Pod Save America - "Trump's Missed Vance."

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

The midterms are six months away and new polling has the race closer than you might expect, Donald Trump forgets who he endorsed in Ohio, and later: some fun with the highlights and lowlights of Saturday's White House Correspondents’ Dinner.Protect Abortion Access. Donate to Abortion Funds: http://votesaveamerica.com/roeFor a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast. 

Hey, everybody. We recorded this episode just before news broke on Monday night about a leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion suggesting that there is a majority planning to overturn Roe versus Wade in the coming weeks. We wanted to point to the Strict Scrutiny podcast where Leah Lipman, Kate Schott, and Melissa Murray will be putting out an update Tuesday afternoon to help break down this draft ruling, what we know, what we don't. They are an incredible resource, and we are so glad they're part of the Crooked Network. So please check that out. And we'll be covering this story here at Pond Save America, talking through the politics, but also pointing to ways each of us can help to protect abortion access for people everywhere,

and to make certain that the huge majority in this country that believes in and supports reproductive health care is heard in November. Much more to come on that front, but for now, let's go to the show. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Leavitt. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, the midterms are six months away, and new polling has the race closer than you might expect. Donald Trump forgets who he endorsed in Ohio.

And later, we have some fun with the highlights and lowlights of Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner. But first, this week on Offline, I talked to tech policy expert Rene DiResta about Elon Musk buying Twitter. What else? Rene is a brilliant expert on content moderation and algorithms who makes the case that Elon fundamentally misunderstands free speech on the internet. Definitely check that out. Also, check out the latest episode of Stuck with Damon Young. This week, Damon discusses mental health and the benefits of therapy with KSA Lehman and Dr. Joy Harden Bradford.

New episodes of Offline drop every Sunday, and you can listen to all episodes of Stuck with Damon Young for free only on Spotify. All right, let's get to the news. We got to keep it moving, boys. I am so late to the Met Gala. We got to go. Let's go. Is the Met Gala happening this week? Yeah, it's happening right now.

Oh, wow. I felt like everyone was just yelling about AOC's dress like three weeks ago. It's been a year already? Time flies when you're having fun, you know? Wow. Wow. Okay. Anyway, we're now six months out from the 2022 midterms and a new poll from ABC and the Washington

Post gives us a picture of where things stand that pretty much tracks with the 538 averages. Joe Biden's approval is 42% positive and 52% negative, which is a slight increase from the last few months. It's something. 46 percent of voters say they'd vote for the Democrat in their congressional district, while 45 percent say they'd vote for the Republican. Also a slight increase for Democrats, though the 538 average still has Republicans leading by a little over two points. The most important issues to voters in the polls are the economy and specifically inflation to issues where they say they trust Republicans over Democrats by around 20 points.

Woof. Yeah, woof. Republicans are also more trusted on the issue of crime by 12 points and immigration by a closer three points. I was kind of surprised about that. While Democrats are more trusted by double digit margins on the issues of abortion, education and schools, and equal treatment of people regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. In another sign that Democrats are growing more comfortable taking on what we've all said is Republican overreach on the so-called culture war issues.

President Biden took on book banning at last week's Teacher of the Year ceremony at the White House. Today, there are too many politicians trying to score political points, trying to ban books, all because it doesn't fit somebody's political agenda. We're going to stop making the target of the culture wars. Guys, what are your general reactions to the post-ABC poll on where Democrats stand six months out from the midterms? Tommy? Pretty nervous to quite nervous. Plus or minus five nervouses. I mean, I know it's better than some of the other polls we've seen, but nine out of 10 Americans concerned with inflation.

Forty four percent upset about it. That's a big problem. And it's a big problem that you have very little ability to solve even as president. Because, you know, because, you know, the challenge with inflation is you can have a great job. There's some other economic indicators in the poll that like, you know, more people feel like they can find a good paying job. But the problem with inflation is you can have a job that pays you well, but you still worry that the economy can slip away from you because prices are going up. And there's just a lot of headwinds economically. The war in Ukraine's

not slowing down. That's going to keep energy and food costs high, like lockdowns in China, the stock market is down for the year. So I'm nervous. And the Republicans have a much easier job, which is just block everything Joe Biden tries to do with Joe Manchin's help. And yeah, it's not a great setup. Love it. I already issued my woof. One other number that is troubling is how much more enthusiastic Republicans are about turning out right now than Democrats, which makes me skeptical of how close these generic ballot numbers are. And, you know, when Republicans have a 20-point advantage on the two most important issues

going into the midterms, that's very bad. And it was striking, actually. It was striking, actually, too. The thing I thought, my biggest takeaway from looking at this is like, why are these fucking idiots talking about Disney?

