Pod Save America - “How we beat Trump.”

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

Six battlegrounds will likely determine whether Trump or Biden wins in November, and Crooked Media content chief Tanya Somanader joins to talk about why you should Adopt a State and start organizing from home. Then Jon, Jon, and Tommy answer listener questions about the VP selection process, what a virtual convention might look like, how we’ll celebrate if Mitch McConnell loses, and when Ronan might cut Lovett’s hair.Adopt A State: votesaveamerica.com/adopt 

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Levitt. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's pod, we're answering some of your questions about the state of the 2020 race and more. We also have a very special guest today to talk about an exciting new Vote Save America program. Crooked Media's Chief Content Officer, Tanya Somanator, is here. Hey, campers. Yeah.

There we go. Before we get into all that stuff, Levitt, how was the show this weekend? I'm switching. One of these lights is flickering. There we go. Before we get into all that stuff, Lovett, how was the show this weekend? I'm switching. One of these lights is flickering. There we go. All right. Well, see, now it's making my teeth light up. It's fine.

Okay. Keep it. So I have a real problem. I'm keeping it. It's fine. We had a fantastic Lovett or Leave It. We were joined at long last by Senator Elizabeth Warren. She agreed to do a quiz where she surprised members of the audience.

Also, Cal Penn joined to judge the monologue. And John Milstein played a high school graduate who was pissy, had to give a commencement from home. It was all very... She did announce that she'll be the VP candidate on your show, right? I tried to surprise her with the question,

but she didn't fall for it. All right. She didn't fall for it. So I would say that one of the most common questions we get from people is, I live in a solid blue state or I live in a solid red state. What can I do to help in 2020? How can I make a difference? So we finally created an entire program to answer this question.

It's called Adopt a State. It'll be our most important Vote Save America initiative between now and election day. And instead of trying to explain it ourselves, we convinced the brains behind the operation to join us today. Crooked Media's content queen, Tanya Sominator. Tanya, tell us what Adopt-A-State is and how it came to be. Tell us the story of Adopt-A-State. Oh, so the election was going to come down to a very specific set of states. It's just how it is.

It's how presidential elections work. But a majority of people, especially a lot of people who are fans of Crooked Media, don't live in those states. And so we were thinking, you know, when we first started thinking about the program, how can we help people who want to have the biggest impact they can on November 3rd connect with volunteers, organizers, strategists in battleground states to really lend a hand in a way that will actually have the impact that those people need to turn out the vote and get voters ready to do what they need to do on November 3rd. to turn out the vote and get voters ready to do what they need to do on November 3rd.

We started talking about that a year ago, and turns out it's hard to plan for a pandemic. So we, well, it shouldn't be that hard, but it was hard. And so we had to put our plans on hold and reconfigure the program to go completely remote and completely digital. And that is what it is now. So Adopt-A-State is now a program where you can adopt one of the six battleground states that we're focusing on for November 3rd. And you'll get calls to action that you can do from your couch that will have, there'll be donations, you can like help people sign up for vote by mail. You can make sure they get their ballots in on time. You can make calls to make sure people know

when and where and who is running for what and get people out to vote in a very strange and new time for digital campaigning. So if you go to votesaveamerica.com backslash adopt, you can see exactly what you need to do to sign up and pick a state and sign up and get all the CTAs that your little heart desires. It's forward slash. I mean, everyone says it's forward slash. So Tanya, if you sign up to adopt a state, how are you going to learn what that means? How will we train you to be the best at home field staffer you can be? Right. So, yeah, it's not just we're not going to be like, OK, text this text, Jane, go for it. It's scary, you know, like you don't just want to pick up a phone number and cold call into Michigan.

That could be rough for anybody. I mean, or maybe you do. You know, we don't recommend it. So what we're basically doing is we're working with a really great group called Organizing Together. And what we're doing is when you sign up, we're not just going to throw you cold into being a digital organizer or being active without any help. cold into being a digital organizer or being active without any help. We're going to walk you through a couple of trainings with Organizing Together that are running trainings for everybody in battleground states on how to organize and how to help out from your couch or your home. And so we will train you

through what are the best practices to when you're making a phone call. What, how do you text in an effective way? What's your leadership style? If you're trying to get a group of people to do something, which is super fun. I'm really scared for that one. Not sure I want to know. And, and yeah, just walk you through step by step all of the things that and actions you are going to need to take. And you can practice doing it with people who've been doing it for a really long time. So when you get your call to action, you feel really confident in being able to do it and not worrying about it so much. And just so folks are organizing together, they are some of the best in the business. If you listen to my Iowa series, you heard Paul Tooze, who was Obama's state director in Iowa in 2008.

I interviewed him. He's helping run the show. So these are like really experienced, amazing people who will help us win the election and help train you. Without further ado, what are the states? There are Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania. Right. And Wisconsin. Don't be like Hillary. Don't be like Hillary. There we go. Right. And Wisconsin. Don't be like Hillary. Don't be like Hillary. There we go. Hillary's so many.

