Pod Save America - "Running the Ultra MAGAthon." (Live from St. Louis!)

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

Guest host Alyssa Mastromonaco joins Jon, Jon and Dan live in St. Louis! The newest tell-all book reveals Donald Trump wanted to lob missiles at Mexico. Joe Biden tags Republican extremism as ultra-MAGA. Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush explains why Democrats need to stay in the fight. Then former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander joins with BBQ recommendations and trivia questions.

Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Alyssa Mastromonaco. I'm not sure about your pizza. Oh. And I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. And I'm John Lovett. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

Joining us here tonight, former Secretary of State Jason Kander. And your Congresswoman Cori Bush. All right, let's get to the news. We're going to kick things off with a quick rundown of some of the stories we're following right now. Number one, former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper has a new book out on Tuesday, and it's a bit of a doozy. He writes that in 2020, the former president, who suggested sending a quarter of a million troops to the southern border, asked Esper whether it was also possible to quietly launch a few missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug cartels, saying, quote, we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs.

No one would know it was us. Esper also writes that Trump's behavior grew more erratic after his first impeachment no shit that he was worried Trump would order soldiers to seize the ballot boxes on election day and that when protesters assembled outside the White House following the murder of George Floyd the former president asked the defense secretary quote can't you just shoot them in the legs or something? Dan, what are your reactions to the story about the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 presidential race? John, have you ever heard the saying, there are no bad ideas in a brainstorm? It's not really much of a brainstorm.

It's more of a brain sprinkle. A brain afternoon shower. Someone just said brain fart. That was good. Thank you. Way to go. Way to go. I mean, it's hot. Preempt me again.

I mean, it's obviously bananas, right? And we can laugh about it now because President Homerpson over here is no longer in charge of said patriot missiles but it is i think the fact that we're learning about it now yeah is what why are we just learning about it now mark esper well i hate to i hate to tell you john but the people who work for donald trump are morally fucking bankrupt because think about this. Mark Esper sat there for however many years he was in that job and saw Trump say deeply dangerous and deranged things, promised to commit crimes, war crimes, crimes at home and abroad. Did he hold a press conference? No. Did he go to Congress and tell people? No. Did he even bother to anonymously leak them to Playbook? No.

He just squirreled them away in a little notebook so he could cash out later in this book. And now I know everyone here loves to read things about Trump seeming stupid. But if you buy this book, you're rewarding that behavior. Don't buy the book. We'll give you the best parts. You think this audience was in danger of going out to buy the book? I mean, people like to read. He's got a book coming out.

Kellyanne Conway has a book coming out. This is all happening. Is this by way of promoting your... I was going to say, if you're going to buy a fucking book, I got a book for you. Hey, Dan Pfeiffer, you have a book coming out? Buy Dan Pfeiffer's book. Dan does have a book. It's not just that they were swirling away things for a book. It is part of a larger issue of some of these people that worked for Trump or were in the administration and became, you know, quote unquote whistleblowers after.

There are a fair number of people in government, in the media, that would rather watch the country burn to the ground than be seen as having taken a stand in an election. They would rather watch everything burn than take a side. You know, Esper has, in his interview so far, he has like the Dina Powell excuse, the excuse of some of the others who are like, I didn't say anything and I didn't quit at the time because there needed to be an adult in the room. And if I wasn't there, it would have just been Stephen Miller. An adult would have convened the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment.

I also want to make one more point about this, which is this theory that Trump had about the fact that nobody would know it was a Patriot Missile. You think there's some holes in that theory? It's like he hasn't seen Clear and Present Danger. They tried it in that film

and both Harrison Ford and Latin Harrison Ford figured out, one through computers and the other through books, that it was a cellulose-encased laser-guided bomb, and that only the Americans had them. And I want you to know I didn't prepare that. I remembered that while I was sitting here. He did, but he's been very Harrison Ford heavy all day.

I will say that Don Jr.'s response on Twitter was, is this supposed to be a bad thing? That's why he's standing by launching Patriot missiles into Mexico. Just doing lines of blow and watching Jack Bauer on 24. While just hoping at some point his father will say,

I love you. That's the Patriot missile he's been waiting to be hit by. All right, this next story is for you, Love It. Here's the headline from Yahoo News from today. Madison Cawthorn says blackmail won't win after nude thrusting video leaks. What a headline. The story goes on to say that after a video appeared on social media showing a nude Cawthorn

making thrusting motions near the face of another man, the 26-year-old congressman treated that he was being crass with a friend, acting foolish and joking, and that this was a, quote, drip-drip campaign of blackmail that will not succeed. Love it. Still would? Thank you for your question. That was a question that most people wanted to know.

Couple points. One, it was a drip-drip campaign and then they tried to smear him. Oh! Two, two, and this is an announcement. This is news. I officially wouldn't. I can't.

Let me tell you why. Wow. I hate everything about that clip. The cinematography, the noises, the, like, toxic masculinity, the homophobia, a reminder, you can't put your dick on someone's face ironically. You just can't. That's not how it works. You know what I mean? You can't, that's just, you know, eating St. Louis pizza, telling a racist joke, putting your dick on a friend's face. It's never ironic. But I will say this. Madison Cawthorn is despicable. He's a misogynist. He's bigoted.

He's a liar. He's a fraud. However, this smear campaign is not exposing him on any of those fronts. It is exposing him for being a young person who maybe did some, you know, things in his life that wore lingerie and a fucking cruise, uh, put his dick on a friend's face, but for the grace of God, go any one of us.

But, but in all seriousness, like we are about to enter a new age where young people are going to have a digital record that follows them for their entire lives. And we have to get pretty mature pretty fast about this. People send funny things in their Venmo line. They say things like, this was for sex and drugs. Sometimes it's not.

You know, fratty guys do fratty stuff. And honestly, I don't want to, and you know, they can do what they want. It's not for me. Not my culture. But what we don't want is that the only people who run for office are people who decided when they were 11, sitting quietly in a library reading books about world conquerors that they wanted to be president. We want other people who live real lives and have fun and make mistakes and do drugs and aren't so ambitious from a young age that all they think about is winning otherwise we'll be left with only those creepy freaks that we all know from

high school we all know those guys and women it's 2022 women can be psychopathic ambitious freaks and that's important thank you i feel seen i feel. Thank you. Yeah, I'm like less interested in what this is about Cawthorn and more about like the people behind this campaign. You mean the orgy leaders? Yeah, clearly the orgy leaders are pissed. Someone on Twitter said that like at least when the mob does a hit, it's fast. I saw that too. I have never seen a takedown so prolonged and vicious. And then they tried to smear him.

Once it was funny. Also, what gets me angry is how many bad politicians and bad people in their party that they have just let slide. And Madison Cawthorn, they have decided that they're going to take him down. Once again, giving some credence to the orgy thing. For sure. Oh my god. Yeah, the orgies were definitely real. There's never been an orgy. That's crazy.

Flips the kill switch activating some kind of internecine destruction machine. And by the way, hey, Democratic, the backroom Democrats, if they can exist, do we not have this kind of machine? Can we not do this to some of our people? We got to get people in line, too.

