Pod Save America - “We call BS.”

Episode Date: February 22, 2018

In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, a new student movement is born, the Republican/NRA conspiracy nuts go crazy, and Republican politicians start feeling the pressure. Then Jon and Tommy talk to comedian Billy Eichner about Glam Up the Midterms, his new effort to register young voters. 

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On the show today, we'll be talking to Billy Eichner right here in the studio about his new effort to glam up the midterms. So that should be fun. Also this week, check out Keep It. It is the most hilarious new podcast we have here at crooked media they have a really funny and great conversation about the movie black panther this week dan have you seen black panther yet i have not but also did love it insist that you use the word new in there he did not love it does not write my promos If you had not used the word new, Crooked Media might have broken up.

Nor do I take direction from him. Also, sign up for our newsletter. What a day. The sign-ups are now live. Go to crooked.com. In a couple weeks, March 5th, you'll start getting a newsletter. It is looking hilarious. It is looking tight.

Great news in there. Great updates. We're not using the other newsletters anymore. So go sign up for What A Day. You will not regret it. So Dan, did our promo of your book last week do okay? Was that good for you guys? First, let me say thank you for allowing me to use our platform for that. But also, for allowing me to use our platform for that. But also thanks to our listeners who are awesome. Just people were excited. Many people very nicely purchased the book and told me about it on Twitter,

which allows me to sleep at night. I'm very excited about how it did to start. I think if we keep this up over the next few months, and I promise I will not do this every week until June 19th, I'll take a break and then I'll come back and do it incessantly in the weeks up to June 19th. But if we keep this up over the next few months, and I promise I will not do this every week until June 19, I'll take a break, and then I'll come back and do it incessantly in the weeks up to June 19. But if we keep this up, I think we can make a very nice contribution to swing left, which would make writing this book worth it. And the more people who buy it, the more we can help swing left and the more I can justify the hours I spent between six and 8 a.m. in Starbucks every day working on it.

So I just want to thank everyone for being so nice about it. It was really a wonderful thing and a reminder of how awesome the Pod Save America community is. A lot of buzz about the book at my home last weekend, Dan, between my parents, Emily's parents were there. They're all big Dan Pfeiffer fans, very eager to read the book. They wanted to know. What about Leo? Where's Leo on this? Leo's of course, very excited, very excited. He'll be on social media reading the book. I'm sure Emily will pose him for that.

We have another book that's coming out from the Obama family and the Crooked Media family, Ben Rhodes. Ben Rhodes has a book coming out on June 12th, 2018, but it's available for pre-order now on Amazon. And the book is called The World As It Is. And it's sort of about, you know, Obama's foreign policy over the last eight years he was in office, but also about, you know, Ben's personal story about working for Obama, which he did since the early days of the 2008 campaign when I desperately needed another writer to help out and was suggested Ben Rhodes, a smart foreign policy guy. And I soon saw he was one of the most brilliant writers and best people that I could have ever hired. So read Ben's book and go order it now. Yeah, I would say this. Ben's book and go order it now.

I would say this. I can't imagine anyone who saw more over the 10 years of the Obama decade of 2007-2017 than Ben. He is a beautiful writer. Howley always says that every Ben Rhodes speech finds a way to make her cry. I mean, that's a low

bar, but Ben is a beautiful writer, and he's got an amazing story to tell, and i am super excited for this book i have pre-ordered my copy and um i would encourage everyone to do so it's going to be i think when people look back on the obama years many many many years from now ben's book will be a very important part of the story i know i can't i can't wait to read this book. So anyway, everyone go get it. It's on Amazon now. June 12th is the date. Okay. So let's talk about everything that's going on around guns and gun control. Dan, I would say that yesterday was one of the more hopeful days for the gun

control movement that I can remember in a long time. In states all across the country, saw kids walk out of schools in support of the Stoneman Douglas High School students. Happened in Arizona, happened in Maryland, in Kentucky, in Texas, in Florida. Thousands of protesters marched straight to Tallahassee. They slept on cots in the Civic Center the night before, and then they walked into the state capitol and demanded new gun laws. Obviously, there was disappointment, as there is with Republican-controlled legislatures in Florida and all across the country. The Republican-led legislature in Florida rejected a ban on assault weapons,

but they're now talking about a deal that would raise the age from 18 to 21 when you can buy an assault weapon, institute three-day waiting periods, ban bump stocks, arm school personnel, which we can talk about, and I believe is sort of a terrible idea. But, Dan, what do you think about sort of the deal that's happening in the Florida legislature, which is completely Republican-controlled? Better than nothing, or what? 100% better than nothing.

Obviously, like you said, I have very real concerns about a society that thinks the best way to protect students is to give guns to their teachers. More guns in schools. That's the answer. Or just whatever the – that is not the right. We are closing the barn door after the horses left, if that's our solution. But here's the thing, which is the gun lobby, the NRA, the right wing, the fear mongers on Fox News, their success has been in defeating every piece of legislation to sap hope from the movement of people who want to make this country safer. And so this success, is it everything we want? Is it going to solve all the problems? Is it perfect? No,

but it is something to build on. You can't build on nothing. So this is a tribute to those kids more than anyone else, those families and in the public for rallying behind these children, these students. And so if we can get something done, if some lives will be saved, and there is no doubt that would be the case if this were to pass, then that is a victory like we have not seen in a long time in the fight over guns. Yeah, I think what will ultimately be more important and lasting from what's happening around Parkland right now is not the legislation that will be passed in the short term, but the movement that's being built that will last for the long term. And I think that, you know, at least from now until November, we are going to deal with the politics we have with the, you know, Republicancontrolled Congress, Republican president, Republican legislatures,

Republican governors across the country. But this is building towards November when we can vote a lot of those people out, hopefully, and get a lot of pro-gun-controlled Democrats in office. And then, look, it's a movement that has to last for years because, as we saw during the Obama era, even having Democrats in Congress isn't a guarantee that we'll get the gun safety legislation that we need. And so you have to keep fighting. But it's different now. The base of this movement now, which is these students, students not just in Florida, but students all across the country in these high schools being active, I mean, that's something that to me is incredibly hopeful because these kids are not going to be cowed by the NRA and they're not going to

become cynical because, you know, they didn't get the assault weapons ban they wanted on day one. They're just going to keep going. And I think that's incredibly inspiring. Yeah, it really is. And I think you were looking at a generation of leadership. And I think we will look back five, 10 years from now at some of these students who have risen to the occasion, and they will be political leaders of their generation, just like there are people who help lead the movement against the Vietnam War, who were leaders for their generation, or the movement against the Iraq War, or people like our our friend DeRay who came to prominence in Ferguson and in the Black Lives Matter movement. And this is the future of this country.

And it is something to be – for as dark as everything seems, this is something to feel really good about because these kids are impressive as hell. Yeah. So let's talk about the prospects for federal action. This morning, another big morning for Trump tweets. So Trump tweeted about how we should put more guns in schools by arming teachers. He had quite a few tweets on that. We should note that first he started saying like, fake news says I wanted to give guns to teachers. That's not true. What I want to do is give guns to teachers. That's basically what he went on to say.

