No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump makes blunder that'll sink the GOP in midterms

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Trump makes a disastrous blunder that’ll come back to bite him on the campaign trail. Brian interviews Bernie Sanders, Chris Cuomo, and Maryland state Senate candidate Bobby LaPin.Pre-order The Day After: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/thedayafter Support Bobby LaPin: www.bobbyforbaltimore.comWritten 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.

Trump makes a disastrous blunder that will come back to bite him and his party as they campaign. And I've got three interviews, Bernie Sanders, Chris Cuomo, and Maryland State Senate candidate Bobby Lippin. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen. You're listening to No Lie. Now, I know that the conventional rules of politics no longer apply, but there is no world where this moment right here does not come back to bite Trump in the ass. You can serve, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning. Could that be a... No, I love it. The numbers were great.

You know what I really love. I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now. Something you didn't know. You know, we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it?

Iran until right now. Quote, I love inflation. Now, I just want to make sure that I'm understanding here. The guy whose entire campaign was based on lowering costs, and specifically bringing down inflation is now not only failing to do that, but outright celebrating it. Like, I legitimately could not think of a bigger slap in the face to voters than this guy who clearly lost every populist impulse the second he became president

now cheering on the idea of higher prices. Like, if you needed proof of the fact that Trump is solely concerned about his ego, this is it. Any reasonable person would at least acknowledge that prices are, you know, bad. But Trump is in the business of spinning. He's in the business of protecting himself. So now he has to pretend that actually high prices are good. Again, for him, it is more important to protect his own ego than to help Americans.

Also, I'm sorry, but how can anyone trust Republicans to fix a problem that they refuse to admit exists? You think that someone who just said, I love inflation, is going to be the champion we need to actually solve it? And frankly, we don't even have to guess because he hasn't solved it. It's gone up. According to the latest report, it's now at 4.2%, up from 3% when he took office from Joe Biden, you know, public enemy number one when it comes to inflation? In other words, it's up almost 33% from the guy who Republicans said was disqualified expressly because of inflation. And Trump tells this whole story in that initial audio clip about taking out barrels of

oil, thinking that that somehow buys him goodwill, that that's somehow a legitimate justification. I don't know how unfamiliar he is with this, but it is not a point of pride in the year 2026 to engage in Middle Eastern Wars for oil. Like, we've been at war in the Middle East for oil my entire adult life. Americans are sick of it. We've spent over six fucking trillion dollars on Middle Eastern Wars from 2001 to 2019. That money could have gone to literally anything else.

And you know who knows that better than anyone? This guy. No new wars. No new war. We don't need the wars, foreign lands, countries you've never. heard of, countries that don't even want us there. And of course, now Republicans are in the miserable position of having to either admit that inflation is bad and risk the ire of dear leader, or they can pander to Trump and risk looking like the out-of-touch mouthpieces they are to

their constituents. Either way, not great options. And the reality is that there isn't any way to justify this, because there is not a single economic metric that's improved in Trump's term, or since Republicans have controlled the government. Inflation's higher, consumer prices are higher, gas is higher, electricity rates are higher. So if Republicans are planning on fixing this, I guess my question is when? Of course, they're not, because these people have outright contempt for their voters. They will hit this issue nonstop in the campaign, and yet the moment they have power, the power to actually do something about the problems they exploited for votes,

they're suddenly not too concerned. They're not in it for Americans. They're in it for themselves. And they'll tell whatever lie they need to to get there. Next up are my interviews with Bernie Sanders, Chris Cuomo, and Bobby Lipin. But just a quick note, my new book, The Day After, is now available for pre-order. If you'd like to support my work, that is a great way to do so. I think this book is a really timely message about what Democrats must do if and when they gain power back.

There's also my book tour that's coming up. I'm going to be in D.C., New York, and Los Angeles. So if you'd like to grab tickets to the book tour or to pre-order my book, that link is in the show notes of this episode. Okay, here are my interviews with Bernie Sanders, Chris Cuomo, and Bobby Lippin. No Lie is brought to you by Ridge. So I'm pretty serious when it comes to security and privacy. I always want to make sure to protect myself. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that digital pickpocketers exist who could steal credit card information from your wallet.

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Please support our show and tell them I sent you. I'm joined now by Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator, something that we have seen more and more of lately, especially from my vantage out here in California, is kind of this renewed focus on voter fraud from these Republicans. And the fact that they're doing it out here in California and claiming that Spencer Pratt, a Republican-backed candidate, not winning the not advantage of it.

advancing to the runoff in Los Angeles as somehow evidence of fraud goes to show that they're not being, they're not being picky about where they deploy these claims. But from your point of view, can I have your reaction to this renewed focus yet again on any election where Republicans don't win? Well, that must be the result of voter fraud. Well, that's just what I was going to say. Elections are always clean and good and wholesome when Republicans win. Isn't that amazing? What amazing coincidence. But when they lose this fraud, look, in Trump, we have an authoritarian president

who happens, among many other things, not to believe in democracy. And he has tried to undermine democracy in many, many ways, in an unprecedented way, demanding new gerrymandering districts in order to benefit Republicans, his friends pushing the repeal

the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for blacks to get representation in Congress, literally going after his political opponents and threatening them with criminal actions. This is a guy who doesn't believe in democracy, but I think you're right. When you talk about elections being fraudulent whenever you lose, the goal is to create among the people real doubts

about whether or not they're living in a democracy, whether their voice matters at all, and what's the conclusion that you reach? If the whole system is broken and fraud of all of the media, ABC, CBS, NBC, they're all corrupt. The system is corrupt. What's the solution, Brian? What do we need? What?

You need an authoritarian leader who cop through all this thing. That's what you need. The only person who could fix it. I mean, I heard him. You may have seen him on Meet the Press the other day. I mean, the real paranoia that anyone who criticize him is corrupt and is on the take and the police who defended the capital against the insurrectionist on January 6th, they're dirty cops. So you got a guy who is very much an authoritarian.

He admires people, frankly, like Putin. He loves MBS and Saudi Arabia, right? And that's the kind of government we want, where you have a few billionaires running the show and ordinary people not having any power. That is what is particularly upsetting about these bogus charges. Is there any sense from your Republican colleagues who, who see the dismantling of this system and recognize that, you know, it may come back to bite them. I mean, if you look at how Trump has undermined the system as it relates to Georgia,

we now have two Democratic senators from Georgia because Trump spent that entire runoff, basically denigrating the effectiveness of mail-in voting. And so is there any pushback from your Republican colleagues as he continues to undermine trust in every facet of our system? I think there is, but I think there's also a great fear. What did Trump manage to do in the last month? Right. Get rid of Thomas Massey. Get rid of Bill Cassidy.

Get rid of John Cornyn. Right. Massey and these others. People, Massey more than others, who had the principal, you know, is a very, very conservative guy, but had the guts to stand up to Trump and they put unbelievable amounts of money into the campaign and they defeat him. So the word goes out. You want to stand up against, you're in the Republican body.

