The Press Box - Ep. 90: 'Keepin' It 1600' With Kal Penn

Episode Date: April 15, 2016

Jon and Dan recap the major story lines of the week: Bill Clinton's finger-wagging, De Blasio's botched bit with Hillary, President Obama's 'GoT' viewership, Trump's new hires, and Cruz's craziness. Then, former White House adviser and actor Kal Penn hops on the line to break down Bernie's hopes for the nomination, pushing grassroots political action, and Obama's legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to this week's episode of Keeping at 1600. I'm John Favreman. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. And this week we have a great episode. We have a special guest. Cal Penn is joining the podcast. Actor, activist, former White House staffer, and current Bernie Sanders supporter. We've got a lot of, probably the most political...

Yes. Cal is not one of these celebrities that just goes out there and says crazy shit on the campaign trail. He's probably the most knowledgeable celebrity about politics and issues that I've certainly ever come across. Yeah, he literally were happy he did. Okay, let's talk about this week.

There were no primaries, there were no debates, and yet plenty of crazy shit happened. We just wanted to go through just a couple of the... It was basically, Dan, I think you said this. This was like a week where everyone was really bad at politics. Yeah, exactly.

It was, you know, there should have been a week this week. I mean, it's on doing well in the New York, doing very, very well in this New York, Bernie Sanders away, stupid shit. Yeah, it started with while we were taping this podcast last week, Bill Clinton was at an event and sort of took on some Black Lives Matter

protesters. Twice now, just as like, you should choose Bill Clinton week. And then by the time we finished, it was the number one thing trending on Twitter worldwide. So I have Twitter up just in case shit blows up while we're on the phone today. And typical of things that blow up like that.

It's pretty much over this week, but I thought it was weird. I mean, these Black Lives Matters protesters were, you know, were doing their thing, and Clinton sort of interrupted them and got all like finger waggy as he does these days and did in 2008 a couple times. And said, you know, if you want to defend gang members sending African American kids out into the streets who are killing other African American kids like that, you know, that's your business. I just don't know why he didn't say about the crime bill what he said. said earlier this year when he basically apologized for portions of the crime bill that went too far that kept people incarcerated too long. He had a pretty great apology for it earlier and was very honest, and I thought that was

an admirable thing. He didn't quite stick to that message this time. I think they got under his skin. Clinton may be the most human of all presidents. We saw this in 2008. This one was different in the sense of this. He got angry and he reacted. The award for dumb moments.

Oh, my God. for our, in running for president and triangulation. What, what year can we put a moratorium on the references to Sister Soldier moments since it seems to be like pundits use it in D.C. now who are around in the 90s and think that we haven't left the 90s and that everyone still knows or cares about Sister Solja is like the most pivotal moment in all of politics. Like no one gives a shit about that anymore. Right.

And it makes, there was a political argument for whatever. the here there is he got angry and I can understand what he got in the 90 at some point if you're Bill Clinton

and you feel like with that you did a lot of American community and you're getting criticism and the people are saying these horrible things about you you'll react

you know it wasn't it changes you know we don't have that many days left between now in New York primary Clinton yeah and and keeping

the theme going a couple days later there was a very awkward comedy skit involving Hillary Clinton and Bill de Blasio, where I don't even know why this happened, why she was at this dinner,

but it was a comedy dinner in New York City that happens every year with the press, and there was a skit involving a cast member from Hamilton, Hillary Clinton and Bill de Blasio, which, first of all, like, what a conceit. So Bill de Blasio, So Hillary Clinton walks out and she says, you know, Bill, thank you for the endorsement. It took you long enough, which is funny in itself because Bill de Blasio was her campaign manager for her first Senate race. And he has, like, taken a long time to endorse her because he hasn't been as, you know, favorable towards her as you should have been, right?

Or people expected him to be. So funny joke. And then he looks at her and he goes, sorry, Hillary. I was on CPT. And you see her groans from the audience. And the Hamilton cast member says, oh, we don't like jokes like that. And Hillary says, no, no, no, he meant cautious politician time. Now, this was all scripted and planned in advance.

This is not an off-the-cuff thing. I mean, as someone who's been involved in joke writing for politicians, it's a dicey business. I get that. And I get that it's very easy to go over the edge. But it was just poor humor more than anything else. Also, if you watch the video, the far worst thing in that video is before that happens, Bill de Blasio is out there, and he's actually rapping about, quote, my home girl, Hillary, which just don't do it.

It's like, if you're a political operative, right, you work on a campaign, you work for a politician, don't let your boss wrap. Take that piece of paper on your bathroom mirror and look at it every day when you brush your teeth. It's not that hard. And how people forget it, right? every once in a while, as you say, like a politician's on you. Yeah, it was, but anyway, so you know what, Hillary's going to win by a lot in New York. So they're probably fine.

