Pod Save America - “Get Mitch Or Die Trying.” (LIVE from Denver)

Episode Date: July 18, 2019

The House votes to condemn the President’s racism, Mitch McConnell’s job and the Senate are up for grabs in 2020, and Governor Jared Polis joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, Dan, and Erin Ryan on stage in Den...ver, Colorado. Check out: votesaveamerica.com/getmitch

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up Denver? Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Erin Ryan. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Later in the show, we'll talk to your governor. Jared Polis is here.
Starting point is 00:00:51 But first, let's talk about this week's top story, which is the president being a racist. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a formal resolution to condemn the President's racist attack against four Congresswomen of color. Four House Republicans and the newly independent Justin Amash joined every Democrat in supporting the resolution, while the rest of the Republican Party tried to sabotage the vote, defend Donald Trump, and attack Democrats as deranged socialists who hate Jews in America. Now that the vote has passed, we've reached the stage of every racist outburst from Donald Trump where anonymous Democratic strategists tell reporters that the president wants this fight in 2020. Let's start with Tuesday's vote. Obviously, a House resolution doesn't have the power to stop the president from
Starting point is 00:01:46 being racist. What did it did, John? But the White House and Republicans still made a real effort to try to stop this thing from happening. Tommy, why do you think that was? And what did you make of yesterday's antics? I think they... It does matter. I think the resolution does matter. I think that there's a lot of members of Congress, a lot of Republicans in Washington who would love to pocket the Trump's tax cut,
Starting point is 00:02:16 to pocket a bunch of conservative judges, and then pretend that the other horrible things he does do not exist, right? That was Paul Ryan's whole strategy. Boo! That was his strategy with his therapist. Yeah, Paul Ryan would sit in the car with a reporter, read Trump's tweets with him, and then say,
Starting point is 00:02:36 well, I don't really pay much attention to the tweets, right? Like, that was their whole goal. But we need to tie them to what Trump does, good and bad. And I think the fact that there were four defections, like, look, do we wish it were more? Yes. But the fact that Doug Collins, the Republican congressman, not the Sixers coach I learned today. Not the same person. Similar flaws. Similar flaws. Trust the process, Dan. Objected to the resolution on the grounds that for some reason nancy pelosi's comments violated the rules of decorum is a reminder that irony is dead right trump
Starting point is 00:03:11 shot it on fifth avenue and no one gave a shit he was right about that but um it showed how deeply they didn't want to deal with this so i think politically it was smart of them to put this resolution forward but just stepping away from politics i think it's good for kids in the United States, people around the world, to know that there is a big swath of people in the United States and in the U.S. government that doesn't think racism is okay or acceptable, and to send that message out. I mean, including the federal government, like if you were a federal employee who was not the president and you told somebody to go back to their country, you would get fired for being a racist according to the definition of the federal government. I mean, look, America is not like a wife. You can't just leave it if you don't like it, you know?
Starting point is 00:04:01 it if you don't like it, you know? Aaron, what do you think about Trump's attempt and the Republican attempt to sort of turn this into a referendum on patriotism versus socialism? That was like the move yesterday. Well, what I thought was, I think the patriotism versus socialism thing is really interesting
Starting point is 00:04:24 because, to paraphrase former Senator Al Franken, Democrats love America like an adult loves another adult, which is they critique, they're honest with themselves, and Republicans expect people to love America like a toddler loves their mommy, which is where you just love, everything mommy does is good, and anybody who doesn't like mommy or makes mommy sad is the very worst. I think that true patriotism is engaging. I think true patriotism is engaging with criticism and maturity with what you're talking about. Also, like, the socialism thing, I think that's kind of an antique fear.
Starting point is 00:05:10 The people who are Trump's most ardent supporters tend to be in an older demographic, and they tend to be, I guess, the Fox News demographic. Like, the demographic that's, like, too old to be charted. Those people who remember a time when, like, they were actually, they agreed with Joseph McCarthy, socialism was scary. That's not something that is fresh in the memory of younger voters. So I think that what they're trying to do is froth up people who are already at maximum froth. Yeah. Maximum froth.
Starting point is 00:05:40 Yeah. That blender has been going pretty hard for a couple of years now. Yeah. Those are some stiff peaks. It's ready. Guess what? You got a meringue. You got a meringue on your hands. Love it. I also think, like, of all people to critique others for
Starting point is 00:05:59 critiquing the country, Donald Trump ran his entire campaign in 2016. I mean, the slogan was, Make America Great Again. Which is just not currently great. Which is not currently great. He talked about how we're no better
Starting point is 00:06:13 than some other countries. You know, Putin was a killer. We're killers too. American carnage. American carnage, right? Remember that one? I don't think there's ever been a president who has shit on America more than Donald Trump
Starting point is 00:06:24 before he got to office. Well, yes. No, and it's actually worth, absolutely true, but I think it's actually worth like breaking down the nuances of the way you're allowed to hate America. Right. According to that. If you're white. Well, yes. Well, so, I mean, you know, there have been Republicans that have loved America so much they threatened to secede, right, quite recently. I think some of them are in the cabinet. And there was a great article about this, actually, in New York Magazine, basically
Starting point is 00:06:54 saying that, like, what are they actually demanding when they say, don't criticize America, love America the way we do? They demand that loyalty to America requires disloyalty to those who are marginalized. Why is it that pointing out racial injustice, a history of racial injustice, that the continuing systemic inequities in our society is seen as being somehow inappropriate for an immigrant? Why is it not the opposite? Why isn't the failure to point that out a kind of entitlement that shows a kind of disloyalty to the millions of Americans who don't have an equal shot. Why are black Americans less entitled to the benefits of
Starting point is 00:07:31 citizenship and the benefits of a defense from their fellow citizens? Why does that not count? Because, you know what, because to say that the founding promise of this country is equality and is justice would require actions on behalf of Donald Trump and the Republican Party that they do not want to take. Right. But it's just as dumb as saying that supporting the troops means you want to send them into every single war possible. That's just not how this works.
Starting point is 00:07:57 Just imagine if Donald Trump had taken his own advice circa 2009 and left. Where would he go back to, Dan? We don't know. So, Dan, there's been a lot of commentary that Trump wants this fight and that Republicans want to make the squad the face of the Democratic Party in 2020. The New York Times reported moderate Democrats from swing districts said that while the president's comments had been racist, the party was playing into his hands by spending so much time, so much time condemning the remarks. Do you agree that this is what Trump wants and do you think it's a smart strategy? I don't, Trump doesn't know what he wants, right? He just says things and they happen. There is no like place where the brain, there's no, there's no distance between the brain and the mouth, right? It just happens.
