Pod Save America - Gay for Due Process: Live at WorldPride

Episode Date: June 8, 2025

Lovett joins forces with The Bulwark's Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell for a big, beautiful, gay-as-hell fundraiser at World Pride to support Andry José Hérnandez Romero and other individuals wrongful...ly deported to El Salvador without due process. Jon, Tim and Sarah open the floor to two people doing the hard, important work for justice: Andry José Hérnandez Romero's lawyer and President of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Lindsay Toczylowski, and Congressman Robert Garcia. Lovett takes us to the library for some good old fashioned reads of the Trump administration with help from the audience. Later, they are joined by the incredible Tara Hoot to finally answer the age-old question, who's better at trivia: gay people, or straight people? Join them as they laugh, they listen, and they learn a lot bout lesbians. Like, a lot. And in the end, isn't that what Pride Month is all about? Visit votesaveamerica.com/actionforandry to learn more and support. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an ad by BetterHelp. Men today face immense pressure to perform, to provide, to keep it all together. So it's no wonder that 6 million men in the US suffer from depression every year, and it's often undiagnosed. It's okay to struggle. Real strength comes from opening up
Starting point is 00:00:14 about what you're carrying and doing something about it so you can be at your best for yourself and everyone in your life. If you're a man and you're feeling the weight of the world, talk to someone, anyone, a friend, a loved one, or a therapist. In this administration, they just go on, usually Brett Baer.
Starting point is 00:00:28 That's a good therapy. But some top FBI officials went on Fox and Friends this morning and kind of unburdened themselves of all the things they're sad about. Not everyone has that opportunity. No. To get booked on cable. No, you can't just sit with Fox and Friends
Starting point is 00:00:40 and talk about how your job at the FBI is so hard. And just have Brian Kielbmeyer be like, it's OK. And so in that case, you should try BetterHelp. With over 35,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an app store rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on over 1.7 million client reviews.
Starting point is 00:00:59 It's convenient too. You can join a session with a therapist at the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life. Plus you can switch therapists at any a therapist at the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life, plus you can switch therapists at any time, therapy is great, it really helps, even if you don't think you need it. Trust me, when you go, you'll feel a lot better.
Starting point is 00:01:13 As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash PSA. That's BetterH-E-L-P dot com slash PSA. Hey everybody, happy Pride! Today we're switching things up a bit. On Friday night I did a very fun live show with Sarah Longwell and Tim Miller from The
Starting point is 00:01:56 Bullwork at the Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C. at World Pride. It was a fundraiser benefiting the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which represents people like Andre Hernandez Romero and so many others who have been disappeared without due process to El Salvador. It was a serious topic, but a very fun show with some important conversations and some very silly games. If you want to help, you can donate at votesaveamerica.com slash action for Andre. We'll be back with a regular episode on Tuesday, but in the meantime, here's a live show.
Starting point is 00:02:23 Hope you like it. Welcome, everybody. I was never a twink. Here's the thing, love it. So thank you all for coming out. I want to tell you just a second about the origin story of this. I was in the shower one day. Watch out. Usually it's that.
Starting point is 00:02:50 But in this case, I was thinking about how fucking pissed I am that we're kidnapping gay people and sending them to El Salvador. So I got out of the shower and I texted Lovett. And I was like, Lovett, we should do something for others for once. You know? We should stop being such narcissists who care about our own content creation. We should do something for others for once, you know? Like, we should stop being such narcissists who care about our own content creation. We should, like, do something for someone else. And he was like, great idea, Tim.
Starting point is 00:03:10 I was like, and let's try it to- I'll try anything once. So then I was like, let's tie it to world pride, you know? So we can have one for him, one for us on the back end. So we'll see y'all at Flower Factory later. Sarah, you got brought in, why? Are you here? I think because somebody needed to be the top on this stage.
Starting point is 00:03:31 Wow. Nobody vetted. I didn't vet that joke. I didn't vet that joke. No, sorry. I just, I just, uh, it was important to have a bipartisan event. It was important to be diverse because this is a pro-democracy, and I mean small-D democracy, event. I'm the pro-democracy, they're the small-D. Wow. Unbelievable. She's so proud of herself.
Starting point is 00:04:05 I didn't realize lesbians knew about jokes. Okay, well, that's fine. That's fine. But these guys were like, hey, we're going to go in like pregame backstage. We're going to do some shots. But they just took prep shots. That's all they did. It's a pill.
Starting point is 00:04:21 How am I supposed to know that? I don't need them. My shot is ozempic. And you're looking great. Thanks, buddy. We were going through old pictures of you, and boy, big improvement. You're thriving right now. Thank you, buddy.
Starting point is 00:04:36 Thank you for saying that. It gets better. So, you know, look, we want to have fun, but also we're here because this is a serious moment and we're really grateful to everybody who was willing to come out during World Pride to be here, to be part of this fundraiser, to keep attention on the importance of freeing André and all the others who have been disappeared to a gulag in El Salvador in our name. Earlier today, I got to witness something historic, which is I believe the first time Sarah Longwell, you've been like a participant in a protest. It's the first protest I've ever been to, period. like a participant in a protest. It's the first protest I've ever been to, period.
Starting point is 00:05:25 And we were joking just now backstage, do you know how much had to go fucking wrong in this society for Sarah and I to get close? Do you know how many different things we had to get wrong all along the way for us to be here at the Lincoln Theater together. This is against nature. This is when a turtle and a horse are friends at a zoo. It's not working. Who's the horse? It's not working. I'm the horse. I think you have a slideshow, don't you? Oh, is it? We're up to the
Starting point is 00:06:04 slideshow? Is it time? I think so. Okay,how, don't you? Oh, is it, we're up to the slideshow? Is it time? I think so. Okay, great. Unless you got more chit chat you wanna do? We all know the name of Harvey Milk. Who Pete Hegseth is trying to get his name off of a Navy vessel.
Starting point is 00:06:19 There's a Navy ship named after Harvey Milk and Pete Hegseth is like, gotta do some cancel culture on that ship. But Harvey Milk is not the first elected, gay elected official in this country, he's the first gay man to be elected in this country because the, isn't that interesting? Really, I didn't know that.
Starting point is 00:06:37 Yes, because the first person to be elected, gay, openly gay person to be elected is a lesbian from Michigan named Kathy Kozachenko, I believe. And we don't know her name because lesbians just don't do PR. They just, it's mostly, it's like woodworking and that kind of a thing. It's the gay guys that went into PR. Which is me.
Starting point is 00:07:02 That's funny because actually when we were promoting the show, the advocate did a piece. And my PR guy was the one pitching the piece and somehow the piece came out, Tim Miller and John Lovett to co-host show. The advocate knows what sells magazines. Yeah. That's how we put butts in the seats.
Starting point is 00:07:23 Yeah. All right? No pictures of women in axes in the seats. Yeah. All right? No pictures of women in axes in the Advocate. That's not gonna do anything. The point, the point is we owe a great deal to lesbians, I've recently found out. And as a token of our gratitude, we wanted to hope to make you feel perfectly at ease during World Pride by showing you some options for different lesbian styles you could embrace this weekend. Now...
Starting point is 00:07:51 Is it a skirt? Because I'm not wearing that. Okay, so we can rule out a couple right there. Now, we did manage to go into the archives and we found some options from your past. So let's show what we've got here first. Oh yeah. Lumberjack chic. I would say lumberjacklin. Scarecrow with a master's degree. I do love a flannel. Still. You can't see the fingerless gloves in the photo, but they're underneath. Dwayne the lesbian Johnson is an option for one of these.
Starting point is 00:08:34 But do we have any more of those? Is that? Oh, here's another. We have this. Yeah, I'm cute. That's my wife. I guess you are the top. We came up with... Can we go back to that one?
Starting point is 00:08:53 Gangsta. This version of Sarah, we came up with a name for it, which is Katie Langley. But look, there are many different directions that you could go, which is why it's time for a segment we're calling Kara Beener, I Hardly Know Her. Now, first up, we do have the lipstick lesbian, represented here by Portia de Rossi. Ooh, I'm gonna get out of the way here. Now, the only downside here is you do run the risk of being seduced by Ellen DeGeneres and then having to go live in the Cutswolds.
Starting point is 00:09:37 I don't know what that is, but it doesn't sound... You are describing a lesbian fantasy right now, so I don't know what the problem is. Right. I don't know your culture. I don't you are describing a lesbian fantasy right now. I don't know what the problem is right? I don't know your culture I don't know your culture Let's now next up as an option for you. Now. Do we have a do we have a let's go to the next slide Yes, next up we have the power lesbians. Yes now sex in the city episode. Yes, of course you do Now yeah, obviously you're pretty much at ease in this photo. This doesn't feel like much of a stretch for you. Would you consider yourself a power lesbian?
Starting point is 00:10:12 Yeah, I think so. A little humility, please. God. Okay. What did Tim say? A little humility. You're not supposed to call yourself a power lesbian. That's supposed to be a title bestowed upon you, I think, by others. That's the kind of thing someone who's not a power lesbian would say. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:33 If you're... Any power lesbian would describe herself as such. And if you can't, you're not bitch. All right. Next up, we have granola lesbians. Okay. I look fine gray. A Subaru Sophic we call them.
Starting point is 00:10:54 It's comfortable shoes, cargo shorts, it'd be very practical during the parade. Something to think about. You might get hit by those national park budget cuts by Trump. That has been hard on the lesbians, actually. We do like to camp. Yeah, you do like to camp. You guys like camp. We like to camp. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:19 Wow. Nobody likes to camp. No. I refuse to believe that anyone actually likes to camp. No. My friends are camping right now without me. I had to skip it to come to this show. Wow. You're welcome.
Starting point is 00:11:33 No, I don't understand camping either, but that's why the flag has different colors on it, you know? That's why we have different- That's why straight women are our natural allies. Hello, straight women. You don't like to camp either, do you? You don't like to camp. Yes, I often believe that the next great political realignment
Starting point is 00:11:52 is when the straight women and the gay guys join forces and the straight guys and the lesbians join forces, and that becomes our political divide. Do we want to take a winner in that fight? Or... divide? Do we want to take a winner in that fight? We'll do whatever you say. Next up, a classic, a classic direction, we have the masks. Now, oh, there we go. Now, this is working for Tim, so that's a bad sign. Now, TikTok has declared a mask shortage and you're a former Republican, so you care a lot about a free market.
