Pod Save America - Republican Frontrunner Tim Scott?

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

Republicans reject a White House compromise that would save us from default. Tim Scott is officially running, and Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Chris Sununu are right behind him. Joe Biden offers new support to Ukraine, while Russia bans Trump’s enemies. And new focus groups give us a clue as to how swing voters would treat a Biden-Trump rematch. Then, Sen. Brian Schatz talks to Lovett about the debt ceiling. And the guys look at a few of Ron DeSantis’ attempts to play it human on the campaign trail.Join Friends of the Pod for bonus content, exclusive access and more:  crooked.com/friends

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Tim Scott's advance man, Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, Republicans reject a White House compromise that would save us from default. Tim Scott is officially running and Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Chris Sununu are right behind him. Joe Biden offers new support to Ukraine while Russia bans Trump's enemies. And new focus groups give us a clue as to how swing voters would treat a Biden-Trump rematch. Then, Senator Brian Schatz talks to Lovett about the debt ceiling,

and we will cap things off with a look at Ron DeSantis' attempts to play a human on the campaign trail. But first, if you are sick of scrolling Twitter, and you want a quick, smart, funny recap of the day's news, I do. look no further than Crooked Media's Whataday newsletter. Whataday is excellent. Whataday newsletter. Yeah.

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All right, let's get to the news. President Biden came home early from his foreign trip to meet with Speaker McCarthy about how to avoid a catastrophic default that could come as early as next week. Oof. That X date is june 1 snuck up fast huh it sure did uh republicans rejected a white house compromise over the weekend that would have saved about one trillion dollars by freezing spending for two years they want steeper cuts for six years to everything that's not defense related plus uh they're still gung-ho on uh pushing more working people into poverty through work requirements they love doing that not helping the situation is donald trump who

told republicans uh on friday not to make a deal unless they get everything they want including he says in quotes the kitchen sink right meanwhile some democrats in congress are warning biden that they may not support the deal he cuts with mcc AOC tweeted that the White House may lose 100 to 150 House Democrats if the cuts are steep enough. So we're recording this right after Biden and McCarthy are sitting in the Oval. They're about to have their meeting. They said they're optimistic that the meeting may lead to progress. So that's where we're at. What do you think?

Should Biden reject spending cuts deeper than he already offered? Or are we at the point where the risk of default is so dangerous, we just got to get a deal? I think he will draw a line and has to because the goalposts have been changing constantly. And if you don't draw a line at some point, you're going to get another Hail Mary last minute change from the Republicans. So I do think he has to draw a line because they're, you know, the latest over the weekend, they're pushing for more draconian work requirements for people receiving food assistance. And they're trying to tell states they have less flexibility in implementing those draconian work requirements. So we'll see. I mean, we also saw the Republicans

trying to put immigration provisions into part of the bill. You have Trump saying, you know, who cares? Let's default. He said that on CNN. Now he's saying, get the kitchen sink. So I think you do have to draw a line or else the line's going to keep moving. Yeah. And McCarthy is all over the place. On the one hand, you have him saying that their ridiculous bill that they passed through the House was the floor, not the ceiling of what they could demand. Then right before he goes over to meet with Biden, he says something like, we need to have spending be less than it was last year, which leaves a lot of room to negotiate. So it's like Biden has to draw some lines because if you have someone like McCarthy who is beholden to sort of the right wing of the party and ultimately not in control,

you have to have Biden drawing some kind of a hard line. Yeah, if you go by what McCarthy and McCarthy's top deputies in Biden and the White House have been telling reporters over the last couple of days, which, as you guys pointed out, changes like every hour, it does seem like McCarthy is trying to, they're really focused now, not on sort of the extra stuff like the work requirements, the permitting reform. McCarthy says he's keeping immigration reform out. But again, we'll see what happens with the rest of his caucus. It seems like they're focused on this top line number, right? How much are they going to be spending? And the White House wanted to free spending from where it is this year for the next two years. Republicans say that's not enough. And McCarthy basically said we have to spend less next year than we did this year. So he wants to go beneath what we're spent this year without saying how much without saying how much. where it's a little less than it's somewhere in between those two things the white house offered a freeze they have you know but um again this is all assuming that mccarthy can find

enough republican votes to pass it and the democrats can find enough democratic votes to pass it and as the time ticks by basically they need a deal we're recording this monday afternoon you'll probably listen to this on tuesday but by like wed, Thursday, they don't have a deal. They're fucked. Right. And he's a, he's an incredibly weak speaker. And we've known this since it took him 15 votes to get the job. And it's also, it must be very frustrating for the Biden team knowing that speaker McCarthy will likely lose Republican votes. So he's going to need democratic votes, but there is no pressure on McCarthy to engage with Democrats in the house to try to bring them along and get those votes to pass a deal. It's all on Joe Biden. that basically then everyone else gets jammed because if McCarthy and Biden agree on something,

then it's going to be really hard to be, you know, someone who's against the deal and tanks the deal when we're about to hit default. Yeah. So McCarthy and Biden come up with the final thing that it has to be other than, say, a discharge position, which seems far fetched at this point. at this point. And the point that Schatz makes when I talk to him later is, you know, we've gone from we don't negotiate over the debt limit to we are negotiating, but we should make sure it is a deal we would have ultimately had to get to with Republicans over the budget because they have the House regardless of the debt limit threat. And that's, I was thinking that today, like, as soon as the Republicans won the House, it was pretty obvious that there were going to be some kind of spending cuts. Because if there was no debt ceiling, there would have been a negotiation over government funding that could have resulted in a government shutdown if there was no agreement. And while government shutdowns aren't as damaging as a debt ceiling, there's still not something that can go on forever.

So at some point, when you have Republicans in control of the House and Democrats control the Senate, the presidency, like there's going to be some kind of compromise around spending. And the other point that that shots will make is about is around continuing resolutions, which is basically when Congress can't come to an agreement on some of these harder budget questions. They just passed what's called a continued resolution, which is said, do everything you did last year, but at either a little bit more or a little bit less than current spending based on past precedent, it would probably be less because to get it through the House, you would need to get McCarthy to bring to the floor. Ideally here, you know,

I mean, Republicans were first like we want spending caps for 10 years. Now they're saying six years. I mean, if you're the if you're Biden in the White House, you're trying to limit the damage for the next two years and then hope that democrats win in 2024 and reverse the damage yeah i mean that's like 10 years from now it's ai's problem right that's right it's ai's problem and ai will be in having those seats in congress yeah better than some of the non-i we have now you know what i'm saying uh biden said over the weekend he thinks he has the authority to use the 14th amendment but but that it won't work in time. Oh, damn. God, right. All right.

We need it most. More than half is not ready. The 14th Amendment, not ready in time. You got to put it in earlier. More Democrats are pushing him to do it anyway. Some folks are starting to wonder aloud how the party let itself get to this point. Was there a better path Biden could have taken here? And we've been unfortunately following this closely.