You want to stand up against Donald Trump. We're going to spend as much as it takes to do. defeat you. So that's where we are. You have a party now as part of Trump's authoritarian tendencies to become a cult of the individual. Donald Trump says this, yes, Mr. Trump, yes, Mr. President, and we're going to name all kinds of buildings after you. You are so great. It's a, it is, it really is in a deep sense, you know, I'm not a conservative Republican. but to see so many of these Republicans give up all of their principles in bowing down to an authoritarian, not a good thing.

On the point of bowing down to an authoritarian, I think no person better exemplifies that than Todd Blanche, who Donald Trump has just nominated to be his permanent attorney general. Do you think that Todd Blanche will have the support of enough Republicans to be able to get confirmed as AG? I'm not much into speculating. we will see what happens. But once again, it will take an act of courage for Republicans to stand up to Trump. When you may see, abusingly, is those Republicans who have been defeated by Trump, somebody becoming very courageous.

You know, they have nothing left to lose. Right. But I don't know. But I'll tell you one thing that is taking place, I think, this week, which is of interest, is our friend, Elon must be, may become the first trillionaire in the history of this country. So you're going to have a guy who's a trillionaire at a time when, 60 million, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. People can't afford housing, groceries, childcare,

and this one guy owns more wealth in the bottom, 53% of American households. So I think to my mind, Brian, if you would ask me, this is the issue of our time. We are looking at oligarchy big time, not only in terms of income and wealth inequality, As everybody knows, Mr. Musk put over $270 million to elect Trump. All right, so this guy is the enormous political about not only in the United States,

putting in, God knows what, into right-wing extremist parties all over the world. He owns Twitter. So you have a man who controls big influence in media, big influence in politics, big influence in the economy, and that power is getting even stronger. Well, kind of a good way to contrast. what Elon Musk did with Doge, which was basically just a scam from the start. It was a way for him to give this veneer of him helping eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse

while actually just delivering for himself and eliminating all of the regulators and the cops on the beat who would regulate his own companies. But we've seen Mayor Mamdani in New York offer up a kind of a virtuous version of Doge, which is COGE, the commission on government efficiency. And so do you think it's possible here that that could serve as a blueprint, not for the bad faith, corrupt iteration of what Elon Musk was trying to do, but something other Democrats should kind of seek to co-opt as we move forward? The answer is, yes, capital Y, capital E, capital S.

You're quite right. What Doge was about is trying to disqualmie. dismantle the U.S. government, make it less effective in regulating companies like musks, and also weakening the ability of the government to deliver for the American people. But having said that, Ryan, if you think that there is not massive amounts of bureaucracy within the government, in the federal government, in many state governments, local governments, you would be wrong. And often that is not to do with the workers themselves.

It's the kind of management that they have. So I think what, you know, when I was Mayor of Burlington, you know, about 200 years ago, I think I got myself on the front page of the Wall Street Journal because we ran an efficient government. So I wanted to put money into children, into the arts, into housing, into the needs of ordinary people, not into bureaucracy, not into consultants. and all that stuff. So I think Mamdani is focusing on how you can make a very large government more efficient so you save money that you could use for the needs of working people. Well, you were an outspoken advocate for Zoran Mamdani when he was on the campaign trail, just as you've been an outspoken advocate for other progressive candidates. Can you talk a

little bit about the slate of candidates that you've endorsed thus far, this progressive slate of candidates and how they've been faring in this election cycle? Well, thanks for asking. And the answer is we have been doing quite well. Last Tuesday, in fact, we had a really good night. I think we won five or six primaries. And before that, we have also won some important victories. One of the key races that we won was Dr. Adam Himawi in New Jersey. This is a physician, a man who volunteered to serve in Gaza. He also was in the military. And ironically, he treated a colleague of mine Tammy Buckworth,

Tammy Duckworth, who was in a terrible helicopter accident and lost her legs. He was her surgeon at that moment. He is a very strong progressive. He's an advocate for Medicare for All. and he won a landslide victory against a lot of opposition. Annalia Mejia also in New Jersey won and she is now the congresswoman from the district. Jane Kin out in California is in first place last I heard in terms of being insurance commission, which is a very big deal.

Randy Villegas in California took on the Democratic establishment won there, and we won some other victories as well. I think, and I trust that people understand that from a progressive perspective, what we are doing right now is not only taking on Trump and his authoritarianism, his kleptocracy, his wars, but we're also taking on the democratic establishment. Because I believe that at the end of the day, it's just not good enough to say, I'm against Trump, vote for me. What you have to say, I am against you.

Trump for all of the right reasons here, but you have to give people an alternative. Working people are hurting. And if you simply say Trump is terrible, vote for me, it's not good enough. The health care system is collapsing. Do you believe in Medicare for all or not? Musk is going to become a trillionaire. Do you think we should have a tax on billionaires or do you not? AI is moving in a very rapid way and it could be very dangerous for working people for

our kids. Do you think we should have a moratorium on data centers? Do you support the idea of the sovereign AI American fund, which I proposed and other ideas that are out there? In other words, this is not good enough to be against Trump. You need to have a vision that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country. And I want to talk about AI in the last few minutes that we have because you have been outspoken about this.

Not a lot of people are speaking about this who should be. and it's going to have probably the biggest impact on working people of any other issue that we're contending with, at least immediately. Ryan, why do you think you are quite right? And I got involved in this, not because I stay up nights worrying about it, I do, I'm looking around me. And I'm waiting for people to say, hey, we've got to do something about this enormously consequential technology.

It's going to impact every man, woman, and child in this country. Why do you think people in Congress are not talking about it? Well, I think they're getting paid not to regulate it. You got it. And so it has everything to do with a corrupt campaign finance system. You ask me how our candidates are doing. They're doing great. But they are taking on day after day,

crypto money, they're taking it on AI money, they're taking it on AI money, they're taking on AIPAC money. They're taking on military-industrial complex money. You have a corrupt system. And in terms of AI, the AI industry is, prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that candidates do not say, hey, wait a second, maybe we should have some strong regulation. Maybe the American people should benefit from AI rather than just a handful of zillionaireses. And so can you give kind of a rundown

of what you would like to see in terms of regulation? And on top of that, is there any appetite among your colleagues in the Senate to sign on to this? Or are they just content to allow these AI companies to run roughshod over working class Americans? They are not kidding. They're just afraid. Look, it's, look, I mean, you're running for office, okay? You want to decide for one for office. You're interested in how we can make AI work for the American people, not just the billionaires. And as soon as you open your mouth, there will be millions of dollars in campaign contributions

coming in against you. That's what the issue is. They know, they understand, they're not dumb, they understand what's going on. They want to win elections. And that speaks to the absolute need, not only to overturn citizens, United States, and but immediately we can legally, we believe, get super PACs out of political campaigns. And that's something I'm working really hard on. But if we don't do that, then you're not going to have candidates and members of Congress

speaking about AI. You're not going to have them speaking about Israel. You're not going to have them speaking about climate change or other important issues. Can you speak a little bit about the sovereign wealth fund that you were discussing moments ago? Okay. For a start, the concept of a sovereign wealth fund is not a new idea. There are actually many of them all over the world. The largest one is in Norway, in Norway, which has, I think, a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund

based on the revenue they generated from their publicly owned oil resources. All right? That are public resources, public resource, they made money off it. It went to the people, not to a handful of fossil fuel executives. All right. I'm not a great fan of oil. you know, we are worried about climate change, but that principle that when you have a natural resource

should benefit ordinary people, not just a handful of wealthy people, is the principle we're operating on that. In terms of AI, what is the foundation, Ryan, of AI? What is it based on? It is based on the human labor, the production, the work that everybody has on. I've written a number of books.

