Pod Save America - “Joe’s Super Tuesday.”

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

Joe Biden’s victories on Super Tuesday mark the most dramatic political comeback in recent history, Bernie Sanders faces a tougher map and a need to expand his coalition, Mike Bloomberg ends his campaign, and Elizabeth Warren contemplates her future.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

On today's pod, we'll dig into the results of a stunning Super Tuesday that catapulted Joe Biden to the front of the Democratic field. We'll also be taking a look at some of the down-ballot results for the U.S. House and Senate. I feel like we were just here five minutes ago, guys. We were, Jon. I slept here. That's how committed we are. Tommy's been crunching precinct numbers all night. Just punditing all night long. Minority report report over here let's get him out of the tub tommy what'd you and ben get into on uh pod save the world yesterday man you've been potting non-stop who fucking cares no i'm just kidding we talked about the very fragile uh peace deal

with the taliban in the u.s it was signed over the weekend which is already unraveling i just saw a news alert that said u.s strikes tal Taliban and first hit since peace deal, which is a weird headline. We also talked about the conflict in Syria and interviewed a woman who's doing incredible relief work in Idlib province, which is where there is maybe a million people living in tents or outside, and she's helping get them money and medical supplies and food. So check it out. Stay for the interview. And that's it. Tommy, are you watching Homeland this season? No, but I've heard there's a lot of parallels.

It is explicitly about a fragile Taliban peace deal negotiated in part by Carrie Matheson. Wow. Interesting. I know it's missing from the discourse, but. Okay. One reminder, no matter how this primary shakes shakes out our nominee needs a ground game for the general election uh donate to our leave it all in the field fund to help groups on the ground do the work we need it's supporting organizers in battleground states uh we need to get those

organizers on the ground now while we're still having a primary because donald trump is spending and he's spending fast uh so please go to votesaveamerica.com slash field and give a few bucks today. All right, let's get to the news. And let's start with the most dramatic political comeback I think I've ever seen. It was only a month ago that former Vice President Joe Biden finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses, fifth in the New Hampshire primary. Couldn't afford many ads. Couldn't afford much of a field operation.

Couldn't get any more endorsements. Seemed like his campaign was finished. Last night, he won the most pledged delegates in nine out of 14 Super Tuesday states, including Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Maine, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Bernie Sanders won the biggest prize, California, as well as his home state of Vermont, Utah, and Colorado. Biden's string of victories also forced billionaire former mayor Mike Bloomberg from the race, who dropped out this morning and endorsed the former vice president. So I want to get into Biden and Bernie individually. And I know a lot of delegates haven't been allocated, especially in California, which takes a few weeks to count all of our votes here.

But, Dan, what does the big picture, what does the big delegate picture look like right now? It looks as we see it here today that Biden is in the poll position to end the primary with the most pledged delegates, which is a shocking turn of events since everyone believed in a crowded field that Bernie Sanders would clean up on Super Tuesday. The winnowing of the field helped Joe Biden incredibly. But also, this was supposed to be Bernie Sanders' best delegate day. This was a very strong set of states for him. There were states he did well in in 2016.

California and Texas were these two big delegate pots that we thought he would do very well in, and Biden massively outperformed. And so now the road for Bernie Sanders after this is much harder because Biden's strongest states are still to come. States with large African-American populations and significant suburban cohorts of voters. And those states are going to come later. And so Bernie Sanders has a lot of ground to make up if he wants to be the Democratic nominee. Yeah. Tommy was saying this on the last pod that, you know, in every primary gets to the point where, is it about momentum? Is it about demographics? Going forward, based on the results we saw last night, we can start seeing which demographics are good for which candidates. And then you can start looking at the states and figuring out who's going to do well in those states. No, I think that is

true. But I would just say that, you know, I think demographically, a lot of people, one of the Nates, I believe, thought that Michigan would be a great Bernie state. But there was a poll out last night that I think has Biden up seven points. Well, that is a canary in the coal mine. And the reason that is, is because the one demographic that they're still fighting over is non-college educated white voters, which Bernie Sanders expected to have a lot of strength with. And Joe Biden has sort of eaten into his lead with those voters. So and we'll talk about that later. I think a lot of the ads are about sort of that cohort of voters.

But it is fascinating because we were sitting here a couple of weeks ago talking about Bernie Sanders potentially netting three to four hundred delegates last night. And then as the polls got closer and Biden did better and he won South Carolina, we were like, well, a really great night for Biden could be Bernie walking away with a 100 delegate lead. And now we're sitting here talking about Biden as the delegate leader. I mean, that is just a fucking stunning turnaround. What to you guys were some of the most surprising wins last night? I think Biden winning in Texas was surprising. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was, you know, look.

Only our friends at Data for Progress captured in one last poll. One last poll. One last poll a couple of days before. 538 model too. 538, yeah. Pred last poll a couple days before. 538 model too. 538, yeah. Predicted it since that fell out, which is very impressive. Yeah, since that. I mean, it's hard to say what's surprising

is the dramatic shift that happened in three days. You know, I feel like we've talked about not being in the prediction business anymore. And, you know, we were talking about just how many things had to go right for Joe Biden to be in a position to do well on Super Tuesday. And every one of those things went right. The fact that a consolidation behind Joe Biden that people had been lament, people who wanted Joe Biden or a

non-Sanders person to win, people who wanted that consolidation happened were lamenting for weeks and weeks, like, where's the consolidation? Where's the consolidation? And it just happened to happen in this incredibly short window. Well, and some of the big surprises in the states, Minnesota. Minnesota was a surprise to me where bernie polled well and won the 2016 caucus by 22 points it's now a primary and joe biden won it that is a big story the number of states that shifted from caucus to primary really hurt bernie because i think he was able to uh organize a smaller group of people who really really love bernie sanders and net a lot of delegates last time and when you look i mean I mean, we'll talk about this more, but the big concern for Bernie coming out tonight is that

his base seems to be shrinking, not growing from his 2016 margin. And a lot of that can be attributed to caucus states going to primaries, but he's still down in a bunch of primary states as well. Massachusetts was not a state that Joe Biden was expected to win. Maine, also a state that was called just this morning that Bernie Sanders is expected to do well in. Oklahoma, which Bernie won in 2016, lost last night. And then in Virginia, you know, Biden was expected to win. But I think the margin in Virginia and the turnout in Virginia surprised pretty much everyone. I think the interesting thing about the surprise states is this was basically supposed to be a night

where at his best, Joe Biden did really well in the South and that Bernie would do well in the Northeast, in the Midwest, and then certainly in the West. And at least in the Northeast and the Midwest, where I'm pointing to the map,

I'm pointing to our map over there, where, you know, Bernie did really well in Iowa and then Bernie did really well where I'm pointing to the map, pointing to our map over there, where, you know, Bernie won, Bernie did, Bernie did really well in Iowa. And, and then Bernie did really well in New Hampshire. Joe Biden showed that he had strength in both of those regions.

