Pod Save America - “Republican(s) for Impeachment.” (LIVE from DC!)
Episode Date: May 20, 2019Justin Amash becomes the first Republican Congressman to say that the President crossed the threshold for impeachment, and Joe Biden says that Democrats don’t want an angry candidate. Congresswoman ...Pramila Jayapal and Goldie Taylor join Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan on stage at the Anthem Theater in Washington, DC.
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What's up, DC?
DC!
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
And I'm Goldie Taylor.
I'm Jon Lovett.
I'm Tommy Detour.
I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
We're very excited to have Goldie with us on stage tonight and Goldie's going to be doing a project
with us at Crooked Media soon why don't you say a few words um without telling you too much about
it because well it is not out yet I think most of the people in the room know if you know anything
about me that I have been heavy into social justice reporting over the last decade at least. And I happen to
have been reporting on a case that has gone back two decades. We have found something
egregiously wrong in that case. This is a serial-like, Atlanta Monster-like investigation.
Yeah.
But you're going to be damn, damn, damn surprised as to who's culpable in making certain that a young black boy
stayed in jail for two decades and why.
And so that's what we're working on.
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
And later in the show,
we're going to talk to the co-chair
of the Congressional Progressive Caucus,
Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is here.
Congressional Progressive Caucus, Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is here.
First, we've got some news.
After another week where the Trump administration defied subpoenas and refused to cooperate with any congressional oversight whatsoever, Michigan's Justin Amash became the first Republican
member of Congress to say that the president has crossed the threshold for impeachment.
Just the low standards we have now.
Just basic reading.
We're applauding reading comprehension.
It's all we got, boo. It's all we got.
Yeah, so Amash came to the conclusion
after reading Robert Mueller's full report,
which clearly not many people in Congress did,
which he also said that Attorney General William Barr
deliberately misrepresented.
He also wrote that, quote,
our system of checks and balances relies on each branch's
jealously guarding its powers
and upholding its duties under our Constitution
when loyalty to a political party or to an individual trumps loyalty to the
Constitution, the rule of law, the foundation of liberty crumbles.
Goldie, what's the significance of a Republican House member calling for
Trump's impeachment? Does this change the political dynamic in any way?
Absolutely nothing. Until we have a, at least a portion, a critical mass of Senate Republicans.
Right.
Senate Republicans standing up to say, you know, we have got to do something about this
president that these are impeachable offenses that are worthy of a bill of indictment that
brings to the Senate and whether or not we weigh a conviction, that until we get that on the
table, I don't want to hear a damn thing these Republicans got to say about Donald Trump.
It's just really, really hard for me to kind of put my arms around it. I'm glad he said it,
you know, but I just, I just, I just need some, I need Mitch McConnell to say it.
Yeah. Not holding our breath to say it. Yeah.
Not holding our breath for that one.
Nah.
Do you think it puts a little more pressure on House Democrats to actually do something?
The House Democrats who haven't yet come forward and to say that we need to pursue impeachment proceedings?
Nope.
No, I do. And I think the problem here is frankly the same problem that Democrats had,
you know, as they were weighing Nixon's impeachment. They're afraid. They're afraid of public sentiment. They're afraid of the public fight. They're afraid that this puts our 2020
in jeopardy, that this puts, you know, the brand new House leadership in jeopardy, that this puts the brand new House
leadership in jeopardy, that we may not get the Senate back, we may not win the White
House.
They're running this long math, but I'm on the side of Liz Warren here.
Fuck the math.
Do what's right.
Yeah.
And what's right is, is that this president is running a criminal enterprise out of 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, and that unless we're willing to do
and say something about it right now,
what keeps anybody else,
other than a certain black man in the White House,
what keeps anybody else from being able to do the same thing?
Right. Yeah.
So that's a problem.
So no, I don't expect them to stand up any harder,
any stronger than they are right now
because they're too busy running the math when they ought to be running the moral calculus about this thing.
So, Dan, according to the New York Times, it does seem like maybe Pelosi is shifting a little bit.
She suggested on Thursday that House Democrats could possibly open an impeachment inquiry as a way to obtain documents and testimony from stonewalling
Trump administration officials. To me, it seems like this may be their only option aside from
just giving up on congressional oversight altogether. Like, it seemed like for a while
there was this middle road where Democrats wouldn't pursue impeachment right away, but they
would hold all these investigations. Now it doesn't seem possible to hold these investigations because the Trump administration refuses to cooperate. So it seems,
are we in a place where it's just pursue impeachment or give up and move on?
Basically, I think we now are. Like we've been debating, everyone has been debating the politics
or how to think about impeachment when you know that the Senate is not going to actually remove
Donald Trump from office. When you know that, how do you think about it? And as you point out,
Pelosi proposed a road, which did make some sense, which is we are going to hold high profile
hearings. We are going to pull on every thread in the Mueller report. We're going to bring Bob
Mueller. We're going to bring Bill Barr. We're going to bring Don McGinnis. We're going to bring
these people in and we're going to let the public know what was in the Mueller report. We're going
to sort of dramatize the Mueller report for the public and then make a decision
on impeachment at the end of the road. But here we are, what, a month, six weeks after the Mueller
report and nothing has happened. Mueller's not come. Barr is stiff-armed to house. We have not
seen Trump's tax returns. We have, Don McGahn is not there. Nothing has happened. And so now
I think Democrats' hand is really forced here because trump is
making them look weak yeah right and so you like from a there's a political perspective which is
now you're either you're getting punked and everyone is seeing it and that's a terrible
position to be in politically so i do think it changes the political calculus but there's also
another point here which is not trump is not just stiffing them on the Mueller report. He has said that Congress has no authority to hold him accountable for anything.
Anything.
Anything.
That is not just obstruction.
That's not collusion.
You can say you don't care about those issues in the past.
It is family separation.
It is financial conflicts he may have in his tax returns.
It's corruption throughout his administration and when they say that if democrats have a
responsibility to the congress to the constitution to the to themselves and to the voters who gave
them power to step up and do something and trump has closed off all paths other than impeachment
i think yeah love it what do you think that's all seems right to me. I just have this image of the moment when Milhouse on The Simpsons really means business
and he takes down the little nice flag from the back of his bicycle
and rolls up the black flag with the little skeleton on it.
You know, you look at the...
Look, nothing would make me happier than to stand up here and say that the Democrats are
being wimps, and surely they are.
But to Dan's point, it's not that Trump is making Democrats look weak, it's the Democrats
are making Democrats look weak.
And then you look at the list of options for what they can do before they do impeachment,
and it's like, well, sternly worded letters. We're doing that.
Intent.