What he was trying to say is that I only want to give guns to the teachers that are trained for this, and that would end up being about 20% of teachers across the country, and we could arm them with guns. Let's talk about this idea a little bit. First of all, I don't know if we've already forgotten that there was an armed guard at Stoneman Douglas High School who never encountered the shooter once while he was there. We know that in certain states where they've said that it's okay to arm teachers, not one school district has taken up the state's offer to do that because they don't believe it would make kids safer. has taken up the state's offer to do that because they don't believe it would make kids safer. Police officers have warned that that's not going to make kids safer by arming teachers. Teachers don't want to be armed. Dan, what do you think about this idea?

It's insane. It is an insane view that my mom was a teacher for decades. Yeah, mine too. And the idea that, and that is a hard job to which teachers are dramatically underpaid. It's one of the most important jobs in our society. And at the same time that we are cutting funding for education, classes are getting bigger. The student-teacher ratio is getting worse. We're going to say that in addition to trying to teach with less resources a generation of kids to be prepared for the real world, to learn, prepare for the new economy, you are also going to have to be a law enforcement officer in your spare time.

So just that idea is crazy. But then we are giving up. Giving up, if we believe that it is so hard to stop the wrong people from getting guns, we just have to give guns to more people, to turn an elementary school into the OK Corral is crazy. And trained professionals, police officers, members of the military, in close quarters combat, will sometimes shoot the wrong person. They will miss the idea that a teacher or a coach or a janitor, to use the terms that Trump used in his event yesterday, are the right solution to this is insane. It is absolutely insane.

And the only reason people are promoting it is because the gun lobby wants more people to buy guns. So if you have teachers buy guns, those are more guns sold and is going to make schools more dangerous, not less, not safer. Yeah, it's a completely insane idea. I mean, even Marco Rubio at that CNN town hall last night said, and good for him for saying this, that it was a terrible idea. This is something that the NRA was talking about after Newtown,

after the elementary school shooting at Sandy Hook. They waited a little bit longer then than they have this time, but that was their first solution too, to armed teachers. So they've been saying this. Now, I look back at some of the coverage then. When they said this right after Sandy Hook, everyone thought it was the most insane thing they'd ever heard. And people were saying it was crazy and all that kind of stuff. Now we have the President of the United States advocating for it. So that's where we are. One stat here that Hallie told me this morning, but then I forgot, so I had to Google it while we were doing this, but is the New York City Police Department. These are trained

professionals, only had an accuracy rate of about 18%. So you have police officers missing sometime between seven and 10 times or eight and 10 times, depending on the year. And so the idea that teachers are going to be firing weapons in a close quarter situation with these students is just so dangerous. It's dangerous. It's funny when you mention your mom, like my mom was a teacher too. I cannot imagine if there was a, God forbid, if there had ever been a shooting when my mom was a teacher. And then the next day she went into school and they were like, here's your gun, Mrs. Vavro. Good luck. It's just, she would be like, excuse me? Are you crazy? God, it's such a bad idea. So Trump also tweeted about, he said

that he's going to be really strong on comprehensive background checks with an emphasis on mental health. He's for raising the age to 21 for assault weapons, and he wants to end the sale of bump stocks. On Tuesday, Trump announced that he signed a memo directing Jeff Sessions to propose regulations that ban bump stocks and other devices that turn semi-automatic firearms into machine guns. Now, this last part on bump stocks seems like bullshit because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the agency that regulates guns, and the federal government just said after the Vegas massacre that they cannot regulate bump stocks unless Congress changes the law, which Congress refuses to do. Can't get any

Republicans to do that after Vegas, even though people thought there's something that was going to happen there. Dan, what do you think about the bump stocks directive and also Trump's other tweets about background checks and raising the age and all that kind of stuff. Well, it's important to draw a distinction between comprehensive background checks, which is what Trump mentioned in universal background checks. So there are a number of loopholes in the current background check law, including gun shows, among other things, private sales. And so in 2013, after Newtown, what Democrats and some Republicans tried to do while President Obama was in office was to pass a universal background check law, which would mean that if not all virtually all people who buy guns would need to get a background check. And that is not what Trump is talking about

here. As far as we can tell, he is talking about a different piece of legislation that is still also a good thing, which would strengthen the current background check system to make sure that more information got into the quote unquote, NIC system, as it's called, to ensure that people get flagged. Like we should do that. We should have done that 100 years ago. It's fucking insane that we haven't. But it is not a significant step towards something real. And Chris Murphy, who's one of the sponsors of that legislation, along with John Cornyn from Texas, says as much.

He was like, yeah, obviously we should pass this bill, but no one should tell you that this bill will actually do anything to solve the problem in a big way. Basically, that bill, it increases grants for states that send the federal background check system at least 90% of their records on people with serious mental illness. So it is basically a bill that coordinates what should already be coordinated between the state and federal background check system that already exists. It does not expand them. It does not close the loophole that means that people who buy guns on the internet or from gun shows don't have to have any kind of background check at all.

It's not it's not real. I mean, great. Do it. Fine. But don't pat yourself on the back for it. Right. interesting to do right before the CPAC speech where like, you know, Wayne LaPierre and Dana Lush went out and said awful things like that the media loves mass shootings and that, you know, Democrats are part of a authoritarian plot to take over the world and blah, blah, blah. So that was

fun. So Trump also met with students, parents and teachers yesterday. I don't know if you saw, I'm sure you did the card he was holding, where it gave him instructions on how to talk with these people. And number five said it was a reminder to have him say, I hear you to people. This is the one thing I'm not super worked up about. It's more funny than anything else. It's sort of instructed empathy for Donald Trump. I'm sure this when you work for Donald Trump and he says the shit that he says, you probably feel like you have to put that on a card, you know?

Like I have a hierarchy of outrages when it comes to Trump and this one's actually pretty low on the list. I thought this was more funny than anything else. So what do we think? I mean, let's step back on all the Trump stuff. Where do we think this leads? How serious do you think he is about this? What kind of obstacles does he face due to his own ineptitude and also politics this is gonna sound like a crazy thing to say i think he actually thinks he's serious about this yeah i do i think he i don't think it comes from some place of empathy for the students or parents or law enforcement officers. He has demonstrated no empathy for any human being other than himself, Roger Ailes, Roy Moore, and Steve Wynn over the course of time. But I think he likes to ride the wave of news coverage.

