Trump and Pod Save America Agree: JD Is Lame

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Now, on the latest tests, the number of our viewers, the government and the customer are allowed to use the unit. Just as long as the effort is done, we'll have to pay attention to the parking lot of cheese at least. Welcome to Plight Save America, I'm John Favre. I'm John Lovett, Tommy Vitor.

On today's show, we'll talk about the news that Trump appears to be giving up on his $1.8 billion

insurrectionist slush fund. It also seems quite uninterested in ending the around war, saying he quote, "couldn't care less whether talks break down. We're also going to talk about Tuesday's big primaries this week in Iowa and here in California, as well as more turbulence in Maine for Graham Platner and more turbulence for J.D. Vance and his quest to become Donald Trump's number one boy, chosen successor. Then New Jersey Senator Andy Kim talks to me about the horrifying

conditions he witnessed at the Ice Detention Center in Newark where the senator was pepper sprayed by federal agents. Before we start, you guys see the that CBS's Scott Pellie accused Barry Weiss of murdering 60 minutes. That sounds like a really fun meeting to have attended. It was an all-staff meeting convened by Weiss's new handpicked executive producer Nick Bilton. No Weiss at the meeting.

You said, it's your first day at the office. You're trying to find the bathrooms. You're seeing

which where your badge works and where your badge does it work. They think Scott Pellie's saying, you piece of shit I will fucking rake your dead corpse over the bones of Don Hewitt. And obviously love it was hyperbole, but not as much as you might. Obviously it was really close. Yeah, all over Darcy's status has the whole transcript of the meeting. It was something. Anyway, I just bring that up because if all of you want to support the growth of an independent

pro-democracy media company that Barry Weiss can't murder. At least not yet. Please consider becoming a friend of the pod subscriber. You get ad free episodes of this show, all your favorite crooked pods. Subscribe only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Fyfer,

“our secret extra episode of Pods Av America and full access to all of our sub-stack news”

letters like open tabs. Check it out at crooked.com/friends. All right, let's get to the news. With the Middle East still a mess and gas prices still high. The president is once again working hard to communicate to the American people. How little he cares about these things. Here he is during a hard-hitting fox interview with his daughter-in-law, Larry Trump, focused like a laser on his true passion interior design. This will be the entrance

into the borough of the borough. You're right here. Now the borough is a gift to America for me and from Apple and from lots of great people. How often are you coming out here to check the

progress? A lot. We're going to have the inauguration here. This stone can last a million years.

You know, most people would put grass on top of a piece of wood. It would be called laminated and then in a variety of years you can see the grass falling on the floor. It would deal amulet. This is like solid grass. Same thing with this. This is your solid beautiful solid. It's the pudding. Look, we've suffered a lot under this guy. The pudding labels on the rooms outside the roof of the office. You know, the whole point of it man is we know it's a cool

room. It's actually a great thing. You don't need to label it. Did you guys read Ashley Parker story about Trump as a gay icon in the Atlantic? I definitely will love it. It's so funny. It's so

It was going to say, yeah, what's that? I drew means like the balls and some of the, you know, the balls that would happen around the inauguration. I mean, says him. He's not there anymore. Right. He won't be, he shouldn't be involved in the planning of it. You know, one would hope.

“Does he just, he's just going to stay on as like physical plant director?”

It's just a sheper up for dating. You know, so that was on Fox over the weekend for Fox viewers who want to just a little more on what the government is doing about this terrible economy. On Sunday morning, they get to hear this from top White House economic advisor, slash Democratic Party plant, Kevin Hassett. People are spending more on gas, but they're also spending more on everything else. That's just growth. He's the restaurants and so on. And I think that that's a sign that you would see

when people are optimistic about the future. Now, Tommy, you put this in Slack yesterday, I think, on Sunday, and I was like, isn't that the clip from last month when Kevin Hassett said this?

And then I have to click on it and realize that he basically said the same thing again,

but maybe worse this time. No, they just keep putting the Naga Dennis and Minnesota TV to say stupid shit. I mean, they just like, they could not seem more out of touch if they tried. They're spending more on gas and groceries. Does not suggest that you're optimistic about the future. It's suggest that you need gas and groceries, and those are non-negotiable items.

“They're not taking out loans to start a business. Like, what are you talking about?”

It's like, oh, you know, hey, man, like most people are just that they're just not really paying that close attention to aggregate consumer spending. Right. Like, that matters to you and you're morning meeting. Yeah. But then the Laura Trump interview, I mean, Trump clearly wanted to talk about the brass thing he put on the wall. He could write Laura Trump's questions for her if you wanted. It's his daughter-in-law doing the interview. And he's like, they clearly went out and

they pitched this. Like, he just, he wants to tell us, I don't give a shit about anyone or anything about in the world except for myself, my arch. And like, he seems annoyed almost that we don't believe him at this point. It's so funny because we also on Friday's pod covered best in the briefing room when some reporter asked him about like people's savings being what people dipping into their savings. And he's like, well, according to the economic literature,

that could be two things. One, the doomer view that you just took, um, which is that people aren't

“confident or they're spending so much because they are confident. And that's why they're”

dipping into their savings. Yes, people are people are rack people are racking up credit cardekans, they're betting on themselves. That's what's going on. That's what's going on. Just thought of it thought of a two-late fan to the ballroom. That's what he's sort of aiming fans. It's the ballroom. Something like that. Sort of imagine I said it earlier. The universe. I made this joke really. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index is at a record low of 44.8 and may of

2226. That's lower than fucking doomers. Doomers. So the biggest concern, by the way, is

cost of living in gas prices. Yeah, well, you know what the solution is? Turn that frown upside down.

All you doomers believe, believe in Donald Trump and his wild. Look, if a man can can do that with brass, imagine what he can do for your savings. Best thing going out there with the $250 bill to like the whole thing. It is crazy. It is, he wants to lose the midterm. You see him holding up the story being like, whoever added this, who did a terrible job because Pizzy could ever. He looks so, he has such a terrible, like kind of, his whole facial expression.

It's just, like, just, it's so unlikable. Just holding up the story with the money on it. Obviously, none of this is going to well politically for Trump, but unfortunately for him, even his renovations in corruption are running into some stiff headwinds. On Friday, a federal judge blocked Trump's plan to close the Kennedy Center for renovations and also ruled that he can't just rename it for himself. There was a very long, true social post where he was

ranting about that that I have to tell you. I honestly couldn't get through at all. It's just he was very upset. Sorry. But basically, he's like, I'm giving up on the Kennedy Center. That's it. Forget it. It's like, all right. Cool. Yeah. Hey, man. Yeah. Leave her alone. The same day, another federal judge in Florida reopened Trump's IRS settlement with his own DOJ

because of what she called, quote, "grevious allegations that the $1.8 billion

insurrectionist/fund was, quote, "premise on deception." Then another federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked the transfer of money in or out of the fund while she waits to hear arguments and allow suit challenging it. Finally, after all these reports that both Republicans and Congress and White House aides were pushing Trump to just give up on the slush fund altogether. It appears as if he's done just that. Two senior administration officials told Axios the

Trump will drop the slush fund with one saying quote, "It's a dead for now." DOJ also posted a statement saying it'll quote, "abide" by the court ruling blocking it, even though that block is only temporary. Do you guys, we haven't heard from Trump as of this recording. We got here from the big boy. Do you think before it's done, it's not done until the big boy speaks. Yeah. And even then, who knows? Even then, right? Do you think you backed down this easily? And I think more importantly,

do you guys think this is still a political issue for Republicans? So, for also, Senator Republicans actually were pretty bothered by this in a closed-door meeting. Of course,

for him. Of course, the only thing Senator Republicans could manage to do is

quietly oppose it and then bravely leave town. That was their way of protesting it. It was we're not going to give him more money for immigration that we don't need. We're going to leave town to signal our unhappiness with it. I assume, in hope, that we'll still have votes on it this week.

“I think there's no, given that it's only temporarily on hold, and Trump clearly wants to do this.”

I think Democrats need to get Republicans on record that they would oppose having this kind of a slush fund be legal now or in the future. And so let's get them voting on that, because even if they're privately saying it, they'll have to publicly do something. Yeah, the for now bothered me. The for now part of that report, brother. I'm hopeful that, you know, when you're primary in John Coran in your primary in Bill Cassidy and when Tom Tillis hates you,

all Republicans in the Senate, maybe they will prevent this from ever passing or coming to be. I don't know. I don't know if you guys read that big New York Times piece from over the weekend about how the slush fund came together. But it read, it read like the blueprint for a future recocates. It was like Boris Fstein on the outside, like coordinating things. The Trump kids want immunity for like all IRS audits for their tax returns in the future. The professional staff at D.O.J. are

either horrified or quitting. And then the White House political staff was just cut out of the process because they probably knew that it was toxic. And it's like the most corrupt sounding shit imaginable. And so I don't know knowing Trump is probably not the end of it. Yeah, Schumer is going ahead with or he said he's going ahead with making sure they have to vote on it.

