Is It Gay to Flip Texas?

[00:00] Pod Save America is brought to you by SimpliSafe. Between the midterms, the never-ending news cycle, and daily personal to-dos, your brain has too many tabs open. [00:07] That's why you need the reliability of SimpliSafe to help you close the home security tab in your crowded mind. They've got it covered. [00:12] I've set up a SimpliSafe, incredibly easy to do. Definitely gives you that peace of mind. You don't have to worry about it. The app is great. The customer support is great. And SimpliSafe, you can customize your system to fit your needs. And then it ships right to your door. The app guided setup is simple. There's no drilling required. So you can install and arm your system in under an hour. SimpliSafe is more than just a security camera. It's a comprehensive system of sensors, indoor and outdoor cameras, and 24-7 professional monitoring. [00:34] In the event of an emergency, SimpliSafe's 24-7 professional monitoring agents will dispatch help when you need it. Over 5 million people value and trust SimpliSafe with their home security every day. [00:43] Right now, our listeners will get 50% off a new system when you sign up for professional monitoring and your first month is free. Just visit SimpliSafe.com slash crooked. That's half off at SimpliSafe.com slash crooked. There is no safe like SimpliSafe. [00:54] America's 250th birthday calls for a history as sprawling and contradictory as the country itself. A history of the United States in 100 objects, produced by BBC Studios and 99% Invisible, tells this story one object at a time. Told over 100 episodes, join host Roman Mars as he reveals the fascinating story behind a collection of often overlooked objects, each of which sheds light on key moments in American history. From a gold coin found in a shipwreck that triggered financial panic to a tiny screw that kickstarted an industrial empire, every week one [01:24] object will open the door into an extraordinary, often shocking story about who we've been, what we've built, and what we've allowed ourselves to forget. New episodes of A History of the United States and 100 Objects are released every Tuesday. Find it in 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts.

[01:40] Service opens doors and at American Military University, it can open doors for the whole family. If you have a loved one who served in the military, you may qualify for reduced tuition. [01:50] AMU offers flexible online programs designed to fit your schedule so you can keep moving forward wherever life takes you. [01:58] Learn more at amu.apus.edu slash military. [02:03] open doors to the future for you and your family with the help of American Military University. [02:31] Welcome to Plata of America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we're going to talk about the news that U.S. and Iranian negotiators are on the verge of an agreement to keep negotiating. [02:41] to also talk about Trump using our money to cover statues in gold. [02:47] and the push to put his face on a [02:49] New $250 bill. Exciting. Also talking about Republicans losing their minds over James Tallarico. Rubio topping Vance for the first time in a 2028 poll. [03:02] Sorry. Great stuff. Couldn't help myself. And Jill Biden finally admitting that her husband's debate performance was so bad [03:09] She thought he was either having a stroke

[03:13] or on drugs. [03:15] deep breaths. Then, could Democrats have a chance at a Senate seat in Mississippi? Democratic nominee Scott Colom stops by the studio. [03:24] to make his case. Before we start, if you are not a subscriber to Crooked Media right now, what are you doing? [03:32] You're just listening to all these ads on Pod Save America and Pod Save the World and offline for nothing. [03:38] You could be listening to ad-free episodes. You could be supporting independent pro-democracy media, which is kind of important to do right now if you've been looking at the news and seeing what Trump's been doing to the media landscape. And also, we got cool subscriber-only shows like... [03:54] Polar Coaster with Dan. Today we're going to be talking about James Tallarico versus Ken Paxson. But if you really want to nerd out on that race and hear all about the poles and Dan's take on this... [04:04] You guys will listen to PolarCoaster. [04:06] this week. All right, Dan, another day, another siren emoji heralding a deal to end the war in Iran that appears to be an agreement to keep talking about the nuclear program that ostensibly led to the war in the first place. [04:18] That's where we are. Axios reports and other outlets have confirmed that pending final approval from Trump and the Ayatollah, negotiators have agreed to, quote, [04:27] a memorandum of understanding that says the Strait of Hormuz will reopen for, quote, unrestricted movement by commercial ships in exchange for ending the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. And then everything else, including sanctions relief and Iran's uranium stockpile,

[04:44] will be the subject of negotiations that will take place over the next 60 days, during which time the ceasefire will be extended, despite the... [04:53] tit-for-tat airstrikes between the U.S. and Iran over the last few days. So not off to a great start there. Questions remain. Will Iran go back to enriching uranium? Will they get pallets of cash? Will they still control the strait? No one knows. But Trump addressed this last question during one of his marathon cabinet meetings on Wednesday. Would you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the strait? Nobody's going to control it. It's international [05:23] We don't need oil. We don't need the straits. We don't need anything. We don't need anything at all, which is why we're making the deal. And also, we're going to control the straits. No one's going to control the straits. If Oman doesn't let ships through, we're going to blow them up. [05:39] It all makes sense. Um, [05:42] Here's what a senior U.S. official told Axios about the deal. Quote, this is an agreement... [05:46] to get everybody to the table, we will work out the details in negotiations. That's not these negotiations that are leading to the deal. [05:55] That official is referring to that is the future negotiations that will happen. Trump mouthpiece Scott Jennings responded to the story by dutifully tweeting. The U.S. appears to be getting everything we want. [06:10] Is this everything we want, getting people to the table? Well, it's an existential question, John. If you won very little and you get very little, did you get everything you want?

[06:18] Just saying. Very good. Very good. I mean, it's... [06:21] Kind of hard to believe that the thing that there's been so much of breathless reporting on so many siren emojis over the last couple of weeks was simply an agreement to keep talking. And I know it says they're going to open the street of Hormuz for unrestricted commercial traffic. Now, the problem here is, is there are still mines. [06:39] In unknown places all across the Strait of Hormuz. Some of which our round was laying just this week. They were laying more mines. That's what started the airstrikes again. I wouldn't say the Strait is open. I'd say the Strait is slightly ajar. Because obviously some... [06:51] Some ships we'll get through. There are these ships that are stranded there that the U.S. was pledging to escort, which we then abandoned that after like one – [06:57] six hour period. [06:59] So, and is it better that the United States and Iran are not bombing each other? Yes. [07:03] Is it better that maybe a couple of ships will get through there? [07:07] Yes. [07:07] Is this the Treaty of fucking Versailles? No. This is a very minor... [07:13] It's not even an agreement. As you said, it's an MOU. So, cool. Right. Like, of course, it's great to cease hostilities because no one wanted this fucking war in the first place. At least... [07:27] most people in America didn't want it and the rest of the world. Um, [07:31] But the questions here are simple. Like, is Iran any further from developing a nuclear weapon than when this war started in February? [07:38] No, we did nothing to push back the Iranian nuclear program that Trump hadn't done with the first round of strikes last year. So nothing has been achieved on that front. Is the regime any less radical? No. In fact, the regime is now more radical. Are the Iranian people any closer to freedom?

[07:55] No, they are not. In fact, they are going to be more repressed by an even more radical regime. Is America any safer? No. Is the Middle East any more stable? No. And so what did all of that cost us? Well, 14 American lives, tens of thousands of lives in the Middle East, at least 50 billion dollars and counting of taxpayer dollars that have gone to fight this war and an estimated four billion dollars in higher fuel costs so far. So that's what we had to pay. [08:22] Those are the costs that we had to bear for getting... [08:25] Abso-fucking-lutely nothing except maybe the straight back open, which it was at the beginning of the war. And it's also not like Iran was on the cusp of a nuclear weapon when we started this process. The whole thing is so stupid. The whole thing is so fucking stupid. [08:38] It's mind-boggling. We've been talking about this for so long that this has happened because it's so stupid. The enriched uranium they are going to negotiate to figure out what to do with is only there because Donald Trump pulled us out of the Iran deal, so Iran went back to enriching uranium. All the uranium that's there has been enriched since the end of the Iran deal, which Trump pulled us out, and now. There wouldn't even be more enriched uranium to be talking about if Trump hadn't gotten us out of the Iran deal. [09:08] Millions and millions of dollars. We used that. [09:10] all of our missiles, [09:12] Five years. Five years to rebuild the munitions. That's the estimate. Which I'm sure will be a boon for a bunch of defense companies in which Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. have invested. [09:22] The... [09:23] American troops have lost their lives

[09:26] People all across the region have lost their lives. [09:29] And for nothing, we're just we're the best case scenario is we have a deal that is worse than the one Obama cut. [09:34] 12 years ago or whatever it was. And we are very far from best case. And now, like, do we think the Iranians really believe that if these negotiations over the next 60 days go poorly, that Trump's going to start bombing them again? Like what, right before the midterms? [09:48] No, they know he's not going to do it. Well, actually, he might. Yeah, maybe, maybe. But I don't feel like, I don't think this is a great play in terms of keeping any kind of leverage over the Iranians at this point. They know they can close the straight whenever they want and lay mines whenever they want. So that's what's happening there. I'm sure the deal could be announced any minute now. Who knows? [10:18] The administration tells him to because that's what he does. All right. So the White House press corps was briefed on the potential deal, as well as the latest bad economic news by struggling soybean farmer Scott Besant, the administration's resident populist. Besant had to contend with news that inflation has now risen to its highest level in three years and the GDP grew even slower than previously estimated in the first quarter of this year. [10:48] U.S. economy is moving in a, quote, stagflationary direction, [10:52] which would be the worst case scenario. Um...

