March 6, 2024 • 49 mins
Gov. Howard Dean weighs how Biden should approach the general election season. Congressman Andy Kim details his Senate run and the bizarre NJ ballot structures that allow party insiders to have advantages. CNN anchor Jim Acosta examines the media's failures in covering the 2024 election.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds. And Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proposed a
tax credit for caregivers.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We have a star studded show. Today.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Congressman Andy Kim tells us about his Senate run and
the bizarre New Jersey ballad structure that allows party insiders
to have enormous advantages. Then we'll talk to CNN anchor
and my personal bestie Jim Acosta about the media failures
covering the twenty twenty four election. But first we have
former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean. Welcome back
(00:42):
to Fast Politics, Howard Dean, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
This is always light.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So I can't take another conversation about polls. Make us
all understand how insane and stupid this whole thing is.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I don't think I can. I try not to pay
too much attention to the polls because one of the
problems is that the media engages in clickbait and that's
about it, and that's always been the case. I mean,
I can remember finding that out when I ran for
president myself. It's all clickbait, it's not news. It's a
problem because the so called low information voters are basically
(01:21):
all cranked up. This is the only thing good Trump
is good at. I mean, basically, the Republicans are running
on a platform that can be summed up in two words,
rage and hate, and it's successful with people who don't
think about the issues. It's amazing what the public doesn't know.
Part of it is because the press doesn't focus on
what they know, and part of it is because there
is no press for a lot of the folks that
(01:41):
are getting their news through Fox and places like that.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I think about Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, right, and how
a lot of economists would the exception of Paul Krukman.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Basically, we're like, this is going to be a recession.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Even we have a very smart guy called Justin Wolfer's
on the podcast all the time, and Justin was like,
you know, you don't know, he was bullish, but even
he was cautious. And what happened was we didn't have it.
And the reason we didn't have it was because of
bold legislative infusions to our government, to our manufacturing sectors,
(02:20):
through the Inflation Reduction Act, which actually reduced inflation.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And furthermore, most of the investments in the Inflation Reduction
Act went to the places which are full of people
who are Trumpists. Yeah, a lot of money went into
rural areas, rekindling factories to make chips and cars, electric
cars and all this kind of stuff. I heard a
maddening interview from a member of the United Auto Workers
the other day, who have endorsed Biden for good reason,
(02:47):
and they saying, well, you know, we don't do what
our union says. I think that we both voted for
Trump the last time, and all this stuff, and I thought,
you know, it is so frustrating. People are demanding this
and demanding that, and then you give it to them
and then they turn against you. Anyway.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
It's really tough.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I think the country is at great risk and they
don't see that either. He is not a high education
group of people. But still this is a democracy.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It's interesting to me because, like so much of Trump's
message in twenty sixteen was this economic populism, which I
think was one of the reasons he won against Tilly
Clinton was he said I'm going to bring back, you know, jobs,
I'm going to bring back coal, which, by the way, coal,
besides being just horrendous for the planet, is also wildly expensive.
(03:31):
So even if you were like, I hate the planet
and we have to like get this coal, even then
it still doesn't make any financial sense. But he had
this message of economic populism. Meanwhile, fastward, Joe Biden delivers
economic populism.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
He does these things.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You know, he brings chip manufacturing back to the Middle West,
which was like, you know, a fantasy really of previous presidents.
There seems to be a disconnect between what he's done
and what he gets credit for.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Right, here's what I think is really happening, and it's irrelevant, unfortunately,
to all the good stuff that Biden has done. This
is a group of very angry people for the first
time in my life and maybe in the history of
the country. If you're a fifty year old white guy
and you lose your job in rural America, you're not
getting another one unless you're a reader at Walmart or
something like that. Minority communities are very familiar with this syndrome,
(04:24):
but white folks aren't, and they think, well, you know,
why are women have all these rights? How come black
people have all these rights? How come gay people have
all these rights? And so in some ways, what Trump does,
what he sells is none of this is your fault.
It's all the liberal elite and the college educated people
and the you know people are teaching about African American
history and the universities. It's all their fault and none
(04:46):
of it's your fault. So he really is absolving people
of any responsibility to improve their own communities. I'll do
it for you. I'll just get rid of these people,
And of course he never does. It is the same
playbook that Mussolini Hitler played that was.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Talking Eddy cut about this.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's sort of the last rebellion, the backlash of a
multi racial democracy. Right, We've never had a multi racial democracy. Theoretically,
at least there was a sense we might be getting
closer to it, and then Trumpism came in and took.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
All of that away.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The math on that, like, there may be white men
in the middle of the country who lose their jobs,
but the numbers on unemployment dictate that actually it's a
very very tight labor market, and so they should technically,
I mean again, I don't know, you know, people's personal stories,
but they should be able to get another job.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It's not what it's about. It's not about the economy.
It's about their economy to a certain extent. But what
it's about is the forty year creep towards a multi
racial democracy where women goal rights. I mean, the reason
so many Republicans are against abortion and against now against
IVF is it's really not about IVF or Republicans. What
it's about is controlling women even in their own towns.
(05:57):
They've seen women get more rights than they used to have.
They've seen gay people allowed to get married before they
were just cast out and made fun of for their
whole life. It is in the sense Eddie, who is
one of the smartest people I ever met, is right
in the sense that it's the loss of white privilege.
But it's more than that.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
It's an absolution.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's a giving up on making progress or redefining what
progress is. Progress is not living in a peaceful country
where democracy hails. It is resentment towards a lot of
the change that's been made. And the other problem is
this is all fueled by the billionaire class. It's not accident.
The billionaires who are lean Republican are founding no labels
because it's the way of making sure that Trump wins.
(06:37):
And that's because they benefit from the system. What all
of this does is divert attention from the abuses that
white working class people are taking it the hands of
billionaires because it works to abuse white working class people.
They've been doing it for years and blame it on
the usual suspects, women, gay people, people of color, and
so forth and so on. That's what Trump is really
(06:57):
good at. He's not good at anything else. Ailed businessman,
as Judge anger On said, he's a crook, he's a narcissist,
he was incompetent when he was president.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
But he's really really good at this.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It does remind me of a story of aut Alf Hitler,
because Adlf Hitler was an incompetent and a failed artist,
and he had this tremendous gift for blaming other people.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Unfortunately it ended up with a holocaust.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
And I think they're a fair number of people in
the Republican Party who wouldn't think that was so bad.
How about the guy who got up at Seapack and said,
welcome to the end of democracy. And that is for
reasonable political dialogue in the United States of America. I
don't think so. So this election really is about the
survival of the United States of America as a world power.
And if we know people think, oh, it's great not
(07:39):
to be a world power, why should we be because
we have the level of prosperity we have because the
dollar is the current of the recurrency reference for the world.
If it isn't, we don't get away with a thirty
one trillion dollar deficit. So I think these folks have
absolutely no idea what they're doing to their children by
voting for somebody like Trump.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You know, you're a doctor and you've done a lot
of work lining the ground works for how we got Obamacare.
So I'm curious what you think about the embryonic personhood
stuff out of Alabama. It seems like ideologically the Christian
right has for a long time wanted to make sure
(08:17):
that a five celled embryo had the same rights as
a person. Insane, But I mean, what do you think
about that? And I feel like, politically that's very stupid
and it's going to bite Republicans.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, it is going to bite Republicans, and so is
the right wing partisan Supreme Court is going to bite
Republicans and they realize that, but it's too late for them. Now,
you know, the court has degenerated and nothing but parsians
in Republican operation, and that's what it is. So the
institutions that are already beginning to crumble, there's a lot
of work to be done to fix it. But we
(08:50):
can't fix it with somebody like Trump in the White House.
It'll just get worse.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, But there have been like some kind of like
huge healthcare jumps, like five dollars insulin Medicare expansion, like
we're seeing, you know, quietly none of this is getting
any attention, which happens to actually be good for people
like Andy Burschers and different other states where they're trying
(09:15):
to do Medicare expansion quietly so that Republicans can't make
it a partisan issue. But I mean, these policies are
weirdly like once they get in place, people love them.
Like people don't want to give up Obamacare.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Well that's what.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They don't want to give up Obamacare, and they certainly
don't want to give up Social Security and Medicare, which
they're certainly not. I finally turned the volume down on
cutting because they know it's murder for them if you
cut them. The stuff about IVF is just right wing
white Christian nationalism, which is incredibly sexist. If you read
the scriptures about it, it's basically they underline all the
(09:50):
stuff that's about subjugation to women, and that's what these
people are doing. And the incredible part about the opinion
in Alabama was it was written by a right wing
Christian nationalists. I think he was the justice that wrote
out the opinion, and he basically said, this is right
wing Christian nationalism and women shouldn't be doing any of
these things. I mean, you know, it's pretty extraordinary. That's
(10:11):
who's going in charge of HHS if Donald Trump wins.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And by the way, like even if you look at
that Heritage Foundation twenty twenty five document, you know they
want to make the Department of Health and Human Services
the Department of Life.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I mean, HEREDAGE used to be a respectable organization and
when that guy Dement took over, it became just another
right wing group of crackpots. They actually had a fairly
decent healthcare operation. They were conservative, but they were thoughtful.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
And very very knowledgeable.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
When Dement came in it just turned into a party
than shipwreck, and that's what it is now.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
It's kind of amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But I do think it's interesting, Like as we look
at so you know, Republicans, everybody in the House is up.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Then you have this Senate map.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Which is really good for Republicans, but you know, a
lot a lot of the candidates we're seeing, I mean,
I think this is really interesting. Are these self funded
carpetbaggers coming from other states? And I have to wonder
how much of that is because a lot of this
money is already sort of allocated to Donald Trump's legal fees.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Carpetbaggers from out of states has been a Republican strategy
for a long time, and it most doesn't work. Times
it does, but mostly it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
So we'll see.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I mean, look the election. I do not think in
the end that Donald Trump is going to be the
next president of the United States, because I do believe
that Americans are going to look at this at the
end of the day. Now, we don't know when Trump
beat Hillary. It was mostly because James Comey changed the
subject at the last minute from Trump's anti women stuff
to Hillary's supposed emails, and he changed it not because
(11:46):
he wanted to influence the election, but because he wanted
to save his butt in case of Republican Committee that
he'd promised to tell everything to got into power. So
as Rick Santorum once said, is the only smart thing
he ever said, so I could tell he said he
was asked about this. We were doing a panel in
Toronto about the election, and somebody asked about the election,
and he said, these are the two most unpopular people
(12:07):
that have ever run for president, and which everyone we're
talking about last is the one that's gonna lose. And
that's exactly what happened. I think eventually Biden is going
to come to the top. I saw it read an
article today and I can't remember where it was. I
think it might have been in Semaphore. Biden really wants
to get much more aggressive with Trump, and I think
that's the right thing to do. Actually, I've always thought
that Biden ought to challenge Trump to a push up contest,
(12:29):
because kick his butt, and I think if Trump could
do a single pushup, I'd be amazed. So you know,
that'd be fun. But absent that, which is unlikely, I
think that Biden needs to go after Trump and kick
his butt publicly and not be so focused on the
demeanor of the presidency because this is not a time
for demeanor. This is a time for brawling, and Biden's
not a brawler.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
One I think is really interesting about all this reporting
that comes out of the White House is like, he's angry,
he dresses people down.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
He yells at them, good do it. That's fine. I'm
okay with that. You know, the stakes are quite high here.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
He needs to focus on dressing Trump down because Trump
is a total fraud. I don't want the United States
people of the United States to find that out after
he gets elected.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah. I think that's right. Howard Dean, Thank you so
much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
My pleasure, see you later.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Did you know Rick Wilson and I are bringing together
some friends for a general election kickoff party at City
Winery in New York on March sixth. We're going to
be chatting right after Super Tuesday about what's going on,
and it is going to probably be the one fun
night for the next eighty days.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
If you're in.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
The New York area, please come by and join us.
