Pod Save America - "It's like late season Sopranos."

Episode Date: March 20, 2017

FBI Director Comey confirms a Trump-Russia investigation, Trump alienates more allies, and Paul Ryan has keg dreams of cutting health care. Then Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Georgia's 6th District, joins Jon, Jon, and Tommy to talk about what’s he’s learned from his race and what you can do to help.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On the pod today, we have the Democratic candidate for this special election in the 6th Congressional District of Georgia, Jon Ossoff. I'm very excited about that interview. Same. This is going to be great. He's also younger than us. How weird is that? He's 30 years old.

What the hell? Also, today is the deadline for registration in the Georgia 6th. If you live in Georgia, and if you live in the 6th District, register today. We'll tell you many more times. First, you're younger than the congressman. Then you're younger than the senators. Then you're younger than the president. Then you're dead.

I think you've been older, but great joke. We're going to cut. No, not. No, I'm cutting it. I'm cutting it. You don't have a crow. I can leave a pause. Tommy, who's on Pod Save the World this week? You know, I haven Keep it in. I'm cutting it. You don't have a kudol. I can leave a pause. Tommy, who's on Pod Save the World this week?

You know, I haven't decided yet. I'm talking to two people this week. One is Gail Smith, who is the head of USAID. We're going to talk about Sudan and what these draconian cuts would mean to their assistance budget. And then Mark Lippert, former U.S. ambassador to Korea. Huge friend of the pod. What the hell is going on over there? Both their political situation and North Korea's nuclear weapons.

So it's all a little scary. Tommy, I will say many people are talking about your Glenn Greenwald interview. Thank you. Many people are talking. Go listen to it. It's great. I really appreciate him coming on. I want to have more people on like that who we don't agree with.

I'm working on it, people. I'm getting emails from old professors about it. It's blowing up everywhere. Everyone go subscribe to Pod Save the World. Subscribe to Annamarie Cox's podcast with friends like these and subscribe for Love It or Leave It which debuts this Friday.

First episode is this Friday. It's going to be very exciting. You have to subscribe so it's waiting for you Saturday morning. Listen, we're already number two in the iTunes store, but as Hillary Clinton can tell you, number two isn't worth much. Did you overtake Barbaro? You caught it.

I can basically make out Mike Barbaro behind me in the rear view, but there's still some new serial podcast that's having me, and that's a behemoth. That's a behemoth to take down. Barbaro replicated the sound of a flashbang on his podcast this morning. It really hurt my ears. I'm upset about it.

Moving on. But do subscribe to Love It or Leave It. It's going to be a very fun show. We're going to run through the week's news. Okay. We have a lot to talk about today. What a day. We have to get to healthcare. We have to get to Trump's diplomacy.

But first, we should talk about Russia. So, woke up this morning. Trump went on like a tweet storm about Russia. Just to set up this hearing today. Yeah, it's a... Trump search. I thought that they were pretty boring. I think it feels like really recycled material from Trump on his tweets. It's like, fake news, blah, blah, blah, Russia, I didn't do it, it was the one-armed man, blah, blah, blah.

His heart is not in it anymore. He's six weeks into this job and he's bored out of his mind. But he must have woke up and seen that there's this hearing today and so he decided to like rehash all of his famous it's also like once you've accused uh your predecessor of wiretapping you it's hard to like go for a bigger shock factor there like like is it like fake tear schumers in my backyard with a golf club it's like it's like late it's like late season sopranos like they're running out of ways to kill people that makes news. It's like, oh, maybe we'll run his head over at a gas station. That's where it ends. So Trump tweets a bunch of shit this morning, and then we have the hearing.

Outside of the hearing is probably the biggest news. We get the FBI Director James Comey confirms that the FBI is investigating whether the President's campaign colluded with a foreign adversary to help him win the election. Seems significant.

Seems newsy. Seems newsy, yeah. The other big news is the quote of the day, which was, I have no information that supports those tweets. The FBI director is the president of the United States. With respect to the president's tweets. With respect to the tweets. I have no information to support those tweets.

So yes, Comey debunked, Comey becomes the 50 millionth person to debunk the claim about that Obama wiretapped Trump. So it's now

the FBI director, the DOJ, he also, Comey said, I've been told this by the DOJ too, so the DOJ allowed him to say that they were,

first of all, he was investigating the Trump-Russia connections. Which is more important because the rest of it, like just debunking trump's nonsense is like right although it's like the now we have the fbi the doj the former dni clapper both intel committees both parties there is even fox news this weekend there's just no there was no there was no reporting there's no one left who could be doing the wiretapping anyone who could have

been involved has said they weren't a part of it. The only people who believe this are Donald Trump and Sean Spicer now. Right. People who are saying this. I almost said poor Sean Spicer. I almost said it. Tommy? I want to dig into this for a second, because there was a big dust-up recently, and we're going to talk about this later.

Well, do you want to talk about this later or now? What is it? The Judge Napolitano thing. Do it now! Okay. Do it now! Sean Spicer created an international incident

with our closest ally, the UK, by accusing GCHQ, their intel agency, of spying on the US president. They loudly denied it. Apparently, the White House apologized,

but then they denied apologizing, right? So, we have this giant shitstorm with the US and our closest ally. I just want to talk about how this happened

for a second, okay? Sure. Judge Napolitano, the giant Eddie Munster that's on Fox News, is a senior legal analyst for them. He likes to be called the judge because he was a superior court judge in Jersey at some point along the way and left to make some cash, okay? I was wondering why he was judge. Yeah, court judge.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right, divorce court. He apparently saw a news report on RT, the Russian propaganda network, alleging that Obama had used GCHQ to target Trump for surveillance to get around all these legal issues, right? That report was from a guy named Larry Johnson, who was in the CIA about 30 years ago and is best known now for fabricating a smear that there was a tape of Michelle Obama calling someone whitey in like 2006 or 2007 or something like that.

