Pod Save America - "It has to be the kids."

Episode Date: March 26, 2018

Trump becomes even more unhinged, and makes warmonger John Bolton his national security advisor. Then Jon, Jon and Tommy attend the March for Our Lives in D.C. and meet students, teachers, and families from around the country who want to stop gun violence. 

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. Hey, it's Tommy. We're here in Washington, D.C., guys. It is Saturday, March 24th. We just went to the March for Our Lives down by the Capitol. We're going to talk about that a little later. But first, since you're listening to this on Monday, you know we'll talk about the news we had quite a week last week right a lot going on yeah it was awful it was quite a week the new york times sets the mood here with the piece that ran on saturday

quote after another week of chaos trump repairs to palm beach no one knows what comes next i just want to say that saying that trump repairs to someplace is such a dignified version of the way he hoves around true yeah and so the piece sort of sets the scene of like what just happened last week which was you know trump fires his national security advisor hr mcmaster hires john bolton which i want to get on a whim on a whim bolton went in there having no idea that he was getting hired he said it on fox news the the theme seems to be that and it's always like like i want to say oh trump's unhinged he's on the loose you know he's he's unshackled and i realize we've been saying that for a year and a half now but there is something

a little different now which is all of these people who are around him i mean the the turnover has been significant in the white house from the very beginning but in the last couple weeks it has been just insane like gary cone goes hope hicks goes hr mcmaster goes he's basically like jettisoned most of his senior staff at this point and now just wakes up, looks at the news, reacts and does whatever the fuck he wants. Seems like we're heading into new dangerous territory here. Yeah. I mean, I think that what needs to be separated is the Trump White House is changing. Trump is not changing. It's amazing how quickly we can go from two weeks of stories about people leaking that, wow, Trump is in a really bad place. It's really scary. It's the worst mood he's ever been in. A few days go by and then it's Trump feels

like he can finally do things his way. Trump is Trump. I think it's really dangerous that he doesn't have some of the more stabilizing people around him. That's always been the fear. John Bolton is a terrifying figure. At the same time, there are so few people around him at all. I mean, one of the things that's protected us is that Donald Trump doesn't have the real ability to run this government effectively because he's so undisciplined, because he has such shitty people around him. And I think that's only going to be exacerbated now. Tommy, what do you think about John Bolton? It's really, really bad. You know, like a lot of things we talk about and we're worried about and

upset that this administration does decisions they make. But like John Bolton is someone who was part of the team that was cherry picking intelligence that led us into Iraq. He's still unrepentant about the Iraq war. He still thinks it was a good idea. He has written op eds where he says we need to bomb Iran. Iran. He wrote an op-ed in February where he said that we have a legal case to bomb North Korea preventatively, to hit them before they can hit us. So he is as insanely militaristic as they come in the sort of the neocon world. And reportedly, General Mattis isn't happy about the pick. I mean, like, this is someone who is going to be a terrible influence on Trump. And he was known in the Bush White House to push out people who had dissenting views.

So, like, this is a really big deal. You have a totally undisciplined president that is looking for any way to look tough and can get his dander up at, like, anything that can happen. And this guy will push him to have the, you know, a military response. to have a military response? Yeah, one of the things I was reading about him probably scared me the most is he's not just extreme in his views, but he's smart and he knows the bureaucracy and he knows his way around the bureaucracy

and how to get things done. And this is not like Steve Bannon, I ran a racist blog and now I'm gonna be senior White House advisor. I'm gonna talk a good game, but I really don't know how to get a lot of the bad shit done that I want to do. And it seems like with John Bolton, he knows how to get the bad shit done that he wants to do. Yeah, he's a bureaucrat who's had to work within a system before. He'll do it again. He is a sharp internal fighter who will

try to cut out more reasonable voices in the administration. I mean, this is like, this is the worst case scenario. I mean, like what the national security advisor does, you provide advice to the president, but then you convene the interagency process that the NSC leads. So your, your job is to bring all the voices literally to the table in the situation room and make sure that state and DOD and intelligence are heard and get a fair hearing. If you have a national security advisor advisor that's putting his thumb on the scale and preventing that from happening, you are effectively vetoing the rational voices. And that sort of bureaucratic end run makes it dangerous. So it's like, that's why he freaks me out.

Tommy, how much power does he have to completely clean house at the NSC? I saw somewhere that, you you know it was reported that he was like anyone who ever worked here during the obama administration who's a holdover pack your bags yeah the nsc is there are very few direct hires like i was one of them mike mcfall was one of them like these people who had a relationship with the president but most of the people are detailed from agencies whether it's state or dod or, and he can just send them all back and then load it up with his ideologues and people that will cook up the papers he wants to see that will get Trump all worked up and ready to invade North Korea. Tommy, surely Trump is sophisticated enough

that he will be able to see that he's not being given the full balance of arguments in order to make well-thought-out, considered decisions. The New York Times reported this morning that the PDB will now be delivered in meme form only. So, you know, there we are. So that's terrifying. So he gets Bolton in there. The next thing that happens is Trump tells everyone, after Paul Ryan sort of walked him back from the ledge,

that he is going to sign the omnibus budget bill that funds the government, that funds the government's priorities for a year. And then right before, right when it actually passes Congress, he starts telling everyone, I actually might veto this because I'm so pissed. Now now one of the reasons he's very pissed is because after asking for 25 billion dollars for his stupid fucking wall uh he only gets like a billion in change in this budget which uh someone calculated will give him only 33 miles of fence and the democrats actually got it to say in the budget that he can't use it on a wall. It has to be used for fencing. We could do a Trump wall marathon that just runs most of the length of the wall he has built.

