March 15, 2023 • 53 mins
Democratic Whip Representative Katherine Clark talks to us about the Democrats' budget proposal and how it helps the American people. Republican operative Carlton Huffman describes his accusations of unwanted sexual advances against CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp. Plus, NPR’s Roben Farzad breaks down what’s next for regulation around the banking industry.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds and Matt Gates's newest aid self describes
as a raging misogynist. We have a jaw dropping show today.
Democratic Congressional whip Congresswoman Catherine Clark stops by to talk
(00:22):
to us about the Democratic budget proposal and how it
helps the American people. Then we'll have Republican Operative Carlton Huffman,
who accused SEPAC chairman Match Lap of unwanted sexual advances.
But first we have the host of NPR's Full Disclosure,
Robin Farzad. Welcome to Fast Politics, Robin, thank you, Molly.
(00:44):
Good to be back. So we got to start with
the bank run. Talk us through Silicon Valley Bank. I
did not become aware of this until my husband disappeared
for three days. But explain to me what happened here?
What makes this run different from all others? That's right?
(01:04):
For this run, we sit reclining, we eat only bitter herbs. Yeah,
so explain to us what happened was Silicon Valley Bank.
This started on Thursday. Well, here we are a week ago.
You know, concentrating on the world of the Fed, probably
raising by another half a point. All eyes are inflation.
(01:26):
The system is hail and hardy. Nobody's really worried about
any bank runs. And here you have otherwise pretty successful
regional bank out in Silicon Valley, out in California that
has to do a capital raise because it has a
bit of a hole in its balance sheet or it
took on a paper loss. The hole was caused by
(01:46):
what inbarstment. Look at it this way. You take on
depositor money. Typically it's great, but in this case it
was almost an embarrassment of riches. And everybody got complacent
in this environment because that depositor money. In a zero
yield environment, you have to reach out farther on the
yield curve or take on more incremental interest rate risk
to get any yield right. The way the bank makes
(02:08):
money is it takes depositor money in this case pays
nothing and hopefully wants to collect a couple of points
over that. You could do that by loaning it out
in net interest margin whatever it was. It has a
very homogeneous client base. It went out because there was
no yield to be having had in short term safer securities,
and it bought longer term treasury and mortgage backed securities.
(02:31):
And then the Fed does this whiplashing shift last year
and hikes interest rates in one year more than it
had I think since the early eighties. In a concentrated period.
You go from zero interest rate policy to about four
and a half percent, where we are right now on
the brink of five. And these guys get caught unawares.
I was like, oh, well, they could have privately gone
(02:51):
out and raised some money to plug the hole in
their portfolio, because a paper loss is a paper loss, right,
You're gonna have to sell those bonds. But the thing
that happened at the same time was you had all
these depositors, with the slowdown in Silicon Valley and everything
in cash flow issues being different, drawing down on these accounts.
So to make to pay out those depositors, they had
(03:12):
to raise some money. Had that been done quietly as
opposed to them coming out and fessing up to this.
Add to that the social media aspect of it, yelling
fire in a crowded movie theater and everybody on Twitter
as an expert, and you have self important venture capitalists
and private equities ours and hedges by the way, some
of whom I have short positions, that's right, and who
(03:34):
are trying to serve themselves on their shores. One minute
you have the sixteenth largest bank in the United States.
The next you have a client of the state and
the second biggest bank failure in history. Now we don't
have subprime stresses or anything else. No two crises look
the same, like the SNL crisis or OH eight. But
this was just getting pretty and getting foolish. I take
(03:55):
the criticism that deregulation after the financial crisis was a
big reason why this was allowed to happen. I want
to get into this for a minute, because it is
interesting that you have the train deregulation and you have
four Norfolk Southern derailments this year, and then you have
the deregulation of these regional banks and you have a collapse.
(04:20):
So a lot of members of the right will say
they don't I don't know if you know this, but
they don't like regulations. They feel that it's anti capitalists
and they're wrong. But I want to get into this
with you for a second, which is they will say
their favorite thing to say is well, regulation wouldn't have
prevented this. Tell us why that's bullshit. And I'm still
(04:43):
trying to read between the lines here. But deregulation, I
mean after the pendulum always swings. Clearly, we were underregulated
before the Great Financial Crisis and subprime and you had
all these investment banks rolling subprime falafel in the interest
of extending the American dream and country ide and blah
blah blah blah blah. But in the end, it was
it was a big game, right, it was a diffusion
(05:03):
of responsibility. We're passing that onto the taxpair. It was
kind of a perfect crime, and very few or no
one went to prison for it. Right in this case,
you have no one really betting on anything. Nobody's speculating,
but kind of stupid risk management or being pretty in
a period of zero interest rates just makes people complacent
and they do stupid things like a Minsky moment. A
(05:25):
Minsky moment. Can you explain a Minsky moment for our listeners?
As I understand it that even in a great economy,
prettiness is going to sow the seeds of its own demise,
that reckless speculation that in a bullish period you're gonna
have people to kind of poke the bear. And I've
mixed the million metaphors. But you saw Bear Sterns do that,
You saw Lehman brothers do that. And so a sudden
(05:47):
decline in in sentiment out of a period of quiet
and zero interest rate policy and complacency causes everybody to
shift the pendulum to oh, my gosh, the world is ending.
And that's kind of arguably in hindsight, they might refer
to this as a Minsky moment. I you know, I
think about this, and yes, this was a very calm
(06:08):
environment just a week ago, and you had a very
routine thing. But interest rate hikes the weight the likes
of which we saw last year are going to hurt people.