Why do you think it's named Almost Heaven? Joe Manchin putting his dicks on any faces? I feel like he's been putting his dick on our face for like a year. Yeah, I can't get Joe Manchin's dick off my face. How uncomfortable. I haven't been able to see straight. It's nice to see a party just threaten somebody. Just kidding, sort of.

Let it be said that there was a spirited defense of Madison Cawthorn on Pod Save America in St. Louis tonight. Episode title? Yeah. All right, finally, last story, serious one. Chuck Schumer has set a vote this coming week on a bill to codify abortion rights into federal law um other developments on this issue um chief justice

john roberts just told a judicial conference uh last night that the leak of the draft opinion overturning roe v wade is quote absolutely appalling but would not affect the final outcome of the court's deliberations and And Donald Trump, the man responsible for confirming three of the five judges who may vote to end the constitutional right to an abortion, was uncharacteristically quiet about the leak during an interview at Mar-a-Lago, saying, quote, nobody knows what exactly it represents, if that's going to be it. Some people maybe say it's my fault, And some people say thank you very much. Alyssa, reserved, cautious, humble, aren't usually words that we associate with Donald Trump.

What do you think's going on there? I think there's several things at play. One, Trump reads polls. He knows 69% of America is for Roe. Okay? Like, he knows. He's stupid, but he can read. Okay? So that's one thing. Here's the other thing. You guys. Who has gone to greater lengths to protect

their fake fortune than Donald Trump? Okay? Do you think that he's gonna let, like, children who aren't Ivanka, Don, and Eric run around? No, I mean, there are others too, but there is no way that this man has not been aware of an abortion in his universe before

that benefited him in some way. Okay, there is no way. So I think even he, now this is just me, you know, having a good time, but there have to be people with receipts out there who are waiting for the minute to be like, oh, oh,

you're glad Roe is gone? Let me tell you my Roe and Trump story. And so, that is what I wait for with Baited Breath. Alright. I like that. what I wait for with bated breath. All right. I like that. I'll take that. Thank you. Dan, why is Chuck Schumer holding a vote for a bill that he knows won't pass again? It's a great question, John. I mean, does he think we can't count the votes? Look, I think in a world in which you have very limited and not great options, this is an option.

And I think probably the best case you can make for it is it would force everyone to go on the record. It would force Ron Johnson, who is up for re-election, to vote against this. Also, if Democrats are deft, it is a way to go to the country and say, give us two more Democrats, and we will have a pro-choice majority in the Senate that will codify Roe and undo the damage the court has done. And so whether that is John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, someone in Wisconsin, Cherry Beasley in North Carolina, is that there are candidates out there who, if they get to the Senate, will undo the filibuster to pass this bill. Love it. Is that the best message for Biden and the Democrats on this issue on a national level? Yes, I think that's a big piece of it. Brian Boitler wrote a great piece about this in his Big Ten newsletter. And the point that he made, which I also think is a very good one,

is if what we're saying, we mean what we say, and I think we do, that what we're seeing here is the first step in a plan not just to undo Roe, but to undo rulings that protect contraception, undo rulings that protect gay marriage, then, and if we believe that there is a majority in this country that agrees with us vociferously, and I think we do, then let's go to Congress and say, all right, let's not just put a bill up to codify Roe. Let's put a bill up to guarantee a right to same-sex marriage. Let's put a bill up to guarantee a right to contraception. And I think it's really smart. It's a point that Dan makes all the time. I think we've tried avoiding the culture war. It has come. It is door to door. You can't hide from it. So let's win the culture war.

Let's win it. The reason we're having these fights, I mean, think about who the Republicans have chosen as their enemies in just the past couple months. Twitter, Google, Disney, NFL, NBA. They have lost vast parts of the country. They have lost this cultural fight. This is a, they are having a kind of rear guard action against their failure over decades to keep people in line on these cultural issues. We have won these fights with the public. We just have not won them in Congress. We've not won them in the laws. We've not won them in the courts. So let's, let's put ourselves in a good position to make these guys take some incredibly unpopular votes. And also it's like, we talk a lot about what's the most effective message, but a good message always starts with what's the most honest message?

And the most honest message is just that. We do not have 51 Democratic senators who are willing to get rid of the filibuster and codify abortion rights into federal law. After November, we have enough seats up that we could have that majority after November. And so people have to elect those Democrats. That's it. That's the truth. I mean, yes, I agree with all that. And you're all, I'm going to speak from a place of raw emotion

and not, this is not measured. It's not necessarily well thought out, but like, the truth is that like, we knew this was coming the supreme court decision was always coming in june or july and i definitely agree that the vote should happen but we know what's going to happen when they take this vote and what i worry about and what i hope happens after this vote is that as they're creating this theater the vote's going to happen it's going to fail people are going to be on the record but but we all talk about this all the time and they're just like a lot of fucking americans who are going to see the vote fail yeah and be like now what the fuck they're going to be twice as terrified as they are now and so i just hope that like while i get this fucking messaging vote they're going to

take um i hope they come out of it with some action and information for people who are going to be even more scared after the vote than they are right now. No, Alyssa, I totally agree with that. And I think that what Dan and Lovett were just saying should be the message. I think Schumer and Biden could have started with that as opposed to taking a vote that, like you said, for a lot of people who don't pay close attention is going to be like, oh, this vote failed. The vote failed. Okay, the vote failed. Like with voting rights. The same thing happened with voting rights. people who don't pay close attention is going to be like, oh, this vote failed. Like with voting rights. The same thing happened with voting rights. And I don't know that the show vote actually gets you much.

I don't think it gets you anything. Like it'll get you some snippets and ads that happen in the fall. But I just think that like this is an issue that affects people. Like the day after the Supreme Court issues their decision, if it is what the draft says it will be, fucking women are fucked. People are fucked. Women and people. Everybody's fucked, okay?

But there just needs to be more done to, you know, people much smarter than me, I hope, are working on a plan for how to message to folks who need reproductive health care where they can find it, how it will happen, and why they shouldn't be as fucking scared. I mean, I very much agree that the vote is a very unsatisfactory response to it. And what is key is if you set expectations, right? I would not put expectation setting pretty high on Chuck Schumer's list of strengths. But it is, like you have to say like this is going to fail. Here's why it's going to fail.

Here's what we're going to do. But we want to make everyone go on the record and say this because it can't be seen as a solution to it because it is not, right? Yeah. And the other thing I would say too is I do think, you know, people who are incredibly engaged, Democrats who are incredibly engaged, people on social media that are incredibly engaged, they'll say, look, Democrats failed. But when we have this vote, the vast, vast majority of Democrats, all but a handful, will support it. And the Republican Party will basically be aligned against it. And it will be a vote to show the country that in November you have a choice. and protect abortion access and precarious healthcare, protect gay marriage, protect access to contraception and IVF and IUDs and medical treatment and preventing women from going to jail for having miscarriages. Or you can allow Republicans to win Congress and potentially

put them on a path to pass a nationwide ban on abortion that would affect everywhere, every liberal state, every conservative state, everywhere. And I think if we can talk about this in terms of Republicans versus Democrats and not the failure to get a few Democrats to take it over the finish line, I think that's the expectation I think we need to set. I agree with that. And that will depend on us Democrats who at large communicate that message because the New York Times headline will be Democrats split on abortion bill when it's 48. Yeah. Which is why I said from the beginning, we need to shut down the New York Times. Alyssa, what should people here in Missouri know about what a post-Roe world would look like in this state? You guys, I'm here for all the good news tonight. So we know what's going to happen,

