Pod Save America - “Live Free or Run for President.” (LIVE in New Hampshire)

Episode Date: April 15, 2019

Trump and conservatives target Ilhan Omar, red states restrict abortion, Mayor Pete’s meteoric rise continues, Cory Booker kicks off his campaign in Newark, and the new primary calendar may have unintended effects. Washington Governor Jay Inslee joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, Dan, and Alyssa Mastromonaco live on stage in Concord, New Hampshire.  Check out more Pod Save America tour dates for 2019: crooked.com/events.

What's up, New Hampshire? What's up, New Hampshire? Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Melissa Mastromonaco. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Later in the show, we'll talk to one of the many candidates running to be the Democratic nominee for president.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee is here. All right. Let's talk about the news from this weekend. President has been tweeting up a storm, Let's talk about the news from this weekend. President has been tweeting up a storm, including one with lots of capital letters and exclamation points where he assures us, quote, I am not frustrated.

I am not frustrated. I'm not frustrated. You're frustrated. Why are you shouting? I'm not shouting. Why are you shouting? I'm making a scene? What do you call this? But his most notable tweet was about Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar,

who's recently been the target of multiple death threats and anti-Muslim bigotry. A few days ago, right-wing internet people dug up the video of a speech she gave earlier this year at the Council on American Islamic Relations, where she said that the Muslim civil rights organization was founded after 9-11, quote, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. Conservatives expressed outrage over the phrase, some people did something. And then Trump tweeted a video that spliced together Omar saying that with images of the World Trade Center burning on 9-11. Tommy, I want to start with a conservative reaction to Omar's comments.

Representative Dan Crenshaw said that they were, quote, unbelievable, and suggested that Omar was minimizing 9-11 by refusing to use the word terrorist. Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends said, quote, you have to wonder if she's an American first. What do you think Omar meant by her comments, and why did conservatives pick this old speech to pounce on? Yeah, Dan Crenshaw, a Republican congressman, retweeted this. He was also the one who famously went on SNL and said Americans can forgive each other, we can still see the good in each other. So not a particularly charitable retweet by him. So Ilhan Omar was speaking to CARE, which is a Muslim civil rights group, and she was

speaking right after the New Zealand shooter shot up two mosques and killed 50 people. And she was talking about how after a tragic event like this, Muslims are often told to lay low, maybe don't go to prayers, maybe don't wear your hijab in public. And ironically, after ISIS does something or Al-Qaeda does an attack, they're told the same thing. They're asked to reassert their commitment to America or denounce all Muslims, which are things that I'm not asked to do

after a New Zealand shooter, a white guy, a white terrorist, shoots up a bunch of Muslims. And so she's talking about the erosion of civil liberties for Muslim Americans and how they've been treated like second-class citizens. And so Dan Crenshaw and Donald Trump sweep in to prove her point for her and twist her words and take them out of context. And so, And the reason Trump did this is political, right? He sees her and he does not hear her words. He doesn't hear that what she said sounds a lot like what George W. Bush said just after 9-11 when he said,

the people who knock down these buildings will hear from all of us soon. The people who knock down the buildings? He just called them the people? That's right. He sees her skin color. And he sees that she wears a hijab. And he twists it for political purposes.

And it is so cynical. Especially if you know who she is. I mean, Ilhan Omar, her family left Somalia in 1991. They lived in a refugee camp for four years because there was a civil war in Somalia before moving to the United States. Any hope that she and her family might have had of moving back to Somalia was destroyed by al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Islamic extremist groups. So I think she understands the horrors of terrorism. So, you know, they tweet these things because it's good politics. But the unfortunate reality is, you know, it increased

risk to her. I mean, the Coast Guard individual who was arrested recently, who had a kill list of a bunch of liberals, had her name on it. So it's a really cynical, nasty thing to do, and it's something we all should be condemning. Also, in that same speech, she talked about how proud she is of her country, how much she loves America, and there's a bill to help provide benefits for survivors of 9-11 and first responders that she is a co-sponsor of that Dan Crenshaw is not. Alyssa, why was Trump a particularly bad messenger on this when it comes to 9-11? Well, like, let's start at the beginning. Well, no, look, so this all sort of got going

with the New York Post cover of the towers coming down and Ilhan Omar's comments, right? So who are Donald Trump's friends? The people who own the New York Post, which the best part of this was that the Yemeni bodega owners actually boycotted and are no longer selling the New York Post currently in their bodegas because of how because of how irresponsible his comments were but like you guys what is the one thing we know about Donald Trump he's a New Yorker like he he's nothing but a New Yorker like what I mean I guess he's president but he's nobody is

and so what he did is he turned the cities it's like yes the country's worst moment but the city that he purports well I mean he doesn't purport anything I mean he lived there and he decides to you know go ahead and just

turn something that was so terrible that he lived through into this disgusting, spliced political video, which I want to know who paid for. The White House tweeted it out. Did the White House splice her comments into the towers burning? And just to say, as someone who is a New Yorker but who was not there during 9-11. I did work in the World Trade Center, and I could not imagine ever saying anything like what he is doing, and he's our president.

Well, I would also say on the day the towers fell on 9-11, Donald Trump called into a radio station and bragged that his building would now be the tallest. Yeah. Which is actually not true. The tallest building brag on 9-11. And it's one of the strangest moments because even in the moment Donald Trump is like,

I can't believe how bad a person I am. Which is rare to hear in his voice. He also pretended to clean up the rubble on 9-11. That's another one of his greatest hits. And even that too, he knows when he lies about 9-11 that it's even for him wrong. So when he talked about, he said, I went down to the rubble.

I even cleaned it up a little bit. Yeah. He threw in a little bit. He knew it was bullshit. He was like, I helped a little bit. But you know that if he actually did clean it up, he'd be making them pass the 9-11 responders bill because he'd want in.

Right. He also, by the way, cheated the system to get a small business loan that is reserved for small businesses that have been affected by 9-11. And he applied to cheat and take that loan for his own company. Also, it was like 15 grand.

He is not a billionaire these are not billionaire level grips so anyway so this happens it's gross it's donald trump being donald trump it's the right wing being the right wing so then the then the controversy moves over to how should the Democrats respond to this? So this is what's happening over the weekend. So many, including most of the presidential contenders, accuse Trump of inciting violence. Others, like Nancy Pelosi, didn't go quite as far.

Some didn't mention Ilhan Omar's name specifically in their statements. This then caused an uproar. What do we think about all this, Dan? Start with you. I don't like any of it. Just a couple of things that are worth knowing here, which is one, every Republican who talked about this

knew they were full of shit. This was a completely bad faith argument. Like what they do is they troll the internet and look for someone, something or anything that can fuel the outrage machine. And if that is a woman of color, all the better. That's a woman of color wearing a hijab. That is exactly what they want because they want to scare the shit out of white people. Like that is their political strategy. So they did that. So then the Democrats responded to that. And there were great responses. There were okay responses.

