Pod Save America - “All Your Midterm Questions Answered.”

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Jon, Jon, and Tommy answer listener questions about the midterms and other topics, and Lovett shares highlights from his recent trip to North Carolina, where he canvassed with candidates and volunteers. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast. 

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. Tommy Vitor. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. Tommy Vitor. On today's show, we answer your questions about the midterms and everything else and hear what Lovett was up to in North Carolina last week. Can't wait to hear that. I don't know. He had some good advice for Democrats. We chatted about the midterms, Russia, Iran, the Supreme Court. Lovett even made him laugh. Cancel culture. Couple times. We hit cancel culture.

We hit cancel culture. There's also a bunch of other great crooked content from us over the weekend. I interviewed Rachel Maddow for Offline. Tommy released another episode of World Corrupt. You can listen to my final focus group With black voters in Atlanta Over on the Wilderness Feed right now Lovett, you have anything? We put out a couple of Lovett-y leads, don't worry about it

Check him out, talk to Josh Shapiro That's good Is he going to win? If he's not beating Doug Mastriano We're going to hold a vigil on election night Okay, that's good Alright, let's get to the mailbag so um me on youtube asks just capital and me too it could make me was an

abbreviation who knows all right i am in oregon and scared shitless we dems are going to lose the governorship and other key positions why are young people or dem Dems in general, I guess, refusing to vote, even though Dems have given them everything, especially here in Oregon? Love it? Well, let's, first of all, no, first of all, no Dem has given you everything. Not a place in this country where Dems have given you everything, first of all. Second, there are a lot of places where we need to do more to get young people to turn out to vote, to make them believe their votes matter, to make sure that the political system is delivering in a way that makes young people feel invested in the political process. But Oregon is a special case right now because there's this three-way election and, you

know, the Nike billionaire honcho is throwing money into multiple coffers to try to stop a Democrat he just doesn't like. So it's a little bit more complicated than just young people not turning out in Oregon. Yeah, I haven't seen any turnout or polling based on age that says it's like a young person. The issue here is there's three people in this race and there's an independent that's getting 19% of the vote and has raised $13.2 million, which is more than either of the other two candidates. That's why this is such a crapshoot and a toss up. Yeah. I mean, the fact that this is this independent run from a Democrat tells you that there's real problems in the Democratic Party, but that's not the proximate cause. So you got Democrat Tina Kotek, who's the former speaker in the state legislature. She's

running against Republican Christine Drazen, who's the former minority leader. She's the Republican. And then Betsy Johnson is the independent. She's a former state legislature. Former Democrat. Democrat of 20 years. And so Betsy Johnson is pulling right now about 20 percent of the vote, which is why it's so tough. And she's raised a ton of money. She's raised more money than either the Democrat or the Republican. And she's sort of hitting the Republican on being anti-abortion. And she's hitting Tina Kotek, the Democrat, on, she's sort of tying her to the currently unpopular Democratic governor of Oregon right now, Kate Brown,

tying her to saying that she's made the help make the state woke and broke, apparently. Kate Brown has a 40% approval rating, 55% disapprove. So that's challenging headwinds on top of the challenging Biden headwinds on top of a bisexual to have a 40% approval, 55% disapproval on top of a state that has struggled with COVID lockdowns and increasing crime. There were some articles that talked about how they, they set a record for the number of murders last year and they might beat it again this year. There's affordable housing issues. Uh, there's questions around homelessness. So there's, you know, I think we all, uh, recall not so fondly, the constant street battles in Portland. I'm sure that was tough to live through. Yeah. And to Liffett's

earlier point about Democrats not giving anyone anything, everything that they've wanted anywhere, because what people most want is like, you know, being able to afford their rent, housing, cheap gas, groceries. And that is the problem all across the country. And for most people who aren't paying close attention to politics, but still vote, they look to who's in charge right now. And in Oregon, Democrats are in charge. Joe Biden's in charge nationally. And have been for decades. And have been for decades. So that is the challenge in Oregon. And by the way, this isn't just an Oregon story. We might lose a congressional race

in Rhode Island that I think Democrats have held for many, many, many years. I mean, there's lots of weird things happening out there in normally liberal bastions. But look, if you're worried about losing the governorship in Oregon to a Republican, help out Democrat Tina Kotek. She's going to come on Positive America at some point soon. And you can donate to the campaign. You can go volunteer, organize. Go help out. That's the best way to get her over the finish line.

I want to hear you read this next question. Oh, from Flubberpuff on Instagram. Flubberpuff. Yeah, Flubberpuff. Anyway, Flubberpuff wants to know our thoughts on the Utah Senate race. Tommy? So we got Mike Lee versus Evan McMullin. Mike Lee voted to, he supported Trump's effort to overturn the election.

Not a good idea. Bad. Love it. He's been doing this for five years and he's got his phone on. It's a spam call. Mike Lee's approval rating. Setting this to focus. Is in the low 40s.