Love it was waiting on that tape as a member of Hillary Clinton's primary campaign. We're all laughing because we lived through this fucking nightmare, excuse my language. But it was, the rumors circulated on the internet for years. The Clinton campaign thought it was real. Reporters thought it was real. Fox News reported on it constantly. Here's a quote from well-known piece of shit Roger Stone. At least seven news organizations have contacted me, wanting to know how to get their hands on this tape,

giving me more information than I've had after I've spoken to each of them, Stone said on Fox News. Like, this is fake news, guys, okay? Donald Trump is the world's biggest source of fake news, and he's been peddling it for years from the same sources. And you know what happens to these sources? Halpern and Heilman take them out to caviar and put them on the circus. What? I'm very upset about this.

There's no cost for making up smears about people anymore. Tommy, if you're like this, what am I doing here? I'm sorry about this role reversal. I'll talk about Sudan later today. No, Tommy, I get what you're saying. No, because it's like, I thought about this too, that when Comey did this this morning and finally put a button on this whole wiretapping thing.

So what, we're all going to fucking move on now. The President of the United States just made this up live. And now it wasn't just like a little campaign thing it's not just now having implications for him governing the united states now it's like a global fuck up you've got like like merkel's dealing with it the brits are dealing with it well so this stupid man this stupid silly man is president united states at the hearing this morning we this morning... We're not fans. We're not fans. He doesn't want us over. We've given him a chance. Mike Rogers, who's now the head of NSA, was asked about this

and he just reiterated the British position, which is how absurd it is. He actually was pretty full-throated about it, which is great. The thing that is so shocking about watching this hearing, to bring it back to the hearing that's still kind of wrapping up, but we've reached the point of it where it's just Democrats and Republicans giving boring speeches for absolutely no reason and who thinks these people should get up there and just give speeches you got comey

sitting there ask him a couple questions ask him a question anyway he won't he won't answer he won't answer anything so i guess it's all for nothing but the beginning you have you have comey saying we are investigating the trump campaign you have comey saying the president lied to the world about what the previous administration was doing. And people like Trey Gowdy and Nunes get up there and be like, actually, I have a question about how that information came to light. It's like, it's like, it's like the cat. Nunes actually asked him at one point, would you investigate the Clinton campaigns and

the Clinton Foundation's connection to Russia? Which is basically just reading back Trump's crazy tweet from this morning. Nunes and Gowdy are just, that was pretty pathetic. I mean, you're supposed to be, like, you're an Intel committee member. It's so shocking. Like, you're supposed to be a little more intelligent. It's just like, each time,

it's so hard to, I'm mad at myself every time I'm surprised, but it's like, even I am surprised by how, like, captured someone like Gowdy is. It's like even i am surprised by how like captured someone like gaudy is it's like not only are you going to carry water for the administration and try to make this hearing about leaks which is so transparent and pathetic and not only going to do that you're going to start threatening the intelligence community with reauthorization of vital programs because of leaks it is so it's incredible it is incredible these people aren't captured these people were doing

this bullshit before donald Trump was ever president. But they're doing it for Trump now. Thinking about Trey Gowdy and how he ran the Benghazi investigation, he's going on about leaks today. How many fucking times did his committee leak things during the Benghazi investigation? It's why it existed. Including the identity of a CIA agent, right? Or what did they leak around?

No, that was our buddy Jason Chaffetz. agent, right? Or what did they leak around? No, that was our buddy Jason Chavits. Oh, right. Stupidly was like, I was told I wasn't talking about that Google Earth image here on the hearing here, right? So Dana Milbank, Reptonim. To steal a phrase that I love from my new friend Glenn Greenwald, this is the adult partisan brain going to work, right? It's like

the hypocrisy here on leaks, on sensitive sources and methods, all these things, it's just astounding. Everybody who attacked Barack Obama for removing the Churchill bus, because God forbid he wanted Martin Luther King in the Oval Office, now doesn't have a word to say about GCHQ lighting us on fire in response to accusing them of wiretapping President Obama or President Trump. I mean, the whole thing is just, it's absurd beyond belief. And this is why everybody hates Washington. Yeah. So before we move off the hearing today, just because I think a lot of people probably watched that and said, okay, holy shit, the FBI is investigating possible connections between the Trump campaign and

Russia. They just confirmed it. So like now what happens, right? Jamesames comey just drops this bomb so he says he's been doing someone asked him like how long this is going to take he said he's been doing this they've been investigating since july he said that's a fairly short time frame so far for a counterintelligence investigation we just pause for a moment and just reflect on the comey letter that he was doing this from july i mean it's like there's nothing to be done about it he was investigating this in july july there was a headline in the New York Times that said, FBI sees no link between Trump campaign and Russia. And then in late October, he did release a letter saying,

by the way, we are possibly opening the investigation or continuing the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. A week later, it was just kidding. Then she loses the election. Oh, by the way, the whole time there was an investigation between Trump and Hillary. So, what the hell? What the hell? It's nothing to do about that. It that which is annoying the hard things about these investigations

and i thought the the special agent who was in charge of the stoden that sort of handling the fallout of the stoden disclosures made this point is that you know if there's a smoking gun out there it's going to take a long time to find it because this is not like a process where you panel a journey and you look at evidence like you were waiting for a source to turn or some sort of counterintelligence investigation so who knows when it's going to happen? It's not going to be on Congress's timeline. It's not going to be on our timeline. And it's going to be hard.

