Pod Save America - “Netflix and Macron.”

Episode Date: April 24, 2018

Trump hosts a state dinner for French President/bestie Emmanuel Macron, Democrats hope for an upset in an Arizona special election, and the California primaries are too crowded. Then Arizona teacher Kelley Fisher talks to Lovett about her role in organizing the teacher walkout this week. 

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On the pod today, Lovett talks to Kelly Fisher, a teacher who's helping to organize the teacher walkout in Arizona this week. She was cool. We just talked. There you go. It's real time. I was going to say, how was Lovett or Leave It this weekend? We had the Minneapolis show, which was a show we did about an issue.

It wasn't sort of tied to the weekly news. And it was a great conversation about fake news and propaganda and misinformation. And it meant that I didn't record a show on Friday, which meant I had a weekend off. And so basically I did a food tour of the worst restaurants a person can eat at multiple times. You played some Fortnite? I did not. I did not play fortnight i did an escape room where i ran into some friends at the pod cool and love it or leave it going on

tour pittsburgh may 3rd columbus may 4th baltimore may 5th you can get tickets on cricket.com slash events go check it out it's called love it or leave it it's a podcast can somebody eat shake shack and taco bell in a day when they're 35? The answer is yes. Delicious. What did you get at Taco Bell? I got a box that came with a chalupa, a burrito, and a taco. And I got a soft shell steak taco. And I got a double decker taco supreme. Great being in the office with you. Later in the pod, we'll also be talking to Crooked Media's own Priyanka Arabindi.

Yes. Who writes What a Day, our newsletter. Which is a hit. Our hit newsletter. And she's going to be giving us a little preview of what's in the newsletter. We're just going to be talking about it. Makes Axios look like one of those drum lessons things they put up at a coffee shop, you know? Sure.

Sure, sure, sure. Okay. Guys, let's talk about Donald Trump's efforts to bring about peace in our time. He planted a tree, John. He did. This week, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are in Washington. Trump has invited Macron for the first state dinner of his presidency, to which no congressional Democrats were invited. Very nice.

Cool idea. Or press. Or press. Normally, you invite a couple Democrats were invited. Very nice. Cool idea. Or press. Or press. Normally, you invite a couple reporters, maybe a columnist, maybe someone who agrees with you. Maybe your best bud, Sean Hannity. Why didn't he get the nod? Yeah, who's coming?

Just a bunch of like Reddit trolls? I don't know, man. Yeah. It's like a bunch of dudes in Pepe masks. Oh, I'm here for state dinner. I am here. I am American local person here to enjoy state dinner with a French person and President Trump. Good president.

So, wonderful. The DC press has been very focused on the personal relationship between Trump and Macron, which is supposedly quite good. Macron calls him a friend. Trump wrote him a love note last July. So weird. In the margin of a New York Times article, maybe? It's true, Emmanuel, I love you. And usually with Trump, he doesn't like it when somebody stays over, especially the first time.

But he was like, no, no, don't go. Don't go. Let's just stay. Maybe we can watch something on Netflix. Loose show today. Axios ran a piece over the weekend describing Macron as a person who runs, quote, a master class in soothing Trump, which is just a weird phrase. And Slate asked, can Macron flatter Trump into giving him what he wants? Tommy, why do you think they're pals?

And how much do you think it actually matters? Like, has Macron gotten anything out of this relationship? Can we just stipulate that you don't need to take a masterclass to learn how to flatter Donald Trump, you need to pay 90 bucks to Aaron Sorkin to watch half of the videos before you abandon it. All you need to do is kiss his ass. You know, I think it's probably a savvy move. I mean, Macron is one of the few European leaders that made a decision early on to flatter him, despite the domestic political cost of being associated with someone that's so toxic. So, you know, he gave him a dinner at the Eiffel Tower, he showed him a big military parade, which he's going to now try to emulate. They trade love notes, apparently, they say nice things.

Merkel is generally more wary, but that's understandable. She's been on the scene longer. He made that really awkward surveillance joke about how they'd both been spied on by Obama, despite half of it being not true. Germany has a good reason to fear a nationalist wannabe strongman, right? So there's a legacy there. There's reasons why they both don't like him. I do think it's not hard to build a psychological profile

with Donald Trump and figure out what you want. Macron's done it pretty well. We'll see if there's a backlash to the stories about how he's been played. But, I mean, ultimately, like, Donald Trump's not going to be there for you if you need something he doesn't want to do. So, enjoy it while you can, bud. It didn't go so well for the Committee to Save America. I don't know that it's going to go that well. Like, no one has proven that they can influence Donald Trump through flattery in any way that gets a good result.

Except for, like, the Saudis. If you're a strong man. If you bring him there and you have pomp and circumstance and you roll out the red carpet and all you want him to do is not tell you what to do, that might work. But if you're going to go there and say, hey, don't screw up the Iran deal. Stay in Syria. Don't start a trade war with Europe. Like, that's gonna be a little tougher sell for a micro john what do you think you're writing some notes down on you

brought some paper he's uh he's organizing his paper for dramatic effect love it's very proud he wants the problem that makes a noise love it has um read the news today uh but he's read the news that was printed out on pieces of paper and he's taking notes. Love it. Your thoughts. Thanks for your question, John. So I would say two things. One, no human being on earth has a good relationship with Donald Trump. There's no such thing as a good relationship with Donald Trump.

