Pod Save America - “The hurricane truther.” (LIVE in LA)

Episode Date: September 14, 2018

Trump prepares for Hurricane Florence by denying the deaths caused by Hurricane Maria, and Democrats spend the final months of the midterms talking health care. Then Mike Levin, the Democratic candidate in the CA 49th, joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, Dan, and Erin Ryan on stage at the El Rey theater in Los Angeles.

Hello, Los Angeles. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Erin Ryan. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Later in the show, we will talk with the Democratic candidate for Congress in California's 49th

District, Mike Levin. But first, let's check in on how the president is helping our nation prepare for a deadly hurricane that's barreling towards the Carolinas. So over the last few days, Donald Trump has said that the federal government's response to Hurricane Maria, which led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans in Puerto Rico, was, quote, one of the best jobs that's ever been, and, unquote, unsung success of his administration. Then, on Thursday morning, he tweeted the following. 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the island after the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths.

As time went by, it did not go up by much. Then a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3,000. This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible. And then he ended with good measure, I love Puerto Rico. Which definitely came through. Tommy, would you like to start by offering a bit of a fact check on the president's tweet? Sure, he's right.

No, he's not. It's insane to suggest that the only deaths that matter occurred between landfall and when his plane took off to leave. That's such an insane way to scope this. It's fair to say that the death toll was escalated over time. For a while, the official death count was 64 people. Later on, the New York Times did a study where they compared death rates over like the 42 days after the hurricane with comparable periods previously, and they estimated around 1,000. And then the government of Puerto Rico paid George Washington University

to do a comprehensive study where they used similar methodology and a whole bunch of surveys and interviews, and they came up with this number that up to 3,000 people died over six months. So that story is actually worse for him than a horrific hurricane came and killed a lot of people on the day of and then moved on, because he means the disaster response was

so inadequate that people died at an alarming rate for months and months and months afterwards. Yeah, I mean, it's like, you can understand that when a storm hits and people die immediately during the storm, that that's not the fault of the federal government. But when a whole bunch of people die after the storm leaves because the government didn't step in, that is by definition the fault of the federal government for not providing the resources necessary, right? Erin, is this a new low for Donald Trump

or are we forgetting all of the old lows? Well, I think depending on who you ask, Donald Trump is either like the cartoon baby from Popeye just crawling through a construction site with all these things swinging at him and nothing is hitting him, or he's Sideshow Bob walking through a field of rakes just getting hit in the face over and over again. I think that to people like us, people who are correct...

LAUGHTER They're correct people. I think to people like us, people who are correct. They're correct people. I think to people like us, he seems like somebody who's constantly stepping in it. But in reality, for a lot of people, we're forgetting about some of his scandals. Do you remember Rob Porter, the White House aide who was an alleged domestic abuser

who Donald Trump was like, he's great. And the more allegations came out, the more he was like, he's super great. One of the things that is concerning about this new low in a presidency of new lows is that Donald Trump does this thing where he equates everybody who is an other to the Democrats. Like, I don't think it's any mistake that the people living in Puerto Rico are brown and they're the ones that are coming up with the numbers, 3,000 academically. But Donald Trump is saying everybody who doesn't agree with him, everybody who is brown, everybody who is other, is lumped in with the Democrats.

And that's really disturbing. What's also really disturbing to me is the fact that Donald Trump took, or that ICE is so over budget that funds from other agencies are being diverted to fund imprisonment of mostly children. And that to me, what's really awful about that is that it's the Coast Guard, it's FEMA, it's different organizations that

seem to really matter. It would be like if you paid your roommate for the electric bill and you came home and your apartment was just full of spiders. Like he just spent all of your electricity money on spiders. Yeah, well, and look, which would be so frustrating. We don't need all these spiders. Maybe half.

There's too many spiders. One would be too many. And at least talk to me about it first. But, I mean, you raise a really good point. Like, is there any doubt that this would be different if 3,000 people had died after a storm hit Florida? Right? That, like, would it be acceptable for the federal government to say,

oh, well, the governor of Florida was incompetent and they have their challenges in that state, there's certain infrastructure problems. Like, could we imagine having the same reaction from the federal government if it was somewhere on the mainland, even though Puerto Rico is part of America? It's a red state, blue state thing.