[10:56] Scott Besson's response to all of this. OK, doomers. I believe we've already seen oil prices come down substantially. These are short term challenges that we will get over. And I think we'll move forward. Is inflation sticky because the PCE was a three year high? Well, first of all, PCE today, month over month, was point two, which was we're looking at decimal points. [11:26] savings to pay for the higher cost of things like gas and groceries? And does data like that concern you right now? So a lower academic literature would tell you a lower savings rate can mean one of two things. The kind of the doomer view that you took or that people have more confidence. I'm no economist, but does the literature say when people are dipping into their savings during a global energy crisis that they are confident they are doing so because [11:56] are confident about their finances. They're confident they need to drive their car to work. [12:00] That's what they're confident. So, you know, we've had a number of auditions since Caroline Levitt has been on parental leave. We had J.D. Vance. We had Marco Rubio. And now Scott Bessent took a turn at the podium. And let me tell you. [12:14] I don't know. I don't know if he was the kind of soothing voice that the American people were looking for. Yeah, there's just – I just don't know in this moment in time where –

[12:27] Somewhere between... [12:29] two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans are very mad about the economy, economic anxiety is at the highest level possible, that you want to dismissively arrogant people. [12:38] Wall Street centimillionaire, I think he is, to be your spokesperson. You don't want someone who exudes money coming out of their pores. As Tommy refers to him as a pissy cadaver. [12:53] Yes, it's fair enough. Kind of looks like that. I have the question now is, [12:57] Like, [12:57] if this deal is signed today, [13:00] Would it actually help get inflation and growth moving in the right direction again before the midterms? [13:07] It would lower oil prices, which will eventually at some point in time, lower gas prices. [13:13] Because oil futures will come down. But... [13:17] We're not going to see anywhere nearer. [13:19] the sort of traffic going through the strait that we had before for six months at the earliest and probably longer. And even if the true economic damage is done here, right? The growth has been stunted. Inflation is up. It'll take a while for all of that to come down. The Fed is even thinking about possibly raising interest rates again because of the PCE numbers that Besson mentioned. [13:41] But let's just put aside the economics where I feel deeply uncomfortable talking about them. [13:49] Look, people's opinions about this economy are pretty set in stone. People's opinions about Donald Trump's handling this economy are pretty set in stone. People are going to start voting in a couple of months. And even if things do get a little bit better, which seems highly unlikely, we know from –

[14:03] years and years of data that people's [14:08] impression of the economy lags the reality of, [14:11] by months. [14:12] And so even if things got a little bit better, it's unlikely to be to help Republicans this fall. A CNN business reporter, their business reporter, David Goldman, was asked about like when when we might see three dollar gas again. Guess which year? [14:27] He said for $3 gas again. [14:29] It's not going to be 2026, is it, Sean? 2032. [14:33] 20, well, I would say I was going to guess [redacted address] you asked that question, it was going to be far away. But that's even further than I thought. That's what your reaction was similar to CNN's Pam Brown, who also was like, what did you just say? He's like, yeah, well, by the time he's like, if you just look at the futures, this is what the futures markets say right now, because it would have to be down to, like, I think around $70. Oil would have to be $70 a gallon and up $70 a barrel. [15:03] to hovering around 100 now. So it's not where it was at with like 120, but to get from there to 70, yeah, it takes the straight being fully open for quite a while. The other thing about the straight is it's not just boats moving through the straight. It's that Gulf countries ceased production because they could not get [15:22] oil through the strait. And so they have to restart production. And that takes time. And that is on top of the facilities that were damaged from the Iranian missiles as part of the war that Trump started. One area of the economy that's undeniably booming construction firms that Trump has contracted to make the nation's capital look like one of his failed casinos. The New York Times reports that the no bid contractor hired to paint the reflecting pool.

[15:44] tacky or blue, is, quote, being paid an inflated and excessive profit margin, you don't say. The Times also reports that the administration has funneled over $60 million worth of National Park admissions fees toward repairing the pool and some of D.C.'s fountains. There's also apparently a $5 million contract to coat a bunch of equestrian statues by the Lincoln Memorial in [16:15] This is all ahead of America's 250th birthday celebration, which Trump is merging with his own. The president will ring in the big 8-0 with a UFC fight on the South Lawn, and they've just started to build the arena. [16:28] which looks like a Roman Colosseum that's being sponsored by Axe Body Spray. That's what it looks like. [16:35] It's a real eyesore. The White House has also announced a list of musical artists who will allegedly perform for this summer's festivities, like Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice, C&C Music Factory, Milli Vanilli, [16:47] and young MC, I say allegedly because already [16:50] Milli Vanilli and Young MC have said they're actually not performing. This is just in. The Commodores also said absolutely not. They were on the list as well. So that list is dwindling, Dan. Did you follow how the Young MC and Milli Vanilli things played out? Young MC, I think, did not realize what he was signing up for, so he pulled himself out. Milli Vanilli seems to claim, based on a very bizarrely worded statement from the quote-unquote real Milli Vanilli, that the Milli Vanilli that was booked was a Milli Vanilli cover band.

[17:20] Now, if you know your 80s history... Cover band of a cover band. [17:25] Yeah, Milli Vanilli is also a cover band of Milli Vanilli, so it's Russian nesting dolls of cover bands here. Didn't one of them die? [17:34] I think we only... I don't know if we have Millie or... You think it's only Millie? Millie or Vanillie. [17:41] dead. Let's see. [17:43] Okay, I don't know which is which, but one half of the R&B dance duo Milli Vanilli, Rob Pilatus, is dead. The other half of the duo, Fab Morvin, is alive. [17:54] That's what Wikipedia tells me. [17:56] Okay, well, either way, either way, the millivinilla will not be performing as we commonly know them. For many reasons, for many reasons. If he actually could get the original millivinilla to perform, that would be impressive. Now, of course, while all this is going on, you know, Trump can't be paying attention to all this. He's focused on what's really important. Let's listen. You have one in particular, a very long lake, we call it, a reflecting lake. Between Lincoln and Washington, you have the longest, like 2,400 feet long. [18:26] you [18:26] That's longer than the tallest building in the world if you set it on the side. And we're now covering it with the most beautiful blue. [18:33] Very thick. You think of it as a very sophisticated form of rubber. No leaks, no problems. And it's beautiful. It's called American Flag Blue. That was the color we chose. [18:45] Thick rubber doesn't leak. That's the blue. That's the blue that we're going for here. Just covering the reflecting lake.

[18:51] Calling it the reflecting late now. It's also what Trump is looking for in his personal brand of depends. [18:57] There you go. There you go. So there's also this story today that Trump is – [19:03] pressuring treasury officials, the people who print the money, [19:08] in Treasury, to put his face on a special $250 bill in honor of America's 250th and in honor of Trump, of course. [19:19] And this made me wonder, like, OK, the corruption, huge political problem, the biggest political problem, I'm sure. Obviously, all of this also looks extremely out of touch while the economy is in the shitter. [19:30] You think people also might feel just a bit uneasy about Trump's messianic rebrand of America here? I mean, it's just like the face is on everything. The name is on everything. There's fucking gold everywhere. It's a little fucking creepy. Okay. [19:47] So I want to get to that question, but can we dig in on the $250 bill for a second? Yes. So Besson was asked about this at the briefing, and he pointed out that there is a law that says that you cannot put a living person under. [20:00] on money and that there's a bill before passing like the 1800s. And yes, and it was after after George Washington, our first president, refused to put his face on currency while he was alive. And so there's a bill before the House and the Senate right now that would lift that restriction for the purposes of allowing. [20:18] best in to put Trump's face on the money. [20:20] And my message to I'm going to speak directly to Mike Johnson, John Thune and frankly, every congressional Republican.

[20:27] Thank you. [20:28] immediately if you do not immediately go to the capitol right now and vote on that bill to put donald trump's face on our money [20:35] then you are traitors to the MAGA cause. You are weak, woke liberals. You have to do this. Vote for it right now. I can think of nothing, no better use of your time. [20:44] I got a better idea, Dan. [20:45] remember... [20:47] They all went home before the Memorial Day break because they couldn't come to an agreement on the... [20:54] budget bill that was supposed to fund ICE and all the other bullshit in there, like the $1.8 billion slush fund for January 6th rioters. Democrats have the ability to offer amendments. [21:06] in a voter Rama process. So if I was Chuck Schumer or a Senate Democrat, [21:12] I might offer an amendment about this and let's put everyone on the record and see what they think. See what all the Republicans think about the Donald Trump's face on the $250 bill. [21:21] I like that. That's a great idea. You have really aged into a legislative strategist late in life, so that's great. All right, let's get to the meat of your question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically... [21:32] Do I think voters are creeped out? [21:36] And maybe a little scared by Trump basically cosplaying Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, pick your tin pot dictator. [21:45] Look, I think – [21:48] The biggest political problem here is that Trump is focused on dumb, self-serving shit [21:53] Instead of lowering people's costs like that is the fundamental thing. You add a side of pretty blatant corruption to it. That's pretty bad.

[22:02] I think people see the Trump putting his name on everything, his face on everything. And I think maybe last year they would have seen that as scary. I think this year they think it's stupid because the Trump of 2026 and not the Trump of 2025. 2025, he was – [22:15] single-handedly destroying federal agencies, sending mass agents everywhere. He was astride the world. He was bizarrely popular. And now he is a deeply unpopular, doddering old man who can't stay awake in meetings. He is losing wars to Iran. He just looks weak. He seems different. He just seems smaller now. And you see that in the polling where pluralities of people and large majorities of independents no longer describe him as strong. They see him as weak and indecisive. [22:45] So I think should people be creeped out by it? Absolutely. I think the approach is probably not fear. It's. [22:51] Derision. [22:52] I was going to say, I probably articulated it wrong. I don't think it's fear, like, oh, no, scary dictator kind of thing. When I say it uneasy, I feel like people look at it and, first of all, I think, [23:06] And part of this is me when the ballroom thing first happened, not thinking that the ballroom was going to be a big deal. And then realizing that the imagery of the East Wing being demolished was more powerful to people than I had imagined. And not just from a corruption angle, because at that point, it was just we're going to knock down the East Wing and I'm going to build a ballroom. Right. And and it wasn't just like, oh, he's not focusing because we didn't have the war then. Right. But it was still like, what are you what are you doing?

