The Race to Replace Graham Platner

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John is off this week on today's show. Graham Plattener's is Spencer's campaign against Susan Collins, and now there's a very crowded, very chaotic race to succeed him. The war in Iran appears to be starting back up again. Even though Donald Trump is confused about the name of the country, he's attacking.

That's a real thing. Then, former North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, talks to me about the campaign for Senate Alex. Thanks for being here today and replacing John. Oh, it's a pleasure.

Although, I mean, we all miss John. Whenever he's away, crazy shit happens. Stan, it's true. He spends his vacations in the middle of online fiasco's. Let's see if they're here or they're okay.

Let's start with the Plattener news. Two long days after a political broke the story that Plattener had allegedly raped a former girlfriend. Plattener posted in an 11-minute video on Wednesday evenings. He would file the formal paperwork to withdraw his name from the ballot, but also sharing a lot of other thoughts too.

Let's take a listen. I think as many of you know, over the past couple days, I have faced some very serious allegations and I just want to make it clear. This is all false.

“I think it's really important to understand why this is happening in the timeline.”

Why this is happening right now? I only haven't told July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot. And that's why this is occurring. It's not the false allegations though that have brought us to where we are.

It's the fact that they're being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us. What comes next needs to come from the people. I'm not trying to dictate to anyone who it should be or how we get there, but I will say this, it needs to be open, transparent, and democratic.

As of this recording on Thursday afternoon, Planner has not actually filed the paperwork. She has his name removed. The deadline is 5 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, but there is reporting that he will wait until the event to do it.

Alex, what are your thoughts on his decision to drop out in the message in that video? Ashole, asshole, asshole. Those are my thoughts. First of all, nobody needed to hear Graham Platner uncensored for 12 minutes, and the conceit in that video is preposterous. That I guess we're meant to believe that a rape victim is a crisis actor,

and that crisis acting as being used by the Democratic establishment to get Graham Platner out of the race.

Never minding that Platner's exit from the race greatly complicates the race,

and potentially throws it further into jeopardy. There's no mention, thankfully, did not play the whole video, but he never mentions any of the women who came forward on the record, talking about violence and aggression, if not outright assault and rape, he never mentions and pushes back on any of those things. He just says this is all part of a deep state plot.

“It's totally outrageous, but maybe the most egregious part of it, I think,”

is the fact that he suggests the system is hopelessly flawed and corrupted, and that a machine politics would not abide an insurgent grassroots campaign. The mission of the establishment right now is to quash real reform and real accountability,

and I'm sure there's every reason for Graham Platner to have some of those,

“and for some of his supporters too, but right now, if the goal really is to oust Susan Collins,”

Graham Platner needs to make people, he does not need to further disillusion his supporters. He does not need to spin paranoid conspiracy theories. He does not need anybody in democratic politics and main to feel like this system is entirely rigged against them. He needs people to believe that there can be a good outcome. He needs to put whatever moment he has left into the next candidate, and he's done exactly the opposite.

I mean, I just think it's completely unconscionable. This is the way this guy is exiting the race. I, my take on this is the subject line of your excellent newsletter, uh, subject newsletter, how, how the hell, which is fuck Graham Platner. Like this, I agree with everything you said, what is so infuriating about this is, if he truly cared about getting people health care, about stopping a genocide, about making the

economic and political system more fair in this country, that none of those things can happen if we do not be Susan Collins. Exactly. And by going down this path of conspiracy theories to disassociate to dissolution of supporters, he is making that less likely. He's making it harder to accomplish things he did. This video is Trumpian in its nature. It is conspiracy theories. It's denial. It's making it entirely about himself.

You know, throughout this video, he talks about how the movement they built and how, whatever the process is that the main democratic party comes over, they must be true to that movement.

Now, it is impressive for a first time political candidate to beat the two-term

governor of the state and beat the DSEC and Chuck Sherman all that. That is an impressive thing. But like just don't crawl so far, piranhas. You've got 150,000 votes in main. Right. This is not the Robert Kennedy 1968 campaign. This is not the Obama 2008 campaign. It is the smart thing for the party to do to have a process that brings in the people who support a grand planner because we do obviously need them to win. But this whole thing that this was some

magical messianic thing that he put together, he himself and he only he put together and it must pay respect to what he did. It's just fucking ridiculous. It's counterproductive. Just go away.

“It's the best thing he can do for the things he claims he cares about. Of course, he's waiting”

till Monday. It's like, first of all, time is of the essence. It's like paraphrasing the bear

every second counts. And this asshole is waiting till Monday, just 'cause, give me a fucking break. Secondly, to what end? To what why? File the paperwork. Be done. We need to move everybody needs to move on. I say this and my newsletter and I genuinely believe it. Let Dan, we have a long history here. But let this be the last conversation we have to have about grand planner because the focus needs to be on Susan Collins. And we're going to get Susan Collins after we finish

their next 15 minutes talking. We are, well, no, I think, well, because I will say, and I've said this before and I'm sure you agree with me on this. I'm sure. There needs to be at some point a real, um, I don't want to use proctology as the word, but like a real examination, a soul searching about, um, the lessons learned here. Oh, we're going to, we're going to do that today on this podcast in just a moment.

Bless you. I'm getting ahead of myself. Oh, yes. But let's, before we get to that, because I do, I do want to have a conversation about how we got to this moment. And I want to talk a little bit about where you were right and I was wrong and why that was, which we will get to my promise. But

I want to talk a little bit first about what happens next. Um, I previewed some of this on polar

coaster. My show for Friends of the Pod subscribers. If you're going to subscribe or yet, I really

“don't know what you're doing with your life. And maybe you should visit cricket.com/friends who”

change that. Um, but any him. I'm a believer provided that podner does formally drop out. The main Democratic party has until July 27th to replace them. They said the whole the convention that picked a new nominee. And we'll make all the details public soon. Although there's been a lot of reporting on what it is and they claim that transparency will be of the utmost importance. What do you make of the convention idea? Is there a better one or is there a way not to make this process so messy?

Yeah, when you get like you have, listen, I'm the last one to have a better idea. But I would like to see, I mean, there's been talk about town halls and debates. I mean, I think there has to be some before these delegates make the call. If it is in fact the leadership of the state party that is going to decide who the nominee is. One would hope there would be some concession to both, you know, those delegates and the public in the sort of the notion of choice by having a full or full-ish

needs to be some difference to, you know, helping educate the public and the delegates about who

these people are. I've done a glancing search on the internet, but that's not sufficient. And they haven't had to talk about their positions in a full-some way. So I think that, you know, their meat, I would love to see some kind of public format where they're, whether it's debate, town hall, whatever that's moderated and that's a, you know, official feeling beyond just interviews with the press and podcast appearances. Yes. And so the way that we think this is going to happen is

it would be this convention. And I think would sort of model what would be like a broker to convention at a national party convention in an election year. And there would be, I think it's upwards of 500 delegates. The 16, I believe counties in Maine, county parties would elect delegates.

