Is It Gay to Flip Texas?

than ever any new cycle and daily personal to do is your brain has too many tabs open.

“That's why you need the reliability of simply safe”

to help you close the home security tab in your crowded mind. They've got it covered. I've set up a simply safe and creatively easy to do. It definitely gives you that piece of mind. You don't have to worry about it.

The app is great, the customer support is great. And simply safe, you can customize your system to fit your needs. And then it ships right to your door. The app guided set up a simple. There's no drilling required so you can install an armure system

in under an hour. Simply safe is more than just a security camera. It's a comprehensive system of sensors indoor and outdoor cameras in 24/7 professional monitoring. In the event of an emergency simply safe 24/7 professional

monitoring agents will dispatch help when you need it.

Over 5 million people value and trust simply safe

with their home security every day. Right now our listeners will get 50% off a new system when you sign up for professional monitoring and your first month is free. Just visit simplysafe.com/curgid.

That's half off at simplysafe.com/curgid. There is no safe like simply safe. America's 250th birthday calls for a history as sprawling and contradictory as the country itself. A history of the United States in a hundred objects

produced by BBC Studios and 99% invisible tells this story one object at a time. Told over 100 episodes, join host Roman Mars as he reveals the fascinating story behind a collection of often overlooked objects,

each of which sheds light on key moments in American history. From a gold coin found in a shipwreck that triggered financial panic to a tiny screw that kick started an industrial empire, every week one object will open the door

into an extraordinary often shocking story about who we've been what we've built and what we've allowed ourselves to forget. New episodes of a history of the United States and 100 objects are released every Tuesday

find it 99% invisible wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dan Fiper. For years I've heard from candidates, activists and political staffers who turn to a positive American for political strategy

and messaging advice because they don't have access to a political consultant or a pollster. That's flattering to hear but it's a huge problem. We're going to defeat maga and protect democracy we need everyone to have access

to the best information and advice possible.

“That's why I recently launched message box pro,”

a subscription consulting product for people working at every level of politics. Subscribers get weekly strategy memos to data-driven messaging insights and polling analysis.

Plus you get access to an incredible community

of smart, committed, political pros. Whether you're running for office, staffing and politician, organizing your community or working in communications at any level, message box pro is built for you to learn more or sign up good at messageboxpro.com.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Plets Have America. I'm Jack Faber. I'm Dan Fyfer. On today's show, we're going to talk about the news

that U.S. and Iranian negotiators are on the verge of an agreement to keep negotiating. To also talk about Trump using our money to cover statues in gold and the push to put his face on a new $250 bill, exciting.

Also to talk about Republicans losing their minds over James Talarico, Rubio Topping Vance for the first time in a 2028 poll. Sorry, great stuff, good to know myself.

And Jill Biden finally admitting

that her husband's debate performance was so bad, she thought he was either having a stroke or on drugs. Depress. Then, could Democrats have a chance at a Senate seat in Mississippi Democratic nominee Scott Colombe

stops by the studio to make his case. Before we start, if you are not a subscriber to Cricut Media right now, what are you doing? You just listen to all these ads on Pods Av America and Pods Av the world and offline for nothing.

You could be listening to ad free episodes. You could be supporting independent pro-democracy media,

“which is kind of important to do right now”

if you've been looking at the news and seeing what Trump's been doing to the media landscape. And also, we got cool subscriber only shows like Policoster, Ruth Dan. Today we're going to be talking about James Talarico

versus Ken Paxon, but if you really want to nerd out on that race and hear all about the polls and Dan's take on this, you get to listen to Policoster this week. All right, Dan, another day, another siren emoji, heralding a deal to end the war in Iran

that appears to be an agreement to keep talking about the nuclear program that ostensibly led to the war in the first place. That's where we are. Axios reports and other outlets have confirmed

that pending final approval from Trump and the Iotola negotiators have agreed to quote, a memorandum of understanding that says the straightforward moves will reopen for, quote, unrestricted movement by commercial ships

and exchange for ending the US blockade of Iranian ports. And then everything else, including sanctions relief

will be the subject of negotiations

“that will take place over the next 60 days”

during which time the ceasefire will be extended. Despite the tit-for-tat air strikes between the US and Iran over the last few days, so not off to a great start there, questions remain, will Iran go back to

enriching uranium, will they get pallets of cash, will they still control the straight? No one knows, but Trump addressed this last question during one of his marathon cabinet meetings on Wednesday. Would you accept a short-term deal

that allows Iran and Oman to control the straight? Nobody's going to control its international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else. It will have to blow 'em up. We don't need oil, we don't need the straight,

we don't need anything. We don't need anything at all, which is why we're making the deal. And also, we're going to control the straight. No one's going to control the straight.

If Oman doesn't let ships through, we're going to blow them up, and I'll make sense.

Here's what a senior US official told Axeus about the deal.

Quote, this isn't agreement to get everybody to the table. We will work out the details in negotiations. That's not these negotiations that are leading to the deal that official was referring to. That is the future negotiations that will happen.

Trump, mouthpiece, Scott Jennings, responded to the story by doodifully tweeting "The US appears to be getting everything we want." Is this everything we want? Getting people to the table?

Well, if you, it's an existential question, John, if you want for a little and you get for a little, did you get everything you want? Just saying, very good, very good. I mean, it's kind of hard to believe that the thing

there's been so much of breathless reporting on. So many siren emojis over the last couple weeks was simply an agreement to keep talking. And I know it says they're going to open the straight of Formus for unrestricted commercial traffic.

Now, the problem here is there are still mines in unknown places all across the straight of Formus. Some of which around was laying just this week, they were laying more mines.

“That's what started the air strikes again.”

I wouldn't say the straight is open and say the straight is slightly a jar. Because I was at least some ships will get through there are these ships that are stranded there that the US was pledging to a squirt,

which we then abandoned that after like one six hour period. So, and it is it better that the United States and run it up on each other. Yes. Is it better that maybe a couple ships will get through there?

Yes. Is this the Treaty of Fucking Versailles? No. This is a very minor... If I even agree with it, as you said, it's an MOU.

So cool. Right, like, of course it's great to cease hostilities

because no one wanted this fucking war in the first place,

at least most people in America didn't want it and the rest of the world. But the questions here are simple. Like, is Iran any further from developing a nuclear weapon than when this war started in February?

No.

“We did nothing to push back the Iranian nuclear program”

that Trump hadn't done with the first round of strikes last year. So, nothing has been achieved on that front is the regime any less radical. No, in fact, the regime is now more radical. Are the Iranian people any closer to freedom?

No, they are not. In fact, they are going to be more repressed by an even more radical regime. Is America any safer? No.

Is the Middle East any more stable? No. And so, what did all of that cost us? Well, 14 American lives, 10 of thousands of lives in the Middle East,

at least 50 billion dollars in counting of taxpayer dollars

that have gone to fight this war, and an estimated $4 billion in higher fuel costs so far. So, that's what we had to pay. Those are the costs that we had to bear for getting abs of fucking lootly nothing,

except maybe the straight back open, which it was at the beginning of the war. And it's also not like Iran was on the cuts of the nuclear weapon when we started this process. The whole thing is so stupid.

It's the whole thing is so fucking stupid. It's like, it's mind-boggling. We've been talking about this for so long. This has happened because it's so stupid. The enriched uranium they are going to negotiate

to figure out what to do with is only there because Donald Trump pulled us out of the Iran deal so Iran went back to enriching uranium. All the uranium that's there has been enriched since the end of the Iran deal, which Trump pulled us out.

And now, there wouldn't even be more enriched uranium to be talking about if Trump hadn't gotten us out of the Iran deal. The best case scenario here is that we spent billions of dollars we used up all of our missiles five years, five years to rebuild the munitions. That's the estimate.

A, which I'm sure will be a boon for a bunch of defense companies in which Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. have invested. The, you know, America troops have lost their lives. People all across the region have lost their lives. And for nothing, the best case scenario is we have a deal

that is worse than the one Obama cut 12 years ago or whatever it was. And we are very far from best case. And now, like, do we think the Iranians really believe that if these negotiations over the next 60 days go poorly,

Like, what, right before the midterms?

No, they know we actually might. Yeah, you may be, maybe. But I don't feel like, I don't think this is a great play in terms of keeping any kind of leverage over the Iranians at this point. No, they know they can close the straight whenever they want.

So, and lay minds whenever they want.

“So, that's what's happening there. I'm sure the deal could be announced any minute now”

who knows, just look for more siren emojis from Axios and look for Scott Jennings to just sort of regurgitate whatever the administration tells him to. Because that's what he does. All right. So, the White House press corps was briefed on the potential deal

as well as the latest bad economic news by struggling soybean farmer, Scott Bessant, the administration's resident populist. Bessant had to contend with news that inflation has now risen to its highest level in three years,

and the GDP grew even slower than previously estimated in the first quarter of this year.

Oscar Gulsby, the Chicago Federal Reserve President, told the Wall Street Journal that the US economy is moving in a, quote, "stagflationary direction," which would be the worst case scenario. Scott Bessant's response to all of this. Okay, doomers. I believe we've already seen oil prices come down as substantially.

“These are short-term challenges that we will get over, and I think we'll move forward.”

This inflation sticky, because the PCE was at three-year high. Well, first of all, the PCE today went to work a month with point two, which was, we're looking at decimal points, but the estimate was point three. Are you seeing signs that American households are dipping into their savings during a global energy crisis that they are confident?

They are doing so because they are doing so, because they are doing so well.

So, we're looking at what we're going to do.

We're looking at what we're going to do, and we're looking at what we're going to do. We're looking at what we're going to do, and we're looking at what we're going to do. We're looking at what we're going to do, and we're looking at what we're going to do. We're looking at what we're going to do, and we're looking at what we're going to do. They're doing so because they are confident about their findings.