And there were some bad responses. And they ran the gamut from understanding what Trump was trying to do. Yeah. Right? Which is to... And I think this is very important

because if you, like, it is important to understand that the argument is made in bad faith. So if you, in your response, like Kirsten Gillibrand, who we love, but I did not love her response, it talks about minimizing what happened on 9-11. Insinuated that perhaps Ilhan Omar minimized the pain of 9-11. Yes, you're accepting the bad faith on faith, right? You're accepting the premise of the argument. Like, that is a problem.

There are people who mentioned her name, there are people who didn't mention her name. And Democrats got very upset about it. And I have a couple things to say about that. One is, you have, like, the Democratic candidate that I want is one who knows the Republicans are full of shit, but will call them out on it, right? So it's not just, are you going to mention Ilhan Omar's name? Are you going to attack what Trump said? I want someone who is going to call out why Trump and the Republicans are doing this, right? This is a game they're going to play every single fucking day. So explain, like,

why is it they want to scare Americans by distorting the words of a Muslim American congresswoman? What are they trying to distract from? Is it the corruption, the criminality, the fact that we have an energy lobbyist who now runs the interior of the United States? Like, that is what they are trying to do. And call it out for what it is.

Like, we have to call out the game instead of playing the game. The other thing I'll say is, Democrats got very mad about this. And I think we should put pressure on our leaders to do a better job. But we also have to recognize that the entire fucking world is on fire. And we are not one killer tweet away from solving this whole Trump problem. So like, let's, if Nancy Pelosi's first tweet wasn't great, let's tell her that. But Nancy Pelosi is also pretty fucking great. She's doing a lot of other great things. And let's move on. Yes.

It is the deeply frustrating unwritten rules of politics, though, that we were observing in real time, which is that, so Ilhan Omar said a comment about AIPAC that people viewed as suggesting that the only reason you support the state of Israel is for political donations that she apologized for. She said another comment that people thought might have been suggesting that members of Congress should support Israel at dual loyalty. And thus, so when Dan Crenshaw retweeted the Imam of Peace, an Australian imam that I'm sure he follows regularly and is constantly retweeting, it wasn't forwarded by some right-wing organization saying, hey, retweet this to kick up a shit storm people were like oh man she stepped in it again

well we won't necessarily full-throatedly defend her this time and that is bullshit because we need to evaluate each of these things on the merit and it's so clear that she was no way minimizing the 9-11 attacks uh and it was just political gamesmanship. And the press corps and the sort of body politics scores these things in this weird sort of meta way and it is garbage. And I think that a lot of Democrats rejected that. It's also, let's be very clear, this was a fucking plan.

Yeah, absolutely. Someone found this, they're like, who is the best person to raise this point? Who would be unassailable person to do it? And they picked Dan Crenshaw because he's a Navy SEAL who served, I think, five tours overseas. And he has become this Republican

we're supposed to respect because he made fun of on SNL once. Because Pete Davidson attacked him. Yes. I wonder how we deal with situations like this overall. Because you could imagine a controversy like this taking up every weekend every week from now until 2020 that's the fucking plan well that's that that's their plan and look on one hand you can't say just ignore this democrats when when trump

does something like that when he attacks um ilhan Ilhan Omar, takes her words out of context, tries to incite bigotry, potentially violence, you can't just say we're going to ignore it. But on the other hand, we also can't just let ourselves be consumed by it. So I wonder what sort of the strategy is here to make sure that we hit back and call out their bullshit when they do it but then sort of move on to the next thing and not let them own the whole narrative on this yeah i think i think it is just what dan is saying i think it is pointing out that this is the strategy and this is the plan and this is going to happen again and again and again i think to tommy's point i think one of the reasons they would choose to do this is because there was blood in the water from last time. And they saw how with just a little bit of bad faith, they could get Democrats to say things against Democrats

on the AIPAC stage, right? That has value to them. We're stuck, right? We're talking about it right now is the first story, right? We're talking about it. We're not talking about the things we want to be talking about because this does command attention. It matters when a president uses incredibly anti-Muslim sentiment and uses it to try to delegitimize a Democrat because they

don't like the color of her skin and they think it's politically useful to them, even if it stirs up the kind of animus that will cause some person to take matters into their own hands, because that's what's happening again and again and again. So, you know, it's the central problem to Trump, right? What do you do when the person in the office is so fundamentally unfit? It should take all of our attention all the time when defeating him depends on talking about anything else. It's hard. It's also, by the way, we've been talking about these comments the whole time, but like, let's remember, Donald Trump ran for president on the promise that he would ban all Muslims from the country, from coming to the country.

He called it the ban. His press people were like, it's not a ban. He's like, it's a ban. So it's like trying to figure out what they meant by this, what they were trying to do. We know what he was trying to do. He ran for president saying, I want to ban all Muslims from coming to the country,

and then he instituted a travel ban that affected all muslim majority countries she's talking about how muslims are treated like second class citizens and the erosion of their civil rights and he swoops in to prove her point you know so we just have to call that out time and again because it's the right thing to do and i think ultimately being strong in the face of that kind of bullshit people will see through it and they will understand it um i want to move on to a story that's been a little more under the radar, but every bit is alarming. In three different states, Republicans have recently passed fetal heartbeat laws that ban abortions as early as six weeks into a woman's pregnancy, sometimes before many women even know

they're pregnant. In the past, courts have ruled that similar laws are unconstitutional, but with Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, anti-abortion activists are making a renewed push to overturn Roe v. Wade. Alyssa, how alarming is this, and what do we know so far about Brett Kavanaugh's views on abortion since he's become a Supreme Court justice? So, this is sort of the result of everybody paying attention to this fake war he's waging against Ilhan Omar, right? We're all talking about that. Very few people know that in, and I wrote this down because I didn't want to get it wrong, North Dakota, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, and soon to be signed in Georgia,

is the heartbeat ban. The reason, as Fab said, that this makes abortion illegal after a detectable heartbeat, which is approximately six weeks, which is before most women know they're pregnant. The reason that, you know, some sort of like liberal folks aren't that worked up about it is because they're like, well, it's still illegal. It's illegal under Roe v. Wade. These laws are illegal. But this is the whole point. They want these cases to be brought up to the supreme court where we have neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh brett kavanaugh who susan collins said he says roe v wade is settled law okay allegedly and thanks joe mansion for endorsing susan collins Susan Collins, like, thank you, goodbye. But, I'm sorry. I can't stand it.