Starting point is 00:12:38 That's an opportunity for you. There's a market opening for some more masculine Sarah Longwell. Have you thought about shorter hair, spikes, maybe kind of more tattoos? Oh, he was saying mask with a C. I thought he was talking about like COVID masks. Get out of here, Fouke. Nobody's talking about masks. Wait. No, no, I'm talking about masculine, a masculine lesbian. Well, if this isn't your style, we can try soft butch. we can try soft butch. I mean, respected, classy, androgynous.
Starting point is 00:13:10 I think a sweater vest is up my alley, actually. Yeah, no, I think we could reach for one of those in your closet for sure. And then I think one last one, I think we have diesel dyke. That's Rosa DeLario. Yeah. Yeah. I like, I honestly, I think you could try that. I really do too. I think shave the sides of your head.
Starting point is 00:13:35 I mean, honestly. This could work for you. Thank you straight man in the audience. Get that attitude the fuck out of here. Thank you. It is Pride Month, sir. It's Pride Month. We say yes to whatever. And finally, just as one last option, we have the Elvira Goth era that you could perhaps enter. That's where we would like to see you by the end of this pride. I feel like I should have worked harder on my photo bits after this. So Sarah, so that's all a way of saying, you know, we want you to try any one of these directions this pride.
Starting point is 00:14:23 We hope that even though Tim and I do take up as much space as there is. Yeah. You feel... I do. I look forward to interrupting you guys a lot during the show as you talk. I don't like the sound of that. A form of historical retaliation. And I love that for us.
Starting point is 00:14:41 Yeah. But now, I understand, Sarah, you've collected a dossier of your own. So here's the thing. Tim and I actually go way back, like recliners back. We have been friends since 2006 when I had to go pick him up after the cops arrested him. And for some reason his first call was to his boss because they needed a responsible adult to pick him up and drive his trust fund Cadillac home for him.
Starting point is 00:15:13 I don't recall this. Did that happen? That's a real thing that happened. Are you sure? I remember pulling up in the cab. What was I wearing? Because I also had a life. I was also out partying.
Starting point is 00:15:23 And I had to pull up in a cab. Let's try to keep this believable. Yeah. I pull up in a cab, and this guy is sitting on the curb. It's almost Christmas. I remember because the cop wished me a Merry Christmas as I was taking Tim away. And Tim's sitting there in the tiniest little glittery tank
Starting point is 00:15:39 top you've ever seen. While the cop lights are going, the red and whites are spinning. I remember the cabbie said to me- You know, coming out is a challenge, okay? And I went through some rocky times. I'm sure there are people in the room that can relate to that. It's not nice to bully me about it all these years later.
Starting point is 00:15:58 Well, I told you, somebody's gotta bring the top energy. So anyway, so Tim and I, Tim and I have been friends for a very long time. And so I have a lot of old pictures of Tim. And so I thought we'd just do something really quickly called the Tim Eras Tour. I love this. Sounds fun.
Starting point is 00:16:15 I love this. Let's go. This is the Tim, this is the Tim beard era. Holy shit. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. That is hot. I want to draw your attention to the fact that I spilled my drink all over my shirt.
Starting point is 00:16:29 Look, Tim, if you had kept that up a little bit longer, you could have been Speaker of the House. What else we got? Oh yeah, I call this Tim's Free Palestine era. That's Tim's husband, actually. Look how far we go back. That's Tyler. That was Pride of 2008.
Starting point is 00:16:59 How about that? Oh yeah, okay. This is Tim's frat bro era? Are you chugging a 40 at the RNC headquarters? Wait a second. Who is that in the background? Is that Sean Spicer? That is Sean fucking Spicer.
Starting point is 00:17:17 Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. And if I kept that up, I'd be on Newsmax. That's how quickly we could have our own dictator on our side. It's that best. On a fucking dime. On a dime. Sorry, Sarah. Please continue.
Starting point is 00:17:43 I'm sorry, sorry for them. Look at this Twink Schoolboy era. On a dime. Sorry, Sarah. Please continue. I'm sorry. Sorry for them. Look at this Twink schoolboy era. It's hot. Yeah. This was around the time I met Sam and he had a pair of fake glasses that he wore. This was his like Superman to Clark Kent thing that he did. It was like glasses straight, glasses off, gay. They were not prescription. I did wear non-prescription spectacles. Oh my.
Starting point is 00:18:14 You know. Yeah. For those listening. I was. For those. It was a gag. For those listening, for those listening, that is a photo of Tim, Sarah, and another Sarah Palin of Alaska. You know what's so funny?
Starting point is 00:18:39 You hear former Republican, but then you feel it. Then you feel it right here in the middle of the chest. You betcha. I call this Tim's why we did it era, which you only know if you've read Tim's book, but it's a good joke if you've got Tim's book. All right, next one. This is Tim's please clap era We have Tim and Jeb Bush Wow now Look at this. This is just only we had Jeb you guys didn't fucking deserve Jeb. Okay. I don't want to hear any of this nonsense If only we had Jeb people say to themselves all the time
Starting point is 00:19:24 If only we had Jeb, people say to themselves all the time. Last one. That's not cute. I said only cute pictures. Lastly, this is Tim's finally famous era. And I want you to know this is from the other day when Tim yelled at our staff because he didn't look cute enough in his YouTube photo. And honestly, you know what? And he made them change it. when Tim yelled at our staff because he didn't look cute enough in his YouTube photo. And honestly, you know what? And he made them change it!
Starting point is 00:19:49 You know what? That's exactly what Tim should do. That face is his goddamn money maker. Thank you. And we can't do anything in private. We can be honest about the fact that we want to be looking good on these fucking YouTubes. Alright, Sarah? Alright. That's all my Tim, but I do have a bonus for Love It. All right, Sarah. Thank you. All right. All right. That's all my time, but I do have a bonus for Love It, because I didn't have old pictures of him.
Starting point is 00:20:10 His freshman year college roommate and I worked together, and I was like, give me something. And he said no. So John must be like a scary gay. Like... Loyalty. Yeah. Loyalty. So I had to do something else. Like... Loyalty. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:25 Loyalty. So I had to do something else. So one thing that John and I have in common is that we both love the show Survivor. Okay? I've watched every season of Survivor, and when I saw that they announced John Lovett was gonna be on the show,
Starting point is 00:20:42 I was so fucking pissed. I was like now they will never have another gay middle-aged podcaster on the show and I've missed it. I'll never get to do this. Luckily this happened. First person voted out a survivor for the 40 seconds. John, that's four, that's enough. You need to bring me your torch. 47 John that's for that's enough you can burn me your torch They misspelled your name
Starting point is 00:21:18 Let's just watch the whole fucking thing relive it relive it all play it again right fast You know, I have a little behind the scenes story from one of our podcasts in the period between when John came home from Survivor and when they announced that he was the first person eliminated. We did a podcast together and on the show I was like, by the way, I know you did terrible. And he goes, how do you know? I said, you look exactly the same as when you left and I've seen the end of Survivor and people that make it long they get tan they lose weight so I was like you look the same and he made me cut it he was like Sherry Weddstone will
Starting point is 00:21:57 get mad at me and CBS if we leave it in oh surestone. There is a fragile alliance between former Republicans and current Democrats. Fragile alliance. Okay, okay. Well, this is my last thing. I did get this one picture out of your roommate. Which is... So, here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:22:24 This is, I just have to ask you, because I think I might know why you lost. Are you practicing making fire just like on concrete? I was learning how to spark the flint. I was really trying to get the fire started. I was learning. I bought a machete on Amazon, which you shouldn't be able to do and yet. And yet, but yes, that is me trying to learn how to make fire, which if you had,
Starting point is 00:22:51 if I had managed to miss more than three dinners, you might have seen. Okay, that's the end of my bet. That's the end of my photos, man. Well. Nice. Can you make fire? I can make fire.
Starting point is 00:23:04 I learned to make fire. Not as good at making friends,? I can make fire. I learned to make fire. Not as good at making friends, but I can make fire. Turns out you got to make fire and you got to make friends, which was harder for you getting voted off first of the fact that none of them had heard of your podcast. When we come back. Excuse me. We're staying. Oh, one more. Oh, sorry. You're right.
Starting point is 00:23:23 You're right. Oh, my God. You're right. OK. Well, we added it to the show late. So it's fine, it makes sense. I just figured that since we had the world's messiest divorce during Pride Month, we should probably just talk about it a little bit. So, you know, my take on this might be a little different than you expect, because I was thinking about it
Starting point is 00:23:44 on the plane here, and I was like, you know, my take on this might be a little different than you expect, because I was thinking about it on the plane here, and I was like, you know, thinking about Donald and Elon, gay men in the crowd, maybe there's more that unites us than divides us, it turns out. I know, it doesn't seem likely, but bear with me here. You have a relationship between two white male narcissists. It hits the skids. The breakup explodes in a messy, ketamine-fueled cat fight.
Starting point is 00:24:09 There's accusations of bad behavior at sex parties. And reckless spending of the couple's finances. It's a gale as old as time. I'm surprised this didn't burst out into the open at a 14th Street brunch. We've all seen the arc. You know, the only question I have is which one spirals and spends the night taking strangers loads in the dark room at the Green Lantern? My money's on Elon. Was that too much?
Starting point is 00:24:44 No, I don't think so. You can keep that one as a souvenir. I can't throw. I'm gay. We'll give it to you later. I also feel like we're kind of living a preview of the Sophie's Choice facing the children of gay divorce. I don't know about you. I feel bad for those children. Like, imagine having to choose who you want to have custody. The K-hole circuit dad or the country theater Queen talk about hard choices by Hillary Clinton did you write any of that was okay one of the thing I
Starting point is 00:25:14 never expected from this whole saga was that a straight man would end up becoming the poster boy for mixing meth and K I thought that was our thing. I don't understand any of these jokes. That's great. The jokes are for the seven gay men of the age of 50 in the crowd. What's up, boys? The good news is now we get a name for getting so geeked on a K and Tina snowball that you spend all night posting onto sniffies or ex. We can call it getting doged. And let me tell you guys, if you're out there after that Troye Sivan show tomorrow, boys are going to be getting doged all over town. So watch your apps.
