Pod Save America - “Drunk dialing for kompromat.” (LIVE from Seattle!)

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

New polls show a majority of Americans now support an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, while the President’s campaign hones a re-election message based in conspiracy and grievance. Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, Dan, and VICE News’ Shawna Thomas on stage in Seattle, Washington. Subscribe to Crooked's new podcast America Dissected: http://apple.co/americadissectedDonate to Fair Fight 2020: http://votesaveamerica.com/fairfight

What's up, Seattle? Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Shawna Thomas of Vice News. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Howard Schultz. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. You know, a lot of people have been upset about Howard Schultz's decision to run for president, but I'll tell you something that bothered me long before. What was that?

It's what he did to the basketball team. to the basketball team. Because. I saw you not remember live the name of the Super Bowl. Because of what he did. What happened? There was a team, and he said it would stay, and then it immediately went to Oklahoma,

where, as I told Dan earlier, they immediately got a man named Kevin Durant. Did I get it? You're a little off, but it's okay. How close? I will say it. You're like 80% there. One of these times,

I'm going to mention a sports thing backstage. It's not going to be real. Why did you tell him that? Because I want to be thinking about it every time. Great prank. Anyway, we have a great show for you tonight. Your Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib is here. Also, we are now over $900,000 raised for Fair Fight 2020.

Stacey Abrams' effort to help fight voter suppression. We're trying to get to a million. We're going to get there. So hopefully you guys can get us there. Maybe we'll get there. Maybe we'll get there. Well, I'm saying we're going to get there. Don't they want to be the ones to get us there?

It could happen tonight. We could say Seattle, put us over the top. VoteSaveAmerica.com slash Fair Fight. You can go there and, yeah, help get us to a million. Just need 100,000. Yeah, that's it. Don't let Portland beat you. Oh, god. Here we go.

And yet another thing. I didn't mean it. I don't mean it. Unbelievable. They're literally going to throw something at you. At least he didn't call you guys the Houston of California like he did to San Jose. That went over really well. Yeah, that didn't go well. When you said Oregon,

oh my god. They lost their fucking minds. Lovitz offended people all along this tour. What will he do tonight? Alright, let's get to the news. There has been a rapid shift in public opinion over the last week as new polling shows that a majority of Americans now

support an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. that a majority of Americans now support an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. Wait, were they as loud as Portland when you said impeachment? Yeah, Portland was a little bit louder, I think. Portland may have been a little louder when he said impeachment last night. I'm just saying. That's a weird catch-up there. According to today's CBS poll, that support comes from nearly 90% of Democrats,

about half of Independents, and about a quarter of Republicans. So this largely tracks with other recent polling, including an ABC poll that was released today that showed 63% of Americans believe it's a problem, either somewhat of a problem or seriously a problem, that the president asked a foreign government to launch a phony investigation into his political opponent that might help Trump win re-election. Dan, why do these polls matter? Why should we care about them? John, as I always say, the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day, unless it's a good poll for Democrats.

I mean, these polls do matter in the short term in two ways. One, the good polling numbers will put steel in the spine of the Democrats who have to conduct these investigations. And that's really important because the fastest way for this to go off the rails is for Democrats to get scared and get divided and start, you know, sharing their inner monologue with the reporters that political about why they're concerned about things. So as long as, so like that part is good. The other part why this is important is the media can only or primarily covers politics

through the prism of polls. So if the polls are good, then the narrative about these hearings will be good. And that's important because we live in this world, the social media world now where everyone's a pundit and the meta narrative really influences things like like in the polls you mentioned some of the movement is democrats moving towards supporting impeachment hearings and now every democrat thinks trump should be impeached but they were holding back from it because they had decided that as a matter of

political strategy impeaching trump was bad yeah when you say democrats you mean like average voters yeah average voters yes we, average voters. Yeah. We are a nation of pundits. We're all pundits now. We're all making judgments. And so if the media narrative about these hearings becomes bad, then you're going to see those numbers change because people are going to get, not on the substance, but on the optics of having the hearings.

Yeah, I noticed it today when there was a New York Times story about Democrats, House members going home and talking about impeachment and sort of like the fine line they had to walk. And they started interviewing some voters. And one voter was like, you know, I support impeachment, but I heard that it's very divisive. And even people who think that Donald Trump deserves to be impeached still think it could be politically damaging. So I'm worried about it.

Like the person might as well have been on a Meet the Press panel. Yeah, we live in a self-perpetuating metanarrative. Yes, that's what I'm saying. So when voters hear that now more Democrats are for it, it's actually going to move them. But part of that media narrative is that that is something that Nancy Pelosi has projected, actually. That she remembers 1998 and Bill Clinton

and what happened to the republicans after that they won they won the presidency yeah they won the presidency but but it's but she has helped craft that narrative oh for sure and and we're not gonna not cover the speaker of the house and so yes i can see what you're saying but it's also because that is also what some of the politicians are saying to us as journalists right Right, like that's the cycle, right? Which is the poll numbers say one thing, the politicians say it, the press reports it, or the poll numbers are influenced by that,

and it goes on and on. It's not that the press shouldn't cover it, but in the era of Facebook and Twitter and the way cable is right now, the political conversation is influencing the facts on the ground in a way in which it never has before. So Shauna, not only did the poll show that 90% of Democrats are for impeachment now, it also said 90% of voters who voted for a Democrat in 2018 in the midterms are

for impeachment. It also said that people now list impeachment as one of the top issues they believe Congress should prioritize right now. It's tied with health care. What do you think accounts for this shift? And what, if anything, do you think those sort of moderate swing district Democrats, Democratic politicians, will take away from that? Well, so I think there's two things. I think part of what accounts for the shift is journalists like myself, and that the way this is being covered now, because, and in some ways I'm going to insult myself while also trying to promote myself.

That's the way to do it. Exactly. The Ukraine narrative is a much easier story to tell. And that's the same thing that Democrats are saying too, like pretty openly, that it is much easier to say, okay, there's this, and then the White House released something

that resembled kind of a transcript, and then people read it and were like, well, this seems weird. Maybe someone should investigate it. I just summed up the story for you. That's an easy one to write. And so I think people are seeing that, and it's also people who are paying attention to this, and they're like, okay, maybe we should actually investigate this. I think in terms of polling and what this says to those Democrats

who won in those sort of purple districts, it gives them cover to do kind of what they did, especially the seven national security Democrats who went ahead and wrote that op-ed to say, okay, I can go to my district and I can have this conversation and I don't have to avoid the conversation. And so that will allow them to sell the idea of impeachment more. But I think the important thing about the polling is, and I brought notes for this one,

because I went back and looked at the NBC Wall Street Journal poll where they've asked about impeachment inquiry. In June of 2019, they were at 27% of Americans were pro. But May of 2019, it was 17%. And so the important thing about polling, and I think Dan would agree, is trends. And I think the trend going up, that is a good cover for Democrats to go ahead and do this and not think as much about the politics. It's also an ongoing crime, right? Which makes it different than the Mueller report.

They are actually committing the crime right here, right now, on Sunday shows, right? You're just talking about Rudy Giuliani. Hiding in plain sight. Crimes against the English language, crimes against the country. But that is different than what happened in Russia. I also think an important piece of this is the flip side to the everyone's a pundit. It's a positive lesson, which is we've said we were banging our heads against the wall for a long time saying, whatever you think about impeachment, it is certainly bad politics to have the Democratic position on impeachment be, should we? And so we spent all

that time where the Republicans said he should never be impeached. He's so good. And the Democratic position was, we're not so sure. Maybe it's good. Maybe it's bad and sure enough it pulled terribly strengthen leadership But so unequivocal leadership shows up and says it's time for an impeachment inquiry There's unity amongst Democrats by the time you get to three or four days later, which is you know, pretty quick for Democrats and and Lo and behold that unity Produces a change in the polling. Now, also, let's just be careful.

