The MeidasTouch Podcast - Former Republican Party Chair DISMANTLES the Ultra MAGA GOP

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with Michael Steele! Steele is the former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, former Lt. Governor of Maryland and is currently a political analyst for MSNBC and host of The Michael Steele Podcast. During our in-depth interview (recorded prior to the events of this weekend), we discuss the modern-day Republican Party, how the Republican Party became infested with lunatics, what we should expect in the midterms and much more! During the remainder of the episode, the brothers discuss the heinous mass shooting in Buffalo and the influence of the Republican doctrine of White Replacement Theory (WRT), Elise Stefanik’s hate-filled rhetoric and the Ultra-MAGA Republican party. If you enjoyed today’s show please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Upstart: https://upstart.com/meidas AG1 by Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas Better Help: https://betterhelp.com/meidas Support our friends' podcasts! The Mary Trump Show: https://youtube.com/politicon The Daily Beans: https://www.dailybeanspod.com/ 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 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Mass shootings across America. The GOP plays victim and we have Michael Steele on the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordy joining you right now on the pod, on YouTube, wherever you are listening to us. Excited to have Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, former lieutenant governor of Maryland. And currently he's a political analyst for MSNBC and host of the Michael Steele podcast. Excited to have Michael on the show. The interview with Michael is for everybody who's listening, was recorded and watching, was recorded before

the Buffalo shooting. So that's why it's not being addressed in that interview. Obviously, that's a topic we would have addressed, but we do address and it's a Brett and Geordie driven interview. Again, I've been in court this week, but we do address the. The evolution of the Republican Party, if you want to say it nicely, I guess you could you could say, you know, there are so many hard, horrible, horrific things they've done. And it's so beneath contempt that as I try to even find the right word to describe Republicans, I guess all I can think about truly is un-American. Everything America stands for, all the true values of America, these people drape themselves in the flag.

They call themselves patriots, but they've so perverted and disgusted and really destroyed and continue to destroy truly what makes America such an incredible place, such a beacon of hope. And they've replaced that with fear and with hate. And that's what we're fighting against each and every day. Tough day to do this podcast on the heels of not just the shooting in Buffalo, other shootings across the country. It's a tough one, folks. It's a tough one. Yeah. And what you see time and time again after every single crisis is I think Republican kind of ideology can be summed up with these two sentences. It's that Republicans do not want to solve problems. They want to perpetuate problems in pursuit of power. And this goes across the board with every single crisis people face. They try to exploit them. And perhaps that's even being too nice, because when they see a problem, they don't only necessarily want to perpetuate it. They want to make it worse.

They want to pour fuel on that fire. And we see that with every single crisis that hits America. Like the thing that I think everyone has to realize, which, you know, our listeners obviously realize is problems arise. Like that's why we have people to solve them. That's why we elect presidents. That's why we elect legislators to solve problems that arise. Now, when these problems actually come, though, you see the Democrats immediately scramble to try to get a plan together. What can we do to help solve this problem? Might not happen within

the first five seconds of learning about the problem, but by the end of the day, by the end of 48 hours, there's a plan put forward. There's a website set up. There's information put out there into the world about how to address these issues, while all the Republicans do is just pour fuel on the fire, complain, and do everything they can to make the problem worse in pursuit of political power. And that is the big difference between the parties. And Ben, one of the things that you've said to me a bunch recently is like, bipartisan doesn't mean anymore, like Democrats or Republicans, like bipartisan should be like, how does one faction of the party work with the other faction of the Democratic Party? Because those are really like the two kind of sensible parties within the

Democratic Party really represents America there. And then you have these maniacs who just want to burn it all down. And I think that's actually pretty insightful. And that's how things should be. And I actually appreciate in recent weeks, even in the past week or so, President Biden really changing his rhetoric on the way he handles the Republican Party. You know, sources close to Biden are saying that he is no longer playing nicely with the Republican Party. You know, he's he's kind of done with that. He's kind of done trying to catch them with honey and has moved on to vinegar. And we see this with the ultra MAGA language that he's pushing out. And now I think that's a good idea. I mean, it was honestly the one thing I was critical of President Biden for. I was like, if you think these people are going to come around and put their arms around you and try to help you get through your agenda, you're living on a dream world right now. Tell our listeners and viewers what the ultra MAGA language is in case they don't know.

The ultra MAGA language is what they're referring to as the MAGA supporters now, people who support the MAGA movement. It's basically a label to kind of label these politicians who have so disgraced themselves and demeaned themselves and debased themselves for Donald Trump. In other words, they're not Republicans. They're calling them by a political party. They're not using the name conservative like we've always said. Which is what we've said. It's literally what we've been saying nonstop. So instead, they're calling them ultra MAGA. And in a way, if you really delve deep what they're kind of trying to do, you might be like, oh, that's silly. Ultramaga. That sounds funny. But they're

kind of trying to, if you really drill down to it, make MAGA and it should be a slur. You don't want to be branded with the word MAGA. And ultramaga means you are an extremist, like crazy person who does not belong anywhere near our government. And we're seeing these ultramaga people throughout the country. I mean, they're the cause of literally every problem in modern America history is caused by this sort of ultra MAGA faction. And we saw it with the shooter this weekend in Buffalo. We saw him espousing these ultra MAGA beliefs. We saw him espousing great replacement theory. This shooter who killed 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday, it was a clear act of domestic terrorism. He specifically was targeting a black area in Buffalo. He live streamed, this manifesto, if you want to call it, 180 pages long that espoused white replacement theory, great replacement theory. Literally,

this outline that he released could have been an outline for an episode of Tucker Carlson's show. That's how close the rhetoric is to what he was espousing and to what is being beamed into the homes of these ultra MAGA Republicans every single day. And we see, let's just break down what the great replacement theory is just so our viewers and listeners know. It's basically this conspiracy theory that states that non-white individuals are being brought into the United States and other Western countries to replace white voters to achieve a political agenda. And so we see this language now as the core of Republican ideology. Great replacement theory, like when you hear them complain about CRT, they are actually using great replacement theory.

