Pivot - Iran Ceasefire Uncertainty, Democratic Wins, and Musk vs. Altman

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Kara is joined by guest host Rahm Emanuel to unpack the shaky Iran ceasefire, and what it means for U.S. credibility abroad. Then, they break down Democrats’ recent electoral momentum, and the chaos unfolding in the California governor’s race. Plus, Elon Musk takes aim at Sam Altman, and unfortunately, RFK Jr. launches a podcast. Watch this episode on the ⁠⁠Pivot YouTube channel⁠⁠.Follow us on Instagram and Threads at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcastofficial⁠⁠.Follow us on Bluesky at ⁠⁠@pivotpod.bsky.social⁠⁠Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcast⁠⁠.Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you. get your podcasts. I would like to say you have dropped the F-bomb three times and I'm at zero, just for the record. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Box Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. Scott is off still.

I don't know where Scott is. He's just off rambling around. Actually, I'm going to see him tonight at the premiere of my new series for CNN. But I brought on another incredible co-host. He's been ambassador to Japan and the mayor of Chicago. It seems like he's running for president. and it's Rahm Emanuel. Hey, Rom, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? Good, good. You have been everywhere. What's happening? Try to tell us what's happening, besides lecturing the Democratic Party,

which we'll get to in a minute. But what, what are you doing? Well, first of all, I'm listening to American people. I've been out and talking to them about things like how to make sure they get ahead, their families get ahead on the community college plan. But also, you know, like a young man I met in Spartanburg, who's going to community college, he's got a job waiting at G. for 33 an hour, the benefits, and he was unemployed. And what they're doing at that community college is exactly what I want to see us do everywhere. Something similar we did in Chicago,

something similar to LaCross. But also, you know, listening to the nurse in Iowa, who's talking about that she now spends close to 50% of her time arguing with insurance companies. So, and about how to make sure that people get the healthcare that they're actually her and the doctor are prescribing. So that's what I'm out doing. You've always been a public figure,

but often in the, in the, national way, you've been up sort of behind this, and you've been a congressperson. But how do you, how is it different what you're doing here in terms of running for president or trying or thinking about running for president? Yeah, I mean, that's fair. Well, I mean, I've been a congressman. I've been a mayor of a not insignificant city. So front facing. Yeah, front facing. Yeah, also chairman of a leadership in Congress. But that said, I mean, you're evaluating. And one of the things I know about running for office is you've got to make sure your head, your heart and your gut are all the line.

I'm going to just say it up front. I don't need a title. I got more titles. I can auction them off. I'm also, I'm about getting stuck done. Like take something I'm very proud about, you know this because from our many conversations, we raised our graduation rate from 56 to 83%.

98% of our kids had a plan post high school, college, community college, branch of the Air Force of the Education School. I'm not, I'm about getting stuff done, not about getting another title. And do I think I actually understand what it takes to move this country and help the American people get ahead and their kids get ahead? And do I have the fortitude to do that?

And so that's what I'm looking at. I'm not, I don't need, as I said, titles is for other people. Getting crap done is what we did in Chicago. 20,000 kids went to community college for free. Every child had a plan post-high school on education. We started pre-k and kindergarten. So I'm into moving stuff, and as we like to say in Chicago, taking the garbage out, getting stuff done. You evaluate that.

Right. But you know, this also takes, I jokingly said when I was recruiting candidates for Congress, takes a little level of a little kind of irrational act because you're jumping over without any, nothing below and nothing above. So if you're like Ram Emanuel evaluating you as a competitor, what would be your biggest asset and your biggest negative from your perspective. If you were like, I'm going to get this ROM guy. Oh, wow. This is going to get this. I'm getting on the couch. We get to make sure Blue Cross covers it. Yeah, we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So at one level on the positive side, and here's how I stand it, is putting out ideas from like we did on elementary school and learning and reading and addressing the 50% of our kids can't read,

went to Mississippi, how to reform our high schools, so they're less about the home, more about college career planning and community college, immigration led, to social media ban, basically a wealth of ideas. I am tired of having a debate about how to restore past and about how to build a future. And that is what I'm like. So on that point, get an A. On the kind of strength and energy that is determined not only for the job, bringing there an A game as well. Yeah, I agree.

And I also think, more importantly, telling people the truth. I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. I'm going to tell you what I think you need to know. And we're in this together rather than trying to fight each other all the time. And that's a rare moment for a middle child to say that. On the other side is you have a campaign which is slightly about, it's not slightly. There's a big debate about generational change. And I've been around.

Now, the good news of that is I think I know the family room. I know what I call the classroom, the break room, the board room, the situation room, and I want the Democratic Party to get out of the bathroom. I'm tired of being there. Sure, right. I'm just curious, do you ever worry about, like, you and I are both, I would say, difficult people in a good way necessarily, and I'm saying that about myself, too. Let's just, let's do it smoother.

We're acquired taste. Right, that's what I mean. We're required taste. Do you, I mean, because, you know, there's a, there's a likeability kind of thing. And I like you. Sure. But do you think about that or is that changed? No, you know, no, because first of all, I know how I am out with, I'm out about people

where I was in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in Franklin, New Hampshire, or in what it's referred to in South Carolina as the Corridor of Shame in Abbeville, et cetera, all the black counties that were ignored by Columbia, South Carolina. So I know that. On the other hand, I am. I mean, again, this gets back to, this is true for you. It's true for me. It's true for everyone, which is your strength, your weakness.

I'm direct. I'm forthright. Nobody walks away from me and go, boy, was he subtle. We didn't really know what he said. Charmer. He's a real charmer. Yeah, that guy, that one level that works at another level, it doesn't. But here's the thing.

I'm at a point in my life, this would be the last phrase. I'm going to tell you what I think has to happen. As I said, in 2024, you didn't have a choice. 2008, it's going to be Baskin and Robbins. And I plan on being Rocky Road. Right, Rocky Road. I'm going to say this is in this moment of where I'm with my therapist, Mr. Dr. Swisher.

Yeah, right. That's me. I am liberated. At a different place than I've been, as President Obama's chief of staff or as mayor or ambassador or whatever, I'm going to say, this is it. Final race. I'm going to leave it on the field in the sense of,

We as a country literally have hunger games. This is about the future. We've had two presidents who've argued about restoring a past that's not coming back, and either we're going to build that future or we're going to talk about America in past tense, and I don't want to do that, and I'm not going to sit here on the sidelines commenting about it. Yeah, yeah. You've run out of fuchs, but you never had fuchs from, so that's kind of an interesting situation. This is really interesting.

