Pod Save America - "Don't Hiss. Vote." (LIVE from Richmond)

Episode Date: November 6, 2017

The Virginia race, the DNC and Brazile-gate, and the possibility of a shutdown for Dreamers. Lt. Governor Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, Attorney General Mark Herring, and Symone Sanders join Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan on stage live from Richmond, Virginia.

🎵 Yeah! What's up, Richmond? All right. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Simone... I'm Simone Sanders. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

Dan, there was some acute enthusiasm for you right there. I have deep Richmond roots. If you don't notice, Lovett gauges all the applause. He has a very good ear for exactly who it was. So what if I do? Richmond, we have a great show for you tonight. We'll be talking to Virginia's Democratic

ticket. We have Attorney General Mark Herring. Your candidate for Lieutenant Governor justin fairfax and your candidate for governor ralph northam and our friend and crooked contributor simone sanders is with us tonight thanks for letting me come hang out in richmond you guys. Are you kidding? Of course. Yeah. We should probably talk about this race. Oh, my God.

There's a race on Tuesday. First of all, is everyone registered to vote? Is everyone going to be doing phone banking and canvassing? Because if not, you have to leave. If there is a person in this room who isn't going to vote in this election, but could, get the fuck out of here. Alright, let's talk about the race.

I'm not even kidding. Also welcome. Thank you. Great to see you. If you're from Virginia, you're a citizen of this country, and you're not going to vote in this election, fuck out of here. All right, we give everyone a moment to leave. No one has left.

And I've got to tell you, if you're nervous now because you're like, I should leave, but what if he sees? Do it now. Because it's better now than later. Don't sneak out in a few minutes. John, what are we talking about tonight? All right, here we go.

That's how serious this election is. That's how serious it is. I'm not going to obsess over individual polls here. You've never done that. I've never done that before. Growing as a human being. But the trend lines seem to show two things. One, it's very close.

And two, there are quite a few undecided voters right now simone if you were trying to convince an undecided voter to vote democrat on tuesday what would be your final pitch my final pitch would be like look if you care about somebody virginia richmond uh and you want someone to be elected that is going to take care of your bottom line, that's going to help put more money in your pocket and help you put more food on the table to feed your families,

you need to vote for Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, and Mark Herring. I like that. That's simple. It's tight. It's good. John Lovett. And vote down ticket. Yes. I would say John Lovett. And vote down ticket. Yes. I would say... Don't scare him.

If you're looking for racial animus to hide an agenda designed to hand over Virginia's economy to the filthy rich and the biggest corporations and turn the rest of us into indebted servants to an overclass of lobbyists and donors. Ralph Northam is not your candidate. But if you want everything else.

But if you want everything else. Ralph Northam's your guy. Why don't you go with Northam. Donald Trump ran on draining the swamp and like Ed Gillespie is refilling the swamp like Randy Quaid in Christmas Vacation. You know, it's like shitter's full. You know, that guy has lobbied for the worst industries you could possibly imagine starting with Enron, not ending with big tobacco. There's no one who would do a worse job representing average people's interests in Washington or in the Capitol than he would. So there's just no

question here. It's such an obvious choice to me if you actually care about the issue that we care about. Dan? Elections come down to one fundamental question. Who is going to fight for you? And Ed Gillespie, we know when the Republicans are going to fight for you? And Ed Gillespie, we know, and the Republicans are going to fight for lobbyists, corporate special interests, tax break for millionaires, and the Democratic ticket's going to fight for more health care for Virginians, better middle class jobs. So that's the choice on the ballot. Who's going to fight for you? Okay. All right. I think we did it. So as you guys were saying, Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate in this race Is a racist

There we go, let's start off there So He's also, he is a rich lobbyist Super lobbyist is the official term He is a super lobbyist He is a super lobbyist who's used Completely dishonest attacks on race And immigration to gin up the Republican base And to try to depress Democratic turnout He's a super lobbyist who's used completely dishonest attacks on race and immigration

to gin up the Republican base and to try to depress Democratic turnout, regardless of the outcome on Tuesday. This has clearly been an effective strategy in terms of keeping the race close, particularly among independents and non-college educated white voters. So we also know that this tactic, Republicans all over the country are going to repeat this tactic over and over again in 2018 and beyond. How should Democrats respond? At some point, it seems like we're going to need to figure out what the Confederate statues and MS-13 this time. It could be some other immigration issue and some other racial issue the next time, but it's

going to come up again and again and again, And it seems like Democrats are going to need to figure out how to counter this message with our own. What do you think we should respond? I mean, look, I think, well, one, this isn't, I don't want anybody to think this is new and it just started with Donald Trump. Like this harkens back to the Southern strategy way back when. And this is identity politics for conservative right-wing white people. Say that five times while you're trying to take a shower. So I think the answer... Maybe we should just call them white-wing people. You can throw wealthy in there, too.

White, wealthy, white, yeah. White, wealthy, white, conservative. So I really think the answer, in my opinion, for Democrats are to really go, I mean, I think folks are doing a good job of beating back the message, of saying why it's just so, why it's so terrible, why the ads that Gillespie is running is racist, so on and so forth. We've had many folks make a good argument for taking down the statues, the Confederate statues, and the history of the Confederacy.

But Democrats have to focus on the base. And we will be successful, we will win if we focus on the base. If we spend a lot of our time and energy trying to convince people that the Confederate generals were not really American heroes, and some people might argue they were treasonous terrorists. Some might, yes. Some might argue. Some might. Some might argue. If we if we expend our energy trying to do that, as opposed to speaking directly to the issues that the people in our base care about, talking about the economy because the economy is everybody issue, talking about what we as Democrats are going to do for people. That's how we turn folks out. But that means we got to talk to brown people. We got to talk to black people. We talked to working people of all backgrounds. Um, so because some people in America are just

going to respond to the racist message because unfortunately some people are still just racist and racism isn't going away tomorrow. So we should continue to fight it, uh, combat it where we can, but we also have to get this strategy on the Democratic side together in terms of speaking directly to our base. Yeah. I think also nationally, I mean, if you're going to run an entire campaign based on MS-13 and like scaring the hell out of people that people who don't look like you might come to your town and hurt you. That is a strategy designed to depress turnout, to keep people home and to keep votes down. So we need to do everything we can to get people out. That means having a proactive message. That means registering people to vote. And that means protecting mostly people of color in this country from being disenfranchised and kept away from the polls, which has become something we've seen in Wisconsin and North Carolina and countless places across the country. So long-term,

those are very important parts of the strategy Democrats have to put forward to actually win. Yeah. When the governor takes office, very little of his time will be focused on Confederate monuments, right? It's not a big... You're going to think that's in the first 100 days. It's not a big part of the job.

Day two is Colin Kaepernick. And then there's the Papa John's Summit. There's MS-13 Appreciation Day. So while, you know, somebody made this point, and I think it's right, you know, with Ed Gillespie, you get Bush economic policies

and Trump campaign tactics, which is, I would say, a shitty combo. Because if... That's what you got at the Maryland House rest stop. Right, that was number seven at that seafood place. 24 hours later, he's okay. Let's never talk like that again.

Staying in, Chris. Let's never talk like that again. Stay in interest. So, because right now there are pre-drafted pieces of legislation that corporate interests have passed through Republican-controlled states across the country designed to not only disenfranchise voters, but disenfranchise students, disenfranchise workers, disenfranchise consumers. That is ultimately the agenda, whether we're going to have people that stand up for working-class people students, disenfranchised workers, disenfranchised consumers. That is ultimately the agenda, whether we're going to have people that stand up for working class people, or we have someone who uses racial animus, uses grievance, uses lies, uses deception to pave the way for control over

the Commonwealth that will hurt people. And we need to be able to talk about these issues in a way that never forgets that, always comes back to that fight. Because, you know, Ed Gillespie is a lobbyist. He has taken on this Trump persona, but he would have said whatever he had to say to get out of what is ultimately what should defeat him. The fact that his agenda, what he wants to do as governor, is deeply, deeply unpopular and destructive. And so always coming back to that, we've said that a million times, Ed Gillespie wants to talk about bullshit because what he would actually do would not be popular for Virginia. And we need to come back to that over and over and over again. And because they're going to use this across the country, we need to

always go back to that. So let's get down to actual campaign tactics on this, right? Because, you know, we spent the last couple of days in D.C., so we were treated to all kinds of television ads about this race every five seconds. And, you know, Northam's campaign, all of their ads are about the economy. They're about his economic plan. We've all been on campaigns. I'm sure people on his campaign are like, we're talking about the economy all the time, but that's not what people are writing about. So as Democratic campaigns, can we completely ignore these attacks on immigration and race when they come and just focus on economic issues? Do we have to counter them in some way? How do we not get drawn into only talking about that, but also not completely ignore them?