right? Like the day after Roe, rich ladies are always going to be able, rich people are always going to be able to find an abortion if they need it. Abortions will still happen. They will just be dangerous for a lot of people who are seeking them out. Instead of being able to go to your local clinic and have a procedure that is safe and easy, you may have to travel, you may have to get child care, you may have to take time off of work. Organizations now will start popping up even more than they have. You'll have people who are raising the money, and then you'll have people who are working on the logistics to help people get the abortions that they should be able to get pretty easily. It's pretty much what's going to happen. Yeah. happen I mean you all have some outstanding advocates for reproductive justice

here in the state and a couple of them are here with us tonight so please join me in welcoming Michelle Landau and Jess Lambrecht of the Missouri Abortion Fund applause applause

applause applause take it away hello sorry i'm not used to speaking on this high quality of a mic my name is michelle and i'm jess and we are here to represent the Missouri Abortion Fund. We are a fund. We've been funding procedures for Missourians since 2016. We are a proud member of the National Network of Abortion Funds, which is a group of over 80 different abortion funds, some of which provide funding for the actual procedure like we do, some of whom provide more practical support and logistical support.

Shout out to Midwest Access Coalition. They help Missourians out with that work. But one thing that I like to just point out is that the Missouri Abortion Fund funds Missourians no matter where they go in the country. And we fund people who have to travel very, very long distances already. And again, this is very much pre-Roe falling. In 2021, we funded 1,866 abortions for Missourians. Thank you. Only two of those abortions actually occurred within the state. So one thing that we like to always say is that just because something is legal does not mean that it is accessible. People who are most harmed by abortion restrictions are people who just don't have a lot of money,

and that's just what it is. The average cost of an abortion for someone who received funds from us was $671. And that's something that they have to have, cash up front on the day of their appointment. And unfortunately, that's just not realistic for a lot of people. But we believe that that doesn't mean that they should be barred from getting the health care that they deserve. So we work with clinics. Thank you. We work with clinics to ensure that they can give grants to Missourians if they express a financial need. We work with people who are as far away as Washington, D.C., New Mexico, Colorado. Also the clinics right over on the other side of the river, Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City and Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights. Yes, Hope Clinic. And Planned Parenthood of Great Plains in Kansas. Yeah, one more thing

I'll just say is since 2016, we have funded 6,000 Missourians, over 6,000, and 500 of those have already been helped so far in 2022. So to add to what Michelle said, the purpose and the reason that our existence as funds is so vital and critical is in the state of Missouri, you cannot use your insurance nor Medicaid to pay for your abortion. Doesn't matter. Not allowed. So it is critical that we are funding abortions. So that's my pitch to you all. Give us some money. Fund abortions. Fund your neighbors and friends and family. We are getting abortions. Abortion funds are here to stay. We're not going anywhere. And so you can fund us if you're part of another community. You can check out the National Network of Abortion Funds. You can donate to us at mofund.org. You can also follow us on social at Mo Abortion Fund.

We've got a newsletter to check out. And just again, we encourage you all to say abortion, talk about abortion. It's not about using synonyms and euphemisms. You need to be saying abortion. Shout it out. Talk about it. Fund it. Thank you all for your time.

Thank you all for having us tonight. Thank you guys. Thank you for what you do. Have a good time. Thank you for your work. Appreciate it. For everyone listening at home, if you want to help, also, Vote Save America is now your one-stop shop

for the Fuck Bans Action Plan, where you can donate, volunteer, and get to work advancing reproductive justice and protecting access to abortion, both now and at the ballot box in November. You have already donated over $260,000 since the news broke last week. So you can just head to votesaveamerica.com slash row

to get involved right now. And we're back. The 24-7 news cycle never pauses for even a moment, but sometimes we like to take a few beats and bring things to a complete halt with a little game we call OK Stop. You know how this works. We'll watch a video, and I'll stop the video with my signature catchphrase,

OK Stop. We'll give our opinions, and we'll give you the boost you all need to keep going. Now, are you ready? All right. I'm not even going to introduce the clip. Let's just see where it takes us. Let's talk about this something new that kind of got sprung on us last week.

For the last few months, we have had a disinformation czar and a unit within the Homeland Security Department. And even Mayorkas said on Sunday, yeah, I probably could have rolled that out a little bit better. OK, stop. Yeah. Seems like they could have, actually. I like that his big complaint was that it was sprung on us. It was sprung on us here at Fox & Friends. A disinformation unit. We weren't prepared for disinformation. Excuse me.

They didn't even ask us for our advice, and we are the fucking experts. If you're going to open up a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania, you call Hershey's. Do you guys ever notice that Kilmeade's name sounds like kill me? Something to think about. Yeah, coincidence. Let's keep going.

Find out who's in charge of it. And this woman that's in charge of it, Nina Jankiewicz, who's about eight and a half months pregnant. So I'm not sure how you get a job, and then you just can't do a job for three months. Okay, stop. Stop. A twist. A twist.

You know what? This is a guy. He went the wrong way on the Friendly's menu maze. You know what I mean? And he's like, oh, no. My brain took me to the wrong part of the maze. This was about disinformation. It's honestly the most honest thing

anyone said on Fox and Friends in the history of the show. I mean, just tell me you've never heard of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act without saying you've never heard of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. I thought we were going to get all kinds of ranting about a disinformation thing. No, he swerved way out of his lane.

Let's hit the pregnant lady. Oh, my God. I just, I just, it was, he was riffing. He was doing some jazz. He was doing some right wing jazz, scooby-Dee-Bop. And he's like... They let the pregnant ladies do labor? What? Yeah. Eight and a half months pregnant? That's a mistake.

I'm not faulting her, but I don't know why you give someone a job that you think so important. How long has she had this job? About two months, it looks like. I'll defend her on that one, Brian. She has the right to have a two months, it looks like. Well, I'll defend her on that one, Brian. She has the right to have a baby and have maternity leave. Okay, stop. I just, you know, well, she has it right now. During this broadcast, we'll check back in after the commercial break to see if it is still all right. I do like that this person on the panel did briefly remember she was a woman.

Yes. Or an American. She can choose not to be pregnant. Oh, no, she can't. No, I've just been told there's been a development no but see this is their whole plan pregnant people can't have jobs good ones just saying i i also just like when you're sitting next to brian kill me on live television you are sitting next to a baby holding a hand grenade. Your fate is 100% tied to this person,

and at any moment, pull the pin. Because she's sitting there, she's like, oh, fuck, I've got to say something, otherwise I'm going to clip on Media Matters for the rest of my life. I've got to get some moosh. I've got to create distance right fucking now from this fucking moron. Well, Brian, our concerns about the disinformation board is not that the woman running it has a uterus,

you dumb motherfucker. Our problem is we are a massive propaganda organ of right-wing politics that's a cancer on our society. Let's continue the clip. But if you really want to have someone head up an organization this is the face of the organization uh she's a musical she's passionate for musical theater and she also is passionate for disinformation like the the steel dossier is accurate uh like the uh Biden laptop is Russian disinformation. So she's in charge of the disinformation board,

yet she thought Hunter laptop story and continued to say that that was disinformation. I mean... What? We're into the MAGA Mad Libs phase of the program right now. Yes. It's, um, this is, uh, you can't really understand this without buying, you know, there's, uh, like, um... Zetastone? Yeah, you need the, um, you need the book You can't really understand this without buying... There's like...