But what we know is there's a lot of weird smoke here. So you guys should just keep investigating. But there's not going to be, I don't think, some big explosive result that's going to satisfy anybody. Right. The reason I want to say this is because we are all very impatient. We live in an age of fucking tweets and 24-hour news. And everyone like by next week we're not going to get answers it's very likely we're not going to get answers into this so i do not think that we can all hold our breath

and make this like this can't be the news every day this can't be what we push every day because this investigation is going to go on its own and it's and it's not very respondent to public pressure because the fbi moves on its own timeline and you know it doesn't it's it's not very respondent to public pressure because the FBI moves on its own timeline. And it doesn't it's not trying to think about politics or media deadlines. And also just where we're at right now. I mean, Comey's testifying publicly today. But even over the weekend, you had a partisan disagreement of even what they know so far. Right.

You have right. You have Schiff saying that there is Schiff said Schiff said on Meet the Press. He sees circumstantial evidence of collusion between Trump campaign and Russia, but he said there's direct evidence, I think, of deception, and that's where we begin the investigation, which I thought was a good way to characterize this. And he's right. I mean, that's what happens at all these investigations.

If you lie to these investigators, that is your big problem. Come clean, people. That's their way. Come clean, show them. The other thing that Comey did today, I think pretty clearly, was a lot of these

Republicans that on the intel committees have been carrying water for the Trump campaign said, hey, there's no evidence. We're seeing no evidence of any collusion. They've said there's no evidence. Clapper said there was no evidence. Spicer's been yelling like, oh, you guys say that there's no evidence about the wiretapping claim, but when everyone says that there's no evidence about collusion, no one reports that. Well, that's because comey today basically did not say there's no evidence between inclusion in fact it's an ongoing investigation that's the thing about investigations you learn more when you investigate things all the republican talking points that everyone has seen no evidence about any collusion are wrong we don't know if there is evidence that's why it's an ongoing investigation

and evidence is not evidence of absence and re Reince could have violated his own White House's rules by calling over the FBI and saying, hey, what can I say about this? You're not supposed to do these things. Now we also know why the FBI didn't knock down stories saying that there was possible contacts between Trump and the Russians. I think Mike Huckabee's daughter, the spokesman at the deputy's press secretary, knows what she's saying, and we should just take her word for it. That's true. I did not know they were related.

Really? Yeah. Sarah Huckabee Sanders? I forgot her name. I was blanking. Okay. Let's move on to Trump's diplomacy. Diplomatic blunders of the last week.

By the way, did you know that this is the week that Trump's going to put some points on the board? That's what Axios said this morning. That's the headline in Axios. I didn't catch that. This is the week he's putting Trump, he's putting points on the board. I like Mike Allen so much. Me too. And I have for a year. But we need an Axios of Evil segment

because that thing is the worst thing I read every day. I'm sorry, guys. Stop it. Yeah. Well, look, it's predicated on having a lot of access to the Trump administration, right? And so that's what it is. It's like, here's our on uh having a lot of access to the trump administration right and so that's what it is it's like here's our sources here's what we know for the trump administration and if so if you want to know that that's what you do but just stop dismissing things that are critical of them so the slant of it is all maybe it's okay for the trump administration

so the trump administration reads it and then talks more to them that's that's their model we don't have that model here we've gone beyond that model that's not happening for us of that model i mean i would if there were a democrat in the white house look if we had the ability to create that model we would we would do it so oh wait no that was obviously a joke okay good good all right anyway so diplomatic blunders from last week tell me you already started talking about and explained what happened with the um spicer in the white house's refusal to apologize to the brits over the spying claims. Merkel comes to the White House.

This sort of comes to a head when Merkel comes to the White House. First of all, she sits with Trump in the Oval, and there's a whole handshake incident. Do you want to describe that? I mean, like, Putin famously brought his dog into a meeting to scare Angela Merkel because she was attacked by a dog. Really? It didn't get quite to that level. What a story. That's awesome.

I mean, it was a big black lab, but, to that level. What a story. That's awesome. I mean, it was a big black lab, but you see the photos and she's terrified. And she criticized him later for doing it. It's like, this is how he proves he's a man. I want to be wary of reading too much into body language because this drove me insane when people overread it to this when I was a spokesman at the White House. Like when Obama bowed a lot in apology. Right. But the problem with being a narcissist-

Remember what used to be a scandal? Right. Right. The problem with being a narcissist... Remember what used to be a scandal? Right. The problem with being a narcissist is when you think you're the only person in the room that matters, but you're meeting with a foreign leader in the Oval Office, and you won't look at them or smile at them or shake their hand when they say, hey, do you want to shake hands? It looks bad. And it looks like our relations with Germany are even more strained, which they are already because of his rhetoric.

Yeah. He's also telling them they owe us money for NATO duties. Well, that was actually not... Well, of course, of course. Not accurate. I kind of want that NATO money. But that also telling them they owe us money for NATO duties. Well, of course, of course. I kind of want that NATO money. But that's not how it works. Yeah, that's not how it works. I don't care. NATO doesn't pay us dues.

NATO countries are supposed to pay a certain percentage of GDP for defense responsibilities. We explain things here. We explain things to the people who listen, not just to you. I'm not trying to stop you.

I don't know why you're looking at me like that. Because you're talking. You know, sometimes people think that you don't like me. Sometimes people think you make everything about you on the conversation. Maybe I wonder why people think people don't like me.