Starting point is 00:25:59 That was beautiful, Tim. That's all we got. That was my tight five on the gay divorce. And on that note, uh, when we come back, uh, Tim is going to sit down with Andre Hernandez, Romero's lawyer, uh, to talk about what brought us all here together. Uh, so we're back. Pod Save America is brought to you by Incogni. If you've ever searched for your name or address on Google, it's shocking to find how many results have your personal information, and it's not by chance.
Starting point is 00:26:35 Data brokers and people search sites collect your personal information, your name, address, phone number, financial info, income, and hundreds of other records. They sell and share it publicly without your consent, but Incogni is here to put an end to that. It hunts down these unethical sites and gets your info removed from the places that expose your private information. You don't have to email anyone, fill out forms,
Starting point is 00:26:51 or jump through hoops. They handle the entire process for you. Incogni also continuously monitors to see if your data makes its way onto these databases and will request repeated removals, keeping your info off of them forever, so you get fewer spam calls, fewer emails, and more peace of mind.
Starting point is 00:27:05 Incognito even offers a family and friends plan to extend protection to up to four additional members. Just create an account and authorize them to act on your behalf. Incognito then handles the data removal process and keeps you informed of their progress. All of information is all over the place. You need a service like this to help get it off the internet
Starting point is 00:27:21 and scrub the internet as best they can. Right now you can get 60% off an annual plan by going to incognito.com slash PSA and use code PSA. That's I-N-C-O-G-N-I dot com slash PSA and use the code PSA at checkout. You don't get the fancy intro like everybody else? Okay, introduce yourself. Tell everybody who we're talking to.
Starting point is 00:27:46 Hi everybody. I'm Lindsay Toslowski. I'm the president and CEO of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Thank you. It's so great to see you in person. Finally, after all of our Twitter DMs. It's unfortunate we had to use Elon's platform to talk, but you know, it's nice that he brought us together. I'm glad he brought us together.
Starting point is 00:28:07 I'm just so appreciative of all the work that you're doing. And I'm so grateful that we were able to support your guys' work with this event tonight. I should say I got a text from Congressman Richie Torres' folks, they donated $1,000 to your group as well since he couldn't be here tonight. So we're doing the best we can. But I thought that
Starting point is 00:28:26 Why don't you start by just telling us about Andre and how you got to know him and how you got to represent him? Sure So Andre is an asylum seeker from Venezuela. He came to the US last year When he was in Venezuela as a gay man, he faced Incredible discrimination. He also was politically persecuted. He was physically hurt. He was followed home by police officers. So he made the incredibly difficult decision to come to the US.
Starting point is 00:28:57 But he had a really rich life there. He's been in a theater troupe since he was seven years old. He actually worked on the Miss Venezuela pageant. He was in pageants himself as a contestant. Now is that common in Venezuela for Trinidad and Aragon men to be working on the Miss Venezuela pageant? You know, I don't think that's been a cover I've seen before. Yeah, not common.
Starting point is 00:29:21 He also worked professionally as a makeup artist. He, you know, had this really rich life. He's close to his mom. So for him to flee and come to the United States, things were really bad. And it was really difficult for him to live authentically there. So he came to the U.S. and he did everything that we were asking people to do. He made an appointment. He waited in Tijuana for that appointment. He once he got into the U. he was kept in an ICE prison in San Diego. From the moment he arrived here, he's never stepped free in the United States at all.
Starting point is 00:29:54 During that time, he passed his credible fear interview, which means he was on his way to getting asylum. We started representing him in December of last year. We were in the process of waiting for a court hearing for him and he was disappeared by the Trump administration on March 15th. And so since you had started, you'd been talking to him that time and did you kind of expect that or what was the situation between kind of December and March? Yeah so we were getting ready to move forward with his asylum case. We had a hearing on March 13th.
Starting point is 00:30:28 He was really suffering in an ICE detention center, which is one of the reasons that we worry so much about what it's like for him now in a torture prison in El Salvador. Suffering how? Suffering, he was sexually harassed. He was, he had actually made complaints. This is a detention center in San Diego.
Starting point is 00:30:48 But he also was doing other things while he was there, including at one point he gave us, it was sort of like a business plan, a 19-page business plan that he had created for a nonprofit that he wanted to start. And it was to help kids who were homeless and to help to help kids who were homeless and to help you know other gay kids and he was planning to do that once he got out and he wanted to
Starting point is 00:31:10 know if we could show it to the judge to show that he had good intentions here in the US. Now you do a lot of these cases. Bring him fucking back. Yeah. It's ridiculous. You know the Andre case has just taken up so much of... It's good. It's gotten attention, taken so much of my brain power, but I know you represent other
Starting point is 00:31:32 folks as well. Are there any other stories you want to tell us about the people that you represent that are in El Salvador? So we represent eight other men who are also at the same secot prison in El Salvador that Andres is. One of them is Arturo Suarez. He's a professional singer. He actually had a baby born since he's been there,
Starting point is 00:31:52 who he's never met. Another is Miguel Rojas Mendoza. He was picked up in Louisiana while working as a horse trainer and rancher. He actually had TPS, so he had protected status here in the United States. He has two children and his children's names were the tattoos that he had that likely landed him there. And there are so many other stories, so many
Starting point is 00:32:16 other Andres that could be part of the more than 235 men who were sent on those US government planes to El Salvador. How do you not become just consumed by rage, murderous rage? That's a personal question, I'm looking for advice. You know, I think that every single day that I'm here, I feel like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other...
Starting point is 00:32:41 And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other... And I think all of the other. And I, and I thank all of the other, we have a huge team that's working on Anthony's case, other immigrant defenders, other colleagues. We have a case that is actually the JGG versus Trump case. It's happening here right now. We got a positive decision this week. So we are keeping Hope alive. I believe, I know in my heart that we will get him back and we're not gonna stop fighting until we do.
Starting point is 00:33:11 And so I think, you know, to answer your question about rage, we're channeling our rage for good at this moment because what the hell else are we gonna do? Okay. I'm just gonna play that back to myself from time to time to try to use your wisdom to help me out. Okay, we had a little news today with the Kilmour-Brigo-Garcia case. I guess, kind of. It's good, but also, fuck these people. Just from the legal perspective,
Starting point is 00:33:38 what does that development say to you about all these other cases? So the news that we got in Kilmar's case is that he's on his way back to the United States. What that says to me is they need to stop lying that it's impossible. And if they can bring him back, they can bring André back. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:56 Yeah. And this is the thing about all these cases, like the reason why they're bringing Kilmar back is because they want to make it about the details of Kilmar's life, which I don't know about one way or the other, but that's the fucking point here. You can't kidnap 250 people, send them to a foreign gulag, and then just be like, well, whatever, we'll see what happens. Some of them are bad guys, some of them are...
Starting point is 00:34:18 That is the issue here. So how do you think about framing that for people so we don't get bogged down in the details of individual cases? Right in many ways what happened? I mean there's lots of legal things I could tell you about the alien enemies act and all these things and I won't Thank you. You're welcome But what I can say is that his case is fundamentally about due process and due process is most important when the government is accusing you of a crime or alleging
Starting point is 00:34:45 you are a gang member. The only thing that stands between any of us ending up in a prison in El Salvador, just like Andri, is the fact that we have due process, we have constitutional rights. When those are trampled, when you are, like Andri, whisked away without getting to speak to your lawyer, without knowing where you are going, without being given an opportunity to refute what the government is saying about you, your day in court, this is what happens.
Starting point is 00:35:13 And if it can happen to him, it could happen to any one of us. And that's why this case is not just about Andri, it's not just about the 240 men, it's about the future of our democracy and whether or not we're gonna fight for it All right last thing what can obviously folks here care about this they showed up tonight we really appreciate all of you What else can people do? Well, we're so grateful for this You know
Starting point is 00:35:38 Donating to organizations like immigrant defenders Law Center and our partner Organizations is so important because it helps us to do this work. All of our work is done for free for the clients and so being here is really important but we're asking people to continue to shine a light on this case, continue to lift up his story, lift up the stories of all these men. You can go to freeandri.org and you will see toolkits so you can reach out to your elected representatives but really the U.S US government here, the Trump administration, they are trying to erase his existence. And so what we need people to do is keep his story alive. Don't let them erase him and most importantly talk to your family and
Starting point is 00:36:18 friends, those that live in Republican districts, make sure that they are going to town halls, that they are asking the questions about when Andhri is coming back and when he's going to get his day in court. That is the best thing that people can do. I admire you so much. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. That's Lindsay. Appreciate her. Thank you, everybody. Yeah, stand up. All right, up next. I don't know, Levitt's going to do something. Oh wait, I get to say. You stay there, Tim.
Starting point is 00:36:52 It's time to bring back one of our classic segments. Now, it has another name, but tonight in honor of Pride, we're going to call it something slightly different, because it's time for a segment we call Bitch Stop. And here's how it works. We roll a clip. And whenever we like, we say, bitch stop to talk about it. Tonight we have Jesse Waters. Bitch stop. Talking about talking about what else the human form. Let's roll the clip.
Starting point is 00:37:43 Now I was at a resort a little while back and I saw Senator Thune at the gym. The man is jacked and the the guy is in great shape, and he lifts hard. And you look at Schumer, he's built like a woman. Now, men do not want to be led by the party of women. -"Bitch, stop." Laughter -"Hate to hand it to Jesse Waters, but I don't know, show me the lie." Laughter
Starting point is 00:38:02 My husband's a big John Thune fan over there. He's getting excited, just listen to the description. You like that kind of... Okay. So I'm sorry, 20 years ago you had a crush on John Thune? Wow, that strong jaw. Is he a Dakota man? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:20 Nice. I have a question. Do men refuse to be led by women? I don't know if you want the answer to that. You guys, as best I can tell, follow drag queens around everywhere. And you're telling... A little something you might need to know about drag queens. I walked into that one. I had a drag queen. We had a drag queen show up to, this is a second
Starting point is 00:38:49 Tyler shout out of the segment, to his 40th birthday party. He's 40 now. My father came and the drag queen walks into the event and my dad looks at my sister-in-law and he's like, that's a man, right? No, that was Sarah as well. Not sure exactly what's happening underneath the... I also just think it's a funny thing to say, because it's like, are people really following John Thune? Is John Thune our leader? Well, that's a good question. And he is live, though, you have to say, about John Thune. He's very fit.