That was another thing that I found really insidious about this. If you compare the Trump administration's response to Harvey, for example, they're totally different animals. Houston was a totally different city than Puerto Rico, which is an island. But at the same time, Donald Trump lavished the aid necessary to help Texas recover on Texas, a red state, a state that voted for him. That to me is like, God, it sends a message. Like if you voted for me, I'll help you out when something

bad happens. Like it's, it's very like old school gangster. Like like oh, it's a nice state you got there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. So Dan, some Republicans condemn Trump, including a few Fox hosts, which is very weird. Other Republicans, like wannabe speaker Kevin McCarthy,

did the whole... I haven't seen the tweets. I don't know what you're talking about. What tweets? If the Republican Party wasn't a cult, what could they actually do about Trump's response to Hurricane Maria? Well, John, I'm glad you asked. Because when the founders set up the system, it was three equal branches of government. And it was the role of the...

Going way back to the beginning. Yes, the legislative branch to have checks and balances on the executive branch, unless, of course, they were both controlled by Republicans. Then their job is to do nothing. And what is so, in a normal world, because what happens is 3,000 Americans die due to some measure of government incompetence. Congress would look into it. There would be a commission. It would be bipartisan. And the thing that is so disturbing about this is it's not just about an allocation of blame. You are doing this to learn how to make sure

it doesn't fucking happen again. Because we live in an era of climate change. There is going to be hurricane after hurricane that is headed to Puerto Rico. And people will die because this Republican Congress decided they would rather ignore this problem than do the job that we pay to Puerto Rico. And people will die because this Republican Congress decided they would rather ignore this problem

than do the job that we pay them to do. After Hurricane Katrina hit, there were Republican leaders on the relevant committees, the oversight committees, held nine hearings about the federal response

and obtained more than 500,000 documents from George W. Bush's administration, and they prepared this detailed report a month later about how to fix problems so that we'd never had another Katrina again. Republicans in this Congress haven't requested a single document

from the Trump White House, haven't held more than a single hearing on what happened. Love it? Yeah, and you move from traditional partisan politics the Trump White House haven't held more than a single hearing on what happened. Love it? Yeah, I mean, and you move from traditional partisan politics, which has cynicism baked into it. When Katrina hits, there was a blame game about what happened. There was a blame of the mayor of New Orleans. There was blame leveled against the governor. The Bush administration tried to blame the fact that it didn't have enough authority to conduct itself, which at the time we were like, well, that's vaguely authoritarian because if you are incompetent, why should we give you more power?

And then we were like, well, if you think that's vaguely authoritarian, wait. And Republicans were reluctant to go after their own and Democrats were more willing to attack the Bush administration for its fault. That is politics. But it worked. go after their own and Democrats were more willing to attack the Bush administration for its fault. That is politics, but it worked. The machine worked because you fought it out and the Republicans had some measure of shame and a sense of responsibility. What we're seeing now is a total abdication of that responsibility.

It is fundamentally new. It is worse than it has been before. Richard Nixon ultimately had to resign because he started losing Republicans. But those Republicans didn't have a propaganda apparatus that was there to protect the incumbent and attack them if they ever went against the party line. And it is incredibly dangerous. It does make us less safe.

It does mean that Trump continually seems to face no accountability. And I think it is that source of anger that we feel all the time. It's not just that Trump is incompetent. It's not just that Trump is evil. It's that it feels as though we've made partisan just cause and effect, just truth and consequence are not connected anymore. And it's one of the reasons that this election is so important, because we have to restore some semblance of consequences for actions in our politics. of consequences for actions in our politics. Tommy, in light of the fact that another massive hurricane is about to hit, do you think that the incompetence and dysfunction of the Trump White House extends to agencies like FEMA and the

Department of Homeland Security that are going to be on the front lines of this response? Like, how much do we have to worry about that? I think there's a real risk that it does. I mean, so when we were at the White House, John Brennan, who later became the CIA director, had this, like, Homeland Security role where he did a lot of counterterrorism stuff, but he also helped manage a lot of the disaster response work.

And the person who had that job in the Trump White House was a guy named Tom Bossert, who the right-wing mustache National Security Advisor John Bolton shoved Bossert out the door the day after he took power. And I don't think Bossert has been replaced, and if he has, it's by some lower-level person. And that's important because you need someone

that's seen as having clout, running meetings, demanding action, demanding resources. We also know that the Trump staffing plan was a joke, right? They didn't have anybody. They vetted you based on whether you were nice to Trump on Twitter. So you had a 24-year-old being the chief of staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, for example. So that shit should worry us. On top of that, we know Trump is not personally engaged in this in any way.

He's not in the Situation Room saying, this is too slow, I demand action, like, hurry the fuck up. He is tweeting about Colin Kaepernick all day long, like he was doing literally a year ago at exactly this time. So none of this screams competent, we learned our lessons, let's do it right this time. One other thing, too, I just... I think a lot of times the government and how it functions is seen as sort of mysterious and opaque.