You know, we again, we talked to we push shots on this when we talked to him in December. There was a lame duck. And there are a lot of people saying, hey, you realize in six months, Republicans are going to walk into the Congress with a fucking vest of vest of default strapped to their chest. And everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's six months from now. We'll deal with it then. And it is a real shame that there wasn't a bigger fight when we had the chance to lift the debt limit completely. It just seemed like everybody accepted the votes weren't there. And then we just didn't have a big, hard debate about it or even any kind of creative conversation about what could have potentially gotten the votes we needed at the time. I mean, I think the votes weren't there.

I mean, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema basically said it much. I think you have a bunch of institutionalists that might have made it hard. Maybe you could have negotiated something with them. Right. But who knows? Joe Manchin is now saying he's going to run against Joe Biden for president on a third party potentially. So, you know, not a great actor here.

I mean, there are also the other things I think progressives are frustrated about is not talking earlier or more seriously about printing the trillion dollar coin or the 14th Amendment and using that as real leverage to see if you could get the other side to, earlier or more seriously about printing the trillion dollar coin or the 14th amendment and using that as real leverage to see if you could get the other side to, I don't know, think that he was actually going to do it. I think the structural problem here is that Biden really cares about avoiding defaults. A bunch of Republicans do not care about avoiding defaults. And then the leader of the Republican party, Donald Trump is like, eh, we're going to default now or later. So who really cares?

Get everything you can. So, I mean, it's not like a fair fight. Yeah. On the mansion thing, I went back today to look at his quotes from The Lame Duck. And he didn't completely rule out lifting the debt ceiling in reconciliation in the fall. But he was pretty close. He was like, we should do this in a bipartisan way. It does not belong in reconciliation, blah, blah, blah. And we know how he is when he has a fucking.

Of course. Be in his bonnet. even the bite administration or any specific Senate Democrats. It's just like, it speaks to something about the constitution of Democrats as a group that it just like, there wasn't the fight without the looming threat to have that feel real and get it done at the time. It just didn't. It was like punishing your future self. It's like saying you'll go out to dinner two months from now.

Right. And then when it comes, you're like, Oh, it's like, you couldn't rustle up the rustle up the, the willpower. This is Keanu Reeves and speed saying, shoot shoot the hostage except they're aiming at the hostage's

head and just gleefully shooting yeah i think that's right sure yeah it's a great movie i will say on one more thing on the 14th amendment because i've been talking about this in the last couple episodes is i didn't understand why the biden administration doesn't like didn't invoke it earlier and then let it let the courts decide before the X date. The problem is we've been using the phrase, and so has everyone else in the coverage, like invoking the 14th Amendment. Like he just runs out a 1600 pen

and turns out the White House, he goes, I invoke the 14th Amendment. Right, so it turns out that's not really a thing. That what would have to happen is you'd hit the X date and then the government would start issuing debt anyway and then then the courts would decide whether that new debt issued after the x date is constitutional or not and and then you are again relying on john roberts brett kavanaugh neil gorsuch is your swing votes and if uh they decide that it's not constitutional

then uh we're all fucked well it's also then it's like then it's like oh i have a treasury certificate that's um a cool souvenir and that's why the markets go right so it is it's tricky anyway i'm sure they'll figure it out okay let's talk about the republican primary ronda sanctimonious great i haven't heard that in a while shorter nice uh senator tim scott is officially in the race he announced monday in his home state of south carolina he picked up a key endorsement from the number two republican in the senate john thune he's gonna ride john thune's coattails i haven't thought about that guy in a while.

Yeah, he's just popped up to give an endorsement that I'm sure is just a groundswell of support that Tim Scott just picked up in South Dakota, I guess. His team is making the case to reporters that Scott is the party's best messenger, the most consistent conservative in the race, the most broadly appealing to the Republican electorate, and that he has the resources and infrastructure to win.

The guy does have $22 million in his Senate account that he's rolling over to the presidential. He certainly sounded exciting during his announcement speech. Here's a clip. Hello, North Charleston! that I'm running for president of the United States of America. We live in the land where it is absolutely possible for a kid raised in poverty, in a single-parent household, in a small apartment, to one day serve in the people's house. The fewest people in 30 years believe that their kids will be better off than their parents. And the radical left is pushing us into a culture of grievance instead of a culture of greatness. We need a president that

persuades. We have to do that with common sense, conservative principles, but we have to have a compassion. We have to have a compassion for people who don't agree with us. So have your takes on Tim Scott's prospects changed at all since he launched his exploratory committee? What do you make of his team's case to reporters? The case? I mean, Best Messenger, sort of like a Reagan remix. It's not bad. You know, you can dance to it, but it's not that great. Most consistently conservative. He's very conservative on policy. Extremely conservative.

Has the resources and infrastructure to win. $22 million is nothing compared to what Trump's sitting on, DeSantis is sitting on money-wise and infrastructure-wise. And then broadly appealing, eh, I think he's pulling a 2%. So I don't know about that. I mean, you know, maybe in the future he could be. I think like Trump versus Tim Scott, I think could be an interesting race if it was one-on-one. Sort of an optimistic guy,

positive vision for the country versus Trump. But Trump versus Scott and Haley and DeSantis and Christie and blah, blah, blah. Like I don't know that anything has changed. What do you think? I thought the speech was really good. I think that people are pulling out the funny moments. He's kind of goofy.

When they pull out, he shouted to the microphone the way he announced. He's a goofy guy. But it was the most compelling and interesting speech a Republican other than Trump has given. speech a Republican other than Trump has given. And it's, you know, he goes on about victimhood versus victory, grievance versus greatness. And sure, he's in this speech directing it at Joe Biden and Democrats. But you don't have to squint very hard to see that it is addressing Trump and I think to a lesser extent DeSantis in a way that's pretty interesting. The other part of it that I thought was interesting is he does all, he hits all the erogenous zones, you know, he hits the CRT, hits the wall, but he puts it in the context of a broader, more positive values-based message

that I just think is more broadly appealing and gets you out of the kind of negativity and crassness and coarseness of DeSantis and Trump. But then at the end of the speech, you blink and you miss it. He makes a vague reference to abortion and protecting innocent life. And you sort of see, oh, so here's where his problems are, right? It's Trump and DeSantis and whether or not this Republican Party has any interest in hope and compassion whatsoever. And then the actual reality of his policy positions and the fact that this very kind of good natured and positive and optimistic presentation belies, you know, a candidate who has extreme positions on abortion and who had the most embarrassing statement of anyone trying to kind of dissemble around what kind of national abortion man he would support.

