Trump Sabotages Trump Agenda

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Welcome to Potsay of America. I'm John Favre. I'm Dan Fyfer. On today's show Donald Trump touts a major accomplishment on affordability is only he knows how by canceling it.

We'll talk about why and why the president is fighting again with Republicans in Congress. We'll also talk about Zoron Mamdani's house candidates going three for three in New York's primaries on Tuesday, and why that's causing some Democrats to panic and Republicans to smile. We'll do a quick check in on JD Vance's charm offensive, and whether it's winning over his wife. And then Gina Inohosa, the Democrat running to be governor of Texas, stops by to talk about her race against Greg Abbott and why

she might become Texas's first Democratic governor in nearly 40 years.

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All right, let's get to the news. Donald Trump made some real progress this week, trying to sabotage his Republican majority in Congress. minutes before he was scheduled to appear at a signing ceremony for a landmark housing affordability bill that passed with huge bipartisan majorities. The president announced that it was canceled, and that he won't be signing the housing legislation until Congress passes the Save Act, which is the bill that would require all Americans to show passports or birth certificates in order to register to vote and has failed to pass in the Senate five times now.

The housing bill would reduce barriers to building new homes and limit the ability of big investors to buy up single family homes, ideally lowering the price of housing down the road.

But Alas, Trump doesn't want to give anyone the impression that he and his party are focused for even a second on affordability.

So no housing bill this week, Trump elaborated on his thinking in an oval office appearance a little later in the day. Let's listen. Basically, it's the Save America Act. Everybody wants it, everybody is it, including Democrats. I said it once, I don't need to housing bill. I want to see what happens. We said, look, the housing bill is, I made billions of dollars for the house. I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rate, low of the interest rate, you can have all the housing you want.

“You have to understand, I don't want to, I don't want to hurt people that own houses to affordability.”

We're doing great. The Democrats gave us a tremendous affordability problem and we're reducing prices over. I'm a billionaire. I made a fortune on housing and we got to keep, we got to help other people who are ready on homes.

So, considering that the housing bill will become law in 10 days, even without Trump signature, and that if he does decide to veto it, Congress has the numbers to override a veto.

“What was Trump thinking when he decided to do this? What's the, what's going on here, Dan?”

You know, there's when this debate over the years, whether Trump is crazy, you're crazy like a fox, this is just crazy. Like just, just put yourself in the position of Republicans, right? You're a vulnerable Republican, you're like a Susan Collins or a Dan Sullivan or you're one of these Republicans like Mike Waller and a

Purple District. You wake up on Wednesday morning. Here's what your day looks like. Democrats are in the middle of a giant fight

because we've elected some socialists in New York City. You're about to have a signing ceremony for a massive bipartisan bill that would, that would be signed by Donald Trump, but written in part by Elizabeth Warren that will address housing prices, it'd be a real actual tangible accomplishment. You could take the voters to say, like I'm trying to do something to deal with your cost of living crisis. And instead of that, Donald Trump just minutes before hand, since I'm in insane truth, demand, cancer in the signing ceremony,

stopping on both the Democrats' bad message, so Republicans' good message, because he has a near fatal attraction to a bill that no one likes and if it weren't a pass would make it harder for Republicans to win elections. It is, it is wild. And then he just keeps, first of all, let's just talk about this, the Save America Act, which he has called it. It was the Save Act, then he changed it to the Save America Act. It's also supposed to like ban male and voting nationwide.

“I think that's part of it too, or that's like one of the add-ons that he, that he included himself.”

So, I don't know why he's so, I mean, I know why, because he thinks that like it's going to help them rig the elections and win. But it is, it is wild to me that no one has told him. And if it's political advisors have told him that actually this bill would probably hurt Republicans, because it would make it harder for the lower income Americans, much of many of whom vote for Donald Trump and wrote for Republicans now. So, register to vote because

not everyone has their passport lying around, not everyone has their birth certificate lying around. Republicans run around saying that this is only about like showing your license and showing some form of ID. And isn't that easy to do? And that's not actually what the bill does, the bill is much more complex. The bill makes voting and registering to vote much more complicated than that.

I mean, it would end in an recurrent form, basically, and online voter registration, and automatic

voter registration. We talked about this before, not that many Americans have, but majority of Americans do not have passports. The ones who don't have passports are disproportionately working class and didn't go to college, which has been the core of the Trump base. But it, like, I just, so there's a bunch of different things going on here. It can't pass. Right. They try several times. It cannot pass. There doesn't have the, there aren't 60 votes

obviously. And there aren't 50 votes to eliminate the filibuster. And then, even if it were to pass, it would be bad for Republicans. And at no point in these various junctures does Trump seem to understand, like, it's, it's, like, it's true. It's delusional. The whole thing is delusional. And it seems, I, his obsession with this seems genuine. Like, he seems to be, maybe it's because

“it's something he wants that he can't get. Yeah. That's what bothers him. Because he, like,”

up until this point with this Republican caucus, he's been, with the exception of the FCN files, what he has wanted he has got. You want to confirm a bunch of fucking dunderheads to be in charge of the military and health of the human services? We'll do that. You want to,

you want to, us, to stand idily by while we prosecute people, we'll do that. But here's the thing

he wants, and he cannot have, and it seems to be driving him even more bananas than usual. I also think that all, all these things he wants to do with voting in the election, he is being told or has been also told by the courts that he can't do via executive order. Yeah. But you can tell that if he doesn't get the save act pass, he's still going to try to do a lot of the shit around the election, which should alarm everyone, of course. On the housing bill, though,

like, the thing is going to become law. In fact, right before we started recording, Mike Johnson said that they will be transmitting, he talked to Trump and that they will be transmitting the legislation to Trump. So I assume, although I shouldn't assume, but seems, seems like he might just sign it after all. But even if he doesn't, it becomes law. Like, great, it's, it's good legislation. His opportunity to take credit for it is, is sort of gone now.

And it's not like people are going to feel the effects of this housing bill, certainly not by the midterms, maybe not for a couple years, because really it's just sort of reducing barriers to building more affordable housing and sort of changing some of the formulas for the federal government gives money to states. And now it's going to be based on, you know, whether they've

I don't think Trump's going to be taking credit for it. But even then, so these, when you, like,

“we should, we'll get into this. But as we know, a bill that does not actually impact”

people's lives has limited political impact. But the moment when people pay attention is the signing ceremony, 10 days from today, Thursday is the 4th of July weekend. We're seeing like a bad time to get attention for your bill. Well, also, he, apparently the Wall Street Journal has him saying Trump saying to someone, one of his advisors, at my rallies, no one cares about the housing bill at my rallies. But when I say, save America, then everything they can't sit down.

And then apparently, Punchbowl has four sources saying that the Trump said to Mike Johnson directly, no one gives a shit about housing. Yes, I remember he said that he said that a few months ago. Like, literally, like, affordability is the top issue. And then when you dive into affordability, like, sometimes it's groceries and gas, sometimes it's housing. But housing is,

“I think it's like, one of the, maybe the top two or three concerns of most American voters.”