Issuing subpoenas that are being used like when
Sylvester Stallone starts cursing into that machine
in Demolition Man to wipe
his ass.
You know what I mean?
And, you know,
they're going to unlock... One guy loved that show.
He knows exactly what I'm talking about.
He's going to make me lose my lashes really early in the show.
Other than that, Nancy Pelosi's joking about locking up a bar under the Capitol,
but I can imagine how the media will treat that.
They'll do what they do.
So I don't see a lot of great options for us.
I'm in a dark place about it.
Are we going to just see what happens?
Levin said backstage his answer for everything that was going to be,
you know what, we'll see how it all shakes out.
Time will tell.
Time will tell.
I will say there were people that were mad at Pelosi
because Barr made a joke to Nancy Pelosi about,
oh, I got my hands and you're going to put cuffs on me.
And Nancy Pelosi said something sort of polite back, joking around.
And people were like, how dare you joke around with this guy?
And it's like, what do you want her to say?
Like, try me, you fuck.
What is she supposed to do?
Give me a break.
I don't know.
Anyway, we'll see how it all shakes out.
I mean, Tommy, it seems that regardless of what Democrats do,
the Trump administration is going to continue to investigate the investigators.
Barr said last week that under Obama's presidency,
officials in the Department of Justice and the intelligence community
abused their power to harm Trump's candidacy,
and Trump himself called this treason
and said that these officials should serve long jail sentences.
How concerned should we be, those of us that were in the Obama administration,
how concerned should we be about Barr's counter-investigation here?
I mean, pretty concerned.
Look, I think that it really sucks to think that we're all longing for the days of—
Not individually concerned, generally concerned, right?
Like, we up here.
We the people.
I mean, I think America should be concerned. It sucks to long for the days of... Not individually concerned, generally concerned, right? Like, we up here. We the people. I mean, I think
America should be concerned. It sucks to long for
the days of fucking Jeff Sessions, but
you kind of do right now.
Right? Like, Bill Barr
is in on the fix.
He's referring to lawful investigations
with FISA warrants and
you know, credible
counterintelligence investigations
as spying. He's just asking
questions about all these various issues. So like, I think it's likely that Trump now has
someone in charge of the DOJ that is willing to use it for purely political purposes, which is
a pretty scary departure from last couple decades of norms. So, you know, there's a chance that they
use the Department of Justice to, or the intelligence community to investigate political enemies. But there's also
a chance that, you know, even if we proceed with impeachment proceedings, that after those are over,
they continue to stonewall any legitimate oversight anyway. Like, it's not a panacea.
None of these options are great. None of these things fix our problem long term. We have to win an election in 2020. And I think like that's the only outcome.
Barr to me reminds me of like any Black Mirror episode where there's a human being screaming inside of like a teddy bear.
And all the teddy bear produces is like, I love you.
And all the teddy bear producers is like, I love you.
In the sense that when you see Barr on television and his glasses that make him seem sharp
and he's shaped like a serious person
and he sounds serious and contemplative
and he is, he's sophisticated.
He's a sophisticated actor.
But you really need to imagine that there's a tiny Donald Trump
just at those controls in there, just
fucking screaming the craziest
Donald Trump shit that he can scream, and then
it gets translated into the kind
of language that's more effective.
I'm never going to look at Build-A-Bear
the same again.
Sad
Teddy Ruxpin, yeah.
Think about it. Think about it.
I mean, like you were saying, Dan,
so much of this is focused on the Mueller report so far,
but there's all these other abuses of power going on.
Goldie, Trump, in the last couple days,
has been getting pardon happy again.
On Wednesday, he pardoned his friend
and former business partner, Conrad Black,
who stole millions of dollars from his investors.
And then the New York Times reported
that Trump may pardon several American military members accused or convicted of war crimes,
including murder and desecration of a corpse.
I mean, should some of these pardons also be added to the articles of impeachment if we get to that?
Well, first, the most important thing.
If I am ever in the shitter, then it's possible.
I'm going to write a pitch to the pod that praises the shit out of Donald Trump.
If I'm ever on my way to sing, sing Leavenworth, any of that stuff, that is going to be my get out of jail figure.
Because then you know.
Because then you know.
It could happen.
He pardons his pals.
All you have to do is tweet something nice about him.
Go on Fox.
You know that tweet that was going around that said, you know, if I have been kidnapped,
this is what my social media will look like.
You know, if I am under federal indictment,
you will see me saying Trump is a wonderful motherfucker.
So there it is.
The serious side is that he is not just partnering friends.
Conrad Black, you know, is in Trump's world
viewed as a friend. People who do nice
things for you for Trump are called friends. He's pardoning murderers.
Yeah.
And so when you look at what happened in, all of those Navy SEALs came forward to turn in a guy who had not just killed in cold blood, you know, civilians in
another country, but several, and kept going until they stopped him. Trump has
called for his paper, shot a woman, you know, from a tree, you know, just flowing
hijab, it just blew her away for no other freaking reason
than she wasn't quote unquote one of us yeah trump has asked for his paperwork to be sent to him
for a memorial day style pardon if that is not the most complete bastardization
of memorial day short of drinking a six-pack of Heineken.
I don't know, you know, what,
you know, because you drink
American beer on Memorial Day.
No, I never thought
of the Heineken thing.
That Heineken thing
just blew my fucking mind.
If I catch you drinking it,
if I catch you drinking
anything other than Budweiser
on Memorial Day.
You keep drinking Heineken
in a BMW.
On Memorial Day.
What have we been doing here?
What have you been doing here with this world?
Nazi sled.
Yeah.
No, but that's what we're at here,
is that he believes that issuing pardons like this
will curry him favor among his base.
And if that's the kind of thing that curries you favor
among, you know among who you believe
to be your base,
one, you've got to ask, who the fuck is my base?
And what do they believe in
and why do I want them following
me? Why are they happy with me?
If they're happy with me, something must be wrong with me.
Yeah.
That wouldn't be Trump.
Goldie's point on this is really important because
siding with these individuals accused of war crimes
is not siding with the troops, right?
Like other service members came forward
because they were putting Afghan lives at risk.
They were putting their own lives at risk.
They shot civilians.
It is, like I did not serve in the military.
I worked with a ton of people that did in the NSC.
There are people that believe in a code of conduct and honor and principle you can get tossed out of West Point for lying before You get tossed out
for you know failing a test and
the notion that that is a pro military decision is so fucked up or like
To side with a bunch of guys who are in Blackwater, a private militia force run by his buddy, Eric
Prince, and to somehow see that as a pro-troop, despite the fact some of them might have been
veterans, but that is not like being with the troops. It is just a truly sick, depraved,
to think about justice period in the world, in the country, anywhere.
So take it back for a second.