All right, let's talk about how Biden turned this around and what he has to do next. Here's a clip of his victory speech from last night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement. We've increased turnout. The turnout's turned out for us. That can deliver us to a moment where we can do extraordinary, extraordinary things.

Look, our agenda is bold, it's progressive, it's a vision, where health care is affordable and available to everybody in America. Where we bring drug prices down under control with no more surprise billing. Access to hospitals in rural areas as well as urban areas. Access to care. A bold vision where we invest billions of dollars to find, and I promise you, cures for cancer,

Alzheimer's, and diabetes. Standing up to and beating the NRA and the gun manufacturers, and leading the world to take on the existential threat of climate change. Hearing it is actually a much worse experience than seeing it. It looks better when he was up there. When you hear it, you just hear the tenor of his voice. I think someone should just let the vice president know about the power microphones out these days and how

incredible they are at amplifying sound. He was pretty excited last night. He was very excited. There was that one point where he goes like, they were counting me out. They were calling me dead. Now they're saying the other guy might be dead. He was practically going to go down like list of grievances to mail to nail to the church door remember uh when it was a controversy and people attacked joe biden earlier in the campaign for promising to cure cancer that's how many lifetimes he's gone through

he definitely said that with the knowledge of that controversy i just one of the many stupid things on twitter that did not matter to voters at all. Nope. All right, so what happened in the Democratic primary that led to this comeback? Lovett, you started talking about the consolidation. Yeah, I mean... What was the path here?

Here's what it has felt like in the last few weeks, which is just that a lot of things that we thought would happen sooner just happened later. You know, the first time, you know, there was the first time that people started going after Bernie Sanders seemed to happen later. Now the consolidation we thought should have happened earlier happened just in the final moments before Super Tuesday. And I do think also, you know, one thing we're just inside of is just all voters becoming pundits. And one of the things that a lot of the exit poll shows is

how many people who decided late decided to vote for Joe Biden. And so I think there were a lot of people watching and really paying attention and holding their votes to the last minute. And Joe Biden winning in South Carolina, getting all those endorsements, becoming the kind of alternative and seeing all of these leaders in the Democratic movement rally behind Joe Biden in the final moment gave people the final push they needed to say, OK, I'll go with Biden. His late deciders and African-American voters were the story of the night for him. Bernie had real strength among Latino voters, especially in California. I think he got 49 percent of Latino voters to Biden's 12 in California. But that was really the only

bright spot for Bernie in terms of turnout. I mean, he won younger voters, but they did not turn out in numbers that in any way backs up his claim of riding that demographic to a general election victory. It's very problematic for his entire campaign narrative. Yeah. Dan? Yeah. Ultimately, Bernie Sanders had a very clear path and a very strong strategy around winning the Democratic nomination with 30% to 35% of the vote. And once the field winnowed, that is not a number sufficient to win, even in your strongest states. And there's real concerning signs in all of the numbers, I think, for Bernie Sanders. It's not too late to turn it around, but there's work that needs to be done and we can talk about that.

But in Biden's strong states, he claimed the overwhelming amount of the non-Bernie vote. So a lot of Bloomberg people in Biden's strong states went to Biden, therefore pushing Bloomberg below threshold, allowing Biden to split the delegates among two people as opposed to three. In Bernie's states, he was not able to expand. And Bloomberg, and in some cases, Warren, also got delegates. So Biden's strong states netted more delegates for him. Bernie's strong states netted fewer delegates for him, with California still to be called. Like Colorado is especially a good example of where Bernie needed people like Warren and others to not be viable.

But they were, and they got delegates. Yeah, I was thinking about this. We've been talking about how the lane theory of the primary isn't perfect, right? That voters don't exactly see all these candidates in a moderate lane or a liberal lane or lefty lane or whatever it may be. But it does seem that when it comes to Bernie specifically, that there were Bernie supporters

and then a whole bunch of the party that were non-Bernie supporters. And I think Elizabeth Warren has a chunk of supporters that would probably vote for Bernie or could be Bernie backers. But for a lot of other candidates, they were all fighting for a similar share of the vote. And, you know, after New Hampshire, I remember a lot of people said, oh, well, if you combine the votes of Pete and Amy and some of the other folks, you know, it's much bigger than Bernie's margin. And a lot of Bernie supporters sort of mocked that. But it turns out that when those candidates dropped out and consolidated around one person, it really was a lot bigger than Bernie's margin. I also don't think that a majority of Warren voters would go to Bernie. In fact, I think they are more likely to be college educated women who are late deciders who would have gone to Biden. I think that's right.

This whole theory of the case, there's so many Bernie people online this week blaming Elizabeth Warren for his defeat and saying she failed to consolidate the progressive vote around Bernie Sanders. You are telling yourself a story that is not backed up by the data. Yeah. So let's talk about how Joe Biden won, which voters he won. Tommy, you mentioned he dominated with black voters. And, of course, I do think the biggest story is he dominated with the voters who decided in the last couple of days. It's interesting. The only states that Bernie outperformed the 538 projections are vote by mail states. Yeah. Like in Virginia, Virginia tells one part of the story and California tells the other.

And Bernie was always going to do well in California. And Utah was vote by mail and Colorado was vote by mail and he did well in those two states too. And so I think someone said that late deciders broke like 51-21 for Joe Biden, which is just a crushing, crushing margin. I saw 47-17. 47-17. So other groups of voters he won, he won women,

he won voters over 45, he won registered Democrats and Republicans, college graduates, moderate and conservative voters, somewhat liberal voters, which I think is a key category for Joe Biden to win somewhat liberal voters. Those, again, were a lot of those voters that, like you said, Tommy, could be Warren voters, could have been Pete and Amy voters. What does this say to you guys about Joe Biden's coalition going forward and how strong it is and maybe the challenges that he has? Within the context of the primary? Yeah. Well, I mean, at least for the purposes of Super Tuesday, he put together the exact

coalition you need to win the Democratic nomination, which is you have to dominate with African-American voters, which in terms of the delegate math can be disproportionately advantageous to you because of how districts are drawn. And he has suburban voters. And so that combination is very similar to the one that put Barack Obama over the top in 2008 and Hillary Clinton over the top in 2016. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, in Texas, for example, the electorate skewed older than it did in 2008 and in 2016. And Biden won 65 and older voters 48 to 15. That is very hard to come back from. In some states, Biden showed some strength with 30 to 44 year olds. He showed some strength with younger black voters. But even though Bernie is crushing among young people and Latinos, which he is, youth turnout has been down in some of these states or at least not, you know, not quite necessarily not up. And and the other problem for Bernie is the states with the heavy Latino populations, the heaviest Latino populations have voted.

