Pod Save America - Terminally Online: Live from Crooked Con (Subscription Preview)

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Live from Crooked Con, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer and producer Elijah Cone record a special episode of our subscriber-exclusive show Terminally Online. They blind-rank 2025's most online politicians and reveal who Crooked Con straw poll participants want to see running for president in 2028.This holiday season, we're offering 25% off annual subscriptions through November 30th. Head over to crooked.com/friends now to subscribe!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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. We are off for Thanksgiving, but we would never want to leave you without some sweet, sweet content. So please enjoy a part of our subscription show terminally online, which we recorded live at CricketCon. You can hear the full episode when you sign up for Friends of the Pod at Cricket.com slash friends. When you sign up, you get ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Love it, or Leave It, and Offline. Plus, you get exclusive content like Dan Friper's Polar Coaster and more. For a limited Black Friday offer, annual subscriptions are 25% off. So good. Go sign up, get that offer.

It is the best way to directly support us as we try to build a truly independent progressive media organization. Again, that's crooked.com slash friends. Now, here's Terminali Online. Welcome to Terminally Online, the Crooked Subscription Show live from CrookedCon.

I'm Elijah Cohn. I'm John Favro. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. I'm Tommy Vee Thor. I'm John Lovin. No Barack Obama coming out. No Barack. Obama.

All right. You guys want to play a game? Yeah, sure. All right, let's do it. We're going to do a blind rankings. You're unfamiliar with how blind rankings work. I'm going to give you five things. You'll have to rank them as they come, but you don't know what's coming next.

So be careful to leave that one or five spot open. What we are going to be ranking is the most online politicians of 2025. I have some questions. And for those who watch the show are familiar with Elijah's work, you know that he often hasn't thought of all the rules here. So, let's hash out.

Are we each ranking them or are we ranking them collectively? Consensus. Consensus. I was going to ask that in a nicer way. Look, some of these people are troubling on fans and one of, Elijah told me himself, he said bully me,

said one of the appeals of the show is when we pick on him. So the people came all the way from all across the country and we're not going to pick him. Watch Elijah get bullied in person. Yeah. Let it begin.

We've got 38 minutes. I think it's a killer segment. I think that you guys are going to love it. Okay. We'll let the audience judge. All right. First politician, kind of the pace car here. President Donald J. Trump.

The old man may have lost a couple miles per hour, but he's still got his fastball. Throwing out all caps truths. Posting AI videos, dumping shit on Harry Sisson, which is just like a deeply online thing to know who that is. Instant classic. Are we docking points for only posting on his dumb little tiny corner of the internet? You can slice that either way.

I mean, he's so online, he, like, got banned and did his own platforms. And are we one to five here? Is that what it is? No, I mean, you're putting him in a one to five spot. No, I understand how the game works. Are there five people? I'm saying you're not, like, ranking him, like, a rating of one. Get his ass, Dan.

I just want to know how many people. I want to know how many people. I feel like we can't go wrong with a three. Do we want a two, though? I think a two. I think a two. I mean, that's a lot of people left. Love it. So here's, look, I don't want to get you ahead of Elijah,

but, you know, look, we've battled before, and I've studied his moves. So we know we have J.D. Vance coming. We've got to leave the number one side open. There's another super online person that we need to be aware of. I think three is right. So I think we get a deduct points for,

because he is super online, but only in his little sandbox. Yeah. He's almost like, remember in the office when they gave Crete a word document to write into? Like, that's basically what he's doing now. And also to the J.D. Vance point, like, you can't be the most online politician if all you're doing is posting without replying to anyone. Right. Right. There's been no Trump replies.

That's good point. Right. Right. No receiving. Which makes me, that's why I'm saying. Two or three. That's why I'm like. Before we commit to three.

or two, sorry, before we commit to two or three, would you say that Gavin Newsom is more online than Donald Trump? It's a staff thing for him. I think it's a staff? Wait a minute. Do you think when he's posting from his account? Gavin. Like, obviously there's the Gavin Newsom press office account that's wild.

But, like, I feel like Newsom himself is posting from him sometimes, no? I also think he's deeply familiar with the online discourse. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think three is right. Three for Trump. Right. Yeah.