Yeah, I think he gave the best speech certainly at the Republican convention in 2020. I remember thinking so at the time. Again, I think he could be one of their party's best messengers in a general election, but we're running in a Republican primary here. in a general election, but we're running in a Republican primary here. And it's like Tim Scott and Nikki Haley are just like running at another time and another place and another universe where the Republican electorate is completely different than it is. And it's all like pre-2016 notions of what the Republican electorate is that just don't reflect the reality of what has driven those voters, which is grievance. The very thing that he's complaining about in his speech. Yes, it does seem like it's like.

So, first of all, I think that I put him in a different category than any of the rest because whatever. I think he's more talented. I think he's more talented. Haley than DeSantis for sure. Yes, I think he's making a cleaner, I think more sophisticated and smarter argument that actually makes sense. Like there's just, there's a coherence to what he's doing that makes him a legitimate alternative in a way that no one else, not even DeSantis can really offer. You watch it though. Yes, obviously he's not doing, he's trying to say, Hey, we don't need to do grievance politics to a group of people that have become enamored agreement politics, but it took

someone like Trump to drag them this far down and whether or not it works this time. Like this is very clearly to me, the best and only person I've seen make a case for a way to kind of drag Republicans back over time. And if it doesn't work now, it might work in the future, but, and, but I'm not, it was, he did better than I expected. I really was like impressed by it. It's just one of those, again, it's too subtle. Like if you're gonna, to your point, if you're gonna drag the Republican voters out of it, you're gonna be like, what the elephant in the room here is that it's a party in enthrall to like the fucking cult of personality that is Donald Trump,

you know, and he has said before, he's thankful for Trump's time in office. If you really think that the party is going in the wrong direction in the country because there's too much grievance, stuff like that, then you got to identify the fucking problem, which is the guy that you're running against. Yeah, he seems like a nice guy. Like there's these stories about his early Senate days. He would like go down to goodwill, not tell anyone who it is, mop the floors, talk to people, do these focus groups. Seems like a nice human being. But he made the same exact deal with the devil on Donald Trump's administration that they

all did after he and Haley endorsed Marco Rubio in South Carolina in 2016. And Trump kicked Marco's ass by 10 points. So I think, frankly like the fact that you like the speech that we all think he's kind of like an interesting, nice guy is probably why he will not go anywhere. Whereas like, uh, Tucker Carlson is out polling him in national polls of Republican voters. Cause what they want is that unadulterated, like grievance own the other guy viciousness. Like, I just don't see an audience for this. Well, and I would respect it if he took on Trumpism, right? If he was doing this message, but taking on Trumpism and the

fact that he's trying to have it both ways, which he has with Trump, which he sort of did with the abortion question too, right? Like, you know, he, he's trying to do the message, but he's underneath it. He's, you know, I think that's the test, right? Like it's like there's two versions of somebody with this kind of, I think, optimistic, hopeful tone, like in a debate, right? If this ultimately led to a debate. One is I think the kind of Obama style

of like kind of being above it all in a way that makes someone like Trump or DeSantis look very silly. And then you have the kind of Jeb Bush style, which makes you look kind of pummeled. Right now, there was something, there was a very bad sign, I think, for Tim Scott that one of his aides told, I think maybe Playbook, like, we think the contrast is so obvious, we're not even gonna have to talk about Donald Trump. It's like, okay, so this is all doomed. You know, we'll see. Like,

yes, I think the fact that the speech, that I think it's a good speech probably doesn't speak well for him. but um, I Don't know. What do you think 57 year old bachelor with no kids? He yeah and look here's reportedly a virgin until he was 46 Yeah, according to Ben Terrace at the Washington Post who actually had to ask him that question about his Virginia Yeah, yeah, that's cool 40 something year old. Look we're never not we can't this country can't have a single president single people are freaks Look, we're never, we can't, this country can't have a single president. Single people are freaks. Here's one last problem. You know, I'm sure you point out that he's at one, two percent in the national polls. His team could say national polls. They don't mean anything. This is all about the early states. Okay, let's try South Carolina where he's a senator, where he has won two elections and everyone knows who he is. He's only polling seven percent.

He just got in. Yeah. And he's competing as Nikki Haley, another sort of home state darling. Yeah, he just got in, but it's not a name ID problem with him in South Carolina. Everyone knows who he is. So I think it's going to be tough.

So Ron DeSantis is set to launch his campaign Wednesday. Reports are that Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Chris Sununu are getting ready to announce in a matter of days, weeks, right behind him. Not Sununu., Chris Sununu are getting ready to announce in a matter of days, weeks, right behind them. Not Sununu.

Yeah, Sununu. Here he comes. Rounding out a GOP field that also includes Trump, Scott, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy. I guess Larry Elder is in it too. What? Really? I know. I was reading it today and I realized I needed to add him. All right, Larry. You guys think this is, is it Trump's race to lose? Is it Trump to Santas? Or do you see a path for any of these other candidates? I would like to just share, first of all, the Sununu thing is the dumbest one yet.

But I like that he's sort of like, does Sununu have a chance? And then mentions halfway through that he's pro-choice. No, he doesn't. No. Well, he's another one who's an extremely popular governor in New Hampshire. And if you look at New Hampshire primary polls, not registering too high. I would just like to read this. This is the most nepo baby paragraph I've ever read in history. As an engineering student at MIT, Sununu dreamed of Hollywood. He wrote a romantic comedy screenplay about a European man falling in love in Boston.

After briefs in NYU's film school, where the chess hustlers of Washington Square Park sometimes separated him from his money, Sununu said he experienced an epiphany on a five-month Appalachian trail hike from Maine to Georgia. Wow. Yeah. Interesting profile. That is Connor Roy shit. Speaking of New England popular governors, I mean, remember Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts, was polling at 73% statewide in Massachusetts, but he couldn't win the Republican primary.

Like, that's the task that these guys have. You can be the most, 73%, he was like wildly popular governor of the state. I don't know. Who knows what will happen? I would say this. My feeling on this is Hutchinson, Nikki Haleyaley sununu chris christie these people are jokes uh but dim scott's not a joke yeah i just think that they are all of these candidates now have given trump outside of desantis exactly what he wanted which was a big republican primary field

and the reason you know it's what he wanted is because he's telling us he says it he welcomed everybody into the field welcome tim scott to the race said he wanted is because he's telling us. He says it. He welcomed everybody into the field. Welcome Tim Scott to the race. Said he was a, he's certainly a step up from DeSanctimonious, who's completely unelectable. And then he said, the field's getting loaded up with people fast. He's just one of those, he's just telling you what he's thinking. And this is the problem is like DeSantis, Scott, Haley, Pence, they're all going to be fighting over the traditional conservatives, the evangelicals. Christie, Sununu, Hutchinson are going to be fighting over the extremely small anti-Trump faction in the party. So, like, you got all these people fighting over each other.