You can go to City Winery's website and grab a ticket.
Andy Kim represents New Jersey's third congressional district and as
a candidate in its upcoming Senate race. Welcome back, Too
Fast Politics, my friend, Andy Kim.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Thank you for having me back. We always want to
have you back, especially right now.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
When we had you the first time, you had just
done something super brave. You had become the person to
jump into this race which had a Democrat running for
reelection who is facing a plethora of legal challenges.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I think that's a very generous way to put it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Talk to me about where you are right now in
your primary.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know, I just want to add this disclaimer.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
We usually don't have people involved in primary fights, but
this is you know, nepotism, something near and dear to
my heart, and you know, a really interesting and also
troubling situation.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So talk to us about it.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
Yeah, happy to I mean, as you said, you know,
when you have me on last time, Brown, I had
stepped up the run against Bob Menendez twice indicted this
time for gold bars, and I told you about how
I was doing this to protect our democracy, give the
people a choice. The race has taken a turn, and
it's gotten even more dramatic now I am running against
(15:15):
the first lady of New Jersey, the governor's wife, the
sitting governor's wife, bever in American history, and we had
the spouse of a sitting governor run for stay wide office,
especially having not ever run for office before. In fact,
she's running as a Democrat, but she was a lifelong
Republican until about nine years ago. It's a lot of process,
but the fundamental reason for why I'm doing this remains
(15:38):
the same, which is that we have to protect our democracy.
That that means that we have to give the people
New Jersey a choice. But right now what we're seeing
is you know that we're I live in the last
remaining machine politics state in the country, and party elites
are all in for the governor's wife. Surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Let's talk about that, because what I've read about it
is kind of I was actually really chocked when I
read what's happening right now. So you have this primary
that's coming up.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
When it's on June fourth. The thing that I think.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Our listeners should know, which is something that always really
upsets me, is that you know, I live in a
blue city in a blue state, but there are things
that encumbents do to protect themselves. That don't benefit anyone.
They don't benefit the right, they don't benefit the left.
They only benefit incumbency. What is happening here is even
(16:33):
more insidious than that.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
So discuss yeah right now. You know, in New Jersey
we're seeing this in its worst form. I live, as
I said, in the last machine politics state in the country,
and its most pronounced way for the machine to control
our democracy is to really, you know, manipulate the ballot.
So forty nine other states use a type of ballot
called office block, which is the traditional thing. You know,
(16:57):
you have the other position you run a force Senate,
and then the name of the candidates below. In New Jersey,
the system allows party elite to give preferential placement on
the ballot for their hand pick candidate, which in this
case is the first Lady of New Jersey, the governor's wife.
And you know, all this being said, you know, the
governor just the other day announced is you know budget
(17:17):
for the year, and mayors and county leaders and others
that are negotiating with the governor about what money they're
going to be able to get, you know, for their efforts.
So I mean it's just a lot mixed into your
deep conflicts of interest. But as a result, what happens
is that the first lady in New Jersey announced her
candidacy and immediately got multiple party leads to back her.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Many of these.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
People never returned my phone calls, never gave me even
a chance to be able to make my case, and
the expectation is that she would be coordinated as the
next senator from New Jersey. You know, I even have
party leaders come to me tell me I should drop
out and let her be able to do this, and
I just I could not do that.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I just could not.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
I could not do that. I have a six year
old an eight year old. I don't think I could
look kids of the eye if I felt like I
was just stepping aside for someone who I truly believe
that I am more capable and qualified of doing the
job of the United States sent up a three term
member of Congress. I've been a public servant by entire career.
I'm a Democrat that won a district Trump won twice.
You know, I've shown that I can win top races.
(18:17):
So it's been a frustrating situation.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Before you were a politician, you were a nonpartisan government official, right.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Yeah, I worked in diplomacy and national security, was at
the National Security Council at the White House under President Obama.
But you're right, I was a you know, I was
a career public servant. So you know, I've served this nation.
I understand the challenges that we're facing. But right now,
the challenge that I'm facing is from my own party,
which is crazy because I've spent the last you know,
(18:45):
five plus years in Congress, you know, knife fighting and
fighting with Republicans, you know, dealing, you know, being there
at the Capitol Compound on January sixth and standing with
President Biden to try to stop the Republicans from damaging
our theocracy.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
But unfortunately I'm here.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
In New Jersey now having to fight against my own
party now, which who I think, you know, party leaders
are doing things that I just just full on considered
to be on democratic you know, I believe in a
democracy of fairness and equality, that any citizen has the
ability to participate, not just the well off, not just
the well connected. And I'm just not being given a
(19:23):
fair shot here when I am given something closer to
a fair shot, Like you know, we have some of
these counties have these conventions. I've been blowing it out
of the way. I've been winning these conventions by double digits.
The problem, though, is that half of the counties in
New Jersey don't even have conventions, and they just allow
one or two people to be able to handpick and
give that preferential placement on the ballot to the first lady.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And that's what I find to be so frustrate.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You're still going to be on the ballot, You're just
not gonna she's going to be above you.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, like I'll be on the ballot.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
But the way our ballots are designed, it's that I
can be off to the side, you know. Yeah. So
basically the ballot is designed in like a column, so
instead of it being by office, there'll be a one
column that'll have you know, Joe Biden, Candy Murphy and
all these other endorsed candidates. I'll be sung in some
column over to the right, you know, and I won't
(20:15):
have Joe Biden above me on the It's on the column.
So obviously, you know, when you're a voter and you
you go up to the vote, you know you see
Joe Biden's name, you know, yeah, you'll see Joe Biden's name,
and you haven't been particularly paying attention to all these
different races. You may just tick down that column, which
is what the party leaders want.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
They want voters to not be informed.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
They don't they want voters to not really understand that
there's a choice before them.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
That's why I say it's manipulate. It is insanitay.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah, it's been proven to give certain candidates upwards of
double digits advantage.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And you know, and that's frustrating for me.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
I mean, look right now, like I'm actually double digges
up in the polls.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Right, but if they can't find you, they can't oh
for you. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
And then so you know, that kind of lead that
I have in the polls could potentially get degated simply
because of gallet design manipulation that my own party leaders
and the Democratic Party are leading the charge on. So
you know, that's why you know, I've been pushing on this,
and in fact, I just filed a lawsuit in New Jersey.
It was not something that you know, I took that
(21:23):
very seriously. You know, make that decision, but this has
to end now, you know, it's just such a broken system.
All I'm asking for is air. I'm not asking for
any advantage myself. I'm just being asked to be a
place in a position where I can have some fairness
here and forty nine other states do this, New Jersey's
the only one that does this differently, you know that
should say something, right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, Well, I think what's so interesting about this problem
is that you have a Republican party that is doing
this kind of thing on the regular. This is one
of the very few cases where you have a democratic
party doing but you are running for a seat of
someone who is in serious legal trouble for corruption.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Right like, So, if there ever were.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
A time to be above board about everything, this is it.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And I think that that's why the people in New
Jersey are not standing for There's been a big backlash,
and I think that the party elites and the machine
weren't prepared for this backlash. But it's because of exactly
what you said. Just you know that on the heels
of this indictment of the senator regarding gold bars and
wads of cash, it's the same system that protected the
(22:35):
senator that is now trying to install and coordinate the
first lady to be the next senator. So it's the
same thing, you know, the same few handful of people.
And I think that that's what's bothering so many people
is just saying like, look, we can't have the same
sable politics, like something hasn't changed.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
And in fact, if.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
The Democratic Party does not change, I actually I worry
about our ability to be able to hold this Senate
seat this November. I can tell you the independent voters
in New Jersey are furious right now. They had concerns
about the Democratic Party after this indictment of the senator,
and now they're watching the Democratic Party, you know, just
blatantly trying to push the first lady into a Senate
(23:16):
position without a fair contest. You know, that's going to
really hurt our standing with independence, and that's going to
hurt our ability to hold the seat. And with a
razor thin majority in the Senate and a tough election cycle,
the last thing with the Democratic Party needs is a
potentially vulnerable seat in the Senate here in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
You know what's interesting to me about this is one
of the things I think Democrats have done really wow,
and not even Democrats.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
One of the things that I think Biden.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
World has done well is they picked up He's managed
to pick up all the never Trump Republicans, and you
know he's done it by saying, you know, you may
not like some of the social spending, you may not
like my larger you know, I mean if you look
at the manufacturing stuff. Though. The point is he's been
able to really appeal to those voters. There are a
(24:04):
lot of those voters in New Jersey. Talk to me
about what your state sort of looks like and what
your voter base looks like.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
I mean, look in New Jersey the plurality of voters
or unaffiliated voters, independent voters, so you know, that's really
what you have to engage.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
These are people that are unaffiliated for a reason.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
And I know this because you know, I'm a Democrat
that wanted district from twice. What I've come to learn
in my experience of winning three tough races is that,
you know, my district is often called this battleground district,
and it may just sound like it's like a Blue
army versus the Red Army duking it out every day.
But what I learned is that in my district, and
frankly across New Jersey, a lot of people are frankly
(24:47):
suspicious and frustrate with both pardons. That's why we have
to show that we can restore trust and integrity to
our politics. That's what I am running on because here
in New Jersey, eighty four percent of people surveyed in
New Jersey believe that their politicians are corrupt eighty four percent.
