Pod Save America - Lake America Great Again

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

With his approval rating 20 points underwater, Donald Trump previews his new midterm strategy: telling voters to pretend he’s on the ballot. Jon and Dan break down how that will play, react to the president renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” and preview the Republican Party’s midterm convention. They also discuss Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handling of a measles outbreak in Pennsylvania, new polling that has James Talarico up on Ken Paxton in Texas, and the unnerving number of Nazi-related scandals surrounding Mike Collins’s Senate campaign in Georgia. Then, Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee for Senate in South Carolina, talks to Dan about the momentum building for her campaign now that Darline Graham has won the Republican nomination.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.To watch this episode with subtitles, click here and turn on closed captions (CC).You can request a transcript by emailing [e-mail]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.

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Simplysafe.com slash crooked. That's 60% off at Simplysafe.com. Plus, when you order, write in our show name in the How Did You Hear About a survey to let them know we sent you. Don't forget, there's no safe, like simply safe. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favro. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we'll talk about the president's big announcement that he's renaming a lake because he's mad at Canada. His plan to make the midterms all about himself, RFK Jr's war against the war against measles, John Ossoff's opponent's latest Nazi problem, the latest one. And the latest one. And the latest from some key Senate races, including Dan's conversation with South Carolina's Democratic nominee, Dr. Annie

Andrews, who's looking to pull off a big upset against the brand new Republican nominee, Darlene Graham, sister of the late Lindsay Graham. But first, if you're not already a paid subscriber to Crooked, what are you doing? You get ad-free episodes of this show, of all your favorite crooked shows, and then you get a whole bunch of extra shows like Polarcoaster with this guy right here, Dan Pfeiffer. Show Crooked produces. Many people have told me. That's the one. Terminally online, our secret episode of Pod Save America, Pod Save America Only Friends. You get access to all of our great substack newsletters like open tabs. You get access to the Discord community and discounted tickets

to CrookedCon and all kinds of other perks. So check it out. Subscribe. It's worth it. All right. Crooked.com slash friends. Crooked.com slash friends. Do you think maybe the reason we keep having to do this pitch is because we keep forgetting to put the link in so no one can actually do. That and it's like, is it crooked.com slash friend or friends or is it friend of the... Who the fuck knows? I hope we have all of them. I hope they all work.

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had another big week of losing wars, raising prices, and changing maps. His only public event on Thursday was a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, where he officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America and said that either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean may be next because our president is a moron. Let's listen to how he explained the Lake Ontario change. So this is Lake Ontario in Canada and in the United States,

but we're going to make a little change. We're going to call it something different than Lake Ontario. We're going to call it Lake America. And all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence. So Lake Ontario, that's gone. Lake America. So now we have a lake, and now we have a Gulf.

Because we have the Gulf of America, and now we have Lake America. Without the of. Thank you very much, everybody. Enjoy Lake America. Lake America. Enjoy Lake America without the of. Without the us. Now, if you're all concerned that Trump isn't paying enough attention to the other stupid war he started that's now bankrupting the country, fear not the president posted some great news about Iran this morning. Let's check out what he put

on truth social. That is an AI image, although Austin claims maybe it's photoshopped, either one. But it's Donald Trump, the American flag behind him, some fighter jets. In the corner is George Bush, a picture of George Bush, and it says mission not accomplished. And then in the other corner, there's the Ayatollah for some reason. And it says, mission accomplished 2026. Is that the dead Ayatollah or the other one? Who's to know? We don't know.

We don't know. Is it the dead Ayatoller or the new potentially gay disfigure? Iatola. Look, what you're going for in this moment is slightly better than George W. Bush's Iraq War. That's the message. And you definitely want to use the phrase because you really want, when people think about the Iran War, you want it to evoke the last biggest foreign policy disaster from a Republican president, which is the war in Iraq. So you just want to make sure that the public is connecting those two things in their mind, even though the war is still very much raging because Donald Trump is a fucking moron who is busy changing the name of a Great

Lake with the Sharpie and an executive order as opposed to focusing on any of the other problems that we have. Yeah, it's doing great. What did you think about that, Dan? What do you think about the big Lake Ontario change? This is why we get paid the big bucks to analyze the Lake Ontario change. It's a huge deal, John. That's a huge deal. The takeaway for me, I have two takeaways here, because that's my job is out takeaways on dumb shit like this.

Ten years running. Ten years running. Hot takes on dumb shit. Great name for the pod. That was the runner-up. It's a pod save America. Donald Trump's not even good at trolling anymore. I know.

Like, it's just like he is, he's, I mean, we've said this before he's lost his fastball, but he's just there's like this. you can almost feel the relevance just declining with every passing moment that people don't care. And he can't even like he does this for outrage. He can't do it. The second thing is that Democrats in the world have kind of figured out how to react to Trump. Like when this happened with the Gulf of America, imagine if this happened four years ago, everyone would be screaming from the rooftops. You know, what a gigantic deal this is.

You know, what an embarrassment for America. How dare he politicize the once independent board of geographic names? And, you know, just like, people would like stacking it with cronies. Exactly. That that was the foundation of the American system. Democracy is at risk. We can't even count on lake naming anymore. And that, you know, and like last year, people are like, oh, my God, what do we do?

If we don't change it on our map, Trump will prosecute us. I mean, if you remember, this is what got the AP ban from the White House. Oh, my God. I did forget that. They forgot. They refused to call the Gulf of America. now no one cares. No.

Although I did, I said, it's kind of funny. I like, I don't care about it that much. But I have seen some people be like, do you think he actually knows that Lake Ontario was not named after the Canadian province or named by Canada? But it was, it's a, it's an indigenous name from hundreds of years before. And I was like, guys, guys, of course, we don't need to go down that road. That you don't, he wasn't thinking about that. And if you corrected him in advance, that wouldn't have made a difference.

Yes, yes. I just think it's better to respond to these things with ridicule than outrage. Yes. And so not like, I guess the other option is to actually him. Yes. Fucking moron. Fucking moron. It's so stupid.

On a completely related note, Trump's approval rating is underwater by about 20 points with just 67 days until the midterms. For comparison, he was only about 11.5 points underwater at that. this point before the 2018 midterms, which is about the same as Joe Biden before the 22 midterms. But according to the Atlantic, Trump recently met with his advisors in the Oval to come up with a strategy to overcome his dog shit approval ratings ahead of the midterms. And here it is. There's a theory that I get the vote. You know, I see it all the time that when Trump's on the ballot, they win. When he's out of the ballot, the people don't go to vote. And I'm asking the people through your brilliant show, number one show.

