Weekly Skews - S6 Ep18: Weekly Skews – Social Media War Crimes, plus an Interview with Congressional Candidate Dr. Michaela Barnett

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

JD Vance has a new book about his journey through forty-eleven religions before he arrived at the correct one, Catholicism-Where-You-Hate-the-Pope. Then Mark and Trae talk about the president threatening war crimes in internet posts where he sarcastically converts to Islam. Then, a fun discussion with scientist, small business owner, and Congressional candidate Dr. Michaela Barnett about running for office because you’re mad as hell and no one else is doing it.Weekly Skews is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.If you believe religious freedom is supposed to protect everybody, not be weaponized to turn away good families, visit https://www.au.org/crooked to learn more and become a member today. This episode is sponsored by ZBiotics. Go to https://www.zbiotics.com/SKEW  now. You'll get 15% off your first order when you use SKEW at checkoutThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10%  https://www.betterhelp.com/skews 

What's up, everybody? Welcome back. Happy SchuSday to you. It's April 7th, 2026. When you're watching this, we recorded this. It's Monday, April 6th at about 1.30 p.m. on the left coast. We hope you guys are watching this in peaceful times, and the world is not ending because the same time that we're airing is the time that Trump proclaimed he would vaporize Iran if they didn't open the Strait of Hormuz. So, you know, fingers crossed. I'm Trey. That's Mark. How's it going, Mark? Good, man. I hope you had a good. Easter. Elon Musk spent all day Easter on Easter tweeting back and forth with a self-described hyper-racist by the name of Nick Land.

Hyper-racism is the idea that white people should split off from the earth and start a genetically pure race in space. Okay. I feel like a lot of the other races would be like, well, that's fine. Yeah. Go for it. Send the Nazis to space. Yeah, why not?

The name of this movement is Zeno, Zina cosmography. Okay? I think, you know, there's a famous Star Trek episode where they go

to a Nazi planet. I think they just saw that episode and missed the part where it was bad. They do that with all kinds of sci-fi, I feel like.

Totally missed the point. You know, just completely take the wrong things away from it. Yeah. So anyway, I agree with Elon

that we should shoot all the Nazis in the space. So the, while we're on topic of religion on when to mention the going zone of the world

of American Christendom. So J.D. Vance is a new bookout. it's called communion finding way back to faith it traces his road from loose evangelism to teenage Pentecostalism

to atheism to Catholicism Bo Oh Who the fuck wants to read that bro? I would like even I mean you know He'll be of the elegy At least there's like a bunch of wild

Made up pill shit in there fucking church stories With J.D. Vance No thank you It's in the news because like the book they The photo used for the cover of

as a small Methodist church because there aren't a lot of Catholic churches in Appalachia which I guess it's a beautiful

photo it's like a idyllic little church with a steeple with a like a mountain mountains and trees in the background

beautiful photo I get why they chose it but in fact it's a picture of the church he left to go to

his real church is fucking weird but like again I want to mention this list again evangelism to teenage

pedacolism to atheism to atheism there's nothing more stable and normal than a millennial on his fourth religion. It reminds me like, like, Harry Irvin, like,

no one knows what he is. He's always causing furious controversies, but like he's basically an evangelical Christian who fasts for Ramadan, who wears Native American fashion like feathers and stuff as a testament to the faith of his grandmother. And also like, got in trouble a few years back

for tweeting out a link to a documentary about how black people are real Israelites. So I just like, The fact that Jade, the first person I thought of with JD's religious journey was Kyrie Irving. It doesn't seem like a good thing on his behalf, but what the fuck ever? Thank. No, I feel like landing on Catholicism at 39 or whatever is also wild.

Maybe that's just me, you know what I mean? Any kind of religious journey that lands on the oldest, most traditional one or whatever, out of the Christian ones is... The best I can tell is he settled on Catholicism because it meant he got to hang out with Peter Thiel. Yeah. Because Peter Thiel is an extremely conservative gay Catholic. which is the thing we make in America, apparently. Right.

But so they, the Wall Street Journal. When Marcus Freeman did it to like coach the Irish, that's, you know, I get that. You got to do what you got to do. You should only convert to get the halls of it to play football for Notre Dame. Or coach, yeah, or one or the other. Right.

That's the only time I'll accept it. So this is like a weird religious war going on in Maga between Catholics and the Protestants. It's like, let me quote here, that the Pope put, out a Palm Sunday homily which criticized the use of Jesus' name to justify armed conflict and he said, quote, he does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war but rejects them

the Pope said, quoting Isaiah 115 when the prophet condemned ancient Judah for its violence. Quote, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Which, yeah, the affairs of God are higher than the affairs of men. It would not be interested in stuff like war and death. It feels straightforwardly

spiritual to me, but Franklin Graham felt the need to disagree. uh, in response, grand point to scriptures saying, oh, I don't know, you know, David, King David, he prayed that God would train his hands how to fight his enemies. I'm fascinated by this new American kind of Christianity that doesn't believe in the New Testament. It's like they're doing a tacky, a tacky version of like multi-level marketing plus Judaism or something. I can't fucking put my brain around it.

Oh, no, they were like, all the fucking, the wrath, that was the coolest part. Yeah. The old, the Old Testament version of God that was just smiting people left and right and fucking blood and guts everywhere. That's fucking, that's more of their speed and all this hippie-dippy, turning cheeks bullshit that Jesus is always talking about.

