Pod Save America - “From Charlottesville to Pittsburgh.”

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

Right-wing conspiracies echoed by Trump and some Republicans help fuel an anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh, and the President responds by attacking Democrats and the media. Then Tommy talks to Democratic candidate J.D. Scholten about his race for Congress against white nationalist Steve King.

Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Tommy Vitor. Later in the pod, Tommy talks to J.D. Scholten, the Democrat running for Congress in Iowa's 4th District against Republican Steve King, who's actually a white nationalist. He's a terrible, terrible person. Like, actually a white nationalist. When asked if he was a white nationalist or a white supremacist, he actually did not deny either. And every, he was Ted Cruz's national campaign co-chair. Paul Ryan lets him in every meeting they ever have with the caucus

they fundraise with them. Everyone kisses his ass during the Iowa caucuses that's your party Republicans So that's who we're going to be hearing from J.D. Scholten who's trying to take him on. He's got an uphill climb despite all that because it's a pretty conservative district in Iowa but Tommy has a good conversation with him. Tommy who are you

interviewing for Pod Save the World this week? Back in the saddle. Man, back in the saddle. Well, you know, there's a lot going on. I'm going to talk to Mehdi Hassan, who is a fantastic writer and podcaster at The Intercept, and Al Jazeera. I wanted to talk about this ongoing dust-up of Saudi Arabia

and, more importantly, focus on what they're actually doing in Yemen because it's a humanitarian catastrophe. Yeah. And I don't think it's getting the attention it's due. I'm also trying to figure out if I can figure out a way to talk about what just happened in Brazil somehow because that election is frightening. I really want to hear about that. Okay.

Stay tuned then, John. Okay. Everyone should also check out this week's Love It or Leave It, which was hosted by our pal Aaron Ryan. So check that out. And we will be in Irvine, California on Friday for the last of four midterm specials for HBO.

We just were in Philadelphia. Great show. Check that out. It's now on HBO Go and HBO Now so you can check that out. And check out the last one in Irvine. Yeah, and Chrissy Hoolan's really cool. Check out her campaign.

She's inspiring. She's one of those people you meet and you're like, oh, not only am I excited about your election, I'm excited for someone like you to have the job and do it better and be smart on policy. She's brilliant. She's brilliant. She's outstanding. And she was a great guest in Philly. Finally, we are eight days out from the election. So please go to votesaveamerica.com, download a copy of your ballot. You can fill it out. You can find information about ballot

measures and the candidates on your ballot and make a fill it out. You can find information about ballot measures and the candidates on your ballot and make a plan to vote. You can figure out exactly when you're going to vote, where you're going to vote. We'll send you personal reminders on your calendars. There is no excuses. No excuse.

Also, our pals at Civis Analytics, this is some of the data people that helped Obama win two terms. Cool nerds. Cool nerds. They've helped us identify 20 house races. And here's the deal with these house races. They are both very close. Yeah. And they are also in cheaper media markets. Right. Which means that if you donate to these races, you'll have a bigger

bang for your buck and you can help these Democrats get over the finish line. So we put this link out on Friday. It's VoteSaveAmerica.com slash donate. And we expect it to you know hopefully fundraise a couple a couple hundred thousand dollars six hundred thousand dollars we're already at right now unbelievable thanks to you guys since since friday so um and a lot of these candidates in these races have reached out to us since then and they've been overwhelmed by the support some of them said that like they're almost running out of money and these checks came in and that helps them over the finish line these are these are races we can really. This means the difference between being unable to respond to Paul Ryan's disgusting super PAC ads or getting your message on the air. It means maybe hiring one last

organizer to knock doors to get out there and to get voters to the polls. So it's like the impact is so big with these donations in this late stage. Yeah. so please donate. All right, let's get to the very sad and enraging news today. On Saturday, a gunman used an AR-15 to kill 11 Americans who were attending a bris at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Half a dozen more people were wounded. The Anti-Defamation League called the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue the single deadliest anti-Semitic attack in the history of the United States. The man arrested by authorities told a SWAT team officer that, quote, he wanted

all Jews to die. And he also had nearly two dozen guns registered to his name because that's what we allow here in the United States. Tommy, what else do we know about what led to the shooter, whose name is Robert Bowers, to launch this attack at this particular moment? We know that he believed that the Jews, quotes, are working to destroy America by bringing in immigrants. crazy, whatever you want to call it, belief is directly tied to the idea that you're seeing in the mainstream media, that there is a caravan of people coming to invade our country full of gang members and ISIS, like the president says, and that George Soros, who is a billionaire financier, who happens to be Jewish, who has been demagogued by the Republican Party for decades, is paying for that caravan and like secretly slipping in. So

it doesn't require using a slur to be anti-Semitism. If you're talking about how globalists are controlling the media or our politics, we know damn well what you're saying, Steve Bannon. You're saying the Jews are in charge. The globalist Jews are running the media or they're bringing, they're subverting our democracy somehow. This is a disgusting anti-Semitic slur. We should call it for what it is. And this has been part and parcel of Republican Party's messaging in some places for a long time. And Trump is just mainlining this extremes. Yeah.