They're going to win this thing in a row if they just keep their mouths closed jesus this is what i'm saying it's unbelievable it's just like they like you know we have all that we've talked a million times about this about the cultural issues but like they have on a number of issues now book banning and that's why biden was talking about it on disney on a couple of things they have far overreached where the polling is. And they don't really need to do it, but they can't help themselves because they're extremists. You know, I mean, I do think, Lovett, to your point, like, yes, Republicans are more enthusiastic to vote. This is not terribly surprising. Party in power has a more difficult time getting their voters motivated than the party out of power.

That happens almost every single midterm we've been alive. There had been some thought that maybe this would change because the Democratic Party now has the disproportionate share of college educated voters in our coalition, which we didn't always used to have. And college educated voters tend to be the more reliable voters in a midterm. college educated voters tend to be the more reliable voters in a midterm. But the problem there is, as we saw in Virginia in 2021, non-college educated Trump voters seem to be turning out even in midterm and off year races, which had not usually been the case before Trump was president, which is something that we have to contend with. I do think, Tommy, too, to your point, like, it may be boring, redundant, not make for the most exciting content. But like it's clear from this polling and all the polling that we've seen that the election is going to hinge on voter concerns over inflation.

Right. And there's like there's very little control you have over inflation. And also to the point, you know, that a lot of liberals on Twitter make, which is like, oh, the media, it's the media's fault because the media is not covering the booming economy and all the jobs created. Well, there's a question in here about like, how easy do you think it is to find a good paying job? And people are saying pretty easy, including Republican voters. Mostly Republican voters. And so the problem is not necessarily that people don't know that under Joe Biden, we've created a lot of jobs. It's that they're like, yeah, that's not my problem. My problem is shit's expensive. People aren't stupid. They go to the store and they're like, oh, hamburger meat is more expensive.

That is bad. They drive by the gas pump and they say, oh, four gallons. It's so insulting when we treat voters like they're just victims of the media when it comes to something as simple as inflation. Sure, it can get covered too often or it can disproportionately, but people are really feeling this. And if you try to explain it away like that, you just seem dismissive of their concerns. It's so stupid. And I have seen some experts point out, I think correctly, that but for stimulus, we could have been in a much darker economic position, right, with like far more job losses, far more dislocation, far more misery. But it's just tough to make the argument that this form of economic pain is better than the alternative. It's not a great message. Yeah. And again, I think that there was a section of Biden's State of the Union

where he nails what I think is the best, most effective message, or at least the message that gives you the best shot, which is like, here are all my plans to lower costs for people since costs are the most important concern for voters. Republicans' plans would make your costs even higher than they are now. I'm for lowering costs for these things. They're for raising costs. I'm trying to get stuff done. You give me more Democrats because I have two Democrats in the Senate who aren't very cooperative. You give me more Democrats. I have two Democrats in the Senate who aren't very cooperative. You give me more Democrats. I will pass this legislation to lower your costs.

You put them in power. Guarantee costs aren't going down because they're not going to do that. I mean, like, again, that might not win it for you, but it seems to me to me, it seems to me the most effective message among a lot of bad options. And you can throw on top of that the Rick Scott plan to cut taxes for the richest people in the country to flood the economy. Not only is it unfair, not only does it help no one

except the richest people in this country, it would flood the economy with more money to raise prices even more, right? There's an argument to be made to tie back to what the head of the Republican senatorial campaign is trying to do if they win. Now, there was an Axios story over the weekend that has quotes from both progressive and moderate Democratic politicians saying they've been inspired by Michigan State Senator Mallory

McMorrow's speech hitting back at Republicans on culture war issues. And of course, we just heard Biden take on the book banning thing. Now, just knowing what we just said about inflation and economy being sort of the top concerns, does it make sense for Democrats to take on these issues still? What do you think, Tommy? I mean, I don't think they have a choice. These guys, Republicans are so good at manufacturing these issues, manufacturing anxiety about whatever social issue it is, especially when it has to do with schools and school curriculum, that we can't ignore them. You also just can't win a fight that you're not a part of. that we can't ignore them. You also just can't win a fight that you're not a part of. And I think what Biden did was smart because he made it not about what the Republicans wanted to discuss,

but he reframed it on more fertile ground for Democrats, which is to say they want to ban books. Banning books is not popular. There was a CBS poll from like three months ago that found 80% of voters don't want to ban books that are about history or race. So you have to make the debate about that. Like similarly, if we're in Florida debating like the appropriate amount of sex education for kindergartners, that is not the ground you want to be fighting on. You have to reframe these debates, you know? So I'm glad he took it on. I thought Mallory Maburo's speech was excellent. She looked like she was fighting. She reframed the debate. I mean, two years ago, Republicans were really mad about, you know, people trying to tear down statues of Confederate soldiers.