Starting point is 00:08:48 And then everyone spends time, whether it's the Trump campaign or Republicans or stupid pundits or moderate Democrats who hate themselves to try to figure out how to make this good for Trump and bad for Democrats. And so a couple of points on this. One, the idea that Democrats should find ways to, let me put it this way, Democrats spend too much time trying to find ways to avoid the Trump, the fights Trump wants to pick than figuring out how to win those fights, right? And I think there, we also have to recognize that
Starting point is 00:09:18 there is not an option where Trump says something horribly racist that is one of the most inflammatory things that any sitting president has said in decades. And that what Democrats can do is they can pretend like that didn't happen and then talk about pre-existing conditions. That's not how the world works, right? We have to learn how to take things on. These people think that Democrats can just be like, healthcare, healthcare, healthcare, healthcare, every time Trump says something racist.
Starting point is 00:09:42 And so I think the thing for Democrats here is, one, we have a moral obligation to call out racism from our president, right? And we have, because I don't think you can overstate the damage that it does long-term to this country. The president of the United States says something racist, and then one half of our two-party system says that's fine. That is incredibly damaging to the moral fabric of this country. But I also think from a political strategy point of view,
Starting point is 00:10:09 it's not enough just to say the president's racist. I think you have to call out the racist statement and call him out for being a racist, but also talk to voters about why Trump and the Republicans, from the Koch brothers to Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, want to divide Americans on race. And that is to distract them from the Koch brothers to Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, want to divide Americans on race. And that is to distract them from the other things they are doing.
Starting point is 00:10:28 Giving huge tax cuts to Wall Street, paying for it by taking your healthcare and cutting your Medicare. The fact Trump wants, he says he's racist because he's a racist, but also because he wants to distract from the fact that he is running the federal government like a massive Ponzi scheme
Starting point is 00:10:44 to put money in his own pockets. Like, we have to draw a connection between what he says and what is happening and how it affects people's daily lives. Yeah. Can I just... I also think it's worth remembering, you know, I think about election night 2016,
Starting point is 00:10:58 and I think about Melania being shocked and weeping at what was about to happen because she knows him best. The reason I point that out, there was a reason. No, there is a reason. She was shocked. They were all shocked. You know, I think there's a lot of lingering anxiety that we don't know how to win. We don't know how to run because Donald Trump is president and it subverted a lot of our expectations and understanding about politics. But Donald Trump doesn't have all the answers, too. He was just as surprised as anyone.
Starting point is 00:11:27 And Donald Trump can think something's good politics for him without being right about it. Yeah, he's not well acquainted with his own political interests. Yeah, and then one other thing, too, about the moral stakes of all this. It is very intense after a president of the United States tells U.S. citizens to go back and members of the crowd at the rally
Starting point is 00:11:45 shout send her back, send her back, to immediately for pundits to go right to the political implications. It would be quite insensitive on the day the Titanic sank for someone to write a story about how this is a good day politically for the Lusitania. Because you have to deal with the emergency itself, the tragedy itself, before you get to those, which it very well might have been. Where do you get these topical references? Yeah, very zeitgeisty. Erin? Well, first of all, Donald Trump declares victory no matter what happens.
Starting point is 00:12:17 Donald Trump could shit his pants and fall over and have been like, I totally own the lips. So he's not a reliable source of whether or not he won. People shouting, shit your pants. Yeah. Shit your pants. Are you triggered, snowflakes? The president just shit his pants.
Starting point is 00:12:35 John F. Kennedy Jr. is alive and he shat his pants. But the second part of it is that we're kind of, I find this happens again and again. That's quite a sentence, by the way. I find this happens again and again, is that the political media treats Trump as though he's some sort of master manipulator. He knows what's... Magic beans.
Starting point is 00:12:57 Yeah, he's a chess player. The only people who play chess involved in this are the Russians. Donald Trump is not playing chess. Donald Trump is playing 52 pickup. Secondly, thirdly, thirdly, I can count. Thirdly, maybe as a millennial democratic woman, I want those people to be my face. I want the four fucking horsewomen of the apocalypse. I want the four fucking horsewomen of the apocalypse.
Starting point is 00:13:29 Maybe people like me represent what 2018 was and why the blue wave happened. And maybe, yeah, get those people out there. Get those people behind a microphone. I totally agree with this because I realize we all have, we can't remember anything. Every day is memento. But we have memory hold the 2018 election so fast. we all have like, you know, we can't remember anything. Every day is memento. But like, we have memory hold the 2018 election so fast. Like we were sitting here in October of 2018
Starting point is 00:13:52 and Donald Trump was talking about the caravan every single day. And he was talking about an invasion of America and the Brett Kavanaugh thing was supposed to sink the election for the Democrats. And then we won the biggest House majority in decades, and it did not work. And like, as all these pundits and all these moderate Democratic lawmakers are like wringing their hands today, there's a USA Today poll out that says that like 65% of Americans believe it was a racist comment, that 75% of Democrats, and even a small plurality of Republicans, 45% to 34%, agree that it was a racist comment, which for them is something.
Starting point is 00:14:27 And so this idea that we always have to be afraid of him and that we can't speak our mind when it's something fucking obvious. We overthink everything. People are like, oh, do we really want this in voters' minds when they go to the polls? The president of the United States is telling black and brown citizens that they should leave the country the question is do you want to have a president like that or not it's that simple well i mean that fucking there is so much about this whole conversation that represents what's wrong in the political conversations country the first is the the conventional wisdom among every reporter writing about this is that
Starting point is 00:15:07 it is bad for the Democrats to have the squad as the face of the party, to Aaron's point, because we only are capable in mainstream media of thinking about politics through the eyes of an imaginary white person in the exurbs of Ohio, right? And that is, it's just such a white person in the exurbs of Ohio. Right. And that is, it's just such a painfully narrow view of how elections happen and who decides elections. It's these swing voters who are white and they're scared of people of color. And it's just, it's so stupid.
Starting point is 00:15:36 And then the idea that we're taking, the president says something racist. And then the first analysis is not the moral consequences of that or what that says that the leader of this country says something racist to a rapidly diversifying country what it means to all the all the all the naturalized citizens in this country everyone who are parents of children of immigrants what it means it's like what are the politics of it and the idea that you have these moderate democrats calling up jake tapper about it. It's like being against racism is not a liberal or a conservative issue. It is just the right or wrong issue. And that is like what is so fucking bad about Trump is he is he's moved the Overton window towards awful.
Starting point is 00:16:16 And that that is now Democrats being for Medicare for all is the polar opposite of Republicans being racist. And then it's just such a stupid way of thinking of politics. And I'm not even saying, I'm not advocating like throwing politics out the window here. Like I get, I definitely get the tough spot a lot of moderate Democrats are in. Impeachment, like I'm for impeachment, but I get that it's a tough debate. Immigration can be a tough debate. You know, Medicare for all is a tough debate. But when there is a comment like this, this is a fucking easy one, guys.