“And to it, the vote is going to be on, you know, originally, I think the first time we talked about”

Democrats potentially proposing amendments on this. It was like to restrict the fund or whatever, there was a couple of proposals out there to just ban the fund completely forever. And that's what Schumer is going with reportedly. He said today. And I think that's great because like what Republican now is going to vote against the ban now that Trump has said or at least the White House has signaled that they're giving up on it. So Trump doesn't say anything between now

in the vote. Like if you're a Republican voting on this, you can either vote against the ban and really fuck yourself in the midterms. Because now the White House has evaded it, but now you're on record supporting it. Or you can vote for the ban and then the ban becomes law and then it doesn't matter if Trump backs off because now it's against the law. Well, right, there's a pretty good position that Democrats are great. This is ridiculous. There's no good vote for the Republicans. They

haven't in the past chosen. This is a political play because there is no fun. So I'm voting against this because Democrats are playing politics. That's just great. I'm an option to be great. Of course. It's just giving up. That's another craven path. The Republicans have said this is not necessary or it is too late. Those have been two positions they've taken in the past and trying to stop Trump. The other part of this, too, is like in fairness to Trump, he must be surprised that there's

any pushback whatsoever. It's sort of, I think, must have caught him of guards that represent a Republicans have found a line because they've tolerated so much brazen corruption, the partens and all the rest that led to this moment. Even as we're speaking, DOJ is trying to vacate the convictions of the oathkeepers that Trump only commuted, but didn't part. And so they still are kind of just going full speed ahead without having to worry about the

Republicans in Congress. I love that Mike Pence was on the Sunday show as being like, "Please don't pay the people that you're dang me." Yeah, you know what's going on? Donald's. I watch. I watch the hang me. They set up a stock in a news. He, I watch part of that Mike Pence coming on on me the press. I don't know why. It's doesn't sound like me. But uh, but he's served to you by accident. His book is about, his book is about like the need to

take on the right-wing populist. Well, he's like up there just like praising Donald Trump and how on so many things he's doing, such a great job. And then he's like, "Now I do have to say,

I'm a big critical of his continuing to support the people that tried to kill me, but nobody's

perfect." So I'm believable. He saw it here out there like doing this thing. I think that there's a very small but non-zero chance that the other option for Donald Trump is saying, "Fine, I'll just pocket the cash then." Well, he's a member. Remember he had that pissy post last week when there was a lot of political blowback on the slush fund and he was like, "I could have just

“kept the money." Well, that's why he's annoyed, right? Because he thought, "I'm going to do a”

tendo in our lawsuit." Yeah. And then I'm actually going to do something really cool, which isn't which is going to be like, "Bloved by all." Because I'm not going to keep the money. I mean, I'm going to tell you where it was. It was like two clever by half. Yes. And then you can feel that this is the White House staff being annoyed at Todd Blanche for running this drug deal behind their

backs. So good. Amazing. All right. Let's talk about Iran where Trump can't even seem to get a bad deal.

Let alone one that would justify the insane amount of money and lives. The war has already cost. Military strikes have started again around state media said it was pausing negotiations, Trump told CNBC on Monday morning that he quote, "couldn't care less if the negotiations collapse that they quote took too much time and started to get very boring." This was after he

is making his job tougher and that we should all just sit back and relax because it will all

work out well in the end. It always does. Trump then reverse course again and said that talks

between the US and Iran were "continuing at a rapid pace." Taking too long and getting kind of boring is also what he said one and only time he went down on Ivana. Never, never can make that mistake Ivana. Where's that? That's where that came from? I'm sorry, I'm going to go out and go out. Yeah. We're not on the 9th green via Blanche. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not on the 9th green via Blanche. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not on the 9th green via Blanche. I'm sorry. I'm not on the 9th green.

We were reliably told by Scott Jennings last Thursday. The Trump had reached a deal with Iran

“that got us, quote, "Everything we want." What happened? Is it possible that Scott lit a sister?”

Yeah, before I get the Jennings, I want to just read a little more of the transcript of the CNBC interview. This is what Trump told Amin Javers from CNBC about the peace talks. I don't care if they're over, honestly. I really don't care. I couldn't care less. If they're over, they're over. If they're not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring. Again, 13 service members dead. Hundreds more wounded. Tyre Global Economy is on the

print of collapse. Gas prices are up to 50% so he's bored. It's just hard to wrap your head around a politician saying that a president saying that and end not being a career ending moment. Kind of like

on sight, but here we are. Fox News will never air it. This will never have happened in the

magma media world. Now Scott Jennings, fucked on him from CNN. You know him. You hate him. He's a hack. He's a fool. He mindlessly regards the tates. Whatever talking points he gets sent from the White House, including blatant disinformation. So I expect nothing better from him. But I'd like, I do hope that this disaster makes the axios and some other news outlets that kind of cut and pace, whatever, to some senior administration official told them whether it's Jared Kushner or the

press office, room, ever. It should help. Like rethink how you're doing your job. Because I get the journalism is very competitive. I get that reporters are battling for every mini scoop these days. But at best you look silly at worst. You are upon in oil market manipulations. This happens every

“Sunday. And then ultimately you're pumping out this information to the entire world. Remember”

economies in Southeast Asia, like, have stopped because they have no oil and gas. And so on the

question of where do we stand on a deal? I don't know. Like one, the deal was off. The deal was on. We're on the cusp of the deal. Then we're bombing the Iranians again. Trump just said he talked directly with the Hezbollah representative. You guys see that today? That's a new. That's interesting. And then said and said that that Hezbollah and Israel, they're cool. There's a ceasefire net Lebanon now. The Iran talks are proceeding quickly. The Net and I was like, no, that's not

what he's talking about. So who knows? I also, I mean, you tell me, Tommy. But like, I don't think that all of the prespinning of what the deal is going to include from the White House is actually helping the negotiations that much. And in fact, maybe hurting them because every time they get close to a deal, then in Iran's probably thinking, okay, like, we're going to do this maybe. And then Trump goes on and is like, we destroyed them. We got the best deal ever. We got everything we ever wanted.

And then the Iranians are probably like, well, fuck, no, I'm not going to do this now. Trump is going to have to give on something, whether it's the duration of the deal, like sanctions, relief, unfrozen assets, something. But he refuses to look weak. He doesn't want to look like you give a JCPOA like agreement to the Iranians. So you're right. I mean, he sounds like his staff are kind of giving. And then he goes out and says, actually, no, we're going to take the dust to

work on the not giving many money, like all the report to bullshit. He runs, okay, okay, fuck you then.

“Yeah, I believe there's two things happening. One is what an actual deal will ultimately look”

like if there is one. And then there's how Trump, how the Trump administration talks about the deal and then what's reported. I mean, this has been, this has been sort of, the media has been getting let around by Trump from when Vance went to Pakistan because Vance goes to Pakistan. And then within eight hours, 12 hours, the reports are stalemate, talk at, and it talks at an impasse, talks are falling apart. There haven't really been talks. And we've spent the next

last several weeks having deal falls apart, verge of a deal. Deal falls apart, verge of a deal. When what would be happening in the normal administration is the long grinding negotiation of a complicated deal in which there are gifts and takes and like, you know, and puts and whatever. And instead, it's the kind of through the Trump prism and to all these outlets are hearing, I guess, from the administration officials from who knows saying, run the verge of a deal,

they report that out faithfully. And then it falls apart the very next day. The reality of there will be, hopefully, there will be a deal. It will look something like the JCPOA. And then Trump will declare the best deal in history. Like, one hopes that that's what will eventually

Trump chaos on the way there. Yeah, I guess. I think what's, what's triggering the hell out of

“me, though, is like, ultimately, like, there will be a reporting on it will evaluate the merits of any”

deal. But that deal could have been gotten without a disastrous war that led to the deaths of thousands of Iranian, of course, the service members, the entire economy. And it's like, I'm not worried about this table losing that context. I am worried about the broader media, like helping Trump sell a deal by like doing this constant incremental reporting by retweeting, you know, Scott Jennings saying, this is a win for the Trump administration, et cetera. It's like, no, this is a disaster no matter

what happens next. Yeah, because the honest thing to report on this, or if you were, uh, some kind of conservative pundit, the honest thing to even say is, glad it's over now. But that wasn't worth it. And not, not exactly those words, but like, that is the tenor of whatever deal we're going to get, is that like, there's no way we came out better than we started. Right, because even, like, just on the on Uranium and Richmond, what I saw for the weekend or early today was what was on the table was a

20-year moratorium, which is what up from the 10-year moratorium. So that you claimed you, this was the worst deal at history. Your deal is just a slightly longer timeline on one piece of it with

“other concession. That was our starting position and like worked down to 15, maybe. So who even knows?”

Who knows? Who knows? But it's just like, obvious, like, that he is just, there will be a hard,

if there's a deal, it will be a deal that isn't some amazing victory for Donald Trump. He'll call

it that he'll get his 24 hours to say that, and then we'll live with the consequences of having fought the stupid fucking war. Pods Av America is brought to you by article. Article makes it effortless to build a home that lasts without the boutique markup. They're curated collections of mid-century coastal and schandy furniture or design in mix and match perfectly, so you can create a cohesive,

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you in a free morning person hat, I will punch you in. As you're listening to this, voters in Iowa and California are voting in some very consequential elections. Let's start with Iowa where state representative Josh Turck and state centers at walls are in a tough primary

“fight for the state's open senate seat, which will be hugely important. This one has become yet another”

meta commentary on Chuck Schumer and the DSCC trying to influence key primaries. In this case, it's a favor of Turck. Schumer hasn't publicly endorsed Turck but his aligned pack has contributed so his Gillibrands. It's reported that he was sort of a Schumer recruit. Much to Turck's dismay. I shouldn't endorse walls. Tommy, you interviewed both Turck and walls on his show for people

Yeah, so Josh Turck is a state rep in Western Iowa and Council Bluffs. He was born with Spina Biffida. He used a wheelchair. He's a two-time paralympic gold medal winner in wheelchair basketball. He's just like his life story. He's just an incredibly gritty determine guy. He got cut from the men's team six times before he actually won the gold medal. He just kept coming back and coming back and competing. There's videos of him. He literally climbs out of his wheelchair, climbs up the stairs with

“his hand, drags a wheelchair up after him and then knocks on doors. That's how he goes door to door.”