I mean, I don't think we can emphasize the link to the caravan conspiracy enough here. Yep. Last week, it started last week, Matt Gaetz, Florida congressman. The dumbest person on the fucking planet. He is a frat paddle come to life, I believe is Leavitt's line. He is a deplorable idiot, but he's dangerous. Well, and again, I mean, like so many of these people, this is not someone who who knows, but like that genuinely believes this is this is like a rich dude who went to college and everything like that. He knows better. And he just decided to cast his lot with the far right and white nationalist Donald Trump because he knew it would help his career.

People who know him, people who know Matt Gaetzby, like this guy knows exactly what he's doing, but he's just doing this purely for his own ambition. And you may have heard of him before because he invited a Holocaust denier to be his guest at the State of the Union. That's right. That's what a good guy Matt Gaetz is. So he started this whole thing last week by tweeting a fake picture.

It wasn't real. It wasn't actually the caravan, saying this is the caravan. George Soros has funded this caravan. Soros question mark? Right. Just asking questions. Fuck you. In the caravan are dangerous people who are coming to the united states that of course went on to fox from fox it goes to the president united states his think tank fox and

friends so now we have the president united states telling everyone that the caravan that is that is a thousand a thousand miles away from the border is filled filled with Middle Easterners, dangerous people, possibly terrorists, all this kind of stuff, and that it's possibly funded by the Democrats. And so now what happened was on Gab, which is a social media platform used by many white supremacists and neo-Nazis,

glad we have one of those, Bowers, who's the guy who did the shooting, recently complained, after all this last week, that Jews were helping transport members of the migrant caravans, called a Jewish organization that helps refugees a sugar-coated evil, and then finally said, I don't care about the optics. I can't take this anymore. I'm going to go do this thing. And now we have this mass shooting. Tommy, what do we know in general about rising anti-Semitism over the last few years? The ADL reported in February that

the number of anti-Semitic incidents was nearly 60% higher in 2017 than in 2016. That is the largest single year increase on record and the second highest number reported since the ADL started tracking incident data in the 1970s. And of course, this coincided with Donald Trump's campaign in 2016 and then Donald Trump's presidency in 2017. So the question is, does Trump bear any responsibility for this rise in anti-Semitism? The White House obviously says not at all. They point to his statements condemning the attack in Pittsburgh, which, according to The New York Times, were written by his Jewish daughter and his Jewish son-in-law, Ivanka, Trump, and Jared Kushner, who I guess had to persuade him to condemn these in super harsh terms, which is always comforting. But what do you think?

What sort of connections, if any, can we draw from Trump's presidency, Trump's rhetoric to sort of these rising attacks? I think that the key to understanding the link between Trump and these fringe anti-Semitic extremists is just listening to what the fringe anti-Semitic extremists say. And they take solace when in Charlottesville, he blames both sides or doesn't condemn them. They look to him and they're inspired and they see leadership and they feel emboldened by him. When he calls himself a nationalist, these right-wing nationalist parties have been blaming Jews for all their problems for centuries. They know damn well what it means.

When Steve Bannon sits his fat ass in the White House for six months as the chief strategist, they look to him for leadership. When he's inviting these pizza gate lunatics into briefings and these people people walking around making the like, okay, white nationalist sign and they so like, what drives me crazy about this is, you know, there are all these people that say, oh, they're just trolling. You know, they're just they're trying to, you know, own the libs by making these signs like you are what you do, you know, and then on and then the response,

like, I think it drives me nuts. And I think the African American community has dealt with for a very long time as well. It's like, when you point out something as racist or anti semitic, I think people are think that that's like the worst thing you could ever say about someone that they are racist, or they're an anti semite. And they act like pointing out the facts and making that charge is somehow worse than the original incident. We need to call this for what it is. Right. I mean, to paraphrase Andrew Gillum, I'm not saying he's an anti-Semite. I'm saying the anti-Semites think he's an anti-Semite. Julia Yaffe, a friend of the pod, wrote a really great piece for the Washington Post about all of

this that you should go check out. But she basically, you know, sort of laid out Trump's evolution on this. In 2016, he joked at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition that it wouldn't support him, quote, because I don't want your money. Yeah. During the campaign, he tweeted a picture of Hillary Clinton superimposed on a star of David over dollar bills. After Julia published a profile of Melania, which the White House didn't like, she was deluged with anti-Semitic threats. Trump was asked to condemn those attacks on Yaffe from his supporters. And he said, quote, I don't have a message for them. And of course, as you pointed out, the worst example is Charlottesville. People marching in Charlottesville chanting Jews will not replace us.

