Pod Save America - Pod Save America Takes Seattle

Episode Date: May 7, 2017

Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan hold a live show at Seattle’s Showbox SoDo Theater, where they’re joined by Washington Governor Jay Inslee to talk health care, activism, and the future of Democratic Party.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the gentlemen from Pod Save America! What up Globalist I love this Wow Globalist Never gets old How we feeling Seattle Alright I'm Jon Favreau

I'm Jon Lovett I'm a Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm a human bochu. Dan Pfeiffer. All right. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for tweeting pistachio at me all week. I appreciate that.

Guys, we have Governor Jay Inslee in the house. Who we'll be bringing out very soon. So we are very excited about that. Guys, we have Governor Jay Inslee in the house. Who we'll be bringing out very soon. So we are very excited about that. But first, what a week. All right, so let's start with, we're going to start and end with Trumpcare. Boo. Boo. Boo. Are you guys on the fence? Wealthcare.

Boo. Stop trying to make wealthcare happen. Okay. So here's the good news. The bill that passed the House will never become law. Because... It's good.

Because basically they passed it and all the Republican senators, or at least enough Republican senators said, fuck that, no, this is crazy. But the bad news is Republicans in the Senate are going to write their own bill. And the bad news is they feel even more pressure to pass something. So I think where we start,

because we've been talking a lot about how bad the House bill is, but the House bill is basically dead on arrival in the Senate. What do we think the Senate bill could look like? 13 white guys? 13, yes. There are 13 white...

Ted Cruz. Yes. That's good. He's giving Ted Cruz his due. And then there's Ted. Wildcard Ted. What do we think? Dan, why don't you talk about... What I think the bill could look like? Yeah.

Not good? It's very hard. They will, it's very, they, like, so people understand they need 50, they can do this with 50 votes if it can pass. 51 votes, right? 51 votes. 50 plus Mike Pence. 50 plus Pence. 50 plus Pence, yes.

And then there's Pence. Another white guy. And so it has to fit certain rules, right? And then there's Pence. Another white guy. So it has to fit certain rules. So it can only be really about, it can't raise a deficit. It can't really be about policy. It's got to be about, quote, unquote, budget. And so they are very limited in what they can do.

But they will start from scratch. There was a bill that was done by Cassidy Collins, I think it was called. Yeah. Cassidy, the senator from Louisiana. Susan Collins. Susan Collins, senator from Maine, who wrote a bill which was also terrible, but less terrible than other Republican alternatives. And Mitch McConnell responded to that very reasonable response from their part by inviting neither of them to be on the committee. So that's not a good sign. Susan Collins having a one, she didn't pass the test of being a man,

so she couldn't get there. And so it's going to be very interesting because there's not a lot to the right of Obamacare that you can do and still maintain sort of the most popular parts of Obamacare like protections for pre-existing conditions. So it's going to be very interesting what they can do. The one depressing part of this is

you should never underestimate Mitch McConnell. People in the House are a collection of clowns, but Mitch McConnell is... He's a smart clown. He's an evil genius. Very loud on the evil, but he's smart, and so that's worrisome. Yeah, I think the truth is there's a great

deal of uncertainty. We don't know what they'll consider reconciliation proof, right? So reconciliation is a budget process. It's about adjusting taxes and spending and that's their limitation, but there's a lot you can do on the regulatory front there because you can leave a

regulation in place but make the penalty zero dollars and all of a sudden the regulation has gone away. It's also not clear what they'll force through that process. You know, you've already seen people at the Heritage Foundation and others writing that the health care process shouldn't be beholden to the whims of the parliamentarian, which is a pretty glib way to refer to the rules of the Senate. Also, we now live in a world where there's no judicial filibuster. There's no rule that says these people can't get rid of the main filibuster. They said they don't want to do that. There aren't right now 51 votes in the Senate to get rid of the main filibuster, but things change very quickly,

and obviously precedents are made to be broken, ask Judge of the Supreme Court Merrick Garland. So... Womp womp. I mean... It's dark. It seems as if the... So the House bill cuts $880 billion from Medicaid.

It has the whole pre-existing condition, essential benefit loophole where states can eliminate those things. It seems as if Republicans in the Senate have already said they don't want those things. There is a group of Republicans in the Senate specifically who said they don't want

huge Medicaid cuts. Specifically Dean Heller and Jeff Flake. Dean Heller sounds like the bad guy in a 70s fraternity movie. Yeah. But they're in from states where they expanded Medicaid and they are up for re-election in 2018. So that could be some sort of moderating influence on their ability to gash that program.

Yeah. I mean, I guess what I'm getting at is I think that the bill that comes out of the Senate takes away the worst of what you saw in the House. But at some point, they still have to like, it's basically going to be Obamacare. But with they're going to cut Medicaid by some amount, they're going to turn the subsidies into tax credits and make them less generous. And I don't know, it just it's going to still be a pretty shitty bill. But the question is, to pass the Senate, you need

Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee and all these people on the right who are basically like the House Freedom Caucus to agree with it. And you're going to need people like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski who have already said they won't sign on to a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood to sign on to it, to get the 51 votes. So that's the challenge in the Senate. And looming over this whole process in the Senate is what we just watched take place in the House. Paul Ryan releases this first version of the

Republican health care bill, and it's a terrible bill. The subsidies are less generous. It's basically just a giant tax cut and benefit cut described as a health care bill. But it took the shape of Obamacare, right? It undid a lot of protections, but it had that part in place. It reduced all the subsidies, had that part in place, cut all the taxes. And also made cuts to Medicaid, but it retained the shape of Obamacare. And what did we learn? It wasn't conservative enough. This terrible, terrible kind of Wario version of Obamacare couldn't pass. So what did they have to do? They had to go

into it and add a bunch of waivers for states so that Freedom Caucus members could say, my state will be far crueler than you would think. And then they got a bunch of cowardly, craven moderates. I know, I'm so sick of

calling them moderates. You know, Daryl Ice is not a moderate. Alright, for those listening at home, the lights dimmed and went back up and the audience panicked. Guys, from this moment on, we're going to move through everything like that.

You guys can just roll with it and we'll roll with it. Trump is president. Things are going to happen. I don't even know what we're talking about. Once again, on the fence. On the fence. But anyway, we learned what could get through the House.

Now, things change, right? There's going to be a Senate bill. It will not be as conservative as what passed through the House. We don't know what will happen in conference, if there is a conference. We also saw how quickly people like Daryl Issa and other Republicans from swing districts folded under the pressure of Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. And the pressure would only mount if we're not talking about just passing a House bill, but passing something that Donald Trump would sign into law.

So there's just a ton of uncertainty about what comes next. Yeah. Yeah, I'll applaud for uncertainty. Maybe. Uncertainty. So... Let's get to the politics of all this. Okay, thank God.

Thank God, right? The fucking Senate parliamentarians up here. Let's solicit out for a second. Who wins and who loses, right? The fucking Senate parliamentarians up here. Let's solicit out for a second. Who wins and who loses, John? We've trained them well. So the only thing that most of these House Republicans knew about the bill they were voting for was that most Americans hated it. So the question is, why did they do this? Why did they vote for this bill? I'm guessing some just wanted to be cruel and believed in it,

but a lot of them hadn't read the bill. They don't know what's in it. What were the forces that were pushing them to do this? Well, look, John, a lot of people, they dedicate their life to public service. They run for Congress. Once in a lifetime, you have the opportunity to take health care from cancer victims. When is that going to come along again? I mean, we know from some of the stories that were written that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, didn't actually know what was in the bill, didn't actually care what was in the bill, was calling members of Congress, swearing at them for whatever. He just wanted to win. So we know why he pushed this thing forward. I don't think that most members of the House

give a shit about his political fortune at the end of the day. They're all self-interested. So to answer your question, I guess maybe because they all promised at some point along the way that they would repeal Obamacare. So they felt like they had to go through with something. But, I mean, there are a staggering number of members of Congress.

24 House Republicans who voted for this bill came from districts where Trump got less than 50%, and 14 of those districts Hillary Clinton won. I mean, all of us should not be prognosticating because we suck at it, as we learned before the election. But I've never apologized, and I will not. But, you know, that's not a place I would want to be politically. Yeah, well, so that's interesting, though.

I think these people are political animals, and they made a calculus. And I think part of it has to be that they're looking at a situation where we're coming after them for the fact that this thing passed, whether they voted for it or not, right? Like, look, we saw the list of people you're right, there's about 14 voted yes, I think it's 9 that voted

no in the districts that Hillary Clinton won and it's not like we're going to say you know what, you guys that voted no, we're not coming for you, we're coming for them During the Obamacare vote, a lot of we're coming for every fucking one of them But the ads are going to look a lot better if you voted for it But I think this is a lot of... We're coming for every fucking one of them. But the ads are going to look a lot better if you voted for it.

But I think this is the sort of situation where they're looking at, we are going to be punished by an active and energetic left, and this is a moment where they could maybe do something for their base, who they do know wants some action. Well, but that's my question.

I'm coming up with a theory. Because they have been... They were clearly convinced by Paul Ryan and the White House, these House members, that if we fail twice to pass this thing, the base will revolt or the base will be depressed and they won't come out to vote. I sort of heard that and I was like,

I don't think these people fucking know who their base is anymore. Well, if they knew who their base is, they would have been able to stop Donaldald trump from being president of the united states right right and it's like i don't think that the base is out there being like get rid of my health care i don't want it like i look i mean what these people even in the swing districts are as scared or more scared of getting primaried from the right primary yeah so this will look very different if it was later next year after the filing deadline in all these states.

They're worried that Breitbart is going to come after them, that there will be someone in a low turnout primary, even in a swing district that Hillary won. That is a very far right base. The other thing is we should not assume these people gave this a lot of thought. None of them read the bill. Like Chris Collins. That was great. is we should not assume these people gave this a lot of thought. None of them read the bill.

Like Chris Collins. That was great. Who, congressman from New York, who was Trump's first congressional endorser, which is all you need to know. And he was informed by a reporter that the bill he just voted for cutted health care for people in his district. And so they didn't know what's in the bill.

He was surprised. What? My district? He asked a reporter to explain it to him, which is never how you should handle that situation. Because, by the way, I don't trust a reporter to explain anything to me. Was he the one who said he was asked how he was going to vote on the bill, and he said, I don't know, I haven't read it, I was at baseball practice because he was preparing for the congressional softball game?

I think that was someone else. That actually happened. There's a person that stupid who was paid to vote for you. Also, they get all of their news, and all of their staff get all of their news from Fox and Breitbart. They live in a world where this bill is popular. Trump is popular.

It protects pre-existing conditions, and they don't know any better because they didn't read the bill. So it's like we can't even walk a mile in their shoes, nor would we want to. Sorry, no, just look, even if these guys are savvy enough, whether or not they're taking what Fox News and the right media says about this bill at face value, they know that that's what their people are seeing,

that they know that's where the conversation that they have to be a part of is being had. And that creates an incredibly dangerous dynamic for these people. End of thought. Well, and the other thing that they were told is a lot of these members talked to their senators from

their state. And they were told that this would be fixed in the Senate. So a lot of them voted for it and said, I hate this bill, but, you know, a couple of the swing districts from Florida, they said they talked to Marco Rubio. How did they find him? Marco Rubio said it would all be okay.