It's going to hurt consumers, car dealerships, and it hurts
the market, and it hurts confidence. In this case, you
can't hike rates as much as you did without revealing
which banks were out there kind of speculating. But it
wasn't done in the interest of you know, I think
(06:31):
raw avarice or anything or greed. It was kind of
done in complacency and sloppiness. And shouldn't a bank that
was sloppy be taken out and executed summarily like this,
And that's a big question. Can Peter Tell be blamed
for any of this? You know, the yelling fire in
a crowded movie theater. It's one thing. If we're dealing
in a world of press releases and fax machines and
(06:51):
copper wire phones, it's another one. We're all experts on Twitter,
and if you're a VC and you could barket your
portfolio companies, get out of this situation, get out of
this situation. You're effectively it's the self. You control the
self fulfilling prophecy, you control the destiny, and you could
look smart afterwards. Well, look, I told you it was
going to fail, and it did fail because you pulled
(07:12):
your money out right, so you can create a crisis
and then look good. That's what bothers me is the
asymmetry of it. It's still private profits and socialized risk.
Because in the end, the FED did show its hand,
the FDIC showed its hand, Treasury showed its hand and
said we're going to make depositors whole, and this is
just one example in the market. Meanwhile, goes out and
(07:34):
shoots no shortage of regional banks and forces them to
come out and say that we're hail and hearty and
opens that opens them to that kind of that downward speculation.
Say it again, the line I that you just said
privatizes profits and socializes risk. Yeah, that was that was
the knock in subprime private profits, socialized risk. All these
(07:54):
bankers who made these securities and everything they profited, they
didn't comback their profits. The risk was ultimately borne by
the taxpayer. Now you have DC saying that the taxpayers
not bearing these risks. But for yeah, after one hundred
billion dollars of whatever the FDIC account that's depleted and
whatever levies that you charge on the industry, which by
(08:16):
the way, they lobbied against. What about this FED window,
this FED facility to buy um, you know, subpar securities
off of banks. Who's paying for that? That's a being
a question mark to me. I mean, it's a kind
of an existential question. Is the FED just not Is
it just its own entity, its own balance sheet? Does
that not recourse to the taxpayer? All sorts of moral
(08:36):
hazard has been kind of re revealed and rekindled by this. Yeah,
that's my feeling too. I want to talk to you
about now the anxiety this weekend was that there was
going to be contagion. Right, There was a lot of
anxiety about contagion. So is the pandemic over the pandemic
I mean COVID or the anxiety of contagion and the
(08:56):
anxiety of contagion. The echo chamber is thing like it was.
And they go back on YouTube and look at videos
of the crash of eighty seven or the Savings a
loan crisis. There. We weren't even tweeting this much, not
nearly this much in two thousand and eight and two
thousand and nine. You just have these prominent financiers and
self made experts out there saying that I sent a
(09:17):
problem with this or I heard this. That's not regulated.
You are effectively allowed to yell fire in a crowded
movie theater, and whatever the feds want to do, whatever
bumpers they want to put up, whatever backstops, it's still
up to the consumers to pull their money. Some atavistic
tendency takes hold, like you're thinking, all right, it's my
money cut the BS do. I have to get it out.
As I've said before, when I have Iranian relatives call
(09:40):
me and ask me about something, it's hit a certain
trip wire, which it did. I had a cousin contact me,
you know, five days ago, and say, should I be
spreading money around several different accounts in Los Angeles? I
was like, well, you're with Wells Fargo. You know. The
asymmetry of this is Wells and City Group and Bank
of American JP, Morgan Chase, some of the original sins
of prime. They're too big to fail banks. They're going
(10:02):
to become even bigger. Right. That's another worry that a
lot of people have, is that the too big to
fail banks are now going to get bigger. I want
to ask you, was this caused by woke banking? I mean,
I love this Republican talking point. The Silicon Valley Bank
has the money of founders fund, Peter Teel, many Peter
(10:24):
Teel portfolio companies. It is run by all white guys,
and yet somehow this is all the fight of woke banking.
Explain that's a canard in this case. I just don't.
I don't buy any have that it was. Was there
nosed the function of kind of woke board governorship, I
mean corporate governance? I mean, you had you had strange
(10:46):
people on that did anybody at any point say here,
come prick my finger and show me how this thing works. Yeah,
the risk controls were terrible in this case. And they
teach you in finance one on one. But the thing
about finances, and I saw Elizabeth Warren on TV, I
think she was Rachel Maddow is there are people out
in the world that think banking should be boring, and
there are others that believe banking is a kind of
(11:06):
a calling your lubricants to kind of capital formation, and
you're doing good for society, making a market, and you
should be able to make a killing at the same time.
And they don't want it deregulated, just like the airlines
don't want you telling them that you can't pack your
jetliners and then refuse somebody their seat because you have
load capacity numbers and you have this tried and true
(11:28):
formula of paying a person for getting bumped. They don't
want that. They want to avail themselves of complete flexibility,
complete pricing power, and that to the banks. They've had
it here. They've had zero interest rates for the longest
time you could be in hog Heaven. I think JP
Morgan in twenty twenty one had more than a forty
billion dollar net profit. What's not to love. You're getting
money for nothing, in the words of Dire Straits, and
(11:50):
yet one of the most successful banks in the country
managed to turn that into a catastrophe. I mean, what's
wrong here? Yeah, no, I know. So now we got
these in place numbers today. I'm sure you saw all
those different alerts where some are saying this was good
news and some are saying it's bad news. Inflation is
going down, it's just taking longer than anyone hoped. And
(12:12):
you know what, this is stale news at this point
because what just happened this week is certainly psychologically a
deflationary shock. But the market's trying to force the ft
at the very least say we're done hiking, and in
fact the worm is turned soon we're going to be
cutting rates because this is, unfortunately the codependency that's been
set up this century. We've had so many years of
emergency low interest rate policy that people have come to
(12:35):
expect it, and if you don't do it, it's like crying.