Boo! Stop reminding us of the news. Okay, I'm glad we're mad. Don't yell at me. It's not my fault. But the sort of, where this is getting to an even crazier place is that in Texas, there is actually a law that's been passed that says a woman who has an abortion can be eligible for the death penalty. Like this is where we're at. And none of you knew that, did you? No one knew

that. And that's really happening. And you know what I just have to end with is like, what about the fucking dudes? How come like the woman didn't get pregnant on her own, but she, she is going to go on death row. And like all these conservative dudes are like, yeah, it's her fault. So she's going to go on death row, but he's fine. And so, but this is what's happening when we all pay attention to the stupid stories that Trump kicks up every day is that the Republicans are super organized and this is happening in every state, which is why like when everyone starts talking about 2020, which is great and it's sexy and it's exciting, it is nothing compared to the local elections that are happening all the time where this stuff happens. So obviously we can't do anything about the Supreme Court right now. We're waiting for

a presidential election in 2020. What can be done on a state level to protect access to abortion? So one, I think that everybody should sign up at their local NARAL or NARAL National, N-A-R-A-L, and follow because Elise Hogue, who is the executive director and the organization, are really doing everything they can to make sure that everybody knows what is at stake in their region, in their state, in their city, in their town. And they have been super active, especially through Kavanaugh. And because it's, I mean, the thing is people just have to realize what's happening in their community. That's the most important thing. And a number of states that have Democratic majorities, right, can pass laws protecting.

They can. They can. And they have can and they have some of them have and some of them since uh since kavanaugh uh since the election and since kavanaugh was put on the court several states have passed um protections for abortion in case roe was overturned okay well that's good news yeah um okay we will be right back with more news after this. Now it's time for OK Stop. We'll roll a clip. The panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment. Because it's Palm Sunday, I thought we'd enjoy a clip. The panel can say, okay, stop at any point to comment. Because it's Palm Sunday, I thought we'd enjoy a clip from the Fox News journalist

who most often causes me to smack my face with my palm. I'm speaking, of course, of everyone's favorite Fox News host who ties his hood in a bow tie, Tucker Carlson. Last week, he was pretty mad Democrats were making it easier to vote. Let's take a look. Lowering the voting age to 16. You for that? Again, I think what we're trying to do with HR1

is safeguard against voter suppression. You think it's a joke. Okay, stop. That's a former Clinton advisor? Who is that? I don't know who that is. I've never seen him in my life. It's not... I will say, Tucker? I don't know who that is. Never seen him in my life. It's not...

I will say, Tucker Carlson does not know how to laugh. No. It is hysterical. Yeah, he laughed like... Like he just pushed somebody into a pool who was wearing a tuxedo. I think it's a joke to say that children should vote.

Look, in a lot of states in the country, people are taking measures, closing polling places, reducing the number of days for early voting. Well, it's an attempt to whip up racial hysteria. And actually, African-American voters in the last couple of elections in a lot of places have a much higher turnout than white voters. I just not all of them are not voting. Yeah, well, it's just like, because black turnout is up, then suppression hasn't happened anywhere? No, exactly right.

In a lot of places, black turnout is up. Well, the places where the voter suppression is occurring, it is down, you fucking prick. That is the whole point. And... But also, it's just saying, like,

there are laws in place to try to suppress the vote. Sometimes they work, but sometimes they didn't. And it's also... Sometimes people overcame those laws. One of the reasons... One law was overturned. One of the laws he's saying wasn't passed because it's for racial reasons.

The court overturned it by saying it targeted African Americans with surgical precision. That is the exact quote from the court ruling about these laws. That's all. The idea that there's, I'm sure that there is crummy voting behavior, maybe even suppression in isolated places. Okay, stop.

He made a deliberate choice to ditch the bow tie. Why? He looks like he beat up a local prep school kid and took that tie that he's wearing. I'm not sure how that fight played itself out. Very subtle imagery with the black donkey there, too. The opposite of the truth, actually. No, because I think they'd be voting in bigger numbers still if they were...

They have a higher turnout than white voters. So let's be real for a second. How is that possible? All the Democrats were like, you know what? We should just go on Fox more. Just go on Fox more. This fucking guy hasn't said two words. It's not a fair fight when you go on.

He's also waving a teal marker, which is strange. This isn't some environment where they let you on the show and they're like, let's have a fair debate. I don't know why Democrats didn't debate on this network. And not racist. Finally, a Democratic voice

is breaking through to Tucker's viewers and cracking that delicate latticework of propaganda. That may be a lot of things. It's not suppression. So let's stop saying that because it scares people. Well, no, it's it's a demonstrable fact. Take Georgia as an example. Well, you know what happened. There were all these people that were stripped from their voter rolls who were disproportionately black. I mean, you call that what you want. It's it feels like voter suppression. Racializing everything only makes people hate each other.

Racializing everything is on the wall in the bathroom at Fox. Yeah, it's her mission statement. They print it on stress balls. They printed on stress balls. There is bias in the country. Let's expose it. But saying there's suppression when African-American voters vote in a higher percentage than white voters, it's just, it's a terror attack. But if you're stripping people out and it so happens that they're disproportionately black, you call that what you want.

I'm just looking at a fact. I'm not putting a label on it. Okay, stop. I'm not sure we sent our best here no i think he's doing okay i actually think he's doing okay i want to be fair i think he's doing okay fact okay it's a face analysis those people it's actually not funny no i know it's not that's why it's okay stop wait i like he's right it's not funny i thought you're gonna say something something. No, wait for it. Go for it.

Richard, thank you very much. Sure. 900-foot, one-bedroom apartments in San Francisco rent for just $4,500 a month. And if you can afford the rent, you'll be able to see for yourself just how repulsive San Francisco's trash-covered, syringe-laden streets have become. Investigation into the crumbling state of California. Straight ahead. All right, let's talk about 2020.

Oh, wait, wait, wait. John. John, how dare you? And that's okay. Stop. Back to you. So, 2020, since we're here in the home of the first in the nation primary. Easy pander.

Easy pander. Very easy. Two more Democratic candidates who have been in an exploratory phase officially kicked off their presidential campaigns this weekend. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. There you go. Okay. Wow.

Very interesting. Tell us how you really feel. Who was the other one? Cory Booker. Cory Booker. So I want to start with Mayor Pete. I don't know what. Okay, Bernie.

Yeah, he's also a candidate. We're going to be here a long time if everyone yells at all the candidates. We can't name them all. Anti-Game of Thrones. I want to start with Mayor Pete, whose meteoric rise in the polls can be traced directly to the Pod Save America interview he did with Dan last month. You're welcome, Mayor Pete. It's the Dan bump. Dan, Pete raised more money than all but three other Democrats.