And look, I mean this is a state where the
(25:09):
majority of politicians are Democrats. So that shows what people
feel about Democrats right now here. So if we don't
show that we're changing and don't show that we're trying
to restore trust and integrity, the independent voters are not
going to stand for I mean, we saw with you know, government,
Murphy only won re election by you know, a handful
(25:30):
of points. I think it was three points reelection a
couple of years ago. This is something where you know,
you cannot take things for granted. And I feel like
the Democratic Party elites are playing with fire.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, no, I agree, Say you win this primary. How
are you different than Tammy Murphy?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Well, a couple different reasons. First of all, I have
experience of working in Congress, of actually working there at
the Capitol you know, I can be somebody that is
ready day one. You know, I don't need any on
the job training. I'm ready for things. And right now
the world is on fire. There's so many crises and conflicts.
I'm the only career diplomatic congress right now in the
(26:07):
House of the Senate. I can be somebody that can
step in and try to use that experience. I haven't
been on the ground, working in war zones and working
at the White House in the State Department to try
to help.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I can be somebody that you know already understands.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
You know, how to be able to navigate the legislative process,
you know, and that's allowed me to you know, push
forward on key issues. You know, for instance, understanding why
we need philibuster reform to be able to get the
things that we need passed in the Senate. Whereas you know,
the First Lady of New Jersey, she's called the filibuster
a useful tool. I completely disagree, and so you know,
those are some differences on that front that but look
(26:43):
on the other at the other angle too, I think
that there's a hunger right now in my state and
throughout this country for a new generation of leadership to
step up, and I will be the fourth youngest senator
in the nation. I would be the first Asian American
ever elected to the US Senate from the entire East
coast of America. And you know, I think that, you know,
I think people are excited about, you know, having younger
(27:04):
voices be able to come up, and certainly for the
Democratic Party to build out their bench and be able
to have more diverse, younger leaders that are there showing
what the future of the party is. And the fact
that you know, again, I've been a Democrat that can
win a district Trump one twice. I have a lot
to offer to the party about how we try to
build out a wider and stronger coalition that can help
(27:28):
us build a durable majority going forward. And so, you know,
those are the things that you know, I hope voters
see in me as someone who can try to fight
those fights and make the party stronger and help fix
and heal our democracy at such a critical point in
our nation's history.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
As we're looking down this election, tell me what you
can do now to get your name on the ballot?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Is there a process here?
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Well?
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Right now?
Speaker 5 (27:55):
A A couple of efforts which is first of all,
like I will be on the ballot and June fourth,
and what I need to do is make sure that
we are raising the resources and building the kind of
campaign that we need to to be able to get mine,
you know, making my name out there, to have people
understand that there's a choice. You know, the last thing
I want are people showing up on June fourth at
(28:15):
the primary and be unaware that there's a competitive senate race.
You know, I need people to be able to walk
in there knowing that there is a center race, hopefully
knowing my name and knowing something about me. So you know,
that's what I'm pushing on, and that people want to
help out. You know, they can go to Andy Kim
dot com and beyond that. You know, right now we
are building up, you know, a grassroots army. Right now,
(28:37):
this is going to be the largest grassroots mobilization for
any primary, statewide prime in our state's history. We're building
up something incredible, and you know, we need people that
are willing to knock doors or make text calls and
other things like that that are helpful to get.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
The word out right now.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You know, those are the types of things that we're
pushing on, and I do believe that if we can
pull that together and raise the resources and run the
campaign that we need to, that we.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Can win this.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
We can overcome what obstacles the machine politics are throwing
in by way, and I think people recognize this is
a potentially historic collection for our state to finally be
able to have a real democracy here that is going
to be based on fairness, going to allow people to
be able to vote the way they want.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
One thing I've learned as they've gone around the stated
people in New Jersey don't want to be.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
Told to the They despise that, and I think right
now we're seeing that come to ahead. You know, I'm
hopeful that people will stand up for their own voice
in our democracy.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Thank you so much, Andy Kim. I really appreciate you well.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Thank you for letting me let me talk about this race.
It's certainly an extremely dramatic and crazy race, but it's
one that I think really gets to this question. And
you know, I was there with Joe Biden when he
gave a speech about January sixth earlier this year, and
he said, we know who Donald Trump is, but who
are we? And I think that question, who are we
and who is the Democratic Party? Who are we as Democrats?
(30:04):
Like that is important and I think that this race
both in terms of it being about you know, Senator
Menendez and his indictments and allegations of corruption, and then
now this issue as you raised about the First Lady
and nepotism and about machine politics, the question is who
are we as Democrats? I hope that we show that
(30:27):
better than what we're seeing right now in New Jersey.
I believe that, and that's why I'm running. But I
really do think that kind of gets at the heart
of this question of like what is the soul of
the Democratic Party?
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Who are we? What do we stand for?
Speaker 5 (30:38):
And then that's why I think it's been a race
that has captivated a lot of people, not just in
New Jersey but across his country. And I hope people
see the importance of us standing up and showing who
we are because I think it'll have major implications for
our abilities to be able to win elections going forward.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Thank you, Andy m Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Jim Acosta is the host of CNN Newsroom with Jim
Acosta every weekdays at ten am eest at CNN.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Welcome to Fast politics. How weird is this I'm hosting you. Welcome,
Jim Acosta.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Wow, this is cool. This is like news inception or something.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
It's right, we're through the mirror, through the looking glass.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I'm so excited to have you because, first of all,
I love to go on your show.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I can't go on your show at this moment. Yeah,
somedayon I can give it up, hope.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
But I'm very excited about your move to every day.
So talk to us about your new time slot.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
So now it's Monday through Friday at ten am Easter
and a seven am on the West. I'm wapping about
so people waking up on the West coast you can
tune it in and you can change your viewing on this.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
It's great.
Speaker 6 (31:53):
I mean, you know the weekend thing where you know
you are on about the debt right that much. But
you know we're able to do all these interviews. We
could give them time.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
You know, we did breaking news, a lot of politics,
and this is going to be a little bit different.
I have one hour now, so I have to really
you know, compress, and the segments aren't quite as long.
But we're going to try to keep it conversational, like
we're going to try to take the good stuff from
the weekend and bring it on to the morning showed
during the weekend, hope people to tune in.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, I was hoping you could talk about like there's
something very cool about being able to do the news
every day though absolutely.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
For example, I mean this this week, we've been doing
binary stuff and the results from that. This morning, we
had the situation in Gaza. I mean, it was just
breaking news happening during our program, and Biden went out
on the South lawn on his way to the border
and he made a comment about it. So we're jumping
around in sort of news whackable. We're moving from one
(32:51):
news story to the next, and it's going to be
fast moving. But at the same time, you know, emphasis
on my part, I'm really trying to preserve the those conversations,
those interviews that we can kind of get it beyond
the headlines a little bit. As you and I have
talked about so many times, don't talk about the horse race,
talk about the stakes, don't just talk about the polls,
talk about the chow bases, and like try to get
(33:12):
people something a little little meeting as they're getting these headlines.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
I'm hoping we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You know, we're back to this crazy news cycle of
just like endless news that it does make it very
hard to cover it. But let's talk for a minute
about like stakes versus odds, because that is something you
and I are both like really passionate about, this idea
that the way you cover news is as important as
(33:38):
what you cover, right.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I mean absolutely.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
One of the things, and you and I've talked about
this gazillion times, is that we have this extremely important election.
I know it's a cliche for everybody to say this
is the most important election of our lifetime, but I
think this time we can really say it and mean it.
I come from the experience of having covered the White
House during the Trump years.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We saw how administration ended.
Speaker 6 (34:01):
I actually flew on Air Force one with Donald Trump
when he went down to West Palm Beach and was
done with being the President of the United States.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
I mean, I was with them on that.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Final day, and one of the things that I said
to my colleagues is that, Okay, Trump may be gone,
but trump Ism todays it remains. It's not going anywhere.
And I think that's what we are now seeing lay
out at this very moment. Not only is Trump backed,
but trump Ism is back on steroids, and it's filtered
down into our politics to just about every level. And
it's something that we're going to all have.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
To contend with in the months to god, I mean, disinformation, democracy,
I mean, these are all the issues we're going to
be talking about from here until November.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I think back to those salid days of January twenty
twenty one. Do you think we were all too naive
the fact that so many of us thought that, including
people like Mitch McConnell, thought that Trumpism would resolve itself.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And honestly, I mean, I've looked at this gazillion different way.
I did this when I covered the White House.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
Some of this is a coping mechanism that a lot
of people have, which is, Okay, you know, one of
these days, it's all got to catch up with Donald
Trump and he's just going to leave the scene. Guess
what that did not happen. That that's not happened. Folks
might have thought up until yesterday or the middle of
this week. Oh, the Supreme Court. This will all end
at the Supreme Court. Okay, well, maybe it won't.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
It may on everybody to go out there and vote
and participate in this democracy. And I think, Molly, but
you have said it best when you come on this show.
This is the election about whether we're going to have elections,
And I think all of this.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
Is extremely important stuff. I do think to some extent,
we folks wanted to look the other way. They wanted
to stick their head in a sand and just to
kind of ignore it and hope some of this extremism
in our politics would go away. And guess what, it didn't,
and so we're going to have to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, no question.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
And I do think like this idea that trump Ism
would somehow resolve itself and that.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
We would go back to normal has been interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
This week we saw the Supreme Court decide to look
at the insane presidential immunity.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
It was so crazy that even people with.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Low expectations for the Supreme Court were shocked that they
took it up. It does go back to this question
of like will our institute, you know, the people who
have been bragging about our institutions holding, have they really well?
Speaker 6 (36:24):
And I, you know, was talking to a guest on
my show this morning, Doug High, and he was saying,
you know, the Supreme Court, and it's becoming like every
other institution, the media, the NFL, what have you. An
American society that's just not what it used to be.
It's not as popular as it used to be, you know,
and we don't really have as much time as I
wanted to kind of delve into that, but it's an
interesting comment to make. The Supreme Court should be above
(36:45):
all of that, like it should be the one branch
of government, should be the one institution in American society
that should be above reproach. And it is damaged right now.