He might have an effective relationship, but it's not a good relationship. It's not like Donald Trump is not a human being with whom you can have a good relationship. No one he loves has a good relationship with him. No one he hates has a good relationship. It doesn't work that way. He's not capable of having them. I mean, Barack Obama as

president had leaders he'd prefer to talk to, leaders he didn't. And that might make a difference on the margins, right? I remember, you know, you could be outside the Oval and there'd be like, oh, he's on a call with this person. It's going to be longer because he doesn't hate talking to this one, right? And that may affect their working relationship. It can make a difference at the margins. But ultimately, national interest, I mean, there's all these people who claim to be hard and realist and then turn around and write articles about how there's like a new bromance, which is ridiculous. If Macron is good at pretending to like Donald Trump, more power to him.

You know, it's what he should do. It's a trope. It's a hard thing. Helps you write a story. And also, it's just a reality of we're in a situation where we watch foreign leaders manipulate our president and talk about how best to get one it's embarrassing to get one over on him you know if you know it's like what conversation do we feel like we feel more welcome in the one between trump and somebody or between merkle and macron laughing about what a dumb fuck we put in the lighthouse also by the way it's weird like we're pulling for the foreign

leader to pull one over on him right because if he does that means you know maybe he convinces him to get back in the paris climate agreement or maybe he convinces him not to pull out of the iran deal or maybe you know it's like their objectives are usually aligned more with the american public than trump's yeah and also i think the problem is you know it's like a little bit of a contradiction right we talk about how oh if you do pomp and circumstance and make him feel good he'll kind of go along with what you want. But you're right in pointing out that long term, the Committee to Save America and others who've claimed to use their influence and personal relationships to make a difference haven't made that much of a difference. And I think it's in

part because he's basically a fascist goldfish. And so, you know, yeah, Macron can maybe impress upon him the importance of the Iran deal. But he's going to forget and then he's going to talk to John Bolton for a week after Macron goes going to forget. And then he's going to talk to John Bolton for a week after Macron goes back to Paris. Trump decided to attack the mayor of London after there was a terrorist attack on his city. He's not a stable person, to say the least. Both Macron and Merkel will be trying to convince Trump not to pull out of the Iran deal. Last week, Bob Corker said Trump's going to do it. We talked about this a little on Thursday, but I wanted to hear from you about this, Tommy.

It seems like everyone in the world except for Bibi Netanyahu and the Republican Party wants to preserve the Iran deal. What happens if Trump pulls out and how dangerous is it? Well, right now, the Iran deal is essentially put restrictions on their nuclear program. And the deadline to recertify their following the letter of the deal is May 12. So Trump doesn't agree to certify that they're complying with the Iran deal, they could put sanctions back on Iran, which means that all the restrictions, all the IAEA monitoring, the reduction of centrifuges that are enriching nuclear material, the amount of nuclear material they can enrich, will all go back to where they were before

in fact the iranians are saying that if they put sanctions on us we actually will increase our enrichment program so things will get increasingly dangerous they'll be closer to a nuclear weapon and the world won't be with us there will be no increase in safety for us like there's no upside to this trump only dislikes it because he dislikes Obama. So, yeah, Trump pulling out of the Iran deal is giving Iran a green light to go build nuclear weapons, right?

I mean, we are screwing it up. We will be the reason it is now non-existent. We will be the ones out of compliance with the agreement generally. And the rest of the world is not with us on this.

And the IAEA, the International Monitoring Program that keeps an eye on all this stuff, has certified, I believe, 10 times that they're still complying with the deal. So it will also send a message to North Korea and all these other rogue states that we don't live up to our agreements. And they're right. Like, Trump's concern with the Iran deal or what's not in it is legitimate. He doesn't like the fact that there's a sunset in the deal that will make it end after 10 or 15 years. He doesn't like the fact that there aren't limits

on their tests on ballistic missiles. He doesn't like the fact that you can't always get access to certain military sites exactly when you want them to testing. That's all fine. But like a lot of those issues, you know, they had to be negotiated. And a lot of those issues are not relevant to a nuclear deal. Like if the United States, all of a sudden uh some trading partner came to us and said hey our

bilateral trade deal now means that you guys can't test some certain kind of icbm we said what the hell are you talking about yeah well it's also like sure you want a limit on ballistic missile testing sure you want something longer than a 10-year sunset well go prove that you can get that kind of deal go work on it that's the whole point like can get that? That was the whole problem with the criticism of Obama's deal in the first place. It's like, yeah, we all want those things, but you negotiate and you compromise to get something better, not something perfect. And you can make an argument that says, all right, John Kerry was too thirsty for a deal. Obama wanted a deal. The Iranians knew it. They took advantage and the deal wasn't as favorable as another one we would have negotiated. Whatever. You want to make a claim like that, that's fine. But that's not the deal

we have. This is the deal we have, which is why people like Bob Corker, who were resistant to it, are now saying it's important to keep it in place. Because regardless of whether you believe there could have been some fantasy of a better deal, this is the deal we have. If Trump ends up staying in the deal for a little while longer, fine. But this feels like one of those issues where in the deal for a little while longer fine but this feels like one of those issues where all the people around him all the smarter people semi-reasonable serious people who are trying to get him to not pull out they're all kind of like putting their fingers in the dike trying to stop him from doing what he wants to do this feels like something eventually will burst he wants out he's not going to stop wanting out you could put it off for a month you could put it off for

six months, whatever. But same thing with Paris. Yeah, exactly like Paris. Another one of his complaints is that the Iranians are, you know, doing bad things in Syria and they're funding a rebel group in Yemen. And again, it's like, yes, the Obama administration had the same exact concerns with those things. But there's no reason to tear up the Iranian nuclear deal, which is about nuclear weapons, to get those things dealt with. It's just not really a point of leverage. And he's going about it in a stupid way. It's just so self-defeating.