Starting point is 00:39:17 He's live. That's true. That's true. And it is also fair to say that sometimes with Chuck Schumer, the medium is the message. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know, what I remember about Schumer is remember when he was like, the people are aroused. I've never seen the people so aroused.
Starting point is 00:39:31 And I thought, Chuck Schumer, you might need to, it might be time, man. It might be time for something else. I also just... Yeah. Wow. No shade to Chuck Schumer, but but and it has nothing to do with this Jim wait just actually real quick what is the obsession among Republican
Starting point is 00:39:52 men now to talk about like what it means to be a man like this this is like a weird thing that's going on you're turning to me for that my expertise on that I think you know more about it than I do. Well I just think that you know when you have somebody like Donald Trump at the top you know somebody that's really really fit won won several golf tournaments is like the 18-time champion of the Bedminster seniors golf tournament and so when you have somebody of that kind of athletic prowess leading the movement I just think it kind of trickles down among the people. There's a connection to, so obviously we're going to have this military parade next week.
Starting point is 00:40:36 Oh, I guess you're not fans of the anniversary of the Continental Army. Not fans of what George Washington did for all of us. Shame on you. But, you know, Michael Beschloss was talking about, I'm sorry to bring up that name here, but... Okay. What's the next segment? But no, but Eisenhower said he doesn't want, you know, military parades, we did one after World War I and World War II. We've done them in the event of big victories after the Civil War. We don't just have military parades on a random day because what Eisenhower said is, that's not strong, that's fucking weak. That's what weak countries do, to pretend that they're strong.
Starting point is 00:41:21 And you see like Jesse Watters go on television and be like, well, men should do this and men can't do that And they can't eat soup and they can't drink from straws And it's like why is the stronger thing to be unable to do stuff like why I don't know I genuinely don't understand it. It's like you're you can't do all these things being a man means you have to do much much less That's how you show how strong you are. That doesn't make any sense to me. That doesn't make any sense at all. It is a little faggy to eat soup.
Starting point is 00:41:49 Let's just be honest. Is that wrong? I don't know, but when I see Donald Trump throwing himself a big military parade with tanks, that's when I really think about tiny Ds. Yeah, for sure. That is a one big compensation ceremony. For sure, for sure. Yeah, like look at that ICBM going by.
Starting point is 00:42:11 So how could I, you know, you know, it's the Corvette, it's the internet, it's the military version of the Corvette, in a sense. Let's continue the clip. Men want to be led by other men, so Democrats need to become men, and then they can persuade men. But they have to lift first. I'm serious.
Starting point is 00:42:33 There's a quote by Maya Angelou, Dana. Thank you. Could you ask permission from Dana before you keep going? People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Bitch stop. How many loops in that fucking grave do we think she did?
Starting point is 00:42:53 Like is it a full, like how many, like it's like a car going over a cliff. She's like on bottom, you know, just fully rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling. It must be hard to be a man because it's like you can't drink out of straws, but you must quote Maya Angelou. Like. How much Maya do you think Jesse's read? Like how familiar with his oeuvre do you think he is? Oh, I think he's familiar with brainyquotes.com.
Starting point is 00:43:17 I think he's also like, as Abraham Lincoln once said, live, laugh, love. According to Gandhi, you miss all the shots you don't take quoting Maya Angelou on the five on the five people don't like the way they feel around Democrats because Democrats don't like the way they feel and if they lifted they feel better and then everybody around them would feel better You had me in my okay, bitch stop. I Mean I do think I do think Joe Biden probably has an uncomfortable touch
Starting point is 00:44:00 That's sad Keep me as far away from Jesse Waters as possible, you know So I think that you know, I'm not sure that he is them the the best messenger maybe but should we test like let me What he's saying is men like to be around men who lift Fact-check true. Yeah during World Pride for sure. Yeah So uh It really is like the horseshoe theory for heterosexuality. It's so, it really is like the horseshoe theory for heterosexuality.
Starting point is 00:44:28 It's like, how straight are you? I'll tell you how straight I am. I only wanna see the fucking hottest guys. I'm so straight that I don't wanna, I do not like talking to women. I don't think they're really people. I wanna see fucking ripped dudes. I think about them.
Starting point is 00:44:44 I think about what it takes to be a ripped dude. It's on my mind. I see Chuck Schumer don't want to fuck him. Something's off. Something's off. Now, John Thune. John Thune could have his way with me. That's called leadership.
Starting point is 00:44:57 I'm a straight man. He just wants to sit there with John Thune and quote Maya Angelou back and forth and that's what they call Saturday night. Sounds good. And that's Bitch Stop. Yeah. All right. Now while they might try to ban our books, they can't stop us from keeping the library open. Well, can't stop us from keeping the library open.
Starting point is 00:45:26 Well, not the literal libraries, but the library of the gay little human heart remains open 24-7 and it's full of the gnarliest reads we hear at this show, could muster. So joining me on stage... Oh, wait. Oh, no, no. I'm going to go out to the audience. I know what we're doing. I know how to run a show.
Starting point is 00:45:42 So here... So can we bring up the lights? Love it when it's on a red eye. All right. We can just to run a show. So here... So can we bring up the lights? Love it when it's on a red eye. All right, we can just let them... We can just let them be... Whoa, I don't know that we're gonna see this much. Oh, hey guys.
Starting point is 00:45:50 Look how good you look. First of all, hi everybody. So here's how this works. I'm gonna come out there, all right, and we're gonna do... We have some rose jokes and we'd like to hear you have a chance to throw some shade, as the kids say, ten years ago, at some of these Trump goons. If you're a straight, hey, do me a favor, keep your hands in your fucking pockets. All right. We love that you're here, but we don't need to hear you. Okay? Straight's Okay, straight tonight scene not heard. Alright, I'm coming. He just leaves the stage.
Starting point is 00:46:37 Oh hello. Yeah, he's just dancing around in that little skirt. Look at him. Who would like to do our first joke? Look at her prams. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. Please stay seated. I will sit. Okay. All right. Here's the joke. Here, give us the joke. Donald Trump. Given all he uses makeup and tries to destroy anyone who shares a stage with him, Donald Trump is our first drag queen president.
Starting point is 00:47:05 So that's at least one queen I wouldn't trust around kids. Nice. All right, who wants to go down? I'm coming around. I'm coming around. I'm coming around, I'm coming around, I'm coming around. Who wanted to go over here? I saw someone, oh, hi, hi, hi, hi.
Starting point is 00:47:23 All right, hit us with these JD Vance zingers. JD Vance, talk about someone with no charisma. JD Vance has never slayed in his life except for one time in Vatican City. Nice, really good, here. I got you, man! Here, let's do that second JD Vance one there. JD Vance has always wanted to be a man's man, but failing that, he'll happily be Donald
Starting point is 00:47:52 Trump's bitch. Nice. Nice. These are good. A little on the nose. Love it for that one. A little on the nose. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:01 Okay. Good note. We'll fix it in post, I guess. Who else wants to go, hi, hi? Woo! All right, all right, here. Oh, okay, this is perfect, okay. It says for a lesbian, but just a woman works.
Starting point is 00:48:13 Okay, I don't know, I just don't know your story. I don't know your story. Okay, read both of these jokes right starting from there. Seeing RFK Jr. always makes me wonder, can someone be a double lesbian? Oh! Yeah, you got him, you zinged you got him using them using them real good. Now we don't do the second one you're doing great you're doing great we need more lesbian what did you hear the power lesbian
Starting point is 00:48:34 thing earlier confidence do the next bit. You're nervous that's that's stupid all right read the next read the next one you got it're doing great. It's the same feeling as excitement. Here we go. RFK Junior is truly a man who has everything, at least according to his most recent blood work. See, that's pretty good. Great. You're doing great.
Starting point is 00:48:58 Great job from the spouse of a Kenyan alum. Who else wants to go? OK, I'll come over to you. Oh, we have some more RFK material, that's fun. Hi, yeah, hi, here, read this card. RFK Junior recently faced blowback after going for a swim in D.C.'s Rock Creek. Oh, I'm sorry, I read that wrong. After swimming in D.C.'s Rock Creek,
Starting point is 00:49:20 RFK Junior back blew out from diarrhea. What'd you think of that one, Tim? Seas Rock Creek, RFK Jr. back blew out from diarrhea. What did you think of that one, Tim? The execution on the read wasn't great, so I missed the punchline. Oh my god. Wow. Shame. Shame.
Starting point is 00:49:38 Shame. Shame. I'm in the crowd now. It feels awesome. Wait, who else wants to go? I'm sure it was a good try. Oh, my legs do look great. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:49:46 Hi. Okay. Read this next one about RFK Jr. Say what you will about RFK Jr., but he's truly killing it. And by it, I mean the entire herd of deer he's hit with his car and stashed in his trunk for later. That was a good read. What do you think?
Starting point is 00:50:01 Sarah, what did you think of that one? Well, I think it was well read, well delivered. That was a good read. Sarah, what do you think of that one? I think it was well read. Well delivered. Oh, look at that. Look at them. Okay. Who wants to go next?
Starting point is 00:50:13 Who wants to? Oh, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi. Okay. Hi, hi. Okay. Oh, Sarah and Tim, we have two Mike Johnson jokes that are in the same kind of vein. Okay. All right?
Starting point is 00:50:24 And we couldn't decide, so you're going to pick your favorite. All right, joke number one. Oh, great. I have to read. Mike Johnson. Well, what did you think was going to happen when you raised your fucking hand? No, you're out.
Starting point is 00:50:36 OK, OK, OK, OK, OK. I'm a nervous reader. English is my second language. Mike Johnson threw all of his weight behind one big, beautiful bill this month. He also held past the budget reconciliation package. That one's a thinker. She did great.
Starting point is 00:50:55 What? He put all his weight behind big, beautiful bill. Bill is a guy. A man named Bill. And it's not a great sign you have to explain the joke, but I really enjoyed it. That was a joke for one. That was kind of like my Troye Sivan joke earlier. It was only for me.