I think I've described this back of war, but it's more of like a Vance, J.D. Vance versus Pete Hexeth, religious schism. Like I may quote here, Archbishop Tim Broglio, who's the Archbishop for the military, who's extremely conservative, very anti-gay, anti-trans, all that stuff. He was on CBS

morning yesterday and he's asked about Pete Hicketts' religious war rhetoric and say, well, it's hard to cast this war as something that will be sponsored by the Lord. All right. So again, Catholics versus Pete Hexette. For the first time of modern history on Friday, the Pentagon offered no good Friday services for Catholics.

They did, though, invite more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its house chapel, except it was only for Protestants. What? This comes after Pete Hexas pastor said a few months ago, then his America, public displays of Catholicism would be banned. Bro, what? Is this all? the Pope is woke or whatever

or it's like it's that old school like I don't know waspy fucking prejudice and shit like they're just

dialing it back because didn't that used to be a problem like Kennedy's a Catholic right but he was the first ever Catholic president

and that was like a big deal at the time because yeah they thought he would report you would report to the Pope you would do what the Pope said

right is this that type of thing like it's that or fucking what? I just think it's dumber. I mean, it's just dumber than that. Like, it's just like, this is like very old school. I remember when I was in Texas, I went to, um,

it's one of those big Texas, like, strip mall megachurches. My, my girlfriend at the time wanted to go with your coworker. And the preacher gave this long speech about religious tolerance and then ended it with how you could pray straight to God, but not through a knot hole to a knucklehead. Just decided to like throw in some Catholic

ministry. So, so, uh, so anyway, by the way, there were Easter services and Catholic churches in Tehran yesterday, but not in American Pentagon. A president is posting Praise Allah, which we're going to talk about, while his

minister of war wants to ban Catholicism. We're basically got Pete Hexeth nailing his 95thesis to a church store written in crayon while he pounds an energy drink and blast with the bodies at the floor. We don't have to bring ground and pull into this, but yeah, I hear it. Ed, this is all after

this week, I just want to throw this under it because I just want to mention this. Maynard from Tool has shared a message of support for his long-time friend General Randy George, who was recently fired by Pete Hickswith as the Army's chief of staff because he was standing in the way of Hexeth maybe being more racist. Yep. Manor from Tool. Him and Manor from Tool and Randy George went to West Point Prep together,

which I have no idea about any of that, which that's not West Point. That's like junior college for West Point, basically. Maynard did not continue on to West Point, but Randy George obviously did, He said that when he made the decision not to continue on to West Point and pursue the military career, all the other guy, all his other friends at West Point Prep were like, did you can't do that? That's insane. But that Randy George was like, that's cool, bro.

Play songs or whatever. That's why they were boys. So anyway. Yeah. Maybe it's too woke. Yeah. All right. We're going to go ahead and get into it.

No plugs anymore. I do want to let you know that later in this episode, we got a little treat for you. Another candidate. back in my beloved home state of Tennessee trying to push back on the ever-encroaching wave of evil, Republican evil there this time in the form of of Timber Chet in Tennessee's second congressional

district, the opposition. Her name is Dr. Michaela Barnett. She's running to unseat him in the off-mentioned midterms this fall. We have a great conversation with her a little bit later. But first, the Daily Dunmask. Matt, graphic, please.

All right, this week's D-D is the Kurds for thwarting our plan to create an Iranian mujahadine by shoplifting all the guns. Here we go. The president also provided new details on what happened earlier this year as the Iranian regime took to the streets and slaughtered what the president tells me is 45,000 civilians in their own country. after that took place. President Trump told me the United States sent guns to the Iranian protesters. It tells me we sent them a lot of guns.

We sent them through the Kurds. The president says he thinks the Kurds kept them. We went on to say, What? For the record, I don't think any of this is true, but let's pretend it is for a second. One, 45,000 is the highest version of that number I've heard. I thought the 35,000 was exaggeration.

Now we're just saying, we're just saying bigger numbers. also I think it's wild the president of the United States is calling reporters up to confirm that Iranian protesters were actually the tools of the great Satan you usually wouldn't do that

I also was like good for the Kurds for finally fucking us over for once if they did this I just also want to note that he called that reporter while he was driving doing a slow driving tour of DC looking for places to build his giant arch I'm going to lose my fucking minds

the president's doing home decor projects while the world birds. Yeah, I know. It's like a side hustle of World War III. What he's really into is, you know, his ballroom and his statues and all of his, you know, decoration and that type of stuff. That's where his heart is such that he has. He wants to build up. Arts Day triumph with no triumph. Right.

So let's talk about his true social posts from yesterday fucking morning. Okay. Easter morning. We're keeping us on Monday. Tuesday will be Power Plant Day. and Bridge Day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it, exclamation points, three exclamation points. Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living at hell.

Just watch. Praise B to Allah, President Donald J. Trump. I just can't, man. I can't. It's too. Look, this is like absolutely terrifying that the president in the midst of like an armed conflict like this and this kind of message, which implies you're going to just wipe out civilian infrastructure across the entire country. And that all is super don't hit.

but I just the way I I immediately what I picture because like you said this was Sunday morning I just pictured of all these like MAGA churches having their Easter services

and stuff like that and the idea that if they checked in to see what they're like dear leader you know what kind of message he had for Easter Sunday you know and then reading that and he's dropping F bombs

and ending it with praise B to A Laoc you know just imagining some like a Baptist fucking preacher in rural Tennessee trying to play that off to everybody

like in the moment without having time to let Fox News spin it to him or whatever. Like, it's just so funny to me. Like, you just can't. He still finds a way to somehow, I don't know at what point I'm, you know, it's

ever going to be like old hat to me. Like, you'd think I would have gotten fully jaded to Trump's full-blown insanity like years and years ago at this point, but he still somehow finds a way to make me go like, Jesus Christ, dude. And he's getting crazier.

