The Daily Beast Podcast - This Is How Trump Can Face Ultimate Humiliation

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

#ad See if your SSN is for sale right now. My sponsor Cloaked will tell you for free in 2 seconds here: https://cloaked.com/dailybeast ✅ Keisha Lance Bottoms joins Joanna Coles on The Daily Beast Podcast to take on the billionaire she calls a Donald Trump wannabe—and explain why his $100 million investment in Georgia’s governor’s race hasn’t put her behind in the polls. The former Atlanta mayor sounds the alarm over potential election disruptions, takes aim at rival Rick Jackson’s business dealings, and reveals why she would welcome another Trump campaign visit. Coles presses her on the collapse of the Fani Willis case, whether Democrats have an actual plan to end the Iran war, and what she witnessed inside Joe Biden’s White House. #ad Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to https://honeylove.com/DAILYBEAST ! #honeylovepod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'll give you a... Moblad. New season is now streaming on Paramount Plus. In many ways, when Trump says, imagine that he is on the ballot, people are doing just that. It concerns me deeply because we have already, We've already seen the FBI on the ground in Fulton County, which is the county that Atlanta is in.

And more than 250 FBI agents have already been dispatched by Trump's DOJ. So we can't not be concerned. We just have to be prepared. They are monitoring our election in Georgia this year. So not just in Georgia across the country, we have to stay vigilant. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. Before we go any further, I'm going to ask you to like and subscribe wherever you see the button for that, wherever you get your podcast. We are independent media and we can have conversations that you cannot have in big corporate media. And today's conversation we're having with Keisha Lance Bottoms. Formerly the mayor of Atlanta, then she went to work in the White House. And you may know her because she cut. through the noise in 2020 during the riots in Atlanta just after the death of George Floyd. Here she is.

And I remember watching this speech in real time and getting chills at hearing a leader speak so forcefully and so movingly. I am a mother to four black children in America. And when I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother would hurt. And on yesterday, when I heard there were rumors about violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do. I called my son, and I said, where are you? I said, I cannot protect you, and black boys shouldn't be out today. So you're not going to out concern me and out care about where we are in America. If you care about this city, then go home.

She's up against the billionaire healthcare magnate Rick Jackson, who's already spent 86 million on television advertising. Let's get into it. Georgia has plenty of issues, not least that it was the ground zero for Donald Trump's election interference in 2020. Mayor Lance Bottoms, thank you so much for joining us. Our sponsor, Cloaked, dared me to see how exposed my information, actually, so I put my phone number into their site, and this is not what I expected.

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you're actually giving them something basically worthless. You're the one playing them. So go to cloaked.com slash Daily Beast and enter your phone number for your free security scan. It takes seconds and you can see if your social security number is on sale right now. And the longer you wait, the more of your information gets bought and sold. And if you want to take it a step further, use that same link for 30% off any plan. Mayor Lance Bottoms is with us. Mayor, welcome to the Daily Beast podcast. This is a first for both of us. Thank you so much for having me. Well, we're very intrigued to talk to you. And I was curious to know, what does the governor's race and the Senate race in Georgia tell us about what's going on at a national level across the country?

What's happening in Georgia, I think really is reflective of what's happening across America. there is a very real blue wave. We saw it firsthand last November when we elected two public service commissioner of representatives who were Democrats for the first time in nearly 30 years. One was an African-American woman. And it was so significant

because our public service commission races don't normally get a lot of attention, but they help regulate our utility companies. And it really speaks to the cost of living issue that is by far the number one issue of this campaign cycle. And so what we're seeing happening right now, you've got Senator Ossoff on the ballot. Going into the election cycle was the number one target for Republicans.