And this is what the world is focused on, so he's got to talk about it in order to be on TV. And I think he probably thinks he wants to do something. The challenge is threefold. He has the attention span of a three-year-old who ate a case of Fun Dip. He has no knowledge of either of the specifics of the issue or the politics surrounding it. So he doesn't even know what he's saying when he says things like armed teachers and comprehensive background checks and what that means. And three, the Republican Party, by proxy, the NRA, are against doing anything real here. So the fact that he's saying, Trump has said many things, DACA, infrastructure, all of those things, and they've never gone anywhere because he's incapable of doing the

actual work of governing. Yes. I mean, it's fundamentally about his laziness and his ignorance of just about everything, uh he gets all of his information from cable television primarily fox so you could imagine that he was watching television over the last week and he probably watched a lot of cnn too because he likes hate watching cnn and he probably saw these these students speaking and he said yeah no that that makes sense uh and he's you know he talked to the people at his fucking at mar-a-lago and he's like yeah that makes sense i want to be better on background checks and better on this. And also, he talks to some crazy people and they say armed teachers.

So he says he's for all this stuff. There will be legislation from Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats will have actually real legislation to do something about this. Republicans will have whatever the NRA supports. And then the Republicans will go to him in the White House or his staff will. And they'll tell him, this is the good legislation that we're supporting. And what the Democrats supporting is horrible and will destroy the Second Amendment and destroy America. And so then, you know, a week from now, Trump will tweet out that whatever the Democrat bill is, is horrible and

awful. And the Republican bill is good because he doesn't know any better because he doesn't pay attention because he can't read. And that will be that. It's the exact same thing he did on immigration when he said, yeah, no, I love the Dreamers. I have a soft spot for the Dreamers. Except when there's actual legislation to protect the Dreamers, he says that it's awful and that only his legislation is right because that's what his staff and the Republicans tell him. And he's easily misled and easily fooled because he's an idiot. He's an idiot who shouldn't be president. I mean, that's just, I don't know that there's more analysis than that, you know? Yeah.

I mean, there are these larger structural things about politics in our polarized age, the asymmetric polarization of the Republicans, the influence, the monetary and cultural influence of the NRA. And then there's just the fact that Donald Trump is unable and uninterested in actually being president. No, he's interested in like, you know, riding the latest cable news cycle. And that's about it. And just to get an understanding of how difficult this would be to pass anything in Congress, House Republicans have already said, at least the portion of House Republicans that control the entire Congress, which is the Freedom Caucus, say they'll only vote to strengthen background checks if they're also able to pass concealed carry reciprocity.

What's that? Well, some states allow teenagers, domestic abusers, or convicted stalkers to legally obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. If concealed carry reciprocity passes, and you have a permit to carry from one of these states, every other state is forced to recognize that permit, no matter how tough their gun laws are. So it basically would shred the gun laws of any state and force them to match the weakest gun laws of some other state. Doesn't sound like a great deal, Dan. No, that's bad. That is one step forward, 18 steps back.

Also, it's worth noting the states' rights Republicans. Really? I mean, so if your state, which Republicans care so fucking much about, passes tougher gun laws, then people from other states can move there and impose their laws on you. It's pretty gross. Let's talk about what would work and what Democrats should be proposing here. I mean, some people have talked about bringing back the assault weapons ban. So everyone knows in 1994, Bill Clinton passed a federal assault weapons ban. In the 10-year period before the ban, the number of people who died from gun massacres,

which are defined as six or more deaths from a single shooting, dropped 43%. And this is the 10-year period after the ban. It dropped 43% compared to before the ban. The number of gun massacres dropped 37%. After the ban expired in 2004, because Congress refused to extend the assault weapons ban, gun massacres then went up 183% and deaths went up 239%. And people do believe that a assault weapons ban, along with a ban on high-capacity ammunition,

would be some of the most effective gun measures out there. What do you think, Dan? What do you think Democrats should be saying? Yes, we should be for that and more. The fact that there are a large portion of elected members of Congress and people in the country who believe that it is their that their Second Amendment right includes the ability to carry weapons similar to the ones used to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Supersedes the right of students, teachers, people walking down the street from getting shot, is one of the fucking craziest things about America. It is batshit insane.

There are some real discussions about people being able to have guns for home protection, for hunting and shooting, for sport, and all kinds of things like that. But the assault weapons ban, the fact that there are people arguing against assault weapons ban is fucking crazy. weapons ban the the fact that there are people arguing against assault weapons ban is fucking crazy and if you watched marco rubio at the town hall last night cnn tunnel which i will say i'm obviously biased because i'm a cnn contributor i thought that was a really great thing cnn did i thought you were gonna say you were biased because you hate marco rubio so much oh i do i do hate marco rubio uh but i thought that was a great thing i think jake did a great job with it you know yeah i thought that was really a very worthwhile piece of journalism that CNN did.

I think everyone who saw that is better for it on either side of the aisle. And those kids and parents who sit up there are amazing and so brave. Jake did great because I think I imagine it must have been very difficult to moderate something like that because I'm sure Jake had a bunch of follow up questions. I'm sure Jake could have fact checked, you know, the NRA spokesman and a whole bunch of other people, but he really made a conscious decision to just let everyone talk and only try to make sure that everything was moving smoothly. And so I think he did a good job of it. Yeah. But in there, Marco Rubio tried to defend his opposition to an assault weapons ban.

And his argument is basically that the last law was imperfect and there were loopholes in it for people to get around it. So we should have no law, which is possibly the dumbest argument ever made by any human being, which is because we can't stop all of the killings, we will try to stop none of the killings. That is the argument. And that was one of the great things about- That's their argument for everything. That's their entire gun argument. It's not even like the argument of the NRA. It's the argument of the most spineless Republican politicians and consultants. They somehow think that they've got us on that one. Like, oh, well, we can't stop all the killings so we shouldn't try to stop any of it haha we got you now democrats like what are you fucking talking

about yeah it is so stupid it did marko rubio and i will say also this about marko rubio going to there was a good thing for him to do as a senator from florida britt scott chickened out i'm told other members of congress i believe i read other members of congress republicans did not go now marco rubio's staff thinks he should get the congressional fucking medal of honor for doing a town hall which is embarrassing but good it's going was that was better than not going for sure yeah i mean but it was good that he went he also he's the senator from the state of Florida, a place in which there was a mass shooting.

And after the mass shooting, there was a town hall with the survivors of that mass shooting who were students. And he came to take their questions. I think that is the least someone can do. And I'm glad he did it. But like, I don't know when we started giving out participation trophies to people who just show up and do their jobs. You know, I mean, it is.

Marco Rubio is better than Rick Scott for going to that town hall and good for him for answering the questions and good for him for listening to those kids and doing his job. But he did his job, you know? Yeah. I mean, it is table stakes, right? Those people pay his salary. So it says a lot about how these, I think this might even be a tweet Tommy had last night,

but the soft bigotry of low expectations that just merely showing up to take questions from your constituents days after their students and children were massacred in a shooting incident, doesn't say you really shouldn't pat yourself on the back for. The other thing Marco Rubio did is just expose for the world to see as marco rubio can do just how intellectually bankrupt the arguments on the other side of this discussion are that's why people treat up and when you said yeah if you

start banning some assault weapons it'll start leading to banning all assault weapons and then everyone just stood up and cheered you know just like yeah man that's because the idea of banning semi-automatic military style weapons is something that's fairly popular in fact Quinnipiac just did a poll this week 66 percent of the American people support stricter gun laws 67 percent support the assault weapons ban 83 percent support a mandatory waiting period, and universal background checks, 97% to 2. I've never seen a poll question like that in as long as I can remember, 97 to 2. Now, this is a Quinnipiac poll. If you looked at other polls, it would show the numbers are a little closer, but still, these are majority positions in this country, which is important to understand.