Wisconsin. I really, really wanted to do that enough about a order, and that just did not happen. All right. So we are asking people to adopt one of those states. Then you're going to be on team that state. We're going to try to get competitive between all the people. We're all going to adopt states ourselves. We're going to make it fun. We're going to make it fun. We're going to make it fun. It's going to try to get competitive between all the people. We're all going to adopt states ourselves. We're going to make it fun.

We're going to make it fun. We're going to make it fun. It's going to be a competition. Which states are you guys adopting? I'm going to, so I'm adopting Arizona. I have been, I've been bullish on Arizona ever since we did the wilderness, ever since 2018, really. Yeah, yeah. It's all about the suburbs. We got Kyrsten Sinema elected in 2018.

We got Mark Kelly there running for Senate. He's up by a lot. We got Kyrsten Sinema elected in 2018. We got Mark Kelly there running for Senate. He's up by a lot. We talked to a wonderful teacher named Christine Marsh, who's running for state Senate in Arizona for the wilderness. We've been following that race. Hillary Clinton lost by three and a half points in 2016. Feeling good about it for 2020. So I picked Arizona.

What about you guys? What do you got, Lovett? All right. I have chosen Pennsylvania. And I've Arizona. What about you guys? What do you got? Love it. All right. I, I have chosen Pennsylvania and I've chosen Pennsylvania for a simple reason. Pennsylvania screwed the pooch in 2016. You really blew it. And I did get in some trouble for saying that around 2018, um, particular when we talked to Chrissy Houlihan, uh, in the run up to the mid terms, but you know, Pennsylvania did a great job to the midterms. But, you know, Pennsylvania did a great job in the midterms, and we're hoping they can build on that success. We are counting

on Pennsylvania. And so I am here to tell Pennsylvanians, prove me wrong, you know, prove me wrong. I chose I chose Wisconsin. Trump's margin in Wisconsin in 2016 was 23,000 votes, which is devastating to this day. And so, you know, look, they've done a lot of really important work in the interim. Ben Wickler, the Democratic State Party chair, has been on the show a bunch of times. They're organizing their asses off. They just won a really important state Supreme Court seat. Ira Madison, the third, is from Wisconsin. They've got cheese curds. And look, I like I don't give a shit about this Pennsylvania, Arizona nonsense.

These guys are spouting. We're going to beat your ass because my team is going to be the most dedicated hardware. We're not flashy. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, you do pretend you own a football team.

That's a bit, you know, bit highfalutin. I will say the citizens do. I will also, I was really low key. I'm sorry. I was going say, the citizens do. I will also- Yeah, Ira's really low key, not pricey at all. I was going to,

yeah, nothing, look, when I think of Wisconsin, like, I think Ira Madison as the archetypal Wisconsinite. And Aaron Ryan,

we forgot about Aaron. We have two crooked hosts from Wisconsin. Yeah, I was just picking a nemesis of John's. Aaron is just the nicest person ever and treats everyone with respect,

so, you know. I will say this as well. Oh, this was the joke I was going to make. Here was the joke I was going to make, which is maybe Hillary Clinton was just socially distancing in Wisconsin early because it seems as though Biden and Hillary will be able to have the same number of rallies there. You're going to go missing and it's going to be like a team of staffers. And I don't know what kind of barrel they're going to melt you in,

but it's going to be dark. Oh, what? Tommy, I'm the one that's going missing. You're the one spreading conspiracy theories that Hillary Clinton makes people disappear. Touché. Touché. I'm just making a Wisconsin joke. You're going to the deep cuts.

So, guys, you can already see how fun this is going to be. It's going to be so much fun. It doesn't matter where you live in this country. You have no more excuses now. You can go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt. You can pick one of these six states and that is going to be your state and your responsibility from now until Election Day. You're going to be calling people in that state,

texting people in that state, donating money, getting your friends to donate money, getting people to register. And we're going to tell you how to do it all. We're going to give you instructions. We're going to give you information. We're not going to spam you, but we're going to let you know. And I'll just say this. If you're listening, all right, you're a political fiend at this point. All right. You've been paying attention for three years in this nightmare. It all led up to this. If you don't start signing up for the stuff we tell you to sign up for now, it was all a big fucking waste of time. Let's go.