He has a pretty wide margin over his opponent. And then you have our race, and I am running against a billionaire who has putting in his own money into this race. and just about every poll is showing us tied. So it speaks to the momentum. It speaks to, I think, the nation really wanting change. And in many ways, when Trump says, imagine that he is on the ballot,

people are doing just that. Right, and not in the way that he was hoping. So there was an interview in time this week who put him on the cover again. And of course, he'll be thrilled because it's the most time that anybody has been on the cover of time. In the interview, he says that he's not ruling anything out, one of his classic phrases, and when asked if he would use the insurrection law, possibly in the run-up to the midterms,

he said he wasn't sure he wasn't ruling anything out. How concerned are you that he may pull some tricks at the last moment? I'm deeply concerned. And even the guy who I'm running against has said publicly that the National Guard will be called in during our election cycle. So, you know, the question that immediately came to mind is what is he projecting that the rest of us don't know? And he's very close with Donald Trump. He gave Trump $2 million during the primary. Trump bragged about it. We were able to clip it and use it on a commercial, in fact. He said, you know, this guy gave me $2 million during his primary race. Can you believe that? You know, Trump was trumping. I'll just put it that way. But it concerns me deeply because we have already seen the FBI on the ground in Fulton County,

which is the county that Atlanta is in. And more than 250 FBI agents have already been dispatched by Trump. DLJ. So we can't not be concerned. We just have to be prepared. What really strikes me is the Carter Center that is named after President Jimmy Carter monitors elections around the world to make sure that they are being conducted fairly, et cetera. And they are monitoring our election in Georgia this year. So not just in Georgia across the country, we have to stay vigilant and make sure that what we're telling people in Georgia is don't wait until the last minute to show up to vote because we don't know what disruptions may come.

Treat every day of early voting, which begins October 13th as if it is in the election day. So it's easy to think of Georgia in a sense as ground zero for Trump's election interference, especially when he asked Brad Rattensberger to find him in another 11,000. 800 votes. How disappointed were you? And I know you've known Fannie Willis for a long time that the case around that interference fell apart in the way that it did. Well, you know, I have known Fannie for a very long time. And when Fannie brought the case, I assume that, you know, she had grounds for bringing that case. She is the district attorney for Fulton County. Is she processing? thousands of cases each year. And, you know, like so many people, we were anticipating that Trump

would be held accountable. That being said, you know, I've been so focused on what I have going on running for Governor Georgia. I hadn't spent a lot of energy on it. But I know for many people across this state, it was a disappointment because there was a very blatant attempt to interfere with our elections. And, you know, again, even when he did it and seemed to have gotten away with it, he's now done it again by having the elections office raided and by having them cart out election documents that we still don't know what the FBI is taken and where it's. even going. This was when Tulsi Gabbard came down and she was right ahead of national intelligence and oversaw the carrying out of boxes from Georgia from Fulton County. It's a motivating factor for so

many people across this state. We are the cradle of the civil rights movement in America. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born right here in Georgia. John Lewis was my congressman. So Ambassador Young still walks amongst us. I was with him in church on Sunday. And what struck me when I saw Ambassador Andrew Young on Sunday, I've never seen him become emotional speaking about voting. He became quite emotional twice. And I can only imagine it's because of all of the work that Ambassador Young

and so many others put into trying to protect this sacred right to vote. to now see it being almost destroyed in real time is not just heartbreaking to Ambassador Young, but to so many people, even chatting with my mother, what struck me during the primary, my 18-year-old son was with her. He was voting for the first time that when my mother was 18, she didn't have the right to vote. She and her classmates over at the Atlanta University Center were fighting for their right to vote and to see my 18-year-old son, who is now a college student facing many of those same headwinds, it's unbelievable in many ways, but it has given people a resolve to show up and vote. We saw it in May in Georgia. We broke records in May.

Over a million people voted in early voting on the Democratic side. We outvoted Republican. by 150,000 votes, even though we were outspent by over $100 million. Okay, so doesn't it, I don't want to over stress this, but the Fannie Willis of it all, and the fact that she was disqualified from such an important case because she had an affair with someone she brought in to help her on the case, it just seems like terrible leadership. Well, you know, I know Fannie to just be a tremendous leader. somebody who has always fought on behalf of people across this county. I knew her when she was in private practice, she served as a judge.