In two months, the polls may not look like that. That's true. Let us have this moment, Shauna. Let us have tonight, Tommy. Trends, that's all I'm saying. None of us know how this is going to play out politically. I've debated it in my own head for months and months now. But what we do know is a couple of things.

One, Kevin McCarthy, the leader in the Republican House caucus, was on 60 Minutes tonight and was pressed on Donald Trump's call to the president of Ukraine. And it was one of the worst interview performances I've ever seen in my life because he clearly doesn't want to have to defend this. So suddenly Democrats are playing offense and all the Republicans in the House and the Senate that are vulnerable have to defend what's happening. The other thing that's happening is that this is making Donald Trump lose his fucking mind.

He... I don't know that we want to cheer for that. He, like, just like an hour ago, retweeted someone saying that there will be civil war in this country if impeachment happens, right? Like batshit crazy stuff. This morning, he retweeted 18 attacks on the weekend anchor of Fox and Friends. That is not the behavior of a person who feels comfortable about his political situation.

A very stable genius. So we're on offense here. All of their, they are flailing about for a response. They're attacking Adam Schiff. We're attacking Hunter Biden. We're attacking the Democratic Party.

This is not good ground for them. I feel very comfortable about where we are vis-a-vis Donald Trump right now. So that is right. And I think what Shauna and Tommy, what both of you said, I think in this case, the facts are on our side.

I think that the story is easier to understand. It's more accessible. It's a crime that's happening in real time. But I also hope that Democratic politicians take a lesson from this, that you have more power to shape public opinion by leading and showing political courage than you think. You know, and again, we don't know where we'll be in two or three or four months from now.

And, you know, facts and circumstances could make it more unpopular. But Democrats continuing to, you know, pound on one message over and over again, show unity, show strength, be on offense all the time, can help make this successful. It's not a guarantee, but it can up our chances. And I think even not an impeachment, we are seeing that actually play out in the 2020 election, in that having a message and hitting it, there's a reason why Elizabeth Warren is moving up in the polls. And this is a political thing. She has a message, she has a meme, she has a plan for that, and that is something people respond to.

So I think you have a point. So on the flip side of this, Tommy, only 42% of people in this poll believe that Trump deserves to be actually impeached, with another 22% believing it's too soon to say, and only 41% believe Trump's actions were illegal, with another 31% saying they were legal but not proper. So what does that tell Democrats about their path forward and the work that we have to do here? First of all, it tells me that we pull people on the dumbest questions you find like 500 non lawyers across the

like is this legal or not like oh well I'm not a judge but yes that's illegal yeah um a lot of lawyers in that sample yeah I think ultimately the answer to your question depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to convince the entire country that Donald Trump is a criminal and thus get two-thirds of the Senate to convict him, like we have a long way to go. But I don't really think that's our goal. I think our goal is to convince a significant portion of the country that Donald Trump is corrupt and using the office for personal gain. But the slice that we need to really move, all the Democrats are coming around, but then there are these Obama-Trump voters that we know are sort of in the middle here.

If we can convince them, or at least a percentage of them, that Donald Trump did something really egregiously wrong and that helps us win the election in 2020, that's critically important. I think the other thing you said in the answer to the last question too is right, which is this is distracting Donald Trump and causing him to melt down. In the more days between now and November of 2020 where Trump is retweeting random shark bots about Ed Henry and screaming all kinds of things, that Trump is, you know, retweeting random shark bots about Ed Henry and screaming all kinds of things, you know, that's fewer days that he's not making

an effective case against the Democratic nominee. A thing we know from polling is that people might like a lot of things about him, even like his base. A lot of them wish he would not tweet, that he wasn't so caustic all the time. Even Ted Cruz, coward that he may be, criticized Trump for tweeting too much at the Trib Fest this weekend, right? So, like, it's a well-established

narrative that people don't like that he just flails away on the weekends. I mean, but it isn't great that our president is melting down on Twitter right now. I mean, I do want to just take a step back and be like, he is the leader of the free world and has a lot of access to bombs. I think that's an important point, which is he's got a lot of buttons in front of him that he could take his anger out with, and I'm fine if it's Twitter. No, but today was one of those days, right? Or the Diet Coke button.

He said that Adam Schiff should be questioned for treason today because he paraphrased his comments at a congressional hearing. He took me out of context. Traitor. Traitor. Any given day, that would be the craziest thing that a president of the United States has ever said. And we're just like, eh, you know.

To be fair, Trump has a long-held passion for accuracy and precision. So you can see why this got him. But it does. I mean, I think those numbers do tell us that despite the fact that, you know, the facts are on our side, that this is an easy story, like, it is a long way between now and an impeachment vote, and Democrats have to make a concise, consistent case. And also let people know, to that question about is it legal or proper or whatever

else like this wasn't just something that was wrong but what donald trump did makes him so manifestly unfit for office that he should be the third president in history to be impeached like and that is a higher standard and democrats have to make sure we meet that every democrat who finds himself in front of a microphone for the next several months has to say the words, Donald Trump abused his office to punish his enemies, help himself, and enrich himself. But I think they also have to figure out how to explain,

like, what law applies that if he were just a normal person and not the President of the United States who had to go through an impeachment process, that what they would take him to court for. I think they have to figure out how to say that message. And I'm going to say a name that's probably going to make some people hiss, but I was listening to This Week today and Chris Christie made this point. I'll pause for it.

I love him. But he made this point about if they go too fast, and they do kind of, if they're going to do this, have to go kind of quickly because we run into election stuff, but if they go too fast and they don't explain themselves well, it could end up backfiring. And I kind of agree with him. Oh, I do too. I think that's right. I also, like, we're, you know, we've all, the call is unspinnable.

We're about to do an okay stop where we see how unspinnable it can be. And we've seen a bunch of different messages. The Republicans are all over the place. That won't necessarily be the case even as soon as next week. That number that shows 20% or some 25% of Republicans are open to an impeachment inquiry. Once this machine gets up and running, all of a sudden they come home and this remains a kind of murky 50-50 issue like every other issue in this country. That's another less sanguine possibility that we could end up in, and we should just be prepared for that too. I also think the other important point for Democrats to keep making, and many of them have already made this, is, you know,

the argument from some people who are opposed to impeachment but still think Donald Trump is unfit for office is, you know what, we have an election in November of 2020. That's the time when we can vote him out of office and Republicans in the Senate aren't gonna convict him anyway. The reason that this scandal makes that different is because Donald Trump has tried to, through the crime that he has committed,

he's trying to prevent a free and fair election in 2020. And so the whole hope that 2020 and November 2020 is we can open up, he is going around the world trying to get favors to criminalize his opponent so that he can win the election in 2020. And the only thing you can do to stop that is to, you know, the best chance you have to stop that is through the impeachment process.

