Pod Save America - “Our lawyer wrote this title.” (LIVE from Sacramento)

Episode Date: December 4, 2017

Trump tweets about his crimes, and Republicans pass a tax bill that will define the 2018 elections. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, and Erin Gloria Ryan join Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan on stage live from Sacramento, California. 

All right. Hey, Sacramento. Hey, Sacramento. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Erin Gloria Ryan. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor.

I'm Dan Pfeiffer. All right. Our guests tonight are California's Attorney General, Javier Becerra. And the mayor of Stockton, California, Michael Tubbs. And we're also thrilled to be joined by the host of the forthcoming Crooked Media podcast, Girls Just Want Wanna Have Pod, Erin Gloria Ryan. Little housekeeping, guys.

Pod Tours America 2018 tickets are on general sale Monday, which is today if you're listening to this pod, which means they're on sale right now. The cities are Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Vegas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Clearwater, Orlando, Miami, New York, and there will be other cities, so don't complain.

Brigadoon! All right, guys. Let's start with the Trump White House Crimes of the Week. It's funny. It's like, I want to say that they're ripped from the headlines, but it doesn't make any sense. I think they're ripped from the headlines in, like, Scooby-Doo. So yesterday, Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to a single count of lying to the FBI. Yay, lying!

He also pledged full cooperation in the special counsel's investigation of the president and his associates. This makes the fourth Trump official to be charged with a crime. Erin, I'm going to start with a passage that you and I particularly enjoyed from a New York Times piece written by former Assistant Deputy Attorney General Harry Littman. Quote, This is not a meet-in-the-middle deal. Robert Mueller believed he had sufficient evidence to indict Flynn

on a long list of criminal charges, including money laundering, tax offenses, false statements. Mr. Mueller's team presented Mr. Flynn with that list and helped him understand that his life as he knew it had ended. What did you think of that? Well, I took about... Is that your ringtone now? No, I really wanted to be... I think it should be my ringtone for when I get text messages,

not just when I get calls, because nobody calls me anymore. One of the things that I really liked about that was just imagining Michael Flynn sitting there and hearing that news. And he always seemed like kind of dumb to me. So just imagining him just being like, wait, so... Oh. Oh. All those things? All of those things. He's like, you can't kidnap people in this country?

That's weird. Okay. Learning. Crimes? Yeah, we sort of skipped over the kidnap. There's a kidnapping plot here. Yeah. Tommy, what was the kidnapping plot?

There's a Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, he hates this cleric who lives in pennsylvania so he was allegedly offered 15 million dollars to render him back where he would likely have been tortured and killed so and that's small thing and that's not legal yeah you know what you know what i love about 2017 is like if you picked any two weeks to be in a coma and you woke up, you would be like, no fucking way. Wait, what happened? The National Security Advisor? I'm still in a coma. I'm definitely still in a coma.

So why would Mueller let all the other charges go? Dan? The only reason that he would possibly consider like we point out, Flynn is guilty of many serious crimes. Right. And he pled to the least severe of all the charges,

lying to the FBI. Still bad. Don't do that. But that's what he pled to. Let's not minimize, yeah, lying to the FBI. And he did not let Flynn skate on all these other charges just out of the goodness of his heart. The only reason he would do it

would be that he believes Flynn can give him information that will help him get someone higher up on the food chain. And there were probably... Food chain! You guys are following. Yeah. The three people are Don Jr., Jared Kushner,

and Donald J. Trump himself. Yeah! You know what I'm really excited about? And, you know, this might be a little bit off-brand for this podcast, but I'm really excited to see Jared succeed in the family business of going to jail. Oh, Jared in jail.

Ivanka visits him. And there's some glass between the two of them, maybe. Hi, Jared. I sold 666 Fifth Avenue for some protection money to some Aryan guys that love dad. Jared, you're my best accessory. I don't like the dorm you dropped me off at and they...

I can't... I want to go... I want to go home. I want to go to where the nicer couches are. Please remember, the chairs here are not as comfortable as my home chairs. I miss home chairs. Jared, just keep making my handbags for 12 cents an hour. Okay.

Well done. Well. sense an hour. Okay. Well done. Well, I think that's pretty close to how it's going to go. I don't think that's what he sounds like. The White House says that Flynn's contacts with his Russian

counterparts, Russian ambassador, during the transition period were no big deal. They say that every incoming administration is in fact encouraged to reach out to foreign dignitaries. Tommy, what is the problem with this? That is not accurate. Okay. Okay. There's a few problems. I just want to tell one little story, which is when I was at the White House, there were two investigations of major leaks of sensitive classified information. One was about like AQAP. One was about covert efforts to stop Iran's nuclear program. And I was the guy that like took the incoming emails when those stories came in. So I was interviewed by the FBI as part of those processes. And I have

to tell you, it was the most scared shit list you will ever be in your life sitting in a room with some FBI agents. In this case, Bob Mueller is sitting in the back, looming behind them silently watching it all happen. So I can't even imagine how hard, how brutal this is for the people going through this. But in this case, like... No one's crying any tears. No one's crying any tears.

The key premise here is that there's one administration, one president at a time. You can't have the Obama administration acting one way at the United Nations General Assembly, abstaining from a UN action condemning settlements, and having the incoming president running around to other countries trying to fuck up that effort because they disagree because Jared thought it would help Trump's politics with, you know, whomever. And that's what happened here. And it happened with respect to Flynn calling Ambassador Kislyak and saying that essentially don't overreact to these sanctions from Obama. The obvious, obvious subtext being we'll take care of it once the new boss is in office. And also the idea that Trump didn't know about this, I find

impossible to believe. We know now that Flynn not only briefed KT McFarlane, the Deputy National Security Advisor, former Fox News host, full-time paranoid person about these contacts, but Sean Spicer, who has never been wrong

about anything, briefed the press that Trump that day, the 29th, was getting a briefing from his national security team and did a call with, guess who? General Flynn. So it seems like Bob Mueller, what Dan was outlining, what, you know, the leverage he has, the people he could go up, level up to, to give Flynn this plea deal, has some sort of that they're a bigger fish to fry here. Also, to go with the most charitable explanation of this and to buy the White House spin that having these contacts is no big deal and they weren't trying to undermine the previous administration, if Flynn's contacts with the Russians were no big deal, then why did he lie about them to the FBI? If that's your whole story story that it's all fine and it was right what he did

why lie about them? I think they might not have thought this one through. You don't think that, yeah. You don't think they thought the story through? It's also, underneath all of this is the larger story of this incredible solicitousness of Russia

by Donald Trump. The idea that these people, like Donald Trump called Flynn and Jared and Steve Bannon and the Monopoly guy into the Situation Room. Who's the Monopoly guy? They brought in the Grimace from McDonald's with the villain version. The Hamburglar.

