Pod Save America - MAGA's Big Fat Greek Scandal

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

The Wall Street Journal reveals brazen corruption by Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News host (and Don Jr. fiancée) now serving as ambassador to Greece — and the Daily Mail piles on with eye-popping reports about misbehavior on the job. Jon and Dan react to the brewing scandal and take a look at Trump's closing message: medals for himself and his tech billionaire friends, an empty promise to hand out $5,000 checks and pretending that James Talarico has meat poisoning. Then they turn to the latest in the key Senate races: Mike Rogers's attempt to break with Trump on Canada tariffs, Susan Collins's embarrassing remarks about healthcare coverage, and Ken Paxton telling donors that he wants to cut funding to Social Security and Medicare. Finally, Lovett sits down with Angie Nixon, the Democratic Senate nominee in Florida, to talk about how she can win in a state Trump calls home.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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U.S. voters abroad. Have you got your ballot yet? All states are now sent you. ballots to overseas voters. So if you want to vote this year, you should request your ballot right away. Go to vote from abroad.org and click request my ballot, ask to receive it by email. Questions? Ask our support team directly. Don't miss this gents to shape the future. Don't delay. Vote from abroad.org. Welcome to Pottae of America. I'm John Fabra. I'm Dan Fifer. On today's show, we'll talk about how the great Republican midterm panic has begun. Trump throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, including more money. The week of big

debates in Maine, Michigan, Iowa, and maybe Texas, now that Trump has weighed in. And of course, we'll discuss the absolutely insane report about Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle demanding that a Trump donor pay off her $100,000 amex bill in exchange for influence peddling and so much more. Then you'll hear Lovett's conversation with Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon. But first, CrookedCon is coming up. November 5th through 7th in Washington, D.C. we really want you guys to be there.

We are excited to announce 24 different conversations and debates across four stages. Everything from the Democratic brand, which is awesome, to the future of AI, to building a winning campaign. We've also got a live taping of Still Counting with Nate Silver, Claire Malone, and Galand Drook. And that's in addition to Pots of America, love it or leave it, and strict scrutiny live shows. It's going to be so much fun. Go to crookedcon.com. Get your tickets now. want to see you in D.C. It's going to be a good time. Everyone's going to be talking about it.

You're going to need to be there to know what happens. And, you know, maybe you can ask a question yourself and there's going to be all kinds of fun surprises. So get yourself to D.C., CricketCon.com. And right now, the staff is trying to figure out fun surprises. I mean, I don't want to reveal anything right now. I don't think I'm supposed to. So now maybe everyone can get to work. Yeah. All right, Dan. 25 days out from the midterms, and the panikins are panicking. As they do. As they do.

Trump's approval keeps getting worse, not better. The Democratic lead on the generic ballot keeps getting bigger, not smaller. I think Nate Silver has it at nine points as of this recording, which is a new high. The New York Times just did about three dozen interviews with some extremely unenthused Trump voters in Western Michigan. Here's a little taste of what they said. a couple quotes from the interviews. He's losing touch. He's not making sense.

There's very low energy on the Republican side. He's just not there in my head anymore. Devastating. But this is my favorite. President Trump has been saying, vote as if I was on the ballot, and that's exactly what I'm going to do, not vote.

These are all Trump voters, Dan. They were Trump voters. Meanwhile, Trump's top two political advisors fled the country to advise a Putin-aligned client in the Balkans, had some better business overseas, so they skipped town for a little bit. Mike Johnson told Fox News that if he loses his job as speaker, he would move back home to start a lawn care business if that's what God wants. True. It's a true story. But Trump himself, well, the president is locked in on what the American can people want him to be focused on, handing out medals to AI billionaires, and to himself.

Let's watch. Elon is our modern-day Thomas Edison, and Elon, I want to congratulate you, you're my friend and all of that, but you are a very, very special guy. Mr. President, we have been able to find the medal from your uncle, and we here want to present it to you in a beautiful frame. What a fucking glaze fest. He's got used to give him. He's given medals to Elon, to Jensen Twang, as Trump said, during the events.

I mean, the amount of money that people on that stage had given Trump or J.N.H. Republican causes was shocking. Yeah, like, what a surprise. All the science medals went to the billionaires that have been, you know, supporting Trump in some way or another. And the guy from Microsoft at the end, who, obviously, they've done their fair share of, like, Trump coziness, but is not in the same group of the people going, like, full MAGA. he's kind of like three steps further away from everyone else. And someone at the White House was like, well, we can't be having Trump giving all these medals away

without giving Trump something. Well, obviously. Let's take the weird story he always tells about his uncle and being a genius at MIT that he weaves into every fucking anecdote and turn it into a video and a special prize just for Donald Trump. It is truly fantasy camp at all times for Donald Trump. But it's also like 20, it's 25 days to the midterms. This is what they're doing.

This was the public event today. It's donor maintenance, John. It's donor maintenance. Yeah, that is true. That clip really pairs well with the New York Times story that I mentioned with all those voters. What did you think of that piece? And did it make you feel any better about the scary possibility that I know is keeping all of us up at night or waking us up early in the morning? that the polls, the very good, exciting polls that we're all seeing

are somehow missing all these Trump voters who just won't answer the phone or their text anymore. I love how you turn this question about Republican voters hitting Trump into a are the polls right discourse? What else is there to say? Yeah, that is basically, it's basically Foxenberg, 25 days. Trying to go down the checklist of worries here, you know?

I don't want to be too, I don't want to be too excited and get carried away. Yeah, what would be the worst thing that happened if you were happy for 25 days? Are I seem happy? Am I not laughing? You're not going to be any less sad on election night if you were sad now. I told this to someone working on a very competitive campaign who was saying that they were feeling cautiously optimistic. And I said, that is a good way to be because it's not going to change the outcome of the race to make yourself feel miserable for the next couple weeks. Well, I want to be very clear, do as I say, not as I do, because you've worked on racist with me and you know exactly how I operate.

and my goal is to emotionally prepare for the worst and hope for the best. And I have done that before. So here's what I take on this. One, this is hard for me because I loved every single word of the story. But also... Usually there's like some to be sure,

everything was... It was just gravy, the whole thing. Perfect. But I've also been running a 20-year campaign against Made on the Street Journalism because I think it's so fucking stupid. We're just going to go to it. We spent a lot of time in the Trump 1.0

yelling about the diners. This is basically like they went to the... the diner and now the diners are good? I had that same thought. The reason I think it's important now is because so much of the data, like the thousands and thousands of interviews and all the data points that we're getting in the polls are pointing in one direction. And so you kind of want like a qualitative focus group style gut check.

And now this is not scientific like a focus group. I was going to say you should have a focus group. I know. But if you listen to Sarah Longwell's focus groups or other people's focus groups or other people's focus groups or interviews like this, you start to get sort of the sense on the ground that like, okay, maybe this is sort of in line with the polls. Yeah, this is, if you listen to Sarah Longwell's focus group podcast or you just you have the access to the focus group data, this and navigator research is a bunch of

really interesting focus groups like this. It is, this is, there was nothing surprising in this near time. This is what you've been hearing from Trump photos. The quantitative data backs it up, not just the Trump's approval rating, but also in this navigator poll that came out this morning on Thursday. one in four 2020-4 Trump voters regret their vote. So they either have, so there's this obviously, you know, whether the numbers are exactly right or the poll focus groups are exactly representative.

It is very clear that there is a wide swath of Trump voters who either have turned on him hard, who are just disenchanted with him or have stopped paying attention to him. Right. He's no longer the centerpiece of the Republican identity or their own, you know, personal identity. He's sort of faded into the back. And all of those things are bad news for Republicans. And the only way, as I was reading through these interviews and that story, the only way this could redound to the Republicans' benefit is if these same people who are saying this

about Trump were like, well, but, you know, Mike Rogers isn't so bad. And he seems more like a normal Republican or Susan Collins seems more like a normal Republican or, you know, that's the only way that this could go south, I think, at this point. Because I do feel like, and I've thought this for a long time, the bad. Backlash to Trump is real. And I think the only question is, does it extend to all the other Republican candidates who are on the ballot? Well, every Republican candidate is running ahead of Trump. Right.

