Pod Save America - “I vote. Do u?” (LIVE from Nashville)

Episode Date: June 24, 2018

Trump has no plan to reunite the children he separated from their parents, Republicans in Congress struggle to pass an immigration bill, and Democrats announce a new plan to mobilize young people, Africans Americans, Latinos, and other voters who don’t always turn out for midterm elections. Then Stephanie Teatro talks to Dan and Symone Sanders about her work as the co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. 

What's up, Nashville? What's up, Nashville? Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Simone D. Sanders. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

We have a great show for you tonight. Later we'll be talking to Stephanie Titro, a local activist from right here in Nashville. You guys know her. Co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugees Rights Coalition. Co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugees Rights Coalition. All right, should we talk about the news, guys? It's depressing. Is that what we're doing here?

We're going to start with the chaos that has resulted from Donald Trump's decision to take children away from parents who seek asylum in the United States. Yes. A decision he claims he reversed with an executive order that not even his own government seems to understand. What we do know at this point is the administration has no plan to reunite the more than 2,000 kids who've been separated. Today, DHS said that about 500 have been reunited. That's their claim. Of course, some are as young as eight months old. There aren't enough beds for all the families that they're detaining. There aren't enough immigration lawyers right now.

The AP reported that kids are screaming and crying as they realize that their parents are gone. And in the midst of all this, today the president tweeted, we cannot allow our country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief. It's actually hard to listen to you summarize that. It's so frustrating. Just a reminder that last month, 18 House Republicans nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. So back to the drawing board Noslo, I think.

Simone, how do we make sure that this administration doesn't get away with just losing track of 1,500 plus children? Like, how do we make sure this is not another Puerto Rico? I think we have to continue to be vocal about it, but

we also have to challenge them in the courts. And so I think you've seen a couple, yes, clap it up for the court. And so unfortunately right now, it seems like a legal option is the only option to ensure that these folks, that the children are reunited with their parents and vice versa. That's why we saw there was a story that caught traction today. A mother from Guatemala sued the Trump administration and she was reunited with her son. Now, she had a really great attorney, but unfortunately, everyone does not have the means or the access that this mother had, and so we have to make sure that we are raising funds, that we are supporting organizations that are providing folks with immigration attorneys,

and keeping the pressure on it. Every single time a reporter or anyone reports that Donald Trump stopped the family separation at the border, well, they need to accurately report that he stopped family separations and has instituted family detention, which is another name for jail. Yeah. Tommy, what do you think? I mean, as someone just mentioned, like, I think we all talked about in the last show that the media so far has done a pretty good job of calling attention to this. It does feel like we're at that point in a media cycle about a Trump crisis where it's the end of a week where it has made news every single day.

It's been the only news story every day, which is a good thing because everyone's aware. But what do we do as we move into the next coming weeks? It is hard because we're in such a bizarre land. A great reporter named Simon Molloy pointed out on Twitter that Melania Trump went on a fact-finding mission to observe a humanitarian crisis created by her husband. We don't really have the experience to deal with that. She's going to next go tour the factories where Ivanka's shoes are being made. so you know we'll we'll talk about congress later and what we can or can't do but the reality is we're not in charge of anything uh and so i think the key right now for democrats is like

constant sustained pressure and attention on reuniting these kids who have been separated from their parents because if you read stories from lawyers that are trying to navigate this morass of bureaucracy and cruelty and incompetence, they are having an unbelievably difficult time finding these kids who were taken away from families starting in May, not that long ago. So unless there is real focus, sustained focus on fixing this problem, it's not going to go away. And that's our job now, I think, is people who care. Yeah. So the Trump propaganda machine is working overtime to minimize the story. Fox News? The whole bunch of them. We have Laura Ingram called the detention center summer camps.

Sinclair Broadcasting is reportedly forcing its stations to air commentary that says liberal reports of children detention were exaggerated. Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends said, quote, these aren't our kids. Show them compassion, but it's not like he's doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. Dan, what do we do about this? Do the pictures themselves make this kind of propaganda harder to pull off this time yes i mean what has been different like this was this past week was different in the sense that it felt for a second like the old rules applied where there was a crisis trump fucked up and then he had to face some measure of political accountability he did not solve the problem we are in the first inning of trying to reunite these families and deal with the larger problems of immigration in this country.

But he felt pressure. And his ability to just scream fake news and have Ann Coulter go out there and call them child actors and all of that did not work with as much success. And that's because of the images. And because they, for every time an ICE spokeswoman went out and said, these kids aren't in cages, then there would be dozens of photos of kids in cages that would be shared millions of times on social. And so what Democrats have to do here, because we don't have a propaganda machine. We don't have Fox News. We don't have Breitbart. And I'm very happy about that.

I wouldn't want to be part of a party that had those horrible things. But is we have to keep our attention focused. And it's not just senators and members of Congress continuing to go to these centers and demanding to see the kids. It's all of us who have the power to communicate with people from the phone in our pocket, sharing these pictures, talking about it,

tweeting about it, because we're in this weird media world now where it's not the news that leads Twitter. It's Twitter that leads the news. And so if we can keep discussion about this, keep it trending, we can have viral videos like Congressman John Lewis today talking about this.

If we can share that with every person in our lives, then we can keep the focus on the issue. And that's critically important because once the cameras turn off, you know what little attention Trump administration is giving this is gonna go away in a second. They're going to focus on the next policy atrocity

that they want to commit. Yeah. Lovett, what do you think? Do Democrats need to keep focusing on this no matter what? I already saw there's some Politico story today that like, you know, a few of the red state Democrats are like,

well, it was important to speak out this week, but like, how long are we going to be on this issue? They're already a little, you know. Oh, red state Democrats. Will you or won't you be cool today? Health care, yes. I think it's a good question. I think obviously we never talk about any story in a sustained way at this level on any issue ever.

So we should be aware of that. I think this has broken a record in the Trump administration. Yes, this and, well, two things, this and the Parkman kids, right? This is a lesson of what can break through for a long time. But even still, stories come along and the story changes. I think it's about making sure we're fitting,

we're fitting our position on immigration into the larger story we're trying to tell. I think that's actually pretty challenging. I mean, the one thing that I was thinking about and how it can connect to what we're saying more broadly is criminal justice reform has been stymied in Congress for a long time. And in large part, it was by Jeff Sessions. And yes, sure. Absolutely, boo. Absolutely, boo.

