The MeidasTouch Podcast - Digital Political Warriors and the Changing Online Landscape with Scott Dworkin

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

On this episode of The Mighty, Ben, Brett, and Jordy welcome back guest Scott Dworkin! Dworkin is the co-founder of The Democratic Coalition and hosts the Dworkin Report and Dworkin Daily podcasts. His 2016 Dworkin Report helped uncover the Trump-Russia affair well before Special Counsel Mueller’s probe began. He served as a deputy director for both the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee and 2012 Democratic National Convention and was a senior advisor on both the Draft Biden and Run Warren Run campaigns. He has worked on campaigns and with organizations in all 50 states and was named to the Campaigns & Elections magazine’s 2011 class of Rising Stars. A pioneer in digital activism, the brothers chat with Dworkin about the rapidly changing digital landscape and much more. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome to this edition of The Mighty. I'm Ben Micellus, joined by my brothers Brett and Jordy Micellus. Our guest for today is Scott Dworkin, friend of the mighty. He's the co-founder of the Dem Coalition. He's host of the Dworkin Report podcast, a veteran of the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns. And Scott, I say this endearingly, but an OG of the digital space. Before Midas existed, before the digital pioneers of today, there was Scott Dworkin out there who really spearheaded digital activism. Scott, it was so great to connect with you when we started Midas Touch.

And you were always there for us, but we had very few followers. And it's one of the things I so appreciate that you did for us and for all the other content creators out there, just helping other platforms launch. Welcome to the podcast, Scott. Thanks for having me on again. It's a pleasure and great content. It's always nice to lift it up. And I think people who are workers,'m always drawn to them you know people who are hard workers and uh really want to grind especially and we needed it in 2020 desperately and y'all stepped up in a space where yeah i mean like we made like 70 ads but you made like ads that no one could make and it just it was phenomenal and there were a lot of different

friends that we had in common. But I could just tell. We did our, you know, background and whatnot. We're like, where'd they come from? And I'm like, oh, well, you know, we know one of them. And then the other guys are pretty legit. So let's see where it goes. And I'm just glad that y'all took off. I mean, it's kind of like it's an honor to be able to lift up your content because it was something that website called Photography is Not a Crime.

And he would cover before really the mainstream media was covering the police shooting epidemic that existed in the country and was caught on camera. Grant was on the front lines doing that work. And I had worked with Grant because he was covering cases that I had worked in. And that's how I was ultimately introduced to you on the political side. And so for our listeners, though, who may not know your background, because our listeners also come from international and some of our listeners are purely YouTube or purely Patreon. Maybe, Scott, if you could just let them know, like, when you got started really becoming active on Twitter, on digital spaces, and how you grew that platform to over a million followers on Twitter and really

kind of pioneered one of the first digital movements on Twitter. Yeah, it started in politics around 20 years ago as an intern. I would bring food and coffee and do whatever I could. Then they would give me sheets of paper to make phone calls. And then we would by hand write it down. And then eventually we got laser scanners like a year later. And that was revolutionary. Yeah, it was. We had barcodes and everything and none of it really worked. write it down and then eventually we got laser scanners like a year later and that was fancy yeah it was we had barcodes and everything and none of it really worked it really didn't didn't work it was just paper everywhere like and one of the guys was like did you just make these phone calls i'm gonna call these people and make sure you made these phone calls and i was plowing through them because i was like well that's what we're supposed to do. Hang up, go, hang up, go. And so I stayed in that. I was able to intern for the Carrie Edwards campaign when I

was in college. And after that, I went on the campaign trail and I've worked on hundreds of campaigns since. I eventually moved to D.C. You know, I got to be on Barack's staff for the inaugural committee in 2009 and got to stand next to him and Michelle and dance with him after his first dance on stage in front of a bunch of people. And there's this famous picture in between him and Denzel having a moment. And I'm on prednisone because I just got in the hospital a month and a half before that because I got sick from a marathon. Long story short. And, you know, I had moon face on the side profile. So it's like the worst picture of me and one of the most famous pictures of Barack Obama

ever. I hope they crop me out. So I did that. 2012, I worked on convention on the stadium speech. Do you remember the stadium speech in 2012? No, because it didn't happen. But I was helping to run that, that eventually because of weather and other reasons they did not do. But, you know, it was fun to be involved with that and just a bunch of different campaigns not to represent for a few years, the Congressional Progressive Caucuses Nonprofit Foundation, you know, had the pleasure of working with the speaker and other members of Congress, dozens of different members of Congress over the years. And yeah, it's just been an honor.