So like, gritty dude, clearly benefiting from being Schumer's pick and an associated $9 million

vote that's ad buy that is drastically increased. His name ID because no one knew who any of these guys were. Then Zach is a member. Zach Walls a member of the Iowa State Senate and he's from Iowa City. He was sent him an audience leader for a couple of years. Our listeners probably saw him speak in 2011, even though they don't remember it. There were new it was him at the time. He was a 19-year-old. He delivered a speech asking, Iowa legislators not to pass a constitutional amendment,

banning game marriage and civil unions that went super viral back in 2011. It was a great speech, really powerful speech, like supercharges his career. So I interviewed both. I liked him both a lot. Everyone seems to think that Josh is likely to win. A lot of people I know who work in Iowa politics think he is more electable because he's one of the more conservative parts of the state. Which is going to take on Congressman Ashley Henson for Joni Erntse because she's resigning.

And no matter who wins, Iowa is like ground zero for politics. This next cycle, you got Rob Sand, who could be the next governor. You have this open Senate seat. And then there's like three competitive house races, a bunch of other state wide things. So like Iowa is absolutely

crucial. So this was one we're going to be watching going forward. I will say that I've been impressed

by both of them, by both Josh Turk and Zach Walls. And yeah, I know some of these Senate primary fights are particularly intense. And I know this one is too. I do note like I was kind of joking about Josh Turk probably wishing that Schumer didn't spend some pack money on him or necessarily

“regret him. But like I think that I understand why Walls is, you know, Walls is trying to make”

this a race about sort of an outsider versus the establishment as Turk is the establishment. I kind of think that like, you know, Turk being picked by Chuck Schumer is not quite the same as Turk being part of the establishment or the establishment spending money on him, like a lot of the money that's been taught in his vote vets. So it's like it's not, at least for me, it doesn't worry me that he's some establishment pack necessarily. I feel like the case for that isn't as strong

as in some of these other cases. But I also like, you know, Zach Walls was in here too. I thought he was very compelling as well. So I like both of them. Love it, anything. No. I think there's some races where being seen as like the Schumer guy, the DC guy, I think has been a real

cross to bear. I think that was that happened in Dan, which we'll talk about in a second. I just don't

think it's been that in Iowa as much this time in part because this vote that's by has been so big and so significant for getting helping push Josh forward. Also he's a known quantity in western Iowa. I think he's ever been worked in DC. Yes, so I think it's harder to lay that on him. But we'll see. We should also say that for people wondering the reason that votes vote vets is spending money on him is not because he's a veteran, but his his father was in Vietnam and he often actually exposed to

“a agent or and that's why they think Josh has spined a bit. But also I think vote vets is seen as”

doing Schumer's political being here. Also true. All right. Let's turn to California. The big race, of course, is the jungle primary for governor. We have covered the campaign a lot in between us. We've interviewed Tom Styer, Katie Porter, and Matt Mayhand. We also reached out over a dozen times to the apparent frontrunner, Havier Basera, and even though they expressed interest, they unfortunately wouldn't commit to a time. Okay. Same question for each of you.

Who'd gend up supporting and why? And who else did you like? If this were a ranked choice voting, who might you support after that? Well, my bow still hasn't been filled down. Ooh, so I'm not still getable. I'm still getable. I'm still getable. I'm going to vote for Tom Styer because I would like to see if Basera, if the polls are to be believed and they've been pretty consistent. Basera is going to move on. One other will. There's a chance Tom Styer

can be that second person. I would much rather have two Democrats battling it out for the future of the Democratic Party in the state than I would have Basera versus a Republican who has not passed the threshold question of opposing Donald Trump's election lines. Like that to me is a threshold question. You could be frustrated with Democrats in the state. You can you can believe that Democrats have have fucked up in California. But if you can't say that Donald Trump lost

that election, if you can't stand up to him, then that is so fucking dangerous. And he's a nut for that. So that's where I'm at. I also really like my conversation with Tom Styer. I think he had good answers for some of the questions about where Democrats have gone wrong in California and some of the criticisms. I also really like Katie Porter, but she just hasn't risen to the top of the polls. Like she was, she sort of slowly fell behind. And I think it's it sucks because

wand and make some governor, it would be Katie Porter. But she's down in the polls. And I'm having

“the same, I have the same rationale. I want to vote strategically because I think Styer and Basera”

going to run off would be great. It would kind of be annoying if we had to deal with, you know, running in Steve Hilton who's a random British, short gang who's like deep in the tech community. I don't think he's heights a problem. But I also love that Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are calling each other to drop out, still even though Hilton is like crushing Bianco and Trump is endorsed Hilton, but that's where I was. Yeah, I would, if I were doing ranked choice, I would be

Katie number one, no question. Because that's who I talked about before, but that's not the world we live in. I had a real hard time at this and I voted a couple days ago. I, California is a big state with a, it's hard to govern, water problems. I don't really feel, I thought about Basera, but like I don't feel confident giving the top job to someone who's had, he said 35 years and elected office to prove himself, but has received mainly bad reviews from his colleagues

and the one exactly, especially in the one executive job that he's had, which was HHS Secretary

“under Biden. And you know, just an executive, like I think it's housing policy, which was also like”

he's very late to introduce any kind of housing policy whatsoever until after ballot dropped, and then even then it was like more NMB than Stire or Porter or anything else. And now like I hope I'm wrong, and if he wins, then like great, maybe he'll be a great governor, but I was like I, I just, it prevented me from voting, uh, Basera. Stire like I'm, I'm more confident in Stire, but even then like on the experience question, there was just something, for me was like the combination

of he's never had any experience in elected office or governing anything, and is a billionaire who

basically like, you know, ran for president first, flamed out there, then spent just the GDP of a small country on this race. And like I think he hit like I like his positions better than Basera, and a lot of the other candidates, but I'm just like, there's just something a little geeky to me about it, and I am not as worried if it's Steve Hilton versus Basera or Stire, because the state registration is going to take care of itself, and there's just, I'm, it's

not a concern I have, that Steve Hilton's going to become governor. Um, so I just voted for Katie Porter because I like her. And it's like, I realize that she has, it is the least she's not bad. It is the least strategic thing I could do, but Katie to me is like like I've known her while the temperament with her staff stuff is obviously like it bothered me a lot, because like we've

known her forever, and I actually didn't know that until those stories came up. And I also don't think

she's going to win at this point, but I'm like, who do I want to be governor? She's thought about the job a lot. She has like a really well-fied out policy platform. She's actually worked on passing legislation and getting things down when she was in Congress, and I feel like she's just like done the work for the job more than anyone else. But if you would rather, times, I feel the same way, but I would rather, like, as of right now, and I want to talk to Havi or Bacera, if he's willing,

“now, like, I think Havi or Bacera has said he wants to come on the show, but he's hoping that he”

and Hilton get through the other side, right? And then, of course, we're doing an interview about a Democrat version. Republican, which is very different than a conversation about a Democrat versus a Democrat. But, but as of right now, I think Tom Styer has answered some of the Harvard questions better than Havi or Bacera, and if Bacera, I'm voting for him, and if I, if I'm trying to get the best, because I believe you, I don't think, I don't think, I don't

think Hilton's going to be the governor of the state. I want the best person to be the governor of California, and right now, if there's, I want to see, and maybe also Bacera having to beat Tom Styer would make him a stronger candidate, too. So, that's my kind of hope that we can get Tom Styer through this thing so that we have a better debate and Havi or Bacera has to be put through his pace as if he is going to win. Yeah. I do feel like, you know, as sort of

black as this race has been for governor, I am very open and hopeful that both like that either Styer or Bacera, like, proved me wrong and become a great governor, and you're right, maybe if it's Bacera and Styer and run off, then there's even more time for them to do good out and show their, show that they're ready for the job. We also got a mayoral race going on here in LA, love it, interviewed Challenger, Nithia Rahman for the show, who we all know,

and I supported Nithia donated to her, known her long time. We also reach out to Karen Bass, who has come on the show before, but she opted not to come on before the primary, Nithia and Bass are in a close race with reality TV personality turned mayoral candidate, Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican quasi endorsed by Trump, who said, I like him. I hear he's mag, I like him. And Pratt was in New York over the weekend, closing the campaign like this.

