The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov dive into the latest from Trump’s cabinet shuffle, including Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal and the surprising picks for Commerce, Treasury, and Education. They unpack the implications of Pam Bondi’s nomination, the GOP’s evolving stance on education, and the controversy surrounding Linda McMahon. Then they discuss Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s resolution targeting trans rights on Capitol Hill and Sarah McBride’s response. Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov.  Follow Prof G, @profgalloway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Go to constantcontact.ca and start your free trial today. Go to constantcontact.ca for your free trial. Constantcontact.ca. Support for this episode comes from AWS. AWS Generative AI gives you the tools to power your business forward with the security and speed of the world's most experienced cloud. Thumbtack presents the ins and outs of caring for your home. Out, uncertainty, self-doubt Stressing about not knowing where to start.

In. Plans and guides that make it easy to get home projects done. Out. Word art. Sorry, live laugh lovers. In. Knowing what to do, when to do it, and who to hire. Start caring for your home with confidence. Download Thumbtack today. Welcome to Raging Moderates, I'm Scott Galloway. And I'm Jessica Charlev. Jess, where are you today?

The same place I always am. I'm at home in New York. Yeah, well, actually at the Vox studio. So I'm in the financial business. Oh, you want that. It's very nice here. So you're a newbie. I go there now. Yeah, you're a newbie.

You're excited and ambitious to actually do the right things. You haul down to what is arguably the most uninspiring part of Manhattan, to where my guess is they're paying Vox to occupy their office space. But they are very nice studios and it's a lot of young people running around. Yeah. I'm like middle-aged here, like 55 on a comparative basis. Okay, you say that like it's really old.

You realize your podcast partner. You said middle-aged and we're all going to, I don't know, middle-aged isn't really middle, right? Yeah. Because you're not going to make it to 110. I'll be 55 in five years. All right, so what are we going to talk about today? Today, we're talking about Matt Goetz

withdraws from AG consideration. Goetz, Goetz, I'm happy he's going into hopefully political oblivion just for that. I can't pronounce his name. Something terrible is brewing, but yes. That's right. More Trump cabinet picks. Great. Season, episode two of Dancing with the Stars.

We're the modern family or family guy and the transgender bathroom ban in Capitol Hill. Can't believe we're talking about this. I can't. Anyways, here we are. I love legislation that is focused on one person. Yeah. Really fair.

Yeah. It's nice. It's a, it's a good look, but it's nice. It doesn't get the game away. It's a good look. But first we want to remind you, that's right, it's that time in the show to please follow our Raging Moderates podcast on your preferred platform. Please follow us.

If you're listening on Apple, we know that about a quarter of you aren't subscribed. So don't be that person, hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. We don't, quite frankly, we don't register in the rankings. We don't register in Google search. And most importantly, we do not get paid if we don't have people actually subscribe to our feed.

So if you're enjoying the show, please follow our Raging Moderates podcast on your preferred platform. All right, enough of that. Thank you for enduring that. What are we talking about? Last week, Matt Goetz lobbied hard on Capitol Hill for his confirmation, but by Thursday morning, Trump apparently called to let him know he

didn't have the votes in the Senate. By the afternoon, Goetz announced on social media, this confirmation had become a distraction for him having sex with minors. A few hours later, Trump announced his new pick, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Is it Bondi, Bondi, Bondi? Bondi. Bondi, she's a Bondi girl.

Like a Bond girl. Trump loyalist who has ties to Susie Wiles and Boris Efterstein. These people gotta get simpler fucking names. Boris is no bueno, yeah. No bueno. Okay, Jess, as always, you're going to have to carry this show. What does this signal that there's some, is there a limit?

Is there an actual limit in the Trump administration that gets actually across the line here? I guess that that's a peachy read of all of this. Though, I mean, when we were talking about it last week, the expectation was that this one wasn't going to get through, especially once they're started being like the jockeying back and forth about whether they're going to release the ethics report and then Trump apparently the transition team doesn't want everyone to undergo normal FBI checks, which is the usual procedure. They're like, we can do it with an outside

firm so I can hire, you know, Baron to look at them and then we'll see what's going on. But I never think it's as straightforward as it seems. I feel like the fact that Matt Gaetz said, I am not taking my seat. So he won reelection and he could still, even though he resigned from Congress, he resigned from this Congress, not the next one.

So the expectation was, well, maybe he's just gonna go back to Congress, which the next one. So the expectation was, well, maybe he's just going to go back to Congress, which would also help Mike Johnson out, that he doesn't have to have a few months down one further in his majority because they can only lose one to three votes per issue as it is. But then he says, I'm not going back to Congress. And that makes me think, what terrible thing are you going to do? You know, he said there are already people that I know have a hardened position, no, to me, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and then John Curtis, who will

be the new senator from Utah replacing Mitt Romney. And it made me think, are the other controversial picks not getting that kind of feedback? Or is Matt Gaetz the only one who doesn't want to go through this public airing of anything? Because I imagine that there are a few that are telling Pete Hegseth, I'm not into you or RFK Jr. So what do you think? I listened to the Daily Podcast and they were talking to me at Gates and basically the reporter had done some work

where he had found some of the evidence that was going to be included in the ethics report that the Republicans managed to squelch saying that it should not come out now that he's no longer a member of Congress, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Let's spend a bunch of time looking at a report. And if Gett's claims are his innocent essay claims, then I would imagine that the report

would state that, that he would want the report to come out. This is the thing that absolutely strikes me. He wasn't worried about people finding out that there was evidence that he was having sex with minors. He wasn't worried about what people would think about him. He wasn't worried about his inability to be America's top cop with this type of cloud. He was just worried he wasn't going to get the votes. In my view, this really represents a new low that we have a government and we have people who would even entertain this type of nomination. I just, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. And I'm not a historian. I'm trying to think of the last time there was of nomination. I just, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this.

