Pod Save America - “The state of our union is a clusterf*ck.”

Episode Date: January 24, 2019

Trump’s shutdown has plunged the country into crisis with no end in sight, Michael Cohen refuses to testify because the President intimated his father-in-law, Mayor Pete Buttigieg announces for president, and Joe Biden has some Republican friends. Then we hear from listeners who called in to talk about how Trump’s shutdown is affecting their lives. Also – Pod Save America is going on tour! Get your tickets now: crooked.com/events.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Later in the pod, in lieu of our traditional interview, you'll hear stories from listeners who called in to tell us how Trump's shutdown is affecting them and the people they care about. And thank you to everyone who called in and shared your stories with us. Before that, we're going to talk about the latest shutdown developments, including Pelosi taking away Trump's TV time. We'll also talk about Michael Cohen's decision not to testify before Congress and all the latest 2020 news.

Also, Love It or Leave It is back. Show is tonight. Pod drop Saturday. This week on Keep It, Ira, Kara, and Louis talk about the Oscar nominations and the Fyre Festival documentaries, which means it's an outstanding episode. Have you seen those documentaries yet, Dan? No, but I know that you recommended the Hulu one to me.

Have you seen the Netflix one? I have seen the Netflix one. They're both excellent. I think the Netflix one is perhaps better produced, but I think the Hulu one is more interesting. Which one has the most jaw roll? That's what I want to know. Which one has the most jaw roll? That's what I want to know. Netflix actually has the most jaw roll.

I'm in. That is a deciding factor there, but they're fantastic. It's right up your alley. You would love those. Perfect. Okay. Finally, if you live in Charleston, New Orleans, or Durham, you'll have a chance to see us live and in person in February

when we're on tour. Go to crooked.com slash events for tickets. They're going fast, but you can still get some in each of those three cities. We still have a few left, so check it out. You can also check out the listings for Love It or Leave It shows coming up in Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee, and Pod Save the People shows coming up in Philly, Brooklyn, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and L.A. Okay, let's start with the news. The state of our union is a clusterfuck, Dan. On Wednesday, the president wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House telling her that despite her earlier objections, he still planned on coming to the Capitol on Tuesday night, to which Nancy Pelosi quickly responded,

No, you're not. coming to the Capitol on Tuesday night, to which Nancy Pelosi quickly responded, no, you're not. And so late on Wednesday night, Donald Trump tweeted that he will deliver the State of the Union when the shutdown is over. Dan, what do you think about this outcome? Are you surprised that Trump folded as fast as a Trump casino? I mean, you were just on fucking fire.

I appreciate you passing up the trite but low-hanging fruit state of our disunion. You missed an opportunity with failed state of our union. All kinds of options here. I'll leave that to the cable. Yeah, I am actually surprised that he let the fight

go so quickly. Because as part of my New Year's resolution, I have been steadily reducing my phone time. I put my phone away last night in order to watch some television, watch the Sixers game. Yeah, it was really nice.

I did none of that. I did not see until later that he had folded, and I was quite surprised to see that. I think there are a couple parts about this. I think what happened, sort of the way this happened is, as we talked about a few weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi sent a letter saying, I'm moving the State of the Union because of security concerns. Trump then sent another letter yesterday that said, checked on the security concerns, noted truth teller, Kirstjen Nielsen says it'll be fine.

I'm coming anyway. I look forward to seeing you. And then Nancy Pelosi was like, nope. And Trump called her bluff only to find out like 30 seconds later that she was holding a full house. And he – and so the things that are interesting about it are, one, he – there are two options here, which I think we'll probably talk about. One is he could have prolonged the confrontation or prolonged the fight or done like – like showed up at the, at the house or done something, or he could have given the speech in an alternative location. And the fact that he chose none of these, it gives me some measure of hope that he's starting to see all the doors close around him

for this confrontation. Yeah. I mean, we all were trying to predict what might happen on our, on our Cricket cricket media slack channel yesterday uh brian boiler thought there's going to be an arm standoff between the capital guards and the secret service that was me i said that oh you thought that brian oh brian brian had brian had the best suggestion of where the alternative would be oh right oh brian was saying the arm standoff too both of you thought the arm standoff i going to happen. I have text evidence, but that's fine. Either way, great minds think alike. I'm pleased to be part of the same weird conspiracy theorist with Brian Buehler. I thought that it would be another location. That was my guess. And then Brian said, obviously he's going to deliver the State of the Union at Covington High School. Obviously, he's going to deliver the State of the Union at Covington High School.

I had this plan that I've been working on for two days, which was I was going to do an outline that was completely fake and send it to you with like the first half of the pod was just going to be our takes on the Covington Catholic thing. And the second thing would be bemoaning the state of journalism for BuzzFeed. Maybe you're maybe not getting something wrong. But then that got too tiring. I would have really pushed my buttons. I stopped after like five minutes and just did a you tired. I would have really pushed my buttons. And just did a real outline. That would have really pushed my buttons. I guess Tommy and John answered a question about Covington on the live stream yesterday. So they finally had to get into it.

But I'm staying out. So, yeah, I actually thought, though, he would go to another location. And because, you know, there were some reports that maybe he'd go to the southwestern border. There were other reports that maybe he'd do a, you know, a MAGA rally somewhere. And then I did read after he gave in to Pelosi, someone said on background that, you know, some people in the White House thought that maybe giving the speech somewhere else would diminish him and would make him look small. Which it's funny that people in the White House still think about actions that would make Trump look small. Do you know what makes him look small? Live tweeting Tucker Carlson on a nightly basis.

That makes you look small. Not giving a speech from a fucking factory floor, people. Focus on the big picture. So here's a tweet from Maggie Haberman last night. She said, So here's a tweet from Maggie Haberman last night. She said, White House believes Pelosi has erred in getting into a tactical fight with Trump that involves testing who can kick more dirt. Dan, is there any evidence that Nancy Pelosi made an Trump in this and people are more approving of the way she's handling it than Trump by pretty large margins. And the whole thing, the whole conversation around this is stupid. And I'm actually kind of I think Nancy Pelosi did the right thing.

One hundred percent. You if you want to shut down the government and temper tantrum over your fake wall, then you don't get to come to her house and give the State of the Union. Like, right. Open up the government. then you get to give your fucking speech. Like, that is the right approach. But the whole discussion around it is a distraction from the most important thing, which is the actual crisis happening in this country. Yeah. So in that sense, I'm glad it's over. But Nancy Pelosi handled this right. this right trump mishandled it for a while and then actually did what was probably the the first strategic thing he would done which was quit a fight you know you're gonna lose early

right yeah it did seem like he by tweeting that there's at least a glimmer of hope that he wants a path out of this um perhaps who knows i just think it's hilarious that someone in the white house told maggie like uh she made a real mistake getting down in the dirt with us just just an admission that the white house most of their tactics and strategies are just down in the dirt like don't play dirty with us you know because then you'll get because then you'll get burned. It's just so cynical. It's a just cynical thing to say. I mean, it's important to remember these people are dumb. Yeah, they're not.