You've got Arizona and New Mexico still on the map. And obviously there's Latino populations in a lot of different states. But if those are his two best groups, that's tough going forward. What are Joe Biden's challenges, aside from coalition building, just message wise, performance wise, going forward in the rest of this primary? If you're in the Biden campaign right now and you're looking ahead at the rest of the primary and you see Bernie Sanders coming at you, what do you got to do? I think the Joe Biden we saw give a speech in South Carolina is the Joe Biden they need to put out over and over again

and they need to, I think, mitigate the challenges he's had in debates and his performance. Yeah, I'd worry about debate prep. It's a performance question. I mean, as Dan said, he's put together the coalition he needs to win. I think the reason it took this long for people to rally behind Joe Biden is because some of the questions about his performance. And I see a lot of Bernie people saying, he's making all these mistakes, he's doing all

these gaffes, how can people rally behind this? And I think those are a bit over-torqued. But nonetheless, I do think that's what Biden has to answer. Yeah, I think it's performance. But I put two other things, which is he has to improve his performance with the young voters, not necessarily for the purposes of winning this primary, although that would certainly help. But he's not going to be president if he cannot motivate young voters to turn out. That is a key part of the 4 million Obama 12

voters who did not turn out in 2016. So you're going to have to get voters like that, particularly Madison, Wisconsin, Ann Arbor, Michigan, places like that. The second is, if he is going to be the nominee, he has to find a way to land the plane that keeps the party unified. And that was a huge challenge for the Clinton campaign, I think, in 2016. Obviously, there was responsibility upon, and this is all just presuming that Biden wins, which is far from decided yet. But if he has been the nominee, he has to become the nominee and unify the party and welcome the Bernie Sanders coalition with open arms. You have to show some grace to the opposition.

Well, we're going to talk about that. Bernie needs to do that, too. But I do think that Joe Biden needs to do that, too. Back to the gaffes. You know, I think I think that Joe Biden can survive all the gaffes that people on Twitter spend a lot of time obsessing over in the media, obsess over if he has a strong message. Like to me, the gaffes are not necessarily the problem. They're sort of built into what you know about Joe Biden. He's going to say some stuff that's off. But you need a solid message. And I don't know. Look, you know, you saw in South Carolina, he talks about restoring the soul of the nation. He talks about a return to decency. I think that's

part of it. I think he really now needs to sharpen the economic message. And I think Bernie Sanders will force him to do that because Bernie Sanders has a very good economic message and he's going to come for Joe Biden with it. But I think Joe Biden needs to respond with an economic message of his own that is partially rooted in his accomplishments as Barack Obama's vice president, but also about the future and what he's planning to do. And, you know, a lot of people might not know this, but, you know, if Joe Biden becomes president, he'll become president running on the most progressive platform in history, not as progressive as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, but more progressive than the president

he served with. Biden shouted during the speech last night, this election is not about the past, it's about the future. And it was sort of apropos of nothing. And it wasn't on either side of that sentence backed up by any kind of a message. And that just doesn't cut it. Yeah, I think he needs to do a better job of laying out what he is affirmatively for, because in Bernie's about to come after him on a lot of old votes, he's going to hammer him on the Iraq war vote. They're already out with a new TV ad attacking Biden for statements he's made in the past about cutting Social Security benefits. And he needs to lay out a progressive policy agenda that helps blunt that. But also, I mean, I do. I wonder if voters are going to care more about

old votes, even massively problematic ones like the Iraq war vote versus the ability to beat Trump. And I think if Biden can project an ability and capability to stand up there and debate him and kick his ass in November, then he's likely to come out of this primary ahead. Yeah. And like he has a progressive policy platform. He just no one really knows what it is. He hasn't he hasn't talked about it enough or at least it hasn't broken through in any serious way. And I think maybe the one advantage of a longer primary where he goesit, would you encourage him to be incredibly direct in speaking to young people that support Bernie Sanders, whether it's now, whether it's soon, and make a direct plea to say, you know, I welcome you into my movement and I want you to push me in the direction you want to take the country, or some kind of direct plea to the young, impassioned people who I think today feel very, you know,

not that this is at all over, but who right now kind of feel incredibly nervous and pretty brittle? I think so. I think always being direct like that is a bonus for a politician because people think you're just going to be scripted and say what people, you know, what you're supposed to say. And I think moments where you can acknowledge a weakness that you have and then talk about how you're going to fix that weakness or at least try to overcome it are always a strong point for a politician. Let's talk about the other remaining frontrunner, Bernie Sanders. We don't yet know how many delegates Bernie will net from his victory in California.

There should be a lot. Elsewhere, Bernie underperformed in several states compared to 2016 and did not appear to expand his coalition in a significant way. But he did say in his speech that he will win the Democratic nomination, and he called out what he sees as the key distinctions between him and Biden. Let's take a listen. One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq. You're looking at them. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq. One of us has spent his entire life fighting against cuts in Social Security, wanting to expand Social Security. Another candidate has been on the floor of the Senate calling for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Program. to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Program.

One of us led the opposition to disastrous trade agreements which cost us millions of good-paying jobs. And that's me. And another candidate voted for disastrous trade agreements. One of us stood up for consumers and said we will not support a disastrous bankruptcy bill. And another candidate represented the credit card companies and voted for that disastrous bill. So, Bernie was the prohibitive favorite for the nomination just a few weeks ago. What happened? He didn't do that well on Super Tuesday.