Yeah. Great. I don't want to step on that really uplifting note, but I do want to say like, you know, it can be a lot of people can ask the question, like, is this really going to work? And are we going to win? And if I put all of this energy in, what is it actually going to mean? I just would love to point to Tommy's now adopted state of Wisconsin, where Ben Wickler has been working his ass off to, like, figure out how to organize in a state where the margins have always been close. And it's always really hard for Democrats to really show up in and make a difference and flip seats. And just this summer in the middle of a pandemic through digital organizing, through doing exactly

what this program is going to do, Democrats and voters surprised everybody by like flipping a Supreme Court seat. And it was because of programs like this. It was all digital. He was able to organize that way. People obviously had to show up physically, which was ridiculous. But it's going to be, we're going to need that at a national scale. And we're going to need that in every single state in order to actually get the result that we need on November 3rd. And so if you get in now, if you get in the ground game now, you can actually make a huge difference in making sure people know when their deadlines are, know how to get their ballots,

get everything in on time, because we just don't know what this election is going to look like. Nobody's ever been in this situation before. So it really is going to take more than just crossing your fingers and hoping that people are out there doing this. We need to do it too. And so, yeah, so we're adopting states and that's out now. So pick one and we'll see you out there. And like, you know, tweet about the one you picked. Let us know. Post about it. You know, let's get some pride in your in your adopted state. Yeah. Send a message to, you know, the human jello shots in Arizona or mini Ed Rendell, my friend here in Pennsylvania. Sign up for Wisconsin. I think it's a compliment.

Let's win this thing. I think it's a compliment. Let's win. Florida speaks his mind. We got this. Says whatever headlines like, you know, every state has got some Travis's. Yes, they are. They put French fries in the sandwiches in Pittsburgh. Okay? Proud of my state. We are making Travis Helwig adopt Florida. So that's just a long reason for you to do it.

Also, you guys got shit else to do. Come on. We all got some more free time all of a sudden. This is it. All right. Tanya, thank you. Thanks for joining. Thanks to you guys.

Tanya, also, thank you for upping your game on the Zoom angle today. Normally, it's just the bar cart, which I think sends a message to all of us here at Crooked Media. Now you've got that beautiful bookcase. This is, yeah, very fancy. Sometimes there's a bar cart in Tanya's office. Sometimes there's an office cart in Tanya's bar. You know what I'm saying? Bye, Tanya.

We have fun. all right let's get to some of your questions and a big thank you to everyone who reached out uh we're going to try to get through as many as we can the first question comes from iris henley if the plan is for biden's vice president to be the nominee in four years, is Elizabeth Warren's age an issue? I should say that we don't yet know if Biden will only serve one term. He's been noncommittal on that. There's been rumors, but it's not the plan yet, but it's a rumor. And Elizabeth Warren would be 74 in 2024. Lovett, what do you think? in 2024. Love it.

What do you think? I think Elizabeth Warren has the energy of Paris Hilton right after she emerged from a bathroom refreshed. I just think it's just like not something to really worry about. Like, I just don't like age is just a number.

And like, we will overcome any allegation that someone seems old if they seem young. And I mean, have you seen Elizabeth Warren? She she she bounds around like she just got recharged. She's she's a she's a cell phone at 99 percent. I'm not worried. Tommy, do you have anything to add on that?

It's tough to look. I can't top that and I won't even try. But I did look back at some polling from last year around this time where someone polled whether Democrats cared about the age of a candidate, whether you were more or less likely to support a candidate over 70, 58% of Dems 35 to 54, and then 59% of Dems 55 plus again, said they were much somewhat or much less likely to support a candidate over 70. Guess who won? Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders took second, right? So clearly this is something people tell pollsters, but it seems like they don't actually give a shit. So I agree with Lovett, like Elizabeth Warren literally sprints to and from events. I don't think it's going to be an issue if she is the VP nominee.

She walked into our office for that interview and was like a whirlwind, you know, just shaking every hand, talking to every person, playing with every dog. Like, you know, her answers are energetic. Yeah, no, I don't think it's an issue either. And like you said, you know, young people and progressives, young progressives, particularly in the primary, supported both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren more than any other candidate. So I don't know that age is that big of a deal. But good question. This one comes from Hogan McHugh. Thoughts on Biden going on Desus and Mero, but still nothing with Crooked. Tommy, what do you think? So look, Desus and Mero, but still nothing with Crooked. Tommy, what do you think?

So look, DeSus and Mero is a great show. He should absolutely do DeSus and Mero. Biden should go on as many shows as he can where the day-to-day conversation is not about politics, right? The people who watch CNN all day or MSNBC all day, they probably don't need to be as convinced or informed as much as voters who pay less attention. I would love Joe Biden to come on Pod Save America for a different reason. I think people who listen to this show are very engaged politically. They want to hear directly from the candidate they will be voting for to feel inspired to not only vote, but to volunteer, to give money, to get more engaged in the process. So that's why I think it would be beneficial for him. Obviously, he's going to make his own decisions. I do think like the

most important thing he can do is reach people who aren't focused on politics day in and day out. But that's my pitch. Love it. You have anything to add? You got a pitch? Yeah, I mean, look, this is an audience of people who are incredibly engaged, who pay attention to the news and who are going to do everything they can to get Donald Trump out, keep the House, win the Senate. And I think it's just kind of the right thing to do to come and say thank you and to encourage them and to push them to be involved and to remind them why the stakes are so high and why the energy they're about to put into the most important election in our lifetimes is worth it. And so I just think it's a little bit confusing to me because, you know, look, he's got his own

