Pod Save America - Donald Trump: Ass Man

Episode Date: October 16, 2026

Trump makes the case for Jon Husted in Ohio, praising the Republican senator's greatest asset: his athletic behind. Jon and Dan react to Trump's Ohio rally and his other messages to voters on the campaign trail, Politico reporting that Trump is considering replacing White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with an MLB executive, and new press secretary Katie Zacharia's brutal debut briefing. They discuss the president canceling the Department of Defense's plans to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, the administration's deeply troubling attempt to strip Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her citizenship, and another pathetic attempt at humor from Vice President JD Vance. Then, Sherrod Brown talks to Dan about his bid to retake his old Senate seat in the Buckeye State.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.To watch this episode with subtitles, click here and turn on closed captions (CC).You can request a transcript by emailing [e-mail]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.

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Plus, the app is easy to use, and it allows you to arm or disarm the system and check the cameras right from your home. Join more than 6 million people who entrust Simpleysafe for their home security. Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit Simplyave.com slash crooked. That's Simplysave.com slash crooked. And when you order, please write in Pot Save America in the checkout survey. It lets them know we sent you, and it really helps support the show. Simply Safe, ahead of crime in real time. Welcome to Potsave America. I'm John Favre. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we'll talk about Republicans starting to abandon once competitive races. The speculation that Susie Wiles might soon be out of a job. The fact that Kim Gilfoyle is out of a job. Katie Zachariah's A-plus debut as White House press secretary, yet more corruption inside the White House, Trump canceling that live execution, the latest on the Ilhan Omar ordeal, and why J.D. Vance is definitely not gay.

then you'll hear Dan's conversation with Sherrod Brown about the race to take back the Senate seat in Ohio. Dan, how was it? Are we taking it back? I don't want to spoil it here, John. So you have to wait to the end of the podcast to listen to the interview. Smart. That's smart. I thought maybe a little tease. Here's the thing I'd say.

Is there ever such a thing as a bad conversation with Sherrod Brown? No. He's the best. The best. Again, he gets credit for my marriage. So that's a good thing. All right. 18 days until the midterms. Dems lead the generic ballot.

by just over nine points. They're ahead by about three points in the closest Senate races. Inflation is still climbing, we learned this week. Oil prices are still climbing, but the Republican Party's closer is out there single-handedly trying to turn things around

with the focus and discipline for which he is famous. They want to mutilate, cut your children. Your son leaves as Jimmy and comes back home in three days as Janet. The ranked choice voting where they, you go into, I guess, some kind of a test tube or something.

I got the highest gay vote of any Republican in history. I think because of the song, my opinion, leaker should be shot. I hate flies. Some of the wild animals you have up here that like eating you. Because I'm a freaking genius, this way. You've got to spend the money in the United States. It's called recircling.

It's called recirculation. It's called a lot of things. Our country is making more money than it's ever made. because of the fact that oil is so high. Tariffs don't cause inflation. You know what they cause? Wealth. I've won my election.

I'm here whether we win this or not. That's about it. Yeah. Some's the honest. Most honest thing he said, his true feelings about the election. I won my election. I'm here whether Republicans win or not. What do you think the point of any of these rallies is?

I don't think he knows. I think he's like, why are they making me do all these rallies? They think it'll help. and it's just something to say that they did something, really. I think he wants to do them. It's against the wishes of probably anyone who knows anything about politics because there's just nothing helpful about them. You don't think saying that he thinks people who leak information to the press

in a country that supposedly reveres and protects the free press, saying that they should be shot, you know, that that's helpful. Do you think it's helpful to say that it's good that oil press, prices are high because the country's never been richer. That's not good to say. I think that's a bad thing to say. Or the terrorists don't cause inflation. They cause wealth.

Just thinking about this way, right? So who is the voter in these states who will go to the Trump rally but not who was not otherwise going to vote in the midterm election? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you don't think he's, you know, you think these are getting people off the couch. I think 10 years into the Trump show, we're not getting a bunch of like, just random onlookers who just want to check out the show. It is like the most hardcore fans are going to vote.

So what are the people in the state's consuming? The clips, right? Either on the news or on the media, and none of the clips are on message. And anyway, should perform. What do you think he thinks ranked choice voting is? And how do you think he feels like a test tube is involved? I think that he equates science with things he doesn't understand.

So he doesn't get it, so therefore it must be science. He thinks of science the way other people think of magic, something beyond the understanding of a common mind. You put a bunch of votes in a tube and you pull one out. Yeah, basically. Just if he was really trying to win the midterms, I'm not worried about him picking my advice on this, trust me. But if he's really trying to win the midterms, he would shut up.

Yeah. And just stop, not do rallies, for sure. For sure. The best thing he could do would be to fade into the background and left this be a race between, you know, John Hustad and Sherrod Brown or Mike Rogers and Abdul-Sahead

and said he's making about himself a person who is underwater in every state in the country who's in the low 40s in states he won by 20 points. Has to be the main character every single day. And that's not great for Republicans. No, it's not. We talked on Tuesday about the Republican plan

to start, quote, trimming the map. And now we have confirmation that it's happening. Republican super PACs have pulled out of house races that were once thought to be competitive in New York, Nevada, New Jersey, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Nebraska. On the Senate side, SuperPacks have pulled out of North Carolina and are pouring millions into defending Nebraska, Kansas, and South Carolina. Punchball reports that Republican lawmakers in deep red states are approaching super PACs with polls showing them losing. And five senior Republican members of Congress have told Politico that keeping the House is now likely impossible in their view. I know your latest message box is about this.

Why should people view these spending decisions as maybe an antidote to their anxiety about a potential systemic polling error? I think if you don't want to follow the polls, you should follow the money. Because these are the people who are tasked with, that is their job. They are steeped in data of all kinds, voting data, polling data, focus group data, fundraising data. It is their job to maintain the Republican majority within the House and the Senate. And they are acting like it is not just a blue wave, but we are on the cusp of a blue tsunami. Like they have, like, if you want to read the subtext here, a couple of main takeaways. One, they admit the house is gone.

They have, they have waved the white flag on it, right? They are not, as you mentioned, they are stopped trying, they are no longer trying to beat some of the most vulnerable democratic incumbents in the country, people like Greg Landsman in Ohio, Tom Swazzy in New York. Even Henry Quayar in Texas, right? They pulled money from Susie Lee's race in Nevada. they are abandoning Republican incumbents, like Tom Kane,

like they're banning the Republican seat in Nebraska, another one in Iowa, and are moving money to, and this is just fucking sweet irony, the states that they redistricted. That's amazing. It is like the Henry Choir seat, which as I say a district that they drew to flip,

abandoning that, moving it to another seat, they drew to be an automatic Republican flip. They're putting money in Florida, spending $2 million in Florida, 25, a district that was supposed to be basically an automatic Republican pickup after the new district after the new district lines. And then, and I, you know, I mentioned this when we were back in Texas. They moved money to Alabama, too.

