Trump Held a Fair And (Almost) No One Came

Nothing says summer like cookouts, vacations, and hoping your neighbor remembers to bring in your package while you're away.

“Or you could skip the worry altogether with Simplasafe because their outdoor protection”

can actually help stop porch pirates before they strike, don't like those porch pirates. With Simplasafe you can customize your system to fit your needs, then ships fast, directly to your door. The app guided set up is simple and there's no drilling required so you can install and arm your system under an hour.

Simplasafe is more than just a security camera. It's a comprehensive system of sensors indoor and outdoor cameras and 24/7 professional monitoring.

Over 5 million people value and trust Simplasafe with their home security every day.

John Love it installed Simplasafe all by himself and while very proud of him. We've been singing this praises on this for many years now. But he likes it and he can operate it from your phone and keeps you nice and safe, great technology. So check it out.

Right now our listeners will get 50% off a new system when you sign up for a professional monitoring and your first month is free just visit Simplasafe.com/cricket that's half off at Simplasafe.com/cricket there's no safe like Simplasafe. . On and there's the site 2013.

We're on the right track.

“The biggest advantage of shopping is that we don't need any technical information for you.”

We can all go back and get the front end and so on and so on to go to the online shop. We're on the right track, then we're on the right track. This is just the main track. Our whole business is going to be on shopping. We're now on the right track of shopping.com.

Welcome to Pledge of America. I'm John Fever. On today's show we got major Supreme Court decisions on mail-in voting and Donald Trump's right to fire agency heads. He doesn't like it's decision time for Trump on the bipartisan housing bill which he has threatened to hold hostage

until the save act passes. And Democratic Socialists are feeling the momentum after last week's primaries in New York with big primaries in Colorado today. Then Heather Williams president of the Democratic Legislative campaign committee stopped by to talk about

Republican trifectors and building Democratic ones in a bunch of key states and how critical it is that you get involved

in the down ballot races happening wherever you are. But let's begin where Trump kicked off his week posting this at 6.30 a.m. on Monday. Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American

“State Fair at the National Mall packed with happy people and everybody loving it?”

Question mark. Ask yourself this simple question. And now we're in now we're in all caps. Do you think that Obama? He wants to say Obama, but he spells at OBUMA, so it's like Obama.

Yeah, it just looks like a type of. Yeah, he's like a bummer. Right. Of course. He's not quite getting there.

Do you think that Obama or sleepy Joe Biden could have done it? The answer is a no.

President is of course referring to the 16 day exposition on the National Mall that will run through

July 10th to celebrate America's 250th birthday an event run by Freedom 250, which is the entity Trump created to compete with America 250, which is the bipartisan entity created by Congress years ago. By 16 days. That's such a weird number of days.

Yeah, I don't know. Okay. I don't know. It's a good question. I don't have the opportunity.

Two weeks with an extra weekend. Okay. I started the last week. To be sad. It's not weeks really work.

Right. But it'll be a set you because of the Saturday to a Sunday. Okay. Yeah. Two weeks.

Two weeks. This is the one thing you got right. I guess. Anyway. The perception that Trump turned America's 250th into a partisan event caused all the state

fair musical acts to drop out with the exception of Florida and vanilla ice. Ten states have also decided not to participate and the opening weekend was plagued by extreme heat, rain, power outages, and sparse crowds. You never know this. If you listen to Maga Worlds where everyone thinks it's going great.

Happy early birthday. America. We're celebrating already at the great American state fair. We've got thousands of people celebrating this birthday with us. You've ever in your wildest dreams.

Thank you. Maybe doing your Sunday show from a state fair on the national mall. How great is that? It's really.

And the weather. Not the best today.

But people are still coming out.

To help me out. I want to be a part of this. It's a great day for Larry. Good afternoon. Perhaps now the closing bell is here.

We're going to get more people out of there. Now that work is done. The latest with the wrong. If you look behind us, you see. There are a couple of hundred people back there.

“But the truth is, when you make your way over here and you're in this lot year in a wash of people.”

There's tons of people here. It's a huge space. And it's just going to get more and more fabulous as the week goes on. We have to give a big round of applause for our military band in singers way better than those lip tards that cancel down us.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy talking about the lip tards. What do you guys think? Happy 250th. Thanks.

How are you feeling about the festivities?

Trump has organized the Freedom 250. America 250 split in the ten states that aren't participating. I thought the performance by Mani was really good. You guys catch that one. You didn't see Maggie Mani, the live streamer who jerked off in front of the acrobatics.

I forgot about the guy. He forgot about it. And the Uncle Sam caused it. 54-year-old right wing maga streamer did not think 54 was the number. A rest of the younger.

A rest about it. A rest about it. Police for masturbating. In front of an acrobat group called The Cirque Mechanics. Can you blame him?

According to the independent. Fairly. Really he was vaping recording. And then had a hand through the pocket of the overall hat. So he's holding the engagement.

In the front. In the front. I was going to say how many hands do you have? Another witness said he came back for round two later.

“And that's what I think the park police got him.”

Not bad 54. That's a good point. Yeah. I love it. It did look sparse.

But now that the closing bell. The traders leaving the floor of the stock exchange. We're in DC going to run up to go check out the latest quilting I suppose. Also, there's just something about all the like. The thing that I was thinking about is watching this over the weekend is just how much.

Like the whole maga world is online. It just exists online. It's a bunch of people complaining online. The caricatures of the cities that are going to hell online. Just people talking to each other about how America's going down the tubes on the internet and on Fox News.

But like Larry Cudlow's like, oh, it looks like a. What's the last time Larry Cudlow had a fucking corn dog? What's the last time he walked around to state fair? Like none of these people look like they're at home in a kind of outdoor event. We've got to go.

Go ahead with the clue. So funny that Fox News State TV decided to go all in on this event. And the net effect is they have to do like sweltering live shots out doors in front of no one. It's just green field. No one.

And then many jerk and off. I also love that. The comment. Did you ever think you'd be doing your live shot from. A state fair.

I pathetic. Yeah. What does it look like? It's a get it. Who would have fun kids?

But it just doesn't mean it's like these are just people that seem like kind of unfamiliar with the country on some level. Like state bears are great. They're all over the country. There are a lot of different most states in turn. That's right.

Yeah. And there and you can go and there's like actually the news were we've got. Often broadcasts from them and tell you about the latest deep fried foods. It's like that was the vibe. You could have had if this weren't taken over by Trump.

Like he took. He took something that was bipartisan and a decade in the middle. And a decade in the making. You can actually go online and read with your original plan. As I don't think it would have, you know, what is going to change the country or anything.

But it would have been nice. There was like a lot of events happening all across the country. There would have been kind of like a kind of a national event for craft makers. There would have been big concerts by famous people. There was a lot of money set aside.

Trump took that money. Give it to freedom to 50. Turned it into a partisan. Boone doggle. And now nobody's showing up.

And for even though it's a 501c3 apparently donors who donate a million dollars or more can secure an invitation to a private reception hosted by Trump himself. There's not a lot of transparency on the finances of freedom to 50. Even though they've taken most of the money that was supposed to go to America. From taxpayers.

And we do have some corporate sponsors as well. Of course your North Grummans, your united health groups, your space exes.

“You see the little army robot dog marching around like filming people and performing?”

It's very dystopian. The Ferris wheel. I read Devil on the White City recently. I'm an Eric Larson Kick which is about the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. I believe.

And that was when the first Ferris wheel was built. And it was this marvel because they were trying to rival the Eiffel Tower.

And all the Europeans were like, "Oh, those Americans will never be able to build a thing."

And then we built a Ferris wheel that was basically a steel tower that moved. It was amazing. Like America is building an Eiffel Tower. Basically the size of Eiffel Tower.

And you would rotate. Freak people to fuck out when they people tried to jump off it. They were freaking out. Because like we were saying, you know what? Each ship you're up.

We're going to make something awesome. We're going to build skyscrapers. We're going to be a cool country. And wait till you see what America's going to do. And now here we are 130 years later.

