Pod Save America - “Weird year.”

Episode Date: December 31, 2017

The guys look back on 2017 and the setbacks, surprising victories, lessons, frustrations and inspiring moments that defined a tough year. Also a few arguments over barking dogs. It’s the New Year’s Cuckin’ Eve clip show!

Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. This is our New Year's Cuck and Eve episode. Hopefully there's the sound of cheering and a ball dropping happening beneath us. We don't know exactly when you're listening to this, but it's somewhere around our New Year. Odds are you're watching Bravo or E! and some wrap-up special about pop culture

you don't really care about. You know what you do care about? This. Yeah, the best moments of Pod Save America. Our first year of Pod Save America. It was one year ago where we launched this venture. So turn off whatever pair of gay comedian and female comedian

they have on. Turn off whatever Kathy Griffin was kicked off of earlier this year. Is she still disgraced or no? I don't know what the rules are. I feel like they should just let her back. Kathy Griffin back. Who else? Is Anderson with Kelly Ripa now? Is that the new one? I don't know.

I don't know. Anyway, this is a clip show we're going through some of our favorite moments it's an original clip it's an original clip show also these moments come from you we asked you to send us your favorite moments your most memorable moments of the last year and you came up with some good ones we engage with you the listener we had an awesome year at pod save america we had some good times we had some hard times went through some serious shit we made fun of some stuff and we thought hey hey hey let's go find the the things we thought and

put them and then to you i think we're really exactly i think i really summed it better myself it really sums up the years you say this all the time love it weird year 2017 weird year you know 2017. Weird year. You know. We became podcasters. Trump became president. The world was thrown into a crisis. A year ago, a year ago, John and Tommy and I were sitting around a kitchen table at John's house thinking. Just talking about kitchen table issues. Talking about kitchen table issues. Your jobs, your wages, your health care. And, you know, we went to Bank of America with a hundred dollar bill and we said. What was her name?

Give us, Olga. Olga. Helga? Helga? Either one works. It was Olga. It's a story.

And we gave, we said, Olga, here's $100. We'd like to start a bank account for a little company called Crooked Media. We're just three guys

with a podcast idea. Just three bozos. Three bozos. Two from Boston. We got a pun and a dream. And a hundred and something Episodes later Here we are

Doing a clip show So many people listening It's nice It's cool So enjoy this show And we'll start with Some personal moments That were fun

This year Perhaps some arguments Over the purchasing And not purchasing of wine Yeah we had a few arguments That's known to happen Even even though we're best buds. We have our arguments every once in a while. No, but if you dare to give someone you care about a nice gift,

you better not walk through those doors. Or else you're going to be seized. Pundit is an angel. Roll the clip. Joel. Roll the clip. Welcome to the first episode of Pod Save America. What a name, guys. I'm just imagining everyone just hearing our Nintendo music having played. This is going to be glorious. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. Hello, everyone. We're back. Pod Save America is brought to you by our friends at the Cash App.

We love the Cash App. Did John and Emily get that bottle of wine you sent without telling me, you fucking snake? You know, you realize it was from the band? You know, give me a break. It's from the band. That's just an invented thing. Okay, so I wasn't included. So you've had one week to write this wrong and send them something.

Shut up. No, bullshit. Bullshit. Who sends things to people on their honeymoon like that? If you're going to do it, you do it as a group one time. I don't even know where they're staying. I don't keep up with that kind of thing. So did you want to send them something or did you want to complain about it? I wanted to be added to the thing that was already sent with the Cash app. I could have sent

you some cash via the Cash app. Now I won't. John, Emily, this was love is heartfelt. Hello to you on your honeymoon. By the time they hear John, Emily, this was Love is heartfelt. Hello to you on your honeymoon. By the time they hear this, they'll already be back. Sick of this. This thing's gonna come out tomorrow? Honestly, are they even on a honeymoon? John is tweeting about politics a lot, so

I feel like he's basically here. We watched Game of Thrones together and there were some spoilers. Blame John Love it. And Pundit was barking the entire time during the show don't believe any of the other fake news last night during Game of Thrones okay okay we're sitting there and game of Thrones about to start and I look over and what is Emily doing she's looking through the Postmates app

and it was just like hey hey you can order in 30 minutes and it'll come after Game of Thrones. Just wait. Just wait. But she didn't. But she didn't. You know what I noticed was happening? A couple of barks at a pundit and there was a lot of growling and playing with Leo. I didn't say a damn word. Are you joking?

He's not joking. It was 100% serious. One bark. Couple barks. One bark. One bark. For most of the time, she was lying like a log beneath my feet. I'm going to be a straight shooter here.

There's problems on many sides. Emily shouldn't have done that with the Postmates app. Many sides. Many sides. With your own petard. I was not hoisted by my own petard. Hosted. My petard was thrown at the enemy and detonated properly.

That's what a petard is. Okay. We're getting very close. We're getting really close. Very close. To what? Nothing. I'm what a petard is. Okay, we're getting very close. We're getting really close. Very close. To what? Nothing. I'm not going to say it.

Spoiler. Oh, no. A petard is a... A petard, I believe, is a kind of explosive. You can be... And then you get hoisted by it. You blew yourself up. Again, you come for the conversation about politics.

You stay for the gamers that are on spoilers. There's no gamers... No, we're cutting all this. What gamers... I don't even know what spoiler I could be talking about. Postmates. for the gamers that aren't spoilers. No, we're cutting all this. What gamers? I don't even know what spoiler I could be talking about. Postmates. Download Postmates.

Code Crooked. $100 in free delivery. That's ridiculous. I don't even know what Tommy's talking about. You get no spoilers. Pundit was an angel. She sat quietly the whole time.