They're trying to try to get each other's votes. 16 again. And then you've got and then DeSantis, who is struggling anyway right now, needs every last one of those other votes. And if they start taking a little bit from DeSantis, then it's Trump's. But it's not 16 again in the sense that we went through this. It was so inconceivable. People couldn't believe that Trump was happening, that all these people stayed in the field believing that they could potentially be the alternative. I don't know that you can do that this time, polling at 3% in November before the primaries begin.

So you could see it narrow. We'll see. People are so delusional. Do you think these people do the right thing? What are we talking about here? A lot of them, like, they don't have enough money to do polling and research, right? And so they're, like, listening to their advisors, telling them, like, you never know what might happen. They're probably meeting people at meet and greets who are like, I'm actually for you, you know?

And then they think that's great. Mike Pence, what is mike pence doing does does mike pence not think that the republican electorate has rendered a judgment what if mike pence is pretty loud and clear yeah what if mike pence was hanged on january 6th and we're all in a kind of simulation that's his kind of purgatory to make up for his sins and he keeps rerunning it until he learns to stop being a fucking prick it's a groundhog day yeah interesting but for interesting and six uh he just keeps waking up yeah i think if these people stick around till iowa it's like it's trump's nomination i mean they gotta start they all gotta start dropping out by then um so one issue likely to be the subject of fierce debate in both the republican primary and the general election

is america's support for Ukraine. President Biden met with President Zelensky at the G7 in Japan, where he also announced a joint international effort to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 fighter aircraft. Meanwhile, Russia claims to have captured the key city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and also released a list of 500 Americans who were banned from entering Russia. a list of 500 americans who were banned from entering russia that includes barack obama rachel maddow brad raffensperger tish james stephen colbert seth meyers jimmy kimmel joe scarborough and the capitol police officer who shot ashley babbitt seth meyers seth meyers looks up from the pool at sochi it's like you know why is he in sochi he's on vacation oh it's russia oh because it's because it's Yeah, I got out of here. All right, before we get to the list, Tommy, what is the significance of Biden's announcement on the F-16 trainings? I think the F-16 announcement is recognition that the White House thinks this war

is going to go on for a very long time. Because over the long term, you're gonna have a border that you need to defend and you're gonna need a modern air force. The current fighting and even the sort of long promised but seemingly not started yet spring offensive is tanks in open fields in eastern Ukraine and artillery and drones directing these, you know, artillery fire and efforts to cut off supply lines. And so what this does is sort of start the clock on training Ukrainian pilots. It takes about four months to train you up on an F-16. You'll have to pull pilots who are currently flying missions off those missions to do this. So there is a bit of a cost to this. Then you have to get the Dutch and the Poles to actually supply the planes. And over the long term, it's not just about supplying an F-16.

It's maintaining it. It's the missiles are really expensive. The fuel is really expensive. They estimate that one flying hour requires 16 man hours of maintenance for an F-16. So it's just like a massive ongoing undertaking. And they're all integrated into radar systems and other air defense systems. So this to me is just signals that this is not ending anytime soon in the eyes of the white house decision makers hadn't there been some concerns about like that this would be taken as a sign of escalation yeah and then how do you why why do you think they got over those concerns they seem to

get over those concerns routinely you know i mean there is i think there's a very good faith concern about escalation and provoking putin and any response that might lead to something like a nuclear response but uh this happened with the long range missiles it's happened now with these f-16s i think they think it's manageable uh what's with that sanctions list it seems like uh quite a cast of characters uh it's a pretty good list you know it was missing a few there was a lot of Trump enemies on that list but you're missing some key ones like where's Deb Messing where is Deb Messing

where's Alyssa Milano and also Joe Scarborough's on there where's Mika no Krasensteins no Krasensteins are they enemies Major Biden sanctioned a pet make some news where's uh Luis Mech I don't know yikes Major Biden sanctioned a pet. Make some news. Where's Luis Mench?

I don't know. Yikes. Is Putin basically doing that to just like troll? I don't know. The Biden administration? It seems like. There's also a lot of national security nerds on there. So, I mean, there's some sort of wonky people. There's a lot of Biden administration officials, like the NSC staff, the White House.

Ben LeBolt, our friends on there. So, I don't know. Like, it's childish, petty nonsense nonsense do you guys feel embarrassed that that you and ben rhodes didn't make why aren't you on there well i think ben's on it from the the last time they said oh ben and ben and dan are still on it from i mean i don't think they get taken off you're gonna test that proposition you're gonna buy a ticket it's yeah, I imagine it hasn't been like an exciting vacation destination

already. It would be a lot more painful if you could have a list where those people then had to visit your country. You know what I mean? Like a mandatory visit. A mandatory visit list.

Like 20 a year and you're like, all right, come on over. Come to Sochi. You got to be here. We have some breaking news about the White House meeting

is over. Okay. And? Speaker McCarthy, I think the tone tonight was better than any other time we've had discussion theater criticism great we are we are excited about the tone and then uh the the one of the lead negotiators uh republican representative patrick mchenry said we've had tough meetings we've had difficult meetings this meeting was productive no acrimony okay that makes me nervous that means like the public feel like they're getting something. Yeah.

So we're really, yeah, great. Every Democrat on the Hill read that thought out. Buy us dinner first, you know what I'm saying? All right, finally, we've been talking a lot about the Biden-Trump rematch that's currently our most likely future. So the Washington Post just held a series of focus groups with the kinds of voters who may decide the race, people who cast their ballot for Donald Trump in 2016 and then voted for Joe Biden in 2020. They got 15 Democrats, independents and Republicans from swing states. Nine were white, four were black, two Asian Americans. None of them want either Biden or Trump to run again, like most Americans. Nearly

all of them are worried about Biden's age. But when asked specifically about a Biden Trump rematch, nine said they'd vote for Biden. Three said they'd back Trump and three said that they would vote third party or not vote just to focus groups. But the Post noted that the findings are in line with what Democratic strategists have been finding in polls and focus groups of their own. You guys have any takeaway from these groups? And if you're the Biden campaign, what do you do with information like this? I'll tell you what my first thought was. It was like nine to 15. Can we do it with nine to 15? I was like, I was like, I don't know that we can. I think we need a couple more people. You know, I talked to shots about this too. You know, it's very clear that that age is a big liability. It is a bigger liability than it was in 2020. I think it has been, I think Republicans have done a very good job spreading

it. I think the reality of having a person this old running is not possible to ignore. And we have to not, we can't have an abstract conversation about whether or not Biden's too old. He just has to go out there and be among the people and sort of have moments like he's had at the State of the Union and others that show that he's vigorous despite his age. I don't know what else you're supposed to do with this. It's kind of like this is Biden's core pitch, right? Like, don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative. And when these people did, they were much more likely to vote for Joe Biden. I also think, you know, when you combine this with the catalyst research you and Dan talked about on Thursday, that showed in the key swing states, issues like abortion

access and the extremity of GOP candidates motivated people and they understood the stakes beyond the individuals on the ballot. So that that makes me hopeful. But yeah, I mean, you know, this doesn't signal like high, high, high turnout election. Certainly not an election that people are gonna be excited about. It could be a very high turnout election, but it's not something,

people aren't gonna be like running to the polls excited. I guess you're right. To the point it's a high turnout election, it's because you opposed the other guy. That's exactly it. Negative partisanship. And to that end, if I was the Biden campaign, and I'm sure this is what they're thinking, but like the best Biden moments over the last couple of years, the speeches about democracy, January 6th, the in the middle of the State of the Union when he started ad libbing and basically fighting with Republicans over Social Security and Medicare. care right they are moments when biden has both shown energy and painted the contrast with

republicans and i think you can solve two birds with one stone there right people are a little worried about his age whenever he's feisty and shows some energy that helps that and when he is keeping the focus on what a donald trump second term would look like like paint a picture and as you said tommy you can also remind people like, oh, in these red states where Republicans have full control, this isn't the future. This is the present. This is what's happening right now. There are book bans. There are full abortion bans.

