The Daily Beast Podcast - The MAGA Goon Squad Dug Themselves a Deep Hole After Jan. 6

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

In another jam-packed week of GOP fuckery, The New Abnormal co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy looks at look at the party’s profiles in cowardice, starting with the new revelations about House Minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy cozying back up to Donald Trump and then shifting to Ron DeSantis’ anti-Disney jihad and what Molly calls the party’s new brand of “unpopular populism.” No one is crying for Disney or its special tax status, says Andy, but it’s still nuts that “the government of Florida is now basically telling businesses, ‘just shut up and don't take any, you know, even the most milquetoast of stands” or we’re going to punish you even if you’re a company that brings the state billions in revenue a year. Then the Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger comes in to break down his recent reporting on the Maga Goon Squad’s new money woes, as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, and Matt Gaetz collectively spent $275,000 more than they took in the first quarter of 2022. Plus, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the second lady of Pennsylvania whose husband, John, is now running for the Senate, and the founder of the Free Story in Braddock, “actually the first free store in the country,” tells Molly how that came from “this idea that some of us have so much and some have so little and there's so much excess, and how can we bring all those worlds together to do good. I really believe in mutual aid and having people connect who maybe would otherwise think they don't have anything in common and the free store was a place where all of that could happen.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Molly Zhang Fast, no relationship to Kim Jong-un. I'm a left-wing pundant and a writer at the Atlantic Invo. And I'm Andy Levy, former Fox News and CNN-HLN guy, and current cable news conscientious objector. And I'm producer Jesse Cannon, and I'm here to make sure things don't go too far off the rails. We're here to have fun, smart, conversations with the wisest and funniest and funniest people in science and media and politics that help make what's happening today clearer. Our world has been turned upside down, and on the new abnormal, we'll talk about the people who got us into this mess and how we'll hopefully get ourselves out of it. What a great show we have today. First, we're going to be joined by Roger Sullenberger, who's a Daily Beast reporter. And he's going to tell us about some of the fuckery with the fundraising that Matt Gates, Madison Cawthard, and Marjorie Taylor Green, have been doing. Then we're going to talk to the second lady of Pennsylvania, Giselle Barreto Federman, who's of course the wife of Seneca, John Federman, and the founder of the nonprofit Free Store 1510,

And she's going to tell us about life on the campaign trail there right now. But first, let's have some fun. Andy, leave me. Molly Johnfest. We learned a lot of stuff that we could have learned in January 2021 today. Might have been helpful a year and a half ago. You're talking, of course, about the book that the two New York Times writers are now pimping. Yes.

I am. I am indeed. We can't put up with that. McCarthy said, can they take their Twitter accounts away too? Yeah. So we got this book by, was it's Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, claiming that in the immediate wake of January 6th,

Kevin McCarthy was like Trump needs to be impeached. He needs to go. He said he was going to told other Republicans on a call that he was going to call Trump and tell him he needed to resign, all this stuff, which McCarthy is. denying. So yeah, there's two points here. One is how quickly they have changed their tune. And as we know, Kevin McCarthy is right back to being a sycophant for Donald Trump. The New York Times reporting on me is totally false and wrong. It comes as no surprise to me that the corporate media, the corporate media,

whatever the fuck that means, is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda. This promotional book tour is no different. I think this is an important line, which, I think we should all mariner night out for a second. If reporters were interested in truth, why would they ask for a comment after the book was printed? He seems really scared. A lot of people on the left go after Kevin McCarthy. And it's kind of, I think it's not great that they do that. Because, you know, we always talk about how representation is important.

And I feel like I think Unix deserve representation too. And so the fact that McCarthy's balls are in a safe in Mar-a-Lago is, you know, I think we have to recognize that there are other people out there who, for them, this is like they're getting to see themselves and that's always good. But yeah, he is absolutely a eunuch

and I don't believe him. I mean, call me crazy, but I don't think Kevin McCarthy is being honest with us when he says this stuff didn't happen. Yeah, look, I know I'm out on my own here and I just want to say that my views do not represent the views of the podcast or the Daily Beast.

This is strictly me. I don't want anyone to get in trouble for what I'm saying here. But I don't believe him, Molly. I think he's lying. The thing is, in the immediate after wake of January 6th, you had a lot of lawmakers who were justifiably scared at what happened. And Kevin McCarthy was one of them. And I think Mitch McConnell was one of them.