One bark. She's the best behaved dog. Use Postmates. You get $100. Code Crooked. Pundit's great. We don't do spoilers. I regretted the one that happened and I apologize during Love It or Leave It. Shut up. There's crooked. Pundit's great. We don't do spoilers. I regretted the one that happened

and I apologize during Love It or Leave It. Shut up. There were two. Shut up. There were two that happened. Two barks. Two spoilers. Two spoilers?

What are you even talking about? What are you talking about? No. There was no... Guys. Postmates. It's so easy to get the crap out of you. We had a Yankee swap at our holiday party and the rules were a little unclear.

I walked around Target last night at 10 p.m. in a total panic trying to find a gift for our office Yankee swap. And I was just looking around being like, I don't know. Yeah, I went to Target. Where else would you go? Target. What a great place to go to buy, you know. Don't go to the Grove. That's what I did, and I failed.

Me too. Failed. I also think, don't you think setting a $15... Nightmare. I feel like $20 should have been the number. Where $15... We should have said a $20 bill or less. Yeah, mine was $20.

I don't know what you guys are doing. What? Oh, cheater. You're like Michael Scott. He got an iPod. I waited for today to throw that grenade live into the pod. I was going to say it last night. It might have been $16.99. I don't know.

I didn't pay attention. You're supposed to pay attention. Unbelievable. There are rules. Also, on Pod Save America. As you also know, from listening to Pod Save America, sometimes we get a little exercised about certain politicians, issues, news events, reporters,

and maybe some of the conversation around that leans towards a bit of a rant. A rant, a tear. Just a tear. A tear, a tangent. Like if you had a bro named Lieberman, you might not always love his activities. Sometimes he shows up in these rants. Sometimes Tommy's good friend Steve Bannon shows up in the rants. Sometimes you're wearing 10 shots and you're a Nazi.

Sometimes Paul Ryan, Image McConnell. Once in a while, Paul Ryan comes in for a talking to from us. Sometimes the press is pulling a buckshot out of its butt, you know? Sometimes it's other Democrats because we take on our own side as well. We do. Oh, we are straight shooters here. Make sure we get some Democrats in there. Not afraid to take on their own side.

That's us. What was that arm? I don't know. I thought it was cool. A little weird, yeah. Roll the clip. To start off our rants, let's go to a fan favorite, Fox News. The worst part is, all of these people are allowed to stay at Fox News, which every day is the number one defender acting as state television for a man in the White House who is a sexual predator.

Okay? Yeah. And who has been, so many women came out for allegations of harassment. You know, nothing came from it it nothing was ever disproven like and we just went on like nothing happened it was literally on tape bragging about it on tape and bill o'reilly every night defends donald trump's agenda and he has sexually harassed people he's defended roger ailes who sexually harassed people and no one fucking does anything at this organization and the other thing too is we have no idea how many settlements are out there because those settlements are pretty ironclad. Yeah. Right. That people come forward. They look at their options. They look at whose careers have

been destroyed by going forward. And they say, you know what, I'm going to settle. I'm going to settle. I'm going to take the money. And they write check after check after check because Fox News has generated billions of dollars or hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for their parent corporation. Everybody looks the other way and it's despicable. But it wasn't just the media coverage of Fox News that drove us crazy. It was also the way Republicans were covered. Generally, in particular, the adulation for Steve Bannon drove me crazy.

Bannon overrated here. Why does he still get this? First of all, all political operatives are overrated. You're good until you're not. You know, like we all lose some, we all win some. But let's be clear about who Steve Bannon is. He is an opportunist. He is not some genius political operator.

He got fired from the White House after six months. He failed to pass any significant part of Trump's agenda. And the things he did work on, like the Muslim ban, he fucked up royally. He declared Trumpism was on the ballot in Virginia and then got worked. The candidate he recruited to run for Senate in Alabama was accused of child molestation. No one has ever been worse at his job than Steve Bannon. He's a guy who works at a racist blog that defends child molesters and lies for a living and for the fucking new york times to walk him through the office and do this puff piece bullshit video like with this chummy garbage ending where

he tells them how great their product is and they kiss his ass like he's some svengali genius it's fucking outrageous like they are pathetic supplicants to this guy, like not just the New York Times, but the press cover him like he is a candidate, like he's some shadow president. He got run out of the building. The Confederate statue is the excuse. It is not the reason they were there. It was an opportunity to all show up and be racist.

Like it was not, this is not some long held belief of theirs. And it's just mind boggling that we are having it, that the president of the United States is having a debate about the culpability between two groups when one of them is Nazis. It's just so fucking crazy. It's hard to possibly fathom. There are no two sides to this. We live in a very polarized country, but you would think the one thing that the overwhelming majority of people, including the president of the United States, could agree on

is that Nazis are wrong and the other people are probably right. Full stop. Full stop. Full stop. Any impeachment question is a political question, ultimately. That's why Bill Clinton gets impeached. I mean, you know, you can argue about the law, but it was a political question. And I said it would feel different. This feels different. It really does. And you know how you know it feels different? You know it feels different because some world historic craven cowards in Congress have finally discovered their job descriptions. You know, Jason Chaffetz discovered that he was in Congress after he decided to quit, finally

demanding the memos. Paul Ryan, Paul Ryan says that it's appropriate for there to be an investigation and that we get to the bottom of this. Marco Rubio, not there yet. Not disappointing me. Marco fucking Rubio. It may have happened, it

may not have happened. Time will tell. It is what it is. The president's decision is the decision the president has made. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to turn into a tiny, tiny version of myself and crawl into a wall and hide. It's just reusing stuff now. My best friend is a caterpillar. I sleep in a matchbook.

I am tiny. I am spiritually very small. We good? Keep going? You on the fence? No. Marco Rubio, the worst. The absolute worst we can do.