Starting point is 00:16:44 This one is not hard and that's and that is honestly why i think republicans are hemorrhaging conscientious voters that needed a plausible deniability before they needed to be like well they're not all racist you know this one really loud person is racist no it's like no not only is this one really loud person racist basically the entire House of Representatives of that party agreed that it was fine. And that, I think, matters a lot to, not to like generalize by gender, but I think to women voters that that shit matters. And the Republican Party has been hemorrhaging female voters because of issues like this. Yeah, but to John's point, like this is easy on a moral
Starting point is 00:17:23 level, but it's also how many times have we seen donald trump tweet something stupid because he saw a segment on fox and friends and then watch the kelly and conways of the world try to spin it as being some strategic political decision it was clearly not he's a sad angry old racist weirdo who tweets crazy crap all day long, and the political consequences come to him later. Like, stop buying their spins, guys. This strategy. Now, I realize that it wasn't, it was not an intentional distraction, right? But Aaron, we were talking about this yesterday, and you were saying that these kind of outbursts from Trump tend to, do tend to distract from other important issues that we should be talking about. So how do you think we should handle these racist outbursts,
Starting point is 00:18:10 which we're going to get so many more of between now and 2020, and still make sure that we as Democrats are talking about and focusing on other important issues for people? Well, I mean, to bring up memento again, I think we should just start writing it on our arms. It's like, oh, Title 10 gag rule in effect this week. Abortion rights still under attack across the country. Immigrants being treated like animals.
Starting point is 00:18:34 Like, write it on your arm. Just make sure we know every morning. And go to a dinner party. It'll be great. But I think that we've done a pretty good job as, like, conscientious people of keeping things in mind, because I remember a litany of distractions, like when he demonized Frederico Wilson forever, 10,000 years ago, back when we were young, or when Maxine Waters took the was in place of the four horsewomen of the apocalypse, like he's constantly trying to throw out distractions. of the four horsewomen of the apocalypse. Like he's constantly trying to throw out distractions. And I think it's just important for us to remember,
Starting point is 00:19:08 okay, like here's this explosive shiny object, this thing that we're looking at today, but what is it obscuring? Mueller's about to testify next week. Another Trump crony is like on trial right now. There's a lot of shit going down. And I think we're sort of getting good at being able to remember a bunch of things at once, I think. I do think it's actually instructive because this is the status quo ante. we're sort of getting good at being able to remember a bunch of things at once, I think.
Starting point is 00:19:29 I do think it's actually instructive because this is the status quo ante. You know, it is true we're getting older. You know, we can see it in the mirror. But America does, you know, amidst all the kind of chaos of Trump, like our politics is quite frozen. It's frozen in the sense we won the House and that was a huge victory. But like Trump and the Republicans, his relationship to the media, our relationship to the media in our fight with Trump, that's all pretty frozen. And so the question I had when I was seeing this unfold is, OK, let's presume he's going to president that I think is best able to do what Dan is saying we need that person to do?
Starting point is 00:20:08 Which is not run away from the fight, because that's what people are going to be talking about. That's when they're going to cut to your campaign speech. That's when they're going to cut to your rally. But who is the best person to take to sort of, you know, like how Black Panther kind of kiss suit can catch the energy and then throw it back like who's the best person to put on that armor Marianne Williamson Who is our Black Panther yeah who is gonna be our Black Panther who can absorb
Starting point is 00:20:40 Absorb the energy make it something good and push it back right Alright, you can all shout the the four people with every one of this room supports. Yes. I know yeah, okay Absorb the energy, make it something good, and push it back, right? All right. You can all shout the four people everyone in this room supports. Yes, I know. Okay. All right. All right. All right.
Starting point is 00:20:51 We know where Pod Save America stands at. I heard of Bill Weld. All right. Well, we'll figure that out soon. And now we're going to play a game. Now it's time for OK Stop. You son of a... Now it's time for OK Stop.
Starting point is 00:21:17 We'll roll a clip. The panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment. Kellyanne Conway. She and her husband... She and her husband started... You guys know her? Just get with me to the end of this. Alright.
Starting point is 00:21:36 She and her husband started a sexual role-playing game three years ago where he'd pretend to have principles and she'd say anything to win, but they forgot the safe word, accidentally made Trump president, and now don't know how to get out of it. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:21:51 The safe word was integrity. Integrity. She also was asked about Trump's racist tweets, and her response was pretty alarming. Let's watch. If the president was not telling these four congresswomen to return to their supposed countries of origin, to which countries was he referring? What's your ethnicity? Why is that relevant?
Starting point is 00:22:24 Okay, stop. Okay, stop. Hey, Kellyanne. You said the part you're supposed to just think to yourself. You're in the middle of a giant fracas over whether or not your White House is run by a racist goon who views people and their... I'm halfway through a sentence.
Starting point is 00:22:54 Are you? And whether... I'll fucking finish it now. And whether all Americans belong here, don't ask Jews what their ethnicity is sorry john do you think like i still i've watched this clip many times now what do you think she meant by this was she was this planned was it in the spur of the moment is she talking to john carl is that what is that who it was? No, it wasn't.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Is it Brian Karam, right? I thought that question too. I look at him like, okay, what was she going for? I feel like she's got her self-satisfied smug look on. She practices in the mirror. It was supposed to be like, oh,
Starting point is 00:23:41 your relatives were from Italy 60 years ago. That's what he meant. Don't get me wrong. It makes no sense, and it's equally offensive. It's really her brand is stupid offensive. We've got the Kellyanne Conway whisperer out there. Let's shadowbox
Starting point is 00:23:58 Kellyanne's reflection. Like, okay, if I said I'm not. Kellyanne has no reflection. But if I were to say... But back to Tommy's point. Kellyanne Conway asked Tommy where Tommy's from. Tommy says, I was born on the Mayflower. I would tell someone to go back. No, but if I said I was Irish in Boston 40 years ago,
Starting point is 00:24:19 there were signs that said, Nina, no Irish need apply. So discrimination and racism is not okay in this instance. What is she fucking saying? By the way, like Trump gave the game away at the rally tonight because he was like, when I was talking about those four Democratic congresswomen and now I will list them off one by one. Yeah. So the whole first defense was like, who could he have been talking about? He could be talking about anyone going back.
Starting point is 00:24:42 Nadler. He was talking to Nadler. I feel like maybe it was just like a conversation that's come up among her friends that week. talking about you could be talking about anyone going back you're talking to nadler i just i feel like maybe it was just like a conversation that's come up among her friends that week like she and her cross-burning circle had all gotten the results from ancestry.com oh i'm 80 white hood i'm asking you a question my My ancestors are from Ireland and Italy. My own ethnicity is not relevant to the question I'm asking. No, no, it is, because you're asking about, he said originally.
Starting point is 00:25:12 He's tired. A lot of us are sick and tired of this country. Okay, stop. Honestly, we should clip that, put it in an ad, and just run it everywhere. A lot of us are sick and tired. We can tell, Kellyanne. Because there's a context coming, but whatever. He's old.
Starting point is 00:25:31 He's only exercised his golf, and he drives a cart. He eats a Big Mac for lunch. He's not up for the job. It is interesting, too, though, to watch how the defenders have to change their tactic of their tactic midway through because when when Trump first tweeted it his his his um his squad was a goon squad Graham Graham who's the squad McCarthy Graham McCarthy Graham McCarthy but but one of his uh his uh rapid response responder that uh powder from the movie Powder. Let's not say his name. Who cares?
