Printer? I Hardly Know Her!

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Tommy Vitor. On today's show, the around ceasefire officially expires just in time for a around to potentially escalate the war. We'll talk about Trump's strategy of doing nothing. His decision to take out his frustration on South Korea, and his reaction to John Ausoff saying that all the president wants to do is "travel with Natalie." We'll also check in on the Senate map, specifically why Mary Paltola rejected Kamala Harris's endorsement, and whether

a stolen pen might help flip Texas. Then Tommy talks to Brian Poindexter, the union iron worker taking on Max Miller in Ohio. Before we start, just a reminder, if you haven't subscribed already, please consider subscribing to become a friend of the pod. You get ad free episodes of this show and all your favorite cricket shows. Add free. Plus, you get a whole bunch of subscriber-only shows, like our secret extra episode of Podsave America called Only Friends and Polar Coaster with

Dan Fyfer and Terminally Online. You get access to a bunch of great sub-stack newsletters, and you get to support independent pro-democracy media. So, cricket.com/friends, go subscribe if you haven't already. Okay, let's get to the news. August 17th is Love It's Birthday, and the day that the MOU of Versailles officially died. Happy 50th, man. Boy. Yes. It's a big one. You don't look at day over 40 years.

“Oh, nice. Thank you guys. This light-hearted ribbing. That's what friendship's all about here on my birthday.”

It's going to be in the history books. I had a cupcake over the sink this morning for four coming into work. Why do you do that? Because it's Monday. And it's your birthday. I just bring it in. What? I put a candle in it. Okay, that's nice. Was already there at least? No thinking as well or just you. Did puns. I've friends brought over a cupcake yesterday. I just ate a leftover one on the sink in a shame away to celebrate the day.

That's all. Not them wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's tasty. Okay, well,

happy birthday. Thank you. The MOU died, but it never really lived. The 60-day ceasefire

agreement between the U.S. and Iran wasn't much of a ceasefire. In fact, five Americans were killed during that time and it led to zero diplomatic progress on opening the straight-of-war moves or the fate of Iran's nuclear program. The Wall Street Journal has a big story about how intercepted communications show that Iran actually used the last two months to prepare for a bigger longer war, including turning out war missiles and drones. Trump has used the period to

pretend the war wasn't happening. And on Monday, he said that he's not in a hurry to end it that Iran should raise, quote, "the white flag of surrender," and he told Fox News that he's considering, quote, "bombing the shit out of Oman if they get in the way." He expanded on all this during a press of ale in the oval on Monday. Last week, you said that you would soon declare the straight-of-form moves to be a territory of the United States. Could you elaborate what you think

it's a great idea? I mean, we control it, we control it with the blockade, we have a blockade, we control it with the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We have total control over the straight. Now, they can be a nuisance, they could put a mine in the water,

and people don't like having mines hit their billion dollar ships, you know, etc.

re-opening the straight-of-form moves. Would you say you're out of patience with Oman as strategic

“honest who the Iranians in the monies have been negotiating a deal where they basically control the straight-of-form moves in charge fees. So apparently that's why he's mad at them.”

Where are we allies with them in some ways? Yeah, we shouldn't be bombing them. That's what I was wondering. Yeah, no, we don't want to bomb them. Yeah, there's sort of, you know, Oman is like, we can't deal with these despotic, irrational, religious authoritarian zealots, so we'll have to just deal with Iran instead. So I think most of us had forgotten that the MOU even existed. Seems like there's a pretty concerning gap between Iran's strategic thinking and

what an Atlantic piece the other day called Trump's new strategy of nothing.

Tell me what do you think about where we are right now? That journal piece was interesting,

because it just got at the fact that the Iranians had a strategy. They had a plan for those two months. They don't trust Trump. They don't trust him for good reason because he pulled out the JCPOA and because the US and Israel kept bombing them during talks. So they installed a bunch of hardliners increased their military capacity. He had conversation with the proxy groups and prepared them for more fighting while we did fuck-all. So Trump just has no path forward. He knows if he restarts the war.

It'll cost him politically. There's no way to bomb your way to victory here. He is completely stuck. So he just does these pressivales where they get increasingly ridiculous. Now we're going to declare the US territory like the Gulf of America. We're back to that kind of path forward.

And as a way to pretend that we control it when we don't. It's also interesting that he always

“he talks about the naval blockade is if that's what keeps is keeping the straight open,”

even though the straight is not open and we don't control it. But he's somehow trying to confuse people by saying that the naval blockade that we have around is what it means that we control the straight. He just doesn't want to deal with it. He doesn't want to deal with it because he doesn't like there's no there he doesn't like his options. He doesn't like the option of escalation. He doesn't like the option of accepting a deal that's worse than the Obama era deal if that's even on the

table at this point. So he just wants everyone to stop talking about it and when he comes up oh that we're in control of it and we won and it's good and they lost and they're crazy but we'll see and then on to the next topic. Like he just there's no strategy he just doesn't want to deal with it. Once folks on the ballroom. I thought the journal story was interesting too because I think we've been talking for a while about how this could just end up being like you know around just keeps

controlling the straight and we all just kind of muddle along and Trump doesn't know what to do. But it sounds like they like they were talking about the various ways they could escalate the war with their thinking about preemptive strikes, sabotage of underneath undersea internet cables in the Gulf, stirring unrest in Kuwait and Bahrain and possibly ground operations in Kuwait. What the Iranians want to avoid is a scenario where every six to 12 months the U.S. are Israel bombs

them. You know whether it's regime change, decapitation strikes, hitting their missile site, hitting their oil and gas infrastructure. They want to increase the cost so that the U.S. and Israel think twice about doing this. In the strategy they've hit on for doing that has been pretty smart which is bombing all these U.S. military installations in countries like Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and increasing the cost not only for us but for those other

countries in the Gulf and you know they've executed it pretty well and it seems to have been pretty effective. So you're seeing like the Emirates seem to be cutting side deals with the Iranians

“to create an off ramp and I think others are pretty soon going to be looking to do the same thing.”

Because they don't want a non-stop constant war. I mean a turnaround defense analyst close to the government, the regime and Iran told the journal that the main war in the Iranian view has not yet begun. So that's something to look forward to, huh? The other part of it too is having U.S. bases, having the U.S. military president was meant to be a kind of a bulwark or defense like look at the security provided by Americans being on our soil but now it's been the opposite. It's trying

all these attacks and then you know oh but the U.S. is our partner but it's in completely unreliable partner Oman. We have trade agreement with and we're threatening to bomb them off the face of the Earth. So the reasons we can't quite understand. Yeah the only I understand why Iran want to signal that they'd be willing to escalate but I can't imagine they're particularly unhappy with a status

trying to prevent getting attacked again but like we just remember the Iran-Arock war lasted for eight years and it was like grueling and you know millions of my people died and the Iranians they they live there that's where their country is located on the street of foreign moves like they know that Trump is going to give up and move on and get distracted and do something else and they're not going to and so that's just you know they think they're playing for time. Well here's

one thing that's distracting him. The biggest news out of the Oval Office event was Trump confirming that he ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea which was scheduled to start on Monday. In a truth social post on Sunday Trump said he thought the exercises were too expensive and a danger to quote his very good relationship with Kim Jong-un. In the Oval on Monday he hinted that he spoke into Kim in the last couple of days and made a

clear why he's really pissed at South Korea. When I called recently the president of South Korea