And I'm not a historian. I'm trying to think of the last time there was a nomination that was this brazenly inappropriate, stupid, and insulting to America and this general notion that when we elect people and they have the power of putting people in power, that there is some fidelity to decency, to the Constitution, to the actual goddamn job description. I just, we just seem to be setting new lows every damn day.

Anyways, that's my rant, Jess. I think the problem is that the top of the ticket is what, or I should say, who shattered a lot of these norms to begin with. So why wouldn't the cabinet follow suit on that front? And there were all of these stories coming out about past nominees that hadn't been able to get through under Bill Clinton because they had an undocumented nanny. Those were the days, right?

When you just had someone who was yes, here illegally, but was good enough to be taking care of your child, which is probably the most important job that we have, globally speaking. There's nothing more precious than your child and who you entrust them to be with for 10 hours a day or whatever you're doing. And that was ending nominations.

And now we're having conversations about like, how many minors is too many? Or how many allegations of sexual assault is too many? How many brain worms? How many affairs and sex journals that ended up leading to suicides is too many? And I don't know, it makes me think a lot about what the Democrats are going to have to do. And this is one of the cases that people have been making, not

because he behaves like this, but because he has this kind of swagger for Gavin Newsom. You know, there's this whole part of social media that talks about him as the psychopath we need, right? Like the guy who will just show up as relentlessly on message, is fast on his feet, is so good looking, is so sharp. And I think there are gonna be a lot of people that feel that way, that are gonna feel scared away from a kind of more normie pick, right? Like a guy who's just standing up there with his nice wife and his two kids, um, and doesn't have that kind of energy because it's clear the Republican party is

feeding off of depravity at this point. Let's talk about Pam, uh, new AG probably. She comes across as fucking Thurgood Marshall right now. Yeah. And my sense is she's going to sell right through. What are your thoughts? I think she will as well. If there was some game of 3D chess going on to put Gates up to get someone else in and a big sense of relief, this could have been it. I think Pam Bondi is not going to have any issues as she was a prosecutor for a long

time, first female AG in Florida, very, very competent. She's been in a lobbying firm called Ballard for the last several years. And Susie Wiles is a partner there. So she's a very good relationship with Susie Wiles, which is obviously a big part of this. She has ingratiated herself to Trump over the last 10 plus years. So in 2016, she actually endorsed Trump over Marco Rubio, which was a big deal that the Florida AG went for Trump versus the hometown hero, I guess Mar-a-Lago has been in Florida. The only, well, two things that I think are relevant. So she's very into

this kind of same line of argumentation that Gates was making, which is I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to investigate the investigators. I'm going to weed out all of the bad guys, get rid of Jack Smith, his whole team. She's been talking like that. She actually went for Trump's claims of voter fraud in 2020. She even went to Philadelphia and gave a press conference about how messed up everything was going, the false claims of widespread voter fraud. The one kind of scandal, I guess, revolves around a 2013 political donation.

So that's when that huge lawsuit investigating Trump University was going on and all the state AGs had to sign on. And there were a lot of victims from Trump University in Florida and Pam Bondi ended up not signing on and also got a $25,000 contribution from Trump's charity. So that will, I think, be the kind of fireworks in terms of the scandals, I guess, in her hearings. And the more normie Republicans, I think, will want to hear, you're not just going to come in and do everything that he wants,

especially considering the Supreme Court ruling about immunity for kind of everything. But in general, this looks like it's going to be absolutely fine. And just with going back to get, let's be clear, Democrats have had their own struggles with scandal and especially around, it used to be that Republican stole and, and Democrats had affairs. Now just everybody's doing everything it feels like, but you know, infidelity, you know, weirdness, scandal, that is not sequestered to the Republican party. But I do think it's important that we discern between scandal and real, real

criminal activity, such as having sex with minors. And I got to believe that that report, I can't believe it hasn't been leaked, was pretty damning. But- It'll get, it'll be out. You think so? I'm sure. Yeah, Susan Wilde, the Democrat, the ranking Democrat on the committee,

has said as much. She was really upset that Republicans were leaking inside information from what was going on in the room. I think that they're going to get it out. And I think that's probably why Gates thought, I got to get out of here because I'm not going to be insulated from this. One thing we haven't talked about, which is so central to all of this, and then I do want

