The Problem With Jon Stewart - Rep. Elissa Slotkin on Governing in an Era of Extremes

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-08) joins Jon to describe the frustrating circumstances that led to her fiery speech on the House floor last week, when several Republicans tried blocking a bill for veterans before ultimately voting for it. Later, they explore why being from a competitive district like hers is different than a safe district—and the governing challenges of working with an opposing party that won’t compromise. Staff writers Jay Jurden and Kasaun Wilson are also here to break down Herschel Walker’s abortion scandal and explain why none of his hypocrisies have derailed his campaign so far.CREDITSHosted by: Jon StewartFeaturing, in order of appearance: Jay Jurden, Kasaun Wilson, Elissa SlotkinExecutive Produced by Jon Stewart, Brinda Adhikari, James Dixon, Chris McShane, and Richard Plepler. Lead Producer: Sophie EricksonProducers: Zach Goldbaum, Caity Gray, and Robby SlowikAssoc. Producer: Andrea BetanzosSound Engineer & Editor: Miguel Carrascal Senior Digital Producer: Frederika Morgan Digital Coordinator: Norma Hernandez Supervising Producer: Lorrie Baranek Head Writer: Kris AcimovicElements: Kenneth Hull, Daniella PhilipsonTalent: Brittany Mehmedovic, Marjorie McCurry, Lukas ThimmResearch: Susan Helvenston, Andy Crystal, and Cassie Murdoch Theme Music by: Gary Clark Jr.The Problem with Jon Stewart podcast is an Apple TV+ podcast, produced by Busboy Productions. https://apple.co/-JonStewart

I've written a song about it, it goes like this. You're not supposed to be working. If you don't turn on the lights, Jesus won't recognize you. Although he won't anyway, because you're a Jew. Yeah, Jesus is celebrating Yom Kippur too. He's busy. Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. It's The Problem.

Me, John Stuart. And it's Premier Week. This is the week. October 7th is the day, the season two premieres. We're talking with Kasean Wilson and Jay Jordan, their writers on the program. And Premier Week is always for the two of these guys. Truly a special event.

They cook for the whole staff and they come in and they do these beautiful, I don't know, I guess wood carvings would be the way to describe what's generally happening. The cheese boards we made? The work they do is exquisite. We do a custom chakras reward for the entire staff. That's exactly right.

And are very particular about where the Genoa Salami comes from. Oh yes, yes, yes. And we're also gonna be talking to Congresswoman Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan's Eighth Congressional District. I don't know if you saw last week, she helped pass what's called the Solid Start Act. It helps vets transitioning this civilian life. It had passed with unanimous consent in the Senate.

And then I believe some House Republicans tried to fuck with it because they tried to make it about abortion. And Congresswoman Slotkin wasn't having it. And so I wanted to talk to her because I've known her for years for all the work on the Pag Tech. It was, it's not in her character

to get down on the floor and just start whacking people. And boy, was it fun to watch, but I imagine very, very frustrating. So that's the general outlay of what we're doing here today. But Kay and Jay, it's Premier Week. Yeah. And you've got to be excited. What's up for you? What's going on?

Well, you brought up a Congressperson. So let's bring up another Congressperson. Oh, come on, Jay. Here we go. Matt Gaetz, Matt Gaetz. Don't frown. This is a friend of the pod. I've not heard of it.

Matt Gaetz, Matt Gaetz. Do you remember Bob's big boy, right? Do you remember the Bob's big boy character? Yeah. I still can't see that dude whenever he talks. I always want to think to himself, where is his platter? Where is his overalls? Where is his overalls and his platter?

Well, on Sunday, he went serving up burgers. He was serving up tweets. And he was begging for federal funding for Florida after he and a bunch of other Florida lawmakers voted no on passing federal funding. He wanted federal funding for the disaster for Ian. Yes, Hurricane Ian. Right, who's also the name of another young man

who I believe he adopted. No, that's a terrible joke. No, you keep bashing it in. That's the category five joke. But this is a constant within the Republican Party. I remember the Republican Party voted when Sandy happened. They all voted down Sandy relief. But when the shit hits their beaches,

all of a sudden, hey, man, where's the money? So why did they vote it down? They had crunched the numbers already. They knew it was going to pass. So this is the way that they can have their cake and eat it too. They get to say, we voted no for excessive spending and these pork filled bills. And then on Sunday, you get to go, please help us.

And he didn't even say it on congressional letterhead. He just tweeted it. He tweeted it. Do you think he doesn't realize that that's not legal tender? Do you think he believes that? Listen, if we talk about legal tender and that man, I don't want to say legal or tender in the same sentence as Matt Gaetz at all.