They were dumb. You know they're dumb because they decided to work for Trump. And then you know they got dumber because being around Trump makes people stupider. Even people who have been serious in other parts of their lives lives and drags them down into a swamp of stupidity. So like why we're even quoting these people, why they get, we get to hear their anonymous takes on these things is a great fucking question. Yeah. And look, we also had a slew of polling yesterday about the shutdown that was taken over the last couple of days. Associated Press has Donald Trump's approval rating at 34 percent, down from 42 percent last month. So that's a new record. Fifty nine percent of people disapprove of Donald Trump in the latest

CBS poll. That's the highest number since he's taken office. Seventy percent of Americans told CBS News that the issue of a border wall is not worth a government shutdown. 70%. When have 70% of Americans agreed on anything recently? And then, you know, the Morning Consult Politico poll had 54% of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown. That has climbed by six points since their last poll. So, so much for Trump's big primetime speech working. Not only did it not work, it actually probably hurt things. And then the final number here, by 12 points, 47% to 35%, people think Pelosi's handling the negotiations better than Trump. Dan, what are all those numbers tell you?

It tells us what has been obvious from the beginning, which is from the perspective of politics, which is the least important perspective in everything that's happening in the country right now. This is a disaster for the Republicans. And it is getting encouraging in the fact that some measure of the normal, the quote unquote normal or old rules of politics still apply. Yeah. If you do something incredibly stupid that does damage to the country for no reason, you will pay a political price, which is something that we, in the post 2016 environment, we were, we wondered if that was still true. Yeah. I mean, Trump has not suspended the rules of politics. Political gravity does apply to him and does apply to Republicans, especially when you do things that affect the lives of ordinary Americans. Right. And I do think, I mean, it is very sad in our politics right now that in order to, you know, drive Trump's approvals down this much or have this many Americans agree on something, which is that we shouldn't shut the government down over a wall, you have to start cutting into Trump's base, into the Republican base.

And so, you know, you're starting to see his approval rating even among Republicans fall. approval rating even among Republicans fall. And that's frankly because there's probably a lot of folks who work for the federal government or who are somehow connected to the federal government and therefore hurting in the shutdown who are Trump supporters or live in, you know, red states. And I think for them, this is probably one of the first actions Trump has taken since becoming president that has actually hurt them. There was a threat that they were going to be hurt by his decision to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but he failed at that. You know, they didn't like the tax plan that much because it went to the rich. Farmers have been hurt by Trump's trade deals, but that's not everyone. I think this is probably the action he's taken that has caused the most widespread pain to all segments of the American population

since taking office. Would you agree? Yeah, definitely. It has had the biggest impact on the most people, but it is also the stupidest fucking thing that has happened in politics in 50 years. I mean, it is unconscionably stupid what is happening like we like everyone knows the wall is bullshit yeah trump knows it's bullshit the republicans know it's bullshit the democrats know it's bullshit the public knows it's bullshit and we have shut the government down over this thing it is so like if you just watched trump in the cabinet room yesterday after nancy Nancy Pelosi first rebuffed his speech and he was doing some meeting with conservatives because that's the only kind of meeting he does. Yeah.

And he just had this. He he spoke to the press and it was the most incoherent thing in the world. We need a wall. We're building a wall. We build the wall. Crime will fall. That's a new a wall. If we build the wall, crime will fall. That's a new slogan. Oh, and by the way, crime is really low. Like, what the fuck are you talking about?

It is so, like, people get it. Like, for all of the noise and the Twitter and the propaganda, there are some things that can still break through. And this is one of them because it's so, people get it, right? You can put a blind eye on it. And even if you think it's stupid, you're not going to abandon Trump on it. But the overwhelming majority of Americans can agree that this is really stupid and it should stop. So let's talk about what's next. Today, senators will vote on two competing proposals to end Trump shutdown. One bill from Senate Democrats will simply open the government for a few weeks so that both parties have time to will vote on two competing proposals to end Trump's shutdown. One bill from Senate Democrats will simply open the government for a few weeks so that both parties have time to negotiate a deal.

The other bill from Senate Republicans will only open the government if Democrats agree to $5 billion in steel slats and stricter asylum laws in exchange for not deporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants, but only for three years. So by the time you're all listening to this, the vote will have happened, which means that there's probably a good chance that it's unexpected, the outcome, since we're recording this now. But it seems as if neither bill has the 60 votes necessary to pass. So why do you think McConnell and Schumer agreed to put these bills on the floor? This is a tough one to sort of figure out.

But I think to understand this from McConnell's perspective, Schumer just wants to get Republicans on the record voting against endangered Republicans getting on the record against voting for a straight up or down proposal to reopen the government. Right. That's what he wants. And because he thinks they should have to, like the Republicans in the House, be forced to vote against these bills to open the government. Right. McConnell only – he doesn't care about Trump. He doesn't care about the wall. He only cares about power, Republicans being in power. That's like whatever that means, he's for. And so I think he allows this to be on the floor because he wants to, one, give his vulnerable members like Cory Gardner who announced today, Republican from Colorado, that he's going to vote for it, a chance to get themselves well on this. for it, a chance to get themselves well on this. And two, I think he wants to send a message to Trump that this, and maybe other Republicans, that nothing is passing.

Trump's proposal is not, I think the sooner he can kill Trump's proposal from a week and a half ago, the sooner we can maybe move on to something that will actually open the government. Because as long as Trump and noted dilettante Jared Kushner are running around making you think that you can pass this absurd proposal that they wasted all of our time with, it creates a permission structure for Republicans to not cave. And what McConnell wants is for Trump to end this, to end it doing as little damage to Trump as possible and not being able to cast blame on McConnell. And so I think this is at least starting to get us to that path. I think that's right. And I think McConnell also wants to show that the Democratic bill to simply open the government for a few weeks also can't pass. So then, you know, he wants all the Democrats who are saying, well, if McConnell would just allow a vote, you know, we could open the government immediately. And he wants to prove today that that's not true.

Now, the big question there is, will it get 50 votes? Yes, that was just going to say. So we know that Cory Gardner is going to vote with the Democrats to open the government. Susan Collins said that she would vote for both both bills. So that means that we have. So there's at least then 49 votes for opening the government. And the question is, what will Lisa Murkowski do? What will, I think Tom Tillis is another vulnerable senator from North Carolina, but he said he was voting for Trump's plan. Who knows if he votes for both? What would Joni Ernst do? Maybe Purdue and Georgia. Maybe you have someone like Lamar Alexander who's retiring, you know, that wants to open

the government. I don't know. I can't tell you. Everyone will know by the time they listen to this podcast. Um, but I do think, you know, we have the situation then where, um, if both bills die, which seems like they may. Oh, and then we have Joe Manchin. Fucking Joe Manchin is going to vote with the Republicans and the Democrats.