2016, I got some friends together that were in the space. I had never really tweeted, never really been online, always been behind the scenes. In 2005, there was a campaign a professor was running for Senate in Maryland. And I decided, hey, you know what we should do is we should use MySpace and try and gain some friends for the campaign. And everybody thought it was the dumbest idea ever. And so I went in there and I was like, we started getting some people together. And I'm like, start adding people in Maryland. Search in Maryland.

See what their political beliefs are, if you can find them. And just start adding them. See if they'll accept your friend request. And then we had thousands of friend requests that accepted it. And then we started moving that. And those people we invited to an office opening and they showed up. And I was like, oh like oh well this is interesting and so in campaigns and elections magazine cited as one of the first uses of social media for political

campaigns people still thought it was stupid like they thought it was a dumb idea and now looking back i may regret that because of everything that's happened but um you know there were a couple other friends who were in on it as well uh But, you know, when we got to 2016, it was about I went to a football game in North Carolina and I saw people waving Trump flags and wearing the red hat. But they were serious. And it was an energy on the negative side, but an energy of 2008 Obama. And I was like, this is real. We need to take this seriously. And so early in 2016, we got together and we formed the Democratic Coalition to just start and push back against the rhetoric and the cesspool that became Twitter at that time, because it was just death threats and, you know, just disgusting things. And one of the first things that happened is a delegate in West Virginia said that Hillary should be hung on the National Mall, tweeted that out.

And that's a state rep level elected official of West Virginia and a pilot, I believe, for U.S. Airways. Don't hold me to that. Don't send me an pilot, I believe for US Airways. Don't hold me to that. Don't send me an email, US Airways. I'm not sure if it was you. I can't remember. A major airline. And we were like, well, what are we going to do about this? We can't have people running around doing this.

How can we push back against this nonsense? How can we actually make a difference and try and stop this from happening? Because if we can deter other people from doing it, that'd be great. So we were like, well, you know what? Let's publicly contact the airline. And so we did that. He got suspended from his job. Then we publicly requested, we started having people contact different members of the state legislature in West Virginia.

And then eventually, I believe he was censured publicly in West Virginia for attacking Hillary, eventually shut down his Twitter account. And we were like, we've got something here. And so we started pushing back on people that way, using the digital space. We would then get people to be active in person, on the phones, in letters. And since then, we've got over a million letters sent, hundreds of thousands of phone calls, tons of doors knocked on, activism from hundreds of different ads and videos, some that used to be Midas-level, hit-level.

Now we're more positive, I guess. But we were good with that stuff at first. It was very provocative. Now it'd be tame if you look back at it. But yeah, it just was what can we do in any way? Like, oh, Flynn is involved with this sort of dealing in Turkey. And this is related to Russia somehow. Let's file a FARA, like a foreign agents complaint. And I was like, I have no idea what that is, but that sounds good. And so we had lawyers who came together, we filed that complaint and it spun out of control from there. And I guess what really broke it open is after the week of the election, I started digging into his business ties even more. And one of the things that I found is like, there's all these Russian business ties. Why is he denying it?

And so I put together a little report. It's just it's like a high school level report because it was meant for Congress. So I presented that to members of Congress on the Hill and they started paying attention. They're like, oh, this is so basic. It's right in front of our faces. There's money that he's accepted. He's done business in Russia, millions and millions of dollars just straight up in front of our face. And we're just not noticing it. And Grant Stern decided when he was at Huffington Post, he decided to write about it. And he took the chance there. Joy Reid took a chance, put me on air, and it started taking off like a rocket. And then Trump started talking about collusion.