And Donald Trump saying there were fine people on both sides. I want a reporter, this is very simple, to ask Donald Trump, ask Sarah Huckabee Sanders, ask anyone at the White House today, does the president still believe that the people in Charlottesville

who were chanting Jews will not replace us were fine people? That there were fine people among those marching? I want someone to ask him that question because if they really say

he's not anti-Semitic, that he condemns this kind of attacks, that he condemns the kind of hate that leads to these attacks, then they will answer, the president will answer, you know what? I don't believe there were fine people. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. But he won't because he hasn't, because nothing has changed since Charlottesville. The only thing that's changed is somehow, like, the news moves so fast that our collective memory doesn't really remember the fact that in Charlottesville, he issued these horrible, horrible statements and has not apologized for them.

Right. I mean, there was an article last year where I think it was the Independent of the UK, where Trump suggested that Jews might be secretly committing anti-Semitic hate crimes on themselves so that he looks bad. I forgot about that one, too. selves so that he looks bad. I forgot about that one too. I mean, Adam Serwer, who writes for the Atlantic, wrote, I think, as crystal clear a piece about how the spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax that was kind of came through the weird Twitter ecosystem through Lou Dobbs, then got on Fox and Friends and then got to the president. And he decided that he was going to demagogue a caravan of desperate people because he thought it was going to be an election issue that inspired this individual to do what he did.

Yeah, period. You know, I keep thinking like, because the Republican line is, well, no one can control what their supporters do on either side. And there's bad and there's rhetoric on both sides that's gotten out of hand. Right. But what would we be saying right now if these perpetrators of these crimes or this hate and this violence that we've seen over the last week were Muslim? Exactly. What would we be doing if there was a connection to ISIS? Wouldn't we say that ISIS propaganda inspired some of these people who said, I'm doing this in the name of ISIS, which we've seen all the time.

Of course. And we would be calling on every single Muslim on the planet to denounce this act and to do better somehow and to somehow fix the problem. I mean, these these people are these right wingers are incapable of looking within their party, within themselves and seeing the harm that's being created here. And so it's not just Trump. The NRCC, after George Soros was sent an IED, a pipe bomb, they put up an ad attacking George Soros. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted, we cannot allow Soros, Steyer and Bloomberg to buy this election. Gee, what do those three guys have in common? Yeah. No, I mean, look, it is true that a politician or a leader cannot control what his or her supporters do all the time. There are people who will do crazy things, will do horrible things all the time. But you can control your own words and your own actions. They like to point out, oh, it was a Bernie Sanders

supporter that shot Steve Scalise and he was doing it because they were Republicans. Right. That is correct. And yet, can you point to a single word that Bernie Sanders has ever said or any Democrat that told people to commit violence? Can you do that to Donald Trump? Yes. How many times did he say he was going to pay the legal bills of his supporters who beat people up at rallies? He was going to pay the legal bills of his supporters who beat people up at rallies. How many times is he inside? Today, today he called the press the enemy of the people. How many times in his stump speech has he called Democrats evil and crazy?

He says it every single day. Democrats don't do that. No. It also worries me because there you see this a lot among like young men in particular. There was a big part of the appeal of Trump was he's just trolling, he's talking shit, he's generally anti-establishment. And I get why anti-establishment sentiments are appealing to young people in the 60s.

You're anti-war, right? This is a different time. But that stuff has manifested itself online in dark ways. I mean, there's racist, anti-Semitic jokes that pop up on Gab or 4chan or God forbid, like the Daily Stormer. And when people, you know, it's sort of like a race to the bottom

to see who we can offend and like upset the libs. But I think that stuff lulls you into thinking it's acceptable. And some people see that stuff and go further and further and further. I mean, Timothy McVeigh, the white nationalist Oklahoma city bomber was inspired by anti-Semitic books and teaching, and he perpetrated a horrific terrorist act. So like we need to, we need to keep an eye on these things and we need to understand that

leadership comes from the very top. And you can't tell me that Barack Obama singing Amazing Grace in a church wasn't an important healing moment. And the lack of that grace or any kind of unity in our country, it's like you can feel it. Or again, take George W. Bush, right? Who will go down in history as one of the worst presidents

because the Iraq War was one of the biggest catastrophes that any president has ever led us into okay but george w bush made a point of condemning attacks on muslims made a point of saying the muslim religion is a peaceful religion and whether it's george bush whether it's ronald reagan or it's any republican president when they were if their supporters started attacking people you wouldn't be able to draw the same kind of links that you can draw with Donald Trump.

And Republicans fucking know this. Of course they do. They know it damn well. And so whether it's Barack Obama or George Bush, whatever, for some reason, these anti-Semitic people, these racist supporters, they look at Donald Trump and they think he's one of them. After Charlottesville, they said,

we think he's on our side. We know he eventually had to condemn it, but they forced him to condemn him. And we really know he's on our side. What other president have anti-Semites and racists ever said that about? And it drives me crazy the people that are elevated in the media because they're sort of Trump fans or sycophants. Like Eric Erickson, lame blogger, two weeks ago tweeted, it's not a coincidence that this caravan to the south of us is happening two weeks before our federal elections. He was on Meet the Press this Sunday. Great booking, guys.

