The Bulwark Podcast - Peter Hamby: How Far Can the DSA Go?

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

The Mamdani sweep in NYC shows that the populist left is winning the arguments about Israel policy and on going after billionaires, but it sure seems like there may be limits to their success outside... the blue urban core. And Republicans are likely to make hay with at least one of Tuesday’s congressional primary winners—Darializa Avila Chevalier—who wants to end policing and won’t say whether murderers should go to jail. But the GOP colossally screwed up in North Carolina and Georgia, and Tim makes a bold prediction about how the party will respond. Plus, Trump is showing clear signs of aging, another one of his candidates lost on Tuesday, AOC's silence at this moment is noteworthy, and never underestimate the power of charisma in politics.Peter Hamby joins Tim Miller.show notes Peter's podcast, "The Powers That Be" Peter's columns at Puck For a limited time, get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping, when you head to Smalls.com/THEBULWARK.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:13 Hello and welcome to the Bowler Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. I'd welcome back to the show, my buddy, USA Soccer Superfan, football, superfan. He's the former host of Good Luck America on Snapchat. He just announced on Monday that he's joining Puck full-time as chief national correspondent. He's also been the host of the Powers at B podcast. It's Peter Hamby. What's up, bro?
Starting point is 00:00:34 Hey, man. How you doing? I'm doing well. I'm on the Mint. So I've got my Gator Light here, rapid rehydration, and we're doing pretty good. Better than yesterday's podcast. We're going to really nerd out, as is our want, on campaign politics. We have a lot of results last night that are interesting.
Starting point is 00:00:50 The takes are flying. Before we get to kind of going around the map, I just want to pick out a couple of things from the Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan book. We'll probably go deep on this next week. But some of the excerpts are leaking out there. I guess we should start with the J.D. Marco stuff. They had this anecdote in the book about how Trump has redecorated the office.
Starting point is 00:01:12 famously to put a lot of gold flourishes in there. Many listeners are unhappy with my take about how, I think the more is more affect is a little bit better than what Biden had in the Oval Office. People don't like it. It's my least popular take, but I'm standing by it. Wait, I haven't heard this take from you. Sorry, you think that you should do
Starting point is 00:01:31 sort of maximalist decorations in the Oval Office? I like the maximalist decorations. When you see the images of Biden, when you see the side-by-side, Biden's pallid skin with like the gray, off-white walls. It's just not good. I feel like as millennials, one of our big misses is everybody, we tried to minimize everything. Everything was being streamlined.
Starting point is 00:01:53 You know, everybody's houses were more clean, a lot more whites and off-lights. You know, it's like the cracker barrel redesign. I hated the cracker barrel redesign. Oh, yeah. It's like that coffee shop we went to and slow those years ago, wherever there's like uh and by the way i'm guilty you can see behind me of having like hanging ivy but you know the yeah exactly the beige countertops and the sort of the sign where you put in the like like a little letters to order your the flat white or whatever and they're playing like a low
Starting point is 00:02:24 taman pala beats behind you i don't by the way Biden definitely wasn't doing that but i do think though the colors kind of work actually maybe even the lighting things do feel a little brighter in there when you see the camera pool they feel brighter So anyway, I mean, I wouldn't do like everything like Home Depot gold, but I just think as a general matter, a little more maximalism is good. Anyway, Trump was asked about whether he's worried that his successor will undo all that he had done design-wise. And that's probably a real worry for Trump. And his response was the Cubans love gold, which little sly, you know, Trump response. He likes to do this.
Starting point is 00:03:03 He likes to play these guys off each other. And, you know, he's got J.D. you know, eating shit right now on the Iran deal. I don't really buy it that Marco is passable for the Republican electorate, but I don't know. I'm just curious what you make of all of it. I talked about this the other day with Julie Yafi on my podcast. Thanks for the shout out.
Starting point is 00:03:23 We're on YouTube now, the powers that be. If you go into polling, and I did this the other day with some of our echelon polling, they basically test every question in their battery among MAGA Republicans and party-first Republicans. Now, you Tim and maybe some bulwark listeners would have once identified as a party first Republican, like the more traditional Bush-McCain-Ragan types before Donald Trump came along. It's been a minute. It's been a minute. But they're still out there to an extent.
Starting point is 00:03:52 And they tested, and I just actually looked in the cross tabs, those are horse race numbers for Republicans 2028. And Marco loses to Vance among party-first Republicans, but not by that much. and he's been creeping up in polls. I can't remember the norm of the top of my head, but say he was losing to JD by like 13 points in that horse race poll. Pretty good place to be. Like, I always think heading into presidential primaries,
Starting point is 00:04:17 you'd rather run from behind than be the front runner the whole time. But J.D. is crushing Marco among MAGA Republicans, those Trump first Republicans by like 30 or 40 points. And like, look, that's the party. You can't win the primary without those voters.
Starting point is 00:04:34 Exactly. And look, I think J.D. is definitely out there eating shit in the sense that, you know, no one in the foreign policy blob thinks this memorandum of understanding is anything more than a, you know, junior high school level, like, document in terms of diplomacy. It's unpopular. The war is unpopular. And, you know, J.D. is also hawking his book right now, which means he's, like, has this previously booked media tour. So he's out there. And I think Trump kind of likes the heat shield, honestly. He likes that J.D. will go out there. and eat shit. And, you know, this also comes up in Maggie and Jonathan's book, but Trump can't really talk anymore. Like, he's got like a Madlib's bucket of like 40 words that he grabs into. And he's like, it could be any question. It could be a question about Ukraine. He'll reach in and be like, auto pen, you know, like whatever, whatever it is. Yeah. And, you know, look, I think that if JD's eating shit with the press and the foreign policy establishment, Republicans on Capitol Hill, especially Republican senators, and the median voter out there, independent voter, who doesn't like Trump, doesn't like J.D. Vance, doesn't like the war.
Starting point is 00:05:41 But the whole ballgame is really the Republican primary at this point if they're looking around the band. And maybe this is a cynical political perspective to have for J.D. Vance. But if you're him, you know, I think you'd rather just completely own being a Trump loyal soldier than try to do this dance where you're like half in and half out. And completely own the America first thing, which is like, I mean, even though it's an embarrassing MOU and that it's total surrender and it's humiliating, it does put him in the position of being like, I wanted us out of this, as opposed to being the one that wanted us in. So I think that else. The only fun wrinkle in it is, who knows what the fuck, 82-year-old dementia riddle Trump is going to want to do in two years. And we'll talk about his aging next. But so will we try to do something crazy, obviously, what exactly that will look like?
Starting point is 00:06:28 Who knows? but assuming he moves on to retired life at Mar-a-Lago or in the ADU bunker underneath the White House, like he will not do what Bush did. Like it's not like he's going to go away and paint, right? Like he is going to like tweet and bleed. He's going to want to play ball, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:44 And so could he drag Marco across the line of J.D. Pist him off? Like, sure. My reaction to that at first was, like, do Cubans like gold? Like, where do that come from? I mean, Cubans like baseball and coffee and Cubans are very patriotic. Cuban Americans, at least. I just actually Googled this.