Starting point is 00:51:11 Okay. Well, let's try this one. You want to go? Okay. Here we go. Okay. Mike Johnson uses an app where he and his son monitor each other's porn use, presumably to prevent him from looking at one big, beautiful guy named Bill. That's good. I forgot about that. First one. First one was way better. First one. First one. Hi, hi, hi. It's kind of a high-minded. Dan Bongino, FBI Deputy Director. You're right, Dan Bongino. Epstein did kill himself after
Starting point is 00:51:44 listening to your shitty podcast Got like that got him. I like that now Everyone to know something I believe that is the first time someone has edited the joke as he read it And you know next time it's it's one for me and then one for you. Okay. Oh hi, hi, hi. Okay, hi. Oh my god.
Starting point is 00:52:09 I'm so sweaty. Okay. Oh, there's so many people over here. Lavender, are you going to have enough energy for the club later? Think about that swamp ass. What happens if things get a little frisky tonight? We'll be right back. Up next, Sarah gets into it with Congressman Robert Garcia.
Starting point is 00:52:34 Yes. Pod Save America is brought to you by Rocket Money. With prices going up on just about everything lately, being smart with your money isn't just a good idea, it's essential. But managing subscriptions, tracking spending, and cutting costs can feel overwhelming. Lucky for you, Rocket Money takes the guesswork out of it so you can easily make smart decisions. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.
Starting point is 00:53:08 Rocket Money's dashboard gives you a clear view of your expenses across all of your accounts. You can easily create a personalized budget with custom categories to help keep your spending on track. You can see your monthly spending trends in each category to know exactly where your money is going. This is important because when you track your spending by category, then you can look and be like, I'm spending that much money on ordering Postmates and DoorDash?
Starting point is 00:53:31 That doesn't seem right. Too much. So that's important. You also can get alerts if bills increase in price or there's unusual spending activity or if you're close to going over budget, so that's nice and helpful. The new goals feature automatically saves money for you
Starting point is 00:53:43 so you don't have to think about it. You can help pay off bills, put away money for a house, or just build your savings. Rocket Money makes it easy. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lower bills for you. That's pretty cool. They automatically scan your bills to find opportunities to save.
Starting point is 00:53:55 Then you can ask them to negotiate for you. They'll deal with customer service so you don't have to. This is like putting, putting love it out of a job. Yeah. What? He's usually the big negotiator. Yeah, I like to negotiate. And Rocket Money is gonna do it for you now.
Starting point is 00:54:06 Oh no. Rocket Money has over five million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money.
Starting point is 00:54:20 Download the Rocket Money app and enter our show name Pod Save America in the survey so they know we sent you. Don't wait, download the Rocket Money app and enter our show name Pod Save America in the survey so they know we sent you. Don't wait, download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from our show. Please welcome Congressman Robert Garcia from California! You sit right here. Okay. My drinks right here. My friend, thank you for being here. Happy to be here.
Starting point is 00:54:48 Uh, you know, I have been so impressed with you because you have been very vocal. You've been outspoken. You've been somebody who's been standing up and saying something about Andre and what's happening. Tell me why, yes. Yes, cheer. Tell me why it upset you so much. Tell me why you got vocal.
Starting point is 00:55:01 Absolutely. I mean, first, thank you got vocal. Absolutely. I mean, first, thank you all for being here. Andre is such, especially during Pride Month, this is such an important story for all of us to uplift and to push. This is what's happening right now should be alarming and concerning every single person in this country. And what's happening, every single person.
Starting point is 00:55:23 So for me, I obviously as an openly gay person, I'm also an immigrant, I came to this country as a young kid, and so I feel very much I can relate and I connect to his story. And what drives me absolutely crazy is that we, the United States government, gave Andre the appointment. We told him, come to the United States at a port of entry on this date and on this time for your asylum process and interview.
Starting point is 00:55:56 We told him to come to the interview. So he comes to the port of entry to do his interview. He passes that first check, essentially that first interview process. And then after that, he gets of course sent to the detention center and then taken to a country that he is not from in a foreign prison that we know nothing about with no proof of life.
Starting point is 00:56:23 That is shameful. Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, Marco Rubio should all be ashamed of themselves. They're causing massive harm, not just to Andrew, but to everybody else. And we, this fires me up because I don't understand how we can be so cruel as a country.
Starting point is 00:56:45 This is a country that was built largely on immigrant labor, and we know this to be true. And I remember, you know, we went down to El Salvador to advocate for not just Andriy, but to ensure that people were getting their due process. And I think what's really important, what I've told folks, including some more conservative members and Republicans, I've said, look, regardless of your opinion on the immigration debate, and we all have different opinions, this is about due process. This is about the Constitution of the United States and whether we're going to defend it. And I remember looking at the ambassador, the US ambassador to El Salvador, in El Salvador,
Starting point is 00:57:27 just directly at him. We were this close away from each other. And I shared with him, Andrew's story. And he looked right back to me and said, you know, I, this is the first I've, I've heard of this. And I'm sitting here thinking, we've been promoting and talking about him and people are talking about him across the country. And this is the first that you're hearing about his story.
Starting point is 00:57:49 And he that part and he you know he that day told me that he would be he would do an inquiry and he actually did the first official inquiry to try to get a wellness check on him, which of course we never got. And so since then to now, the work you're all doing to telling his story is so important. We cannot forget him. We must get a proof of life. We are demanding a proof of life check. And I'm just grateful just to be a part of of advocating for him in his story Well, thank you for doing that and thank you for being here. You know, they are bringing we just found out
Starting point is 00:58:30 We just found out they're gonna bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back and they're going to try him which is just that is it, right? I think I think the Republicans right now are sort of like oh We're gonna show you that this is a bad guy and I sort of like, I don't care if he's a bad guy, because he still deserves due process. Like, that is what we're doing here, right? That's right. Like, if he's a bad guy, prove it, and then we can all move on.
Starting point is 00:58:55 But like, that's exactly right. But here's the look, I spent a long time as a Republican. And I haven't seen it for maybe a decade now. But when I was coming up as a Republican, they talked a lot about the Constitution, about due process, about the rule of law, about all these things that mattered to them that became sort of, that were the underpinnings
Starting point is 00:59:13 of democracy. How do your Republican colleagues justify sending people, disappearing them to foreign countries without due process? Well, I think, I mean, they can't. I mean, the reality is that they're completely focused on doing whatever Donald Trump tells them to do, following their leader. And they know, and many of them know
Starting point is 00:59:35 that the things they're advocating for are against the Constitution. I mean, the Constitution means nothing to them anymore. And I really believe this. There are probably other immigrants here in this theater. And I truly believe this, that immigrants, those of us that have gone through the process of becoming US citizens, we are some of the most patriotic people in this country. We love this country. And I think, you know, I have the right to be a U.S. citizen, the honor of serving in
Starting point is 01:00:08 Congress because I fought for citizenship. I fought for the thing that most folks here were born with. So immigrants that go through that process believe in this country and we want to fight for it. And so in the case of these Republicans, I mean, they most have been born into this incredible honor and privilege of being a United States citizen and forget where their parents or their grandparents came from and the struggles that they had to go through to also come to this country.
Starting point is 01:00:37 And I'll say this, and you mentioned the Abrego Garcia case. the the abrigo-garcia case we have the supreme court in a nine to zero decision said that he deserved his due process and the important thing is is everyone deserves their day in court I don't know what what mr. abrigo-garcia did or didn't do but he does have a right under the Constitution to defend himself in front of a judge and a courtroom. He has that right. And so whether, what he did or what he didn't do, that will be up to a judge and a jury. What we have to do and every single person in this room needs to do is to defend the Constitution of the United States, which affords, as we all know, all
Starting point is 01:01:25 persons, not just US citizens, it affords all persons in this country the right to do process. And we can't forget that. The founders knew what they were doing when they said all persons. They knew. You know, I was just, we did a rally right before this, maybe some of you were there, but I do just want to say something that I said there. Yeah, great. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. It was my first, like I said, my first rally, my first protest.
Starting point is 01:01:53 But you know, when you came up as a young Republican, I swear to God, Republicans were different on immigration than they are now. I remember, I'm telling you, Reagan used to say, he had this great line about how you could go to Japan and you'd never be Japanese, and you could move to France and you'd never be a Frenchman. But any person with freedom in their heart,
Starting point is 01:02:12 who loved the ideals of America, could come be an American. And that was a thing that we, people agreed was an American value. That's right. Yeah, I'm gonna quote Reagan up here. All right, so tell me, this is something I've wondered, and a lot of people ask that this shows, they all want to know what can I do?
Starting point is 01:02:31 And one of the things they ask is they're like, I don't know, I call my congressman, but I don't know if it matters. You're a congressman. Tell us, does it matter when people call? It does matter. And I think that we, we and all others, especially, you know, folks that are engaged, we track what folks that call, what they're calling about. It does matter.
Starting point is 01:02:50 What we also need though, we need folks to call Republicans. We need folks to call those Republican members that need to be held accountable for just blindly supporting Donald Trump's policies. And we have to understand that at this moment we have to be engaged. And I will tell you this right now, what's happening tonight and telling Andrew's story, please share his story. We have an opportunity also during Pride Month where there's more attention on our stories to uplift what's happening to him.
Starting point is 01:03:20 Because we know it's not just about him, but he does represent that idea of due process, and by uplifting him, we are uplifting due process, we're uplifting the Constitution, and trying to make our country and the world a better place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:36 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have one last important question. Sure.
Starting point is 01:03:54 So you were very involved in ousting a colleague of yours named George Santos, aka Kintara Ravage. Yes. What was the reason for that gay on gay violence, man? I have so many George Santos stories. We'd be here all night. But I'll just start, I met him, I met George during our orientation. And you know, first I was struck of course, I'm obviously gay Latino,
Starting point is 01:04:15 and on the other side is another gay Latino. And I thought, well maybe there's, you know, an opportunity here just to have some like bipartisan friendship, I mean I don't know. I knew that his ideas were already pretty extreme and so I generally try not to engage with people that don't believe in human rights for LGBTQ plus people and other folks.
Starting point is 01:04:36 And as we learned more and more about him, I just got really angry about it. And I thought, this is someone that is working to dismantle our rights, and yet you're from the same community. And so pretty early on, I mean, I was a freshman. I made the very first expulsion motion on the floor of the house to expel George Santos.