But that hypocrisy drives me mad. Rand Paul was like that. I always say a Democrat is just a libertarian whose house got hit by a tornado. Rand Paul votes down any kind of femur relief for any other place. Soon as Kentucky gets hit, well, I think it's imperative that the United States government

and the federal funding and we're all in this together. He's like, Kentucky, that tornado hit me in my ribs. That's right. But so now it did pass. They are going to get the money. Yes, of course it passed. They had it's that it's that weird Republican calculus that they're able to do when they go, what can I get away

with versus what will make me look cool? How can the people of Florida, even in that district, how can that can be seen as a win that you voted for fiscal responsibility when your neighbor's houses got flattened? And my guess is in Fort Myers and Nabels and the other areas that really got wailed on, those representatives couldn't have voted no.

Rubio wasn't there. Rick Scott voted no. Rubio wasn't there. What do you mean? Rubio wasn't there. That's what I mean. Now, I'm going to give benefit of the doubt here. Was he pumping water out of somebody's basement?

Was he on the ground lifting driftwood above his head while clearing sand out of an old woman's ranch house? If that's the case, fucking A, but if not. You know what it is? It's like everything that happens in our country. It's like because of politics, it's just turned into like WWE. Like it's like this whole thing where it's like, no matter what happens, even if it's people losing their lives,

we get back to a point where like what can I do with this? It's it's like ESPN is what Skip Bayless does is what Steve Smith does. I was watching Sunday night football and Mike Tarrico comes on. He goes, obviously our thoughts and prayers are with all the people in Florida, dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Ian.

A lot of thoughts and prayers. But for what this means for the on field conditions, let's go down to Michelle. Who cares what this means for time? It's like the spin of it is incredible. I know you I know you lost your home, but we got Padma Homes down on the field is Michelle. You know what it is?

I have to say, I think what Americans excel at almost more than any other country are segues, uncomfortable segues, because we have such tragedy here at all times, but it doesn't stop our foolishness. So it's a constant, you know, 17 children killed on the thing. And it's a we send our thoughts and prayers. And, you know, as this school year starts,

as we're talking about, COVID masks are back and then, you know, and all we do is is segue from these terrible tragedies. We don't ever look at what happens, why they happen. We just segue them into and let's go down to Michelle on the field. Can we tell you, we said the two best segue entities in the country are politicians and black preachers because.

Listen, now give me a good black preacher segue. This I got to hit. Listen, John, if anybody watch it, if you've never been to a good black church, anytime something happens in pop culture, they find a way to get back to Jesus. When the queen died, I went to church and then they were like, listen, the queen is dead.

But I know a king who died on Capri's cross. And in three days, he got up. The queen ain't getting up, but the king got up with all the power in his hands. And that's, it is, it. Oh, but John, it happens all the time. We were talking about football. It's the same thing as when they go, listen,

now a woman in Texas only has six weeks to decide what to do with her body. But according to this injury report, that press thought it out for eight weeks. And you know what? It's Jerry Jones's choice, whether or not he wants it. That's all we do. And by the way, and you know,

they're writing them down the night before. 100% single. One of those segues. It's, boy, what a, what a premier week spin for you. Jay and Kay, tremendous. I'm going to go, I'm going to bring on the guests. We're going to talk to her a little bit. And then we're going to come back.

And if you can, I just want to hear more from the preacher from the black church. Oh, John. Thanks guys. Okay. Well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to introduce our guest, Representative Slotkin, 8th District of Michigan,

Alyssa Slotkin, Congresswoman. Thank you for joining me. Thanks for having me, John. You're a very even keeled presence on the Hill. You're not a provocateur. You are not a bomb thrower. You generally do your business. You go about this, oh, what is that thing you guys?

Governance. Was governance? Yes, that's the one. Okay. So you're the one that does the governance. So I'm watching C-Span the other night, as I tend to do when I haven't tortured myself enough. It's either that or Bachelor in Paradise.

And I've been going C-Span recently. And to my surprise, because you're not a headline maker, I see you on C-Span just dropping bombs. Let's take a listen to that. This is Congresswoman Slotkin on the floor. You want to ban all abortions. That is your goal. Many of you have been open about that.

And if you flip the house, we know that you will put forward a full ban on all abortion for all states. You've been clear about it. You want to talk about it. So let's set the stage a little bit. And it's similar to what happened, I think, with the PACT Act. You had a veterans bill on the floor.

Tell us very briefly, what's that veterans bill? Because it's a good one. Sure. Announced it two years ago. It's called the Solid Start Bill. And it is literally quite simply requiring that the VA reach out to newly separated veterans, veterans who just leave the mill.