to get to other nominees, but he's picking everyone who's good on TV. And Pam Bondi has spent a lot of time on our airwaves on Fox. But when you think about it, it's actually really smart. If you can get qualified people who are also good on TV, that they can defend themselves and that they can defend you and not look like a deer in headlights every time they give an interview. So a lot of people are dismissive of it,

but I think it's actually a very good strategy. It says one of the co-hosts of the five. Okay, yeah. Well, I'm not getting picked for anything, but I'm just saying. Are you kidding? You look like Hillary Clinton at this point. You would be the least,

you would be the most qualified pick in the cabinet right now. You would, I mean, yeah, I don't, you would look like Lloyd Benson with better hair. Anyway, on that note, let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for this episode comes from AWS. AWS Generative AI gives you the tools to power your business forward with the security and

speed of the world's most experienced cloud. Autograph Collection Hotels offer over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Hand selected for their inherent craft, each hotel tells its own unique story through distinctive design and immersive experiences, from medieval falconry to volcanic wine tasting. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of over 30 hotel brands around the world. Find the unforgettable at autografecollection.com. Upper Canada College inspires boys from senior kindergarten to year 12

to find their passions and realize their potential. An IB world school, UCC offers a supportive environment, cutting-edge facilities, and a best in Canada financial assistance program. UCC, a place where tradition, excellence, and innovation meet. Learn more about all that UCC has to offer at ucc.on.ca. Okay, Jas, a few more cabinet announcements worth discussing. Howard Letnick was tapped as Commerce Secretary and Scott

Pesant was picked as Treasury Secretary, which the markets like. Lynn McMahon, a longtime ally and donor, was named to lead the Department of Education. McMahon's background is light on education policy. As if that matters. She also co-founded the World Wrestling Entertainment Federation with her husband. Is it World Wrestling Entertainment, I think anyways.

And the most surprising pick, Dr. Oz, as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. What are your thoughts on these picks? Up and down, I guess. Linda McMahon, that's a tough one. She was in the first administration. She was definitely going to be somewhere here. She lied about having an education degree, which I feel like is a big lie if you're going

to go be the head of the Department of Education, essentially our education secretary. We should also note there have been a number of lawsuits over the years, but there's even an open civil suit against the WWE that these abuse scandals involving boys as young as 12 years old that the McMahons hired people, one guy in particular who they knew allegedly was an abuser, and didn't do anything to stop it. They call it the quote unquote ring boy scandal. But you know, abolishing the Department of Education

is their talking point. And one other thing I'll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children because they'll do a much better job of it

You can't do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation and yet we're Absolutely at the bottom We're one of the worst I'm not sure that that happens. You need 60 plus votes to be able to do it but sure that that happens, you need 60 plus votes to be able to do it. But what I think that they are going to try to do, and it sends a really important signal across the country and also to teachers unions, is to talk more about school choice and vouchers. And there are a lot of people, even on the Democratic side, who are so disappointed in the quality of our public education,

and for good reasons, we just keep falling further and further behind. Public schools really let American students, especially American students who are poorer down during COVID, but not letting them back in the classroom even though we knew that kids were not transferring, generally speaking, COVID to one another and that it would have been safe because teachers didn't want to come in. And you see Democrats like Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania has supported vouchers. I think that that is the way of the future and that Democrats are going to really need to reckon with this. And Lyndon McMahon will be the face

of pushing that forward. I don't think there's any getting around it. They need a reformer. But this whole Doja over reductives, thinking of let's just get rid of the Department of Education, just burn it, burn the village to save it. There are a few investments, maybe outside of R&D or some science programs, that show that are technically investments. Social Security is a cost.

We've decided to tax young people, to transfer money to older people, to eliminate or attempt to eliminate senior poverty. And it has largely worked, I would argue it's become too expensive and now seniors are the wealthiest generation in the history of the planet. There should be means testing, it should be pushed back.

It used to be when social security was first invented, 80% of the people would never get it because they would die now. Now more than 80% get it. And it used to be 12 to 1, you know, people your age supporting people my age. Now it's 3 to 1. Anyways, that is a cost. Department of Education is an investment. And you might argue that the investment is not getting the ROI it deserves

because it is poorly allocated. And I agree with you around school choice, competition works. There are some teachers as someone who went through public schools all the way through graduate school. I remember certain components of my education. Emerson Junior High School, they were just warehousing us. There was 35 kids per class. I was there with the first year they integrated the school. So all of a sudden out of the school, 1500 kids, 600 black kids from Compton showed up after being on a bus for an hour. They were pissed off.

And we all, and it wasn't a Hallmark movie. We all hated each other. Get this, Jess, we used to have black against white softball games. And the faculty allowed that. Seriously? Oh yeah, we hated each other. Get this, Jess, we used to have black against white softball games, and the faculty allowed that. Seriously? Oh yeah, we hated each other. Absolutely, it was everything integration was not supposed to be. That's the bad news.