I think, you know, when you think back to when Trump decided to spend his weekend attacking a series of athletes who all happen to be African American, and all the D.C. pundits were like, the Democrats have fallen into Trump's trap again. You know, he's moved the conversation of cultural issues that help him. And we cannot expect to live in a world where we're just going to teach the Republican Party to stop doing racist, divisive attacks. That is what they're going to do as long as this generation of Republicans are in charge. And so we have to learn to win those fights. We can't avoid them. And then do what Lovett said, which is take them on, win them, and then pivot aggressively

back to the issues that we know voters care about. And that is just a fundamental part. And I don't know why the party, and we'll talk the talk about this, but I don't know why nationally the party has struggled with this. Because this is exactly how Barack Obama won two massive landslides. He is black. I don't know if y'all know this. You may have forgotten that. It's been a while.

I just found out today. That's right. He may have the middle name Hussein. They did these attacks against him, and he was able to take them on and move it back to things people care about. And as a party, we have to get back to that sort of strategy. I just think we can't be afraid to talk about it. A lot of times, folks, everyone in circles will say, oh, that's coded dog whistle language. And then when the reporters come ask, or when folks get on TV, we're afraid to say

dog whistle language, racist, whatever. It's okay to say those things because they're true, and then go back to the issues. We just need to speak authentically and frankly about them. I think lots of voters in Virginia specifically would have responded very well to an ad saying basically that Ed Gillespie, as you encoded, dog whistle racist language. This is what he really wants to do. This is what he's really about. He's all talk and all

bluster. This is his stuff. This is his real plan. We need to go vote because this isn't who we are as Virginians. No, it's interesting you brought up... It's not a very complex code. No. But it is. It's real basic to me.

But it is being unafraid to take on the issue directly. I mean, you brought up Obama doing that, right? Like, think about Barack Obama deciding that he wanted to give a very complex, nuanced speech on race as he is trying to win the state of Iowa that's 99% white. And how many consultants on our campaign at the time in a way were like, really, you're going to do this now? And you're going to do it while the Reverend Wright controversy is happening?

And he was like, yeah, because I actually think I need to take this issue head on, talk to people about it in a serious way, treat voters like adults, and then we can pivot. And then, after I've dealt with it, then we can pivot to the economy where we know that's our better ground. You're not pivoting because you're scared. You're winning the argument, and then you're moving on to something else. Yeah. And he won votes from people

that were, in fact... I mean, there's a famous story of somebody who was canvassing, I believe, in Virginia, who knocked on a door right before Election Day, and he said, you know, ma'am, I'm here from the Obama campaign. May I ask who you're voting for? And she said, Virginia, who knocked on a door right before election day. And he said, you know, ma'am, I'm here from the Obama campaign. May I ask who you're voting for? And she said, honey, who are we voting for? And the husband yelled from the back of the room, we're voting for a racial epithet. And like that story is like this, it is horrible, but it's also, you know,

he was the one telling me this story about how he was able to talk about issues in such a way that he was able to reach that man who spoke like that, but voted based on his economic interests. Yeah. He's going to improve my life, even though I'm going to be racist towards him. So Politico had a story today about African-American turnout in this race. It is key. Yes. So I want to talk about this. So Center for American Progress fellow Steve Phillips said that his argument is that Northam should have talked even more about Charlottesville, about affirmative action, criminal justice

reform. Simone, do you think that the campaign has spoken enough about these issues and have they given African-American voters reason enough to turn out on Tuesday? This is what we do really bad as Democrats. Just one of many on the list. Just one of many of the litany of things. Number one, win elections. Win?

Two, email security. Like, it's terrible. And so the idea that to win voters of color, particularly black voters, you have to just talk about criminal justice reform, affirmative action. And Charlottesville is incorrect because if you look at polling that came out from Essence, polling that came out from the Black Women's Roundtable, health care is actually the number one issue for black women in this country. If you look at the economy, I mean, Priorities USA, we have research that we just recently put out. We did a whole economic research project. And across the board, the economy was one of the number one issues, especially for African Americans that we polled.

So I think that folks could do a better job across the board, Virginia included, in speaking directly to the real issues that affect real people and not siloing us up and cutting us off in boxes. Charlottesville doesn't just affect black people in Virginia. Okay? Heather Heyer, I mean, be really clear. Heather Heyer lost her life for being an ally. That's what really happened. Heather wasn't black. So we do ourselves, and I love Steve Phillips, and no disrespect to Steve Phillips, but I think he got it wrong there. I think that we need

investment into turnout for communities of color. So if we want black people to go to the polls and we want black folks to go support this Democratic ticket, we need to speak to black people. That means we need to do some mail. That means we need to do some television. That means we need to have lots of money in mobilization programs. And to my knowledge, only one point five million dollars from outside groups has been spent on the mobilization of African-Americans, that they're going to be the key. They pushed Terry McAuliffe over the hump all those years ago, and they will be the key for Ralph Northup. And before we move off the race, we should also talk about, we mentioned earlier, there is a hundred House of Delegates seats up on Tuesday. Yeah. Virginia clearly loves the House of Delegates. We have some candidates here tonight, actually. People who are running for House of Delegates.

There you are. We're our candidates. Yes. Yes. Yes. Here we go. Y'all got some lit? Where your lit at?

Okay. Uh-uh. See, now, she the only one with lit. This is the problem. Well, so here's something when you're knocking on doors Monday, which you all said you would. So right now, Republicans have a

66-34 majority in the Statehouse that is one seat away from a veto-proof majority. And one thing we should all remember is Terry McAuliffe has vetoed 120 bills since he's been governor. And those bills would have restricted choice, they would have restricted voting rights, they would have restricted environmental protections.

So this is a huge deal that people vote up and down the ballot, because if Ralph Northam loses, if Ed Gillespie is governor, all those things, all that work that Terry McAuliffe did to veto all those bad bills, they're all coming back and they'll become law. So as you think about this race and you think about that on Tuesday, think about the down ballot races, too, because so much is at stake. And if enough Democrats do win in the House of Delegates and Ralph Northam wins, we can also finally expand Medicaid in the state, which would mean another 400,000 people have health care. All right. which would mean another 400,000 people have health care. All right.

So, I want to spend like two minutes on the DNC and Donna Brazile, and then never talk about this stupid fucking book ever again. Is that good? Do not take the bait, love it. Do not take the bait. You guys, you know... Oh my God, they're're not happy it's like a series of balloons so we're gonna cut this in the pot they hiss sometimes okay uh and we're training them out of it uh but uh where did they get they pick this up from you you got some dirty they pick this up

from 1930s germany so so we're gonna well there's a whole book about that if y'all really want to read it. So we're going to train it out of them. John's like, please. And we're going to cut this from the podcast because I don't want it to spread it. Keep it in. Keep it in. All right. So we were treated to another excerpt yesterday that said that Brazil contemplated replacing Hillary with Biden because Hillary had pneumonia,

which is insulting, crazy, and not something that she actually had the power to do. which is insulting, crazy, and not something that she actually had the power to do. And then when she gave an interview, after two days of all this, Donna Brazile said she found no evidence that the primary was rigged for Clinton, which is like maybe we could have done this at the very beginning. You know, great. What you going to say, John? Thanks for playing.

You know, you should probably take issue with the words you strung together in the book that made the opposite claim and got everybody spun up but i don't think so i don't think that's so one i don't think that's what she said i think because i was sitting on set when jake tapper asked elizabeth warren did she think the elections did she think it was rigged and she was like yes, yes. And I was like, no, I'm going on next. No, what are you saying? I did the same thing. I was like, what are you saying? So I think that helped exacerbate these rig claims. What

she wrote in the excerpt was, was there rigging? And I think rigging is a bad word. Maybe we should just strike rigging from our lexicon. Save rigging for like lobbyists and Wall Street. Save the rigging. So maybe we Wall Street. Save the rigging. So maybe we shouldn't just talk about rigging,

but I mean, look, it's no secret to anybody on this stage or listening today or in the room that some people had their whole feet, hands, foot, thumbs, eyes, and ears on the scale at the Democratic National Committee in 2016. Did that contribute to change the outcome of the election?