Guess what? If you go into chat, GBT, you'll get information about my book. The stuff, your program, People want information, it will be there. It incorporates, it sweeps up all human knowledge. So there are two aspects to the sovereign wealth fund. Number one, that the public will own 50% of the stock of these companies. Now, why 50%?

Because that will put us in a position to stop negative ideas that will impact working people or impact privacy rights, or impact the mental health of our kids or maybe even lead to an existential threat for the planet. Those, we will be able to say no to Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg and the other guys. Second of all, to the degree that AI becomes a revenue generator, which certainly will, I want the benefits to go to the American people,

not just to a handful of billionaires. But most importantly, of those two issues, the most important is the public has got to have the ability to say, sorry, you're not going to endanger the health of our children. Sorry, you're not going to throw tens of millions of workers out on the street. Sorry, you're not going to invade our privacy, whatever it may be. AI is the most transformational technology in the history of humanity. We cannot allow a handful of plutocrats to determine the future.

Perfectly put. Senator Sanders, I want to end with one last question. You and I both basically come from, you know, a long time ago, pretty much the same neighborhood in in Brooklyn. And so I'm sure there's some, some New York sports teams affinity deep down here. And I'm just wondering whether you think

that after the Knicks won, game one and game two, only for Trump to show up and then they, and then all of a sudden their 13-game win streak is snapped, do you think the Trump jinx is real? I remember why, we'll tell you, I did grow up in Brooklyn. And we used to gave way up

Madison, the old Madison Square Garden, watch the Knicks play. See, I am, I wish the Knicks the very, very best. And on a serious tone, you know, Trump going there, what Mandani has done, which was really great, is have these viewing parties, you know, around the city. And he had one, I think the plan was to have one outside of Madison Square Garden. And it was canceled because of Trump. And it caused a lot of, you know, this concern in New York City. So I think with luck, Trump will not be at the next game and the Knicks will win.

That's it. We'll leave it there. Senator Sanders, as always, it's a pleasure to speak with you. Thanks, Brian. Thank you. No Lie is brought to you by Ethos. So I recently lost a family member that I was particularly close with. And when I was going through that process of him being in the hospital, I learned really quickly how little control that we have over our health when things are dire. But one thing that we do have control over is making sure that we're prepared. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy 100% online. You can get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes, and get same day cover. There's no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health questions. You can get up to $3 million in coverage. Some policies are as low as $30 a month. And you'll get your lowest rate from their network of trusted carriers.

And speaking of those who are trusted, Ethos itself has 4.8 out of five stars on Trust Pilot with over 4,000 reviews. So take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.com slash BTC. That's ETHOS.com slash BTC. Application times may vary, rates may vary. You say we have big questions about potential fraud in California. We do have big questions about fraud in California. Let's just deal with the facts for a second. We do have election fraud.

We charged a case just last month. I'm not sure if you covered it. But there was an individual who was caught on video paying homeless people in Skid Row to register to vote with false information. That's not a theory. That's not a suspicion. That is a case that we filed, and she has pled guilty to that. So that's a conviction.

So we have multiple cases in that vein open on election fraud. Now, the question that, you know, you ask, and many is, is it widespread? How much is it? No. Is it enough to sway an election? Well, the answer is we don't know. No, you can't say no. You haven't done an investigation.

You don't know. No, you don't. You don't know because we have not been able to get. done an investigation. We want to get the voter rolls. You haven't. Oh, we're doing the investigations. We're just, ah, that's different. So then you do, you have not conducted an investigation. You are conducting one. So you don't know. And you are in the business of knowing right now, you don't. You are pointing to one case. And you know what? You could point to a dozen. Do you know why? Because those are all the cases you've made in the last decade. A dozen individual cases.

I did not say, half, I did not say that we. to be lacking. Found wide-scale fraud. There's two different things that are on here. You're saying for sure you know, hold on a second, you're saying for sure you know

there isn't. I'm saying we don't know because we haven't been able to look at all the evidence. At scale. Now, why is that? Let's talk about the voting system in California.

Mr. Asaley, Mr. Asaley, if you were in a court of law right now, and I don't want to, I don't need your opinion on the system because you're not a voting system expert, you're a prosecutor,

that's why I have you here. If we were in a court of law and you said, Judge. I was in the legislature. I was in the legislature on the election committee. I know a little bit about California's voting system. Yes.

So wait a minute. You want me to take somebody's experience in a state legislature for how long? I was there. I was in the legislature for three years. I've been involved in election integrity long before that as an attorney. And we could talk about, hold on a second. I've covered elections for 30 years, Mr. Isseley. 30 years.

You know how many cases of widespread fraud I've covered? One. And it was the Trump administration. That was Chris Cuomo speaking with U.S. Attorney Bill Assaley about voter fraud. I'm joined now by Chris Cuomo. Chris, I appreciate you coming on. Can you give a lay of the land right now as far as, you know, this new resurgence of voter fraud claims that are coming into the zeitgeist? And look, you speak with conservative guests all day.

You speak with liberal guests all day as well. Is Donald Trump going to be as effective in perpetuating this idea of voter fraud as he had been in the past? Yes, but. the midterms are not going to be about election safety unless he makes it about that with what he does to jeopardize them. The midterms are going to be about the economic reality in this country. I do not think the many will be distracted from it. That's why your party is smart to focus on that. Now, how you focus on it, we can talk about whenever you want.

But in terms of election security, this is largely a boogeyman issue. Okay. Look, do I think California is asking for it? Yeah. Why? Because the longer you take, the more suspicious it is. But here was my problem with Mr. Assaley, or as I'm calling him now, assails me, this guy, because he's coming at me and trying to pretend something that wasn't there.

Look, you and I can discuss, hey, look, it looks bad, Brian. It looks fishy. And the state not wanting to give it the voter rolls in unredacted form exactly the way the federal government. It looks like they don't want transparency. And it looks like this. And it looks like that. And that's fine. and you can counter and I can counter back.

We're not federal prosecutors doing a federal investigation. A federal investigator is not supposed to assume a crime and go look for proof of it. You're supposed to do the opposite. And the idea that a federal prosecutor is going to look me in the eye on national television and say, well, we don't know that there isn't fraud. Right. I mean, look, I can say that. You can say that.

