May 17, 2025 • 47 mins
To The Contrary newsletter author Charlie Sykes examines Trump’s Middle East trip and all its chaos. Representative Greg Casar details how Democrats can effectively message to win back voters.
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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 Trump envoy Steve Wickoff watches Netflix
documentaries to study world affairs. We have such a great
show for you today. To the Contrary Newsletter author Charlie
(00:22):
Sikes stops by to talk to us about Trump's Middle
East trip and all its chaos. Then we'll talk to
Congressman Greg Kazar about how Democrats can win back voters.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
But first the news Sabali James Coombe, You and I
are not two of those people on the Democrats side
of things who think he's are homie. But now he's
the victim of a Trump conspiracy theory, which makes me
almost want to pour out a beer for him. But
also I'm really having trouble feeling sorry for him.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
James, call me. I don't feel sorry for him at all.
This is another fake scandal. Well basically he saw an
Instagram post on the beach. Maybe again. I want to
point out that James Comy is writing trashy books and
profiting off of the resistance like being a resistance hero.
(01:16):
No single person has made more money off of fucking
up the twenty sixteen election than James Comy. Okay, he
drops the letter which loses the election for Hillary Clinton. Okay,
the letter that says we don't know private server might
open investigation. That letter twenty days or fifteen days before
(01:39):
the election, completely fucks up the election. Goes on to
do nothing but get fired, feel disappointed, give long interviews,
sell his story to CBS where it is made into
a movie, write numerous best selling books that no one,
not even him, have read. He should be locked up
(01:59):
just for that. Okay, So again, fake outrage. They're very
mad because he said eighty six forty seven, and all
of the right is saying he was making a threat
of violence. There's a piece in the Washington Post which
lists all the times Donald Trump has done the same thing. Whatever.
The point here is that do not buy James Comy's books.
(02:22):
Send James Comy to the Hague. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, And just to put a fire point on this,
like I can remember working in bars in the nineties
and we would eighty six people meaning throw them out,
Like this is not a new term here, like I
was saying this thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Look, this is a fake outrage thing. But there should
be real outrage because this person is not a real writer.
Buy books by real writers. Don't buy books by James Comy.
And by the way, FBI, those guys were always very
right leaning. It's possible he's threw the entire election to Trump. Well,
(03:00):
that James call me is why we're all here. So
let us not even for a minute just say anything
nice about that guy. The best thing about him is
that he's tall. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
First they came for James Kobe and I set this
one up because yeah, yeah, first.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
They came for James Koby, and I was like, send.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Him to the Hague. Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So Elon Musk's AI bought Grock very cursed, very very cursed.
It's now telling everybody about white genocide and that everybody
thinks they know the province of how this happens.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, I think I know the province of how this happened,
all right. So Elon Musk has underwritten a large part
of this presidency. Right, he gave Trump a gazillion dollars.
He's the bank roller, he's you know, he was the
one who was able to pass the cr by saying
he would primary other Democrats, other Republicans or whatever fund
primary challenges. My man is very obsessed with South Africa
(03:57):
and protecting white people in South Africa because he grew
up in South Africa as a fancy white person. So
he's trying to program GROC to do things like say
there is white genocide in South Africa. There isn't white
genocide South Africa. But again, what is important about this
is not that it's about white genocide. It's like with
(04:21):
the birthright citizenship. This is the Canarian the coal mine right.
I mean, obviously birthright citizens will get into that later.
I hope that's on the topics. Should we just go
into birthright citizenship right now?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay. So the point is Grock is if you start
messing with what is true and what is not true
when you open the door to AI, I think you're
gonna have a lot of problems, right, because some things
are objectively true. And even if we live in this
sort of post truth era where you have people you know,
you have Trump saying that the guy was a gang
(04:55):
member that had MS thirteen tattoos, even though they were
clearly photoshop. Even if you are in a post truth era,
even then you feed AI post truth, you're going to
get AI filled with lies. And since there is no
fact check on the internet, because why would there be,
we are really like on our way down the rabbit
(05:17):
hole of like a post post post truth, where it's
impossible to know what is real and what is fake.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, speaking of this very cursed.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Trial of birthright citizenship.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yes, the discourse around it, you'll be shocked to hear,
is not good.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
They're mad at what amy Cony Barrett said during this
birthright citizenship oral argument, which was not about birthright citizenship.
It was actually about a president being able to overrule
judicial decisions. So again you think it's about birthright citizenship,
(05:56):
but it's really about who has more power than judiciary
or the president. And Emy Barrett, I guess she was
indifficiently maga.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
She seemed to be to I roll one of the
lawyer's arguments, and even just as Cavadol was like, dude,
you gotta help me more if you want to overturn this,
like he really seemed like come on, man. Yeah, So
the discourse around this has been extremely cursed. As per usual,
one Raphael ted Cruise has weight in You will remember
(06:25):
him as someone who was not born in America, and
as usual with him, it's do as he says, not
as he's done.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Let's listen are the argument is here, that is the
absolute heart of the argument, and I think birthright citizenship
is terrible policy. It is right now current US law
before the Trump executive order, that if an illegal alien
is here and she gives birth to a child, that
baby is instantaneously a US citizen. The problem is that's
(06:55):
an incredible magnet for illegal immigration. You see people crossing
the Southern border. You see pregnant women crossing the Southern
border explicitly to give birth in America. So there baby
can be an American citizen. We also have this phenomenon
called birth tourism.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, this is very stupid. First of all, again this
is not about birthright citizenship. I mean there are two
things going on here. One is ken Donald Trump edit
the Constitution with executive orders. He cannot, So that is
not how any of this is supposed to work, number one.
And then number two is can he overrule judicial orders?
(07:32):
And he can't. So this is like one of these
things where I think you get Alito and Thomas because
they are basically Fox News hosts, so you'll have the
two of them be like, yes, Orange Man, good retweet
if truth. But everyone else who has a working cerebral
cortex is going to be like no, no, no, you
can't edit the constitution. So again, lion, Ted is going
(07:56):
to birthright citizenship being a terrible policy, doesn't matter, right,
It's in the Constitution. I don't think the Second Amendment
is great, but it's not how any of this works.
So sorry, buddy, you don't get to do that. And also,
by the way, just to point out, we are like
in the middle of a population crisis. Nobody is coming here.
The southern border is pretty quiet. I mean it just
(08:19):
this is like a made up crisis and a made
up this and a made up that, and no one
should be surprised because this is just they have one
sort of thing that they're excited about and this is
what they keep doing. So you know, I mean, I
just all I can say is I'm very impressed with
Ted Cruz's facial. Charlie Sykes is the author of To
(08:42):
the Contrary and the book How the Right Lost Its Mind.
Welcome Charlie Sykes, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
Well, I just want to come along with this journey, Molly,
I mean, what are we going to talk about this week?
I feel like, you know, everything that could possibly be
said has been said, but I'm willing to do it anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yes and yes, and it is an exhausting moment for
American punditry.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Do you think so?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I think so. But you know, here's the thing. The
one bright spot in my mind is Planegate.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Oh I can't get enough of that. I can't get
an I actually did a podcast with David from and
we walked through, you know what a total scam. The
whole thing is how Donald Trump has basically been duped
because the Guitaris had to off load this white Altin
that's been sitting around since twenty twelve. They've been trying
to spell this thing. Nobody's gonna buy it. They couldn't
(09:36):
sell the other plane, so they had to give it
away to the President of Turkey, and people like five
years ago were speculating, what are they gonna do with
this thing? They're probably gonna have to find somebody else
to give it to. Sure enough, who comes along, Donald Trump?
You know you get I get a gaudy plane for free,
which is not for free, obviously.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I'm telling you that is so Erdawan has the other one.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Yeah, that's right. He apparently got the gaudy plus one.
So Trump's gonna have to, like, you know, find a
way to make this you know, Vegas in the sky
even more tasteless than Ertiwan's plane.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm sorry, but the fact that Erduwan got the better
plane and that Trump is getting the less good version
of the President of Turkey. It's not even like the
President of China, where it's like, Okay, this is an
economy that's like America, humongas whatever. But Turkey, I mean,
it's a sad footnote and what is otherwise a preposterous,
(10:34):
completely self created scandal.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Yeah, it's it's preposterous and it's incredibly brazen, particularly when
people start to realize that the free plane will probably
cost American taxpayers a billion dollars to retro fit to
Air Force one, and then Donald Trump takes it with
him when he leaves the presidency, which means we're going
to need more air Force ones. We're going to have
(10:58):
to pay not only the retro fit the fancy white
Elephant air Force one, the Katari Air Force one. We're
going to have to have other Air Force one. This
thing is going to be one of the biggest boondoggles
white elephants in American history. And Donald Trump just owns
it from Stem distern.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
And again, like if you look back, So we're like
one hundred and twenty five days into this second presidency
of Donald J. Trump, it's been a sort of slow
roll again of self created crisis, is right. We had
trade war with China, which is still bubbling under the surface.
We have the plane we have I think the I
(11:38):
think the crisis that is right around the corner. Besides
the China tariffs, we saw Walmart as planning to raise prices.
Walmart is everywhere. If you live in America, you shop
at Walmart. It's something like some huge percentage of American
shop at Walmart. So everyone in the world is going
to feel this. American people hate inflation. They were biden
(12:01):
because of eggs. Think about how mad they're going to
be when they go to Walmart and everything is twenty
percent thirty I mean the tariff is thirty percent right now.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Could be problematic, could.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yes, But I think that what's coming down the pike
is one big beautiful bill.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Well yeah, I mean there's some other crises coming, like
maybe the measles epidemic and planes falling out of the
air because the Secretary of Transportation is too dumb to
know what to do about it. But yes, the big
beautiful bill, which really, when you think about it, is
you know, if you really wanted to put together a
tax package and you wanted to come up with the
worst possible way of doing it, They've nailed it. They
really have. With all the fiscal cliffs, all the favors,
(12:42):
all the things that expire, the fact that it's going
to blow up the deficit. And yet look, let's not
engage in irrational exuberance. He's going to get the thing passed.