The image and the institution is damaged. And it is
just a fact of life of this started with Dobbs
and when you saw those justices when they were nominees
up on Capitol and I was saying, oh, Roe is
(37:06):
president president, should be with respective as oo want. And
then that obviously was not like one hundred percent of
what was going on in the back of their minds,
because as soon as they had the chance to throw
a row versus the way they did and so as tushit,
it is damaged and it is something that we're going
to have to do with I think in terms of
the immunity issue, Thank goodness, if I could say one
thing about the Supreme Court that they are allowing audio
(37:26):
out of these proceedings when they do have the oral
arguments about this immunity issue, It's going to be fascinating
because I want.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
To know why is it worried Eve been hearing this?
Speaker 6 (37:35):
I mean, it seems to be pretty straightforward if you
look at USA versus Nixon, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
No, the Nixon case is insane, I mean, and there's
not it's just completely wild.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
It was pointed out to me that William Renquist accused
himself in that case and Claire S.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Thomas is not.
Speaker 6 (37:52):
We're acusing himself in any of these proceedings. And so,
I mean, I do think it's not unreasonable for folks
to have questions about how the Supreme Court is conducting itself.
And it's certainly playing everything that we're seeing right now,
there's no question about.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, and just it's sort of shocking, right really, So
I'm curious now, as you're sort of in this brave
new world. What I think is pretty interesting about trump
Ism is that there was so much sort of norm shifting,
but a lot of those rooms haven't necessarily come back.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
No, I know, it's so true. And you know, when
I was covering him.
Speaker 6 (38:29):
At the White House, you know, there was this constant
conversation about are we being too tough? Are we drifting
into something else besides meeting the potatoes straight down the
middle of journalism? And honestly, I look back at the
way we covered it, and I look at the way
we cover him now. And as I've said in the past,
I'll say it again, a different kind of president calls
for a different kind of playbook, and he is right
(38:49):
to behave in these sorts of ways that I mean,
sayd that's kind of light you know, Westland past the grade.
Letther like, I mean, it's beyond that. And so asked
the cover. So I mean, at least going to not
tell the truth of it, we have to call that out.
If he is going to talk about being a dictator
on day one, we have to we have to call
that out.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
I mean.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
And so you know, one of the things that I
tell folks a lot who asks you know, maybe you
were doing two mins there, maybe it was a liver
top over there. My question is is like, Okay, what
do you want us to do. We have to cover
the news and a former president who represented that's somewhat
at a threat to democracy. And I'm being diplomatic when
I say that.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
That's the news. You got to call it the way
you see it.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And that's what I've done in the past, and that's
what I'll continue to do, and that's what a lot
of my colleagues do, and I think it's it's the
right way to go.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
I think back to like what George Conway told me
a while ago. It was like, Trump is going to
destroy everything, the Republican.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Party, all of it.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And you know he was I think a little wistful
because he you know, he helped build that Republican Party
and it's going to all have to be destroyed. And
the thing, like with the Mitch McConnell stuff, it's like,
you really do see that in fact, there is no
place for anything that isn't MAGA in this party, despite
(40:05):
the fact that it started as a populist notion, but
it's largely morphed into something than most people don't really want.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Yeah, and Mally, it's amazing that you can bring up
George Conway, because I think George is a perfect example
of somebody who is in that world, in Trump's world,
I think almost went to the Trump administration and had
been in Republican politics for a long time.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
I mean, you and I both done them.
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Like how many former Trump administration and officials have I
had on my show, Stephanie Grisham, Mark Esper. The list
goes on and on, who have been on CNN and
in general on all the networks talking to sixty Minutes
and so on, who talk about Trump as a danger
to democracy, to talk about Trump is not being fit
to serve as president of the United States. And you know,
if all of those folks are saying something, of course
(40:47):
that's the do is. We have to cover it. It
is what it is. I do think what you're saying
about is the Republican Party going to go by the wayside. Maybe,
I mean you have.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
To have two parties. I mean you should probably have more,
but we used to exactly and mainly that's the phase.
Speaker 6 (41:02):
But I think in twenty twenty, I think we might
see the gap the near twenty twenties.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
But look at that NICKI Haley number. The other night
with Mischig, there.
Speaker 6 (41:09):
Was all this talk of uncommitted and this protest vote
against Joe Biden. There were people who vote to Vernickie
Haley than Donald Trump in the Michigan frontment. That was
lower that we've seen in some of the other early
primary states. And I have to think that some of
those folks are the kind of Republicans who are going
to say, you know what, we're going to either sit
this one out and wait until twenty twenty eight, or
we're going to go and vote for Biden at the
(41:31):
top of the ticket and vote for Republicans by the
other parts of the ticket. I think that that is
quite possible, and so I'm not one of those folks
who's short are down in the Dumpston thinks it's all
going to go down the tubes. I just don't see
that happening just yet, because I think that people underestimate
how seeply unpopular the former president is. How were these
sweet districts outside of Philadelphia and Detroit and Phoenix in Atlanta.
(41:54):
Are they just going to have it out of body
experience and all of a sudden say, okay, now I'm
okated with Williams' Donald Trump after they sort of put
that one to rest. I just don't know, so I
you know, I really think this is a jump ball
heading into November and possibly even advantaged Biden at this point.
That spy what people said.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
It's really interesting when you think about this party's problem
because there has been like an enormous realignment that we
don't talk about so much, which is that the more
educated you are, the more likely you are to vote
for Democrats. You know, if you look at the numbers,
some college, college, grad school, postgrad, and it does seem
(42:33):
to cut completely along those lines, which that was not
always the case. In fact, until very recently, Mitt Romney
was a candidate because Mitt Romney was an archetype right
of a conservative voter. I mean, that shift has to
be meaningful.
Speaker 6 (42:48):
Absolutely, And I think I covered the Romney campaign. I
was with him on election dight when he lost to
Barack Obama, and he was very much sort of the
last fashion of the establishment of the Republican Party. And
who knows, maybe Trump will be such a disaster politically
for the Republican Party that they will go to admit
Romney type the next time I'm around. I mean, I
(43:09):
do think that there is an appetite for that. I
do think, to Biden's credit, I mean on the Democratic side,
he is not like a movement's figure Joe Biden, but
as an establishments figure of the Democratic Party, he's managed
to hang on to the party quite well. Look at
the way these early primary states have been worked out
for him, Dean Phillips, what is he pulling?
Speaker 4 (43:29):
And he's just nothing. It's not like a bird situation.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
It is not like a Hillary Clinton versus Baracco o'bama situation.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
No, it's not. It's just not it's not at all.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
In fact, one of my kids came in when we
were watching results the other day and he's like, who
the fuck is Dean Phillips? And I was like, you
read the newspaper every day and you don't know who
he is?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Well, when the New York Times has a story about
how you have a coffee you get the coffee truck
in New Hampshire and they write a story saying that
nobody showed up, that is typically not a good sign.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
That is not a good sign.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
But it is like one of the things that this
White House complains about, and I actually think they're probably right,
is that this is their complaint. But I think they
feel that the mainstream media does not like them, and
we're talking about I know, I hate to, you know,
speak out of school, but you know, you do see
(44:21):
the tweets talk to me about like you would think
that the sane White House would be more liked by
the mainstream media than the insane White House.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Yeah, I mean I covered Obama the second term, and
you know they would get mad at us back then.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
I can tell you the stories about that.
Speaker 6 (44:39):
I do think to some extent it's it's sort of
the conversations you and I had Molly on my old
weekend show. There's Earth one on Earth too. Biden having
problems with the border is sort of an Earth One problem.
When I covered Obama in the second term in the
Obamacare website did work for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
That was sort of an.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Earth One problem.
Speaker 6 (44:59):
People's where I mean the capital on January dits it
was very much to the Earth too kind of saying
with Donald Trump. And you know, to some extent, I
do think that some of the complaints from Democrats on
the progressive side are warranted when they look at the
both sides ism that goes on in the media and whatnot.
And I do think you do have to have some
(45:19):
sense of perspective. But at the same time, I mean,
you know this, somebody once said politics ain't being back,
and I think if your White House, you have to
expect there's going to be a critical coverage when it
comes to the word. There's going to be a critical
covered when it comes to Gaza. I do think the
president has a really tough problem when it comes to
Israelal Prime Minister Benjamin Yahoo and how Biden negotiates city
(45:44):
is as one of these grand negotiators in the old
school of a way and to negotiate with bb Net
and Yahoo out of this mess. I mean, I had
James Carlival on the other day and he made it
a very good point saying that Joe Biden does not
want this problem slaaring up at the Democrat at a convention.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Certainly, not especially we're back in Chicago again and.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Back in Chicago and exactly so, I mean, I do think, yes,
that there are times when it's sort of like the
Obama tan suit phenomenon re yours. It's ugly head, I
don't know, And yes they do yell when the pool sprays,
and and the President's sort of like, okay, who do
I think a.
Speaker 6 (46:22):
Question pro they proud Washington tradition. But I've played a
party in myself. I have to play guilty to some
extent to that. The other thing I don't get Molly
is Okay, Biden comes out, he goes out and gets
on the helicopter, and you cannot hear the questions.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
You can only hear the brosident of the video. Audio
quality is terrible, and Trump used to do it when
he was brother. I wish if I could just put out,
if I could put one suggestion in the suggestion box,
that we just don't do those anymore. Those are just
the harediest TV situations.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
I do think the.
Speaker 6 (46:52):
President would be well served in having more news compens
I think he does well in those settings. We're not
here to do them any favors or tell them how
to do things or where. I just think, you know,
Obama handled him pretty well. He didn't like to do
them very much, and I think I miss kind of
in the same boat.
Speaker 4 (47:07):
I think that that would help him, But I don't know.
Speaker 6 (47:09):
I'm not here to give any pointers here, but I
think more of those would maybe serve him well and
maybe take some.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Of the keep that they are feeling over there.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Away, Jim Mcosta. I hope you'll come back, of.
Speaker 6 (47:22):
Course, as alwayss that was so fast, but it was
great to catch up with you.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
No moment, Jesse Cannon, my jump fast. You know.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
It's not often friends of the show get great news,
but Congressman Ruem Diego got some great news. What are
you seeing here?
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Kirson Cinema raise no money and is now dropping out.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
I want to take a moment here to extend a hearty.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I don't want to curse, because this is a kind
of gentler jong a hearty. You are not a good
person to both Kirston Cinema and also Joe Manchin, because
had those two just been a little bit better people
and not so interested in getting money from lobbyists, we
(48:09):
would have a lot more progressive legislation. We would have
a permanent child tax credit. We would have things that
you can't even dream of, free pre.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
K at the national level.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
You know, we could have a lot of stuff had
those two not decided they were fiscal conservatives. And also,
by the way, I am happy to see them both go.
So Democrats will lose the seat in West Virginia. But
looks like our friend of the show and great funny,
brilliant Congressman Rubin Diego will clean the floor with Governor
(48:46):
Carrie Lake. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.
Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the
best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos.
If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send me to
a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks
for listening.
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds. And Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proposed a
tax credit for caregivers.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We have a star studded show. Today.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Congressman Andy Kim tells us about his Senate run and
the bizarre New Jersey ballad structure that allows party insiders
to have enormous advantages. Then we'll talk to CNN anchor
and my personal bestie Jim Acosta about the media failures
covering the twenty twenty four election. But first we have
former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean. Welcome back
(00:42):
to Fast Politics, Howard Dean, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
This is always light.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So I can't take another conversation about polls. Make us
all understand how insane and stupid this whole thing is.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I don't think I can. I try not to pay
too much attention to the polls because one of the
problems is that the media engages in clickbait and that's
about it, and that's always been the case. I mean,
I can remember finding that out when I ran for
president myself. It's all clickbait, it's not news. It's a
problem because the so called low information voters are basically
(01:21):
all cranked up. This is the only thing good Trump
is good at. I mean, basically, the Republicans are running
on a platform that can be summed up in two words,
rage and hate, and it's successful with people who don't
think about the issues. It's amazing what the public doesn't know.
Part of it is because the press doesn't focus on
what they know, and part of it is because there
is no press for a lot of the folks that
(01:41):
are getting their news through Fox and places like that.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I think about Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, right, and how
a lot of economists would the exception of Paul Krukman.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Basically, we're like, this is going to be a recession.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Even we have a very smart guy called Justin Wolfer's
on the podcast all the time, and Justin was like,
you know, you don't know, he was bullish, but even
he was cautious. And what happened was we didn't have it.
And the reason we didn't have it was because of
bold legislative infusions to our government, to our manufacturing sectors,
(02:20):
through the Inflation Reduction Act, which actually reduced inflation.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And furthermore, most of the investments in the Inflation Reduction
Act went to the places which are full of people
who are Trumpists. Yeah, a lot of money went into
rural areas, rekindling factories to make chips and cars, electric
cars and all this kind of stuff. I heard a
maddening interview from a member of the United Auto Workers
the other day, who have endorsed Biden for good reason,
(02:47):
and they saying, well, you know, we don't do what
our union says. I think that we both voted for
Trump the last time, and all this stuff, and I thought,
you know, it is so frustrating. People are demanding this
and demanding that, and then you give it to them
and then they turn against you. Anyway.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
It's really tough.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I think the country is at great risk and they
don't see that either. He is not a high education
group of people. But still this is a democracy.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It's interesting to me because, like so much of Trump's
message in twenty sixteen was this economic populism, which I
think was one of the reasons he won against Tilly
Clinton was he said I'm going to bring back, you know, jobs,
I'm going to bring back coal, which, by the way, coal,
besides being just horrendous for the planet, is also wildly expensive.
(03:31):
So even if you were like, I hate the planet
and we have to like get this coal, even then
it still doesn't make any financial sense. But he had
this message of economic populism. Meanwhile, fastward, Joe Biden delivers
economic populism.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
He does these things.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You know, he brings chip manufacturing back to the Middle West,
which was like, you know, a fantasy really of previous presidents.
There seems to be a disconnect between what he's done
and what he gets credit for.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Right, here's what I think is really happening, and it's irrelevant, unfortunately,
to all the good stuff that Biden has done. This
is a group of very angry people for the first
time in my life and maybe in the history of
the country. If you're a fifty year old white guy
and you lose your job in rural America, you're not
getting another one unless you're a reader at Walmart or
something like that. Minority communities are very familiar with this syndrome,
(04:24):
but white folks aren't, and they think, well, you know,
why are women have all these rights? How come black
people have all these rights? How come gay people have
all these rights? And so in some ways, what Trump does,
what he sells is none of this is your fault.
It's all the liberal elite and the college educated people
and the you know people are teaching about African American
history and the universities. It's all their fault and none
(04:46):
of it's your fault. So he really is absolving people
of any responsibility to improve their own communities. I'll do
it for you. I'll just get rid of these people,
And of course he never does. It is the same
playbook that Mussolini Hitler played that was.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Talking Eddy cut about this.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's sort of the last rebellion, the backlash of a
multi racial democracy. Right, We've never had a multi racial democracy. Theoretically,
at least there was a sense we might be getting
closer to it, and then Trumpism came in and took.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
All of that away.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The math on that, like, there may be white men
in the middle of the country who lose their jobs,
but the numbers on unemployment dictate that actually it's a
very very tight labor market, and so they should technically,
I mean again, I don't know, you know, people's personal stories,
but they should be able to get another job.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It's not what it's about. It's not about the economy.
It's about their economy to a certain extent. But what
it's about is the forty year creep towards a multi
racial democracy where women goal rights. I mean, the reason
so many Republicans are against abortion and against now against
IVF is it's really not about IVF or Republicans. What
it's about is controlling women even in their own towns.
(05:57):
They've seen women get more rights than they used to have.
They've seen gay people allowed to get married before they
were just cast out and made fun of for their
whole life. It is in the sense Eddie, who is
one of the smartest people I ever met, is right
in the sense that it's the loss of white privilege.
But it's more than that.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
It's an absolution.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's a giving up on making progress or redefining what
progress is. Progress is not living in a peaceful country
where democracy hails. It is resentment towards a lot of
the change that's been made. And the other problem is
this is all fueled by the billionaire class. It's not accident.
The billionaires who are lean Republican are founding no labels
because it's the way of making sure that Trump wins.
(06:37):
And that's because they benefit from the system. What all
of this does is divert attention from the abuses that
white working class people are taking it the hands of
billionaires because it works to abuse white working class people.
They've been doing it for years and blame it on
the usual suspects, women, gay people, people of color, and
so forth and so on. That's what Trump is really
(06:57):
good at. He's not good at anything else. Ailed businessman,
as Judge anger On said, he's a crook, he's a narcissist,
he was incompetent when he was president.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
But he's really really good at this.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It does remind me of a story of aut Alf Hitler,
because Adlf Hitler was an incompetent and a failed artist,
and he had this tremendous gift for blaming other people.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Unfortunately it ended up with a holocaust.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
And I think they're a fair number of people in
the Republican Party who wouldn't think that was so bad.
How about the guy who got up at Seapack and said,
welcome to the end of democracy. And that is for
reasonable political dialogue in the United States of America. I
don't think so. So this election really is about the
survival of the United States of America as a world power.
And if we know people think, oh, it's great not
(07:39):
to be a world power, why should we be because
we have the level of prosperity we have because the
dollar is the current of the recurrency reference for the world.
If it isn't, we don't get away with a thirty
one trillion dollar deficit. So I think these folks have
absolutely no idea what they're doing to their children by
voting for somebody like Trump.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You know, you're a doctor and you've done a lot
of work lining the ground works for how we got Obamacare.
So I'm curious what you think about the embryonic personhood
stuff out of Alabama. It seems like ideologically the Christian
right has for a long time wanted to make sure
(08:17):
that a five celled embryo had the same rights as
a person. Insane, But I mean, what do you think
about that? And I feel like, politically that's very stupid
and it's going to bite Republicans.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, it is going to bite Republicans, and so is
the right wing partisan Supreme Court is going to bite
Republicans and they realize that, but it's too late for them. Now,
you know, the court has degenerated and nothing but parsians
in Republican operation, and that's what it is. So the
institutions that are already beginning to crumble, there's a lot
of work to be done to fix it. But we
(08:50):
can't fix it with somebody like Trump in the White House.
It'll just get worse.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, But there have been like some kind of like
huge healthcare jumps, like five dollars insulin Medicare expansion, like
we're seeing, you know, quietly none of this is getting
any attention, which happens to actually be good for people
like Andy Burschers and different other states where they're trying
(09:15):
to do Medicare expansion quietly so that Republicans can't make
it a partisan issue. But I mean, these policies are
weirdly like once they get in place, people love them.
Like people don't want to give up Obamacare.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Well that's what.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They don't want to give up Obamacare, and they certainly
don't want to give up Social Security and Medicare, which
they're certainly not. I finally turned the volume down on
cutting because they know it's murder for them if you
cut them. The stuff about IVF is just right wing
white Christian nationalism, which is incredibly sexist. If you read
the scriptures about it, it's basically they underline all the
(09:50):
stuff that's about subjugation to women, and that's what these
people are doing. And the incredible part about the opinion
in Alabama was it was written by a right wing
Christian nationalists. I think he was the justice that wrote
out the opinion, and he basically said, this is right
wing Christian nationalism and women shouldn't be doing any of
these things. I mean, you know, it's pretty extraordinary. That's
(10:11):
who's going in charge of HHS if Donald Trump wins.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And by the way, like even if you look at
that Heritage Foundation twenty twenty five document, you know they
want to make the Department of Health and Human Services
the Department of Life.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I mean, HEREDAGE used to be a respectable organization and
when that guy Dement took over, it became just another
right wing group of crackpots. They actually had a fairly
decent healthcare operation. They were conservative, but they were thoughtful.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
And very very knowledgeable.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
When Dement came in it just turned into a party
than shipwreck, and that's what it is now.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
It's kind of amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But I do think it's interesting, Like as we look
at so you know, Republicans, everybody in the House is up.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Then you have this Senate map.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Which is really good for Republicans, but you know, a
lot a lot of the candidates we're seeing, I mean,
I think this is really interesting. Are these self funded
carpetbaggers coming from other states? And I have to wonder
how much of that is because a lot of this
money is already sort of allocated to Donald Trump's legal fees.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Carpetbaggers from out of states has been a Republican strategy
for a long time, and it most doesn't work. Times
it does, but mostly it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
So we'll see.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I mean, look the election. I do not think in
the end that Donald Trump is going to be the
next president of the United States, because I do believe
that Americans are going to look at this at the
end of the day. Now, we don't know when Trump
beat Hillary. It was mostly because James Comey changed the
subject at the last minute from Trump's anti women stuff
to Hillary's supposed emails, and he changed it not because
(11:46):
he wanted to influence the election, but because he wanted
to save his butt in case of Republican Committee that
he'd promised to tell everything to got into power. So
as Rick Santorum once said, is the only smart thing
he ever said, so I could tell he said he
was asked about this. We were doing a panel in
Toronto about the election, and somebody asked about the election,
and he said, these are the two most unpopular people
(12:07):
that have ever run for president, and which everyone we're
talking about last is the one that's gonna lose. And
that's exactly what happened. I think eventually Biden is going
to come to the top. I saw it read an
article today and I can't remember where it was. I
think it might have been in Semaphore. Biden really wants
to get much more aggressive with Trump, and I think
that's the right thing to do. Actually, I've always thought
that Biden ought to challenge Trump to a push up contest,
(12:29):
because kick his butt, and I think if Trump could
do a single pushup, I'd be amazed. So you know,
that'd be fun. But absent that, which is unlikely, I
think that Biden needs to go after Trump and kick
his butt publicly and not be so focused on the
demeanor of the presidency because this is not a time
for demeanor. This is a time for brawling, and Biden's
not a brawler.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
One I think is really interesting about all this reporting
that comes out of the White House is like, he's angry,
he dresses people down.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
He yells at them, good do it. That's fine. I'm
okay with that. You know, the stakes are quite high here.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
He needs to focus on dressing Trump down because Trump
is a total fraud. I don't want the United States
people of the United States to find that out after
he gets elected.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah. I think that's right. Howard Dean, Thank you so
much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
My pleasure, see you later.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Did you know Rick Wilson and I are bringing together
some friends for a general election kickoff party at City
Winery in New York on March sixth. We're going to
be chatting right after Super Tuesday about what's going on,
and it is going to probably be the one fun
night for the next eighty days.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
If you're in.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
The New York area, please come by and join us.