McMullin's running as like a true independent at a time when I think everybody hates Washington. The latest poll has Mike Lee winning 41% to 37% with 12 undecided. But look, it's creating some great content for everyone. Mike Lee went on Tucker Carlson and begged Mitt Romney to endorse him. Probably not the way you reach Mitt Romney, by the way, via Tucker Carlson and begged Mitt Romney to endorse him. Probably not the way you reach Mitt Romney, by the way, via Tucker Carlson's show. It was interesting that he did that because I thought that the polls, I'm like, who knows? It's like, like you said, Lee's up by a few points in all these polls, which is, we should say Trump won the state by around 20 points both times. Lee

won his last two races by even more than that, right? So Evan McMullin has no business being this close to Mike Lee. Surprising. And it's interesting because Democrats didn't. So Democrats just didn't feel to candidate partly because Evan McMullin ran as a third party. And they figured, all right, let's push all the Democrats in Utah to Evan McMullin. And it appears at least to be keeping the race close. And I wouldn't have thought it was real, except clearly Mike Lee is getting a little nervous if he's begging for mit romney's endorsement on uh on a fox show it's it's interesting there's there has been a kind of strange a strangeness to utah politics a resistance to the vulgarity and mean-spiritedness of trump that has not shown up i think in the general maybe in part because of abortion but that has showed up in in romney winning um uh and that has showed up in Romney winning. And that's showing up here. It shows up with McMullen getting whatever he got, like 20% as an independent candidate. So there is something, there is a kind of conservatism in Utah

that kind of reflects the, that kind of answers the question we've asked for five years, which is why are more actual conservatives upset by what Trump is doing and it seems like there is a contingent in utah that is what's fun about this is so mike lee goes on um fox begs mitt romney to endorse him trump sees it and then attacks uh romney and says trump said romney has abused mike lee in an unprecedented way i'm not sure what that means there's some subtext there that i don't really want to know yeah yeah and mcmullen has said that if he wins he um like won't promise to caucus with either the republicans or the democrats which is probably cool why he's close yeah in this in a very very very republican state just win buddy um so that's what's going on in utah it's an interesting one i would uh you know i wouldn't i would put more money in bitcoin than in mcmullen winning

is i guess where i'm at emotionally you know what i mean but i would do neither in terms of betting you do yeah yeah that's yeah you're gonna put a bunch of money in bitcoin by low so high all right liz conway on twitter wants to know why are national democrats not pouring money into the ohio senate campaign tim ryan has a real shot. Says you, Liz. Hope so. What do you guys think? I think this question sort of presupposes that there's just sort of a big pot of unspent money sitting around, which unfortunately that's not the case. I do think as individuals, I have not been paying as much attention to this race as I might have been because Trump won it overwhelmingly in 2020. I think he got 53.29% to Biden's 45.25%. I mean, that's a very conservative state. But the latest polling,

there's a poll out today, USA Today poll on Monday, shows it's basically a tie with Vance up 47.4% to 45.4. There's also a debate tonight, which was brilliantly scheduled at the same time as the sudden death Yankees-Guardians playoff baseball game. So great timing there. What are the... Oh, Ohio.

That's what they changed. They used to be. I see. From the bad. But Tim Ryan's raised $39 million and spent 36.9. So, you know, he's been able to raise money. It's just that, uh, what happens in all these races is Mitch McConnell comes in with a super pack

and they just blanket you with special interest money and attack ads. So I just gave Tim Ryan today. And, and he will be on this very program Thursday. We're going to have Tim Ryan on. Um, no, it's here's, here's why it's hard. It's like Tommy said, there's, you know, No, it's here. Here's why it's hard. It's like Tommy said, there's, you know, Ohio is about 12 points more Republican than the nation as a whole. So Trump wins it by eight. The last two elections, all statewide office holders are Republicans there now, with the exception of Sherrod Brown. points, nine or 10 points in 2018. But again, that was a year where Democrats nationally won the House vote by 8.6. So Sherrod didn't even really outperform National Democrats in 2018, a year where Democrats obviously had the wind at their backs. This is a year where it's really tough. Now, is Tim Ryan running a fantastic campaign? Yeah, maybe one of the best Senate campaigns out there right now. If Tim Ryan was John Fetterman in Pennsylvania or running in Michigan, do I think he'd have a shot?

Yeah, I think he'd probably be the favorite. Ohio's just a tougher state right now. Yeah, there's no it's the question is not why are National Dems not pouring money into Ohio? It's it's why should National Dems pour money into Ohio versus Pennsylvania versus Arizona versus even Georgia, Georgia. And then also, you know, you put Ohio in the same kind of category as North Carolina, maybe Florida. And you say, well, we just don't know. Like if, if, if we're watching a, you know, the votes come in in Ohio and it's super close and Democrats are having a surprisingly good night, then yeah, we should have put more money

in, but we just don't know. I don't trust any polling. I just, I really don't. But the other eye-popping poll I saw over the weekend was in Iowa, where the latest Des Moines Register Iowa poll has Chuck Grassley at 46% and Mike Franken at 43%. Can you believe that people in Iowa are concerned about giving a six-year term to an 89-year-old man? I know. And look, that poll- Apparently people in California didn't really, yeah. Yeah. Look, that, again- They're all using Ruth Bader Ginsburg's trainer. Iowa has been going more and more conservative over the years. It's a challenging state. But like Ann Seltzer, I think is the best pollster in the business.

The margin of error is three and a half percent, which basically means it's a statistical tie. You could also argue that Democrats should be pouring money into Iowa. And maybe Franken is doing better than others in that race because he's not facing the same, you know, onslaught of ads. I don't know that to be true. I'm kind of guessing because it's sort of been off the radar, but that's another one people should take a look at. Yeah. And all these races, I'm looking less at the margin at this point than the, than the number that the Democrat has. Because I think if you are in the low to mid 40s as a Democrat in this environment, when it could be likely that undecided voters end up breaking towards the party that has the political

wind at their backs, which is going to be the Republicans in this year, it's going to be hard to get there. I want to see like Democrats at 48, 49, 50. It's also, look, I don't think there's been a midterm where the probability curve has felt as flat in a long time. Polling is less and less reliable. It's all based on modeling that you can't totally trust. There are these larger forces that put Democrats at a great disadvantage. There have been these election results that show dobbs is pretty potent but though maybe that is fading we could wake up and there was this huge massive untapped vote of people that came out to support abortion

rights that also could not manifest we really really don't know yeah sucks what we do know in the in the uh tim ryan example here is yeah, are there examples of the Senate candidate like really outperforming the national candidate in a state like that? Yeah. That's why Joe Manchin is Senator from West Virginia right now after Joe Biden lost the state by like 30 points. So it happens. It happens, which is why, you know, again, if you want to donate to Tim Ryan, like Tommy just did, then go for it and make some calls in Ohio. Yeah, and donate to our Senate fund. Support all these candidates.