So they knocked three times on the door of the fucking shelter, and then Marco Rubio from inside, it swings the thing and swings the thing, and the door slowly opens, and Marco Rubio with a beard is eating out of

a cold can of beans. And he's like, what year is it out there? Is Trump still president? He is? I'll fix the bill. Shuts the door. Closes it.

That Marco Rubio. Just teed up that Marco Rubio thing. Marco Rubio in a shelter. I think you guys are going to hear that again. That's a new one. That's fun. Also, do you know who does not care

if the Senate fixes the bill? Who? The people making the ads that we run against them. Right, yeah, that was not a smart play. It's also, you're not, you know, you don't get to say, hi, I did a very bad thing at work today, but I'm very confident That my colleagues will fix it

Can I Can I keep my job please And the other thing they said was Well, none of the states out there None of the governors are actually going to Apply for this waiver on pre-existing Conditions or essential benefits And then of course today, our good friend

Scott Walker from Wisconsin was like, oh yeah, I'll take that That's great, yeah, absolutely Are people going to be hurt? I'm in Scott Walker, today, our good friend Scott Walker from Wisconsin was like, oh yeah, I'll take that. That's great. Yeah, absolutely. Are people going to be hurt? I'm in. I'm in. Scott Walker, man. Remember that guy? Yeah. He lost first to Donald Trump. He lost first. He's that stupid. He went down first. The first loser to Donald Trump.

I'm going to stop Donald Trump. I've lost. You could say he's the first loser to Donald Trump or the only guy Jeb Bush beat. Please clap. Please clap. Please clap. That's for Tim Miller. Tim Miller. So anyway,

the big reason they needed to pass this is... Beer. Thank you. Which one? Oh, this is mine? Oh, I have a different beer. I made a special request. I said, can you bring me a Seattle local beer

that's as close to Miller Lite as possible? Thank you. For the podcast listeners at home, a round of beers came on the stage. What? Don't shout specific things. Elysian beer. Love you back.

So this is a great segue because I was just about to talk about how inappropriate it was that they celebrated at the White House with beer. Right. But here we are. So the reason they were forced into this is they knew that Donald Trump needed a win. Donald Trump needed a win and Paul Ryan needed a win. Because Paul Ryan seemed like he was about to lose his job, perhaps. And our good friend Reince Priebus was about to lose his job. So sad.

By the way, I have a feeling Paul Ryan's going to lose his fucking job. I'm going to take that gavel from his craving little fingers. If we can't get Paul Ryan out of that speakership in 2018, I don't know what's wrong. We have to. I don't even want to finish that sentence. We have to...

We're gonna... What a wonk. What a wonk. What a wonk. I'm gonna get that gavel out of his fucking hand It's Nancy Pelosi's gavel Or someone else's Since when did you become cheap applause line guy?

It's Nancy Pelosi's gavel Shiver if you had the chance First of all How dare you I have been a fan of Nancy Pelosi Since she passed a climate bill we couldn't get through the Senate. So don't come at me, John. Not in a crowd. You can do this when we're in the studio.

You can bully me all you want. But I'm here with the people. Literally, I'm moving the chair off stage, I'm moving the chair off stage. I'm moving the chair off stage. You're a fucking monster. Anyway, were we talking about politics? I don't know. Healthcare.

Healthcare. So they go to the White House. So they're pounding beers at the White House. They pound beers at the White House. They have this big fucking celebration. I mean, we've been to the White House. So they're pounding beers at the White House. They pound beers at the White House. They have this big fucking celebration. I mean, we've been in the White House a long time. Did we ever have a big celebration at the White House when a piece of legislation passed one house of Congress?

No, this is the most ridiculous thing. It is so pathological and embarrassing that the press corps is like, oh, we're going to cover this thing? Well, I was going to say, we all think this is crazy. And yet, let's talk about the media reaction Of what happened No

We're going to do it A big win for Donald Trump Plastered across CNN It is a win for Donald Trump But it isn't a Rose Garden stand behind him Taking pictures win It's a I don't know a sports metaphor.

It's first down. This is the champagne celebration after like the ALCS victory. It's ridiculous. It's a mission accomplished banner on an aircraft carrier celebration. I went no sports for you. That's what we hope.

When they pass the whole thing and he signs the bill, that's not going to seem as good, but for now, yes, that's what it's going to be. So the media coverage was just like, I haven't watched cable in a while. And then I watched it to watch the vote. And then suddenly it was like, big win for Donald Trump. And then everyone started yelling about the three Democrats on the House floor who were singing na-na-na, hey-hey, goodbye, which was stupid. And by the way, you know what? Who cares?

They just passed a bill to take health care away from 24 million people, and all of a sudden everybody on CNN is in fucking Downton Abbey. Like, give me a goddamn break. Oh, the decorum, how inappropriate. That'll offend the Dowager Countess. Fuck you! They're human beings, and they are Democrats

who are deeply upset about the fact that these people just voted for this awful fucking bill. And if they're going to take a moment to look at their gloating Republican colleagues and say, you think you're winning now, we're going to show you. And they got a little overzealous, and we're a little tacky.

Straight shooter. It's a tacky thing. Fine. But to act like that belongs to part of this conversation, which is about the entire healthcare system, which is one-sixth of the economy. Give me a fucking break. Waiting for your applause.

So I don't care about the tacky part. Like they could have, you know, given them noogies and like wedgie them off the floor. Fine. I don't care. They're terrible people. But you know, the part that annoys me is like all the,

all the immediate punditry from the Democrats who are like, you're all going to lose your seats. This was you can staring death in the eye. Guys, that's that's not how you win voters. Talk about what they just did to the people they represent. Talk about the implications of the bill in terms of the health care. Because, like for me, for me personally, I was sitting there watching these jackasses chant and go to the White House. And I got a text from my stepmom who's had cancer twice and said, what does this mean for me? Is my coverage going to go up? Literally terrified because of the uncertainty that this vote created. And I explained to her the stupid committee process and it's got to go to the Senate and back.

and it's got to go to the Senate and back. But those are the stories and focusing on those people and those impacts are what's going to actually create the political consequences we want to have happen from this horrible vote. So that's what annoyed and offended me about that stupidity. Yeah.

Love it. Someone's coming for your title. I think I got more applause. It's fine. I think Tommy was a straight shooter. He talked about the real stakes and, you know, Love It likes the tactics and the silly stuff. You know what?

I'm just going to let that pitch go right by me. This is Pod Save America. Stick around. There's more great show coming your way. A couple stories today that did the Democrats fail? Did the resistance fail? Did we celebrate too early after the first time we stopped Trumpcare and think it wasn't going to happen and then not see this coming?

And, like, everyone was mobilized a little bit too late. And I'm trying to figure out what, instead of just saying yes or no to that, like reverse engineer this whole thing, what could have been done and when? Turnout in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan. One idea. There you go. The truth hurts. The House is designed for this outcome.

The House is designed for them to be able to quickly engineer the worst possible vote and jam it through with the fewest votes possible. Right, you don't have the Senate procedural tricks to slow everything down in the House. Although, I was saying, what did I say on Monday's pod? They were voting to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats had all the leverage because they could not pass the bill without Democratic votes. votes. I'm not sure why they went ahead and voted without saying,

we will not vote on this shutdown bill unless you at least wait for a fucking CBO score for this bill, or else we're not going to do that. But yes, you know, look. I still haven't, I haven't got any answers on this. I've been asking everyone. I think you're right. I think that certainly would have been one way to go.

The other thing is, I think we were caught flat-footed. We thought it was dead, and it was dead. And I think we were not prepared for just how quickly they'd be willing to do this, and that they'd be willing to do it without waiting for a CBO score. I mean, look, they did, they released this thing. You know, first of all, also,

we're also victims of Donald Trump in that Donald Trump said, it's not dead, I haven't given up, and we just assumed he was lying yet again, and maybe in that moment he was, but we didn't take him at his word in part because he lies so often. And it did. And then all of a sudden this thing comes back to life and there's no

hearings. There's no CBO score. There's one hour of debate that is unprecedented. You know, seven years ago, Paul Ryan demanded that Nancy Pelosi wait for a CBO score. And we did. Paul Ryan himself has said,

you should wait for CBO score. There needs to be three days of debate. Justin Amash, supposedly principled member of the House, is a person who said he'll read the bill and make sure it goes through the proper debate channel. Then all of a sudden, of course, tough vote. I don't know what to do. So I think we were caught off guard by just how willing they'd be

to race this thing through before a score. I think the question is, what do we do now? And so, there are a couple things. One, there's a to race this thing through before a score. I think the question is, what do we do now? Yes. Right? Right. And so there are a couple things. One, there's a handful of senators.

You mentioned two, right, Heller and Flake, who were up in 2018. Dean Heller, Nevada. Jeff Flake, Arizona. They're up in 2018. We're all on the West Coast. Everyone go camp out in Arizona and Nevada. And whoever their challengers are, let's get behind them. Cheap real estate, buy a second house.

Six months, one day. So that's one. Two, they're home for a recess right now. This is very big. And they need to feel, like someone tweeted, the House Republicans just killed John Wick's dog. So that's what this has to feel like.

I fucking hate that movie because of that scene. I can't do it. Spoilers. I have not seen it yet because everyone says, oh, you go to see John Wick. It's better than it looks. I don't know.

It's not a spoiler. It's the first scene. It's fine. Also, we have two elections coming up in Georgia and in Montana. Yes. If people want to send a signal about how this has energized the Democratic base, it is to win those elections.

That's exactly right. Because Dave Brat beat Eric Cantor, and everyone decided, and the right-wing media decided it was about immigration, when the people who worked on that race will tell you it had nothing to do with immigration. Right. It was all local issues. They all thought Cantor was kind of a smug idiot who did the bailout and he was never around, but they scared the hell out of the rest of Congress.

Eric Cantor smug? I don't know. One other big thing to do, Dan mentioned all these members are now going to be home for recess. Look, I think we put this Women's March together, the Climate March, the Science March. Like, the level of energy that we need and resistance in the next week

to show these House members how upset we are for what they did, like, this has to be the big moment of the resistance, I think, so far. And I know it's been, like, a lot of months, but, like, we can't get tired. And I know it's been a lot of months, but we can't get tired. And I also think, Tommy mentioned this, but 14 of the 23 Republicans that voted yes are in Clinton districts, districts that Hillary won, but there's a Republican sitting in them. 25 of the

35 Republicans that voted yes are in competitive races. What we've been helping with, with an organization called Swing Left over the last couple days, is to, they are raising money that goes into a pot for the eventual democratic challenger so there's obviously a lot of going to be a lot of democratic primary democratic primaries going on but for the eventual winner when they finish that primary thanks to swing left and all of us they're going to have a big pot of money with which to go uh compete against that republican and so um

as of like right before we started this, Swing Left has already raised $1 million in the last 24, 48 hours. So we would encourage all of you guys and everyone listening to go to swingleft.org slash crooked. It's just like we're reading an ad, guys. Use the crooked code. A better way to donate. It's like like we're reading an ad, guys. Use the cricket code. A better way to donate.