This was a district that they, Alabama just redrew to take Shumari figures district and carve it up. Oh, right. And Trump won the new version of that district by 14 points. It was an opportunity district before that. And they're putting money in it right now. They're worried about that district because they drew the district that way. And so that's a huge yield. And then on the Senate side, it's worth, like we're all, we're so focused on all the races and all the money and all the back and forth.

But I just think it's worth noting. John Osloff entered the cycle is the most vulnerable Democratic Democrat in the country. He's in a state that Trump won two or three times. Let's say Democrats have rarely won before 2020. And they've abandoned it. It's over. North Carolina, a state that Democrat. We haven't won a federal race in North Carolina since 2008.

When Barack Obama won the first time. And Kay Hagan won the Senate race in 2008. Right. And so that's, no one has won a, we have not won a federal statewide race there since 2008. It's over. They've quit. I'm sorry to say that's a Rupert's finance team. But the Republicans are not running TV ads anymore.

It's not just the super PACs. Michael Watley currently has no TV reserve for the rest of the time. They're just like, that's it. They're done. And they're putting money in Nebraska in Kansas. Kansas, the state, a Democrat has not won a Senate seat in, since, in 94 years. Herbert Hoover was president.

Donald Trump was even born yet. Then we haven't wanted to sentence seats since then. So look, there could be some, like, just massive error that everyone's polls are wrong. Everyone. Yeah, I was going to say, if that's the case, it's not like, oh, Democrats were too excited and believed all the public polls. It's like, no, it means that Republicans' internal polling was completely wrong. Yes.

And in previous cycles, when there's been Democratic opium, you've heard a lot of Republicans, out there. We know the reporters they dish to, showing their internal polls showing, no, we're not, Democrats don't really have a shot in this race with that race. You hear none of that this time. No, the best you hear is some of them being like, it's bad out there, but it's not quite as bad as some of the polls are showing, which like, look, if we end up taking the House and then, you know, it's a 50-50 Senate or a 49-51 Senate and we lose some of these Senate races by like 0.2, 0.3.5, a point even. It is unfortunately, let me, you say this in the piece, but like, it is unfortunately in line with a polling error that is just a normal polling error and not something weird. Yes.

Even if the polls are perfectly correct, within the margin of error, the range of outcomes include Democrats winning all the Senate seats we're talking about and losing all of them. Yeah. Other than North Carolina and Georgia. Which is crazy enough. Yes, that is crazy enough. Like, yeah, if we lost North Carolina or Georgia or we lost the house, that would be shocking. Yes. But like anything, any disappointment short of that is not necessarily shocking.

It's just disappointing. It would be shocking to the conscience and it would be terrible and we're going to be very upset about it. But it would be statistically not shocking. I will say, I mean, the Republicans have more money than God. They've like never had so much money. It is interesting that with all that money, they're still pulling out of some races. I feel like moving money around is something that you do when you have a limited amount of it.

Well, so there's a few reasons for this. One is Democrats raise most of their money on the hard side. So that means the candidates raise the money. And so those dollars go much further because we talked about before on TV rates, the TV station has offered them the lowest rate. So that's one. Two, Democrats also were very smart and reserved their time early. So they got better rates, especially because Trump sat on his money for so long, they were now having to pay exorbitant rates for their ads. And just as an example of how it works.

So James Alarico announced $65 million today. he raised that. So that's $65 million. It is just for his campaign. The equivalent of that in Super PAC dollars is about $180-something million. So it is close to like basically what the Republican, I think the Republicans are going to be

all in $200 million in Texas? Yes. And so now he can't spend that on TV in the three weeks. Now some of that money's already been spent. He didn't release cash on hands because that's this report. But Democrats are, we are still, like, I read about this to mess box too, but there's a really interesting data for ad impact,

shows that even despite all the money, like in the month of September, Republicans outspent Democrats by 25%, but I think they only ran like 9% more ads or something like that because of both our strategy and our hard money advantage. The other thing that's interesting is there was a political poll which showed that 25% of people

thought that Democrats were running more ads. I saw that. Yeah. Because they've just, they've seen more, or they've said they've seen. They recall more. Like, that's the big thing is it's ad recall. Like, you can run all the ads you want,

but if the ad is not memorable enough to be recalled, then there was no point running the ad. So Republicans are, ads are more expensive, and it appears that they are worse. Right before we recorded, I'm sure, you saw it because I think you put it in the slack, but Trump went off on John Cornyn and Carl Rove.

Yeah. Blaming them for a Ken Paxton loss that hasn't happened yet. It's still has. It's still like several weeks out. I mean, he clearly talked to someone in Texas who told him that things were trending in the wrong direction. The two races where Trump is going to take the most blame if Democrats win is Texas because Ken Paxton's a nominee because of Donald Trump and South Carolina, where Darlene Graham is the nominee because of Trump.

It's one thing to appoint Darlene Graham to just fill out the term as some sort of bizarre tribute to Lindsay Graham by putting, here's your tribute. We're going to put an unqualified person in your job. But he's the one who convinced her to run for the full term. And if any of those other, mostly lunatic Republicans who, like Ralph Norman, whoever else, who were running in the primary had just gone, were the nominee now, this would not be a race. But Darlene Graham has made it a race. Which means they're also spending, you know, $5 million there right now. They could be spending some of these other districts.

I mean, you could also argue that North Carolina is a Trump problem. Michael Watley was a Trump person. Yeah, that's another one. That is Mike Collins in Georgia against Ozoff was a Trump one too. That's right. You know what? We've got my Thursday after the election day message box drafts going right now. Yeah, he's done a lot of great stuff.

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starting to break through. Just two more stories over the last 48 hours, I think. The Wall Street Journal ran a story about White House crypto advisor, Bo Hines, who owns a consulting firm that was paid $6 million by a crypto company to win favorable positions in the crypto bill that Hines himself was trying to get through Congress, which he did and then got hired by the crypto company after the bill passed. Don't let the revolving door hit you on the way out. $6 million while he was negotiating writing the bill, the crypto bill. He co-owned this company.

He stepped back from operations, but the crypto company was paying the firm $6 million. A random company. Not that's like every once in a while, you know, like there's someone who used to work, has some ownership in like a high level well thought of. This is a random consulting company that they picked entirely because of. It appears. who the co-owner was. And they got the provisions that they wanted in the bill, and it passed.

And then he got a job at that fucking firm. Yes. Amazing. Then on Thursday, the Washington Post revealed the full list of White House ballroom donors, several of which, quote, benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts, and in one case, a pardon for a family member. Biggest donation? $25 million from Nvidia made three months after Trump decided to let the AI giant sell

advanced chips to China over. over the objections of security experts. Mind boggling. John, hold on. Isn't Trump's view that we should build a data center on every corner and let AI run amok so that we can beat China? Right, right. Well, yeah, we're going to give them a head start, though.