Like, it doesn't work like a normal office. It doesn't work like a business. It doesn't work like a school or any other normal place. It's a different kind of entity where the rules don't apply and people don't really understand how it works. Ultimately, when there is a storm, it is a project that has to be managed. It is a response that involves a lot of disparate people coming together to try to solve problems,

unexpected things arising, and it requires working as a team, it requires competence, it requires people who know how to follow through, it requires solid, dedicated civil servants and political people who care about doing their jobs and doing those jobs well. Those kinds of people have not been joining this administration. This administration is staffed by the rejects of Republican politics. We have seen an exodus across the government of people who don't want to be connected to this administration. And the end result is we have absolutely no idea who's in charge of these kinds of operations. None of them seem to be going well. And we'll never find out unless we win Congress, because there's no one to ask the hard questions after the dust has settled. Yeah, I mean, I agree. But one of the

things that this kind of moment has betrayed is that I was thinking about this the other day. Donald Trump has never worked a job in his life where he wasn't paid with a check with his own name on it. Like his dad gave him a job and then it was his company. And he's always, he's never been a good businessman. And he was elected because he played one on tv and it's really scary to me to see somebody who is so ardently unqualified to to run anything except to play maybe a business guy in like a wwf wrestling match or whatever yeah um try to run try to run the country and the thing that is like i just to go back to this kind of othering. And the thing that is, just to go back to this kind of othering business,

the thing that's really disturbing is that it seems to me that there's a kind of tectonic shift going on right now in American government that is trying to unite people who are white and afraid against this amorphous other. Like Puerto Rico and the victims of Hurricane Maria are part of that other. People who are migrants are partphous other. Like Puerto Rico and the victims of Hurricane Maria are part of that other. People who are migrants are part of that other.

And I think that everything that Donald Trump does, if you look at it through that lens, it makes sense. And it's so much scarier than just incompetence. It's incompetence and malice at the same time. Yeah. Lovett, there's still some debate among scientists about how much you can blame climate change for hurricanes. There is no debate among scientists that climate change is contributing to

higher storm surges when we have hurricanes. Some estimates in the Washington Post today say that the storm surge from Hurricane Florence will be about six inches higher because of rising sea levels. That is a tremendous amount of damage, six extra inches of water. How do Democrats, and any American who cares about this, force a debate over this issue again so that we're not just talking about climate change the days before a storm, after a storm, or when some Republican says that they don't believe in it?

Yeah, I think the first thing we need to do is stop debating whether or not climate change is real, and we need to stop caring about the answer to that question. There's only, I mean, for politicians, there's really only two answers. There's the truth and people too stupid or craven to tell the truth. And so it's not on the level. There's a whole propaganda apparatus that exists to make it impossible for people on one side of this issue to tell the truth. And so it's not on the level. There's a whole propaganda apparatus that exists to make it impossible for people on one side of this issue to tell the truth. And, you know, the uptick in the Clara line applies. You can't convince somebody of something their livelihood depends on not believing. So I think we need to stop debating whether climate change is real and also stop talking about climate change as some prospective future event. We need to talk about

climate change as something that is happening right now. I mean, to be asking people, the question for Paul Ryan, the question for people like James Inhofe, we don't need to indulge in their pretend game of not believing in climate change. We say, what are you going to do about the harm that is currently happening to people because of these changing weather patterns? We have seen it in Florence.

We have seen it in Maria. We have seen it across California. We've seen the most severe weather in the history of this state. Again and again, these changes are happening in front of our eyes. What is your plan to address it? And they can come back with whatever they want, but we need to stop giving in to the idea that the debate is between is it happening and is it real? It's just, it's happening and what are you going to do about it?

All right, let's talk about the midterms. In just about every election since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have campaigned against Obamacare to great effect. It's an issue that helped them win the midterms in 2010 and 2014, maybe not so much in 2018. Here's from today's Washington Post. Democrats are pummeling Republican candidates for governor and Senate over a pending lawsuit by 20 Republican-led states that could allow insurance companies

to stop covering people with pre-existing medical conditions. This issue is being highlighted more than any other right now in Democratic television commercials. Dan, how serious is this lawsuit? And how much is the Republican Party as a whole responsible for it? It's very serious. And it's incredibly serious for anyone who depends on the Affordable Care Act for their life, right?

It is exactly what that is. And it is just the latest iteration of a nonstop Republican effort to take health care away from people. We've seen it since the day Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. And what is so interesting now is I was around in that campaign in 2010 when Republicans hammered us on the Affordable Care Act, called it government-run health care, death panels, all this other bullshit, and Democrats did not fight back. We tried to pivot to something else. Let's talk about tax cuts or whatever was something different than the elephant in the room. And it's sort of a corollary to what Kobe Bryant is saying, which is you lose 100% of the arguments that you don't make.