He's drunk dialing for Compromont, so we've got to nip that in the bud. He's going to be surprised when Julian Castro is his opponent. Love it. One piece of news that's not great for Joe Biden in this poll is that only 28% of people believe that the allegations against the vice president and his son do not deserve further investigation. Has the media done a good enough job debunking these completely false allegations

of criminality on the part of either Joe Biden or Hunter Biden, and has the Biden campaign? Like what happened there? Yeah, so, you know, I do think what we have seen even in the past few days is a lot of journalists who have learned some lessons, but not all the lessons from 2016. We've seen some pretty antagonistic interviews of people trying to represent the Trump talking points, which is a manufactured allegation that Joe Biden tried to get this guy in Ukraine fired to help his son, right? It's actually the opposite. We've all gone over this. Everyone can go over it a million times. They will continue to stir up this false story. The reason that they will do it, and I think the reason you see a poll

number like that is, I think, again, a lesson from 2016, which is they may hype it up. They may make it, they may lie about it. The media may do a terrible job of holding them accountable for those lies, but the reason they want to do it is because they know that underneath it, there's something that's just a little bit squishy and a little bit gross, right? Why is Hunter Biden on the board of this company? You know, he's not an expert, so it's clearly either for respectability politics or influence, and Joe Biden is a man of integrity on this matter. There is no evidence that Joe Biden ever did anything untoward with regard to any of this. But that doesn't stop them because they know that there's enough cynicism out there and enough corruption out there and enough of an understanding that Washington doesn't work for ordinary people, that it is a means of an elite, you know, enriching themselves and their loved ones, that they can go into that cynicism and stir it up and use it against Democrats.

You're 100% right. It is weird that Joe Biden's son got a $50,000 a month retainer to work for a company in an industry he didn't know well in a country he didn't live in. But Donald Trump just made his son-in-law the fucking Middle East peace negotiator. You know what I mean? So it's like, it's a weird

path to walk for them. Because they're trying to drive, but like that's the thing. Like, they know that. They know that as long as they make everyone look terrible, everyone look corrupt, everyone is the worst, everyone is evil, that they can kind of eke out an ugly

victory in the mud. And everything goes back to that. I mean, Trump's strategy has always been, I am never going to convince anyone I'm good. I had to convince everyone that the other guy is just as bad as I am. Yeah. Look, I think this is sort of overcomplicating it, though. Like, you can think that Hunter Biden

getting $50,000 a month to be on this board of a foreign company with no real qualifications is sort of scummy sounding, right? That happens with people all the time, right, who are connected in Washington. D.C. is rampant with that. It's the swampy thing, right? All you have to know is it is a fact that Joe Biden firing or trying to get that prosecutor fired increased the chances that there would be an investigation

into his son's company increased the chances but i would just say if i were the biden campaign i would stop telling that story and i would unload my oppo file on don jr eric right now i'd leave tiffany the hell alone fuck yeah yeah. I would punch them as hard. Why are we leaving Tiffany alone? She seems nice. Okay. I would. I was just curious. There's a chance she was the anonymous official

who wrote that New York Times op-ed a few months ago. Because I think the lesson that Donald Trump has taught us all is that you have to be on offense all the time. And also, if you start bringing his kids into it, he will lose his shit. See, I agree with you that they should dump the oppo file, but I think that the story that the firing of that prosecutor increased the chances that Hunter's company would be investigated is something that people do not know.

And I think what happens now is a bunch of people, the defensive story is there was no wrongdoing, there was no evidence. No, not only was there no wrongdoing and no evidence, Joe Biden did the opposite of what you're accusing him of. It is the complete fucking opposite. Look, yes, they should be saying that. They should get that out. And actually, you know, Jake Tapper at Jim Jordan said

that, right? Like, Chris Wallace gets at that. Like, they're getting at that. But what they're relying on is the fact that, like, we should try to get that out to people. But at the same time, like, they're relying on the fact that you're not going to always know. They're relying on the kind of...

Jake Tapper and them aren't saying that, though, that he acted against his son's financial interests. Jake said that. Jake did today? He did today. And I think Chris Wallace might have, too. But look, I think... Regardless, it's just they are counting

on a kind of miasma of confusion on this issue, and anything the Biden campaign can do to kind of cut through that is the right thing to do. The point I'm just making is the reason you see those numbers in the polls is because of that underlying cynicism that people have rightfully earned about DC. That's all. If I was sitting in the Biden campaign, I would be very nervous right now because even though all the facts are on our side, there's a very real chance he has sacrificed on the impeachment fire. Because we're going to talk about nothing other than impeachment in this country for the next few months. And Biden is going to be a part of that conversation, unfairly so. But Democrat says Trump, Republican says

Biden, because they know they can't defend Trump. But if they can take Joe Biden down in the process, then that is going to be to Trump's benefit in the end as the Republicans think about it. I mean, is it that Biden actually needs to do an interview with Hunter Biden? Like, do they need to try to get a little, I mean, they're already behind a little bit, but. So I would do the following things if I was them. I would pick someone on my campaign who was a person with credibility, who knew politics and knew the law and I would have them become the face of this and have them do TV 24-7 they will move into the CNN NBC studios basically every time Rudy Giuliani is on you should be booked yes someone like like Ryan Byers split in kind bars with Rudy every single yeah like like someone like like Ron Klain would be a like a who is by

the staff yeah so that's step one Step two is I would start advertising now, doing Facebook ads, because this is where you're gonna get clobbered. For sure. Even if Jake Tapper and Chris Wallace and everyone else is fair, you're gonna get destroyed because still to this day, the right wing outrage is what moves

the conversation on Facebook. And the third thing is the way they can help their volunteers and their supporters do this is they should give them tools. Like a 30 to 45 second explainer video of the truth that people could share and post on Facebook or a graphic, like- Make it a little entertaining.

Like they are right now in the middle of a modern information war. And they can't fight this with statements and tweets. They have to go all in. Or like talking to reporters on background. This is a new fucking world. They need to understand that. The press can't win this for you

I mean, that's the biggest problem they have is when you hear something enough You start to believe it's probably true and you default to cynicism. People think that Hillary Clinton has a kill list Because their dumb friend shared it on Facebook fucking seven years ago. Honestly that I mean you could talk to John believes it Actually, that's what I thought you were doing. I learned it from him. Like, by the way. He was briefly on it. When you talk to the people who ran focus groups for Hillary Clinton in 2016, they will tell you that the most common thing in the focus group of swing voters

was people saying, not about the email scandals, not about stuff like that. Vince Foster? She had a kill list. Okay. Seriously, because of Facebook shit. I mean, it's that bad. So, all right. On that note.

On that note, we're going to play a game. Now it's time for a game we call OK Stop. We'll roll a clip. We can say OK Stop at any point to comment. Republicans went to the Sunday shows to defend the president like moths to a flame. There was Stephen Miller eating shit on Fox. There was GOP leader Kevin McCarthy

failing to speak in sentences on 60 Minutes. And then Congressman Jim Jordan on CNN who ran into a buzzsaw that definitely makes fun of Chris Cuomo's Instagram when no one's around named Jake Tapper. That's true. Too specific. Let's watch. Zelensky wants military aid and President Trump asks him to look into the Bidens. I can't believe that that's OK with you. Zelensky brings up he wants to drain the swamp in his country like the president is doing here. The president says, do me a favor. Can you figure out what happened in 2016 i thought we all cared about what happened in the 2016 election and

then he moves on to the biden's wonder what wonder what hunter biden did okay stop just we just sort of let go he wants to know what happened in 2016 that's not what fucking happened at all the president asks the president of ukraine about a crazy fucking conspiracy theory that the russians actually didn't interfere in our election but it was the Ukrainians all along. He thinks Hillary Clinton's email server is hiding out in Kiev. That's not a joke, right?