The other thing we wanted to mention this that happened yesterday was there was a story about, this is a new category I want to have on our podcast, which is called Ted Cruz is still pretty bat-shit crazy. lest we forget because we're too focused on Donald Trump and we think that Ted Cruz is a quote unquote normal nominee. Ted Cruz was involved as Solicitor General in Texas in 2007 with a case where they tried to ban all sex toys from the state of Texas. And the reasoning that Cruz used in his argument was that no one has a right to stimulate one's genitals.

was a legal argument made by Ted Cruz in Texas in 2007. So the best part was Craig Mazen, who is a screenwriter here in L.A., who, if Ted Cruz is the nominee, we have to get Craig on this show. And just because he is the Ted Cruz whisperer. We should have him anyway. We should have him anyway. Craig, sweet at us. Please. He was Cruz's roommate.

This is why he's important. And he's important because he's a successful screenwriter. but for us it's because he was his roommate. And so he tweeted yesterday, Ted Cruz thinks people don't have a right to, quote, stimulate their genitals. I was his college roommate. This would be a new belief of his.

Masturbation hypocrisy is just laughing. And like so many thoughts on this. One, which is a lot of thoughts on this. Prop to Ted Cruz for taking a great. Second is, I spoke out against masturbation and they didn't clap. They didn't clap.

So you can go so far with that. They, for our young listeners, and you say nice to your college roommate. Yeah, no shit. For president, the press is going to call your college roommate, and you want them to say nice in the back of your head. I think that's good advice. And then the last small thing that happened yesterday was,

it was a reporter in the Hollywood reporter that one person in America has received advanced screeners of season six of Game of Thrones, and that person is our old friend Barack Obama. So screw him. This is not like a real controversial. Who was pissed off? Was anyone pissed off that we can call out on the air that has a job in the media?

Chris Lizza was piff, but I think it was so outrageous. I don't think it was smart. That is smart. And like my view on this is President of the Game of Thrones before everyone else. Like you should do that. It was. It really was the, it made me, it was the first time I really regretted leaving the White House. Because if we were still there, you can tell that he's just thrown up those screeners in the conference room on Air Force One while they're flying around playing spades.

And the president is, it's from the last eight years. I was just going to say, yeah, the president bases this political agenda in Game of Thrones. He's breaking the wheel. So that was this week. The actual substantive thing that happened this week was that Paul Ryan came out and told everyone that he, will not accept the nomination for president, should he be given it at the Republican Convention in Cleveland, which, hey, no shit.

On this podcast, last week, we predicted that. Yes, area man announces he won't commit political suicide. I mean, of course, there's still, I just saw a story yesterday afternoon or this morning, I think Ryan Lizzie did one, that said, yes, Paul Ryan is still. because the only way he can actually get the nomination and pretend that he's trying to unify the party is if he says unequivocally that he will not accept the nomination. I'm just like, what's it going to take?

But like right now with the tears of the establishment Republicans, like they are so... Yeah, like... I believe he's about running. Right, yeah, there's no... they really don't like saying even if he wanted to run he would in the hashtag never Trump movement. Yes. Because this Fed Cruz, but the Cruz is the only. It's pretty real. I mean, look, I do think the idea that it's going to be, you're right, like the idea that this is going to someone who's not Trump or Cruz right now, it's hard to believe because I still think that what's underreported is how great Ted Cruz's organization is.

And on the second ballot, you know, when you have a bunch of, if we get to a second ballot, if Trump doesn't, get 1237 and he doesn't win on the first ballot, then you have a lot of unbound delegates, but if you have a bunch of delegates that are loyal to Ted Cruz that are handpicked by the Cruz campaign, then the idea that those delegates are going to Rubio or Kasich or some other person, it just seems hard to believe at this point, you know? Or the will of like 80 some percent of the Republican voter is some other person. And Trump hit, or, you know, he's like the old. And we see the state conventions that he looks to pick up 130 votes on the second ballot.

So there are people who are pledged, establish, non-Trump people in those slots here in Delegance plates with these coming contests. But, you know, he's put himself in a position where it's very. Yes. No, I think that's right. And so now the question is, can Trump get there, which is the question that's been hanging over our heads for a while? So he made some moves this week. First of all, he's been sort of quiet. It's funny that in our list of crazy shit that happened this week, Donald Trump was not in there.

He did not say anything ridiculous this week, or at least uniquely ridiculous for him. But he made some hiring moves that were interesting. Paul Manafort, who he's going to have run the delegate process and the organization at the convention, who has some experience doing this and also has some experience. you know, representing clients who've recruited child soldiers and put landmines in schoolyards, but that's another, that's a whole other issue for Paul Manafort. So he did that, and then he also hired Rick Wiley, who was Scott Walker's campaign manager, a former Rudy Giuliani deputy campaign manager, like helped Republicans take back the Senate in 2014.