The Hamburglar was there. The villain from Up. Gargamel. Gargamel Skeletor. And he called them in and he said, I don't care about the Logan Act. I love this country and I hate to see ISIS coming for it.

And I know we've got to work with the Russians, which is why these sanctions are such a bad idea as someone who cares about policy. So, Flynn, I need you to make some phone calls. Get Kislyak on the blower. I've got some ideas. We're going to hold that Putin accountable. I don't like him. I don't trust him.

But we've got to work with him because that's how we'll protect the United States of America. I'm Donald J. Trump, president-elect. No! Criminal! The White House also had, like, a bunch of different explanations for this, and Sean Spicer was indignant every time

as it changed. First, it was logistics related to a later call. Then it was a holiday greeting slash a discussion of a conference about ISIS. And then ultimately we learned what it obviously was, was discussing sanctions. Yeah. So, we don't yet know for sure if Mueller will discover actual crimes committed when it comes to Trump associates colluding with the Russians to interfere in the election.

But there is already plenty of evidence that Donald Trump may be guilty of obstructing justice, which was the basis of impeachment charges for both Nixon and Bill Clinton. John, how do you know that? Well, the latest piece of evidence is a Donald Trump tweet from this morning. Quote, I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.

So, to go back, if Donald Trump knew that General Flynn lied to the FBI, that means that the next day when he called up Jim Comey and said, please see through to letting Flynn go, he's a good guy, he pressured the FBI director to not investigate a person who he knew had committed a federal crime. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And then fired that FBI director about a month later. Yeah. When he refused to do so. The same day Sally Yates came over to brief the White House to say, hey, Flynn is lying to you about his contacts with Russian officials.

Trump had Mr. Comey over for dinner and said, I hope you can let this go. That would be my reaction. Worst Valentine's Day ever. One of the things that I thought was really interesting reading this is just the extent to which all of this has been about protecting Donald Trump's ego. There's a whole

team of people, like him even pretending to, or colluding or not colluding having contacts with russia were sort of about his ego about maybe the legitimacy of the election right right and then him him saying that like russia had nothing to do with my winning the election was about him winning without any help and now him pretending like i did an illegal thing like also weirdly preserves his ego even though it kind of implicates him. He may have committed an impeachable crime just to make himself feel better.

But he was cool and right when he did it. So the White House later today then said no, no, no, Donald Trump didn't write that tweet. His lawyer did. What? The most lawyerly tweet.

What a well-crafted tweet. For the record, I mean, along the same lines, every text I've ever sent after 3 a.m. was written by my lawyer. I mean... What a lawyer. It's just there for me all the time. But they're spinning this whole thing now that the lawyer wrote the tweet, that the lawyer made a mistake,

and that Donald Trump never knew that Flynn committed a federal crime because Sally Yates never told the White House counsel that that had happened. It's like, motherfucker, another interview, now I've got to interview this lawyer. This lying lawyer. We've got a system

to figure this out now. I'm a little suspicious of this because this lawyer... Remember the long-time Trump organization staffer that wrote Melania's speech but accidentally plagiarized Michelle Obama? What was her name? Meredith something? Meredith Ivers.

Yeah, Meredith Ivers. Maybe Meredith Ivers sent that tweet and all bad tweets by the president. But look, I do... I mean, so much of the evidence of potential obstruction has, I mean, maybe, I'm sure Mueller has a whole bunch of stuff himself, but a lot of it is public. It's what Trump said to Lester Holt. It's his tweets. It's that skywriting they did.

I did it. I did the crimes. I'm sort of worried that if Mueller finds that Trump obstructed justice but doesn't find crimes related to collusion, obviously Republicans, but even the media, won't take it as seriously. And case in point, the day after Trump's former national security advisor pleads to lesser charges in an investigation that's about whether the

president obstructed justice the top headline in axios today was reality check and talks about how trump isn't necessarily in personal legal jeopardy and this atmosphere of hysteria is very dangerous i mean this is so like we're so twisted around the axle about this. If you take out Russia, conspiracies to steal elections, hacked emails, what happened is a close associate of the President of the United States and longtime political supporter whose endorsement mattered a lot

was under federal investigation. Trump asked the FBI to drop that investigation and when they did not, they fired the FBI director to do it. That's all we need to know. He also asked him to drop that investigation, and when they did not, they fired the FBI director to do it. That's all we need to know. That is like right in the middle of a bowl. He also asked him to drop

the whole Russia investigation. Yeah. And that was another one too. Along with 14 congressional committees, he asked them to drop the investigations too. I mean, like this is the problem. Trump has conditioned the whole world, the media,

to believe that everyone, that they've sort of conditioned us to not react to brazen lies all the time. When you say, I didn't golf today, and there's like 400 Instagrams of you putting on 14 with like whomever, some hedge fund guy, you know, and we just let it go. We are used to crimes being committed by people

who are trying to conceal them. And so we're not really... So if some of the stuff that Trump has tweeted came out in an email or in a recorded phone call, it would be a great and growing scandal. The problem is, at the end of Mueller's investigation some of the most damning and important evidence will be shit that Donald Trump said on the National Broadcasting Company.

If the tweet from today was on his private server that would be it. This is the shaggy it wasn't me of presidencies. I saw you in the bathroom it wasn't me I mean it is interesting how this has come all around the quote legitimacy of the election which makes me think that if and when Trump ever has to plead guilty

to a crime the deal will be he will accept punishment plead guilty but on the condition that deal will be he will accept punishment, plead guilty, but on the condition that Bob Mueller says you won the election. You won the popular vote. Let's give it to him. Take it. I think about the moment

after Donald Trump is not president when he tells us that he won and that he made money on being president. And that's how we'll know it's over. I've been wondering you don't like it deal with it you think this ends clean what about the hiss at me all you want well it's almost as if he likes the hissing no so speaking of it not ending clean my question is what happens if muller um concludes this investigation and basically writes a

report to Congress that says the President of the United States tried to obstruct justice, here's all the evidence, and then nothing happens? Because I think we have to prepare for the fact that he delivers that report and you have a bunch of Republicans and probably people in the White House and certainly the entire conservative media propaganda machine that say, you know what, he didn't find evidence of Trump calling up Putin and saying, you know, let's steal the election, but he found all this other stuff and whatever, what can we do? You know, we got to go pass more tax cuts and that's it. Like, what do we all do at that point? I think two things. I think, first of all, we have to prepare for that. Yeah I think two things. I think, first of all... I feel like we have to prepare for that.

Yeah, I do. So I think, first of all, Mueller has been running such an extraordinarily deft operation politically. Not, you know, not just about defending his own image, but about, like, defending his investigation. Like, it was so savvy the way the Papadopoulos and Manafort thing was

rolled out, the way the Flynn thing has happened. It has made it very hard to argue with his practices, and not to mention the fact that nothing leaks. So whatever I write, I could be wrong, who knows, but right now it seems like whatever Mueller decides is the outcome he's going for, he will have thought through the best way to present that information. But the more important thing is, 2018 is right around the corner. What impeachment is, is ultimately political. And whether Jared goes down, or Don Jr. goes down, or Flynn goes down, or Ivanka goes down, whoever.