[23:36] to be a lot of focus and a lot of attention on Washington DC over the next couple months because it's America's 250th anniversary birthday. And there's going to be a lot of activities in DC. And so those images are going to be broadcast and everywhere. And just like, [23:52] People tuning in to what's happening in D.C. with like Trump's face on the Justice Department and his name on everything and the gold everywhere. I kind of just think it's a small thing, but I think it's just sort of adds to the like, what the fuck is happening right now? Like it doesn't make you feel it doesn't make you feel good about America at a time where people most people will want to feel somewhat patriotic or happy about America's 250th birthday. [24:22] do think cuts to the core of what [24:25] Like it bothers people in a, like a fuck, this is not our country. What, what is this kind of way? Yeah, I think that's right. I think it's also just people are going to see it and be like, what? [24:33] Why is this such a high priority? Yeah, and it all combines, I think. It's like, what are you doing? [24:47] Pod Save America is brought to you by Policy Genius. This summer, you might be looking forward to taking a break from the never-ending news horrors. [24:53] than spending time with your family, which means you don't want to spend your summer [24:57] wasting time on personal admin if you don't have to. [25:00] Policy Genius lets you check life insurance off your to-do list in minutes and get back to your summer. [25:04] Knowing your family is protected. Policy Genius is an online insurance marketplace that allows you to compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. Their licensed team helps you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life, easily find what you need, coverage amounts, prices, terms, no guesswork, just clarity. Policy Genius helps you find the most affordable policy that meets your needs. They'll also answer questions, handle paperwork, and advocate for you throughout the process. With Policy Genius, you can see if you can find 20-year life insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for $1 million in coverage.

[25:31] Head to policygenius.com slash crooked to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com slash crooked. [25:39] Pod Save America is brought to you by Z Biotics Pre-Alcohol. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. [25:45] I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a next day. That is until I found free alcohol. [25:49] Z-Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works when you drink. Alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration. That's to blame for rough next days after drinking. [26:05] Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. I love Z-Biotics. [26:15] Went to Vegas recently. Had one before I had a bunch of drinks and lost a lot of money. That's not Z-Biotics' fault. [26:23] That's my fault. [26:23] That's my fault because I love the action. [26:26] I love the action. [26:27] And I'm going to have a bunch of Z-biotics when I get married. [26:30] before because, you know, I'm going to, you know, [26:33] I'm going to turn one on, I think. [26:35] From the crack of the bat at the stadium... [26:37] It's the start of wedding season. Hey, May is back with back-to-back reasons to be out. Don't let a rough morning after keep you on the sidelines. Drink free alcohol to stay ahead of it and make the most of every Saturday this month. Go to zbiotics.com slash crooked to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Crooked at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with a 100% money-back guarantee. So if you're not satisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash crooked and use the code crooked at checkout for 15% off.

[27:03] There's just a bit more corruption to discuss before we move on. This is sort of your standard issue corruption. [27:11] According to ProPublica, Trump advisor and family friend Peter Navarro, remember Peter Navarro? He did all the tariffs that everyone's enjoying so much. And jail time. He did jail time. Jail time and tariffs, yeah. So it turns out he pulled some strings last year to funnel a $620 million Pentagon loan to a North Carolina startup [27:32] owned in part by [27:33] Donald Trump Jr. [27:35] What do you think? As an early wedding present? We talk all the time about the crypto schemes and the Qatari jets and all the other very extravagant and extraordinary corruption. But there really is just a staggering amount of, as you said, mundane corruption. [27:49] Corruption, just like funneling contracts to your friends. [27:53] so that they can make money off the taxpayers. [27:57] And [27:57] Trump is probably, although... [27:59] Not definitely going to pardon his sons before he leaves. [28:02] Maybe Peter Navarro will cross the threshold of people who will get pardoned because he didn't serve time for Trump for a while. And he already has a pardon, I believe, or at least a commutation. But the people who actually facilitated this, people who work in the Pentagon, people who work for Peter Navarro, they're not getting pardons. [28:18] Thank you. [28:18] And they're probably going to see the inside of the jail cell because of it. And that is happening across the board. And like there are a lot of people who think who are serving their MAGA lords. They're doing what they're told. And they are going Trump's going to pardon his close friends and his closest aides. And the rest of those people are going to be in under tremendous legal jeopardy because of what they're doing.

[28:37] I realize it's easy to become numb to all the stories about corruption and all the numbers, but [28:42] What happened here is this is a pretty clear cut one. They set up this office in the Pentagon called the Office of Strategic Capital. And this was set up in the Biden administration. And the idea was the government wants to give out some loans to companies, startup companies that are involved in developing rare earth minerals, because we don't want to depend on China for that. We want to depend on the U.S. And so this is good. It's good for the government to sort of help these startups that are doing this. [29:12] billion lending authority under Biden. Donald Trump comes in and they increase it from one billion to $200 billion. So now it's $200 billion that the government is handing out to these companies. And in the Biden administration, there's a process. You bid for this. If you're one of these companies, you apply. There's a rigorous process. They decide to take you or not. They reject some companies. They just obviously... [29:36] We want to give loans to the best possible companies because it's taxpayer dollars that we are giving to these companies. So we want to make sure they're the best ones. Except one company, Vulcan, skirted that entire process. [29:49] And in fact, didn't even apply. [29:52] The White House [29:54] Peter Navarro calls the defense department and it was like, you got to give the money to Vulcan. You just got to give the money to Vulcan. And that is the company, the small company in North Carolina that Don Jr. had just invested in just a couple months before this. And once it got the money, once it got the huge contract, the valuation of the company went from $200 million to $200 million.

[30:15] to $2 billion, a 900% increase. That is how much money Don fucking Jr. made because his really good friend, [30:25] Peter Navarro, the two of them are very tight. [30:27] called up the fucking Pentagon and said, make this happen for Don Jr.'s company. There's so much like this. There is... [30:34] You know, just for the other day that they about Trump had a big investment and made investment in Dell right before a big announcement where Dell was going to get a government contract. Same thing with Robin Hood. Just it's across the board. Just everyone is robbing. [30:47] The Treasury. [30:48] with two hands at all times. I was going to say, it's not just like they're using their office or they're abusing their office and just the fact that they have the office to make money. No, no, no. They're like stealing from you. They are putting their hands in the taxpayer pockets and stealing because this is just taxpayer money that's been handing out. And with no accountability or oversight whatsoever, is this company going to succeed? Is it a good company? We don't know. Don Jr. owns some of it. That's all we need to know. [31:15] Money out the door. Taxpayer dollars. It was only a year ago that the government told us that we cannot afford to keep rural hospitals open. Right, yeah. But we can... [31:23] We can give a favorable contract with a huge profit margin to people who put the weird rubbery paint on the pool. We can give contracts to Don Jr.'s company. We can encase Washington, D.C.-based horse statues in gold. Where's Elon? Where are the Doge Bros? Where's the all-in Pod Bros with all the fucking, come on, guys? Probably investors in the Donald Trump Jr. company. Lots of waste and fraud right here. You guys are saying it's all kinds of waste in the government. You've been pretty quiet about this.

[31:49] Fucking losers. All right. [31:52] The moment from Trump's cabinet meeting that actually got the most airtime wasn't the Iran stuff. [31:57] or the thick rubbery coating, it was this. I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms. Yeah, man, we noticed. We noticed you don't care about the midterms. It's coming through, coming through loud and clear. He was referring, of course, to the Texas Senate runoff, where Ken Paxton, [32:15] the deeply corrupt beneficiary of a last minute Trump endorsement absolutely crushed. [32:23] uh, incumbents editor John Cornyn by almost 30 points. Um, [32:27] When Trump said, "Look what happened last night," [32:29] What do you think he thinks Tuesday night demonstrated about the midterms? He's a simple minded fellow, John. And I think he very simple mindedly looked and saw that a candidate he supported. [32:39] won a race. And then he then presumes that candidates that he support will win similar races in the fall. [32:45] Now, what Trump is too simple-minded to understand is that among the people who voted in that primary in Texas, I imagine... [32:54] Trump had a 85 to 95 percent approval rating. These are Texas primary voters. [33:00] When people go to the polls in the fall, Trump will have somewhere between a [33:04] I don't know, 42 and 32% approval rating, depending on the district and the state. [33:07] Switching to a slightly different environment for his candidates. [33:11] Also, I just want to stipulate this. Ken Paxton was winning this primary, whether Donald Trump endorsed him or not. [33:17] He may have won by more, but there were reports in private that private polling had packs in up 10 points before Trump's endorsement. We knew from the runoff that even though.

[33:28] Cornyn got the plurality of votes. There was a strong majority when you added up Wesley Hunt and Ken Paxton votes. There was a strong majority of Texans who did not want John Cornyn. And when incumbents go to runoffs, they almost always lose because the reason they're in a runoff is there's 50% of people who looked at that incumbent they knew and said, give me someone else. Yeah, I was going to say also the turnout was so much lower. Did you see some of the estimates on turnout? Like it looks like [33:56] between the first race and the runoff, Paxton got about 7000 more votes. [34:03] in the runoff, and Cornyn lost about 400,000 votes between the first race and the runoff. So it seems like [34:12] A ton of Cornyn's voters just stayed home and decided not to vote. And then the most engaged, craziest MAGA voters turned out for Ken Paxton. Yeah, which was always sort of the fear. And it's not like this was the only race on the ballot. You also you had congressional runoffs and you had a very important attorney general. [34:27] runoff as well. So I guess we could talk, let's talk about how they're going after James Tallarico, who's now the Democratic nominee in that race. And then we can sort of talk about the race ahead from now until November. It does seem like Maga World is a bit more nervous about Tallarico than they're letting on, as evidenced by their subtle new strategy of questioning James Tallarico's masculinity. It's very subtle. I don't know if you can figure it out. Paxson used his victory [34:57] Rico, Tofu Tallarico and six gender Jimmy. Stephen Miller tweeted that Tallarico will make history as the first transgender Senate candidate. And here's the game from Fox's The Five on Wednesday. This baby lotion soft child. He does. He looks prepubescent. The major factor in this race, Greg, is whether Tallarico is vegan. You say you have a girlfriend. Why don't you name her? Are they going to have a coming out party?