And for the first time, with the brief exception of the 2012 election, where Barack Obama took on the idea of repeal head on in that campaign and turned it to our advantage in maybe a Affordable Care Act, its most popular time during his presidency, for the first time, Democrats are on the offense on this issue, and they are making the case. And it is the single most important issue for most voters out there, and it is what I think is going to, if and when the Democrats take the House, is going to be because we made an argument that we are the ones fighting for health care for every American, and they're the ones fighting to take it away from them.

Yeah. There you go. So, Aaron, in 2010, that campaign that Dan was talking about, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin released a campaign ad where he literally shot a copy of Obama's climate change bill. Last week, he released an ad where he shot a copy of this anti-Obamacare lawsuit. So he's come around. Before we get to this, can we get this guy a schoolhouse rock? This is not how any of it works. So we can't shoot our way out of this.

We've never been able to shoot our way out of this. It's not just Manchin, right? Like every, as Dan was saying, every red state Democrat in the Senate who's up in 2018, even though they might not be with the National Party on a whole bunch of issues, they are there on healthcare and the Affordable Care Act. They're all running ads about protecting pre-existing conditions. Why do you think

the politics around healthcare have shifted so dramatically over just a few years? Well, I can't put my finger on the why, but I think it might just be kind of a mass realization. So just kind of to rewind, when I was in high school back in rural Wisconsin, I worked at a nursing home. And one of the things I saw working at the nursing home was that I saw how much it cost every year. I saw how nursing homes would look at people's assets to decide whether or not they could afford to be in a nursing home.

And I saw families that were completely decimated by end-of-life care. I think that what's happening right now is baby boomers are aging to the point where this is a thing that they need to think about and talk about, both among themselves and with their families. And it's a real threat. families. And it's a real threat that the biggest threat to baby boomers having any wealth or quality of life going into their later years or for millennials or Generation Xers having any quality of life, not having to spend all their money taking care of their parents is some form of healthcare that's affordable, both for people who are elderly

and people who are younger. I think that this is a really good thing for the Democrats to be hammering on, like especially in my home state, Wisconsin. Scott Walker is joining this 20-state lawsuit, and it isn't going over very well. Walker, who's survived a recall election and been massively unpopular, this might be the thing that takes him down,

which is really exciting. Yeah. Tommy, what do you think? Well, it's like there's this old adage, right, that it's really hard to take away a benefit once you give it to someone and this is proving that to be true and what like in 2016 we lost a lot of states you guys might remember uh but like these ads are up in michigan ohio north dakota indiana 50 of all federal democratic ads are about health care i think that's really interesting 75 of americans think it's really important to guarantee coverage of pre-existing conditions, including nearly 60% of Republicans. So they handed us an issue by trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act over

and over and over again. Approval for the Affordable Care Act went up because these morons kept running at it. And they did a Rose Garden event when it passed the House where they slapped each other on the back and yucked it up about how they're going to rip health care away from people who have cancer. A little too soon. So it's like it's a real issue for people. And the other thing they did is when they failed to do it federally, they pushed it into the states. So now all these secretary of state or governor candidates in states are getting hammered for being on part of this lawsuit, for signing this letter. So it's become like one of the most potent issues there are for Democrats. So you know Trump might have a great economy but a good economy doesn't make up for pushing shitty economic policies and they're

gonna learn that the hard way. It's also really interesting that a lot of the voters who tip the election to Trump in rural and exurban counties and Aaron's home state of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, the people who voted for Barack Obama in 2012, Trump in 2016, Ohio, the people who voted for Barack Obama in 2012, Trump in 2016, have a very high approval rating in the Affordable Care Act. So this is an issue that helps us both with the non-voters in our base we need to turn out and also with the voters we need to persuade in the redder districts. I mean, just to add something to that, though, I think that this is an issue that really resonates specifically with women

who are voters, too. Women who might lean a little red. Women were routinely charged more than men before Obamacare for the same healthcare coverage. Having a baby is an expensive nightmare. There's all kinds of... Plus there's healthcare issues.

But enough about... Anyway. But enough about it. Anyway. But I do think that women's healthcare expenses are something that are huge and front of mind for female voters. And you know, white women

extremely fucked up in 2016. But I think that there's enough of them that are convincible. And I think that there's enough of them that are convincible, and I think that this is an issue that specifically can appeal to women. Man, if you told us after the 2010 elections when we lost that, you know, don't worry,

eight years from now, the Affordable Care Act will be so popular that the reddest state Democrats will be running on it, but also Donald Trump will be president. And then one finger of the monkey paw goes down. It's really slow and steady wins the race on Obamacare. Unbelievable.

