Is He the Next Obama?!

- Welcome to Next Up Everybody.

I'm Mark Calprin. Thank you for joining.

“I'm editor Chief of the Live Interactive Video platform”

two way and your host here to everything next up. I'm happy August for everybody. But those of you with kids back in school, that's all going well and for those of you who are still enjoying summer holiday.

Welcome. Thank you for listening and taking us along with you. Have a three great guest today. A super excited about having them all too. I know well.

When I just, um, bad to meet Evan Barker, she's a longtime Democrat political strategist. She worked with a lot of liberal progressive types and organizations and decided the Democrat party is off track, a new book called Nothing Left Confessions

of a Democratic Operative. Evan Barker makes the case that the party should be focused on economics and not on the social and cultural issue. So we'll talk to her.

Then my power Abby Swavez here, senior editor, Reason Magazine, co-hosts of The Hills Rising.

“My colleague, I had two way, he's the co-hosts of the group chat.”

Robin, I will kick around some of the headlines in the news. And then finally, excited to welcome my friend back, the independent journalist and author and substock power

has Jessica Reed Krauss who always has good thoughts about

so many different things. Excited to talk to them all about what's going on in the news, particularly some of the issues of ladies in the news and how they're being treated. But before they're here, I want to give you my reported

monologue. I've done kind of reporting lately on John Ossoff and both his Senate races here at Democrat running for reelection in a state where he should be facing a challenge, but he's raising tons of money and ahead in the bowls.

And to give another one of his speeches, he does this on a regular basis, so give his speech over the weekend in Atlanta or somewhere else in Georgia. And then partly that into several days of coverage, including almost always an interview on MSNow

to continue to raise money and show what he's got.

“But he's also being touted as a presidential candidate,”

even though he's disadvantaged, interest in that. And I was ready to talk about his speech this week and kind of break it down, John Madden's style chalk talk it to point out to you why he's striking such a chord with Democrats, but one line in the speech

where he referenced a political aid to the president, President Trump, Natalie, set off for World Contra Times, which you probably have already heard about. Natalie is a very close aid to the president who travels with him right early and helps him

with a lot of his social media and keeping up with the news. John Ossoff in a line that people in the room seem to get, but a lot of people, even people in political life, didn't necessarily understand. John Ossoff at his rally over the weekend said this

about President Trump and about Natalie 50 S2, please. And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He gulfs and trade stocks.

So he doesn't want to do a job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Amir of Qatar. Now it's been reported for quite some time,

but not with sources or very friendly to the president, then Natalie Harp and the president have a very close relationship. That's been documented by some of the things she's written to him, some notes she's written to him, which have made their way into the press. And by some of the things the president has said,

this Ossoff reference to the president traveling with Natalie caused a massive backlash from the right, particularly on social media, but also on cable, demanding that John Ossoff apologized, pointing out that he was seemed to be at least insinuating

that there was something improper about the relationship between Natalie Harp and her boss. I'll show you just some of the reaction to it. My colleague, Larry O'Connor, on two way, tweeted this. This is an attack on a young woman who works in the White House.

This mean-spirited jerk is using her as collateral damage and a feeble attempt to go viral. Pretty strong words from Larry. And again, that's representative of what you heard. I'll show you a couple more, Ari Flasher, the former White House press secretary,

who is super opinionated guy.

I never really knew what to think about Ossoff.

He seemed to backbench her who played it safe. Now I see he's a bottom feeder. Who does this and holds their head eye? Who accuses women of behaving like that? Because it doesn't like their boss.

This guy should be ashamed. One more to show you, just to give you an idea of how high up this went. Stephen Chang, who's the White House communications director, did this and you'll excuse the language,

John Jock Jackoff has been the biggest cook loser in politics, instead of denigrating hardworking people serving their country. John should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he's miserable person who hates this country. It's because he's a radical extremist Democrat.

Okay, the president himself was asked about this, what Ossoff said about Natalie. And in the overall office of the photo, I've been kind of blew it off. He kind of played it down.

And Ossoff then went on MS now, and was asked by Jen Psaki about why he brought up Natalie.

And here's what he said, he evaded it as six, please.

“Why did you decide to invoke Natalie Harps specifically in that stage?”

Well, Jen, thank you for having me and here's the point. We're in wartime. The commander in chief has mired us in this geopolitical disaster. People have lost their lives. Our naval logistics are afraid. The global energy system is in crisis.

And he retreats into this bubble of West Wing AIDS, who are his security blanket, to make him feel good about himself. Now I don't really know what to make of Ossoff's invoking or and then that answer. It seemed like he was trying to do something provocative. Got a big backlash and backed off. That's my sense of things.

But my point is, this is all bunch of throat clearing. I'm not saying this, what he said about Natalie Harps in the reaction is meaningless. It certainly demonstrates Republicans want to try to harm John Ossoff both in 26 as he runs for election for the Senate from Georgia and potentially in 28. They wouldn't care if another senator who had less national potential said these things.

I've no doubt as much as there is genuine outrage. Sometimes outrage in politics is what I call crocodile tears and people aren't genuinely

“I think people are genuinely outraged men and women who are close to Natalie Harp or Republicans who”

think what the senator said was inappropriate. But I think this conversation has distracted from the thing I wanted to talk about originally. The Democratic Party, as you've heard me say before, has a massive vacuum at the top for leadership for 28, particularly for the wing of the party that doesn't want a socialist nominee. There's not Bernie Sanders or AOC as the nominee.