And I think what must have happened is he sort of watched Fox, you know, read comments from all of the right-wing pundits it's always one thing that's very enjoyable is going on twitter and watching ann coulter and those people get really upset whenever trump doesn't push harder to build the wall and she and a whole bunch of other people are very upset by the amount in this and you saw i believe it was axios or playbook or somebody this morning quoted a former trump aide whose name rhymes with reeve shve Shannon, presumably was saying that they've never seen the right-wing lunatic ecosystem more upset than they were about the signing of the Zonibus. So like everything else, their anger translated to Trump's anger. Suddenly he was scrambling for, can we do some kind of a deal with the Democrats because I just want my fucking wall. He doesn't care about DACA at all, but he's

realizing to himself now that, you know, for a while it was like, okay, Democrats, you don't get DACA unless I get the wall. But the reverse of that was also true. The DACA was his only chance to possibly get a wall for a while. And now it's never going to happen. It also speaks to the internal Republican politics he's dealing with because Democrats have already capitulated on the wall. We were willing to give him the wall for DACA, but clearly there's internal Republican politics he's dealing with because Democrats have already capitulated on the wall. We were willing to give him the wall for DACA, but clearly there's internal Republican politics that are preventing them from doing that kind of a swap,

which is why all of it comes out of this thing, right? And then on top of that, right, he did his thing where he's like, nobody could read it, it was so long. And one thing that he did that I thought was really interesting is during his statement, he said, he threw in Obama signed a bigger one, which I love because he found a way to make Obama worse.

But then he said something which was so strange for him. He said, and I bet he wasn't happy about that. And it was like, was that a little bit of growth? Were you are you a president appreciating the tough decisions of previous presidents? Is that possible? But also, can we just remember fucking president president deal maker i'm known for my deals like and he's just sitting there in the white house just waiting how many months have they been debating this fucking budget he got nothing that he wanted he made no deals whatsoever he in the end of the day just had to

fucking sit in the oval office and sign it or not it. And all he could do was make threats about not signing it because then everyone comes to the White House, Mattis and DHS secretary, all these other people, and they're like, you must sign this. There's all this military funding in here. Please do not do this. They're all banging him and finally he backs off. And the other thing too is being president is not like negotiating for marble cabinets in a hotel. But the DACA negotiations are kind of simple, right? We know what Democrats want. We want to protect the dreamers. We know what Trump wants. He wants a wall. Democrats have already shown their cards. We will give you that wall if you give us DACA. It's right there. It's there for the taking. But either he didn't focus on it or what, but his only sense of animation or caring about it was after the final bill had already passed the Senate.

What's funny about this one is he's right. It is insane that we're passing a $1.3 trillion spending bill that no one has read, that is larded up with all kinds of garbage, that didn't address any of these massive priorities that everyone has been talking about that are bipartisan. address any of these massive priorities that everyone has been talking about that are bipartisan. So like, I have a lot of sympathy for his temper tantrum, but he's an idiot and did nothing to fix the problem when there was still time. Yeah. And the reaction from the Democrats and from Schumer's office is they're pretty happy with a lot of the, I think within the universe of Trump being president, the Democrats got a lot of the priorities that they wanted in this budget, with the very big exception of DACA protections. And then the last big thing that Trump did this week, which happened on Friday night, was that he moved to formally ban most transgender troops from serving in the military.

This is sort of one that I thought was not going to happen because basically he tried to issue this order by tweet a couple months ago. And then the Defense Department and Mattis said, no thanks, we're good. We're not going to do this. And then I think he ordered them to study it. And he did bend them to his will on this. He is a vindictive asshole. Yeah. These are people who want to sign up and serve their country.

And he is going out of his way to institute this cruel ban that no one in the military was asking for, that his military and civilian leadership didn't want, and that just hurts people. He's so fucking petty and cowardly and childish. These are one of the moments when I just remember how much I hate him. Yeah. It just seems like this week is an example of he is now at the stage whether you want to call it now he feels unleashed or now he's angrier than ever whatever you want to call it he's now just doing things because he can do them there is no rhyme or reason there is no grand strategy i think the

new york times piece about this got this right that anyone who thinks that anyone in this administration including donald trump has ever been playing some game of chess or had some kind of strategy or was distracting us from this by doing this none of that is true the man fucking wakes up every morning he watches fox and then he just reacts however his instinct tells him to react and that's what happens and now he's just making decisions left and right just either to piss people off or to be an asshole or to do what he's always wanted to do and so much of what the government does is back into figuring out how to make the tweets true, right? That's what's happening now with this trans ban. That's what's happening with sessions coming out and saying how we're going to pursue the death penalty for drug dealers.

It's all about making some statement or some command that wasn't thought out possible. One thing I just wanted to note about the memo that came out on the trans ban is that one of the arguments is it cites the mental health challenges of trans people and how they're more likely to be depressed, more likely to attend suicide. That's often what was used against gay people in the past. And the logic of it is really despicable because it's true that trans people suffer higher rates of mental illness because of how our society mistreats trans people. And so then they decide to use that as evidence for further mistreating trans people. And it is the logic of why being gay was treated as a disorder. It's the logic of why being trans is treated as a disorder. And, you know, it's worth saying, right, LGBT people are not disordered. The way the society treats them is disordered. And the way to handle trans people having higher rates of mental illness, having higher rates of suicide, is to welcome them and treat them like human beings with dignity. And this order does the exact opposite of that.

It's despicable. Look, I think this week is just, it's another example of like, I keep thinking it is astonishing that Trump has not done even more damage than he's already done so far. And that he thankfully has not had too many outside crises that were not of his own making that he had to deal with. And every day we wake up, I just keep thinking like we are in a race against the clock to get to November so that we can hopefully elect a Congress that will hold him accountable and then hopefully, you know, elect a new president in 2020. And we are now just, and it's not just like everyone's like Bob Mueller, hurry up, but Bob Mueller can hurry up and we're still going to need a Congress to do something about what Bob Mueller comes up with.