And a lot of Republicans were ones of them. And then, like, a week later, they all decided that, well, it wouldn't be good for the party if... Right. We're not going to be able to fund raise. Right. And therefore, it wouldn't be good for me to go after Donald Trump on this. They all just sort of, they collectively put their spines in lockers and just went right back to being with their. I mean, Steve's Calais, same thing. He's, you know, he's mentioned in this as saying that, you know, this was horrible and Trump caused all this. And these are all people that voted against impeachment.

Right. What do we make of this? What we make of this? is on the, you know, again, there's the two things. One, the Republican Party is completely spineless and... Cowardly. Yeah, they're just, it's just, it's profiles and cowardice. But then you get to your other point, which you got at, which is, boy, it would have been nice to know all this last January.

A year and a half ago. Yeah. And I guess the only thing I will say about that is it is possible, it is always possible that reporters learn things as they're, you know, publishing a book that they're, you know, they didn't know at the time. So you can give them the benefit of the doubt if you want and say, well, look, they probably didn't know this stuff on January 7th. This is stuff that came up in interviews they did months or a year later for their book.

I don't know the answer to that question, but this is a topic that does come up a lot because a lot of political reporters publish books. And a lot of those books have information that were never in the political reporter's pieces for their newspapers. So I don't know, I don't know what you do about it. Any suggestions, you know, Molly?

Like, I don't know what the answer to that is. You need a really smart media columnist to shame them on this, I think, and to stop making this a practice. Because this has become, and look, it was, you know, this is the kind of thing. We had this during Watergate.

Right. There's a long history of people saving it for the book. And far be it from me to perform media and media violence. But in a situation, and I think it's important that we, you know, talk about this, we are not in a normal situation. We are in a situation where democracy is literally on the ballot. With Nixon, Nixon resigned and he was out. So, yes, the information might have been useful, but there was not like an ongoing war with Nixon.

There was course correction. Here there has yet to be course correction. And we're staring down a midterm filled with, you know, Republicans who embraced facts. and want to, you know, rewrite election laws who are now polling ahead. And so they're really, we're still in a very perilous position. And so we need a mainstream media that is pro-democracy. And we don't have that. I couldn't agree more.

And I think you're right. This is a bigger problem than people saving it for the book. For as much good work as places like the New York Times and Washington Post do. And they do do a lot of good work. They are sort of institutionally, in my opinion, like illiquel. to cover a moment like we're going through right now because they're so invested in the sort of both sides narrative that they cringe at the thought of taking a side

even if that side is being pro-democracy. Right. I think one of the other problems is that because there are less and less media outlets, the Times has really consolidated power. What they choose to write about ends up driving a news cycle. And so they have so much, much power. The reason that everyone is always mad at them is because they have so much power. And because when they choose to publish something, it becomes the discourse. And so I don't think, you know, you have to remember some of this is about like these local newspapers having died. And so you're not having, you know, it used to be you'd have the Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street Journal wasn't owned by Rupert Murdoch. The LA Times would be a much bigger deal. You have the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald. I mean, they were all. these big regional newspapers that also set the tone.

And you'd have these magazines. I mean, remember Time Magazine. Remember Newsweek? The ecosystem has changed so much that it has made the New York Times and the Washington Post incredibly powerful. Yeah, I agree with 100% of that. I'm just not entirely convinced that if you still had a strong Time magazine and all those other places that you mentioned, that the difference would be huge.

Because I do think that all the sort of the institutional media, does have this both sides problem where they think that... Except you might have more competition for stories. No, I agree, but I think it's a mindset. I think the mindset was shared by a lot of those, you know, organizations that you said. It's just, it's this institutional mindset that says that it's, you know, neutrality is objectivity. And, you know, I think something we know at this point is neutrality is not objectivity. And, you know, maybe sometimes it is, but sometimes it ain't.

And, you know, you should not be neutral between the people who want to gut voting rights and who seek to illegally overturn elections through shady means and, you know, and manipulations of facts and outright lies. You should not be neutral between those people and the people who are like, no, this is bad. We want people's votes to matter and, you know, we want a freely elected government. So I agree with you that more competition is always good. There's no doubt about that. I'm just a little more cynical, I think, that it would make that much of a difference because I do think all those institutions you named kind of shared this same worldview.

Take this back to sort of the McCarthy stuff and whatever. I don't know if that's why the reporters are like, well, we're going to save this for the book because it's just, you know, it's not something that needs to be out there right away. I don't know. It's worrisome, though. It's all very worrisome. Yeah, no, I agree. Speaking of worrisome, you know, it's so interesting to me, we have constantly see polling.