It's okay to be suspicious. were not federal prosecutors. And his arguments after that were even more telling. They were all political. Yeah. Well, they let you use a library card, which by the way, isn't even true contextually, but it doesn't matter. They're not legal arguments.

Right. None of them were. And that's what was scary to me. And that's why I got up on the guy. As you know, Brian, I know how to fight. I'm a very skilled debater. I just don't think it moves the needle. I believe in conversating.

I believe in giving people their best say. This guy was asking for it. So he got it. Well, I mean, this also is kind of, in my opinion, evidence of the fish rotting from the head because Trump was asked the same thing in his interview on NBC with Kristen Welker just the other day. Okay, you're going to claim, you're going to make all these claims of voter fraud, but where's the proof of any of any widespread voter fraud that's going to have any impact in this country? And he got up and stormed out.

And so you're seeing. that these people in the administration will make this argument, but there's nothing behind it. And so it's just kind of a lazy regurgitation of something that worked in the past. I think he got up and left because it was a woman, maybe a black woman. And I think he's got a real problem with that. Maybe it's generational. Maybe it's dispositional.

But I got to tell you something. You're right, but the where's your proof is not the right pushback for a journalist. Okay. Here's the pushback. One, if you want to talk about proof that we have of things being done wrong in an election, let's look at you, sir. Joe Biden didn't put any of your people in jail. Courts did. Their own words did. They lied for you. They manipulated for you. And they admitted it. You had an agency going around saying that they had all these affidavits that could prove things. And then in open court, when their law licenses were on the line, their lawyers had to admit that their client didn't have any such information. That's the proof.

That's the evidence that we have. And that was the right pushback on him. You are accusing someone else of something in a vacuum that you yourself did. And look, I'm fine with, I'm fine with Kristen. This isn't, that's not the point. I'm saying that we have a tendency right now, especially on the left, to herald. wise people who the president simply just doesn't like. To me, I don't like the standard. But when it comes to election security, he's creating a boogeyman. And the irony is he's the only one who

has done what he says is happening. Right. Right. It's the perfect instance of projection, which he traffics in all the time. You know, I think one instance where he's really benefited from all of this is the fact that we live in such a bifurcated media ecosystem. And so he knows that, you know, that while in court, where it actually matters that you tell the truth, his people are going to say one thing that his supporters and Fox's viewers and Newsmax's viewers and OAN's viewers and Megan Kelly and Daily Wire and Daily Caller and Alex Jones, those people never get that information. And so you and I could know that these things happened in court. We could know, for example, that based on discovery in the Dominion voting system's case, we have all these text

messages from these Fox executives who are basically coming out and saying, we know that these election claims or like this election denialism is bullshit. That happened, but those people never gain access to that information because the veil is never lifted. And there you have the much easier lift. I mean, Brian, defending our election system in the digital day and age when everything is on our phones and we don't even carry cash anymore makes it look like we're trying to prop up a bad standard. And I get it. I get that it looks that way. Voting is a really tricky issue. My mortgage is online. My money, I don't even know that it exists. You know what I mean? It's just numbers somewhere. But voting, we have to do in person or on paper. And it does feel weird to people.

It does feel antiquated in it. And you are in the position of defending what seems like something that would be easy to be fraudulent in, especially the California system because of all the extensions and allowances that they make in what they say is an argument of inclusivity to increase participation, but it can look shady. And Trump is supposed to be a steward of an institution that he's openly attacking for his own advantage. Right. Because that's what's unusual. In that vacuum of trust is where autocrats thrive, which is why he's doing it. See, we should be blaming him for California's election system. We should be saying to him, forget the say, why aren't you automating our voting systems?

Why are we so in the past when we are so advanced in everything else? We should be pushing him. He should be. But instead, in this crazy, bizarre world we live in, I have to defend the institutions of our democracy against the president's allegations. Yeah. And that's how it goes.

I mean, that is the left-right divide. And that's where Democrats, I think, ate a lot of shit in the last election. Because when Democrats are stuck in a position of defending institutions, when no one has trust in institutions and those institutions haven't worked for people, and Trump gets to present himself as the outsider railing against, it's easy to complain about something. It's easy to say that something's broken.

It's a lot more difficult to claim that something actually works or to offer solutions to make sure that the government is properly functioning. Right. Look, but I'm just saying, again, the scary thing to me is, and it is scary, okay? I don't use the word, lightly. Having a federal prosecutor, come on in their capacity as a federal prosecutor and say what a salee did is uncharted territory for us. I mean, it's kind of like Jim Comey with the letter during the Hillary situation, which absolutely devastated her campaign as far as I'm concerned.

But on steroids. Is on steroids. Absolutely. Because this dude's not even pretending. Right. He's not even pretending. But that's why he's there, Chris. That's why all. All of these people are there. They're not in their positions because they're competent. No more than Pete Hegseth is in his position because he's competent. No more than Todd Blanche is in his position. But remember their basis for being able to do it. It's this, look, again, it is a Alice in Wonderland surreality that we're in where they say, yes.

But that's because you weaponize the DOJ first with all the lawfare against Trump. So once you destroyed it, once you, once you. destroyed it than anything I do can't be that bad. Right. It's just it's just it's it's pure retaliation and who could blame me for wanting to retaliate. That's right. Look, you you created the game, Brian. I'm just playing it. Right, right. You know, um, you said something that, that struck me, which was, okay, this election is going to be about the cost of living, no matter how much maybe Republicans and Trump try to make it about, uh, about election theft. And I agree with you, I agree with you that Americans are more concerned about cost of living. But I

think what the administration is trying to do is still to undermine the election itself, regardless of what, like, they don't, they know the election is going to be about cost of living and they know that it's going to redown to their disadvantage. But, but they're trying to, but this is a, this, what Trump is doing right now and what Bill is Sayley right doing, are doing right now is evidence of their priority in this election, which is to undermine the legitimacy of elections. And sure, they're coming out and saying, look at this fraud in California. And that's all well and good as far as rhetoric is concerned. I think that they're using that as pretext to take legal action or government action to undermine the legitimacy of the election

so that an election based on cost of living is actually able to be meddled in on their behalf. And they can pass executive orders like Trump tried to do with his mail in voting. They can try to shoehorn through laws like the like the Save America Act, even if Congress doesn't pass it. I think what they're doing right now is giving themselves a pretext, giving themselves a justification to be able to take, you know, big swings as it relates to actual election security so that people don't get to have their say on cost of living issues. I don't believe in the four-dimensional chess thing.

I think Trump is much more about tactics and in the moment and than he is about strategy. But listen to how crazy this is. So right now, you're defending that in California, the system's legit. The institutions are fine. They're doing that. Not that crazy having to defend institutions, but, you know, got to keep it straight. Can't let Trump say that all these things are fake just because he loses. Right.

Now you go to the next level, which is, but what's going to happen is, then he's going to meddle with the elections and they're going to say, and then you're going to be in the position of having to say, wait a minute, you cheated. You, you, wait a minute, I thought the system was great, Brian. I thought it worked. I get how it sounds, but like we're also in the aftermath of, of him having done it already. And so I wouldn't like I get it if I came out in 2019 and said that I think that this could happen. You could have plausible deniability and saying, hey, don't be a conspiracy theorist.

