Pod Save America - "Weed Is Tight (and so are the midterms)"

Episode Date: October 11, 2022

The Republican closing argument is as Trumpy and racist as ever. Joe Biden takes a big step towards decriminalizing marijuana. And Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock stops by to talk about his very close race against Herschel Walker. For 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.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, the Republicans' midterm closing argument is as Trumpy and racist as ever. Joe Biden takes a big step towards decriminalizing marijuana. And Senator Raphael Warnock stops by to talk about his very tight race against Herschel Walker. But first, before we get started, Crooked's newest podcast, World Corrupt, is finally here. It is outstanding.

Thank you, John. I listened this weekend. I'm hooked. I can't wait for more episodes. Tommy, tell us all about it. I got you. It's a gateway drug to soccer. So World Corrupt is a new podcast I'm doing with my friend Roger Bennett.

He's the co-host of a show called Men in Blazers. It's the best soccer podcast out there by far. In this little mini-series, World Corrupt, we're talking about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This tournament is very controversial because FIFA, the governing body for soccer, is hopelessly corrupt, like bags of cash and envelopes corrupt. It makes no sense to have a soccer tournament in Qatar. They literally had to move the tournament from the summer to the winter because it would have been 120 degrees. There was no infrastructure. Women and LGBT people are treated horribly. And all the stadiums and stuff were built by migrant laborers in these just unbelievably unsafe, horrible conditions. So in the series, we talked to you about the World Cup, FIFA history. We talked to people

who are part of the US delegation to Switzerland when the games were awarded. We talked to Megan Rapinoe about what it's like to be an the games were awarded. We talked to Megan Rapinoe about what it's like to be an athlete who speaks up. We talked to human rights experts about what fans can do to move the needle and sort of right the wrong that has been done so far, or at least try to. And we also just laugh our asses off because Roger is one of the funniest people I know and we can't help ourselves and it's better to laugh than to cry so the series is out now it's been a ton of work i'm really proud of it it's on the uh pod save the world and men in blazers feeds on saturdays please check it out the world cup is in november it's mid-november so you got some time

but there will be six of them so check it out yeah and i thought you guys just do such a great job reconciling like people's love of sports and the joy that sports can bring you with the like deep corruption of the world. Listen, which I think it's just it's very entertaining and also like very informative. I watch the NFL every Sunday watching quarterbacks get tossed to the ground and concussed and brutalized. Create some moral quandaries for me, but I still watch anyway. creates some moral quandaries for me, but I still watch anyway. And we try to reconcile the love and sort of knowing that the institutions

and the money that gets washed into pro sports is gross and can distort it all. But that's what we talk about. Yeah, it's great. Check it out, everyone. Also, if listening to Crooked Pods is not enough for you, check out the Crooked Radio Takeover

every weekend in October on SiriusXM Progress and on the SiriusXM app. It's a great new way to hear and discover all the great voices and shows across the Crooked universe ahead of the midterms. Pod Save America episodes will air at 6.30 a.m. and 12 p.m. each weekend. For all your friends and family who've got SiriusXM subscriptions, get them hooked on Pod Save America in the car when they're listening to SiriusXM. It'll be great. Get them hooked on Pod Save America in the car when they're listening to Sirius XM.

It'll be great. And Crooked listeners can get up to four months free of Sirius XM, so you can check it out at SiriusXM.com slash Crooked. All right. Let's get to the news. Guys, we are one month out from Election Day. They're starting to mail ballots. There's a chill in the air.

The polls. 72 in LA. And over the weekend, we got a preview of the Republican Party's closing argument at a pair of cultish Trump rallies in Nevada and Arizona. The 2024 GOP frontrunner appeared with each state's major candidates and a random assortment of MAGA goons to focus on what voters care about most. Let's listen. When will they investigate and prosecute Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George Bush, and look into what took place with George Bush's father, a very nice man,

and the warehouse of documents? And what about Barack Hussein Obama? Are they under potential prosecution? I don't think so. Meanwhile, George H.W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant where they combined them. So they're in a bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant. This is a very important decision that was made to call it the Sox decision, because

again, it had to do with Bill Clinton and his socks. There is no crime. You know, there is no crime. It's not a crime. And they should give me immediately back everything that they've taken from me because it's mine. They lose documents. They plant documents. Let's see. Is there a book on nuclear destruction or the building of a nuclear weapon cheaply? Let's put that box. Let's put that book in with Trump. No, they plant documents. Wow. I have to say the part where he uh advocates investigating uh a dead president but

