No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump squanders final stretch of campaign with huge misstep

Episode Date: October 13, 2024

Trump squanders the final few weeks of his campaign by heading out to blue states. Brian interviews the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Texas, Colin Allred, about Texas being in play for the Democrats, Ted Cruz’s inability to give a straight answer on abortion, and his thoughts as a former NFL player on how the game’s changed since he was a Tennessee Titan. Support Colin Allred: https://colinallred.com/Shop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about Trump squandering the final few weeks of his campaign by heading out to Blue States, and I interview the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, Colin Allred, about Texas being in play for Democrats, Ted Cruz's inability to give a straight answer on abortion and his thoughts as a former NFL player on how the games changed since he was a Tennessee Titan. I'm Brian Taylor Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Okay, if you're looking for confusing, why is Donald Trump spending these last crucial few weeks of his presidential campaign by doing events in Colorado, California, Illinois, and New

York. States that Joe Biden won in 2020 by an average of 20 points. The closest of these states is Illinois, which Trump lost by 13 points. These are not swing states. They are out and out blue states. So what's the guy doing? Now, there are two camps of answers here. The first, I guess, is the sanewashed version that Trump is going to Coachella here in California because he's offering down-ballot support to Republican Ken Calvert in CA-41, or that he's going to Madison Square Garden in New York because he wants to help Republican Anthony Di Esposito out on Long Island with both seats being at risk of being flipped by Democrats in November. And as we all know, Donald Trump is the first one to act in service of others. I'm sure he saw these endangered Republicans, and he thought

to himself, let's put my own ambitions aside for a moment and focus on others. So this is why I say sanewashing. Donald Trump does not care about anyone not named Donald Trump. We have watched as this guy has plowed through people and cast them aside without a care in the world the moment they lose their usefulness. Ronna McDaniel, Kaylee McAnney, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Sidney Powell, Nikki Haley, the list is endless. And so while a normal presidential candidate might look to lift up endangered House Republicans, this is not a normal presidential candidate. And the media presumably knows who Trump is by now and how he acts by. now. So why they continue to confer normal people qualities onto an abnormal person is beyond me,

but they've shown very little interest in viewing this race through any lens other than politics as usual. So here are the more likely reasons, though. I've got two, one a little bit more cynical than the other. The first is that Trump, perhaps rightly, understands that the media environment is nationalized now and that by doing a big splashy event at Madison Square Garden in New York, he could get attention from a media that has largely ignored his usual rallies and hope to gain some benefit even in those swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania from people who catch it on cable news there, which isn't the worst idea in the world, but I still don't know that a rally in New York is going to do a ton to move

the needle in Nevada, especially as we're all coming off the aftermath of the 2016 election where we watched Hillary Clinton refused to go to Wisconsin, and obviously that didn't exactly redound to her political benefit. And here's the more cynical read. Donald Trump has said over and over that he thinks he's going to win New York. You know that he would love more than anything else to win his home state where he's just desperate for affection from those people there. I think the guy's just high on his own supply. I think he surrounded himself with enough yes men and sycophants who tell him that he is God's gift to the world to the point where he actually believes that he has a chance to win the state of New York. This is the same

delusion that is responsible for him thinking that the world respects him when in fact the world laughs at him, the same delusion that's responsible for him thinking that autocrats view him as one of them when they actually just see him as a useful idiot, Trump only believes what he wants to believe. And so if some mouthpiece who's taken up residence in his colon tells him, sir, sir, you're going to win New York, sir, we've never seen a Republican with this much energy in New York, sir, then of course the guy's going to think he can flip the state. Donald Trump's North Star is that everyone loves Trump and anyone who says that people don't love Trump is just lying. Heads I win tells you lose. So if you're looking for an example of this guy's brain rot on

full display, it is a Republican spending these precious final few weeks before the election campaigning in New York and California. That's just a small sampling of the sterling judgment that you would get if Donald Trump becomes the next president, which I suppose leads me to this public service announcement. If you have the opportunity to vote early, either in person or by mail, do it now. Do not wait. Here's the deal. Campaigns know if you voted. They don't know who you voted for, but they know if you voted. So do them a favor right now and vote so that they don't have to waste their valuable resources trying to turn you out to vote and instead can focus their attention on actual undecided voters. Also, you know, don't leave it up to chance with the post office or

with your ballot arriving after election day. Just get it in as soon as possible. Help us build the firewall that we need to win. And let's bring this thing home. Next up is my interview with Colin All Red. Are you okay with no exception for rape and incest in the state of Texas? Well, that's a question. The state legislature is going to decide. I think it is up to the voters of Texas to decide now. I recognize you don't like that answer, but that's my answer anyway. I'm trying to get an answer.