Starting point is 00:07:02 Cigars. AI is so dumb and wrong sometimes. They just make things up because they're scraping like a Reddit thread. But this is Gemini. I ask, do Cubans love gold? Yes, Cubans generally have a strong cultural affinity for gold. In Cuban culture, bold gold jewelry, most notably, the iconic interlocking Miami-Cubin link chain necklace is deeply valid as a symbol of success,
Starting point is 00:07:27 prosperity and resilience. So if we see Marco in a pit bull style Cuban chain, like a hefty gold chain. That's funny. That's funny. You mentioned that Trump can't talk anymore. These are a couple other things from the book. He was also having trouble hearing, asking people to repeat questions.
Starting point is 00:07:44 They just asked, Hey, Rennan, wrote. They started to have press conferences with world leaders in the Oval Office because the acoustics were better than in the bigger Eastern where they had been holding those meetings. I find this hard to believe, but I guess these people would know. The people around Trump say that the thin verbal filter that he had in the past was gone, stuff that he used to only say in private. He was now saying publicly. I liked this one. Trump was upset about the coverage of his cancels. We did extensive cancels coverage here on the Bullwark YouTube feed, so I'm happy to hear that bothered him. And he asked the press secretary to address it during a media briefing,
Starting point is 00:08:26 some aides thought that was an odd topic, but it wasn't keeping with his obsession with his declining appearance. And this stuff we see publicly, but I think that, like, it's pretty notable over the last year that he's visibly declined. And I think that there was a lot of, like, frustration during the campaign. It was like, why isn't Trump's age as much of a deal as Biden's? And, like, it was a fair, fine point to make as an academic exercise. But, like, he just didn't seem like he was declining as much as Biden, just in, like,
Starting point is 00:08:54 the physical characteristics. and that is happening to him now. There's also the makeup on his hands thing. I think that Maggie and Jonathan reported on. The neck now. The neck, the hand brings of the neck. And look, if you're in the White House, if you have access to the best physicians in the country,
Starting point is 00:09:11 and it's very clear he cares about his appearance, given his hair and orangeness, but he has to show his hands on camera and briefings or whatever. And people, you know, eagle-eye, people on Twitter, like, zoom in on his hands. You'd think they have, like, better... kind of concealer. Like, it's like mismatched makeup.
Starting point is 00:09:29 And so, in other words, instead of getting the press, I could go out there and, like, talk about the cancels, which, by the way, didn't they say something? Like, didn't Caroline Levitt talk about his venous insufficiency at one point from the podium?
Starting point is 00:09:42 I believe that's the cause of the swelling. Yeah. So clearly, like, they did. I also thought you were going to bring up, and this wasn't in the book, but stat news reported this the other day, the fact that this is a, that was an incredible scoop that,
Starting point is 00:09:55 I forget which, it was either the government or the pharmaceutical company cleared a single-use dosage of Reda-Trutide, which is basically like an uncleared peptide. I'm sure RFK Jr. uses it. It's like a g-l-p-1, but it also makes you jacked. Like, you know, I live in L.A. I know people who do like peptides and like get shredded off of it. I didn't bring it up because I was deferring to your expertise on this. Thank you. Yes. Someone who's very clearly shredded. The White House wouldn't address it. So it's like a non-denial denial. It's not approved for anyone at that age using it.
Starting point is 00:10:29 And federal health officials got involved. It was a great scoop. It was just very obviously clear that the White House got this for a 70, that says a 79-year-old man earlier this year in April. He's now 80. And I just wanted your take on this, actually, because he looks kind of the same weight. Like, if he is on a GLP 1, he's certainly like slimmer.
Starting point is 00:10:50 Like, remember during the playoffs when the White House was posted? like him as court-sided a Knicks game from like the 90s. Not that he could name or pick a Maristottomire out of a lineup, but they were like talking about how much of a Knicks fan he was. He looked like a chobo in the 90s. Like he had like a puffy face and stuff. Right. He does look like slimmer than back then.
Starting point is 00:11:09 Yeah. But even compared to a few months ago, if he is taking a GLP1, he doesn't look skinnier. Yeah. No, he looks still hefty to me. I think he still would be wearing the man's ear. You know, there was also the other swan, Haberman. anecdote was that like his room,
Starting point is 00:11:25 his bed, I don't like to really think about his bedroom, but his bedroom in the White House is apparently disgusting. Like there are like candy wrappers everywhere. And like he, I guess he like binge gorges at night at the end and like leaves. Disgusting food wrappers everywhere and stuff. I just like that you switched, you came out with binges,
Starting point is 00:11:48 which I think would be the proper health term. It just switched it to gorges. as an ad lib. And so, like, instead of, you know, and if he was having the rare fat shot, you know, that it's only available, you know, on a compassionate basis. But he kind of teases other people about the fat shot.
Starting point is 00:12:09 Like the TrumpRX.gov initiative includes, like, like you can buy direct from the pharmaceutical companies, a variety of drugs, which he says is a negotiated discount. And he talked about the fat shot a lot. when they launched this a few months ago, and he would poke fun at people, like donors. He's like, I know a heavyset guy, like a fat guy.
Starting point is 00:12:29 I won't say who he is, but he takes the fat shot. Like, he makes fun or other people for taking the fat shot. But it seems pretty clear he has taken the fat shot. I think that it's very possible that the President of the United States has taken an experimental fat shot. But I don't know that we fully know for sure. It could be another 79-year-old, well-connected fatty. Could be.
Starting point is 00:12:46 But didn't they accelerate? Didn't... I don't know. Could be. Didn't they accelerate during COVID? Like, remember when he got COVID? Like, did they accelerate? He did take some experimental COVID medicine.
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Starting point is 00:14:09 One last time that 60% off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com slash the bulwark. Okay, moving on to the primaries last night in New York. just a total route for the DSA challengers in New York. The Mamdani slate won basically everything. They had the ad, you might remember, from during the NBA finals, like they're passing the basketball to each other. It's Brad Lander.
Starting point is 00:14:35 It's Darius, Darius, Shevalier, it's Valdez. He's three DSA challengers to Democratic congressmen. All of them won handily. Well, I guess DIC's race was kind of close. you know, that is causing some consternation among the New York establishment. Tish James was offering this morning how she's a little bit concerned about this. You sent me some good analysis from the Yimbiland account on social media, which I follow religiously as a avowed Yimbi. And he kind of, I think, summed up the level of concern about these types of lefty challengers thusly. Mom Dani seems like a cool dude who really knows how to vibe with all kinds of folks. The second wave of DSA people don't have the same vibe. They're going to say a bunch of shit that scares the hose and will end up hurting progressives.