Keeper votes. That's the kind of analysis you come here for i i was just on the on the bernie speech uh uh i i watched the whole thing and because you know that contrast that contrast is what everybody's been replaying and i and i went to watch it because i wanted to see like so does he turn from there into a bigger positive message, just sort of a bigger, broader coalition building optimistic message. And he doesn't. He doesn't in that speech. He delivers that contrast and the kind of core of the message that has appealed to the portion of the voters that he's already won. And I do think that in that speech, you see the challenge that led to him to this place, which is there wasn't a lot in there about appealing to the kind of people who as of now have not been

with Bernie. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, those are important policy positions and votes that he's talking about, but it's kind of hard to hear a speech that is half booing. And I know that wasn't the entirety, but you're like, he needs to build on his coalition. It's shrinking. He needs to reach African-American voters who probably like Joe Biden if they know about Joe Biden. He needs to reach older voters who probably like Joe Biden or college educated white voters who probably like Joe Biden. And like, I don't know that that does it. I don't know that that's a speech that builds. That seems like more of the same negativity. So it's a challenge in that you need to contrast yourself with your opponent, but you also need a positive message. And you also need to reach out to people who are clearly obsessed with electability. And Bernie, I think better than some of the other candidates, has been talking about electability throughout this primary. I think if I were Bernie, I'd go up there and be like, you know, we need a candidate that can offer the best contrast with

Donald Trump, right? When Donald Trump says he's going to be like, you know, we need a candidate that can offer the best contrast with Donald Trump. Right. We want when Donald Trump says he's going to cut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. We need a candidate who's been fighting for Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and wants to expand it. When Donald Trump passed another bad free trade agreement, we need a candidate who's been against free trade agreements from the start. Right. Then then you're talking about the future. You people cheering not people booing at joe biden it's about donald trump it's about an electability case like he just sort of needs to turn the case around because if he decides these next couple weeks that it's just going to be lighting joe biden on fire that's his right to do that like you said i don't think that's going to expand his coalition in any meaningful way um yeah but i think you know you said this earlier

dan clearly bern Bernie hit a ceiling. And everyone's been wondering this whole primary, like, is there a ceiling? He only got 33 to 36% in the states that he won. California's not in yet. And Joe Biden in the states that he won

had a much higher percentage, even in a crowded field, in a multi-candidate field. North of 50 in several cases. North of 50. In Bernie Sanders' theory of the race from the beginning, Tommy, I remember you had talked to some people on that campaign early on that they thought, as long as we can keep our support around 30 in this crowded field, that's enough to win. Yeah.

And they weren't wrong for the early states. Well, not South Carolina, I guess. Right. But in some of the early states. Yeah. And they weren't wrong for the early states. Well, not South Carolina, I guess. Right. But in some of the early states. And I think that the problem with Bernie's coalition right now is there is incredible depth in the support and the passion among his coalition, but there's not a lot of breadth. It is just not big enough. And I guess the question is like, what does he do? How does he expand that coalition? I think everything you guys just said about the dangers of turning this into just an attack on Biden are correct. And this is very challenging, right? Like Bernie has been working at this now for six years.

And he is actually in a, in terms of coalition size, in a worse place than he was at this point in 2016. Yeah. And so. He's doing worse along many groups, demographic groups than he was at this point in 2016. Yeah. And so- He's doing worse along many groups, demographic groups than he was in 2016. And so in that whole period, he like, you look at this from the very beginning, you were to say to Bernie Sanders,

like, how are you going to do better in 2020 than you did in 2016? The answer had to be African-American voters. It had to be. That is where he lost last time. He did not achieve that. And there's a whole host of reasons for that. And we can talk about this Obama ad where he's clearly trying to address that. But it's a little late on that. I think to the extent that he could where he could make progress in the short term here is he has to go back to making an electability case for himself. is where Biden has. You can't run away from the electability case because that's clearly the number one thing on people's minds right now. Right. And I think the like that week between him becoming the clear front runner between Nevada and South Carolina was a thorough examination of

his electability. And some of it was unfair. Some of it he handled poorly and he suffered mightily from it. And so he's going to have to he has to make the case that he has a better job. He's a better position to beat Trump than Biden. And there is an argument for that. Like all electability arguments, it's theoretical bullshit. But it is an argument that you can like I would say. Yeah, just say something about Biden's. They're all legitimate cases, but who knows if they're right. Right.

And they're both candidates with strengths and weaknesses. Yeah. And so but he has to go back to making that case because he has to get some of these voters who flock to Biden in the states that were voted on Super Tuesday to come to him as the campaign goes on. Yeah. One interesting thing, Ron Brownstein was talking about this when you look in the exits among registered Democrats. Right. So Bernie ran even with Biden and Warren in Iowa among registered Democrats. He won them in New Hampshire and Nevada, and he's lost them ever since. among registered Democrats. He won them in New Hampshire and Nevada, and he's lost them ever since. And this is sort of right around when they have, when I say they, Bernie, in some ways, and certainly his campaign and supporters have stepped up attacks on the Democratic establishment. And I think I saw us all sort of retweeting this. Ezra Klein had a really great piece about this,

that if you're going to lead the democratic party you cannot be at war with the democratic party and i don't think that bernie himself has been quite as at war with the democratic party as maybe he even was in 2016 but certainly if you go online and it's not just fucking random twitter trolls we don't care about those people i'm talking about people on his campaign not everyone in his campaign but some people on his campaign who seem like they are more in a fight with the democratic establishment than a fight against Donald Trump. And that is a again, that's their right. You guys can do that if you want.

Have a great time. But I don't know if that's going to win you the nomination. In fact, I don't think it will. And I don't think it's about I don't think this is about it's not about civility. It's not about being nice. It's about people being mean to people on Twitter. It's to me, I see a lot of assumptions about the motivations of people like Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, that presume that people who came to the conclusion that it was important for

the country to rally behind Biden, maybe with some, you know, not that these people are perfect, not that they're not without flaw, but not that that they're not flawed people but that they came to that conclusion with genuine like fear for the country and concerns about both candidates but came to that uh a decision difficult a difficult decision and and to be told that they're doing it for nefarious reasons to just to stop bernie they don't because it's purely about that i think you've heard yeah you hear a lot of these establishment democrats don't care about beating donald trump they just want to be bernie which is like they hate they hate bernie so It's purely about that. I think- Yeah, you hear a lot of, these establishment Democrats don't care about beating Donald Trump. They just want to beat Bernie,

which is like, what the fuck are you talking about? They hate Bernie so much that I'm going to vote for someone that is backed by the healthcare industry and that's going to lead to people dying. That's a literal thing you will see on the Twitter feeds of Bernie's staffers.

Not all of them. Not Faz. Not some of the really thoughtful, smart ones. Not Ro Khanna. You're not seeing AOC saying things like that. Or Bernie. Or Bernie Sanders. There are people that make this about grievance. And a lot of it is this weird self-absorption that I don't particularly understand. But then you also hear that tone from some of the Bernie-aligned media outlets, like a Jacobin or some of the podcasts that back him that like, if you don't support motives, you want people to die, which just assumes that he will magically pass Medicare for all the money walks into the fucking Oval Office. And there we go.