We didn't talk about collusion. He talked about collusion. And that's where that shifted. Anyways, so I went down the investigative track, stuck on that for a few years. And then we went into more mainstream organizing and online organizing where I've worked full time at the coalition for the last six, seven years now. And so that's been my main job since then. And so we are going to shift out of the super PAC, just as an FYI. For anybody who knows, people like to say, oh, he gets paid for his job. And I'm like, oh no, yes I do.

I get paid for my job. You get paid to work? I get paid to work. And so now I'm lucky enough to be able to work on other projects. And with that, I think it's time for us to be able to give back. And so we're going to form a political action committee where we're actually giving directly to candidates and over 80% of our funds will go directly to candidates. And so that's what

I've always wanted to do. We just never had the infrastructure to do it. Now we do. Now we have the membership to do it. So that's going to be a great transition, I think, for us. But yeah, it's really been an honor to work with so many people and do all these great things. And so that's the, I guess, long, short spiel of how it kind of started the 2020 elections, and then now. Have you noticed changes? I mean, obviously Midas Touch came into the picture in 2020, but what big trends have you seen that are different and that have evolved over time we were able to hashtags were just a i would wake up and i'd stub my toe or something and i think of something and then i get some people together and we'd be like you know we should try and trend this sort of thing trump russia or some sort of hashtag and so that was one organizing element. And then we started doing

that for vote for so-and-so, you know, vote for Conor Lamb, vote for whoever it would be. Doug Jones was another big one we were involved with. But using hashtags to get together on the same page, get people to recognize fundraising pages, sign up pages for volunteerism, things like that. One of the things that we've seen is hashtags have been more organized. So there's been community organizers online that have come together to have a more succinct messaging, something that I always hoped for. And we really saw that in the election. I mean, there were over 4 billion in reach for two different hashtags the Monday and Tuesday of this election in 2022. We could never dream of that way back when. everybody on the same page and recognizing nobody owns this hashtag. The point of this is for you to be able to promote your group on a community basis and promote your assets so that people can see them. that community is really helping the progressive environment as endorsed by the White House, who, you know, Jordi and I had the pleasure of visiting there.

And that was really helpful in regards to just everything, because you can see people really taking it seriously. I compare it to the beginning of the evolution here is like the beginning when people were YouTubers like, I don't know eight years ago or so and people be like this guy's just sitting there making videos and now you know these guys that are millionaires that and they're like wow like it's amazing how did you do that and i've talked to some of these folks and they're like because i worked my butt off and you just didn't understand what we were doing at the time.

So there'll be, I have seen a lot of people try and denigrate the work, but it's just as valuable. And with COVID, it was even more valuable than anything else. It was everything. So 2020, everything kind of shifted into that online environment and we needed to have everything that was set up. And luckily we had Midas Touch, Dem Coalition and everybody else together so that we could engage with people online because that's all we had. We didn't have people really knocking on doors, doing anything in person. And so all we had was that online element. And I think COVID then shifted conversations back online to more civil engagements and some sort because I was too busy in 2021 pushing vaccines and masks more than anything else. But it was based off of asking people simple, silly questions like, you know, what's your

favorite kind of breakfast food? And then I would push vaccination links and how to get vaccinated, where to get masks. You know, we started Masks Now Coalition, which we had people make handmade, they hand-sewn masks, hundreds of thousands of them across the country in all 50 states, because the CDC wasn't doing the distribution like they should have. The post office was stopped from doing that. So it's always been about just doing whatever we can do. In regards to the engagement now, it's everything that we could have hoped for. And what the problem, though, with this trend is it's been stomped on by the new leadership

at Twitter. And so we've got to diversify our social media platforms. And there's nothing wrong with that. I don't think that anybody should put all their eggs in one basket. So if you're just on Twitter all the time, you probably shouldn't be. You should diversify that throughout the day. So that's one trend that we're starting to see is people are starting to look at different avenues and not just spending all their time on one social media platform. And so I think the trend eventually will be that not one social media platform will control the narrative or conversation, and it will be more organic and not as corralled as it is today. Hi, I'm Harry Litman, host of Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent

figures from government law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day. Each Monday, I'm joined by a slate of Feds' favorites and new voices to break down the headlines and give the insiders view of what's going on in Washington and beyond. Plus, sidebars explaining important legal concepts read by your favorite celebrities. Find Talking Feds wherever you get your podcast so scott i mean you've been here uh for a bit as you mentioned earlier you got your start on myspace which i think you know i think it ages you just a little bit there scott i'm not gonna i was on myspace too not for political organizing but

you know at the time that you know the idea of using MySpace as a term, as a tool of political activism was a novel idea. Nobody was using the Internet in that way. And you have gotten to see now the birth and the death of a lot of these social media networks, I'm sure. So now that you're seeing this sort of in real time collapse of Twitter, Nobody quite knows what is really going to happen now in the future. I think Twitter will always exist probably in some form, but it clearly is heading down a pretty dark path at the moment. What do you make of the new dynamic where you have people kind of fleeing now and you got people using Mastodon and counter social and tribal and follow me here, follow me there?

What do you make of this new social media dynamic? Where do you think all this is going to land once the dust actually settles? I think Twitter will probably end up on top. No matter if I'd like to deny it or not, there's some things that I have been begging Twitter to do for years that they are doing now. And there are some things that are being implemented that they pledged that they're doing now. But this is not how they're supposed to be doing it. Taking down bot accounts, which has been happening, but we've seen accounts delinked where they, especially progressive accounts, and this sounds conspiratorial, but there's just too many big accounts that it's happened to where

an account will unfollow a friend and they'll unfollow you or whatever. So there's different issues like that. But the creator platform and monetization and things like that, it seems like they're making moves in the right direction to support the creator. The problem is nobody wants it to go into Elon Musk's pocket. You know? So, like, we have that decision to make. Is it like, okay, can we, do we actually want to use this platform?

And so he's going to have to not send out memes that, you know, are meant for 4chan. Good luck with that, Scott. And I just don't understand how anybody can tell. He's so rich that nobody can really go after him at a level that it actually affects him. And I think that, you know, hopefully this old humanitarian who used to be the guy who could swoop in and save some people comes back and shows his face. Right now, if it goes down this path, you know, Twitter would survive, I'm sure. But a lot of us probably won't be using it as our main platform. And there will be a mass exodus further than just now of people jumping off, jumping back on and then checking it and like, did Trump tweet yet?

Because if he did, I'm out for good. You know, this happens a lot, but I just don't see exactly what Musk's plan is. And that's the biggest problem here. Yeah, they're making some changes that are for good, but it's not enough and it's not quick enough. And also there's no stability. There's no trust there. The user has to trust what they're doing.

I can't wonder, I wonder if, you know, Elon went ahead and took an Excel spreadsheet and exported all my DMs that I've ever had, right? Because he could do that. And we don't think about these things of the privacy of it and access to information and what is he doing with that you know so there's there's too many things there too many question marks and i think he's got to be more transparent with everything um and he's got to stop playing games because he's playing with fire i know he's trying to be the trump of twitter and maybe get trump back on so he's not the trump of Twitter. But he's got to

stop playing these games. These are people's, people trust this for news. People trust this for journalism. And it's destroying some people's lives and their livelihood. And he needs to stop playing games with it because it's not as simple as that. There are people who are trying to send out tweets from Ukraine so that people stay away from terrorist attacks. This is important stuff. It's not as simple as just a tweet or just a social media network. And I think he has to respect that and the power that he has behind him now. It's not something that should be abused in this way. Yeah. And while there may be some good things and positive steps towards creators that you see out there, and you mentioned a few of them, at this point, in my opinion, the bad is far outweighing the good. I mean, the platforming of horrific people, it seems he drew the line at Alex Jones, but I guess torturing the parents of whose kids were lost in school shootings is where he draws the line, but anything up to that point, he seems to be okay with. The levels of hate speech that we've been seeing on the website, the weird memes he's been posting,

the way he's been treating his employees and driving them out of the company and mocking journalists and mocking his employees. I mean, all that stuff is really bad. And the only thing that I could even fathom is going on is that he is trying to destroy Twitter or at least destroy what Twitter was. And I think he's also trying to delegitimize media, at least truthful, honest reporting. And the same way Trump tried to call everything fake news, all the articles that he didn't like, Musk is kind of doing the same thing. And while he's delegitimizing, say, CBS News or The New York Times or The Washington Post, he is elevating folks like Cat Turd and like Tim Young and like the Babylon Bee. And it's very transparent to me, the balancing act that he is doing. And by balancing act, I mean pulling the actual sources of info and news way down and pushing up the conspiratorial people, the far right people in many aspects, actually engaging with the people responsible for the January 6th insurrection, responsible for all this horrific stuff.