So Rick Wiley is like a legitimate Republican operative, really skilled at organization. Right. Right. Lobbyist, Republicans, much more establishment than that. And, you know, worked up like a premier... The other thing, the other thing is fighting with each other and in disarray. And I'm not sure Rick Wiley is a force for time at the end of the campaign. Explaining to the press, why... For a political operative when you lose your campaign, if you're immediately out there.

Feels like a loyalty issue. And so there was a... Right, definitely. And so there was a pretty interesting political... And in it, it said... Who will not be prosecuted? by the way. Corrie. That would be prosecuted.

That's what goes for good news in the Trump camp these days. Our glorified bouncer of a campaign manager won't be prosecuted for battery. Three cheers. Right. And definitely the man of Fort Wiley

Camps in charge. In the story, in the Trump campaign so that people can know. Oh my God, really? They call each other. They have like all staff email addresses and you don't know who it's going to. You're just sending emails out into the ether.

That's bad. And, you know, like, there are a thousand reasons that Trump would be a terrible president in my view. And in the view of about two-thirds of America, according to the new Washington Post poll today. Yeah, 70% of disapproval. How you run your campaign is indicative. Not entirely of how you would be president, but it is a sign as to whether you add. Absolutely. It's like, it's amazing that he's run an ad.

He has great candidate skills. terrible, the other candidates, right? I mean, well, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. It'll be interesting to see, like, all these things seem terrible. But he's, like, right around getting 50% of the vote in New York. And if he does that, you know, maybe this stuff doesn't matter that much. Yeah, I mean, here's what I'm looking for. There was a member of the RNC Rules Committee on yesterday on MSNBC,

who said that if Trump gets 1,100 by June 7th when California votes and all the primaries are done, he'll be the nominee because between June 7th, 7th and Cleveland, you have time to flip a bunch of unbound delegates. There's a bunch of unbound delegates that are going to be going into the convention with no loyalties to anyone. Some of them come from states like Pennsylvania, which just leaves its delegates unbound, and some of them come from all over the country. So there is an opportunity if Trump doesn't hit 1237 on June 7th, we should say, where he can get to it by Cleveland, right? So the question is, the questions left for Trump, right, are he's going to win New York by a lot. He's going to win a lot of these northeastern

states by a lot, he's going to lose a lot of these Western states and Midwestern states that remain to Ted Cruz. We all know that. The states that I think we don't know that there's not a lot of good polling on, that the really smart folks at 538 and other delegate people don't know about are Indiana and California. Indiana comes like May 3rd, but then it really all boils down to California. Like I think the importance of California in this process has been a little understated because it is the last primary. It is, it awards delegates, it awards like maybe 13 delegates statewide or some small number like that. And then it's basically 53 separate

primaries and 53 different congressional districts that all award to award their delegates to the person who wins that district. And there's not great polling there so far. And we don't know who's ahead. And it's all about organization. And we know Trump's not good at organization, but also some of these recent hires, maybe, you know, maybe Trump has all this focus on California now. And also, whoever wins California, you got to think, like, that's the last bit of momentum leading into the convention. And so in a world where Trump ekes it out in California and wins a bunch of delegates

there, and he's close to 1237, you know, does that switch, does that change minds or persuade some of these unbound delegates to jump on board before Cleveland? I don't know. What do you think? I think that our primary is going to count. I think the, and that's because the bigger the state, particularly with a short time frame, the budget, the voters here have not been exposed to the campaign. Big media markets. If you want to make it, if you want to make a real different.

And they're going to try to pick off delegates in these districts where there's like 80% Democratic voters and 20% Republican voters, right? Because then you're getting more. bang for your buck. And so like, you know, like Nancy Pelosi's congressional district is going to award some delegates to a Republican. And the question is like, can you go find those Republicans in that district if you're Ted Cruz or Donald Trump and get their votes? And, you know, you could spend probably less money than you would in a heavily Republican district in California and still get the same amount of delegates. Now, that's an interesting strategy. Finding the Republicans in

Nancy Pelosi district will be challenging, but I think to be able to use the their dad's Trump candidate. Even if you look, if you like the Grafini on the Republican side or like the guys at 538 or 10 or any of those guys, you like, they will all tell you that where Trump's travel makes zero sense from a delicate perspective. Yeah. Okay. Our guest on the show this week is Cal Penn.