They're confident that they need to drive their car to work with their car. So, you know, we've had a number of auditions since Caroline Levitt has been on parental leave. We had JD Vance, we had Marco Rubio, and now Scott Bessant took a turn to the podium, and let me tell you, I don't know. I don't know if he was the kind of soothing voice that the American people were looking for.

Yeah, there's just, I just don't know with this moment in time where, you know, somewhere between two thirds and three chorus Americans are very mad about the economy. Economic anxiety is at the highest level possible. They you want to dismissively arrogant, Wall Street.

“Sent to millionaire, I think he is, to be your spokesperson.”

You know, someone who exudes like money coming out of their pores. As Tommy refers to him as a pissy cadaver. It's very tough. It kind of looks like that. I think the question now is, like, if this deal is signed today, would it actually help get inflation and growth moving in the right direction again before the midterms?

It would lower oil prices, which will eventually, at some point in time, lower gas prices, because oil, because oil futures will come down, but, you know, we're not going to see anywhere near the sort of traffic going through the straight that we had before for six months of the earliest and probably longer. And even if, and the true economic damage is done here, right? It would be growth has been stunted.

Inflation is up as it will take a while for all of that to come down. The Fed is even thinking about possibly raising interest rates again because of the PCE numbers that best it mentioned. And let's just put aside the economics where I feel deeply uncomfortable talking about them. Focus on the politics where I am mildly more comfortable is, look, people's opinions about this economy are pretty set in stone. People's opinions about Donald Trump's handling of this economy are pretty set in stone.

People are starting voting in a couple months. And even if things do get a little bit better, which seems highly unlikely, we know from years and years of data that people's impression of the economy lags the reality by months. And so even if things got a little bit better, it's unlikely to be a helper public in this fall.

The CNN business reporter, their business reporter David Goldman, was asked about, like, when we might see $3 a gas again, guess which year he said for $3 a gas again? It's not going to be 20/26, is it, John? 20/32.

Well, that's, I would say I was going to guess 20/30 just because by the way, you asked that question. It was going to be far away, but that's even further than I thought. That's what your reaction was similar to CNN's pan browned.

He's like, yeah, well, by the time he's like, if you just look at the futures,

this is what the futures market say right now.

“Because it would have to be down to, like, I think around $70 a oil would be”

have to be $70 a gallon and up $70 a barrel. And, you know, it's like down to hovering around 100 now. So it's not where it was at, with, like, 120, but to get from there to 70. Yeah, it takes the straight being fully open for quite a while. But the other thing about the straight is it's not just both moving through the straight.

It's that Gulf country sees production because they could not get oil through the straight. And so they have to restart production and that takes time. And that is on top of the facilities that were damaged from the Iranian missiles as part of the war that Trump started. One area of the economy that's undeniably booming, construction firms that Trump

has contracted to make the nation's capital look like one of his failed casinos. The New York Times reports that the no bid contractor hired to paint the reflecting pool, a tackier blue, is quote, being paid and inflated and excessive profit margin.

You don't say, the Times also reports that the administration has funneled over 60 million

dollars worth of national park admissions fees toward repairing the pool. And some of DC's fountains. There's also apparently a $5 million contract to coat a bunch of equestrian statues by the Lincoln Memorial in gold. What?

This is all ahead of America's 250th birthday celebration, which Trump is merging with his own. The president will ring in the big 80 with a UFC fight on the south lawn. And they've just started to build the arena, which looks like a Roman Coliseum that's being sponsored by Axe Body Spray. That's what it looks like.

It's a real eyesore. The White House has also announced a list of musical artists who will allegedly perform for summer's festivities, like Flow Ride of vanilla, I see music factory. Millie Vanillie and young MC. I say allegedly because already Millie Vanillie and young MC have said they're actually

not performing. This just in the Commodore's also said absolutely not. They were on the list as well. So that list is dwindling, Dan.

“Did you follow how the young MC and Millie Vanillie things played out?”

Young MC, I think, did not realize what you were signing up for. So he pulled himself out. Millie Vanillie seems to claim based on a very bizarre word of statement from the quantum quote, "real Millie Vanillie," that the Millie Vanillie that was book was a Millie Vanillie cover band.

Now, if you never band of a band of a cover band.

If you never band of a cover band of a cover band. Millie Vanillie is also a cover band of Millie Vanillie. So it's a rusting, that is Russian nesting dolls of cover bands here. Didn't one of them die? I think we only, I don't know if we have Millie.

Millie or Vanillie dead. Let's see. Okay, I don't know which is which. But one half of the R&B dance duo, Millie Vanillie, Rob Pilatus is dead. The other half of the duo, Fab Morvin is alive.

That's what Wikipedia tells me. Okay, well, either way. Either way. No, the Millie will not be performing. For many reasons.

For many reasons. Yeah. If he actually could get the original Millie Vanillie performed, that would be impressive. Now, of course, well, all this is going on. Trump can't be paying attention to all this.

“He's focused on what's really important.”

Let's listen. We have one in particular, a very long lake we call. They're reflecting lake. Between Lincoln and Washington, you have the longest, like 2,400 feet long. That's longer than the tallest Millie in the world if you set it on the site.

And we're now covering it with the most beautiful blue. Very thick. You think of it as a very sophisticated form of rubber. No leaks, no problems. And it's beautiful.

It's called American Flag Blue. That was the color of the chest. Fick rubber doesn't leak. That's the blue. That's the blue that we're going for here.

Just cover in the reflecting lake. Calling it the reflecting lake now. It's also what Trump is looking for in his personal print of depends. But. There you go.

There you go. So there's also this story today that Trump is pressuring treasury officials. The people who print the money in treasury to put his face on a special $250 bill in honor of America's 250th and in honor of Trump, of course. And this may be wonder like, OK, the corruption, huge political problem.

The biggest political problem, I'm sure. Obviously, all of this also looks extremely out of touch while the economy is in the shitter. Even people also might feel just a bit uneasy about Trump's messianic rebrand of America here. I mean, it's just like the face is on everything. The name is on everything.

There's fucking gold everywhere. It's a little fucking creepy.

Can we dig in the 250 dollar bill for a second?

Yes. So best it was asked about this at the briefing. And he pointed out that there is a law that says that you cannot put a living person on money. And that there's a bill before.

And it was after George Washington, our first president refused to put his face on currency while he was alive. And so there's a bill before the house in the Senate right now that would lift that restriction for the purposes of allowing best and to put Trump's face on the money. And my message, too.

I must speak directly to Mike Johnson, Jonathan. And frankly, every congressional Republican immediately. If you do not immediately go to the Capitol right now and vote on that bill to put Donald Trump's face on our money, then you are traders to the mega-cost. You are weak, woke liberals.

You have to do this vote for right now. I can think of nothing no better use of your time. I got a better idea, Dan. Remember, they all went home before the Memorial Day break because they couldn't come to an agreement on the budget bill that was supposed to fund ice.

And all the other bills should have there.

Like the $1.8 billion slush fund for January six writers.

Democrats have the ability to offer amendments in a voter ram a process. So if I was Chuck Schumer or Senate Democrat, I might offer an amendment about this. And let's put everyone on the record and see what they think. See what all the Republicans think about the Donald Trump's face on the $250 bill.

I like that too. It's a great idea. You have really grown aged into a legacy that has just laid in life. Let's get to the meat of your question. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Basically, do you think voters are creeped out? And maybe a little scared by Trump basically, cosplaying Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Pick your 10-pot dictator.

“I think the biggest political problem here”

is that Trump is focused on dumb self-serving shit, instead of lowering people's costs. Like that is the fundamental thing. You add a side of pretty blatant corruption to it. That's pretty bad.

I think people see the Trump putting his name on everything as face and everything. And I think maybe last year they would have seen that as scary. I think this year they think it's stupid. Because the Trump of 2026 and another Trump of 2025. 25, he was single-handedly destroying federal agencies,

setting mass agents everywhere. He was a stride, the royalty was bizarrely popular. And now he is a deeply unpopular, dottering old man who can't stay awake in meetings. He is losing wars to Iran.

He just looks, he seems different. He just seems smaller now. And you see it in the polling where majority of people in large majority of the independent no longer describe him as strong.

They see him as weak and indecisive.

“And I think, so I think should people be creeped out by it?”

Absolutely. I think the approach is probably not fear. It's derision. I was going to say, I don't, I probably, I probably articulated it wrong.

I don't think it's fear like, oh no scary dictator kind of thing. When I say it uneasy, I feel like people look at it. And first of all, I think part of this is me when the ballroom thing first happened,

not thinking that the ballroom was going to be a big deal. And then realizing that the imagery of the East Wing being demolished

was more powerful to people than I had imagined.

And not just from a corruption angle, because at that point it was just, we're going to knock down the East Wing and I'm going to build the ballroom, right? And it wasn't just like, oh, he's not focused because we didn't have the war then, right?

But it was still like, what are you doing? I think that people have not, there's going to be a lot of focus and a lot of attention on Washington DC over the next couple of months because it's America's 250th anniversary birthday.

And there's going to be a lot of activities in DC. And so those images are going to be broadcast and everywhere. And just like people tuning in to what's happening in DC with like Trump's face on the Justice Department

and his name on everything and the gold everywhere. I kind of just think it's, it's a small thing.

“But I think it's just sort of adds to the, like, what the fuck”

is happening right now? Like, it doesn't make you feel, it doesn't make you feel good about America. And a time where people most people will want to feel somewhat patriotic or happy about America's 250th birthday

making it all about Donald Trump. I do think like cuts to the core of what, like, it bothers people in a, like, a fuck, this is not our country. What, what is this kind of way? Yeah, I think that's right.