That's what Trump does. Leave that. Leave that to him. But we've all lived through the lead up to the 2020 election and his claims of election fraud and the extent that he was willing to go to perpetuate the big lie. And so I don't think in that instance you can blame me for having concern. I'm not blaming you. I'm just saying that the dynamic is eerily reminiscent of how the mag of folks. felt about the vaccine or about COVID-19 as just another cold or about the lawfare and that

everything that Trump was accused of, he never did. Or that, of course, and in the main, that the elections, anyone that he lost was rigged because of somebody somewhere saying something about a bag of ballots. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. But I think my job and especially as somebody who, like my principal issue. Yeah, everybody falls into their, into their, you know, corners of the internet and focuses on things that they're particularly passionate about. And voting rights and election security has become something that I've focused a lot of my attention on. And so I kind of think of it as my, as my job to, to, in a way, predict what's going to happen so that we're not left flat-footed if and when we come upon a situation where, okay, all of a sudden Trump is

passing executive orders. All of a sudden, he's deploying ice agents to the polls. All of a sudden, you know, 18 months ago, or about a year ago, I was talking about the prospect of the Calais decision coming down. And lo and behold, here we are. And now Republicans have immediately drawn out 12, 12 seats in these upcoming elections just due to gerrymandering. So I think in a way, it's my responsibility to some degree to at least predict and prepare for a lot of the things that are coming down the pike. Oh, I'm with you. It's just, it's just hard. to be prescient and not paranoid. Yeah.

And it's also tricky because you are in, you're in a very stilted game where you have a binary battle to the bottom of which side is worse. And everybody claims misconduct against the other in every situation where they don't win. Look, there's no irony that Trump is saying

the California elections are rigged because Republicans aren't doing well, except for Steve Hilton, who says there's no problem. problem with the election system. Who the Democrats apparently gave a pass to when we were in our big election rigging mode. We're like, but you know what? The biggest, the highest office in the land, let's let that Republican through. Yeah. And what an irony that Steve Hilton says he thinks the election's working fine because he's winning. Yeah. I mean, it's just all so obvious. And yet,

it works. People don't trust. And I got to tell you, raised by one of your true hero, Democrats, as opposed to just, you know, of convenience in the moment, heroizing somebody, as I see happening again and again with people in the media and politics that just get sideways with Trump. Government is a good thing. Government helps. Okay. It has lots of flaws and ugly marks, just like everything else. Government is a good thing. Nobody's arguing that right now. And And that's too bad because the side that thinks that government is worse, the only thing that we know for sure is that I think things may be really broken in a way that is not easy for us to repair. And someone's going to have to argue at some point that government is good, that government can do good things, that we need it. And I know that's not sexy.

And I know it doesn't feed populist anger. But it's also true. Chris, because you're on a show that I think reaches a lot more right-wingers than where you used to be at CNN, you're a pretty good barometer of where people stand. And I know that in the lead up to the 2024 election, you know, Democrats were in really rough shape and I think that was reflected in the results of that election. Have you noticed, I want to talk like 30,000-foot view vibe shift. Have you noticed any show that shift, even among the Republicans who you've had on, the Republican viewers or the conservative viewers to your show, where to people kind of, I know this is redundant, but to simplify it,

where, where are the vibes moving right now in terms of the two parties? The problem is they're in power. You can't be an angry disruptor when you're in power. Yeah. They tried the blame Biden thing. It didn't work. They tried the, they're still trying to way Biden. I mean, I think we, I'm saying like, cabinet secretary is like this week who've come out and said that stuff is still Biden's fault. But yeah, point taken. You know, while they're talking about the worm, the screw worm.

And look, that's just math. Okay. Did having a more welcoming southern border situation for a legal entrance hurt us? Yes, how? A million ways. But one of them is that, yes, more people. people who had screw worm got closer to the U.S. border. Did Biden let screw worm in? No, it wasn't here. Why? It's just the reality of the timing. Were more people getting closer because they thought

Biden would let them in? Maybe. Did those people have a higher rate of screw worm? Maybe. Is that why it's in the country now? Maybe. But there are other reasons. Like what? You cut the funding for containment to the USDA. You cut what was keeping it out. out during Biden. You cut it. That had something to do with it too, but they don't want to own that. So then what do they do? What they do better than you do? Next. And they just shift to something else. We may come back to screw worm or I may throw it in in some bullshit context, you know, some way going forward where you won't have time to fact check me or you'll have to focus on my new chaotic moment. But they're very good at this. So what's the vibe shift? They're in power. They got to own it.

And they realize now, oh, shit, we got to start making the. is worth owning. Yeah. We got to start finding something here that's worth owning. It ain't going to be Iran in this regime. Man, man, what are we going to do? Israel and we're going to stay where from that? The economy, well, which piece, which part?

So they're searching for that right now on the right. The left is not searching as much. You guys know that economic populism and affordability as a buzzword, that's your lane. What I don't like that you guys are doing, I love your lane. Why? Because it's the interests of the many. I love the lane. I'm not saying I love all your ideas, but I love the lane. What I don't love is that you are convinced.

I remember when you and Carville were sideways now, you might as well be his son, which is Trump is a bad guy who has to be called a bad guy everywhere, every moment of every day. He can get no pass anywhere. That's the flex. So that's what you're doing. Are you wrong? No.

But is it raising the temperature? Yes. Is that your fault? No, but it's a choice, Brian. And we're going to have more violence. We're going to have more violence. And I'm not blaming you. I'm not because you didn't start the fire.

But you are blowing on it. And I'm not saying you're wrong. People are right to be angry. They're right to be outraged. They have the right. I just don't know that it gets us to a better place. And I know that makes me seem weak and kumbaya. And I'm not, but that is my concern.

That's the pushback I have. And I'm going to give you my perspective on all of this, which is we have had a weak and feckless Democratic Party for as long as I can remember. Like the joke is that we are the party of strongly worded letters. And so I understand that by engaging in the fight, and by fighting back, it's only inherently going to increase the temperature because when you fight back, that's all it can do. But the flip side is that when contending with a party that has shown so much utter disdain and contempt for democracy itself, that they're willing to subvert the election results if they're inconvenient to them, we have a duty, an obligation to fight back as hard as we can.

And if the consequence of that is that the temperatures raised, so be it. Because the flip side is if we don't fight back with all that we've got, then we're, in my opinion, we don't have democracy after this. Like, we're lucky that the guardrails have held up as tenuous, tenuous though they may be up to this point right now. And thank God we have some folks in the judiciary who are allowing that to be. but like we're in a precarious spot right now. And if, you know, but Brian, what does it mean that what you're saying right now is the same thing that Matt Schlapp was saying to me in 2015

about why they needed Trump and how tenuous it all was and how scary it all was and how we were holding on by a threat? You don't think it's coincidental? The difference is one of these two parties incited an insurrection because they weren't happy with the election results when their guy objectively lost

even despite 65 claims in the court. Matt Schlapp can't point to anything like that. All they can say is, oh, socialism is right around the corner. And as I've said, on your own show, we had eight years of Barack Obama, no socialism. We had eight years of Bill Clinton, no socialism. We had four years of Joe Biden, no socialism. Republicans have been yelling socialism for my entire life. It never comes.