When you hear them complain about migrants getting baby formula at the border and saying that that's taking it away from white kids, that is great replacement theory in action. When they're stoking fear about caravans at the border, they're invoking great replacement theory. It's the crux of the entire right-wing ecosystem, from Charlie Kirk to Elise Stefanik to Kevin McCarthy to Donald Trump to Tucker Carlson to Fox News. They are all responsible for spreading this hateful ideology. You talk about Elise Stefanik, Brett, as well, a congresswoman from upstate New York. This is a lady who went to school at Harvard, and she was known as a relatively moderate person in 2014 and 2015. And through her ambition to rise in the Republican Party, took a very ultra MAGA stance. Very recently, she actually took out

Facebook ads that promote white replacement theory and great replacement theory and pumped that messaging into all of these, you know, homes of these people, you know, basically, you know, the way I look at it is like almost her terrorist cells, like in America, these ultra MAGA terrorist cells that exist. And she's someone who, as she's gone, ultra MAGA has been rewarded in the Republican Party. That's who they reward. She's basically the number two in all of the Republican Party. She took Liz Cheney's position. She took, yeah, she took Liz Cheney's position. So the Republican who shunned the insurrection, Liz Cheney, but who otherwise espouses what would be viewed

as traditional conservative economic values and even other social views that would be typically aligned with conservative, that was an ultra MAGA. That was apparently conservative. So they kicked Liz Cheney out because Liz Cheney said insurrections are bad. They replaced her with Elise Stefanik, who espouses white replacement theory. That's what is going on in the Republican Party. Let's just say the specifics on it and just do a little bit of a contrast. Now that we're speaking

about the both of them, because they're clearly tied together. But in this Facebook ad that you're saying, and we'll pull it up right now, she called immigrants coming to America a permanent election insurrection. And they used that said that in all caps in her Facebook ad. She said it was a permanent election insurrection that would replace conservatives with a permanent liberal majority. I mean, that's the definition of great replacement theory, the exact theory used in the manifesto of the Buffalo. It reminds me so much of Putin calling like Nazis and calling them not. It's exactly it's the same exact. It's the same exact. Just so such a big, big lie, such a big propaganda, just such an absurdity. That's the fascist. That's the fascist toolbook just to come up with something so absurd like that.

And let's look at Liz Cheney's statement. In contrast, Liz Cheney said the House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-Semitism. History has taught us what begins with words ends in far worse. GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them. So that's the person who the GOP kicked out of. And Elise Stefanik is the one who literally the day before the attack tweeted this. The White House, House stems and usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present any plan or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border. Joe Biden has no plan. Now, let's just first just acknowledge that Joe Biden actually had released a plan at this time. The White House had already come out with their plan about the

shortage. In fact, Brett, in the past, since since the issue the formula shortage, because of Biden's swift action, baby formula production has actually been two to four times greater than it was before the shortage. And the shortage resulted in the fact that we have very few baby formula domestic manufacturers. And so when there was a recall at one of the facilities, and actually there were, I think, two babies who got killed based on some of the bad formula that existed. They did a recall at one of the formula facilities. So that just shut down production. But what did Biden do?

He didn't blame someone. He didn't, you know, he he worked with the Walmarts of the world and other big retailers and other manufacturers and came up with a way to address the issue immediately. This is why the Stefanics, the Greens, the Boebert's of the party are so dangerous. It's because they truly are the face of the modern day Republican party. The modern day Republican party is this ultra MAGA wing. And I found this article actually, which was interesting. If you look at the date of the article, it's from 2018. It's from the Toronto Star. It was written by a business columnist named Jennifer Wells. And the headline in the article is how baby formula may end up as collateral damage in Trump's NAFTA war. And Jennifer Wells in June of 2018 saw this coming because when Trump was declaring a trade

war with our allies, with Canada, they saw that this might affect the baby formula problem. And sure enough, this is exactly what happened. But even beyond the lies of that tweet by Stefanik, that's once again, she had doubled down, tripled down on this racist replacement theory. And then the day later, guess what happens? A shooter uses her ideology to go and kill 10 people. And so Stefanik has been, of course, hammered by the press, by the public, by really just about everybody except for her own party, except for like Liz Cheney. And she decided to release a statement not apologizing for the rhetoric that led to the shooting, not denouncing replacement theory, but saying that she was the victim. She's the victim. And once again, we say this on the show, you know, the subtext is why are all these people

trying to cancel me? I'm the victim here. And this white grievance is a sick, sick part of the Republican Party. She called her statement a statement on the disgraceful, dishonest and dangerous media smears. Ironically, disgraceful, dishonest and dangerous is the perfect description of Elise Stefanik and the Republican Party. She blamed the left, their, quote, never Trump allies. And this is a quote that I've actually seen Republicans use more and more, which is a weird phrasing and messaging that they're trying out. The sycophant stenographers in the media basically saying that the media just parrots whatever the Democratic Party tells them to do. And then she claimed that she never made any racist statements, never made them, never said them, never happened. What are you talking about? Then not 22 minutes later, did she do a tweet that espoused the same white replacement theory that she had just denied saying that she used. 22 minutes later, saying that Democrats want open borders, wide open borders, so that illegals could take white people's votes. This is the cycle that we're in, right? So GOP, ultra MAGA Republican says some bigoted racist comment, a follower of theirs,

then acts on behalf of the racist rhetoric that they're hearing from someone who they expect to lead them. Then the media shows the connection between the terroristic attack that was carried out based on the words of the politician. And then that politician plays victim. You have that right, Jordy. It's the cycle. That's the Republican cycle of of stochastic terrorism. And I'll just say this, you know, obviously, we're not going to say the shooter's name, but his parents are both civil engineers. I think they work for a government agency. This individual was going to community college, I believe to study becoming a civil engineer, was going to go to a community college to study and become a civil engineer and was radicalized through all of the 4chan, 8chan, the radical stuff that's being

spewed on the internet about white replacement theory, Fox News, OAN, Newsmax. You even see after, what's that real idiot's name who got sued for calling Sandy Hook a false flag and now he's a default judgment? Yeah, his name so sickens me that I'm glad I forget it. Even Alex Jones then came out and called this a false flag in Buffalo. I mean, these people are disturbed terrorists. There's no other way to describe it. These are terrorists. There's no other way to describe it. These are terrorists. And it just

kind of reminded me, Brett, when we had that run in about two or three months back, where randomly some anonymous Twitter account made a false accusation about us and kind of had all of these people, like all these radical right ultra magas you know kind of attack us and do death threats to us when we would look into who these individuals were their backgrounds were actually kind of reminiscent of of this guy you know these people what you know went to high school they look they present themselves on instagram as looking, you know, as looking like, you know, like a suburban, like a suburban white kid. I don't know how else to describe it. Picture them like at the gym, picture them around the girlfriend at the beach.

And then they would send you these DMs that were like beyond sickening and they would do it. And they, and you would think like, dude, I see your Instagram. Like I know where you work. Like I see your, and they were so in, there are hundreds of thousands of people like this, this terrorist kid out there, you know, who, who feel, you know, who feel this way. Cause I remember, you know, the anti-Semitic remarks that we would get that time, the death threats that we got, and it was over. And that was over someone saying that, that, that we thought that Joe, what Joe Rogan said was racist. When Joe Rogan said it was racist, they were angry that they were angry that I think we said that it was racist. And then another, and we agreed with him.