He actually thinks that somewhere in Ukraine there is Hillary Clinton's email server. It is so fucking bonkers. But this is what happens. And Jake knows that. You can only stop so many crazy comments. But this is what happens. And Jake knows that. You can only stop so many crazy comments, but this is the kind of thing. This is getting out there, because now

we have to move on to the next thing. We just sort of let fly the first one. The right-wing machine for pumping out this kind of misinformation are like the chocolates moving in front of Lucy and Ethel. And Jake's picking them up, and he's throwing them down his shirt and he's eating some and he's putting them in his pocket and Ethel's coming in and trying to get them out and Media Matters is taking some of them and they can't take enough of them.

And then, you know, and then all of a sudden there's just fucking chocolate moving down uninspected, you know. That's right. So he just looked at his phone, check out the sports board. In May, the Ukrainian... He's getting paid $50,000. And then when the company that's paying him that money

is under investigation, guess what? Daddy comes running to the rescue. The vice president of the United States... That's not what happened. Okay, stop. Just an exacerbated Jake. That's not what happened. Oh, wait, stop. Just an exasperated Jake. That's not what happened.

I can feel Jake, just his head starting to explode as this interview is going on. This is a good, this is a rich text for the Trump era because Jim Jordan has no scruples, right? He is laying down, this is someone going out there and saying, I'm going to lay down the misinformation case in full like a freight train. I will not be stopped. He's good at creating a narrative. He is good at this.

Jim Jordan is. Do you think he – I'm sorry. No, no, no. That's it. Do you think he knows he's lying or do you think his brain is so pickled? He might have convinced himself that he believes this is what happened. So he's lying or do you think his brain is so pickled he might have convinced himself that he he believes this so he's being very so now he's doing what you know trump is doing in that ad what republicans are doing all across television right he's laying out a sequence of events he's leaving out the most important detail which is what john just pointed out that biden was firing

was seeking on the part of many countries, many international organizations, the entire world, the removal of someone who wasn't punishing corruption so that they could have somebody who would go after corruption. It is opposite. But he is laying it out in the sequence with these kind of semi-true sentences to make the most damning indictment of Biden, which is why it requires Jake to say, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. I would also say, I interviewed Jim Jordan about probably two months ago, and I asked him pretty point blank, was the Mueller report, like, was the Mueller hearing two months ago? I think, like, I interviewed him that day. It was the day before this phone call. I asked him about whether he thought, was there anything in the second half, in the obstruction of justice part of the Mueller report that bothered him at all about the president? And he looked at me and he basically said no.

And I believed him. And I did. I think that's what he believes. I mean, it's George Costanza, famously. It's not a lie if you believe it. I mean, it is. But when we think about the damage that Fox News is doing, we often think about our uncle, right, or our grandfather who watched Fox News. But the huge public policy problem in America is that its Republican members of Congress get all their news from Fox.

No, I mean, we saw that tonight with Kevin McCarthy on 60 Minutes where Scott Pelley reads him the transcript of the call summary and says, and then Donald Trump says, do me a favor though. And Kevin McCarthy goes, he didn't say that.

And he goes, yeah, he said, do me a favor then. He goes, you just added the though. And he goes, no, I didn't. That's in the transcript. And like, I genuinely believe that Kevin McCarthy genuinely believes that he added the though.

But also, Kevin McCarthy's genuinely a moron. Yes, I genuinely believe that Kevin McCarthy thought the word that was spelled T-H-O-U-G-H was a different word. He's genuinely best known for fetching Donald Trump his favorite Starburst. That's true.

That's true. But he believes it, you know? That prosecutor... Sir, that's not what happened. The European Union, the Obama administration, the International Monetary Fund, pro-clean government activists

in Ukraine thought that the prosecutor was not prosecuting corruption. Joe Biden was trying to get a prosecutor who was not pursuing corruption fired. Joe Biden was trying to get a prosecutor who was not pursuing corruption fired. And it was supported. It's amazing the gymnastics you guys will go through to defend what you really think the vice president.

It's not gymnastics, it's facts. And I would think somebody who's been accused of things in the last year or two would be more sensitive. Okay, stop. Okay, stop. That is a haymaker. That's also haymaker. That's also classic Jake. Taffer gonna taffer. Wow. Jake?

You get Jake annoyed, Jake's gonna come at you really hard. We've all been there. We've all been on the receiving end. Wild allegations against people. I'm not throwing out wild allegations. I'm throwing out the facts. He got hired for what? The president's daughter right now is having all sorts of copyrights granted in foreign countries. That doesn't alarm

you. The president's sons are doing all sorts of business all over the world. That doesn't alarm you. Okay, stop. I like the come on there because the come on is sort of like, come on, don't, I know, don't. You're going to take this there? Don't point it out. You know I don't have an answer to that.

You know that's not in the talking points. Oh, that's it. That's it. We're done. I will say also, too, like, you notice he keeps coming back to that issue, right, of, like, the $50,000. Why was he getting the money, right? Like, this is similar to what they did on Hillary and the speeches. It's what they did on e-mails.

It's what they did on Benghazi, which is you take that little kernel and you ask a question that you know the answer to, and you imply that the answer is far more vast and sinister than you could possibly imagine. And that is what they're good at. They're good at.

And that's OK Stop! So, last night we talked about how impeachment is affecting the Democratic candidate strategies. Tonight I want to talk about how impeachment is shaping Donald Trump's re-election strategy. Already the president's campaign is spending $10 million on a television and Facebook ad campaign that accuses Democrats of trying to, quote, steal the 2020 election through impeachment. And Trump has a video pinned to his Twitter feed right now with the tagline, quote, they're trying to stop me because I'm fighting for you. We laugh, but.

So, Shauna, Trump advisors told NBC, quote, we're not going to take this lying down, and said they're modeling their response on the strategy they used during the Kavanaugh hearings. Which was super organized. Right. So what does that say about what we can expect from the Trump campaign? And what is their, I mean, we went through all of their sort of sad explanations on the merits of the substance of this allegation. But what's their sort of political message here that they're going to use for the campaign on impeachment? That they're the ones under attack, so they're going to attack back.

And they did it effectively with Kavanaugh, that it was pugilistic. Everything the Democrats are saying is incorrect about him, and he deserves to be Supreme Court justice. They're going to say everything you're saying is incorrect about President Trump, and he deserves to continue to be president. And it doesn't, whatever the actual reality is, and I'll leave it to everyone else to decide what the reality is, whatever it is, they are going to write their own path and nothing else is going to get in the way. And we saw it with Kavanaugh. Now, this is a little bit different than Kavanaugh in that we have something that resembles a transcript and we have Congress saying, okay, we're going to dive into this thing. And they're even going to, okay, we're going to dive into this thing,

and they're even going to have hearings. They're going to have depositions next week with some of the people mentioned in the transcript and mentioned in the whistleblower's complaint. So that makes it a little bit harder than the Kavanaugh situation, but you are going to make your own reality in some ways, and they're going to do it, and I don't know if it's going to work or not, but they've been really effective at it. And I don't know if it's going to work or not, but they've been really effective at it. I think the other thing you have to realize is that he's the president of the United States who is running for re-election. And yes, there's a couple of people out there who are challenging him for the nomination,

sort of, on the Republican side. But he's going to get the nomination and run for president again. They have the ability and the fundraising prowess to be able to have a singular message right now in a way the Democrats can't because the Democrats are still running against each other. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean like we're still in an actual real Democratic primary. He can focus or his campaign can focus.