John, you raised the question of if an impeachment inquiry were
to be opened, should it be expanded to clear other things?
I think it is critically important that it does.
Because the principle by which you open it
is not just what was in the Mueller report.
It's everything Trump has done since,
to basically say that Congress has no power,
that you are a president above the Constitution.
Like, that's the premise for it.
And then underneath it goes everything,
because it should be more than just a question of collusion
or a question of obstruction.
It's an opportunity to widen the aperture
and have a conversation about all of the corruption,
all the malfeasance, from the crimes we know he committed
by engaging in campaign finance fraud,
to the tax fraud in New York,
to the corruption within his administration, to the emoluments clause, to getting rich,
on everything else, to open it up so to say that we are not going to tell a story about
a thing that happened in 2016 that everyone has decided what their opinions on are, even
though that in and of itself should be an impeachable offense.
We're going to have a conversation about why this president is too corrupt and too criminal to serve the American people.
That's a conversation we can win.
Totally.
And look, that is a political argument.
It's also a moral argument as well.
I mean, look, we know we're not going to get
all these Republican votes in the Senate
to convict him of anything, right?
We know that the politics of impeachment are, at best, it's hard to tell what they're going to be,
whether they're going to be favorable or not. But at some point, it seems like it is the right and
moral thing to do to stand up so that when history looks back and we say, like, it is not okay, it is
the wrong thing to do for a president to abuse his pardon power like that it is the wrong thing to do for the president to use the department of justice
to investigate his political enemies it is the wrong thing to do for the president to make a
whole bunch of money from the presidency right like and it feels like if you are in public office
if you have been elected to serve like you should go on the record stating whether that's right or
not and like you were right the politics of impeachment are up in the air.
The politics of getting punked are very clear. That's what it's going to look like
to the American people if the Democrats can go nowhere on this
for the next year and a half.
I said this the other day that if this had been, and you hear this all the time, if this had been Barack Obama,
you guys have heard this? No, you haven't heard this, have you?
But one of the things that I said,
if this had been Barack Obama,
not only would he be on house arrest
awaiting transport to
Leavenworth, first president
in history for that to happen,
but there would be a bipartisan parade
cheering the line of paddy wagons,
y'all would be, you know,
rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue
because they're frankly...
I don't think you need to assume that.
I think you could have made a perfectly good point
without maligning us.
So you don't have smoky brows?
Are we along the side?
Are we applauding?
Are we in the paddy wagon?
Oh, we're in the paddy wagon?
Yeah, no, we're getting to listen to it.
Oh, I'll be in the paddy wagon.
I'm into that.
We're not cheering.
I thought we were cheering the paddy wagon. Talking about in the paddy wagon. I'm into that. We're not cheering. I thought we were cheering the paddy wagon.
Talking about in the paddy wagon.
Maybe Lovett's going to get out.
Lovett's like, I was for Hillary.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Listen.
But yeah.
I've been telling you guys since 2007.
I've said it before.
I've said it again.
I come from a long line of Jews that knew when to get the fuck out.
All right.
More news after this.
And now it's time for OK Stop.
We'll roll a clip,
and the panel can say,
OK Stop at any point to comment.
Judge Jeanine Pirro.
She's like Judge Judy, but instead of dinging people for not paying their dry cleaning bills, she's racist.
Well, the Honorable Judge Pirro is predicting some more arrest suits, and surprise, it's the Democrats.
This was wild.
Take a look.
This will be true reality TV.
No scripts, no rehearsals,
just a gang of criminals pointing fingers at each other
to save their own hides.
A version of true crime and the reality show Survivor.
The Deep State Exposed. Okay, stop. Woo! Yeah. crime and the reality show survivor the deep state exposed okay stop
yeah i feel like we just tuned into the middle of something
she reminds me of my aunt florence seriously
the uh it's a lot it's a lot all right let's rolling. Now, I told you more than a year ago,
former FBI director James Comey was the head of his own crime family and that he ran the upper echelon of the FBI like an organized criminal enterprise.
Okay, stop.
That's a very intense previously on Josh, Janine.
It's like, a year ago, I said something completely insane.
Because look, everyone on this stage gives James Comey an A-plus for every decision he's ever made.
You have to be so deep into this world to take that sentence like, oh, James Comey, the six-foot-four moral guy.
Also, if he was the head of a crime family, he didn't do a great job.
Yeah, he's more Uncle Junior than Tony.
Like the grand finale was investigating Hillary Clinton.
And then he fired like an idiot.
Yeah, he just got run out of there.
That was limited to the upper echelon.
The rank and file wouldn't have tolerated this.
Even Bill Barr questioned it. Now, like any
criminal conspiracy... Okay, stop. Even
Bill Barr? Even Bill Barr. Have
they lost Bill Barr?
Players are arrogant
and they think they're above the law.
But mistakes are always made.
Comey tells the president...
Okay, stop.
First of all...
Fucking Scooby-Doo over here.
It's so weird.
But I just love, like, they can't...
Donald Trump, the fact that his psychology is so exposed,
so on the surface,
like, the nerve endings are just breaking through the skin.
Everyone is projecting all the time now.
Everyone.
Every Republican on television is constantly describing Democrats
in terms of their own side's crimes, just again and again.
Like, that is what we've been watching.
Right.
Trump literally runs a crime family.
Don, Eric, Tiffany.
No, back off, Tiffany.
Ivanka.
The CIA is unverified,
but he used it to spy
on a presidential campaign.
Yeah, I used the word spy.
Okay, stop.
She went there.
I like the idea also of Janine Pirro,
who I believe three weeks ago almost lost her job,
and it's amazing to say almost,
for just forgetting to put an inch of foam
between the racism and what she was saying.
She just came out and said that Muslims can't be good Americans,
and everyone's like, you're not supposed to say it that way.
You're supposed to say it with some nuance
so they can get away with it. And now she's like, you're not supposed to say it that way. You're supposed to say it with some nuance so they can get away with it.
And now she's like,
I'm going to go there.
Spying.
Now I told you
last week that Bill Barr
was a cool cat.
That's the first time the term cool cat and it's been used to describe bill barr democrats hyperventilate and hysterically accuse him of everything they can think of
and hold him in contempt barr remains lucid focused and unflappable. Okay, stop. Lucid.
Fucking, again, with the lobe.
Lucidity now.
Just maintaining human consciousness.
Being able to go in front of a committee having the quality of attention
and being, in some sense, in control of it, though we can argue about in some sense in control of it though we
can argue about whether we're in control of our own attention and the nature of free will itself
oh man let's not like these who use and abuse the enormous power that we give them are an
embarrassment to all the hard-working men and women in the law enforcement and
intelligence communities but the biggest disappointment is yet to come when the guy
who has been so deadly silent on all of this will be the one that all the rats eventually point
their dirty fingers at... Who?