He's probably received the most glowing media coverage of any Democrat running. What are his challenges now? What does he need to do to make sure this is more than just a moment for him? He has to take the momentum he has, the money he has, and turn it into an organization

that can run a real campaign in the four early primary states to set them up to have a chance to compete in all the rest of the states that come right after South Carolina. You can get lots of press coverage, you can raise lots of money, but if you do not take the opportunity you have

when you have it and translate it into, as everyone here in New Hampshire knows, a real campaign filled with organizers and volunteers that go door to door and build a true grassroots organization. If you don't do that, then you'll just have your moment in the sun, and it'll be someone else's turn. DAVID MALAN, And do you think, when a candidate has

the momentum and sort of excitement behind them that Pete currently does, that obviously, even if you're starting very late building an organization as he is because he did not obviously expect to get this far do you that obviously helps build that organization do you think there's enough talent organizers on the field right now oh yeah for sure I think there are a lot of people who have been holding their fire you know there have been very few endorsements from Iowa New Hampshire South South Carolina, etc., like political leaders, elected leaders, because they're looking at this huge field that is

huge, filled with very talented people, and they're sort of holding their fire for later on. I think that for Mayor Pete, the challenge is going to be figuring out what his path is, right? Like, where is he going to compete? How is he going to compete? And how can you maintain this momentum, right? Like, generally, you want to have your momentum late, right? Like, we know from how we worked for President Obama, we came in the race in early 2007, huge gangbusters, huge first quarter fundraising, and then it was a fucking slog

until the month before Iowa. Right. We were down 30 points in the polls to Hillary and we hit our momentum right in Iowa at the very last minute there. That was right about when you guys sent me to New Hampshire. It's true. And so the question for me is...

I just want to also say, Dan, I want to thank a New Hampshire that decided to make 26 year old very sad gay speech writer who's very tired hold out hope for another six months. Sorry Dan. So the question for Mayor Pete is

this momentum will go away. Momentum comes and goes but organization is what sustains. So will we be able to build an organization that can get him through what will invariably be ups and downs of a campaign in slow months to when it actually matters is when people start voting. Yeah. Alyssa, what do you make of the Mayor Pete phenomenon? So a couple of things. You guys know that I have a very different perspective than some other people. You know, so I thought that like I watched Mayor Pete's entire event today when I was on my way here and just kind of building up to it. I think that the one thing he's done really well is that I think that his campaign has like a real aesthetic and then like an ethos. Like, you know what Mayor Pete stands for. You get a sense like you go to his website. He has like the media toolkit, like just some like very sort of granular things that I look out for and care about. things that I look out for and care about.

But I think they've done a really good job of like slowly building under the radar to today. And so he had this, this like, I thought very good launch. He had, you know, I would just caution anyone who's like announcing for president, just like fewer people in your pre-program because it's kind of a buzzkill. But, but no, you know, I think that he came out with like a really good, like I feel like I know a lot more about who he is and what his campaign's about than I do some of the other candidates. We said when he first announced an exploratory committee and he came out with that video when most people barely knew who he was.

You instantly were like, oh, generational change. There's his message. There's his story. It fits with his identity. He seems comfortable, too. You know, like some people are like preaching. You're like, okay, I get, you think that's what we want to hear. But I feel like that's really kind of, I think that he's being, for lack of a better word, like pretty authentic and that his campaign is really fueled by people who get what he's about, win or lose. You know, I feel like he's got all the right people

on board to help him. What did you guys think of the speech today? I thought Mayor Pete's speech forged an emotional connection with the listener. When he talked about his parents needing health services and the fact that his husband, who several years ago he would not have been able to marry, could be there because of laws that were passed like it it made me understand who he is and his values and why he cares about change on a deep emotional way and you contrast that with some of the other speeches we've seen like for example Cory Booker's speech was also this weekend and like he is an incredibly passionate uh intense emotional person but that speech was less a story about himself and what he'd done in Newark and the things he cares about than a litany of policy areas like Mayor Pete's speech was actually

pretty policy free yeah in a strange way but I connected with what you know that emotional story just because of that's how humans work we we connect with stories that's how we learn as we understand things, right? So it's a good lesson for anyone who wants to run for any office. You have to make your audience understand who you are and what you care about because that makes you believe while you be for them. So, you know, I get the Pete Boomlet. I really do.

Like most, I feel like most speeches, I mean, are platitudes. Like, I mean, let's just be honest. That's sort of what the announcement speech is. Take that, speech writers. How dare you? Okay, when it's artfully done,

all right. Shame on you. Well-written platitudes, We invite you to come with us. We love having you around. We think of you as a dear friend. We get on the stage.

You just might as well just, you want to bury my career in the ground? What about John's? Hey, platitudes make the world go round. You guys, in the back of my car, I drive with platitudes on my Ford Escape. I'm just saying that like he did a good job of punctuating the platitudes as Barack Obama did with personal stories. Hey, Alyssa, what's the name of your book with a bunch of emotional stories that made

me feel and want to know you better? Oh, do you mean So Here's the Thing? Well, I will say this. You're absolutely right about the story thing, right? Because the people who say, oh, I mean, so like he didn't have a ton of policy. There wasn't like a ton of substance, right? But yet it was an emotional speech

that forged a connection, right? So all the people who say like, oh, you just got to have policy and substance. Of you do that's the basis of any campaign person who's leading with the most policy in the campaign right now is elizabeth warren right but i will say this elizabeth warren's announcement speech which she did in lawrence and she told a story about a strike there she told a story about her own life. That was an excellent announcement speech as well. Why was that an excellent announcement speech? Not because she rattled off all her policies in that speech. She did not.

She again told a story about who she was and her rationale for running. And obviously Pete, at some point soon, is going to have to have some substance. I think his speech, the ending of his speech was beautiful and powerful and very good. I think the parts where he talks about freedom, security, that's fine. That's a rationale, but whatever, that'll be filled out with substance. But I think the emotional parts of that speech, the parts that really connected were the parts about his life and what he's doing in the race and what's driving him to run for president and want to serve. And I think that's really powerful. I think that's right. I also think, you know, in addition, what Dan pointed out about organizing,

I do think a challenge for all of these candidates who are all being very ambitious because they know where they're they know who they're trying to reach and where their heads are at right now. Very ambitious and painting, telling a story about a fundamental shift. Right. That's not just away from Trump, but there's been an embrace of very big ideas and big policies and accepting the notion that America needs big changes. That's partly how we ended up in this mess and kind of facing and reckoning with big problems. And they're all struggling to put forward platforms

that rise to that level. But I think even that's true for Cory Booker, that will be true for Mayor Pete, making sure that when he does put forward policies, it reaches the heights of the kind of rhetoric and story he's telling about America. That's true. That's necessary. And we always say in Obama world that campaigning is about telling a story. But the moment we're in, how we get out of that moment, and why the candidate is the person uniquely suited to

get us out of that moment. That's right. And so you have to have a good story. But I think what is important to Mayor Pete's rise is that in this totally fucked up media environment where we're supposed to talk about Ilhan Omar and everyone's tweets and a thousand channels and a thousand options, being able to tell your story to people, like how do you get it from your mouth into people's brains is a fundamental part of a campaign. Because we have a lot of candidates with great stories, but how do you make it that people know who you are and know why you're running and mayor pete to his great credit has found a way to break through in this environment when a lot of other candidates haven't

yeah and that is important to someone just in a primary of a thousand people to to rise at the top of that but is also in a nominee when we all say in polls, we want someone who can win, because obviously we don't want someone who's going to lose, because that'd be a waste of time. But like part of it is, is like, how do you tell your story instead of just responding to Trump's story, right? That's what we want in a nominee who is not going to be wrapped around the Trump axle the whole time. And I will say, the fact that the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, the fourth largest city in that state,

is able to rise to the point where people know who he is and he gets a loud applause in this room in New Hampshire, which happens to be an important state, is a credit to the fact, never changed New Hampshire, is a credit to his ability

to not just have a good story, but to be able to communicate it. Dan, wait, I just, what is it? Why do you think, what is the thing that has allowed Pete Buttigieg to break through?