And they're looking for somebody and they're looking for somebody, what parties always look for.

They want somebody exciting. They want somebody who, when you see him on TV, everybody turns up the volume. They want somebody who looks like they could win a general election, which will be decided as it has been in seven states, Georgia being one of them. They want someone who they can feel excited about and give them hope,

not just of winning the White House, but of changing the country. And John Ossoff regularly is compared with Barack Obama. Now, I'm going to show you some clips to show you what a town to guy this is. But with due respect to the senator, he's not Barack Obama. But there are some similarities.

There are definitely some similarities. We made this chart to show you what some of them are. This is A1, please. Both got elected from, you know, from at a young age, Barack Obama entered the senator, 43, also entered at 33.

They both rose by not having a ton of national experience. Both very good speakers, although, again, I don't think Osoff is anything like the inspiring figure, the charismatic figure. But he is charismatic. They're both hand some men.

“And I think maybe the biggest thing to me that they have in common,”

that speaks to why there's so much hunger for John Ossoff to run for president. Even though he's, he's played it down and suggested he's not interested. They both have the ability to have every, many people in democratic party across the spectrum. See in them what they want to see. They can please people very cleverly by talking about issues in a way that that makes people happy.

Progressive snow Obama, someone who'd be their champion, but so did more moderates. Same with John Ossoff, and what they see also is the legability. Barack Obama proved, he was from a blue state Illinois, but when he campaigned for others, he proved that in 2006, he campaigned in red areas. John Ossoff is currently on his way in raising a lot of money and based on the polls to winning

a reelection as a progressive in a very, in a very challenging state of state where Republicans have typically done better than Democrats.

So first of all, I want to show you what he said about his opponent.

Mike Conz is a congressman who has a lot of issues, a lot of baggage, and he wanted a primary where a lot of his Republican opponents made the point this guy's got problems. So here is John Ossoff, one of the things Democrats like about a democratic professionals in

your opponent. And he weaves it into a narrative. He weaves it into a great story. He's a former

“documentary maker. And I've watched lots of candidates with target rich environments on the”

person they're running against who can't do what Ossoff does. So here's John Ossoff, watch closely how he tells a story about Mike Conz, the Republican nominee to beat him for Senate, and he invokes the names of a lot of Republican critics of Mike Conz. S3, please. Because he Brian Camp was right about Mike Conz. There's a reason Rick Jackson won't commit to campaigning with Mike.

Republican nominee. Why Brad Rappin's Irver won't endorse him. There's a reason one of the

founders of the Tea Party said this summer, quote, "I cannot in good conscience vote for Mike

Conz, he is unfit for office and warned that Collins would quote, "drag down the whole Republican

“ticket in Georgia." There's a reason. And that reason is Mike Collins is a known”

bigot under federal investigation for the illegal misuse of tax dollars, surrounded by neo-Nazis and white nationalists, widely known for his poor character and low integrity who voted for war and voted to cut your health care and his unfit for any elected office." Now, that's a cloud for crowd, please. You're going to see a lot of those same charges made documented charges in the advertising that they're going to run against Collins.

But as I said, for a lot of political professionals for a lot of Democratic donors, they look at that and they say, "Wow, that guy is telling the story that Democrats should be telling about their opponents, particularly the associations with the war, with some of the Trump policies that are unpopular." And they see in that guy someone who could do that as a presidential candidate against JD, the answer, whoever the Republicans nominated. So that's one thing they like

about the guy that he can cut to the quick. Here he is doing it on Donald Trump in a way that, again, Democrats say, "Boy, why can't our other candidates do it?" Here's John Oshoff in the same rally from over the weekend in Atlanta. S1, please. Our government made a tool of one man's vengeance, power and wealth, prices soar while the President rakes in billions. Cancer patients lose insurance while the rich get another tax cut. We're plunged deeper and deeper into another

reckless war. But in eight weeks, Atlanta, in eight weeks, we can cast our ballots and say enough is enough. In eight weeks, we will vote to review him so decisively that no President will dare such abuses again for centuries, Atlanta. Now, this is what two separate Democrats just said to

“me this week, which is that's what the party needs in 2026 to make this a referendum on Donald”

Trump to get that turn the page on Trump, check on Trump narrative, but also for 2028. This is why so many of the elites in the party are attractive to John Oshoff. Because regardless of what happens in the final two years, the Trump administration, they believe they're going to need a presidential nominee who frames the Trump error to say, you got to put Democrats back in the White House.

Finally, what they like about him is even though he's not routinely as sunny as Barack Obama,

they love his capacity to talk about biography, to personalize the issues that Democrats believe will give them the winning end, not just to inspire the base to turn out, but to get independent voters. Here's one more sound bite from John Oshoff from that speech that everybody's been talking about. As five please. In Atlanta, what's required of us now is so much greater than what that small self-serving politics can muster. I've got two little girls at home.

Eva's four, and Lila's one, and I'm so grateful to this country, for the security and the opportunity to get affords them. But this isn't the world I want to leave them. Say all this to say, but it's the crushing weakness of our politics against the unmet needs of our people and the massive stakes of our times that's shaking our faith in the future. But Atlanta, I refuse to leave my girls a world as dark and dangerous and cruel as this one threatens to become.