It's the only sporting thing to do. We are going to, we do have to beat China, but, you know, it's tough. We have to run even faster because we're also giving them the chips they need. Yes, got it, got it. So we better hurry up. I guess the bright side here is that corruption is finally, registering with voters? Would you make of that number popping now?

It's surprising to see it at the top of the list, but it's not surprising to see it so high up the list. You know, we talked about this navigator poll a couple weeks ago where they asked people the reasons why their costs were high and government corruption was at the top of the list or near the top of the list. And people, they see what's going on. They see, it's not just, like, in their minds, it's not just Trump and the Republicans. They see a government that's corrupt top to bottom. But they really connect that to why their prices are, to the fact that they're getting screwed. Because, you know, it's not just like my egg prices are up there. It's because Donald Trump did this crypto deal. It's just that there are all these fucking people in Washington, D.C. Most of them

are Republican. Most of them have the last name Trump who are getting filthy rich. I'm getting screwed. They're taking care of themselves. They're not taking care of me. And those two things are connected. And we've seen Jim Kessler of Third Way pointed out, pointed this out to me on Twitter today that in the other, in other elections where you've had giant waves, there has been a combination of economic concern in government corruption. Yeah. You have in 2006, the there are a whole like a gazillion scandals, but it ended in the Mark Foley scandal. And then in 1994 was the House Bank

would help drive that too. And so, you know, it's not like these things all come together. And so it's very bad, I think, for the party who is led by the guy who's touring the country right now, who is deeply corrupt and also raised everyone's prices. Yeah, and I can't tell whether it's like just the accumulation of all of these corruption stories or, it's any one in particular that has been,

that has broken through and been really sticky for voters. But you do hear in a lot of these focus groups now, like even Trump voters who are sort of turning on the president will bring up that like, all he does is just he's like getting rich. Yeah. Like you just, they just kind of know that it just kind of bleeds through at some point. Yeah, I think, I think it is the accumulation. And I, you know, honestly, a lot of people don't really give a shit or they're so cynical

that if the economy is going great, then it really, care if the president dips their beak, but when everything's fucked, all the, it's all the Trump stuff that didn't really bother people as much as we hoped in the first term, hit so much harder for him now because people are very, very unhappy what's going on. So it's not, you know, all the insanity is not funny or charming or whatever else. It's just an example of why things suck. And it's true of the corruption, too. I really do think it's not the worst example of Trump's corruption, but all of the Washington White House renovation shit. That to me is just because it's visual and it's easy to understand and it's all he fucking talks about.

Yeah. So I kind of think that even more, even though that's not how he got incredibly rich, it was a lot of the crypto shit. But I think that the White House renovation stuff, just covering everything in gold, building the fucking ballroom, all that. I think that has really pissed people off. And I'm not even sure people clock, like the quid pro quo of corporate donors to the ballroom who then get government. papers. It's more than it's a giant fucking vanity project that the guy is building tacky monuments

to himself while I can't afford to put gas in my car. People just look at it like, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah. Well, if Americans do end up punishing Republicans for all this corruption on election day, they'll only have one person to blame. Susie Wilde.

At least that's who Donald Trump might blame, according to Politico this morning. The president has reportedly been asking friends what they think of his incredibly loyal White House Chief of Staff, and he has even reportedly started floating potential replacements, including the following names, Stephen Miller, Steve Whitkoff, Bill Pulte, Kevin McCarthy, and of course, New York Yankees president, Randy Levine. The last one is so funny.

It's like, when I was reading that this morning at the Ask Rock of Dawn, this is like, all the other names kind of make sense, and then it's just like a random guy who works for the Yankees? What? Trump says this is all fake news, obviously, but no one really believes that. Who's your pick? My pick, well, I've got to ask, am I picking who I want, who I think it's going to be?

Oh, okay. I don't really know who I want. It's all garbage. Yeah, none of them. No, absolutely. Honestly, I mean, I think she sucks. I think it's ridiculous how much the press gives her, gives her all this favorable coverage.

But Susie Wallace is probably the best of that option of Rokes Gallery. Yeah. Now, I don't know Randy Levine. That's right. Randy Levine, that's a high variance pick. Could be great. The Yankees are quite good. Yeah.

I don't really know what his job in the Yankees is. No. I definitely hate Stephen Miller the most. I think he's the most. That would probably be the worst. That would be the worst. Definitely the most dangerous for the country and the world, I would say. Let's see who do we think it would be?

Who do you think it would be? It doesn't feel like Stephen Miller is a pick that he wants to go with, not because he's like not that crazy and likes what Stephen Miller does. I think he's a little, like, he kind of wants someone who's, like Steve Whitkoff, Bill Pulte seem more like the universe of people that is just like some guy who he can hang out with and like a business buddy and also just like lets him do whatever the fuck he wants and has no real agenda of their own other than like, what do you want to do today, boss?

Yeah, I think that's right. I would be surprised if it was Stephen Miller just because he, Trump, I mean, you've heard the things about Stephen Miller. He kind of, he understands Stephen Miller and Stephen Miller's purpose, and I don't think running the White House is what he thinks Stephen Miller's purpose should be. Yeah. It kind of, there's like a fork in the road here, which is Steve Whitcough is just like, here's a guy I like hanging out with.

He's rich too. He gets me. He's also kind of down with all of my self-enrichment schemes. We can just hang out together and do that, and I don't really have to do any work. Bill Pulte is someone to be like, here, I got two years left, and I am going to use every level of the federal government to exact revenge on as many people as possible. and I kind of want to stick a middle finger to all the haters. Bill Pulte is that person.

Kevin McCarthy is who he picks if he's purely in the mood to have someone to humiliate for the last two years. Yes, whoever takes this job will be humiliated. Which is what, like, you can see him. He clearly doesn't like Kevin McCarthy, even if he pretends to like Kevin McCarthy. And so spending two years, just like having Kevin McCarthy be the fucking punching bag

for all of Washington, including Donald Trump, and trying to humiliate him all the time. time, it does seem like something Trump would enjoy. That would be good for content, I think. Also, just let's back up a step. Imagine you're Randy Levine this morning. Maybe you sleep in, you know? Maybe you were up late.

I don't even know what the baseball schedule is, whatever else. And you imagine how many text message you wake up to. And you think, like, did Aaron drudge, like, blow his knee out on the way of the locker room? Is it a major, something major having in baseball? I was named in Playbook. As a White House chief of staff. I mean, that's basically like if someone was like, you know what? We're looking for new general managers for the Sixers.

We're going to look at Bob Myers, you know, Sam Presti, Dan Pfeiffer and John Favreau. He's just like, what? Could happen. It could happen. One other Trump lieutenant who may be, actually, before we move on, do you think that this is true. Do you think he'll let go Susie Wiles?

I kind of don't. I don't. I think he is, he's looking for people to blame for what's going on. And I think that there's plenty of people to blame. And I also don't think he gives that much of a shit. And I think...

