The Daily Beast Podcast - Trump Just F*cked Himself and His Party in Georgia

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Things were already sub-ideal for the president and his Republican party in the Peach State. The GOP’s incumbent senators, who in any normal year would be locks for re-election, both have a habit of shady stock trades. The early vote has been huge, and breaking Democrats’ way. Then came the instantly-infamous call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger—the one where the president asked to dig 11,000 votes or so out of the trash pile. For Trump, the news may get worse. One end of the call took place in Fulton County, Georgia, where Fani Willis was just elected district attorney. “She prosecutes without fear or favor. And her folks are looking at that call closely,” Daily Beast editor-at-large and Georgia political veteran Goldie Taylor explains on The New Abnormal’s first show of 2021. “Donald Trump—and anybody else in that room, helping him—could very well face charges here in Georgia, in Fulton County. Charges that they cannot make go away.”  I didn’t have to be like this, of course. “If Donald Trump had just shut his mouth, he probably would have sailed to reelection. If he just shut up and handled COVID right. Georgia, he would have sailed in. This primary here in Georgia, he wouldn't have a problem,” Taylor tells Molly Jong-Fast. But this president can’t help himself. He attacked the Republican establishment for not bowing to his election fraud conspiracies. And this was a party that for decades was a “juggernaut… they have had control of the state lock stock and barrel because they were just more highly organized,” Taylor says. Now, they’re anything but. “The President of the United States can't stop attempting, consciously or unconsciously, to screw this election up for this party. And he’s just, in new and different ways, tried to throw obstacles in and [Sen. David] Purdue and [Sen. Kelly] Loeffler’s way,” says Sam Brodey, The Beast reporter who broke many of the biggest stories about their pair’s financial shenanigans.  Trump keeps railing about how Georgia’s November election was totally rigged—and it sure seems to be having an effect in the January election, where many die-hard Trumpists say they’re not sure they trust the system enough to vote.  Loeffler and Perdue may still win, of course; they’ve got history on their side. But “there is this Republican civil war that is playing out in Georgia and the candidates are having to fight against that,” Brpdey continues. “This has an impact. A huge segment of voters in this state hang on every word that the president says. And like after a certain point, he's saying this every day, so it will have an impact and we'll find out what it is.” Because today is election day in Georgia. Want more? Become a Beast Inside member to enjoy a limited-run series of bonus interviews from The New Abnormal. Guests include Cory Booker, Jim Acosta, and more. Head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com to join now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi folks, it's Rick Wilson, and welcome to The Daily Beast's The New Abnormal. Hi, I'm Molly Jongfast, a left-wing pundit and editor-at-large at the Daily Beast. I'm also an editor at The Daily Beast, a former Republican political strategist, best-selling author, and full-time troublemaker. We're here to have fun, sharp conversations with some of the smartest people in media, politics, business, and science that help make what's happening in the country and the world clearer. I'll try to keep Rick to the minimum number of F-bombs and try to keep our... kids, pets, and other wildlife sounds from invading our respective bunkers.

So, mowing drunk fast, how was your winter holiday? It feels like we've been not taping for a long time. I know. It's only been like 10 days, though. Has it been? I think it's been like two weeks. Jesse, can you tell us? What was the last time we taped? It feels like 200 years after. Yeah, a lot of news. So what did you do this vacation, Rick? You know, the usual stuff. Fucked with the president. caused trouble. It adds.

Is Lincoln Project bothering the president? Lincoln Project has bothered the president for a long time, and apparently, even without a national election, we're able to bother the president because he has now cast Mike Pence into the outer darkness and forced Mike Pence to basically dance like a trained monkey over an ad we ran, saying that on January 6th that Mike Pence will be presiding over the Senate when they cast the final vote that will end. that will end the fantasy of Donald Trump's second term in office. Mike Pence is, he was sued at Trump's encouragement. By the dumbest member of Congress. By the dumbest member of Congress, Louis Gohmert. Although, Molly, are we going to have to go and have a look at these new members of Congress? Because Louis Gohmert has a, there's some competition.

Oh, we will. We will. There's the, there's Marjorie, Taylor, Green. The Q and on Congress. The Karen with the key. Yeah, Q&ONONN. caucus. And then there's Laura Bobert,

who has the loves the guns. It's a pretty amazing group. But you know, then you also have the newly emboldened Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes, who are both winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You know, when you look back at the

prior winners the Presidential Medal of Freedom, how do it take us this long to get to Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes? I mean, you know, these losers who receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom like, you know, Rosa Parr, and Muhammad Ali and I don't know, call me crazy, Martin Luther King. Tim Jordan is the Muhammad Ali of, you know, not wearing a jacket. And of course, you know, Donald Trump is like everything else he encounters, turns it into a giant steaming pile of waste.

Because, you know, we've had Rush Limbaugh, and now Jim Jordan and Devin Nunez, there's something about this particular trio that's like particularly abhorrent in this moment we're in right now. He is rewarding these two MOOCs for engaging in their successful pushback and cover-up of his Ukraine shenanigans and the firing of Comey. And like everything else, it diminishes the office. It diminishes the award itself. These guys, though, they will always have an asterisk next to their name. They will always be like baseball players who are juicing because, you know, nothing Trump does fails to diminish. and fails to demean it. Republicans can always come back, right?