Anyway, back to narcissists. I don't know. Love it interrupted me. I forgot what I was. The NATO thing. No, it's ridiculous. Like, he's tweeting that, he's saying in his tweets

that they owe us money for defense capabilities, and they don't owe us anything. They need to, there's a very reasonable critique to say european countries need to pay more for collective defense yeah period the other classic trump sounds like that's the point he's making about this nato bastard business is that uh he tweeted it all after she left right well that's his favorite thing he's so weak and he can't he can't bring himself to like say anything tough to leaders when he's with them.

This is the same thing happened with the Mexican president. It's a podcast, but I'm doing the Trump face. The kind of shit-eating grin he does. Maybe you can hear my body language. Just kind of doing the face. And it's so obvious he could hear her. Can you hear his body language doing the face? I think they can.

I thought it was really funny. So, anyway, so there's the Oval Office incident with the handshake or lack of handshake. Then they go do the press conference. And Trump just sort of throws out there like, well, you know, she knows what it's like to be wiretapped by Obama. I guess that's why we have that in common. And the look on Markle's face. Just go Google it if you haven't seen it yet. I really want to break this down because it was extraordinary.

First of all, it is so rare to see a true, unselfconscious double take in the wild, let alone by a head of state. She first glances over and then she can't believe it. Then she looks forward again. Is the translation in my ear wrong? And then she comes back at him. And then she comes back at him and then she comes back at him and she goes full smirk it was a real it was a one no yes it was it was fantastic and you know the only other person who can go further than that is patrick stewart who's a

who's a classically trained actor who can go up to i believe a quadruple take the funniest thing is like clearly he prepared this line. Clearly he thought it was funny because he gave a little comedic pause to let it land. And then the 15 former golf caddy goons in the background are like, yeah, boss. I have to say,

I have to say, it is a funny joke. But yeah, it is funny to us. But not to her because the fact that the United States was wiretapping her phone

blew up relations between the US and Germany for months and months and months. I'm not saying you should flag it. I know, I know. I'm just being the overly serious guy. We're playing the type here. But just the tale of the tape here

of the Obama-Merkel relationship was like, that did not start in the best place, right? Remember back in the day, they were at odds over the response to the financial crisis, whether we should do more stimulus versus austerity. It was like a huge thing. The fact that the NSA was spying on her, understandably, was a problem thing. The fact that the NSA was spying on her, understandably,

was a problem, given their history with surveillance. But over time, that became an incredibly important working relationship, and one that we need to get things done all across the world, the United Nations, bilaterally, whatever it might be. And bit by bit, he's chipping away and eroding support from the people in these countries and the relationship

with the leaders. And it's a huge, it's going to hurt our country. We were saying this on the way over here, but it was just such an amazing moment because we're so used to like, I can't believe we're living through this right now. Dealing with this in the United States with Trump, but you realize it's a global I can't believe we're living through this right

now. Like Merkel's looking, giving that look like the Brits when they're accused of spying on obama by crazy conspiracy theories like it is a whole that the entire world is just like what the fuck how did we get here it's like it's like you can see merkel like calling trudeau and like having a kind of like i'm sure they are like being like can you believe it what was your like it was and and it just feels bad that like we're we're not part of that conversation because we're the problem. What do you think they talk about?

Did you see the long reads? That's what I'm saying about the relationship. I was like, I couldn't fucking believe it. I was sitting there with him, and he turned to me and said he was wiretapping me. Dude, it was fucking nuts. Dude, when I was down there... Trudeau's like, I tried to invite him to a play, and they only sent Ivanka. I was listening to NPR.

I honestly think it's because he can't sit through a play. I think he can't pay attention. I don't think he's ever been to a play and they only sent Ivanka. I was listening to NPR. I honestly think it's because he can't sit through a play. I think he can't pay attention. I don't think he's ever been to a play. Apparently he had to go to Tennessee and tell people he was taking away their health care, but not. Are we talking to ourselves or the listeners? One more thing before we leave this. There's a segment I like to call

What the fuck's going on with Rex Tillerson? The Bob Gates recommendation of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. Loved by the global elitist set. Loved by the Davos set, Rex Tillerson. Loved by the Davos set. He went to Korea. He went to Asia for the first time. In making these big pronouncements about our policy with respect to North Korea,

essentially ruling out future negotiations and talking about potentially preemptive strikes, sort of hinting at all these big things, but he's not bringing a press pool. He's letting one reporter from the IJR, which is barely a new outlet. We're going to hear from them. Yep. It's like a crooked media style outlet. Yeah, exactly.

That's right. They are the right wing crooked media. Imagine if the Secretary of State only brought Lovett. Yeah, exactly. There you go. Honestly, first of all, I've said it once. I've said it a thousand times. A, journalism is easy. B, exactly. There you go. Honestly, first of all, I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. A, journalism is easy.

B, I do a fantastic job. Exactly. But this is the problem. There's no pool reports coming out. She did one Q&A, like, eventually, but the guy was canceling meetings and never went to meet with embassy staff in Tokyo. He said he was fatigued.

He was fatigued. And, like, if that's true, Hillary Clinton told us that you probably want to have, like, a real-time explanation of what's going on there and not just let dribble out from foreign counterparts. Not a lot of leadership. Rex Tillerson said he's not a big fan of the press.

He's like, I don't need it. I don't really need a lot of media access. Ike Barinholtz had a really funny line about this on Twitter, which was... Who? Ike Barinholtz. Oh, Ike Barinholtz. I said, Ike Farinholtz. You really funny line about this on Twitter, which was... Who? Ike Barinholtz. Oh, Ike Barinholtz. I said Ike Farinholtz. You don't get to be press shy.