Yeah, there's no better testament to how the Republicans have broken our politics than these 80, 90% issues can't get done on something so important. This is not 90% of people want to close tax loopholes, allow companies to ship jobs overseas would be a great thing to do. But this is something that 80, 90% of people support that involves the lives of our children, friends, and family. And we still can't do it. And that says so much about one party in this country. So I want to talk about the reaction from the NRA and from just the right in general to Parkland, which has been as disgusting and awful as you'd imagine.

First, let's talk about some of the right-wing conspiracy theories that have been floating around and peddled by some of our favorite people about the students, the students themselves. You had former Republican congressman and CNN contributor Jack Kingston say that George Soros is paying to mobilize 17-year-olds against gun violence. This was also something that Sheriff David Clark said, who was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention. So they're going with just sort of a hint of anti-Semitism there, talking about George Soros paying these kids. Then you have the Students Are Crisis Actors conspiracy,

which is being promoted by Ted Nugent, who has a nice picture of himself in the Oval Office with our president. Gateway Pundit, who has a White House press briefing pass. They can go to the white house press briefing room uh you have alex jones saying it was a false flag of course he said the same about sandy hook you have donald trump jr liking two tweets that suggested one student was attacking trump to cover for his father who's a retired fbi agent what the fuck dan I just... I have so many thoughts about this. First, the only thing that Donald Trump Jr. has ever succeeded at was being a worse person than his father.

Second, this is not the fringe. No. This is not a bunch of Republicans on the grassy knoll. Not anymore. This is the Republican Party. bunch of Republicans on the grassy knoll. Not anymore. This is the Republican Party. And this Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, you were responsible for these people because you have nurtured this culture of paranoia and hate. You let them in the White House. You let them in the White House and then you supported their agenda. You still support it to this day. Come on.

Yes. Mitt Romney, he was courageous in his opposition to trump during the election and i don't even begrudge him for being willing to be donald trump secretary of state but let's not forget that in 2012 mitt romney sought to benefit politically from the birther movement by courting donald trump and then doing an endorsement event with him. All of these people, at any point, at any point over the last 10 years, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell could have stood up and said something about birtherism, the strains of racism within their party. They could have kicked Steve King out of the caucus. They could have said something.

They could have refused to be on Fox News shows with Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, but instead they decided to benefit from it. And this is what has happened. They have become a party of kooky conspiracy theorists who try to fuel racial animus to win elections. And it's disgusting. And I don't really know whether you are Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, someone who works for them. This is on you. You are on the wrong side of history here. And you could do something about it. And many Republicans have. I tweeted that this is the Republican Party as it is now. And John Weaver, a longtime Republican consultant for John Kasich and John McCain and others, tweeted back, and who has been a strong in his opposition to Trump, tweeted back at me that John Kasich

and John McCain had not become this. And I think that is a fair point that like that John Kasich and John McCain have have resisted some of that, not all the time, but better than others. But for the most part, this is who you are, this is who you become. And this is who you're trying to keep in power if you go to work in the Republican Party today. And it's disgusting. Yeah. And also, look, I mean, you mentioned John McCain, it just reminded me, you know, there were John McCain was one of the four Republican senators who voted for the Manchin-Toomey universal background check bill that Obama tried to push in the wake of Sandy Hook that failed because Marco Rubio and a bunch of other Republican senators and honestly, a few Democrats like Heidi Heitkamp and some of those people didn't vote for it, a bill that had like 90% support. So, you know,

the other thing about like patting Marco Rubio on the back too, for going to Florida, like maybe he's, look, if Marco Rubio changes all his positions on guns and votes that way, good for Marco Rubio. I will praise him on this podcast. But he was there. He blocked a fucking bipartisan bill that had 90% approval rating to expand universal background checks, to strengthen background checks. Didn't do anything about it. And now his staff thinks he should get some fucking award for going to the thing last night. Just imagine being Marco Rubio's staff. You went to work for him. You thought he was going to be the savior of the Republican Party to do everything.

And he basically lost to Ben Carson in the presidential election. You are scraping the bottom of the barrel here for good news moments. I thought also, by the way, BuzzFeed had a great story yesterday about how the students have fought back against some of these conspiracy theories. And they've done so in a better way than the victims of these conspiracies when they're politicians or members of the mainstream media. conspiracies when they're politicians or, you know, members of the mainstream media, that the way that these kids treat them is they're all on Twitter, all these students from Stoneman Douglas, and they're tweeting right back. They're tweeting about them. They're making jokes about the conspiracy theory. They're exposing these people for who they are. We were a bunch of fucking clowns and it's working, you know, like know, like, it's an interesting look into sort of like the age that

these students are growing up in right now, which is, you know, they're all on Twitter, they're all on Facebook, they know this world just as well as the Trump conspiracy theorists know this world. And, you know, they're winning that fight. Yeah, I mean, these, I mean, on every dimension, these kids are just something that gives you great hope for the future of America. But they're also the internet generation. They've they've if you are 17. Now you've spent your entire life on the internet around social media, your entire you know, you've Facebook has been around 10 years, you've been on more than 10 years now you've been around, you've been on Facebook, much of times you understand these things, and you, they're just better,

they are more internet savvy, about how to deal with what is essentially cyber bullying from the right, then a lot of democratic politicians, there is a generational gap here. Some of the younger Democrats or people who came into politics later in life are simply better at social media than people who came into it later. You know, you look at Jason Kander, or Chris Murphy, or Brian Schatz, who are great at Twitter. And it is different, but there are so many lessons we learned about how these kids have seized the moment, how they've responded to the right, how they have been unbowed by the prospects, the limited prospects of success and willing to push through and unwilling to accept the world as it is. Right.

So you go in, you're like, we want to change gun laws in Florida. Like, well, the NRA and the gun rights people own Florida. You're not getting anything done here. And they said, that's how it is. We're going to change that. And it is powerful. And it obviously reminds me of how our old boss thinks about the world. But there's just, these are dark days.