Starting point is 01:05:01 And I submitted. And everyone, a lot of folks were like, this is a bad idea, you're a freshman, you shouldn't do this. And I submitted. And everyone, a lot of folks were like, this is a bad idea, you're a freshman, you shouldn't do this. And I was like, fuck it, we gotta do it, we gotta lean in, we gotta do it. And I remember, we filed the resolution, and we forced a vote.
Starting point is 01:05:18 And that initial vote that we took is what then got Kevin McCarthy at the time to then take that motion, table it, send it to the Ethics Committee for them to do their report. The Ethics Committee does their report and then months later, once that report comes out, it triggered that second expulsion vote. That then they-
Starting point is 01:05:39 Because the report came out and everybody was like, I'm sorry, what? Exactly. And then that came and then that came out and then of course we Expelled him really quickly the day of the vote. I Went to the back of the house with him and I said he wanted to talk I said let's talk so we go to the back by the cloakroom and we're about to vote to expel him like and like within
Starting point is 01:05:59 30 minutes and Yeah, and obviously and I you know I helped start the whole thing. And so he worked in the back, and he's trying to convince me still that he shouldn't get expelled. And I remember just, I looked him right in the eye and I said, George, I said, one is you deserve to be expelled. But I also hope that you can reflect and you take this time to think about who you are
Starting point is 01:06:24 and that deep down, I want you to get better. Like, I want, there was a moment, like, where I felt I was just looking at somebody that was really sad, and it doesn't excuse the horrific things that he has done or voted on, and he should be held accountable for those, and he's now gonna be held accountable for the crimes he committed. He's been indicted. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:06:48 But I there was a moment where I you know I did feel so us as gay people as queer people we have sometimes have a very hard path to getting to who we really are and so I felt a little bit for him and I'm glad he is gonna be held accountable for what he did and I hope that on his way out, he works on himself. You have a good heart, man. Guys, let's give it up. All right, thank you so much. Happy Pride, Happy Pride.
Starting point is 01:07:17 I gotta tell ya. Thank you so much. Congressman, I have to, I gotta tell you, I thought that, what, what? I couldn't let Lovett be the only one in a fucking skirt. I'll stand here. I'll stand here. I couldn't be showing up, but I love it.
Starting point is 01:07:34 Tim, you're blocking, you just stood right in front. I'll protect you. I'm sorry, this is inappropriate. You just stood right in front of Sarah. Well yeah, is Sarah still here? I was thinking that George Santos' cloakroom story was gonna go somewhere else, I gotta tell you. I thought you were building something. Absolutely not.
Starting point is 01:07:49 We went to the cloakroom. We were in a dark place. When you told him, I hope you get help, what did he say? No, I think that he was just, I mean honestly he was really upset and sad. And he said thank you, I hope I do too. Something to that effect. And then we voted to expel him. And then he went to go sit down for an interview with Ziwe. That's right. Thank you so much. so much. Thank you for being here. Potta of America is brought to you by the Human Rights Campaign. All across America Trump and his MAGA cronies are trying to roll back LGBTQ rights, pushing bills that promote hate.
Starting point is 01:08:25 It's gross, despicable, and has no place in our country. That's why we are proud to be partnering with the Human Rights Campaign today. For HRC, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't just a mission. It's a promise to stand up against hate. That means confronting Trump's dangerous anti-LGBTQ agenda head on. This Pride Month, show your support for LGBTQ equality. John, I just think after you said LGBTQ four times, you should just get to say gays and this.
Starting point is 01:08:49 Thank you. I give you that permission. It's really, once you get to the T and the Q, it's the G, G is hard, G B, I don't know. There's something that all fire all of them together. LGBT, see how bad that is. He's a great ally, he's a great ally. LGBT, LGBT.
Starting point is 01:09:01 He's a great ally. Can do that, that's pretty easy. Go to HRC.IM slash give now to donate and propel HRC's critical great ally. LGBT, LGBT. He's a great ally. Can do that, that's pretty easy. Go to HRC.im slash give now to donate and propel HRC's critical work forward. Your donation to HRC helps drive progress, protect Thays and Gays rights. Yeah, see it's good. And build a world where every LGBTQ person
Starting point is 01:09:17 can live openly and thrive free from fear. The fight for equality has been significantly harder this year, our fundamental freedoms and our very existence are under attack by those in power. And that's why this Pride, HRC, needs your support to help fight back against the escalating threats to our rights and our progress. This work is only possible with the support of folks like you. We face incredible challenges, but we must continue to fight for the future we believe
Starting point is 01:09:38 in. Together, we can do this because these colors don't run. If you can, please give today at HRC.im slash give now. That's HRC.im slash give now. Listen, Pride, it's about anything. It's about the superiority of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, two-spirits, whatever is going on with the I. Plus!
Starting point is 01:10:12 Plus. If you're in the plus still, if you're figuring, no, none of those apply to me. I'm plus. I'm plus. If you're plus, love that too for you. Which is why it's time for a game we're calling, Capture the Flag. Nope. Okay.
Starting point is 01:10:33 There we go. Oh, wow. Now... Oh, you guys were very generous to yourselves there. Well, that looks about right for me. I don't know about love it. That's just me after a pump. Get my pump on. Get the lighting right.
Starting point is 01:10:52 That's all it takes. Now we can't just do this with gays alone because it's time to pit the gays against the straights, so we need some support, all right? Let's start by bringing out one additional member of our gay family to help us round out your team. This will be Sarah and Tim. Please welcome to the stage DC's own wonderful drag queen, Tara Hoots. Woo!
Starting point is 01:11:18 Oh, hey. Hey, girl. What's happening? Here, why don't you go right here for now. All right. Oh, hey! Hey, girl! What's happening? Why don't you go right here for now? Oh, alright. Just in case there's confusion, I'm a man in a dress. Alright.
Starting point is 01:11:35 Literally, three men, I'm the only one in pants. Well, you know, like, look, when Cro Crooked and the Bulwark were deciding to figure out how to do this event, we were like, well, we got to figure out who to talk to. And we said, who wears the pants at the Bulwark? Yes. That should have worked better. That was pearls before swine. Sometimes it's my fault.
Starting point is 01:12:01 That one's on you. Tara Hoots. Yes, darling. I love that. Now, you're from, is it from Tara Hoot, Indiana? I was born in Tara Hoots! Yes, darling. I love that. Now you're from, is it from Tara Hoots, Indiana? I was born in Tara Hoots, Indiana, hence my name Tara Hoots. Yes! Are you Hoosiers out there? We got out, we got out darlings. Yes.
Starting point is 01:12:20 Now you are a renowned DC queen and you were bumped off the Kennedy Center programming schedule by its new artistic director and genius, Donald Trump. No space on the sketch? So we actually, I was part of a drag show that was the Trump got really mad about the family specific one. That was one that I was involved in. Yeah. And he was angry because he thought
Starting point is 01:12:45 it would be inappropriate to have somebody out there talking about drugs and all the horrible things that someone might say in the space of children. Now, I've been a teacher for 27 years. And I've, yes, thank you. And I've been a drag queen since the pandemic. And I describe my type of drag as like, Mr. Rogers in a dress, right?
Starting point is 01:13:08 And like, I just want to lift people up. And if they complain about what I do, they don't know what I do. But what do you do? Basically, I started doing drag because I wanted, I thought the world was terrible and it really hasn't changed, has it? During the pandemic, I wanted to lift people up
Starting point is 01:13:23 and bring joy and love to people. So that's what I do with my drag. Well, thank you for being here. Absolutely, let's do this. Now we need to do some choreography. So I would love to have the gay team come over here. Right, okay, hold on. Is that me?
Starting point is 01:13:38 Tara Hoots and Sarah and Tim in this zone over here, because it's time to meet your competitors. Bring it on, straights. Now, how you doing, girl? Now, first up, you really got lucky. You really got lucky. You would have had to hang out with Rick Grinnell had they kept you at the Kennedy Center.
Starting point is 01:13:56 Big best firing ever happened to you. Thank you, Dodgeable. Now, I wanna bring out two, I believe they're called, I think it's pronounced straight. The G is silent. It's weird's pronounced straight. The G is silent. It's weird, actually weird that the G is silent. There's a G inside of straight. There's a G inside of every straight when you think about it.
Starting point is 01:14:12 Something to think about. So please welcome, from the Bulwark, Sam Stein and- Whoa! Come on out, Sam. Come on out. And- Sam! Sam! Yeah! D on out, Sam. Come on out. And... Sam! Sam!
Starting point is 01:14:27 Yeah! Dressed like a lesbian. Kind of an L, really. And because Sam is straight, but in a journalist way, we wanted to bring out a man. So... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Please welcome Michael Fanon, who is a hero.
Starting point is 01:14:43 Yeah! Come on, Michael! a former Capitol Police officer. Now that is a man. Take it off, girl. Thank you, Michael, for being here. Take it off. Let's unbutton a couple of those buttons. Look at this.
Starting point is 01:14:56 Look at this. Michael, I have a question for you. They love you. Have you find it helpful to get tips on how to be a man from Jesse Watters? No. That's a strong style. That's a straight man right there. No. That's that. That's a strong, that's a strong style. That's a straight man right there. No.
Starting point is 01:15:29 Now, I do want to say that you have a little bit of advantage in this game because we were talking before the show and you have some experience. This is true. You did have to go undercover. Is this right? I did. 2011, 2012, I spent two summers undercover working in some of your fun gay clubs right here in Washington, D.C. What was your favorite?
Starting point is 01:15:58 We talked about this backstage. My favorite was Apex. Oh hell yeah, the video bar. That video bar got real. Now you were saying that you were working with another officer, right? I was. And now the first time you did it, you went in and, well why don't you tell us what happened? Alright, so, um, this is good stuff. I got, I got, I got detail, I got detail to the second district, the great second district here in Washington, DC for the summer. They were having an influx of crystal meth in a lot of the- Tina we call it.
Starting point is 01:16:36 Tina. Yeah, yeah, Tina. So I go- So I've heard. Not for me. So it was me and one of my buddies who was assigned to the 6th district, which is east of the Anacostia River, and the two of us got temporarily detailed to 2D, and we were part of this investigation, and we were going into a bunch of different gay clubs.