You remember? Don't worry. Now that it's the law, people are going to love it. Eventually. How much help? We're going to take a few twists and turns first. Yeah, geez. Scott Brown, Donald Trump, then you like it?

We'll love it. So some Republicans are still running health care ads. They're running ads against Democrats who've proposed Medicare for All. Some of them are running ads against Democrats who didn't propose Medicare for All, but they don't really care. And it's interesting, the argument they're using is, this Democrat wants to pass Medicare for All, and what that's going to do is that Democrat wants to pass Medicare for all. And what that's going to do

is that's going to steal Medicare away from senior citizens in America. And so traditional Medicare is going to be weaker because everyone has Medicare. Do you think this is effective? I don't know if it's effective. I think we should be, I don't think we should dismiss it. I think we should go into fighting for Medicare for all with open eyes about the fact that we are heading into debating something that hasn't really been fully debated yet. That's good. That's part of the process is arguing for it and why we believe it's the right policy. You know, Donald Trump's sinister gift is understanding that people don't always tell the truth about what they think. Trench and observation. Thanks, buddy.

But no, no, no, no. But I mean that in a slightly smarter way than it sounds. I hope. What I said but not done. Do tell. Here's the, but that,

because he is so monstrous, because he has no values, he understands that sometimes people claim to believe something, claim to support something, but they hold a dark reservation. He is the human form of like the dark reservation. And one thing that I, you know, he's gone, he said this dumb thing that like, they're

trying to take your Medicare for socialism. And it sounds stupid, right? But one of the things I do think we should be aware of and ready to argue on is I do think that there are a lot of near retirees who look at Medicare for all as something that would save them, right? There are so many people who are years away from being eligible for Medicare, and they're playing Russian roulette, right? Have insurance, don't have insurance. Your friends, the baby boomers. The baby boomers, absolutely.

Well, you know, my parents were in this boat, right? They weren't eligible for Medicare yet. They were struggling to afford insurance, which was getting expensive. And if you face any kind of medical emergency before you hit that threshold, it can deplete your savings right before you get universal health care from the government. I do think that seniors hold tight to their Medicare and would be worried that Medicare being available to everyone might somehow diminish their care. They certainly do that with Social Security. They want to protect their benefits. They don't give a fuck if the money runs out for us Right, so I would say I just think it's something to be aware of and we have to make

sure that it's on a policy front, we have to make sure that when we're proposing Medicare for all we are doing it in a way that assures people who already are on Medicare that their benefits won't be less and that there will be enough doctors and availability and all the rest and then on a political front we just need to know this is an argument that will come at us pretty hard. Let's be clear about it too

when they say other people are going to get Medicare, that's your Medicare, they're not talking about your friendly middle-class neighbor, right? This is back to what Aaron was saying about otherizing people. These ads are saying, yeah, Medicare for all means healthcare taken away from senior citizens, and it goes to illegal, it goes to undocumented immigrants, and it goes to poor people it goes to undocumented immigrants and it goes to poor people who aren't working and that's the argument that they're trying to make. Absolutely. And it is another example of why this number that we've been talking about that only one

in five young people turned out to vote in the last election is so important. Seniors vote. They take that golf cart to the clubhouse and they vote. They turn off Hannity. They get in their cars. They beep. Then they back out. Gotta honk that horn before you back out

once you hit 70. I'm glad they do it. Well, here's the thing. I think that that Medicare, socialism is stealing your Medicare nonsense argument is something that appeals to just someone who is a giant fucking asshole. That's a bit too fine a point on it.

Those are the photos we've lost. If the old people figure out podcasts, they're going to get real mad. They're going to get so mad. Okay, you know what? They can go ahead and try to catch me. I'll be running. Second thing, though, I think

one thing, kind of going to vote when you have a busy life or you're young and you have a job and it's hard for you to take time off can be a little bit of a challenge when you're young, but you have to do it. And one way that always has motivated me is I like to picture an elderly fucking asshole who votes in

my district the opposite of me, and I like to imagine myself just canceling their vote. That's good. That gets you going. Picture the person whose vote you want to cancel, and then go vote. That is a really good idea for some sort of a campaign of some kind. Cancel out an asshole's vote. You can do it.