He's boo-worthy. And the only reason I draw that connection is because I think what we're seeing is in a larger way a conversation about justice and mercy. And this idea of zero tolerance is this idea that what you can have is justice without mercy, that you can throw the book at people and it's simple and it's easy and these problems aren't hard to solve,

in part because you're lying, in part because you dehumanize people. And I think that Democrats need to be the party of mercy. And I think one of the reasons Hillary Clinton... So Hillary Clinton... Sure. Are you applauding because you remember her? There's been a lot of debate as to whether or not she was an inspiring candidate,

but there was something she said on the campaign trail that was inspiring, and it was when she talked about love and kindness, because it was something deeper than the kind of tinny political words we're all used to. And so this is a point Dan's been making. We've all been making it, but not allowing the immigration debate to become one in which we are trying to prove how tough we are, so people will give us maybe the chance to be humane, but leading with what we actually believe,

which is that we don't believe that this immigration problem is big enough to visit these horrors on children. And we believe that this is a compassionate country. We believe in compassionate college. And we are compassionate on immigration. We are compassionate on health care. We are compassionate about making sure kids get an education. I think it's about making sure we're telling a story

about human empathy and that we are fighting for it. I just think the other thing is, while we're telling that story, making sure we're being clear about the facts. It's a crisis at the border right now that the Trump administration created, but to be clear, crime is down. The people that commit the majority of crimes in this country are in fact not immigrants. There

is no immigration crisis. There is a, we need to reform our immigration system because people are getting stuck in the system, so on and so forth, and Donald Trump wants to build this wall, but Democrats should not fall into the trap of using the Republicans' language of that we just want open borders. No one is talking about open borders. We don't have open borders now. If you've ever left the country, you know for a fact that there are no open borders in America. And so I think Democrats fall into the trap of using the Republicans' language

to talk about the issue, and that is where we lose. Yeah. Tommy, are we going to say something? No, it's great. Lovett and Simone are exactly right. I mean, Democrats run scared on immigration a lot because there's tricky issues and tough votes that have been taken. But two-thirds of the country opposes separating these kids from their families.

And 80% of the country opposes finding a fix to allow the dreamers, kids who are brought to the country by their parents when they're small children, letting them stay in the country. So there are issues we can run on and fight on and win. Yeah, no, I do think there's a problem with buying into Trump's frame that there is some crisis on immigration right now. And this gets to something deeper. A bunch of people have pointed out that there is no huge influx of immigrants at the border like there was actually when Obama dealt with this issue in 2014. Simone, you mentioned that crime rates for immigrants are in many places lower than native

born Americans. And yet this administration from the beginning has decided to create this crisis. And the question is, why did they decide to create this crisis? So Vanity Fair quoted an outside advisor to the White House saying, quote, Stephen Miller actually enjoys seeing those pictures on the border. Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. I just want to be extremely clear. And he gets his, like he is aligned with people in the white nationalist movement. He's been very clear about this. He's been very clear about his ideology. And so why we are allowing a white nationalist to sit in the people's house, the White House, and make policy that literally demonizes people of color in this country, I don't understand.

He needs to go and everybody needs to call on him being fired, like along with Secretary Nielsen, everybody else. It's crazy. I was just about to ask. I was going to take it further. He is a white nationalist. Is this what a white nationalist policy looks like? Which is a scary thing to say, but my question is, if not, what would a white nationalist policy look like?

I don't want to hypothesize about white nationalist policies, okay? The black woman in America, that makes me terrified. It is terrifying, but it's like, you know, you've got Stephen Miller saying this. You've got Steve Bannon, who a couple months ago said, there's too many Asian CEOs in Silicon Valley. We're more than an economy. We're a society. Like, my question is, like, how many more times do they have to tell us this?

Mexicans coming over the border are rapists. Animals. Infestation. Like, I just, there's part of me that worries at some point, like, how many times do they have to tell us this before we believe them? animals, infestation. There's part of me that worries at some point, how many times do they have to tell us this before we believe them? I honestly think to the point that Levitt made about these red state Democrats,

folks are so scared to broach the topic of, to speak plainly and frankly about immigration reform, about what the White House is actually doing, about the language they're actually using, that we're not confronting it. I want to remind folks, Hitler wasn't some crazy outside person. He was a tool of the government. He was in charge.

And Hitler repeated the language over and over and over until folks internalized it, until they believed it was true. It was a propaganda machine. And that is what currently is happening in this country. I'm frankly concerned about the people that are excusing and justifying what the White House and this administration is doing, saying, well, these folks broke the law. Like, if they will get on the side of folks tearing innocent kids away from their families that did nothing wrong, who are fleeing very just desperate situations, desperate situations that the United States government maybe had a hand in,

not in creating the environment. If there are folks in this country that are going to underscore that, what else will they underscore? Now we're going to have tent cities, i.e. internment camps. What next? I don't know. Well, Simone is exactly right. And I think it is important that we not just put pressure on Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon and Kirsten Nielsen, Donald Trump,

because Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, they advocate white identity politics. They're put aside their own... For conservative white people. For conservative white people, yes. They believe the best politics... Not y'all, not y'all. You know what? Being better than that is not worth applauding yourself for.

All right? Better than that is not worth applauding yourself for. All right? Cool. But so Donald Trump believes that the best politics for him is for white people to be scared of non-white people because Donald Trump will claim credit for the sun coming up. Yet when border crossings went down, he didn't claim credit for it. He just tried to pump up the crisis and scare people.

Right. He could have been out there saying border crossings are at their lowest. I did better than Obama did on border crossings. Look at me. I am the wall. He could have said that. I am the wall. Just think.

This says you so much that his racism superseded his narcissism in this moment. Yeah. And I think we have to put pressure also on Republicans because not every Republican member of Congress is a racist, but they are willing to enable a racist because they want the votes of racists, and that is incredibly important, and I think we have to call them out because when history looks back on this moment,

Paul Ryan, to pick a random member out of the crowd, will be the Neville Chamberlain of racism. Two possible episode titles right in a row. I would like to just reiterate what Dan said, which is that there are a lot of really good people who are Republicans. I'm sure all of us have family members who are in the Republican Party.

Yes, we are. Don't boo. We want their votes one day. There are all kinds of members of Congress, decent people, but those people have sat side by side

with a guy named Steve King for many, many years, since 2003. Steve King is a Republican member of Congress from southwestern Iowa. And he is far more of a white nationalist overtly than Donald Trump is today. He doesn't think that races should mix. During a debate about Dreamers, he said for every valedictorian, there are 100 people who came north of the border who have calves like cantaloupes because they are carrying drugs.