then says he was a nice man he doesn't i don't think he knows that george hw bush is dead i think you're right i love it i think you're right and honestly i think it's about time invited to the funeral oh yeah there was that he got pretty mad about that biden forgets who's dead trump forgets who's dead these guys forget who's dead so so it is true so jeb bush later tweeted a clip of this and asked trump what the heck is up with you what do you guys think what's up what's up with him is it just me or is he starting to sound like someone doing impersonation he sounds like that he sounds like the snl guy now. He's doing that new SNL impression of himself. Also, I'm a little worried that Trump just revealed here a little bit more information about the specifics of the nuclear documents that he was purported to have. Is he

exaggerating or is he letting us know that it's actually worse than we thought? You know what I mean? Yeah, it was like it was a very specific too because he was like how to build a nuclear bomb cheaply like did he have like a fucking suitcase noose nuke recipe down there like how bad was it also candle pin or big ball bowling yes no one knows about candle no one thinks about candle outside of you fucking idiots me and you nobody knows it's a stupid game throwing a baseball at bowling pin you know what you're from massachusetts you know it's really fun throwing a bowling ball as fast as you can a tiny little pins instead of the big dumb ball that spins especially the bumpers too bumpers in the alley i gotta say anyway chinese restaurant bowling alley combo great idea yeah that sounds like blast two great

tastes that taste great together should we tell people what he's referring to by the sure why why why why why because why bother what else what else are they listening to us for these wonderful jokes about what he just said let the people know let's give them some information let's debunk let's do some debunking all right let's put on our fucking debunking helmets go down to the debunking mines let's go let's go let's get some fucking uh let's get some pinocchios here he's trying to argue that every president has kept records and done it in the same way as him and he's describing what he's doing is describing buildings that used to be used for one purpose that were converted to another purpose and trying to make it sound like they are forever insecure and unsafe. So we're saying like, you know, they took the records to a former

bowling alley or a restaurant or whatever. Well, sure. Yes. But you can, you can turn a building that housed a restaurant into a bank by modifying it. Yeah. Tommy, that's what happens here. You've ever seen a, a, a chase bank that's shaped like a pizza hut. It's, it's okay to leave your money there. That's right. Yeah, no, they put a fucking vault in there, and then they guarded it with people who had top-secret security clearance. That's what they did with George H.W. Booker's records before they moved the records into the library, which is the permanent home for the records. I mean, he says in this, well, but Secret Service is guarding Mar-a-Lago, so he's trying to suggest that's even safer. But of course, the Secret Service wasn't paying attention to every random office building and room in Mar-a-Lago's basement.

That's not how it works. No, because the Secret Service also didn't know that he had stolen the how-to guide for nukes. That's right. And the whole thing is prepared. It's prepared remarks, by the way. I watched it all. This is a whole spiel he's doing. It's a Stephen Miller thing. watched it all it's it's this is a whole spiel steven miller thing and then the clinton sock thing was uh clinton put all of his uh his his tapes for his taylor branch conversations

uh who's a civil rights historian they wrote a book about bill clinton he clinton had those tapes in his sock drawer and a court ruled that he could keep them because they were personal and didn't have to do with his uh presidency and then there was the sandy burger piece of this yeah i think i never got to the bottom i think trump was sort of mixing mixing those together hey and the sandy burger sock drawer not the socks it was sandy burger socks yeah sandy burger put things in his socks and that was fucked and we never really got to the bottom of it yeah he had some trouble though so the new york times has some new reporting about how Trump apparently tried to make a deal with the National Archives over the stolen documents. The deal was he'd give back the government's most highly classified secrets in exchange for documents related to the Russia investigation that Trump believed would exonerate him.

Sami, what's your take on that story? You think it helps explain why he took the documents in the first place? No. I mean, he thinks everything is leveraged to this guy, right? Whether it's a military aid to Ukraine, these documents, it's all leveraged for him. in Nevada, about the efforts to declassify the Russia investigation documents in the final days of the administration and how mad all these sort of national security MAGA goons were that it didn't happen. I don't know how that folds in here necessarily. I don't think we can say though that it explains kind of what he took, whether he was holding them purposely, because we also know that the stockpile in the basement included like information about the president of france and the kim jong-un letter so there's clearly some onesies and twosies you know some stray docs can i so that's all very that's all tommy's making very sophisticated important points

if someone steals your car from in front of your house and then says i have an offer for you i'll give you your car back for your other car that's not a negotiation none of these documents belong to him there's nothing to trade nothing these are all stolen documents and he's still he's also continuing to say that they took documents that were his but that were also planted they planted documents and they took his documents neither of which is true he's saying that they're mine they're not yours these are government records they're government records and he's also saying i didn't do this just like all the other ex-presidents did do what i'm saying i didn't do like hey they all took their documents they all

took their nuclear secrets about their how to build a bomb thing. Why should, and they didn't get investigated. Why should I get investigated? Got a real, uh, Herschel Walker. I didn't pay for an abortion, but if I did, it wouldn't be a problem. And I was already, uh, given grace by God for doing so. Yeah. But it's good that he's zeroing in on this in the final weeks of the campaign.

