August 23, 2025 • 49 mins
As The World Churns’ Andy Levy examines Trump’s authoritarian attack on John Bolton.
California Governor Gavin Newsom details his redistricting response to Texas’s extreme gerrymander.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds, and restaurant reservations in the District of
Columbia have dropped thirty percent since Donald Trump's authoritarian takedown
of the city. We have such a great show for
(00:20):
you today as the world churns Andy Levy stops by
to talk about Trump's authoritarian attack on the rule of
law and America as we know it. Then we'll talk
to California Governor Gavin Newso about how he is fighting
back against Trump and fighting back against Texas is in
(00:42):
Saint Jerry Mander. But first we have the stories the
media is missing.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So Molly, you know they.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Always say this about democracy, that you have to make
the rules. So you defend somebody who you don't like
and you don't agree with.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'll bet it's really going to be tough, but it's
time to defend John Bally.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Here's the truth. John Bolton's sucks. Okay, we can all
agree that guy sucks. He's obnoxious, he's annoying, he's never
met a ward. He does not want to send your
sons and daughters to die in he has a ridiculous mustache.
He's sanctemonious. He's how we got here. John Molton is
as much how we got here as anyone that said
(01:19):
he should not be targeted by Trump's FBI. Let me
explain to you what's happening here, Okay, because I think
it's really important. Donald Trump is doj serves at the
pleasure of Donald Trump. Pam Bondi is like Avonka. She
works for her dad and now here we are so
Pam Bondy jd Vance. And by the way, when confronted
(01:40):
about this, Jade Vance did not say, oh, we are
not connected to the Justice Department the way that a
normal vice president would say in a normal administration. No,
he did not say that. You know what he said.
He said, we are in the very early stages of
an investigation and ongoing investigation into John Bolton. If we
(02:01):
think Ambassador Bolton committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions
will come. There's a broad concern about Ambassador Bolton. Here's
the truth. That is fucking bullshit. That is not how
this is supposed to work. What he should have said
is the Justice Department is operating independently. I don't have
first hand knowledge about that investigation. But you know why
he didn't say that, because the Justice Department is not
(02:25):
operating independently and he does, in fact have first hand
knowledge of this investigation.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You know why, I think I'm starting to get your point.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Tell me, yeah, so, because they're doing this to punish
the president's enemies. And this is what he said he
was going to do, and this is what he is
going to do, and this is where we are and
this is completely wrong in every which way Somali.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Despite the fact that Trump is very unpopular, one of
the more interesting things I think is happening is the
base of the Democratic Party is still not happy with
the way the leadership is behaving. And this is now
evidenced in that Dems are struggling to register voters and
to raise money. What are you seeing here?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Look, you fight against Trump. You are Shared Brown. You
raised three million dollars? Right? Shared Brown is the same
d as everyone else. Right, he's a Democrat? Why is that?
Why is Shared Brown? Why is mon Damie? Why are
there some politicians who are raising money and some who
are not. Why?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think it's this thing when you actually talk to
the voters like a human who represent the actual things
they believe in rather than this bullshit way of talking
and the corporate interest that some members of the party uppold.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You actually get support, right.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You raise money when you fight, you don't raise money
when you don't fight. And here we are, ladies and gentlemen.
This is it. This is the end of the story.
So you can either be a corporatist. You can be
a lackey, you can be an Andrew Cuomo, No, no,
thank you, or you can be someone who speaks to
(04:04):
voters and does what they need. And those are the choices.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, well, now let's talk about what we need to
fight against. The lever fantastic journalist account. What has a
really really good inside look of Prager you moving into
PBS's space. And for those not familiar with Prager you,
I sadly have to be too familiar with Prager you.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Frager You is like bad Sesame Street. Sesame Street teaches
you to love and be accepting and be a good person.
Prager You is basically the opposite.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, it basically is just excuses for why slavery was okay.
Dennis Prager is known for defending Barrital rapid all sorts
of other things. He has just the insane views. You
listening to him is literally like listening to the world backwards.
But the Trump administrations decide this is what kids need
to be reared on, and they're moving forward with us.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's right, baby, Welcome to Trump World. Where they are
is bad. It's just bad. And here we are so prager.
You has little racist cartoons. It's bad. It's not okay.
This is where we are in Trump World.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So by for the listeners who don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Third Way is this lobbying political action organization that largely
preaches centrist, compromising ideas.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And sometimes they come up with good stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, even with my leftyness, I don't want to say
they're all bad, but there's definitely a lot I disagree
with as well. But the freend de Baia to be
and so on and so forth. They have come out
with a memo saying which words Dems shouldn't use. Among
them are unhoused, patriarchy, incarcerated people, allyship Overton window, cultural appropriation.
(05:46):
You and I both said we had feelings for it,
but we want to save it for the listeners to
see what each other thought, which I thought was a
good exercise. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So dumb to publish this, bye, dumb, like you just
made making people make fun of you, right, and Twitter
is all like making they're having a great time making
fun of these blacklisted terms. And that said, are you
going to vote for someone who says they're dialoguing with
me because I'm not. It's a microaggression. I'm not holding
(06:15):
any space for body shaming, subverting norms. It's a system
of oppression and personally, my culture is being appropriated.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
My feeling is this is this is the language of
the left. I existed the Brooklyn I existed. And if
you're a politician and you're talking like this, you're not
talking it away.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That's going to make people like you.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Radical transparency here.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, as a stakeholder, yeah, we need to talk about
these concepts. But when we talk like academics, we sound
like dorks, losers and people no one wants to hang
around with.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Look, man, I don't want to be heteronormative here and
defend the patriarchy. I'm just reading, by the way, I'm
reading the words so you can hear how I'm involuntarily
confined to this podcast. But my allyship is that we
should talk like normal people. It's an existential threat to
my radical transparency.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I'm holding space for this for you, Bally mestal Gloss.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm subverting norms for you.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Is this whole podcast just a system of oppression?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It feels that way for me sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I'm gonna move that over to a window, back to
normal talking like a human. By the way, you could
have just this whole email could have been talk like
a human, which is something that you and I have
talked to Democrats about, endlessly talking like a person.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
We're years in two our made political action committee.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Talk like humans.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's right. Jesse and I are one issue voters, talk
like a people.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah the stockbed you and I are big on Yeah,
oh stock band. Okay, we got one more thing to
deal with here. Molly Trump says, how fire the Fed
governor if she doesn't resign.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Let me tell you something. Donald Trump has found another
black woman to target. It's odd that he just keeps
having problems with black women. It's just interesting to me
that my man seems to be really angry at black women.
Look Lisa Cook. He believes that Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud.
There is no evidence to support that Lisa Cook did that.
(08:21):
It's just that Donald Trump really wants her to quit
or be fired. This is it. And she's also a
black woman. Look, man, these guys said they weren't racist.
They just want to promote white men above everyone else.
Donald Trump is now trying to build a criminal case
against Cook. This is just to try to get a
(08:42):
vacancy at the Central Bank. This is the exact same,
exact same thing as searching John Balton's house. This is
not what they're supposed to do. This is not how
it's supposed to work. This is autocracy. This is Donald
Trump saying I want a central bank that does what
I tell it to do, and so I will intimidate
(09:04):
or prosecute this woman in order to get what I want.
By the way, this is not so stop reporting it
like it's true if you're a reporter. I mean, this
is just what they do. So basically, they allege that
she took a mortgage on a primary residence in Michigan,
only to take another mortgage weeks later on a primary
residence in Georgia. Trump quickly demands that he's resigned. Donald
(09:25):
Trump You'll remember Donald Trump, who recently had a half
billion dollar fine forgive because crime. He can do it.
So I hope that people stand up to him, because
this is the only way any of us even this will.
Andy Leeby is the host of As the World Churns.
(09:47):
Welcome to Fast Politics. Andy Levy, Hi, how are you, Molly?
I am pretty stressed out. I think we have to
talk about the John Bolton situation because that is so
A couple of things happened this week that were really
bad signs, that were like really scary signs of authoritarianism.
(10:09):
And the first one was Texas Governor Greg Abbott. You'll
remember him as the guy who overturned Roe v. Wade
SB eight with Sbaight. He wrote this law that ended
abortion in the state of Texas, undermining the federal law.
And then the Supreme Court said, go for it, man,
(10:31):
you do whatever you want. And now he is giving
Donald Trump five congressional seats with a mid decade Jerry
Mander not tied to a census, but instead tied to
a phone call from Donald J. Trump, and that is
now happening. So that was the first thing that got
me really messed up. The second thing that got me
(10:54):
really messed up was the ICE, which has been allocated
billions and billion dollars more than any other federal agency. Well,
they are now wrapping cars in wraps that say protect
the homeland. So that's number two. And then the third
thing that has really got me worried is this early
(11:14):
morning raid on everyone's least favorite person on the left
and the right, John Bowton discuss.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah, but other than that, missus John Fast, you know
it was a good play. Yeah, exactly. I don't know
for people who are watching this. By the way, I'm
wearing I'm wearing a new hat and it's just plain black,
and so I'm either an ICE agent or I'm John
Cusack in a nineties movie. I can't decide which one correct,
but I like it. Okay, Look, what's going on in
(11:45):
Texas is possibly, out of all the things you just mentioned,
the most dangerous, I think. And they are basically saying,
we know that we can't win elections fairly, and well
(12:07):
Donald Trump is saying that anyway, and so we are
going to do everything in our power to disenfranchise a
large portion of this country. And this is this is
not new for them. This has been a long term.
First of all, this has been a long term goal
of servatism even pre MAGA, but it has definitely accelerated
(12:32):
under MAGA and under a Supreme Court that now feels
free to you know, roll back the voting rights acts
of the nineteen sixties. And so this is a new
tool in the tool box, a new weapon in the arsenal.