And all those Republicans who told me in my direct messages, in private he sparkles. Oh, does he? In private? Because on camera, you can see the torture of him knowing he's exactly what we say he is. He wears it on his face. At least Paul Ryan has the distancy to have dead fucking eyes. distancy to have dead fucking eyes. At our live show in Oakland,

we brought our Republican friend and cricket contributor Tim Miller on to talk about why he was supporting Doug Jones. Alright guys, we are taking a trip to the cuck zone with cricket media's favorite Republican, Tim Miller. Hey everybody. Hey, Tim.

What's happening? Welcome to Oakland, which is the home of the Cug Zone. Good to be with you all. I wrote an article for Crooked.com called The Republican Case for Doug Jones. Thank you. All right, now while we're excited about that, let's do it one more time. And now let's do it for corporate tax cuts. It was worth a try.

Try broadening the base. It was worth a try. Broadening the base and lowering the rates? No. So, okay, so here's the thing. Seven brackets into three. All right, all right. So back on topic here.

The Republican case for Doug Jones. And look, I looked at the candidates. This wasn't hard. One candidate was a child molester. He says gay as she be in jail. He tried to separate a mother from her child because she was a lesbian. I mean, this is a sick person.

He wanted to keep Muslims out of Congress for their religion. And on the other side, you had a guy named Doug who didn't do any of those things. We've been lucky to have very exciting, interesting guests on this program. Incredible guests. Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Who was the first one? You guys might say that...

Other people. You might say that Pod Save America is a stop on the road to 2020. If you haven't been on the show yet and we've been trying to reach you... Joe Biden. Joe Biden. Maybe now is the time. Maybe you're listening. Maybe one of the people working for you is listening and maybe you're going to come on

the program now. Wasn't it? You know what? I bet you know what's going to happen. Joe Biden's sitting around his family listening to it on their Sonos, and he just spit out his beverage. Did a spit take. You know who wasn't too good for this program? Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton.

You might know both of them. Al Gore. Hopefully Bernie Sanders is going to be on in 2018. We're a little farther along with that than we are with Joe Biden. Elizabeth Warren, Claire McCaskill, Amy Klobuchar, Seth Meyers. Seth Meyers. Oh, man.

The guests. Roll the clip. Here's someone you might remember, President Obama. We are here today in the Roosevelt Room at the White House with President Barack Obama on his last interview as President of the United States. Mr. President, thank you for joining us. It is wonderful to be with you guys. Let me preface this by saying

I cannot believe that people actually listen to you guys. Nor can we. It's shocking. But, you know, it should give everybody out there hope that they can do something with their lives. You too can be a podcast host. That's exactly right.

Land of opportunity. Is this the most ridiculous thing you've done? No. As you all know, Axe's podcast was mainly because he took his more seriously. Anyway, what do you got? All right, come on. Let's keep this thing moving. You've talked a lot about we're all trying to get our paragraph right in history. Yeah. What do you hope that paragraph says about you? You know,

it's probably too early for me to say. And you know, since I'm notoriously long winded, it probably spills over to three paragraphs. Then I got, got to call up fabs and say, man, how do we cut this thing? I hope that it tells a story of a presidency and a period of time in which the values of inclusion and opportunity and community and democracy were advanced. That we pointed the country in a direction in which every kid mattered and in which treating people differently because of what they looked like or their faith or their sexual orientation became less acceptable. And we started rebuilding the ladders of opportunity for people who feel shut out from the economy. And most of all, we made people believe that it is possible, if you're willing to get in the arena, to move history.

When I think about what will most gratify me, it'll be if 20 years from now I can look back and I can say, look at all these people who first got involved, maybe even when they were too young to vote, maybe even when they were too young to vote, in government, politics, issues, non-profits, public service. And that wave just kind of, that cleansing wave washes over the country. And if that happens, then the details of how we dealt with climate change or whether the individual

responsibility mandate on the Affordable Care Act was the right approach or not, that becomes less important. Because if we're getting the broad direction right, this is a pretty ingenious country. They're full of ingenious people. And we'll figure it out. And that's what I want is I want everybody to feel like we can figure this out if we just don't waste a lot of time doing dumb stuff. Good paragraph. Yeah.

I just wanted to thank you. And here's a clip of our conversation with Hillary Clinton. Part of the motivation for Putin was I was the candidate. You know, I was representing the United States. I mean, I wasn't standing up in Lithuania and saying, oh, I, Hillary Clinton, think that, you know, what's going on in the parliamentary elections in Russia is really troubling. You sound just like her. Yeah. So, I mean, I was saying the United States thinks it's really troubling.

That was our policy. And I was a very avid proponent of that policy. But this is much more about the playbook he has adopted now to destabilize Western democracies, to disrupt the Atlantic alliance. Here's the host of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Seth Meyers. It's okay to have a point of view and be a talk show host. I mean, what I feel like I appreciate about your,

what you guys are doing and like your interview with Kelly and Conway is one of the frustrating things about watching this campaign is the degree to which they just insult your intelligence. Yeah. And like blatant lies to your face and to have someone call it out and like you know, to do it with satire,

I think is like one of the best ways to cut through that bullshit. Well, it was nice. I will say, I'm very grateful that she came. Yeah, it was good. Because it's so hard to have those conversations.

And it was funny because a couple weeks before, I had back-to-back nights. David Remnick had been on and the next night, Rachel Maddow had been on and they were very similar conversations. They were just like

the progressive lament. I felt like when I was watching you talk to Kellyanne Conway, it was a little bit like, oh my god, she's doing that thing she does in CNN, but she's doing it to me and I can tell her it's crazy. But she's doing that pivot thing. I'm going to talk about it. It was the great thing about it and I realized the

advantage I had over somebody who would talk to her on CNN is an audience. She never gets interviewed in front of an audience. And so there's a moment where I said, that's a pivot, and the whole audience laughed. Because they, again...