Because I don't know that you would see it in a transcript, right? What exactly do you think has managed to cut through? Because he's very mild-mannered, right? That's, I think, part of what makes it impressive. But what do you think it is? I think it is both a question of message and a question of message delivery. And so on message, he very clearly knows why he's running. It is very much about generational change,

which separates him from everyone else in the field. Because most people who are running, not everyone, but most people have a very similar reason for why they're running. They think they'd be a better president than Donald Trump, which is a good reason to be president. It's like, but like, we'd be better presidents than Donald Trump.

Yeah, exactly. It's true of 300 million Americans as well. But he also has been unafraid to go everywhere. He has been omnipresent in the media and he understands that in this disaggregated media age that you have to speak to everyone all the time so he does positive america which is obviously a great thing to do but he's doing preet bahar's uh podcast he's on cnn he's on he said yes to everything he says yes to everything. He says yes to everything. And what he understands is that like a most more traditional old school politicians think, I'm going to say one thing and then it's going to be the media outlets job to take that my

message and communicate to voters. Pete understands that to get your message out in this environment, you have to work harder and longer and speak more often than in any other time in American history. And he is doing that. Now, the question for him will be, he's now done all these interviews. What comes next? So he's going to have to find ways that is more than just telling the Pete Buttigieg story

to get his message out. He's going to have to find substance, different contrasts, battles with Trump, battles with Democrats that allow that message to keep going for another year now. But he has understood this media environment better than anyone else running right now. And the oppo people are going to start coming his way

and attacking him as much as they've been attacking some of the other primers. No, that is the other thing, is that up until this point, I think the other candidates have treated Mayor Pete as their non-threatening friend. Seems like a nice young man. We'd love to have him as a roommate. Do you mean the way you guys treat me? What's that? I was just kidding. I think you're very threatening

um so you terrify me alissa no i don't love it you scare me you look beautiful you're so thin let's talk about new jersey's cory booker um who was also a mayor of a city almost three times as large as south bend um went on to become a U.S. senator with some notable accomplishments around criminal justice reform, and now finds himself trailing candidates like Buttigieg in both polls and fundraising, and he's in the middle of the pack. What do you think of his speech, first of all, Tommy, you started talking about that, but what's his strategy to break out of the pack here? Me? Yeah. I mean, I don't know yet.'s the problem right i mean i i thought the speech wasn't as good as cory booker is especially on paper because you compare mayor pete to to cory booker cory booker is the mayor of a much bigger city now he with some success uh he's a great

story to tell he's a great story to tell about his time as mayor. He has lived his values. He still lives in Newark in a low-income neighborhood. He was elected to be a U.S. senator, and he's done some impressive things, and he is someone who is brilliant. And, you know, like, I think he is a undervalued stock. I think he has enormous potential to break through because I think that a hopeful, optimistic message about love and uplifting people has the chance to be what people want to hear in an era of Trump, but we just haven't gotten there yet. What did you think, Lovett?

Like, you know, as you all know, I am for every candidate during their announcement videos for at least 15 minutes thereafter until the glow fades. I am in in their speeches. When I'm supposed to be emotional, I tend to be. I thought what made me excited about Cory Booker is in his announcement video, he reminded me about what makes Cory Booker interesting. And he does have a language about love that sometimes is a bit extra, but is him and is

compelling. And what I'm disappointed with when I see Cory Booker speak is when he sounds, when he gives a speech that other politicians could give because he's not other politicians. And so I don't need to hear a litany of Democratic positions that Hillary Clinton could take and would take because they're good policies or another candidate might have on their roster too. And that will certainly be the Democratic platform, no matter who's the nominee. You say an interesting thing about the importance of love and how radical it be and how central it is to our politics.

You talk about compassion for even people we disagree with and making it a point of difference with other candidates and talking about the importance of compromise. I want to know what that means, because I do think it's interesting and I do think it's important. What do you mean by bringing people together in a deeper fundamental

way in which you recognize your opponents as human? What does that actually do? And what are we not doing right? Because certainly you can't be saying that the way we bring people together is just by winning. We must be doing something wrong too. What is it? And I think that if he can start telling that deeper story,

which I believe he's thought about. He's staked the campaign on that rationale. Yes, yes. And I think that is, to Tommy's point, what makes Cory Booker special and different. And I think that's what I want to hear moving forward. I think the sports equivalent of Cory Booker's speech is, when you were down 20 points,

you don't have to get all 20 points back in the second quarter. Right? It felt like that speech, which had a lot of really good points. I know this because there's two more quarters. Don't have to get all 20 points back in the second quarter. Like that speech, which had a lot of really good points. Don't you need more than 20? What's that? Don't you need more than 20? Because you don't need to make them back right away because they'll be

the third quarter and the fourth quarter. Yeah, you get five points. You get seven points, seven points, six points if you needed to. That's why we bring you on, the math. And you don't have to solve all your problems right now. And I felt like he was trying to do a lot in that speech. And in trying to do too much in that speech, he lost the parts that are the best about Cory Booker,

which is his story in Newark and where he wants to take the country. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I mean, he said towards the end of the speech, I'm the only senator that goes home and lives in a low-income community. And I was like, start with that. Right. So one last thing to talk about. And I was like, start with that. Right. So one last thing to talk about.

We've got that specific advice sometimes. We've got very tactical in a way that I like and I'm finding it interesting. We're trying to be helpful. No, I'm into it. Like you said, we're pulling that lever for all of them. Any one of them that walks in there. One last thing to talk about

since we're here in New Hampshire. As I said before, the state will hold the first in the nation primary applause um but um recently uh be more bashful about it he's like you're bragging about this thing the rest of us notice we like voting too finish Finished my sentence, but recently us assholes in California decided to move our primary up to March 3rd. And our early voting will begin about a week before

the New Hampshire primary. And it'll be 78 and sunny. Dan, how does... I got a real laugh, love it. How does California moving up, Texas moving up, states like that, how does that affect New Hampshire and Iowa's and South Carolina and Nevada's influence on the primary process? Here's a rule that you can take to the bank. Okay.