He's going to vote for both bills as well. And I don't know if any other Democrats will do that do you think any other Democrats will do that I guess we don't know I guess we'll know soon but I don't know so then most of the other the most I mean sadly most of the other likely suspects for such a move lost right in 2018 so so then I guess the question is what happens right so if both bills fail then um like i still don't think democrats should just say okay well we'll start negotiating because their whole position has been open the government then we'll negotiate right like doesn't there at least have to be a sequence here where republicans say okay we will vote to open the government if we are promised a vote on x y or Z or we can immediately enter in negotiations.

Like there's got to be some face saving measure for the Republicans here, even though everyone's going to know that Democrats really won the fight. that have been done in previous standoffs over things much more consequential like the future of medicare or how much the government spends on the military or health care or things like that that could happen here if we had something resembling a functioning government so one thing would be we're going to pass a two-month continuing resolution open the government get everyone paid and we're going to have a process with three people appointed by McConnell, three people appointed by Schumer, three people appointed by Pelosi, three people appointed by Skittles McCarthy. Skittles McCarthy. That should have been Starburst McCarthy.

God damn it. Skittles is so much better to say. It's more fun to say. um so much better to say it's more they um uh and they say we're gonna negotiate we're coming with proposal and and like and then there's some guarantee that there'll be a vote on it like there's something like that which is totally fake and leads to nothing but at least gives the republicans a talking point to come down from where they are right and but that is like there's been no discussion around that. No one is talking. And just the idea of how absurd this is, is that the fact that the only proposal on the table was,

this is a proposal to get Democrats and Republicans together to open the government, was concocted by Trump, Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, and Jared Kushner, none of whom are Democrats, without talking to a single Democrat. And then if that was not absurd enough, as you guys pointed out on Tuesday, then Stephen Miller went around and inserted all kinds of poison pills into the bill. And so there's not even, like no one is talking. There is no effort to get it going. And that's because the Republicans are too wrapped around the axle of stupidity to make progress. And so we're sort of stuck. So let's talk about what the Democrats can do here. And also, it does seem like at least a few Democrats are getting anxious for reasons that I can't understand. There were reports that some

House Democrats were thinking about making a counteroffer to Trump that would include more funding for border security, but not the wall. Jim Clyburn, who's number three in the House, even talked about $5 billion for a, quote, smart wall that basically involves technology and drones and shit like that. I thought that was a bit of a head scratcher. What are they doing there, Dan? What's going on? Can I make a recommendation that for the Democrats that the only people allowed to speak are Nancy Pelosi and people who've been in Congress less than eight years? Like everyone else, just take a step back and let these people handle it because it's just, it's a mess. I have a question for you. you think democrats are hand now put aside the actual

strategy of trying to open the government without endorsing uh legislative hostage teaching as a means of governance uh-huh do you think the democrats are approaching this the right way or doing enough doing enough to end the Yeah, just like from every perspective, right? Are they taking it seriously enough? Are they messaging it right? Are they messaging it enough, et cetera? I think they are, by and large. The problem with what Clyburn said yesterday is we have a message.

The message is open the government and we'll negotiate, right? And I actually think that may be Clyburn's position. And he was just like quoted sort of getting out ahead of, okay, once the government is open, perhaps we'll negotiate up to $5 billion in non-wall security funding, right? Which I still don't know why you'd throw out fucking $5 billion, which is Trump's number, but whatever.

But I do think the message out of every single Democrat's mouth is like, we are open to negotiate anything that is not a wall trump's wall but anything around border security and immigration once the government is open through a normal legislative process government shutdowns are bad they are inflicting pain on this country that has to stop that is number one it just has to stop we are open to all kinds of negotiations once this government is open and people in this country are getting paid again. And I think as long as they stay on that message and at that negotiating position, then they're in good shape. I do think, and you

know, we're just going to talk about this, but like, I think all of us need to sort of ratchet up pressure on the outside. You know, I heard that calls to the Senate still were more pro-Wall and Trump than they were pro-Democrat position of ending the shutdown, which is not reflective of public opinion by a fucking country mile. So I think that there needs to be a lot more pressure and, you know, there's going to be move-ons organizing a protest. We can talk about that in a second. And so I think that, and I also think the Democrats could do even more, and we're going to try to do this today on the pod, to sort of elevate the stories of people who are being hurt by this shutdown. Because those stories are multiplying, and they are intensifying, and they are very sad, and they are very painful for people.

And I think we need to sort of step up the urgency. And that's why, I mean, I'm glad, like you were glad that the State of the Union silliness is over because that whole thing just looks like a tit for tat game, even though Nancy Pelosi did the exact right thing and Trump caved. Like, I want to get back to the real crux of this shutdown,

which is the pain that people are feeling across this country. The fact that by having the government shut down, it's putting the rest of us in jeopardy, our safety, our security, whether it's flying on planes, eating food that hasn't been inspected. The FBI doesn't have enough people. I mean, it's like crazy what's going on right now, putting us in danger and jeopardizing the economy and potentially sending us into a recession. So I think that should be the main Democratic message, and they should figure out a million different ways to get that message out every single day.

So I agree with everything you said, except I think, I agree with the Democratic strategy, I agree with the Democratic message. I do think the body language of a lot of Democrats, ourselves sometimes, the press, is inconsistent with the massive crisis that's happening in the country. We've become so inured to the stupidity and the insanity of the Trump era that we're kind of all going along with our lives while 800,000 of our citizens are not getting paid. I totally agree. As you point out, we're not inspecting airplanes. Air traffic controllers say the system's about to break.

We're not inspecting lettuce. The Coast Guard, which is a branch of our military, is not getting paid right now over this. And it is just like this weird thing that if you turn on the news – like Shutdown is getting lots of news coverage. It's getting a lot of local news coverage on local impacts and that's very important. But there's also – it's just – it just feels to me like we're not fully focusing on the fact that we're in the process of doing real damage. People who work for the government who theoretically have good, solid government jobs are going to food banks and being laughed at by Wilbur Ross for that, that we're just not doing – and so I guess what I would say is we have to – I think a part of that is because we don't believe that the normal rules of politics can pressure Trump into doing something. So we're not doing the things we would normally do. I've been a part of, as you have, shutdowns and debt ceiling crises.