Historically, even now, people think that Republicans are good for the economy. It's like the craziest thing, but they are like still set on this 1950s. Republicans are good for the economy. So today we have, this was just breaking news when we started recording this, we have Ron DeSantis, very mad at Disney because Disney dared to complain about don't say gay. This is a super fascinating case of it was the least they could fucking do complain about don't say gay, which is this crazy, very broadly written law that says that you can't, you know, it can be interpreted so that gay couples can't, you know, have to hide that they're married. I mean, it's just completely crazy. So now these Florida Republicans have decided that they are going to revoke Disney's special tax status as a way to stick it to them. Again, like, this is, and it reminds me of DeSantis when he was fighting

with the cruise ships. Remember, he was fighting the cruise ships wanted vaccine mandates. So easy, it would save them so much headache. They just wanted it. And DeSantis was like, no, You can't have vaccine mandates. Like, talk about crazy anti-business proposals. I mean, this is like one of the vestiges of Trumpism is this kind of insane. Like, it feels like Vladimir Putin's Russia, except it's stupider. Like, at least with Vladimir Putin's Russia, he's trying to make money. This kind of crazy where he's going to, you know, businesses being punished by Republican legislators

because they're complaining about Republican legislators crazy. bills. Yeah, it's a huge shift in the Republican Party, and I guess it's the shift from conservativeism to populism that we've seen over the last, I guess, six years at this point. It's unpopular populism. It's not popular.

No, that's true, yeah. In theory, or on paper, I don't have a problem with revoking Disney's special tax status. I mean, let them, you know, let them pay taxes the way everyone else does. But there's a couple things here. One is this is clearly retaliation.

for them speaking out, and it's going to be interesting to see if it's challenged on that level. And, you know, that's probably the biggest problem here is, as you said, that that sort of puts it in the realm of the government of Florida is now going to, is basically telling businesses, you know, just shut up and don't take any, you know, even the most milk toast of stands. And I'm not sure that that's going to fly. And I'm very sure that that's not a good idea. Disney brings in like, what is it, like $5 billion? The three largest businesses in Florida, or the five largest businesses in Florida. Yeah, it brings in like a ridiculous, I think it's $5 billion in state and local taxes. It brings in a revenue, state and local revenue, whatever.

And they have 36 lobbyists. Yeah, I mean, look, that's a problem, but. I know it is a problem, but it's sort of fascinating, I guess. Yeah, I'm just, I'm not entirely sure you want to anger a business that brings 50 million. people to your state every year, you know, that spend money there. But look, I'm, you know, Ron DeSantis, I guess, knows better than I do what's good for Floridians because he is, as always, acting with the needs of his constituents in mind. For sure, yeah.

That's that dry Andy Levy wit. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, that's why you hire me and that's eventually why you fire me. In case you're screaming at the podcast, at your phone. Yeah. Exactly, yes. Eventually, it's like, okay, we've had enough of that. It's time for you to go.

Not. This whole attacking Disney thing is just so out of control, and it's just so hilarious. Because Disney gave them this power. Disney's like, you know, Disney's been giving them the money to get elected. No, of course. Look, I don't feel bad for Disney. No one should feel bad for Disney, and I'm not saying anyone does. But there's no reason to feel bad for Disney.

Disney will be fine. And Disney will continue to be this, you know, sort of close to monolithic power in this country. But they're acting as if Disney is like, you know, like the leaders of Disney are Karl Marx and Friedrich Ingalls. And it's like. Yes, if only. They couldn't be. Like Disney culturally is fairly conservative. It's conservative.

It's not even fairly conservative. It's conservative. I mean, look, you know, every once in a while, you'll get like a not, like you'll get a gay character thrown in. to a Marvel movie for like 10 seconds, and then Disney will go see, see what we're doing? But it's not like they've been on the forefront of advancing social justice in America, like far from it.

But if you listen to conservatives now, you listen to, you know, you listen to idiots like Ben Shapiro and, you know, Dave Rubin and all those utter morons. And you would think that Disney was like, you know, you really would. You would think it's being run under the principles of Marxist Leninism. And it's just, it's hilarious.

But at the same time, it's not because they are now, you know, conservatives have now suddenly become big fans of big government. And they want big government to punish corporations. And it's a huge sea change. And it's something that doesn't look like it's going away. A thing I'd like to point out about Disney and how woke they are. It was only one year ago last week that they started to allow their employees to have tattoos. There you have it. Woke Disney.