He has a hard time focusing as we see on Twitter. But his campaign can focus on like something very hard time focusing as we see on Twitter, but his campaign can focus on like something very singular and putting their message out. And that is, that's the kind of beauty of being the sitting president when you're running for president. I think there's, the Kavanaugh thing is a very interesting parallel because it, like it, it worked for them, but it is a different, there are two elements of it that are different. One is the Kavanaugh strategy was not run out of the White House. It was run by the Federalist Society,

Mitch McConnell, the Koch Network, and they were the ones who drove it. It was those groups running the ads, right? It's part of the more disciplined side of the Republican Party than the Trump side, but it also was very focused on red states. They didn't have to persuade anyone in blue states. They really only had to put pressure on Democrats

in places like North Dakota, West Virginia, Indiana, and then keep two Republicans home, which I think is actually a proxy for the strategic decision they have to make, which is if they have actual concern about Trump leaving office, of being forced out of office, the way in which you prevent that is you hold the 40% Trump base together, right? But that is a

different strategy than winning a plurality in battleground states around the country, right? Where you have to, like, the strategy of punch back as hard as you can, deny reality, speak to Sean Hannity, praise Mark Levin, that is a strategy for keeping your MAGA base together. That does not necessarily directly get you to the 48, 49, 50% you need to win in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona. And so what I think matters to us and what we got to think about is what is our strategy to focus on the up for grabs voters in those states right like what is the thing that has there and i there are two like it's very interesting what trump does because it's a different strategy to use this to help you win

reelection is to help you survive the moment yeah i mean i think their strategy right now is to find out the identity of this whistleblower and destroy that person. You saw that on the 18 retweets that Donald Trump did this morning attacking Ed Henry on Fox and Friends. It was in response to a rant by this radio host named, by a guy named Mark Levin, where he said that he wants to know how many dogs the whistleblower has, how many DUIs they've had, how many marriages they've had, right? They've decided that they are going to stop at nothing to destroy this person's credibility and therefore absolve Donald Trump. So I think that's the kind of maximalist scorched earth strategy that we should be prepared for. And it's not easy to know how to fight that.

Yeah, it's interesting. It's sort of a flip side to what Shauna said, which is it is true that there's no unified democratic message. But that also means that there's no single enemy for Donald Trump to point at. They're trying to make this about the whistleblower. So they've offered this like laughable spin that, oh, the whistleblower's information was secondhand. But wait, we already got this report with the memo that has the quotes that verify what the whistleblower said. secondhand, but wait, we already got this report with the memo that has the quotes that

verify what the whistleblower said. But it's because all of their instinct is to kind of find someone and destroy them. And it's why I think Donald Trump tweets, oh, you know, the savages in Congress, et cetera. And of course, the savages turn out to be two Jewish members and four people of color. What a shock. But again, he's looking for a villain. He's looking for an enemy.

He's looking for someone to kind of direct this machine at. And I think one built-in advantage of impeachment versus an election is impeachment isn't one single opposition person that if you vilify and bring down to your level, you've succeeded. There's Schiff. There's Pelosi. There's many other House Democrats. You don't think it's Nancy Pelosi? Because it is very easy to make her...

I think she's one of many. They've been going after Schiff, and Rudy's going after 2016 and Hillary and Soros. It's like all the familiar boogeymen. It hasn't been Pelosi quite yet. I think that Donald Trump and the Republicans are in worse shape when they are having to argue the facts and the details of this case. When they're talking about transcripts and whistleblowers and Ukraine and who did what

in this, they lose because, you know, the facts are on our side and it's just so crazy the shit they're making up. From the re-election campaign standpoint, they have a much bigger canvas to paint on. And for them, the enemies are the enemies that Donald Trump has always had. It's the deep state. It's the elites. It's the media. It's the Democrats.

It's open borders. It's the line that's in that video for him. They are trying to stop me because I'm fighting for you. My enemies are your enemies. And his whole reelection campaign, the whole message is going to be grievance. It's that like, look at all these partisan assholes not getting anything done for you because they hate me so much that they want to take me down. And here I am, I'm fighting for you. And I have all these enemies in the media,

in the deep state, in the bureaucracy that are trying to screw around with this. I'm the one that can help you. I'm the one that can fix things. That's the larger re-elect message, and that's what he's going to try to fuse into the impeachment. I would be very surprised if that is the message in his re-election campaign that is the one they put money behind. Because you think that's for the 40%? I think that's for the 40%, and it is very, it's just, Donald Trump has a, he has more has more advantages in the sense that he's got a head start. He's going to have more money. He has the bulletproof of the presidency. But he's going to have to get to a higher number in these states than he did in 2016.

Yeah. Like he could win with 46%. He's not going to be able to do that in 2020. So what do they put money behind? Do they put money behind economy jobs? Economy jobs and tearing down the Democrat? So the one thing I wonder, you know, Tommy, there are still a lot of pundits, including half the New York Times op-ed page, who think the Trump campaign is right about the politics and argue that impeachment will rally Trump's base and increase turnout.

How much should Democrats be concerned about this, and what can they do? Because I do wonder, at some point in this campaign, if they give up on trying to win over the middle, they think, all right, if we can just boost turnout among the base, we can get there. Yeah, I read those op-eds you're referencing. None of us can game out what the politics of this are going to be, right? So

it's silly to predict and it's silly to let worst case predictions drive our decision making. David Plouffe believes that the turnout in 2020 for Trump is going to be record numbers, historic, high, massive, right? He said add 8% to 10% of Trump's turnout in 2016. Yeah, so we should assume and we should build all our models to assume that Trump is going to have a massive turnout. The way we match that with our turnout is not by trimming our sales and kind of like hoping that infrastructure week comes one day, right? Then we cut a deal with this fucking sociopath.

comes one day, right? And then we cut a deal with this fucking sociopath. We should fight him and stand up for the Constitution and prevent him from welcoming foreign interference into our election while also telling a story about what we would do differently. And I think the long-term bet has got to be that somewhere in the back of our brains, we all kind of remember what it was like to have a president that was cool, but boring, right? Like Barack Obama was a cool guy who wore dad jeans on the weekends and like hung out with his kids and didn't like tweet insane things about starting a civil war, right? Like I think we'd all like to go back to a time where governance was normal. And so that would be my bad. Yeah. But also, I mean, look at the applause you got

when you said the word impeachment in this crowd that I assume is mostly liberal, and the applause that you got in Portland. I do think there is something to this. I'm making a point. That wasn't to be mean to y'all. So sensitive. That was you projecting.

But I find that some of these arguments interesting that, okay, this idea of impeachment will boost conservative pro-Trump turnout, and I think that that is possible, but I don't know why people think it won't boost Democratic turnout, too. And I'm not saying it's going to... Welcome to our... We've been screaming this for months. I'm not saying it's going to cancel each other out. I don't know how hard the boost is going to be, but

I don't, I think that this will also energize this side of the crowd, too. The question is will it energize them all the way to November? But that's the question for both sides, too. To your point, obviously Kavanaugh, like Lindsey Graham lit himself

on fire and cried at a hearing and it sparked this thing that helped a bunch of red state senators win or keep seats. But we also won 40 House seats, right? Like it cut both ways. It's like we forget both sides of the story. There's a real correlation causality question with Kavanaugh. Yeah. I also like, you know, how these, how the politics of all this plays out over the next many months. I don't know. Nobody nobody will be able to know for sure. I do know how it played out in the first few days. And I definitely would rather be a Democrat this week than a Republican this week.