American life is filled with second acts, but it does seem like these two are really painting themselves in a corner. Yeah, and to be honest, I want to see Jim Jordan or Devin Nunez wearing their presidential medal of freedom, like drunk at a Christmas party, because you know it's going to happen. Rick Wilson, what do you think about these tapes, or the president tries to bully Georgia's Secretary of State into changing the votes. Can you process just how few fucks they had to give by the end of that discussion?

But you notice he was like repeating himself over and over again. Yeah. You know, it's like rain man shit. Like on Tuesdays, we have egg custard. I liked it when he was like just straight Qan on OAN talking points. Right. Are they taking the park out of the? the machine replacing them with human organs.

That's right. And children. If you were doing it, wouldn't you've been tempted to be like, you're right, Mr. President. The lizard people are here. They've taken over. And as soon as you reveal that the earth is truly flat, they'll release the ballots they've taken from us.

We're so sorry. The thing I hate about the whole thing is it makes me feel a little bit bad for Brad, Rathenberger, who sucks so much and who has spent all this time trying to arrest people for bringing other people water online to vote and is, I think it's important that we take a moment to really just marinate. These are the shittiest Republicans, and even they will not go along with it. You know, this is a scale question. And I see this a lot with progressives. Like, well, Mitt Romney said something today about Trump that was critical, but why didn't it? It's like, take your fucking alliance when you get it, you know? If you get a win,

with somebody you don't have to love, take the win. I'll take the win, but just because you won't do something that's patently illegal? Yeah, that's going to end you up in jail. I'm not sure that you get a ticker tape parade for that. No, I'm not saying give them a ticker tape parade. All I'm saying is it is a indicator of how deeply fucked up the Republican Party is that these hardcore Republicans, I'm not saying they're conservatives. These hardcore Republicans are in a position where they can. can't make the easiest decision possible and nod and wink and say, yes, Mr. President.

Right. Well, they can't steal the election for Trump. And also the other question is, so even if Brad had been like, yeah, here's 12,000 votes, you win Georgia, he still wouldn't have won Pennsylvania or, I mean. And as a smart election lawyer said to me, after hearing the tape last night, he said, he said, Rick, he says, let's just hypothesize for a moment that Rappensberger said, okay, here's 12,000 votes. you then open up a massive number of causes of action for all these other people to come back in. This is not a straight line for Trump. And the fact that Trump sued them after, that they filed a lawsuit after, it means nothing.

Trump files lawsuits like other people take a shit, okay? Occasionally during the day you get an urge and you do it. Donald Trump files lawsuits for no reason. They've lost 60 of them so far. God bless Marcus, fine American. And they're going to lose this one too if they, you know, if it ever gets for, than the amusing press release on Fox phase. I also think that, you know, the voting machine companies have sued Trump and his allies before, right?

I wonder if Dominion can sue Trump. Guess what? In 20 days, he does not have any kind of immunity anymore. It's true. Bye-bye. So I think what people are wondering, though, is like, does this embarrass the Hollies and all these people were going to stand up for this. Sane people can't understand why. Please explain. The die is cast. They are going to absolutely continue this performative bullshit on the sixth. They are not embarrassed. You cannot shame them.

You cannot embarrass them. The ones that have pulled back already, you know, we're already the nervous sisters. I heard over the weekend that Ted Cruz was livid that he wasn't first with the most on this. Ted Cruz, who you remember, said he would argue Trump's Supreme Court case. Right. And he was, he was angry that he wasn't being perceived as the guy because he sees Holly as one of the 2024 primary challengers. Those two are in a race for the bottom.

Yes. And when they both hit the bottom, I hope there's a large, greasy stain. Because, you know, and, you know, Holly. is a different character than Cruz. He's a different kind of, he doesn't look like fat Wolverine. He looks very traditional. Ted Cruz really has been eating his feelings, I hope to say. And his feelings are mostly shame, I'm sure.

I feel bad for Heidi. Do you, though? Yes, I do. She doesn't even get a second house. Poor Heidi. Poor Heidi. Poor Heidi. God bless.

What a loser. What a loser, Ted Cruz. That's the other thing that's going to be fantastic about this. When it doesn't work, they won't get credit from Trump. Right, no, right, exactly. But we've seen that, yeah. You know, with Kent, the man has no loyalty. No, not at all.

And again, when Don Jr., once Trump milks the grift to the point where the last Social Security check has been cashed to pay for his MAGA 2024 race, and he decides he doesn't want to do it. And he says, Don Jr., it is not time for you to take the mantle of leadership of the Maga movement. Every one of these guys that right now is burning their reputation to the ground is going to get the shit tweet, well, Ted Cruz didn't help me when I needed it. Marco didn't help me when I needed it. Josh Hawley was weak. He couldn't get the job done. Only Don Jr. can get the job done for America.

Maga, 2024. I have to tell you, I think Trump does not go quietly to Don Jr. If Trump is at all capable, you know, he'll run from a hospital bed. Like, I don't think, I think it would take a lot for him to turn it over to junior. Well, I think, though, he will see that as a perfect way to maximize the eternity of the grift. Okay. Right. Donald Trump is not running for president.

He's running to pay his debts. And that was the same story that applied in 2016. He ran to pay his debts. He ran to ensure. sure that a dying brand could get an infusion of new life. They didn't think they were going to win. They didn't think it was going to happen. All they thought was, this will be a fun prank, and off we go to the races. And nothing has changed, except his debt is more extreme, and his problems are deeper, and the river is running, the river of time is running more swiftly under his

fat feet. So, I don't know that feet can be fat. Yes, they can be fat. Feet can be fat. I had a very eventful internet weekend this weekend, Derek Wilson. I saw that. Did you see what I told her after she went after she stepped in? No. So folks, you may not have seen this, but Jenna Ellis, the president's traffic lawyer, and by which I mean a senior member of the elite strike force. Traffic. Traffic lawyer.