I really am fascinated. You know, a lot of people ask me, Andrew, I'm like, I don't know, maybe it's appealing to people, right? You don't have to be slick. You don't have to be likable, you know, and obviously Trump has turned from, he had a charisma to something else that's really cool. You know, the one thing I know about presidential politics,

President Obama was an answer to George Bush. George Bush was an answer to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was an answer to the Reagan Bush years. Not where is Donald Trump? You're interested in clicks? I'm not that. I'm interested in kids knowing calculus. You're interested in social media posts?

Great. I'm interested in making sure we know our social studies. So that's not it. And I think where the puck will be in 2028 isn't about how do you imitate Donald Trump? It's actually how do you act like an adult. And I think if we're all honest with ourselves, I do look, President Biden, build back better, Donald Trump's MAGA, is about restoring something that is not coming back. The sooner we get to figuring out a future and then how to work together to get that done will actually matter.

And the reason all the things I happen to think, education is the ticket to the middle class and the families making it and your kids making it. The reason I've been so focused on it is you're not getting there with 50% of our kids not able to read at grade level. You're not getting there when we don't have a plan how to make sure that we have the electricians, the carpenters, the sailors, the nurses, or the chemical engineers, not just people who know how to do fast trading on the stock market, but the engineers that know how to actually build something for the future. That to me is more important. And if it's not rejected, my ego is not hurt. I'll have done what I think I think is important to shape the debate and get us focused on the future in a way that I think the last 20 years, we've been refocused

on the past. It certainly can't be anti- Donald Trump. Or it can be a little bit. As you said, I remember you said, let's make the, to 2026, anti-Donald Trump, and then we leave them behind in the dustmen, like, if they win, if the Democrats. Yeah, I mean, 2026 is we're just coming in the shadows of Wisconsin. It is a referendum on Donald Trump and a rubber stand for Republicans. 2028 is a choice election. And unless we have a compelling story to tell about the future and what we're going to do, we won't win that. we have to have a compelling story.

That is my focus not only for the campaign, but more importantly, for the country. And that also, I can tell you from being all over the country, we have to make common cause with the largest party in America, which is independent, non-aligned. Stop talking to ourselves and start talking to the people that will determine because in the last three presidential elections, seven states, 700,000 voters have determined who's the president of the United States. And if we don't find common cause with, quote, unquote, independent voters, we will continue to be a minority party. And that has been my political take.

You know, that was exactly what Tom Tillis just told me in an interview I did with him last week. Same thing. So let's get to the news then. Let's talk about what's happening right now. And we'll talk a little bit more about the future after that. But as it's recording, the Iran, this is an important thing for the future. The Iran war's ceasefires looking a little shaky. There's confusion around the status of the Strait of Hormuz and the disagreement over,

whether the truth includes Lebanon. Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday night. Two weeks is always his magic number. He backed down from his threat of the whole civilization would die if the deal wasn't reached. Jimmy Kimmel called it the Taco Tuesday of all Taco Tuesday. And then, of course, you know, it's, you know, walk back Wednesday, essentially. Megan Kelly, I'm going to play her. I don't usually do it because she gives me a headache.

Wasn't too happy either. But listen to this. Listen to this. Let's play it. Now, as you can imagine, that post did not go over well with the Iranians. Or with many Americans. I mean, I don't know about you, but I am sick of this shit. I'm just, I'm sick of it.

Can he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president, I, 3D, chess, just shut up. Fucking shut up about that shit. You don't threaten to wipe out an entire civilization. We're talking about civilians just casually in a social media post. I don't often agree with Megan, but there you go. I think she's sort of articulating what's happening on the right. Think of that Donald Trump's bringing people together rather than dividing them.

You like Mike and Kelly, think of the upside of this. A new level of humanity in you that's been found towards people you disagree with. It's not humanity. It's like, I fucking agree with her. And I find common cause with Marjorie Taylor Green, right, until I start talking about some other topics. But Pope Leo is also weighing in calling the threat against Iranian people truly unacceptable. He's for some reason Trump's gotten in a beef with the Pope, which is terrible. In terms of what happens next, Vice President J.D. Mans is traveling to Pakistan for peace talks this weekend along with Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner.

Dom and Dumber, Trump says that all U.S. military personnel and assets will stay near Iran until real agreement is reached. Talk a little bit about this. You've been in these rooms. Like, it seems like he's not playing chess. He's eating the. pieces, like, or something, or maybe he's not getting good advice or else he's cognitively has some problems. Yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to just say about the room, but it's clear there isn't the situation room. They've moved it into the Oval Office and whoever walks in, there's a couple doors, there's four doors. There's one outside. There's one to the, you know, where the assistance sit. There's one to the, it goes to the Roosevelt room. And there's one

that also goes to the first president's library. They've moved it all in there. There's not a serious analysis. Think about this. You have Secretary Vance, rather Vice President Vance is going there. You have Wickoff and Jared Kushner with no diplomatic support. Go back when they're meeting in Geneva. There was no experts around the nuclear capacity or everything. Wick off and Kushner were winging it and it clearly showed because the UK Intel office, who was there, said Iran was actually offering us something very serious in the sense of concessions to avoid the military confrontation. And neither Kushner or Wyckoff. Understood.

Now, I said this jokingly, but I'm very serious. If they ever do a sequel to Dumb and Dumber, there's going to be a lot of competition for who gets to play the lead in this administration. Right. Now, the other pieces, and you led on this and we're talking about what Megan Kelly said, Look, there's a lot of different roles to the president. There is the moral voice of the presidency when the challenger goes down, you know, bringing the country to act or 9-11 like President Bush. There is the commander-in-chief, which is the most solemn position of the president of the United States.