Starting point is 00:15:28 This will open up a huge lane for ours in 2028. I'm not sure if it's going to open up a huge lane for ours in 20208. But a lot here. Let's just kind of talk about first about the winning DSA challengers. Yeah, look, I think you're absolutely right. It's giving Democrats, mainstream Democrats, a lot of. heartburn. Someone texted me last night. The good thing about the mom-danist purges when they come is that they don't believe in prisons. And look, I mean, I want to get into some details of these races.
Starting point is 00:15:59 And, you know, I think it's also fair to look at this as a limited New York slash mom-dani phenomenon because we've talked about this. I mean, Mom-Dani, despite saying he has, his music taste is pretty limited when he came on the Bullwark podcast when he was running for mayor is a people throw this word around like generational talent but he is he just is he just is he's got it if you like you said the other day like if he wasn't born in africa like would be talking about him running for president and like this is one thing it's that this time 28 yeah yeah yeah exactly he's magnetic he's good at social media all of the sort of like tactical superficial stuff yes but remember yeah he ran is a socialist and a free Palestine candidate, and that's spooked a lot of mainstream Democrats and
Starting point is 00:16:52 Jews, of course, and like, A-PAC hates him. And, you know, this is the reason Dan Goldman lost in the city, like the free Palestine movement has replaced the COVID safety movement, which replaced the, you know, pro-climate sunrise movement. Like, there's a throughline of, like, young people in cities there. But he also is governing as a, like, you know, a pothole guy. He was out there shoveling the snow and bringing the homeless inside. The gays love wearing the 12,000 holes filled shirt. Yeah. But, you know, instead of, like during his campaign even,
Starting point is 00:17:28 he acknowledged he did the defund the police thing and then broke bread with the cops and hasn't talked shit about cops. Increased. Increased police funding. That's happening again. Also out here in L.A. with Nithiaraman, who is DSA affiliated, not full DSA. who was a defund person who is now running away from that
Starting point is 00:17:48 and Karen Bass is flogging her with that. But back to New York, you know, he's governing not as a socialist ideologue and on top of the fact that he's got mega Riz and his speech about the Nix, before the next victory parade, I was talking to people out here in my friend group who like aren't DSA,
Starting point is 00:18:08 these people at least weren't DSA fans or Zoran fans. Like that's one of the best speeches I've ever seen. Like he just makes politics relatable and tangible to people in a way that doesn't feel academic. Now, these other candidates who won last night, and there are also a bunch of people that went to the state assembly, these are not as charismatic candidates. And in the case of Chevalier, I think that tweet from Yimbieland is correct, which is that
Starting point is 00:18:34 you know, she, by the way, one reason I'm wearing this jersey, she said she was rooting against the U.S. and the World Cup. Let me run through her greatest hits. Can we just do that? Because look, just in these other candidates, Valdez seems like, I mean, she's left, but like kind of a conventional Bernie style left. Yeah, but also like labor left. Lander, we talked about the Goldman deal yesterday. Like, Lander has played this very well.
Starting point is 00:18:59 And like one thing, that's funny, the one, you mentioned that when Zoran came on my pod, the question that caused the controversy about asking about whether, you know, he can condemns, like, globalized it and defada. one of the reasons why I was like, that was a totally fair question, and he shouldn't have bungled it, was that they had asked the same question at the debate a week before, and Lander gave this great, like, nuanced answer to it as somebody who's like a Jew and wants Israelis to be safe. And like he wouldn't say it for that reason, but he's also upset about the way that Israel's acting now. Like, Lander just, like, definitely navigated the situation, the kind of changing views on Israel's behavior. And yeah, he would have beaten anybody in a primary. He was an extremely strong candidate. I don't know. Should we call her Dary Elisa, Chevalier, or D.A. I can't be like DAC as an AOC. I think DAC is easy. I think DAC is easy to say. Sure. We're going to call a DAC. I want to read just some of her hits.
Starting point is 00:19:47 She attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square on October 8th, 2023. So the day after the October 7th terrorist attack, Brad Lander left the DSA over their promotion of that same rally. She had thousands of posts and reposts expressing support for abolishing police prisons and borders as well as seizing private property. She rejected, you know, how some of the lefties tried to spin that, like, abolished the police was more of just like,
Starting point is 00:20:14 it's just kind of more of a saying. It didn't mean, like, literally defund the police. It was just kind of like... It was a budget procedure. Yeah, it was kind of more of a brink. It was like more of a bumper sticker thing. It wasn't a... No, she rejected that and says,
Starting point is 00:20:26 no, it means ending policing, full stop, period. No more police at all ever. Clap emoji, clap emoji, clap emoji, so there was a review on that. She was then asked about this. campaign on this New York editorial board thing that Ben Smith is doing. She was asked four times about what to do about murderers and whether they should go to jail. And she couldn't answer that question.
Starting point is 00:20:48 She posted fuck Kamala Harris. She called Joe Biden a rapist. She said that all deportation is wrong. And as you mentioned, she said she was rooting for Senegal in the World Cup. I googled this morning. She does not appear to be Senegalese. So I don't know why. She has some Dominican and Venezuelan origin, maybe also some Senegal.
Starting point is 00:21:07 I don't know. But she said she was rooting for Senegal. Senegal in the World Cup, and she also said that when she couldn't find a napkin, she wiped her dirty hands on the American flag. So that's the EASC. So you're saying she's a bulwark candidate. I don't know, man. I mean, I'm open to creative ideas for ways of the Democrats who try to do things differently, but I'm not vibing on that. She called white women ugly colonizer women.
Starting point is 00:21:33 Sort of. Also said she was against interracial marriage at one point, I think. Yeah, look, I mean, I think this is what I'm getting at. And Bernie, to his credit, over the years, really has focused on economic populism. Yes, class warfare. Sure. You know, taxing the rich, billionaires. He's very uncomfortable with cultural issues. He never, you know, he was more aligned, you know, in the early Trump days and pre-Trump days with, you know, labor unions. He still is. Sorry. But like, back in the 2019 primaries, 2020, when the Democrats, were all raising their hand to, like, decriminalized border crossings. Like, that's not Bernie. Bernie, like, you know, he's from a rural state. Like, he, you know, isn't like a gun, anti-gun or crusader or gun safety person. He's a cultural issues just aren't his back.
Starting point is 00:22:22 He cares about economic issues. And that's, that all set him apart from AOC, who did have prison abolition tweets and does, or has at least talked about intersectionality and pronouns in her bio, you know, whatever. however many genders, James Tala Rico thinks there are. And so that's, I think, what I'm getting at with Mamdani is for all of his, yes, when he's asked about Israel, APEC in Palestine, he talks about it with reporters. But front of mind for him, messaging is like constituent services and like affordability. And those things that despite his DSA branding and history, he's governing as just a mayor.
Starting point is 00:23:06 And, like, Chevalier, you know, she's going to get to Congress. And it's, by the way, Valdez is also, like, don't send any money to Israel, not even Iron Dome. Okay. But, again, I think she's more rigorously on message. I mean, that's going to be the majority position on the Democratic caucus. Yes. But, you know, I can see Chevalier getting to Congress and being, like, a louder, more lightning rod version of, you know, Rashida's slave. Like, she seems like she's a poster.