I mean, is that what you're seeing, too? Yeah, absolutely. And just to be clear,'m not defending elon musk i did want to give people some positive notes because i'd like to do that but we're talking about 0.01 positive you know i mean like there is some positive stuff but most of it's horrible like letting trump back on is it's disgusting and disgraceful and a promise that's been broken because it was a permanent ban. That's why some people have invested so much time and energy back into Twitter, because he was promised to be gone forever. And he said there would be a moderation council,

which ended up being a Twitter poll from his account. So not exactly. We weren't even told it was official because we were told it was official. I think the outcome may have been different. And at the same time, like how many governments internationally helped Trump out with that? You know, I mean, I don't know exactly how it was actually polled, but no one took it seriously. No one thought this is. No one thinks a Twitter poll is a scientific poll. How do you think that shifts the dynamic of what's going on online and like the work you do and stuff now that you're gonna have donald trump i mean he hasn't tweeted yet as of this recording he might in the next few hours who

knows will he tank his own social media platform because he can't resist this one i say probably yes um but uh how do you think that's going to affect you know your work having somebody like trump on the platform having having these alt-right figures. I mean, you got to stand up to them, huh? Well, we've knocked them off before. We'll knock them off again. And it's it's just the circle of life here. And so we're just going to have to deal with it as it comes. You know, this is what it is. We fought everything tooth and nail to make sure that this didn't happen it's now happened uh and we just have to deal with it we have to face it and and not be afraid of confronting that um i just you know it it the thing that is that sucks about it is it may get boring to some people old

repetitive it's the same thing over and over again. Like, oh, this is like hysteria and constant pressing down on the accelerator. But that's what fighting fascism is. Like, you can't let them gain any steam anywhere. You can't let them take over one of the biggest social media platforms in the world. You can't let them do that. You have to make sure that, you know, there will be ways that we can resist everything that they're doing. We just have to figure out the holes in what their plans are. And first, we've got to figure out what their plans actually are.

Everything will leak out eventually. We'll be able to figure out a way. And if it's not on Twitter, it will be somewhere else. Right now, we're still splitting the difference between social media platforms. It's like, what do you have the choice between? You know, everything is owned by major corporations or billionaires, and you don't really have a choice of. Yeah, I kind of like the, okay, I'm done with Twitter.

I'm going to Instagram. It's like to Zuckerberg. Like, what are your options here? Like, there are bad people running all of this. It's the unfortunate reality of it. It's like, what do you do? Yeah. And that's, I don't, you know, I know that there are some other social media networks

that are giving a shot and, you know, everything's got question marks with it. Like, what are you going to do with this or that? And that trust is what people need to use these sort of platforms to put themselves out there. And I just I think that, you know, there's a lot of nonsense going on from Elon. I'm not entirely sure why. I think you made a lot of great points there as to probably why. It's got to level off. It's got to stabilize because people are going to abandon him at a level you would assume

that he can't recover from. But what level would that have to be? You already see that. You're right, Scott. I mean, he's already working with a fraction of the employees when he first started the company, even after the initial layoffs. It's problematic for all the reasons that you outlined so perfectly. I always like to try and find a silver lining in these situations because, you know, I refuse to let them take away my hope. It's the one thing they can take. And when I look at this-