Like, yeah, it's great. How fun. They'll put another goon in that position. There's goons in waiting yeah we've got tiffany on reserve she's on the bench right i mean the key point is on the batting block the key point is like whether or not donald trump colluded and i think it's likely that his campaign did collude with russia it's not clear that that's why they won the election right so ultimately we have to do what our job would have been if there was no special prosecutor, which is get our asses back to work and win the 2018 midterms,

subpoena everything they do, and then win 2020. That's the point I was trying to make. Regardless of what happens with these investigations, impeachment is a political act. Winning in 2018 is the way we hold Trump accountable, regardless of what we'll be able to do after 2018 is do impeachment.

Right. Just to add to that, I think, you know, if Mueller finds that there's obstruction of justice or something that should be impeachable and Congress does nothing, then the American people need to realize that they can kind of impeach him themselves by installing a Democratic Congress and a Democratic Senate. It's your job to impeach him if they're not going to do it. That's right. Speaking of our friends in Congress, let's talk about the

Donor Relief Act of 2017, which not... No fans up here. Fine. Go for it. I don't know know as a mother of five jets i am offended uh it passed the senate last night around 2 a.m which is when most major legislation does um the bill passed despite bipartisan opposition from one republican and all 48 democrats uh it passed despite polls showing that only 25% of Americans approve.

It passed despite the fact that every nonpartisan analysis shows that it breaks the Republicans' promise to not raise the deficit, not raise taxes on the middle class, and not benefit rich people like Donald Trump. It does all those things. So, Dan, why did 51 Republican senators pass it anyway? Because Republicans in Congress think about cutting taxes for the

wealthy the way most people think about breathing right? It is what they do it is why they are there they don't care like most of them I think know this bill is not great they know that it is, they do not believe the bullshit about

not increasing taxes by 1.5 trillion dollars but they, they do not believe the bullshit about it not increasing deficit by 1.5 trillion dollars, but they need to do this. And there's a couple of things. One, I think they actually do believe that it is a good idea to give more money to rich people and starve the government of money. They are wrong, but they do believe that. Second, their donors said, if you do not pass this bill, we're going to stop giving you money. And they need the billionaires like the Kochs and Sheldon Adelson and Steve Schwarzman to give them money. So this was a political decision

and they thought they needed to do to win the election. It's not about the country or the tax code or anything else. It's about politics. What is everyone's, some of your favorite, most egregious parts of the bill? There's quite a few that we should probably go through. Yes. My favorite part is the doubling of the bill. There's quite a few that we should probably go through. My favorite part

is the doubling of the estate tax exemption, which means that you can shield like 10 plus million dollars worth of estate you're handing down to Don Jr. or Ivanka or Gerard's Legal Defense Fund thanks to this bill.

The House bill fully eliminates the estate tax. And based on, I think, Center for American Progress estimates, the Betsy DeVos family would get $2 billion in a tax break. You know what also costs $2 billion in the House bill? The elimination of a $250 tax credit

for teachers to buy school supplies. Very cool. There's a couple of things that I... You guys hating teachers is despicable. Yeah. Nobody's working less hard than the people raising our children. Take their markers! My mom, by the way, is a public educator. It's a joke.

So one of the things that I thought was really interesting about the Senate bill was the Senate bill eliminates the individual mandate to purchase insurance, and at the same time it doubles the child income tax credit from $1,000 per child to $2,000 per child, which amounts to, if you divide it by 12, about $83 a month. Eliminating the individual mandate would ostensibly cause premiums to rise probably by more than $83 a month

10% a year right and so this idea that like oh yeah we're helping families with children is so ridiculous because insurance especially if you have kids is so ridiculously expensive and it's only going to get more expensive if the Senate gets its way

and you know how we know that it's not just people who are opposed to the bill. Susan Collins, in the lead up to the vote, said, I'm worried that the repeal of the individual mandate and the premiums going up as a result is going to cancel out whatever middle class tax cut people get. But she decided to vote for it because Mitch McConnell wrote her a bunch of IOUs that he would magically fix things later. He wrote her a letter and he signed it with his name. I also liked how Lisa Murkowski was on the fence until

they were like, you can drill in the wilderness reserves and then she signed on. She's like, oh, oil. Make it a little more evil. Okay, I'm on. Yeah, that was bad. I don't just want children to pay. Those caribou have had it too easy. Wait, how many baby otters are we talking being soaked in oil?

50? Make it 100 and I'm in. So you may think this is petty. I do not like the estate tax portions. I do not like the individual mandate repeal. I do not like the special breaks for oil and gas companies and hedge funds. But the part that I hate most about this bill is the shit-eating grin on Mitch McConnell's face last night. That sucks. Dan, I thought you were going to say Paul Ryan's smarminess.

Oh, that's like evergreen, always. I'm also afraid that I've tweeted about Paul Ryan so many times. I may be on that I've tweeted about Paul Ryan so many times. I may be on a Capitol Police watch list now. People actually think he's my dad. And I've had to say, I'm too old to be Paul Ryan's daughter unless there was some teenage activity. But yeah, he's not my dad. There's guys who pretended they gave a shit about the deficit once and for all.

It's like, stop calling him a wonk when you describe him in news stories. They're full of it. The Koch brothers seeded all the Tea Party rallies. They're the reason it gains traction, right? It was ostensibly about government spending and the deficit. They sent out a memo to members of Congress when this bill was up getting passed

saying, please ignore arguments about the deficit. You know what Paul Ryan, a speaker, reminds me of, sort of? Okay, so imagine you're flying on an airplane and both of the pilots pass out and like a dog goes and sits on the pilot chair and everybody would be like, oh my God, this dog is flying this airplane

and the airplane is just cruising, but when it's time to land, it's like, oh no, the dog can't. The dog cannot fly the airplane and it never could fly. It was just sitting there trying to just watch. It's a really chill dog.

Right. No, Paul Ryan is a dog trying to fly just watching. It's a really chill dog. Right. No, Paul Ryan is a dog trying to fly an airplane. He's a bro-in way over his head and he's... So what do you guys make of some of the consternation on the left and in the media

that Democrats are partially to blame for not having an effective message that we weren't able to stop this thing. Because that is... I picked up some of that on good old twitter.com last night and today. It's an easy argument to make. Like, oh, you could have had a better message.