Starting point is 00:23:31 She can't help herself. She is one of these extremely online, you know, millennial Gen Z Cuspers who has made social justice their entire personality. And a lot of savvier politicians, I think, and who's to say if she's savvy or not because she won? But she's going to go to Washington after having won a D plus 30 district. And, you know, a lot of New Yorkers are like this, whether they're in politics or not.
Starting point is 00:23:56 They think New York's a center of the universe and that she has a mandate to, you know, talk about, Palestine and Israel and it's going to be a it's going to be a thorn in the side of democratic leadership I'm certain she I mean she beat the chair of the Hispanic caucus so we got to at least recognize that and he ran a horrific campaign the New York Times did break out which precincts these candidates won in and lost in and the DSA phenomenon while they did make inroads last night with black and Hispanics it continues to be a white affluent phenomenon one Democrat like close to Jeffries told me yesterday that the district that Claire Valdez won in,
Starting point is 00:24:36 which is a New York seven, called it the most gentrified district in the country. Like this is the MJ Lenderman like Bushwick voter, right? Like the white like Columbia protester like Chevalier. Just so it's right. There's this great video that I said of the her event where it's like they're all shouting you're next. They're all shouting you're next year next at Hakeem Jeffries,
Starting point is 00:24:57 which shows you that this is going to be a thorn at the side of the establishment. And at some levels, Huckian Jeffries can probably use some challenging. But, yeah, no, it is all dirtbag, white people who are just like your classic stereotype, Brooklyn look, you're not kind of shouting at Hakeem Jeffries at this event. Yeah. And I think looking at the broader picture from last night, while New York thinks the center of the universe, Mandani himself has political capital and spent it to get his people elected. Now, again, outside of New York, the DSA's success story is not the same.
Starting point is 00:25:33 It's just not. Let's just pause at that for a second, because we're going to go around. Sure. I just have a couple of New York things this one to head on. Some of this make your point. So you have Richie Torres, who has been kind of the most pro-Israel Democrat, really, even more so that Dan Goldman, interestingly, he won last night. He didn't have a strong DSA challenge, or he did have a challenger kind of pretended to be DSA, kind of.
Starting point is 00:25:51 But he's in a more working-class district. He's not in the Bronx. It's not as many, you know, college education. Kid and white renters. Not as many white renters. So that's notable. In New York 12, which is the district that George Conway ran in, RIP, George Conway. I always just thought there would be better districts for him than that.
Starting point is 00:26:09 But nothing but love for George. Michael Asher wins that candidate, who's the establishment candidate, replacing Jerry Adler, Jerry Nadler and Doris. Bloomberg spent like five million, like a bunch of millions on him, yeah. He wins that in New York 12. And then AOC, interestingly, has no tweets at the time we're recording this about any of these candidates. I don't know exactly what the plan is for AOC, but she's been very savvy, I think, lately on picking fights, picking battles. Or maybe it turns out to be not savvy. I don't know who knows,
Starting point is 00:26:38 but she has definitely not gone all in with this like kind of DSA crowd to the same degree that you might have thought she would. Yeah, she's been over the years. Like, again, she had the prison abolition tweets and the intersectionality tweets. The lefty cultural stuff, you know, transgender surgeries for prisoners. She has moved away from that. This is her backyard. She is supposedly deeply involved. I think she is deeply involved.
Starting point is 00:27:10 She was at the Nix parade. She was with Donnie. But she, like, whether she wants to run statewide. And by the way, we're talking about the socialist. Kathy Hochel, like, has run a great campaign and quashed a potential challenger from the left who dropped out of the race many months ago. Or whether AOC wants to run for president. I think she understands that the, you know, Chevalier, wipe your ass with the American flag thing. That's not going to play in Pennsylvania or North Carolina.
Starting point is 00:27:35 She is still unpopular with the median voter, like AOC. Like Democrats in the press are obsessed with AOC. She has work to do with independent voters if she wants to have a larger national profile. But also look at Bernie Sanders. He endorsed Claire Valdez. He endorsed Brad Lander. He did not endorse Chivalier. While Mammondani did.
Starting point is 00:27:56 Neither did Ro, I noticed. Yeah, yeah. He's been endorsing out of those candidates also didn't endorse. Exactly. And maybe that's because, like, he personally or his team did a vet, and they're like, she doesn't seem like she's going to keep her eye on the ball, which is, you know, we got to focus on the billionaire class. She's going to be a distraction.
Starting point is 00:28:12 And even last night, Bernie, he congratulated after they won Valdez and Brad Lander. He did not congratulate Chivalier. And so I think if you are interested in building political power as a leftist in this country, you have to focus on affordability, access to housing and health care, and try to mitigate as much as possible the social issues that are going to drag you down. I was talking to someone at the NRC, the National Republican Campaign Committee last night, who was just like, oh my gosh, when they call this race, I am about to go scorched earth. Remember in 2018 or 2020 in all the House ads, they would shove Pelosi's face in the ads, the Republicans, and then AOC.
Starting point is 00:28:53 And Elon Omar's face would be in there. But like, Chevalier is going to be that. person now for Republican ad makers, and who knows if that matters or not, in like frontline districts in Nebraska, but Republicans will certainly try to make this person the face
Starting point is 00:29:09 of an America hating socialist, abolished prisons, you know, Democratic Party. The only thing I'd add to that on AOC is in addition to kind of like the not engaging in some of the potentially more brand harmful, you know, fights that you're seeing in the
Starting point is 00:29:25 activist circles. She is, picking other fights. She's been here in the deep south, rallying against the data center video she did was really good. Yeah, so she's been in there on the voting rights stuff, on data center stuff, you know, her little press conference coming out of the house
Starting point is 00:29:41 she's doing during a lot of the shutdown fights. So it's definitely noteworthy that she didn't fully wrap herself in this kind of Mavdani movement. There's some pretty significant GOP fuckups. Is this love it that I'm stealing this from? There's like always this kind of sense that like
Starting point is 00:29:58 Democrats are the responsible party and you expect them to be responsible and like the Republicans are the children and you don't expect them to and so like when Democrats do irresponsible things you really focus on it. So anyway, I do want to bring even handedness to this because there have been some insanely
Starting point is 00:30:12 irresponsible Republican fuckups in primaries too. But just really quick before you get to that around the country last night. So DSA candidates lost in primaries in Maryland and Utah, West Moore. And this again speaks to having a charismatic endorsing matters. Like a lot of voters just don't,
Starting point is 00:30:27 aren't as nerdy as we are like aren't in minute 33 of a podcast where they know the details of every candidate they're like I like Zoran he said these are the people he like I'm going with it. Westmore did this in Maryland he's popular in Maryland different type of Democrat obviously a lot of the Democrats
Starting point is 00:30:43 the ones he endorsed last day. One of Maryland he one of his endorses wins over of a Pelosi pick in the Maryland 5th district. He wants some of the local races. Then you got to Utah Ben McAdams who's a more moderate candidate he wins over a buzzy left
Starting point is 00:30:57 candidate, Nate Bluin in the Salt Lake District, I think the Democrats are going to pick up strong, dem, kind of reformist, center-left candidate in South Carolina, one, Charleston. That was that seat that the Democrats did take the last wave year, that would have been 18, and then then Mace takes the seat after that. Joe Cunningham, yeah. Yeah, Joe Cunningham, yeah. There's been some redistricting since it's not exactly the same seat. But anyway, that's kind of what else was happening around the country outside of New York.