My personal opinion is that there was a comparison of apples and oranges, but again, you know, I've been focused on my race, the judicial system made a decision on that. But I think everybody should have had an opportunity for that case to see that case play out in the way that it should have in our court system. And it didn't. So we just have to move forward and reminding people to show up and vote. If you were displeased with Donald Trump, when he tells you, imagine that he is going to be on the ballot, then pretend that he's on the ballot when you go in. And vote for people who are not aligned with his policies, unlike the guy who I'm running against,

who says there's not a single policy, a single thing that he disagrees with Trump on. He says he wants to be Trump's favorite governor. He wants to be Trump with a southern tone. If you like the support of a sports bra, but hate wearing one all day, I know exactly what you mean. Most of them feel great for a workout.

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Experience the new standard in comfort with Honey Love. Trump with a southern tone, I can't imagine. So I saw you speaking at Emily's list, an organization that helps women get into government. And you were very effective. You talked a lot about your personal story, about your mother and how she worked during the day and then did her beauty school exams in the evening. You talked about having four children. Huge respect. I don't know how any woman has a full-time job and four kids.

And several other Democratic women spoke to. Everybody was very impressive. The one thing that I came away thinking about was that everybody, you know, clearly was anti-Donald Trump. I was less clear about what the Democrat solutions are for things like the stalemate in Iran. I understand the sort of unifying anti-Trump, and it may be that that is enough. But I was curious to know, what is the Democrats' answer to how? you end the standoff in Iran? Well, we have been calling that whole ballot energy in Georgia. So, of course, we want people to vote for Senator Ossov to vote for me, but also to vote all the way down the

ballot to make sure that we are electing people to Congress who will hold Donald Trump accountable. We know that this war in Iran has had a tremendous impact on people across this country. I'm seeing gas prices. I've never seen before in my lifetime. I was at a gas. I was at a gas. I'm a station yesterday. Of course, diesel is well over $6 a gallon of regular unleaded gallon of gas at the gas station. I was standing in front of yesterday was $4.59. This is a direct result of that war. We also know that what's happening in the strait is impacting our farmers. Fertilizer has to come right through that narrow strait. So it's not just about gas. It's just about the that Trump is creating in our economy and a global economy.

So we want people to be elected to Congress who will not be afraid to stand up and who will hold he and his entire administration accountable when they are doing unlawful things, like getting us into a war that he didn't have congressional approval for us to embark upon. So I understand the holding him to account. But what is the Democrats solve for what's happening with Iran? Because it may take some time to hold him account. But in the meantime, the war presumably continues. The price of gas presumably stays high. Or what is the policy for how you end this war, which I understand Trump completely started, but you may well be left with the detritus of that policy. So, you know, of course, I'm focused on running a race in Georgia, so I can't begin to

speak for all of our congressional leaders, but I would assume that when you are able to flip the House, when we are able to flip the Senate, that there will be hearings held, that there will be discussions held holding his cabinet accountable for the actions that they have taken, that there will be discussions around funding sources to even continue this war that's cost the American people billions upon billions of dollars and to hold Trump responsible for this. This is an unlawful war. You've got Democrats and Republicans saying that there needs to be an end in sight for this war. He's not offering that, but it's going to take Democrats being able to take back the and to be able to take the Senate for us to have some real chief to take action in Washington, D.C.

And it begins simply by people showing up to vote. Plain and simple. Early voting starts in Georgia, October 13th. Okay. So if anybody's listening and they're in Georgia, October the 13th. So where would you put the Democrats' chances right now in terms of, let's start with the House? I think they are pretty darn strong, actually. And I'm not giving up on the Senate.

In the same way, I'm not giving up on our state house and state Senate in Georgia. There is a real discontent happening in this country. And it's not just Democrats who are upset with what's happening in Washington, D.C. And what's happening, there are Republicans who are upset. There are independent voters who are upset who want a real change. in the direction of this country. They want a real change in the direction of Georgia. People are hurting.

