Pod Save America - "Will Trump Cost Mitch the Senate?"

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

Republicans are in disarray as Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell fight over their party’s chances to take back the Senate, Beto O’Rourke joins to talk about his run for Governor in Texas, and Jared Kushner’s new book gets one of the most devastating reviews ever written. Will Trump Cost Mitch the Senate? 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 Tommy Vitor. Jon Lovett is on vacation. Big birthday boy. Birthday boy is just taking some days off. He's 40 now, so he's feeling. I thought he was 50. On today's show, Republicans are in disarray as Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell fight over their party's chances to take back the Senate. Beto O'Rourke joins to talk about his run for governor in Texas. And Jared Kushner's new book gets one of the most devastating reviews we've ever read. I mean, it depends on how you're looking at it. It was a great review, in my opinion. We'll get to it. We'll get to that.

Accurate? We'll never know. But first, to post or not to post? That is the question for the hosts of Dare We Say this week. Josie Tota, Alicia Pascal-Pena, and Yasmin Hamidi talked about performative activism and how social media has mobilized the activists in all of us for the best and for the worst. Plus, there's a new segment called The Icuation Room, where the girls discuss one of the most polarizing topics, the Zara landing page. Zara. Zara. I knew it was called Zara. I knew it was Zara. Leave it in. I knew it the Zara landing page. Zara. Zara. I knew it was called Zara. I knew it was Zara.

Leave it in. Leave it in. I knew it was Zara. No one corrected me. I corrected myself. You don't want to miss it. I don't know anything about what's wrong with the Zara landing page. Do you, Tommy?

No. It's where Nick Shapiro gets all his shirts. Yeah, we do know that. Anyway, you don't want to miss Dare We Say. New episodes drop every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts. Now I've got to find out what's wrong with the Zara landing page. I'm going to have to download that one. Don't go looking now.

Don't go looking now. Okay, you're right. Also, check out the Crooked Store to find all new Vote Save America merch. A portion of every single order on the Crooked Store goes to vote riders. That is the leading organization focused on informing citizens of their state's voter ID requirements and helping them secure the documents they may need to vote. So check out crooked.com slash merch for the latest drop. Then head to votesaveamerica.com to find out how to get involved and do your part in getting involved in this year's midterms. All right, let's get to the news.

In the last week or so, most election forecasters have said that control of the Senate is now a toss-up. And none other than mitch mcconnell seems to agree uh here's what he recently said to an nbc reporter quote i think there's probably a greater likelihood the house flips than the senate senate races are just different they're statewide candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome on sunday donald trump truth to truth in response is there an easy way to find his truth obviously i'm not signing up for truth but does someone retweet his truths full-time yes i'm getting a nod from andy yes i noticed like

people pluck up some of them out there was like an account there was like a bot account that was doing it but then i think twitter shut that down because it's like they don't their whole point was to get rid of the law so you still sort of rely on reporters to just give you the truth once in a while it's like i want to get those truths all the time full-time truths i want my truth how far we've come on this issue anyway here's the here's this particular truth why do republican senators allow a broken down hack politician mitch mcconnell to openly disparage hardworking Republican candidates. He should spend more time and money

helping them get elected and less time helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China. Rich on China. Okay. This is his former transportation secretary he was talking about. For all four years.

Elaine Chao. Yeah. So I guess he turned on her because she remember she called on him to resign she posed the insurrection yeah she posed it she posed the violent insurrection so that was that um all right why do you think mitch said that i mean it seems to me correct me if i'm wrong john but roughly translates to uh don't blame me if the democrats keep the senate blame trump and the idiots he recruited that's out that's what i heard because mitch mcconnell doesn't just say things yeah it's very he recruited. That's what I heard. Because Mitch

McConnell doesn't just say things. Don't blame me. Yeah, it's very. He doesn't. He's a pretty calculating guy. That's one thing you can say about Mitch McConnell. He could have easily said, I feel good or we'll see what happens in November. Yeah. In fact, showing even that a little bit of insecurity about the outcome is very unlike him. Very unlike him. He wants to hang this around Donald Trump's neck if they lose. And he wants to blame him specifically for the candidates he has endorsed in the Senate primaries who are now most of them nominees.

Herschel Walker, Blake Masters, Dr. Oz, Adam Laxalt. These are all Trump candidates. Yeah, I think these comments are probably the most directed at Dr. Oz down in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia. But he's also, Mitch McConnell is also probably not happy about his super PAC having to spend $28 million worth of ads in Ohio to help out J.D. Vance. And J.D. Vance has been critical of McConnell personally.

He called him out of touch with the base, which is fun. In 2022, that means, I guess, too old to storm the Capitol. Also, Eric Schmidt, the Republican candidate in Missouri and Blake Masters have also both suggested that McConnell should no longer lead the GOP. So I don't know. I wonder, bitch isn't liking the vibes. Isn't liking the vibes. Yeah, you probably don't get a... If they did take the Senate, I bet you don't have a critical majority of Trumpers that would throw out McConnell. But it'd be uncomfortable for McConnell.

Yeah, it'd be annoying for him. Do you think McConnell's right in what he said? He's absolutely right that candidate quality matters. I think his full quote was like, maybe we'll tie, maybe they'll win it by a couple, maybe we'll win it by a couple. So like he's, yes, he's absolutely right. Quality matters. And I think you're seeing that in some of these numbers, especially Herschel Walker, who's just more Dr. Oz, who are just fumbling their way to. Yeah. Well, and one reason that we know

candidate quality matters in Senate races is that we've seen Republicans miss a chance to retake the Senate in 2010, when obviously Republicans did really, really well in the House and took back the House. It was a horrible year for us being in the White House as Democrats. Yeah, that stunk. But they had horrible candidates. And in 2012, they had a chance too, and they blew it because they had candidates like Todd Akin in Missouri, Richard Murdoch, Sharon Engel in Nevada, Christine O'Donnell. For those of you who don't remember Christine O'Donnell, she was running for the Senate in Delaware. For Dancy.

For Dancy, yeah. And one of her ads, she had to come out and say, I am not a witch. That was a thing that happened back in 2010. Well, maybe not historic first. It probably happened in like the 1600s. But those were different times. Yeah, Todd Akin had some despicable comments about rape.

Horrible human being, yeah. Richard Murdoch did as well. There was an abortion. There was two candidates that were saying horrible things about rape and abortion. You know what's great? I don't even remember who Richard Murdoch is. He ran in Indiana. As soon as Rupert could have, you know, Indiana Republican state and didn't win. Good.