“who I like I think he's very nice actually but I called him and I said would you like to give us a”

little hand we don't need help with Iran but if you'd like give us a hand with Iran he said no thanks and I said what do we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un you're next to a neighbor and you're not going to help us or not very easy military operation in Iran. We can't go around and protect all of these countries especially when they're not there to help us. So yeah. Tell me can you explain what's going on with the joint exercises and whether

this is a big deal. So we have a lot of troops on the Korean Peninsula as 28,500 and if I had a mutual defense treaty in place with the Koreans since like the 1950s and so we do these annual exercises

it's actually two is one in the spring and the one in the late summer and they are basically

drills to deal with the threat from North Korea and they've been described to me by experts it's actually pretty important because there's a lot of turnover especially in the South Korean

“military and so you need to have people like have some experience doing these things and also”

battlefield tactics are constantly changing. The North Koreans just set a bunch of troops to the front and Ukraine to fight on behalf of Russia and so they're learning how to use drones and electronic warfare and all these sort of modern systems and tools that you need to just understand. So the North Koreans understandably I think hate these drills because they view it as a pretext of some sort of invasion of their country and that's kind of been the status quo and so

something triggered Trump over the weekend I don't know what it was because he tweeted a photo of himself with Kim Jong-un just out of nowhere as one does and then the next day he said he put out this post about wanting to scale down the exercises but put out the statement like as the exercises were about to start so to the extent you're scaling them down I don't think you're saving a lot of money because like the military hardware is going to be in place. The message as you said

was basically like if you want help us with our little non proliferation problem we won't help you

with your little nuclear weapons problem on the Korean peninsula. I don't think that is a particularly rational way forward but it's you know Trump and it's filled with peak. He also said that the North Koreans had been respectful. They're unthreatening and respectful. This came a couple days after the North Koreans fired a ballistic missile off into the ocean

“second test and under a week. Yeah they've done like I think 11 or 16 of them this year so”

it's you know not the most respectful move and Kim Jong-un's position when it comes to resuming talks with the United States with Trump is that we first have to recognize them as a nuclear state so that's a pretty strident position in my view so again I think it's like a combination of this old hobby horse where he doesn't know why we you know have troops in the Korean peninsula it doesn't think it's worth the cost. Plus he's bitchy that South Korea didn't help us with a

stupid war with Iran and now maybe it's an effort to get diplomacy going with North Koreans although I don't know why he also said in that oval that Kim had gotten back to him. Yeah he didn't

plot him really well he finally did it out right so yeah but he did want to do a little teasing

pauses first right yeah like it's very well they won't they talk about like you know Iran has some kind of a strategy like the US is now involved itself in this newest quagmire in the Middle East if the president were focused on the US and it's long-term strategic imperatives and that was his main goal and all that was on his mind was the good of the the country over the over time in our allies you might want to signal something like what is happening in the Middle East has

absolutely no bearing on our ability to protect our allies in Asia right that that we are able to wage whatever war we're waging against Iran while maintaining protection for South Korea while protecting Taiwan while continuing to kind of perform the role that the US performs as a kind of defense against sort of Chinese aggression like that that would be something that a traditional farm policy of either administration with signal right but instead he's like

to protect them right and oh because we got this ship out there for so long we're going to take

another ship that's in the Pacific and we're going to send that over to Iran because we actually

“are going to tie these two conflicts together that makes us weaker in both places terrific I think”

that's great yeah and that I don't want anymore microchips from Taiwan anyway I'm all set with all the poor the Koreans are suffering because of the war in Iran because they get like 60-70% of their oil through the state of our moves so we're screwing over all these countries in Asia to begin with thank you also like how could you not help us in this war that we decided to launch on our own without telling you without telling you for no good reason and it's accomplished

absolutely nothing but has hurt the rest of the world especially you and by the way where I said

even in this sentence we don't need your help right it's like it's like you know Korea is coming over

for dinner and like Trump's like you don't need to bring a thing where's the fucking wine so as you mentioned the Navy pulled its last carrier out of Asia to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln which he was also asked about in the oval this is the aircraft carrier that's been in the Middle East since November and the conditions have been so horrible and there was also reports that at least two sailors tried to take their own lives by jumping overboard when asked

on Friday whether the deployment had gone on too long Trump said no no no not nearly long enough here's how we responded on Monday in the oval there's a food on the USS Lincoln yeah and it was a that was a CNN fake report the Lincoln has been out there for a period of time good period of time but over the years we've had them out there much long ago is an at a group meeting and an at a fake news story so Pete Hanks out said the

situation had been completely misrepresented in the commander of SENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper visited the ship over the weekend and wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the stories about shortages of food and water were old news and had been addressed so just a different statement very much so so it seems pretty clear they're in damage control mode here what do you guys think about the story how bad is this for them love it yeah having a ship full of people slowly losing their mind

“because they're on one of the longest deployments ever I think now maybe the longest deployment ever”

of a ship like this yeah they're they're they're they're they're going for the records said by the Gerald are forward and three hundred twenty six days right via now so they're so close they're so close yeah sort of a worthy record to be and it matters that it's not a war that was approved by Congress that the majority of the country wishes we weren't fighting that has no real goal that has no sign of ending one thing if it was a if it was a grateful nation asking the service members to

sacrifice on behalf of a cause that we all collectively endorsed sort of a grave decision to send people there for months on and but that's not what happened and they know that right the people on the ship are aware of the fact that this is unpopular they don't know what the fuck they're there and it's awful and then you have headset caring more about the press and Trump pretending it's not

happening and it's disgraceful and Trump has never had a lot of respect for people who serve in

the military sometimes he pretends to but he finds the whole thing a bit embarrassing and confusing

“I think he finds the idea of people sacrificing themselves and giving something of themselves without”

ego showing discipline in a sense of purpose and mission kind of embarrassing to him because he's never experienced those feelings and it comes out over and over and over again so the link it's been at sea more than turn 50 days but no port call and 200 days I think because the Iranians hit the base they would have used in Bahrain so they've had to just be out at sea that two days off I guess two days they've been at call yeah and so and that was on the way out there and they've

had food shortages the plumbings on messed up they're having mental health issues and the jobs on that flight deck are incredibly dangerous I mean they've flown something like 10,000 sorties I think off of the deck of that that ship and imagine you're on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier there's jets buzzing in there's airplane there's rotors right like you're doing this for weeks at a time with no days off it's very risky and like then you hear the secretary

defense lie and just saying that there's no issues on that boat and then you go down to like wait in at 15 minute line use the bathroom and you see mold everywhere and then you hear president Trump say no no the the deployments aren't too long they should be longer they're not long enough so like like politically this probably won't be all that damaging like big picture but it is one of the hidden costs of the war that people aren't talking about and for the sailors

on that ship and for their families and for the people who actually understand what's going on to have your presidents like belittle your service like that to have the secretary defense just lie

call home half the time for operational security reasons there's isolated on the ship

“and it and it is a lie that they're telling and we know that because the sailors and marines”

have you know anonymously because they don't want to get in trouble have been complaining about this and you know tower Jake Topper on CNN is talking to the wife of one of the service members who had to listen to the president say that listen to him said say that and and she was like they can't show some empathy at all for this she's like just take some accountability for what's going on with your military your ships and your war it's your war it's infuriating

care packages aren't getting there in time it can't get toiletries on the boat it's just like it's inexcusable and and you're right the lying is the worst part of all that positive america's brought you by act blue if you're listening to this podcast we don't have to tell you how high the stakes are in the midterms and a twenty twenty eight act blue is the platform that has powered democratic campaigns for over two decades giving