Starting point is 00:26:06 Permit Patty. The bad guys from Roadhouse. Yeah, the company from RoboCop. One of his biggest backers. But no, they were like, Donald Trump didn't say go back. If you look, the tweets clearly say he meant like go on a trip, go and come back. You're being ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:26:31 Everyone is lying. And then by the next day, he's like said it, meant it, doubling down, tripling down. Well, at least she looks miserable. Yes. Yes. Yes. in Texas, sick and tired of them being, no, you don't understand because you didn't go. Being criticized. Okay, stop. Being doxxed. No, just stop.
Starting point is 00:27:08 Why, yeah, why is the girl you wish you hadn't started a conversation with at a party in the White House? Yeah, talk about rush week or whatever. Yeah, seriously, Cecily Strong does a great bat. By a bunch of Hollywood D-listers who have nothing else to do but sit on their asses on Twitter all day and try to dox. Okay, stop. Nothing to do with sit on their ass and be on Twitter all day. Look, the thing that Trump has done, that because he is so, you know, it's ironic, right, that he is one of the great liars ever to grace
Starting point is 00:27:46 the office and one of the least transparent human beings ever to grace the office, and yet psychologically, spiritually, he is so broken and unexamined that he is quite revealed before all of us. And what it does is it really does force everyone around him into this sort of, like, everyone around him into this sort of like very primitive and quite basic accidental projection all the time. Like it almost like requires everyone around him to lead an unexamined life. And so they all run around all day with these unexplored thoughts and they go in front of television and say like, I know what our enemies are doing. They're tweeting all day and eating fast food. Oh, and they don't love this country. No, they barely care about their jobs at all. And sometimes I think they don't even know why they ran. Sometimes
Starting point is 00:28:30 I think they don't even know why they're in the job to begin with. Maybe it's like for their own personal gain and maybe they thought it'd be a great way to build some name recognition for your polling firm. Then all of a sudden you're the only one around and you think, well, maybe I should see this thing through. And before you know it, nobody wants your polls anymore because you're tied to this guy and you realize well if he sinks I sink so you might as well see it all the way to the end and then your husband's like I'm moving to New York you know yeah that segment brought to you by BetterHelp. Women who are diving into the Rio Grande to save people who are drowning, who are taking other people's babies into custody.
Starting point is 00:29:12 Okay, stop. I'm sorry, is that a good thing? Taking other people's babies into custody? Don't take other people's babies into custody. Those brave men who are stealing children from people, and you're criticizing them. How dare you? We are separating children at the borders and these people are not grateful at all. There's not a thank you among them. We're not letting them have showers. We're not giving them soap. How dare they hate us? Too dark? That's okay. stop. All right.
Starting point is 00:29:46 We spent a lot of time talking about the 2020 presidential primary, but I want to focus on another set of 2020 elections that are incredibly important. Last week, the battle for the U.S. Senate got a little more interesting when former Navy fighter pilot Amy McGrath announced that she's running to unseat Mitch McConnell in 2020. Republicans overall currently hold a three seat majority and will have to defend 22 seats in the next election, while Democrats will have to defend just 12 seats. Still, the overall map for Democrats
Starting point is 00:30:16 is only slightly better than it was in 2019, and nothing less than the fate of the party's entire legislative agenda hinges on taking back the Senate, so no pressure there. Aaron, yeah, well, that's why we're doing this. You think we're not going to talk about Cory Gardner? You guys, he's the top target. He's the most obvious flip here, so you guys fucked us up. That's it.
Starting point is 00:30:46 Aaron, let's start with how important this is for Democrats. If we win the presidency and hold the House, but don't flip the Senate, what do the next four years look like in Washington? Mitch McConnell's face, really big on a lot of TVs. You don't want to look at that.
Starting point is 00:31:02 But, to be a little bit more serious, what that means is all of the legislative agenda items that we are excited about will just tend to be, they'll just be talking points. We're not going to get any of it done. They're all going to die in the Senate and we're going to spend another four years
Starting point is 00:31:20 becoming so frustrated with the democratic process that we elect someone even worse. We elect Omarosa. That's what we're going to do. What's going to happen is four years of people being so frustrated with gridlock in Washington that they elect somebody even crazier than who is in office. And we can't have that. That is my biggest fear. Well, the big fear is that we don't get any progressive legislation passed, right? But all these Democrats come, we get rid of Trump. We have a Democratic president, Democratic House.
Starting point is 00:31:50 And people think, well, we didn't get the Senate, but at least good things can start happening. Mitch McConnell has a tremendous amount of power in the Senate to just say absolutely no to anything that the next Democratic president wants. This is the structural advantage Republicans have as a party. Democrats believe in government and using it to help people. Republicans want to shrink the government to the size of something you can drown in a bathtub. That is their stated belief in role in life. So we have a much harder job. We want to do things.
Starting point is 00:32:19 We want to give people health care. We want to cut tax for middle class families, not for giant corporations. They believe the opposite. So it's going to be tough. But I think it's kind of a vicious cycle because the reality is, and I think that all the fact that the Republicans have sided on the side of gerrymandering and Democrats are like, no, democracy indicates that there's an acknowledgement that the majority of this country is liberal or progressive, but the minority has entrenched power, enough entrenched power that it couldn't, it can kind of worm themselves into the structures for generations to come. And what is kind of a cycle that I've noticed is that what happened, like the majority will have an outcry, like, this is what
Starting point is 00:33:02 we want. We want people to have health care. And the conservative minority will use that to make themselves out to be aggrieved. And Mitch McConnell will wield that power into blocking things as though it's actually the majority. And I think that that cycle will continue to repeat itself the longer that Republicans hold the Senate. Yeah, until we get rid of Mitch McConnell. So go ahead.
Starting point is 00:33:22 Let me just put a hypothetical here. So let's say Democrat X wins the presidency, inauguration. During inauguration, a Supreme Court justice falls, hurts their knee, decides they don't want to, we don't want to wear, use crutches to go to Supreme Court and retires. Mitch McConnell will hold that seat open for four years.
Starting point is 00:33:42 Four years. Four years. I know we're not a prediction game, but there is basically zero chance, particularly if it is a conservative justice that would shift the balance of the court, zero chance that McConnell would allow there to be a vote on a Supreme Court justice.
Starting point is 00:33:55 That is the effect of what he did on the Garland thing. It's not anything about elections. It's about that a majority will not confirm a Supreme Court justice for another president. Yeah, like people talk about court packing and changing the makeup of the Supreme Court, and is this radical or not? Mitch McConnell will single-handedly, for the second time, change the makeup of the Supreme Court on his own.
Starting point is 00:34:16 Against the will of the voters. Against the will of the voters by just saying, we're going to have eight justices instead of nine because I'm not confirming one until I get a Republican president. Well, I think, and then Jerry, so we have McConnell packing the courts to lock in the judicial, the judicial branch as a conservative. And we have gerrymandering trying to lock up the legislative branch. That basically means we're behind the eight ball forever.