And people don't go home for the weekend. By the time this pod comes out, most of Congress is going to have flown home for the weekend. Now, I'm sure they're going to meet with their constituents who are affected there. But why are they not camped out in front of television cameras, holding press conferences? But like why are they not like camped out in front of television cameras holding press conferences? Why is the senator not trying to keep the Senate open with a filibuster for 36 straight hours to try to draw attention to this? Like it doesn't feel like we are using every tool in the toolbox to try to bring this to an end. And I think there's two groups that I think could do more. Where are the ads targeting these vulnerable members of Congress,

both in the House and the Senate, to try to put pressure on them to do the right thing? As far as I could tell, if someone has seen those ads or they are happening, I would be excited to be corrected. But it seems like everyone's just like, eh, the polls say we're winning, so we're not going to do more. And the second group are the half dozen or so Democratic presidential candidates. They happen to be, for the most part, the best messengers in the party, which is why they think they can win the White House. And by virtue of the fact that they are now potential presidents of the United States, they command more press attention than every Democrat other than maybe Nancy Pelosi.

And so when they are giving their announcement speeches, when they're doing their interviews, when they're going to Iowa and New Hampshire, they should be talking about the shutdown first and foremost more than anything else. I'm watching some of the videos these campaigns are pointing out, some of the things they're saying, and it feels so disconnected from what is happening. What you can do first is help force the government open again by using the bully pulpit that you have by virtue of being a presidential candidate. That is the right thing to do. I think it's probably even good politics for you. giving her announcement speech in Oakland this weekend. I'm excited to see it, but I hope she spends a lot of time talking about the shutdown. That speech will probably be covered live on cable news. It'll get press coverage, and she should use it to hammer home the exact message you were talking about, the shutdown. I think we have to do more. We have to do more. Members of presidential candidates have to do more. Democratic groups have to do more members of presidential candidates have to do more democratic groups have to do more i think there's it just feels like more can and should be done here because this is a horrible crisis and if this keeps going something really bad things are going to happen to families and something really back it up in this country because we are taking our eye off the ball on

things like airline security yeah no look i i completely completely agree with this and it's like if if you like years from now if you look back at this period of time in 2019 and you look at last weekend um you will be fucking bewildered beyond belief that the top story was about fucking covington high school and something that was going on on the national mall um when 800 000 americans in the country weren't getting a fucking paycheck it is fucking gross that we are so attention addled um that we can't focus on like the big problem and crisis at hand in the country and we have to go to yet another like fucking twitter generated controversy and and you know it ends up on the today show and all across the news and everything like that it's it's obscene um i will say you're like if you turn on tv the entire american business

community as far as i can tell has put on very expensive fur coats. Yeah, fucking Davos. And gone to Davos to heckle Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like, while the, like, Rome is burning people, like, let's get focused. The economy may contract, may have zero growth this quarter, which affects everyone.

People who need jobs, people who need better wages, and your companies who care so much about your bottom lines while you're spending your fucking Trump tax cut on artisanal hot chocolate, get back to America and do something for your company and your customers. Artisanal hot chocolate. Sounds delicious. I kind of made that up. I'm not sure it's a real thing. No. And look, you're right about the candidates too. I saw Kamala Harris's interview with Matt

out last night and she talked about it which was great i think elizabeth warren was with uh tsa workers at logan airport unless i'm imagining that i think she was this week too which is good but you're right like it it could it should be a part of every presidential candidate's announcement what they what they're talking about and also by the way like you can connect it to a larger message about you know government being fucking broken in the trump era and politics being broken and and democracy being at risk here i mean i think i think when the shutdown first happened you know better wrote a media medium post about that uh as well how like it was a it was a larger issue of our you know democracy but it's like everyone's now got to go do something about that, right? Like show up, join protests, use your platform to end this thing. I think that's like the most I think that's the number one priority of presidential candidates, both because it is the right substantive thing to do for the country. And you have the power to help, which is the most important thing. But also like it can fit easily into your political message. So you don't have to choose there, you know?

fit easily into your political message so you don't have to choose there. Yeah, Beto, point your car in the direction of some unpaid federal workers. Go do a press conference with them. And you can blog about it, but everyone's got to scrub in here because this is fucking serious. Everyone should jump in. Yeah, everyone. So what can people do? Call your senators and tell them to open the fucking government, especially if you live in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Iowa, Maine,

or North Carolina, which all have Republican senators who were up in 2020 or could be vulnerable or are moderate enough to possibly vote with the Democrats here. You can call them at 202-224-3121. Then on Tuesday, January 29th, which was supposed to be the date of the State of the Union that has been canceled, moveon.org is holding a shutdown the wall, open the government day of action. You can check out move on.org slash shutdown to, uh, find an event near you. Uh, so check that out. There's gonna be a lot of people, um, a lot of events.

So that's a, that's a great thing to be part of. Most importantly, no matter where you are, you can support federal workers in your community by donating to local food banks and help spread the word how others can help. So definitely look up local food banks in your area. They really need the help. Wilbur fucking Ross, our billionaire commerce secretary, was on television this morning saying he doesn't understand why people would need to use food banks who aren't getting paid by the federal government. He was like, can't they just get loans? Yeah, you can get a fucking loan that has a crazy high interest rate. There are a few banks that are actually providing bridge loans to federal workers at 0% interest rates,

but there are not that many. And so there's a lot of people who can't just go get a fucking loan that they're not going to be able to pay back because they can't pay back the interest rate. And Wilbur Ross doesn't get that because he's a fucking billionaire just like everyone else in the trump cabinet and they have no idea how normal people live it's so bad it's really bad it's really really bad anyway that's what you can do OK, there was some other news. In other news on Wednesday, Michael Cohen announced that he's indefinitely postponing his testimony before Congress, which was scheduled to take place in early February. That wouldn't have been the craziest news ever, except for the statement from Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis about why he's not testifying.

lawyer Lanny Davis about why he's not testifying. Quote, due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen's continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen's appearance will be postponed to a later date. Totally normal, right, Dan? The man who implicated the president in multiple felonies is scared to testify because the president keeps issuing vague threats about investigating his father-in-law. Should Cohen be scared here? I feel like we've said this 1,000 times since Trump became president. But it's worth noting again that if Trump had communicated these threats privately through a letter, through a phone call, secondhand through one of his goon

sons, it would be an obvious crime and people would freak out about it. But because Trump does all of his crimes out in the open, we think it's fine. Twitter is not Amsterdam. The laws apply there. You have to... If you tamper with a witness on twitter it's still witness tampering like what it's just and every republican is like cool that's fine yeah i mean like cohen doesn't seem great like tamper away threaten his family he's threatening his fucking family like a third tier character from sopranos the whole thing is yeah i mean I mean, look, in the New York Times, Chuck Rosenberg, who's a former senior DOJ and FBI official, he was saying, like, even if Cohen said Trump's comments didn't intimidate him and that he would testify, those comments could still constitute witness tampering because witness tampering is even trying to intimidate a witness or tamper