Now they don't want us to be able to teach kids about them. They want that to be illegal, right? You kind of like point out hypocrisy. It's all about politics. It's phony populism. Pivot to Rick Scott. But I do think you have to take it on. It is funny that we're sitting here like having to bring out poll numbers like,

hey, you know what? Banning books, not so popular. I got a poll that says it's not that popular. Yeah. And I also think it's also like, don't get wrapped around the axle of the bullshit they've been spewing about the technicalities that they're trying to claim or written into the law. They want to bully gay kids. They want to threaten gay teachers. They want to ban books. They don't want to teach history to your kids. They want to make, you know, like these are the simple, the simple arguments we need to make that I think are pretty popular with people. And that point out that this Republican party is extreme, which is our only hope of drawing a contrast to them as we head into the fall, that it's not just

that we can make a case about what we would do on inflation versus them, but we also have to make a case that these people have lost it, that this is a party unmoored from reality, chasing ghosts, fighting imaginary threats, attacking people, bullying people. That's where we got to be. They want to use the power of the state to retaliate against private businesses who hold different beliefs than the ruling party. That's where they are now. That's the Disney thing. It's like, come on. So this is yet another poll where the Democrats' generic ballot number is better than Joe Biden's approval rating. Lubbock, why do you think that is? And if you're running a competitive democratic midterm campaign, do you try to separate your candidate from Joe Biden?

You know, honestly, John, when I saw that you might ask me that question, my first step was to look to see if there was a message box with an answer, but there wasn't. Just a fucking, it's a fucking mailbag. Dan phoned it in. All right. So, so right, right now, Joe Biden is getting tagged, uh, uh tagged with a lot of dissatisfaction and anger in the country. Right. There was this great hope that he was going to restore some kind of normalcy, restore stability, take on some of the chaos of the last few years. He is being tagged for some of the problems, many of which are outside of his control, that we're still going through the pandemic that seems to be without end, inflation, gridlock in Congress, not all of which can obviously be laid at his feet. And I do wonder, too, if what's also happening is, you know, people are really unhappy with

what's happening in Washington. They blame Democrats, but they also blame Republicans. It is not like people are approaching this ballot unaware of the chaos and nonsense coming out of the Republican Party. They see Marjorie Taylor Greene making the news just like the rest of us. Tommy, what do you got? Listen, were you able to were you able to contact? As a wise person once said, where we go, one, we go all. And I don't think it's really possible to separate yourself from Biden at this point. I mean, I like especially these lesser known congressional candidates. These elections are so nationalized. I saw some candidates are kind

of trying like Maggie Hassan is like, and that's why I called on Joe Biden to release more energy from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Like, that's fine. That's a gentle lift. I just think like, you can say, hey, Mr. President, please don't come to my district. Don't come to my state. Don't come campaign for me. Like you can spend your time elsewhere. That's fine. But I think if you're like actively giving the president of your party, the Heisman in the midterm, that's going to hurt him. That's going to hurt you. That is a stupid, stupid, well, that's stupid strategy. It's not going to work. You know what else was funny about, you know what else was funny is Dan's message box said,

check out Ezra Klein's podcast. Dan, I don't need message box to point me to Ezra Klein's podcast. Listen to every episode. You're not on three jokes about Dan's message box. Can you write those for me too? Two jokes about them. I'm on two jokes about them. We cut one.

You son of a bitch. That's the second one. John, you have any jokes about Dan? No, I don't. i don't i don't guys i tell me i agree with you that it's just unless you have built up a brand over years and years as sort of an independent minded democrat like you mentioned your mentor it's gonna be very hard it's gonna be right yeah it's gonna it's gonna be very hard come election season to suddenly separate yourself. And as with each successive election, the amount of split ticket voting has declined over and over again.

So they become very close now to the original question of like why this is happening with Biden and the Democrats. I think that my best guess on this is we always talk about Joe Biden's quote. Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. When you ask people whether they approve or disapprove of Joe Biden, there is no alternative. It's either you're happy or you're not happy. And there's a lot of unhappy people right now. When you have a generic ballot and you say, do you like the Democratic Party, the Republican Party?

Guess what? The Republican Party isn't fucking popular. Yeah. Not to say the Democratic Party is that popular, but the Republican Party ain't so popular either. Um, and like, you know, people are giving Ron Clay and the White House chief of staff some shit because after Macron won in France, he was saying, oh, Macron's approval rating going into that election was like low 30s, I think. But of course, he beats Le Pen by a good amount. And he's like, basically, it was like, maybe that'll happen here with Joe Biden. Now, that might be a that might be a reach. We don't know.