And particularly younger voters, like, this shows up in, in focus groups. It shows that it's like, like, yes, is it true that people are not cheering for the 21st century road to housing act? Of course, would it be helpful for Republicans and Democratic incumbents to go to voters and say, here is a thing, a bipartisan accomplishment I had that is addressing your concern, even if you're not feeling it, absolutely. And Trump is just making that messier for Republicans, because he can't,

he's having it, some sort of insane temper tantrum over a bill that can't pass. After canceling the bill signing, Trump did attend his previously scheduled lunch with Senate Republicans, which went about as well as you can imagine, given the circumstances, according to Senator John Kennedy, Trump was, quote, "nad as a murder hornet and berated Republicans for not supporting

“him on an around vote," which then led to a shouting match with Bill Cassidy, who Trump recently”

drove from office. CNN reports that Trump told Cassidy to sit down. Cassidy refused and raised his voice. Trump called him lunatic. Cassidy then referred to Trump as brother, and Trump told him he wasn't his brother. Cassidy eventually sat down. John Kennedy later said that the meeting was a success because, quote, "No one got stabbed." She's an excellent bar to set. Trump also apparently isn't done trying to force Republicans to eat shit on Iran. The administration just

asked Congress for $88 billion in funding, which would mostly help pay for the war. How do you think

that's going to go over, Dan? Well, before we get to the war funding, in this meeting, in the punch bowl reporting on it, in punch bowl, it generally gets like a full live texting of these sorts of things. It seems like no one pushed back on Trump on the safe act, even though every Republican Senator were the possible exception of Mike Lee and maybe Rick Scott know it can't pass. None of them would say it to Trump's face, which is why they're in this mess to begin with,

which is like a pure sign of weakness and failure from John Thun. Yeah. Like, do you have him in the room? This is the big problem. You can't pass anything. The house, it's why we should mention, Trump's government's agenda on this that Anna Paulina Luna has stops that will not allow anything to pass on the house floor until the Senate passes the safe act, which is something they just make a lot of constitutional sense. Like I'll tell you what to make sure. Yeah. So they

can't pass the rule. They can't pass anything. They're trying to pass through appropriation bills. The entire, they have to go home on Fridays. They can't do anything. And, uh, and she's demanding that they attach the safe act to either the Pfizer bill or the defense authorization bill, which the Senate will then take out in both those cases. But so the whole thing is, you have Trump has got to mention up about this. He, no one, but no one will say to his face why this can't

work. It is one thing for his, like, terrible, slavish, obsequious advisors and not say, but here are numbers of congruent senators who are not up for reelection this year. Maybe some of them are not up for reelection ever again, who are incapable of mustering the courage to say to one man a simple math fact. And it's like, they could have even, they could have even talked before hand and said, all right, I'm going to bring it up, but back me up if I do. Yeah, those strength and

numbers still nothing, still all like Bill Cassidy, I guess, got up and yelled at him about the Iran war powers. Yeah. And then and then change his vote because because the White House after was like gave him a briefing that he wanted and he, and then he was like felt sad that he raised his voice. I'm like, the guy costs you your job. You're not going to be a senator anymore

because of this man for for the for, for I guess voting for impeachment the second time. Apparently

me or gone now. And then like he looked over at Lisa Murkowski who was just like sitting there in the corner and he's like accept her unbelievable. This is a call on stuff out for that. Oh, interesting. Did she vote for the second, she had to vote for the second impeachment. Maybe she may be lucky. In fairness, we have barely covered the main Senate race this year, so maybe Susan Collins got smart and just didn't go to the lunch. She probably didn't go to

the lunch. I would stay clear of anywhere where John Donald Trump was like that would just be

“that's got to be a base like a campaign 101 kind of thing. Yes. So here's the thing now with”

this Trump and the GOP Congress. I'm wondering like how much all this matters because not many actual work days left between now and the midterms, they're going to go home for the fourth to July break. They're going to come back. There's going to be August recess. Then they come back. Then everyone's campaigning and then it's November before you know it. Trump seems intent on sabotaging any chance of anything passing before election day. I see it, it seems hard to

believe that this $88 billion war funding supplemental is going to pass even though they thought

they were really clever and included some Ebola funding in it to try to like get Democrats to vote for it. It doesn't seem like anything else. It doesn't seem like the Save America Act is going to pass. But then the question is like does any of that matter? What do you think in terms of the politics of the midterms? It's interesting question because I don't think there's any sort of bill even this housing bill where publics could pass that would dramatically change the political dynamics

“here. I think if you're in combat member of Congress and you can pass something that addresses”

people's number one concern and you can talk about that on the trail or on a debate or an ad, that's better than nothing. So this is an opportunity cost for the way Trump stepped on the housing bill. What I think probably matters here is they're going to need to pass this supplemental, which is politically toxic. In that CVS poll 69% of people think the war has been worth the cost.

We haven't even paid the $88 billion yet. When you start paying the $88 billion dollar,

numbers are going to get worse. And so it'll be on reconciliation. So they need 50 votes. And in our old world needs to be like, well Susan Collins is going to have to vote for it and she'll be fine. But now you've got a bunch of other Republican senators. You have Dan Sullivan. You have John Houston. You've got a bunch of people who are going to have to probably cast a vote here. And that's going to be it on public. You need everyone to do it. Because you're going to you're probably

getting federalmen, I guess. So maybe you can lose three Republicans. Yeah. But that'll be it. It's also, there's also a government funding deadline. But I was going to bring that up, too, is that that's the real, that's looming here right before the election. It's looming. We got a loomer. We're already looming. It's up to June. Yeah. It's September 30th. There's a government funding deadline. So you got that. You got this war funding supplemental. Nothing that anyone wants to pass.

That's for sure. If I was Donald Trump and I here passionate about election integrity, one thing I would do is demand that I would suggest that I wouldn't sign a government funding bill unless they include the, unless they pass the save act. I'm just an idea. Just an idea. I'm sure. Oh, but does it make it to his ears? I'm sure that's already on a note pad somewhere

“Dan or whiteboard in the white house for sure. No, I think, and the other, the other challenge”

here is I think they thought that this $88 billion war funding supplemental would, like they waited until after they thought the war was over. And then so they could sell it as like, oh, this is just backfilling. You know, like now we just, it's for future conflicts. And now our military is depleted and we need them. What are you going to do now? You know, except the war doesn't seem to be over. There was another tanker that was attacked by an Iranian drone today. It does not

seem like the traffic. The traffic has increased through the straight, but it is not anywhere near back to normal levels. I believe like the Chevron is saying the gas prices will be elevated for a while. Trump's flipping out about that. Now he's promising to go after price-gouging gas companies are open like a DOJ investigation, which as we know from the Biden administration

works so well. We tried that in the amount of years. It was us, too. Yeah, it never works,

but you say it anyway. And so he's going to have to deal with that. Gas prices are going to be still high. And so when, so that's going to make the $88 billion look even worse to voters, I think. Yeah, I mean, it's terrible. Honestly, it's probably would be better to do it when the war was going on, so you could be able to be about protecting the troops. And instead, it's just like here's the bill has come due for this unfun thing that no one wanted, and everyone hated. Yeah. And by the way,

we've cut all of your Medicaid to everything else in the government. So good luck with that. But we do have money for bomb rooms and algae. The world, algae. We have to, we're still a bit of the world, algae. It really does make you think like when these Republicans hit the trail

Democrats are all crazy socialists. Like, I don't know what else they can say about themselves

“and what they've done in Congress. I don't really imagine anyone talking about this housing bill,”

because like you said, the housing bill hasn't really had any effect on housing prices. I don't think that's going to land very well with people. They're going to, they will do, and it's not going to work, and it's going to be pretty pitiful, and it's just like leading with your chin, but they will talk about the tax provisions in the beautiful bill. There's no tax on tips, the Social Security stuff, the tax government of class, which will then allow

every Democrat to point out that most of the tax cuts went to billionaires and corporations, and that we are paying for those tax dumps or billionaires corporations by cutting health care, food assistance, closing rural hospitals, etc. Pots of America is brought to you by NutriFull. Real change comes from the small healthy habits you do every day, the quietly add up to big improvements. That's the idea behind NutriFull.