And it's a good one. It's a good one. But it's a good one. And I think it would be good if you had electronic services, this is the point I want to kick off. But this kind of thing would be very important. So I just wanted to make sure that the VA reach out to newly separated veterans,

veterans who just leave the military at least three times in their first year out of service and give them a full preview of everything that they qualify for. All the services, all the healthcare, all the job assistants, basically informing them of the services they have earned. That we can provide.

And we purposely brought it to a vote this month because it's Veterans Suicide Awareness Month. And the rates of suicide for veterans are absolutely at their highest in their first year of separation. And if you have no connection to the VA, you're much more likely to commit suicide. And because the VA provides a specialized care. The other thing to remember about the VA,

there are always complaints, many of them legitimate. But the veterans community does require a more specialized level of care for these very reasons. The incredibly astronomical rates of suicide, the types of injuries, the types of things. So this is a bill to say, here's what's there for you. Because as you know, when you're in the military, boy, they let you know what's required of you.

Mostly on a daily basis. But then when you leave, nobody says boo. Well, it's actually even more sort of complicated than that. My husband was in the army for 30 years. My stepdaughter is in the army now. But when I watched my husband in 2014 retire, and they do give you a lot of papers and packets

before you actually retire. But your head is so all over the place when you're leaving the career that you've had. Are you going to move somewhere else? What's your next job? How do you write a resume that reflects your experience? It is really a time of tumultuous change. So you're just not researching those things

when you're going through all that. So this just says, let's spread it out. Let's try and try again to reach out to them three times so that maybe when they've settled and they're in a place where they can really look at all those benefits and apply and use them, we might have a better shot at them. So that is what it was done.

And it was built to be bipartisan from the very beginning on purpose. And was. And was like partisan. It was passed with unanimous consent, which means nobody objected to it. It seems to be a law that has looked at a problem and seeks to, I'm going to use the word fix this problem

through legislation. It appears to be a good faith bill. Now it goes through and it has unanimous consent. Yes. And this is in the Senate. In the Senate. Okay. So now it comes back to the house

or I don't know if it originated in the Senate, originated in the house. And you guys are going to, it's going to be a pro forma vote. You guys are just going to rubber stamp it similarly to what happened with the PACT Act. What happens when it comes back to the house after unanimous consent in the Senate,

which for people at home who may not know, never fucking happens. Like it's very hard for that. Never. The idea that you got unanimous consent, you couldn't pass ice cream is delicious with unanimous consent in this Senate. So then what happens?

It came back to the house. We thought we were in for an easy vote and it was actually teed up to be what's called a suspension vote. So just like you said, pro forma, not even complicated. And in the meantime, a number of my Republican colleagues

had seized upon 16 words in this four page bill. And the 16 words read, quote, providing women veterans with information that is tailored to their specific health care and benefit needs. How could you? Representative Slotkin, how could you sneak into that bill? That 16 word, what I believe is a communist credo.

If that is not what Mao woke up to every morning and spoke. And by the way, these 16 words, this was not inserted by the house. This was a 16 word phrase that was in the bill when the Senate passed the three unanimous consent. Right. It's about reaching out to women on things like mammograms and prenatal care and ovarian cysts.

At long last, have you no decency? So it was meant, and of course we drafted it two years ago. So it was meant to just say women might need some additional information specific to women. And what changed was the overturning of Roe. And then in the meantime, the VA's decision to pass an interim rule on what veterans

could get what kind of abortion care at a VA hospital. Which by the way is not, the VA didn't say at will, didn't say women veterans could come in and say, it was for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Right. And so very sort of the basic exceptions that I think tend to be the minimal, not in my state,

we're a full band state here in Michigan, but we're fighting that. And we're fighting on that very basis that there has to be at least some exceptions, especially if we're a veteran who has served her country, who has fought for her country. And by the way, is that risk, higher risk of sexual assault, the military sexual assault situation is a terrible problem.

Right. So they objected to those words because they were saying, well, wait a minute, now the VA is going to be communicating to women about what kind of abortion they can get if they're raped. You know, this is, we object, and the people who were original co-sponsors of my bill

were arguing against me. With those words in it, the co-sponsors of the bill. Again, I cannot stress this enough. Yeah. It's the exact same 16 words that have been in it the whole time. Right. So they objected and brought and turned a veterans bill into an abortion bill.