Now we're so confused about who she's talking about. Yeah, like, she takes one second
to be subtle and elliptical. We have no fucking
clue what she's talking about. Mueller? Obama?
I thought it was Obama. I think it's Obama.
Brennan? Tune in next
week and find out.
Oh, another cliffhanger from Judge Janine.
Earlier she showed a
photo of Sam Power.
So we're really stretching here.
I would have gone to law school if I'd known it was this damn easy.
I mean, it's just, let's just, it needs to be said that every weekend the President of the United States arranges his schedule around watching this.
And sometimes calls in.
Yeah.
Schedule.
around watching this.
And sometimes calls in.
Yeah.
Schedule.
It really is like a, like a,
just a,
you know,
12th century boy king
who's like,
bring me my play.
Bring me the play I like.
Bring me the woman
who does this show that I like.
I would like to watch the show
with the woman I like.
Bring the woman who says the things I like.
Bring her to me.
Anyway, Democrats should do way more Fox News.
Yeah, right.
All right, let's talk about 2020.
On Saturday, former Vice President Joe Biden
officially kicked off his third bid for the presidency
with a speech in Philadelphia where he called for national unity and said the following,
quote, they say Democrats are so angry, the angrier a candidate can be, the better chance
he or she has to win the Democratic nomination.
Well, I don't believe it.
I really don't.
If the American people want a president to add to our division, to demonize their opponents
and spew hatred, they don't need me.
They've got President Trump.
I'm running to offer our country, Democrats, Republicans, and independents a different path. Goldie, I saw you
tweeting about Biden over the weekend. You said you don't believe his front-runner status will last.
Nope. Why do you think that? Well, I would be angry, Mr. Biden, if not for copious amounts of bulletin
diet coke.
There's this Biden phenomenon.
I know that everybody in this stage worked on a team once that helped Biden get to the White House as vice president.
I think that is an incredible thing
because I said in that series of tweets
that two things put President Obama,
or two things were part and parcel
of putting him into the White House.
One was winning Iowa
and showing black people like me that an African-American man could win over white people was a real thing,
that we knew that you would vote for him. If we knew that you would vote for him,
then we could line up for him. We could organize for him. We could give him our money
and we could believe. And so that really sort of made a huge difference. But the second thing he
did was that he selected Biden, who had dwindled and fallen away, really, in the primaries,
made him his running mate. And that said to white people, this young man is safe.
And so there were two major decisions that he made. And so those two things are working together
today, I think, and they fuel this frontrunner status that Mr. Biden has, Vice President Biden has,
I think that there is a older, more moderate,
more old DLC leaning Democrat out there
who wishes for the days of old
that just isn't here anymore.
And I think that's where his frontrunner status sits.
But will it grow?
Where does it grow? To progressives
who are really freaking angry out here, does it grow to them? No. Does it grow to the women
who are looking around Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri and going, what the fuck just happened?
Does he bring them in? No. Does he inspire the young Afro-Latina girl in Brooklyn?
Does he inspire, you know, the young Asian girl up here for highway in Atlanta?
Does he? No.
And so there is no place for him to grow.
But once this fragmentation ends,
now we got 22, 21 other candidates in this race,
that fragmentation is going to end because people are going to start dropping
because of lack of money, because of lack of organization,
because of lack of poll numbers, because they can't get on the stage. Whatever the reason is, they're going to start dropping because of lack of money, because of lack of organization, because of lack of poll numbers, because they can't get on the stage. Whatever
the reason is, they're going to start dropping and those numbers are going to start pulling
together under one, two, three tenths. Does Biden get any of that lack of fragmentation? No,
he doesn't get any of that vote. He stays with the same 20-odd percent that he has,
so I don't think he ever makes it to 40 percent because of that. I like Biden. When I listen to
him, he's mesmerizing.
He paralyzes you when he's talking to you.
You're the only person in the room when he's talking to you.
But when you look at him on the issues over the years,
then you know why President Obama selected him.
When you look at his record over the years,
it's hard for me to think that he's going to get out of the debate
without Kamala Harris,
without Elizabeth Warren, without Bernie Sanders taking it to him on his, serving his record,
serving up his record for his own meal.
And so I just don't think that the rest of what is today's Democratic Party
will collapse and fold in behind him. I think he's going to have a harder, the longer he's
in the race, the harder the road is, harder the road it is for him to hope.
Tommy, when he said he doesn't believe that an angrier candidate has a better chance to win the
Democratic nomination, Is he right?
I mean, I don't know. What I think he's doing is looking at some of the same polling that we've all probably seen in Iowa and New Hampshire, that people actually, the message of bringing people
together, being optimistic, being hopeful, actually does pretty well with a lot of those voters. And, you know, I'm not sure why he's like stiff-arming the activists
who are understandably really pissed off.
But for some reason, you know, that's become the frame here.
I'm not sure it's the best frame,
but I do think it has some general election longevity.
I do wonder what Goldie wonders as well,
is what happens if you're the frontrunner
and you're on stage and Bernie takes a shot at you
over Iraq and Senator Warren takes a whack at you
over the bankruptcy bill,
and how that series of attacks lands on him
and whether it diminishes him, whether it diminishes the person attacking
more is, I think, an open question. But I do think people are going to come after him pretty quickly.
Let me tell you what the crack is among older African-Americans, like my mother and aunts and
stuff. When Kamala Harris gets on the stage and takes a shot at him over school segregation,
the life that they lived, the buses that they waited for,
the buses that never showed up,
the schools they couldn't get to.
When they crack open the full of that history,
that's where, for me, that's where the crack happens.
And that's stuff he frankly doesn't have an answer for.
It'll be worse than the answer he gave on Anita Hill.
I mean, here's what his answer should be
if he were to do it,
which is, I've changed, you know, I've believed a lot of things in my life.
I've grown and evolved over time.
Everything you just brought up, Barack Obama looked at in 2008.
He decided that he would pick me to be his closest advisor
one heartbeat away from the presidency.
And I'm going to say, how come he endorsed you this time?
I mean, that's your response, right?
There it is. That's And I'm going to say, how come he endorsed you this time? I mean, that's your response, right? There it is.
That's what I'm going to say.
To Goldie's
point, there are a couple
things about this. One is, there are
22 candidates, but 85%
of the vote is in six people.
And those six people have the ability to make it all the
way to the end. So if those
people want to beat Biden, they've got to take votes from
Biden.
I do not think for Biden, who sometimes made political and verbal missteps in his life,
but I don't think he's going to beat himself. There is a personal, a very deep well of affection
for him among Democrats. His association with a president with a 95% approval rating is too close.