Lou Dobbs, who is a particularly virulent brand of washed up and intolerant, had a guy on from Judicial Watch who said, talked about the Soros funded State Department financially backing the caravan. It was so bad that Fox actually had to pull the episode and banned the guest in perpetuity. But like, those are the people that Donald Trump watches. Those are the people he calls on the phone during his nine hours of executive time, which is code for him sitting around and tweeting and calling his buddies, right? We have like a part time president who, you know, in the time he actually does work, just divides the nation as thoroughly as he possibly can. If the president of the United States and Republicans in Congress truly believed that these kind of attacks, this kind of hate and stuff like that was awful and they wanted to condemn it, they could decide to comport themselves differently in these final weeks of the election.

Right. Instead, this is what happened. This is Trump's. differently in these final weeks of the election, right? Instead, this is what happened. This is Trump's, let's talk about Trump's general response to not just what happened in Pittsburgh, but all of the incidents of hate and violence last week. In addition to the worst anti-Semitic massacre in the United States history, we saw a mass assassination attempt of Democratic leaders and the murders of two African Americans in Kentucky by gunman authorities. They tried to enter a predominantly black church in the moments before the attack. The president has responded to these incidents by continuing to hold political rallies

and send tweets where he attacks his opponents, attacks the very people who were sent mail bombs, George Soros, Tom Steyer, Maxine Waters, and attacks the media as the enemy of the people, which he did this morning. And Republicans, Maxine Waters, and attacks the media as the enemy of the people, which he did this morning. And Republicans, as you said, they continue to run these ads from the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is Paul Ryan's supercar. What is going on here?

Why are they doing this? I cannot fathom it. I cannot fathom it. And just a quick aside, one conversation we're not having, which is very frustrating, is about gun control. And, you know, when 58 people were killed in the Las Vegas massacre, 500 of them injured. He promised he'd take action on bump stocks and background checks and things, but he did absolutely nothing. And here we are again, another guy with an AR-15 shooting up a community.

But I mean, to your broader point, like they gave up so long ago on checking him in any way. And I don't think they will find any courage until we win in the midterms. That's our only hope. Well, they could very easily have said, you know what? This has all gotten too far. We don't want the votes of racists. We don't want the votes of anti-Semites. And you know what?

In these last weeks, let's make this an election about issues we're gonna have ads up about tax cuts about immigration about the issues that we differ on okay but we are not going to make these attacks on Democrats we're not gonna run away attack George Soros we're not gonna have these gross ads up it is time for the country to get they could have done all that yeah yeah they need the votes sad yeah sad sack policy won get... They could have done all that. They need the votes. Sad sack policy wonk, Paul Ryan could have run on his big tax cut, his crowning achievement. But no, he's

not. He's running a series of racist ads through his super PAC, where he's calling out an African American candidate for having released a rap album. He's calling out Aftab for ties to terrorism. They're the most specious, disgusting, racist things you've ever seen. Like, this is their playbook.

They're all running the Trump playbook. Yeah. Period. How do you think the media should cover this? Are they doing it well? You know, Republicans are obviously pushing the message here that both sides are to blame for the rhetoric. I mean, I think they're like, I was apoplectic a week ago during the caravan discussions because I thought that they were just getting led down this road of manufacturing a crisis because it was politically helpful to

Trump. I think we've gotten away from that because of horrific events. I think a few things in this instance, like one, there is a sense, I think, that threats made online maybe or conversations online aren't as real or aren't as dangerous. And that is completely false. And there are all these people, I think, who who live in a world where they follow these white nationalists and these white extremists online have been trying to sound the alarm about this stuff. And we need to take that a lot more seriously. Like I keep thinking about in 2009, when we were still in the White House, DHS released this report that had actually been commissioned by the Bush administration about the rise in right wing extremism and radicalizations. And basically, it said, you know, these economic conditions could lead to increased radicalization and recruiting. They felt reminiscent of the economic conditions in the 90s that led to Timothy McVeigh. People were scared of more gun control. They were stockpiling weapons. And the thing that was sort of politically explosive was that they were trying to recruit veterans. And basically, the right wing PC police shouted down this report and made us walk away

from it. And instead of having a real conversation about what was happening and the threats from within, we dismissed it as somehow targeting Republicans. I think since 9-11, we've been so conditioned to look externally for threats and the things we fear from ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and that's understandable. But we really do need to focus more on these right wing, homegrown extremist groups because communities of color, the Jewish community, they're being literally terrorized and murdered. I think Democrats should handle this. Does this change the dynamic of the midterms in any way. It does feel like over the last week, there's been a shift where, A, things have gotten a lot scarier. But B, the focus has gone from, you know, Trump was able to keep the focus on, first it was Kavanaugh, then it was the caravan. But, you know, a funny thing happened here is Trump said, oh, he wants to make this election a referendum on him because he was out there doing all these rallies.