I'm crying uncle. Look, the market's crying uncle. The banks
are failing. It's bloodshed out there, and that forces the
Fed's hand. I need you to talk through this for
a minute. I know what you're talking about, but I
need you to go slower on this. What happened with
the failure of Silicon Valley will ultimately have a deflationary effect.
(12:55):
Can you explain that? Yeah, people perceiving that there was
a shock just Silicon Valley and isolation that for a
good twenty four hours. There were many portfolio companies and
many vcs are like, WHOA, our slowdown right now is
a downright crisis because there are firms that are going
to fail if they can't get their cash out. I
have no idea. Tell me more. BuzzFeed, Fox, Roku companies
(13:17):
worried about making payroll. Perhaps company is worried about making Yes, Yes,
I have the vcs we know and love. Perhaps spent
the whole weekend screaming about how we had to yes,
and some to their credits said, will be a backstop,
will be a bridge loan to these companies to make payroll.
But what they wanted all along was for that above
(13:38):
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars insurance thing, that taboo
to be shattered, and they effectively got that. But they
had to tweet a lot about it. First, they had
to tweet a lot about it and wax wax, kind
of martyr about this. We're dying to the cause. I now,
poor bunnies. But look at everybody else. Look at first
Republic had to go through a hell, Charles Schwab, all
these other things. And meanwhile everyone around the country is
(14:01):
calling everyone else and saying, should I move my money
to JP, Morgan Chase or a Well or one of
these things that is already the designated is a too
big to fail bank, And that's just going to worsen
the outlook. If you're expecting to get money on your
deposit to compensate for inflation and everything. The big banks
don't want to do you a favor. The small banks
are there to hold your hand and get through payroll
(14:23):
and everything. Right now, they're just scrambling into telegraph to
the market that we're okay and that that kind of
talk is cheap. And I wonder why the FED doesn't
have a kind of a good housekeeping seal or a
real time you know, like even in New York, you
eat at a dumpy sushi restaurant and you can see
that it says BC on the outside and you're taking
your life into your own hands. You can't you know,
(14:45):
you can't with the bank because many are are not
susceptible to these stress tests. I don't get it. I
know that a lot of people I know and love
are mad at Elizabeth's Warren. But this is a regulatory failure.
I think it is because they're not being regular related
the way the larger banks are. Federal banks have a
different regulatory standard and which they lobbied for. All of
(15:05):
these guys flew under the radars somehow. That do you
tell me how that a majority of their deposits were uninsured,
i e. Over the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
FDIC protection limit and the FED or no mechanism came
in and said, you need to husband a ton of
this cash in the event that something happens. Suppose I
don't know. Suppose it's an awful earthquake, the big one,
(15:26):
the nineteen oh six one that hits the Bay area again,
they're going to see runs on everything. You're going to
see a regional depression. Why wasn't anybody there simply for
that pH test. That's what's stocking to me. And I
can see why Elizabeth Warren and Sheila Bear and the
like are kind of apoplectic about this. Yeah, and I
do think like, ultimately, you cannot trust these companies to
(15:46):
regulate themselves, which means and I want to just have
two more seconds on this. If we have banks doing
shit like this, and we have trained companies doing shit
like this, imagine what tech companies are doing. But here's
a problem. Here's where I don't have faith the many
octogenarians in the Senate, in the House. You're gonna have
(16:07):
to present this on a CD ROM to them like
they're gonna be fighting the last battle. Look how long,
Look how long it took them to kind of you know,
Sarbanes Oxley and all the subprime deeds that were kind
of the crimes of two thousand and three to two
thousand and seven. And now we've already we already kind
of took care of this after subprime we regulated the banks.
(16:29):
They were all saying, this is deeply unfair. You get
a president who comes in whose deeply deregulation, as Ronald
Reagan was in his first term, and you kind of
undo things like this. It could have been somewhere else.
You could have seen bodies buried elsewhere. Nobody really expected
this to emanate from Silicon Valley, which is one of
the foremost think about its Silicon Valley Bank, Molly. I
(16:49):
had a doorman when I lived in New York from Tanzania, right,
and I remember during the financial crisis, he called me cousin,
and back and forth, I'd call him cousin. He comes
from the cradle of civilization. I would that if you
do a cheek swab test, we're probably distant cousins. He
was a day trader, and he would day trade on
the side, and he always talked to me about apple
options and everything. And at some point in two thousand
and eight, two thousand and nine, I think Bank of
(17:11):
America stock was in the low single digits, and he
turns to me as I'm going to work or going
to catch the bus outside, and he goes, cousin, do
you really think the Central Bank, the Federal Reserve will
let Bank of America fail? Think about it, cousin. And
so similarly Silicon Valley Bank. I mean, that's so iconic.
Would you let the Bank of New York film? We
danced with it with Lehman Brothers, and it was catastrophic
(17:33):
over a weekend. And that's where speculators have everybody else
kind of over a barrel. And that's that's still rankles,
you know. So the fan won't raise rates now because
they're too free down. I just don't know how they
come out and do this. You can't have a special
rate that's for let's say real estate which is too hot,
(17:53):
or fomo hospitality spending which is too hot, but the
banks pay another rate. You're having the banks effectively send
distress signals to the Federal Reserve. They might at worst
kind of put them on a hold. And let's see
to what extent the system can kind of the panic
can heal itself through the summer. But this is a
treacherous time. That's why no one has ever no one
(18:13):
has ever remembered a period where the Fed is hiked
this much without causing a deep recession. Right, And the
thing is we have now because of this bank run.