We've got this jack-off. But you know, doing his version of a great American state fair. Quite literally a joke. And with jack-offs with jack-offs to spare. And you see the Ferris wheel with broken for hours.

Because of generator issues.

And also there were power outages that spoiled all the food and melted all the ice cream on the first day.

And last minute vanilla ice cancelled because of the inclement weather. He had previously said Rainer Shine. He was going to be there. Did you read the profile? That doesn't sound like the vanilla ice.

I know. Did you read his profile on the Atlantic? Yes. Fascinating. He claims to have performed for the Taliban.

Just one little tidbit for him to wet your beak. Oh, read the rest.

“Do you remember when he said that? I believe he said that.”

This is a government where he feels at home, though. Yeah, wet that out. It's kind of rulers. That he hadn't taken under pressure. Was not he a claim like the vanilla ice thing that he hadn't taken under pressure.

There's a great clip where he's like, "No, that one's doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed." And mine is doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed. That's the same thing. That's the same thing.

It's also funny. Some of them mailed it in. Like, can I get Maine? I think shared a space. Put up four chairs.

And then Maine just had lobster facts on the wall. Yeah. And a token cup. It's good. It's a state bird, I believe.

Yeah, I guess I-- I mean, the North Carolina booth had a Confederate flag up, so you're not-- Yeah, that's right. You're not far from it. Well, because that was because North Carolina didn't do it,

so like a private somehow. Somehow, someone other people did it.

Even though, by the way, that was never any--

That flag was not the North Carolina flag. Not associated with the state of North Carolina. So they just wanted to throw it up there. It's just kind of a bummer. Like, it's not the biggest deal of anything,

“but the 250th anniversary could have been a moment”

where, you know, a president decided to try to-- At least try to bring the country together, or didn't try to bring the country together, but at least offered entertainment that anyone could--

It's a welcome. Yeah, we didn't even-- You could feel welcome, you know, participating. He could've just done nothing. He could've just let the group, America 250,

that existed had bipartisan membership. Had a lot of his allies on it. Come on, make a little speech on the fourth. Yeah, that would've been offensive to us. He would've come out there and said something terrible.

Right. But whatever, he could've just let it happen. Yeah. But instead, he got his-- His mits on it.

No, I ruined it.

I was at NBC, and then the New Republic went out

and interviewed a bunch of people. And, you know, even people that didn't like Trump were like, "It's fine." This is great. This is cool.

And I do like the one attending named Scott said to the New Republic, "I like this." I don't really take Trump into consideration. He's going to be gone in three years, dead in ten. He's not going to take away my joy of this event.

He's the president, but he's not God, even though he thinks he is.

“I wasn't going to come to this, but then I thought,”

"You know, I'm not going to let him take it away." I like that. Good for you, Scott. I like that. That is the attitude I want to hear from all the lives.

That's like good. That's right. Don't let him take it away. But, yeah. You're either taking away the fireworks show in DC

doesn't start until 11 p.m. Eastern. Because he has to give a long speech, right? That's what there's very high. Maybe it's weather, too. That's so late.

It's so late for fireworks. We're so old. We're so old. We're so old. No, that's crazy.

No. The sun goes down. You look up when sunset is. Whenever that is, I want five minutes. I want five minutes later.

Explosions in the sky. Kids to be able to. When I was a kid. Yeah, we used to. Our time was like nine p.m.

Yes. 9 p.m. That's it. That's it. 11 is a wild start.

Now she says a late sunset. That makes a lot of sense. Oh, there we go. Okay. I'm sorry.

I'm getting on my, my high horse. So one DC event that will undoubtedly be packed. Crooked kind of November. And it's fine to crank one out in front of the main stage there. Yes.

Yes. It's been time. We feel like, you know, he's got someone else. Yeah. You can still get tickets for that.

And you can get discounted tickets. If you become a Crooked subscriber, you also get ad for episodes of all your favorite Crooked Pods, subscriber only shows. Substack newsletters and much more. Sign up at Crooked.com/friends.

So with his fair getting rained out on Sunday, Trump spent the morning moderating around the capital. He's busy rebuilding as a monument to himself. He toured the East Potomac golf links and we'll start renovations on that federally owned public course September 1st despite a federal judge threatening quote serious consequences if he moves

ahead without approval, which he seems to be doing. The president is also planning to redesign Lafayette Park, which is the one right in front of the White House, so that it contains exactly 47 maple trees in honor of Trump. That's according to the Washington Post. And if you're in town visiting and hop on over to the Washington Passport agency, you might be able

to pick up a limited edition US passport featuring a photo of Trump at the Resolute Desk in front of the Declaration of Independence, which Trump described as saying, quote, "Welcome, but be good," even though those words don't actually appear in the passport or make any sense. Yes, that's not what's passports are for.

I did when I saw this, he said this passport says this and a lot of you were like,

You can only get it here. It's to leave some green cars."

Right, it's to leave it come back. I think he's a little confused.

“But I think he was describing his own portrait in a way.”

I think he was his way of saying, "My angry face here saying, "Welcome, but be good." Well, because we could take your path, it was a citizenship thing. We could take your citizenship. That would be my interpretation of it. Limited edition, Act Now, well, supplies last.

Closer to home, the Atlantic's Michael Share, found out that the new White House Collinade Walkway, made of quote, "polished African granite carved in Italy." The Trump said he paid for himself was actually paid for by us. About $690,000 charged to the taxpayers. I didn't even know that had happened.

No, I didn't even. I didn't even. There was apparently another couple hundred thousand dollars spent on the wall next to the Wallinade because remember he put up the pictures and you had to do something to the wall. I don't know why it cost that much money to do something to the wall in order to put up all those pictures.

And so that cost money as well. Have you guys said thank you yet? Have you even said thank you? Just a math scores in the schools are continuing to slide. It's going to flag some problems that are getting worse while he's been president.

“I think that the Lafayette Park 47 tree tribute demand is actually quite instructive.”

Because for those who've never been to Washington, D.C. or gone to Lafayette Park, it is nothing.

I can't overstate how underwhelming in shitty of a little park. It is. I've been through it a thousand times. I'm sure you guys have to because like you get off the bus. You get off the metro.

You walk a block and you walk through it to get to the White House. And it's like usually there's just a lot of squirrels and like a couple crazy people. And then that one protest. It's been there for like 30 years. The antiwar protest.

But the fact that like he needs that to be a tribute to himself means that like no narcissistic stone will go unturned by this man. It's also no one knows if he wants to add trees or subtract trees. Because no one knows how many trees there are in Lafayette Park. Because who would count such a thing? It's just a park with a bunch of trees.

And now we're going to go figure out whether we have to add more trees or day for more trees. And there are multiple trees on this favor. Oh, yeah, it's got to go with this favor. But everything's everything's by him. His favorite trees, his favorite, his picture everywhere. I got to say, though, you know, at this point, the art great.

I want him in as many fucking tree meetings and arc meetings and and pool meetings as possible. He is not busy enough.

“If you want to plan to couple trees, we're just three chop trees away from it being the Obama Lafayette Park tribute.”

So whatever. Have we have at it. Part planter fucking trees. Fucking asshole. It's in where it's the the absurdity you imagine.

Could you imagine if if in the last year of his administration Joe Biden was wandering around the various grounds talking about the renovations. He was going to be doing what kind of reaction you would be hearing right now from from from the right. It'd be you hear from us. You hear from us. Twenty five years.

Oh, boy. All right, planter way buddy. Planter way. Yeah, enjoy those trees. Let's get to some more consequential news. The premium court handed down a few big decisions on Monday as it closes out its term.

The court declined to throw out the 2023 jury verdict finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Eugene Carroll.

Meaning he has to pay her that five million dollars.

In a six three ruling where three conservatives joined the liberals. The court also helped the fourth amendment covers your cell phone location history. Even when you've agreed that a third party like Google or Apple can record it. Meaning police now need a specific warrant to get it rather than a so-called geo fence warrant. The sweeps up the movements of every phone in a particular area.