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fresh drama brewing. Thanks to the good people of New York City who had quite a primary on Tuesday, a slate of three candidates endorsed by Zor and Mamdeni won their Democratic primaries in deep blue house districts. In the seventh district, Democratic Socialist Claire Valdez won the open seat over a pretty progressive opponent endorsed by the retiring Democratic member of Congress. In the tenth district, progressive city controller Brad Lander

defeated incumbent Dan Goldman in a race that was largely about Israel. Both men are Jewish, lander, ran as a self-proclaimed liberal Zionist, but hit Goldman on voting against legislation to block military aid to Israel and taking money from pro Israel lobbying groups. And then the biggest upset of the night in another race that was largely about Israel, four term representative

Adriano Espiotte, head of the Congressional Hispanic caucus, and the first undocumented immigrant

to serve in Congress, lost his Harlem Bronx district in an upset to a leftist community organizer named Daria Liza Avila Chivalier, a Democratic socialist who also believes in abolishing prisons, police, and all deportations. Now there were plenty of other primaries in New York and elsewhere

more progressive challengers. But to give everyone a flavor of how the DSA victories are landing in the world of politics, hear her reactions from James Carville, Zoran Mamdani, and Hakeem Jeffries.

And everybody's always said, "No, no, we coalition, we're big camp." And as some, there's just some

shit that I can't be in the same camp with. Let's negotiate a terms of the schism, maybe we can we can part out to some kind of advantageous terms for both of us. But I'm done. I'm not in that fucking political party. What is the Democratic Party if not its voters? And what we saw yesterday evening were Democrats across the city turning out and voting for a new kind of politics. You can't, you can't think this is, this is a positive development in New York politics,

can you? And all they'll just, you know, dams will be dams or something like that. I don't,

“I don't, I don't see how you can say that. You need to reject those things. I think it's the”

first of all. First of all, I've clearly rejected those things. That's number one. Number two, and my record speaks for itself. This is not a dams will be dams situation. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America right now. Are you kidding me? I'm happy to talk about primary elections in one of the bluest cities in the country. At the end of the day, listen, off focus is going to be on ending this national nightmare in this country that America is suffering.

Okay. You're reaction to the results. And then we can do the reaction to the freak out. And I know you wrote a wonderful message box about this today. So thank you. Tell us about it. Sure. So let's just start with the elections ourselves. No one should dismiss this. Like two incumbents losing election on the same night is a big deal. Since 1946, so since 1946 to 2024, more than 98% of incumbents have won renomination in the house. So it is in the house.

So it is like it is very rare for members of Congress who lose their primary two losing on one night. One of them being the chair of the CHC. And it's specifically losing to a political novice with a, I would say a colorful history of online posts, but I'll just say they're just going to be invoked this cycle for Democrats. That's a big deal. We shouldn't dismiss it. It is a, I would say the land or Goldman race is a little different in the sense that land

is a city wide elected official with high who ran for mayor as high name ID and the endorsement and full support of the very popular mayor democratic socials mayor of the city. And in each of these races

“are a little different in what drove it. But I think the thing that we should take away is”

like so much else that's happening in this country, like as it's happening when progressive speed

establishment candidates in the second district of Maine in the California race. We're in

V.A. Guest Juan, Graham Platner, forcing, forcing Janet Mills out of the race. Like there's a giant warning sign for the Democratic establishment here, where if the support of people like Schumer or even a team Jeffries, it's really not an asset in your campaign. It may be a detriment. It is very clear that the, the groups on the left, Justice Democrats, Democratic social so America, our revolution, our out organizing, out fundraising, outworking, out maneuvering,

the traditional party institutions. Right. That is happening. They have captured the energy, they're being more creative, they're being more strategic, they're being more aggressive. And if you

“are someone in the Democratic establishment, you should be deeply concerned about what this says,”

about where the party is, what the standing of the party is, what the ability of the party infrastructure is actually win elections. So this is a big deal. Now, to a team Jeffries point, this is taking place in a city that comola Harris won by 38 points, and it was a bad year for Democrats, right, particularly in a city like New York. And so this is a very, very, very democratic city. And all across the country, you're seeing, yes, you're seeing progressive candidates win,

and you're seeing progressive candidates lead like Abdul Alsaid in Michigan, according to the most recent polls. But you're also seeing moderate candidates in Alaska, North Carolina. I don't know if it's for a cultured brown on moderate, but he's certainly not a democratic socialist. He's an economic populist. And you saw in New York, you know, just on that very same day,

it's in like New York, 17, one of the most important districts in the country of the Democratic

state, the house. You have a, a more moderate veteran candidate win for that. You said, the Mike Waller district. That's the Mike Waller. That's the Mike Waller. It's Kate Connolly, who won that, who won that primary. And so you're seeing, it's like a, there is a mixed picture, but there is, all in all the races, but there is true. It is very true that there is an antipathy throughout the establishment. We can talk about why that is. There is more energy on the

groups on the left. I think that's all right. I also think it's useful to sort of define what

“the freak out is about because it's even more, it's even narrower, I think than just like,”

you know, there's, there's some progressives winning in places and DSA places in moderate, even just the three races we're talking about here from Tuesday, which I'm about three races. And three house races. And in one of those races, Claire Valdez seems like a normal DSA candidate in the vein of an AOC or our, our member of the squad, right? We talked about Brad Lander.

Lander is basically like a standard progressive Democrat. Yeah, Senator New York City progressive

Democrats. Yeah. But it also has said like, you know, after he won, was like, I want to go help frontline members who are out there and I hope some of the moderates come help me and I've helped moderates before and so like, that's that's Brad Lander. Really here, the panic is over, Darializa Vila Chivalier. And I will just say, she might be the most left wing candidate to ever win a Democratic primary in our lifetime. There's been a lot of focus on her old tweets,

which she has deleted and mostly apologized for. I'm fine with that. My general position is to give people a chance who want to take back something they said or posted. Certainly would love to

take back things that I've posted. And I also think that like some of her tweets have been taken

out of context and exaggerated. Here's where I have a problem. She has not apologized for attending an anti-Israel rally on October 8th, October 8th, 2023. I rally that was condemned by Zoran Mundani, AOC and Brad Lander. We were just talking about who actually left the DSA because it promoted that rally where attendees chanted that Hamas's resistance was justified the day after October 7th, the day after they slaughtered a thousand Israelis. And to this day, she still defends

attending that rally. The other problem I have. She sat for an interview with the New York editorial board last week last week where she said she's against all deportations. She's for open

borders because quote bordering is a very modern construct actually. The borders are in our hearts

in our minds. She wants to abolish prisons and refused to say what asked. She got four different chances on this. Refused to say that a convicted murderer should be sentenced to any jail time at all and they kept giving her another chance to like are you sure but what happens to them to the murder that just convict it? Nothing. Now, maybe she turns over in New Leaf and Congress and like