You're the Secretary of State. You're not Terrence Malick. Yes. That was really funny. And by the way, it's like, yeah, nobody wants to talk to reporters. That's why they're reporters. I know. And lucky for us, like, Andrea Mitchell...

There's a reporter in the room. Yeah. Lucky for us, Andrea Mitchell is like the hardest working person in show business, right? And she's, like, catching a Southwest flight to Seoul, like, doing whatever she can to chase this guy around the globe. But it doesn't have to be that way. You just slap him on the plane, brief them about what we're doing, and then you go from there.

Hey, how's your job covering state? I have to chase the secretary around the globe. It's not great. Getting those miles, though. Andrew Mitchell's getting those free upgrades. Don't go anywhere. This is Pod Save america and there's more on the way diplomacy is going really well what's happening here at home uh nothing good paul ryan seems to be on a mission to piss off every republican or uh democrat or independent who voted for donald trump at least most of them uh because ryan's politics are now bumping up

against uh what trump's voters want both on the budget um and i shouldn't just say paul ryan because donald trump hired a lot of paul of Paul Ryan type Republicans to run his government. Right. So Mick Mulvaney, his OMB director, Tom Price. Mulvaney sounds, I mean, when Mulvaney talks, he sounds like a Paul Ryan acolyte. He really does. All his ideological stuff coming through. And Mike Pence, too.

Right. So all of these Republicans that are in the administration, along with Paul Ryan and his goons in Congress came up with this, well, at least the White House did, came up with this budget that is like the craziest budget we've seen in a long time in like slashing domestic priorities by like 30, 40, 50% at times.

And so you have that happening where like the whole meals on, like, you know, they're trying to cut meals on wheels. They're like cutting the EPA. They're cutting the NIH, National Institute of Health, by $6 billion. They're like ending clean energy research. They're ending research on climate change programs. I mean, they are just, it is going

really deep. And they're also hurting like a lot of poor people and a lot of people that voted for Donald Trump, this budget would. So a lot of people in Congress, a lot of Republicans in Congress even are saying this budget's dead on arrival. Paul Ryan, of course, has said like, great, we'll see what happens. So that's number one. And then number two, the health care bill is like unbelievably unpopular. We're finding among a lot of people

who voted for Donald Trump because they're realizing that they're going to lose their ability to afford health insurance. What's happening right now with this health care bill is fascinating.

So Justin Amash tweeted that it's like the single most unpopular thing he's ever seen. Republican. Republican member of Congress. Yeah, Republican member of Congress talking about how unpopular thing he's ever seen. Republican. Republican member of Congress. Yeah, Republican member of Congress talking about how unpopular it is amongst Republicans. And now they're sort of, Paul Ryan is saying, oh, we're still going to vote on Thursday,

but I'm going to make a bunch of changes behind closed doors to make it more palatable to people. And first of all, it's inconceivable to me what those changes could be. They're not fundamental to the bill he's already announced that could make this thing pass. So basically what he's hinted at is to appease the conservatives in the house freedom caucus who don't like the bill uh they think they're going to add work requirements to medicaid so if you get medicaid you have to work even though like only about 19 of people who receive medicaid are able-bodied adults who are not working um so that's number that's to get the freedom caucus it's not clear that that's enough to get the freedom caucus which is crazy i sincerely like i like forget forget the on policy grounds i don't understand how that's enough to get the freedom caucus because what still continues to

be so shocking about this bill is it's it really is like a bastardized shitty version of obamacare so like how could you possibly get these guys this thing looks too much like what it's replacing it just makes everything worse but then you see you, there's that congressman from Alabama on Friday who was like, I met with Donald Trump. I said that this bill is going to hurt the people who voted for him, the people in my district. He said, don't worry, I'll never let those people down. I'll fix it later. That's enough for me. I'm for it. So you can't underestimate, you can never underestimate how stupid Republican politicians are and you can never underestimate how cowardly Republican politicians are. Right. So if I were betting on, like, who's going to stop this bill

from leaving the House, there's going to be some Freedom Caucus members who say, absolutely not, I'm never going to vote for this bill. There's going to be a lot, I bet, who fold at the last minute. And then the question is these moderates, right? Now, to appease the moderates, it looks like Ryan said on fox on sunday that they may make the tax credits for seniors a little bit more generous and maybe some other tax credits a little more generous so back what you were saying lebanon it is a shittier version of obamacare because basically it takes away most of the financial assistance that was in obamacare but keeps the structure of the bill so paul ryan to get these people back might just slowly up some of the taxes pause for a second to remind everyone

that Paul Ryan said he's been dreaming about cutting Medicaid since he and Rich Lowry of the National Review were pounding beers out of kegs that is what they dreamed about in college first of all I don't want to move off it's important not to move off I want to finish on the incentives first because going

in we're not we're not we are I don't know what you're doing you in. Oh no, we're going to get one of these. No, no, no, we're not. We're not. We are. I don't know what you're doing. You don't even know what I'm going to say. So Paul Ryan saying we're going to go in and increase slightly. The subsidies for seniors is such bullshit because keep in mind all he's doing. So on the regulatory side,

he's telling the insurance companies, you can charge old people whatever you want, right? So much that they won't be able to afford insurance. And then he's going to come back in on the subsidy side and slightly increase the subsidy for seniors. So he's still screwing seniors, but still kind of completing his promise he made to the insurers, which is to make insurance more expensive for everybody.