Picture them in your mind, huh? That guy that locked you in the blue recycling bin in high school. You remember his name, but you won't say it now because it's a real story. Dan. Back on topic, people. In addition to healthcare, what is the

closing economic argument for Democrats in these next 60 days? or however many days. Depends on when you listen. Could be forever. I think the important thing to understand is that ultimately any campaign message, whether it's about the economy or healthcare or anything else, is a question about, it's a proxy for a question about your values and your character, and it boils down to who are you going to

fight for if and when you get into office? And I think it is so important that this is a contrast message that we are going to fight, protect health care to raise wages for working class Americans, while Republicans are giving massive tax cuts to millionaires, billionaires, and Wall Street banks, paid for by jacking up premiums on the same working middle class Americans, and eventually through cuts from Medicare and Social Security. It's like, we are fighting for average, everyday Americans who are working hard out there, and the Republicans are fighting for people like Donald Trump.

Old assholes. Elderly assholes. Old, rich, elderly assholes. Old fucking assholes. Okay. Even if it's not in our own interest, we are also fighting for the working class elderly assholes. When we come back, we will have Democratic candidate for the 49th district, Mike Levin.

Our guest tonight is an environmental lawyer, activist, and the Democratic candidate in California's 49th district, where he will help us flip the house. Please welcome Mike Levin. Thanks for joining us. How's everybody doing? Excellent. Thank you for being here. First question. Before you were running for office, you worked as an environmental lawyer.

Environmentalism is not the sexiest topic, but it's vitally important. So how do you, as a candidate, convey to people that the environment is important? Can you make people care about the environment? Well, I think most people care that we have an environmental protection agency that actually believes in environmental protection again, for one. And, you know, the district that I'm running, it's got South Orange County and North San Diego County, 52 miles of coastline. And everybody cares about the beach.

Everybody cares about getting the nuclear waste off the coast at San Onofre. And, you know, whether we have clean air or clean water, it shouldn't be a partisan thing. Everybody remembers that when the EPA was formed, Richard Nixon was the president. When California got its waiver under the Federal Clean Air Act, Ronald Reagan was governor. And then somewhere along the way, we allowed the Koch brothers and some of the other big oil companies to basically hijack the Republican Party's approach to environmental policy. And I know that in my district, there are plenty of people of all political persuasions, they just want clean air, clean water. And growing up in Southern California, there were the smog alerts,

where you couldn't go outside during recess because of the air quality. And I'm not going back there. My wife and I, we have a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old, and I'll be darned if we go back to those days in Southern California where kids can't play outside because of smog. And we know in California, and the Republicans know, they just don't want to admit, that you can have environmental protection and grow the economy with the clean energy jobs of the future, that those things are not mutually exclusive. So you're running in a traditionally longtime Republican districts in Orange County, I think a lot of Democrats, or some Democrats, if they were running in that district, would maybe, you know, consultants would

tell them, run to the center, moderate your views. You're running on Medicare for all, $15 minimum wage, a very progressive platform. How, you know, how do you, how are you convincing and persuading voters that that's the right way to go, and what kind of reception are you getting? I think you've got to stand for something, John. What good is running unless you stand for something? And my wife and I, after Donald Trump was elected, we said, what good is any of it? What good is our education, our background, our experience, our relationships,

all the things that we've done, unless we do something for our country right now. And as I mentioned, we have a six-year-old and a four-year-old, little boy and a little girl, and we tell them some very simple things. We say, don't bully. We say, tell the truth. We say, treat everybody with respect and dignity. And, you know, our six-year-old now actually has homework, if you can believe that. We say, read and be prepared and do your homework. So if we can expect that out of our six-year-old and out of our four-year-old, shouldn't we be able to expect it out of our president? Shouldn't we be able to expect it out of our members of Congress?

Basic decency? One would think. That's a well-behaved six-year-old. Absolutely. We don't let him listen to Pod Save America, though. No, we're sorry about that. For a few more years, and then we'll let him listen. Let's listen to Pod Save America, though. We're sorry about that. For a few more years, and then we'll let them listen. Let's try to do a censored version.

So California is a place where a lot of districts could be flipped. How optimistic are you moving forward? And once you get to Congress, what do you want to do? Well, I used to run the Democratic Party in Orange County, and so I care more about these other races probably than I should. But I can tell you we've got incredible candidates running. When you meet Harley Ruda, who's running against Dana Rohrabacher, who you just saw, or Gil Cisneros, or Katie Hill, who's running against Steve Knight, Katie Porter running against Mimi Walters, these are incredibly good candidates. And I know that if we work hard and outwork the other side, that we're going to win multiple districts.