So we really are now sitting here in the end of March and hoping that between now and November, John Bolton and Donald Trump and whoever the fuck else he has in that White House don't do some real damage. That brings us to the march that we were part of today it was you know incredible to see so many people so many young people so many students and not just high school students like kids five-year-old six-year-old seven-year-olds like coming with their parents down to the capital today i think you know there's already been reports that probably a million people all across the country, I think there were 700 marches all across the country. What were some of your reflections of the march today? A few things. So one, we were just sort of walking up to people that we saw on the street,

a lot of people with interesting signs, and just asking them if we could talk to them for the show. So a totally random sample of people. Multiple people I walked up to said they were there because a child of theirs had been shot. That was striking. We talked to a lot of kids, elementary school kids, high school kids, who use this terminology, like soft lockdowns, hard lockdowns, like terminology about preparing for mass shooting incidents that didn't exist when I was a kid in elementary or high school. Those thoughts never ever went through

my mind. And they were so clearly on the forefront of their mind. Like a lot of these little kids told us that, and their parents confirmed this, that they were the ones who told their moms or dads that they wanted to go down to this march. So that was horribly upsetting. It was an incredibly diverse crowd. African-Americans, Latinos, white kids. There was a whole cross-section of the country there, all with a shared purpose, but different specific reasons for wanting to be there. One thing I couldn't stop thinking about, though,

was the Parkland students that put this whole thing together. These high school kids endured this tragedy. And weeks later, half a million people were on the mall because of something they did. And I couldn't stop thinking about the power that they showed, but also the fact that they go home tonight and the adrenaline is gone and they live with this. And then it's on us to actually do something i

thought the same thing though like it it is incredible that the only difference between one of the many shootings we have endured in this country over the last however many years you know having a couple days of headlines follow it and a speech by barack obama and people saying we're going to do something and then nothing happens in congress the only difference between those shootings and what we saw on the mall today after the parkland shooting was like 10 12 15 however many of those parkland high students put this on and for anyone who thinks that like you can't make a difference if you weren't down to the mall today and you saw how many people came. Also, these were not just, you know, we talked to a lot of people.

It wasn't like, oh, I'm from D.C. and I'm from Maryland. I'm from Virginia, Alabama, Texas, California. Like there were people from all Canada. There were people from all over the place who decided to come because they were inspired by what these students did. And that was really inspiring. And the other thing is, so many people that we talked to, I don't know how many people we talked to said, I was not politically active or politically engaged before Donald Trump became

president. And he became president. And now, you know, I've been knocking on doors. I came to the Women's March. I came to the Climate March. Now here I am at this march. And the other thing we saw is Headcount was there, who we work with at a lot of our events, and they were registering people to vote. And everywhere you turned, there was people registering people to vote. And so what's really important about this march is not just that people went today, but that if you went today, you make sure you're registered to vote and that you actually organize and knock on doors and make phone calls and you vote in November. And what we saw today was that that's happening, that people are getting registered to vote and they are going to get active in politics. Yeah, I mean, for me, I think what Tommy said was really striking, hearing it over and over again,

just how much gun violence weighs on children, how it's on their minds, it's in their classrooms, it's in their world every day. They are thinking about it and talking about it, which is really sad. The other thing I was thinking about today is that there's this argument about whether or not we should be listening to kids. You know, there's either they're dismissed because they're young, or people say, well, why should young people have more of a voice? Their innocence doesn't make them smarter. It means they just don't know about the world. And what I was thinking about when I was seeing all the kids we talked to, seeing how the Parkland kids put this on is, that's exactly wrong. Their newness and their innocence is really valuable.

It reminded me of the Emperor's New Clothes in that, you know, we live with this gun violence, not just the mass shootings, but the staggering number of gun suicides, the staggering number of just daily murder in our cities, in our towns, and nothing happens. And, you know, Republicans in the pocket of the NRA, who are ideologically opposed to it, they tell us why nothing's going to happen. Democrats try, but we talk about how hard it is. And then these kids are like, they look around and say, this is nuts. This is crazy. The world you have built for us is totally out of control. You are all fucking naked.

You are naked and stupid. And you look ridiculous. And you've left us this fucking mess. They sounded a lot nicer than that. But no, but I think that is the value. That is why the argument that these kids don't deserve a voice is exactly wrong. We need to hear from them because they are the ones who are new to this and seeing what we left them. And it's crazy.

You know, the most hopeful thing is the argument that these kids don't deserve a voice is not an argument that anyone really cares about. It's an argument being made by such a small minority of people. And these kids fucking ignore that argument. They don't give a shit. They don't listen to the fucking NRA TV and all these people who say that. The way that the anti-gun control people used to try to inoculate themselves after every tragic emotional incident was to say, now is not the time to politicize this discussion. Now is the time for thoughts and prayers and memorial services. And these kids said, no, it is not.

Now is the time for politics. Now is the time to beat you in the election if you don't believe what we say. Now is the time to register voters. Now is the time to march. And it has just blown that argument out of the water. You know what? And whatever else comes from this, these students have won that argument. That is over now.

Don't politicize. Now is not the time. All that kind of stuff. That will be no more. It will not happen again because they have just blown right through it well of course they have because the whole argument was how dare you you ghouls your thoughts should be with the victims and they're like we are the victims fuck you we want to do something yeah it was great and we didn't get to see a lot of the

speeches because we were walking around talking to so many people but apparently um and you know everyone knows this now but but Emma Gonzalez went up there and she just had this moment of silence. She stopped speaking for six minutes and 20 seconds, which is the time it took the shooter to kill all 17 people. And it was incredibly powerful. And I think all the students went up there and spoke.

It was incredibly powerful. We ended up talking to one family whose child was at Stoneman Douglas and who locked himself in the closet while the shooter was on his rampage. And we talked to them for a while. You'll hear that. You'll hear a lot of our interviews with a whole bunch of different people at the march. We're going to play them for the rest of the episode. One last thing for me is, you know, we look at these marches and the students speaking out and say, like, I hope the NRA is listening. I hope Republicans are listening.