And it's appalling. It is, this is a, this bill really, you know, Nancy Ann DeParle said it on the show. It is a Frankenstein's monster. And there's just, there is no way to tweak it. Like any Republican saying that is being intellectually honest. There is no way to tweak it like any republican saying that is being intellectually honest there is no way to tweak this bill to say well and what you're what he's thinking about is if he knows that if he goes on fox and says oh i might help seniors a little bit more fox and all the conservative outlets will run with the headline like ryan to help seniors more

you know and that's all he wants he wants that headline like you said the fact of the matter is it's not gonna it's not gonna do anything but he wants the headline because he's you know and because also he's going to so he's going to bring this to the floor for a vote on. It gets voted out of committee Wednesday and then it goes to the floor of the House on Thursday for a vote. There will be no time to get another CBO score of any revised bill by then. So they will be voting on a health care bill that they do not exactly know what it does. And unless they fundamentally change this bill, unless they pull it back and rewrite it, what Tommy said is true. And the senior thing is true. These are the two most dangerous things in this bill. It will it will slowly make it impossible. It will slowly

reduce accessibility to Medicaid, which will hurt a lot of people. And and the senior part of this is so dangerous because it will make seniors have to take like play Russian roulette with their lives five years before they're eligible to Medicare, which just means some percentage of them are going to get cancer. Some percentage of them are going to have accidents. They will be destitute before they get to Medicare. It is insane. What's frustrating about this is Medicaid is a very efficient health insurance provider. It works pretty well. And it covers kids and adults at a lower per capita cost than private insurance. And so it's unlikely that his caps can be implemented without cutting the care.

So Pelosi, way back in the day, said we had to pass a bill for people to understand what's in it. And she got destroyed for that because it was sort of like seen as a show of how secretive the process was. She was right. And I really, really worry that we're going to have to repeal parts of this bill for people to understand what's being done to them. The Medicaid piece of this is so frustrating because they all rail about how Medicaid doesn't work. It's not good enough. It's not good enough. Medicaid's not perfect. But, you know, it would help making the making the reimbursements more generous. The reason it doesn't work as well as, say, Medicare, although people on Medicaid do really like it, is that it's not generous enough.

And so their solution is to cut it. It's crazy. You know, here's what they're running up against into is the truth is we've been saying this a lot. Republicans believe that the federal government doesn't have a role in making health insurance more affordable for people or providing health insurance to people, right? That's what they believe. And yet, they now have a voting base that elected Donald Trump that desperately want the government to do something to help them afford healthcare, whether it's the government or they want the insurance company to make healthcare cheaper. They just want cheaper healthcare, and they want good healthcare, right? And so, they are bumping up against this. And Jonathan Martin in the New York Times did a really good

story. GOP's health care tightrope winds through the blue-collar Midwest, and it's about all these people. And it has a good fact in there, which is, like, the percentage of Republicans who believe that the government should do something to make health insurance more affordable has risen, like, doubled in the last couple months since the election, right? So they have this problem with their base. The larger question here is, and this goes to the stupid Paul Ryan comment that Tommy brought up about dreaming of Medicaid cuts since he was drinking out of a keg with Rich Larry. What an awful frat party that was. So what happened here to the Trump-Bannon economic populism?

Like, was it bullshit from the beginning or is Paul Ryan just playing these fucking people because they're stupid? You know what I'm saying? Something's going on. Because you could see a scenario where Trump is nativist and tough on immigration and does all the shit on national security and civil liberties that

scares us, right? But then on economic stuff, tries to, you know to keep this working class base with him by not having a budget that cuts all social services, by making sure that people can afford their healthcare, right? And that actually fundamentally changes the Republican Party. It doesn't seem

like he's doing that at all. It's like, is Paul Ryan gaming them, or are they gaming Paul Ryan? There was a version of Trump that could have existed, even though Trump has no ideology, where he really does kind of create a new coalition, right? He puts out a kind of healthcare plan that pulls off some Republicans and is passed mostly with Democratic votes. Passes an infrastructure bill. Right. Like there was a world where that's possible. But for whatever reason,

I mean, the policy front is being run just like pure Paul Ryan ideology. It's surprising. Yeah. I mean, I worry that there's like an even more cynical version of this, which is the, the populism is rhetorical and it's issues that have nothing to do with your economic, right? It's like you have all these people like watching, uh, Oscar's speeches and tweeting, this is why Trump won. And none of those people are speaking up when the people who voted for Trump who are literally the reason he won or are getting cuts because they think that they can still reach those people by saying Blue Lives Matter or attacking gays or like a lot

of the cultural things that Trump exploited to great effect during the election. Well, it does make me think like this. I mean, first of all, we should have started this whole thing by saying Gallup this weekend has Trump at 37% approval. Obama's all-time low was 38%. That's devastating. And that was when we were like gushing

oil, right? Bush didn't hit this number until second term. So it's very... Now, look, Gallup goes up and down. We can't get the polls. But anyway, he is very, very unpopular. That means he has lost... He's probably lost the support of some of his voters. And I don't think it's a coincidence this is happening around the healthcare stuff,

because back to we always bring up the Kellyanne Conway line, right? It's not about what offended people, it's about what affected people. His voters right now are realizing that this healthcare bill and then this budget could affect their lives. And I think that this is the message we need to run on. This is the message we need to be talking about every day. I think that's right. I mean, it's funny, it sort of, it goes to the Bernie Sanders case, ultimately, which is like, don't forget that this is about economics, it's about real people and what affects their, which is like, don't forget that this is about economics. It's about real people and what affects their actual day-to-day pocketbook issues.