It's like a vanity license plate. And help out. And I think that's it. We've got to get more money to these blue apron people. We are plugging them left and right. Look, you just did it now. Now it's a whole thing. Take it back.

Okay. We are very excited now to bring out your governor. He's going to talk to us a little bit. Jay Inslee. Governor, how are you? Well, I'm happy. I've got four good guys. By the way, would you guys clap if you think I should declare them honorary Washingtonians?

I love that. We traded up on our Washingtons. Yeah. If you want to know why they're so good, they're drinking Elysian beer from the state of Washington. That's why they're so good. That's why we're doing well. I like it.

Perfect. Governor, thank you for joining us. So I just want to start by talking about health care. You were in Congress when the Affordable Care Act was passed during that debate. How does that process and everything that went on there compare with what you just saw? Because I know we've been talking about how crazy it is and everything,

but you were there, you were on the floor, you saw the whole thing happen. How outside the mainstream is what you just saw happen in the House? I want to be subtle when I suggest this, but I think it's the difference between brain surgery and a spasmodic automobile accident by people who've been drinking heavily. Nice.

I like that. Yeah, and this... I was listening to your repartee before I came out here. Thank you for calling it repartee. Thank you. This is really painful. I mean, you know, we're yucking it up.

We got beer here tonight. But this is really painful. I mean, a woman called my office today and just was crying uncontrollably because she had cancer, and she legitimately wondered what was going to happen to her. And those are legitimate fears.

They are real. And the moral outrage that I feel, and I think most Americans feel, of the clear trade that the Republicans wanted to make, and it was a clear trade. Let's be clear. This is not about health care. The Republicans are not interested in extending insurance. Why

were they so angry about Obamacare? Because it gave people health insurance. They hated it. This is not an effort to increase health care. It is an effort to finance tax cuts for the rich. That's what it is. We got to be clear about this. So once you understand that fundamental fact about their efforts you a feel a sense of moral outreach and b you understand why they're going to be incapable of fashioning something helpful here because they're like a cowboy high centered on a barbed wire fence they hate health insurance for everybody they believe it's not morally acceptable or necessary, but they realize they can't tell Americans that. So this whole thing is

just as credible as Trump University. And this is not going to work, okay? Yeah. So I asked Twitter for questions for you before we came here. Always a good idea. Always a good idea. But honestly... Thanks. Yeah, right? Please drop Pepe on the floor.

No, the question I got most frequently was, what can you do, what can governors do to protect their citizens and protect their citizens' health care should, you know, the House bill doesn't look like it's going to pass, but some version of the House bill, the Senate bill pass.

What power do governors have to protect their citizens? The best thing for governors today is not to answer that question, to not give them an excuse. Oh, that's good. To not give them an excuse for dumping this 24 million people off insurance and just tell them, oh, the governors will take care of people. We should never give them license to do that.

We should hold their feet to the fire. We should hold their feet to the fire. Because states do not have the capability of doing this. Look we and the other thing that's so galling about this we have had such supreme success in this from Washington State because we've been innovative. We have 750,000 people now have insurance. We have reduced the rate of medical inflation from 16 to 6 percent because we're integrating mental and physical health, because we're doing value-based purchasing, because we have coaches to help you after your post-surgery. We're doing smart things.

And we've had 50,000 people now have jobs because of this. So this is working well in the state of Washington, and allow them to destroy it is not acceptable. Now, I want to come back because I want to make sure I got to this tonight during our discussion. I was listening to you about sort of what we do electorally and I want to broaden the discussion. There's some obvious things that all of us need to do, which is to pepper our members of Congress

with our moral outrage in every way that is appropriate. That's obvious. We've got to work to elect senators that are obvious in members of Congress. These are the things that are obvious. But here's what the Democratic team has to understand. We have to start playing the long game. And while we'll accept a 30-seat majority structurally in the House because of gerrymandering, we are never gonna be able to move a progressive agenda.

So we have to start playing the long game, and here's the long game. Stop gerrymandering, start giving people adequate representation in districts, and here's what's necessary. In order to do that, the key to stop gerrymandering is to elect Democratic governors as soon as we can. Okay, that's the key to stop gerrymandering is to elect Democratic governors as soon as we can. Okay that's the key. So the point I want to make here is that I really think

the Democratic team has to restructure its prioritization. We've got to fight for Democratic governors. I'm gonna be chair of the Democratic Governors Association here next year. We have a group called Unrig the Map which is going to elect Democratic governors in the places where we can stop gerrymandering and pick up congressional seats. Then one more thing I want to say this. We got to win these local elections, okay? We got to start right at the bottom, school board, state legislature. I'm going to posit the three most important elections in the United States this fall are the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, where we have an excellent chance to win both races. And the third is the 45th legislative district in the state Senate in the state of Washington.

Okay. And I'm serious about this. I'm serious about this. We've got a great candidate, Manka Dirga, electmonca.com, electmonca.com. Because when we start winning these races, it's a signal nationally, and it's going to tip, this one seat tips the entire ballot measure in legislature. And you know what I can do if we get a majority? We'll start moving our climate change legislation right here in the state of Washington. So we're going to win these seats.

legislation right here in the state of Washington. So we're going to win these seats. So I think talking about our deficit at the governor level is important. So we've obviously lost the Senate. We've lost the House. We've lost the White House. We have very few governorships and we're fighting our way back. What do you think is the is there something that ties this together? Is there something we're failing to doing at a message level, at a political level that you see the Democrats need to change? Like what, if you know, you're, you're in charge of the message, you're in charge of how we go about campaigning for these governorships. What do you do? I may take a moment for this, if you'll allow me, because it's a pretty important question. Number one, I think the first thing is what we should not do. And what we should not do is abandon our basic fundamental values of tolerance and acceptance of who you are and who you love.

Acceptance for protection of women's rights, gun safety. I lost my seat. I lost my seat in 1994. You guys remember that, voting for the assault weapon bill. But I'm never going to back up on that because it was the right thing to do, right? So we should never back up on those core values. But here, I would posit five things if I can run through them quickly. Number one, we got to stress we're the can-do party. We are the optimistic party. And that means, yes, we can defeat climate change. Yes, we can build a clean energy economy. It's built on the attitude that we can actually get this done.

I think that sort of underlies everything we want to do. Second, I think we understand the massive economic inequity that is creating the anxiety that hurt us in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. That anxiety is fueled by the most massive increase of economic activity and perhaps human civilization because of the forces of globalization and new

technology. But we got to embed a fight against inequity, not just in the minimum wage, which we are going to do, and we've raised it here, not just in increasing collective bargaining rights, which is obviously what we need to do, but we need to think about ending inequity in everything. Take education. So we got a lot of

blue-collar people doing work, and yet we've been telling people, if you don't get a four-year degree, you're a failure. That needs to stop. We need to provide people skill training. And we just came, I just came from, we just came from the United States' first apprenticeship program in high technology. Just came from it. We have 600 people. It's the very first high tech computer apprenticeships program. We had the first 12 members of our advanced manufacturing apprenticeship in high school. Switzerland has 60% of their people have career ready when they graduate from high school.

We don't have that kind of aspiration. Number three, I think that we need to, as a party, develop a reality that we are going to be ahead of the curve in changes in technology. We've got to understand there's massive changes because of technology. Artificial intelligence, what's our job picture going to look like when there's no more jobs driving vehicles in the United States? And this is coming, okay? So we need to adopt a suite of policies

that will get ahead of the curve and being seen as the party who understands what is coming. So that means a whole suite of things. It means portable benefits because we're all going to work for 12 different companies. We're going to be contractors. It means family leave. It means being able to enter the educational system at age 50 and have a very easy way to do that. Fourth, I would suggest we've got to be the party of having a chance to have a planet Earth that's habitable and own that and absolutely own that big time.

And here is one thing where I do believe we have missed the bet. I ran as governor. I think I was probably the first governor who ran in 2012 as a main plank that we were going to build a clean energy economy in the state of Washington We were going to defeat climate change We were going to defeat ocean acidification and we're gonna build a clean energy economy That was radical that was sort of different at the time. I got elected. I was very much a dark horse I was behind by 16 points when we started we're missing a bet to understand

This is a good argument in every single district in America. I believe that because people understand the power of new jobs with new technology and they know this world has to change in this direction. So embedding that as a fundamental thing in every single race we have, it is a sure winner and by the way it is a necessary imperative. Defeat is not an option here because without victory as Churchill said there is no survival And if we don't win this thing, if we don't defeat climate change, nobody's going to be happy 50 years from now. So there's four ideas, and then the fifth is play a long game, and then you have a good Elysian beer and everything will be okay. Good answer.

Governor, you spoke out early in opposition to efforts to block Syrian refugees from coming to the United States. So I wanted to say, one, thank you for doing that. I wondered if you might talk a little bit about why you made that choice to speak out so early before, you know, before Trump came along and made it a particularly frightening scenario. But also, I wonder if you have thoughts on why, as a culture, we managed to screw this up over and over and over again. We understand that immigrants are what make our country great. But, you know, we've seen Japanese internment, we've seen efforts to prevent Vietnamese people from coming here. How do we fix the fundamental problem that gets us to this place every time we're demagoguing someone else? Well, I guess I would offer three reasons why I was involved early. And by the way, I did this before we heard of Donald Trump

when the Syrian refugee issue came up. I would say three things. Number one, I am surrounded by people who were born in other countries who have built the most innovative, creative, dynamic, number one economy that has 58 construction cranes within 10 miles of here. And 20, probably 20% at least of the computer scientists and the aerospace engineers and the biotech researchers were born in a different country. They have built one of the most magnificent economies and cultures ever. Washington really is a magic place in that regard. So I've witnessed that.

Don't forget Tacoma and Yakima and Spokane either, okay? So... A lot of easy applause from this Seattle crowd. It's fine. I respect easy applause. It's a very tolerant area. I've told you that. So... No, but I mean, I've seen it. I've lived it.

So if you want to build a successful economy, you do just what we have done, which is welcome brilliant people from around the world. That's number one. Number two, I've had a little taste of this and seen what fear does. I live on Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge Island is where in 1942 the U.S. Army rounded up citizens of Japanese ancestry and marched them down to a ferry boat and sent them to camps for the duration of the war.

By the way, that was a Democratic president who did that. Fear is a very powerful thing. And we actually established a national park there at that site. I encourage you to come visit next time you're in town. It's a beautiful place. So I've seen firsthand the power of fear. The third thing is, forgive me for getting a little maudlin about here, but this really is a great country already

and has been for over 200 years. And it is because of that fundamental willingness to allow people to build themselves and accept a number of refugees and accept people who have a dream for their future destiny of their family. This is a unique thing in world history. No other country has ever been non-national. No other country has built a nation out of a polyglot group who came here for a purpose. So I consider this a very special thing. And the other thing is, look, I'll just tell you, you mess with my people,

I'm going to be in your face. So that's the other thing that I want to say. So I want to push on that for one second, because I appreciate sort of an optimistic vision for what we need to do for the economy, and I agree with everything you're saying about what we should be doing on immigration, but if Donald Trump is president for one reason, it's because he said America's not great, and it can't be great

again, and that there are people who are angry and afraid, and who look around and see a culture and a society that's not working, and it can be great again, and that there are people who are angry and afraid and who look around and see a culture and a society that's not working for them, doesn't make sense. They don't see solutions that are helping them. What do you say to those people? What is your answer for them? My answer is part to answer the second part of your question,

which I didn't get to, like what do we do about this, that in fact there is a pushback in times of change. Anytime you have economic stress in American history, there will be a backlash against immigration. It is a clear, linear equation. And we have now, and this is the

great irony, and we experience here in Washington State, we have one of the most robust economic revivals in part because of the work your team did. And by the way, thank you for saving us from the second Great Depression. We appreciate what you guys did. You're welcome.