Up to no good with the tattooed employees. This whole woke thing. And then you've got, I mean, I know this is, you know, not Disney, but then it's like Elon Musk saying that like Netflix stock is crashing because of their woke something. It's like Netflix is woke? Where the hell? Like, where do you get this stuff? And then people retweet it and they're like, yes, go off, King. It's amazing that we have to talk about this stuff because it's just, it's so stupid on its face.

that it's ridiculous that these are now things we have to say, no, Netflix is not super woke. Oh, my God. Well, it's just, you know, if everything is a hammer and a nail, and if, you know, and you're a fascist. Right. And make lemonade. Roger Solemberger is a reporter at The Daily Beast. Welcome to the new abnormal, Roger. Thank you.

I want to talk to you about this fundraising stuff because it's really interesting. So the title of the piece is Trump's most loyal lawmakers are actually losing money. I was surprised by this because Marjorie Taylor Green is sort of known as besides being a terrible anti-Semite and a complete lunatic and a believer of QAnon, a very hardy fundraiser. What is happening? She still is a hearty fundraiser. The interesting thing about this, about her role, I guess, in this story is that she pulled in a, an astounding amount of money. I mean, she raised $3 million, but she also spent a lot along the way. And so this quarter, it was her first losing, you know, FEC report that she'd filed since she got

elected and she lost $314,000. And that is largely due to spending to try to raise money. And this has been a pattern of her fundraising for a long time. Her numbers are kind of a slight of hand in that way. People really see how much money she's bringing in, but they don't see that she spends a whole lot to get there. And this quarter sort of gave the lie to that. She switched over to this direct mail campaign, I guess, and stopped doing so much digital stuff and then just, yeah,

kind of ate it pretty hard. So is it that these people, like Marjorie Taylor Green are spending so much money fundraising that they are not netting a lot of money? That's the case sometimes and that's just how like digital fundraising works these days. You got to split up your costs and then paying commission on stuff and it gets kind of complicated. But with the mega goon squad, as I call them in this article, which is, you know, green. And then you've got Lauren Bobert, Madison Cawthorne and the senior statesman of the group Matt Gates. They combined for a huge loss, and they've all got different sort of

personal explanations, I guess, that you could say for why they lost money. But the overall analysis is that there's just not another January 6th. They've raised so much money off of the controversy that they could stir on the heels of that. tumultuous and explosive event that generated so much resentment from the far right. And they tapped right into that and were able to stir up millions of dollars last year on the heels of the riot. And that's just not there. And so in the past few months, they've been kind of grasping at straws, right? Like, Green hasn't really been able to attract much like controversial lightning. Gates is, you know, his own investigation. We haven't heard much out of it.

Recently, it's ongoing, clearly, but it's just not in the news. The only person who's been in the news is Cawthorne for his orgy and cocaine remarks, and he just got blasted for that stuff. So they haven't really been able to, you know, turn the magic on, right? The sauce hasn't been there for the past few months, and it really shows in the money. That is really interesting. Madison Cawthorne, it strikes me that his own party is kind of done with him. Yeah, we've had some reporting. Sam Brody at the Beast has been covering that pretty well, that he has attracted some challengers, right?

He's attracted a lot of criticism within the party. You know, most publicly is Kevin McCarthy. And the leaders of the house actually publicly shamed him for those orgy remarks. You know, he's saying, oh, I've been invited by my own colleagues to these things. I've seen my own colleagues doing cocaine. And the colleagues that he has really got upset at that. And Kevin McCarthy, you know, took him aside.

He announced that he was giving Cothmore dressing down. They had, obviously, I think they'd sort of leaked this to reporters because when he came out of McCarthy's office, you know, it was all over the news or all these photographs of it. they spoke about it publicly. And there is sort of a hypocrisy there, too, that if I were in Madison, I might be a little bit upset about, which is, well, you look at another goon squad member here, Matt Gates, right? And we reported that Matt Gates literally did cocaine in a hotel with an escort, right? It's like, it's exactly basically what Cawthorne is saying, and nothing like this happened to Gates. Lauren Bobert, her remarks this fall, those racist remarks that she made about Ilhan Omar, those kind of got swept under the rug too when Marjorie Taylor Green famously always gets away with it. But Cawthorne didn't. And I think that he's, you know, there's a sort of a special space carved out for him. And he's got, he's got to take a hard look at what's ahead.