Right. And just it's absurd purity test that I know from talking to not senior staff on the Warren campaign or Pete's campaign, but like young organizers who just fucking hate that stuff. They hate that tone and it's driven them away. Well, because they are working their ass off, these young people, to elect their candidate because they believe their candidate can help improve the world. And to be told they're doing it because they're trying to help the Democratic establishment maintain power and get jobs in D.C. is fucking bullshit. It's not a way to win people over.

Tommy, you mentioned rokhana like if bernie people want to see the most effective surrogate for bernie sanders who gets what it takes to sort of bring the party together and yet still be a very proud progressive and a proud lefty watch rokhana or or watch aoc or pramila jayapal or pramila jayapal right like he has some really good surrogates out there who get politics and are still, just because you get politics doesn't mean you're a centrist neoliberal shill. You can still be progressive. But I think I can say one thing about the Ezra Klein piece, which I think the actual

piece is very, very smart. They're like, it has been in Twitter reductionism brought down to Bernie's mean to the Democratic establishment. Therefore, he can't lead the party. Right. Which is always what they do is say it's about meanness, which it's not about. But it's not even about the Democratic establishment, right? It's not about Susan Sarandon calling for Nancy Pelosi to be replaced.

It is about seeming like you are open to the views of people who don't agree with you on everything. And if you can't do that in a Democratic Party where you agree on 85% to 90% of the solutions and 100% of the goals, then you're not going to be able to do that in government. And there have been three occasions, I think, in the last week that I don't think each individual one moved voters against Bernie, but they bespeak the larger problem. And this has been a problem for Bernie since 2016. One was after AOC went out and basically opened the door to compromise on Medicare for all, saying, we're going to fight for it, but if we get a public option, that'd be a huge victory. Bernie Sanders was asked that question. He said, no, Medicare for all is a compromise.

From what? I'm not sure, but it is a compromise. Oh, because there's a transition period. We were going to abolish private insurance tomorrow, but I'm giving compromise. Oh, because there's a transition period. Like, he's like, we're going to abolish private insurance tomorrow, but I'm giving you four years, so shut up. That's unfair. I'm kidding. But second is his response to the Castro comments, which we all defended him because we thought what he said was right and the reaction was unfair.

Yes, thank you. A lot of Castros running around in this primary. Not the other attack on Joaquin Castro's beard. We'll let that go but we support that but like there is an element of politics where sometimes you have to learn how to eat shit and the party a lot of people in the part reacted particularly in a state that's going to matter to bernie with florida i think the reaction was unfair and disproportionate and there was a lot of motivated reasoning there but you sometimes you just have

to acknowledge things that you disagree with fundamentally and you think brock obama wanted to apologize for wearing not wearing a flag pin and act like that was a big deal no but he ate shit and he did it and it helped him win the election publicly disavow his pastor twice yeah and look like people say well that well like that that you know you're corrupt if you think that like that's not that's just sometimes you like you need to build a coalition of people who don't agree with on everything and then the third one i think is actually under discussed and pretty significant is that he said he would not appoint he would not pick a vice president who's not agree with him on medicare for all which means you're going to use the most important decision

of your presidential campaign not to expand your appeal to people who may disagree with you and all of those things i think bespeak the larger problem within his messaging that it does not seem, fairly or unfairly, open to the people who do not agree with him on everything. And that's how you end up with a ceiling on your number. And I do think contributing to that is the lack of, it's not civility, but it's a lack of sort of respect for the motivations of a lot of people who are afraid for the country every single day and just trying to figure it out like the rest of us. Yeah. Now, you know, it does seem like there could be some thinking in the campaign today that Bernie does need to expand his coalition. He ran an ad

with him and Barack Obama. I think we have a clip of it. with him and Barack Obama. I think we have a clip of it. Bernie is somebody who has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes, great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless. Bernie served on the Veterans Committee and got bills done. I think people are ready for a call to action. They want honest leadership who cares about them. They want somebody

who's going to fight for them. And they will find it in Bernie. That's where I feel the Bern. I'm Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message. Barack Obama has starred in so many ads this cycle. Incredible.

Knock me over with a feather. I just like, I always watch that ad, I'm like, I just have to give him credit for that. I love it. I love that. It's smart. And I remember what Obama said always watch that ad. I'm like, I just have to give them credit for that. I love it. I love that. It's smart.

And I remember what Obama said. Bernie's ad. I think Obama saying fill the burn was when he was trying to do, it was like a unity thing between Hillary and Bernie in 16. Because I remember him doing that and laughing at it at the time. But look, I mean, I don't know if this ad works, right? Because I do, I don't think many, I don't know how many Democratic voters think that Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama are natural allies.

Obviously, the counter to this from the Biden campaign and from others are going to say, well, Bernie did float a primary challenge to Barack Obama in 2012. He said on a radio station he needs a primary challenge. And so, you know, I don't know how much that works but you know good for him for trying work for bloomberg right work for bloomberg they didn't like each other they didn't like each other at all yeah work for bloomberg yeah brock obama has been just blanketing the airways for two candidates uh he has some problems with but uh i will say though what was interesting about that message is it's uh it's not a radical message it's actually a really kind of positive case for the for what bernie is in a in a way that could appeal to a lot of people.

Forget that Barack Obama saying it. Remember it just wasn't Barack Obama. Yeah. It said he can get things done. He can, he can work with other people to get things done, which might be as important for Bernie as the Obama, Obama saying it. Why do you think Bernie didn't run that ad before the South Carolina primary? That is a great question. Maybe caught off guard by just what happened yesterday well they must have had that in the you you think they you think they cut that overnight or you think they must i mean did it like i don't know they had that right yeah like you've known it's out there like any political

consultant who heard that has probably has had that in the back of their head i'm sure that ad has been in the can for a long time. Right. And there is an element of, I don't, like, maybe he felt like he was inauthentic to run that ad because he had floated that primary challenge. Although I think Bernie Sanders, despite that primary challenge, actually has a greater claim to relationship with Barack Obama than Michael Bloomberg does.

Oh, for sure. And none of them are in the neighborhood of Joe Biden, obviously. Right. But, like, it's not an unfair ad in any way, shape or form. So I'm just like, there must have been a decision. You're heading into the most important state that could essentially you could end Joe Biden's candidacy right there by causing him to underperform there and in building on some momentum you apparently had in polling and African-American voters and did not run that.