The kind of wave that comes once a generation when the people have been pushed too far and they decide altogether all at once to say what? Enough is enough.

attracted to Oshoff as if not a candidate for president a role model for the party. It's a

bad storytelling, ladies and gentlemen. When Donald Trump was asked this week about John Oshoff, he played down the Natalie Harp thing, but he did take the opportunity to call John Oshoff, Pewe Herman. I meant it as an insult, but Pewe Herman liked Donald Trump and like John Oshoff,

“great storyteller. If you want to command the attention in this attention economy, you need to be a”

great storyteller. We've had two term presidents now, Reagan, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama and Trump, all one two terms. What do they have in common? Like Pewe Herman and like John Oshoff, great storytellers, are two one-term presidents of this era, Bush 41 and Biden, not great

storytellers. They were able to win once, but not twice. What John Oshoff has as a documentarian

as someone who understands the arc of America, who understands the Democratic Party, he is a great storyteller and that is why. I think it's above almost anything else. Why you hear so many Democrats say, that's what we need. He's a guy who can tell stories that bring the party together and can bring over some independence and some of our Republicans even. Keep watching John Oshoff. My sources say that he's going to come under enormous pressure to run

“for president assuming he wins reelection, which he's currently on track to do. And if he comes”

under that pressure as much as he disavows an interest, it may well be hard to say no. All right, there you have it. Let me know what you think is John Oshoff overrated, underrated, do you get why Democrats are so interested in getting him to run for president and do you take his disavows of interest seriously or not? Email me your thoughts on today's reported monologue right now. He can send me an email. The address is next up at devilmakeairmedia.com.

Send me an email at next up at devilmakeairmedia.com. Boy, I heard from a lot of Democrats about that speech even without the Natalie thing. Quick break. And when we come back next up, author Evan Barker is here with her new book explaining why she's left the Democratic Party. It's called nothing left. Confessions of a Democratic operative Evan Barker is next up. You hear it all the time, everybody. They're talking about weight loss injections because the

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fit that category with 20% off and free rush shipping. So you can add lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan right away. Visit takeline.com and enter next up for your discount. Again, that's promo code next up at takeline.com. Next up, enjoy me now a new author, a Democrat who is looked into the soul of her party and decided it needed to change. Evan Barker is the author of nothing left. Confessions of a Democratic operative and her story is fascinating. I wish we had

a four-hour show to run through it all. Evan, but we don't. Congratulations on the book and welcome. Thank you. It's so good to be here, Mark. We'll do the cliff notes version. Tell everybody kind of like if your life up until now. Tell everybody about the insured about the three main scenes if it were the movie. Oh my gosh. That's a hard task. Okay. So I was born in the American Heartland, Kansas Visitori. I was born with a rare pre-existing lung disease, similar to

cystic fibrosis, struggled to get health insurance throughout childhood, had waves of financial instability, precarity. On my mom's side, the family was mostly union construction workers. And so I kind of grew up in a Democratic family and started working for Obama in 2008 when I was only a senior in high school because I was afraid of graduating high school and how I would get

health insurance. And on that first campaign, I got hooked because he actually passed a policy,

the ACA that changed my life and gave me a health coverage even though I had a life-threatening lung disease. Fast forward after college, Trump gets selected. I'm fired up and ready to get back into politics and up finding the Bernie Sanders movement, back home in Kansas, worked for a labor lawyer there who was endorsed by Bernie and AOC, was with them the very first day they ever met.

I worked for a national organization visited AOC's office again, traveled all over the country,

“meeting different progressive candidates and giving them advice. And then finally landed at a”

fundraising firm based on a Washington D.C. that has all sorts of very interesting clients, Ilhan Omar, Jamal Bowman, Cory Bush, I worked for Jasmine Croquette, not Duelsay Ed. And just kind of rose to the top fundraising position that I could have in progressive politics went through a series of disillusionment mark. Probably started with noticing some profound class differences between my own background and the people that I was working with. And then just

the active fundraising money was very disillusioning, getting kind of like beat up by the established

met repeatedly. And then finally everything kind of came to a head in the summer of 2020

and during that whole era when I saw this movement that I thought was about economic solidarity and I thought it was class-based, transport and to become all about social and cultural justice issues and just kind of coming to the conclusions that these people had actually caused a lot of damage, not only to the Democratic Party but to the country as well. And ended up leaving the Democratic Party in 2024 on Day 3 right after Oprah Winfrey spoke,

I got up and I left it booked up late home, did not even stick around to see Kamala speak, posted a video to TikTok that was intended to be my resignation letter. Walk up the next day, I had millions of views, I only posted it to 60 people. And now I have written the first dissident progressive tell-all called nothing left, confessions of a Democratic operative about the rise of the progressive movement in the United States

“and what has really led us to this moment now. And I think it also explains”

also why Donald Trump won again in 2024 and now I am here talking to you.

Yeah, having that's an amazing summary and I've fitted in a lot of this stuff that lays the

foundation now I follow. First, when you say you raised money for progressives, did you raise them big checks for you help them raise grassroots money? Big money. Yeah. Contrary to popular belief, the progressives actually are very well funded and have billionaires the back then, well time millionaires, there's a lot of big money and outside money that goes into boost to these people. Yeah. And what kind of billionaires were you asking for money from?