The good news was that by high school, something wonderful happened and we were all getting along. My two best friends were, one was a Mormon kid who ended up going to Stanford, and the other was a black kid who got a football scholarship to Linfield, I think a university in Oregon who lived in Baldwin Hills and his father was a minister. I mean, these two kids couldn't have been more different,

except they were both really good kids. They were actually great role models for me. But anyways, my point is it was absolutely awful. And I remember the teachers were so overwhelmed, just trying to keep a lid, 35 kids, sometimes 38 kids per class. And all my friends, my nice white friends, quote unquote, air quotes, their parents pulled them out of school immediately when integration started and stuck them in this hippie dippy private school called Wynward.

And that was, I remember it was one of the first moments where I thought, Oh, things are different for me and my mom. Cause I went home and said, Oh, I need to go to Wynward. And I remember it was one of the first moments where I thought, oh, things are different for me and my mom, because I went home and said, oh, I need to go to Wynward. And she's like, sit down, we don't go to private schools. We need to talk. Yeah. Yeah, but the Department of Education,

in addition to Title, I think it's Title I, where they ensure that schools in rural poor areas get the funding they need to deliver an adequate education, they also are responsible for Head Start. And they also, I'm here with you now because the Department of Education are specifically Pell Grants. And that is Pell Grants, basically,

if you're in the lower third of income earning homes, you get money, not even loans, which also student loans, the Department of Education oversees, which I believe it needs drastically reforming and I'll come back to that. But I could not have gone to UCLA without Pell grants. And this makes my point.

Why else they give me the chance to do my favorite thing and that is boast. I pay a lot of taxes. So these, these Pell grants are an investment that pay off. I think if you, I think there are a few things that you look, could look at and think a dollar invested in education,

well delivered, I'm not saying there isn't reform that's required, not only gets you additional incremental income because you can occasionally produce people who do really interesting things, go into teaching themselves, start businesses, create tax revenue, but you avoid a lot of costs because without an educational system, you're gonna end up paying for these folks one way or another, whether it's through incarceration, but you avoid a lot of costs because without an educational system,

you're going to end up paying for these folks one way or another, whether it's incarceration, mental health, homelessness, welfare, food stamps, unemployment. So the Department of Education is arguably the place where you're going to get the greatest return on your investment if it's handled well. And it's just, it sort of, it sort of is depressing. Although I guess you could argue her background. She was, I believe, head of the small business administration, so maybe, I mean, she strikes me as a competent woman. She's the least or one of the least bad picks, but I wish they would stop this bullshit notion that we're

just going to get rid of the department of education. And what's interesting, or I find interesting, I interviewed a guy named Roy Stewart, who's the cohost of The Rest is Politics, which is he was a former member of parliament, really bright guy, uh, was actually the tutor, the private tutor for Princess Harry and William. And he said, when they look at America, when Brits

look at America, they can't quite figure out the following. And that is we absolutely under-prioritize and don't talk about K-12 education. And we have some of the worst K-12 education in the world of the G7. But at the same time, we have amazing graduate schools, and at the same time, we keep figuring out a way to grow the economy. And he acknowledged that maybe that's the way the natural order of an economy is you have shitty schools and it's like a Hunger Games and then they get to go to the

best universities. And that struck me as a very upsetting rubric or lens through which to look at education. But maybe that's because we just, there's no doubt about it, K through 12 were awful and yet our economy continues to grow like crazy. But anyways, your thoughts on the Department of Education. I think it's important and I hate, you know, whether Doge is effective or not. The sweeping talking points about doing away with things that need help or need tender loving care is silly and reflects poorly upon you and is not how people run their businesses either. You know, I understand Elon came in and ran Twitter a bit like that, but they've been

losing a lot of money, even though now it's a bastion for free speech slash the worst place I've already ever hung out in my life. And it reflects a lack of seriousness about this and a lack of care and concern for your core constituency because guess what? A lot of people who don't make a ton of money voted for Donald Trump and guess what? They use the public school system. They don't have other options to go to a private school. The lottery system for getting into charters might not get lucky and get to do that.

And so I think that they would be a lot more convincing as serious folks if they took a different line of argumentation about what they're going to do with the Department of Education, including making sure that people do have access to vouchers in more circumstances. I think that that is important and you should be able to give people those options, certainly with religious schools. Cause you know, Catholic schools stayed open through the entire pandemic. That was something that they had going for them.

And I understand why people want that. There's an aspect also to what McMahon will be overseeing and Trump's been, he talked about this throughout the campaign and I do think it is important. So, you know, they could essentially transfer responsibility for accrediting universities to college, for colleges to the states. And Trump has been talking about things like if your university isn't letting Jewish kids go to class or get into the dining hall or get to the Hillel or the

Chabad on campus, we're coming after you. dining hall or get to the Hillel or the Habbat on campus. We're coming after you. I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing, to be tinkering around with that or to at least be using it as a threat. They've also said as a cudgel, if you have DEI policies or if you're using affirmative action, and the universities are smart enough that they can get to whatever form of affirmative action they think they need to without it sending up flags in that way.