We didn't agree with the racist part of the statement. That's what we're up against. And that's what we're dealing with. And that's why, Brett, going back to your point, I always say bipartisanship assumes there is rational partisans that you could negotiate with and have deals with and make deals with. And there's a game of rational actors. That is what bipartisanship is. So to me, unfortunately, bipartisanship kind of means I disagree with a lot of Joe Manchin's views. But at the end of the day, Joe Manchin supports Joe Biden's nominees for federal judges. He's the reason that

Katonji Brown Jackson is there. If there was no Joe Manchin, Steve, I mean, what's his name? Mitch McConnell would be in charge and we wouldn't have any judges appointed. Like bipartisanship is ultimately within a big tent, independent Democrat party. But as you then go into like this Republican ultra MAGA world, it's just filth. It's just disgusting. It's just not decent. These aren't normal. It's gaslighting. It's putrid. It's promoting hate. And you can't have conversations with that. And I also go back to the conversation that we had with the congressman from Northern California who was on the show. What's the guy's name who I like a lot? Yeah, Congressman Swallow.

I don't know why I can't know anyone's name today on the podcast. It stays in the pod. Theme is Ben doesn't know anybody's name. I was calling Mitch McConnell Steve. Episode title. Ben doesn't know anybody's name with guests. I don't know anybody's name today. And then so in Congress,

the swallow would be, you know, I would hear Senator Cruz names, Senator Cruz saying all of these like disgusting, horrible things. And then we'd go into the bathroom and Cruz would be like, you did a great speech there. And I'd be like, what the fuck? What are you out of your mind?

What are you doing? This is like some W.W. There's a combination of it where these radical right ultra magas, some are W.W.E. Some are like are just acting and just making this as part of their shtick because they think that's how you get power. Some are truly just terrorists. And that's who they are. And you can't have negotiations. You can't have discussions with them. And so I think there's no one else to talk to about this disease that's crept in to the Republican Party other than Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee. I mean, that really is, it's a really good one. I'm really excited for everybody to hear this conversation because Michael Steele knows

where the bodies are buried, I will say, and has a lot to say about his former party. I mean, he ran the RNC. He ran the RNC. He had run a McDaniel's job a few years ago. And so- Normal guy. Normal guy. Normal guy. I think that's going to be my, yeah, that's, that's going to be the crux of my conversation. Like, how are you? That's how, that's where we've come though. It's like he and us, we see completely eye to eye about democracy, about, you know, all of these issues And you have this fascist party now that's taken over the RNC. So excited for you to play it. Unfortunately, I wasn't at that interview. So

I will be watching that interview with our audience and with our listeners live. Really pretending to be a lawyer a lot these days lately. Yeah, look at you. So without further ado, let's bring in Michael Steele's interview with Brett Jordy. Today, we are honored to be joined by Michael Steele. Michael Steele is, of course, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, the former lieutenant governor in Maryland, and he is currently a political analyst for MSNBC and host of the Michael Steele podcast. Michael Steele, an honor to have you. Welcome to the show.

All right. What's up? What's up, fellas? It's good to be with you. I'm excited for the conversation and the opportunity. So, hey, good to be in your neighborhood. It's good to be here. We've been chatting up with Michael before the show. We've already decided that Michael is one of our favorite guests of all time. And it really just makes me try to- I got something in the cup for you. What's in the cup? What's's in that mug they call it coffee they call it coffee see i got i got i got one here but it's actually coffee in my cup michael i call it special all right well we gotta we gotta get you a midas touch mug to put your

special drink in we gotta we gotta make sure we send one of those. And just talking to you, Michael, and I mean this in the best way, I'm just struck by how normal you are. And just given the current state of the Republican Party and the current RNC, it's baffling to me how it's possible that somebody like you ran the RNC. So if you could just start off, take us through your journey for a second. How do you go personally from running the RNC to being on the Midas Touch podcast? Well, that I'll do. We're going to need more than a drink to get to that one. Pour it out, pour it out.

It's funny that you put it that way because there were members of the RNC who said the same thing. How did you wind up running this party? So, you know, you guys picked me. You said you wanted to expand and grow and, you know, be a 21st century party. You know, it's really interesting though. The journey has been actually in many respects,

the same, but different. And by the same, what I mean is a lot of the elements that I see that we see now playing out nationally have been there for a long time. I mean, this, you know, a lot of folks, you know, there's a lot of crap you can put on Donald Trump's, at Donald Trump's feet, and deservedly so. But a lot of what's being played out now is not, has very little to do with him. There are strains and elements that have been over two, three generations, a struggle within the party to deal with. Going back to the John Birch Society in the late 50s and 60s, when Barry Goldwater, you know, said, hey, you know, I'd rather fight

like hell than to embrace civil rights, you know. So these, and certainly what we saw with Nixon and the Southern strategy, hey, let's play to all the white, you know, white Southern men who are now pissed at Democrats for embracing civil rights. So we, how do we politically win. Those tensions have always been there. The different part right now is leadership. The reason the John Birch Society didn't take hold in the 50s and 60s is because the leadership of the party said, hell no, no, we're not doing that. This is not who we are. We were the party of Abraham Lincoln. We were the party of civil and constitutional rights for every American. We're not segregationists. We're not, you know, anti-civil rights, etc. And so the leadership stood up and helped course correct the direction the party was kind of moving into. And that's the difference now. The leadership embraces the stupid. They embrace the hatred. They embrace

the white nationalism. They embrace it because they're afraid of it. They're afraid of the people who are propelling it forward. And so it's, you know, I call myself now, I'm still a Republican. I'm a Republican for two reasons. One, it pisses everybody else off. One, it pisses everybody else off. And two, because I think fundamentally and foundationally, those values still matter. So in that regard, I see myself as more of a of a motel six Republican, you know, someone's got to keep the lights on. And so we keep the lights on as long as we can around those ideals and those values. And to the extent that they keep going through the house, breaking the bulbs, trying to put out that light, fine. At that point, then you move on to something else. And there will be something else to move on to.

It just won't be inside the RNC or the Republican Party. And that's the thinking of a lot of Americans who call themselves and identify as Republican right now. And so that's the rest of this internal battle, gentlemen, that you're going to see play out. And it's an astute point. But the sad thing is for you, Motel 6 Republicans, is that you guys are being overrun by the Motel Q Republicans. You know, every good establishment has roaches. So, you know, you either can contain it and eliminate it or, you know, you move. I mean, at the end of the day, that's what you left. When the house becomes unrepairable, right? When every time you, you know, fix the leaky faucet, another one starts leaking. Every time you, you know, replace the floorboards, something else happens. When you try to get rid of the vermin, more come. At a certain point, you say, you know what, baby, why don't we just move on? Because there are a lot of other houses out there we can look at. Unfortunately, in politics, you don't have a lot of other houses to look at.