This should cool the economy. I feel it's deflationary. Like
what I said about those firms, is all of them
if they're suddenly trigger shy, if you were going to
go get another round of venture that's already been slow,
everybody else is thinking about signing off on an investment
(18:37):
or something, but more worried over the last you know,
seventy two hours about cash management and getting their money back.
It's about return of your capital, not return on your capital,
and that's always chilling, you know. Yeah, so interesting, Thank
you so much. This was great my pleasure. Mount Congresswoman
(18:57):
Catherine Clark is the Democratic whip and represents Massachusetts fifth
Congressional district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Congresswoman Clark, Oh, I
am so pleased to be here with Yumali. Well, we're
delighted to have you. I think we should start with
the budget. This is like such an interesting and I
think kind of brilliant development. The Biden administration offered up
(19:21):
a budget. The Republicans are now coming back with the budget.
The House Republicans. This may actually be someone playing three
dimensional chas you know, a budgets. There always a reflection
of our values and what we see. And President Biden
is that he sees us, he sees women, he sees families,
(19:41):
he sees communities, and that is reflected in what he's proposing,
you know, whether it's childcare, the reinstating the child tax credit,
paid leave addressing maternal health, having people of high wealth
and large corporate rations pay their fair share so we
(20:02):
can invest in climate rescue and invest in in our
families in this country. That's what his budget is doing.
And what we are seeing from the Republicans is not
much of anything. They are refusing to put forward a plan,
and they're trying to distract us from what they already
(20:24):
said they would do, which is roll back the inflation
rejection at roll back the cost savings we've already put
in place, and double down on their anti healthcare, anti abortion,
cuts to social security and medicare agenda. So let's talk
(20:45):
about abortion, because those of us who cover abortion and
those of us who watch our rights being taken away
from us. You know, there is a case in Texas,
Texas the place where all women's civil rights go to
die with the pills right now, and there's a judge
who may end up making it impossible for women to
(21:05):
get these pills, which are used also in miscarriage management.
You have been very public on your miscarriage. Talk to
us about what it's like to watch our rights being
taken away and what you think Democrats in the House
can do. It is terrifying to watch what is happening
to watch this judge out of Texas. That really is
(21:28):
one of the worst cases of form shopping to get
these cases in front of this particular judge. And you know,
we will see what this opinion ends up being, but
we are anticipating that this judge is very willing to
substitute his personal beliefs and opinions or an FDA approval
(21:53):
process and meditation that has been safely used for decades.
And that should be frightening to any American, no matter
what your views on abortion are, because that is such
a government intrusion and putting one person's belief systems over
(22:15):
science over healthcare for so many And I recently went
to Texas and met with providers and navigators and advocates,
and it was one of the most chilling visits in
conversations that I have had, just to see what women
are struggling with to get basic healthcare and being told
(22:40):
when they had a situation that is very common one
that I lived through where you have a miscarriage but
it is partial and you need to have abortion care
to prevent infection. These women are being told to go
home and wait till infection sets, so they spiked a
(23:01):
fever and the tails of sepsis, of women losing limbs
because of sepsis because they could not get the care
they needed. This should not be America in twenty twenty three,
but it very much is, and it is terrifying. Yeah,
and I mean and it's also I mean, I think
(23:23):
a really important data point here is its minority rule. Right,
American people are largely pro choice. This is a really
a safe and I would actually, I'm hoping you could
talk just for a minute about the FDA approval process
that these drugs go through, because they actually go through
a higher standard of FDA approval than normal drugs, that's right,
(23:44):
And it is a rigorous process, and you know with
abortion medication, it is one that took place in decades ago.
So not only do we have a very top approval
process for these drugs, but we have decades of use
where we know they are safe and affectives and what
(24:05):
we are seeing your point about the American people understand
what is at stake here, but this is a fundamental
freedom and that if local politicians are going to come
into your life and tell you if and when to
have children, regardless of your family situation, your doctor's advice,
(24:27):
your particular faith. That is an intrusion into fundamental liberty
and it is an economic issue. And so I think
it's why we saw that when abortion bands were on
the ballot in Kansas and Montana, in kntuct that they
were defeated because people understand and the American people are
(24:53):
for access to healthcare and the GOP is way at
a step with where we are, but in certain states,
in fourteen states, this has taken the holes. And the
danger of this potential decision out of Texas is that
it really is a step towards a national band. That
(25:16):
is really hard to comprehend how we are in this
situation and how we need to stay together to fight
back with everything that we have. I mean, I agree,
and it's completely almost shocking. So I want to ask
you this weekend, it was a pretty rough weekend for
those of us in the tech sector and all tech
(25:39):
adjacent with the Silicon Valley bank situation. Can you talk
me through just a little bit of how was the
decision to backstop that and how and the things the
government is doing now to make sure that this doesn't
that there isn't more contagient. The weekend was definitely spent
on the phone with people who were impacted. And in
(26:01):
my communities, right you have a lot of tech in
Boston too. We have a lot of tech in biotech.
Fifty to sixty percent bank with Silicon Valley Bank because
they are quite established in this area. And I also
heard from childcare centers that also bank there because they
(26:21):
took over a Boston bank a few years ago. And
so it was everything from small businesses too large that
were very concerned they weren't going to be able to
make payroll. And as we are on the cusp of
implementing all the climate protection policies and programs and construction
(26:46):
that we were able to put in the inflation reduction,
that this threat to the tech sector was really brought home,
and this threat to small businesses in my communities and
around the country. So our priorities were very clear. We
had to protect those businesses, investors, stockholders, they could ride
(27:09):
this out, but we needed to make sure that people
who for no fault of their own, were caught up
in this. And we're looking at payroll not being met
and all the ripple effects of that furlough notices and
layoff notices being sent out because companies had to get
rid of their payroll that they were afraid they weren't
(27:32):
going to be able to access. So I commend the
administration and Treasury in the FDIC for prioritizing those businesses
and making sure that when these banks opened on Monday,
that that was there, that depositors knew they could get
a hundred percent of their money back, and that was
(27:56):
our number one priority in making sure that their needs
were met and that at this still challenging post pandemic
part of our economy, that we were not going to
see widespread layoffs and failure to make payroll around the country.