That even testing your drugs on a dog is the least of the worst of what these demons are doing into these poor animals. They're lighting them on fire. They're right being these dogs. They're abusing them. They're breeding them to the point that they die because they've been so overbred.

animals in some of these places, but what is it? It's very weird that he decided to go to New York

“for several days. I think dropped $34,000 on his hotel rooms and left the state the week for the”

election. Yeah, this billboards all around, or at least I saw, I think I saw these two in downtown LA of him saying, if you're, you know, dogs vote for Spencer Pratt. So he's trying to make this like the closing thing, whatever reason, they think this is something that's going to break through for them. I don't know. This gets the goose race. Apparently Spencer Pratt's already sold the rights to do a reality show if he becomes the mayor. Here's my, here's, I think this applies to both

the governor's race and to the LA mayor's race, which is when you watch the debates, there is a, like Steve Hilton Bianco Pet Pratt. They are capturing what is a very real frustration with democratic governance in the state with mismanagement, with a kind of recklessness and lack of emotion and passion for good government and making shit work, work better, work faster,

answer people's concerns. I don't think the answer is that that these Republicans are offering

that Spencer Pratt are offering or what he need, but the fact that there's an opening speaks to the failure of Democrats both on policy, but also just as candidates to rise to the, to meet what is like real and deep frustration with people in Los Angeles. These are all democratic voters, for almost all democratic voters, and they have real, like, anger about what they feel is the decline

“in Los Angeles. Now, I, like, I think Nithia cares deeply about the city. I think that she is thinking”

hard about how to actually address these issues. I think what has been a challenge in both in that debate. I think with her on the campaign trail is, you know, when I talked to her, she made this point, which I really resonated with me that there's this feeling when you talk about Karen Basick. Where's that energy? Where's the, the hunger? Where's like the speed? Where's the sense of urgency, right? That's been, that was about the fires, but everything else. And I wanted to see more of that

from Nithia. And to be honest, I feel like as a candidate, she hasn't shown the same kind of spirit that she's promising to bring if she becomes mayor, but I do think that she has thought a lot about how to address her housing issues. She saw a lot about what has allowed production to leave Los Angeles, so I am voting for Nithia. And my hope is that Bas and Nithia make it out of the primary, so that the two of them can go head to head, and then I think that'll be like a great contest.

Yeah, so I, I'm full disclosure, I'm a Nithia donor, mostly because your wife asked me to be. But I voted for Nithia 2 at the reason I'm, I'm mad about the status quo too. Like I share a lot of Spencer's rage about the fires, especially the communications issues after the fires are drawing the fires. I don't think he's the answer to those problems, but I share his anger with the frustration. And the problem, it wasn't just that Mayor Basick was out of the country when the fire started,

although that was extremely bad and kind of, in my view, was hard to forgive. But it's, I think, hard to overstate how bad the communication was from the city during that period and how scary it was to live here. When the sun would go down and the winds would pick up and you'd lie in bed, being like, am I endangering my children by sticking around the city? You know, like that's where people's head were, and there was just like, the communication wasn't just bad.

“Remember that night when there was like four mistake in like fake amber alerts?”

Telling people to evacuate when they didn't need to, right? Like that shit is unforgivable. So that is why I voted for change. But if we were being honest, like I do think Nithia has struggled in this race. She's struggled to articulate, like, clearly what she would do. She seems to struggle to connect with voters on the campaign trail and the debate was quite bad. Like Spencer Pratt, I think defined her as like a co-incumpent at the debate and she didn't seem like a challenger. And so if she

makes the runoff and I really hope she does, she's got a lot of work to do to get things back on track and to, you know, run a lot harder against whoever her opponent is and take back that kind of like insurgent, like, I'm not the status quo message. It has seemed to me, like in this race, we've ended up with three archetypes of candidates that we see across the country and have for the last like decade now, which in in bass you have someone who is very much establishment along with

all of the lack of energy that comes with that and she's kind of just, you know,

except like, you know, running around bragging that like we've reduced homelessness by 17 percent

and everyone's like walking around and you can see like 17 percent and it doesn't look like 17 percent and is that a big number? And has also been more than beyond housing, has sort of gutted a lot of the housing reforms or hasn't pursued them, hasn't been a great communicator and, you know, it's just kind of in the job and doesn't communicate well or a lot. And then in nithia, you have someone who is like, gee, this is like what I was just saying about Katie Porter, right,

who has really thought about these issues, who I think is a wonderful public servant and I think could be a really good public servant, but like, has not met the sort of performance-related requirements of a candidate. And it is unfortunate that you can't just be ready to be good at the job

but we've said this a million times on the show forever, like that's what you need and we also have

“like a lot of Democrats like that across the country. And then in pratt, you have someone who”

when there is Democratic governance and a person in power does not fix the problems that an area is facing, it is fairly easy for a right-wing populist who's good at getting attention and no one's better at getting attention than a reality TV star to come in and tell everyone, yes, you are pissed, I'm pissed too, and if you elect me, then you can like stick it to the people in charge, even though his plans are not just cruel, they're just stupid and he can't do them, they're against

the law, like he doesn't have the power to do a lot of the shit he's talking about, he's just making a bunch of fucking empty promises that he's not going to be able to fulfill if he wins, but no one cares about that, people care about like, okay, he's angry and I'm angry and that's

enough. - It was so cool when Nithia just like, you know what, fuck it and drove down and said,

I'm going to run for mayor. And that was it was so exciting because it was like, you know what, she's nobody else is stepping up, people, no one, everyone is frustrated with Karen Bass, there's a collective judgment that Karen Bass just like just didn't bring like the the energy and direction of the city needs and she's going to jump in and be the one to do it. And I've wanted that same energy in the campaign, but just hasn't been there, like with Bass, like, you know,

she, when I talked to her, I love to leave it, a couple was right before she came out, she, she ran, claiming she was not going to be an in-be, she put out some housing policies, they were pretty good, but then they got watered down through sentences. Also it sounds like what Bassara did, right?

“And then you, and then she comes out against SB 79 because that's what the city council is doing,”

took her years to put, to put in charge somebody to make some of the czar of filming and in L.A., right, like she's just building a deputy mayor for housing. And so like that, that, to me, and you know, part of why I think the campaigning does matter, I mean, why I think like I want to see Nithia be a stronger candidate and stronger campaigner is because in this moment, in, in our in politics today, how you campaign, showing that you can do it, that's a big part of what it is to

be a mayor, like someone who's going to be out there every day, like hitting the message, someone's going to be like making news all the time, showing people what you're doing, showing people what matters, right? Like, like, it's not just about kind of performance, it's not just a show. Yeah, no, I will say, there's been a ton of, you know, commentary on this race that analysis, people talking about it, I have no fucking idea what's going to happen because it's just what this

lecture looks like. I know, it's just, and for people who don't know L.A., it is 15% registered Republican, right, and so even if, you know, Spencer Pratt and some of these polls is getting like 20% anywhere between 20% even as high as 30%. That's still like nowhere what you'd need to win a general election, certainly, and maybe not even to advance in the primary. Also, the way L.A. set up Santa Monica has its own, like, if you're in Santa Monica or West Hollywood or Beverly Hills

or Pasadena, like, you're not voting for mayor of L.A., a lot of people think they're Pratt voters, and then they're going to get to the polls and figure out that they're not eligible. Is there an L.A. County? It could end up, so he could either surprise us and do really well or it could be this election where just a bunch of people who don't pay attention to politics at all in other parts of L.A., just do to flee vote for Karen Bass, or Nithia, like, I just,

I don't know, so pretending that I know what's going to happen is just, yeah, crazy. It is an interesting window into just sort of this, like I said, the electorate. I mean, where there is an anti incumbent rage across the country right now, but we're in California, state where there's all democratic governance, and so Spencer Pratt is from channeling that in a different direction. It's interesting to see. It's also interesting the way he's kind of exposing the incoherence of the

Naga and the Maha agenda. Like, I remember when they were very mad about the COVID vaccine, and now Spencer Pratt is like, I will take all the drug addicts, and I will lock them up for five days or whatever and force them into this treatment. It's like, oh, okay. That's a different than the freedom agenda that we're talking about under Robert F. Kennedy. But, okay. Well, they don't, well, the way it's a freedom for me, not for them. I don't know if you guys are excited

or looking into any other races in California, but Michael Tubbs for Lieutenant Governor, member Crooked Contributor, and former American guest is running for Lieutenant Governor, love Michael, and her buddy, Jake Levine, is running against Brad Sherman, Congressman Brad Sherman, in the California 30 Second, which is Palicades and upwards towards Insino in that area.

“Yeah. And that's why we're giving them a good challenge. And the hope there, right, is that that he”

can keep Sherman, because Sherman is well known and that district and is expected to, like, sort of, be very old and old, he's old. But if Jake can get it to keep him under 50, and then they can go on to Iran. Oh, one other thing for people watching the returns. A lot of Democrats,

including John Lovehead here, have held onto their ballots to the very end, and California is always

notoriously late in counting ballots. And so it's a high probability that this will have a a red morage in the voting. It is, is the returns come in, especially this year. Someone did a party breakdown. I think it was Game of Thrones. That in 2022, the final

ballots that have come in. And this is, like, election day, basically, 45.9%, 33.5%, 20.6%.

So that, so it's already, like, it's, it's off. And so the first ballots that are going to be counted are the ones that are already in. And so now the electric could also be more red. But I am, I am already worried about the Spencer Pratt and who knows Donald Trump could jump into and be like, we won. And then suddenly we're being overtaken as the ballots are counted later in the week. So everyone should prepare for that. One possibility, I think is like, I'm

pretty high in the list of possibilities is on election night, you have Bessera 1, Hilton 2. And that's actually a couple days. It goes Bessera, Styre, and then all of a sudden Hilton is saying I was knocked out by the demo machine. Yeah. The good news is, yeah, that message I think will resonate nationally. California voters are pretty well conditioned how stupid and long it takes us to count ballots, where she was faster. But see, this is what again. This is like the whole thing.

“It's like, that's how it isn't California. We do it the stupidest way fucking possible. Why? Why?”