I have given you an answer. I'm joined now by Colin Allred, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas. That was Ted Cruz outright refusing to discuss where he stands on the issue of abortion. What did you make of his refusal to give any semblance? of a straight answer on this issue? Well, I mean, it's inexcusable, of course. It's outrageous. But we've been seeing this for some time here in Texas.

He's been refusing to answer questions from Texas journalists. And when he does answer it, he's got this attitude. But listen, this is his ban. And this is on him. He's worked towards this for over a decade. And he worked at it very diligently to put the judges at the district court level, the circuit level, the Supreme Court level,

He backed in primaries here in Texas, the most extreme candidates, often in Republican state legislative primaries, knowing if they would put these laws in place at the state level. He called for and celebrated. Dobbs ruling said it was a massive victory. This ban that goes way too far is on him. And now he doesn't want to talk about it. But he's going to hear from these Texas women and from Texas families on November 5th when we beat him. What would you do if elected on the issue of women's reproductive rights? Well, listen, this is going to be one of our first priorities.

We're going to codify Roe v. Wade. And we're going to go back to the standard that we've had for the last 50 years. And I know a lot of folks around the country, this is important to them. This is more important for Texans than almost any other issue because it's impacting every aspect of our lives. 26,000 Texas women, according to the Houston Chronicle, have been forced to get birth to their rapist child since this band came into place here. We have all of these stories, whether it's my friends Kate Cox and her husband, Justin, who had to leave the state, mother of two, because she needs to. to get the care she needed so she could then be able to still have a family or Amanda Zorozki who lost the ability to have children of her own because she was denied care so long.

And these stories are just adding up. But it's also impacting our medical schools, our university systems, our businesses are having to answer questions about it when they're trying to bring in talent from out of state. Every aspect of Texas life is going to be impacted by this because it's about freedom. And when you don't have freedom in a state or in a place, then everything else has some negative impacts. And so that's why we have to restore this right. What stories have you heard since you've been on the campaign trail that were especially impactful in terms of, you know, women contending with one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country, one with no exception for rape or

incest? Yeah, that's right. And no exception for the health of the mother either. And folks should know that because it's basically, you know, a lawyer determining whether or not a woman is sick enough to get the care that they need. And, you know, listen, I think there's a woman named Lauren Miller, who is a friend of mine. She lives not far from my wife and I here in Dallas. And she was already a mom. She got pregnant with twins. And one of the twins wasn't going to make it. And it was killing her and the other twin. And at the hospital, I was actually born in Dallas, the Presbyterian hospital. Her doctor threw up his hands and said, you have to leave the stake right now. There's nothing more I can do for you. And so as sick as she was, and she was very sick.

She went to an airport here in Dallas, and she flew to Colorado. She had a 15-minute procedure done by somebody she'd never met, cost her $3,000, and to save the other baby. And I met that little guy, and he's so cute. She came to the United States Senate to tell her story in front of Ted Cruz's committee, the Judiciary Committee, and he didn't show up to hear her speak. when Amanda Zoroski came to the Senate to tell her story, he didn't show up to hear her speak. He might not want to hear them in the Senate or answer questions from reporters.

I can guarantee he's going to hear from Texans on November 5th. Based on what you've seen from Ted Cruz, do you believe that he would sign a nationwide abortion ban into law? Well, he's been a part of five different bills to ban abortion nationwide. I guess that answers that question. So we already know what he wants to do. And, you know, listen, I think that we all know that given the chance, somebody who's worked towards this for over a decade, who has celebrated the fall of Roe, who has basically made this one of his top priorities, we all know that given the chance that he will ban abortion nationwide.