All right, traffic force. Speeding ticket. Call Jenna Ellis at 1-800. Law. Anyway, so continue. When she went at you and said, what are you twice my age and write? And you're only an editor. And I'm thinking, first off, Jenna, if Molly was twice your age, she still looks twice as good as you.

Well, I don't know. Second off, and as I tweeted, I'm like, oh, bless your heart, sugar. Being a Carney in the Trump circus is not a career. I have to say, you know, people were checking in with me and were like, are you okay? And I was like, of course I'm okay. Being attacked by someone like that is not. You know, I get upset when someone's smart is like, oh, your piece is bad or your headline is bad. You know, that makes me feel worried because I think, oh, maybe I did, you know, sort of made a mistake.

But with someone like this, it's like who, you know, whatever, the dumbest. It's like when someone calls me, goes, did you see what Tucker said about you? I'm like, no. I mean, the only thing with Tucker is that. Tucker is like you do get death threats. Was it Tucker Carlson? Oh, for sure. Yeah.

In fact, can I read one aloud from this morning? Oh, yes. I want to read out. We'll do a dramatic death threat reading. Yeah. I got several from this guy. Hey, big mouth, cunt boy, Rick. On TV and social media, you talk tough motherfucker.

And I'm wondering if your pussy ass is strong enough to come into the public square and stand on your principles, spelled P-A-L-L-S. You can hold hands with Mitch, Mitt, Tom, Jebby, and Shoebby, and Shep. show America, just how wrong we are in believing the video evidence, postal service evidence, IT evidence, and sworn statements of witness statements. Come on, motherfucker. Educate us stupid bastards. You are laughing.

The water is about to boil, bitch. By the way, this person does not know how to use commas also. It's kind of like a haiku. Stay safe. You know, I also don't think he wants you to stay safe. Yeah, you know, I don't think he does. But I like that he thinks you and Mitch are on the same team. Right?

I love that. His earlier letter was, a majority of Americans know this election is not correct. Democracy is now over. I suggest you keep your pussy ass on alert because many, many, many people do not like you and tell fat bitch boy, Christy to shut the fuck up. He's not going to be anything with the GOP. You see Trump expanded the GOP with young people and non-white people. It's not a racist party any longer.

The people of the GOP are not into the LP. Romney Kasich, what a bitch, Christy Haley, and especially the Bush crime family. Stay safe, cunt boy, Rick. The people really don't like you. Oh, that's not a good one. But I like the first one, because it does have this very nice haiku-like quality to it. Running water, votes, voting machines.

The game show we really need for these people is to guess what obscure weird crime they've committed in the past. It's always like rape of a raccoon or something. So anyway, Jenna Ellis and I had a Twitter fight in the end. She said that I was twice her age. She is 37, so that would make me 74 years old. You're looking fine. I know.

I look amazing for 74. Whatever. I mean, no harm, no foul. Listen, a lot of this stuff is from the sinking realization that many of them have suddenly encountered, that there are only so many positions for contributors at Fox left. And Jenna Ellis, Fox, senior legal analyst who does not currently practice law, you know, the lawing part of law, she is not apparently licensed by the bar, which decides where the lawyers can law in any

states where there are any of these competitions. That is amazing. So what do you guys think about how Trump is now undermining the arguments for keeping the electoral college? And considering Republicans haven't won without that in 30. two years. They kind of need that if they ever want to win the presidency again. Do you think he's making a good argument for abolishing it with all this stuff? And what does that mean for the Republicans? Here's the thing. Republicans love the electoral college because it's the rules.

Well, also, it's the only way they win. It's also was, it wasn't built because it was the only way they win. It was built to the Constitution. For a long time, the Democrats had the advantage in the electoral college. Right. But now it's the only way they win. What happens, though, in seven or eight years when Texas turns blue, Republicans will suddenly find religion on the electoral college. Wait a minute. We've got to find a new method. It's called the Fox College, where Sean Hannity's 12 electoral votes have gone to.

Right, exactly. Donald Trump's going to become the viceroy of Greenland with its nine electoral college votes. It seems like Trump is going to go but Trumpism is not. Well, that is the cancer that will have emerged from this exposure to this particular form of radiation. The Trumpism problem is a cultural problem. It is a media problem.

It is an entertainment problem. It is a political problem only insofar as it completely dominates the thinking of one of the two political parties. But if you look at like the Senate, so say you have Ted Cruz and, Josh Holly going full Trumpy and just like, fuck it, let's go. You know, Trump 20,000. Oh, my bear! Right. And then you have, you know, Ben Sass on Facebook saying.

Oh, on Facebook. Right. But he's sort of the Mitt Romney of the Youngs, right? And then you have Tom Cotton, who after the tape came out was like, I can't support this. But let's not forget, a few weeks ago, Tom Cotton was talking about putting troops in the streets to face off against Antifa and B.L. Right. Right. And then you have, let's not give Tom Cotton too much credit here. No, I mean, I would like to give none of them any credit. And then you have Marco Rubio who's like tweeting Bible verses. I don't see an heir apparent to the Republican Party

here except maybe Ivanka? Well, that's Senator Ivanka Trump to you. She was moving to Florida and she is now having active discussions with people in Florida from what we're hearing. Is that true? Yeah, it's true. I'm not bullshitting you. She's going to run against Marco? She's going to run against Marco in a primary. And I will say this right now. If Ivanka Trump is going to run a primary against Marco Rubio, the Lincoln Project endorses Ivanka Trump.

