Pod Save America - Republicans Beg Trump to Be New Person

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

More and more Republicans are asking Donald Trump if it might be possible for him to stop the personal attacks on Kamala Harris and focus on a persuasive message. His answer? Absolutely not. In yet another country club press conference, Trump says he's "entitled to personal attacks" because he doesn't respect Harris, calls her stupid, and rants about communists. Meanwhile, Harris and Joe Biden hold their first joint event since Biden stepped down from the race, and it's full of good policy and good vibes. Plus, Tim Walz talks tacos, and RFK Jr. might be looking for an exit strategy. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, Donald Trump holds another absolute banger of a press conference while Kamala Harris and Joe Biden hold their first joint event since the president left the race, big announcement about lower drug prices. And later, RFK Jr. was apparently willing to drop out

of the race if Kamala Harris offered him a job. But first, there is one topic that Republicans are focusing on the last couple days, and it's not Kamala Harris or the economy or even immigration. It's this. Quit whining about her. The campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb.

I will say that in that discussion with Elon, to me, he seemed quite rambling. I mean, it was like, he rambles. He goes on too long at his rallies and in these exchanges and at his presser the other day to where you get kind of bored, you lose the thread, you lose interest. The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see. It's fewer insults, more insights, and that policy contrast. It's insane to attack Kamala Harris personally when in fact the attacks on her actual policy statements will be much more devastating.

So that was Nikki Haley, Megan Kelly, Kelly and Conway, and Peter Navarro. Fresh from prison to the podcast studio. Yeah, he was guest hosting for Steve Bannon on the war room. I guess Tommy wasn't available. That's right. Well, they record the same time as Pod Save the World,

so Tommy's never available for the gig of his dreams. Peter Navarro went to prison for Trump and now is criticizing his campaign strategy. Maybe you should take what he has to say a little bit seriously. No rhino there. So Republicans are once again nervous that Trump's lack of discipline and obsession

with petty grievances, aka his personality, might cost him a race. He was favored to win just a month ago. So his campaign tried to send the old man out to talk about the economy in what was billed as a major policy speech in North Carolina this week. Let's listen to how that went. one subject, and then we'll start going back to the other, because we sort of love that, don't we? But it's an important, no, it's an important subject. They say it's the most important subject. I'm not sure it is, but they say it's the most important.

Short. Spoiler, he did not talk about the economy. In that economic policy speech, he ended up just going on. He did his usual STEM speech, rambling. He did his tampon-tim thing. He's yelling about Kamala Harris. It was just a complete mess. So then Trump's advisors somehow Convinced him to shuffle out of another one of his golf clubs today for a redo on economic messaging Let's see how that went. She's running on the Maduro plan

We call it the Maduro plan like something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union. He wants to change a free enterprise type country into a communist type country. That's what she knows. Ideas and Joe Biden too. I mentioned him, but he's sort of gonzo. But you're allowed to rob a store as long as it's not more than $950. Has everyone ever heard of that? You can rob a store and you have thieves going into stores with calculators calculating how much it is. Because if it's less than $950 they can rob it and not get charged.

That was her. I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she'll be a terrible president and I think it's very important that we win and whether the personal attacks are good bad I mean she certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me weird. He's weird and by the way I'm a big fan of electricity. I'm a big fan of electricity. It was nearly two hours, this press conference.

He walks out of Bedminster in New Jersey, his, uh, his country club there. And he's surrounded by tables with cereal and other products. Cause they wanted to do like a, an inflation event, a high prices event. And he, he walks out, he sort of sticks to the script for a little while, he seems just terribly bored reading what his advisors wanted him to say. He's doing like, he's just reading off statistics about the economy, this price is up 30%, blah, blah, blah, done with this thing.

Then he goes and starts taking questions and just all bets are off as per usual. He was criticizing Hillary Clinton at one point and like talking about how she should feel lucky that he never threw her in jail and he never really wanted to throw her in jail. And then he went back to the bleach bit. He's doing, he's playing the old hits now. She's, she's, she's banging her Blackberry

around and burning the emails and it was wild. What did you think? Favorite moments? I just want to start with the premise here and burning the emails and it was wild. What did you think? Favorite moments? I just want to start with the premise here that they held an event to highlight the high cost of living at a golf club where it cost

a half a million dollars to join. You don't think that's a. It's truly one of the fucking stupidest things I've ever seen a campaign do in my life. It's because he's too lazy to go do it at a grocery store. There's clearly a grocery store pretty close because they went and bought all the groceries and I will, this is a small thing

that only people like us care about, but they set almost all the groceries up so they weren't in the camera shot. So all there was- Yeah, it was just like him and a random box of honey bunches of oats next to him. Yes, there was Cheerios, three coffees, and some meat just sitting, baking in the sun there for two hours.

And all this is having all these signs that apparently had the increase, like an egg cost or something over the course of the Biden-Harris administration. No one saw any of that. They just, all they saw was three tubs of coffee, some rotting meat and his golf club in the background. I mean, just insane. A truly insane thing for a campaign to do.