And there's hope. The refrain from Emma Gonzalez's speech, We Call BS, is not just a refrain about guns. It is sort of an answer to, you know, an entire older generation of politics and that the phoniness of politics these days and the phoniness of the right wing and their conspiracy theories

and how ridiculous it is, instead of trying to argue it point by point, you just call out the bullshit, you know? And you just mentioned our old boss. Like, you know, a lot of people remember him for being, you know, highfalutin rhetoric and inspiring and all that kind of stuff. But part of what made Obama effective when he was effective is that he sort of called out the game of politics

and he called out the bullshit of politics. And that's what these students are doing right now. And i think that's what's so effective and that's and and that's what we need you can't you can't sit there and fucking argue with the nra point by point because it's not on the level it's not a good faith argument these people are fucking shills wayne lapierre talking about elites you know trying to destroy america wayne lapierre makes fucking five million dollars a year you think he's worried about some, you know, trying to destroy America. Wayne LaPierre makes fucking $5 million a year. You think he's worried about some, like, you know, authoritarian takeover of America?

He is the fucking elite class in this country. Republicans control all three branches of government. They have the largest fucking media organization in the country, and they're running around talking about elites. They fucking run this country. They are the elites. It's so ridiculous. We're going to get to the NRA right in a second here,

but one of the... We're there, man. All right, good. One of the Breitbart wannabes from The Federalist, I don't even remember who or care which one, but said, tweeted that something about the assault weapons ban and how the government that spied on us wants to take away our weapons so we can't defend ourselves from it. Okay, I have a message for you.

This ain't fucking Red Dawn, right? If you think you, with your AR-15, are going to take down the United States government, that is a deeply stupid way of going about life. That is not going to happen. That is not how it works. I understand that a well-regulated militia made sense a long time ago. That is not the world we live in. And if you want to change your government, go vote. That is how you do it. You are not doing it at gunpoint. If you tried, you were going to lose that battle. I am sorry. Whether it is a Democrat or Republican in charge, get with reality. is not an organization that represents gun owners. They are a lobbying group for gun manufacturers. So they want to convince as many Americans possible to buy more guns. Because if gun manufacturers make more money, they will give more money to the NRA. They will spend more money advertising in the NRA publications and on their websites. And that is what it is. So they want you

to think that they want to create this fiction that you are the last line of defense between an authoritarian takeover of the government that has never happened in the 200 plus years of this country. They want you to think that immigrants and terrorists are coming to kill you. So you better have a gun, even though all of the public research that we've been allowed to have in this country tells you that you were more likely to have a death in your house if you have a gun than otherwise. And that is who they are. And so my, here's where I think we should be on the NRA. Ignore them. The NRA is not the fucking problem in this country. They are the face of the problem in this country. And so you saw this, the NRA owns Congress. The NRA doesn't own Congress. The NRA actually spends less money than many other industries. We have a larger cultural problem in this country, but we should be going after the gun manufacturers. And we should be pressuring people who do business with the gun manufacturers.

And so Facebook and a number of other social media and internet platforms don't allow gun sales on their platforms. When I worked at GoFundMe, we did not allow you to raise money to purchase weapons, to purchase guns. And Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times financial columnist, had a really interesting article about what would happen if the banks and the credit card companies stopped allowing that. I think that's a very interesting thing. And so look for a different – beat the lawmakers who vote for the NRA's agenda. But we get wrapped around the acts about the NRA. And we treat them as some mythical organization with magic powers. That's not what it is. The NRA got their ass kicked in 2008, 2012. They lost across the board. We won a Senate race in fucking North Dakota, right? We won Senate races in Missouri, states with huge gun owner populations.

That's not the thing. But we should look at all the public pressure points. There's a campaign happening right now on the internet that is gearing up because Amazon airs the NRA TV on their, I think, their video platform. Really? Which is one of them. Yeah. If that their, I think, their video platform. Really? Which is one of them. Yeah.

If that isn't, that is, I've learned that from the internet. If that is incorrect, I will correct that later. But I've been told that by multiple people who have access to the internet. You're right about that, though. Like, look, I mean, Marco Rubio, I believed Marco Rubio last night when he responded to Cameron, whose question about NRA donations, and he said, I'm not bought by anyone's agenda. People buy into my agenda.

And if they never donated, I'd still believe these things. Believe Marco Rubio when he says that and beat him. Defeat him. Believe politicians, Republican politicians, when they tell you

that the NRA donations don't make a difference and that these are their genuine beliefs. They're probably telling the truth and that's why they shouldn't be in office. Yeah. They don't agree with us secretly and then just don't do what we want because the NRA gave them a check. That's not, that is not the problem. The problem is they are more afraid of gun rights activists than gun safety activists. Right. And so the only way we're going to beat them is to win elections by organizing and campaigning on this issue, among others, and send a message that you should be more afraid of gun safety

activists than gun rights activists. No, and I agree. And you're right about the NRA too. And it is what they are trying to pull on america what they have pulled for a long time is the same con that donald trump has pulled on america and the republican party today which is a bunch of rich powerful elite assholes telling everyone else that their problems are caused by other fictional rich powerful elite assholes right it's just like this whole thing this is the republican party today be scared of someone else that else that's screwing you over when these people are the rich, powerful people who are in charge right now. That is true of the NRA.

That is true of Donald Trump and his tax cut. That is true of him and his health care plan. Down the line, these are rich, powerful people who protect and enrich only their own. And they're trying to fool everyone else in this country to believe that someone else is responsible for their problems. That is the whole game right now. And our job is to just point out that that game is bullshit. Last question, Dan.

What impact do you think this could have on 2018? Where does this go from here? That's a great question. I don't know the answer to that. And I think it's even bigger than 2018 and 2020. And we talked about this a little bit at the beginning, which is we might be seeing a generation of young people get engaged in politics like we have not seen for at least 10 years. the deeply offensive Muslim ban, whether it's the people who have been organized around the Women's March and the Me Too movement around this, you're seeing a level of activism in this country. And if these kids keep working, and people keep staying motivated, we don't give into our national

ADD and fight for the things like we can make a real difference, right? So if we have a Democratic House and Democratic Senate, we can pass bill after bill, universal background checks, assault weapons ban, and then now you're in the game. Now you're in a negotiation with the Trump administration, you're making you're either making a veto it or you're at least having you are at the table having a conversation about how to get something done. And maybe not the perfect thing we want, but it's progress. And then you build on that progress and go forward. And one more thing I want to say on this is, you know, like, this one feels different. Yeah, it does. Right. And I think that says a lot about these, the eloquence and courage of these students. And, and I think they're tapping into a vein of activism in this country that's been going on since the day after the election in 2016.

But it's also, you know, I was in the White House during Newtown. And I mean, you were there during Newtown in the fight for gun safety. And like those Newtown parents are just some of the brave, just the amount of courage and poise they had to fight so hard in the wake of something that is so unimaginable happening is just breathtaking. And there is nothing that made President Obama or any of us more angry or more sad than when Republicans in Congress refused to meet with him and then voted down the legislation in the wake of children being massacred in their school. Little, small children. But we are here today with a chance of progress in Florida and in Washington also because of them. Right? Yeah.