with a witness's testimony. So, you know, we found out this morning that the Senate Intelligence Committee is issuing a subpoena to Cohen to to come testify unclear whether that's closed door or a public hearing but in the past they've asked for him to come uh to do closed door testimony i think house democrats have basically said that they're gonna issue a subpoena to cohen as well they might have already by the time you listen to this. Is that the right move, Dan? Yeah, I think so. We don't know whether Trump is going to fire Mueller, whether he's going to shut the whole investigation down, whether the Mueller report will ever see the light of day based on what potentially future Attorney General Bill Barr said. So the Democrats,

let's have a belt and spinners approach to our criminal president. And let's have Congress creating a record of what he did, because we may need it for impeachment hearings in a trial in the Senate one day. Yeah, no. And I think and that goes back to the first thing we raised, which is like, should Democrats also be formally looking into the fact that the president is trying to intimidate witnesses? I mean i you know as we were just saying the country's in a crisis right now because the government shut down but the reason i want to talk about this cohen thing is like uh the president intimidated a witness

a potential witness against him and and led that witness to decide not to testify in front of congress yesterday like that seems to be big fucking news. Yes, I mean, and it's part of a pattern here. Let's not forget Trump's attorneys talking about potential pardons with Manafort's attorneys earlier in this process. The very strange joint defense agreement that Manafort has had with Trump's attorneys to continue talking to them throughout this process, even after Manafort had agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the special counsel, there was a lot of smoke here. Yeah. And look, I mean, it raises a larger question, which is, you know, how are Democrats handling their oversight authority so far? You know, we've had a couple of weeks now, Congress in session, I know they're still

setting up the oversight committee. They just added, you know, AOC and a few other freshmen to the committee. They announced that just this week. So everything's still getting set up. But did you think the Democrats would be moving even faster by now or should they? I think I am surprised. I know this takes time. It absolutely does. You got to get your committee. They're just added people to the oversight committee, and you've got to get up and running. But time is of the essence here. We are in the middle of a national crisis, and there is two years of constitutional checks and balances to do, and we've got to get going. I'm surprised – and it's – obviously the shutdown hangs over this, so I understand it. It doesn't affect what Congress is doing because Congress is getting

paid in the shutdown. But I am surprised there has not been a high-profile oversight hearing yet, and that there have not been subpoenas issued yet. And I think that should happen as soon as possible. I'm not entirely sure what the benefit of waiting is. And look, you know, Adam Schiff gave an interview this week where he sort of threw out some concerns he has, which is that, you know, William Barr, Trump's nominee for attorney general, looks like he could get confirmed, even though he's suggested in the past that sitting president should not be indicted, it's not clear whether Barr will end up sharing everything that Mueller comes up with, with Congress, with the public. And so, you know, if those things happen, Trump starts closing off all avenues to hold him accountable for his behavior. And basically the only recourse at that point is Schiff and other Democrats in the House,

like you just said, making sure there is a record of all the misdeeds for either potential impeachment hearings or at least for the public to judge at some point. Because it does seem like we don't know how Barr is going to be as AG. But, you know, if he if he doesn't indict Trump, then impeachment is the only remedy. But to impeach Trump and to have a, you know, a full, fair, transparent impeachment trial, you need to know a lot of information. And, you know, if Trump's hiding this information or if he's intimidating witnesses like Cohen so that they don't share the information, then the public's not going to have the information it needs so that their representatives can hold a trial. And it's important to remember that Trump's criminality

is not confined to his dealings with Russia or even the contents of the Southern District of New York investigation into the Stormy Daniels case. Yeah. That is only a small fraction of the crimes that Trump may or may not have committed. And you could almost certainly make an incredibly compelling case for the impeachment of the president of the United States without ever using the word Russia. Yeah. And therefore, there's States without ever using the word Russia. Yeah. And therefore, there's all these other avenues beyond just Russia, the Trump Hotel, emoluments, all these other things that are incredibly sketchy that need to be looked into. The Trump inauguration, for instance, which seemed like a giant money laundering scam

since they spent more money than anyone in history and had fewer people. Imagine that. And like getting to the bottom of all of that is incredibly important. Mueller will handle some of this, but he won't handle all of it. And we can never be positive that Mueller will get the opportunity to finish his job. Yeah. Trump has corrupted the office of the presidency in many different ways. And among many other priorities, it is the Democrats' job now to reveal to the country and to stitch together a narrative with proof, with evidence, that he has corrupted the office of the presidency and to put all that together. And I think they need to get working on that. All right, let's talk 2020. The newest candidate competing for the Democratic nomination

for president is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg. He's a 37-year-old military veteran who'd make history as the youngest president and the first openly gay president. President Obama name-checked him in a New Yorker interview a few years ago as one of the future faces of the party. He recently made an unsuccessful bid for the DNC chair. Buttigieg has not released a platform yet, but he said that he supports Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. He's also supported minimum wage increases during his time as mayor and helped economically turn around the city of South Bend. Dan, what do you think of Mayor Pete's candidacy? South Bend. Dan, what do you think of Mayor Pete's candidacy?

I do think that basically I support Medicare for All as like the password that gets you into the Democratic primary. When you knock on the door and they're like, what's the password? If you don't say I support Medicare for All, they just say you're packing. Lord help the person who does it. Which is great. I'm all for that. Look, when you say the mayor of South Bend, Indiana is running for president, it's on its face seems absurd. But I will say that I think Pete Buttigieg is incredibly talented politician. I think there was something very compelling about certainly his life story and bio is as impressive as you can get from serving in the military to being a Rhodes Scholar to the work he did as the mayor of Indiana. I remember you and I interviewed him on Pod Save America last year. He's a friend of the pod. Two years ago. We've been doing this so long, two years ago. It was when he was running for DNC chair. And I was supporting Tom Perez. I

can't remember if you had started supporting Tom Perez at that point, but we had all the candidates on. And I knew of Pete Buttigieg from many people, Barack Obama himself talking about him, but I hadn't actually spoken to him before. And you and I walked away being incredibly impressed with him. He's compelling. He's earnest. He's thoughtful. I think he's got a lot to offer. I would not. Is he the favorite to win? No. Is it a long road for a mayor of a smaller city in Indiana to be the president of the United States? Absolutely. But he has talent and I'm interested to see the case he makes. Yeah. And look, I'm always interested in the case, particularly in the message. And I do think watching, you know, his video yesterday and seeing him speak, he is leaning heavily on his age, his young age as an asset. the age of the current president, which is funny and also a good question. He said, you know, I'm the only one to live a middle class lifestyle in a middle class city in middle America. He was saying that his underdog status, which he's embracing, you know, allows him to embrace big ideas, talk about new ideas. So, you know, the test now is what are those new ideas, right?