He's been saying the most disgusting, despicable, overtly racist, overtly white nationalist things for years and years and years. And he's sort of just been allowed to exist in their caucus, in polite society in Washington. It feels a bit like all the rumors about all these horrific men in the Me Too crisis,

and all of a sudden one day society decided, like, okay, now we care about what Harvey Weinstein did or what Bill Cosby did or all these people. I'm waiting for Washington to wake up and say, what the fuck? How has Steve King been sitting with us this whole time? Also, by the way, Steve King has always been a racist, but he has even

been emboldened in this last two years. Some of his craziest shit has come and this is what happens because he sees Donald Trump in the White House and he feels more comfortable saying this stuff out loud. He asked what did black people do to help this country and I was like, we built this thing. We built it.

He said we should electrify the border fence because it worked with cattle. I mean, that's crazy. This man is a United States congressman. And every Republican congressman goes to lunch with them once a week. They all sit with them, fucking pass the mustard,

and they eat together, and no one says great to them. Pass the mayonnaise. And they eat together, and no one says we're into them. Go on, football. Pass the mayonnaise. You see that with Scott Pruitt and Tom Price, the regular rules of scandal... I mean, Scott Pruitt hasn't resigned, but that's because he's shameless.

But the scandal has hit him, right? There is still political gravity. There are still things that won't be tolerated. Tom Price had to go. But I think there are admissions that when you make them require your behavior to shift so drastically that I think there's a lot of people who become afraid to do it. So to admit that Stephen Miller is a white nationalist, to admit that Donald Trump is motivated by a desire to keep brown people out of the country, to admit that

is to admit that you need to reorient your behavior totally against him. And so Republicans can't do it. And even for reporters to report that. It's to admit that you're in an alliance with them. It's to admit that you're in a governing political alliance with them. And the same thing happens with collusion and with admitting to what's obvious.

That is why the same reason a lot of the teach the controversy stuff happens around whether or not Donald Trump is a racist, the same reason it happens around Russia's involvement in the election and Donald Trump's corruption is because if you state the truth plainly, it would require your behavior to change. It would require the press to change.

It would require the Republicans to change. And they just can't. They're afraid to do it. They're afraid of the moment that they're in. They're afraid of what history is asking of them. And we just have to accept the fact that we won't be able to change them. We have to defeat them. We have to beat them.

So that brings us to how to actually change these policies, which unfortunately involves the United States Congress. So an extremely right-wing immigration bill failed in the House on Thursday because not enough Republicans supported it. And then Paul Ryan delayed a vote on his immigration bill until next week because not enough right-wingers supported it. And then Trump, of course. These Republicans, like the crazy right-wingers and the moder so and then trump of course these these republicans like the crazy right wingers and the moderates and the regular conservatives they're all getting together to try to hash out an immigration bill and figure something out even though they know that that

probably won't pass the senate at all and then donald trump tweets this morning he just shits all over the entire process by tweeting that republicans should just wait until after the midterms um for the red wave for the the red wave. That was my favorite part. Sounds like Aunt Flo is coming next week, okay? I'm waiting on the red wave right now. I thought I had a question here. Oh, yeah. Dan, can Republicans ever pass,

can this party ever pass an immigration bill on their own? Because we're going to get to a point in this debate, I already saw it in a couple places in the media, like, you know, are Democrats on the defensive now? Don't Democrats have to get together with Republicans and compromise on an immigration bill? But it seems like there's nothing for Democrats to do until Republicans can get their act together

and all agree themselves on what their position is. I don't think they can pass anything, right? Maybe. Maybe they will legally bribe people with appropriations or whatever. They'll twist arms and they'll just get over the line because they think, because they know it's not going to become law.

So it's just, they don't want to embarrass themselves. This is how they pass a lot of legislation that never becomes law. But it just shows how messed up The mentality is from the Republicans, which is they're not even trying to get a Democrat Like you could easily you could take like back in 2013 The Senate passed a bill with more than 60 votes to reform immigration system It was most of what Barack Obama wanted, but not everything, because we had to get the votes of like eight Republican senators.

And that bill, if it were put on the floor of the House today, and people were just able to just vote in their conscience, would get 300 votes. If you put a bill, a straight-up bill, to reinstate the DACA program, it would get 300 votes and pass the Senate. But they won't let it happen because they don't want to solve the problem. They just want to have an issue. The problem that we could address is immigration.

We could do it tomorrow, but Republicans are afraid that if they lose that issue, then they're not going to have anything to fire up the base about. But it's also, I mean, the right wing of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives have prevented this country from governing now for going on 20 years. George W. Bush tried to pass immigration reform, had Democrats on board. The bill died because of the right wing Republicans in the House.

Then Barack Obama tries to do it, gets the Senate Republicans and Democrats together, passes something. It dies because of the right wing Republicans in the House. And Barack Obama tries to do it, gets the Senate Republicans and Democrats together, passes something. It dies because of the right-wing Republicans in the House. And it is not just the case that this is Troyan immigration. This is every single issue. This is why 2018, in some ways, is even more important than some presidential elections, because there is a faction in the House of Representatives of Republicans that are literally holding the entire country hostage on every single issue. There's actually also a glimmer of hope in that, which is, you know,

the Republicans have shown us they know how to campaign but not govern, and Democrats have shown us how to govern but not campaign. But you can lie and demagogue on immigration. You can lie and you can demagogue on health care. But when it comes time to pass something, the words have to be typed down on paper.

You can't just attack Democrats. You can't just say you're going to do something on Fox News. You have to write down what you're going to do in order and pass it. And everybody has to agree. But when the only thing you agree on is the lie about the other side, governing becomes very hard and it's actually saved us more than we should admit that is exactly what I'm saying

that is why, that is the problem with healthcare and their lies catching up with them when they govern has been a huge help to us and protecting us while we've been out of power on Wednesday in the midst of this whole disaster, like five positions ago, Trump held this meeting with a bunch of Republican leadership

in the cabinet room. No women, by the way. No women. Well, one lady. One lady. One lady. No people of color, but we're talking about immigration. No.