A rule when you can take a lot of rules to the bank, which is whatever the intention of any Democratic Party primary reform is, we'll have the opposite effect. So the goal was to reduce the influence of Iowa and New Hampshire in particular. And so we'll move these giant states that are too expensive and too big to organize in, we'll move them to two days after, or three days after the South Carolina primary,

therefore making it, the four early states, massively more important. Because in a party, in a field of 19 people, you're important, we know it. In a field of 19 people, there is no candidate. Boo, we don't like being reminded that we're second. It makes us feel bad. I mean, I just want to say I've always come to New Hampshire,

never Iowa. What is this devolved into? I know. New Hampshire. Point being is that no candidate is going to be able to skip Iowa and New Hampshire

to campaign in California. The nominee will almost certainly be someone who won either Iowa or New Hampshire because you need the momentum of winning one of those two states, if not both of them, to get the name ID and the funding you need to run real campaigns

in a state as large as California and Texas. Tommy, states like New Hampshire and Iowa, where you lived for years, Obama's press secretary, why you have all that Iowa love, do get criticism for their early status because they're small, because they're not as representative as the population as a whole. Why are these early contests valuable and worth having? Or maybe you think they're not. No, I do.

Discuss. Or maybe you think they're not. No, I do. Discuss. Dan's point is so funny because also it's like Democrats are like, let's reduce the role of money in politics by making the two most populous, biggest states in the country earlier in the process, therefore increasing the need to advertise in them and raise money.

But I digress. That was not your question. My year in Iowa, which is obviously rose-colored glasses as I look back on it but was was marked by hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of town halls with incredibly well-informed well-educated voters who threw fastballs at barack obama all day every day and made him a better candidate right like the first time i heard about some of the most onerous, problematic provisions in the Patriot Act were in a backyard in Iowa. And I was like, oh, fuck.

I hope he knows what that farmer is asking about. And luckily, he did because he was a constitutional law professor. So I think... I hope, I hope, I hope truly that we never lose, we never lose the part of the political process that is mom and pop and some candidate driving around in a van doing five stops in cafes and restaurants. Are you going to announce? Which is why tonight I have to tell you.

No, it's like, so look, Iowa's 90% white. That is not representative of the country it's not representative of the democratic party i think like there are real representation problems uh that the democratic party has sought to solve by moving up uh nevada and california and no by moving up those states and south carolina is a much larger African-American population. But I do think that the way politics is practiced in some of the early states, the way that voters and the press have real access to these candidates to ask them questions, is incredibly valuable.

It makes them better candidates, better presidents, and it's a good way to vet them. We don't want campaigns that are run on television all the time. No, it sucks. It's just bad. Just Twitter. All campaigns on Twitter. Yeah. Our tees and faves. Alright. When we come back, we'll have Governor Jay Inslee. He is the Governor of Washington State

and now he's running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Jay Inslee. How are you? I'm happy to be here and looking forward to getting everybody to the Game of Thrones as soon as we can. Yeah, no spoilers. No spoilers. It is all about climate change, though, I have to say.

It's true. So we have a, Dan did a longer interview with you as part of our candidate series earlier today, so that will be out on Tuesday, but we'll do a little short interview now. I noticed that you were one of the first two or three candidates to issue a statement in support of Ilhan Omar over the weekend. What made you act so fast? What was your thought process when you saw Donald Trump's tweet? Outrage, number one. And two, a consistent pattern of how I've responded to his incredible hatred and divisiveness. I was the first governor to say we should accept Syrian refugees. This has been inhumane what Trump has done to refugees.

I was, when he announced his Muslim ban I went right to the airport to try to reunite families something I believe very strongly and this was an obvious attack because he cannot stand he just can't stand the thought that we could have a woman of

color wearing a hijab in the United States Congress I can stand that. We believe that diversity is a strength. And so that was the right response when he exposed her personally to violence. And by the way, that was not just an attack on her. It was an attack on every single Muslim in America, including people in the service, in the armed service of the United States.

So it was the right thing to do, and I'm glad others joined me. Do you think when he does stuff like that, he is intentionally inciting violence, or do you think he's just not thinking and being his oafish self and tweeting shit like that? You know, I'd never want to go into that dark space between his ears, believe me. That's probably smart.

Listen, we know for a certainty that he has an interest in just trying to stir up his ears. It's probably smart. Listen, we know for a certainty that he has an interest in just trying to stir up his base. I think he has demonstrated a callous indifference to humanity in so many different ways that I don't think it would bother him if in fact it did result in violence.

That's a really hard thing to say. It's a very hard thing to say, but I believe that it is true. So it is our responsibility now to do everything possible to restore democracy and justice. And that's why I intend to make him a blip in history in 2020. That is my intention. I saw you on Meet the Press this morning talking about Trump's so-called threat

to send asylum seekers to sanctuary cities. Obviously, Seattle is one, and you welcomed this. On the broader question of immigration reform, you know, one of the candidates running, Julian Castro, has put out a detailed immigration plan, and he has a proposal to decriminalize unauthorized border crossings so that they'd be treated as a civil offense and not a criminal offense. What do you think of that proposal? You know, I haven't thought a lot about that, but by the way, I just want to mention Trump has,

quote, threatened us by sending refugees. Go ahead and send them. That doesn't threaten us at all. We know refugees become part of our community. I just want to say that. So look, we need truly comprehensive immigration reform. We have 11 million people, some of the hardest working people in my state, need to have a path to citizenship, number one. Number two, we have to stop Donald Trump from treating dreamers like poker chips. These are some of the most ambitious people. And I have been very successful getting them a way to finance college education. I'm happy about that. We know we have to increase

the capacity we have to fairly process asylum seekers. We know we have to do that. And I think that could be the most single most important thing that we can do. We know we have to do that. And I think that could be the most single most important thing that we can do. You won't have to make the changes that you just suggested as long as people have a fair day in court. Now, the other thing we need to do is a lot of these people are refugees, not just asylum seekers. They are climate refugees. They're the tip of the iceberg. So here you have Donald Trump, who calls climate change a hoax, refusing to do anything about the thing that is driving migration and will drive millions of people as climate refugees in the future. It is time to have a president

who will make defeating climate change the number one job of the United States, and we have that with the results of those migrations. So obviously as you just said and a lot of democratic, most of the democratic candidates have said this, you want to make sure we have a path to citizenship for the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants who are here. You want to make sure that DREAMers can become citizens. What do you do about immigration enforcement? Would you go back to the enforcement policies of the Obama years or do you think we need something different? Well, I think that we need to be responsible on a variety of measures. Number one, we have to be human on how we treat humans and stop separating children from their parents,

number one. Number two, we have to follow the law, which today allows asylum for legitimate purposes. And those folks deserve, and we deserve, to have a system that allows them in a timely fashion have their cases adjudicated. That means a lot more hearing judges. By the way, Trump says he wants to get rid of judges. We need more judges to rein this guy in.