Let's move from one potential nuclear disaster to another, North Korea. Kim Jong-un said this weekend he would suspend nuclear and missile tests. North Korea has apparently dropped its demand that the U.S. remove troops from South Korea as a condition for giving up nuclear weapons. And North and South Korea are set to meet this week. How big of a deal is this? Has Trump tweeted his way to peace? So,

the reporting on this is all over the place. Yeah, it really is. I don't know what to think. Trump claimed that North Korea had agreed to denuclearize, but that's not true. They said they would essentially suspend nuclear tests and suspend think trump claimed that north korea had agreed to denuclearize but that's not true they said they would essentially suspend nuclear tests and suspend icbm tests ahead of the summit so they would suspend testing of nuclear and have they done this before they paused before a freeze is it's not it's unless you take some very concrete steps it's a easily reversible thing like hey we

didn't test a icbm today three. Literally just not testing it is not succeeding. Exactly. It doesn't mean they're not going to continue their nuclear weapons program. But the North has for a very long time said that its idea of denuclearization is, essentially, they'll get rid of their nuclear weapons if we remove all its troops from the Korean Peninsula

and we get rid of our sort of nuclear umbrella, our policy of protecting South Korea and Japan. So that's a big lift. And what Kim Jong-un is saying is essentially Trump, apparently, according to Wall Street Journal, is going to say to him, you have to dismantle your nuclear arsenal before you get sanctions relief. It's not a sanctions relief for a freeze of nuclear tests and missile tests, which is what happened before. We've given them, you know, they've said that it's called a freeze for a freeze.

We'll freeze. They freeze testing and we will freeze sanctions or give them sort of relief on, you know, grain subsidies or whatever the hell it would be. And then they just do it anyway. So that was where Bob Gates would always say, you can't buy the same horse twice. I'm not going to get fooled again. That was his big beef with this whole thing. Actually, Trump's like, I've sold the same apartment 50 times.

Right. To Michael Cohen. Have you seen how I do business? I agree that it was actually kind of hard to figure out what's true and what's not which is always true with trump right you're like okay is trump lying is he ostentatiously mischaracterizing with some kind of purpose is the purpose to ferry is korea lying they lie a lot too so it's a bunch of people lying but then i my my feeling about it was that it actually doesn't really matter because the difference between a lie and the truth in this case about what they're saying they're willing to give up is all just posturing anyway. Ultimately, this is about a bunch of

kind of markers people are setting down before talks begin. And before, you know, the contours of whatever a deal would be could what before we learn what the contours of an eventual deal could possibly look like at some point in the future. I have to say, coming away from this, I'm sort of coming around to saying we don't know. And I think we should be humble about North Korea specifically because I do not believe right now that the Trump administration is doing very poorly and certainly not doing worse than an Obama administration or Clinton administration or a Bush administration. I think it has the chaos and nonsense of Trump. But ultimately, what we're talking about is a seemingly intractable problem. And there does seem like there is real movement. And that is something, no? Sort of. I mean, they're not doing worse. But this confusion that we're talking about right

now is why you sort out the terms of what these head of state level talks are going to be before you have the talks. And if Trump really thinks he's going to go into this thing and charm Kim Jong-un out of his nuclear weapons, which he views as the most critical thing he has, he's forgetting the fact that this is a dude who like, you know, he murders senior officials who piss him off by shooting them with anti-aircraft guns. Which honestly Trump views a which honestly trump views as like a as like a cool aspect so to your point like there have been you know during the clinton administration there were high level meetings and there was a temporary freeze that they cheated on uh certainly during the bush administration as well there were six party talks that happened in the obama administration so we're in this cycle of sort of

boom and bust of activity i'm really really glad that they're pushing for more activity. I support it. But, like, they're just so far ahead of themselves in terms of claiming success. Yeah, I'm not going to buy the same horse twice. John won't be buying it. John saw that horse and said, I already own that horse. That's my horse. Every time in the Trump administration so far, it seems like they are doing something a little different and reasonable.

We went through this with the whole dreamers debate too. Maybe this is like normal and he's going to actually get a deal on this, whatever. And then like they end up disappointing you and he goes crazy. Now, this is obviously on a much bigger scale and with much higher stakes. But I find myself just looking at the whole thing and be like, yeah, cool. It's good so far. But this whole thing could fucking fall apart in a second. So I hope that like way down the road, I can look back and be like, yeah, they did good.

I would love to be wrong. I would love to be wrong. The alternative is very fucking scary for the world. Also just remember for a second, they're not driving this car. They're not in control of this process. Like Kim Jong-un invited some South Korean officials. He did this sort of gambit at the Olympics to show them walking together.

He followed up on that by inviting some South Korean officials up to his house. They got hammered on Soju or whatever, and had this meeting where they made this offer to meet with Trump. The South Koreans walk into the Oval Office and Trump basically accepts the meetings with Kim Jong-un before the meeting is even over and then has him announce it. So he's like flying by the seat of his pants, going for a press hit, and hopefully it all works out. But boy, there's a better way to run a railroad. Like, that's just the key. Yeah, and like, do I wish that instead of Trump going to these negotiations,

it was Barack Obama or President Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton? Yeah. Or a dramatic master. Of course, of course, yeah. I mean, of course, these signs are all promising, but ultimately it hinges on the worst person America's produced in half a century. So there's some risks ahead. 330 million people were like, you go.