So that seems good. Both of those seem good, right? We have some other ones to get through. But it's that we start with Eugene Carroll and the in the geo fencing. Yeah, I thought the I've been the geo fencing one is just interesting.

It's also interesting that it's like it's a non ideologically. But it has a kind of a ideological mix ruling. And part because I do think it's like a novel question. And if we are going to have be kind of allowing these companies to track us digitally, including a ways that in a previous era would have been only private information.

And it's still being like Google has already changed their policies. So your location data is stored on your phone. They did that to avoid this issue. But if my phone knows where I am at all times, I view that information as both like my private information and useful to me.

Whether or not it is stored directly on my phone or stored at a server. It remains my private information in the same way that if I had written it all down, and put it in my safe deposit box, it would remain private information. And I think the more that when they're thinking about how to translate our principles into a digital world, the more they're respecting how we actually use things and how what privacy really means,

not sort of the technical definition that sort of blown up by how interconnected and cloud-based so much of our lives are that better. Yeah, definitely it's limited, but it's a good, it's a win in a good day for privacy. I mean, like the government was trying to argue that like just demanding to the little tiny taste of your location history, for a discrete period of time was not a search, which is just nonsense.

so to Mojo, or laid that out, I think she talked about how you can see that someone went to the psychiatrist,

“the plastic surgeon, the abortion clinic, the eighth treatment center, the strip clubs,”

because on and on, then Kagan argued. And then to a concert to jack-off and Kagan. Were you with the great American figure? G-off end of that place. And then Kagan argued that tracking location data isn't really optional. It's like the price we all pay to use a cell phone, so it was nice to see them have a little techno-fluency and understand how this stuff actually works. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts, sided with the liberals.

Interesting, very interesting group. Gorsuch, Gorsuch, the other, and we'll get to the other ones, but the Gorsuch is an interesting, he's an interesting one. I'm like tribal rights in particular. Trump said that he would fight back on the Eugene Carroll thing. It would powerfully and strongly, as I know you won't.

He already transferred $5.5 million to a court-controlled account back in 2023, so she's getting paid.

That's the end of the road for Trump on that one. I can't believe that's the, like, I know. I'm glad she's getting her cash money, but man, there were so many avenues for Trump to face some kind of accountability and him losing five million. While I'm glad, goes to Eugene Carroll is not high on the list of ways in which he could have faced consequences. But there's still an $83 million verdict that he's appealing as well.

That's just one deal in Kazakhstan. Right. [laughs] Positive America is brought to you by Zebiotics. Got to tell you guys about a game-chichi product I use before any night with drinks, it's called pre-alcohol.

Zebiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a build-up of this byproduct, not dehydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking.

Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme that break this byproduct down.

Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink the night drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow.

I cannot recommend the Zebiotics enough. I will not have a drink without it. I think it is just incredibly effective, especially if you're going out for dinner. You have one extra drink, you're doing a work thing, something on a week night.

“You need to feel your best the next day.”

Really, save us in Chicago. Yeah, save us in Chicago, lots of work trips. I cannot recommend it enough. Just give it a shot. Try it one time. Go to zbiotics.com/curkid to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use curkid to check out.

Zebiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions, ask. Go to zbiotics.com/curkid and use the code curkid to check out for 15% off. Pots of America is brought to you by HIMS. ED is more common than guys talk about.

The good news, getting real treatment is simple, and through HIMS, it's 100% online. HIMS connects you with licensed healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options from the privacy of your home. No awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines. Just complete a simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you.

If prescribed, your treatment shifts directly to your door. That includes Sylvain Affle, also known as generic for Viagra, available through HIMS at up to 95% less than the brand name version. If that option isn't right for you, there are additional treatment options available, so you can find what works best for your body.

To get streamlined, online access to personalized affordable care for ED and more, visit HIMS.com/cricket, that's HIMS.com/cricket. HIMS.com/cricket. Not available in all 50 states, prescription required. See website for details, restrictions and important safety information.

Sylvain Affle is the generic version of Viagra Viagra is a registered trademark of Viatras specialty LLC. HIMS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viatras. There were also two big decisions on the president's ability to fire people at independent federal agencies. The results were split.

In a six-three decision, the conservative majority reversed the court's long-standing president, and said that Trump can fire people like FDC commissioner Rebecca Slotter, who brought the case without any specific reason. But, in a five-four decision, the court decided that Fed Governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump and Bill Pulti have accused of mortgage fraud, can stay on the job while litigation continues,

and opposed on treat social Trump said the Slotter ruling "greatly increases presidential power, at a time when it is most needed."

He is right about the first part.

“How do you guys square what the court said about the Cook firing versus what it's saying about all the others?”

Well, so what the court says is that FTC is an entity that exercises executive power. The Fed is different because it's supposed to be a non-political entity that is insulated from presidential pressure. And they argue that the Fed has to be independent because even the appearance of political pressure could destroy the faith in the U.S. economy. Now, I think the FTC case is very bad.

They threw out 91 years of precedent.

The president can now fire leaders at will from the SEC, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the list goes on.

Basically, everywhere about the Fed, everywhere about the Fed.

And he can sort of paralyze his entities by making them not have enough members. They don't have a core of them, so they can't even eat, so it's quite bad. The Fed is different because monetary policy has to be free from political manipulation and perceived meddling. But even in this case, like ominously, for Cook, the court said the Trump could try to fire her.

“Again, they just didn't go through the process, right?”

He didn't tell her why she was being fired and gave her a chance to rob out the charges. And yes, they said that. I think Roberts sort of coordinating off the Fed as a special case. Means that the ruling was narrow and that said, "Okay, they got the process wrong." And so while it's still litigating, she can be on the job.

But they still have to prove that she did something wrong. She could be fired for cause. Exactly.

Under the Federal Reserve Act, the president can only move a Fed governor if they are fired for cause.

And he didn't meet that standard by presenting any evidence. Right? So if she doesn't get, if her case goes away, then like, then there's no cause. Right, but it won't go away. So ironically, it just puts more pressure on the administration to politically prosecute

Lisa Cook until they can claim that she can be fired for cause. What will happen? They leave the door open to kind of evaluating whether or not they've met some threshold for cause, whatever that would mean. It's interesting, kind of reading the going back and forth between the ruling of innocent

“because they're all so like mad at each other, which I think is very funny.”

But then you read Gorsuch wrote this like really interesting concurring opinion about it. And I see a lot of people today saying, when Democrats went, "Oh, we'll just put our people in charge and now we'll have that power." But as like the sort of my own notes in the descent, Congress creates the FTC.

The court says that these people can be insulated from being fired by the president. And then they give all these independent agencies, not just executive authority, right? But legislative authority and judicial authority. So Congress creates these independent agencies and they're kind of quasi-legislative, right? They can write rules and regulate and do things that Congress could do.

They also do things that executive could do. And the majority decided that given that kind of mix between the authorities, they're going to give all the power to the president, right? So the president is now taking all the legislative authorities that were granted, all the judicial authorities that were granted.

And oh, when a Democrat wins, we'll have the same authority. But then corsage comes back and says, "No, because we're going to look at this again in the future." So in deciding whether or not to allow there to be an independent agency or not, the courts said, "No, we'd rather make the president a supreme authority over all these legislative functions." But if a Democrat becomes president, we'll just come back and say,

"No one has this authority, we'll strike a bunch of this down." That's all with the majority opinions.

“No, no, but that's what corsage is saying happens next.”

And there is going to, but that is what happens. It is, because Robert's opinion, Robert's argument is, it's all unitary executive theory, and they have been, so Robert says the president may remove his subordinates at will, because subordinates who exercise the president's power must be accountable to him and he, to the people. And that's where it ends.

But that, but this is the problem, because it's not just the president's, it's the power. It's congressional power. The reason there was a balance, and the reason it makes sense, and I think this is why Sotomayor and Kagan are so pissed about it, is you're not just giving the president his executive authority.