Right. That makes a lot of sense. I want to talk to you about the story of the Trump pack because that's also. super interesting. I thought they had a ton of money, but explain. They do have a ton of money. Donald Trump has by far the most money in the Republican Party. He's the presumptive nominee, blah, blah, blah, right? But he's got $80 million on hand more than the actual Republican Party does right now. And again, just like with the goon squad, you know, this quarter, he posted a pretty slim return. turn, I mean, he only got, gained about $2 million in three months, which is not a lot at all. And his campaign pack, or his former campaign, that's losing money. And it has been since January 1st last year. It lost another, you know, millions of dollars that he's spending on, mostly on attorney's fees.

It just seems like there's a spending spree that's going on in the right wing, and they're not getting a lot of traction on the other end. I have, you know, no real idea of why that it is, but it does seem just from what I've looked at, like, there might be something, might be a pattern to that. I also have read other reporting that said that Donald Trump is notoriously stingy. Yeah, he is. He does not give much money to anyone else in the party at all. He's also like walled off this fundraising machine as best as he can, right? It's basically, he's, got this little triangle of three committees and he just doesn't share the pool of money really with anybody else. But he also doesn't, you know, give to their packs very frequently. There've been a

couple of exceptions. It's a little like Madison Cossorn, right? Exactly like that. Cardi doesn't like it. Yeah. So explain that to our listeners. Yeah. So Madison has not raised money, not only with his campaign, but with this thing called a leadership pack, which is basically designed to help out your friends. And he's got no money in there. at all, really, and he's not giving money to anybody. For someone who's in a bad spot politically who could really use some allies right now, that's not good. That's not going to make people happy. They're not going to run your side. Donald Trump, though, seems to just sort of delight in that and, you know, lording his money over the party, over his, even his allies in the party, right?

He just doesn't really give out that much money. He did make a donation this past quarter, $500,000, which, you know, that's not, you know, something to sneeze at. He gave it to a pack in Georgia that's trying to get David Purdue to beat Brian Kemp and that, you know, the governor's election there. But aside from that, he didn't give much out at all. He gave a million dollars recently to this conservative organization where Mark Meadows works. And that's a huge gift. It happens to come at the time when Congress is trying to and get more information out of Mark Meadows about January 6th. You know, he gives to people that will, it'll help his own interests, right?

Even his generosity is really selfishness. You kind of get to see what he's probably like as a dad, too. That's a lot of supposition there. So talk to me about there's another scandal that like completely got lost in the media scrum, which was that this. Fortenberry's scandal. Can you give our listeners just a little quick sum up of that scandal and how it went down? Yeah, Jeff Fortinberry was, I guess, the first sitting member of Congress, of the House of Representatives to stand trial in decades. And he went on trial for lying to the FBI

about his knowledge of some campaign donations that he got years ago that came from a Lebanese, Nigerian billionaire and were funneled through to his campaign, right? Yeah, I mean, it's pretty crazy. He was convicted very quickly. I think it took the jury two hours to, you know, wrap that one up. But, you know, his sentencing is scheduled for June. The trial itself was kind of funny. He, you know, sort of tried to blame the lie on, or his knowledge on, like, cell phone service. It's like, I can't, I couldn't really hear what the guy was saying. How can you prove that I knew? Yeah. You know, he had a laughable defense. He had Trey Gowdy. like on his team at one point.

And what I just saw was that he, the day, get this, when he was convicted, the same day that he got convicted on March 24th, he bought a truck from his campaign. And it's the truck that, the same truck where he released this video with him and his wife by a cornfield, you know, just looking folksy back in October saying, hey, I didn't do anything wrong. He said, I'm going to get her, I'm going to get indicted. I didn't do anything wrong.

And then he buys that truck back from his campaign the day of his conviction. And so there's a pretty sweet little irony in there. That's so interesting. I had one more question, which was talk to our listeners, Persia Walker. He is the presumptive Republican Georgia Senate nominee. He is a Trump. Trump has been a big fan of his for a long time. You had a story about him that I actually quoted quite liberally.

in my newsletter, wait what, talk to us about that story because that is sort of interesting. It's very interesting. Yeah, the short of it is that Herschel Walker lies. He just does. Well, he also has multiple personalities, right? Right, exactly. I was just going to say he's been, and he talks about that, that he's been diagnosed with that, the dissociative disorder, right?