It's also just people are going to see it and be like, why is this such a high priority? Yeah, like, yeah, and it all combines, I think. It's like, what do you, what do you do it? Pots of America's brought you by policy genius.

from the neverending news horrors and spending time with your family.

“Which means you don't want to spend your summer”

wasting time on personal admin if you don't have to. Policy genius, let's you check life insurance off your to-do list in minutes and get back to your summer. Knowing your family is protected. Policy genius is an online insurance marketplace

that allows you to compare quotes from some of America's top insurance side by side for free. There are licensed team helps you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life easily. Find what you need coverage amounts.

Price is terms, no guess work, just clarity. Policy genius helps you find the most affordable policy that meets your needs. They'll also answer questions and handle paperwork and advocate for you throughout the process.

With policy genius, you can see if you can find 20 insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for $1 million in coverage. Head to policy genius.com/curricate to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save.

That's policy genius.com/curricate. Policy of America's brought you by Zeebiotic's pre-alcohol. Let's face it after a night with drinks. I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice.

I can either have a great night or a next day. That isn't till I found free alcohol. Zeebiotic's pre-alcohol probiotic drink

is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic.

It was invented by PhD scientists and rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works when you drink. Alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a build-up of this byproduct, not dehydration.

That's to blame for rough next day's after drinking. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow.

I love Zeebiotic's. I went to Vegas recently. I had one before I had a bunch of drinks and lost a lot of money. That's all. That's my fault because I love the action.

I love the action. And I'm going to have a bunch of Zeebiotics when I get married before because, you know, I'm going to turn one on.

“I think from the crack of the bat at the stadium”

to the start of wedding season, hey, may as back the back-to-back reasons to be out. Don't let a rough morning after. Keep you on the sidelines. Drink pre-alcohol the stay ahead of it.

Make the most of every Saturday this month. Go to zeebiotic.com/chryker to learn more and get 15% off your first order. When you use crooked ad check out Zeebiotics is back for the 100% money back guarantee.

So if you're not satisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to add the zeebiotics.com/chryker and use the code crooked.

Add check out for 15% off. (upbeat music) There's just a bit more corruption to discuss before we move on. This is sort of your standard issue corruption.

According to pro-publica, Trump advisor and family friend Peter Navarro. I remember Peter Navarro. I think that all the tariffs that everyone's enjoying so much. And Jill time. He did Jill time.

Jill time. So it turns out he pulled some strings last year

to funnel a 620 million dollar Pentagon loan

to a North Carolina startup owned in part by Donald Trump Jr. What do you think, isn't it? Early wedding present. Like we talked all the time about the crypto schemes and the Katari Jets and all the other like very extravagant

and extraordinary corruption. But there really is just a staggering amount of issues in mundane corruption. Just like funneling contracts to your friends so that they can make money off the taxpayers.

And Trump is probably, although not definitely going to pardon his sons before he leaves. Maybe Peter Navarro will cross the threshold of people who will get pardoned because he did sort of time for Trump for a while.

“And he already has a pardon, I believe, release a commutation.”

But the people who actually facilitated this, people who work in the Pentagon, people who work for Peter Navarro, they're not getting pardoned. And they're probably going to see the inside the jail cell because of it.

And that is happening across the board. And like there are a lot of people who think who are serving their mega lords, they're doing what they're told. And they are going, Trump's going to pardon his close friends

and his closest aides and the rest of those people are going to be under tremendous legal jeopardy because of what they're doing. It really is it's easy to become numb to all the stories about corruption and all the numbers.

But what happened here is, this is a pretty clear cut one. They set up this office in the Pentagon, called the Office of Strategic Capital. And this was set up in the Biden administration. And the idea was, the government wants to give out some loans

to companies, start-up companies better, involved in developing rare earth minerals. Because we don't want to depend on China for that. We wanted to depend on U.S. And so this is good.

It's good for the government to sort of help these people are doing this.

It was a, they had a $1 billion lending authority under Biden.

Donald Trump comes in and they, they, they increased it from $1 billion to $200 billion. So now it's $200 billion that the government is handing out to these companies. And in the Biden administration, there's a process.

You bid for this if you're one of these companies. You apply, there's a rigorous process. They decide to take you or not. They reject some companies. They just, obviously, we want to give loans

to the best possible companies because it's taxpayer dollars that we are giving to these companies. So we want to make sure they're the best ones. Except one company, Vulkan, scurred at that entire process.

Peter Navarro calls the defense department. And it was like, you got to give the money to Vulkan. You just got to give the money to Vulkan. And that is the company, the small company in North Carolina, the Don Jr. had just invested in just a couple months before this.

And once it got the money, once it got the huge contract,

the valuation of the company went from $200 million to $2 billion.

A nine hundred percent increase. That is how much money Don fucking Jr. made, because his really good friend, Peter Navarro, the two of them are very tight, called up the fucking Pentagon and said,

"Make this happen for Don Jr.'s company." There's so much like this. There is, you know, just for the other day that they thought, Trump had a big investment and made investment in Dell right before a big announcement. Where Dell was going to get a government contract,

same thing with Robin Hood. It's across the board, just everyone is robbing the Treasury with two hands at all times. I was going to say it's not, and it's not just like they're using their office.

So they're abusing their office and just the fact that they have the office to make money. No, no, no, they're like stealing from you.

They are putting their hands in the taxpayer pockets and stealing.

Because this is just taxpayer money. That's been handing out and with no accountability or oversight whatsoever. Is this company going to succeed? Is it a company? We don't know.

Don Jr. own some of it. That's all we need to know. Money out the door. Taxpayers. There's only a year ago that the government told us

that we cannot afford to keep rural hospitals open. Right? Yeah. We can give a favorable contract with a huge profit margin with the weird rubbery paint on the bottom of the pool.

We can give contracts and down Jr's company. We can in case Washington DC base horse statues in gold. Where's the lawn? Where are the doge bros?

“Where's the all in pod bros with all the fucking come on guys?”

Probably investors in the Donald Trump and the Trump Jr. company. Lots of waste and fraud right here. You guys were saying all kinds of waste in the government. You've been pretty quiet about this. Fucking losers.

All right. The moment from Trump's cabinet meeting that I should get the most airtime wasn't the Iran stuff or the thick rubbery coating. It was this. I don't care about them in terms of what happened last night.

That was the prelude to the midterms. Yeah, man. We noticed. We noticed. You don't care about the midterms.

It's coming through. Coming through loud and clear. He was referring, of course, to the Texas Senate runoff where Ken Paxton, the deeply corrupt beneficiary of a last minute Trump endorsement absolutely crushed in compensated or john corny.

By almost 30 points. When Trump said, look what happened last night. What do you think he thinks? Do you think that demonstrated about the midterms? He's a simple Biden fellow john.

“And I think he very simple mindably looked and saw that a candidate he supported”

want to race. And then he then presumed that candidates that he support will rent similar races in the fall. Now, what Trump is too simple. I want to understand is that among the people who voted in that primary in Texas.

I imagine Trump had a 85 to 95% approval rating. These are Texas primary voters. When people go to the polls in the fall, Trump will have somewhere between a. I don't know 42 when 32% approval rating depending on the district in the state. Switching to like a slightly different environment for his candidates.

Also, I think I just want to say you like this. Ken Paxton was winning this primary. Whether Donald Trump and Dorsum are not. He may have won by more, but there were reports in private that private polling had packs and up 10 points before Trump's endorsement.

It we knew from the runoff that even though. Corning got the plurality of votes. There was a strong majority when you added up Wesley Hunt and Ken Paxton votes, there was a strong majority of the check-ins who did not want John Corning.

And when incumbents go to runoffs, they almost always lose because the reason

they're in a runoff is there is 50% of people who look at that income. But they knew and said, give me someone else. Yeah, I was going to say also the turnout was so much lower. Did you see some of the estimates on turnout? Like it looks like between the first race and the runoff.

Paxton got about 7,000 more votes in the runoff. And Corning lost about 400,000 votes between the first race and the runoff. It seems like a ton of Corning's voters just stayed home and decided not to vote. And then the most engaged, craziest, maga voters turned out for Ken Paxton. Yeah, which was always sort of the fear.

And it's not like this was the only race on the ballot.

“You had congressional runoffs and you had a very important attorney general runoff as well.”

So I guess we could talk about how they're going after James Taylor Rico, who's now the Democratic nominee in that race. And then we can sort of talk about the race ahead from now until November. It does seem like a maga world is a bit more nervous about Taylor Rico than they're letting on. As evidenced by their subtle new strategy of questioning James Taylor Rico's masculinity.

I don't know if you can figure it out. Paxton uses victory speech to call Taylor Rico low tea, Taylor Rico tofu, Taylor Rico, and six gender Jimmy.

Steven Miller tweeted that Taylor Rico will make history as the first transgender senate candidate.

And here's the game from Fox is the five on Wednesday. There's a baby lotion soft and child. He does, he looks pre-pubescent. The major factor in this race Greg is whether telefreak goes vegan. You say you have a girlfriend.

Why don't you name her? Are they going to have a coming out party?

“Or is she still going to stay the secret girlfriend?”

And is this totally not fake girlfriend also a vegan? He looks like such a beta male. He was he was beta. A rock was his big brother in the after school program. They'll say, they'll say, but he's a seminarian.

How dare you not? I put the seamen and seminarians. What do you think they're trying to tell us? They dislike his policy agenda. I get it.

I get the line of attack. And there is a universe where you can execute that line of attack. Maybe in a way that's somewhat effective. Feels like if you're already calling him a gay pedophile in May, not a lot of runway left.

Where are you going? And we're going to be in October. I am curious about what is driving this attack. Is it in the data?

“Or are they just echoing the thing that Trump said on Air Force One two weeks ago?”