And like, it's so easy to lose sight of that. It's so easy to get too clever by half, but like, let's come back to it. Yeah. And also, so people might be asking, like, what do I do? You know, so in the House, again, we need 22 defections. On Thursday, 538 ran a story. Again, we need 22 defections. On Thursday, 538 ran a story.

They counted like 16 people, Republicans, who said like probably not or expressed grave reservations about the bill. And there's about like 50 more possibilities, right, that really haven't said anything. So Indivisible, we've talked about Indivisible before. Go to their website. They have some great documents, talking points, scripts, information you can use to call your member of Congress. talking points scripts uh information you can use to call your member of congress they are also planning a um a friday district office visit to hold your members of congress accountable after the vote on thursday so if they voted the right way it's important to offer positive reinforcement and if they voted the wrong way you should know that the house vote isn't the end of it and you should really make some noise right so it's like training a dog it's like it's like shake the cannon nails no there's also no

there was also a great uh document a google doc put out by um tofer spiro at uh center for american progress this weekend and we all tweeted that here which actually has some of the most moderate republican members of the congress or the members who are most in vulnerable districts and gives you information on how to call them tweet tweet them, get them going. Very useful stuff. And we should say this is working. Over the weekend, Brian Fitzpatrick of the Pennsylvania 8th and John Katko of New York both announced that they're voting no,

and they were two members on this list that Topher had put out on Friday. So we're getting there. I think we've always been honest that this is an uphill slog, and that when you lose almost every part of government, it's going to be very hard to fight for your agenda. But given how bad this bill is, given the mood music around Donald Trump and how he is becoming toxic to the vast majority of Americans, now is the time to pressure members of Congress. They see reelection coming faster than we do. Right. We got four days to the vote.

I would make as much noise as possible. I would keep this in the headlines any way you can. I would call you a member of Congress. If you live in a blue district, call your friends who live in red districts, get them to call. You know, I think that there's some argument that they think they can just get this issue off their plate, just pass this and just get it to the Senate and stop. You can tell Trump wants that. Trump's like, I got to get to tax room. I got to get to tax cuts for millionaires. So they want it to die in the Senate so they can blame Democrats. It's not a foregone conclusion that this bill will pass.

It is quite possible that this bill passes. It really could. But this wouldn't be the first time that a Republican Speaker of the House brings an unpopular bill to the floor that he tries to kind of get his members to go for, and they don't, and they have to withdraw it. It's really possible. Make them vote. Let's see it. Let's see it. When we come back, we will have the Democratic candidate in the Georgia 6th,

John Ossoff. This is Pod Save America. Stick around. There's more great show coming your way. On the pod today, we have the Democratic candidate for the 6th Congressional District in Georgia, John Ossoff. John, welcome to the pod. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

Excellent. So, Trump won your district by just 1%, so that's the good news. But, of course, Tom Price won re-election by 23%. So, what have you been saying to those Clinton-Price voters in your district? And, actually, what are you hearing from them? price voters in your district and and actually what are you hearing from them well i think it's a pragmatic moderate district uh... that uh... looking for effective representation more than ideological or partisan representation uh... plum reaching out and

uh... offering uh... my services someone who will be responsive open-minded humble uh..., and provide great constituent service, help grow Metro Atlanta's economy. And even if we don't agree on all the issues, I think folks are looking for someone who brings some fresh leadership

and a fresh perspective rather than more partisan nonsense. John, you are, this time of the tour, you are new to the scene, you are younger than all of us, which pisses all of us off more than you know. But I want to make sure people understand you, why you decided to run, and sort of a bit about your background. One thing that was particularly interesting to me is you did a lot of work to raise awareness about human trafficking, especially women who have been captured by ISIS. I was wondering if you could talk about that work, and if that's something you think you'll continue in Congress. Sure. Well, I had worked as a congressional aide for Congressman Hank

Johnson from Georgia, specializing in defense and national security issues, and then left Washington in 2012, got a master's degree, and since then I've run a small business that produces investigative documentaries, anti-corruption, anti-organized crime and some frontline conflict reporting. And we produced a film last summer, sent a crew to the frontline in Iraq. They embedded with an all-female infantry unit under Kurdish command that was fighting ISIS on the frontline and just told their story. Some of them had been escaped, sex slaves who had been held by ISIS had been through unimaginable trauma, and we're now displaying incredible heroism fighting in an incredibly dangerous place. And, you know, that's what's been so rewarding about this work I've been doing the last few

years, is it's been exposing corruption and telling powerful stories about people who have been through things that a lot of folks can't imagine. And I want to try to bring that same perspective to representation, to bring a voice to the voiceless and make sure that marginalized folks and the most vulnerable people are being represented, as well as those who already have the access that they need to make their voices heard. John, your slogan, or one of your slogans, is Make Trump Furious, or that's been a slogan attributed to you. And by the way, mission accomplished.