Except Ken Paxton. Even Ken Paxton is doing better than Trump's before running in Texas by a few points. He just has the smallest edge over Trump with the rest of them. The other, the thing about this, too, I just want to get to the polls for a second is this is very, against brand. So I just want to stipulate that. I'm not saying this is true. As a mere factual and statistical possibility, it is also possible that the polls are wrong in the other direction. I know. It is not a guarantee. Didn't want to speak it out loud, but I've had that thought as well. I think, I think, and maybe now we're talking about it, I will do it. I'm going to

write this for the message box. Oh, I've been up until now, because like you, I've been afraid if I say it, because as a number statistical person, I'm also very superstitious. So if I say it, then it can't happen. And if I read it, it definitely won't happen. But I know that's nonsense. But it's just in 2025, particularly in New Jersey, a state that swung far to the right in 2024,

the polls dramatically overestimated the Republican share of the vote. And you can see that playing out because some of the statistical methods being used to get more Trump voters in the polls, may be giving a false impression of what MAGA turnout will be. And so it is possible. They were wrong. They were pro-Republican in 2012. They were pro-Republican in 2025.

They could be pro-Republican this time again. Also, it could all even each other out because they could be missing some Republicans who don't want to be answering pollsters and they could be missing some low propensity death. You know what I'm saying? Like some of these things could just even each other out. But we'll see. We'll see.

I just the Trump's focus and not just like the lack of focus on what matters but the focus on specifically what's pissing people off that's the real that's what's really incredible here like in addition to that AI glaze fest at the White House there was also you see his his truth social this morning where he was like the White House just a random announcement like in response to nothing the White House considers any anyone that uses the term artificial intelligence as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term super intelligence, the enemy? Donald Trump says he considers people who don't use the new name for something that he has given himself at the enemy. If you don't use Donald Trump's preferred language, you are the enemy. This is where we are. Yeah, it's not really, it's not really focused on the big things, you say.

I like, the new thing is he's also failing at the small thing. Like, people are not using the term SI, if you will. Well, the AI overlords are. They're all like, yeah, no, absolutely. No, you're right. Jeff Bezos, someone asked Jeff Bezos about an interview, and he switched halfway through the interview to start saying super intelligence. Like, yeah, I like super intelligence.

Yeah, I'm going to start saying that now. It's so fucking super intelligence. You're not- Fucking losers. Yeah. You're fucking, how many billions do you need before you can fucking grow up pair. The fact that people are taking to the app that we still call Twitter to litigate this debate explains why it's doomed to fail. Yeah, it's something. The guy in the Times story who said he's going to pretend like Trump's on the ballot and not vote is a 24-year-old Trump voter,

one of the many young men who are really pissed at Trump over Iran, among other things, breaking his promise to stop endless wars. Politico has a story today about how the person tasked with winning back these young men is none other than J.D. Vance, who electrifies the youth. And here he is today offering his own unique definition of socialism. I don't know what the term means anymore. I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls' sports. That's what unites the socialist that I see running across the United States of America today. Foreign workers of the world,

unite so that boys can play in girls' sports. Is that a quote from Das Kapital? It's really hard to overstate how stupid this is. I mean, like, we can, like, we could sit here and debate and explain how this has nothing to do with socialism in any way, shape, or form. But it just also shows that, like, Donald, J.D. Vance fashions himself and all the J.D. Vance second fans of their fashion, him is like the intellectual engine of magaism or political, you know, populace.

The vanguard of the movement, Dan. Vanguard, if you will, and he's given no thought to a question like this? I thought it was notable because back in our day, most Republicans would have just said, you know, socialism is the government controlling the private sector and deciding how much money everyone has and taking away from the makers and giving it to the taker, you know, like they would have done something like that. They would have bit Romney Paul Ryan did up. Yeah.

And J.D. Vance maybe sees that that's not as effective anymore. Well, it's a little hard when the government is literally seized the means of production by taking ownership stakes in companies in exchange for giving them access to foreign markets. Yep. I think that might have gone through his mind as well. Well, Magaism or whatever you want to call it, the movement is now big government authoritarianism. It's not small government capitalism. It's socialism for the people that they like. Yes, for the rich.

Yeah, and the people who support them. And it is, everyone else can go fuck themselves. Trump himself has been going with the strategy of trying to bribe people into voting Republican. The government's putting $1,000 deposits into Trump accounts for children born in 2025 or later. That was an announcement this week. They're sending one-time $90 payments to $20 million Medicare enroll. $90, who, and mailing $500 refund checks to some Obamacare customers. And Trump continues to pretend he will give everyone $5,000 if Republicans win and then control

government, which apparently they don't do now. Here he is repeating this promise again in Texas on Wednesday. We just sent out to the victims of this Democrat fraud checks for $500 each. including 139,000 families from Texas. If the Republicans win, you'll each have $5,000 in your pocket and economic success for our country. We call it the Trump dividend is approximately $1 trillion, but we have a record-setting $21 trillion

that's being invested in the country. So when you think of it, it's really easily handleable. It is easily handleable. Handelable. Handelable. I missed that. Handelable. It's easily handleable.

Just $1 trillion or just given away. How confident do you feel that all this bribing and attempted bribing won't have any impact on the midterms? Pretty damn confident. So I think there's two ways to look at this. One is by various estimates, including one by Mark Zandi of Moody's analytics. The Iran War, just since the Iran War, the average American family has spent an extra 1,000, $1,000 for increased gas prices, increased groceries, interest costs, mortgage rates. So $1,000.

And so he's giving a tiny fraction of people in the country somewhere between $90 and $500 or $100. Like just the numbers of people, even if these, the checks, you know, you got to separate between the checks people are actually getting and the checks that Trump is promising them. If you focus on the checks they are getting, even if they were incredibly persuasive and people are like, you know what, I know it's going to cost $90 to fill out my. tank over the next two weeks. This $90 check is so impressive. I'm going to vote for Trump. Those people are distributed. It's not that many people that distribute all across the 300 million Americans. It doesn't make a huge difference. So let's talk with then about the checks that

Trump is promising. So G. Eliot Morris over its strength in numbers did a big poll in this. And when you ask people, just do you want $5,000, this will shock you. But the majority of Americans would like the government to send them $5,000 free dollars. They do like free money. And even if you tell people it's Trump's idea, they still will take the money, even if they hate Trump. Just like they gladly, even if they hated Biden, they gladly took their stimulus checks out of from during the pandemic. They'll take their free money no matter who the president is. But then if you tell people that the checks only come up for Republicans keep the majority, the net support drops 36 points. Wow.

A majority of Republicans think it's inappropriate. That's sacrifice, patriots. Yes. A majority of Republicans think that trying to give people money in exchange for. electoral outcomes is inappropriate. Majority of Republicans think that. And this is the most important number of them all. Only 13% of voters believe the checks will actually come.

Yeah, I was, thank you. I was going to say, that to me is that's the only number that really matters. No one fucking believes this guy. And they shouldn't because he has a Republican majority right now. The election will not affect in any way the ability or inability to send $5,000 to every fucking American. What are we talking about? And then on top of that, like he promised the dose checks.

They didn't come. But then the government was required by the courts to return tariff money. Yeah. Do they give it to people? No. They gave it to some of those people standing on that stage with him today, getting their trillionaire medals from the federal government. Did you see in that same Trump rally, by the way, that Trump repeated his,

we haven't talked about this, his bizarre riff on Iran. hitting Los Angeles, where I happen to be, or San Diego with a nuclear weapon. This time he specifically said, quote, we're not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. I start this whole thing. What do you think about this whole thing? I think, look, there is obviously a very big debate about what he actually met. There are a lot of reporters who are really showing off their both sides, bona fides,

by quote, tweeting Democrats and saying, this is an unfair representation of what Trump says. I don't care about any of that. To me, this is more, this is just emblematic of what a disaster it is to have Trump out there. Because every time he goes out and he opens his mouth, he does something that is unhelpful for Republicans. Like, I don't think a lot of Americans think that Trump actually wants Iran to bomb American cities. Even you and I hate Donald Trump. I don't actually think he wants that either. But it just has created discourse that all these candidates have to respond to.