You are stealing power from Congress, because Congress delegated some of its authority. I agree with that. I agree with that, for sure. I'm just saying, I think Roberts and Kavanaugh, the unitary executive people, would be very comfortable being consistent with the Democratic president on this kind of stuff,

which they have shown before. Except this wouldn't be about where the authority should rest. This would be about saying that now... I think it's bad no matter what. I don't think Democratic president's or Republican president should have power.

But you come back in, and then you say, "Actually, you can't do this,

because this whole agency shouldn't have been allowed to do this in the first place."

So now, we're no longer going to say, "You still are in charge of this whole agency, but we're now going to restrict with this whole agency as a president." That's the Chevron. I think we have been in our conversation with Dan, said she was concerned about a kind of hypothetical you're talking about there.

I mean, just like one thing that worries me, so you read this comment from Bill Pulti, who tweeted, as I've repeatedly said, I believe Lisa Cook will be indicted for mortgage fraud. This is a case he cooked up as the U.S. Director of Federal Housing. He is now tweeting this attack on her from his new job

as the temporary director of national intelligence. That is chilling. I mean, yeah, the whole thing, I mean, it's nice for Lisa Cook, and I actually, you know, what we're talking about is who knows what will happen, right?

This comes up again. I think that the upshot of this whole thing is there are no more independent agencies, except for the Fed. The Fed, the one potentially, and so that means that justice department, intelligence,

now gets to happen again. Like this is what the Supreme Court majority is in place. They believe that no one has to be independent except for the Fed.

“Well, and the distinction they're breaking down, right?”

It was always the case. There were a bunch of executives, agencies, that the president was totally in charge of. What they're saying is that these independent agencies are no longer independent,

even though those agencies were made incredibly powerful by Congress,

in ways that assumed that the president would be so wouldn't be solely in charge of them. And so like that, that to me is where the kind of like, yes, now FTC looks a lot like the Department of Justice, except the FTC can do more than what the Department of Justice could. Meanwhile, in a very close five, four decision,

where John Robertson, Amy Coney Barrett, sided with the Liberals, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Mississippi law allowing the state to count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by election day, but arrive after the decision could preempt similar legal challenges by Republicans and at least 14 other states, the continued counting ballots that arrive after election day,

Trump wind about the decision, and said it proves the need for Senate Republicans to pass his save act, name dropping the five holdouts on truth social.

“How meaningful or not do you guys think this is in the context of the larger Trump assault on voting rights?”

I mean, I think it allows like 30 states to keep their policies in place in terms of how they count mail-in ballots so that's pretty important. I'm sure that ongoing assault on voting rights will continue. I mean, it was a five-word decision. It was Trump's DOJ in the RNC trying to strike down the Mississippi law

allowing ballots to be counted. I'm glad to see they made this decision. It just feels just like part of a broader process of just constantly chipping away and maybe this chip didn't come undone, but there will be many more attempts. So, Dan and I talked last episode about how Trump's trying to get the save act passed

by refusing to sign the bipartisan housing bill until it is on Monday. Mike Johnson sent Trump the housing bill anyway, which means that it will become law in 10 days unless Trump signs it sooner or vetoes it. The bill passed so overwhelmingly the Congress could override a Trump veto. The House Republicans are now unclear if they'll have the votes.

Just listen to what Florida representative Randy Fein said on Monday morning. My issue was if Elizabeth Warren thinks the bill is great, then it probably isn't. And that sort of how I look. But the enthusiasm with which Democrats had for this bill got me spooked. And I didn't come to Washington to work with Democrats.

I came to Washington to beat them. Here's a message for you. Did you read the bill before you voted for it? Probably not.

And here's what Trump said on Monday when asked whether he'll sign the bill.

“What are your plans to the housing bill, Mr. President?”

I don't know. I think it's so unimportant by compare it to, by compare to the same American. When I look at that bill, it's a bill. But when I look at the same American, it's about saving American. To me, compare it to the same American act. Just about everything is a big yon.

Wow, he's born. He's born to the Iran War. I was born in housing just once to regular elections. How badly do you guys think Trump and Republicans have fucked up the politics of this bill? And what do you guys think of the final product? I mean, the goal is to boost housing supply and affordability.

They're going to streamline environments where views and encourage development. I'm not an expert on this stuff. It passed with 85 votes in the Senate and 358 votes in the house. So it's like overwhelming bipartisan support. I will leave it to smarter people to see if it will really solve the job. But like politically speaking, this is a very important issue to the American people.

Like voters overwhelmingly think housing costs are really important. Huge majorities won't Congress to do something about it. The underlying components of the bill when you peel them out and pull them are very popular.

For young people in particular, they feel like they're never going to be able to afford a home.

60, 70% of majorities. And so to say that that's a big yon when it could have been your like crowning legislative accomplishment on housing. Is opposed to the save act, which is a thing that people are like 52% think it's maybe a good idea because it's by the way. There's just not a huge issue in this country of undocumented non-citizens registering to vote or whatever the hell you're talking about. It's not going to pass.

It's not going to pass. Pardon the hand one. That's the whole thing. That's so stupid. Yeah, there's no leverage here.

It's fine because part of it, right, is like this is a housing bill that's about addressing the long-term causes. Of a lack of housing stock and the rising price of housing. There's no like, it's not being clean fixed. He doesn't know that no one's going to feel the effects of the housing bill for years. Yeah, and then if it's a good bill.

You can sell it. Right, right, right. You can, you can, yeah, you can try to buy the ministry. Yeah. You can try to say it's a good thing.

Yeah. There was a, there was a little, the community fight as part of this bill for a. The details are, are complicated, but basically to try to prevent institutional investors from sitting on houses that a lot of experts thought would have kind of a counter railing effect to what the bill was going to do.

Center Brian Schnautz, friend of the show, was accused of being a corporate student for pointing this out, including by a lot of progressives. And it did manage to kind of change that rule in such a way that it's no longer going to have that effect in that one the day two,

“which was, I think, a good victory for the kind of EMB abundance people that were arguing that he wasn't being a corporate student.”

He was just talking about basic economics and what the impact would be. But like this was a bipartisan bill. Those those with Warren fought hard for this bill. A ton of Republicans voted for this bill. It's a rare kind of policy making victory like from another era.

And of course, right on the one yard line, they were literally putting up the podium and people were speaking at the podium. The event was basically already. It was leading out all excited. They were.

Yeah, Caroline Levitt posted about how an important, one of the most important bills ever, something to that effect.

And he just rips the rug out right from under all of them. And now they are afraid to support it. Even though it has a veto proof majority because the dear leader says he would rather regular action. I haven't seen these stories yet, but I'm looking forward to the anonymous frontline Republicans and races who are like getting ads ready to tee up. The housing bill is part of how they were going to tackle the issue of affordability and work with the other party to show that they're bipartisan because they're in a district that, you know, come on Harris won or that's, you know, trumply won by a couple.

Just here what they think about this. And now the response at is like, big y'all. Yes, it's a president. Okay. So that'll be fun.

So if he doesn't, if he refuses to sign it and Congress doesn't adjourn, it'll become law. But if they don't want to deal with it, they could adjourn Congress and let the thing die. Is that basically the just of it? What's what's going to happen?

“In 10 days it becomes a law must he vetoes it.”

Okay. Okay. What's the, how would he? Okay. Yeah.

I don't know the Congress.

I don't know the Congress. That's just the, that's, I don't know. All I've seen is that 10 days, it becomes a lot of 10 days or he vetoes it. You know, listening to that whole thing there, he's going to let it become law. Yeah.

I don't think the baby about it. Unless, now someone could, who knows, right? He changes mind on a dime. So something could piss him off between now and when he decides to sign it. There, he sounded like fuck, I'm annoyed that I have to do this.