The one issue that I didn't even need a polling source to tell me about that was so important, it's this cost of living issue. And that cost of living issue can be directly traced back to policies from the Trump administration. Right here in Georgia, we've had $200 million plus cut from our education department. Centers for Disease Control is. is based right here in Georgia. It's been decimated. That funding normally goes to counties and cities

to help fund public health, to help fund things like mobile mammogram clinics that often service our rural communities, which, by the way, I spoke with the woman who said her funding had been cut, so 10,000 women weren't receiving a mammogram in the appropriate follow-up care. This is a story that's being told across the country.

then you add on top of that gas prices. Then you add on top of that grocery prices. So in the course of our campaign, we have offered real solutions. I've offered a solution for eliminating the grocery tax in Georgia. I offered a solution to reduce automobile insurance in the state. We're going to be doing something very soon on homeowners insurance. So we're listening, offering real solutions, whether it be from housing to health care. And that's the story that's being told across the country.

So what do you think the Democrats missed in 2024 when Trump got reelected? It wasn't like he wasn't familiar to voters. They knew who he was. And yet he carried all seven swing states. What was it that the Democrats didn't realize or didn't understand about his appeal? You know, I can't speak for all of the American people who decided to vote for Trump. I can only assume that they wanted a different direction. And whatever it was that he was selling, wasn't what the people got in return.

So as someone who didn't vote for him, who had a very long memory of what his leadership meant to so many of us in the Trump 1.0, there was not a set of circumstances that he was going to ever receive my vote because I was Mayor of Atlanta when he was in the White House. And I know how disruptive he was to leaders across the country. I know how disruptive he was to our economy. I know how disruptive he was even when we were navigating a pandemic with him standing in front of the microphone telling people to inject themselves with bleach. So, you know, I can't speak to people who didn't remember that and decided to give him another chance. But right now, I'm just focused on what I can do and how I will

deliver, God willing, when I'm elected governor and reminding people I was willing to stand up to that White House the first time around, and I'm willing to do it again. So you really came on to the national scene, as you say, when Trump was in power, you were the mayor of Atlanta, you were dealing with the riots. We played a clip at the top of the show of you saying to people, go home, go home, this is not how you behave in a democracy. It had incredible impact, I think, across the country. There's been, I think, it's fair to say, a sort of civil war within the Democratic Party

between the moderate wing and the progressive wing. Where do you think the party is now in terms of appealing to moderate voters and possibly to Republican voters? And the reason I ask is because there's so much confidence that the Democrats are going to win the House, that they're going to win the Senate. And I feel like we've seen this confidence from the party before. We saw it in 2016.

We saw it in 2024. And I just wonder if despite Trump's mishandling of various situations, the Democrats are actually being overconfident. Well, I can certainly tell you I'm not being overconfident. We're going to run through the tape. It's the reason that we're asking people to support our campaign, even if it's with $5, $1, $3. You can do that at Kisha for governor.com, by the way. But we are taking our message straight to the voters.

So we're not taking anything for granted. Everybody has to stand on their own two feet when it comes to putting your name on the ballot. And just in terms of who we are as a party, you know, I mean, different things appeal to different people. We're not a monolith. I am a very moderate Democrat, unapologetically so. But whether it's an extreme on the right or an extreme on the left, you've got to listen and see what the complaints are and determine if these gripes are reasonable. And if there's something in still standing in your truth, which for me is as a moderate Democrat, you know, what is it that people are saying that they try?