It's gotten a ton of attention. People who don't pay attention to politics have heard about it. these candidates are getting asked, what do you think about the statement? Do you agree with it? Do you condemn it? And then what's happening now? Republicans up and down the ballot are talking about the costs of the Iran war, which is absolutely the last thing that their campaign staffs and their pollsters we want them talking about. So more Trump at more rallies. I think it's pretty clear what he was trying to say, even though he did not say it clearly at all, because he doesn't say anything clearly and he's impossible to follow. But it's his usual thing where he's,

It's a whole other made-up story that's just as ridiculous, right? Which is like, if I didn't, if I didn't bomb Iran, they would have developed a nuclear weapon, even though none of this, nothing he did in this war since February has done anything to degrade their ability to develop a nuclear weapon. And it's, and gas, higher gas is a small price to pay for ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, which we haven't done yet, which we haven't done yet. That's the part that matters politically. the small price to pay.

Stop bitching American people. I am trying to accomplish a goal that I am failing to accomplish that you do not care about and we're not worried about. Right. And I just, to me, it's like,

the targets here for criticizing Trump are many. That's why we get up every day. And I don't, you know, I don't need to spend a lot of time on how he flubbed his line. And now, if Los Angeles fell into the ocean tomorrow,

Do I think Trump would care very much and shed a tear? No, I do not, actually. But I kind of already knew that before the rally. I didn't need to hear him at the rally to know that. Potsave America is brought you by Helix. As October brings cooler weather and packed autumn schedules, getting a good night's sleep becomes essential. Set yourself up for better sleep and better days ahead with a Helix mattress.

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for 27% offsite wide. This offer is exclusive to Pod Save America. Listeners, that's helixleep.com slash cricket for 27% offsite wide, helixleep.com slash cricket. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've thought about trying therapy with our long-term partner BetterHelp,

insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average co-pay for eligible members of just $23 per session. World Mental Health Day is October 10th, but stress and burnout can surface at any time, unannounced, regardless of what the calendar says. True mental wellness isn't tied to a date on the calendar. It's an ongoing daily commitment.

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Try talking to someone if you haven't yet. And I know you might be thinking, I don't need therapy. I feel fine. Well, once you start talking to someone, you realize that even if you feel fine, you can always feel better. And that's what better help does best.

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I will escalate the war after the election. Remember when Nixon in 68 closed on a secret plan for peace in Vietnam? Trump has closed. We've got a secret plan for war. Secret plan for war. Just hold on a couple more weeks. Get those ballots in.

We'll start the bombing again. Gas will go even higher. won't be able to do anything about it because there's no more elections with Trump as president after this. Well, I guess the one in 28, he'll still be president. But you know what I'm saying. All right. So the bigger question here, did Trump's appearance in Texas actually give a boost to the candidates he was there to support? Because believe it or not, he was there to campaign, even though you didn't hear that when he was talking about the checks or he was talking about Iran and Los Angeles and San Diego

and giving all the other shit. It's tough to know. Tough to know for Greg Abbott because he didn't show up. He had a very important hospital dedication. Can't reschedule that. I can't reschedule the hospital dedication. I know the president's in town and it's 25 days until the midterms, but you know what?

I have to go show up with this ribbon cutting. Ken Paxton was there. The president did try to go after. James Telerico, as he continues to workshop this bit, he's been doing a lot lately, about Telerico's eating habits. Let's listen. He's a vegan. He wants to eat a piece of lettuce.

A little piece of lettuce, please. But he's been seen, you know, you haven't seen him in a couple of weeks. I hear the guys disappeared. Nobody knows. You know where he is? He's sick because he's been forced to eat meat for political reasons, and he's throwing up all over the place. He's sick.

You know, my wife told me, sir. Do me favor. You have to do me just a little bit of a favor. It's not vegan. I don't know about that stuff. I'm not into it. And he said, it's vegan. Please pronounce that word properly.

I called it vegan, vegan. I thought it's, how the hell would I know? I like steak. Is that why James Telerico is ill? Does he have the meat sweats and he's been vomiting from eating too much meat? Performatively, performatively eating meat to rebut the charge that he's a vegan. A vegan? A vegan.

Sir, it's a vegan. Yeah, does he, yeah, does, does Malani really call him, sir? I wouldn't be totally surprised. I would be shocked. A nicer thing she calls him. I would be shocked if she called him, sir. You know who does call him, sir? Who? Natalie.

Natalie harp. Yeah. Just saying, I don't know. Just a little mix up there. They're making a big deal about a quarter. James Telerico, who's been sick for a couple days, like really sick, apparently. Yeah, he has the flu. He's the flu.

And he's also like a type one diabetic and he's got the flu and he like had to go to urgent care. And they're all out there like, where is he? Where he's just disappeared? And it's like, yeah, he's fucking sick. People get sick. Here's the thing. When James Telerico is not on the campaign trail, he's at home in bed sick. When Ken Pax is on the campaign trail, he's in London with his mistress.

Also, such a like, everything they do is so short-sighted. Like, they can't see around any corners. Like, Tala Rico's campaign announced, like, he's back on the trail this weekend. Yeah. So he's going to be there. So all of the, your whole week's message about, like, Tyler Rico has disappeared. Like, you got one more day of it. And then, yeah, what is the, there's no even instant, like, it's, they keep saying, like,

where's he going? It's missing. It's mysterious. And all these, like, mega political types are, like, there's something must be going on here. What do you think is going on? Like, if, like, it's obviously complete bullshit, but. They want to, they want to, they want to in place getting transition surgery. Yeah.

To one of the genders. It's like, what, it's like, just have a, if you're going to have a conspiracy theory, have a conspiracy. Yeah, well, they haven't landed on you. They're workshopping something. So they're just, they're workshopping it in real time on Twitter where you workshop conspiracy theories. Yeah. We'll get one. We'll get it by tomorrow, I'm sure.

And then he'll be back on Saturday. And then he'll be back on Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. So after, I mean, then it will, the body double will be back on Saturday. After the rally, Trump took it upon himself to challenge Tala Rico to a debate with Paxton, which is interesting because Tala RICO has already, in fact, agreed to debate Paxton and hasn't only because Paxton has refused to a single debate, even the one Tala RICO proposed on Fox News, a home game for Paxton, still won't do it.

Meanwhile, the latest installment of Paxton saying stupid shit at that fundraiser dropped Thursday morning, where this time he calls for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Making some reasonable cuts and mandatory spending, you're going to have to do it. Or we were going to be, there is no solution. That's just a reality. We have to suck it up. So, yeah, that's what is meant by mandatory spending for those who aren't budget nerds who went through the budget battles of 2011. Social Security and Medicare. And if you don't like that, you're just going to have to suck it up.

I am waiting for the final installment of this. This is this series of leaked audio from the same fundraiser that they just keep dribbling out for Ken Bax and just be like, honestly, you should just vote for James Taylor Rico. I want to take a pause in this podcast and give a round of applause to the John Cornyn's campaign staff. Oh, you think it's them? Well, someone in this fundraiser,

Republican recorded him and then gave it to someone presumably in Republican politics who's then been they parceled it out like it's so funny not to I know not to drop it all at once and just like an amateur an amateur would have just been like Politico here you go here's the whole thing but just piece after piece after piece and they're leaking it out on Twitter and it is just it's very well done kudos to them if they could have done this good a job with Ken Paxton's opposition research during their primary campaign maybe we'd be a different spot But not a better spot for us, but. No, no, no, no.

What do you talk to me about this debate thing? What do you think happened here? I think that all I can see, my first thought was, okay, they told Trump, oh, Tala Rico's been off the trail and he's missing. And so Trump assumed that like, oh, he's trying to duck the campaign trail and maybe he's trying to duck debates too and didn't, and just no one told him. Trump, Trump didn't know that Paxton has been refusing to debate. That's like, that's the Occam's razor.

Like, they're all just idiots and no one communicated to Trump that Paxton did this. But I don't know. Maybe there's a more sinister. No, no, no. So there's, I think there's the Trump's a, this is not my theory. Just to be clear. This is the Trump's a like, jujitsu political genius who's like, you know what? Not debating is fucking stupid.

You're behind. You should debate. you got to get that vacant Talafriko in front of the people in Texas. And so I'm just going to give you a push. Yeah, I'm going to bully Tragston into it. So that's one theory. And he clearly hates Ken Paxton. So that is possible.

The other theory is it's a version of heroes, but where they're actually stupider, which is somewhat briefed Trump on the race and they told them about the debate thing, but Trump wasn't paying attention. And he misheard. Oh, I just switched it. Yeah, he assumed that Tala RICO was the one refusing, which I can see in Trump. head, him thinking this beta vegan wouldn't want it to be a man in debate and just thinking that and then doing it backwards.