Zeta Stone? Yeah, you need the book that comes with the game. You know, like the... If you've ever played Dark Souls, you can also buy a companion to help you understand the lore. This is deep lore. You can't just start. You can't just start with the multiverse of madness.

You have to understand what happened in Endgame. The... I don't even know if that's true all right all right uh i will say uh i don't think this disinformation board was well handled well like like they're saying so much stupid shit that like you might wonder why the head of the disinformation board is singing on a TikTok. It's a little weird. It's a little weird. It's a little extra. It's a little weird. I think maybe the hallmark of a not well-handled rollout is when people like us who consume the news pretty vociferously discover the fact of the disinformation board in the OK Stop clip.

Yeah. I mean, really, it was just you i knew and that's okay stop all right time for some more news uh during the 2020 campaign we all remember that uh joe biden famously said that after Donald Trump left the White House, Republicans in Congress would have a, quote, epiphany and start working with him and Democrats again. That has not come to pass. And lately, President Biden has been amping up his anti-Republican rhetoric.

A few weeks ago, he said, this ain't your father's Republican Party. Not a joke. Later, he said, this is the MAGA party now. These guys are a different breed of cat. It's raspberries, I'm telling you. These guys ain't the cat's pajamas. Leave the cats out of it. Also not a joke joke also not a joke um and then last week at the white house he delivered his strongest speech yet about republicans saying that quote the maga crowd is the most extreme political organization that's existed in recent american history uh and he called yeah all right let's clap for that. And he called Senator Rick Scott's proposal to raise taxes and gut health care the ultra-MAGA agenda. You know what, I think Joe is on to something. Let's play the clip. I'm not arguing the merits or lack of merits of same-sex marriage.

I believe the states and the voters can choose what they will, and that's their prerogative, and I think that's legitimate. So you would be okay with the Supreme Court leaving the question of interracial marriage to the states? Yes, I think that that's something that if you're not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you're not going to be able to have your cake and eat it too. I think that's hypocritical. Rape is a difficult issue and it emotionally

scars the individual. All are in part for the rest of their life. It is a shame that it happens, but there's an opportunity for that woman no matter how young or old she is. You know, having three daughters and I tell my daughters, well, if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it. So let's say you take these books out of the library. What are you going to do with them? You can put them in the street, light them on fire. Where are they going?

I don't have a clue, but I would burn them. Put them in the street, light them on fire. Where are they going? I don't have a clue, but I would burn them. Recently put out an 11-point plan to rescue America, two of the big points of which are, quote, all Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. It also says all federal legislation sunsets in five years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again. So that would raise taxes on half of Americans and potentially sunset programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Why would you propose something like that in an election year?

Sure. Well, John, that's, of course, the Democrat talking point. It's a no, no talking point it's a plan uh i will point out those were all elected republicans in all of those clips those are all republican officials um anyone have other good examples we may have left out of the video for time did i miss anything else representative. There was one today that I wanted to bring up, which was Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, right next door in Kansas. Yeah, exactly. And a bunch of other Republican goobers in the Senate

sent a letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Advisory Board asking them to add a new rating to inform parents whether a show contains content related to sexual orientation or gender identity this content is rated awesome i mean they just keep coming yeah i look i it is when during the primary i think one of our frustrations withrations with Joe Biden as a candidate was this idea that the Republican Party was going to have some kind of epiphany. And it was never totally clear if that was Joe Biden saying what he believed to be true or what Joe Biden felt was important for him to represent as a candidate who genuinely wants to bring the country together and turn down the heat in our politics. I'd always felt like it was a little bit of both. But it does seem as though he's woken up a little bit

to exactly what this reality is. And especially in the last few months, I think, again, because we have a feckless national press and because we have a right-wing propaganda machine and because we have social media, the fact of what's going on, which is that the Republican Party is the world's largest and most dangerous hate group, is becoming more clear, even though there

are a lot of entities and institutions that aren't willing to say it. Alyssa, when do you think Joe Biden finally had the epiphany that Joe Biden was wrong about the epiphany? And why do you think he's hitting this message now? Do you think that he realized the fever wasn't going to break? Now, Obama used to say that. And look, I mean, I think why Obama, I know why Obama said that and probably why Biden thought that, is not that like Republicans would suddenly be like, oh, I see the light now. They thought that maybe they'd get their ass kicked electorally because they took these extreme positions and would be punished for them. And because of the way our system is, because of gerrymandering,

because of the way the Senate is, because, you know, that has not happened yet. No, and I think, too, that, like, even he has to realize they don't just hate Democrats, they hate people. I mean, they hate all people. They're not, it's like, it's like Republicans aren't protecting themselves. They're protecting a subset of the people who support them at the farthest edge. Right. And so this is like just the mere fact that abortion is supported by 69 percent of Americans, not Democrats, but Americans. And so I think now Biden has realized they will just do anything. They will say anything. They will take Madison

Cawthorn out. I mean, they'll do anything. And so I think he realizes if they will do anything to themselves, to the American people, he is not going to find common cause with them at any point. And it's really time to stop trying because at a certain point, it does start to feel a little ridiculous. I do think for Biden, two things, and this is also why Obama talked about the fear breaking is in the course of a campaign, you have to articulate how you're possibly going to get something done in divided government. And I do think Biden is more nostalgic than naive. Like you guys have like put yourself back in the foot of that campaign, like the leader

of this Republican Party tried to extort a US ally to dig up dirt on his son. And then the entire party, even his friends like Lindsey Graham, stood by that president as they did it, right? And so I think, and even in his governing, like he has mostly tried to move within Democrats only. Like he did have a very significant, you know, he got, to his credit, got 19 Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, to vote for a big infrastructure bill. But this is, I think, moving away from the nostalgia and getting into campaign mode, right? Do you think that hitting Republicans for their extremism will be an effective midterm message for Biden? Yes. Like for all of the cable news, Twitter, hand-wringing about whether Democrats have overreached or gone too far left or misread our mandate, this Republican Party has adopted the most radical, most extreme,

most unpopular agenda in the history of American politics. Look at everything on their agenda that we talked about there, right? Overturning Roe v. Wade, opposed by 70% of voters. The law that Ron DeSantis passed to punish Disney, opposed by 60% of voters. Laws banning books,ney opposed by 60 of voters laws uh banning books opposed by 80 of us like across all the stuff that rick scott talked about opposed by huge majorities you're saying people don't want to raise taxes on retirees with no income i'm saying people don't want to raise your taxes on retirees they don't want to ban books they don't want to

just the government to decide health care choices they want the government to decide what sports sports trans athletes can participate in. They do not want that. It's 80% of opposition to that. And so it would be political malpractice for us not to make that a centerpiece election, because right now the polls are very clear that the American people prefer, by about four points, Republicans controlling Congress over Democrats. But that is putting the generic and generic ballot, because the Republicans are a nameless, faceless alternative to the Democrats they're mad at because of inflation, or COVID, or gas prices, or lack of progress in Washington.