And this is a very real reality. So for folks who are not in Texas, who might be listening to this or watching this, understand that Ted Cruz is our problem. in Texas, but he's your problem too. And when we beat him and we restore this right, it'll be for Texas women, but it'll also be to prevent him from ever doing this to all folks all across the country. Right. It's a great point because a nationwide abortion ban is a nationwide abortion ban. It would impact, you know, everybody from California to Massachusetts and New York, not just people in red states. During Ted's presidential campaign, he signed a pledge to back a personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution. What would that mean, for example, for the future

of IVF. Well, that's a great point because it would probably mean under the most common interpretation of it, that IVF would be illegal, but also certain forms of birth control would be as well. And I think we have to also talk about that given the chance they might not just stop at access to abortion. They'd also come after birth control. And this is extreme stuff, but that's how extreme it is. You know, that's what's happening here in Texas. We know that they're openly talking about tracking women's pregnancies. We have an attorney general who's requesting information from hospitals from out of state about Texas women who have traveled there to get care. We know they're talking about saying that Texas women can't travel out of the state

to get access to their care. I mean, how are they going to enforce that? You know, they're going to start pulling Texas women over and asking them what's the nature of your travel, ma'am? This is not freedom. And this, you know, there's one thing I know about us as a four-generation Texan, is that we believe fundamentally in freedom. People come to Texas in many cases so they can get away from overbearing government. And this is a big government in the most personal sense, reaching into your most personal decisions. And this is not the only place that Ted Cruz wants to control how folks behave and how they live their lives. It's a very weird impulse that he has, but it's one that he's had a career of trying to enforce his

kind of narrow vision of how folks should live on them. And are Republicans that you speak to on the campaign trail recognizing that, recognizing the extent to which they themselves have become the same party that they've been fearmongering against for decades. I remember when the ACA first came into being and Republicans warned about death panels making decisions about your own health care, about what you do with your body. And now here they are where you have Kate Cox, for example, was granted that exemption by a Texas court. Ken Paxton went and appealed it to the Texas Supreme court and they overruled, which would have forced Kay Cox to remain in the state and put her own health at risk. And eventually she had to flee the state. But again, to my earlier

question, like, don't they realize that the Republican Party as it stands today has become the very thing that they warned that Democrats would become? Well, there are certainly some. And I was just with a bunch of, I don't think they'd still call themselves Republicans or called themselves independence now in Corpus Christi yesterday. And we're talking about this exact thing, which is that there's a fundamental conservative idea is that folks should largely be left alone and to make their own decisions. And this is not it. And there are so many folks who've gotten involved in this effort who were Republicans who have come forward and started tell their stories or who just were kind of apolitical and who felt like maybe they voted for

Republicans in the past and thought that this is now brought this home for them. I have a friend named Ryan Hamilton. He's a DJ here in Texas. His, I don't know what Ryan's exact politics were, but they certainly weren't, he was certainly not a Democrat when, you know, he and his wife were pregnant and she was sent, she got ill and she was sent away from the hospital and told basically to come back with the complications she was having with her pregnancy to come back when she was sicker and his wife, you know, white as a sheet and bleeding out on his bathroom floor. And he had to rush her to an emergency room where she was still being denied care. And this is something that's for, for your husband, is the sum of all your fears

that you wouldn't be able to help your wife in a moment of extreme like this. And then it becomes more than political. This becomes very personal. And it becomes something you say, listen, this is wrong and you get involved and you start speaking out. And a lot of folks have heard him and other Texas families telling their stories and understood this could be them. And this is why it's so important that we restore this right. So is not to bury the lead here. You have turned what most people viewed as a completely unwinnable election into one of the closest races in the country. And that's the one in Texas here. You're polling within three points of Ted Cruz right now. Both Cook Political Report and inside elections have moved to the race

in your direction in their latest ratings. That race now has a lean Republican rating. That said, while three points is close, you know, there is still some gap there. So how do you intend on closing that gap with just a few weeks to go until the election here? Yeah, I mean, listen, number one, Texas is very hard to poll. So I would just say from the beginning, I think that we always come in with a certain amount of skepticism around polling. I say that not as somebody who doesn't believe in polls in general, but just knowing my state. When I was running in 2018 against the 22-year incumbent here in Dallas, I don't think there was ever a poll that showed me leading, and I beat him by seven points.

But that being said, what we have been in the process of is introducing me in a state with 30 million people, with over 20 different media markets that are all very separate from each other. We have more people in DFW than in all of Arizona. We have three times as many people as Michigan. And so it's an incredibly large state to get known in and to also deliver a message in. And what I know is that Texans are ready to turn the page from Ted Cruz. We have to make sure that they know who I am, you know, that I was, you know, raised by single mother in Dallas. I, you know, played football at Bailey.