truly are concerned about. What is it that they are saying they are that they want solutions to? Our, our answers and the way we get there may not be a one size fits all, but when people say there's, they are deeply concerned about the cost of living and access to housing and jobs and mental health care, et cetera, you know, you got to listen, no matter who, who's saying that. So did the Democratic Party stop listening? How is it that it sort of changed positions with the Republicans and the Republicans somehow came to represent the interests of the working class and the Democrats became associated with the elite? Well, you know, I think the one thing that I'm often reminded of, Joanna, said a broken clock is right twice a day. And what Donald Trump did very masterfully was he had a masterful, messaging campaign. He was able to break through the noise, manipulate the facts, and give out a lot of information that created a narrative that was difficult to push back against once that narrative

had set in in people's minds. That being said, I think so many people across this country realized it was just that. It was just chatter. It was just savvy marketing. It was not grounded in truth. I woke up this morning and headed straight to a union hall to talk to a room full of union representatives about making sure that people are trained for some of these great paying jobs in our state. So, you know, I think the lessons learned is that you got to make sure that your marketing is as savvy as he is and that he, that he, that he, that he, and whomever else is following him doesn't have the opportunity to define candidates across this country before we have the opportunity to define ourselves.

So tell us a bit more about Rick Jackson as a businessman. This is a man who's made his money based on a broken health care system in Georgia. In 2020, when so many people were fighting for their lives across the world, he received a no-bid contract for his health care staffing company. That contract has been extended each year. That contract was over $700 million alone. This is a guy who says he was going to unline all of his business dealings in Georgia if he were elected. And he just extended one of those contracts well into 2027.

This guy, and these are facts. This is not something I'm making up. These are facts and on the public record. One of his companies paid a settlement of $3 million because he was bringing in nurses from out of the country. When these nurses wanted to end their contracts with his staffing company, he threatened to report them to ICE and to have them deported. They accused him of human trafficking and said that they were being treated as indentured servants. In another settlement, one of the one of them. of his companies paid a settlement of $2 million because he didn't pay nurses overtime. This is a guy who

is in battle right now with one of his companies in Bowie, Texas for a data center that is being built. He owns and invest data centers. The community is saying we don't want it in our backyard. He also has a petroleum company that he invests in. And right now selling diesel fuel to India as farmers in Georgia are struggling to pay more than $6 a gallon. He also had an agreement with the hospital in Alabama because Alabama has not expanded Medicaid. This hospital was about to go under. He extended a loan to this hospital that he called Venture Philanthropy. We call it Vulture Philanthropy with a 14 to 19 percent interest rate. So this is a guy when he says he wants to be Donald Trump. In many ways, he already is Donald Trump.

So when you're defining yourself against Rick Jackson, what are the things that you want people to know about your campaign and how are you able to counter the impact on advertising in your state? Well, I've seen this great social media campaign going up right now where people are saying, let's make our own commercials. Keisha may not have all the money, but we can make our own commercials. It's that type of organic energy that really has been the fuel to our campaign. And that's been pushing out facts. So so many of his commercials, again, he is, he is a Donald Trump wannabe. When he, when Trump came to Georgia last, Rick Jackson even dressed just like him. Same shade of blue suit with a red tie. He looked like my kids on Easter when I would try and match up

their outfits so the pictures would be cute. So he very much wants to be Trump. Many of his ads are misleading. They are full of untruths. But organically, people are saying, I don't believe it. These are the facts. Let's talk about the things that she was able to accomplish as a leader. Let's talk about what she's saying she'll be able to deliver if she's elected governor. And that megaphone, in my opinion is much louder than the megaphone of a hundred million dollar ad buy. This guy's put up 87 million on television alone, the largest TV buy in the history of Georgia. And that's not to count all of the negative digital and the negative mailers. And again, we are tied in this race. So I'm reminding people, this billionaire may have the money, but the people still have the power.

and we're seeing people exercise that power. So Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate who's backed by Trump for Senate in Texas, was caught on a hot mic saying that the Trumpapalooza, the RNC midterm, as it were, actually was harmful for Republicans. If Trump turns up tomorrow, is that a good thing or a bad thing for Rick Jackson? I would love nothing more than for Donald Trump to come back to Georgia. We were probably able to cut seven commercials just from his one visit because he very truthfully, you know, gave us nuggets. This guy gave me $2 million doing his primary.