And so if we're going to have any chance in this election, we have to center that agenda. We have to raise the salience of what the Republicans are trying to do. We have to define who they are. And I think extremism is the right way to do it. Now, I think there is a very legitimate conversation. Biden has used the term MAGA extremist on multiple occasions. Is MAGA the right term to do that? Now, I think that's more research. I will say I have seen some research that shows that the term MAGA is better known and more evocative than I would have assumed. That it means something to the voters that we have lost, either because they have gone back to the Republican side or they've disengaged with politics since 2020. It speaks to a Republican extremism that is bigger than Trump. It's not just about the man Trump.

It's the change in the party. And so I think there's the forming of a message here. I was struck by how many times he said the word MAGA in that speech, which he doesn't usually say. And then he said MAGA is extreme. He kept calling it the ultra MAGA agenda. These are not some things that Biden just says off the cuff. You could tell that that was something that they really planned. Yeah. You know when Biden speaks off the cuff, a bird flies out of his mouth. No, I was struck by it too. When I saw him say MAGA extremism, MAGA agenda,

I was like, oh, that's polling. And it really is an interesting way. It is because we've talked a lot, like how much do you make Trump the centerpiece of this agenda? We've seen where that can work. We've seen where it can fail. And maybe it is the perfect way to kind of bridge the divide,

to remind people of the extremism, the Trump era, but making it a brand that tags Republicans more broadly. It's interesting. Well, I mean, we have now played a clip of a whole bunch of Republicans saying a whole bunch of extreme things tonight. We didn't have to use Trump once. And it was very evident from everything that various Republican officials across the country have said, just how extreme and dangerous their agenda is. And you actually don't have to center Trump in that, but he sort of looms large over it as the direction that that party has taken.

The story, as told by sort of the press and the pundits, is that Trump radicalized the Republican Party. That's backwards. It's the Republican Party is so radical that they would pick someone like Donald Trump to be their leader. He is the caboose, not the engine of this fucking problem. Yeah. And I think part of the challenge we faced in 2020, and Joe Biden had to run this campaign, was that Donald Trump is a different kind of Republican. And so it was a message to Republicans,

hey, your party is your party, but this guy has taken over your party and he's extreme. And I think that worked on the presidential level. Clearly it worked because Joe Biden won. But I think when you look at the House level and the Senate level, like it may have hurt us, hurt Democrats on that level

because some people could say, all right, I'm going to vote for Joe Biden for president, but I'll vote for my Republican congressperson because they're different than Trump. Trump's much crazier than them. And I think the case that we have to make in 2022, which has been made by all of the comments that we just played, is that no, no, no, the vast majority of that party now, particularly the Republican politicians in Washington and in state houses across the country, are just as bad as Trump, if not worse. And I do think Trump is the caboose. Trump learned what was happening and took advantage of it.

He has that kind of feral wisdom and that ability to understand where people are and listen and kind of adjust. But he also showed them a winning formula. I mean, they had lost. They had lost presidential elections. They had lost the popular vote. And he showed them a path for generating real enthusiasm that they could use to win in places where they were not winning. And if we have a hope of getting out of this cycle where we feel like every election, it's we either win or we lose our democracy,

the only hope is demonstrating not just that we can win an election, but that this is a losing formula. Because if one thing had gone different in 2016, if James Comey had been three inches shorter and had some fucking humility, then they'd be having the same kind of conversation they had over 2012. How do we appeal to a broader part of the country? How do we change? How do we adjust? How do we grow with the country instead of trying to appeal to a more and more radicalized minority in the country to retain power at all costs? All right.

When we come back, Alyssa and Dan will interview your Congresswoman, Cori Bush. Please welcome to the stage, Congresswoman Cori Bush. Thank you. Let me see. Oh, yeah. It's always about St. Louis.

Congresswoman, hello. Hello. Hi. I love you. Okay. Let's talk about the biggest news of the week. Okay. I know. I know. It's like, if you're talking about Roe, you're just such a fucking downer this week, but we're going to be a downer for a minute. The leaked Supreme Court majority ruling, which indicates that the court is poised to overturn Roe. Now, let's just be honest. Reproductive rights activists have been warning about this for not weeks, not months, but years. However, reading it, when you first read the draft opinion, can you tell us what you thought? Did you think they would go as far as they did? So, first of all, when I first saw, I saw it on social media and I just couldn't believe it.

I didn't want it to be real, even though we've known for such a long time, because we've done this work for a long time that this could come and we saw the signs and we saw things moving people getting into positions um but when I saw that draft opinion I didn't believe it and so I reached out to my team and I you know and I asked them like please like check on this like see if this is real right and then once we they said yeah you know this is real reading that um let me just say it was really intrusive to my being because it was because it was like it was like someone coming in taking over me like how dare you come and take over me and who I and so um you know so it was very disturbing and with Missouri being one of those states one of the at least 13 states that has the trigger ban um knowing that immediately if um when this draft opinion

is written what will happen to us and so many other states? I was mortified. But you know what? I was mortified enough into action. Yeah. You know, pissed off into action. Right. You have talked about the abortion you had as a teenager.

Yes. You testified before Congress. I did. You did. What compelled you to share your story? So I had never shared the story before. I hadn't thought about it since it happened. It happened and I just, you know, pushed it off and tried to move on with my life. And so when SB8, the Texas bill was coming about and we were told like, oh, this is happening.

I didn't know what else to do. And so for me, you know, it's like use what you got. And I just and so I said, okay, well, you know what? I'm going to use this moment to talk about my story because it's the person that I've always been is I'm okay being vulnerable about my ish. Right. I'm talking about my stuff. If it'll help somebody else and use what you got to help people. use what you got to help people and when I went forward it wasn't until I sat down and told the story to the media that I realized that it was a sexual assault that because I had never replayed it and so sitting in telling that story the house oversight committee I was broken and nervous and afraid of the attacks that would happen because of that.

But whatever they can do to me, like send it, bring it on. Because if I can take it to keep other folks from having to go through what I went through, then go ahead. Did you find the response was mostly positive? The response, I love you. The response was overwhelming. It was positive. And I started having people walking up to me on the street, just walking up to me just in tears, like that I had never met before that would just embrace me and say, thank you for telling your story because you told my story. Right. Just the other day, we had a rally here in St. Louis. Yes. At the federal building. And

afterwards, so many people came up to me just weeping, saying, you told your story and now I feel like I can tell mine. Because you don't have to tell your story. And the thing is, we shouldn't have to live out our trauma to be able to make change. We shouldn't have to do that. But people are. And the more people talk about it, the more you realize that it's your friend it's your mother it's your sister it's your friend it's it is it is so many people in your life who have been impacted by it and that we shouldn't be ashamed no and we shouldn't you know there shouldn't be like the activists who

were out earlier saying euphemisms you know it's it's a fucking abortion yeah that's okay. I'll say it. You don't have to. Yeah. Yeah. And it's one in four. One in four. One in four. And so. Exactly. We're not asking you to clap, but let me just say it. But so here's, I feel a little bit like in the past week, you know, regardless of the fact that this was, this draft was leaked, we knew it was coming. Yes.