Probably, sure. You can always probably have a better message, a perfect message. I think, look, it is December of the first year of a presidency. This is the first time they've gotten any kind of major piece of legislation through. We stopped several attempts to repeal health care. And the reality is we stopped those bills playing with a really shitty hand. We don't have the House, we don't have the Senate, we don't have the White House. And we did it through activism, we did it through

phone calls, we did it through messaging, we did it through unity within the Democratic caucus. We had all those things here. I think there's probably a little bit of fatigue. Probably didn't muster exactly the same amount of responses we did for healthcare. But, you know, cutting taxes,

this is why Paul Ryan was put on this earth. This is a dog in a bone. The point is, we were unified. We made a strong case against this thing. The American people hate this bill. And that's not because Republicans weren't good at selling it. That's because we did a good job of attacking it. The fact that they decided to pass it anyway speaks a lot more to the pathology inside of the Republican Party than it does about the failures of the Democratic Party.

That's exactly... Go ahead. This argument... Sure, we can always do better, and I'm always willing to criticize Democrats, but John McCain didn't walk up there at healthcare and do thumbs down because a bunch of liberals called his office. It was because he thought this needs to go through a regular order, right? I mean, we were relying on Republican votes. It was a different calculus. Yeah. It's such a dumb argument because people are like, the Democrats

were less successful in their efforts to stop tax reform than stop healthcare. Well, yeah, obviously tax reform passed, like no shit. But, like, to Levitt's point, the message was right, because this is the least popular piece of legislation that I've seen in all my years of politics. How do you think it got to 25% in the polls? What do you think, that just happened by itself?

Like, that was the message. We made that argument. That's 25% of the country that hates this thing, even though a huge swath of the country is watching Fox News and reading Breitbart and all the rest, that has painted a rosy picture and pretended it's the best thing that ever happened. So I think getting anything beneath 30% in this is an incredible achievement in this day and age.

Oh, but it hasn't been enacted yet. That's the thing. I never underestimate the wackadoodles in the house's ability to fuck shit up. It's true. And they have a prime opportunity right here. Right. This still has to go through reconciliation, and it has to get signed into law by President Trump, who just reached, I think, 33% in Gallup.

He might just forget. Yeah, well, he might forget. Big win. Big win for Donald Trump, 33% in Gallup. Yeah, right. Let me do a little oppo research for Donald Trump right now. Or, you know, one of the least popular pieces of legislation, maybe a real quick way for his approval rating to jump like 10 points.

That's a great idea. If he were to veto it. If it goes through reconciliation, and he's like, okay, McConnell, Ryan, ha, fuck both of you. I'm vetoing it. I mean, I would still not approve of him, but I would be happy with that. Obama should give a press conference tomorrow

calling on Donald Trump to hurry up and get legislation passed so that he can sign it. I think we've got to get to the Fox and Friends hosts. We've got to have them say, you know what, this bill is not good. V, tell it. Obama should call on them not to impeach Trump.

The next day he'll impeach himself. Call it a day. But here's the truth. I think, to finish this, like, we, it is going to be hard, it is always going to be harder to persuade elected Republicans than it is to just elect Democrats. And as we go to 2018, I think, you know, as we look to 2018, I think we need to, and this is what we said with the impeachment debate too, we need to have a House and have a Senate that are Democratic. One of the reasons,

so one of the reasons that we've been doing this tour in California this weekend is we're launching something called the Crooked Seven. So the Crooked Seven is we need 24 seats to win back the House. And right here in California, seven Republicans are representing districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. So these are the

Crooked Seven, and tonight we're launching a special fund that raises money for the eventual Democratic challengers in each one of their districts. It's the California 10, the 21st, the 25th, the 39th, the 45th, the 48th, and the 49th. So what we're going to do is from now until the end of the primaries, we're going to try to raise as much money as possible, and then when the primaries are over and we have a Democratic candidate, that candidate will get all that money and they'll be able

to run against the Republicans. And we're going to take that gavel from Paul Ryan's fucking hands. We get questions all the time from people who say, you know, I'm in a blue state, what can I do? Right here in California, seven seats. That's like a third to a fourth of all the seats that we need

to win back the House of Representatives right here. So I don't want a lot of people from this town in my sacramentsies asking what they can do. But if you go to... I forced that a little bit. I liked it. You like that? I got excited about it.

If you guys go to crooked.com slash crooked7 we have a website set up and you can check it out. We'll be playing a little game later to introduce us all. Okay, when we come back we'll be talking to

your Attorney General Javier Becerra. We are very lucky to have with us the Attorney General for the state of California, Javier Becerra. Thank you for joining us. Wow, I'm glad I'm here. I wanted to start, you're a former member of Congress, spent a lot of time in Washington, now you're Attorney General, and it's very clear Congress has abdicated its very important role of oversight of this president, this administration. But attorney generals like yourself have been stepping up across the country.

What can attorney generals do to hold this administration accountable? What are your plans from here in California to try to put Donald Trump's feet to the fire here? We can resist. And then just move forward. I remember when Governor Brown reached out to me and said we could have this conversation about me taking over. I said, Governor, if you're just going to move the state forward, then I don't want you turning your head back, because I'll have your back, because we're going to move. And we're the sixth largest economy in the world. We became the economic engine for the country.

And why should we stop doing what we're doing just because some guy got elected to somebody's surprise? So we're just going to go. Are there particular lawsuits and other things that you can do to sort of push back against these policies? Well, we've been doing that. We have stopped them from enacting these retrogrades to our environment. I mean, they're going after everything from energy-efficient light bulbs to the massive release of methane gas. And so far, we haven't lost a case against them on those.

And we're going to keep it going. We're in court to defend the DACA dreamers, and we're going to try to keep those great Americans here in this country we're going to make sure Donald Trump doesn't build the border wall so we're suing him on that and I'll stop with this last one

because there's still a whole bunch more but we're defending the Affordable Care Act in court and making sure women have access to birth control. So you just mentioned DACA. You recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Tell us what you're hoping to achieve with that lawsuit.

What's the outcome, and is it a... Obviously, it's not a long-term solution, but what are you guys hoping to achieve? The Dreamers are never going to go from America. They're here to stay. They say it very clearly, undocumented and unafraid, we should be the same. We should be unafraid and ambitious to make sure that they can be undocumented and unafraid

so they can be Americans in the future. And so I think we're going to have some success in court simply because the administration has handled this DACA case the way they've handled everything else, like Neanderthals. handled this DACA case the way they've handled everything else, like Neanderthals. And I'm serious because they, you know, I guess they don't think they have to follow the law. And so in each of these cases, the reason we've had success is because they haven't followed the law. They think that they can just go in and say, we no longer want to have people buy energy efficient light bulbs. No, you have to go through a process if you want to undo a rule

that had to go through a process to get implemented. Same with DACA. You want to undo something? Well, then read the Constitution and figure out how you follow the law. Yeah. So obviously a permanent solution to protect these young immigrants is to pass something like the DREAM Act. You were a champion of this when you were

in Congress. Right now, Congress has an opportunity. You know, Trump and the Republicans have promised Democrats that they would put the Dream Act up for a vote, but they haven't done that yet. So now the government runs out of money next week. The Republicans need Democratic votes to keep the government funded. I see where you're going. Do you think the Democrats should, you know, making passage of the DREAM Act, or at least putting the DREAM Act on the floor necessary for their votes?