And what are those big ideas? I think the challenges he will have are obviously experience. Like you said, he was mayor of a small town, though yesterday he answered this by saying, I have more executive experience than Mike Pence. I have more legislative experience than Donald Trump, and I have more military experience than the two of them combined, which is a good retort. It's a good retort. That's great. I wanted to read a tweet from our friend and former Obama White House colleague, Ben LeBolt, about this. So this is what LeBolt tweeted yesterday after the announcement. He said, there's some talk about whether the mayor of South Bend is ready to be POTUS, but a credible, openly gay candidate that breaks down every old stereotype is good for America.

When I came out, I referenced Will and Grace. Imagine what a gay kid seeing Pete Buttigieg run will think. And that is, I mean, a really important thing to think about the power of this, particularly when you were just when, you know, 12 years ago, the Democratic, everyone running for the Democratic presidency was opposed to marriage equality. Right. And 16 years after the president of the United States ran and was reelected on a homophobic attack on gay people in this country with a, by running on a constitutional amendment.

Yeah. And we've come, and I think that this, like you should not, for all the other conversation about whether he can be president, whether he will be president, there is something important and powerful happening here that's gonna mean a lot to a lot of people. And so I thought Ben's tweet really summarized that.

Yeah, me too. Look, and I think the challenge he'll have is also standing out as all of them will have, or a lot of them will have, standing out in a very crowded field when you don't start with a lot of name recognition in the country. And, you know, he's not even potentially the only mayor. Julian Castro was the mayor of San Antonio. He's running, potentially Garcetti runs, the mayor of LA, potentially Bloomberg was the mayor of New York. So he's not

the only mayor. He's not the only young candidate. He probably is the youngest candidate tied with Tulsi Gabbard, who's also 37. And there's some other candidates, potential candidates in their early 40s. So, you know, it's he may be one of the only veterans in the field, actually, unless a friend John Kerry gets in. So it's it's interesting, like, you know, how how he'll stand out in this field. But, you know, we'll see everyone in the pool. All right. Let's talk know, we'll see. Everyone in the pool. All right. Let's talk about our pal Joe Biden. On Wednesday, the New York Times ran a piece about how the

former vice president lost some friends among Michigan Democrats when he gave a paid speech for the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan, in which he ended up saying friendly things about Fred Upton, a longtime Republican member of Congress whose family's foundation supports the economic club. Upton later used Biden's praise in an ad and ended up winning his race for reelection in November by about four points. This morning, Joe Biden responded by saying, I read in the New York Times today that one of my problems is if I ever run for president, I like Republicans. Bless me, father, for I have sinned. But from where I come from, I don't know how else you get anything done. Dan, what do you think about all this? I will stipulate now and many times over the next two years if Joe Biden runs for president

that I am hopelessly biased when it comes to Joe Biden. I am from Delaware. He has been omnipresident in my life as my senator and then Barack Obama's vice president. I think he is a truly remarkable and very human politician. with strength and use that tragedy to help other people, whether it's finding a cure for cancer or just stopping people in the hallway at the White House who are going through tough times and talking them through it from the perspective of what he suffered. He is not a perfect person. He has flaws as a person and a candidate like we all do, but he is one of America's most human politicians. The question for Joe Biden, if he decides to run, is, is his old school approach of politics born in a different era in relation to a very different Republican Party than the one Trump leads now? Is that appropriate for the crisis moment in America? And I'm not sure it is.

I would love to live in a world where Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell can get in a room and they could figure out how to get Medicare for all and cut some deal like the mythology that isn't really true of Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan. Is that possible? I don't think that's possible. I think the only way to return American politics to something like normalcy is to beat these Republicans and beat them bad and beat them over and over again. And I don't think befriending them is the way to get it done. And I think it's going to be a tough case for Joe Biden to make if he were to run in the Democratic primary. Now, to his credit, he is not changing his, he's being very clear about what he's doing. Like there was nothing in polling or Twitter or in conversation, Democratic activists is just, this is a good message, but it is what he believes in he's

doing. And there will either be a market for it or there won't. Yeah. I mean, he's, you know, the fact that he said that this morning means he's not shying away from this at the very least, which, you know, good for you if that's what you believe. Look, this is a tough one. Like you read the story and you can see why Joe Biden did this, right? Fred Upton was instrumental in helping increasing funding for cancer research. That means a lot to Joe Biden, lost a son to cancer. And so and Joe Biden's already prone to want to work with people across the aisle. So he says something nice about Upton. You know, you understand why that would happen. Upton also tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is, you know, a bit discordant with trying to increase funding for cancer research.

But, you know, Joe Biden is the type of person who says, I don't agree with you on one thing, but I like what you did on something else. And so I'm going to say you're a good person to work with you because I want to work with you again. But you're right that the bigger question around there is, you know, how Democratic candidates and 2020 candidates handle the fact that the Republican Party, since at least as far back as 2009, when Barack Obama took office, but really, long before that, has been unwilling, and in some cases unable, to cooperate or compromise

with Democrats in any significant way. Potentially around the margins, you know, you get a few Republican senators and Democratic senators working together on some bill that they can both stand up there and say, look at us, we passed this bipartisan bill, it's great. But it's not like a significant, significant policy change, right? These are like smaller legislative achievements. There have been republicans willing to cooperate with democrats on any significant pieces of legislation and that includes the fucking affordable care act which was you know parts of it were born in the heritage foundation and parts of it were mitt romney republican mitt romney's plan in massachusetts and they still tried to paint that as socialism, right? So I think we learned over the course of the Obama presidency, because Obama was,

of course, Obama was the president who came into office saying, I want to work with Republicans and Democrats. I want to bring people together to get things done. And we learned over the course of eight years, painfully, that that was not possible. and that even when Republicans wanted to compromise with Obama, they couldn't because the Tea Party and the right wing and the people who eventually made Donald Trump president refused to let other Republicans cooperate with Democrats. That is the political reality of where we are right now. And the question is, how do Democratic candidates in 2020 grapple with that political reality while still appealing to those voters in the party and people in the country who know Washington is broken, don't fully know to blame Republicans for this, and just want the endless political warfare to end? And I don't know.

I think it's tough. Look, it's not just Joe Biden, right? Like there was a story in the New York Times about Beto's friendship with moderate Republican Congressman Will Hurd. And he didn't endorse Gina Ortiz Jones because of this friendship, this preexisting friendship. Cory Booker talks about the need to love our political opponents. Kirsten Gillibrand emphasized working with Republicans to get things done many times since she's announced during our interview she did, too. You hear that kind of language from Amy Klobuchar. Elizabeth Warren even was in Iowa talking about working with Chuck Grassley on hearing aid legislation. Why do you think, Dan, candidates are emphasizing this anyway?