Starting point is 00:34:37 So with all that said, it's very important. Dan, how tough is the Senate map in 2020? And what do you think is the easiest or most likely path to a Democratic majority? So the Senate map is relatively good for Democrats, but all Senate maps are bad for Democrats. Cool, cool, cool. I mean, it is a fundamentally anti-democratic institution in the sense that Wyoming has the same amount of power as California, right? But in this case, we're defending very few seats. We're only defending one in a tough state, which is Doug
Starting point is 00:35:09 Jones in Alabama. We need to net three wins. We have two Senate seats in blue states here in Colorado and Maine. We have potential pickup opportunities in battleground states in 2020, which is Martha McSally in Arizona, Tom Tillis in North Carolina. We have potential, if we get the right, if the candidates are good and the political winds are back in Georgia and Iowa, it is going to be tough, but it is a doable proposition if we have a strong candidate at the top of the ticket, because in almost every case, in order to pick up a Senate seat, you need the presidential candidate of your party to win that state. We picked up a Senate seat in New Hampshire in 2016. Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire. We lost incredibly valuable pickup opportunities in
Starting point is 00:36:01 Wisconsin and Pennsylvania because Hillary Clinton lost those seats. In almost every state that Obama won in 2012, we picked up Senate seats. And so it's going to have to be a marriage between good candidates running good campaigns in these states and a strong top-of-the-ticket effort. Love it. How excited should people get about Amy McGrath in Kentucky? Obviously, on the first day she announced, I think she raised like $2 million or something, obviously on the first day she announced, I think she raised
Starting point is 00:36:25 like $2 million or something like that on the first day. McConnell's approval rating in Kentucky is like stuck around 36% or something like that. But what's the reality there? What do you think? I mean, it's very hard. It's going to be a very hard race to win. He is powerful. He will have a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:36:46 He knows how to win in that state. A lot of his people will come home. That said, when we say we need Democrats willing to fight everywhere, we don't just mean everywhere where it's easy to win. And it is not impossible for a Democrat to win a Senate seat in Kentucky unless we don't put up a good fight in Kentucky. And by the way, on the way to winning or losing a very tough race in Kentucky, forcing Mitch McConnell to campaign, forcing him to go home and make a case for himself, has incredible value.
Starting point is 00:37:19 It has incredible value to what happens nationally, if we have to spend money there. I think it also has psychic value for all of us. If Donald Trump had lost, the Republican Party would have engaged in a great reckoning. It was going to happen. It almost happened after 2012. There was an autopsy that says, hey guys, we can't rely on a white majority forever. We need to become cosmopolitan.
Starting point is 00:37:41 We need to embrace immigration. It was Donald Trump that upended that. This kind of politics can't go on forever. Things can get worse or they can get better. And if we want them to get better, it means forcing Republicans not to confront what's broken in their party because it's morally right, because it hurts our feelings, because history marches in a good direction automatically,
Starting point is 00:38:02 but because they paid a price for it. This election is the chance to make them pay that price in a huge way. And if they don't have the power, if they don't have the power in the Senate to prevent us from enacting our agenda, if they really feel like they've truly lost, they really feel like they've truly lost, then they will finally have to face what they become, what they had become under Trump. And that has value for all, that has an incredible value. That's all. So Amy McGrath announces she has this sort of flub the first day or the first week where she says that she found Christine Blasey Ford's story completely believable and stuff like that, but she might have voted for Brett Kavanaugh anyway, and then within 10 hours maybe she said,
Starting point is 00:38:51 no, I'm just kidding, I would not have voted for Brett Kavanaugh. I'm sorry, I listened to people that did that. But it sort of brings up a larger issue, which is how closely do you guys think Senate candidates in some of these redder states should align their message with the national party? Or do you think they should sort of run their own race? I mean, Dan, you were saying that these days, like the vote for president and the vote for Senate are so closely aligned,
Starting point is 00:39:15 there's not a lot of split ticketing anymore where a state votes for a president of one party and a senator from another party. Like, what do you think about that? So Trump beat Hillary by 30 points in Kentucky so for so that's a lot that is a lot it's a lot of points and for Amy McGrath to win she's gonna have to get double digits worth of people who voted for Trump to vote for her over McConnell now that is that is a very tall order and but it can be done it's hard but it can be done and I think we, she is not going to do that. She has to be able to run a race that is consistent with who she is and who Kentucky is,
Starting point is 00:39:53 right? There is, it just is a simple fact that she needs people who are going to pull the lever for Trump to pull the lever for her too. Now, I don't think that means that you have to sacrifice all of your progressive credentials, that you have to just be this sort of wishy-washy, moderate Democrat who cares about nothing and just sort of picks the middle between both. I mean, her positions are gonna be different than, you know, Kamala Harris in California or whatever.
Starting point is 00:40:20 And so I think it's worth, we gotta give people space to do that. I have worked for a number of red state Democrats running in tough Senate races. And the best message is not that you are different from the Democratic Party. It is that you are an advocate for that state against both parties.
Starting point is 00:40:37 And she has the opportunity, if she runs a very smart campaign and she'll have the money to do it, to start now painting Mitch McConnell as what is wrong with Washington. start now painting Mitch McConnell as what is wrong with Washington. And Kentucky, Mitch McConnell has been there forever. And Kentucky, and he has been in power forever. And Kentucky's economic situation has gotten worse over that time. And, but Mitch McConnell himself has gotten a lot richer, right? And so if you start hammering that message now, you have a shot to do it. Yeah. So a lot of these Republican incumbents already,
Starting point is 00:41:12 Martha McSally in Arizona, Cory Gardner here in Colorado, Susan Collins in Maine, Tom Tillis in North Carolina, have already raised a shitload of money for their race. So Tommy, what can Democrats do, whether you're in the state or outside of some of these states, to help take back the Senate?
Starting point is 00:41:32 Well, John, we've got to get Mitch or die trying. That's our new funds that we're putting together. Go to votesaveamerica.com. I'm sure there'll be a fun little button there. There might be a fun little graphic that Lovett might have had a fun time designing or helping design. Look, it's great. There it is.
Starting point is 00:41:57 It's an upside-down turtle shell. What does it mean? You can donate money. You can donate money today, tomorrow, whenever you want to do it, to the candidates who are running for Senate in 2020. You can pick money today, tomorrow, whenever you want to do it to the candidates who are running for Senate in 2020. You can pick who you want to give to. You can say give equally to all of them. But we have to remember that these races are happening and that they matter and that
Starting point is 00:42:16 all the things that are being promised to us on the presidential campaign, whether it's Medicare for all, criminal justice reform, all the things we care about, none of them are going to happen if Mitch McConnell's dead-eyed turtle ass is sitting there blocking it. So check it out. Get big. And look, the reason we're doing this now, it's obviously super early in the primary season. There's going to be a heated primary here in Colorado, which is great. You guys have a bunch of great Senate candidates. We have that situation in a few different of the states that are up, but the idea with this fund is the money that you give will go to the eventual Democratic nominee,
Starting point is 00:42:54 whoever she or he may be in that Senate race. So give now, give early. It's super important. We'll give you, I think when you go on this site, we'll give you the tiers of like who we think's most likely to win, the easier states down to the harder states, and you can give to all equally or you can pick who you want. So, but yeah, go to Vote Save America and start giving. When we come back, we will have your governor, Jared Polis. And we're back. He's an entrepreneur, former member of the House of Representatives,
Starting point is 00:43:40 and the Democratic governor of Colorado. Please welcome Governor Jared Polis. Look at that. Wow. Standing ovation. It's for having Pod Save America right here in Denver, Colorado. What a politician. What a pander. All right, so here we are in Colorado. Dems have complete control of the state capitol thanks to huge wins in 2018. You just finished a legislative session where Dems passed free full-day kindergarten,
Starting point is 00:44:23 limited the cost of insulin, allowed local governments to raise the minimum wage, banned conversion therapy for minors, and signed a plan to get the state to 100% renewable energy by 2040. Do elections matter? Wow. Wow. Elections make a huge difference, elections make a huge difference, and it's these people here who made this opportunity for the Democrats to govern.