You literally applauded her. And then she couldn't then say it wasn't a pivot. 200 people agreed with me. Whereas on all those shows, you watch somebody like Jake shows you know you want somebody like jake tapper you want somebody like anderson cooper talk to her first of all i don't know how anybody when you're just two people are in different places looking at the camera hearing each other in your place like no one's ever come to an agreement yeah there and also just that the

audience becomes uh a group of people that sort of collectively say well now hold on and then it doesn't make you as the interviewer look like you just found a bone to pick with them. You're just kind of saying, I just would love to point that out. Crooked contributor, Simone Sanders. I mean, those Obama Trump voters everybody talks about, they only account for 8% of the electorate.

But, I mean, 8% is a big number when you think about how many people they voted. So I do think some of these Obama Trump voters are some of those persuadable folks that, yes, you need to understand who they are. Bursar USA has done a lot of polling around those folks. But people also need to focus on turnout. Like, I've worked 15 different campaigns. No, they do. I've worked 15 different campaigns. Like, I've worked 15 different, no they do, I've worked 15 different campaigns,

and it is always easier to get people that agree with you to come out and support you and go to the polls as opposed to persuade somebody to come to your side and then drag them and push them and hope that they mobilize and go. So I'm always telling the part, like I think the people at the DNC are tired of me actually, because I run up in the building on a regular basis

talking about, well I don't like this, what about turnout, we talk too much about persuasion. And we need to, like, black women voted at 94% for Hillary Clinton, and they have yet to get a thank you card. You know, so for all this talk about how do we get the white working class voter back, to be frank, the working class is going to be majority minority by 2032. The United States is going to be majority minority by 2040. America is browning. And so instead of focusing on white working class voters, like Joyce said, who ain't voted since, for the Democratic candidate for president since, what, the Civil Rights Act in 1964? Like, we need to be focusing on young people who are increasingly diverse.

The millennials. Shout out to the millennials, the most diverse generation ever. That's who I think the party needs to be talking to, figuring out how to create a message, an economic message that speaks to, yes, working class people of all genders, racial backgrounds, religions, but also a message that speaks to black women, a message that speaks to Latinos, a message that speaks to LGBTQ Americans. And I think the economy and health care are two really good things. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

I think we've all watched with some trepidation as Donald Trump tweets at the Department of Justice and the FBI to take action to investigate his former political opponent, which is something you might expect in Venezuela and not the United States. You were the Deputy Attorney General. Now it's a guy named Rod Rosenstein. If you were Rod or Attorney General Sessions, what would you do if Trump was repeatedly calling on the Department of Justice to prosecute his former opponent? Does he have an obligation to not just refuse to do so, but to speak out publicly, rather than do what he did this week, which was give a speech extolling President Trump's commitment to the rule of law? Well, I mean, you've pointed out that the wall between the Department of Justice, like the one wall that we actually need,

is something that's, you know, is a time-honored norm. It's been recognized through Democratic and Republican administrations, and it's really essential. It's part of what makes us the country that we are and not an autocracy. And, you know, when this first started at the beginning of the administration, I thought, well, maybe somebody just hadn't told him yet that, yes, the Department of Justice is in the executive branch, but you're not the boss of them when it comes to criminal cases. And, you know, that's really, it's a really serious thing. And instead of it getting better, it's gotten worse and seemed to have, you know, hit a crescendo even this week with his continuing

to sort of treat DOJ like he thinks they're muscle for the mob or something and that they're supposed to go after his enemies and protect his friends. And so, you know, the good news out of it is despite the fact that he's been hammering at this, we don't have an indication that anybody at DOJ has acted on that, that they've resisted. And certainly they should resist. But the damage, a lot of the damage is done just by him doing what he's doing, because it's not just whether DOJ acts on that, but it's undermining the public's confidence in the Department of Justice and whether decisions are being made just on the facts and the law and nothing else, because that's how our country works. The damage is done just by him trying to use it that way.

You're someone who had to make a very difficult decision. You were acting attorney general. President Trump decided to propose and throw out his Muslim ban. And you had to make the decision, do you say that the Justice Department is not going to defend this ban, or do you just resign because you were going to leave office anyway? And you decided that the Department of Justice was not going to defend the ban. This is the first Pod Save America standing ovation.

Yeah, it is. The mayor of Stockton, California, Michael Tubbs. So, you know, you're from Stockton. You were born and raised in Stockton. And now you're the mayor of Stockton. That's a place that has... Give it up from Stockton you were born and raised in Stockton and now you're the mayor of Stockton that's a place that has give it up for Stockton so I secretly

packed the audience with Stocktonians I know you really brought them in we gotta have an ID law or something so one of the things that's most interesting about your, well, there's a lot of interesting things about your political biography, but one of the things that's really interesting is the fact that Jeff Sessions has specifically targeted you and your city.

On a scale of one to 10, how awesome does that feel? Well, let me tell you the backstory. So it was my birthday weekend. It was also, it was a weekend, so I had the day off. So I was, like, having a little bachelor celebration with my best men because I wasn't going to get married next Saturday. Literally next Saturday. This guy's getting married next Saturday. So I'm, like, on a plane, and I didn't pay for Wi-Fi on purpose, and I'm laying.