So, yeah. So, it's happened to Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party before. So, they think it could happen again even when the political environment is better for Republicans. So Shane Goldmacher at the New York Times reported last week that the National Republican Senatorial Committee recently canceled $10 million worth of planned advertising in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona. What did you make of that story? So there have actually been a bunch of very interesting, fun stories about the NRSC, the National Republican Senate Committee and their spending. So the New York Times said they had cut 10 million in ads. Politico said they had cut 13.5 million in ad cuts. And then later in that, I think that same paragraph in the story said, but a Democratic

source said it was 10, sort of like a bitchy little aside pointing to what the New York Times sourcing was. But Politico has, since August 1st, the NRSC has cut ad buys in Pennsylvania, 7.5 million, cut off the top. Arizona, 3.5. Wisconsin, 2.5. And Nevada, 1.5. So it's hard to know exactly what's happening here because there's so many different committees and so much money sloshing around. Obviously, John, in an ideal world, you don't cut ad spending. Let's just go with the simple explanation. It's not good. I mean, there was all this spin from the NRSC in the piece that's like, well, we're moving it from the independent expenditure side, which is the side that you can't coordinate directly with the campaigns by law. We're going

to move some of it directly to the other side so we can coordinate with the campaigns themselves better. And it's just moving money around so we can coordinate with the campaigns themselves better. And it's just moving money around here and there and all that kind of shit. But that, like you said, the bottom line is you don't cut money. You don't cut spending a couple months out before the election. Also, presumably, if you're buying ads eight months out, six months out, a year out, you can kind of get a better rate than at the very end when everyone's trying to come in and the prices go up. We also do know that the NRC has already spent $36 million in ads so far. The question is just always like, what's going to happen with super PAC spending? Because Mitch McConnell has this huge super PAC and he's dumping cash places.

Peter Thiel is trying to personally buy the race in Arizona. And then he gave $10 million to J.D. Vance. The really, really fun part is that the Republicans hate Rick Scott. They hate Rick Scott, the head of the NRSC. And there were some stats in one of those stories. So the DSCC has nearly twice as much cash on hand as the NRSC, 53 million to 28 million, basically. The Washington Post said that Democrats are outspending Republicans by more than double in the Arizona race, two to one in Nevada, nearly two to one in Nevada and four to one in Ohio, according to some media tracking firms. And then they again, they say like, it's not fundraising. The Republican Senate campaign has raised 173 million,

but they're down to only having 28 million left. And they also pointed out that Rick Scott cut and released an ad featuring him like himself himself saying some of the most unpopular things a republican could possibly say so it's just i we don't i don't know what it'll mean for the election the consensus clearly is the nrsc is poorly run and a terrible organization you also just have to assume that trump constantly fundraising with these email alerts and that's i was gonna bring that up he's gotta be siphoning awesome cash. Of course he is. It's so funny that Donald Trump is doing his best fundraising ever, especially after the FBI thing too. He's not on the ballot.

The NRCs, they're having, you're right that they raised a bunch of money. They're having low dollar fundraising issues. They're having trouble getting the $5 and $10 donations from the base, so they have to rely on these big billionaire donors, the super PACs and stuff like that. The WinRed, that's their ActBlue version version they're down 12 percent in q2 versus q1 yeah it's like instead it's like give rick scott your money and then he'll go on tv and

tell people how he wants to eliminate medicare and social security and raise taxes on working class people it'll be great here's what we're gonna do it's gonna be awesome imagine the most unappealing man you can possibly think of just like like Lord Voldemort in a hat for some reason. And then give him awful ideas that everyone hates. Give him the worst polling ideas that you thought were buried in the Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan campaign in 2012. Put them on TV. We'll bring them back. For millions.

That's what we're going to do. That's our plan. Now, lest anyone worry that Republicans are strapped for cash, the Times followed up with the story Monday that this 90-year-old manufacturing mogul I had never heard of named Barre Side. Is that how we're pronouncing it? I mean, is it like a bar class? Like a bar. It's spelled sort of like a bar class. Zara Lanny Page. landing page. Anyway, he made a donation worth $1.6 billion to a right-wing group called the

Marble Freedom Trust, which is controlled by Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society. How alarmed were you about this story? This is one of those stories that's like, it's so complicated and confusing that it's easy to get lost. Let me give you the, here's what you need to know. Leonard Leo, as you said, right-wing creep. I think he actually finally left the Federalist Society to move on to a new equally murky role. I think he like sits on the board still. Conservative donor role. Yeah. He's got like an honorary board seat there.

He's got his finger on the pulse. Leonard Leo basically owns stock in a huge chunk of the right-wing judges currently serving anywhere in the country, including Supreme Court justices like Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett. He's buddies with Clarence Thomas from back in the day. Clarence Thomas once called Leonard Leo the number three most powerful person in the world. So anyway, Federalist Society, bad, powerful right-wing organization. It marries up sort of right-wing zealots, corporate money in the judicial branch. Not a good combo. So here's what happened here. Leonard Leo starts this new organization called the Marble Freedom Trust in May of 2020. It's a nonprofit. This donor donates 100% of the shares of a company I think he started or he owned called Triplight. Who cares what it does? And

then the company was sold to an Irish conglomerate for $1.65 billion. So that means I think the nonprofit pays no taxes on the sale. I suspect it also means that this original donor avoids any taxes on this sale. Correct. I wonder if, I don't think he gets to write off the profits because I don't think you can write off donations to C4s versus C3s. Yeah. Maybe. And like, whether or not that's the case.

Here's the point. The real bad part is now they have 1.6 billion dollars to spend on politics two bad points the campaign finance system is totally broken right now leonard leo has well over a billion dollars to just shovel at every right-wing cause that he wants and here's the i mean so much money you brought this up many times because you're a jane mayer fan and you've uh and you've read jane mayer stuff you got my attention but it's it's not just that they're spending this money or that they can spend this money on races, right?

They are going to spend this on institutions, policy, think tanks, right? Like they are going, local races, local institutions, media organizations, right? Like this is now the single largest political donation in history. History. $1.6 billion to seed this right-wing MAGA revolution all over the country not just in electoral politics but in every facet uh every institution you could imagine yeah ironically um under the IRS code these are called social welfare organizations right right and so this is like it it's pretty scary. It's so much money.

And it's so much money. They have like $1.4 billion left over just to do whatever they want with for forever. Anyway, so this is why we need to win the elections here. So let's talk about these Senate races and the quality of the Republican candidates that seem to be worrying Mitch McConnell. And we can just go through the map here. So the Senate's currently split 50-50. There are four Senate Democrats who are in competitive races, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, and New

Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan. How tight are these races? And what do you think about their Republican opponents? So John, I checked back in with the 538 podcast this week. You did? Mostly. It's that time of year. Well, mostly. Yeah. I wanted to hear Galen ask just like a totally straightforward question and then Nate kind of get mad at the premise. Yeah. Sort of like a little passive aggressive. Yeah. Just sort of like, how dare you? Yeah. No, but there's a, they have it at 60% chance that Democrats hold the Senate. The odds in the house are worse, but improving. So you want to go through one by one? Yeah. Okay. New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan doesn't have an opponent yet.