That's right. All right. David Dennison on Twitter asks, why won't Katie Hobbs debate Carrie Lake? Good question. Good question. It's confusing. It's an odd one. Hobbs said she wouldn't debate lake because lake is a conspiracy theorist

and didn't want to share the stage with her that was the that was the reason uh now you know i think strategists might wonder maybe it's also because carrie lake is a lifetime tv anchor that the format could be her strong suit she uh doesn't seem to care much about the truth she's just a fucking wackadoodle who attacks everything. And maybe, you know, they figured that format would put them at a disadvantage. I don't know. My argument, if I were working on a campaign would be lower expectations, just like Herschel Walker did, because the press falls for that every time and then kind of just meet them instead of being called a coward by your opponent or too weak to debate or whatever it's been happening this sort of like multi-day multi-week news cycle but um yeah i don't know i am really struggling i think you should debate i'm really struggling to understand this one like you're running against

someone who you think is a threat to democracy act like it yes she's extreme yes she lies yes she's good at lying yes she's a conspiracy theorist. That's who you're running against. That's the reality. Like, you can't expect people just to know that she's a conspiracy theorist or liar. You have to make the case. You have to persuade voters. And to do that, you need to stand up in front of a huge audience and make your case and make a better argument. It's really strange. Really struck me as being incredibly dystopian to see Carrie Lake in this sort of gauzy filter room. Dude, the Diane Sawyer filter. It's like you just wandered into the afterlife. It's very weird. I respect the hell out of it. And just like I want to be shot through two inches

of fucking cotton fiber. I want basically to see two eyes and a nose. The Madonna TikTok filter. That's how I want to be seen. But just to see two eyes and a nose the madonna tiktok filter that's how i only see but just to see somebody in this very gauzy like kind of beautifully lit room lit like a baroque painting saying that they'll only accept the election results if they win was just the most man in the high castle shit i've seen on cnn a long time yeah but then you know uh katie hobbs goes on cnn and says oh my opponent won't do

interviews and dana bash is like i was just talking to her so it's just a bad call it also is like is it outrageous that carrie lake wouldn't commit to accepting their election results yes then go on stage and yeah and pin her down on it it's weird um some interesting things in the recent reporting about like her husband owns a production company and they record every interview that she ever does on their own which is actually it's standard practice like when i was a flack for brock obama i had an audio recorder where i would get like digital audio of everything he did but they have a camera and a boom mic trained on print reporters in the middle of the interview it just seems like it's designed to be intimidating.

Well, did you see from that Washington Post long profile on Carrie Lake that because they had links to some of the campaign's videos, they film the reporters interviewing Carrie Lake and then they put it up on their YouTube page and then they cut it so it's like Carrie Lake destroys reporter. Right. And the irony of a hard right right wing journalist who used to be a newscaster bitching about media bias it's a lot right but it's not a lot if you figure out that

the goal is to own the libs the goal is the zeal of the converted too she was i can she said i'm i was part of the media i get it now i'm burning down the house it's the um being an asshole it's sort of like like it's it's the connection between like this authoritarianism and it's just like kind of just being a prick like i'm a prick that's what i do i don't respect these people i don't treat them with respect i don't that's because i don't respect them i don't respect the role that they provide it is just like another another person taking advantage of the kind of right-wing permission structure that you just being a dick is politically advantageous to show your base, all your enemies.

So you look at all my enemies. You hate them as much as they hate me. I will fight them for you. That's why there's a way to turn that around, which we were talking about this earlier today. Tim Ryan has a new ad out where it's basically like J.D. Vance's culture wars aren't going to like fix Ohio. Bring jobs back. Bring jobs back to Ohio. And like J.D. Vance is obsessed with bathrooms and he's obsessed with abortion bans and obsessed with this.

And like meanwhile, people in Ohio just like want jobs back, you know? And it's a very good way to like, like Carrie Lake being an asshole to the media is not going to fix Arizona. Yeah, it's just divisive, right? That's the thing. People don't like that. They don't like divisiveness. It always, it pulls well over and over again.

It's also like, you see, that's why Jim Jordan, who has nothing to say about the January 6th hearings while they're going on, he says, this January 6th committee hearing, it won't create a single job. That won't bring down a gas price. You know, that's- It probably works with some people.

Yeah, for sure. It's like you read these profiles of Lake and it's like, you know, friends from Channel 10 knew her as a free-spirited, more than Bible-loving. They say she was into Lake and it's like, you know, friends from Channel 10 knew her as a free spirited, more than Bible loving. They say she was into Buddhism, loved her vacations to Jamaica, became swept up in the energy around President Obama, threw big parties, went out to gay bars and thrived on like cultivating a television audience. It's just look me. I think there's two parts of it.