And people believe right now,
based on very little,
but believe that he's the most electable person.
So you're gonna have to change that perception to beat him.
Yeah, and I think the angry thing too,
because I saw some people saying,
why is he denying that so many people are angry?
And he actually didn't do that.
He recommended that people are angry,
but he's saying, I don't think an angry candidate is what we need
to win. And I do think that's
tapping into, there's a ton,
most Democrats, I don't know any Democrats
who aren't, are very fucking angry right now.
And the question is,
are people tired of being
angry? And do they want to just,
I don't want to be angry anymore,
and I'm sick of politics
as perpetual warfare. I'm not tired yet. I don't know to be angry anymore, and I'm sick of politics as perpetual warfare.
I'm not tired yet.
I don't know about this audience.
I'm not tired of being angry yet.
You know, if somebody passes a heartbeat bill in Georgia, you know,
a gang of angry white men passes a heartbeat bill because, you know,
I don't know, they're not getting any on Friday night.
I don't know what's going on with them.
But I'm not through being angry yet when they're still pulling crap like that.
You know, in marginalizing and erasing my life and my body.
I'm not through being angry. And I think that there are there is a brand of Democrats out there who has underestimated that level of anger and underestimated our willingness, our ability to turn them out
because they didn't reflect that.
I think it's important that anger and hope
and anger and inspiration are not mutually exclusive.
Barack Obama's 2008 campaign was about hope,
but it was fueled by an anger
about a terrible mistake to go into Iraq,
about a financial system that was totally fucked up.
Yeah, Democrats were really angry then.
And so the question is,
can you turn that anger into something positive? Yeah, it's
that was my problem with what he said. It's punditry
and I think it is a little bit patronizing to equate being
angry with the kind of politics that
right-wing anger has stoked, which is hateful and bigoted and mean-spirited
and venal and wrong
there's righteous anger we have righteous anger and and
You know to to goldies point like where does he get these other votes from I think it's hard
I don't think we know but one thing that's clear to me is if he wants to
Be the candidate that wins this nomination
He's not gonna get it by telling people that they're wrong about their feelings
Because no one ever gets anything telling anyone they're wrong about their feelings.
Ever, just literally ever, in any circumstance. So, you know, I think it's about explaining to people what they can do with their anger, and why their anger is justified, and speaking to it. And,
you know, we've talked about this, that, you know, there's a big age divide right now in the sport that Biden has. And that makes sense. You know,
he's appealing to people that are a bit older. Some people like Bernie and Warren and Kamala
maybe are appealing to people right now who are younger and whether they go to him because he's
the nominee and who won with older voters or they come to him before the nomination fight is over,
he needs to find a way to talk to those young people, those young people who not only who have to vote for him, but also have to knock on doors for him and care about him and
want him to win. And I actually do think that's possible. And I don't think there's anything to
stop him from bringing out how to speak to those people. And honestly, Goldie may not be tired of
being angry, but I'm fully exhausted. And so to me, it's frustrating because the test that I've always had in my mind for Biden is he going to understand this moment and understand how he has to bridge this assumption around his electability with the genuine passion and beliefs and kind of place that the Democratic bases and Democratic young people are in.
And right now, I don't think he's doing that, but that doesn't mean he can't.
and right now I don't think he's doing that,
but that doesn't mean he can't.
Yeah, I mean, the other big thing here is whether or not we can debate
whether Democrats are tired of being angry or not
or tired of being divided or not,
but what it doesn't change
is how Republican politicians are acting
and will act no matter who wins the presidency.
I mean, Biden said earlier this week
that if Democrats win in 2020,
Republicans will have an epiphany and start working with them again. I mean, is there any evidence?
They had the epiphany. The epiphany was, we don't have to work with these people at all. They had
it. And Joe Biden was the vice president when they had it. And just one other thing about this,
too, is I think that there's part of this electability thing is, you know, we just need someone who's going to get us there, right? Like he can get
us there. Like we just want to win. We're so desperate. We're so sick of what's happened.
We're so desperate. We just want someone who's going to get us there. I want to vote for him
if he wins the nomination. There's no question about that. Absolutely. There just is what it
is. But you know what the most salient question is? Who looks better in a pair of aviators than Joe Biden? No one.
Nobody. That is an easy one to answer. He does look good in a pair of aviators. But all I was going to say is just that I think part of the problem we're having is because we haven't
internalized enough just how effective the Republican turnout machine was in 2018. It's like
one of the biggest untold stories of that election. All of our passion, all of our energy, it's really going to matter and we're going to win at the
margins. We can't just hope that someone's going to be enough. They have to excite us and they have
to get us there. And he can do that, but it's not going to be by telling people that being angry
isn't right, I guess. Yeah. I think, I mean, to your point, Lovett, electability is a lot of what
is it, what people are thinking about,
what they're looking for.
We have no idea what it is, but it's something we want.
But it is what is propping up Biden,
and it is based in racial and gender stereotypes
about what an electable person is.
It's based in his association with someone who won two presidential elections.
But I think if you were one of the candidates who
want to beat Biden, the way to do it
is to run at his electability, which is to make the point.
Which is not to say, he makes gaffes,
or do you really want people running this 1972 clip
on YouTube?
That's not it.
It is to make a case that the best Democratic nominee is not
someone who's been part of the broken political system that
gave us Trump since the Vietnam War. It is not to have a campaign that it's a debate between two different versions of
the past. It is a campaign where it is made between Trump is the past and Democrats are the
future. And there are a handful of Democrats who I think can make that case, but they have to make
it. They just can't wait around for Biden to make a gaffe or people just to change their minds
because that is the exact strategy that the Republicans had in 2016. Time will tell. Time will tell. And I think you have to
and I think if you're a Democrat making that case you have to understand how much goodwill Biden has
in the party right like I always thought that and Mitt Romney didn't keep this argument for very
long in 2012 but one of the arguments Mitt Romney made that was the scariest to me was when he said, I understand why people were excited by Barack Obama. I wanted
him to succeed too. He's a good man, but you know what? He just failed and he didn't do it. And I
think if you're a Democrat running at Biden, you have to understand that he has so much goodwill
out there that you have to start by saying all those good things about him saying, but as you said, we need something new.
This is about past for future.
Especially when the first state is Iowa and being someone's second choice in Iowa
is a very meaningful thing because of the way the caucuses work.
If your first choice isn't viable, you go to your second choice.