You only have one other house to look at, and that's the Democratic Party. And, you know, I'm not going from stupid to crazy. So it just it just doesn't make a lot of sense for a lot of us at this point. When who's great, who's who's crazy in the scenario? The Democrats. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't get why they haven't figured out how to do politics yet. All right.

Okay. Okay. I see that. But like wanting to get people healthcare is not the same as believing Jewish space lasers, but maybe you could be around, but maybe, but maybe you could be a voice to actually, you know, help out because you do have this. Okay. because you do have this. I've tried. I've had conversations with us. Y'all know how I won in 2010.

Let me tell you what, you know. I mean, the fact that Chuck Schumer doesn't know how to deal with Mitch McConnell. I mean, seriously, 18 years in the Senate, you haven't figured out your opponent yet? You haven't figured out his weak spot. You haven't figured out what really what really he does not want to have happen and exploit that. Come on. I mean, McConnell does that every day to Schumer. Well, I would say, Michael, I would say that's why the Democrats would need your voice. And I would hope and I'm sure you've actually had further discussions from this that might refute what I'm about to say.

I would hope they would welcome you with open arms and say, please tell us what to do. What you you know what it's like on the other side. You know, when I was growing up, you know, you went back to the 50s and 60s. For me, it was the Tea Party. The Tea Party was the crazy strain. And it was the image that was always ingrained in my mind. The clip specifically was that moment of John McCain, I believe it was at a debate or a town hall when one of these kind of conspiracy theorists said, I can't vote for Obama because he's a Muslim or something to that effect. And John McCain, to your point, as the leader, de facto leader of the party then stood up and said, no, that's not

true. We may have these disagreements, but that is not true. That would not matter if it was true. And the fact is that we are here to decide who the candidate is going to be based on our values and our beliefs and not based on these things. And now we have the party straight up just embracing those fringe lunatic voices, which are now not so fringe. They're now the top of the party. Did you, when you were running the RNC, did you see factions like that? And did you, well, see the second with them. So you had dinner with them. So, but did you do anything then to be like, this is how I, in my role, am able to keep them at an arm's distance and make sure they really don't have any power? I mean, sure. So did, I mean, just go back to that period between 2009 and 2011.

Were you having conversations like this. I mean, keep in mind, I was dealing with a very different Tea Party in 2009, 10, and I left in January of 11, than what came after in 12, 13, going forward. In fact, the 60, the vast majority of the 63 House members that I got elected in 2010 are no longer in the House. How do you know that? Because the Democrats have the majority. They squandered that game. They lost those seats. And then what was left became very tribal, became very insular, very fearful of the oncoming onslaught of governing, right? I mean, keep in mind, they took out not one, but two Republican speakers of the house. Do you know how hard it is to get a speaker of the

house? And yet, it was, it was more important to get rid of John Boehner and Paul Ryan over internal stupid than it was to help them, support them, and create a national governing strategy to not just hold the gains we made in 2010, but to expand and grow on that. The Democrats held the House of Representatives for 40 years, between 1954 and 1994, when Newt figured out, you know, with the contract with America and other narratives to break that stranglehold. And of course, Democrats weren't bitching about redistricting and gerrymandering when they held the House for 40 years, but I digress. So the reality of it is, yeah, there was a way to have those conversations. Look, I sat down with the leadership of Tea Party, such as it was, and it was really an amalgam of activity across many states. There was no centralized organization. So I called in 50 individuals from around the country who were part of the Tea Party network, sat down with them.

I think it was in April of 2009 because I wanted to understand what was going on. And their argument and their concern was with the party itself. It was the fact that we moved off of the traditional tenets of constitutional governance. We become a big government Republican Party. We had spending. We had tax increases. We did all these things that were antithetical to our origin story, if you will. So that was what animated them, which is why the Tea Party started out making constitutional arguments. Now, by the time you get to the 2012 presidential, a lot of that had changed. People have figured out how to grip the message. They figured out how to infiltrate the message.

We saw that with Occupy Wall Street, which, you know, had a very honorable narrative about the role and impact of Wall Street on American life and jobs and economy. But then it grew into people camping out in tents and accosting people, right? Well, that's not the origin story of that effort, nor was it the origin story of Tea Party. So for me, it was a matter of understanding. And so we didn't have that noise. The strains were still there. What I remember going and having a conversation with Christine O'Donnell and telling her she was running for the U.S. Senate from Delaware. And I said, you know what? You're just not going to talk about not being a witch anymore. Okay. We're just not having that conversation. All right, boo. We're not doing that.

We're going to talk about we're going to talk about Obama's health care plan. We're going to talk about cap and trade. We're going to talk about the economy and jobs. Working Americans. We're not talking about witchcraft. Where does the Jewish where do the Jewish space lasers enter into that? I'm confused here. I'm just confused. No, we're not doing that. So, again, it's where leadership steps up and leads in the moment to direct the course and the efforts of those who are trying to follow that course. And when that's absent, you get what you get.

I mean, I'll give you a good example. in our immigration system, a la George Bush 2006, that we embrace this diversity, right? We know where the future of the country is. 60 plus thousand Hispanics turn 18 years old every month in this country, right? I think the number is somewhere probably closer to sixty five thousand now turn 18 every month. Right. So we know where the future is going. So how do we how do we lean into that future? Here's the plan. And then what? Two and a half years later, I let some some golden boy from from New York come down a golden staircase and stand in front of a bank of golden microphones and tell us that Mexicans are rapists and murderers and that we're going to build a wall to keep Hispanics out and that, you know, we're not going to be that country?

Where's the leadership that says, no, Mr. Trump, come here, sit your ass down here, let me explain to you how this works. Okay, This is the plan, baby, right here. We just spent a million dollars selling this to the American people. You're not going to crap on it. Yeah. And by the way, I just want to make sure all of our listeners and viewers know that plan that Michael Steele laid out is not a hypothetical plan. This was the GOP autopsy after the 2012 election. They literally totally changed their entire platform and said, we need to be a more inclusive party that embraces civil rights, that embraces modern America. And that was their goal, that they saw the changing country. However, what happened was

Trump came in and he co-opted that. He took away that message and he said, okay, you know what? I guess the thesis of the Trumpers and of that far right faction that has taken over the party was we're never going to actually be able to get to people who care about those issues because those people will probably vote Democrat. So instead, let's try to peel off the most extreme 25, 30 percent of people, rile those extremists up and make that our base and get them to the polls. Because rather than have it diluted with the Democrats constituency, we get these radical 30 percenters to show up every time. But the difference the difference is I didn't need to spend a million dollars to come up with a piece of paper to tell people what we were going to do. You can just win staples. It's cheap. I did it. I did it. We did it in 18 months. We turned around a party that had gotten its clock cleaned in the 2006 cycle where we lost the House, got our clock clean in 2008 where we lost the presidency. Was standing in front of a guy who was king of the world at 70 plus percent approval with the American people when I became chairman of the party.