Every other states can count ballots in a couple of days. Why does it take you here to weeks, fucking stupid? I think it's all the mail, right? Because if you can drop it in a mailbox on June 2nd on the day, the primary, then like it takes at least a couple of days for the mail to get it. Yes. But then it's, that is not still long. It's still, it's going. But there's some built in just because of the mail. Yeah, of course. If you've got to get rid of those mail in ballots, like Trump says.

Then God, we have mail in ballots. Our ballot is very long. It's completely a lot to things.

So long. There's lots of positions you've never heard of. It's very,

thank God for that, but mail in. Yeah. Positive America is brought to you by Zippercurter. According to this copy here, report by CNBC indicates that almost half of all hiring managers view a candidates enthusiasm is the single most important element when evaluating them for a position. You don't want to do enthusiasm gap. Yeah, I guess you don't want them too enthusiastic. You don't want to break it in your office. I guess

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Now you can try it for free at zippercurter.com/curricid. That's zippercurter.com/curricid. Meet your match on Zippercurter. We also had more news over the weekend in the main Senate race, where Graham Platner is likely to win the nomination in next week's primary. Stories in the New York Times in the Wall Street Journal reported that as his campaign began last year, Platner's wife Amy Gertner told the campaign staffer that Platner had exchanged sexual messages

with several women and this was after Platner and Gertner were married in late 2023, but that they had stopped before the campaign began and Platner and Gertner had gone through therapy. The entire situation is very messy. The staffer that Platner's wife told, Genevieve McDonald has since left the campaign and she was the one who originally talked to the Wall Street Journal and she's talked to the New York Times and she's become a public critic of

Platner. Platner said that at least some of what McDonald told the New York Times wasn't true, but both he and his wife Amy Gertner and the campaign have all confirmed the existence of the messages. And then Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign in April, said an interview on Sunday that actually she's still on the ballot and she also just posted the first tweet from her campaign account since the tweet where she suspended her campaign and it was a happy Pride Month tweet.

Well, that's a sort of, neither here nor there. Try or don't. Yeah, you can't have run for office. What are you doing here? Well, you could make the argument that you kind of have ran.

“What do you guys think about this latest development and how it might impact the race?”

I mean, I think the main risk for Platner is the cumulative impact of these stories and scandals along with the red stuff because I think main voters were I've shown to be quite willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the past reddit posts and accept his explanation that I was in a bad place. This happened in the past. I've grown. I've changed and moved on. You know,

scandal? Like, just off was very recent. We're talking like 2023. And so, um, I think these days, sexual allegations of, we're just infidelity, or infidelity adjacent, like don't tend to be campaigning especially when Amy Gertner said, this is a private matter. We worked through it. I love him. I have a great marriage, et cetera. But I do worry that the cumulative nature of this stuff might make voters think one, like, this is guy a good guy, and two, um, what else do we not know about him?

And so, I think Platner's campaign can weather this. They will likely weather this. I would recommend less criticism of the media for covering the story. I think it's a valid story to cover.

And in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, ultimately got the story. Right. Right. And I would just

“say, you know, I think you have to own it. You have to own it. This was shitty behavior. It was a mistake”

that we've moved, uh, we've that the two of them have worked through privately. And then in a few days from now, that's when you sort of pivot to the message about getting back to issues. Because that's right. That's what voters want to talk about. But there's going to be a period of time where folks talk about this because it's just broken. I think you can't scold the press for covering a thing that was valid enough that your spouse brought it forward to your campaign staff to talk to them about.

So, um, you know, like it's fair game obviously. If Susan Collins was slinging news on Snapchat, like we'd be talking about, you know what I'm saying? So, by the fall, we might be. We, um,

sorry. All that said, like, I do think what Platner's got that hammer and sickle tattoo, too.

Yeah. Which, which would be McDonald, the Platner's step former Platner's staffer did here is really, uh, shitty on a human level. It's unethical. Um, if I were Amy Gurner, I would be furious.

“And so, you know, that part of it's pretty gross. Yeah, like, if a candidate just had the red”

story. So, like, I was going to a really tough time in my life. And I posted some heinous shit. It was like, and I regret it. Uh, but I've been through a lot of therapy. It had to do with my PTSD. And I'm on the other side of it. Maybe like, okay, like people grow and they change. The tattoo. You'd say, I, this was stupid tattoo. I didn't understand what it meant at the time. I'm covered it up. Okay. Uh, early in my marriage, I was in a really shitty place. And I was

having these, I was, I don't know what he was doing, sexting, whatever. Uh, but my wife and I have worked through it. And it's a private matter. She's with, we were together because we, we love each other. And, uh, that's all that should really count. You'd say, okay. I, I feel like you add them all up together. And then there's all these insulations that there's more coming, more coming. You see why people would be concerned. What I find, like, sort of hard to wrap my mind around this is that, like,

why do we care about red flags, right? Like, all of these are not, what kind of centers are going to be? Is he a good person? Does he have our values? Does he, does he, does he have a good character at root, or is he a, is he a flawed person who's made terrible mistakes who's trying to become a better person, or is the insinuation that all of the sets up to evidence that he will be a bad senator who's actually not going to do the things he is claiming he's going to do, that he's going to be a

federman, right? That he's going to disappoint us in some way, that he has, like, fundamental flaws. And I, I don't know the answer to that. What I'm amazed by is how many, kind of, active, hyper-engaged Democrats online who do shape how we talk about these things, claim to know with such certainty about this, right? Like, they know, they know and they're so shocked that other people don't agree with them. And I, look, I'm not a main voter, but, but a lot of this is, do you think

he's a bad person? Do you think that he's going to lose because of these stories, which is just another way of saying, you think the voters have main? Well, think he's a person of bad character. I don't, I don't know, but I just, I find that it's a lot of people kind of fighting over, not whether or not Graham Plattener is going to do the things he says he's going to do, and as the person he claims to be now, more kind of re-litigating their arguments and anger at the

factions of the party that they're always in dispute with. Yeah, I was, in thinking about this,

I was trying to separate, like, my personal feelings about this with, like, my political analysis of

“what it means. And personally, it's like, you know, I think infidelity is a mistake, and it shows”

poor judgment. I also, for me, it's like, it's not a deal breaker if a candidate with past infidelity issues has worked through those with their spouse to their spouse's satisfaction, which is the case here. It's like, still not great, but it's not a deal breaker. If it's a deal breaker for other people, I don't judge that either, like, you make your own determinations. I think, in terms of, like, the timeline, when everything happened, it is very clear to me. I think it's probably clear to everyone now

that Graham Platner did not think he was going to be a candidate for office up until the minute he was a candidate for office and lived his life accordingly. And probably, you know, other people say, well, I didn't make mistakes like he did, and I didn't get that kind of debt to his correct,

and then he ran for office, and then they were like, all right, what's in the past, and all the stuff's coming out, including at the time he decided to run for office, these messages, which his wife brought up to the campaign. So, again, all of the accusations, and all the stories about Platner have been from about behavior and things he did before he started running for office, right? And so,

“for me, I think, okay, the whole, like, I've changed and I've grown. It's not about, like, I was a”

kid and did crazy things. It was, I was never going to run for office and now I'm running for office,

and I'm trying to be your senator. So, what kind of senator are you going to be, right? Politically, my analysis of this is, you're right that, like, these things start stacking on top of each other, and I think that the larger issue for people becomes trust, right? Because, and this is where the is more going to come out, or why didn't the campaign, like, first of all, some people are like, why didn't the campaign tell us this if they knew this? I don't think

campaigns are necessarily in the business of dumping all of the opposition research they do on their own candidates. It's not incredibly personal, painful stuff. Right, into the public, like, that doesn't usually happen to me. Absolutely not on this one. She came, hey, just so you know, this is something that happened in our past, but we're good. It's on an issue. We're together. We're happy.

That is never, of course they don't come up. That's a private matter. Right, but I think that,

look, Andrew Kaczynski on the tattoo story, like, who's reporting, I trust a lot and is a very good reporter, has the, you know, the story that may be platinum or new with the tattoo signified, sometime after he got up up before he ran and the, and, you know, platinum has been a little, sort of sketchy on, just explaining that. And now this one, it was like, well, I think that she told the, you know, she lied to the times and the time story wasn't right, but it was. So there is this,

what I worry about and what I think about if I was them is like, there is a trust issue now that could become a bigger trust issue. And I do think that the campaign and, and platinum, I think these issues don't matter. They're private or whatever, but he has to now work to build people's trust and keep people's trust between now and November because people, even people who like him, are going to start to question, well, is he telling the full truth about everything? Is there more?

Are they transparent? You know, like, and, and that to me does bear on what kind of senator you are.

“So I think the most important thing for them is to like, go and do the work and like earn”

people's trust and take all the tough questions and, and, and, and give all the explanations you need until people are boarded, board asking questions. Yeah, I think you got to probably be a little more transparent on this one. I, like, I also, you know, I hear where you're saying on how you sort of think about this. I don't think most people, though, draw a line at when you decide it's run to office for kind of like when they judge your decision-making or the morality of this thing.