And is this the type of guy that you want running for serving as a senator? I don't know. But My Layers Report sort of built on a legacy. of reporting that stretches back a few months about Herschel Walker's business record. And what I found was that he's just outright lied about, you know, how big his companies are. He seems to me lying also about a company that exists or not. Like there's some questions about whether this company even is there, like the way that he describes it. But, you know, he says he has the, at times, like the largest minority-owned food business in the United States, that is absolutely nowhere near true.

Sometimes he says that it's the largest minority-owned business in the United States, period. He just, you know, there's a lot like Donald Trump. He keeps exaggerating and exaggerated until I think, you know, he really, you know, believes that these things are true. And it's just he, he appears to be living, at least in interviews, he creates another reality. This isn't something that we've seen in political candidates outside of Trump. It really is a remarkable series, and I have no qualms about using the word lie. It's just, it's funny if he weren't, you know, seeking such a powerful office, right, which is why we want to shine a light on that. Thank you, Roger. Thank you guys very much. It was delightful.

Giselle Barreto Federman is the second lady of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as the founder of the Free Store 15104. Welcome to New abnormal Giselle. Thank you for having me. You are the wife of a Senate candidate, among other things, who is right now the lieutenant governor. First, let's talk about the thing you do, which is amazing, which is the free store. Tell our listeners a little bit about the free store.

Sure, the free store, it's Free Store 15104. It was actually the first free store in the country. And it was this idea that some of us have so much. and some have so little. And there's so much excess. And how can we bring all those worlds together to do good? I really believe in mutual aid. And having people connect who maybe would otherwise think they don't have anything in common.

And the free store was a place where all of that could happen. So what about people who say, like, you're not supposed to give people stuff because then they won't work, aka the Republican Party? You know, when I was ready to start the free store, there were people that would say that. They would say, well, how do you know people aren't going to just come and take everything? Well, nine years in, we've never had that problem. And it actually inspires, I think, giving, right? Like, I always say if we expect the most out of people, they will rise and meet those expectations.

And my challenge would just be like, why is your bar so low, right? Like, how do we challenge ourselves to look at people differently? and to believe them and to support them and to be a part of their journey. And that's what we get to experience every day at the free store. It's often those who have the least, who want to give the most. And I always tell folks, if you have lost your faith in humanity, come hang out with me for an hour at the free store. Because tell me why.

Because it's so beautiful. And it's just folks connecting, you know, someone bringing something in, someone's wife just passed away. and he finally is ready to part with some of her things. And someone is there who needs those things. And they connect and they get to meet each other and they get to talk. And there's so much empathy and so much humanity. You know, one story that never leaves me was a little boy who,

I heard him gasp at the free store. He got really excited about something. And it were these furry footed pajamas. You know, I have three young kids who basically live in footed pajamas. But he was so excited for this new pair of pajamas. You have these stories and these amazing folks that come together. And it's beautiful. It's humanity.

It's just very moving to me. Okay, so you're in Pennsylvania. Tell our listeners what the real world looks like with Democrats. We're getting a lot of polling that is making us very depressed. We're getting a lot of like consultants saying, If Democrats want to appeal to the middle, they need to be more conservative. Talk to us about what you have seen and what your experience is. I mean, I think to appeal to folks, we just have to be honest and authentic.

My husband and I will travel to the reddest parts of the state, and we're met with crowds full of people who are grateful we showed up and that we listened to them. And I think most people just want to be heard and they don't want to be written off. and they want to be a part of that conversation. And, you know, we're always willing to listen. I don't believe in writing people off. And as an immigrant, you know, I haven't had the best experiences all the time. But I have to have those conversations.

I've been in rooms with folks who have said to me, I love you. You do such great stuff. But I have an issue with the other immigrants, right? And I have to choose how I respond to that. And, you know, as a Pisces, you just want to cry. But I have to be willing to listen and to understand like, why do you think this way? And how did this start? And where did it come from?

And those are difficult conversations, but that's how we get to a better place. So we're always willing to have those conversations. So you come from Brazil. And one of the things you talked about, your husband's campaign has started doing Spanish language, advertising. There's a lot of talk right now about. Democrats losing Hispanic men, voters, and the questions, and we saw this in 2020 in Florida, that the questions were like maybe they weren't doing enough Spanish language advertising.

Talk to us about how you got there and what that means. Well, you know, I'm a polyglot. I'm very proud of that. John only speaks one language, but he knows how important it is for our children to be bilingual, will for you to be able to connect to as many people as possible. So for him, this was always a priority. It was great that I got to be the one to be that voice since I'm also fluent in Spanish. But, you know, it's how do we connect to as many people as possible?