[35:25] Or is she still going to stay the secret girlfriend? And is this totally not fake girlfriend also a vegan? He looks like such a beta male. He was, he was, Beto O'Rourke was his big brother in the after school program. They'll say, they'll say, but he's a seminarian. How dare you not? He put the semen in seminarians. [35:47] What do you think they're trying to tell us? They dislike his policy agenda? I get it. I get the line of attack. [35:54] And... [35:55] There is a universe where you can execute that line of attack. [36:00] maybe in a way that's somewhat effective. Feels like if you're already calling him a gay pedophile in May, um... [36:07] Not a lot of runway left. [36:10] Where are you going? Where are you going to be in October? [36:14] I am curious about... [36:17] what is driving this attack? Is it in the data? [36:21] Or are they just echoing the thing that Trump said on Air Force One two weeks ago? I think some of it is like, [36:28] instinct, right? Like they have... Okay, the clips of James Tallarico that have been [36:33] you know, all over [36:35] The Internet and right wing media are something, something vegan. He's not a vegan, which clearly these people just actually don't know that he's not a vegan. And they think now he says he eats meat because he's like got caught or something. But he was never saying he was a vegan. That was not a clip. The clip of him saying that, you know, technically there's six sexes because of chromosome abnormalities with a small fraction of people, which like great.

[37:05] clips like that. And he looks young, right? And so... [37:10] They're like, yeah, he looks like it's like their their go to is he's a beta male. But they can't just say that because there is an element of that. That's exactly what they say. Well, they can't just say that and like leave it at that because there's an element of, oh, shit, we just nominated Ken Paxton and we could lose. So we've got to take everything to 100. [37:32] So I think a couple of things here. One, obviously their strategy, their only way to win is to nuke. [37:37] This is going to be their same strategy with... [37:39] Graham Plattner is going to be the same strategy with whoever wins in Michigan, particularly with Abdul El Saeed. [37:45] This is their approach. It's the only thing they have, right? [37:49] They basically – this is the weak, woke, and too liberal attack that we talked about a few weeks ago. [37:55] There are actually two separate things embedded in what they're doing here. There is James Tallarico is a low T, possibly gay, [38:04] Beta mail. [38:05] He's not man enough for the Senate, which is really quite a thing to say. And then there is James Tallarico is – [38:13] a liberal elitist extremist who's out of touch with Texas values. That is the God is non-binary. That is the false attack. He's a vegan. And those are two separate things. Obviously the second one, [38:23] polls well. Like, like we, we don't even, we know that that's, that we know that that, [38:27] is an average acronym. I'm not sure... [38:30] the [38:31] He's a beta male is... [38:34] a particularly effective attack? I don't know that they're... I guess I would say I don't know that they're entirely separate because the out-of-touch... the typical out-of-touch liberal who is a male is obviously a low-T beta male. Like, we are also low-T beta males because we are libs on the coast, and we're probably vegan, and we probably have pronouns in our bio, you know? That's a pretty deep...

[38:58] It's a very online take. [39:00] It's a very online take. The other one is a... [39:03] It's a deeply dishonest because it takes a lot of his quotes out of context and edits them, some of them quite unfairly. But I think that there is – [39:14] I'm just not – [39:15] In presidential politics, strength and toughness matters a lot, right? How you define strength and toughness is very important. You can define it in ways that are much better than sort of like brute force strength that, you know, Trump sort of has tried to swagger his way into the Oval Office. It matters much less in congressional and Senate races, right? No one sees you as being tasked with staring down the Iranians or taking out Al Qaeda or stopping crime in the streets or whatever else people associate with. [39:40] probably incorrectly with toughness. [39:42] And so I think that like Trump has sort of sent them on this path and it is red meat for the Fox base. [39:48] And so it's one thing if I [39:49] Jesse Waters and the Yahoo's on the Five do it. It was interesting to me that it was such a big part of Paxton's [39:56] Victory speech. [39:57] I just took note of that. Well, I mean, he is a politician who, if not successful, will end up being appointed on Fox pretty easily. So the line is pretty – [40:08] Like he very Trump asking that he was very excited and enjoying doing the Tallarico attacks. [40:16] and responding to the crowd. And then he was reading with no emotion, [40:20] lines about lowering people's costs. Not where his passion lies. His passion lies, of course, in theft. He likes stealing from people.

[40:29] Sometimes, quite literally, he stole someone's pen. A $1,000 pen someone left lying around. There's a video of him just stealing it. Very friends and neighbors. [40:40] Yeah. [40:40] So Tallarico's out there responding to the beta mail line of attack. [40:44] Here he is at a rally on Wednesday in Houston. This is his first stop on a statewide tour and his first appearance since Paxton won the runoff. [40:59] My dad showed me. [41:01] Every Saturday morning he would mow our lawn. [41:05] And then [41:06] Without... [41:07] Telling anyone. [41:08] Without anyone asking him. [41:10] He would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn. [41:14] She was... [41:15] Elderly, she was a widow. [41:17] He never talked about it. [41:19] He just did it. [41:21] Because that's... [41:22] What a man does. [41:24] He serves those around him. He takes responsibility. And he does what's right even when no one is watching. [41:32] So, uh, [41:34] In addition to that, he also did a sit down with CBS with Ed O'Keefe. And, you know, he said that some of his past remarks were cringy and that he would say them differently as well. He's been you know, there's been plenty of photos that the campaign's been pushing around of him eating barbecue because he's. [41:54] said he's eaten barbecue forever. So, you know, it's all of a piece. But if you were consulting on the campaign, how would you advise him to push back on this? And I think more importantly, like how much time and energy would you be spending on it if you were on the campaign? Before we do that, I just do want to stipulate,

[42:13] that [42:15] Team South Rico has a very, very real chance of winning this race. [42:18] Yeah, well, we should talk about that for sure. [42:21] I get why everyone is skeptical of Texas. We have been burned so many times. [42:26] But this is our best chance in a generation to win statewide office in Texas. We have not won a Senate race in Texas in 1988. We have not won statewide office of consequence in this century. And obviously the closest that a Democrat has come was Beto O'Rourke losing by 2.6% to Ted Cruz in 2018. But – [42:45] This is a different world. 2018 was a good environment for Democrats. [42:48] 2026 is a great environment for Democrats, as we sit here today, at least. [42:53] This is a hard thing for me to say, but Ted Cruz... [42:56] is much more likable [42:58] and has much more likely one more popular than Ken Paxton. [43:04] This blew me away. [43:06] In September of 2018, [43:08] Ted Cruz had a favorability rating that was nine points above water. [43:14] Yes. [43:15] Ken Paxton, [43:17] depending on your poll, is 5, 7, 10 points below water. And will never be above water. That is just, he will never see the surface. [43:24] The most important thing here is, [43:27] is that there is a demographic pincer movement happening in Texas in this moment. So, [43:32] In 2016, Hillary Clinton [43:34] did better in Texas than almost any other state. It's a state where she actually had the largest improvement over Barack Obama in 2012. It's one of the very few states and maybe the only state where she did better than Obama did in 2012. And the reason that happened is she blew the doors off Latino voters.

[43:45] And Trump won. [43:47] by a decent margin because white voters of all stripes, college educated and working class voted for him and mess. What? [43:54] has changed since 2016 is those college-educated white voters, of which there are a ton in Texas, particularly in the cities and suburbs around those big cities, have moved dramatically in the Democratic direction. [44:07] And then starting in 2020, Latino voters moved towards Trump and Trump. [44:12] Trump won Latino voters by 10 points in Texas, according to the exit polls. What has changed since then is that those college-educated white voters, the [44:19] Have stayed. [44:20] exactly where they were before and maybe even more fired up now than they were back in 2024. [44:24] and Latino voters have moved [44:28] dramatically away from Trump. [44:30] Trump's [44:30] Approval rating among Latinos nationally is minus 50. [44:34] In the generic UNITO's US poll of battleground districts around the country, they looked at the battleground districts. There's a poll of Latinos. Battleground districts in the southwest, which is mostly but not entirely Texas. Democrats are winning the... [44:51] Generic ballot by 38 points. [44:54] And so if... [44:56] James Alarico, if he can get... [44:59] Kamala Harris, Joe Biden style numbers with college educated white voters. [45:03] And, you know, [45:04] Something... [45:05] like Hillary Clinton's [45:07] 2016 Latino numbers, he wins that race. He wins it by a couple of points. Yeah, I saw that. I saw Nate Cohn said something similar and then also said that even if you take the latest Times poll, the national poll, and you match the different and you match the shifts with the different demographic groups in Texas, if you like make it, then you then it would tilt blue.

[45:29] Texas. Even before you knew the candidates. Right. He has to navigate what we all talked about to get there, but this is not... [45:37] the previous discussion of Texas. It's not like a lot of other red states where we talk about, we're like, we got this popular candidate and maybe they can persuade a bunch of these voters and maybe we'll get there but there's no path. You can, the math tells you [45:48] that this state is in play if Tallarico can achieve what should be achievable democratic numbers. So that's that. Okay. I was going to say, yeah, now that's a good setup for – [45:58] What I think the challenge [46:00] the Tallarico faces is, um, I, I've been thinking about sort of Graham Platter in Maine and this, you know, I think there's been no bigger gap between what voters on the ground think of a candidate and what the internet conversation about that candidate is than, than Plattner. And I, [46:19] the reason I feel... [46:20] Um, [46:21] more confident about Platner [46:23] is... [46:24] pretty much because the size of Maine. And I think that like Graham Plattner may meet most of the voters he needs to meet in Maine. And obviously, James Ellery goes not going to do that in Texas because no one can do that in Texas because big fucking state. And so he does need to make some decisions on like how to puncture the Internet caricature of him that a lot of voters are going to come in contact with. And also through television ads and other ads from the Paxton campaign from the Republicans and figure out, you know, like where to spend his time, [46:54] what his ad strategy is and [46:57] Your thoughts on all that? Yeah, so my thoughts are, I guess the way to think about this is the strategy they're running against Tallarico is the strategy they ran against Kamala Harris in...