Like blown away by how stupid it was. I think it's very funny that clip that we played of Republicans giving him advice. They're like, Kellyanne Conway's like, don't go with the personal insults, talk about policy. And Nikki Haley's like, stop complaining about her. And then you heard there at the press conference, he's like, I'm entitled to my personal attacks

on Kamala Harris. He just goes right into it. Well, that's in response to a question that was asked by a CNN reporter, essentially about the argument that Nikki Haley and others have made about the personal attacks. And apparently that's something a lot of Republicans

have been saying on the Hill. And he then answered that with a 10 minute tie rate of personal attacks on people. I couldn't, I came into the studio to interview our friend David Plouffe, who's now in the Harris campaign, tune into the wilderness this Sunday at the finale, I got a great conversation David Plouffe, who is now in the Harris campaign, tune into the wilderness this Sunday at the finale. I get a great conversation with Plouffe.

And I came out and he's like still giving that answer. It was wild. I was like, I can't believe he's, I'm like, John and Tommy, I was like, what's going on? What did I miss? Are you still talking? Are you still giving this answer?

Sometimes I do the thing where I wait till it's over and then I watch Trump at 1.75 speed to prepare for this podcast or whatever else I'm doing. But was that 130 hour time a day, we're recording it three hour time, like I'm gonna sit in front of the TV and I'm gonna watch it. And I watched it.

And I watched it. And I watched it. And my kids came home from school and I'm still watching it. It's just, I mean, is it, did he actually stop? I had to leave my house to come to my office to walk. Right before I came in here, he was about to leave. And then they had one more shredded question.

Do you wish you hadn't debated Joe Biden? He did a whole, that was the thing he was most passionate about in the opening remarks. He went on a little tangent about how he did too good in the debate by taking Joe Biden out. And maybe that was a mistake. He did, he did circle back to that. One thing I noticed is that like even last time

he did a press conference, I was kind of like, oh, I can't believe we have to watch this. But you know what? He always says some crazy shit. It'll be fun. We'll have some good content to talk about on Not Pod Save America. Like this one, we were just sitting there and he's going and going, I'm like, he's so boring.

It's like what Megyn Kelly was saying, right? Where he just like, he rambles on and on and on and you lose interest and it's just like, if it is not your job to watch Donald Trump like it is ours, wonderful, wonderful. What a series of mistakes have found us in this place. like it is ours. Wonderful, wonderful. What up? We have chosen. Mistakes have found us in this place. Why would you, I don't know why you'd watch that.

Even if you like Donald Trump, I don't know why you'd watch that. It was so fucking boring. It's not easy to watch either. CNN cut them off like 20 minutes into the opening remarks and came back for the questions. So we all tend to think that the rambling, the incoherence, the two hour press conferences, like, you know, it's not really helping with persuadable voters, not really helping with

much, but it does keep him in the news cycle. He is in the news cycle more than he has been. Now in the Biden Trump race, the theory was the more Trump, the better, because then everyone's going to remember what they don't like about Trump. You know, now with Harris and Trump, people really like Kamala Harris and she's doing really well and she's got sort of this like hopeful, joyful message. And I wonder, like just as an intellectual exercise here, do we think that there's, there's any, there's a case to be made for the let Trump be Trump and more Trump, the better strategy that they are seemingly pursuing now based on just, I'm sure, the desires of one man, Donald Trump.

Oh, we're all intellectuals now, huh, John? We're all intellectuals, just like Trump said, just for this speech. There is no way in any sort of intellectual exercise I could justify a strategy that allowed Trump to be this Trump. Boring, aggrieved, rambling, he mumbles through the message and the only thing he gets passionate about are things that involve personal grievances against him.

This is, that does not matter. And I think it is, like it's, it is from a, like a strategic question. It's sort of interesting because Trump's approval number, like he is, obviously Kamala Harris is doing much better against Trump than Biden was, but Trump's favorable ratings are the highest they have been possibly ever,

other than maybe a blip right after COVID. He's in the mid forties in the battleground states. Certainly higher than they were at this point in 2016 and 2020 in the campaigns. Yes, for sure. And that it might be because he has been out of the news for a month. There's been no Trump and that may have helped him. Now he can't just let Kamala

Harris run to the White House on a wave of energy, hope and joy as she is doing right now. So he needs a strategy to get in the news. And it's one of the reasons why he's acting like a lunatic is he has now run for president three times. And in which is in a row, three times and in which is in a row, who was the last candidate that has run for president three times in a row? Like Ron Paul, maybe I don't, I mean. Yeah, besides like your gadflies. Yeah, I don't think there is a threefer in modern history.