I hate to use the phrase because it's associated with
Trump for rigging the vote. And so you know, you
(12:53):
do what you can to get make it as hard
as possible for certain people to vote, those people usually
being poorer, usually having more melanin in their skin than
you or I do. So that's that's step one. And
then step two is you know, you redraw the districts.
You you jigger everything around so that you minimize the importance,
(13:19):
you minimize the worth of the votes of the people.
You couldn't quite kick off the rolls yet. And like
you said, you know, this is not based on the census,
it's not based on anything other than you know, deer
leader who wants it. And and Greg Abbott being one
of the many MAGA people that we see these days
(13:41):
who'd like to proclaim themselves Alpha NLS and in reality,
couldn't be bigger by their terminology, could not be bigger.
Beta cucks to Donald Trump. You know, Donald Trump says
I need more votes, and Greg Abbott says how many.
It's the equivalent of Donald Trump says jump you say
how I right?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And it's what he did. You'll remember during the first
time he lost, when he said to the governor of Georgia,
Brian Camp, find me twenty thousand both right, exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
It's all of a piece. And look, the other stuff
you mentioned is obviously bad. Everything ICE is doing is bad.
I mean, we are at the point if and when
a Democrat ever takes office again, abolish ICE. Can't just
be some random phraze anymore. To me, that's almost like
that's job one. That's you know, people always say on
(14:36):
my first day in office, I will whatever. They always
make first day promises. That should be a first day
action from the next Democratic president. Abolish the fuck out
of it. Just get rid of it. You know, I'm
not saying you don't need some kind of border organization.
We do not need ICE. You talk about a thing
(14:57):
that is rotten to its core. I don't want to
hear any few bad apples type thing. The whole structure,
the whole breakdown of that organization is rotten and it
needs to get gone. So there's that, and then the
Bolton thing is Look again, I don't want to minimize
it because it's awful, regardless of what you think of
John Bolton, but it's the same shit. We're seeing the
(15:20):
same shit over and over again. It's the wenonizing of
the federal government against Donald Trump's perceived enemies.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
It's a DOJ that operates at the pleasure of Donald J.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Trump.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Its job is not to enforce the law. Its job
is to protect Donald J. Trump. And that's it. And
that's so like We've talked about the moments that are
where you break glass, and this feels like a break
glass moment. Yesterday I interviewed Gavin Newsom, not the favorite
of many progressives, in fact, I asked him about that.
(15:53):
But Gavin Newsom has given a lot of people hope.
They have felt that Gavin is fighting for them. Now
I am not I don't have a horse in this race,
but I just can't think of anyone else who is
fighting against Paxton and Abbot the.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Way that he is. I'll try to be politic here.
This is a guy who I do not like doing
something good, and it's the kind of thing that needs
to be done.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I think that's exactly. I mean, I don't think you
have to like him. I'm just thinking about, like, those
are five seats that if Democrats don't get, they're going
to be fucked. And Gavin Newsom is now taking all
this abuse on Fox. You know, is he a political genius? No?
But is he fighting back against them?
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And is there anyone else I'm seeing who's doing that?
I mean, Pritz Gerr. There are people who are fighting back,
but they may not be necessarily breaking through. A good
example is there are a lot of really good Democratic senators.
I mean, Elizabeth Warren was on Chris Hayes last night,
really important talking about you know she's she is. You know,
(17:08):
you can't do better than Elizabeth Warren. But Elizabeth Warren
is now dominating the news cycle right now, and Gavin
is and again, obviously, Gavin's the governor of the fifth
largest economy in the world, so like he has a
lot more power in a certain way. But I also think,
like in the world we are in right now, going
(17:30):
on CNN or going on MSNBC or even going on
ABC or NBC a network. People don't see it, right,
They don't have televisions, they have TikTok they have so
if you're there, nobody cares. So it doesn't you know
what I mean, Like, you either break through or you don't.
And you know that Gavin is in fact breaking through.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
He is for sure breaking through. And again, like you said,
I don't have to particularly like Gavin Newsom, I don't
have to think he should be the Democratic nominee. I'll
be on.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Anyone saying that I hope he's not, but that doesn't
he's not even going to be governor in twenty twenty eight. Yeah,
he'll be out of power.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
But my point is to echo you that doesn't matter.
If he's doing something that is I think good, I'll say, yes,
he's doing something I think is good. And I think
you're absolutely right. And it sucks that we're now in
a jerrymandering arms race, which is clearly only going to
get worse. And you know we're eventually going to end
(18:30):
up with no purple states at all, regardless of what
the population breakdown of that state is, just in terms
of districting. And you and I have talked about this,
and a lot of people have talked about it. Is
we want to see something other than rolling over, and
we want to see something other than okay, but what
they're doing is bad, so we're not going to do
(18:51):
it in a return, which is great. You can sit
up there, you know, with your head in the clouds
because your horse is so high. But in the midst
you're fuck doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
There are ice agents rolling into your town picking up
your I mean, that's the thing. It's like there is
no more time for anything. And that's the thing I'm
so struck by is you know, I got a lot
I'm going to talk about myself now, which I think
is the worst when people talk about themselves, it's very annoying,
(19:22):
especially in any number of ways. But I'm just going
to talk about myself for a minute, which is like
I've gotten a lot of static for a goat for
interviewing Gavin and going on on Bill Maher and you know,
not being being in a world filled with people who
I don't necessarily agree with. And here's what I'm going
to say, there have to be people like us who
(19:45):
go in spaces like that.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
If there aren't people like us, then there are people
who are you know, you and I both know that
I am not more famous than those people. They are
more famous than me. And if I go in that space,
I can represent my pretty lefty views, and if I don't,
then there's someone else in there who is a never
(20:10):
Trump Republican or who is you know. And that's why
we do this because just say David Brooks in may
you know, it may not feel like our people, but
there's a reason for that.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Do you want my take on this? Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Please?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
So my take has always been and this goes back
to when Bernie Sanders was taking shit for going on
Fox News in I want to say twenty was a twenty.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Sixteen, right.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
My feeling is, I agree with you with the caveat
of as long as you're not going into those spaces
to be a punching bag, then go do it. Bernie
Sanders was not going on Fox News to be a
punching bag. Bernie Sanders was going on Fox News to
reach people he would not otherwise run. And it worked
(20:59):
and by the way, and it worked and absolutely and.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
With Rogan, I mean, Rogan is such a good example
because you know you'll hear these people we need a
democratic Joe Rogan. No, Joe Rogan is a Democrat. You
guys just said he wasn't He's not a Democrat the
way we're democrats. But he used to back Bernie Sanders,
So obviously my man is capable of liking democrats. Is
(21:23):
Joe Rogan the perfect messenger as a fusolutely not like
there's a million different things that I don't agree with
them about, endless, endless number of things. But the reality
is like you're either in front of his eighty million
viewers or you're not.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yeah, it just comes down to being prepared and being
you know, unwilling to put up with the bullshit. And
you know Bernie Sanders that Pete Budagett, Buddha Judge did
that wait when he would go on Fox News a
lot and again not my favorite guy in the world. Whatever,
it doesn't matter. I have no problem with him going
on Fox and spitting facts and throwing shit back in
(22:00):
the faces of the anchors and hosts there. That's doing
good to me. If you're using those platforms to spread
your word and to counter their word, then why not,
Like I just I have never understood the oh you
shouldn't go on things. Again, you shouldn't go on and
(22:22):
roll over, you shouldn't go on and play their games.
But if you go on with the mindset that you're
not going to do that, if you go on a
Joe Rogan, if you go on to Bill Maher, if
you go on Fox News, and your attitude is I
am going to spit facts and make fun of these
people and laugh at them and show how they're wrong,
(22:42):
and maybe I will reach some people by doing that. Yeah,
I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, I think that there are no other choices at
this moment. So let's talk about sort of what we
think about this moment. Democrats, what could what would be
the realm response to this? Okay, we have the Justice
Department acting like an arm of the Trump administration. We
(23:08):
have ICE taking over the district of Columbia. I mean,
it strikes me that that protests and people getting loud
is probably the only saying that keeps our constitutional democracy
going at this moment.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I think it's pretty much the only thing that we
can do, we the people. I think there are things
that maybe the people that we have put in in
office can do. Look, and it's along the lines of
things that Gavin Newsom is doing. I could come up
with a million things and they could easily be shot
down as well. That could never happen, and that's ridiculous.
(23:46):
And also, you know, there's the whole the ramifications of
them might not be great, but look, we all know
that when it comes to the distribution of federal money,
the Blue states put in, the Red States takeout. So
I I mean, if this is how they're going to be,
and if the Red states are gonna send National Guard
troops to Blue cities or whatever to help take them over,
(24:11):
it might be.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Time to stop. It might be federal taxes. It might
be to space to hold their federal taxes because like,
for example, the District of Columbia right now has a
billion dollars of tax money that is sitting being held
by the federal government. So that billion dollars is money
that DC residents have paid in taxes that Donald J.
(24:35):
Trump you may remember him, is holding in a federal government,
you know, because it was not allocated in the BBB,
because the BBB was busy just giving money to ice
and taking money away from Medicaid and medicare.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Yeah, and I know people, well Congress isn't in session
right now, so they're not in DC. Get on a
fuck your plane, fly back to DC. Congressmen, got young
women senators, get out there, join these protests, get out
on the streets, and maybe instead of just posting, you know,
sending off a tweet saying you know, this must stop
(25:09):
or we must we need to look into this, go
fucking do something. And don't get turned away by security
like y'all did when Doge was taking over. Get out
there and mix it up and let people see that
you care, and let people see that you know that
what's going on is basically the opening moves of a
(25:33):
fascist coup. To sound all conspiratorial and out of.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Control that I think it's not.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I don't I it's not.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I don't think there's other I mean, this does not
look like the American democracy that either of us have
lived through.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
No, no, but I feel like they're spending We've got
a bunch of Democrats spending more time going after a
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate than they are going
after what is happening in Washington, DC right now. And
that is pathetic. And again, all those people I want
(26:08):
them speak, I know and that's.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
The speaker of the House. I mean he's not the Speakerader.
