Pod Save America - "Memorial Day Mailbag."

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Jon, Jon, and Tommy answer your burning questions about student loan debt, getting involved in politics, and the best Summer blockbusters. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. Your tone switch is get me every time. Hope you've all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Yeah. What color are those pants?

Again, this is an audio format. I would say they're... Rescription. It's called pink? No, it's more of a lilac. Okay, it might be lilac. On today's show, we'll dig into the mailbag to answer some of your questions. And then, our chief take officer, Elijah Cohn, is here for another round.

Virtually. Virtually, yeah. He's not in the office because he's in North Carolina. For another round of Take Appreciator. But before we begin, we got a merch announcement here. What is it? Our Memorial Day weekend sale is almost over. Thursday, June 2nd, also my birthday, is your last day to get 15% off.

Big 5-0. What? Fuck you. You're older than me. You're older than him. And you're both older than me. 15% off site-wide and up to 80% off new sale items. It's our biggest sale ever.

So if you have your eye on something, now's the time to nab it before it's gone for good. This is the part where the hosts have to name their favorite merch store item. For me, it's anything Dan related. Yes. A listener named Charlie was asking when we're going to sell trucks. Trucks? He wants some garbage trucks. We could do some garbage trucks for Charlie.

Take trucks. Garbage take trucks. Crooked.com slash store. Again, 15% off site-wide, up to 80% off new sale items. Pretty good. All right, let's get to your questions. First one is from AP on Twitter. Please talk about Biden's potential upcoming decision on student loan debt and the pressure that could be placed on him or members of his administration

in order to get a result that actually helps people financially. Just for context on AP's question, Friday morning's Washington Post reported that White House officials are currently planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower and limiting debt forgiveness to individuals who earned less than $150,000 last year or couples that earned less than $300,000.

This is according to three sources. The timing on the announcement is apparently imminent. We don't know exactly when. Tommy, what do you think? What was Dan's line? It was Saturday in the third biggest media market in Delaware. Yeah, because there was some thought that he would announce it at his commencement address over Memorial Day weekend, but that didn't happen. I mean, 10,000 is what we expected, right? Because that's what Joe Biden campaigned on. It seems like Biden has clearly signaled that he has some reservations

about going higher. I understand the desire to target it to a certain income threshold. I worry about how that will be executed. I don't know that we know more about how that will work, the under 50,000. You mean the under 150,000? Yeah. I mean, listen, income thresholds can be a bit of a blunt instrument where um i don't know it doesn't necessarily talk about your ability to pay or not pay back your debt but look ten thousand dollars is great i'm glad i hope he does it nobody does it soon i actually yeah i'm much happier with the income threshold than the like i think you could have gone from i think you could have gone up to 50 um but like you said, Tommy, he campaigned on 10.

That was his promise. And he was elected on 10. So that's what we got is 10. But on the $150,000, 97% of all federal student debt is held by people earning below the threshold of $150,000. In fact, the poorest 20% of Americans hold just 8% of the debt. So like, look, this is tax dollars. I don't think with all the need out there in the country on a whole bunch of different issues, I don't think that people making over one hundred fifty thousand dollars, if they want to make that the threshold, that's totally OK with me.

I think that's very fair, especially since 97 percent of debt is held by people who make underneath that. Look, it's the official position of my burgeoning desire to challenge D diane feinstein uh for re-election assuming she's run because she has technically uh filed for re-election so when i do challenge diane feinstein she's opposed uh what she's opposed to this plan uh no but i'm expressing my distinct position which is we should forgive all student debt except for student debt held by mba and law students oh got it got it yeah. Yeah, people talk about postgraduate and I'm like, but I think we do want more doctors. I just do want to encourage the

doctor to the medical school. Listen, if your MBA was useful to you, that's fine. I don't respect the degree. Wow. Okay. You heard me. People also know the average amount of debt is $28,000 held by an individual and the majority owe less than $20,000. So it would help a lot of people. Wouldn't help everyone under $150,000 who have a lot of debt, but it would help a lot of people.

So I think it's good. Hope he announces it soon. Also, you know, Data for Progress just released some polling on the best and worst messages for cancellation of student debt. And the best message was helping low-income borrowers. Yeah. Right. Obviously. The best. And that was a means-tested message that was about making sure that it was for people under $200,000, I believe, in the Data for Progress poll. Yep. $200,000, right. Obviously, the best. And that was a means tested message that was about making sure that it was for people under $200,000. I believe in the data. All right. Next question is from Sarah. What's your take on David Gergen's pleas for the World War Two and baby boomer leaders in Congress to retire? Just for context on this one? Well, the first piece of context is Tommy really wanted to answer this question. Well, the first piece of context is Tommy really wanted to answer this question.