That was me and Barack Obama. But here's the caveat. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that ever again. I didn't hear what you said, so you get a pass. He took all the credit for it. So we have this most robust economic growth, you know, of all time.

We got 58 crimes here in Seattle and increasing homelessness. Now figure that one out. We got this tremendous economic engine of growth and yet massive anxiety of those who may not be at the top of the tech pyramid. That's going to create backlash against somebody, and it's a convenient target, if you will, in immigrants. That's number one. And you got to recognize that's a reality. In American history, this is actually not unique. We just got to keep the ball rolling forward. It's not, I think we've, we always think American history was just P actually not unique. We just got to keep the ball rolling forward.

It's not, I think we always think American history was just Pollyannish and happiness, but the Know Nothing Party certainly had power in this country for a while, but we surmounted it. We interned Japanese Americans in 1942, but we learned a lesson for it. And then the governor from the place that happened stood up against Donald Trump and beat him in court on his effort to prevent these refugees from coming. So we should not be, I guess the answer I would give you is we should not be daunted. We should understand fear is human. It's understandable.

We shouldn't even maybe even be critical of it, but we got to keep our eyes on the prize. We shouldn't even maybe even be critical of it, but we've got to keep our eyes on the prize. Governor, I think as we look back on the 2016 election, where do you – this was perhaps the most winnable election in recent memory for a party, and we lost. Where do you think the Democratic Party went wrong? Next question. Feel free to drink more of your beer before you answer. You know, I really... I don't like to drive in the rearview mirror, so I really, you know...

We do. Yeah, you guys do. You guys get paid for it. We're trying. You know, I don't think I have any magic views that are any different than a thousand pundits and a thousand citizens on this. Obviously we lost in places where we had a shot that was very close

in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. Why did that happen? We recognized there were maybe some strategic decisions that were not perfect in retrospect, but I'll tell you when you got really close elections, anything if you lose, any decision you made looks pretty bad in retrospect, right? And number two, look, in close races or close games, the ball, whoever gets the last bounce wins. And this ball bounced right at the end against us. Now, I do think, as I've said before, we have to do a better job responding to the anxiety that exists because of the massive inequity that exists in our country

for a variety of reasons, including ridiculously rich CEO pay that is not related to production, including still lack of protection of consumers and investors on Wall Street, including some aspects of the technological change, including the fact that we don't have an educational system that really give people career and technical education like they need

because we have a lack of apprenticeships. So we need to respond to that anxiety. And I think to some degree, maybe because we're optimists, that anxiety and I think to some degree, maybe because we're optimists, maybe we haven't sort of internalized that anxiety as much as we have because we think of this great success. I look at here and we got a company that's curing cancer,

literally here in Seattle. We got a company that has made the largest vanadium flow battery in the world that allows the integration of renewable energy into the grid. We have a company that's the largest manufacturer of carbon fiber in the world that goes into electric cars. I just bought 100 GM bolts now for electric cars for the state. We're doing all these fantastic things.

But you got people being displaced by robotics and technologically, and that rate of that is going to accelerate. We have to respond to that anxiety, and we got to do a lot of thinking and acting to do that. We started it with this apprenticeship program that I've talked about. We started it by easing the cost of education. My state was the only state last year that cut the tuition rate for college students. I'm trying to increase our need grant by 14,000 people here. I'm trying to make sure that everybody's kid has access to early child education. So the whole suite of those things have to be designed to respond to this increase in anxiety. And designed to respond to this increase in anxiety.

And as I have said, I do not believe that anxiety is going to go away naturally. I think the pace of change that is happening in our economy due to brilliant people designing incredible technology that does make us healthier and richer, we've got to find a way to respond to that. Well, so let me ask you. You're a very progressive governor in a progressive state, but the legislature is fairly divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. It's very close. Obviously, you have more conservative areas of Washington state, you know, eastern

Washington, more rural, more conservative. What do you say when you go to those places, when you talk to people who didn't vote for you, who don't support you? How have you found governing in a state where you have a fairly healthy Republican opposition and not everyone voted for you, you have more conservative places? How do you bridge that divide,

and what do you think we can all learn from that? Well, first I track them down who didn't vote for me. I just track them down. didn't vote for me. That's smart. That's a good first step, I think. I don't talk to people differently in that regard. I think they have the same aspirations and the same hopes and dreams. I mean, I really don't. I have some experience in this.

I won three out of four elections in the reddest legislative district and one of the reddest congressional districts in America. I lost the fourth when I voted for the assault weapon ban. And as I expressed, that was the right vote. I've never regretted it for a day. So I have some feeling for areas like this. I raised my three feral sons in the sagebrush. Yeah, come on. So I have a feeling about this.

And so I have a feeling about this. But I do think you want to tailor your economic message to the things that can help. So right now, we passed the largest transportation infrastructure bill. If Congress wants to know how to do this, come see me. Because in a divided legislature, we passed the largest infrastructure funding bill in the history of the state of Washington, and also the greenest, because it has the highest percentage of multimodal and low-carbon technologies associated with it.

So we... But we have targeted our strategic investment fund to help small business growth. Look, there's a three-person brewery over in eastern Washington that to me is as important as Microsoft. And we've got a thing called Economic Gardening that provides mentorship for small businesses, most of them that are in rural areas, to help these small business people, literally moms and pops,

who are starting these businesses. And our strategic reserve fund has helped, there's a company over there that found a new way to make egg cartons in Wenatchee, Washington. They've now got 30 or 40 employees. To me, I'm as pleased about that as I am if we land another Microsoft office. So, you care about that. We got infrastructure needs. Now, there are some things, nuts we haven't cracked. Areas in rural America desperately need broadband. If you're going to expand, you've got to have access to broadband. And we're working on that right now

to find a way to have additional financing systems to get broadband into all of these areas. But again, there's a technological solution. There is a technology coming on with Elon Musk that's going to put, I don't know, hundreds of satellites in orbit with direct broadband access right to your home at the top of your mountain. I don't know. I don't trust it.

Kind of an evil genius vibe I'm getting off this Elon Musk guy. There's robots, there's Hyperloops, there's cars that drive themselves. I don't know. Just somebody to keep an eye on. Our resident Luddite over here. I don't know. I'm fine with robots, but we start giving them thumbs. Thumbs are our thing.

I can guarantee you... I can guarantee you I can guarantee you artificial intelligence will never replace pod for America it is just impossible never going to happen famous last words it would be an oxymoron

don't go anywhere this is pod save America and there's more on the way This is Pod Save America, and there's more on the way. Roll through as many as we can. I have a question about first principles. I feel like we do a lot of debating about policy, especially healthcare recently, or not so much debating. I guess we kind of just voted on that.

And so I know as a healthcare consultant that there are two facts about American healthcare. We're the only industrialization where people go bankrupt from medical bills care. We're the only industrialization where people go bankrupt from medical bills, and we're the only industrialization where people die from treatable, preventable disease, like lupus, for example, if you watch House. And the question is, why haven't people stood up in Congress, whether it's in state legislature or our federal legislature and said are we okay with that as opposed to the policy question like taking a step back first and saying just are we okay with that being the

reality because I feel like it's pretty hard to say yeah like we're okay with that I feel like people would say no and then you work towards making it not okay but instead we're debating the actual policy of feel like people would say no, and then you work towards making it not okay, but instead we're debating the actual policy of how should we pay for it, and what should be pre-existing and not, etc. So how do we have a first principles debate, as opposed to jumping to the policy debate? Well, I would say we have had and are having that debate, and it's clear what the sides are. For the last seven years, the Republican Party has said, yes, it is okay and acceptable to us to have 20 or 30 million people without access to health care. And they said that's okay with them. They have argued about repealing Obamacare for the last seven years.

Now they have a bill that will kick off over 20 million people off of health care. Now that's just clear. Hundreds of thousands of people in my state, like the woman in Spokane who was a small business person, she said she could never get health insurance. She finally got on health care. She found a lump. She got it checked. Now she's a cancer survivor. But she literally said, look, we were a struggling business. I wouldn't even have that care. I think we're having that debate. I think this is a moral division between the parties. And I think we're on the right side. And we're going to win this eventually. And by the way, let me tell you this. I'm not, I don't want to go too far in the crystal ball. If the Republicans succeeded in destroying healthcare, and that's what this bill would do that the

House has paid, if something like this got through, you will suffer a collapse of healthcare. And it could be the first thing that leads to a single payer system in the United States if that happens. So, they might want to think about that. I will also add, too, just that we talked about Bill Cassidy, a senator from Louisiana, extremely conservative. He said to the New York Times a couple months ago, the one thing we have to understand as Republicans now is that the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare,

has now enshrined a belief that there is a right to basic health care in this country. That never happened before, right? And so whatever happens, whatever happens to the ACA, whatever replacement, like we have already moved the window. We've moved the debate to the fact that like you said, the next conversation will probably be about single payer or public option or whatever it may be. But that belief has been enshrined now that people in this country, that's why everyone's so upset about pre-existing condition stuff. People believe

that there is a right to healthcare in this country and that was a fight that we've had for about 100 years. And by the way, that's why, yes, and that's why Paul Ryan had to lie to pass this bill, right? He couldn't say my philosophy is people don't deserve healthcare. That's the one thing I wanted to add. He wanted, he's saying, oh it doesn't do anything bad, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry,

which isn't true. Hey, guys. I have a question about the burgeoning crooked media empire. Sure. On Monday, you were talking about the Brent Stevens article in the New York Times, and you were saying how it's our job as liberals or educated

people to talk about the facts of climate science, but you didn't actually lay out what are the facts, like what is the actual data that supports climate change. And I was wondering if you guys thought about making a new podcast about making science accessible to people who aren't educated with a scientific background, because I think what you guys do really well is making politics seem very down to earth

and something that you can talk about without really being an expert in it. And if you could do that with science, with stem cell research or GMOs or genetic testing or any of this stuff, I think that your audience would really appreciate it and they'd be more educated because of it. Great pitch.

Governor, do you want to be a scientist? By the way, literally, it might get a little redundant that I'm bragging about Washington, but it is true. It is true. Pandering. Classic politician.

And elected, I might add. No, we have, at the University of Washington, we've got a climate research institution that is the best in the world. I'm a PhD student there, so... Well, great. Stick it up. There you go.