Though, even though Mar-a-Lago is now part of Trump's stump speech, he goes everywhere. There's both rallies this weekend. He's talking all about it. Political found that out of nearly 6,000 campaign ads that have run since the FBI raid, fewer than 20 have mentioned Mar-a-Lago or the Justice Department. Love it. Why do you think that is? I think it is clearly like, you know, in the in the immediate aftermath of the raid, there were a lot of Republicans and pundits saying this is going to energize Republicans. This is going to be their closing issue. That's clearly not the case. They don't view this as like a big galvanizing issue. And I think the same is true for Democrats, in part because Donald Trump isn't on any ballots. What it is is an issue that is being used to raise money. Republicans are using it for for money. Republicans are using it for

for fundraising and Democrats are using it for fundraising. And there is one exception to the no mention of of Mar-a-Lago and DOJ investigations, which is that when you're running against an actual insurrectionist, some of the DOJ investigations of the insurrection are coming up in ads. But otherwise, I think it is been more about, you know, small plays to fundraise than actually appeal to any kind of broad, broad group of voters. Yeah, I mean, I think if you're John Fetterman, you probably better off lighting the money on fire, because at least that would generate light and heat than putting up TV ads about this issue, because no one gives a fuck. Yeah, it's just it's also attacking attacking republicans for defending

trump's criminality it's just it's just like too much of a bank shot right about abortion rights economic issues it's also not surprising at this point to people it's sort of baked in people think he's people either think he's a crook or they love him and and like and like lovett said he's not on the ballot either way so and republicans are defending extreme positions that other republicans have taken on much more relevant and important issues every single day. Yeah, right, right. Well, so as always, Republican politicians are also focusing on crime and immigration in the final weeks of the campaign. And of course, in the Trump era, they're doing it in the most racist way possible. For some reason, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville was at the Nevada rally,

and Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was at the Arizona rally. It is funny that they're just bringing all these MAGA goons all around the country to states where they have no connection to traveling circus. Yeah. It's like when they go when you it's when you wait, the people that don't win American Idol, they tour together. It's fine. So from Justin to Kelly. So here's some of what these two said at the rallies. Some people say, well, they're soft on crime. No, they're not soft on crime. They're pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that bullshit. Joe Biden's five million illegal aliens are on the verge of replacing you,

Joe Biden's five million illegal aliens are on the verge of replacing you, replacing your jobs and replacing your kids in school and coming from all over the world. They're also replacing your culture. And that's not great for America. Not subtle, not subtle. This is obviously disgusting. But do you guys think that like being this blunt is effective outside the MAGA base and should democratic candidates be calling it out yes I think I think they should call it out uh I don't know how effective is I have a feeling it's uh surprisingly and sadly effective or maybe not surprisingly effective with the base beyond that I think it's um you know I feel like the phrase they're saying the quiet part out loud has sort of been overused and kind of turned into a cliche. But in this case, it's true. And I think

it's valuable because it exposes the whole game. Yeah, this is not subtle. This is them saying things explicitly. But this is the message of the entire Republican Party in the closing of this race. They're not saying it explicitly, but they certainly want people to think this. They want this to be the implication. They want this to be the subtext of everything they're talking about on crime and immigration. And I think pointing out when it is this explicit, when it is this directly racist, I think it is valuable to say, look, see, this is what they're trying to do. They don't have answers on inflation. They don't have answers on health care costs. They don't have answers on housing costs and answers to any of the problems facing real people. And any of their any of the answers they do offer

will make matters worse. They know that they have a problem that people think they're radical, that people think they're extreme. So their goal is to make you more afraid of crime, to make you more afraid of immigrants than you are of their extreme positions, of their positions on abortion, to make more salient crime and immigration than, you know, health, education, and abortion. I mean, MTG, right, she's an idiot who has never met a conspiracy theory she won't repeat. Tommy Tuberville is a racist idiot who built his career on the backs of Black athletes, and it is really despicable and disappointing.

And, you know, we asked Senator Warnock about these comments. And, you know, you'll hear it later in the interview, but you could tell he was genuinely hurt. Yeah. You know, like you could there was like real like kind of pain in that answer of like someone he'd worked with. They weren't like, look, we're doing research before the interview. Like they work together on some provision to help peanut farmers literally literally, in Georgia. Like your classic Senate thing. And he has to go hear his colleagues say something this vile. So I don't think Democrats should shy away from responding and calling out these comments for what they are, which are overtly racist and disgusting. That said, I do think these were rallied.

