Pod Save America - “The worst Cirque du Soleil ever.” (LIVE from Las Vegas)

Episode Date: February 12, 2018

The Trump White House extends the domestic abuse scandal for a fifth day, Republicans fret about staying on their tax message, and Democrats start to fight back. Then Congresswoman Jacky Rosen joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan to talk about Nevada politics and the 2018 election. 

Hey Vegas! What's up? What is up? What's happening? What's happening? Vegas! I'm down 200. He is. I'm up.

He was not happy. Tommy's up. But it's better when I come in hot. It's fine. We have a great show for you tonight. Congresswoman Jackie Rosen is here. We've got some games, we've got some fun. First we've got some news.

So guys, I know this is hard to believe, but the very stable geniuses in the White House have managed to make news for the fifth straight day on the domestic abuse scandal that has led to the resignations of a senior White House aide and a White House speechwriter. So like, I wasn't even sure that I wanted us to cover this again, but I woke up this morning, I made the terrible mistake of turning on the Sunday shows in my hotel room. And let me tell you, the White House is not sending out their best on the Sunday shows at all. I'm going to read you guys three different White House answers to questions

about why the President of the United States decided to publicly defend this man who was accused of domestic abuse. And then I would like you to react. Legislative director Mark Short. I think the president is shaped by a lot of false accusations against him in the past. Kellyanne Conway. The president believes you have to consider all sides. Something I know we've heard before. They tried that one, yeah. something I know we've heard before.

They tried that one, yeah. And OMB director Mick Mulvaney, Trump's tweet was actually about Steve Wynn, who Trump believes has been accused and condemned without due process. Dan. Yes, John. Why can't anyone get their story straight here? Well, John, as you know, I worked in the White House for a long time.

I was White House communications director. You were there for, we did the math. It was, I believe, 220 Scaramucci's. 220 Scaramucci's. That's right. And so, Scaramucci's probably big in Vegas. Scaramucci could have worked at the White House for 100 times as long as he did. And it still would have only been

half as long as Dan. So, anywho, I was involved in preparing White House officials to go on the Sunday shows, and so I thought about what this would be. And here is the reason why this happened. They are all fucking liars

who wouldn't know the truth of it and hit him in the ass. True. Dan dan i appreciate your honesty um tommy what do you think about the white house strategy of deflecting attention away from domestic abuser rob porter towards sexual abuser steve winn is that that's something that they thought would work for them they're're just sprinkling their awful on every story in the news cycle. Yeah, it's... I don't know. I don't know why you would do that.

Why would you do that? I guess it's because you have these two stories of these awful men behaving in ways that are totally unacceptable. They are legal. They should go to jail for what they did. They're... Right? in ways that are totally unacceptable. They are legal, they should go to jail for what they did. But the Porter story, the staff secretary, was an individual who spent a year, spent 14 months, seeing literally the most sensitive documents that exist in the White House,

the top levels of information that come to you as President of the United States without a security clearance. So on top of this guy being a total creep, on top of the White House chief of staff and several others knowing that he had very credible allegations of abusing his wife because she told the FBI he was also allowed to serve in this role while he could have been blackmailed for that long. So I guess that's why you deflect from him, but it is baffling. Part of the reason they can't get their story straight is because the truth is obvious and incredibly damning.

The truth is they had all heard reports internally, both from inside the government and from other women who called the White House to let them know that this person was a danger, not just a danger to women, but also someone susceptible to blackmail inside the White House to let them know that this person was a danger, not just a danger to women, but also someone susceptible to blackmail inside the White House. And in a combination of incompetence, the fact that this White House is dealing on a daily basis with a dozen what used to be administration-defining scandals

and a total fundamental disregard for human beings that are women combined to lead them to look the other way and not care about it. That's the truth. They all heard it. They didn't deal with it. They ignored it. They looked the other way, and then it caught up with them, and none of them can say that even though it's the truth. Because they also, when caught in something like this, all they can do is lie. I mean, how much, Dan, how much trouble is John Kelly in right now? Because it is clear, not just from reporting, but from the White House spokespeople's own accounts

that John Kelly's account of when he learned about these allegations and the severity of these allegations is in complete conflict with the public statements made from the spokespeople in the White House. And like a lot of reporters who cover the White House are sort of stunned right now because they're like, either John Kelly's

lying or the White House spokespeople are lying, but someone is lying about when they found this out, and it's a pretty serious lie. I think that's a false choice. The question is not who's lying, it's who's lying more. Right, yeah. Okay, there you go. I think, you can take away from this,

there's lots of rumors that Trump is mad at Kelly, that he was angry at him anyway for cutting off his access to Jeanine Pirro or these other things. Yeah, he's really mad at him because he took away his remote. Yeah. Not because of the covering up the abuse allegations.

Some people used to print out Breitbart and slide it under the Oval Office door, and that's been stopped. That's actually true. That's the world. So I don't know. So unclear. Trump doesn't tend to fire people.

He usually just tortures them until they quit. Right. Or if they have no dignity at all, like Jeff Sessions, they just stay forever. I was going to say, try to do it with Jeff Sessions. Jeff Sessions is like, no, no, no, I'm sticking around. Or Reince just gets into a different motorcade, and that's kind of how it all ends for him. Reince found out on Twitter.

Yes. What? Remember. But what I think is notable here is he's lost the White House staff. Yeah. And that's a huge deal for a chief of staff, because they have decided that he was dishonest to them. Because in the reports, it's that he brought the senior staff in

the morning after Rob Porter finally resigned and basically tried to get everyone to sell his version of the story, which many people in the staff knew to be not true because they were involved in the original crafting of the response late Tuesday night when the first allegations about Rob Porter came out in a story in the Daily Mail, that he tried to change it to protect himself. And that angered people enough that they went to reporters and basically called him a liar. And you can't run a White House like that. So his days as an effective chief of staff

or a quasi sort of effective chief of staff are over. We always knew he couldn't manage up, but now it looks like he can't manage down. I just want to reflect on that for a second. As like four people that worked at the White House, the chiefs of staff we had, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Daley, Jack Lew, Dennis McDonough, were people that we not only respected, but in many cases truly looked up to and revered in a weird way. The idea of a whole bunch of staffers going to the press and undercutting them literally minutes after meetings

where they were asked to lie by Kelly is remarkable in and of itself. But this is the thing. Once it's a whack-a-mole thing, right? Like the attention focuses on the malfeasance of one member or another, right? But the thing is, you don't have the loyalty of the people on your team. You're not working with people you trust or respect because the one problem you have when you work at the Trump White House is you are surrounded 100% by people who would work at the Trump White House. Right. But that's real.