The second piece of context is David Gergen, for those who don't know, because maybe some people don't know, was a White House advisor to four presidents before retiring to a CNN panel where I think he lives now. Yeah. On the CNN panel. He's got a cot on the set. It's technically a tiny house. Yeah, it's what Rick Caruso is talking about. One of Rick Caruso's tiny houses. Yeah, that's where David Gergen lives, right right under and then wolf blitzer wakes him up every morning makes him just kind of shakes him he's under the desk and he's all right sit in your chair

it's like uh-oh gloria borger's gloria borger's playing her her her music again ah oh jazz can't stand living in a tiny house next to gloria borger so he recently i guess we should get to the question. He recently wrote a book about the baby boomers and made the following comment during his book tour saying, quote, I just turned 80 and I can tell you, you lose a step, you're not as sharp. Tommy, what's your take on this,

that Gergen wants the boomer leaders in Congress to retire? I mean, you know, it's a bit of a broad brush. Listen, I love it for some reason, took a wild swerve at Dianne Feinstein earlier, but there have been multiple articles written over the years suggesting that she should step down. And I think that's a good take. I don't think anyone's saying, hey, Bernie Sanders is really slowing down, right? Like he's a progressive, he's great. I do think that Congress is very stagnant, especially at the leadership level, and it would be good to have more younger members. They just communicate differently and better and

understand technology. And so, yeah. In that they use technology. No, look, I don't want to get yelled at by boomers. I'm not in the Lubbock camp here. I'm just saying like AOC comes to Washington and uses Instagram live and people act like it's landing a spaceship on the moon. I'm going to make a couple quick points. Point number one. Hey, David Gergen, don't put yourself down. You are fucking sharp as a tack. You are crushing

it every goddamn day. You know what? There are a lot of 30-year-olds. There are a lot of 30-year-olds that would kill to have the lithe mind of a David Gergen just crushing it on those panels every day with him that got that's yeah yeah ceremoniously canceled uh you and david gergen doing a stanley tucci and it's somewhere eating their way through the beltway yeah that's right

that's right yeah we're doing um what was point two? Yeah. David Gergen and I. Yeah. And will they or won't they? We do. Eat, pray, love. Several times. That's how crazy this... It's really wild.

Ayahuasca happens. This is a show where I do ayahuasca with David Gergen. Did you do some before this pod? I'm a little loose today. Listen. Those are the poders. Wait, but I have another point. Here's the point I wanted to make.

Okay. There's no... We got there. It's not that any specific person needs to retire. Actually, I know that I have made bones with the boomers, but it's not about any one person being too old for the job, although there are plenty of people that are too old for the job in their jobs. It's that the fact of living in a gerontocracy is a symptom of a larger problem, which is a system that does not elevate new people and that does not create the space for new people to run.

Part of the reason we're stuck with all these old people is we're in this sort of fractured media environment where just building a name has become nearly impossible. It's part of the reason Joe Biden is president right now. And I think we pay a price every single day for not having leaders who are able to kind of speak in a language that is more familiar to people under 50, under 40, under 30. And every time you see someone just a little bit younger, like Brian Schatz or Chris Murphy kind of take to the floor or AOC take to the floor and just sort of speak in a way that's sort of clear and transparent and not like kind of mired in the language of Washington. You know the price you pay when all the leaders of all the committees are septuagenarians or octogenarians.

That's all. Yeah, I think it's just as Congress needs to do a lot better in terms of diversity by race, gender, sexual orientation. Age too. They just need to be better, to have a more diverse. But it's not a panacea as Madison Cawthorn showed us. Yeah, of course. That's very good. Well, fun follow-up question from Laura.

Tell us your fantasy league of House and Senate Democratic leadership. This one, I don't know. I got some. What do you got, please? All right, in the House. There's just some names that I would like to see in leadership. That's all this is. Jayapal.

Yeah. Yeah, she's great. Right? Ro Khanna. We love Ro Khanna. Katie Porter. Please. For sure.

Joe Neguse. Everyone loves that guy. He's great. Those are just four I could think of in the house. Four house Dems. Neguse was on mine. Josh Gottheimer. Josh Got...