No. I worked there. Okay. I can tell you that we did some stuff that caused us not to win. Okay. I mean, just a few things that happened. Um, but look, I think Donna Brazile is entitled to tell her story from her vantage point. Folks may not like her story from her vantage point, but it's her story and let her tell her damn story. If you don't want to read the story, don't buy the book. I think I agree with that completely. I agree that it's important to hear from her, especially if there are parts of how the DNC operated in the primaries that needs to be fixed for the future to make sure it's transparent and trustworthy in the future. She also has a tremendous amount

of experience and expertise. She deserves to be heard. She deserves to talk about what she wants to talk about. I take issue with the way she did this, with the way she rolled it out, and I think that she would have faced a lot of unfair criticism if this book came out on Wednesday, but it wouldn't have been criticism from me. I have a problem with doing this five days before an incredibly important election.

And I am not somebody that is a knee-jerk. I agree with you. The problems inside the DNC need to be fixed. They need to be brought to light. They need to be addressed because it's important for the party moving forward that there's transparency and openness and that people outside of the traditional establishment world have a voice and are treated seriously and like adults with a seat at the table

and not just someone to be placated, not just to be appeased, not just to be dealt with. Totally. Did you catch some straight shooting? Yeah. Widely. I think he was respected on both sides. I don't do another kind of shooting.

All right. I'm not touching that. Dan, do you want one last word on this? I agree with both Simone and Lovett in the sense, I worked for Donna, I've known her for a very long time, and I am not disappointed she decided to tell her story. I'm just disappointed she decided to have her book

come out on election day when Democrats should be focused on something else because Donna is a very savvy, very important leader in our party. And the Donna Brazile that I worked for would never do anything that would distract Democrats from a very important election. Yeah.

All right, we're done. We're done with the results. That was a little more than two minutes. Let's talk about what the next five weeks in Congress are going to look like. They still ain't going to be able to get anything done. It's called the Duma now, John. This is an opportunity here. It's called the Duma now.

It's a Russia joke for the non-nerds. So Republicans are very excited to pass their trillion dollar tax break for the rich slash tax hike for the not so rich by Christmas. Merry Christmas. Whatever happened to good old fashioned booing? I don't know. We're bringing it back.

It's Lovett's fault. He yells at them and then they hiss more, and then it's become a whole thing now. Got it. It's been going on for months. Yeah, we've got to figure it out. It's a deeply unhealthy relationship, but that's the kind of relationship I love.

But... It's loose. So they want to get their tax cut passed. They also have to pass a funding bill to keep the government open by december 8th and despite having majority in the house and the senate republicans do not have enough republican votes to keep the government open on their own they need democratic votes already last week kamala harris elizabeth warren bernie sanders have said that they will not vote for any spending bill unless trump keeps his promise to protect the 600,000 Dreamers at risk of deportation and offer these young Americans

a path to citizenship. Tommy, should all the Senate Democrats make the same pledge, even if it results in a government shutdown? Yeah, Senate Democrats should pledge to uphold Donald Trump's priority to protect the Dreamers. It's a no-brainer for Senate Democrats should pledge to uphold Donald Trump's priority to protect the Dreamers. That's a no-brainer for me. There we go. He wants to save them. He cut a deal with Chuck Schumer.

We all read about it in the press. Lovett, is this, Lovett, originally Trump said he'd do a deal with Schumer for the Dreamers. He obviously went back on this. Is this normal politics? I know you think it might be normal politics. You might have said the past.

Let's see. I think that Democrats should say, you want to pass a bill that doesn't help the dreamers like you promised? You people have at it. We need our votes. We're right here. We just want the dreamers protected. And if we're up to me, I might throw in stabilization for health care.

But no. I was going to say, we have a list here. The piece of leverage that Democrats have here, there's Obamacare subsidies, there's fully funding Obamacare, there's the full reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, there's making sure that Donald Trump does not get his fucking wall funded in that bill, there's relief funding for the many places in this country that have been hit by hurricanes, including Puerto Rico.

And there's ensuring that Planned Parenthood is not defunded. So, Dan, what's the strategy? Should we ask for all of it? Yes. I mean, here's the thing. Democrats are not shutting down the government. I wish we could, but are not shutting down the government. I wish we could, but we cannot shut down the government. It is Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell's job to fund the government. And unfortunately for them, they can't do their fucking job. So they

got to go to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and ask them to do their job. And the price for that should be very high. If we say we want all these things and then the Republicans can somehow muster the votes, then they have pulled that together. we we have all the leverage here and we should use it and if the government is shut down it's because paul ryan mitch mcconnell and now trump couldn't get their shit together it's not on us yeah we should take a maximalist position yeah we have to be willing to play hardball look i think for far too long democrats on the hill have been uh like the house has been on fire and we're still looking for the keys going to the front door instead of like breaking the freaking window and jumping in and just're still looking for the keys to go into the front door. Instead of like breaking the freaking window

and jumping in and just doing what we need to do. So break the damn window and play hardball. Look, this is Donald Trump in a situation that Democrats and Republicans have been in many times in the past, which is you need, there are some must pass pieces of legislation. Republicans want to spend less. Democrats have some key priorities.

Republicans want to fight those priorities. And we've had shutdowns in the past over these kinds of issues. Donald Trump is not a normal president. He's not going to do this the normal way. But we should play this. We should just play this by the book. If we demand these five things, maybe we'll get three of them. Maybe we'll get none of them.

Well, if we get none, we shouldn't be voting yes. We won't vote yes. They can do without us. But let me play this out for a minute. So the government shuts down. Now it's Donald Trump. Nothing is normal, right? So the government shuts down and maybe he thinks, I don't really care. And then his message is going to be, Democrats are shutting down the government in order to help illegal immigrants. And you know what? I'm going to go on television and say the Republicans are literally in charge of Washington right now. Both chambers of Congress and the White House. And they can't get anything done. And you should all vote them out in 2018.

Good. All right. I like that. That's exactly right. There have been shutdowns in the past, but they've always been in times of divided government. There is a Democratic president and a Republican Congress who can get their shit together. And so this is not on

us. We should be very strong about this. And look, Donald Trump's approval rating is in the toilet. We have all the leverage here. Do not be scared. Push for everything we can. We may not get five, but I bet we get three. Right. And the other thing too is there's two possibilities.

Either there's no vote, and they never call a vote, or they call a vote, and they don't have enough Republican votes, and some Republicans either don't vote or vote no. Right? There's no way for them to get out of this without it being clear what happened, which is there's going to be a bipartisan consensus, and it's going to be for fucking no. So there's no way for them to get out of that problem.

I'm glad we had this conversation, because I just want to make sure, like, Democrats should not be on the defensive about this when this government's on the... We should be out there and be like, we are fighting for health care and young American immigrants. We're sitting right here.

We're sitting right here with all the votes you need. We're right here. We got all the votes. If you want our votes, we'll just start handing out votes. We got tons of votes. We got votes up the... We live in this time when... We We live in this time when we live, like living in this time when nothing gets covered for more than five minutes. So at least if we shut

down the government over an issue we care about, like the dreamers, the press has to focus on it for that period of time where we're talking about the shutdown. We can elevate things that we know we win on in the polls and prevent him from distracting us with whatever he tweets about tomorrow. It's like, oh, we're, oh, Donald Trump is going to be going crazy and blaming the Democrats, and we're going to be out there being like, yeah, you know, we're just here trying to open the government, help children, and lower health care costs. And by the way... Oh, I'd hate to be on that side.

And by the way, as a side benefit of all this, it's going to be very hard to get tax reform done by Christmas and have them pass their tax cut if their government is shut down. Somewhere the Mercer's shivered. Somewhere Donald Trump just decided to buy a cheaper hunting rifle. Junior, that or whatever. That's something to look forward to. Lovett, I think we have a game now that you want to play. Oh, yeah. Are you ready for the game? Here, you guys slide over. Yeah, we'll slide over.

Everybody ready? I'm ready. Now for a game we call Ed Gillespie is a scummy D.C. lobbyist hellbent on handing Virginia over to corporations and donors who will turn Virginia's workers into powerless interchangeable servants.

We've never got so many words on the screen before. Is there somebody out there who would like to play at Gillespie as a scummy D.C. lobbyist, help ban and hand Virginia over to corporations and donors who will turn Virginia's workers into powerless, interchangeable servants? Love it. Make sure it's someone who's been knocking on doors

and is going to knock on doors. All right. You have to be from Virginia, and you have to have been doing your part. All right? She's out there. Come forward. Come forward. What you have been doing your part. All right? She's out there. Come forward. Come forward. What have you been doing?