[47:06] 2024. The goal is to define him before he can divide himself. Like Tallarico, very well known among Democrats and very politically engaged people. To the extent that other people even know who he is, they kind of vaguely have this sense that he is... [47:18] like a Democrat who... [47:21] Talks about his faith a lot, maybe, as much as they know. And, you know, the general vibes that he's not a typical Democrat. And so that's a vacuum that the right is trying to fill before Tallarga could fill himself. So what are the mistakes that Kamala Harris made? [47:33] That led her to be defined. The first is when the attacks came, like the infamous they, them ad, you, she never took them off, took them head on. Like, and we can debate the ad strategy around it. We know all the discussions from all the people who work there about which ad sets are good in which has ads tested bad. But, [47:49] And siloing that conversation in ads is stupid. [47:52] She wasn't like she was out talking to voters to try to disabuse them of that notion. Like she didn't – never took that attack on. So you got to take these attack ons. I find – [48:00] But even though I'm less concerned about the masculinity attack, then perhaps you or others may be the fact that he took it on the first day shows the right instincts. The fact that he sat down for the interview with Ed O'Keefe to take tough questions about the things he said shows the right instinct. You have to take them on, because if you don't, then voters are just going to assume that they're true because people are naturally cynical. And the second thing is you cannot allow there to be a vacuum. You have to be everywhere everywhere. [48:24] All the time, all at once. You have to be omnipresent. [48:27] in the media, on social media. You have to be like... [48:30] you know, it's always the worst comparison. You have to be like mom, Donnie, like there should be no interview turned down, no podcast. You should turn down. You should visit every County in Texas or whatever is logistically feasible. I remember it took better, like two years to do that. So maybe that's impossible, but do be,

[48:43] everywhere so that people see you because when people see James Talarico they like him he is like he has real appeal with this segment of [48:53] People who would have voted for John Cornyn over a Democrat but might vote for a Democrat over Ken Paxton. And so you got – but you got to be in front of them and you got to do – there is no – you cannot waste one minute. Every single minute of every single day has to be out there communicating. And I think he – [49:10] He ran his primary campaign like that. He's run his sort of career like that. So I think that that's what they're going to do. But... [49:15] Like if you think you're being aggressive, you're probably not being, you should be more aggressive than that and keep going. I have seen, um, a lot of, uh, right wing folks who are quite religious online, um, make the argument that, you know, James, the idea that James Tallarico's faith and, um, uh, penchant to talk openly about his faith and, and, and, you know, being, you know, uh, being a seminarian, um, is, uh, is, is, is, [49:42] The idea that that's going to help him is like liberals idea of what a person's a person of faith is. And like liberals have no idea because the fact that he is using passages from the Bible to sort of talk about his progressive values is like blasphemy to some on the right. And I think that they have that wrong because, like, I don't think. [50:04] that James Tallarico's view of his faith and the way he talks about his faith is going to win over evangelical Christians, [50:12] that are going to vote for Ken Paxton and voted for Donald Trump three times anyway. I don't think that's the point. In fact, I don't even think it's, oh, this guy preaches and his Christian faith is what's going to do it for me.

[50:42] and how it sort of animates their values and their decisions about politics. Like, I don't think, at the very least, I don't think it hurts. I think it pushes people away. But I think for some people, they're like, okay, well, this guy has a moral grounding. And even people who aren't religious, necessarily, or don't share his Christian faith may be like, okay, this guy believes in what he's saying. It's like, it gives him an authenticity that, again, when you meet him, you realize that it's, that's what it is. [51:12] believes this and it animates him and it drives him. And I think that that is worth a lot in politics today. These things these right wing people are saying is so fucking stupid because... [51:21] If... [51:22] The... [51:23] A literal meaning of the scripture was why these people voted the way they vote. These evangelical Christians voted the way they voted. They wouldn't vote for Donald Trump. [51:31] Thank you. [51:32] Thank you. [51:33] What I'm going to take an even hackier view than you, like I agree with you, obviously, the way he talks about from this. He talks about things from a moral framework is refreshing. The fact that he talks about his faith. [51:43] is a massive – it's authentic to him, which is incredibly important, but it's also a massive signifier that he is different than your typical Democrat. And if he wants to win in Texas, he has to be different than a typical Democrat. That's why it's important. It is not because he's going to get into a theological debate with a three-time Trump-voting evangelical minister and persuade them to his side. It's that he – [52:03] can communicate with people. He can relate to people whose faith is important to them or their, their faith community is important to them because that is a, that is a touchstone to begin a larger conversation about where Texas goes, where the country goes. Like it is a way in with a group of voters. It is not the fact of his faith is not,

[52:20] delivering votes among other people of faith. It's just one way in which he can connect to people. I also think there's a way in which Tallarico has already started framing the race. And he did this in a video right after Ken Paxton won, where he is trying to make this about [52:36] Um, [52:37] him and everyone else as outsiders trying to upend a corrupt establishment. And it's about the system, right? And so he attacks Ken Paxton as... [52:49] corrupt and he calls him the most corrupt politician in America, but he said he's part of a corrupt system that James Tallarico wants to change because it is the, and you know, this is, Ossoff said the same, says the same thing. This is the reason that you can't afford anything because these people are stealing your money and making it about voters and about why can Paxson would be bad for voters because they are feeling like they can't afford anything and he's going to make it worse because he's a thief, just like Donald Trump, I think is a very, [53:16] potent message. I have a greater worry that if it's about, you know, beta male, low T Tallerico versus, you know, criminal adulterer Ken Paxton, and it's like a character versus character race, that's not one that he's going to have as much of a chance to win as if he makes it about, you know, outside versus, you know, outsiders versus the system, change versus the status quo. He's just got to make it bigger than about him and Paxton. And I do think that, and it's not just [53:46] Rico, but it's for all Democrats, because Paxton gives you so many is a target rich environment because he gives you so much to talk about because he has such a bad record and he's corrupt stuff like that. It is very easy to turn this into a race about what a bad person Ken Paxton is. And I think it would be a mistake to just just talk about Ken Paxton as a bad person. You've got to talk about how Ken Paxton has fucked over the people of Texas when he was attorney general and how he would continue to do so in the Senate. Like that is where the that is where you win it, I think.

[54:16] . [54:22] Pod Save America is brought to you by blinds.com. [54:25] There's a version of your home you haven't lived in yet where the light behaves, where the rooms feel finished, where you sleep until you decide to wake up. Oh, man, isn't it nice to sleep until you decide to wake up? You wake up, you're like, did I just do that? Is this another life? [54:37] Blinds.com has spent 30 years making it easy to find the perfect fit with over 25 million windows covered in 50,000 five star reviews. You can feel confident that you're in good hands. [54:45] You can go full DIY. You can bring in a licensed vetted pro to handle the measure and install, or you can land somewhere in between. You're in control. Need help picking the right style? You can book a consultation. It's free with one of Blinds.com's award-winning design experts. They'll even ship samples to your door fast and free. Choose from a huge variety of style options at prices that fit any budget. [55:03] Everything is backed. [55:04] by the Blinds.com 100% satisfaction guarantee. Because at Blinds.com, the only thing they treat better than Windows [55:10] It's you! [55:11] Love Blinds.com. We have Blinds.com in our office. We had no shades in our office for a long time. And we like our office. It's nice. It gets a lot of light. But sometimes it gets hot. Sometimes there'd be a lot of sun that would be in our eyes when we're at our computers reading about the news. [55:26] And then blinds.com came in. We stepped out of our office for like an hour, come back. Boom. Incredible blinds. [55:33] Incredible Blinds. [55:34] Right now, Blinds.com is giving our listeners an exclusive $50 off when you spend $500 or more. Just use code CROOKED at checkout. [55:40] Limited time off. Rules and restrictions apply. See blinds.com for details. [55:44] Pod Save America is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. One of the big things we love about our team here at Cricket is the wide range of skills and disciplines that coalesce around our shared values and commitment to the work we do every day. That's one of the things we love the most. Also, Peter and I talk about nerdy stuff.

[55:58] all the time. We have a great team here at Crooked. And you want people that have the skills, [56:03] and experience, but you also want people that care about what they do and are passionate about the job. You can't get that often from a resume unless you post your job on ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds quality candidates quickly. [56:15] And ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested, qualified candidates first, so you can meet the right people faster. Candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. [56:27] We've used ZipRecruiterHire here at Crooked. It's always been a great help. Hiring is one of the hardest things you have to do. It's so important, the whole thing. [56:35] It depends on finding the right people. And with ZipRecruiter, it makes it easier. Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash crooked. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash crooked. Meet your match. [56:51] on ZipRecruiter. [56:53] All right, couple last things to cover. Thursday was Marco Rubio's birthday and his best present came from Emerson, [57:01] which has a new 2028 poll out showing he's effectively erased J.D. Vance's lead as a top contender for the 2028 Republican nomination. In August, he was at 9% and Vance was at 52%. In this latest poll, Rubio's at 35% and Vance is at 36%. One poll, Emerson poll, obviously, grain of salt. It does seem like there's... [57:23] There's some Marko Mentum here. [57:25] Our friend Sarah Longwell sees it in the focus groups too, a couple different places. What's going on here? I think Marco Rubio's greatest asset right now is that he's not J.D. Vance. I think that's it. I don't think he has done anything in particular that people love. It's not like he's just been crushing the job at the State Department. It's not like his stewardship of the Iran war is making people happy. It's not like people are deeply dialed into his role as the overseer of the Viceroy of Venezuela.

[57:55] slightly more competent and normal than your average Trump cabinet member. [57:59] and is not as awkward and off-putting as J.D. Vance. You see that fun Daily Mail story? It has sources say that Vance is considering abandoning his 2028 bid, and he feels more isolated than ever now that Tulsi Gabbard's leaving. And it even got his team to respond, saying that it was all made up and everything, of course. I'm sure he and Tulsi were just plotting in the back on how to fail to stop Trump to do bad things. I choose to believe that story might be real. I think that would be fun. [58:29] He has been very subdued lately. [58:33] He's offline. Remember, he quit Twitter for Lent. Yes, and then after Lent, he's kept it off his phone. He says he gets more done now. [58:41] Good for him. [58:43] Good for him. Honestly, offline listener J.D. Vance. I was going to say, if he wants to come on offline, we can talk about it. You see that Gretchen Whitmer [58:50] ruled out running for president in 2028. She may have like partially walked it back. Just weird. She sounded it in the actual clip. She was pretty clear that she was not running. This does not surprise me. She has really done... [59:03] None of the things that the people who are obviously running for president are doing. She's not out trying to get a lot of national attention. She's not making herself a foil against Trump. She's not going to all these cattle call events like Al Sharpton's National Action Network and some of these other big events. [59:17] I've not heard of her like – [59:19] meeting with donors, hiring staff, you know, talking to people like the – [59:23] The people who are running...