The people that are in that building are people who have debased themselves or were mediocrities who failed their way into the only campaign that would hire them. Hungarian criminals who had nowhere else to go. Hungarian criminals. Hungarian fugitives. debased themselves or were mediocrities who failed their way into the only campaign hungarian criminals who had nowhere else to go hungarian criminals uh you know people who bought buildings on fifth avenue and couldn't make it work you know there are it is a building full of just terrible human beings right by trolls and they smell and you know these are snakes and and they snakes who smells chum in the water sharks Sharks? Sharks. The bottom line is they're going to eat their wounded is all I'm trying to say. Oh, episode title.

What is that? They eat their wounded. They eat their wounded? Let's work on it. Let's see if we can beat it. We've got some time. We're going to track it in real time. We'll vote at the end.

The current deputy press secretary is just a MAGA hat. They just put it on the podium and it briefs. So there's also this thing reported today in Axios that Trump privately, behind closed doors, is furious with Porter and says, oh, people who abuse their spouses are just awful people and blah, blah, blah. And we're, I guess guess expected to believe that behind

closed doors trump believes this but then he felt like publicly he should defend this guy what is what is the incentive for behind the scenes being angry and thinking it was a bad thing but in public saying oh no no no he's he's done really good work and we wish him well can i vent on this for one second i got in a little argument with the we had a lot of flights this trip and so you end up no, no, no. He's done really good work and we wish him well. Can I vent on this for one second? Please do. I got in a little argument with the, we had a lot of flights this trip and so you end up arguing with reporters on Twitter on Sundays, which is not a good idea. You can read a book. It's not cool. That's what we do for fun, guys. This reporter, you know, you reported this piece that four people said that behind the scenes, Trump is really angry at this individual,

a staff secretary who is a multi-time spousal abuser. I'm willing to believe that behind the scenes Donald Trump is really mad at this guy for earning bad press for the White House. I'm not willing to believe that he's actually mad at him for his conduct or that he doesn't believe his conduct because why then would you go in front of cameras and make statements giving him the benefit of the doubt? Or tweet. Or tweet about due process. Or spend decades defending every male, white male that's on your team against allegations and act like they're the victims here. And so it's frustrating to read this shit because it's just so self-evidently not true. Well, so, so love it.

I want, so Kellyanne Conway is on the shows and she's trying to do her Kellyanne thing to defend all this and they say, you know, why doesn't the president condemn people who abuse women? And she said, you know, let me tell you about the president's relationship with women. Let me tell you how he thinks about

women. She said, quote, the president is responsible for 800,000 women taking new jobs in 2017. Lovett, should women forgive the president for defending a domestic abuser because businesses created jobs last year? Do you think that's

something that seems... He's not going to take the bait, people. He's not going to take the bait, people. He's not going to take the bait. Kellyanne Conway. This question, I love it all over it. I was like, I'm going to go right to love it on this one. Kellyanne Conway is a good lesson, I think,

for human beings just to observe. Because there is freedom in killing the part of yourself that experiences shame. She's the freest person on television. She's freer than any one of us. Every single one of us has had a moment in our lives where we could say to a boss or a friend, not just a white lie,

but something we so fundamentally don't believe, and we knew we could get away with it, but we couldn't do it. We couldn't get ourselves to make the noises because there was still something inside of us, that little voice, that little voice that stopped us. That's a prison. And what Kellyanne Conway figured out was that you could break out of that prison. And once outside, there's nothing you can't say. You can say that GDP is an excuse for defending people who punch their wives. That is extraordinary. That's an extraordinary thing to say on television and then walk off camera and continue to be part of society. You could go off, you could do it once.

You could do it once. You could go on television and look Chuck Todd in the eye and say, yeah, sure he punched women in the face. But have you seen the latest GDP forecast? You can do it one time. But then you've got to get in your car and you've got to drive. You've got to drive to the road ends. Then you get out and you walk. And you walk

until there's nothing but trees and the sounds of birds. And if you're not willing to do that, I don't know what to say to you. How we am, Conway. That's another example. these are the worst people that have ever elevated so high in politics and by the way the serious people under bush they fuck things up pretty bad on

their own it's true these are people that aren't as serious as the bush people the last administration that almost destroyed the country and And they walked into the White House and none of them know what they're doing. What are we even talking about? The staff secretary of the White House, one of the most sensitive jobs in all of government, covered up the fact that he beat his spouses for years. He got away with it in charge of national security. And now they're defending it. And the president doesn't go out and say i'm sorry he says he's a good guy and we got to take his word for it it's crazy it is crazy we are living in a crazy world kellyanne conway the fucking worst she was the dregs she was the pollster for todd fucking aiken

the guy that said you can stop rape with your mind. Now she works at the White House where they're one of the smartest and best people who ever went into politics have worked. Give me a fucking break. I have had a drink

and I lost $200 at Blackjack. This rant brought to you by a certain blackjack dealer out there on the floor. Ted, the blackjack dealer, brought you that rant. Thanks for that. Man, God, okay.

Anywho, back to the show. Where are we? Las Vegas? Guys, this is the most boring Cirque du Soleil I've ever been to. Is this the Kenny Chesney concert? What time is Incubus? Is this the Kenny Chesney concert? What time is incubus? Is this from the run under? So

Alright So I thought that I thought that Kirsten Gillibrand Had maybe the best response Bring us back John Yeah I'm trying I gotta do it quick

Because then he's just gonna go again I'm not I thought Kirsten Gillibrand Had maybe the best response to Trump's tweet about wanting due process for people accused of sexual assault. She said, if he wants due process for the over a dozen sexual assault allegations against him, let's have congressional hearings tomorrow.