I know. which is crazy. There's a not, like he used to, one thing was dependable on him, like, like,

like, Ronald Reagan had this thing too where everything else fucking sucked, but Ronald Reagan was legitimately horrified by nuclear weapons, the idea of it,

the concept of using them. Trump used to be afraid of nukes. He was talking about all the time that scary wasn't nukes. At this point, there's like a non-zero chance he nukes Iran tomorrow, at least a tactical one,

right? And like, nothing changed but him. He's just fucking crazier. But I want to compare and contrast Easter messages here. Here's the reason one for Pope Leo. Death is always lurking.

We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, and the cry of pain that rises from every corner because the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth's resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys. President of the United States, praise be to Allah. I just can't fucking get over it.

He said, Matt Drudge, threw up this picture. He done that picture back up, Matt. This is on Drudge. Estimably the conservative fucking tabloid blog site. a picture of Trump and like, I actually looked up what to call the hat, but one of the head, they dressed up like a fucking Muslim. Yeah, Muslim hat. Yeah, Muslim hat.

There's a war in the Middle East involved the United States and one side of the conflict is threatening to blow up British and power plants and civilian population centers while shouting at Oluat Bar and it's America. Right. Yeah, I know. Yeah, what the fuck is going on, man? Here's it from Monday morning I can't tell what the fuck

These people have parties all day every day They had an Easter event yesterday at the White House too But eventually I guess they did an Easter Egg roll today at the White House I don't fucking know But anyway this is from today if you got this Who you with? Who you with?

Well that's a radical left group of lunatics If you're in Yeah The President of the United States Is talking about how it's radically left to not want to bomb civilians while a cover band plays superstitioned by Stevie Wonder

at a Easter White House Easter egg roll. What the fuck planet is this man? These are not serious people at all. Then he did a he did give a bad shit press conference after that where he said, this Easter has been the best militarily. Like, I don't, like, the fact that, like,

so, Iran's already threatened to retaliate if we bought up bridges or, or, power generation facilities. What they're going to do is going to bomb a $30 billion open AI data center in Doha, I think. Because there's a UAE Sheik who's heavily invested in this data center. He also has a bunch of money in World Liberty Financial, which is Trump's crypto venture. So they're threatened to fuck with Trump's backers money, if not Trump's money. the Iranian government has a much clearer picture of what Donald Trump's about and how corrupt he is the American media is able to convey.

You understand what I'm saying? Like they're just not presenting a real picture. Like the New York Times trying to write out Trump's tweet yesterday. They rewrote him saying, open the fucking straight, you crazy bastard you'd be living in hell as quote, Mr. Trump issued a new ultimatum to Iran to end its chokehold over the straight of Ramos. Right. Yeah, still with the sign washing. Been doing that from day one.

it's almost like they just don't even know how to handle what Trump is, the type of president he is or something. You can just straightforwardly state what you see what Trump says. Yeah. Right. Like just in the last week, like, okay, Monday, told Iran, you have 48 hours to comply or you all die. Tuesday, do what you want. I don't care.

Not my problem. Wednesday, you have 48 hours to comply or you all die. Thursday, do what you care. I don't care. Not my problem. Then Sunday, you have 48 hours you all die. Right. So you can tell America's winning the war when the president post open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, at 5 a.m. Easter Sunday, and along with an extension on their deadline.

Right? The most clearest person, like I've seen talk about this is Marjorie Taylor Green. Let me quote here from her. Everyone in this administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on the knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshiping the president and intervene in Trump's madness. I know all of you in him and he has gone insane. All of you are complicit. Again, dude. Like,

MTG, the voice of reason. That's like where we're at. And this is, you know, like, got too crazy for her dog. It was wild.

Tim Kaine went on TV and his main complaint was the language at Trump's tweet. Not the actual potential of actually bobbing civilian population centers and civilian infrastructure.

Like, like, why can they speak morally clearly about what's going on? It's fucking insane. I wouldn't use all the jeeasy language that Marge used, but you can tell she's against it.

Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? And like, I want to talk about Iran for a second. They rushed out to do one of these Lego videos. If you got this, I just said I was going to talk about this for a second because it fascinates me. Yeah. The blue bridge Posted the video proud

Power plans next Stone Age talk out loud Watch this What, what, what, what War crime, war crime, war crime Bridge down, civilians cry Trump Trump. Okay, so

Before they got a video, fucking high quality shit. They just made another Banger two days prior to this It was about Pete Hexsweth Pete Hexsweth being a drunk rapist Did you ever get a hold of the people that make these videos? During a YouTube channel called Akbar and Fajari, which means sensory explosive news,

they begin posting of variety of digital content with a political and moralistic bent. The videos only got a few hundred views each. Then in February of this year, they basically set it on this series of videos, as AI-generated animated propaganda, mostly done the style of Lego movies. And they emailed the people behind the account, and they claim to be totally independent the government totally independent no government no military no state tv when pressed by a fact checker about task the regime he said coyly is there any evidence to prove you are not connected to jennifer lawrence check might which is yeah how do you prove you're not connected to something

be a fucking direct message on youtube or whatever um the guy described explosive news as a student led media team with a background of social activism and said that individuals behind it wished to remain anonymous out of fear that their viral success might make them targets in the war campaign which it would the United States killed an American citizen and War Alaki in Afghanistan

for basically making Taliban YouTube videos we would actually make these guys targets for making fucking Lego videos where the president literally has a flaming ass for sure

the thing is like they're making him such a rapid rate now by my count I saw seven different Lego videos yesterday but according to them they can only make one of theirs to 24 hours

which means other people ostensibly Americans have seen the engagement of these videos have gotten. Yep. And they're now making anti-American YouTube Lego videos for profit. Yeah, for the clicks.