This was Arizona or Nevada, both, both. So like, I don't know the candidates there should pivot their message to take on Tommy Tuberville or to take on MTG because they're not running for election. And I think we learned in 2016 that sometimes voters, even voters of color are less motivated by pointing out racism than by talking about what you're going to do for them. And this would also mean you're sort of on the crime and immigration footing for your messaging rather than talking about whatever your game plan is. So I would say, if asked, hammer these people for what they are and what they said, but don't necessarily switch up your game plan. Yeah, I think that these two examples are just so

obviously racist, right? Like it's, it's, we, you know, Republicans have used dog whistles for decades now. And I think it's one thing to say that crime is a real issue and to start talking about crime. So you bring race into it and you make people think about race or, you know, you say your immigration and you talk about the border and all this kind of stuff and it's all these dog whistles and stuff like that now we're so far past that now just like the the idea that black people are criminals and immigrants are coming here to replace white people are two ideas that um are not only vile but like just still very unpopular. Way too popular, for sure, with a small percentage of this country, but still not, I mean, like that is a, it's a crazy thing to say.

You just described Fox News' programming at night, like for the last 60 days before every election. I'm not even being sarcastic. It's not even a joke. It would be great if the media held candidates, especially a United States Senator to a different standard, impressed all of them on Tommy T's comments and why he's such a shitty coach and shitty person. But I don't have a lot of faith that'll happen because, you know, Tucker's over there doing a two hour interview with Kanye where like, you know,

they're not talking about his anti-Semitic comments from over the weekend or, you know, they're not talking about his anti-Semitic comments from over the weekend, or, you know, they're just letting him sort of spout off about all kinds of other nutty conspiracy theories. Yeah, I think I think that Masters, Lake, Laxalt, Lombardo should just all be asked if they stand by what was said at their rallies about black Americans and about immigrants. And I do think it's it's it is valuable to call this out, not because you're pivoting to talk about this, but because you're using this as a validation for something Democrats have been saying for a long time. And a lot of, uh, liberals have been saying for a long time that look like this is a dog whistle. These, this message on crime, this message in immigration, they are, they are making a coded and sometimes barely coded now,

not coded, uh, racist argument. And that is much more difficult to debate after you see a clip like this, because this is just a less subtle version of the thing that Tucker says every single night, every day. Yeah, because the problem with the dog whistle remarks is not everyone hears the dog whistle. Right. That's the whole thing. This one, everyone can hear it um so another horrifying comment at the rallies came from nevada um secretary of state candidate jim marchant who has ties to the q anon cult and has organized an entire slate of MAGA secretary of state candidates willing to overturn the election let's listen president trump and i lost an election in 2020

because of a rigged election and when my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected, we're going to fix the whole country. And President Trump is going to be president again in 2024. So Marchant and Mark Fincham, who's the secretary of state candidate in Arizona, are both leading their Democratic opponents in the polls. Tommy, what happens if they win? And what can we do to stop that from happening? Yeah, I mean, these two are very bad news. I mean, just you had some of the highlights, but I know a QAnon loving Oathkeeper. That seems very bad. Mark Fincham, that is, who wants to decertify the 2020 election. Fincham has also spent almost no money, but is winning because

of these sort of national headwinds. Jim Marchand is also an election denier who says Trump won Nevada and that he wouldn't have certified the election results in 2020. He also wants to end early voting and vote by mail. So these guys could completely radically change the way voting happens in those states and imperiled the ability for us to have fair elections in the future. So it's a big, big deal. And in both cases, the Republicans are winning just because no one is paying attention to the race. They're not focused on down ballot races. So it's very important for us to get in gear here. Yeah. I mean, it is, it's terrifying to think that the top elections official in both Arizona, Nevada, two very competitive States could be people who could

either refuse to certify the election or could fuck up the vote count in a myriad number of ways. Um, not least of which is sort of abolishing early voting and mail-in voting and all the stuff that you mentioned, but also just that that person is in control of the count of the vote count and they can make all sorts of mischief that way. It's pretty it's really scary. Love it. What do you what do you think about these wackos? I love it. I think it's fantastic that they're really kind of shaking things up. I love it. I think it's fantastic that they're really kind of shaking things up. No, look, you know, stepping back, it is I think sometimes, you know, why is a person like this close?

How is it close? And the reason is close is because something we complain about all the time. It is why we're all frustrated as news consumers. It's why we started doing this show that like there are just very few, very few media outlets. this show that like there are just very few, very few media outlets. There's very little local journalism. There's very little national journalism that's clear and reliably and consistently showing people the stakes in this election. If you are in Nevada, there is very little information that is helping you understand just who these people are. There's a lot of misinformation from dark money, from propaganda, from Fox News, from Facebook that is trying to mislead and distract you from what's at stake. And so what do we do to fill in that gap? Well, the only way people are going to get accurate information or really come to understand the stakes is through politics, through campaigning, through people knocking on doors, people calling them on the phone. And so like the the the the harder it is for people to

get information through just basic, basic reporting, the more it is incumbent on people to sign up and volunteer and be the person that brings that information directly to voters, because we're the only stopgap because this shouldn't be close. This shouldn't be hard. Nobody. No. If people had accurate information, if people understood what was at stake, it wouldn't be close. This shouldn't be hard. Nobody, if people had accurate information, if people understood what was at stake, it wouldn't be close. Yeah, there's some good candidates running against these psychopaths, Adrian Fontes, Cisco Aguilar. They're both down between sort of like three to eight percent. But again, no one pays attention to these races till the very end. So they spent way more money than their Republican opponents, but not that much yet.