I mean, I think, I think, I think if like the tattoo is a bridge too far to you, I understand that. I'm not going to tell you otherwise. I mean, what, what I, you know, when I talk to him about this, when we sort of, they showed us the video, the thing that I was stuck with me was, he took a shirt off and sang that song at his, it was a brother's wedding, and the sister's lost Jewish. So like, you have to be a real asshole to do that and display that tattoo kind of knowing full

well and being fully cognizant of what it meant at that wedding. That to me was a convincing explanation, but I've read Andrews reporting to, that's maybe there's some questions at the time

“I'm like, I think that's a fully totally reasonable thing to wonder about. I think the threshold question is,”

are there other things in this guy's past that suggest he ascribes a Nazi or fascist ideology? And that's where the reddit archive is actually quite useful because what it shows is the exact opposite, right? And then that's where I think people kind of refuse to kind of engage with this broader body of factual information that we have when we want to assess what this man believes. And I will say, this is why I personally and people have seen me do this online, but this is why

I get more frustrated with people's people being upset at the tattoo thing more than if you're upset with all the old reddit stuff and you feel like he's apologized for that, but other apology not accepted, then like that's your decision tonight. I understand that. If you're upset about this, the sexting scandal, then like I understand that, but

you're right, the tattoo thing, the guy just posted on Reddit again, like he was never running

for office anonymously, has all these things that he said that he's now regretting their summer offence of whatever else, none of them even hinted that he has a subscribe to any of this kind of ideology. It sounds like a comedy. And everyone's not Nazi. I saw it when we, yeah, when we were, when you were about to interview me and we saw the video, I was like, what's the problem? It's a skull and crossbones. Now everyone now can be like, you don't know

it was a fucking bubble. No, we knew it was a skull and crossbones and I'm sure maybe if Andrew story is correct, then at some point someone said to platinum, hey, that skull and crossbones, you've got Juno, that's a Nazi tattoo and he's probably like, well I've been screened for the army twice and a screened tattoos for this and no one ever said anything and I have a Jewish family, no one ever said anything. So maybe he then googled it and was like, oh yeah, it is, but again,

was probably like, well, what do I, like I'm going to go cover it up? I'm not, and then he does

So when I talked to him, he was like, no, I did this, this was the deal, it was a stupid tattoo, I was an infantryman, I was in Croatia, it was a dumb kid, whatever, and a couple of days later, he got it covered up, right? So that something occurred to him that, oh, actually this is a real problem that I should fix. So this is where it's like, people just sort of call him a Nazi and it's like,

and then then you say, well hold on a second, like, no one, you don't have to listen to anyone.

You don't have to believe anyone. You don't have to take more information in. You don't have to have a nuance view. You can just call somebody a Nazi if you want. The reason symbols matter is because they supposed to symbolize something, right? Like, we battle about symbols on social media because

“that's what the medium is for. It's for taking little tokens of something and drawing a conclusion”

about it. It's very small space. So we do it with symbols. But the symbol has to mean something. It has to be a red flag of something. Like, do you think he's a Nazi? Of course you don't. Of course you don't. You think maybe he's a stupid tattoo, maybe he didn't care enough about it being a Nazi tattoo. That's a fair argument. Maybe he was pointed out and taken serious enough of it. That's okay. All of it's like, just, but like, we just have an honest conversation about it.

Rather than like, it's a no for me because of the tattoo. It's like, okay, that you're free to do that. We're just going to have the rest of the conversation even if you don't want to have it.

Also, the other thing, and I think ultimately here, this is up to the people of Maine,

and this is up to the voters of Maine. And if this whole time, he was going down and down and down in the polls and people were not buying this. I don't know, like, okay then, but he shouldn't be the nominee. Or even, even, even, you know, the middle state in the race because she wanted to fight it out. Well, so even, even Mills now saying, like, I'm technically still in the race, whatever. Like, that's fine. If she wants to campaign for the last week, and if she's on the ballot,

we're going to be talking about this race on June 9th. If the people of Maine now decide that they want Janet Mills instead of Graham Platner, because of this last scandal and everything else, them, like, they should do that, and then then the national party should get behind Janet Mills, and will be off to November, probably. Like, she quit. Right, because he's going to say, because she saw the writing on the wall, because she, because she didn't want to go down in her last race,

but it was just fine. But if Platner gets a ton of votes in the primary and still does

“really well, then, like, that's what the people of Maine wanted and they met him. And they didn't,”

you know, it wasn't just online discourse like they met him. So we got to, we got to kind of take the lead of the people in Maine. Yeah, so there's a lot of like, I know we're all used to losing and being fucking losers. And we come out of loser mentality. And like, a loser mentality is like, like, this is bad. We have to do something else. I'm scared. I don't like this. This is bad. I'm dumb with this. We can't do this. We have to do something else. And it's like, guys,

he's, if there, if there, if there are someone else running, you could have a debate and maybe vote for somebody else. He's right now the only person that's going to put it up a fight for this race. If you want to say that Janet Mills should get back in, if you want to say that he should drop out, whatever, say what you want, but really what you're saying is, I'm worried he's going to lose. Well, people are also comparing it to like that. Well, people push Biden out when they

thought that Biden did something. I'm like, but that was the opposite. Because in that scenario, the whole country didn't want Biden and Biden and his campaign were saying, yes, yes, you will

“get him no matter what. Well, that was, this is a, this is a flip thing where the voters have”

made or like, no, no, we like him and then other people are worried about it. You know, it's just a different. The Biden thing is so, it could come to that when people lose their mind. When nobody was challenging Biden and Biden was the nominee and it still seemed like there was a chance he could win. That was actually when we, when we were talking about how we were concerned, he wasn't addressing his age issues, but he's going to be the person. So, we've got to do everything

we can to help him win because he's the only person that we're going to have. Then he eats shit in that debate. Joe Biden thought he was having a stroke and tell us at the time, okay, babe, but, but, but then it was now clear that he could not win. And so it was time to do something in an emergency because it was pragmatic. It was crazy. It was, it was risky, but it was actually pragmatic because it was the only hope of winning the election. Nobody can make that argument right now based on

the polls around ground, ground, planet. They just can't. Yeah. All right, so that's that. I'm sure we won't talk about that anymore between now and November. One more thing we couldn't resist over the week in the New York Times published a brutal and hilarious report titled, "Is JD Vance the 2028 frontrunner?" Trump has questions. According to the Times, Trump is, quote, "not so sure about Vance." Trump has pointed out that Vance's political success has largely depended on Trump's

support that Vance takes too many vacations, that Vance opposed the war in Iran, and that Vance frankly sometimes doesn't look or act very presidential. We, of course, didn't want to be unfair to JD. So we thought we'd check the tape of some of the moments in question. Let's, let's play. My wife has the right to skydive, but doesn't jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she's not going to do that, because I don't want my wife jumping out of an airplane.

Well, they say it's racist to do anything. I had a dime out and do, and one today, I'm sure they're going to call that racist too. But what is, what is, Zach, you're going to have to help me out with her name here? I lost my page here. Okay. All right. You can't move me on the

GIMP from Pulp Fiction and Trump wheels and out at little box humiliates and puts him back in.

“The details are so funny. Like, the man who spans one third of his time at Mara Logo,”

things JD Vance takes too many vacations. Delicious. I love that Trump thought the trophy incident that we just watched their twice was as embarrassing as we all did, and that it just exposed JD is just like a phony non-sports fan loser. I love this Susie Wiles took away JD's phone privileges in the United States. In the United States they are tweeting like he's some, you know, like her teenage son got in trouble. That clip of Trump scolding JD for talking and meetings and not acting like

some like CCP commissar is beautiful. Like they set him up. They went through his failure tour, it was the Iran talks, the Victor Orban campaign stop in Indiana Republicans trying to job on them into redistricting failure failure failure failure. He killed Pope Francis. People forget about that, but JD Vance was so annoying to Pope Francis. That is in America. Yeah, he did get us a better puppy. Which, who he then now he attacks him. Don't be a terrible shot. I've been dribbled. Yeah,

like ultimately like this is a win-win for Trump, right? Because if whoever comes next to his JD

or Rubio, whoever, if they win, Trump will say, that's because of me, if they lose, he'll say, can't win without Trump, right? So he's pumped no matter what, but it is so fun watching him just fuck with these guys. One other thing that jumped out to is the article just states it as a fact that I didn't really, wouldn't have had occurred to me as a fact that Trump is just spending more time with Rubio than he is with JD Vance because Rubio was of course not just Secretary of State. He's

national screwdriver and JD Vance can't ride on the plane with Trump because he's vice president, vice president can't go on here for someone with the president just doesn't happen. And so he's a little bit outside of things. I will say that the like, the JD Vance is whole life just having phomo. Yeah, the Vance, probably is more power in the Trump administration than Commonwealth Harris did in the Biden administration. I would say, he has more actively involved. He's in the room for

“big decisions. I think I think they've given him almost as annoying jobs though. For sure, for sure,”

but I think they actually listen when he says stuff. I'm on the run. That's true. Well, yeah, fair enough. But I mean, even though he was by the end, Benz was saying he was in favor of doing if we're going to go big or go home. So even he tried to stand the right side of that. But anyway, I think like what Trump sees is what we see. It's like Vance can't help but reveal his nature. He can't help it. He can't help it. He can't go into a donut shop and be normal. He doesn't know

how to talk to people because he's putting on a show. But they're like that like ambitious little nerd that kind of like that thing inside of him. It just can't stop from coming out. And it makes everyone including Trump uncomfortable. And I love it. I just want to zoom in again on the social media part with my Twitter pen pal, J.D. Vance. This is what the time says. In meetings, Mr. Vance frequently scrolls his phone and he uses social media to fight

with his critics. The president frequently post a truth social, but he does not spend time replying to people online as Mr. Vance does. I just love that they have separated out the kind of poster like reply guy. Trump's out there. He's posting like 30 times a night in the middle of the night. Yeah, he's a producer really. He's putting it up. And Mr. Vance is there just replying to people online. How dangerous are? Sue's wilds and the other staff have all gotten together to tell him

to have an intervention and say that the fighting was beneath his office. The idea that anyone and that fucking building is going to tell anyone what's beneath the office. And yes, I do. I know I have to literally believe it, but they made him say it was for lent. Yeah, you know, I like it so much. I just kept it off my phone. Giving up for lent. I love that. I love that. I took it off my phone

finally. You did this weekend. I'm proud of you. It was the platinum stuff that did it. I was like,

yeah, that discourse is real. I saw it starting blowing up. I was like, I'm just going to save my thoughts for Monday. I can't have a grandpa having a thing and then two fights going on. Dave importantly tweets at me. And then Nira, we've like five tweets. I was like, I'm done. Yeah, you know, it's like the amount of adrenaline that's coming out of the phone.