So that Republican primary, September 13th. The St. A's poll, near and dear to your heart, St. Anselm's. Yeah. Hassan has a 44% approval. So she is clearly vulnerable. The leading Republican opponent is a guy named Don Balduck. I don't know how to say his name. That's right.

He's a Trump big lie guy. He's a right-wing zealot. If he wins, I think we have a good chance. He's a retired brigadier general who wants the U.S. to be directly involved in the war in Ukraine. And he wants troops on the ground, troops on the ground, troops on the ground in Ukraine. And he called Governor Sununu a Chinese communist sympathizer. Wildly popular Republican Governor Chris Sununu, Chinese communist sympathizer. He also, by theunu, Chinese communist sympathizer. He also, by the way, doesn't believe that people

should get to directly elect their senators. He wants to repeal that. He wants to repeal the 17th Amendment. He's one of these, we're a republic, not a democracy guy. He wants the state legislature to pick the senators.

So he went, that's the last, your last vote is for Don Bolduc and then that's it. These guys are all worried about majority rule. You can figure out why. Always scary when just these right wing crazy zealots are former generals in the military.

That doesn't make me feel good. Yeah. There's I think a lot of sort of the Republican establishment in New Hampshire is a little worried about him. Obviously, Chris Sununu is not a fan. Governor Sununu is not a fan. They want the state Senate president. Yeah. So that's no,

but I think you're right. Like if he, if he ends up in winning that primary and he isn't leading it right now, then I think Hassan has a, has a much better shot. Yeah. She's probably much more of a, probably a lean dam or likely dam.

Yeah. Should we go to Georgia? Georgia. I mean, Warnock versus Walker. You guys know, I mean, five 38 has Warnock up a couple points, like 46.2% to Walker's 44.4%.

This is a hard one. I mean, look, Herschel Walker is a terrible candidate, but there's also this big statewide governor's race. I think everyone's going to be turning folks out. The question I have is, I mean, I guess the Democratic Party's path to winning the Senate seat is either higher Democratic turnout or Republican split ticket voters, a combo of both. I don't know. It could happen. Herschel Walker is terrible. You know, we talked about, we did a whole game about Herschel Walker and Brian Kemp

in our Atlanta pod. We had all kinds of Herschel Walker greatest hits. There's a new one now that we just got over the weekend uh he was asked about the inflation reduction act and uh he said i don't know a lot of money it's going to trees don't we have enough trees around here a lot of money is going to trees like what was he thinking about a rake he doesn't like raking what was going on up there that was trump's by the way that was trump's climate plan that was to like plant a trillion trees or something literally that's awkward for him then anyway whatever no i think so i did a for the wilderness i did focus group in atlanta it was a focus group of black voters who had voted for joe biden and now either aren't sure who they're going

to vote for or whether they're going to vote it was sort of an upsetting focus group these people are there everyone i talked to there was very down on politics for a lot of good reasons you know hate brian kemp so it's not like they wrote for him but like weren't too happy with joe biden Everyone I talked to there was very down on politics for a lot of good reasons, you know. Hate Brian Kemp. So it's not like they wrote for him, but like weren't too happy with Joe Biden. But when I talked about Herschel Walker, I was like, anyone maybe going to vote for Herschel Walker? What do you think of Herschel Walker? They were like, he is stone cold fucking crazy. Absolutely not.

That makes me feel better. Yeah. And they're not like super happy with Warnock, but they're all like, if we end up going to vote, we're going to vote for Warnock and we're going to vote for Stacey Abrams. Look, there's a real anti-incumbent thing going on, I think, across the country. Yes, for sure. For sure. But Walker was not. Yeah. But no one liked Herschel Walker. Good. All right. So then we go to Arizona, Mark Kelly and Blake Masters. Yeah. I mean, so I think the polls have consistently had Mark Kelly ahead, including some Republican polls. Masters is a fairly recent nominee. So he hasn't had a lot of time. I don't know. Look, Kelly's a great candidate. He's got

a lot of cash. He's an astronaut. I'm just worried. It's a wacky state with a wacky Republican party and Kerry Lake running for governor on the Republican side. I'm a little worried about it. You know, I think that Kelly, yeah, the average of the polls right now has Kelly much further ahead than I thought he would be. He only won the state by, you know, it was like two and a half points in 2020. And so that was just two years ago. And now the average has him around, you know, 8.3. But he's just, he's running ads about masters. Doesn't mention Trump. Doesn't mention Peter Thiel. Doesn't mention all this, like basically just has two of his quotes. One, Blake Masters saying maybe we should privatize social security. And the other saying peter teal doesn't mention all this like basically just has two of his quotes one lake master saying maybe we should privatize social security and the other saying that he wants a nationwide ban on

abortion no exceptions and calling abortion demonic yeah i mean maybe that's all he needs i know it's a very like old school feeling election of issues that have been important in collections for decades yeah so hopefully that'll work and then you got mark kelly running an ad with a republican mayor endorsing him saying oh he you know he's good with republicans and democrats for decades. Yeah. So hopefully that'll work. And then you got Mark Kelly running an ad with a Republican mayor endorsing him, saying, oh, he, you know, he's good with Republicans and Democrats,

which I know, like, makes, you know, probably makes some liberals uncomfortable, but it's like, state like Arizona, Mark Kelly's been with Democrats and voted with Democrats

and voted with Joe Biden every step of the way, unlike, you know, his colleague, Kyrsten Sinema. I do remember. He's been a great Democrat. So that's how you win Arizona.

That's how you win Arizona. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. So 538 has her at 45%-ish, him at 41%-ish. But Trafalgar, remember those guys, the Republican polling firm who did a better job i think of reaching trump voters back in the day um had laxalt up three in their most recent poll and it makes me worried i actually i would say of the four democrats up i'm most worried about the nevada race yeah i am too because of the demographics of the state um the challenges of incumbency she's running on very local issues she's running on like we

got drought relief funding and the inflation reduction act which a great message hopefully and the other uh issue that she's been running on is abortion because you know we just talked about demographics in nevada and it's been sort of inching towards the republicans over the last several years but nevada is a very pro-choice state. And so she's been really hammering this issue. And I also think she's, you know, she's suffering from like, people don't know, she doesn't have a high profile in the Senate, right? Catherine Cortez Masto. But you got Adam Laxalt, the Republican there, believes in the big lie, big lie supporter. He's called Roe v. Wade a joke. Dan Pfeiffer called him the Conor Roy of of uh nevada political dynasty i like that and then

sure enough katherine cortez masto came out with an ad where she basically has music that's like the succession music all about laxalt and she calls him like son of a dc lobbyist he was kicked out of an elite school he was arrested for assaulting a cop but he still got back into another elite school and she just basically the whole ad is like Dan calling him Connor Roy come to life in an ad. I love it. No, I saw that ad. It was a good ad. It's pretty good. Yeah. But I think that's going to be, you know, if you can help volunteer and help out Catherine Cortez master, that's going to be super important because I think that's a real tight one. Yeah. All right. So if one of these Senate Democrats lose, we'll need to flip a Republican seat to hold the Senate. If two lose, we'll need to flip two

and so forth. Our best chances for flips are in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman and Dr. Oz are competing to fill retiring Republican Pat Toomey's seat, and Wisconsin, where Mandela Barnes, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, is running against Ron Johnson. Look, Dan and I talked about Oz and Fetterman last pod.