Starting point is 00:31:25 I don't know if you have anything else on that. Yeah, no, I mean, Westmore, you know, I think would Bill himself as a results-oriented, pragmatic Democrat, his pick in Maryland's fifth, beatback, DSA Challenger. By the way, also in New York, I mentioned Hockel, in the 17th District, which is Mike Lawler, Kate Conley, one-handily, that's like Upper Westchester, Hudson Valley. There was a, you know, Free Palestine Justice person in that race, who she absolutely curbstomped. You've got Utah. You've got county executive seats in Maryland that DSA people lost in. And this is a larger thing I wanted to talk to you about is the limitations. The question is, is this a limited phenomenon to New York City, these dense urban strongholds
Starting point is 00:32:10 with a lot of affluent college-educated surplus elites, quite frankly, who see politics as a hobby and obviously have issues that they're passionate about. But does it extend beyond New York? Because here in L.A., you've got DSA members on the C. City Council who got reelected pretty handling the primary or will win in November. You've got Nithia Raman, who, again, is not purebred DSA, but had some DSA support in the past. And you do have in Seattle, you know, a socialist-affiliated mayor, you're we're about to have that in Washington, D.C. And so in the blue urban cores, you do see it.
Starting point is 00:32:46 But, like, there's not really like a vibrant DSA in Boston. There's not certainly not in San Francisco right now. Daniel Lurie has swept most of them to the current. And then you go bigger than just the cities where, you know, sorry, we have a DSA mayor in Chicago who is a flop, that's for sure. You know, you've got Abdullah Sayed in Michigan. If he wins, that would be the first real kind of statewide, I think, DSA success story. DSA affiliated, I think. Yeah, it depends if you count platinum, but yeah, you're a partner in the state.
Starting point is 00:33:17 But look at California. Like, California 22 is a great example. So up in the valley, right? There's, this is David Valdeo's district. Randy Villegas is a Bernie endorsed candidate, a young Latino guy who advanced to the general election. Beat back, you know, the Jeffries D-Trip person. And, you know, he's running on, yes, he mentioned APEC. He mentions APEC sometimes.
Starting point is 00:33:42 But that district has more people on Medicaid than any district in the country. Like if he's going door to door and talking about Palestine, you know, he gets waxed. but he's talking about affordability and health care. And yes, Bernie endorsed him, but that gets to Bernie's antenna. Like, this guy is running on working class, middle class issues. And so I think a real test will be, like, that's a frontline battleground district with a Bernie endorsed candidate who is not in a blue urban core. And so California 22 will be like a great test case.
Starting point is 00:34:13 And also in California, lots of other socialist wannabes ran and lost all over the state. And yes, it's expensive out here. but so is New York. And so, yeah, I mean, I think the candidate charisma thing can't be undercounted as a big factor in this race that Mammani ad, you mentioned during the Nix playoff series, was incredible. You had people looking for signal from him.
Starting point is 00:34:38 Millions of people in New York, almost everybody tuned into the NICs playoff games. Here's an ad in Zora Maldani, who most people like, although less popular than Daniel Lurie, I should say. One of my Lurie friends told me to say that. He's on camera, saying vote for Chivalet,
Starting point is 00:34:53 vote for Valdez, vote for Lanner. Okay. Like that's a validator for me. Good. And like that's his Riz. Like it's not necessary. They didn't just win. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:00 Because of DSA or because of justice, Dems or because of, you know, working families party. I mean, I think we can be honest. I think that the, and I want to get into some counter examples,
Starting point is 00:35:11 but I think that the populist left folks are winning the argument on, on refocusing on billionaires, on economic populism. And obviously on Israel. But that's not the populist left, though. Yeah, sure. So that's what I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:35:27 I think that like there are a couple different things happening. That's all, it's a big diverse country. Things are happening in different districts. There are a couple different things that are happening all the same time. And it's like there's like a brand of like social justice left person who like you said, would have been an Occupy Wall Street person 20 years ago, would have been a climate person 10 years ago, would have been, you know, COVID masking, forever masking five years ago. and it's like now this.
Starting point is 00:35:52 And it's like an omnic cause kind of left activist person. And like that is what is being organized in the big cities. And it is a lot of college educated, affluent whites. But they're in coalition, I think, you know, with a lot of minority voters. And they're having success in urban areas, like, for sure. DAC is like not going to win a primary anywhere else. And that's not like a 2028 path to success. Right.
Starting point is 00:36:18 Like there's just, like that, there just isn't majority support for that. The question then is more of, okay, like, what is the right path elsewhere and like what is the right, you know, what are the things that can be taken from the populist left or what types of candidates can win? And that's where you look at a Dan Osborne type. You look at maybe El Saeed will see Platner and different things. It's like, can you run where it is more like a Bernie 16 style thing that focuses on the economic and the foreign policy side and deemphasizes. the cultural stuff. We're about to find out in November. But like, I think that is, I think that argument is what's winning. They might not be right. But part of the reason I think they're winning the argument is that there's a lot of frustration among Democrats. We tried it, the establishment's
Starting point is 00:37:02 way. We put up Kamala, Joe Biden, Hillary, Trump won twice. Trump won twice. Like people, like, I saw this conversation on the internet. Like, why weren't people happier with Dan Goldman? And why aren't they happier with the Diana to get? I'm in Colorado. She's running ads about what about impeachment or work on impeachment. It's like, well, yeah, I'm saying this from Dave Wago. It's like, Democratic voters aren't impressed with your work in impeachment because Trump fucking won again. Democratic voters are like, we're looking for something different.
Starting point is 00:37:29 Is this thing that is being offered the right thing? I don't know. I wouldn't put my mortgage on it, but I think that it's totally explicable why they're looking for that different thing given Trump's two-time win. What I agree with you on is that you can take the economic populism, whatever the argument, like the power utilities or driving, up rates for you or, you know, you can't afford the rent. Export those anywhere in the country.