All right. Donald Trump, he's the Pace Guard. We'll start at three. Okay. Next politician, Zoran Mamdani. A lot of ink has been spilled about how he gets it. It's a new kind of campaign, the best digital campaign ever run. Clearly, he gets it. If you've seen his old post, like, they're pretty peak lib posting. You know who we forgot? Graham Platner. He's on my Honorable mentions, yeah. Oh, yeah, Reddit is a platform. He's a boy and boy. If you're a Reddit poster,

You're deeply online. He's an inspirational story of what you can do after being to online. Yeah. Also, maybe. Maybe.

He could be on the list. Wait a minute. Doron's really like, online is like, it's like a sickness. We're also, we're doing 2025, right? This is not like all time.

Okay, that's good to know. Yeah, I think if you know, if we're going to work grand Platterner into this, it's, you know, your scandals coming to light year. Right, you're right. That's important. He's not online now.

He's like, you can't, you can't be. online, there's no single out there with the oysters. I don't think. I don't know where they come from. I'm not an oyster farmer. I guess close to land. So I think Zarin seems too

well-adjusted and he's instinctively not defensive, which is a fundamentally not online thing. I would say four or five. Totally. Yeah. Because he's also not, he's not replying either. No. I don't think. I think he, like Yavin, he's very familiar with the discourse, but he's not a I do what right now are we comfortable what do we think four or five I think four in a case five is like Joe Biden yeah I think there's going to be I think there's going to be I think we've got one I think we've got one person whose iPhone screen text is so large you can only see a few words at a time present company accepted how many different places are you going to go after Chuck Schumer today this is this is my last night today I've hit it at every panel

And in every interview. So where do we land? It's my message of the day. Where do we land? Four or five? Four. Four. All right.

So Donald Trump three is or I'm on Donnie four. Next up, here's the curveball one. All right. Nancy Mace. Nancy Mace. A person who is deeply online in a way that's kind of uncomfortable to talk about. It's kind of just an excuse to talk about the Charleston Airport thing. Does anyone want to try to explain what's going on there?

Can I say something embarrassing? Sure. I have no idea. what the Charleston Airport that is. Oh, dude. No. What? Are you okay? Are you? That's a lie. You're lying. What are you talking about?

It's been a busy week. Oh, man. And I've been trying to just do a lot of it. I've been my, you know, I've just been deep in the precinct county swing. Why? You have been posting like a motherfucker the whole time. Yeah. Not about Nancy Mays.

You use your phone at the urinal. There surely was time. I've seen you at the urinal use your phone. Let's not. What are you guys trying to tell us? So Nancy Mace showed up at the Charleston Airport, had some sort of police escort that was either delayed

or, like, expected her to show up in a different car than the one she arrived in, and she berated these cops. And then it became a story. I think a reporter at Wired reported it out and was, like, fired four days later because the HR guy at Condi Nass is a huge asshole. Different online story.

But different online story. But we're connecting the dots. And then she posted a video about it about how disappointed she was in the police and like every politician, Republican and Democrat in South Carolina, basically waited in to say she's a moron. So the gubernatorial race is going well.

Going great. Tim Scott put out a statement. Tim Scott, yeah. Tim Scott put out a statement basically saying, I'm always nice to the police. If you're going to invoke my name, don't pretend I won't say anything.

Did she invoke his name? She said like, you're always nicer to Tim Scott, something like that. Or Tim Scott would never happen to Tim Scott. so he's like, actually, I'm always quite kind to these police officers who work very hard and do a good job. And the closest thing, he doesn't curse,

but he basically said, you can go fuck yourself. She's really going through something, huh? Yeah. There are some bipartisan letters. Lindsay Graham also made a statement that are just like, hey, we really like the staff at the Charleston airport. She's posted about it hundreds of times.

Real stricent effect. I think she's got to be two. I think it's too. I think it's too. That was the right call. Even also, like, she as a person kind of seems to capture the essence of the personality disorder

of the internet. Like, if the internet had a person the out of disorder, it would be the same thing that whatever Nancy Mesa is walking around with, I think. Yeah, it's real main character energy. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, even this conversation has the meta energy of, like, well, we're laughing about it, but this feels uncomfortable. Yeah, we really think about it. She's going through it. Okay, next up. I don't know about y'all.

We have five and one. We only have five and one. Is that right? Five and one. So it's two, Nancy Mays, three, Donald J. Trump, and four, Zoran Mondani. Next up, Gavin Newsom. I don't like y'all's list where you got to slot him at one or five. I just think, like, to John's point earlier, it's a staff that's posting the fun stuff.