Tommy, do you think Dr. Oz is feeling good that the debate has now moved from his crudite outing to how many houses he has? I mean, the worst candidate I've ever seen so far, Dr. Oz. I have more own goals than a six-year-old soccer game. Mind you, I mean, you guys didn't mention this because his opponent had a stroke. Yeah. He was literally off the playing field for months. I mean, Dr. Oz could have been running on the state,

owning every news cycle for months and months and months. Unbelievable. Instead, he was owned by the news cycle. Look, the media likes a comeback story. People aren't paying attention. I feel good. Having 10 houses is good for him, I guess. But not knowing how many houses you have

or trying to draw a distinction between how many homes you own and how many properties you own. That's called just digging your own political grave. John McCain famously got asked, how many houses do you own during the 2008 race? And we ran ads on it for months and months and months. This campaign is like all of our best McCain's out of touch and Romney's out of touch hits times a million yeah it's just it's truly something to watch amazing crudite it's all it's just been tell me i said you got some i guess you got some credit finally the credit you deserve on lifting up the crudite

video there was a buzzfeed story that said that that noted that you did uh you tweeted it oh but really i did not see that. From Elijah. It's you and Elijah. I don't think tweeting deserves a lot of credit, but I'll give Elijah props to Elijah there for finding that. Yeah, so they have now moved, a lot of the forecasters have moved Pennsylvania from a toss-up, which Pennsylvania should always be a toss-up.

It is an incredibly close state, but because Oz is such a bad candidate, and to the Fetterman campaign's credit, because Fetterman is such a good candidate, they've moved it to lean D in a lot of these forecasts. They've done a really good job. I mean, again, it's so impressive what Fetterman's team has done. Yes. Because he has been unable to campaign. And in the past, Fetterman, I think, has been kind of like a one-man band going everywhere and meeting with everyone, his own turnout, his own field program, right? And because he had a stroke, he was unable to really campaign hard.

And his team just filled the gap in such an impressive way with all these great digital ads, super creative attacks on Oz, great use of their oppo file, which is voluminous. There's lots of hits to be had on Dr. Oz, but they deserve a ton of credit. Seems like a fun campaign to be on. In Wisconsin, there's only been two polls since Mandela Barnes won the primary. The Fox News poll has them up four. Marquette has them up seven. Both pretty good quality polls.

And, you know, and I think both had them at 50% or higher. That said, John, Wisconsin polling to the biggest most disastrous polling history i don't even want to think about it there's also a big governor's race and a great state party in wisconsin but as you know as you said too that there's an anti-incumbent mood out there and you have ron johnson who's just been sitting around you know they again they elected ron johnson thinking like oh he's sort of a independent minded businessman that will go to Washington or whatever. And he just has become a fucking Trump lackey. Yeah.

And a conspiracy theorist and says all kinds of crazy shit all the time. He sucks. So, you know, hopefully, hopefully Mandela Barnes can pull that out. All right. So there are also three other races where Democrats have a chance at flipping Republican seats. Tim Ryan versus J.D. Vance in Ohio. Val Demings versus Marco Rubio in Florida. And Sherry Beasley versus Ted Budd in North Carolina. How much of a long shot do you think these are? I think the short answer is I don't know. I want to add one more,

which is Iowa. We got Adam O'Mike Franken running against Chuck Grassley, who's 140 years old. Franken had an impressive Navy career. He spent a bunch of time in Eastern Africa taking out terrorists. The guy was born and raised in Sioux City. I think he's one of nine kids still lives there. So also an interesting race that we should just keep an eye on. Ohio is a really hard state. Trump got 53% in 2020. But Tim Ryan has raised seven times the amount of money that J.D. Vance has so far.

J.D. Vance, you might have noticed, is a weirdo and kind of a schmuck. But I'm worried about, you know, super PACs riding to JD's rescue with a bunch of cash like Mitch McConnell just did. Can I read you a line from a JD fundraising email that was just sent today? Yes. At this point, if I don't do a complete 180 on the fundraising front, not only will I have to possibly shut down my campaign, but Republicans may never win another race this year. a complete 180 on the fundraising front. Not only will I have to possibly shut down my campaign, but Republicans may never win another race this year. That is, wow. Fundraising emails are bad in general,

both sides, Democrats, Republicans. That is one of the, that's really taken it to a new level. Imagine J.D. Vance, like turning the sign from open to closed on the window. That's it, I'm done. You made me shut down my campaign. Look, I have been skeptical of this because Trump won Ohio 53-45. That's a big margin.

That's a lot. That means there has to be a lot of Tim Ryan, Donald Trump voters. People who voted for Donald Trump who vote for Tim Ryan this time around. A lot of them for Tim Ryan to win. But even as I explain this to my in-laws and all of Emily's family and friends from Ohio, they still say, hey, we believe. Can I call them Buckeyes or does that offend them

as not sort of Ohio State or Columbus people? I don't know if we should be getting into this as two people who are not. Okay, got it. I can't speak for them on that. Tweet it. But I'll tell you, there's a lot of people in Ohio who have a lot of faith in Tim Ryan that he can pull this off. All right.

So I've started to believe. I've started to believe. The one that I really want to believe in is North Carolina because 538 has Sherry Beasley and Ted Budd tied. She's crushing him in fundraising. I think it's two to one as of the June 30th filing. And I just, in my soul, I want North Carolina to be a blue state. Obama and Kay Hagan won statewide in 2008. I don't really get what happened since.

Yeah, I think what happens is in the Trump era, they turned out just so many rural ex-urban white voters who had never turned out before, who just didn't usually turn out before. And so even though it's a diversifying state and it was helping trending towards Democrats, sort of the Trump era brought it a little bit, just put it out of reach, which was unfortunate. But Sherry Beasley, a great candidate, you know, we interviewed her here and like I said, it's tied right now. So yeah, look, I'm rooting for her. Florida, like, listen, Florida, you broke my heart so many times that I just can't let you back in. I want Val Demings to win. I think...