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free shipping when you visit newtriple.com and enter the promo code crooked that's newtriple.com spelled N U T R A F O L dot com promo code crooked so the story about the Lincoln is already finding its way onto the campaign trail here's Senator John Assoff talking about it and a whole lot more on Sunday and while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves the president sleeps through his meetings he golfs

and trade stocks so he doesn't want to do the job he wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the amir of Qatar. So Natalie of course refers to White House aid Natalie Harp known as the human printer who was chosen over several cabinet officials to join Trump in the catering cart on the way to the secret flight home for their book Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan also got their hands on

quote raw emotional letters that Harp had been leaving in Trump's private spaces including one that read quote you are all that matters to me notes that reportedly alarmed the secret service

“according to Maggie who boy that's why they had to switch planes yeah so uh what do you guys”

think of Assoff mentioning her by name got some maybe news you know he's obviously like a looting to the rumor that this is more than a president staffer relationship there might be something romantic going on that you might be having to fair um it made news it went viral

in a way that is frustrating to the White House you can tell it really really pissed off

“the the White House staff because Stephen showing the communications director put out some unhinged”

statement then the um uh that wrote down John Jack off John Jack got him got him then the rapid response 47 account which is like the White House rapid response account went after the journalist who asked about the quote from CNN um so they are attacking everybody at the moment this is what they uh they tweeted the White House rapid response account at uh Kristen Homes someday your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question they will be

sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive it's quite troubling boy I just I just I'm just sad to hear that she's gonna allow her kids to have so much screen time

and I and also it's sort of a thrilling idea to imagine our kids having electricity the uh uh

there I saw like Scott Jennings trying to care doing this rate of like uh what do you say to young women working in politics? Yeah they're trying they're they're they're the the the the the mega people trying to say it's sexist yeah I mean I just say yeah any of any of them to think about politics don't fuck Donald Trump as a rule but also uh and embarrassed right we have not that we know that that's of course not of course not and just unfairness like that's

obviously the rumor that everyone's talking about um but nobody's suggesting that Trump is trying to have sex with Dan Scovino who was also in the cart right but wasn't yeah yes could be and Walt now that now that's just co-conspirator yeah and Mara Lago so yeah like I don't who knows or Pete Higgsapp or well Pete Higgsapp is a bit of a part he was on the secret he was on the secret he wasn't the secret play he wasn't who knows what they're doing yeah look the letters are like

whatever people want to insinuate a romantic relationship like the letters are embarrassing and gross enough the fact that she is called the human printer because she just sort of takes the

“dictation the kind of worshiping praise she's heeped upon Donald Trump is really I think you know”

is plenty beyond just the sort of the rumors but I do think like the amount of shit that like the amount of fuck like he's got Jennings saying what are you going to say to young woman who want to work in politics in that press conference that we just had it on our office just a normal day it won't even be covered it so like normal and expected now he just sort of lit into a CNN reporter like you stop yelling stop talking be quiet just sort of directed at this woman like

he is just endlessly disgusting in sex is so like oh what would I it's look what would you say to young woman because of this insinuation like Donald Trump is a misogynist he's a sexist he's disgusting and that will be the great shame of this era for any funny woman associated with him any man associated with he led into this that reporter in the most condescending sexist way in front of a 16 year old lifeguard yeah with his guest in the office and then turn to lifeguard it was like

don't you agree and I don't don't get into it can you believe these people they get at these lifeguards get it this kid's like I want to go home this is not worse you don't even have to do the like what about how bad he is to women either on this it's like there were like obviously we know why I've included the word Natalie there but there were like a million ways he could have done that that could have been fairly characterized it's like cheap cheesy resist lip blue maga bullshit

you know and the point he's making is that uh anyone first of all anyone who watched the clip it's not like you just get uh off-off insinuating something you get this image of Trump um who like is a buffoon who like bungled his way into a war that we're all dealing with and paying for while he is corrupt as hell not wanting to do his job and just hang out right and then Natalie gets inserted into that whole story um but like she wrote that letter that said you mean you're all that matters

to me the secret service is alarmed Trump himself has said according to Maggie and Jonathan in their

book that um she will never leave me after all of you will leave at some point and go on and make

money and she loves me as much as my wife and children and she will never leave me when you have all

“that out there and and he says yeah all he wants to do is travel with Natalie I think that's fair”

yeah it's reasonable it's pretty is that's all he says it's not not weird it's just what I'm talking about him and Matt again apply all those facts to Barack Obama or Joe Biden or anyone else on the White House yeah Joe Biden would kill to someone that loyal yeah no I said they're all leaking about how old he was I'm sure Scott Jennings was very upset about allegations of infidelity about Bill Clinton or previous Democrat president right yeah yeah you don't want to insinuate anything

out there yeah because she's leaving him notes in private spaces you you're all that matters to me yeah by the way like maybe it is just like I have no no one of us knows and like I don't I don't care that in that case it's creepy in that case he does just want to travel with Natalie yeah maybe he just likes having a sycophantic pretty young woman around him all the time

maybe she was hungry yep there's a there's a third plane where you just get to avoid the

consequences of all your bad decisions okay that's where we go start a war good a plane number

“three yeah honestly the mistake in us offs statement there was saying all they want to do”

is fly on the defenseless plane gifted by the Amir of Qatar because that wasn't the plane they went on either you might want you might say that a second plane has hit the the Trump administration scandals in a sense you know you think about it you may want to say that you may want to say that you may want to say that Trump was actually asked about also have comments in the oval on Monday and here's how we handle it I thought that's a good idea from the travel with your age

Natalie Hartman built a ball room and do your job as president what's your result John also you mean P. We are man P. We are my local like I know I would much rather do other things it's a we're building a great facility here we have President Xi coming on September 24th or so I think it's September 24th and we'd love to have 2000 people coming to dinner and celebrating a nice evening etc etc but we only have a room that's gonna hold 89 people

and 89 people's not appropriate so maybe more importantly it's totally secure with bulletproof windows bulletproof sides it's a drone proof it's missile every at the top of the line and we need it and especially with what's happened unfortunately to the world you could say the people that are opposing the ball room are people that in my opinion are very disloyal to a country very very disloyal to a country you know when I was in China we went to the great all of China was as big beautiful building

and we don't have anything like that and we have to have that it's very important

one on forever it's just amazing President Xi's coming what am I supposed to do I need to

make this place look nice and fit all the the Chinese who come with him and when I went there they had this beautiful everyone saying wonderful things about him and they have this great building and every just the the handsome young senator says that you're focused too much on building a space for parties and he's like that guy he reminds me of p.v. Herman now let's talk about some of these parties I'm thinking about having those those it's like let me pivot from Natalie Harp to my true love

“the ballroom right structure you know I honestly if you don't love this ballroom you don't love a”

america hey not as best rejoiner no that's also tough because that's like the disapproval of the ballroom is it like pretty high really has a lot of disloyal america pivot to something politically damaging uh we haven't talked about the ballroom construction in a while um on Friday the Trump administration petition the Supreme Court to allow construction to continue after an appeals court appell to ruling the Trump exceeded his authority by building without congressional approval