It's a good idea. Look, we're the first ending of this thing. We finally hired three staffers. They start on Monday. We've added two shows, Anna Marie Cox and Doreen McKesson's show. So the kind of idea you're recommending is a really good one

and something we want to do and pursue and think about is because for me, for my nerdy little foreign policy show, like I think that people feel intimidated. Thank you. Pod Save the World fans. Pod Save the World. I got my job. Always promoting Pod Save the World. I got my job on the NSC and I walked into these meetings and I thought,

oh my God, how the hell did I get in here? I'm not smart enough. I don't know what I'm talking about. These are the people that should be making these decisions. And it turns out once you learn like 17 acronyms and you sit down for a while and shut up and listen, you know what's going on. You can engage and be a part of it. And so I think I want to apply that concept to a whole host of things because when you walk into a conversation and you feel like you're a senior in a calculus class and you skip pre-cal and everything came before it, it's scary and you turn away.

We need to make people understand that you have to engage or else it's going to move on without you. Can I throw out one idea too? This is a really important question. I care a lot about it. You have to ask yourself why there is still such a division politically in the United States on this. In Europe, there's no division. The conservative parties, you know, accept this as well as the progressive parties.

I have to tell you, and I'm all for your idea, great idea because it will arm people more with information that they can share. But I really do believe that the fundamental problem here is not a lack of understanding the science. It's a lack of willingness to accept it. It's an identity. People somehow have come to believe that their identity is threatened if they accept that science, that they'll have to do something politically they don't want to do.

So to win, eventually, we we got to get people to understand it's not a threat to your identity. It's a recognition of the best attributes you have, that you care about your children and their grandchildren and you understand economic development. You almost got to start catering more to their identity as much to their facts in my view. Governor, you would be a perfect host for this show, but you're going to be running for president, so there won't be time.

Next question. He didn't even bring the mic up to his face. We're going to get super local here, so I'm a fellow Bainbridge resident. And I caucused with you. Kind of surprised you don't remember me. But what is your position on Democratic state senators who introduced bills that radically reduced funding to light rail expansion here in western Washington? that radically reduced funding to light rail expansion here in western Washington.

So here's what I hope we can achieve in this situation. There has been a big blowback, and there is some sticker shock of this situation. My belief is we need to build this from Everett to Tacoma. We cannot allow that to be derailed, and we cannot allow a political revolt against this to succeed, either through Tim Eyman or any other purpose. So we have to accomplish. Well, it was Democrats. It wasn't Tim Eyman. It was Democratic senators. No, let me stop you. Let me stop you. I believe this session, we need to have a bill that will come out that will fund this to get it done from Everett to Tacoma.

Number one, we cannot jeopardize completion of both ends of this track. Number two, I do believe it's smart to give some relief to some degree so we don't end up with a revolution that is going to throw this whole thing out. Now, if they make a good decision that hits that sweet spot, I think it would have been a good decision. If they're outside of that sweet spot, if they are going to impair the ability to finish this project, then we should reject it. So those discussions are going on, and I'll tell them what you had to say.

I moved here from Wisconsin, so when you run for president, I got Wisconsin for you. So I'll find you, buddy, okay? All politics is local, right? I have a messaging question for you, so I'll find you, buddy, okay? All right. All politics is local, right? I have a messaging question for you. You can answer it too, Governor. One of the questions that you ask your guests a lot is where did the message go wrong, right? And I'm wondering if you guys could talk about what maybe we should be saying one-on-one in bars or coffee shops to people. We can donate, we can click on the links,

we can buy the t-shirts, we can do all the different things, but I think those like personal conversations where we can talk to people who maybe were Obama voters and then were Trump voters. My husband and I live in eastern Washington, so we're, Seattle's a very friendly place to us, but there we have more opportunity to have conversations with people who don't think like us. And I'm just wondering if you have some ideas. I think the first step is to listen and hear what it is from those people that made them switch. And it may be, if what is driving that is some sort of economic anxiety is to talk about what it is that Democrats will do, whether it's raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars, whether it is ensuring that tax cuts go to the middle class, not to the wealthy.

And try to understand what what the cause of that anxiety is. And we there is no question in my mind that Democrats have the policy proposals that will address their need. But we have to understand it first and then explain it to them in their values. Yeah. Anna Marie Cox was saying this the other day. She's like, a lot of times we're in a situation now where people put tribe before belief. And so if you lead with, so I'm a Democrat and you're a Republican and now I want to convince you to believe to be a Democrat, like that's not going to ever work.

But if you start by saying, well, what issues really upset you? What do you care about? You know, say, well, I'm not making enough money. I don't think my wages are high enough or it's hard to get jobs or it's hard to afford education. And say, okay, well, what do you think we should do about that? And you have a discussion around the issues first and the solutions to those issues. And you might find should do about that? And you have a discussion around the issues first and the solutions to those issues,

and you might find when you start that discussion that you believe in very similar solutions, right? And you don't have to start by putting a label on it that it's Democrat or Republican, and you just have that conversation first. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, guys.

So first I want to say, as a former intern on Governor Inslee's campaign, we're so thankful for having you as a leader in our state. But this is a multiple-part question, which I know you guys love. Bring it. But number one, with his impassioned monologue on health care, many people are saying that Jimmy Kimmel is a contender for the 2020 election. When do you get to the question? What do you guys think about his chances?

And number two, how ridiculous do you think it is, and Governor Inslee being a subject of rumors about 2020, how ridiculous do you think it is that we constantly are talking about the 2020 election when what we really need to focus on is 2018 and what's in front of us right now? I feel like those are leading questions. There's nothing more annoying than watching a politician interviewed on some Sunday show and they say, are you going to run for president? And they say, I'm focused on the job that I'm currently doing. It's like, what about your book? They just came up with, what am I focused on?

It's like, we are skipping past all the things that actually matter about what they stand for, what they believe. Which is why we didn't ask Governor Inslee. Love it kind of did. I'm gonna ask. If you are, get in line. Whatever.

But yes, no, it is too early to talk about 2020. That's what the governor was talking about earlier, is that before we even start focusing on these 2018 congressional races, there's special elections coming up. There's two governor's races in 2017. There's local elections that make a difference. I do think that

part of the reason the Democratic Party's had problems over the last however many years is we thought, oh, Barack Obama's in the White House, and so everything's fine. We don't need to worry about anything else. And that's not true. And that's never going to be true no matter who's in the White House. This is a daily struggle that lasts forever to figure out how to elect Democrats up and down the ballot everywhere across the country. And look, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. We passed Wall Street, Barack Obama passed Wall Street reform, was able to pass the Recovery Act, save the economy,

all because in 2006, Democrats took the House and the Senate. So if we want to elect a Democratic president in 2020 and give them the capacity to actually restore the Affordable Care Act if it goes away, put in place the policies we care about, we have to win these congressional elections. Otherwise, we're just sort of holding serve for four years. To your Jimmy Kimmel point, I mean, like, what I think his speech reminded us, which is helpful, is everyone is, for the most, the vast majority of people are born young and healthy,

and then at some point along the way you're not. And there before the grace of God go I, right? And his story about the horror of having a child and watching your child suffer from what his kid went through is a good reminder of, like, why if you feel like government is too big and too costly and screw that and screw Washington, someday it might matter to you a lot. And I think speeches like that

that are passionate from the heart mean something. I don't think it'll run for president or anything else. He's got a sweet gig, but... Tommy, it kind of sounds like you're prepping a stump speech. Get off my turf. I'm very focused on my two podcasts. Thank you. Hey guys, big fan.

So I have a question about the GOP through something we haven't talked about yet, the lens of healthcare. So I'm trying to understand these people whose jobs it is to represent the people in their districts. And we've talked about, we sort of have two different tones or conversations about these people, representatives and senators, in that they're doing, they're playing, you know, nth dimensional chess, or, chess, or they're throwing keggers

because they've just pushed a bill through the house in record time with no score, financial score. And I'm wondering, which is it? Are they doing political calculus on this, or are they just doing it as fast as they possibly can? They're not that smart. Is it PAC mentality or is it political calculus is what I want to know. PAC mentality.

Yeah, there's comments earlier that the Medicaid cuts facilitate a huge tax cut are spot on. Well, I mean, it's a good question for the governor, too. Like, when you were in the House and you had to face a tough vote like that, I mean, obviously you didn't face it like these Republicans faced this one. But what's your thought process in figuring out how you're going to vote? I mean, are you paying attention to what your constituents are saying? Are you listening to calls? Are you listening to email? I mean, how do you make that decision?

Well, first off, I'm sincere in not meaning disrespect, but it doesn't matter why they did or are doing what they're doing. What matters is what we're going to do about it. That's what we've got to focus on. We've got to figure out which races, what phone call we can make to elect a legislator, electmonca.com, okay? All right, that's two plugs. Yeah. We talked about one plug. No, I right, that's two plugs. Yeah.

We talked about one plug. No, I mean... The third one will cost you. I'm really serious about this because, you know, we've spent a lot of time looking in the rearview mirror here. We've got to start looking forward, so I'm really serious about this.

But having said, in answer to your question, the motivations and the thought process of members of Congress, there's 435 different matrices, and they're all different. And they're a combination of public interest and ideology and fear of getting defeated and hopes for being on your podcast. And, you know, I mean, it's just a mix.

And everybody's different to some degree. I do believe, and this is heresy, but just about every member of Congress that I've dealt with had some sort of sincere motivation. It might have been misguided, but they had some what they believed sincere motivation. But in this one, they're just flat wrong. That's the best I can give you. Cool. Thank you.

Hi, guys. Hello. So, big fan of the pod. I commute 50 miles a day. So generally a day with a pod is a great day. Thank you. And it's getting better by the day because now I have one every day, which is fantastic. I grew up in Montana.

and as anybody who grew up in a rural state, even Washington, with a rural side and a city side, a more urban side, I think there's a difference in how we look at the debate and how we look at the conversations that we have day to day than people who have only been on the coasts. And I see that legitimately, even before I live on the coast and have for decades now. But with that conversation, I think that there is another piece, and I'm curious about your perspectives, in terms of the shift from identity politics, Republican versus Democrat, that sort of like I am here on either side of the spectrum

to a moral obligation as it relates to health care and other things where we start to say this isn't right, right? Like there was a cruelty aspect and a morality aspect helping others. I am among you as one who serves. And where is the service call in what we're doing? And that's, at least for me, what I feel like is missing because I don't identify as a Democrat in all of this. I've worked for Democrats. I've had, I absolutely, in terms of a voting perspective, identify with Democrats when it comes time to check the box. But yet, from a day-to-day perspective,

where is that message that says, what do we care about? And I think that that's what you guys come back to day-to-day when it comes to the Buttigieg and Perez and the like, is that we're not calling out to what it is that truly calls us. It's not just, I'm a Democrat. It's that I can help you. Even though I don't know what your perspective is, I can help you. Or I see that you calls us. It's not just I'm a Democrat. It's that I can help you. Even though I don't know what your perspective is,

I can help you, or I see that you're down and I can help you. Where is that? Yeah, I mean, I think that's good advice. I think it's always important to remember that there are lots and lots of people who aren't keyed in to the day-to-day political fights. But John, I'm not looking for

advice. I'm looking for like... I'm not looking for advice. I'm looking for like... I'm not giving you advice. I'm getting advice from you. I'm trying to humor you. What? You interrupted me in the middle of my answer and I don't know what your concern was with what I was starting to say. No, no, no.