The president, the commander-in-chief, Roosevelt understood it when he said America would be the arsenal of democracy. Lincoln understood at the beginning of the war. He understood it midway when he did the emancipation proclamation, changing the definition of the war. We have a president of the United States who has asked 50 plus thousand servicemen and women, not counting all the other pieces that are supporting those 50,000 on the front line, to achieve a mission of national security importance for the United States. And he's talking about obliterating a civilization. You owe the troops a definition of why. You owe the servicemen and the country. You owe the servicemen. Here's what you're the servicemen. here's what victory will look like, so we've accomplished our goals. And here's how it's going to end. And this is how we know we have succeeded in one and two. None of that by the commander-in-chief has been accomplished. And so when you say to me- They have been declaring victory over and over-and-cur-11. But this is what I say. But here, step back. Underneath what you just said, you know and everybody else in the world knows except for people of 1600 Pennsylvania, nobody believes our president. Now, this has been over- use as an anecdote, when Stevenson goes to see DeGall during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and he's about to take photos out, DeGal says, I have the word of the President of the United States. I don't need those photos. Nobody would do that here. Everybody is looking at our Keystone cops

at 1600 Pennsylvania. They know a President of the United States who literally truth is the most flexible thing he's ever seen. He doesn't believe in truth. He believes in spin. And so this is the degradation of the word, the credibility, and the mantle of the president of the president of the United States and more importantly, the United States of America, because this is a baton that gets handed off. So at every level, not only did they start, not knowing that they actually had accomplished something, they were too foolish and stupid and arrogant to know that, be they go into a war without clear objectives. And then they literally talk about a victory here. Now, I have thought about the, you know, there's two points I would make right now

because they went into a war to obliterate, to degrade, whatever word you want to use, the nuclear capacity of Iran. They already had to, even tell us was like, we obliterated it, and then we obliterated again, and then now we're going to obliterate it. He was even making fun of the language. Iran discovered they have a nuclear option called the Strait of Hermuz. So first and foremost, declare policy, either all ships get out or no ships get out. That would cut off Iran's economic lifeline to China and would put pressure on both of them. Two, medium term, the United Nations International Maritime Group would run the straight of her moves in the sense of a fee that would be split between Iran, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, all the countries affected. So they don't collect it.

the United Nations, an international association does, and it's split because the war affected both parties, not one party. Third, and doesn't allow Iran to control the straight air moves, which is an international body of water body. Long term, take the Abraham Accords for the United States as a part of two, and do three things and use it, which doubles down on America as a permanent power in that part of the world, which is the Iran's goal, which is to get us out.

to build pipelines for Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE, and other countries in that region, out to the Strait of Hermuz, to the Red Sea or to Oman Gulf, the Gulf of Oman. That would have a short-term, medium-term, long-term plan, and would also reinforce that the Abraham, of course, the United States has, is the vehicle for our Gulf allies and countries that don't become now subjugated to Iran's blackmail and coercion. To me, that is the most important. Now, I don't think, in fact, I can tell you this,

I haven't seen a single idea where, except for the president says, well, Iran's 10 points are pretty good. I can't believe a President of the United States, a commander-in-chief, a leader of the free world, a person with a military instruments that he has, just said the other party, their term sheet is the term sheet we're going to work off of.

everybody in the quoting of the art of the deal, you don't use the other sides. No, you do not. So at every level, I find this incredibly dangerous, reckless. Right. What's occurring here? Because his own people are like he doesn't know. Like what was really interesting about the New York Times piece is like they're all running for the hills because they're all telling him wasn't me, wasn't me, it was him. They're pointing fingers at him directly, not at or at BB Netanyahu, but they're certainly trying to say,

I thought it was farcical. That's obviously from the head of the CIA. I thought it was wrong, Susie Wiles, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, no, they're going to let one guy where the guy with the dunce cap gets to keep the dunce cap at the end of this process. Here's what I would say to you is there are four tools in your national security toolbox, military power, economic statecraft, political persuasion and cultural attraction. and you will assemble them differently in different parts of the world, in different areas, etc.

Somewhere in the second term, now the president degraded the first three, but in the second term, as opposed to the first term, he's decided military power is not only the most important tool, the tool he's most comfortable, which was not true in the first term. He is degraded through tariffs. He's degraded through belittling our NATO allies. and not consulting them, and the brand of America from a cultural standpoint. So all three of the four tools have been totally drained of any capacity. And a person who was risk-averse in the first term is now reduced America's national

security to a single tool and made it the toolbox. And what is dangerous about that is obviously the servicemen and women are becoming literally a play toy for the commander in chief, with no respect for what he's asking of them, who have volunteered to serve the national interests of this country. And more importantly, the other tools are atrophying at this very time. And we economically, politically, cultures, you can see the way he's banging out on NATO are more isolated than leading. You can't be a leader if nobody is following. That was the casualty here. Our NATO allies, our Gulf allies and our Asian allies are not following the United States.

They're distancing themselves. No, they're not. So what happens then in that case? What happens next? Because his own people are distancing themselves, also speaking of leaders. All those leaks were fascinating. Well, watch what he does not. He's going to blame somebody.

He's now going to. The next thing is who he tries to blame. And that's kind of a palace coup type, palace, you know, intrigue game. I'm into not that. And I understand the lure of that. My thing is, what do we do to take a generational approach to restore the trust, credibility, and the capacity of this country? Well, how can we with him in the seat? He's in the seat. And this is my argument, both to Democrats, but also Republicans as a country. We're Americans. There's no reset button at the Resolute Desk. I try to lay out a different scenario by different parts of the world. How do you assemble these different tools into different kind of stacking order?

of priority. There's no reset. So when Prime Minister Carney in Canada says this is a rupture, you're not getting super glue and reassembling. We have to earn not only the trust. We have to build our strengths that have been atrophying. Where is the political power? Where's the cultural persuasion? How do we can recreate the economic stake craft where again the American economy is central to the world, not sideline? And I do think the last 25th, years, when you look at this war, if you look at COVID, you look at different things that have happened in the last 25 years, this will be the era of supply chain and will be known as the era supply chain. You took oil, take ammonia, take the petrochemicals in the region, you take

what happened during COVID, medical gear, et cetera, and the pharmaceutical products to deal with the vaccines. This is the era of supply chains. Little things that hold the entire, whether it's the Strait of Hermose, or whether it's the products coming out of the straight of her moves, or whether it's medical supplies and vaccines, little things take the entire global economy to a halt and don't move. A drone. A $50,000. I mean, I said this the other day, and I'll just repeat this. You have two countries with no Navy, but they control both waterways, Ukraine and Iran,

without a Navy. We have a theory in America's national security, being able to fight two wars simultaneously. We're going to have to rewrite it to be able to fight two different wars simultaneously, one conventional and one unconventional. That's it. He's still president for a long time. You've got maybe to the midterms where he loses a lot of power or three more years. What happened?