Trump solicitor general told the court that construction is already 65% complete so this is this injunction takes effect on Friday they've got an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to save them what do you what do you guys make of this what happens here of the court says he can't proceed he's already got half of the built more than half of the built doesn't really seem like a win for anybody you know well it's a whole in the wall in the home ground now then you gotta go to Congress

and get it through Congress to fund it my pitch is you never finish it and you turn it into some kind

of museum of of American failure okay and it's just like you like it's like in the other museums gonna be it's a museum of reckless stupidity and there'll be exhibits and different things you can go explore it kind of like a sort of an avant-garde it really it's a memorial it's a memorial to our worst extent yeah for sure the nicks we have in nicks and we have all the Trumps and people like a quickening contour quadrant yeah for sure yeah well quibi quibi catch you somewhere Jeffrey Katzenberg's

like I got a weird feeling you're doing the audio the tour was a quibi yeah you're very short it's quick it's like great about the quibi sections you get in and out in and out in and out of quibi but uh something like that where you kind of never finish it and leave it as a kind of a warning to

“others like um remember when when they when they were the Georgia or our Martin could do the”

yeah yeah this is a book of this is where the 7th book of it's remember when there was a there was this contest or this this um uh organization was trying to figure out how would you mark nuclear waste sites because a thousand or many thousands of years from now if humanity has fallen you would need to have language and architecture that would make people afraid even if they were more kind of had gone backwards sure and there was a quilt hold on I want to find it there was a line that was

uh we could also mark it like an old nuclear site that we're trying to protect the the future humanity from and it would just have some language that says this place is a message and part of a system of messages pay attention this place is not a place of honor no highly esteemedede is commemorated here nothing valued is here what is here was dangerous and repulsive to us this message

ballroom very pithy message wow free free pitch for a democratic candidate and one of those first

primary debates who's gonna take it who's gonna take it nothing is honored here I do find it

“interesting that the whole thing started is like I want the ballroom that's what I want I just”

want my nice pretty ballroom and now because there's um legal uh consequences potentially he's like actually it's it's it's all for the military the military needed this space and they are apparently like they look the underground there's a like world war two our presidential emergency operation center and they are I guess rehabbing that um and now Trump's making it sound like it's basically building a fortress around the White House where there's gonna be drones protecting

the White House and yeah and now all of DC and but like couldn't the drone base be somewhere near the White House and protected gotta be it got to be a ballroom it has to be on the roof that's what drones also he also said they're they they drilled five stories underground which probably something that the military didn't want him to say he said it doesn't like boy Trump's sure does care about the military said two sailors splitting a taco for lunch

I fucking believe I'm very like open the idea that drone advances in drone technology have made the White House more at risk than before and then maybe at you know a tent full of world leaders on the south lawn is more risk to it than we understand or acknowledge but yeah it doesn't seem like he's sort of manufacturing all these security needs in real time yeah just so we can get new drapes I would just say also if we're at the point where we have to

worry about a military scale drone swarm tackling a state dinner at the White House a lot of things have already gone wrong where's our drone port yeah well this was the UFC threat right that someone was going to hit the ultimate fighting event on the south lawn with some sort of drone in the FBI broke it up yeah but it's bad news do you guys see the in related corruption news the the news on Friday that world liberty financial the Trump family and Steve Wittkov son's

crypto venture got preliminary approval to act as a bank what do you guys think about that it may be excited that one day our tax dollars would get to bail out that thing that's exciting no it's exciting nice yeah one day we can be a part of it that's right it's a just sort of it's like Kamala doesn't have a good answer on the view 15 years later we're

“bailing out world liberty it's like what the fuck god damn it yes joy I think there's many things”

I do differently and then all of a sudden whenever you're heard of world liberty financial president off-off is like yes world liberty financial is too big to fail yeah I'm not happy about it

I didn't want to bail out the bank either but the crypto yeah first president in history to

approve operate and supervise his own bait another historic first for Mr. Trump pretty crazy because it's like it's one thing to launch a coin but not everyone gets to have the the federal government basically you know stamp that with its with national approval by giving it a charter because the OCC which is the office that does this the can give banks charters for the government basically went years without receiving a single application between 2011 and 2024 so it's not

like they give charters to anyone who wants to start a bank but now they're giving one to the president's family which will be regulated by the president's government I don't see the problem with that yeah it also just opens up the door to a lot more kinds of corruption from foreign sovereign wealth funds and all kinds of other ways in which this now allows Trump to find new and exciting ways to make money so great job everybody it also does seem like a pretty big official stamp

of approval on the crypto business in industry at the time when congress is supposed to be negotiating and writing laws to actually govern these things which doesn't make me feel great yeah and I think that that timeline I mentioned to 2024 was because after 2024 suddenly all the crypto ventures and all the you know they wanted to get they wanted to start banks too but you know who's got approved were a liberty financial yeah I mean so my understanding of the reason

you would want this if you're the Trump family is that currently their stable coin reserves are held with a third party so now the Trump family can issue and redeem and then hold collateral

themselves and not to pay a third party so if you have if you have issued four billion dollars worth

“of USD one which is their stable coin you have to hold four billion dollars worth of collateral”

probably in the form of treasuries that gives you interesting come and now you keep it all yourself rather than have to like go through some third party also it's a competitive advantage with all the other stable coins right because now if if you want to do business with some in crypto why not go to the use the stable coin that's backed by the US government because that's what that's what this

they're that's not necessarily the word I was I was yeah I was grasping for another

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purchase of a website or domain that's squarespace.com/cricket let's do a let's do a midterm update uh focused on control of the Senate Dan and I talked on Friday show about Nate Silver's new model uh he currently has the odds of the Democrats slipping the Senate at 56% as of right now. Over the weekend the silver bulletin had a piece on the seven senate races most likely to determine control Texas, Michigan, Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska and North Carolina. Dems need five out of those seven

and apparently they almost left North Carolina off that list because the model is quite confident that Roy Cooper will flip that state and even more confident that Osoffle when in Georgia which is white wasn't on the list. Wild wild is that confident about Georgia. We're going to zero in on developments in Texas, Michigan and Alaska today but before we do anything stand out to you guys in the analysis of the other Senate races. The one thing just overall is how the models have to

like have scandals and other kind of individual factors of a race matter less as polarization and party line and the sort of partisan voting becomes more and more what defines kind of the outcomes because it tells you that as much as you're hoping that fundamentals kick in in some places right if they kick in too hard say in Michigan to kind of get up dual over

“then you have to worry about what's happening in Texas or to worry about what's happening in Alaska.”