“Uh, I think it's over 600 delegates. That's what I don't know, like it's, um, from the 16 counties.”

And they will. So this is going to be party insiders under all circumstances. And like I, there's just no way for actual, you can't hold an election in this time period. So it's going to be this, this is probably, this is going to be messy for sure. Um, there's going to be, you know,

candidates are going to try to, we'll talk about who the cancer and second, but they're going to

try to influence who the delegates are in all these places. Um, they're going to put up slates. It's good. It's going to be messy. Now this is probably the best process if you want to involve as many people as possible and have the most transparency, because the other alternative is the state party committee just votes. Um, and you know, this is that this is, you know, we're in a weird bizarre version of 2024 where we're losing a nominee very close to an election, um, about the same number of

days actually. And, um, instead of what happened in 2024, we're just one candidate all the Americans who comes to an nominee, we're going to have a process of some kind and these people are going to compete and maybe one of them will come and stand out and hopefully at the end of this process, we're going to come together. So there's, there are no getting answers here. I guess

“is my point. But you know what, I'm looking forward to the mess. I think everybody's hungry for”

some sense that there's a real choice and their real races. And this is not a foregone conclusion on the part of party elders. And it's not a fedacum plea. And main is pretty, I mean, like, from my podcast runaway country, we interviewed one of the people Dan Kleben, who's, and we're going to talk about this, uh, one of the potential replacements for platinum. And there is so much frustration at the idea that Washington and Chuck Schumer and outsiders and elders

no better and have involved themselves in this race. There's real desire to have some openness in all of this come what may. Yep. So, um, as for who might run, tensile candidates started testing the waters, even before a platinum city was leaving the race. Here's a small sample of how they're pitching themselves. So I'm the only candidate that's demonstrated that I can win statewide with conservative Republicans and, you know, urban young people that are

“much more liberal. Main deserves a fighter in this seat. And I will be that fighter. I will fight”

for Medicare for all because in the wealthiest country on earth, nobody should ever go bankrupt over a medical bill. I own a small business here in Maine, uh, my Korean built it from the ground up out of my garage, you know, employ over a hundred mayors, pay a living wage, provide a hundred percent of their health insurance coverage. I mean, I'm an outsider. I'm not an elected,

I'm not a queer politician. I've never held a elected office. That was former main Senate

president Troy Jackson. The state's former top health official, Nirov Shah and Brewery under Dan Cleveland on your podcast, Alex, run away country. Indeed. They've all said they will run. So, if secretary of state, Chen and Bellows, former congressional candidate and political operative Jordan Wood, former platinum staff for congressional candidate, page loud, for her Senate candidate, David Castello, state rep Valley Geiger is considering running too,

although she hasn't officially said so. It's a lot of people. Do you find anyone compelling in this crowd? What do you make of them? I mean, I listen. I talked to Dan Cleveland, who is the bar owner, the brewery owner, nothing goes together like oysters in beer. Um, and he was going to run. Last, he has an interesting backstory. And so far as he was going to run in last July and was told not to by the DSCC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is, of course, under the

ages of the purview of Chuck Schumer. And is an example of just how fucked this process has been since inception, right? Um, and later dropped out of the race and endorsed what he entered the race, but platinum had sort of won the hearts and minds of a lot of manners at that point. He subsequently endorsed the governor, Janet Mills, and then dropped out of the race. He's compelling as kind of a sort of surrogate for the every-man working-class mainer that platinum represented even if some

of his biography was a bit hazy around the edges, as far as his working-class bonafetace. Troy Jackson sounds like his person that most, you know, he's gotten an endorsement from Rokana, who was a key

wager from Alligash, which is like, blessed main in all their outdoorsiness, brewers, and oystermen,

and lagers, it's a former president of the main Senate. He has some experience. He says, you know, I think he has the progressive bonafetace that people are looking for. I got a stop saying the word bonafetace. Um, Narav Shah is a really interesting one. He was acting, I think, director of the CDC for a minute as well, which makes me a little worried given that the CDC has become very politicized and, you know, a former CDC director and someone who is going to be asked about COVID,

it's just like, I am not a COVID, a vaccine denier or a COVID skeptic, but it's extra baggage in these insane and tumultuous times. I don't know what do you think? I am all attached. I don't

“have opinions on me, Senate candidates. Like, I, the truth is, I don't know any of these people”

well enough to know who would be a candidate, sad thing is we're not really going to know when it comes comes time to pick the person. This is a very abbreviated process. I hope there is someone in Democratic politics who was investing more than these $6,000 that the Yahoo's your recruited Graham Platner used to vet him and to do full vets on all of these people so that everyone knows everything you possibly can know because whoever this person is

man or massive scrutiny because if like one of the tests will be like normally our main Senate candidate does something not obviously what Graham Platner's been accused of here but, you know, had some bad online, you know, in a different world, the different race, some bad online posts or something else would be like a little speed bump in this race with this level of scrutiny after what happened with Platner will be giant news. You're going to make sure whoever we pick

can withstand that scrutiny that's I guess that's sort of the main thing yeah can we snow big deal great time to do vetting town halls convention no problem but thank God Graham Platner's waiting until Monday to drop out yeah yeah so because we definitely couldn't use the next in 72 hours or so it's fitting you big you're here for this episode because as many of our listeners know every time there's been big Graham Platner news or main news it's just been a coincidence you and I

have been on mic together either on positive America yeah on your podcasts on YouTube um at one point Dan we we talked about doing just a main Senate podcast positive main yeah we will not be doing that now yes positive the main why if there's still a Senate race going out okay I'm just kidding

“we don't need to do that but that's how in the foxhole we've been yes we've talked about”

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more recent stuff you were a partner skeptic and i will say here the you were right and i was wrong i don't want to be right man i didn't know i just is not about me being right new being wrong i mean it was i even right i don't even know what the means i just well you were right to be skeptical of grandpa i was got yes i was skeptical yes i would you like to take a victory lap i don't want to take a victory lap this is not a good moment for i mean first of all

it's not a good moment uh for grand planner it's not a good moment for the women that he allegedly