All these all these stories about the hard liners are,
you know, taking a stand. You know what, what Republican
hardliners do, the same thing as republic Can moderates do.
They always fucking cave in the end. Always he is
(13:05):
going to get it passed.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I don't know what that looks like. And remember, it'll
be a totally different bill when it comes out of
the Senate. But I would like to talk about one
Chip Roy. You will remember Chip Roy as being impossibly woke.
Chip Roy said, and again, like out of the mouths
of Chip Roy. I'm going to give you this one
because I feel like this is an important bit. This
(13:27):
is something he tweeted yesterday. Spending cuts that don't cut
in for four years seems awfully specific.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Of course, it's very specific. It's very cynical. It's like
they're basically trying to set it up for twenty twenty
eight so that JD. Vans or whoever is running, can
go to his buddies and say, you know, if I
don't get elected, all these sweet deals, all these tax
cuts just go away. Yeah, these socialist Democrats are going
to take away all your goodies. So they've set it up.
(13:58):
The problem is create all these fiscal cliffs, all of
this uncertainty. But these guys are looking No nobody's ever
confused them with rocket scientists.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
But again, nobody's ever confused them with rocket scientists. They
are taking away stuff from the American people. And yet,
and I say this, as you know, what's side of
the aisle I'm on, Democrats are having a very tough
time messaging this. How is this possible?
Speaker 5 (14:26):
I can't believe that I'm going to be on the
opposite side of this question, because the fact is that,
And I agree with Karen Tummlety from the Washington Post
who describes the way they both like a lot, Yeah,
very much. You know, I've been around a long time,
and she calls it a masterclass of resistance. The way
the Democrats in fact are handling the Medicaid cuts. They
keep putting up amendments, they keep getting Republicans on the
(14:48):
record on this issue. They've been pounding it. So this
is one of those rare moments where I think that
they're doing probably what they should be doing. And of
course all of the is kind of the preseason because
once they pass this bill, once they in fact do
you know, slash Medicaid, then they own it. They have
(15:08):
to live with it, and we see the consequences. And
one of the things we've seen is the fact that
a lot of these policies may poll well until they
become specific, until we put a human face on them,
until we see all the downstream effects. And there will
be downstream effects when you toss millions of people off
of their healthcare. So well, I mean, I'll agree with
(15:29):
you to this point that if the Democrats can't message
all of this stuff, they really ought to find a
different line of work. They all ought to become Walmart greeters,
starting with Chuck Schumber.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It's too expensive. I think that's a really good point.
What you're saying though about Medicaid. Medicare these cuts what
they will mean? And again, they don't pall well. Cutting
them doesn't pall well. It polls well, but it doesn't.
It's not popular. And then what is going to happen
is you're going to see rural hospitals close and nursing homes.
(16:00):
So Grandma comes to live with you because the nursing
home closed. You have a car accident and you have
to drive three hours to a hospital. I mean, you're
going to have story after story for that. Now here's
the question. Donald Trump with the tariffs. Okay, so had
these huge traffs with China. The TikTok the Wall Street Journal,
(16:20):
there was a really good TikTok about this. Maybe was
the Washington Post. I think it was a Wall Street Journal, right,
really good TikTok of how they got him to back down,
which was basically they were like, you're hurting your people.
Now it's the tariffs with China are still the highest
they've been since World War two or some crazy I
mean they're not They're humendously high. They don't shut off China, right,
(16:43):
they just make China more expensive. And they're going to
have huge inflationary effects because they will, there's no way,
and I think those effects are coming down the pike.
We haven't seen it yet, clearly because the markets are rallying,
so we haven't seen it. But we did see consumer
confidence today way down big right, and consumer confidence like
that in itself can get you into recession. So the
(17:04):
question is, really, as we are walking through this, is
there a world in which he's medicaid cuts. These are
cuts to red states. A lot of Red states are
going to feel the hospitals and nursing homes. So do
these members vote for this anyway? And does Donald Trump
sign it anyway knowing because remember he cares about his people,
(17:25):
So does he sign it anyway or does he? I mean,
this will be a straight line between Trump your rural
hospital closing.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Yeah, they will vote for and he will sign it,
and then he will come out and say this is
a big, beautiful bill and it's a huge win and
everybody is going to be better off because Donald Trump
doesn't care about the substance of a policy. He only
cares about how he can market it, and he feels
that he can sell any shits in which is Filet
Mignon understand that the superpower. Also, I'm not sure this
(17:58):
is directly in response to this, but sometimes I feel
like we're watching the wrong movie. We think that Donald
Trump is doing one thing, when in fact he's doing another.
So I start trying to write a piece about about,
you know, Elon Musk and what a complete fraud Doge was.
We're finding out now that you know, despite all the chainsaw,
all the performative slashing and cutting and frankly, you know
(18:19):
a lot of the damage that he's done, and it
is in fact dangerous, but it didn't actually cut much
government spending. And I mentioned this to some smarter person
than me, and he said, yeah, but that you know,
why do you think that that's what Doge was really
all about? Assume that Elon Musk is still a savvy guy.
So while we're all focused on these cuts and these layoffs,
what Elon Musk was doing was gutting all the regulatory
(18:41):
agencies that might have held him accountable, the SEC, any
of these other organizations. He's basically feathering his nests. And
the same thing with Donald Trump. You know, we think
that Donald Trump is focused on the big beautiful bill. Look,
donald Trump was in the Middle East last week, basically
just coining money, you know, taking care of, as David
(19:02):
Frum says, taking care of his retirement fund. So the
mistake with Donald Trump is ever to think that he's
serious about public policy. Now, what you're saying is that
he might think that the optics were so terrible that
he wouldn't sign. He's definitely going to sign that big
beautiful bill because he has to. Failure is not an
(19:23):
option for him. But right now I think that what
Donald Trump is doing is, you know, Donald Trump is
rigging the government and the world economy for the benefit
of Donald Trump. He is not lying awaken night worrying
about grandma in a rural hospital. He give a shit
about that. So the movie here is not Donald Trump's
(19:43):
economic plans. It's Donald Trump really doing his business the
way he thinks it should be done. For Trump, it's
just a matter of being able to declare a win.
So say, let's take this China thing that we're talking about.
Thirty percent tariffs are stunningly high. The only reason the
markets are going, oh my god, what a relief is
because they're not high compared to one hundred and forty
(20:03):
five percent, right.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Which is really no more in China.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
So Donald Trump lit this, you know, the entire forest
on fire, came in, put out a portion of it.
The woods are still on fire. But people are going, well, okay,
that's not so bad. But it is going to be inflationary.
It is going to happen effect. But Donald Trump believes
that all he has to do is say CI won.
He loses to China, right, he blinks. But as long
as he can declare to win, he's going to be
(20:29):
happy and just take that, you know, one after another.
It doesn't matter what actually happens in the real world.
Donald Trump believes that he can sell it.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
So is that post truth?
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yeah, oh very much. It's post truth. It's post shame,
it's post accountability, it's post rule of law, it's post ethics,
it's post every one of those things.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So the bill passes, they start kicking people off, you know,
rural hospitals. This kind of stuff happens. We cruise into
the mid term with Democrats poise to win. What happens.
I mean, I mean, do you think that's just how
it goes, or do you think that.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
There is Yeah, probably, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Let's talk about Elon Musk and Doge. So clearly Doge
has done something because now we're starting to have really
bad problems with our faa.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Oh my god, it's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
But again, like this is the thing about Doge, which
I think is so brilliant, is that no one really
knows what the fuck they did in there right.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Right, except that it didn't actually shrink the size of
government or deficit or any of those things. No, there
are really still potentials for terrible things. I mean, going
to the summer that if the national parks are a disaster,
that has consequences, If planes start falling out of the sky,
that has consequences, And there are all sorts of other
things that we don't fully understand because he didn't care
(21:55):
about them. So yeah, that's all a possibility. But Elon Musk,
I think has generally gotten what he wanted out of
all of this. He's continuing to I mean, the fact
that they just this may seem so small, but what's
going on at the Library of Congress is so bizarre.
They fired the Librarian of Congress and then the head
of the Copyright Office.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Why because she was black?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
Well yes, well okay, but the Copyright Office firing takes
place like the week after they issue this detailed report
that pushes back on Elon Musk's position on AI. So,
I mean, he has his own agenda and he's making
sure that he's taken out everybody is doing it. So,
but by the way, can we talk about this as
the weirdest story of the day. I mean, there are
(22:37):
so many weird stories of the day.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yes, please, I want a weird story. Let's go.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
When I first heard this, I thought, okay, this is
a misunderstanding. It's a misreport. It's a parody of some guy.
Christy Nome actually wants to have a Hunger Games type
TV show where migrants compete on the air for citizenship.
And it's one of those where you have to read
it a couple of times and go, Okay, this cannot
be true, right, Can Homeland Security Barbie actually have come
(23:03):
up with something like this? At this point, nothing is
beyond parody. If she was proposing a TV show where
people competed with who can shoot the puppy, you know,
in the face of the first I no longer would
be genuinely shocked by it. But this is a real story.
So these people, honestly, for all the problems they've been having,
there's no sense whatsoever that they're back on their heel
(23:26):
or that they think that they've gone too far, or
that perhaps they ought to rain things. And you know,
people like, why.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Do you think that is? I mean, clearly, Christy nom
wants to be famous and that's it, right, don't stop.
She doesn't care why she's famous, just wants me famous,
wants to make money. I mean obviously that you don't
have a fifty four page deck for a reality show
or a thirty seven page deck for reality show. Hell,
if you're not pretty convincing you want to So she
(23:55):
wants me famous. But what's the end goal? I mean,
I think a lot of these people just want to
make money and be famous, right.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Yeah, right, and then and be powerful and be influential. Now,
Stephen Miller does have an end goal, which is which
is deeply ugly. I just have the sense that the
hubris in this administration is getting more and more intense.