Because, I mean, no, look, I'm kidding about that. But if she runs against Marco in a primary, Marco could lose. He will lose. He will lose. Because what do we know about Trumpism? Trumpism is not ideological. It is not a legislative program.

I mean, Marco, I talked to somebody who's very close to him the other day who said, yes, Marco will run on the Paycheck Protection Act that he passed. I'm like, get the fuck out of here. Wait, what paycheck? Ivanka Trump will run on, I'm Daddy's little girl. And I sit in Daddy's lap and Daddy loves me. Sam Brody is the congressional reporter for The Daily Beast, and he's going to talk to us about the all-important Georgia Senate races as they come to a close.

Okay, so what the fuck is going on down there? Oh, boy. Evergreen question. You know, it's the kind of professionalism I'm known for, those kinds of questions. It's funny because you could have asked this question like six weeks ago, and there would have been an entirely different crazy thing that you would have been referring to. The president of the United States can't stop attempting or consciously or unconsciously to screw this election up for this party and has just like in new and different ways tried to throw obstacles in and Purdue and Leffler's way.

So, you know, yesterday we had the story of Trump on the phone with the Georgia Secretary of State, you know, begging him to come up with 11,000 votes for him. Kelly Leffler has asked about that today and doesn't really have an answer. She is creating. Well, she says she did hear it. She did say she heard it. So that's, that's, I know, I know. She got this one and not not that.

Hollywood tape. Because she is sort of masterful at not answering things. Yeah, yeah. She is. You know, but this is the thing. I mean, like for somebody with like, I think not a whole lot of inherent political talent or skill, she's had every day it's like you have to navigate between like Donald Trump and his base of supporters and like some universe of people outside of that that you have

to win this election. And she really can't totally torch either of them. Yeah. And this is the problem for her. and for Purdue, Trump is constantly creating these situations for them where they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's really remarkable. Yeah, that's very sad. My heart breaks for them. Why is she so bad at this? She's super interesting. I mean, she's like in the sense that like she is not like, you know,

all the other candidates in this race have had some kind of like experience, right? Like they were out front like Raphael Warnock was a pastor. at Ebenezer Baptist forever has been out in front of people. Assoff ran in the most crazy special election of the Trump era other than this. Purdue has been around. So, like, Lechler comes in and is like a totally unknown quantity, had been totally behind the scenes, was like a Romney Republican, basically. And, you know, and it lobbied for this job, obviously.

Like, she wanted this. You look at politicians like this sometimes, and it's like, what? What are you looking for here? What do you want? And it's clearly not, she doesn't relish the, like, back-slapping retail, like I'm going to get on the stump and tell a bunch of jokes kind of thing. Foksy, Southern politician. She doesn't have that.

So she's totally new at this. And I think that that shows in this race. Yeah, it is kind of amazing. So you have uncovered a lot of unscrupulous dealings for both Loughlin and Purdue. Loughler clearly is corrupt as shit. But I'm impressed that Purdue is also incredibly corrupt. Well, what people forget about David Purdue is that, like, Like, Luffler is insanely rich and is the richest member of the Senate by like orders of magnitude.

Yes. Well, that's how she got that. David Purdue was, you know, this guy was the CEO of like Dollar General. Right. And Reebok and, you know, is one of these dudes who like thinks of himself as like, I'm a businessman. I understand this stuff. And so I don't know. I don't know if it's, it's super surprising.

I've heard from Hill Aids, you know, after doing these stories who are like, oh, like my boss is like this. They like, you know, they're like they're obsessed with stocks. And I think, I don't know, maybe maybe there's some of that with him. But like, it's funny because the Purdue family also like is is something to consider here in Georgia. Sonny Purdue, who is Purdue's cousin and is the, they're the chicken people, right? They are not. They are not the chicken people. Common misconception.

Oh, yes. Please help me. Also not to be confused with the lizard people. Different, different produce. But his cousin, who's Trump's Secretary of Agriculture and is a former governor of Georgia, I had one Georgia Republican telling me, like, these are some of the most, like, greedy, greedy dudes, like, in the state of Georgia. Nice. You know, and that's their rep.

Sonny had apparently made, like, quite a bit of money while he was governor of Georgia just on, like, side stuff. Yeah, side stuff, never a great side. Yeah. So even to some Republicans here, I think it's, like, It's not shocking stuff necessarily. Loughler's sort of most famous corruption moment is when she's briefed on the pandemic and then she goes out and buy Zoom stock. Yeah. And also, you know, I mean like offloaded like a bunch of a bunch of stock.