Starting point is 00:44:50 So thank you all for giving us the chance to get all this great work done. So one of the laws you passed here, it's called the Red Flag Gun Bill. It would allow guns to be seized from people who are determined by a court to pose a significant risk to themselves or others. Colorado is a state with a lot of gun owners, a lot of people who oppose gun control. What lessons did you learn about how to tackle this issue that's obviously incredibly politicized, especially at the national level? Well, you know, I mean, Colorado has a long track record of leadership in this area,
Starting point is 00:45:25 respecting the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. And we have many in the state. And of course, many of them vote for our Democratic candidates as well. But we also want to make sure that we have safety, gun safety measures that are really common sense. And so, I mean, this one is very common sense. I mean, we're talking about folks, you know, here often it's a parent of a 19-year-old or a 20-year-old, and maybe they have a, they're on a temporary hold for a mental health issue. And then when they get out, there's no legal way that, without that red flag law, that they could temporarily lose access to a gun. And tragically, that often ends in suicide. It can end in violence. And so this is a mechanism that other states have. Now Colorado has it that if somebody is having a mental health crisis,
Starting point is 00:46:16 the loved ones around them can at least temporarily remove their access to weapons. So also here in Colorado, you just joined the National Popular Vote Compact, the interstate compact. This is where states agree to give over their electoral votes to the winner of the National Popular Vote. Do you think this has a chance of actually going into effect and becoming how we choose presidents? Well, it should be. I mean, it's common sense in a republic, whoever gets the most votes should be president. You think so? You think so. And it's a systemic risk to this system with this electoral college. I mean, you know, you can have unfaithful electors. You can have a lot of unpredictable outcomes that could lead towards chaos in the country. We came close to that in
Starting point is 00:47:04 Bush v. Gore, and we came close to that again. So yes, whoever gets the most votes should be president. Ideally, that should be done by Congress through a constitutional amendment. That's something I supported when I was back as a representative in Washington. Whether this workaround will ever happen or not, it's hard to predict. I actually think no. What I think will happen is when it gets close, there's enough pressure on Congress to act and pass an amendment to do it the normal way. But it can happen this way if enough states do it. The other thing I've said is what probably it'll take politically for it to happen is, you know, we value our integrity and our intellectual sincerity on our side of the aisle, right, folks? We do. Not everybody on the other side does.
Starting point is 00:47:46 What that means is it might very well take a Republican candidate winning the popular vote, but a Democratic candidate for president getting in through the Electoral College... By the way, I'll let you know something. On that day, I come to be a great defender of the Electoral College. See, I won't.
Starting point is 00:48:04 Come on, we have more integrity than that. Don't count on it. Whoever gets the most votes should be president. Enough Republicans will flip when that happens. You are looking at a crowd of human beings who will come to believe deeply in Electoral College. That's the secret. That's the secret.
Starting point is 00:48:18 You have integrity if you believe it. So let's talk about health care. One of the biggest debates we're having among Democrats running for president is around this issue between Medicare for all and those pushing for Medicare access but leaving much of the private system in place. One candidate on the trail said this today. If you want to win a Senate seat in the state of Colorado, you got a really great opportunity to do it this year. If you're for Medicare for all, you're going to lose. And if that's the Democratic Party's position, we're going to lose. We have to not disqualify ourselves. His name, it says here, is Senator Michael Bennett. Do you think he's right about that?
Starting point is 00:48:55 No, I think what people want are solutions that will save them money on health care. And people are smart and they're willing to listen to what those are. If you want Medicare for all, tell people what that plan is. If you have another plan, tell people what that is. I don't think people are as attached to what you call it as they are to the results. How do we not only cover everybody but also save people money? Stop the prescription drug companies from ripping us off. Stop the insurance companies from ripping us off. That's what we need to accomplish.
Starting point is 00:49:21 It seems like on Medicare for all, one of the challenges, or at least one of the questions people have, is how do you convince people who like their current insurance who are worried about the transition? What's your argument around that? It's a pretty simple one, really, because while the Medicare for All would be a base level of coverage, you absolutely would allow people, just as people who have Medicare recipients today have supplemental programs, many of them through their retirement program or on their own Medicare Plus. So again, it's the baseline for everybody, but in no way does it preclude additional insurance or private pay on top of that if you want additional services. Another issue where you've been, I think, ahead of a lot of Democrats is on impeachment.
Starting point is 00:50:01 You were for it, for opening an impeachment inquiry when you were a member of the House. It was one of the last things you did, I believe, before you became governor. What is your argument to some of the more reluctant members of the Democratic caucus who are worried about what impeachment means for Democratic politics? I think you need to have the investigation and open it up and have the subpoenas and have the hearings. You know, I don't think we should prejudice where it goes, but I think that's Congress's job to a certain extent. Now, it gets complicated as you get into an election period. I mean, Trump is on the ballot. It looks like a political prank if you do it a few months before the election. So,
Starting point is 00:50:42 again, I wish that Congress had proceeded a year ago, two years ago. Maybe they could proceed now. But at some point, you do have to say, look, this is somebody that we have to beat at the ballot box. The American people don't want to see this in the midst of an election. So again, it's the process. Congress should do its job. But at the end of the day, whatever they do, the main thing we need to do is beat Donald Trump. Would you say that the fall, this fall of 2019, is the last opportunity for an impeachment inquiry? It's tough. I mean, absent some change, right? And by some change, what that means is a political change, meaning that all of a sudden there is more bipartisan support,
Starting point is 00:51:19 which would be a game changer if, you know, more than my brave friend Justin Amash, former Republican at this point, but if other Republicans stood up and supported moving forward with that inquiry, I think that would be a game changer. You, before getting into politics, you were an entrepreneur in tech. You built businesses. You know more about this issue than most politicians. Where do you stand on this question around monopoly and whether or not Facebook should be broken up? That's interesting. Antitrust is absolutely critical. You have to have competition for a market to work. That means you have to allow
Starting point is 00:51:56 an upstart. That's why I support, for instance, net neutrality before we get to Facebook. Net neutrality is incredibly important. And by the way, we passed pretty much everything we could do pushing the envelope for net neutrality here in Colorado in the absence of national leadership. But why is it important? It's not just a consumer issue. It is. But it's also about anybody with a thousand bucks and a server in their garage having the same access to millions of eyeballs as the Googles of the world and the Facebooks of the world. So, I mean, antitrust is critical. You have to look at defining kind of what is the competitive landscape, and no company should be allowed to have market-setting power to the detriment of anybody else. And so,
Starting point is 00:52:36 that's kind of what you have to look at the lens with. You know, I've been busy being governor, so I haven't been able to think about what that means for Facebook, which it needs a deliberate process about, but that should be applied to everybody, whether it's Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft back in the day. You need to make sure that while we want everybody to compete on a level playing field, nobody can use a monopoly to drive out the competition. So, uh, it's time for gay news. You don't know why I did that, and honestly, I don't know why I did it, but they know.