If you had to guess what happens next, because these people look like they're not going to keep, you have Megan Kelly saying, fuck you. You have people in the cabinet clearly leaking saying, not us. something's got to give or does it. I mean, someone did stop Nixon, right? Someone walked up to Pennsylvania. Well, the other Republicans is, I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't want to look, I didn't listen to the podcast with Senator Attilis, but you know, this is a criticism. You were the, you were the key vote for Higgs sets becoming Secretary of Defense. I'm sorry. Like, you know, okay, you don't have to, but fact is you have a person with a drinking problem and other types of

problems, who's now the head of a military, who's involved right now in a military, political purge of the military. The greatest turnaround in American history was the armed forces post-Vietnam. I've worked with the head of the Seventh Fleet, head of Indopacom. These are incredible men and women. Amy and I, I just want to side note, we do an ROTC scholarship named after Lisa Finchetti, the former CNO of the Navy. She's an incredible capacity, fired out of political retribution.

This is stuff you read in China. Right. And Senator Tillis, who obviously found his conscience and that's good, but you confirmed this person that you knew in your gut was not right. Now, I want to say one thing. When I was Chief of Staff, I was an employee. When I was senior advisor to President Clinton, I was an employee. How many times I walked into the overall office daily and said, no.

And here's the consequence of you. You're a U.S. Senator. You're independently elected. You're independently elected congressman. You have your own voting card. You have your own pen for security. What are you doing? Do you imagine they'll do it?

Or are they just waiting for the end? I think what's going to happen is the United States Congress is going to flip. The Senate's 50-50. And you're going to finally have the third branch of government that has been basically in deep freeze for the last two years. I said this one privately to a couple months from now, right? Yes. I said this privately to a Republican senator. I said, you're going to want a Democratic president.

He goes, oh, no, no. I said, yeah. The reason is you put your manhood in a lockbox and you're finally going to take it out in about three years from now. That's what's going to happen. You, I can't believe these individuals who know better and say it privately underclogged voice. Of course.

And what will happen is elections have, to quote, my good friend and my former boss president Obama, elections have consequences. Yes, we got X months until November. Republicans isn't here. the, hear the sound of the footbeat coming. You saw that in Wisconsin. You're going to see it in Indiana. Saw it in North Carolina the other day.

You saw it in Georgia. And the fact is you're going to have the third branch of government, co-equal branch, finally exert its responsibility and hold this administration accountable. Yeah, you are so, you are so new scene. It's just a matter of time. We're going to move over this. But I would agree with you. They're suddenly appearing on my podcast.

So, you know what I mean? Like suddenly, they're like, hey, hey, girl. I wanted, it's so frustrated. Take a look at the center of Louisiana. You confirmed a guy for health and human services, Kennedy. As a doctor, you know, was wrong. The president turns around flips on you, and you try to do that to encourage favor or bring favor to yourself,

and he's going to mess with your re-election, and you knew Kennedy was not right. Senator Tillis, I'm glad he's speaking out. I'm glad he found his voice, but when your vote was needed, he decided to go somewhere now. maybe you're making up for lost time, but the rest of us, most importantly, the men and women in a uniform have to deal with a secretary of defense who has never qualified for that job. And so now, therefore,

do it again. I mean, he certainly did the, and I hate to use the term kill shot to know him, but he did. And some people are like, it's too late. I'm like, but he did it. So he has to keep doing it is what you're saying. No, I mean, yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And you have to keep moving down. You have to say that. You have to work with others to finally get your vote and your voice to kind of line. Your vote would not where your voice is or your conscience. Yeah, reach down and grab it. Anyway, okay, Rom, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Democrats keep the momentum going with another string of election wins. When Westcham first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere,

and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, One thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Support for this show comes from MongoDB. If you're tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale, it's time to think outside the rows and columns. Because let's be honest, you didn't get to take to babysit a broken database.

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Rom, we're back. Democrats notched their biggest shift yet in the House special election, dramatically narrowing the gap in Georgia's 14th. Trump carried the district by 37 points in 2024, but even in the race, the margin shranked around 12 points, a major swing, even though the Republicans took the win. Democrats also expanded their majority on Wisconsin Supreme Court, very significant from four to three to five to two, and that'll last for a decade, I think, for something like that or a very long time. You recently wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled how Democrats can use their

coming majority. You say investigations of Trump won't satisfy voters and that energy we'd better spent on a positive agenda. You and I have talked about this. Talk about, you know, your ideal plan. you just sort of vaguely mention it up to the midterms and assuming they have a strong showing without any nonsense from Trump or any hijinks or whatever he's trying to do, but it doesn't seem like it's going to work. In recent days, over 70 lawmakers have said Trump's cabinet needs to invoke

the 25th Amendment. He's supposed to be in a coma, apparently, for that, but we'll see. I don't see them doing that. They can hardly speak up in any way. Talk about the distraction of it, Because one of the things is if you spend all your time investigating, and certain people, by the way, should be investigated for corruption. Christine Nome, Corey Lewandowski, et cetera. As I said in that piece, I said, there's a difference between corruption and dishonesty. Right.

I'm for absolute investigation of all the corruption. This is crony capitalism run am up. People trading on inside information, they have normalized corruption. A hundred percent of that. You cross the line when it's all about retribution, vindication, and not addressing what I think is not only the affirmative agenda, but I do believe their corruption. I've said it two years ago. That's the backdrop. So I'm 100% for what did Christy Nome do at DHS.

I'm 100% for everything the Inspector Generals have reported and all the type of corruption, both inside, outside members of family. More the Trump kids. A lot of naked and the Trump. 100% for that. Don't get caught in a game of politics or repribution where then the people go, it's just more Washington. Now, I think on the affirmative, and this was part of that piece, if you go back to the presidentials of both President Clinton and President Obama first terms,