I'll say one thing. It definitely is. It's an indoor thought. It's an indoor thought. But the same but I think the same dynamic applies, which is if and we've talked about this, if you try to make the midterms just, hey, Democrats have delivered. And even if you don't think so, we're telling you so it's not going to go well. If you make the midterms, here's what we're doing and here's what they want to do. Then you have more of a fighting chance because you're reminding people of what the alternative is. And and, you know, there's yeah. One other simple thing that Trump manages to always get right is there's only two kinds of problems, like problems he solves or problems that are someone else's faults that he's going to solve, right? That's it, right? Here's all the progress we've made so far. Here are the two plans

to address inflation. They want to cut taxes for rich people, make your costs for healthcare go up, sunset some of the most important social safety net programs in the country to leave you fending for yourself against rising prices. Here's what our plan is. They want to ban books. We want to invest in teachers, right? You can just go back and forth. Yeah. Trump would definitely brag about the shit he's done, but he would never do it in a vacuum. He'd say, I created more jobs than any president in human history, and they're going to ruin it if you send them into Congress. They're going to screw up the whole economy. I can't wait till election night. Ron Klain is tweeting, college around his months are still out. That's a Paris joke for you. I cannot believe the audacity of Tommy Vitor,

not minutes ago, his mind foggy with COVID trying to attack me for making a Dan joke. He's out there talking about some French nonsense. I mean, I... Look, if I make a second France joke, then you can go after me for this. But I was going for the redundancy,

not the Dan part. Or a third. Or a third that we cut. We cut one. The first one was the best. Let's talk about the Republicans who are obviously in a good position, but as even Mitch McConnell said the other week, quote, it's actually possible for them to screw it up by nominating the more extreme candidate in their party's primaries. Sure enough, we are at the beginning of a month of Republican primaries that will tell us whether Donald Trump's favorite candidates will prevail in Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Ohio, where Trump held a rally this weekend and completely forgot who he endorsed. We've endorsed JP, right? J.D. Mandel,

and he's doing great. Wow. Did he get it wrong twice? Did he say JP, then J.D. Mandel? Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he got it. All sorts of wrong. You know what? All sorts of wrong. I know this is nonsense. I know this won't matter. I know this is resistance, clickbait, idiocy that won't move a single voter. I don't care. I love this. I love this. This is for me. You cannot take this away from me.

This race triggers me like no other. J.D. Vance is terrible. Josh Mandel is bigger. His most MAGA opponent is terrible. I hate them both. They're both likely to win. This is my moment. Don't take it away.

I wouldn't dream of it, Tommy. Love it. Do you think that was a freudian slip or is that or should we make donald trump draw a clock what do you think i look i don't i never think it's a mistake to try to see where donald trump is cognitively i think it's always a good idea um he's whatever he's an idiot he forgot which person he doesn't care he's barely paying attention you know yeah the other all went off i'm for i'm for whoever uh whoever they told me they thought was gonna win because i want to be a fucking loser yeah i'm for whoever peter teal told me i don't know i don't i don't give a fuck these guys all suck also by the way shame on jd vance for being younger than us i know he's young what yeah he is but you don't you can't see it on his face because I think the lying has aged. Yeah, the lying has aged him. Tommy, I know that you care a lot about this Ohio Senate primary. What's happened in the Ohio and Pennsylvania Senate races since Trump's

endorsed J.P.D. Mandel and Dr. I mean, J.P.D. Zvi is definitely, you know, surge from the Trump endorsement. I don't know if that's because it's just Trump or because J.D. Vance's opponents are terrible and they spent weeks attacking each other. And I think that helped J.D. Vance here. I mean, initially, J.D.'s opponents were all in on just pointing out that he was a never Trumper and that he criticized Trump back in 2016 and that hurt him. But I think Dave Weigel from the Washington Post pointed out that John Kasich won the GOP primary in Ohio. So there's a lot of Republicans in Ohio who were against Trump before they were for him. You know, the but like this guy Gibbons, what's his name? I forget his first name. He spent 10 million of his own money.