Welcome to the internet. I can't fucking, I can't wrap my mind around what the world is. Anyway, some people, what you said yesterday about the idea of these Lego videos. I said, whose water does it use when they generate these videos with AI?

Because if it still is our water that's being, because we hear all the time about how much water AI uses. If it's still our water is being used up by these, then these videos are like doubly, raven, and hilarious or whatever, you know. They could do their own attack on our

civilian infrastructure because these AI things are not profitable at the like they lose money and lose water and lose power every time one of these videos is made. If they got all 93 million Iranians online all day making AI pictures and videos, they could bankrupt this fucking country.

I just find the whole thing fucking tremendously insane. Jesus Christ. So last weekend YouTube and Instagram abruptly took explosive news accounts down. Instagram did not respond for a request for comment, but a spokesman for YouTube said that it had been removed the channel

for quote, violating her spam deceptive practices and scams policies. I guess the premise for it being a scam is this Lego is not actually the president with his ass on fire. I think the irony embassies are on one too.

like the Iranian embassy at the Hague put in an inside out parody where Trump's brain is run by demons it's kind of weird that America's cultural hegemony as such the whole world can produce anti-American people who can rap and jujitsu Pixar movie plots at us

right the rapping and the Lego stuff is good just like good like how do they have they have anti-American rappers who know are hyper aware of American culture enough to fluently dissect us to make fun of us.

And we don't know nothing. No. Of their culture. Less than nothing. Oh, yeah, well, I don't know. That's the way she goes, Mark, I reckon when you got a hedge of money to begin with, you know, it's how hedge of monies be like that, as I understand it. But anyway, everybody, hang in there on the war front, but for now,

we go to a word from our sponsors, and when we get back, you have that aforementioned interview with Dr. Michaela Burden. scientist, small business owner, and congressional candidate, Democratic congressional candidate for Tennessee's 2nd District. Right after this, we'll be right back. Weekly skews is brought to you by Americans United for the separation of church and state. Yeah, we've been talking about a lot here on skews, but it makes me sick to see religion being weaponized the way that it is, you know? And that's true if we're talking about what's happening in the Gulf states or right here at home. It's been true for a long time.

You know, you've got Trump's so-called Religious Liberty Commission, which has been meeting regularly. And what they're actually working on would be more accurately termed a Christian nationalist agenda. It's not religious liberty for everybody, only for the right kind of Christian, right? You know, I grew up in a deeply religious community in rural Tennessee. Faith was everywhere all around, you know, in everybody's kitchen in the hallways at school, pretty much every conversation you ever had. And I'll tell you what I learned from that is that faith is something real and personal,

and it doesn't need the government propping it up to be meaningful to people. Here's what this looks like in practice. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has clients, real families, who got turned away from taxpayer-funded foster care agencies because of who they are. People like Liz and Gay Rutan Ram, a Jewish couple in my home state of Tennessee, who were ready to foster to adopt until a state-funded agency refused to work with them because they're Jewish. There's also Amy Madonna, a Catholic mother of three, who was rejected because she didn't agree with an evangelical Protestant statement of faith. Fatma Maruf and Bryn Esplan were turned away because they are a same-sex couple on and on.

These are qualified, loving families. These are children who need homes. And the state, using your tax dollars, is turning families away based on their religion. That's not religious liberty. That's discrimination with a Bible verse slapped on it. If you believe religious freedom is supposed to protect everybody and not be weaponized to turn away good families, then visit AU.org slash crooked to learn more. and become a member today.

This fight is far from over, and every one of us has a part to play in it. One more time, AU.org slash crooked. Weekly skews is brought to you by Zbiotics pre-alcohol. April can be a bit of a full sprint. April, my birth month, it is. You've got the masters going on in Augusta,

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refund you, no questions. I ask. Well, that one more time, Zbiotics.com slash skew promo code SKEW skew for 15% off. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Financial stress can wreck you in ways it might not show up on a bank statement. I know that from personal experience. Growing up without much money, you develop a constant low-grade anxiety about it. Shoo-wee, let me tell you. That background hum that never quite turns off, even when things get better.

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Better help. Help yourself. Do it now. All right, as promised with us this week, we're excited to have her Dr. Michaela Barnett running for Congress in Tennessee's second district. My old stomping grounds there in East Tennessee. How are you doing? Thanks for joining us. I'm glad to be with y'all today. And doing just as well as you can be on a beautiful spring, Tennessee afternoon, while the threat of World War III, you know, is all around us.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so the second district there in Knoxville is, when I say historically red, I don't even really cover it. I mean, it's like literally only ever been red. Like even back when that was a whole different party, it was still red like the whole time. So you got a Herculian undertaking. I have the data point here for you. The GOP and its predecessors have held it without interruption since 1859, I believe is one version of the number. Well, it should be since 1867. And I'll tell you the last time a Democrat held was 1854. You'll notice there's a gap in between those. And it's like one of the Whig parties, I think, which tells you how long ago we're talking. I always, you know, I never want people to feel like they're being quizzed at a campaign event, but this is frequently one where I'm like, okay, no one can answer if you've been to an event before, but how long have we been Republican? And you can tell folks frequently are trying to go longer than they.