Is this a regulatory failure? It could be. I think
(28:17):
we have to look at where we are at some
of the regulatory rollbacks from the Trump administration. Our number
one priority was making sure people could access their money
and make sure that these businesses, large and small, we're
not going to be forced to shut down. And we
wanted to make sure this did not become systemic with
(28:39):
regional banks around the country and that we stopped the
run on these banks. But we have to look into
the full investigation of what happened here, and hold those
bankers responsible for what they did, and also look to
our regulatory schemes and how we can further strength and
(28:59):
our banking system to make sure that they are operating
with stability and not taking too big a risk with
depositors Funday, yeah, exactly. Republicans have this very small margin,
but they still do have the House. How worried are
you about this debt ceiling crisis? It's not a crisis yet,
(29:19):
right theoretically. I mean, this whole crisis is one that
they had made up to further take a blow at
families in this country. It is a manufactured crisis, and
we only have to look back to the Trump administration
where one quarter of all the debts, all the deficit
(29:44):
in our country was brought on us by the Trump administration,
which is really one of the few areas of overachievement
of that particular administration that they could do that or
sort here. I shouldn't laugh, because we all suffered. But yes,
and then you know, then what we saw during those
(30:07):
four years were the GOP coming without any reservation to
raise the debt ceiling because they understand that that is
debt that they have already accrued, and that is what
we need to do. I mean, if we think this
banking situation was a crisis, I can't even imagine what
(30:32):
is going to happen if Republicans allow our economy and
the global economy to go over the cliffs. And what
they have said consistently until very recently is this is
the way that they can cut Social Security and Medicare.
And now the times to you know, cover that off
(30:55):
and backtracked on that. But it's out there. It's what
they wrote down, it's what they said on video on television,
and they don't have a plan. They want to say,
you know, the president needs to come and negotiate with us,
all right, put your terms out there, but they don't
(31:15):
want to show their cards because they understand that it
will be totally rigged against the American family and that
they are very clear who they work for. The first
build they put on the floor in their new majority
could have been about a million things that American people
care about, what's lowering the cost of healthcare, creating good jobs,
(31:38):
paper communities. But instead they protected high wealth tax chiefs.
That was their first of all, and their second and
third were about further anti abortion measures. So that's what
they are, and how they come out of this get
feeling crisis that they have manufactured is going to be
(32:01):
up to them. But we are here with the President's
budget that reflects the values of creating an autonomy that
works for everyone, and we're ready to negotiate with them
on all of this. But their focus isn't on the
American people. It's with power. It is with consolidating their
(32:25):
own power, and it's rewarding the very wealthy. And we
just can't let them make the winner circle in this
country so small. And we're going to continue to push
for all all those pieces of the budget and our
autonomy that work for families, because that's how we regain
our economic strength and grow for the future. I mean,
(32:48):
it's such a small majority, and you know, I mean
it's four or five seeds and Santos. The fact that
he's still even in there as kind of mind blowing.
I mean, do you think there's a world in which
Democrats are able to do I mean, if you just
look at the math, some of these candidates have one
in these very swingy districts. I mean a lot of
(33:09):
them won in New York. I mean do you think
there's a world where you could lull one or two?
You know, you really only need to lull like three
or four right over. I think that we have the
ability to work around like, let's say, the death feeling
that there are Republicans who understand how devastating taking our
(33:29):
economy into a deep recession. I don't think we really
even understand what would happen if we jeopardize our economy
in this way. So I think we're going to continue
to reach out and look for those partners. But we
are so focused on they have a five person majority
(33:50):
and we need to win the House in twenty twenty four.
And I can tell you that Democrats are optimistic. We
are energized, and we are fueled by meeting the needs
of the American people, putting people over politics, and we're
going to continue our work of loring costs, creating great,
(34:11):
paining jobs, and safer communities. That's where our focus will remain,
and the American people are with that agenda. It's why
we were able to defy political gravity in twenty two,
and it's why we're going to win in twenty four.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Congresswoman Clark Thank you
(34:31):
so much, Molly. So good to be with you. Carlton
Huffman is a Republican operative. Welcome to you Fast Politics, Carlton.
Definitely a pleasure to be on the show, even if
I regret the circumstances. First of all, how did you
meet matchlap I just happened to be working on the
Hershel Walker for US Senate campaign as a regional director
(34:53):
for the Atlanta metro region, and he was coming to
Georgia for an event in Perry on October the nineteen
and needed a ride back to the Hilton Garden End
that day, and that was the first time I'd ever
met him. Explained to me a little bit about whatever
you feel comfortable telling. Man. It started out as a
normal day. We were coming back from Perry, where I
(35:16):
had picked him up, and we drove back to his
hotel in Atlanta that day, and it was an interesting conversation.