Starting point is 00:37:54 I agree with you on that. The social justice cultural stuff, I think, like you said, no one agrees that that can be exported. I think the common takeaway also is the generational aspect and the fact that I think Democratic leadership in Washington and the older generation just doesn't understand the anger of the base right now. And this happened with Crowley and AOC in 2018. the issue set was a little different and it was a different era and that was the first Trump term, but this just restive democratic base that says you guys not only aren't doing enough,
Starting point is 00:38:28 but you have failed. And I think this is what we're seeing from this up and coming generation who's screaming that these ossified leaders haven't done anything for you. That's valuable for sure. And I think that is a signal lesson that we've been seeing across primary elections everywhere. Like, that's absolutely the case. Let's look at some of the Republican fails. We're going to rapid fire through it. Nobody is talking about the Georgia. I don't, like, somebody, people are, but.
Starting point is 00:38:57 Are you saying the media is too focused on New York and doesn't understand red and purple states or leave their cultural and academic and elite bubbles? Maybe, Peter, or maybe these races are just kind of boring and so there's not as much to talk about. But so I will try to make a dramatic statement right now about the races in Georgia and North Carolina that, you know, will hopefully drive attention to races that are boring. I think that the Republicans are going to stop spending money in either George, or North Carolina or both by the end of the year. I think that they're going to give up on both of those races in the Senate.
Starting point is 00:39:30 Roy Cooper, here are the last five polls in the North Carolina Senate race. Roy Cooper plus 14, plus 11, plus 7, plus 9, plus 8. Like, that feels non-real. Trump won, North Carolina. In Georgia, here's the money disparity. Collins, a Republican, has just one million. on hand as of May 27th. Assoff has 32 million.
Starting point is 00:39:52 He raised 60. Osov is running a perfect race. Collins, the Republican, is, I have to bring this up because of producer Ansley. Remember the Ole Miss kids doing the monkey noises? Oh, yeah. Add to the Black woman. Mike Collins posted a video of that on Twitter saying,
Starting point is 00:40:07 Ole Miss taking care of business. And then the video of the monkey noises. So I don't know how that's going to play in Atlanta, but I think quite poorly. And so the Republican have somehow managed to take two southern Senate seats, like, basically off the board by summer. That's pretty good incompetence. No, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:40:28 I mean, Wally, the Republican nominee in North Carolina, is just a great example of the downsides of this late-stage Trumpism, where he just won the primary because he's a Trump functionary and is a lifeless political talent. You know, despite being a former RNC chairman is also not doing a great job raising money. But the Georgia race also that interests me is the governor's race because, and this is also kind of a symptom of Trumpism. You have this, I think he's a car dealer, the Rick Jackson guy. The health care executive. Oh, okay. Well, card dealer vibes.
Starting point is 00:41:01 Trump endorsed Bird Jones, Lieutenant Governor who tried to help him steal the election in 2020. That's right. That's right. Then you have this rascally outsider spending all of his money promising outlandish things. And he wins the primary despite Trump endorsing Bert Jones. And I've been saying this recently a lot. If you look at Iowa, look at Ohio, and also Georgia, this is another strength for Georgia, you've got this tandem going on on the Democratic ticket where you've got a very strong,
Starting point is 00:41:29 well-funded Senate candidate and John Ossoff and, you know, Keisha Lance Bottoms, perhaps not as popular, but safe sort of governor choice who will play well in Atlanta and maybe some of the Atlanta suburbs and, you know, possibly among pockets of rural black folks in that state, balancing each other out. Like, Asoff will need to get some black voters out, and Lance Bottoms will help him. And I just think that that compared to the Republican dysfunction, you can just kind of read the writing on the wall
Starting point is 00:41:58 in certain races in midterm years. Like the environment is so bad. There's Canada talent, there's money. Like fundamentals still count for something. And I'm with you. Like Georgia, if I'm a national Republican, and I'm looking at the map, I'm like, shit, we could put $10 million on air in Georgia this week in October
Starting point is 00:42:15 or we could do that in Ohio or we could do that in Alaska. Shit, even Texas. Or we could try to steal Michigan maybe. If we try to go on offense, take a shot. I don't think that's probably unlikely, but it feels more likely. The Republican Senate committee is just rake stepping
Starting point is 00:42:31 all over the south. And that's enjoyable. You mentioned in addition to Trump losing, Trump is losing his touch on the governor's race in Dorsey. You mentioned he lost the Georgia governor's race in Dorsey in Iowa. He endorsed Randy Feenstrom over the Cochering Magnate. And then last night his South Carolina endorsement choice lost.
Starting point is 00:42:49 Got throttled. That's your neck of the woods. Got absolutely fucking wax. Can I say that word on the bulwark? Sorry, listeners. Yeah, obviously. This was fascinating and didn't get enough coverage and also kind of shows how like,
Starting point is 00:43:01 I don't know, Washington reporters kind of miss the forest of the trees sometimes. The South Carolina governor's race, there is a crowded field. The lieutenant governor, Pam Evitt, the lieutenant governor of henry macester who's one of trump's earliest endorsers you know his team lobbied the trump political team at the white house for an endorsement because the trump endorsement always wins primaries trump gave this perfunctory half-hearted true social endorsement which he's want to do in his canckels era and you know his heart wasn't in it like he didn't go there to
Starting point is 00:43:36 barnstorm the state he's busy there's a war on i get it but ev it like just totally flopped she She won the primary barely, I think, didn't even hit 30%. I know it was a crowded primary. I can't think of any Republican primary, Tim, in the entire Trump era, where one of his endorsed candidates only got 30%. And so I wrote for Puck, like, well, this is bad news. This is a huge flop. People, like, someone from roll call was like, Trump's candidates won.
Starting point is 00:44:05 Go to the runoff. Alan Wilson, the Attorney General. He won by like 30 points all over the state. He won every county. He won Greenville County. And like, some of that is candidate talent. Like, they didn't scrutinize this person. When you're a lieutenant governor, like, you don't do anything.
Starting point is 00:44:22 She's the opposite of Mom Dani, like zero Riz. And, you know, Trump's Gov candidates. Like, he's lost three endorsements. And I'm not saying the magic has worn off because when they put their sweat and money into beating people they don't like in Indiana, in Kentucky with Thomas Massey, the Trump people pull it off. But when they just sort of like fire off this half-hearted endorsement on true social, like, you know, I think some voters, like, want a little more than that. I'm surprised that Nancy Mace's attack on Alan Wilson, that he protected sexual abusers and he dismissed child porn cases. I'm surprised that didn't land.
Starting point is 00:45:01 I don't know if that's because South Carolina voters are like pro-Eptstein now or because they think that Nancy Mace is crazy. I mean, having lived in Columbia, like, there's just a lot of personal rivalities there for things that we can't even think about. Like, Nancy Mace and Alan Wilson and Tim Scott, you know, they were in the statehouse back in the day. Like, there's probably some, they probably like are mifted at each other that someone didn't like buy him a drink in five points in like 2007. And like that manifests itself today. Somebody slept with somebody else's staffer, not Tim Scott, because we got to respect asexuals. Is they're part of it's Pride Month? They're part of the LGBTQI plus community.