But what do you think about the approach of threatening these universities more if they are not treating each student as equal? Like if they're not treating kids from one group like they would if they were black, for instance, or if they were LGBTQ plus? Well, look, I said this early on. If I went to Royce Hall or the Quad near Royce Hall at UCLA, or I went down to my universities in front of my building at NYU, and I started, I held up a Confederate flag and I passed out bans to white kids and the kids without bands couldn't enter the university,

they would have called in the fucking National Guard. But, I mean, what was clear coming out of this zombie apocalypse of useful idiots on campus, free speech is never freer when it's hate speech against Jews. And this was a really low moment for universities. And I advise the regents in the University of California. And we did a couple of calls over the summer and said, okay, they were very worried about fall. What happens if this flares up again?

And I thought the solution was pretty easy. If there are students who are protesting or putting up anything resembling an encampment and it turns to hate speech, or they try and build, I mean, basically they tried to build a mini, you know, a mini city, if you will. They were trespassing. You ask them to clear the area. You get them 15 minutes, you warn them, they will be punished.

I mean, you expelled the first six or 12 students that violate this. And when word gets out, that shit's just got real and you may have to call your folks and say, Hey mom, dad, you're spending 50,000 bucks a year for me to get expelled for hate speech. This stuff, this will stop right away. And then the thing that didn't get much press that I have no tolerance for is I think you cut a 19 year old, a pretty wide birth. You're supposed to be stupid when you're 19. And sometimes that stupidity moves society forward, whether it was the protests on

campus against Vietnam or Iraq, you know, sometimes kids are meant to push the boundaries and sometimes they're thinking more forward and more correctly than, you know, their parents. You cut them a wide berth, who I think should have absolutely been summarily fired with a faculty that showed any empathy for this

genocidal death call. And there are still faculty at the University of California who put out exceptionally vile tweets, said they were inspired by the activities of October 7th, who are still showing up at the faculty cafeteria. And most of them, it ends up, can't teach the way out of a paper bag and do irrelevant research,

but are in this ridiculous guild that is nothing but student debt called tenure. So there not only needs to be reform up and down, you know, in K through 12, there needs to be reform in schools. And specifically the first place I would start is that all universities should be on the hook for a quarter or a third of bad student loan debt. Because what's really mendacious about my industry is a really good kid shows up and he meets with a woman who's in a nice pantsuit who has a big college logo behind her and she says some bullshit like this. Education is an investment in yourself.

You're signed this paperwork for 50, a hundred, $200,000 in student loans. And then the kid, like many kids finds out that he or she is not cut out for college, leaves without a college, that's certification of college, but gets to keep that debt. And it haunts this person the rest of their life. The most dischargeable form of debt in history should be student loans. And instead, because my colleagues wake up every morning and ask themselves, how do I reduce my accountability?

I want to increase my compensation. I'll access cheap credit. And if, if I don't deliver on my promise and the kid gets nothing for the money that's been lent to them, I'm not on the hook for it. So if you put colleges on the hook for 10, 20, 30% of bad student debt, they'd stop loaning someone getting a fucking philosophy degree from Joey Bagadonis University to go be a barista. So my industry needs radical reform, but the notion that you're going to get rid of the Department of Education is again another key theme in what

appears to be both parties are guilty of it. Let's optimize America for the top 10% at the cost of the bottom 90. The top 10%, they're right, doesn't need the Department of Education. My kids don't need the Department of Education, they won't benefit from it. It's the other 90. And just looking at it purely economically, it's an investment that saves money.

I just wanted to really quickly, can we just talk about Dr. Oz and Dr. Jeanette Neswat for one second? Yeah, go ahead. So Dr. Oz, as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, it's laughable in the TV doctor sense and all the fad diets and all the quackery. I thought it was hilarious.

There was a peer reviewed piece in a British medical journal that picked 40 random episodes of his show and found that his health recommendations were based on evidence just 46% of the time, which is pretty shitty for a doctor. But what he does plan to do that is really dangerous is to work towards privatizing Medicare,

to move us towards Medicare Advantage, which is what mostly people who are 80 plus are on. And the costs are enormous when you use Medicare Advantage. And he has talked about bringing that to younger Medicare users, 66 million people on Medicare, including my mother and my dad, it saw him through cancer, most unbelievable coverage. Do you have any Dr. Oz feelings?

Yeah, so I have a bias. I've been friends with Mehmet and Lisa Oz for 25 years, and I find Mehmet to be- We got some bias. Yeah, it's a huge bias, I'm gonna disclose it. In that time though, and I know him well, and I knew him before, I mean, I know him in just a variety. He was literally taking hearts out of cadavers

and putting them into other people. He's a cardiothoracic transplant surgeon, and he's a real dude. And what I would say about Mehmet, we don't share political views, but I've decided to separate the person from the politics. And this person is a really good man. And when he was contemplating positions like this, when he was running for Senate, he's really thoughtful and he knows we have different politics.

And so he would call me and ask me for my view on things. And I say that because it makes me feel important, but also it reflects well on him. Mehmet is a high character person. And I know he got a lot of grief for being, for not respecting the science around some of these supplements and how blueberries can save your life. He got blowback that he deserved for that,

but this is a good man. And you want to talk about some of the bullshit around Gets and infidelity. He's been married for, I think, close to 40 years. Wonderful father. And the first thing he did when he got this, I congratulated him. He called me and said, give me your views on social security. He really wants to get to go deep here and really try and be thoughtful and helpful. So I'm a huge fan of Dr. Oz as a man.