Right and so that was sort of my takeaway from it and the other was just you look across this this you know oh what's the pivot going to be and you think about the difference between 2006 and 2018. Both years where there was somewhere like an eightish swing towards Democrats or a point lead by Democrats and because of the map and because of luck we lose the Senate in 2018 or we don't we don't gain the Senate in 2018 we lose seats and then in 2006 we actually managed to

leak out of victory in the Senate not because we did so much better in a bunch of different races but because in three or four races Montana Missouri Virginia we won by 10,000, 40,000 just a small margin and because all of those happen to tip right at the end just over the line the whole direction of the country changes that was that that was what I was sort of panic getting anxious about as I was looking at the numbers yeah I mean I was getting anxious looking at them because they are

more bullish than I thought sort of feel emotionally like Nate has Democrats winning Ohio at a 62

me as main at 70 percent Michigan at 68 percent now look I I think we can pull out Michigan

“and it's a state we should win but I do think like it's going to be a battle I guess I was just sort”

of surprised at how lopsided some of these numbers seem I was surprised on the flip side of that how they are bearish more bearish on Iowa and Alaska than I would have expected Iowa they have 44 percent the Democrats doing in Alaska 42 percent so they were bigger underdogs those do than I thought and also you know I look at this lesson I think for everyone listening like if you're looking for you know where do what where do I donate and where do I want to volunteer and which

racist you know they go down the list at the end and they're like well there's a couple other races that are you know getting a lot of attention but Florida where you know Democrats are according to the polls like maybe up a couple points but just the fundamentals and the model and everything else just make it seem like there's there's not a great chance in Florida like it's a quite a long shot and then even more of a long shot Nebraska which was sort of a surprising

to me as well and Kansas people have been talking about Kansas recently and then of course like you know we've talked about races in Mississippi and South Carolina and stuff like that and those just

“aren't on the radar at all so you know if you if you if you want to pay attention and help out”

in a center race those those seven tend to be the the big ones so Texas is the most likely tipping point state in the model meaning that it's the state most likely to determine control of the Senate right now silver has the odds of telerico winning at 59% one big reason is that Ken Paxon is an awful candidate and sure enough telerico is out with a new ad where he's endorsed by the guy whose $1,000 pen was once stolen by Ken Paxon let's watch this is Ken Paxon and this is Ken

Paxon stealing someone $1,000 pen here's what happened the incident happened at the Colin County

courthouse the same courthouse where Paxon would later be in dieted for investment fraud Paxon walked up to the trays next to the metal detectors rummaged through them and came across someone else's expensive Mont Blanc pen he decided to take it for himself the pen belonged to Joe Joplin a local attorney who'd accidentally left behind he was a special gift from his wife when Joe realized it was missing he contacted courthouse security this is the footage they pulled

Ken Paxon on camera stealing this man's pen after the police got involved Joe got his pen back he could have press charges but he decided against it because Joe's a nice guy

I ain't never take someone else's pen but he also hasn't forgotten who took his

power to go for the United States vote for James teller he don't want stealing a pen Paxon response had finders keepers that trans loving Jesus Freak wouldn't steal a fucking bank

“I would just know that I also think you should go to jail for having a $1,000 pen”

I was couldn't say that's it yeah you're not exactly I noticed I noticed why they didn't put the cost of the pen in the ass it doesn't exactly help our friends you can be a right to beautiful it's crazy it's a beautiful feel never written with a $1,000 pen before I think that's a great ad because obviously on the list of Paxon scandals this one is the lowest in terms of the impact of the consequences but it's a fun story that can go viral I think they

did a good really good job telling it there yeah yeah they made way through just reminding everybody that he was indicted for fraud he is so somebody was I think it was a Josh Barr or someone someone made this point that it is shocking how in every aspect of his life he seems to be a prick or a sleaze just with their exception his wife of many years in the state senator leaving him on biblical grounds because of this a fairy had that he his people that worked with him

were whistleblowers that they they believed he was taking bribes he was impeached in a bipartisan way but not removed he's only in this he's only gotten the nomination because trump didn't like john cornan inside of a kenspaxon is a fuck you to uh john cornan but even Republican Texas would obviously have preferred someone more electable he also just not a great fundraiser he just seems like a shitty fucking guy that nobody likes and it puts taxes in public and including

Republicans including Republicans just seems like a fucking asshole well the in in Nate's model the fundamentals put Texas at um r plus 3.4 so even with the huge shift towards Democrats it's still more of a Republican leaning state but teller he goes ahead in the polls by 1.9 average right now and the reason that they have it as they have it as a toss up but it's almost at lean d is just because um teller he goes a good candidate and also packs in as such a bad candidate and has

sen is not even he's also not a prolific fundraiser teller he goes raised 65 million dollars

to pack something nine billion dollars what I didn't realize until I read Nate's pieces that betto a work had trade uh trail of an every single poll and he had crews or we think in teller he co the betto's great and so no I know I mean like we were also I was excited that I thought it was then the teller he goes leaving packs in by as he said 1.9% in the polling average it's pretty good

“I mean I think I mentioned all of these races are gonna tighten because they just always do when people pay”

attention but um twenty twenty six is a very blue year in packs and there's a very bad candidate yeah Ted Cruz as it was able to he got a winning against betto not because betto didn't get the votes he thought he was going to get but they were surprised by the turnout of Republicans and we don't like Ted Cruz but Republicans like Ted Cruz and uh like Ken packs in it's sort of just a different atmosphere to worse environment that it remains to be seen if it's a worse overall

national political environment but certainly in Texas Ken packs and is uh is not is it's just not nearly as good a candidate as a beloved charismatic figure tech Chris yeah and I also think Trump I mean Trump's approval was fairly bad in 2018 at the time but you didn't have the economic approval exactly that's right that's a wrong thing that is the that is the um the tailwind that I think the betto did not get in 2018 that the teller he could probably is um we haven't really talked

“about Alaska where Mary Peltola is trying to unseat Dan Sullivan last week come with Harris signed”

a fundraising email for Peltola urging people to donate and then Peltola's campaign basically rejected it

saying quote Mary isn't seeking endorsements from anyone from the lower 48 her focus is and always

will be Alaska adding to the intrigue uh someone leaked to internet journalist Yashar Ali presumably someone from Harris's camp um that actually it was Peltola's campaign that asked Harris's political operation to send a fundraising email uh Peltola is pretty close to Sullivan in the polling but still an underdog overall who do you guys believe here and what does it say that the Peltola campaign rejected Kamal is endorsement at least publicly uh I mean at the thing it shows that

they just don't want to nationalize this race in any way shape or form that the National Democratic Party brand is toxic uh the entire debate about the Democratic ticket in 2024 is politically toxic and they want nothing to do with it which makes me surprised that anyone on her campaign would ask Kamal Harris to send a fundraising email on her behalf especially one where the funds were split 50/50 between Kamal is pack and Peltola's campaign now I could be wrong what do I know

but you know Peltola's running it entirely Alaska focused campaign where she's like talking about

“salmon fishing and local stuff I don't know I think you want to nationalize it yeah who knows”

I can see there being just like you know oh this is an opera to Kamal Harris is going to get us he's going to raise money for us that maybe one part of the campaign not talking to another part of the campaign maybe people don't know like the most right or and also maybe like when you actually read the email it's just like it's it wasn't meant to be something that was so clear like we were together splitting the money 50/50 so it ended up looking worse or maybe it was fully authorized

but then by the time he gets the candidate they realized it's a mistake they wanted to announce it but to me is sort of you look at this it's like our Mary Mary Peltola has clearly decided that this email and this collect connection is a liability so we're gonna deny it and say we don't want the endorsements for the lower 48 and whoever is inside Kamal is or assuming that that's where that came from cared more about kind of whatever claiming it was authorized than then doing what

clearly the Alaska campaign thinks it's best for itself which is to see get out of this it like

it seems like it could be more benefit for Peltola for Kamal Harris to say I would never raise

money for that woman she's too moderate too much of it she's too many she's too focused on jobs yeah too much she wants to bring people together too much and you know what else I hate fish yeah that's a guy yeah that's a weird one also like Mary Peltola didn't endorse Kamal in 2024 because it's just like it's a lens on part of the underwear movement again it's the right she has to you know she has to outrun like you know Donald Trump won the state by what 13 14 points like it's it's

an uphill climb you know so she has to really reject the national stuff and just a part of America's got to be far away and quiet you know yeah and like she has run really successfully statewide in Alaska before there's something called a split ticket war score which sort of like rates you your candidate quality your ability to outperform the ticket and she was like D plus 9 and D plus 22 in her house right yeah so she's very successfully separated herself

from the national party struggles in one yeah finally we were in the middle of recording Friday's episode when Fox News dropped their Michigan poll which has microodders ahead of Abdul Elsaid by 4 points 51 47 same poll has Democrat Jocelyn Benson up five points in the Michigan governor's race the Senate Democratic Super PAC then released an internal poll that shows Abdul ahead by six but of