A lot of erases, believe it or not. Anybody people would have heard of or anonymous erases? I mean George Soros was he's not an erase, but the George Soros was a big backer. I write in the

book he put 650,000 into an IE virtual moment. That was never public. And then also this group

called Way to Win. He was founded by this woman named Leah Hendrix. People probably heard of her family. She's the granddaughter of a whale baron in Texas and yeah people like that. This woman named Liz Simon donated a lot to progressive candidates. She's like a hedge fund billionaire erase and Bayeria. The Bernie Sanders and I was seated. Did they take checks from billionaires? They didn't have to. No. So they did not. I mean maybe a billionaire is donated to them. I wouldn't be surprised

about that. But they actually, I talk about this in the book. They have a really big list. And so they're sort of the rarity actually in progressive politics and in politics in general. Most politicians do not have the luxury being so famous and having large lists. So you're if I'm understand it correctly, your your complaint main complaint is that the movement which you think should be about working class economics is now dominated at least

“some of the time by issues that have nothing to do with working class economics. Is that correct?”

Exactly. Yeah. They're completely obsessed with social and cultural issues. And the economic issues that they do pay attention to don't really connect with working class people. Is there is there anybody in the Democratic Party or the progressive movement who focuses the way you'd like on working class economics? I was just talking about this as somebody else. There is no like part of the reason that the progressives are so strong right now is because they have had a

decade of experience and they're you know their infrastructure has built out. But it's also because there's no other built-in alternative in the Democratic Party and the base of the party is really fed up with the establishment rightfully so. But there is no like populist faction that is also anti-woke that doesn't exist. Right. And are you are you anti-woke because you think on

of the economic message. Both. Both. What don't you like about Woke? Well I think originally it was

“about the strategy and the tactical error of it. But I think it's morally wrong actually. I”

just think it's like a moral thing. When I was working in Democratic politics I would see all sorts of discrimination against men, against white people. And I thought it was just really really important in wrong. I would see people get pastroper jobs based on the color of their skin or their gender. I myself participated in that. I would get resumes of white men and do to social pressure and the pressure from all of these candidates and organizations that did not

want to hire them anymore. I would not set up interviews with them and it's like one of the first

things I did was look up their gender and their race. And it's a very real thing that is still impacting the party. How have your buddies or in some cases maybe former buddies in the progressive movement reacted to your book? Oh it's been mixed. So some people have reached out. I've been very kind. I'm actually gonna call last night with somebody that is in the book as a character in the book. And she loved the book and she was like wow I didn't even realize what like a big awful

“bubble it really is. That's what she said to me. And then other people have been really just silent”

and ignoring. I think the people that are probably angry or just not are just wanting it to go away. And then you know there was one person that I worked for that said that when he read my book

it felt like he was reading about somebody that he had died that had died that he never really knew

that well that he had been friends with at one point in time but didn't really get to know and wishing that he had more time with them. Okay, take a spine that seems for a Democrat who agrees with you in private but in public. I'm talking about like an elected official. You know it's a name names if you want but who's someone who you don't think or the kind of person who doesn't really believe in the cultural and social stuff but goes along with it. Why did they do that?

They're captured on all sides. They're captured by the donors that prefer that politicians on the left talk about these issues over economics. It's definitely a thing. And also because a lot of them are comfortable they don't really see the value and talk about economics over things like abortion and you know open borders and crime and homelessness and stuff like that. And then I think also the base has been radicalized over the last 10 years because the establishment has failed so

many times and because Donald Trump is one multiple times it's kind of driven them further to the left and it is the only built-in alternative and then finally the thing that most people don't realize either and I've talked to some establishment politicians I will not name their names and the last six months that are Democrats that have told me that they do agree and that a lot of people behind the scenes agree and they do get emails from some donors sometimes that also agree

and are telling them that they should criticize people like Zoron and should disassociate and remove themselves from the you know his brand but that they get a lot of pushback from their staff and their consultants and they're kind of bullied and being held hostage into acquiescing to the left fringe of the party in order to survive in democratic politics. Yeah and you know in

“reading your book I was reminded of I think the most important thing I've literally learned in my”

career about politics. I've learned a lot I've had the good fortune to be exposed to so much so many smart people and so many smart lessons. What I learned from Bill Clinton in 1992 is the country is the opposite of what the Democratic and Republican donor class thinks. The donor class thinks the country is conservative on economics and liberal on social issues. I know. And it's exactly the opposite. I know that's where I'm at. Yeah that's where I'm at no.

So it's why I have this which parties. Yeah that's exactly it for people like you. The Republican party has got the donors of the wrong focus but these Democratic donors are convinced that what the country wants is low fiscal policy and cut social security and not used the power of government to help the working class but abortion rights and gay rights etc. And what Bill Clinton taught me is exact opposite. They're conservative on social issues. They don't

want woke but they do want economic policies that will benefit the working class. Yeah so people have

done this now for 30 or 40 years but it doesn't change. Yeah it's kind of amazing. Evan what about

but is highly critical of the distractions or bad policies of the far left. Is he not match

your paradigm of what you'd like to see? Well you know I actually helped John Fetterman through a super PAC and I wrote about that in the book and it was funny even back then we were getting pushed back from progressives that were angry that we wanted to help them because he wasn't pure enough for them even before he started going in Fox and more you know right leading outlets