Yeah, I mean, the other thing, this is why it ties back to the Iran deal, because part of this is not about personnel. Most of this is not about personalities at all. It's about brutal interest. And Kim Jong-un can look around the world and say, why on earth would I give up this nuclear weapon? Libya gives up a program peacefully. American politics changes. And then, you know, where's Qaddafi being dragged through the straits iraq claims to have a program saddam hussein hung in a leather by a guy in a leather jacket you know yeah you know you look around the way the wind's true the way you protect yourself is to actually have a program would be my assessment if i were him right and then you look at a range like oh wait look there was a peaceful negotiation to

not have a program and then a domestic american politics change you can't even count on that so where carrots which is why it's which is why it's always which is why it's always been bizarre to me that there are reports that kim jong-un wants to think about giving this up in the first place like i just don't i don't comprehend how that fits with his interest i just i i suspect that ultimately he doesn't really yeah he just thinks he can get some relief well look besides donald trump fortunately these north korea negotiations are being being run by Benghazi conspiracy theorist Mike Pompeo and warmonger John Bolton, who we learned this morning chaired an anti-Muslim think tank known as the Gatestone Institute, which has pushed fake Islamophobic news that was amplified by Russian trolls. Lovely organization, including headlines like Germany confiscating homes to use for migrants and a piece that argued Somali refugees were turning sweden into the rape capital of the west pompeo who's now going to be our next secretary of state also went on crazy frank gaffney's radio show and warned that there's homegrown islamic conspiracy

against america that's growing in small town america so this is the man who'll be our next secretary of state thanks to a change of heart by ran paul and a bunch of senate democrats who are up in 18 like joe mansion heidi heitkamp and joe donnelly voting yes what do we think about this mike pompeo secretary of state you know dan pfeiffer had a smart point about this on twitter.com which is just to say where all the smart points points are. Where all the top points, bottom points, middle points, all the points are there. He was like, Islamophobia got ratioed. But...

Sorry, we hate Twitter today. We're in a real bad place with Twitter today. Please follow me at TVTour. Yeah, at John Lovett, at John Favs. We're the only people

who are right on the internet. So the point that Dan made before I was rudely interrupted by the classic interrupters, John and Tommy, I can never fucking get a word in the is that this vote is supposed to be cynical, that they're somehow doing that you don't actually give a shit about whether Mike Pompeo is gonna be a good Secretary of State. I don't believe Manchin. I don't believe these people like, oh, I think he's gonna be great. They're doing it out of cynicism that to sort of appeal to prove that they're not obstructionist to their more moderate states but why on earth do you think

that that's how politics works today who votes based on how you voted for a secretary of state a year ago what are you talking about you know it's not cynical it's naive it's naive to believe that this will help you just vote how you're gonna say it's more naive than that's what i mean i think they're being cynical but they're not There's no Republican operative anywhere in the land who is like, ooh, shelve that Joe Manchin's week on national security ad. He voted for Pompeo. We have to back off. It is the fair thing to do.

Yeah, let's ask Justice Garland for his thoughts on how well obstruction plays. The mushroom cloud ad is coming no matter how you vote. I just want to go back to the Islamophobia thing for a second. There's an obvious reason why it's bad to be bigoted and racist and generally be a bad person and support these kinds of groups. There's also a national security risk, which is if Bolton or Pompeo think they could belittle or antagonize or insult a billion people, he is crazy. We need to engage with members of the Muslim community, build communities that transcend religion in the U.S. and abroad. Like, build support among Muslim populations abroad to help spread, stop the spread of anti-American, anti-democratic sentiment.

Your CIA director should know this. Your national security advisor should get it. You know who did get it? H.R. McMaster. When he was in Iraq, he rebuked his troops for using the term haji or any sort of, like, anti-Islamic, anti-Iraqi language. And when he got the NSC job, he said he dislik using the term haji or any sort of like anti-Islamic, anti-Iraqi language. And when he got the NSC job, he said he disliked the term radical Islamic terrorist and he called Islam a great religion. H.R. McMaster wasn't perfect. You've now said that he was a lot smarter.

You've now said that name twice and he is an unperson and we are no longer allowed to reference him. He does not exist anymore and never did. John Bolton has always been national security advisor. Un-H.R., un-McMaster. does not exist anymore and never did john bolton has always been national security advisor on hr on mcmaster but like you know so it's it's it's just i mean if islamophobia was treated the way anti-semitism i was just gonna say this he would be fucking ostracized any nominee made any hint of there's any remarks that were anti-semitic or anti-christian we would not even be considering that person's nomination not for now we have a secretary of state and a fucking national security advisor who are have deep ties to anti-Islamic Islamophobic groups. And you mentioned Frank Gaffney.

There's Pam Geller. Like there is a very well funded, scarily influential group of crazy people, crazy, bigoted anti-Islamic people, and their influence is growing in this party. Yeah, I mean, this is a small and I think slightly more extreme example of what we see between the kind of supposedly responsible parts of the Republican establishment and Fox News, which is, you don't say what Sean Hannity says, you don't say what Janine Pirro says, you don't say what Frank Gaffrey says, but you talk to them, you go on their shows, you treat them with respect and dignity, and like they're part of the conversation. And then you just reap the benefits of having a anxious, riled up base that has been made to fear a whole group of people.

1.25 billion people on planet Earth. Coded language. Which isn't just bigoted, but as Tommy said, dangerous for our national security. Stupid. Let's talk about the 2018 elections. There is a special election today, Tuesday, you're hearing this today, for the House seat in Arizona's 8th congressional district

between Republican Debbie Lesko and Democrat Hiral Tipirneni. This is another seat that Trump won by 20 points in 2016. It is about 25 points more Republican than the nation as a whole, and yet the polls are very close. On the other hand, Arizona has a very generous early voting period, which is good, and according to FiveThirtyEight, up to 80% of people have potentially already voted in this race. Wow. With Republicans outvoting Democrats 49% to 28% now.