Abdul has to do over the next few months so first of all probably get more votes right yeah should

probably get more votes yeah look it's hard to you know first of all it's hard to trust any of these polls because we just saw an outcome in which Abdul won by a point and the polls had him up by much more overall like it's hard it's hard it's just hard to know the one thing that was

“interesting from I think it was the Fox poll is that there was just a bigger group of people's”

that were voting for Mike Rogers for Senate and the Democratic governor candidate then the reverse yeah and and so regardless of whether whether you know you think the poll is exaggerating and you what does it like that to me I think it's sort of interesting and instructive about what he has to do because it's clearly people that either because of what Abdul has said in the past because the state was blanketed in tens of millions of dollars in anti Abdul advertising whatever it may be there's a

lot of people that should be voting with the Democrats and would be if they hadn't been sort of exposed to so much anti Abdul messaging and so what does he have to do to bring those people along how does he address some of the things that Mike Rogers is going to be advertising whether or not a pack puts more money into the state like there's going to be a lot that he has to go up against and and one thing I just noticed about sort of some of the ways in which he's responded

to this is you know he's under so much incoming you know a bunch of different Democrats have

“been asked like well how do you explain for what you said in the past and and and I think often”

the reaction is to kind of argue with the person asking the question and they all do all the politicians do this they sort of are like well I actually didn't mean to fund I meant that we should look at where the money's going as a version of something up to all said in the past and others have to but you look at what sort of I think one of some of the more effective ways of answering

that kind of question mom Donnie had an incredible one I think on Friday or early or late last

week where the question is do you think woke one was crazy he basically just ignores that and he says we all change and we all grow I have said things I don't agree with anymore but I believe in supporting the police and having a good relationship with the police and we're getting crime down and we're addressing these issues and and like what was to me what what he's doing what makes them such a good politician is he's saying he's not answering the the feeling

underneath the question which is what is the reassurance on this issue that gives me credibility across another a range of issues as opposed to constantly fighting to a draw by answering the previous critique or just sort of trying to win on points but rather saying something that is like a values statement that rejects the factual statement you said in the past right just like a clean

“moral thing that resets what he currently believes in stands for I think the adults I kind of”

core primary message is still the right one it was get money out of politics put money in your pocket and pass Medicare for all that's a great general election message he's autistic that obviously the primary until he's even became more about your support for Israel and a pack funding and dark money generally and I think trying to move away from that would be beneficial you know a dual he's going to have to try to find some kind of like white working class independent

voters that maybe ever voted for Republicans in the past he's got to turn out black voters and democratic base voters they didn't necessarily get in the primary so he's got to do two different things at once reach the base community and reach he sort of more moderate swing voters I think he's got the political skills to do that he's an exciting dynamic guy he's good on the stump he can raise a lot of money he's got like a lot of skills and Mike Rogers is kind of like a washed up

old Intel committee guy who would rather be in Florida seemingly than in Michigan running this race but I think we need to treat those at 50/50 race okay I just I think this is going to be a close

one to the bitter end yeah the poll doesn't surprise me that much only because I think 60 million

dollars of negative ads against you and then Mike Rogers has none of that and people mostly remember him as a sort of old school establishment pre-Trump Republican and obviously like a list of slack and ran a great race against him in 24 but I think the image of Mike Rogers they have in their head is like okay maybe I don't agree with him but he doesn't seem threatening and 60 million dollars in negative ads making him dual seem like scary Muslim socialistic

extremists who's going to come you know kill your family is you know that's the kind of povers all you're going to get I also think that you know there's work he has to do with black voters and you can see in this poll and and then the voters the Tommy you were just talking about and like look if he just goes to just goes to all these voters who say they're going to vote for Jocelyn Benson a Democrat just has to convince those voters to like hey you're already voting

for one Democrat vote for another you know yeah I think that like some of his ads and you see this online like he's had some even in the primary had some like sort of cringey millennial cringy

unfreatening to people which they are going to try to make him seem as threatening as possible

because of his name and religion at which they as they're already doing and that's going to happen right up until election day and so to try to address that just by you know showing up everywhere and being who he is and seeming unfreatening is going to be helpful. I do think having made it through the primary weathered all these attacks come out ahead there's also given him a lot of credibility and you know by the same token that there are these crossover voters that show where a liability

is what a poll like this won't show is they're going to be people that are brought into that are going to kind of decide to vote maybe be excited and energized to participate because of a dual and then those are democratic votes they're going to that are going to go down the ticket right and those those like those will be people he brought into the process that won't show up in the

same kind of way and so I do think he has that kind of credibility with the people that came along

“and so like that does give him the space I think to kind of figure out how to kind of whatever”

signal overcome that kind of scary Muslim thing that they're going to throw at him over there. I mean it doesn't have to change his views on things but he can he can certainly moderate rhetoric to sort of appeal to a broader audience. That's all yeah that like I don't I don't of course I don't think it's any it's not about changing what he view I think like that is but there is like I think honestly it's because if people if he can just have that conversation which is the

abdual we know like that will work like he is even like the sort of they're calling him a socialist which they'll call anyone a socialist but he pointedly an interview so like I don't identify the socials like he believed like like there's just the version of him that existed in the ads is not the version of him that is real and now we have three or four months from actually put that in place. It's very funny that in the primary they made these kind of cringey

blues, blues, goofy videos or a duel just seemed silly and all this sort of like windset them at

“the time and then Republican accounts like lips of TikTok found them last week and started”

re-serving sitting them and be like oh my god if you've seen this how cringy and it's like you could not do a better job if you tried to target these ads to the audience they're trying to reach. It's like Republicans and sort of like conservative audiences who now see this goofy silly side of a duel as they are trying to paint him as this dangerous radical fringe candidate. It's very very hilarious that they were this stupid about their tactics in the Republican side.

You can't be in also guess if by that first ad out is that of the grandparents yes they just there's you know that they understand this. All right when we come back Tommy talks to Ohio house candidate Brian point extra. Pots of America's brought you by blinds.com there's a version of your home you haven't lived in yet where the light behaves just how you want where the rooms feel finished where you sleep

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highly recommend it blinds.com is giving our listeners an exclusive $50 off when you spend $500 or more just use code cook it and check out limited time offer rules and restrictions apply cblines.com for details. The what-a-day podcast you know and love is shaking things up. You already know the five days a week I Jane Coston bring you the need to know news and expert analysis on the big stories shaping today in tomorrow. Stories like how social media warps

our perception of the world and the strange reality of who is signing up to work for ice. All in less time that it takes to roast a chicken and now what-a-day episodes will be hitting your YouTube and podcast feeds in the afternoons you'll get the breaking news even faster. Check out what-a-day now dropping in the PM on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. My guest today is a Democratic party's candidate for Ohio's seventh congressional district.