Right. Which is technically not illegal, but not great. Right. I mean, this is, it's hard because, you know, there was legislation passed eight years ago that bars, members of Congress from, you know, using it. that they glean in their, you know, official duties to inform their investment decisions. But it's like really, it's really hard to prosecute under that because if you're a senator, you can go like, well, like, this wasn't classified or I have so many streams of information. I mean, they have entire staffs that basically just prepared stuff for them to look at, you know,

so they're like super, you know, if you want to think of it that way. I mean, these are incredibly informed people. So for legal purposes, it's almost impossible to prosecute or draw the line. there's so much plausible deniability. But yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, most famous thing. But I think some of the stuff that also merits attention is the fact that, you know, she retains a significant stake in the company that her husband founded and that she was formerly an

executive at. I mean, she has almost nine million dollars worth of stock in this company still. And, you know, there's been moments where her actions as a senator have intersected with that company's interests and creates these scenarios where it certainly looks like Leffler taking action or doing things with her office that do have an impact on this company Intercontinental Exchange. So that's kind of been an interesting track, too. You don't say. Can you just give one example of that? So earlier in the pandemic, there was a group of senators, Democrats, who wanted to suspend, you know,

negative credit reporting, basically like, you know, if you lose your job or whatever because of COVID, you know, your credit score can't get dinged because you miss a. car payment or whatever. Obviously, a lot of Republicans were not so happy about this push. Now, we didn't know Leffler was involved in this push at the time, and this didn't become law or anything. But later, we got a hold of a letter in which Leffler basically writes to all the federal financial regulators and say, you know, please don't do this thing. You know, please don't suspend negative credit reporting. Then, you know, two months later, her husband's company goes out and buys one of the biggest processors of mortgage data, which is used to calculate credit scores.

And this whole sector of the economy hated the push from Democrats to suspend negative credit reporting. So yeah, it's a pretty smelly situation here where you've got this push that she actually didn't publicize that had a clear impact on a business acquisition, her husband's company considered. And she has a vested financial interest in that. You wrote a piece, then no seems to like them, and yet they may win. What's going on? What's going on is that, like, the Republicans are betting that voters hate that Democrats more than they like David Purdue and Kelly Leffler. And I think that strategy has been abundantly clear throughout this campaign. I mean, the negative ads on Rafael Warnock and John Ossoff, especially Warnock, I mean, are just scorching.

I was at a campaign stop. On Saturday where Kelly Leffler said that Wernock was like a child and domestic abuser. I mean, like really, really vicious stuff. Yeah. So vicious stuff. And like this is, you know, I've talked to dozens of voters and you ask them like why they're voting Republican and they say, I don't want the Democrats in there. I don't like this war knock. I don't like John Ossoff. I got a couple who are like, well, I think, I think they are all right. And, you know, there's voters who don't like Kelly Leffler and are voting for her anyway because they hate the Democrats that much. I mean, this is really like so many elections in this era have been like own the libs election. You know, this isn't on the

libs election, like, you know, to the extreme. So you really did find someone who liked Kelly Leffler. Yeah, I did. I think they actually, like, knew her maybe. So, so, yeah. So have you seen, though, if a voter's confronted, like, I can't think of many things more egregious than

what these two have done with these stocks that politicians do. When voters are confronted this, do they have any justification for it? Yeah, they It's a revealing one. Because I wanted to ask voters about this stuff last week. Because the stock stuff is really broken through. I mean, I had Republican voters bring it up to me like unprompted. Like I didn't ask about it. They don't like it. And again, it gets to the earlier point of they hate the Democrats more than they care about the stock dealing stuff. But, you know, when I followed up with them as to like why they would vote for them anyway or, you know, all that, they'd be. just assume that everybody is doing this. They believe that that Washington, both parties, is so corrupt that, you know, these folks happen to get caught for doing it, but their operating assumption is that this is just the way it's done. It's just what happens. And like, you know,

it's, it's reflective of the cynicism of this moment and the just degree to which these folks don't trust the system and it gave rise to Trump and all that stuff in the first place. But they just assume that that everybody does it. So you got to vote elsewhere in terms of what issues you're looking at. So, Sam, we're seeing unprecedented African-American turnout. Our listeners are going to be very, very nervous listening to this tomorrow. What do you think is going to happen? Look, Democrats are really encouraged by these early voting numbers. They've, I think, outperformed the expectations for the runoff, which is, you know, historically slanted against Democrats in terms of who shows up for it. They're outperforming the November vote in key demographics. You know,

over 100,000 people have already voted in the runoff election that didn't vote in the November election, and that group skews largely younger and, you know, people of color. These are all good signs for Democrats. You know, I've had Republicans privately, you know, concede to me in Georgia that they think that Purdue and Lefleur are not favored right now. So, but all the that is to say that there could be a huge turnout on Tuesday in person on election A from Republicans that carries them over the top. So at this point, it is just a question of how many people show up on Tuesday. If it is a ton, then that is good news for the Republicans. But that operates under the assumption that all these folks are going to vote in person on election A because of

distrust over the process. But I mean, a lot of them still voted early. I go to these events and someone will always ask, you know, raise your hand if you voted early. And it's still a lot of people. And these are the most, like, kind of hardcore engaged voters. So I wish I knew where it's going to go. But I think it remains the case that Democrats built up an advantage that a lot of people didn't think they would. And that puts them in a decent spot. Do you think there's a scenario where Warnock wins and Asoff doesn't? I think there is. And that's like an interesting, like, question people here at Chudan, you know, the last two months. I think it's possible, but that would, I don't see there being a difference

between the two of them. I mean, there will be a difference. One will get more votes than the other. I think the question is, is that a difference of 2000? Is it a difference of 10,000 or 20,000? We don't know. And this matters if this election is really, really close. You know, if it's as close as the race between Trump and Biden was in Georgia, then yeah, you know, if Wernock, and I think the senses is that Warnock might have the edge, because Leffler is a worst candidate, is it has less of a name brand and Warnock kind of has this compelling story. If the race is that tight and Warnock gets marginally more votes than Osaf that could that could carry him. I think it's really unlikely, but it's it is possible.