I almost wrote that down as a joke. You got it. All right. Cawthorn. Gottheimer. Josh Got... I almost wrote that down as a joke. You got it. All right. Cawthorn. Gottheimer. In the Senate. You guys must have senators. I mean, this is where the generational argument becomes quite clear.

Like, Brian Schatz goes to the floor and speaks like a human being, communicates on Twitter like a human being. You feel like you know him, and he's just really good at the job. Yeah. Yeah. And this is where this cuts against the age thing. Elizabeth Warren. a human being you feel like you know him and he's just really good at the job yeah yeah and and this is where this cuts against the age thing elizabeth warren i mean she's in leadership now but elizabeth warren be great in leadership cory booker chris murphy oh yeah both great and i love cory booker rafael warnock i know he hasn't been there that long but he'd be great in leadership as well

yeah i've been um uh a murphy stand for a while because he likes to geek out on worldo stuff yeah okay a few questions on guns in the wake of the school shooting in uvalde uh leah and several of you asked can biden do anything by executive action on gun control that he hasn't already done? He did do something on ghost guns. He just did the ghost guns. I mean, I tried to look into this a bit. Biden himself said there's not much on executive action that he can do or that's left to do. Some advocates say you should have DOJ unilaterally close the gun show loophole by basically deciding that gun shows and online marketplaces have to get licenses like other dealers. That seems like a good idea. Yeah, i guess they think that the giffords organization

has been pushing this as well and uh kamala harris uh joe biden's vice president i had this proposal when she was running which is you you redefine what engaged in the business of selling firearms means from a federal like via executive action and then you can do what you were just talking about tommy which is expand background checks some people want a gun czar gun gun coordinator that's one that will get demagogued by right-wing idiots but it might be worth it another thing that kamal harris uh proposed as an executive action which he was running uh is the banning of assault weapon imports from overseas which you know would make some kind of difference even though most of the a lot of the assault weapons are manufactured right here in the United States, unfortunately. But you might as well stop

imports from overseas. That seems like common sense. And then she also advocated taking executive action to keep domestic abusers from getting guns. March for Our Lives has said that Biden could do more on stopping firearm trafficking as well through executive action. Yeah. And some people just want him to, or the administration, just to release more data on gun sales so you can trace it better or get the ATF nominee confirmed or better enforce red flag laws. Those are some of the other things.

But sadly and tragically, you need Congress to do anything that would truly, truly make a difference. Yeah, and Mitch McConnell's the most cynical human being on the planet. Yeah. We got some questions about voting in campaigns. Jennifer asks asks i would love to know your thoughts on phone banks every organization wants people for these and it would be helpful to know as someone who rarely talks to an unknown

number why is this the push and is it smart i feel like we're all quiet because like we we have all done phone banking and we know that like i don't know whenever i've done phone banking you make i mean sometimes you'll make a dozen, two dozen, three dozen calls before you get somebody who picks up. But then once in a while, you'll have a really, really great conversation. My instinct is to say it remains a really important and really valuable tool, but I do worry that it is becoming less and less valuable over time. That's right. I think the hit rate is becoming less and less valuable over time. That's right. I think the hit rate is getting lower and lower.

And I felt that even the difference, I felt that difference between 2016, 2018 and 2020. I felt the same thing. I like, I'm making calls in 2020, part of it may be just the nature of the pandemic, but like I found that I would sit there and I was really like dialing and dialing and dialing. That said, like, it is still a tool that we have. And I, and I, and, and, and as, and as much as it feels sometimes

like you're kind of beating your head against the wall, I vividly remember even in, even in 2020, like I had like a few conversations, like one or two, every time I phone banked, that was actually just, first of all, you got somebody to talk about making sure their ballot got in that you felt like you were doing something but also the conversations themselves were um helpful like just it's it's it's useful i think and and and something short of inspiring but but a nice feeling to kind of talk to somebody about voting who's maybe not paying attention that much yeah it's also a question of like if people aren't picking up the phones are they more likely to answer their doors like it's just at some point you got to figure out a way to reach people. Yeah.