He nearly got into a fistfight with Josh Mandel on stage at an event. It's not that hard to look like the reasonable guy. And like JD Vance, as much as he drives me crazy, Mike Gibbons, thank you, Elijah, you know, like has some political skills. He is, you know, pandering relentlessly to the base and triggering us on Twitter. But that that's effective. There's one state senator in Matt Dolan, who is the kind of like move on from Trump candidate, but he gets attacked because his family changed the name of the Cleveland Indians to a name that wasn't racist. And that's just a sin in 2022. You can't do that. So that's Ohio. Trump is very upset. Trump said he doesn't belong in the Senate because

he changed, his family changed the name from the Indians to the Guardians. It's just too much. I will say about Matt Dolan, State Senator Matt Dolan. So the primary is today. You're listening to this on a Tuesday. The primary in Ohio is today. The last poll, Trafager. Remember Trafager? With the mustache. Trafalgar.

Trafalgar? Trafalgar? Trafalca. It was always a poll. Trafalca? Rafalca? It was the poll that pissed me off all the time. Their last poll has J.D. Vance, 26.2. Matt the what both the effectiveness and limits of a Trump endorsement. These primaries, this one taking place in Pennsylvania, the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, this this primary Nebraska.

These we are through the fucking looking glass. This is not like there's no policy. There's just there's just like withering attacks. Just racist. But it's all fucking vibes. These guys are going after each other on vibes. There's just like withering attacks, racist. It's all fucking vibes. These guys are going after each other on vibes. There's nothing. There's no substance left whatsoever, nothing.

And all the voters that are participating in this thing, right? If you're a Republican primary voter, kind of trying to decide between heinous people like J.D. Vance and Josh Mandel, you're part of this ecosystem where you are getting just the absolute worst, God forsaken information on the planet. You have no guideposts. You are, you are floating in outer space. And it's just like, that is the future we are heading towards, right? Like what is happening inside of these primaries, complete, complete substance-free primaries. It's chilling. It's chilling. I'll just say that. Whoever wins, we lose. That's all I'm pointing out. That's right. I mean, Pennsylvania is an interesting one,

because that appears to be tied. You have Dr. Oz gets the Trump endorsement, but he's still statistically tied with some hedge fund goober named David McCormick. Dr. Oz, the Harvard educated, formerly liberal quack doctor who served in the Turkish military, like, not like an obvious fit for the Republican primary electorate in Pennsylvania. It's not necessarily catching fire. He's got name ID money, and he's got Trump. And I'm not sure that he's like wielding the endorsement as deftly as JD Vance is. There are some focus groups I saw on the most recent Republican debate in Pennsylvania, where people were just kind of groaning when Dr. Oz kept

mentioning Trump like every five seconds, right? It's sort of like all he has, whereas JD has like the hillbilly elegy, me, ma, peepaw, the like opiate stuff, the anti-tech stuff, despite being, again, just a wash in tech money from Peter Thiel. So I don't know. This one's a little more of a toss up. What does David McCormick have? It just is his hedge fund, his hedge fund billions, his wife who worked for the Trump administration. Some brand spanking new Timberland boots for him to walk around in a very shiny truck the two of them pretending to be salt of the earth driving around pennsylvania so fucking

funny dr oz holding on these this hedge fund guy wandering around rural pennsylvania like he knows what he's doing one thing about jd vance too like he is just more sophisticated he is like he has a he has a he has a theory he also like it it's a small thing, but he was asked about debt forgiveness on student loans. Yeah, I was just about to bring that up. And he had this answer on it on addressing the ways in which the colleges and universities are responsible for causing a lot of this debt and for being irresponsible in what they did to students, which is absolutely true and not something we talk about enough. And it was a kind of like undergirding philosophy of populism like that. I like that, that I think makes him a stickier, better, real candidate, which is why someone like Oz has to just go around saying

Trump, Trump, Trump, because there's nothing, there's nothing underneath the surface. Lovey, you're, you're totally right. And what's so frustrating about the, the JD Vance is like, he has like a little bit of the intellectual heft to like deliver an answer like that on student debt cancellation, but he never gets the pushback that's like, okay, you're all in on Trump though. And he was the guy who just like let all the for-profit colleges off the hook, who got all these veterans in a lot of cases to go to these schools, get huge loans from the GI Bill, never graduate and get bankrupted, right? Like there's a really good substantive argument for all of this that's just not really happening in any of the races because it's just like Trump, Trump, Trump. Ohio is a Republican-leaning state.

And if J.D. Vance wins the primary, he will appear to be a Republican-leaning candidate in the general election, right? And he will do it probably in a more deft way, almost assuredly in a more deft way than Josh Mandel would. He won't beat up a senior citizen on stage. Yes, for sure. I have a small I have a small complaint, but it just was like the kind of there. There was a piece in The Times looking at Democrats in Ohio and it found a man. This is just the perfect kind of semi-real person that ends up in these pieces. Lou McMahon, a registered Democrat who said he did not vote in the last

two presidential elections because he did not like his choices, sounded open to Mr. Ryan in an interview, but asked to assess Democrats in Washington, he replied, promises not delivered. I don't want that guy's vote. That guy stinks. I do not think you should run for office or campaign. Oh, you sat out 2016 and 2020 because you didn't like your choices? I don't want your vote. I don't want it.