Famously, we hate Marco Rubio. What I wonder about Marco Rubio is he sits around his house and he puts on his little athleisure outfits and his goofy hats and he records little videos that are just poorly lit. And everything about him screams, I give up. I don't want this job. Yeah. Well, the only satisfying thing about Marco Rubio is, you know, he'll never be president of the United States and that's what he's wanted more than anything. So it's comforting to know that he'll never achieve that. But I'd also like him to not be. Yeah. He's like a, he's a JV Ted Cruz,

but there's 200,000 more Republicans, uh, registered Republicans, I think in the state than Democrats. So that's just, no, I think that's going to be a hard one. But here's the thing. All of these races, like the Senate is very much up for grabs here. Democrats can hold on to the Senate. We could even add to our Senate majority. We've said this before, too, like, forget about holding on to the Senate. You get two more senators than we have now who are pro-choice, anti-filibuster. And not only could we codify Roe v. Wade, but you could do a whole bunch of other stuff that we couldn't get done because of the filibuster if we also are somehow able to keep

the House, which is a longer shot, but who knows? So anyway, go to votesaveamerica.com, sign up for Midterm Madness. There are also some voter registration deadlines coming up. And we're working at Vote Save America with the team at Vote Pro-Choice. They have a plan to turn out 600,000 new likely Democratic voters in some of the states we've been talking about and will be talking about with Beto. Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Ohio, and North Carolina. They want to do this by November. For every $2 raised, our partners at Vote Pro-Choice can register a Pro-Choice voter.

So every $2, they can register another voter. Head to votesaveamerica.com slash VPC right now to chip in and sign up for Mentor Madness if you haven't yet. Yeah, please. What are you waiting for? When we come back, better O'Rourke. joining us now a longtime friend of the pod who is now running to be the next governor of texas beto o'rourke beto welcome back hey thanks for having me back good to see you both great to see you too uh you ran statewide for senate in 2018 when democrats had the wind at our back you came closer to turning Texas blue than any candidate in decades. Now you're running for governor in a political environment that's much tougher for Democrats. What lessons from 2018 are you applying to this campaign?

What's different about this race and what's different about you as a candidate? So there are a lot of good lessons. Going everywhere, making sure that you talk to and listen to everyone, write nobody off, take no one for granted. That was a big takeaway for me from 2018. And it's something that we're applying to this race as well. And so you'll certainly see us in Houston and in Dallas and in Austin and the kinds of places you would expect a Democrat to be, because I want to make sure I'm not taking anyone for granted. And within those reliably blue, as we're told, counties, we're trying to go to places where maybe Democrats haven't shown up because they've just taken these voters for granted. And oftentimes that's black and brown voters in Texas. But going to places like uh Greenville or Madisonville or Quanah Longview Texarkana even Lubbock and Amarillo bigger communities that have voted Republican for the last 20 or 30 years

showing up and seeing that there are a lot of Democrats but also a lot of Republicans and independents who are looking for something better and often having more people than we have space in the halls that we've rented shows me that there is a deep demand for made in 2018 was assuming that everyone understood Ted Cruz and and just how dangerous this guy was or that they just formed their opinion on this guy they loved him or they hated him there was just going to be little that I could add to that um I I now realize I left a lot of votes on the table there are people who are working two or three jobs to make ends meet. They're taking care of their kids or their parents. They're just not plugged in the way that maybe I'm plugged in or you're plugged in politics. And the candidate, me in that case, needed to do a better job of prosecuting the case on Cruz. Just the loss that we were suffering from

having this guy as our junior senator. In this race with Abbott, I'm making sure everyone knows that when the lights went out last February and more than 700 of our fellow Texans died, when your utility bills went up, as a result, 45 bucks a month more than you were paying before that, one of the largest drivers of inflation in the state of Texas, your property tax increase up $20 billion cumulatively over the last seven years across the state of Texas. Five of the worst mass shootings in US history in five years on this guy's watch. This is Greg Abbott's Texas, the extremism on a total abortion ban with no exception for rape or incest, turning his back on law enforcement and signing a bill called permitless

carry that did away with our license to carry program. So no longer must you get a background check or proficiency in the firearm that you want to carry on our streets. You're just free to go out there fully loaded with the public, none the wiser or the safer for it. I want to make sure every single Texas voter knows that this is Greg Abbott. And by contrast, we can focus on the big things that bring us together, world-class public schools, expanding Medicaid so that you can actually see a doctor in the least insured state in America, reversing some of this extremism on abortion and our gun laws, and then just doing stuff that invests in some of these communities that have so long been overlooked or forgotten because Abbott thinks he's got them in

the bag so he doesn't have to show up or deliver for them. Broadband internet is a great example across Texas. We invest in that as an infrastructure, as a technology, as a utility. We will unleash extraordinary economic power. So that's a big difference from the way I ran in 2018 and yet allows us to build on that base that produced the largest voter turnout in Texas history since 1970, had the largest young voter turnout probably ever. It was up 500% from the previous midterm election. And though we didn't win, a lot of Democrats got over the line that night in 18. 12 new state house reps, two new members of Congress that flipped control of that institution. And in Harris County, home to Houston,

17 black women got elected to judicial position. So that was a transformative election. We held all that ground, John and Tommy, in 2020. We didn't lose a single seat or position. We didn't gain as much as I think we should have in 2020, but it shows that that base is solid. Now we get to build on top of that. And win, by the way. And win. Hey, winning sounds great. I mean, I think no one would ever accuse you of not working hard or not showing up or not going to all these places. Thank God Joe Biden got these gas prices under control or else your campaign would be literally bankrupt. Let's talk about gun control for a minute because this past summer, Congress in Washington, they passed the first gun control law in decades. And I think even the authors of the bill would concede that they wish it did a lot more.

would concede that they wish it did a lot more. But I was wondering what you made of that law, especially given how extreme Governor Abbott is pushing for permitless carry, which sounds like the worst idea I could ever imagine. But Senator Murphy and some of the other sponsors of the bill, their theory of the case is basically, let's pass this law, let's get something done on a bipartisan basis and prove that the NRA can't make us pay a political price and then try to build on that success. I wonder if you agree with that. Yeah, I'm so impressed with Senator Murphy and others who worked on that. But this guy has been so persistent over the last decade and never been deterred, never despaired, never gave up. And I think is proving that progress is possible and is the first to say what he's

been able to bring to the table and get the president to sign is wholly insufficient to the challenge we face. And yet it's proof that this work pays off. And it's one step among many we have yet to take. I think that is not lost on the people of Texas, on the families in Uvalde. We're now 13 weeks since 19 kids were slaughtered in that classroom along with their two teachers kids whose bodies could only be identified by the shoes that they were wearing doctors who saw those kids afterward and talked about how that high

impact high velocity round literally liquefied the soft tissue that it met in their bodies or or in their heads. Those families, and they are Republicans or Democrats or folks in some cases who've never been politically engaged before to a person, want us to take action and make change and ensure that no other family has to go through what they are experiencing right now and what they'll frankly live with for the rest of their lives. So that was some cause for hope for us here in Texas, because you're right. Abbott may have only made things worse after Sutherland Springs and Santa Fe High School and Midland Odessa and