He talked about Disney firing him for his comments about
Black Lives Matter, spoke very fawningly about Kerry Lake, and
managed to sneak in some compliments to Victor Orbond throughout
(35:36):
that nation. While processing all of that got him back
to the hotel. Thought that that was the end of it,
and thought that would be the last guy I'd ever
see of him. And then I found out that he
had technically invited himself to a rally the next day
that was going to be in Macon, Georgia. And then
I received a text from him that afternoon invited me
(35:56):
to come out to drinks at the Capitol Grille and
Buck and seemed to be a normal livitation. I had
been around a lot of Principles before and surrogates and
had been invited to dine or have a beer with
multiple ones, and thought that this was going to be
just like one of those, when it ended up going
(36:17):
quite the opposite direction. When did you realize that this
is not what you thought it was? I would say
at the Capitol Grill whenever he had finished dining with
a donor, he came out from that dinner and then
joined me at the bar, and at that point seemed
to make the conversation entirely about personal things and tried
(36:41):
to focus the conversation on me as opposed to keeping
it at a professional level, and made the point multiple
times that he was sorry that the bar was dead,
and seemed to want to go to a livelier place.
And then that's whenever I suggested Manuel's Haven there close
to midtown Atlanta, and we went down there, and definitely,
(37:05):
within a few moments of sitting down at Manuel's cavern,
it took a turn from the weird to the very uncomfortable.
Can you say a little more about that. So it's
a bar stool set up, and so we're sitting next
to each other on the bar stools, and I've been
with friends to that place, and I never got as
(37:26):
close to them as he got to me too, literally
to the point that he had full thigh on thigh
contact and it was sustained contact, and I tried to
move away from him. I tried to make it subtle
so it didn't seem too obvious and make the situation awkward.
And that's whenever he turned into me very closely. And
(37:49):
that's whenever he bumped into it. Being Georgia a constitutional
carry state, so I was carrying my firearm with me
and he bumped into it and he asked what it was,
and I said, it's my sixth hour and he goes,
what's a sixth hour. I'm like, it's my firearm. And
then mister defended the Second Amendment goes, well, I grew
up in Kansas, so I don't know that much about guns,
(38:10):
and but that was how little close that he was
to me. And I was like starting to get very
uncomfortable at that point, and so I intently turned away
and was focused on the baseball game that was only
at the time. And then he said to me, in
a tone that I will never forget for the rest
of my life, do you have a problem looking at me? Yeah.
(38:31):
I turned and made just very brief eye contact with
him and just tried to alk, really say, well, we're
just two dudes having a drink watching sports. But just
the look in his eye I could tell that it
was not an innocent look. And I was very quickly
at that point wanting to get out of that bar,
get him back to his hotel, and be done with
(38:52):
that night. And then you still had to drive him
other places, right, I had to drive him back to
his hotel, which was a Hilt Garden in in College Park.
And that's when the most agregious grouping went on. Yeah.
So literally after we af you turn off of Highland Avenue,
you turn onto the John Lewis Freedom Parkway, and before
(39:12):
you get on the interstates and you see the entire
Atlanta skyline spread in front of you. And it was
right at that point. I mean, there's about a fifteen
twenty minute drive, and but then just a few minutes
of that drive starting, he put his hand on my
leg and left it there for pretty much the duration
of the drive back to the parking lot of the hotel.
So were you completely surprised by this or had did
(39:36):
you have some hint that this was not totally unusual
behavior for him. Subsequent to this happening and talking to
more people that are in his orbit, became aware that
he did have a certain inclination. But before that I
had no clue whatsoever. I definitely would not have accepted
(39:58):
an invitation to go out that evening. And also, you know,
you should be free to go wherever you want without
being harassed. I mean, you know, even if you knew that,
he still doesn't have a right to do it. Yeah,
for me, it's a kind of a weird thing too
that in my head I would have probably if he
had kept it to what happened at the bar, I
(40:19):
probably would not have said anything. I would have just
chalked it up to the fact that the man's been drinking.
He had at least eight Tito's and bob Ga and
water Jesus at evening. So I would have chalked about
to say, okay, the man was drinking and forgot himself,
and I would have left it alone. But the that,
but after his hand was on my leg, just as
(40:42):
we were getting back to the Hilton Garden inn is
whenever he reached over and groped me for at least
five seconds. Then he texted you after that. He actually
called me too, he asked after he had groped me,
and I was just since dounn silence up to the entrance.
He asked if I wanted to come up with him,
(41:03):
and I declined, both out of just number one, just
shock at what had just happened, and also just wanting
to I mean, I've been wanting to get away throughout
most of that evening, but now I definitely wanted to
get as far away from him as possible. And shortly
after I left, he called, and I just was eager
(41:25):
to just get the conversation over with, and so I
just told him like, yeah, this is the plan for
tomorrow morning, and at what time do we need to
be ready, and I immediately began texting and calling several
close friends and folks that I've been talking to throughout
that day and began to let them know immediately what
had happened. And by the time I got to the
(41:46):
place I was staying at in Atlanta, just broke down.
Tell me about your decision to come forward. The very
next morning, I just knew that I had to tell
the campaign because I was not going to be alone
in a car with him to me, and if I
had gone through with it, I'd have been alone again
in a car with him for hours that day, and
I just was not going to do it. And so
(42:08):
the Walker campaign. Whatever else folks may say about that campaign,
the folks that handled the situation handled it perfectly. They
believed me, They took every action that could to protect me,
and I cannot say enough great things about those individuals
on the campaign. It's good, I will say. As far
(42:28):
as publicly coming forward, I just knew that I could
not let him get the opportunity to do this to
anybody else without the world knowing the kind of man
that he is. He came forward to the people in
the campaign. But when did you decide to really come
out with the allegation. I knew that in the campaign
I wanted to keep off the radar. Obviously, the October
(42:51):
was not the kindest month to the Heart Correction campaign. Yes,
I mean, and it felt like I mean, I am
a hartisan Republican. I wanted us to win that race,
so I did not want to serve as a distraction.
But I knew if he had attempted to disrupt my
professional well being at that time, I would have said something.