There's the don't say gay law in Florida, right? So you can start using these examples and just have Biden out there with like a very fiery, energetic stump speech that's just kicking the shit out of trump and republicans and telling people exactly what would happen if he gets a second term and if that's where he keeps the focus then you're going to have people just like in this group who are like yeah he's a little old whatever but we don't want that we don't want that again one more thing about those focus groups that i thought was interesting they tested desantis in addition to Trump. And most, the majority of participants also chose Biden over DeSantis because they said he was too extreme.

Yeah, that's good. That's great. Yeah, man, never someone, you know, only Elon Musk could build a ship that would explode so quickly on the

launch pad there, you know, DeSantis really has done it to himself for these voters. Yeah. And when they brought up their criticisms of Trump were, you know, not surprising,

his character, his social media use, and they brought up the investigations a bunch, which is also interesting. All right. So when we come back, Senator Brian Schatz

talks with Lovett about debt ceiling strategy and lots more. We'll be right back. Lots more. Joining us now, he's Hawaii Senator, friend of the pod and the most popular senator in the country, according to a recent poll. Senator Brian Schatz, glad to have you back. Nice to be back. Nice to see you, John. You walk around like, you know around like a big swinging dick now?

How am I supposed to answer that question? By the way, that reminds me, the one time I went to your live show, there were like three female comedians and you, and it was just all dick jokes, and I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that that happened. I mean, it wasn't all. Anyway, let's get back to work. So Speaker McCarthy spoke briefly before going into another meeting with Biden. He didn't say much. We had hopeful signs at the end of the week. Then a Trump truth sent people into a tizzy. Now we're back at the table. You know, Janet Janet Yellen is looking under couch cushions. She's

going into the bathroom. She's making sure she's alone. And then she's screaming at the top of her lungs. We're recording this Monday evening. McCarthy predicts he'll keep his caucus together and says a deal needs to have less spending than last year. What is the latest? What are you hearing? Well, obviously, the president and the speaker are meeting in the next couple of hours. You know, I'm not going to take too much from the various public statements. I think, you know, sometimes people make grouchy public statements specifically to soften the ground for a compromise. So I'm hopeful that we will land this. And if we land this in a place that unlocks the appropriations process and avoids a government shutdown in the fall, then that's actually all is well that ends well. It's a stupid way to do business.

I continue to think that debt ceiling should be statutorily repealed. I have a bill to do that. So I don't want to defend the process. But if the result ends up being something that unlocks the ability for us to do bipartisan appropriations bills, then I'll be able to live with it. So it sounds like what you're saying there is that if it does allow you to move into that appropriations process, are you saying the actual specific lines that are drawn in this specific deal, that they're not as important, that they're not as significant, that they're not as significant?

What are you saying there? No, I think, look, I think the numbers matter very much. They're called top lines and they're basically exactly how the Appropriations Committee determines how much money it has to spend. So once those top line agreements are arrived at on a bipartisan basis, they are binding to the committee so um you know my criteria is is this the kind of deal we would have gotten under the under normal circumstances if these people were not um threatening default and that's my criteria is that I I think it's terrible I think we should offer no policy or budget concessions in exchange for not defaulting on the full faith and credit of

the United States of America. But we are where we are. And so now my criteria is, look, is this the kind of deal that we would have done anyway later? Because the truth is Speaker McCarthy is the speaker. And if you're going to get a bipartisan budget deal, it's not going to look like the kind of bipartisan budget deal that we had when Nancy Pelosi was speaker. a bipartisan budget deal that we had when Nancy Pelosi was speaker. Right. So if what you're saying is a deal in which the thing Democrats get isn't the country not going into financial collapse. Right. What are the places where Democrats are seeing give or what do you want to see? What will make

this a bipartisan compromise in which what Democrats are extracting from these negotiations go beyond just lifting the debt ceiling? Well, one of my key priorities is something called parity. And it's a very simple concept, which is you have two categories of discretionary spending and it's defense and non-defense. And for the last 10 years, in order to sort of keep the peace and do bipartisan appropriations, regardless of who's president, regardless of who runs the legislative branch, we've kept parity. Defense and non-defense have been roughly equal as they go up. Kevin McCarthy is trying to stray from that and increase funding for the defense department while decreasing funding on the domestic discretionary side.

We're not going to do that. So that was actually what happened in 2011, right? So in 2011, the sequester was basically a kind of a trigger that would cut both discretionary and defense spending, right? That was sort of the way we we could but we ended up hitting that sequester and doing the cuts but then didn't later we go back and undo some of the defense cuts yeah well we undid the defense cuts and we undid the whole thing overall because it was nonsense the idea that like equal pain will bring uh the parties to the table is not true anymore because i do think that this Republican Party is uniquely

dangerous and doesn't care about governing. And so I don't think we should assume that if we have a sort of Damocles over the Defense Department and a sort of Damocles over, say, the Health and Human Services Department, that that's going to do anything for us. What we have to do is have an arrangement where there's a modest increase in spending or a freeze in spending subject to inflationary costs. And then we move forward with a budget because absent a budget agreement, we're going to end up with a freeze anyway, something called a CR. And so, you know, we're in a strong negotiating position on one level because we

have the executive branch in the control of Democrats and half of the legislature. But on the other hand, it takes an agreement with Kevin McCarthy in order to move forward on appropriation. So if it unlocks that, that's great. I still think it's a stupid precedent to set. I still think that it's insane that the media in particular has normalized this hostage taking to the point where I think most people who are only paying passing attention think this is another like shutdown clock, another sort of, oh, Democrats and Republicans, cats and dogs. That's not what's happening here. These people are really threatening, you know, the United States dollar as global reserve currency, possibility of the stock market getting chopped by a third or a half, interest rates going up. This is serious stuff. And we have to come to a resolution in the next 10 days. But one of the challenges that it works as leverage