I hope that every Democrat running for office is listening and saw what happened today. Because if we win in November, we take back the House, we elect more senators, we take back the Senate. One of the reasons Democrats will have won is because of the energy around so many different issues. And gun control is one of those issues. And I realize that if we take back Congress and we pass gun legislation, we're probably still going to get a veto from Donald Trump. But that doesn't fucking mean

that you don't try to pass gun legislation and you don't try to do it early. And if we get a Democratic Congress in 2018, there had better be senators and House members who start introducing legislation and push for this and not think that it's something that maybe helped them get elected, but then they can just sort of go away about this. Because these students are mad, but they're not necessarily partisan. Yeah. And I would just add to that, before we get to taking the House and

taking the Senate to pass this stuff, Democrats need to be talking about this on the campaign trail, because this matters to Democratic voters. This matters to people. You know, we've talked about this a lot on the show that one of the problems we've faced is there are one issue voters who are voting to stop gun control. And I think one thing that's inspiring and hopeful is what you saw out there today is the same energy you saw around healthcare. It's the same energy you saw around the women's marches, which are people saying, this is a big issue for me. I really care about it. And my enthusiasm, my energy, my devotion to helping Democrats win depends on Democratic candidates showing that they have the same passion that I do.

One thing we just want to say about this episode is we will read ads, but we're going to donate all the proceeds from those ads to the March for Our Lives initiative at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Funds. So we thought that was important, something we wanted to do, and wanted to let you know. Yeah. Okay. With that, here's some of our conversations at the March for Our Lives. So as soon as the march was announced, we knew it would be historic. And we just wanted to be there so we could talk with people about why they had chosen to attend. So that morning we walked downtown a couple hours before it started with what turned out to be hundreds of thousands of other people. I mean, the city was absolutely packed. And we just started talking to folks that we met along the way.

A lot of people with register to vote here signs, which is excellent to see. Like if every one of these people who are here today actually registered and voted, we could see some good things happen. We are walking towards the Capitol. Crowd's getting... We're crossing 12th Street Northwest on Pennsylvania Avenue.

We also happen to be walking by the Trump International Hotel. You know what's sort of nice, though? It's like an afterthought. No one's yelling at it. No one's stopping in front of it. People are just walking by. Which is bullshit. What are people even doing?

Turn your focus on the hotel. Complete afterthought. Right now we're listening to the renowned civil rights anthem Toxic by Britney Spears. It's such a good feeling being at a protest. It's actually something I think it's part of what makes it contagious, because I think a lot of people showed up to the women's marches having not really protested before,

and they were surprised, I was surprised anyway, by how good it feels to be in that setting, and it feels like you're doing something good and you feel productive, so you want to do it again. There were students of all ages marching. One of the first groups we talked with was a group of students that included kids from Virginia Tech, a campus that was deeply traumatized by a mass shooting back in 2007. We also met up with some high school students from Florida who just told us they felt unsafe because of their race and where they live, how they did their hair. And then a whole bunch of other students that just felt scared. What's your name? Isabella. Isabella, where are you from? I'm from DC, right here. Why did you guys decide to come down? I mean, like, it's just because this is so important. And like, this is right here. Like, we were all just talking about it. Like, living in DC is incredible. Like,

we're here. So like, why wouldn't we come down if i live like six blocks away like why won't i come down like this is so important like how old are you guys we're um i'm 17 17 16 17 are a lot of people that are 16 and 17 politically engaged enough to want to come to a rally on a saturday i mean like just look like i think i think so many are. And, like, that's awesome. And it's affecting our schools and, like, students that are our age, so I feel like this is one of the most, like,

politically engaged a lot of teens have been in a while. Yeah. I was playing a lot of, like, Sega Genesis. I was not as impressive as you guys all are. Is it cool to, like, be involved and to care and to build so many vices? Honestly, I think so. I really think so.

At our school, we did the walkout. People went to the Capitol or people just walked out of their class and wore orange. I think it's kind of just like school clubs, like government clubs where you can debate. It's so cool because so many teens

are just becoming politically involved and kind of just understanding what's going on and wanting to understand what's going on. What's your so ti-84 is greater than ar-15 that spoke to me that's a great sign uh my name is tommy what's your name oh chris hey man nice to meet you my name is alan hey man alan nice to meet you so how old are you guys um i'm 19 19 i'm 17 where are you from jacksonville florida jackville. So what do your shirts say? I'm not a game member. And why do you feel like you have to wear a shirt that says that?

Because in our area, they profile us as game members, especially our color. Especially our color. And then our thing is, in Jacksonville, we got the gloves. They're called gloves, but it's hair that sticks everywhere. And they think of them as gang members for some reason so they assume because you're young because you're african-american that you're in a gang and the type of hairstyle we were so yeah to the point where you feel like you guys are wearing shirts but say i'm not a gang member yeah and also this is our clothing line too so yeah yeah

yeah cool why'd you guys decide to come to this um we decided to come to this because we just want to participate in a march and uh really make a difference for our country because we disagree with some things that's going on in the country, such as having guns in schools when it comes to teachers being armed and stuff. We strongly disagree with that because we feel like it's inevitable for a cause to not happen where a student is going to get hurt due to a teacher harming them. It's like it would be devastating as a parent sending your child off to get an education like they do every single morning and their child being harmed by their educator.

And so we just want to, and we also disagree with certain procedures that you have to just have a gun, the right to bear your arms and stuff like that. Everybody has the right to bear arms, but we feel like it should be more difficult to be able to get a gun. You should have a lot of mental screenings, background checks, and stuff like that. And also certain weapons we feel should be prohibited on the streets, such as assault rifles. You know, we feel like no one should have assault rifles except the military. You know, I literally walk through in my community and I see people with assault rifles standing in the house and just walking around with them. And it's like me, I'm 17 years old.