The decision was coming in June or July. Yes. And personally, I feel like people are acting a little caught flat footed. Like, oh, we didn't know this was coming yes the decision was coming in June or July yes and uh personally I feel like people are acting a little uh caught flat-footed like oh we didn't know this was coming yet we all knew it was coming yes so what would you like to see Congress and the Biden administration do in response to this pending ruling sure so um the you the sent the house we passed, you know, the Women's Health Protection Act. We sent it to the Senate. It failed in the Senate. We have to codify Roe v. Wade. We have to do that.

And so we understand in order to do that, that abolishing the filibuster has to happen. And it has to happen. And if it has to happen. And, and, and I feel like this, this, I understand that it is complex. And I understand that there that people feel like sometimes people will say, well, hey, if we do that, then, you know, we'll empower, you know, the Republicans to retaliate and do something to us. So like, let's not touch that. But they are. But they've been doing it. They've been doing it. They've been doing it. And so, no, what we have to do is we have to protect our constitutional rights right now. We still have abortion right now. You can still go out and get an abortion.

You can still make an appointment. And so we have to protect that. And so, so whether it's a carve out of the filibuster, you know, but also we need to expand the courts. We have to expand the courts. We can't, we can't rely on this, this court right now that is being, that is this far right court that, that can, if they're going after abortion right now what about marriage equality is that next you know what's next i mean they made that pretty clear right yeah every the based on the opinion sort of everything's on the table and so all of the stuff that we have anything that we can do expend whatever political capital you have put yourself on the line whatever we have to do to keep this this thing has been our constitutional right for 49 years we have to do what we can and

the other the other thing that bothers me about this is um representative barbara lee um in that same hearing she spoke her story and she spoke about back alley abortion. And she talked about how prior to Roe v. Wade, the leading cause of death for black women was sepsis due to the back alley abortions. They want to send us back there to where... And so that's why we fight. Speaking of fighting, your path to Congress is unique. Before you came to Congress, you were a nurse, you were a pastor,

but also most notably, I think, you're a Black Lives Matter activist. Yes. And how has the transition been to now trying to push for change within the confines of the system? Yeah. So I feel like everything that I've gone through, my journey, it was the stepping stones or the building blocks to be able to do what I'm doing now. You know, I call myself and I coined the phrase, I'm a politivist. I didn't take off my activist hat to do work in Congress. A lot of activists out here in the audience and folks listening, because the activist is the one that's going to push, that's going to, that has that perseverance, that determination, that moxie, you know, and will do something alone, even if they,

even if, you know, they know that they will take a tax, you know, and go, you know, deal with a lot of scrutiny. That politician is the one, they have the power tax and deal with a lot of scrutiny, that politician is the one, they have the power of the pen, the power of the purse. They do the negotiations and make the deals. So marrying the two, I feel, is important. And so being the activist, I learned that you have to continue to push if your message is something that is, if transformational change is what you're seeking, you got to continue to push. And so that's what we do in Congress all the time. You know, I, when they told me, when I was told, you know, we couldn't get the eviction moratorium

extended back last August, they're like, oh no, it can't happen. The administration won't do it. The White House won't do it. The CDC is just over. Go home, go on vacation, it's done. I couldn't understand that because I know what it's like to sleep in the car with my two babies. And I know what it's like to be unhoused. And I know what it's like that I get to go home every single day. And I know that there are people right outside here in St. Louis that are sleeping on the street right outside these doors. They're out there right now. And I knew that we were talking about 11 million people. I knew that we were talking about 7,000 St. Louisans. There was no way that I could just go home. And so I said, what do I have? Did folks elect me to do the easy thing or did they elect me to do the right thing?

And so that's how that's that journey. So I think a lot about you sleeping on the steps to push the administration and Congress to act on the eviction. And it worked. It worked. And before you did that, you were right. People were going home. It was over. going home. It was over. And so I'm curious about what lesson you took from that as a way in which to enact political change in this system. You know, because they tell you, especially when you're a freshman legislator, you won't get anything done. You have to build relationships. It takes years and decades to do all of these things. You can't make moves. It taught me that they're wrong.

It taught me that will, determination, a love for your people. It taught me that it's okay to be the activist that won't back down. I'm that won't back down person now. I know how to work with folks, but I feel like we spend a lot of time working with folks and then losing ourselves in the process. I didn't go to Congress so that St. Louis can always be pushed to the side. We've been through that. We've been through that. So I'll keep pushing. And I'll say another lesson. Another lesson is, I learned it as a child, a closed mouth will not get fed.

So the idea of defund the police is almost always talked about with right-wing framing, right? And both because the right-wing is such a powerful media machine, but also aided and abetted by mainstream media. And I think also it's fair to say a lot of Democrats who use those sort of that framing and how they talk about it. How would you talk about what you're trying to achieve in a way that I think reaches out to the broad swath of people who were very moved into action in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd and Breonna

Taylor and so many others? Yes. So this is the thing. What bothers me about the defund the police thing is people are more upset with the word defund than they are with the fact that black folks are killed disproportionately in this country and that it happens with impunity. They're more upset about the work because they'll tell me, Corey, don't say defund, say reinvest. Isn't it the same? You're still moving money. You know, I don't, but you can defund Planned Parenthood. You can defund education and all of those things, and it's okay. Nobody says anything. And so I push back on that because people are upset about the slogan. So I'm going to keep throwing it in your face. The point is, you know, because those same folks aren't doing anything to save lives. They're not doing anything to save trans lives, save immigrant lives.

They're not doing anything to save black and brown lives. They're not doing any of that work. They're just fussing and they're just being, you know, but anyway so but this is the thing. In 2021, after the protests, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, there were 1,000 on record 1,055 police killings in this country, more than any other year recorded. So after all of the protests and after all of that, more killings happened. What we're saying is no killings should happen and instead of it growing. But the thing about it is we can't continue to do the same thing and expect a different result.

The thing about it is we can't continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. And so for me, when we know that someone who has an encounter with police who is in a mental health crisis, they are six times there. They have a one in 16 chance of being killed in that encounter. When we I'm a I'm a former mental health nurse working in community community mental health. Most of my patients were uninsured or underinsured, unhoused, transient. Mental health, so someone suffering with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, it is no different than someone who has diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer, because you treat it. The point is to treat it. And so we don't show up. If I have diabetes, I'm not going to go to the bank to go get help for my diabetes. I'm going to go to the health center, you know. And so why do we send police on calls

to do that work? And so what we're saying is send out the folks who are skilled to do that work. Let's pay the social workers. Let's pay the therapists to go out. And I don't see how that's wrong. Like pay them to do that. Because the other thing is this. If we pay the folks who went to school to do this work and have experience in it, then we'll have better outcomes. Because the point is to save lives. And the point is to get people whole. The point is to connect people to resources and get them treatment. And so that is the outcome of that. But the other part is police then have the opportunity to do the stuff that they're trained and skilled to do. So they're trained, they're skilled to do these things. Why not have them do that? Because just here in St. Louis, there was like a cops and clinicians program.