We were hemorrhaging cash and donors. The base was pissed and angry. And I'm expected to win the upcoming elections that November in Virginia and New Jersey, all right, with, you know, a guy named Chris Christie and a guy named Bob McDonald. And then slingshot that into winning national elections next year, where by that point, Karl Rove and other establishment types who didn't want me in the job in the first place because I broke up their grift, their cash flow, right? Decided to create their own super PACs and divert money away from the RNC. So here I am going, okay, now you hire the black guy to run the party, right? All right, fine.

You want to do that? Let's do it. So we put together a grassroots strategy. I went out into the country. I elevated the state party organizations. They were all equal. They were equal among equals, right? There was no one state that was better going to win the upcoming elections. Tell me who you're going to target. Let us help you target your voters. Let us put the resources in place. I didn't need to write a million dollar plan to allow some idiot from New York could come down and crap on. Who, by the way, at that time was sitting at 3%, 4% approval among Republicans. He had no juice inside the party. So you could very easily go, okay, Donald, I know you are a billionaire and all of that, but you are just like every other candidate who's now announced for the presidency. I'm the national chairman. Let me tell you how this is going to roll. I had that conversation with Chris Christie. He'll tell you what our conversations were like. I told Christie,

look, if you're going to run a white bread, vanilla Republican campaign in New Jersey for governor, I'm not giving you a damn dime. Forget it. So where the leadership comes in and inserts or asserts discipline, messaging, but also creates opportunities for control by those who are out there trying to do their thing. You know, I want to be able to control this little piece, patch of political space. It works. But when you just go, okay, we'll do this for the sake of doing it. Here's the plan, but then it doesn't matter. You get what you get. I think recounting all this history of the Republican Party is extremely illuminating. And let's keep it going. Context matters. Context matters. It absolutely does. And let's take this context. We have a reasonable, affable, friendly, incredible person in yourself, Michael, running the RNC. And now we have a power hungry, craven, shameless person running the RNC and Ronna McDaniel.

What are your thoughts on your successor right now and how she. You know, I generally don't want to crap too much on Reince or Ronna because, A, the job is hard to do. It's one of the reasons why if John McCain had won the presidency in 2008, Michael Steele would not have been chairman of the RNC. Because I would not want to be chairman with the White House breathing over my shoulder. It's just impossible. What I don't like about both of those is that they gave the party over to a psychopath. And a misogynistic psychopath. And the fact,

the moment that Trump told Ronna not to use her family name, Romney, and she said, okay, and stopped using it. I was like, okay, there's no more to say after that.

You know how this story ends for the RNC. You know how this story ends for her chairmanship. And so, you know, this is all on them, all of this. You know, I got asked a lot of times, particularly in the early term of Trump, what would I have done as chairman of the RNC? And I said, I probably my last day on the job probably would have been after Charlottesville because there's no way in hell as national chairman. I would stand up as a black man and say, yeah, they're fine people on both sides or remain silent on that. Oh, hell no. And so it just, you know, that's why I know me well enough to know I don't play well with others

who don't know how to play. Yeah. And so if your go-to in that moment when a young woman is killed because of the craven racist behaviors of individuals, you don't recognize that moment and can speak to the country, not just with empathy and understanding, but clarity on the subject of race, and it's still royally impacted has on individuals and the country as a whole, then you don't deserve to be in that job. And I cannot, in good conscience, I never could just walk away from that responsibility. As I tell people, it's been my story in my life, I wake up every morning, the first thing I see is a Black man. I don't see a Catholic. I don't see a Republican. I see a Black man. And when I walk out of this house, that's the first thing everybody sees. So that's my reality, and that's the reality around me. and if they're antagonists to that reality, then I've got to be prepared to

respond in that moment, regardless of what other titles and positions I may have. And when leaders stop leading in that way, when they're more concerned about their title and their position, when they're more concerned about their reelection, when they're more concerned about their title and their position, when they're more concerned about their reelection, when they're more concerned about their petty little future, when they have banked so much on this elected position that they feel they can't do anything else, they don't deserve to be in that job. And then that falls back on us as citizens because we put them there. Now, we didn't put, as a country, Ronna in her job or ransom the job. That's an inside political game. But we did put the man who was telling them what to do in the job. We did put in place the men and women in Congress who support that lunacy, who support that anti-democratic behavior, who now seem poised, gentlemen,

to return to power those very same individuals who fomented insurrection against the nation. Why? Because, oh, gosh, gas is $5 a gallon. Oh, my God, inflation is 8.3%. Oh, my God, this is all Joe Biden's fault. Yeah. OK, not. But that's that's if that's our go to where we value the price of gas more than our democracy. Where do you think this goes? Yeah. How do you think this ends? So I'm glad you bring up that point, because that's that's a point that we've been harping on in this show, too. Like, are people really going to look at the price of gas, which is not controlled by the president of the United States and say, because the price of gas is high, I am going to throw away the entire American experiment or, you know, or because I have to pay a couple of dollars more for eggs or whatever it is, I'm going to throw

away the entire democracy. So if you were in charge- Can I just say real quick to you, could you make an excellent point there, Brett? Just ask yourself, what would your grandparents have? How would things have turned out if your grandparents during the during the Great Recession depression said, you know what? This Roosevelt thing, I just I'm not feeling it. I'm just going to I'm just going to go ahead and go back to the party that, you know, where the stock market crashed, right? Or, you know what, I'm just not buying this whole idea of defending Europe, you know, against this little mustached idiot named Hitler, because I just don't want to go to work in some cannery, turn the cannery into a factory that can make the equipment that our boys and girls need to fight the war in Europe. Where would we be? Yep.

Where would we be? So, you know, that resolve comes his faults, obviously, and he's not the best at times of articulating and clarifying the moment. But we ain't stupid. You know, we we we can fill in a lot of the a lot of the blank spaces. And, you know, if if imagine where we would be if Ukraine didn't have a Zelensky and they had a Trump. Yeah. Imagine where we would be if we didn't have a Biden and we had a Trump right now. So these things matter and we just can't step away from that. So now a quick word from our sponsors, then we'll be right back with Michael Steele after this. Saying goodbye to high interest credit card debt is one of the first steps toward financial independence, but the interest month after month can feel like you're in a never-ending

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And so if you were in charge, I know this is probably a bit too hard for you to even imagine, but say all of a sudden tomorrow you were put in charge of the DNC. I know that pains you to even think about, but they say, okay, so what are we focusing on now? Obviously there are global issues like inflation, like the price of oil. There's also a threat to our democracy. There's extremism on the other side. How are you messaging it? Democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy, to our democracy. There's extremism on the other side. How are you messaging it? Democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy. If Joe Biden in the State of the Union had made 90 percent of that conversation about democracy, tied it to the war in Ukraine, tied it to January 6th, it made people understand it won't matter how much gas costs when you are put in jail because you expressed openly in the public square opposition to something the leadership of

the country did. It won't matter what inflation is if you find yourself without a job and blackballed politically because of your stance on a policy position. It won't matter. That's the conversation you need to have because the country needs to understand what the hell do you think January of 2023 looks like, March of 2023 looks like, December of 2023 looks like if McCarthy, McConnell are setting up Trump for 2024.