That was too indecisive. I want something. Have you been doing a lot? You know what? That woman, are you wearing merch? All right, cool. You're wearing merch. Come on down. Didn't quite get the idea there.

Lover, ask her what she's doing tomorrow. I'm sorry? What are you doing tomorrow? Tomorrow, I am knocking on doors with my mom, who's over there, and my nana, who's not here, in Richmond. Perfect. Hi, what is your name? Emily. Emily, how old are you?

25. And we're calling her Nana? You better knock on a lot of doors. She'll be there forever. Okay, that's cool. That's cool. All right. So it was Emily? Yes.

Are you ready to play the game? Yes. Okay, here's how it works. I'm going to read you questions about the various interest corporations and groups that Ed Gillespie and his firm have lobbied on behalf of, which he doesn't want to talk about. It will be your job to figure out which is the real answer and which are the comical fake answers. Some of them will be more obvious than others,

if you've seen any of this happen before. I've never heard a show, so... Okay. Question number one. Gillespie lobbied on any of this happen before. I've never heard a show, so... Okay. Question number one. Gillespie lobbied on behalf of this industry to shield its companies from being sued for damages because of untold harm. Was it...

The Consortium for Arcade Claw Machines, because you can never get the prize. The Candy Crush Lobby, because adults look ridiculous playing their games. And I want to just pause and say, any of you, you look ridiculous. Simone? C, the tobacco industry. No way, that can't be real.

D, the Papa John's Lame Excuse Institute. Emily? Thank you, I would not have known. I'm going to go with the tobacco industry You're one for one He did Lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry Also took on a cancer interest later Which is sort of like arming both sides

Straight shooter, Ed Gillespie Oh, I like her Straight shooter, Ed Gillespie. Whoa. Oh. Oh, I like her. I like her. I'm so sorry you've lost. You know what? I'm going to stand up for women. She's going to continue to play.

I'm with Emily. I stand with Emily. Fine, fine. Hashtag we stand with Emily. Hashtag we stand with Emily. We stand with Emily. We stand with Emily. Question number two, fine. Hashtag we stand with Emily. Hashtag we stand with Emily. We stand with Emily. We stand with Emily. Question number two, Emily.

I mean, I don't know why you'd pick a fight with me this early in the game. Oh my God, I love you. Question number two. Gillespie's firm received a huge sum of money to lobby for tax breaks and favorable regulations on behalf of a company that helped precipitate an economic crisis before collapsing in scandal and ruin. Was it... A. Lehman Brothers?

B. Blockbuster Video, which didn't cause an economic crisis, but we do miss it. C. AIG, Bear Stearns, or many others because it's insane how often this happens. D. Enron. Enron Ed. It was.

It was Enron. $700,000. That was good branding. Enron Ed. Enron Ed. It's his actual name. People call him. That's the thing.

It's great. It's a whole thing. Very cool. Where are you going to knock on doors? Tomorrow at 9 a.m. Where? Where are you going? Oh, where are we going?

We'll go wherever you go. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Cool, cool, cool. Good answer. Question number three. Gillespie's firm worked on behalf of financial companies

and against the interests of college students in a way that is comically sinister. What exactly was he trying to do? Was it A, stop grants

to help low-income college students and to lower student loan interest rates? B, make student pricing for movies and theme parks illegal. C, require classes to start before 9 a.m. Oh.

D, require a 4.0 GPA to buy beer in college town. Oh. I have to go with A. Nailed it. It was A. It was A. He tried to stop taking money from a subsidy that went to banks to go to A. Nailed it. It was A. It was A. He tried to stop taking money from a subsidy that went to banks to go to

low-income students and to lower interest rates. And I took a class that started before 9 a.m. And I went once. Emily, you're doing wonderfully in the game. Yes, thank you. And even though we are enemies,

I have to applaud your success so far. What does Emily win? Parachute! Emily wins a sense of accomplishment and pride. There's a sham, Emily. Walk away now. And a victory on Tuesday. And a victory on Tuesday.

And a parachute gift card. All right. We can rustle one up. Question number four. Gillespie's lobbying firm took on a client with the goal of opposing animal welfare regulations. Who were they lobbying on behalf of? Was it A, Big Accordion,

to block regulations that ban monkeys from playing instruments at the circus? B, Big groundhog to keep Puxatawney Phil imprisoned in Pennsylvania. C, big doodle to allow certain podcast hosts to malign dogs that are in fact angels. London is an angel. But so is Leah. What? Yes.

Look, we love London and whatever John's dog's name is, which we forget. Some people have to use their dogs as political footballs to burnish their reputation. Others don't have to do that. You know what I can't stand? I can't stand when someone goes to ad hoc attacks because he can't stay focused on the issues. Emily and I have a secret tape that we'll be releasing. D. The pee tape.

The pee tape. P is for pundit. Look, there are many people out there who have debunked the notion that pundit peed on a rug at the office and these rumors of some kind of dossier vis-a-vis a pee tape are unfounded. I guess we'll find out if he's a straight shooter.

Yeah, Mark Elias funded the dossier. All right, just to refresh where we're at. He worked for a client opposing animal regulations. It was either Big Accordion, Big Groundhog, Big Doodle, or... D, Big Pate. To block regulations that would restrict force feeding of ducks and geese for foie gras. I have to go with D. Because the other ones are too crazy?

That is correct. It was. That's insane. It was. He did. He lobbied on behalf of Big Foie Gras. And because, you know, for the ducks. There's not enough people fighting for Big Foie Gras.

Because when you're protecting a statue from getting torn down that celebrates a Confederate monument, you need to have some pate. Basically. Because that's what they ate during Reconstruction when they were throwing up these statues anyway. He's a populist hero. Why will we attack our...

Why attack our history of eating force-fed ducks? Emily, I have good news. You have won the game. horse-fed ducks. Emily, I have good news. You have won the game. For that, you get a parachute gift card. Thank you for doing your part to canvas and knock on doors.

Guys, give it up for Emily. Give it up for our panel. All right, guys. When we come back, we will have an interview with your Democratic Ticket. We are very proud to welcome to the stage Your Democratic Ticket. We have Attorney General Mark Herring.

Justin Fairfax. And Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam. Thanks for stopping by. I know you guys are busy. Glad to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So all the ads have been run. All the campaigning has been done. You're talking to a Virginian who's undecided about who to vote or whether to vote.

How will life be different for that person in a world where the Democratic ticket wins versus one where the Republican ticket wins? Well, first of all, there's a tremendous contrast, one of public service from me versus a Washington lobbyist now with a Virginia address. So there's a large contrast there. But you know, as we go around and talk to Virginians, number one on their list is they want a job that they can support themselves and their families with. They know that they can't do that on $7.25 an hour. So we definitely need to all work together to raise the minimum wage. We also, you know, we need to know that our children have access to world-class education,

workforce development of the 21st century, and we've done a lot of great work in that area. And then, you know, finally something, as people may know, I'm a physician. No individual, no family should be one medical illness away from financial demise. And so we need to make sure that all Virginians have access to affordable and quality health care. And then something that is so important to all of us as Democrats and especially to millennials is inclusivity. I mean, we need to welcome people to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Our lights need to go. Our doors open. Justin, do you want to?

Yeah, well, thank you all so much for having us. Hello, everybody. How are you guys? Hey, Richmond. Thank you guys so much for having us. I think Ralph hit the nail on the head. We are a party that's focused on making sure that everyone has a true shot at the American dream, that they can rise no matter where they start, what their last name is, where they were born, the color of their skin, who they love, what zip code they live in. And that's really the dream that we have for every single person here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

And our ticket has been focused on that message of growing Virginia's economy, providing people with economic security and opportunity. Ralph mentioned raising the minimum wage, but also getting people into these higher-paying, what we call middle-skill jobs. There are 175,000 of them open today. If we can get folks into community colleges and apprenticeship programs, they can fill them. They pay on average between $30,000 and $50,000 a year to start. And if we were to do that, it would be an additional $1 billion in income for Virginia's families. And so that's something that we're focused on. And also expanding Medicaid for 400,000 more Virginians is one of the keys that we are focused on as a ticket. And having a humane set of policies where we accept people and we make sure that we celebrate the diversity that exists here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We want to make sure that Virginia is open and

welcoming, and Ralph hit on that. And we also have some evidence from the last three and a half years of what a Democratic administration looks like. They have reduced the unemployment rate from 5.4% to 3.7%, brought in 215,000 new jobs, $18 billion in new capital. When Democrats get elected, as Ralph says, good things happen. So we want to make sure that we do that again this year. Good evening, everyone. Mark. Well, I believe the Attorney General is the people's lawyer.