I think some of it is like instinct. They have the clips of James Hellereco that have been all over the internet and right wing media are something something vegan. He's not a vegan, which clearly these people just actually don't know that he's not a vegan. And they think now he says he eats meat because he's got caught or something.

But he was never saying he was a vegan.

That was not a clip. The clip of him saying that technically there are six sexes because of chromosome abnormalities with a small fraction of people which like great. And like a couple other clips like that. And he looks young. And so they're like, yeah, he looks like they're go to is he's a beta male.

But they can't just say that because there is an element of that. That's exactly what they say. They get just say that. And like leave it at that because there's an element of oh shit. We just nominated Ken Pax then we could lose.

So we've got to take everything to a hundred. Yeah. So I think a couple things here one. Obviously they're strategy. They're only way to win is to nuke.

Tell Rick. This is a way they're saying strategy with grand platinum or something. It's going to be a strategy with whoever wins. And Michigan, particularly with Abdul Alsaid. Like this is this is their approach.

It's really it's only it's only thing they have right.

They basically this is the weak woken to liberal attack that we talked about a few weeks ago.

There are actually two separate things embedded in what they're doing here. There is James Telereco is a low T possibly gay beta male. They's not man enough for the Senate, which is really quite a thing to say. And then there is James Telereco is a liberal, elitist extremist who's out of touch with Texas values. That is the goddess non binary that is the false attack he's a vegan.

And those are two separate things. Obviously the second one pulls well. Like we don't even know that that's that we know that that is an average second. I'm not sure the he's a beta male is a particularly effective attack. I don't I don't know that there.

I guess I would say I don't know that they're entirely separate because the the out of touch. The typical out of touch liberal who is a male is obviously a low T beta male. Like we are we are also low T beta males because we are lips on the coast. And we're probably vegan. And we probably have pronouns in our bio, you know.

That's a pretty deep. It's a very online take. It's a it's a very online take. The other one is a. It's a deeply dishonest because takes love is kind of quotes out of context and edits them.

Some of them quite unfairly. But I think that there is I'm just not. In presidential politics strength and toughness matters a lot. Right. How you define strength and toughness is very important.

You can define it in ways that are much better than sort of like brute force strength. That, you know, Trump sort of has tried to swagger as a way into the Oval Office. It matters much less in congressional and set of races. Right, you're not tet no one sees you as being tasked with. Steering down the Iranians are taking out al Qaeda or stopping crime in the streets or whatever else.

“I think that's a lot of people associate probably incorrectly with toughness.”

And so I think that like Trump has sort of sent them on this path and it is red meat for the Fox base. And so it's one thing of like Jesse Waters and the Yahoo's on the five deal.

I just I just like took note of that.

“Well, I mean he is a he is a politician who if not successful wound up being a punto on Fox pretty easily.”

I mean, his speech was interesting because he did like he very Trump ask in that he was very excited and enjoying doing the tele Rico attacks. And respond to the crowd and then he was reading with no emotion. Why is about lower people's costs? Not what he's not where his passion lies. His passion lies on the floor.

In fact, he likes dealing for people. Yes. Sometimes quite literally he stole someone's pen. A thousand dollar pens. Someone's lying around. There's like video of him just stealing it, which is very friends and neighbors. That's right.

So tele Rico's out there responding to the beta mail line of attack. Here he is at a rally on Wednesday and Houston. This is first stop on the statewide tour and his first appearance since Pakistan won the runoff. In a time when there's so much debate about what it means to be a man. My dad showed me.

Every Saturday morning he would mow our lawn. And then without telling anyone, without anyone asking him, he would go next tour and mow our neighbor's lawn. She was elderly. She was a widow.

He never talked about it. He just did it.

Because that's what a man does. He serves those around him. He takes responsibility. And he does what's right even when no one is watching. So in addition to that, he also did a sit down with CBS with Edo Kief. And, you know, he said that some of his past remarks were cringey and that he would say them differently as well.

He's been, you know, there's been plenty of photos that the campaign's been pushing around of him eating barbecue. Because he's eating barbecue forever. So, you know, it's all of a piece. But if you were consulting on the campaign, how would you advise him to push back on this?

“And I think more importantly, like how much time and energy would you be spending on it if you were on the campaign?”

Before we do that, I just do want to stipulate that. It seems like we're going to say very, very real chance of winning this race. Yeah. Well, that we should talk about that for sure. Yeah, and I get why everyone is skeptical of Texas. We have been burned so many times. You know, but this is our best chance in the generation to win statewide office in Texas. We have not won a Senate race in Texas this is 1998.

We've not won the statewide office of consequence in a sense. It's a dissentary. And obviously the closest that a Democrat has come was better or worse, losing by 2.6% to Ted Cruz in 2018. But this is a different world. 2018 was a good environment for Democrats. 2020 is a great environment for Democrats as we sit here today, at least.

This is a hard thing for me to say. But Ted Cruz is much more likable and has higher, much higher, much more likable and more popular than Ken Paxton. This blew me away. In September of 2018, Ted Cruz had a, had a favorably rating that was nine points above water. Yes, Ken Paxton, depending on your poll, is five, seven, 10 points below water.

And we'll never be above water.

That is just, he will never see the surface.

“The, and what is the most important thing here is that there is a demographic.”

Pinsour movement happening in Texas in this moment. So in 2016, Hillary Clinton did better in Texas than almost any other states. It's a state where she actually had the largest improvement of a Barack Obama in 2012. It's one of the, theory of few states. And maybe the only state where she did better than a moment in 2012.

And the reason that happened is she blew the doors off Latino voters. And Trump won by decent margin because white voters of all stripes. College educated and working class voted for, voted for him and mess. What has changed since 2016 is those college educated white voters of which there are a ton in Texas, particularly in the cities and suburbs around those big cities.

Have moved dramatically in the Democratic direction. And then starting in 2020, Latino voters moved towards Trump. And Trump won Latino voters by 10 points in Texas occurring the exit polls. What has changed since then is that those college educated white voters have stayed exactly where they were before. And maybe even more fired up now than they were back in 2024.

And Latino voters have moved dramatically away from Trump. Trump's approval rating among Latinos nationally is minus 50. In the generic, you need those, that's in the New York Times poll. In the United, you need those U.S. poll of battleground districts around the country. They looked at the battleground districts.

This is a poll of Latinos. Battleground districts in the Southwest, which is mostly with that entirely Texas. Democrats are winning the generic ballot by 38 points.

And something like Hillary Clinton's 2016 Latino numbers. He wins that race. He wins it by a couple points. Yeah. I saw that Nate Cohen said something similar.

And then also said that even if you take the latest times poll, the national poll. And you match the different, and you match the shifts with the different demographic groups in Texas. If you like, make it, then it would tilt blue, Texas. Yeah, even before you make candidates. Right, he has to navigate what we all talked about.

They got there, but this, like, this is not the previous discussion of Texas. It's not like a lot of other red states where we talk about, we're like, we got this pop there. Candidate, maybe they can just persuade a bunch of these voters.

And maybe we'll get there where there's never a path.

So math tells you that this state is in play. If telerico can achieve what should be achievable democratic numbers. So that's that. Okay.

“Now, I was going to say, yeah, now, that's a good set up for what I think the challenge the telerico faces is.”

I've been thinking about sort of grand platformer and main. And this, you know, I think there's been no bigger gap between what voters on the ground think of a candidate. And what the internet conversation about that candidate is, then, then platinum. And I, the reason I feel more confident about platinum is pretty much because the size of main. And I think that, like, grand platinum may meet most of the voters he needs to meet in main.

And obviously, James Hillary goes, not going to do that in Texas because no one can do that in Texas because big fucking state. And so he does need to make some decisions on, like, how to puncture the internet caricature of him. That a lot of voters are going to come in contact with and also through television ads and other ads from the packs and campaign from the Republicans. And figure out, you know, like, where to spend his time, what to say, what his ad strategy is and your thoughts on all of that.

So my thoughts are, I guess the way to think about this is the strategy that running as telerico is the strategy that running as Kamala Harris in 2024. The goal is to define him before he can divide himself, like, tell Rico very well known among Democrats in very politically engaged people. To extend to other people, even though who he is, it's, they kind of vaguely have this sense that he is, like, a Democrat who talks about his faith a lot. Maybe this is as much as they know. And you know, in the general vibes that he's not a typical Democrat.

And so, that's a vacuum that the right is trying to fill before telerico himself. So what are the mistakes that Kamala Harris made that led her to be defined?

The first is when the attacks came, like, the infamous they've them had, you, she never took them on, took them head on.

Like, and we can debate the ad strategy around it. We know all the discussions from all the people who work there about which ad sets are good, in which ad sets are bad. But as thinking, siloing that conversation and ads is stupid. She wasn't like she was out talking to voters to try to disavuse them of that notion. Like, she didn't never took that attack on.

So you're going to take these attack on. I find both, even though I'm less concerned about the masculine attack, then perhaps you were others may be. The fact that he took it on the first day shows the right instincts. The fact that he sat down for the interview with Edo Heave to take tough questions about the things he said shows the right instinct.

“You have to take them on because if you don't, then voters are just going to assume that they're true because people are naturally cynical.”

And the second thing is you cannot allow there to be a vacuum. You have to be everywhere all the time, all that wants. You have to be omnipresent in the media on social media.

You have to be like, you know, it's always the worst comparison.

You have to be like, my money. Like, there should be no interview turned out. No podcast, you sure should turn down. You should visit every county in Texas or whatever is logistically feasible. And remember, it took better like two years to do that.

That's impossible. But do be everywhere so that people see you because if people see James Saloreco, they like him. It is like he has real appeal with this segment of coordinate people who would who would have voted for John Kornin over a Democrat, but we'll might vote for a Democrat over Ken Paxton. And so you got, but you got to be in front of them and you got to do be there is no, you cannot waste one minute every single minute of every single day has to be out there communicating. I think he, he ran his primary campaign like that.