We need to bring our own Daniel. FDR, maybe FDR. FDR, yes, yes, other than FDR. You have to go that far back. Okay. But this is the first time that he has been losing the attention wars, right? In 2016, he dominated obviously the Republican primary,

none of them get their message out. Through much of the general election, Hillary Clinton was responding to Trump, right? 2020, Biden had the strategy of like, basically let Trump light himself on fire and that strategy worked. And in 2024 against Biden. He there was Biden just had no ability to ever put Trump on the defensive just was that was not in his wheelhouse. But what Kamala Harris is doing

is not only is she getting attention and dominating it, she's kind of doing it without really talking about Trump. Like Trump is obviously in her speech, but it is not the way that everyone in politics and media has gotten attention for the last nine fucking years, which is take the crazy thing Trump says and then respond to that. She is driving the conversation and he is being forced to respond to her. And so he has to do something to change that dynamic. The things they have currently tried are not working for them. And this is not the right approach. So I don't believe that it's just let more of this or more Trump is good, but they need to find something between don't be in the news at all

and call the cameras to your golf club to light yourself on fire, right? There's gotta be like a happy middle ground there strategically. In his mind, I would bet that he, he believes all attention is good attention, even if it's negative, right? Even if he's saying, he just wants to be in the news. He thinks that helps him just being in the news. Cause he's got to get attention. I think that even though he knows the economy is the top issue, despite the fact that in that North Carolina speech, he questioned that.

He doesn't believe that if he just talks about the economy, immigration, Kamala Harris' record, her plans, that that's going to do anything for him. Because A, people sort of made up their minds about him and B, that's not going to get him the kind of attention that he craves and that he needs. And so what he wants to do, that's why he said that thing I think about the personal insults, which is like,

he wants to draw her in to a fight, you know? And he probably, the thing he hates the most is that she is not responding to him, like you said, that she is barely talking about him. Or she's just talking about him like he's like a washed up entertainer in the past. That's probably driving him crazy. Cause what he wants to do is to goad her into responding

to some of the crazy shit that he says about her. And so far he hasn't been able to do that. And I'm sure that's why he's probably looking forward to the debate. I think he is also confused attention and approval. Right? What he wants is not to actually capture the mind share of the voters who are gonna start the election,

is he wants applause. And the economy stuff doesn't get the applause, right? We're talking to David Axelrod in Wednesday's podcast. He made the point that Trump got up there to do the unity stuff during the convention speech, realized the unity stuff didn't get applause. We went back to throwing them the red beat. And it's the same thing in all these events, right?

He gets up there, he does the egg prices or whatever, or the gas prices, whatever else, and the rabid crowd of MAGA people in the room don't cheer for that. They cheer for, they're not showing up for that, right? They're showing up for the old hits. They're showing up for the shtick. And, but the audience is not people in the room.

The audience is the people who are watching the coverage of what he's saying. And he can't separate those two things in a sec because he wants the applause too much. The other thing, when I was talking to Plouffe, he said that Trump is at 46 in some of these battleground states. He's as high as 48 in some other battleground states.

But it makes me think that like, he's not really gaining a lot of vote share here. And his vote share has been relatively stable this entire race, even with all that's happened, survives an assassination attempt, convicted felon, wins the debate with Biden, like Biden went up and down and then down and then Kamala Harris went up. But like Donald Trump has stayed steady. So how do you win if you're between 46 and 48% of the vote? Well, you try to peel off some of her voters

and either have them go third party or have them stay home and you do that by just a scorched earth campaign where you say as much crazy shit about her as possible. It seems like that's his path. Is that like she, cause if she consolidates enough vote where she's getting 48, 49, 50 in these States, he's, he can't win. That's right.

There is scorched earth and then there is strategic attacks that actually peel off voters. Right. He's just throwing all the shit against the wall. And once again, he is judging success or failure based on the applause of people who would lie down in moving traffic for him, not on the voters' side. Like if you're trying to, like,

who is the soft Kamala Harris voter who's gonna listen to the stuff Trump just said and move away from her based on that? No, some of the stuff they have on air about immigration and the economy, that's a different deal, but Trump, there's a real gap between what Trump's saying and what's in the paid media.

And I mean, and what in Franklin presidential campaign, what the candidate says in the broader social media, media conversation is way more important than the ads. And until those get in alignment, he's in trouble, I think. Okay, two quick things before we go to break. Big news, the very first episode of Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams is out now. Stacy Abrams, Kirk Media podcast.

We love it. On assembly required, Stacy's breaking down the most complex issues in American politics and asking, how did we get here? What obstacles lie ahead and what can we do to make the kind of change we want to see? The first episode is all about how the Electoral College sucks and it spotlights the activists working on ways to counteract its power, including with ranked choice voting.

If you are looking for a pod that makes your political conversation smarter and keeps you motivated for the long haul, and you love listening to Stacey Abrams and who doesn't, this is your pod, you're gonna love it. New episodes drop on Thursdays. You can follow and listen to Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams right now, wherever you get your podcasts. Take a second, right now.

Go find Stacey Abrams podcast, click on it, save it for later, remind yourself to go listen to it, follow it, rate it. It's gonna be great. All right, also speaking of the convention, a reminder that we will be doing a reaction show every night from Chicago, but we're also going to do a ton of great stuff just for Friends of the Pod subscribers.

We'll have lots of behind the scenes content and community events, including a DNC live chat for subscribers and a new subscriber exclusive segment featuring Love It, Tommy and Dan. Not me. I don't mean, I am learning about this in real time. I thought, what the fuck's my name? I'm fine. What are we doing?