Now, that doesn't sound good. So, yeah, of course, who knows? Some Republicans could be voting Democrat. And, of course, that doesn't take into account independent votes. But that is a very big margin for Democrats to catch on Election Day. So, guys, I was trying to figure out, like, what's the's the difference do you think between the Arizona 8th and the Pennsylvania 18th, where Conor Lamb won a district that also voted for Trump by 20 points? Seems like the main difference is that Conor Lamb district is in that part of the country where

the kind of Bannon theory was shown to be the most true, where kind of, you know, that district is more, I think, has higher Democratic registration than Republican. And yet we saw the kind of white turnout for Trump that didn't show up for Conor Lamb's opponent, whose name I've erased because I'll never need to know it again. And I can't think of it. It's gone. But the Arizona trump victory was more normal and that it was just a much more republican district that's all i think that's right and that's

a very interesting point though is that thank you there was a democrat there's this this big democratic registration edge honey and vinegar today in western pennsylvania and connor lamb won both because of turnout from the Democratic base, high turnout from the traditional Democratic constituencies, and some of these Democrats who decided to vote for Trump deciding now that they were going to vote for a Democrat again. Yeah, yeah. And in this district in Arizona, you just have, and it's the age thing. The median age of the voter so far in the Arizona election has been 60. Sean Hannity viewer.

67. White and 60, you know, I mean. The whole district as a whole is very white. It's old. These are going to be tough districts. That said, if Tip or Nanny keeps it at 8 points or less, that would be in line with Democratic performance and other special

elections that point to a Democratic wave. Watch the margin. Watch the margin. The fact that we're talking about this is remarkable. I know. You know what I mean? We just all need to remain hopeful. Like your conversation with Addie Barkin about canvassing there, it's inspiring that people are showing up and spending time in these districts and fighting their asses off.

If you guys haven't listened to it, which is fine because you know we prefer the Monday pot on this show, but you should listen to John and Dan's interview with Addie Barkin on Thursday. But a couple thoughts. But you should listen to John and Dan's interview with Addie Barker on Thursday. But a couple thoughts. Like, one, in doing my reading about this race, I came across the fact that Republicans are still targeting Hillary Clinton in their midterm ads, and that's a big part of their strategy. They're just using... My God.

They're so pathetic. It is so... Let's target this private citizen. It makes me think that we should use Hillary Clinton like a diversion in the movies where she goes and distracts the security guards that are guarding some kind of a base while the heroes come in and steal the house. What is that ad like? If you vote for this Democrat, Hillary Clinton will be quietly living a private citizen. And they're still attacking Pelosi.

And the reason is the Pelosi death doesn't work because the Republican tax cut is still historically unpopular and has gotten more unpopular since taking effect so what you're seeing what you're hearing what you're reading is desperation which is when we should go all in and just destroy these candidates well and one of the reasons the democrat in arizona is going to get so close or might get so close is she has been running a very disciplined message campaign on health care on medicare on strengthening social security especially there's a lot of senior citizens in that district and she's been talking about the tax cut republicans are not talking much about the tax cut republicans are talking about nancy pelosi and hillary clinton democrats are talking about how instead of a corporate tax

cut that was a trillion dollars that gave six banks on wall street 3.59 billion dollars over three months, you could maybe use that money to shore up health care, shore up Medicare, shore up Social Security. And she's been saying that message every single day, and it could get her really close in an extremely Republican district. Well, that's the other thing. It'll really help in the Senate race to have all this activism

and all these people knocking on doors. Like, that energy will really help. I want to just make two points. One, I do have to admit that the Hillary Clinton movie idea I did take from the film Jumanji. I do think it's important that I concede. Which one? The new one with the rock? The new one with the rock, which I did watch over the weekend.

That's point number one. And point two, it doesn't matter. Good hit. But yeah, and I think, look, whether or not she wins today, Democrats should not be complacent when we win and we should not despair when we lose these races you know like there's a lot of there's middle we flipped a lot of districts and we just have to look at each district for what it is for the demographics in that district this is a very very tough and what we can learn about what works and what doesn't and you know part of this is like you see so much arguing about like yo like how did like how did Ralph Northam win and what actually happened in Pennsylvania?

And part of it is like it's unanswerable because there's no data to answer it. Part of it is the gut feeling of people who are in this district who feel what worked, who feel what changed, you know, who connected with people, what helped them take the story back, what they felt put an opponent on their heels. Right. Like some of this is just like the work of campaigning that isn't easy to categorize but it's like but you learn just by having been on the ground but also like what you learned about yourself along the way right like how the characters in Jumanji uh through their experience of being in the video game Jumanji learned how to be brave and maybe take fewer selfies right we talked a few weeks ago about a potential problem for democrats with california's non-partisan primary i can't i can't california i'm really disappointed uh anyway so there's a potential problem in the california non-partisan primary where the top two vote getters move on to the general election regardless of which party they're from and because there are so many democrats running in a few

different house districts, you could end up with a scenario where too many Democrats split the vote too many ways, and then therefore the top two vote-getters are Republicans. So, like, imagine you have 100 people, 70 of them vote for seven Democrats, and 30 Republicans vote for two Republicans. You'd end up with a general election with two Republicans, even though the whole district wants a Democrat to win. Not good.