This is where we've got to grow a spine and do the right thing and stand for what we say we stand for. And, you know, I always tell folks, my Democratic colleagues, when I was in the House, I'd always say, when you're in the minority, you can't kill a bill, and you can't pass a bill.

The only folks who can do that are the folks that have a majority of the votes. And so we should never take responsibility for the Republicans' inability to get things done. And so if they want our votes, then they've got to give us something. And if they want to keep the government running, they're going to need some votes. So this is they want our votes, then they got to give us something. And if they want to keep the government running, they're going to need some votes. So this is our chance to say,

well, these are the things it takes to get our votes because it's not our budget. It's your budget. We need to see some things. And this is where I believe you can make sure that the very important principles that we stand by as Democrats and as Americans are lived out in this legislation. that we stand by as Democrats and as Americans are lived out in this legislation. Just out of curiosity, beyond DACA, are there other things you think Democrats should put on that list? Oh, man, they should put a whole bunch of stuff on that list. Think about it. Paul Ryan has never passed a major piece of legislation without Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats. And this is our chance to say, no mas.

You want something? Show us that you want our votes. And I think that at the end of the day, the American public will pay us back. We should say, quit. You guys can say it I can't effing with the Affordable Care Act make sure you you pay you provide the money for the cost-sharing subsidies take care of the dreamers make sure that we're not keeping a woman from getting the same kind of health care that anyone in America would expect to get. And stop telling someone who wants to give his or her life to our country in the military that they can't do it just because they're transgender.

And so I think we'll wrap up here in a minute. But, you know, when you were in Congress, you were one of the most effective Democratic messengers. You were on the shows. You had a real sense of what the party should be saying. And so as you look at the party now as we head into 2018, what do you think the right message should be to both excite and inspire people to turn out to vote in the midterm, but also to try to win back some of the voters that we lost in the 2016 election? You know, we go through this routine all the time. What was the message that FDR communicated?

Actually, I always include Eleanor because she did most of the heavy lifting, I think. What was his message to all those people in the Depression when he did Social Security, when he went after the banks? He said, I got your back. I'm going to do something here for you. What did LBJ do when he helped pass the Civil Rights

Act and got Medicare going? He said, I got your back. We've got to let folks know, just like we did in the past. You're hurting? We've got your back. The only way you can do that is when you get a chance, especially when you're in the minority of the Congress,

is to show that when you need my vote, you've got to bring these folks with me because I've got their back. And if you just let them know you're really there, then you're golden. And by the way, I heard the session you all did with Senator Sherrod Brown. And, you know know the rest of the states have gone through a transition right it used to be that you could

work at GM or some union plant and you could survive and your kids would follow you and they'd buy a house and send their kids to a decent school and so forth it's been about two or three generations that that hasn't happened so all of a sudden all those folks that used to be sort of in the middle class,

they're like saying, this doesn't work anymore. The kids are moving out. They're not coming back. They're coming to California. And I will tell you that I can understand why all those folks are saying a pox on everybody out there and why some may say, hey, you know, Donald Trump's message, he's kind of crazy, but he's saying he's going to do these things. I always tell folks that are from the

Midwest like that, you know, your folks three generations ago are no different than my parents. My dad was a union worker. He was a dick digger. Never had a chance to get a college degree. Couldn't walk through the doors of a college because he couldn't walk into restaurants because of the signs that said no dogs or Mexicans allowed. I guarantee you, in the Midwest, you can walk into restaurants. My dad couldn't walk into restaurants. So they're the same thing, but there's a difference. My dad knew that what was the generation before him, when my grandfather was still in Mexico, didn't give as much opportunity.

So he was optimistic that even though he was a ditch digger, maybe one day his kids could do something. And so sure enough, first to go to college and university, first to have a chance to now open not just the door to a restaurant, but to the White House. And I have a photograph, if you ever want to see it, of a man and a woman who never got educated who are standing there with the President of the United States.

Not this guy, but Bill Clinton. And that makes you optimistic. And so we just have to have that optimism, and you've got to let them know, I got your back. One last question. We saw in 2017 in the elections in both Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans borrowing from Donald Trump's playbook and using issues like immigration and crime and race as wedge issues.

And how do you think the Democrats should take those issues on in 2018 and 2020, you know, talking about the economy, talking about the opportunity, but still dealing with these Republican attacks? Just don't give them a reason to do the them versus us, right? It's always... If Republicans don't have a real answer or they really didn't do something for you, they'll say, oh, but it was really them that you're after.

And the them is the immigrants or it's people of color or you name it. And I think what we just have to show that, no, don't let these guys play that them versus us game on you. And we'll always be with them if we can prove to them that we stood with them. And so when they're hurting, you've got to show them that you're going to create the jobs that they need. And, you know, it could be the guy in the coal mine that's losing the job or doesn't see his kid's future in the coal mine. We could just let him know, look, in California, we create more jobs in clean energy

than there are in the entire coal mining industry put together. We've got a good-paying job for you, and we would want you to be able to work in energy. It just doesn't mean it has to be in coal. And you've just got to give people this belief that you've got their back, and there's light at the end of the tunnel and I think sometimes we forget to do that especially because Democrats we come up with these 15 point plans to try to convince folks that we really know how to do it it's just it's gut

stuff you got to stand up there for them and you when you say you're going to do it you better do it and right now Democrats have a chance with this budget vote coming up to show people, I got your back because they need my vote and I know what you need and I'm going to be there because I'm going to show you I got your back. Attorney General Becerra, thank you so much for joining us. And we're back. Now for a segment we call OK Stop. Here's how it works.

We're going to roll a clip. We're going to watch it as it bothers us or thoughts comes to mind. We'll say OK Stop and we'll talk about it. This week, on a program called Lou Dobbs Tonight, hosted by an entity named Lou Dobbs, he spent some time talking about Obama's recent foreign trip. He called it a shadow tour. Let's watch. President Obama's on something of a shadow tour of Asia, taking swipes at the current commander-in-chief, railing against...

Okay, stop. What the fuck is a shadow tour? He said it like we're all supposed to know that. Well, I feel like it's sort of when a brainstorm goes too far and you end up with a name like Trunk. Like, it made sense in the room because it's like the shadow government, Britain, that kind of a thing,

and he's a shadow president. Remember, the ostensibly reasonable Fox News reporter told me that Hillary Clinton was the shadow president, which is why they attack her all the time on TV. So he's not supposed to leave the country, then? I guess not. All kinds of crazy. No more paragliding for you, Barack Obama.