2008 in 1992, what George Mitchell does in 1990 forcing President Bush to raise taxes and break his pledge on read my lips. And what we did in forcing Bush to veto the Children's Health Insurance Initiative in 2007 sets up 1992 Bill Clinton and sets up President Obama 2008. 2027, I look at the kind of landscape of all the issues for minimum wage to predictive markets, to health care, cost control, and or a ratepayers built. of rights. I lay out a number of ideas in that piece. Now, part of this politically is determining when you have the Senate or not is get a bill on the desk that, one, creates

divisions within the Republican Party, and two, either force the president, like Bush does in 1990, or signs a bill, or vetoes a bill like President Bush does in 2007 on the Children's Health Insurance Program, that creates a division. visions inside the Republican Party and advance your agenda that you're ready to take and secure the future. So I do think Democrat, let's just fast forward. Democrats win both the House and the Senate. What they do in 2027 will be as determinative as who we nominate in 28. My view, this is mine, is go to those predictive markets and put a piece of bill legislation on the president, president's desk that ban all members, Congress, Senate, executive branch, judicial branch,

staff, family from participating in the predictive markets and that there's a division of the criminal justice department. The Calches and Polly Markets. Yeah. And the reason is, and first of all, all that can be done by executive board. The president will not do it because his two sons are investors in it. And you drive right there because the Republicans are there, independent voters are there, the president of United States is not there, and I would take that bill and run it right down through one end of Pennsylvania Avenue or the other and put it on his desk. Because everybody, and I can tell you this from lacrosse, Wisconsin to Franklin, New Hampshire, to Abbeville's partner, everybody in their gut knows that these prediction markets are being played and manipulated with inside information.

And yes, and people, other people are putting their lives at risk while a little netbo babies in Palm Beach are making money. Most importantly, Don Jr. and the rest of the family and Lutnik's kids and Wittgolf's kids put it on his desk, make him pick his wealth or the American people's democracy and political and economic livelihood. I already know the answer to that. And that's what I mean, you asked me, that's what I would do because he's going to be to it. You were talking about things that you wish would happen probably won't pass. You should do, like $25 minimum wage, whatever it happens to be. It doesn't have to win. You just have to make a stance is what you're talking about, right?

Well, in 1990, President Bush signs the bill and actually does help reduce the deficit, but it creates Pat Buchanan and a Republican revolt. And 20 Republican senators support that, but the other 25 do not. In 2007, when we do the Children's Health Insurance bill, President Bush 43 vetoes it, but 60 Republicans in the House and Senate. align themselves with Democrat. What brings us together? What divides the other side?

And whether it's signing or vetoing, as I would say to quote that great philosopher, when you get to a fork in the road, take it. And that's what you want to do to the Republicans. Right. And you want to constantly be saying what you're for. And that says what you're for. And even if you fail, right?

It says what you're for, who you're going to fight for, and what the other side is willing to do. And I think this president is running a, crony capitalist system. It's from everywhere. It's how much you pay and how much he gets. And what you want to do is drive your car right to that division point inside the Republican Party. And the Republicans know they're not in on this prediction market and it's a financial gain the way the Trump kids are. And the president, and I would also talk to sign an executive order.

Yeah, do something like that. Go for it, Mr. President. You've signed all these other executive where's the meaningless, here's one that you can do. And he won't do it. And so drive right there. What do you make of these shifts in the, the Democrats have done rather well all over the place, right? Even including in Palm Beach, speaking of Palm Beach, nipple babies, they now have a Democrat. I actually think one thing that slightly didn't get the coverage. I mean, I went up to Wisconsin six weeks ago for the Supreme Court and for Rebecca Cook in the third district, Southwest Corner. In Wisconsin, battleground state.

First of all, the Supreme Court candidate does better than any of the other two from a year ago. There are Democrats in Wisconsin when the important county outside of Milwaukee, that's the Republican base that counters the Milwaukee vote. We now have the county execraise. The Supreme Court nominee in the third congressional district, the southwest corner, where La Crosse's, etc., that Ron Kine used to represent and is a Republican there, that Trump won. the Supreme Court, not Democratic, but the progressive candidate, takes 57% Donald Trump on that with overwhelming amount. That tells you, if you win that seat, you're winning the majority. So when you look at Wisconsin at the top, all the way down and all the races between,

it's a unbelievable victory. And it says the same thing that you're seeing. It's the independence. Massive energy. the Democratic vote base and Republican turnout depressed. The election in North Carolina, when Donald Trump endorsed the state Senate majority leader, the most powerful Republican, and he loses the Republican primary. That was more important than Mara Lago.

I get the value of Mara Lago president. Yeah, I get it. But the fact that he doesn't have power over the Republican primary voters, That's, you want to call Liberation Day, that's Liberation Day. So all you Republican congressmen and senators, Senator Tillis, that you were scared of your shadow for the last four years, a year and four years ago, you don't have to be scared of your shadow. Right. What about Texas, obviously?

Well, let me see. Now, in the Senate in Texas, I think that you have a Republican primary that ends up, it doesn't matter who wins in one level. They're going to both be a weakened candidate for the general election. That's what I think. And I happen to, one thing I would also say to my fellow Democrats, when you look at the health care for President Obama for the IRA, the climate bill under President Biden, under the health care bill, Senator Nelson from Nebraska helps us pass that. It's the 60th vote. and the senator from West Virginia helps pass the IRA.

If you don't win in purple to red states as a Democrat, we're not going to get the type of economic and political legislation, social legislation we want. The two most significant pieces of legislation, Democrats passed in the last 20 years, they clinch the vote with a senator from a state that is not, quote unquote, So winning in Ohio, winning in North Carolina, winning in Texas, winning in Iowa, winning in places Democrats have not presidentially won is how you secure the type of legislation and the majority you need.

Yeah, I think it's really interesting. And I just met Tala RICO. I call him the baby Jesus. Anyway, one of the things, of course, look, Democrats are not slathering themselves in perfection right now. as Trump waited into the California governor's race this week by endorsing former Fox News host Steve Hilton, who I know very well, actually.

Mostly as a husband of someone I know very well, but I actually know Steve. My favorite Steve thing is he was lecturing me on populism and the elites when he was staying at the Bel Air Hotel. And I was like, I can't afford this fucking place, my friend. And you're telling me about elites. Anyway, he's a funny guy, actually.

There might be good news for Democrats, the Trump backing there. But Democrats have been worrying about a doomsday scenario with the state's jungle primary. And if people don't know, there's not primaries. It's who the top two are. If the two GOP candidates, Hilton and sheriff, Chad Bianco,

and exactly what he sounds like, first and second in the primary, Democrats have to be locked out in the general election. It's a concern, and there's eight Democrats in a race with no clear frontrunner. But by consolidating GIP support behind Hilton, Trump may have helped. produce the chances. And I've noticed both Jane Vaughn and Roecon are backing the billionaire,

which is unusual, Tom Steyer, which is fine. Like all the left went crazy. But I'm like, well, he's different. He's not like, he's not Mark Zuckerberg. Let me just be clear. But that said, there's all kinds of, you know, issues there with what's happening there. And you've got, you know, a number of canadas that each have a little chunk. It's not like one has the biggest So I'm sitting there. I'm like, where's Nancy Pelosi hitting heads or where's Newsom or what's, what is happening there? And you, I'm sure you've spoken to them. If you're running the Democratic Party and tell. What's happening in the Democratic Party? Yes. What has to happen there in order to like knock people out? They don't seem to be leaving any of them, it looks like. Yeah, I don't. You know, California's not Chicago. We would find something wrong with their signatures and knock them out that way. Right. Yeah. You know, you're, you know, you're You're not getting on the ballot on this one. You want another race? That's it.