El Paso, and now Uvalde by signing permitless carry into law. But there's an answer to that. And that is all of us. We can change the person in power and have someone who will work on things like at least raising the minimum age of purchase from 18 to 21. That mayor in Uvalde who had words for me when I showed up at that press conference the day after that shooting, he and his council members unanimously sent a letter from the Uvalde City Council to Greg Abbott saying, hey, please call a special session and just raise the minimum age. No reason this guy at 18 years old could buy not one, but two AR-15s, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, perfectly legally, send off such signals that his friends called him the school shooter before he ever walked into the school. We can do better than this. So to show that common ground between Republicans and Democrats demonstrates that this is possible, but we're going to need political leadership that will do this. Abbott's called a special session to go after trans kids, to go

after critical race theory, to make it harder to vote in Texas. Cannot be bothered to call a special session to save the lives of kids. And most kids in Texas have already started the 2022-2023 school year, and literally not a thing has changed to make it less likely that they'll be shot in their classrooms, just like those kids in Uvalde or Santa Fe High School or so many others across the state of Texas. One trend that we saw in the 2020 election is a shift towards Republicans among Latino voters, both nationally and in Texas, especially working class Latino voters in more rural areas around the Rio Grande Valley. What are you hearing when you go to some of those communities? Because obviously one issue is people who just haven't voted before. Another issue is people who had voted for Democrats, but, you know, decided I'm going to now vote for Republicans. And what do you hear from those voters and what are you saying to them to persuade them to give you a shot?

When I ask and when I listen, you know, whether here in El Paso or down in the Rio Grande Valley or along the Texas-Mexico border, it is overwhelmingly the economy. Now, I'll give you an example. In the Eagleford Shale, if you have one of those great oil and gas jobs, you are making $60 an hour. If you don't, you're on food stamps. Donald Trump in 2020 had an incredibly powerful, simple, compelling argument. It was just jobs. And specifically, it was oil and gas jobs in South Texas. Biden, unfortunately, did not have a message, at least not one that was heard in South Texas. There was no money spent by that campaign.

And Republicans showed up and they were hungry. And Democrats literally, this was 2020, it was a pandemic. And so I understand the excuses but Democrats literally phoned in the work Republicans were on the door they were they were hungry they they really wanted this and regardless of ideology or or partisanship or any other thing and and all those can be important I always give it to the gal or the guy who's going to work harder than than the other person. I've shown up now seven times in the Rio Grande Valley, as you all know, not the easiest part of Texas to get to. I show up to do big public town hall meetings, all comers welcome, no holds barred.

Anyone ask any question, ask it in English, ask it in Spanish. Talk about the things that are most important to people. And when we do, we make connections on the economy where Greg Abbott shut down all trade on the US-Mexico border for more than a week earlier this year. And it just hammered the shit out of these communities, these import-export businesses. Literally, their traffic dried up and moved to New Mexico and to Arizona. Two-thirds of the produce that we consume in Texas was on those bridges literally just rotting in the back of those trucks that's not lost on those voters there but to the point I was making earlier about prosecuting the case I can't just assume that people will make those connections I've got to be there to say hey Greg Abbott did

this to your community and here's what I propose to do that's different. Not only am I going to support U.S.-Mexico trade, we're going to raise the minimum wage from $7.25, where it still is today, to $15 an hour. We're going to expand Medicaid because you live in the least insured part of the least insured state in America. We're going to make sure that we invest in your public schools because your teachers and counselors are making a fraction of what their counterparts across the nation are making. I believe in you. I'm going to invest in you. I've heard you. We're going to partner with you and follow your lead. And it really does seem to be paying off for whatever polls matter today. Not only are we polling better than Abbott in these communities, we're polling better than

Biden did in 2020. And though he did worse than Clinton did in those communities, he was doing far better than he's doing now. So that's a fairly low bar that we've passed. Now we really just have to build on it. And that's why I'm going back on the 1st of September to Edinburgh and to Brownsville. We've just learned, I hope, as a party, you just can't take anyone for granted. No one's yours for life, regardless of how they voted before, the color of their skin, any other identifying characteristic that would differentiate themselves from anybody else. You've got to go out there and fight for them. And so the only way I know to do it, maybe not the most sophisticated way, is to show up in person, be there, listen

to folks, and try to earn that vote. And I think that's what we're doing. So you mentioned earlier, you know, we're talking about Greg Abbott on gun laws and how extreme he has been or continues to be. The other, you know, extreme policy position that's been we've been hearing about from Texas for a while has been anti-abortion activists passing these draconian bills. That became more of a direct threat to everyone in the state when the Supreme Court Dobbs decision came down. How did that decision impact what you're talking about and what you're hearing from voters and whether it is or isn't motivating people? Because we're starting to see, you know, instances like in Kansas where folks are coming out because they don't want

the government restricting the kind of healthcare women can get. Yeah. So it's so important to remember that 50 years ago, half a century ago, abortion was just as illegal in Texas then as it is today. And it was Texas women who ended up, um, delivering for Texas women. So Jane Roe, as you all know, is a Texas woman, but her two attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffey, who still lives in Dallas, Texas, successfully prevailed upon an all-male United States Supreme Court to win protection for the right to privacy to make these very personal and painful decisions texas women came through 1972 1973 i'm confident texas women are going to come through in 2022 and i see it wherever we go i mentioned being in greenville

in in hunt county and you know unless you're from there um you're you're not passing through there you have to you know you have to want to go to Greenville or Hunt County to be there. We had a gym for 500 people, reached capacity, 300 more waited outside. And I guarantee you, those 800 folks coming out in Greenville are not there primarily to see me or to rally for the Democratic Party. They are there to fight for and work for change. And that Dobbs decision, the total abortion ban with no exception for rape, no exception for incest in the state of Texas that starts at conception in a state that has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, because as you've foreclosed options to seek an abortion, you've also turned them away for cervical cancer screenings, family planning

help just to see any kind of doctor at all. People are meeting the moment. And it's one of the very silver linings, I guess, in this really dark sky that's descended over the state of Texas is people aren't having it. And they're gonna do everything they have to do in order to change it. And I do think we saw that in Kansas.