It's sort of a question of like, are we talking about phone banking or nothing or phone banking or something else? Right. If it were up to me, I would rather knock on doors than phone bank. I also never, ever answer my phone. Hey, all you politicians, I don't care how many times you call. I'm not ever going to take your fucking call. I'd rather give you money than take your call and you know my response is to your text my response is stop yeah stop well i was gonna say i think text banking is probably more effective

but only if it's not a form text we gotta figure out a way because i know it's easier to send a bunch of the form text but we gotta figure out a way to actually sit people sit volunteers in a room and just like actually text hey i'm from whatever you think this text wasn't from steve kerr the the ones the ones that put their picture. But the key distinction here is the answer is not that phone banking isn't useful. It is useful, especially if you're saying, should I phone bank or do nothing?

You should absolutely phone bank, especially when you're doing GOTV and just trying to turn people out and remind them that the election's coming up. Yeah. And Kalen served us up a big old softball. Midterms, where to put our energy now? Well, Kalen, have you heard about votesaveamerica.com? Have you heard about it?

around the country. We've all taken a region. And we'll set you up with volunteer opportunities in some of the most competitive Senate and House and down ballot races in the country. Right, you can choose between signing up for the Midwest or being a loser. And I know. Or the West where I think we have

the most signups right now. Yeah, just saying. I think we have the most signups in the West right now. Because all the losers want this. Biggest audience, biggest audience. Also, I'll just say this to everybody. Are no one in New York listens to us? We have a lot of people in New York, slightly less, which is why we're doing our, and listen, we're obviously the East Coast. is all the biggest audience biggest audience also um i'll just say this to everybody new york listens to us we have a lot of people in new york slightly less which is why we're doing our

listen we're obviously the east coast we're punching above our weight as we always do but here's the thing i know how many people listen to pod save america and i know how many people have signed up for midterm madness uh it is too big of a difference uh like we're talking to you you sign up like do it just do it now bruce take two seconds bruce pick a region you, you sign up. Do it, just do it now. Bruce. Take two seconds. Bruce. Pick a region, Bruce,

and sign up right now. All the Bruce's out there. Sign up. Signing up. You're Bruce listening to this episode. Ellen, you have some free time. It's not a contract. You know,

it just puts you in the game. You know, you'll get the information you need. Maybe you'll help. Maybe you'll, maybe you don't care about this country. I don't know. I don't know you,

but I'm just saying sign up and then you have a chance. Just pick a region. Pick a region. I'm sick of this. All don't know. I don't know you. But I'm just saying sign up and then you have a chance. Just pick a region. Pick a region. Sick of this. Alright, we got some fun questions. Great. Michael asks, I'm heading to Boston for a work trip in July and this is my first time visiting. Anything you guys recommend I should see or do while I'm there? Yeah, I recommend

trying New York. It's a hop, skip, and a jump. Son of a bitch. Asshole. One of my favorite things to do in Boston is to go to New York. You're the worst person in the world. Go to a Red Sox game. Go to a Red Sox game. Even if you don't go to the game, hang out around Fenway.

Assault a Yankees fan. Assault a Yankees fan right around Fenway. The New England Aquarium rules. I love the aquarium. Yeah, you're a big fish guy. Isabella Gardner a museum we've discussed that before one of the one people one thing people love in boston theater at the museum of science bostonians love dunkin donuts and what's great about dunkin donuts is it's also available in

new york city oh my god go whale watching on the cape different in boston you do that in new york city well now we're good now we're leaving boston we're going to the cape now we're on the cape listen it's a hop skip and a jump the big hop That's a big hop. You can go on the duck boats. I love that. How great are the duck boats? Most people live those. Those haven't turned over in a while, right? Most people what? Don't those things turn over? Don't they kill people? Did you say most people live

those? You didn't even have a right to say. Do you know how to speak? I wanted to do a best of, and you insisted on the recording. I said I was burned down. Love was going to give you a bunch of recycled C-blocks. I said let's do a best of and you insisted on the recording I said I was burnt out Love was going to give you a bunch of recycled C-blocks I said let's do a best of I said I was burnt out

Just C-blocks you already have Just attached to news cycles that happened long ago The best Christmas movies list Oh you guys really need to find out what Biden can do if Congress won't act Legal seafood, go to legal seafoods Unbelievable I love legal seafoods Beat up love it what Biden can do if Congress won't act? Legal seafood. Go to Legal Seafoods. Unbelievable.

Love Legal Seafoods. Beat up Lovett. That's usually in Boston. Hi, I'm... The comment is beautiful. You have a beautiful comment. Can you stop making fun of an avatar of our listener? Thank you.

You're welcome. Love y'all. Tommy defended all of you guys to Lovett. I got your back. Lovett, we have a question for you from Amber. You have to pick.