My phone is blowing up. There's reporters calling, and the police chief's calling me, and the scene manager's calling me. I'm like, I can't even have a birthday. So I'm checking. So I call the chief. I'm like, Jeff Sessions, really? So I think it feels really awesome, I think, for the city because Stockton is so incredibly diverse. And just to pause for a second in case people don't know,

Jeff Sessions specifically singled out Stockton as a sanctuary city and wanted to compel you as the mayor to target inmates who were not here legally. And it goes back to that segment because a Google search will tell you the county operates our jail and the sheriff is a different elective, not named mayor. But that doesn't matter. Anybody who pronounces

the H in what doesn't know how to use Google. But it felt almost a moment of reckoning as well because the city, I know we have problems like most communities with crime. So to get a letter from the Department of Justice saying that federal funding may be

on the line required some thoughtfulness about how do we respond. But then, like, our demographics make it impossible. One third of our city is foreign born. The other third have parents who are foreign born. You know, so, like, we're a city city of immigrants so it would be just bad policing, bad policy, and not enough resources to do what the AG was asking us to do. I felt compelled to

be very, very, very, very, very clear to our community first that that's not what we do. We're not immigration enforcement officials. We're local law enforcement. If we're stopping to be safe, we need everyone to feel like the cops are on their team in terms of making the community safe and not out to target them. Senator Claire McCaskill.

I do think we're going through this reckoning as a country in the wake of the Weinstein allegations and all the reports we've seen afterwards. And it has led me as a Democrat who supported Bill Clinton for a long time to think if Donald Trump had sexual relations with an intern while in office, I would think of my response would be very different than I think my response was a few years ago. If other allegations that we read from Winnie the Broderick came out about Bill Clinton today, I think we'd react very differently. Do you think the party needs a broader reckoning with that history to appropriately consider and take on how big a deal is this cultural moment is and how important these changes clearly are to not just women across the country, but I think to like a sickened culture that has allowed this to go on for too long? Well, I think we need to take everything that has happened in the past involving any person in a position of power and evaluate going forward how we need to do things differently. I don't think there's any question that the Clinton family

paid a very high price, and ultimately maybe it cost them the presidency, some of the conduct that had gone on over the years. Certainly, as the things came forward about Trump, it allowed that, well, what about moment. I'll never forget what they did at the St. Louis debate, where they brought those women. And this was them trying to fight back over the revelations of the way Donald Trump talked about women on the Access Hollywood tape. I mean, it was like, look over there, look over there, don't look here. And that's obviously what happens in politics. But I think you need to put it all in a package and wrap it up with a big bow and say, listen, it's a new day.

And we need to decide that conduct that is misogynistic, that is demeaning to women, that is sexual in nature to women who are not at all interested in being the object of that kind of attention, that it's time for that stuff to stop going forward. And those of us who have fought in these trenches for years and years and years are pleased to see that all of it's coming out, all the warts. It doesn't matter about party. It matters about whether or not we can do better, and I think we can. Some things were also inspiring. It just says inspiring here.

That's all they gave me. Look, you guys went to D.C. for some health care protests. I went to the airport. I went to the Women's March. I ran into the crowd at a few events and hectored people until they volunteered. We all went to Richmond right before the Virginia race. Yeah, that was awesome.

John McCain gave a thumbs down scene around the world. We're all doing it around the table except for Lovett. He's just looking. Boom. Thumbs down. So, yeah, it was a big year for activism. We talked to a whole bunch of people who were involved in politics for the very first time in their lives. That was fucking cool.

That was cool. So, yeah. It's not all bad stuff. Not all bad stuff. Some stuff got us really hopeful roll the clip one awesome moment from 2017 was when millions of people got together for the women's march in cities across the country and protested the trump administration there were a lot of funny signs and a lot of references to pussy and like you know like veiled criticisms and not so veiled criticisms at donald trump but mostly it was just a lot of people who were seemed excited for the

first time in a while to be together and to be you know standing up for something they cared to tell me some bad news i don't know if you saw it but franklin's was sort of disappointed with some of the language and the sign so i think it's back to the fucking drawing board franklin's took a picture of a bunch of people at a hotel lobby in Washington complaining about, like, there's a mob that was, like, taunting me. And it's like a five-year-old girl and a grandmother. It's goldfish. They're, like, sitting

by a fire, sipping hot cocoa. And just, like, celebrating. It's like reading the feminine mystique. And he's like, the city's fallen into chaos. Run for your lives. Frank L frank wants is on the road now he walked in there trying to get a few focus group participants suddenly he ran out he ran out just hanging and also somebody did throw glitter at him and look we do not support the

throwing of glitter at frank lance but man did some did he like no one was arrested it was there were like millions of people. Washington was filled. I was there. The streets of Washington were filled all the way from the mall up to K Street. No one was arrested. It was so peaceful. It was so orderly. I'll tell you, if these liberals care about the environment, why are they leaving their

signs on the ground? There were half a million people there. A couple signs are going to be on the ground, guys. Have you ever seen what happens after a Patriots game? That was a thing? I didn't even know. You know what? I'm even sorry I raised it.

I'm sorry I raised it because it's not a thing so i went i went to the one in los angeles i was going to meet up with people but then when i got there my cell there was too many phones so my cell service was dead so i just hung out there by myself for a few hours and it was great i was happy that my phone wasn't working i like talked to people i saw the signs it was like the things i was also struck by the cross-section of people that were there. I mean, it was just like, men, women, young, old, every race. A lot of people brought their kids. There was this adorable

group of little girls and one little boy with their parents, and one kid was like, I want to go home, right? Because they were four. And the parents were like, we just wanted you to experience this. I was like, wow, you're a good parent whoever you are. Yeah, you know, my phone wasn't working, so I couldn't meet up with all my celebrity friends that were distributed throughout the mall.

But, and that's life. That happens. But, no, it was... We're back into pre-election insufferable. No, we're not. No, we're not. No, we're not. This is post-election, humbled, but joyous warriors in the face of adversity who recognize

our own limitations, yet aren't afraid to speak our minds. That's where we're at. And take two. Are we not using any of this? I think this is staying in. No, it's great. Yeah. No, and there was obviously a ton of anti-Trump stuff there, but I was also struck by, like,

no one was, it wasn't angry. It didn't feel angry. It wasn't angry at all. They started our march, and people, everyone in the crowd started singing the national anthem as they started marching toward City Hall. And I was just like, this is cool. And look, we don't know exactly how many people were at these marches all across the country. No arrests.