because all the polls show, right, that the blame for it would be laid equally at the feet of Democrats and Republicans. So I don't know how we get out of Republicans using it as a cudgel when the media shows them that it works. And we seem to have, in this case, unlearned the lesson from 2011 that we simply don't negotiate over the debt ceiling. But I'm not saying that saying that we had any other choice. It does seem like for what this moment does feel different. So did something change that forced us to unlearn that lesson? I don't know the answer to that. You know, I've been thinking about that and whether, you know, I want to substitute my judgment for the presidents here, because I can imagine

that if you're in the Oval, right, and Janet Yellen and everyone else is coming to tell you, you know, interest rates won't just go up temporarily they may go up for 10 years right stock market won't just take a hit it'll get cut in half we won't just lose or temporarily furlough some number of tens of thousands of government jobs like you do in a shutdown but we might lose millions and not get them back and so you know that'll get your attention if you're the leader of the free world. I still hate the idea that we're negotiating. I still hate the idea that this has been normalized, but we are where we are. We have 10 days left to avoid default and we have to do whatever we can to land the plane. So when you were last on the show, we talked about this. We talked about how stupid it is to just have this loaded gun sitting on the

table every two years. And it just seemed like there wasn't momentum when we had the lame duck, when we could have unloaded this gun to get it done. I asked you about this. You said you didn't have the votes. I asked again, basically to no effect. Well, you have been pushing very hard for this, but it just didn't seem like the Democratic caucus was focused on caring about understanding the inevitability of this moment that we're now in. And I, and as someone who wanted to unload this gun, how frustrated are you? How, how long will it take us to learn this lesson? Why did we not take care of this when they had the chance? And does that mean there's a hope to do it in the

future? We should have. And I think it's becoming a mainstream position among Democrats that we just need to repeal this stupid statute. And whether that ends up happening by virtue of the courts ruling in favor of the administration, should they pursue the 14th Amendment, or that the next time we have leverage in a situation like this, that we just decide to repeal the statute. I don't know what the pathway forward is, but I do think the political momentum for repealing the debt ceiling is there. Because I think initially people just use a shorthand and say, well, that's a tough vote because I'm going to look like I'm repealing the debt forever,

or that I'm for endless spending. But I think most people who pay attention, they're going to hold you accountable for whatever you decided to spend money on in the appropriations process. And there's no getting around that by saying, well, I'm not for the debt, but I am for the spending. And so, look, I think we have an opportunity here over the next several months to kind of recalibrate where the institutional position of the Democratic Party is. I was sort of an outlier saying, hey, this thing is coming down the pike and it's dangerous and we need to defuse the bomb. But I did not succeed. So I want to move on to another topic because the debt ceiling is the most important and most boring thing the country is currently facing. I can feel your viewers bleeding off while we were talking about it. Got to get them back. So you're leading the charge on banning children

under 13 from being able to use social media and requiring parental consent from 13 to 17. You also would ban tech companies from serving minors algorithmically, like sort of algorithmically generated content. It's a bipartisan bill. What are the prospects for it? What is the pushback you're hearing either from colleagues or from tech? Well, I think, first of all, I think, you know, most people nod vigorously when they say, when I say a 12 year old and younger should not be on social media. So I don't think that's even a controversial position anymore. 13 through 17 is a little different, right? Because, you know, I talked to staffers of mine who say, Hey, you know, in my teenage years, that's

literally how we interacted. And my point is, you know, most kids who are online via their phones, their parents are paying for the phone. So we're working. And so parental involvement is already the case for the most part, internet access and connectivity is something that your parents have to arrange unless you're, you know, really financially self-sufficient in a way that's unusual for a kid. But my view is that the parents should know what's happening and that the algorithmic boosting is really where the mental health danger is occurring, which is not to say that no algorithms can be used. Like some of our opponents have said like, ha ha, the whole internet is full of algorithms.

You're banning out. Yeah, we understand the internet is full of algorithms. You're banning out, yeah, we understand the internet is full of algorithms. We're talking about the specific part of Instagram or TikTok or other feeds that algorithmically determine with incredible precision, the thing that is most likely to deliver quote unquote engagement. How long will you linger? How likely are you to click? And what they have found is that engagement is at a maximum when you are outraged or angry or disgusted or despairing.

And so now we have a business model that almost guarantees that a whole generation of people are fed an algorithm that makes them despairing, disgusted, angry, isolated, and all the rest of it. And I don't think, first of all, I'm not sure adult brains are capable of sort of beating the algorithm. But certainly a 14-year-old is not capable of doing that. What are the, what's the opposition to the bill? I'm going to take the kind of good faith opposition first. One is, hey, this sounds a little big brothery. I think that's a fair enough thing to worry about. I don't think the government should be in the business of picking content. And this thing is content neutral. I think the other concern I've heard is from LGBTQ plus groups about the ability for queer kids in particular to find each other, to find support, to do research, to not feel alone. And I

think all of that is important. But remember, we're not banning a kid from using social media. It's just that the social media platform will not have that feed that is algorithmically boosted. You still ought to be able to type in whatever you want, find things that you want, have a feed, be on social media. It's just the algorithm that's shoving you outrage bait, which will no longer be permitted for kids 13 through 17. Yeah. I mean, it does seem like there's a lot of evidence, especially around adults, about the harm that being fed this kind of content causes, the impact it's having on politics. But it's less clear in terms of the core issue around kids, which I think

has focused people on depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide threats, suicide attempts, more kids dying of suicide. Josh Hawley has a bill that would just ban kids under 16 from being on social media. That's obviously more draconian than what you're proposing. But it does seem like right now, parents are buying the phones. Parents feel right. I mean, you talk to parents about this. They feel that their kids are dragging them onto social media because all the other kids are on it. Do you see any merit to going further and just saying, this stuff is so right now, this is brain poison. It hurts kids more than cigarettes do. Like it's taking their lives. Maybe kids just shouldn't be on this till they're out of middle school, till they're in high school at the earliest.

I'm sort of sympathetic to the view, but I think that there's more evidence the younger you get. And there are fewer upsides the younger you get, right? As you get a little older, you know, my kids can learn, you know, fishing or crochet or piano, or there's some cool stuff you can learn from social media. But I didn't see a ton of benefits for a nine-year-old, an 11-year-old, even a 14-year-old. So, you know, this sort of age gating stuff is always kind of goofy, right? Because should a kid be allowed to drive at 16 or 16 and a half or whatever? And the kind of absurdity of picking a particular age is, you know, presents a bunch of challenges. So, look, we tried to set a threshold that made sense.