I'm asking the people to get out and vote, pretend them on the ballot. That's it. What do you think of that? That's a good strategy, right? Just in case you thought he was riffing there, here's the headline from the Atlantic piece I was just referring to about that meeting. Trump plans to buy midterm ads about his own record. The president has come up with a simple plan to win the election. More Trump.

That is Trump's solution to every problem. More Trump. I think that'll do it this time? Which doesn't work when the problem is. Trump. I mean, my simple response is, where can I donate? I couldn't ask for any. Great.

Go for it. Run more. Run more. Make it remind, make sure that everyone understands that Mike Rogers, Susan Collins, John Houston, Houston, all of these people are completely associated with Donald Trump. A man whose approval rating is underwater in every state in this country, there is probably, there is no race.

I think anywhere where Trump is a net positive. It's just a question of how big an anvil he's going to be for the Republican on the ballot. Yeah, I mean, if everyone pretended that Trump was on the ballot and everyone voted based on how they view Trump, the job that Trump's doing, Democrats would win a Senate majority and a huge House majority. Yes, if every Trump disapprover voted for a Democrat, that would be. That's it. This is a 20-point generic ballot just to do some very fast math there. It's funny that there's one sentence in the Atlantic piece. some GOP strategists favor focusing entirely on specific races in an effort to convince voters of the merits of

individual candidates and local issues. Yeah, yeah, that might be a good idea. I guess that one didn't get through the brainstorm. You know, Biden, to his credit, I think in 2022, he basically just backed away. He didn't campaign. He sort of, his advisors, other than that one democracy speech he gave at the very end. Right, where they said he looked like Satan, yeah. which then sort of basically the success of that speech, sort of unwound democracy itself, but that's neither here nor there is. But he had enough self-awareness to not force himself into the conversation. Same thing with Obama in 2010, Georgia v. Bush in 2006. But Donald Trump is not capable of that. So he has to make it about himself, which is only going to help Democrats,

because it's not going to turn out more Republicans. It's just going to further polarize independence and disaffected Trump voters against Republican candidates. Yeah, I laughed at the part of the story where his advisors told him that his bad polling is just because the public still just doesn't know about all of his accomplishments. Do they run more ads about them? Look, I think what you've got to do is you got to tell people about the big beautiful bill. Not enough rich people know about the tax cuts they're getting. And you should run an ad about that. It's just so great.

When I read that story, I was so happy. It was such a good story. I mean, I can't wait to start seeing these ads. What do you think these ads are going to be? Do you think that, like, this is what they tell them. And they're like, oh, the accomplishments. And it'll be like 10% accomplishments and 90% just, you know, we're running against a bunch of communists, Islamists, and terrorists and, you know,

who are going to destroy the country. Like, it feels like that would be their best use of money. I think what is likely going to happen here is, and I'll give an analogy here from my career, I once worked for candidate who really, really believed that yard science were incredibly important. That what signs? Yard science. Oh, Yards science. Obsessed with yard science.

And so the field staff just put yard science up in the candidate's neighborhood on the way of the office and on the way of the airport. And didn't worry about anywhere else. So my suspicion here is that there are going to be a lot of ads about Trump's accomplishments on Fox News. Yeah. National cable buy, Mr. President. Right in between the catheter ads. Right. You can buy gold, a doomsday kit, a catheter, life insurance.

And then find out about Trump's accomplishment. Find about Trump. Which you can't find out anywhere else on Fox. Not on Fox News, no, but there was no discussion of Trump. I do want to read you a quote from a big MAGA influencer on Twitter. Quote, I don't think the GOP fully grasp how badly they're fucking up right now. I'm very worried the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming. And this is a post that I saw because it went viral.

And the reason it went viral is because it was reposted by Donald Trump. What do you think? You think he didn't quite know? Do you think he didn't read the post? No, I think he read the post. You think he just, he thinks it's the GOP. It's not me. I'm not at fault here.

We are watching in real time as his brain tries to reconcile an ass whipping in the midterm. with his own personal view that he's infallible. And so it's got to be someone's fault. He's going to start blaming the Republicans long before the votes are cast. They ran away from him. They didn't talk about the big beautiful bill. They didn't talk about us accomplishments. No one talked about, you know, he's just going to be like,

John Houston never ran on Lake America. Never talked about it. All this tells me is I just, I'm imagining how the, how the 2028 Republican primary is going to go and the whole race. because anytime there's bad polls for the Republican nominee or things like Donald Trump, he is just, like you said, he's not going to be able to keep himself out of it. He's not going to be able. And he's going to, I guarantee he will end up like criticizing, if not indirectly, directly, the Republican nominee because that's just who he is.

When I work for Al Gore, towards the end of the campaign in my very, very low right out of college job for Al Gore, Bill Clinton. That was a big tension point in this way. Bill Clinton. Al Gore was a problem for Al Gore, didn't campaign with them. Bill was very mad about this. Bill Clinton picked up the phone and called, can remember for the Washington Post and your Times reporter to essentially he couldn't take it anymore and complain about it and it became a gigantic story. And the problem for J.D. Vance Marker Rubio, whoever else is that every reporter in America is now Trump's cell phone number. So the number of them who are going to get him on the phone when he's like on the toilet, watching TV, whatever else where he's just going to unload.

They're not going to need to get him on the phone. He's going to go into the Oval every day, gather all the cameras, and say whatever the fuck he wants to say. Yeah. And yeah, he won't shut. Like George W. Bush basically stopped being president in as soon as the 2008 campaign started. I mean, in every way he stopped being president. But he was, you never saw him. Again, he did like no events, did nothing.

and because he knew that he was a gigantic net negative for the Republicans, Donald Trump will not have that level of self-awareness. You think he'll be on the trail all the time in the next couple months for the midterms? No, only because he's gotten quite lazy in his old age, maybe. I'm sure there will be some rallies and they will probably be in Texas is probably a place where I could see him going because Ken Paxton and will want him in Texas because he's Ken Paxton. He's going tonight. We're going to be there tonight for a fundraiser.