And I'm just curious. Like, I don't know whether that stubbornness. I don't know if that was a candidate decision. Or like the wing of the campaign that's like, fuck the neolib shills. Yeah. I bet you that Barack Obama listens to a Bernie Sanders speech and agrees with 99.9% of what comes out of his mouth. It's just an approach to politics is where they differ. Yeah.

Obama's always been about bringing people together, even when they disagree with you. And compromising. It has been core to his ability to win. Yeah, I will say there was the toxic debate in South Carolina. There was that moment at the end where the question was about what are some myths about you? And what Bernie said was the myth is that I'm a radical and the things I advocate for are not radical. They're incredibly sensible, practical things to help people. And that side of Bernie, I think, is so important to his appeal and actually speaks to the incredible achievement he's had in the last six years of pulling the party to the left, regardless of what happens moving forward.

And if I were sort of sitting at a computer trying to figure out what Bernie should be saying now or what he should have been saying a week and a half ago, it would be that broader message about how practical these ideas are, how much he's gotten done, the importance about helping the strangers if they yourself. All that part of that that undergirds the kind of hope people feel in Bernie, and it just has been missing. I will say, Dan, to answer your question, just thinking about it for a second. I will say, Dan, to answer your question, just thinking about it for a second, the Bernie people might have been thinking, if this becomes a contest between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden about who Barack Obama likes better, there's a very easy moment on the debate stage where you'd be like, I know you've been running this ad, Bernie, but he picked me to be vice president twice. And he's my pal. And I served in his administration for eight years what did you do you you know it reports that you floated a primary challenge to him and you disagree with him many times um so i don't it's all about sort of the frame of the election right you never want to

fight on a frame or that's going to benefit your opponent so that might be one reason it's sort of a reductive focus for a whole campaign too but exactly here we are i guess or sometimes campaigns just screw up because they're focused on a million things and don't get the ad up or what happened who knows so we're going to talk all about elizabeth warren but i do want to start by at the end of the bernie section here talking about how much was warren a factor for bernie's performance uh on super tuesdays Many of his supporters and some on his campaign seem to blame her for taking away progressive votes. Ilhan Omar tweeted,

imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated. Who would have won? I feel confident it would have allowed us to win Minnesota and other states. Is this true? Is this fair? I mean, I've made my view clear

that I don't think it's true or fair. It's just the math says no. Every bit of data says no. Yeah. Maybe you can make an argument that like Massachusetts, maybe there's like one or two places where it would have shifted a state, but I don't think it would have shifted the overall result of the night. And also, this wasn't a fight between Biden versus Bernie plus Warren. This is a fight between Biden plus Bloomberg versus Bernie plus Warren. If they're all gone, Bloomberg did a lot better. The damage Bloomberg did certainly

countervails anything that Elizabeth Warren did. If you even assume that those votes would have all gone to Bernie, which is Tommy said, you can't. And I'll just say from a political standpoint, like if you're Bernie Sanders and you want to expand your coalition, blaming Elizabeth Warren, and not that he's doing it, but even having some of your supporters do it, fucking tamp that shit down because this is someone who, if she drops out of the race, you'll want her endorsement.

Yeah, maybe don't tweet snakes at people. I mean, we should be clear on Bernie's behalf is that he has been explicitly going in the other direction of his supporters. He was asked whether she should drop out. He was very explicit that he would not tell her to do that. Faz said that in the New York Times as well. He's doing a press conference now, basically,

and I would be shocked if he does not once again offer words of support for her, I suppose. So there is, throughout all of everything we've been talking about, there is this disconnect from Bernie the person and Bernie the campaign. And it is incumbent upon bernie the person to make the the person a more centerpiece of the campaign which and to get the campaign in line yeah that's right and on top of that there's the bernie aligned media which it's not fair to to blame him for things that they say and do but if you welcome those same people later into events and GOTV

rallies and other things, like you're going to get tagged with some of the shittier things they say. That's life. That's politics. Okay, let's talk about Elizabeth Warren, who had a disappointing night. Her campaign hoped she'd win a sizable number of delegates, but she barely cleared the 15 percent viability threshold in just a few states and lost her home state of Massachusetts. Her campaign released a statement this morning saying that she's going to take a few days to think about what's next. Guys, it's obviously no secret that we all really like Elizabeth Warren, have been incredibly impressed with her as a candidate and her campaign. What do we think happened here? Well, I mean, let's do two parts of this. I mean, I think there's mistakes she'd made and things that were out of her control. So in terms of mistakes she made, I do think that the story that was told about Elizabeth Warren probably should have been the story of a woman

born in Oklahoma who went to a commuter college after dropping out at 19 because she got pregnant and worked her way up as a teacher. And like that incredible inspiring up from your bootstrap story, I don't think broke through and said it was sort of wonky professor who has a plan for that, which in the moment seemed like brilliant branding and amazing, but I think long term didn't necessarily connect her with voters in the way that builds a connection that is enduring. That would be one note. in the debate with Bloomberg was one that was so welcome and so incredibly impressive and was sort of the other piece of the wonk, right? It's like, you know, she comes from nothing to become the intellectual leader of the Democratic Party. And she does it by being a fighter, but not just being

a wonk, but being a fighter who's like relentless. And like that relentlessness is what had led her to that stage and and you know to take bloomberg uh apart piece by piece and uh um you know that came late but uh and couldn't overcome some of the liabilities that were outside of her control including like you know misogyny sometimes the people with the best message the best campaigns don't win and she made mistakes for sure her campaign made mistakes they bet on on Iowa and they didn't win Iowa. And then that was sort of the original sin here that has been very hard to recover from. And the bet on Iowa was not incorrect. She looked at the map. New New Hampshire would be hard for her given challenges that she has with being in that

Boston media market, which has not been friendly to her despite her political success there. Demographically, the next two states were hard for her, so she needed a burst of momentum to become the front runner. That didn't work. But in the context of what Lovett just said is that in an election where electability, whatever that means, has been the primary issue for Democratic voters, the role of misogyny has played a huge part. It's misogyny and it's gender and race, right? Which is why the candidates

of color, women candidates, and particularly women candidates of color are offered no margin of error on their mistakes. And the way that I think it's just so important to think about that, I know we talked about this on the live stream last night, but is when Elizabeth Warren was the front runner, there was an electability panic among political elite about her. And the primary reason, even if that was just a proxy conversation or something else, the primary reason for that was her support of Medicare for all. And the Medicare for all bill she supported is the one that Bernie Sanders wrote. And there has not been a similar conversation around Bernie Sanders. And so you don't have to be a fucking detective to figure out what the problem is here.