He's run his sort of career like that.

“So I think that that's what they're going to do.”

Like if you think you're being aggressive, you're probably not being, you should be more aggressive than that and keep going. I have seen a lot of right wing folks who are quite religious online, make the argument that, you know, James, the idea that James Tyler Rico's faith and pension to talk openly about his faith and, you know, being, you know, being a seminarian is is, the idea that that's going to help him is like liberals idea of what a person's of a person of faith is. And, and like liberals have no idea because the fact that he is using passages from the Bible to sort of talk about his progressive values is like blast for me to someone the right.

That are going to vote for Ken Paxton and voted for Donald Trump three times anyway.

I don't think that's the point. In fact, I don't even think it's, oh, this guy preaches and his Christian faith is what's going to do it for me. I think the fact that he speaks from, he speaks in the language of morality is refreshing to people who don't necessarily vote all the time or sometimes switch between the parties. It's all the, like, the people in the middle that when you hear someone and especially a Democrat talking about how their faith has moved them and how it sort of sort of animates their values and their decisions about politics.

Like, I don't think, it, at the very least, I don't think it hurts, it approaches people away. But I think for some people, they're like, okay, well, this guy has a moral grounding. And even people who aren't religious necessarily, who are don't share his Christian faith, maybe like, okay, this guy believes in what he's saying.

“It, it, it, it gives him an authenticity that, again, when you meet him, you realize that it's, that's, that's what it is.”

He really genuinely believes this and it, it animates him and it drives him and I think that that is worth a lot in politics today. These things, these right wing people are saying are so fucking stupid because if the, a literal meaning of the scripture was why these people voted the way they vote, these evangelical Christians voted the way they voted.

They wouldn't have voted for Donald Trump.

But I'm going to take an even hackier view than you're like, I agree with you. Obviously, the way he talks about, from this, he talks about things that I, from a moral framework is refreshing. The fact that he talks about his faith is a massive, it's authentic to him, which is incredibly important. But it's also a massive signifier that he is a, is different than your typical Democrat. And if he wants to win in Texas, he has to be different than a typical Democrat.

That's why it's important. It is not because he's going to get into a theological debate with a three-time Trump voting evangelical minister and persuade them to decide, it's that he can communicate with people. He can relate to people who's faith is important to him or their, their faith community is important to them.

“Because that is a, that is a touchstone to begin a larger conversation about where Texas goes, where the country goes.”

Like it is a way in with a group of voters. It is not the fact of his faith is not delivering votes among other people of faith. It's just one way in which he can connect to people. I also think there's a way in which Tali Riko has already started framing the race. And he did this in a video right after Ken Paxson won.

Where he is trying to make this about him and everyone else as outsiders trying to upend a corrupt establishment. And it's, it's about the system, right? And so he, he attacks Ken Paxson as corrupt. And he calls in those corrupt politicians in America. But he said he's part of a corrupt system that James Haley Riko wants to change because it is the,

and you know, this is also upset the same, it says the same thing. This is the reason that you can't afford anything because these people are stealing your money. And making it about voters and about why Ken Paxson would be bad for voters because they are feeling like they can't afford anything. And he's going to make it worse because he's a thief just like Donald Trump. I think it's a very potent message.

I have a greater worry that if it's about, you know, beta-mail, low-teat-teller Riko versus, you know, criminal adulterer Ken Paxson. And it's like a character versus character race. That's not one that he's going to have as much of a chance to win as if he makes it about, you know, outside versus, you know, outsiders versus the system changed versus the status quo.

He's just going to make it bigger than about him and Paxson. And I do think that, and it's not just for tele Rico, but it's for all Democrats. Because Paxson gives you so many is a target rich environment because he gives you so much to talk about, because he has such a bad record and these corrupts of like that. It is very easy to turn this into a race about what a bad person Ken Paxson is.

“And I think it would be a mistake to just talk about Ken Paxson as a bad person.”

And you've got to talk about how Ken Paxson has fucked over the people of Texas when he was attorney general and how he would continue to do so in the Senate. Like that is where the, that is where you went at, I think. [Music] Paxson of America is brought to you by blinds.com.

This is a version of you home you haven't lived in yet for the light behaves, where the rooms feel finished, where you sleep until you decide to wake up. Oh, man, isn't it nice to sleep, see it aside to wake up? You wake up and you're like, did I just do that? Is this another life?

Blinds.com has spent 30 years being it easy to find the perfect fit.

With over 25 million windows covered in 50,000 bips are of use, you can feel confident that you're in good hands.

You can go full DIY. You can bring in a licensed vetted pro to handle the measure and so. Or you can land somewhere in between, you're in control. Need help picking the right style. You can build a consultation.

It's free with one of blinds.com's award winning design experts. Believe in ships samples to your door fast and free. Choose from a huge variety of style options.

Everything is backed by the blinds.com 100% satisfaction guarantee.

“Because at blinds.com, the only thing they treat better than windows, it's you.”

Love blinds.com. We have blinds.com in our office. We've been, you know, we had no shades in our office for a long time. And we have a, we like our office. It's nice gets a lot of light, but sometimes you get hot.

Sometimes there'd be a lot of sun that would be in our eyes when we're at our computers. Reading about the news. And then blinds.com came in. We stepped at our office for like an hour, come back.

Boom incredible blinds incredible blinds.

Right now blinds.com is giving our listeners. And exclusive $50 off and you spend $500 more just to use code. Crooked a check out limited time off rules and restrictions apply. See blinds.com for details. Pot to have America's Project by Zipper Cruder.

One of the big things we love about our team here at Crooked is the wide range of skills and disciplines that coalesce around our shared values. You can get to the work we do every day. That's one of the things we love the most. Also Peter and I talk about nerdy stuff all the time. We have a great team here at Crooked.

And you want people that have the skills and experience. But you also want people that that care about what they do and are passionate about the job. You can't get that often from a resume unless you post your job on Zipper Cruder. Zipper Cruder's powerful matching technology finds quality candidates quickly. And Zipper Cruder has a new feature that shows you the most interesting qualified candidates first.

So you can meet the right people faster candidates. Can tell you in their own words. Why they're interested in your job. No wonder Zipper Cruder is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. We've used it.

“We've used it for Cruder higher here at Crooked. It's always been a great help. We've got to that hiring is one of the hardest things you have to do.”

It's so important. The whole thing depends on finding the right people. And with Zipper Cruder it makes it easier. Find candidates you really want your job on Zipper Cruder.

4 out of 5 employers who post on Zipper Cruder get a quality candidate within the first day.

Try it for free at zippercruder.com/curcut. That Zipper Cruder.com/curcut meet your match on Zipper Cruder. Alright, couple last things to cover. Thursday was Marco Rubio's birthday and his best present came from Emerson, which has a new 2028 poll out showing he's effectively erased JD Vance's lead as a top contender for the 2028 Republican nomination.

In August he was at 9% and Vance was at 52%. In this latest poll, Rubio's at 35 and Vance is at 36. One poll, Emerson poll obviously, grain of salt does seem like there's some Marco Mentum here. Our friend Sarah Longwell sees it in the focus groups too. A couple different places.

What's going on here? I think Marco Rubio's greatest asset right now is that he's not JD Vance. I think that said, I don't think he has done anything in particular that people love. It's not like he's just been crushing the job of the state department. It's not like his stewardship of the Iran war is making people happy.

It's not like, they people are deeply dialed into his role as the overseer of the Viceroy of Venezuela.

I just think he is a Republican who might seem slightly more competent in normal than your average Trump cabinet member and is not as awkward and off-putting as JD Vance. You see that, that fun daily mail story. It has source to say that Vance is considering abandoning his 2028 bid. And he feels more isolated than ever now that Tulsi Gabbard's leaving.

And an even gut his team to respond. So he's saying that it was all made up and everything of course. I'm sure he and Tulsi were just plotting in the back on how to fail to stop Trump to do bad things. I choose to believe that story might be real. I think that would be fun.

He hasn't been very if he didn't run. He has been very subdued lately. He's off-line. He quit Twitter for rent. Yes, and then he just ended after line he just kept it off his phone. He says he gets more done now.

Good for him. Good for him. Honestly, off-line, listen to JD Vance.

“I was going to say if you want to come on off-line, we can talk about it.”

You see that Gretchen Whitmer ruled out running for president in 2028. She may have like partially walked it back. Just weird. Uncl-- She sounded in the actual clip. She was pretty clear.

Yeah. She was not running. This is not surprised me. She has really done none of the things that the people who are obviously running for president are doing. She's not out trying to get a lot of national attention.

She's not making us have a foil against Trump. She's not going to all these cattle call events. Like Al Sharpton's national action network and some of these other big events. I've not heard of her meeting with donors, hiring staff, talking to people. Like the people who are running, they're calling other people.

And they're making sure they know they might be running. And trying to persuade those people, we hear from some of them. But it's not surprising. One thing that I think is I did occur to me when I read this is with Gretchen Whitmer does not run. They're really only two other women who were thinking of running.

That's Kamala Harris and AOC. Oh, yeah. It's Kamala Harris and AOC. Yes. Neither of them I think are--

I think most people would say the odds are against both of them running. Oh. You could end up with an all-male feel, but it should be kind of gross in 2028.

I think though for Gretchen Whitmer, it's like good for you.

Like that is the if you no one should ever feel pushed into running for president because you are mentioned to someone who could be president. Like she is someone on paper who seems like absolutely she could run for president. She clearly like doesn't feel the fire in the belly. Like doesn't want to go through it.