Do you want to get into it? Let's go. Bring it. You want to be on the pod? The nicest person so far, you're just yelling at her. We're having a conversation. No, but literally, what's the hook, right? What's the hook in that conversation? Watch it.

No, no. No fighting. What is the shift from identity politics? Everybody who's in this room identifies Democrat. I guarantee you, everybody has identified at a certain point as a Democrat. Where do you go from independent Democrat

to what is the conversation about what we actually believe in this? What I'm taking away from that and what I think is important is not to get lost in the sides and to come back to principles like what somebody asked earlier. That what we're

fighting for is not a democratic healthcare bill. We're not fighting for Obamacare because a democrat passed it. We're fighting for it because we believe in healthcare for all. That we're not fighting against Trump's tax plan because we're against Donald Trump. We're fighting for it because we believe that inequality is a serious problem in this

country and we want a fair tax code that recognizes the way the economy has changed in the last 30 years. So I don't think it's that complicated. I think it's about remembering that we're not advocating for democratic policies. We're advocating for principles that we believe in. I don't think it's that much more hard than that.

I like... So, when you were talking about all that, I thought back to Barack Obama's 2004 convention speech. It's at the Democratic Convention. And it's the keynote address.

And I was working for John Kerry at the time. I was on the campaign. He sat on the floor of that convention. And every single keynote address at a Democratic Convention, speaker goes out there and they say, we're the Democratic Party, and this is what we believe in, and this is why, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Barack Obama in that speech probably did not mention the word Democrat until like three-fourths of the way through that speech, and yet that convention hall was on its feet because people believed that that's what that party stood for, because they believed that that's what that party stood for

because that's what America stood for. And what he did is he told a story about the country and the values that hold us together and redefined what the Democratic Party is with that story. And so I do think that sometimes we get caught up too much in the, this is who we are as Democrats, and we ask this question all the time on the podcast. What's the party stand for?

Who are we? What's our message? But really, it's the question of, like, what values in this country bind us together, and then where can we go from there? Yeah, and to add on to that, I mean, another problem we've had is we're at this place in time

where the parties define themselves more about what they're against than what they're for, which is so toxic. And I find myself doing this and, and Donald Trump is like the most disgusting, like end goal of this because it's all like, he doesn't know what, he doesn't know what's happening day to day.

He's just like a dotty old racist to quote my friend here. Who's like ambling around the white house, all your corners today. But, but right. But like we, it's about winning and losing and not about a core belief.

And God forbid we talk about service and who we're helping. Like, everything you said is right and important to remember and easy to forget in the day-to-day back and forth because that's what's on the news and that's what's fun to talk about.

And those are the idiots that we hate. But as soon as you go door-to-door but as soon as you go door to door as soon as you go door to door you start to understand that there is no there is no I'm a democrat because that's what democrats believe or I'm a republican it is literally you have to answer for what that is

thank you very much I want to get a little bit back to sound transit Thank you very much. That's totally right. That's good. Hi. I want to get a little bit back to sound transit. I have a lot of thoughts on light rail in Washington. Probably everyone in this room was really outraged about all the action in Olympia after voters passed ST3 this year. And I'm wondering if you can help just shed some light on the political nuance and the challenges that we face in Olympia they're going to pay for sidewalks and communities and bicycle connections and mass transit that's reliable and not in addition to roads and bridges. Governor, I'll take this one.

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I really, really need you to take this one. It's really good to have friends, you know. A couple comments. First off, bless the voters who said they have this vision. We are going to build light rail that should have been built 30 years ago from Everett to Tacoma. We're going to do this, okay? It's a big deal.

It's a $54 billion project. You can't build it on popcorn and good wishes. You've got to raise $50 billion to pay for this. But it's the spine of the most rapidly growing metropolitan area in the Western world, probably. We have to do this. So we should make sure whatever happens in Olympia this year continues that commitment to get that job done, number one. Number two, I want to tell you, the connection between infrastructure and climate change is very, very close. That is why I was happy that when we did the largest infrastructure package in our state's history, we also had the largest percentage

that went to buses and rail and bicycle and sidewalks and trip reduction because the way you reduce carbon is not to waste energy and the best way to not waste energy is to use public transit if it meets your needs and so we assured that I fought for and I would have liked to have got more to make sure that we had a higher percentage of green technologies but I'm glad we hit we're at the high watermark but there's more to do look we got to electrify our transportation grid we can 50 years from now we cannot be building using fossil fuels significantly in our transportation grid the planet will not survive if we do that so we have to fairly rapidly use technologies lithium-ion batteries are going

gangbusters. We're using electric cars now in our state. This is not just a future, it's a present. And Washington State's going to lead the world. And you can tell Jerry Brown, I will prove to him, I have the most electric cars in my fleet in the state of Washington, not California. Don't you come on this stage and come at Jerry Brown with us. All right?

We're from California now. We like Jerry Brown. I did not predict this many light rail questions, but I love it. I love hot button local issues. This is great.

That's not inviting anymore. This reminds me of being in Iowa for a full year kicking the crap out of John Lovett's campaign. I forget who it was. Whatever. My candidate lost,

and I got the same job anyway. So whatever. Anyway, we had questioners. That was great. Sorry. Hi. Hello. I'm going to take your question from you. I'm sorry.

Are you going to run for president? Yes. Yeah. What was that answer you gave? I thought you were pretty good. I'm sorry. Are you going to run for president? Yes. What was that answer you gave? I thought you were pretty good. I'm focused on the job. And I want you to know, we'll be very aware of tense games.

That you're not running, etc. So just know that we're all on the ball. We're all politically savvy. I have not declared for president in the last 30 minutes. Does that help? If you wanted to, this would be a good place to do it. And as a follow-up, I'm...

That was smart. Get the second question in. I'm not a voter. I won't be able to be a voter come 2020 because I got my green card in the mail on inauguration day. Thank goodness. Under the wire. Just got in there. What do you have to say to people like me who love this country,

who came here, but we can't use our votes? We don't have those. What else can we do? Well, you are vested with all the first-minute rights of anyone else. And that means you have the right to go to electmonca.com. That's three. Okay. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

You're a guest here. You can volunteer. You can volunteer should you so desire. And I'm serious. I mean, you can do virtually everything else that a citizen can do except that one issue. We hope that you will consider citizenship when you can.

But people have... You are a hard sell. I mean, it's a tough time. This is like, pardon our appearance, United States. You know what I'm saying? Under construction. There's a dog

holding a broken wire. Do, do, do, do, do, do. Come join the parade right now. You don't have to wait. And I'm serious about that. You can do anything that these people in the front row, you can do. I hope you will. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hey, guys.

Hey, there. Thank you so much. Hey, guys. Hey, there. Also a big fan. So I am a third-year resident in internal medicine here at the University of Washington. We have 1,500 medical residents just at UW. That's not counting all the other places in Seattle. So there are a lot of young doctors in Seattle, and we're obviously all very, very concerned. And I guess this is sort of a messaging question. I think one of the issues

with healthcare specifically is that, you know, nobody knew it was so complicated. And, you know, and legitimately, how do we, you know, convey something that's so complicated to our patients, to our friends? And I think you look at the people who have effective messaging. You guys have talked about Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who are very much on message. And I wonder if there is something in health care that we can convey accurate information, because you have, I mean, people, basically all of the Republican House members who are just telling untruths about the way that their bill works, and even one of our congresswomen in Washington from Spokane is just telling falsehoods about what the bill does and what it doesn't do.

I read the op-ed today. That was quite something. Yeah, it's ridiculous. bill does and what it doesn't do i read the op-ed today that was quite yeah it's it's ridiculous it's and it's just and so how is there something that i think is there something as physicians as young physicians that we can do to help band together to convey an accurate and informative but simple message about health care you know going forward to to help protect our patients well a couple things one doctors are some of the most trusted people by the public. And so just having that position is very important to convey that. But I think it goes to first principles,

which is we believe that everyone in this country has a right to affordable, accessible health care, and they do not. And because of what President Obama and Governor Inslee and the people of Congress passed seven years ago, we move towards that right. And what this bill would do is take that away. Yeah, and the one thing I'd also say is you don't have to worry about what other people...

You're the message. You're somebody who's an expert. You're somebody who's going to be a practicing doctor, and you're against this. And when they say that they're about trying to fix the relationship between doctors and patients, you can say that that's bullshit, and you're speaking from a place of expertise. You're not an ordinary person in this debate.

You're at the center of it. It matters that the American Medical Association is against this bill, and so what I'd say is you decide what the message is, because we'll follow your lead. You're a doctor. You're going to be a... I don't know the terms.

Are you technically a doctor already? I don't know what a resident is. I'm a doctor. You're a doctor. Yes. You're a doctor. God damn it. You're a doctor. Yes. You're a doctor. God damn it. You're a doctor, man.

You're a doctor. So say so. And that's the message. And we'll follow you. Thanks, guys. Hi. I've been a really big fan ever since you guys were on Bill Simmons' podcast, like way back when, when we were all so hopeful and everything was so much better. But my question is about the media and kind of one thing I've noticed lately, and I don't know how long it's always been like this, but we only cover things kind of in the moment.

So like the health care bill, when it got revived, it got covered only kind of focusing on the way it would affect pre-existing conditions. And that was the way a lot of mainstream media covered it. And I guess I was wondering, how do we focus kind of on the entire message? How do we take that? How do we keep the scope focused on everything that's going on, not just the thing that's happening in that moment? And that's going on, not just the thing that's happening in that moment. Man, that's tough. No, because, look, we've now been in media for a little while ourselves, and I would formally criticize the media for doing just that. When we put together a podcast outline, we're like, well, what's in the news today?

What are we talking about now? But I was thinking the same thing the other day, because I'm like, we're all talking about the pre-existing conditions stuff because that was the latest amendment, but the far bigger problem is actually going to be the 24 million people that are going to lose their health care,

which I guess that's old news so we don't talk about that anymore, right? There's $880 billion being cut from Medicaid. That's not a huge deal. The essential benefits that are being cut, hospitalization. So the news will never have an incentive to go backwards and cover the whole story and give you the whole context because it's all in the moment. unintentionally intelligent or genius at anything. It's exactly this. He pinballs back and forth from massive fuck up to fuck up. Excuse my language cover.

To mistake and error. And we, I, forget the mistake that came 24 hours ago. I don't know how to fix that problem. I do think, like, stepping back to first principles and focusing on the fact that, you know, while we can talk about Upton's amendment that we're pretending will address preexisting conditions and the high-risk pools,

there's a broad, like, focusing on the broader harm that the bill will cause to all Americans. It will harm... It's not only that 24 million people will lose insurance, it could potentially make all of our insurance worse because of what they're doing. Yeah, and one other thing, I would say one of the most inspiring things has been not just the fact that people have been protesting,

but the consequence of that protesting, which has been, we were able to wrest the microphone away from Donald Trump and from the Republicans in the House, that when Democrats showed up at town halls and started chanting about this bill, that was a way of saying, hey, let's focus on what really matters here. When millions of people showed up after Inauguration Day, that was about resting the microphone away and talking about what we cared about. And I think that's a power we still have right now. So can I try to recruit you here? The days where we can kind of let the media do our work are just over. Like, you know, the original document says we the people.