podcast and I'm sure that listener is getting a lot of really good advice. But, you know, there's also others that reach more people. Well, that was going to be my point that, you know, Dan always says that time is the only non-renewable resource in a campaign, especially candidate time. And I just think if you're going to have a candidate spend some time doing his podcast like he does that reportedly reaches about 30, 40,000 people an episode, you know, come on Pod Save America, reach two to three million people in one of our episodes, and then he'll get more listeners for his podcast. That's all. It's just which is all it's obviously the most important thing. Look, the bottom line is this

is about subs. This is about getting those subs on Apple podcasts. Well, it's like if we didn't like it's what Tommy said, you want to reach as many people as possible, obviously. And I agree with with Tommy that nonpolitical people in a general election, people who aren't as engaged as partisans and activists, it's probably even more important. So I do think those are the most important media appearances for him. But you got a bunch of people listening to PSA, you know, give him some Biden. Give him some Biden. See what happens. All right. Nicholas DeCarrado asks, why does the GOP cry foul about mail-in fraud

when statistically it is virtually a non-issue? How has this false narrative become so pervasive? You take this one, Fabbro. Me? Me? Yeah, you voter, comma, fraud. Because they don't want people to vote. Oh, it's because they don't want people to vote. They don't want people to vote.

That's why they're making it an issue. They are scared of democracy. It's something that we have learned so far. No, I think it's also it's ridiculous. It's even politically stupid for them because there is no data that suggests that if we had mail-in voting, universal mail-in voting, that it would benefit Democrats over Republicans. Colorado is a universal mail in voting state. They have Cory Gardner, a Republican in the Senate. They have a Democratic governor, a Democratic senator otherwise. So the evidence is mixed on this. It's just one of those insane things that's become polarized because of Donald Trump. Donald Trump thinks vote in voting, mail in is bad now. And so now Republicans are going to take their cues from him and think that mail in voting is wrong. It is bad and it's fucking nuts. That's all it is. And they and they're and they're afraid of more people voting. They're afraid of what it will mean, especially if it's people of color, especially if it's young people. And that's been the story with Republicans and voting for quite some time now. So get the news out.

That's all. Get that out there. That's all I have to say about that. Jacob Reynolds says, longtime listener from Texas, the Biden campaign sent out an email recently, including Texas and Georgia as battleground states in 2020. Do you think these are actually viable states for Biden in 2020, or are they being overly optimistic? Tommy, what do you think?

Do I think the Biden campaign will be actively competing and spending money in Georgia and Texas come October? No, I do not. It's probably wishful thinking, but I do think it's smart to start with the widest map possible. Build, build, build, build, see how things look the closer you get to the election, and then go from there in terms of resource allocation questions. I think soon Texas and Georgia will be battlegrounds. I'm not yet

confident that it's this cycle. I'll go with a little more confident case. I think Texas. Go contrarian. Go contrarian. I think I think Texas is hard because Texas is expensive. Right. It's like it's an insanely expensive state to compete in. You know, Beto O'Rourke is down there right now. And they are you know, he was saying the other day that a million Democrats moved to Texas over the last couple of years and still haven't updated their voter registration. It's still in the state that they used to live in. So he is right now they're sending ballots, applications for ballots, even with stamps to all these voters who just recently moved to Texas, who we know are Democrats to try to sort of, you know, get get registration up there. So there's some good work being done in Texas.

I do think it's hard in a presidential because it's a it's a lot of money. Georgia, I'll make the Georgia case that Stacey Abrams made to me. She said we're a cheap date because it is the state with sort of the most educated, youngest, most diverse population. And obviously, the Atlanta media market is expensive. But if you're trying to figure out between Texas and Georgia and maybe some other states, it actually is probably in terms of bang for your buck with a younger, more diverse electorate that has been changing because a lot more people are moving to Atlanta and the suburbs. And especially there's a lot of voters of color that Stacey Abrams has worked to register over the last couple of years. You know, it's a you could get some bang for your buck

there. And there was a recent poll this week that showed Joe Biden up one in Georgia, 48, 47. And we have two Senate races there in 2020 as well. So Georgia, Georgia's a maybe. Georgia's a maybe. Todd Eastman asks, who should the DNC turn to for help producing a virtual convention? It needs to be more than a giant Zoom call. Love it. You've had a long history in Hollywood.

Very successful one. Why don't you take that? You know, this is like the second day in a row I've been asked this question because Axe asked this question during, we did a talk for students at the IOP and Axe asked this question during, we did a talk for students at the IOP and Axe asked this question. It's a really hard question. Look, the key problem here is, I do think this is a bigger problem for Democrats than for Republicans for the simple reason that the convention is a place where a nominee gets to seem big,

seem like a president, have a big stage that is usually only reserved for the president. So I think that's really challenging. That said, I think there are ways to build events, even while social distancing, that look big, that feel big, that feel presidential. You know, I think about Barack Obama giving a speech in the East Room where he would walk down that long hallway and reach the podium in this sort of ornate space and address the nation. That did not require a big audience, but it still felt big and presidential. So I'd be looking at a way to design speech locations that create that sense of bigness, even if we can't have big crowds. And, you know, John, a point you made, I think, is just making sure we figure out a way to hear from Barack Obama, to hear from Michelle Obama, ideally with people in some way, so that we are still programming out over the course of those days, even if we're not all in the same place, events that tell the story of the election and