That's lawyer. And to me, what that means is the Attorney General should be looking for how to use the law and the responsibilities that come with the job to help my fellow Virginians. And that's what we've been doing for the last four years. That's why we brought Virginia into the fight for marriage equality.

And that's why when there was the second major legal challenge the affordable care act which was a case filed right here in virginia and my predecessor had taken the side of the plaintiffs who would have taken away health care from hundreds of thousands of virginians many of them had health care for the first time in their lives we came in we threw that brief out we fought our own on the side of Virginians, we went all the way to the Supreme Court, and we won. We're doing things like leading the charge on the state's heroin and opioid epidemic, and transforming how Virginians respond to sexual and domestic violence.

And now in this, and should I say, he who shall not be mentioned in this age of Donald Trump, he's sort of added to my work list, you know, my to-do list a little bit. But, you know, it's also standing up to the worst excesses of the Trump administration, like with the travel ban. I joined our governor, Terry McAuliffe,

at Dulles Airport immediately after it came out and saw the chaos, saw families being ripped apart. So we went into federal court. We got an injunction to block it, and we're continuing to stop those kinds of excesses. When he crosses the constitutional boundaries and legal lines and Virginians are hurt, we're not going to hesitate to stand up to that. And those are things that my opponent would never understand. He would undo all of that progress, and we can't let that happen here in Virginia. I appreciate your caution in using the president's name, because if you say it three times, Kellyanne Conway magically appears. So, you know, we've been in D.C. over the weekend.

We've been watching the television ads. And the Republicans want to focus this race on divisive issues around immigration, Confederate monuments, whether Colin Kaepernick sits at stands or kneels. Confederate monuments, whether Colin Kaepernick sits at stands or kneels. And so as we're in the final stretch here, how do you guys plan on ensuring the conversation is focused on the issues that are core to your campaigns and matter to Virginians? Well, you know, we just are staying with a positive message. And to your point, our opponent has been very divisive, just continuing to promote the hatred and the bigotry. He's cut out of the same cloth as Mr. Trump. He's, you know, he's a Washington lobbyist. Now he's Donald Trump's chief lobbyist. And that's not the Virginia way. We don't promote hatred and bigotry here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But if I could make a point, you said

earlier, what would change with Democrats? You know, we had another tremendous tragedy today in San Antonio. And how many more tragedies do we have to witness before we as a society stand up and say enough is enough? And I just want to make the point I heard Emily out here earlier talking about knocking on doors and making phone calls. And that's the way we're going to win this election on Tuesday. But, you know, I tell people all the time, all three of us, we're more than willing to sit down and believe in our principles and values, but be open-minded in others. But there are some times when you can't change people's minds. So what we need to do this year, when we can't change people's minds, we need to change their seats. And that's what we're going to do on Tuesday.

that's what we're going to do on Tuesday. So Dan mentioned some of the ads that Gillespie's running on immigration and they're misleading and even other Republicans have criticized him for this. You talked about inclusivity as being extremely important to you. Some people, you know, have been disappointed that you seem to concede part of the argument on immigration by saying people, you know, have been disappointed that you seem to concede part of the argument on immigration by saying that, you know, you'd ban sanctuary cities. How can you assure people who want to vote for you that your immigration policy would be both smart and humane? Well, first of all, there are no sanctuary cities. And, you know, my opponent admitted that in the first debate. So this is all, again, just more of their rhetoric to scare people, to promote the hatred and the bigotry. And, you know, it started off with Mr. Trump after he was elected by imposing the travel ban, the Muslim ban.

And that's done nothing more in Virginia and in this country than to promote fear mongering. People are living in fear. People are living in fear. Children are living in fear. And that's not the country that I'm proud of. It's not the country that I served eight years in the Army to protect. And so, you know, we will do everything, again, to make sure that our immigrants and Mark and Justin and I have been at Dulles Airport to make sure that they feel welcome here in Virginia. You know, the United States is a country of immigrants. That's what makes us great. It's not Donald Trump. It's immigrants that make us great. So we will continue to do everything that we can. And obviously, I don't want to pass the buck,

but you know, the Congress needs to step up and do their job and pass comprehensive immigration reform. And it would deal with a lot of these issues that you're asking about with sanctuary cities. But at the end of the day, we don't have sanctuary cities in Virginia. So it's a political ploy on their part. Lieutenant Governor raised the tragic shooting in Texas today. And it's just yet again, you know, we wake up to learn about these horrible mass shootings happening in this country. And then we also know about all the other deaths by gun violence that don't get as much coverage. And so maybe starting with the Attorney General, I'd like to know what your plan is to deal with gun violence here in Virginia. And what the difference would be between whether the Democratic ticket here gets elected or the Republicans win.

Well, those those are horrific tragedies like what happened today. And, you know, I can't even begin to imagine the grief that so many families are now having to experience. And our heart goes out to them and to the victims of the shootings. But there are things we have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough to stop these from happening? And the answer is we are not. And we have been working for universal background checks. And that is, you know need we need this it is a common sense measure that helps keep guns out of the hands of criminals and and dangerous people and we had a one gun a month Doug Wilders Governor Wilders one gun a month law in Virginia that worked well for for 20 years was recently repealed and and now it's harder and harder to catch and prevent gun traffickers.

Not long ago, there was a sting that caught some gun traffickers, and they were mocking Virginia's laws, saying that they could go into a gun shop and buy 25 guns any day of the week. And so we need to do more as an office, as an attorney general. I've taken the office from one that did almost no gun crimes to one that prosecuted over 100 last year alone. But we can only do so much on the enforcement side without stronger laws, and we need to keep working at it.

Make sure we get it. Justin, you'd be the second African-American elected statewide in Virginia since the Civil War. Of course, you know, a few months ago we saw what happened in Charlottesville. We've seen Ed Gillespie running ads about Confederate statues. You've said that when it comes to race, people are more interested in ideas than identity. What ideas do you think can address racial inequities while still building the kind of cross-racial coalition that we need to govern effectively? Absolutely. Well, you know, this issue around monuments, which you mentioned, is something that the other side has tried to use cynically.

And let's just be clear. Everything that they're running on is a distraction from the issues. Every single item that they have picked has been one that's meant to divide, that's meant to take people's attention away from our strong economic message, our strong message on health care, on including people, letting more folks get to college and community college and apprenticeships. That's exactly where Virginians are focused. And this issue around monuments is another one that they've used to try to distract us. What I have said is that particularly on that issue, that substance matters, I think, more even than symbolism. We have some invisible monuments here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, including the school-to-prison pipeline that we need to destroy, that we need to dismantle piece by piece and take apart. We have invisible monuments like the disparities in health and wealth along racial and socioeconomic lines, and we need to take those

apart piece by piece. So these are the things that people deal with every single day. And so I think we have to stay focused like a laser on addressing those issues that for generation after generation after generation will plague us if every time, two days before an election, we let them let us chase some other shiny object. They want to do this for cycle after cycle after cycle. Ed Gillespie has never had anything to say about these monuments before. Neither has Joe Vogel. Neither has John Adams. They want to use these to fool people, to trick them into voting for them. And, you know, we're done with that kind of politics. And we're going to make sure that we control the narrative in these elections from here on out. It's something that, you know,

you all and President Obama, I think, did masterfully. You had John McCain, and then you had Mitt Romney, and they wanted to make everything about anything except what people cared about. And you beat them pretty badly. We're going to do that again on Tuesday, November the 7th. I promise you. I promise you we're going to do that. Last question, Ralph Northam. Elections are always about the future. Should you win on Tuesday, you become governor. Hopefully you'll have a more democratic House of Delegates. You'll still have a lot of Republicans in the Senate.

What do you believe and what do you want to achieve in those first 100 days? What do you think you can get done? Well, first of all, we need to, I was listening to you all earlier, we need to talk about things that other people don't want to talk about, like women's access to reproductive health care and marriage equality and responsible gun ownership. You know, if I can leave my mark, obviously the economy is so important in Virginia. And Governor McAuliffe, we have all worked very hard building the new Virginia economy. And our unemployment rate is, as Justin said, has gone from 5.4 to 3.7 percent. So I remind people I don't know about you all but I'm proud to be a Democrat and when we elect

Democrats good things happen in Virginia so so the economy is very important and really bringing skills to jobs you know we used to look at look at our jobs as white-collar versus blue-collar now they're new-collar jobs and we're working very hard making sure our colleges and universities are affordable. We have 23 great community colleges, great certification programs, apprenticeships. We've expanded the high school curriculum to bring more attention to vocational and technical training. So the workforce and the economy are important. But, you know, if I can leave my mark, I'm a physician and there is nothing harder for me to see either a child or an individual that has to make a decision of whether to stay home or whether they can go see the doctor. And health care is a right. It should be a right. And that's what I'll promote.