We don't need him. We don't need that guy. Calls himself a lawyer. We are in Ohio. Tim Ryan has plenty of votes to spare. Yeah, yeah. We don't need him. Let me ask what other Trump endorsed candidates we should be keeping an eye on. We are in Ohio. Tim Ryan has plenty of votes to spare. Yeah, yeah. We don't need him.

Let me ask what other Trump endorsed candidates we should be keeping an eye on. Have you guys heard about the guy in Nebraska? Wow. That guy, just a full fucking groper. The governor's like, don't endorse this guy. Stay away from him. Trump's all in. Accused of sexually assaulting eight women. Including a state senator.

Trump is like, the media has been unfair to him. The media has been unfair. It's a picture. There's a picture. He's just this, Charles Herbster is just groping people at Republican events, groping other Republican elected officials. And Trump's like, no, he's maligned just like me. I mean, one of the surest ways you can get Trump to defend you

is by getting accused of some sort of sexual misconductconduct because he just folds it into his own grievance. Of course. Of course. In Idaho, Trump's candidate for governor is polling 30 points behind the current governor. I don't think that's going well. And then in Georgia, Brian Kemp is so far ahead of David Perdue. He may actually avoid a runoff. of David Perdue, he may actually avoid a runoff. That is Trump being more narcissistic than he is strategic because obviously he just hates Brian Kemp for the sin of kind of believing in elections for 15 seconds after stealing it from Stacey Abrams. Kind of. Just believing it just enough for five seconds or like not disbelieving in them enough. But the problem is he's endorsed Perdue. And Perdue seems to be unaware why he's running for office. He seems to have no interest in it whatsoever.

He seems bored by the prospect. Terrible candidate. No energy, no enthusiasm. Just a terrible, terrible person and candidate. Yeah. Here's how Trump's closing out that race. This is what Trump said today. Quote, a vote for Brian Kemp in this primary is a vote for Stacey Abrams. And I'll tell you, I don't... I know, I love it. And I tell you, I don't believe Republicans

are going to go out and vote in a general election for Brian Kemp because they thought we won the election. Keep talking, Trump. Keep talking. Spread that message far and wide. Yeah, that's good. Georgia Republican. I love that. Just do what you did in those Senate runoffs in 2020. Spread that message far and wide. Yeah, that's good. Georgia Republican. I love that.

Just do what you did in those Senate runoffs in 2020. That's what we're hoping for. It's also worth remembering that Dr. Oz is his second choice in Pennsylvania because the first one, Sean Parnell, was accused of domestic abuse and had to drop out. So this is not exactly a sterling run here for Mr. Trump. All right. Before we go, we wanted to have some fun with this weekend's

White House Correspondents Dinner, an annual celebration of journalism and one of D.C.'s biggest and most masturbatory events that was held for the first time in two years. That's a long list. Like always. Most masturbatory. Most masturbatory. It's tied for the first time in two years that's a long list like always most masturbatory most masturbatory it's tied for first it's up there it's tied for first

with a lot of other than like other that and like dinner at cafe milano every night you know that's just sort of a regular occurrence a good one um like always the dinner was attended by media figures celebrities comedians politicians and the president of the united states who told some self-deprecating jokes about his age and low approval ratings. Let's take a listen. It's the first time the president attended this dinner in six years. It's understandable. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of COVID. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of COVID. I'm not really here to roast the GOP.

That's not my style. Besides, there's nothing I can say about the GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn't already put on tape. But Republicans seem to support one fellow, some guy named Brandon. He's having a really good year. And I'm kind of happy for him. Lovett, what'd you think? How'd Biden do? He's having a really good year. And I'm kind of happy for him. Love it. What'd you think? How'd Biden do?

You know, look, he got, he started it and he ended it. In the middle, he landed some of those jokes. I think he did. I think he did fine. I think he did great. I think he got through it. It could have been a fucking disaster. I love the brandon one in part because like the let's go brandon thing is a kind of genuinely funny thing that emerged from whatever biden

opposition is out there that's not as hateful as their usual screeds and he kind of like showed that he could laugh along with it own the joke landed the joke it was it was pretty well done i thought he was good. I kind of wish he told that Brandon joke like five months ago. I do too. When it first happened, just at a normal event. That would have really popped the whole bubble right there. Totally.