I don't know. Mothers being ripped from their kids, one mom. I don't know. Might have been nice. And Lamar Alexander turned to him and said, it was so funny, I know Lamar. I've watched the whole thing, I'm a nerd. And he said, Mr. President, Nixon was able to go to China,

and Reagan was able to go and say, tear down that wall, and I think you can be that leader on immigration. And then somebody's like, Donald Trump doesn't fucking understand immigration. He doesn't know what he wants. He doesn't know what's in the bill. He knows he wants to go chant, lock her up, and build the wall. It's like there's no desire or need to get it done. There's no policy.

They've all been told, like, this is how you do it. You flatter him. That's so funny. Rub his back. Yeah, like, he feels good about it. It never works. So let's talk about the Democrats, since it's no exaggeration to say

that the survival of the republic hinges on us taking back the House. No pressure. On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee rolled out a new plan to turn out new and sporadic voters in the midterms, and the plan specifically focuses on people of color.

The DNC plans to spend millions of dollars to identify likely Democratic voters who are unregistered and removed from the political process and are hiring community organizers to target black, Asian, Latino, and millennial voters. Simone, you've talked to the DNC, worked with the DNC a lot. Do you think this is more of a symbolic announcement,

or do you think this is their real deal? I think they really want to do this, but I think there's an edit in there. They're not spending millions of dollars. They're spending $1.5 million. And it sounds like a lot of money, but in what's basically July of one of the most important midterm elections of our lifetime, I don't think $1.5 million is going to cut it. This is something that we needed in January. You know, I don't like to poop on the party because I think we need the party. The party needs to be strong. If the DNC is not strong for

the midterm elections and even post-midterm, we're in a lot of trouble. But the fact of the matter is, I think they want to do this. I think this is an actual commitment. I'm just concerned about the timing of the rollout and the funds that have been allocated. And maybe 1.5 is what they had. So if you give them what you got, I'm with it. But I don't think it's going to be enough. Dan, apparently a lot of the money is going towards organizers so they can get people to vote who don't normally vote in midterms. How difficult is doing that, and what can they learn from what Obama did in 08 and 12? It's hard, but it should be less hard this time, because what kept people from turning out in previous elections was they thought it didn't matter. Now, you must be living in a cabin in the woods off the grid if you think elections don't matter anymore now i

completely agree with simone on the dnc here i think this is probably what they have and if they had three million they'd spend three million and that is says a lot about how hard it is to be a party committee in a time when the coke brothers can dump a million a billion dollars into a race but this is what is what is i think the most hopeful things that has happened since this election is people out there in the country didn't wait for the DNC to tell them what to do. Yeah. They formed Swing Left, Indivisible. And I know, and I spent a lot of time with the Swing Lefts group in San Francisco, where I live,

and they have been knocking doors for these exact voters in the crooked eight districts for over a year now they go every weekend to one of those districts and they knock doors and so it'll be great but everyone everyone joined the party DNC the outside groups swing left and everyone if you think the DNC is not spending enough money if the DNC money is not gonna get you enough organizers go to swing left and volunteer and go to one of these districts and do it. We don't have to wait around to be told what to do anymore. Can I say one more thing?

I also think it's important that people understand that because we're dealing with folks that usually do not vote in a midterm election and unregistered voters, that if they were registered, would be likely to vote Democrat, this is a persuasion and mobilization effort and a persuasion of people that are our voters.

And traditionally, we look at the demographics that they outline, Asian American Pacific Islander, Latinx, African American voters, as purely mobilization. No, you need to go to these communities, communities that are not, that don't necessarily, they're cool in the Democratic Party, and explain why you would like to earn their vote and persuade them to actually be with you on the issues and then also persuade and mobilize them to the polls. And we don't necessarily look at these demographics as persuasion folks,

but we got to do some persuading of our own people. And folks have to understand that. That is the most important point because I think the Democratic Party is really good at looking at where blocks of voters are that we could turn out and saying, oh, if we turn them out, then we will win. But that skips a step. We were talking to Stacey Aprons about this a bunch last night.

She's investing early in a lot of communities. And then just thinking back to the Obama experience in Iowa in 2008. Iowa was viewed as a state. There was Edwards, Hillary, and Obama. And the theory of the case was was viewed as a state that there was Edwards, Hillary, and Obama. And the theory of the case was that the caucus universe was what it was. It's about 125, 150,000 people, and it never changed. And it was a fool's errand to try. And Obama came in and said, the only way I can win this is to get young people, people of color, people who've never caucus before and turn them out. And the other campaigns

scoffed at us, but we invested early. We organized. We went to their house. We organized seniors in high school, like communities that had never seen a candidate saw Barack Obama, and lo and behold, he won the caucuses, and that's the only reason he's president.

So that kind of grassroots organizing from day one is the key. And absolutely. The one thing... Go ahead. The other thing, too, is just we should be honest and it's really important and it's really hard so midterm electorates look more republican they're whiter they're older um also republicans realized conservative activists realized billionaires on

that side realized that uh with changing, there was, it was a more effective way to win was not to turn out more voters, but to make it harder for Democrats to vote. They made it harder with voter ID and gerrymandering. And so now we have to do all this work. We have to get people who don't normally vote to register and to vote. We have to turn out people

who haven't traditionally voted in midterms. They've got this propaganda apparatus and they just got people watching Fox News and then just going to hit the Fox News cattle prod on election day to get those people out to vote. Their voters are there. Their voters vote in midterms. And we have to do something that doesn't ordinarily happen. And it is really hard, and it's going to take a lot of work. That's all. Yeah. I mean, right now you're seeing the enthusiasm gap in all these polls. You know, Democrats are leading by double digits when you ask people, are you excited to go vote? But I think Republicans are catching up.

And this is clearly Trump's entire strategy is to play on these issues, immigration, MS-13, all this kind of stuff. It's not to reach out to swing voters or to people in the center or anything like that. He just wants to make sure his base isn't so dispirited that they stay home. But, you know, he's catching up because Democrats, we don't do well when we're not also talking about the issues that are directly affecting everybody's lives. We need to be talking about immigration. We have to call out the white supremacy,

the racism, the sexism, xenophobia. But the economy is something that affects all of us. And we have to keep talking about the tax bill. The tax bill, which is now the tax law, is not popular. When you explain to people what is going on with that bill, it's not popular. The Republicans got a bill that they're going to put on the floor in August to try and repeal and replace Obamacare. And that isn't a replace. It's just a repeal.