Everyone's captain of the team and made it to the NFL. It became a lawyer, served in Congress as the most bipartisan Texan in Congress, and that I want to serve all of us in the Senate in the exact opposite way that Ted Cruz has by not impitting us against each other or banding us when we need it most. And so that's a story that we know is a winning story. But we are closing that information gap of Texans knowing that every single day because, you know, as many folks will probably know for, you know, working folks across Texas or any other state, and they start paying attention to elections, you know, later into the process. And this is the time when they're paying attention. And so this is the time also where the resources really matter.

And so hope folks will consider and going to call on all right.com and supporting us and helping us get over that final line. As beating Ted Cruz will be a big deal for us in Texas, it will be a big deal nationally. But I think it also will make it for a better Republican Party coming out of this once we beat him. You had alluded to the fact that you beat Pete Sessions in 2018. He had served in Congress for well over a decade. So you got your start in Congress by unseeding a Republican in a race that you weren't supposed to win. What lessons can you take from that race and bring into this one? Well, it's such a good point because there are a lot of similarities.

You know, somebody who probably had gotten a little lazy, a little out of touch, didn't care as much. Yeah. You know, he sounds familiar, right? But, you know, and he was somebody who nobody thought could be beaten. In fact, he was unopposed the previous election. There was no Democrat who ran against them. And this is not one of the races that folks thought that we would win. And like I said, we beat him pretty handily.

But we did it by building a coalition. And that's what we're doing here, too. Of Democrats, yes, of course. and then trying to increase turnout among Democrats in Texas has been largely a non-voting state. But also, you know, reaching across the aisle and getting winning among independents and Republicans. There are a lot of folks who voted for George W. Bush

who voted me into Congress and who have been some of my biggest supporters. And, you know, they haven't really changed. They've seen the Republican Party change away from them. Right. And I think in many cases, they're looking for a coalition that they can join. And, you know, that's why when, you know, Liz Cheney comes to Texas and his kids,

campaigning with me in Dallas that matters. Or Adam Kinsinger, who's a friend of mine, who's a Texan now and who's co-chairing our Republicans for all right effort, or a really well-respected local leader here, Glenn Whitley, who was the chief executive. We call him county judges, but it was the executive of our county, of Tarrant County, where Fort Worth is, one of our biggest purple counties in the state who, for 30 years served that county as a Republican, endorsed me and campaigning with me. These things matter because this is the same coalition. but I think can also bring our state back to some sanity. Now, switching gears just a little bit here,

the hurricanes that are battering the southeast right now kind of bring into focus the fact that Texas also has dealt with a raft of extreme weather events recently. Ted Cruz famously opted to skip town during a freeze that chilled the entire state, heading out to the Ritz Carlton in Cancun, which he ultimately blamed on his daughter. Seeing the devastation wrought onto Americans

in the wake of Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton, what does it say about Cruz that this guy's gut reaction was just to skip town for a five-star hotel? That's right. Well, what we're seeing is, of course, horrific. And my prayers are with the folks in North Carolina and Florida, all the impacted areas. What was happening in Texas at that time was so much worse than a freeze. And I think that folks might not remember how bad it was here. The power was out almost statewide.

And many cities were under boil water advice. because the water plants were out. And so you had to boil your water before you could even drink it. And it was for multiple days and nearly a week without power in the energy capital of the world, while it was also freezing outside. Yeah. And, you know, hundreds of Texans died. There, this was the single biggest insurance event in Texas history because so many pipes burst

and then flooded homes and so many, so much damage was done across the state. But there's very few things. In fact, in my life, I've never known. any weather event that hit the entire state of Texas at once the way this did. If you can imagine having the privilege and the responsibility of representing 30 million Texans, and when this kind of a horrific storm hits, where these things are happening, where people are burning whatever wooden objects they can find to stay warm, and you think to yourself, I wonder if this is a good time to go to Cancun on vacation. I mean, it just wouldn't occur to any normal person. It wouldn't.