Yeah. How do you. So one one thing, you know, we can't control what happens with their turnout. One thing we can control is, you know, inevitably, it's already starting. Trump and the Republicans are going to say, okay, well, because the Democrats are obsessed with impeachment and going through impeachment, they're not focused on other issues that people care about. You know, this is like the Mitch McConnell play. Oh, I would have passed gun control if it hadn't been for impeachment. I would have given everyone health care if it hadn't been for impeachment. But these damn Democrats were so focused on impeachment, they didn't want to do anything else for the American people, which we laugh at. But I guarantee you, like, you know, we're like 10 media narrative cycles away from some people who are like, should the Democrats be worried that they're not doing other things? And like, what's the Democrats' response to that?

it's like trump was in the oval office with wayne lapierre the head of the nra like two days ago figuring out what the latest quid pro quo was to block any gun control from happening so it just it's so cynical and i know we can't count on the media to tell the story of that cynicism for us because it's not really their job but you know i think we just have to make the argument that they were full of shit on some of these issues. But also let me say something that's cynical. We are, what, we're almost in October today. Are we in October now? Tomorrow. No, it's still September.

I have no idea what date it is. Yeah, we're there. We are almost to 2020. Let's be honest, Congress wasn't going to do anything anyway. Right. This is how presidential election cycles work. Like, they're going to fund the government. They're going to make a deal to do that. They did do a short-term deal. They're gonna keep going

And then after that once we get to next year They're gonna do the very basic stuff they have to do to avoid a government shutdown because nobody wants to do that during an election year That was all that was gonna happen. Anyway, sorry the strategy you mentioned of that was all that was going to happen anyway sorry the strategy you mentioned of painting a picture for the american people of the cost of impeachment the opportunity cost the things that did not get done because of it is a strategy that we know can be successful because it's the one that bill clinton ran in the late 90s he painted the republicans is obsessed with it with his personal life he's focused all his time and energy on what he can do for the country.

The problem with that for Trump is it requires a level of discipline that he is not known for. And you can't argue that. We didn't know that today. That's right. You can't get like he can't go out and sell this case that he's focused on helping the American people. And if only Nancy Pelosi wasn't impeaching him, we'd do all these things. If he's tweeting 75 times a day about impeachment. I mean, isn't one of the things they did

was sort of separate out kind of the impeachment fight and kind of keep it away from Bill Clinton and keep it cordoned off from parts of the White House so that he could do other things. Yeah, they hired a specific press person. The press secretary would not take questions on impeachment. There was another person who would do that. These are not things that Trump is capable of.

Or his organization. Yeah. I just think the Democrats need to not, I think the operative, you can't be afraid, right? Like when people start saying, oh, the Democrats are not trying to, you know, pass priorities for the American people and stuff like that. They just have to say, that's fucking bullshit. Like, Donald Trump had full control, full control of Washington. The Republican Party did, for the first couple years,

didn't do shit. Mitch McConnell has, like, a hundred bills. Tax cut. Yeah, sorry, tax cut. No, we should bring that up. Mitch McConnell has had, like, a hundred bills passed by the Democratic House that have gone nowhere because he, like, brags about the Senate being a graveyard.

A week before this impeachment fight began, they were trying to blame Beto O'Rourke, not a member of Congress, for having a policy position as the reason they might not be able to do a background check, though. A different policy position. A different policy position.

I also do, just like a serious... You know, in 2018, Donald Trump tried to focus the country on this caravan and stir up anti-immigrant resentments. And, you know, it is right now, as Dan said, it's nice that the button he's pressing is Twitter. But I do think it's also worth remembering, too, that we are in a period before he has figured out exactly how he is going to respond to this and he is someone who has shown quite a willingness to use the other levers of the presidency to distract and he'll do that with immigration policy he's threatened to do

that with homeless policy so i also do think it's worth just remembering the stakes because I've thought for a very long time that the most dangerous moment we will ever have with Donald Trump as president will be the time between him no longer being in office after he believes he'll lose. And that is something to be worried about, to think about, to remember that this could get a lot more dangerous and a lot more frightening. And, you know, we're in the big fight. This is a huge, huge fight. And this is the... What? Add that to the list. No, but I do... The shit you're freaking out about.

No, but it's not about... I know, I'm just kidding. I'll worry about that one later once we get to the... once we get to him losing. I'll stay up late thinking about that one. No, but it's like you know, I was thinking about it. Adam Schiff gave his opening statement and you do see when Adam Schiff speaks, you see genuine emotion when he was speaking about the fact that, like, this is democracy. But you know what?

You talked about the stakes. I've been saying this. Like, we win when we remind people that the stakes are big. Donald Trump is going to win when he makes us talk about small shit all the time, when we get dragged into the small stuff, the petty bullshit, the tweets all day long, that's what he's counting on. That's how he wins. We win if every day we're reminding people

that there are big things at stake. That's what Shift does so well, and that's what you're talking about, I think. Yeah, yeah. All right, when we come back, we will have Lovett's interview with your Lieutenant Governor, Cyrus Habib. He's the lieutenant governor of Washington.

Please welcome to the stage my friend Cyrus Habib. It got a little quiet. I was back to, it got a little quiet during the second half of that punditry. So I couldn't hear exactly what was going on. But was there bad news for Democrats towards the end there? No? All right. Okay. All right, we're in a good mood.

So you recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. You were inspired by another climber who's blind, who climbed Everest and several other mountains. You did it to raise money for a

group that helps people participate in outdoor activities. kids, right? Yes, Outdoors for All. And the state of Washington, we're creating a program called Boundless Washington to help young people with disabilities be able to go outside and enjoy the amazing outdoors here in Washington State. So this is one of the states in the country where Democrats control the governorship, both houses of the legislature. The lieutenant governorship.

State passed a minimum wage increase, automatic voter registration. Recently passed a public option. And yet, you know, there was, there were a couple attempts at a carbon tax that weren't successful. There were compromises it took to get to a public option. What are the lessons in Washington, in a state where Democrats have control on sort of what it takes to get progressive legislation, progressive policy through the system? Yeah, I think, well, first of all, I mean, you said the first part,

which is that you actually need to control both legislative chambers. That's why it's so important. I know we talk a lot about the presidential race. We need to talk about it. We cannot sleep on these U.S. Senate races this next year. That's one of the things that we want to do. I mean, even if we get rid of the filibuster, we still need to have a majority of city,

particularly if we get rid of the filibuster, we need to have a majority of the seats. So that's number one. That's the first thing that we did, was we took control of the state senate for the first time a year and a half ago. But then, as you pointed out, we have been able to pass

a number of progressive pieces of legislation. I think the way that we did that was, first of all, legislators were our greatest advocates in going out and telling the public, look, this is why I want to vote for this thing. I know I'm in a swing district, but here's the reason why,

and listening to their constituents, and then actually being able to defend their position, and guess what? We got swing district members where people would have said, you should never vote for a public option, or you should never vote for this kind of, you know, carbon zero by 2035. You should never vote for this, and yet we got swing district Democrats to vote in a progressive manner, and guess what? Their constituents are proud of them for doing it this last year we didn't just last year we didn't just keep the Democratic seats that we gained in 2016 we actually grew the majorities that we had in the Senate in the house so I do think it's important to be able to take those progressive

stances but then also to be good at communicating why you support them. So we have a role. We have a role. I heard you guys say it earlier, too, about impeachment, that when folks actually get up there and are proud of the position that they're taking, the polling will fall. Where is your head at on impeachment? Where are you at? On impeachment? I mean, look, I think you've got to be crazy.