Gavin's tweets are normal. I think it's fair to say that Gavin is less online than Zoran. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Gavin couldn't name a bunch of TikTok influencers. No. also yeah we're we're biased toward we're talking a lot of Twitter right now and like that's a huge doing the videos all over the place that's an analytical error of our

agedness which makes me feel better about because we're old Newsom is five then yeah okay well have Newsom is five better be a good one no I mean you all know who's coming there's a clear number one let's let's hear it J.D. Vance there we go yeah I thought you were going to screw us there number one we're going to just with it right there Chuck Schumer America's number one poster, America's number one reply guy unless it's an actual Nazi talking shit about his wife and kids.

In which case, zip it. Not even close. Yeah. Not even close. Dip shit. Are you calling John that? I'm a dipshit. I think if you're the Vice President of the United States

and you call John Faber a dipshit on a social media platform, you're automatically number one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I think that's fair. All right, so our list, number one, J.D. Vance.

Number two, Nancy Mace, number three, Donald J. Trump. Number four, Zaranam Dani. Number five, Gavin Newsome. I think we did great. I think we did great. I think that's actually pretty close to right. This episode is brought to you by Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon makes high-protein, zero-sugar cereal, and treats reinvented from your childhood, the nostalgia. I love Magic Spoon. Me too. It is delicious. Honestly, every flavor is great. I'm a big frosted fan. The original is great. O.G. Frosted. But they're all good. Peanut Butter is good. They're great for breakfast. They're great for a snack. They're great for late at night. Every serving of Magic Spoon's high-protein cereal has 13 grams of protein, zero grams of sugar, and four grams of net carbs. They come in nostalgic flavors like fruity cocoa. and frosted. Magic Spoon's treats, their high-protein treats are crispy, crunchy, airy, and easy

way to get 12 grams of protein on the go. They come in mouth-watering flavors like marshmallow, chocolate peanut butter, and dark chocolate. Both are great on the go, pre-your-post workout, or as a midnight snack. Again, I told you, I'm a huge frosted guy. I got some of the treats, though. That sounds good. We have some in the kitchen here. I'll go snack some of those treats at home. They're great. Get $5 off your next order at magic spoon.com slash crooked or look for magic spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magic spoon.com slash crooked for $5 off.

This episode is brought to you by Bombus. This time of year, it's sensory overload everywhere. But one feeling we're still chasing? That's right. It's cozy. And Bombas has the socks, slippers, and basically everything to get you there. There's something wildly therapeutic about fresh socks

and the sock scientist at Bombas. I found a way to channel that energy into everything. From slippers with sink and cushioning to the perfect fitting ankle sock. And that feeling, doesn't stop after one where it keeps going they've got answers for all your gifting questions too like what do i get my son's new marathon training girlfriend obviously bombus running socks have sweat wicking and impact cushioning i just got new bombus i got uh uh uh the no show bombus because i

had actually i've said i've said virtually all my socks are bombus and that is true i had some non bombas no show socks guess what worn right through the things replace them all with beautiful well-made bombus i have bomba socks but i need i need some no shows Oh, I'm going to get on that. It's a millennial nose show, Bombas. They've got new shapes, new styles, fluffy things, suede things, a little something for every foot. And if there's one thing Bombas knows, it's feet.

They're real freaks for the feet. Real Quinn Tarantino's over there at Bombos HQ. And we haven't even gotten to the best part yet. For every pair of Bombas you purchase, Bombas donates one on your behalf to someone facing homelessness. So anytime you get something cozy, someone else does too, head over to Bombas.com slash cricket and use code Cricket for 20% off your first purchase.

That's B-O-M-B-O-M-B. BAS.com slash crooked code crooked at checkout. This episode is brought to you by MS Now. We the people in order to form a more perfect union. These words are more than just the opening of the Constitution. They're a reminder of who this country belongs to and what we can be at our best. There are also the cornerstone of MS Now, whether it's breaking news, exclusive reporting, election coverage or in-depth analysis, MS Now keeps the people at the heart of everything they do.

home to the Rachel Maddow show. Morning, Joe, the briefing with Jen Saki and more voices you know and trust. MS Now is your source for news, opinion, and the world. Their name is new, but you'll find the same commitment to justice, progress, and the truth you've relied on for decades. We'll continue to cover the day's news, ask the tough questions, and explain how it impacts you. Same mission, new name, MSNow, learn more at MS. Now. So we go through a couple honorable mentions. Sure, sure. All right, Grand Platner.