I hope we win four or five of these districts, maybe more. And for my race in particular, things look good right now. We're doing very well. And I would say that ours is low-hanging fruit out there. But the other day I was asked by one of the reporters, what's your margin of victory going to be? And I said, there's no way I'm going to tell you what a margin of victory is going to be. The only thing I will predict is that between here and November 6th, we will outwork the other side. We will knock on every door. We will make every call. Leave no stone unturned. And so for your listeners, if they

want to get involved, I would encourage them to come out to California, man. Come out, knock on some doors. I can offer an ocean view. I can offer beautiful beaches. And we would love to have them over the next eight weeks. So what do you think, 51%, 52%? No. So you're 39 years old. The average age in the House and the Senate is much older than that. There's a lot of young first-time candidates running. How do you think Congress will be different if there's a lot more younger candidates from your generation that go to Congress? Well, I have to tell you, and you know this because you've been studying some of the races across the country, we've got an extraordinary group of young candidates that are running all across the country. My friend Eric Swalwell has something called the Future Forum. You can give Eric some applause.

He has the Future Forum, and they just announced the 40 candidates under 40 years old. Now, I'm going to be 40 in like a month, so I'm going to enjoy this for the last month. But I am so incredibly excited about the future of our party. I know that if we stand for a bold progressive agenda, if we actually fight for basic decency and civility again, by the way, it was great to have your old boss, Barack Obama, in Orange County this past weekend. And wasn't it nice when we had a president who actually acted with civility and decency and integrity and honesty I think I think we're we're long past due for that kind of behavior yeah but I know that the Democratic Party has a brighter future ahead we're in the wilderness as you

like to say right now and we're gonna see our way out of it it's gonna come on November 6th and I know that if we do everything that we can do between now and then, that if we wake up on November 7th with no regrets, we're going to be just fine. Now, I remember two years ago, and I imagine the millions of people that listen to the pod, they remember two years ago. And for me personally, I was very active in Hillary's campaign and I wish that I could have gone to Wisconsin or Michigan or Florida or North Carolina to knock on some doors, make some calls. You know, I don't regret a whole lot in my life, but I regret that I didn't do more because I thought we had it in the bag. So what I can tell you is that we absolutely cannot do that again. And I might not be able to go to Wisconsin or Michigan, but I can go to Vista.

I can go to Oceanside and and Encinitas, and Carlsbad, and I think all us candidates, we are sick of this stuff going on in Washington, D.C., and we're going to do everything we can to take it back. That's great. Mike Levin, thank you so much for joining Positive America. And we're back! If you're like me, the only time you want to talk to strangers is when you call Domino's because they forgot the kicker sauce

for your chicken kickers, which is the whole fucking point. That was so real. That was so real. But sometimes heroes need to make sacrifices. And right now, Uncle Sam is calling, and real patriots won't send that shit to voicemail, because the midterms are just eight weeks away, and if you want to save this country,

you need to get out of your comfort zone and talk to some strangers, and we thought we'd highlight some of the science behind why, in a game we're calling, Yes, We Canvas. Would anyone out there like to play the game? Travis is over there. He's going to pick somebody. Hi, what's your name? My name is Michelle.

Hi, Michelle. Hi. Where are you from, Michelle? I am from Aliso Viejo in the 48th. Oh, really? All right. Do you have a plan to vote? I absolutely have a plan to vote.

And have you signed up at votesaveamerica.com? I have. Wow. Fantastic. Two correct answers so far. Question number one. According to a comprehensive meta-analysis of 51 election experiments, what is the single best way to turn out voters?

Is it A? Open up Twitter. election experiments, what is the single best way to turn out voters? Is it A? Open up Twitter, tweet, this is not normal, and then you just wait for those sweet retweets to start rolling in like a mighty stream. Or is it B? Door-to-door canvassing involving face-to-face interactions with real, live, registered voters.

Or is it C? Arrange a meeting between a Russian operative and the idiot children of your favorite candidates. Stay with me here. Then use that meeting to create an illegal quid pro quo in which your candidate receives illegal help in exchange for favorable policies if he or she wins.

Or is it D? Spend every day between now and the election wearing sweatpants that say hashtag resist on the butt, which you embarrassingly bought from Jill Stein when she fundraised all that money for a recount that never happened. What do you think? I am going to go out on a limb and say B.

You got it. And we still want to know what happened to that Jill Stein money, but that's a different game. Question number two. Oh, and you should know, if you have a conversation with a voter in a household, that voter will help turn out the other people in his or her house.