Starting point is 00:45:41 But it's one of the other two might have. Speaking of Pride Month, any other, any additional thoughts on the Iowa conquering, vibrating conquering, the Republicans have nominated. We spent a lot of time in Iowa. Firm Tech is a sexual health company, Tim. And I just, I haven't had a chance to get mine charged yet. We appreciated the gift that the firm tech people sent me. And, you know, we'll see.
Starting point is 00:46:08 we'll give a review at some point. Eleanor would like your review on camera, please. Thanks. I don't know. It doesn't seem like a great nominee. Things still run in a pace for Rob Sand there in the Iowa governor's race. All right, are we going to get to dessert? Oh, wait, before dessert, no.
Starting point is 00:46:24 I promised you if we're going to have you back on. You were smeared. Your reputation was smeared on the Bullwark podcast recently. I guess it's not a smear. A smear would be saying something about someone that is untrue. You were attacked. No, I was smeared.
Starting point is 00:46:38 Act on the Board Podcast by me and John Fabro. In love, it was a loving attack because, you know, your takes, we're all out here slinging takes all the time. And so we have some misses. We'll get into one of mine. But you were a little bit, a little bit more bullish on Spencer Pratt than maybe it married it. That's all. Maybe a little more bullish. Let me revisit.
Starting point is 00:47:00 I had not a take. You didn't have to do this. A deeply reported article examining whether Spencer Pratt can win. in Los Angeles, both as an influencer candidate and as a crime and public safety Republican, and expand his appeal beyond just white people in Los Angeles. That was the premise. Turns out the answer was extremely no. No, not even close.
Starting point is 00:47:25 Which I, by the way, I was one of the few people, journalists who wrote that he has no appeal with black and Latino voters, if anyone read below it. Anyway, I felt smeared because you lumped a. factual statement, which is that Spencer Pratt went around Los Angeles, and he never mentioned Donald Trump and talked about Daniel Lurie as his role model, whether that was phony or not. You had that in with like a bunch of like right wing Tommy Laron, Clay Travis, takes about how Spencer Pratt was going to save L.A. And then you were like, and here's Peter Hamby. And you're both like laughing at your friend. I thought that was silly. And then John, like, you know, also a bud, but like, I'm sorry, guys. There was one poll showing Nithioran and making.
Starting point is 00:48:08 So this is fine. No one in Los Angeles politics. You were a little? Thought that Nithya Raman was going to make the runoff, except for like a handful of people in Silver Lake. Everyone thought Spencer Pratt was going to make the runoff. But those same people, no one thought he was actually going to win the election. And so I just thought, as two activists making fun of a journalist, just writing an article,
Starting point is 00:48:31 I didn't predict that. It was a miss. It was a miss. And because of that, I wanted to give you the opportunity to find a mess. fire back on any bad takes you've thanked me or John about. I'm not going to concede that it was not a miss. It was a miss. But Favs and I also miss.
Starting point is 00:48:46 And so I just wondered if I'm giving you an open swing. We'll do Favs than you. So John and his team campaigned very hard for Karen Bass in 2022 on their content activations called Rick Caruso, a bored billionaire who can't do the job of running L.A. Again, a lot of people here probably regret that. But, you know, that was like pre, that was like 2022, just partisanship, like vote for the person with the D next to their name. But I think that that action, you know, we have since seen because of Karen Bass that it has its limits. I don't want to like talk shit too much.
Starting point is 00:49:23 I don't know who John voted for. Well, I do think that the pod bros, you don't have to talk. I'll talk shit for you. I do think that the pod bros maybe I've had a change of tune on Karen Bass. No, but they're like they want, they want Nithiarama now. And it's funny. I'm put, put them aside. There are lots of Democrats here who just like will be on Instagram saying Karen Bass is a disaster that, you know, she has failed the city.
Starting point is 00:49:46 The very same people who four years earlier were saying that Karen Bass was going to save L.A. against an anti-abortion mini-Trump billionaire named Rick Caruso. It's like, you guys voted for this person, you know, and you're allowed to change your minds, I guess. But it's just like, it looks just kind of silly in hindsight. And speaking of smears, they were smearing. Caruso, who would have been kind of a Daniel Lurie style. This is my main pick with your Spencer Pratt thing is that Pratt wasn't really that much like Lurie, but Caruso was. I didn't say it was like Lurie style, man.
Starting point is 00:50:17 My bad take, which I'll nominate for myself because I was getting dunked on all over social media this week for this. This is kind of the danger of potting. I had like an argument that I had formulated like years ago that was a nuanced take on what Obama should have done with regards to the Merrick Garland nomination that I. that I short-handed when the conversation with Tana Hassee Coates in a way that made it, like, actually wrong, I'd said to Tana Hossi that Obama should have just jammed through Merrick Garland, which many people rightly were making fun of me for because they're like, he couldn't do that.
Starting point is 00:50:55 There were only 46 Democratic senators. The point that I meant to make that I didn't was that in that moment, like Obama quit campaigning for that. Let's go to see. And like there were really, like, and he had two options. Yeah, he thought the norms would prevail. The reality is like he thought, and this is, this started because Coates was bringing up that oh, I didn't believe Trump could win.
Starting point is 00:51:15 And because he didn't believe Trump could win, it's kind of like, they nominated Garland and it's like, whatever, Hillary will clean this up next year. When like, really, he should have one or two things, right? Like, go, this will be less appealing to the Coats crowd, but like, go to the Republicans and say, who could I nominate that you would bring up and, like, actually work with them on someone. And maybe they never would have done that. I don't know, but you could have put pressure on them. Or, like, use Barack Obama's skill set to actually go out and make this a major campaign issue that they're blocking this and that they want to take away your abortion rights
Starting point is 00:51:47 and, et cetera, et cetera. And, like, they didn't really do either of those things. It wasn't a campaign issue in 2016? I think it was. But, like, did he really campaign to get Merrick Garland through? I mean, like, really, like, to the degree that the Republicans campaign for Supreme Court justices, like, was there any? thing comparative. I went to, I went to good old Wikipedia and tried to remember the 114th Congress. And there were 46, 44 Dems, two independents, 46 Democrats. So if he swapped out Garland, like, which of these Republicans would have, you know,
Starting point is 00:52:19 disobeyed Mitch McConnell and voted for the replacement? Like Kelly Ayat? Like, Danes? Like Murkowski? Markowski. I don't know. Who would have flipped? Maybe, I guess.
Starting point is 00:52:31 But I don't know. People were pretty behold. to Mitch McConnell at that point. It's a fair point. I mean, you were clearly wrong. I was clearly wrong. It's a fair point and I was clearly wrong. I remember at the time feeling like it was a lame duck effort.
Starting point is 00:52:45 There was a little bit of senioritis. And it was like, we're going to put Garland up. And I think Coates' argument, which is maybe a better one. It's like, if you're not going to be able to get it through, don't put up mealy-mouth, Merrick Garland, like put out somebody that people will be very excited about and make it a campaign issue. you know, so people realize. I will tell you, in 2016, I'll just put it this way. I was totally wrong, but I do think this is an important learning.