And, you know, maybe it was because it was a very long day. Maybe it's because this exact issue has become one of the top issues in my own race, you know, in my own swing district. Right. But I just, you know, I think there just comes a point where you have to call BS on something when you've done everything in your power

to make it bipartisan and they are politicizing it for their own culture war means. And so that is what resulted in me, as you say, getting loud on the house floor, which is not traditionally how I operate. Not at all. And this is to say too that, you know, you're in a swing district, it's Michigan,

it's, and you comport yourself with great dignity all times, which also belies the fact that you're also a badass. You were in CIA, you deployed for, what is it? Three tours? Two tours? Three tours. You carry yourself with a certain way down there. You're not looking for attention.

When did it in any way, because it was you, startled them to a certain extent? Because, you know, it's one thing for the more attention-seeking members of the house to jump in like that. But for you to jump in, was there a moment where they went, oh, perhaps we've gone a bit too far? Well, that is exactly what happened the next day. You know, we had three Republican members arguing,

you know, the other side of the debate on the house floor. I think by the end of that night or the next morning, the leadership of the Republican side said, no, no, no, no, we don't want to have this fight. We don't want to be talking about what happens to raped veterans and whether they get services. We don't want to be talking about health of the mother as a reason.

We don't want to be having this damn fight. Crazy thing is representative. It's what they're saying is we don't want to have a fight about the repercussions of the bills that we passed and the culture. We don't want to have the discussion about what are the ramifications of these hard line positions and the effects they have on real people.

And they want to hide it. I think they want the policy, but they want to hide that they want the policy because they know it's bad politics. So when the powers that be, and look, I was arguing with three of my Republican colleagues who are in very safe Republican districts who have not, I think, fully processed how these issues are

actually affecting people and how they're landing. Whereas I'm in one of the top 10 toughest races in the country, my sword is sharp right now on these issues. I am like, we had just done a live TV debate. I have another one. I mean, this is something that I've been processing. And they changed their position.

The speaker, I'm sorry, the minority leader, Mr. McCarthy, the next day came to our side and said, we don't want to single that fill out. We don't want to do that. No smoke. No smoke. And ironically, they wanted to put it in with a bunch of other bills into a big mega bill so they didn't have

to vote on it individually. Is that for the CR? Is that where they wanted to put it? No, it's called an unblock. We already voted on it. Two of the three Republicans who were arguing against me that night voted for it. So like they just, they got spooked, I think, a bit.

And now the solid start bill is on its way to the president's desk. It will be signed into law. Well done. The gamesmanship, I think, on a veteran's bill, which should be literally an A political topic. It should be. It should be.

It's as though the exact same thing happened not two months ago. I know. And there's no learning curve down there in terms of politicizing. And this is the lowest hanging fruit. But it brings up, I think, a really interesting point. And you mentioned it earlier, safe districts versus

competitive districts. So your district, the eighth district in Michigan, was held by a Republican for decades until you won that seat. So in a district like that, and those districts are rare, I mean, and becoming increasingly more rare with gerrymandering and with the way that primary voting works. So now you have this district. How big is the eighth district in Michigan?

How many people would you say it's? Well, every district is about at this point, 780,000 people. OK, 780,000 people. And how much money is having to be spent in this? I think what did they say was $25 million. Yeah, unfortunately, I have right now the most expensive house race in the country. The most expensive.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, with the super PACs coming in, I mean, you should see my daddy basically watches his evening shows with like a shotgun on his lap because there's so many attack ads against his kid. And, you know, when you have a competitive race like this, like you said, there's really only about 35 or 40 out of 435 seats.

So control of the house is going to come down to that group and really to about 10 of us. And so the Republicans feel like they smell blood. And so they're dumping millions and millions of dollars. I think it was almost 5 million just in September on attack ads. So how much money comes into the eighth district that is not generated from the eighth district? Well, the super PACs are by far the biggest folks.

And I don't. And none of it is private. To be honest, we don't know. Super PAC donations are anonymous. You can be anonymous. So I have no idea what billionaires or millionaires or whoever are putting in all this money. We're being outspent almost two to one on super PAC money.

But so I don't know, but I can safely say the vast majority of super PAC money is not coming from individual donors in the district. So this sort of gets to the point, which is so the more moderate districts, the ones that are a little bit more up for grabs are oftentimes those that are most focused on sort of governance and not necessarily branding, right? Yes.

But those are the districts where you have to spend so much more time either fundraising or battling these things. And that necessarily takes away from your time being able to govern. Now, when you're in really safe districts, you get to just throw bombs and do whatever you want. And you don't have to govern at all. Yeah.

So in your mind, how much of a detriment is that to citizens who are just trying to, they're trying to live their lives and have their leaders get things done that are meaningful and not purely culture war political stuff? Yeah. I mean, I think it's a huge problem. And it's the reason why the extremes we see in our politics, I do not believe they represent the average citizen.