robbery for theirs. And so you don't have to be a fucking detective to figure out what the problem is here. And in that, I think there was, I think she faced sort of two factors mainly beyond her control, which were the intersection of both gender and ideology, right? Candidates that are perceived as too far to the left have a harder time winning a nomination. And then women candidates have an added challenge because sexism exists in this country. And the fact that she was both that she was a woman running to the left, which her Medicare for all position and the scrutiny on the Medicare for all position highlighted, I think, for a Democratic elector that was obsessed with electability became an issue. Because as we remember, we all were there for the poll, the Des Moines Register poll that showed her in first place in Iowa, right? She was leading the field for a while. And just to update everyone. So I'm seeing right now, Bernie Sanders is doing a press conference and he said that he spoke with Elizabeth Warren a few hours ago. And per our previous conversation,

she said she's assessing her campaign and he is asking people to respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision. So Bernie Sanders is leading and doing and saying the right thing. Good for him. Good for him. Yeah. I mean, just on the sort of the misogyny front, too, I do think you see some people trying to argue against it by saying, well, then why did Amy Klobuchar do well? Or why did she?

She was a moderate. Right. Well, yeah, she was a moderate, of course. And why was how could you say that, you know, misogyny isn't the reason. And Bernie Sanders did well because he's a man. Right. And Elizabeth, well, what I was gonna say is that, you know, Elizabeth Warren was leading. A lot of people didn't suddenly become misogynist. And of course, that's true. But I do think we have never grappled, we have never grappled enough with the kind of the subtle but deep way in which our language

of politics, our metaphors, our notions of experience, what we give to men in terms of credit for their accomplishments, what we give to women in terms of credit for their accomplishments. I mean, it was just an uphill battle for her from the very beginning. And it's just it's a it's it's sad. That's all. I will say one thing, sort of looking at this electorate, and what we're seeing in these results. Next time there is an open Democratic primary and Donald Trump is not the incumbent president and fear has not pervaded the whole contest and everyone's super worried about electability

because if we don't nominate the right person, Donald Trump will be president again. I do think that this Democratic electorate will be more willing to take a chance on a candidate that is not as traditional, either in their ideology or their gender or their race or whatever it may be. I think Democrats will feel a little more courageous when we're not facing a Donald Trump. That's the fundamental difference between 2020

and 2008. Yeah. I don't know if Barack Obama gets nominated in this environment. Yeah. I think it's highly unlikely that he does. Because a lot of people have asked that question, like, well, how did Obama navigate the electability question? And it was a question. It was one very explicitly raised by some of Hillary Clinton's advisors. But it was not the primary overriding topic of discussion for the entire campaign. And so it was a much lower hurdle for him to get over than it was for any candidate

in this cycle. And it's not just like what is actual electability. It is a narrative of politics that has existed since the after 2016 election, which is the only way to win the White House is you have to persuade a group of conservative white men in Wisconsin. And when you choose that as the narrative of politics, that is going to ultimately disadvantage anyone who is not a white man. I also think Elizabeth Warren paid a price for the incredibly un-nuanced and pretty brittle conversation that took place after Hillary Clinton's popular vote win and electoral college

loss around the interplay of her unique flaws and weaknesses as a candidate and the role that misogyny obviously and clearly played in that race. And I do think that that conversation ultimately made people nervous and fearful when they were already going to be nervous and fearful going into this election. Finally, the last candidate who competed on Super Tuesday has dropped out. Mike Bloomberg is calling it quits after spending more than half a billion dollars, which is about the GDP of American Samoa, which is the only place he won last night. Bloomberg also picked up delegates in a number of other states, but it wasn't enough,

and he endorsed Joe Biden this morning. We talked about lessons learned from Tom Steyer's grand experiment last week. What did we learn from Mike Bloomberg's campaign, guys? Hard to run in a Democratic primary when you're a Republican. I'll take that. Yeah, I would say,

I feel like there are people overlearning lessons around ads, right? I think there's a lot of people saying, wow, he spent $500 million on ads and they didn't work. I do think that the ads set up Mike Bloomberg to show up late in the game and actually allowed him to outpace people that had been running for a year and he just couldn't close the deal. He came to that debate stage and he foundered, and it led people to walk away. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that is exactly right. Ads can help, but they cancel off all your problems. And the problem Mike Bloomberg had was he, despite being a true champion on two of the most important issues that Democrats care about, climate change and gun control, on the vast majority of other issues, he was ambivalent at best and conservative at worst. He had a long history of statements critical of President Obama everyone's best friend despite his ads and Generally and he's also not a good politician

Yeah, he does it like it when he went to that debate stage the person who showed up regardless of how Elizabeth Warren Handled him which was obviously very skillful. But the person who showed up there seemed nothing like the grand, bold leader who's best friends with Obama that several hundred million dollars of ads showed up. Eventually, some people have to try the product, and the product did not match the marketing campaign. And that is where he tumbled. It's also like a bunch of Democratic voters were like, all right, we really care about electability, and we're looking for the candidate who we think is the most electable but you know what mike bloomberg is going too far that's that's really sure like i that's i can't go that far well i think if he had done well in that debate maybe then he would have seemed like he had seemed like a democrat yeah or seemed like a mediocre politician like he. Like that was one of the worst debate performances in American history. And like to be fair to him, he has not debated since George W. Bush was president.

Yeah. A man he endorsed. You were going to say that. But that is – but like – but also that is why it was so reckless to think that you could use blanket the airwaves to create a position for yourself. If you're not ready. Well, it wasn't reckless. It was a smart move that almost worked until he got on that debate stage. Well, you're not practiced as a candidate.

And that's what we need. We need a practiced candidate. That's all. No. He didn't do interviews. He didn't do town halls. He didn't do debates. And so he basically had to go up to the plate at the biggest, most important moment of this entire campaign

without ever having swung a bat. And it's a sports thing, but it doesn't work. I mean, listen, Elizabeth Warren dismembered him like an extra in Dexter, right? I mean, he faced one of the most brutal, effective debaters this entire cycle. But also, it is... Joe Biden should send Warren a thank you note.