He's out there giving all these interviews and he's figuring like I'm the one who can juice Republican turnout because they all love me. So he's put himself at the center of this election. Well, now he got what he wanted. And now the midterms do seem like they're more of a referendum on his actions, his behavior and his words, which in the wake of two or three tragedies, right, a mass assassination attempt, the worst attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history, and the killing of two African Americans in Kentucky, in the wake of this, he has not tried to bring the country together.

He has not offered any consoling words. And in fact, he has doubled down on his attacks on Democrats and the media. And I'm just wondering, like, how should Democrats handle this in this last week? Boy, it's hard to know, right? I mean, notable this morning is the Gallup Trump approval track. Last week, he was at 44 approve, 50 disapprove. This week, he's at 40 approve, 54 disapprove. So the country is not happy about his handling of the IED incident. I don't think they've come to process in polling at least what happened over the weekend. So that's just sort of the context of what's happening in the country. I do think this midterm was always going to be a referendum on Trump. I think that Democrats

should continue running on healthcare and I think that Democrats should continue running on health care and the issues that they know people care the most about. But I do think that most of the country thinks he needs to be checked. And that's going to be even more salient of a message now. Well, and whether they believe that or not, certainly I do think Democrats should make that part of their closing message along with health care and everything else. Like, if you give Donald Trump a Republican Congress again, if he wins this election, if Republicans win this election, he will absolutely take that as an affirmation of his behavior. Oh, absolutely. That what he did was OK and that he

can continue doing that. And for the next two years, he will say and do whatever he wants because the Republican Congress will let him. They have basically shown that no matter what he does or what he says, they will stand behind him 100%. So even if you sort of like Trump, even if you think that the economy is going great, even if you've said to yourself, you know what? I liked him. I'm going to continue voting for my Republican congressman.

You have to think to yourself, what we have seen these last two weeks will only get worse over the next two years if this man on November 6th gets an affirmation that his behavior is okay. And then for the next two years, he will do whatever he wants. He will shut down investigations. He will take away people's healthcare. He will pass more tax cuts for the rich. He will deport more immigrants. He will do whatever he wants. He views everything in terms of winning and losing so he thinks that uh the way he treated uh christine balazzi ford is okay because kavanaugh got confirmed right so like that's the only lesson he ever learns and i do think that there are a lot of people in this country that like kind of

like trump's anti-establishment stuff but that shows up in polls like I don't like the tweets. Well, the tweets are a big deal. When the tweets are inspiring, radical, frightening, violent people, then that should really rise to the top of your concerns and how you're voting. And look, we've seen this happen before too. His lowest approval ratings came after Charlottesville, after the Helsinki press conference with Putin, where he stood with Putin, just moments where he has totally dropped the ball in the worst way in his role as leader, as national unifier, as president. I mean, like people in this country do want someone who is going to console them during times of tragedy, who's going to try to bring the country together, who's going to try to rise above partisan politics. He can't do any of those things. He's a part-time president. We know this

because we read all the stories. Like the guy has like literally three hours in the middle of the day routinely where he just does nothing but watch TV and tweet. Right. So we know that he's not doing the job generally. There's part, I think there's parts of us who are like, oh, that's probably good that he's not more effective. But, you know, you can't hide when you've completely abdicated your role as a moral leader or a sort of a healer for the country. And I do think Democrats in this last week should think about including in their message when they're on the stump. Like it is it is Democrats job in a way because there's such a vacuum of leadership on the Republican side, to show people what real leaders sound like and look like and what real leaders do. You know, like I keep thinking of Andrew Gillum's, you know, closing statement in his debate with Ron DeSantis, when he said,

you know, in Trump's America, we've been led to believe that we've got to step on our neighbor's shoulder and their back and their face in order to get ahead. Well, I reject that. And I do think we've got to give people a reminder of what, you know, America can be when it has real leaders who are willing to rise above all this bullshit, you know, and you saw, I mean, you saw some of this in the wake of Pittsburgh, you know, CBS reported that Dimas Salabarios and his family drove to Pittsburgh from New York City. This is an African-American family who were also first responders to the Emanuel AME shooting in Charleston. And he said, you know, all faith communities, no matter nationality or race, need to stick together and support each other in times like these. There was the leader of an Islamic center in Pittsburgh announces that the Muslim community has raised more than $70,000 for synagogue attack victims.