In August, people like their health care. And so what I think is encouraging, yes, yes, clap for the health care that we all like. What I think is encouraging, yes, yes, clap for the healthcare that we all like. What should be encouraging is the fact that Democrats are not going into these districts talking about Donald Trump, praise the Lord. They are going in districts talking about the tax deal, they're talking about healthcare, and now we're going to be talking about immigration, specifically these children. And that is what's going to put us over the top in the midterm elections. We don't got to talk about Russia.

We don't need to talk about Donald Trump because the fact of the matter is the voters that don't like Trump, reminding me that I hate him is not going to make me want to vote for you. And for the voters that kind of like him and voted for them, don't necessarily want to be shamed into their midterm election ballot. But what they do want to do is go to the polls on the issues. And so Democrats are out there saying, I talked a lot to, I go to before the House caucus more times than I would like, but it is the necessary work. And they are saying. What'd you say to both of them? Well, I.

I tell them that one, they need to get out on television. I need to be talking about the issues. And they tell me that they're going to the House floor. And I'm like, y'all, we ain't watching C-SPAN. No one's watching that. And so if you go to the House floor, clip it and put it on social

and then get on TV and repeat what you said on the House floor. Why don't you go to the House floor, clip it and put it on social. And then get on TV and repeat what you said on the House floor. Why don't you go to the House floor? Why don't you save yourself the trouble? Just scream in the shower for a few minutes. But the House floor is... And then do something that'll help. I don't want to diminish the House floor because they are using the tools that are before them as legislators. But you need to take the House floor and give it to the people because I don't watch C-SPAN.

So, you know, I'm encouraged. I'm encouraged, but I'm not encouraged by the D-Trip, if I just want to be clear. We could have a whole show on the D-Trip. Okay, not encouraged. I do think, though, like, do you guys think that the message... Just a soft hit and no explanation moving forward. Yeah, right.

Not encouraged. They all get it. Google it. Just want to be on record. I think Democrats for a long time have thought when they look at

all these different constituencies that they have to mobilize, they're like, all right, we need our message and our strategy for African Americans,

we need it for Latinos, we need it for young voters, we need it for women. It does seem like in this election and in this media age, we should be able to nationalize

this election around a single message. Yes, yes. You should, one, you should be able to nationalize this election around a single message. One, you should never have different messages from different people. And this is one of the problems. Which seems like common sense, but is not the history of the party. What happened is we basically got too much information.

The data was so deep and important. It was so deep that you would know white women over 50 cared about education, and young men under 30 in this precinct in Cleveland cared about climate change. And so what you're doing is you're micro-targeting voters. Instead of having a story that appeals to as many people as possible. Like, you need a broad message.

If you have to go say one thing in an African-American precinct in Atlanta and another thing in suburban Cobb County, you're not going to win an election because guess what? The Internet exists. People hear both messages, right? Right. And so it's like our friend Jason Kander said to you and I right after the election. Whoa, big Kander fans.

Kander nation out here. Yeah, he made the case that if you, he talked about messaging the election and said, we'll be more persuasive if you were on a jury. A lawyer who went up to you and made a specific argument to all 12 jurors. Or a lawyer who went off and made an argument that all 12 jurors could find compelling. Right? And that's what Democrats have to do. And that... What about Dan? Dan, what about

a lawyer that makes an argument to everyone except Wisconsin and Michigan? Too soon. And it's not rocket science. It's what Barack Obama did. And he won. Right. Right.

And back to Tommy's point, that's exactly how he expanded the universe of caucus goers in Iowa. It was one message. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, Dan. That was funny. Don't apologize to Dan. Apologize to all the Hillary staffers that are going to be mad about this podcast episode.

You know I kid. I kid because I mean it. I can't wait to discuss... The facts are she ain't go. I can't wait to discuss cutting this in the car ride home. We're not cutting it. Hold on, hold on. I'll make sure we don't cut it. It was Comey. Alright. It was the letter!

And now for a game we call OK Stop. We'll roll a clip. Panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment. For years, Democrats have been labeled as a party of the elites, but lucky for us, Donald Trump is here to take the mantle, and Greg Gutfield of Fox News is finding it within himself to make his face be excited to talk about it.

Take a look. Was that a man or a woman? Because he needs a haircut more than I do. I couldn't tell. Needs a haircut. That's our Donald. Okay, stop. I honestly don't know what that was about.

I don't know. But like, who was like, this shows the side of Trump that people like. It's our guy. I just like, it's just long hair. What are you, some kind of a woman? The worst thing you can be? Rally was nothing new. The crowd loved him. The people who

already hate him will just hate him more. And the media pats itself on the head for not covering it while secretly watching Fox News. Okay, stop. But the media covered it. Like, they always cover it. They didn't put it live for once. Which is great. But they were all on Twitter. Everybody watched it.

They covered it. They tweeted about it. They talked about it afterwards. They covered it. Fox News is lying. They're liars. Believe me, we all know about the fucking rally. We heard about the rally. We heard about the rally. We could not get away from the rally. Donald Trump's problem is not that he doesn't get enough attention. Yeah, right.

If he's a monster, he might be the worst monster ever. Okay, stop. Fact check, true. Yeah. Greg Gutfield, Fox News has told the truth. This was factual. I'll say it.

They're not lying right now. He's the worst monster ever. I'm with it. At all. That's why optimism is high. 95% of manufacturers have a positive company outlook. It's good news, even if the elites deny it. And about those elites. You ever notice they always if the elites deny it and about those elites

you ever notice they always call the other side and they do this up the elite okay your guys call the other side the elites they don't call them they're not like we're the elites let me slap my suspenders and go play polo you dickheads. He's like, Sean Hannity makes $8 million a year, rides a private jet, and calls Democrats elites. He's a slumlord in North Carolina or something. Yeah. What he said. Donald Trump's an Ivy League educated billionaire with a gold toilet. Like, what the fuck is he talking about?

Billionaire adjacent. I'd also point out that as always Donald Trump is projecting. I think Donald Trump was thinking before he went on stage that his hair was too long. It was something that was on his mind. It's a podcast but if you go look at the debate footage you'll look that his hair is a little long and it was on his mind and so he just projected outward as he always does. So people listening to this can't see the chyron right now, but it says, Trump mocks elites at campaign rally, colon,

I have a much better apartment and I'm richer than they are. That's what they went with. He really wants to be the elite. That is legitimately funny from Fox Sports. It is. And they have no idea how funny it is. No idea. They're like, yeah, we're proving Trump's point. Why are they elite?