I know that I'm seeing that on the ground across the state of texas right now and you better believe that will show up in the votes counted on the night of november 8th i mean the polls have us you know quinnipiac says five down others say two down others say seven down you know we're probably somewhere around there. But I don't know that polling can measure the anger, the deep drive, the work ethic that people in Texas have that's going to produce the victory that I know we're going to see on the night of November 8th. This decision, the extremism of Greg Abbott, that's going to have a lot to do with the result that we see. Somehow in the middle of this campaign, you managed to write a book about voting rights called, uh, we've got to try. Um, it seems as if people who care about voting rights nationally, and especially in Texas, haven't had a lot to celebrate lately, speaking of dark clouds. Um, and you know, one of the more pernicious effects of voter suppression is that it makes

people think like, why even bother if the system is so rigged why why should i even do this what do you say what do you say to that yeah i i started this book about two years ago trying to answer that question because there's this temptation to despair very understandable given the attack on women's reproductive rights the lgbtq community in the state of Texas, the fact that our electricity grid does not work when it gets too cold and literally people freeze to death in the energy capital of the world. The way I see it, these things would not be happening if more people had the ability to vote, if more voices were heard. This is not a reflection of the majority of us or who we are at our core as Texans. This is the product of a very rigged system where 750 polling places have been closed

in the last decade, almost twice as much as the next closest state. A gerrymandered system based on race where black and brown Texans are drawn out of a congressional district to minimize not only the power of their vote, but John, to your point, the likelihood that they will vote at all. And so against that, I wanted to know what can we do? And by looking at Texas history, and specifically this extraordinary story of a guy named Lawrence Nixon, a Black physician who lived in El Paso more than 100 years ago, I learned that not only can we overcome this attack on democracy and voting rights, we've overcome it before against much greater odds. you can't vote literally like no uh how many jelly beans are in the jar or here's a literacy test or quote the state constitution just in black and white forbade african americans from political participation this guy fought it um he said i've got to try when he was told that he could not vote

um one two signal supreme court victories finally won integration 44, and it set the path for the first Texas president, LBJ, to sign the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965. So it's an extraordinary story, and it happens here in Texas, which again, today is the epicenter of voter suppression and voter intimidation, the toughest state in the nation in which to vote, toughest in which to register. And yet that doesn't have to be our future or our fate. We can change that. But it's going to take extraordinary courage, really tireless work, and it's going to take

a lot of people. And thankfully, in this campaign, as an example, we've got 83,000 folks who volunteered to take shifts, knocking on doors, registering people to vote, having conversations with folks who've been the very targets for suppression and intimidation. So the stories in this book are stories of people like Lawrence Nixon or Opal Lee, who walked from Fort Worth, Texas. She's now 95 years old, to Washington, D.C., to prevail upon, you know, first President Obama and then President Biden and members of Congress to make Juneteenth the first federally recognized holiday in decades and a holiday that recognizes the work that's taken place, but also the work left to be done. So some pretty inspiring people here in Texas who remind us that we can do this because we've done it before. So I hope that people read the

book, take some inspiration from these stories as I have, and then put in the work to make sure that we come through. Man, I feel bad following up that hopeful, optimistic question with this dark shit from me. But the flip side of all the good things you're trying to put into the world is a lot of what we're hearing in conservative media, which is increasingly conspiratorial and sometimes violent rhetoric. I mean, Tucker Carlson's show is just like agitprop about the great replacement theory that's led to real world violence. Trump's inspiring supporters to attack the FBI, both rhetorically and then someone actually took him up on it in Ohio. I see videos of your events where you're out there on the road, you're trying to talk to people and bring people together, but you also have folks showing up with

AR-15s, maybe to protest, maybe just to kind of be intimidating. You're on the front lines. What does it feel like out there? Are you concerned about where the rhetoric is going? Are you concerned about, I don't know, the safety of politicians who are like just trying to do their jobs? Yeah. I mean, I'm concerned about all of this. I think you all see this and feel it. And I think any, anybody looking at this country today should be able to see it. Certainly the history books written, you know, decades from now will, will illustrate this or demonstrate that this is a defining moment of truth for us. We are about to either save and restore this democracy or lose it forever. And I don't know a better way to put it. And I guess that can sound dark. The other way to look

at it is, I mean, how many generations have the great fortune to fight for the right to vote in this democracy. I mean, you know, Johnson in that amazing speech in 65, where he's been inspired by John Lewis, who was nearly killed crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, says, look, you know, at Concord, at Appomattox, and now in Selma, you know, all of us fighting for this right to vote, this great democracy, and laying that charge at the feet of the members of Congress like, look, you all can do something about this. And by the summer of that year, he was able to get an almost all white Congress, including many significant senators and House members from the South, to expand the franchise and create the first true multi-racial democracy in american history um we are a generation now that has that fight before us as theirs did overcoming jim crow and in this book we've got to try to tell the story about what happened in texas post reconstruction

where african americans still held elected office, still nominally were able to vote, and came up against kind of the precursor to the Ku Klux Klan in the state of Texas, these armed vigilantes who would go in and literally steal the vote at polling locations, very reminiscent in some ways to me of what happened on January 6th, 2021. You'd have legitimate, lawfully decided elections, and this very violent white minority would come in and literally steal the ballot box, shoot people, open violence and civil strife in some of these counties in Texas. And then the United States Congress and very well-meaning people catch wind of this, hold these hearings, investigate it, come up with an

elections bill, not unlike the one that we have on the table right now in the United States Congress that will allow for federal protection for voting rights in the states of the former Confederacy and throughout the rest of the country for that matter. And you have this pro-democracy party, the Republicans at the time. They have a majority in the House. They have a majority in the Senate. They just elected a guy who ran in part on a platform of protecting the right to vote. And this elections bill passes the House. It's going to pass the Senate and it gets hung up on a filibuster and they're unable to get it done. This is by 1890. And so you wait 75 years until 1965 and LBJ building on the work of Lawrence Nixon to truly realize that opportunity that was present back in 1890. Part of the message from this book is we may

be at an 1890 moment where if we don't get our act together and save this democracy, how many decades will we be in the darkness again, or will we ever get it back at all? So that's why I use the language that I'm using. I think this is a now or never moment. I don't know that you get a 2024 unless you come through big in 2022. Because to your point, Tommy, there are people in positions of power and now running for greater power who deny the legitimacy of the last presidential election. And I guarantee you we'll deny the legitimacy of the vote if their candidates don't prevail in in future elections we've got to win this one this time and no bigger battleground than the state of texas this is the epicenter of it all win it and it forever changes what is possible and i think protects our democracy going into another