I think that there may be people who feel extreme right or extreme left, but the average person just wants their government to function. They want forward progress. They want someone who talks about their pocketbooks and their kids, right? And I think what ends up happening is our politicians. Like if you're wondering why, you know, on certain issues,

80% of Americans agree that we should have some sort of common sense gun safety legislation, but legislators don't seem to get that polling. It's because they don't have to care about the mass of people. They care about their primary. They care about the slim group of people who vote, who are, have this sort of extreme political interest. And I see it on both sides of the aisle.

And what I would say is as someone who's from one of those swing districts, sometimes I feel like we're from a different planet than those who are in safe districts. I mean, our lives are different. The workload is different. The requirements to be visible, to be engaging with the public town halls spent like, I feel like I have to, like I get upset if I don't have a full weekend that I can be everywhere in my

district, like working the entire district. It's rigorous in a way that the others don't have to be rigorous. I'm going through the college process with my kids right now. There are some districts that are safety schools that are the ones that you put down there. It's like, I'm going to be able to go there. It's a party school.

And then there are some that are like, you're in that Ivy League. I mean, you're looking at people like Marjorie Taylor Green. You know, she's so out there. They stripped her of all her committee assignments. Yeah. I mean, this is a person that she has no real function in the government, in governance. And yet man is she the voice of the Republican man.

There's not a Trump rally that goes on where she's not the opener. I mean, he takes her around. You know, this is whoever's opening for Harry Styles. That's who Marjorie Taylor Green is right now. Like she's just front and center. Right. And this is a person who is so out there, her own party stays

away from her for the most part. Yeah. She was, she was just here with Trump two nights ago here in Michigan. They had a big rally and she definitely after Trump, she got the most applause. Forget about our gubernatorial candidate and our AG candidate. It was really her.

She's a superstar. Right. And you know, I think it's, look, you would know more about this than, than I would just coming from, you know, show business world, but there are legions of members of Congress who they're just there for their own branding, their own fame, their own Twitter universe, their own fundraising, whatever it is.

And it's amazing. They just don't legislate or they don't show up. I mean, I see it every single day. The number of people who actually read bills that they're voting on. Shockingly low. I, we begged, a few of us begged, frankly, the speaker of the house and we said, can we have 72 hours with any bill that you're

going to ask us to vote on? And they said, no. No. So you get a thousand paid bill. Time. Come on. I remember coming down. Do you remember this?

This was maybe four years ago when we came in, I think you were part of that legislative group that we met with back pre pre pandemic where you could still do this where we came in where we were first trying to introduce to you guys that, that overarching toxic exposure bill that we wanted to do. And we had, it was bipartisan. It was a veteran's caucus. It was yourself.

And Mike Cheryl was there. And there were, I think Liz Cheney might have been there. There were veterans from both sides of the aisle in that room. And we sort of laid it out. And I thought you guys were very responsive. But the thing that really struck me was we sort of laid it out. And then we waited, you know, for you guys. And then finally somebody said, I just want to let you guys know,

like, it's overwhelming down here and really busy. So if you really want to get this done, my guess is you're going to have to go back and write something up. And I was like, oh, okay. That's, I did not realize that. And that's when we went, you just sort of back up to the office and began writing what became this bill. Yeah.

And I think I, I, I was in that meeting. Yes. And, you know, and has someone had someone who had served in Iraq, I lived near a burn pit, you know, for those three tours. So at least had some basis of understanding. Sure. Yeah.

But you're, you were also in a room of some of the busiest swing district members of Congress, right? Right. And so I think people were being honest, like, look, we have a million things coming at us. So could you like help us out here, do a draft, do something. And I, that happens more often than you'd think. Now that's, that's in some ways very empowering if you're a good

hearted veterans organization. Right. That's what I was about to get to, which is now in our case, it was very empowering and we tried to write it to the need. But boy, can you see how bad actors would exploit that loophole. Right. And so, you know, that first six months, I must say, my first six months in Congress after coming from the Pentagon

and the CIA and sort of a clear chain of command organizations was the biggest cultural clash I've ever had in my life. I just didn't, from everything from like people showing up late and not saying sorry to just not people being there and not working. And I had never been in a, in an institution that wasn't mission focused. And I thought this was a mission focused.

We can have different views on what the mission is across the aisle. But I think, you know, what is, what, what I thought about even this week when we made a lot of news because I got upset on the town, on the house floor. I'm like, you know, it's the perfect example when, when I, I've been plugging away and have passed lots of important veterans bills. And this is the only time that I've gotten coverage for it because it's it's something to see, it's something, you know, angry, whatever it is. And, and I'm not sure how to fix that someone.