That's why we have a math major on the pod. Very good. Well, I think sometimes, you know, you gloss over things. No, I think it was very good. It was great. It is important to understand why these races are unique. Yeah. Because we obviously were very frustrated with the DCCC's intervention in Laura Moser's

district down in Texas. But what offended me about that was it was dishonest. It was negative. It was ham-handed. It actually backfired. Like, if you're going to get involved in races, be smart, be strategic, think through it. Ultimately deal with the fact that voters are going to do what they're going to do. I'm not generally opposed to the parties having a preferred candidate.

I think that's pretty normal. But, you know, you can make an informed decision about fundraising, viability, polling. It's going to be imperfect. These are all subjective decisions, but be smart about it. Yeah. I think, I mean, whether the DCCC picks the right candidate in each of these races or not, we are getting close to the June 5th primary in California. And as we get closer, if you are not, if you are in a crowded race and you're polling, internal polling is not showing that you're one of the top two people in that race as a democrat i would think pretty seriously about continuing to

be in that race for california races where this is a real concern and that's a big number in our effort to get back the house and look i understand this is a unique election too where you have all these districts where if a democrat makes it onto the ballot, that Democrat is the likely winner in some of these races, more likely than not going to be a member of Congress. You have the district where some retiring people like Ed Royce, the Democrat is the likely winner. And so you think, well, if I just get through this primary and yeah, I'm in third in the polls right now, but I'm a better candidate than number one, a better candidate than number two, the polls can be wrong. All that I totally understand. It's not ideological. However, I also think these candidates need to understand that if we wake up after the

election, after the primary, and two Republicans go on to the general and we lose the chance of a pickup and you came in third, you are going to be a villain who may have cost us the House. And that's just a reality. Your selfishness as a candidate, understandable. Lovett will drive to the 39th district himself you will be responsible for this and there and you can give a speech saying you're not and it sucks i don't think this is a great way to go to that speech the speech where i give a speech about how calling out enemies of the of the state of the state one thing that democrats can do one one thing Democratic voters can do, and organizers and activists, I was talking to our friends at Swing Left about this, if we boost Democratic

turnout in these primaries, and so if the number of Democrats who turn out in one of these primaries is like the number of Democrats who turn out in a general, and the final vote in these districts ends up being like, you know, 60% Democrat, 40% Republican, then it is much less likely that we're going to have a problem where one of those Republicans or two Republicans become the top two. So one thing that we can all do is make sure that in California, we register and turn out as many Democrats as humanly possible in each of these districts to reduce the likelihood that we get top two. Yeah, as individuals, our job is to get people out to this primary and, and get the most votes for Democrats possible. But it is

true that some of these campaigns are just going to have to start doing some soul searching. It's so unfair because you're there because of this enthusiasm. You're there because you felt the desire to run because of what's happening to the country. But because of this system, you're put in this unfair position where even though you have support, even though in another year you should stay in, this is not the year. And it sucks. You know what would be helpful for voters? If some polling companies, some public polling companies,

commissioned some polls in these districts. Yes, SurveyMonkey. So that California voters could make a more informed decision about who's in the lead and who's not and sort of coalesce behind the leaders in these races. That's the other thing, too. I haven't seen any public polling in the primary in these districts. And so these people are looking at polls with a few hundred people at most, right?

If they have anything. It's so hard to hang your future on dropping out for the good of the party, which we can say is the right thing to do. But you're saying the thing like, I do it. I drop out. I'm not getting a thank you. I'm not a member of Congress. I did the right thing. But who's going to care?

Right. It sucks. We care. We care. So something to keep our eyes on, especially california people it's a tough one man it's tough ones okay for a little treat today we have priyanka in studio hey guys hey priyanka welcome to the uh sweltering hot studio i love it here we know about to move another what a day hot off the presses, just finished. Yeah. Exciting. Yeah, and we got some good stories. Let's talk about your favorite story from today.

Yeah, we have one in Under the Radar, which is kind of becoming one of my favorite sections to write. And it's about a story that we've kind of continued to follow over the last few weeks. So over the weekend, BuzzFeed published a story. I think you guys probably read it. It was about a reporter at a local station in virginia her name is suri crow and she wanted to report on climate change um which would be fine normal great in any given circumstance except she works at sinclair boo so yeah boo is correct um so they said we don't care about the politics. And yeah, we're conservative, but follow the facts wherever they may lead.

Not quite. Basically, she reported the story, went to go, you know, deliver her report on the air. And her supervisor, the news director of the station, was kind of like, you refuse to deliver any information about that counters the narrative that man-made effects on climate change are you know what's progressing this and um basically made her deliver like a new report and so this happened with i think gun control and a few other subjects and she was ultimately ousted from this station and that um kind of echoes some things that have been continuing at sinclair they had those like mustrun segments that are pro-Trump, very MAGA Media figures, like Seb Gorka. From your buddy Boris Epstein.

You guys were roommates back in the day? No. Oh, wait, I got that wrong. I got that wrong. I'm being slandered on this podcast. Sorry, sorry. This is a good first podcast experience. Thanks, guys.

I think you're doing great. It is maybe the worst thing yet we've heard from Sinclair because there's the must-reads, right, which are, like, sort of, like, hidden propaganda agenda. Right. We've got Boris, who's just very open about what a doofus he is. And then this is, though, actual hard news reporters. Correct. And now what they want to report on is being shaped by corporate. Yeah. And it's a little bit of like a both sides-y ethos that they're trying to incorporate when

there really isn't like an equivalence. It's so toxic, right? Climate change is the issue where the both sides-ism is so dangerous because there is not really a both sides. There's a political manufactured both sides-ism, but there's no scientific both sides. There's a political manufactured both sides ism, but there's no scientific both sides. Right. And it's kind of alarming, especially when you think of Sinclair as, you know, the size that they're at. They're the largest broadcast operator in the US. They have 193 stations right now. It's around 40 something percent of households. But they're also trying to buy up a bunch more. They have a deal with Tribune. And if that goes through, they will access over 70% of households in the US. So they are super invested in promoting a conservative agenda and supporting Trump. His FCC chair is making it possible for them to, or basically getting rid of regulations that allow them to buy all these stations. So they're really on board with all that.