He's a good man. OK. I'm good with that. And then someone who you may not know, but I know personally because we have nine Fox personalities that are going to go into the administration thus far, is Dr. Jeanette Neswatt. And I wanted to mention this.

She's a surgeon general. She's Neswatt. And I wanted to mention this, she's a surgeon general. She's a real deal doctor. And you can see that she's being taken apart online for believing in vaccines, for participating in, you remember those like hand washing trends where doctors were like doing TikToks and stuff of how to make sure that you keep your hands clean. She has called vaccine safe Safe and Effective.

It will keep you off a ventilator, keep you from passing away. And not only do I just like her personally, but I hope that this is a signal, and Dr. Marty McCary as well, who's at Johns Hopkins, who's coming in for the FDA, that there will be some hard science people in there. They're calling her Dr. Fauci in heels.

I am thrilled with that. That's great. That's great that you brought that up, and also just wanna use that as an excuse science people in there. They're calling her Dr. Fauci and Heels. I am thrilled with that. That's great. That's great that you brought that up. And also just want to use that as an excuse to recognize who I think has been the most consequential surgeon general in history. And that is Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who

brought up loneliness, who brought up young men. This is someone who put out thoughtful research elevating the awareness around some really key issues brought up how the mental health struggles of people with parents right now which directly relates to the fact that we keep figuring out a way to vote in more seniors who vote themselves more money such that I stay rich at the expense of people your age who are trying to get by with kids.

All right Jess we have one more quick break stay with kids. All right, Jess, we have one more quick break. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Secret. Secret deodorant gives you 72 hours of clinically proven odor protection, free of aluminum, parabens, dyes, talc, and baking soda. It's made with pH balancing minerals and crafted with skin conditioning oils. So whether you're going for a run or just running late, do what life throws your way and smell like you didn't. Find secret at your nearest Walmart or Shopper's Drug Mart today.

Oh, interrupting their playlist to talk about Defying Gravity, are we? That's right, Newton. With the Bronco and Bronco Sport, gravity has met its match. Huh. Maybe that apple hit me a little harder than I thought. Yeah, you should get that checked out. With standard 4x4 capability, Broncos keep going up and up. Now get up to $6,000 in rebates on eligible 2024 Bronco family models. Visit your Toronto area Ford store or ford.ca.

Your team requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your team to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your team to your Uber account today. Welcome back. Over in the House, Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced a resolution to ban trans women from using women's restrooms and locker rooms on Capitol grounds. Thank God for Representative Mace. Thank God, specifically targeting incoming Congresswoman Sarah McBride.

This is a shift for Mace who once supported LGBTQ rights. Speaker Mike Johnson supported Mace emphasizing single sex facilities. McBride responded saying she's focused on lowering costs for Delaware families, not bathroom debates, and she hopes colleagues will see value in her work. I didn't run for the United States House of Representatives to talk about what bathroom I use. I didn't run to talk about myself. I ran to deliver for Delawareans.

And while Republicans in Congress seem focused on bathrooms and trans people and specifically me, I'm focused on rolling up my sleeves, diving into the details, setting up my office, and beginning the hard work of delivering for Delawareans on the issues that I know keep them up at night. So what do we think of Representative Mays? Nancy Mays sucks. She's awful.

And she had so much promise. When she came into Congress. She seemed like she was she was part of like the normie caucus can said like I'll stand up to Trump when that's the right thing to do. I'll you know, always be on the side of South Carolinians. And now she's just high off of getting as many likes and retweets as possible. These videos that she's posting are embarrassing for her. And you know, I don't know who started saying it during the first Trump administration, but the cruelty is the point.

The cruelty is the point here. You have been in Congress for a while. If you were concerned about someone being in your bathroom, you could have brought this up because there are people who come in and out of Congress, right? This isn't about there. So the members have their own private bathrooms, and I'm sure that Sarah McBride will be using that or there are gender neutral restrooms. But Nancy Mace showed no evidence that anyone was a threat, right? No one's been attacked, God forbid. She hasn't been made to be uncomfortable, and she is herself a rape survivor, and she talks about that regularly and the implications No one's been attacked, God forbid. She hasn't been made to be uncomfortable

and she is herself a rape survivor and she talks about that regularly and the implications of being sexually assaulted. But I see no correlation to this except that you wanna rile people up and take advantage of frankly, the level of misinformation that's out there about trans people.

And I wanted to mention this to you. So YouGov had a new survey work out about how Americans overestimate the size of minority groups and underestimate the size of majority groups. They think there are 21 times more trans people in America than there are 27 times more Muslims, 15 times more Jews, and two more times immigrants. So there's this fallacy out there that, you know,

kids are going to school and coming home with different junk, that everyone that you pass on the street is a trans person. And that's someone like Sarah McBride, who I think has been so magnanimous and taken the high road to a level that I never could, is the threat in all of this. It's the same thing though.