“to criticize his party but yeah I mean I think he's an interesting guy. I think actually I've”

talked to people like my mom um who uh has you know I'm like mom who would you support who's a Democrat in 2028 you know who could get you to not vote for a JD man's just you know wondering and she would she'll tell me John Fetterman's at the top of her list. She's like John Fetterman Josh she's a John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro and then maybe Gretchen Whitmer a third and um but

it's just like he's never gonna get through a primary process and I think you know he'll

end up getting primary at himself it's just you know but yeah I mean he's him um he's in that vein also Marie Gluson camp Perez I don't know if you know who she is congresswoman from Washington State yeah I like her a lot a lot um and you know I think it's just I think I wouldn't be surprised if better men ends up leaving the Democratic party yeah I would be surprised if he stayed if he wants to keep his job because he'll never be the Democratic nominee. It's sad he's the only person

that's what that's been able to like flip a swing state in the last five years and he's still votes about Democrats 94% of the time but reminds reminds us right early what what's your message

for Democrats if if uh if you have their ear with the bulk and with appearances like this

but they obviously are gravitated much of the parties gravitated towards cultural liberalism for reason is your message to them uh you're hurting the country you're hurting the party you're doing the wrong thing what's your message to try to get them to share your point of view. It's both

“you're hurting your party but you're also hurting the country and I think if you want to win”

you can't just uh win with suburbanites and college educated people the majority of the country doesn't have a college degree so if you want to win back the working class you can't do that by just going further left on economics uh Joe Biden did a huge industrial investment and during his presidency and the working class still rejected the Democrats in 2024 overwhelmingly so you can't just ignore these culture and social issues they are incredibly important to

working class people immigration is an issue that is incredibly important to working class people and I have a special list for them mark it's called my rest and peace list um are this is what I would like to see rest and peace from the Democratic Party are race and identity politics poison

“get rid of it I they need a moderate on immigration immigration, pee, policing and crime and I think”

those three things should be rest and peased from the party and they should change their policies and I think that it's going to take it's not going to be it's going to be hard the voters are going to push back there's going to be donors who will become upset but I think the courage really has to come from the elected officials I think they're the only people that can really push through and change things um for the party in the future and they're going to have to be able

to withstand a couple of bad press cycles um from their own side in order to really redirect their party on these issues all right let's end with a gimmick a frivolous gimmick on them somebody you tell me are they overrated or underrated okay yeah Bernie's Bernie Sanders uh overrated. AOC overrated. Kamala Harris overrated Barack Obama underrated Hillary Clinton neither I came Jeffries neither okay no no all right the book is nothing left

confessions of a Democratic operated Evan Barker has written a book that is a great read but also super important for understanding not just her perspective but the perspective of tens of millions of Democrats around the country who don't quite understand what's happens their party having congratulations on the book and thank you for being here thank you Mark all right next up my friend Robbie Swabe was talk about everything in the news under the sun

across the river and through the woods Robbie Swabe is next up talk about life insurance

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to get started all right next up and joining me now Robbie Swabe senior editor at reason magazine co host of rising on the hill and most importantly maybe at least to me host of the group chat on two way that airs on Thursdays at 4 p.m. eastern time my two way colleague Robbie thank you for being here

my pleasure nice talk to you Mark um i i'm always so interested in in the controversial things

with you the complex things because you think so analytically uh we had aoc saying uh woke one was crazy and seeming to take back some positions and try to justify some previous positions does that mean that at least for her wing of the progressive movement maybe for doctor i'll say it may be for uh their senate candidate main is there a concerted secret effort not so secret

“to try to moderate the image of the progressive movement i think it's important to talk about”

what we mean by wokeness and by woke one so yes they are taking an effort to moderate the cultural aspects of their policies policies that have to do with race in gender that have to do with speech

cancel culture you know wokeness was a name we gave to something there was going on for 20 years

that we eventually landed on because it was fewer syllables than political correctness or intersectionality it was you know a kid getting disinvited or losing his job uh when he'd said a bad word when he was 13 in a text message that was what i was thinking wokeness was and then it was our you know cultural appropriation dressing up in the wrong Halloween costume all that kind of stuff that was toxically unpopular for democrats but was embraced wildly by elite liberal left taste

makers and that is what aoc recognizes is politically not a winner people hate it people don't want your you know pronouns in bios that kind of thing she took hers out after uh after they lost uh 2024 i believe so she's recognized that is over and is not an agenda to run on that's a little bit different from saying that they're trying to moderate their image they're not moderating anything having to do with their views on foreign policy their views on Israel their views on economics their

views on like wholesale fundamental transformational change of of our government system but yes on the cultural issues uh what is a woman that is being moderated on which cultural issues do you

“think the two parties if you want to put front and center republican still seem to want to do”

trans athletes and women sports is that is that a 2026 issue that will will will be in advertising and resonate what are the what are the ones that actually will resonate on both sides yeah that's clearly a winning issue for republicans that's like an 80 20 issue or more um they have one that one though the the problem for the republican party is every now and then they can't admit that they've just won something like the the pendulum has won so far back toward conservative sensible conservative

or moderate live and let live you know don't shove it down my throat kind of cultural stuff like on that right know what i mean sure liberal activist groups are still putting up a fight but the democratic party isn't putting up much of a fight on that one so they're going to have to find something else uh this is going to be a problem saving saving thanksgiving is an important one right right but that you know that woman Francesca Hong she went down to uh defeat near defeat

but she was defeated so that stuff still works um but i the democrats right now are out of power and they're saying you know what that was a crazy time period we're not doing that anymore

that if a.o.c. got power again woke to would be every bit as terrifying you know as woke one was and what and what they should point to is that she's been peddling woke things you know as recently as six months ago when she was slamming marco rubio for saying what she's saying that cowboy culture originated in spain and she said it originated with like enslaved African persons right my understanding you know spain colonized south america up through mexica i think

that was basically correct what rubio said do people leaders on the left like Bernie Sanders like a.o.c. do they run the risk of inflaming the far left the the the the the democratic socialist by being to a combinationist by tempering not just their rhetoric but their policy positions i have a saying that if your strategy resolve uh revolves around making the left to like you

you'll always lose because hard core far left activist type people are really prickly they're

prickly as media commentators they're prickly as political operatives and appeasing them is very