Not cool. Yeah. Priyanka, I have another question about climate change. And again, it's an issue about which I believe there can be no debate. What is room temperature in your mind? It's not this. This is a little warm. I'm sorry, you're dodging the question.

Do I need a specific number? I would say, what do you believe is a fair room temperature? I think a nice 72 degrees. You think 72, huh? So let's say you go do you believe is a fair room temperature? Priyanka. I think a nice 72 degrees. You think 72, huh? Yeah. So, let's say you go up to the thermostat and you see that the room you're currently in is 79 degrees. Let's say Tanya.

Then I tolerate it because I'm an easygoing co-worker. Let's say Tanya. Priyanka comes into this office maybe earlier than most, stays later than most, working nonstop. All she wants is a comfortable environment to write the newsletter in. Love it. Storms into the office today. Just fire breathing.

Not just today. No. Every day. I'm not breathing fire. Why is the office so hot? It was 78 degrees. You're a tyrant on that thermostat. She's got a blanket over her.

Every day. I turn it to 71 and all of a sudden you act like you're in an igloo. Listen, there's, mistakes have been made on both sides. We can't let Tanya

get away with blasting a space heater at us on a July day in Los Angeles. That is something that needs to be talked about.

So you think we could set it to 72 and you'd be okay with that? Yeah, maybe. So maybe 73. You know what? I want everyone to hear this. You think 73 is where we should set it. I don't like that. So let's set it to 72 and you'd be okay with that? Yeah, maybe. So maybe 73. You know what? I want everyone to hear this. You think 73 is where we should set it.

I would like that. So let's set it to 73. You're comfortable with that? We can leave it on 73, huh? But I also don't think our thermostat works properly. That's a good point. Now she doesn't trust the science. Back to the story.

Briefly, Priyanka, I love in that story that the news director went on to work as the communications director at Liberty University, which is Jerry Falwell's joint, which was one of the stories that they always interfered on. Every time she talked, she reported on Liberty University. They were like, no, no, no, let's not talk about

Liberty University. Revolving door. Fucking Sinclair. Priyanka, thanks for stopping by and thank you for writing a fantastic newsletter that everyone should sign up for if you haven't already.

If you people aren't subscribed to What A Day... I did the soft sell. Good cop haven't already. If you people aren't subscribed to What A Day. I did the soft sell. Good cop over here. I know how many people are subscribed to What A Day. Is it a hit? Sure. Sure. It's a huge hit.

Is it the biggest newsletter in the country? Not yet. Close. Not yet. We think it is. Can I just say, Hannah thinks Crooked Beady is fine, but she loves What A Day because you have the best pop culture stuff out there. Oh, my God.

She notices all the Cardi B, all the fun stuff at the end. It's just great. All the Cardi B. Monica is also a royalist, which is something that I disagree with ideologically. Yeah, really. A lot of news about famous royal babies. Like two things. They were getting married and they had a kid.

Go back to England, Benedict. We treat you like Sinclair. Thanks for stopping by, Priyanka. Thanks, guys. Joining us on the show today, we have Kelly Fisher, an elementary school teacher in Arizona, where she's part of the admin team for arizona educators united the group organizing this week's teacher walkout kelly fisher thanks for being here thank you for inviting me i want to call you kelly but at the same time there's a deep deep part of me that just can't bring myself to call you anything

but mrs fisher because you are a kindergarten teacher. I am proudly 20 years in the making. 20 years. So Arizona teachers are going to be walking out on Thursday to protest low pay and inadequate school funding. Teachers have already led protests this year in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Things are coming to a head in Colorado now, too. How do you account for what's been happening across the country with teachers feeling pretty fed up? I think teachers are finally seeing that if they gather together, they are the ones that have the power. And I know that's

definitely what we've seen here in Arizona is, you know, we started this with a Facebook page. And just to see the number of people who wanted a space to talk with like-minded people who felt the same way about what was happening was very comforting for people. And we just continue to grow. And I think that's what's really happening around the country. I think people are fed up with not having enough for their students in their classrooms. So there's been an offer of a 20% raise from the governor that would happen over several years. But as your organization and as many have noted, a 20% raise in Arizona won't bring teachers in Arizona even to the national average for teacher pay.

How do you deal with where your salaries are at right now? Like how hard has it been to make ends meet as a teacher in Arizona when the salaries are so far below the national average? It's been very difficult. We have teachers even just on my campus that are working two, three, four extra jobs just to make ends meet. We have five demands. We would like to see a 20% raise for teachers. We would like to see all funding restored to education. We've had cuts for 10 straight years. We would like to see

no more tax cuts until education is fully restored. We would like to see our colleagues, our paraprofessionals, our secretaries in the office, our bus drivers, our kitchen staff, we would like to see them receive a raise too. And we would also like to see a continuous funding source so that we can constantly be getting a raise to keep us at or around the national average. And what has the reaction been of parents to this? Because we see poll after poll that shows that there's incredible support for raising salaries for teachers, increasing school funding. Everybody, in an abstract way, everybody over and over again says to pollsters, teachers aren't making enough. And yet, in Arizona, you saw a billion dollars taken out of the schools, even as they cut taxes.