This, you know, and Rick Jackson stood beside him and said, I want to be his favorite governor. I'm going to be just like Trump. And what's interesting is he now wants to run away from all of these things. But the truth of the matter is that he wants to give Trump a stronghold in Georgia in the way that Trump has a stronghold across the country. And the front line right now, because Democrats don't control Congress, our front line of defense has come from governors across this country who have been willing to. to push back. I was with Governor Andy Bashir just last night. I, you know, we've got people that I didn't go down the whole list, but governors have been pushing back. When he refused to extend the SNAP benefits, there were governors who stood in and said our children should be

able to eat during the government shutdown. There are governors who are standing in when Trump has said, you know, I'm gutting the federal workforce. So we are reminding people that governors have a lot of power. And especially in this moment, we've got to be able to exercise that power until stability comes back to the White House. So you've been a mayor. You've worked in the White House. You've worked as an advisor for Joe Biden when you finished your first term as mayor in Atlanta. And now you're running for governor. which part of government do you think is actually the most effective? No, I always believe the closer you are to the ground, the more people feel it.

I remember the first time I met President Biden. He was then vice president. I was a member of the Atlanta City Council. And he said, that's the hardest job in government. And I said, harder than being vice president? He said, yes. I said, why is that? he said because everybody knows where you live.

But all of these offices are interconnected. So even, for example, when federal dollars come into the state, it's often the governor that helps determine which counties and which cities get that federal funding. So, you know, it's we, it's a body that needs all the limbs to work together. whether it's the Board of Education, whether it's the City Council or a county commission or the state legislature or the governor,

we all need each other in order for us to be successful. Where some see heroes and others see egos, Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion-dollar swing. the end of jobs or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype. While others follow the noise, we follow the money.

Learn more at Bloomberg.com. When you were working at the White House, did you see signs of Joe Biden failing? Never. Never once. In fact, I was looking at a picture a couple of days ago of us. We had just come back from a day-long trip to Arizona, I believe it was. It was the day of the midterm elections. And he was on the phone with Senator Warnock congratulating him on winning one of the many elections that he was on the ballot for.

And I came in and kind of photo bomb the moment, didn't realize they were filming. and the president gave me a really big hug and he looked at me and said, go home and get some rest because I was pretty wiped out after a day-long trip to Arizona and he was still going very strong. And that was always my experience with him. I never saw him in any diminished way or never had any concerns about his ability to effectively lead. Did you think he should have run for a second term? That was his decision.

to make. And, you know, he was, the people had an opportunity to say otherwise during the primary season. And the people did not. So when he was our nominee, I was very proud to support him. In the same way, I was proud to support Kamala Harris when she became our nominee. So the people had an opportunity to weigh in and the people said that they wanted Joe Biden to be the nominee. So it's very clear that Carmelah Harris is going to run again for president. Do you think that she could win? You know, I am focused, Joanna, honestly, on what's happening with my race. I've not given any thought to what's happening with or what may happen in 2028. I'm focused on the people of Georgia and how I can be elected governor and how I can help lift up our entire ballot.

We've got some closely contested races. There's a real opportunity for us to take the House. We've got to send Senator Ossoff back. And we can turn the corner on all of our constitutional offices in this state. So that's where my focus is. 2028 will come soon enough. But right now, we need to win in 2026. Okay.