I don't have the right to buy arms yet. You know, so I feel very unsafe with that and that's really why we're out here just to you know create a change we met a lot of teachers today not one of them has wanted to have a gun in school this is a teacher right here oh yeah she hates that idea teachers i mean we here's the thing we already have a school to prison pipeline right we already know we disproportionately suspend children of color in this country so why would we think it would be anything different with guns being discharged in schools it doesn't make any sense it's crazy people particularly conscious of these gun issues at Virginia Tech given the history I feel

like the students are and there's a lot of students that kind of like actively fight for this but there's still a lot of like older I guess like our president and other people that kind of just they don't understand that this is such a big deal but I feel like more steps have been taken because we're supposed to have a school shooting a month ago which is really scary that like my own friends are scared to go study at the library with me and they have been doing like practice sales and they caught the guy and like gave them like i think he's expelled i mean they're definitely like it's definitely a big deal like they send a lot of people to student conduct anything like anything little like any part of like violence that happens but i feel like it still needs to be a bigger deal especially as a school that had a

mass shooting 11 years ago yeah amazing that was 11 years ago it's still like scary to know that it could have happened a month ago and that we're still here so is it something people talk about on campus does that come up or is it just a thing that you guys prefer not to i don't know like we've been sitting in the library thinking like if something were to happen right now, what would we do? And, like, we've talked about it more than once. I think even, or, like, walking through campus, like, where would I go if something did happen right now? Like, I shouldn't have to be thinking about those things. But I think because we do go to Virginia Tech, it just, it's in my mind because it's not, like, a far-off problem.

Like, it's happened where I go to school, like, in the class, in the buildings where I've had classes. I think that's really scary. Like, the school should have lived in the building that we lived in last year freshman year yeah I mean it was like he didn't live there still but like it's just like we thought about it so many times like yeah like we've walked past the room that he lived in and that was really like does it make you more politically active well I'm pretty politically active already but i think coming like when i was in high school i had family members say oh well how are you going to feel safe there and like are you even going to be okay like do you trust the school and i have felt safe

the two years that i've been there but it's still in the back of my mind constantly just like hearing all the news stories about it and how often it happens it can be kind of like humbling just being there and having to walk past the rooms where like other Hokies have been killed and knowing that it does happen. We also met a lot of really amazing teachers they were chaperoning kids from all over the country and a number of them told us that their kids actually came to them and asked them to bring them down to Washington, D.C. That includes one teacher named Colleen, who had gotten on a bus with her students at 5 a.m. to make it to the march on time from Connecticut.

That is a tall order for a high school teacher. So what's your name? My name is Colleen Souza. And where are you guys from? I'm actually from the town next to Lovett. And I graduated high school at the same time. I feel like we should have been friends. And you're a... I'm a high school teacher, sorry.

You're a high school teacher. I live in Connecticut. So these are our kids. I teach AP European History and AP Comparative Government. And why was it important for you to be here today? It was really important to be here today because the kids really experienced a shift after Parkland's. Trump has really brought politics to the forefront of the conversation in all of our classes. We all teach civics. It's unfortunate, you know, we feel like we have to come to class and be like, well the president

called the third world a shithole today guys, like what do you think about that? And that sucks and it's hard. It's really hard and challenging to navigate how to teach civics effectively. After Parkland, we were thinking, you know, we would go to New York City to do the march, maybe Hartford. But the kids, we asked and the kids were like, we need to go. We need to do this. Will you help us organize it? So we got buses and kids just kept coming into our rooms and being like, do you have a spot? Do you have a spot? We want to go. So we left at five in the morning. We're going to be home at midnight tonight, but we really just felt like we needed to be here. And do you find that your students are more engaged than they've been because Trump is president? They come in. Part of our class,

every day we start with news alerts like, what'd you get? What do you want me to explain that maybe you don't understand? We spend a lot of time on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The pod definitely helps me explain. It used to be, when Obama was president, like once a week we'd have to maybe say, oh, what's happening with North Korea now? It's like, are we going to go to war, Miss Azusa? I hope not, guys. I don't really know.

What grades do you teach? 11th and 12th. 10th, 11th, and 12th. So some of these students are getting ready to register to vote? They are, a lot of them are registered, they can't wait. We've done a lot of events where we did a march, a walkout, and we had the registrar voters there. Oh great. Which was really great. Oh that's excellent. We just met with Jim Himes at the Capitol, he's our congressperson, so he came and talked with the kids, which was really awesome. So they're really engaged. That's great. Oh, that's excellent. We just met with Jim Himes at the Capitol. He's our congressperson, so he came and talked with the kids, which was really awesome. So they're really engaged. That's great. Well, thank you. And I'm a teacher in Arlington. Why are you guys here? To stand up for students' rights. I mean, I'm an elementary school teacher, and it's horrifying when you have to try to explain to kids why you have

a lockdown drill and why they need to be safe and I think arming teachers is a completely insane idea. You don't want to be armed? Absolutely not. You don't want to shoot at a kid that comes back to your school? No and I think the one thing is like schools are supposed to be a safe place for kids. And I've worked in schools where I believe that that is the one safe place that they come to every day. And having that be a place where they could potentially be harmed by someone that cares about them is horrifying. What do you make of a proposal to put buckets of rocks in each classroom to arm you in the event of a shooting? How do you feel about that proposal? One principal has been doing that, buckets of rocks in every classroom. No.

I don't know how else to sum that up. I think that's probably right. This is your first march? No, I've been to both of the women's march and one of the climate change marches. So I was not politically active at all before that. And once Donald Trump became president, I felt that people's voices needed to be heard. And I think that's so important to be here today and be surrounded by so many other people with these like-minded values. And hopefully the government and the people in politics will listen to what we're saying.

I personally was shocked by how many people we met with had been directly, personally affected by gun violence. We met a mother who had lost her daughter to gun violence just a few years ago. And we also met a woman who had survived the 2008 shooting at Northern Illinois University and actually knew the shooter personally. What does your sign say? It says, I survived a school shooting. Will my kids be so lucky? What happened? I was at Northern Illinois University in 2008, and the gunman actually was a friend and mentor of mine. He killed five people and then himself.

I was outside the room when it happened, and it's affected my life profoundly. And it's just, I'm here because nothing has changed in 10 years. The 10-year anniversary of the NIU shooting was the day that the Parkland shooting happened, and nothing is different, and it needs to change. So that's why I'm here. How does it make you feel seeing this result after a horrific shooting versus what you've experienced? I am so moved and so proud of these kids who are spearheading this movement.

My classmates and I, I think that social media has been such an instrumental tool to be able to bring all of these people together. Yeah, my classmates and I were so wounded and scarred by what happened, and we definitely were not able to even think of this kind of response to something like this. And so I'm just floored and so impressed with these kids and so proud of them. And so it's, yeah, it's amazing to see this kind of movement building. Did what happened in 2008 make you more politically active since then? Have you been over the last several years? Yeah, so I was sort of politically aware.