You've got the leadership saying to you, I mean, just right now, that if you give us the power, then we'll tell you what we're going to do. All right, so let me put it to you this way, gentlemen. You pay me, and then I'll build you a house. Well, what's in it? Well, I'll tell you when I start building. But just give me your money now, and I'll go and I'll build a house for you. What size? Well, I'll tell you what size later. Will it have two bathrooms or one? I don't know yet. I'll let you know. I mean, you don't operate in your life that way? Why do you why would you want your democracy to work that way?

Yeah. Why would you hand the country over to people like that? And we've been, you know, warning now over the course of the Trump years about the attacks on democracy. And then it all culminated with a literal attack on democracy on January 6th. And now we're dealing with the fallout from that. And I think also the Republican, and I use this word very loosely, the Republican leadership and their reaction to January 6th, I think has been incredibly disheartening. And I'm sure it is for you as well. What's your thoughts when you hear about like these leaked tapes, when you hear these Kevin McCarthy tapes that were leaked or had the conversations? It's not surprising. We've been saying for five years now, oh, you know, you talk to these guys

privately and they're like, oh, my God, Donald Trump is such a pain in the ass. Oh, my God, we know all, you know, and then they got in front of a bank of microphones. Donald Trump is the best thing for the Republican Party. I'm like, so you have no spine. Yeah. What do I do with that? What do you do with a jellyfish? You know, it really what what what use does it have besides just being in the ocean? You know, and so you you have to you have to look at these things in a way that they have to be

clarifying. The moment, going back to the question about, you know, what do you do with the Democratic Party? You have to clarify the moment for the country. We watched them waste a year talking about something people didn't give a damn about, the filibuster. You didn't have the votes. There was no way you could have the votes. So why are you wasting our time? Unless you can cut a backroom deal with Manchin and Sinema, shut the hell up. All right?

Figure out a different strategy. I said during that time, let Joe Biden be Joe Biden. Unleash the senator. All right? Because that's his nature. The fact that his inner circle prevented him from talking more directly with and more frequently with Mitch McConnell, I think was detrimental in the process. Understand the opponent in front of you and assess their weaknesses, assess their strengths, assess the BS that they put out there, assess the truth that they put out there, and then figure out how you move on that political chessboard, right, to grab the pieces you want.

Right. And that makes sense. The voters. And that strategy, look, we're six months or less out from, you know, the fall elections. It's kind of late to kind of put that strategy in place. So narratively, at this point, you've got to do hard, you have to be a hard hammer. You're really going to have to hammer it home. And the economy is not going to be your friend here. It just isn't at this point. The result that you're going to want to get from inflation and gas prices and store prices are not going to be helpful. So, you have to make the case of why it matters. All right, fine. Give us the next two years. Give us, what is it going to be helpful. So you have to make the case of why it matters. All right, fine. Give us the

next two years. Give us what is it going to hurt you to let us have the House and the Senate, to let us do the work. Give us the number we need so we don't have to worry about, you know, a thin margin and, you know, two senators holding out and give us some working room here. And if we screw it up and can't put a product on the plate for you by 24, fine, we get it. All right. But this sort of midterm, oh, I'm going to go back to the other team because I'm not happy what this team has done in less than 18 months. It drives me crazy. It's the dumbest way to govern. And our political system allows it and perpetuates it because it's about how I take back power.

Now, we've had the power for four years, Republicans. We had the House, the Senate, and the White House for two of those four years. Right. What did we do with it? Repeal and replace Obamacare infrastructure week every week for four years. Still waiting on the health care plan. So health care plan. Right. Where, where, where, where did we govern? Oh, we got a tax cut. But if, you know, everybody knows there's no secret. That wasn't for you and me and everyday workers out there. That was for people who had like, you know, how do you as a party, how how do Democrats make the case for the country? Oh, it's an it's an excellent point, Michael.

And I want to take it back more again now to the Republican Party or at least this new Republican Party. Now, we talked earlier in the interview. You know, you know, these people intimately, a lot of these folks who are in this modern day Republican Party. Now, we talked earlier in the interview, you know, you know, these people intimately, a lot of these folks who are in this modern day Republican Party. And just, I mean, to you, who's disappointed you the most? Like who's had the biggest like the evolution of this was someone who really wanted to make change in this country? All of them. them well and i can say that i can say that jordy because i i've known i've known these guys they've known me they know that's what i'm saying they know how i roll they know yeah i'm a hothead i you know i'm a very very i mean i you know very strong libertarian streak in many regards. When it comes to a lot of things,

the party used to be, you know, look, you do you, boo, we don't need to interfere in what goes on in your bedroom. We don't need to interfere with what goes on in, you know, classroom. Let the local community work that out, you know, sort of that sense of the limited purpose of government, the limited influence and role of government in your everyday lives. Yes, government's there to create that ultimate safety net so no one falls through some cracks or holes, but are actually able to recover and move on towards how they define their American dream. We used to work closely in that space. I mean, hell, even in the midst of impeaching Bill Clinton, Republicans and Democrats, along

with the president, was able to balance the nation's budget for the first time in a generation and reform welfare and entitlement programs and move the nation's agenda forward. Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan, you know, used to go at each other with gangbusters, but like good Irishmen would end the day with a little whiskey and a smile and a pat on the back to get ready for the next round the next day. But the country, the country benefited from that relationship, both domestically and internationally. So it can be done. And these individuals, many of whom are still serving in Congress, were there for those moments. They know what that's like. They knew what that felt like for the country to be able to do those things.