There's only one, John. One what? Person to blame. Oh, yeah, of course. But he doesn't know that. Well, he does, which is why he's doing this. Right, right, right.

But, like, also it's like low... He's got two years left. All he wants to do is make money and, like, you know, have the, I don't know, like... Decorate the White House. And has someone who's loyal to him, which is Susie Wiles. Right, and decorate the White House.

So, like, it feels like there's plenty of other people he can fire or blame besides Susie Wiles. But who knows? Who knows? One other Trump lieutenant who may be forced to walk the plank, according to Leanne Caldwell at Puck. Former White House political director James Blair, the architect of the redistricting push who left the White House to run the midterm operation from the outside.

In fairness, Blair has been pretty busy earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from a pro-Pooten government in the Balkans. So he's been busy doing that. So there's only so many campaigns you can keep track of it. That's fair enough. Back in May, he was the one who told Playbook

that his plan for this midterm was to paint Democrats as woke weak and way too liberal. He's tried. Did he do it? It's been the strategy. I guess John, we'll find out in two weeks. I mean, James Blair is a class example

of someone who flew way too close to the sun. Yeah. Well, he also wasn't like a, he was never, he sort of just fell into the job, right? Like he doesn't have like a long history of being a political Svengali. Yeah, I've no, I truly have no idea. He's just, he's a guy who began to exist in my life two years ago. And when he said woke weak and way too liberal. Yeah, but he was on, I remember he was on the campaign and then he did a lot of playbook interviews when he was in the White House. A lot of playbook interviews.

The thing I don't understand about this whole story is like, what do you, okay, so you blame it on James Blair. He doesn't work in the White House anymore. So, like, well, he is running the, he's the part of the people who's spending $200 million in Texas. Yeah. He's also, I mean, I'm sure it's probably Trump's fault that they didn't spend money earlier when it would have made more of a difference or at least been able to get a sign-on to buy time. But that's ultimately his job as to figure that out. So like what happens to him? He can be fired from, he's getting all kinds. I'm sure he's making, unguiled the amounts of money from all of the super PACs he's working for us. So I guess he gets fired from those.

Yeah. And then just makes all of his money from whatever. or Russian. Well, no. If you're on the outless with Trump's, then, like, if you're a middling political operative whose entire benefit to people is that they give money to you, it seems like they're getting access to Trump

and you no longer have access to Trump, you're going to end up on dancing with the stars like Sean Spicer. Speaking of which, we should talk about... What are we biving to, John Spicer or Dancing with the Stars? We should talk about the brand new White House press secretary. Oh, God, damn it.

a good transition. Yeah, you didn't even know. She's already taken the country by storm, Dan. Katie Zachariah took the podium on Tuesday for a 14-minute briefing that included just three questions and came after she struggled to read a lengthy opening statement that was just riddled with multisyllabic words and compound sentences. Afterwards, Zachariah, a minor fixture on right-wing TV, who has previously referred to herself as an attorney, was asked where she passed the bar to which she answered, in China. Turns out she did not pass the bar in China or anywhere, but her bigger problem is that her new White House colleagues

have already started anonymously knifing her, calling her first briefing, quote, embarrassing, and quote, terrible on so many levels, according to texts received by the Daily Mail. One Republican operative just sent emojis of a dumpster fire. Zachariah didn't brief on Wednesday or Thursday, day, which is odd because that is her job as the White House Press Secretary. Yes, yes.

I don't know what else she's doing. I guess she did an interview with MAGA influencer on Real America's voice, where she attempted to explain both her rough first outing and the whole, I'm a lawyer, but not a lawyer situation. Let's watch. Typically, Jack, briefs are in the afternoon, 1 p.m., 1.30 p.m., where the press secretary has ample amount of time to have discussed with all the necessary people, get all the right information.

Columbus Day is when I got the briefing materials. And then Tuesday morning, they were completed. And I woke up at three in the morning on Tuesday to prepare with what I had, but they weren't finalized until we didn't finalize everything until about 8 a.m. And I never had a full briefing beforehand. I had already pre-registered to take the bar, and I didn't want to withdraw from that. And we knew we would be moving out to China.

And I was obviously incredibly distracted and overwhelmed and excited for finally being married to someone who had been long distance from for at least a year. The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China. And we left shortly thereafter. She did work at a law firm in China, although I guess she didn't do actual attorney work. Some described the work that she did at the Chinese law firm as what a paid intern would do. I would like to say in that 45 second or so clip, she blamed the following people for her problems, her staff, Christopher Columbus, her husband.

Her husband. Is that you, like, she got it Monday, Columbus Day, Indigenous People's Day, whatever you want to call it. She got it Monday. And so she had 24 hours to prepare for the White House briefing. And like, does she know that usually when you do the White House briefing, you don't have that much time to prepare with each successive day? And you sort of just have to be up on the news? Like, back in the day when the briefing was a serious thing,

the process is the assistant press secretary is a bunch of staff from all around the government and the one around the White House collect all the briefings. materials. They get all the guidance on the things. They go through the news and they produce a folder, a binder for the press secretary. The prosecutor usually has a couple of hours at most to read that and then breeze. And so I don't know, the 36 hours or 24 hours or whatever she had seems like excessive. Also, you can't get it in advance because you know what changes? The news. The news. Yes. Also, what is she talking about? She took three fucking questions from Breitbart, Fox News, and the Daily Mail.

She couldn't prepare 24 hours in advance for her briefing, where she took three questions from three of the most right-wing outlets in America, the world. It was 14 minutes, and she needs at least two hours per minute for prep. So she didn't have sufficient time. So be fair.

And she's not really a lawyer. No. I mean, the thing, like... She graduated law school. She didn't... She didn't pass the bar. Plenty of people who go to law school and never take the bar. So that's not the issue.

The issue is that she told the press yesterday that she passed the bar. She also called herself a general counsel at one of her job. Yeah. You definitely can't call yourself general counsel if you're not, in fact, general counsel and haven't passed the bar. Yeah, it just seems like a disturbing pattern. Like, obviously this is on brand for this position, the Trump administration. But she is lying to the press a lot about some pretty basic things that are actually public records and provable. Now, there was one good review of her first outing.

Here's the headline. Katie Zachariah delivers a powerful inaugural briefing from the White House. Well, you know what? They put out a statement. They put out a whole press statement on that. It's not what you want. I'll tell you that. You know what, outlet doesn't have to suffer through 14-minute White House briefings with zero information?

Cricket media. You know what? If people become subscribers, we could. We could. We need someone in that room with Katie Zachariah asking the hard questions. Isn't that what you want? Do you want her to just, you know, whiff questions from Breitbart and Daily Mail? Or do you want a crooked media reporter in the briefing room peppering her with questions?