High speed rail or daylight savings? This is easy. High-speed rail. I'm not going to hesitate. I'm not going to beat around the bush. Of course, high-speed rail. We need high-speed rail. It's time.

All right? And you know what? Would I like high-speed rail to travel through a country that doesn't needlessly switch its clocks for no reason twice a year? Of course, I would. Of course, I would. But I'd take the trains. What route are we looking for? What's the go-to?

The first, I want, you know what I want. I want Los Angeles to San Francisco. It has 10 times the people of Barcelona, Madrid. And they built it. With siestas. With siestas, with environmental rules, with labor protections. They built it. Why can't we?

Meanwhile, Jerry Brown tries to get the fucking train built. Gavin Newsom comes in. He's like, we don't need a train from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We need a train from Bakersfield to Merced. Cars are made of jamon. We just got a Slack comment from our fearless head producer, Andy. She said, shocked that he picked high-speed rail. Andy, you shocked Andy.

You know what? You know what? I'm a clown to you people. That's what I You know what? I'm a clown to you people. That's what I think. Yeah. I'm a clown. I'm a fool. Was there some other intention?

Yeah, I suppose. It's hard to remember now. A fast train is pretty cool, though. A fast train is pretty cool. We need this trance. Lauren asks, who on the team are keto and who are normal?

I am not down with this keto nonsense. I've sort of been i've sort of been experimenting with a little less keto lately i don't know if it's worked so well here's the thing you know i don't know if i'm keto with exceptions or just a person who eats whatever he wants keto curious sort of i'm getting that i last just like less fewer carbs i would say i'm not strict keto at all i would like i I had a taco about last night after the show. Mexican pizza. It's back.

It's better than ever. What a delight. I'm trying to cut these carbs, you know? We're in Hollywood. My first boss, back on the John Edwards for President campaign in 2004, wonderful man David Ginsberg, would send me to Wendy's to buy him multiple burgers. Then I'd come back and I'd remove the bun. And he would eat it without the bun because he was keto. And was like buddy I just took away the best part you know the rest

of that shit's gonna kill you slowly that's why I wasn't keto at the time we lost a lot of weight it was Atkins Atkins is very yeah is that different it was pre-keto is it different it's like when ecstasy became molly let's go sean patrick maloney will tell you about that yeah yep he bragged about doing molly on morning joe just that's something that happened um uh second part of that question from lauren what's the funniest thing charlie did in the past month molly charlie charlie was in this office yesterday wait Wait, if this is a Flintstones chewable, uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Charlie was in this office yesterday,

sitting in Lovett's seat, and the two of us did an entire interview about trucks, and he really carried on. And then he now knows the name of this podcast. He says Podmerica. Nice. Podmerica. That's pretty good.

Yeah. He's got quite the retention. He does have quite the retention. We went home last home last night emily said who did you see at the office that you know he said tommy and then she said who else do you see john love it he says and he says your whole name now i like that and then i like that and then he talked about how he gave pundit a treat he was very excited to give pundit a dog treat yeah yeah so the second the second charlie was out of uh uh out of island i the treat away. I was in time for a treat. I mean, Charlie doesn't know.

That's not his fault. But I took it right away. What the fuck are you doing, kid? All right. I really did. Here's a question that Lovett demanded we pick last minute, but was too lazy to find the tweet on his own. What does Lovett think about Elon Musk's Eldon build?

Why has he got so many shields what's he doing with all those shields and i don't know about a dex a dex it's like a foreign what are these things yeah i don't know anything about this elden elden ring is a new game from from software uh which is it's a famously difficult challenging world type of game okay uh in it you can build a character that can be uh strong or dexterous or use faith or use um magic elon has built a character that is primarily intelligence based that's magic but has a little bit of dexterity so that he can use a weapon like a katana for example just sort of an annoying troll which no i mean look it You said katana to me like I'm experienced with katanas. Like, as you know.

He sort of landed, yeah, as I know. A curve sword. It's a fast-moving curve sword. Sure. A famous, for a dexterity build. But his inventory

had two shields. What are you doing, Elon? You don't need two shields. You don't need two shields to make you heavy. Now you're getting a heavy roll. Deflecting bots. You don't want a heavy roll.

Get yourself down to a light roll, my friend. All right? Come on. Are we back on Mac and Molly? Light roll. Get yourself. Yeah, listen. Elon, Elon, Elon, listen.