If you go to votesaveamerica.com, we actually have a fund for secretaries of state and attorney generals in key states. You can donate to it. I said we just hit our $300,000 goal. We hit it. So someone very smart jacked it up to $350,000

while we weren't looking. But hey, stretch goal. That's great. No, that's very, very important. I mean, love it to your point. Media Matters wrote a piece about this. Like not one local Nevada television station included Marchant's comments in their coverage of the rally. And just about most of the outlets, the newspaper outlets didn't either.

So like we can all complain like why would these voters vote for someone like that? What's wrong with them? Don't they read Twitter like we do and see how crazy? Like, no, they don't. They watch their local news and read their newspaper and it's not fucking in there so that's why they don't that's why it's important so uh go to votesaveamerica.com all right before we get to our interview with Senator Warnock, let's talk about Dank Brandon. Oh boy, here we go. Fulfilling his campaign promise to pardon everyone convicted of possessing marijuana under federal law since it became a crime in the early 70s.

The president also asked the attorney general to review whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD. Love it. How big of a deal is this and who will it help? It's a huge deal. It's a massive deal. First and foremost, it helps a lot of people that have this criminal record for possessing marijuana that makes it hard for them to get a job. It makes them hard for them to just live a normal life and get past what's ultimately

like an unjust and unfair conviction. And then rescheduling this will like transform drug policy in this country. I do think that like, there's been something really ugly and feckless, even in the last few years, there's this, there's this been this way of talking about marijuana as if it's already legal, like, oh, you know, we've left it up to the states. It's legal here. It's legal there. No, it has never been legal. It has been a serious federal crime. And I think even some, there are some Republicans that have kind of, that have been willing to praise Biden for doing this, but some of, but some others that haven't. And part of the reason they haven't is they're kind

of playing a similar game to Tuberville, which is saying it's already legal for you. This is just something that's illegal for poor people and black people and people that get caught up in the legal system. So, you know, it is a it's it's it's transformative. Well, what do we know about the politics of marijuana legalization, Tommy? And would you make this part of your closing message if you were a Democratic candidate right now? I would. I mean, it's wildly popular. 61% of voters approve the decision to pardon people convicted of possession and 68% support legislation or legalization. Sorry. As Lovett said earlier, 19 states have legalized small quantities of weed. So I think the politics are in our favor. It's worth pointing out that Trump at these same rallies we were just talking

about is now calling for the death penalty for drug dealers. I don't know that he's specified what drug, but like the Republican message is going hardcore the other direction. He's emulating like the Philippines and other countries. The interesting thing about this decision, I mean, look, you can pardon people convicted of possession under federal law. You can urge states to follow suit, but your mostly Democratic governors are the ones who are likely to do so. But ironically, reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law could actually force the industry to be more responsible because if they were regulated by the FDA, they would have to actually think about and be honest about their advertising. And then also, like, I mean, there is sort of like the marijuana that people smoke

casually and there's edibles and stuff. And then there's like the 90 percent pure stuff that is a whole different ballgame than what we all came up on. You know, and so a little more common sense regulation around the range of of products being sold to people like us, but also young kids, I think would be a very good thing. Yeah, I think it's a very simple message too, right? Like Republicans want to throw you in jail for smoking weed. Democrats don't. It doesn't get much easier than that. Republicans, like, you know, they think anyone should be able to get an AK-47, but they want you to go to jail for smoking weed. And just remember, the roots of these policies are Richard Nixon trying to lock up black people and anti-war activists.

They set it on the record. So it's all out there. That's the history of these idiotic drug policies. And John, I don't think LSD should be scheduled on either, by the way. I think LSD absolutely should be reviewed the way it's scheduled because there was tons of research. I mean, we all watch the same Michael Pollan documentary, I'm sure, on Netflix. But there was a ton of research before the panic over people's kids becoming hippies in the 60s about the medicinal benefits of some of these drugs. And they were doing studies and tests.

And then when you schedule one it, you're not allowed to do that anymore. Half of Silicon Valley is microdosing mushrooms and LSD. And look how great they are for everybody. Look at all the good they're doing. Some of these apps are amazing. That's a model. That's a model for everyone. Just as Timothy Leary imagined it, right? You microdose and you just code for 24 hours straight. Most importantly, what were your favorite Biden marijuana jokes? What do you think, Loveit? Well, there was this one joke that was making the rounds that people were really loving, which was marijuana win the midterms. Love it.