“tormented and assaulted it's not a good moment for the democrat apartheid because i think”

we're at real crossroads here in terms of how the democratic party manages candidate recruitment and what it means to answer the toxic masculinity of maga and it's not a good moment because the focus has been taken off of Susan Collins and um so it's hard to take a victory lap i mean i hope out of this there's a little bit i the thing about grandma i was not like some sage

and like saw into the future or anything but i was always just the bro glow was a little bit

i didn't get it i didn't like the way i was never a janit mill's supporter but i didn't like people similarly dismissed her and i felt like i disemailed dismissed her yes and that's not to say that she should be the nominee but um i feel like there's like a late there was always like a late and misogyny around it and i felt like you know in the retrospect and maybe this is just hindsight's 2020 or whatever but there are a lot of women in a lot of places who were like never

really that on board and kind of felt a little bit sheepish saying i don't know about that guy he seems kind of like an asshole i mean i got into fights with plattener supporters you know where the context of the conversation was he has talent he might be able to get the job done but he seems like a dick and there was a real and and like the dickishness may not just be a sort of side effective ambition but maybe like a more complicated and potentially serious character flaw

“and as it turns out i think that's what it was this is someone who's completely self-absorbed to the”

point of maybe almost like a certain psychosis based on that exit video and certainly has some demons he really needs to wrestle with yeah you know i i when i say similarly dismissed mills let me

say what my actual proposition was because this is or how you and i first have this conversation was

i genn mills gets in the race uh the DSCC endorses her five minutes later check humor endorses her and we we know what the time the DSCC has been trying to clear the fields for genn mills telling people like hand-upingry and these other candidates in main to run for governor not run for senate because genn mills is going to be is the chosen candidate of the Democratic establishment my view at the time was that i thought that was a big mistake for the DSCC that if the

DSCC is going to get involved in a primary they better be 100% certain that they have the best candidate and i didn't think you could look at what happened with Susan Collins in 2020 what happened in the country in 2024 into clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that a 79 year old unpopular two-term governor was our best bet i was a human's grim partner was a better bet but i thought the voters of main should pick it up we now i was intrigued by platinum for sure i'm not gonna pick

that i can dispute that like i've been thinking a lot because i was wrong here i don't like being wrong happens a lot but i believe i've really tried to think about like where like where i aired

in this when there are a couple places and i'll then i saw i'll say what those were the first is

if i had a bias or you can even say a blind spot in politics it's for outsider candidates who did not grow up their entire life wanting to be in office yeah like that's why i like brock abama over hillington that's why i like i would really loved better work when he was running for senate and was intrigued by its potentials presidential candidate it's why i supported melancholy moro in the Michigan senate race this cycle like that that's

“like that it that's what gets me most interested are candidates like that i think they have”

the potential to be the best candidates and they can make the best leaders because they're just like more they've lived a normal life they're more human they talk more like a human and they're less risk of earth you know the the people who spent their whole lives deciding like what

or not in all of them took lives yes and i think that makes you a better candidate absolutely does now that will blow up in your face a bunch because those are those kinets are by definition

“higher risk they have higher ceilings and lower floors and and like and so that's why i was”

intrigued by plight like i thought debates who's in college you needed a higher higher variance candidates someone who could do something different than that's very good indeed or all of the people came before and i was not convinced that genit mills could do that and i do believe that that was actually the right call not that platter was the right person obviously he was not with the genit mills was the wrong candidate and we see that now that's born out of pulling

that we have even now and you know and so and then the second the thing that you know

that i feel on that at myself about is you know as we went through this process when you when i had first of this conversation there we knew nothing about plan and then we saw the online posts and we know the things he said were horrible and i thought there's a real chance that could be disqualifying both in the primary and the general um to to voters right but i did believe naively apparently the story he told about being a person who was dealing with

PTSD that dark time of the life in drinking and did a bunch of things and then then change their life improved and i do believe that we should have leave space for people who make mistakes to

“still be in politics of course i think redemption and empathy are like things we need to”

cultivate as a society beyond politics and i believe that and i believes and i actually still believe

this the story he told about how he got the tattoo was true now what i've come to like i do not believe that he knew it was not the tattoo and i still don't believe he was a secret Nazi for all the river and then i think yeah i'm with Tim Miller on this though i think he got it then figured out what it was and then kind of used it as a like you know cocktail point i think he wanted to i think he wanted to know that before yes i think he lied about when he

discovered it was Nazi tattoo that that i have come to believe but i don't there's this is a guy who was not shy about sharing his opinions online so i feel like if he really was a Nazi we would know that now you could say that the Nazi tattoo one of the people say is anyone who gets a Nazi tattoo for whatever reasons has bad judgment and that may be but a lot of people in their 20s whether only from war and drunk have bad judgment and should i mean you have you have a Celtic band

around your foreset right i have i have no tattoos i have a bad bunch of back tattoos the bunch butterflies that i regret now but not the shamrock on my ankle i love not Nazi butterflies cracked no i actually have no back tattoos just look at i don't know not that they're all in a few targets i don't have a toe ring any though uh with the other thing i regret and this is the where i really started to get very worried about grandpa and her was

the when the story came out in may about him sexting other women well married and it's not that people can't make mistakes in their marriage instead run for office that happens all the time it was that that happens so recently that it really brought into question the redemption story that i had naively believed from him right it's one thing to make mistakes that a different part of your life and then hit this or he told with he he made a bunch of mistakes he changed his

life he started working he got into politics but that wasn't the story that wasn't the reality um but even then as like his wife said they worked through with counseling we all followed their fertility journey to get like it's just seemed like it would put it behind them but it really made me wonder like what the next thing was right and and then he lied to everybody and then he lied to everybody but the thing when i look back on all of that is uh don't believe

a liar is a really like this not helpful advice because how do you you don't know someone's liar until

“you find out later what i think i should have paid more attention to was that back in March”

you and i did a political experts react um where we were looking at ads that were running in that

race has include the first negative ad that Janet Mills launched against platinum which had a bunch

of women uh reading like reacting to the things that um platinum had posted and the one that were there and you made this point to me um and it really was as big in my head for the last few weeks here is like but what he said about minimizing rape and that sort of inherent misogyny should have been a much bigger flag like that is a sign of something else um now that i like i wish i had i wish i'd paid more attention to that in this discussion yeah and that that was

separate and apart from some of the other things that he said there were just stupid in offensive that was dangerous in offensive that just for i'm gonna paraphrase it a little bit but that was the reddit post where he said people should take some responsibility not get so fucked up that they end up having sex with someone they don't mean to

genuinely don't know what i think about this because we talk a lot about Schumer and obviously

“this was just a totally faccocta situation where the DSECs intervening to great the detriment”

of the race but like Chuck Schumer's also picking candidates in a lot of other swing states and in the putting the the heft of the DSEC behind people like Mary Peltola and Roy Cooper and shared brown and people who are good candidates for those races and maybe they would have gotten their regardless of Schumer's involvement but like are we folk and i genuinely don't have an answer to this are we focused on this because he just did such a colossally bad fucking job picking the

candidate in this race i what he did in Alaska North Carolina in Ohio was he recruit candidates who included clear the field themselves they were candidates so good so well known so universally believed to be the best candidate that no one running against him so it wasn't like there were a bunch of other people running that genie males was not a candidate she was a jino say we even want to run that yeah that's the other thing right and and also main is to stay with lots of democrats