But I threw a tantrum and now I'm just going to let this bill become law, but I'm not going to be happy about it. That's sort of what I got. You're just cutting off his nose despite his face. I, someone gave him really dumb last minute advice about how to use this bill for leverage.

Get the same impact. It was probably a bill pull to pull. Exactly. Well, exactly what I'm saying. The mortgage for, yeah, because he invited some passion sign.

Mortgage, mortgage for housing and dick. Yeah. He's also, by the way, he, he did promise not to sign. Any new legislation until the save act was passed. He just instantly broke that promise.

So in a way, he's actually returning to what he had always said he was going to do.

He promised this. He promised this. He promised this. He promised this. He promised this.

No legislation for me. Positive America has brought to you by common power. With redistricting happening all across the south. The GOP has made it clear that earning American votes is the least of their priorities. Now, if you're getting the VRA, they've doubled down on their attempts to rig the midterm elections.

Common power believes that Democrats can still take back the house and the senate by focusing on three things. One, policies that benefit the working class. Two, paying for those policies by taxing billionaires and trillionaires. Three, expanding the democratic coalition. Their supporters already driven major victories for emerging leaders in New York, Texas and Maine.

Now, common power is focused on the general election. Work and do ensure wins for Democrats nationwide. Common power is the organizing force behind training and deploying volunteers to doorknock

“for Democrats that over 50 key races across battleground states.”

Vote safe America partner with common power in the 2024 election. Setting hundreds of volunteers to win important races across the country. As Republicans rely on rigged maps to win, we're relying on people power. For those who refuse to sit this moment out, donate and volunteer with common power at CommonPower.org/curricid.

That's commonpower.org/curricid. Positive America is brought to you by Magic Spoon. We love Magic Spoon. We're talking about it for years. Love the cereal.

Love the treats. They got like protein bars. Protein snack bars. And it just tastes really good. Magic Spoon figured out how to turn treats into something you can actually feel good about eating.

The treats are crispy, airy, protein packs snack bars with 12 grams of protein. Seven grams of fiber. Zero grams of added sugar. Two to three net carbs. And certified gluten for it.

And they genuinely feel like a treat. Not a sad health bar. They're perfect for tossing your bag. Keep it in the car. Grab one between meetings or just whenever you want a good snack.

Flavors include marshmallow, chocolate peanut butter, double chocolate and more. Very nostalgic. Very dessert-coated. But without loading you up on sugar. These hit that sweet tooth itch while actually doing something for you.

And if you already know Magic Spoon for their cereal. Yes. That's still iconic. And you were worried that it wasn't iconic anymore. But it's still iconic the cereal.

Sure. Yeah. I don't want some of that chocolate peanut butter right now.

Just look for Magic Spoon at your local grocery store.

And they just rolled out treats nationwide at 7/11. If you haven't tried them yet, check out Magic Spoon's new protein pastries. High protein, low sugar, take on the classic toaster pastries you grew up with. You can get five dollars off your next order, including the protein pastries at MagicSpoon.com/curricid.

That's MagicSpoon.com/curricid for five dollars off. All right. Let's talk about the debate inside the Democratic Party, which is likely to keep raging this week as Colorado becomes the next state to hold primaries on Tuesday. Fifteen term congresswoman Diana DeGett is in danger of losing to 29-year-old D.S.A.

Member Milatt Kiros. Senator Michael Bennett, who's running for governor, is also getting a serious challenge from the left. Republicans are having fun with all of this. Trump spent much of the weekend posting about communism, while Democrats offered their

takes on the D.S.A. wins in last week's New York primaries.

Here's Zoran Mamdani himself, Josh Shapiro, and Chris Murphy. Josh Godheimer, Democratic Member of Congress, says many of us believe as do I, if you're a socialist, you are not a Democrat. And in fact, they put out a manifesto today. Have you seen this?

Sounds pretty socialist to me. Democratic socialism at the heart is pragmatic, because if we cannot deliver for working people than what is this for, I'm not interested in writing a manifesto or frankly in reading one. I'm interested in delivering, and that's exactly what we've been showing.

Democratic voters in New York chose three candidates backed by Zoran Mamdani, far left, and Democratic socialist candidates. What message do you take from that about where your party is? Well, those were races in individual districts in a whole other state.

“I think what is important are the people who are making a lot of noise.”

We're engaging in these performative politics. Have to now figure out how to deliver results. I'm not a Democratic socialist, but I do believe that the Democratic Party has been historically way too timid in taking on corporate power. Democrats are not going to win by defending this version of capitalism,

but I think we'll be able to offer ideas on how to dramatically reform it rather than throwing out the entire system. All right. Chris Murphy doing a little Goldilocks at the end there. I've already said plenty.

So maybe you guys can kick us off with your reaction to this debate. And what it all means? You wait in on this? I did. Yeah, I had a bit of--

I didn't notice that. As a clip from Thursday's pod. Look, for what it's worth, slobbing to the Murphy camp. I mean, I think my big takeaway from the New York elections is how much voters hate the establishment in the status quo.

“And I think that is not new information.”

Every poll we've seen is like people really hate Trump. They also hate the Democratic Party. Things are not great. These people are pissed. The results I think hammer home just how angry voters are and that they are

happy to trade a powerful incumbent for something new to demonstrate that anger.

Does that mean that every district is going to want the furthest left candidate? No. Look who's on the ballot and from the Democratic Party in Iowa, for example. They're very different than New York races. That's not surprising at all.

I think what's exhausting about this and that you experience is just how much everyone's talking past each other. Because a lot of people want the same thing and they're labeling it differently. I'm sure there are some DSA members who are like classical socialists. Like the Marxist Leninist state, but I think most people do not want that.

It's certainly not what Bernie Sanders wants. He is talking about redistributing economic power through the Democratic process. Not a violent Bolshevik revolution. He believes in civil liberties and elections and change through democratic means. And it's a worldview that is a lot closer to the labor party in the UK.

Or like Nordic countries, then something radical. Like Medicare for all of the NHS, these are not crazy ideas. But Trump and Republicans say, this is communism. This is all about drumming up like Cold War era fears. And that is more politically potent than saying you want to Scandinavian welfare states.

“But I think no one goes after Scandinavian developers.”

Oh, they got all that. Social democracy. But is the term. Yes. In a country with a two-party system, this is inevitable.

You're going to have a huge range of opinions within the party from DSA to DLC. And I think if we want to effectively fight back against Trump, we're going to have to find a way to work together and kind of bridge some of these gaps and find common cause on things. And you know, which is where the kind of Josh Gottheimer kind of you're with us

or against us, your Democrat or your socialist thing. I think it's just reductive and stupid and not helpful. It's counterproductive. Why are we doing this? Yeah.

I mean, I look, I know that you had sort of said your piece about this. And I found very few responses to what you said about trying to persuade you or kind of think about what you're saying and try to respond to it in a way that was sort of treating you as you were acting in good faith.

Yeah, it looked good. It is the internet, so.

“Some of the most liberal districts in the country are feeling like they can have someone”

who is further to left and they know they're going to win in November.

And they want that kind of person fighting for them or they want to support the person that Bernie and Mundani go behind because they really like them. They don't have a lot of love for establishment figures. They don't feel like establishment politics has done well for them. Even when those establishment figures are to the left, that doesn't mean that Josh Shapiro

is not the one of the most popular governors in the country or that if there was just a poll out that said who were the most popular political figures? Well, they're Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, right? Like, it's a complicated heterodox country. We have to make one big pro-democracy coalition.

I think that puts responsibility on both sides of this divide.

On the Josh Godheimer, Jamie Harrison, James Carville side, you can disagree with people.

“I think you should be really critical of them.”

You should say why you disagree. I think Josh Piro actually did this well. I just do have strong disagreements. This is district in another state that's one district and I'll defend my views. People should defend their own.

Without saying that these people have no place in our coalition. If you are a democratic socialist, you are not a Democrat. You don't get to decide that.

The Democratic voters in those districts went to the polls and decided.