Now that's the bad news is that they are you
know at ramming speed. The good news is the story
(24:21):
of Hubris seldom ends well when you fly too close
to the sum When Stephen Miller comes rolling out last
weekend and say we're thinking of yeah exactly, it's like
he thinks and all these stories now saying he's the
President's ID, that nobody else has as much cloud as
he does. I don't know how Donald Trump, you know,
(24:42):
reacts to that that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
He's running the DOJ. Did you see that story?
Speaker 6 (24:46):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (24:47):
And you know, isn't that isn't that remarkable? But not
a total shock that the Fox News hosts chosen by
Trump are merely figureheads, right, They're the people there's the
talking head you put on TV. They don't actually like
do shit? So who does shit? I mean some of
these evil humunculuses, like Stephen Miller.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
But it is amazing to me that there was some
report in the reporting of the James Comy eighty six
forty seven, that whole crisis that they got cash Fatel,
because like cash Fattel has been curiously absent from the discourse.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Yes, but not the discothechts, So I'm certainly not doing that. Well, Okay,
what's hilarious about this whole you know, eighty six forty
seven thing is now people are coming up with all
sorts of times when Maga folks were saying, you know,
eighty six forty six, or they were actually marketing merch,
you know, with eighty six, because as many people know,
(25:42):
eighty six does not necessarily mean kill them. It means,
you know, to get rid of them, or means take
it off the menu or whatever. So some of the
delicious stuff on social media will be actually putting tweets
side by side of a Maga folk, somebody in Maga saying,
you know, we should eighty six Biden, and then right
next to it, oh my god, Jim Comy is calling
(26:03):
for the assassination of Donald Trump for saying the exact same.
I mean, you know, it's just it's all performative bullshit
at this point.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Charlie Sikes, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Thank you. I cannot wait to read your book, Molly,
I cannot wait to read your book.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Congressman Greg Kazar represents Texas's thirty fifth congressional district. Welcome
to Fast Politics, Representative Kazar, thanks so much for having
me a new Ish member of Congress.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
That's right here, a few months into my second term.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You have already sort of emerged as a star. You're
the head of the Progressive Caucus, and you have been
going around with AOC and Bernie, but also with other people.
So I want you to talk to me about how
you've found it since you've been in Congress, and how
(26:58):
you've kind of found your voice.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well, what's happening in the world and what's happening in
the country is crazy. It's just awful if you really
take in what the Trump administration is doing to our
government and to people in our country any given day.
But when you ask me how I've found Congress, you know,
I go into these committee meetings and people aren't really
(27:23):
debating policy or how to make the country better. It's
not like I'm having a reasoned debate with my Republican colleagues.
They're just they're ramming through healthcare cuts. They're just there
ramming through billionaire tax cuts, and then they say whatever
words it is they have to say around it. And
so I've recognized how important it is for us to
(27:45):
go out there and speak to the country and organize
the country and mobilize people if we want to stop
what's happening in Congress. The horrible thing's happening in Congress.
And so you know, I can go to a committee
meeting and argue with chairwomen of my subcommittee, Marjorie Taylor Green,
till I'm blue in the face.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Is that doj Is that this committee we're talking about?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (28:04):
But you know when the report came out whatever that
was a week and a half ago, that the Republican
plan was going to kick nearly ten million people off
of their healthcare and just one with just one vote
from the Republicans. Chairwoman of the Committee on DOGE, Marjorie
Taylor Green called a hearing on trans fencing, not like
the fences around a building, but like the sport with
(28:27):
the swords. And while I'm sure fencing is a great sport,
I've never met a fencer. You know, there's less than
one thousands collegiate fencers in America. There's less than ten
trans collegiate athletes in all of American college sports. And
so while I'm in Congress, that's what Marjorie Taylor Green
wants to have hearings about. That's what she wants headlines about.
(28:47):
And if we want to beat that, it's so important
to go out into public and go and do rallies
with AOC and Bernie, but also I'm on Fox News
and on Univision with the exact same message, which is,
we want to make your life better. We want to
not just protect healthcare but expand it. And we could
do that if we're willing to stand up to the
billionaires that are stealing your taxpayer dollars and screwing you
(29:10):
over every single day here in the government. And that
kind of message I think should be at the heart
of a new progressive message of the Democratic Party's new
message to people to say, look, this is crazy, and
we can unite more people if against this, if we
go and get folks stirred up, because the vast majority
of Republican voters and Trump voters don't believe that we
(29:31):
should be kicking millions of people off their healthcare all
to give some Republican billionaire donors a bigger tax cut.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, so I'm like very agitated. My new hobby horse
come with me is Democrats who speak like thep you know,
like from the show Weep Right. They speak in this
sort of like you gotta bring the amer and the
CA and then you have America right where they say
stuff that doesn't mean anything, and you think, I'm so
(29:58):
bored that I will do anything to get off of
this interview. You don't talk like that. Do you see
that people actually respond to it? And can you talk
to other Democrats and make them talk normally.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
I'm new to Congress, and so it means that there
are things that I don't know right because I'm new here.
But it also means that when I see something weird
that everybody treats as normal, I'm like, that's really weird.
And I'm in some of these rooms and have been here,
you know, as a newer member where we get sat
down dozens and dozens of members of Congress on the
Democratic side, and we're showing a slideshow and it says
(30:35):
things like say these specific words defend social security. Just
say it, and ninety percent of voters agree, But nobody
asks themselves, like you just said, Molly, what if nobody
hears you? What if you're totally tuned out? What if
that tree falls in the forest and nobody cares? Who
are so focused on saying the magic words instead of
actually connecting with people and saying, isn't it freaking nuts?
(30:58):
That they're talking about game years off of Social Security,
taking your mom, your grandmother off of Social Security while
they get a bigger tax gut And isn't it crazy.
I didn't even know this fully until I was in
Congress that if you're Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, you
don't pay into Social Security every paycheck they pay in
like three days and then they're done because there's like
a special carve out for gajillionaires on Social Security. What like,
(31:21):
we could pull every senior in the country out of poverty.
You could have every young person that has to support
some of their just tax the res if you just literally,
if we just tax Jeff Bezos, Yeah, you could make
it so that tons more folks could just support themselves
and pay their own ment or mortgage instead of having
to support themselves and their parents who work their entire lives.
(31:41):
And just connecting with people a little more authentically in
that way has big results. But I think it also
requires that we're willing to call out a villain so
that people are interested in our story instead of sounding
like we're just policy wonks and like Harvard moot court,
because like, yeah, that turns people off.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
I have a friend who's a member of Congress who
I love, and I saw this person. I'm not going
to say what gender they are because I don't want
to give it away. I saw this person the other
day and I said, how you doing? And this person
was like, I am not fucking getting what I deserve
in leadership world because the older people are keeping me
(32:23):
out of it. Are you seeing that? And why is
that happening?
Speaker 6 (32:28):
Well, you know, there's this long established seniority system in Congress,
and it exists for a variety of reasons, and I
think that it's kind of served out. It's most of
its usefulness where people just like anybody else, and folks
have been like when I came in, the rule was
once I've been here twenty years, then I get a
certain amount of influence. And now I've been here eighteen
years and you're changing the rules on me last minute.
(32:50):
And the answer is kind of that's what's happening, and
it's going to be better for everybody. And there are
some folks that have been here twenty and thirty years
that are much older than me, that are actually bought
on and have more energy than I do.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
On Nancy Pelosi, she could run circles around me, you know.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
So, Look, it isn't that we should pick it by
age one way or the other. I just think, as
we've seen on some committees, like the Oversight Committee that
I'm on, that there is a lot of new talent,
and that we have chosen our leaders oftentimes by who
makes the best pitch. So Jamie Raskin, who led Oversight
(33:29):
and now leads Judiciary, an incredible leader. He was not
the most senior person on either of those committees, and
we picked him, and I think everybody benefits, and so
I look, if the most senior person is the best person,
then I think we go all in. I'm of the
mindset that we should bring people in, interview them, and
(33:49):
vote for the best person. And I think the Democratic
Caucus is starting to get there. We're not fully there,
and I respect why folks feel like it's not fair
to change the roles at the last minute. But my
main focus is on Look, we're on the verge of
nearly fourteen million people losing their healthcare for a billionaire
tech cut, Like, let's fight that with everything we got.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
So I'm hoping you could tell me where you guys
are with Oversight so.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
I'm on the Oversight Committee. So for folks listening in,
this is supposed to be the committee that investigates when
big corporations or the administration are doing corrupt things. Right,
like if you just said, the last few days, Trump
was given a four hundred million dollar jet, He's being
offered a four hundred million dollar jet for free from
the Katari government, which is like illegal in so many
(34:35):
different ways, and it violates the Constitution in so many
different ways. This is supposed to be the committee that's
supposed to investigate things like that, but it's currently led
by Republicans whose job it is to apologize and cover
up for things like that. So Jamie Raskin used to
lead us on that committee. Jerry Connelly was elected after
mister Raskin was he is suffering from a re emergency
(34:56):
of cancer and our thoughts are so deeply with him. Look,
everybody listen, They themselves or something of their close family
have dealt with the answer that you think goes away
and then comes back. It's just these are real people
we work with, and so truly like this is a
practices to speak. We are with Jerry on this. At
some point soon, he said, he will step back and
then there will be an election. And they've been all
(35:16):
sorts of folks that have thrown their names out there.
Three members of my Progressive Caucus, mister Imfume, who has
Elijah Cummings Oldti he used to run the committee, Jasmine
Crockett from my state of Texas. Robert Garcia, who's been
an incredible leader on this. You've probably see them all
over the news ripping the administration apart from Long Beach, California.