“did you can't go just a little bit of the way you have to fully endorse and commit totally”

to what they want to do and then they may like you but you can't do and this is a problem for democratic leadership right now because it's so toxically unpopular and it's scared of these people i know who came Jeffries and Chuck Schumer don't don't like these people don't want them to get elected in democratic primaries but they have no answer to them and they're afraid to fight them and just being kind of like oh yeah well they're part of our coalition and we agree on some

things and disagree on some things that doesn't work with them they they want to mount your head on a spike i mean they say things like that right they they are enamored of their takeover when they win they go ha ha this shows that we're the future your losers when they lose they say well that's

because you know Jewish billionaire spent money to stop us or something right never it's never

they're never losing because their candidates are weak it's because somebody else did something to them Republican candidate said for weeks we keep telling the White House you got to end the war and lower gas prices or will be blown out in the midterms it appears that the war is not gonna end in gas prices are not gonna come down substantially before so why isn't that game set match for the Democrat Republican party in the midterms or is it it should be and

under and or any other circumstance i say it will be but the Senate comes down to individual candidate strength it does it's not just the national landscape and Democrats need a number of pickups so when i look at for instance the situation in Michigan that's my home state i'm

“from Michigan and from the Detroit area originally uh i think if it was haily Stevens this would”

be totally over uh but abduell side and he's doing some smart things he is distancing himself from those toxic woke policies he's trying to say that he's not explicitly one of the DSA he's not a member of their group he's not a Democratic socialist he's emphasizing his moderate things could still win but this is a harder fight for Democrats than they wanted to have

the main debacle maybe Troy Jackson is a a stronger candidate ultimately but you know Susan Collins

is formidable and they kind of screwed up that race and then Republicans have a weak candidate of their own in Texas so i think it will come down to some degree to individual personality and candidate strength not just the state of the economy in the war those things matter uh trump's numbers are down uh people are not happy and and the conservative commentary world is just an amassive civil war over all sorts of issues they're not training their fire on the left

nearly as much as you'd expect them to be and that's that's not a healthy sign so there's some

“unhealthy things going on but i think democrats could snatch uh defeat from the jaws of victory”

by having put forward their angry primary voters have put forward some candidates who i think we're really going to test whether someone you know this radical can be elected to congress in terms of political talent messaging understanding how to talk about Iran who are the Republican candidates who are stars whether incumbents challengers or people running for open seats do you see any republican candidates who you say wow they're really good they really get how to

be a candidate in twenty twenty six that's a good question i've been really impressed by not i not specifically on the Iran issue at all but a brand in guilt is a very uh it's house member who is still who effectively skewers on the wokeness issues using you know the questioning adhering to say what do you actually believe and and to get some very liberal figures to admit to holding or being confused about some really toxicly unpopular position so i i've been impressed

with him in that way look marco rubio continues to be a very impressive national republican figure and i'm this is not at at all unique observation to me but the him versus JD thing is kind of notable because on one hand JD would be seemingly the designated successor

defend the war that i think he's the least excited about in the entire administration i i don't think he's hugely in favor of this and you see some incoherence where he tries to defend it but then also criticizes you know he's drawn fire from neoconservice for criticizing his

“reals government or their war and uh they're uh they're role in pushing us to do this i think he's”

in a very rock in a hard place there where rubio is just avoids by he's just in favor of it he's been in favor of a more muscular presence for america on the world stage and in some ways global events possibly bear that out russia china more threatening than they used to be you know i i used to be more uh not interventionist in my own outlook uh i still think messing around in the middle east is like a dubious value at best but we do have some very large powerful global

adversaries uh who want to do us in our allies harm and and martyred being has a long record of speaking up about that and what we should do on it i really use the word irony because it's so often misused but i do think this is a correct usage it's ironic that probably the best political athlete in the trump uh administration uh it can't campaign uh because it's as secretary

“status one of the few lines of normalness that the trump administration seems to adhere to and”

secretary rubio said as much himself so even though you have the secretary of war going to Iowa on his spare time to campaign i don't think rubio is going to do that means again they're benching a guy who could come in and raise a ton of money and build a huge set of crowds and last rate to democrats

robby thank you grateful to you for being here always uh remind people uh both your cell number

and your twitter handle my cell number or either one either to say i find you at robby's wall of a on twitter on ex very active there and uh yes please follow me there active and entertaining ladies and gentlemen catch him on one of his many gigs reason magazine the hills rising or on two way robby thank you great to see always thank you all right next up uh another pala my jeska read crowds who is masterful jeska read crowds is next up make sure you subscribe to next up uh on