I don't know, I guess I'm not doing anything. Keep reading, let's learn. And of course, if, oh, that's it, that's all we got. If you subscribe, you get all four of next week's shows ad free. Isn't that nice? Isn't that nice? Head to crooked.com slash friends to sign up now. And you'll find out what the content is,

I guess, right when Dan does. Right. Whatever time it takes to edit it and put it up, that's the only head start I'll have. -♪ HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING. -♪ So you might be wondering who could possibly get Trump back on message. Well, we got our answer today. Corey Lewandowski, Trump's 2016 campaign manager, who's been fired twice from Trump World, once in June of the 2016 campaign after he was charged with misdemeanor battery for grabbing a reporter. And then he was fired again from a pro-Trump super PAC in 2021 when he was accused by a

top Trump donor's wife of making unwanted sexual advances towards her. Now he's back on his senior advisor and Trump's also bringing back an array of other goons from past campaigns and other parts of his life. Always a good sign, right? How do you think this is gonna work? I think, look, what could possibly go wrong is what I would say. What could possibly go wrong?

This is the sort of, like, these are comfort items for Trump, right? He's feeling at sea, he needs his blankie, Corey Lewandowski has his blankie, and it's a way, this is the thing that clearly Claire Sausavid and Susie Wiles are giving to Trump to preserve their role in the campaign, right? There are people calling for their heads.

Trump has never gone this long without really firing a campaign manager of sorts. So this is addition instead of subtraction. And hopefully, I'm sure they're gonna continually give Corey Lewandowski the wrong passcode to the Zoom for the meetings. Yeah. And maybe he'll fly on the plane.

Like we did to you this morning? But like you did to me this morning, exactly. Yeah, I mean, look, you have a campaign like that and you start adding people, especially people from the past who were fired. Yeah, it's not great management style. It's never a great sign. So we're heading into the DNC next week,

which will be wall-to-wall coverage of Democrats message. What is Trump's next opportunity to change the narrative here? Like what is the, what do you, if you're trying to be strategic on that campaign, what do you do? You probably kind of wind Trump down, maybe send him some battleground states,

do some white. Sedatives, some horse tranquilizer. Only show him, limit his media diet probably. No, I think you probably are looking at the first debate on September 10th, because you're going convention to Labor Day weekend to start a school, and you have to deal with that debate if you're Trump. Like that is, if he goes there and he gets his ass kicked,

that's a huge problem for him. And they are probably guessing that since the media is already sort of getting antsy and tired of the like Kamala's joyful campaign is surging narrative, she's gonna sit down for an interview at some point, she's gonna take questions, they're gonna want a real race. And then if, you know, if that happens around the

debate, and then they can argue that, you know, he didn't do horrible at the debate, or he won the debate, then maybe they can change things. And you can see that through the beginnings of that strategy in the statement today, like originally it was billed as just, he's going to talk about inflation, but he sort of unloaded the oppo file on Kamala Harris and he just did every single position she's ever changed on every position she took. That's too liberal. All of that stuff.

He just, he did it all today. So I guess that's a preview of what they're going to do. And I guess a couple of things they would do. One is wait for her to potentially make a mistake. She has been, she has not made one to date. Maybe one happens in an interview or something on the trail. So you can see something

because the press is bored of this. And then there is always this thing with poll numbers where the press reads them in the context of the narrative they're currently saying. So right now it's like Kamala Harris is surging, right? She's got all the momentum and that is true. She is surging momentum, but you can also look at the polls and say, after all of that, she only has a one point lead in the

national polls. Right. Or she's tied, she's not ahead. They're going to look at this, they're going to get past the convention, maybe she'll get a little bump in the convention. It's typically three points and pretty fleeting historically. And we'll be heading into the debate. You're going to see the press like Trump made it through all of that and he's still only down two points. And then the narrative shifts, right? And then the pressures on her in the debate and every, yeah, that's what they're hoping for.

Okay, while Trump flails and Republicans complain, Democrats, they're just in such a ray. We are just, we're crushing it. Thursday in Maryland, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden held an event together. Their first joint appearance since Biden stepped down from the race. The event was notable for two things. One, Harris and Biden driving a clear message

on an incredibly popular policy. Imagine that. Two, the amount of love in the room for Joe Biden and the feeling of ease between him and Harris. Let's listen to a clip. We finally addressed the long-standing issue that for years was one of the biggest challenges on this subject, which was that Medicare was prohibited by law from negotiating lower drug prices and those costs then got passed on to our seniors, but not anymore.

Folks, I have an incredible partner. The progress we've made, she's going to make one hell of a president. And of course I could speak all afternoon about the person that I am standing on this stage with. Let's start with the vibes. What'd you think of the vibes? Joe Biden seemed happy, Kamala Harris seemed happy, the crowd was loving it, that's great. I would say, when I saw this on the calendar,

and then I saw this on the calendar on a day that we were podcasting, with an event happening right before we podcast, I dreaded this. I felt like maybe it was gonna be awkward, or strange, or tension filled, and it was on the above. No, you know why? Because we weren't there, that's why. was going to be awkward or strange or tension filled. And it was on the above. It was awesome. You know why? Because we weren't there.