And then mister Lynch, who's not a Progressive Caucus member
(35:38):
but you know also currently is like leading the committee
in the interim. So my way of thinking about this,
because I kind of lead this team of progresses right
over ninety members of Congress or a part of my caucus,
is instead of us all going our own separate ways
and picking who we like, I think that everybody that's
running once mister Connolly steps back and there's an actual race,
come in present to ninety members of Congress, and then
(36:01):
we should vote as progressives to get behind somebody whoever
the best person is that we think can push back
against these Trump musk abuses. And this is going to
be really important because for folks listening at home. If
Democrats regain the majority, even if we don't have the
White House, we get subpoena power, and in the Oversight Committee,
that means we could bring folks like Elon Muskin under
oath to talk about all the stuff they did and
(36:24):
to root out, in my view, probably many things that
were against the law, because I've been talking about firing
you On Musk. But I think for folks that we
find out violate criminal laws, commit real acts of corruption, like,
the consequences for that are worse. And I think the
only way that we prevent people from unaccountability, stealing from
the taxpayers to benefit from themselves is if those folks
(36:46):
have a feeling that maybe in a year and a
half Democrats could have the majority and you can actually
get held accountable for it. Because right now they are
so emboldened they arrested a mayor in Newark and threatened
to arrest members of Congress for following the law and
going and checking in on an ice facility just this weekend.
They are so emboldened they think that they'll never get
held accountable, and the Oversight Committee is the place to
(37:07):
do that. And so part of my job. It's probably
weird for folks at home downe to fully, you know,
hear how all the insides of this work. But my
job as Progressive Caucus chair is to kind of corral
my team of ninety something progressives and be like, who's
the best who's our best pick that we can align
behind for this very important position, which will be investigating
(37:29):
the Trump administration, dealing with Marjorie Tayler Green and folks
like that for now, but eventually, if the demost when
the House, it can actually go investigate all the stuff
that's happened. And if they know we're going to investigate
it hard, that actually might be a way of preventing
some of the horrible things that they're trying to do
right now.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
I think the idea of voting as a block too
is much better than as someone who lives in New York,
where we are under the mayoral curse. What we have
found is that progressives in New York tend not to
put it together as a group, and just everybody runs
against each other and then everyone loses.
Speaker 6 (38:04):
We have to get organized, and I was a labor
organizer before I was an elected official, and so it
makes my job a little different. Here in Congress. I
can say what it is that I think, and that's important,
but I you know, I can have a bigger impact
as of one of four hundred and thirty five members
of Congress if I can get eighty or ninety people together.
And that's how I think we pushed our agenda beyond
(38:28):
just defending against stuff. We get ninety one hundred and
one hundred and fifty members of Congress to say, yeah,
we're going to defend Medicaid and Medicare from these Republican attacks,
but also put us in office and we'll expand it.
We'll pull every senior in this country out of poverty
by expanding social security. Maybe we I'm for a Medicare
for all system, But man, if we could even just
get the age of Medicare down fifty five or sixty
(38:51):
years old, we can help so many seniors get the
healthcare that they need. Maybe we can pass universal childcare
so that your childcare expenses are never more than seven
percent of your budget. Those are the sorts of things
that if we actually really got done, then I think
people could believe in us again, not just as the
anti Trump people, but as the people who really did
something for me because in places like Texas, I'll tell you,
(39:11):
we are at the bottom of the list of voter turnout,
and a lot of the folks that don't try out
to vote, they're like, it doesn't really make that much
a difference. I know it makes a difference, but I
want to show them the huge positive difference we can make.
And that's part of what I'm trying to rally members
of Congress around, is let's defend against the bad stuff,
but also put out a vision for how we can
make people's lives better.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Who are you seeing that you where you feel that
they're good? In Congress and in the Senate where for example,
here's a question that I often am asked, which.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
Is like, who are the leader of the Democrats right now,
right all the time? Yeah, And I know people feel
that way.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
It doesn't have to be the leader, but more just
people where you're like, oh, this is impressed by what
this person is doing.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
Oh, these people are good right now. I understand how
a lot of folks at home are feeling where they're like,
who is the person driving this for us? My first
election was Obama's first election. We had that, you know,
in President Obama, both as a candidate and as president.
And right now we're in a place where Republicans have
(40:18):
Speaker of the House, the Republicans have majority leader, they
have Trump and the White House, and so there's like
this competition for who the biggest voices should be, and
that can be uncomfortable, and folks are like, well, who's good,
who's emerging? But right now is the time for that
to happen, for everybody to go out there and do
their thing. Like I feel like AOC is like our
number one draft pick. As young Democrats have been amazing
(40:39):
this year, going across the country, put her voice out there.
You know, that's amazing and alongside burning it. But then
there's also folks that have some of these tough Trump
to Biden districts that are kind of close, and folks
like Chris Deluzio has been amazing. You know, he's a progressive.
But somebody who can talk to voters that maybe weren't
(40:59):
ready to vote for Joe Biden, We're ready to vote
for him. And so there's you know, there's these emerging
voices I think that are rallying the country. But I'd
say to the folks what I say to people all
the time is right now. I think the leaders of
the party right now are like the folks flooding these
town halls, the people organizing these hands off marches, because
I want the people to really lead in this moment,
(41:21):
because what I've seen in DC is, look, the way
that should work is people lead and the politicians follow.
When folks come and ask me like, hey, what should
I do? I give them some ideas. But it's even better.
Like when I was a labor organizer, we weren't asking
members of Congress for permission or big companies for permission.
Like we were out there pushing. And I think if
people go out there and push, it's what gives our
democratic leaders, like a little bit of stepping their step.
(41:43):
Courage inspires courage. And so look, I encourage people to
call to march, to call all of our offices.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
All right, tell me who You're not telling me what
I want? Give me who? Well, yeah, I mean if
you want a list of my faves, yes, go who
win leadership? Do you feel like is really doing the
work in the House or the Senate?
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Okay, I know you're in New York and that this
gets strictly, but I frankly was very very supportive and
am very supportive of Leader Jeffrey saying we need to
vote know the Trump budget. You know, I just thought
that that was a powerful move. He aligned the Democratic
House members and we did a hard thing now say look,
we're not going to vote for your budget. And I
(42:26):
do think it was a devastating move by Leader Schumer
to not just vote for the but Trump budget, but
in many ways help get it across the finish line.
And I just think those are two different styles of leadership,
and in my view, in this moment, we need that
style of leadership that we saw from Leader Jefferies where
he said we're going to take a bold stand on
somewhere where it really makes a difference. And I think
(42:48):
that we're suffering from those repercussions of Leader Schumer's decision today.
So if if you want me to give you a
little bit of it, of the of the t you know,
like that's that to me, that's the real difference right now.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
But here's a question for you that because I don't disagree,
and I think most people agree with you, But the
question is, wasn't it by the time that bill got
out of the House like, nobody thought Donald Trump would
whip the votes on that, right, Nobody saw it coming
that Donald Trump and Elon Musk would literally call people
(43:18):
and be like, if you don't vote for it, we're
got in primary. There was no precedent for that or
whatever happened that was like that, but clearly something to
that effect happened. But once it got out of the house,
and again I'm not defending anyone, I'm more just once
it got out of the house, it was the Democrats
were going to own the shutdown.
Speaker 6 (43:37):
That's the important question. So look real quick on precedents
and unprecedented Trump Musk stuff. These guys do crazy stuff crazy.
We have to understand that everybody you're going to do
is unprecedented. There is everybody listening is like, oh, I
knew they were going to do bad stuff, but I
didn't know this. That's how we should be handling into
the house. You know, like he's going to pull every
(43:58):
trick in the book. So we just we can't rely
on that. In my view, right, that's how we got
Speaker Johnson reelected even though people opposed him, because he
went in and you know, made the phone calls. So look,
here's here's my disagreement with Leaderschuomer is that if we
go in assuming that we're going to get blamed for fighting,
(44:19):
then the only path is to play dead, you know.
And I think that we need to pick tough fights,
ones where we're at risk of losing, where we could
get blamed for their not being a budget, but where
we could actually go out there and explain to people
why we aren't going to be a cheap date and
help them and the Social Security Administration as we know it,
(44:41):
and the FAA and safe flights as we know it
and inspection of your food as we know it. I mean,
give me a break. And I believe that we need
the kinds of fighters and communicators who say I'm willing
to take a risk and taking a risk involved maybe
we get blamed, but maybe we don't if we go
out there and work it. But to your point, Yeah,
(45:04):
if we have a bunch of folks that aren't willing
to go communicate all over the country, then we might
lose the fight and it's not worth picking it. But
I think we need folks that are willing to pick
the fight. And if you show up in poker and
everybody knows you're going to fold. We're never going to win,
so we have to be willing for people to know, yeah,
that we're willing to take a risk.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That
was great.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
It's really nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
No, Jesse Cannon boy, I think you and I are
the biggest reality TV show watchers. But I know one
show I would not fucking watch, which is the most
dystopian bullshit I've ever heard, which is Christy Nomes's little
Hunger Games for Immigrants show.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Look, the Wall Street Journal is reporting DHS is considering
a reality show where immigrants compete for a citizenship. This
is unbelievably insane. I think we should all be pretty
I mean, even for this administration. That is wow. I
mean I am rarely speechless, but Hunger Games for Immigrants
(46:11):
may have done it. Wow. And there's a thirty six
page slide deck, which you do when you're trying to
sell a show, and it envisions the show is beginning
with contestants sailing to All Ellis Island, where they are
greeted by the show's host, a famously naturalized citizen, maybe
someone like Sophia Vergus Ryan Reynolds by the way.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
None of these people are doing this.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
No, no one is doing this. And yeah, I am
almost without words, but I can find some. What the fuck? Man,
what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (46:45):
How much do you want to bet that it's like
studio ghibli pictures of like an immigrant outrunning another immigrant
because it's this white house.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
There are no words, There are no words. Words fail
may words do in fact fail me. 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,
(47:16):
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 Trump envoy Steve Wickoff watches Netflix
documentaries to study world affairs. We have such a great
show for you today. To the Contrary Newsletter author Charlie
(00:22):
Sikes stops by to talk to us about Trump's Middle
East trip and all its chaos. Then we'll talk to
Congressman Greg Kazar about how Democrats can win back voters.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
But first the news Sabali James Coombe, You and I
are not two of those people on the Democrats side
of things who think he's are homie. But now he's
the victim of a Trump conspiracy theory, which makes me
almost want to pour out a beer for him. But
also I'm really having trouble feeling sorry for him.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
James, call me. I don't feel sorry for him at all.