And I also did think they made a choice which was, he did some jokes. I think he did pretty well in the comedy section. But then there's something about Joe Biden, like every president ends the correspondence dinner with like a serious close. It was always like we did every year. He always ended with a serious close. And there was something about the way Joe Biden did it that felt more like

it was very important to him. Like he really like he you see like that there's that part of him that's just this Washington guy that's been in Washington forever. Like he really takes it as a relationship that he has rather than an obligation he had to perform. It like felt very sincere. Like he was really thoughtful about what he wanted to say at the end there. And I think it worked. Like I think it was really moving. It was actually like surprisingly effective to have him spend that time.

Yeah. Joe Biden is a creature of Washington in both the best and the worst ways, right? Like he's just he when Barack Obama would do that dinner, he was like excited to tell the jokes by the time we got there. But the whole rest of the time at the dinner, you could tell he was like, what the fuck am I doing here? And Joe Biden was like laughing, genuinely laughing at all of Trevor Noah's jokes, like having a good time. And then, like you said, really believed in the majority of that speech, which was serious, which is not usually what happens, right? Usually it's mostly jokes and then this small, serious close. He

actually didn't do that many jokes at the end. And he did most, mostly it was serious. Yeah, it was the most serious of those presidential speeches I've ever heard from White House Correspondents. And it's like like every single year, you could easily be the scold that's like, how dare you joke at a time like this, right? This year, it's Ukraine, every financial crisis, like you, whatever it is. I will not lie. I'm a loser. I have COVID. So I watched the speech on TV in my home. It was very weird watching a huge panel of CNN people talking about the dinner. And then they cut to some dude in Kiev at 3 a.m. He's like, yeah, we just got bombed. The air raid sirens going off. He's like, oh, yeah, this feels a little weird. But, you know,

I thought I thought Biden probably could have told a few more jokes. But you know what? Love, it's right. You're there. You're checking a box. You're in. You're out. You gave your sincere close like well done. I will say, yeah, and you mentioned this, Tommy, the way that he told the let's go, Brandon joke, that style of delivery is like best Joe Biden's happy laughing, right? Like that's the most suited for Joe Biden, that kind of style. He's not himself. You know, like he is.

Joe Biden is more like a traditional politician when he's up there. It is a bit more like when Bill Clinton was up there or George W. Bush was out there, like Obama was like an exception. Like Obama, Obama approached it like a late night host. And like, that's not Joe Biden. He's just a just an old politician. He told some politician jokes. And I thought it went great. Obama was young enough to be cool, relatively like tied to the culture and like competitive.

So he wanted to kill it. And I think like the net effect of that is you get some some pundits and people Washington be like, but was he too funny? Did he go too far this year? It's like, Oh, shut up. Come on. Well, with Obama, there was always a joke or two that ended up generating a bunch of controversy. It's Monday, late Monday. Now there is we're recording this late Monday, there is no controversy generated from Joe Biden's jokes, which honestly, for the White House, great. Yeah, that's what you want.

They do not need that. They're good. Trevor Noah headlined the event, giving the traditional roast of the president and the media. Take a listen. We all saw what happened at the Oscars. I've actually been a little bit worried about tonight. I won't lie.

I was like, what if I make a really mean joke about Kellyanne Conway, and then her husband rushes up on the stage, about tonight, I won't lie, you know, I was like, what if I make like a really mean joke, you know, about like Kellyanne Conway, and then her husband rushes up on the stage and thanks me. The great chef, Jose Andres is joining us here tonight. Give it up for him, people. My good friend, in the room. Whenever there's a disaster anywhere in the world,

Chef Jose is there, which I guess is why he's sitting at the CNN table tonight. Fox News is sort of like a Waffle House. Yeah, it's relatively normal in the afternoon, but as soon as the sun goes down, there's a drunk lady named Janine threatening to fight every Mexican who comes in. A lot of big media names in the room tonight.

Chuck Todd is here. Chuck, you here? Yeah. How you doing? I'd ask a follow-up, but I know you don't know what those are. Wow. Just absolutely, really murdered Chuck. My one thing with that is, you know, all right, all right.

Fox News primetime is worse than Fox News during the day. Let's dispense with the fiction that Fox News during the day is okay. I know, I know. All right, it right. Fox News primetime is worse than Fox News during the day. Let's dispense with the fiction that Fox News during the day is okay. I know, I know. All right, it's a trope. It's over. Yeah, those are great jokes. I can't believe Matt Negrin let that joke through.

Well, yeah, Matt's a guy who works at The Daily Show, used to be a political reporter. His hands were, fingerprints were all over that Chuck Todd joke since Matt basically watches the Sunday shows every weekend to send himself off into the stratosphere and get angry. But I thought Trevor Noah was very funny. Very funny. We didn't play.