If so, subscribe. Cricket.com slash friends. You can support what we're doing here at Cricket. It's the best way to support our growing independent pro-democracy media company. Plus you get ad-free episodes. Plus you get a whole bunch of subscriber shows and newsletters. It's great. I'm not authorized to say this, so you cut out the podcast.

But I think that if we get 1,000 new subscribers by Halloween, we're going to send Reid to the White House briefing. Read? Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. He's on the east. I was going to say Elijah, but he's got, he's further away. I think we should send Elijah and we should make him drive.

Oh, you know what? From North Carolina. You know what? That's his commute every day. 2,000 by Halloween. 2,000 more subscribers by Halloween. Elijah will he will live stream his drive. To the White House.

Yes. To the White House so he can ask Katie Zacharii if she's still there. Yes. If she outlasts Garamucci. I did see in Playbook this afternoon, West Wing Playbook, that like, you know, some of the White House people were like, it was bad, but it wasn't so bad that, you know, that she probably is going to hang on for a while.

And because she has defended Trump on TV for so long and he likes her still, you know, that buys her some time to get better. Like, were you aware that she was the person who existed before she got this job? No, I'd never heard of her name. And you watched Fonger. I saw her. I've never seen her before. Yeah.

Never seen her on Fox. Was she on Fox or was she on one of those like, I don't know. Like O-A-N sort of newsmax? The only thing I read is that she tried to get a job at GSA. And her vision of the job was that she was going to be a public-facing spokesperson promoting the ballroom. And GSA wanted her to, the General Service Administration people in charge of government

buildings, wanted her to manage the press office there. And that was, they couldn't come to an agreement. Did you see the story that when she was, in China, her husband, that she was so excited about marrying, that she forgot to take the bar, that he was doing business with a company in North Korea that was on the sanctions list. I did see that. Also, just imagine, I know this is sort of exhausting, but imagine what the world will look like if Jen Saki had been in a, had worked for a Chinese law firm, a communist Chinese law firm. And Greg was out there doing business with the North Korea.

Yes, like, I mean, Fox News would talk about nothing else. The briefing would be about nothing else. It's just... It's wild. Well, good for her. One bit of news that she did make was confirming for the world that Kimberly Gilfoyle was officially out as Ambassador to Greece, immediately letting the air out of maybe the best story of the year

and prompting even more reporting about her corrupt dealings and how she spent her final day. What were your favorite bits? How sad are you that this one's over? Or maybe it's not. Maybe we haven't heard the last of Kim Gilfoyle. One of my abiding passions is U.S. Greece relations, so I'm glad that she's gone.

I take this very seriously. I always have. I think the funniest part in the Wall Street Journal story about her final days is that in there it reports that she has decorated the embassy full of self-portraits. I did like that. Yeah. I mean, it's not surprising, but it is funny.

I like that First of all I loved Trump's comment about the whole thing Which was she wasn't a member of my family She I guess dated my son a long time ago I mean in fairness She did not get married to Donald Trump's junior Even if she had Trump wouldn't have gone to the wedding

Tommy and I talked about this briefly On YouTube yesterday And my guess was that she stays She doesn't come back here Because she's too embarrassed and she stays in Greece to marry one of those Greek sugar daddies that she has been doing all kinds of corrupt dealings with. Sure enough, New York Post headline today.

Oh, wow. Kimberly Gilfoyle plans to look, quote, for a rich European husband after Greek embassy exit. Nailed it. Nailed it. Deter's Eric Dieter's the Amex guy, the guy that she wanted to pay off for Amex bill. He also filed a defamation statement.

suit in Kentucky this afternoon against Gilfoyle for her and her lawyer claiming that he owed her money and has not fulfilled his obligation. So he's suing her. That's cool. Also amusing in that story, I will say, that's good. She tried to tell the White House that all the text messages were AI generated. That's amazing. Yes.

Just amazing. And then she's like watching all the coverage from Greece like nervously. And she apparently reached out to Matthew Boyle, who's the bright bar. Bureau Chief to try to help lobby the administration on her behalf. She's always hustling, Kim. Yeah. That's how she got to where she is. Yeah.

So anyway, hopefully, hopefully that's not the last we hear of Kim because it's just, it's too fun. It's just a great story. I think we'll probably, at some point in the next two years, someone's terminally online topic will be Kimberley-GoFoyles Big Factory quitting. I think you're going to say she'll be running for office somewhere, which I wouldn't be surprised either. Pots of America is brought you by Sundays. We are what we eat, and believe it or not, so are dogs. A long, healthy active life starts with clean, real food nutrition every day. That's what Sundays for dogs is all about. It's human grade, real food. Made with 80% plus all natural meat and nutrient-rich ingredients like kale, ginger, and blueberries. Sundays is air-dried and contained zero filler, synthetic additives, or chemicals. It doesn't look or smell like typical dog food. It looks like high-quality jerky. Plus, it's both vet founded and vet formulated by Dr. Tori Waxman to meet her standards as a veterinarian.

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guess. So I guess this is what passes for good news these days, but Trump has officially backed down from Pete Higgsett's plan to live stream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hassan. After most Democrats and some Republicans expressed discomfort with that obviously horrific idea, Trump finally shut it down on Truth Social, writing that while the live stream would have been a, quote, strong deterrent for the world, many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch Hassan die through streaming or through any other visual device. Thank you for being very specific there. As far as who some of those very good and well-meaning people might be,

turns out it's eight and ten Americans, according to a brand-new Washington Post poll. Did that surprise you? Didn't surprise me? I think the number, you think it surprised you? You think it should be, you thought more people would want to watch it? No, I said it didn't surprise. Oh, yeah, the surprising part is it, not nine and ten? Oh, you know, I mean, they went through,

every demo demographic group, like Republicans against it, the only demographic group supporting it by like 52, 53 percent, maga men. Yeah, it seems about right. And even then. Which is what, that's Pete Hegsef. That is Pete Hegst's constituency right there. But even then, those guys want to, they will tell people they want to watch it, but they're

not watching it. Yeah. Pete Hegst spokesman said that Hegseff and Trump spoke before Trump's announcement and the two are, quote, completely aligned. That don't sound very aligned. They're aligned in the sense that Pete Higseth wanted to do one thing and then Trump publicly reversed it. Now they're aligned, yes.

I think this is a, what do you think? A auspicious start for Pete's 2028 campaign? Yeah, probably. I think there's been in several, the auspicious start was the decision to go to war with Iran. That was probably the original sin in this. I'm very much on the impeach Pete Higgs-Seth train if we take back Congress. I think it's probably, because I think if we take back Congress,

the biggest issue, one of the biggest issues will be the war that caused the inflation. He's the one who got us into the war. He's also a fucking war criminal. And just a regular criminal because we weren't at war with all the boats of civilians that he blew up in the fucking Caribbean.