That's why. Speak for yourself. I would have been there in full sport. Well, I thought it was great. The president really did seem unburdened. Yes. He was touting. He was having fun.

He was cracking jokes. Having a good time. Donald Dump, good joke there. I don't know what that was. Donald dump, good joke there. I don't know what that was, but yeah, sure, great. And also more importantly, incredible accomplishment. Now like the top 10 drugs under Medicare, now much cheaper. Truly one of the most popular policies anyone has ever passed.

You know, I just saw a poll from the folks at Blueprint, which said that 70% of people thought that this policy was good, but that 70% of people thought that this policy was good, but also 70% of people thought this policy would affect themselves or people in their family. Right, like you hear all kinds of people like, I love this place, it's great, but it would never affect me.

Here's one that everyone thinks is going to help them. And that's just, it's a huge accomplishment. It's a huge political winner. It was great to see them talking about it. It was great to see the EZ Chem, that EZ Chemistry is still there with them. It was just great. The whole thing was great to see them talking about it. It was great to see the EZ chem, that, that EZ chemistry is still there with them. It was just great. The whole thing was great.

There are certain policies that Democrats have loved forever and talked about forever. And they also happen to poll really well. And one of them has always been, we're going to have Medicare negotiate for cheaper drug prices and we're going to take on the drug companies to make sure that people, and especially seniors on Medicare don't have to pay too much for their prescriptions. And for years and years, couldn't get it done. And in the inflation reduction act, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got it done.

And you know, they, Biden talked a lot in the campaign about capping insulin at $35. There's other drugs aside from insulin that a lot of people count on. They were way too expensive and now they're going to be able to afford them because of this. campaign about capping insulin at $35. There's other drugs aside from insulin that a lot of people count on. They were way too expensive and now they're going to be able to afford them because of this. It is a huge accomplishment and we don't talk a lot of policy here, but people should be pretty proud of that accomplishment and it's going to really make a difference in people's lives.

The conventional wisdom is that Harris doesn't want to be tied too closely to the Biden administration because Biden's approval ratings were, were quite low for most of the campaign. But what it didn't, it doesn't see, this seems to be an example of why being tied to the Biden administration and specifically the Biden administration's accomplishments could be quite a good thing for her. Do you know who's newly popular again? Joe Biden.

Joe Biden. Well, everyone's approval rating is up. Harris is, Biden's, Trump's. Yeah, his approval rating, his approval ratings have gone up since he made his decisions. He's obviously become a less polarizing figure. Democrats who, even if they love the president personally,

were had concerns about him running, they now will tell pollsters they like him. It is a tricky dance for her because she does not want to be the incumbent in this race. She's actually managed to make Trump the incumbent. He is the past, he is status quo, she has changed. But there are these really important things they've done, which, and I thought this was smart

about the way they did this in this event is, here's the thing we did, and here, this is proof positive that we're gonna do similar things and we take on powerful special interests in the future. And so this was the right tone for doing it. And just all over, you know, Biden, when he was on his CBS interview over the weekend, talked about how he had talked to Governor Shapiro

about doing a tour of Pennsylvania at some point with him to campaign for Harris and the Democratic ticket. And there are voters that Biden can be helpful with her. So like, when you look at the polling, she has gained with a whole younger voters, black voters, Latino voters, but she has lost some with older white voters and Biden can be helpful with that.

Yeah, no, he definitely can. And to your point about, here's some great stuff we did. We took on powerful interests, brought down costs for people and now she's gonna do more in the future. That future is today where she is delivering a major economic policy speech. Unlike Trump, I think she's actually going to probably give the speech. According to Politico, the focus of the speech is going to be a federal ban on price gouging and other actions she'll take in her first

hundred days to lower the cost of groceries and other everyday expenses. She will also reportedly call for the construction of three million housing units by offering tax incentives for builders that contract properties for first time home buyers. What do you think of that? What do you think of those policies? Love it, love it.

I feel like I was listening to a podcast recently with that maybe they suggested this would be a good idea to do these economic speech right before the convention. Was it hacks on tap? Well, I listened to hacks on tap. I took that idea I brought to you. I mean, obviously they did not get this idea

from our podcast. I'll be very clear about that. But this is, I think this is very smart because the, I can get to the politics and the policy in a second here, but just, she has this tremendous burden that she's been running for a month. She's about to give her convention speech.

A normal candidate at this point, who had not just started a month before the convention, would have given 12 economic speeches over the course of the primary and the general election already. And you don't want your convention speech to be the state of the union, or just like a laundry list of policy.

So by doing this now, and it's a really, I would say unfair burden to put on her speech writers to have to write this speech during the convention, but this is gonna make it easier to give a convention speech that tells her story in the context of values, not policy. So I think it's great they're doing it. These are the right policies.

These are popular policies. It's very smart. It's like really stark contrast to the absurdity we just saw with Trump today. It's also, she's addressing the top issues on voters minds. And we were just talking about like tying her, you know, Kamala Harris, tying herself too closely to Biden or not, or what did she do? The number one concern about Biden was his age. That was like the number one driver of his low approval rating.