We've got to think of it now as we the media. We're the media. There's 750 people here who are the media. If they go to their pages tonight and write an individual message, there will be 75,000 people who will get a message that they individually write. And by the way, I got to tell you, when you write an individual message, you don't just send them a link to these guys' brilliance. It has an impact. And I just encourage people to become the media. We're the media. We should see that ourselves and we'll move the world. I really do believe that.

Also include the link. Well said, Governor. Good question. Hi, Governor. Hi, guys. Big fan. John Favreau, actually big fan of Iron Man. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take all the credit. So a week or two ago, Levitt said that the Hillary campaign may be lost because her policies were too well thought out and they looked like they already went through rounds of compromise. And maybe instead Democrats run on policies

that maybe aren't as realistic but more exciting. So I guess my question is, do we really need to do that when we're at a party with the better ideas? And can we just run on honest, realistic policies? Yeah. Love it. Oh, yeah. John loves this now. Here's what I think. I think that Bernie Sanders put out a college proposal that was very expensive that probably had no chance of passing through Congress. And so it went into the kind of democratic apparatus, and what came out was a more affordable, more complicated version. I think the same thing happened on the minimum wage proposal.

Now, I think that I actually, you know, when I think about what I said, which is that that's maybe less realistic, I think that's probably the wrong way to say it. I think what I mean is that we should be more visionary and that we should be more aspirational in our proposals because we're in the wilderness. We have lost. And I think that everything that the governor has been talking about,

about the way forward, I think is really exciting and really optimistic. But I want to be practical about how hard it is to get people to hear us, how little they trust the media right now, how filtered and confusing and noisy everything is. And what I saw in 2016 is what cut through that noise. And what I see is a simple, elegant message from someone like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or Governor Inslee. And I want to make sure that we figure out how to say that and be that, be simple and elegant. And sometimes that may mean that it doesn't necessarily pass the CBO test. That's what I was trying to get at.

I think the lesson here is the CBO doesn't matter anymore. Yeah. You brought up the CBO. Oh, that's just chilling. Yeah, we're the CBO. We're the CBO. Oh, that's just chilling. Yeah, we're the CBO. We're the CBO now. Donald Trump is president. Things can cost whatever you want.

Is that good? Feel good about that? Thank you. Thank you. I think we saw that one. Hi. After the election, I was kind of trying to focus on the one thing I could do, because our brains were all going crazy. And I just kind of kept circling back to right-wing media.

And it's powerful. It seems ridiculously powerful when you see some of the surveys that come out where Republicans are getting their news almost entirely from Fox News or other small sources like that. and Democrats tend to kind of go all over the place. I was just wondering where you saw crooked media falling into that, and is there any hope of sort of pushing against that? I mean, you see all the stuff that's going on at Fox News right now, and is it going to make any sort of difference? Is it going to, like, start crumbling, or is it just going to be this powerful juggernaut forever? Yeah, I mean, look, if it's not Fox, it'll be someone else.

It'll be Breitbart or something else. I think about this all the time. It is one of the reasons we started this company. I think we don't pay enough attention to how much power the right-wing media has. We think that Trump has somehow hypnotized everyone and he's just basically repeating stuff he's heard on Fox forever, right? Literally. Literally. That's like all he does.

Yesterday. Yeah. No, I think that you can't go to battle with propaganda the way they do. Like we'll never, look, their job on their side of the, what they're trying to do is to basically burn down a barn. They are trying to say that all your problems, here's who to blame, right? You try to blame someone who doesn't look like you, who doesn't come from where you come from, who isn't like you, right? Like they're all about blame. They're all about burning down the system, right? Our job, what we believe, is that we want to make people believe in progressive government. We want to make people believe that by coming together we can actually do something better and improve people's lives in a community.

That's always going to be a harder job than to just say, that's wrong, that's fucked up, and you should go blame that person for that. So we'll never be able to be Fox News and Breitbart and all that stuff. We'll never have that on the left. But what we can have is more media that reaches people where they are and entertains them and doesn't talk to them like they're, you know, doesn't patronize them and actually speaks like normal human beings

and that's what we're trying to do here, right? It's just like, have a conversation about politics like you'd have it with your friends and maybe make it funny once in a while and make it interesting, but like, the left should never try to copy what Fox and Breitbart and Right Wing Radio are because they lie all the time, you know? And like, we want to be honest. And our project is to figure out if,

can we be honest about politics and still reach out to people and get them motivated? That's the test. So. Dan, what do you think about that? Because we were, I was far below you in the comms office, but we lurched back and forth on this. We hated Fox News. We didn't talk to them for months at a time, but then Barack Obama did a Bill O'Reilly Super Bowl interview. Do you think they've passed? Are they outside the norm and they'll never come back,

or are we just going to stay in that cycle? I think it's important to understand that Fox is not a conservative news organization. They're a Republican Party arm. When George Bush wanted to go to the Iraq War, they were for the Iraq War. When Barack Obama was talking about possibly launching a strike in Syria, they were against launching a strike in Syria. When immigration seemed like the savior of the Republican Party, they were for immigration.

When it turned out that it could motivate voters against Democrats, they were for that. And so I think John is exactly right that Democrats should not try to become Fox News. As long as I've been in politics, someone says, what's the Fox News of the left? What's going to be the Fox News of the left? Our job is not to become Fox News. It's to beat Fox News. Our job is not to become Fox News. It's to beat Fox News. Because I think Fox News and all of its dangerous stepchildren like Breitbart and Daily Caller and all of that are perhaps the most pernicious force in our politics because they have tremendous influence and they use that to scare people on a daily basis and that's very dangerous and and the thing to remember the most what governor inslee said which is extremely hopeful is like we now have the power for like everyone to be the media right like there's you can write a message on

facebook on twitter whatever else is like the next if there is a resurgence on the left in the media space it is not going to be a fucking cable channel. It's going to look at media. I'm the billion dollar company hub of the resistance. More applause. Please clap. I just, I want to point out that Bill O'Reilly called me a dunderhead on Fox news

four weeks ago. And two weeks later he was gone. That's it. That's it. He did it. That's awesome. That was the worst. That guy is the worst.

Okay. Hi, guys. Hi. Hi. Long-time listener, first-time caller. I am a proud resident of the 31st District, where we're also having a special election, MichelleRylans.com. Yay.

But I'm also a cancer survivor and an educator. And I got to tell you, the only thing that scares me more than the beer party in the Rose Garden yesterday is Betsy DeVos. And I'm wondering, Governor, if, you know, I know we're kind of have a little special session going on and we're kind of trying to, you know, handle our paramount duty to fully fund education.

But I'm also worried that in compromising we might be opening doors to make things easier for Betsy DeVos to kind of do her thing and so I'm just wondering where you guys, you know, and also if you know you need a pod, pod teach America, I'm your girl. That's an excellent title. Well, I can tell you that our job is

to provide for the ample education and basic funding for education so our excellent teachers can do excellent work. That's our job. Our job is not to privatize education with Betsy DeVos's bad dreams about vouchers. I can tell you that right now. And we will have to be alert to those efforts. So far, actually, it's interesting they really have not arisen as your fears really have not totally been realized quite yet. But the session is still going on. I do want to say this because we haven't talked about education here, and I want to say

a couple words about it if I can. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and I got to tell you, I see the most magical things in our communities, in our classrooms right now. Our kids are getting an education three times better than I ever got because they've got teachers with capabilities and methods of doing project-based learning, teaching their students how to be social with one another, work together as a team, understand physics means more than just something on a blackboard. I was at a school the other day where they were designed, a high school, junior high school students were doing research

with Fred Hutchinson cancer research. That same school, right around the corner, juniors were designing an artificial left ventricle for an artificial heart. The things that are going on in our schools today are unbelievable. And when people attack public education as a failure, they ought to spend a little time in the classroom and see the good teaching that's going on. We need to just give teachers the resources to do their job. I'm committed to doing that. We are hopeful the parties are going to reach a resolution on that.

We need one party to kind of catch up with the other party. You'll have to fill in the blanks which party that is. But we're going to get this job done for you, and thanks for your work. Thank you. Follow-up question. Are you guys going to tell us where the after party is? Or is that a secret? Listen, I'm just going to say, if I could pick,

let's just say it rhymes with Bee's Cake Factory. But I'm not sure that that's going to happen. Yeah, boo me all you want. I don't care. He's not kidding. Let's try a local Seattle place. Ridden out on a rail. A light rail. A light rail.

A light rail. Hi, I just wanted to say, first of all, thank you for the work you guys are doing. At least a couple hours out of every week where I am laughing instead of feeling like I might possibly go completely out of my mind with rage. But one of the things you brought up in the pod not long ago that really caught my attention was the notion of not trying to look in the rearview mirror anymore at what happened in 2016, but rather look forward and have a conversation about, you know, how to frame

what we're talking about here, which is that the policy discussion is all very interesting, but we've been losing this conversation for 30 years because it's not a values-based conversation. And I came across a mention about the work that George Lakoff has been doing. And I know you're acquainted with his work down at Berkeley and his book, like, Talk Like an Elephant. Thank you. Yeah. About the elephant. about the elephant. Don't know. Yeah, and you were talking about using some time on the podcast

to basically workshop this notion. And I just wanted to say, I think that would be an incredibly useful thing for you to be doing. I'd like to see you invite George Lakoff onto the pod. And you could be using your Facebook page to workshop this, because that's how we win, is the values conversation,

not just which version of the policy or which version of the legislation is best. We have to talk from the point that you were just saying a minute ago, John, about what binds us together. We agree, and we're trying to get John Favreau to start a messaging podcast of his own. So if you guys think that John

should get off his twice a week, two hour a week work week. Very cushy. Very cushy schedule. And start his own podcast about democratic values and messaging, maybe a show of hands.

Maybe a joint pod with George? George and John are friends. George Legoff's not hosting a podcast, so that's... I'm just kidding. That's a great idea. No, you're right. Look,

we were on the Obama campaign, and that campaign was largely about speaking in values. That's what he taught all of us. And I think that's what we take from that campaign. And look, it's really hard, too, because we've talked about media filters a lot here, and oftentimes it doesn't get reported what the message of the politician was that day, right?

Like what the person's speech was, what his or her speech was. It's the new policy news. So it takes a lot of discipline for a politician to go out there and deliver the same message every day and make it about values and about what's at stake because the media pushes against that and every incentive pushes against that, right? So you really have to bear down and not worry about the fact that you might not make the headline every day, but go out to the people directly and say, this is my message. It's going to be aspirational. It's going to be inspirational. And that's what I'm going to stick with.

But you're right. You're absolutely right. Hi. Thank you guys for coming here. I, like many voters in 2016, had the concern that Hillary Clinton was starting a terrorist group in the Middle East. And so I goog said, did Hillary Clinton found ISIS? Indisputable fact check says yes. That is true. And I... No, hold on. The link was actually there.