It just imagine being Ken Paxton's communications director. This came out at like midnight Texas time, I think. You've just got back from this rally. You feel like you kind of maybe survived the rally. Trump didn't call Paxton fat and stupid in this one. And you get home, you open up your beer, and then you get a notification that Trump, Trump has challenged your opponent to a debate on behalf of your campaign without telling you. You know, I'm starting to buy your theory that Trump did it.

Not because he's some jih Tzu master, but because, like, the theme of his entire involvement in the Paxton campaign has been bullying and emasculating Ken Paxton. You're ugly. You're bad. This guy sucks. Vote for him anyway. So, like, I could see him being, like, fucking go debate. I'm just going to make you debate by saying it publicly. This is the race where Trump has the most skin in the game of all of them.

He, you know, there have been, like in 2020, he handpicked a lot of the candidates, candidates and lost. This cycle, Paxton's the only, Paxson, I guess, Vivek are the two that he thrust on the Republican Party. And this is the one where he threw, Paxon, he's thrust on the Republican Party against the wishes of basically everyone else in the party. And so if Republicans win a Texas presidency for the first time since whatever it is 1988, that will be very embarrassing for Trump.

And so Trump's doing what he naturally does, which is to already begin shifting blame to Ken Paxton as opposed to himself. Now maybe he can say, Paxton should have debated. Yeah, the things he's going to say about Paxton after Paxton loses are if he loses, knock on wood, are going to be so much fun. Especially because the things he's saying about him now. This is what he theoretically wants him to win. Right.

Speaking of debates, they're happening everywhere this week. We're recording this on Thursday afternoon. just before debates in three big Senate races, Maine, Michigan, and Georgia. Let's start with Michigan, where Mike Rogers will almost certainly be asked for his take on Trump's latest post, giving Rogers his complete and total endorsements, and calling Abdul El-Said Mohammed over and over, saying, quote, he goes back to the days of the jihad. The bigger issue for Rogers, though, is trying to pull off an episode. flip-flop on Trump's trade war with Canada.

Last year, Roger said that the auto tariffs were, quote, restoring fairness. And in August, he called the tariffs necessary. But now he's running this ad. Drinking a labat and watching the Red Wings, man, it just doesn't get any more Michigan than that. And here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now. man man it just doesn't get any more Michigan than that they're drinking this Canadian beer could you have not tried a few more takes on that one line at the very least man it doesn't get

any more Michigan than that it's just it's the least believable line I've I've heard in an ad in a long time John this is undoubtedly the best of many many takes it is a shit political ad in every sense of the word. It looks fake. It's a ridiculous thing to say. It, it tells not shows. Was it filmed in Florida where Mike Rogers owns a house? Yeah, you know what he does? It has been living for a whole many of it. You what he does? He drinks mohitos and watches the Panthers. That's what that guy does. All right. And it's just he like, you can say this like, you know, people think I'm maybe a little too Florida or a rich because Abdul's been going after how a wealthy is. And so I'm going to like our goal is to show regular guy. So I'm going to wear a giant fucking sign that says regular guy.

And then let's even get into the tariff part of this. Remember when Trump launched the whole trade war again or reignited the trade war with Canada. I remember Roger's statement because I was like, what the fuck are they doing? It was like he basically didn't say Trump's name at all. He didn't say the tariffs were bad. All he said was like, I need to be senator so I can have a meeting with Donald Trump. Or I can get the meeting that I need to bring an. to this, I don't know, it was like some kind of

bullshity statement that he didn't take a position on either side and now he's finally all the way against them. But he's not even that either. Right. Because they obviously had a meeting and they're like, look, sir, you are losing in the polls. And

one of the problems you have is that Trump is very unpopular and he's doing very unpopular thing. So we need to find a high profile way for you to break with the president. That will help people. But they walk up to the edge, but they don't do it. He doesn't say, Donald Trump shouldn't start the tariff war. He doesn't say that Donald Trump should end the tariff war.

He speaks only in passive tense about these things. The tariff war should end. Well, Mike Rogers, who the fuck should end it? Same thing with the Iran War. Remember, he did that out a couple months ago or weeks ago. Who knows what time is anymore? It's like, the Iran War must end. Well, it's like, well, who started the war?

And who's the person responsible for ending it? But he can't say that because he's too afraid that either Trump will turn up the money spigot, trouble call and yell at him, which he obviously does not want, or Trump will come to Michigan, which Trump has already said he's planning on doing and embarrass living shit out of him like he's Ken Paxton. But if you're going to be, if you know you have to break with Trump, you have to do what Mario Virus Salazar did in that ad we looked out a few weeks

which you have to actually do it, look into camera and do it, but he cannot do it. I used to really kind of cringe at all of Abdul's tweeting at Mike Rogers about what a beta he is. And I don't know that's the best political strategy, but it is not wrong either. I know. I mean, it's hard to talk about this because we are record.

Like, by the time you all listen to this, the debate will have happened. None of you will have watched the debate. So it's fine. That's true. No, all I can think of is, like, what a great set of questions for Mike Rogers. The debate, you know, it's like, oh, so what are you going to do to end the trade war? Do you think that President Trump should have started it? Do you think, what do you think should happen now?

Like, like, what are his answers to all that? But then let's say he has a different bolder answer in the debate, then why the fuck are you spending all this money on this ad right now, which is going to be seen by more people, because you're showing it during Michigan and Detroit Lions football games, then your debate on a Thursday night that's going up against Thursday night football. Yeah, that's true. That's true. On the Mohammed thing, Axios had a story Thursday morning

about how Trump is fuming at Fox News for what he sees. as overly favorable coverage of Abdul. He posted about it the other day after the Martha McCallum interview with another jihadist reference. He said that her interview was a softball interview, which it was not. Abdul just did really well.

Yeah, he ran circles around her. Apparently, his staff, Trump staff, actually called Fox about it and did the same thing in August after that Jesse Waters interview that Abdul later used in an ad. So what do you think? You think going on Foxes seems like it's working?

Well, here's what I know. I know that no one, not Donald Trump, not the White House communication staff, not the Lord himself can stand in the way of Jesse Waters' crush on Abdul. Like, love finds a way, and so he's going to keep doing what he's doing. I mean, it is, I think there is a, like there's a larger question about whether the Trump's over the top incredibly racist attacks on Abdul are help in any way? I think the answer to that is clearly no, but I don't know what do you think. No, I don't think.

I think, look, now by saying no, does that mean I think that there's no, like, Islamophobia and that there aren't some voters and Republican voters who are thinking, like, well, I don't want to vote for the guy, not because he's Muslim, but because he's, but because I think he's jihadist. Like, I'm sure there's that out there. But do I think Trump hammering it by calling him Mohammed and jihadist? Like, do I think that's helping? No, I don't.

There are ways in which- There's a subtler ways to be racist. And even the Rogers campaign can't get out of their own way with this. So a few weeks ago, they ran this ad with this Iranian-American, Michiganer, who had this moment with Abdul at a town hall that sort of went viral on the right. And so it was just this young Iranian-American man, camera saying, attacking Abdul, basically saying what's in all these other ads about his association with Hassan, you know, this completely false bullshit about relationships

of the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist financing, all this other stuff that is in the ether in a lot of the right-wing ads about him. But then in that ad, they end by saying, I want someone who's going to stand up to the IRGC. So it's like, I want someone, I need a senator who's going to be for this war in Iran that everyone hates. Which is just because there is something, like, We debated this on text, Umi, Ben and Tommy at some point. But having this person deliver the message as a way to sort of ally the accusations of racism in it.

And because the audience here is not necessarily Arab American people in Michigan. It is white voters who may be susceptible to this, but also are very sensitive towards racism and to try to do it that way. But they can't even do it there because then they basically turn it into a pro-Iran war at the end. Yeah, my view on all this is that, like, there's, there's so many ads now that it's all just wallpaper at this point. And that really for any race, and this race, too, for dual, it's about, like, do voters just

get this overall sense that he's too extreme, you know? And the Times Bowl says they do. Right. And, or at least some do, you know. Well, the more voters think Abdul's extreme that Rodgers' extremity is the only Democratic candidate in the key Senate races who has that challenge. Right, right. And so the challenge is presenting Abdul as the, as close to a generic Democrat as you can. You can.