Yeah, I mean, it has the same. I agree with you. I'm all for it. I have argued on this podcast in my news, there's many places, that as deserving as it is, impeachment Trump is not the best use of our time and energy. But impeachment hackseth,

be for that. We have the same problem that I don't think it's going to result in him being removed. Or replaced with someone who's suddenly, you know, making decisions that we would welcome. Like Kimberly Gilfoyle? Defense. Suck deaf, Gilfoyle. We also have a more disturbing update about the administration's legal assault on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Earlier this week, we talked about federal officials searching Omar's D.C. home. We now know that they seized Omar's phone and that they've subpoenaed her relatives in an effort to try and strip her of U.S. citizenship and deport her. So again, as people know, she was 17 when her father became a naturalized citizen.

She came here when she was 11 or 12. At 17, her father became a naturalized citizen. And investigators are examining whether her age was deliberately misrepresented to make her eligible for citizenship as a minor. So if she had been 18, I guess she would have had to apply on her own. But because she was 17, she just automatically. get citizenship when her father was naturalized as a citizen. And so basically they're saying she was actually 18 at the time.

And so he said she was 17 when she was really 18. And apparently investigators examined a similar tip that they were given during the Biden administration, but never pursued it because of the lack of evidence. Most of the reports point out how unusual it is for this sort of step to be taken so close to an election. That's also true. But what do you make of all this? that the Trump is doing it now,

and do you think they actually believe that they can strip her of citizenship, that they can win this case or bring this case against her? Or do you think it's just for political show? Either way, it's horrific. I mean, I think this is such a bigger deal than the attention it's getting. Yeah, me too.

The President of the States has dispatched his politicized Department of Justice to investigate a sitting congresswoman three weeks before an election for the express purpose of deporting that congresswoman, stripping her of her citizenship, and deporting her. That is fucking bananas. Bananas. And whether they, I'm sure they think they can do it.

They always think they can do it. They're too fucking stupid to know if they can do it or not. They just go for it. But the fact that they're doing it and trying to do it is the scary part. Yeah. The denaturalization stuff, even before, Illinois was mentioned. You've been talking about this for a long time. It's the, it is the scariest thing, potentially, in the whole Stephen Miller arsenal of actions that he's been trying to take.

And he has been wanting to do this for a long time. This was a Project 2025 thing. He said this before 2024. And, you know, the government brings denaturalization cases like a handful every year. And it's usually for someone who, like, recently became a citizen and knowingly committed fraud to become a citizen. I mean, Stephen Miller wants to go after basically everyone, every immigrant who is a naturalized citizen of the United States, who he doesn't like, and have investigators at DHS or FBI or D.J or whatever, like dig through their lives, strip them of citizenship and deport them. And that means that, like, no one who is a naturalized citizen of this country, who's an immigrant at some point, but is now a naturalized citizen who has their citizenship, is safe from being. harassed and investigated by the federal government if you piss off Stephen Miller and Donald Trump

or someone in the Trump administration. I mean, it is, it is the, it's fucking awful. And like, it's, you know, anyone and, you know, Marjorie Taylor Green said, like, I don't like Ilan Omar. I never have, but like, I mean, tried to get her kicked out of Congress. Right. But, like, this is, this is a crazy thing to do. And, you know, if people think this kind of thing stops at Ilhan Omar, Absolutely not. That's not worse. And Stephen Miller has basically told us this. So it's certainly not a one-off.

I do think that they're going to have an incredibly hard time doing it. I mean, there's the statute of limitations on immigration fraud, which is long since past. Her father died in 2020. I mean, they would have to prove not just that her father, like, knowingly committed fraud, but that somehow she, at 17 years old, also knowingly committed. fraud and they'd have to have hard evidence of that. And even then, they'd have to go through court and prove it in a court of law. So it's like, it is a long way from them actually being able to do it.

But just the fact that they harassed her, have gone into her house, have taken her phone, or now digging through her life because of this is fucking insane. And using the federal government to spread the idea that one of the Trump's political opponents is an illegitimate since the United States. Yes. Even if you can't actually take it away, it's the weaponization of that idea. Yep. That is so dangerous.

And it's not just Trump and Stephen Miller on this one. Like J.D. Vance has been saying it too. I mean, this is a big thing on the right. This is Stephen Miller, Todd Blanche, all of that are involved here. Speaking of J.D. Vance. One last thing before we get to your conversation with Sherrod. Vance went to Texas this week where he showed off his sharp wit and heterosexual orientation. Now, before we get started, I love you too, sir.

In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I'm the vice president, not James Tala Rico. You get it, Dan? No, no, be more specific. Do you get the joke? Yeah, when someone says, I love you, he says, I love you back, but I just want to make sure not in the fucking gay way. Like, gay James Tala Rico, who's gay because he said something nice about trans kids once. And so, therefore, I'm going to insinuate that he's a pedophile, which I did at the convention,

because I love to see his web history. He did it. He did this event too. He did this event too. And again, this is all because James Hilariko said a nice thing about trans kids once. That's where this is coming from. There's nothing else there.

And so he's using that to then say he's gay. Now where this is like a, like if you were like in seventh grade, you would be too old for that kind of humor. If you were in seventh grade in 1997. Yeah, right. It's just, it's so unfunny. It's so, that's why like, put us, like,

put aside how offensive it is. I was going to say, put, yeah, put all that aside. It is the dumbest fucking joke. The guy is like, he's so, he, he, everything he does seems so artificial, forced. It's just like, God, how, it's, he's, he's just a goober. And he's been it, he is, I, I guarantee this.

He has been. and made fun of as a gigantic fucking nerd, his whole life. And now he has an airplane, armed guards with him, and he thinks he is cool and tough, and he's trying to be a bully now. And he's so bad at it. And it's just, it's like there's such little self-awareness and self-confidence and it's so driven by insecurity.

Like, to just think that if he just declares how straight he is all the time, like what is he? No homo. No homo. It's just very, it's so embarrassing. Now, if you want to hear a bully who is confident in his sexuality, let's listen to J.D. Vance's boss in Ohio this week. I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn't know he was a great athlete.

And I looked and I watched up and down. I looked at his ass and I looked at the whole. Yeah. The piece of ass in question is John Houston. Yes. In case you were wondering. Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, and Donald Trump is just checking out his ass. See? Good for him. You know what?

More power to him. We're not here to King's Shame. I would love someone to ask J.D. Vance about Donald Trump's comment. See what he thinks about that. Probably be a little jealous, honestly. Did you see John Ossoff's Vance comment the other night? On Chris Hayes. Chris Hayes asked him about Donald Trump,

and he asked him about J.D. Vance. Yeah. Sort of going around, just being. being a dick, which I guess J.D. Vance's role in the final weeks is just like, go around the country, be a huge fucking dick, make sure you let everyone know that you don't like dick, just that you are a dick. It's very important distinction in medical politics. Yes. And, you know, and so J.D. Vance said he's making fun of James Tilariko. He called Abdul a little weasel who should shut up and be grateful for his country. Yes, that's what he's doing. So anyway, so Chris asked

Aasoff about this the other night, and here's what he said. Donald Trump has cemented his legacy in American history as a failure and a disgrace. J.D. Vance will go down as a footnote in that disgrace. God. God. It's so good. I don't want to do the like, you know, I'm glazing ass off every time he has a clip there. But it's, it's, look, going after J.D. Vance like that, you got me. Yeah, it is.