Yeah. But is that a place where he does that a place where he does? do rallies. I mean, like, there would be an argument that he, you could understand an argument of like, you have to turn out Trump voters in these red states. And maybe, you know, if you are Ashley Hinson in Iowa, that you would want him to jet up turn out in like the rural area. So maybe he'll campaign, which will be the thing is, is that that is not limited to Iowa. So that's going to have an impact in Maine, in Michigan, in these districts in California in New York, the Democrats are trying to win. So he will be present in the conversation, which is, I think, in the,

the long run great for Democrats. And again, if he's too lazy to take his fat ass out of the White House, he will be moseying on into the Oval every day and just holding court with all the reporters while the Republican candidates are out there trying to distance themselves from Trump or, you know, get their own message out there or whatever they are trying to do. They won't be able to do it because Donald Trump is going to be in the way. I mean, there are a lot of cities in American named Ontario that he could start renaming right now. I mean, he previewed the Atlantic or Pacific name change. That's coming. So we probably have that beat. Still isn't dealt with New Mexico yet.

That is just sitting right there. It's sitting right there. Just in time for it to be an early primary state for the Democrats. Oh, there goes John Osloff and Kamala Harris and AOC to New America. Fortunately, Trump's pathological narcissism is the gift that keeps on giving for the Democratic Party. Because in just a few weeks, he's also going to make every Republican candidate on the ballot endure a first of its kind, two-night midterm convention in Dallas. This is on September 9th and 10th.

By the way, did you see it's going to be the opening NFL game on the ninth, the pass in the Seahawks? And then the 10th is the second game. So that's two NFL games, prime time. Donald Trump's convention will be happening at the same time. Is the second one on Netflix? Yes, because it's in Australia. Yeah.

This was a knowable thing. It's very, very, very well known when the NFL season starts. They've been selling tickets those games for a very long time. You didn't have to do it that week. You could have done it. You could have done Tuesday Wednesday. Could have done it Tuesday Wednesday. Could have done it following.

In fact, every Thursday for the next 18 weeks after that, they're out. You can't do that. Thursdays and Mondays. Not a good time to do prime time addresses during football season. Here are some details and how the RNC chair is feeling about that. this. Listen, it's going to be a Trumpo Paloosa. It's going to be spectacular, star-studded event, obviously headlined by the best showman that's ever lived in Donald J. Trump. An RNC official tells us a primetime showcase for President Trump's success, candidates, and

causes that have propelled the 26 midterms to unprecedented focus. There is also going to be a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of 9-11 and a section about Charlie Kirk's legacy mobilizing young voters for Republican. Wow. Just wow. Did you know that that was the Republican, the chairman of the RNC? You know, it's interesting because I did not know who he was or what he looked like. And then I watched a separate interview with with that guy today from it on CBS where he says the exact same words, Trumbapalooza, Greatest Showman on Earth. So it wasn't like a one off. We're just on Newsmax thing. The message is Trumpa Palluza. Tommy and I talked about him yesterday. Check out our our YouTube for extra content, subscribe.

And after talking about him yesterday, I still don't remember what his name is. Yeah. Gruders. I literally was on the screen one second ago. Really a forgettable face. Who cares? Who cares? What would you guess is the thinking behind this boondoggle?

Just more of like what we got in that Atlantic story that Trump was just like, got to make this about me? Yeah. I mean, that's certainly a part of it. I think this was his idea. He came up with it. He's made that clear to everyone. Brilliant.

I think, if you think back to Milwaukee, Republican convention, you know how most candidates campaign throughout the convention, then they arrive at the convention the day of their speech and they make their grand entrance. Maybe they come to get there the night before and do the nominee. They accept the nomination. Then they do their speech. If you remember, Trump went every single day. It was Milwaukee the whole time. He sat in a box the whole time. Oh, yeah. That's right. And while in that box, when he wasn't sleeping, he just sat there with a shit-eating grin on his face. and watch people praise him. I think he's,

I think that was probably one of the greatest moments of his life. And I think he's trying to replicate that. I really do think he wants people to say, he wants to create a forum where people say nice things to him, to his face.

Just so we don't get too excited here. I was trying to think, like, is there any world in which this convention turns out to be a net positive for Republicans? You know, we'll be two nights of prime time of just them

trashing every Democratic candidate and just dumping out the opo file on all the... Who do you think is going to cover it? Just the cables. Do you think MS? Yeah, I think I think MS. I would bet that MS and CNN cover Trump speech and Vance's speech.

But I can't imagine they're going to cover much more than that. Fox would be the whole thing. I'm sure they'll use it. They'll have reporters there and they'll use it as content. Right. During the day, I don't think that content will necessarily be good for Republicans, but I don't think these speeches are going to get covered and seen by a lot of people. Other than Fox viewers.

Republican strategists are, um, are saying that it's turned into a, quote, shit show. This was to puck. And it's, do you know, the National Republican Campaign Committee is asking House members to cough up $25,000 for themselves and a guest to attend the convention? And that's the cheaper rate. The top rate is $100,000. It's a con, right? It's just like another way to make money.

Unfucking believable. It's amazing. Make it four days. The Republican strategist added to Puck. Nobody understands why we're doing a midterm convention. It's just another show that Trump is going to put on to remind the voters that he is sitting there. And maybe they don't want to be reminded of that. Ouch.

Perfect. Republican strategists. So, so good. Of course. Anonymous. Of course. Don't want to upset Mr. Trump. This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace.

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A reminder that back in March, mail-in voter Donald Trump signed an order that directs the U.S. Postal Service to only send mail ballots to people on an approved list of citizens compiled by the federal government in collaboration with information provided by each state. It would also empower the Postal Service to just not send mail ballots to states that don't comply with all the new rules. Blue states have sued over the EO, but on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled they don't have standing to do so, at least not yet. And so now the whole thing is in legal limbo as the rule finally goes into effect and now blue states are suing again. And so, of course, this is exactly where you want to be when the first round of mail ballots are supposed to be sent out next week. Can you fill people in on how bad this is? What happens now

with all these different court cases? This is very confusing. I think a lot of the stories and the initial reaction or sort of misleading or incorrect. There are two court cases, one from the blue states and one from the League of Women Voters. Both those cases are in front of the same judge. And the judge put temporary restraining orders in place for both of them to prevent or injunctions to prevent the administration from going forward with this plan. The Supreme Court ruled in only one of those cases, the one from the, that one is something versus Trump. There's something versus California. It's the blue state case. But the injunction in the legal and voter's case is still in place. And the order continues to say, and even the postal service put out the rule for how

they would implement this plan on last Friday night, even that rule in the stipulates that that cannot go in place until the other injunction is lifted. So we're kind of in the same place where we were before. The alarming part is the Supreme Court felt the need to intervene here and to once again sort of really twist the, as I read at the irreparable harm standard in a way to try to pave the way for Trump. But it has not, we are where we were before not a lot has changed. There's a couple questions here. One is, how the hell would the Postal Service actually implement this plan? Like, who is going to be checking these mail ballots against these databases? How do we know the databases are correct? What happens when states do not submit the database? Like,

Most blue states will not submit these role. And there obviously would be a long court case around that. It's like it's a question about how this could possibly be implemented in time for this election, even the Supreme Court were to green light it in the very near future. It's interesting because the obviously Trump has said he doesn't like mail in voting and he wants to stop mail in voting. And he, you know, has signed other EOs to this effect that have been. Can I ask you a question on this, John? Sure.