Now, that cuts both ways because, like, he's not a generic Democrat in ways that I think are helping him in that poll, right? Which is, like, he is better on economic messaging and health care than any other the Senate Democrats that they've texted, right? So you kind of, it goes both ways on this. But like, I do think, that's why I don't think any one ad is going to do this or like, be particularly effective or not. I think it's just like an overall environment of like messaging about him. And at the end of the day, is messaging more like, oh, you know, maybe he's a little further to the left than me. But it seems like he's a good misogander and he's going to stand up for us and going to like maybe try to put money in our pocket.

So I'm with him or, yeah, he seems a little too extreme. Right. Like that, that to me is the end. And I think all these ads contribute to it. And whatever happens on the debate stage, if anyone sees it. We will, because we're going to watch it. We're going to watch it, yeah. This episode is brought you by Act Blue. If you've been listening to the pod, you already know the stakes. Don't trust your campaign to amateurs. Act Blue is the platform that's been powering Democratic campaigns for over two decades, giving candidates up and down the ballot the tools they need to fundraise, organize, organize, build websites, and win. It's built for campaigns and proven by millions of decades.

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Let's talk about Maine. Troy Jackson just got a Barack Obama endorsement this week, which, well, not a real shocker. It does help validate Jackson's accomplishments, lifts up his bio, gives him a little moment in the news. I assume Barack Obama is still pretty popular in Maine, state that he won a couple times. Jackson also had a pretty good debate on Tuesday, which was fairly tame, but it also yielded just a priceless moment from Woman of the People, Susan Collins. Let's listen. Senator Collins has been a governor employee her entire life. She's always had health care. She's always had, you know, a steady income coming in. That's not the way it is for most of us. I mean, health care is a real challenge, and she's made it worse by advancing the big, beautiful bill.

First of all, I have not been insured my whole life. I spent a year when I was running for governor in 1994 where I could not afford health insurance. 22 years ago when I was first running for office. 32 years ago, John. Oh, God, I'm old. Fuck. Yes. 32 years ago when I was first running for office, there was a brief moment when I did not have government health care.

It's so funny because there are two arguments that the Jackson campaign is making about Susan Collins. One is she's going to, she's a Trump stude. she's going to help Trump, hold the Republicans where a Democratic state don't do that. The other one is that she's been in office forever. She's been in public, she's been in government forever,

and not enough has changed. And so she responds to this question of saying, look, and she does it with the tone of, gotcha. You stepped in at Troy Jackson. I'm going to show you that 32 years ago, I briefly,

briefly took a break between my taxpayer-funded salary to try, to get another taxpayers funded salary. And in that sabbatical, while I was trying to get another government job, I did not help the path of the hardship. True hardship. And all of you, former candidates can understand how hard that would be if you were alive

32 years ago when I did this. Truly one of the more amazing moments. Yeah. Like, I know that everyone, and I heard you and Tommy talk about this on Pod Save America Only Friends, which is our secret episode of Pod Save America that you can all get if you subscribe. at cricket.com slash friends and become a subscriber to Friends of the Pod, get all kinds of other benefits, and you support the work we're doing here at Cricket Media,

which is trying to get people involved in politics. Anyway, that's just a digression. Much like Susan Collins' digression from government health care back in 1994 for a few months. But when you guys said there's like there was the whole road salt moment in that debate, too, where at one point she's like, she's bragging to that like, I didn't support this trade war because I got I got road salt off the tariff list with Canada and then Troy Jackson's like you can't eat road salt and like that's everyone said that's a big moment which is it was a fine moment I thought but like I think this this moment this is every

this is every argument about Susan Collins and every argument you would ever want to make against a Republican in this environment the road salt thing which as you mentioned Tommy I talked about but like you're right it's not this is not like where's the beef moment in debate history. It's a good moment. But then I saw a clip today at Troy Jackson doing a press avail. And the question was,

Troy, Susan Collins' campaign says that you are not giving her enough credit with your road salt attack. Like, it doesn't give the full breadth of everything she's done for Maine. And he's like, great, I'm glad you got road salt. Road salt's important. That's not enough. Do more.

Seriously. I mean, My vibe, the vibe I got from Susan Collins watching that debate and it actually made me angrier is that like she seemed so offended to even be on that stage having to answer for her time in public office and have to actually work to run again for re-election for her fucking 10th term in office. It's not that much, but whatever it is. She's been there for 38 years now. So she wants another six, even though she promised she would only run for two terms, broke that promise.

and how dare you question how much I've done for this state, even though, or how dare you question my independence, even though I've actually voted with Donald Trump and the Republicans 95% of the time, and all the times that I brag about my independence, it's when the Republicans didn't need my vote so I could performatively be independent so I could win re-election. Yeah, yeah. I mean, she, look, she is a tough person to beat.

She does suck. She is giving off the vibes of the kind of incumbents who go down years like this. I know, she is. She is. How are you feeling about that race? Reid has a question here. I'm going to ask it like, I was going to ask it like it's mine, but it's not mine. He said, in Obama's endorsement video, he tells Democrats, do not sit this one out. Do you think that reflects any real turnout concerns that the campaign is seeing? Or is that just, quote unquote, my anxiety? I'm not saying that I'm sanguine about this race. But it's, Oh, you're less anxious than Reed? Fucking congratulations. Yeah, no, I have plenty of concerns about

everything. Turnout is not, maybe turnout will be a new one, but it was, it was not one of the the ones I was thinking about for Maine. I don't have, you know,

you and I both been around the writing of these videos. I don't think that that was necessarily a specific line based on polling. But it is true, and we have, this has been sort of mysterious

to both of us, that there are a significant number of people in Maine who seem not to like Troy Jackson. Yeah, including some Democrats. And so I think a little, whether there are people who were

supported Platner, who didn't like Platner being gone, the process by which we got here, or people who were supporting Mills, who don't like any of this, and Mills and Jackson do not like each other. And as of like two weeks ago, Mills had not endorsed Jackson, and Jackson not asked for the endorsement. Everyone get over your shit and let's try to win this race. So I think there is some sense or fear maybe that some of the people who are not enthusiastic about Jackson for some reason, because of how this process played out may sit out.

And so just like, get in here, get in the fight. I don't know if that's a real concern or not, but if I was trying to find a reason why that line would be in there, that would be it. Yeah, I would say to all the main Democrats out there, I know it's been a rough one, but look to Michigan. They had an extremely divisive primary, and you had Gretchen Whitmer was out there with Abdul this week. Haley Stevens has been saying great things, like all the Michigan, Dana Nessel, like all the Michigan Democrats have been coming together, Alyssa Slotkin appeared with Abdul. Like everyone who was on either side of the primary, Mallory Morrow,

They've all come together to really work hard to try to get Abdul elected. And I really wish, I do think that Troy Jackson will probably benefit from more Maine Democrats and national Democrats kind of, you know. Because like Maine is the kind of state that, again, it wants to go Democratic. They want those voters want a Democratic Senate. That's what they're telling. Even the New York Times poll that showed Collins ahead, you had people, most people wanting a Democratic Senate. So like I feel like the Democrats there just have to be reminded that like this is. is our guy and this is our ticket to a Democratic Senate and not a Republican Senate.

I mean, having said all of that, I mean, Troy Jackson has like, I think it's around a three-point lead in the polling average right now. Although Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report said the other day or said today that he hears there's a Washington Post poll coming out that's going to have Collins ahead. He didn't say that, though. He didn't say that? No, Dan. People are so fucking annoying. He said, I hear there's, I think there's a Washington Post poll. And if it shows that.

That's likely coming. And maybe it will show what I think it might, what I think is what's going to happen in this race, which is Susan Collins pulling ahead. But like, but it's weird that like, why does, why, why would the post-shore poll people like do a poll that now it's Thursday that it's not out, but they would like give an early poll to Charlie Cook like the, like several days before

they put out? No, it's not that they would do that. It's the way the cook. process works. It's a bunch of, they do a lot of like data analysis, but one of the things is, and I've done this before, way, way back in the day, is you come in, and you're like in an open dialogue with the people who do the Senate race ratings. And you, and so it's possible, like, the way I interpreted this was, and this maybe this is just like Garble is, there are times when you know, like a campaign knows that what the poll has a general idea, the poll is going to show

something one way or the other. And that they, you could, like, they are trying, you want to influence those ratings because it can lead to more donations and more attention on your race. So I can see one of the campaigns told Charlie Cook, we think a poll's comment that's bad. Or told the people who, like Charlie Cook sort of, I think, he doesn't, he just writes columns now. But like the woman who does Jessica Taylor, I think her name is who does the Senate race ratings, I think they probably told her. But it was all supposed. This is all bullshit. And there's a poll coming.