This is another fake scandal. Well basically he saw an
Instagram post on the beach. Maybe again. I want to
point out that James Comy is writing trashy books and
profiting off of the resistance like being a resistance hero.
(01:16):
No single person has made more money off of fucking
up the twenty sixteen election than James Comy. Okay, he
drops the letter which loses the election for Hillary Clinton. Okay,
the letter that says we don't know private server might
open investigation. That letter twenty days or fifteen days before
(01:39):
the election, completely fucks up the election. Goes on to
do nothing but get fired, feel disappointed, give long interviews,
sell his story to CBS where it is made into
a movie, write numerous best selling books that no one,
not even him, have read. He should be locked up
(01:59):
just for that. Okay, So again, fake outrage. They're very
mad because he said eighty six forty seven, and all
of the right is saying he was making a threat
of violence. There's a piece in the Washington Post which
lists all the times Donald Trump has done the same thing. Whatever.
The point here is that do not buy James Comy's books.
(02:22):
Send James Comy to the Hague. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, And just to put a fire point on this,
like I can remember working in bars in the nineties
and we would eighty six people meaning throw them out,
Like this is not a new term here, like I
was saying this thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Look, this is a fake outrage thing. But there should
be real outrage because this person is not a real writer.
Buy books by real writers. Don't buy books by James Comy.
And by the way, FBI, those guys were always very
right leaning. It's possible he's threw the entire election to Trump. Well,
(03:00):
that James call me is why we're all here. So
let us not even for a minute just say anything
nice about that guy. The best thing about him is
that he's tall. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
First they came for James Kobe and I set this
one up because yeah, yeah, first.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
They came for James Koby, and I was like, send.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Him to the Hague. Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So Elon Musk's AI bought Grock very cursed, very very cursed.
It's now telling everybody about white genocide and that everybody
thinks they know the province of how this happens.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, I think I know the province of how this happened,
all right. So Elon Musk has underwritten a large part
of this presidency. Right, he gave Trump a gazillion dollars.
He's the bank roller, he's you know, he was the
one who was able to pass the cr by saying
he would primary other Democrats, other Republicans or whatever fund
primary challenges. My man is very obsessed with South Africa
(03:57):
and protecting white people in South Africa because he grew
up in South Africa as a fancy white person. So
he's trying to program GROC to do things like say
there is white genocide in South Africa. There isn't white
genocide South Africa. But again, what is important about this
is not that it's about white genocide. It's like with
(04:21):
the birthright citizenship. This is the Canarian the coal mine right.
I mean, obviously birthright citizens will get into that later.
I hope that's on the topics. Should we just go
into birthright citizenship right now?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay. So the point is Grock is if you start
messing with what is true and what is not true
when you open the door to AI, I think you're
gonna have a lot of problems, right, because some things
are objectively true. And even if we live in this
sort of post truth era where you have people you know,
you have Trump saying that the guy was a gang
(04:55):
member that had MS thirteen tattoos, even though they were
clearly photoshop. Even if you are in a post truth era,
even then you feed AI post truth, you're going to
get AI filled with lies. And since there is no
fact check on the internet, because why would there be,
we are really like on our way down the rabbit
(05:17):
hole of like a post post post truth, where it's
impossible to know what is real and what is fake.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, speaking of this very cursed.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Trial of birthright citizenship.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yes, the discourse around it, you'll be shocked to hear,
is not good.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
They're mad at what amy Cony Barrett said during this
birthright citizenship oral argument, which was not about birthright citizenship.
It was actually about a president being able to overrule
judicial decisions. So again you think it's about birthright citizenship,
(05:56):
but it's really about who has more power than judiciary
or the president. And Emy Barrett, I guess she was
indifficiently maga.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
She seemed to be to I roll one of the
lawyer's arguments, and even just as Cavadol was like, dude,
you gotta help me more if you want to overturn this,
like he really seemed like come on, man. Yeah, So
the discourse around this has been extremely cursed. As per usual,
one Raphael ted Cruise has weight in You will remember
(06:25):
him as someone who was not born in America, and
as usual with him, it's do as he says, not
as he's done.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Let's listen are the argument is here, that is the
absolute heart of the argument, and I think birthright citizenship
is terrible policy. It is right now current US law
before the Trump executive order, that if an illegal alien
is here and she gives birth to a child, that
baby is instantaneously a US citizen. The problem is that's
(06:55):
an incredible magnet for illegal immigration. You see people crossing
the Southern border. You see pregnant women crossing the Southern
border explicitly to give birth in America. So there baby
can be an American citizen. We also have this phenomenon
called birth tourism.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, this is very stupid. First of all, again this
is not about birthright citizenship. I mean there are two
things going on here. One is ken Donald Trump edit
the Constitution with executive orders. He cannot, So that is
not how any of this is supposed to work, number one.
And then number two is can he overrule judicial orders?
(07:32):
And he can't. So this is like one of these
things where I think you get Alito and Thomas because
they are basically Fox News hosts, so you'll have the
two of them be like, yes, Orange Man, good retweet
if truth. But everyone else who has a working cerebral
cortex is going to be like no, no, no, you
can't edit the constitution. So again, lion, Ted is going
(07:56):
to birthright citizenship being a terrible policy, doesn't matter, right,
It's in the Constitution. I don't think the Second Amendment
is great, but it's not how any of this works.
So sorry, buddy, you don't get to do that. And also,
by the way, just to point out, we are like
in the middle of a population crisis. Nobody is coming here.
The southern border is pretty quiet. I mean it just
(08:19):
this is like a made up crisis and a made
up this and a made up that, and no one
should be surprised because this is just they have one
sort of thing that they're excited about and this is
what they keep doing. So you know, I mean, I
just all I can say is I'm very impressed with
Ted Cruz's facial. Charlie Sykes is the author of To
(08:42):
the Contrary and the book How the Right Lost Its Mind.
Welcome Charlie Sykes, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
Well, I just want to come along with this journey, Molly,
I mean, what are we going to talk about this week?
I feel like, you know, everything that could possibly be
said has been said, but I'm willing to do it anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yes and yes, and it is an exhausting moment for
American punditry.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Do you think so?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I think so. But you know, here's the thing. The
one bright spot in my mind is Planegate.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Oh I can't get enough of that. I can't get
an I actually did a podcast with David from and
we walked through, you know what a total scam. The
whole thing is how Donald Trump has basically been duped
because the Guitaris had to off load this white Altin
that's been sitting around since twenty twelve. They've been trying
to spell this thing. Nobody's gonna buy it. They couldn't
(09:36):
sell the other plane, so they had to give it
away to the President of Turkey, and people like five
years ago were speculating, what are they gonna do with
this thing? They're probably gonna have to find somebody else
to give it to. Sure enough, who comes along, Donald Trump?
You know you get I get a gaudy plane for free,
which is not for free, obviously.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I'm telling you that is so Erdawan has the other one.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Yeah, that's right. He apparently got the gaudy plus one.
So Trump's gonna have to, like, you know, find a
way to make this you know, Vegas in the sky
even more tasteless than Ertiwan's plane.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm sorry, but the fact that Erduwan got the better
plane and that Trump is getting the less good version
of the President of Turkey. It's not even like the
President of China, where it's like, Okay, this is an
economy that's like America, humongas whatever. But Turkey, I mean,
it's a sad footnote and what is otherwise a preposterous,
(10:34):
completely self created scandal.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Yeah, it's it's preposterous and it's incredibly brazen, particularly when
people start to realize that the free plane will probably
cost American taxpayers a billion dollars to retro fit to
Air Force one, and then Donald Trump takes it with
him when he leaves the presidency, which means we're going
to need more air Force ones. We're going to have
(10:58):
to pay not only the retro fit the fancy white
Elephant air Force one, the Katari Air Force one. We're
going to have to have other Air Force one. This
thing is going to be one of the biggest boondoggles
white elephants in American history. And Donald Trump just owns
it from Stem distern.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
And again, like if you look back, So we're like
one hundred and twenty five days into this second presidency
of Donald J. Trump, it's been a sort of slow
roll again of self created crisis, is right. We had
trade war with China, which is still bubbling under the surface.
We have the plane we have I think the I
(11:38):
think the crisis that is right around the corner. Besides
the China tariffs, we saw Walmart as planning to raise prices.
Walmart is everywhere. If you live in America, you shop
at Walmart. It's something like some huge percentage of American
shop at Walmart. So everyone in the world is going
to feel this. American people hate inflation. They were biden
(12:01):
because of eggs. Think about how mad they're going to
be when they go to Walmart and everything is twenty
percent thirty I mean the tariff is thirty percent right now.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Could be problematic, could.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yes, But I think that what's coming down the pike
is one big beautiful bill.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Well yeah, I mean there's some other crises coming, like
maybe the measles epidemic and planes falling out of the
air because the Secretary of Transportation is too dumb to
know what to do about it. But yes, the big
beautiful bill, which really, when you think about it, is
you know, if you really wanted to put together a
tax package and you wanted to come up with the
worst possible way of doing it, They've nailed it. They
really have. With all the fiscal cliffs, all the favors,
(12:42):
all the things that expire, the fact that it's going
to blow up the deficit. And yet look, let's not
engage in irrational exuberance. He's going to get the thing passed.