Alaska there's only one the recruitment list for Alaska was Mary Peltola there was no one else right it was Peltola or bust Ohio it was shared brown and there was a long gap between one and two on that list North Carolina got a few more democrats who could have run but we're Cooper was far at the top of that so once you got those was it it's where I didn't like what they did in Michigan backing hilly Stevens there's Texas element of all this as well they could end up

not working out for you who knows yeah i my general view is structuring with the DSEC where the DSEC you have all should recruit candidates they should if they think something's the best direction what's going on try to convince them to do it they should do that when there was an act of primary going on and then they put their thumb on the scale and they take that choice away from the voters now when i first wrote this and was first upset about it it's because the

DSEC backhanded always won the primary politics has changed so much in the last two years that

that's actually become an albatross around people's necks as opposed to like this huge asset but at the time it was you're the DSEC you could pick the candidate and take the essentially take the HSC away from the voter which is what they were trying to do in May that did not work in May and so you know that it's like it's not that the DSEC and trimmer wrong never instance is just they were wrong in this one yeah well on the dynamics of it are particular and

the outcome could have been meaningfully different if Chuck Schumer hadn't tried to clear the

“field and do what he did and in fact I think in some ways elevate platinum and of course of all”

that right he became a poster child for defiance and grassroots activism and you know saying fuck you to politics as usual so at the same thing happened in Michigan where by putting the thumb on the scale for Haley Stevens he elevated at dual and then one of the worst things it happened about malice moral was a report I think in political or somewhere else it said Schumer would be fine with either Haley or malery so all the sudden Abdul got to go out and say all the time

I'm the only candidate that Chuck Schumer opposes in this race and continues I mean contingency so do you like yesterday the thing I've been struggling with this conversation I know this has been a what's there's not been a fun time online for a podcast associated with grand platinum speak for yourself I mean as you think should I have you moment but is I mean fun it has a good fun I've tried to struggle with what like the broader lesson is here because it shouldn't

be that outsider candidates are bad but they can't or they're speaking so broadly like this guy you didn't have to know that he was a dick from the beginning but once the Reddit posts started coming out like right I'm a four redemption but there were a lot of data points yeah you know that that I mean

“that that is that is the that is that is the true but but I think what I'm saying like for example”

there was this Biden aid who's on CNN today who is saying basically taking plan or comparing

him to Abdul al-Said and saying like also unvetted same consultants and let's just observe because Abdul has run for governor and has been like government official in Michigan for a while so that's an absurd comparison but is this idea that people who are outsiders or first time candidates are risk inherently risky because they haven't been tested they've been vetted by the system right that's right nobody should take a broad lesson about outsiders from the Platner

yes because he were two other people who have had huge sexual and misconduct sexual assault problems who are the insider candidates of Eric Swallow and Andrew Cuomo right there's nothing there's nothing about being a creep that is exclusive to first time yeah it's also true

it all means like one story that people can tell then it's not an incorrect story

is that a bunch of podcast bros and democratic strategies and other dumb men online fell for the stick of this narcissist right and that it was true that a lot of women and a lot of women in my life that I regret not listening to like you and Sarah Longwell and other people who have raised these flags you know and this was like dumb men and much more safer women and

“they're in the loudest voices I think criticizing Platner particularly nationally were women”

but then you look in Maine and Platner beat Mills was beating Mills by like 15 points among women a majority of that 150,000 votes was women and so I just you know just reading Rebecca Tracer's very insightful piece and thoughtful piece about her supportive grant planner well Michelle Goldberg has one as well can I say something well to your point about the podcast bros and other guys I think

and I feel like I always sound like you know Brown University professor when I say this there's

a real crisis right now in terms of how the left response to magas style masculinity and like what it means to be tough and a warrior but also progressive and a populist and like what is that special alchemy and like we got the the the the left needs to build that person they need someone who can who can be the antidote to all the the just utterly toxic garbage male sort of the masculinity that is being showcased on the right which is ultra retrograde misogynist and bad for the country

set of setting aside bad for women and like Platner was a unicorn in that way he felt like okay here's someone who's legitimately a progressive and he's a man's man and all this and that was I think intoxicating to a group of men in particular who are looking for that answer and it may be a latent desire it may be an explicit desire but I do think as a dude in the world who's a progressive it's a weird complicated time which doesn't mean we should overly focus on men I get it but it is

a problem I mean I have two boys like there is a dirt of real kind of like there's there's no

“playbook for how to be a guy in this moment and I think if you're in the world of politics and”

you're in media you're kind of trying to you're bouncing between archetypes and you're trying to figure out like okay what's the way to be what should be be supporting and championing and and Platner was very attractive in that way and I I think that's part of the reason he took off at

least in the online media space in a way that I mean Nimment Mills never was going to but even

other guys in American politics haven't I mean he was just incredibly compelling in that way I mean he was he was an excellent communicator if you listen to like his interviews like me to the New York Times podcast like he the interview he did with our friend Ben Rhodes about post 9/11 wars like he like I mean he was interesting and thoughtful and obviously like how he looked and how he sounded you know affected that but it just was all bullshit is the problem

“right yeah no he's a pig yeah yeah that's but that's and that's what's so devastating is like”

oh what turns out actually like that that brand of machismo is totally corrupted which is or or this his particular his this particular vehicle like there was something Platner was offering both in Maine and nationally that was compelling to a lot of people yeah the problem was that that the person who was offering that was Grand Platner right and so like how do you like it's like we have to spend some time and we we're not going to do it here we can't do it here over time

just figuring out like what was it I don't want to overstate how important this was once again it's 150,000 fucking people in Maine this is not you know here this is not right but I mean this was someone who's his advisor said that he could run for president in 2020 it wasn't gonna end in Maine yes but every I've been around a lot of sending candidates consultant sellers every five person because they all want them to because it's very much an every and every consultant's interest

everyone wants to be David Axelrod James Carval you know Carl Rove and so they're looking for those people all the time it doesn't mean they actually would but he was a financial phenomenon he broke out in a way that like I mean this is a bad example but in a way that you know Stacey this is a good example Stacey Abrams did even though she didn't win way the better broke out and so it's like yeah they're like there was something there and it's like what was that and how do you

set try to figure out what that is it's separate from the very damaged very fucked up person the pig as you said it is okay enough a grand planner how much damage do you like how fuck do we in Maine after all of this do we like what kind of shot do you think we have against Susan Collins now I think and I I mean I think my advice would be say the words Susan Collins

but she is going to be a challenge you don't need to go to the numbers we've talked about them a lot but she overperforms or she has in most elections she's been in recently this is the first one she's gonna have to face voters since row fell so and I think that that's legit in a state