Love it. Tried so many times in Slack. I think three or four times. I think it's good. People loved it. That's why I did it so many times. Someone had a meme of Biden with the red eyes and a marijuana leaf behind him. And it just said, let's grow, Brandon.

That's good. I just really got me. That's a, Brandon. That's good. I just really got me. That's fun. That was a good one. That's fun. Yeah. I was scrolling out to the slack here. Sarah Lazarus gave us, of course,

Yes, We Can. Oh, no, we did it, Joe. We did it, Joe. We did it, Joe. It was great. We did it. That was very good. Also, like, you know,

it's just sort of stepping back from like the last six months, like a series of legislative achievements followed by student loan relief followed by this uh it's pretty great yeah look you can have your disappointments with uh like joe mansion and kirsten cinema for not like letting us do a a bigger you know fucking reconciliation package and not getting rid of the filibuster for sure. But Joe Biden has now shepherded through all the legislation he could possibly get through this Congress and now used a ton of executive power to get a lot of other things done that he couldn't get through in Congress. So it's a pretty good track record.

Yeah. And it does seem like they are clearly waited to do some of these big executive actions until closer to the election in the hopes that people would notice them, learn about them, and remember them. Yeah, that's cynical time. Because people's memories are about... That's so cynical. Well, you know what? The order was over until now. We can't remember what we fucking talked about last week on this podcast, so, you know. That's the weed.

That's the problem. You got to legalize weed as close as you can until the election because everybody who cares about is only going to remember it so long you know it's a good point it's i want to talk about here's my thing i don't look my record on edibles is well known i don't understand this like the like that uh all of a sudden there's going to be like like funyun edibles and all these different kind of flavored edibles i feel like it's a fundamental confusion about like how edibles work like totally you don't want a whole bag right like alcohol you can sip you experience it in real time that's why it's like it's like a you're you're but with with

an edible you take it and then you wait a long time and then you feel the effects. So it's not like a noshing food. I don't understand putting marijuana in noshing foods. It does not make sense to me. Yeah. Let's not complicate the simple here, have an edible and then independently buy the Funyuns. There's no need. They don't need to be together. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense, Tommy. Also love it. Do you want to explain why you're on the straw man why are you on the set of uh with rudy giuliani about to pop up with that bed behind you for our youtube viewers first of all i think we should all take a moment and talk about the fact that it's fucking fascinating that you see a completely anodyne and generic hotel room and your first thought is rudy taking his pants off this is just just a bed, my friend. That's what you think of when you see a fucking bed.

So get yourself checked out. Thank you. I'm in North Carolina. I'm in Charlotte. We did a canvas today with Jeff Jackson, who's running for Congress. He's our age. So he's very young. So he's like pretty old.

But that was fun. We canvassed with him. We talked to Alma adams who's uh a congresswoman from charlotte and uh gonna do some sherry beasley campaigning tomorrow so look i'm out here with the people i'm out here with at any point did you say i'm sorry jeff jackson no don't don't don't do it but i did uh i did call him josh jackson at one point okay um which obviously is a reference to what's up pacey yes uh which you know that wasn't great that was a mistake

uh we talked to jill my joke is lame and you're dropping pacey i mean i'm trying to keep up with you dad unbelievable i hung out with giselle fetterman in uh in in pittsburgh okay we don't want you we don't need your whole schedule you guys need shit i haven't been home for two weeks and by the way just ask what the bed was doing in the background i'm telling you what i'm doing that's so funny that's the joke he's on so many people off his accomplishments for the week how many berries did you go to honestly i've made sure the hotels are near the berries i can't do this this. I can't be. I'm not going to be. I'm not going to. Look, I'm not. Look, I'll see America, but I got to go to an L.A. gym. All right.

We do have to throw it to Warnock. This isn't the end of the podcast. When we come back, we will talk to Senator Raphael Warnock. Joining us now is the Democratic senator from Georgia. He's running to keep his seat in one of the closest and most important midterm races this election season. Senator Raphael Warnock, thank you for joining us on the pod. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. So let's just sort of jump into the latest news in the race. There have been several reports that your opponent, Herschel Walker, paid for an ex-girlfriend's

abortion and then urged her to terminate a second pregnancy a couple of years later. Several news outlets have now seen a check written to this woman by Herschel Walker. There was a get well card in his handwriting. Herschel Walker's own son seemed to confirm this story, yet Herschel Walker is still denying it. My question is, do you believe him? And if not, what does it say about his candidacy that he would lie about something like this? Well, I will leave it up to the people of Georgia to decide whether they believe him. Here's what I believe. I believe in a woman's right to choose. And I have been consistent on this point. My view has not changed.