But, you know, I don't, you know, I have no idea. I think the leadership of the party has stood back. Part of me wonders whether Kamala Harris thinks again, like maybe I made a mistake. I should have gone for that office, et cetera, given when you look at the field. I think this is a jump ball. You got to, I look at it from a distance, but about four candidates all kind of hovering within two points from each other. And so my guess is the leadership of the party does.

want to put their thumb on the scale, prefer looking like they don't have the leadership that they thought they did. So what happens? It could be, is that a bad thing for? You know, I do buy the conventional wisdom that the president's endorsement of Mr. Hilton is a kiss of death.

And I think that will bear out. And what happens, eventually there's a coalescing. That trigger hasn't happened yet, but I instinctually believe it will happen. Well, how the papers endorse. Something will happen that will be a conversion, that will convert the moment. It will be a catalytic conversion of the moment. And then there will be a coalescing around a singular or two candidates that catapult to the front of the class. Right now, they're kind of bunched together.

Possibly. It's really interesting. Do you remember the movie Faceoff where they're all pointing guns at each other? That's what it feels like. Someone's got to put the gun down, you know, and then the pigeons fly. It's a little early for that, but you'll get that. You'll get that. Is there any candidate you think will emerge of all those candidates?

I'm not close enough to that race to, I mean, in the back of my head, it will be a Democrat. And, you know, there's 90% of them agree on the same thing, so it won't matter. Now, I could, you know, obviously this is electoral politics, so it could be totally wrong. But so far, I believe that there will be a coalescing at the very end, at least around one, if not two candidates, and the rest will really be seen as a wasted vote. The one good news is the president's endorsement is going to force the Democrats to kind of shape up real quickly. Shape up really quickly. Yeah, interesting. It's a real wrinkle. I think Steve is like, are you kidding me?

My thing is, look, take Iowa and take Ohio. And then take Florida and Georgia. And I'll tell you why on those is Ohio, the Democratic nominee for governor, which was in Governor DeWine's public health official, she's ahead. In Iowa, you have an open Senate, also an open governor. And the state auditor in Iowa is in a very strong position, been elected twice already statewide for the governor's race. And we're going to have a pretty competitive nominee, I think, for the Senate. And I think what's happening because of what the president did to the rural economy, the corn, soybean, wheat, farmers. They're going out of business.

And they're going on a business. The rural economy is really hurting. This war has really touched them down fertilizers, etc. You're going to see something in the Midwest, in the prairie states that's going to come and bite the Republicans where they need to be bitten and kicked in. Then you go down to Georgia and Florida. In both cases, in the Democratic primary, are four. former Republican elected officials who decided the Republican Party under Donald Trump's not their home anymore, the Democrats are. Whether they get out of the primary or not, I'm not sure.

But there is a 10 to 12 percent of Republicans. And I've also seen this going all over the country who don't identify with Donald Trump. Not sure about the Democrats. They all, you know, they say way too left for them culturally, politically economically. but you have a fraction of border I call traditional Republicans that rather than I look at this election or the future elections as transactional,

we should look as transformational. They have chosen those two candidates in Florida and Georgia to see themselves in their future politically more at home with the Democratic Party than a Republicans. At least for now. That tells you the beginning.

Well, that is the first steps towards a realignment of coalitions. And we as a party have to look at these elections, and I'll give you one analysis. Okay. In 2020, you had what I called Joe Biden and Republicans. And the real question was, are we going to govern with the idea of making that transformational or transactional?

And one of the mistakes, I think, made in the Biden administration was rather than try to unite the country, a lot of time was spent trying to unite the party, and we lost the bigger narrative in that process. Right. That's a very fair point. I'm going to move on to some business stuff. Lots going on in this area of AI. I have something that you've written about a lot, and you and I have talked about, social media and everything else. Now, in this case, Elon Musk wants to have Open AI CEO, Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman removed from the company as part of a case claiming the company deceived him to donating $38 million. I was there when that happened, actually. Meanwhile, Open AI sent a letter to the California and Delaware AGs alleging Mesk has been working to undermine Open AI through various attacks, including by working with Mark.

Zuckerberg, I mean, this is true. Surge, jury selection begins in this high-profile trial where tech is sort of eating each other. Like, it's a really interesting time. And while we're talking about AI, hopefulness among AI among young people has dropped to 18% from 27% last year. You're welcome at tech.

I'm glad to help do that. Almost a third of young adults say AI made them feel angry. And speaking of Elon, shortly after he filed, is SpaceX IPLAS week's speculation is growing about a merger with Tesla. I've been saying this would happen. Let's listen to a clip from last April. It looks like he's not interested in making cars anymore or he's making other things. He wants to shift Tesla. And I think you're going to merge X-A-I-X and this together in a big... And Tesla?

Yeah. Yeah, I had already predicted that he would put Twitter into GROC and then they would put it into SpaceX. And it made sense for a lot of thing. So obviously... There's a whole new meaning of roll-up. Yeah, and actually there's a story in Reuters that are going to possibly make a cheaper EV, which he should have done four years ago, but that's another issue. That's the only answer for Tesla, given how the numbers are declining. He has to either have a great car, which he's not seemingly interested in, a really great car that sort of wins everything, or he has to merge them all together. And then he can hide the losses pretty easily in this spectacular IPO that's going to happen with SpaceX.

So, which is hugely overvalued, but that's all right. people are going to buy into it. So talk a little bit about what's happening here in AI, because there's a whole shift of people not trusting these people. You know, it's sort of like a pox on all their houses. Which side do you want to pick, Altman or Musk or these people or David Sacks, who's like pushing the president, even as the numbers are declining? I think there's three categories that I kind of take back from this week. One is the tech pros all basically urinating on each other's leg, but's telling you the other guy, it's raining outside. And Americans aren't going to stand for sit on the sidelines, literally.