I mean, he just the way in which he does. delivers an insult. And the thing is, it doesn't break character. Does it? Like, if you just watch, the, especially the second debate,

they're standing so close together. And he is just ripping Mike Collins, a new asshole over and over again. And it's just with no, like, it's really, he, you know,

I know you're talking about the acts, but he, he's, is one thing. I know he does very well, and this is it. And honestly, I love it in situations like this.

Now, the bad news from that debate was, did you hear him again? He mean, he said, again, he's not going to run for president in 2028. But then he also said he pledged to serve a full term in the Senate. Is he really?

Do you think that's shutting the door on it? He might have to be drafted, John, I think. I will say, I forgot that our old boss had also pledged to serve a full term. Yes, but he did, but he, unlike Asov, had two years between winning that term and running for president. Right. But then the other side of that is Aosov has served a full term. He has, yes. Maybe.

Barack Obama had been a state senator. Honestly, if you parse the words, he's saying he's not thinking about running for president, which he probably isn't because he's running for reelection. That gives you plenty of running. And he said he's going to serve a full term. He did serve a full term, John. Oh.

Just saying. But remember Obama then went out right after the election, did meet the press and open the door. We'll see. We'll see. All right. When we come back, Dan's conversation with Sherrod Brown.

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And when Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know it was Pod Save America specifically mentioned Tommy's story. It'll make him feel better. It'll make our show feel better. Thank you. And it's the best way to support the show. Sherrod Brown, welcome back to Pod Save America. Good to be on with you guys. Thanks.

Or with you personally, not you guys. Thank you. Well, we're a collective, a royal we. It's always you guys, right? No one can tell us apart anyways. You see one, you can't tell them apart, right? That's fine. I got a lot of important things to talk to you about, but you are wearing a Cleveland

Guardian's sweatshirt. Yep. Game three tonight, how are you feeling? Game three right now, one o'clock. Wow. They moved it from six to one because of weather. So we got campaign stuff to do today, but this fit and game three, and it's pretty exciting in Cleveland.

Okay, that's great. I got seats. I got seats way up in the upper deck in the cheap seats. So people, I'll meet a lot of people there that are, their tickets aren't that expensive, like regular people in the upper, in a third of three decks. So. Will we see your opponent in a luxury box somewhere? Is that possible? Yeah.

Yes, that's right. If he knows, Cleveland is, I don't know. Fair enough. Who knows? I'm glad you brought up the baseball game because we love baseball and sports here, but also because my first question to you is about the ungodly amounts of money being spent in Ohio. the Senate Republicans just took out money from North Carolina and Georgia. They're putting more money into your state to try to defeat you. I cannot imagine what it's going to be like to watch the game today.

I imagine every commercial will be about you or Amy Acton or the other side. How are you surviving the sort of unprecedented financial assault? Yeah, two nights ago, my daughter who's in her 40s was a huge fan as a kid. We used to keep score together. She and Connie and I watched the game three. game two, game one, and it watched the Chicago game five. And it's a little unnerving to sit there with your kid, even though she's in her 40s and watch these nasty lying ads. I mean, it's what they do. They are spending, they're up to about, we think, 280, $290 million. The crypto data center

crowd saying people are up to 40 some million now. But there's more of us and there are them. And they're talking about stuff that's just not true instead of talking about the war, talking about prices, talking about cuts in rural health and cuts and insurance and cuts for everybody. I mean, that's just not working this year because people realize the real problems in our society. The amount of money is so obscene that I live in California and I see ads about you if I watch Ohio State on Saturdays because they're running national ads in some of these places, just to reach the small slice of voters in Ohio. Yeah, I didn't even know these were national ads. I know that, you know, I know most of our money, we were literally 60% of our money, we raise 10, 25.

And I ask people to come to Sherrod Brown.com. That makes a huge difference, 10, 15, 20 bucks. That will win this race because our contributions are grassroots. There's are not. You mentioned the crypto packs. The crypto industry spent a ton of money to feed you in 2024. They're back at it this time around. What is it about you?

But they're very mad about their bill going down. You weren't actually in the Senate. it's when the bill went down, but they're still running running ads against you. Like, why are you at the top of their enemies list? Well, it's two things. One, I've spent my career taking on Wall Street, taking on big pharma, taking on big oil, and been successful in many cases. And that's one reason.

The other reason is John Hustead is their boy. He's called the Fairhaired Boy from, I'm sorry, the Golden Boy by First Energy Executives, and there was a $61 million bribe from them to send the speech. Speaker of the House to prison. He's called the face of data centers, and they are immensely unpopular in both parties. All that money, they know he's their guy. They know I'm going to hold him accountable. And I guess it's the perfect storm. So they spend literally tens and tens of millions of dollars. You know, everyone is talking about data centers now. I see it in campaign ads all across the country. But I think the first time I saw a national politician or a statewide,

a statewide politician run an ad about data centers or talk about data centers and stuff, it was you. Why were, you know, so how did you end up sort of ahead of the curve on this and why are data centers such a potent issue in Ohio in particular? Well, I listen to people. You go, particularly in rural, kind of more Trump country, but even suburban areas of cities, you hear about it all the time. And you hear about it because it's an example of a rig system that John Hustead is the guy, as I said, he's the face of data centers, not my words, called that by the media. He got two and a half billion dollars in tax giveaways from the state, from state taxpayers. They come in. There are 225 data centers either built or in the process of being built in

Ohio. They're gobbling up farmland. They're drinking up water. People have no say in their construction and the land and all that. And then they're going to pay higher electric bills. We have some of the highest electric bills in the state. So it's a combination of I just listen to people. And John Hustead is totally like he is. He's totally their guy. I mean, he was a special special interest guy in Columbus for insurance companies for, you know, for kind of everything, Wall Street. Now he's a special interest guy in Washington looking out for Jeffrey Epstein. He's got major dollars way more than any other senator from an Epstein collaborator. He's got a conspirator. He's got money from everybody that is every special interest that you talk about

on this show. And so no surprise there, but it was so clear that people, people wanted a voice standing up to these data centers, making sure their electric rates didn't go up, making sure these tax giveaways end, and making sure that people had a say in their local communities. Do you have thoughts on if and when you're elected what a Senate could do to rein in data centers, put some rules of the road to deal with AI even more broadly? Sure. You put, I mean, AI is the next step. And there is no real consensus there.