I have often said that I think that a patient's room is too small and too cramped of a space for a woman, her doctor, and the government. There's too many people in the room. The women of this country and the women of Georgia woke up one summer morning and saw that a core constitutional protection that they've been able to count on for half a century had been completely undermined by an activist Supreme Court. And my opponent thinks that apparently that's not far enough. And so he wants a nationwide ban on abortion. No exceptions. No exceptions, he care, women and doctors are wiser and far more principled than politicians. You mentioned that they want a ban, that Herschel Walker proposes a ban with no exceptions. He seems to think there's an exception for when the situation involves Herschel Walker. Like, do you think it's fair that Republican politicians seem OK with abortions when they involve Republican politicians but want to ban them for everyone else?

I think that my view has been consistent and I believe in reproductive choice. And, you know, I sometimes get push back on this point as a person of faith. But I think the issue when it comes to the public square is whose choice is it? And if you really are someone who reverences life, and I certainly do, it seems to me that you should be deeply offended by the high rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality in this country. We have the dubious distinction in America of far outstripping our Western and wealthy counterparts when it comes to maternal mortality. Too many women in Georgia are dying in a rich country, trying to have babies.

And for Black women, it's three to four times the rate of white women, even when they have the insurance and the income. And so I think that's something that government can actually do something about. And it's something that I've worked on throughout my career, way before I came to the Senate. A little change of speed here. So, you know, as you mentioned earlier, you're a pastor. That involves finding, you know, grace in challenging moments, light in darkness. Is that what prepared you to work with Ted Cruz? Listen, the thing about being a pastor, as you point out, is that we have to receive and we're glad to receive whoever comes through the door. And it's never too late to get religion, if you will.

And so Ted Cruz and I are on the Commerce Committee. We don't agree on much. In fact, I'll admit that most days I'm sitting there in committee listening to him talk and I'm wondering to myself, man, is that what you came here to do? I got dressed this morning, but did you put on a tie to do that? But one day, one day he had something he wanted to get done that made sense to me. He wanted to have Interstate 14 named a priority corridor. It's a road that he wants to see really built out as an interstate. It's an interstate, so it doesn't stop at the Texas border.

It would run through Georgia, and it would revitalize parts of our state. And so I joined with Ted Cruz and the Warnock-Cruz Amendment as part of the Bipartisan bipartisan infrastructure bill to get that amendment done. But I'm prepared to, you know, stand where I stand and take on the issues that I take on. And by contrast to him, the very next day, I'll do I'll work with whomever I can work with while I can work with them. If it'll help me do some good work for Georgia. That's a great story. And when this is all over and you win the race, he can probably tell you some spots in Cancun to get some R&R, you know, take a quick break.

So that's a good thing, too. You know, he and I both, he doesn't use it much, but his name is also Raphael. So I told him, you know, maybe we can form the Raphael caucus and get some good things done. Perfect. Perfect. I wanted to ask about one of your other Senate colleagues, Tommy Tuberville, who I know you work with as well. He said over the weekend that Democrats want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.

The NAACP called the remarks flat out racist. What's your reaction? It's deeply disappointing. And I think it's one more example of the ways in which we are in a moment where there are those in office who are trying to appeal to the worst in us for short- term political gain. And not only is this rhetoric inappropriate, quite frankly, it's dangerous.

And he really should apologize and make amends for that kind of rhetoric. really should apologize and make amends for that kind of rhetoric. Look, I have spent my whole career trying to bring people together. I'm the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached. And part of that tradition is that King found ways to, even as he challenged people, to try to convert his adversaries, if you will. And so George is a Senate pastor to the Senate. And they used to call John Lewis, my parishioner, the conscience of the Senate, the conscience of the Congress. Well, I've been in the Senate now for about 22 months. And I can tell you that if the Congress on the House side needs a conscience, the Senate needs a soul. And so I will continue to try to speak to the best in us embodied in that American covenant, e pluribus unum, out of many, one.

That is refreshing to hear, and I think we all miss that old playbook of people trying to work together unfortunately there's so many candidates this cycle including herschel walker who's sort of following the trump playbook in so many ways including his relationship uh with the truth and with reality you know he's lied about his academic record he lied about his business record lied about being a cop that was was a weird one. Lied about paying for an abortion. I could go on. But despite that, the race is still close. And so my question is, there was this annoying narrative in 2016 when Trump lied and lied and lied and then still got elected. And people started to think, oh, maybe lying and truth and these scandals don't matter anymore. Do you think that your election can help us retest that theory?