And I think the worry that I have is that the tech companies are now saying, well, we're not really sure that it's us, right? And I guess what I would say is, look, if I were like the principal investigator on some scientific study, I would say, sure, we need two decades of longitudinal research, right? And I'm thinking, kids can't wait that long. We have to be precautionary when it comes to our kids. We have to assume that everything that the data is showing and that our own personal experience, not mine in particular, but all of our collective experiences are telling us we have to believe our own eyes and our own ears and the indications from the preliminary data and just protect this next generation, not to keep them offline, but to make sure that their online experience is safer for them.

All right, let's move on to another topic from the young to the old. Dianne Feinstein is back in the Senate. She's on a lighter schedule, but she did vote to move some stalled nominees out of judiciary. There's been some reporting that she seemed to not acknowledge or possibly not even remember that she had been absent. What do you say to people like me that believe she should resign and that California deserves to have two full-time senators? Well, the decision to resign is in her possession. And I think that's the main thing to remember is that this isn't a question of, oh, Chuck Schumer should be tougher or something, right? This is in her possession, the way the law operates. She gets to decide when and if to step down. But I will say that, you know, to the degree and extent that the business of the Senate, in particular, the Judiciary Committee, is slowed down or stopped, then it's no longer just a question of whether a particular person enjoys a particular job and continues to think they are good at it. It's a question of what's in the best interest of the country. And I

have some confidence that she will eventually come to that conclusion if she's no longer able to serve. I think on the other side, and I kind of understand where your listeners are coming from here, is that, you know, you do want to make sure there's room for someone to be sick and come back. Right. Right. John Fetterman, Mitch McConnell. Right. Like lots of people have stuff they have to deal with and then come back. And if you have a reasonable level of confidence that the person is going to return to fulfilling their duties, that's a whole different conversation. You know, if they're going to be gone for five years, that doesn't work.

If they're going to be gone for two or three months, then I think, you know, they do, they have earned an election certificate and they are, I think, not entitled. But I think it's appropriate to allow someone to get better. If I needed two months to get better, if something happened to me, I would want two months to get better. If I was maybe never going to come back, that's a different conversation. Will you pledge to not seek reelection to the Senate in 2058? That is the that is when you will be in your mid-80s. Oh, yes.

Okay. Just, let's everybody, can we just flag this? Just put a card on this, because we're going to forget. But we got them. Mid-80s. Mid-80s. All right. Senator, you're one of the best messengers in the Democratic Party,

which is how we preface our hardest questions. Voters aren't thrilled about the prospect of a Biden Trump rematch. There was a focus group out of the Washington Post today that said there was a lot of concerns among swing voters. But once they were presented the choice between Biden and Trump, I think it was nine of 15 broke towards Biden, much more worried about the prospects of a Trump reelection, but a lot of concerns about Biden's age and fitness. If this is his biggest liability as a candidate, what does he need to do to address it and to overcome it? I think he's starting to do that. I mean, you know, the White House Correspondents' Dinner, he made a bunch of, I thought, pretty good jokes about his age. And, you know, I was

thinking about this. I think Bernie Sanders is 80. Nobody jokes about his age. And, you know, I was thinking about this. I think Bernie Sanders is 80. Nobody talks about his age now. He's not commander in chief, I understand. But I think that Joe Biden has to demonstrate that he is vigorous, that he is energetic. Because I think seeing is believing. The numerical age is, I mean, it's a big number, right? And so the only way that you can persuade people that you are energetic enough, that you have the acuity to do the job is to demonstrate that.

And I think he's going to do that over the next year and a half. But I think that's the big challenge is that if you're just arguing over whether 80 as an abstraction is quite old and most people are retired by then, I mean, that's just a fact, right?

What I think Joe Biden has to demonstrate is that he's different. One last question. We had Hawaiian food at a company-wide lunch last week. It was 10 out of 10. People have been raving about it. People aren't talking about this.

They aren't talking about it. It's not getting the attention it deserves. What can you do as, again, the most popular center in the country to get the people outside of Hawaii to understand what's on offer? So I just had a poke bowl for lunch right here and it's almost, but then I had to jump on the zoom and I just want to make this point. And I know this isn't the question you asked. You guys are all doing poke bowls wrong. It's not a salad.

It's not Chipotle. You don't get to make a hundred different choices and put all kinds of different nonsense on it. It's usually pretty simple. Cube dahi or cube some other kind of fish and some seasoning. But don't go to places that spell poke with an I. And maybe just wait till you're in Honolulu before you get any poke. All right.

I mean, I think that's pretty definitive. Senator Brian Shantz, thank you so much. Always good to see you. Keep the economy running, all right? I'm going to try.'s pretty definitive. Senator Brian Shantz, thank you so much. Always good to see you. Keep the economy running, all right? I'm going to try. Keep it going. Okay. Next shot. Thank you.

All right, before we go, we wanted to gear up for Ron DeSantis' official campaign launch this week with some thoughtful analysis about how he's handling what will undoubtedly be his biggest challenge as a candidate, being a person that other people like. Here's a clip that made the rounds on social media this weekend after he pressed the flesh in New Hampshire. What's your name? I'm Tim Hampton. Okay. How are you? I'm wonderful.

What's your name? What's your name?'m tim amson okay how are you i'm wonderful what's your name what's your name i'm tim okay okay i'm wonderful where do i go i'll come in here there there's so much like artifice in politics and you have to be comfortable in these weird situations that are totally fake and manufactured where you're in a diner and there's seven people but 25 you know news cameras they're filming you and he just can't seem to do it you don't even have to have so much charisma hey what's your name tim hey tim how are you i'm trying to try that i'm wrong ask him about himself don't say okay and then just fucking run away like a weirdo it's really funny it's it's um you know, we have this incredibly stupid way of picking who our president's going to be. And we get it wrong half the time. It's a multiple choice question with two answers.

We get it wrong 50% of the time. But I will say this process of forcing very tired, hyper-ambitious lunatics to go into diners when they're at their most exhausted and nervous and have them interact does reveal something. How do we know he's exhausted? He's fine. He's barely even running. I'm just saying when they're in there, when they're in the thick of it. When they're really in the thick of it them interact does reveal something. How do we know he's exhausted? He's fine. He's barely even running. I'm just saying when they're in there, when they're in the thick of it, when they're in the really in the thick of it.

This guy's fucking our age. No, no, I'm not talking about, I'm not saying right now, I'm saying over the 44 years old. wait, that's not the point.

I love DeSantis. This is stupid. No, let me, let me do it again. No, this is much more fun than what you were going to. No,

but that didn't make sense. That wasn't the point I was making. I wasn't saying he's exhausted. Okay. I'm not saying that he looks exhausted or is exhausted now. I'm saying over time, this ridiculous way of having candidates interact with normal people ultimately shows us who they really are. Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. And he is, and this is the beginning of the campaign. Imagine what he's going to be like at the end after he's been doing six events a day for months. It is also wild that Ron just— You're going to punch someone in the face. We're contemporaries with this man. Yeah.