historical presidential election so it's all on the line and nowhere more so than right here presidential election. So it's all on the line and nowhere more so than right here. Beto, it's always great to talk to you. It's so inspiring to see you out on the trail again and to see you continue to be in this fight with such determination and such joy. So we appreciate that and good luck out there. Stay safe. Thank you. Thank you both all right before we go we just wanted to let everyone know that uh the book that no one was waiting for nobody is now available for purchase it's called breaking history a white house memoir by tommy's favorite public servant, Jared Kushner. It is, for some reason, 492

pages. Just wait, wait. 492 pages. What? I mean, what? He was an advisor in the White House for four years. What is he writing for 492 pages? It's received one of the worst book reviews I've ever read in the New York Times, which

called it soulless and then goes on to say Kushner looks like a mannequin and he writes like one. That's one of the worst book reviews i've ever read in the new york times which called it soulless and then goes on to say uh kushner looks like a mannequin and he writes like one that's one of their nicer lines tommy would you like to share some of your favorite parts i know you've been waiting a long time for this yeah listen so jared is the worst he he bought his way into harvard he married his way into power and now he's trying to ghostwrite his way into the story he wants written about himself. And I just don't think we can let him do that. This, I think, was my favorite paragraph in this book review. Who wrote this book review?

Can we do a little fast Googling here? We got to give this person the credit they deserve. That's a good idea. This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th century wooden house, burned to its foundations that focuses solely on and rejoices in what's left amid the ashes the two cinched bathtubs the gravel driveway and the mailbox then later it goes on to say reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog's eye goo because he's such a such a suck up to donald trump My favorite part is the review talks about how Jared recalls every drop of praise he's ever received, such as these lines are in the book. You deserve an award for all

you've done. Jared's a genius. I've been in Washington a long time and I must say Jared is one of the best lobbyists I've ever seen. And then the book reviewer goes on to write, a therapist might call these cries for help. I love that too. By the way, the reviewer is an individual named Dwight Garner. And he's been writing book reviews

for the New York Times for quite a while. Since 2008. I just want to say, Dwight, you're a brilliant writer. He does make a point towards the end

that I think really captures Jared too and how useless he is in general. Because he's like, look, he's not, Jared's not going to impress uh any like moderates or democrats like no yeah no one likes it jared's not like an intellectual heavyweight by any means like so who is this book for it's certainly not

for the maga base either because they don't trust him right they like their don juniors they like donald trump right they don't like jared kushner so he ends up calling him he says he's a pair of dimples without a demographic that was beautiful which i think that is true about there there's just the utter lack of self-awareness there's a description of um breaking up with ivanka and then getting back together and it kind of going down on rupert murdoch's yacht and they say they're having lunch at bono's house in some town in the french riviera rupert stepped out to take a call. He walked back in, whispered something in my ear about buying the Wall Street Journal. And then he's like, after lunch, Billy Joel, who also been with us on the boat,

played the piano while Bono sang with the Irish singer-songwriter, Bob Geldof. First of all, Jared, like Jared's occupying this world of, does he just hang out with 70 year olds all day long? Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think. You just hang out with 70 year olds all day long yeah i mean yeah i think you're saying that the murdoch like his like his father-in-law it's pretty he's a he so i mean he did do the whole you know middle east peace things no he did not do fucking middle you have to give him credit for that the middle east doing middle east peace means a palestinian state i'm so pissed off at how this has gotten bastardized and twisted by sociopaths like you just because you get you get autocrats in the uae to cut a deal with the israeli government because we pay them

off with some weapons that's not middle east peace like you just you can't it's a trade agreement it's always trump is bad trump is bad the abraham accord is one of the greatest unbelievable one of the greatest accomplishments of the 21st century and you just can't even give it the kind of acknowledgement it deserves. I hope that you and Ben read that part of the book aloud on Pod Save the World about his exploits. I think it'll just be insufferable. I've got like 200 pages. I've been trying to kick around an idea. So back in the day, we had some fun bets on this show. We had like the awesome blossom or whatever and other associated things. During what year we were forced to tweet things against our will.

Yes, yes, tweet against our will. I wanted to put forward an idea for a competition where maybe we crowdsource it or maybe we just pick amongst ourselves the worst political biography and the loser has to read it and write like a two-page book report. John and John have been resisting this idea and the loser has to read it and write like a two-page book report um john and uh john have

been resisting this idea because they're functionally illiterate unless it's a bunch of tweets stacked i don't know what how do you lose this what what is the game you've never so i don't know we're talking about betting on tommy here's the thing is or tommy wants to write a two page book report about jared kushner's book and he's looking for a device to get himself to the point where he can write that and he's so he's backed into this competition thing which I'm ready to compete do you want to do prediction should we should we predict the midterms even though we're out of the prediction I know that we're not we're trying and then you guys come up with an obligation maybe there's a contest that we could let us know what the

contest will all feel obligated to have the rosier prediction because we don't want to upset anybody you know their campaign doesn't win. We've got Dan Pfeiffer, the biggest optimist now. Dan's running around telling everyone that Democrats are a lock. I don't like who Dan has become with this optimism. Dan has succumbed to optimism. We lost Dan in optimism. People complain about nepotism.

I'm the one who got the steel here. That's maybe my favorite thing. It's got to be a Trump quote. This is, I mean. The most untrump sounding quote in the history of regurgitating Trump quotes. Jared Kushner. I'm going to be really sad if a bunch of people buy this book. Don't buy this book. There was also a review by Peter Navarro, the former trade advisor that took it down. Not a fan of Jared's. Many of the Trumpers were not

fans of Jared's and many of the people who worked in that White House. It was number one on Amazon today. I know. I know. I wasn't going to bring that up. Well, look, the truth sometimes hurts. I do think you can easily kind of juice those numbers. Like there's no, listen, Jared Kushner just got a $2 billion check from the Saudi government for his little investment fund, despite never having invested money before. He will be getting probably a 2% management fee on that money. And then if he invests it and makes a profit he'll probably get 20 of those profits so what i'm saying is he's a shitty little rich kid sitting on a ton of saudi money now i would be shocked if jared didn't buy himself or have someone buy for him

a couple thousand yeah copies of this book just to stuff in a, you know, you know, we have authors on this show. We, we, we push books on the show. This don't buy this book and then go tell your friends don't buy this book and then have them tell their friends don't buy this book. Spread the word. Was the Abbie Hoffman steal this book? Just, just no one, no one needs to read this book. No, you're not going to learn anything. Anyway, thank you to Jared for writing it. So we could read that review because that was very enjoyable.

Great review. Dwight Garner. Dwight Garner, thank you. Come on the show. Please never review anything that any of us read. Thank you for the review. Thank you to Beto O'Rourke for joining us today. And we will talk to you on Thursday.

Bye, everyone. See ya. See ya. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein. Our producers are Olivia Martinez and Hayley Muse. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick.

Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineer the show. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Sandy Gerard, Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montu. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash crooked media.