All these all these stories about the hard liners are,
you know, taking a stand. You know what, what Republican
hardliners do, the same thing as republic Can moderates do.
They always fucking cave in the end. Always he is
(13:05):
going to get it passed.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I don't know what that looks like. And remember, it'll
be a totally different bill when it comes out of
the Senate. But I would like to talk about one
Chip Roy. You will remember Chip Roy as being impossibly woke.
Chip Roy said, and again, like out of the mouths
of Chip Roy. I'm going to give you this one
because I feel like this is an important bit. This
(13:27):
is something he tweeted yesterday. Spending cuts that don't cut
in for four years seems awfully specific.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Of course, it's very specific. It's very cynical. It's like
they're basically trying to set it up for twenty twenty
eight so that JD. Vans or whoever is running, can
go to his buddies and say, you know, if I
don't get elected, all these sweet deals, all these tax
cuts just go away. Yeah, these socialist Democrats are going
to take away all your goodies. So they've set it up.
(13:58):
The problem is create all these fiscal cliffs, all of
this uncertainty. But these guys are looking No nobody's ever
confused them with rocket scientists.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
But again, nobody's ever confused them with rocket scientists. They
are taking away stuff from the American people. And yet,
and I say this, as you know, what's side of
the aisle I'm on, Democrats are having a very tough
time messaging this. How is this possible?
Speaker 5 (14:26):
I can't believe that I'm going to be on the
opposite side of this question, because the fact is that,
And I agree with Karen Tummlety from the Washington Post
who describes the way they both like a lot, Yeah,
very much. You know, I've been around a long time,
and she calls it a masterclass of resistance. The way
the Democrats in fact are handling the Medicaid cuts. They
keep putting up amendments, they keep getting Republicans on the
(14:48):
record on this issue. They've been pounding it. So this
is one of those rare moments where I think that
they're doing probably what they should be doing. And of
course all of the is kind of the preseason because
once they pass this bill, once they in fact do
you know, slash Medicaid, then they own it. They have
(15:08):
to live with it, and we see the consequences. And
one of the things we've seen is the fact that
a lot of these policies may poll well until they
become specific, until we put a human face on them,
until we see all the downstream effects. And there will
be downstream effects when you toss millions of people off
of their healthcare. So well, I mean, I'll agree with
(15:29):
you to this point that if the Democrats can't message
all of this stuff, they really ought to find a
different line of work. They all ought to become Walmart greeters,
starting with Chuck Schumber.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It's too expensive. I think that's a really good point.
What you're saying though about Medicaid. Medicare these cuts what
they will mean? And again, they don't pall well. Cutting
them doesn't pall well. It polls well, but it doesn't.
It's not popular. And then what is going to happen
is you're going to see rural hospitals close and nursing homes.
(16:00):
So Grandma comes to live with you because the nursing
home closed. You have a car accident and you have
to drive three hours to a hospital. I mean, you're
going to have story after story for that. Now here's
the question. Donald Trump with the tariffs. Okay, so had
these huge traffs with China. The TikTok the Wall Street Journal,
(16:20):
there was a really good TikTok about this. Maybe was
the Washington Post. I think it was a Wall Street Journal, right,
really good TikTok of how they got him to back down,
which was basically they were like, you're hurting your people.
Now it's the tariffs with China are still the highest
they've been since World War two or some crazy I
mean they're not They're humendously high. They don't shut off China, right,
(16:43):
they just make China more expensive. And they're going to
have huge inflationary effects because they will, there's no way,
and I think those effects are coming down the pike.
We haven't seen it yet, clearly because the markets are rallying,
so we haven't seen it. But we did see consumer
confidence today way down big right, and consumer confidence like
that in itself can get you into recession. So the
(17:04):
question is, really, as we are walking through this, is
there a world in which he's medicaid cuts. These are
cuts to red states. A lot of Red states are
going to feel the hospitals and nursing homes. So do
these members vote for this anyway? And does Donald Trump
sign it anyway knowing because remember he cares about his people,
(17:25):
So does he sign it anyway or does he? I mean,
this will be a straight line between Trump your rural
hospital closing.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Yeah, they will vote for and he will sign it,
and then he will come out and say this is
a big, beautiful bill and it's a huge win and
everybody is going to be better off because Donald Trump
doesn't care about the substance of a policy. He only
cares about how he can market it, and he feels
that he can sell any shits in which is Filet
Mignon understand that the superpower. Also, I'm not sure this
(17:58):
is directly in response to this, but sometimes I feel
like we're watching the wrong movie. We think that Donald
Trump is doing one thing, when in fact he's doing another.
So I start trying to write a piece about about,
you know, Elon Musk and what a complete fraud Doge was.
We're finding out now that you know, despite all the chainsaw,
all the performative slashing and cutting and frankly, you know
(18:19):
a lot of the damage that he's done, and it
is in fact dangerous, but it didn't actually cut much
government spending. And I mentioned this to some smarter person
than me, and he said, yeah, but that you know,
why do you think that that's what Doge was really
all about? Assume that Elon Musk is still a savvy guy.
So while we're all focused on these cuts and these layoffs,
what Elon Musk was doing was gutting all the regulatory
(18:41):
agencies that might have held him accountable, the SEC, any
of these other organizations. He's basically feathering his nests. And
the same thing with Donald Trump. You know, we think
that Donald Trump is focused on the big beautiful bill. Look,
donald Trump was in the Middle East last week, basically
just coining money, you know, taking care of, as David
(19:02):
Frum says, taking care of his retirement fund. So the
mistake with Donald Trump is ever to think that he's
serious about public policy. Now, what you're saying is that
he might think that the optics were so terrible that
he wouldn't sign. He's definitely going to sign that big
beautiful bill because he has to. Failure is not an
(19:23):
option for him. But right now I think that what
Donald Trump is doing is, you know, Donald Trump is
rigging the government and the world economy for the benefit
of Donald Trump. He is not lying awaken night worrying
about grandma in a rural hospital. He give a shit
about that. So the movie here is not Donald Trump's
(19:43):
economic plans. It's Donald Trump really doing his business the
way he thinks it should be done. For Trump, it's
just a matter of being able to declare a win.
So say, let's take this China thing that we're talking about.
Thirty percent tariffs are stunningly high. The only reason the
markets are going, oh my god, what a relief is
because they're not high compared to one hundred and forty
(20:03):
five percent, right.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Which is really no more in China.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
So Donald Trump lit this, you know, the entire forest
on fire, came in, put out a portion of it.
The woods are still on fire. But people are going, well, okay,
that's not so bad. But it is going to be inflationary.
It is going to happen effect. But Donald Trump believes
that all he has to do is say CI won.
He loses to China, right, he blinks. But as long
as he can declare to win, he's going to be
(20:29):
happy and just take that, you know, one after another.
It doesn't matter what actually happens in the real world.
Donald Trump believes that he can sell it.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
So is that post truth?
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yeah, oh very much. It's post truth. It's post shame,
it's post accountability, it's post rule of law, it's post ethics,
it's post every one of those things.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So the bill passes, they start kicking people off, you know,
rural hospitals. This kind of stuff happens. We cruise into
the mid term with Democrats poise to win. What happens.
I mean, I mean, do you think that's just how
it goes, or do you think that.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
There is Yeah, probably, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Let's talk about Elon Musk and Doge. So clearly Doge
has done something because now we're starting to have really
bad problems with our faa.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Oh my god, it's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
But again, like this is the thing about Doge, which
I think is so brilliant, is that no one really
knows what the fuck they did in there right.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Right, except that it didn't actually shrink the size of
government or deficit or any of those things. No, there
are really still potentials for terrible things. I mean, going
to the summer that if the national parks are a disaster,
that has consequences, If planes start falling out of the sky,
that has consequences, And there are all sorts of other
things that we don't fully understand because he didn't care
(21:55):
about them. So yeah, that's all a possibility. But Elon Musk,
I think has generally gotten what he wanted out of
all of this. He's continuing to I mean, the fact
that they just this may seem so small, but what's
going on at the Library of Congress is so bizarre.
They fired the Librarian of Congress and then the head
of the Copyright Office.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Why because she was black?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
Well yes, well okay, but the Copyright Office firing takes
place like the week after they issue this detailed report
that pushes back on Elon Musk's position on AI. So,
I mean, he has his own agenda and he's making
sure that he's taken out everybody is doing it. So,
but by the way, can we talk about this as
the weirdest story of the day. I mean, there are
(22:37):
so many weird stories of the day.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yes, please, I want a weird story. Let's go.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
When I first heard this, I thought, okay, this is
a misunderstanding. It's a misreport. It's a parody of some guy.
Christy Nome actually wants to have a Hunger Games type
TV show where migrants compete on the air for citizenship.
And it's one of those where you have to read
it a couple of times and go, Okay, this cannot
be true, right, Can Homeland Security Barbie actually have come
(23:03):
up with something like this? At this point, nothing is
beyond parody. If she was proposing a TV show where
people competed with who can shoot the puppy, you know,
in the face of the first I no longer would
be genuinely shocked by it. But this is a real story.
So these people, honestly, for all the problems they've been having,
there's no sense whatsoever that they're back on their heel
(23:26):
or that they think that they've gone too far, or
that perhaps they ought to rain things. And you know,
people like, why.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Do you think that is? I mean, clearly, Christy nom
wants to be famous and that's it, right, don't stop.
She doesn't care why she's famous, just wants me famous,
wants to make money. I mean obviously that you don't
have a fifty four page deck for a reality show
or a thirty seven page deck for reality show. Hell,
if you're not pretty convincing you want to So she
(23:55):
wants me famous. But what's the end goal? I mean,
I think a lot of these people just want to
make money and be famous, right.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Yeah, right, and then and be powerful and be influential. Now,
Stephen Miller does have an end goal, which is which
is deeply ugly. I just have the sense that the
hubris in this administration is getting more and more intense.