Not one arrest. It does seem like this was in all likelihood the largest protest in American history. Over 3 million. 538 says over 3 million. 538. I know you were talking with Jody. Jody and I last night, he was like, we're not really sure about these numbers yet. And I said, I don't care.

I like them. But no, it seems like it was millions of people. So it's the largest protest in history. Trump hasn't actually done much yet. This is based on the promise of who we think he's going to be about who we think we are. And already there's this much energy like that's really exciting. And the fact that Trump tweeted a kind of soft, afraid to insult the protest tells you all you need to know. Because Trump doesn't pick fights with people he thinks he may not win the fight with.

Like Michelle Obama. And around the same time when the Muslim ban was attempted, people gathered at airports across the country to protest. All right, let's talk about some of the results of the ban and the reaction. All right, let's talk about some of the results of the ban and the reaction. Love it. You went to LAX on Saturday evening with Emily, and you guys did a little protesting. We did. Look, not my usual Saturday.

It's funny. You know, there really is something happening with people going to these protests, people that wouldn't know. It's awesome. And, like, I would not have gone to it a year ago. I'd never would have gone to LAX on a Saturday night to protest. Right. I don't even like kind of like going there to fly. It's a God forsaken place. It's a God forsaken place when they're letting the refugees in. But yeah, we went and we protest and... Talk to anyone?

I don't like being prompted. I'm trying to get you to the... Well, yeah, no, so I talked to a bunch of people there, but there was this one woman who was telling her story. She was just there to pick up her uncle, who I believe was coming in from Iran. And she showed up at 7 p.m. the day the EO was signed, and she was there for a full 24 hours. And her family was waiting at home. They were excited to see him. The table was set. They had made his favorite food.

The kids were staying up late. And she just never left the airport because he was stuck there. Um, and she was just exhausted and, and, and like, you know, she'd been crying and her whole family had no idea what was going on, but it was incredibly powerful to see how supported she felt. Um, you know, she, she spoke at this, there was, you know, several hundred people, maybe a thousand people gathered at the international terminal. And there were all these speakers. But then this woman got up there and spoke. And it was incredibly moving because she's like, I just I just came to the airport to pick up my uncle.

And everybody cheered and supported her. And there were these, you know, dozens of lawyers sitting around a sign that said, you know, if you need legal help, come here. And all these people coming in to translate. There were two members of Congress there kind of trying to get the border, get the customs officials to give them any information, which they didn't either didn't have or couldn't give because it was chaos. But I think the inspiring thing is that people are turning out to protest in a new way. Like there is a like there is there are black. I feel like we're building on the success of Black Lives Matter on union organizing, even like Occupy Wall Street, which I think was was is still a contingent that's part of this new growing movement. But a spirit and culture of protests taking taking hold amongst people who never would protest is incredibly powerful. And I think barring barring things getting much worse and

you know, we're not in the prediction business anymore, but the single most important thing we can do is figure out how to harness this new energy and turn it into votes in 2018. Like this is there. Millions of people are taking the streets as a matter of habit now, which never, ever has happened before. I noticed this morning. I mean, one thing is there's more of us than them. And the second thing is the greatest danger to Donald Trump's presidency is a unified opposition. And he knows that. John and I went to a health care rally and we talked to people in D.C. about why they were protesting and what the health care bill meant to them. We went to a health care rally in D.C. on Wednesday.

Was it Wednesday? Can we set the scene currently? We're in the Washington Hilton. That's right. We're in a part of the restaurant where we're not allowed to be sitting. They don't seem to mind so far.

We're just recording this intro a couple days later. Because it's fucking hot outside. It's hot. We're leaving D.C. tomorrow. But anyway. Anyway. So Tommy and I went to this rally

on Wednesday. It was outside the Capitol. There's a couple thousand people there. Yeah. And we just interviewed a bunch of people. And we saw some people who came to tell their stories about health care. We saw some doctors that we talked to. Yeah, people just drove down.

Some people from Maryland, Virginia, the district, who just came there because they were really worried about the bill and its repeal. And a bunch of physicians who were talking about what it would mean for the hospitals where they work, what it would mean for them as caregivers, for their families. We organized by Planned Parenthood, MoveOn.org. So anyway, we walked around the rally and we talked to people. We interviewed them. We thought maybe you guys would want to hear it. Yeah. And we also met a couple politicians were there too.

It was the last minute decision to come here. We thought the vote was going to be this week. We wanted to be on the ground and part of any effort to stop the bill. Luckily, McConnell realized he didn't have the votes and hopefully that will remain that way and this thing won't pass. But we talked to a bunch of people, we talked to a bunch of senators. It was inspiring stuff. It made me feel more energized and ready to get out there. But what it really drove home was how important the work is outside of D.C. for the next several weeks during recess to make sure senators realize how much people oppose this god-awful bill and how much the work is ahead of us, not behind us. And I said this

on the pod yesterday, but the nice thing about it was, is like, I didn't hear Trump's name a lot. No. Like for all the people say about like, oh, the activists are the resistance of angry. And that's the people that we saw came there because their health care meant everything to them, and they told really inspiring stories, and it was not a game to them at all. It really mattered. And unlike Donald Trump, they knew exactly what this bill would mean for them, for their communities, for the people they care about. Yeah, and you'll hear it, and it's really impressive. Hey, I'm Matthew. I'm from Boston, Massachusetts, and I'm here because I am alive because of Medicaid. from Boston, Massachusetts, and I'm here because I am alive because of Medicaid. Between 2015 and 2016, it cost $730,000 to keep me alive. And year to date, in 2017, the total cost of my medication so far, $73,000. My name's Rebecca Wood. I'm from Charlottesville, Virginia. And what's your name?