tell a story about helping Joe Biden win. There's like a long tradition in Hollywood of Hollywood folks telling Democrats like, we can help. We have creative ideas. And usually I'm not thrilled with that. In this instance, I actually think that some folks who are organizing the Democratic convention, getting some ideas from some creative types, directors, whoever else in Hollywood might help. I agree, too. One thing I'd also add, too too is I think the other half of this is, okay, so that's about making, I think, the visuals tell the story you want to tell,

which I think is really challenging. The other piece of it is the organizing that's inherent to a convention and thinking through interesting ways to do teleconferencing that feels engaging, that feels different, that doesn't just feel like Zoom, and that makes these meetings worth attending. Gatherings that connect people the way they would connect at a convention, I think is also really important and something difficult to think through. That's all. Kate Staudenmayer asks, I'm a college educated adult, tune in regularly to PSA and the news, and I still have no freaking clue what this unmasking stuff is about. So if it's confusing to me, I have to think it's confusing to the general population.

Does it even matter politically? Will this really hurt Biden? Tommy, take it away. Sure. So let's talk about what unmasking is first. So when the intelligence community is spying on some foreign national target, they sometimes pick up those targets either talking to or about an American. And so by law, they are required to protect that American's identity.

And in the intelligence reporting, just say, refer to him or her as a U.S. person. But sometimes you need to know the identity of that U.S. person to make sense of the intelligence. So you can ask for it to be unmasked. So, for example, what if the person you're collecting on, some Iranian spy, is talking about recruiting an American to join their side, right? You'd need to know who that is. So unmasking is a serious thing because we're talking about the civil liberties of an American.

It's highly regulated. It's an audited process. There's nothing nefarious or wrong about it, right? For example, the Trump administration unmasked the identities of Americans 17,000 times in 2018. So that's something that people do as a regular matter, of course. But some things to know, like the Republicans are trying to suggest that this unmasking requests about General Flynn were made by people hunting for information about Flynn. And the reason that's dumb is that by

definition, you don't know who you were unmasking until after the fact, right? So you wouldn't know it was about General Flynn until you'd already unmasked it. Sometimes there's a report where a bunch of U.S. persons are mentioned and they're all unmasked at once. And Flynn could be caught up in part of that. Michael Morrell, who was a former CIA director, also points out that if you look at who did the unmasking that was released by the Trump administration, it's this wide range of people in all kinds of different jobs. There was White House staff. There was NATO staff.

There were counterterrorism people. So that suggests that people weren't looking for Russia info, but rather that Flynn was just like popping up in a lot of places. And that would make sense because he was the incoming national security advisor. The last thing that's important to know is like just because it says this specific staffer requested an unmasking, it doesn't mean that that person personally made that request or even necessarily saw the information. They all have briefers who come from the intelligence community who walk them through

intelligence products in the morning. And often those briefers will request an unmasking of an intelligence report in advance in case they are asked. So that's all the unmasking of an intelligence report in advance in case they are asked. So that's all the unmasking stuff. Just the final point here about why this is so dumb and why I don't think it's going to matter to Biden at all. After the Trump folks released this list of names of people who allegedly unmasked Michael Flynn's name, we learned that Flynn's name and his identity was actually never hidden in the intelligence products to begin with, because the whole product wouldn't have made any sense if you didn't know it was about him.

So they like went through this big process to roll out this list of names who unmasked him to try to say, aha, those people were bad, but he was never masked in the first place. So this thing is just a goat rodeo. It's a distraction. It's a stupid fucking waste of time. Feel free to ignore it going forward. It's a goat rodeo that was a great phrase from the white house that we don't use anymore but i love it i was trying to think of a simple way to think about this and it's so lil wayne was unmasked on the mass singer and nobody believed it was because there was a vendetta against lil wayne by the judges right right you know something Right. You know, something to think about.

That's something to think about. Dan and I talked about this on Thursday's pod. But like, the thing is, like, the FBI was investigating Michael Flynn for all kinds of legitimate reasons, it turns out, as he was shilling for all kinds of foreign countries and not telling people as he was about to be national security advisor. And then part of this whole conspiracy is that Barack Obama was somehow trying to like take down Donald Trump, which didn't work so well for a few reasons. Number one, he won the election and all the FBI did before the election is let people know that Hillary Clinton was under investigation and then they found more emails related to that investigation. And number two, after Trump won, the Obama coup sort of fell short when Obama personally told Donald

Trump, hey, watch out for that Michael Flynn guy. You should probably get a better national security adviser trying to be helpful to the new president. It's so the whole thing sort of almost as if it's almost as if there were a group of Republicans and Democrats before and after the election worried about the future of the country and desperately trying to protect it from what they feared was outside interference and did their best to protect the nation, including warning Donald Trump about it because they thought it was such a serious threat without regard for the partisan consequences and without trying to help or hurt Donald Trump at all. That's it's almost as if that's what was going on. And of course, the other thing, Donald Trump fired Michael Flynn.