What he calls so-called, I mean it's President, former President Obama calling this populism that President Trump... Okay, stop. Isn't he supposed to be good at TV? Get a fucking sentence out. Has he ever done this?

There's a teleprompter right in front of him with words. He sounds like he's trying to order a Whopper from a mailbox. This is not Fox News. This is Fox Business. Look, Lou Dobbs, in his younger days, he had a great arm. He had a great arm, and he could throw, but he's lost a step, and he got kicked down to the minors,

and he's just not ready to let the game go. His name sounds like a sentence. Like, Dobbs sounds like a verb. Like, Lou Dobbs. Like, he, whatever. And I feel like Dobbs is maybe a cousin of doddering. Like, Lou dodders. To Dobb is to read a newspaper and scream about it

even though you're alone in a room. I think to dob is to get angry at a teleprompter. To dob is to have a feud with a dog. I think so, yeah. Brought with him to Washington, D.C., he calls it destructive populism. I guess he prefers destructive elitism. Okay, stop.

I would have a picnic on that, Ty. Also, the head-to-body ratio, you guys can't see this on the podcast, but boy, that's a dome. It's not great. Also, what's going on with his flag pin? It looks like it got shot. Remember when he ran

space.com? Oh, that's true. No. That happened. Okay. Keep rolling it. The people get a voice now. Speaking in India, Obama lamented the U.S. exit from the Paris Climate Accord. Oh my gosh, he hasn't gotten used to that either. Okay, stop.

How dare Obama repeat a well-known position that he's held for his entire career? An agreement that the entire world is part of, except for us. Including Syria. The only good thing that Syria has done. Assad was like, I gotta get on board that. Assad thought that was good. President Trump, for his

Twitter account, saying he should think before he tweets. Is that nauseating, or what? Join me in the... Okay, stop. I think that the main sign of being old is pronouncing the H on what. What? Johnny Vandermeer. Okay, stop. Okay, stop. I think that the main sign of being old is pronouncing the H on what. What?

What? What? Like white supremacist. Or what? Yeah, no, if you say the... Yeah, I think that's pretty much... He also said tweet like it was a word in a foreign language. Tweet.

Media chairman, editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes. He should think before he tweets. Okay, stop. Steve Forbes is still around? Well, Steve Forbes looks just as delighted as you do that he's still around. He's like, I exist! What am I doing here?

It's worth noting that Lou Dobbs was horribly offended that Obama was concerned about destructive populism. While this was happening, the Senate was passing a massive tax cut for the wealthy. The Republicans in the Senate were passing a massive tax cut for the wealthy. In order to discuss elitism, he brought in the guy who named a magazine after himself, Steve Forbes. Yeah.

As all of these, I don't know, fleas just trying to scratch anywhere they can. Okay, stop. What? I don't think the analogy worked. Please don't. Do they have fingernails? I don't know if that was at all.

Alright. It's nice to see this guy going around the world still doing his apology tours. Okay being out of the old... Okay, stop. Steve Forbes. Prepare a little. What are you doing here?

What is anyone doing on this? Is anyone watching this? Also, this is a business network. Like, is this like, no more CNBC, this is what we have on in our business. I'm a businessman, and I need to know how it's all going. I'm going to watch this. Get my hot stock tips

from these two Indiana Jones relics. Halfway through this edition, Harrison Ford comes in and he's got a bag of sand and he's trying to figure out if it weighs as much as Lou Dobbs

so he can replace him on the chair. Also, apology tour, now you're just playing right-wing Fox News Netflix. By the way, it's not well-prepared. You're just playing the hits there. We also have something to apologize for, finally. I mean, it's about time he got out there.

Finally, someone's apologizing for America. What he hasn't gotten used to is he doesn't matter Finally, I mean, it's about time he got out there. Finally, someone's apologizing for America. That's important. What he hasn't gotten used to is he doesn't matter anymore. He can get publicity. Okay, stop. Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve. Self-awareness not his strong suit.

He does protest too much. Steve Forbes is like the 30th most relevant Steve. Like Steve from Stranger Things is way more relevant than Steve Ford. To make policy. I think U.S. Marshals should follow him and anytime he wants to go follow the president like he is and behave.

I mean, this is just bad manner. Okay, did you guys watch the new season of Twin Peaks? No. I'm not going to spoil it, but you're familiar with like Lynchian dream sequences where it's like creepy because nothing makes sense. It's like a mundane scenario and nothing makes sense. This is like a Lynchian dream sequence. I did not see this clip before we chose it.

U.S. Marshall? Yeah, so it takes a real turn. It goes... Because here's where it goes. What happened? It goes from, we're old, we're super weird. This segment did not have a lot of heft to it. Let's bitch about Obama for a second.

It's also, Lou invites you to dob as well. Won't you dob with me? Steve, can I dob at you for a second? What are the U.S. Marshals supposed to do? I feel like it's arresting him for disagreeing with Lou Dobbs. For having the audacity to be

an ex-U.S. president who was black. The U.S. Marshals are supposed to do what Sheriff David Clark thinks he's supposed to do, which is, I guess, fly around on a magical sheriff airplane or something. Make arrests. Yeah, make arrests of people who sass him. Cool, cool. It's boorish. It's absurd.

He doesn't realize how foolish he looks I mean, he should be brought back by the marshals Isn't there some law that says presidents shouldn't be attacking sitting by their seats? Okay, stop There ought to be a law, Dan

Is there some law that says someone who is not president should not be acting as president was perhaps on the day in which this clip aired, Donald Trump's national security advisor pled guilty to a crime of lying about violating that very law. Again.

Self-awareness, not their strong suit. There's an unwritten one, sort of a Logan Act for ex-presidents. But not enforceable. Okay, stop. Not sort of. Actually. There's actually a Logan Act. For a long time.

I hate the part of this episode where they make a bet about the nature of poverty and force Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd to trade lives. One's violating that one as well. And that's OK Stop.

Wow. Wow. When we come back, the mayor of Stockton, Michael Tubbs. He became Stockton's first African-American mayor at the age of 26 and the youngest mayor in American history of a city with a population of at least 100,000 people, Mayor Michael Tubbs. Hey, thanks so much for being here. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Appreciate it. We'll put you right there. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to meet you.

And also intimidated because I'm so much older than you. So, you know, you're from Stockton. You were born and raised in Stockton. And now you're the mayor of Stockton. That's a place that has... Give it up for Stockton. So I secretly packed the audience with Stocktonians just for this segment. I know.

You really brought them in. We've got to have an ID law or something. So one of the things about Stockton that's really interesting is that, you know, you had a difficult upbringing and Stockton has a difficult past. But you never gave up on it. And you've kind of committed your life to making it better. What advice would you give to people who are tempted to say, fuck it, I'm out? What advice would you give them to get them to stay

and stay involved and not give up? Seven years ago, one of my cousins was murdered when we had a spike in homicides. Grew up in some of the state's most troubled neighborhoods, and my father's been incarcerated for most of my life. So a lot of the issues we talk about and see impacts at the federal and local level are issues that I feel viscerally.