Well, Altman and Dario and Alam Musk all play and fight with each other like little kids in the sandbox with an adult supervision. The second is both open AI and anthropic withhold product because it's too risky to the general market. Right. I was going to mention that, too. These are new products that they have. coming that they're worried about security issues and now they brought a coalition together to try to patch things, but quite dangerous. But go ahead.

And then the third thing, which is whether, forget the motivation for the side, Sam Alwin puts out a kind of updated AI New Deal social contract to compete in my, but again, I shouldn't do that because I said don't put aside the motivation. With Dario, only, view, which is this is going to be so disruptive, we have to figure out not only how the product and the industry, but also how we include the American people in this. So it's a net win rather than three guys win and 333 million loose. Those three boxes are, they're all overlapping. Now I step back also as a former mayor and chief of staff to a president in massive changing times. The government is set up to kind of set up a regulation, wait 30 years to see if it were,

which is an industrial model, and you're in the post-analogue, post-digital into something totally different. And I do think when you look at Dario and Open AI deciding not to put a product out, forget the boys acting like boys. They are begging. for oversight and rules. And they're making it up as they go. The government needs industry leaders, academics, and economists in real time to be making decisions in real way.

We can't rely on two CEOs social conscience to say, I'm withholding a product because it's dangerous. While I appreciate that they did that, that is not how this is going to work. So we're going to have to have a board that is required to update its rules and regs and oversight in real time with an industry that's changing at a pace the government's not used to. There's going to have to be principles that guide

it. Now, is a threat from China real? 100% it's real. From a competitive standpoint, which I find one side note, we're a country with a lot of social, whether you think it should be expanded, social insurance. Our country is fearful from AI. China has none of the social infrastructure underneath it. So if you fail to get support, health care, unemployment, etc., and yet they're hugely optimistic about it. The countries are in different places given the support that the public sector, and I find that just as a student of public. Well, they do a lot more monitoring of it. The government does much more monitoring than we do, good and back. Well, there's a confidence that somebody's going to control and that you're not going to

be left out on the sideline. So to me, we're going to have to have a lot of. to have a real, and I do think this, regardless of whatever my personally, the two, Sam Altman's kind of social contract, Dario's view that, from Anthropic, that we need a kind of a new agreement, which is the difference between kind of capital versus labor, but how AI will benefit, what I say, democratize the benefits of AI to more people from both skills, but also jobs an economic opportunity. And if you don't, the American people are going to data center rebellion against that. It's just minor compared to what's going to happen.

And the government's going to have to step in and do this from an executive brand standpoint. But the tech people are still, aside from those guys, like David Sachs was like, how dare you do this? This is our greatest thing. And it's pushing Trump, even as this is happening. And he has been integral to what I think has been a disaster for the tech industry in terms of their imagery, right? They look like villains now. They're villains now. They're the villains. And young people get it. I mean, they're villains and they're actually also. They want to take all

the benefit and you're just going to live in their world. Now, I'm sorry, that's not how a Democratic capitalist system works. There is real opportunity. Look, given the competitiveness with China, this is going to be one like fusion, like quantum computing, et cetera, like life sciences, one of the dominant technologies in the future, but it's not going to be three winners and 333 million losers. That's right. That's not how we're keeping score. And in the end of the day, like everywhere else, industry likes regulations because it sets rules, guidelines, and principles.

Correct. When you go back to what's happening, like insider training, for the fact that businesses are not calling that out, this is going to come back to bite you right in the butt. That's what I said. You know, it's interesting when I saw those statistics and then David Sachs yammering on about it. I was like, you know, David, sit the fuck down because the American people don't like what you're doing. So, and Trump is stupid to listen to. I would like to say, what? You have dropped the F-bomb three times and I'm at zero, just for the record. I'm sorry. I know, I know, I know, I know.

You can do it any time. That's more your brother's thing. That's more your elderly brother's thing. You will never find me ever saying it publicly. I know. In my whole career, do not to do that. You don't. I'm just telling you that's your brother. I have a tape of him yelling at me like that. Because I know even though my mother, even though my mother is death, she'll hear it and come and grab me. I have a voice now from your brother saying, cares for sure. Fuck you. So I'm going to keep it for the rest of my mind. I'm thinking of making it. That was probably a term of endearment. It was. It was because he didn't invite me to some party. Anyway, I don't want to go to his parties. It doesn't matter. But happy birthday. All right, Ron, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about RFK getting into the podcast game.

For the last 10 years, everything in America, politics has basically revolved around one man. And as a political journalist who came of age during Donald Trump's rise in 2016, I've had a front row seat. I am officially running for president of the United States. It's going to be only America first. America first. Thousands of supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. capsule building.

But is it possible to talk about politics, without talking about Donald Trump? That's the question I'm going to ask in our new show from Vox. The idea of like a post-Trump or not exactly Trump-focused show can exist because he's not really driving any agenda items. It really does feel like so reactive. You know, I think this Iran thing is also going to cause a big split in the GOP. So far it doesn't among like people who say their MAGA voters are still with Trump.

But like for the first time you see on a major issue open opposition from the start of this war. I'm a Sted Herndon. And welcome to America, actually. Ron, we're back with just one more quick story. I regret to inform you that RFK Jr. is launching a podcast. You know it's trouble now. The pod will focus on telling the truth, especially when it's uncomfortable and confronting the spiritual malaise.

Let's watch a clip of the announcement, I guess. It's not quite as bad as his strange porn movie with Kid Rock. But let's go. If we want a healthy nation, we have to confront the lies that have made us spiritually, morally, and physically sick. The time for half measures is now over. We're launching a new era of radical transparency in government here at HHS.

I hope you'll join us in our mission to make America healthy again. Oh, my goodness. And, of course, just as there is news in the Washington Post that they're trying to suppress a CDC report, that vaccines are good for you, COVID vaccine. So just transparent, Bobby. Yeah, I was going to say it gives a whole new meaning to what transparency is not. Yeah. So is he just preparing for his next career when he gets bounced or what is happening?