Yeah right, but I mean he can't endorse Mondanie. But
I think like it's fair to say the center needs
to be more focused on the right, but the left
also needs to be more focused on the right. Like
everyone needs to be focused on the takedown that's happening
(26:31):
right now of our federal government, and that is where
it is. Andy Levy, we come back.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I will. I will huddle with my advisors.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
You'll have your adviser.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I'll huddle with my advisors, and they will reach out
to your people.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Gavin Newsom is the governor of California. Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Governor Newsom, it's good to be with you.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
It has been like the last two weeks you've had
this incredible social media breakthrough that I think, as much
as the redistricting has also been a part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
So I'd love you to explain to us what happened.
What was the moment that you were like, Okay, this
is not business as usual, we have to really get
going on this.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
I think there wasn't one particular moment. I think it's
a process that unfolded over the course of many months,
going back candidly to January, going back to the early
days of Donald Trump's transition, where he was transitioning back
into familiar talking points about water policy in California and
completely lying, misrepresenting facts and truths and advancing myths that
(27:47):
were popularized on Fox and One, American News and Newsmax
and on right wing blogs. And then we're amplified to
a whole other level by Elon Musk at the time.
And it was a challenging moment because those first few days,
they were winning the messaging battle in the middle of
those fires as we're trying to put them out. Unprecedented
winter firestorms one hundred miles in our winds attached to fires.
(28:10):
And as a consequence of that, we had to get
back on our toes and we had to shift in
terms of our mindset. But that was reinforced and forgive
them long windedness once again, when the National Guard was federalized,
when we saw seven hundred active duty marines going in
the streets of an American city, not active duty marines
sent overseas, which Donald Trump has never done, but to
(28:32):
the United States of America and the second largest city
that happens to be in my state, and my state
of mind radically changed at that moment, and our media
shift changed, our up research, our clarity, our focus, conditions changed.
So we had to change, and we were no longer
apologetic about things. I wasn't trying to play nice, and
(28:53):
I know a lot of good people. Just play nice.
Talk about what you really focused on every day, and
people will pay attention your ten point plan on affordability
and talk about kitchen table issues. We've been doing that
every damn day for years and years and years, with
all due respect, and that doesn't get picked up, and
then we're chasing lies and misrepresentations and untruth and so
(29:15):
about a few weeks ago, as it relates to this redistricting,
we decided, yeah, we're going to punch him back, and
we're going to put a mirror up to the absurdity
that is Donald Trump and that's all this is. And
we're going to put up a mirror to his acolytes
in the media, to Sean Hannity, yes sorry, Sean, to
not just you, but Laura Ingram, to Jesse Waters and
Gutfeld and all of these folks that are literally part
(29:37):
of his you know, chotbots that every day are just
spewing these lies and misrepresentations without any consideration or consciousness
to how offensive and absurd and laughable Donald Trump's all
kept true socials are and his posing in pictures is,
you know, a pope or a superman. And so I
(29:58):
hope we've begun to expose a lot a little bit
of that, and I think that is required at this
moment as well.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
You know, there's a lot of academics who have written
about this idea that when you're faced with an autocrat,
they really hate it when you make fun of them.
And I'm thinking of like Charlie Chaplin. You know, there
is a long history of trying to like inject humor
sort of into pushing back against photocracy. I wonder if
(30:25):
you could talk about and we know Trump hates to
be laughed at. Yeah, do you just talk to me
about that?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
No, Look, we've tried everything. One thing about me is,
you know, I'm willing to try new things. I'm willing
to iterate. It's one thing that carries with me in
my private life as a small business person that's created
twenty three jobs. And I'm not trying to say that
to impress you, but impress upon you an entrepreneurial mindset
that I've brought into the work I've done as mayor,
lieutenant governor, and now governor. I want to increase the
(30:53):
number of tries, see what works. You miss a one
hundred percent of the shots you don't take, and so
I've been doing that. I hope people some people paid
a little tension going on Fox meeting people where they
are debating Ron DeSantis opening up a pack, but only
focusing on parts of the country that Democrats, with all
due respect, haven't been focused on in Mississippi and Arkansas,
(31:14):
in some of the more conservative parts and rural parts
of our country. And this is part and parcel of that,
a willingness to try new things to see what works.
But what's interesting about this is how it's gotten under
their skin. What's interesting about this is we put a
lens up they have to in some a mirror right
back at them, and we've exposed their their their their
situational unawareness, their tone, deafness, and interesting more than anything else,
(31:39):
we've actually broken through from a communications perspective using humor,
but also well, I think culture as well. I think
this is also part of why Trump is so successful
his ability. He captures that in those images. He captures culture,
he captures memes, he captures moments, and he also captures
mindshare because it is humorous. People do look forward to
(32:01):
his next true social We may deny it, but we're
all tuned in as press conferences because we don't know
what's going to come next. And I think there's something
to learn about that. It's all changed. It's all changed.
We have to change. We can't blind the margins and
we can't go slow anymore.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, I think that's right. Now, talk to me about
the redistricting. So Texas, we have a lot of Republicans
who want Donald Trump to support them that wants to
run maybe for president. Paxton wants to run for Senate.
There's a lot of ambition. Donald Trump says, get me
five seats, talk us through what happens.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Well, there's a lot of ambition, and then there's just cowardice.
I mean, just did a perfect little sheep, yes, sir,
and and he dialed up says he's quote unquote in
titled titled to five seats. Just to stop right there.
That should be a week of just reporting on that statement.
From President of United States, the encroaching authoritarianism of a
statement just alone like that which God lost in all
(32:59):
of this. And of course these lapdogs said, yes, sir,
and oh yes, and we're going to send the vice
president to Indiana and oh Ron dissent is not turned
out yet. Hey I'm here, Hey Donald May, I'm here.
I'll do what we can do more others in Missouri. Now,
obviously what's happening already was already pre existing happening in Ohio.
(33:21):
So this is serious. It's very serious, and I appreciate.
I watched some of my friends, some pundits of former
governor saying, you know, two wrongs don't make it right.
I get it. But the world's changed. We have to change.
It's not just thinking a new it's acting a new.
And I think what we're trying to do on redistricting
is that that distinction, and I think it's a critical distinction.
It's not good enough to identify a problem anymore. It's
(33:42):
not good enough to talk a big game. We've got
to deliver now. People have had it. The Democratic Party
appears weak, we appear feckless. We're not delivering these results
that people demand. Trump followed the old Clinton playbook. Strong
and wrong beats weak and right. We can act tore
them now, so right and righteous, academically pure. But we're
(34:05):
getting rolled here, and democracy is in peril. And so
from my perspective, there was a sense of urgency. The
California Coggressional delegation understood that they moved, and the California
Legislature is moving, and now we're going to ask the people.
We the people on November fourth, the special election. The
most transparent redistricting in US history. There's never been a
(34:28):
state that's put up its maps to the people. And
that marks as well the moral authority we're bringing to this,
not just the formal authority on our redistricting.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Approach five seats. Theoretically, I wonder if you could explain
to us sort of it feels like the polling people
are with you on this polling right, The polling says
that seventy percent of Democrats don't want to do this
partisan redistricting bought as a response to Republicans. They want
(34:58):
to do it. It's sixty eight percent. So clearly you
are on people are agreeing with you here. Is that
the sense you're getting I've certainly heard Republicans making noise
about this, but I haven't really heard people who understand
how important it is to check TROUMP making Well.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
It's okay, So full disclosure, so folks know who they're
listening or watching. I support. I've long supported independent redistricting,
and I was actually you know, mayor of San Franscot
at the time broke with my party on this was
very public coming out against the repeal of independent redistricting.
So I've long supported it, and that's why for me,
this needed to be done in a temporary manner in
(35:35):
response to the shots fired from Texas and these other
Republican states. This is not a fight we wanted, but
it's a fight we're happy to take on. And we're
going to fight, as I said, fire with fire, and
we're going to do so in a transparent way. By
putting the maps up in a democratic way, we're maintaining
the independent redistricting. We're not eliminating it. It goes back
(35:55):
to its original form after the thirty census, and it's
just for Congression will maintain the independent redistricting status for
existing legislative races and the like. And so it's in
response again to this existential moment, moment marked by the
campaign kickoff just a week ago, of all places, the
(36:15):
Democracy Center Little Tokyo in LA. The exact site, I
don't mean next story, the exact same site we were
picking up people and bussing them for the Japanese internment.
And you know what Trump did. Trump sent his thugs masked.
He sent his spokesperson for border patrol to that exact site.
(36:37):
That is a preview of things to come. I guarantee you.