“that's what 60% of the electorate is female you know hopefully people remember the fact that she”

built the Supreme Court that overturned row she was the critical vote in the Kavanaugh

confirmation and fancies herself a moderate which is complete worship I don't know Dan I mean I think that the fact that I take it as a positive sign in a way that Maine voters are so desperate or they're so fired up about getting Susan Collins out that they were willing to overlook the initial phase of grand planners very serious transgressions I mean that's I guess the silver lining right but you know the party's got to manage this process in a way that doesn't

further disillusion democratic voters grand planner needs to shut the fuck up and the focus really needs to return like a laser to Susan Collins I think if we can now this is maybe being less helpful if we can pick the right person and the right person might just be someone named generic democrat with no tattoos and who's there but he doesn't know where how to get to read it we are in a better place than we would have been with either grand planner pre even let's say that

this accusation never happened we're a grand planner would have been just everything we knew up

until two days ago that we have tension for this new person to be stronger than that and stronger than Janet Mills would have been because even be like in that during time Santa Paul from two weeks ago after all the sexting stuff that all this came out grandpa and we're still more popular than Janet Mills yeah yeah yeah and so we have a chance here and now this is a state where using the same New York Times poll democrats leave the generic ballot by 11 points they want the

“Senate to be in democratic cans by 11 points I believe 11 or 12 points so there are like”

there and this is a this more democratic in 2020 a lot of people who profile as democratic voters

moved to main particularly to the Portland area starting around covid so it's been it's actually

a state that is grown from in migration so we should still be able to win the race it's going to be really fucking hard Collins is going to have so much money she said to spend almost none of it there's going to be a gazillion dollars big word chest and and and pack money but I do think there's a chance we can make this all like every this is the what I was saying this is my unsolicited advice to the partner people two weeks ago which was like all this Epstein island you know reordering politics

populism stuff is like all the matters is that Susan Collins no matter what else you feel about a vote for her is a vote to let Donald Trump control the Senate can pick supreme court dresses that's it that doesn't matter how you feel about her doesn't matter if you like to personally doesn't matter if she got money for the iron bath works or whatever else she is a vote for

“her is a vote for Donald Trump pick two more supreme court dresses full stop just like that's what”

that's what that that's what people care about that's what's about don't let me know anything else don't ever come back in the fucking simple so I think I do believe we can still win this it'll be totally great and I had interviewed Adam Gentles in a former deputy chief of staff to Harry Reid and chief of staff John Fetterman in the podcast and he he is aligned with you that this makes the the Democrats chances are better now than they were we could go when platinum is still in the race

before the political reporting so there's that there's that that was like a therapy session Dan I I have had a lot to say for a few days here so I'm glad I feel very honored that you wanted to share those things with me I'm actually if John was not on vacation I would have suggested that we swap a knot for you I feel better doing this with you well thanks I mean we've been we've gone on a long road to yeah we've been on we've been on a long strange journey yeah we have

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unity dot com slash crooked all right now let's turn to a new story of interest to just slightly more people than the main center race and work with Iran which seems to be close to restarting

any minute now ships transit in the straightaway moves started coming under fire again earlier this

week on Tuesday the US military responded by hitting targets in Iran and re-imposing sanctions on Iranian oil Iran responds to that with shots of American installations in the least we responded to that with more strikes and so on and so on it's all a giant mess in getting worse by the hour the good news is the Donald Trump seems to have a very good handle on all of this here he is at this week's NATO summit in Turkey the sea fire over it's it's the sea fire done

“is the MOU dead it's an interesting question to me I think it's over I don't want to do with”

any of this company at 1111 missile shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan the Islamic Republic of Japan that's a headline story I didn't even know I mean not only not only has it become it become Islamic they're also at war with the United States right now so so much happened while I was doing so we deep in main politics we missed a lot of stuff around the world so I'm sure Tommy and Ben covered this yeah well thank god thank god we

have them on on watch yes thanks to him to go on well in the least hot totally the line out of the White House is according to Axios I think today we're going to slap around around a bit so they understand we're not fucking around that's that's the that's the strategy here they are saying that this on next stage of war could be weeks could be months but the essence of this Dan is that Iran is not happy about the way things are going the straight-of-war moves

and they want to reclaim control of it and that is an unresolved dispute that is going to continue to fuck the global economy and could make it life incredibly painful for Republicans heading into the midterms and so I mean the idea that anything was resolved by a page and a half docu-sign however many weeks ago that was is a joke as is this administration's foreign policy I am I am not surprised that we are here I also am unclear as to how any of this

resolves itself given the utterly we are at loggerheads with the Iranians over the straight they want ships to pass through on their side of the straight and register with the wait for it or moves transit authority can someone give me an HTA hat

“and instead the US is like because that's how they're going to that's how they're going to”

tax people or told people or companies as they go through the straight and the US is like you know go the southern route don't register with the HTA use the the side of the of the straight where Oman rules the water if you will that's not going over well with the Iranians and now we're back at war because the the fundamental issue at the heart of this is nowhere close

because section five of the ceasefire agreement that I would say Trump signed it Versailles

“is poorly written and is led to a lot of confusion about what a written control the street”

actually means because it was a page and a half because it's a joke because there was no diplomatic process and it's just that they wanted to get gas prices down and they wanted to say the straight was open so that the market would improve and/or prices would start to go down even if the straight was not actually open. It's insane now gas prices have picked up a little bit they're not where they used to be but you know when you are so ambiguous about how what the goal

is how this could possibly resolve itself the diplomatic process seems I don't know he says they're Kuku I'm done dealing with them their sickos like I mean me half of that is bluster

or three quarters of it is bluster but I'm not I've never been that confident and Jared Kushner

and Steve Whitkoff negotiating this process though they are a cracker jack team of diplomats and like what what confidence should we have this doesn't stretch on off and on not being

“called a war forever the only thing standing in Trump's way I guess is the appropriations process”

and the fact these asking congress for another $350 billion in Republicans may not be super stoked on doing that for months before the midterms. Yeah it's it's goes to my the point I I like to make about this which is anyone dumb enough to start this war is too dumb and get out of it which is where we are totally as you pointed out oil prices and gas prices have gone up a little bit through this the stock market's gone down ships are still passing through the straight although

it's still well below prewar levels one third one third three war levels but the administration

is finally taking at least one step to help with gas prices let's take a look we're here at the first freedom fuel network gas station right here in Philadelphia leading the charge to lower gas prices $3.47 that's for our 47th president president Donald Day Trump the person I saw it I thought it was fake blue was but great it's true thanks a lot Trump keep going with your dog what a good job thank you for helping our country it's president Donald Day Trump leading the charge to

lower gas prices right here in freedom fuel network gas stations you heard that right the administration's big move is a network of so called freedom fuel stations they're mostly in the the larger Philadelphia