If someone knew the formula to that, then we'd have a whole different group of well-known Congress people and they wouldn't be Marjorie Taylor Greene. No, no question about that. And fixing it also then has to fix what you have to look at then is the overarching incentive of the system. And, you know, unfortunately, social media and the generally the cable media outlets are drawn to conflict because if it's not conflict and it's not urgency, who's going to watch it?

They're not interested in governance. They're interested in, in the yelling. And so that incentive, and I imagine you also feel the seduction of it because all of a sudden you're fundraising pops. All of a sudden more people come out and they say, yeah, Representative Slotkin, she's kicking ass. She's doing it. Whereas you've been kicking ass behind the scenes.

But that's not the thing that's covered. They're not covering that pragmatic policymaking. They're not covering the push of those things. They're covering moments. Yeah. And listen, after the pact, you know, there's a reason we went out there and cursed our heads off because we knew if there was, if we were going to gain any traction, we had to get people's attention.

Yes. And you did that to great effect. And I think what was amazing about that was first the stupidity, right? You had a bunch of veterans in town. Unbelievable stupidity. Yes. You had veterans in town to celebrate the passing of like a really important piece of legislation, right?

My generation's Agent Orange. Correct. And, and so everyone was in town. And then you thought that you were going to flip your vote and vote against veterans and that it was going to be like a good week for you. You know, and fist bump Pat Toomey on your way out. Yeah. When you did it.

So weird. But to your point, if them not reading the legislation, that was the most shocking part to see them talk so confidently on cable about, well, they inserted a provision for, and you're like, that's just a flat out. Right. Falsehood. Right. And, and actually, you know, in that whole debate, I have to say Pat

Toomey was the one who was like, I think this is too expensive. Oh, he was the only one who was consistent the whole time. He had brought this up when he voted against it the first time. Right. But these other senators had voted for it and nothing had changed. Right. And they just sounded like idiots. Like, and I can't stress to you enough.

And maybe it's because of my background or whatever. My dad was a Republican. My mom was a Democrat. I deeply, deeply believe for the future of the country, we need two parties, healthy, decent, who debate on the role of government in our lives. That is the most, that is George Washington, mom and apple pie. That is how we should be debating here in this country. That's a legit conversation.

And I would say even further than that, that when the Republican Party, when the soul has left the body on the Republican Party side, it's not good for the Democratic Party. We stop listening to any ideas coming from the other side because they're tainted. We start having fights amongst ourselves. We don't actually react to that push and pull about the role of government in our lives. I deeply want a healthy Republican Party. And I think that makes Democrats more healthy.

But what we have right now is just, it just doesn't represent where the average person is. They have a brand that's working for them. And it's that paranoid style. And Trump has sold them on the idea that the way to do this is be as big an asshole as you can be. And there's going to be no accountability for it. And that's how you win. Well, we're going to find out, right? In the state of Michigan, we're often a harbinger of what's to come on national trends.

We had, we're having a legit split in the Michigan Republican Party. They almost came to blows at their convention in August. I mean, really, I mean, I was concerned about people in there. They were alternative candidates and slates and booing and, you know, there was drama. And what ended up happening is the sort of Trump-Maga candidates all won up and down the ticket. And we have, you know, a bunch of races and they're going to lose up and down the ticket. And let me tell you, nothing focuses the mind more of a national party than their inability to win in swing districts, in swing states. So Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, we're watching those states because what we want is for the leaders of the Republican Party to say,

you know what, we fed that beast for so long and it came back and bit us, right? It came back and bit us. And now we need to change course. We need to go and do an offsite and figure out how we get out of this mess. I want that. I am not a Republican. I can't fix their party. What I can do is beat them in November so they start to think about a different path.

Representative Hothkin, you're exactly right. And if there is no accountability for bad behavior and extreme politics, then it continues. These things continue until they no longer work. And the strangest thing about Trumpism that I've seen is how unsuccessful it is at governance. And forget about even just the emotional aspect of it and the maturity of it and all those things. Do I wish he was a better person? Of course. But my main complaint with him is incompetence.

He's an idea man. Loves the idea, hates the execution, doesn't follow through on anything, doesn't do anything. So that's the real issue. And that's the lesson the party seems to have taken. Yeah. And if you beat them, maybe that does change things to some extent. But boy, it's a lot closer for comfort in a lot of those states than I think people would wish for. Well, of course.