Starting point is 00:53:09 You and Kate Brown in Oregon are the first openly LGBT governors in the U.S. We now have a gay person running for president on the Democratic side. What do you make of Mayor Pete's campaign as someone who has broken this barrier herself? Well, it's great. I mean, it's great to see the diversity of the Democratic field, right? I mean, to have, you know, African-American woman running, to have a gay man running. I mean, to have a field that looks a little bit more like America than any time in American history is very exciting, regardless of which candidate you like, right? And you see up on that stage, you know, women,
Starting point is 00:53:56 and not a woman, but women, right? We've had women, several, a gay man, Latinos, African Americans, plural, right? African Americans. This is really exciting. This is really exciting. This is the face of America. Have you ever felt pressure as a gay person who is trying to break this barrier and prove that gay people can win anywhere in this country
Starting point is 00:54:20 to, and I'm going to say it this way, to not gay it up. That, you know, call it whatever you want, covering what have you, but that people are, have you ever worried that people are comfortable
Starting point is 00:54:34 with a gay candidate, but that you feel pressure to make people who might be uncomfortable with homosexuality or femininity more comfortable by not, you know, gaying it up. Well, I really wanted to be the first gay Jewish political podcast host with a million listeners.
Starting point is 00:54:54 But instead, here I am. Two podcasts with a million listeners. There you go. Who's counting? Who's counting? So, you know, I do identify that. I mean, I follow the presidential race, obviously. I'm following the ups and downs, but I mean, I see some of the slack against Mayor Pete,
Starting point is 00:55:16 and I felt the same thing in my race. I mean, there's always people who think you're too gay and people who think you're not gay enough. And all you can do in answer to that is just be yourself. I mean, just be yourself, be authentic, be who you are. I mean, you know, I don't, I never hide it. I never hit it. You know, people know my partner, he does public things. I also don't bring it into everything because why would you, if you're straight, you're not like bringing it into everything either. Like, by the way, I'm straight. I mean, it's just not something you say all the time. So it's, I treat it just like I was straight, but I happen to be gay. So, I mean, you know, it's just who I, part of who I am and don't hide from it and don't run towards it. It's just part of it.
Starting point is 00:55:54 Even more controversial. You're also openly a gamer, a proud gamer American. As am I. Oh, are you? Cool. Two gay gamers. Let's do it. Let's play sometime. That'll be great.
Starting point is 00:56:17 Listen, if you think I come on these tour trips without a Nintendo Switch in my backpack, you're incorrect. Oh, I'm actually more of a PC guy than a console guy. Ugh. PCs! You know, maybe we can't cross this divide. No, but what are you playing right now? League of Legends.
Starting point is 00:56:33 League of Legends, anybody? Got some? Yeah, so that's the one Marlon and I play that a lot. We also play some oldies ourselves. Age of Mythology, Civilization, games like that. I was in Age of Empires, man. Have you ever played Diablo 3? Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:56:47 We completed it. You played Diablo 3 all the way to the end? Absolutely. What kind of character? Oh, God. This was a while ago, wasn't it? Oh, it was Diablo 2. I know what.
Starting point is 00:56:55 Diablo 2. You played Diablo. No, we didn't play the National League multiplayer one. That was 3, right? No, we did 2 all the way through. Okay. 2 all the way through is the last one we did. Wizard?
Starting point is 00:57:02 Demon Hunter? What are we looking at? Marlin was whatever that one is that summons all the familiars and animals and stuff. I was like the, I don't know if it was barbarian or fighter. I was like the one that just goes in. Oh, you just like to run into the fucking, you tank it out. I'm a tank. You get a good amount, a good shield.
Starting point is 00:57:17 A metaphor. I take all of that in politics, so I'm accustomed to it, right? That was my next question. What does this teach you in politics? We can skip it. So, politics so I'm accustomed to it right that was my next question what does this teach you in politics we can skip it uh uh so you know Colorado is going to be the epicenter of one of the most important senate races you know you've just had this incredible legislative legislative session uh you're making progress and turning the state uh uh reliably blue what can people here do to get involved and and and help and help continue the progress you've
Starting point is 00:57:47 made? And the main thing to understand is we're not in any way, shape, or form reliably blue. This is going to be a hotly contested race. And we have a lot of great candidates running, as you know. Any one of them can beat Cory Gardner, by the way. And that will depend on your work, right? And my work and their work and everybody's work, but it'll take all of us working together to do that. I think it's fair to say there's no path to a Senate majority that doesn't go through Colorado, so we have to win this one. You ever play Portal?
Starting point is 00:58:19 You should play Portal. Is it on PC or just console? I think you can get it on PC. Okay. You should try Portal. Guys, give it up for your governor, Jared Polis. Thank you so much for being here, governor. This is great.
Starting point is 00:58:30 This is great. One more time for Governor Polis. When we come back, we're going to play a game. We're going to play a game. And we're back. Colorado. Nature's resplendence in every direction, crisp mountain air sweeping over snow-capped peaks, raging waters, and marijuana dispensaries of untold beauty.
Starting point is 00:59:10 It is truly a state of wonders. But that's not all Coloradans share. What brings you together as you hike and bike and snowboard, which is just skiing for people who think Hubestank is underrated, is a deep and abiding love for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. No, I don't know what you're booing. You love Mitch McConnell, you outdoorsy Trump enablers. While you're walking down a quaint street that ends in a Bob Ross quality vista, you're empowering Mitch McConnell.
Starting point is 00:59:42 While you're testing out a new sativa lemon drop, you're giving Mitch McConnell the votes to put anti-choice judges on the bench. And while you're waiting for that bittersweet moment when the snow and tourists arrive with jackets that still have last year's ski tags on them as if that's fucking cool, you're helping Mitch McConnell block investigations into Trump's abuse of power.
Starting point is 01:00:01 Because Colorado, you send Cory Gardner to the Senate. And he may play a moderate on television, but in reality, he's anything but. So as we launch Crooked's Senate campaign to get Mitch or die trying, it's time to play Cory Gardner, moderate in the streets, McConnell in the sheets, and MAGA where it counts. Sorry.
Starting point is 01:00:25 Sorry for the image. Would someone out there like to play the game? Yes! Wow. Fully freaking out. Hi, what's your name? I'm Shannon. Shannon!