And if you are the first person to attack Joe Biden, Uncle Joe,
the popular former vice president, there's a
lot of risk there. So there is this dilemma that these candidates are in. It's like, who's going
to shoot first? And I don't know that they know. And how are they going to do it, right? Because
there's drawing a contrast in a way that is substantive, that voters don't mind, and then
there's taking cheap shots. Well, then there's, this is, this is the chaos of having 25 candidates
because maybe it's up to, yeah, they're the first six who are playing that game, but there's
somebody at nine, 10, 11, 12
who's like, I don't care. I'm going to get
in this fucking headline.
When we
come back, we'll have an interview with Congresswoman
Pramila Jayapal.
She's the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a representative from Washington
State.
Please welcome Congresswoman Jayapal.
Well, thank you for being here on not just any Sunday night, but the finale of Game of
Thrones night.
You're doing a screening of it, right, for everybody.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Everyone here has HBO Go.
It's fine.
They'll see it when they get home.
There's a lot of bad news happening in the world, but before we get
to that, I want to start with some good news. This past week, the Democrats in the House
passed a historic piece of civil rights legislation for the LGBTQ community. Can you tell us about
that bill and where it's going from here?
It was amazing and it really shows that majorities matter.
This was the Equality Act, and it was such an incredible moment.
This is basically the act that says that we're going to ensure that everyone has the same rights, whether it's in housing or employment,
any field, but if you are LGBTQ, you get protections against discrimination.
You get the same rights that everybody else does.
And it was fabulous to pass it off the floor.
Are there prospects in the near future for the Senate to take it up?
Well, we...
Well, I mean, in the...
I recognize that Mitch McConnell is terrible.
The Grim Reaper.
He's the Grim Reaper, which he self-identifies as, which says a lot.
But, you know, there has been bipartisan support around some measures around hate crimes, don't ask, don't tell in the past.
And I don't know if whether there are some Republican co-sponsors in the Senate or others who could help at least begin to move the ball forward.
There were eight Republicans that voted with us in the House.
And so, yeah, that was good. But, you know, I thought we'd have more, honestly. I mean,
really, it just felt like we are in a different... The Judiciary Committee hearings were crazy,
because all these Republicans suddenly cared about women in sports. That was the thing they
really cared about. And they were so afraid that transgender people were somehow going to take away the ability for women to compete in sports.
So I guess the short answer is I don't see it.
But I think that the movement has built so much that I think anything is possible.
And I think it's all about what do people do in the districts, in the states?
How do they organize?
And how do they continue?
How does our movement continue to make this a priority?
I mean, it's an important point for all of our,
everyone here tonight and our listeners out there
that you can call your senator,
especially if you live in a state with a Republican senator,
and let them know how important it is that they take this up
because that is actually how we've gotten Republicans
in the limited instances it's happened to make,
to move on issues of importance in this community.
That's right.
And the log cabin Republicans.
I mean, there are a lot of Republicans
who believe that civil rights protections
should apply to everybody.
And more and more people today
have people that they know
that they're directly related to
that are in the LGBTQ community.
And they do want to provide those protections.
I think that there's, you know,
there's a lot of fear-mongering as there is with anything else. But if anything is going to pass,
I feel like this and hopefully the DREAM Act might be two of those things that could find
bipartisan support in the Senate. I mean, as a side note, it's just fucking wild that in 2019,
only eight Republicans thought the LGBTQ community should have basic civil rights.
I think it's less than it used to be,
and I don't think it reflects where people actually are.
I think it's where they think they are supposed to be for politics,
which is so cowardly and horrible and really difficult to watch.
Yeah.
You know, this past week, you know,
we've been watching state after state, Republican-led states, you know, taking up bills to ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
Is there something the Democratic House can do?
Can the House pass a federal law?
I think Elizabeth Warren and a couple others have proposed this.
law, I think Elizabeth Warren and a couple others have proposed this, would you think the Democratic Caucus can and should pass a federal law to enshrine the rights of Roe v. Wade into law?
Well, here's the thing about choice is we already have a constitutional right. It's been,
it has been affirmed by the Supreme Court. We shouldn't need to pass another law, but-
Would it help to do so?
At this moment, given what the administration is doing and given
what states are doing, you know, as they stack the Supreme Court and then also as these states
basically are making a ploy to send one of these cases up to the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v.
Wade. And so, yes, I think that would be a really good preemptive step to take. I just think it's so crazy. You look at Alabama, it's 49 out of 50
in terms of infant mortality.
Nine babies out of 1,000 in Alabama die.
That is an unbelievably high rate.
And yet, they don't want to have Medicaid expansion that
would save those babies' lives.
And they want to get in our business
and tell women that we don't have the right to do what we can with our own bodies.
I'm getting the sense that when they say they're pro-life, it doesn't mean what they think it
means. It really doesn't, because I tweeted, you know, oh, we just found out that 1,700 children,
in addition to the 3,000 from before that we knew about,
were separated from their families.
So you don't want to provide Medicaid expansion.
You're perfectly happy to separate children from their families,
but somehow your poor life, that seems like the ultimate hypocrisy to me.
But here's the other thing.
I was also saying this morning, I was on CNN State of the Union,
and I was saying to Rick Santorum, I said, so...
That is the exact opposite of a name drop.
So if conception starts at this early age,
does that mean while you're in the womb, does that mean that child
support starts then? And if that baby is, you know, in the stomach, in the womb of an undocumented
immigrant, you can't deport that undocumented immigrant because that baby is a citizen already.
So we should keep them all here.
Did Rick Sanford just melt at that point? So we should keep them all here.
Did Rick Sanford just melt at that point?
He said he was happy to provide child support early.
He didn't seem to be with me on the undocumented immigrant front.
I'm shocked by that.
You know, the Democratic caucus, the Democratic majority in the House,
was elected with this promise to return accountability to Washington, to put forward the checks and balances of the Constitution. And now you have
this administration, this president saying, no, we're not providing witnesses, we're not providing
documents, your subpoenas mean nothing. What do you think
the appropriate response is to what is a pretty unprecedented level of essentially declaring
oneself above the Constitution? I really believe we are I mean, I think we have taken every possible step that we can.
We've issued subpoenas. We've called for witnesses. The president has issued blanket executive
privilege over the Mueller report. He has refused. He has said, I'm not providing, you know, meeting
any of your subpoena requests. I'm not providing any of the witnesses.
We'll see what happens.
We're supposed to have Don McGahn in front of us on Tuesday.
Let's see if he really comes.
Let's see if Mueller really comes.
But, you know, when you have a president that says, I'm not going to respect the authority of a co-equal branch,
and really we're first because we're Article 1.
I mean, I'm just saying.
Then I think that is the difference between a dictatorship and a democracy.
If you have a president who thinks he's king
and isn't accountable to anybody and is above the law,
that is absolutely not acceptable.