I said this with the National Guard. I don't know
what more evidence y'all need in DC right now. It
was a preview of things to come. He's testing things
out in my home state. He will send these folks
out to chill voter turnout, around voting boosts, around polling
places this November. In next November, we are on the
(37:00):
other side of things. Everyone needs to wake up. With
all due respect to the precious pundits out there, they're
holding onto a world that literally is disappearing in front
of us, and it's gone. It will be gone unless
we do things differently and meet this moment. So that's
where my energy is and that's where I hope the
(37:21):
voters are. This November.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So I landed in La last week to do Belle
Maher landed, got into my hotel, turned on the television,
was watching your presser on KTLA, the local station, and
watching them arrest people outside a terrifying split screen.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah, and it's happened. This is America. That was not
a split screen in Orbon's Hungary. That was not something
happened in Turkey. That was not something happening in our
favorite countries that we the access of evil countries. That's
the United States of America where Donald Trump, the same
city where he said seven hundred active duty Marines. Again,
I'll remind people, the president of the United States seven
(38:00):
hundred active duty Marines to Los Angeles, federalized four thousand
National Guard indiscriminately. At that same moment, what you watched
was a poor guy selling strawberries, hardly on the list
of the most dangerous and vile criminals that we had
to attack. That was attacking free speech, assembly, It was
(38:21):
attacking the rule of law. It was creating a chill,
just like JD. Vance's masterclass of weakness yesterday with that
guy Stephen Miller standing there with the Secretary of Defense,
the Pentagon standing there a Union station in Washington, d C.
With the military behind them. This is not just encroaching
authoritarianism if you're black or brown, particularly if you're a
(38:44):
Latino in this country. Authoritarianism has already arrived in the
United States of America. So we need to arrive to
this moment soberly, and we've got to do things differently.
And again, with all due respect to the timidity and
the neutrality that I'm hearing from Democrats or even modern Republicans,
you should know better, and shame on you. There is
(39:06):
no do over. This could disappear very quickly. This is
happening in playing site before a vote's cast. You saw
what happened after the votes were cast as he tried
to light democracy on fire and wreck this country and
dial up for twelve thousand votes with the Secretary of
State in Georgia. And now he's doing it in plain site.
It is on our watch. We own this society becomes
(39:28):
how we behave We are now complicit at this moment
unless we do something to change this.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
They have gotten so angry at you. I mean, we
can see the MAGA machine is absolutely terrified of this pushback.
How has it been for you.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
Look, I got four kids. I'll be honest with you.
It's thrilling in this respect. I get to look them
in the eyes and say, you know what I'm trying,
because you know what, they're getting bullied in their class.
I had one of my kids had to be homeschooled
year ago, and I say that to make a point,
not to no one cares about you know, that's politics,
Get over it. But I wasn't doing enough for them.
And I feel like at this moment, I'm just putting
(40:07):
it all out there. I'm on the other side of
caring what so and so says on a morning show. Okay,
I just I am in. The ultimate test for me
is that rocking tear test when I can look at
these kids in the eye and said, I did everything
I could to make the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
peel as good as the two hundred and forty ninth
or two hundred and forty eight. This may be the
best moment that we've experience, or at least the last
(40:30):
great moment of our democracy, the best of the Roman
Republic of Greek democracy, the co equal branch is the government.
This notion of the rule of law and this fundamental
notion of popular sovereignty. He doesn't believe in any of
those things, period, full stop. And it's just it's incredible.
You talk to vote by mail, you talk about these threats.
(40:51):
Eighty percent of Californians voted by mail last year. This
is serious, serious moment, And so at that question, I
just feel I feel, I feel like I can hold
myself to a higher level of accountability at this moment.
I'm trying to do my best.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah, you know, I actually had a moment like that
with my kids too, where I was like, you know what,
they elected him, but I wonder if you could talk
for a minute. You did this amazing, amazing debate with
DeSanto's and it was actually like it just showed you
were just really facile. That is a very hard thing
as someone who has really struggled with that, and you
(41:32):
really did debate. You know, DeSantis does a lot of
the MAGA stuff very well. He's not charismatic like Trump,
but he's able to sort of bob and weave in
a MAGA way talk us through what it's like to
push back against MAGA like that.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Well, it just it's the miss and disrepresentation these weaponization
of agreements. You see on Fox the bullshit twenty four
to seven emanating from that. But they've shaped shifted everything. Look,
I got to give it to DeSantis in this respect.
You know, three four years ago he was not only winning,
he was shaping the narrative. We were responding to CRT
(42:09):
you know, ESG and now it's become DEI Woke, the
anti Woke Act. He was rewriting history quite literally, censoring
historical facts. He was making it illegal to say things
in the classroom and the boardroom as well. And when
I say rewriting history, remember they had a social studies
book that changed in the state of Florida to take
the race of Rosa Parks out of that social studies book.
(42:31):
They've been on a banning bitch, a cultural purge, and
we were on the receiving end and I couldn't take
it anymore. And we're sitting there and it's just the
Pied Piper folks that are over at Fox playing into that,
and I thought, look, I got to break into this.
Eight out of ten murder states are red states. The
number of people dying in gun violence in these states,
the fact that deaths of despair and the life, you know,
(42:52):
expectancy and maternal mortality and infant mortality and wages and
uninsured rates. I mean, how in the hell are Democrats
losing to these guys? And I just thought I'd take
a flyer and have a two on one debate with
Hannity and with DeSantis on Fox. He wouldn't have agreed
to any other platform, DeSantis than that layup.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
You clearly are hitting a nerve with this pushback, with
the satire, with the ability to really meet them where
they are. You know, they're going to take five seats.
You're going to take five seeds. You know this kind
of I mean, people really want this and need this.
Progressives don't like you.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
Why.
Speaker 5 (43:30):
I don't know the guy that did a twenty dollars
minimum wage for fast food workers, twenty five for healthcare workers.
It's the only state in America with universal health care
regardless of pre existing conditions or ability to pay. They
created a brand new grade preschool for all, after school
for all, fourteen billion dollar investment, and summer school for all.
That's done more on climate change in any other state
(43:50):
in America, more in terms of support for childcare workers,
and a new bargaining unit across the spectrum. A lot
of what progressives assert we've delivered in the state of California.
But yeah, I balance budgets. I'm not a tax and
spend liberal. I don't believe you need to be profligate
to be progressive. And maybe that's the line that's been
(44:11):
drawn for some. But look, I'm proud of the progressive
wing of my party as I am proud of the
moderate wing. I think we need to have a bigger ten.
I think we need to win. I think it's time
to be smash mouth. It's time to be aggressive, it's
time to get on our toes, and it's time to
get all back up into the game. And you know,
we may have some interesting differences, as Bill Clinton would say,
but it'd be nice of this party starting your night
(44:32):
around are things that bind us together, and right now,
it's not just anti Trump. There are a lot of
values that define the best of our party and racial justice,
social justice, economic justice, and I just like to see
this party come back together across those differences. And right now,
we just don't have time and I don't have the
energy to get into all the little modest points of
(44:55):
difference differentiation. We need all of us to step up
and roll in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
One last question with this redistrict, and we are in
uncharted territory, right, none of this should be legal. But
because the Voting Rights Act has been chipped away and
this Supreme Court is so maga, we are in this place.
Do you feel like there's a chance. I mean, you
clearly have a lot of insight into what's going to
(45:21):
happen with the judiciary. Do you think there's a chance
that the courts are like, just stop this arms race?
Speaker 5 (45:26):
Not a chance at l with the Supreme Court. These
guys are this is this guys are wired. I mean,
these guys created the conditions that we're experiencing right now.
They open this door, they throw out the Voting Rights Act.
I mean, if they throw out any of the racial
components of this, which is where they were trying to
at least allegedly trying to be careful in terms of
the conversations they were having on the floor of the
Texas Legislature in the last few days. But they throw
(45:48):
that out any pretense of that. You're talking about dozens
and dozens of seats that could be rewirired and reworked,
all across this country. You saw Trump last night and
this morning, one hundred seats he's trying to get now
across this country. So we're in a race, race for democracy,
a race for the future. Again, it's not just about
our party, the Democratic Party. It's a race for power.
And I'm talking about the power invested in the people,
(46:11):
not in government. And this is a takeover from the
power of the people, the power of one person, the
rule of dawn. That's what this is about. And I
have no interest in the dawn of the end of
this extraordinary two hundred and fifty year enduring experiment. And
all of us need to wake up. All of us
(46:31):
need to galvanize around us, and none of us can
be timid at this moment.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
And a moment.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Jesse Cannon Molly, I have to tell you, this is
like one of those stories that I feel should be
front page everywhere but is getting buried by the million
other insane things that are happening. Ice just gassed a
public school for protesting and try to get them to
submit to their will.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
This is an insane story. This is from ABC News.
Speaker 5 (46:59):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Fuck, I was like, this can't be true. This is
like another day where I'm like, this can't be true.
Immigration and custin Enforcement complex in Portland has become a
nearly nightly flashpoint this summer for local activists demonstrating against
the Trump administration's vast deportation. So by day the protesters
directly at passerbys, carrying messages like you're not safe. So anyway,
(47:21):
So basically they tured gassed a public school into submission.
So this is what happened. They the demonstrators have been
non violent, but a nearby public school has been forced
to abandon its longtime campus citing threats to student health.
But the gases weren't for them, they were for the protesters.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
They're not gassing a school. They're gassing the protesters, which
we have a long and storied history in this country
of gassing protesters. But anyway, the appointment of chemical irants
by federal agents has created fear in the neighborhood. Locals
have posted biohazardous warning signs the area has been sprayed
with your guests in toxic chemicals. So this school is
(48:04):
basically has to abandon its campus because it has been
gassed and because it may be still toxic from some
of the chemicals they used on the protesters. This an
emergency move, but they just don't think it's safe for
the kids. It's a charter school, publicly funded, and it
focuses kinder learn to eighth grade. So look, this is
(48:27):
like one of these second order things that happens with
trump Ism, you know, money to ice, Ice gases kids.