I'm glad we're 18-0 in our lawsuits against him right now, by the way. That's a pretty good track record. So we need to have not the wall, which we know is a vanity project. Can you imagine how many people we could put to school and how much health care we could do with all that money going to that wall? And it's interesting to me because even the Republicans rejected rejected the wall right even the republicans rejected the wall and i'm hopeful that the courts are going to throw it out uh maybe that'll be 19 and 0 or 18 and 0 right now um so you know we were just talking about how democratic candidates stand out in a crowded field um

you're doing that by focusing on climate change you just mentioned as the reason why you're running for president. It is now one of the top issues for Democratic voters, but it's still not being covered or talked about at a level, I think, that's commensurate with the challenge. I'm sure that you would agree. Why do you think that is, and what are some of the strategies you've pursued in Washington to keep this issue at the top of the agenda?

How do you make people care about this? Well, what makes people care about this is the disasters they're seeing. I personally try to help make sure people understand this. I was in Hamburg, Iowa the day before yesterday, a town of about 1,100. It was founded in 1878 or 58, I can't remember which. Never had a flood. Now it's been inundated by the flood of Missouri River and substantially destroyed. I was in Seminole Springs in California in the footholds of Los Angeles where a hundred people with mobile homes, beautiful little community, devastated. And I went there to bring attention to this issue. And I met a woman named Marsha Moss

that sticks up out my mind. She asked me to come see her home or what was left of it. And I went there to bring attention to this issue, and I met a woman named Marcia Moss that sticks out in my mind. She asked me to come see her home or what was left of it, and I went up and looked at it. It was just this pile of melted aluminum. But what she told me was interesting. She said, I want to show you my entire net worth. I have lost everything in life, because a lot of these people are uninsured

in their mobile homes, but I have this. I have this driveway. I built this driveway by hand, and she did this kind of intricate rock work that she was very proud of. She said, I'm proud of this. It's still something I have, number one. And number two, I have a measure of hope because you have come here today as a governor, and you have said that you're going to make defeating climate change so that these forest fires don't devastate other cities and that is hope we need and I'm running for president United States fundamentally because I want to be able to look at my grandchildren in

the eye and my last day on earth and said I did everything I could to save them from the scourge of climate change and I'm going to make this job number one, if I'm given this honor, because if it's not job number one, it won't get done. And there is one candidate saying that, and that's me, and I'm ready to defeat climate change as President of the United States. So that's what I'm doing. What, in your opinion, is the most exciting, promising climate policy that we're not talking enough about? Well, I think the one I've learned two things. And look, I've been at this for 20 years. I co-authored a book on this in 2007.

It was about, it was called A Polar's Fire, Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy. By the way, the movie rights are still available for anyone who's interested. Snap them up. You know, I founded the U.S. Climate Alliance with Jerry Brown and Governor Cuomo. We now have 23 states who are in the Paris Agreement. We wanted to demonstrate to the world that there is intelligent life in the United States. And we were able to do that, okay? life in the United States. And we were able to do that. Okay. So I ran for Congress in 1992,

saying that we should limit carbon dioxide. So I've been at this for a long time. I've learned two things. Number one, the most important renewable fuel is perseverance. We just cannot give up in the face of frustration frustration because this is our last chance. We have kicked this can down the road for 30 years. We have one more shot to save the planet. It's the next presidency. And that's why we have to understand this is a matter of urgent peril where we only have one chance. We have to take it. The second thing I've learned is that there are multiple ways to skin this cat, and that's good news.

So in my state, we've built a $6 billion wind turbine industry because of a renewable portfolio standard. In my state, we're going to have 50,000 cars that are all electric here in the next several months. In my state, we're spinning off businesses that are clean fuel businesses. In my state, my house passed my 100% clean electricity bill. We're going to have 100% clean electricity with no fossil fuels in the decades to come. And we're closing, and we're closing, we are closing our only remaining coal plant, and we are getting ourselves off of coal-based electricity. But there is more to do. One of the things we have to do is we have to end kaput,

end the gravy train of $27 billion of tax breaks going to the fossil fuel industry. We need to end that right now. We need to stop, we need to stop, allow the pillaging of our public lands and stop these leases of giveaways of fossil fuel off of our public lands now we need a new president to make sure that that happens um obviously so the promise of the of the green new deal is twofold right one is we do everything we need to do to tackle climate change. The other is we do so in a way that ensures not only economic opportunity, but economic justice for underserved communities. And that's everything from a job guarantee to health care to making sure that underserved

communities, communities of color don't bear the brunt of the transition. Do you think that second part is absolutely necessary? Do you think that second part is absolutely necessary? Or do you think that we can focus on the climate challenge and that it would be nice if we can focus on this too on the economic side? Or how do you see this? I think there's two fundamental parts of the American character that need to be imbued in this national mission. And it is a national mission. Number one, we have to make sure we have not just a transition but we need a just transition. We know we have to transition

off of a carbon fuel based economy to one that is based on clean energy and in that period we have to have justice and can have justice to use this system of reducing income inequality, of riding along of the ancient wrongs we had in our society, in taking care of the marginalized communities. It's usually people in poverty and communities of color who are the first victims of climate change. And so we need to target them for relief and protection in our infrastructure in a variety of ways.

We've got to help them like I'm doing in my 100% clean bill. We're giving protection for low-income people to help them with their utility bills, for instance. We have another bill called the HEAL Act, which will map the state to find out where these communities of poverty are being injured by climate change. But we also have to think about justice in another regard. We cannot forget the people who have worked their lives and industries that are going to go through through transition and we have to we have to take care of their needs and their aspirations. These are great people. They've worked hard all their life. They've built the American

economy and we can't forget them. So let me give an example. We're closing our our first coal, our last coal-fired plant but we just didn't shut it off and tell all those workers to go fish. We created a $55 million fund to make sure that those people who might not be able to continue their careers to get into another career and get the training that's necessary. And a plan to help small businesses to grow

and a plan to help the local communities in their infrastructure. We should put justice into this transition. I'm committed to that. Now, the second thing I think we need is optimism and confidence. And I'm an optimistic person. I believe we can do this. We innovate, we create, we build.

Today, clean energy jobs are growing twice as fast as the average in the rest of the economy. The number one fast-gr growing jobs is in solar installer. The number two is wind turbine technician. Donald Trump is wrong. Wind turbines do not cause cancer. They cause jobs. Okay. They cause jobs. That's what they cause. So we need to have, we need to look at this as an enormous economic opportunity. And this is how, this is how we win. Look, I was democratic chair of the Governors this year. We flipped seven seats from red to blue. We won.

We won. By the way, that was right in the heartland. Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas. We flipped these seats because we took a message to people of economic hope associated in large part by clean energy jobs. This is how we win. We know how to win and I'm confident in our ability to do so. One last question. You recently said that Washington State has America's best marijuana.