He's a resident of Florida, correct? That's why he's mail and voter Donald Trump. That's why I call it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Voted on Tuesday. Because hypocrisy is important to people.

We got them. It's over. We did get them. So his argument is like, no, I should be in control of mail-in voting and I should stop it and I should be able to do that. The DOJ, their arguments here are very much not, oh, the federal government should have a say in how we control elections and run elections because they know that is explicitly forbidden in the Constitution.

So their argument in court about this is, well, the federal government's not doing anything to interfere with how the states are administering their elections. And if the states want to send mail ballots to anyone they want, they can do that. But if they want to use the postal service, if they want to use the postal service for this, then they have to have our new special logo on the envelopes and they have to have the barcode that allows us to see if they have given us the information and the lists are right and the citizenship lists, which are coming from DHS, which definitely can trust that. So, yeah, that is the argument. The argument they're trying to make is this just like a minor cosmetic thing for the design of the ballots? Like you can do whatever you want. You just have to use the postal service. You know what I say?

Huge business opportunity for Amazon. Jeff Bezos to the rescue. That's right. Get your ballot there in two days, free shipping. I do find it hard to believe that even the Supreme Court would throw this coming election into complete chaos with like. Well, we said that about the, about the Clay decision as well. And they did.

Yeah. But this is even, this is, I mean, it's not, we don't have to talk about the merits of the decision is worse. but it is, it causes more chaos. Like, the Clay decision is horrible, but it is done. And this is like next week, the mail ballots are going out. So for at least in some states. So like, I think it's North Carolina. So like what's going to happen?

It seems logistically impossible. Right. Now, they can allow it to happen. And Trump doesn't care if no mail ballots go. I don't want to tell them about the Republican Democratic breakdown of mail balloting in Florida. All of a sudden, Florida, lean D, if you stop delivering the mail there. No, the most Supreme Court thing to do would be like, you know, the worst parts of it don't take effect for the midterms. All of it takes effect afterwards.

And then in head of the midterms, the DHS gets to compile their own list if they want because that's the purview of the federal government, something like that. But we shall see. So if Trump has his way, mail-in ballots will be dead. But measles, very much alive. cases have reached a 35-year high as U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates have reached a record low, all since the president put a vaccine skeptic without a medical degree in charge of America's public health.

Just a reminder that two weeks ago, the president signed an executive order directing people to get the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rebella, as three different shots, even though that option currently isn't available to patients. And then this week, Pennsylvania tragically announced that two unvaccinated people had died from the illness. Governor Josh Shapiro blamed the deaths on the administration, which should not sit well with RFK Jr., who blamed the outbreak and the documented drop in vaccination rates on a familiar foe. We're doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak.

This is a worldwide epidemic, and it's happening because of, the lockdowns because many kids did not get vaccinated during the lockdowns. Then you had a dramatic diminishment of public faith in the regulatory agencies during the COVID period because of government overreaching, because of the gaslighting and the manipulation. So even in my discussion with Governor Shapiro yesterday and he said to me, well, we've seen this big drop in vaccination rates in the state from 9. 97 to 92.3, he admitted on the phone that it all happened during the Biden administration. Let's see. Let's see. What could have caused the public to lose faith in vaccination during the Biden years?

Could it have been some people, perhaps people that ended up becoming the Secretary of Health and Human Services, constantly spreading anti-vax propaganda that was incorrect. Possible, John. Possibly. Let's be fair. It might have just been the lockdowns. Might have been the lockdowns and Fauci. Yes.

And the lab leak. You don't have to explain why. Just say that. Fauci. Just say Wuhan. Yeah. Wuhan. Fauci.

That's why. So Kennedy was also interrupted during a different anti-vax screed this week by the most on-the-nose ringtone you could possibly imagine. We have responsibility to do better on an autistic story about that. It's quack. It's quack, Dan. This would be like if Pete Hacks Sasse, a ringtone was a beer can opening. That's good.

That's good. So, Reed Churlin, our fearless editor-in-chief and author of Open Tabs, subscribe, become a friend of the pod to get that, cricket.com slash friends. And Reed said, wrote in open tabs on Thursday morning that you and I would not agree to discuss this story on the show. So eat shit, Reed.

Because here we are. You know what? Dick moved by Reed. It was. It's like, let me just put out there that I am going to as the noble journalist that I am proposed. We talk about this very serious hell thing.

And I'm sure these political hacks that I'm forced to work with or reject it. And so, like, what are we supposed to do now? Like, we have to do it. Do I want to do it? I don't really know, but I have to because re-did that. It's like when Barack Obama wanted to give like lengthy policy addresses and get into the weeds and be like, I would be able to do this, but Axelrod told me I couldn't. Well, that'd be like if he said it publicly first.

Yes. He's like, I wanted to give this very important speech, but my political advisors will probably say no. Anyway, here we are brightening your day by talking about the measles outbreak. What did you think of the back and forth between RFK Jr. and Shapiro? And why has this whole issue gotten even more attention? It's just because what do we all do about it? I think RFK Jr. is a terribly, terribly dangerous and particularly dumb human being. And he sounds ridiculous in his explanation of this. And he spent so much of his time trying to explain why he, America's most famous vaccine skeptic has no responsibility for a drop in vaccines that has led to the greatest

spread of measles in the last 35 years, I think it is. I mean, this is, you know, like he has responsibility here. You know, is like, this is a, it should be a gigantic national scandal. I don't know that we have the media infrastructure or the mental capacity as a country to have national scandals in the way we used to. Like we, like, in the old world, people would be like in the Oval Office every day being like, Mr. President, explain the measles. And every come, would talk about it. It would lead all the local news. We still had local news about the measles cases there. It just doesn't work that way anymore, which is probably not good for democracy in some respects. But I do think people know about this. Like, this is a thing that I'm sure you hear about

as a parent with other parents. It is real concern about it. I remember when this was maybe a year or so ago, I guess, when Jack, who was then, I think about to be five, was, you know, because you get your measles, your MMR in two doses and whether you should be the big discussion about whether you should, whether you could like put forward or push forward the second dose because you're a fear that you could get measles in this world. So I think people are talking about it, but there is this sort of weird world where like no one holds Trump responsible for any of this stuff. So it's just like happening on his watch why he renames lakes.