You can go to City Winery's website and grab a ticket.
Andy Kim represents New Jersey's third congressional district and as
a candidate in its upcoming Senate race. Welcome back, Too
Fast Politics, my friend, Andy Kim.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Thank you for having me back. We always want to
have you back, especially right now.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
When we had you the first time, you had just
done something super brave. You had become the person to
jump into this race which had a Democrat running for
reelection who is facing a plethora of legal challenges.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I think that's a very generous way to put it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Talk to me about where you are right now in
your primary.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know, I just want to add this disclaimer.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
We usually don't have people involved in primary fights, but
this is you know, nepotism, something near and dear to
my heart, and you know, a really interesting and also
troubling situation.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So talk to us about it.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
Yeah, happy to I mean, as you said, you know,
when you have me on last time, Brown, I had
stepped up the run against Bob Menendez twice indicted this
time for gold bars, and I told you about how
I was doing this to protect our democracy, give the
people a choice. The race has taken a turn, and
it's gotten even more dramatic now I am running against
(15:15):
the first lady of New Jersey, the governor's wife, the
sitting governor's wife, bever in American history, and we had
the spouse of a sitting governor run for stay wide office,
especially having not ever run for office before. In fact,
she's running as a Democrat, but she was a lifelong
Republican until about nine years ago. It's a lot of process,
but the fundamental reason for why I'm doing this remains
(15:38):
the same, which is that we have to protect our democracy.
That that means that we have to give the people
New Jersey a choice. But right now what we're seeing
is you know that we're I live in the last
remaining machine politics state in the country, and party elites
are all in for the governor's wife. Surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Let's talk about that, because what I've read about it
is kind of I was actually really chocked when I
read what's happening right now. So you have this primary
that's coming up.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
When it's on June fourth. The thing that I think.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Our listeners should know, which is something that always really
upsets me, is that you know, I live in a
blue city in a blue state, but there are things
that encumbents do to protect themselves. That don't benefit anyone.
They don't benefit the right, they don't benefit the left.
They only benefit incumbency. What is happening here is even
(16:33):
more insidious than that.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
So discuss yeah right now. You know, in New Jersey
we're seeing this in its worst form. I live, as
I said, in the last machine politics state in the country,
and its most pronounced way for the machine to control
our democracy is to really, you know, manipulate the ballot.
So forty nine other states use a type of ballot
called office block, which is the traditional thing. You know,
(16:57):
you have the other position you run a force Senate,
and then the name of the candidates below. In New Jersey,
the system allows party elite to give preferential placement on
the ballot for their hand pick candidate, which in this
case is the first Lady of New Jersey, the governor's wife.
And you know, all this being said, you know, the
governor just the other day announced is you know budget
(17:17):
for the year, and mayors and county leaders and others
that are negotiating with the governor about what money they're
going to be able to get, you know, for their efforts.
So I mean it's just a lot mixed into your
deep conflicts of interest. But as a result, what happens
is that the first lady in New Jersey announced her
candidacy and immediately got multiple party leads to back her.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Many of these.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
People never returned my phone calls, never gave me even
a chance to be able to make my case, and
the expectation is that she would be coordinated as the
next senator from New Jersey. You know, I even have
party leaders come to me tell me I should drop
out and let her be able to do this, and
I just I could not do that.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I just could not.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
I could not do that. I have a six year
old an eight year old. I don't think I could
look kids of the eye if I felt like I
was just stepping aside for someone who I truly believe
that I am more capable and qualified of doing the
job of the United States sent up a three term
member of Congress. I've been a public servant by entire career.
I'm a Democrat that won a district Trump won twice.
You know, I've shown that I can win top races.
(18:17):
So it's been a frustrating situation.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Before you were a politician, you were a nonpartisan government official, right.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Yeah, I worked in diplomacy and national security, was at
the National Security Council at the White House under President Obama.
But you're right, I was a you know, I was
a career public servant. So you know, I've served this nation.
I understand the challenges that we're facing. But right now,
the challenge that I'm facing is from my own party,
which is crazy because I've spent the last you know,
(18:45):
five plus years in Congress, you know, knife fighting and
fighting with Republicans, you know, dealing, you know, being there
at the Capitol Compound on January sixth and standing with
President Biden to try to stop the Republicans from damaging
our theocracy.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
But unfortunately I'm here.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
In New Jersey now having to fight against my own
party now, which who I think, you know, party leaders
are doing things that I just just full on considered
to be on democratic you know, I believe in a
democracy of fairness and equality, that any citizen has the
ability to participate, not just the well off, not just
the well connected. And I'm just not being given a
(19:23):
fair shot here when I am given something closer to
a fair shot, Like you know, we have some of
these counties have these conventions. I've been blowing it out
of the way. I've been winning these conventions by double digits.
The problem, though, is that half of the counties in
New Jersey don't even have conventions, and they just allow
one or two people to be able to handpick and
give that preferential placement on the ballot to the first lady.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And that's what I find to be so frustrate.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You're still going to be on the ballot, You're just
not gonna she's going to be above you.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, like I'll be on the ballot.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
But the way our ballots are designed, it's that I
can be off to the side, you know. Yeah. So
basically the ballot is designed in like a column, so
instead of it being by office, there'll be a one
column that'll have you know, Joe Biden, Candy Murphy and
all these other endorsed candidates. I'll be sung in some
column over to the right, you know, and I won't
(20:15):
have Joe Biden above me on the It's on the column.
So obviously, you know, when you're a voter and you
you go up to the vote, you know you see
Joe Biden's name, you know, yeah, you'll see Joe Biden's name,
and you haven't been particularly paying attention to all these
different races. You may just tick down that column, which
is what the party leaders want.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
They want voters to not be informed.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
They don't they want voters to not really understand that
there's a choice before them.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
That's why I say it's manipulate. It is insanitay.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah, it's been proven to give certain candidates upwards of
double digits advantage.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And you know, and that's frustrating for me.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
I mean, look right now, like I'm actually double digges
up in the polls.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Right, but if they can't find you, they can't oh
for you. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
And then so you know, that kind of lead that
I have in the polls could potentially get degated simply
because of gallet design manipulation that my own party leaders
and the Democratic Party are leading the charge on. So
you know, that's why you know, I've been pushing on this,
and in fact, I just filed a lawsuit in New Jersey.
It was not something that you know, I took that
(21:23):
very seriously. You know, make that decision, but this has
to end now, you know, it's just such a broken system.
All I'm asking for is air. I'm not asking for
any advantage myself. I'm just being asked to be a
place in a position where I can have some fairness
here and forty nine other states do this, New Jersey's
the only one that does this differently, you know that
should say something, right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, Well, I think what's so interesting about this problem
is that you have a Republican party that is doing
this kind of thing on the regular. This is one
of the very few cases where you have a democratic
party doing but you are running for a seat of
someone who is in serious legal trouble for corruption.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Right like, So, if there ever were.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
A time to be above board about everything, this is it.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And I think that that's why the people in New
Jersey are not standing for There's been a big backlash,
and I think that the party elites and the machine
weren't prepared for this backlash. But it's because of exactly
what you said. Just you know that on the heels
of this indictment of the senator regarding gold bars and
wads of cash, it's the same system that protected the
(22:35):
senator that is now trying to install and coordinate the
first lady to be the next senator. So it's the
same thing, you know, the same few handful of people.
And I think that that's what's bothering so many people
is just saying like, look, we can't have the same
sable politics, like something hasn't changed.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
And in fact, if.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
The Democratic Party does not change, I actually I worry
about our ability to be able to hold this Senate
seat this November. I can tell you the independent voters
in New Jersey are furious right now. They had concerns
about the Democratic Party after this indictment of the senator,
and now they're watching the Democratic Party, you know, just
blatantly trying to push the first lady into a Senate
(23:16):
position without a fair contest. You know, that's going to
really hurt our standing with independence, and that's going to
hurt our ability to hold the seat. And with a
razor thin majority in the Senate and a tough election cycle,
the last thing with the Democratic Party needs is a
potentially vulnerable seat in the Senate here in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
You know what's interesting to me about this is one
of the things I think Democrats have done really wow,
and not even Democrats.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
One of the things that I think Biden.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
World has done well is they picked up He's managed
to pick up all the never Trump Republicans, and you
know he's done it by saying, you know, you may
not like some of the social spending, you may not
like my larger you know, I mean if you look
at the manufacturing stuff. Though. The point is he's been
able to really appeal to those voters. There are a
(24:04):
lot of those voters in New Jersey. Talk to me
about what your state sort of looks like and what
your voter base looks like.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
I mean, look in New Jersey the plurality of voters
or unaffiliated voters, independent voters, so you know, that's really
what you have to engage.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
These are people that are unaffiliated for a reason.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
And I know this because you know, I'm a Democrat
that wanted district from twice. What I've come to learn
in my experience of winning three tough races is that,
you know, my district is often called this battleground district,
and it may just sound like it's like a Blue
army versus the Red Army duking it out every day.
But what I learned is that in my district, and
frankly across New Jersey, a lot of people are frankly
(24:47):
suspicious and frustrate with both pardons. That's why we have
to show that we can restore trust and integrity to
our politics. That's what I am running on because here
in New Jersey, eighty four percent of people surveyed in
New Jersey believe that their politicians are corrupt eighty four percent.