And it matters to the pocketbooks and the lives of everyday Americans.
I don't think it's something that's out there.
You know, it means that if he strips health care away from people, does unlawful things,
uses the office of the presidency to get in all kinds of bribes from foreign governments,
it means there's no accountability over him at all.
And it means that Americans will suffer.
And so it is a serious undermining of our constitutional foundations. And I don't take it lightly, but I do think we are at that point.
You know, there has been, even though there has been a general consensus among a lot of Democrats
in the House and across the country that the Mueller report is pretty clear,
and in some cases you didn't need the Mueller report is pretty clear. In some
cases, you didn't need the Mueller report to know it, but that Trump had committed impeachable
offenses. But yet still, there has been a hesitancy among a lot of Democrats in the House
from the leadership on down to go down this path. Has that changed in the month or so since the
Mueller report came out? I think so. I think it's changed in the last couple weeks because we are
seeing a White House that is just denying any cooperation, any accountability at all. And I think people
do realize how serious that is. And understand that I'm not saying we're taking a vote to impeach
or not impeach. I'm saying let's start the impeachment inquiry because in doing that
officially, we have way more leverage in the courts to try to get some of what we want,
and let's see where that gets us. But, you know, this is quickly leading us down a road that I
think I don't want to wake up in 20 years and think, what did I do to stop this, you know,
stop this tyranny from taking over our democracy? I mean, one of the
challenges to start an impeachment inquiry is
you can start it, but
they usually end somewhere, right?
They, like, either you
vote to impeach the president and succeed
and send it to the Senate, which everyone sort of
knows when that's going to happen. You
vote and don't impeach the
president, or you don't vote,
which I think is interpreted as
letting the president off, does it make you nervous to begin the process knowing that there is not
yet a majority in the House who believes the president should be impeached?
Everything makes me nervous, but the thing that makes me most nervous is that we are undermining
our democracy. We are watching the execution of our democracy,
to use really tough words.
And so I don't think, I mean,
I think that we do have to lay out a case to the American people.
There's still information we don't know.
I mentioned to you before the show
that I'm now on my third read of the Mueller report,
and it is actually really fascinating and terrifying,
if you read the whole thing.
The case that is laid out in there is very clear.
He is very clear in the report, Mueller,
that he is sending this to Congress for us to act on it.
And it is also very clear that William Barr
should not be the Attorney General of the United States.
He should resign.
Do you have any sense of when we might hear from Robert Mueller himself?
You know, we had hoped that we would have him in by this week,
and it has been delayed in part because the president tweeted that he didn't want Robert Mueller to come and testify and so there are questions about whether he
is going to come and under what conditions and what he can say same
situation we're facing with Don McGahn so I don't think I saw that the chairman
had said that it probably wouldn't be until next month and I just think this
is all getting dragged out and that's also part of Trump's strategy but, it's not, obstruction isn't just something that happened in the past,
by the way. It is ongoing obstruction of justice that we are witnessing.
You are one of the leading advocates in the House for Medicare for All. You are the lead sponsor of the House Medicare for All bill. You held a very high-profile hearing very recently. Medicare for All has obviously been
a very important part of the debate in the Democratic primary. Based on Trump's Twitter
feed and Fox News, which are the same thing, essentially, the Republicans wanted to be part
of the debate in the general election. How would you sell a, so let's hypothetically say I'm a voter in Wisconsin. I don't love my
private insurance that I get from my employer, but I'm nervous about losing that and having the
government, which I have some skepticism, take over. How do you sell Medicare for All to that
voter who's open to the idea but afraid? Yeah, the first thing I would just say is here's what you
get from it. Here's what you get. You get comprehensive care. You get all the health
care you need before you get sick. You get preventive care. You get mental health, dental,
vision. You get your prescription drugs cut down
so you can actually fill your prescriptions instead of not filling your prescriptions or
cutting your pills. And you will not have to pay any co-pays, premiums, or deductibles.
And by the way, there will be no out-of-network hospital or doctor. You keep the same doctor and hospital that you have,
but in fact, everyone is in network under Medicare for All,
and it's the existing system.
And I think when I say that, most people say,
is that possible?
And I say, yeah, not just possible, but necessary.
Every other industrialized country in the world has done this
except for the United States of America.
And then sometimes I ask them,
so how much do you pay for your copays, premiums, and deductibles?
And they tell me some story,
and this has happened on the doors in rural areas
and places that are not like my progressive,
you know, I'm from Seattle, my progressive district. But people will say to me these unbelievable stories. I had to,
you know, I had to go into bankruptcy. I had to not get married because I had to lower the
threshold that I could qualify for. And, you know, all the things that people do. I mean,
GoFundMe has some amazing uses, but being the
primary health insurance plan for people is not what GoFundMe was set up for, and it should not
be the case. Well, you sold me, so that worked. You heard it here. Dan Fiverr on Medicare for All.
I was there already, but in my hypothetical role playing a Wisconsin voter, I'm on board now.
I was there already, but in my hypothetical role-playing of a Wisconsin voter, I'm on board now.
Thank you so much for being here tonight.
Please give it up for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
Thank you so much.
You guys want to play a game?
D.C., Maryland, Virginia.
You call yourselves the DMV, which makes sense because like the DMV,
you're boring, bureaucratic, and most of all,
everyone inside wants to get out as soon as fucking possible.
You know what?
I deserve to be booed.
I'm booing inside because we met a bunch of
very passionate young people
who are working to flip the state of Virginia
before this show
from George Mason and elsewhere.
And they're very cool.
And I still do the fucking joke.
Anything for humor, right?
Anything.
But because DC and Maryland are usually reliably blue,
we want to focus on you inconsistent monsters
in the state of Virginia.
And yes, I said state.
There's only one commonwealth I recognize,
and it's the one where Tom Brady kisses his son
on the mouth every morning.
Boo. Fuck you.
What are you booing? Never know.
Virginia has some remarkably important local elections coming up in 2019.
Because of the census, the winners in this election will draw districts
that could impact who represents Virginia in Congress for a decade or more. But here's the thing. When it comes to local elections, we Democrats, what's the word,
suck. I don't know how you guys got ahead of me on that. We don't turn out, even though in many
cases local elections have huge impacts on our lives. What's happening in Alabama and other states right now is a testament to that.
We get it.
National politics is flashy.
It's sexy.
Bernie.
Rosenstein.
McConnell.
Hotties.
But we are going to train Virginians to pay attention to local elections
in a game we're calling
Hey Virginia, our eyes are down here
in local politics where a bunch of right-wing Hey Virginia, our eyes are down here in local politics
where a bunch of right wing goons
are gonna gerrymander the fuck out of your state
if you don't show up.