Everyone should. It was gross when she whispered his ear, shh, it's almost over. baiters this entire cycle but also it is should send warren a thank you note he everyone should but it was gross when she whispered his ear but like it's almost over you can't win you can't win the morning joe caucus and think that then 600 million dollars of ads is going to cover up for tons of uh allegations of yeah i don't even remember the specifics i mean such harassment etc etc a lot of terrible stuff at your company, a lot of terrible votes, a lot of terrible positions, routinely talking shit about the former president United States who is popular. I mean, none of that was fixable with money. Thank God, by the way. Yeah. That's something good about our democracy. His problem is he's not as close to Barack Obama as Bernie Sanders. i mean look for all the criticism that mike bloomberg has received most of it deserved um he did say this morning or his campaign said this morning they will be spending all of their money now to help elect the democratic nominee of course they think the democratic nominee will be joe biden they're supporting joe biden but nonetheless i nonetheless i do think that is some very good

news and speaks very well of mike bloomberg that after taking shit from the Democratic Party for the last couple of weeks as this monstrous oligarch, he's like, hey, I'm still here to beat Donald Trump and I'm going to help in every way I can. Yeah, it does. Good for Mike Bloomberg. Yes, it does speak well of him. And, you know, he decided he could have run as a spoiler independent as some other billionaires considered. Or just take his money and gone home and be like, fuck you people. Go to his new home in American Samoa. Yeah, where he'd be welcomed like a king.

But he chose to run in the primary and make his case, and it didn't work. And he backed out. More than we can say for, you know, better than Howard Schultz. Yeah, for sure. He dropped out, so we're fine. For now. For now. What do you know? Don't do that. Anyway, before we go, we should, so we're fine. For now. For now. What do you know?

Don't do that. Anyway, before we go, we should just talk about a few down ballot results. In North Carolina, former state senator and veteran Cal Cunningham won the Democratic Senate primary and will face off against Republican Tom Tillis in the fall. Polling has showed Cunningham and Tillis in a tight race. It's a big race in North Carolina, and we got a good candidate. And I think the turnout in North Carolina in this primary is encouraging for that race yeah thom phyllis has to be a little worried about that that was a big number every time i try to find his handle

on twitter to speak something mean about him it's so hard because it's thom phyllis in the thank for trump um go to votesaveamerica.com slash getmitch to donate to all the Democratic Senate candidates, but now we have one in Cal Cunningham. In Texas, no Democratic Senate candidate cleared 50%, so there will be a runoff between MJ Hager and someone else. We don't know who, because it's still too close to call. In Alabama, Doug Jones, our boy Doug Jones, a call. In Alabama, Doug Jones, our boy Doug Jones, send him some money. He will face the winner of a runoff

between Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions and Tommy Tuberville. Who do we want to win that runoff? Do we want Sessions? I actually think it may be worse than that. I think it's Jefferson Beauregard. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. And Tommy Tuberville. Tommy Tuberville.

What a name. He's an Auburn football coach. He's a football coach. Listen, let's just all sit here and be happy that Roy Moore got his clock cleaned by Alabama voters. He might have been the easiest opponent. I know, but even the prospect of that disgusting scumbag potentially serving in the U.S. Senate is too much to bear. Because you know Mitch McConnell would be like, well, give him some committees.

I mean, might as well. Yeah, he would have done it before. Oh, it's Tuberville. Tuberville. Okay, thanks, Michael. There was also a jungle primary in California's 25th congressional district to fill Katie Hill's seat.

No candidate reached the 50% required majority, so Democrat Christy Smith will run against Mike Garcia in a runoff in May. Smith and Garcia will also face off in the general election in November. Brutal. Two elections for those two to see who will serve the full term starting in 2021. That's an important seat. And so everyone here in California near the 25th, help out on that one. And then finally, one congressional primary that we were watching closely was the Texas 28th.

Jessica Cisneros, a progressive 26-year-old human rights lawyer who we endorsed, who Tommy interviewed here on Pod Save America, challenged Trump's favorite Democrat, the very conservative Representative Henry Cuellar. Cuellar ended up beating Cisneros 52% to 48%. Close. That one sucks. And Cisneros said she'll be back. Good for her. She's 26.

She's a badass. She inspired a lot of people. And Cuellar had Pelosi coming in at the end. He had DCCC money. He had Koch brothers money. He had everything. The whole kitchen sink. So she'll be back. That's it. Anyone else have any other?

Can we just say something about the voting problems? Yes. Which is all across the country. Particularly in California and Texas. People were forced to wait in line for hours. The more likely you are to live in a low income or community of color, the longer you had to wait in line for hours. The more likely you are to live in a low income or community of color, the longer you had to wait in line. And Mark Elias, our friend, Democratic attorney who has been fighting these in courts for voting rights for a very long time,

pointed out on Twitter last night that if we do not make fixing those issues a priority, we were going to get our clock cleaned in November. And it is particularly frustrating in California, where we control all the levers of power. We give people vote by mail and every other thing. California is supposed to be the model for how you do it. And the fact that people were waiting in line five hours after the polls closed to cast a vote in a Democratic primary is deeply- In a Democratic state. Yes. All the levers of power. We have them. We have the power. Can I just say one stat from Texas? Since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, Texas has closed 750 polling locations. 72% of them are

in the 50 counties with the fastest growing African-American and Latino population. This is deliberate. It is racist. It is voter suppression. And we see it every election, and it's just priced into the coverage that the media just expected to happen. We need to treat it like a scandal and an outrage and make it a top priority. Let me tell you the fact about Texas that I think shows just how unsubtle they are in their efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters. Texas has obviously a very onerous voter ID law. But don't worry if you don't have a driver's license,

you can vote with your conceal and carry permit. But if you are a student at a university, including a Texas State University, your student ID does not count. Wow. On the California piece of it, I do- Help flip the Texas legislature. Yeah, for sure.

But in California too, I do think that there's like questions, because it was a system where you could vote and you can vote in multiple places. You can go where you wanted to vote. So I do think that a lot of this is just sort of figuring out, forget like efforts at voter suppression,

like what happened to break a system that was supposed to make voting easier and better. Yeah. I would love to hear from Alex Padilla, who's Secretary of State, who I think has done really incredible work in trying to make California the model for voting. What happened? What were the unintended consequences of a plan to try to make the system work better? Yeah. All right. Well, we will talk to you. I mean, we're just going to be sitting at this desk probably because there's a debate, primary yeah there's just a million things hoping biden shows up so we can interview him hey joe biden invitations open still got a seat right here gotta get those young voters yeah we're here we're here we're ready to chat remember us we'd love to

talk to you anyway we'll uh we'll, there's a debate sometime next week. It's a week from Sunday. It's a week from Sunday. Okay, so then we have the primary next Tuesday, right? Yes. All right, so we'll be back on our normal schedule. We'll talk to you guys. Bye.

Pod Save America is a product of Crooked Media. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our assistant producer is Jordan Waller. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Reston, and Elisa Gutierrez for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian, Yale Freed, and Milo Kemp, who film and upload these episodes as videos every week.