The party reflects what the voters want. The voters aren't meant to follow what the party tells them to define. It's a Democrat. If you Mamdoni, you had said that in somewhere in that interview. I thought that was right.

Right. And if part of your coalition or further than the left, then you like having argument with them. Figure out the places where you agree and figure out an agenda together. Joe Biden wins the primary in 2020. And actually, I thought did a pretty extraordinary job of talking to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

And kind of finding a way to bring those people into his coalition to the point where they were some of the people advocating for him the most after he blew the debate. So there are, there is a way to bring these sides of the party together. On the other side, it is not just because someone is on your team and you want to, and you don't like the mainstream Democrats and you think they're two centrist doesn't mean that people on the left don't have to answer for some of the dumbest or most heinous things that they've said in the past.

Careful. Well, but in that, and by the way, that people do, we talked about Graham Platner. People deserve a chance to explain the difference between who they were before they were in public life and who they are now. Now that they have a bigger platform and more responsibility, they deserve that chance. But also, that is a responsibility.

You are part of a coalition. Speak your mind. Say your piece. But also know that, like, yes, sometimes Republicans are going to take words either in context or out of context and try to paint people that you should also want to win with what you have said in the past. It's just, it's, it's, it's collectively doing what is, I think, the work of being part of one big fractious team.

Yeah. AOC was asked about this in an interview with Jen Socky. And, you know, she said this without referring directly to Daria Lisa Shevelier. But she was like, look, I think what happens is, from my experience, when you actually take these jobs and you're going to office, the weight of the office and the weight of the job, it does change you and it makes you realize the responsibility you have. Which is, you know, what I said on Friday is, look, she has these views that she just articulated a week before the election, not in her old tweets a week before the election.

But maybe she'll go to Congress and vote in a way that doesn't align with some of the more extreme positions in which case great. Everyone deserves the grace to change and prove themselves. Which is like, why, but that was pretty, pretty normal to say. I'm not concerned, and again, I'm not concerned about like, DSA candidates or progressive candidates knocking off incumbent Democrats and deep blue districts. That's what primaries of four primaries are good.

“I think primaries are good no matter what if the progressive wins, if the moderate wins, they're primaries, they're fine. That's what the voters want.”

I'm also not concerned about what DSA wins for Dems in more competitive districts. My only advice for those frontline Dems, which I had said on Friday, is don't be afraid to distance yourself from DSA positions that you disagree with. If someone asks you whether you agree with abolishing prisons and police and borders, and you don't just say that. Say that you don't like the ideas, say that they're terrible, say that they're not that great. So whatever you want to say, but like, don't be afraid to say that because then folks in the left will be mad at you that you said you didn't like that idea.

I don't have to attack the people and try to encourage them from the party, you don't have to attack their character or their person. I don't want to do that with anyone who won. But you can disagree with the ideas. By the way, like I also then, and if you, and I think there's nothing wrong with saying like, I'm not a socialist and I actually think, you know, socialism. I want to figure, whatever a person like a judge guy would say to spend their actual point of view. I'm not a socialist, I don't agree with socialist ideas, whatever it looks like.

But to say like, I'm there for I cast you out, as it means to protect what you think the brand should be, as opposed to saying, and I look forward to having that disagreement.

I would say that like, all right, let's discuss this, let's discuss your ideas and have a debate and we can learn to work together.

Maybe we can find some common ground on stuff that we do agree on. Yeah, but that, yeah, it's just posturing this book. I think the, like the, the godhammer version of this is frustrating. I think the reaction to you that was sort of like how dare you criticize an elected official. I find that's so patronizing and stupid, because once you're an elected office, like everything is up for grabs, you're going to be criticized for everything. It just is what it is. Also the freak out, like, I think the establishment should be worried about what it means for them, like, totally.

But the people who are like, the parties off the rails is going to change everything. We heard exactly the same shit in 2018 when AOC, B. Joe Crowley, and there was all this fear mongering about the squad, and then we nominated Joe Biden to be our democratic nominee in 2020. And you know what? The establishment moderates. Like, and Joe Biden went out there and said, for all that he did to bring in Bernie and the left, he also said, and I think to fund the police as a horrible idea.

And he said it, like, he articulated it and said it specifically, and the left got really mad at him, but it's probably good that he did that. Because then people know where Joe Biden stood on that issue and didn't lump him in with the left. It's like, the Republicans tried to, but it didn't work. The online reaction to you is just sort of like the most annoying version of an online reaction, which is like, it must have been in bad faith.

“Like, you know, it means you're dead to them, you're like a shell, you're a corporateist, you should be Luigi, like whatever, like insane.”

Like, when literally a horrible situation, there's a bunch of things. And it's like, I'm going to calm the fuck down. It's a political discussion. Somebody did a whole video, put me in my picture next to Mike Johnson and said, these two are the same, but this is like, we've been saying that for years. It's true. I do like to monitor other people's porn.

Yeah. That's your cake. Well, maybe. Yeah. But also by like, mom Donnie, I mean, we interview, I talked to mom Donnie about this directly, right?

He's so smart. He gets it. But also by the way, like, I'm saying, that's a thing. It's like, AOC so smart about this.

“He is defending views that I think maybe would be unpalatable to a lot of Americans, but he's the mayor of New York.”

So he's free to do that. He's evolving on certain things. He's trying to persuade on other things. He did so much work to try to demonstrate to Jewish New Yorkers that he could be relied on as an opponent of anti-Semitism without giving an inch on some of his views that our anti-Israel. Including condemning the rally that Chivalier went to. Yeah. And so like, he, I do think online is so it's so toxic, right?

But like actual organizers, even TSA organizers that are actually trying to do this work. I think probably are not as toxic as what you're getting though at the same time. There is this. There are people in the real world following people like Scott Weener around yelling at them on the streets. Let's talk about that then. Scott Weener, the state center from San Francisco who's running to replace Nancy Pelosi,

was over the weekend surrounded and berated by a gang of hecklers at the city's annual transmarch, who told him that his long record of fighting for trans rights was no longer sufficient because of his record on Israel. Let's take a listen. Scott, I want to support someone who's so positive on trans rights, but you're a piece of shit on Gaza.

“How could you do that? How could you betray queer's? How could you impress people?”

Do you stop being queer? The moment you started supporting Israel, you deserve shit. I just want to read from Weener's website, what his positions are on Israel and Palestine. He's publicly called the Israeli government's action in Gaza genocide, joining Bernie Sanders and representative Bainland as one of the only three prominent Jewish-elected officials in the country to do so.

He has never taken any money from APAC. He has voted no on military funding for Israel,

and he supports Palestinian statehood. So that was because he didn't say the word genocide until January. And Weener said that he left the march because the hecklers quote, "We're so physically and verbally aggressive that it was impossible for me to safely remain in the park." What do you guys think, San Francisco being San Francisco, or is this a bigger deal?

No, this assholes being assholes. I mean, like I'm fine with confronting elected officials, heckling them, saying whatever, but he's in a public space. You can't tell this man to leave, and also they're so threatening there, and they sound stupid. I'm saying here, your sexual orientation is predicated on your past comments on Gaza. So I don't know what's got Weener, I've never talked to the guy.

But he is by any objective measure, an extremely progressive Democrat, who, like, he's probably a touch more moderate than the squad say, because of housing issues.

The people filming this stuff ultimately make their movement look bad.

They make Weener look sympathetic, which I assume is the opposite of what the intention was. And I think they also hand Fox News and Republicans a piece of content that they'll now use forever to make Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, look crazy and aggressive. And so, oops, it was just a fucking terrible, terrible way to conduct politics and to treat another human being.

and you're yelling at them and saying you're oppressing queers because of your position on Israel, even though your position on Israel,

is that you believe Israel's committed a genocide in Gaza, then what you're doing is being an antisemite. If you're following Scott Weener around yelling at him in this park, it is because you are being antisemitic. Talking about his Zionist handlers. You are an antisemite. Oh yeah.