So, Dan, I don't envision that scenario coming to pass. I don't think Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are game for that. But it does raise an interesting question. Should Democrats running for Congress in 2018 talk about holding Trump accountable for these accusations? We've talked about holding him accountable for Russia, for corruption, for everything else. Should part of the message be that we will have, I mean, that we are going to actually have Congress investigate all these allegations, credible allegations that were made against the President of the United States by women? I was going to say no, just kidding. Look, I think, I don't know

whether that's a good political issue or not, but it's the right thing to do. Because we gloss over the fact that 19 women have accused the President of the United States of sexual assault. It is never talked about in the press. It's never talked about in politics. And it is such a moral crisis for this country that that happens. And so I think what Kirsten Gillibrand said exactly right. And I hope if and when Democrats take back one or both bodies of Congress in November, that that is something that we do. It's so weird. The things he's accused of are against the law. And we act like it's been adjudicated in the court of elections. And that

somehow makes it okay. And thus we are supposed to move on. People like Kellyanne Conway go on the Sunday shows, and they shame us, and they look us in the eye and say, this has been dealt with, we've listened to these women, it's time to move on. They've had their day, she says. They've had their day. That's not how the world works.

When you do something horrific, you live with that your entire life. Especially if you show absolutely no remorse and you lie and you attack the people that you harmed i mean like he is if nothing else demonstrating to everyone else in the country in the world that the worst possible behavior is how you get away with the worst possible behavior and that's not acceptable as a society so i'm glad as democrats like i can see how people hear that as sort of a political strategy and feel squeamish about it but i agree with dan that it's the right thing to do we should be talking about it we should not give this asshole a pass well i think too it i get a pit in my stomach when i think about what it took for all

those women to come forward right before the election and come out and say that and then to have him win and then to have nothing happen after that and I think that's and before we move on from this I do want to say that like one of the very serious consequences one of the many serious consequences of powerful men telling the world that they don't believe victims of domestic violence is that other victims are more reluctant to come forward. And we were talking with our friend, Anna Marie Cox, about this this morning, and she wanted us to remind everyone that if you are someone or you know someone

who has experienced sexual assault, please reach out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline. It is 800-656-HOPE or you can go to r-a-i-n-n.org and you can get help you can get people help that you know it's important to go do that forget what you hear on the news we just want people to know that john before we leave this topic can i say one more thing yeah which is most democrats have not yet figured out how to get involved in a back and forth with Trump. But Kirsten Gillibrand, to her credit, has handled this very well on multiple.

Trump has come after her and said horrendously offensive things about her. She's handled it very well. And she handled this exactly right. And I think Democrats will learn a lot of lessons from how she has engaged with Trump. You know why? Because I agree with that. She does it seriously. She doesn't try to like

make jokes back to him. She takes it, you know, she doesn't try to like. there's no nickname, right? She doesn't try to nickname him back. She doesn't try to like out joke him.

She just like says something serious and it's like, it doesn't seem like it's too forced. No, I think she does that. And she's someone who's got a, a real credible history and track record of fighting for these issues.

Right. For her whole career. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Okay.

I want to talk about 2018 strategy. I want to take the Republicans first and then talk about the Democrats. So, again, this may be hard to believe, but there are quite a few Republican strategists who think that defending domestic abusers is not the ideal message for the midterms. Those people are not going to get hired in the White House. I know. I know. They're few and far between. So according to a Jonathan Martin piece in this morning's New York Times, there is a fear among party strategists and people like

Dan's mentor, Paul Ryan. Uncle Paul. Uncle Paul. Uncle Paul. Unky. Paulie. Aaron Ryan's dad. That all of Trump's crazy tweets and the Devin Nunes release the memo conspiracy bullshit

will distract from the tax cut message. No shit. So Dan, the piece argues that the conspiracy stuff is what fires up the base in some of these districts but that a focus on tax cuts and the economy is the real winner. What do you think about this? I think that is actually right.

Yeah. And if there is a true debate about the merits of the tax cuts where Democrats have the courage to engage and argue why this tax cut that gives the vast merits of the tax cuts, where Democrats have the courage to engage and argue why this tax cut that gives the vast majority of the $1.5 trillion to the wealthiest Americans is a moral abomination. Democrats will win that fight. But if you're Republicans, they don't have a lot to run on. Their party is unpopular. Their president is unpopular and incompetent. And so they have

accomplished basically nothing other than this tax bill and they're gonna they are they were willing to lie about it they will say it's not going to affect the deficit middle class is getting all the benefits and if we cede the ground there then yes that will work for them we just have to make sure we don't do that i mean it's also it's this fascinating piece because it's basically an admission by all these pollsters and strategists in the republican party that all of this release the memo, conspiracy, anti-Mueller bullshit, like that's not that's firing up the very small base

that they have but it's not moving voters for them. And the piece actually talks about, oh this guy, Congressman Matt Gates Gates, whatever, I don't know how to pronounce Goebbels. Leave it in Chrisris yeah so he's he's from florida and uh he basically says that uh he basically admits in the piece that he says all this crazy bullshit on television because sometimes when he does donald trump calls him up and tells him great job um and he also admits in the piece that that

has no electoral value but but he really loves Donald Trump calling him up. Tommy, what do you think of that strategy? I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this week there was a story about how Donald Trump doesn't read the PDB, which is important for him as the guy who keeps us safe, but also on an intellectual level, the most interesting thing in the fucking world. But he watches every TV appearance by Matt Gaetz, and he calls his ass. That drove me crazy, I'm sorry. So my favorite part of the whole piece, House Republican leaders are so eager for their candidates

to stop talking about the crazy bullshit and start talking about the tax cut, they are offering a Gipper of the Week award to Republicans who break through with their tax cut message. The prize is a jar full of jelly beans. Love it. What do you think about that award?

I think it's really good. You think that's a good incentive for folks? I think a bunch of people giving themselves a Gipper Award tells you a lot about what they think the Republican Party is. I know. But a little less about what it actually is. Yeah, I was thinking about that.