Thoughts about him already. It's like... P-Hustle. He's posting in the past, you know? I mean... But I mean, on Reddit. Yeah, I think you were doing this in 2011 or whenever he was posting.

He would win. For sure. Also, Reddit... Look. The people that are posting over there on Reddit, they're... We need them. We need them.

Smart. Because Google is broken. Chat GPT hallucinates. Reddit is the place where you go, and it's like, is this right? I don't know. But it came up first. From a person. And was expressed with confidence by someone who says they're from there.

That's Reddit. Agreed. All right. Next honorable mention, based Mike Lee. Oh, that's a good one. He's basically just like J.D. Vance's protege online.

A guy who is constantly getting fooled and posting even harder because of it. Yeah, I mean, if he was in the original rankings, he would definitely be above Zoron and Gavin. Yeah. I think he'd be above Trump. Yeah. I think so too. He also, like, doesn't, he doesn't, it's not about

frequency or volume. It is about, like, it's about, he posed with a kind of adult but incorrect energy of someone who's like going to respond to a text with his social security number. Yeah, he did that thing where he was like posting those horrible memes

after those shootings and was like, what? But then he got confronted by Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and then he like deleted it. Turtled. Tough. All right. Next honorable mention this is a real deep cut. Valentina Gomez.

Valentina Gomez. Oh, man. Is that the Secretary of State candidate somewhere or something? Yes, who always posts likes... With guns? She goes with a lot of guns, basically. Are you guys aware of Valentina Gomez? This is why we needed multimedia here

because we got to put the pictures up. You know, I'm working with... Going back to your little bit better next year. Can I tell you something? I don't know who that is. Oh, she says. Oh, boy. She ran for Secretary of State in Missouri

and came in six out of six. Then she has moved to Texas to primary Dan Crenshaw, I believe, and she posts these, like, insane, like, acted out snuff films. She's the one who went to Israel and cheered the bombs dropping in Gaza, right? Yes, she was too bloodthirsty

for them to air it. Oh, God. Yeah. Okay, that was dark. What a fun late invention there, yeah. Wait a lighten it up. So she's a 2028 frontrunner, huh? She is.

Cool. And then last one, I mean, just feel like we should throw her out there, AOC. Oh, yeah. Again, maybe kind of lost her fastball, like, was the online darling, but...

I don't know if it's, like, lost her fastball or just, like, was doing more productive things. I think she was ahead of the game, too. She did an Instagram live to drop gossip about Marjorie T's drink. Yeah, she broke the notes. Oh, yeah, that is.

That's very cool. When she wants to break the Internet, she can break the Internet. Yeah, that's true. For our outro, we have something special. for you all. This is the CrookedCon

straw poll. Oh, yeah. A straw poll at CrookedCon. The question was for the convention goers. Who are you excited to see Run in 2028? And I have the results.

I'd love to read them to you all right now. This is big news. Huge news. There's a big asterisk before, as I'm reading this, we'll get to at the end. Wait, you...

I mean... It seems like you're shitting on your own news. Why don't you... You're going to tell us the asterisk after? Yes. Okay. Anderson Clayton,

attendee speaker, and AOC both got 7% of... All right. Anderson, yeah. Shout out to Anderson. Wes Moore and Gavin Newsom both got 15%. Right on. Andy Bashir clocked in at a solid 22% and the winner.

With 31% of the vote was Pete Buttigieg. Do you want to... Wow. Look at that. You ready to guess what... He should have come to CrookedCon. What is the asterisk? There were 13 votes.

How did that happen? What the fuck? I'm sorry. You showed up in this conference and none of you voted? So. We forgot to ask, didn't we? Well, we, you know. Back to the first question.

What could go better next year? We'll place the QR codes a little more strategically next year. But we want to increase that sample size producer. Caroline Reston is out in the audience. She has a mic. Incredible.

We're going to do some real polling, live polling here at CrookedCon to close things up. Don, you're looking a little disapproving, a little apprehensive. You know what, though? You were right to save the asterisk. Love it.

You were right. You nailed the asteris. You were right. Thank you. This is the worst poll ever. After this, I think you should sit down with love and explain what a punchline is. Let's get some data. Caroline, are you out there? Elijah, I am out here. All right. Go ahead and raise your hand. If you want to share with Caroline who you want to see Run in 2020, who are you excited about seeing Run in 2028?

So stressful. Okay. What's your name and who do you want? want to run in 2028. My name is Valerie McGinley, and I would like to see Chris Murphy. There is Chris Murphy on the board. I think people will say my interview on this stage one hour ago, launched that candidacy. There you go. Okay, okay. Who else?