I know there's some context where you like to heavy roll. But this is a place where you want a light roll, my friend. I know those 5 a.m. tweets are about power. Okay. We also got a few fun summer summer related questions from a listener who goes by tommy vitor tommy yeah i mean just feels like we got some summer vibes that was the goal we were going for in this mailbag summer vibes achieved you guys got a favorite summer blockbuster this i really want to see top gun too so this is like of all time though right yeah okay mostly

because for the science i can't figure out which which is my favorite summer blockbuster from growing up either jurassic park yes or independence day correct answer both okay because i couldn't pick oh yeah jaws yeah do the right thing is a good summer movie yeah adventure lands caddyshack do the right thing is not a summer blockbuster it's a summer movie yeah i guess's... Right, you're thinking like big budget popcorn action. I was also thinking like that were released when I was growing up that I can remember. Which Caddyshack doesn't really fit the bill there. Right, that was an old one. Yeah.

Okay. So anyway, yeah, those are mine. It's funny. I'm trying to think like what is the truly the best action... I was so excited to see Jurassic Park. I can remember just going to the theater. The best big budget action movies of all time that I've loved in the theater.

Oh, Armageddon for you, right? Listen, I'm a deep impact man in an Armageddon world. The science was better in Deep Impact, although I do not understand and will never understand why Tia Leone decided to go back to be on that beach with her fucking dad.

Didn't make any sense. You're gonna die so you can have one last hug with this absent father? The world needed you on MSNBC. That was the whole point. The world needed you. And she dies in the ocean and meanwhile, she'd just gone uphill with Elijah Wood. She'd have been fine.

I don't remember this movie. I don't either at all you know i look good i mean yeah i barely i barely remember it uh best month of the summer june july august september are your options oh you're throwing september in there i guess that makes sense um i think i'm an august boy i love aug. I'm going July because I feel like June is still too busy, too many, it doesn't,

no one treats it as summer enough yet. I think July is your real total summer month. I'm going to go June. You got 4th of July. Right. No, no, I go June because I'm an August 31st birthday.

And so there's something about August, the month of August will forever make me think summer is about to be over and now I'm going to be back at school. Even having lived in Los Angeles for five years where it stays warm all the time. And frankly, it's nicer in September and October and November sometimes than it is earlier in the summer because of June gloom. It's a thing we have out here called fog that we whine about when it's 57 or 65 degrees um i just the june you have the whole summer ahead of you yeah i do love june too it's my birthday month so but um if you live your life viewing the times in which there's more good ahead as a reason to judge those moments as good can anything be good when everything is limited and everything will run out no matter what you do therapy boy over here uh-oh is it time we're doing some for another chapter do you want me to story of the therapy boys what i have an idea what if we just all did a 10 minute mindfulness meditation and we released it it's just elijah has to wait for 10 minutes to come in for take appreciate her he can

deep breathe with us everybody close your eyes any other one good thought i don't think my other questions were good if you guys have predictions on who will drop the song of the summer i'd love to hear it and then kind of just uh that's a tough prediction yeah i i was thinking that i hope um i hope rihanna finally drops her album oh yeah finally i put some money on get a future on that would be pretty that. That would be the album of the summer I bet. Megan Thee Stallion. Put a future on her.

I bet Bieber will do something stupid. Everyone will like it. John? I don't know. Maybe a film score? Yeah maybe. Film score.

Maybe it'll be a nice film score. Maybe something Ira Glass releases. You mean Philip Glass? I was going for the podcast version. I'm sure Taylor will

re-release 1989 soon. That'll be something. There we go. Should we do Take Appreciators? Yeah, let's go. Folks, we're back with another round of Take Appreciator. Our chief take officer, Elijah elijah cone joining us by video hey guys rock solid a block that was really tight

steven a cone how's it going out there one of our better one of our better a blocks you got big plans for the weekend you had big big holiday plan the weekend already happened for everyone just loves things yeah you But you know, that's risky. I did want to say that it's risky to do a take appreciator this far in advance of release. So we'll see how this ages. We'll see how it goes. Okay, yeah.