Are they seeing something in polling? Is there a feeling in the country that they're trying to reflect? I think in some cases, these are personal decisions. I think Biden's is who he is in his experience. Plus, as you say, he was grateful for what Fred Upton did. And Joe Biden is not going to not say that publicly. Joe Biden always says what is on his mind. That is both his strength and his greatest weakness as a politician. And so he did that. Beto's decision, as I understand it, was very personal over a relationship that he had built with Will Hurd. I do think that people want to get things done.

Like for all of the cynicism about politicians, people run for office to do things. And ultimately, the only way to do things is to be able to get both parties together. That is, except in those rare moments where you have single party control of the government. But even then, for most things, you're going to need some number of Republicans to get to 60 or whatever else. And they just, they want to get things done and that's the way to do it. I think,

I think the country wants to be unified. I think they're, they would like that. They know what is happening is wrong and terrible. The question is, how do you get there? And I don't think you get there with more cocktail parties and more pats on the back. Right.

And that is a different world. And I think that this is, and I think Beto, who you and I both like a lot and have spent time with, but I think he was wrong to not endorse Gina Ortiz Jones. And I say that only because the Republican Party under Donald Trump is one of the greatest threats to American democracy in decades, whether it is the authoritarian impulses of Trump, voter suppression, allowing billionaires to run our government and lobbyists to run our government. And the only way to stop that is to get Democrats in office. And that is more important than anything else, than personal relationships, than gratitude for something someone wants. It doesn't mean you can't say it. It doesn't mean you can't be balanced about it. But it is like this is it.

And like my approach to politics has fundamentally changed in the last few years. Like this is it. And like they are willing to do that, we should not be like them. We should not be a paler shade of orange. But we have to confront the threat with the seriousness of the threat. I agree. And I mean, I've gone through the same experience as well. My approach to politics has changed because of what we witnessed during Obama's presidency. And of course, now the Trump presidency. My question is, has the country's view changed and has the Democratic Party's view changed?

So, you know, I would look this up because Pew asked this question, Pew Research. They say, you know, would you prefer politicians who are willing to compromise with the other party or politicians who want to stick to their principles and positions? And as recently as last July, 69% of Democrats said they preferred elected officials who made compromises. And that was a bigger number than Republicans. Republicans don't want to compromise. Democrats mainly did. But today, just 46% of Democrats say they prefer elected officials who make compromises versus more who believe that they want their politicians to stick by their principles. So the Democratic Party is changing on this. And I think that Trump

may have changed a lot of them too. But, you know, only 46% say this. That's still a big chunk of the party who would rather their politicians make compromises than always stick to their positions. And that is, that's a tougher position for us to be. That's, that's more of a heterogeneous position in our, within our party than Republicans who, most of the Republicans just don't fucking want compromise at all and want their politicians to stick to their guns. And that's that. We are a more ideologically diverse party than they are and just a more diverse party in general. And I think you're seeing a lot of these 2020 candidates contend with the fact that there's about half our party who still thinks compromise is the answer. And I wonder what I wonder what politicians and what leaders in the party do about that.

I think I think what you see is you see this. I we saw this during my interview with uh jillibrand right like i asked her and i hope to ask all the candidates this i hope we all ask the candidates this um you know you have this big bold progressive agenda medicare for all green new deal um the only way to pass that is with 51 votes maybe there's no way you're going to get 60 votes for that agenda so are you going to get rid of the filibuster and you know she said she'd think about it but she had some discomfort saying that she would get rid of the filibuster so you have all these candidates out there with these you know medicare for all big progressive agendas and yet they're all sort of so far at least they many of them seem um wary of playing politics like Mitch McConnell and the Republican have and Republicans have played politics over the last decade. And I think that's going to be something they all have

to grapple with. It's like, can you can you run on and be a politician and a president who tries to Tries to heal the wounds of division in this country while still aggressively pushing for your progressive policies that actually have majority support in the country. Right. That is the question. Like Medicare for all is on its face very popular. Elements of the Green New Deal will be very popular. Tax, you know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's tax plan or something like it. very popular. Elements of the Green New Deal will be very popular. Tax, you know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's tax plan or something like it, very popular. Like, can you push for popular policies and try to unite people around them without allowing the Republicans to basically

have minority veto on what matters? And to say, like, compromise is an idea where you get half, I get half. But the problem is Republicans move the window so far the right that you basically get a quarter or a third or nothing if you want something at all. Can you fight fire with fire with Republicans and still try to unite the country so that at some point, if you can break the fever within this version of the Republican Party, we can have a more unified, better America going forward. And I think that is the test for what will be the best Democratic candidate, whoever that is. Yeah. And look, one potential option here for Democratic candidates is to talk about the division in this country as something that has been caused and fostered by Donald Trump and the Republican Party and Republican politicians, right? I don't think you need to go after Republican voters here because there's some Republican voters, not many, but there's a few that Democrats could get.

And certainly you get a whole bunch of independents and you need a whole bunch of independents, right? So I think that, you know, Donald Trump has divided us against each other. And the Republican Party over the last decade has tried to divide us against each other by race, by gender, by class. They have continued to do this, you know, and and why do they do it? They do it so that their rich friends, their donors, their powerful people can stay in power and become richer. their donors, their powerful people can stay in power and become richer. And they hope that by dividing everyone else against each other, that no one will notice that they're fucking taken all the spoils and enriching themselves in the process. And we shouldn't be as divided as we are in this country by race, by gender, by where we live, because there should be more that unites us than divides us. But there are us. But you have to point

out the people who are responsible for the division in this country. It didn't happen by magic. It didn't happen because our politics is broken and both sides did X or Y. It happened because a specific group of very powerful, wealthy people in this country wanted to have it happen that way. And so there is a possibility for unity in this country, but we have to unite around these forces that have divided us for far too long. To me, that's like one way to sort of bridge this need for a very progressive, more democratic agenda, small d democratic agenda, with the fact that there's people in this country who don't want endless political warfare. That's right. I think I think it's exactly right. The we what we are advocating for is not the flip side of what Republicans are advocating for. Right.

I think that's important to remember. What a large part of the Republican agenda under Trump, which is essentially, as you point out, billionaire-funded racial grievance politics, is to give more power to the wealthiest in this country and to diminish the political power of the individual by making their vote count less through gerrymandering, by making their voice count less because of campaign finance laws that benefit corporations and billionaires. And can you make an argument for and have a policy platform that is Can you make an argument for and have a policy platform that is democratic small d, right, that is good for democracy, like to be fighting for every individual person to have a voice in this country and a share in this country and to be able to benefit from it by having a universal right to health care or pre-K or child care, whatever the thing is, is to return power to the person from the wealthy.

And can that be a unifying message? And I think it can. It's just, but you don't have to write off all half the country to do that. Right. And you may have to write off half the members of Congress. I think about what our friend Adi Barkin wrote in The Nation. And when he said, you know, we've learned that the cure to what ails democracy is more democracy. And I think that's true when it comes to voting rights. That's true when it comes to how we handle economic policy in this country.