The fact that they've given up on the country because they're so afraid of a rabble-rousing group of QAnon psychos who have, you know, if you lose in a primary because you stood on principle, that's not a loss, that's a win. And you lost a seat, but you kept your dignity intact, right? You can look yourself in the mirror and go, my man. Right. You know. Yes, exactly. I did it. But these guys cower in the face of that pressure. And so it has been very disappointing when I hear and see, you know, the Marco Rubio's and others, you know, the Lindsey Grahams, you know, Lindsey and I laugh and cry and joke. And he's just a cool guy. And I'm like, dude, what the hell? What is your problem? That's not who you are. And so it's been very, very frustrating on many quarters to watch this happen, to watch people so desperate to hold on to an elected seat and power that they could not stand with Liz Cheney

when it mattered. They could not stand with Adam Kinzinger when it mattered. And that even to this day, they still talk in hushed tones and secret circles about how much they deplore Trump and hate Trump. But the minute he shows up in their state, they're right there on the stage, patting him on the back, giving him an attaboy and encouraging more crazy. It goes back to your earlier perfect analogy about the infestation of roaches in the house at the moment. And you have the MTGs, you have the Madison Cawthorns, you have the Matt Gateses. Although he looks good. He looks good in lingerie. I'll give him that.

You know, so let me ask you about Madison and we don't have to talk about the specific video or the specific attacks in general. But why not? But why not? No, but isn't it interesting to you? Maybe, I mean, maybe interesting is not the right word, but what are your thoughts on the fact that this is where the modern day Republican party draws the line? If someone outs members of the Republican party for cocaine and orgy parties versus spreading election fraud and QAnon rhetoric. Like, why is that the line in the sand that they've drawn? It's actually pretty straightforward. One is personal and the other one isn't. So because it's a fight around democracy and and principles and values, that's like that's that's like ether.

Right. What does a democracy look like? What does, you know, values and principles sound like? But we know what you look like in lingerie. I like it. And we know what you sound like when you're in an orgy. So it's, you know, or snorting cocaine. So that sort of, uh-oh, you're now starting to tell stories that are cutting too close to the bone and are starting to reveal a little bit too much. We're going to have to shut you down real fast. So they flip the script and they turn the tables. All he did was speak truth. He got invited to cocaine orgies by some members of the Republican Party.

Hello. That's been going on for quite a while. Madison Carthorne ain't new to that stuff. I mean, look at all the stories. Michael still knows about the cocaine orgies. Confirmed. Wait, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We got it. We got it we got a confirmed true i know i

i never got invited that's for sure but you're aware of these events but you're aware that these events happen in republican circles no i you know look i don't know that ain't my thing so whatever madison was into he was into My point being, we're already seeing, no, seriously, but we're already seeing these individuals, you know, the Republican candidate who tells women, you know, says, I tell my daughter, I told my daughters if they would get raped, you know, to lie back and enjoy it. The Republican candidates who, the one who won his primary while he's in jail for murdering his wife. It's absurd. OK, it sounds like it sounds like a headline from The Onion.

Thank you. So Madison Cawthorn coming out talking about cocaine orgy parties. That's like, oh, OK, that's normal. And by the way, that's the one truthful thing that's probably ever come out of his mouth. But I want to move on here to Ron DeSantis. I mean, oh, my goodness. Like when you see someone like DeSantis banning books, targeting Disney, isn't that the opposite at the reaction of Republicans to the Terry Schiavo case, which was the Florida case of the young woman who was on life support in a thought it'd be best to give her peace. Her mother and father did not. And you remember that battle. And this, again, was one of the things that animated the Tea Party originally, when then-Governor, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, with his brother in the White House, made overtures to interfere in that, to prevent the husband from taking her off life support. The Senate, if you recall, Republicans controlled the Senate at the time, came back into a special session to put a resolution

out to condemn taking off life support. Well, that is a violation of a core value for a lot of Republicans like myself. The government has no role there. There is no space there. So it is the height of irony that we now see these same Republicans running around telling people that this book is bad and we're going to burn it. That this corporation doesn't have the right to free speech since they clearly did on Citizens United, right? I think that's what that case was about,

which is why they can raise all this money that Mr. DeSantis loves getting from them. But so, yeah, it is ironic. It is hypocrisy. But it's about power. And if control and power comes to me by going against everything that I once stood for, guess what? I'm going to do that. And that's what DeSantis is illustrating. And the fact that everyone's applauding it, the fact that we've now become the anti-corporate party. And ironically, the Democrats seem to be a little bit more protective of corporate rights, like, you know, free speech. It's kind of a weird shift. But there's still this this this strain that exists, the sort of anti-Wall Street strain that's still there that runs between both parties

that, you know, whether it's Elizabeth Warren or or Mr. DeSantis kind of playing against, you know, those corporations with those narratives. But in very different ways. In very different ways, but in very different ways, but at the same time, you know, you know, one person's band is another person's opportunity. So it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, if you're taking, Oh, well,

we want them to pay their fair share of taxes versus, you know, allowing them to, to, to say what, what they want about those taxes. You know, when they push back on that, on those corporate tax, taxes you want to oppose them, what do you say then? All right. And so that's the space you're going to get in here. But we see it with the book bandings. I also find the book banding stuff to be hysterical. This whole CRT culture, anti-culture push. Can I just say something to all these white parents who are worried about their little white baby boys and girls being influenced by, you know, black culture and books that express our history.

Could you go into your child's room and look at what they're watching and reading and listening to on YouTube and Instagram? Because trust me, you can burn the book, baby. They just get it online because their friends are reading it. Their friends say, hey, man, Tony Morrison's got this. Have you read this book? Oh, yeah. Download it. Were you taking their phones from them?

What are you doing? I mean, so this idea that, you know, I mean, I look at a TikTok video and I'm like, damn, where did these white people learn how to dance? Right? Damn, what the hell? How did she move like that? She's moving like a sister.

What the? Come on now. People, stop being stupid. We are integrated. You can't unintegrate this ish. You can't do it. I'm influencing you. You're influencing me. Come on. This is America. This is what we've always done. It is why everyone still wants to be a part of the party they want to come here and hang out they want to raise their family here they want to give their kids that experience because they know it is the ultimate freedom to express yourself so you know can we just stop the stupid and don't be so upset when black people start telling their own history that you've written for the last 400 damn years? We don't need to do that anymore.

Right. Mic drop right there. Michael, you've been so generous with your time. Thank you so much. I just have one more for you. And you can give it to me straight, man. I can hear it. I'm a big boy here.