Twenty twenty one. I believe it was something like 800 calls that the police didn't have to go on that clinicians took care of. It saved two thousand police hours. That's hours where they can deal with the clearance rate. You know, so that's what we're saying. And the other thing is this. I don't believe that we should be spending money on MRAPs and bear spray and rubber bullets and tear gas when we have folks that need Narcan. We have a substance use situation that's not being addressed. We have our unhoused community members that need help. We need help and education. We need funding to go into those places. And so this is not anti-police. This is pro-saving lives. Congresswoman, one of the things that I hear from activists all the time, no matter the issue, is the frustration at how slow

things go. How do you keep your faith? How do you think we keep up our energy going into the long fight ahead? You know, I think about so many of the things that I've gone through in my life, and I always have to come back to the fact that I'm still here. And because we are still here, that means that there is work yet to do. There is hope. And that hope is us. That hope is because the thing is, nobody's going to come from somewhere and do the work to save humanity nobody's going to save else is going to save our planet no one else is going to do this work it's us and so the the way that I stay motivated and I I stay uh on fire for the people because I am absolutely in love with people and humanity um the way that I'm able to do that is remembering that there is yet something on the inside of me that I can deliver to the people because somebody did

it for me. I am here. I am alive after police assault that I went through, after domestic violence, almost being killed by a former, you know, yes. You know, after multiple sexual assaults, I'm still here to tell it. And I've been able to help other people. So that is the strength. Somebody help me. And so somebody will help somebody else. And so knowing that everybody under the sound of my voice right now has something to give, there is a mission and it only stops if we stop it. So we grab, we get

ourselves together. We get the therapy. We need to be able to do the work. It's okay to get your therapy, get what you need, take care of yourself, be whole, and let's win this. and let's win this. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. It was an inspiration. Thank you. When we come back,

we're back. St. Louis, a city like none other. We've been to almost all of them, and no one is doing it exactly like you. Prevelle? Okay. Nope. I heard this is disgusting.

Here to offer his perspective on the gateway to the West, your former Secretary of State, host of Majority 54, veteran, and hopefully someone who can explain what Prevel is, Jason Kander. Jason Kander. Thank you. Thank you to the two guys who stood. I really appreciate it. I have no idea what Prevel is. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri.

I'm sorry. Jason, I did have a question for you before we start. What would you recommend to people is the best barbecue in St. Louis? Thank you for this question, John. This is really important. I hope everybody's paying attention. The best barbecue in St. Louis. It's a little out of the way.

What you do is, you get on I-70. It's good to meet like a third of my Twitter followers. This is great. You already know what's coming. I'm going to finish anyway. So you get on I-70 and you drive west.

And when your car starts to pick up Kansas City radio stations, exit the highway and just get a bite anywhere. That is the best barbecue in St. Louis. Oh, I would say every election cycle. It's great to be here. Yes. Every election cycle, there is a Will Jason Kander Run Statewide Again movement,

and he just burned it to the ground. He doesn't tell you what you want to hear. He tells you what you need to hear. Would y'all like to talk about the 1985 World Series? Okay, I'm done. I agree. I don't either. We all remember that famous rivalry.

Jason. They remember. You have a book coming out this summer. Yes, I do have a book. Thank you. You wrote a book. You think you're better than us? I did. I did. Can you just tell us a bit about what the book is about? I love all your questions so far. Let me just say.

Was that not a hardball? No, that was a hardball. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. Yeah, I have a book coming out July 5th. It's called Invisible Storm, a soldier's memoir of politics and PTSD. It is the best thing I've ever written. I'm very proud of it. It's frankly,

it's the book that I wish had been available to me to read like 12 years ago. I think it would have, you know, it's funny. Congresswoman Bush was just talking about therapy and I was joking with y'all backstage. I felt like she was introducing me, and I should just run out. But I waited. But you can get the book early, actually.

If you go to jasonkander.com slash launch team, you can join the launch team, pre-order the book, and you can get it early. So I hope you all do that. I'm going to say that again. It's jasonkander.com slash launch team. Thanks for asking me about the book. And oh, I should also add that all of the royalties for me go to Veterans Community Projects fight against veteran suicide and veterans homelessness. And I was just at the

Veterans Community Project site here in St. Louis today and it is coming along. I would encourage you to throw some coin at that as well, please. Thank you. So, you know, we've been talking about this for the show. You know, we're heading into these midterms. We're facing this extreme radicalized Republican Party. What do you think Democrats miss about campaigning and we see pundits talking about the strategy exclusively as whether we should be more toward the middle, more toward the left, as if that's, I just don't believe that voters in a place like Missouri have like a spreadsheet out and they're going down and they're trying to figure out exactly where the vote, where the politician is on each thing. That's not how it works. The way it works is in the Midwest and the South, people care about four things for their family. They want their family to be happy, to be healthy, to be safe,

and to be nearby. And actually, no matter how progressive you are, no matter how moderate you are, on the left, the things that we stand for, they make those things more likely. My kids are eight and one, and we live in Kansas City, and I am already dreading the day when they potentially go somewhere else for opportunity. And we have to decide, like, do we want to be near our grandkids? Do we not? And that's what a lot of us, and for those of you who are too young to get what I'm talking about, I promise this is what your parents are thinking about, all right?

And so whatever it is, you know, we've talked a lot in this episode about Roe. Look at the nearby part of what I said, right? Like how many parents right now are thinking like my daughter may not want to live here and live near me. I may not be able to keep my family nearby. So we've got to take all the stuff we stand for and just make it really clear that we want to make it more likely your family can be happy, healthy, safe, and nearby. And I think what happens is when the leadership of the party is exclusively on the coast, it's not that they're too liberal. That has nothing to do with it. Liberal, conservative, whatever, wherever you are within the left, it doesn't matter. What matters is, do you get that we're worried about our kids leaving? You know, I sat

down with the mayor of Boston once and said this, and he said, yeah, we're the place your kids go. And I was like, yeah, that's why people who sometimes lead the party miss that. Yeah, it is. I feel like we don't we don't talk enough about that. We talk about whether the economy on the whole is growing or the economy on the whole is shrinking. But actually, cities across the country are in a kind of permanent renaissance and whole parts of the country are in a kind of permanent recession. And we never look at that distinction. Yeah. And, and it's, it's not just like folks leaving and going like a city being in a renaissance and then people go to Chicago from here, they go to New York or DC or whatever from here. It's if you're from like Cape Girardeau or, or from Warrensburg

or whatever, then the people in that, in that place are worried that you'll go to St. Louis or to Kansas City. And so when we say things like, I'm all for the new green economy, for instance, we have to get there as fast as possible. But when we act like it doesn't matter that people will have to change jobs and get retrained,

it does matter because they're like, but this is my home. I want to stay here. So we have to talk about how do we make it where you can stay in your home. So, Jason, we came here to give the people what they want. Substantive political analysis with enough jokes and cursing to prevent what scientists call, no thank you,

I don't care anymore. I'm just watching Selling Sunset and pretending the news is a series on Roku TV I don't have access to. Disease. But we also came here to learn and challenge ourselves. So it's now your turn to put us on the spot and test our knowledge of your local customs, from your fascinating cuisine to the Midwest branch of Arkham Asylum that is the Missouri Republican Party. A true rogues gallery. So I hand the reins over to you, Jason, to ask us questions in a little game we like to call

Missouri Loves Company. So Jason, take it away. All right. I think just buzz in whenever you have the answer here. All right. First, what sauce or condiment does St. Louis consume more of than any other city in America by a truly, I'm going to make a slight edit here,

admirable margin? Is it ranch dressing? It is not ranch dressing. Do you want me to just give you the answer, or should we go through this? No, we're going to guess it. We're going to guess it. Is it like multiple choices?