I have a much better apartment than they do. I'm smarter than they are. Okay, stop. I'm richer. I just... He knows he's not. He knows he's not. It's at the core of everything he does. All of it. He knows he's not. He knows he's not. It's at the core of everything he does. All of it.

The funniest thing is he is jealous of not being labeled elite, which is a derogatory term used in politics for people. But he's jealous that he didn't get that term. And they are? I became president and they didn't. Right on that one. And I'm representing the greatest, smartest, most loyal, best people on earth. The deplorables, remember that?

Okay, stop. There is something that's pretty disgusting about this. I know. People on Earth, the deplorables, remember that? Okay, stop. There is something that's pretty disgusting about this. I know. Because every other president who has ever said that meant every American. The ones that voted for them, the ones who voted for their opponent, and the ones who didn't vote. He does not mean that. He means only the 38 to 41 percent who support him. And that is a huge and dramatic change in how someone thinks about the presidency.

I mean, for all the people who are like, you know, when Trump was first elected and people were like, not my president, not my president, there was all this criticism. He's basically saying, like, not my country, not my half of the country. Not your president. Not your president. Like, half the country, no. I don't represent you. I only represent the deplorable.

Well, look, in my head, the president is still black. Right. That's key. Now, bragging is never appealing. But he's not wrong that by wealth, he's an elitist, yet he's still embraced by working classes. Okay, stop. Okay, stop.

I just want to note that this is literally in the teleprompter. Like, he's reading this off the teleprompter. Somebody had to type this shit up. And they put it in the teleprompter. Like, he's reading this off the teleprompter. Somebody had to type this shit up. And they put it in the teleprompter, and they were like, this is what we're going to do. Yeah, he had to caveat it. Bragging is never attractive. Exactly. Exactly.

However. For you deplorables at the rally, the outraged celebrity class will always deem you to be the uncool kids. Trump defends you against the jerks. So it's not about wealth or apartments. Okay, stop. You can't see this at home, but his ears start at his shoulders. And it's really unnerving to just drop down that deep. Keep going. Speaking up for people that the media celebrity complex snickers at. And it's why when everything seems to be working out, those Snickers seem truly from

Mars. What? Is that a joke? That was so bizarre. And that's okay, stop. When we come back, we'll have Dan's interview and Simone's interview with Stephanie Titro.

Yay, Stephanie! She is the co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, whose mission is to empower immigrants and refugees to develop a unified voice. Please welcome Stephanie Titro. Thank you. Hi. Thank you. You're very popular here. Happy to be here. And you've got on a popping jumpsuit, if I must say.

That was my question. Thank you for joining us. And thank you for all the work that you do. So I'm going to start. In 2017, just a few days after Donald Trump had been sworn into office, and after he had said his Muslim ban into motion, you told a newspaper here in Nashville that in Tennessee had already experienced

the best and worst instincts of people responding to demographic change. How has your work been affected in the year and a half since? When the person who's been encouraging the worst instincts of people has been the President of the United States. So something we've been saying since the election is that communities in Tennessee,

we've been living in Trump's America for a long time. And so that means two things for us. One, it means that we know how to fight and we know how to win in hostile climates. But it also means that immigrant communities, especially, but many communities are experiencing sort of Trump on overdrive, right? So not only are we dealing with the same ramping up of immigration enforcement, people are separated from their families when refugee resettlement is halted, but we have Tennessee sheriffs signing up to join the deportation force. We have our state legislature passing bills that will require our local governments to help carry out mass deportations.

that will require our local governments to help carry out mass deportations. And so I think what we've learned, and what the communities in Tennessee can teach America about how to survive, is that we can build power while we're fighting. We've talked about how can we win while we're losing, right? How can we get stronger out of this? And part of that, and I think it's especially relevant in this moment, is not letting these crises pass us by. How can we get stronger out of this? And part of that, and I think it's especially relevant in this moment, is not letting these crises pass us by. How can we make sure that these moments are transformative?

Absolutely. So given that, a few months ago, ICE conducted a massive raid at a meat processing plant east of here in Bean Station, Tennessee. Yes, we hate it. Nearly 100 workers were detained, but you and your colleagues, you were actually there when it happened. And you were there when the people in and around the plant in Morristown organized and they pushed back against what was happening around them.

A church was even converted into a crisis center. So please tell us what kind of work has gone into organizing that community even before the raid happened, and then what work has happened since? I'm so glad you asked about Morristown, because I think in this new cycle of crisis after crisis, it didn't break through. But it's so important that communities across America pay attention to what happened in Morristown, because since then, every few weeks, the Trump administration has carried out another mass worksite raid. Just this week, while allies were on the border, they arrested 140 people in Ohio,

the second mass worksite raid there this month. So what happened in Morristown, or in Bean Station, is there's a meat processing plant. Some people had worked there for over a decade, and all of a sudden one morning, just like any other day, they kissed their kids goodbye, sent their kids to school. Helicopters start swirling above the building. Dozens of agents storm in with weapons, and they arrest every Latino in the plant. I'm sorry. They arrested every single Latino person in the plant?

Including a U.S. citizen, including several people with work authorizations. The only people left behind, according to several reports from workers, were the white workers. Workers report rough treatment. It's unbelievable. And it was the first worksite raid of this scale that we've seen in a decade. And so the Morristown community understands better than anyone at this point why our country stopped using this egregious tactic. So all I can say is that when a raid of this size happens, it's like a bomb goes off. This is a small community, almost 100 people ripped away. It's the closest thing I can describe how it felt in that church was like we were responding to a natural disaster.

A small community in Tennessee, the very next day after the raid, 600 kids missed school. The fear and the terror that swept across the community can't be overstated. And the administration has only suggested that they're going to carry out more of these worksite raids. But on the positive side, I think two things to take from the Morristown experience. One is the families didn't flee. The families found sanctuary in that church, and they've been fighting like hell for their families. And already, of the 54 people who were shipped out of state that day and were detained for several weeks,

of the 54, we've already brought 36 home, and we're not going to give up until everybody's back. But the other piece is that this community, 77% of this community, this county, voted for Donald Trump. Many people talked about how, you know, they might have even supported his rhetoric on immigration. But just like we're seeing at this crisis at the border,

when it feels this close to home, right, when you can imagine it being your kids or for the communities in Morristown, when it was the kids that their kids went to school with, the people that they sat next to in church, they felt it in a different way and they also stood up and fought back. We had to turn away volunteers. The church was overflowing with donations. And like I said, around turning these points of crises into transformative moments, we've been able to really have people change their minds