That is why you're yelling at this man, whatever you tell yourself, whatever story you tell yourself online, but what you believe in why it's justified, that is pure antisemitism as you can see. And it is corrosive, and it's worth calling out. There's a lot of people like, you know, when someone says that Brad Lander in New York 10 won, because of antisemitism against, or antisemitism played a role, I find it hard to understand,

because it is a very Jewish district, Brad Lander is Jewish, Dan Goldman was Jewish, but that doesn't mean that, so I don't like it when antisemitism is used as a cultural, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth calling out when you see it, and like give me a fucking break. We live in a world where every single person with a phone has a megaphone now and can do this kind of thing.

“So I don't think, you know, talking about the people who followed Scott Weener and like they're not going to listen to us or anyone, right?”

You're not going to be able to ever stop people from being assholes and holding up their phone. I do think that it would be who people on the left and especially people who have been marching and organizing and protests for Palestinian rights and have been right on this issue from the beginning to call that out, right? Because this is like, as Tommy said, this is going to be the clip they used to show the Democrats are crazy and all that kind of stuff. And also, it's just, it's good movement politics to be like, yes, we can hold two ideas in our head at the same time that it is horrendous

what the Israeli government has done and that the most important issue is the fact that Palestinians are being slaughtered and now people in Lebanon are being killed

and that is the more important issue, but also it's still awful that this happened. And in our movement, we don't want that kind of thing and we don't believe that. Like, I think it's very possible to do that. Yes, and believing it... Just didn't see a lot of it.

And that, that being morally outraged doesn't justify treating people terribly. And like, it's not obviously that they're just random people. You can't, too, a few random people following someone around, a whole movement can't be killed. How it should be. And it shouldn't be.

“However, it is more than just that, right?”

Because you will see people defend following Scott Weener. You'll see people defend a coffee shop that refuses to serve Dan Goldman. You will see people play and you will see people describe any figure that criticizes following around Scott Weener. Or criticizes what happened to Dan Goldman as civility politics or sort of...

The form of responsibility made up words. Right. And look, we've made fun of, you know, the red hen alert around civility. But like, being... If you want a movement to succeed, it has to be something that is appealing and generative and...

And brings people in and tries to persuade people and treats them in good faith. And that's obviously not what happened here. Yeah. All right. When we come back, I'll talk to the D.L.C.C.'s Heather Williams.

[Music] Pots of America is brought to you by Rocket Money. I told this on the show before, but I realized I was paying for a British-only version of some streaming service just to watch one show and then we watch one episode. And then we got rid of it.

Yeah. It's terrible. Honestly, Rocket Money. It'll save you a lot of money. It'll track your subscriptions.

It'll cancel them within the app, which is a few taps.

In fact, Rocket Money has saved users over 880 million in canceled subscriptions.

You can categorize automatic transactions across your accounts and customize categories with tags to help shed light on your spending patterns. Get regular reports on your spending habits. You can even receive real-time alerts for large transactions upcoming bills, refunds, and low balances.

You can solve it. You're checking savings loans and investment accounts into a single dashboard to give you a clear picture of your finances. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions. Monitor your spending and help lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com/Crickid. That's RocketMoney.com/Crickid. RocketMoney.com/Crickid. Quick question.

“Are you politically engaged and spiritually exhausted?”

If you said yes to both, welcome home.

And I'm Alyssa Master Monaco.

And we're the hosts of hysteria, the podcast for women who care about democracy culture and not losing their minds in the process. We break down the news, call out the nonsense, and spotlight the women actually fighting back on Capitol Hill in classrooms and everywhere the stakes are high. It's sharp, honest analysis, featuring women's voices, with humor and zero handholding.

Listen to hysteria wherever you get your podcasts and watch full episodes on YouTube. I'm also Shannon Maldonado, and I'm the founder of Yaui. One of my favorites, who was on Kunstwerke and earned his specialised object. My role was on Shopify, because Shopify showed up to the other platforms I tested, with my friends.

I got to know all about the future. All the tools for the development of the podcast are important. For example, from "Laga" to "Find it" you'll find the right to the dashboard.

You'll find your post-nosen test on Shopify.com.

Hey, it's William, welcome to Plat State of America. Thank you, it's great to be here. So you hear state legislatures, firewall against Trump's stealing and election, and it can sound abstract to people. So maybe you can help make it concrete.

If we get a contested presidential results in 2028,

“which chambers are the one standing between a close call and a stolen one?”

Where's the actual fight? It's such a good question. In 2026, we have real opportunities to create new majorities in our presidential, but around states. So thank Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania.

These are the places that are going to have huge impacts,

obviously, on the 2028 presidential.

And these are places where we can win majorities in 2026, which will allow us to move legislation as needed to shore up our democracy laws in those states, to ensure that we've got a really strong presidential process. Yeah, I think people don't.

Maybe not everyone understands, though, probably more people, after what happened in 2020. Just the power that state legislatures have over the electoral process, over sending delegates of electors to Congress. Maybe you can speak a little bit about that.

Yeah, that's exactly right. The presidential certification process originates in our states. And that alongside with our voting laws, with our election administration, all of that are state actions. And so the more democratic majorities we have,

the better our elections are. Certainly now in this environment, and the opportunities that we have to build that power this year, will be sort of immediately put to use, right? To again, ensure that people's votes are counted.

They're counted in real race. Regardless of who wins, that the election is certified, and that person becomes president. So, potential election theft aside, for someone who's not familiar with their state legislature,

or what state legislatures even do. What's a concrete example of something that a democratic run state legislature has done over the last few years, it's actually, you know, changed people's lives. Oh, the one that I love to talk about is meals for kids in schools, ensuring that every kid has access to a free meal in school.

This was something that passed in Minnesota when they had the trifecta. It passed in a number of states since then. It is such a great way to think about how do we nurture our kids in our community.

“How do we make sure that our resources are going into our future?”

And it also puts little more money in people's pockets. So, you mentioned some of the background states, Minnesota was constant Arizona. Where are the states where Democrats have the biggest opportunities this year? Talk about sort of the map and the target list for you guys. Yeah, so we think about the map of opportunities in building power in the states.

And what that means for us is that we are looking at everything from how do we put Democrats in the negotiating room by breaking the Republican power of a supermajority? To how do we make sure that our Democratic governors in states where their legislature is Republican have the veto pen? And how do we, of course, create new majorories, trifectas for the future? So, those places that we can create these new majorities, these new trifectas,

really are centered in those presidential backgrounds. Again, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, winning just 19 seats in those states. Will build six new majorities and four new trifectas. Wow. It's amazing, right?

And that's where the core fight is going to be.

“But I think it's important to also mention, right?”

That thinking about how do we build power for the long term? How do we start building back Democrats, particularly in the south, where that break of a Republican supermajority puts Democrats in that negotiating room? It gives them a little more power. It gives them, you know, more access to voters, to constituents.

Reapportionment happens and we've got congressional districts that are growing in the south.

“Yes, so this is something I think about all the time now is you have all the opportunities for 2026.”

There's so many states now where Republicans have taken power in a state legislature. And then, jerry-mandered the state legislature to such a degree that it's almost impossible for Democrats to make any ground. And I think about Wisconsin as an example. I remember when Ben Wythler was the party chair there and he would talk about how it's just really difficult because you can elect a democratic governor, but they have jerry-mandered the legislature.

So, so badly that they can, and ultimately what fix Wisconsin was.

State Supreme Court elections. So, in states where Republicans have jerry-mandered the legislature. What is the strategy there? And how do we make headway in some of those, those legislatures that are really jerry-mandered? Your Wisconsin example is great, right? So, we are winning statewide or could win statewide in Wisconsin.

“We could win at the congressional level although not as much as I think what was possible there, right?”

But couldn't flip those state legislatures. You know, I think the strategy is sort of multi-pronged, right? You can't divest in the state legislative resources because we do still have legislators there. And those legislators, well, maybe not in the majority, do still have some power to band together to bring some folks together on issues that matter a lot, right? Particularly when there is a democratic governor. They're assurance that he has the veto pen has been really important. So, we can't walk away from the state legislatures just because it's hard.