I can't congrats. I think you've done it. I think he's angry. In fairness, a night over at the Mar-a-Lago on Friday tends to make him furious. Right. So we asked people what to ask you before you came on, and a lot of people said, you know, ask them what the Democratic message should be beyond

Trump is bad and I'm against him, right? Like, what should the positive message for Democrats be? Well, I'm talking about accountability for everybody in Washington. And with a background in anti-corruption investigations, I'm reaching out to folks across the political spectrum, making the case that I will stand up against waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, foreign interference, not as a partisan issue, but as a matter of public interest. And one of the things I've been talking about is standing up a dedicated investigative unit

in my congressional office whose sole purpose is to identify and expose corruption or the abuse of power in the federal government. And I think, you know, when it comes to... Sounds like they may be busy. Say that again? Sounds like they might be busy. Well, I mean, you know, there's a need for greater attention to congressional oversight. It's not always the most glorious work for members of Congress, but it's important. And when it comes to Mr. Trump, the message that

I've been taking across the district is not a partisan one, not about any particular campaign or candidate, but that his victory signals a real loss of faith in our institutions and in our political system. And that the answer is to repair our institutions by holding them accountable and regaining the public trust. So your race has gotten a lot of attention inside the district, but also outside of it. What are you looking for in terms of help from people who see you winning as a way of saying that we're going to, you know, step by step sort of push back against Trump? And like, what can people do and what are you hoping they do? Well, it has sort of taken on a life of its own. Welcome to the show, you know.

A lot of national attention and folks fitting it into a pretty binary frame, you know, as the first competitive race since the presidential election. into a pretty binary frame i know it's as the first competitive races the presidential election that them the most exciting thing is the intensity of the grassroots momentum here in georgia we've got more than seven thousand volunteers working on the campaign if you go to any of our field offices in uh... roswell shambly or marietta uh... on a weekend davis hundreds of folks knocking on doors making phone

calls dozens of people every weekday. And, look, I appreciate the outpouring of support from folks everywhere. And it gives me a real boost. And it also encourages all the folks on the ground who are, you know, spending four or five hours of their weekend knocking on doors. I think it just speaks to locally and nationally a renewed engagement and a renewed sense of civic responsibility. Folks are taking the future into their own hands, and it's an inspiring thing. One question about that. So you've never run for Congress before.

What have you learned? What do you find when you talk to people that you didn't expect? It's a great question. Well, I've learned a lot about myself in just these few weeks, and I've learned more about this community where I grew up. It is, you know, especially a special election, which is more of a sprint than a marathon, packing all of this into just a few months

when you've normally got a year and a half to put together a campaign. It's a challenge and it's tiring and there's a lot of pressure. And, you know, I've grown a lot just in the last few weeks and few months, sort of stepping up and doing my best to make my supporters proud and try to make the community proud. But I think what I've really learned is just how much latent energy and will there is out there to do good. And it's not motivated by partisanship. It's folks here in metro Atlanta who are concerned that the country's headed in the wrong direction, that core values are being abandoned. There's this deeply unsettling sensation that the sense of the country that we all share and the national character that we all believe in and the story that we all share

is at risk of abandonment, and that's unsettling for folks left, right, and center, I think. And seeing folks stand up and give their precious time to do something about it is really encouraging. John, there was a historic first in your campaign, which was the use of Uptown Girl in an attack ad. I see something like that, and I think that is a desperate, desperate opponent. But I'm wondering, what do you think of these guys using the fact that apparently you went to college against you?

And what are you hearing from voters in your district about national parties coming in and putting this kind of crap on the Internet? And were you dreaming of cutting Medicaid while you were drinking from a keg in college, like Paul Ryan? Yeah, I mean, for anyone who doubts that the race is winnable, that the race is winnable. The fact that, you know, a super PAC's already coming in with more than a million dollars hitting me is a pretty good indication of how competitive the race is. And, you know, so far, I think it's been standard partisan fare. If anything, I think it's firing up some of my supporters down here and galvanizing, unifying Democrats and independents who are turned off by more of the same garbage. And, you know, it's a special election. Turnout is key.

I don't think that my opponents are going to turn out their voters by attacking me personally. And they may want to reconsider their approach. It's almost as if some of these super PACs have been living in their white bread world, and now they're looking for a downtown man, and that's what you are. Well played, sir. He spent a lot of time looking on his phone. I actually didn't hear your last response because I was Googling the lyrics. I was wondering if you'd written that down ahead of time.

John, just a quick follow-up on that. If you're listening to Pots of America right now, and you don't live in your district, what can people do to support you? Well, if you go to electjohn.com, electjohn.com, and click that big, beautiful volunteer button at the top right, you can sign up to phone bank. You can sign up to get involved, get updates, and I'd be honored to have your support. Should I give five bucks? Why not? Should I just give you five bucks?

Why not give five bucks, right? five bucks when i get five bucks right now and uh... in the voter registration deadlines today right if you're in the district that's right and uh... if you go to my face book page uh... look me up at john also uh... there is a link uh... made it easy as possible for folks to uh... register if they haven't yet and

but my team is telling me that if folks eighteen to thirty four millennial vote uh... doubles what's expected in a special election that will win and one of the most encouraging things is if you come up to our field office the huge number of young people who have never engaged in the political process before who are uh... helping with this campaign i think that uh... having a younger candidate on the ballot is uh...

encouraging some folks to come out and get interested. But these young folks need to make sure they're registered. And today's the last day. So get it done. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest challenges we have is how to turn this energy that we've seen out there into votes. So, you know, we're pulling for you. We are. Well, thank you so much for joining us.

And best of luck with the campaign. And hopefully we'll be talking to you again when you're a congressman. It is an honor. Anytime. Thank you for having me, and thanks for bringing some attention to the race. Take care, John. Friend of Rod. Bye-bye.

Bye. That's all the time we have here on Pod Save America today. Actually, no, we have plenty of time. We could have done three hours. There it is, guys. There is the song. That's a love it played when we were... If you are not subscribed to Loveovett or Leave It right now,

I don't even know what to say to you. Do you hear this song? I mean, this is still a work in progress, and it's already fantastic. All right, we'll talk to you on Thursday. See you later. Play us out, Lovett. We'll do it live! Peace.