Are you hearing from people that are concerned about these lies? Look, there's no question that my opponent has a problem with the truth. And look, these races are close. And many of the folks who are watching us probably feel like it shouldn't be close. But I think it's a reflection of where we are politically in the country. And here is a

chance for us to try to speak to the highest and the best in us. And it's the reason why we need all hands on deck right now. Look, Georgia did an amazing thing. It sent its first African-American senator and its first Jewish senator to the Senate and one fell swoop made the difference. If me and my brother from another mother, I like to call him John Ossoff, had not gotten elected, we wouldn't have had the majority in the Senate, which means we wouldn't have confirmed me and my brother from another mother, I like to call him John Ossoff, had not gotten elected, we wouldn't have had the majority in the Senate, which means we wouldn't have confirmed

Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. We wouldn't have passed such important legislation this Congress. But what I recall is that it took all hands on deck and it took a lot of hands. And so I would appeal to the folks who are watching us right now,

don't sleep through this election, don't take it for granted. Don't look at the obvious difference between me and my opponent, and assume that we have it in the bag. We need you to knock on doors. We need folks to give. Go to my website, Warnock4Georgia.com. And we need

the folks who are watching me right now from Georgia to start voting on October 17th. We often talk about Election Day. I've been telling folks there's no such thing as Election Day. It's election season. We cannot wait until November the 8th. Anything can happen on election day. It may rain. And I can tell you that that does impact turnout. And on election day, we know from past experience that the lines tend to be very long, not in all communities and certain communities. So we need people to turn out on October 17th through November 4th. We need all hands on deck. The soul of our country is on the line. I sat down with a focus group of young Black voters in Atlanta back in August, and most of them described themselves as moderate. They were not fans

of Herschel Walker, not fans of Brian Kemp, but I was struck by how disappointed they were in our political system, especially when they were talking about race. And one young man said, this might sound a bit radical, but for black people to get what we truly want, I don't think there's altering of the system. We're going to have to tear the system down. And that view was sort of reflected in the group. What do you say to voters who might be feeling that level of frustration right now? Look, I feel frustrated sometimes myself.

And that's when you know you're doing important work. If it were easy, it would have been done a long time ago. And, you know, when I would get discouraged, I think about somebody like John Lewis, who for me is not just a historic figure. I was his pastor, although I met him decades ago when I was a college student. And I'll tell you what I was thinking. The night I was preparing to officiate his funeral the next morning, I was looking at that old classic footage of John Lewis and Hosea Williams crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, wearing those trench coats, each with a backpack on. And I asked myself, what was John Lewis thinking that day as he crossed that bridge with police officers and billy clubs? You talk about brute force and recalcitrance to change and inclusion.

I mean, that's the embodiment of it. And yet he kept marching across that bridge. I'll tell you, I don't know what he was thinking, but I'll tell you what he was not thinking. He was not thinking that he would one day be remembered as a hero, that three presidents from both parties would show up at his funeral, that he'd be the recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He couldn't have predicted that, and quite frankly, the John Lewis that I knew didn't care about any of that.

I think he was just trying to stay alive to fight the next day. And yet by some stroke of faith and human resilience, he bent the arc a little bit closer towards justice. And that's the nature of our historical arc as a country. Our democracy, this grand experiment in self-government and inclusion, these ideals, these Jeffersonian ideals that are talked about by forefathers who fell short, who did not live up to the ideals, but put it on paper. That work moves forward and fits and starts. Sometimes the democracy expands.

Sometimes it contracts. But even contractions, painful contractions, open up the possibility to new birth. There is no new birth without contractions. And so I would encourage us to find a way to channel our frustration into what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now and keep fighting. That's a beautiful place to close, but I'm going to ruin it with a quick follow-up, which is just to say, what is it like have to to preach in front of john lewis one of like the greatest americans maybe who has ever lived and you're supposed to tell him what to do think or preach to him how does that work well you know john lewis himself thought at one point that he would be a preacher

he uh often would tell the story how as a farm boy, he started preaching to the chickens. And one day he gave what we call in my Baptist tradition, a trial sermon, which means you believe you've been called, but the community needs to affirm it. But instead of preaching sermons, he became one. And all of us are better because of it. And so, yeah, it was quite an experience to preach with the likes of John Lewis sitting in my congregation. And Christine King

Ferris, the only living sibling of Martin Luther King Jr., who is still at my church. She's 95 years old. And what I've tried to do is embody the sermon, even when the sermon falls short. And I hope all of us will do that. In this moment, there's a way in which what we do, what each of us does right now is a message and a message to the future. And I hope we'll think about what we want that message to say. Senator Warnock, thank you for your inspiring words. And thank you for spending some time with us. Good luck out there in the campaign trail. Go win this thing. Everyone sign up, knock doors, volunteer, donate. Thanks to Senator Warnock for joining us today.

Love it. Good luck on the road. Thanks. We hope to see you soon. I'm never coming back. I'm never allowed to come back. It's partly your fault I can't come back sooner. We're getting a lot done here.

We're getting a lot done. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner-Bernstein. Our producers are Hayley Muse and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineered the show. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Sandy Gerard, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montu.

Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash pod. Save America.