Like, it just wouldn't because you would think, I have to, I have to act, I have to help. Normal people think this, much less somebody who is a United States senator. And the only reason he came back or that anyone knew about it is because it was posted on the internet by folks who saw him in the airport and who could not believe. In fact, I think they posted him on their flight. They're like, I can't believe he's going to Cancun during this. That's the only reason. And then, like you said, to come back and to blame your children for it is cowardly in the least, right? But this is, this is, it's a perfect example of how he sees the job, which is that if it's not about him, if it's not getting him attention, if it's not getting him, you know, some, whatever he's searching for, then he's not interested.

Right. It's, it's just like Donald Trump in the sense that he is there to serve himself and his brand and, and views the people of Texas as a way to, to, to serve him, basically, not to have him serve them. With that said, how are you reaching out to the Latino population in Texas? Obviously, you know, there have been issues with Democrats in the Rio Grande Valley, for example. How do you stop the momentum going in Republicans, continuing to go in Republicans' direction in a place like the Rio Grande Valley? Yeah. Well, you know, my family's from the Rio Grande Valley from Brownsville and spent a lot of my childhood there. And so we have a personal connection to it that I think is important. But listen, we're meeting folks where they are and we're communicating, you know, both in English and

in Spanish. But we're also talking about the issues that really matter to folks in the Valley and to Latinos across Texas. And I think that in some ways, at times, Democrats have gotten on the wrong side of really important economic issues that matter. And we have made sure not that Latinos know that that's not who I am, but that they know that I'm going to make sure we invest in our economy, in opportunity, and the right to retire with dignity. And this is our largest You know, group in the state of Texas, it's part of our, you know, our diversity is part of our strength. I embrace that.

I think it's what makes us so strong. And it's also going to, I think, help us deliver a coalition to elect the United States Senator that can then bring our entire state together around our shared values. And we're going to go finish off here with something a little bit different. I'm assuming because you live in Dallas that you are a Cowboys fan. Is that correct? Well, you know, I play in the NFL So when you play against the Cowboys, it always changes

I grew up a huge Cowboys fan, though, yeah Well, as a fellow NFC East guy Because I grew up in Jersey, so I'm a Giants fan Are the commanders actually The real, like, are these guys the real deal Are the commanders now the best team in the NFC East? Is this legit? Like, what's happening here?

Are they the best team? No. I think the Eagles are still probably the best team. in the NFCs, even though they're not playing like it. They have a young quarterback and a new coach, and I think they're getting a bounce from that. But they've got, I don't think they're the best team. I think, you know, actually, I think the Giants are playing better

and the Cowboys are playing better. And so, you know, in a lot of ways, it's going to be a very competitive vision. I had watched videos in the past, and like the recent past of what it looks like when these guys would get hit, you know, five, ten years ago as opposed to the protection that they have today. Like, what do you, like you, when, when did you leave the NFL?

Yeah, so my last year was in 2010. In 2010. So, I mean, the videos that we see, like in these throwbacks to how hard these guys were getting hit and, and how these hits were all legal, what do you, what do you think when you look back today where it seems almost like, it seems almost insane when I watch this and realize like how hard these guys were getting hit, helmet to helmet versus obviously the protections, the necessary protections that are put in place for today. Yeah, that's right. The game has changed for the good in that regard. You know, even when I was playing, a receiver coming across the middle was pretty much a fair game. And, you know, that was one of the things that happened a lot. I was also, I played special teams and we used to do, you know, kickoff was very different back then.

We, you know, they would set up a, you know, four-man wedge and I'd run into the wedge. And, you know, you have to try and make the tackle. None of that happens anymore. I think the one of the biggest changes has been the way. their training, particularly with these guardian caps that they're putting on in training camp, because the more we've learned is that it's oftentimes not even the biggest hits, it's also the repetitive hits. And that's what practice and all the hits that pile up in practice and over training camp

and over the summer can really add up. And when you make those much safer interactions, then I think you make the entire game safer. And I think this is really important for football because in a lot of ways for youth football, It'll follow this trend. And I think that to me, football will help make me who I am. I was captain of the team at Baylor. I learned a lot about commitment from my football career, discipline, leadership, determination. These are all great qualities, but you want to do it as safely as possible.

And I think we've arrived at a much better place on that. Again, your website for people who are looking to donate? Yeah, please go to Colin, allred.com. You can also sign up to volunteer with us, particularly to our Texans. You can knock on doors, make phone calls. I help us get out the vote. All right. Well, thank you for taking the time today

and best luck in the campaign trail. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate you. Thanks again to Representative Allred. 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 bryantaylorcoen.com to learn more.