And of course, think about the Jewish center itself and the Jewish organization that was helping refugees who were Muslims that were targets of the attack. There is good in this country. And I think Democrats have to remind people of what that is in this final week. Just a real quick point on the refugees. I mean, Trump has demagogued the concept of helping out refugees. He has made that somehow an evil or bad thing, right? Because he claims they're all ISIS. I mean, when you think of the history of the Jewish people who are stateless, who had to flee the most horrific thing you could ever imagine in the Holocaust, there's no more disgusting undercutting or misunderstanding of the history of the people

or a nation or a country the history of the people or a nation or a country right full of refugees or people you know fleeing something so anyway he needs an enemy to win yeah he needs people angry with each other and afraid of one another and so you know whether he's pinning men versus women in the kavanaugh hearing whether he's trying to make people afraid of foreigners and brown people and immigrants and now the press and the media and Democrats and mobs, he needs this enemy to keep going. His enemy, Trump's enemy is unity. This country coming together and voting and this country voting and people engaged and people supporting each other, even if you don't look like each other or pray like each other or love like one another. That's the worst news for him.

That's how he doesn't win because then there's no need for Donald Trump if people fail together. So he is going to try his fucking damnedest in this last week to make sure that he calls out all the enemies he can. Today it's the press. He's sending 5,000 troops to the border because he hopes the caravan will be back in the news. Nonsense. They are desperate for people to find enemies, to hate one another, to be angry with one another. And I think what Democrats have to do is show the country that there is another way. Yeah. There are good people. There are a lot of people showing grace in this moment. It is deeply unfortunate that our president isn't one of them. Yeah. But we can

elect really good people to Congress who can make it a better place. And you will be talking to one of those people next. J.D. Scholten, who's running for Congress against Steve King in Iowa, joins us after the break. On the pod today is J.D. Scholten, who is running for Congress from the great state of Iowa in the 4th District. J.D., thank you so much for being on the show. It's an honor to be here. I'm so excited to talk to you because I love Iowa. I truly, I lived in Iowa for a year in 2007, and I know that I was hanging out with a bunch of liberal caucus goers and that other parts of the state are far more conservative. But I personally found that Iowa nice is not

just a cliche, it's real, and that actually politics in Iowa is one of the best brands of politics I've ever seen because it was thoughtful and substantive, which is why I can to understand how so many good people vote for a person who I truly think is a bad human being who is doing and saying things that are harmful to our nation. And I'm curious what your take is. Yeah, I mean, his reelections are complicated, and there's not really one thing you can really point to it. But I was blessed enough to play baseball in seven different countries. And within five minutes, you knew I was from Iowa. And I guess we share this love of Iowa and being a fifth generation Iowan. And I know this district, I don't know what the other parts of the district is or other parts of the state as well. But like this district, we're hardworking people. And it just it's very frustrating to have this person as our representative.

And when he tweeted out, we can't restore our civilization with other people's babies. My phone just blew up from people who aren't from Iowa, who aren't political. And they asked, is this who you guys are? And I would love to say that he's not a representative of who we are, but at the same time, that's in his job title. And so that was kind of the first step of a long process of how I'm here today. Yeah. Well, people who are listening right now and are trying to decide what candidates should I support and who should I help out in the last days of this campaign, I want them to take a look at your election, not just because you are a thoughtful, smart, highly qualified individual. But I'm staying on Congressman King for a minute.

Like if he lost, it wouldn't just mean one fewer white nationalist in Congress. It's the disproportionate power of Iowa in the presidential nominating process means that Ted Cruz made him his national campaign co-chair, right? Like every Republican goes through the state and has to kiss the ring for Steve King. And like, I do think it elevates him in a way that is damaging. Exactly. And it's so frustrating because of that. He's gotten away with a lot more than what a just random fringe representative would normally get. And here's the thing.

He endorsed Ted Cruz for that presidential election, and Ted Cruz is the number one anti-ethanol opponent in D.C. And this district is the most producing ethanol. And so it's just head-scratching. But here's the encouraging thing is his favorabilities in this district are, uh, he's only favored about 40%, 42%, uh, whereas unfavorability is equally the same. And so, uh, we've been able to take this national rate or this race that from national ratings programs that have traditionally a 20 point race and five different

national rating programs has taken this off of a safe race. And what we were doing, I just followed an old school style of politics. My two political heroes are local Democrats, Senator Harkin and Berkeley Bedell. And in 1984, they used to represent 80% of this district. And what they did was just get out to the people, prove that they're trustworthy, and prove that you're going to fight for the people of your district. And you're going to earn votes regardless of voter history. And that's what we've been able to accomplish. And we did a 39-county tour. We just finished our third 39-county tour and did a town hall in all 39 counties.

And we call it the Can't Fake Showing Up Tour. And it was great. town hall in all 39 counties. And we call it the can't fake showing up tour. And we, and it was great. We, we went into Dickinson County that Hillary didn't get 30% in and we had 183 people and it was just electric. And we're getting, we're pulling these crowds and there's a buzz that's happening here. That's like the Beto O'Rourke strategy. Okay. Enough about, we've been referred to him quite a bit. Yeah. Well, that's cool. So you grew up in Iowa. You left for a while to go to college and play professional baseball. Tell us about that experience and what brought you back to Iowa. Yeah. I mean, I didn't make a dime, but it was an absolute blessing to being able to play all over the world. But like many

first-time candidates, I was influenced by what happened in the 2016 election. But then right after that, I went to go visit my grandma, who's my inspiration, not only in my life, but for this campaign. And the last thing she said was, you need to move back to Iowa and take care of the farm. Now, I was raised in Sioux City and the farm's four hours away and we rented out to a family friend. but that ended up being our last conversation. And at her funeral, uh, I felt that pull to come back home. And so I started, uh, to look for a job and the best job I could find in the Sioux city market was, uh, $15 an hour and no benefits. And here I was working in technology and, and, and as a paralegal in innovation in one of the largest, fastest growing economies. And I was just, I started looking into things and let's just say that I got more and more fed up.