“her voting record doesn't match some of these more extreme positions. I hope so. But I think the”

reason I bring this up is because when Democrats get questions about this, I think the answer is easy and important to give, which is that she currently holds a range of views that go from moronic to abhorrent and not only those views not aligned with most Democrats in the country, nearly all Democrats in the country, all elected Democrats actually most elected Democratic socialists. But like I don't even think they align with like a lot of the people who probably

voted for her and so like I think people should just you just gotta say that and I don't think you lump her and I think it I think it does a disservice to the other progressives in the other even DSA members to pretend that she is part of this like there's new energy and it's great and whatever and it's like no no no no it's one thing to have these views in the past and be like you know what I've learned I'm growing what she said about summer for tweets but to sit there

“a week ago and be like yeah no prisons no borders no police here's the thing also who cares”

well like I mean but I already see people doing the like you know like well we got to understand the energy no no we got to understand the energy with a lot of these candidates she is that was a mistake and like Mamdanie and Dorsinger also probably a mistake yeah I mean you'll notice that when Bernie Sanders did his congratulatory tweet afterwards he congratulated breadlander and clarified this oh he did cuz Bernie's fucking smart that's why I mean those are the two I I

those are the two he specifically endorsed but he did he did two not three but also she's one member of Congress right this is the voters picked so in two years someone's got the opportunity to chat with her maybe like Congress and she's productive member maybe she's not doesn't but it's it's just like I think I'm not saying it I'm not saying it's the end of the world I'm saying that I actually think it's very easy here oh yeah I'm saying what don't say yes she is a she is about to be

Fox and every fucking segment and it's going to be like that forever and you know what most people when they hear her there's tape of her saying all these things last week with me here that they're going to be like this is fucking nuts and then if they go to democrat like what do you think and democrats like it's not a big deal everyone's freaked out over nothing then you would not you would not blame the voter for being like well that's weird why wouldn't you just say it's crazy

we're holding this will try to make her a celebrity a face of the party I think they're going to really struggle to pick an unelected member of congress is the face of the party when they have struggled to make aoc or Nancy Pelosi or someone else's face of the party let's say let's say let's say it comes up it's like is it come up and to make a matter of you if you're a member of running an a district frankly but strictly I vote a frontline member in a purple district or

red district there's not there's no greater gift in the opportunity to distance yourself from

“yes someone that's why he said that yeah so I think yes I like for sure I think that there the”

freak out there's a cut let's try to like break like the freak out is it's not just about her the freak out's about a few things that are sort of political and institutional one of them is

there's always this fear that democrats are going to nominate candidates to liberal to win

the general election that is not a fear here no right these are in some of the most different people I'll go to congress yeah they're all going to congress so that's and that we are not seeing a situation where currently we'll see what you know people are going to have an argument about main about main senate but that we have not as of yet for the most part we have not been the democratic voters not the institutions not the not the groups anyone not the party apparatus the voters

are not picking candidates who may be too liberal to win the two positive possible exceptions there are Randy V.A. guess which is the these people see picked a different candidate in that race and then Matt dumb up instead of ball dot sheet the son of the former governor it may

second district yep we probably were ready the main second district under any scenario you need

“a very very good year for that that's really like only that's what it's most terrible as”

Jared golden had not retired right Jared Jared Golden is like Joe mentioned right he the only person who can win that was probably Jordan golden the other fear is that this is evidence of like an opera a t-party like moment for the party and there are it's it's I think it's a bad comparison because the t-party was a very specific thing and time was about a very specific thing and time that was largely it was a sort of astro turf corporate funded reaction to the election of a

black president the but they're like what you are seeing is a they party based saying they are done with the establishment they are done with the leadership they've great skepticism that leader I think there's three reasons why that skepticism exists one of it and it's different in every race and it's even different in some of those races in New York one is anger that the

party has failed to stand up to Trump yeah the second is that the party is two capture by

corporate interests to you know unable unwilling to cowardly to take on the interests and to advocate for working people right that our our not address he was economic pain and then the third reason is Israel and Gaza and that was obviously particularly prominent in the land or goldment race where that was a primary point of distinction between the two of them and you see that in like each of the like the knob the dial turns to different to different

levels in each different race or on the country around those three things the other question is

“is the party becoming moving dramatically to the left right and I think that one is interesting”

because it is an incontroredible fact that the party is more liberal than it was 10 years ago like when Obama ran for reelection in the gallop polling 42% of Democrats consider themselves liberal or very liberal and 36% consider themselves moderate today north of 54% consider themselves liberal or very liberal and 34% consider themselves moderate now it's we I could do a full podcast on how that number happens because the moderate number stays the same and the

liberal number goes up right and it's certainly not from conservatives becoming liberal since because the conservatives left the party in the replaced by white college educated liberals who were former Republican voters but like that is true but in white college educated voters and just high educated voters in general have just become more specifically become more liberal in their own vision yes and it's been it is led to as the party has become less working class in its

orient in its identity and frankly its orientation cultural issues social issues climate change democracy immigration crime LGBTQ rights have risen in priority for the party and that has

successful democratic coalition is black voters and black voters remain more moderate than the

“party you see this and it's really fascinating Pew political typology said they came out last”

month it's very clear that black and latina voters and Asian voters are much more moderate or more moderate that was a much more moderate than the sort of this activist more liberal democratic base particularly particularly crime immigration crime immigration yeah the two and then the other question is are democrats becoming socialists and this is also really interesting because you know in there is this gallop poll that everyone fixates on to show that 66% of

registered democrats have a positive view of socialism and then in the New York Times poll that we've

talked at nausea and about 49% of democrats have democrats in democrats leaning independence there

it's one sample have a favorable view of socialism and interestingly enough a plurality of every owed h cohort including democrats over 65 have a favorable view of socialism now here's the pop quiz you ask Caroline the symbolic us through but can you guess which group has the highest favorability of socialism let's see a young man well which h cohort it is it is it's actually man thirty to forty four okay thirty thirty but thirty forty for us what that's us right it's you

that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's not me anymore if I come for yes sure it was you you just moved in but it's actually it's millennial it's millennial's more than younger despite about nine points actually um that's interesting which I think is coming at age in the great recession yeah well and it speaks to sort of the the question that you're raising by these

maybe surprising results to some people which is I do think it is more of a commentary on capitalism yeah and the failures of capitalism at least how people have felt that in their own lives then a love of socialism or I think if you asked then and I haven't seen a poll that's done this like what do you think of when you think of socialism they think of like Bernie Sanders and universal health care not abolishing prisons yeah which is not necessarily a lot a lot of socialist countries

had a lot of prisons actually yes famously so yeah so someone had good logs he would say and you know what every country has borders that's true every single one both both in their mind and in reality

“so I was going to say in the social to the you hit on the key point here which is it's I think it's”

more of an indictment of capitalism than socialism and so I guess the question is if you're a Democrat like how do you react all of this and like the advice that I I give I've been giving candidates so the people is one you have to you have to find a way to just to separate yourselves from the establishment of everyone hates like you can't be a typical Democrat and you have to understand what makes people so mad about it and show that you have a solution to it or different

from it the second thing is you don't have to embrace socialism but you sure sell a bit or understand

what is causing people to embrace socialism and speak to that economic pain and you got to find a way to have some sort of energy and excitement and authenticity in your your belief like what is like I think what is I think powering some of these these that socials necessarily but some social it some DSA some more progressive candidates is they are speaking with authenticity in conviction about issues whether it's Abdul talking about Medicare for all in Michigan whether it's

platinum or talking about how the system is failed him and failed so many manners it's how Zoran is talking about cost of living it's like there's this authenticity and conviction to it that most of the people that you don't get from a lot of moderates not all moderates or somebody do it but it's just it's show up in the same way there's another there's two more