Like a fine wine, I'm sure. All right, so just a reminder for everyone how the game works. I'm going to share some takes with you all. The producers have seen them. JonJon and Tommy have not. They'll react and rate them on a scale of one to four politicos with four being the worst are you guys ready yeah we're ready we're ready couldn't be all right we'll get started then uh we agreed there are a lot of horrible gun control takes out there right now very trolly and bad and we agreed that we would

avoid them for this segment uh but we'll go adjacent to it uh so after the valdez shooting beto o'rourke interrupted a press conference that governor greg abbott was holding saying but will go adjacent to it. So after the Evaldi shooting, Beto O'Rourke interrupted a press conference that Governor Greg Abbott was holding saying that Abbott wasn't doing enough on gun control. That spawned this piece from the Daily Mail, which has an extremely long title. The title of the piece is, this isn't time for political stunts

and Texans don't need two-bit washed up politicians like Beto O'Rourke hijacking their horror for his own selfish political interests. That's just the title. There's a quote. This is not a partisan or political moment. This is not about showboating for the cameras getting follows on Twitter or shares on Instagram, which was clearly Beto's intention. I know there are many people on social media applauding Beto, but as Dave Chappelle once said, Twitter is not a real place.

Guys, who wrote it? Oh, for the Daily Mail? Who writes for the Daily Mail? Oh my god, I know who it is. I know who it is. It's that fucking shit-eating... It's Piers Morgan. It is not Piers Morgan. Fuck! I thought I had it. Am I close? That fucking shit eating. It's Piers Morgan. It is not Piers Morgan. Fuck.

I thought I had it. I don't know. Am I close? How do you get close to Piers Morgan? I don't know. It's a, you know. Emotionally close. Oft mocked famous pundit.

So you're close in that way. The Daily Mail. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I got it. I got it. It's Meghan McCain. It's Meghan McCain. Nice, John. That's good's good forgot she was writing for the daily mail now yeah man mostly the daily mail is just the that website with a whole side column of just horribly misogynistic photos and garbage

let me just let me just say yeah you know if if you want to a better aurora is currently running for governor of texas and if you want to uh win the governorship of texas definitely the the politically shrewd move is to scream about guns in that state right like we like beto's doing it just for his own political fortunes like it's not a popular thing to do what he did he did it because he fucking believes that he needed to do something it's come on i also even if even if he is trying to draw attention to the issue because he believes believes it might be politically advantageous to try to build more support for this issue by showing his anger and his outrage more power to him i am so fucking sick of theater critics judging the performance of how politicians decide to engage on issues at a time and when like the bigger question is not like uh beto's tone and where he decides to speak about the fact that kids are getting killed in

their classrooms what megan mccain wants is for is for everyone to mourn the tragedy and then say nothing about gun control at all because she doesn't believe in gun control that's what she wants so that's what she's trying to do by writing this fucking piece like give me a fucking never anyone says don't politicize something what they really mean is maintain the politics as they currently exist because i like them that's of course also daily mail we kicked your ass 200 years ago so we didn't have to listen to this kind of bullshit opinion. There you go. Go write about Boris Johnson. Write about Boris Johnson. Nice.

All right. We didn't write it. I was going to say Politico rating. It was the whole game. Three. I was going to say three, too. Three. I'm close to giving that a full playbook.

I'm really mad. I just have a low bar for the source. Yeah. I'm giving it a full playbook. All right. Full playbook. I'm doing'm doing it. I'm mad. He's mad. Steam coming out of his ears.

Worldos, buckle up. This next one is I can only describe it as delicious. Alright. It's as much about the author as the take. They are inseparable. So from the Washington Post, a piece titled, Biden must stop the promiscuous publicizing

of US intelligence. Pause here. That is a note to myself to pause there. Leave that in. Leave it in. Leave it in. That was incredible. That's why I have more pauses after the titles.

Sometimes I just go right into it. But again, Biden must stop the promiscuous publicizing of U.S. intelligence. Okay. This piece starts by pointing out that Biden releasing intelligence on Ukraine did not stop Putin from invading. It also attacks the media for not being more critical of the fact that Ukraine did not fall quickly, even though the U.S. warned that it could if Russia invaded. And here's a quote. It's not just coincidence that the intelligence and communication strategy mistakes in Ukraine

echoed errors in Afghanistan, two major blunders hardly six months apart. Who wrote it? I think I got this one. I think this was Mark Thiessen. Not Mark Thiessen. He's a torture-loving former Bush speechwriter. Washington Post. Guest writer, though.