How do we let folks know that we care? If you don't speak our language, let's get to a place where we can still connect, whatever that looks like. So it's all part of a bigger picture is that we're here and we care and we want to be able to connect with you. One of the big problems for Democrats and also for democracy as a whole is this disinformation that is coming through, especially in Spanish language, advertising. Do you guys combat that? I mean, we haven't had to yet.

We will as it happens. I don't really hear those on my conversations across the state so much. It's more like, oh, you know, you can connect with me. Like, you speak my language. You're, you know, you're like us. And your story is like our story. So at least in Pennsylvania, and in our circle out here, we're really, we haven't seen much of that. I've seen what you're referring to nationally and what happened in Florida in other states.

But I'm not seeing that firsthand here in Pennsylvania, at least not yet and hopefully not at all. You were an undocumented immigrant, though. Yes, I was for over a decade. Can you just talk about that a little bit? So, you know, my family fled violence in Rio. My mom in Brazil had a PhD and ran hospitals. And she wanted more for us to be safe than for what she had worked so hard for. So we settled in New York.

We came as tourists. Immediately I was, you know, an ESL student in class. And my mom was working as a domestic worker. So she cleaned houses and hotels. And I very much know how life can change. And I very much know what my life was like before to a woman. my life became and how folks treated my mother differently because of her employment. You know, I always believe that all work has dignity. And I was always very proud of her, whether she was

running hospitals or cleaning hotels. But those experiences have also taught me a lot. You know, I knew with my mom that you can start over at any time. You know, if things aren't working for you, you can start again. But in those conversations with folks who have heard very different stories of immigrants, you know, they'll say, well, you know, why didn't you do it the right way? Or, you know, you're here just to taking off the government, right? Because that's misinformation. They think that undocumented can collect any number of things. Or I'll have a very different side of the conversation where they'll say, well, you don't look like an undocumented person. I've never met an undocumented person. I'll say, well, you have, and it's me. And, you know, what do you mean? What is

one look like, right? And again, it's back to having those difficult conversations. But with parents, I feel like I really am able to connect on that because I'll ask, well, what would you do for your children? What would you do to make sure your children were safe? I would do anything for my children. I would die for my kids. I would kill for my kids. But would you move somewhere safer. And that usually stops them. And it forces them to think in a different perspective. So I think we have to be willing to talk about these things. And I'm proud of my story. I'm proud of my mother's journey. I'm proud to talk about it. And I think we need to do more of that, more listening and more talking. So true. So talk to me about what Pennsylvania looks like right now. I thought you guys did a really

good job at handling what was happening in the primary in a really dignified way. Can you just talk a little bit about that. Sure. I mean, I think politics is awful. I've made no secret of that. And I always tell John, like, politics deserves the rep it has because it's filled with awful people. But the only way to change that is to have kind people in it. So this is my world now. And I really believe in the, you know, bloom where you are planted. And it's like, how can I make this world that is my world beautiful and kind and honest. It's hard because my kids are very much a part of this world, right? They would say, hey, is today the day that the other Democrat is attacking daddy again on the TV? Right. And I say yes, but we are not those people, right? We can let them do what they do,

but we aren't those people. We believe in honesty. We believe in kindness. And we don't believe in bullying. You know, I tell them kids who grow up as bullies become adults who are bullies. If there isn't a change and intervention, I think it's really prepared them for the real world because they get to experience it, very close to home. Yeah. This is going to be a really tough election. How are you sort of preparing yourself for it emotionally and your kids? I mean, me, I think I've been in this long enough. I've learned my ways to cope, you know? I used to just cry a lot. which is, I think, a perfectly normal way of coping. But I've learned, you know, to not take things as personally, which is difficult as a Pisces.

And I also want people to like me. And I've had to learn to understand that. But my grandmother who passed in the last year, before she passed, I was upset about something. And she said to me, Giselli, you only give love because that's all you have inside. And what other people are giving, that's what's inside of them. And it was a really simple kind of pebble of wisdom, but for me, it's been really grounding because it gave me a different perspective. It made me think, my God, how sad that all someone has inside them to give is hates or lies or meanness. So that has helped me a lot.

I hear her voice saying that to me a lot. And with the kids, you know, I just, they know that the world is going to be full of people like this. and all they can control is how they respond to it. And we will always respond to things in the best possible way. So I think that's how I've prepared for it and just will continue doing the right thing. I believe that the universe will work itself out. Are you seeing people mad at Democrats? And if they are, what are they saying to you?