So for me, I tell people it's almost an act of survival that I felt like I had to be at the policymaking table and had to be in the room where it happens to make sure things were done, especially for people who never have access to those rooms. I mean, but you could have left, and people do leave, and you didn't. So why not? So I think watching that segment actually solidified it for me.

It was because of Lou Dobbs. It's this idea that oftentimes you think folks who are making decisions are so much smarter or more informed, but it's generally the opposite. Like, I could be in the grocery store and have a great conversation with someone about policy, and then in the actual room where the policy is made, not have the same quality of conversation. So I think it's, for me, it was first understanding that I had something to offer. Secondly, understanding that it's difficult work, and it's not, it's for me was first understanding that I had something to offer um secondly understanding that it's difficult work and it's not it's more of an art than a science and a lot of people don't know what what they're doing so long as you do no harm it's probably literally better than the status quo yeah and then I think number three it's there's just real human impact so if you're

not personally impacted there's people your kids play soccer with or the people who are your Uber drivers or people who are preparing your food or people who you go to church with who are really impacted by said policy. So maybe I'm just a crazy, empathetic person, but I really feel like, okay, we have to fix something because everyone has inherent dignity, value, and worth.

And I think oftentimes we want to discuss like choices people make. And I can't control the choices people make, but I'm very interested in figuring out how to change the environment in which people make choices. But I think most people will make good choices in a good environment. You were elected mayor at the age of 26.

I think there's a lot of people at the age of 26 who are playing video games, trying to figure out what the hell to do with their life, hung over on the weekends. To your point earlier about, you know, not trusting that the right people were in the right rooms making the right decisions. What gave you the courage to run for office at that age when I'm sure a lot of people said, wait your turn, chill out? I'm a little, I realize now I'm a little bit crazy. So part of it was just being really upset and just angry at what happened to my cousin. I'm just like, it was almost a nihilistic anger. So it's almost like, to your point, F it.

Like, who cares? I'm just going to do me, make money, forget about this place. But then I think just being a spiritual person and praying and then realizing that there's not a lot of people that have those experiences, but still were able to get educated at Stanford or intern at Google or intern at the White House. So I said, well, I may be young, but at least those things people care about. So if I talk about those things a lot,

maybe people will look past my age and give me a chance. And then I also didn't realize how crazy it was to run for office and it was too late. We were already in the middle of the campaign. So I was like, hey, well, we're going to ride this thing out and if I lose, I get a job. But if not...

So one of the things that's most interesting about your... Well, there's a lot of interesting things about your political biography. But one of the things that's really interesting is the fact that Jeff Sessions has specifically targeted you in your city on a scale of 1 to 10 how awesome does that well let me tell you the back story so it was my birthday weekend it was also it was a weekend so I I had the day off, so I was like having a

little bachelor celebration with my best men because I wasn't going to get married next Saturday. Literally next Saturday. This guy's getting married next Saturday. So I'm like on a plane, and I didn't pay for Wi-Fi on purpose.

My phone is blowing up. There's reporters calling, and the police chief'm like, my phone is blowing up. Like, there's reporters calling, and the police chief's like, call me, and the scene manager's like, call me. I'm like, I can't even have a birthday. So, then I'm checking. I'm like, so I call the chief. I'm like, Jeff Sessions, really? So, I think it feels really awesome, I think, for the city, because Stockton is so incredibly diverse. We're 32% of- And just to pause for for a second in case people don't know, Jeff Sessions specifically singled out Stockton as a sanctuary city and wanted to compel you as the mayor to target inmates who were not here legally. It goes back to that segment because a Google search will tell you the county operates our jail

and the sheriff is a different elective not named mayor. County operates our jail and the sheriff is a different elective not named mayor but that doesn't anybody who pronounces anybody who pronounces the h in what doesn't know how to use google but but it it felt it felt almost a moment of reckoning as well um because the city I know we we have problems like most communities with crime so they get a letter from the department of justice saying that federal funding may be on the line. Required some thoughtfulness about how do we respond, but then our demographics make it impossible.

One third of our city is foreign-born. The other third have parents who are foreign-born. We're a city of immigrants, so it would be just bad policing, bad policy, and not enough resources to do what the AG was asking us to do. So I felt compelled to be very, very, very, very, very clear to our community first that

that's not what we do. We're not immigration enforcement officials. We're local law enforcement. And for Stockton to be safe, we need everyone to feel like the cops are on their team in terms of making the community safe and not out to target them. team in terms of making the community safe and not out to target them. Mr. Mayor, the Stockton government is one of the first in the country to pilot a universal basic income program. That is a concept that I think you're starting to hear about more and more or hear discussed

more and more, but you're not seeing people do more and more. Tell us about it. Why did you decide to do it? How's it going? I told you I'm a little bit crazy, right? So I was... Give a theme. My staff, because poverty, 25% of the city lives in poverty. So I said, well, what can cities do around poverty? So I told my staff, I said, find me the craziest ideas. And one

of them was basic income. And at first, I was like, ooh, this is tough. I said, well, let's put this on the back burner now. We'll read about it and we'll see. And then around the same time, I was in a conference with the Economic Security Project. And they were talking about the work they were doing. They wanted to partner with the city to test the basic income. And I said, well, we have a task force working on that. And we kind of did. We had people researching.

I had a memo on my Bible. And I think for me, I remember in college reading Where Do We Go From Here by Dr. King, and he talked about either a basic income or universal jobs program, but something to really provide an economic floor for folks. And then doing research and finding out this idea, it's not even that new that Thomas Paine was talking about this in like the Great Revolution, like the late 1700s. T. Paine?

T. Paine. Nice. like in Graham Revolution, like the late 1700s. T-Pain? T-Pain. Nice. And then in talking to our community, we would get calls every day for people who had jobs, were working, but couldn't afford rent.

They were also part of the fastest rising rent market in the country, along with Sacramento. And again, this whole conversation around Occupy and 1%, the fact that wages haven't increased or kept up with inflation, but all costs have, it was like we have to do something. And again, given that there was a lot of attention on Stockton, given our demographics, I felt that a basic income pilot in Stockton would be one that's more true to what America looks like

because Stockton is 12% African-American, 35% Hispanic, 20% Asian, 35% white. So everyone would have a piece of that. And I thought, and also because it's a pilot, it's not necessarily taxpayer dollars first. So that took the risk for us. Well, it's their money. Let's pilot it. Let's tell a story. Let's have a conversation about

what do people deserve. And let's have the nation with the gubernatorial elections coming up and the presidential election in 2020, let's have stock as part of that conversation, especially around how do we provide people just basic economic security. So really, really excited about it. I did not expect people to be upset.