Like she's clearly an opportunist and is just running in this moment is figure out how to do it. an opportunist and is just running in this moment is figure out how to do it. There's also this sense that Trump has radicalized or was a lightning rod for, for pretty radical political change in a lot of people in a lot of ways that we all just like, I fundamentally can't understand. And she seems like she's one of them. Yeah. I thought, I thought what was most interesting in that profile is when they said, is she an opportunist or is she really been converted? What does it matter? She's like, you still got to run against her anyway, right? It's the same thing that you're dealing with.

Yeah, it also like, I think it's a little bit also naive about, I think the way in which your interests, your motivations, your performance can kind of become one thing. You know, there's, you can't convince somebody to believe something. Their livelihood depends on not believing.

All of a sudden she found this and you say something enough to an audience, to yourself, you start to believe it yeah all right akil finn too on instagram thoughts on black voters in georgia voting for herschel walker i hope they don't do it i think it's a bad idea for every voter of every color on Instagram. Thoughts on black voters in Georgia voting for Herschel Walker? I hope they don't do it. I think it's a bad idea for every voter of every color. That's my personal take. It's good. Good take. I like that. I will say that I just, you know,

the wilderness episode that's out today is an Atlanta focus group. I did it with young black voters, ages 21 to 35, classified themselves as moderate. They all voted for Biden, though. That whole group of people thought that Herschel Walker is extreme, unqualified, crazy. There were no Herschel Walker fans there. But they're like, what has happened to Raphael Warnock? What's he going to do? I've heard a lot about him attacking Walker, but I want to know what he's actually going to do for me. And like, is he just going along with Joe Biden or does he have got real plans, you know, because they were not that happy with Joe Biden. So it did make me understand why, you know, they had this debate on Friday night between Walker and Warnock. And on Twitter, you heard a lot of like, why isn't Warnock throwing more punches at Walker. And I think it's because of some of what I saw in that focus group, which is they don't think that disqualifying Walker is the challenge. Now they think it's actually getting people to show up and vote for Warnock who are just sort of down about politics in general. Also, um, there was a, a, a, a mini debate about how hard Warnock should be going on the accusations

against Herschel Walker. And it kind of speaks to the fact that he kind of has to do both, that like he's getting the people. He has the people believing that Herschel Walker doesn't deserve a Senate seat, but it's how does he close the deal for others? Yeah. I also just think that the path for him, for Warnock is more about moderates and split ticket voters. I have zero hope that like conservative Republicans are going to stay home because Herschel Walker paid for one abortion, two of them for any reason. They only care. They, the, the sort of hardcore religious right only views their candidates as a vehicle to enact the policies they want. So if you vote their way, they will look past any perceived personal flaws or imperfections.

That's how we got Trump. And we actually found out. It turns out when we beat that pedophile in Alabama, Roy Moore, we found the line. That was it. Yeah. In a good year, though. One more thing on this, I would just say about black voters. One of the panelists I talked to about the focus group was Terrence Woodbury.

He's a pollster who's working on the Warnock race. And he said Democrats have to be really careful who the messenger is attacking Herschel Walker. Because if it is, because he's seen in focus groups and in the polling they've done, if it's a bunch of white people attacking Herschel Walker, then specifically with black voters, they don't trust that messenger as much and so he said that as sort of the national environment starts making walker into a joke and turning walk into a joke there's a little bit of backlash there within uh the black community in georgia which i thought was interesting all right nick brandon jones on twitter can you speak

to the gop's perceived trust advantage on inflation slash the economy and how Democrats can reverse it through 2022 and beyond? Go for it. I mean, I think we can either fix inflation or the economy. Yeah, you can't. I mean, like their advantage is coming from the fact that there is inflation and we are in power. Yeah. I mean, look, Republicans have had a an advantage on the economy for a long time in polls. And, you know, there are times there are many occasions where Democrats have still won elections, where voters tell exit pollsters that they still trust the Republicans on the economy.

I think with inflation as it is right now, that's more difficult. And I think the Republican advantage on the economy and especially especially on inflation right now is sort of higher than it's been in many years. Yeah, the CBS poll that came out over the weekend, I think they asked what's causing higher prices. 63% said supply and manufacturing issues, 58% global factors, 47% said democratic policies. So not great. They also they asked, they're like CBS said democratic policies have fill in the blank. 48 percent said harm the economy. 29 percent helped the economy. 68 percent said Biden could be doing more on inflation. Sum it all up.

People are pissed off about inflation and they're blaming the people in power. And I think like so, so much of this is gas prices, but grocery prices are also staying sticky and high. prices, but grocery prices are also staying sticky and high. So, you know, to the question of like, how can Democrats reverse it through 2022 and beyond, aside from being able to control inflation when there's only so much any politician in either party can do, I do think like relentlessly hammering the message that Republicans are fighting for the rich and Democrats are fighting for everyone else, finding creative ways to break through with that message over and over and over again is the best path because Democrats usually do have an advantage. Even when Republicans have an advantage on the economy, Democrats tend to have an advantage on fights for people like you, fights for the middle class, fights for fairness, health care, health care. fights for fairness, health care, health care. And so when you try to reorient the economic argument so that you're saying that Republicans are fighting for the rich and Democrats are

fighting for everyone else, Democrats usually do better. And I don't think we I think if you look at a bunch of ads, Democratic ads in the midterms right now, you'll see that message. But when you, you know, get your news and information from the media and stuff like that, you just don't hear these issues talked about as much and you don't hear that democratic message breaking through. Yeah, I think that's right. And just Republicans are relentlessly hammering the Democrats and inflation. And I mean, if you look, democratic ads right now have been more about Republican extremism and abortion. Republican ads have been about crime and inflation. And so it's a bit of been a bit of like two different arguments kind of driving past each other and our hope being we can get people to appreciate the stakes on abortion and extremism, not necessarily making as good of an argument on inflation.