Brian point-tocks are welcome to the show. Thank you for having me taught me how happy to be here and look forward to answering your questions. All right well glad to have you so your opponent

but first like just tell the audience about yourself you're background and why you decided to get into

“this race. Well yeah I'm just a regular every everyday average working guy I've been a”

member of the iron workers local 17 for the past 19 years where we've built some of the tall buildings and bridges and schools and hospitals in the Cleveland area. I've been a nine-year member of Brook Park City Council where I've showed up and fought for people at the local level. Built a reputation of being somebody who shows up when they need me the most. But more importantly I've been a father of two daughters and I have a bonus daughter

been helping raise them up to be strong and dependent loving caring women and that's kind of where I got that's the most prideful thing about about me is I'm a good good family man and take care of my family

to the best of my ability and yeah that's me in a nutshell. Did you help build this new brown

stadium and did we feel okay about them moving you know out of downtown? Well I actually worked a

“little bit on the old stadium. Oh nice it's 2014 when we we read it the scoreboards I was on that”

that was a good job it was like tell gate and every day for work. That's awesome any Sunday any Sunday jobs I visit you just got to be there. Yeah it was like Sunday every day because I was we were on seven days a week doing 12 to 14 hour days to get it done before the season started so a lot of hard work went into it but it was it was a little easier being that we were you know building the brown stadium. The new the new stadium is underway now it's just now getting

started they're still doing underground work and stuff like that so I haven't we haven't seen anything come out of the ground yet. Got it got it got it got it. So you're opponent Max Miller Congressman Max Miller he's been accused of some awful stuff throwing scalding hot water at his ex wife holding a gun to her head fracturing their two-year-old daughter's collarbone but despite all of that he's refused to get out of the race and he's instead decided to start attacking his

father-in-law Senator Bernie Marino, Ohio Senator Bernie Marino on social media what's your reaction to these charges and the way Max Miller responded to them? Well yeah they're they're very serious allegations and I you know I've said since day one if they proved to be true he he shouldn't be be in Congress he should be in jail and you know I stand by that statement you know the folks I've talked to all across this district whether it's knocking the doors

doing the town halls you know I get asked about it a lot and you know one of the things that is most traveling is him with holding the blue bunny from his daughter you know that's personal to

“me because you know my my youngest daughter Ashley she had bear bear growing up and I remember going”

on vacation one time we had a turn back around and get bear bear because she forgot bear bear at the house so he had you know turned around got bear bear and then we were okay to go on vacation but I just know how personal connections um children make with their with their security blanket or their stuffed animal and you know it just shows the kind of leverage Max Miller hold over people he loves and if he does that to people he loves imagine what he does the people he don't really like

or doesn't understand yeah and that that kind of behavior has no place in Congress yeah my daughter has two little pink bunnies that she calls her loveies and one time I thought I might have dropped one

at the airport and lost it and you would have thought my reaction was basically like I'd lost a

child it was like fucking deathcon five in our house we were scrambling for this thing thank god we finally found it like under a blanket or in a pillow or something but you're right I mean it does show a level of vindictiveness that is shocking to me as a father I would do literally anything to ensure my daughter felt comfortable I felt safe had a good night's sleep the idea that he would need to give the bunny over to only the court appointed like minder guy that he wouldn't give it to

someone else who he deemed a stranger we all we know all this by the way because he released a text message where you know he had had this conversation with someone I don't know if the center of burning marina or like you know someone who had been dispatched by center marina to have this conversation with Max Miller but Max Miller thought that the text messages he released like showed his side of the story but really just showed him being a sociopath yeah I mean I'm no I'm no therapist

or you know psychologist I wouldn't be able to diagnose him as that but I know as a father I would do whatever I had to do to make sure my baby had her bear bear I don't care who I had to give it to to make sure she got it yeah so I know that you know as you know probably better than anybody like the hardest thing about politics is most normal people just don't have time to read up on it right they're busy like getting a kids to school or going to work or doing whatever

kind of the stakes in an election or understand about a candidate it takes a lot to kind of get

something to break through has this story about Max Miller the allegations against him has this

“broken through to voters in your district I ask in part because there was like I think a Washington”

post story or something that suggested that most voters they talk to as they kind of walk the streets hadn't heard about it well yeah you know a lot of people are tune out from politics because you know politicians haven't given them anything to pay attention to especially when you consider the fact that most working people especially the hard work and families of this district are doing everything they can just to make ends meet you know they're working you know two with three jobs

in some cases they are working overtime just to just to get by and you know workers used to work and live paycheck to paycheck now they're not even making it to the next paycheck so yeah it's it's it's understandable I mean I understand why people would tune out because they got more important things in their life to worry about but what I hope they would do is lift their head up just

for a second pay attention to what's going on in this race and and you know support somebody like

me who understands what they're going through because I actually live what they're going through and and put somebody in Washington who's going to fight to make sure that they can make that you know make to that ex paycheck ensure that they can start building a life and start realizing the American dream that politicians have taken from us yeah I mean I've seen a lot of interviews you've done I've read a lot of stuff you you've a lot of interviews you've given and I think

you do a really admirable job of trying to like refocus the conversation on issues in the economy and the stuff that voters actually care about and that if that makes a difference in their lives

“and I think that's important I really do respect that I do think though there's also a kind of”

threshold question about character from our elected officials that's very important and I'm wondering how you view that in in this context like is an allegation like those the Max Miller's facing is that a place where we should draw a line as a country and just say no like this guy should not serve in Congress or how do you think about that? Well yeah I mean we we've seen politician be accused of all sorts of things over the past no few years especially as can seem like it's ramped

up with with character issues with politicians but I think it's it's it's really a test of of the American public what we're willing to accept from our representatives and to me I think it's it should be a uniting factor I think I think Democrats Republicans and independence can come together and and set the bar of what we expect from politicians you know not saying that anybody has to be perfect you know certainly I'm not perfect I've had you know mistakes in my younger years and

so like that but but what is the what is the bar that that we're going to set of what we can

“expect more leaders and I think this is an opportunity to unite people that's what my goal is”

my main goal in this run is to really unite our district through the party divide through the political different differences in political spectrum to get people to understand that we have more that unite us than divide us and when we when we put it aside some of the political differences and come together um there's strength there and uh you know that's what I hope to bring and I hope people um keep the call and and say hey we we cannot accept politicians who aren't going to

live by at least a minimum standard of ethics yeah in decency um so back on the issues I mean

Trump ran on the the promise basically that he would get cost down and get inflation under control

that was kind of like the core promise of his campaign uh instead gas prices are up they've been up for a while tariffs or making things more expensive and then I know in Ohio you got people leaving the stakes they can't find good jobs um Trump won your district by 11 points in 2024 I think have you been able to talk to some of those Trump voters and and do you find them receptive to the argument that maybe they made a mistake by voting for him and the Trump has made things

work and that you know they might be open to swoop voted for a Democrat this time um to kind of correct that yeah I'm not I'm not afraid to talk to anybody um you know I've talked to people who voted for Trump in the past people who voted for Biden and everybody in between um you know not afraid to have those conversations uh you know it to me it's not it's not about a Republican the Democrat issue it's worker the worker issue and and Trump was able to to capture the attention

of the worker you know this district is there's a very strong working class district um it's it's a journey manner district but the one thing that you nice the whole district is the fact that everyone works hard for a living and um you know Trump captured that message he said uh he's going to bring back manufacturing he's going to usher in a golden age for workers and what we got was a golden shower instead you know people are working harder and harder we're getting less

right when he ran for uh send in 2018 and it's because he shared round is always run on the

message of fighting for workers now his record fighting for workers backs it it's backed up by real results you know um me as a member of iron workers level 17 uh the legislation he brought forward actually saved our pension from from default and and so along with the teamsters and um so many other things that he fought for actually came uh to bring real value to workers lives in Ohio and uh and