“Quadranial tweet review where like you can't be fight. You have to be able to hold one front”

and also win on another front at the same time. Is that how I said this more like the JD Vance thing? Yeah, I'll fight with JD Vance. I'm like, no, that this is what I did this week. I was not good. Okay, not good. Yes, I found nice to admit that. When we come back, New Jersey Senator Andy Kim will talk to me about the conditions at an ice detention center in Newark where he was also pepper sprayed by federal agents.

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Center Andy Kim. Welcome back to Potset America. Yeah. Thanks for having me back. So for anyone who hasn't been following the story, there's a privately run ice detention center in Newark called Delaney Hall, around 300 people are being held inside. Some have started a hunger strike over the conditions. You tried to visit last Sunday. We're turned away. Got in on Monday, Memorial Day. And then by the end of the day, you got pepper sprayed by federal agents.

Can you just walk us through that whole experience and what you saw? Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for shining our life on this because this is a problem not just for us in New Jersey, but all over this country. This is a facility. It has about 800 right now. Several hundred of them participating in the hunger strike and the broader protests. But I was been able to go there a couple of times and look, you know, some of the things that I've heard most recently. You know,

“these are people that are, for instance, a man telling me that he's got stage three, lung cancer.”

Doesn't want to be with any more willing to go back to his home country, but not being allowed to do so, not getting the medical care that he needs. There's a pregnant woman there telling me that she's not getting the medical care that she needs as she's gearing up to have a baby. And she's literally looking in the eye and she's saying, like, do I need to be prepared to have a baby here in Delaney Hall? You know, they, they, she has no movement on her case, you know,

no understanding what's happened next on the court. You know, the woman that was translating this for me, you know, turned out to be an 18-year-old high school senior who's in there by herself. I actually talked to her mom outside of Delaney Hall and she's worried sick. You can imagine, you know, having your, your daughter in 18-year-old high school senior in a detention facility by herself. You know, this is a young woman who was telling me, "All she wanted to do is go to the

prom and graduate from high school this year." And so like when Trump's telling you, these are the worst of the worst telling you that he's going after the violent criminals. You know, I, I wanted the people across this country to just hear what I'm hearing inside that facility. And sure, they're, they're complaining and, and raising the concerns about the medical care, where the lack of medical care about the, you know, the horrible problems where they're having

with food, like one man ran up to me with a milk carton and showed me what was inside and it was just congealed solid on the inside. I'm just disgusting. And, you know, they're raising concerns about the extreme heat that they're feeling that I felt the two as I'm sweating there in their room and it wasn't even a particularly hot day. But what they were also flagging is just like the lack of any movement on their cases. I mean, some of them, therefore, eight months, some of them

live for over a year, not having any movement forward in any credible way. You know, one man ran to the hallway and grabbed a piece of paper off the bulletin board and, you know, showed it to me. And it showed me that, like, on one day, you know, when the courts came back in the session after the Memorial Day weekend, on one day, on that Tuesday, this one just had 74 cases before her in, you know, in just one day. And like, you know, I did the back of the napkin mat. That's like about

five minutes per case. I mean, it's a force of a legal process that's just, you know, keeping them there while, you know, while these conditions are terrible, not moving anything forward and who's paying the bill? It's us. It's a taxpayer dollars that are paying, you know, geo group, you know, millions of millions of dollars to run these facilities. So that's, you know, that's, that's

at least what I saw inside. First of all, that is just horrific. And it seems like the delay in

hearing these cases is both a function of how many people they are detaining, clearly not the

legally, as well as just the sort of failure to properly resource the immigration courts with

“enough judges and to properly resource these facilities. Is that, is that what you took away from”

as well? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, look, you know, some of this is absolutely just a lack of investment. I mean, like, where, like, as they're surging up ice and CBP through the reconciliation bill. And I'm, you know, down here at the Capitol now, because there are about to try to push another,

you know, $60, $70 billion towards the enforcement side. But where's the energy towards,

towards the courts? You know, we already had millions of cases of backlog that was going to take a decade or so just to be able to get through, like we all know that we need to invest in the courts that we could have a judicial process that can hopefully take on these cases in a matter of days and weeks rather than years or even longer. And that should, you know, that backlog is what is putting so much strain on our, our system and it's costing us so much. So that's part of it,

“but like, well, you can't help but think through. I mean, like, this is geo group, you know,”

for those that don't, you know, may not be following this geo group to for profit company that runs this facility runs 19 other facilities around this country in charge of detaining over 20,000 people for ice. You know, this is a group that, you know, it's just making money off of this all like, they're just printing money off of this all. You know, they're getting paid by the bed by the day, you know, so they're not certainly complaining about this process. And like when you,

you can't help but think like, look, when Tom Holman comes from geo group into the White House,

they're run this process. When they just showed, actually, today's the first day of the new

head of ice that they just picked, and again, stray from geo group, like you can't help but think, like this revolving door of just profiting off of this, you know, human misery, you can't help

“but think like this is the point that they are trying to make things so bad for the detainees there,”

that detainees just give up and sign whatever papers that they want or whatnot. And, you know, and I felt it there, like there was just so little accountability, like, as you said, I tried to get into the facility on Monday or early in the day. I tried to get him. I actually even let them know ahead of time and got approval to be able to go into the facility at that. I show up the gates and the geo group guards are just like, nope, you're not allowed in.

And, and you're like, I'm a US senator and I've had authorization to do this authorization by law as well as the permission to come. I literally had to call Secretary Mark Wayne Mullet. I talked to him

and told him, like, let me inside. Like, I have a right to be inside. And so finally, they let me

inside and I go inside. And I talked to the head of geo group in the facility. I told him, by the way, your guards just told me that I can't come inside. And he just looked at me and he said, you're a liar. He just literally took my face, called me a liar. I mean, like, I give you that, not because it was insulting to me. But I give you that because I want you to understand, like, the kinds of, of dynamics that there are. Like, that that situation was very indicative to me

of the lack, just a lack of care about any accountability or transparency. Like, they don't feel geo group doesn't feel beholden to the American people. Certainly doesn't feel beholden to conquerors. And that is, you know, that is because of just this dynamic between ice and groups like geo group and core civic and these other companies, like they're just in a world and a league of their own. They're just like operating off in their own. And because, you know,

speaker Johnson and others are just giving them that kind of a carte watch. So they were just in some, you know, in some world of their own and feel nothing, you know, and then so when I, and then when I came out from that facility and was alerted by my team and the people on the ground that there was now, like, a standoff of people outside. So not only is there chaos inside the lady all, but now I come up and emerge outside and see that there's a standoff between ice agents.

You know, they have a row of ice agents that are armed. They have an armored vehicle. They, and they're, you know, just, and a standoff with the, the protesters there. I mean, look, you know, like, my immediate concern was like, this cannot become Minnesota. We saw what happened to Renee Good and Alex pretty. I, I was terrified that, you know, we're going to see that type of violence and, and, and potentially bloodshed in the streets. So I was trying to figure out, like,

is there any, any way to be able to offer amt this? Is there any way we can be able to, to, to,

And the sample and you just told me, like, look, we're going to just drive these vehicles. Our

vehicles out. And, and I looked across the, the, the field there. And I said, like, you cannot just simply plow your vehicles through a crowd of, of civilians. Like, you, you have to try to figure out, you know, how we can try to do this without the violence. And, look, I was trying to see if there's any arrangement. But, like, again, like, it shouldn't be just on me, like, when it comes to

“escalation, like, what role are there officers supposed to play? Like, and that's what I think”

was so alarming, John is like, there was just, like, at some point, just a feeling of inevitable violence. And it was just so jarring to me. Like, the ease with which ice just went out and drove

their vehicles literally through a crowd, just not even, like, not even putting effort to try to

avoid that circumstance. It shouldn't be that easy to have violence in the streets of America. Like, it shouldn't be that easy for federal agents that are supposed to swear the same oath that I swear about protecting and defending the constitution and supporting the American people to find themselves in a circumstance. So it just, like, you know, I saw this unfold and immediately, you know, my instinct was to run, run into it and try to put myself between the ice agents

and the crowd. I was trying to keep that physical separation, because that is where we saw so much of the violence escalated in Minnesota. If I could at least keep them physically separated, you know, perhaps we could avoid the worse. But it was, it was, it was, it was so jarring. It was, it was really scary just to see that type of violence in my state, frankly, anywhere in the country. And to know that, you know, this is still, could very well be, you know, a problem

that we see continue in my state and elsewhere. And so because you put your body in between the protesters and the ice agents, the federal agents, eventually they started shooting pepper balls.