Starting point is 01:16:59 The first club we went to was Fireplace. And so this is like my first experience in inside of you know a place such as this. And yeah I remember going in there and I was like alright, I told him I'm not gonna name names but we'll call him Bill. I was like well we're gonna divide and conquer. I was like we don't. All right, I told him I'm not gonna name names, but we'll call him Bill. I was like, well, we're gonna divide and conquer. I was like, we don't know each other. We're going into the place. We're both gonna go in. We, you know, we pros, we've been buying crack, heroin,
Starting point is 01:17:35 everything else, like we can do this. And so we get into the club, I sit down at the bar, and like within five shit seconds There's like some one guy's like holding my hand and another guy's like literally like kissing on my earlobe And I was like alright well, I'm just trying to buy some fucking drugs So buy some fucking drugs. So we came back. I could just hear Michael Fanon being, not that kind of crack. But I was like, yeah, whatever. If this is what I got to do to, you know, get the buy, I've done worse things with you know whatever. Okay.
Starting point is 01:18:25 I have another. Anyway so the next day we go back. Next day we go back and we I think we hit apex and we went to Nellie's and a couple other spots but we're like we're a fucking couple. And we're in a monogamous we're in a fucking monogamous relationship. Like that's ever stopped anybody at Nellie's before. Good guy. Incredible, incredible. So I can't think of a better straight person to join Sam in being part of this game. Now here's how it works.
Starting point is 01:19:03 I'm going to ask the gays questions about straights, I'm gonna ask the straights questions about gays, and we'll see who takes it in the end. You have filthy fucking minds. All right. A lot of cards there. I also have a card that just says loose lesbian questions. All right. First question for the gays. All right. Now do you go by, do I say Tara? Yes, you call Tara. Tara or Ms. Hoot, whatever works for you. Yes. Hoots or Hoot?
Starting point is 01:19:36 Hoot. Ms. Hoot. Yes, thank you. Yes, like Tara Hoot. I get it. Okay. First up, director and Madison Square Garden staple Spike Lee recently said he would give up an Oscar to see what happened. The Knicks win the championship. Yeah, he got it. He got it. He got it. There you go. I was poor, okay.
Starting point is 01:20:00 But the Pacers. You a big Larry Bird fan? Yeah. A little bit Larry Bird. Hick from French Lick, darling. Yeah, big Pacers win last night. I know. Tyrese Alberta. Last second shot, baby.
Starting point is 01:20:09 I'm from a town that has two Mr. Basketballs from Indiana, so try me. All right, yes. Are there any questions about women's soccer? No? No? We're getting the straight... We get the straight questions. Straight men do not watch women's soccer, except for the Brandy Carlisle, or whatever her name was.
Starting point is 01:20:26 You're talking to a student. I am an Angel City season ticket holder, thank you very much. All right. One, zero. All right, you're up. A new Pew Research study shows that LGBTQ Americans are twice as likely to be into astrology.
Starting point is 01:20:45 In astrology, your big three consist of your rising sign, your sun sign, and your what? Laughter Don't Google it. Don't Google it. You don't know. Tomato soup? No. What the? Call it out.
Starting point is 01:21:06 Is there a moon sign? Yes. Now, I will just also say to all of you that believe in astrology, you're welcome that you get to live in the light that science fucking provides you. Unbelievable. Next up for the gays. What brand makes these iconic patterned bags? Oh wait, I heard someone say shut up.
Starting point is 01:21:39 Straight culture. What is this? You don't know. They don't know. What in the fuck is this? Wow. That is hideous. That's so interesting, right? Because Sarah is a woman. I should know. But she doesn't know because she's not a straight woman. Is that a purse? No. What is it? Flower power. It's not Lily Poole. They don't know either. I mean, I see a
Starting point is 01:22:02 straight woman raising her hand. What is it? What is it? It's Vera Bradley. Vera Bradley. Wow. I don't know. Sarah whispers to me, she goes, is it Vera Wang? I heard Vera out there. Someone says Vera.
Starting point is 01:22:14 I don't think the Wang is in there. Next up, Euphoria star Hunter Schaefer is rumored to be up for the titular role of what video game adaptation? That's so hard. Yeah, that's right. A video game adaptation starring Hunter's so hard. Yeah, that's right. A video game adaptation starring Hunter Schaeffer from Euphoria, you know her.
Starting point is 01:22:30 Don't you, Michael Fanone? This shit is rigged. Is this the last of us? No, it's not the last. Ah, fuck, I was the only one that had it. It's Zelda, it's the Legend of Zelda. It's the Legend of Zelda. It's the Legend of Zelda. Yeah, she's in Zelda. Did you know that one?
Starting point is 01:22:50 None of your business. It's 1-0. I don't think their questions were going to be things like, what do poppers do for you during sex? I thought it was going to be a little gayer. You know what? Next question, what do poppers do? That must have come up in your research as you got into character. Yes. Was this done undercover?
Starting point is 01:23:14 Manner of ingestion inhaled. That's right. And they provide a temporary euphoria. OK, yeah. But what about during sex, though? Also known as amyl nitrate. Yeah, that's right. We got a point for that.
Starting point is 01:23:28 I'm giving it to him. Alright. One-one. Great job. Back over to the gays. Country singer Morgan Wallen posted what phrase to his Instagram after appearing to storm off the Saturday Night Live stage back in April. I gotta get back to real America. God's country. God's country. God's country, God's country.
Starting point is 01:23:45 God's country, God's country. A lesbian saved by a drag queen, a first time for everything. All right, next question. For the straights, what is this object? I know. Is that a carabiner? You got it it Sam Stein. Yay! What's up? I was going to say carabiner, but then I was thinking like, there's got
Starting point is 01:24:16 to be some weird sex fucking thing. That's an anal seed. Lesbians don't do sex. I didn't know... We use it to carry our keys. To your Subaru. To the gays. What two kinds of alcohol are in a Manhattan? Whiskey and sweet vermouth. You got it!
Starting point is 01:24:38 Yes! The drag queens are carrying them. Drag queens carrying them. Alright, another drag themed question for our straights. Please name one of these two drag queens, incredibly popular, have an incredibly popular podcast. Don't say a word. Don't say a fucking word.
Starting point is 01:24:56 Can you name one of these people? Oh my fucking God. They are famous. They are celebrities. We all know them. We love them. You don't even know who they are so We're done with the L's. I really like Sam's shirt. I would wear Sam's shirt. Get the L's out of here.
Starting point is 01:25:27 I have no clue. Wow. Gotcha. Yep. Trixie Mattel, baby. Yeah. All right. It's now, the game has now been revised to tops versus bottoms.
Starting point is 01:25:39 All right. All right. Back over to the gays. What side are we on? Last week, this Yellowstone spin-off starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren aired its season two finale. What is the name of the show? It has numbers.
Starting point is 01:25:51 It's like 1862 or something. Set during Prohibition. It's numbers. What, Yellowstone? I think it's 1860? 1862? 1845! 1935!
Starting point is 01:26:01 You don't get it. 1876. Wrong. 1923. Oh, we were it. 1876! Wrong! 1923. Oh, we were close. I knew it was a date. Alright. What is with you people and like, horses?
Starting point is 01:26:13 And fucking buffalo? Who cares what's happening on the plains? Alright. This one, honestly, I'm nervous. Alright. What year did the Stonewall Riots happen? Oh. It was in the 60s.
Starting point is 01:26:29 Okay. Getting that's your one in 10 shot from here on out. In the late 60s. I'm going to go with 69. Nice. You got it. Somebody gave him the eight. That's okay.
Starting point is 01:26:42 We'll let him have it. We'll let him the eight. That's okay. We'll let him have it. Listen. We'll let him have it. Judy Garland died that year. Let's close this out. Let's close this out.
Starting point is 01:26:51 Is there a question? Nobody cares if you know the answer to the question. It's a competition up here. So just fucking keep it to yourself. That's right. I wanted to say that, but I can't because I'm a good Christian woman. All right. All right. This is going to be a question for both teams.
Starting point is 01:27:08 Okay? This is it. We're tied. Bisexuals are not allowed to answer. It's a slow burn on that one. What was the first lesbian wedding to take place on television? Ellen DeGeneres. No. Fuck! That's just a lesbian. That's just one lesbian. That's just naming all lesbian you could think of. Name a lesbian. Michael Bonone, name a lesbian. Sarah, Sarah. I'm the only lesbian you've
Starting point is 01:27:51 heard of? Oh man. Gays, you can take it if you know the answer. First lesbian wedding aired on television. Do either of you know? Why put you on the other team? What the fuck? You don't know this one? Hold on. This is bad, Sarah. Wait, did you know Donald married someone? I don't know. Was it in Dawson's Creek? God, no. Does anybody here know? Friends.
Starting point is 01:28:12 It was the Friends episode, the one with the lesbian wedding. Oh. And you know what? Honestly, because we have all of pride, I want to thank our straights for being willing to subject themselves. Hey, everybody. Michael Fanon,
Starting point is 01:28:31 Sam Stein, two equally heterosexual men. Thank you both so much. And we're back. And we're back! I've lost all my cards, but that's not important. First of all, thank you all for coming out tonight. There is nothing that brings Crooked and the Bullwork together quite like ranting about whatever happens to be on our minds and so we thought we would end
Starting point is 01:29:08 tonight's show in a way that was suited to our great desire for yelling. In a segment we're calling... Rant Wheel. The rant wheel? What did we call it? I think we called it bullwork. Whatever. There's a wheel and we're going to yell about topics. Oh my God. Do we not have a wheel?
Starting point is 01:29:34 Are we up to that? Oh, here we go. Oh my God. Oh no. Tara Hoot. This is Pride. Is there something on your mind that you'd like to vent about?
Starting point is 01:29:48 Just to be mad about? Or happy about. Happy about? Is there anything you'd like to be emotional about around 60 seconds? Listen, okay, 60 seconds. A drag queen with a microphone, that's at least four minutes too short, all right?