And were it to show this, it would be the second. And if the poll after that, it would be the third. Yeah. So who knows? Again, who knows? By the time you're listening to this week, we'll wake up. tomorrow. Yeah, the poll can be out. We don't know.

No, some like idiots or not. The night after you listen to this will be another debate because they do like, basically the same. Four main debates. And two in a week. It's so bizarre. They have the same schedule as like a playoff. It's like a, the NBA and WMA playoffs.

Yes. Play one night. You're on one night, off one night. Wild. In Iowa, there's a debate Wednesday night in Iowa. Josh Turrick and Ashley Hinson debated. Like Mike Rogers, Hinson is a Republican who wants credit for breaking with Trump without actually being willing to make the break.

In this case, it is voting to rein in the Iran war. How do you define successful and immediate, and why did you vote against a resolution in Congress to call for the war to end? We do need to bring it to an immediate and successful end. And to me, that means not allowing them to have a nuclear weapon and making sure that we're working with and protecting our allies in the region.

I trust in our U.S. military, the greatest fighting force in the world to bring this to a close as quickly as possible because I know people are getting squeezed. So why vote against the resolution? I don't think we need another resolution, and I certainly don't want to see the president not be able to do an orderly end to this war.

You think that's going to fly? I don't, John. I don't. It's the same thing where it's like she's trying to break with Trump but can't actually do it because she just want to anchor Trump, and this is sort of the prison that he's put all of these Republicans in. Yeah. That's probably the, I think for all of these center races,

that seems like the closest one to me, because that's the one that has, that's had Turk down the most, or at least tied. Yeah. And it feels like, and Rob Sand in the governor's race is so far ahead and all these polls that still have Turk and Hinson

either tied or one of them like one or two points ahead. Turk is an awesome candidate in every way shape or form, but he performs a little bit more like a generic Democrat, but in these other races where Democrats are just exceeding the generic ballot or the political environment, they are candidates who are incredibly well-known, like Sherrod Brown, like where Cooper, like Mary Peltola, who have a brand independent. Turek doesn't have that because he was just a state legislator and doesn't known as well. So he is a little more uphill battle.

And Hinson also performs a little bit more like a generic Republican because she's not particularly well-known, so you don't have, she is an incumbent Republican, but it's not the same as, like, I think she has it even better than that because she's, like, yeah, she's a member of Congress, but before she was a member of Congress, she was local Iowa television. Yes. So, like, people knew her as not a politician, which is the best way to be known. Yes. And this is a little bit, like, when people worry about Minnesota.

It's one of the things that Michelle Tofoya has is she is a media savvy outsider. And that is, and you develop a relationship. Like, it's why I helped carry, like, even though she obviously lost by a lot, it's why she got to where she was because she had that relationship with voters. And that gives her a little bit of a leg up here. But I think Rob Sand may have coattails, which will help. That would be the key. Last thing before we get to love its conversation with Angie Nixon, the Wall Street Journal

has a wild news story about Kimberly Gilfoyle, Trump's ambassador to Greece, former Fox News host, ex-fiancee of Don Jr., ex-wife of Gavin Newsom. According to signal messages reviewed by the journal, Trump donor Eric Dieter offered Gilfoyle a million dollars to use her influence with the Trump administration to help with his various tax, legal, other issues. Gilfoyle bragged to Dieters that everyone from cabinet secretaries to Cash Patel gets right back to her. Then, just before her confirmation hearing, she asked Dieter to secretly pay off her $100,000 amex bill. The message said, quote, you could just send it here.

It won't show up anywhere. Followed by, quote, Honey, please, I need you to get this done for me today. Dieters did not pay, and yesterday he went on MS now to speak his mind. Kimberly Guilfoyle is a grifter. Kimberly Gilfoyle, I have no doubt, has done this to more than me. She's doing it right now in Greece. The only thing that bothers me about Don Jr. and Eric Trump

is how they, along with their father, are getting rich out in the over. with crypto and everything else. I'm a Midwest farm boy. I'm a good dude. I don't like their yuck, yuck world. You couldn't pay me to go back to Marlago. Wow. The New York Times should have interviewed him as part of that story.

He's not going to the right diners in western Michigan. Yeah. Gilfoyle's lawyer is obviously disputing the authenticity of the messages, sure. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports that the State Department is now investigating separate complaints about Guilfoyle's conduct as ambassador in Athens. The Dieter story was before she was ambassador, but when she got there, trouble, including an incident where she was, this is awesome, where she was allegedly drinking in Mekinos at 4 a.m., called her head of security because she wanted more ice.

She ran out of ice at 4 a.m., so she called her head of security. He did not answer because he was sleeping, because it was 4 a.m. and because he didn't answer, she demoted him the next day. Marco Rubio declined to comment on all of this before speech in Greece on Wednesday, where he praised her leadership. And here's how J.D. Vance handled the question right after he defined socialism. Do you have any reaction to a U.S. government official, in this case a U.S. ambassador, asking someone to pay off debt in exchange to access to other government officials?

Well, so with that hypothetical, Jen, obviously, I don't love that, but I don't know exactly who you're talking about. I don't know the full details. I don't love that. Who doesn't, John? It doesn't sound great. Now, if you told me it was a Democrat, I would condemn it pretty quickly, but I don't know who it could be. Probably someone that I work with. This could.

It probably falls under as purview as frauds are, I'd say. Yeah. What the fuck? frauds are. Dan, what do you think about this story? There is so much in this story. So much.

Every word is a joy. And we could talk about it. Treat yourself. Treat yourself to this story. Yes. Treat yourself. It is funny that we listened to a reaction that Marker Rubio had to this where he was chast. I think we can only see

they hear the clip out of context, but it seemed like they were asking him about it. And he's like, look, I'm not going to let you guys, you guys, the press, be the only arbiter's of truth here. So his argument is, I'm not going to listen to the newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch to tell me what's happening. That has the signal messages.

Yes. Yeah. It's the thing that I love the most about it is that she might be the dumbest fucking criminal in the world. Where she keeps telling, like he keeps texting her like about the money she wants. And she keeps saying, stop papering this. Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things. And then another quote, It's unbelievable when we have a private arrangement with you

that you would now CC a producer talking about money. Do not say we have any arrangement. The producer in question there was a Tucker Carlson producer because there was apparently an offer of a million dollars to get an appearance on a Tucker Carlson podcast, which never came for fruition. There was no, I think this might have been my favorite signal. Quote, what a nightmare.

You'll literally cost me my ambassador. Stop writing. Also very privately, she continued, if you write an email or a text about, I'm going to kill you because I love you, but you're so out of control. But she keeps telling him to stop texting, but she's telling him by texting.

It's like at that point, like I- Pick up the phone. Pick up the phone. It's like, do not text about this, because if you were to text about it, that would allow the police, and the authorities to read the text and put us both in jail. Hit sent.

Three sources say investigators are examining allegations involving potential substance abuse, private planes and helicopters, improper gifts, and Guilfoyle's relationship with an energy construction company. This is all alleged in the Daily Mail piece that was the follow on to the incredible Wall Street Journal piece. But also in the Wall Street Journal piece, it talks about how after Trump lost, she tried to monetize her role as a mega icon into business woman. woman, she started a hair care product line. She started a high-end champagne and vodka business, I think.

And there was a pitch deck that she did for a dinner at Mara Lago trying to raise a bunch of money for it, promising that they would get to $75 million in revenue in three years. And then she shut the business down like three weeks later. It's also like the whole like, I need $100,000 to pay off my MX bill right now. Sam Stein at the Bullwork interviewed this Dieter's guy as well. today. And so I was watching a little bit of that. And Sam's like, well, why didn't she

need this money? Like, she's not, she's like a person of means. Yeah. Like, she has a lot, like millions of dollars. She has no debts on her public, you know, records. And Dieter's like, because

it's her lifestyle. She's just like being living high on the hog over as ambassador to Greece and she's fucking partying mecanos and doing all this shit. And so she's just like racking up these bills and just wants random donors to pay them off.

by promising influence in the Trump administration. You have to be ambassador. She's got to send all of her financial records to the Senate, and including your debt. So she's going to have to report this $100,000 amex debt, which would have been quite embarrassing. And so she's trying to get that off the books before. Oh, that makes sense.