I mean, so I will give you, I will give you some, that's not the scandal you're going to create for me tonight, John. I will tell you, honestly, I mean, some of my constituents may know this. I was not the most gung-ho person on impeachment early on. You know, I was kind of in the mindset that we've got a great speaker. I trust her political instincts I think she's the smartest politician in Washington in Washington DC And and I believed her instincts that an impeachment can be quite Divisive and also that House Democrats have a great agenda policy agenda to run on and that we didn't want a distraction that said

policy agenda to run on and that we didn't want a distraction. That said, things have changed and they've not only changed because we have a clear record of what the president said, this is what the White House themselves say that the president said, right? Which is, you know, I'm gonna get you the weapons you want, but we need you to do me a favor and investigate my number one, my leading Democratic opponent. So that's number one. That's just on the record. It's a smoking gun. It's much more clear cut. The other thing is, and I think somebody said this earlier, maybe even you said it, that, you know, the difference is this is now interfering with the 2020 election. And there's no way that we can stand by. And I think it does,

make no mistake, I think it is a huge lost opportunity for us in the House. Because I would rather members of Congress be focused on policy, but we cannot let a sitting president of the United States get away with actively rigging an election from the Oval Office. We cannot do it. And so here in Washington State, we have impeached him and we have convicted him, but we need Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to get a vote on that question. So I do support. Can I say one more thing, though? I want to say that about Biden, I do want to say this about Vice President Biden, which is that I know that the audience might be split on who they're supporting for the Democratic nomination. But I want to urge all of us who care about that process to remember, we cannot allow ourselves to benefit from these attacks on Joe Biden.

Not only because it's wrong and they're lying, but they will do it to Warren. They will do it to Sanders. they will do it to Mayor Pete. Donald Trump will do this to any of them. This game that he plays, this game that he plays where he says, well, Cyrus, did he really go to the top of Kilimanjaro or not? I don't know. I hope he did. I don't know. You know, but he'll do it to any politician whom he perceives of as a threat, and he will definitely do it to our nominee. So we need to set a precedent right now of rallying around Joe Biden. Doesn't mean you need to support him for the nomination, but I'm

going to be very disappointed in any candidate who tries to take advantage of this for their own gain in the nomination contest. So, we're here in Seattle, we're in the shadow of Amazon HQ. You know, it's a company that employs tens of thousands of people. Half these people work for Amazon, by the way, the ones that are booing. It's dark, They feel safe. No, Alexa's in here. There is. Yes, there is. So Amazon's a company that employs tens of thousands of people in this state.

It's also a company that's faced a ton of scrutiny and criticism for how it treats a lot of its workers. What do you think about the role of Amazon right now as a kind of harbinger of the changes we've seen in the economy? Yeah, I think the biggest challenge with Amazon and similar tech companies is, for me, is what they're doing to the labor market. And, you know, it's an acceleration of forces that were already there, but we don't have a good answer. We have not, as policymakers, yet developed a sufficient answer

to the twin threats of automation and globalization that the American worker has faced. And I think both of those are serious challenges. I'm not someone who's for turning away from the rest of the world. I'm also not for someone who's for turning off the engine of innovation and entrepreneurship. But I do think that particularly those who have benefited the most, which means tech companies, but also means the larger ecosystem of finance and others, have a particular burden in helping us to solve the problem of what we're going

to do on the future for the American worker. Let me give you an example. We're very close to the first Amazon Go store. For those who are maybe going to be listening to this who don't have one in your community, this is a store that has no checkers, right? No one at the checkout counter, very few employees, if any. You just take your things, you swipe, and you leave, run by Amazon. Now, I think it is possible that, and it would be unfortunate if we live in a world in 10 or 15 or 20 years

where we don't have folks working in our grocery stores, but I think there's also an opportunity to make sure that, for example, the people that do work in grocery stores in the future could be perhaps trained to be nutritionists or to be those who help and guide and help people. And if you think this is a crazy idea, think about apparel stores. The people that work at apparel stores right a closing store they're helping you decide what to wear it wouldn't be a crazy idea to have folks instead of just simply checking out your groceries maybe in the future some of that is replaced with

automation you may instead be helping people decide what's a healthy thing for your kid what's a good diet what's a good plant-based way to eat all of those are things that they may be doing but but in order to get to that point we're gonna need more education and that's true all across the entire economy. We need to invest more in pre-k, k-12, and yes higher education as well to adapt to the changes and I think that tech companies have a particularly strong responsibility and obligation to help us do that, which is why this year we down in Olympia passed a tax increase specifically targeted

at tech companies above all. Software companies and others, and the money's all going to higher education, particularly for financial aid. So we need to pass more policies like that. And we need them at the federal level. Let me ask you this. Yeah. How hard did you take it when Howard Schultz dropped out? I didn't pour my heart into that campaign. That's the name of his autobiography. I think Howard, I think, look, it is easy enough. I want to say this for a second because I do understand why people kind of mock and make fun of Howard Schultz.

And I think he does have to answer for the Sonics. We will continue to hold him accountable. But that said, all of that said, though, I do want to say this in all seriousness. said though, I do want to say this in all seriousness. Like, I think we ought to view with grace anybody who looks at Donald Trump and says, this guy's unfit to be president. I want to do something about it. I'm glad that he made the decision that he made in the end, but this is not a time for us to be sitting around and mocking anybody, whether it's Tom Steyer, whether it's Howard Schultz, whether it's Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders, this is a time for us to be rallying around and getting every person, left, center, Republican, to say this president is corrupt, he is racist, he is un-American, he is a cancer and a scourge,

and we need to remove him from office. So that's what's important. That's what's important. You just ran right the fuck over me to get to that answer. No, but let me ask you this. No, it's fine. Yeah, go ahead. It's fine. So... I'm going to leave it side of love it or leave it right now. I can tell.

Okay. So, Governor Inslee's out. He ran a campaign focused on climate. He had a brief moment where... Let's get a round of applause for Governor Inslee, you guys. Come on. Now that he's out, now that he's out,

what do you think of some of the other candidates? Who do you like? I'm glad you said now that he's out, what do you think of some of the other candidates? Who do you like? I'm glad you said now that he's out because I would have been much more comfortable with that question two months ago because I could give you a very easy answer, which is Jay Inslee. I'll tell you, I am really, really impressed with the field that we have. And no, I'm not being... I'm catching up. I'm catching up. Come on. All right. All right. So here's my, here's my point. We need a, we need a nominee. Here, here's what I'm going to be looking for. A nominee, because I've not thrown my support

behind any candidate, but we, I want a nominee who can demonstrate more than just electability. I want a candidate who can demonstrate that they can unify this country. Because I do think, I do think that this, I think Nancy Pelosi's right, that an impeachment process, no matter how it ends, is going to be divisive for this country. It just is. And we need to do that. I mean, we need to pursue this right now because he's left us absolutely no choice. We need to do it in the name of justice, in the name of fairness, but it will be divisive. And so we need a nominee who can reach out and who can say, you know what? We don't hate you no matter who you voted for in 2016. We don't hate you if you voted for Jill Stein. Well, I don't know. But we don't hate

you whether you voted for Jill Stein, Donald Trump, you stayed home, Hillary Clinton, you wrote in Bernie Sanders, whatever it is. We need everyone. And this is particularly important in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. We know what states are going to be battlegrounds, but we need a presidential nominee who is going to be able to do that. So I'm going to be looking at this next debate to see who uses these current events of this impeachment process to further alienate and divide this country and who instead kind of demonstrates leadership in these public forums to say, you know what, here's why we're doing it. Here's why Democrats in the House are doing this. And here's how, as president, I will knit this country back together. So, you know, I love, I went to grad school with Mayor Pete. I love Mayor Pete.