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you like make sure you have the downloads turned on and you share it with everybody you possibly can imagine sharing it with that way you'll always get everything new and fresh when we go live the regular Tuesday Thursday episodes plus all of our bonus content quick break and then next up jeska read grass there's a question that runs under everything we do on this program no matter what we cover the question is who's actually looking at for you and also who's just looking at for

themselves i want to ask that same question now about something a lot of you are dealing with immediately your medicare coverage two medicare plans they can have the exact same coverage the same doctors and still wildly different prices the same benefits but a different bill and unless somebody goes

looking you never know it chapter a company of independent medicare advisors found exactly that for

someone in this audience just last month same coverage three different carrier options and switching just one put a couple thousand dollars back in her pocket over the life of the plan that's the whole idea chapters the only medicare advisors who compare every plan from every carrier nationwide their advisors are paid to push one plan over another if you're already on the best plan they'll tell you that but if not they'll help you make the switch a real conversation with a real person that's free

and done in under twenty minutes folks who switch with chapter last year get this saved an average of eleven hundred dollars so give my friends over a chapter or call their nice folks that's two six two four five four zero five zero three people who check tell me the same thing all the time they wish they'd made the call sooner at two six two four five four zero five zero three all right next up and joining me now high on a rare privilege the lights just to read

crafts journalists author of her moderately successful all right highly successful substance I cast an habit and um she dominates instagram so much that I feel like she might have to be barred from the platform because it's not fair to everyone else just go read crafts here now welcome I always look forward to those introductions thank you my god um thank you for being here uh who who are the women as in the maga trump orbit currently who are most interesting to you and why

well unfortunately my my favorites are all you know kind of falling away we've lost uh Tulsi

are my those are my favorites but I mean I'm a big fan of Susie Wiles I'm endlessly fascinated and intrigued by her um I love Anna Paulina Luna that's a you know really solid

“member and she always has great insight and she's leading the most I mean I think she's leading the most”

impressive and exciting content right now because she's in charge of all the declassified files so we have the aliens we have mk ultra uh jfk files she's got it all what what if anything should we make of the fact that some of the most high-profile departures from the administration you name three are women anything coincidence I mean I think it's it's incredibly hard to be a working woman and been balanced at all and they're I mean they each have different reasons for leaving you know

Tulsi obviously has a lot going on with her husband's diagnosis and that's her first priority

and I support I love I adore Tulsi um she's one of my favorite people just in life in general and then Caroline love it has two young babies so she's now wanting to spend time with her family

“which is you know I think a lot of us can relate to that too I stayed home for 15 years”

I was a stay at home mom um and working now it's it's really hard to juggle all of it so and then Pam she's I think Pam Bondi is happy with her new position as far as she sounds left on my top to herself that I'd call that a less voluntary departure than the other two yeah yeah I think people have lots of theories about this but I'm desperate to hear yours why why does President Trump like Caroline love it as press secretary so much what did she do

that he likes so much in that job why I think she's fabulous at the job I think that's that's what he looks for he loves well he likes you know a very confident and dynamic blonde she's blonde

she's got on camera she's kind of a shark she never backs down she has really one mode of a

tack and I mean I I enjoy watching her I've through the years not been a fan of all the press secretaries but I think she's got everything that he looks for in in that role and I think she's you know incredibly loyal to him I think she delivers his message and um I think it's you know it's a loss do you know who replaces her well my theory is he's not going to replace her because there's no one who could do the job the way he wants it done and he'll just have different people

brief the way he did during her maternity leave and then hope she'll come back that's my secret theory okay so maybe so we hope we need to just a maternity leave I mean we'll see I don't know I don't know who could replace her you're right I don't I can't off the top of my head I don't

“yeah I mean if the traits you listed I don't know that many of her murdering ago you should well maybe”

blonde does it have to be a blonde woman or could it be a brunette I think it probably I think it's gonna have to be a blonde yeah yeah so it's my favorite of all time no I I don't know I think yeah she's a hard one to replace I'm an emissar I'm not probably gonna turn you know I looked forward to those briefings all the time and I like to you know I like looking at these women's wardrobe Pam Bonde was the best dressed member the administration I thought so I miss her wardrobe

how would you characterize Carolyn's style of dress I think Carolyn's more she's pretty conservative right like she fits the kind of the old school Republican aesthetic but regardless of gender who are the best dress members of the administration best dress okay oh gosh well who are we gonna go with best regardless of we're doing men and women yeah just like who are the top three or four best dress like Pete Hague Seth see good is he well dressed he's well dressed but is he well

dressed or he just looks you know he's such a handsome like the movie star type guy I assume he's still he still has his clothes from his clothing allowance at Fox so it wouldn't be surprised I've seen his his dressing room and it's very very humble it's nothing like the table is reported we like Bobby Kennedy's skinny ties you know he's a he has his signature look with usually his wildlife on a tiny skinny tie yeah a gray suit he loves a pink shirt which I think you know I'm not

a big fan of but he seems he seems to like dressing well I think he's best I've heard that I've you know I go deep into the wardrobe thanks on all of these people and I know how he hangs his pants I know that he you know has lectured his nephew Jackson on the importance of

looking good and and having nicely pressed clothes he always looks sharp and the president is the

canary yellow he's not a fan of color I mean not not afraid of color how would you characterize the way AOC dresses what what style would that be that modern traditional what how would you

“characterize her I mean I think traditionally and don't get mad at me for saying this to my peers”

but I think the liberals are usually dressed the women are dressed better dressed I think Hillary Clinton had it down I liked her pants what about AOC style do you like that no now what is how would you characterize it like she wears like sweatpants and t-shirts what is she wearing I'm not a fan of the ripped gene and I've seen her in a few pairs of ripped jeans so yeah she's a beautiful though so she can pull off anything I just I wouldn't categorize her in best dressed yeah I'll name two

democrats you tell me who's better dressed and why ready John also off Gavin Newsom I'm not giving Gavin Newsom any accolades no his John John also wears like a lot of blouses with no ties and no jackets he's like that look I like that look I think he's he's got it I just was on a