See, there's one on my side here, one positive. No, anyways, sorry, go ahead. No, no. But what I like to say is when we just looked at this last midterm cycle, you know, it was an outright rejection of pro-democracy Americans against this weird MAGA-ism, this Trump-ism, this culture that Musk seems to be promoting, the cat turtus and the marjorie tether greens. And so, you know, if they're going to have a platform, say, given the microphone, let them speak because ultimately it is dangerous for all the reasons that we've outlined, but they're their own worst enemies. And it's a rejection. I think

we just saw that with the midterms. So what's your, what's your take to sort of that, that counter view that I have from the brothers? There's nothing wrong wrong with that I think that it's a good no it's I think it's a good take on uh a good perspective as the reality is no matter how much propaganda how much heat wave of nonsense they they send out there it can be overridden by the voters and even in what they said would would be a red wave um you know and we saw all the different kinds of elements of cheating that they had going on with gerrymandering and voter suppression. And we still overcame a lot of that. So it's, you know, we wanted to win the House. It didn't go exactly as planned.

But now they're going to have to face the consequences of trying to govern with a bunch of crazy people in their caucus. I don't see that happening successfully. So I think they're going to be right back in the minority. It will rubber band back and people will be like, what the hell were we thinking? Why do we vote for these people in the first place? I don't know. And I can't understand why so many people did and they accepted it. But they did. And that's where we're at. So I think you're right when they talk. I mean, we're talking about a person who's going to be on a committee again, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and she is going to be talking in a very serious way. And she's going to talk in these crazy terms and put a congressional stamp of approval behind her propaganda that helps Trump out. And it'll be based on lies. And she'll sully herself and Congress. And I think it will be something that helps bring them down back to the minority because people aren't going to

stand for it. They're not going to believe her lies. And I think that it's going to be a responsibility of everybody, especially y'all, to call out those lies as they come and to make sure that they're held accountable for them. Because if they are in charge, then they have to not only govern, but they have to be telling the truth and they have to be held accountable for that. People could roll their eyes when they weren't in charge of the house, right? People would be, well, Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't matter. She's not on committee. She's not doing anything. Now she's going to have a role, a very, very senior role. And she's got a lot of money and she's got a lot of friends in regards to in Congress that she's helped get elected. A lot of her friends lost as well. So I just, I think that

you'll see a lot of these people try and be more mainstream. We can't let them get away with that either. We have to remind them where they came from. They're not changing anytime soon. They may try and take a more moderate, old school Republican way where they're screwing you while a smile on their face being like everything's fine. Yeah, I think that that it's you're, that people will end up burying themselves. Like it will be one of those things where people can see through who they really are. But it's on us to make sure that that happens. Right. Yeah. So we've got to amplify everything that is wrong about it and point it out and make sure that, again, that there's some sort

of accountability that they can't just be like fake news, blah, blah, blah. I don't think that people will be able to use the Trump defense unless you're Donald Trump. And I don't think that, as you can see from Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, she's had to pay for her different mistakes. So I'd be interested to see how Kevin McCarthy would pay for his lies and his mistakes that he'll have now that he'll be the Speaker of the House, it looks like. Yeah, no, absolutely. While we're on the topic of how these elections broke, I mean,

we're still not done. You know, there's a big Senate runoff coming and we got Herschel Walker versus Warnock. And just ultimately, you know, what are your plans for that race? If you're planning anything particular, how do you think it's going to go? And will we see as possibly ever being in the White House again is something that people want to resist all the way. I think there's a lot of different videos that we've been able to uncover with some friends at Patriot Takes and some other places that they're going to release that are very damning for Herschel Walker that you can't look away from, that you can't say, he's a reformed person or whatnot. So I think we're going to see a lot of that. Me personally, I'm fundraising directly for Wannock's campaign from the outside, not requested or whatever, but I'm fundraising for

his campaign because I know some of those staffers, I know that they're going to spend the money in the right way. In regards to negative ads, we are going to run some negative ads, but it's him. It is Herschel Walker. It's not other people talking about stuff. It is Herschel Walker talking about Herschel Walker using his own words with different things that we've put together. So Herschel Walker will be what presents himself to voters. We'll focus on digital ads and OTT ads, which are

things like Hulu, when you see an ad on Hulu or something like that. We'll have that pop up to Georgia voters and independent voters, leaning Republican voters, things like that. So we're going to focus on, stay in our lane with that and let them do the positive messaging. I think that Warnock's got a great campaign behind them. And so we just need to support them. They're going to need money. So donating to the campaign is huge. If you can volunteer to make phone calls,