And I finally said, you know what? I can't sit on the sidelines anymore. And there was nobody in the race for about a month. And I said, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I'm going to launch this campaign. And we started very humbly. But again, we were focused on getting out to the people. And what we started as a grassroots movement has just continued to grow and grow and grow. So on that point, I mean, about struggling to find a job in Sioux City that could pay the bills. I mean, people, if you've been to Des Moines, you know that it's like, it's a bustling city. And there's all these tech jobs, and it's like innovating and doing cool things.

Why do you think that those types of jobs don't exist in Sioux City? And how do you think Congress could help, you know, improve things or create opportunity there? Yeah. I mean, it's it's one of those things where we need to focus on rural development. And part of the issue is we don't have rural Democrats anymore. And I fear that we're becoming the party of the Whole Foods Party, or there's a lot of talk about that lately. And we don't have a Whole Foods in my district. Democrat, just working hard, working people, just try to engage with them and say, listen, we're talking about economic populism. We're talking about raising them, not only raising the minimum wage, but in this district, we need to be fighting for 50,000 and 65,000 and $75,000 jobs. And part of that is bringing technology throughout the district because Iowa State graduated 1,400 students last year and only 258 are still working in Iowa. That's what's happening in Iowa right now.

That is the Iowa that I know. And I'm trying to change that narrative. I moved back because I wanted to change. And a lot of people like that. I have friends who want to move back, but they don't want to raise their family in a place where they can't earn an income to support their family. And so that's what we're out here talking about every day. So when I lived in Iowa, and again, it was a long time ago, it was like 08, 07.

It did feel like the state was sort of trending more progressive. You had a blue collar base, especially in the northeastern part of the state. But then there were, you know then socially it was becoming more liberal. I was shocked in 2016 when I looked at the results and I saw that Trump had won a lot of those sort of like eastern counties along the river and even some more of the urban areas. I mean, do you think that the demographics of the state are shifting in some sort of way?

How do you account for Trump winning Iowa? I don't know. But it's something that it's going to take a lot of hard work to get it back. And right now, what you saw is there's a lot of great candidates that said, you know what, this is not the way we want it to go. And a lot of younger candidates. And that's what's encouraging about it. And at all my town halls, I started off every town hall with this stat,

that the average person in Congress is 58 years old with a net worth of a million dollars. I'm different. I'm 20 years younger, and I'm a million dollars short of that average. But people relate to that because,'s, it's, you know, I was blessed to travel the world, but at the end of the day, I'm just a hardworking guy next door that that's just trying to, uh, get this district going back in the right direction where we can have a good quality life and, and have good schools and, and pay for health insurance. good quality life and have good schools and pay for health insurance.

I mean, it is really cool to see people like you stepping up, like people like Abby Finkenauer, who is running in the first district in Iowa, who's 29 years old saying, you know, enough of the leadership we've had for a while. It's my turn. Like what, what got you to that tipping point where you thought, all right, I'm'm gonna take the plunge and do this um honestly uh there's a lot of things but but listening to the podcast uh i i was influenced by the pod because i you guys gave me the ability to say you know what i can do this and i can't sit on the sidelines and uh to be honest i was not that good a baseball player but i worked my tail off and that's who I was known. I was a grinder and I knew I could change or have those skill sets to go straight into

running this campaign. And, and we thought very, uh, strategically early on, on how are we going to do this in a race? That's traditionally a 20 point race. How can we not only compete, but beat Steve King? And, uh, we, we did a lot of unconventional things. We've, uh, went very strong on Twitter, uh, and really had that social media presence where at the same side, uh, or on the other side, we were really just getting out

there to the people and really doing, uh, pushing hard to go to all 39 counties. It's a five-hour drive east-west, three hours north-south. And so the typical model for a campaign where you just stay at home and fundraise, fundraise, fundraise, it doesn't work in a district like this. And so I mentioned my two political heroes, Senator Harkin and Berkeley Bedell. And for folks who don't know Berkeley Bedell, do yourself a favor and look him up because he's 97. He's an amazing person, but he would win in these ruby red areas by 60%. And his reelection poster from 1982 or 84, we don't know what years, but it talked about the 1% controls our government. Does the 99% have a chance? about the 1% controls our government does the 99% have a chance and it's just like he was ahead of his time yeah and just it's it's been pretty amazing but

also like we I pretty much have lived out of my Winnebago that the campaign our campaign Winnebago because they're it's made in our district right and I tell folks all the time I'm the only congressional candidate in America that probably sleeps more in a Walmart parking lot than his own bed. God, that's awesome. You know what we need in Congress? Grinders. We need people that are going to work hard and go to every single county and show up. So does that economic populist message, is that what's resonating? Like what's the playbook that people could steal from you if they want to win in these these ruby red districts? Well, there's not one easy solution I wish there was but it is so much about showing up in in if you just stayed And put your TV commercials on the air and regardless of how wonderful they are