Yeah. I mean, I do think it's, um, it's politically damaging and widely known too because you're right. Like anyone, if you, anyone who goes to the pediatrician with kids that age, like, I'm, I heard it at my pediatric. Like, you're going to hear about it. Yeah. And be like, oh, well, they did the thing about MMR, but we're still recommending because we are doctors who understand science that you should get your MMR vaccine in two doses and not three separate vaccines that don't exist currently. But like, you know, the damage is also being done like slowly over time, right? which is just sort of degrading the public's trust in public health.

And look, some of it, some of it did start. I think it's hard to have a public health debate and a debate and a conversation too since COVID. And all the polarization around that as well. And so now that has like, as people thought at the time, the polarization over COVID and the COVID vaccines has now transferred to measles and will continue to spread to other things. And so it's going to take a long time in more than just the change in. an administration to actually like rebuild people's faith in public health, which is awful. I think this is the Kaiser Family Foundation poll. But trust in federal officials' recommendations, I think specifically vaccine recommendations has been cut in half in recent years because you have

Republicans who have been polarized against these institutions during the Trump, during the Biden administration. And frankly, honestly, the first Trump administration. And then you have a bunch of Democrats, very skeptical of RFK Jr. You know, I talked a little bit. about this with Annie Andrews in the interview here later, who's pediatrician had some smart thoughts about what we can do about it. There was a long New Yorker piece this week. Basically, the argument was that RFK might actually be losing the war on vaccines. You think there's a case for optimism? I don't know if it's optimism, but I think he's possible that he's not winning the war at the same rate we feared when he started. that a lot of the institutions are still holding, that people are turning to these independent scientific boards

to get their recommendations. They're still trusting their doctors over, you know, quacks, no pun intended, like RFK Jr. So I don't know if it's hard to be optimistic, given what has happened with music in this country right now, but it's possible that it's not as bad as we think it is where we thought it would be when it started. Yeah, I thought that it was interesting that the piece makes the case

that the Maha support, especially at this point, is it's loud, but it's like thinner than it seems. And public trust in doctors, right, if not public health officials, is still quite high. And so even though that some of this faith, this trust has been degraded over time, it is still, you know, it's not quite as bad yet as it might appear. I think the other, if you're looking for silver linings in this dark cloud is the way, the way the Trump administration is governed, has undermined the Maha movement and the power of that movement, like, you know, putting the seed oil lobbyist in charge of the, you know, the chief of staff, the Department of Ag, all the stuff with glyphalates, that the power of that movement has diminished or fractured some, which I think has a potential to slow the spread of some

of these dangerous conspiracy theories. Pod Save America is brought to you by Sundays. Is your dog a picky eater? It's surprising stressful. You wish they could tell you the problem. Maybe if they could, your dog would say they know the difference between processed brown pellets and real food. Sunday starts with 80% plus all natural meats and then add superfoods like kale, ginger, and blueberries. No fillers, no nutritional blends, no chemicals, just simple, complete nutrition. And Sunday has just launched a brand new fish recipe. It's made with 80% whole and minced fish, including eco-friendly, invasive carbs sourced from American rivers for a naturally rich flavor. In fact, did you know that many

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Go right now to SundaysforDogs.com slash crooked and get 50% off your first order. Or you can use the code crooked at checkout. That's 50% off your first order at Sundays for Dogs.com slash crooked. Sundays for Dogs.com slash crooked or use code crooked at checkout. Let's talk midterms. As we mentioned, Trump on Thursday night was in Texas to take his pretend I'm on the ballot strategy for a spin, attending an RNC fundraiser for the Senate race that he characterized this way. We have a very good candidate, Ken Paxton, and he's running against Telefriko, they call him,

because he is a little freaky, and that's not a man that represents the value of Texas. new poll from Texas public opinion research on Thursday showing Talafriko up six on Paxton and Gina you know, it's a down seven to Greg Abbott, which, you know, bummer poll about the governor's race, but it does suggest that they didn't oversample Democrats in that poll at least. What are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to know exactly where the polls are in this race, but in almost every single poll. Tala Rico has been leading by a few points, something that better work never did in 2018. And so, you know, once again, we were about as well positioned as we could be,

hoped to be in a Texas Senate race in late August of the election year. And so I feel cautiously good about it. A lot of work to do. Tala Rico has been spending money. Paxson hasn't been spending money. I think his SuperPack just bought TV time right now. People expect, you know, maybe these will be the Trump agenda ads, but where MAGA Inc. will spend their money will be Texas because Paxton is a very bad fundraiser and a lot of Republicans who are PACs do not want to sort of be associated with him. So Trump obviously has a kinship with Crooks, so he would jump in there. So we'll have to see when the spending like stabilizes or equalizes. But Teller goes in a good spot right now.

It is funny. All of the Republican candidates who don't want to appear with Trump and may not want to appear with Trump in the lead up to the midterms. maybe the only one less popular than Donald Trump right now is Ken Paxton. Yeah, that's true. So he's probably like, yeah, come on back anytime. So there was also some big news on Thursday in the Georgia Senate race. I'll just read the headline from the Washington Post. A former Mike Collins staffer posted KKK and Nazi images.

Some Republicans see a pattern. I love this uphead. John Ossoff sees a pattern as well. He jumped on this right away. Let's listen. Well, what's new today is yet more documented evidence of the congressman's ties to white nationalism and neo-Nazi ideology. We already knew about the neo-Nazi propagandist based at his house who produces content for his business. We already knew that his office was briefing some of the nation's most notorious white supremacists on their efforts supporting a Holocaust denier.

Now this morning, thanks to the reporting in the Washington Post, we've seen yet another member of the congressman staff. this time with swastikas and the costume of the clan. And absolutely, Georgia voters reject this and not just Democrats, but Democrats, independents and Republicans. So the staffer in question is Preston Parra. He's former staffer who has described himself as a twink fascist. Twink fascist, Dan. And as Asaf mentioned, posted a swastika made up of the words twink.

And you're probably thinking, maybe we can post an image afterwards. I don't think we should post a swastika. That's the art for the episode. Basically, it was, yeah, he typed out in a tweet a lot of just a whole bunch of words, twink, twink, twink, twink over and over, but then made it into a swastika. Just in case you were wondering how you post a swastika made up of the words twink. And then, of course, as Asoff referenced, also, he posted a photo of himself in a KKK robe, which he told the post was generated with Grock.