So Matt Schlapp can be upset that, you know, the socialists are Marxist communists are descending upon this country and are going to eliminate freedom. But that's talking points. What I'm pointing to is verifiable facts of what these people have done when they've been in power and the ways they've tried to undermine our democracy. So we are like, I get that we're both saying the same thing. But, but I think, you know, having this argument or having this conversation in good faith, we can also say that one of our arguments is rooted in fact and the other is rooted in fearmongering. I think that if the goal is to capture the many. Now, here's the problem with that.

That sounds great. You should be trying to capture the many, not the few. Okay. But in an election context, it's all about the few. You're running these congressional races now. There's a very small percentage of them that are competitive. Why? Because the system is rigged.

Full stop. It's rigged culturally in terms of the binary nature of it. The parties control, the primary process. They create extreme candidates. I believe you guys both do it because it works better for you and your advantage over the other side. We're in a bad spot. Okay. So in an election context, you're not about the many.

You're about the few. And you're about to try to figure out in a very small and a handful of places across the country how you win enough races to change 30 seats. Yep. Yeah. And so I don't want the many. I'm not trying to comfort the many. I know. I get it. I get what you want me to do.

I get it. I get that that would be great. It's not my thing. I'm not running a popular election where that's what wins. Even that is an electoral college. Even that comes down to 34 counties in the entire country. So it's not about the many. That's great for a poll, but it's not great for winning elections.

And that's where you guys are. And sadly, I think you're making the right call in terms of your strategy. I don't like it because I don't like what it says about the state of play. But if you want to win a handful of races, you are doing it the right way. Why? That's what worked for them. That's what worked for them, man. And I don't like it.

But if the goal is to win the elections, I get why Jimmy changed. And I get why you guys are doing what you're doing. I just don't know where it leaves us. Chris, Nixon what? Nixon five? Nixon, how many? Oh, Nix. I thought you meant like Nixon. Like Richard.

I was like, I would, I wish. I wish we had Richard Nixon. I wish we had Watergate. I wish it was that simple and obvious. I wish there were people in government who would go to their own party member and say, hey, man, this is too much. You got to go. I wish there was still grace like we saw with Gerald Ford and the Democrats who let him pardon Nixon.

Yeah. You know, they could have gone after Ford for it. They didn't. That world is behind us. I wish we were there. I wish we were there. So, Nix, look, here's the thing, man. I love it for New York City.

I love the metaphor moment of Trump's decision to go, even though it meant that 6,000 people wouldn't get to enjoy the game. Yeah. I get that they had, I love that they had to put a wall around MSG. It's such a metaphor for the tale of two cities. Yeah. That was such a great moment for you guys to let people know, look what he's about, man.

He's not about you. And in terms of basketball, look, I want the Knicks to win more than I want this pinky, okay? Yeah. I'm serious. I would absolutely have this cut off tonight for them to win this series. Why? I think it will be so good for New York City. And I think it could be contagious in terms of, oh, it feels good to have a positive thing to be pumped about, doesn't it?

Let's be like them. What do we have that's positive here? Yeah. We need it so badly, so badly. Yep. But I'm telling you something right now. This San Antonio team beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, and they were down two nothing. Now, they didn't lose two at home. They lost two away. I think the Thunder is a better team than the Knicks, certainly on paper. I love the Knicks. I want them to win. I am in no position to say, we still got this. This is going to be easy Knicks and five. I know people are saying it. I don't feel it. I hope I'm wrong. I don't feel it. Last night. this team hasn't played great. Look, I know basketball. Okay, that was my game, right?

That's why I wanted to go to college. That was my thing. The Knicks have played so-so in this series, and they've won two out of the three games. Yeah. So if they start playing like they can, they're going to be fine. If they play like this up and down,

this team can beat them. Can beat them four straight. Yeah. Well, hopefully, look, hopefully the first lost Madison Square Garden is a kick in the ass, the kick in the ass they need. No, that was the Trump jinx. He won't be there. He won't be there tomorrow.

That's it. The worst thing for Trump is if and when the Knicks win on Wednesday's game, because now everybody's going to be like, you know what? The Nakes have not lost while Trump was there. So Chris, where can folks who are watching and listening right now see more from you? So here's the cool thing, as you have been so helpful to me at News Nation, because it's so important that I use. their platform to put voices that are great arbiters of the spectrum of who I believe deserves

respect within our process. I'm not going to have a really articulate. I'm not going to have someone on who's just a fire breather for the fringe of either side. I don't think it helps. You've been amazing. So News Nation, I'm on every night. I just started something called Cuomo Crime Time, and I'll tell you why. Crime is like our last good connective tissue in the society right now, where everybody can get on, like this is Carmelo Anthony case. Wait, you. You're You thought you needed no black jurors because it's a race neutral case, and then they convict a kid of murder one in three hours, and you don't think that this is going to be a reason for appeal.

Crime is a very good barometer of where we are and the struggles that we should be in together for a better system, a more perfect union, as the founders called it. So I got the political podcast that you've been so good on, and that's why I love coming on with you on yours, and the Cuomo Crime Time, and they're both. You just go on YouTube,

type in my name. They're right there. You subscribe for free. And now I'm doing a serious radio show every morning, their morning show from 7 to 9, and it's bananas. The feedback has been nuts. I've never done anything more lightly. Like, I don't care if they fire me tomorrow. Like, you know, I'm up anyway, but I don't need to do a two-hour radio show every day. I've never had feedback like this before. These people are all calling in and they're so smart. They call me all morning and they have like real questions. They stump me all the time. I had a lady this weekend this morning, beat me up about the California election system. She smacked me around. She was great. So that's where I am. Serious in the morning, the two podcasts, and I'm on News Nation

at night. Awesome. We'll leave it there. Chris, as always, I appreciate your time. BTC, your hair is distractingly gorgeous, but there is a brain under there that people are rightly listening to. And I love being part of your world. No Lies brought to you by better help. For some, summer is their favorite season. Travel picks up, kids are out of school, and adventure is the focus. For others, juggling it can all be tough and can lead to a sense of being overwhelmed and really just counting down the minutes until the kids are back in school. And many worry that they're wasting the days of sunshine.

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That's betterh-elp.com slash no lie. I'm joined now by the man running against someone who's been dubbed the most hated Democrat in America. Bill Ferguson is that Democrat. I'm joined now by Bobby Lippin running for Maryland's State Senate District, 46. That's Baltimore area. Bobby, we have a major update in this race. And for folks who subscribe to my channel, they know that I've interviewed you quite a bit over the last few months. And for good reason, Bill Ferguson is the sole impediment to redistricting happening in your state of Maryland.