I'm from Charlottesville, Virginia. And what's your name? It's Charlie Wood. So why are you here? Charlie was born at 26 weeks, and she has Medicaid as her secondary insurance. It's a Medicaid waiver. And if she loses it, we can't afford her services to help her grow and develop and have a typical adulthood. A lot of people we talked to were just citizens who cared enough about this bill and were concerned enough about what it would mean for our health care system that they came out.

But one personal story we heard was actually from a congresswoman, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. We met up with Congressman Schultz in the middle of the crowd. You know, there's nothing more personal than your health. If you don't have your health, you don't have anything. That's what my parents told me my whole life. And, you know, you have it hit you smack in the face when like I went through when I was 41 years old. I was the picture of health on one day and the next day I found a lump in my breast and

was a cancer patient and suddenly you have a pre-existing condition that you know you're dealing with for the rest of your life and these evil people want to yank the rug out from under 129 million Americans like me and millions of others who have a pre-existing condition. Some good news that all of you have been volunteering and supporting Democratic candidates at our live show in D.C. in the fall. Lovett actually went into the audience to find people in the crowd who are doing their part to get Ralph Northam elected. Now for a game we call your tweets are not enough. Here's how it's going to work. There is an election in Virginia. Crooked Media is partnering with flippable.org. We're working together to make sure that everyone in this room does their part.

So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to come out there. The sprite is on the move. He's doing his Oprah impression. Still walking. He's on the move. He's on the loose. Love it's on the loose.

We talked about them making fun of me on the way out to fill the silence. How's it going? Okay. So, I want somebody in here to tell me what they're doing to volunteer this weekend. He said Tony Robbins. He said Tony Robbins. I can't handle it. Kristen,

are you guys hearing that? Did you hear her say Kristen? Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Kristen. What are you going to do? I don't remember who it was. Yes. Kristen. What are you going to do? I don't remember who it was. Nope. Nope. What's your name? Marilee.

Was it? Marilee. Marilee? Row, row, row your boat. Marilee. Yes. Okay, we'll allow it. What are you going to do to help on Tuesday in Virginia?

I'm canvassing on Sunday in Alexandria. Yes! Okay, I think she gets a flippable hat. I'm giving a hat. Alright, what else do we got? What's your name? I love it. My name's Dan. Dan. Be phone-making tomorrow for flippable.

Phone-making for flippable. Oh, that's an inside job. That's good. That's great. I feel like you just made that up now. What do you got? Anybody else? Oh, this guy. I see a Pod Save America shirt. What are you guys going to do? Are you guys both doing stuff? We drove from New Jersey. What's your name?

Bartz? What's your name? What is it? Neil. Neil and Bartz. We are canvassing for Phil Murphy on Sunday. Oh, that's sweet. Okay, that's New Jersey.

That's New Jersey, but we will allow it. That counts. We'll allow it. We'll allow it. We'll allow it. I think they can get a shirt I want to do, what do we think, one more, two more I don't care

somebody stop me, I'm in the crowd I'm going to go back to Indiana and tell Mike Pence to go fuck himself okay thank you, no shirt no shirt, that's a moral victory, that's basically a tweet we're not counting it nothing Thank you. No shirt. No shirt. That's a moral victory. That's basically a tweet.

We're not counting it. Nothing. What else we got? Oh, hey, hi, hi, hi. I'm coming in. I'm coming in. I keep saying one more. I'm Bella, and I'm going to be canvassing in Hampton for Ralph Northam all weekend with the audience. All right. Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you guys so much.

All right. So go to flippable.org. He's. Come on in. Thank you guys so much. All right. So go to flippable.org. He's got a career in this. To participate. I'm going to call that a success. I'm going to fill the time until I make it back on stage. Guys, that's the website right there, flippable.org. Here's the bottom line.

You can all participate. You can all call. You can all get involved. Here's the bottom line. I know what you people do in D. You can all call. You can all get involved. Here's the bottom line. I know what you people do in D.C., all right? You're going to get craft beers at a place with exposed wood and Edison bulbs. Maybe take one fucking night off of doing that again and help. Flippable.org.

End of segment. Doug Jones won in Alabama. How about that? Who saw that coming? A state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since the 1990s. Let's talk about Alabama, Dan. Winning. Winning.

It's so nice. In the single most consequential election since Donald Trump won the presidency, In the single most consequential election since Donald Trump won the presidency, Doug Jones became the first Democrat in 25 years to win a Senate seat in Alabama, defeating the favored candidate of Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee, accused child molester Roy Moore. The Republicans' margin in the Senate is down to a single seat, and control of the chamber is now a toss up along with the House in 2018. We went down to the Commonwealth of Virginia to link up with Ralph Northam and some amazing candidates across the state who went on to victory. If Ralph Northam had won by around five points or less, which is, you know, five points is what Hillary won Virginia by, and it was just a year ago, so there's not a ton of demographic change in one year, then I would have felt relieved and happy, but not this excited. You know, the fact that Ralph Northam won by nine points, something that almost no one predicted, is pretty incredible.

This was a complete and total victory up and down the ballot across the country. Democrats won the governorship in New Jersey and took full control of the state government there. Democrats flipped a state Senate seat in Washington and took full control of that state's government as well. Democrats flipped three states in the Georgia legislature, and they also ended the Republican Senate supermajority there. They flipped a seat in Pennsylvania, a seat in Michigan, a seat in New Hampshire. And of course, as we said in the biggest race of the night, Ralph Northam defeated Ed Gillespie in Virginia, and Democrats picked up at least 15 seats in the House of Delegates, nearly taking control of that chamber.

There are still a few recounts to be done there. Let's start with the House of Delegates, because I think, to me, this is the most important and inspiring story of Tuesday. Last time the Democrats won more than five seats in a single year in the Virginia House of Delegates? 1975. Some of these Republican seats haven't been contested by Democrats for years. And this year, we actually fielded candidates, some for the very first time. Most of them were young women, people of color, people who've never run before.