But I definitely knew that as soon as the campaign
(43:12):
was over at the right time, I was going to
say something to be sure that whether he's held to
account by a judicial standard or not, that the world
is at least going to know the kind of man
that he is. Yeah, and when that happened, what was
it like? I mean, like a lot of people will
have experiences like this, don't want to come forward because
they're worried about what happens once you come out. So
(43:34):
tell us a little bit about what happened when you
came out. I would say for every person who has
had trepidation about coming forward, I mean, I can definitely
speak to that experience firsthand that it is rough. I
will say that I have had the blessing of people
believing me, But at the same time, the opposition has
(43:55):
been very vociferous, if not just downright ruthless in terms
willing to go through every bit of my past, and
I will admit that I do not have a perfect past.
It's a past that I've turned away from in many regards.
But still at the same time, it comes out in
this context, it's going to be used against you. And
I've suffered as a result of this because Tom Tillis
(44:16):
said you were a very good campaign aid. Like I said,
I cannot send up nice things about Senator Tillis personally
and politically. Like I said, he's a good man. And
I've had a lot of other folks too behind the
scenes that have been willing to give words of support
and encouragements, and not just words, but have taken actions
as well. So I consider today that dedicated my professional
(44:40):
life to the advancing conservatism and advancing the Republican Party.
This episode has definitely disrupted that and will likely do
so indefinitely, But I still consider it worthwhile if it
means that not one more person has to go through
what I went through at the handsome match lap because
the behavior that he exhibited that night, it was not
(45:02):
behavior that you would say as a one off kind
of episode just because that they were drinking. Do you
feel like there were people who turned away from you
because your allegations were about their guy? I would say that,
I mean the majority of people, at least that I
know firsthand. I mean, I have not had anybody in
(45:24):
my personal or professional life turn against me because of
the allegations. I know that some people have had to
distance themselves from me because of the APO jumps that
the other side has done on me, and I definitely
understand their reasoning for it, because I've never wanted to
be a cause of damage to anybody that I've worked
(45:45):
for or worked with. I want to like talk through
the timetable of this. So you come out as an
anonymous source, yes, but people behind the scenes know who
you are, but not publically. And then at some point
you are forced could come out publicly. Can you explain
what happened there? Well, you had several folks that were
associated with the slaps that went ahead and put my
(46:08):
name out there. Right, that's a very trumpy thing, right,
And without getting into the who and their background, but
they went ahead and put my name out there, and
it was shortly thereafter that someone who was associated with
some Shenanigans during the twenty twenty campaign that I worked
with was the one who put together the APO that
(46:29):
was sent to the North Carolina Legislature that calls me
to resign my position. The OPO contained views that I
had once expressed that I had long walked away from.
But at the same time I acknowledged the ugliness of
them and regret them and definitely don't just apologize for
offense that they caused anybody else, But I mean they
are an offense to me that I ever helped them.
(46:50):
But I can sit here and say that I turned
away from them, not just in words but indeeds. The
fact that I expressed Coro Confederate views and nationalist views
gave way to a place in my life where in
twenty twenty, I attended a Black Lives Matter rally in
support of the memory of George Floyd and a mod
Rbory and definitely have made a point of standing up
(47:15):
and saying that black lives matter to the point that
it cost me several conservative friends, because I felt it
was the right thing to do so the ugliness that
I once held in my heart back in the late
two thousand oughts and then the early two tens gave
way to a very different person by the time two
twenty had come around. But at the same time, when
(47:37):
it comes to politics, people are going to dig, and
I unfortunately gave them some opo to use and they
used it. So this lawsuit made it so you had
to come out. You revealed yourself to the Washington Post. Yes,
and that was a pretty big deal. What happened then, Well,
the other side definitely, I mean definitely come out at
(48:00):
trying to dig and try to put out other stuff
as well. I will say, as far as the issue
of Raleigh that was reported, can you talk to us
about the nineteen year old woman Without getting too much
into detail about it, I will just simply say it
was a party that took place from the night of
February the fourteenth and to the night or to the
(48:21):
morning of February fifteenth. With that incident, it was investigated
by the Raleigh Police Department. It took both their testimony
and my testimony, and I will just simply refer back
to what the Raleigh Police detectives who investigated the case
said to me, a crime did not occur here. The
case is closed. And so if I was in any
(48:42):
way guilty of any or at least had given enough
calls for any kind of behavior, I would not be
standing here just as a plaintiff. I would be sitting
here in a very opposite way in terms of the
criminal justice system. Right, but this woman was granted a
protective ordiner who was Can you just is strapolate on
that for a minute? Is that sort of standard? This
(49:04):
is my first time dealing with the situation like this,
so a right, I mean beyond just the fact that
I'm confused by the situation, by the simple fact that
the Roley Police Department investigated it and found no calls
for charge. So why after the fact that protective order
was sold and granted. I can only testify that that's
(49:25):
the decision of the judge in that case. Right explained
us where you are now, You're out there, people know
who you are. You are. I mean, what is the
next step here in your case against match Lab? We
go forward with my name on the case that we
are going to go forward and we'll see, I mean,
(49:45):
what the timeline is on that one. It is something
that could stretch well into later this year or into
next year. But at the same time, I know the
truth about what happened on occover of the nineteenth, twenty
twenty two, and Matt knows it too, and we're going
to do I mean, as far as myself, I'm going
(50:06):
forward on this case and the truth will be bore out.
Have you heard from anyone else? I would say privately, quietly,
I have heard from some folks, but nothing, nothing with
any specificity. So that's sort of interesting. Do you think
that there'll be other people coming forward? I can only speculate.