“reasons that I think there's so much anger at the Democratic establishment right now one is”

we have said for a long time now since Iraq that people they don't want to spend money on endless foreign wars they don't want to lose American lives and forever wars they also don't want to spend a lot of money because they feel like we spent there right like billions and billions and billions of dollars on Iraq and other foreign adventures that have not worked up I think that is how most people who are upset with how Biden handled Gaza feel right it is not

Israel has no right to exist it is why is our money being spent or being sent to be Netanyahu in the Israeli government who have just slaughtered thousands and thousands and thousands

party ideology it is not fucking horseshoe it is not like the far left and the far right ghost

“sitting a focus group go talk to most voters it's a very common feeling and the fact that people”

look at the Democratic establishment and don't feel like that they are on or they feel the same way or they're acting the same way as a huge fucking problem you also said people are mad that the Democratic establishment hasn't stood up to Trump enough I also think Dave White will made this point today reported some before that there's still mad that the Democratic establishment fucking lost a Trump again like that is I know we're all like we don't

go back and look back at 24 and all that kind of stuff like we lost a Donald Trump for the second time

after the guy was convicted of crimes and sent an insurrectionist mob to the capital like so that's the original sentence yeah the people who were in charge there people aren't going to feel to feel to warm and fuzzy towards them like that is just that is that to me is looming over everything like yes there's the corporate stuff and economic like all that is real

“money and politics establishment two codes all of its real for sure but like if we had just beaten”

Donald Trump then a lot of voters would not think that no and so that's that's going to be a big one too positive America is brought to you by Rocket Money thanks to the good people at Rocket Money I realized that I had been upcharged by a streaming service for access to one show was a foreign thing that Hannah and I watched during the pandemic one time one episode of it then abandoned it and then forgot to cancel it when we're getting charged like 10 bucks a month in perpetuity that's

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planting essentials right now and listeners get additional 20% off their first order with the code crooked a checkout that's 20% off at fast growing trees dot com with code crooked a checkout terms to get a supply so here's something fun the primary season isn't over yet and the left is targeting a few other big races in places that aren't as blue as in New York City we talked about some of these but in Colorado Democratic Socialist malat keros is running against congressman

Diana de Gett though that's also a safe seat even doesn't Colorado in Wisconsin DSA state rep Francesca Hong is running for governor in a crowded field that includes lieutenant governor Sarah Rodriguez and Mandela Barnes and in Michigan our pal Abdul al-sayed is in a tight Senate primary with Mallory MacMoro and representative Hayley Stevens so does feel like there's a little more stake in the in the Wisconsin and Michigan primaries what is your read on those you know it's it's

but I'm not making this argument that Hong and Abdul are less electable than other candidates on the ballot and in Wisconsin there's already a movement one of the Senate left candidates has dropped out and endorsed Rodriguez and is there's a movement to try to consolidate the field around Rodriguez

“honestly don't know enough about that race to know for sure that one can is more electable than the”

other it I know that's a very hard race right it's it's a very tough state winning a third term

in a row is always challenging for governors so you know that's going to be tough for ace

Michigan the polling is you know Abdul is leading in the polls Hilly Stevens is in second the candidate that that I have supported by moreo is in third there have been hypothetical tests against Mike Rogers who's a very very good candidate he lost by just I think about 24,000 votes so let's us lock in in 24 you know the polling shows that we've seen shows maybe make moreo and Stevens a couple points more you know doing better against Rogers than Abdul I don't know

what to make of that whether that is real or not it's not significant it's not a dramatic difference in that so it's it's hard to say Abdul's obviously a very very talented candidate is very

“talented communicator would he be able to navigate the tax that will certainly come to him as a”

as a in Bernie endorsed candidate a Muslim candidate who will be attacked for his views on

everything in his background he certainly is talented enough to be able to navigate that but I am not I can't look at those races and say if we nominate that you know Hong or Abdul we're certainly going to lose like it's it's not that it's not that clear to me and it's certainly no one has presented evidence to that fact yeah it's tough I mean look I I'm and I'm supporting Abdul his friend had a pot on cricket but you know I'll be honest like that that is

the race where and again because it's it's less about like I mean it is about who these candidates are but it's also very much about the environment in the state and you know even like platinum is running in a state that is much much more democratic than Michigan and I do think that if if a Bernie endorsed sort of more lefty candidate can pull it off in Michigan I do think Abdul can do it but I think it's going to be tough and like he's going to face all kinds of attacks

not just for his ideological position but many unfair attacks like he said because he's he's Muslim so I think that's going to be that's going to be challenged I think and then I think with Francisco Wong same thing and I don't I don't know her as well but I saw it like she'd had you know she'd had some past support for or advocated at one point like defund the police and then last week you know she had a video that said there's no way I'm going to cut public safety

“and that to me is like okay this is the kind like yes this is what you need to do”

between these states and like if you are a further left candidate in a state like Wisconsin in a state like Michigan I'm not saying like just you know change all of your fucking positions you shouldn't do that but you do have to run like you're running a general election in a purple state which you are and know where the voters are and know you know for I'm sure for for Wong

and for I know for Abdul like the most important issues Medicare for All health care

sort of economic populism and I would imagine that they're going to emphasize those above all else and then have something to say on some of the attacks that are come they're going to come their way on crime and immigration and cultural issues but I don't think that's going to be easy but I do think like I saw that I saw what Wong had done about there's no way I'm going to cut public safety and contrasted that with some of the stuff that we just talked about in New York City

and I'm like see that is that's the difference right there in Mamdoni right Mamdoni campaign has all kinds of past positions and he has increased the police budget since he's been mayor and guess and he's done all of his other stuff that he talked about right the rent freeze I believe is going into effect today he's trying to do all the other stuff and he's wildly popular yeah it is like they're when we talked about some you know the Tea Party comparison here is that

in both the 2010 and 2012 Senate racist the Republicans nominated a bunch of candidates in states they should have won like Indiana Missouri Delaware in 2010 where Mike Castle would have walked into the Senate and instead they nominated Christina Donald who did not walk into the Senate and in order to she fly on her broomstick didn't she fly to her broomstick deep-cooked and very very there's a 15-year-old reference to a Senate race 15 yeah okay 15

20 10 yeah 2016 16 and but one of the mistakes those candidates made is they also ran terrible

yes and you can be a liberal can you can be more liberal than the electorate and still win if you are running a smart strategic race that does acknowledge the realities of what it takes to win in a state like Wisconsin or Michigan and it depends on which issues you're more liberal than the electorate on yeah that's a big way we we use like liberal conservative left right is just like these catch-all terms but it really depends on what you're talking about that's right

that's right and it's not just issues it's obviously things you've said yes you've done who you are your cultural connection to people but yes you can like if you were a serious candidate can win in the right environment right in the right campaign yeah all right so Tommy talked to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan this week about their new Trump book regime change go

listen to that interview if you haven't already it's great but one of the more incredible anecdotes

in the book is a dinner at the White House in October of last year where Trump asks Rupert Murdoch in front of Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance who are sitting at the table which one he liked best and to rate both of them and Murdoch reportedly said of Rubio Marco is brilliant

“and said events I think J.D. has the potential to be great”