It doesn't gas kids, but ice gases protesters. Protesters are
in the school, the school gets gassed, so it's like
a second order protest. It's it's all bad, but it's
just inadvertent kind of way that this happened. So yeah, no,
(48:51):
it's so, so bad, so bad. That's it for this
episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make
sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,
(49:12):
please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds, and restaurant reservations in the District of
Columbia have dropped thirty percent since Donald Trump's authoritarian takedown
of the city. We have such a great show for
(00:20):
you today as the world churns Andy Levy stops by
to talk about Trump's authoritarian attack on the rule of
law and America as we know it. Then we'll talk
to California Governor Gavin Newso about how he is fighting
back against Trump and fighting back against Texas is in
(00:42):
Saint Jerry Mander. But first we have the stories the
media is missing.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So Molly, you know they.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Always say this about democracy, that you have to make
the rules. So you defend somebody who you don't like
and you don't agree with.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'll bet it's really going to be tough, but it's
time to defend John Bally.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Here's the truth. John Bolton's sucks. Okay, we can all
agree that guy sucks. He's obnoxious, he's annoying, he's never
met a ward. He does not want to send your
sons and daughters to die in he has a ridiculous mustache.
He's sanctemonious. He's how we got here. John Molton is
as much how we got here as anyone that said
(01:19):
he should not be targeted by Trump's FBI. Let me
explain to you what's happening here, Okay, because I think
it's really important. Donald Trump is doj serves at the
pleasure of Donald Trump. Pam Bondi is like Avonka. She
works for her dad and now here we are so
Pam Bondy jd Vance. And by the way, when confronted
(01:40):
about this, Jade Vance did not say, oh, we are
not connected to the Justice Department the way that a
normal vice president would say in a normal administration. No,
he did not say that. You know what he said.
He said, we are in the very early stages of
an investigation and ongoing investigation into John Bolton. If we
(02:01):
think Ambassador Bolton committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions
will come. There's a broad concern about Ambassador Bolton. Here's
the truth. That is fucking bullshit. That is not how
this is supposed to work. What he should have said
is the Justice Department is operating independently. I don't have
first hand knowledge about that investigation. But you know why
he didn't say that, because the Justice Department is not
(02:25):
operating independently and he does, in fact have first hand
knowledge of this investigation.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You know why, I think I'm starting to get your point.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Tell me, yeah, so, because they're doing this to punish
the president's enemies. And this is what he said he
was going to do, and this is what he is
going to do, and this is where we are and
this is completely wrong in every which way Somali.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Despite the fact that Trump is very unpopular, one of
the more interesting things I think is happening is the
base of the Democratic Party is still not happy with
the way the leadership is behaving. And this is now
evidenced in that Dems are struggling to register voters and
to raise money. What are you seeing here?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Look, you fight against Trump. You are Shared Brown. You
raised three million dollars? Right? Shared Brown is the same
d as everyone else. Right, he's a Democrat? Why is that?
Why is Shared Brown? Why is mon Damie? Why are
there some politicians who are raising money and some who
are not. Why?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think it's this thing when you actually talk to
the voters like a human who represent the actual things
they believe in rather than this bullshit way of talking
and the corporate interest that some members of the party uppold.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You actually get support, right.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You raise money when you fight, you don't raise money
when you don't fight. And here we are, ladies and gentlemen.
This is it. This is the end of the story.
So you can either be a corporatist. You can be
a lackey, you can be an Andrew Cuomo, No, no,
thank you, or you can be someone who speaks to
(04:04):
voters and does what they need. And those are the choices.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, well, now let's talk about what we need to
fight against. The lever fantastic journalist account. What has a
really really good inside look of Prager you moving into
PBS's space. And for those not familiar with Prager you,
I sadly have to be too familiar with Prager you.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Frager You is like bad Sesame Street. Sesame Street teaches
you to love and be accepting and be a good person.
Prager You is basically the opposite.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, it basically is just excuses for why slavery was okay.
Dennis Prager is known for defending Barrital rapid all sorts
of other things. He has just the insane views. You
listening to him is literally like listening to the world backwards.
But the Trump administrations decide this is what kids need
to be reared on, and they're moving forward with us.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's right, baby, Welcome to Trump World. Where they are
is bad. It's just bad. And here we are so prager.
You has little racist cartoons. It's bad. It's not okay.
This is where we are in Trump World.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So by for the listeners who don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Third Way is this lobbying political action organization that largely
preaches centrist, compromising ideas.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And sometimes they come up with good stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, even with my leftyness, I don't want to say
they're all bad, but there's definitely a lot I disagree
with as well. But the freend de Baia to be
and so on and so forth. They have come out
with a memo saying which words Dems shouldn't use. Among
them are unhoused, patriarchy, incarcerated people, allyship Overton window, cultural appropriation.
(05:46):
You and I both said we had feelings for it,
but we want to save it for the listeners to
see what each other thought, which I thought was a
good exercise. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So dumb to publish this, bye, dumb, like you just
made making people make fun of you, right, and Twitter
is all like making they're having a great time making
fun of these blacklisted terms. And that said, are you
going to vote for someone who says they're dialoguing with
me because I'm not. It's a microaggression. I'm not holding
(06:15):
any space for body shaming, subverting norms. It's a system
of oppression and personally, my culture is being appropriated.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
My feeling is this is this is the language of
the left. I existed the Brooklyn I existed. And if
you're a politician and you're talking like this, you're not
talking it away.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That's going to make people like you.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Radical transparency here.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, as a stakeholder, yeah, we need to talk about
these concepts. But when we talk like academics, we sound
like dorks, losers and people no one wants to hang
around with.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Look, man, I don't want to be heteronormative here and
defend the patriarchy. I'm just reading, by the way, I'm
reading the words so you can hear how I'm involuntarily
confined to this podcast. But my allyship is that we
should talk like normal people. It's an existential threat to
my radical transparency.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I'm holding space for this for you, Bally mestal Gloss.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm subverting norms for you.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Is this whole podcast just a system of oppression?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It feels that way for me sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I'm gonna move that over to a window, back to
normal talking like a human. By the way, you could
have just this whole email could have been talk like
a human, which is something that you and I have
talked to Democrats about, endlessly talking like a person.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
We're years in two our made political action committee.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Talk like humans.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's right. Jesse and I are one issue voters, talk
like a people.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah the stockbed you and I are big on Yeah,
oh stock band. Okay, we got one more thing to
deal with here. Molly Trump says, how fire the Fed
governor if she doesn't resign.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Let me tell you something. Donald Trump has found another
black woman to target. It's odd that he just keeps
having problems with black women. It's just interesting to me
that my man seems to be really angry at black women.
Look Lisa Cook. He believes that Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud.
There is no evidence to support that Lisa Cook did that.
(08:21):
It's just that Donald Trump really wants her to quit
or be fired. This is it. And she's also a
black woman. Look, man, these guys said they weren't racist.
They just want to promote white men above everyone else.
Donald Trump is now trying to build a criminal case
against Cook. This is just to try to get a
(08:42):
vacancy at the Central Bank. This is the exact same,
exact same thing as searching John Balton's house. This is
not what they're supposed to do. This is not how
it's supposed to work. This is autocracy. This is Donald
Trump saying I want a central bank that does what
I tell it to do, and so I will intimidate
(09:04):
or prosecute this woman in order to get what I want.
By the way, this is not so stop reporting it
like it's true if you're a reporter. I mean, this
is just what they do. So basically, they allege that
she took a mortgage on a primary residence in Michigan,
only to take another mortgage weeks later on a primary
residence in Georgia. Trump quickly demands that he's resigned. Donald
(09:25):
Trump You'll remember Donald Trump, who recently had a half
billion dollar fine forgive because crime. He can do it.
So I hope that people stand up to him, because
this is the only way any of us even this will.
Andy Leeby is the host of As the World Churns.
(09:47):
Welcome to Fast Politics. Andy Levy, Hi, how are you, Molly?
I am pretty stressed out. I think we have to
talk about the John Bolton situation because that is so
A couple of things happened this week that were really
bad signs, that were like really scary signs of authoritarianism.
(10:09):
And the first one was Texas Governor Greg Abbott. You'll
remember him as the guy who overturned Roe v. Wade
SB eight with Sbaight. He wrote this law that ended
abortion in the state of Texas, undermining the federal law.
And then the Supreme Court said, go for it, man,
(10:31):
you do whatever you want. And now he is giving
Donald Trump five congressional seats with a mid decade Jerry
Mander not tied to a census, but instead tied to
a phone call from Donald J. Trump, and that is
now happening. So that was the first thing that got
me really messed up. The second thing that got me
(10:54):
really messed up was the ICE, which has been allocated
billions and billion dollars more than any other federal agency. Well,
they are now wrapping cars in wraps that say protect
the homeland. So that's number two. And then the third
thing that has really got me worried is this early
(11:14):
morning raid on everyone's least favorite person on the left
and the right, John Bowton discuss.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah, but other than that, missus John Fast, you know
it was a good play. Yeah, exactly. I don't know
for people who are watching this. By the way, I'm
wearing I'm wearing a new hat and it's just plain black,
and so I'm either an ICE agent or I'm John
Cusack in a nineties movie. I can't decide which one correct,
but I like it. Okay, Look, what's going on in
(11:45):
Texas is possibly, out of all the things you just mentioned,
the most dangerous, I think. And they are basically saying,
we know that we can't win elections fairly, and well
(12:07):
Donald Trump is saying that anyway, and so we are
going to do everything in our power to disenfranchise a
large portion of this country. And this is this is
not new for them. This has been a long term.
First of all, this has been a long term goal
of servatism even pre MAGA, but it has definitely accelerated
(12:32):
under MAGA and under a Supreme Court that now feels
free to you know, roll back the voting rights acts
of the nineteen sixties. And so this is a new
tool in the tool box, a new weapon in the arsenal.