than they think. So they'll be like 1920, 1950s. And it's like now, since Reconstruction, when, you know, we were the baddies, basically, when those party identities were very different than what they are today. So yes, Trey, you're right. It is quite an undertaking and quite a task to flip the longest held Republican district in the country. But we have a real shot here because I think folks see what decades and in this case a century and a half of republican leadership has done or not done for them in this case is that specifically what made you want to do it just eventually getting fed up and look around and say well nobody else is going to do it i'll do it myself or you know what's your motivation nobody else is going to do it i'll do it myself has been a recurring theme

throughout my life that's why you know i'm a small business owner here that's why i start my business um But I actually decided to run because I was working in Congress last year as a science policy fellow. I was working in a Democratic office covering eight different policy portfolio issue areas for my boss. And, you know, every time I would come home, folks would say like, okay, Michaela, you're on the inside. Is there some secret plan that the Democrats have for resisting? Or does it feel any better there instead of here? Can I start on this podcast? Is this a safe space where they'd be like, what the fuck are Democrats doing?

And my answer would be, that's a great question. Because I'm in D.C. in Congress, and I want to put my head through the wall just about every single day. Because, I mean, as horrified as I was by how Republicans are enabling this president and really just letting him take on the role of Congress, Democrats have like little paddles that they're putting up at the joint address. and they are not acting as an actual opposition party. And so that combined with Tim Burchett being my rep and people in D.C. texting me every time he did something stupid, which, you know, my phone was blowing up just about every single day. It was really why I decided to run.

Yeah, we've talked about Timberchette a lot because he's a fascinating character. So I got a question. So he's a career politician, basically, right? He ran for state rep a few years after graduated college. He majored in education, but I can't find anywhere in his bio or resume where he ever had a job. So Tim had one job before he became a politician. He had like a mulching or composting business, which I'm like all about waste management.

So I'm like, this is not a bad thing. But it's pretty well known here that he kind of had one failed company and then has been failing upward ever since. But, you know, it's a cost of business. I was just curious because I didn't find it anywhere and like he was a state rep at first to assume it's not a full-time job so something was paying the bills

but he's also the governor did his wedding so I assume he's connected like his first wedding he said been married twice anyway I was just curious about his background because a lot of things about him don't make sense like a fun fact I always bring up is like before he was like to the Congress

one of the main things he's known for in the state legislature was trying to get a bill pass to legalize eating roadkill which was already legal he's the one you have to ask a game warden before he ate it or something. A road tail bill. Yes. You know,

and like that's the thing is that's actually not a terrible part of his legacy. It's definitely something to laugh at, right? But I'm like, yeah, that's like a perfect example of reducing some red tape. And like, but is this actually solving a problem question mark? Like how big of a problem is it that you hit a deer or a possum and you're like, I am going to get in trouble if I take this home versus him in D.C. I mean, we could actually talk about all of his ridiculous things for the next, not even just 30 minutes. We could spend several hours talking about Tim because I've pretty much figured out his calculus is if he goes like more than 24 hours without a news hit, he just tries to say the most absurd thing that he can to get back in front of the cameras, which means that he's a pretty engaging figure for the media.

but he's you know he wasn't as ridiculous as a county mayor he really jumped the shark when he went up to he's now you know the one talking about UFOs and aliens all the time and big foot and anything other than the actual problems that we're facing here they they all had to get crazier right because he was the county mayor and it was fine then he goes to dc and he levels up and crazy but was replaced i fair eventually was replaced as county mayor by glen canes Jacobs, right, the pro wrestler and son or brother of the undertaker and hell spawn extraordinary from the late 90s attitude era of professional wrestling. He's now the, is he still the mayor that?

I know he, uh, yeah. He's, he's our county mayor. He's term limited. So he's out this year. And we're on the street here in Tennessee is that if Marcia wins the governor's race, because her Senate term hasn't ended, that she's going to appoint Glenn Jacobs to her seat. and so Kane might be going to the Senate. He might be going to Congress around the same time I am.

Wow. Yeah, I don't know what, like Tennessee, I don't know. I used to get so defensive and everything about like Tennessee. It's like it's not as bad as it seems, you know, not even all that long ago. It's like, yeah, we were the first state to make community college free for all Tennesseans. I'd had these little things I could grasp onto. And we just like, it just has gotten like just where it's really spiraled out of control. I mean, obviously the whole like Republican Party in the country period is done the same.

But Tennessee in particular, it just feels like it's the testing ground. It is the testing ground for every terrible thing they want to export nationally. I mean, you look at our state legislature and it's GOP supermajority, not because Tennessee is a GOP supermajority state. It's because they redrew the lines when they took control of the Senate back in 2011 or 20, And now you have like our state legislatures working hand in hand with Stephen Miller on immigration policy. They're putting forth legislation to try and, you know, let folks have the death penalty for women who have abortions. Last week they proposed a database for transgender people in the state. They literally, I mean, they are just kind of trying to be the model Republican state to export to the rest of the country.

at the same time that we have some of the poorest outcomes in the country. And I'm with you, Trey, because I'm like, Tennessee is a wonderful place and it's my home. And it has so much going for it, which is why so many people are moving here. And yet we're just getting screwed time and time and time again by our leaders. I want to, before we escape past, if you guys, the audience aren't familiar with what she's referring to about UFOs, Timbershot went on one of the right-leaning streaming news sites last week and he was asked about Matt Gates' recent suggestion that there was an alien human breeding program run by the deep state and he basically confirmed it but said he's not allowed to

talk about it but did tell the host I'm not suicidal by the way he says Tim says the US technology is possibly being reverse engineered right now but we don't understand how it functions he maintains the US has recovered a craft at some point possibly beings and this comes after earlier last year he said that aliens have secret underwater bases which would be huge of truth. In that interview, Tim was like, I'm a sitting U.S. congressman, so I can't talk about it. And I'm like, well, you stand for only three terms and you're in your fifth.