But alongside that, in Wisconsin is a great example where the Supreme Court mattered deeply. You know, these Supreme Court races are sometimes partisan, sometimes nonpartisan, but we need to make sure that we let voters know the values of these candidates. And that we are thinking about a court strategy alongside our electoral strategy.

And then I think the third thing right in this varies by state, Wisconsin is not a great example of this, but others are where there's ballad initiative opportunities.

That is another way in Michigan, right? We've got people not politicians' process that put a nonpartisan commission in Michigan that has incredibly competitive legislative seats and chambers. And those are sort of the three anchor ways that I think that you really start to build back. One thing that surprised me is I assumed one reason Democrats have been able to disadvantage is because Republicans outspent us on the state legislative level. But in 2024, the Democratic side outspent the RSLC, the Republican counterpart to you guys, roughly 175 million to 49 million, but better than three to one, still lost them in a sort of trifecta in the Michigan House.

So if beyond money, what are some of the biggest challenges that the party has faced at the state level? The attention battle, right? These races are, you know, folks know these candidates less. They're often first time candidates, right? They're running for the first time. Their name ID is not great. They don't have a record, right, to run on and that attention fight is really important. And I think the thing, when you couple the attention with the money and you think about these battleground states, we have competitive races up the whole ballot.

So when you think about low name ID candidate, that's running for state legislature, but has a great story to tell, competing for people's timed and brain space in the election season is really hard.

“So I think, you know, as much as we can run as tickets, as much as we can support in coordinated campaigns and other statewide efforts, what is happening at our local races, it's really important.”

That's also going to be an issue of sort of the hollowing out of local news and the disappearance of local news because if you're reading about politics, now you're reading about national politics and if you're reading about national politics, you're reading about presidential level, maybe congressional level, but probably not much about your state. That is exactly right.

I imagine that in that situation, the ground game field probably has to be even more critical than even sort of the media strategy.

Yes, the direct voter contact by the candidates is the most important thing that these races do. These candidates, you know, these districts are small enough in most cases where the candidate can knock the door of every voter in their district. They still live in their districts, so they're going to the grocery store and drop off and the library and, you know, everywhere else alongside voters and constituents, and they are sort of never off duty. And that means that they're muscle of communicating and talking about the things they care about, what they believe in, why they're running for office, what's happening nationally and how they put it in their own words.

The recruitment numbers are a really impressive in Minnesota. I think you have to fill that every district Kansas has the biggest slate in 30 years.

“Question I had, how does the recruiting pitch go for a candidate who lives in a district where Republicans routinely win by 20 to 30 points?”

Because that is a getting people's run for office in the first place, difficult, getting people to run for office in a place where the climb is very steep.

I imagine that's even harder. It is, you know, this is the thing that I was most nervous about this cycle was, you know, coming out of 2024, starting this year off, how are we going to get people to run for office? Yeah. And then, of course, we had the horrific assassination of Speaker Hortman in Minnesota, another reminder right of how difficult it is to run for office.

“Come true. Like people were really excited to run for office. And I think, you know, we work hard to make sure that candidates across the country have some level of tools and sort of toolkits right to run for office.”

But I think what we've seen is our ability at this bout level to connect with voters in all kinds of communities this year and win elections. We've already flipped 30 seats. Some of these have been in ruby red districts. Is a reminder that if we don't show up, if someone doesn't show up, we can't even compete, let alone win. And this really feels like a year where, you know, people are seeing that one way to change the direction of the country is to change the people in power and you've got two options in that, you vote or you run for office.

And we are seeing that all over. It's just incredible. I'm sure there's an incredible diversity of candidates that you've recruited.

But is there any sort of demographic group or type of candidate or profession that keeps showing up more this cycle compared to other cycles? It's interesting that you ask this question in part because, you know, our candidates tend to be middle class. They tend to be, like I said, first time candidates, they tend to be maybe not your sort of, made for TV sort of politician. And that is what is what is so great about this bout level. It's what's great about our state legislatures. We've got real people trying to solve real problems.

I feel like there is a stronger spotlight on that and you're noticing it more. It feels just different than what you stereotypically have seen in sort of national politics.

Student council president. Exactly.

And I think that the value of these candidates is their ability to say, you know, I get what you're dealing with. Here's my story and how I'm dealing with it and how it's challenging for me. This is my own personal antidote of what is happening here, but I get it. I hear you. And like we may have slightly different views of how this can come together, but we can talk about it.

“And I think, you know, that is really what we're seeing in these candidates. It's great.”

Obviously, the Democratic Party's sort of national favorability rating is in the basement. And yet state legislative Democrats routinely run ahead of the, of the national party brand. What are your candidates doing that the national party can't seem to do? These candidates are community organizing, right? They are still talking about the thing that's happening in your backyard. And, you know, if you talk to someone who has been in office in the state legislature, you will hear them say, like, they are problem solvers on behalf of their community.

They are connecting constituents with federal agencies that are solving their problem. They're trying to get their trash can that, you know, had gone missing and they hadn't been able to get it back. They are able to take these big policies. I like to use the infrastructure bill as an example and break it down into community impact. You know, the infrastructure bill, what does it mean for our community? It means that this road is going to be fixed in 20 minutes is going to cut off your commute time.

You're going to have 40 minutes a day back in your life to do whatever it is that you want to do. The ability to really localize the national issues is really the art form of this novel. Everything is about your neighbor and as much as we are a country divided, people still care a lot about their communities and their neighbors and that is what separates things. The person listening right now who's surrounded by Trumpie neighbors and assured Democrats have no shot where they live. What do you say to that person? What should they do?

Get involved in your state legislative race. Seriously, like it is, it will, it will broaden what you think. It will broaden your view of your neighbors, right? But it will also give you that opportunity to have those conversations. These legislative candidates are surrounded by friends and family who are volunteering and talking to voters on their behalf, persuading them all the way to the end of the election.

There is a real opportunity to dialogue and have that conversation and find some level of common ground and honestly just listen and hold space for people and that is, that is what is being craved everywhere.

“Last question. Give us the state legislative chamber people aren't paying enough attention to. You will be watching on election night and what it will tell us if it goes our way.”

I'm going to take this in two ways. One, the one that I care most about as Minnesota. I just, it's my home state as I haven't been through a lot. We've been through a lot there. We just, I really want to get that one back. So that's my personal take on it. I think, you know, if we are having just an incredible like year, there is real things happening in Arizona.

Yeah, I saw Arizona in the list and I was like, wow, how do we go from Arizona being so red to now? Two democratic senators, Katie Hobbes is governor and I guess the legislature is up for grabs to.

It very much is and, you know, I think this is a, this starts to tell us right that like big things are happening. But you know, we're in an environment right now where if the election was held today, I think we've got roughly a plus four environment that we're seeing at our bout level.

“That means that we could flip as many as 600 plus seats.”

There is a lot in play and these races are off to run on the margins. So we've got this big spreadsheet. Does everyone does an election night that we watch and it is, it's going to be exciting.

Heather Williams, thanks for joining pod save America and in good luck out there. Thank you.

That's our show for today. Thanks to Heather Williams for coming on. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday.

Positive America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts and Ferris Farris with re-churlin, Elijah Cone and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hefcoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Carol Pelevieve, David Toll's Mia Kelman, Ryan Young and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's guild of America East.

“Quick question. Are you politically engaged and spiritually exhausted?”

If you said yes to both, welcome home. I'm Aaron Ryan and I'm Alyssa Mastermonico and we're the host of hysteria the podcast for women who care about democracy culture and not losing their minds in the process. We break down the news, call out the nonsense and spotlight the women actually fighting back on Capitol Hill in classrooms and everywhere the stakes are high. It's sharp, honest analysis featuring women's voices with humor and zero handholding.

Listen to hysteria wherever you get your podcasts and watch full episodes on YouTube.