And the fact that people, you know, did not want this Trump Biden rematch and they weren't sure that they wanted to vote for Joe Biden for another four years. And then the only other driver, I think, significant driver of his approval rating was concerns about, uh, lingering high prices from inflation and, and costs. And that he had not done enough about that, even though he, you know, gave us the strongest recovery of any other country since COVID, but like prices are still high. And so that is on people's minds. And on that issue, if she just focuses on her plans to lower costs for people and goes around saying, you know, look, people were struggling with high

costs even before the pandemic sent inflation soaring. And it's been like this for decades and you know, we've made progress and President Obama made progress with the Affordable Care Act and Joe Biden made progress and, and, and we made progress in the White House by bringing down the cost of prescription drugs and energy and trial tax credits, but now I got to do more to bring down costs for everyone. And so I'm going to bring down the cost of groceries so I'm going to bring down the cost of groceries. I'm going to bring down the cost of housing.

Look, I, in every focus group I did for the wilderness in 2022, every single, I'm like a broken record on this, every single demographic, everywhere I went, open-ended question, what are you worried about? It's not that people said the word inflation or high cost housing. Housing was the first thing. The cost of housing is the biggest challenge for people. And it is not a topic that politicians have necessarily talked about a lot, or at least it's not been central to the national debate over the last decade, maybe, maybe since the, since we had the housing crisis around the Great Recession.

And so coming out by, you know, talking about building new houses and incentives and stuff like that, it's a state and local issue. It's not just a national issue, but the federal government has a role here. And the fact that she's now like now her big plans, her big economic plans are to lower the price of groceries, drugs, healthcare, and

housing, I mean, it's, it's great. It's great. And it's, drugs, healthcare, and housing. I mean, it's great, it's great. And it's very popular and I think it's gonna be a great message to run on. And just in breaking news here, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that tomorrow Kamala Harris is gonna propose a $25,000 in down payment support for first time home buyers.

Wow, that's even, that's great. It's great. Well, obviously we don't speak, we can't speak to the full substance of policy. We know her economic advisors, I'm sure it's great. But from a political perspective, from a narrative perspective, this is right on the money. Also she's running against a former slumlord.

Yes. Donald Trump has screwed people out of their housing forever, he has cheated people, homeowners for a long, long time. So it's a great contrast. All right. So if you've noticed that the last we heard from RFK Jr. was when he was talking to Roseanne about dumping a dead bear cub he had planned to eat in Central Park. You're not alone.

It seems like he might at least be considering a way out of his campaign. According to Kennedy campaign officials, RFK Jr. has approached the Harris campaign about meeting with her and also the possibility of dropping out and endorsing her if she'll give him a job in the administration. It seems like he has not been able

to secure that meeting yet. Doesn't seem like the Harris folks have gotten back to him. Doesn't, I'm gonna go out on the limb and say I don't think they're gonna give him a job in the administration. Kennedy himself threw cold water on this idea after it was reported in the Washington Post.

He wrote a tweet on Wednesday night that said, "'VP Harris's Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle, and I cannot reconcile it with my values.' And he ended it with, "'I have no plans to endorse Kamala Harris for president. I do have a plan to defeat her.' Sure.

Worth noting, RFK Jr. also met with Donald Trump in Milwaukee during the RNC and might have made a similar offer to him. JD Vance got in on the action today, urging RFK Jr. to endorse Trump saying they have similar views on quote unquote medical freedom and not starting stupid wars. What do you think's going on here with RFK Jr. Dan? Well, I would say that RFK Jr.

is an example of the apple falling very far from the tree. I mean, the whole thing's absurd. He will forever in my mind be defined by the bear, the dead bear cub video. Just truly one of the most bizarre stories ever told. And even more bizarre that it was told on video and then released to the public? To Roseanne.

To Roseanne. Like how did that- I don't wanna, yeah. And on his, yeah. The story is incredible. I could tell the story forever. I mean, the part where he goes to Peter Luger with the dead bear cub at his back.

The falconing at the beginning. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the geography of going from Peter Luger to Central Park to the airport. I know, I've been very, yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Where was he going? Why was it a night flight? What was happening? I just don't understand any of it.

And then there was the bear cub meat, right? But that's the- It's the soon to be eaten bear cub meat. He does have a plan in his defense to defeat Kamala Harris. And that plan is to be funded by Trump's biggest donors to take away two to 3% of her vote in a couple of battleground states and elect Donald Trump. That is his plan to defeat Humble Harris. He has that plan. The problem for him in this is that his

appeal, you know, and we saw this, I remember you and I both listened, as we always do, to Sarah Longwell's focus groups on RFK curious voters and what they all said about whether they were former Biden supporters or former Trump supporters, Republicans or Democrats was, he was the anti-politician, right? That these guys are all corrupt and he was not. And here he is doing the single most corrupt thing you can possibly do in politics,

which is, like you have said, these people are terrible, they're warmongers, but you're going to support them in exchange for a job? And you've gone to both of them. That's the idea that you're like, well, I'm going to stand on principle and I'm a third party and I'm a new, I'm a brother fresh air. And it's like, but I tried to get a job with Donald Trump and said I would

drop out if he gave me a job. He said, no. Then I went to Kamala Harris. I said, I'll drop out if you give me a job. And she said, no. So here I am. I'm going to beat both of them now. Right.