and talk about how immigration is going to be what drives their vote in November. What happened at that plant brings to mind another challenge that undocumented people have all the time, which is many of the workers there were being paid under minimum wage, but plant owners were not held criminally responsible for underpaying their workers. How can people advocate for fair and safe working conditions for undocumented workers without putting them at risk of deportation? Yeah, so the reason that this meat processing plant got on the radar of ICE to begin with is

because the owner was under investigation for not paying taxes, certainly for underpaying the workers. Meat packing plants are already one of the most dangerous jobs in America, and this man operated one of the worst. He broke nearly every labor law. People worked in incredibly dangerous conditions. They weren't paid fairly, and they put in, again, several years of honest labor at this factory. And so not only was the plant operator undercutting businesses by treating workers this way, but people's immigration status can be held over their heads, right, when it comes to reporting these dangerous conditions. And so, you know, there's a piece of legislation that's been introduced in Congress again this year and for

several years that would allow undocumented workers protection to report these kinds of violations called the Power Act. So we need something like that. Of course, fundamentally, we need to make sure that workers have a chance to apply for citizenship, right, and to be able to work lawfully. But the thing that should really outrage everybody is although it was the plant operator who was under investigation, although he was the one who was violating all of these conditions. Don't tell me he didn't get scooped up in the raid. The plant is still operating, right?

He is yet to face any charges. The plant is fully operational at this point. I'm sure at some point charges will be brought against him. But any of this rhetoric that the administration is looking after American workers is completely undercut in Bean Station. And again, the Trump administration, we have to remember that they have policy choices that they're making. They could have chosen any number of ways to go after this employer. They could have audited him. They could have fined him. But instead, they used the most violent and aggressive form of enforcement they could think of, again, storming the plant with weapons, taking, you know, 160 kids had a parent arrested that day. And at this point in the story, the 97 workers and their families are the only ones to have borne any consequence from this raid.

How can we use immigration as an issue to create new voters, not just in elections this fall, but in beyond? I know that your organization already has a plan to create a political organization out of the work that y'all have been doing thus far, so tell us more about that. How can this be a mobilizing issue? Yeah, so two things. I do feel like what is happening in this country, certainly in the last few weeks with the crisis at the border, is people are understanding that immigration is not just about what happens to immigrant families. It's a question of our values as a country and who we're going to be. And so it's our job to make sure that people have the tools to vote with their values. And as you all know in

the audience, and as you all are well aware, Tennessee, this is a critical election year for us. We have a historic number of seats open in our state legislature. We have three open U.S. House seats. We have an open U.S. Senate seat, an open Governor's seat. So it's an incredible opportunity for us to really make sure that our representatives reflect our values. But it's also a crisis. We know that there's so much at stake for immigrant families and for many communities. And so we have to do everything we can to ensure that our next elected officials reject this xenophobia and stand up for immigrant communities.

And so that's why we know that as an organization and as an immigrant rights movement here in Tennessee, we have to do more. And so that's why we're starting a new organization, and you all are the very first to hear about it. But this summer, we're starting an organization called Turk Votes, which is going to build real political power for immigrants and refugees. We're going to make sure that all Tennesseans who are outraged by mass deportations, who are outraged by the raid that they saw in Bean Station, who want to defend refugee resettlement and the opportunities for people to seek safety here,

that they have a political home. They have a way to make sure that they know which side their legislators are on. And so TurkVotes is coming August of this summer. Yeah! But we can't do it without you. If we want to turn the tide in Tennessee, if we want to hold elected officials accountable

and defeat anti-immigrant candidates up and down the ballot, we need your help. So I want to invite everybody who's here and anybody who's listening who knows what's at stake in Tennessee to go to a new website, which is live today, which is www.turkvotes.org. It's T-I-R-R-C votes.org. Sign up. Join us this November.

We're going to make sure that immigrants and their allies have a strong voice this November. You're very good. Because always in interviews like this, I always try to prompt people at the end. Like, had to tell our listeners I could do it. But you didn't need that. Stephanie, thank you much for joining us.

Thank you. And thank you so much for the work you're doing. It's really amazing. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. When we come back, a game. And we're back. Before we get to the game,

look, there's been a lot of news out there about the sartorial choices of Melania Trump. Here's the thing. We wanted to show that we do care. So before we get to the game, we thought we would auction off this jacket... ...that says... So Melania said, I really don't care to you.

Our jacket says, I vote to you. And we wanted to do a quick auction, and all the proceeds will go to Stephanie's new organization. So I'm going to run an auction. It seems like, oh, just get, buckle up, guys. If you think $10 is going to count. Let's narrow this fast. $1,000.

One here. $1,500. $1,500. $2,000. I'm not kidding. Anybody want to do it? I can't see up there. Can we get the $2,000?

$2,000. Can I get the lights up? Anybody? This is cool. This one says, I really do care. That's cool. We're at 2,000. Another one, I really do care. Anybody want to go 2,500? 2,500. Oh, fuck you. Yeah, I'll do it. $2,500. $2,500.

Oh, fuck you. Anybody want to go $3,000? $3,000. Anybody want to go $3,500? $3,500. I love attention, yes. Oh, I forgot. David Coke is here. What if they split it? Well, they can't split the Coke. David Coke is here.

What if they split it? Well, they can't split the coat. $4,100. $4,100 for him. He just wanted to win. Wait, hold on. $4,000. Wait, listen. He's going to spend $4,000.

No coat. You're going to spend $2,000. You get the coat. Deal? Thank you. All right. Wow. At the end of the show, come backstage.

Great. Okay? Travis is going to get your information. Who are these heroes? What's your name? Sir, what's your name? What's your name? Marty Karaman.

Marty. Marty Karaman. Marty Karaman. Travis, what's your name? Come up on. Come here. Come up on stage. Come here. Marty is a national, come here. Come up on stage.

Marty is a national treasure. Come on up, come on up. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you Stephanie for being here and starting this organization. Well, we're here in Nashville. At the Ryman. You know Nashville.

It's Motown for people bad at dancing. Wasn't sure if I'd get booed. Okay, there it is. Thank you. Country music is all about the lyrics. Who can forget famous country lyrics like Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me I ain't the tarp is too old in the set. Fine, fine, fine. You're all right. Don't love the

Nashville sound. How about it's going down. I'm yelling timber, right? Classics, Nashville classics. But us Yankees, we tend to be nervous about country music, not because we don't like to listen to it, but because it has the reputation of being a little bit conservative. But any true country fan knows that country is not as conservative as you think. So I thought we'd highlight some of the best liberal country songs in a game we're calling, Thank God I'm a Country Gender Non-Binary Forward Thinking Progressive. You guys all have your cards. Would somebody out there like to play the game and the merch? It already happened.