Starting point is 01:30:00 So I do wanna say, I did an event on Wednesday and with the drag artist and the audience was so excited and so enthused and I really feel like Washington DC needs a lot of hope and joy right now and I'm one of the... Right? We need to look up, we need to find ways to be inspired even though things like falling apart sometimes around us and I was something I'm proud of I'm gonna say that's just proud I'm proud of I got out of Indiana I'm proud of my friends who were in Indiana still in Newcastle, Indiana, who are
Starting point is 01:30:26 fighting the good fight and making the place better for people. I'm proud of my husband, Mr. Hoot, who's in the wings, who was a government worker for 37 years. He was forced out of the federal government by this, by this. And I'm like, I'm so mad at the people. If you are those people that have been treated so poorly, know that I see you. I love you. Thank you, our government workers, for doing so much for everybody. I think that, woo, I'm a little over-clamped. All right, I got a little, but that just makes me so mad. I think it's evil, it's angry, and I wanna make sure
Starting point is 01:30:59 that we're trying to lift people up and look for the kindness when there seems to be such a lack of it from who's running our country right now. Yeah, girl. It's a beautiful idea. It's a beautiful idea, a beautiful sentiment. Let's spin it again. It is landed on Sarah.
Starting point is 01:31:21 It has landed on Sarah. We have an order. It's, it is, it is land. Is that Sarah? It has landed on Sarah. It has landed on Sarah. We have an order. It's land... It is... It has land... Is that Sarah? It has landed on Sarah. She's getting butch.
Starting point is 01:31:30 You guys run a tight show. I'll tell you what, man. All right. All right, I've got a rant. Last cooking bulwark collab. I actually had hoped you were going next because following that with mine feels funny, but I'm going to give you my rant unvarnished, which is, do we really need a whole month
Starting point is 01:31:53 for Pride? The way we do Pride, our need for a whole month is so extra and so on-brand, and it's ridiculous what my Uber leaves a little rainbow trail as it goes, and like you walk into Target and you're like, oh my God, did a rainbow throw up in here? Like, it just feels like, look, you want to do Black History Month, whole month? Okay. The people are getting restless.
Starting point is 01:32:24 Oh, wait, I'm sorry, did you say I should stop? They don't like Target. They're mad about Target. They're mad at Target. They're mad at Target. Alright, we got it. Whatever, whatever. The point is, the point is, I just think like a week is enough and we don't need a whole month and like it's enough. Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. I needed one of those tonight and I decided it would be on my rant. The second somebody tells you something you don't want to hear you turn on them. Unbelievable, Unbelievable. Let's spin it again.
Starting point is 01:33:08 Oh, it's landed on me. You know, here's what I wanted to say. Maybe it was a little more earnest, I suppose. But we started by saying how many things had to go wrong for us all to be on this stage together there was this a when they sent up one of the Satellites many years ago. They realized that they had made the mirrors wrong the mirror Before Elon Musk not his fault
Starting point is 01:33:39 That they had they'd actually bent they'd done the mirrors mirrors, they were spherical instead of hyperbolic or hyperbolic instead of spherical. I don't remember. Which one is it? It was spherical instead of hyperbolic. And what that meant is, even though it was imperceptible when it was on Earth, the heat from that light was so intense that it would shatter the mirror. It didn't work, it didn't work as a telescope.
Starting point is 01:34:08 And one thing that I feel like I have learned over the last decade as we faced all these different pressures and challenges from what happens when a country, a segment of a country loses its faith in democracy and freedom is you see who bends and who breaks under pressure. And it is a gift to find out who has the stuff and who is strong enough and who really cares and who actually believes the things that they said for a long time. And I feel really honored that I get to work with Sarah and work with Tim. People that, you know, we Democrats, we Democrats, we talk a big
Starting point is 01:34:48 game, we talk a big game, but we didn't really face a choice. We don't like Donald Trump because he's the fucking worst human being on planet Earth and and we oppose him because we oppose everything that he stands for, every policy he stands for, every policy he stands for. But there are a lot of people who faced a political choice and failed in that choice, but not Tim and not Sarah and not the people at the bulwark. And as we think about building a small D,
Starting point is 01:35:21 democratic movement, I feel really proud of the people that I've gotten to meet and know because it's revealed who was made strong enough and who was going to break. And the people that have broken, they're fucking broken. And we know now. And now we get to figure out who we get to build something new with. So I feel really proud about that during this prime. Let's spin it one more time. I think it's going to be me.
Starting point is 01:35:52 Look, I just wasn't on the board at all. Yeah, we talked about it. We thought, how should we end it? Two Tim Rants, one John Rant, the Drag Queen, we're done. Alright, Tim, you've landed on you. I have a rant, but just really quick. That was really sweet, what I had said. And I was trying to feel emotions about it. And then I'm in this little tennis skirt.
Starting point is 01:36:14 And I was like, can you compliment me again when I feel less uncomfortable? That would be great. Maybe another year. I also have a comment on Sarah's rant. It's the difference between the L's and the G's. Okay. We're going to Madrid Pride.
Starting point is 01:36:29 Is anybody going to be in Madrid Pride? We're doing a little vacation there. That's July 4th. So the G's are adding a week to Pride. She's trying to constrict us. We're trying to expand into July. Okay. I'm about to be sad for a little bit, so I'm sorry that I have to end you on something
Starting point is 01:36:46 sad. But the reason why we're doing this is because of Andre. And I think there are two reasons why this has affected me so much. One is because, kind of what Levitt was saying, came out of this tradition of like being pro-life and being pro-freedom and thinking that that was you know what Was animating my political work and Jeb used to say something about how you know We wanted to make sure everybody had a chance to live a life of purpose and meaning and I like believed that and thought it Wasn't BS. And so the idea that we are
Starting point is 01:37:22 Doing that that Republicans that Donald, that our country is taking away somebody's life, their purpose, and their meaning, really pisses me off. And so that's one reason. And the other reason is just because, I guess just because both me and André are gay, I guess, I can just imagine it. And I just want, I'm sorry to do this,
Starting point is 01:37:44 but I just want everybody to imagine this with me for a second. He flees Venezuela, he flees communism. He takes a horrible journey across Central America, through Mexico, goes through unimaginable shit, has to deal with cartels, has to find food and shelter, just to get to America, because he wants America because he thinks here he can live a life of purpose and meaning.
Starting point is 01:38:07 He thinks he can be free. And he gets to the border and he does what he's supposed to do. He signs up for the stupid CBP One app and explains why he had to flee a communist country and then we let him in. And he sits in a cell and he's sexually harassed in the cell, and he is abused and attacked, and he is hoping that it's worth it, because at the end, there's this thing, there's this like freedom in this country that he can get.
Starting point is 01:38:36 And instead of that, one day he's in the cell, and people come in there and they shackle him, and they shackle his legs and his hands, and they take him with other Venezuelans to a plane and he's thinking this is horrible, but At least I'm going home to Venezuela, right? At least I get to see my mother and my best friend and instead of sending him to Venezuela We sent him to a fucking hell in El Salvador
Starting point is 01:39:00 And he gets off the plane and they beat him up and they shave his head and he screams out For his freedom and he says I'm gay. I'm not a gang banger I like I want just you have the wrong person and there's nothing you can do and they put him in a fucking hole And he's living a nightmare They're like you can't imagine like it is just an unimaginable nightmare And the reason that he's living it is our country is is that we did it to him, like the US did it to him. And so it's up to us to get him the fuck out of this nightmare.
Starting point is 01:39:31 And so, sorry. And so that, I can't look at love it right now because I'm going to cry. And so that's why we're doing this. And I really appreciate that you all came. I appreciate especially the gays that came because you could, you know, I don't know, have been at the music festival or something, more fun. And so the lesbians were going to do something way less fun. So I appreciate you for coming too, but also kind of your welcome.
Starting point is 01:40:04 Yeah. Look, here's the thing. The gays chose this instead of a concert. The lesbians, they would have been asleep by now. And so Sarah usually ends our Bulwark shows with something a little bit more uplifting. And so I want to give her the last word. First of all, thanks everybody so much for coming. This has been super fun. Um, and you guys were a great, awesome audience. But here's the thing that we do close out most of the Bulwark shows with. And I really want to thank Crooked though for us doing this together. This was so fun to do together and to bring our audiences together.
Starting point is 01:40:40 But you know, the thing about authoritarians is what they want from us. That's not a joke. Authoritarians are bad. The thing about authoritarians is they want you to be tired. Not like I did poppers all night and now I'm tired the next morning and I need brunch. They want you to feel like deeply exhausted. That's why they try to flood the zone with shit. It's why they try to do so many corrupt things
Starting point is 01:41:08 that you don't know where to grab onto, right? It's why they come back. They didn't lose, Donald Trump didn't lose the election. He just didn't won yet. And it's why they come back and they try to keep you so tired that you won't fight back. So confused, so unable to understand
Starting point is 01:41:24 what is truth and what is fiction. And that's what they're doing to people, confusing them and making them tired. And so the one thing that we have to do, and it relates to the Andri thing, is don't get tired, ever. Like, we have to stay filled with energy to do this,
Starting point is 01:41:44 because the biggest thing they want from us is to be tired. So never get tired, never stop, and let's get Andrei home. Thank you all so much for coming. That's our show. Thank you so much to Tara Hoot. Thank you to Michael Fanon and Sam Stein. Thank you to Congressman Garcia. Thank you to Andrei's lawyer and everybody at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Starting point is 01:42:04 Thank you all for supporting this. Have a great night. We'll see you at Pride. Bye everybody. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad free or get access to our subscriber discord and exclusive podcasts, consider joining our friends of the pod community at crooked.com slash friends or subscribe on Apple podcasts directly from the Pod Save America feed. Also be sure to follow Pod Save America on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for full episodes,
Starting point is 01:42:28 bonus content, and more. And before you hit that next button, you can help boost this episode by leaving us a review and by sharing it with friends and family. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our producers are David Toledo, Saul Rubin, and Emma Illich-Frank. Our associate producer is Farrah Safari.
Starting point is 01:42:45 Reid Cherlin is our executive editor and Adrian Hill is our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglen and Charlotte Landis. Madeleine Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Hayley Jones, Ben Hefkoat, Molly Lobel, Matt DeGroote is our Head of Production. Naomi Sengel is our Executive Assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Hefkoat, Molly Lobel, Kirill Palavidh, Kenny Moffat, and David Toles. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.