So I'll bring that experience to the table. That's great. Thank you so much. Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax Mark Herring, we really appreciate it And we're back Now for a segment we call Your tweets are not enough Here's the deal

I don't know if you've noticed But we're pretty focused on this election In Virginia on Tuesday Paul, your tweets are not enough. Here's the deal. I don't know if you've noticed, but we're pretty focused on this election in Virginia on Tuesday. A lot of you here need to vote. A lot of you here need to do your part to make sure we have a good election night, which would be a nice change of pace. How do we do that, John? Here's how we do it.

We do it by making sure every person in this room who can do something does something. So we're partnering, uh, Crooked is partnering with flippable.org to ensure that all of us do what we can to get out the vote. Uh, you can go to flippable.org slash Virginia to do your part. But before that, I wanted to come out amongst you and make sure that the people in this room are doing what they're supposed to be doing. And so I want to know who in this room is planning to volunteer to knock on doors, to drive people to the polls. You're a candidate. Hi, what's your name? Deborah Rodman. Deborah Rodman. And you're a candidate. I'm a candidate. I'm running for the House of Delegates in District 73. That's in Ryko County, central and Ryko.

Yeah. Against a 17-year incumbent who led the fight against Medicaid expansion. So we're going to help Debra win, right? But no t-shirt for Debra because that's not how the game is played. Hi, what's your name? Hi, my name is Joe. I live in Charlottesville. And what are you going to do? So on Tuesday, I'm going to be a poll observer.

So I'm going to be at the polling place in Crozet from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Well, that's great. I think that's worth a t-shirt. Hi, well, we've met before. What's your name? Yeah, I'm Judy. I'm a college professor who does not give extra credit, but on Tuesday, anybody who votes or helps someone vote or promotes voting on social media gets three points extra credit. Yay! So, I think that feels inappropriate in a way that I like T-shirt.

It was just voting in general. What do we got? What do we got? What do we got? Hi, I'm working at Arlington County. What's your name? Rebecca. I'm working at Arlington County Courthouse at 6am on Tuesday to encourage people to vote the whole Democratic ticket. Great! T-shirt! What else we got?

What's your name? My name is Corey Johnson. Oh, Corey Johnson's a candidate. I love that these candidates, this is hustle, all right? This is not what this was for, but they're using it, and I appreciate it. Thank you. Where are you running?

I'm running for the 97th District for the Virginia House of Delegates. Thank you. Hi. All right. All right, so we're going to come out. We're going to come out to support Corey on Tuesday, right? Yes. Hanover, Eastern Hanover, Western King William, and all of New Kent County.

Okay. They told us it couldn't be done. My district voted 70% for He Who Shall Not Be Named, and they told us it couldn't be done, but we're doing it, and it's going to happen Tuesday. All right. That was great. Again, no T-shirt, but we appreciate it.

What's your name? Hi, my name is Nia. Yep. I'm an organizer for Planned Parenthood. All right, great. Knocking on doors every day. Knocking on doors every day. Quivable t-shirt right here.

Who else we got? What's your name? Susan. How are you? I'm so excited. Nope, nope, nope. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you.

Hi, what's your name? Harleen. Harleen. Proud to be a 70 year old 71 actually grandmother yellow dog Democrat cool movie getting those grandma's out on Tuesday are you I have to tell you there's a lot of people in this room but there was a fire in your eye, and it draw me here. You look much younger in person.

This is cool. It's cool out here. I like it here. I'm going to sit over here with you guys. Hi. We've seen them done most of it. Whoa. What are you are you gonna do i'm with her all right cool what's your name that's a hamby you know my son peter you're a peter hammy's we got a peter hamby mom holy crap i'm sitting over here hi what's your name we didn't plan that comedy comedy yeah and are you gonna help out and make sure people turn out to vote? Of course I will. What are you going to do? I'm in the Nepalese community.

Oh, great. Which is new to Richmond. So it would be great to go out and tell them who to vote for. Fantastic. I mean, I think we ran out of t-shirts like 15 people ago. But the t-shirt was more of a kind of a luxury. You know, it's sort of fun. But you're just happy to be part of it.

Definitely. Cool, cool, cool. Who's calling for me? How do you think this is going to work? How am I going to get to the balcony? I don't know that I can get to the balcony. Alright.

I'm going up. Okay, hold on. Okay, come on, come on. Can you guys still hear me up here? All right, what's your name? I'm Suzanne, but talk to her. What's your name? I'm Sue.

Sue. You very persuasive Sue. Yes, I've been knocking on doors all afternoon for Northern, Gillespie, Skylar Van Valkenburg, and Sanford. Woo! Yeah.

Sue, I'm a fan of yours. You're very intense. You're very commanding. You brought me into the balcony even though that was not part of my... Do you need a ride to the polls? No, I'm not... Listen, I would love to,

but I'm not from here. You're not registered to vote? In Virginia, I am not. Not as of now. You're a teacher. vote? In Virginia, I am not. Not as of now. You're a teacher. What do you teach? High school. Biology this year.

Nice. Nice. All right. Guys, give it up for Sue. I'm already up here, so I don't know what else I'm supposed to do. Anybody guys going to do anything? What are you people going to do? What are you going to do?

Knocked on doors yesterday. At some point, they're going to call me back down. What's your name? Paulette McElwain. I'm the CEO of the Planned Parenthood right here, and we knocked 325,000 doors. 325,000 doors. Pink RVA.

What's your name? Jennifer. I just want everyone to know that Jennifer was not at her table because she was getting three drinks in one session. So you guys, you vote hard and you play hard. Good. I'm back. Hey guys.

What did we originally budget that for? Three minutes? Yeah, I think so. He was going to talk to four people. Flipable.org slash Virginia. When did we originally budget that for? Three minutes? Yeah, I think so. He was going to talk to four people. He didn't want any showbiz. Flipable.org slash Virginia. We have time for about five questions. Evening, y'all. It's more of a question for Tommy.

Tommy, can you explain what the fuck is going on in Saudi Arabia right now? Oh, man. Thank you for the question. This is one of those times where I greatly miss my old job, where I would have access to brilliant people and information and some sense of what's happening. I mean, what we know is that a member of the royal family who's recently been empowered has locked up like 11 princes,

a bunch of current and former ministers, allegedly for a corruption scheme. Although that seems like it might be an excuse. Don't feel bad for them. They're locked up in the Ritz-Carlton. So they're doing okay. And't feel bad for them. They're locked up in the Ritz-Carlton, so they're doing okay. And other luxury brands. Yeah, so there is a huge power struggle happening there.

At the same time, the prime minister of Lebanon has resigned from office, and he did it from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis and the Houthis, who have taken over control of parts of the Yemen government, are fighting, shooting missiles at each other. So the short answer is, I have no idea what's going on. But it is like an incredibly, it's a region that I think experts have looked at for a while,

Lebanon in particular, and thought this is on the precipice of going south in a big way, especially with Hezbollah having so much power in Lebanon. And it's an area where if you had a strong, empowered State Department, you would have them there right now, leading conversations, trying to broker an agreement with the regional powers, and instead it seems to devolve into an ongoing Saudi versus Iran proxy fight. And it's very, very dangerous. That's all I know. Tommy sounds so smart today. Give it up for Tommy. I made up half those words. Mark today. Give it up for Tommy. I made up half those words.

So I'm going to ask the question that I tell my kids to ask from all their favorite people, which is what of all the things, so you're speech writers and you've gathered lots of information and seen and heard from a lot of people. So of all the people or things that you've seen or heard or read or written, what things inspire you the most about what is the best, highest purpose of government? What is the best possible use of this common thing that we all share? And what are some of the things that have inspired you to really think about what we can become? I always think that my best day in government, far was the night that the Affordable Care Act passed. And...

It's funny because I know President Obama has been asked about this too, and he'll always point to it, because everyone says, oh, well, when you got elected in 2008, wasn't that the greatest night of your life? And he'll say, which was nine years ago yesterday, and he'll'll say, which was nine years ago yesterday.