It is truly like the Washington establishment Republicans left over. It is not the actual, it's not Trump's party. The Gipper is long gone. It's like the leftovers that Trump all beat, sitting there with their polls being like, if we can just talk about free market economy, like free market economics and the tax cut we're gonna win what's reassuring about that is Democrats rightly have spent the last year being like what the fuck uh how did we get here what were we wrong about how wrong were we oh more wrong than

we thought uh we've lost up and down the ballot we lost the White House and and and it's still surging and I think it's soul-searching, and I think it's a lot of questions around, like, what are the rules of political gravity that still apply? Like, you know, what are the laws now that Trump is president? What didn't we understand? And we did a lot of that very publicly, which is good. But what's interesting is Republican strategists and Republicans behind closed doors are just as unsure about what happened and why it led to this moment. Everybody is floating in space, including Republicans, who have absolutely

no idea what they're supposed to be doing. They don't know whether or not they're supposed to be appealing to the crazy part of their base or appealing on the corporate tax. Everybody is unmoored, the winners and the losers, which should be a little bit reassuring. No, and what I find really reassuring is this Republican pollster,

David Winston, who's a good Republican pollster, he basically says in the piece that voters are highly flexible right now in their views of the tax law and that most of the electorate isn't yet aware of what's in the bill. And so he believes this election is a struggle to define which party is going to define what's in the bill, which we've all been saying we want Democrats to hear because that means that it's not, it's not a win for Republicans for sure, by any means. And even Republican pollsters are saying that. He's out there saying like, we have to define what's in the bill because it's not necessarily win for us. So, I mean, this is sort of what we were saying the last three weeks now, right? Yeah. I mean, this is, we have fought elections on this issue of who stands for the middle class and who is going to fight for the wealthy in Wall Street. And if you can make that what debate's about, Democrats will win. What they can't do is go out, like this is how this played out, is the tax law passed,

all the polls said it was incredibly unpopular. Walmart puts out a press release and says they gave bonuses. Democrats point out rightfully, these bonuses go to a small percentage of people who've only worked at the company for two decades at the same time that Walmart is closing a thousand Sam's Club stores and putting people out of work. And the Republicans say, why do you hate wealth? Democrats just melt into the

floor and get afraid instead of engaging in the argument. Democrats have a very high melting point. People don't know that. Great. It's so easy. Make a pie high melting point. People don't know that. Right. It's so easy. Make a pie chart, guys. 2% of the tax cut is going to bonuses. 50% or more is going to go to stock buybacks and dividends.

And 10% of the country owns 80% of the stocks. I mean, it's a very simple message. The rich are getting richer. Which brings us to Democrats. We've been arguing this for a while. Finally, it looks like the Senate Democrats are getting the message. The rich are getting richer. Which brings us to the Democrats. We've been arguing this for a while. Finally, it looks like the Senate Democrats are getting the message. This week, they released a report that shows

companies have already announced $97 billion in stock buybacks since the tax bill passed, compared to just $2 billion in bonuses to employees. At the top of that list, Wells Fargo with $22.6 billion.

When they're not busy making fake accounts in your name, they are collecting $22 fucking billion from that tax cut. Morgan Stanley report this week says that only 13% of the company's savings will go to workers in the form of bonuses, raises, and benefits. So I think there's a lot we can learn from how the Republicans fought against Obamacare. Obamacare helped a lot of people. It expanded Medicaid, it provided a lot of consumer

protections, it lowered the uninsured rate dramatically. Applaud for Obamacare! But by virtue of insurance companies taking advantage of a moment of transition, as well as HHS deciding to grandfather in fewer plans, there was a subset of people who got letters in the mail telling that their plan had been canceled, that the costs were going up. It was a giant, complicated law that helped a lot of people, but some people did bear

the brunt of that transition. Undeniable. And probably unavoidable in any kind of big piece of legislation that's going to help tens of millions of people. Republicans didn't get worried about all the people that were being helped. You don't see Republicans, well, the Medicaid expansion, how can we make a case about Obamacare? No. They hammered day after day the parts of the law that people in the public thought were bad. They hammered against the individual mandate. They hammered against the insurance company letters. They did not have any compunction about all the ways in which it was helping people.

We have a tax law that is helping far fewer people, that is a much worse piece of legislation that borrows $1.5 trillion, the vast majority of which goes to corporations and the wealthy. If Democrats are going to be scared because a tiny subset of that is going to help people, while the vast majority of it is going to go to the people that have been doing incredibly well, to the biggest companies, to the wealthiest people, to Betsy DeVos, to the Koch brothers. If we can't just focus on that part, then we should just give up, I think.

We should give up politics. We should just say goodbye. It also speaks to how they have an easier time than we did. When you give a gigantic tax cut to the richest people in the country and to industry, it's very easy to make a call over to AT&T or whatever the company is and say, hey, why don't you announce that your end of year bonuses are

because of the tax cut. And then someone sees how much Trump tweets about it and these companies see the press and it becomes a thing where everyone wants you on this game. Those companies are saying like, oh, I saw that AT&T got good press. We should announce a bonus and do the same thing. It's more sinister than that.

Half the companies putting out these bonus announcements are all companies with business before the FCC and other government agencies who have absolutely no faith that the Trump White House isn't politically interfering with those decisions because Trump goes on television and says, I'm interfering with the decisions. The other thing, one last thing about it, is it's hard to do tax reform that balances wins and losses when you're trying to not affect the deficit,

when you care about the deficit. We all took a drink when Lovett starts talking about the tax reform and how to balance it in the right way. I'll get on a trapeze and do it. It was so funny. We're all like, oh, here it goes. He's going to talk about revenue neutral reform.

I will talk about revenue neutral tax reform, which is what we should have actually had. Marginal rates. We should have had revenue tax reform, neutral tax reform, but we didn't. They borrowed $1.5 trillion from the future and they're distributing it in the present. That is not hard to make popular. And even they fuck that up by giving it to the smallest subset of people. So when they say, look at all the people that are benefiting, look at all the people that are winning, they borrowed $1.5 trillion from the future and gave it out. That's not impressive. I also think you just, you gotta balance it with like all the problems that exist in this

country right now. Wells Fargo just got $22 billion from the government. One in five children go to bed hungry every night. Three million people lost their health insurance last year. I don't know how many people are drowning in student debt right now. I don't know how many people can afford health insurance. I don't know how many people can't afford job training or the things they need. Like there's so much need in this country right now. I don't know how many people can't afford health insurance. I don't know how many people can't afford job training or the things they need. There's so much need in this country right now. There are so many people who are struggling. It takes 45 minutes to get from New Jersey to Manhattan.

Right. You can build a fucking tunnel. We have shitty airports. Our bridges are crumbling. And we're giving Wells Fargo $22 billion for fucking what? They got bullet trains whipping all over China. Those things go 200 miles an hour. Every three days,

a train goes off the tracks in America. Half the news is about bridges falling down. How long can we coast? Did you see? Build a bridge. The guy in charge of... Build a tunnel. We drive on roads

the generation before us built. I don't know if you're a baby boomer, but you shouldn't be applauding. You guys didn't build a goddamn thing. You built a Gordia. It's impossible to that. I'm done, sorry. Cool.

So we obviously believe that Democrats should hit the tax law and health care pretty hard in this campaign. But obviously there's going to be other issues that come up. And one I want to touch on briefly before we move on is gun violence, especially since absolutely nothing has been done since last October when the deadliest mass shooting in history happened right here. Dan, what do you think Democrats should say about gun control in 2018?

Is this another issue that they're going to shy away from, they're going to be worried about? Well, if we ever want to change policy in this country, we have to run on it. Because what you can't do is not talk about guns during the election and then get into government and wonder why there's not a public consensus to do what you want to do. And I think Democrats have to learn from our failures on this. And I wrote a piece for a little website called crooked.com a few months ago, where I talked about this. Check it out. Thanks for the plug, Dan. They have good stuff on that website. And I've been in politics for 20 years. And one of my first jobs in politics was at the Department

of Justice. And when I worked there, I was doing press there, and the Columbine shooting happened while I was there. And where, you know, kids went into a school, they shut up, dozens of people were killed, students were killed. And it was the whole country focused on it, and we were going to have a big debate about gun violence. Since that time, nothing, no gun law has changed. Things have actually gotten worse because the assault weapons ban has been expired. Congress decided to give immunity to gun manufacturers so they wouldn't be sued. And part of the problem here is Democrats are scared of their shadow on guns.

And what we do is we play within the framework that the NRA points out. Because Democrats go out there and say, I believe in the Second Amendment, but I think we should do background checks. And if we were to pass background checks tomorrow, lives would be saved and that would be good. But that doesn't get it. The core problem is that there are too many guns in this country. And so, you know, we Republicans who disagree with us on choice run out to there every day and say we're going to

appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade like that is terrible I don't agree with that but what Democrats believe is that we have to agree that the second amendment means you can get a gun as easily as you can get a slice of pizza and that is not how what that is not an accurate view of the constitution and we should argue that against the Supreme Court decision in Heller versus the United States that created the idea that the Second Amendment was a sacrosanct thing. And so we should argue against the NRA's argument about the Second Amendment and make a strong, bold case for reducing gun violence in this country instead of playing on the margins, which has been what the Democratic rhetoric has been for as long as I've been in politics.

Tommy? A far less smart political point than what Dan just said is like, this feels to me, I remember, you know, my first campaign was 2002, Obama 2004, and we were scared shitless of the gun debate. You know, you talk about common sense gun safety laws, you sort of back into everything and you think there's a cultural component, there's a powerful interest group. At the same exact time, Democrats were scared shitless of coming out in favor of gay marriage. There was a power, there was a cultural overtone, there were powerful conservative interest groups. And guess what? Someone stepped up

and said the right thing. And like the public perception changed overnight. Like what Dan said is exactly right. You have to fight for things you care about and are important. And if, you know, tens of thousands of people are getting killed per year by gun violence, it should be important enough to fight for and maybe lose some elections,

but at least get in the game. One more thing on this is Democrats tend to believe that like their goal is to be as bold on gun violence as possible without angering the NRA. Right. But here's the thing.

The NRA doesn't care if you use their talking points. They are a Republican political organization. You could be the furthest right Democrat on guns, and if a Republican runs against you, they're going to support that Republican. It's the same thing we've been saying on immigration, too. You can take all the more conservative votes on immigration that you want. That doesn't mean that the fucking MS-13

ads aren't coming to your district or to your state. It's going to happen no matter what. And like, whether it's guns or immigration, you cannot win an argument that you do not make. And I think like, Democrats need to realize that whether it's guns or immigration or anything like that, you've got to make the argument. You've got to join it with where they make me

And look and this is where elections matter too there was a there was a special election in Washington State in November for a state Senate seat Democrat ran first time she wins that seat the Washington state Democrats take control of the legislature. And now, a couple weeks ago, a mother of a victim of the Las Vegas massacre goes up to Washington State, and she testified before the state legislature for new background checks, for a ban on high-capacity ammo, for all kinds of gun control measures that are now possible because of one state Senate seat that flipped.

And so we get so frustrated about nothing happening on gun violence, but all it takes is for a bunch of Democrats to make the case and win at a state level, in community level, all across the country, and we can actually start passing it, though. So I think it really matters. No one has ever won running scared.

Yeah. No one has ever won running scared. Yeah. No one has ever won running scared, ever. So we've talked a lot about the tax bill and the argument and the debate over who it's helping and who it doesn't help. And so we thought tonight we'd dive into that through a segment we call, Okay, Stop. Here's how it works. We watch a clip and when we feel like it, we say, Okay, stop to talk about it. This week, we are going to watch, it's really two clips. First, we are going to hear someone defend the tax bill. And second, we are going to see who's benefiting from it. Let's roll the clip.

Most importantly, we need to put the American economy in a better competitive position so that we can compete and win jobs and get faster economic growth. But don't forget, this is a big tax cut for families as well. Okay, stop. This is a big tax cut for families as well. But who's family? Perhaps, perhaps one of the families that's benefiting most of all is one you've heard of. They're called the Kochs. And they've produced a great many wonderful, wonderful people who are out there following their dreams

and contributing to society. Let's continue the clip. My father said to me, Wyatt, you can do whatever you want to in life. Okay, stop. This is Wyatt Koch. He owns a shirt company. He makes shirts that have literal money bags on them. Continue the clip. Sure, you do it well and you do bags on them. Continue the clip.

Sure, you do it well, and you do it with passion. Okay, stop. Before we get any further, we've seen a heavyset gentleman in a shirt with money bags on it. For all the people at home, all the listeners at home. And he looks crazy. He looks like he said to somebody, can you turn methamphetamine into a fabric?

But I really love what Wyatt Koch says. He said, my father told me, Wyatt, you can do whatever you want in life as long as you do it well and do it with passion. That is his first sentence. Think about what that is. That is said with the line reading of inspiration, but I don't think it was said with inspiration.

I think it was said, listen, you lazy fuck. You don't do shit. You're my rich heir son, and you're making a laughing stock of me. You like making shirts. Go make your gay shirts in Miami. You don't need to make money. Just get out of my house. Just do

something. Just do it with some passion. Just do something with some energy. It's like trying to get a kid to have a hobby. And he opens his video with it. What kind of person starts a business and starts it off by saying, my dad told me I could do anything I put my mind to. What a lame, soft, rich douchebag is this?

Read his Wikipedia. Read his Wikipedia. Give yourselves a treat. And read Wyatt Ingram Coke's Wikipedia. Read about where he summers. Every day I go to the office, I enjoy creating the clothes. Okay, stop. Please notice throughout the video, those listening at home, you'll YouTube it.

Someone told him to do this with his hands a lot. Make circular motions with his hands. Keep an eye on the hands. Roll the clip. Shirts to be able to be worn in the boardroom or in a discotheca or a nightclub. Okay, stop. That's a perfect place to stop. The discotheca. No.

No, John. The boardroom to the discotheca to the nightclub to the yacht. We just decided to pay teachers less so that this guy gets more money from the government Americans for tax

fairness estimated that the Koch family will get 1.4 billion dollars from the tax cut 1.4 billion dollars to this fucking horrid douchebag. I would point out, I haven't

spent a lot of time in business. I haven't been in a lot of boardrooms. But I've seen billions. And I don't think that seems like boardroom appropriate material. You don't think a shirt with big anchors on it with a different colored cuff... I mean, did he just watch Modern Family

and just think, I could make money this way? That's Cam's shirt. He just stole Cam's look. I really wanted to create something that's fun, outside the box, cool, trendy, yet really bold. Okay, stop. You failed at all of those. You literally did not hit one of those things on the list.

Just understand, when Paul Ryan says we gave a tax cut to families, what he's saying is, I would like to create a permanent aristocracy in which this person gets to live richer than 99% of the people in this room while making shirts this fucking ugly for the rest of his life. It is also worth pointing out that after Paul Ryan shepherded through this tax cut,

this guy's father, uncle, wrote a $500,000 check to Paul Ryan's political action committee. And his network will donate $400 million for these 2018 midterms. A bright spot. As much as we're enjoying this, is as much as the Koch brothers hate this video. Because they definitely had to watch it. They pulled it down. And I will say, if you are a Democratic fundraiser, a democratic billionaire or millionaire and you have some money, maybe take this video, maybe turn it into an ad, maybe make it a digital ad, maybe put some money behind it.

Maybe plaster across the screen how much the Kochs got from the tax cut. Maybe tell everyone how much Paul Ryan got for passing the bill. I have a lot of thoughts on this. My DMs are open. Let's talk. That's trouble. That's trouble. Okay.

When we come back, we will be having an interview with Congressman Jackie Rosen. Our guest tonight is Congresswoman Jackie Rosen. She currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee. She's a champion of renewable energy, and she might be one of our best chances at taking back the Senate this November. Please welcome to the stage Congresswoman Jackie Rosen. Thank you, President. Welcome to Las Vegas. Thank you for having us. Good to Las Vegas.

Thank you for having us. Good to be here. Only took me 40 years to play the joint. Thank you for coming. Thank you so much for being here. I wanted to start with some news about the Trump administration. His OMB director today, Nick Mulvaney, was on television. And he said that President Trump's tweet that

lives have been shattered by a mere allegation, which was made just days after one of his top aides was accused of beating his spouse, was a reference to RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn, who Mr. Mulvaney believes has been accused without due process. I was curious what you thought of that statement, what your response is to Mr. Mulvaney. Well, Mr. Mulvaney has it all wrong because for all the women out there, all the victims out there who for so many years, since time began, have been fighting against this,

the time is up. And I stand with the victims let me tell you that I graduated college and moved here in 1980 and when I was a woman working in these casinos working in technology, I was actually a waitress at Caesars Palace during my college years and no photos back in the 70s I wish there were, it would be pretty fun anyway

but let me tell you. I wish there were. It'd be pretty fun anyway. But let me tell you that we were just told we had to stand back and take it. If you couldn't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen. But we stood there and we took it, and our time is here, and it's now. So for everyone, the

number you called, anyone who's a victim, anyone who's harassed, it's over. Their time is up. We need to stand tall and speak out. Congresswoman, do you think that Dean Heller has done enough to... You guys like that? I think they know the answer. Yeah, they know the answer to this.

They know the answer already. To repudiate Steve Wynn, I know that he belatedly gave some money back, but he seems to have been very silent on this issue. Could you be very silent? Isn't silent, is very silent more than just silent? Yeah, right, yeah. Very, very, very silent?

Not a word. You know, Senator Heller, one thing's for sure I know is if you opened one of his closets, the amount of flip-flops that would fall out of there would just fill this entire room. And so I just have to say on this issue, doesn't he have a heart? Doesn't he realize what's going on? And how can he look at people who are victims, who are standing up, stand with these women? And I don't care. He caves to his donors every time. Steve Wynn, Mitch McConnell, whoever it is, he doesn't vote don't care. He caves to his donors every time. Steve Wynn,

Mitch McConnell, whoever it is, he doesn't vote what he thinks. He doesn't say what he thinks. And very silent, very, very silent. The silence has to stop. And Dean Heller, I challenge him to come forward and speak out. It's hard for me to imagine the horror of the shootings that occurred in Las Vegas. I know you were on the scene hours, days after, consoling victims, meeting with them at hospitals, seeing the real human toll of what happened. 58 dead, nearly 500 wounded. But immediately the conversation separated people into their camps.

The Washington debates moved on, there's been no progress on gun safety, not even a bump stock ban, which seemed like it was a no-brainer in the wake of what happened. What do you hear from constituents about the lack of action and urgency in Washington in the wake of something so horrific? And what would you like to see done? You know, I hear from him every day. And I happen to be here that evening. I was supposed to go back to Washington the next morning. And I'd gone to sleep early because I had an early flight. And my daughter called me from New Jersey. She's in college. Hysterical. Are you okay? She's screaming, crying. If she would be here, she loves country

music. She'd have been at that concert. She's screaming, are you okay? Where would I be? It's 10 p.m. I'm in bed. But listening to Pod Save America. And what we experienced and the amount of people that it touched. Think of all the workers. You're here in a hotel now, but think of all the people that work here that you don't see behind the scenes, that now are afraid to knock on a hotel door just to deliver towels, to clean your room, to check if you're okay, to check you in.

So the amount of people across this country. And in our community and communities across this nation, we kind of estimate it was probably half a million people it touched out of those 22,000 when you think of the workers. And I'm very proud of how everybody stood up here. And when I went back to Washington, you know, you go and you sign letters and I'm on the bump stock and reducing the size of the magazine. There's so many bills out there.

And you realize we're not in the majority. So I'm going to make this plug. Vote in November and commit to taking carloads of voters in November. A quick question. If these people are going to vote, if they want to volunteer, if they want to donate, what should they do? Where should they go? RosenforNevada.com.

That works. I've got a place for you and I'll talk about that too in a minute. But what I want to say is that when you go back there, it's so incredibly upsetting and there's every day another moment of silence. I understand why people

don't get up because it's absolutely the most hypocritical thing. Paul Ryan, let's have another moment of silence. But oh man, I'm not going to bring that bill to the floor. And so as long as they're in charge, they control the agenda. So all we can do is scream and holler and email and call and tweet and do everything that you're doing. But I'll tell you this. Every time you hear one of those horrible tweets, every time there's something that you don't agree with, don't get mad.

Commit to do one more thing. Register one more voter. Make one more call and commit to driving. You're here, and this is in Nevada. You commit to driving as many carloads of people to the polls to vote as you can because when we vote, we win. I want to talk about immigration. I know there's a significant Dreamer population here in Nevada.

Recently, Nancy Pelosi was on the floor of the House. She spoke for a long time for the dreamers. She wanted to get a promise from Paul Ryan to put the bill on the floor, an up or down vote for the dreamers. Enough Democrats did not vote to, everyone voted for the budget bill. It passed in the House. I know you were one of the votes. A lot of immigration activists, a lot of dreamers, a lot of people around the country, they've been a little disappointed with Democrats for not fighting harder and using the leverage that they had in Congress to sort of get this done.

I know it's a really tough issue, though. I know the politics are tough. What's your thinking on this? We don't have leverage in Congress right now because we're not in the majority. So all we can do is rail at it, filibuster it, write and call and do everything we can. And so in every way, in every way, we've been trying to fight for that Clean Dream Act. Paul Ryan made that commitment not to bring

immigration to the floor because he knows if he brings that Clean Dream Act to the floor, it's going to pass 100%. And so we have a discharge petition out there. There's actually a few Republicans on it. We're fighting. I'm telling you, we are fighting every day. He actually, about 5 o'clock in the morning this Friday, said he would bring something to the floor. But we know that if he brings that Dream Act to the floor,

it is going to pass. We know if he brings Herd Aguilar to the floor, it is going to pass. We know if he brings Herd Aguilar to the floor, it is going to pass. He doesn't want to give the Democrats the win, and he needs to quit using these young folks. I'm the granddaughter of immigrants. My father, a first-generation American. And so even though the immigration laws were different nearly 100 years ago, I wouldn't be here, and neither would most of us because that story is the American story. It's everyone's story. So to control the agenda, we have to have the numbers.

What does a compromise on immigration look like that you could live with? Obviously, the Trump administration is way out there cutting legal immigration. We don't want to do that. But what's one that you think that you guys could live with? Obviously, the Trump administration is way out there cutting legal immigration. We don't want to do that. But what's one that you think that you guys could live with? Right now, I want to be sure that we take the dreamers off the table. We need to give an earned path to citizenship to these young folks, 100%. This is the only home they've ever known. They're serving in our military. They're working. They're going to school. They're paying taxes. I mean, I talk to them all the time. We can't pit them against their parents. They're crying. What do we do? We need to give the TPS recipients. I'll tell you, I had... You brought one to the State of the Union.

I did. I had Neri Martinez, who was here from El Salvador, and he works at Caesar's Palace like I did many years ago. And he met his wife on Valentine's Day, and I was hoping that for Valentine's Day I would give him the present of earned path to citizenship, but I wasn't able to do it, and it breaks my heart. And so we're going to keep fighting every day in every way and every path we can in the minority. You just don't have the leverage that you wish

you did. But all you can do is how you can help me is this. You can call Dean Heller every day. You can call every Republican every day and tell them what you think. You can tweet at them. You can knock on their door. You can send them an email, and you can tell them how you're going to vote in November, because unless they have consequences, they'll never change. Last question for you. You are not someone who has been in politics your whole life. This is relatively new to you when you ran for Congress in 2016. There are so many people running for office for the very first time now after Trump's election, more women than ever before. What advice would you give those new candidates who are running? What lessons have you learned from someone who hasn't been in politics your whole life,

but has just started for some of these people who are facing a lot of tough campaigns? You know, it's funny. I talk to a lot of groups now, especially a lot of groups of young women, and they ask me this question. And what I tell people who are thinking about serving, whatever capacity is, your library board, your school board, United States Senate, Congress, your school board, United States Senate, Congress, is that life is not linear and that each and every one of us are more than just what we do for a living. We're the sum of all the things we are, whether you were a son, a daughter, mother, a father, sister, brother, whether we've had to deal with chronic disease, whether we've had friends who've died from a drunk driver, an opioid overdose. All those life lessons give you passion and give you commitment. And if you understand that and you realize that you don't have to just check off a linear set of boxes to get somewhere, and you can use all of those things

that make you who you are, that passionate, caring, committed person that you are, then you can run for office. And it's very freeing to be a new candidate. Because for me, this is a gift. Because I didn't plan to do it. And I got here because of all the things I've done in my life. And I know that whatever happens, I'm going to win on my terms. And I'm proud of what I'm doing each and every day because it is who I am, and I've earned it. It's a great gift to serve, and it's a great gift to be here, and it'll be a great gift to be the senator from Nevada. Thank you so much. Before we let you go, we wanted to play one game. John Lovett's been very excited about this game.

I love it. I love it. All right. Let's do it. Congresswoman, hello, everybody. Let's do it. I hate being offstage. Okay. So as we've been discussing, Dirty Dean Heller, a dirty politician,

who says whatever his money bosses tell him to say, is someone who has taken every position under the sun because he seems to lack principles. A conviction. A conviction. He doesn't have them. Backbone. He doesn't have them. Wish he did, he doesn't. And so we thought we'd play a game to explore the various ways in which Dean Heller's positions tend to evolve. That's why we're going to play Dean Heller versus Dean Heller.

Congresswoman Rosen has agreed to play with us. Would someone out there like to be our contestant? Travis is in the house. If the tracker won't do it, let's get somebody else. Hi, what's your name? I'm Brett. Brett? Yes. And are you from Nevada? Yes. Where in Nevada are you from? Boulder City.

Boulder City. I love Boulder City. It's a great place, I hear. It's clean. Do you often find that the things you thought yesterday, you continue to think today and hope to think of them tomorrow? Sure, yeah. Do you often find that the things you thought yesterday, you continue to think today and hope to think of them tomorrow? Sure, yeah. So you're a perfect person to play this game,

but you have to not... That's not how to think when you're playing this game. Okay. That's a good way to be through life, but not in the game, okay? So you have to get yourself in the mindset. Got it. Brett. Yes.

All right. Are you ready for your first question? I'm ready. And you have your cards. Everybody, our panelists are ready. Are you ready for your first question? I'm ready. And you have your cards. Everybody, our panelists are ready. We are ready. Dirty Dean Heller said which of the following about the DREAM Act? Was it A, there should be a pathway to citizenship?

Absolutely, there should be a pathway. Was it B? I support 80% of the DREAM Act. Or was it C? I don't support the the Dream Act. Or was it C? I don't support the Dream Act. A. No, Brett, it was a trick question. It's all of the above.

But, Brett, you can redeem yourself with a bonus question. Are you ready? Yes. What is Dean Heller's position on the Dream Act? All of those things. Incorrect. No one knows. Because Dean Heller has refused to tell us what his position is since, like, September.

TBD. Question number two. After being pressed on Planned Parenthood at one of his very rare town halls, Dirty Dean Heller said he had, quote, no problem with federal funding. What happened next? Was it A, he was spotted arguing with his wife at a CVS because he didn't want to be seen walking down the aisle

with the female unmentionables? Was it B? He stood firm in his position and was even spotted at the Women's March wearing an Indigo Girls tank top. Wait, it gets better. Dancing along to the new Solange album while holding a sign that read, Smash the Patriarchy!

I hope that's the answer. That would be so cool. Or was it C? Not even a day after saying he had no problem with federal funding, he changed his position announcing he was against federal funding of Planned Parenthood and then went on to vote to advance a bill that would force women to continue pregnancies even at the expense of their own health.

I wish it was B, but it was C. Brett, it was C. You're coming back. You're getting yourself in the mindset. Question three. Which of the following did Dean Heller say about supporting Donald Trump? Was it A?

Let me be clear. I do not support Trump. Was it B? I'm probably about 90% sure that I'm not voting for Donald Trump. Was it C? Yes, I voted for Donald Trump. Brett, was it A? Was it B? Or was it C? Yes, I voted for Donald Trump. Brett, was it A, was it B, or was it C? All of

them? It was all of them. By the way, something I'm learning as we play the game, if Dean Heller tells you he's 90% sure he's going to do something, he's not going to do it. That's a tell for him. Finally, question four. Last fall, all eyes turned to dirty Dean Heller as Donald Trump attempted to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a season two DVD of the show Scrubs. Well, that was when the show found its own. You know, season two is when you sell a lot of fresh ideas, but you've also got the rhythm of the characters. So don't poo-poo it. What did Dean Heller have to say about the Obamacare repeal bill?

Was it A, this bill would mean a loss of coverage for millions of Americans and many Nevadans? And I'm telling you right now, I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans. And I'm telling you right now, I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans. Or was it B? A. A. Yeah, well, there's a third option. Oh. Was it C? I don't have another quote, but that last one was him voting for a bill that would take healthcare away from hundreds of thousands of Nevadans

like a week after he said the first fucking quote, the guy is fucking preposterous. Do you guys remember him holding a press conference and standing in front of the podium and saying with all the conviction he could pretend to have, I can't support a bill like this. I didn't go to the Senate.

He had a weird British accent. I don't understand. That's another one of his tells. That's what y'all country can do. RFK over there. Brett, you've won. Dean Heller won Dean Heller versus

Dean Heller I don't know about you guys but I don't think either one of these Dean Hellers ought to be in the Senate for very much longer so get out there donate knock on doors help Jackie Rosen become Senator from this great state

or you'll have to deal with many more years of someone who believes absolutely nothing. Thank you, Brett, for playing. Thanks to our panelists. And thank you to Congresswoman Jackie Rosen. Thank you. Thank you all. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Go to RosenForNevada.com. Las Vegas, thank you so much. Go to RosenForNevada.com. Las Vegas, thank you so much. You were wonderful. Go register to vote. Get involved. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Bye.