Well, Senator Ossov is obviously also being talked of as someone who's going to run in the presidential race. Who among your Democratic colleagues do you think would make a good, you know, first five or first 10 candidates for president? I think anybody whose name is being mentioned will run circles around Donald Trump and any other Republican that is stood by his side in this moment and has taken this country backwards. So, you know, I'm not going to get into the guessing game. I don't know who's going to run. And I don't know what their platforms will be. But I know based on the names that I have heard, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to who could be our nominee and ultimately our president. I just want to make sure we have a strong partner in the White House who is willing to work with me, God willing, as governor of this state, to be.

able to deliver for the people of Georgia. Because again, I go back to when Donald Trump was president, the Trump 1.0, he gave leaders hell across this nation, targeting leaders, calling leaders out by name. Even this Trump 2.0, he's weaponized tragedies. He's withheld money from communities in blue states that have experienced natural disasters. I know when I see, said in the White House, it was never a conversation when there was any type of natural disaster of whether or not the person we were sending that to a red or blue state. It was always who needs help and how can we deliver? And that's sorely missing up with the president. So you mentioned earlier that health cuts in Georgia meant that 10,000 women had been prevented from getting

mammograms and getting the follow-up care. Can you just give us a rundown of where access to contraception and access to reproductive care stands in Georgia right now? Georgia has a six-week abortion ban, and it has caused women in this state to die. And I remind people that this six-week abortion ban doesn't just impact women who want to terminate a pregnancy. This impacts women who are experiencing a miscarriage or complications from a miscarriage or an abortion. I was with a doctor in Columbus, Georgia, who shared that he, and you could see the angst on his face. He said the day before, there was a woman who was experiencing a miscarriage. There was one standard of care that he would have given pre-Dob's decision and another standard

that he had given because of the Dobbs decision. In his words, he said, I had to make a decision between my livelihood and my freedom, and I chose my freedom. Now, for any person who, any woman who's experienced the miscarriage or been in the presence of a woman who's experienced that, it's not just the physical pain of it all, it's also the emotional tool, and then the dangers that come along with a pregnancy that is not viable. So this is what's on the ballot in Georgia. And it is an opportunity for us to turn the corner in the state to reverse that six-week abortion ban

and take us back to those standards of Role that were the law of the land for just about my entire life. And giving women the opportunity to have autonomy over their own body, the ability to make decisions with their doctor and not with the government and politicians in the Supreme Court in the room with them. Does this crop up as a subject that voters are concerned about, or is it mainly they're leading the conversation with affordability, gas prices, grocery prices, lack of housing? I can tell you right now, it's the affordability issue is the number one topic.

And it's not that this is not an important topic. It's an extremely important topic when you're talking about reproductive freedom. But there are so many things that people are dealing with on a daily basis, not being able to afford groceries, not being able to afford health care because we've not expanded Medicaid in this state, not being able to put gas in their car. These are issues that people are dealing with daily. So people are deeply concerned about reproductive issues. It's just that the cost of living seems to be overshadowing everything. And one thing we didn't talk about was health care in Georgia. Georgia is one of 10 states that's not expanded Medicaid.

So we had 300,000 people who didn't have health care coverage because we'd not expanded Medicaid. January, after the big, ugly bill, 600,000 people since then have dropped their health care because they can't afford it, because the subsidies were not extended. So these are the things that people are feeling the pinch on every single day. 600,000 people without health care in Georgia. In a state that is the number one state to do business, that we have nearly a million people who could have health care. have health care who don't. And we've also not talked about education. We have not properly funded education in this state in decades. So what I've said repeatedly, if we can be the number one state in the country for doing business, then we certainly can be number one in health care and

education. Well, Mayor Lance Bottoms, good luck with your run. I'm fascinated by the groundswell of people saying, well, we're going to make ads for you because you don't have access to, you know, a billionaire's pocketbook like your opponent, Rick Jackson. Thank you very much for your time. We'll look forward to the results of your race. Thank you. Well, as you can see, it's a very tight race. Will she pull it off?

Will people remember that amazing speech that she made during the riots in Atlanta when And she reminded Georgians that this was not the way to honor Martin Luther King, their fellow Georgian, but to go home and to vote in the upcoming elections. Well, we'll be monitoring this space and we'll be back to you with those results. Until then, if you have been, thank you for joining us. And I'll be back tomorrow with David Rothkoff. In the meantime, a big thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passeur, Heather Pissarro and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many Bee Beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out, and we really appreciate your support.

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