“area and they are selling gas at $3.47 a gallon $0.47 get it Alex I believe you have some thoughts”

in this initiative and I'm like they're out let's you have them um okay first of all nobody knows

who's behind these gas stations they just like popped up around the filly area they used to be like Sonoco stations or Texaco stations there's just like giant stickers on them and nobody knows how their pricing gas at $3.47 because news flash the reason gas prices are high is not because gas owners are stubborn and just need to be convinced get on the bandwagon of cheap gas it's because they have to be because market is out where it's at now there's some discretion they have in terms of

sense and like you know on the margins but when gas is over $4 a gallon it's not because they've gotten greedy it's because that's where the market is that's where the price of crude so this is all smoke and air this is like a gas station Potemkin village like it's uh and and like I sort of delight in it because it is further proof that Donald Trump is a socialist like these gas stations or gas station owners are clearly getting some kind of government subsidy to lower gas to $3.47

is meaningfully lower than other area gas stations and it fits in the suite of decisions Donald Trump has made to have the heavy hand of government get involved in private enterprise whether that's you know extorting in video and intel for stock that the government controls in order to get licenses in order or in order to establish trading overseas whether that's the tariffs whether that's the heavy hand of the Trump administration involved in the media and censorship I mean this

is all the behavior of I don't know like someone like Maduro or Putin or take your pick this is not what free market capitalism is supposed to look like it is um it is socialism sometimes communism maybe outright fascism and authoritarianism under the guy as you know when it is politically convenient what a joke it's also stupid like what what what possible world is this going to make a difference by having like a handful of gas stations in the Philadelphia area sell gas for a short period of time

for a slightly cheaper than other parts of the like it is they are spitting in the ocean yeah there are tens of thousands of gas stations across the country like there is like there is a

problems you can't solve there are two big congressmen work but you won't be able to see your trying

no one's even qualifies trying they sent this video out saying they're doing this and then in 99% of the rest of the country people who see the video are then going to drive for the gas station and gas is going to be the same high price it was before so you just angered them because somehow then where you are not valuable enough to get one of these freedom fuel stations you

“will have to pay the normal price it's just so stupid it's all done it's all done I think it's honestly”

for Trump do you know what I mean I think it's just a video that they can play for him when the baby gets angry it's like one of those soothing like it's one of those you know they're these little gummy toys you can give babies they can chew on when they're teething and they get angry this is

the the the sort of video version of that you know this is this is Coco Melon for fascist idiots

that's exactly what it is okay all right one more consequence of the rant situation we want to mention Trump flew his new Katari gifts at Air Force one to Turkey but when it was time to leave he announced that he was sending the jet on to an air base in England to give American station there a chance to tour the aircraft and that quote for old times say he'd be following in the old plane he was of course lying the near attempts reported that the secret service urged him to take

the old plane because it was more secure and the new version doesn't have the same defensive capabilities Alex I thought the new Air Force one which we paid hundreds and millions of dollars we the taxpayers be at hundreds of millions of dollars to rush into service was totally safe and perfect

are you shocked by this shocked Dan I did not realize that when first of all there the he's has

“two jets in rotation and I believe they're two more under construction right now so it's not like”

the entrance of this free-cutterie jet did anything to help the American taxpayer or saved us any money I direct you to John Levitt and Tommy V divorce excellent YouTube conversation on this very topic which I found quite enlightening that clearly the jet is not up to snuff maybe they spent all the money on like warm nuts that are served right before right after take off or lifeline seeds or you know really fancy inflate amenities like face mist I don't know but it wasn't on securing

the jet the way it needs to be because clearly they believed that there was some kind of national security threat flying out of Turkey they asked people on Air Force one to lower their lines which I guess according to Tommy is what you do in a war zone and the cutterie jet did not have significant missile defense systems on it to keep everybody safe so they had to fly the old baby blue Air Force one out of the threat zone that's a problem you don't want to have to have

“two jets in rotation because one isn't actually up to isn't isn't secure enough generally speaking”

you want the president to be on the safe jet all the time because like there's another version of this right which is the read Air Force one exists the way it does it's built the way it it's built because in the event because the idea came during the Cold War which is there is a nuclear war or some other war and the president has to stay in the air for hours and hours and hours you don't apply anywhere in the world they get to safety and be able to command the

U.S. military forces from there and so you can like at any point he could be on the new jet and theoretically something can happen in the world that could put him at risk but you're on the new jet it's not it's not just like it's not a commuter shuttle no it's just it's like once again and this whole thing is so dumb because the jet he doesn't care about that because the it's not that often that the president is actually targeted like this obviously or that he is in within

ballistic missile range of Iran but because he takes a jet with him when he leaves that's the thing it does this jet does not go to president Josh Shapiro, AOC, Kamalaris whoever else comes next it goes to Donald Trump to fly around on as he visits golf clubs around the world fantastic from force one Trump force one what a disaster but what else I mean everything Trump touches turns to shit so that's right when we come back North Carolina Senate candidate former

governor Roy Cooper Pots of America's brought to you by article article makes it effortless to build a home that last without the boutique markup they're curated collections of mid-century coastal and sandy furniture are designed to mix image perfectly so you can create a cohesive designer look that will stand the test of time article stuff it looks great some of it's simple and modern

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off your first purchase of one hundred dollars or more quick question are you politically engaged

and spiritually exhausted if you said yes to both welcome home i'm Aaron Ryan and i'm a listen master monaco and we're the host of hysteria the podcast for women who care about democracy culture and not losing their minds in the process we break down the news call out the nonsense and spotlight the women actually fighting back on capital hill in classrooms and everywhere the stakes are high it's sharp honest analysis featuring women's voices with humor and zero hand

holding listen to hysteria wherever you get your podcasts and watch full episodes on youtube

“joining out the democratic nominee for one of the most important senate races this cycle”

former North Carolina governor work cooper governor Cooper welcome back to positive america i'm glad to be with you Dan thanks a lot it's been a while so it's great to have you on here North Carolina state near and dear to my heart has been breaking democratic hearts for a long time it's been since 2008 since a democrat one a senate seat there talked to me about why you believe twenty twenty six is going to be different than all the other cycles that have uh if emotionally

traumatized so many democrats are on the country and a North Carolina assume well Dan i've been having to convince people that uh we are having a tough race because people ask me what my biggest fear is and that a lot of people have put this race in the check mark wind column and you and i know the history of North Carolina just because i have a lead in the polls doesn't mean this racism gonna be very close uh we've seen so many democratic candidates have a lead have a lead

have a lead until they don't and we see republican money pouring into this state at the end and we see great democratic candidates lose by a couple of points and as you know it's been 2008 since we want to see almost 40 years we've only had two democrats uh and both of them serve one