Look, it happened right there. Travis, how are you feeling? Travis, how are you doing? Talk to the mic, Travis. Feeling great. Feeling great. Feeling great. Good. Great.

Hi, what's your name? Rachel. Rachel. And are you from Nashville or its environs? I'm from Covington. It's West Tennessee, north of Memphis. And do you listen to country music? No.

Perfect. That might have been a place for a white lie. So it's Rachel? Yes. I'm getting so good at remembering names. Okay. I'm going to read you a question. The panel will read answers, and you'll have to suss out the answer.

Okay? Got it. Question number one. In 1975, this Loretta Lynn song was banned from the radio for being too controversial, but it still made it to the Billboard Top 100. Is it A? There's a snake in my boot, and by snake I mean government, and by boot I mean vagina.

Or is it B? I did not read the games before. I didn't either. The Pill, a song about women's liberation thanks to birth control. Is it C? I Took a Pill in Ibiza, a song that explored Loretta's complex feelings about club drugs and tried to make the late Avicii think she was cool.

Or is it D. The Pill, a song that warns about Ambien's tendency to cause racist outbursts in comedians. Tommy, you gave me a weird look like that's the right answer, but I think it has to be B. You got it.

Question number two. Merle Haggard's 1969 song, Okie from Muskogee, was a hit amongst conservatives because of lines like, We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee. But later, Haggard revealed he wrote the song as a joke while he was high with his band. Later, Haggard revealed he wrote the song as a joke while he was high with his band. What did Merle try to follow up this song with before his label intervened? Is it A. Irma Jackson about forbidden love between a white man and a black woman.

Is it B. Irma Jackson about the forbidden love between a man and his anime body pillow. Is it C. Drug user from Hollywood or New York or someplace like that, which includes the line, we do smoke marijuana, and the second we did, we realized Vietnam was a mistake and Nixon is terrible? Or was it D? Actually, we're not against weed, it just makes us kind of sleepy, in which Merle does a very nuanced look at recreational cannabis,

including the famous line, sure, it's not as harmful as alcohol, but doesn't it make you feel kind of disconnected? Is that really a good thing? So a kind of nuanced take on weed. That could have been the answer. What do you think? I think A. You got it. Question three.

In the 1970s, country star Anita Bryant campaigned against a local ordinance for gay rights. In response, a different country star named David Allen Coe did what? Is it A? Released a pro-gay song called Fuck Anita Bryant that included the lyrics... That included the lyrics,

throw that expletive in prison. That's what it says on my card. Maybe then she'll see just how much those goddamn homosexuals mean to me or is it B teased his next song for weeks with a series of cryptic hashtags and avant-garde teaser trailers

that ultimately hyped the song way beyond what he could deliver good option is it C campaigned for the ordinance then rose through the ranks in local politics and ultimately built enough grassroots support to become America's first country music president under the nom de guerre, Jimmy Carter?

Or is it D, seduced Anita Bryant's dad out of spite, and if he's being honest, a little bit of wanting to? I gotta be, D. No. Definitely not D. It was Definitely not D. It was... What was it?

I moved on. Right. What was it, John? It's A. Oh, it's A. Sorry. It was so obvious. I didn't think I'd have to go to my notes.

Yes, he released a pro-gay song called Fuck Anita Bryant. Sorry. That was too harsh, Rachel. You're doing wonderfully. Sometime I come along a little strong. I told you don't listen to country music no you're doing great rachel thank you give it up for rachel question number four which of these is not a real quote from a country star about politics which is not rachel don't worry i think it'll all I think it'll all be okay. Is it A? Sturgill Simpson who said

Trump's a fascist fucking pig and I'm not afraid to say that. That's that audio is going to end up on Fox News, isn't it? Great. Audio doesn't go viral. It's the world. There's more.

Casey Musgraves, who said recently, I keep dreaming of the day when we have a gay country music icon that is loud and proud and really like a hero for country music fans, especially in these small towns where LGBTQ people are terrified of being themselves and feel like they have to hide. Is it C? Jason Isbell, who said, the Trump presidency... That tells us something.

The Trump presidency has convinced me that we are living in a post-Christian America. Trump is obviously not a good Christian person. I think that the fact that so many people voted for him means that there aren't that many good Christian people left in rural America. Or is it D? Blake Shelton, who said,

our legal system is broken, and if it were up to me, all court decisions should be made by a judge sitting in a giant red chair facing away from the defendant. No, no, no, no. Now hear me out. If they find the defendant guilty, they hit a giant red button and Adam Levine takes them away to get tattoos and then they go to jail.

It's just an idea. Which one is not the real quote, Rachel? D. Rachel, you got it. You have won. Thank God I'm a country gender non, non-binary, forward-thinking progressive. Great game to play here at the Ryman. Before we go.

John, before we go. It's worth noting we are in Tennessee. Yes. We need Tennessee's Senate seat. Yeah, we haven't talked about those. Yes. You have a great choice for Senate and Phil Bredesen. Marsha Blackburn is like a Donald Trump clone at this point.

Okay, there you go. So make sure that you guys work your asses off for Phil Bredesen because there's not a path to a Democratic Senate that doesn't come through Tennessee. So that's on you people. That's right. Yeah. You guys are not used to being this integral in the national political scene. Seriously. Seriously.

Not since 2000. The opportunity to flip Tennessee into the Democratic column in 18 could make the difference between stopping the Trump agenda permanently. Every judge, every judge, Supreme Court justices. How many of you have knocked on doors before? How many of you haven't? Hey, you got to fix that. It's the first time for everything. You have to get out there.

This is the election. A lot of you have done neither, apparently. A lot of you have done neither, which is incredible. A lot of you are a walking paradox. If you haven't, that's okay. It seems intimidating. You can do it. Fun.

We need everyone here to do it. This is the election. Tennessee has not been a swing state for a long time. This is it. You are a swing state in 2018. There's also a gubernatorial election. We have an open governor's seat. It's so important y'all get out there and vote.

Make phone calls. Drag some folks to the polls. Have a poll party. Nashville, we love you. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. Thank you. We'll be you next time. you