I was in grad school at that point, but wasn't really that informed. It didn't really, you know, I voted. But that was really the extent of my political engagement. But absolutely, especially as far as gun control and mental health. And I'm a sociologist, and so talking about toxic masculinity and all of these things that work together to create this environment that we're in now. So, yeah, it absolutely has impacted my view and my engagement. Will you be voting and helping people vote in November?

Absolutely. I'm knocking on doors and getting other people out to vote and registering. What's your name? My name is Judith Cutchin. I'm the president of the New York State Nurses Association Executive Council of the Health and Hospital Corps and Mayorals of New York. And I saw you're holding a sign. This is new to me, but I can tell you, my daughter, the reason I'm here is for all, and including my daughter.

My daughter was murdered in 2013 in the hospital two days after giving birth. So I'm a mother against violence, and I'm here, and I'm marching. I'm going to march until we get some kind of victory. How does it make you feel being here today, seeing all these people out? I feel great. It's great that so many of the young people are assembling and getting together and letting their voices be heard. We spent most of the day just walking around, talking with people. And at times we were together, at times we split up. At one point, Favreau and Lovett ran into U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her son,

and they stopped to talk for a bit. Senator, why was it important for you to be here today? Because I have two young boys, and they wanted to march to be heard. Henry's sign says, kids are greater than money. Theo's sign says, NRA equals greed. And so these kids want to be heard, and I want to be heard too. We need to end gun violence in this country, and we need to tell Congress that they have to stop taking money from the NRA,

they have to stop protecting the NRA, and the gun manufacturers' profits. And we need common sense reforms, and there's so many that the country already agrees on. Yeah. What's the next step in Congress now that we're sort of stuck? Well, we want to at least try to pass universal background checks. That would make a huge difference. We need to stop gun trafficking into this country, into states from states that have lower standards than New York, for example. We need to ban assault rifles.

And we need to ban assault rifles and we need to ban high capacity magazines. You think this should be an issue for Democrats in every race across the country, even in the red states? The American people are behind us. The American people want common sense gun reform. I've seen signs, grandmas and grandpas marching, saying we care about our grandbabies and they could be next. I mean, this is an issue that's affecting everyone across all cities, all states, all parts of this country. Well, thank you for talking to us, Senator. I know you're here with the family. I'm so glad you guys are here. Yeah, of course. It's wonderful that you're covering the march.

Nice meeting you. Henry, why are you here today? Because I wanted to march with my mom. And how's that pretzel? It's super good. It was really amazing how much time and effort some amazing grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, friends had put into getting kids to the march that day. We met Yolanda Stevens, who is a U.S. Army veteran who had brought her grandchildren. We talked with Archie Gupta, who arrived with a huge group of folks, parents and kids, who wanted to be there.

And then one of the first people we met was Gwen Walton, who was with a group that had come all the way from Alabama just to march. My name is Gwen. You have five adorable sandwich boards. And they made those last night. They was focused last night making their signs. And think about it. She went out of her way to fly in for las vegas come through atl and pick them up and drove up why was this so important to her and to these guys to be here

well one of her son got killed first of all oh my god yes and uh sorry that happened um i think that was last yeah last year something within the last two years and uh that was one of the reasons why she's so focused you know with that like that so um so that's very um dear to her heart that was one of the reasons why she's so focused, you know, with that like that. So that's very dear to her heart. That was her only child, too. Sorry to hear that. Yes. But then again, we just want them to understand the value of protesting. You know, friendly protesting.

But you have to understand the way you can make laws change. You have to be a part of it to do those type of things. You have to realize a lot of the kids of today, they don't know how we protested a long time ago. Our parents protested so that we can have what we have now. Where are you guys from? Alabama. And you came all the way here today? Why did you want to come here? So everybody could stop shooting people and everybody could have a happily loving life.

Well, that's really good that you guys are doing this. Because the only time change really happens is when you come and fight for it. So it's important that you're here. Thank you. Hi, what's your name? Yolanda. Yolanda. And who are you guys? I'm Joel.

And I'm Savannah. Joel and Savannah? Yeah. And are you guys just friends, good friends? I'm their grandmother. You're their grandmother. And where are you guys just friends, good friends? I'm their grandmother. You're their grandmother. And where are you guys from? We're from Fairfax, Virginia.

And why are you guys here today? To protest against the guns because it needs more control, and it's out of control because people are dying, and it's not okay. How old are you guys? We're nine. I'm 14. What do your signs say? No guns, gun control, and guns not in my country.

And what does your sign say? Mine says love leads the nation, no more guns, gun control, and peace, not war. And is this one of the, have you guys been marching before? Is this one of the first marches you've been to? I marched at my school. We had a thing where you go out for 17 minutes and you got protests. I did that, but this is like one of my biggest ones I've ever been to. And this is my first march. Your first march at my school, we had a thing where you go out for 17 minutes and you got protests. I did that, but this is one of my biggest ones I've ever been to. And this is my first march.

Your first march. And how did you get your grandma to take you? Did you have to convince her? Was she reluctant? She just called us and said, do you guys want to go with us? We were like, oh yeah. Is this your first protest? No. I'm a retired Army person. Are you?

Yeah. You served in the Army? Yes, I'm retired, 21 years. So you've dealt with military-style assault weapons. Yes. So what kind of gun control are you? I think that we need a stronger legislator to control the guns, the assault weapons. Okay.

The assault weapons. I think that everyone that purchases a gun should have training. They should go through extensive training to learn how to handle the gun. And that will give them a little more control of it. Because guns take a life of themselves. They take their own, you know, you get a gun, you think you're supposed to shoot it. But there are other things. Safety.

There's proper care for it. So that's my biggest thing. What about background checks, do you think? Background checks is my biggest thing. What about background checks, do you think? Background checks is a small thing because a background check will not tell you if a person has a tendency to shoot a gun or they even know how to handle the gun. You can buy a gun without knowing the proper handling of a gun. So that's what I think needs to happen. Why are you guys here today?