You now have an update here as far as some polling is concerned. Can you share that with us? I do have. It's a major update. It's a big update for working people. But if I can, real quick, just to bring people up to speed about how you and I started, if that's okay. Yeah.

Months ago, I think we talked about redistricting. And then I was running against the guy that held up redistricting in Maryland. It failed because of him. And now voting rights have been stripped because of the Supreme Court. and Maryland can't add another Democrat to Congress for the next two years because of this one guy. But when we first spoke, I talked about the importance of what the state legislature does. You know, that when reproductive rights were stripped away from women in this country, it wasn't just Roe v. Wade, but it was state legislators that made it illegal in most states in this country, you know, for a woman to actually have the right to choose. You know, when trans folks and Kansas were told that they had to out themselves in their driver's license, it wasn't the federal government that it was state legislators.

Redistricting wasn't the federal government that did it. It was state legislatures, you know, starting with Texas. You know, the spread of AI and data centers in this country, it isn't the federal government that's allowing them to be built. It's state legislators that are allowing these zoning. You know, it's so important for people to realize how important it is to make sure you elect the right Democrats to your state legislature or bad things can happen, you know? And when we started this race, I'm just a working guy. I'm a veteran, you know, a former school teacher and a small business owner. You know, I had a little bit of a social media following, but I love my city, you know.

I love my city and just like every other city in this country, people are hurting. They can't pay their bills, the utility, you know, rates are so. high. We have ice in our streets. And I'm going against a guy that has two million dollars in his campaign account, one of the most powerful politicians, a Democrat in the state of Maryland. And I just got poll numbers back that we're at 52 and he's at 45. And that speaks volumes about the power that the people have. So like if everyone feels like they're losing hope or nothing can change and, you know, nothing good can happen. I just want people to use this race as an example in Baltimore when a whole bunch of working class people came together

Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of volunteers and The poll that we just got back last night shows that we're winning this It's still two weeks to go the elections on June 23rd. So we still have you know Miles to walk before we sleep, but But it was it was very hopeful and I can tell you if you can't tell on the camera I am exhausted. Maybe if I'm lucky three hours of sleep each night because what it takes to actually make good change in this country is to sacrifice, is to door knock, is to get your neighbors involved, to convince people that their vote more than ever in the

history of our country does a single vote count right now it's the most important time. That's the good news and it's because of people like you also and people like who are are watching. You know, things, good things don't happen. We don't, we can't fight the fascists. We can't fight the Nazis. We can't fight Trump. We can't fight ICE. We can't fight corporation, you know, corporations, we can't fight corruption unless we stand up together and do it. So everyone just even watching this, watching this and educating yourself. I mean, you're part of the solution. You're part of this America. We're all trying to build a better America for everybody, regardless of what you look like, who you love, you know, who you are, what language you were born into.

You know, this country should be for everyone. And everyone that takes a part in it, just even watching your show and what you do is a big part of making that change happen. Sorry, I'm getting real emotional because I'm kind of tired when I get in my feels when I'm tired. That's all good. Well, look, you know, look, I want to take a moment before we get into the next questions here. And there's a lot to talk about, especially as it relates to redistricting, especially as it relates to utility rates, all of which is really important on a national and local level. I usually save the calls to action for the end of these interviews. But I think it's really, really important right now because you said something that caught my attention, which is that Bill Ferguson, the Democrat that you're running against, the Democrat that was the sole impediment to passing redistricting in Maryland.

Right now has a war chest of $2 million. You do not have that kind of money. You are on a, you know, looking for a thousand bucks here and there to keep this thing going. And so I want to take this opportunity for anybody who is focused on electing Democrats who are actually looking at how they can help people in their districts, electing Democrats who understand the urgency of this moment, meaning Democrats who are on top of it at both a state and a local level. Bobby is that person. And this is a great opportunity right now to allow your money, even as you're getting. getting pulled in a hundred different directions to go as far as it possibly can. This is not,

you know, the L.A. or the Dallas or the New York media market. And so your money goes far here, but this is a race where your money can have a huge impact in taking out a corporate Democrat who is looking out for himself, who is enriching himself, who is in bed with the very folks who are making sure that utility rates are high in Baltimore, high in Maryland, and replacing them. It means something greater than that, too. This is just this progressive way. You know, anyone out there that was a Bernie supporter, like early on, you know, in 2016, anyone in 2019, Bernie Sanders spoke to me just as a working person, and he was the first politician I ever gave money to. I didn't have much, but I believe that he understood me, right? And that dream that we saw fail so many times, that progressive dream, it is no longer a dream.

If Zoron has proved it, like Zoran is the best one to approve that that dream is real, that people want to progressive movement. So this isn't just about Maryland. I am facing the only Democrat in the country that held up redistricting

in a democratic state. He used his power as the Senate president to kill something. That wasn't only important to the people of Maryland, what was important to securing and protecting civil liberties of every single American in this country. So if that guy would win, if that guy would win, it sends a message

that everything is okay, that everything that we've had for as long as we've had it, all the status quo is okay because that's what the people want. And he is spending a lot of money. Yes, he has $2 million, but beyond that, you have the real estate industry that is dropping mailers for him, tens of thousands of dollars in a state where it is the most expensive state, one of the most expensive states to live in, Maryland. And realtor's supporting my opponent. It's not to keep the, get the cost of living down. We have the American Future Pack. I don't know if you read this, but they're dumping 41, it's sports betting. $41 million. They're dropping at state races all across this country. Sports betting. Your

fan duel, your draft kings are dumping over $100,000 into my opponent's race, mailing so I can lose. let me tell you something. The sports betting folks, they do not have a working person's best interest in mind. They want us to use the very little money that we have to gamble. And why are we gambling? Because too many people don't have hope in this country. Because the bills are so high. And then you go on and you say, oh, I'm going to bet on this basketball game and maybe I'll win and get a little bit of money. And then maybe I can pay my bills. To just even allow it to happen and to allow all that corporate money to come into this race, it's just incredible. And I am not just against the Goliath of the establishment and the Goliath of the money that he has, but to the Goliath of all the corporations that want to see me lose.

It's not just about Maryland. It's about the country. And people are watching. It sends a message. And let me be honest about the 52 to 45 numbers. That's with a six point margin of error. That means I need to mail people at least two more times between now and the election in June 23rd in order to persuade and convince them that I,

I am the guy that they need to vote for, you know? And I want to be honest with you, we're out of money. We have spent every cent that we've had very wisely to get our message out. And I'm afraid that with these last 15 days, he's going to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into this race. He has attacked my family. He has attacked my service record as a veteran. He's attacked my credentials as a progressive, even though I'm the one who has been leading marches here in Baltimore against ICE. I was the keynote speaker at No King's 3.0 in Baltimore.