I hate to use the phrase because it's associated with
Trump for rigging the vote. And so you know, you
(12:53):
do what you can to get make it as hard
as possible for certain people to vote, those people usually
being poorer, usually having more melanin in their skin than
you or I do. So that's that's step one. And
then step two is you know, you redraw the districts.
You you jigger everything around so that you minimize the importance,
(13:19):
you minimize the worth of the votes of the people.
You couldn't quite kick off the rolls yet. And like
you said, you know, this is not based on the census,
it's not based on anything other than you know, deer
leader who wants it. And and Greg Abbott being one
of the many MAGA people that we see these days
(13:41):
who'd like to proclaim themselves Alpha NLS and in reality,
couldn't be bigger by their terminology, could not be bigger.
Beta cucks to Donald Trump. You know, Donald Trump says
I need more votes, and Greg Abbott says how many.
It's the equivalent of Donald Trump says jump you say
how I right?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And it's what he did. You'll remember during the first
time he lost, when he said to the governor of Georgia,
Brian Camp, find me twenty thousand both right, exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
It's all of a piece. And look, the other stuff
you mentioned is obviously bad. Everything ICE is doing is bad.
I mean, we are at the point if and when
a Democrat ever takes office again, abolish ICE. Can't just
be some random phraze anymore. To me, that's almost like
that's job one. That's you know, people always say on
(14:36):
my first day in office, I will whatever. They always
make first day promises. That should be a first day
action from the next Democratic president. Abolish the fuck out
of it. Just get rid of it. You know, I'm
not saying you don't need some kind of border organization.
We do not need ICE. You talk about a thing
(14:57):
that is rotten to its core. I don't want to
hear any few bad apples type thing. The whole structure,
the whole breakdown of that organization is rotten and it
needs to get gone. So there's that, and then the
Bolton thing is Look again, I don't want to minimize
it because it's awful, regardless of what you think of
John Bolton, but it's the same shit. We're seeing the
(15:20):
same shit over and over again. It's the wenonizing of
the federal government against Donald Trump's perceived enemies.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
It's a DOJ that operates at the pleasure of Donald J.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Trump.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Its job is not to enforce the law. Its job
is to protect Donald J. Trump. And that's it. And
that's so like We've talked about the moments that are
where you break glass, and this feels like a break
glass moment. Yesterday I interviewed Gavin Newsom, not the favorite
of many progressives, in fact, I asked him about that.
(15:53):
But Gavin Newsom has given a lot of people hope.
They have felt that Gavin is fighting for them. Now
I am not I don't have a horse in this race,
but I just can't think of anyone else who is
fighting against Paxton and Abbot the.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Way that he is. I'll try to be politic here.
This is a guy who I do not like doing
something good, and it's the kind of thing that needs
to be done.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I think that's exactly. I mean, I don't think you
have to like him. I'm just thinking about, like, those
are five seats that if Democrats don't get, they're going
to be fucked. And Gavin Newsom is now taking all
this abuse on Fox. You know, is he a political genius? No?
But is he fighting back against them?
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And is there anyone else I'm seeing who's doing that?
I mean, Pritz Gerr. There are people who are fighting back,
but they may not be necessarily breaking through. A good
example is there are a lot of really good Democratic senators.
I mean, Elizabeth Warren was on Chris Hayes last night,
really important talking about you know she's she is. You know,
(17:08):
you can't do better than Elizabeth Warren. But Elizabeth Warren
is now dominating the news cycle right now, and Gavin
is and again, obviously, Gavin's the governor of the fifth
largest economy in the world, so like he has a
lot more power in a certain way. But I also think,
like in the world we are in right now, going
(17:30):
on CNN or going on MSNBC or even going on
ABC or NBC a network. People don't see it, right,
They don't have televisions, they have TikTok they have so
if you're there, nobody cares. So it doesn't you know
what I mean, Like, you either break through or you don't.
And you know that Gavin is in fact breaking through.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
He is for sure breaking through. And again, like you said,
I don't have to particularly like Gavin Newsom, I don't
have to think he should be the Democratic nominee. I'll
be on.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Anyone saying that I hope he's not, but that doesn't
he's not even going to be governor in twenty twenty eight. Yeah,
he'll be out of power.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
But my point is to echo you that doesn't matter.
If he's doing something that is I think good, I'll say, yes,
he's doing something I think is good. And I think
you're absolutely right. And it sucks that we're now in
a jerrymandering arms race, which is clearly only going to
get worse. And you know we're eventually going to end
(18:30):
up with no purple states at all, regardless of what
the population breakdown of that state is, just in terms
of districting. And you and I have talked about this,
and a lot of people have talked about it. Is
we want to see something other than rolling over, and
we want to see something other than okay, but what
they're doing is bad, so we're not going to do
(18:51):
it in a return, which is great. You can sit
up there, you know, with your head in the clouds
because your horse is so high. But in the midst
you're fuck doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
There are ice agents rolling into your town picking up
your I mean, that's the thing. It's like there is
no more time for anything. And that's the thing I'm
so struck by is you know, I got a lot
I'm going to talk about myself now, which I think
is the worst when people talk about themselves, it's very annoying,
(19:22):
especially in any number of ways. But I'm just going
to talk about myself for a minute, which is like
I've gotten a lot of static for a goat for
interviewing Gavin and going on on Bill Maher and you know,
not being being in a world filled with people who
I don't necessarily agree with. And here's what I'm going
to say, there have to be people like us who
(19:45):
go in spaces like that.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
If there aren't people like us, then there are people
who are you know, you and I both know that
I am not more famous than those people. They are
more famous than me. And if I go in that space,
I can represent my pretty lefty views, and if I don't,
then there's someone else in there who is a never
(20:10):
Trump Republican or who is you know. And that's why
we do this because just say David Brooks in may
you know, it may not feel like our people, but
there's a reason for that.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Do you want my take on this? Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Please?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
So my take has always been and this goes back
to when Bernie Sanders was taking shit for going on
Fox News in I want to say twenty was a twenty.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Sixteen, right.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
My feeling is, I agree with you with the caveat
of as long as you're not going into those spaces
to be a punching bag, then go do it. Bernie
Sanders was not going on Fox News to be a
punching bag. Bernie Sanders was going on Fox News to
reach people he would not otherwise run. And it worked
(20:59):
and by the way, and it worked and absolutely and.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
With Rogan, I mean, Rogan is such a good example
because you know you'll hear these people we need a
democratic Joe Rogan. No, Joe Rogan is a Democrat. You
guys just said he wasn't He's not a Democrat the
way we're democrats. But he used to back Bernie Sanders,
So obviously my man is capable of liking democrats. Is
(21:23):
Joe Rogan the perfect messenger as a fusolutely not like
there's a million different things that I don't agree with
them about, endless, endless number of things. But the reality
is like you're either in front of his eighty million
viewers or you're not.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yeah, it just comes down to being prepared and being
you know, unwilling to put up with the bullshit. And
you know Bernie Sanders that Pete Budagett, Buddha Judge did
that wait when he would go on Fox News a
lot and again not my favorite guy in the world. Whatever,
it doesn't matter. I have no problem with him going
on Fox and spitting facts and throwing shit back in
(22:00):
the faces of the anchors and hosts there. That's doing
good to me. If you're using those platforms to spread
your word and to counter their word, then why not,
Like I just I have never understood the oh you
shouldn't go on things. Again, you shouldn't go on and
(22:22):
roll over, you shouldn't go on and play their games.
But if you go on with the mindset that you're
not going to do that, if you go on a
Joe Rogan, if you go on to Bill Maher, if
you go on Fox News, and your attitude is I
am going to spit facts and make fun of these
people and laugh at them and show how they're wrong,
(22:42):
and maybe I will reach some people by doing that. Yeah,
I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, I think that there are no other choices at
this moment. So let's talk about sort of what we
think about this moment. Democrats, what could what would be
the realm response to this? Okay, we have the Justice
Department acting like an arm of the Trump administration. We
(23:08):
have ICE taking over the district of Columbia. I mean,
it strikes me that that protests and people getting loud
is probably the only saying that keeps our constitutional democracy
going at this moment.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I think it's pretty much the only thing that we
can do, we the people. I think there are things
that maybe the people that we have put in in
office can do. Look, and it's along the lines of
things that Gavin Newsom is doing. I could come up
with a million things and they could easily be shot
down as well. That could never happen, and that's ridiculous.
(23:46):
And also, you know, there's the whole the ramifications of
them might not be great, but look, we all know
that when it comes to the distribution of federal money,
the Blue states put in, the Red States takeout. So
I I mean, if this is how they're going to be,
and if the Red states are gonna send National Guard
troops to Blue cities or whatever to help take them over,
(24:11):
it might be.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Time to stop. It might be federal taxes. It might
be to space to hold their federal taxes because like,
for example, the District of Columbia right now has a
billion dollars of tax money that is sitting being held
by the federal government. So that billion dollars is money
that DC residents have paid in taxes that Donald J.
(24:35):
Trump you may remember him, is holding in a federal government,
you know, because it was not allocated in the BBB,
because the BBB was busy just giving money to ice
and taking money away from Medicaid and medicare.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Yeah, and I know people, well Congress isn't in session
right now, so they're not in DC. Get on a
fuck your plane, fly back to DC. Congressmen, got young
women senators, get out there, join these protests, get out
on the streets, and maybe instead of just posting, you know,
sending off a tweet saying you know, this must stop
(25:09):
or we must we need to look into this, go
fucking do something. And don't get turned away by security
like y'all did when Doge was taking over. Get out
there and mix it up and let people see that
you care, and let people see that you know that
what's going on is basically the opening moves of a
(25:33):
fascist coup. To sound all conspiratorial and out of.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Control that I think it's not.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I don't I it's not.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I don't think there's other I mean, this does not
look like the American democracy that either of us have
lived through.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
No, no, but I feel like they're spending We've got
a bunch of Democrats spending more time going after a
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate than they are going
after what is happening in Washington, DC right now. And
that is pathetic. And again, all those people I want
(26:08):
them speak, I know and that's.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
The speaker of the House. I mean he's not the Speakerader.