We want a safer environment for our school. We shouldn't have to be worried that someone has a gun at school. We should be more focused on learning. And where did you guys come from? DC area. You come from the DC area. And how old are you? 15.

15. And what's your name? Serena. Serena. Hi, what's your name? Ishan. Ishan? Yeah.

And what's your name? Dia. Dia? And why are you guys here today? Just like to speak up. Like I said, make sure our schools are safer and everything. And what do your signs say? Schools, not war zones.

Schools, not war zones. Is this the first time you guys have come to a march like this? Yeah. What made you guys want to come? Just to kind of show that we care. Have you guys had to do drills in your school? What are those like? They're kind of scary,

but like they're showing they're important. Yeah. Do you think that's right? Do you think the kids should have to drill like that in their school? Yeah.

It should just be like important. Like, no, in case of a severe, like danger, we should be prepared. Yeah. What do you think

we should do to make sure that you don't have to do those kinds of drills anymore? Strict your gun control. You want strict your gun control? Yeah. And I feel as a mom, you know, that schools and shooting should not be used in one sentence yeah we didn't grow up like that our generations didn't grow up like that this is not acceptable

you know we should not be allowed to have any guns on the school premises this whole idea of having like guns on the school premises this is wrong put guns in the congress then see that what happens you know if this is what this is how you're going to protect everything, do it. So you think that you're a mom, your kids are in school, you think arming teachers is pretty crazy. Yeah, absolutely. You cannot fight violence against violence. That's not how we did it. We're from India. We have Mahatma Gandhi.

We won through non-violence. That's not how it is done. We're sending school for kids to study, not to become sharpshooters. I mean, training teachers, they shouldn't get degrees in math, science or something. They should be sharpshooters. Yeah, that's the solution. Go for it, Rob.

Wonderful. Do you think this march is going to make a difference? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the more people show up, this shows what can be more important than our lives. I mean, as parents, when you send your kids to school, that's the last thing you should be worried about. We met up with an ER doctor named James Moak right by the steps of the National Archives building. He had driven up from Charlottesville, Virginia with his son

to express his frustration with a Florida law that actually prevents doctors from asking their patients about whether or not they own a gun. I'm guessing you've seen quite a few gunshot wounds in your time. I have. I have. Too many. Even one is too many, obviously. But I don't know if you're aware, but I believe it was about 2011 or so, the Florida legislature passed a law stating that doctors cannot talk to their patients about guns and gun safety.

Thankfully, that law has now worked its way through the court some and has gotten overturned for the time being. I don't know if it's going to go further to the Supreme Court or not. But, you know, frankly, the only conversation that I shouldn't be having with my patients is a conversation in which I tell a family member that their loved one has just been killed. So doctors should be at liberty to be able to discuss with their patients guns and gun safety. I'm not against hunting, but I want my patients to be able to know how best to store their guns at home. And I want to be able to assess the risk of a patient who might be depressed

who's going to be going home about whether there's a gun in the home. And I think that it is despicable that organizations such as the NRA would promote legislation that would limit the ability of doctors and their patients to communicate with one another about patient safety. That's great. And what was important to you about coming here today? Well, my son wanted to come. My son's here.

He's a ninth grader. What's your name? My name's Walter. Walter? Nice to meet you, Walter. What was important for you to come today? Well, I'm a high school student. I'm a freshman at Western Alamaro High School.

It's near Charlottesville, Virginia. And it's important for me to come because this applies to people like me very directly. And are you guys both politically active voting in November? Walter's 14. So you won't be. So I'd love for him to vote early and often, but

he's got to wait a few years. But I certainly will be. And, you know, I think this is really, this shouldn't be a Republican versus Democrat issue. This really should not be an issue for one party versus another. This should just be about sensible gun laws to help keep people safe. So, yes, I will be voting. And it's important. I hope everyone will get out and vote. As I walked around, I kept thinking about how incredible it was that this rally had been organized by high school students. And you could tell that that fact had inspired

other students to come out and participate. And while their presence and their engagement, you know, was inspiring and heartening and made us feel hopeful, it was really sobering to hear how many of them dealt with active shooter drills and lockdown exercises on a regular, if not daily basis. And preparing for those horrific scenarios was a part of their lives in a way that just never was for us. And clearly it affects them. It affects a lot of the students. Kids like Roman and Jacob who were at the march to ask adults like us to step up and do something to protect them. But first we're going to hear from a group of high school students from Rhode Island who call themselves the Beef Gang. Nice to meet you guys. Where are you guys from? Rhode Island. Why did you come down to the march? Just to support everything that's going on. My mom

wanted us to go too. I wanted to experience like what was going on and try to help like stop this you know the experience and like the exposure that we get and like how we can help stop this if you guys were in congress what would you guys want to do right now gun laws goodbye change them all yeah i don't know what to change them to but we just gotta change them people shouldn't just be able to easily get a gun like that and have one like maybe extend background check or uh order um waiting times and everything like make them uh less of a broad thing and make it like actually tough to be able to own a gun and maybe have a reason to own a gun yeah like okay i live

i live in a small town in robert island narragansett it's a beach town like i shouldn't just be able to go to the store oh i want a gun i'm gonna go buy one no like why do i need a gun i live at a beach town i'm not going hunting i'm not gonna have to face anybody that i have to shoot it's like i'm not in the military it's like there's no point there's no point at all do you guys think that the older generation has let you guys down? In a way, yeah. They didn't really try

to do anything like this. There was no, like, standing up like this. But now they're all coming together because it's something important. And do you think this is going to change things?

Do you think this march is going to make a difference? Yeah. I think so. I feel like they're going to be in bed somewhere and the Congress guys are just going to hear it.

You think Congress people are just going to hear it from their houses? Yeah, from their bed. And they're going to be in bed somewhere and the Congress guys are just going to hear it. You think Congress people are just going to hear it from their houses? Yeah, from their bed. They're going to wake up and be like, what's going on? They've got to change something. They've got to change something different about this. Beef gang woo woo. Beef gang woo woo. What does that mean?