I was shocked. I said, it's free money. Who's upset with that? But people are really mad. So hopefully they get picked, so they'd be happy. The same people who like the tax bill, I guess. Yeah, right, exactly. Last question for you. I'm going to abuse my privilege as a Pod Save America host. they get picked so they'd be happy the same people who like the tax bill i guess yeah right exactly last question for you i'm gonna abuse my privilege as a pod save america host you're getting married

uh you believe saturday saturday i'm getting married in july how do you get through the planning without getting to a situation where you are mad at each other oh man i'm not great at this but i have lessons to teach you. Please. I'm listening. So I would say the first one is just understand it's about the union, but the wedding is fundamentally not about you. Your preferences,

like it's just you get the bachelor weekend, you get the day before with your friends. That's it. And then you get to have a beautiful relationship with a beautiful bride, which is the best part. And the second thing is just, again, someone said in the audience, like, I try to have an opinion.

And I can have an opinion if it meshes with the opinion I already stated. Sure. Sure. You're free to have her opinion. She's the master at getting consensus. She's like, I think we should do this. I'm like, oh yeah, I think that's a great idea.

Let's do it. Hannah, I love you. I'll take all that advice. Mayor Tubbs, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for the great work you're doing. Thank you so much. Give it up for Mayor Tubbs. Now for a game we call The Crooked Seven.

Here's how it works. As you know, we've just launched this effort to take on the seven Republicans in districts that Hillary Clinton won. So we wanted to play a game tonight to talk about the ways in which these people, they just have to go. Alright? So would anyone out there like to play Crooked Seven? Hi, what's your name? Shy.

Shy? Cool. Shy, are you familiar with the Crooked Seven? Yes. Okay. Very recently. Are you shy, Shy? Shy, are you familiar with the Crooked Seven? Yes Very recently Are you shy, Shy? No, I'm not I guess you wouldn't have volunteered So, here's how the game works, Shy

I'm going to read you a question about several of these members of Congress and each of three hosts. Yeah, we're hosts. Sure. Each of our hosts will read a clue. It will be your job to pick out the correct answer.

The first question is about Republican Jeff Denham. He represents California's... Jeff Denham fans. Not a lot of denim, denim heads. He represents California's 10th district where 40% of constituents rely on Medicaid. Denim promised them that he would vote no on the Trumpcare bill,

which would have kicked thousands off Medicaid in his district. When the bill came up for a vote, what did he do? district. When the bill came up for a vote, what did he do? Is it A. Read the bill, consulted his trusted advisors, prayed on it, and voted

no? Is it B. Stood outside Paul Ryan's office holding a boombox over his head, playing, buh buh buh buh, don't forget my number, baby, be stronger than a thunder by Milli Vanilli.

I'm glad I didn't get that card. I'm glad Tommy punched up the song on the stage. C, broke his word and voted for Trumpcare, obviously. Or D, who said he was going to hit the head and then got in his car and drove for Trumpcare, obviously. Or D, who said he was going to hit the head and then got in his

car and drove to Napa, where he has been living as Jacques Dumas, a winemaker famous for his full-bodied reds. So shy. Did he pray and vote no? Did he try to seduce Paul Ryan? Did he break his word and vote

for the bill, or did he become a vintner? I'm gonna say C. You're right, Jaya. One for one. Guess you'll never know what the song was on the original card. Does anyone know who Robert Palmer is? Let the record state, no one did.

Shai, are you ready for question number two? Yes. Is it S-H-A-I? S-H-Y. Just S-H-Y. You could work at Starbucks with your spelling. Cool. It took me a minute to get that.

That was good. Shia, you want to make an enemy? We're on question number two. You know I love you. I'm wearing your shirt. It's good. Here we go. Nearly 10,000 college students in California's 21st district

recently took advantage of a tax deduction that helps them pay off their student loans. Yet their representative voted to eliminate that tax break and make students pay more for college. Who is their member of Congress? Is it A, Scrooge McDuck? Is it B, Scrooge McDuck? Is it B, Scrooge McDuck's arch nemesis, the villain

Glumgold? Fletchardt Gomgold is his name. Is it C, David Vellato? Or D. Valadio is what I said. I said it the first time. Don't you see the beauty of it?

You can fix it We're gonna go with that Or is it D A humanoid robot with AI That behaves exclusively by the rules of the game Monopoly And so shy was it Scrooge McDuck Scrooge McDuck's villain

Nemesis, Flinthard Gomgold Always desperate to keep up with Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge McDuck's villain nemesis, Flinthard Gomgold, always desperate to keep up with Scrooge? Is it Congressman David Valadao, or is it a humanoid robot based on the game by Parker Brothers Monopoly? I'm really sad there's no all of the above, but it's C, David Valadao. It is David Valadao. Question number three.

According to recent data, 132,656 residents of California's 39th district were able to use the state and local tax deduction so that they can save more of their income that went to things like schools and other government costs. Their Republican congressman, Ed Royce, voted to eliminate that deduction. But what does that help pay for? Is it A, a tax cut so that the billionaire heirs of the Koch, Mercer, and DeVos families can keep billions more in money they did not earn? Is it B, a tax cut to help private jet owners pay less to maintain, store, and staff their private

aircrafts? Is it C, a tax break for foreign investors, who will see more money than all middle-income households in the United States combined? Or is it D, all of the above? D, all of the above! Shy, you are crushing it. Three, four, three. Though we are enemies. So far, you are losing the game.

So it does all come down to this, the final and fourth question. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher represents California's 48th district. Ew! Was that shy? He serves as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee that oversees Russia and is known as, quote, Putin's favorite congressman, end quote. In fact, the FBI warned Rohrabacher in 2012 that Russia actually viewed him as an intelligent source worthy of a Kremlin code name.

Runs the fucking subcommittee. What was that code name? Was it A, our little Sputnik? Was it B, Von Ping Vasili? Was it C, Spion Wilson of the Breach Boys?

Oh my god. Let that one linger, baby boomers Don't say I never did anything for you Would you say he was spying in bed Just like Brian Wilson did? Oh my god, that's like a littler joke Inside a slightly bigger joke Inside a slightly bigger joke

Inside a slightly bigger joke Or D We don't actually know how stupid and or corrupt you do have to be to earn a code name for the intelligence you provide the country you're supposed to be monitoring. D. It is D.

We don't know the code name. But the fact that Dana Rohrabacher does what he does is nothing short of insane. Shy, you've lost. I'm sorry. I'm not a fan. It is, it's both. Look, there's obviously, there's the athletic portion,

but there's the artistic judging. So no parachute gift card, guys. Give her the sheets. Shy wins. The cricket seven Thank you guys so much It's been a great crowd We appreciate it

Have a good night Woo!