So, you know, I'm happy to take your job from you so you can actually bear these secrets to the American people that will keep us up at night. It's just, I mean, it's so obviously a distraction. Like, he's on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and we just saw the unhinged rant that Trump went on this weekend. And Jim is completely silent about that, but instead has time to go on and make a non-comment about a human alien breeding program. It's so embarrassing. So you mentioned he ostensibly is four term limits, right, but is past his own self-imposed deadline. He's also, I think, he's also ostensibly opposed to like stock trading and Congress or whatever, but he, himself does that still. So is his whole thing like, well, I'm saying it's bad, but as long as it's

allowed, I'm going to do it. Or, you know, I'll tell you, like, I usually tell folks, you know, when they're like, what makes you and Tim different? I will start with, okay, there's two things that we agree on, and that's term limits and banning members of Congress from trading stocks. But Tim has already surpassed his. With the stock trading, he stopped selling, he stopped trading stocks a few years ago, but he did trade restaurant stock right before the pandemic hit, right? And so you're like, there's just, but I think the through line there is just hypocrisy, right? Like, he's someone who campaigns on getting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and is the chair of the Doge subcommittee. He has been investigated multiple times for campaign finance irregular.

throughout his time in local office. And he talks about fiscal conservatism, frequently votes for things that will add to the deficit. So it's just, I mean, he will say anything, but it's just not bound into reality. But he tries to put a folksy accent on it in a car heart and hope that it'll land and that people will buy it. So when you say, like, I don't think in front of you,

but I was researching about him yesterday, like it's happened like five, six, seven, eight times where he had caught doing essentially camping and finance fraud. Oh, yeah, sorry, that was an oversight. He's been put off the forms wrong. And then he'll, like, I guess fix it when he's caught. But the thing about that is you don't know about the times he didn't get caught. Well, he blamed him on his ex-wife, right?

And then she blamed on it. It's super messy. And I think the biggest thing is that when you start looking into this guy, like we just did a March Badness series on social media where we were asking folks to vote on his worst and most iconic moments. And we actually had to narrow the amount of seeds that we had going forth and asking them to, say, like, which one are his worst moments to advance? And you have campaign finance irregularities that happen over and over and over again.

And then those we stacked up next to this trip that he took to Maine during the government shutdown to talk about aliens with Tucker Carlson. And he spent like $1,000 on a limousine. and $1,000 on a hotel room to go talk about these things, all the while just never doing any legislation for the people of East Tennessee, except, you know, the rare copy and paste he does from an executive order that would actually be so awful for the people here.

One of the other ones we did in the March Badness Roundup was a copy-paste bill he took from one of Trump's executive orders. It's just blatantly him kind of trying to suck up to the president. And this bill would let you institutionalize homeless people against their will and cost so much money and take away proven strategies. At a time when, like, Knoxville, Trey, I don't know the last time you were back here, we have a real problem with homelessness. Like our housing costs are crazy. Our wages aren't keeping up. More and more people are finding themselves in these precarious situations.

And instead of trying to find solutions, it's like, what if we actually. institutionalized you for the crime of not having a house. Yeah. That a private prison company gets paid, so it's win-win, right? For those guys. Sorry, go ahead, Troy. I was just going to say, you know, off of that, you're talking about, you know, how things are deteriorating in Knoxville.

And I was thinking, you know, Knoxville's always been read, but also Knoxville's had, you know, ups and downs at least. There's been periods of prosperity and whatnot, but recently it's been bad. but in my home county, Clay County, I think all the time about how Republicans

have been in charge there for a while now and it's only gotten more and more apocalypticly terrible. And generally, the margins had only really gone up somehow. And it's always confounded me

how that is possible, you know, but I mean, you go there and they just blame the Democrats for things that they don't have anything to do with or whatever else. But I'm wondering,

wondering, because you're actually running for office, so I'm assuming you're talking to people all the time. And like, do you get, you know, a sense from people that it is like different right now? Like any kind of Rubicon has been crossed or a breaking point has been reached or anything,

you know? I think so. But I also think that people have to feel like they have something to vote for. Yeah, I was going to ask you that too. And a lot of people, you know, there's plenty of people that will still never vote for me because I have a D behind my name.

And we've got we've got a big coalition. You know, I tell folks all the time like, you know, I'm a Democrat, but I don't care if you're a Republican or an independent. Like if you don't like what's happening right now, welcome to this party. And I think, too, like there's so many people right now that just want to say I told you so. Like there's so because it's satisfying, right? Because it's like we've been telling you for 10 years. Our gas prices down. Do we have no more forever wars?

Our housing prices down are, you know, the cost of medication, all these things. And it's just no, no, no. And I get that impulse. But my impulse instead is for the people that are three-time Trump voters who are starting to regret that is to say like, you know what? Welcome to the party. I'm glad you're here. Maybe you're a little bit late, but I'm still going to open the door.