Have you seen on the ground like a change in the way Republicans are dealing with it or now? Not really. I think it's sort of like, you know, nah, nah, like please, this isn't happening. Right. You know, it's tough for them in the sense that it again, it creates another. opportunity for them to look bad in the eyes of Trump's base. So they just have to avoid it. I think at this point, I would be surprised if, you know, any voters were like, Purdue and Leffler aren't stepping up, like, we got to not vote for them. But I think there are some people who at this point might have come to that conclusion. You know, neither of them were on that Cruz, Hawley, overthrow the election letter. They've been a little cage-year about where they stand on that.

Leffler has said everything is on the table. Should be noted that this is how to be. happening on Wednesday the day after the election. So they kind of say whatever they want about this and sort of not really have to pay the price for it. So yeah, I really don't know, but it's, I mean, this has been a steady drip almost like every day. There is this Republican civil war that is playing out in Georgia and the candidates are having to fight against that. And at a certain point, I think, and I think there are Republicans who believe this too, that it has an impact, you know? It's not just noise. This has an impact.

A huge segment of voters in the state hang on every word that the president says. And like after a certain point, he's saying this every day. So it will have an impact and we'll find out what it is. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much.

This is fun. Before we get into things, we have a fun little treat. There are so many insane things happening in the world right now and two episodes a week just aren't enough to cover it all. So the new abnormal is going to release a limited run series of bonus interviews over the next few weeks for Beast Inside members only.

We'll release a new one each Sunday. But listen carefully. Only Beast Inside members will have access to these. So head over to the new abnormal. Dot the Daily Beast.com to become a Beast inside member now. That's New Abnormal. Dot the Daily Beast.com. Goldie Taylor is an editor at large for The Daily Beast,

and most of all, a Georgia political whiz who's going to talk to us about all the fuckery happening in Georgia right now. You are our lady in Atlanta. Somewhat. I have lived in Atlanta now since 1985, so that makes it 35 years. But who's counting? A lot of exciting things happening in your state. A lot. It's quite a special year. And so let me tell you that I have worked on so many campaigns in Georgia that I don't have enough hands, feet, you know, toes. Putting mine in my granddaughters to count them. My very first campaign was in 1990.

when now former UN ambassador Andrew Young ran for governor, then also worked on a campaign in 93 for mayor, a guy who is now head of the United Negro College Fund, Michael Lomax, ran for Atlanta mayor that year and was beaten by, it was the worst race I was ever involved in because we got trounced, who was beaten by who became Mayor Bill Campbell. And so those are one of my first races, but I have in the time since managed a good number of statewide races,

municipal races. If you ran for dog catcher, you probably call to ask about it. Is that a hard? I feel like that's not such an easy. We make light of dog catcher, but... Dog catcher is a hard race to win because it's at the end of the ballot and nobody flips to the last page. And so, yeah, so this year is special because we're basically having a special, special, special. But first, talk to me about.

your secretary of state, Brad Rasberger. Rasberger? Rastberger. Rastberger. He is definitely a conservative's conservative, right? Right. So when you apply the litmus test

to a Brad Rastberger, you come down with, he is a dyed in the wall, no red conservative Republican. And he tows the party line when there is, you know, a party line. He is apt to tow it. He was a part of, you know,

the machinery that took a look at who was registered in Georgia. and decided there were just too many people registered in this state. Right. But he's often because I believe he's an engineer by train that when the consent decrees and all that stuff came down that said, here's how you must run elections in this state. And thank God Stacey Abrams got involved, right? He put some safeguards.

So for instance, if I got a application for an absentee ballot mail to my home and heaven knows they were mailed from all kinds of organizations, and I could take that and mail it back to the Secretary of State's office, they checked. They would check my signature on that application against my driver's license or other state document that the state might have, you know, with my name on it, right? Before they issued the ballot. And if it didn't match, they contact me and say, hey, Goldie Taylor, we need you to verify this signature. Send us something with your signature. You don't have a driver's license. You know, like a driver's license. So there's a double, multi-layered matching going on. That happened because of Brad, right? And because that happened,

a very small, small minority of absentee ballots were spoiled this year because they did it right. So on the one hand, I don't like Brad's politics. I don't like his role in voter suppression efforts in times of yours. But what I do like is the man will nail down to the letter of the law, and he's not going to get pushed around with my like Donald Trump. But he did have a thing where you couldn't bring water to people waiting online to vote, right? Yeah, that you couldn't politic, right? Right.

People who are standing in the lines, but that's kind of really always been. If people are standing in line, getting ready to vote, you really can't, you really never could approach people for really any reason. Okay, so Brad is not so bad. No, no. He's not so bad, you know, really on that front of things. He's a highly technical guy in terms of, you know, reading things down to the letter. Now, will he make sure that the letter, letter,

you know, sways toward, you know, the more conservative position? Probably, yeah. Yeah. But he still wouldn't let Trump steal Georgia. He's the guy you want on the end of the phone when Trump starts to call you 18 times. He's the guy because he's not going to move, right?

He's not the guy whose morals blow with the wind, whatever they are. You know, his values may not be yours or mine, but they don't swift around, you know, according to what popular opinion happens to be saying today. And so, I'm not a huge, fan of Georgia's Republicans in this day and age. I have lots of friends who consider us in the state.