Sam Uplades on Twitter asks, what are you most worried about for the midterms, Tommy? I'm worried about some sort of thing happening that spikes gas prices again. Like OPAC came out the other day. They announced a production cut. They clearly did it to stick it to the United States. thing happening that spikes gas prices again. Like OPEC came out the other day, they announced a production cut. They clearly did it to stick it to the United States. The Saudis led this whole effort. They did it to get Putin's back in the war. I could see that happening again. Prices go up really quickly. They don't go down very quickly. And the media covers it ad nauseum. And that makes me really worried. Love it. I'm still worried that the moment of enthusiasm when we were passing the Inflation Reduction Act, when there was the student loan cancellation, then the Dobbs decision that we've kind of that that has faded from memory and it won't be strong enough now as people are going to vote that we haven't actually done enough to activate the big pro-choice majority to turn out.

That's my big worry. I'm worried about these Secretary of State races and these government races and having a bunch of election deniers win these races and then be in place for 2024. I still think that is a real big threat in these midterms. 2024 i still think that is a real big threat in these uh in these midterms uh so go donate to uh to the uh to the fund for secretary of state and ag races that we have in votes of america because super important right now um asin ram on instagram is it beneficial to have democratic fundraising messages have the tone of desperation slash defeat tell me what do you think i don't know if it's effective and it's driving me crazy mean, like, I never open these emails. I unsubscribe from the text.

Like, it's my kink. Like, I think it's embarrassing. Your kink is texting stop to people who text you? Yeah. Yes, it is. I think the lack of targeting speaks to just an imprecise nature of the fundraising. I hate it. I think it makes us look bad.

Calm down. I hate it. I think it makes us look bad. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I know that we find it annoying, but I have to assume that people getting these texts are all people who have donated. And so... Not necessarily. You get on these lists from like, people sell these lists,

you donate to one thing, you end up on another list. Like, it's not targeted. It's definitely not targeted enough. I do think it sucks. And it has to assume assume i have to assume it's having diminishing returns like i don't know who is responding to these fucking endless texts i'm sure i've got three or four while we were sitting here tech stop tech stop tech stop i asked tara mcgowan about this during an offline episode because she's part of this world's democratic strategist and um she said

that part of the problem is that so many campaigns outsource this kind of fundraising to like a firm and for the firm like they just go by open rates and maybe like you know whatever whatever you gain by in open rates and like some scared people donating five or ten bucks like you lose in credibility which the campaign would know if it was within the campaign but because it's just some firm that's doing it, like it's not all connected. And but so it's like what we're not realizing is that like the broader brand issue we have by spamming people with these crazy fucking appeals is like hurting us. Even even if like we're getting good open rates and a couple people are donating like it also um it also just even a campaign is this strange thing that pops up and then disappears and either works either worked or it didn't and then it gets rebuilt and it does speak to the need for like uh sustained

organizations that exist between campaigns that like are thinking about this more broadly because our goal on the whole is to raise one giant pool of money. But we do it in this way where every campaign is reaching out independently and all these through these same overlapping firms. And it is just relentless. And there's also just like too many people that, you know, you run for Congress against pick your boogie person, right? Marjorie Taylor Greene, you have no chance of winning. And that person goes super viral and raises like $10 million that we might as well have lit on fire.

There are these scam packs, like you saw the Fetterman campaign. Their campaign manager getting really pissed about a pack that seemed to be suggesting that by donating to them, you could help out John Fetterman. So it's just a really cluttered space. It's hard for us to figure out what some of these entities are. I'm sure it's really hard for donors. And like, of course, you're going to check out if you're getting just annoyed all the time. And the party you're supposed to support. And I know we point you all to Votes Save America all the time.

But like I'm telling you, like for me as a donor, I only go to Votes Save America because it's like there's so many answers, so many things. And I actually just like really trust our team to have thought through like these are the secretary of state races where you can help. These are the attorney general's races. These are the congressional races. And we put a lot of thought into it just because of this problem. Yeah. All right. Here's one for our world. Oh, bro. Here. Amanda on YouTube wants to know, you always talk about how the right in the USA affects other countries. Do you think other countries politics affects in any way how politics happens in the USA? Probably. Yes. I mean, look, the new conservative government in the United Kingdom put forward a tax plan that was so terrible that it nearly tanked the global economy.

I think that impacted our politics. The Russians invading Ukraine has upended our elections and jacked up the price of gas and sort of upended the whole world. So yeah, I mean, you know, there's these new right-wing governments popping up in Europe. I definitely think they impact our politics. It's just sort of on more of a global macro level. And you have like Tucker Carlson and all these goons going over to Hungary. Yeah, they're doing like CPAC in Hungary. There's a CPAC version in Brazil. Look, I mean, if there's a runoff election right now in Brazil, if Bolsonaro wins,

it means that we will likely spend the next, I think, five-year terms down there deforesting the Amazon to the point where maybe it never comes back. So yeah, that would affect us. Yeah. Seems like Vladimir Putin's been affecting our politics for quite a few years now. For sure. All right. Onto some lighter fare. Wildman Hanson on Instagram. Favorite foods while you're on the road during events like PSA live shows. All right. here we go. Culvers and cheese curds in Wisconsin.