It's barbecue sauce. I was going to say barbecue sauce. I would have said barbecue sauce because you have the enthusiasm and neediness of a sweet sauce culture. I picked ranch because Jason just told me that Sam Hill's barbecue

was mediocre. That is not what he said. That is not what he said. has told me that Sam Hill's barbecue is mediocre. Yeah, no, I assume they're buying... No. That is not what he said. That is not what he said. Let me be clear. He said you could get better barbecue in Brooklyn, I thought. No, I did not say that. Dan. Dan.

I may not be running for office, but I've still got to live in this place. Look, this is the best barbecue in the world if you've never been to Kansas City. All right? I want to be clear. That's good. Everyone's like, do I clap for that?

Yeah, they don't know. You don't know what to do with me, St. Louis. I don't know what they said. Oh, sorry. Somebody shouted because they normally listen at home and they don't realize they're surrounded by people. Oh, you think this... What they shouted, as if at the television,

for getting there in a theater, like a play, like we're Hamilton. Oh, my God. Thank you, Nancy Pelosi. Keep going. She said Kansas City barbecue is overrated. That's what she said. Oh. Where are you sitting? We're going to Pelosi. Keep going. She said Kansas City barbecue is overrated. That's what she said. Oh.

Where are you sitting? We're going to fight. All right. Which Missouri Republican blamed a left-wing attack on traditional masculinity for more and more men, quote, withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games? Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley. I think that was Josh Hawley.

Yep. Fuck that guy. Weird. Not Hawley. Josh Hawley. Fuck that guy. Weird, not a lot of Josh Hawley fans. Here, I'm going to do two impressions at once. Oh, two impressions at once. This is two impressions at the exact same time. This is an impression of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Josh Hawley. Here it is. Hello.

Take me seriously. That was excellent. That was quite good. That was quite good. A factory in downtown St. Louis has been churning out Tums tablets for 92 years now, but the restaurants are churning out greasy delights even faster. It's an arms race that can only lead to annihilation. How many Tums does the plant produce every year? 20 million. Any other guesses? A million. Oddly, the answer is also Josh Hawley. I don't know.

The answer is six billion. Wow. Oh, my God. I feel like it's related to the condiment question. I'm not sure. Love a tum, you know? I love tums. Love tums.

Love tums. Way to go. Possible sponsor. I don't know. Now they are. Everybody is. That's how I operate. Meanwhile,

the St. Louis area was home to Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in recorded history. How tall was he? Eight feet. Seven foot eleven. Okay, Plinko. We should

do this like the price is right. I say 8 foot 1. $1. You're going to go 99 cents? I'm going to go 7.10. Okay, yeah, that's smart with him going 7.11. Alyssa, you win. It's 8 foot 11. Thank you so much.

Think about how bad a decision he would have made as Attorney General. Or whatever. You were the Attorney General. You missed the call. FBI? FBI director. I got it. I'm going to fix it for the edit.

Think about how bad a decision he would have made as FBI director. Fix it in post. That's beautiful. Which Missouri Republican, these are just depressing, said the following about gay people in an interview with a Baptist magazine? Everyone's like, you've got to read the quote because there's a lot of choices. One of the things that's always difficult in today's time is the homosexual issue or with those type of issues that come up.

I'm old school. I know how I believe. I know what's going to happen to these people. Oh, my goodness. He's old school. Well, they're all old school. Yeah, right. The new school is quite frightening.

I mean, it's not very fun. Todd Akin? No. Lesser known. Oh, lesser known. Actually a very congenial, easy to get along with guy in person. No, I said that. Governor Mike Parson.

Oh. Wall, Missouri's lieutenant governor in 2017. Wow. Wow. Those are the ones you least suspect and whose names you don't remember. Sorry, Mike, if I'm making you famous. I didn't, you know, sorry. Last year, Missouri Governor Mike Parsons threatened to prosecute a journalist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for, quote, hacking a state-run website.

What did the journalist actually do? Google? You're pretty close. Thank you so much. You're not going to guess it. I'll give it to you. Please do. They noticed that the website's unencrypted source code had exposed the social security numbers of more than 100,000 teachers, school administrators, and counselors.

Oh, so I was close. They just Googled. You were pretty there. Thank you so much. Yeah. I think if I had a bell, ding, like you got it. Yeah. Thank you.

Which of the following was not introduced to the nation at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis? Don't help them. The ice cream cone, Dr. Pepper, bugles under their original name of Stanley McCloud's corn horns, or peanut butter? 1904. I think it's got to be peanut butter. 1904. I think it's got to be peanut butter. Peanut butter. Ice cream cone. Bugles.

Oh. I thought that was just a bit clever. I did too. I could tell. That's a joke. That's a joke. Corn horn. Yeah.

And also they were never called Stanley McCloud's corn horns. Yeah. That's a joke. Somebody got us. Yep. Hallie got us. Hallie.. Somebody got us. Hallie got us. Hallie got us. Hallie got us. Good job, Hallie.

We got Kiefer'd. All right, your last one. Here we go. Last weekend, Josh Hawley went to a conference for guys in Springfield. I don't think it's guys in Springfield. Let me read this differently. Last weekend, Josh Hawley went to a conference for guys in Springfield. I don't want to, like, tar all guys in Springfield. I don't want to tar all guys in Springfield.

It's a lovely place. In Springfield, there was a conference for guys. I mean, you know. I mean, punctuation and inflection. Very important. I want to be clear. It was written correctly. This is on me.

All right. It was hosted by the conservative James River Church called Stronger Men's Conference. Which of these did not take place at the men's conference? A monster truck rally or Bronco Riding? Monster truck rally. I think Bronco Riding. I'm going to say Bronco Riding. Trick question.

They did both. Kiefer again. Wow. We got Kiefer. Jason, thank you so much for educating us today on so many topics. One more time, where can people get the book and how can they support what you're doing with veterans here in Missouri? Thank you very much. You can support Veterans Community Project, which we are currently building one of our campuses. It'll be a 50 unit tiny house village with wraparound services, an outreach center, and a community center. You can go to vcp.org, like veteranscommunityproject.org, vcp.org.

You can get the book, Invisible Storm, A Soldier's Memoir of Politics, and PTSD, wherever you buy Dan's books. And also, I have a little show. It's called Majority 54. Thanks so much. Thank you all for coming to St. Louis. Thank you, Jason Kander. That's our show for tonight, St. Louis. Thank you, Jason Kander. That's our show for tonight, St. Louis. Thank you to Jason Kander. Thank you to Congresswoman Cori Bush. Thank you to Alyssa Mastromonaco. Thank you to Michelle and Jess from the Missouri Abortion Fund.

And go to votesaveamerica.com slash row to get involved right now. Thanks, St. Louis. We'll see you later. And I like the pizza. I like the pizza. Thanks, St. Louis. We'll see you later. And I like the pizza. I like the pizza. Of course I love it. Hot Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner-Bernstein. Our producer is Haley Muse, and Olivia Martinez is our associate producer.

It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineer the show. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Sandy Gerard, Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montuth. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash crookedmedia. you