It's our group. You guys are the beef gang? Beef gang woo woo. You know what I'm saying? Okay, where did beef gang come from gang. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Okay. Where did beef gang come from? He's a beef gang.

Do you like hamburgers? No. You guys are big fans of red meat? What is it? Just beef. Just beef. Like, I'm a beefy person. I'm big, and he's a beefy person.

Me? I'm not. No, I just like hamburgers, to be honest, probably. Yeah. He's the woo-woo. I'm the woo-woo. I'm the woo-woo. I'm the woo-woo. He's the beef gang.

So the beef gang is here to protest. Yes. All right. So what's your name? My name is Roman. Roman. And where are you from? Wynne, PA.

Wynne, PA? Yeah. And why are you here today? I'm marching for the kids' lives in schools. And is that your mom? Yes. Did you make her bring you here? No. We all go you all decided to go yep how old are you i'm 11 are you worried about gun violence in your school do you think about it yeah i think about it multiple times

but i just get my mind off of it by worrying on something else in school yeah yes do you guys have drills in your school? Yeah, we have multiple drills. We have like fire drills. We have level two lockdowns, just like when someone comes in the building or some dangerous animal, you go in your closet and just lock the doors so they think no one's here. Is that scary? If it really happened, I think it would be very, very scary. Is this the first time you've come to a march like this? Yes, it actually is. What do you think about it? What do you think about seeing all these people out here protesting against gun violence? I think it's good because it's a big issue in this country, and I really want to stop that.

I'm glad to see all these people supporting me. Do you think kids should be able to vote? Yes. Yes. Yes. What does your mom think of that? Yes, we need the kids' votes. Do you think Roman should be able to vote? Do you think he's a smart kid? I think he probably knows more about the U.S. government at this point,

learning about it in fifth grade, than most adults. He just got great grades, top of his class. So I don't know. These kids, it's time that they get to change the world. It's their turn. What do you make of what these Parkland kids have been able to put together in like a month? I am so inspired by these kids, you know? I think we just became so jaded

and they have sparked something that we haven't seen before. So I'm happy to stand behind them, support them. I supported this cause back when sandy hook happened and we had an incident in our hometown of philadelphia way before this really became an issue of the amish country had a school filled with children who unfortunately um had this violence happened to them i've been donating to the different sensible gun control. Nothing's happening. I'm hoping this is the moment where we make the change and we have to vote.

We have to put our votes here, my money, my votes, my kids, my time, whatever it takes. Can you tell me what your sign says? I got an A-plus in run, hide, fight because you got an F in protecting me. That's a great sign. Why are you here today? Well, we need to stand up for what's right, and it doesn't seem like the government's going to do it, so it has to be the kids.

And is this your mom? Yes, my mom. What are you doing here? I'm here to support him. He came home from school, and I was upset about the whole situation with what happened in Parkland, and they had done a ton of drills at school and he was telling me that the students combined in his one class didn't think it was right that a teacher

would have to make them hide and that they might lose their life and that the kids wanted to fight against whoever broke into their room because they didn't think it was the teacher's responsibility. And that's what kind of created the sign. And he came home the next day and he goes, I want to go to March for Our Lives in D.C. And I'm like, okay, you're 10. Let's do it. Jacob, what was the drill like when you had to do the run, fight, hide drill?

Well, we all had to be silent, which didn't work very well because my class had its own little small bathroom and all 21 kids had to fit in there. So there was a lot of screaming and even though it was a drill, it still had me like, oh my gosh, I'm terrified because no one would be quiet. It was scary, huh? Yeah, it was scary. You have a very cool pink leather

jacket on and a pink hat on. Why is that your outfit today? Pink and because it stands out in the crowd. Is pink your color? Yes, pink is my color. Great outfit. One of the last conversations we had before the march ended was with the Heller family from Coral Springs, Florida. Gwen Heller told us that two of her kids actually attend Stoneman Douglas High School. And that one of them, Gwen, was locked in a closet during the shooting itself. And as horrific as that experience was for her and for their family, she left us with an inspiring message about how the community and the students have responded. So you guys are from Parkland? Yes, we live in Coral Springs, which is adjacent to Parkland. Two of our boys, Quinn and Zachary, attend Marjory, Stone, and

Douglas. Quinn was present during the shooting. He was in a locked classroom, in a locked closet during the shooting. How is he doing? He's great. He has a great attitude. It seems to have kept him connected with his peers. He feels like this is offering a momentum to bring forward ideas that he stands for. And his students seem to be riled up and he doesn't have any PTSD symptoms, so I'm grateful to that. Is he here today as well? Oh yeah, he's here. How does it make you guys feel walking around a march with half a million people

that wouldn't have existed except for students? It's long overdue and I know these feelings that these people have are there. I think they were looking for one person ahead of them to lead it, and myself as well. I needed someone to say, enough is enough, let's go, let's represent. Really put motion and action into what we believe in. So I'm inspired, and I hope we, because I know our attention span is short. I hope we just keep moving forward. We really need to continue to communicate to, you know, through social media and through everywhere and say, this is it. Let's continue moving forward

because we need more people. Thank you guys so much for listening. This was a truly remarkable, inspiring experience for us. So thank you to everyone who talked with us. Thank you guys for listening. And I just want to repeat that the revenue from today's ads is going to get donated to a nonprofit that is supporting the work that these Parkland kids are doing because we just felt like that was the right thing to do. Thanks to everyone at the March for Our Lives who talked to us today. It was a lot of fun and it was very inspiring. Yeah, a lot of friends of the pod out there.

A lot of people really committed to this issue. Came a long way. One person who yelled at us for not doing enough outros. Molly's mom. Molly's mom. Hey, Molly's mom. She said she was sad that we haven't been doing enough outros. Shout out to Molly's mom.

Shout out to Jacob at the protest in a cool pink jacket with a style of his own. And you'll be hearing our interview with Joe Biden on a bonus pod on Wednesday, and Dan and I will be back on Thursday. He insulted me. Find out what he said. It was warranted. Bye, everyone.