Guest writer. Yes. A guest writer. So it's not Hugh Hewitt. Yeah, that was my next go-to. That didn't sound like Hugh. Is it Ari Fleischer? No. my next go-to that didn't sound like hugh intelligent is it uh is it some oh is it ari fleischer no he is a former administration official though is it an all-time asshole

uh mike pompeo nope trump era question mark trump era but also before oh was it a is it a cia director oh oh oh it's uh it's uh john bolton yes it's john bolton john good too there john bolton the stash was good um hmm yeah uh that's that's a that's a full playbook just sort of hindsight totally wrong also just like uh yeah look who's look who's talking about intelligence failures john bolton yeah thanks for a rock like who's talking about intelligence failures yeah that's i that gets like a just because of the the gall to talk about someone else's intelligence failures and also you're doing it in incorrectly that's a three that's three i'll give that three yeah i'm at three i'm still at three it did it did excite i want to say that one did excite me a lot see i

like that one too is that the one that you texted me about last night you were so excited yeah and i actually made a meme of my reaction to it that'll slide to you guys after this it's like the vince mcmahon this is someone who loves his work right here yeah look at that the passion's radiating i love that i love that all right well let's get to this last one see if we can get love it onto a full playbook. This one again is also just as much about the authors as the take. So the context for it is that in June, the house January 6th committee will be holding multiple televised hearings on the insurrection.

We will of course be covering those here at crooked with some live stream group threads. So go subscribe to our YouTube channel. So you don't miss them. YouTube.com. Pause. Pauseijah elijah don't forget your pauses thank you now i have it down so here's the here's the piece from the wall street journal it's titled the january 6th committee is weaponizing majority rule oh my. The piece asserts that the committee is partisan and it complains about the fact that the committee is subpoenaing some house Republicans. Here's a quote.

This attempt to coerce information from members of Congress about their official duties is a dangerous abuse of power, serves no legitimate purpose and eviscerates constitutional norms. Who wrote it? So it feels like a House member. Do you know the answer? Is it the Ed Board? It's not the Ed Board.

I think it's a House member, and my question is whether or not, so here are the contenders for who wrote this. Kevin McCarthy. Who? Jim Jordan. Elise Stefanik. No, I i don't think so she's not doing anything highbrow she's not wasting her time i feel like it's i feel like it's not someone who's the target of the subpoena but the reason it could be kevin it's one of their henchmen to try to get it's two

it's a co-written piece i will say oh curveball so who are the minority who are the minority uh who are the ranking republican members i said minority? Who are the ranking Republican members? I said Jimmy Jordan kind of. Jim Jordan feels involved. That's one of them. Jim Jordan is one of them. Yeah. Boom.

Yeah, we got Jim. So who would do an op-ed with Jim Jordan? What's scuzzy fuck? Let's see. Danny Hastert? Scuzzy fuck is funny. Jim Jordan and... it's not kevin it is kevin kevin mcgarthy and jim jordan and they are both subject of subpoenas i would like to say what am i the first two i said i'm just one of the first you said that that just moved me to a full playbook

because the fuck the gall the the subject of the subpoena is to write. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you're an unbiased viewpoint here. You don't want to be subpoenaed. Yeah, it's like, has Me Too gone too far by Johnny Depp? Right. Oh, my God. That's a full T. That's a full playbook.

Full playbook. Also, the Wall Street Journal gets the full playbook also the wall street journal gets the full playbook for for printing for existing yeah it's funny the wall street the wall street journal is such an embarrassment the wall yeah fuck man the wall street journal editorial page also coercing information uh we're going to ask you a question can't you just can't you just answer a question about what you were doing on january 6th is that's that that riles you up that much well it's just gonna ask you a question about what you were doing on january 6th is that's that that riles you up that much well it's just gonna ask you a question about what you were doing it sort of actually admits it sort of it's um it's a it's a tacit admission right because wouldn't their whole

argument be they don't have information because they did nothing wrong subpoena a bunch of democrats in the house about what they were doing on january 6th they'll all answer questions what's wrong with answering a question about what you were doing what what are you trying to hide jim jordan and kevin mccarthy unbelievable yeah yeah no not fans all right well for full playbook that's another full playbook that is another round of take appreciator chief take officer elijah come thank you for your service thank you as always steven a smith of crooked media um everyone else uh we will talk to you again we will talk to you again at the new york show on thursday night it'll be out as a pod first thing friday morning or hopefully if you're in new york we'll see you We will talk to you again at the New York show on Thursday night.

It'll be out as a pod first thing Friday morning, or hopefully if you're in New York, we'll see you at the show. Come on. Bye, everyone. Bye, everybody. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein. Our producer is Haley Muse, and Olivia Martinez is our associate producer. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Thank you.