They just don't happen to be in leadership right now. But what I will say is I have a significant level of respect for the way this governor and this secretary of state, and particularly this lieutenant governor, Duncan, has stood up and said, hell to the no. We did it right. Right. Sure, the election didn't turn out our way. You know, sure, we lost the state. And Stacey Avers did one hell of a job, you know, registering people, and those people turned out to vote. God love them, you know. Yeah. But that's the way the election turned out bug off. So I'm actually, you know, so on that front, I got to stand with them and say, you know,

if you love Georgia, love the state, then you're going to defend it. And they're out there to defend it. Talk to me about recording the phone call. That's a pretty ballsy move. It is, but I think it was the only move that the Secretary of State had left. Yeah. I think he'd been threatened. His wife had been threatened with all kinds of vile things that, you know, you and I get those kinds of threats every day.

That's right. It only happened to a Republican for once. It happened to a Republican from another Republican. And I guess that's a little shell shocking, you know, for their, so he got, there was lots of threats. And this president and this White House, they have been the brickbats. grown at this gold dome in Georgia have been many and frequent. And I think that it was about time that the Secretary of State did something to defend himself, to defend the process, and defend the vote here in the state. And so I'm glad he did it. It was gutsy. It also sets him up to be

primaryed for re-election. He probably won't win again because of it. He probably sacrificed his political life for it. Wow. What do you think happens now? I know there's a press conference going on right now? Donald Trump has a problem, a brand new problem that he didn't have, you know, two days ago. Right. So he already had, you know, the good fix of the state of New York, Attorney General, has a problem two days ago, that even if he were to pardon himself and that somehow sticks or Pence pardon, you know, all these federal, you know, shenanigans, let's just say they all

go away with a pardon. And, you know, 99, 99, 9% to all of those things. going to go away. Right. He made a brand new problem in Georgia because, number one, you know, Brad and took that call along with the Secretary of State's chief legal counsel. They took it in Fulton County. Fulton County has a brand new prosecutor. I live in Fulton County. Her name is Fannie Willis. It's black woman. Yeah, she seems great. Fannie Willis has promised, and she was just won her first election against the prosecutor who had been in office since 1993. It was amazing rates. She prosecutes without fear or favor. When I tell you that her folks are looking at that call

closely, that Donald Trump could very well, and anybody else in that room helping him, could very well face charges here in Georgia in Fulton County, charges that they cannot make go away because number one, you know, federal pardon doesn't work down here. And number two, we don't have a gubernatorial clemency policy down here. We have a pardons and parole board, and they rarely vote in favor of clemency or pardons, for outright pardon for somebody, rarely. And so I expect that Fannie Willis, she answers to the voters in Fulton County who overwhelmingly dislike Donald Trump. He's called us all liars and cheaters and said,

stole the election in Georgia and that he won by 400,000 votes. But for these good black folks in Fulton County, I expect Fannie Willis to move forward. He's got a brand new problem. Oh, wow. Talk to me about what you think is going to happen. The entire Senate hangs on these two races.

They do. And, you know, I was talking to one of my colleagues last night from the other side of the aisle. He and I, it's actually a guy that we hated each other for 20 years and we're friends again. How the universe works. We were talking about these races last night. And he and I both agreed that

any other year, if Donald Trump had just shut his mouth, number one, he probably would have sailed to re-election if he just shut up and handled COVID, right? Convierre, your passion in a business with Shopify, and bathe records of ventas with the form of pay with a better conversion of the world. Has you heard it? The incredible system of Pago of Shopify facilitates in your site web, in the networks, and in whatever That's music for your ears.

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of a month on Shopify. orgs. But here in Georgia, he would have sailed in one this primary here in Georgia.

We just wouldn't have the problem but for this president running his mouth. But because he has, in a way that he has

and attacked the institutions and the populations that he has, he's created two brand new problems.

one, he has completely fractured the state GOP. So the party that was the, that has run a jargonaut of elections over the last, you know, since maybe around 98 when they ran, you know, the last Democratic governor was elected, they have been had control of the state, lock, stock, and bear it because frankly, they were just more highly organized. Well, Donald Trump has blown that up overnight. And so you can't get, you know, Governor Kemp and, Loughler on the phone together and he appointed her because frankly she's been a part of the parade

of beating up on the governor, right? And so you've got the state party in disarray. But you also have now angered a Democratic electorate that typically doesn't show up number one in a special election, let alone a special election runoff. Right. And so we weren't expecting the kind of turnout that we are now seeing over two and a half million Georgians have already voted early, and election day is tomorrow for a special election runoff that is unheard of. And so, and you've got Donald Trump in the state right now saying you can't trust Georgia voting machines. Those Dominion folks keep moving machines and ripping out the parts or, you know, Brad, are you sure they didn't count the right number of ballots? And so you've got, you know, far north, far south Georgia and what

we call the white counties, the counties that are not so densely populated rural counties that are almost 98% Republican, those folks are thinking twice about whether they even want to pull the lever or come out for a state model that took their

president from them in their minds. So you've got some dynamics running that could cause two Democrats to win an election that the wins just weren't supposed to go their way. The only question I have for you is since Biden did win the state. I know the conventional wisdom is this was a very heavy lift for Democrats,