Juicy Lucy's in the Twin Cities. Deep dish in Chicago. Yeah, I'm sorry. This is the question Lovett did the most research for. Absolutely. And I'll say this

and like I know deep dishes like for tourists. Well, guess what? I'm a tourist and I fucking love it. Pequod's, Genoese's, Malnati's. North Carolina barbecue

is great, but also love going to Bojangles and Austin barbecue. Philly, the pork sandwich at Denix is so good. Lobster rolls in Maine. And whenever I go to Boston, I love to eat in New York.

Unbelievable. Just a great place. You go to Boston, head right to New York. Incredible food. I'm not going to add to this. Yeah, I just wrote down boring crap because we never eat that cool on the road. The only thing I really wanted you guys to do

was get some North Carolina style barbecue. And we did. Hush puppies. And it was great. I should have brought some to DC. That would have been nice. Miss Becky 88 on Instagram. Favorite movies about politics or presidencies?

Saw. That's our current political reality. You want to do it? I have a list. You can do any, any on your mind? I have two. What are your two? Election and In the Loop.

Yeah, In the Loop's on my list. Here's my, here's my list. All right. The Hal Ashby movie, Being There with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. When you see Trump and MTG and Herschel Walker, like I think of being there all the time. Being there is phenomenal. The Candidate with Robert Redford. Good one.

Which is what happens when you get popular for being honest and suddenly, all of a sudden, it's like, I got a shot at this thing. Maybe I should trim my sails. Helps when you look like him. Also helps when you look like him. And then there's the 70s paranoid thrillers, All the President's Men, Parallax View, and Three Days of the Condor. Two Pakula movies, one by Sidney Pollack.

Phenomenal. If you've never seen, go back, go back and, if you haven't watched, if you haven't watched old movies, if you're not, if you've always been like,

oh, I don't really watch old movies, start with the 70s political thrillers. The 70s, they're so good. They're just so good. This is more about the media, but the Billy Wilder movie,

Ace in the Hole with Kirk Douglas, it's from 1951. And you would never think a movie from 1951 about the media would be as prescient and relevant as it is, but you will be shocked to watch this movie. Basically, a guy named Ace falls in a hole. It becomes a media spectacle. This one reporter played by Kirk Douglas thinks it's his key to getting back to the big city. And what he does to keep the story alive, it's worth watching. And then I said In the Loop and Death of Stalin, the two Iannucci movies

that I think are both worth watching. Death of Stalin's very good too. Saw. Good list. That's my list. Tommy, you got any? I said Saw. Oh yeah, you have Saw.

Great, sorry. He said Saw. Yeah, that's right. No, you're right. All right. Acklefin2 on Instagram, what's Charlie's newest thing? My son's newest thing is role playing.

So he likes to say that he is someone, whether a character on tv or someone we know and that bluey and like he says i'm bluey you're bluey's dad or you're bingo or he says that he's like a friend and we're the neighbor the friend's parents so the other day he um he likes to wear these big headphones that like i have lying on the desk and he puts on the headphones and i think tommy was just over and he goes i'm tommy so and i said who am i and he goes you're john love it cool cool cool um play the hits charlie spooky guardian paulette on twitter for the only literate one tommy what are you reading that's harsh i mean to you guys she's tough tough but john read the question just fine

i'm currently reading a book called The Great Successor, The Rise and Rule of Kim Jong-un. It's by a reporter named Anna Fifield who covered the administration frauds. It's like I am shocked at how good it is and how much she figured out about

Kim Jong-un that I'd never seen reported before. So, like tough guy to cover, you know famously talk about access journalism shoots you with like a ship mounted fucking cannon if you don't like him exactly fucked literally yeah great book all right nothing talk about cancel culture well i'm i'm uh i'm still slowly making my way through the goon squad by jennifer egan after i read The Candy House by Jennifer Egan over the 4th of July when we all went on vacation. Six months ago. Six months ago.

And I went through The Candy House in like three days on vacation and then I've been back to reality and getting very slowly. I got stuck in a le carre. I was in The Honorable Schoolboy for months and months and months. It was quite long. I'm always reading one nonfiction and one fiction very slowly. The nonfiction book I'm reading is called Rise and Kill First. Great book. It's fascinating about the Mossad and targeted assassinations in the early days of the founding of Israel. In the later days. In the later days. I'm not up to the later days. I'm still in the early days. And then I'm reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

I love Kim Stanley Robinson. I just read a book by him. I think it's called Aurora. And I read Project Hail Mary a while ago, and it got me on a science fiction kick. So I'm reading this. It's about climate change, and it's been really interesting so far. Cool. All right. Last question from someone on Twitter. What are the top two most important things Americans should be doing in the remaining days before election day? I'm going to say donate and knock doors. Go to Vote Save America and go to Vote Save America. Yeah. Here's the thing. We know how many people sign up. A lot of people sign up, but a lot of you haven't. And so if you really just, if you're just sort of like,

just inhaling the news for years on end, and then in the final month when you can actually make a difference, you put it towards fucking nothing, what a waste of space you are. Okay, well. I just don't understand it. Just one more. Why are you paying attention if you're not going to do anything? Some words of encouragement. We are noticing a bit of a gap between donations, which are doing well, and the actual volunteering. Yes.