Now that's the bad news is that they are you
know at ramming speed. The good news is the story
(24:21):
of Hubris seldom ends well when you fly too close
to the sum When Stephen Miller comes rolling out last
weekend and say we're thinking of yeah exactly, it's like
he thinks and all these stories now saying he's the
President's ID, that nobody else has as much cloud as
he does. I don't know how Donald Trump, you know,
(24:42):
reacts to that that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
He's running the DOJ. Did you see that story?
Speaker 6 (24:46):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (24:47):
And you know, isn't that isn't that remarkable? But not
a total shock that the Fox News hosts chosen by
Trump are merely figureheads, right, They're the people there's the
talking head you put on TV. They don't actually like
do shit? So who does shit? I mean some of
these evil humunculuses, like Stephen Miller.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
But it is amazing to me that there was some
report in the reporting of the James Comy eighty six
forty seven, that whole crisis that they got cash Fatel,
because like cash Fattel has been curiously absent from the discourse.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Yes, but not the discothechts, So I'm certainly not doing that. Well, Okay,
what's hilarious about this whole you know, eighty six forty
seven thing is now people are coming up with all
sorts of times when Maga folks were saying, you know,
eighty six forty six, or they were actually marketing merch,
you know, with eighty six, because as many people know,
(25:42):
eighty six does not necessarily mean kill them. It means,
you know, to get rid of them, or means take
it off the menu or whatever. So some of the
delicious stuff on social media will be actually putting tweets
side by side of a Maga folk, somebody in Maga saying,
you know, we should eighty six Biden, and then right
next to it, oh my god, Jim Comy is calling
(26:03):
for the assassination of Donald Trump for saying the exact same.
I mean, you know, it's just it's all performative bullshit
at this point.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Charlie Sikes, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Thank you. I cannot wait to read your book, Molly,
I cannot wait to read your book.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Congressman Greg Kazar represents Texas's thirty fifth congressional district. Welcome
to Fast Politics, Representative Kazar, thanks so much for having
me a new Ish member of Congress.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
That's right here, a few months into my second term.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You have already sort of emerged as a star. You're
the head of the Progressive Caucus, and you have been
going around with AOC and Bernie, but also with other people.
So I want you to talk to me about how
you've found it since you've been in Congress, and how
(26:58):
you've kind of found your voice.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well, what's happening in the world and what's happening in
the country is crazy. It's just awful if you really
take in what the Trump administration is doing to our
government and to people in our country any given day.
But when you ask me how I've found Congress, you know,
I go into these committee meetings and people aren't really
(27:23):
debating policy or how to make the country better. It's
not like I'm having a reasoned debate with my Republican colleagues.
They're just they're ramming through healthcare cuts. They're just there
ramming through billionaire tax cuts, and then they say whatever
words it is they have to say around it. And
so I've recognized how important it is for us to
(27:45):
go out there and speak to the country and organize
the country and mobilize people if we want to stop
what's happening in Congress. The horrible thing's happening in Congress.
And so you know, I can go to a committee
meeting and argue with chairwomen of my subcommittee, Marjorie Taylor Green,
till I'm blue in the face.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Is that doj Is that this committee we're talking about?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (28:04):
But you know when the report came out whatever that
was a week and a half ago, that the Republican
plan was going to kick nearly ten million people off
of their healthcare and just one with just one vote
from the Republicans. Chairwoman of the Committee on DOGE, Marjorie
Taylor Green called a hearing on trans fencing, not like
the fences around a building, but like the sport with
(28:27):
the swords. And while I'm sure fencing is a great sport,
I've never met a fencer. You know, there's less than
one thousands collegiate fencers in America. There's less than ten
trans collegiate athletes in all of American college sports. And
so while I'm in Congress, that's what Marjorie Taylor Green
wants to have hearings about. That's what she wants headlines about.
(28:47):
And if we want to beat that, it's so important
to go out into public and go and do rallies
with AOC and Bernie, but also I'm on Fox News
and on Univision with the exact same message, which is,
we want to make your life better. We want to
not just protect healthcare but expand it. And we could
do that if we're willing to stand up to the
billionaires that are stealing your taxpayer dollars and screwing you
(29:10):
over every single day here in the government. And that
kind of message I think should be at the heart
of a new progressive message of the Democratic Party's new
message to people to say, look, this is crazy, and
we can unite more people if against this, if we
go and get folks stirred up, because the vast majority
of Republican voters and Trump voters don't believe that we
(29:31):
should be kicking millions of people off their healthcare all
to give some Republican billionaire donors a bigger tax cut.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, so I'm like very agitated. My new hobby horse
come with me is Democrats who speak like thep you know,
like from the show Weep Right. They speak in this
sort of like you gotta bring the amer and the
CA and then you have America right where they say
stuff that doesn't mean anything, and you think, I'm so
(29:58):
bored that I will do anything to get off of
this interview. You don't talk like that. Do you see
that people actually respond to it? And can you talk
to other Democrats and make them talk normally.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
I'm new to Congress, and so it means that there
are things that I don't know right because I'm new here.
But it also means that when I see something weird
that everybody treats as normal, I'm like, that's really weird.
And I'm in some of these rooms and have been here,
you know, as a newer member where we get sat
down dozens and dozens of members of Congress on the
Democratic side, and we're showing a slideshow and it says
(30:35):
things like say these specific words defend social security. Just
say it, and ninety percent of voters agree, But nobody
asks themselves, like you just said, Molly, what if nobody
hears you? What if you're totally tuned out? What if
that tree falls in the forest and nobody cares? Who
are so focused on saying the magic words instead of
actually connecting with people and saying, isn't it freaking nuts?
(30:58):
That they're talking about game years off of Social Security,
taking your mom, your grandmother off of Social Security while
they get a bigger tax gut And isn't it crazy.
I didn't even know this fully until I was in
Congress that if you're Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, you
don't pay into Social Security every paycheck they pay in
like three days and then they're done because there's like
a special carve out for gajillionaires on Social Security. What like,
(31:21):
we could pull every senior in the country out of poverty.
You could have every young person that has to support
some of their just tax the res if you just literally,
if we just tax Jeff Bezos, Yeah, you could make
it so that tons more folks could just support themselves
and pay their own ment or mortgage instead of having
to support themselves and their parents who work their entire lives.
(31:41):
And just connecting with people a little more authentically in
that way has big results. But I think it also
requires that we're willing to call out a villain so
that people are interested in our story instead of sounding
like we're just policy wonks and like Harvard moot court,
because like, yeah, that turns people off.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
I have a friend who's a member of Congress who
I love, and I saw this person. I'm not going
to say what gender they are because I don't want
to give it away. I saw this person the other
day and I said, how you doing? And this person
was like, I am not fucking getting what I deserve
in leadership world because the older people are keeping me
(32:23):
out of it. Are you seeing that? And why is
that happening?
Speaker 6 (32:28):
Well, you know, there's this long established seniority system in Congress,
and it exists for a variety of reasons, and I
think that it's kind of served out. It's most of
its usefulness where people just like anybody else, and folks
have been like when I came in, the rule was
once I've been here twenty years, then I get a
certain amount of influence. And now I've been here eighteen
years and you're changing the rules on me last minute.
(32:50):
And the answer is kind of that's what's happening, and
it's going to be better for everybody. And there are
some folks that have been here twenty and thirty years
that are much older than me, that are actually bought
on and have more energy than I do.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
On Nancy Pelosi, she could run circles around me, you know.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
So, Look, it isn't that we should pick it by
age one way or the other. I just think, as
we've seen on some committees, like the Oversight Committee that
I'm on, that there is a lot of new talent,
and that we have chosen our leaders oftentimes by who
makes the best pitch. So Jamie Raskin, who led Oversight
(33:29):
and now leads Judiciary, an incredible leader. He was not
the most senior person on either of those committees, and
we picked him, and I think everybody benefits, and so
I look, if the most senior person is the best person,
then I think we go all in. I'm of the
mindset that we should bring people in, interview them, and
(33:49):
vote for the best person. And I think the Democratic
Caucus is starting to get there. We're not fully there,
and I respect why folks feel like it's not fair
to change the roles at the last minute. But my
main focus is on Look, we're on the verge of
nearly fourteen million people losing their healthcare for a billionaire
tech cut, Like, let's fight that with everything we got.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
So I'm hoping you could tell me where you guys
are with Oversight so.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
I'm on the Oversight Committee. So for folks listening in,
this is supposed to be the committee that investigates when
big corporations or the administration are doing corrupt things. Right,
like if you just said, the last few days, Trump
was given a four hundred million dollar jet, He's being
offered a four hundred million dollar jet for free from
the Katari government, which is like illegal in so many
(34:35):
different ways, and it violates the Constitution in so many
different ways. This is supposed to be the committee that's
supposed to investigate things like that, but it's currently led
by Republicans whose job it is to apologize and cover
up for things like that. So Jamie Raskin used to
lead us on that committee. Jerry Connelly was elected after
mister Raskin was he is suffering from a re emergency
(34:56):
of cancer and our thoughts are so deeply with him. Look,
everybody listen, They themselves or something of their close family
have dealt with the answer that you think goes away
and then comes back. It's just these are real people
we work with, and so truly like this is a
practices to speak. We are with Jerry on this. At
some point soon, he said, he will step back and
then there will be an election. And they've been all
(35:16):
sorts of folks that have thrown their names out there.
Three members of my Progressive Caucus, mister Imfume, who has
Elijah Cummings Oldti he used to run the committee, Jasmine
Crockett from my state of Texas. Robert Garcia, who's been
an incredible leader on this. You've probably see them all
over the news ripping the administration apart from Long Beach, California.