“term so this is going to be a close race i think this is different because people are hurting now”

i don't think i've seen it like this because i've been out on my mixed-of-cost list to or people are telling me that there's just too much month at the end of the money for them their paychecks just are not keeping up with the cost of living and they are frustrated and they've recognized that Washington DC is in chaos uh that this president and administration promised them the day one the cost of living would be uh on top of the list and not only has it not been uh they've actively

hurt people's chances in that we've seen these chaotic terrors add add cost to everything we've seen this war in Iran uh increased costs we've seen this one big beautiful bill that ripped health care away from people and given the tax breaks to the billionaires people are frustrated

and at the end of the day i think they know that i will be a senator who will put the people first

not the billionaires and we know that my opponent Michael Wattley will do and say whatever this president tells him to do and say and we know at the end of the day that a lot of money is going to come into North Carolina but we're going to win this race because uh we have to i had told my children the other day that uh my parents left me a better country but that we had work to do to leave them a better country and i think all of us need to look within us and say hey what can i do

to make sure that uh this country is the kind of country we want to leave dark is and great kids and

“that's why i'm running for the senate. You point out affordability is the never one issue in”

North Carolina is the never one issue all around the country is frankly the never one issue in

our politics for basically since covid um as inflation went up as you mentioned you're on this tour of North Carolina tell me a little about the tour and can you give me a handle of specific ideas that you would do to help lower people's prices if elected? Well the tour i've been meeting people across North Carolina we call it the make stuff cost less tour. Very frankly yes yeah yeah i mean we we here from kawana who's struggling to pay for groceries she's a teacher we hear from

Meredith whose kid vivis on Medicaid and Meredith scared death that Washington is going to attack and take away vivis health care penders a farmer and rural know a carolina the tariffs are killing him so in my policy proposals you can go to roycooper.com and read our proposals on what we're

people to help us in this campaign but first you know we we've got to work with the publicans

“and i believe there will be some who will be ready to work with us on taking back the legislative”

branches constitutional authority here checks and balances of critical so taking him back on trade

and tariffs we got to roll back these chaotic tariffs and i think immediately that helps to reduce the cost of living we got to restore the health care cuts that have really repavoc on people's pocket books and people's lives their their health we've got to make sure that we are investing in education across the board i believe that when you look at all of the proposals that we have made like a child care tax credit because i'm hearing from people about child care going through

the roof and they're having to make hard decisions about whether one parent's going to work we just need a Washington focused on people and not tax breaks for the corporations and i think that we can make a difference government that works can make a difference for people and help them have a paycheck that keeps up with the cost of living just when i was talking about groceries and gas of course in gas because of the around war but is utility prices and one of the things

driving up utility prices is data centers what would you do with data centers to either help lower the cost of electricity slow the build the build of these like how are you thinking about this sort of mad rush to build as many data centers as possible it's part of my policy proposals is that they must pay for their own energy other consumers should not have to bear any cost from data centers and we should encourage them to create their own energy sources

“and connect them to the grid and i think many of them are ready to step up and do that of course”

communities i have to have input is to whether these are are built there or not but i think

that is critical because we now have a demand for power unlike anything we've ever seen

and we have a congress in a president in a Washington that has wiped away the gains that we made in clean energy that would have helped add energy to the grid that's all been been wiped away during the last couple of years so we have a real challenge on our end so i think they have to make sure that they pay for their own your opponent Michael Wattley is not particularly well known to a lot of people around the country he's not sort of one of these you know maga bad guys

like a Ken Paxton or her shawalker or Dr. Oz in previous selections i understand there's

“some debate about his North Carolina roots and that he failed to be able to name any members of your”

NHL the championship team down there but what should voters either North Carolina around the country want to help your campaign know about Michael Wattley and who he is and what he would do.

Well first he's been a Washington DC insider for years he was a big oil and utility company

lobbyist he worked to be able to raise prices for oil companies and raise utility rates for utility companies he's still on stock in those and he served as chair of the Republican National Committee his co-chair pushed there by by President Trump and we're seeing that he's able to line his own pockets by advocating and encouraging the Iran war pushing this one big beautiful bill he owns farm a company stocks and we know that those have gone up because of this one big

beautiful bill he was also chair of the North Carolina Republican Party and crude it recruited right-wing candidates like Mark Robinson who's the self-described black Nazi in North Carolina and stood beside and behind Mark Robinson he has lied about my record you mentioned that he he's he's been telling people that he grew up in blowing rock North Carolina in actuality he moved to blowing rock from Michigan when he was 15 years old and you know that I don't mind people

coming into North Carolina you don't have to have grown up North Carolina people are full North Carolinians when they move here but just just don't lie about it but he's lied about my record and particularly on crime but then you look at his record on crime he appointed a convicted child sex predator who served time in prison to a prominent position in the North Carolina Republican Party and stood by him and reappointed him even though the party debated this

predators appointed to positions of prominence anymore he's also very recently stood by Trump's pardon of all of these j-6 insurrectionists including those who assaulted a police officers and including those who went on to commit other crimes some against children for children child six crimes that's the kind of record that Michael Wattley has and as I say he will do and say whatever this president tells them to do and say on the other hand I will be a strong independent senator

for North Carolina I will put the people first I will try to work with this president when I can I

did my first four years as governor he was president at the same time I tried to work with him we had to go through COVID and other things but I will stand up to him when I need to and there needs

“to be a lot of standing up to him right now in Washington I think the people in North Carolina are”

going to want that at the end of the day you mentioned the attacks on your record on crime the this isn't a bunch of their ads this is it seems to be their main strategy of trying to feature is that just paint you as we come to crime with kind of immigration they are specifically focusing on some early releases that you've granted in your time as governor what is your

response to those attacks what's the true story here well well first uh those stories are there

many lies being told uh in what they've done and they've had fact checks that have shown that they just simply are not telling the truth I'm the only person in this race who's actually prosecuted violent criminals and work to keep them behind bars while Michael Wattley has appointed a child sex predator to a prominent position in the North Carolina Republican Party that's the difference between us on crime people know my record as attorney general they know

“that is governor I signed uh tougher bail was they know too that I believe in working to prevent”

crime by investing in early childhood education and in our public schools and in health care and

in our communities I think that's critical but they believe this is a soft spot it is not

and I think the people of North Carolina will hear that at the end of the day you know immigration is in crime we're sort of tied together in Republican rhetoric these days one of the task for a democratic senate will be or he just a just new democratic senators is going to be trying to find ways to reign in what is happening with ice and what the Trump administration is in with ice we just had another person killed by ice recently how are you thinking about what

you if you were elected senate what you would do with ice like what what how would you reformat restraint what are you thinking well first we need secure borders in this country and we should deport violent criminals and this organization should be working to try and do that but we also don't need what is happening now with people being picked up just because of what they look like often American citizens being put in danger shot on the street it seems to me reasonable that

officers who work with ice should have the same requirements that state local and federal