Vance apparently tried to laugh it off with the sarcastic line oh thanks thanks Rupert thanks a lot of course we here at Pazave America think Murdoch and Trump and others are just being grossly unfair to our boy J.D. who has continued to just ooze charisma during the press tour for his new book um just as one example check out this exchange with conservative columnist Ross outfits at the New York Times let's be honest the tone of the administration is not

consistently a Christian tone there is a tone of aggressive uncharity to people who are not bored with the administration's policies the tone argument is in some ways I think people see what they want to see and I also think that tonal arguments are ways of frankly policing working class ways of communication and covering them in elite preferences I think the tonal arguments are ways of policing working class ways of communication and covering them in elite preferences few things

first of all you sound like the right-wing version of a wokesgold from academia who can't get off

“blue sky that's what that sounded like too I'm not sure how the Manhattan billionaire president”

calling Americans he doesn't like humans scum is a working class way of communication and I do think it's a bit insulting to work in class Americans the J.D. Vance assumes that they all speak about their fellow Americans that way I'm also not sure when like loving my neighbor and Christian charity became an elite preference that's an elite preference now wild just from top to bottom wild does that just me I don't know I couldn't I couldn't believe that when I when I saw that

I would say you did say to say to us in our production many today that you could do a whole podcast on this topic I think it was like the last time I tweeted actually I mean I've been like retweeting things here and there but last time I really tweeted was a week ago and because I've been

trying not to tweet that much but I saw that and I just first of all like I couldn't stop laughing

and then I listened to the whole interview because with Ross which was fun which was a real journey

“I think people should know that you had a day to yourself in Chicago again beautiful summer day in”

Chicago but you were by yourself you could have done anything in the world and what did I do and it was beautiful day and I walked down by the lake and I walked all the way to Lincoln Park where we used to live and I I had a great day but while I was walking I was listening thought to myself what I shouldn't you talk to yourself sometimes with Ross doubt that and JD van and JD fans it's good for you look I very much agree with you here it is like using the term tone policing is just

perfect but like the the bigger point with this is and it says something about JD van which is JD van's came from a working class background like his story is very famous but what he and it is a you know as told in his book and the Netflix movie of which he was a producer made of his life story tell you is that he picked himself up by his bootstraps once when I vividly college went to the military became quite successful became a venture capitalist seen in commentator all the

things that all the all the checklists on the mega resume that you need Hollywood producer venture

like that's his story the story is someone who was raised in this incredible the difficult scenario

involving drug addiction and poverty and rises to the most elite pinnacles of American society becomes the vice president of states but the what he has taken from that is that is he's become elite and he looks down his nose at everyone else because if this is the he tries to in the trump era that the pre trump era but the in his post trump's not really no longer Hitler I show work for him and serve him era he tries to put on the clothes of an anti elitist but he is not he is a

pure elitist and there is nothing more elitist than saying that that basically telling someone not to be a dick to their fellow citizens is anti working class look when trump goes out there and you know and and rob riner dies and he celebrates with it with the truth social posts or celebrates that bob muller dies with the true social posts that's just what working class people do you know they're doing the diner at the bar

it's just how they talk and and the reason he knows that is because he serves a working class president Donald Trump Donald J. Trump cares about the working people it is of the working people and that's just

“that's how he talks that's how working class people talk when the working class president fires off”

an offensive truth from the gold toilet upon which he's sitting that is working class talk when he yeah when he says look we just came to four child care we can't afford to give people child care but also check out my ballroom and look at the gold look at the gold everywhere that's it again real if I had a nickel for every time a working class person said that I wouldn't be working class I'd be jibby as type

oh jadevance amazing rostelf it like he looked like he wanted to laugh too

which is the first time it's ever happened in rostelf that's why I truly humorless man I felt bad for us because he had to he crant the problem with that interview is he had to cram too many topics in because jadevance only gave him a certain amount of time and so there was so many crazy things that jadevance said that you could tell that definitely wanted to follow up on and he just had to

“he moved on to the next thing and I was like you should have you I would have just I would have asked him”

about that sentence maybe you would have done a whole pot you jadevance come on offline all the other stuff I would have just given up and I would have been like let's talk about the tonal arguments and the tonal easing we don't want to be toned by this anyway one more of these from jadevance there was another very human very authentic vans moment this week that also got a lot of attention apparently usha vans host a youtube series called story time

with the second lady where she and a guest read to kids very nice and this week special guest was jadee who is allegedly her husband let's see how it went today special reader is my husband vice president of the United States jadevance thanks for joining us today honey of course good to see now if you're just listening to this posit go to the youtube map on your phone go to positive america youtube or your laptop get

to the nearest youtube app you can get to and watch this because what he does there is he says good to see you and then reaches awkwardly across and gives her two fatherly pats on the knee very light pats on the knee just light pats pulls the hand back and then they just sit and stare at each other

“is that how you and how we greet each other after a long day apart then?”

I will say that if you can't look it's hard to be a public figure right the glare of the spotlight is intense but if there's one moment where you could possibly be yourself it would be

sitting with your wife and he is incapable of doing that like it honestly seems like they have never

met each other it's like you also it's not like he had to like give her a big kiss or like he could have just done nothing he didn't have to tap her knee like what's like you can see it like he looked like he was about to be like looks like he got a bun in the oven there like honestly it's just it's I mean I just it's like the first meeting between a man who's never had a date before and a male order bride

it's just so I just don't also he said that also like I hope everyone realizes that they can they could have edited that right they could have done another take they could have cut that

are there is somewhere on the cutting room floor of the white house are there nine

“knee pads that were less affectionate than I want to do you did he perhaps like high five”

hurt for the first time yes yes these are a fist ball to the shaker nice to see you I'm JD

wow yes anyway watch out Mark our Rubio as Rubio like would say he's got the potential to be certainly does he certainly does that potential it's there somewhere we have not seen it yet neither has a root part but it's there okay when we come back I'll talk to the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas Gina in a Hosa positive America is brought to you by Sundays if you've ever had a dog who's picky when it

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cricket 50 or use code cricket 50 at checkout Gina in a house ah welcome to pot save america it's great to be with you so there's been plenty of national focus on the Texas Senate race uh between James tellerico and Ken Paxton there's been less attention paid to the gubernatorial race that you're running against three term incumbent Greg Abbott who's running for a record fourth term as governor um we'll

get to him in a minute but for all the people listening who are meeting you for the first time um who are you and what made you get into the race yeah so i am running for governor of Texas because what i see in twenty twenty six is that everything is on the line and this is perhaps our last best chance to save what we hold dear in Texas and in this country and to explain i grew up on the border with Mexico i grew up in the Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville, Texas

and i was raised on the promise of the american dream there we used to cross back and forth between

“Texas and Mexico all the time back then and i remember as a little girl being struck by”

the extreme poverty i witnessed Mexico and i remember asking my dad why why when we cross into Mexico are their beggars they said beggars we didn't have um homelessness then we didn't have a

word for it they said beggars and then when we cross back into Texas there are none and i'll never

forget my dad said because in Mexico they have the rich and then they have the poor and they don't have much in between and in america we have a strong middle class and he was talking about the american dream and working Texans right now are struggling to achieve the american dream in a big way it is why i'm running for office it happened to me i never meant to run for anything i made my husband promised i'm never run for office before we got married but they try to shut down my

son school so i ran for the school board one that fight for schools took me to the Texas house and what i see in the Texas house is the reason our schools are shutting down the reason we are struggling so much is because we are paying into a system that is working against us it is one big grift it is policy that is driven by many special interest and i refer to it as the Greg Abbott Corruption tax we pay more we get less because we are all paying the Greg Abbott Corruption tax and now

districts operating at four days a week whole school districts because they can't afford to operate at five days a week um we have the most people being disconnected from their electricity of any other state we have the most uninsured of any other state we have the most uninsured

children of any state we have the most bankruptcies we have the first major american city in