You've seen a backlash from certain quarters in Colorado. Two legislators introduced a bill to make it a crime for teachers to protest, basically. What has the reaction been from parents? Are they supportive? Are they angry that they may have to figure out a way to, you know, find, you know, babysitters for their kids. What are you hearing? We have received incredible support. It's been amazing. Even today, I had parents emailing me saying, please put my name out there.

I will watch anyone's kids who need it if they need to go to work. And we have what we're calling walk-ins every Wednesday morning across the state where teachers gather 30 minutes before school starts and talk to their community and invite people to come and ask questions and find out exactly what we're all about. And last week when we did it on my campus, we had 300 parents show up in support of us. So one other part of this is that you're part of an organization called Arizona Educators United. It's independent from the union. What brought this organization together? How did you guys mobilize so quickly? And how has this been

connected to what the union's been doing? It was a complete whirlwind, to be very honest. I can't believe it was only about seven weeks ago that we started this. But honestly, it started with a tweet about seven weeks ago that we started this. But honestly, it started with a tweet from one of our admin team, Noah Carvellis. And he's a 23-year-old second-year teacher. And he tweeted to the president of the teachers union and asked what we were going to do when he was seeing what West Virginia had done

and what Oklahoma was about to do. And he said, what are we going to do here in Arizona to fix this problem? And the president of the union asked him what he was willing to do. And the discussion came around to let's ask people to wear red shirts and start there. And the next thing you know, we're wearing red shirts on Wednesdays. We started a Facebook page. And by the first two nights, we had a thousand members on the Facebook page and today on my way here I checked and we have 50,000 members on that Facebook page so it's

been yeah it's been quite a whirlwind but it started with the page and they put out an offer of who would like to be part of this team. And someone on the team suggested me, and I said I'd be happy to. And I think it's because they're all young bucks. They're all just starting their careers, and I'm the seasoned one. They call me Mama Kelly. And I kind of take care of them all,

make sure they're all eating and getting some rest. And I'm the one to remind them that this has gone on for far too long. And the students in my class have the opportunity to be some of the first kids that I've taught in the last 10 years to not face cuts. And when I say things like that, it really hits home with them that this is know, this is something that needs to be taken care of. And this is our opportunity to do it. And I like that part of the way you're doing it is by enforcing a nap time. I think that's good. Yes, nap time and snack time. Nap time. Now, listen, honestly, our culture needs more nap time and more snack time. I agree.

So you have this. So this starts with a tweet, a Facebook page gets 50,000 supporters. It's a whirlwind. This seems like I think it's caught a lot of people in politics off guard that we see basically, you know, teacher uprisings in conservative states, in states that have had Republican legislatures that have pushed a growth tax cut agenda that a lot of people said would lead to sort of positive things for the state. What's the lesson there? Do you think that people are waking up to this? Are you surprised by just how much anger there was just under the surface here? It was pretty surprising to see how much support we got right out of the gate. You know, I've lived through 10 years of this, as I've said, and for people to finally start realizing that these kids are going without. And we are teaching with textbooks from the 90s, and teachers are teaching in classrooms

with no air conditioning. And that might not seem like a big deal to someone in Michigan, but someone in Arizona, that's a big deal. It's a very big deal in Arizona. Yeah, it's a very big deal. We've got teachers teaching in schools with leaky roofs and broken windows. And, you know, I think that people are finally seeing that these tax cuts might be the answer to bring in corporations, but what corporation is going to want to come to a state where their public education system is falling apart? So I think this is really starting to wake up the public. And one more question. You know, we have a lot of people listening. Most people aren't in Arizona, but they're across the country and they care about this issue. What can people listening do to help? Well, one of the things that

they can do to help is to keep in touch with their school districts and keep in touch with their legislators and make sure that their schools are being fully funded and make sure that their kids are getting what they need. And if they want to help us, they can go on to our Facebook page, which is Arizona Educators United, or they can go to our website, Arizonaeducators.com. And, you know, we have places on there where people can sign up to help us. We're putting together a pizza campaign for the people that'll be down at the Capitol for the next couple of days. So if they want to help us that way or donate a case of water, we would be happy to

direct them to the people that can take care of that for them. But just get out there and make sure that your schools are being fully funded and that the kids are getting what they need because they're the future. And, you know, I teach kindergarten and those little five year olds have a long way to go in public school and they deserve a lot better than what they're getting right now. It's very exciting. I mean, we were we were literally meeting yesterday from 11 a.m. until 730 last night, just planning out the logistics for Thursday at the Capitol. And, you know, all of a sudden it hits us like, oh, this stuff's getting real, you know. So the teachers across the state, we've got them on our shoulders right now. So it's a big deal. But it's exciting at the same time to know that this is our time to make that change. Well, Kelly Fisher, Mrs. Fisher, Ms. Fisher.

Mrs. Fisher's flamingos, to be exact. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for what you're doing. I think I'm glad you're leading the fight because I think we all have a deep-seated desire to do whatever our kindergarten teachers tell us to do. I know that I can't shake it. So really appreciate it. And I think it's inspiring to see what teachers are doing. The teachers are kind of leading the fight

against these budget cuts. It really is. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. Well, thank you. All right. Thanks to Kelly Fisher for joining us today.

Thanks to Priyanka for stopping by. Thanks, guys. And, you know, we'll all see you on Thursday. What a day. What a day. What a day.

Some of us will see you on Thursday I'll be in the ads I'll be freezing in the first room yeah well the rest of us will either be sweating or freezing in the other room 73 is fine I am compromised on 73 play em out Bye.