You'll get a few votes, but you're not really gonna turn the tide It's having that engagement and like what I noticed when we first did our, our 39 county tour, uh, people were like, Oh God bless you. Somebody should run against Steve King. And the second time it was more like, Oh, he's not just not Steve King. He's actually standing for something. And, and then the third time we see that hope and that energy and that buzz and not only are, are they going to be voting for us, then they get other people to vote for you. And I met early on with a Native American activist who lives across the river from me in South Sioux City, Nebraska. And he told me, JD, if you want change, you're going to have to get uncomfortable. And once you get uncomfortable, you have to

convince others to get uncomfortable. And I tell everyone for 15 months, I've been uncomfortable and just, uh, but it's that fire that's burning inside you. And just, uh, I can't, I can't just sit on the couch anymore and complain. I had to do something and, and, uh, it has not been easy, but, um, I knew how much hard work it was going to be, but I didn't realize how much fun I would have. Really? That's great. I mean, just a note for people listening and thinking, what's the big deal about sleeping in a van? I believe you're 6'6". Yeah. And our campaign motto is standing tall for all. Yeah. Well, that's a tight squeeze and a winnie. So, I mean, one last question for you. You know, this tragedy in Pittsburgh this past weekend, it was like the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in the history of the country.

And you were running against this individual who has sympathized with some of these hateful far right groups. I mean, how would you describe the urgency of this moment and the urgency of this last week of your race, given all that's happened in the last week? Yeah. I mean, just, it's so frustrating that we have a representative who David Duke said, God bless Steve King, or a representative that decided to endorse the mayoral candidate in Toronto, and then who's a white nationalist. And then he says, oh, I didn't know he was a, she was a white nationalist. This was like two weeks ago. Then denounce it. Yeah. And the bar is so low.

Just denounce it. It's not hard. And it's tricky. And we go back to the answer why he gets reelected. Well, it doesn't make it into this district as much because it's a seven media markets and all partial media markets. It's hard to get into the newspapers um and they don't like to print stuff like that and and so it's not that easy and to even though like you and i see that and it's it's a no-brainer but but uh it's frustrating um yeah

and it's one of those things where uh if you saw the even the polling shows uh are you frustrated with him yes but will you vote for him yes like why yeah why and so we wanted to be that healthy alternative in in uh the sioux city journal which my hometown paper uh i'm the only non-incumbent that they're endorsing. That's amazing. And I'm one of only two Democrats that they're endorsing. Yeah. And they said our appeals not only to Democrats, but independents and Republicans. And that's what we're pushing this final stretch. And we're trying to make sure that we have enough resources to get that message out to say, listen, I'm not trying to make you a Democrat, but I'm trying to get your vote because we deserve better in this district.

Damn right. That's a great closing argument. J.D., I am inspired by your race. I'm like the coolest thing about 2016 is the number of people who said I'm stepping up. And it's people like you who are doing really hard work. work that's not glamorous, sleeping in a van in a Walmart parking lot that are going to change the face of our Congress and get a hell of a lot of good people serving in Washington and just make it a better place, man. So we're rooting for you. If anyone out here is listening to the pod right now and they say, this guy sounds great, we need a 6'6 grinder with a curveball in Washington, how can they help you out? You can check out our website

and donate on our website at sholten4iowa.com. That's S-C-H-O-L-T-E-N, the number four, I-O-W-A.com. All right. Iowa. I can't wait to get back to Iowa. That's on the top of the places to visit in 2019. So I hope we get to see you. JD, thanks for doing the pod, man. Good luck out there. Thank you. And may I just say, thank you for, we're a very money ball style of campaign. And thank you for saving me.

Instead of paying consultants, I just listen to you guys every week. I hope it works out. Oh, man. Good luck. Thank you again. Hey, I deeply appreciate it. See Oh, man. Good luck. Thank you again. Hey, I deeply appreciate it. See you, buddy. Bye.

Thanks again to J.D. Scholten for coming on the show. We need you to win. That would be cool. Please win. Please win, Steve King. Sucks. Dan and Love It will be on Wednesday morning, and then we'll all be in Irvine for our final show on Friday.

Final show on Friday. Go vote. Thank you for watching. Please go vote. Please grab some friends who might not vote and ask them to vote. Now's the time. Bye. Bye.