Corpus Christi to potentially run out of water despite the fact we are paying about 75% more in property taxes under Greg Abbott that is Greg Abbott's record and he owns it um and that's

“why i'm running i have a plan to save Texas schools and to put money in your pocket and i think”

it's important that people understand yes we fight for our public schools because of our kids and our community but we fight for public schools because there can be no american dream without strong public schools because public schools provide the opportunity the gateway for the american dream and of course if we can't afford to live and thrive in Texas where where we live

then there can be no american dream when i was a little girl Texas was the american dream

manifest right but that is why i'm running we have to fight to win back the american dream so you're no stranger to politics even though you didn't think you would run um you've served in the Texas house and i believe your your father who you mentioned is that was the chair of the democratic party in Texas for about a decade um what did you learn from him about politics and the state of the democratic party in Texas yeah well to be clear the number one lesson i

learned was that i did not want that life for myself interesting how come because my dad belonged to the world and not to me and i wanted a quieter simpler life i'm a lawyer i had a small practice

“i thought that's what i would do out would beat the best at my small practice and that is why”

made my husband promised to never run for office but life had other plans so um that's what i

mostly learned but i will tell you that it is in the Texas house where i have learned that really there's so much noise but there's one five and that fight is the fight of 2026 in this country in the state and it is are we going to be a state that is by and for the people or are we living in the billionaires world and we we're just here that is the fight that is the fight that is behind rice schools are closing that is the fight behind why we can't afford

to pay things that's the fight behind white corpus christie is running out of water that is the fight speaking of billionaires and money in politics the uh man you're running against is sitting

“on more than a hundred million dollars um recent poll uh had about a third of Texas voters saying”

they don't know enough about you to have an opinion um how do you introduce yourself to a state as biggest Texas when uh especially when the governor uh current governor has so much money to run his own ads in campaign yeah you're right Texas is giant running for governor of Texas is like running for president right um we're doing things differently we've divided the state up into seven regions running like full congressional campaigns and each of those regions

because we are such a big and diverse state what the polling shows is that since the in the last year my name idea's gone up 20 points um we went from nine points down to five points down as that's happened and so as people get to know who I am they're with me and um people want change what I am seeing across the state what elections are showing in Texas what polling is showing is that there is this anti-incompensy energy in Texas right now and Greg Abbott offers more

of the same and his problem even though he has all that money in his campaign account is that you use money to tell people who you are and what you're about and that's his problem people know who he is and what he is about and they don't want it anymore they want change the number one response I get from people when I say I'm running for governor against Greg Abbott you can run again it's like really don't you turn limits well I'm I'm I'm sure there's plenty to say about him

in his record what is the one specific thing uh he's done that you would point to uh if a voter because you'll probably need some of these voters right people who voted for Greg Abbott three times now you have a three time Abbott voter who's at least open to a different choice the time

he's given a billion dollars in no bid contracts to his donors hmm he's the most corrupt governor

“in Texas history we not saying something we've never had this level of corruption but every major”

challenge in Texas is about follow the money right back to Greg Abbott's donors so it's you know it's common for for challengers to say the incumbent is corrupt worked for billionaires better said a version of this about Abbott in 2022 Lupin Valdez said it in 2018 both still lost by single to double digits why do you think um this will land in 2026 where it hasn't worked as well before well what we are seeing is that it is already

landing in Texas and 2018 you referenced that was the closest we've come in a long time to potentially flipping a seat statewide in Texas that's when Betta ran against Ted Cruz right that's the last time we had points right that's right that's the last time we had a midterm

“election with Trump in the White House right and Democrats what we picked up 12 seats in the Texas”

House we flipped all of Harris County Houston to Democrats swept in a big way we were not ready right maybe we could have flipped the whole Texas House had we've been ready we are ready in 2020

six and so for the first time we have Democrats running in every congressional seat every state

House State Senate seat and already we have seen dramatic improvement in our performance so Democrats overperformed Republicans in the primary that rarely happens in Texas I had eight opponents in my primary and still I got twice as many votes as Betta got in 2018 because people are doing the work for change and 2018 is different because we have two strong candidates at the top of the ticket but though was pretty much the only one who could raise real money in 2018 and took

on all the arrows took on the entire campaign it's different this time around what we've yet to see though that the thing that is to be determined is our people going to believe what they see with their own eyes in Texas where we're winning Terrent County Terrent County for instance that was the most Republican county in the whole United States of America we flipped a state Senate seat swung it 31 points to a like Taylor remet Steve Bannon embedded himself

in Terrent County the month before that happened and said right off the bat I'm here because as goes Terrent County so goes Texas so goes the nation well we want it and that it's not just Terrent County it happened in safe air it happened in Arlington it happened in Leander it happened in Denton Parallel and it is happening all over Texas and what we are seeing in 2020-06 is people just want change education is a signature issue for you you mentioned 100 plus schools

are closing 150 plus districts have gone to four day weeks for someone outside Texas what is actually happening to the public schools right now and what did Abbott do to cause it so what I see in the Texas House I sit on the public education committee with James Sarrigo we co-chair the effort to fight vouchers in 2023 and we beat Greg Abbott then we had role Republicans joined with us to defend public schools and vote against vouchers Greg Abbott took out those

Republicans who voted with us in their primaries by putting a million dollars in against each of

them in their primaries and so then he got the vote and we passed it vouchers last year vouchers and is an example of what has happened to to our public schools in Texas it is just vendor contract after vendor contract to somebody who is connected to Greg Abbott and that is where many for our public schools is going so Greg Abbott received $12 million dollars the largest campaign contribution in all of Texas history from an out-of-state billionaire Jeff Yazs who has a financial

interest in vouchers right that is the kind of drift and corruption that people are feeling in a real way and so those alliances I made across the aisle with mega moms with football coaches and rural communities with superintendents principles people who love their public schools are

“angry in a big way at Greg Abbott for what he's done to our public schools and I believe”

that that will be the difference in this election people see this as our last best chance to say public schools in Texas education used to be an issue that Democrats talked about every campaign

I've heard and you talk about it now rumb manual has been talking about it recently

but in general why do you think the Democratic party has sort of shyed away from focusing on education and what do you see as a positive vision in public education and education in general for both you know Texas in the country to take we just gotten lost in all of really a lot of high tech solutions to education that have not worked in Texas it's happened in a big way now they're trying to push in Houston Texas Greg Abbott took over Houston ISD and trying to put in a hundred

AI schools in Houston with this idea that we don't need teachers we need education guides and so it's just

to wait for them to make money off of our public school dollars so I'm proposing a back to basics

approach where we pay teachers their worth and it it doesn't feel sexy right back to basics pay teachers their worth novel concept it doesn't happen because it nobody makes many off of it

“but teachers right billionaires don't make money off of it and I think in lots of ways”

Democrats have moved away from just the basics again it's the American dream how can you have the American dream without strong public schools public schools tell every child you can be anything you want to be if you put in the work how are we letting it happen that are public schools and it's not just Texas but it's in Texas in a big big way are dying on the vine in Texas there is a unique kind of pride Texas public schools are Friday night lights they're enshrined in our