And he'll always say, you know, that was wonderful because it was the chance to bring about change, but it was only the chance. And a couple years later, when we actually passed that bill, when we actually brought health care to all those people, which was something that we had campaigned on and promised for for so long, that actually meant that we did something to change people's lives. And that was the promise.

And I remember, and what makes me so particularly proud about it is there was a moment there where it didn't seem like that we could pass that bill. And we didn't have the votes for it. Scott Brown won the Senate seat in Massachusetts, and everyone thought it was done. And, you know, Obama got a lot of advice from some of his advisors who said, you should pull the bill, because if you keep trying to push the Affordable Care Act,

if you keep trying to push this bill with the politics the way it is right now, you will lose re-election in 2012, and you will not be president again. And he said, you know what? I did not come here to put my approval ratings up on a shelf and have them admired and admire them myself. I came here to do something. And so if I pass, if I push this bill and I lose and I'm a one-term president, so be it, because this is more important. And that always inspires me about politics. And that always inspires me about politics.

Are we all sharing? What inspires me is the fact, because facts first, that everyday regular people can absolutely, truly make a change and change government. We talk a lot about DACA, and President Obama moved and acted on DACA because dreamers and everyday regular people across this country demanded that they do so. We are happy that we have Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. And everyday regular people stopped the repeal from happening earlier this year. I mean, even on the campaign trail last year, we were having a whole conversation about criminal justice reform. Thanks to black activists who identify with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Those were everyday, regular young people that decided to stand up and make their voices heard. And that's encouraging to me. And so I just encourage everyday, regular people to keep doing what they're doing because we can absolutely do make a difference. I've been thinking a lot about FDR's speech to the 1936 Democratic Convention.

Same. It's one of my favorite, if not my favorite, political speech because it spoke to the Depression and what people were going through at that moment, but also what he saw on the horizon, which was authoritarianism and fascism rising in Europe and people who had sold their democracy for the illusion of a living. And he lays out, I think, an argument for what government's purpose is

and why we fought a revolution and why we had to fight that same fight again, not against a monarchy, but against corporate interests and inequality and the economic dislocation and the concentration of wealth. And I think it was willing to be big and to think big about the forces of history. And I think more and more that we're in a similar time.

It's obviously different. The challenges we face are different. But I think about the scale of that, about looking on the horizon. I mean, that's the speech where he talks about the rendezvous with destiny. And I think about that, about just how, about how impossible that moment was that Europe was falling. Our economy was in shambles, uh, and making a sincere case for an active and caring government. I think

that's, I just think it's really important. Cool. Yeah. For me, for me, I think it's less something I've read and more what Simone was talking about, which was I went and started in Iowa about 10 days before the announcement and was one of the handful of people who were there through the full year. And there were points in time where we were getting our asses kicked.

We were losing to Bill Richardson at one point in our internal polls. It was not looking good. Remember that guy? Where is he? I don't know. But it was this big bet that President Obama took that you could win by bringing new people into the process and inspiring young people and people of color in a state that was predominantly white and predominantly old to be a part of a process and to build something and to do it in the most naively hopeful and optimistic way possible.

And we succeeded. And it was, for me, despite all the rest of the campaign and all the successes we had in four years in the White House, it was the most meaningful, powerful experience I've ever had in politics. And that's why every time anyone ever asks me what they should do if they want to be involved in politics, I say do a campaign. Do a campaign in Iowa if you can, because it's a very special type of politics. So the first time I ever met Barack Obama was in January of 2007.

It was my job interview to go work on the campaign. I remember that day. That's right. And when I walked in there to meet with him, I was struck by a couple of things. The first is, in the entire conversation, he never talked to me about how he could win, just about why he was running and what he would do if he won. He wasn't trying to pitch me on, I can beat Hillary in Iowa because she has these troubles here, or John Edwards won't do well in New Hampshire, just about why he wanted to run. And at the of the conversation he looked at me and said the reason

I'm running is it's not that often you get you you get to put your shoulder against the wheel of history and push and like that is something that has been true of what sort of brought us all together to work for him and to sacrifice for him. And it was the animating principle of, you know, so much of what made that campaign and made him special. Hi. Hi. So.

What's your name? Carly. Hi, Carly. Hello. Hi. We met earlier. earlier it's okay I'm forgettable Carly you are not forgettable Carly never say that about yourself this is what I wanted thank you no offense fishing okay here's what we we don't like self-deprecation of that matter but we do love fishing for compliments yeah so we'll allow it yeah okay so um a lot of the problems i run into when i talk with my friends about politics is that it's kind of like

why don't other people agree with us you know and then that's also kind of the response from the other side which is you're elitist like you think you know more than everyone else and like I'm sorry I know how to check my sources and I don't fall you know I don't just being honest like I know how to read a source and I know how to see an ad and pick through it like I took logic but how do you how do you talk to people that don't know those things like I sit down with my family and they're just like why do you talk to us like why do you talk down to us? Like, how can you connect with people and explain to them, like, cut through the bullshit and say? You know what, Carly? I think that's a great question.

And I think we have to get back to a place of understanding, right? So right now, we talk to people in hopes of winning them over to our side, which is actually a really bad place to start. When instead, we should enter into conversations trying to get to some type of point of understanding. Understanding doesn't mean I agree with what you're saying. I used to date a Republican, but he believes Black Lives Matter, so we were like, we can work it out. But... Well, so he said. So he says. I believed him. But I think we have to just get back to a place of understanding. And part of that understanding is knowing when you do enter into conversations with people with whom you think you may know more than, no one is a better expert on their experience

than those people. And so we have to get back to a place of understanding and coming to the table as equals. Even if we don't necessarily agree, even if some of us are more quote unquote professionally educated, we all have something to offer. And that's how we can have a real conversation. Levitt is not a good person to answer this question because he don't understand. But I love him. I was being so good about hanging back then. Hey, I'm Kirsten.

First, I just want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be petty. And I got this, I got a picture with my local representative, Dave Brat. Nice. For sure. Wait. So thank you. What was your name? Kirsten O'Neill.

And you got a picture in your repeal and go fuck yourself with your Republican representative. Yes, I did. So that's wonderful. Thank you for doing that. Why haven't I seen this picture on Twitter? You have, actually. Did we share it? I believe so, yes.

Sick. So many Minchies, so little time. I'll share it with you guys again so thank you for that um my question to you guys is that a lot of what we do with politics it's it's very tribal as we all know how do we get to actually talk about politics with your everyday life because people seem to like that separation between here's my everyday life and then here's politics. And then that's where you get the disjointed beliefs of, I need some kind of government assistance and I'm going to vote Republican. So how do we actually blend that as an everyday dialogue? I think Simone's answer on this was right on.

And Anna-Marie Cox talks a lot about this on her show too, which is sometimes we approach these conversations like you're going to win an argument rather than sit down with someone and first ask them and listen or tell them why you feel what you feel because soon they'll tell you how they feel what they feel. And at least then you can sort of ground this in a place that is personal and emotional and connects

you know not based on stats and statistics but it's actually like why you feel what you feel because politics is inherently subjective a lot of it and I think we need to recognize that and understand and like try to be a little empathetic to people that disagree with us because of the sort of tribalism that

underpins a lot of this. Well I think that's so right which is if you were trying to sit down with someone, the first question isn't what argument you're going to make to them. It's just listen to them, right? Because, you know, Barack Obama would often, you know, he would be in very red parts of America, places where he would get, you know, a small handful of votes. And it would be a conversation, you know, maybe a tornado would hit or a hurricane. He'd have a conversation. he would come away from that saying, the people he met with in this very red community are not that different from the people he was meeting with in very blue communities. Similar concerns about their family, their economic well-being, and trying to understand what brings someone to

the position they are in is the first step to being able to have a real conversation about where they go in their politics. It's especially hard. I understand. I'm glad you asked the question because I think right now it feels like we want to believe that our politics is a competition of values and ideas and we use symbols to represent those values and ideas and we have facts and arguments and policies that sit beneath the ideas and that all fits together. And I think in part because of a pathology that's taken over on the right, in part because of the siloing of both left and right, in part because of all of us being on social media and all of us being hammered with a river of information, I think that hammered with a river of information.

I like that. You should fire me in the past as a writer. If only. But because of that, I think that one of the reasons... What a cut-up. One of the reasons that makes this such a frustrating time is it feels like there's all this symbolism that is so disconnected from the actual impact

of the policies and argument. Look, we're here in Virginia. Confederate statues, minimum wage, these things are not connected. And one of them really, really matters. One of them is really important. It will affect the lives of millions of people. And the other won't. And I think that that's really hard. But I think we don't want to play that kind of politics. We want to always remember that when we talk about our values, about helping people, about a government that works for people, about taking on powerful people to work on behalf of those who don't have a voice, we're not saying that because we want to win the vote.