And it's like good. That's the better decision to make than to be like, all right. I'm going to do it. I'm going to put the everyone through it. We're going to go through the whole paces.

Like it's a very big decision. It's a life-changing decision. And I mean, also you're going to think about the party and the makeup of the field. And like if she doesn't want to do it, then like good for her for going out early. All right.

Finally. Speaking of deciding not to run for president. I want to just quickly take you back to June 27th, 2024. The night of Joe Biden's debate with Donald Trump. We were there.

Not at the debate, but you remember. You remember that we were together. We were together. We were together.

“You might remember that right afterward Joe and Joe Biden dropped by a watch party to thank supporters.”

And here's what Joe Biden said then.

Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. Joe, all the best. Never get told. Now, Dr. Biden's out with a memoir, which she promoted in an interview with CBS Sunday morning

this weekend. And here's how she recounted actually feeling watching the debate. I don't know what happened. I mean, when I, as I watched it, I thought, oh, my god, he's having a stroke. And it scared me to death.

That's time in my life. I don't really want to go back to. I mean, I, I will say, I maintain a deep well of anger at the Biden's people around Joe Biden, who, who help keep him in the race to be around Joe Biden, who attacked everyone

as basically traders with the cause who thought Joe Biden should remember President either before

or after that debate, like that still makes me very mad. I have come to the point this many years later that I just have to decide that I can no longer give a shit about the, who knew what when, like, obviously she was lying then. She's probably lying now. In fact, quite a few Biden advisors told Alex Thompson that they do believe she's lying because they pointed out if she thought he was having a stroke.

“Why did she take him to an after party and then go to the waffle house?”

I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, there are obviously lots of questions here. Here's my thing, right? I just, I have it a personal decision that I'm just going to try not to get. That was basically a summer of pure undultuated rage. The whole time, what was happening?

I can remember, right now, I should be at the time. Yes, I'm trying not to revisit that period in my life. I, so as I said here today, I care less about what Joe Biden has to say about what happened at that moment. I care less about what Mike Donaldson or all the other people who covered up for Biden, they have to say about what happened at that moment.

What I care about is what happens going forward. And what bothers me the most is not the time of the timeline of events of 2024, but whether democratic leaders now will ever reckon with the massive breach of trust that came because of how all of that was handled. They telling voters that what they saw with the rise before the debate was that they shouldn't believe that. And then telling voters what they saw at the debate, they shouldn't believe.

And that lack of trust hurts us with our own voters, hurts us with the other voters. And we have to be thinking about way at all times about how to rebuild that trust. Like we should optimize strategic decision-making at the highest levels as party for how do we rebuild trust not just with our voters, but with all voters. And that is I think, as I try to find a way not just to throw my phone against the wall of the time we see stuff like that. That's where I'm trying to direct my positive energy.

That was just remarkably disciplined and adults of you. And you know, now I'm going to. Positive boot. Did you already do a YouTube about? I was going to say, and I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to take that path as well.

“Because if you want to hear me flip out about it, and Tommy, we have done YouTube from this morning when it was fresh.”

But I, I, I, I really completely. Was that today you did that today? It was today, yeah. It's been like, what a fucking day. I know.

But I agree with you. And that's the only reason I care about it and how to. Because I, and I, I read that, I think I said it to you too, that, that tweet from Zayn Jalani, who said, like, you, like, I think people are underestimating how much the lack of trust people have in the democratic party is due to what happened around them. And I do think that, like, you know, you can ask do you think Biden and what happened with Biden is going to be an issue in 2028?

But I think that the people are going to remember that the democratic party, when I say democratic party, I mean, the people in the White House, the campaign, plenty of democratic pundits, plenty of people online who are still fighting that fight. Lied to people and didn't even lie to people in a way that was like, like, lied to people in a pretty obvious, obviously false transparent way. And so that's like, it's worse than a lie. It's treating people like their fucking idiots, which is basically what they did.

They told the whole country. That's the bigger.

They told the whole country, like, you know what, you know who the problem is.

These, these fucking DC establishment bedwaters who think that Joe Biden did bad in the debate. That's the problem. Oh, I'm, we're with all you people. And, you know, we, we believe that everything was great. We know, we think you believe that, too. And they, like, think people were going to believe that, like, come on. Yeah, there was a level of delusion and deception that was bigger than, like, dismissive.

“I think dismissive is the right way to put it.”

Yes, it would be bigger than just the Biden's age stuff. It was inflation. Yep. It was Gaza. Gaza. And the combination of all of those things have put the democratic party in a bad place with its own voters. Not to mention everyone else. And we have to be thinking about how we've seen that.

That, that's one of the reasons why I got so mad about the DSCC and Chuck Schumer coming in and putting their hand in these races.

And in, in some cases, now putting their thumb on the scale, but not saying they're putting their thumb on the scale by funneling money through apex superpacks of these other superpacks in these other states. Like that. And I thought you were going to say, this is why I got so mad at the Ken Martin thing, too, because that was the same idea. Yes, that's exactly right. That's, that's, too. And that's, that allowed me to experience the same, many of the same people, because I worth that message box and two and a half seconds after the autopsy came out.

Clever Ken Martin resided. Really, probably some of the front of the line for the people on the online to come out to say, Like, where's the autopsy? If your work in 2024. But we're talking more good men out of jobs. But this is, and this is in, in the context of going forward, I just want the people running in 2028. The people who are going to be talking about the 2028 race, like, when the Biden stuff comes up, when the DNC stuff comes up, whatever.

Like, if people were willing to say, totally fucked up, I was wrong, bad move. Oh, you know, wish I was more honest, which has more transparent, like, great. That's fine. But you got to say that. You know, people like, yeah, where's the autopsy? We're, uh, we're fine to say when we fucked up. This whole company was started because of a fuck up.

Because we were so confident that Hillary Clinton was going to win, we were fucking wrong. I wish that we had gone harder Joe Biden earlier, um, than than the debate, said that before too. You know, like, it's, it's okay. You can say that you are wrong.

“It's fine. You don't have to issue a, you don't have to issue carefully worded statements that evade the question because, you know what?”

People aren't going to trust you. So anyway, good luck on the book, Torjil. Um, all right, when we come back from the break, you'll hear my conversation with Mississippi Senate candidate Scott Colombe. [Music] Pots of America is brought to you by Bill, whether you're renting or paying a mortgage, one of your biggest monthly expenses should be working harder for you. That's where Bill comes in. Bill does the membership that rewards you with points and every housing payment wherever you live.

The bill started out rewarding members on their rent as of 2026 bill members can also earn points on mortgage payments too. Every housing payment earns you points that you can use with top travel partners like United and Hyatt or use your points to our lift rights. Amazon.com purchases and so much more. Personally, I'd redeem my points for fitness classes for Amazon for lift rights. But here's the most underrated part, built members also get access to neighborhood concierge.

It can make reservations at restaurants, book fitness classes and find new local spots all being rewarded at more than 45,000 merchant partners. It's like having a personal assistant baked into where you live. It's simple being a renter and now owning a home is better with built. Join the membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com/crucadets.J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T.com/crucadet. Make sure to use R-U-R-L so they know we sent you.

I'm Dan Fiper. For years I've heard from candidates, activists, and political staffers who turn to Pots of America for political strategy and messaging advice because they don't have access to a political consultant or a pollster. That's flat or any here, but it's a huge problem. We're going to defeat maga and protect democracy. We need everyone to have access to the best information and advice possible.

“That's why I recently launched Message Box Pro.”

A subscription consulting product for people working at every level of politics. Subscribers get weekly strategy members, data driven messaging insights and polling analysis.

Plus you get access to an incredible community of smart, committed, political pros.

Whether you're running for office, staffing and politician, organizing your community, or working in communications at any level, Message Box Pro is built for you. To learn more or sign up, go to MessageBoxPro.com. Scott, hello and welcome to Pots of America.

You are a district attorney in Mississippi. You're seventh generation. Yep. Your mom is the first black woman elected to her region's chance to record. Your dad worked for Ronald Reagan before becoming a Democrat.

When a Mississippi voter asks why a guy with your resume is running for Senate is a Democrat in 2026. What do you tell them? I tell them that we've got to have a Senator that's Vice for Mississippi. Somebody understands that the tariffs have been terrible for the farmers, for the small businesses, that it's been terrible for the people going to the grocery store and that are struggling.

And I'm not going to DC to be the Democrat senator. I'm not. We're not a state that can afford that, right?

You know, Mississippi's got 3 million people. California's got close to 50 million.

You've got two sellers. We've got two sellers. We have to use that to bring resources and jobs and opportunities to Mississippi. And our current junior senator, she's betrayed that. She's totally betrayed that.

“The people of Mississippi know it and that's why they're going to go in a new direction.”

There's no member. You are running in a state that Trump just won in 2024 by 23 points. A lot of people will hear Mississippi Senate race and maybe laugh. Make the case to the skeptic. What do you see on the ground that suggests you could become the first Democrat?

Really the first Senate candidate to win a state with the incumbent president just won by 23 points. So, you know, I get this question asked me a lot as you can imagine. And I used to answer it like I was David Axelrod. I would say, well, hold on guys, you know, in my presidential years, you know, we get much closer. Like our last Democratic candidate for governor, got within 3 points and went in.

You know, last year we broke the Super Major in the state Senate. But what I realized, I knew you to explain to people why I can win, right?

And the reality is, when I ran for district attorney in 2015,

I ran against the 30 year income. I was in a district that people had thought I had no chance to win. But what I realized is that under the right circumstances with the right opponent, and the right candidate, you could win a tough race in Mississippi. And those three things are totally at play now, right?

I mean, I was with some, I got invited on the golf course. Some Mississippians who previously voted Republicans. Notice I didn't call them Republicans.

“Mississippians who previously voted Republican.”