And then mister Lynch, who's not a Progressive Caucus member
(35:38):
but you know also currently is like leading the committee
in the interim. So my way of thinking about this,
because I kind of lead this team of progresses right
over ninety members of Congress or a part of my caucus,
is instead of us all going our own separate ways
and picking who we like, I think that everybody that's
running once mister Connolly steps back and there's an actual race,
come in present to ninety members of Congress, and then
(36:01):
we should vote as progressives to get behind somebody whoever
the best person is that we think can push back
against these Trump musk abuses. And this is going to
be really important because for folks listening at home. If
Democrats regain the majority, even if we don't have the
White House, we get subpoena power, and in the Oversight Committee,
that means we could bring folks like Elon Muskin under
oath to talk about all the stuff they did and
(36:24):
to root out, in my view, probably many things that
were against the law, because I've been talking about firing
you On Musk. But I think for folks that we
find out violate criminal laws, commit real acts of corruption, like,
the consequences for that are worse. And I think the
only way that we prevent people from unaccountability, stealing from
the taxpayers to benefit from themselves is if those folks
(36:46):
have a feeling that maybe in a year and a
half Democrats could have the majority and you can actually
get held accountable for it. Because right now they are
so emboldened they arrested a mayor in Newark and threatened
to arrest members of Congress for following the law and
going and checking in on an ice facility just this weekend.
They are so emboldened they think that they'll never get
held accountable, and the Oversight Committee is the place to
(37:07):
do that. And so part of my job. It's probably
weird for folks at home downe to fully, you know,
hear how all the insides of this work. But my
job as Progressive Caucus chair is to kind of corral
my team of ninety something progressives and be like, who's
the best who's our best pick that we can align
behind for this very important position, which will be investigating
(37:29):
the Trump administration, dealing with Marjorie Tayler Green and folks
like that for now, but eventually, if the demost when
the House, it can actually go investigate all the stuff
that's happened. And if they know we're going to investigate
it hard, that actually might be a way of preventing
some of the horrible things that they're trying to do
right now.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
I think the idea of voting as a block too
is much better than as someone who lives in New York,
where we are under the mayoral curse. What we have
found is that progressives in New York tend not to
put it together as a group, and just everybody runs
against each other and then everyone loses.
Speaker 6 (38:04):
We have to get organized, and I was a labor
organizer before I was an elected official, and so it
makes my job a little different. Here in Congress. I
can say what it is that I think, and that's important,
but I you know, I can have a bigger impact
as of one of four hundred and thirty five members
of Congress if I can get eighty or ninety people together.
And that's how I think we pushed our agenda beyond
(38:28):
just defending against stuff. We get ninety one hundred and
one hundred and fifty members of Congress to say, yeah,
we're going to defend Medicaid and Medicare from these Republican attacks,
but also put us in office and we'll expand it.
We'll pull every senior in this country out of poverty
by expanding social security. Maybe we I'm for a Medicare
for all system, But man, if we could even just
get the age of Medicare down fifty five or sixty
(38:51):
years old, we can help so many seniors get the
healthcare that they need. Maybe we can pass universal childcare
so that your childcare expenses are never more than seven
percent of your budget. Those are the sorts of things
that if we actually really got done, then I think
people could believe in us again, not just as the
anti Trump people, but as the people who really did
something for me because in places like Texas, I'll tell you,
(39:11):
we are at the bottom of the list of voter turnout,
and a lot of the folks that don't try out
to vote, they're like, it doesn't really make that much
a difference. I know it makes a difference, but I
want to show them the huge positive difference we can make.
And that's part of what I'm trying to rally members
of Congress around, is let's defend against the bad stuff,
but also put out a vision for how we can
make people's lives better.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Who are you seeing that you where you feel that
they're good? In Congress and in the Senate where for example,
here's a question that I often am asked, which.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
Is like, who are the leader of the Democrats right now,
right all the time? Yeah, And I know people feel
that way.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
It doesn't have to be the leader, but more just
people where you're like, oh, this is impressed by what
this person is doing.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
Oh, these people are good right now. I understand how
a lot of folks at home are feeling where they're like,
who is the person driving this for us? My first
election was Obama's first election. We had that, you know,
in President Obama, both as a candidate and as president.
And right now we're in a place where Republicans have
(40:18):
Speaker of the House, the Republicans have majority leader, they
have Trump and the White House, and so there's like
this competition for who the biggest voices should be, and
that can be uncomfortable, and folks are like, well, who's good,
who's emerging? But right now is the time for that
to happen, for everybody to go out there and do
their thing. Like I feel like AOC is like our
number one draft pick. As young Democrats have been amazing
(40:39):
this year, going across the country, put her voice out there.
You know, that's amazing and alongside burning it. But then
there's also folks that have some of these tough Trump
to Biden districts that are kind of close, and folks
like Chris Deluzio has been amazing. You know, he's a progressive.
But somebody who can talk to voters that maybe weren't
(40:59):
ready to vote for Joe Biden, We're ready to vote
for him. And so there's you know, there's these emerging
voices I think that are rallying the country. But I'd
say to the folks what I say to people all
the time is right now. I think the leaders of
the party right now are like the folks flooding these
town halls, the people organizing these hands off marches, because
I want the people to really lead in this moment,
(41:21):
because what I've seen in DC is, look, the way
that should work is people lead and the politicians follow.
When folks come and ask me like, hey, what should
I do? I give them some ideas. But it's even better.
Like when I was a labor organizer, we weren't asking
members of Congress for permission or big companies for permission.
Like we were out there pushing. And I think if
people go out there and push, it's what gives our
democratic leaders, like a little bit of stepping their step.
(41:43):
Courage inspires courage. And so look, I encourage people to
call to march, to call all of our offices.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
All right, tell me who You're not telling me what
I want? Give me who? Well, yeah, I mean if
you want a list of my faves, yes, go who
win leadership? Do you feel like is really doing the
work in the House or the Senate?
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Okay, I know you're in New York and that this
gets strictly, but I frankly was very very supportive and
am very supportive of Leader Jeffrey saying we need to
vote know the Trump budget. You know, I just thought
that that was a powerful move. He aligned the Democratic
House members and we did a hard thing now say look,
we're not going to vote for your budget. And I
(42:26):
do think it was a devastating move by Leader Schumer
to not just vote for the but Trump budget, but
in many ways help get it across the finish line.
And I just think those are two different styles of leadership,
and in my view, in this moment, we need that
style of leadership that we saw from Leader Jefferies where
he said we're going to take a bold stand on
somewhere where it really makes a difference. And I think
(42:48):
that we're suffering from those repercussions of Leader Schumer's decision today.
So if if you want me to give you a
little bit of it, of the of the t you know,
like that's that to me, that's the real difference right now.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
But here's a question for you that because I don't disagree,
and I think most people agree with you, But the
question is, wasn't it by the time that bill got
out of the House like, nobody thought Donald Trump would
whip the votes on that, right, Nobody saw it coming
that Donald Trump and Elon Musk would literally call people
(43:18):
and be like, if you don't vote for it, we're
got in primary. There was no precedent for that or
whatever happened that was like that, but clearly something to
that effect happened. But once it got out of the house,
and again I'm not defending anyone, I'm more just once
it got out of the house, it was the Democrats
were going to own the shutdown.
Speaker 6 (43:37):
That's the important question. So look real quick on precedents
and unprecedented Trump Musk stuff. These guys do crazy stuff crazy.
We have to understand that everybody you're going to do
is unprecedented. There is everybody listening is like, oh, I
knew they were going to do bad stuff, but I
didn't know this. That's how we should be handling into
the house. You know, like he's going to pull every
(43:58):
trick in the book. So we just we can't rely
on that. In my view, right, that's how we got
Speaker Johnson reelected even though people opposed him, because he
went in and you know, made the phone calls. So look,
here's here's my disagreement with Leaderschuomer is that if we
go in assuming that we're going to get blamed for fighting,
(44:19):
then the only path is to play dead, you know.
And I think that we need to pick tough fights,
ones where we're at risk of losing, where we could
get blamed for their not being a budget, but where
we could actually go out there and explain to people
why we aren't going to be a cheap date and
help them and the Social Security Administration as we know it,
(44:41):
and the FAA and safe flights as we know it
and inspection of your food as we know it. I mean,
give me a break. And I believe that we need
the kinds of fighters and communicators who say I'm willing
to take a risk and taking a risk involved maybe
we get blamed, but maybe we don't if we go
out there and work it. But to your point, Yeah,
(45:04):
if we have a bunch of folks that aren't willing
to go communicate all over the country, then we might
lose the fight and it's not worth picking it. But
I think we need folks that are willing to pick
the fight. And if you show up in poker and
everybody knows you're going to fold. We're never going to win,
so we have to be willing for people to know, yeah,
that we're willing to take a risk.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That
was great.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
It's really nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
No, Jesse Cannon boy, I think you and I are
the biggest reality TV show watchers. But I know one
show I would not fucking watch, which is the most
dystopian bullshit I've ever heard, which is Christy Nomes's little
Hunger Games for Immigrants show.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Look, the Wall Street Journal is reporting DHS is considering
a reality show where immigrants compete for a citizenship. This
is unbelievably insane. I think we should all be pretty
I mean, even for this administration. That is wow. I
mean I am rarely speechless, but Hunger Games for Immigrants
(46:11):
may have done it. Wow. And there's a thirty six
page slide deck, which you do when you're trying to
sell a show, and it envisions the show is beginning
with contestants sailing to All Ellis Island, where they are
greeted by the show's host, a famously naturalized citizen, maybe
someone like Sophia Vergus Ryan Reynolds by the way.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
None of these people are doing this.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
No, no one is doing this. And yeah, I am
almost without words, but I can find some. What the fuck? Man,
what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (46:45):
How much do you want to bet that it's like
studio ghibli pictures of like an immigrant outrunning another immigrant
because it's this white house.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
There are no words, There are no words. Words fail
may words do in fact fail me. 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,
(47:16):
please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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