I guess that helps. That helps, right? Yes. He also recently posted Deutsche Land Uber Al's. Alis? I'm just going to skip that. Skip that one. He says these posts were meant to be satirical.

but he did tell the post, quote, I do think that the white race contributes more to the world. Unbelievably, this is not a one-off. Mike Collins' former chief of staff was revealed to be in a group chat with Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, where people praised Hitler. Another former Colin staffer was fired after yelling anti-Semitic slurs

at Republican Congressman Mike Lawler. That was Rand Paul's son. And then there's Mike Collins' son-in-law this guy running against John Aasoff, his son-in-law, who has quite recently shared Nazi imagery and propaganda online, including a post he said his wife made, the wife would be Mike Collins' daughter, that shows what he calls, quote,

proof that Jews control our government through finance. The son-in-law also warned that restoring an America populated by people of white European descent would require, quote, clearing out land of other people. this is his son-in-law in family photos together, not like, you know, Black Sheep of the Family kind of thing. Like, just, you know, they have pictures of the whole family together. And the daughter, he said the daughter made that post. As you heard Asoff alluding to there, you know,

Mike Collins clearly has a long history of surrounding himself with pretty bad creeps. How do you think this plays in Georgia? This is another one that sort of, it hasn't gone under the radar because every time I see Azov, he does mention that Mike Collins is a bigot. I was not aware of the long history of all of these different staffers and relatives until this latest story. Yeah, he talks about all the time. He's been hammering this at the stump for months now, ever since Mike Collins became the nominee. You know, it's obviously, I would say, close associations with neo-Nazis is not a net positive in any state. And so not good for him.

what I think we're this, there are two ways in which this is very hurtful to Collins and helpful to Ossoff is one, you know, like the metric that really has been deciding elections is who seen as more extreme. Hard to get more extreme than just hanging, paling around with neo-Nazis and people posting swastikas, so that's not good. Also, like the best thing they have in Ossoff is Republicans right off this race. And the more of this stuff is out there, the harder it is for Collins to raise money, the harder.

As Republicans look at how they're going to spend their money, do they really want to put their money behind the guy who parties with white nationalists and hang out with white nationals all the time or go to some of these other races? And so there are times in which you can win a race before it even starts. And Asaf is kind of doing that right here by sort of just like delivering a mortal blow to the Collins campaign, you know, 60 some days before, six, seven days before the election. Yeah. It made me real.

I was like, oh, well, I mean, Ozoff very talented. has been a great senator, which I don't know if you listen to Sarah Longwell's focus group, the latest one. She has a bunch of Trump voters who like Ossoff. It was very interesting. And a lot of it was like he's like just really great constituent services. They can always get a hold of him. He's helping people. So that's all why he's doing well. But then having Mike Collins as an opponent probably also helping. Certainly making this life a little bit easier. Asaf also released another statement on Thursday after the Atlanta Journal Constitution pressed him for a response to, you guessed it, Hassan Piker's statement on his Twitch stream from last week that, quote, if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action against American Jews. What followed has been a week of various elected Democrats condemning Piker, Abdul Al-Sayed, who has campaigned with Piker, condemn the substance.

of the comments without condemning Piker himself, though he did say he doesn't speak for Abdul, that only Abdul speaks for Abdul. Assoff, through a spokesperson, replied that he, quote, unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric like those comments, and that, quote, all Americans must have the freedom and security to speak out and petition their government without fear of reprisal. Now, those of you who follow me on Twitter might be thinking, John, didn't you just call on all Democrats to take the don't talk about Hassan Piker for a day challenge? Why, yes, I did. And most of political Twitter, including several Democratic politicians, failed. So I am

intentionally failing today in order to make another plea. I think it's one thing if, like John Assoff, you are pressed by a reporter to respond to whatever the latest Hassan Piker statement is. I do not think that spending every day from now until November talking about, you are denouncing, defending Hassan Piker will either make Hassan Piker go away or help Democrats win the midterms. I think it will instead keep one very polarizing leftist influencer at the center of the discourse and give Republicans in right-wing media excuse after excuse to cover each new denunciation. What do you think, Dan? Is this a trap?

Yes. If I answer the question, I have failed to test. you set up. Well, I, that's what I'm saying. I failed it. I've already failed. Okay. Failure. I tried. Didn't work. Okay. So I'm going to do this briefly. The main goal here is to elect Democrats to the Senate majority. We cannot really elect Democrats to Senate majority without Abdul winning in Michigan. And my perhaps naive belief is that everyone in this debate wants Abdul to win. And the best way for Abdul to win is for everyone.

People condemning Hassan, people condemning, the people condemning Hassan and Hassan himself to move on and stop fighting about this. We need, we are 67 days away. We need to be talking about Mike Rogers, about what he, like his corruption, how he, a vote for Mike Rogers is a vote for Donald Trump and Donald Trump's agenda. It's a vote to make Donald Trump in charge of the Senate. like we have to get focused on the main thing. And the main thing is Mike Rogers. Agreed. Mike Rogers is corrupt.

Mike Rogers wants to give your money to rich people. It doesn't want you to have health care. A vote for him is to ensure that Donald Trump gets to appoint more Supreme Court justices. Like this is and like that is a thing. We got to talk about Mike Rogers. Well said. We're going to leave that as the last word. Maybe ever.

When we come back. South Carolina Senate candidate, Annie Andrews. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. While we're big fans of BetterHelp, the real story, is in the feedback from people using it every single day. BetterHelp has an average live therapy session rating of 4.9 out of 5, based on over 1.7 million client session reviews. The feedback from real people who have actually used the service speaks for itself.

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And if you're too nervous about going to do it in person, BetterHelp's perfect. You can do it from the comfort of your home. See the reviews, see what stands out, and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit betterhelp.com slash PSA. That's betterhelp.com slash PSA. Joining me now is the Democratic nominee for Senate and South Carolina, Dr. Andy Andrews, welcome to POTS of America. Thank you so much for having me, Dan.