They reached out to my campaign and I said, listen, we love what you're doing on social media. I was on a podcast and they were like, we love what you're selling on a podcast. You're talking about Mississippi values. We want you to come meet with us. It said, maybe two or three people will see how it goes.

When I got there was 20 people. Former Republican voters. And they talked to me about how, in this particular moment, they feel like they're getting betrayed by the Trump administration.

With 1.7 billion dollars for people that assault the cops,

that the presidents, cronies get to control. And then you look at Senator, our junior senator, right? I call it Cindy, how prices, because all we got is how prices are. So, you know, you look at her and she's a part of the corruption. I mean, she's gotten campaign contributions from fertilizer companies that are uninvestigation for price fixing.

Wow, the old saying fertilizer companies are really hurting our farmers. The tariffs hurt them. Now we got fertilizer calls because the war and I rent up price fixing. She's taking money from. She is, you know, I mean, one of the Republicans former,

her Mississippi Republicans told me he said, listen. When I heard about her going to Las Vegas, $10,000, campaign contributions to stay in luxury hotel to either luxury restaurants. That reminds me of the corruption we're seeing and D.C. And, you know, we got it.

We got to go in a new direction and just tell us what you're running on. And I'm running on, make it everybody's life in Mississippi better. You know, it's, it's, how do you do that? I mean, you got to talk about the issues.

“And the other thing that I think is important.”

And these are for everybody listening. It's a mistake I think people are making, we're making it too much about the candidates. We're looking for celebrities to do the profile. Oh, my God, they're great speakers.

Me, you know, I think I got a lot of charisma. I think I'm charming. I think I'm getting a good speech. I think he charming so far. But I'll tell you this.

Going out there campaigning. Listen to voters. They know what I ask voters all the time. What matters to you? They know what answer?

Someone who does what they said they're going to do. It's not about us, it's about them. We have to make sure voters can trust us again. And that has to be not just one and thirty-seven commercials. We can't advertise the way out this problem.

We got to go back and touch voters. We got to get, we got to gain their trust. And we get power again. We have to deliver. We have to make sure people understand that they're a vote matter

that we make their life better. And so that's a big part of my strategies. I really get out there. I can't pay anybody to follow me. I don't know anything in campaign. I mean, I mean, it's three events on Saturday.

And I love voters. I love voters. And I listen to them. I don't just do town hall. I do town halls.

But at some point, you're just talking to people that, you know, promote a day to vote.

I go to the fashion. I go to the housing projects. I'm going to do a food truck. Where I pull up in the union. Horns go to the plants.

We got to go to the voters. We got to gain their trust.

“So the former calm staffer in me believes you are totally right.”

That you should not give the answer. Like David Hatsura would give the answer. That's what we would tell. Yeah. But don't be a pundit.

But now I am a pundit. Yeah. So Mike SB loses by 7.8 and 2018. Yeah. And I remember on that race.

Consultants on the SB campaign being like, Hey, Mississippi. It's going to happen. Talk to SB. And then Hood lost the governor's race by five,

run five and 2019 and then Brandon Presley, like, lost by only 3.2. Right. 2023. So it's a narrowing margin.

Absolutely. Still a margin. Yeah. Like, what's the theory of the case that you're the one who can actually close it as opposed to being like the next data point where

and then Scott got even closer? Yeah. I mean, some of his day environment. Right. I mean, you look at 2018.

The economy was pretty good in Mississippi. You look at the economy now. The tariffs have been terrible.

“Nobody talks about how the tariffs have hurt Mississippi.”

You know, I was talking to a woman. Dollar general manager, right. And I was shooting a little commercial in there.

And I didn't answer a permission first.

So, you know, you're trying to, you know, You're like, what are you doing with this camera? Because if you do a 15 seconds real quick, you get out of here, a directed camera real quick,

and she noticed me. And she's like, well, what are you doing? I said, well, listen, I'm a, I'm a senate candidate. I'm running against Cindy Hoffman.

She had no idea who that was. And I was like, well, listen, don't worry about her. I'm the guy. And so I started talking to her.

I said, listen, how the customers do it? And she said, you know, they're struggling. I'm seeing them every month trying to figure out, Can they pay for diapers? Can they pay for groceries?

And prices keep going up? And she was like, I don't know what it is. I don't know what I can do. I feel helpless. So I asked, I said, well,

What do you, what do you, Everything about the tariffs? It was almost like a bull with off. She was like, yeah, you know what? It is the tariffs.

It is the tariffs. You're right. They're bad. And the people that you talk to connect that to the guy they voted for. Yeah, like 23 points.

Do they say, like, tariff bad trump tariff? Like do they put it all together? You know, I think tariffs of bad work.

You know, I don't know that they always do.

I mean, there's a lot of voters that say they know it's bad because it became a popular term here recently. But we need to change the name of it. It's a, it really is a work class tax. Yeah.

It's not a tariff. It's a working class tax. It's a sales tax. And it's unfair to working people. It's a terrible way to collect revenue because if you make,

you know, 50,000 a month or you make 2,000 a month. You're paying the same tax. Yeah. And so, you know, we're connecting a dashboard. But I'll tell you who's really filling it.

And they understand it are the farmers. Mm. You know, I mean, I could tell you story after story about how farmers are struggling in Mississippi and now the fertilizer calls. And the problem is,

here you talk about the corruption and how she's allowed a corruption, how she's partaking in it. But then you had to add that with, she's totally absent in the state. I mean, she had done a tile hall in six years. She does not care paying.

I mean, she, her only strategy is scare tactics. Yeah. The artist's second commercial to scare the voters. She, uh, yeah, recent democratic internal poll header. I think at 55% unfavorable.

Yeah. Uh, it's like 12 points underwater from Trump right around state.

“Why do you think she's so much weaker than the brand?”

Yeah. Um, you've got a senior senator in that state. I'm sure Roger Wicker that's more popular than her. Like, what is the specific hide Smith problem as opposed to generic Republican? You have to think about it this way.

You know, when I was, uh, this is a great way to really bring the story home. When I was a child, my dad was Republican before he supported Obama in08. Uh, he actually was Republican for Obama. Yeah. It was Obama swissed him.

But, uh, anyways, uh, when I would go to like Jackson State football games at halftime, you would see that cockering or halftime with a $50,000 check going to Jackson State. I don't know how it got to be. You know, I'm saying it's hard to get motivated. The guys bring your $50,000.

Yeah. You know, and we actually have a tradition in Mississippi. I haven't centered that understand this position. Hashtag brain resources back to Mississippi. You know, tread lot.

I don't agree with him a lot of things. But he did a lot to brain jobs back. I mean, he was majority leader at one point. The majority leader was from Mississippi. So with her, a big problem is the people, even Republicans are like,

excuse me, voters who used to vote Republican. They are like, she is totally in my age. We can't find it anywhere. She doesn't do anything. You know, I don't think we've ever had a center that's this absent.

And, um, she thinks that all she has to do is be 100% magna. And she's, she can win.

But the reality is I've been out there talking to voters.

And they want somebody that's 100% Mississippi. Because they understand the stakes. It's not like things are going well. If you add, I mean, you can add as the most loyal trucks of Puerto right now. I think it's going well.

They're saying yes. Right.

So if you become a senator, you, uh, you'd be the junior senator for Mississippi.

Uh, seniority in the Senate.

“You'd rank towards the bottom, like all new senators do.”

So like, what do you, you're making the case that she's not preparing home, research to Mississippi? How do you make the case to voters that like, if you go to the Senate, you'll be able, even though you're one of a hundred and sort of, you know, a junior senator,

help bring home resources to Mississippi? Yeah, I mean, one, I'm going to use my vote, my voice to really, to really represent Mississippi. I'm not going there. I keep saying this.

I'm not going there to be celebrity. I'm going there to deliver for Mississippi. And so that gives me leverage because I'm not, you know, if a Republican offers something that makes sense for Mississippi, I'll support it.

If a Democrat offers something that makes sense for Mississippi, I'll support it. Now, of course, you're right, you know, as a junior senator, you got to be smart. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to find issues that

Republicans already support, right?

Like, economic development is a big thing in Mississippi. How do we bring industries to develop capital to get our state moving in the right direction? I mean, we're not like, like, build it out.

I mean, you know, it's really, you know, it's really, then we spend it wisely. [ Laughter ] Well, you know, I'll let you all control that. But, you know, but for Mississippi,

we need capital. We need economic development. We've got to be even Republicans, you know, leaders know that. And so that's an area where, you know,

I can be impactful. That's really bipartisan. In the other areas, we've got to find, like, for me, I've got to find smaller problems that I can help solve.

Like, I had a good friend of mine who mentioned to me that dental care is really bad at Mississippi. It's at the bottom.

And so, like, that's a problem that I can help solve

as a center for Mississippi. That's not a partisan thing. So, if trying to find solutions to practical problems that makes people's life better, it's the other thing that I'm going to do.

And I've learned this from campaign so much is, you know, we can't stop campaigning. I mean, I know what you win. You got to govern. But you also better still campaign.

Because a place like Mississippi, if they feel like you go to DC, and you're just making money, or, you know, just a celebrity, it's not going to work.

So, for me, we got to have strong anti-corruption legislation that makes clear that we're not in there making money. You know, that's why I support a ban on stock training. That's why we can't have people become libyers right after they become senators.

We got to get the corruption and the perception of it. Because that helps the people that are openly corrupt. Yeah, right? Because they can say, the people are like, well, you know, they're corrupt, but so is everybody's corrupt.

We got to show them we're not corrupt. We're public service. We're not there to make money. And it's beneficial to me that, like you said, my mom was a chancellor for a judge.

And I learned my ethics and values from my parents. And so I'm really trying to honor their honor their legacy.