A lot of Democrats, a lot of observers thought, this will be a good night if we win five, six seats in the House of Delegates. The most optimistic activists thought 10 seats would be, at the far end, a really great night. I don't know anyone who thought that 15 was really possible. Do you? No. Healthcare activist Addie Barkin told us why we all have to keep fighting. What can you say to people who might be tired of protesting, tired of calling their senators, might be disappointed if this tax bill passes? You know, we're always thinking about this here on the show. Like, we're trying to tell people this is a longer struggle. But what do you say? You've been out there. You've been protesting. You've been working hard.

What do you say to people who might be tired? You say, first of all, hear your brother i hear your sister it is devastating the attacks every week on black people on brown people on women on on all of us on workers it's exhausting and humiliating and it undermines your confidence in the country and your core values. And so the first thing you have to do is acknowledge the pain and own it and be at peace with it. And then you have to say, you know what, in the face of that, I will fight, right? Because the struggles that are in front of me are, in fact, they're big. Me, I mean, whether it's you or me or anyone else, we have real struggles.

But other people have had hard struggles in their lives, and they've persevered. You know, a lot of people throughout human history have had shitty lives with major obstacles, and they've fought hard. Think about refugees in Syria. Think about liberation fighters in Argentina or in France in World War II. Think like, yeah, it's really, really hard. So what we've got here is less difficult than that. So what we've got here is less difficult than that. We have a functioning democracy. We still have the ability to raise our voices.

We have to do it. We have to persevere. We have to put a little self-sacrifice in. I've been living in this very comfortable hotel in two rooms with my wife and son for the last week or two weeks. The boy's going stir-crazy. Rachel hasn't been able to work. She's doing child care all the time. We're kind of evacuated from our home in Santa Barbara where all the fires have made the air unbreathable.

We're making a minor sacrifice to be here and to fight. Others, like my comrade Megan Anderson, who traveled here from Cincinnati by herself, almost fully paralyzed, are making bigger sacrifices. And many people around the world are making dramatically bigger sacrifices to try to protect their family and their country. So we need people to step up. The democracy doesn't work if we hand it off to K Street,

if we let the moneyed interests do their work. Then, of course, the Republicans will do the bidding and the Democrats will fold like playing cards. It's up to us to protect our democracy and fight for it. And I really hope people will do that. So, yes, all around the country, call your representatives right now, today and tomorrow and all week, tell them to stop this bill. Go to their offices, take a photo of your family, tell your story in front of their office and hand it to them and their staff. You know, and my last point is, not just because we can stop the bill, not just because we can

we can stop the bill, not just because we can nationalize the issue so that come November, if they do pass this thing, they suffer under the wrath of American outrage and see a landslide the likes of which we're unfamiliar with. But most importantly, because it's a liberating experience, you come, you build community with people, we sing songs, we celebrate our lives and our values, we rebuild our country together. It feels so good. You've got to leave your houses, you've got to close your laptops

and actually participate in this thing. It's a really amazing experience and I urge all of your listeners to do it. Thank you so much, Addy. Well, good luck to you. Thank you for all you're doing and keep up the fight.

All right, thanks, guys. Stay in touch. It's going to be an exciting week. And that's our clip show. Wow, that was great. To old acquaintance. What was your favorite clip? I don't know.

I loved the ones that I was in. I thought some of the ones that I was in were really good. Some of the ones I was not in, I did not like as much, but did appreciate through objective look. Can I say one of my sneaky favorite moments from 2017? Yes, you can. It was during an advertisement. We had been talking. We had been advertising with one flower delivery company.

And we switched to another one. and we didn't love it. And his reaction was the hardest I've laughed, I think, the entire year. I spit out my coffee. That was so funny. And I were dying. That's a great point. And I want to say something. You guys ready?

Yeah. It's been one of the coolest things in my life to do this company with you guys, to be in this podcast, and it means the world to work with you every single day i was gonna say something nice like that too about you too jump the jump the gun because we always say things we always say nice things about all the people out there and they're fine yeah but you guys are really great the guy's written speeches rug obama that what he what he muster for us is you guys are really great you know as usual i wasn't done yet. But, uh, Lovett interrupted me

because he enjoys the sound of his own voice. So I'll just talk about how much I like Tommy. Ooh, me. I have to say, guys. I wanted to hear the rest of the nice thing.

Too late. I think we all know. Next year. You know what? There's always the 2018 clip show. I'm just talking to myself. Sorry, Tom. Last year was a shitty year

for everybody. I didn't think that we would somehow make it to this point a year later and feel actually pretty good about the country, the trajectory, the fact that people still actually give a shit and are willing to work really hard. So I think next year is going to be better. We're going to work even harder.

We're going to make more shows. We're going to hit the road. We're going to be with candidates, and we're going to win more shows we're going to hit the road we're going to be with candidates and we're going to win back the house and senate it's going to feel twice as good when we do a shitty clip show next year no it's awesome i mean i get to come to work every day with two of my best friends in the whole world which who and an incredible team who are now some of my greatest friends that we got to because we've assembled this wonderful cricket media team. And we also get to be inspired all the time because even though the news is fucking terrible and Donald Trump is awful,

we have people like all of you guys listening that reach out to us on Twitter and Facebook. And we see you when we go on tour and tell us how hard you're working to try to take back this country and how much it means to you that, you know, you believe that it's possible that you can actually do something. And I just, it's awesome. And it's inspiring every day. And I have not, I have not had this much fun on a job and been this inspired since the early days of the Obama campaign in 08.

And that's a, that's a high bar. All right, everyone. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. And we'll see you in 2018. Thanks for listening. you