Cal was the associate director for the White House Office of Public Engagement. He's an actor, an activist, and a current Bernie Sanders supporter. a good friend of the podcast. Thank you, Cal, for joining us today. What made you, I was going to ask, what made you first start knocking on doors for Obama? You were one of the first endorsers, supporters of Obama way back in 2007. I met you knocking on doors in Iowa right before the caucuses,

and you were probably the hardest working surrogate we had and then joined up with the White House. staff. Had you always been interested in politics, or were you just sort of inspired by the Obama campaign? I think it's not by much at the time back in that. Good point. No, you know, I was always interested in politics, but I was, because it's not just in our 2007. Oh, yes. This first one of the things certainly worked the hardest, but we had a lot of people from Hollywood and music and entertainment.

But when the campaign was over, they all, and you made a different decision, and you joined Pision and we... Yeah, so I think for probably actually their site, we had set up for literally not fishing. for a job, but just kind of trying to make small talk with people I hadn't seen in a while. Somebody would call it any favor. Meanwhile, your resume is still in the spam folder of somewhere at change.gov. Yeah, who has vet now, by the way? It turned into health care.

So in this election, you have chosen, you're feeling the burn. Can you tell us why you ended up going with Bernie over Hillary? I know that was a choice for, it's been a choice for a lot of people that I don't think was the easiest choice. I like Bernie Sanders. It's not like I'm, you know, I'm not one of these people who's really intense on, on disliking him at all. But, yeah, I was wondering sort of what made you go with it, because we've talked about this a lot. Yeah, for me, it kind of actually goes back to 07 and 08, where one of the primary reasons I joined is about he should vote no if he was what he meant when he said. Yeah, so this is one of the thing that's sort of,

gets me. And like, I was very proud of us in 07 and 082 for not taking lobbyist money. And I do, I think there's too much money in politics. I think it has undue influence on the process. The thing I sort of worry about is you hear an argument, you hear the argument from Sanders and a lot of supporters sometimes that, I mean, well, there was a speaker last night at a rally who said that we don't have, we don't have Medicare for all because of all the Democratic corporate whoreson in Congress, which he apologized for and then Sanders did. The whore thing aside, if you could do that. I mean, I don't actually believe that we don't have Medicare for All

because I don't think money, and I don't think like the insurance industry contributions are why Democrats didn't want the public option, didn't want Medicare for All. I sort of think it's because a lot of constituents already had health care and it's hard to get people to change. And making the argument is really tough. and sometimes Democrats are, you know, I don't think they're necessarily corrupt, but I think they certainly are scared of a lot, scared of losing. So I guess I just have a different diagnosis of the problem.

And I wonder what you think. Do you think that it's the influence of, like Barack Obama took money from Wall Street, right? Like we had fundraisers on Wall Street. He still passed pretty tough Wall Street reform. Probably not as. And I don't think Wall Street reform isn't tougher because Obama took that money. I think it's because it was really hard to convince a bunch of Democrats. and Republicans to take the leap

and have tougher reform, but I don't know, maybe you disagree. Let's go back to actually pretty close to impotland. I think, you know, a few weeks, like not actually being, you know, I've been helping out on the campaign, but I know or like internal what I'm saying to get there. I mean, I think

pretty similar, I think, to what we do that probably going on. Yeah, I guess the only difference with us was we were trying to get super delegates to switch because Obama was the leader in pledged delegates. and so our argument was don't you want to reflect the will of the people and come over it. It feels like a harder task for Bernie to say.

Now, I guess what they're doing is, you guys are in like state by state. If Bernie won a state and that super delegate is for Hillary, then they say, okay, well, we won your state. Why wouldn't you come with us? But I guess numbers-wise, I don't know if that gets him there, you know? I mean, it feels like he just has a massive victory in some of these states, like 20, 30 points. that are coming up. Yeah, in the most held battle, I think, the way that he's poison. If you views that, it gets a lot more people excited who had not been in quick.

Yeah. You know, Hillary is, but it's kind of shocking, right? You would think that after eight years of policies that have really been, you've got, so even if you're, I think what you're talking about, which is. How do you keep these, how do you keep young people involved in the political process? And this goes beyond just Bernie and Hillary, though, you know, you can talk about that, but you've obviously been spent a lot of times on youth issues and issues of voting and getting young people involved. And I think it's one of the biggest, you know, challenges as a party going forward is that we know young people lean progressive, right?

But that they also don't show up in the midterms and it's hard to get them excited. And I don't know if you have thoughts on that. Show up. And the reason that I say that is you're looking at a group that ages into the demographic and they never age out for people. That's good point. And that's not the case for, you know the job market, they know their student bonds. All right, dude, we will let you go back, get back to the campaign trail. But thank you so much for joining the podcast and good luck out there.

Thank you. That's what we live for. All right, Cal, take it easy. See you guys soon. Thanks, everyone for listening to another episode of Keepin' at 1600. You can follow us on Channel 33 on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher. Thanks, everyone. See you guys next week.