I know Mobilize has some stuff set up. I know y'all are going to have some stuff set up. But yeah, I mean, it's all hands on deck again. You know, I know that everybody's tired, but right after, uh, you know, you know, this, I'm going to be back on trying to get some people to make some phone calls. So it's, it's just that constant burn, you know, we can rest later, but this, uh, as y'all have covered extensively, like there's a lot of different reasons why a, uh, 51st vote is essential. You know,

they have this sharing agreement, obviously, in the Senate. The power is not fully in Democratic control, as it may seem. And, you know, we can do a lot more things where we're not having to get two of these on the fence senators and we need just one. I think that makes a world of a difference because then they're more of a hero and they're not a duo. I think that fractures that little alliance that Sinema and Manchin have there. So it's essential that we clear this hurdle and we beat herschel walker let alone for the reason that he shouldn't be a senator he shouldn't be in any elected role ever um he shouldn't be any

leadership role he shouldn't be in public life like this is a maniac who's caused harm to his family uh his friends and a pathological liar who thinks he's a sheriff who has no training whatsoever. He's talking about years for, I've trained with that. He didn't train with anything. He didn't do anything. Like he's, he's a football player. He had a great career, he says. And, you know, that's it.

Beyond that, he's not even taking ownership over his mental health. He's admitted and written a book about having multiple personality disorder. And he says this is how he avoids accountability. He says that he's repented or he's revived now. He also has said that if you are mad about something that he's done, then it was a different personality. Like he'll say that out loud. He uses that. So it's scary stuff. And this is something where I think that he's troubled and he needs to seek help still.

He never really sought help. He went to a hospital. He checked himself out of that. And he said he'd be fine. And he's self-diagnosed now. There's no cure for his ailment. So my hope is that he focuses on himself. Maybe we're, you know, drops in the background here and decides to just ride this out because

it's embarrassing for him, his family. And we just can't we can't have someone like this in the Senate, not someone who admits that he tried to kill his wife or. And he doubled down and said that he actually was a police officer after he clearly isn't a police officer. And kind of the concluding mark remark I'll make is, you know, over the weekend, I was seeing people like Paul Ryan being interviewed and others and people like Chris Christie and even Mike Pompeo. And, you know, they were saying, we need to win.

Our focus is on winning, a winner. And we need to win this. And Trump is a loser. And we need a winner and a winning candidate. And, you know, and I was just thinking, like, we are trying to focus on issues that actually impact people's lives. Like the point of politics should ultimately be how do we make our country, our communities better places? And how do we focus on issues that matter to the people? And frankly, there literally is no this isn't an exaggeration. I mean, I suppose other than give tax cuts to billionaires, there's literally no other agenda, no other policy that's espoused by Republicans other than to go on and have podcasts that they do and then spread hate and gaslight and and be a bunch of trolls. It's like a really weird, it's a really weird

concept because when you look internationally and you see other political parties, they at least are agenda driven. And you can go, okay, I don't like that agenda, but there's at least a portfolio of policies that are unraveled that come with it, that come with the various parties in these areas. And here, there just, there isn't because, you know, as you said, they're just kind of dangerous, non-serious people, and they exist on social media. Like, that's the weirdest part because they like to project and be like all these things about social media. They live on social media. And so why it was so important that you did what you do and inspired all the other groups that kind of followed. And the work's going to be more important now than ever with Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is to go in and set the tone and push back against the disinformation and push back against the trolls. Because for the Republicans, that's all they do. That's where their leaders are.

And we look forward, Scott, to the next chapter in your career. We appreciate everything you've done and we'll tell everybody to do. I know you're growing that YouTube page, so everybody search for Scott on YouTube as well and subscribe to his YouTube channel as that channel starts to take off. I know you'll love the content there. You could follow Scott on Twitter, as long as Twitter's still around, by searching for the Dem Coalition and searching for Scott Dworkin directly on Twitter and check out his podcast, the Dworkin report, Scott Dworkin. Thank you so much for joining us on the mighty. Thanks y'all for having me as always be well, do good and onward.