It's like an STD, but you're spreading democracy. Question number two, Michelle. That was a vulgar thing I said. I'm sorry. Question two. Phone banks are another important way to influence voters' opinions and get people to the polls, but it takes volunteers to make those phone calls. When campaigns don't have enough

volunteers, what do campaigns have to use instead? Is it A? Mailers with old AOL CDs. But instead of connecting you to your favorite chat rooms, this CD-ROM plays an audio message explaining the exciting nuances of tax policy. Also, Roller Coaster Tycoon is on there too,

just for fun. Hold on. There was a debate about this. Applaud if you know what Roller Coaster Tycoon is on there too, just for fun. Hold on. There was a debate about this. Applaud if you know what Roller Coaster Tycoon is. I didn't know what that was. Or is it B? A large group of carrier pigeons, but like the real shitty second tier carrier pigeons because the Koch brothers have already booked up

the good ones months in advance. So that could be what happens if campaigns don't have volunteers. Is it C? Robocalls, which study after study have proven have no statistically significant effect on voter turnout, and even in their best scenario, only turn out around

one vote for every 900 calls. Yeah. Or is it D? A chain letter, where if you don't forward the election information to 10 other people, your love life will be cursed forever. And a racist old troll in a red hat will run America for a decade. Oh, no. What do you think, Michelle?

I think it's C. That's true. It's the robocalls, and they don't work. The only reason campaigns rely on robocalls is that volunteers are hard to come by and often flake. Robocalls are 25 times less effective than a person making those calls, which takes far fewer tries to turn out a voter. Question three.

Which of the following is not a scientifically proven messaging tactic for canvassing and calling? Is it A. Asking people if they're going to vote and have a plan for voting. This is called the self-prophecy effect, where when you ask someone if they're going to do something that they already think they should do, they become more likely to do it. And when you ask them about a plan, they feel obligated to follow through on that plan. Or is it B?

Social pressure. Reminding people that everyone they know will be voting can make people feel like they also need to vote for social reasons. Social pressure may have something to do with the fact that turnout is high when people think turnout will be high. And if they think it's going to be low, they're less likely to vote. Or is it C? People are more likely to vote if they see it as a virtue of their character, not just a thing you do. This is why in phone banks, callers often ask, say things like, how important is it for you to be a voter in this upcoming election, as opposed to how important is it to you to vote in this upcoming election? Or is it D. Using the word civic duty over and over again until the potential

voter was reminded of the terrifying civics test they took in 10th grade, where they couldn't remember the number of Supreme Court justices, and it tanked their whole GPA for the semester, which ultimately was the reason they couldn't get into Cornell, and their father made it clear just how important Cornell was to the family name. And now that's over forever, because you don't put in the work, Daniel. You just don't put in the work. What do you think, Michelle? Which one is not a fact about canvassing? I think it's D. Yeah, you got it. You got it.

You got it. Final question. Why should you bother volunteering when you already donated all that money so they could run TV ads 24-7 in their district? Is it A? Because there's very little evidence that TV ads work, and even when they do, it's only in the last few days of a campaign, and some political scientists and podcast hosts have argued

that TV ads only remain a popular tactic because they make campaign consultants a shit ton of money. Or as it be. Because you know how much fucking time you waste every weekend. Brunch at 11, drinks at 9. What happened between noon and 8? Did you do those errands you promised yourself you'd do because you were too tired after work?

No, you turned on that British baking show and watched four episodes, and now you know what hot water crust is, but you haven't done anything for yourself, your community, or your country. Or is it C? Deep cut. Because someone else isn't going to do it.

There's no one else. There's you, and you can tell yourself you care, that you're upset by what's happening in this country, but if your shoes don't touch the fucking ground, you't mean a goddamn thing or is it d because it may not be likely but maybe just maybe the door you knock on won't just deliver a vote but the first chapter in a love story you and the person behind that door will tell your grandson barack and your granddaughter barack uh what do you think michelle those all sound like very good reasons to canvas and your granddaughter, Barack. What do you think, Michelle?

Those all sound like very good reasons to canvas. You got it. All of the above, Michelle. You got it. And you've won some sort of a gift, which is a parachute gift card. Guys, give it up for Michelle. So look, we only have eight weeks until the election. That means only eight weekends for you to make a difference and stop Trump in his tracks.

There are volunteer events happening every weekend in every swing district in America. So head to VoteSaveAmerica.com or contact your local campaign to get started. There's not a lot of time left. Be a canvasser. Be a volunteer. Be a fucking hero to your grandchildren who will know that you did everything you could to stop Donald Trump from destroying America. And that's the game.

Thank you, Los Angeles. everything you could to stop Donald Trump from destroying America. And that's the game. Thank you, Los Angeles. Go to votesaveamerica.com. Get out there. Help Mike Levin become the next congressman. We'll see you soon. Good night, guys. We'll be you next time. I'm out.