We're not saying that because we have a giant propaganda apparatus like Fox News. We're saying it because we believe it and we have policies that support it. And I think everything we need to do has to be fighting for a kind of politics that rewards symbols that accurately reflect what people actually care about and what their policies would actually do. And I think it's a really hard moment for polls, how is your own life going to be different if Ralph Northam wins versus if Ed Gillespie wins? Because that gets so lost

in all of the campaign ads and all of the rhetoric and everything else. And we struggle with that all the time. Like, it's fun to talk about politics as the game that it is in Washington. It's fun to do the okay stops. It's fun to make fun of all this stuff. But what we can't ever forget is that all of these decisions end up having an actual impact

on people's lives. And if people lose sight of what that impact is, if they don't understand it, then we can't hold them accountable for the votes and the decisions that they make. They need to know how this is going to affect them and affect their families. And if they can't make that connection, then politics isn't going to work. And so we have to do it on an issue-by-issue basis. And I guess the last thing I'll note is I think a lot of people think, we talk, when we say politics, well, a lot of people are really talking about being partisan. They don't like to be partisan. But G.K. Butterfield, the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, once said, we were talking to the NAACP, and he said, you know, you guys can't be partisan,

but everything is political. Going to the grocery store to get lettuce that is not brown in your community is political. And understanding that that is political, being able to get coughs served when you don't feel well, is all a political decision. If we talk about things being political and not necessarily as partisan, I think that's how you help incorporate into everybody's everyday life. And sorry, I just want to, one of the reasons I think Donald Trump is currently president is because people became so mistrustful about the connection between the words people say, what they promise to do, what actually happens. And so we can't play the same kind of games that the other side plays, too. Hi, my name's Joe. So my question is kind of about the media. So there are a lot of media organizations. I'm specifically thinking of the New York Times, but I guess CNN and Politico could

fit in this category as well, who are doing a lot of really great, really important, serious reporting that we need to value. But they're also publishing some things that are questionable at best, like the New York Times published an editorial that was denying climate change and other things like that. So obviously, we don't want to be like Donald Trump calling everything fake news, but how do we push back when good media organizations that do good work mess up? You call it bad journalism. We need to stop using the term fake news because now anything we don't like or we think is poor

has become synonymous with fake news. And fake news is not stuff we don't like. Fake news is actually like not real news. And so we need to just, I think, destroy the term fake news. I don is not stuff we don't like fake news is actually like not real news and so we need to just i think destroy the term fake news i don't ever want to hear it again um when you see bad journalism call it out as bad journalism yeah and i argue with it you know like i what i what i don't like is oh brett stevens wrote this column that i hate my subscription to the new york times. Like, I'm taking my toys and I'm going home. Like, you just got to learn to argue, you know? Like, talk about why you didn't

like his column. Talk about why you don't agree with Bret Stephens. Have the argument out. Like, we always go right to, and we've all done this, so, you know, hypocritical. We always go right to the media organization. Be like, why did you run this why did you do this argue with the substance of what you don't like and try to make an argument for why it's not the right thing and why you don't believe it i think that's much better if we become the society where we just say you did something i don't like and so now i'm turning you off for good and i'm going away then we'll never we'll never change anything and then we'll also never come to an understanding it's punditry it's sort of like self-righteous punditry. When you say, I think the New York Times shouldn't have run this op-ed, what you're sort of saying is, look, I'm a perfect voter. I know everything. I'm not

influenceable. I'm not part of the debate. I'm observing it. I have all the answers. I'm worried about the other people who are going to see this. I'm worried that it's going to affect their tiny little addled brains. So I'm really looking out for other New York Times readers Which is why I'm urging you not to give your platform over to this person We're drowning in punditry and it affects us all the time Kind of a hat on a hat there, punditry on punditry Punditry on punditry Look, I love your show, I love everything you guys do

What's your name? No, hold on, it's Rick I think there's a butt coming No, I just, although One thing you guys do. What's your name? No, hold on. It's Rick. I think there's a butt coming. No, I just, although, one thing you guys are doing. I love it. Oh, thanks a lot. All I want to say is

you're doing a great service by bringing all of us together. There's something going on here. You guys are bringing everyone together in a community way. I don't know any of these people here, but we're all friends. We all agree. It's very important, but we all have a responsibility as citizens. What I want to say is I think you guys have a tremendous power in changing the conversation.

But what's going on is we're talking to the bubble. And so I'm wondering what you guys have as a conversation, if you've ever had it, about how you're going to change that conversation and escape the bubble. Because you have a tremendous power and a lot of experience, and I think people need to hear that. As someone that's new to the bubble, can I just editorialize for a minute? I think that there—I'm going to do a big punditry on punditry. I think that's a good, interesting question. I do not—or a comment. good interesting question i do not or a comment i don't know if the crooked media or even pod save america is supposed to be the the platform to do like sometimes we need a little self-care for who for what we've got going on right here i think there was definitely um a need for folks

to come out and have like a really frank conversation about what's going on from our side, our point of view. Podcasts are to the left for what radio has been for the conservative right, in my opinion. And so we need this. The bubble kind of needs to wake up a little bit. And I think, in my opinion, that is what Crooked Media has been able to do. They've expanded, they've brought up, and I think they've also opinion, that is what Crooked Media has been able to do. They've expanded. They've brought up. And I think they've also understood that sometimes they have been talking to themselves. Before, you ain't seen little chocolate chips up here. Now we've got chocolate chips.

We've got brown chips. We've got vaginas. There are all kinds of, you know, new folks, new ideas that have been brought to the table. So I think I'd like to speak for all the people who are new to the Crooked Media family to say I appreciate the conversation because I think the bubble actually needed this. There is a need for folks to break down silos and speak to people outside the bubble.

I don't think that's what this is right now. In my opinion, I think that's okay. I think that's hard to top. And I think so much exactly right that this is a bubble. I don't think that's what this is right now. And in my opinion, I think that's okay. I think that's hard to top. And I think so much exactly right that this is a bubble. But like, what is an ultimate hope is that we can help people understand what's happening in a way that allows you to go talk to other people about it. So that when you are sitting at the table with your pro-Trump uncle or your undecided aunt, you are armed with the best arguments that we can make about why they should support the Democratic ticket on Tuesday. And it's not just about reaching people

who might be Trump people or leaning Trump people. It's also about reaching the kind of people that may have not been involved before, who maybe haven't been paying that close of attention, who may be a little turned off by the way the news is covered on television. And maybe this can be an access point for someone to get involved and hear a kind of political conversation. And we never, we don't hide our bias, but we try to be honest about what we think and what we care about. And maybe that can bring people in who didn't pay that much attention before and didn't volunteer

before and didn't knock on doors before and didn't vote before. And those are people outside of the bubble that we can bring in too. I'll be honest. It's something we struggle with because obviously our ultimate goal is to broaden the audience and to reach as many people as possible and not just Democrats, but independents and Republicans and people who have never been in politics before. So that's the ultimate goal. So then you think to yourself, how do you achieve that goal? And I think that the normal way that a media organization might conceive of doing that is, well, we got to have a bunch of Republicans on, a bunch of the Trump people on, and then we'll have it out on the podcast, or we'll have it out on stage. And I don't think

that's worked very well. I think if you watch cable, it hasn't worked very well there. I think it hasn't worked very well in the country. So because that doesn't work, I'm thinking, like, well, how else can we do it, right? And so our new editor-in-chief, Brian Boitler, put this very well in his editor's letter when he first started. And he said, this is a roiling conversation about liberalism broadly defined and defined against the illiberal forces that we're facing right now in Trump and authoritarianism all over the world. And that liberalism broadly defined goes from Simone who worked for Bernie Sanders to Tim Miller who worked for Jeb Bush and John Huntsman and everyone in between. And so we're going to

have this big interesting conversation with lots of debate and lots of argument but we want to make sure that it's honest. And vaginas. And vaginas. But we want to make sure it's honest, and we want to make sure it's interesting and nuanced, and we don't want to make it the same yelling, talking points that we've seen so far.

So that's what we're doing. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. That's a great question. Really great question. Guys, that's all the time we have for tonight. Thank you.

You've been a wonderful crowd. Yes. Go, go, go, go. You too. Go, go, go. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm