Pod Save America - “Trump who?”

Episode Date: January 19, 2021

In the final pod of the Trump Era, Jon, Jon, and Tommy talk about the 45th President’s final days in office, how he’s changed the Republican Party and America over the last four years, and President-elect Joe Biden's new plans to fight the recession and the pandemic. Then Lovett and Favreau talk about what goes into writing an inaugural address as part of their Crooked Media YouTube series, Speechwriters React.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. Today is the last pod of the Trump era. We will talk about the 45th president's final days in office, how he's changed the Republican Party over the last four years, how he's changed America. And on a brighter note, we'll dive into President-elect Joe Biden's ambitious agenda

for his first days in office. Then you'll hear Lovett and me talk about what goes into writing an inaugural address, which we taped for the Crooked Media smash hit YouTube series, Speechwriters React. Is that the one Dan's on? Watch out, Pfeiffer. I was going to say, watch out, Pfeiffer. We're coming for you.

It's a new YouTube series. I like the episode where you speechwrite rubber bands on a melon of some sort. That was a really good one. Love it. Speaking of jokes, how was the show this weekend? We had a great love it or leave it. I talked to Kara Swisher about social media and regulation under Democrats.

And I talked to her about our conversation with Dominion's CEO and with the Parler CEO, which was two different conversations she had. And then I quizzed Jon Favreau and Tommy Vitor on their tweets over the last four years. And it was a very fun and entertaining experience. Then I told jokes to random people on Omegle, which works really well, except apologies to a few people who, I guess, didn't put in the right keyword and did see strangers' penises. It was not what we wanted to happen. What? Well, we gave people a word to put in so that they would only see people who were part of the love it or leave it group.

I think that there was some anyway. Wow. Well, but the show was good. Good thing. It's a podcast. Also, I don't know.

There's no segue. There's not. We would, we would love to watch tomorrow's inauguration with all of you. Please join us for our transfer of power hour. Here, speaking of getting rid of dicks we didn't ever want to see. It's the inauguration. There you go.

There we go. That's a transition. All right. That's perfect. Love it. It's the transfer of power hour group thread starting at 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific. We'll be drinking at 7 a.m., of course, before all the inauguration festivities get underway.

All your Crooked friends will be on the group thread at Crooked.com slash inauguration. We can't wait. That's it. Look, it's early for people in L.A. to wake up. 7 a.m. That's tough. Kidding me. That's two hours before normal L.A. people wake up. All right, guys. I want to start with a question for both of you. When we recorded our very first Pod Save America, just before Trump took office in 2017, what if I had predicted that he'd be leaving four years later after the death of nearly 400,000 Americans, a recession, two impeachments, 10 months of not being able to safely leave our homes,

and a violent insurrection of Trump supporters that would lead to the country's first transfer of power, where 25,000 armed troops will be required to keep the peace in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. Would you have said, A, you've been following too many resistance Twitter accounts, B, sounds right. Or C is that all? Love it. I'll just be I think it sounds about right. I just, you know, look, we were we were these were the things we were worried about. We were worried about him launching an assault on democracy. We said from the beginning, we said from the primaries, the great fear was what would happen if he was in charge during a real national emergency. I mean, that's what we talked about from the very beginning.

And by the way, we were pretty well convinced he was a criminal from day one. So yeah, double impeachment, defeated coup, and massive crisis he mismanaged to the point of causing a huge number of deaths does feel like a sad reminder that no one was being sensationalistic. Tommy? John, I would say, look, you have to take him seriously and not literally. And he's bringing a businessman's acumen to a job that has been, you know, just handed to bureaucrats for decades. And you're going to have moderating forces in there like Jared and Ivanka and Reince. So I think you guys are all just being a little too alarmist.

And you got to give him a chance. OK, he's our president. Trump derangement syndrome. Yeah. Trump derangement syndrome. You got a case. We haven't even gotten to the night where he became president because he I guess he blew up an airfield in syria that was what it was right yeah oh my god i mean look the up until 2020 there were so many bad things that he did that people

had always worried about right there was family separation comes to mind the the Muslim ban. There were just there were numerous Charlottesville, of course. Yeah, the racism came through. The xenophobia came through in many ways. There are numerous things that could lead him to be one of the worst presidents all time. But there also would be this debate that popped up every time someone said he was one of the worst presidents of all time. You know, especially some people on the left would say, oh, George W. Bush launched a war in Iraq in the wrong country. Hundreds of thousands have died because of that war. And that was always a good point. And then 2020 comes around and the pandemic, plus all the actions of the last few months where he tried to incite an insurrection against the government

based on conspiracies about electoral fraud, plus the pandemic, plus the recession. I mean, that that it is basically everything people worried about with Donald Trump, save for like starting a nuclear war. And you know what? I didn't want anybody to say we have 24 hours left. Can you just button it up? Can you knock on wood to stop a nuclear war? Is that knock on wood? There is like a big, interesting, somewhat academic debate going on about whether he's a fascist or not, or sort of how to define him in the Trump era. And I don't I don't know that answer. I'll leave it to the smarter people. But he is definitely the smallest person to ever inherit the biggest job on the planet. Like four years in, he's still worried about his treatment. He's still aggrieved.

It's about press coverage. It's about weekend cable hosts not being nice enough. Like no one has ever grown into a job less in the history of jobs than Donald Trump in the presidency. It's just like he's a terrible human being. That's all it is. It's a terrible narcissist. Yeah, I mean, most days he just didn't do the job. Yeah, he just gave up. You know, I mean, and when he did the job, he caused great harm and damage to the country. But most of the time, he just didn't even do the job up you know i mean and when he when he did the job he caused great harm and damage to the country but most of the time he just didn't even do the job at all and especially in these last couple months when he was just consumed with himself and winning the election he cares about no one but himself that that's the whole theme of the whole fucking trump

era um he will be the first president since andrew johnson in 1869 to skip the inauguration of his successor another impeached one-term president who was a racist. After not getting the big military send-off that he reportedly wanted, the soon-to-be ex-president will instead leave Joint Base Andrews at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and fly directly to Mar-a-Lago, where he will play golf in Wallow in grievance. So not much different from most days of the last four years. I really liked, by the way, there's apparently an email going around trying to get former Trump stuff to try to show up at Andrews Air Force Base

at 7.15 a.m. in the freezing cold to wave him goodbye. Six. No, call time is six. Call time is six for the 7.15 wave. That's why no one's going. And they're so desperate that it said, you and five plus ones.

And it even went to Scamucci got it yeah all the people that he hates all the people that like had a bad breakups with donald trump john kelly mooch everyone's get they're trying they're just trying to build a christmas card list none of the republican leaders are going mike pence isn't going they're all going to the inauguration instead and all the inauguration activities um no one's not a lot of people are going. And it's like some staffers are like afraid to be photographed at a Donald Trump farewell ceremony, too, which is. Yeah, that's that'll be your undoing. You losers. Yeah. Oh, that'll now we can't. That's a bridge too far. Photo on the last day. How significant do you think it is that Trump is refusing to attend the inauguration,

How significant do you think it is that Trump is refusing to attend the inauguration? Tommy? I mean, I never want to see his dumb face ever again, but I think it's harmful. I mean, not every president has attended his successor's inauguration. The traditions have changed over time, right? They used to like ride in a car together from the White House to the inauguration and back. I think Teddy Roosevelt got rid of part of that tradition. But I do think that one of the most important parts of America is this peaceful transition of power from one president to the next, even when they're bitter rivals. And I think that he's slapping that tradition in the face. I think that this departure ceremony

and whatever speech he gives could end up emboldening and inflaming all the people we just saw trying to storm the Capitol and overturn the results. It's not great that half of Republicans seem to think that the party didn't do enough in the first place to back his election. Why? So, you know, it sends a bad message domestically. It sends a bad message abroad. It's just it's the last act of a sad, sad man. Love it. I'm glad he's not going. I think the fact that we did not have a peaceful transfer of power because of Trump sent a very bad message about the peaceful transfer of power. He is not a fan of one. He does not represent it. He can't embody it. So get out. And then we have to just make sure we defeat the movement that

empowered him. You know, I there was that, you know, I was kind of I stopped myself for three full days from joining the is Trump a fascist wars of Twitter. I almost did. I had a couple really good points that I think would have really settled it. But I but I didn't. But I didn't do it. I think, though, like, is he a fascist, even though he was incompetent? What is fascist?

I think the thing that is most frightening, and I think it is one of his biggest legacies beyond the mass death and the judges, which I would put at two and three, is that regardless of how successful he was of an authoritarian, regardless of the guardrails that failed or didn't fail or held up in the end, I think what is most chilling is the kind of fascism he engendered in people's hearts that that that it's not just that he didn't believe in a peaceful transfer of power. He spoke to and encouraged and engendered and nurtured an anti-democratic in this movement that will long survive him. So as president, I mean, so regardless of whether he attends or not, the damage is done. He wouldn't be going as a representative of our democracy. He would be going as an antagonist to it. Well, you know, like I saw that Joe Biden said that he was happy he's not attending. I'm personally, you know, I don't want to see him anymore either. I also don't think it's necessarily about like decorum or tradition or civility or any of that kind of stuff. Why I wish he went is because he should

send a message that Joe Biden won the election, right? Like the centrality of this lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump is just perpetuated by the fact that he's not attending the inauguration, right? It's a wink and a nod again to his supporters that this isn't legitimate. Joe Biden's victory isn't legitimate. And by the way, like there's a wink and a nod again to his supporters that this isn't legitimate. Joe Biden's victory isn't legitimate. And by the way, like there's a whole bunch of people out there plotting to potentially cause more violence around the inauguration. And now Trump's telling them, and don't worry, I'm not going to be there. You know, like I kind of think so. I think he should have gone.

You're right, love it. It's not like it would have undone all of the damage in any way but at some point we're going to need to start hearing some apologies from republicans for saying that the election was stolen when they fucking knew that it wasn't all right uh so let's talk about what's next for everyone who hitched their wagon to trump uh the family is reportedly following him to florida don j. and Kim Guilfoyle, Jared and Ivanka, who apparently might want a primary Mark or Rubio in 2022. They're even letting Tiffany go to Florida. She's looking for a house there, too. Meanwhile, Politico says that a lot of Trump staffers who stuck around until the end of the administration are worried they won't be able to get jobs because of Trump's attempted coup.

Here's one staffer to Politico on background, of course. The people who this is hardest on, aside from obviously the people in the Capitol and the police and the people who are hurt, are the people who stake their reputations and their political, financial, and career fortunes on defending the president. And he's just made it harder on us. First of all, I love the parenthetical. Aside from, of course, the people who were killed because of the insurrection. I realize it was a little bit harder on them. But spare a few tears for the out-of-work Trump staffers, guys.

Tommy, what do you think about all these Trump staffers who are just so worried they're not going to find a job again? How do we make sure that happens? I mean, you should be worried. Yeah, this is a stain on your reputation that That is permanent and you have to live with that. But what sucks about this is that the most senior people, the people who enabled him the most, who are the most culpable for where we ended up, will probably be okay. You mentioned Ivanka. She thinks she's going to be a senator or something, primary Marco Rubio. I mean, the arrogance entitlement of these people who think that they've somehow earned another government job is just staggering to me. But if you if you take Jared Kushner, right, like every six months, there was an article about how big his portfolio was. He was the shadow secretary of state. He was handling U.S.-Mexico relations, Middle East peace. He was going to solve the opioid crisis. Remember when he was going to modernize government? That was a fun little moment. Yeah, yeah. That's good.

He was going to save the day with COVID, but then he fucked everything up, right? So basically, what he ended up doing was spending the last few months flying around the Middle East and paying off various countries with U.S. government dollars and programs that were not currently at war with Israel to announce that they weren't at war with Israel as part of these Abraham Accords, whatever. So I say that context because I think that will help Jared be fine. Like he has rich, powerful friends in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and they're going to take care of him financially. Right. And so I have more contempt, I think, for some of these people who are quitting two weeks out than the young kids complaining on background to Politico who are, who are still gutting it out because all of these people,

like if you were a political appointee, you did enormous damage to the country. You helped separate kids from their parents. You lied about the pandemic. You backed a man who, who told lies from the first minute he was in office until the very end. And so I don't think the attack on the Capitol was some sort of revelation. You knew who this guy was. You worked for him in spite of that character. I would never hire you. You have fucking horrible judgment. What are you complaining about?

You made your bed. Now you have to lie in it. Love it. McKay Coppins has a good piece in The Atlantic about how the plan is amnesia here on the part of Republicans that Trump, they're just going to pretend that Trump never happened. Yeah. They're going to all try to move on. The Wall Street Journal editorial board sort of like kick this off today by saying, like, pay no attention to the man's character and all of his flaws. Think about all the people in the administration who were responsible for the passage of policies that really helped the country.

All the taxes they cut. So that's like, it's a good example of how the Republican Party is going to try to sort of distance itself from like the uncouth parts of the Trump legacy. Is that possible? I don't think that's possible. Oh, I think it is possible.

And I think we are gonna be be really I think that like, the results are not going to be very satisfying. I think they'll be quite mixed. I mean, I think you'll have people like Sean Spicer, in part because they were kind of goobers from the jump ending up like as like, you know, reporting from the briefing room for Newsmax because they couldn't get speaking gigs because nobody wanted to hear what they had to say. I think people like Gary Cohn, who are, I think, better connected and a bit more savvy, have done a good job, clearly, of getting insane editorials drafted at the Wall Street Journal to basically brandish their credentials for speaking gigs, board seats. I have no idea. But I mean, that was ridiculous. I mean, we here at the editorial board would like to point out

to these 10 people that we think are good, not bad. They're good. What a strange waste of like, what, what, what is that? What is the goal of that piece to rehabilitate these 10 people? Um, yeah. And then, then it is, there is going to be on the impede. Like I was thinking about this over the weekend that it's just like the position of Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham and all of these people is going to be, how can you impeach and remove a president from office if he never existed? You know, like that's going to be their, that's going to be their position. And, you know, I think it's obviously dangerous. It's dangerous because of the damage that this did and their complicity in it.

You know, they need to be held responsible. But it's also, have we learned nothing over the past few years? Like this isn't a conservative movement with some nationalists. The nationalist part of the Republican Party is its establishment. It is its core. It is its base. It runs the show. And they play these games for years with Rush Limbaugh, with the Levens, now with Tucker, with anybody they want who can help them stir these people up and get them riled up. And then they act like the conservative intelligentsia putting out fucking tax credits for small businesses is what the party's really about when it's not. It's not. They want blood now. They want blood.

I would say there's not even many people left pretending that anymore, that the party's about like fucking deficits and tax cuts and all the rest. That's a small that those are like the those are like the Mitt Romney's. Those are like the normal people that are saying that left who are like been ostracized by the party at this point. Now they're just pretty open that they passed so we can win an election again. I mean, they're not even trying to hide it anymore. So Trump will still be tried in the Senate over the next few weeks. But beyond that, you know, hopefully we can stop talking about him at least for a while. Hopefully we can stop talking about him, at least for a while.

But before we move on, I do want to talk a little bit about his legacy, both how he's changed the Republican Party and how he's changed the country. You know, Lovett, you were just touching on this. Let's start with sort of the Republican Party. Tommy, the final Gallup poll of the Trump presidency found him tied for the lowest approval rating since Eisenhower. But also the highest approval rating among Republicans since Eisenhower. In what ways has Trump changed this party? I mean, profoundly for the worse. I think all leaders decide, do they want to rally their citizens by appealing to their good in them, their better angels, or are you going to go for anger and fear and paranoia?

And Trump chose almost exclusively to activate the works in the Republican Party, right? It started on day one, talking about American carnage in his inaugural address, and it continued through yesterday, right, through the attack on the Capitol. And so these strains of rage he drew out, they weren't new, and he wasn't the first to do it. The Republican Party, since the 60 60s has used racism to appeal to white voters, started overt, it became more coded over time. Trump made it overt again, right? I mean, it was birtherism, it was Mexicans are rapists, it was defending Nazis in Charlottesville, like he emboldened other racists to follow suit and be overt like he is. I think the Republicans

have always been kind of more conspiratorial, like we're a conspiratorial country, but the Republicans have that really paranoid streak in them. It's McCarthyism, the John Birch Society, like the post 9-11 Islamophobia. Those, you know, parts of the party have ebbed and flowed in terms of prominence over time. But he made them front and center, right? Like 2015, he's doing interviews with Alex Jones. He's blaming George Soros. He's making us scared of migrant caravans in Antifa. And so I think Trump will leave office now, but those bigoted, paranoid factions are now ascended. Like you said, Mitt Romney, those folks are leaving the party. The QAnon Republicans are showing up to Washington and they want power now. And so he's decimated their faith in democracy and elections.

And I don't know how the Republican Party fixes this. I don't know if they want to fix it, right? Like most of the party probably doesn't think there's anything that needs to be fixed. So again, like he woke up these really ugly factions. He embraced QAnon. He helped it grow. He made white nationalists feel emboldened and militia groups feel emboldened. So this is scary stuff to me. And I think it's by no means over when he leaves office.

It's a huge problem for Republicans, but it's a huge problem for all of us as citizens that this is what we're now left with. I mean, it seems like 40 years ago, but after the 2012 election when Mitt Romney lost, there was an autopsy about what the Republican Party did wrong. And the conclusion of the autopsy of why they lost was that the party needs to embrace sort of trade, free trade and immigration and the growing diversity of America.

And that's how they're going to win. And then instead they nominated Donald Trump and he won anyway. So love it. I guess one of the questions, you know, to what Tommy was just talking about, which is like, does the Republican Party even want to fix these issues?

Like, can they be successful as the party of Trump without Trump at the helm? I think there's a real, I think there's something interesting, right? about what the party decides to say about democracy between that autopsy and what they've said since the attempted coup. Right. The it is true that they were able to win the White House again without following what that kind of approach would dictate, right? Like appeal to a multicultural growing majority, appeal to people outside the current base. I think that was predicated on the idea that they would want to win a majority of the country and not win the White House with a narrow strip of

electoral college victories in a few swing states. And then in the wake of the coup and the attempt to overturn the election, Republicans were just coming out and saying, if we object to the Electoral College now, we're screwed. The Electoral College is the only way we're going to win the White House ever again, which is another way of saying we don't plan to broaden our base. We don't plan to change at all. We said this four years ago. If Trump had lost in 2016, that would have been yet another not just popular vote loss, but election loss. I think that would have caused a real period of soul searching and change. We defeated Trump. We removed him, but they picked up the Republicans picked up seats in the House. Democrats managed to win the Senate, but Republicans got the biggest turnout that they've ever had. And so, you know, that kind of a split decision, I think, is putting off the reckoning that I think would otherwise have come. And it puts the stakes at 2022. They make them incredibly high. John, you've talked about this. Obviously, it's incredibly high because the Republican majority in the House is a majority that will object to the Electoral College if a Democrat wins. And God help us if we lose the Senate. But it also means that they will be rewarded for the worst tendencies in their party, showing them that they no longer can win without Trump, but with the kind of conspiratorial, right-wing, fascistic, revanchist politics that they have been using is, I think, the only way

to ultimately defeat it. We can't appeal to their shame or their morals. We have to defeat them. Yeah. And I think there's two ways this could go. I mean, like one interesting example is Arizona. Right. So in 2022, Mark Kelly is up again because it was a special election to fill that seat. So the most Republicans, most Democrats, too, in Arizona believe that the toughest opponent for Mark Kelly would be Doug Ducey, who is the governor of Arizona, the Republican governor. Doug Ducey is not moderate. He is a conservative. He's a hardcore conservative. He was a Trump supporter. But because he has been implementing like public health regulations and restrictions for COVID and because he didn't necessarily object to the

electoral college results. They're thinking of the state GOP wants to censure Doug Ducey. And instead, they might want to run in the primary, in the Senate primary, like Andy Biggs, one of the crazy conspiracy theorists who actually helped plan the rally that ended up being an attack on the Capitol against Ducey in the primary, perhaps, to then maybe run him against Mark Kelly instead. Now, like, if you're Mark Kelly, you'd much rather run against Andy Biggs than Doug Ducey. But at the same time, who knows? Because the other part of this is, and, you know, one of the Republicans was saying this the other day, Ken Buck.

He's like, I wouldn't worry too much about losing the suburbs. I think now we are a working class party. And I think the evidence of that is that Donald Trump did expand the base in 2020, even though he did loss, which he did get more votes than he did in 2016. And he expanded that not only among non-college educated white voters, but he even reached into the Latino coalition and brought some Latino voters on board and even a small number of black voters on board too. And the question is, can the Republicans develop this like working class, non-college educated coalition to like edge out Democrats in some of these close battlegrounds? The one thing I would say is fascinating to me about like what these Republican parties have

been saying. There's one in Wyoming that was talking about secession. Like, you know, been saying. There's one in Wyoming that was talking about secession. Ezra Klein has written about this a fair amount about the weakening of the parties, but the strengthening of partisanship. And what's interesting to me is you would think the Republican Party of Arizona would be interested in winning a Senate seat more than, say, putting forward the most base-friendly right-wing nationalists that they can find. But it does seem as though these parties are now more kind of not trying to lead the base somewhere or try to help them find the best way to win, but are actually just avatars of it because these party structures are so weak and so much is being determined by like small dollars and by what the

what the the agitating, bloodthirsty groups are pushing them to do yeah there's like censoring cindy mccain out there in arizona yeah i look in party i don't know i don't know what that's gonna i won't be surprised if they run the fucking q anon shaman the arizona republican party is batshit crazy and they are they are advertising it on twitter in an effort to grow their reach and following like that's who they are that this is who they're yeah and then look the same thing's going to happen in georgia another state that the republicans lost right the the right-wing lunatics in georgia are going to try to primary kemp who i already i used to think was a right-wing yes and now there's always someone further he is but it's so sad

there's always someone further to the right you know than brian kemp yeah raffensperger gabe's all these people all these republican characters establishment republicans rally to marjorie taylor green to prevent a right-wing primary challenge from removing her from her part of the leadership like that's where we're heading towards a little scary it's it's yeah you have to laugh because otherwise it's fucking terrifying um all right finally we're talking about the republican party let's talk about the country. Love it.

In what ways did Trump change America over the last four years? All right. And what did he not change? What did he not get done? I think, so let me say what we talked about from the beginning, which was, all right, there's policy, there's like institutions, and then there's the culture. I think on policy, they will point to their success on judges. I think that will be his biggest and most lasting political legacy, that it will have huge and far-reaching implications.

They're actually not totally known to us because we have to see just how much of Biden's agenda they're successfully able to stymie at the courts. That is going to be a huge and long lasting problem. It is a it is a grim unfairness that Donald Trump appointed more Supreme Court justices than Barack Obama in eight years, right? Four years versus eight years. Then you look at the damage done to institutions. That is sorry. Did you did you forget the tax cut? Well, the thing is, yeah, pass. They did pass a tax cut. That's it. That's his one legislative, his one big legislative accomplishment was a tax cut.

Yeah, I mean, look. I guess his NAFTA renegotiation too, which was, you know, not much of a difference, but it was something. I mean, I think we've just gotten sort of used to like, yeah, like, you know, Bush passed bigger tax cuts, like Republicans passed tax cuts, right? That's not unique to Donald Trump. If anything, you would call that McConnell's achievement. Obviously, then I think beyond the pandemic,

which will be his greatest and most long lasting and destructive effect on people's day to day lives, given how many people have died and how much havoc it's caused in the failed response and the misinformation he promulgated for the entire time that he was in the White House. I think you look at the damage he has done to our culture. As Tommy said, the right wing nationalism, he's fomented the anti right-wing nationalism he's fomented, the anti-democratic trends he's fomented, he was more than just a mirror. He was an amplifier. He took these trends and he made them far worse. And he accelerated what Facebook was doing. He accelerated what Fox News was doing. And that doesn't go away. And how we grapple with that

in the years ahead, I think, is going to determine whether or not we can keep this democracy. I agree, love it. I think that like sort of right wing propaganda in this country. And you know, we've talked about the rise of Fox for a long time now. We've also always had sort of the power behind the presidential bully pulpit. Donald Trump is the first figure to sort of fuse those two things together. And so now right wing propaganda was coming from the presidential bully pulpit on a daily basis. And I think what that does, he brought the worst in us. He made the country vicious, like little little kids chant, build that wall like that's not that's not normal. It's OK to demonize each other and it's OK to be selfish at each other's expense. That's it. That's that's what he did for the country. And, you know, whether it's fascist or whether it's authoritarian, it's certainly authoritarian.

Right. Like rules don't matter. Power matters. You know, democracy is for the weak. This is this is the legacy of Trump. And it's not just transforming the Republican Party, but because we only have two parties in this country. It is it remains a very it remains maybe the existential threat to the country going forward that we now have one of our two political parties that just doesn't really believe in the basics of democracy anymore. That we're not arguing from the same set of facts anymore. That conspiracies and misinformation have taken root in one major political party. And that's what they stand for. Like, well, I was thinking about what is the Republican agenda now? They don't, you can't even like

list a policy agenda from that party anymore. It is nothing. It's just like owning the list. Yeah, blocking Biden. Part of it though is they are victims of their success. They passed their corporate tax cuts.

They did a fair amount of deregulation. We'll be able to undo that. They got their judges through, right? They made the deal. McConnell, McCarthy, Paul Ryan, even Mitt Romney at the start, they made the deal. And they got a lot out of their deal. And now they're going to pretend that they were never a part of it, that really all they cared about, that like, no, you traded character for tax cuts.

You traded democracy for deregulation. You own them both. There's always more government to dismantle, more tax cuts to give out, more regulations. Now we'll find that out in the next four years. I will say that there is the only the only silver lining of the Trump era is it did remind a lot of people of how fragile democracy is. And it did get a lot of people off the sidelines who hadn't participated in politics before that. And I do think whether we meet this challenge going forward is going to be dependent on whether all those people

stay. And I think a reinvigorated and refocused lawmakers attention on the need to, you know, pass reforms that make democracy easier and get easier to vote that gives D.C. statehood that reduces gerrymandering, reduces the influence of money in politics. Those are very big long term challenges. But I think, you know, the seeds of getting us to Trump were sown in a lot earlier, especially when it comes to dark money flowing through every single political entity in this country. Yeah, no, you're right. We can't we can't have a multiracial democracy if we have minority rule in this country, which is what Republicans have rigged the system to give themselves.

So that's why some of the democracy reforms are so important. All right, let's turn to the incoming President Joe Biden. On Thursday, he unveiled his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which is designed to fight the pandemic and the recession. It includes an additional $1,400 in recovery rebate checks, Biden's calling them, an extra $400 per week in unemployment benefits through September, $350 billion in state and local funding, and hundreds of billions of more for COVID testing,

a national vaccination program, reopening schools and colleges, child care, paid leave, rent support and a $15 minimum wage. Tommy, what do you think of Biden's plan? It's big. This is big. I mean, look, this is what double the Recovery Act was in 2009. And, you know, some people might argue that the Recovery Act was was too small. And I will heartily agree with you. But this plan comes on top of the previous three point one trillion that Congress has passed in terms of relief. So this is great. I like that they're putting big pieces in there like a fifteen dollar minimum wage. Right. Like Marco Rubio is already crying about some of this. But Republicans jam unrelated tax cuts for rich people into everything they do. So we should do the same. I think it's good that voices in Congress are

pushing him to go bigger, right? You know, Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the budget committee, he's going to push hard for even more. That's great. And he wants to use the budget reconciliation process to pass it with 50 votes. So it can't be filibustered. But look, I mean, it's it's it is horrifying that it took until a Biden administration for the federal government to own coronavirus testing. Trump pushed it to the states. He gave them no money. He wiped his hands of it and he walked away. Biden is taking responsibility. He's owning some of these things. There's tons of money for unemployment insurance. There's the direct payments. Like I think there's a some of these things. There's tons of money for unemployment insurance. There's the direct payments. I think there's a lot of really good stuff in here that people should be happy about. Lovett, what do you think?

The biggest ticket item cost-wise in this are these recovery rebate checks. They're $1,400, not $2,000 because Congress passed $600 checks a few weeks ago. There's some consternation on the left about this. I don't know what you think about this, the recovery rebate checks. Here's what I think. I think more is better. More is better.

I agree, more is better. But if the original idea was $600 and then you're going to up it by $1,400 to $2,000, if we're really going to have a semantic debate as to whether or not that's passing $2,000 checks, like I'm going to skip that debate. If you want to say that I'm skipping it, I'm just, I am not participating. I'm out. I'm out on that semantic distinction. I'm not saying like, if you think we should push for more bigger checks, great. Like let's push for bigger checks. But like, I feel like the debate over the semantics

was, was sort of lost on me. I mean, too, man, like I want bigger checks, too. And I also I want bigger direct payments instead of tax credits and other mechanisms that tend to be slower, more complicated to get people money. But like, it's so frustrating to see people accuse Biden of being dishonest or some people said he's gaslighting because this is a $600 check plus a $1,400 check that equals 2000. I mean, clearly, the initial argument was 600 was1,400 check that equals 2000. I mean, clearly the initial argument was 600 was insufficient. We should get to 2000. Now, if you, if you want to tell me that some of the messaging around the Georgia runoffs was unclear and that some people thought we were talking about

an additional $2,000 check, that's fine. Let's all advocate and organize and work to make it bigger. Let's all advocate and organize and work to make it bigger. But like, I don't understand why people decide to just leap to bad faith and get angry and like accuse Biden of of of letting them down before the guys even stepped into office. It's it's very frustrating. It's a big package. Like, let's pass it. It's frustrating. It's a problem with twitter it happened with the cnn story last night so stupid that schumer and mcconnell are entering into a a you know an agreement uh power sharing agreement

right which you hear like why is schumer giving that up well what's really happening is schumer is majority leader democrats are the chairs of every single committee the committees will be split evenly between democrats and republicans but Democrats still control the floor and the schedule. So they have all the power. They have as much power as you can have with 51 votes in the Senate. Absolutely. And like everyone who sees the Senate knows that. But people just like jumped on Twitter to be like, oh, Democrats giving up.

It's like there's gonna be plenty of reasons to criticize Democrats. Don't worry. We'll have plenty of opportunities. We do it all the time. Don't act like you understand this fucking Senate procedural thing. Like I dialed up some CRS report about how it worked back in the early 2000s to try to figure out how this works. Like people just, there's this cottage industry of people that want to say Democrats are bad. You know, both sides are the same. Both parties are bad. And that is cynicism. That is not a smart

analysis or constructive approach to doing things for people, which is why we all got into politics. I wish I could weigh in, but I did say I wasn't going to involve myself in this debate. Unfortunately, I will say this. I will say this. I was forced to be reminded of Jim Jeffords for a while. Yeah, how he that was just sort of about him switching sides and all that's a little trip down memory lane, early Bush administration, no child left behind. But, you know, compassionate, conservative, pre 9-11, a whole different time, a whole different time. I will I will just say one more thing on the checks, the checks debate. So like the COVID relief package passes on December 27th with only one week left to go in the Georgia runoff.

So most of the Georgia runoffs, everyone was advocating for $2,000 checks, right? So there is a bill at the end after the thing passes with the $600 checks supported by all the most progressive members in the House, AOC, everyone else that said, we want to now increase those $600 payments to $2,000. We would like an extra $1,400 to bring it up to $2,000. else that said we want to now increase those six hundred dollar payments to two thousand we would like an extra fourteen hundred dollars to bring it up to two thousand they all signed on to that bill and when they did no one complained about that everyone was like yeah obviously he only passed six hundred dollars let's get another fourteen hundred to two thousand it's called the cash act everyone supported it so like what i don't understand and look ayanna presley her response to um biden's bill was,

I think we should have $2,000 checks, $2,000 per month. That's what I believe. I believe we should have more. And I was like, you know what? That's a completely legitimate way to frame it. Not like they lied to us. He was dishonest. Just like, I want more.

And I think it should be a check every month. Like, great. That's the debate we should have. That's the exact right way to do it. Argue for more. More is better. People are really hurting. I think that's and the other

thing that is remarkable, too, it's like I'm glad we're having this debate. And I think progressives should push no matter where the debate lands. That's an important role for them to play. But like, man, have we come a long way since 2009? We got Joe Manchin talking about like multi trillion dollar relief and infrastructure packages like the center has shifted. We have learned some lessons. And I think that is a very positive thing. Well, and also, I think we don't want to even though it is the biggest ticket item in Biden's bill, I think we do a disservice by just focusing on the direct payments like four hundred dollars extra per week in unemployment benefits, which already get you,

you know, 70, 80 percent of the way to your former salary is is a good amount. And to have that extended through September is a huge deal. Right. The state and local government, the 350 billion dollars for state and local government is huge. That's going to save so many jobs. A 15 dollar minimum wage.

Think about when 15 dollar minimum wage not that long ago was like the progressive policy position. Now the Biden folks actually think that they might get some Republican votes on a $15 minimum wage. And by the way, like they should now that that's the one thing that might not be able to get done through reconciliation. You might actually have to have a vote and get 60 on a $15 minimum wage. But man, I can't imagine a better thing to put in front of the Republicans as one of your first acts than say, oh, you guys are going to be the fucking working class party now. You have a working class coalition. What do you think about a $15 minimum

wage since it gets about 65% support in polls? Great. Make them vote against it. I think that's totally right. I made one point about the minimum wage, too, which I think is actually I found interesting because I was reading about I wanted what I was actually thinking about was, all right, getting rid of the filibuster mansion. Some other Democrats are really opposed to it. You even have people like Bernie Sanders that have expressed reluctance in the past. Like there's a reticence about it. Fine.

But I was just looking into the popularity of the minimum wage. And there's been this, I think, mostly kind of purely kind of rhetorical and almost like, like almost emotional conversation about Republicans appealing to the working class. Raising the minimum wage is popular. It is incredibly popular amongst Democrats and independents. It is divided amongst Republicans. But what's interesting is Republicans who make under $40,000 a year support raising the minimum wage. It is a place where there's a divide inside of Republican politics. And it struck me that if they're going to be pretending to appeal to the working class, even though they're really it's guys with $120,000

pickup trucks waving flags, fine. But looking for those issues where you can say, actually, the working class of the Republican Party is with us, I think is really important. And I would love big votes on the minimum wage, like do it until we have to get rid of the filibuster, make that the thing we kill the filibuster on. Being for popular issues that also divide the other party. Like good politics from the beginning of time. That's just what you do, right? There's also a couple other,

like some real great provisions in this plan. On Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act, the proposal would do two things. It would make upper middle income Americans newly eligible for premium subsidies on Obamacare marketplaces. This is one of the big deal is that like if you weren't,

if you made too much money, but still not enough money to really be able to afford insurance, you didn't get the subsidies on the marketplace and the premiums were still too high. So now there's more subsidies for that. And there's going to be higher subsidies

for lower income enrollees. So taken together this will fulfill the biden campaign promise of making sure that like no one in america pays more than eight and a half percent of their income on their health care which again it's not medicare for all it's not the public option yet but to do this to squish this into a to sneak this into a bigger relief bill is a that's a great that'll make a difference and hopefully gets millions more people enrolled and sort of sures up the entire system there's also 130 billion dollars to help reopen schools safely again unconscionable that no money was given to

these schools don't reopen yeah like this is a life-changing thing for parents if their kids can go back to school we have to get kids back to school so yeah there's a lot in this bill that's good uh the biden team has reportedly said they don't want to pass this through budget reconciliation, which would only require 51 votes instead of 60. But they're not ruling it out, of course. Love it. Why don't you think they started with budget reconciliation here? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either. I don't like I think it's I think they want to get I think it's I think it's them. They want to get caught trying. They want to say, we did not shut the door to Republicans at the beginning of this. We want to find partners. We want to find people who were, you know, Marco Rubio, you say you're for $2,000 checks, then come work with us. Someone has said in the past there for a $15 minimum wage, come work with us. So they at least want to get caught trying. I think the key is you don't want to waste too much time waiting for these Republican votes. caught trying. I think the key is you don't want to waste too much time waiting for these Republican votes. I did see that Punchbowl just reported that the House Democrats are just preparing to

pass the bill through reconciliation. I mean, they should. Maybe also, I mean, maybe it goes back to the conversation we just had where they want, you know, the minimum wage increase to be part of this. And they don't think they can get that done through reconciliation. So they're thinking, OK, the biggest, most sweeping bill would have to be passed in the normal fashion. Obviously, it's going to get blocked. Yeah. My advice to them would be start big, go fast. Don't waste time trying to convince anybody. Also, no one gives a fuck about bipartisanship right now. People are desperate. They need help. Like, get it done. Just whatever Joe Manchin wants. Again, look, some one of you alluded to this. Joe Manchin

gave an interview over the weekend. I thought some of the biggest news was he was like, first of all, he seemed like he was against the $2,000 payments. He now wants to make sure they're targeted, but he didn't rule it out. And then he said he would do $2, $3, $4 trillion in infrastructure spending. If you can do a big plan with 51 votes through budget reconciliation and Joe Manchin in the Democratic caucus, who's the furthest to the right

in the Democratic caucus, is on board with $4 trillion in infrastructure spending, you're going to be able to do some pretty good things. Remarkable. Remarkable. Make the big dig look like

a really small dick. That one appealed to me as a mass hole. It's a card carrying big dick fan. So over the weekend, Biden also made clear he's not waiting for Congress

to get started on his agenda. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain wrote a memo laying out Biden's plan for executive actions in the first 10 days, including

rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, rejoining the World Health Organization, reversing Trump's Muslim ban, halting federal executions, rescinding the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, protecting dreamers, implementing a mask mandate on federal property

and for interstate travel, and extending the pause on federal student loan payments. He's also reportedly planning to move on an executive order on the first day to cancel the Keystone pipeline permit. How about that, guys? Tommy, why do you think they're rolling out all of those at once right away? I, you know, I think there is this sort of like old politics view where you would maybe drip out one a day and try to maximize press coverage on it or sort of make sure people knew you had an accomplishment. I like this approach. Go. This is why elections matter. drip out one a day and try to maximize press coverage on it or sort of make sure people knew

you had an accomplishment. I like this approach. Go. This is why elections matter. The Senate is going to be a challenging, frustrating place at times. The filibuster might drive us crazy. Some moderates might drive us crazy. These are big, meaningful things that remind people why it mattered that they voted for Joe Biden. I mean, the message that rejoining Paris sends other countries, the message that not banning an entire religion from entering the country sends, it's an enormous deal. And so, you know, I'm not exactly sure on the political calculation, but I think getting this done immediately is the right way to go. And then they can focus on the next thing, because like the legislative package is going to take a lot

of time and a lot of effort and a lot of, you know, arm twisting, whatever you want to call it. Love it. What'd you think? It reminded me of, um, we had to read so many speeches on the recovery act at the beginning of the Obama administration. And there was so much in the recovery act, so many accomplishments on education, on infrastructure, on clean energy, basically like, and I think Ram had said this before, like an administration's worth of accomplishments rolled up into one bill. And I remember it was really hard writing the speeches trying to make sure that, like, Obama and the administration got credit for all the specific things they did in one bill.

And it's a tough balance because on one hand, like Tommy said, you want sort of the momentum that can convey a sense of momentum and urgency, right? Like we are just doing a bunch of shit. We're undoing the damage of the Trump years. We're moving forward on all the things people elected us to do. And the other, like the media environment can only handle covering so many accomplishments at once. And so I wonder how you balance making sure that you get the administration gets the credit they deserve for doing all this shit. Absolutely. I will say, though, it's it's interesting. It's it is different than that in the sense that this is undoing a bunch of harm. Right. And there's still plenty of

space for a week devoted to an executive order moving climate forward when you have John Kerry in this new role. There's also, by the way, just I imagine just because it happened so recently, like there are anti LGBTQ policies that have just gone into effect through HHS that they'll have the opportunity to undo all that's a way of saying, I think, like, get this heinous shit off the books. And then when you start rolling out further executive actions that move things forward, don't just undo some of this damage. It's not a Trump story. It's a Biden story. It's just the story of what they're doing to make things better. I don't know. I think that's, I think that's,

I think that's ultimately, I think it's ultimately great. I also just want to say like the stopping of the executions, like the Trump administration went on a fucking killing spree. It's horrible. They went on a killing spree. It's truly evil. And it is absolutely like a rushed evil effort to kill more people in a few months. People with special needs. In decades. It's disgraceful. And like it is a it is the fact that it was some of these executions were taking place like in the midst of a coup

right that they didn't get the attention or the like the press coverage I think they otherwise would have gotten but man it has been it is there is a the darkness that propelled this administration. It was evident everywhere. It was everywhere all the time for four years. And I know that it is, you know, I like your point, love it about undoing the damage versus sort of doing like proactively good things. I just ran through a list of things. Each,

each one of those actions is going to have enormous consequences and do enormous good in people's lives. And like I really do. And look, this is part of why you have a big team too. Like Joe Biden shouldn't be out there on every single one of those, right? Like you can have a whole cabinet to fan out. You have a White House team, right? Like I think you need to be creative with how you sell your agenda, Right. Like my view is like pretend it's still a campaign. Right. Like you should. One thing I wish we did even more when we were in the White House is run everything like we were running a campaign. You know, the only thing is you don't have like a campaign committee to run TV ads for you, but like maybe get outside groups to do that for you. Right. Like everything you should be doing, you should be trying to sell to different people, reach different audiences and make sure everyone knows what you're doing

every day because, you know, they're going to be judged. The Biden administration will be judged in 2022. And then again, in 2024 on like, what did you get done for me? Especially with people who don't follow much attention to politics, right? It's not going to be the ins and outs of what's on Twitter and the debates we follow every day. It's just like, how did my life change over the last two years? What did this administration do? What have I noticed that is a couple of these things are urgent, right? Like the mask mandate, even though it is relatively limited, like that has to happen now. The the the freeze on student loan payments that has to happen right now, the moratorium on evictions that has to happen right now. Some of these things are just like

crisis level urgent matters. I also want to think too, is this that like some of what we were trying to do when we were talking about the Recovery Act was try to explain to people how these steps would affect them, whether it's investments in infrastructure or some of the tax credits that were a bit harder to see. And the checks raising the minimum wage, some of these changes will be evident immediately to people in their daily lives. Yeah. And I also think that, again, we're going to have a an impeachment trial sometime over the next few weeks. And I also think that, again, we're going to have a an impeachment trial sometime over the next few weeks. And the I think the Biden administration is going to want to make sure

that people know that they are focused on improving their lives in the here and now and not consumed with impeachment, because guarantee you that a lot of the media coverage will be consumed with the impeachment trial, which is unavoidable. But at least the Biden folks can show that they're, you know, working on solving the pandemic and not just consumed with that either. So, OK, when we come back, you'll hear Love It Me talk about what goes into writing an inaugural address on Speechwriters React. Look, we're in a mood today, all right? We're recording this at a particular day after the insurrection failed. Welcome to Speechwriters React.

With Joe Biden's inauguration just days away, I thought we'd take a look back at some past inaugural addresses, explain what goes into writing one, and take a guess at what Joe Biden might have to say in his first speech as President of the United States. I'm Jon Favreau, former head speechwriter for Barack Obama. I'm Jon Lovett. I was a speechwriter to Hillary Clinton and a speechwriter to President Barack Obama when Jon hired me, despite the efforts by some to prevent that from happening. I'll just say this. I'll just say this. One of the people who tried to stop me from getting that job, very prominent in the Biden administration. That's it. That's it. That's all you're getting.

I can't believe Merrick Garland tried to stop you from getting hired. Stakes of an inaugural are probably feel higher than they should. Some of the most famous presidential lines in history come from inaugurals. And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. There is a certain pressure, I think, to write an inaugural for history. And you feel that when you start the inaugural process, though my experience is, and my advice to future speechwriters who are writing inaugural addresses, is to not quite think of it as a speech for history, but think of it as a speech that should be in the moment and of the moment, and sort of write for the time and place and moment that you find yourself in. Let's start off with one of the most famous inaugurals ever. This is FDR's first in 1933. This great nation will endure as it has endured,

will revive and will prosper. So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves, which is essential to victory. I was struck in the speech by how similar over the decades and centuries, even the structure, the basic structure of a political speech is. Right. There's like a very common structure, which is right there's like it's a very common structure which is we have all these challenges as a country and but don't worry we have everything

we need to beat these challenges all we have to do is my political agenda yeah that's it that's every single that, and he does it, he talks about the depression, right? He takes, he takes office in the, in the midst of a great depression. He talks about everything that's ailing America, but then he says, well, here's all, we have everything we need to beat this. That's where the line comes from. You know, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I would say probably my favorite political speech ever given is FDR's acceptance speech of the Democratic nomination in 1936. That is the speech where he talks

about a rendezvous with destiny. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. And a speech where he talks about accumulation of economic power as a threat similar to the accumulation of political power. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the marketplace. I always go back to it because I think it's one of the clearest, most confident statement of liberal governance, of liberal politics that's ever been given by an American president.

And, yeah. You notice, like, Roosevelt doesn't get up there and say, you know, we're in this depression. Here's what led us into this depression. And here's the policy agenda that's going to lead us out. It is the speech is much bigger than policy, much bigger than his agenda. And it is about trying to not just communicate his vision, but lift the nation's spirits, which obviously needed lifting in the midst of a depression. As Biden is thinking about how you address a country in which as of this moment, due to misinformation and propaganda, tens of millions of Americans doubt the basic tenets of how our elections are

conducted. We spend a lot of time talking about how you combat misinformation and falsehoods and lies. And I think one lesson from this speech and some of the best inaugurals is sometimes the best answer to a lie is not a fact, it's a deeper truth. And that if you are, if you have a shield of like basic core values, a basic ideological premise for why you believe what you believe, facts can help you. But that, but those truths are, I think, are ultimately more powerful in dispensing with falsehoods and misinformation and propaganda. Next up, let's take a look at an address I know all too well. Barack Obama's first inaugural address in 2009. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America,

they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics. We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history, to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation, the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

You can hear in this, again, sort of the, like how it almost mimics that FDR speech that we listened to at the beginning, whether we did so consciously or not, and I would say not. But like I say to you, the challenges are real. They're serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short time span, but know this, they will be met, right? Like we wanted him to have a line to land on where people could feel like, yes, we are in the middle of an economic crisis, a great recession. I remember him telling me, look, we need, we want an inaugural that is hopeful, but we also want an inaugural that recognizes how bad everything is right now, because we can't just be way up here telling people, hope, change, everything's wonderful. Like we did for most of

the campaign, because now people, you know, we're losing 800,000 jobs a month and the banking system is frozen up, you know? And yet, so you have to dig deep in a speech like this to like reflect the severity of the times that we're in, but then also try to lift people up from there, much like FDR did in that, in that 1933 inaugural. Biden faces a similar crisis, set of crises, right? Then as FDR did, and as Obama did. They are three presidents taking office after the abysmal failure of a Republican president to address massive crises befalling the country. This is an extraordinary inaugural in that it is a once in a century pandemic. It is a massive economic crisis. And there is also, for the very first time,

a president taking office as the previous president refuses to accept the results. That is extraordinary. You'll have to talk about that. That said, to Joe Biden's great credit, he has been giving a version of this inaugural address since the day he announced his candidacy. He has been talking about the soul of the country. by this inaugural, in part because of the consistency that Joe Biden has shown over the last two years, up to and including the likelihood that it ends in the quoting of an Irish poem. Will hope and history rhyme in this inaugural when it has rhymed so recently? Perhaps, perhaps. This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme. There's gonna be two parts of the speech. One is like, here's the action we need to take, and here's what we need to get done. And the other is, and here's how we get it done. We need to like work together, right? I do think now that he has a Senate majority, he's going to want to put a little bit more emphasis on the part where he talks about delivering actual results that are going to solve big challenges and change

people's lives. Because I think he wants to convey a sense of movement and action in these first hundred days that he can now deliver on because he has more votes than he would have if Mitch was still controlling the Senate. Basically, this is a speech to Joe Manchin. It's just 15 minutes to Joe Manchin about everything Joe Manchin wants to hear. it's just 15 minutes to Joe Manchin about everything Joe Manchin wants to hear um he's gonna have a couple anecdotes about West Virginia halfway through the inaugural he stops and he just says I'm sorry I can't I can't keep going I got Joe Manchin in my field of view and that's the most handsome man I've ever seen in my life I and John T, are you 40? I'm going to say, look, I know that I'm a 77-year-old heterosexual man. I want to jump Jon Tester's bones right now.

Is that crazy? Thanks, everyone. We'll see you tomorrow for a group thread for the inauguration. And thanks for sticking with us for the last four years. For how many pods about Donald Trump? Too many. Yeah, too many. It was a really long couple of years.

What did he? Oh, Jordan. Over 450, Jordan says. What? Let's never talk about him again. That's a lot of, did you see what he tweeted this morning, guys? Man, the impeachment trial does suck. I want a clean break from this asshole.

It's so frustrating that we're going to have to to talk about him but hopefully he just gets removed we were against impeachment the whole time honestly send one of those house managers over jamie raskin's leading the crew have him go over say hey did you have everyone see what happened the other week yeah i see that you see mitch mitch mcconnell was quoted today on the senate floor saying the president helped incite the mob right okay convict him that's it i'm done remember when the uh goodbye remember that dude dressed like sasquatch was the presiding officer yeah that was bad yeah we don't need a long trial here we don't need to be uh cross-examining anyone no it's just vote take a vote all right we're done we're just gonna fade that out at some point. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production.

The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our associate producer is Jordan Waller. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Rustin, and Justine Howe for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Narmal Konian, Yale Freed, and Milo Kim, who film and upload these episodes as videos every week.