“That's why it's important to me to be transparent”

and to be somebody that people can trust. Because I want to honor my parents. I also want honor the ancestors that sacrificed so much. For me to even have this opportunity to talk to you. You, I was just thinking, like, the last democratic senator

from a state that voted by double digits. This many double, like, in the 20s for Trump. Yeah. Is that was Joe Manchin? Yeah.

And his model was, like, cut deals pissed off your party constantly. And then, you know, vote with the president when it suited the state. Yes. Is that your model, too? Well, I think, still to match it.

Try to get a little bit more attention than I'll try to get. You know, I mean, he does love it. You know, I mean, so for me, I'm more going to be trying to use my leverage and voice to cut deals that make sense and benefit Mississippi, but not try to be just somebody

making costly, complaining about things. If, if, if I'm sure you'll hear this from voters, if they're like, Okay, you say you're not going to be a typical democratic senator. You're going to be a Mississippi senator. Yeah.

I don't like the Democrats. I don't like what they've done.

“What, where do you think the Democrats have gone wrong?”

Where do you break from the party? Where would you be different than a typical Democrat? Yeah. But we got to talk about economic issues. That's the first thing.

I mean, because of people, like I noticed because I had a friend of mine that was a barber. Unfortunately, passed away. Shout out to Jasper Pitman. He was a great political head.

And, and so, and in 2000, 20 went when President Biden won. There was a lot of enthusiasm. I was high turnout. And, uh, 2021, 2021, 2021, 2002.

He was a Democrat. He started getting sour on the party because the inflation. And then what he thought like was, man, we're talking about sonatas money, the Ukraine. We're talking about foreign stuff.

Like, man, my life's not gotten better. Prices are up. Like, we got to talk about me. We got to talk about the voters. And, you know, I was able to convince him that it may sense

that we make sure Russia is the Soviet Union. And Putin didn't take over Ukraine. But I was a trusted messenger. And there's too many people that didn't have trusted ministers to help them understand the democratic party.

They care about the fact that inflation was out of control. That we did care about the fact that the border seemed like it was out of control.

Yeah. That hurts workers. And so, we got to talk about economic issues. The other thing is that we have to, like, I feel like the last couple years.

We've been trying to figure out, you know, the answer to Trump is, now, President Trump wants to make everything about himself. He loves it. All the attention is on him.

And we've been either making every campaign about him.

“Are trying to find somebody that can be as much of a celebrity, right?”

As him. Somebody who can convince these voters. I think we got to go back and we got to make our campaigns about the voters who can't. We had to have candy that not can only go on a podcast and make a case.

But they asked him why should be able to be comfortable taking 75 selfies. Right? Going to a festival where nobody knows them. Got to like people.

Got to like people. And that's great for me because I love people and my opponent. She can't stand Mississippi. I mean, she does that campaign at all.

So the challenge for Democrats as always is,

it's like, okay, we want to talk about economic issues. We want to talk about making people's lives better. And the Republicans don't let you because they make all the attacks about their favorite. Right.

We have issues. Hides Smith's campaign manager called you. The transgender defender said you were a hand picked by Schumer. Bank World by Sora soft on crime. All the radical sex changes for children.

Yeah. I just unloaded the clip. Yeah. All the favorites. Walk me through how you answer that.

Like not for our audience who knows it's garbage. Yeah. Like for a voter and Mississippi that will hear those ads. Right. 15 times between now and November.

So I've noticed you were going to do that. I knew exactly all those attacks were going to play. Yeah. And so if you look at my campaign announcement and I try to preempt it. Right.

So for example, I know in Mississippi the way to counter a lot of that stuff is so people that your life is like theirs. Right. So my announcement sent it around my family. I've got two daughters.

I coach their soccer team. Listen. I mean, come on. People are going to fall for that. My dream.

What? This is what I tell my daughters. I say listen. You know, there's not many ways you can disappoint me. But if neither one of you become a basketball player, I am going to be disappointed.

I mean. That work. I mean, one of it. The junior one my youngest one is starting to work. Because I say, you know, when you get older, if you ever complain,

I'm going to always remind you.

I want it one thing. And you didn't deliver for me. So I mean, and the other thing is we got to leave what I values. You know, for me, you know, and I do so for Sundays where I talk to church faith leaders. And I center them and talk about, you know, there's a lot.

For whatever reason we've allowed people like Sydney High, Smith to trick voters in the thinking that we, Democrats don't believe in faith. Democrats don't believe in family. Like, I have much more in common than to the average Mississippi family than she does. You know, my wife, she makes me drop McKinsey off his school sometime.

She can send you ice, Memphis never doing that. Right. I go to the soccer game, watch my kids play. She's not doing that. I, my wife will make me go grow with them.

It keeps that with them. It makes me do it. As a good partner. It's a good partner. It's a good partner.

My wife is trying me well. It's a good partner. Sometimes I have to produce top two. And so I'm at the grocery store talking to people listening. You know, my wife is like there.

“So I'm going to cut through that mess by showing them how my life is like theirs.”

Show them my family and centering the voters. Because, you know, every, every Monday, I drop a video called Mississippi Matters Monday. And I'm having voters kind of man on the street style asking people to say what matters to them. All the stuff she's attacked me on, no voters every day. That's what matters to them.

It's not on their mind. It's not. You know, for me, if I can raise it no money to counter her life with the truth. And tell the truth about her, we're going to win. I'm telling you, we're going to win.

The way is on my back. So what's the message to a donor in California or New York deciding between writing a check to your race and to say North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, even Texas? Yeah. That's probably higher on the DSCC list.

Yeah, but whoever's making a list, I mean, what's the results, right? So. You know, we need to redo the list a little bit because Mississippi is a cheaper state to compete there. Where a cheaper state to compete there.

But, you know, we have Christian as you and I agreed. We have Christian as PASA Mississippi Day. Yeah. This is April 28th. We're going to talk about Mississippi.

And the reality is, you can't save American unless you say Mississippi.

I mean, we have to matter. When the country has done well, everybody's pay attention to what's going on in Mississippi. We focus on the voters in Mississippi making sure that they have quality education, quality, healthcare. We don't let these people that want to take our country back, control everything.

And when we got, you know, when we done poorly as we ignore Mississippi. And there's there's plenty of examples of Mississippi being ignored. And we've seen the results of that.

“And to get ourselves out of this mess, we have to remember is rural America matters.”

We have to have candidates that understand rural America. There are not afraid to talk to former Republican voters. And people that are not scared to talk to folks that don't even know who their senator is.

You know, there's, man, I'm gonna win.

People are going to be, other people outside Mississippi going to be surprised. I'm not going to be surprised. It's been trending that way. As you pointed out, it's been trending that way. But also, we're running a different type of campaign.

We're centering the voters. Not me. You know, if you look on my videos, I have other people talking. I mean, can't tell you a quick story. Yeah.

I had a waitress at a restaurant. You know, it was kind of like he was starts talking at a moment, right? He's like, oh, he's got to go home. Oh, my god. I said, listen, I'm not, I'm not a celebrity, guys. What's going on?

Tell me what's on your mind. Let me tell me what matters to you. He said, first, I love that you do that. And I've been waiting to give you my answer if I ever saw you.

“He said, what matters to me is like the drug practices are up.”

Because I'm on Medicaid. And I had to get worse insurance. Now I'm paying more to get less. I'm struggling.

But he told me, listen, I've never voted before.

I've never voted before. I'm going to vote for you because you're senator voters. He is a senator voters, right? He said, I love that. You have regular people on your videos.

You have the barber. You have two kids to look at the camera saying, this is why voting matters. For me, I can feel the momentum and the movement. Because I am out there listening. And you can do this in Mississippi.

You can't do this in every state. But you can do this in Mississippi. And I'm excited. You know, Mississippi matters. We're going to show the country.

Mississippi matters. Well, it is not an easy thing to do to run for office. Certainly not an easy thing to do. In a state like Mississippi when you're a Democrat. And you are, I really appreciate that you're doing it.

And doing it so joyfully. Yeah. So good luck out there. And appreciate it. Thanks for coming on Potset of America on Potset of Mississippi Day.

Absolutely.

“You know, if you, if you want to be a part of the movement,”

go to ScottCloham.com. We're building some special Mississippi. I'll come back May 28 next year. We'll be talking about, you know, how to keep our promises. Yeah.

We'll be how to keep our commitments. How we're delivering because the good thing about you is you understand. This is not a, I mean, run if office is hard, but run if office and being a leader is also hard. We can't stop.

That's right. We've got to be constantly keeping going. So thank you so much for having me. Thanks Scott. All right.

Appreciate it. That's our show for today. Thanks to ScottCloham for coming by. I'll be back on Sunday with a conversation with our pal Ben Rhodes. He's got a new book about speeches.

American speeches in American identity, and so we'll be geeking out about speech writing and talking about America's 250th. So check it out. Bye, everyone.

Positive America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Ferris Safari with Reed Chirlen, Elijah Cone, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hefcoat,

Jordan Canter, Charlotte Landis, Carol Pelavi, David Toll's, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's Guild of America East.

I'm Dan Fiverr. For years, I've heard from candidates, activists, and political staffers who turn to positive America for political strategy and messaging advice because they don't have access

to a political consultant or a pollster. That's flattery here, but it's a huge problem. We're going to defeat Matt again and protect democracy. We need everyone to have access

to the best information and advice possible.

“That's why I recently launched message box pro.”

A subscription consulting product for people working at every level of politics. Subscribers get weekly strategy memos to data-driven messaging insights and polling analysis.

Plus, you get access to an incredible community

of smart, committed, political pros. Whether you're running for office, staffing and politician, organizing your community or working in communications at any level, message box pro is built for you.

So learn more or sign up, good at messageboxpro.com.