And it's the same thing I would argue around GITS. And that is, it feels as if, I'd like to see two classes that are mandatory or three. I'd like to be secretary. I'd be the most qualified secretary of education in let me think 18 months. So effectively there needs to be a class on adulting. My kid can do integers,

but he doesn't understand the interest rate on his credit card. I think there needs to be a class on adulting. My kid can do integers, but he doesn't understand the interest rate on his credit card. I think there needs to be part of an adulting class to teach young people, especially young men, how to express romantic interest while making the other person feel safe. In basic kind of life skills, I'd like to see a class on communications

where it says, all right, storytelling, you have to understand mediums and how to communicate your ideas. I'd also like a course in critical thinking, because there are different levels of mendacious fuckery. Infidelity is one thing, all right? Scandal or abusing, if you will, or taking advantage of a White House intern, that's worse.

That's worse, in my opinion, than having sex or relationships outside of your marriage. And then in an entirely different fucking universe is having sex with minors. These are not the same thing. And the problem is the populace goes, Oh, it's just scandal. It's just scandal. No, it's not. There is a difference. And when people correctly say, in my view, or I think it's a point worth arguing, that people born, I was born, I didn't have the height nor the body mass to play collegiate level basketball or football.

I was born with or without certain attributes that disqualified me from playing certain sports. I think there is a solid argument that if you are born with a penis, it disqualifies you from playing women's sports or girls' sports. I think there is a solid argument that if you are born with a penis, it disqualifies you from playing women's sports or girls' sports. I think that is a, a honest, thoughtful discussion we should have. Passing legislation that is meant to do nothing, but attempt to weirdly shame or show how anti-trans you are by saying to a, uh, an elected member of Congress, you cannot use the same bathroom as me. It's just, that's a different level of mendacious fuckery.

And my fear is there's so many points of weirdness coming out of DC that they all get grouped in the same, into the same level of mendacious. They're not. And kids need and young adults and adults need to understand that your whole point or our advantage of a species is that we see different shades of gray and when they go, they turn very dark or when they're worth a discussion or they should just, we should just have a gag reflex. But this is my fear.

And that is we now live in an intention economy and it doesn't matter how stupid or how mean the content is that created attention for you, it pays off. And that she is now a Republican, a rising Republican star because she's a leader. You know, there's some, there's, there's a, there's a, there's parents out there worried about their daughter being run over on the field hockey field by someone born with a penis. I think that is a, a, a tangible, legitimate concern, but they're worried about their daughter being run over on the field hockey field by someone born with a penis. I think that is a tangible, legitimate concern, but they're saying, oh, Representative Mace,

she's our woman. No, she's not. She's a mendacious, weird woman who is taking her precious capital and resources to actually do good things for her district, to just be blatantly hostile and mean towards an individual. Your thoughts. I agree with all of that. And I think that they're, it's the beginning of potentially

having electoral consequences. And this is what Democrats want, right? They want Republicans to take the mask off essentially and to expose themselves for being people who live by the cruelty is the point. And if you remember the North Carolina bathroom bill controversy, this did not go well for Republicans. This is not their concerns. Biological men in women's sports is their concern.

That's 70% of Americans think that Leah Thomas had no business being in that pool with those girls as a competitive swimmer. But they don't care about using the bathroom. Now there are some people who do. I get that. I see them in my Twitter feed. Hello, I see you. But in general, no one is concerned about Sarah McBride. And you notice it's only Marjorie Taylor Greene that's been running around screaming about this alongside Nancy Mace. And if that's your wing woman for something like this, you know that you're probably doing something wrong. And, you know, people who work in Nancy Mesa's office are destroying her online over this and saying there is more to come about how terrible this woman is.

But I think it's just so ugly and I don't know, good on Sarah McBride for being such a big person to be able to rise above. I do think the Democrats invited some of this bullshit by being so insane on some of these issues? I go back to the, um, the cycling race, the women's cycling race in North Carolina, where a transgender woman, Austin Killips, who was 27, basically been finished five minutes before anyone else on 137 mile long race. And the woman who had been born a woman who had been training her whole life came in second,

she should have won it. And then immediately the far left started talking about all these very, basically was scared to come out and say, this is ridiculous. This is insane. What I didn't get is where feminists were. Let me get this. Where does this all go?

If we allow this, it means that every dollar, medal, and scholarship ends up only going to people born with penises. So where were the feminists? I just didn't get this. Well, that's what Martina Navratilova has been screaming about this for a long time. And I mean, this is, there have been, and I know Kara has spoken about this before as well. I mean, there have been evolutions within the LGBTQ plus movement that have shoehorned out certain groups, like OG groups, like gay men and lesbians, and, you know, moved to a different place than perhaps they didn't think they were going.

And I think that not saying things that are common sense, not reverting to the mean of, does this make sense, is part of the problem. And maybe there is some truth to, you know, I have colleagues who will say, well, this is because you don't think about competition the same way that we do because you get participation trophies for everything at your, you know, your little liberal schools or whatever. And I think that if Kamala had come out, and again, I think it was a fundamentals election, couldn't win against inflation and people's feelings about the economy. But if she had come out after that, the Charlemagne ad was cut, which was a trans ad, but also

an economic ad, right? Like, our money, your tax dollars are going to something that is niche and that you don't approve of. She'd just come out and say, that is not the position of the Democratic Party. Maybe some of those late deciders would have felt differently about us, that we weren't out of our minds, whether that's, you know, because some of our loudest voices, like John Oliver did a whole monologue about it last weekend or two weeks ago, and he's gotten a lot of blowback.