Is there hope? I'm the youngest of my brothers. I want to have a family. I want to have kids. I want them big boy here. Is there hope? I'm the youngest of my brothers. I want to have a family. I want to have kids. I want them to be happy. Is there hope that this country can become its best version of itself and at least, at minimum,

reclaim some political normalcy? Yeah, I think there is. And I'll tell you why. Because of what you just expressed. There is hope when your generation looks at the mess that my generation has laid before you. And you can still say that. And you're going to be married soon, and you're going to at some point start a family, and these issues become even more daunting and more important and more concerning to you because you will have not just the new life of a baby, but the new life of a family that you're going to, you and your wife are going to raise together in this country. And those values, those ideals

will matter because they always have. They mattered to your parents, your grandparents. They mattered at some of the lowest points in our history during the civil rights struggle, during the struggle for equality for women, during the Great War, Civil War. those were the things that got us through those moments, that generation that expressed exactly what you did just now. So yeah, that's where the hope lies. It'll be frustrating. It'll be daunting. You'll shake your head a lot and go, damn, people are stupid. But you will also in the next moment go, OK, so what can I do? How can I make it better? How can I be an influence? And that's that's really, for me, the spark that's that's going to be necessary to reset this. When we're looking at the upcoming election. If you're in your 20s and you say, well, I voted in 20, I'm done. No, baby, that's not how it works. Exactly.

You know, you don't go to work, get a paycheck and go, I don't need to go next week. No, you do if you want another paycheck. And you got to vote again if you want a better democracy, if you want to improve on from where things are now. So I see the hope in your words and that I hope you do too, which sounds like you do. And I hope people hear that. I think those are moving and poignant words to end on a little bit of hope, a little bit of optimism. Michael Steele, I want to thank you for being so generous with your time today. As Jordy said, I hope you and the Motel 6 Republicans kick those Motel Q Republicans out of town eventually. And maybe one day we will be able to convince you to just get accepted and come on our side. Come on over. Come on, Michael. Make sure if you're listening to the show,

make sure you're following Michael Steele on Twitter. That's at Michael Steele. And make sure you follow us and subscribe to his podcast, The Michael Steele Podcast. If you are listening to this podcast, you know where to find podcasts. They're everywhere. Go subscribe to The Michael Steele Podcast. Michael Steele, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you guys very much. It was a lot of fun and great conversation.

We'll be right back after this. Welcome Congressman Adam Schiff, Molly John Fast, Mike McFaul, Andrew Weissman, Barb McQuaid, Glenn Kirshner, Colonel Alexander Vindman, former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and all the appropriate profanity. Lawsuit to block that s***. Captain Douche. Bulls***. Immigration executive order. Anyone that's stupid should just not be in Congress. Renowned cowardly f*** face Kevin McCarthy. The leader of the douche crew.

Even Mary Trump agrees. Joining this binder full of women curating the news from the left with appropriate f***ing profanity. Listen weekday mornings to The Daily Beans. Left-leaning news from a woman's perspective. We make the news bearable by making it swearable. So put some beans on it with Dana Goldberg, Amy Carrero, and me, Alison Gill. And who doesn't f***ing like that?

Jordy, Jordy, Jordy. What a great interview with Michael Steele, huh? I mean, I honestly had like more fun speaking with Michael Steele than I have with most guests. He's a very funny guy, too. Like very funny, very normal. I think I think, look, we push back where necessary during the interview. So I was really proud of our interview skills.

And ultimately, ultimately, that's what it is, though. That's a that's a civilized conversation that you would like to have with someone who still considers themselves at least a Republican. I'm trying to figure out what I would think, like if I flashed back to like 10 years ago or something and somebody told me, like, in 10 years, you know, I would even want to, you know, but like he really is like a really good person to have on our side. I think he's really smart and he represents a faction of the Republican Party that I hope comes back. And by the way, I think that ship has long sailed. I think that train has long left the station. And I think maybe he will figure that out soon that I think we got them towards the end to come over to our side. I think saving this party, I think he might maybe more than one foot on our side now at this point. Uh, but I do, I did just want to remind everyone. So that interview, just to remind you that was recorded

before the events of this weekend. Uh, obviously we would have covered it during that conversation, but still an eyeopening conversation with Michael Steele nonetheless. And is it fair to say that he confirmed the orgy and cocaine parties? Hey, like I cannot confirm nor deny that he said that, but I mean, let's read between the lines, folks, and you tell me what you took away from that conversation. But in all seriousness, I know there's a lot going on in the world. So I want to thank you for tuning in and sticking with us day in and day out. I know it's not easy to be in the weeds of the news. Believe me, we know more than everybody as we read every single story and are aware of everything that's going on constantly. It's heavy. It's tough. It's really, really tough. But that's why we're so

grateful that you take time out of your week to spend it with us, to chat with us, to engage with us, to support our efforts, because it really is an existential crisis for the country. And we really need to be doing everything possible that we can to be making sure that Democrats hold and expand our leads in the House and in the Senate. I want to give a huge shout out also, you know, I know we spoke about it last week, but to everybody who protested over the weekend, everybody who went out for these bands of our bodies rallies across the country, it was so inspiring. I love to see all the signs, the streets flooded with Americans who have are just fed up. They're fed up with being told what to do with their own bodies. They're fed up of being controlled by this handmaid's tale style,

ultra MAGA Republican party. And yesterday over the weekend, we spoke out, we hit the streets in November. We need to make sure that we mobilize in the same way, but to the polls and we vote, because if we vote in those sorts of numbers, Republicans are not going to know what hit them. And that's what I want. I want them to feel cocky going into these elections. And I want to hit them with the biggest voter turnout we have ever seen. And I want to totally ruin all of their plans to try to take power and impose their draconian, radical, ultra MAGA agenda. I also want to give a huge shout out to somebody who is a huge supporter of our show that I need to give a shout out to. You know her because she's on our show a bunch and you know her because she needs no introduction. But Mary Trump, if you aren't already listening, you got to start listening to the Mary Trump show. She's one of the brightest minds fighting for democracy. And she's doing these brilliant interviews and strategy sessions with leaders on the left that are defining the political conversation and giving us hope for the 2022 election. She's truly teaching us how to fight and how to win.

Her incredible guests have included people like Ellie Mistal, David K. Johnston, Tara Setmeyer, Katie Couric, Fiona Hill, Malcolm Nance, many others. And I don't want to brag or anything, but we were on the show as well. Let's go. A couple of weeks ago. Definitely check that out. You know, Mary takes on the current events and the many challenges our country is facing with the goal of helping Dems win the midterms so that we can take back our

country. So be sure to subscribe to her show at YouTube.com slash Politicon. And you can join her every Tuesday and Thursday. They do a live show at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific. It's YouTube.com slash Politicon for the Mary Trump show live. And you can also find the Mary Trump show wherever you get your podcast, except for Spotify. She's not on Spotify. So, you know, I'll see you there. We sometimes pop into the chat and hang out with Mary Trump, all the viewers, because Mary really is the best. Jordy, do you have any final words? I want to say this to my fellow Pennsylvanians, to my fellow Yinzers. If you're listening to this on Monday night during the YouTube Facebook Live we have a big primary to go and vote to tomorrow that's May 17th

if you're listening on Tuesday May 17th you have a big primary to vote in today make sure you get out there and vote shout out Team Shapiro and shout out to the Midas Mighty you