He fired him. He fired him for lying to Mike Pence and for lying to the FBI. Why did he do that? Did the deep state make Donald Trump do it? No. Tune in next do it no tune in next time tune in next time all right another that all right um griff probus asks in past episodes i've heard you mention trump having an electoral college advantage could you elaborate a little bit on this what exactly is his advantage? John, you take that. I'll take that. So the advantage is basically what we saw in 2016. Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote by two percentage points. Donald Trump wins the Electoral College because in the states that decide the election, and this goes back to our interview with Tanya, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Donald Trump's approval rating is higher

than it is nationally. Why is that? Demographically, in those states, there are a lot more non-college educated white voters. Those are Trump's base. That is the group he does the best with. You can go through all the different states and the states with higher educated voters who are more and the states that are more diverse tend to be more blue. The states with lower educated voters that tend to be whiter are going to be redder. And so Donald Trump, because you need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency in the states that add up to 270. He has a slight advantage because he has a higher approval rating and there are more non-college educated white voters in those states. And that is why that when we say he has an electoral college advantage, that's what that's what we mean.

Again, it is possible this year that Joe Biden could win the popular vote by a lot. In fact, Joe Biden is a heavy favorite to win the popular vote in 2020. But it is possible that he could win the popular vote and again, lose the electoral college because Donald Trump sneaks by in Michigan or Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, even as Joe Biden runs up the score in California, in New York, or gets it even closer in places like Texas and Georgia without actually beating Donald Trump. That's what we mean when we say there's an Electoral College advantage. So it should make everyone nervous and sign up for Adopt-A-State. Yes. Yes. Sign up for Adopt-A-State. Sign up for Adopt-A-State. All right. Jeff Simpson asks, I'm a registered Dem and not a huge Biden fan. If I lived in a state like Michigan or Pennsylvania, I'd absolutely vote for him because the stakes are so great. But I live in Oregon, a safe blue state. In the past, I voted third party for a few reasons. Safe blue state, protest vote to send a message to the Democratic Party, and small parties gain access to public funding if they receive 5% of the national vote.

and small parties gain access to public funding if they receive 5% of the national vote. The third point is the main reason I voted third party in the past. More funding will lead to greater access for candidates, which is good for democracy. So my question is, why should I go against this and vote Biden in 2020 when I live in a safe blue state? Tommy, what do you think? So look, man, Donald Trump is a monster. I just don't think now is the time to like think we're outgaming the system and offer a protest vote. This is my personal opinion. You do what you want to do. But I think your protest vote comes in the primary. And so like I would just

want to talk to you about 2016, where in Michigan, Jill Stein garnered more than 51000 votes and Clinton lost by fewer than 11000 in Wisconsin, where Trump's margin was 23,000 votes, Stein attracted 31,000 votes. And in Pennsylvania, she attracted 50,000 votes and Trump won by 44,000. In 2000, when Bush won Florida by 500 votes, Ralph Nader racked up close to 100,000. So I don't want to blame these third party candidates, but you should just know that Republicans want to prop up people like Jillill stein and the green party because they know it will siphon votes away from democrats so my argument to you would be do not help them do that my argument to you would be change the democratic party from the inside out and make it more progressive by helping more progressive candidates

win at every level but i do not think that this is the year to fuck around and vote third party. I just hope you do not. Yeah, I don't. And look, Oregon's not California. It's safe, but it's still not like who knows what might happen. And I just think like democracy is about choices. Elections are about choices. This election is a choice between the vision that Donald Trump represents and the vision that Joe Biden represents. And they are probably the biggest gap between those two visions that we've ever seen. And that is primarily because of Donald Trump as president and because of his authoritarian tendencies and because of his racism and his xenophobia and the climate and what he's done with the pandemic. You could go on and on and on and on.

When you walk into the voting booth in November or when you mail in your ballot, maybe more likely, it will be a choice. It's either going to be Donald Trump or Joe Biden. That's it. There's not going to be any other choice. And I think your vote should reflect which direction you believe the country should go in. I'll just add also, you know, maybe Oregon won't be close and maybe Biden wins it by a lot. That means you're relying on other people to do the right thing, which you recognize to be the right thing to give you the privilege to cast a protest vote. So I would point that out, that you're sort of hoping others do the right thing. So you have the opportunity to do something that maybe, you know, feels good in the moment, but isn't actually helping to get rid of Donald Trump. And the second thing I'd say is if you're really committed to

voting that way, to doing that kind of protest vote, here's my deal. You have to demonstrate to me that you got five Biden votes in a swing state. You really mean what you say? I'm actually comfortable with it. Sincerely. Like, I understand your motivations. I understand feeling like the Electoral College is an unfair system. You think you want to vote to show what you really believe should be the direction of the country. Fine. You get me five votes in a swing state. You call, you digitally organize. If you're doing that, you can knock on doors, whatever it is. Then I'm in and then I totally appreciate it. Great. All right. A few fun questions. Michael Erickson asks,