And I hope, are you co-hosting his podcast? First of all, two things. One is he's preparing that, but it's also to earbrush his past. He has been an absolute, horrible Secretary of Health and Human Services on every measure outside of what's happened with opiates and he has nothing to do with him. Yeah, best friend of measles is what I call him. Best friend to measles. Yes, measles, the lack of confidence in the American of the CDC, our other types of our life sciences, our capacities, our health care costs, everything that he, has touched in the great tradition of this administration is broken. It needed repair. It needed to

be strengthened. And across the board, you cannot walk from a single agency or department. And he's been the kind of a point of the spear. It's the largest domestic agency in the United States, health and human services. And he has made a mess of it. And the people he's appointed have made a mess of it, from CDC to NIH to Medicare and Medicaid. And they have done nothing. to measurely improve the health of the American people. And I will say having dealt with this as both chief staff, but more importantly when I helped us, ACA or President Clinton's Children's Health Insurance,

but as mayor of city of Chicago, 8% of our workforce was driving 70% of our health care costs around chronic illnesses, heart, obesity, etc. He could have focused on something that actually moved the needle in both dropping health care costs and improving public health. And rather than bring the cut together,

like everything in this administration, never lose an opportunity to divide Americans. They have, from the president to his cabinet, have found multiple opportunities to divide people and literally repressed examples where they could actually bring people together of different political views to work on a common issue. And shame on doctors and the Senate who voted for him.

I mean, I just, the Republican was his name. gets back to, you know, it's the Senator Cassidy, he's going to pay the price, like Senator Tillis, for having basically taking your conscience and put in a lockbox. When the vote came, and you knew what was right, you took the politically expedient case. And I don't want to draw this to myself, but since I'm on, I'll draw it to myself. I can't tell you how many times I used to walk into Clinton's office or President Obama's all, all while I said, you're out of your mind. If you do this, this is the Christ. I'm going to lay it out to you. You'll have a debate about it, but understand the consequence of this. I was an.

employee. Get out of here. You're an independent U.S. Center. I was a congressman. You got elected. You have a responsibility to what the trust people gave. Although, I'll tell you what Tillis told me, you know, what a martyr is. He's dead. He was like, you can't operate from a position of dead. And I still was like, I don't care. Be dead then. You know what I mean? Because you'll have inspired someone else. Well, that he may say that politically. He may say that politically, but that vote gave a license to a guy to do a political plurge of the greatest military forces country did, the greatest turnaround this country did. I've worked with these men and women at all levels.

The amount of dedication, the amount of understanding of politics, culture, history, working diplomatically, working militarily, excess doesn't hold a candle to any of the people in the fire. Same thing with the RFK. so you won't be listening to his podcast in other words. Anyway. No. All right. One more quick break.

We'll be back for predictions. This episode is brought to you by Tellus Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst. You mean hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms. But I've got Tellus Online Security. It helps protect against identity theft and financial fraud

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skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Okay, Rob, let's hear a prediction. There's so many things. Keep it brief. We got just a little time. I want to play one thing at the end from NASA, from the Artemis. But what is your prediction?

Prediction that nobody will be held accountable for playing the games in the prediction market with inside information. Oh, okay. The CFTC, the SEC, the SEC, the Justice Department, not only are asleep, they're in on the scam. Nobody for now. Nobody for now. And they're this administration until they're held accountable. Can I do one thing personally? Sure, please, absolutely.

My son runs a two-hour-39-minute marathon. He did it in Boston. He's going to run the Boston Marathon again. I think he'll have a personal best. He ran a 2-hour 39, which is incredible in a marathon. I think this coming Boston around, he's running again, he's going to get a personal best. Oh, that's very sweet. That's both a prediction, a hope, and a wish, and I'm very proud of him.

Oh, that is amazing. You should run with him. I'm not, no, Amy runs a marathon. As I always say, we're going to have to do a test because I don't know who your father is. I have no idea about this man. The kids are an incredible runner. Okay, and that was, I want to leave on a thing of hope, speaking of hope, that's wonderful. One of the things I did feel, I think Americans really watch this Artemis flight done by NASA.

It was sort of a wonderful moment. All Americans, the numbers are quite high, which is wonderful. NASA, and they did a great job on social media. and this crew is just so wonderful, men hugging and crying and saying wonderful things and laughing. And it just has been a real, it's a wonderful group of people up there. And it sort of represents the best of America in that regard, kind and good-hearted. NASA is preparing for the return of Artemis II after this historic moon fly-by. These pictures are delightful and amazing and astonishing.

And it also makes you appreciate Earth. Let's listen to a clip from crew member Christina Cook after the spacecraft passed by the moon. We will explore, we will build, we will build ships, we will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astronomy. We will found companies. We will boast our industry.

We will inspire. But ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other. Just what you're talking about, Rom. Maker the head of NASA. I actually think it was a perfect and third. typical spirit to what you're seeing out of this administration. We'll choose Earth and we'll choose each other.

And we'll do things. In a period of where we did a war of choice. Yeah, it was a act and it touched. Look, I do think there's this yearning out there to actually not see our fellow Americans as the enemy or the, it could be an opponent, but from a political standpoint, but it's not your enemy. And I thought she touched that human kind of spirit. and also most importantly for the United States,

that's something we can unify around. I don't know about you. I get on the, you know, open my iPad. First thing I do is see the pictures they're sending. They're beautiful. And I looked at the Earth from that eclipse photo, which I thought was most beautiful shot. And then there was also complimentary,

the web telescope put out new pictures of the galaxy. And it's just, it there's, it kindles and it has that little light that illuminates in you of something that you can, as you said, hopeful, proud, and optimistic about. And I thought her message was just... Beautiful. It's a beautiful planet.

It was a comely like the popes. We have a beautiful planet. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.org.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show. We'll call 85551 Pivot.

Elsewhere in the Karen Scott Universe this week, my new CNN show, Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever, is premiering this Saturday, April 11th at 9 p.m. Eastern. Scott is actually going to interview me at the premiere in New York tonight. And also your brother, Zeke is in it, and he's hysterical. He and I are wearing colonial garb together, and we had a ball.

Oh, God. He's really good. It's the making of a star. Anyway, you're all fascinating, the Emanuals. Anyway, thank you so much for joining me today. There's never a dull moment. That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot.

And be sure to like and subscribe to our usual. YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott will be back from wherever the hell he's gone. And we're excited to have him back. But all the guest hosts, Kristen Soltz, Anderson, Rom, and Anthony Scaremucci have been amazing, and I really appreciate it. I'm going to read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Naman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Enderdot engineered this episode. Manolo Moreno edited the video. Nashat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod.

We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business, ROM for president.