Yeah right, but I mean he can't endorse Mondanie. But
I think like it's fair to say the center needs
to be more focused on the right, but the left
also needs to be more focused on the right. Like
everyone needs to be focused on the takedown that's happening
(26:31):
right now of our federal government, and that is where
it is. Andy Levy, we come back.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I will. I will huddle with my advisors.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
You'll have your adviser.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I'll huddle with my advisors, and they will reach out
to your people.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Gavin Newsom is the governor of California. Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Governor Newsom, it's good to be with you.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
It has been like the last two weeks you've had
this incredible social media breakthrough that I think, as much
as the redistricting has also been a part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
So I'd love you to explain to us what happened.
What was the moment that you were like, Okay, this
is not business as usual, we have to really get
going on this.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
I think there wasn't one particular moment. I think it's
a process that unfolded over the course of many months,
going back candidly to January, going back to the early
days of Donald Trump's transition, where he was transitioning back
into familiar talking points about water policy in California and
completely lying, misrepresenting facts and truths and advancing myths that
(27:47):
were popularized on Fox and One, American News and Newsmax
and on right wing blogs. And then we're amplified to
a whole other level by Elon Musk at the time.
And it was a challenging moment because those first few days,
they were winning the messaging battle in the middle of
those fires as we're trying to put them out. Unprecedented
winter firestorms one hundred miles in our winds attached to fires.
(28:10):
And as a consequence of that, we had to get
back on our toes and we had to shift in
terms of our mindset. But that was reinforced and forgive
them long windedness once again, when the National Guard was federalized,
when we saw seven hundred active duty marines going in
the streets of an American city, not active duty marines
sent overseas, which Donald Trump has never done, but to
(28:32):
the United States of America and the second largest city
that happens to be in my state, and my state
of mind radically changed at that moment, and our media
shift changed, our up research, our clarity, our focus, conditions changed.
So we had to change, and we were no longer
apologetic about things. I wasn't trying to play nice, and
(28:53):
I know a lot of good people. Just play nice.
Talk about what you really focused on every day, and
people will pay attention your ten point plan on affordability
and talk about kitchen table issues. We've been doing that
every damn day for years and years and years, with
all due respect, and that doesn't get picked up, and
then we're chasing lies and misrepresentations and untruth and so
(29:15):
about a few weeks ago, as it relates to this redistricting,
we decided, yeah, we're going to punch him back, and
we're going to put a mirror up to the absurdity
that is Donald Trump and that's all this is. And
we're going to put up a mirror to his acolytes
in the media, to Sean Hannity, yes sorry, Sean, to
not just you, but Laura Ingram, to Jesse Waters and
Gutfeld and all of these folks that are literally part
(29:37):
of his you know, chotbots that every day are just
spewing these lies and misrepresentations without any consideration or consciousness
to how offensive and absurd and laughable Donald Trump's all
kept true socials are and his posing in pictures is,
you know, a pope or a superman. And so I
(29:58):
hope we've begun to expose a lot a little bit
of that, and I think that is required at this
moment as well.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
You know, there's a lot of academics who have written
about this idea that when you're faced with an autocrat,
they really hate it when you make fun of them.
And I'm thinking of like Charlie Chaplin. You know, there
is a long history of trying to like inject humor
sort of into pushing back against photocracy. I wonder if
(30:25):
you could talk about and we know Trump hates to
be laughed at. Yeah, do you just talk to me
about that?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
No, Look, we've tried everything. One thing about me is,
you know, I'm willing to try new things. I'm willing
to iterate. It's one thing that carries with me in
my private life as a small business person that's created
twenty three jobs. And I'm not trying to say that
to impress you, but impress upon you an entrepreneurial mindset
that I've brought into the work I've done as mayor,
lieutenant governor, and now governor. I want to increase the
(30:53):
number of tries, see what works. You miss a one
hundred percent of the shots you don't take, and so
I've been doing that. I hope people some people paid
a little tension going on Fox meeting people where they
are debating Ron DeSantis opening up a pack, but only
focusing on parts of the country that Democrats, with all
due respect, haven't been focused on in Mississippi and Arkansas,
(31:14):
in some of the more conservative parts and rural parts
of our country. And this is part and parcel of that,
a willingness to try new things to see what works.
But what's interesting about this is how it's gotten under
their skin. What's interesting about this is we put a
lens up they have to in some a mirror right
back at them, and we've exposed their their their their
situational unawareness, their tone, deafness, and interesting more than anything else,
(31:39):
we've actually broken through from a communications perspective using humor,
but also well, I think culture as well. I think
this is also part of why Trump is so successful
his ability. He captures that in those images. He captures culture,
he captures memes, he captures moments, and he also captures
mindshare because it is humorous. People do look forward to
(32:01):
his next true social We may deny it, but we're
all tuned in as press conferences because we don't know
what's going to come next. And I think there's something
to learn about that. It's all changed. It's all changed.
We have to change. We can't blind the margins and
we can't go slow anymore.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, I think that's right. Now, talk to me about
the redistricting. So Texas, we have a lot of Republicans
who want Donald Trump to support them that wants to
run maybe for president. Paxton wants to run for Senate.
There's a lot of ambition. Donald Trump says, get me
five seats, talk us through what happens.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Well, there's a lot of ambition, and then there's just cowardice.
I mean, just did a perfect little sheep, yes, sir,
and and he dialed up says he's quote unquote in
titled titled to five seats. Just to stop right there.
That should be a week of just reporting on that statement.
From President of United States, the encroaching authoritarianism of a
statement just alone like that which God lost in all
(32:59):
of this. And of course these lapdogs said, yes, sir,
and oh yes, and we're going to send the vice
president to Indiana and oh Ron dissent is not turned
out yet. Hey I'm here, Hey Donald May, I'm here.
I'll do what we can do more others in Missouri. Now,
obviously what's happening already was already pre existing happening in Ohio.
(33:21):
So this is serious. It's very serious, and I appreciate.
I watched some of my friends, some pundits of former
governor saying, you know, two wrongs don't make it right.
I get it. But the world's changed. We have to change.
It's not just thinking a new it's acting a new.
And I think what we're trying to do on redistricting
is that that distinction, and I think it's a critical distinction.
It's not good enough to identify a problem anymore. It's
(33:42):
not good enough to talk a big game. We've got
to deliver now. People have had it. The Democratic Party
appears weak, we appear feckless. We're not delivering these results
that people demand. Trump followed the old Clinton playbook. Strong
and wrong beats weak and right. We can act tore
them now, so right and righteous, academically pure. But we're
(34:05):
getting rolled here, and democracy is in peril. And so
from my perspective, there was a sense of urgency. The
California Coggressional delegation understood that they moved, and the California
Legislature is moving, and now we're going to ask the people.
We the people on November fourth, the special election. The
most transparent redistricting in US history. There's never been a
(34:28):
state that's put up its maps to the people. And
that marks as well the moral authority we're bringing to this,
not just the formal authority on our redistricting.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Approach five seats. Theoretically, I wonder if you could explain
to us sort of it feels like the polling people
are with you on this polling right, The polling says
that seventy percent of Democrats don't want to do this
partisan redistricting bought as a response to Republicans. They want
(34:58):
to do it. It's sixty eight percent. So clearly you
are on people are agreeing with you here. Is that
the sense you're getting I've certainly heard Republicans making noise
about this, but I haven't really heard people who understand
how important it is to check TROUMP making Well.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
It's okay, So full disclosure, so folks know who they're
listening or watching. I support. I've long supported independent redistricting,
and I was actually you know, mayor of San Franscot
at the time broke with my party on this was
very public coming out against the repeal of independent redistricting.
So I've long supported it, and that's why for me,
this needed to be done in a temporary manner in
(35:35):
response to the shots fired from Texas and these other
Republican states. This is not a fight we wanted, but
it's a fight we're happy to take on. And we're
going to fight, as I said, fire with fire, and
we're going to do so in a transparent way. By
putting the maps up in a democratic way, we're maintaining
the independent redistricting. We're not eliminating it. It goes back
(35:55):
to its original form after the thirty census, and it's
just for Congression will maintain the independent redistricting status for
existing legislative races and the like. And so it's in
response again to this existential moment, moment marked by the
campaign kickoff just a week ago, of all places, the
(36:15):
Democracy Center Little Tokyo in LA. The exact site, I
don't mean next story, the exact same site we were
picking up people and bussing them for the Japanese internment.
And you know what Trump did. Trump sent his thugs masked.
He sent his spokesperson for border patrol to that exact site.
(36:37):
That is a preview of things to come. I guarantee you.