As Obama would always say, change is hard and it takes time. Change is hard and it takes time. And so, you know, the Newtown parents move the ball really far forward with their organizing, their activism and their voices. And, you know, these these kids from Parkland are hopefully push it across the finish line and then there may be more people going to take it forward. And so we just have to it's not that the previous fights failed. It's that they didn't get us all the way there, but they moved us forward. And we wouldn't be here today without the activism of those Newtown families. And that's an important lesson. It's an important lesson to learn also, especially all the students who are, you know, taking up this fight right now, is that these things take a long time and

there's a lot of disappointments along the way and there's a lot of setbacks along the way. And, you know, it's not just, I think, I think the reason this time is different is not just the story of the Parkland students. It's sort of the story of activism in the Trump era, which is a lot of people in this country waking up and saying like, I'm sick of this shit. And they thought that things are going to be taken care of.

And they thought that they wouldn't have to make this their whole lives. But whether it's the women who march in the women's march, whether it's the people who went to those airports, whether it's the people who voted for the first time in Alabama or Virginia, whether it's people who've been part of the Me Too movement, these are people who are saying, you know, I realize that politics is an everyday struggle and that it is not something that just happens in Washington, that it has to be something that happens in my community. And, you know, that's inspiring, and it's also necessary.

It's the only way we're going to change things. And, you know, we're going to lose a bunch along the way, but that doesn't mean, as you just pointed out, with what happened in 2013 after Newtown, that doesn't mean the story's over. The story keeps going as long as you keep it going. You're not going to win every fight in politics, but you're always better off for fighting the fight. That's right. That's right. All right. fight. That's right. That's right.

Alright. On that inspiring note, when we come back, we will talk to Billy Eichner, who has a great new effort to glam up the midterms and get young people out there to vote. Welcome, Billy Eichner to Pod Save America. I'm so excited to be here. I'm a huge fan.

Great to have you here. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I listen all the time. Not every episode. Once in a while, though. Enough to sort of get by. When I can squeeze it in. But I'm very upset that John Lovett is not here. He is very upset as well. Oh, is he? He didn't say that, but I think he's probably mad that this was scheduled. How dare

John Lovett not be here? Doesn't he know who I am? I invented loud gay Jews who love to hear themselves talk. Okay? Show a little respect, Lovett. Lovett or leave it, and he left. What does that say about me? He is busy with his solo career right now.

Yeah, the spinoff. There's a spinoff. We call him Bay here. He's got his own thing. You guys are the Kelly Rowland of Pod Saves America. She was in Destiny's Child, guys. I know. Was that a thing?

Yes. Okay, cool. They were a band. They were a band. They were my favorite band. They were a girl band for a while. Yeah were my favorite band. They were a girl band. Yeah, my favorite band. Tell us about Glam Up the Midterms.

So I started a voter initiative campaign called Glam Up the Midterms with my friends at Funny or Die, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's company. They've been producing my show, Billy on the Street, for many years. I'm very close with those guys. And I called them up. Trump had said something, God knows. I can't even remember what it was because there's so much every day. But six months ago. So I called

Funny or Die, which has a history of doing politically oriented initiatives like this, like they did with Obamacare and Between Two Ferns. And I had done a Billy on the Street video with Michelle Obama a few years ago. And so I said, I want to, let's do something. But I am just sick of angry tweeting all the time. And so I said, I want to, let's do something, but I am just sick

of angry tweeting all the time and it doesn't feel like the most productive thing, even though I'll keep doing it. We all will. Right. How could you not?

You make a living off of it. Right, exactly. And it's cathartic. And I actually think angry tweeting can be productive in its own way. But I wanted to do something

that had a tangible effect. And then we got all these statistics in which said that in the last midterm election, only 12% of millennials voted in 2014. Dismal. Which is very bleak. But then I thought, before I just get sort of self-righteous about that, I thought to myself, you know, I'm in my late 30s. I am more than willing to admit that I have skipped a midterm or two in my day. And maybe you guys haven't. I think we all have. No, I think we all have. Right. We all have, right? I mean, 12%.

We're all skipping the midterm. And the percentages aren't that much better as you get older. But for millennials, it's particularly bad. And I know millennials probably don't want to be called millennials, but I'm sorry. That's just what you are at this point. And so I said, okay, that's a dismal, bleak statistic. What can we do to register voters knowing there's a midterm coming up and knowing now compared to two years ago, there is so much outrage and so much anger and people want to be productive. But I thought, how do we focus this anger? Voting. Let's vote. There's a midterm coming up in November. Let's get out there and register as many voters as we can.

And, you know, we're in comedy. We're in entertainment. So we thought, what's a funny take on that? So I thought, well, there's nothing less glamorous than the midterm elections, right? There's nothing less exciting or sexy sounding than the midterm. So let's turn that on its ear and let's glam up the midterms. And all that means is we're going to go out. We've pinpointed several districts and we're in the middleterms. So let's turn that on its ear and let's glam up the midterms. And all that means is we're going to go out. We've pinpointed several districts

and we're in the middle of fundraising and we're going to actually go. Yes, there will be viral videos. We did a launch video with Kimmel and John Oliver and Seth Meyers and all these guys just to get the idea of the campaign out there. But one of the most exciting parts of the campaign

is that we're going to go to districts where there are going to be hotly contested races coming up. And we're going to be signing up young voters. It's a bipartisan campaign. I'm Billy Eichner. I'm not bipartisan. But the campaign is bipartisan. We're not looking for Democrats or Republicans to sign up.

We're just looking for young people to sign up in general. And also, while signing them up, give them information. As you guys know, the midterms, it's different in every state. It's different in every district. The average person may not even know which races are going on in their state, who the candidates are, what the issues are. And so we're going to be giving them this information, sometimes in a very dry, informative way, and sometimes in our own fun, entertaining way.

And that's the general idea of it. But you're just going to sign up Democrats, right? Well, yeah, obviously. No, I'm just kidding. No, no, I swear that we are not. It is a bipartisan effort. I don't know how many Republicans listen to this podcast. Huge list for it.

Yeah, exactly. So, no, it is a bipartisan effort. And look, I can be political in my own way on social media and advocate for certain candidates that I support. But glam up the midterms is a bipartisan effort. Cool. I think this is such a good idea because registering to vote, it shouldn't be hard, but there's friction to prevent people from doing it, right?

Exactly. So that's critical. But you look at those numbers, like 88 percent of young people took a pass on voting to decide if Obamacare is repealed to confirm Trump's Supreme Court justices, whether Trump will be impeached maybe one day, hopefully. How do we convince young people not just to register, but the stakes in these elections and these off year elections are just as big as presidential years? Right. Well, that's tricky.

I do think young people, like we're seeing in Florida, obviously, but all over the country, and even before this most recent shooting, young people are more engaged now than they have been, I would imagine. It certainly looks like that. So what I wanted to do is go out there and try to capitalize on that interest and passion and say, oh, you're interested in this now? Great. Here's what you have to do. There's a midterm election coming up. You know, the media doesn't give a ton of attention to midterm elections.