Our eyes are down here.
Would someone out there like to play the game?
And I would like someone from Virginia.
Why are multiple people
showing up?
What the fuck's happening?
Hi, what are your names?
My name's Jeremy.
This is my brand new wife,
Marissa.
Hi.
Wait, what's your name?
Marissa.
Jeremy and Marissa.
Yeah.
In matching Pod Save the Tour
pod tour shirts.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
We got married yesterday in our home area of Youngstown, Ohio.
We drove back specifically for this show,
and we're flying out of Dulles tomorrow for our honeymoon.
Wow.
Look at that.
That's so nice.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
But are you from Virginia?
Yeah, we live here.
We live in Arlington.
Okay.
Yes.
The roller coaster.
I mean, it's a sweet story,
but I thought it might have been to get away with something.
Jeremy and Marissa.
Yes.
All right, here's how this game is going to work,
and it's a tough one, okay?
I'm going to read you information about gerrymandering, okay? But while, and that's
important to local elections, right? But as I do, our panel, they're going to try to distract you
with national news, okay? And at the end of it, I'm going to quiz you. Yeah, yeah, honeymoon's over.
Yeah, honeymoon's over.
Are you ready?
Yes.
John will be your first distractor.
Every 10 years, the U.S. Census is used to apportion seats in Congress.
Hey, Trump just tweeted.
2020 is a census year, which means the people we elect to state legislatures will get to redraw over 75% of congressional district boundaries.
Hey, Trump just retweeted a meme video of him doing the piano dance from Big.
In other words, they'll have an opportunity to gerrymander,
and we'll have to live with the consequences.
Turns out the guy who made the meme is a convicted terrorist.
For at least another 10 years.
Question.
Hey, Trump tweeted again, and this time he spelled Iran using an E instead of an I.
Iran.
Iran, he tweeted.
The people we elect to state legislatures in 2020
will get to redraw what percentage...
Oh my God, Trump is tweeting about Detective Pikachu
and it's clear he thinks it's a documentary.
We're at the...
I'm already in the question.
Unbelievable.
No, you're distracted.
In 2020, the people we elect to state legislatures will get to redraw what percentage of congressional district boundaries?
Trump was trying to Google, but he accidentally tweeted the words, two girls, one cup, extended cut.
It's everywhere on Twitter.
Everyone's talking about it.
That's coming out.
All right, honeymooners.
75%.
You got it. Question two.
I love interrupting Lovett.
That's fun.
It's fun.
It's really fun.
We should play this game.
It turns out yelling jokes over people is fun.
You've made a good career out of that.
You can fill a place.
All right.
Question two.
Jeremy.
Marissa.
So far is this game bringing you closer together?
100%.
Oh, my goodness.
Let's see if we can change that.
Goldie will be your distractor. The 2018 blue wave was subdued
Thanks to gerrymandering
You got me still
You're supposed to distract them
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't know nothing yet
Come on
Democrats won the popular vote over nine points
Oh, did you see CNN?
Bernie said they're doing a town hall that he admired Martin Shorley,
but I think he really meant Martin Shorley.
Did you see that?
It was widely reported that Democrats got over 300,000 more votes
to stay in Virginia,
but they still could not win a majority of seats in the statehouse.
Did you see that?
In 2018 midterm elections, Democrats won the national popular vote
by how many points?
It was anti-Semitic when she used the phrase, I like music.
How many points?
National election?
Democrats won the national popular vote by how many points?
This is the problem.
This is the problem.
It's all about time. Nine is the problem. Eight.
It's all about timing.
Nine percent.
All about timing.
I may not have said it.
Thank you, Skip.
Unbelievable.
I got a little distracted myself.
That was a hit.
The game was rigged.
Hey, hey, you know what?
Politics isn't fair.
Lesson.
If politics was fair, I'd be writing for the new Roseanne nobody cared about.
Because Trump wouldn't be...
You get it.
All right.
And none of this.
Doesn't matter.
Three.
Tommy is the distractor.
Racist gerrymandering disenfranchises black voters.
Mayor Peep just burnt the alphabet in Norwegian.
In one case, a district boundary was drawn between dormitories at North Carolina Racist gerrymandering disenfranchises black voters. Mayor Peep just burnt the alphabet in Norwegian.
In one case, a district boundary was drawn between dormitories at North Carolina A&T, historically black college, to split the students 10,000 votes between the two districts.
In Virginia, a court determined that race was the primary consideration between 11 different district maps. Doing a sex strike.
What was the name of the college in North Carolina where Republicans drew a district boundary between dormitories?
Auntie.
Auntie?
Yeah, what he said.
I just heard Tommy Vitor saying sex strikes.
You guys got it.
Yeah is such a funny answer. There's someone yelling behind you. You have got it. Yeah, it's such a funny answer.
There's someone yelling behind you.
You have me a sex strike.
Sex strike.
RT if you agree.
RT to sex strike.
Did you get it?
I know they did.
Shut up.
Question four.
Dan, who looks truly horrified,
will be your distractor.
Gerrymandering has helped make the Republican Party more extreme.
This is thanks to packing.
The practice of drawing a district's boundaries to exclude people likely to vote for the other party.
A representative in a purple district would need to have more moderate views, but in a deep red district, that Mike Pence loses his eyes open. Jared Kushner was just spotted eating an ice cream cone. Cone first.
OMG, the Krasnoye teams are turning the P-tape
into a one-act play.
What can we do to stop this?
Vote in 2020?
You got it.
Here's the real answer.
Crooked is teaming up with Data for Progress
to launch a fund to help end gerrymandering once and for all,
and we're calling it Fuck Jerry.
Mandering.
I like it.
It's called Fuck Jerry. Mandering. It's called Fuck Jerry. Mandering. It's called Fuck Jerry
Mandarin
It's called Fuck Jerry
Mandarin
It's called Fuck Jerry
It's called Fuck Jerry
Because we had to add
The last part
Lawyers
We're targeting 12 states
Over the next two years
And we're starting right here in Virginia
Because Virginia's entire legislature is up for re-election
This November
And Democrats have a shot at winning a majority
And making sure that the state doesn't have a bunch of jacked up districts
That purposely try to swing the election
To one party
So go to votesaveamerica.com
Slash donate
And you can help fix Virginia in just a few months
Thank you to our
Brand new married couple Jeremy and Marissa.
They've won the game.
And that's Hey Virginia.
Our eyes are down here in local politics
where a bunch of right-wing goons are going to gerrymander the fuck out of your state
if you don't show up.
Thank you to Congresswoman Shrula Jayapal.
Thank you to Goldie Taylor.
And thank you, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, for coming out.
See you soon. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.