what would each of you do to celebrate if Mitch McConnell is voted out this year? I would drink a thousand mint juleps. I would go to the Kentucky Derby. I was going to say that. And wear a Get Mitch t-shirt. I will give $1,000 to a sea turtle rescue foundation so that his relatives aren't suffering in this time of need. That's

about it. I can't top that. I was going to go to the I'll go to the Kentucky Derby, too, and then and then drive by Mitch McConnell's house and just honk a lot. That'd be fun. I remember the night that Obama won and we knew and I wasn't on the campaign. I just remember that night. And I remember the feeling, you know, there was a, there was a piece that I love about, about World War II. And it talked about how it felt at the end of World War II. And the headlines didn't say. So you're saying that Mitch McConnell was like. No, no, no. I'm just speaking more generally. And the headlines didn't say, I'm making a serious point. We'll see what happens. And the headlines didn't say we won. The headlines said it's over. And if we wake up the day after

the election and Donald Trump is defeated and we have won the Senate and we're not predicting it, we have to fight for it and it will be really, really hard. To me, I don't think I'm going to feel like we won. I'm going to feel like it's over. And that relief and that sense of accomplishment is what keeps me, it accomplishment is what keeps me going. Tell you that, boys. Yeah. That was my serious point. You'll be able to take a couple deep breaths after it's over.

Julia Lillard asks about Ted Cruz's Twitter fight with Tommy and me. She says, it always seems that Tommy gets the most vitriol. Why is that? Why do you think, Tommy? Because of that face. Because of those cheekbones. I think Lion Ted chose to quote tweet me because I didn't use profanity.

I think it's probably that simple. And I considered replying, you know, Ted, while I didn't use profanity, I still think you're an asshole, but I didn't because I'm in a, you know, I'm very mature. And John, you know, I thought you and Dan, you know, covered this Ted Cruz fight well on Thursday, but he's just like Ted Cruz is a special brand of shameless, right? You can't blame it on Trump. Ted Cruz is been terrible for a long time. He's just a political chameleon who will morph into whatever he thinks will help him in the moment. But he's a bad actor. He's terrible at it. People reject him left and right. And like what Ted Cruz has done to himself is meaner than anything I could ever say.

Trump attacked his wife in like cruel and vicious personal terms. He accused his dad of killing JFK. He gave this big lofty speech at the convention about principle and values in your conscience. And then he completely caved and fell in line and is like the number one ride or die pathetic Trump lackey. And look, I just want to say to Ted, people don't like you, Ted. They never will. You're not going to be president. All this shit where you're humiliating yourself is for nothing. I would prefer to be able to look at myself in the mirror than look at myself in the oval office. And Ted just feels differently.

So there we are. That's great. I just love that. I just, what I just occurred to me that like, Oh my God, we're going to have to watch Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz debate each other in 2024.

Yes. Two of the most unctuous. And Tom Cotton. And Tom Cotton. My God, it's going to be the absolute, just a bunch of mini Trumps up there. Tom Cotton reminded me, like the question about why Tommy gets vitriol, there's something, there's a certain segment of the right

and the right wing loonies who are like especially triggered by you and Rhodes and Ben Rhodes. And it's like so, it's so so they're like so down a rabbit hole of like knowing your backstories and the fact that you guys are like these like villains for them. It's just so funny. Yeah. Let me explain one thing.

So like when I left the White House, there was an article written about me. It was very nice. Like in the in the Chicago Tribune, this wonderful human being, Christy Parsons. And it just mentioned that in the 2004 campaign, one of my jobs as deputy press secretary was driving the press van when we went downstate. On top of that, I did, I wrote all the press releases and I talked to reporters and I went to events and I staffed Obama. And like these Republicans have decided that like working your way up is bad. So they call me van driver. And it's like, it's just, it's just them telling on themselves that they just shit on people who have like entry-level jobs and, you know, work hard and learn things along the way. And it's telling

on themselves that they know this much about me. Right. That's not a position of strength. Who the fuck am I? I'm some two-bit spokesman from the White House. You should have bigger fish to fry, Ted Cruz. Yeah, it's like it's like when they they go after AOC for being a bartender. But it's, of course, all the more ridiculous right now. Like, oh, you're you're big credentials people now, are you? You got you got you got you got checking those resumes. Yeah. Yeah. We got a we got a we got a dog breeder handing out antibody tests over at the CDC. Jared Kushner printed his Harvard degree himself from home, and now he's running Mitty's Beast. What planet are we on?