“and and that's what I'm running on I'm running because working families haven't realized that golden”

age and and um you know law street law streets doing great um the billionaires are doing great corporations are doing great but when does it trickle down to the rest of us when when do I get value for the labor that I'm putting in and I'm putting in more and more and more value and that's what everybody across the district asks and that's what I'm hearing at the doors um you know people working like again two or three or four jobs in a household just to make ends meet and um people are

fed up on it yeah and said that uh that golden showers trickling down just forever um uh you you've argued that uh I saw you in an interview talking about why democrats have struggled so much with um mail voters winning over men um you argue that culture and not policy is kind of at the route that can you expand on that and explain what you're thinking about yeah well like I mean the

Democratic Party has always stood up for workers but over the past few cycles especially uh that

that message of fighting for working families kind of got put on the back burner and um you know it was almost like uh they were more um you know the Democratic Party's a big tent right we have a lot of different ideals and um and perspectives which is good that's I think the more people we bring in um to the fold more ideas get we can find the right idea but well I think they were highlighting some of the issues that were kind of more fringe and more um you know important issues that

need to be discussed but uh shouldn't be the forefront core of the message the forefront core of the message should be the most uh expansive and one that includes the most people um and I think you know I think workers issues um you know that covers everybody you know I don't care if uh what lifestyle

“you live you have to work for a limit and that work should have value that should be our core message”

and if people and the the way I see it people are making um progress in their personal lives

then they have the resources and energy they can use to fight for some of those other more uh more fringe issues. You mentioned earlier in the interview and you've talked about it in the past sort of having uh what you call the rough and rowdy upbringing some brushes with the law uh when you were younger and you're early 20s what what what happened and like what do you think what did that experience teach you that has been valuable in later life? Yeah I grew up on the

west side of Cleveland it was a pretty rough neighborhood um so you know I mean it was nothing for a couple dudes uh getting a scrap at a basketball game or uh somebody driving on the street looking at your own the half out of the car and next you know you're throwing down it's it was a um it was a unique situation growing up um and then you know grow going into adulthood that was my environment I brought that into adulthood I learned quickly that uh that was the way um you know and I

had some I had some running into the law I made mistakes um I owned the mistakes I didn't blame somebody else or sue somebody in the silence over it um and then I I paid my price for it and I moved on and learned from it and you know I want to point out that this was very early in my adulthood you know from 18 to 22 years old um but uh and then I had then I had a child and that kind of changed everything no longer was I the rough and rowdy guy just worried about me and myself um

I had to worry about a family and I had to worry about you know building a life for my daughter and then I had another daughter and um come full circle the past five years as an iron worker I've been able to teach uh the new iron workers coming in and you know find those rough and rowdy iron workers that were kind of like me when I was that age kind of helped them develop their skills as an iron worker but also make good decisions so they weren't getting um you know having the

issues that I had when I was younger. Yeah well listen if you didn't want to beat up a stealer's fan at uh at a game and you're early 20s like where are you even a fan? I mean look I'm as a patriots fan we've all been there you know was it a yinser yeah because you know they're they're tough I wouldn't fuck around with those guys I'm not proud of it let's just say I've been I've made some mistakes you know now when I now when I go to a game I just watched the game and my mom this

“yeah no I trust me too I remember being at my first ever Red Sox game when I was like a kid”

and there was a huge rumble in the outfield right next to us and I was like you know 12 or 13 and it looked like Hulk Hogan was getting the fight with some other massive dude and I was like

don't Google uh 10 cent beer night yes you'll you'll you'll see what uh what I grow yeah

yeah it's like it's wild in Cleveland uh speaking of Cleveland who the Brown's gonna start to quarterback this year is gonna be Dishon, Shador maybe bring Joe Flacco back what he thinking I don't I don't know what what they're gonna decide um if it were me how we're making that decision

“I would keep developing Shador I think uh I think he's got a bright future if he gets the reps”

I think I think it gives our offense a little bit more fluidities as he you know played a little last year um but time will tell I'm not very hopeful for the season but I come on to shock me come on normally normally I'm normally I'm like this is our year super well but I don't I don't I don't have that film in here you guys have Tampa week two you got to see Baker Mayfield come out of that tunnel on the other side that's got to be like seeing an x

who you know lost a bunch of weight got a tan looking great you know made a lot of money somehow

that's that's rough yeah I I worse Baker would have never went anywhere personally but uh

but you know I understand the business of the NFL um I'm proud that Baker Mayfield is doing well um but I really just hope our Browns do well and be Baker Mayfield and we too this this time next year do you think you know maybe we got Baker back on the team or we talking about uh developing

“arch manning how is this gonna go man this is a tougher interview if you're asking me to like”

I got to solve the uh district seven problems and uh end of Browns problem coming up yeah well of hurt here yeah you're qualified me GM uh last question so we talked about earlier I mean this the Browns are about to move to a new stadium with a dome um does that make you sad at all you lose those like late season kind of late year you snow games you know I I've been to a lot of snow games like um the last great one was uh what was it like not last year the year before last

against Pittsburgh we beat them uh it was a blizzard it was a Thursday night game great time but like no I'm I'm all about the stadium you know one it's in Brook Park I'm a city councilman in Brook Park so to bring the Browns in Brook Park is is huge for our area um I'm an iron worker so building stadiums and buildings is kind of my thing but really what I like about the dome more than the open lakefront stadium is uh is like that lifelong fan who's like you know maybe 60s or 70s can't

sit out and the cold anymore um they'll be comfortable the whole game or that uh that young

family bring in their um they're son or daughter for their first game you know I've take I took my

daughter down on the lake and I remember good games that they wanted to leave you know

“hard way through the second quarter because they're freezing their cold in this rainy so I think”

it'll be good it'll keep people in the stadium even when uh the Browns are you know two and thirteen or whatever it'll keep them in the seats and uh keep you know keep uh you know somebody looks still want to go because it's a more comfortable experience and and you know let's keep a mind to fantasy football is kind of a real thing and uh I hate when my receiver goes up and they uh an ice ball game and now he he gets me three points yep yeah no I get that listen I went to the

Patriots uh Broncos game in Denver last year that like snow wiped out game and it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in terms of a sports fan but it was so cold and it's like a lot of layers to uh to keep us there and I and I get you know once you guys have a dome maybe you get the uh super bowl Cleveland you do so all sorts of year-round uh opportunities for vents and shit like that that's big economically uh Brian point doctor thanks for coming to join in the show

work and folks find your campaign and uh and help out if they want yeah um thanks for having me uh people can go to pointxterforcongress.com you can hear a little bit about my backstory you can watch our videos and really uh get a sense who I am um I'm really just the guy next door who decided that I'm tired of watching my community have such a hard time and uh I'm gonna run and fight hard for working families was it we appreciate you joining and everyone check out the campaign and we'll talk to you

soon thank you thank you very much for having me and I'll be great to be here that's our show for today thanks to Brian pointxter for coming on Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday 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 de Groat, Ben Hethcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Carol Pelevi, David tolls,

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