That makes sense. But also in this story, it says that when she got divorced from Don Jr., she tried to sell their mansion in Florida. I believe for like seven million. They bought it for $7 million. She tried to sell for $30 million, I think, thinking that some like, you know, someone tried to buy influence the Trump administration

would overpay like four X the price for the house. Yeah, I mean, a Russian oligarch paid for Don Jr.'s next wedding. Someone can step in there and, you know, pay a little higher price for the house. And but then she had, I guess, Don Jr. ended up buying it out, buying her out from it for a much, much cheaper price, which is why she needed the $100,000 to pay her amex bill.

I would say I can't. I can't imagine she'll be ambassador for long after this, but I don't know. She might know too much. That's why she's ambassador now. I know. That's what I was thinking, because I'm like, maybe she's going to go down because, like, who cares at this point about Kim Guilfoyle in that family, right? Like she's, but of course, she could, you know.

She was around for a lot of stuff. She's a lot of rooms. Yeah. Yeah. So good times. Good times. All right. When we come back, Levit talks to Florida Senate candidate, Angie Nixon.

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So if you want to vote this year, you should request your ballot right away. Go to votefromabroad.org and click request my ballot, as to receive it by email. Questions? Ask our support team directly. Don't miss this gins to shape the future. Don't delay. Vote fromabroad.org. Joining me now, it's Angie Nixon, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Florida. Angie, welcome to the pod. I am so excited to be with you today. Hey, Pod. What up, chat? I don't know what they, I don't know what the young people say nowadays.

I don't know either. We're contemporaries. I have no idea. There are a lot of people who have written Florida off. It's shifted to the right. It's the beating heart of MAGA. It's hopeless. What do you say to those people?

I would say they have. not spent much time here in the state of Florida because we have been winning things for years here. You know, we just need people to just invest in our state. And folks are fed up right now as well. There are Republicans that are actually leaning into our campaign, our people power campaign. Folks are ready to work to build a new vision for this country where everyone has the opportunity to be healthy, prosperous, and safe. and I'm excited about it. So in a response to J.D. Vance, we had talked about this on the show on Monday.

You spoke movingly about growing up in a home with domestic violence, how it drives you to take on bullies. But when you posted the clip, you said something that I thought was really surprising. You said that you carried a lot of anger because of that violence and that you didn't realize how much it impacted you until this campaign. And I'm just curious what you recognized and what you feel liked you learned about something so personal in your past in this political arena?

Yeah, for sure. So I carried a lot of shame and embarrassment because, you know, my mom didn't want anyone to know. And so she passed that down to me and my brother. And I never recognized how I'm always like, when I see people hurting, when I see people are scared or being picked on and bullied. I'm always like bucking up at them. And it wasn't until I had to really share my story about my childhood with like my senior advisor because they want to dig deep to see what drives you and things like that. And I put that story, you know, back in the back of my mind. And I just, it came out. And I'm like, you know what? It is me. A lot of people have to deal with bullies growing up, and it has actually helped other women.

They've come and started sharing their story to me, and it's something that we need to work to stomp out. Oftentimes, people are afraid to share things when they're the victims or the survivors of things. We see it right now with, we've seen it with, like, the Epstein files. We've seen it with what happened at Cornell, right? We saw it with what happened with a ton of other stories recently. And it's like that happened to us, right?

Like we didn't make that happen, right? And so we need to just take it on and like turn it around and talk about how we're surviving from it and how we're pushing forward to make things better. I sometimes think with the people that are at Trump rallies, the people that have embraced MAGA, even when it's not delivering for them, even when they have experienced hardships, right,

they're paying for the tariffs, they're paying higher gas prices, higher diesel prices, that this idea of not demanding more for ourselves, not truly accepting that we didn't deserve the pain and sacrifice and loss in our life. I do think that's a little bit of what undergirds, some of the kind of anger that you see on the right as well. And I'm wondering what it's like when you're talking to Republicans,

even Republicans that might still see themselves as being on their team and pro-Trump about what's happening in Florida. Yeah. So thank you for that question. I actually had a similar question today just a few minutes ago, but it was from young people in regards to them not voting. and just feeling like nothing would change. And I tend to tell people that we deserve better.

Like you deserve health care that you don't go bankrupt getting, because medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy. You deserve to have fully funded public schools. You deserve to have groceries you can afford. Like you work hard, and you should be able to afford to live in this country. And that's not what's happening right now. And so how I talk to people on the other side, so to speak, is I let them know that they are profiting off of us fighting with each other. They are profiting off of us being divided and distracted because that allows them to distract us from the fact that they want to privatize Social Security because they want to make money off of.

How, like, why are we allowing Republicans to move us to a place where they are privatizing Social Security? There should be no profit to be had with our taxpayer dollars that should go towards ensuring that our seniors can live their final days in peace and in good health. And I let them know that we should not be operating with a scarcity mindset. This is America. This is the land of abundance. The problem is the folks with the money and the abundance are hoarding it at the top.

Like, they are trying to keep us down so that they can have more money on top of more money, on top of more money. And honestly, I let folks know that they don't have to be scared. They don't have to be scared of other people that don't love. look like them. Like this is, we are a multiracial working class. And honestly, it's honestly like kind of a class war at this point right now. And we have to all come together and let these billionaires and corrupt corporations know that we are the workers. We are working harder than ever and we're struggling just to stay ahead, just to get ahead. And meanwhile, they're working less and less and less, and they're privatizing everything so that they can make more money or so they can

also trade stocks that we don't even have enough money to trade in the first place. And it's like this, it doesn't have to be this way, y'all. Like, it doesn't. We can start electing people who are exactly like us. We can start electing school bus drivers and teachers and fast food workers and people that work at telemarketing firms. Like, imagine if regular everyday people, you know, farmers, like, imagine if those people were our elected officials. They would actually push for policies that would help benefit regular everyday people. But what we're seeing right now is that the ultra wealthy are the ones that are in charge. And of course, they're going to pass big BS bills that, you know, give them massive amounts of tax breaks.

of course they are okay with working family taxes in the form of tariffs, right? Of course they're fine with those things, but we can change this all around if we elect regular hardworking everyday people and folks who've retired because I've been called out on that here in the state of Florida because, you know, we have a large retiree class of folks. You know what's interesting is Florida has this reputation as being the home of senior citizens. But I was, I went and I was just like looking into it, like where, what states do have these big populations of seniors? And yes, Florida is up there. But it's also states that are rural in part because they've lost their young people because the young people can't afford to live there and get jobs there anymore.

And part of that is obviously what we're seeing with, you know, Trump and sort of tariffs and the hardships he's visited on some of his biggest supporters. But to that point, I saw that you pointed out that Donald Trump and Ashley Moody are in ways more aligned with communism than you, right? They're attacking you all the time as a socialist, but there are ways in which they are kind of leading. Oh, absolutely. So what do you mean by that? Okay. Going after political opponents, right? Calling for the assassination of sitting Congress members, right?

stealing taxpayer dollars to push propaganda. And we saw that with Ashley Moody, who stole $10 million from sick kids that was supposed to go towards their Medicaid funding. And then we are seeing that now with this Trump TV network that Donald Trump is using and also the taxpayer money that they're using for paid ads.

Also the fact that if they talk so much trash about Cuba, and Venezuela, you know, rightfully so, but they're deporting people back there? Like, that is crazy to me. And then on top of that, to go into Venezuela and to be okay with taking control of their oil and helping decide who sells what,

knowing good and well, his son and his family and friends have vested interests in selling this oil, and then cozying up to, the leader of North Korea and closing up to the leader of Russia. And it's like, sir, like, is that what we're doing? And then also they're saying that I want to take over people's businesses when Donald Trump and this administration has taken stocks. Like, they have taken percentages of several companies here in this country, like in this

country, I'm a small business owner. I don't want nobody coming to take my business. Absolutely not, right? And so it is so mind-boggling that they are trying to paint me as the person that they are, and I'm pushing back against that. And then they say, you know, I want to abolish prisons and I want defund the police. Like, why would I want to do that when I want Donald Trump and Ashley Moody locked up in jail? Like, come on. Like, they did some things that they deserved to be locked up for. So absolutely not. I believe we need to abolish for-profit prisons because why are we privatizing prisons and allowing folks to capitalize and exploit people's labor? Like, that doesn't, that is, and this is the biggest shakedown ever of a president, right?