Tommy's a problem because he drove a van once. In 2004. 2004, Tommy drove a van. He's not qualified. Are you out of your minds? Let me tell you. All right. Aleka Rao asks, will you let your significant others cut your hair during quarantine love it when is ronan getting those scissors

so ronan gave himself a haircut and he actually did yes he gave himself a haircut and he did a great he did a good job too he like i i like noticed like how did he do it and he it involves him carrying a floor-length mirror into the bathroom i don't know how he did it i am not getting a haircut till this is over i'm just good i'm just going whatever happens happens that's it no haircuts no haircuts no haircuts till uh still you're putting a lot of stock personally you're putting a lot of stock in these vaccines personally puts the vaccine i want fauci to do mine we've been watching the show uh outer banks in my house and i'm going for the pogue look so that means i have a good four to six months just full grow it out flow just surfer bro lax lettuce it's going to be terrible i'm gonna see how big i can get it right now that is that

is a lot of hair from from that show um dustin growick asks during these unfortunate and trying times i'd like to think back to a simpler era so i'll ask the question no one else dares to what is your favorite dinosaur and why i was a huge triceratops guy growing up. They were my number one. I don't know. They were just like everyone liked the T-Rex. Yeah, sure.

They can eat everything. But triceratops was just a badass. And then there's like this one called the Spinosaurus, which is like a 50 foot long, like gigantic crocodile looking thing that hunts on land and in water. And that seems pretty cool. I'm going to get mocked for this but i liked the brontosaurus because it didn't eat the other dinosaurs they're nice that is so exact of course you did of course you did oh you like the dinosaur that gets along with everybody mosey's on over puts it choose on some choose on some leaves not gonna get anybody upset just gonna come over here mosey on over

have a couple bites of uh some some big old ancient eucalyptus go on about my business let's see you over there think you're doing great love you over there hey everybody too big to attack too vegetarian to cause any problems the original edible dip in the lake yeah oh that's me what do you got love it i you know look i have loved the raptor ever since jurassic park and i know that there's some dissensus as to whether steven spielberg big up the dinosaur didn't totally capture it but what however accurate it is or is not I love the raptor. I love the idea of a super smart dinosaur testing the fences. Love them, you know, moving there,

you know, working in tandem. All right. I love the raptor. Love the raptor. Dinosaurs are not in the Bible. So I pass on this conversation. Andrew Akins asks, what's the best candy?

Reese's peanut butter cups done great one what do you have you ever had those wax bottles you ever try those it's a weird kind of people think they're probably gross they were fun those were fun um i like laffy taffy i like yellow laffy taffy which i think no one likes i also love raisinets. Ooh, I like those. Raisinets. I like Raisinets. Yeah. I know. I know, man. I love, I've always loved a Snickers. I think Snickers is the. Like Snickers.

You know, I think that there, except no imitations, your baby's Ruth, et cetera. I love, I love a Snickers. Christopher Fry asks, last question. Love it. What is your favorite Star Wars film and what is Ronin's? This is a very good question. So I actually think you have to take Star Wars, the original A New Hope, out of the conversation. It created the world.

It is the original film. So I just think it's hard to compare it to the others because it created the universe. So I don't think that's fair. So putting that aside, I'm going to tell you all that my favorite film, when you put Star Wars, A New Hope aside, is Rogue One. Rogue One. I love Rogue One. It is, and I know it had like a kind of a difficult production and I think it's a bit controversial, my view. But to me, it is the most mature of the Star Wars films. And also it shows you the cost of empire from the perspective of people living through it. And it shows you the value of faith in something like the Force for people who don't see it

every day and view it as a kind of myth that helps them stay strong and stay in the fight. So the perspective on the galaxy that you get from Rogue One is why it is my favorite and the introduction of an idea as to why the Death Star has this flaw that it wasn't some deus ex machina from A New Hope, but actually born of the plot and the characters from from from rogue one is something i always love that is my sincere answer rogue one follow-up please hannah and i recently watched the mandalorian did people think that was good yes tommy oh uh look my twitter feed here's the thing baby yoda baby yoda like yes the little baby yoda thing is is cute it was so fucking cheesy because it was a because it was a john favreau film my twitter feed was just filled for three weeks with people telling me how wonderful it was i thought it was mediocre but i don't know the mandalorian is good in the same

sense that night rider is good it is it is you have to think about what you're watching is night rider in space and it is has all the, it has slightly better production values, but all the cheesiness of classic Hasselhoff and Kit taken on problems, you know, going rogue on their own in the world. So I appreciated Mandalorian the same way I appreciate Hasselhoff and Knight Rider. Interesting. Okay. All all right on that note

we're all done that's it that's it that's all the time we have um everyone have a great week and yeah look memorial day is now over so that's probably a huge bummer for you but hey it's a short week it's a short. Only a couple more days till another weekend, you know? More house. More house sitting. Another weekend. All right, everyone. This was fun.

I'm glad we did this. Let's do it more often. I like mailbags. All right, guys. Bye. Pod Save America is a product of Crooked Media. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our assistant producer is Jordan Waller.

It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Somenator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Reston, and Elisa Gutierrez for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian, Yale Freed, and Milo Kemp, who film and upload these episodes as videos every week.