He looks older than us. He looks something. I don't know what it is. He's already years. Now, in fairness, he did have a much deeper interaction in Iowa with a fan who shared how far they'd traveled just to get a chance to meet him. Let's watch. Okay, nice. How far is that from here? Iowa with a fan who shared how far they'd traveled just to get a chance to meet him. Let's watch. Already has his back to him. And what you can't see there is he walks away.

So he turned on him. Okay is his end of the conversation. Okay. You get one question. You come up to Ron DeSantis. You say something. You tell him who you are. You tell him where you're from. says okay he moves away he's really already he's really

really already falling into the trap of like the stories are that he can't relate to people and so now he has to relate to people then everybody watches how he relates to people that he can't do it you're gonna start getting the stories like oh no the real you gotta get to know the real ron desantis well and when you hear that about yourself because undoubtedly he's reading all this criticism or you know internalizing it in some way then you get in your own head and so now you're trying extra hard to be the relatable guy this is him trying this is him trying okay and the current narrative is like he can't do this stuff but his wife is his secret weapon that's why he has her out and stumping etc so i'm sure he'll get you know put off by that and feel like no i can do it myself you've also i've heard of

candidates who have the opposite problem like someone was to uh work for al gore told me that they had to stop prepping him so much because he would go into meetings and meet with like new hampshire state reps he'd never met before and he'd be like hey bruce good to meet you how's your wife sally and your four kids like or Oren, Jim, Jan, and whatever. And it was like, okay. Because he was a student who had to ace the test. Yeah. More natural.

Yeah, no, he's, Ron DeSantis doesn't have a, it's just, it's just awkward. A Trump person said about Tim Scott, Tim Scott doesn't have to write likable at the top of his piece of paper. Which I think tells you a lot about this. At least Ron DeSantis isn't running against someone in the primary who just has a knack for zeroing in on a person's absolute weakness and exploiting it as much as possible. Destroying it. Like Donald Trump is just going to. It's not like Trump is some great retail politician. He throws toilet paper at people and insults them and then says he's smarter than everybody in the room

and leaves. I think he's pretty good at retail. But he's more charming than this. He's good at talking to people and making them feel listened to and I don't know, he slaps backs and hangs out.

He has nothing better to do. He hates his family. He's got tons of free time. Well, he, it's different, right? Because Trump, Trump I don't think is great in like the diner.

He doesn't do this well. Because, so he knows that and so he just doesn't do it and what he does is the performance on the stage and he's really good at that. He doesn't do this well. So he knows that and so he just doesn't do it and what he does is the performance on the stage and he's really good at that.

He does this shit too. He like signs people's stuff and hangs out. He likes to do the thing of like, he likes to like go into a, he likes to go into the diner and then talk to everybody.

He wants to do his, he wants to do his, he wants to do his type five. Yeah, he wants to do his five. Yeah, for sure. Like when he goes into McDonald's and says,

I've eaten everything on this menu. And you're like, yeah, he has. All right uh so finally uh it's clear that desantis has mastered the subtle subtle art of pandering let's listen iowa's like the florida of the midwest they said but i just want to let you know after watching all the good stuff you've done in iowa it may be that florida's the iowa the southeast so we'll see what do you think tommy iowans gonna eat that up oh my god what what that was so tortured i know i know it's tough it's tough okay i'm gonna say it again uh ronda santos makes people feel like uh

uh their needs are met donald trump makes people feel like they have no needs. This guy, this guy, this guy. This guy stinks. His voice is so annoying. Someone wrote him that line, too. He seemed sort of proud delivering that line. Very, very cringeworthy.

It's so, it's interesting, just, he's been dreaming about running for president for so long, and now he's finally doing it. Reminds me of a roommate I had back in the day who was going to a little school in northeast D.C. called Strayer University. And he would, you know, meet women and say, I'm going to the Harvard of northeast D.C. But he would always leave out the D.C. part. So he'd say, I'm going to the Strayer.

It's the Harvard of the northeast. And they'd be like, I harvard's in the northeast sometimes that was missing a key part of more charming than the rest of the joke but yeah um look this gives me no pleasure i mean this is just we're gonna get fucking donald trump as a nominee again i don't want like that's it sucks i wish ron i don't want ron to be president but like to be president, but Donald Trump is a uniquely dangerous threat to democracy. And all these fucking goofs are just... They can't do it. And this was an event where...

This is this Feenstra family picnic thing in Iowa. This was the one where he was graded on a curve and people said he did well. Oh, it was? Yeah. This was the one where... Flip burgers, did the glad handling. Because he went to Des moines and was like no

no no that was this is the first event in western iowa okay yeah not that not the big the big shot at trump when he went to des moines and said it's sunny outside no no that was that was a couple events later it's like slam got him man this guy this guy's really fizzling yeah well he's really fizzling it's a really he's gonna learn i'm telling you watch my watch watch my guy tim scott okay we're Just watch him. Just keep an eye out. You're all in on Tim Scott. I'm not all in.

I'm in. He's my Ted Cruz of this cycle. You and Mike Murphy of Hacks on Tap. Oh, really? You and Murph. Nice. I'm telling you. Just watch it.

All right. Just watch it. I'm not saying what's going to happen. I'm just saying keep an eye on it. Tommy, do you want to take Vivek Ramaswamy? That guy. Should we do a draft? He's doing a lot of press.

Should we all draft? We should do a draft. We'll do a draft. He doing a lot of press should we all dress we should do a draft we'll do a draft he didn't lose his virginity he was 46 that's allegedly yeah allegedly he lost it earlier or didn't lose it at all he's not a virgin i'm just trying not to get sued over here allegedly i think he said that yeah ben teres had to ask him because he said he would not have sex until marriage and he was i think at the, a 46 year old single guy. If there is even a hint that Tim Scott's candidacy might threaten Donald Trump's candidacy, you will see Donald Trump go so fast from welcome to the race to making fun of the 40 year old virgin.

I mean, it will be, it's not a, it will be relentless. No, it's, it's good. I think it'll be worse than that. Let me read this tweet from Ben Terrace. Tim Scott will be the first Prez candidate I've ever asked about the status of his virginity. Initial answer, I'm not talking about my sex life with Ben Terrace.

Then he stood up and said, I have to go potty. Care to revise? I don't know. I don't know. I love this guy. I said that we're not going to elect a single president. So maybe there's still time.

Yeah, he just has to meet the right person. Well, that's a story. That's a campaign trail story. There you go. Is he on hinge? Ultimately, he implied he did not wait until marriage. Yeah. So there's some.

Okay. That's why I said elect. To be revealed. Yeah, to be revealed. Thanks to Brian Schatz for joining us. Don't know why you keep coming back on. After hearing some of the questions Love that But thank you, we appreciate you joining

And we'll talk to you all on Thursday Bye Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production The executive producer is Michael Martinez Our producers are Andy Gardner-Bernstein And Olivia Martinez It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis.

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