“law enforcement officers should have and I think that that is something that we need to do”

make sure that they have those same requirements as we mentioned your opponents the former chair of the RNC couple weeks ago the Supreme Court had a ruling which now will allow the aren't party committees like the RNC and the DNC to spend unlimited funds on behalf of on races like yours how do you does that ruling affect your race with with your opponent being the former chair of the organization they can now spend unlimited money this is the worst campaign finance

Supreme Court decision sent citizens united it it allows virtually unlimited spending from these joint committees when a candidate and a political party or like the republican senatorial campaign committee come together they don't have any limits as they used to have this puts more power in the hands of the very wealthy of the billionaires of the corporations and I think you're going to see a significant amount of money flowing into races all across

the country using this new device it may affect our race even more than others being that

there he certainly has been talking about the fact that they're going to use this new tool we all need to come together and get a grip on campaign finance in this country we have to find a way

to stop this madness it's too much money in politics I'll be first in line to find a way to overturn

citizens united but until then we cannot unilaterally disarm this takes power away from small donors and I hope small donors will stand up and say we're not going to let this happen we're going to give these candidates even more roecoop.com is a great place to go and to do that because we need to have a strong voice for everyday people and this new decision just allows more money into the system it leads to more corruption we we see open corruption in Washington right now in fact

my opponent as I mentioned owns individual stock when I ran for governor I sold all of my

individual stock I have widely held mutual funds I'm doing that during the campaign I will do that

as a united state senator regardless of what the law is but I will work to pass a law that prohibits members of congress and executive high executive officials from trading individual stocks I'll support a law that stops allowing people to be lobbyist after they serve in congress we need to get people to trust the federal government again and right now people just don't so we have to elect people not only who will fight to change laws we're seeing that that

we have a lot of people who want to change the laws but nothing ever happens it Washington on this

“but who will set examples and that's what I want to do when I get there and the way this money is”

going to come in it's I hope it won't affect these elections because I hope that people will step up

and help these candidates we've got to take back the house we've got to take back the senate we've got to make sure that we come back to the constitution that the framers intended where we have true checks and balances because right now we have leaders in congress who simply will not stand up to the president and you need to do that regardless of party you need to do that and the branches need to push against each other in order to make this great republic work.

I'll say this for you to make it easier but the ruling means that the currency is a lot more money than the DNC the NRCS more money than the DSEC the problems of more money than democrats

“if we are going to the only way we're going to stay competitive in these races for people to go”

to websites like worrycooper.com and pushback because it's not we can win with grassroots nations we are not going to match the billionaire in this race so I'm just going to make the way that out there I was I would do that for you to make that fit easier for you said it better than I think I think you're right about that because we can't catch up the DNC just simply can't catch up before an November so we're going to have to help from everyday people out there

the democratic party is in a bit of transition these days and we have a democratic socialists winning in New York City and Colorado we have progressive anti-establishment kindness winning here and there we also have Whore Cooper's running in North Carolina and shared grounds running in Ohio. Is there a tent big enough for the party these days like how are you thinking about what's going on in the party you know you're a two-term governor or establishment figure there's

“this anti-establishment sort of further going on how are you navigating all of this?”

Well I understand why people are frustrated because government often hasn't worked at the federal level and people are mad and so I get it people are paying too much things are costing too much out there and they're frustrated they don't have health care they can't afford a place to live my goodness they had one bipartisan thing that they did the housing bill that just got flipped on his head that's just so frustrating but look I can just tell you what we've done here

I was a democratic governor for eight years I had a Republican legislature for eight years and yes I vetoed a lot of bad legislation and we we followed over a lot of things but I found ways to work with them on recruiting good paying jobs on our to our state to getting pay parental leave

Republican legislature in a southern state to expand Medicaid which has made a real difference and

“we did that by getting their constituents in these red rural counties to lobby them for for it”

because when I would use my contacts with sheriffs in some of these counties when I sort of does a attorney general and many of them would complain to me that essentially a lot of people in their jail were struggling and needed health care and so they understood that Medicaid expansion would bring more help to their county it with medical services and would help keep their rural hospital open and when you have a tough on crime Republican sheriff walk in the halls lobbying

from Medicaid expansion it's very effective it's so we were able to work together on a common

goal to get health care and these red rural counties have benefited really more than anybody else here 730,000 people in county now have health care in North Carolina and there are ways to work together we saw it on the housing bill in Washington we've got to have more people who are willing to sit down at the table even if they have disparate opinions when you look at goals often our goals are shared even if we are on opposite ends politically we want a good education

for our kids we want a good paying job we want clean air and water we want quality health care

we all want the same things and we have to be willing to sit down at the table and find ways

forwards find a way to achieve consensus I did that as governor time and time again I want to do

“that in Washington and I believe that Washington could use a dose of North Carolina common sense”

so I'm ready to come and try and provide that not only from a governor attorney general perspective estate legislator perspective but I practice law for 18 years and was a managing partner of my small firm for a while I had to make a pay roll so I have a lot of background that I think I can use in helping to shape legislation walking across the aisle trying to find a way forward because people just want government to work and right now it's not. I think governor I think

it's a great place to end it governor Cooper thank you so much for joining us and we'll talk to you again soon thanks Dan appreciate it all right that's our show for today thanks and we're so fast it was

“so fast sorry to cut you off it's been an hour we've been doing this for an hour no I mean it just I”

just meant like it like it was it was just when you're having as much fun on most highs and lows it was yes yes it was our last grand plan or conversation ever Mark that in your calendars let us seriously okay that's our show for today thanks a word Cooper for coming on Tommy will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with Gary Linnaker host of the rest is football and legendary England striker to talk about the world cup and the politics of soccer

talks to everyone soon bye everyone positive America is a cricket media production our show is produced by Austin Fisher Saul Rubin McKenna Roberts and Ferris Safari with re-chirling Elijah Cohn and Adrian Hill our team includes Matt Degroat Benhefcoat Charlotte Landis David tolls Mia Kelman Ryan Young and Naomi single our staff is probably unionized with the writer's Guild of America East quick question are you politically engaged in spiritually exhausted

if you said yes to both welcome home I'm Aaron Ryan and I'm a list of master monaco and we're the host of his story of the podcast for women who care about democracy culture and not losing their minds in the process we break down the news call out the nonsense and spotlight the women actually fighting back on Capitol Hill in classrooms and everywhere the stakes are high it's sharp honest analysis featuring women's voices with humor and zero hand

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