I mean, we're not dealing with best case scenarios. We're dealing with, I would say this, I have taken a lot of solace in reading history in the last couple of years to put our moment in time in context. And the truth is we have had really difficult moments in our history where regular citizens like us are saying to themselves, is this the end? I mean, the Civil War or the Great Depression, the McCarthy hearings. 60s and 70s. Right. And we look back on history and we often think, well, it was inevitable. The good side came out and what?

No. Civil rights didn't happen because 90% of Americans thought that African Americans should have the right to vote freely. It's because just enough pushed us over the edge. And I think what we did in all of those scenarios, what got us through were two things, engage citizens and principled leaders. Leadership has to come to the fore. That's what it is. The average person has to do a few inches more than they ever thought they do. And then there has to be leaders ready to receive that and do something about it.

And not flatter our worst instincts. And I'll end with this and I really appreciate you spending the time with us. But the final situation that I think worries me is Donald Trump was sort of a white hacker where he found a lot of the vulnerabilities in the system. And one of the vulnerabilities I think the Republicans have identified is the administrative state of elections. That elections are generally administered by partisans, but not ideologues and zealots. Well, they're trying to change that. And that's the part that concerns me most because I think you're right about popular opinion. But popular opinion pales to one crazy person in a room counting the votes.

Yeah. Yeah. We certainly were up against, you know, backs against the wall here in Michigan where we had actually one- Right. We were going to certify. Yeah. Right. One brave Republican 33-year-old lawyer who was on our board of canvassers flipped and voted with the Democrats.

That one guy is the reason we certified our elections in Michigan. Right. An election that Trump lost by 100,000 votes. Right. 150,000 votes. But who's counting? Exactly. And but what we are doing on our ballot this year, we have a ballot proposal to basically say the board of canvassers can't make their own independent decisions about certifying our election.

We're trying to go back and clean up those vulnerabilities that you're right, the last president exposed. And I hope that every state in the country is doing the same thing by hook or by crook because we have a Republican legislature here. So it's not easy. That's why we're doing it on our ballot. But that just because it's not easy doesn't mean that it's not our responsibility to do something about it. So. There you go. Well, thank you so much.

And the next thing that's coming up, food insecurity for veterans. Too many of them having to be on food stamps. Too many of them having housing issues. Once again, it's it's something that's got to be that's got to be cleaned up. So we'll come down there and hang out again soon. Please, please come haunt everyone in the halls. I will do that. Representative Sahiga, thanks so much for for joining us and we'll talk to you again soon.

Thanks for having me. Woo. Fired up. That is representative Slotkin. We're going to bring back Jay and case on Jay and case on. That was Congresswoman Slotkin spitting truth and fire. I don't know if there's a and nuance. Is that a loud John?

No. And believe me, we'll cut that out of the end. That won't that won't be in there. But but I was you were tasked with a very important. Goal. And that is to create a beautiful segue. All right. From that interview.

Do you have anything? Oh, yes. When Congresswoman Slotkin said that she's going to beat the GOP and remind them. All I could think of is a black preacher saying spare the rod. Spoil the GOP. Spare the rod. Spoil the GOP. You know, I know a man who could beat any comer.

Any challenger. This was flipping over tables. This episode is sponsored by the B3 organ. It's a B3 Hammond organ. Can I tell you something though? Here's the difference between black church and Jewish synagogue. Jewish synagogue works in minors. Sharps and flats.

It's all slightly up. Like everything sounds. Haunted and like slightly sad. Like it's the. There's very little that feels celebratory. It all feels like, are we about to get attacked? Oh, okay. It's all got like a tinge of like.

They're coming to take us away. And now you're going to have to march with all your belongings. You're going to be taken. It's there. I hope you packed. If you gave my grandmother a choice between her pastor. And the lead singer of the choir. She'd be like, I love you, Pastor Walker,

but we can't get another Cheryl. That's talent. We can get another pastor. We don't get another Cheryl to sing total praise to you. I hope you packed some crackers. If you gave my grandmother a choice between her pastor. We don't get another Cheryl to sing total praise that high. That's not going to happen.

You know what's funny though? Cause like a lot of times when we talk about black church, when we talk about charisma, that's like, these are like the qualifiers and the traits that we want politicians to have. So like when you have a black pastor who is running for his senate seat, usually as a black person, like, okay. Warnock, isn't Warnock and George as a pastor?

But here's the crazy part. You know what they said? Like, you know how we counteract a black pastor? We use a black Heisman winning running back from Georgia. That's right. It's CRT versus CTE. We're going to get a joke and we're going to get some complaints. Shut the comment.