[59:25] They're calling other people and they're making sure they know they might be running and trying to persuade those people we hear from some of them. [59:32] But so it's not surprising. One thing that I think is – it did occur to me when I read this is with – presuming Gretchen Whitmer does not run. There are really only two other women who were thinking of running. [59:43] And that's Kamala Harris and AOC. Oh, yeah. I was going to say AOC and who else? All right, Kamala Harris. Yes. And neither of them, I think, are – I think most people would say the odds are against both of them running. Oh. So you could – the point being is you could end up with an all-male – [59:58] feel, but it should be kind of gross in... [1:00:01] 2028. [1:00:04] I think, though, for Gretchen Whitmer... [1:00:06] It's like good for you. Like that is the, [1:00:09] If you... [1:00:10] No one should ever feel pushed into running for president because you are mentioned as someone who could be president. Like, she is someone on paper who seems like absolutely she could run for president. She clearly, like... [1:00:24] doesn't feel... [1:00:25] the fire in the belly, like doesn't want to go through it. Like, and it's like, good. That's, that's the better decision to make than to be like, all right, I'm going to do it. I'm going to put everyone through it. We're going to go through the whole paces. Like it's a very big decision. It's a life changing decision. And I mean, also you got to think about the party and the makeup of the field. And like, if she doesn't want to do it, then like good for her for bowing out early. Um, [1:00:47] All right, finally. [1:00:49] Speaking of deciding not to run for president, I want to just quickly take you back to June 27th, 2024.

[1:00:58] The night of Joe Biden's debate with Donald Trump. We were there. Not at the debate, but. [1:01:03] You remember. You remember that we were together. We were together. Boston. You might remember that right afterward, Joe and Jill Biden dropped by a watch party to thank supporters. And here's what Jill Biden said then. Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. Never gets old. [1:01:24] Now. [1:01:25] Dr. Biden's out with a memoir, which she promoted in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning this weekend. And here's how she recounted actually feeling watching the debate. I don't know what happened. I mean, when I as I watched it, I thought, oh, my God, he's having a stroke. And it scared me to death. [1:01:43] That's the time of my life I don't really want to go back to. I mean, I will say I maintain a deep well of anger. [1:01:54] the Bidens [1:01:56] People around Joe Biden who helped keep him in the race, people around Joe Biden who attacked everyone as basically traitors to the cause who thought Joe Biden should run for president either before or after that debate. [1:02:07] Like that still makes me very mad. I have come to the point this many years later that I just have to decide that [1:02:13] that I can no longer give a shit about the... [1:02:17] Who knew what, when? Like, obviously she was lying then. She's probably lying now. In fact... [1:02:22] And quite a few Biden advisors told Alex Thompson that they do believe she's lying because they pointed out if she thought he was having a stroke, why did she...

[1:02:33] take him to an after party and then go to the waffle house after that. [1:02:38] I mean, yeah, obviously lots of questions. Here's my thing, right? I just – I – [1:02:44] have made a personal decision that I'm just going to try not to get [1:02:49] That was basically a summer of pure... [1:02:52] unadulterated rage the whole time what was happening i can remember my blood pressure at the time yeah yes i'm trying not to revisit that period in my life i so as i sit here today i care less about what jill biden has to say about what happened that moment i care less about what [1:03:07] Mike Donilon or all the other people who... [1:03:10] Covered up for Biden. [1:03:12] have to say about what happened at that moment. What I care about [1:03:16] is what happens going forward. And what bothers me the most is not the timeline of events, [1:03:24] of 2024, but... [1:03:26] whether Democratic leaders now [1:03:30] will ever reckon with [1:03:32] the massive breach of trust that came because of [1:03:36] how all of that was handled. They telling voters that what they saw with their eyes before the debate, [1:03:41] was... [1:03:42] that they shouldn't believe that, and then telling voters what they saw at the debate. [1:03:46] they shouldn't believe. And that lack of trust hurts us with our own voters, hurts us with the other voters. And we have to be thinking at all times about how to rebuild that trust. We should [1:03:58] optimize strategic decision-making at the highest levels of this party for how do we rebuild trust, not just with our voters, but with all voters. And that is, I think, as I try to find a way not just to throw my phone against the wall every time I see stuff like that, that's where I'm trying to direct my positive energy. That was just remarkably disciplined and adult of you. And, you know, now I'm going to... Austin just boot. Didn't you already do a YouTube about that? I was going to say, and I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to take that path as well, because

[1:04:28] about it and Tommy we have we have it on YouTube from this morning when it was fresh but I I [1:04:34] I really completely agree. Was that today? You did that today? It was today. Yeah. Wow. What a fucking day. I know. But I agree with you. And that's the only reason I care about it now, too, because I and I read that. I think I said it to you, too, that that tweet from Zayn Jelani, who said, like, he's like, I think people are underestimating how much the lack of trust people have in the Democratic Party is due to what happened around them. [1:05:04] be an issue in 2028 and narrowly no. But I think that the people are going to remember that the Democratic Party is [1:05:13] When I say Democratic Party, I mean the people in the White House, the campaign, plenty of Democratic pundits, plenty of people online who are still fighting that fight. [1:05:23] Lied to people. [1:05:24] and didn't even lie to people in a way that was like, like lied to people in a pretty obvious, obviously... [1:05:30] false transparent way and so that's like it's worse than a lie it's treating people like they're fucking idiots which is basically what they did they told the whole country that's the bigger thing they told the whole country like you know what [1:05:42] You know who the problem is. It's these fucking D.C. establishment bedwetters who think that Joe Biden did bad in the debate. They're the problem. We're with all you people, and we believe that everything was great. We think you believe that, too. And they're like, I think people are going to believe that? Like, come on. Yeah, there was a level of delusion and deception that was bigger than – or like dismissive. I think dismissive is the right way to put it. It was bigger than just the Biden's age stuff. It was –

[1:06:10] - Inflation? - Yep. [1:06:12] It was Gaza, Gaza. And the combination of all of those things have put the Democratic Party in a bad place with its own voters. [1:06:19] not to mention everyone else. And we have to be thinking about how it is. And that's one of the reasons why I got so mad about the – [1:06:27] The SEC and Chuck Schumer coming in and putting their hand in these races and in some cases now putting their thumb on the scale but not saying they're putting their thumb on the scale by funneling money through APEX super PACs or these other super PACs in these other states like that. And I thought you were going to say this is why I got so mad at the Ken Martin thing too because that was the same idea. Yes, that's exactly right. That's it too. And that's allowed me to experience – [1:06:48] the same many of the same people because i wrote that message box and two and a half seconds after the autopsy came out calling for ken martin to resign i really put myself at the front of the line for the people on online to come out to say like where's the autopsy of your work in 2024 pushing more good men out of jobs but this is and this is in in the context of going forward i just want [1:07:12] the people running in 2028, the people who are going to be talking about the 2028 race, like when the Biden stuff comes up, when the DNC stuff comes up, whatever. Like if people were willing to say, [1:07:24] Totally fucked up. I was wrong. [1:07:26] bad move. Oh, I, you know, wish I was more honest, which has more transparent, like, great, that's fine. But you got to say that, you know, people like, yeah, where's the autopsy of your work? [1:07:36] We're fine to say when we fucked up. This whole company was started because of a fuck up. Because we were so confident that Hillary Clinton was going to win. We were fucking wrong. I wish that we had gone harder Joe Biden earlier than the debate. Said that before, too. You know, like it's OK. You can say that you were wrong. It's fine. You don't have to issue a you don't have to issue carefully worded statements that evade the question because you know what? People aren't going to trust you. So.

[1:08:02] Anyway, good luck on the book tour, Jill. All right. When we come back from the break, you'll hear my conversation with Mississippi Senate candidate Scott Colon. [1:08:19] Pod Save America is brought to you by BILT. Whether you're renting or paying a mortgage, one of your biggest monthly expenses should be working harder for you. That's where BILT comes in. [1:08:25] Built is the membership that rewards you with points on every housing payment wherever you live. Built started out rewarding members on their rent. As of 2026, Built members can also earn points on mortgage payments too. Every housing payment earns you points [1:08:37] that you can use with top travel partners like United and Hyatt, or use your points toward lift rides, Amazon.com purchases, and so much more. [1:08:43] Personally, I'd redeem my points for fitness classes, for Amazon, for Lyft rides. But here's the most underrated part. Built members also get access to neighborhood concierge. They can make reservations at restaurants, book fitness classes, and find new local spots, all while being rewarded at more than 45,000 merchant partners. It's like having a personal assistant baked into where you live. It's simple. Being a renter and now owning a home is better with Built. Join the membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T.com. Make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you. [1:09:13] Thank you. [1:09:14] Service opens doors and at American Military University, it can open doors for the whole family. If you have a loved one who served in the military, you may qualify for reduced tuition. [1:09:25] AMU offers flexible online programs designed to fit your schedule so you can keep moving forward wherever life takes you. [1:09:32] Learn more at amu.apus.edu slash military.