I want to get into the race. I want to talk about Darlene Graham. I'm going to talk about what Trump said about you today just now. But I just want to start because I think I imagine that the South Carolina Senate race hasn't been on the radar. A lot of our listeners who are focused on Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, et cetera. You're a pediatrician. How did you end up running for Senate? Yeah, I'm a pediatrician. I've worked in children's hospitals for 20 years. I never envisioned I would pivot into politics. My first foray in politics was in 2022 when I ran for Congress

in South Carolina's first district against Nancy Mace, saw the ugliest side of politics in that race. But I ended up in politics because for the first 15 years of my career, working at the bedside of sick and injured children, I very quickly started to understand the impact of broken policies coming from failing politicians on my patients and their families. So I naively started advocating at my state capital for better policies for kids and families in South Carolina. And what I was saying was falling on mostly deaf ears. So it became abundantly clear that to catalyze change for America's kids and families, I needed to explicitly engage in politics on behalf of America's kids and families. And so I ran for Congress and here I am in this U.S. Senate race.

You mentioned you ran against the very charming and wonderful and affable Nancy Mace last time around. What did you learn from that race, which was a very tough race in a tough year and you lost by, I think about 14 points. Yeah, I did. It came down to partisan voting lines. You know, that was a redistricting year. It was a purple seat when I got into the race knowing they would probably draw it into a very safe Republican seat. And that's what they did. But what I learned is, you know, all of these fights are worth fighting no matter how uphill the challenge is. You know, it was very clear. to me that South Carolinians needed to have a choice on the ballot. That was the election cycle where Roe fell. And so as a doctor and a mom, I was able to give a voice to so many women in South Carolina who were feeling totally left behind in that moment. And I strongly believe now that second time candidates are way better than first time candidates. I'm a much better public speaker. I'm a much better fundraiser. And so what I say often is if I wasn't a loser congressional candidate, I wouldn't

be such a strong Senate candidate this cycle. I'll have to point out to people that Barack Obama also lost his first race for Congress. So there you go. There you go. I want to play a clip for you. This is a moment that went quite viral from your opponent, Darlene Graham's victory speech on Tuesday night. Gun control.

Government run health care, abortion until the moment of birth. Bad idea after bad idea. Annie Andrews backs them all. I have a different background and vision for our state. I'm a hard worker with a servant's heart. I grew up in the back of a bar and liquor store in one room in Central South Carolina. My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet.

We didn't take vacations. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work because the doors weren't open. We weren't making money. My mother passed away when I was 11, and my father just over a year later. Okay, before you get to all the bevy of accusations at the front of that, it seems to me that there is an inherent logic problem with what she's saying here.

What was your reaction to this clip? Yeah, I think she sort of unintentionally unveiled her health care plan in that moment. And it seems to me that her health care plan is work hard even while you're sick until you die. And I believe that Darlene's parents deserved better than that. leave everyone in America deserves better than that. Maybe I should ask her to fill out an in-kind contribution form for my campaign because she is making the case for what I'm running on, that, you know, we need a health care system that is patient-centered, that health care is a human right. And I think that story just really highlights how broken America's health care system is,

that working people should be able to take a sick day when they're sick, and they should also be able to afford health care when they're sick. Talk to me a little bit about your health care plan. we're having a big debate in the Democratic Party about how to deal with health care. You know, we have people calling from Medicare for all. We have people who have skeptical Medicare off. Where do you fall in that debate? Yeah, I mean, the other thing I'll say about that clip before we move on is like she has like negative charisma. I think that it's very clear that this is the weakest candidate Republicans have put on in a Senate race this cycle.

And so that creates such a huge opportunity for us here in South Carolina. But my health care plan is, number one, as I said, you know, I believe health care is a human right. I know we have to shift from this profit-motivated healthcare system that we have in America to one that is truly patient-centered. I'm also a really pragmatic person, and I believe that we can't let perfect be the enemy of good, that we have to work hard across the aisle to move the ball down the field, just like we did when the ACA was passed. And so I think the next obvious step is a public option,

so that folks who don't have access to employer-based health insurance can purchase a plan from the federal government, removing the profit motivation from that transaction. And I think that will force private insurance companies to offer more comprehensive benefit plans at lower premium rates. And then there'll be a domino effect. As Americans realize, I'm getting a much better deal from this federal government plan where my money isn't going to line the pockets

of insurance company shareholders, but it's actually going to the provision of health care. And once more and more Americans have that realization, then, and really in my view, only then, can we have a true, productive, bipartisan conversation about how then to take the next step to building a health care system that really does serve everyone in this country. I kind of can't believe I'm about to say this sentence, but at an event this morning in the Oval

office where the President of United States was announcing that we were changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. He began that event by talking about your race. He congratulated Darling Graham. And he said, and I'm going to quote, she still got to run against a radical left lunatic. And the South Carolina people are not going to stand for that. I mean, Trump says a lot of things. said, this is obviously, you saw that in the clip I played from Graham. This is sort of the

case against you. How do you respond to that? Yeah, I mean, what is so radical about thinking that if you work hard during the day, you should be able to afford to put food on the table and keep your lights on at the end of the month? What is so radical about thinking every county in South Carolina should have an OBGYN? What is so radical about thinking that you should be able to afford to see a doctor when you get sick? What is so radical about thinking if your community doesn't want a data center? There shouldn't be a data center built. there. I believe that Darlene's policies, whichever ones she actually has, are the radical policies. I'm fighting for everyday South Carolina kids and families. And I am so proud of my policy platform.

I'm proud of my record of being a public servant and fighting for South Carolinians. And nothing that is said in the Oval Office is going to change that. South Carolina is a, it's a tough state. It is one Trump won by about 18 points. It's more Republican than a lot of these other Senate races and Republican states that Democrats have gotten hopeful about like Texas and Ohio. I think a lot of Democrats out there have a lot of scar tissue because they got their hopes up about Jimmy Harrison beating Lindsey Graham. So a lot of people, I imagine they're going to be impressed by this interview. They're going to be interested in your candidacy. And they're trying to decide whether this is a good place to invest their time energy.