It's like, it's one, it's one thing to like, if you're off key, like, you know, in the end, I'm closer to Trump than I am to Harris, or closer to Harris than Trump, and I'm gonna step aside for one of them. But to be willing to go with the highest bidder is just the highest form of corruption. And so if this story gets out and gets traction,

and I imagine knowing the people we do who have been working at the DNC on this third party stuff. It is damaging with a lot of the voters that he had a shot with, which is not a ton of voters and we can get to that in a sec, but it is enough, right? We know what the margins are in these battleground states. And if he's getting a couple of points that gotta come from somewhere

and the person they come more from is probably gonna lose the state. Yeah, well, this was supposed to be the year of third party candidates. And when Biden was in the race, it did seem like RFK Jr., Jill Stein, others were getting, you know, a bigger share of the vote than polls showed in 2020, at least. Was that overblown or did Biden dropping out just change everything?

It was changing before Biden dropped out. If you were watching the tracking of the polling averages, RFK Jr. was at a high about six to eight months ago and had been coming down on sort of, it's still at a particularly at a high number for a third party candidate. Normally his candidates are getting one to 2% and he was getting five to seven or sometimes more. But what's changed is third party candidates do well when people are angry with both candidates. And we spent all this time, we spent a year's time with the double haters,

people who didn't like Biden or Trump. The double haters are gone. The number has been cut by more than half since Biden dropped out. That's because Kamala Harris's approval ratings are much higher than Biden's, but also Trump's have gone up. And that's kind of why the third party share

goes down over time, because people sort of realign with their candidates, right? You had all these Trump voters who maybe they weren't sure they were for Trump or they were voting for Trump, but they didn't really like him. But now the more the race gets polarized, the more they like their candidates. So there's just the lane in which a third party candidate

can get a significant vote share has gone down. Now that does not mean this is still modeling like an incredibly close race. So if Jill Stein gets a point or two, Cornel West gets a point, and RFK Junior gets two points, that four points would be decisive, incredibly decisive. So it still matters a lot. Well, we were just talking about Trump,

if Trump's at 48 in some of these states, if he can, 47 or 48, and then three or four points, yeah, then that becomes a tight race. He can win at 48 because RFK Junior is gonna be on the ballot in almost all the battleground states. Yeah. Right.

And Joe Stein is already on the ballot in a lot of these states. Yep, and then you got the Libertarian candidate too. Yeah. I don't remember his name, but he's out there. Something Oliver, Gary Oliver, does that sound right? Nah, not Gary, but Oliver's right. Oh, all right, this is embarrassing.

Let's just work this out here. All right, lastly, something fun before we go. The Harris Campaign just posted just an incredibly charming YouTube video of Harris and Tim Walls getting to know each other. Here's the sampling. I called you, Tim. I was hoping maybe we wouldn't have to. I called you, Tim.

Yes. You didn't answer, Tim. I know, I know. What happened? The most important call of my life, it popped up and we didn't recognize the caller ID and it went to voicemail. Hi this is Tim. I'm not able to answer your call.

There you go. It's not on school. Thank you. Hey Tim, it's Kamala. I really want to talk to you. Talk about how Prince was with that guitar, man. I almost know by heart every one of those songs. I feel like a trip to Paisley Park is going to happen here if this guy happens. It's on my bucket list.

I'll tell you that. I have white guy tacos and black. What is that? Like mayonnaise and tuna? What are you doing? Pretty much ground beef and cheese. That's OK. Do you put any flavor in it?

No. Here's the deal. OK. No. It's okay, do you put any flavor in it? No, here's the deal. Oh. No. No.

It's just like, she was so disappointed. Oh, you didn't put any flavor. Where do you rank a video like this on the impact scale compared to like a rally or an ad? It seems like the kind of thing that a lot of people, maybe people who aren't political junkies like us, would share because it's just like two normal people having a good time, laughing with each other.

It's kind of nice. It's great. It's so much more valuable than a single ad or even a rally because it's gonna, especially like in a world of TikTok, it's just gonna be there for a long time. It's gonna circulate, people are gonna see it. They seem like normal humans. Kamala Harris is, we know Tim Walz is great.

In this scenario, she's been posting, we've all seen them now. Amazing videos for years now. I mean, the video of Tim Walls, his daughter telling him that turkey is meat is still one of the greatest videos of all time. Yeah. That's great. Uh, or the one where they're doing the hands-free at PSA ad, uh, which is also superb, like he is very good in this.

Kamala Harris is great at this stuff. She was, I mean, do you remember the video that she did cooking with Indian food with Mindy Kaling? Yes. Just like superb, right? Superb. And we haven't seen a lot. The Trump later tweeted.