And I get that it's much easier sometimes to donate, even if it's, you know, only $5, $10, whatever. But it does take time to volunteer. But I'm telling you, that is what persuading voters at the end of the day, making those phone calls, knocking on doors, doing a phone bank, doing a text bank. Like, it is tough and you get a lot of rejection, but that is the stuff that really wins in the end. And it's really useful. And just to be clear, before I get measured, there are people out there that don't feel comfortable for very legitimate reasons, talking to people. I totally understand that. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to people that could help and could text bank, could phone bank,

could knock on doors and are not doing that. I really would suggest you just try it if you haven't done it before. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get you on that. Let's keep you on that positive persuasion track. A lot of yelling

at the questioners and listeners today. Little good cop, bad cop, never heard anybody. Good thing the questioner was anonymous there. Yeah, geez. Okay, when we come back,

speaking of talking to voters. Oh yeah, let me show you. I'll tell you how it's done. We're going to talk about Love It and Love It in North Carolina. And we're back. Love It. You were just in North Carolina. Yes.

For a couple days. What did you do there? What are you two laughing at? We just worked on this. What? That's it. This is leaving this in the show. Leave this in.

I don't know. I was so weird about this. I said, what did you do there? I canvassed with State Senator Jeff Jackson, who's running for Congress. He taught me how to canvass in the South. I talked to a bunch of local leaders and candidates running in some state races. We talked about Sherry Beasley, who was at the top of the ticket running for U.S. Senate. Her opponent, Ted Budd, is endorsed by Trump.

So Democrats there are trying hard to turn out the votes. I met some college students from a local Christian college who are registering young people and talking to them about reproductive rights. And we recorded the whole damn thing. See, that wasn't so hard. I don't think it was. Ted Budd. Ted Budd. I talked to Alma Adams, who has a hat collection and member of Congress. That's just a lot of hats. I don't want to spoil it. She had a lot of hats. I don't want to spoil what you're about to hear. Anyway, she had a lot of bud sayings that were pretty entertaining. Cool. All right. Without further ado, take a listen. Recording. Recording. Yeah. We're in. Are we in Charlotte? I guess we've started. Why not? Thanks for having me.

I'm here with State Senator Josh. State Senator Jeff Jackson. It happened one time, I said Josh Jackson. It's the first time all day that I said Josh Jackson. Well, you know, you could have been on Dawson's Creek. I am here with Jeff Jackson. He is running in a swing district here in Charlotte. What has been motivating people as we head into the home stretch? So I knocked a thousand doors personally over the summer. There was a pre-DOBS door knock and a post-DOBS. It just sort of coincidentally fell right at about the halfway mark and everything shifted. Not just how often abortion was named as an issue, but just people's anxiety levels.

Everything spiked. Yeah. It feels like in a new way that not since the Trump era, people were again reminded of how real the stakes are. It's pretty rare that Republicans actually get a big piece of their agenda done because they don't really have so much of an agenda. So this was a rare moment in which the court just executed on a big piece of their longstanding legislative agenda. As it turns out, it's enormously unpopular and the political backlash is incredibly broad. Hi, I'm John. What's your name?

Will Nisbet. So we just canvassed on your door and you're planning to vote? I am, yes. flash is incredibly broad. enjoyed his style. Okay. And do you think that there's anything wrong with, say, a more aggressive like, hey, are you voting? Are you planning to vote? Can we get your vote? Where's your vote? Do we have your vote? Do you think that that is effective? I wouldn't say so. The strategy is politeness, but it's also just who I am as a human being. So I think the difference here might be one of personality, which I fully respect, but I think I got to be what I got to be. He's telling me that I got to bring more of a Southern energy. So I guess supposed to be polite and passive aggressive. We're happy to have you as a guest. We have certain expectations. I'm doing people

look by comparison. Look how good you look when we walk up to these doors. Do you think I'm not helping deep down? Do you think I'm not helping? Do you wish I weren't here? When I do try to, as I say, close the deal, people do give me a look like, oh, that's aggressive. Yeah, like that was maybe unnecessary. Right. I think 100% of people have done that. But so far, you've decided not to take the cue. I'm not taking the cue. I'm not taking the cue. We came here to close and get some votes. All right. Not here to make friends. We're here to get votes. I'm here to make friends. Just for the record, Jeff Jackson here to make friends. He's here to make friends. What do you think people listening that aren't from North Carolina should know about like sort of the political shift that aren't from North Carolina should know about

like sort of the political shift that's happening in North Carolina right now? We have a lot of people moving to North Carolina every single year. So we're getting, we have a higher percentage of college graduates every single year. This district I'm running in right now, I would have been toast here 10 years ago. It would have been a jump ball as of about five years ago. And it leans our way now. That's because of the growth that we've seen. People are sweeping on North Carolina because of some Senate races in the past. Y'all, this is going to be one of the key swing states over the

next decade. Hi, everybody. I'm here with Congresswoman Alma Adams. Now, look, we're going to talk about politics, but it's come to my attention that you i believe you have a collection and i found this out unbelievable that you have 50 hats is that right got 1400 wait that's 1400 hats so what you wear one you wear one a day and then every couple of years you you get back to the beginning if you get a new hat do you get rid of one? Are they sorted by color? If someone gives you a hat as a gift, do you have to pretend to be excited? Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Listen, I'm in the market for an absolutely ridiculous church hat.

I want to turn every head. Oh, look at that thing. Oh, that's great. How about that? Yeah. That's nice. That lets people know that you're not messing around. I've been focusing too much on the hats and I can see that now.

Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing on the ground in this Senate race? Well, it's become a very nasty race, unfortunately. Ted Budd is slinging mud, and we didn't expect much more. But I think they're just afraid because Sherry Beasley is on his tail, and I believe she can win this race. But when people ask me, well, you think Sherry can win, I said, listen, it's up to us. And it's not just about you going to vote. If you tell me, well, I did my part because I voted, you haven't done your part when you talk to your family and people you don't know about why it's important to make sure that Sherry Beasley is the one that represents North Carolina.