What is your case for why you can win this race in this very tough state? So this Senate race in 26 in South Carolina really couldn't be any more different than the race that Jamie Harrison ran in 2020. First and foremost, it's a midterm year. The president is not on the ballot to boost Republican turnout. Secondly, Jamie Harrison was running against a powerful incumbent senator who was very well funded. Now I'm running against a virtual unknown who, as we already said, has no political talent, clearly bad political instincts and an absolute lack of charisma. We also have an incredibly divided Republican Party, despite the fact that Trump spent millions of dollars propping Darlene up in the election earlier this week. She only won by five points. And in Ralph Norman's speech

that night, he didn't give a ringing endorsement to Darlene. He's bitter that Trump got involved. Ralph Norman's supporters are really upset about the fact that this is just going to potentially be a Graham dynasty. And so the Republican Party is incredibly divided. And then I'm a very different candidate than my friend, Jamie Harrison. I'm not a career politician. I'm not a former state party chair or lobbyist. I'm a pediatrician and a public school mom who comes at politics from a very different perspective. And so, you know, we, I got in this race over a year ago thinking there was a chance that the stars would align that this could be the year that we could win this Senate seat. And the stars have aligned in a way that we never in a million years thought that they would. And now we are in a

real position to win this thing. We just released a poll this week that shows that I'm tied with Darlene right out of the gate, 41 to 41. And this is a very real, robust poll. And then on the informed ballot, I go up by five points. And the way that I'm doing that in a state that Trump won by 18 points is because I'm appealing to those really critical independent voters and center-right Republican voters. I'm plus 33 points with independents right now. We just launched our first general election ad on Wednesday, so we have a leg up on Darlene in that. She just spent all of her money to escape her own primary. and we've been building a war chest to compete in November. So this is a change election cycle.

People are looking for a new generation of leadership. They're certainly not looking for a rubber stamp for this or any other administration. South Carolina is now the first Democratic primary state. You're going to have a lot. There are already a lot of Democrats coming through your South Carolina, who may possibly just happen to be considering to run for president. Do you plan a campaign with any of these national Democrats coming through? Have you thought about that?

This is a question a lot of Senate candidates are getting in these sort of red states. You know, I'm really focused on spending as much time as I can with South Carolina voters. That's what's most important. That is my path to win. And that's also why I'm in this race. You're right. There's a lot of national Democrats who are spending time in South Carolina. And I think that's great because, you know, as we expand the Senate map, that path is definitely throughout the Southeast.

We need more Democratic Party investment in the South. And having all of this first in the nation attention is only going to help us grow, strength as a party in South Carolina. So I welcome these visits. But what I've been saying is I'll return these phone calls on November 4th when I'm South Carolina's next senator. And then we can start to strategize about what 2028 is going to look like. So no campaigning with sort of national Democratic or national Democrats or presidential candidates, all South Carolina is what you're saying. It's not our focus. We're taking it on a case by case basis. You know, Pete Buttigieg was just in town for our issues, annual issues conference. And, you know, I had the fortune of saying hello to him there.

But we're really focused on spending time with voters. And you're a candidate. You're also a doctor. I wanted to get your reaction to what is going on this country with the measles outbreak. You know, there's reports that RFK Jr. may have lied to Congress. We know this is now, I think, by some measures, the largest measles outbreak in the United States in 35 years. What's your reaction? I mean, most of what comes out of RFK Jr's mouth are lies.

So I'm not surprised to hear that. But I got in this race. I seriously started considering getting in this race the day RFK Jr. was nominated to lead HHS because as a pediatrician, he's been my professional arch nemesis for decades. He's nothing more than a grifter and a conspiracy theorist who's been peddling an anti-vaccine conspiracy theories for decades while simultaneously enriching himself. And as a result of that, as a pediatrician, I've watched over my 20-year career a slow and steady rise in vaccine refusal and vaccine hesitancy.

And that is the exact reason that we are seeing a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases all across this country. In South Carolina, we just had a measles outbreak in Spartanburg County where there were nearly a thousand documented cases of the measles. So one of the reasons it is so urgent that Democrats win in November is because we cannot allow RFK Jr. to have two more years of unfettered access leading our nation's Department of Health and Human Services. This executive order from the Trump administration dismantling the routine childhood immunization schedule is not at all based on an evolution of scientific evidence. It is based on political ideology. Children will unnecessarily get sick and suffer and some will die as a result of this disinformation campaign from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. RFK Junior's ascension, everything we're talking about here, the rise of vaccine skepticism is all sort of of a piece with sort of the quote unquote, make America healthy again movement where you,

and I imagine this is something you probably run into with a lot of some of the families of your patients where people have very legitimate questions about, you know, food safety, how to, you know, what's the right choice for their kids? And that is, and, you know, people like RFK Jr. and others have sort of weaponized. that and push the country in some dangerous directions. Have you thought about how as a senator or as a public figure, you know, you with your medical expertise can push back on the rise of Maha and maybe have conversations with these well-meaning, I think, parents who maybe are getting a lot of bad information from social media? Yeah. And I like that you said well-meaning parents because I don't blame the

parents, you know, even the parents of the children who are dying from these preventable infectious diseases because they've chosen not to vaccinate their children. Parents don't know where to turn for reliable information. I never in a million years thought that I would say the sentence, we cannot trust the medical recommendations coming from our federal government, but we can't. We have to turn to our individual physician. So I encourage parents to talk to their own pediatricians to follow along with what the American Academy of Pediatrics is saying, because that is an evidence-based organization. But what they've done is really clever and dangerous because they're laundering this really, anti-science agenda under this umbrella of making America healthy again, of addressing the chronic

disease epidemic that children in America are facing. So when I'm asked, would I agree with the Trump administration on one of the things I say is they've shined a light on the chronic disease epidemic amongst children in this country? But where we disagree is the root causes of that chronic disease epidemic and actually the solution. So you can't in one sentence say we want to address chronic diseases and children. And then in the next action, you've got the Medicaid program. which is the largest insurer of children across the country. You can't put someone like RFK Jr. at the helm of HHS and pretend like you're following scientific, you know, scientifically sound medical recommendation.

So they've shined a light on the problem. I'm going to win my election. I'll go toe to toe with RFK Jr. We will impeach and remove him. And then we will take that big bright light. They shined on this epidemic and then actually address it through an evidence-based scientifically sound approach. Before I let you go, I want to give you a chance to tell our listeners where they can go

to help your campaign if they so choose. Yeah, so they can go to Dr. Annie Andrews.com and they can follow along on social media. We're very active on social media at Annie Andrews MD. We also just launched a new exciting website called DebateMe, Darling.com where they can go and see how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds it's been since I challenged Darlene Graham to debate me this general election season. So lots of ways to follow along. I encourage people to check out the website, chip in what they can and help us expand the Senate

map through the South. and this really exciting opportunity in South Carolina. Dr. Annie Andrews, thank you so much for joining us on Pod Save America, and good luck down the stretch here. Thank you so much, Dan. That's our show for today. Thanks to Annie Andrews for coming on. I will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with our old friend David Plough

about how the midterms and 2028 are shaping up. Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Ferris Safari with Reed Jirlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heffcote, Jordan Cantor, Atlantis, Carol Palave, David Tolls, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.