Name and who you want to run. My name is Zoe. I would love for Andy Bashir to run because he is a Democratic governor in a red state, and I think he has a lot of unifying messages and just a really good outlook on what problems need to be addressed. Is your last name, Bashir? How to Bashir heads here? I have the raw vote totals

Annie Bashir has officially polled even with people who's next. Who's next? Stop the vote. All right, tell me your name and who you want to see Ron. I'll pass the mic.

Oh, that's dangerous. That's crazy. My name is Bert. I would like to see AOC and John Ossoff on a joint ticket. Okay. Oh, wow. Either way.

That's cool. Cool, cool. AOC doubles her vote total. All right, name and who? Hi, I'm Shea. I would like Gretchen Whitmer to run. Oh, Gretchen Whitmer enters the field. Yeah, because I want us to do that song, Big Gretch, like, all the time.

Yeah. Good as reason as any. That's a great pitch. All right, I'm going to go a little bit in the back. Maybe someone will say Bethany Frankl. Okay, name in person. Sean, and I knock doors for P in 2020, but I want AOC to run this time. Oh, wow.

AOC. Just a shiving meat on the way to the AOC. Yeah, okay. One more AOC. All right. We have probably time for one more. All right. Name and who you want to run for.

My name's David. I hope Corey Booker runs again. Cooooley Booker. There we go. Tell a Dissu. On the board. Okay, one more, one more, one more. One more.

I'm Lindsay Moran and I want J.D. Pritzker to run. There we go. I like, we'll say this again. All I want is to go for an insane meal with J.B. Pritzker and at the end of it for him to be like, you did eat a lot. When Tommy and I interviewed him at the convention,

he told us, I think this was on the podcast. Yeah, it was. Okay, good. That, I mean, I don't think he would care if he showed this, but that he had just finished a steakhouse crawl? You just don't understand how much. much that means to me.

Was the crawl part literal? Yeah, no, they went from steakhouse to steakhouse. Like, no, like a bar crawl, but like just eating meats at every location. In Chicago, a place not exactly known for a small portion. No. That's awesome. Yeah, so we need some hedonism on our side. And I think they did, I think they might have paired it with

bourbon. Yeah, that's true. They did. Even better. Also, didn't he win like a $1.4 million? That's what I was going to go gambling with J.B. Prisker. We just, I want to the fucking tables. And you know what? I love a winner. He donated it to charity, too.

I know. What a fucking pussy. Under Tourette. The best part is, keep the money, you won it. According to the IRS, he's only won and never lost. So it's cool.

You could see in his face, he was so annoyed about giving it to charity, but he was so stoked about winning. He was like, yeah, yeah, I did. So annoyed, that's couch cushioned money to him. I know, I know. But still, winning feels great.

But if you, if you lose, you give the money to the casino, you win, you give us a charity. It's like, I mean, I know it's like good, but. I know. But where's the thrill? No. Where's the thrill?

All right. Should we call it? Should we just say, how about this? Only Pete voters and only Andy Bashir voters. Stick your hands up. And then the next one wins the Crooked Khan straw poll. We see there's a hand over there. That's, you know, that's the ties.

Someone asked. Wait, I feel like you have to call it a little more clearly there. What the fuck kind of thing is this? That's the most confusing explanation I've ever heard. I'm throwing things out. I see we're at the zero. Elijah runs polling for Trafalgar.

Is your number one candidate in 2008 Pete Buttigieg. Is your number one candidate? Bashir? Is it J.B. Pritzker after you learn about the Steakhouse Crawl? Oh, there we go. He should fucking thank us. We really...

Is it AOC? Is it... Chris and Clayton Chris Murphy Who are we missing? Gavin? Is it Gavin Newsom? Lena Con Dan.

Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. We got our winner. The winner of the CrookedConn, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. Straubble is Dan Pfeiffer. That'll wrap up. Yes, we, Dan. Yes, we, Dan. Yes, we did.

We have the song. We, Dan. Yes, we can. That'll wrap up Terminally Online, live at CrookedCon. Thank you all for coming to Terminal Online. Thank you for coming to CrookedCon. Thanks for listening. You can sign up for Friends of the Pod now at crooked.com slash friends to get

25% off an annual subscription during our Black Friday sale. Do it. Please. Now, you've waited long enough. And we'll see y'all. On Tuesday. Thank you. Thank you.