[1:09:37] Open doors to the future for you and your family with the help of American Military University. [1:09:48] Scott Colombe, welcome to Pod Save America. Thank you so much for having me. You are a district attorney in Mississippi? [1:09:55] Your seventh generation. Yeah. Scipient. Yeah. Your mom is the first black woman elected to her region's chancery court. Your dad worked for Ronald Reagan before becoming a Democrat. [1:10:04] When a Mississippi voter asks why a guy with your resume is running for Senate as a Democrat in 2026. [1:10:10] What do you tell them? I tell them that we've got to have a senator that fights for Mississippi. Somebody understands that the tariffs have been terrible for the farmers, for the small businesses, that it's been terrible for the people going to the grocery store and that are struggling. And I'm not. [1:10:27] going to D.C. to be the Democratic senator. I'm not. We're not a state that can afford that. Right. You know, Mississippi's got three million people. California's got close to 50 million. You guys got two senators. We got two senators. We have to use that to bring resources and jobs and opportunities to Mississippi. And our current junior senator, she's betrayed that. She's totally betrayed that. The people of Mississippi know it. And that's why they're going to go in a new direction this November. You are running in a state that Trump just won in 2024 by 23 points. [1:10:57] people will hear Mississippi Senate race. [1:11:00] and maybe laugh. Yeah. Make the case to the skeptic. What do you see on the ground? Yeah. That suggests you could become the first Democrat, really the first Senate candidate to win a state the incumbent president just won by 23 points. So, you know, I get this question asked me a lot, as you can imagine. And I used to answer it like I was David Axelrod. I would say, well, hold on, guys. You know, in nine presidential years, you know, we get much closer. Right. Like

[1:11:30] last year we broke the super majority in the state senate. But what I realized is I needed to explain to people why I can win. And the reality is... [1:11:39] When I ran for district attorney in 2015, I ran against a 30-year incumbent. I was in a district that people thought I had no chance of winning. But what I realized is that under the right circumstances, with the right opponent, [1:11:51] and the right candidate, you can win a tough race in Mississippi. And those [1:11:55] Those three things are totally at play now, right? I mean, I was with some, I got invited. [1:12:01] on the Gulf Coast. [1:12:03] Some Mississippians who previously voted Republicans. Notice I didn't call them Republicans. Mississippians who previously voted Republican. They reached out to my campaign and said, listen, we love what you're doing on social media. I was on a podcast and they were like, we love what you said on the podcast. You're talking about Mississippi values. [1:12:20] We want you to come... [1:12:21] Meet with us. They said, maybe two or three people. We'll see how it goes. When I got there, it was 20 people. [1:12:26] former Republican voters. And they talked to me about how... [1:12:32] In this particular moment, [1:12:33] They feel like they're getting betrayed by the Trump administration with $1.7 billion for people that assaulted cops that the president's cronies get to control. And then you look at Senator Arjunia, Senator, right? I call her Cindy High Prices because all we got is high prices from her. So, you know, you look at her and she's a part of the corruption. I mean, she's gotten... [1:12:54] campaign contributions from fertilizer companies that are under investigation for price fixing. Wow. Those same fertilizer companies are really hurting our farmers. The tariffs hurt them. Now we got fertilizer costs because of worn our rent up price fixing. She's taking money from she is, you know, I mean, one of the Republican former Mississippi Republicans told me, he said, listen, when I heard about her going to Las Vegas, $10,000 campaign contributions to stay at luxury hotel,

[1:13:24] luxury restaurants. That reminds me of the corruption we're seeing in D.C. And, you know, we got to go in a new direction and just tell us what you're running on. And I'm running on [1:13:34] making everybody's life in Mississippi better. You know, it's... [1:13:37] How do you do that? I mean, you got to talk about the issues. The other thing that I think is important, and this is for everybody listening, it's a mistake I think people are making. We're making it too much about the candidates. We're looking for celebrities to do the profile. Oh, my God, they're great speakers. I think I got a lot of charisma. I think I'm charming. I think I give a good speech. I think you're charming so far. But I'll tell you this, going out there campaigning. [1:13:59] Listen to voters. [1:14:01] I ask voters all the time, what matters to you? The number one answer, someone who does what they say they're going to do. It's not about us. It's about them. We have to make sure voters can trust us again. And that has to be not just running 30-second commercials. We can't advertise our way out this problem. We got to go back and touch voters. We got to gain their trust. And when we get power again, we have to deliver. We have to make sure people understand that their vote matters, that we make their life better. And so that's a big part of my strategy is I really get out there. [1:14:31] anybody following me John I don't know any Senate campaign that campaigns more than me I mean it's three events ever on Saturday and I love voters [1:14:40] I love voters. And I listen to them. You know, I don't just do town halls. I do town halls. But at some point, you're just talking to people that, you know, motivate to vote. Right. I go to the festivals. I go to the housing projects. I'm going to do a food truck where I pull up at the union halls, go to the plants. We got to go to the voters and we got to gain their trust.

[1:15:10] would give the answer that's what we would tell yeah don't be a pundit yeah but now i am a pundit yeah um [1:15:16] So Mike Espy loses by 7.8 in 2018. Yeah. And I remember on that race... [1:15:22] uh consultants on the SB campaign being like hey Mississippi it's gonna happen talk to SB it could and then Hood lost the governor's race by 5.5 in 2019 and then Brandon Presley lost by only 3.2 right in 2023 so it's a narrowing margin absolutely still a margin yeah like what's the theory of the case that you're the one who can actually close it as opposed to being like the next data point where and then and then Scott got even closer yeah I mean some of it's the environment [1:15:50] Right. I mean, you look at 2018, the economy was pretty good in Mississippi. You look at the economy now, the tariffs have been terrible. Nobody talks about how the tariffs have hurt Mississippi. You know, I was talking to a woman, Dollar General Manager. Right. And I was shooting a little commercial in there and I didn't ask her permission. So, you know, you try to, you know, what are you doing with those cameras? Let me do a 15 seconds real quick and get out of here. Direct the camera real quick. [1:16:20] I'm a Senate candidate. I'm running against Cindy Highsmith. She had no idea who that was. And I was like, well, listen, don't worry about her. I'm the guy. And so I started talking to her. I said, listen, how are the customers doing? And she said, you know, they're struggling. I'm seeing them every month trying to figure out, can they pay for diapers? Can they pay for groceries? And prices keep going up. And she was like, I don't know what it is. I don't know what I can do. I feel helpless. So I asked her, I said, what do you think about the tariffs? It was almost like a bust.

[1:16:49] She was like, "Yeah, you know what? It is a tariff. It is a tariff. You're right. They're bad." And- Do people that you talk to connect that? [1:16:58] to the guy they voted for by 23 points? Do they say like tariff, bad, Trump, tariff? Like, do they put it all together? You know, I think tariff is a bad word. You know, I don't know that they always do. I mean, there's a lot of voters that say they know it's bad because it became a popular term here recently. But we need to change the name of it. It really is a working class tax. It's not a tariff. It's a working class tax. It's a sales tax. It's a sales tax. I mean, and it's unfair to working people. It's a terrible way to collect revenue [1:17:28] you know, 15,000 a month or you make 2,000 a month, you're paying the same tax. Yeah. And so, you know, we're connecting the dots for them, but I'll tell you who's really feeling it and they understand it. [1:17:39] are the farmers. I mean, I could tell you story after story about how farmers are struggling in Mississippi and now the fertilizer costs. And the problem is, [1:17:50] You talk about the corruption and how she's allowing the corruption, how she's partaking in it. But then you have to add that she's totally absent in the state. [1:17:57] Yeah. [1:17:58] I mean, she hasn't done a town hall in six years. She does not campaign. I mean, her only strategy is scare tactics. 30-second commercial to scare the voters. Yeah, a recent Democratic internal poll header, I think, at 55% unfavorable. It's like 12 points underwater from Trump in her own state. Why do you think she's so much weaker than the brand?

[1:18:20] You've got a senior senator in that state, I'm sure, Roger Wicker, that's more popular than her. What is the specific Hyde Smith problem as opposed to [1:18:27] generic Republican. You have to think about it this way. You know, when I was a, this is a great way to really bring the story home. When I was a child, my dad was Republican before he supported Obama in 08. He actually was a Republican for Obama. Obama switched them. But anyways, [1:18:44] When I would go to Jackson State football games, at halftime, you would see Thad Cochran at halftime with a $50,000 check going to Jackson State. That's a hard guy to beat. You know what I'm saying? It's hard to get motivated if a guy's bringing $50,000. [1:18:58] And we actually have a tradition in Mississippi of having senators that understand this position has to bring resources back to Mississippi. Trent Lott, I don't agree with him on a lot of things, but he did a lot to bring jobs back. I mean, he was a majority leader at one point. The majority leader was from Mississippi. [1:19:14] her [1:19:15] A big problem is the people, even Republicans are like, excuse me, voters who used to vote Republican. They are like, she is totally MIA. We can't find anywhere. She doesn't do anything. You know, I don't think. [1:19:27] We've ever had a senator that's this absent. And she thinks that all she has to do is be 100 percent MAGA and she can win. But the reality is I've been out there talking to voters and they want somebody that's 100 percent Mississippi because they understand the stakes. It's not like things are going well. If you ask, I mean, you can ask the most loyal Trump supporter right now. Are things going well? They ain't saying yes. Right. You know, they ain't saying yes.

[1:19:57] seniority in the Senate, you'd rank towards the bottom, like all new senators do. So what [1:20:04] You're making the case that she's not bringing home resources to Mississippi. How do you make the case to voters that, like, if you go to the Senate, you'll be able, even though you're one of 100 and sort of, you know, a junior senator, help bring home resources to Mississippi? Yeah, I mean, one, I'm going to use my vote, my voice to really. [1:20:22] to really represent Mississippi. I'm not going there. I keep saying this. I'm not going there to be a celebrity. I'm going there to deliver for Mississippi. And so that gives me leverage because I'm not, you know, if a Republican offers something that makes sense for Mississippi, I'll support it. If a Democrat offers something that makes sense for Mississippi, I'll support it. Now, of course, you're right. You know, as a junior senator, you got to be smart. And what I want to do is I'm going to find issues that Republicans already support. Right. Like economic development is a big thing in Mississippi. [1:20:52] to develop capital, to get our state moving in the right direction. I mean, we're not like L.A. where you got buildings. I mean, you know, every you know, it's really that we spend it wisely. [1:21:06] Well, you know, I'm going to let y'all control that. But, you know, but for Mississippi, we need capital. We need economic development. We've got to be even Republicans, you know, leaders know that. And so that's an area where, you know, I can be impactful. That's really bipartisan. [1:21:22] we got to find, like for me, I got to find smaller problems that I can help solve. Like I had a good friend of mine who mentioned to me that dental care is really bad in Mississippi. It's at the bottom. And so like that's a problem that I can help solve as a senator from Mississippi. That's not a partisan thing. So trying to find solutions to practical problems that makes people's life better. And the other thing that I'm going to do.