It's true, you know, it's true for everything. And so I do think that is a strong message for Democratic candidates to run on. Okay. When we come back, you will hear from folks who have been affected by this shutdown, whose families have been affected by this shutdown, who have called in to Crooked Media over the last couple days and left messages. And so we will hear those voices next. Again, donate to your local food pantry and call your senators and move on.org go there to figure out if there's a rally or event near you on tuesday the 29th so we can end this fucking shutdown

all right so we set up a voicemail just a couple days ago and asked everyone who's been affected by this shutdown, whose families are being affected by this shutdown, to call in and share your stories. And we were overwhelmed with calls. Thank you so much for everyone who called in. And we decided to go through and share some of those calls with all of you right now.

So here they are. Hey, this is Tommy Vitor from Pod Save America. We want to hear how the shutdown is affecting you. So let us know, how is the government shutdown affecting your life? Let us know your name and where you're calling from. And thank you so much for letting us know. and where you're calling from, and thank you so much for letting us know. My name is Kyle. I'm 25, and I'm calling from Washington, D.C.

I started my job working in international trade for the federal government in the first week of November. The shutdown happened less than a month, just over a month after, within two weeks of when I had moved into a brand new apartment, when rent and security deposits were due, after I had moved across the country from Texas with no furniture. Now, I live with a girlfriend and rely on her income. I have to walk to food banks as a 25-year-old who has to restructure his student loans and who hasn't built up all of the savings and who hasn't even built up the credibility within the city to lean on friends or have support groups. The shutdown hits me every day on a personal well-being level, on a mental well-being level.

There's only so many times you can tour the lobby of your apartment and walk the dog before you start to watch the news and feel like you're being held hostage by a president. Hi, my name is Sam. I'm calling from Iowa City, Iowa. I'm a clinical researcher here at the Children's Hospital, and we have two very sick newborn boys who need access to an experimental drug that's currently held at the NIH. as that part of the NIH is currently shut down. So we contacted the FDA to see if we could grant them access to the drug to have the NIH release it, but that part of the FDA is also shut down.

So we contacted our local senator, Chuck Grassley, who was nothing but unhelpful for the entire process. So we've been going back channels, contacting anyone we can think of, trying to get these boys access to this drug so that they don't die. We've been doing it at it for two weeks now and have gotten pretty much nowhere. So one of the boys got a lot sicker two nights ago and we've had to resort to getting emergency access to this drug so that

these newborns don't die. Thankfully, the emergency expanded access person at the FDA is one of the only people still working there, unfortunately unpaid, and she's been trying to help us to get the drug for these two boys so they don't die. We're hoping that we have a great end to the story in a couple days and they're able to get the drug, but at this point, we just don't know. Hi, guys. I'm Chris calling from Maine.

I work for the National Weather Service, and I don't call to share my story in how the shutdown is affecting me and my family personally. We're some of the lucky ones that we moved into a new house and were able to sell our old condo and have some savings to fall back on, something that many people that I work with are not lucky enough to have. But I call to tell you guys more about some of the untold costs of the shutdown. I originally decided to work for the National Weather Service because that's where the best of the best forecasters and meteorologists worked when I was growing up and going through school. And my fear is that shutdowns like this is going to depress interest in the

future of this country as far as the forecasting community to come up and decide to work in public service. And that is disappointing to me. And in a more immediate impact, it's making this country less safe when it comes to weather forecasts. Equipment is harder to fix. It's harder to find money to do that preventative maintenance. And outreach and research is all but stopped at this point. And we have hurricane season just around the corner. And after what we just experienced with Hurricanes Irma and Maria,

getting that public awareness and getting the emergency management community prepared for hurricane season is one of the biggest things we do this time of year. And that is not happening at this point. And as a whole, it's a disappointment and can affect way more people than just the nearly 4,000 of my colleagues that are not being paid for the work they're doing 24-7, 365. And I just want to thank you guys for allowing people to share their stories. Hi, my name is Summer

and I'm calling from central Pennsylvania. My husband is an essential worker. So he has been working for the last 30 days now without pay. It's stressful on our family. a new six-year-old and a 13-year-old. Those kids require things like food and new clothes, and they have activities that they're in that they love and that they don't want to give up. They also, my husband has CML, and that's the good kind of leukemia. It's manageable through pills, but the pills are pretty expensive every month. And even with the copay we pay out of pocket for some of that and that's one of those things that we've had to consider whether or not I mean obviously we're going to keep up with it but it's hard it's a

hard decisions are being made I will say the only positive thing to come out of this is that my husband has, my longtime husband, lifelong Republican, has become a Democrat. He switched his voter registration over this manufactured crisis, and that's something at least. Thanks. Bye. Hi, my name is Genevieve, and I'm calling from Gainesville, Florida. The government shutdown is affecting my family in the fact that my father was set to retire at the end of December, but due to the shutdown, he is not officially retired and is not receiving any paychecks.

My mother is retired and going through cancer treatments right now, so there's a lot of stress and issue going on with that, and now I am going to have to outpay their mortgage and buy gas and groceries because they are only two paychecks ahead of everything in their life as far as their finances. And this is incredibly stressful, and it strips away the dignity of all Americans. And Trump and the Republicans are absolutely responsible for this. Hi, I live in Washington, D.C. I don't want to leave my name. I think one thing you guys should know is, you know, you've talked a lot about how there hasn't been a lot of direct action and protests

and things. And, you know, as federal employees, we're scared. We've spent two years being politically targeted, even as civil servants. And so for us to come out and protest is a scary thing because we're worried about losing our jobs, you know, to the extent we ever get paid again. But the shutdown, you know, my family and I are lucky. We have savings and, you know, a backstop in the form of my mother has money that she can lend us if we really need it. But, you know, it's been really hard. I've worked my whole life. I, you know, went to law school for a reason and it wasn't to stay home as much as I love my family and I love my daughter. I feel like I'm living in, you know, the feminine mystique. Like, I don't have anything to do.

I, you know, I've been trying to volunteer. I've been trying to structure my day. But it's hard and it's, you know, hard to not be doing the job that I love. And I, you know, could be making a lot more money in private practice. And I chose public service because I believe in it and it's important and I believe in the work I do and I miss it and I want to do my job and, you know, like I said, my family and I compared to so many other people are so fortunate and we're not ungrateful for that. But, you know, when I get together occasionally with my friends from work and we see each other, we just cry.

Because it's hard to feel like you don't have a purpose and it's hard to feel like no one cares. And it's hard to just feel forgotten. And I think that's how a lot of us feel. And yeah. So anyway, thank you for everything that you do. Bye. Thanks again to everyone who called in and shared your stories. We will keep sharing them over the next couple of days.

And we will talk to you next week. Yeah, call your senators. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you. Bye.