And I think that that has had a response because there are plenty of people here that are like, this is not what I thought I was voting for. And then I can ask them what they thought they were voting for. And I think another way of answering that question is that both Trump and Burchett, they connected to something real within people, which was saying, like, things are really broken. in our government and in D.C. And there is a group of elites there that are only there for their own interests

and they don't care about you. Now, the problem is that like Trump and Burchett, in my opinion, happened to be two of those people. But they talk to this real thing, which is like that we don't feel like we have power. We don't feel represented. We don't feel like people there are fighting for us. We only feel like people are there really to enrich themselves

or to have power for themselves. And that, I think, has been cutting across. lines when we start talking about, you know, like they will try and paint me as a radical Democrat literally no matter what I do. But if you actually look at my platform and it's like, we need term limits. We need to ban members of Congress from trading stocks. We need to end gerrymandering. We need to keep members of Congress from being lobbyists. We need affordable and accessible health care. We need to bring high paying jobs to East Tennessee. And we need to invest in our infrastructure, which is literally crumbling around us. And we are one of the fastest

growing areas in the country. People are like, yeah, I can get behind all of that. Of course, a lot of times they'll say, like, how do you pay for it? And then we have a really fun talk about federal budgeting. And I'm like a policy nerd that's been a year working in D.C. And I'm ready to go, right? We're spending a billion dollars a day on this war. And the city of Knoxville's annual budget is 400 million. I'm like, we can, we can find the cash to do some of these things. I wanted to ask you, so your doctorate's in civil engineering, is that correct? That's right. So your four woke and gay stuff like bridges and schools and schools, wastewater infrastructure, the electrical grid, it's crazy, it's crazy. Like, what if we actually

could drive on our highway without having fear of like destroying our car? My new favorite, like, genre of social media post and favorite is the wrong word because it's, a rabbit hole I go down is people getting on like the Knoxville subreddit or the Knoxville Facebook pages and just showing their front tires and wheels absolutely destroyed by the potholes on 275. And it's, it is so embarrassing. I'm like, we are a developed country. And yes, your car could basically disappear into one of these holes. Because we just like, you look at the infrastructure needs. And this is nerdy, right? There's like a 300 page report that just came out state of Tennessee assessing the infrastructure needs across the state. Our district has like

$7 billion in infrastructure needs. Two-thirds of these don't have a funding source, right? So we're just like, okay, yeah, that bridge is falling apart, but we really don't know how we're going to pay for it. And simultaneously, we keep just sending politicians that are campaigning on like less government intervention, less government spending. And we end up with more government spending just like not for Americans. On bad stuff. Yeah, right. When you're talking to voters there and everything, did they bring, everything you just listed about your platform is this real common sense type stuff that's like who could disagree with. But are they hitting you with, you know, culture war questions and accusations and whatnot kind of the way Mark just jokingly did a minute ago? Some people are, you know, like I think, of course, like abortion is always going to be a really, a really big one for folks.

there's plenty of single issue voters there. But that we've been able to talk about, like, the maternal health care crisis in Tennessee and the fact that literally half of our counties do not have a single OBGYN. And when I'm like, hey, we actually have the same goal. We both want fewer abortions. People are like, wait, you want fewer abortions? I'm like, yeah. Like, I want people to be able to have them if they need them.

But I'd rather, like, that women can have kids if they want to, be able to afford them, all of these different things. have birth control. But I think, yeah, sorry. I was just the most insane sciop in American history. They get a bunch of people believe that there were a group of people out there who just want more abortions. Right. But I will say, like, more than people dragging me into culture wars, it's people afraid that I will focus on culture wars.

Like, the number of people that I meet and they're like, I really hope you're going to campaign on common sense issues. And, like, I really hope you're not going to campaign. And they, like, start listing out. you know, the top hits of the culture war stuff that is like Tim Burch, it's bread and butter. And it's people that are so afraid that, like, a Democrat will do that and that will make them lose. And I'm like, A, like, I'm not campaigning on those things, but I'm also not hanging, like, marginalized groups out to dry. Like, you can look at my platform. You can look at my website. And I'm not, like, shying away from those issues. But also, if you think that is the only reason that Democrats have lost, I just,

we have a fundamentally different analysis of why Democrats consistently are losing elections. And I don't think it's just because it's culture war issues. I think it's because people think that they don't stand for much, that they aren't fighters, that they've forgotten the working class. And they're like the other side of the same coin, which is this group of people that's just owned by the billionaire class. And then you throw on the culture war talking points on top of it that are easy to attack people with. And that is icing on the proverbial cake. I think, so I was reading through your platform, positive platform yesterday.

And like, so it was kind of refreshing because the dividing line, the Democratic Party, like, people paint is left right, but it's not. It's whether or not you actually want to try to fight for the things you believe in or whether you just want to say you believe in them. Right. So like, like, you quote me quote here, I will never sell you out for a handshake and a photo up. While Republicans give the wealthy a massive tax break on the back of working families, gutted the federal workforce and made ICE the biggest police force in the United States. Many Democrats in D.C. respondent with tactics from an old playbook that doesn't meet the urgency in the moment we are in.

They aren't fighting back. They're waiting and out. So I like that because when trying to talk about the last election, the biggest dividing line to me between the right and left is the right tells you who the villains are. A lot of them are made up. They're boogeyman, but they will tell you who's to blame for your lot in life. and Democrat, because they don't want to make any enemies with anybody.

Right, yeah. We'll just talk in vague, like, things about how, actually, we've got to work with the billionaires, basically, to, you know, to raise all votes or whatever. And it's like, it makes it, it makes for bad storytelling. I think, I really think the difference is just storytelling in the party right now. Anyway, that's, sorry, I just wanted to. No, I think that a lot of it is storytelling. I think it's also that, like, how many Americans do identify themselves as just displaced billionaires, right?