[1:21:45] and I've learned this from campaigning so much, is we can't stop campaigning. I mean, I know once you win, you got to govern, but you also better still campaign. Because a place like Mississippi, if they feel like you go to D.C. and you're just making money or just a celebrity, [1:22:01] It's not going to work. So for me, we got to have strong anti-corruption legislation that makes clear that we're not in there making money. You know, that's why I support a ban on stock trading. That's why we can't have people become lobbyists right after they become senators. We got to get the corruption and the perception of it because that helps the people that are openly corrupt. Yeah. Right. Because they can say the people are like, well, you know, they're corrupt, but so is everybody's corrupt. We got to show them we're not corrupt. We're public service. We're not there to make money. [1:22:31] court judge and i learned my ethics and values from my parents and and and and so i was you know i'm really trying to honor their honor their legacy that's why you know it's important to me to be transparent and be somebody that people can trust because i want to honor my parents i also honor the ancestors that sacrificed so much for me to even have this opportunity to talk to you you uh i was just thinking like the last democratic senator [1:22:56] from a state that voted by double digits, this many double, like in the 20s for Trump, was Joe Manchin. Yeah. And his model was like... [1:23:06] Cut deals. [1:23:07] piss off your party constantly, and then vote with the president when it suited the state. Is that your model, too? Well, I think, still to match it,

[1:23:16] Try to get a little bit more attention than I'll try to get. You know, I mean, he does love attention. You know what I mean? So for me, I'm more going to be trying to use my leverage and voice to cut deals that make sense and benefit Mississippi, but not try to be just somebody making constantly complaining about things. [1:23:46] where would you be different than a typical Democrat? Yeah, but we got to talk about economic issues. That's the first thing. I mean, because the people, like, I knew this because... [1:23:53] I had a friend of mine that was a barber. He unfortunately passed away. Shout out to Jasper Pittman. He was a great political head. And so in 2020, when President Biden won, there was a lot of enthusiasm. There was high turnout. And 2021, 2022, he was a Democrat. He started getting sour on the party because of inflation. And then what he felt like was, man, we're talking about sending all this money to Ukraine. We're talking about foreign stuff. Like, man, my life's not gotten better. [1:24:23] prices are up. We got to start talking about me. We got to start talking about the voters. And I was able to convince him that it made sense that we made sure Russia and Putin didn't take over Ukraine. But I was a trusted messenger. And there's too many people that didn't have trusted messenger to help them understand that Democratic Party did care about the fact that inflation was out of control, that we did care about the fact that the border seemed like it

[1:24:53] that a lot of people feel like that hurts workers yeah that hurts workers and so we got to talk about economic issues the other thing is that we have to like [1:25:01] I feel like the last couple of years we've been trying to figure out, you know, [1:25:05] The answer to Trump is, President Trump wants to make everything about himself. He loves that all the attention is on him. And we've been either [1:25:12] making every campaign about him, or trying to find somebody that can be as much of a celebrity, right, as him. Somebody who can... [1:25:19] convince these voters. I think [1:25:21] We got to go back and we got to make our campaigns about the voters again. We have to have candidates that not can only go on a podcast and make a case, but they ask for how I should be able to be comfortable taking 75 selfies. Yeah. Right. Going to a festival where nobody knows them. You got to like people. You got to like people. And that's great for me because I love people. And my opponent, she can't stand Mississippi. I mean, she does not campaign at all. [1:25:44] So the challenge for Democrats, as always, is like, OK, we want to talk about economic issues. We want to talk about making people's lives better. And the Republicans don't let you because they make all the attacks about their favorite issues. Hyde Smith's campaign manager called you the transgender defender, said you were handpicked by Schumer, bankrolled by Soros, soft on crime. All the radical sex changes for children. I just unloaded the clip. All the favorites. Walk me through how you answer that.

[1:26:14] Voter in Mississippi that will hear those ads 15 times between now and November. So I knew that she was going to do that. [1:26:21] I knew exactly all those attacks. It's like one play. Yeah. And so if you look at my campaign announcement ad, I tried to preempt it. Right. So, for example, I know in Mississippi, the way to counter a lot of that stuff is to show people that your life, your life is like theirs. Right. So my announcement ad centered around my family. I've got two daughters. I coach their soccer team. [1:26:41] Listen, I mean, come on. I mean, people are going to fall for that. Like my dream. This is what I tell my daughters. I say, listen, you know, there's not many ways you can disappoint me. But if neither one of you become a basketball player, I am going to be disappointed. [1:26:56] I mean, that work. I mean, one of the junior one, my youngest ones is starting to work because I say, you know, when you get older, if you ever complain. [1:27:04] I'm going to always remind you, I wanted one thing and you didn't deliver for me. So, I mean, and the other thing is, [1:27:10] We got to lead with our values. You know, for me... [1:27:14] I do Soulful Sundays where I talk to church faith leaders and I center them and talk about, you know, there's a lot of, for whatever reason, we've allowed people like Cindy Highsmith to trick voters into thinking that we Democrats don't believe in faith. Democrats don't believe in family. Like I have much more in common than to the average Mississippi family than she does. You know, my wife, she makes me drop the kids off at school sometimes. Cindy Highsmith is never doing that. Right. I go to the soccer game watching my kids play. [1:27:44] doing that i my wife made me go grow with them to keep something my wife makes me do it as a good partner it's a good partner my wife is training me well as a good partner sometimes i have the grocery shop too and so i'm at the grocery store talking to people listening you know my life is like theirs so i'm gonna cut through that mess by showing them how my life is like theirs showing them my family and centering the voters because we know every every monday i drop a video called

[1:28:14] having voters kind of man on the street style asking people to say what matters to them. All the stuff she's attacked me on, no voters ever said that's what matters to them. It's not on their mind. [1:28:25] It's not. So her, you know, for me, if I can raise enough money, [1:28:29] to counter her lies with the truth. [1:28:31] and tell the truth about her, we're going to win. I'm telling you, we're going to win. The win is at my back. So what's the message to a donor in California or New York deciding between writing a check to your race and to say, [1:28:44] North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, even Texas. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably higher on the DSCC list. Yeah. But whoever's making those lists, I mean, what's the results? Right. So maybe we need to redo the list a little bit because Mississippi is a cheaper state to compete in. We're a cheaper state to compete in. But, you know, we have Christian as you and I agree, we have Christian as pie, say Mississippi day. Yeah, this is it. 28 from now on. Now we're going to talk about Mississippi. And the reality is you can't save America unless you say Mississippi. [1:29:14] have to matter. When the country has done well, everybody's paid attention to what's going on in Mississippi. We focus on the voters in Mississippi, making sure that they have quality education, quality health care. We don't let these people that want to take our country back control everything. And when we got, you know, what we've done poorly is we ignore Mississippi. And there's plenty of examples of Mississippi being ignored, and we've seen the results of that. And to get ourselves out of this mess, what we have to remember is rural America matters. We have to have candidates that understand rural America, that [1:29:44] that are not afraid to talk to former Republican voters, and people that are not scared to talk to folks that don't even know who their senator is. Yeah. You know, there's, man, I'm telling you, I'm going to win. People are going to be, other people outside Mississippi are going to be surprised. I'm not going to be surprised. It's been trending that way, as you pointed out. It's been trending that way. But also, we're running a different type of campaign. We're centering the voters, not me. You know, if you look at my videos, I have other people talking. I mean, can I tell you a quick story? Yeah. Yeah.

[1:30:11] I had a waitress at a restaurant. [1:30:14] And it was kind of like he was starstruck at a moment, right? He's like, oh, is that Scott Cologne? Like, oh my God. I said, listen, I'm not a celebrity, guys. What's going on? Tell me what's on your mind. Tell me what matters to you. He said, first, I love that you do that. And I've been waiting to give you my answer if I ever saw you. He said, what matters to me is like the drug prices are up. [1:30:33] because I'm on Medicaid and I had to get worse insurance. Now I'm paying more to get less. I'm struggling. But he told me, listen, I've never voted before. [1:30:41] I never voted before. I'm going to vote for you because you center voters. He didn't say center voters. Right. He said, I love that you have regular people on your videos. You have the barber. You know, you have two kids just, you know, looking at the camera saying, you know, this is why voting matters. I mean, you know, for me, I can feel the momentum and the movement because I am out there listening. And you can do this in Mississippi. You can't do this in every state, but you can do this in Mississippi. [1:31:11] of [1:31:12] Well, it is not an easy thing to do to run for office. Certainly not an easy thing to do in a state like Mississippi when you're a Democrat. And you are I really appreciate that you're that you're doing it and doing it so joyfully. Yeah. Yeah. So good luck out there. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on Pod Save America on Pod Save Mississippi Day. Absolutely. Hey, you know, if you if you if you want to be a part of the movement, go to Scott Colombe dot com. We're building something special Mississippi. I'll come back May 28th next year.

[1:31:42] the senator. Yeah, it will be how I keep my commitments, how we're delivering, because the good thing about you is you understand this is not a I mean, running for office is hard. [1:31:50] But running for office and being a leader is also hard. So we can't stop. That's right. We've got to be constantly keeping it going. So thank you so much for having me. Thanks, Scott. All right. Appreciate it. [1:32:05] That's our show for today. Thanks to Scott Colom for coming by. I'll be back on Sunday with a conversation with our pal Ben Rhodes. He's got a new book about speeches, American speeches and American identity. And so we'll be geeking out about speech writing and talking about America's 250th. So check it out. Bye, everyone. Pods of America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Farrah Safari with Reed Juerlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hefcoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kirill Pellaviv, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. [1:32:35] Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [1:32:40] Summers in New Jersey were made to wow you. From sunning wows to funning wows. [1:32:52] Chilling wows to thrilling wows. So come see what your wow is going to be. New Jersey. It's one summer wow after another after another. Find your wow at visitnj.org. New Jersey. Little state. [1:33:10] Wow. Wow.

[1:33:22] AMU offers flexible online programs designed to fit your schedule so you can keep moving forward wherever life takes you. [1:33:29] Learn more at amu.apus.edu slash military. [1:33:35] open doors to the future for you and your family with the help of American Military University.