But to start with, you take away tax breaks. You require that the electricity costs are paid by the billionaires mostly from out of state. And you give local communities more say because one day I was near Bolling Green, a city, good state universities there just south of Toledo, very good flat farmland. You can almost see Chicago from there. And I was driving at one of the biggest data centers in the Midwest is there. They're building 280 acres, so just gargantuan. And you drive from the city of Bolling Green.

out in the country, and you see family farms everywhere. All of a sudden, you see these cranes and these trucks. And it's just, if you're a farmer and you've had your farm for three or four generations, or you just bought land out there to live or to farm, and it's just stunning how they have taken over without any input at all from local farmers, local, small businesses, local people wanting to live there. You're someone who's been a huge supporter of organized labor throughout your career. Have you gotten pushback from labor unions on your data center position or are you guys sort of come to a consensus?

I haven't for two reasons. One, to mail, they can count on me to make sure whatever jobs there are, their union, good paying, good benefit jobs. The other thing is clearly these workers don't, they don't want their electricity prices going up. They want some local control over where these data centers are in their area. And they don't think that Ohio taxpayers should be feeding these very great. greedy billionaires that run these companies. So they are no different from somebody else that's not working on data centers, union or non-union.

And so they have received very well what I've been saying and doing on data centers. Donald Trump is a huge part of this campaign. He's been in Ohio campaigning. John Houston, I believe, was at the midterm convention. He's appeared to put Trump on the campaign trail. He has tried to kind of sort of not really find some areas of distance. he's kind of talked a little bit about maybe possibly doing something about the Iran war ending. So if you talk a little about the role that Trump is playing in this election, you know,

you are running a state that Trump won three times by double digits. How's it different this time than when you were running in 24? It's different because what's happening. The voters did not vote for this war. Trump voters are not. The voters did not vote for fertilizer prices, almost doubling, diesel prices, doing dramatically up gas prices, food prices. voters didn't vote for me. Voters didn't vote for health care increases on their sub on their

premiums, which caused 160,000 Ohioans dropped their insurance in January and February, and hundreds of thousands more are very fearful of what's going to happen in January. This January, you know, Republicans, they voted on the Medicaid cuts and the big beautiful bill. They put it off until January. Voters understand that and what's already happening in rural hospitals. So it used to has no answer on any of that. He said, his only answer was he said, we've got to end this war. Two weeks later, he voted to continue it. He said, we've got to protect Medicaid. He told a woman with a disabled daughter, he told her, looked her in the eye and said, I will never cut Medicaid. Two weeks later, he voted for the huge Medicaid cuts. So any distance between me, he's, he's, you know,

he's been a guy that's done nothing against this war, done nothing to rein in prices in the grocery store done nothing to rural health care, none of those things. And voters know it. We're making sure they know it. He can run all the ads about nasty stuff and distractions. But he's got to answer in these issues

to everyday Ohioans of all political stripes on how he's done nothing to make their lives better. Nothing. One of the interesting dynamics I've seen in your race is that this is a very anti-incumbent change election. Yet I've seen polling that

that a non- insignificant swat of Ohio and still think you're their senator? Have you run into people on the trail who think you're the senator who are maybe mad about think you're getting reelected or mad at you about what Congress has done or not done that you had no part of

over the last couple years? I've heard reporters have asked me that question. I've heard some voters say things like, you know, I think there's going to be buyers remorse in Ohio, but more importantly, they thank me for the Social Security Fairness Act or the Pact Act named after an Ohio

and to protect veterans coming back to exposure to those gargantuan burn pits in Iraq and Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan. They know what we did to save pensions. But voters, it's clear in this campaign, who's responsible for the war, who's responsible for medical, for cuts in health care, who's responsible for these prices, whether it's fertilizer, whether it's gas prices, whether it's fertilizer prices, or whether it's grocery store prices. So they know who's responsible. I guess anyone who has access to a television is pretty clear about what's going on here. Or online stuff. I mean, our presence online has been really, really effective. And we're, you know, we, and we raise a lot of money online and we communicate with people really well online.

I've been told by the Democratic Committee, our online work, our digital work is the best in the country. And whether it's the best or not, it's outstanding. we have superstars running it. That's great. President Obama's coming to campaign for you, I believe, in the next couple days here. You know, am I here? I do. I do. He, you know, a lot of people running have, in red states,

have sort of issued national Democrats coming to campaign for him. Obama, he did win Ohio twice. What does he sort of bring to the table? What do you hope to get from that event with him over the next couple days here? He brings an excitement to the table. And I think he's coming because he sees, you know, he sees, what I hear and see in Ohio, that people's lives have gotten worse. And Barack Obama cares, he loves this country, he cares a lot about this country,

and he sees people's lives getting worse, you know, whether it's a farmer that lost his soybean, lost his soybean markets, dramatically he talks to farmers or to small business owners. I mean, he hears them as I do, who have seen the tariffs undermine, make it so much harder to run a restaurant. We have particularly small retailers. They aren't people that are regular customers now come once a week instead of twice or don't come at all. President Obama knows all that. He's got a good antenna.

We talk once in a while. He knows that I need the help. I guess you compare President Obama coming in to John Hustad sending a missive out to the tech crowd saying I need tens of millions of dollars and I'll make that contrast any day. Yeah. And I, you know, and I will say also because I know him. He also likes Ohio and he also likes you a lot too. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm happy to do anything he possibly can to help you. All right. Last question. A lot in 12 and eight. Yes. Yes. We were in Ohio a lot from, uh, in 2012, a lot. Well, you're in Ohio, a lot between eight and 16. Yes. Yes. Most importantly,

yeah. So you're there all the time. He loves Ohio. Okay. Last question for you. I want to make this very easy for you. You already did it once, but I just can't emphasize enough to our listeners what the, just the amount of money Republicans are pouring in to defeat you. It's like nothing we've ever seen in American politics. How, if anyone here wants to help out, if they have $5, $10, or even more to help you, where can they go do that? Contribute 10, 15, 20 bucks, Sherrod Brown.com, or volunteer to send postcards or come to

the state to do weekend canvassing, whatever. But Sherrodbrown.com, we need to help. it's going to be, it's 280 million now. It'll be another, who knows how many, most important, probably the most expensive Senate race and history. And we can't have, we won't have as much, but we just want enough to compete. And we're on track to do that. And being with you on this show really matters. So I appreciate that. Sherrod Brown, thank you so much. Good luck over the next two weeks here. And we'll be rooting for you on election night. Thanks so much. That's our show for today. Thanks to Sherrod for coming on. Dan, you'll be back in the feet on Sunday with a conversation with

Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report, one of the smartest analysts in the game. What are you guys going to talk about it says here? I'm guessing the election. Yeah, I meant to take that out of the outline because, like, what, the baseball playoffs? Come on, people. Let's adjust the script.

J.D. Vance's sexual orientation. We're not going to talk about that. I won't promise you that. That's good. Well, everyone should listen because Amy's super smart. And then we will be back in your feet on Tuesday with another POTA of America. Bye, everyone.

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