It's very easy to get involved in the presidential race. There's two candidates we're focused on nationally. Everyone is laser focused on those two. And the whole country is focused on the same race, more or less. The midterms are different everywhere you go. And so, you know, not every race in every state will bubble up and become something that CNN or Vice or, you know, you guys will be able to focus on. There's just simply too many candidates and too many races. And so we want to go out there and do our part

and let people know, young and old, hey, you're fired up now? Great. Beyond just being fired up, there's a big election coming up. And it's not Trump versus Hillary, so you haven't heard as much about it. But we're giving you information. Here are the dates. Here's how you register. Here's information that can help you decide

who you want to vote for. And just go fucking do it. Are we going to see littley on the street you like running around yelling at millennials well you have to pay me a lot to do that john i mean you know i'm still an actor no no we're gonna we're gonna do whatever we're gonna do whatever makes sense um so well you know what i don't want it to be is you know i'm not gonna choose some we're not gonna go to pennsylvania and just randomly drag the cast of gray's anatomy there you know like i i don't i know that people just don't want random hollywood folks showing up and telling them to vote there can be there's nothing more irritating than that so what we're gonna do is katie perry concerts i blame katie perry for

everything that happened in the last election. No, I mean, I do think, look, I'm someone with a platform, right? And I'm engaged and I'm angry. So I've been shouting at people on the street for years about bullshit, pop culture bullshit. So now I want to shout at people about something that is actually important,

that can actually affect our lives. But beyond that, another part of the Glam Up campaign that I love is that we're actually in these districts going to be pinpointing local heroes, local celebrities, whether it's high school athletes, kids who have a big platform on their college campus, the local bartender who people just love, and we want to engage the hometown heroes

and sort of empower them to use their voice, no matter how many Twitter followers you have or don't have. Those people have influence in that district. And we want them to help us let people know that the election's coming up. So you were obviously born to be the lead. In what? The King and I? In Hollywood.

I mean, what are you talking about? In this advert. But you have an amazing supporting cast here, right? You have James Corden, Sarah Silverman, Seth Meyers, Conan Kimmel, John Oliver, Rob. How do they get these folks to go to their district? How can people listening be like, come to my district, rally voters, register voters? Well, I mean, that's on me, really. I mean, when we made the launch video, I reached out to all those people you just mentioned personally. And I said, hey, we're doing this campaign. Here's what it is. You know, I have a platform. You guys have an even bigger platform. Will you help us out? And that's what

we're going to keep doing. We're going to go district by district and say, hey, what do we think will be effective in this district? I don't think it's about dragging James Corden around wherever he's willing to go. As lovely as James Corden is, he'll come, he'll sing a song, he'll do a dance, you know, loves to entertain. But it's not about that. We want to do things that we think the people in that district will actually respond to and care about. Now, that might be someone who happens to be famous who has a personal connection to that district coming and talking to people and helping rally people. Or, like I said, it might be talking to someone local. It might be putting on, putting on an improv show for young people and also having them register as they walk in the door. There's any number of things you can

do. And Glam Up the Midterms, as you well know, is just one campaign like this that's going on. I know you guys are working with Swing Left. Indivisible has been doing incredible work for over a year. So on some level, we're piggybacking on those guys, and we want to work together. This is a bipartisan effort, and the ones I just mentioned are not as bipartisan. But, you know, when it comes to just sheer voter registration, we're just doing our part, you know. So, you know, I've followed you on Twitter for a long time. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You're welcome. A lot of faves. It's a big deal. And I noticed, you know, you've obviously been much more political since Trump was elected. Have you always been interested in politics?

Is it something about 2016 that really got you into this? Because, you know, a lot of your tweets are serious about Trump. Yeah. Well, yeah, I have. I describe myself as someone who's always probably been more interested in current events maybe than the average person. You know, I've always loved what was going on in the world and keeping up with that. But like I said, that did not always translate into me going to vote. As engaged as I was superficially, I wasn't actually taking that step.

You know, I wasn't necessarily going to a rally or going to a protest or even just going to the voting booth. Sometimes I did. You know, I wasn't completely out of it. When if it was a big race, sure, I would focus on it the way any other person might. But did I have an interest in what was going on? Yes. I remember hating Giuliani. Even after 9-11, because I'm a New Yorker, hating Giuliani.

And he was, like, shutting down art exhibits. And that, like, made me livid. You were ahead of the curve, though. Very ahead of the curve. Seriously. I'll tell you how ahead of the curve I was. I hated Reagan. I hated Reagan back when it wasn't cool.

I was like eight years old, and I was like, he doesn't mention AIDS, like the gayest little eight-year-old you've ever seen. I've always had an interest, but I have never fully, if this makes any sense, capitalized on my own interest to do productive things. And that's what this campaign is about. Did Trump change that for you? I think he did. I mean, I think he changed it for so many people.

And now, look, I don't agree with what Susan Sarandon said about Jill Stein back in the day. And yes, I did just bring up Susan Sarand. Wow. I nodded. But I will say there were people. I don't agree with. Obviously, you know, I was very pro Hillary and not pro Jill Stein in any way, shape or form. But I remember she.

Billy Eichner comes out in favor of Jill Stein on Pod Save America. You know what? Breaking news. I'm a Russian bot this whole time. It should have been bot on the street instead of Billy on the street. But I will say there were people who said, you know what? I think electing Trump will force people to rise up out of this, like, semi-coma that a lot of people have been in. Now, I wish he didn't win. I wish we didn't need him to energize us the way that he has.

But he has. That's right. You can't deny that he has. So every cloud, and this is a big motherfucking cloud, but every cloud has a silver lining. I think Al Roker is the first person to ever say that. Wonderful meteorologist. But every cloud has a silver lining. that wonderful meteorologist. But every cloud has a silver lining. And the silver lining here is that we are waking up, that we were all, not all, a lot of us were very complacent. We thought it

was a more tolerant place. You know, we took Obama's victories as a sign that we were progressing. And you know what? We did progress. That was progress. But now we see, oh, shit, like, you don't just keep progressing. You can actually step backwards. And so, you know, he has invigorated us. He has energized us. And here we are. So did Trump cause me to want to be more productive and more engaged? Yeah, of course he did because he's terrifying. Yeah. So what happened in Parkland was horrific. The CNN town hall last night had these kids out front asking Marco Rubio the toughest questions.

I fucking hate Marco Rubio. I do too. Okay, look, people saying like, even some of my friends are on Twitter saying, Marco Rubio gets points for showing up. No, he fucking doesn't. It's literally his job. For talking to his constituents?

I don't clap for my dentist when he finally agrees to look at my teeth. That's his fucking job, you fucking sweaty little hypocritical weasel. Fucking hate that guy. God, how dare he.

That's all we wanted. We've just been attacking Marco Rubio all morning. And also, Marco Rubio, you're never going to be president. Never.

The ship has sailed. It sailed a long time ago. So at least try to earn a few points by showing some integrity. But it just shows how lost. They're so lost. Their souls are permanently damaged. They're poisonous people. And so I find those people to be a lost cause.