“tech I have a tech start with a few women we were just discussing that so let's break it down”

is it is it is it is those piercing eyes is haircut what do you like it's all of it he has the

effector yeah you know I'm writing a piece about him right now and the first line is the it

candidate doesn't want to be it has that can you had can you copy at it that that's that's a great line and it's so true but yeah don't steal it don't steal it before I publish my piece where's my notes yeah no he's got it and everybody keeps saying that but I really want to I'm going to press you on it because what are you king of he even met him right I haven't met him I'm getting my information from yeah again our friend Megan McCain she's very impressed with yeah but but tell me why like

what it what is it about him is it the way he speaks is it like his brooding quality like I'm not denying it I'm just fascinated by everybody's reached the sort of same conclusion off the like watching a few YouTube videos well I'm I'm late to this this is all coming to me just within the last couple days my my group chats are totally you know interested in him and why I need to be too and I saw the photos and I'm like yes like count me in I want to but it's purely visual right

nobody's saying I'm really into his Medicare plan right but that's always the case with these I mean

it's okay so what is it break it down is it as close as hair don't tell me it's everything like what's the guy guy going on it's his closest hair it's his confidence he has charisma natural charisma which I mean some of these people or they have all those things but they don't have charisma right he has that and he has strong messaging going on right now about you know like the last video I watched even as a supporter of Donald Trump he made great points so yeah I'm just getting I'm just

now you know entertaining this person understand let me throw out two traits that some might say he has and see whether they're daunting to you how about shortened boring there's a Zaman all short and boring to you or no that's not what that's not what I read okay what what about what about if you just think yeah good well I'm just gonna say height matters right I have this conversation all the presidents are over six feet tall so how tall is that estimate's very but I don't I don't

“I think he's six feet tall like on his tippy toes I don't think he's six feet tall somebody will”

Google while we're talking but I think he's under six feet tall um when when when when you look at him do you see like who do you who do you remember mind Joe do you remember mind you've any famous actors or anything like what what what what what what what's like the analog for that guy no I didn't I do it post the sexiest man in um they didn't know where is that post I think I didn't write an anonymous writer uh but he was up there he was I don't know because I don't know

enough right all right let's let's let's he's he's five eleven according to publish sources all right let's go back to women uh the mace tattoos Nancy mace okay show showed up with a bunch of tattoos including I mean they're varied there's all sorts of things in them are you fan of the mace tattoos or not I'm not a fan I'm I'm shocked and horrified I can't believe it's real I had to

look at it three times yeah I thought it was a I the first time I saw it but now I'm convinced it's real

uh first of all let's establish the baseline here are you tatted I do not have a single tattoo not a single tattoo not a fan I I have to agree with you but these tattoos seem particularly I don't know

it sends a message it's sort of an erratic woman like there's there's like certain things we all judge women on you know sometimes when they go and die their hair red there's turn up as a red

head it's that's always a red flag something is off something's going on and then the tattoos

overnight I mean it's not just like a symbolic you know initial or or quote it's literally she's sleeved right like she's completely sleeved it's like she's a punk bro yeah she's like a dentist rodman of politics now but overnight uh I did this what it took to convince you that Nancy maces a little erratic was these tattoos or well there's been other signs yeah again she's gorgeous and she's confident she's fun to watch I watch her here but she's maybe off the rails a little bit

and I don't approve of the sleeve tattoos I don't want to see it and then now she's wearing sleeveless

they're just very aggressively in our face now NBC did a piece pointing at the melania has skipped a bunch of high profile of enchanted go to Lindsey Graham's funeral she didn't go to um i figure with the other things are but there've been some high profile stuff you might have expected her to go to

“any idea where she is what she's doing they put out a press release today i think something but”

something she's working on but but any idea what she's up to is she in the York with Baron what she's doing what do you think that's an interesting story i've actually been wondering about it too because in the beginning she was really involved we saw her quite a bit and i went to yeah a few of her her press conferences and stuff and she seemed really engaged and then it kind of fell off so i don't know i'm curious where she's been too i like seeing her again she's the best rest

person in the white house you know so yeah i far by far i mean she's one of the she's probably the most stunning woman i've ever seen in person um impeccably dressed with the pants suits we've got the convention coming up this idea the president had to do a two-day convention political convention in a midterm year do you think she'll speak at that it depends on what's really going on as she doing it because she's has other you know she focused on New York stuff with Baron

“or is there some sort of issue i don't know i think i think it's interesting though that she”

kind of pulled away from public engagements um and i miss her i want to know where she's at ladies and gentlemen if you're one of the very very few americans who does not subscribe to Jessica Substack you're making a mistake you're making a mistake for yourself for your future for your children's future go right now to substack house and have it you can follow our instagram too but she needs no help there uh because uh she's uh like i said and danger being barred from instagram

for being too dominant she's like a monopoly that needs to be broken up but nonetheless i recommend house and have it on substack Jessica thank you please no tattoos you're safe with me thank you so all right great to see you soon that is again my friend Jessica go to get her substack that's it for today's program back on thursday with the brand new episode in this news filled week already lots

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