but just explain why it was. Why it was that he won in the first place? No, if Biden won the state, I don't understand. I mean, I know this to be true that Biden won the state, but it was still a very heavy lift for Democrats. But I just don't understand the math of like, if a Democrat won the state, why is it so much harder for Democrats to win the state? Why is it so much harder for Democrats to win those Senate seats? Because it has been true, but I'm just curious. Well, number one, there is no higher period of African-American turnout than in a general election on your presidential election. So there is no higher time that we turn out. There's no lower time that we turn out than a special. And so there is a dynamic of when people

have access to feel like they have an obligation to go vote. And so when we talk about higher turnout out rates, election cycle over election cycle, and this is almost anywhere in the country. Older, white, Republican voters vote more often, more frequently in many more cycles than do other voters. So just the general dynamics of that. But here's something specific to Georgia. Donald Trump lost this election by less than 12,000 votes. I can count 12,000 votes in a single neighborhood of college educated white women in the Olding County. He lost this state because he lost the Northern Arc more than his year of Northern Art College-educated white women in Georgia. He lost this state because a high proportion of African-American women turned out in Augusta, in Macon, in Jonesboro, in Atlanta,

in Savannah, in Augusta, in Albany, Georgia, in Columbus, in those majority black cities in the state, and they're now Browner suburbs. Joe Biden, Cobb County, and Gwinnett County, and he took, I think, Douglas and some others, and Clayton and Fayette, took all these counties in a larger majority than even did Hillary Clinton and did Stacey Abrams, but he took it because black women turned out. So Donald Trump lost women. He didn't lose white women, but he lost a higher share of them than some others did. The reason why this special is going to be hard is because you've got to convince both of those groups to turn back out tomorrow and or if they haven't already voted early. Right. Right. Right. Right. But I think they do. I don't think there's been a better financed set of Democrats in this state's history since

Jimmy Carter came down the pack and won by 400,000 votes in his general election in 1976. So I do think that it's well funded, that the ground game is here, that the right tenor is here in terms of people just being angry and wanting to get rid of, you know, two U.S. senators who seem to have lined their pockets rather than stomping for the people in the state. I mean, it's pretty stinky. You couldn't have two worst candidates. Right. So this is a special year.

I wouldn't put my thumb in the air in any other year and say that two Democrats had a chance. That makes sense. Goldie, thank you so much for coming on. I always love to get to talk to you, and you're amazing. It is always, always a joy, my friend. Well, folks, it's 2021. And as you are aware, state and federal law and international treaty law requires each of our shows to include a segment We call Fuck That Guy.

My Fuck That Guy is, of course, a member of the current treason or sedition caucus, and he probably doesn't deserve to be elevated any further. But Mr. Josh Hawley, you should know better. You were educated at Yale University. You were an attorney. You taught at fucking Oxford. You're not dumb. So what you're doing is either a play that's purely political by putting our democracy at risk for the future.

Right, I think it's that. Or a scam to put yourself in a position where you want to be the last guy standing at the end of Richard of Richard the third. That could be that too. But you're not going to be. So my message to you is fuck that guy. You want to know who my fuck that guy is? I would love to know who your fuck that guy is. It's a Democrat.

A Democrat. And it's a Democrat who I used to like in February. Well. So it wasn't Bill de Blasio then. No, no one ever liked to build a blois. you. My fuck that guy is Andrew Cuomo, who is working extremely hard to fuck up this vaccine roll out more than it has already been fucked up. Was this the thing this weekend where he was all off on the tangent of like, I'm not going to get it until Hispanic communities get it?

No, I wish. I don't care when he fucking gets the vaccine. The real problem now is the vaccine has shipped, but it's not being put into people's arms. Right. So it's in these freezers and it's going to, the clock is ticking for expiration. So really, what needs to happen now is we need to get these vaccines in people's arms today. And what happens with the Pfizer and also with the Madonna is once you open them, you have a certain number of doses that will go back. Right. So what you need to do is you need to give them all out. Now, Andrew Cuomo, in his infinite stupid wisdom of being the fucking worst in the entire world, has the same. that he is going to make a possible million dollar fine if he finds out that you are giving

the vaccine to people who are not in the categories that need to be vaccinated right now. This is incredibly stupid and short-sighted for any number of reasons. So wait, if you've got vaccine and you've met the targets for vaccinating the high-priority people, you still can't. No, it's more like this. You open a container of Pfizer vaccines. You have 45 vaccines. You do everyone in the hospital who's over 65.

You have 10 left. You have a few people in their 50s. If you vaccinate those people, you could be eligible for a million dollar fine. So what happens? You throw it out. And that is what we're looking down the barrel of, is just the dumbest, most punitive, short-sighted ridiculousness. And in the UK, they're vaccinating everyone. We need to be vaccinating everyone.

do not need to be throwing away vaccines because the person is 62 or because the doctor is, you know, I mean, it's just, it's so incredibly stupid and short-sighted and ridiculous, and it's going to waste. And the other thing is that people are already a little bit afraid of these vaccines because they need to be kept at such a cold temperature and because they're sort of, the RNA bubble is very sensitive and people are just very nervous about this vaccine. So by attaching a fine, you are making people. less likely to vaccinate. And it is just absolutely the wrong thing at the wrong time. Sweet jumping Jesus.

Well, it's like he's trying to make DeSantis look good. Well, don't worry. DeSantis is going to try to kill as many people as he possibly can in the great state of Florida. On that note, we'll wrap up this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast. In future episodes, we'll be talking with smart folks from The Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics, and science who will 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. We're just getting started and don't want you to miss an episode. If you'd like to follow us on Twitter, I'm Molly Jongfest and he's the Rick Wilson.

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