He's a lost cause. But seeing those kids out there being tougher on him than any journalist has been in like 10 years was amazing. So what do you think we should do to keep those kids out front in this and support them in their message, but make sure that Susan Sarandon and Jill Stein don't hijack what they're trying to do and make it harder? Although that would be a great Thelma and Louise reboot. The one we've been waiting for. Gina Davis gets thrown under the bus for no reason. But what was I going to say?

We have to show up for them. What's amazing is they're now showing us the way, which is incredible. We're supposed to be older and wiser, but you get jaded as the years go by. And what we're seeing in them is a great lack of jadedness, you know, a great belief that just having integrity and fighting for the right thing is actually enough, you know, that putting passion and energy and time and money behind that is

enough, you know, and I think we're all out here fighting and shouting on Twitter since Trump got elected, but we're still very jaded. We're still very cynical. And there's something about it that seems very pure. And I think we just have to show up for them in all the ways I just said. Like, I'm going to go to the march on the 24th. I'm going to march with every town. And I'm sure a lot of people will.

I mean, I'm mainly going to get Amal Clooney's autograph. But beyond that, I think a nice side effect is I'll be marching. That's great. But you're right. The smart, cool thing to say on Twitter after a gun massacre is nothing's ever going to change. You know, everyone's just to be cynical. And these kids are lacking that cynical bone. And it is so nice to see.

I mean, Obama had an incredible tweet this morning. You know, I can imagine I can't speak for the man and you guys know him better than I do. But I imagine after Sandy Hook, I've gone and rewatched his speech in the Rose Garden after Congress decided to do nothing after Sandy Hook. Those kids were younger even than the kids in Parkland. Right. And he seems bewildered and confused. Like, he seemed at a loss. He said that was the most disgusted

he's ever been in politics. Right. How could you not be at that point? I mean, I just got chills thinking about it, right? And so seeing his tweet this morning, and I don't want to speak for him, but reading between the lines, and if you haven't seen it,

he basically was talking about how inspiring these kids in Florida are and how, like I just said said we have to show up for them and that we're you know we're here with them and we will support them but you can sense even in his tweet a shock that we might be able to make some progress yeah you know that they've they've they've been encouraging to him i think on a real level you, those weren't just words that he was tweeting. You're right that showing up for them. I mean, we got an email yesterday from a father of one of the kids killed in Sandy Hook.

And it was a reminder that speaking out for them, showing up for them years later matters. So, yeah, it's also like we were talking about this earlier. It's so cool watching these students, which is the refrain of Emma Gonzalez's speech. Like we call BS, calling out bullshit on these politicians. And even at the town hall last night, you know, not just being like regular journalists and asking Rubio a question, letting him do his talking points and then move on. They ask these follow-ups and they keep pressing them, you know, and they just sort of, and the conspiracy theories are out there about the kids and then they just go on Twitter

and they just call them out as bullshit. They don't even know the rules yet, so they don't have to play by them. They're just being honest. And I said to a friend of mine last night, you know, as much shit as we give social media, and Lord knows there are major pros and cons to social media. I mean, I wouldn't have a career without YouTube, so I'd like to thank everyone at the wonderful YouTube company for supporting me. But there are major pros and cons to social media. But when I looked at these kids, I thought, my God, how do they have such poise and such self-possession just hours, days after an event which would send some people into their bedrooms for the rest of their lives, right? And you would understand that, right?

How do they have such poise and such conviction and such confidence? And I thought maybe, this is just a theory, you guys, don't at me, but maybe it's because they grew up with social media, seeing kids like themselves on YouTube, that they're the most media-savvy generation we've ever had because they've been inundated with media in the palm of their hands 24-7 since they were young children.

So maybe they're not as scared of the camera, and maybe, in a way, in this situation at least, that's a good thing. I think that's right. And like you said, they don't know the rules yet. Or they know the rules and they just don't give a shit about them anymore. They don't give a shit about the political rules that have been in place or the media rules that have been in place. Absolutely.

All these people defaulting to arguments about civility drive me crazy. Like, how would you feel if your son mocked a senator on television? Pretty good. Yeah, I'd be pretty happy with myself. That prick was refusing to do anything about gun damage. Civility got thrown out the window a long time ago. Have you seen Fear Factor? I mean, you know thrown out the window a long time ago. Have you seen Fear Factor? I mean, you know,

even that was like 10 years ago. Civility. So how do people get involved with Glam Up the Midterms? Website? They can go to glamupthemidterms.com They can sign up and we'll send them alerts and all kinds of information. You can also follow Glam Up Midterms on Twitter or follow me on Twitter at Billy Eichner.

I did want to announce that our first trip to a district is going to be to California District 49 in San Diego. ISA. Or old ISA districts. Old ISA districts. He's not running anymore, that NRA shitbag. And so the seat is open. But what people don't realize, you guys probably realize it because you're the host of Pod Saves America. But I'm not impressed okay

we'll see how the tv show works out um no no no but uh uh it's an open seat in district 49 we're gonna go there and there's california has this somewhat strange rule which was actually implemented by voters called top two i'm sure you guys maybe talked about it right now we're losing sleep over it yeah exactly the top two candidates in that district, regardless of party, will move on to the actual election in November. But there's a primary on June 5th, which means that if there are, in theory, there's so much fervor on the Democratic side that there are a lot of Democrats who want to run, but they could end up canceling each other out and you could end up in November

having to decide between two Republican candidates, which means people have to get registered not before November, but before the primary in June. Right. And I think you have 15 days prior to June 5th to register to vote. So if you're a Republican who doesn't want to see two Democrats running in November or a Democrat that doesn't want to see two Republicans running and have no Democratic option in November in District 49 in California, you've got to register to vote in the primary and then vote in the fucking primary. So we're going to be

dunked down to San Diego registering voters prior to the primary. And so go to glamoptthemidterms.com, sign up, meet us in San Diego, get registered, help us register people, and, you know, do something with your fucking lives for once

who doesn't love San Diego um Bill you're gonna be in Jon Favreau's remake of The Lion King how does this compare um Pod Save America

yeah well I'd say uh there was less Pod Save America you're gonna make us fucking plural I'm sorry

Pod Save America unbelievable alright you do it once well there's less Beyonce in this than there is in The Lion King, which is, of course, a bad thing.

But maybe she'll do your show when you're on HBO. This is good. I don't know that we can do it. We're going to confuse her into doing another John Travolta. Thank you, Billy. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

I love the show. We love you. Billy on the Street is the funniest thing you'll ever watch. What about my other four shows? Do you watch Man, America, and Horror Story? I don't know them. Okay. Thank you to Billy E I don't know them. Okay. Thank you to Billy Eichner for stopping by.

Thank you, Dan. Everyone go sign up for Ben Rhodes' new book. And Dan's book, all of the books. Buy the books. Buy the books. And we will talk to you guys on Monday. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you.