Starting point is 00:53:10 It's like, I remember in 2016 speaking, because this was really more my world, to many anti-Trump Republican types, college educated Republican types, one of our mutual friends, grandmothers, somebody that I would mention on this. And Shua says to me, you know, I don't like him, but I got to vote for him over the courts. You know, I got, we have to vote for him over the Supreme Court because there's going to be an appointment up. And I just don't think that same thing was happening going the other way. Like I don't think that there was a big effort to be like, you have to vote for Hillary because they're going to take away your abortion rights. This has been a minor preoccupation mine for a long, actually, because for whatever reason covering Republican politics for so long.
Starting point is 00:53:46 And, you know, that's how I know you from the pre-Trump era. Like, I've just read a lot about the evangelical movement and, you know, their alliance with Republican politics and the Christian coalition and Jerry Fall and all of that. the Republican coalition and the white evangelical vote have long made appointing justices to the court. Like, you know, stop Roe, going back to the 70s, like their thing. And you see people on Twitter on the left over the years being like, we've got to vote for Democrats because of the Supreme Court. It just, it's never inspired a similar passion with the Democratic base at all. Like so if Tani Heisi is saying, and I listened to that pod and it was really good, you know, they should have put up Katanji Brown Jackson,
Starting point is 00:54:32 and that would have inspired people to go out and, but like, no, not really. I don't think so. I think the Democrats are just generally concerned with an issue set. And by the way, they should be concerned, the RBG thing. And now I think that's changing. I think it's flipped now. Maybe, maybe. But I do think it's always been more.
Starting point is 00:54:47 Judges has always been a thing you would hear in Republican primaries for House and Senate and like Ohio or Texas on the Republican side. And just judges is something that didn't really come up outside of, like nerdy or like Harvard Law grad Democrats running for office. A couple. We all have bad takes. That one was mine. I have two desserts. It's a multi-course dessert. We're way over time, so we'll do them quickly. First one, I just wanted to give everybody an update on Brian Nome and Bimboification. There's some sad news on this front. According to a podcast that Brian's Dominatrix was on recently,
Starting point is 00:55:22 on May 17th, one month after news broke that Brian was messaging with the Dominatrix, he, sent her a text. The text said, I've been a really bad boy. She responded, oh, I know, I know you've been a bad boy. And then after that she felt bad and ultimately told him that she needed to distance herself and ghost him, that this relationship couldn't move on. So that's just a pretty sad development on the Brian known bimbofacation snoo. He has Pride Month, Tim, and you're more fluent in queer communities than I am. If Brian wants to go full Bimbro, where should he move to?
Starting point is 00:56:04 The West Village? I don't know. You know, an early community in trans culture, it was in Colorado, actually, to Trinidad, south of Pueblo. So maybe he could start a new community there, kind of a Bimbro community in Trinidad, because it would kind of speak to their historical significance.
Starting point is 00:56:26 And that's the first thing. that comes to mind. Fort Lauderdale would be a second choice. Florida, yeah. Yeah, Fort Lauderdale, maybe. My last thing is a surprise I have for you. Today is the 17-year anniversary of what? We'll go to the audio tape. I had a conversation with Gina Smith
Starting point is 00:56:46 this morning when I arrived in Atlanta. And I told her about my love of the Appalachian trip. I used to organize hiking trips. Actually, when I was in high school, I would get a soccer coach or a football coach to act as chaperone, and then I'd get folks to pay me 60 bucks each or whatever it was to take the trip, and then off would go and have these great adventures on the Appalachian Trail. Seven minutes later.
Starting point is 00:57:21 And so the bottom line is this. I've been unfaithful to my wife. Been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with a, which started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina. It began very innocently, as I suspect many of these things do. Just a casual email back and forth in advice on one's life there and advice here. But here, recently over this last year, it developed into something much more than it. I was in the room. You were there.
Starting point is 00:58:04 I was there. So I got a little teary-eyed like Mark Sanford watching that because that was like, that was my first big break. I broke the news that Sanford's car was parked at the airport and not like somewhere else on the Appalachian Trail, which set off more alarm bells. I was standing right next to Mark to stage left. It was just like I was down there for CNN. It was the biggest story in the entire world. Japanese television came into Columbia, South Carolina, German TV, like different era. All the networks were trying to book Jenny Sanford and Mark Sanford.
Starting point is 00:58:42 And by the way, those emails that Mark mentioned, you know how the affair got discovered? Do you remember this? I don't know. So he was writing emails to Maria Balanchapur, who he's not with anymore. He would mark an oddball. would print them off and keep them in a file folder. And Jenny just found the emails printed off file folder. Not good digital hygiene there if you're trying to have an affair.
Starting point is 00:59:07 But wow, man, it was a hot summer down there. One other note, I was working for CNN and breaking all kinds of news. They were going to impeach Mark Sanford. The Republicans were doing this and that. Here's a story about the affair and Maria and the cops and whatever. All this fun little tribal politics stuff in South Carolina. And then my boss calls me, I'm in the Hilton. in Columbia, you and me love the Hilton.
Starting point is 00:59:28 We've stayed there many times. Hey, Peter, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I got the scoop. The house is putting together articles of impeachment against Mark Sanford. And he's like, okay, cool, you should stop. And I was like, what are you talking about? He goes, Michael Jackson just died. You can come home now.
Starting point is 00:59:47 And it was like, obviously the biggest story in the world was suddenly Michael Jackson and CNN was covering that. And I was having, as a young reporter, like the time of my life in Columbia, like, hit it going to five points every night like i just mentioned and then i had to go back to reality in dc so thank you for playing that thank you for playing you're welcome that was today june 24th 2009 i was at the gay beach house in erhobith with all my besties we had a summer beach house back then and uh i made them all take a break from i don't know doing flip cup and watching britney spears music videos whatever it was that we were doing to watch that and i just i just the whole thing
Starting point is 01:00:25 my distinct memory is like when is he going to get to the point and like for the purpose of the podcast we could not play the full seven minutes but he spends it's the longest wind up in history he is such a such a weird fella that mark sanford um but it's good memory for you forgot that took that long yeah thanks for i appreciate you peter hamby everybody go check him out on his podcast which is shorter than mine um you know if you need a little bit of more of a get right to a point update on what's happening in the day. It's called The Powers of B. Check them out over at Puck.
Starting point is 01:01:00 And Hamby, enjoy the USA World Cup game tomorrow night with our friends. We'll be seeing you soon. All right, man. All right, buddy. Thank you. Everybody else will be back here tomorrow for another edition of the show. See you all then. Peace.
Starting point is 01:01:12 What happened to that boy? What happened to that boy? He were talking shit. We put a clapping to that boy. The board podcast is brought to you. thanks to the work of lead producer Katie Cooper, Associate producer Anseley Skipper, and with video editing by Katie Lutz,
Starting point is 01:01:38 and audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.

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