And look, I mean this is a state where the
(25:09):
majority of politicians are Democrats. So that shows what people
feel about Democrats right now here. So if we don't
show that we're changing and don't show that we're trying
to restore trust and integrity, the independent voters are not
going to stand for I mean, we saw with you know, government,
Murphy only won re election by you know, a handful
(25:30):
of points. I think it was three points reelection a
couple of years ago. This is something where you know,
you cannot take things for granted. And I feel like
the Democratic Party elites are playing with fire.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, no, I agree, Say you win this primary. How
are you different than Tammy Murphy?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Well, a couple different reasons. First of all, I have
experience of working in Congress, of actually working there at
the Capitol you know, I can be somebody that is
ready day one. You know, I don't need any on
the job training. I'm ready for things. And right now
the world is on fire. There's so many crises and conflicts.
I'm the only career diplomatic congress right now in the
(26:07):
House of the Senate. I can be somebody that can
step in and try to use that experience. I haven't
been on the ground, working in war zones and working
at the White House in the State Department to try
to help.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I can be somebody that you know already understands.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
You know, how to be able to navigate the legislative process,
you know, and that's allowed me to you know, push
forward on key issues. You know, for instance, understanding why
we need philibuster reform to be able to get the
things that we need passed in the Senate. Whereas you know,
the First Lady of New Jersey, she's called the filibuster
a useful tool. I completely disagree, and so you know,
those are some differences on that front that but look
(26:43):
on the other at the other angle too, I think
that there's a hunger right now in my state and
throughout this country for a new generation of leadership to
step up, and I will be the fourth youngest senator
in the nation. I would be the first Asian American
ever elected to the US Senate from the entire East
coast of America. And you know, I think that, you know,
I think people are excited about, you know, having younger
(27:04):
voices be able to come up, and certainly for the
Democratic Party to build out their bench and be able
to have more diverse, younger leaders that are there showing
what the future of the party is. And the fact
that you know, again, I've been a Democrat that can
win a district Trump one twice. I have a lot
to offer to the party about how we try to
build out a wider and stronger coalition that can help
(27:28):
us build a durable majority going forward. And so, you know,
those are the things that you know, I hope voters
see in me as someone who can try to fight
those fights and make the party stronger and help fix
and heal our democracy at such a critical point in
our nation's history.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
As we're looking down this election, tell me what you
can do now to get your name on the ballot?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Is there a process here?
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Well?
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Right now?
Speaker 5 (27:55):
A A couple of efforts which is first of all,
like I will be on the ballot and June fourth,
and what I need to do is make sure that
we are raising the resources and building the kind of
campaign that we need to to be able to get mine,
you know, making my name out there, to have people
understand that there's a choice. You know, the last thing
I want are people showing up on June fourth at
(28:15):
the primary and be unaware that there's a competitive senate race.
You know, I need people to be able to walk
in there knowing that there is a center race, hopefully
knowing my name and knowing something about me. So you know,
that's what I'm pushing on, and that people want to
help out. You know, they can go to Andy Kim
dot com and beyond that. You know, right now we
are building up, you know, a grassroots army. Right now,
(28:37):
this is going to be the largest grassroots mobilization for
any primary, statewide prime in our state's history. We're building
up something incredible, and you know, we need people that
are willing to knock doors or make text calls and
other things like that that are helpful to get.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
The word out right now.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You know, those are the types of things that we're
pushing on, and I do believe that if we can
pull that together and raise the resources and run the
campaign that we need to, that we.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Can win this.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
We can overcome what obstacles the machine politics are throwing
in by way, and I think people recognize this is
a potentially historic collection for our state to finally be
able to have a real democracy here that is going
to be based on fairness, going to allow people to
be able to vote the way they want.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
One thing I've learned as they've gone around the stated
people in New Jersey don't want to be.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
Told to the They despise that, and I think right
now we're seeing that come to ahead. You know, I'm
hopeful that people will stand up for their own voice
in our democracy.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Thank you so much, Andy Kim. I really appreciate you well.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Thank you for letting me let me talk about this race.
It's certainly an extremely dramatic and crazy race, but it's
one that I think really gets to this question. And
you know, I was there with Joe Biden when he
gave a speech about January sixth earlier this year, and
he said, we know who Donald Trump is, but who
are we? And I think that question, who are we
and who is the Democratic Party? Who are we as Democrats?
(30:04):
Like that is important and I think that this race
both in terms of it being about you know, Senator
Menendez and his indictments and allegations of corruption, and then
now this issue as you raised about the First Lady
and nepotism and about machine politics, the question is who
are we as Democrats? I hope that we show that
(30:27):
better than what we're seeing right now in New Jersey.
I believe that, and that's why I'm running. But I
really do think that kind of gets at the heart
of this question of like what is the soul of
the Democratic Party?
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Who are we? What do we stand for?
Speaker 5 (30:38):
And then that's why I think it's been a race
that has captivated a lot of people, not just in
New Jersey but across his country. And I hope people
see the importance of us standing up and showing who
we are because I think it'll have major implications for
our abilities to be able to win elections going forward.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Thank you, Andy m Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Jim Acosta is the host of CNN Newsroom with Jim
Acosta every weekdays at ten am eest at CNN.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Welcome to Fast politics. How weird is this I'm hosting you. Welcome,
Jim Acosta.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Wow, this is cool. This is like news inception or something.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
It's right, we're through the mirror, through the looking glass.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I'm so excited to have you because, first of all,
I love to go on your show.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I can't go on your show at this moment. Yeah,
somedayon I can give it up, hope.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
But I'm very excited about your move to every day.
So talk to us about your new time slot.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
So now it's Monday through Friday at ten am Easter
and a seven am on the West. I'm wapping about
so people waking up on the West coast you can
tune it in and you can change your viewing on this.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
It's great.
Speaker 6 (31:53):
I mean, you know the weekend thing where you know
you are on about the debt right that much. But
you know we're able to do all these interviews. We
could give them time.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
You know, we did breaking news, a lot of politics,
and this is going to be a little bit different.
I have one hour now, so I have to really
you know, compress, and the segments aren't quite as long.
But we're going to try to keep it conversational, like
we're going to try to take the good stuff from
the weekend and bring it on to the morning showed
during the weekend, hope people to tune in.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, I was hoping you could talk about like there's
something very cool about being able to do the news
every day though absolutely.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
For example, I mean this this week, we've been doing
binary stuff and the results from that. This morning, we
had the situation in Gaza. I mean, it was just
breaking news happening during our program, and Biden went out
on the South lawn on his way to the border
and he made a comment about it. So we're jumping
around in sort of news whackable. We're moving from one
(32:51):
news story to the next, and it's going to be
fast moving. But at the same time, you know, emphasis
on my part, I'm really trying to preserve the those conversations,
those interviews that we can kind of get it beyond
the headlines a little bit. As you and I have
talked about so many times, don't talk about the horse race,
talk about the stakes, don't just talk about the polls,
talk about the chow bases, and like try to get
(33:12):
people something a little little meeting as they're getting these headlines.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
I'm hoping we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You know, we're back to this crazy news cycle of
just like endless news that it does make it very
hard to cover it. But let's talk for a minute
about like stakes versus odds, because that is something you
and I are both like really passionate about, this idea
that the way you cover news is as important as
(33:38):
what you cover, right.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I mean absolutely.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
One of the things, and you and I've talked about
this gazillion times, is that we have this extremely important election.
I know it's a cliche for everybody to say this
is the most important election of our lifetime, but I
think this time we can really say it and mean it.
I come from the experience of having covered the White
House during the Trump years.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We saw how administration ended.
Speaker 6 (34:01):
I actually flew on Air Force one with Donald Trump
when he went down to West Palm Beach and was
done with being the President of the United States.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
I mean, I was with them on that.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Final day, and one of the things that I said
to my colleagues is that, Okay, Trump may be gone,
but trump Ism todays it remains. It's not going anywhere.
And I think that's what we are now seeing lay
out at this very moment. Not only is Trump backed,
but trump Ism is back on steroids, and it's filtered
down into our politics to just about every level. And
it's something that we're going to all have.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
To contend with in the months to god, I mean, disinformation, democracy,
I mean, these are all the issues we're going to
be talking about from here until November.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I think back to those salid days of January twenty
twenty one. Do you think we were all too naive
the fact that so many of us thought that, including
people like Mitch McConnell, thought that Trumpism would resolve itself.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And honestly, I mean, I've looked at this gazillion different way.
I did this when I covered the White House.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
Some of this is a coping mechanism that a lot
of people have, which is, Okay, you know, one of
these days, it's all got to catch up with Donald
Trump and he's just going to leave the scene. Guess
what that did not happen. That that's not happened. Folks
might have thought up until yesterday or the middle of
this week. Oh, the Supreme Court. This will all end
at the Supreme Court. Okay, well, maybe it won't.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
It may on everybody to go out there and vote
and participate in this democracy. And I think, Molly, but
you have said it best when you come on this show.
This is the election about whether we're going to have elections,
And I think all of this.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
Is extremely important stuff. I do think to some extent,
we folks wanted to look the other way. They wanted
to stick their head in a sand and just to
kind of ignore it and hope some of this extremism
in our politics would go away. And guess what, it didn't,
and so we're going to have to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, no question.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
And I do think like this idea that trump Ism
would somehow resolve itself and that.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
We would go back to normal has been interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
This week we saw the Supreme Court decide to look
at the insane presidential immunity.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
It was so crazy that even people with.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Low expectations for the Supreme Court were shocked that they
took it up. It does go back to this question
of like will our institute, you know, the people who
have been bragging about our institutions holding, have they really well?
Speaker 6 (36:24):
And I, you know, was talking to a guest on
my show this morning, Doug High, and he was saying,
you know, the Supreme Court, and it's becoming like every
other institution, the media, the NFL, what have you. An
American society that's just not what it used to be.
It's not as popular as it used to be, you know,
and we don't really have as much time as I
wanted to kind of delve into that, but it's an
interesting comment to make. The Supreme Court should be above
(36:45):
all of that, like it should be the one branch
of government, should be the one institution in American society
that should be above reproach. And it is damaged right now.
The image and the institution is damaged. And it is
just a fact of life of this started with Dobbs
and when you saw those justices when they were nominees
up on Capitol and I was saying, oh, Roe is
(37:06):
president president, should be with respective as oo want. And
then that obviously was not like one hundred percent of
what was going on in the back of their minds,
because as soon as they had the chance to throw
a row versus the way they did and so as tushit,
it is damaged and it is something that we're going
to have to do with I think in terms of
the immunity issue, Thank goodness, if I could say one
thing about the Supreme Court that they are allowing audio
(37:26):
out of these proceedings when they do have the oral
arguments about this immunity issue, It's going to be fascinating
because I want.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
To know why is it worried Eve been hearing this?