“I believe that there was one that struck by your feet and, you know, you inhaled it as well.”

Secretary Mullen and DHS are saying just a number of things that don't seem to be true and certainly are not your account that there is no hunger strike that the complaints are about certain inmates not getting or certain people that are being held by the facility, not getting their ethnic food of choice, that the conditions aren't bad, that nobody was directly struck by pepper balls, just about you. What do you make of just the, what, what they're saying about all of

this? Well, well, first of all, just again, like I saw what I saw, like I talked to the people,

like there is a hunger strike going on inside and a larger protest. And there are certainly people that are not getting basic care, you know, like, like again, they're not, they're not, they're not asking for the moon. They're, they're, they're, they're asking for just a certain

“baseline of human dignity as, as we're going, especially as we're, again, keeping them there”

for indefinite amounts of time. I mean, there was, I was in the medical isolation area and there was a, a man there in the wheelchair. He had left that room in four months because like that facility is just not meant to handle someone with a wheelchair. So they're like, you're stuck in this room now, like, you know, and like, not able to go, did, did to go and, and leave, he was like, can I, at least be at a hospital? And frankly, look, there was actually someone who was sent to a hospital,

a woman that was sent to a hospital for quite, for no quite a number of days. By the time I got there was, like, day 12 or 40, the family didn't even know where this woman was. They, because I wouldn't tell her what hospital that she was at because of security concerns. So you can't tell them where you're, hospital, which hospital you're at, they can tell them the nature of the, you know, the severity of the problem that she had to be at a hospital. I mean, she was there for, like,

12 to 14 days. That's a, that's a significant amount of time in the hospital. And the family is no idea that they can't visit them. And so I asked, like, like, what can the family do to learn about this? And literally, like, it breaks my brain thinking about this. Like, I slipped me in the eye and said, oh, the family can FOIA this information. I mean, just like thinking through myself, like, what? Like, their family member could be in some life-threatening situation at

a hospital. And you want them to FOIA this information about their loved one. Like, that's like, just the craziness. So, like, when, you know, when Secretary Mollon or others say this, you know, they're just in, like, their image control mode. They saw what happened in Minnesota, when the American people actually saw what was happening. And, and the American people,

Yeah. And whether that's for American citizens or anybody in this country. And frankly, look, a lot of the people I met with at Delaney Hall, they are married to American citizens and parents

“of kids that are American citizens. You know, so that's what I think they're afraid of. They're”

afraid that the American people will understand and learn the truth about what is happening in their name without our money, but without our say and without our approval. And that's just you know, that's just wrong. And that's what needs to be changed here. You know, and we have the capacity to do so. It's just a matter of political will that says the administration refuses to put towards this. I know that Governor Cheryl sent in state police to help set up protests zones

and sort of asked demonstrators to lower the temperature. Some of the activists outside Delaney heard that is, is her policing them instead of the feds. Where do you come down on some of the, the tension between trying to conduct oversight, give people a safe space to protest while also

trying to maintain safety in, you know, the general area? Yeah, I mean, first of all, look, I mean,

“this is chaos that is inherited from ICE that they have been fulfillment and they look,”

they've been threatening to bring many, many more ICE agents to New Jersey, you know, basically threatening, you know, a surge similar to Minnesota. So I understand, look, we're going to try to avoid that scenario. But look, you know, there are legitimate concerns at Delaney Hall. And as a result, there are legitimate, you know, legitimate reasons to be able to protest that. And I want to make sure that we are trying to address that, like we are allowing that kind of space. I get it,

like, you know, we can't have this unrest continue on. In fact, I'm hearing it from the families of the detainees saying that it's been preventing them from being able to visit their loved ones, that attorneys are not able to get access because, you know, because of some of the roads and shut down and other things. So, like, look, like, we want to make sure we're not getting in the way and losing sight of what we're really trying to address, which is the detainees and

their conditions. But like, there's got to be a way that we can do this, you know, while we're also making sure that, you know, people have the rights afforded to them in the constitution, especially for free speech. So, like, I'm, I'm trying to work on this, trying to address this. I talked with not only the governor's team, but also, you know, Mayor Baracka from Newark to try to think through, like, what other steps, what other ways can we do this that isn't going to

just further inflame, you know, what is already this horrible situation that I says, you know, thrown our state into. But, you know, it is, it is difficult, but I'm, I'm trying my best to be able to push forward and, you know, in a way that is going to make sure that, again, we're keeping the needs and the plight of the detainees front and center here. As you mentioned, you know, one opportunity to sort of make some change here is, you know, the Senate schedule to consider

this $72 billion budget bill funding for ICE that would fund ICE through the end of Trump's term. Obviously, it doesn't seem like Democrats have the votes to stop it in the Senate, because it's it would only require 51 votes, but are you, um, and/or other Democrats planning to offer any amendments that you think might actually be able to pass with some Republican support that might rain in some of the abuses we're talking about, um, or, or, you know, make any kind of corrections

to some of the things that you saw. Well, look, here's what Layla, Layoff for you. I mean,

there are a whole slew of problems that are facing Delaney. And I want people to know, like, it's not that Delaney is not some bad apple that is just, you know, we just have to address that. This is a system-wide family. Yeah. And I'm problem. As I said, you know, geo groups got 19 other facilities, you know, core civic and other, I mean, like, and, and then now, you know, ICE is trying to build these warehouse detention facilities, and hopefully we can push back

and stop this, but there's a broader problem, systemic, not just in the culture, but just in,

“in the broader process. And, and that's what I'm trying to expose, you know, and so there's”

three things in particular, I'm trying to push towards, both through the legislation is through

other means, you know, like, first, like, let's get, let's surge some medical support to Delaney

and these other facilities, like, like, they're clearly people who are not getting the care that they need. And, and Secretary Mollink can dispute that, but again, it's not what I'm hearing, it's not what I'm seeing. And, and I just don't see why anyone's going to stand the way and say, like, look, let's just try to see. I mean, the DHS has a medical unit, you know, we can be able to surge up there in that kind of capacity right away. Like, right now, they have one doctor for one

concerns. So, like, that's what I'm trying to do initially. Like, let's surge up there. Let's have,

you know, number two, like, let's have, like, a real investigation into these different claims that are about there, whether it's about the food or the other conditions. And, number three, the detainees were very clear with me that it's not just about the conditions. It's just, it's about having that movement forward on their cases. So, I'm trying to, again, take what I'm hearing and figure out how to put it in the action. You know, I've been talking to Secretary

Mullin this week telling him what I'm hearing on the ground trying to see what we can move for, because they could do this on their own if they wanted to, right now, you know, they could demand, you know, additional doctors, they could demand, you know, efforts to be able to surge this.

“And that's what I hope people understand. Like, geo group got a nearly billion dollar contract”

for Delaney Hall. So, they could hire more doctors tomorrow today, but that's going to be less profit for them, right? Like, they could, they could have better quality food or fix the extreme heat that I'm hearing, but then, again, that's cutting into their profits, right? So, where we can change that. So, I have been, and we'll continue to be pushing for amendments, one of these lines of just saying, like, let's have a baseline of medical resources available.

I hope we can all agree that regardless of the circumstances that someone's in there, like, we want to make sure that they're getting some semblance of medical care for key needs. You know, I'm trying to push forward on something that is about de-escalation tray. I literally submitted that amendment before I even went back to Delaney Hall about how we can ensure that there's de-escalation trading for ICE and CBP after what we saw at Minnesota,

and every single Republican on the Homeland Security Committee voted against my amendment. You know, and then I went back to Delaney and saw and experienced what I did. So, I'm pushing forward, but again, like, this is something where we really need the American people to kind of come behind us on this. You know, the only times we've seen this administration back down or pull back has been when there is wide public outrage. You know, we saw that with

Minnesota. You know, we see that actually just today. It looks like we're seeing it when Trump administration

seems to be back to not that $1.8 billion slush fund for January 6 rioters.

“I hope that's true that they're back and off of that. But like, you know, that's what we really”

need is for us to say, like, you know, this cannot be what is happening in our country and to be able to try to stop it. And I know, you know, reconciliation and vote around us in the Senate. This is not, like, must watch TV. Like, this is not something that's going to necessarily, like, you know, have people tuning in at whatever God out, God awful hour in the middle of a night that, you know, the Republicans for assessed to vote on these. But like, I asked people, please, like,

like, for my stay for our country, like, please tune in to what is happening because what they're

trying to do is give upwards of $70 billion more for ICE and CBP. Not only is there no reforms

in accountability in there, like, what Americans have been demanding since Minnesota. But there's not a dollar in there for you to help you with your healthcare. There's not a dollar in there for you to help you with your groceries or for the rising gas prices. There's nothing in it for you. It's just more money that's going straight into geo groups, pockets to just continue this lawlessness that we see. This cannot stand. And this is something that we have to do everything we

can to let people know and try to push back against this in Congress. Senator, I know you have to run because you're working on this issue, but I just wanted to say thank you for joining us and thank you for everything you're doing to highlight this issue and including literally putting your body in the way at Delaney. So please let us know how we can help and thank you again.

“Yeah, thanks so much for shining a light on this. It's so important.”

Thanks to Andy Kim for coming on. Alex Wagner 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-Chirlin, Elijah Cone and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hefko, Jordan Canter, Charlotte Landist, Carol Pelevi, David Tolz, Mia Kalman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Sengel. Our staff is probably unionized with the

writer's Guild of America East.