I said this with the National Guard. I don't know
what more evidence y'all need in DC right now. It
was a preview of things to come. He's testing things
out in my home state. He will send these folks
out to chill voter turnout, around voting boosts, around polling
places this November. In next November, we are on the
(37:00):
other side of things. Everyone needs to wake up. With
all due respect to the precious pundits out there, they're
holding onto a world that literally is disappearing in front
of us, and it's gone. It will be gone unless
we do things differently and meet this moment. So that's
where my energy is and that's where I hope the
(37:21):
voters are. This November.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So I landed in La last week to do Belle
Maher landed, got into my hotel, turned on the television,
was watching your presser on KTLA, the local station, and
watching them arrest people outside a terrifying split screen.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah, and it's happened. This is America. That was not
a split screen in Orbon's Hungary. That was not something
happened in Turkey. That was not something happening in our
favorite countries that we the access of evil countries. That's
the United States of America where Donald Trump, the same
city where he said seven hundred active duty Marines. Again,
I'll remind people, the president of the United States seven
(38:00):
hundred active duty Marines to Los Angeles, federalized four thousand
National Guard indiscriminately. At that same moment, what you watched
was a poor guy selling strawberries, hardly on the list
of the most dangerous and vile criminals that we had
to attack. That was attacking free speech, assembly, It was
(38:21):
attacking the rule of law. It was creating a chill,
just like JD. Vance's masterclass of weakness yesterday with that
guy Stephen Miller standing there with the Secretary of Defense,
the Pentagon standing there a Union station in Washington, d C.
With the military behind them. This is not just encroaching
authoritarianism if you're black or brown, particularly if you're a
(38:44):
Latino in this country. Authoritarianism has already arrived in the
United States of America. So we need to arrive to
this moment soberly, and we've got to do things differently.
And again, with all due respect to the timidity and
the neutrality that I'm hearing from Democrats or even modern Republicans,
you should know better, and shame on you. There is
(39:06):
no do over. This could disappear very quickly. This is
happening in playing site before a vote's cast. You saw
what happened after the votes were cast as he tried
to light democracy on fire and wreck this country and
dial up for twelve thousand votes with the Secretary of
State in Georgia. And now he's doing it in plain site.
It is on our watch. We own this society becomes
(39:28):
how we behave We are now complicit at this moment
unless we do something to change this.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
They have gotten so angry at you. I mean, we
can see the MAGA machine is absolutely terrified of this pushback.
How has it been for you.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
Look, I got four kids. I'll be honest with you.
It's thrilling in this respect. I get to look them
in the eyes and say, you know what I'm trying,
because you know what, they're getting bullied in their class.
I had one of my kids had to be homeschooled
year ago, and I say that to make a point,
not to no one cares about you know, that's politics,
Get over it. But I wasn't doing enough for them.
And I feel like at this moment, I'm just putting
(40:07):
it all out there. I'm on the other side of
caring what so and so says on a morning show. Okay,
I just I am in. The ultimate test for me
is that rocking tear test when I can look at
these kids in the eye and said, I did everything
I could to make the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
peel as good as the two hundred and forty ninth
or two hundred and forty eight. This may be the
best moment that we've experience, or at least the last
(40:30):
great moment of our democracy, the best of the Roman
Republic of Greek democracy, the co equal branch is the government.
This notion of the rule of law and this fundamental
notion of popular sovereignty. He doesn't believe in any of
those things, period, full stop. And it's just it's incredible.
You talk to vote by mail, you talk about these threats.
(40:51):
Eighty percent of Californians voted by mail last year. This
is serious, serious moment, And so at that question, I
just feel I feel, I feel like I can hold
myself to a higher level of accountability at this moment.
I'm trying to do my best.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah, you know, I actually had a moment like that
with my kids too, where I was like, you know what,
they elected him, but I wonder if you could talk
for a minute. You did this amazing, amazing debate with
DeSanto's and it was actually like it just showed you
were just really facile. That is a very hard thing
as someone who has really struggled with that, and you
(41:32):
really did debate. You know, DeSantis does a lot of
the MAGA stuff very well. He's not charismatic like Trump,
but he's able to sort of bob and weave in
a MAGA way talk us through what it's like to
push back against MAGA like that.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Well, it just it's the miss and disrepresentation these weaponization
of agreements. You see on Fox the bullshit twenty four
to seven emanating from that. But they've shaped shifted everything. Look,
I got to give it to DeSantis in this respect.
You know, three four years ago he was not only winning,
he was shaping the narrative. We were responding to CRT
(42:09):
you know, ESG and now it's become DEI Woke, the
anti Woke Act. He was rewriting history quite literally, censoring
historical facts. He was making it illegal to say things
in the classroom and the boardroom as well. And when
I say rewriting history, remember they had a social studies
book that changed in the state of Florida to take
the race of Rosa Parks out of that social studies book.
(42:31):
They've been on a banning bitch, a cultural purge, and
we were on the receiving end and I couldn't take
it anymore. And we're sitting there and it's just the
Pied Piper folks that are over at Fox playing into that,
and I thought, look, I got to break into this.
Eight out of ten murder states are red states. The
number of people dying in gun violence in these states,
the fact that deaths of despair and the life, you know,
(42:52):
expectancy and maternal mortality and infant mortality and wages and
uninsured rates. I mean, how in the hell are Democrats
losing to these guys? And I just thought I'd take
a flyer and have a two on one debate with
Hannity and with DeSantis on Fox. He wouldn't have agreed
to any other platform, DeSantis than that layup.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
You clearly are hitting a nerve with this pushback, with
the satire, with the ability to really meet them where
they are. You know, they're going to take five seats.
You're going to take five seeds. You know this kind
of I mean, people really want this and need this.
Progressives don't like you.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
Why.
Speaker 5 (43:30):
I don't know the guy that did a twenty dollars
minimum wage for fast food workers, twenty five for healthcare workers.
It's the only state in America with universal health care
regardless of pre existing conditions or ability to pay. They
created a brand new grade preschool for all, after school
for all, fourteen billion dollar investment, and summer school for all.
That's done more on climate change in any other state
(43:50):
in America, more in terms of support for childcare workers,
and a new bargaining unit across the spectrum. A lot
of what progressives assert we've delivered in the state of California.
But yeah, I balance budgets. I'm not a tax and
spend liberal. I don't believe you need to be profligate
to be progressive. And maybe that's the line that's been
(44:11):
drawn for some. But look, I'm proud of the progressive
wing of my party as I am proud of the
moderate wing. I think we need to have a bigger ten.
I think we need to win. I think it's time
to be smash mouth. It's time to be aggressive, it's
time to get on our toes, and it's time to
get all back up into the game. And you know,
we may have some interesting differences, as Bill Clinton would say,
but it'd be nice of this party starting your night
(44:32):
around are things that bind us together, and right now,
it's not just anti Trump. There are a lot of
values that define the best of our party and racial justice,
social justice, economic justice, and I just like to see
this party come back together across those differences. And right now,
we just don't have time and I don't have the
energy to get into all the little modest points of
(44:55):
difference differentiation. We need all of us to step up
and roll in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
One last question with this redistrict, and we are in
uncharted territory, right, none of this should be legal. But
because the Voting Rights Act has been chipped away and
this Supreme Court is so maga, we are in this place.
Do you feel like there's a chance. I mean, you
clearly have a lot of insight into what's going to
(45:21):
happen with the judiciary. Do you think there's a chance
that the courts are like, just stop this arms race?
Speaker 5 (45:26):
Not a chance at l with the Supreme Court. These
guys are this is this guys are wired. I mean,
these guys created the conditions that we're experiencing right now.
They open this door, they throw out the Voting Rights Act.
I mean, if they throw out any of the racial
components of this, which is where they were trying to
at least allegedly trying to be careful in terms of
the conversations they were having on the floor of the
Texas Legislature in the last few days. But they throw
(45:48):
that out any pretense of that. You're talking about dozens
and dozens of seats that could be rewirired and reworked,
all across this country. You saw Trump last night and
this morning, one hundred seats he's trying to get now
across this country. So we're in a race, race for democracy,
a race for the future. Again, it's not just about
our party, the Democratic Party. It's a race for power.
And I'm talking about the power invested in the people,
(46:11):
not in government. And this is a takeover from the
power of the people, the power of one person, the
rule of dawn. That's what this is about. And I
have no interest in the dawn of the end of
this extraordinary two hundred and fifty year enduring experiment. And
all of us need to wake up. All of us
(46:31):
need to galvanize around us, and none of us can
be timid at this moment.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
And a moment.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Jesse Cannon Molly, I have to tell you, this is
like one of those stories that I feel should be
front page everywhere but is getting buried by the million
other insane things that are happening. Ice just gassed a
public school for protesting and try to get them to
submit to their will.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
This is an insane story. This is from ABC News.
Speaker 5 (46:59):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Fuck, I was like, this can't be true. This is
like another day where I'm like, this can't be true.
Immigration and custin Enforcement complex in Portland has become a
nearly nightly flashpoint this summer for local activists demonstrating against
the Trump administration's vast deportation. So by day the protesters
directly at passerbys, carrying messages like you're not safe. So anyway,
(47:21):
So basically they tured gassed a public school into submission.
So this is what happened. They the demonstrators have been
non violent, but a nearby public school has been forced
to abandon its longtime campus citing threats to student health.
But the gases weren't for them, they were for the protesters.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
They're not gassing a school. They're gassing the protesters, which
we have a long and storied history in this country
of gassing protesters. But anyway, the appointment of chemical irants
by federal agents has created fear in the neighborhood. Locals
have posted biohazardous warning signs the area has been sprayed
with your guests in toxic chemicals. So this school is
(48:04):
basically has to abandon its campus because it has been
gassed and because it may be still toxic from some
of the chemicals they used on the protesters. This an
emergency move, but they just don't think it's safe for
the kids. It's a charter school, publicly funded, and it
focuses kinder learn to eighth grade. So look, this is
(48:27):
like one of these second order things that happens with
trump Ism, you know, money to ice, Ice gases kids.
It doesn't gas kids, but ice gases protesters. Protesters are
in the school, the school gets gassed, so it's like
a second order protest. It's it's all bad, but it's
just inadvertent kind of way that this happened. So yeah, no,
(48:51):
it's so, so bad, so bad. That's it for this
episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make
sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,
(49:12):
please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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