We have the successor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. versus the successor of Tony Dorsett. This abortion story though, I mean, if there is anything, and everybody keeps saying like, oh, without the abortion story, that'll do it. Like, but this guy has said so many ridiculous things and it's all still like, it's within the margin of error. Like does any, what are people voting on down there?

I don't know, John, a personal check. He should have just a personal check and he signed it. He just drew a picture of the baby with the X through it when he gave her $700. Don't you love though? He went to a card store. He went to a card store and got one of those like, live laugh, love cards from Hallmark and wrote it down

and gave it to her. And I mean, his son. Yes, Christian. Who has been a, an influencer. Yes. And he's like right wing. Yes. Right wing, queer, TikTok or social media person.

He's very much a provocateur. Like all of a sudden came out and it's like, he was like, listen, I know I joke around on here a lot, but we need to take this seriously. I don't even know him like that. I love that shit though, because that's when like the real families are like,

I've got that in my family. So like it's all jokes. And then one day you just turn around and go, listen motherfucker, you ruin our lives. Like it's all like, I'm branding myself, but then at a certain point I'm just going to turn around and go, just shut up. Shut up.

John, this isn't a deal breaker. In my, in my heart of hearts as a southerner, as a black person, I'm like, you should be done in Georgia politics. Margin of error. If someone says he gave me $700 for an abortion. And then when they asked him about it and they said, this man said, this is truly what the first thing I asked him

about, he said, you know, I send so many get will cards. I don't know. It's on record. This man said it. That's the first thing he said before he did not. He was like, I send so many get well cards. I don't know who I be.

By the way, it's get well carded. Euphemism for girls that I forced to have an abortion. Like is that, I send so many get well cards. I mean, there was this one girl in Wichita. It always shows to me like how strong the agenda is. It's because on paper, this man has done everything you can possibly do to not be a candidate in Georgia.

Including say, you know what? I'm not, listen, I'm not smart. I don't have any policy. I don't even know why I'm here. But yeah, I'm going to go to this debate. He going to destroy me in this debate. Here's what's amazing about it to me. Imagine being in a political party where you're the pro-life party.

Your candidate comes out and says, I am pro-life. Did I obviously get a woman who wasn't my wife pregnant, have her have an abortion, pay for it and all that? We can argue semantics all night long. And the result of it is the political class going, well, I guess it's all going to come down to turnout. You know, that's like the idea that that doesn't, it has removed any connection.

To Roy Moore and Doug Jones all over again. Right. He came out, he came out and said, we need more fathers in the home. And then they were like, you got a kid. You don't even claim. He was like, hey, y'all, I want to introduce y'all to my son, man.

I don't know why this feels like the right time to do it, but come on out son. And here's what's the most fucked up thing about it. If he really wanted to tank his chances, all he'd have to do is come out after all that and go, get your vaccines, people. They'd be like, oh, it's rich too far. That's it.

Hey, John, you know what he said this week? This is true. I'm Jay. What do you want me, I gotta say it. Let me hear it. This is what he said this week. He said, he was giving the speech and he said, I don't think trans kids are going to make it to heaven

because Jesus may not recognize it. They always say that when you get to heaven, the first thing they say to you is, and you are. But I do want to say Herschel Walker may be prophetic, wink, wink, because season two, we have an incredible episode coming out. Gender episode.

Our first episode is the episode about gender. Yeah. Sadly, he's not on it. We couldn't get him as a guest. He's not on it. And people are going to be very mad at us, but the basic premise is this. It's not simple.

It's complicated. And personal. And a personal decision between doctors and families. It's personal and it's complicated. And that's all we wanted to get across. But the truth is it's not binary and it's not black and white and it's not simple. And it's no business of the attorney generals.

Here's what I'm thinking to myself like, oh, the trans and the gender issue is not going to get us canceled enough. The thing I'm going to take the most shit for about this podcast is we're doing it on Yom Kippur. And I'll guarantee you that out. So you, you, you, you, you talk gender and you want to do it on the day of atonement.

It's, it's, it's unbelievable. Guys, uh, boy. Thank you. This has been a premier week podcast for the ages. I'd say out of our two premier week podcasts, this has been one of my favorites. Oh my goodness. All right.

The TV show is back season two. It's on Apple TV plus this week's premiering on October 7th. Uh, the episode is gender case on Wilson J. Jordan. My God, are you guys hilarious? Representative Alyssa Salkin. Thank you for, for bringing the fire. Thanks to everybody really excited about season two. So this first episode, they're just making available, uh,

for free with a pusher man. First episode free. Next one. Fuck you. Pay me. Um, guys, thank you very much. Great job. Thank you.

Bye-bye.