We didn't play Biden's Chuck Todd joke, but there were two. Chuck Todd got hit by the president and Trevor Noah. Biden did a great job but there was a there was a a couple there was a couple moments where um you know look as i've said before often watching biden uh uh give a big speech is like watching a small plane in a storm you know you just it's rolling it's uh you just wanted to get to the ground safely there was i feel like around that chuck todd joke in the biden speech we hit some pretty severe turbulence what was the joke i forget what it was well there was the coup the donald trump coup joke didn't really land as as well no uh for for but what was the what was the biden chuck todd one though he said something like um i'm not he said something about meet the press and i'm not

getting invited back that billy we said that you know billy uh uh billy eichner did a great job he should maybe he should host me to meet the press. It would help their ratings. I don't think I'm getting it back. And then he kind of like got embarrassed, I think in the moment about how mean he felt. And he was like, Oh, I'm not getting, yeah.

He sort of interrupted himself. The check Todd was murdered a couple of times. Um, no, I thought Trevor did great. I mean, I think like it's always tough when you're the comedian because you think like, all right,

what are the jokes that are funny to the room and to DC who are a bunch of like nerdy political insiders, but also funny to people beyond DC who are maybe watching this. Right. And so you always have to sort of toe that line. But I actually think he did it pretty well. Yeah. I mean, what's I feel like one thing we learned over the years, though, is that that room has plenty of nerdy insiders in it. But it's actually there. It's a pretty broad group of people. And some of the more insidery stuff actually works less well than you'd expect. Right. Like they're not actually.

I think that the group of people that are truly up on the dumbest of Twitter bullshit is so small that even if they're all in that room, it's not enough people to fill that room. Yeah, that's right. Which is a good lesson for us all. And they and they don't take jokes at the media's expense very well. You are far more likely to get a groan as you heard there than anything else. Right. Yeah. No, they don't. Although he was he gave a closing that has been going viral. That was very generous, I thought, towards the media. Yeah. So that was good. Anyone want to argue that this is an important tradition that's critical to the future of the republic? Look, I've said it before. I'll say again, we cancel it. The whole country fell to pieces. That's true. Keep it going. It's really just the most carefully constructed trap in the history of the presidency it's really all of this it's like you guys throw this dinner you invite a

bunch of shithead celebrities you complain that it went to hollywood you guys like infect half the city at the gridiron dinner and then you do this and then you're all going to go to the press briefing and like shred joe biden for not doing enough against omicron i mean the whole thing you're just set up to fail you're too funny you're not funny enough you shouldn't have gone how dare you joke at a time like this it's uh you know it's good good old catch 22 we all need those yeah i don't uh i don't care whether the dinner happens or not. But I will say that I am in favor of anything that creates any kind of monoculture, anything that gets a bunch of people,

even if it is for the purposes of a ridiculous navel-gazing event. ridiculous, navel-gazing event. There are so few events that draw public attention. The Correspondence Center, at this point, it gets wall-to-wall coverage on the cable networks. It's probably one of the most viewed things that a president gets to do at this point. And I am all for those events because we need more monoc need more monoculture moments so i'm like i'm for it different it's like it's funny it's good yeah well i was gonna say like i think that the the media celebrity spectacle that has become the dinner is a lot right for sure you're not gonna get me to defend that but um i think humor is important in politics and media and in dc i think that people take themselves way too seriously.

Like it's one thing to take the issues that they're covering seriously, which we should because it's serious time. But like, God, people take themselves too seriously. And for like politicians to poke fun of themselves, for reporters to poke fun of themselves and to do it so that the public hears it, I think is actually really important. I agree. And like the other thing is, you know, I'll tell you what my feeling was. I was, uh, when I saw it starting, I was like, surprised by how glad I was to see it exist. And I, like, I was like, just trying to interrogate that feeling. And I do think that like, there are plenty of reasons to take issue with the fact that like, you know, our media is feckless. It doesn't focus on the right things. It is sensationalistic. It treats politics like a game. All those critiquesiques are valid they are not made better or worse by

the existence of this institution and like there are so few of those kind of traditions left that i that i was kind of surprised by how happy i was to see that this one still existed yeah jokes are goodokes are good. Jokes are good. All right. That's all. That's our show for today. We will talk to you guys on Friday is our next show because we have a live show Thursday night in Chicago.

We'll talk to you then. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein. Our producer is Haley Muse, and Olivia Martinez is our associate producer. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineer the show. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Sandy Gerard, Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.

And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montuth. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash crooked media.