I'm not saying that the story is true. I saw that. I really did see that link. And we all, like... You know, I was shocked. I hope you guys are shocked as well, and we're all laughing at it. But do you guys really understand that millions of people think that? Like, I'm dead serious.

I've never been more serious in my life. Millions of people think that. A big red flag for me was in September, went to a wedding in Cincinnati where my fiance is from, and someone who had babysat them when she was a child came up to me, and she's like, oh, you're the one who worked for Obama. I'm like, yeah. She goes, well, I'm trying to figure this out.

I'm deciding between Hillary and Trump. I want to vote for Hillary. I'm just worried about the fact that she killed all those people. And I was like, you mean like she voted for the Iraq war or like the Benghazi and she's like no no no she had that list of people that she killed I think I still might vote for her but I'm just it gives me pause

and I was like oh shit this is like a real so yes it's a huge problem right there's a massive disinformation campaign on one side but I also think it's important that we not go down the rabbit hole of thinking the way we win is we fight that disinformation campaign on its terms. Because, look, people are out there right now. It's on Facebook.

It's everywhere. They're choosing their own facts, right? We do it ourselves, but not to the same extent. But the right has a whole apparatus designed to deliver facts that satisfy their basis biases. I think that's why it comes back to a values conversation, because it's a lot easier to fight somebody's set of facts than it is to fight somebody's set of values, right? And that's something I think the right understands better than us, that if you come at this, every question is a philosophical question, well, then facts kind of bounce off of that, right? We have to have a set of philosophies and a

core set of beliefs that we're fighting for. And we don't argue on the terms of they claim she killed people in Benghazi or that Obamacare is going to create death panels or all the rest. We have to have a set of values we're fighting for every single day and not become fact checkers because I think that's a recipe for disaster. Actually, I sort of want to disagree with you. Awkwardly so, but... All right, try it, Dan. Okay. Let's see it.

To the governor's point that everyone is the media now, everyone now has the capacity to push back against false information within their social network. And so if you see that, right, so people who you're friends with on Facebook or people that follow you on Twitter or whatever social media platform you use may see that. But if you who they know and trust

puts out countervailing information, they may believe that. And so everyone has the capacity to do the job of helping push back at these things in their network. And so we have agency here. We don't have to just let Russian bots and Breitbart and Fox define the debate. We can do that ourselves.

It also, by the way, is an incentive for, it tells politicians to be as open and accessible as possible and to go and to meet people where they are. If you guys leave here and hear that Governor Inslee started a terrorist group in the Middle East, you're like, well, no. He was on stage with the Pod Save America guys. He seems fine. But, I mean,

Obama always used to say that. He was like, when I first started out, I had this crazy name, Barack Hussein Obama, but then I'd go meet every single person in Iowa, and they would meet me, and they'd be like, well, you're not the caricature that we see of you on Fox News, right? You're this person that I met somewhere.

So it tells politicians to, like, not hide, to give press conferences, to be accessible, to go to other parts of the state, to go to rural counties, to go to places where they don't usually get votes, and to show people who you really are. Because when they meet you in person, it's much different than the caricature that you are on social media or Fox. That's great. Like, Barack Obama is a perfect example of this. There was a pretty big propaganda campaign to paint him out as a lot of things. But he won two elections with the majority, which is more than our current president got, isn't it?

And I think that speaks to what Dan was saying. I don't disagree with Dan. We all have to push back. But at the same time, Barack Obama didn't spend every day saying, I'm not a Muslim. He didn't spend every day saying, I'm not a terrorist. He didn't spend every day saying, I'm not a socialist. Like a third of the days.

Yeah. Every other day. Every other day,, I'm not a terrorist. He didn't say every day, I'm not a socialist. Like a third of the days. Yeah, every other day. Every other day, right? Like the sprinklers. So we can push back as citizens, but I think as a party, as people trying to win campaigns, we've got to argue for our values. We've got to show people who we are and not fight back every day against some specious claim. So why in every speech that you guys ever wrote that Barack Obama gave while he was president in Seattle,

did you have a line trash-talking me about basketball? I don't understand that. What was that about? Governor, that was ad-libbed. That was ad-libbed? That was from the heart. Right, it was inshallah and then something about basketball. You know how competitive he is, right?

Yeah, man. She really shouldn't have started ISIS, though. That was a big mistake. Honestly, I think Hillary Clinton starting ISIS cost her Wisconsin. That cost her in the swing states. It played well in Philly. I'm just kidding. Hey, friend of the pod.

Hi, guys. So I have a 16-part question. Part 1A is... It's one part. So a typical move of political punditry is referring to elections as job interviews. And when elections come around, we hear from congressmen and senators,

governors, occasionally brain surgeons. But we don't often hear from staffers, from people who shape policy behind the scenes do you guys think that speech writers, communications directors would make really good candidates and will we see you or any of your co-workers run next year okay I don't know why I have to keep saying this

very focused on the podcast right now right now I am very focused on being a media mogul. Once I get that out of my system and build a massive conglomerate, then I will be running for office. But I'm not one of these people. I'm not a Governor Inslee type who avoids the question. I'm the kind of person who shoots from the hip.

You know, come what may still nothing from him look at him, look at that, that's discipline I respect it I want you to know that we're not going to make you answer this question today, Governor but I'm running a March Madness in my mind in 2020 I'm focused on 2018 but in my mind, I'm building a grid

and I'm thinking about what seed you're going to be and it's great that's the most sports talk he's ever heard and I'm just a grid, and I'm thinking about what seed you're going to be. And it's great. That's the most sports talk he's ever heard. And I'm just saying, right now, right now, it's a good seed. All right, if you're trying to build the media empire, where can we get more merch? Working on it. Working on it. Don't worry about that, all right?

Let's just say that there's a website being built and a store at that website. Hashtag sports space. Make your next move. A better way to code. Hi. Hi, guys. Straight shooter and friend of all pods. Awesome.

Favreau. Love it. 2024. I don't know about that. I don't know about the order. I like you a lot. So let's talk about that later. Keep going. Ask her whatever question. So since I'm the second

to last person in this line, I would like to ask a little bit of a softball question just to make me and everybody in this Seattle, Washington area feel better. What was your favorite part about working for Obama?

Because we like to reminisce on the better days here, and I think that Obama was the best days, in my personal opinion. I mean, for me, it'll always be like, Iowa, 2007, was the greatest experience of my professional life. I moved from D.C., and I went out and was one of like 10 people on the ground and got to spend all this time on the road with him.

And in a weird way, one of the best moments I had was one of the shittiest I had professionally. The Des Moines Register holds you hostage. You will learn this soon, sir. Des Moines Register hold you hostage. You will learn this soon, sir. The amount of ass-kissing that goes on with these people is pathological. Bill Clinton was taking them to dinners and coffees.

General Wesley Clark would call them at their desk, and they'd be like, Sir, I can't talk to you right now. I've got to go. And they would hang up on these people. I didn't know this. My job was to win this endorsement. And we put everything we could into it short of slipping cash under the door, though I thought about it. And we lost a, you know, anyway. And I walked onto the bus and had to deliver this news. And he was just like, it's fine. It's going to be fine. We all freaked out about it. Like, the guy was so cool and calm and kind to his staff and good to the people around him in, like, the toughest moments.

And, like, seeing that poise, I mean, I know it's silly. It's a newspaper. No one reads them anymore. They listen to podcasts. But, you know, it was my entire world, and I thought I had failed at the one task I'd been sent to do. And it was like, yeah, it's cool. The first night that I worked for him, I was in the Senate office in 2005. And it was the first statement that I ever wrote for him. And I

remember it was about the nomination of Condi Rice. And so I go home that night. He told me what he wanted in the statement. And I start walking out of the office, and he was like, hey, Favs, come back here. I'm like, he's like, I know this is your first night writing for me. This is the first thing you've ever written, and you're probably nervous. But so I also want you to know that I'm a writer too, and I know that sometimes the muse strikes, and sometimes it doesn't.

And so go home, do your best. And if you come up with something, great, and if not, come back here, we'll figure it out tomorrow. So I go home, I write, I come back, and he comes over to me, and he's got all these edits, and he's like, so I just have a few edits to this, and I want to make sure it's okay that I make these edits, you're okay with

them. And I'm like, you're fucking Barack Obama. Like, I don't care about your edits. But, like, that's how he was to work for for eight years. It's like that now. I think that is exactly right. We worked for him for onwards of ten years, or knew him for ten years,

and he is as good a guy as you think and hope he would be. Never in that time, he would get mad at us. We would do things that would annoy him. But he never disappointed us one single time, like he would get mad at us. Like we would do things that annoy him, but he would never disappointed us one single time the whole time we were there. Yeah. Good guy. Last question. Okay. I'm really short. Okay. I'm, I love you guys. I'm really nervous. And, but I have a question for governor Inslee. I'm more nervous than you are, believe me, I tell you.

Is it about transportation? Light rail? No. 2020 or light rail? So I became a U.S. citizen last year. So I was not able to vote for you. I am a teacher. And I'm also a sexual assault survivor and I'm here on behalf of my dear colleague Leah Griffin who worked tirelessly to

get a bill that you signed today that passed unanimously is the bill 1109 that addresses among other things the backlog of rape kits and officer training sexual assault things So it passed unanimously but it passed without funding and I wanted to ask you governor What can you do to ensure that this bill gets funded? we can you, Governor, what can you do to ensure that this bill gets funded? We can... First off, thanks for speaking up and speaking out. Today we signed about six bills that were meant to protect sexual assault victims and

end this scourge of human trafficking. There are 500 kids being trafficked in King County as we speak and so this truly is a scourge and we had a bipartisan success in this suite of bills. But we wore pins that said speak out and you're speaking out. I just want to thank you for speaking out. Now as for what we can do, this is a suite of bills. We did things which extended no contact orders for longer periods of time. We did a host of things to allow data sharing. You mentioned this bill.

It's a good suite of bills. What we can do is to get a budget that will solve the educational crisis for the McCleary decision without gutting the other services of the state government. Now it will not surprise you that the Republican Party are more interested in gouging services for people with mental health issues, reducing protection for homelessness, not funding our Western State Hospital, not funding people who do children protective services. And what their budget has done is to essentially take about $2 billion out of the system that

provides basic services to us, frequently the least amongst us and the most challenged, both mentally and economically, and use that money to try to satisfy their obligation to fund schools. That is totally unacceptable to us. You can't solve a kid's educational problem by making them homeless. It's hard enough to do homework when you don't have a home. So we have to stop them from avoiding their constitutional duty by not fully financing education in a way that, frankly, is going to take some additional revenues.

And what they've proposed is what they have proposed on how to fund schools is to do two things. One, take money out of services like this suite of information or this suite of resources that would help sexual assault victims and two just take increased taxes for people who are in blue districts and give tax cuts to those in red districts they have proposed increasing property taxes for people in king county by hundreds sometimes over a thousand dollars for those on fixed income so what i will do is continue what I'm trying to do, is to forge a bipartisan budget that will take care of the least amongst us.

And you want to talk about morality? I think it's a moral issue to take care of sexual assault victims. We're going to do everything we can to do that. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Governor Ins Inslee for joining us tonight

thank you guys we'll see you again soon Thank you.