Like, this is the largest grift ever. Every, every which way he can monetize something. as he's president, he is doing. He is actively doing. Now, that does not stop Vance from attacking you as a socialist. What set up this controversy was his saying that you don't belong in America. And you responded by saying that you, as you just said, you own a business. You've called yourself a capitalist who believes we need some strong regulations.

But you did join DSA in June of this year in a state where socialist as a label carries a lot of historical baggage to say the least. And I'm curious, like, put aside what Ashley Moody's saying, what J.D. Vance is saying. Is this coming up for you on the ground with voters? Because whatever the, you know, the sort of the political expedient attack, there are people who legitimately say, look, I don't, I come from a place where socialism is for me, my family being persecuted, my being impoverished and having to flee, I worry about voting for someone who's affiliated with socialism. What do you say to people that sees... You know, and so what I would tell people is they should look at my track record and what I've

done and stood for, and that all I want for them is to be able to decide what they want their communities to look like and what they want their economies to look like. The people that keep pushing this division and this rhetoric that I'm trying to come do all of this horrible stuff are like, you know, my opponents and the media, when I go out and talk to people in Little Haiti, like, who are voting for me and or in Little Havana who are voting for me, what they say in Venezuelan communities, what they say is they want someone who is who's going to give them quality health care. They want someone who's going to lower their costs. They want someone that is going to fight against bullies and dictators.

And that's what I tell folks. I literally was arrested because of like a dictator-type action against me, right? And I let them know that I don't want anyone to have to worry about that type of stuff. I don't believe in any, allowing any type of oppressive government to be in power, right? And so I let them know to check my track record and that I have their back. And that has been resonating. We've been able to cut through the noise and the disinformation because of it. As part of your housing policy, you called for a national rent freeze and an eviction moratorium.

This is a big complicated country with very different housing issues in different regions. Just honestly, like, oh, that doesn't totally make sense to me, right? Like in COVID, we're in an emergency, but places should be able to decide how they're going to build and expand housing. Yeah. And so I want to be clear. Like, that is, this is, this is temporary. It is temporary. And I think I need to add to the website and put, like, temporary.

Because I am a, I'm a landlord myself. My first home that I was able to purchase as a single mom, I'm actually renting it out to some friends. And I don't overcharge them a lot more. It's actually like 200 more. what my mortgage is, and that is in case something breaks down and that type of stuff. But what I know is that, I opened

up Facebook today, and a guy said, oh, my God, my rent went up $350 to, like, I have to sign, and they want to charge me $350 more. Property insurance then go up $350 more,

right? And so, what we're seeing, right now are a lot of these private equity firms, these for-profit companies that own these homes and these that are renting these apartments out, they're just doing things simply because they can and people don't have anywhere else to go. And so what I am saying right now is while we have these working family taxes on us in the form of tariffs, while we are still in this thoughtless war that is causing gas and diesel prices to go up and then causing everything else to go up.

There needs to be a freeze-on rent for like a year or two, right? So that people cannot be stressed out about not having a place to stay. And it's kind of similar to what happened during COVID, right? And so we like, yo, people are hurting. People are like dying on the streets. People are having to cramp themselves up. because they can no longer afford rent. Or people are taking food from their children's mouths

because they got to keep rent. They got to keep a roof over their heads. And so what I'm saying is like, let's stop raising the rents for a second, right, so that people can get caught up. I also believe that we need to lower the interest rates on credit cards for a little bit as well. So people, like, people have, like, I saw on Threads the other day,

a woman was like, y'all, tell me how I can pay for my rent on my credit card. Why do people have to pay for their rent on their credit cards right now? Something is broken. Something is wrong. But then you see people in these companies and these billionaires making record profits, number one, because they're not paying people what they owe them. They're not paying people living wages. And then on top of that, the people aren't getting paid living wages.

And everything else is going up. And so I am ready to start, like, looking out for just everyday people here in this country and not just looking out for these ultra wealthy folks. Like, folks are hurt. Like, they are at their breaking point, like, they are. And I am concerned. I know someone, a guy lost his job a few months ago, and then I read that he, like, killed his kids and killed his wife and healed himself.

Like, people are taking their lives. because they feel so hopeless and like nothing is going to change. And I talked to my friend a few weeks ago and she's like, she doesn't even want to get out of bed because the doom, the cloud that is hanging over her about if she loses her job, because she sees people getting laid off,

if she loses her job, this is her home. She just bought this home five years ago. She doesn't know if she's going to do the job market is not looking too good. And so, like, those are the things that folks are stressed out about. And so that's why I say, you know, a temporary rent freeze

and moratorium on evictions. So, Moody won't debate you. Nope. She says it's because she doesn't want to give you a platform because you're such a, you know, you're just, it's just, people can't

handle it, I guess. It seemed that if she thought you were such a dangerous, had so many dangerous ideas she'd wanted to argue with you about them. But no, she doesn't. How are you going to get in front of enough people in the home stretch here if you don't get an opportunity to talk to her on that stage? I mean, we're going out and talking to as many folks as we can. This is a people's power grassroots distributive program where there's starrows,

spreading our message. our social media is popping. We're interviewing wherever we go. We're trying to hit all 67 counties before the general election. And we're just going to continue to get amplified. Thank you for having me on your show. It's good. It's been great to talk to you.

It's also like, you know, there's been a lot of like, oh, how did Angie Nixon pull off this upset in the primary? And then you see, do you talk to you or you watch you a video? You're so charismatic. It's really intoxicating. It's really, it's very intense. I'm just a southern girl with a southern drama. I've talked to a lot of boring politicians. It's partly, you know, gladly.

So you're from Jacksonville. You spent most of your life there. What's it been like campaigning across the whole state? What have you learned about Florida, right? Like, Florida is a big, strange place. The more north you go, the more south it is. The further south you go, the more international it is. And I would say the more west you go, the more rural it is.

And I love my state, man. It's like 20 states and one. And also adding a few extra countries as well. And we have beautiful beaches and parks. We have beautiful people. we have such good culture and like good swag and some of the like we still have southern hospitality here and you know that sweet tea still get you might send you into a diabetic diabetic diabetic coma real quick but um you know like i just i love my state oh my god i love my state which is why i'm fighting so hard to be able to represent it

I just get so frustrated because it's folks like Ashley Moody who are in power right now, unelected Ashley Moody. And my office, my state, because I'm still a state lawmaker, we have to field so many calls and emails from people who have reached out to her or Rick Scott and they haven't received a phone call back. And it's like that is not what we need to represent us. We need someone who's going to be accessible, ethical, and someone that they can trust.

And I pride myself on acting as though I work for people, like actually working for people. I don't believe that the constituents work for me. And that is how Ashley Moody operates. And I work for folks and whatever it is that they want me to do, if it's within reason and if it makes sense as far as like it helps improve the quality of life for people, I am going to work to do it.

Well, Angie Nixon, thank you so much for being here. Good luck in this next month. And I'll just say my parents live in Boynton Beach, Florida. Hey. And I would say the outcomes there are either canceling each other's votes or potentially, potentially getting you two votes. I will work on that. I will work on that.

Oh, please, please do. And I would say, you know, because I am from Florida. I do love those Jaguars. I'm looking forward to us going to the Super Bowl, but I still also love the Tampa Bay books and the Miami Dolphins. And then also, folkships, follow me on social media, Angie for Florida. Go to my website, Angie Nixon.com.

But thank you so much for having me on. Hey to your parents down there. I want to be your U.S. Senator. And so I would really love and appreciate it if you voted for me. Angie Nixon, thank you so much. Thank you so much. That's our show for today. Thanks to Angie Nixon for coming on.

I'll be back in the feed on Sunday with our old friend, David Axelrod. Talk to everybody then. Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Michael Goldsmith, with Reed Jorlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroote, Ben Heffcoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kenny Moffat, Adam Lippert, Joseph Dutra, Desmond Taylor, Dan Farrow.

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