He's attacking me as a true progressive. He's trying to find every tactic in the book to push disinformation and lies through any means necessary in order just to break my character down. And Brian, I have spent more than 30 years of my life serving my country, serving my community, just being that helper that everybody needs. I chose to do this because I care because I have a heart. And in the end of the day, this guy is trying to attack my character with lies just so he can keep his power. So if you want to be part of beating that system, if you want to be a part of keeping this progressive wave flowing through this nation. So working people finally have their voice again. Thank you for the pitch, Brian, but I'm asking your folks directly.

Please chip in what you can as much as you can. Make Good Change.com. We have literally two weeks until the election. And this is it. This is the sprint. This is when every cent matters. Sorry, I know. Once again, I'm tired and I got it on my feet.

No, I mean, look, it's important. And I think also, hopefully the fact that I've spent so much time having you on this channel and interviewing you, you know, this is a national politics channel. I wish I had the opportunity and the resources and the hours in the day to interview all state legislative candidates. I wish I had the time to interview even all congressional candidates, but I don't. But I care about this race. I care about the campaign that you've run. And you are the only state legislative candidate that I've spoken with this cycle.

And I hope that for the folks who are watching and listening right now that that counts for something and that they can draw a little bit of information from the fact that I've had you on here so much, how important this race actually is. And so I'm going to put a link right here on the screen and also in the post description for those who are looking to donate what they can to support this race. Bobby, with, with, and let me, can I give you a shout out too? Because everyone watches you, the millions of people that watch you at home on a YouTube. They're like, here's a guy that gives me news, here's you. But I want people to know, look, if you're teared off because I'm tired,

I want people to know the kind of man you are. You know, everyone out there, Brian is the type of man that just randomly would send me a text or give me a call just to check in to see how I'm doing because he knows this working class guy in Baltimore is fighting for his life and fighting for the lives of his neighbors. You know, not because it benefits him at all, but simply because, because he's a guy that cares. And I just, everybody, I just go down in the comments and just say, I love you, Brian.

Because honestly, if it wasn't for folks like him that have a heart like him, you know, he's not doing it for fame, not doing it for pleasure, he's doing it because it's the right thing to do. And I really, Brian, I really appreciate you. And I'm sure, you know, I'm part of your audience. I'm sure the rest of us know how much we appreciate you. You know, so I do hope that people go in the comments

and say, I love you, Brian, because you really deserve all the love, bro. Well, I appreciate that. Look, it's, I, I'm not. your campaign gave me something to believe in. So that's why I'm doing this. Bobby, finally, I want to finish off with this. I want to get real local here.

One of the biggest issues that folks in Maryland, in Baltimore specifically are contending with, is the sky-high utility rates. And so can you talk about the difference it would make to have you in the state Senate versus somebody like Bill Ferguson, given the extent to which he is in bed with the very people who are right now screwing

over the people that you're seeking to represent? This is the clearest difference between him and I. I don't take a Senate of corporate money, right? Bill Ferguson, the Senate president has taken $25,000 every single year from EGE, which is our yield utility provider owned by Exelon. I don't believe I've ever met a single person in this country that doesn't believe corporate money influences politics. I've been fighting against that and publicly, and then he's gone out publicly and says,

says, oh, no, just because I take corporate campaign donations doesn't mean it influences my vote. I've not met a single person in this country that believes in that. We have a thing that's happening in Maryland. It's called the multi-year rate plan where our utility provider, you know, BGE, which is owned by Exelon, can charge the people of Maryland three years in advance for projects they may or may not complete. BGE sold it to our rights. regulators, they sold it to the General Assembly. It's been in place for more than four years, and BGE went from making $130 million a year in profit to $578 million a year in profit. And obviously, that profit has shown up in our rates. My wife and I live in an 1,100 square foot home. It impacts

places like Baltimore more because we have older homes. We've got bad windows, bad insulation. We live in an 1100 square foot home, and our BGE bill is nearly $700 every single month. $1,100 square foot. Me, my wife, and the dog, you know, and it's just crazy. And the whole entire system was set up for BGE to go ahead and make a profit. In Maryland, our utility provider only makes a profit with new projects. It's codified in law that they get 9.5% profit for new projects. they don't get paid for maintenance. They don't get paid to fix things that are broke.

They get paid to do new projects. So allowing the monopoly utility provider to decide what projects are needed, how many projects are needed, and then charge the taxpayers, the ratepayers, three years in advance for stuff that might not even be complete is ridiculous. And I would be wrong not to bring up the negative impact that data centers have on this state. and that data centers have across the country.

The reality is, data centers are coming. You know, like trying to stop data centers, it will be like trying to stop the automobile when we went from the transition of the horse and cart. But there's a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. The original automobiles didn't have proper brakes. They didn't have, you know, tail lights.

They didn't have headlights. So, and we're seeing the same thing with data centers. Like, there's a way where they can work off a renewable energy, where they pay their fair share in grid fees, where they pay their fair share in taxes, and where they don't use drinking water by using a form of gel cooling or something like that, there is a right way and a wrong way to build a data center. But the right way is more costly to the corporations. So we need politicians to have the courage to actually pass the right laws to make sure they're built correctly, that it doesn't impact the life of a human.

But unfortunately, if meta and Google and all those organizations are out there giving large campaign contributions to politicians, how can working people ever get over? How can working people ever fight that? And that's the biggest thing. I think it's the biggest difference with everyone. You know, I used to be a government teacher in high school. And my kids would tell me, they'd say, I would always talk about government and corruption and stuff. And my students would say, well, Mr. Lippen, if all the politicians are bad, how do you know which one to vote for? And I'm like, just vote for the one that's not in office.

Because there probably be a lot better. And that's what we really need. If we want a better Democratic Party in this country, we need to elect better Democrats. And that starts by electing people who refuse to take corporate PAC money, who refuse to take developer money, because at that point, they only answer to the people, not the corporations. Well, that is exactly the campaign that you've built. So for folks who are looking to help your campaign, where can they go? The campaign website is make goodchange.com.

Make goodchange.com. Look, folks, I know a lot of people are asking you for money, but this is a race where we've proven that we can win. But we can only win it if we can mail two more times. Mailings are about $15,000 a mail, right? And that's at least two more times. You know, if you really want to see a win, and I'm sure Brian will have me back on on June 24th, maybe, the day after the election, I'll be really tired that day. we'll let you know how we did. But this is, this is, this is something you're investing in.

Not just this campaign, not just me beating Bill. This isn't about Bill versus Bobby, like my opponent versus Bobby. This is about something bigger. This is this movement that we've all been waiting for where progressive candidates actually can win, where progressive candidates actually move the needle. And if I win, it sends a message to every single corporate Democrat in this state. It sends a message to every corporate Democrat in the country because they know, this guy's name, being the only one that held up redistricting.

That message is that progressiveness is on its way up. And that if you don't tow the line of the people, the people will replace you. Make goodchange.com is what we're doing. Excellent. We'll leave it there. Bobby, as always, keep kicking ass in this campaign. Keep giving everybody something to believe in. And thanks for taking the time today. Hey, thank you for always giving me the time, Brian.

I really, I love you, Brian. Thanks again to Bernie Sanders, Chris Cuomo, and Bobby Lepin. 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 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.