Speaker 6 (37:35):
I mean, it seems to be pretty straightforward if you
look at USA versus Nixon, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
No, the Nixon case is insane, I mean, and there's
not it's just completely wild.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
It was pointed out to me that William Renquist accused
himself in that case and Claire S.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Thomas is not.
Speaker 6 (37:52):
We're acusing himself in any of these proceedings. And so,
I mean, I do think it's not unreasonable for folks
to have questions about how the Supreme Court is conducting itself.
And it's certainly playing everything that we're seeing right now,
there's no question about.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, and just it's sort of shocking, right really, So
I'm curious now, as you're sort of in this brave
new world. What I think is pretty interesting about trump
Ism is that there was so much sort of norm shifting,
but a lot of those rooms haven't necessarily come back.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
No, I know, it's so true. And you know, when
I was covering him.
Speaker 6 (38:29):
At the White House, you know, there was this constant
conversation about are we being too tough? Are we drifting
into something else besides meeting the potatoes straight down the
middle of journalism? And honestly, I look back at the
way we covered it, and I look at the way
we cover him now. And as I've said in the past,
I'll say it again, a different kind of president calls
for a different kind of playbook, and he is right
(38:49):
to behave in these sorts of ways that I mean,
sayd that's kind of light you know, Westland past the grade.
Letther like, I mean, it's beyond that. And so asked
the cover. So I mean, at least going to not
tell the truth of it, we have to call that out.
If he is going to talk about being a dictator
on day one, we have to we have to call
that out.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
I mean.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
And so you know, one of the things that I
tell folks a lot who asks you know, maybe you
were doing two mins there, maybe it was a liver
top over there. My question is is like, Okay, what
do you want us to do. We have to cover
the news and a former president who represented that's somewhat
at a threat to democracy. And I'm being diplomatic when
I say that.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
That's the news. You got to call it the way
you see it.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And that's what I've done in the past, and that's
what I'll continue to do, and that's what a lot
of my colleagues do, and I think it's it's the
right way to go.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
I think back to like what George Conway told me
a while ago. It was like, Trump is going to
destroy everything, the Republican.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Party, all of it.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And you know he was I think a little wistful
because he you know, he helped build that Republican Party
and it's going to all have to be destroyed. And
the thing, like with the Mitch McConnell stuff, it's like,
you really do see that in fact, there is no
place for anything that isn't MAGA in this party, despite
(40:05):
the fact that it started as a populist notion, but
it's largely morphed into something than most people don't really want.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Yeah, and Mally, it's amazing that you can bring up
George Conway, because I think George is a perfect example
of somebody who is in that world, in Trump's world,
I think almost went to the Trump administration and had
been in Republican politics for a long time.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
I mean, you and I both done them.
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Like how many former Trump administration and officials have I
had on my show, Stephanie Grisham, Mark Esper. The list
goes on and on, who have been on CNN and
in general on all the networks talking to sixty Minutes
and so on, who talk about Trump as a danger
to democracy, to talk about Trump is not being fit
to serve as president of the United States. And you know,
if all of those folks are saying something, of course
(40:47):
that's the do is. We have to cover it. It
is what it is. I do think what you're saying
about is the Republican Party going to go by the wayside. Maybe,
I mean you have.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
To have two parties. I mean you should probably have more,
but we used to exactly and mainly that's the phase.
Speaker 6 (41:02):
But I think in twenty twenty, I think we might
see the gap the near twenty twenties.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
But look at that NICKI Haley number. The other night
with Mischig, there.
Speaker 6 (41:09):
Was all this talk of uncommitted and this protest vote
against Joe Biden. There were people who vote to Vernickie
Haley than Donald Trump in the Michigan frontment. That was
lower that we've seen in some of the other early
primary states. And I have to think that some of
those folks are the kind of Republicans who are going
to say, you know what, we're going to either sit
this one out and wait until twenty twenty eight, or
we're going to go and vote for Biden at the
(41:31):
top of the ticket and vote for Republicans by the
other parts of the ticket. I think that that is
quite possible, and so I'm not one of those folks
who's short are down in the Dumpston thinks it's all
going to go down the tubes. I just don't see
that happening just yet, because I think that people underestimate
how seeply unpopular the former president is. How were these
sweet districts outside of Philadelphia and Detroit and Phoenix in Atlanta.
(41:54):
Are they just going to have it out of body
experience and all of a sudden say, okay, now I'm
okated with Williams' Donald Trump after they sort of put
that one to rest. I just don't know, so I
you know, I really think this is a jump ball
heading into November and possibly even advantaged Biden at this point.
That spy what people said.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
It's really interesting when you think about this party's problem
because there has been like an enormous realignment that we
don't talk about so much, which is that the more
educated you are, the more likely you are to vote
for Democrats. You know, if you look at the numbers,
some college, college, grad school, postgrad, and it does seem
(42:33):
to cut completely along those lines, which that was not
always the case. In fact, until very recently, Mitt Romney
was a candidate because Mitt Romney was an archetype right
of a conservative voter. I mean, that shift has to
be meaningful.
Speaker 6 (42:48):
Absolutely, And I think I covered the Romney campaign. I
was with him on election dight when he lost to
Barack Obama, and he was very much sort of the
last fashion of the establishment of the Republican Party. And
who knows, maybe Trump will be such a disaster politically
for the Republican Party that they will go to admit
Romney type the next time I'm around. I mean, I
(43:09):
do think that there is an appetite for that. I
do think, to Biden's credit, I mean on the Democratic side,
he is not like a movement's figure Joe Biden, but
as an establishments figure of the Democratic Party, he's managed
to hang on to the party quite well. Look at
the way these early primary states have been worked out
for him, Dean Phillips, what is he pulling?
Speaker 4 (43:29):
And he's just nothing. It's not like a bird situation.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
It is not like a Hillary Clinton versus Baracco o'bama situation.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
No, it's not. It's just not it's not at all.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
In fact, one of my kids came in when we
were watching results the other day and he's like, who
the fuck is Dean Phillips? And I was like, you
read the newspaper every day and you don't know who
he is?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Well, when the New York Times has a story about
how you have a coffee you get the coffee truck
in New Hampshire and they write a story saying that
nobody showed up, that is typically not a good sign.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
That is not a good sign.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
But it is like one of the things that this
White House complains about, and I actually think they're probably right,
is that this is their complaint. But I think they
feel that the mainstream media does not like them, and
we're talking about I know, I hate to, you know,
speak out of school, but you know, you do see
(44:21):
the tweets talk to me about like you would think
that the sane White House would be more liked by
the mainstream media than the insane White House.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Yeah, I mean I covered Obama the second term, and
you know they would get mad at us back then.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
I can tell you the stories about that.
Speaker 6 (44:39):
I do think to some extent it's it's sort of
the conversations you and I had Molly on my old
weekend show. There's Earth one on Earth too. Biden having
problems with the border is sort of an Earth One problem.
When I covered Obama in the second term in the
Obamacare website did work for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
That was sort of an.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Earth One problem.
Speaker 6 (44:59):
People's where I mean the capital on January dits it
was very much to the Earth too kind of saying
with Donald Trump. And you know, to some extent, I
do think that some of the complaints from Democrats on
the progressive side are warranted when they look at the
both sides ism that goes on in the media and whatnot.
And I do think you do have to have some
(45:19):
sense of perspective. But at the same time, I mean,
you know this, somebody once said politics ain't being back,
and I think if your White House, you have to
expect there's going to be a critical coverage when it
comes to the word. There's going to be a critical
covered when it comes to Gaza. I do think the
president has a really tough problem when it comes to
Israelal Prime Minister Benjamin Yahoo and how Biden negotiates city
(45:44):
is as one of these grand negotiators in the old
school of a way and to negotiate with bb Net
and Yahoo out of this mess. I mean, I had
James Carlival on the other day and he made it
a very good point saying that Joe Biden does not
want this problem slaaring up at the Democrat at a convention.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Certainly, not especially we're back in Chicago again and.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Back in Chicago and exactly so, I mean, I do think, yes,
that there are times when it's sort of like the
Obama tan suit phenomenon re yours. It's ugly head, I
don't know, And yes they do yell when the pool sprays,
and and the President's sort of like, okay, who do
I think a.
Speaker 6 (46:22):
Question pro they proud Washington tradition. But I've played a
party in myself. I have to play guilty to some
extent to that. The other thing I don't get Molly
is Okay, Biden comes out, he goes out and gets
on the helicopter, and you cannot hear the questions.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
You can only hear the brosident of the video. Audio
quality is terrible, and Trump used to do it when
he was brother. I wish if I could just put out,
if I could put one suggestion in the suggestion box,
that we just don't do those anymore. Those are just
the harediest TV situations.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
I do think the.
Speaker 6 (46:52):
President would be well served in having more news compens
I think he does well in those settings. We're not
here to do them any favors or tell them how
to do things or where. I just think, you know,
Obama handled him pretty well. He didn't like to do
them very much, and I think I miss kind of
in the same boat.
Speaker 4 (47:07):
I think that that would help him, But I don't know.
Speaker 6 (47:09):
I'm not here to give any pointers here, but I
think more of those would maybe serve him well and
maybe take some.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Of the keep that they are feeling over there.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Away, Jim Mcosta. I hope you'll come back, of.
Speaker 6 (47:22):
Course, as alwayss that was so fast, but it was
great to catch up with you.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
No moment, Jesse Cannon, my jump fast. You know.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
It's not often friends of the show get great news,
but Congressman Ruem Diego got some great news. What are
you seeing here?
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Kirson Cinema raise no money and is now dropping out.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
I want to take a moment here to extend a hearty.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I don't want to curse, because this is a kind
of gentler jong a hearty. You are not a good
person to both Kirston Cinema and also Joe Manchin, because
had those two just been a little bit better people
and not so interested in getting money from lobbyists, we
(48:09):
would have a lot more progressive legislation. We would have
a permanent child tax credit. We would have things that
you can't even dream of, free pre.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
K at the national level.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
You know, we could have a lot of stuff had
those two not decided they were fiscal conservatives. And also,
by the way, I am happy to see them both go.
So Democrats will lose the seat in West Virginia. But
looks like our friend of the show and great funny,
brilliant Congressman Rubin Diego will clean the floor with Governor
(48:46):
Carrie Lake. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.
Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the
best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos.
If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send me to
a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks
for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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