Is that something that you hear? How can you prove that? Well, it was... I can tell you... Reasonably good on two occasions in the 1970s. Perfect. That's all I was looking for. But before we go, I want to say something. My candidacy is not just about climate change. It's about a progressive template for progressive values in the United States.

Under my governorship, we've done the best paid family leave in America, the best minimum wage, the first net neutrality bill in the United States to guard our freedom of the Internet, the best gender pay equity. We're radicals in Washington. We think women should get paid the same as men. The best reproductive parity act. And you know what?

This year I got a 12% increase for educators in my state, and I'm very proud of this. Very good. So we've done some good things. We want to take that to the nation. Excellent. Governor Inslee, thank you so much. You want to stick around for a little game?

Yeah, you bet. I'm game, you bet Let's do it New Hampshire Live free or die in a car accident Because it's the only state where you aren't required to wear a seatbelt Live free or go back to Massachusetts. Live free and ski on basically ice.

Yikes. It melts, it freezes, it melts, it freezes. What do you think is happening? And sure, New Hampshire might seem like the South snuck up into the woods and decided to cosplay as liberals. But you're also hiding a secret. New Hampshire's a fantastic place to vote. The voter turnout in New Hampshire was in the top five for the 2016 election with nearly 70% of eligible voters casting ballots,

a big reason New Hampshire traditionally has made it easy for grounded staters to register and cast a ballot. But don't worry. Last year, Republicans passed a lot of change, all that. The New Hampshire-tonians, I believe is how is the word, will need to pay to get a New Hampshire driver's license and register their car in the state. If a student can't afford that, they can't afford to vote. So let's talk about New Hampshire's proud tradition of voting

and the Republicans' plans to screw it up in a game we're calling Vote Free or Die, like how the old man of the mountain killed himself when he found out Trump would be president. Would someone out there like to play the game? Hi. Hi, what's your name? Corey. What was it? Corey.

Courtney? C-O-R-E-Y. Corey? Yep, yep. I'm a teacher You're a teacher What do you teach? English English? Uh-huh

And are you from New Hampshire? No Okay But every time, like clockwork. Second, someone says they're not from here in a game, you turn into a Trump rally. You guys have your cards. You're ready to play.

Governor, thank you so much for enduring this entire thing I just did. Question number one. New Hampshire Republicans claim the new residency requirement is designed to prevent voter fraud, but voter fraud is already a crime and already extremely rare. Why might Republicans actually want to keep college students from the polls? Is it A? Have you ever tried to do literally any human activity in a college town?

Just a bunch of fully grown adults in hoodies and flannel pajamas with no voice modulation who think they're tired because they're hungover and have never actually been tired their whole goddamn lives. Or is it B? Young people prefer Democrats. In 2016, 18 to 29-year-old voters in New Hampshire made up over 20% of the electorate, and they preferred Clinton over Trump by an 8-point margin. Clinton won the state by just 0.3%, roughly 3,000 votes.

Or is it C? Republicans were mostly interested in keeping out the jocks from Kappa Sigma after Spanky and Moose pants Governor Sununu. Or is it D? One Republican legislator was quoted saying, these very handsome athletes with their perfect toned arms have no business making me, I mean my wife, uncomfortable. Or is it E?

If college kids wanted to vote, they should have thought of that before turning 18 while America was sliding into a kind of post-empire semi-literate authoritarian decline. What do you think, Corey? B. It's B. You got it. Your own Bill O'Brien said to a Tea Party gathering in 2011, this is what he said when he was New Hampshire Speaker of the House,

the kids are coming out of the schools and basically doing what I did when I was a kid, which is voting liberal. That's what kids do. God bless them. Question two. In 2012, Republicans passed the first voter ID law in New Hampshire. If voters didn't have an approved form of photo ID, they could sign an affidavit or have an election official verify their identity, which doubled wait times at polling places.

But the law wasn't suppressive enough, so Republicans had another go in 2015. Just in time for the 2016 election, New Hampshire voters without an approved form of photo ID can only cast a ballot if you let a poll worker do what? Is it A, tell you why Game of Thrones is totally overrated, which is so annoying it's anti-American? Is it B, spend one night with their wife? Voting rights organizations were quick to denounce this policy,

calling it truly an indecent proposal. So it's like a weird 90s movie thing. Or is it C? Take your picture. Voting rights groups call the law an attempt to intimidate voters, and over 100 new New Hampshire election officials criticize this bizarre rule. Or is it D?

Give you a Biden-style shoulder rub. And then film a three-minute non-apology about it. Okay, could be that. Or is it E? Use your HBO Now login, even though he just said he hates Game of Thrones, because

it turns out he actually wants to watch old episodes of Hung. Weird reason. What do you think? I hope it's C. You got it. Last question. In spite of all this, New Hampshire's 70% turnout in 2016 is above the national average, 56%.

But why should people from New Hampshire feel bad anyway? Is it A? Granite State? You're named after countertops. Or is it B? Here's a reason to feel bad. New Hampshire doesn't have a signature food. Visit basically any other state and people will be like, you got to try the gumbo or we put crackers on our spaghetti here. We're fucking insane. But New Hampshire has what? Lobster. Sorry, that belongs to Maine. Clam chowder. Well, you also have Susan Collins, so careful. Clam chowder? You really stuck it to those Mainers out there.

Wow. Look at you, huh? Wipe that smile off your goddamn faces. Wait. Clam chowder? Nope, that's Massachusetts. So what's left? We saw Chipotle on the way in. Does that work.

No signature food. Oh, you know what? You said 15 foods and none of them are famous. Or is it C? You try sharing a 250 mile border with a bunch of Subaru driving granola munchers. Granola munchers over there in the Soviet Republic of Vermont. We need a wall. And Vermont is going to pay for it.

Or is it D? Pretty lucky that primary is late, huh, Governor? Plenty of countries do better than 70% turnout, including Hungary, Finland, New Zealand, Israel, Dorne, the Iron Islands, most of Westeros, South Korea, Australia, and Belgium because they have laws that encourage voting instead of trying to make it harder.

Or is it E? One reason and one reason only. Massachusetts has the Kennedys. You have this to new news. What are you booing exactly? Think about what you're booing. Think about what you're booing. Face what you're booing. There's a question in there with an obvious answer.

Did you figure it out? Travis told me it was D. You got it, Corey. You bought a parachute gift card and a butcher box gift card. Get some sheets. Get some meat. Thank you, Corey. Thank you, Governor, for playing our game and for being here.

That was so fun. Thank you so much. We try, you know. We try. Thank you, Governor Inslee. Thank you, Conger, for coming. Thank you so much. We try, you know, we try. Thank you, Governor Inslee. Thank you, Conger, for coming. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Alyssa Mastromonaco. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.