I have deep respect for Joe Biden. I think he's a deeply honorable person. I've gotten to know Elizabeth Warren and I've gotten to know Kamala Harris. We got great candidates. I will tell you one thing, I would like to see some of the candidates that are a little bit lower down in the polls who have done amazing things in Congress, particularly Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, who have managed to pass bills. I hope that they can stay in the race. We'll see what happens with their campaigns, but I think they contribute something really valuable

because whoever this president, whoever we replace Trump with, they're going to need to know how to pass bills through the Senate, and either that's going to be an accomplished senator or it's going to be someone who better have some senators as friends. Last question. Yeah. Good answer. So you've overcome a lot to get where you are. You lost

your vision at age eight. You've overcome cancer several times. You're the first and only Iranian American to be elected statewide in this country. How has that shaped your politics and your approach to seeking public office? I would say it taught me the feeling of being excluded, of being on the outside. I think I've said to, I may have said it on Love It or Leave It before, but, you know, when I was eight years old, that's when I became blind. It was in 89, so all eight years I could see took place in the 80s. All my visual memory is still from the 80s, so you all still look like Cyndi Lauper and Boy George. When that happened, as you can imagine, there were so many instances in which I was counted out and excluded.

And the most notable that I often share is that when I was in third grade, they didn't want to let me play on the playground with the other kids, in part knowing that I'd just become blind and in part knowing that my mother was a litigator. So they kept me on the sidelines where their kids were playing. I went home and told my parents what had happened. And my mom told the principal of the school the next day, I'm going to take my son to your school and I'm going to teach him how to get around the playground. He may slip and fall. That's a fear that any mother has. But she said, I can fix a broken arm. I can

fix a broken arm. I can never fix a broken spirit. And so, you know, I share that story because the experience of being excluded was something that I learned early on, and it's something that every American has felt in one way or another, and that entire classes of Americans have felt in an institutional way since the birth of this country. And so what I try to do in my politics is always try to figure out who are those who are on the outside? Who's not being given access to an education? Who's not being given equal access to the economy?

Who's not being given a voice in our government? And so that's where my political North Star is, is that feeling of being a little kid, being on the outside of the playground while the other kids were playing, and every other time after that. So when I, and I just want to close, and let me say this, that I truly think that when the 2020 election, for one thing, when the 2020 election has come and gone and acting president Mike Pence has been defeated, I think the new president is going to be someone, it could be any of

these nominees, any of these candidates, I think is going to be someone who herself or himself knows the feeling of being counted out and being disregarded and being viewed as disabled, insufficient, a woman, a person of color, someone who's counted out and I think they're gonna bring that wisdom and that experience to bear to make sure this is a country whose economy, whose educational system, and whose government leave nobody behind. So let's go get it done, you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, John.

Thank you so much. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, guys. You guys want to play a game? Twitter. It's a fantastic social network where the world's thought leaders and community members can connect and share their stories. You guys want to play a game? Twitter. It's a fantastic social network where the world's thought leaders and comedians get

together with the common man, your furries, your incels, to collectively and in one voice proudly call Bret Stephens a bed bug, it says here. That guy sucks. And our presidential candidates, they're on Twitter too. Some pretty good at it. Others, whatever. But they weren't always so adept. Especially back when they first started using it. So we went back to some of the first tweets ever sent

by 2020 candidates and found some pretty revealing stuff. In a game we're calling, early tweet gets the fade. Would anyone out there like to play the game? Hi, what's your name? My name's Emily. Hi, Emily. Are you ready to play? I'm ready to play. Here's how it works.

Each panelist is going to read a real tweet from a presidential candidate, and then I'm going to ask you which one was sent by a specific candidate. Okay? Oh, yeah. You ready? I hope so. All right. Question one.

Which of the following tweets was sent by Julian Castro in 2009? Is it A? When grandson Brody smiles, so does everybody else. Or is it B? Los Lonely Boys, Cowboys, Dane Hall, tonight, doors open at 7, tickets are $20. Or is it C? I know a lot of you took pictures of your Thanksgiving plates, so let's see them. Reply to share. Or is it C? I know a lot of you took pictures of your Thanksgiving plates, so let's see them. Reply to Cher.

Or is it D? Everyone feels on some level like an alien in this world, because we are. We come from another realm of consciousness and long for home. What do you think, Emily? I'm going to go with Tommy. No, no, that was Marianne Williamson. Oh. In fact, it was the Los Lonely Boys tweet.

Wait. Fitting because I'm also from Texas. Yeah, it's from Texas. Mine was Marianne Williamson? Oh, no, sorry. Dan's was Marianne Williamson. Who could have guessed? Yours was de Blasio. And John's was Marianne Williams. I was going to say. Who could have guessed? Yours was de Blasio. And John's was Inslee.

No way. Question two, Emily. Which of the following tweets was sent by Tulsi Gabbard in 2011? Is it A. Walking down the street to go buy lunch and a bird just crapped on my arm. Is it B?

So happy for at Ben Affleck and Argo tonight. We're cheering for you. Is it C? Spoke at Invasive Speedy's conf today. Except for understandable trauma associated with guys showing up with two huge, dead, smelly carp, it went well. Or is it D? When a woman is pregnant, she can feel a new life gestating within her.

We are collectively pregnant now. The consciousness of humanity, a womb, wherein is forming a new state of being. As with any pregnancy, there are uncomfortable moments, but the miracle of a new life is on the way. I feel like there's a pattern emerging. To Boise, right? You don't think D is Marianne Williamson?

OK, D. It was A. It was A. The arm crap one was Tulsi. The Argo one was Elizabeth Warren. The carp one was Klobuchar. And obviously Dan's was Tulsi. The Argo one was Elizabeth Warren. The Carp one was Klobuchar. And obviously Dan's was Marianne. Question three. Which of the following tweets was sent by Pete Buttigieg

in 2011 and got a single retweet? Is it A? If you want a simple explanation for what's happening in America, watch Avatar again. Is it B? I was lying awake in my bed worrying about something when a voice in my heart said, quote, most people in the world do not have beds. Is it C? Thanks to everyone who came out to walk today

in the St. Patrick's Day Parade! Exclamation point. Check out some of the photos I've uploaded. Note, there are no photos attached to the post. Or is it D? Your body is merely your space station from whence your beam, your love to the universe. Don't just relate to the station.

Relate to the beams. Is that why you have like four cards and I have one? What? C. You got it. Nice. You got it. Didn't attach any photos to the post, though. Do we know who the other ones were?

Yes. That's part of the fun, love it. You're right. And they were all Williamson. I mean, that makes sense. You know what? Maybe she was right about Avatar. There are five more of those movies coming. Next question. Which of the following tweets was sent by Cory Booker? Is it A? At Ashton Kutcher saw you on HuffPost

Loved what you, letter U, said about change in way media is distributed and letter N consumed Thanks for introducing me to a new world for change. Ah, the 140 character days. Is it B? Getting up at 4 a.m., you realize a very important truth. Coffee is a food group, all caps. Is it C? I used to be a tea, tea totaler.

Being mayor has driven me to drink dot, dot, dot coffee. Now I'm like those coffee drinking aliens from Men in Black. Or is it D? Sleep. And I broke up a few nights ago. I'm dating. Coffee now. She's hot.

I think it's D. Emily, which one do you think is Cory Booker? All of the above. All of the above? Emily, though you lacked confidence in that last answer, you were right. You've won the game. Thank you for playing

Early Tweet Gets the Fave. So, guys, this is our last show of 2019. This is our last live show. And we've had a fantastic crew that has made these shows possible. Our tour manager, Belinda Mercer, give it up for her. Back there. Our audio whiz, Frank Tatick, back there somewhere. We got Travis Tug-Hallwig, he's been on all the tours. Elisa Gutierrez, Narmel Konian, Elijah Cohn,

the entire cricket staff. And we'll see you in 2020. Thank you, Seattle. Thanks for coming out. We'll be right back. guitar solo We'll see you next time.