Texas Constitution they made us who we are people have big pride in public schools in Texas and they think that is why it is resonating in a way that there is a possessiveness and an understanding that this is a part of who we are and people are ready to fight for their public schools what

do you do about um low performing public schools and low performing teachers it's never the right

answer to take power away from parents in community when our public schools are struggling I do think we need a back to basics approach money in the classroom have the we have had a teacher Exodus in Texas we have for the first time Texas is hiring more uncertified teachers than certified teachers by a lot we now have teachers who have no college degree being hired in Texas I have a neighboring school district their number one source of new hires is out of the country

because they can't find people to work for what we pay who have the the experience we all know

“is again not rocket science the best thing we can do for a child's education is put a great”

teacher in the classroom and we have steered so far away from what we know works so again it's a back to basics approach making sure we have great educators in the classroom looking at the poll some of your your strongest numbers with latino voters some polls have you up nearly 20 points Trump of course Kerry latina's in Texas in 2024 you've said the latino vote can be the difference if we choose to be what is choose to be mean and what is the party gotten wrong

over the last several years decade it's seeing sort of latino voters either drift away from the Democratic Party or you know in the case of 2024 toward the Republican Party I think we have taken our eye of the prize of what are we fighting for again I think there is one fight it is the fight about whether it is a country estate that is buying for the people that is the fight for

“the American dream they are one in the same and I think we get distracted by culture wars and social”

issues we take the bait all the time and I get it I mean it is infuriating things that Republicans do and say to different groups that consist of our coalition but when we're fighting about those things we are not talking about the thing that impacts all of us and that is can you afford to live in thrive in Texas and and that has to be the fight so the latino vote is hugely important to your point you're right absolutely in 2018 but they got 64% of the latino vote again the closest

we've come in a long long time to winning as Democrats when I get 64% of the latino vote and when because there are more of us in the voting population then there were then to give you a sense of where latinos are in Texas in 2026 Taylor remat who flipped that state senate seat cut 79%

for granted I'm heavily focused on engaging the latino vote in this election and if we choose to be as if latinos will show up that we have seen this year that latinos are showing up and we need

“latinos to show up in a big way in November. I think when challenge Democrats have had”

over the last decade is sort of assuming that for latino voters immigration is the top issue when as you said the economy affordability still number one just as it is with non-latino voters that said Trump has decided to make immigration central to his second administration even more than it was in the first I think that personally what I've seen from Democrats of the last decade is fear around the issue of immigration and so when you ask Democrats about immigration people either

say okay we need a strong border for sure but what Trump's doing with ice is horrific and wrong and that's about as far as it goes yeah some point will be in power again hopefully so hopefully you'll be governor what is a positive vision for immigration that you think can rally the country

behind the Democratic Party that recognizes as is my old boss Barack Obama would always say

“that we're a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Right I think we have to stress that we're”

for border security we all want that I grew up on the border of course I want border security and what is happening right now is not that and the district attorney in Harris County will say he has child sex abuse cases that he cannot prosecute because the witnesses have been detained or deported or too afraid to come forward that makes us less safe not more safe and here's the other thing the other thing is that it's hard to be generous to immigrants when Americans are struggling

themselves so much it is hard to be generous with the American dream when people feel like it's out at reach for themselves right I think it's a classic example of the you know put your oxygen

mask on first and then help others in need we have to recognize that Americans working Americans

working Texans are not making it we need make sure they get the oxygen mask first and that we we message and we work to deliver for Americans first really for Texans first that we're doing everything we can to address again the one fight the one fight is this going to be a country in a state for us or for many interests do you think we need to revamp our asylum laws sounds like it yes yeah yeah and and can I give you an example so bite-ins last the December before his last

year in office remember we had the care of ants at the border it was chaotic people in Texas were angry and I got a call I was chair of the campaign committee for the Texas House at the time I got a call from my member in Eagle Pass who is a front-line member and he said Gina they have shut down the border to Eagle Pass in Mexico this was the week before Christmas to all commerce it is killing our local businesses we are going to lose and I said okay let me see what I can do

so I called the Biden administration and I said we need an emergency meeting within 48 hours we had their top border officials on the phone I had my border members on the phone and Biden the Biden officials heard and earful about how this is not working something needs to change that next week the Biden administration sent delegates over to negotiate enforcement on the Mexican side and what you will see in the numbers is that crossings plummeted when that happened we need when

“it comes to immigration like common sense solutions I think that there is no question”

that Biden avoided the issue and did not deal with it until it was out of control and we need to make sure that we have people on office who's dot-playing politics with immigration and just

work on real solutions I unfortunately have to ask you about the screwworm which I had never heard

of until a week or so ago for listeners the new world screwworm is a flesh eating parasite that invests livestock it was eradicated from the US 60 years ago but now it's back in Texas cattle for the first time two things how bad is this for Texas and also the reporting is that all the cuts from Trump and Doge slowed the federal response has Abbott said one word criticizing the administration

we have a governor who understood years ago that the screwworm was coming it is in Texas now

it is going to be very hard to eradicate it is spreading in Texas now that it is here we're looking at disastrous consequences and I don't think it's just for Texans but yes for Texas ranchers for the price of beef that we have a governor who either didn't care enough or didn't have the sway the juice with the administration any secretary of agriculture from Texas under the administration

“to say hey I understand you're dosing all this other stuff save this this is important”

and we need to make sure we're doing what we need to do is a failure on Abbott's part I lay this

on the lap of Abbott that he could not communicate with the Trump administration their urgency of making sure we had a solution before it was too late and here we are now with screwworm in Texas and spreading so there are last question there there are just so many very important very competitive house and Senate races this year that could decide control of Congress there are other gubernatorial races that at least on paper seem closer more competitive even than yours

for people who are looking to donate their time and their money to midterm races this year

“why should they choose yours because the fate of the union depends on Texas in 2026”

after the U.S. Supreme Court decision on redistricting that get it the voting rights act there are now no rules and what will happen in Texas because Republican leaders have already said they're going to draw new lines next year we lose five Democrats in Congress under a new map with no rules that's on top of what the Brennan Center predicts will happen at the end of the decade through census which is four years away that Texas

will gain four to five more congressional seats because we're growing faster than all the other states we take from blue states those congressional seats if Republicans control that that's another four to five seats that Democrats lose in Congress that's ten seats in Congress that Democrats met our off the table for Democrats the governor of Texas controls ten percent of Congress we need a governor in Texas who will veto their rigged maps this is the most

“important governor's race in the whole country for that reason Geneva Rosa thank you so much for”

joining positive America good luck out there everyone always says Texas Democrats are dreaming of

Texas again and I I same thing as you said like at some point we have to win Texas because Congress the maps but also like to roll college like that's right also as the Midwest from states are getting a little redder we got to make up for it somewhere Texas is just too big right well some point congressional seats equate to electoral votes so right if there's no way to when Congress then there's no way to win the White House yeah well thanks for

you doing good luck out there and talk to you soon thanks that's our show for today thanks to Gina in a host of her coming on Dan will be back in the feed on Sunday with the conversation with strict scrutiny's lea limit have a good weekend fine everyone positive America is a crooked media production our show is produced by Austin Fisher Saul Rubin McKenna Roberts and Ferris Safari with re-chirlin Elijah Cone and Adrian Hill our team includes Matt de Groat Ben

Hethcote Jordan canter Charlotte Landis Kirill Elevieve David tolls Mia Kalman Ryan Young and Naomi single our staff is probably unionized with the writer's guild of America East [MUSIC PLAYING]