Starting point is 01:00:39 Hi. How are you doing? I'm doing great. And you're from Colorado. I am, yeah. And are you going to do everything you can to defeat Cory Gardner? Absolutely. Great. Shannon. You guys have your? I'm doing great. And you're from Colorado. I am, yeah. And are you going to do everything you can to defeat Cory Gardner? Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:00:46 Great. Shannon, you guys have your cards? We're ready. Are you ready? I'm so ready. Let's talk about Trump's border wall. According to the Denver Post, Gardner told reporters in 2017, quote, I don't think the wall is the best idea. And in a telephone town hall a month later said,
Starting point is 01:01:00 I believe we have to have border security, but I do think billions of dollars on a wall is not the right way to proceed. Sounds moderate. What happened when Trump declared a national emergency to fund his dumb border wall even after Trump shut the government over the wall and Congress still said no to that funding? Is it A? Cory Gardner took the floor and said, it's imperative for the president to honor Congress's constitutional role.
Starting point is 01:01:20 A national emergency declaration is a tool to be used cautiously and sparingly before joining 59 senators of both parties to vote no. Or is it B? Cory Gardner took the floor and said, if your faithfulness to this constitution depends on which party controls the White House, then you're not faithful to it. Before joining 59 senators of both parties to vote no. Or is it C? Cory Gardner took the floor and said, as a U.S. senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass the Congress before joining 59 senators of both parties
Starting point is 01:01:54 to vote no. Guys, for those listening at home, Cory Gardner did not walk out here and do that reading. That was unfucking canny. I'm freaking out. Or is it D? Cory Gardner took to the Senate floor and said
Starting point is 01:02:11 nothing. Voted with McConnell and Trump, then put out a statement blaming Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. I'm gonna go D. You're right. And fun fact, Shannon, all those quotes about the border will that Gardner supported were from Republicans who voted no. Fascinating. Also, he only does telephone town halls. You mentioned that he doesn't do town halls in person.
Starting point is 01:02:35 He doesn't do town halls in person. Thank you. He doesn't do that. It was great. I'm glad you chimed in there. No, I'm kidding. Gotta mix it up. I gotta mix it up. All right, question two. Shannon, you're doing so good. I'll be good. Cory Gardner may be a Republican, but he's a Republican that's willing to buck his party and vote with Democrats when he thinks it's the right thing to do, no matter what the consequences may be. He's not like a famous Trump flunky like Lindsey Graham,
Starting point is 01:03:05 and he's not some right-wing attack dog like Tom Cotton. He's Cory Gardner, a good guy. Which senator has a more pro-Trump voting record according to the website FiveThirtyEight? Is it A, a famous Trump flunky like Lindsey Graham? Or is it B? Some right-wing attack dog like Tom Cotton. Or is it C?
Starting point is 01:03:22 It's Cory Gardner. Or is it D? Yeah,? It's Cory Gardner. Or is it D? Yeah, it's clearly Cory Gardner. C and also D. Correct. Bonus question. That's right. He has a more pro-Trump voting record than those two guys. Bonus question. Without going over, how
Starting point is 01:03:38 often does Cory Gardner vote with Trump? 75? No, no, 90, 95. Oh, 95. Oh, God. 92, 92. You got to just go with your gut. I'm so sorry.
Starting point is 01:03:50 It's 90. Let's just say you got it. It was one of the numbers you said. Thank you. Question three. Now it's time for the Cory Gardner so moderate it hurts lightning round. That's a new one.
Starting point is 01:04:08 I love that. Here's how it works, Shannon. We're going to go around and around and we're going to read you facts that may or may not be facts. If you think they're true statements about Cory Gardner, you say true. If you think they're not, you say false.
Starting point is 01:04:25 Are you ready? John, you say true. If you think they're not, you say false. Are you ready? John, kick us off. Cory Gardner spent years complaining about deficits, so he took a principled stand against the Republican tax cuts, which sent the deficit back up to a trillion dollars. False. Correct. Cory Gardner spent years complaining about deficits
Starting point is 01:04:41 and then voted for the Republican tax cut because he never actually cared about deficits at all. True. Got it. When a group of disability rights protesters organized a sit-in in Cory Gardner's office over health care, Gardner sat with them and listened despite disagreeing with their views. False. Correct. Oh sorry, no. He had them forcibly removed by the police. True. True. Cory Gardner is just Ben Shapiro aged up with that face app. Honestly, true. It's true.
Starting point is 01:05:15 Technically false. See, Shannon, I disagreed with that one. Thank you. Thanks, guys. The games aren't a democracy. It's American 2019. Nothing is. Sorry.
Starting point is 01:05:28 Too much? All right. Next. He's voted to confirm every single Trump judge and nomination without exception, no matter how unqualified or radical. True. No, that's actually false. Okay. He's voted to confirm every single Trump judge and nominee except for once.
Starting point is 01:05:49 Just once, which means it's not like he doesn't know how. Okay, true. That one's true, yeah. He got one no because he's crafty. Because he's crafty. The League of Conservation Voters gives Cory Gardner a 7% score on environmental issues, which is only slightly better than both Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, two of the most extreme members of Congress. True.
Starting point is 01:06:06 False. This is hard. The League of Conservation Voters gives Cory Gardner a 7% score on environmental issues, which is worse than both Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, two of the most extreme members of Congress. Oh, that one hurt, didn't it? True. That's true.
Starting point is 01:06:19 We got it. After Congress failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Gardner complained privately to his fellow Republicans that, quote, donors were furious because they didn't keep their promises. False. No, that's true. He was mad for the donors. When Trump said four women of color who were also citizens and elected members of Congress should, quote,
Starting point is 01:06:43 go back to where they came from, which is literally used as an example of racism from the government manual on racism. Bipartisan hero Cory Gardner denounced Trump immediately. False. Correct. Gardner waited until Monday to denounce the comments as racist. True. No, that's false. That's false.
Starting point is 01:07:03 Gardner waited until Tuesday to denounce the comments as racist. False. Still false. When a conservative radio host asked Gardner about the Trump tweet on Monday, he responded by talking about the Bureau of Land Management. True. And the host then laughed in his face. And when he finally was forced to respond under pressure from Democrats,
Starting point is 01:07:23 he said, bravely, I disagree with the president's comments. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's right. I remember that statement. So he said nothing on Monday. Then on Tuesday, under pressure from Wednesday. Wednesday. On Wednesday, he finally managed to muster,
Starting point is 01:07:44 I disagree with the president's comments. Bipartisan hero, Cory fucking Gardner. Shannon, you've won the game. And so Colorado, after you go to votesaveamerica.com slash get Mitch, where we will get Mitch or die trying. Do everything you can to knock on doors and help defeat Greg Gardner because as your governor said, we cannot win the Senate unless we win in Colorado. Thank you guys for playing.
Starting point is 01:08:17 Thank you, Governor Polis, for joining us. Thank you all for sticking with us. We love you, Denver. We'll be back again soon We'll be you next time. I'm out.

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