Because this Bud's not for you. We're going to just nip him in the bud. We're going to nip him in the bud. Bud slinging mud. I caught that one, too. I caught that rhyme earlier. We brushed by it, but it landed. A lot of the national attention has been on the Pennsylvania race between Fetterman and some out-of-state

doctor, Arizona. North Carolina hasn't gotten the same level of attention. What has shifted that makes you think that we have a real chance? People are not only excited about getting the first black woman from North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, but we need this Senate to make sure that we're able to secure for the people what the people need. How much of an impact have you felt on the ground around the Dobbs decision? How much has that motivated people, made people understand the stakes? Well, motivated me enough to get arrested, right? You know, I'll get arrested again. I do think my granddaughter should not have fewer rights than her mother had.

And so that issue in and of itself is really pushing people to get out. Congressman Alma Adams, thank you so much for your time. It's so good to talk to you. I'm here with Rachel Hunt. Rachel, you mind telling people about your race? So I am currently a representative in North Carolina House, and I'm running for the North Carolina Senate in one of the toughest districts in Mecklenburg County and in all of North Carolina.

So, you know, it's going to be a tough race. We're excited. So one of the things that we see across the country is there, you know, it's going to be a tough race. We're excited. So one of the things that we see across the country is there's a sense that it's a really tough year for Democrats generally, but then there is this engagement around Dobbs that maybe isn't necessarily manifesting in all the polls, but that you might see if you're talking to people face to face. Are you seeing that? Yes, I am seeing that. But, you know, we all know it comes down to turnout. And if we can get younger people and people who don't normally vote out to vote because of the DOPS decision, then it's going to be great. Jeff Jackson, that's a smooth guy.

He's smooth. Sure is. We went door knocking with him and he didn't ask anybody for a vote. He just says, can I help you? Yeah, I don't ask for votes either. What is going on down here? I'm volunteering with Rachel Hunt, my favorite, most favorite candidate ever. And my name is Mary Klantz. Young women, women of my age, fathers, men, talking and bringing up abortions. And I knocked on the door and a guy opened the door. And I said, what's your hot issue? Abortion. I have three daughters and I do not want them to have to endure some of the things we hear about.

I was amazed. And the second one was gun safety. So it's really, it was really revealing to me. Hi, what is your name? And can you tell us a little bit about like this town that we're in in and what you're doing here to organize in this rural part of North Carolina? My name is Carolyn Berenji, and we're talking about the school systems. We're talking about the hungry. We're talking about people that don't have any housing.

The town is, you know, it's a great town, a hometown, when you talk about hometown. And are you hopeful about Sherry Beasley winning in North Carolina? What do you think? I am very, very hopeful, very hopeful for her. Are you going to get this done? Yes. All right. Yes.

Okay. Okay. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. Yes. All right, I am here in, what's this county called? Oh, it's Cleveland County. Cleveland County, yeah.

We have the leaders of the college Dems from Gardner-Webb College. Hi, what's your name? My name's Emily. I'm the president. I'm Mikayla. I am the communications director. I'm Justin. I'm just on the team. You're not just on the team. You're the heart and soul of the team. Take a compliment. Do you struggle to take compliments, Justin? Apparently.

I do too. They rake it. You're like, oh, no, no, no. But you got to take the compliment. All right, let's focus on the issues here. We have this huge Senate race, a lot at stake. Can you talk about some of what's been happening on campus? Yeah, so we actually just had a voter registration drive. And we actually co-hosted with the nonpartisan organization, You Can Vote. It's because a big part of our movement on campus is just getting people out there to vote, getting the youth to stand up and take civil responsibility and go out there and vote. Michaela, how big of a deal, how much has it changed in terms of just how much people are

focused on politics when the Dobbs decision came down? I think abortion was always like a hard topic for people, but to have the option of like the Supreme Court saying, well, it's a state rights issue, really like put a fire under a lot of people. Is Gardner-Webb a religious school? Yeah. It is a Baptist Christian school, so stuff like that is a little hard to talk about. But at the same time, if you frame it as freedom, that's what it is. It's a freedom to choose what you do when you go to your doctor's office.

Most people are going to look at that as it's a freedom that I'm losing. Like, it's scary. Especially, we live in the South. So North Carolina right now is about the only state that doesn't have regulations on it. If you go 25 minutes down the road, but eight minutes, you hit South Carolina border. It's real. Are you going to turn people out to elect Cherry Beasley? Are you going to get it done?

We're going to get it done. We're going to get it done? We're going to get it done. We're going to get it done. We're going to get it done. Hell yeah. We just finished a lovely day of canvassing with Jeff Jackson. He's running for Congress. And I learned a lot from canvassing with you, to be honest. You know, if you're listening to this and you haven't gone canvassing before,

if you've been afraid to knock on doors, people are so nice. And face-to-face canvassing is the most effective way to persuade somebody, change somebody's mind, get somebody who wasn't going to vote to vote. So go to votesaveamerica.com and sign up. We're in the homestretch. Believe it or not, you may have been paying attention for the last year, but a lot of people are just starting to pay attention right now. And you can be on their doorstep helping them figure out what they need to do to vote and to make sure they know the stakes in the election by them. So sign up. Thanks to John Lovett for giving us that live

report from North Carolina today. I was in the field. In the field. Field report, whatever. Yeah, sure. And we'll talk to you all on Thursday. Bye, guys. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez.

Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein. Our producers are Haley Muse and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineered the show. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Sandy Gerrard, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support. And to our digital team,

Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montu. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash pod save America.