Jen Psaki has spoken about it and said, oh, well, what's the big deal? The big deal is it ruins competition, and it's not fair. Like, it can't be both things, that a man can't be inherently scary if you run into him in a dark alley, and also that it's fine in competition against biological women. Like those two things contradict each other.

It's almost as outrageous as the last thing we're gonna start or finish with. And that is, I gotta be honest, I find this really fun. What do you think of this idea? Elon Musk buying MSNBC. Oh, why does that make me happy, Jess? That makes me happy. What do you think?

Yeah, I think it'd be fucking hilarious to have Stephanie Ruhl and Rachel Maddow like every night meet each other to smoke cigarettes and eat ice cream and talk about Elon Musk being their new boss. I find it funny. But would they still be there? Like what are the implications of something like that?

Seven year old white women gotta find another show to listen to. I think MSNBC is quickly becoming irrelevant. Well, I think they're doing that already, which is the problem. Yeah. I mean, what is this spinoff? And I realize you've been discussing it

in your other shows, but what is the spinoff of this? I mean, they're calling it now a well-funded startup. What is the future of MSNBC? All of these things are going to be rolled up into a bad bank structure. Comcast has started it. These can be really good businesses. They're shrinking businesses, but they spin off a ton

of cash flow. What you need is a different approach, where you cut costs faster than revenue growth. They can still be really good businesses. But this is the pivotal moment, in my opinion, or as it relates to the intersection between politics and media, is that you're going to see, I mean, a really good show gets a million viewers on MSNBC,

average age 70, mostly white women. Those folks know what they buy, know what they don't buy, and they know who they're voting for and who they're not voting for. So, advertisers and political campaigns are gonna take all of that money and put it into yours truly into podcasts where the average age is 34, it's mostly male. Those people are up for grads because they're more about

the economy and economics are a much more dynamic situation. It kind of pings back Democrat, Republican on who they think will be better for them economically. But these companies are now distressed assets. They are melting ice cubes. I know a lot of people at MSNBC, the anchors are like pilots in the 70s. They're hugely prestigious. People like them. They're banging stewardesses, but they're pilots for Pan Am. They know their numbers are limited. They know that in about 10 years, they're going to be flying Amarillo to Dallas

for Spirit Airlines at 68K a year. These are really declining assets. They can still make a lot of money. They still get incredibly talented people. But anyways, back to this. I just think it's fucking hilarious the IGF-80 Musk would buy MSNBC. Everyone would leave or everyone of any talent would leave and you're trying to make it into something else. I don't know, I gotta be honest.

I think it would be fucking hilarious. Your thoughts. I mean, I don't know. I feel be honest. I think it would be fucking hilarious. Your thoughts. I mean, I don't know. I feel bad because I like a lot of the people at MSNBC and I feel like having Elon Musk as your boss is the worst. Um, and I think it's important. I mean, listen up. Fox is up.

Like our, our viewership is through the roof since the election and the lead up to the election. And I hope that that continues because I wanna be able to pay for my kids to go to the Big Apple Circus as many times as possible. But- That's called raging moderates. It's called podcasting.

Is that what it is? Yeah, great. You have, you literally- Help me out, subscribe. You are the economic bellwether here. Right now, a 34 yearold Jess Tarlov has more options than almost any person in media right now, and you chose a podcast with the dog.

That's right, that says it all. You could have had, you could have literally been primetime, and don't lie to me, you could have been primetime MSNBC, and you decided to do this Joy Bag of Donuts podcast because here's the thing, we're going like this. This is me making a hand signal up. And MSNBC.

I hope you're watching the YouTube version. We're going up. MSNBC and even your good friends at Fox. I mean, they're the, I used to say the tallest midget and then I found out that all Democrats think that's hateful. You're the fastest tortoise. That's the more politically correct way to say it. Cute. Yeah, You're the fastest tortoise. That's the more politically correct way to say it. You're the fastest tortoise, but anyways.

I don't mind that, but what happens, a lot of people will leave obviously, but I do think that there's a real problem with the psyche of the average MSNBC viewer that they're losing their minds that Joe and Mika would even have a conversation with President-Elect Donald Trump. Why was that bad? Great point.

I didn't think it was that bad. It's insane to me. Don't you want any access also to the most powerful man in the world? 100%. They did the right thing. Just be craven about it. And yeah, if they don't wanna get audited, yeah, same, I don't wanna get audited, yeah, same.

I don't want to get audited and they have probably more interesting stuff going on in their tax returns than I do. Like you should go and kiss the ring. And that is the thing about having an entertainer as the president. He appreciates it. If you show up and you say, Oh, Donald, you're a beautiful color today. How do you keep your hair intact? Whatever.

He's going to like you and probably leave you alone. What shade of orange is that? That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are Caroline Chagrin and David Toledo. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right, Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please go there and subscribe. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Just have a great rest of the week. You too.