I mean, I see just like Facebook comments or, you know, the Twitter ones. And it's just the same talking points. It's almost like there's a big. chat room where they copy and paste the same anger, right? It's like, you don't care about borders. I mean, it's like verbatim, the same argument. And if it was, I think, more than a copy and paste, I think it could help us more understand these differences. But it's really all the same thing, unfortunately. Thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. What's crazier than QAnon, more outlandish than Pizza Gate,

and scarier than a Mexican getaway with Ted Cruz? The answer is what the American right wing has planned next. Be one of the first to listen to Fever Dreams, new podcasts from The Daily Beast, tracking the conspiracy slingers, orange acolytes, and straight-up grifters pushing to retake power. Every Wednesday hosts Swin Subisang and Will Summer checking in on the movement of the Radical Right.

Head to the DailyBeast.com slash podcasts or your favorite podcast player to catch the first episode and get subscribed. That's Fever Dreams, which you can subscribe to wherever you get your podcasts. Andy. Molly, I want to know who your fuck that guy is for today.

My fuck that guy is the one who I would like to not sue me. He is very rich. He destroyed Gawker. He is got two. Senate candidates that he is putting a lot of money into. One is J.D. Vance, or as I like to think of him, the worst person in the world. Actually, I don't think he's the worst person in the world, but it does annoy me that he came up as a writer, and everyone was like that book is so great. You've got to read that book.

Yeah, thanks, guys. So, J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Ellogy made into a movie. By woke Netflix. What a woke Netflix. What a woke movie. He got very excited to get the endorsement of Marjorie Taylor Green. He said that he didn't have any problem with her speaking at a white supremacist conference. Spoiler!

You know, if you don't have a problem with it, then he also said that she's a friend of his. Again, not necessary. Donald Trump endorsed him. We'll see what happens, but that would really be awful. And Peter Thiel has a candidate in Arizona, Blake Masters, who is, very thin. I have nothing to say, good to say that won't get me sued, but you're my fuck that guy, thank you. Andy, who's your fuck that guy? My fuck that guy is, I don't think someone who will get us sued. It's a TV show called The Masked Singer. You know, a couple months ago,

we heard, we heard rumors that one of the contestants on the show, one of the singers who is masked was going to be none other than the criming former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani. Rudy hair paint Giuliani. Rudy, yes. And this week, I guess we learned that that's true. I guess it was actually last night as we record this. It was Wednesday night.

Rudy Giuliani was revealed to be the latest contestant on the mask singer, and there's a clip of him unmasked singing. I don't want to say singing, he's not performing bad to the bone, the George Thurgood song. Ken Jong. And Ken Jong, who is one of the judges on the show, said something like, that's it, I'm done, and walked off. Okay, good for him, I guess.

I don't know how to take, like I like Ken Jong as an actor, you know, so I don't, I have no idea. Yeah, I love him. And I'm telling you, he did this once before or two when it was some other MAGA person. Uh-huh. And he just was, yeah, and he was just like these fucking people. And I'm sorry, I know, you know, you can fault him. But look, he's being paid a lot of money. It's hard to make it as an actor, even if you're super successful.

Like, I get the guy taking the job because it's like a necessary evil and like not being thrilled with it. And then them putting on like a fascist and him being like, fuck you. I'm all with it, man. I ain't mad at Ken. Yeah. Are we still bros? Okay, good. Yeah.

I was just making sure. This is not the first time. I believe Sarah. Periolan was a contestant on the show? Right. So I don't know why they seem to think that these people are draws. First of all, apparently the ratings were super low for this Giuliani show. Hard to believe.

I just, you know, he's so charismatic and sexy. And all I kept thinking is how bad that mask must have smelled by the time he was done with it. And with all the hair goop on it, the black oil of, you know, It's like the old X-Files when it was just black goop everywhere. It's just, that must have been what the mask was like. But anyway, stop having these assholes on. Stop having these people who are, you know, just bad. They're bad people and they don't need to be broadcast on your show.

So my fuck that guy is the masked singer, the show and the masked singer, the person Rudy Giuliani. Yeah. And I think there's a really good argument to be made. for not rehabilitating fucking fascists. On that note, we'll wrap this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast. In future episodes, we'll be talking to smart folks from The Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics, and science. We'll help us understand what's happening to our country and the world. We hope you'll subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app and share the show on social media.

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