Like we just have a really hard time seeing ourselves as the person that could be homeless in Knoxville. We would rather see ourselves as the group that like could be the victim of a higher tax rate and feel that fear and anger instead. But I mean like for when I was in D.C. and made the decision to run, I joked for a while that I might like run to be the least popular member of the Democratic caucus. Right. And it's like, you know, I'm a Democrat. I stand by the Democratic Party's policy. and I have no problem saying when I think our leadership is messing up and when they aren't meeting the moment. And I've definitely gotten some flack from that from some folks that are just like really upset that I would be critical of the Democrats.

And I think that's insane. If you have talked to any person in the world outside of a bubble where I mean, the only people like as unpopular as Donald Trump right now, is the Democratic Party. And so to act like we are just doing things right and we need to keep doing them the same way we've been doing it is, it's really bearing your head in the sand to such a, it's like such a navel-gazing degree of madness.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know, you know, I hope you don't run into that with like, because I know also there's a whole element of like being backed properly. I know there's all these like, organizations that have like popped up that are trying to make it more feasible for people in districts like yours or ours or in Tennessee to like have the resources to actually do something like this and then there's the time where like if you step on the wrong toes you know they'll take that away from you or try to make it harder for you and all this stuff that just doesn't help anybody do anything um so you know like I guess sort of like logistically reality and resource wise and all that. that like you know you just see like the smile on my face right because it's like um a there are like there's plenty of groups doing great work for great candidates um i think as a whole a lot of us are a lot of organizations are pretty short-sided where like our house is on fire so they have to

focus on the ones they think are flippable right now they see the same numbers that we shared at the front of the interview that this is a district that has been read since Reconstruction, and they're like, I might want to invest elsewhere. And I think that that means that it's going to be a lot of East Tennesseans doing this. And then it's also going to be other folks that see that while fighting short-term fires, you also have to invest for the long haul. But I don't want to misstate the possibilities of this race, which is that we can win. We have a path to victory. It's going to be hard as hell, but there is a chance to flip the longest held Republican district in the country, give Tim Burchett the full-time job of making longboards and talking about aliens, and sending a message to what happens when you stop paying attention to your constituents and working for them. And the math is pretty simple, and I am comforted by it every time. Like, I'm a scientist. right. I love some data. And we essentially, we need Democrats to turn out like they would in a presidential year. We need Republicans to turn out like they would in a midterm. Now, looking at our

special elections, we will definitely see higher than average base turnout. We've got to really mobilize them to that presidential level. And then we need to flip 15,000 people. That is very doable, especially because we have three-time Trump voters joining our coalition weekly, who maybe they, they held their nose for him the third time they voted for him. Or we need to mobilize young people and independence in a way that we haven't before, which we are doing because, you know, I think folks, see, I'm a 33-year-old candidate who has a PhD in civil engineering. I'm a small business owner, and I spent time in Congress.

And we're doing events like progressive prom and speed dating and karaoke and finding ways to engage folks in non-traditional ways. that no one is really done and folks are excited about that. And I think that a lot of people in the establishment might count us out, but East Tennesseans aren't counting ourselves out. Yeah, no, I mean, when you put it, even when you said, you know, we need Democrats to turn out like it's a presidential and Republicans to turn out like it's a midterm, you know, for them to stay more at home.

And it feels like if there's ever been a setup for that particular, you know, alchemy, It feels like optimistically, hopefully, that this could be the year for it, because that's the kind of narratives that we're hearing all the time. So, you know. I do want to, before we go, you scoot it past it. I want to mention that I did clock you just brought up the fact that Timberts had as a hobby where he built skateboards out of bamboo, which is very against type. Yeah.

Yeah, what's that about? Way too cool. Way too cool for this guy. Yeah. Yeah. But I have a suggestion for your campaign, and that's AI-generated photos of Timberchek, conspiring with the half-human alien hybrids, and spread them all over Facebook and then it's your. Oh, my gosh.

Let me tell you, I'm going to let him wage the disinformation wars and use AI-generated stuff. I'm going to focus on actually regulating AI and keeping too many more exploitative data centers from coming into the district. But I'll keep that under advisement. But, I mean, the takeaway here is that it's a steep task, but it's a possible one. And, damn, if you want to send a message, you flip the longest-tiled Republican seat in the country and send Tim Burch at home. Absolutely. So finally, with that in mind, if you want to, you know, tell people how they can help, I'm sure you're taking, you know, donations. You've probably got a site and all that, right?

you got to do what you got to do. So let people know if they want to, you know, help out. Oh, yeah, please. The website is Michaela for Tennessee.com. And my first name is M-I-C-H-A-E-L-A and then F-O-R-R in Tennessee written out. You know, I'm really proud that we have no corporate PAC funding, no APAC. It is all individual grassroots donors. And we've been able to make magic happen with that.

And I'm really proud of what we've been able to achieve. But, you know, just like what you're doing, we need to. amplify the word about this campaign what we're building here in east tennessee and then yes if folks can throw some dollars our way we we receive it with gratitude and put it to good work right on well hell yeah you heard heard y'all go to micha for tennessee dot com help out keep fighting the good fight out there and all the best of you godspeed and go valls doctor michaela barnett everybody thank you thank you all right everybody hope you enjoyed that interview with dr michaela running for Congress in Tennessee's second district.

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