone in that world, they say that, like, Trump doesn't care about this issue, obviously. And so he's been trying to figure out how he can get credit for the overturn of Roe with the base that he's going to need to turn out, well, also not any of the blame, right? And this is classic Trump. And so, you know, he's been trying to strategize, how do I get out of it? How do I get out of it?

And he didn't have to put out to see me yesterday. He decides yesterday morning to put out this video where he's decided his way out of it is to say, I just believe we'll leave this up to the states. Like, whatever the states do is right. And, you know, we'll see how that goes. And then one day later, a key. state that he's going to need to win in November says, okay, we're changing our law to take it back to 1864. I mean, you know, you have to laugh. Obviously, there's some serious, like,

real life consequences, but just the, is the horrific timing, the horrific optics for Trump, the fact that he just is stepping on a huge rake here on an issue that he would, the whole point of his statement yesterday was trying to avoid something like this. And, and he just walked right into it. His spokesman was on, a spokeswoman was on one of those far-right outlets today. I forget which one. And she said that she affirmed that the former president believes that we should believe in states' rights and the state should be able to do what they want. So he essentially now owns this 1864 law in Arizona, just a total catastrophe and a self-owned

that was unnecessary for him. Yeah. Tim, is there any worry that with these abortion referendums on the ballot, like there are going to be these abortion referendums on the ballot now in Arizona, in Florida, in Montana, New York, a bunch of other states, and that they can backfire in the sense that pro-choice Republican voters can have their cake and eat it to. They can protect abortion rights through the ballot initiatives, but then also elect their party and kind of divorce them from this issue. I think that that is possible in certain cases. And I think we might have talked about this

with regards to Florida. Florida is a red state, you know, so there's a lot at this point. And there's a lot of these kind of mega secular voters in Florida that don't really like the abortion stuff. And so they can go of their vote and still vote for Trump. There'll be some of those voters in Arizona. But man, the swing voter in Arizona is different, right? Like the Arizona electorate is very different. And you're going to, and Trump and Lake are going to need my people, like the former Republican suburb college educated types in the Phoenix suburbs, the John McCain voter, the Doug Ducey voter, the Jeff Flake voter. That's why they lost Arizona. I mean, part of it has been, there's been Democratic excitement and turnout young voters on the campus, et cetera. It's not

just this group, but it's been a pretty key group, right? That Carrie Lake and Trump and back-to-back elections just hemorrhaged, you know, support among this group, a lot of women, right? A lot of college-educated women living in the suburbs and that had been Republican voters. And I think that these voters in Arizona look at this now and are just like this, we need to just throw these people out and start from scratch, right? And so I don't know. I think it's, I think it's really bad for them in Arizona. I think there are other states, more conservative states with different kind of demographic makeups. where your point might make sense.

Ohio might be a place, you know, Florida. But in Arizona, I think it's really bad news. Yeah, I mean, I think people see the crazy on display, and they recognize that the abortion bans, these 1864 abortion bans, aren't a bug of the party. They're a feature. This is what you get when you vote for this Carrie Lake-type MAGA Republican, and that's the Republican Party that's taken over.

So, you know, at this point, like, you're not gaining anything by, like, by kind of extracting certain issues out of the party because it's the same extremism that they're going to display on every issue. And so it's not just like you get to you get to take out abortion and still have that with ballot measure because on issue after issue after issue, whether it's guns, whether it's democracy, whatever it is, they're going to have that same far right extremism on display. Yeah. And in Arizona just really quick, they're seeing this up close and personal so much because their candidates have been so extreme, right? They've, they've had these very close races.

So a lot of advertising. Like, the voters there are very attuned to how extreme Republicans have gotten in Arizona, maybe more than anywhere because there's a percentage of Arizona is it like that, right? And they've chosen it. And then there's another percentage that's just been totally turned off by it. And if you look at the state legislature, the Arizona Freedom Caucus or whatever, put out a statement just a little bit ago that was that said, like, you know, abortion is murder. We totally support this 1864 thing.

No compromise, no anything. And so, you know, I think that the fact that this. This is what this MAGA Arizona Republican Party wants is going to be abundantly clear to voters in the state. And we've seen the last two elections already that there's a, maybe not as many as we'd hope, but there's a small majority of the state of former Republicans and then Democrats that are coming together and saying, no, we don't want this. Yeah, which shouldn't be a surprise, by the way, because even these MAGA Republicans

are out there saying that they don't want the John McCain-type Republicans voting for them. And so the John McCain Republicans, you guys are basically saying, all right, no problem. And they're hoping to offset it. This is a problem. They're hoping to offset it with like Hispanic voters, working class Hispanic voters. And I just do working class Latinos in Arizona want a zero weak abortion ban, life of the mother? So it's hard to see where the Republican gains are in this state when you're going when you're going that extreme. Let's finish off with this. These ballot initiatives have been on the ballot in six different states now. And pro choice voters have won out in all of them. And that includes states like Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan.

So not exactly liberal bashings, even though Michigan does have a Democratic trifecta right now. Can you help me understand what Republicans are doing by continuing to back something that is so aggressively unpopular? Yeah, they're stuck between Iraq and a hard place in this one, Brian, because the Republicans are so nihilistic in the Trump era on almost every issue. It's kind of like, whatever. You know, we just want to own the libs. but there's a key segment of the party for whom abortion is actually earnest, right? And they really do believe that that life is a baby

and that that that and killing that baby is murder and in a lot of ways that allows them to feel like they have the moral high ground, you know, against the Democrats and other issues. And so they can't sacrifice that. So it's not every Republican, obviously Carrie likes a total fake and she'll say whatever, right? But like there's enough of the voters

that for whom this is central that these MAGA Republicans feel like they have to, you know, go along on this one. And then there's some of those people are elected officials and they genuinely believe this and they're genuinely radical on this. So, and then, you know, there's misogyny. There's other elements to go into this. But I think that because of that, they're kind of stamped stuck with this. And Trump was their best potential way out of it because people kind of get that he doesn't really care about this deep down. But he's just bungled it so badly. Yeah. And it was his. Supreme Court nominees that did it that I just think that they're stuck with this

anchor and there's no way around it to hear more episodes of Inside the Right with Tim Miller please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel all right well 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 music by Wellsey and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera if you want to support the show please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five-star rating and a review and as 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.