Yeah, thinking it was damaging. To prove that she's not black. Yeah, that's what, yeah, I remember that. So this is like, this is like shows him as people. Like we just listened to Trump spent, try to treat her as this radical communist who's stupid and mean and all of this. And here she is just being a normal human being,

have a normal conversation with a normal human being. It really is gold. Like this is, the people want, this is relatable. This stuff defangs the caricature when they see it. And I love it. Speaking of relatable, what do you think was going on with Tim Walz missing the call? He's getting the call, the said she, she, he's, he's getting a call.

The most important call of his life. Could you, would you serve as my vice president? And, uh, because it's a block number, he just let, just goes right to voicemail. It's inexcusable, frankly, inexcusable. And I say that I am someone who never answers the phone. You call, I don't talk on the phone. You call me on the phone. I don't answer when Emily calls never answers the phone. I don't talk on the phone, you call me on the phone,

I don't answer. When Emily calls me on the phone, I think it's an emergency, my parents do. And certainly numbers I don't recognize or block numbers, I don't answer those. So I don't, I mean, I understand that. But if you know that, okay, she's probably calling the winner of the Veepstakes today,

then I turn on the ringer and I'd start looking at the phone and I'd just pick up any number. If you knew you were the finalist to win Powerball and you were gonna get a call the next morning, one way or the other to find out if you had won Powerball, you're answering the phone no matter what the numbers is. It could say spam risk on it and you would answer that phone.

Like what is the worst case scenario that answers that it turns out to be a scam and he hangs up on the person, he just says bye and then waits for the next call, like absurd. Did he think that the call was gonna come through and just say like, it's Kamala Harris. I mean, obviously he's talked to her. It's so funny.

It's really funny. It's really, like I get, there is like a, I remember when we were in the White House, like you get those calls and it was like, it's, it's the, it's the president and it's like a blocked number or it's the two, whatever. And you're like, it's, it is very scary when you're awaiting a call from an important person,

but like, you just got to do it. You got to pick up. You know when it's really scary when you're not awaiting a call from an important person and that phone rings. No, that's, yes, you're right. That is from an important person and that phone rings. Yes, you're right. That is exactly the scary. That's when you know something's going, you're in trouble and your night is over.

Whatever you were doing. When you're at a, yeah, exactly. Like when I was at, I was at Lollapalooza in 2007 during the campaign and I thought that the speech was locked. I thought that our energy speech was locked because he's Barack Obama said, we're all done. I have no more edits. And then right in the middle of the concert,

on my phone, there you guys call, I wanna rewrite the speech. Well look, in defense of you, people have been talking about that speech for the 15 years since. Everyone remembers the energy speech. I don't remember anything about it. Tacos, look, I'm a white guy,

I put seasoning on my tacos, do you like spice? What's a white guy. I put seasoning on my tacos. Do you like spice? What's a white guy tacos? Come on, Tim. There's a couple of ways to look at this. One, the no seasoning thing, also inexcusable. They give you a packet in the taco kit, Tim. Put it in there.

That's what makes tacos so good. Yes, that's called taco seasoning. Otherwise- Otherwise you're just eating fucking hamburger. You're eating a hamburger without the helper in a tortilla chip. Yes. But I will say in Tim's defense, Or you're just eating fucking hamburger. You're eating hamburger without the helper in a tortilla chip. But I will say in Tim's defense, I have to say this carefully,

as someone who has now lived in California for nine years and is married to someone from the Bay area who takes her Mexican food incredibly seriously, I have no objection to a crispy shell taco. No. I don't. Is that a, oh, cause that's- That is one of the key ingredients to a crispy shell taco. No. I don't. Is that a, is that, oh, cause that's- That is one of the key ingredients of a white guy taco or a white person taco is crispy shell taco

like comes in the taco kit as opposed to a corn tortilla. I also like a crispy shell taco. Yeah. I mean, look, that's not a, it's not a traditional taco. I have to say that if I want to be able to return to my home later tonight. But I will not. If you want to give me a crispy shell taco with some ground beef with seasoning Tim Walls,

some lettuce and some cheese, I'll eat that. That's delicious. But also medium to hot salsa, jalapenos. Oh, spice for sure. Spice, yes. For sure. It is funny. And apparently Kamala Harris really likes spicy food and she should really go on hot ones.

I mean, I think that's- I have such, I mean, the current podcast aside, I have such a list of great podcasts for Kamala Harris to do that I just want to see. And Hot Ones is one of them. There is a part- I think she'll be able to hang on that for sure. Absolutely.

There is a funny part in that video that is not in a super cut where he says that the black pepper is the pinnacle of spice in Minnesota. It's very funny. That is very funny. That is very funny. All right.

Well, that's our show for today. We will be back on Monday, the two of us and Lovett and Tommy in Chicago for the very first DNC reaction show. We'll be doing that Monday night. So that episode will be out on Tuesday. Get excited. Chicago, here we come. Have a good weekend, everyone.

We're going to go to one of America's great cities and record podcasts. Can't wait. Bye. Bye, everyone. If you want to get ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and more, consider joining our Friends of the Pod subscription community at Cricut.com slash Friends. And if you're already doom scrolling, don't forget to follow us at Podsave America on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube

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