I can definitely say if people witness what is happening
(50:28):
to me, I can understand any trepidation about coming forward
about stuff like this, whether it's in regards to the
specific individual or others. But for me, I feel that
the victory has already been one in the sense we'll
be able to protect themselves against anything that Matt Slat
will do, whether it's behavior that is tied with alcohol
(50:50):
or it is who he is periods. But I can
just sit here and say that I am satisfied that
people will be able to protect themselves in regards to him,
and that's a victory in another itself at the end
of the day and makes whatever I'm going through worthwhile. Carlton,
thank you so much for joining us and talking through this.
I know that there's a lot of not the funnest
(51:13):
use of twenty minutes for you, So I really appreciate
you joining us. I appreciate to you give me the
time and your coverage of this. Molly junk Fast, Jesse Cannon.
So my moment of fuckery today is about an industry
that is near and dear to my heart because my
(51:34):
beloved husband is a venture capitalist. It's about venture capital.
Over this weekend, the sixteenth largest bank in America, Silicon
Valley Bank, had a run on It was unable to
raise the capital it needed and was seized by the
federal government. And over the weekend a lot of Silicon
Valley people were pretty freaked out. And in the end,
(51:58):
the federal governments stepped in on Sunday and did the
right thing and shored up the bank and was able
to prevent a bank run, which was very good. Now again,
is it good. It's good that there wasn't a bank run.
Is it complicated, Yes, it's complicated. Our venture capitalists now
(52:19):
congratulating themselves mercilessly. Yes, you guys, the government helped you
shut the fuck up. And I say this as someone
who loves many venture capitalists. It looks very bad when
you take a victory lap when you've had help from
the federal government, especially because a lot of you are
(52:41):
not big fans of the federal government. And for that
it is my moment of fuckery. I feel like all
these people thought they were John Gulf before the weekend
and then really have changed over to really loving that
government subsidy. I would say they and rant and found
out that's really good. That's it for this episode of
(53:04):
Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to
your the best minds in politics makes sense of all
this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send
it 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 discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds and Matt Gates's newest aid self describes
as a raging misogynist. We have a jaw dropping show today.
Democratic Congressional whip Congresswoman Catherine Clark stops by to talk
(00:22):
to us about the Democratic budget proposal and how it
helps the American people. Then we'll have Republican Operative Carlton Huffman,
who accused SEPAC chairman Match Lap of unwanted sexual advances.
But first we have the host of NPR's Full Disclosure,
Robin Farzad. Welcome to Fast Politics, Robin, thank you, Molly.
(00:44):
Good to be back. So we got to start with
the bank run. Talk us through Silicon Valley Bank. I
did not become aware of this until my husband disappeared
for three days. But explain to me what happened here?
What makes this run different from all others? That's right?
(01:04):
For this run, we sit reclining, we eat only bitter herbs. Yeah,
so explain to us what happened was Silicon Valley Bank.
This started on Thursday. Well, here we are a week ago.
You know, concentrating on the world of the Fed, probably
raising by another half a point. All eyes are inflation.
(01:26):
The system is hail and hardy. Nobody's really worried about
any bank runs. And here you have otherwise pretty successful
regional bank out in Silicon Valley, out in California that
has to do a capital raise because it has a
bit of a hole in its balance sheet or it
took on a paper loss. The hole was caused by
(01:46):
what inbarstment. Look at it this way. You take on
depositor money. Typically it's great, but in this case it
was almost an embarrassment of riches. And everybody got complacent
in this environment because that depositor money. In a zero
yield environment, you have to reach out farther on the
yield curve or take on more incremental interest rate risk
to get any yield right. The way the bank makes
(02:08):
money is it takes depositor money in this case pays
nothing and hopefully wants to collect a couple of points
over that. You could do that by loaning it out
in net interest margin whatever it was. It has a
very homogeneous client base. It went out because there was
no yield to be having had in short term safer securities,
and it bought longer term treasury and mortgage backed securities.
(02:31):
And then the Fed does this whiplashing shift last year
and hikes interest rates in one year more than it
had I think since the early eighties. In a concentrated period.
You go from zero interest rate policy to about four
and a half percent, where we are right now on
the brink of five. And these guys get caught unawares.
I was like, oh, well, they could have privately gone
(02:51):
out and raised some money to plug the hole in
their portfolio, because a paper loss is a paper loss, right,
You're gonna have to sell those bonds. But the thing
that happened at the same time was you had all
these depositors, with the slowdown in Silicon Valley and everything
in cash flow issues being different, drawing down on these accounts.
So to make to pay out those depositors, they had
(03:12):
to raise some money. Had that been done quietly as
opposed to them coming out and fessing up to this.
Add to that the social media aspect of it, yelling
fire in a crowded movie theater and everybody on Twitter
as an expert, and you have self important venture capitalists
and private equities ours and hedges by the way, some
of whom I have short positions, that's right, and who
(03:34):
are trying to serve themselves on their shores. One minute
you have the sixteenth largest bank in the United States.
The next you have a client of the state and
the second biggest bank failure in history. Now we don't
have subprime stresses or anything else. No two crises look
the same, like the SNL crisis or OH eight. But
this was just getting pretty and getting foolish. I take
(03:55):
the criticism that deregulation after the financial crisis was a
big reason why this was allowed to happen. I want
to get into this for a minute, because it is
interesting that you have the train deregulation and you have
four Norfolk Southern derailments this year, and then you have
the deregulation of these regional banks and you have a collapse.
(04:20):
So a lot of members of the right will say
they don't I don't know if you know this, but
they don't like regulations. They feel that it's anti capitalists
and they're wrong. But I want to get into this
with you for a second, which is they will say
their favorite thing to say is well, regulation wouldn't have
prevented this. Tell us why that's bullshit. And I'm still
(04:43):
trying to read between the lines here. But deregulation, I
mean after the pendulum always swings. Clearly, we were underregulated
before the Great Financial Crisis and subprime and you had
all these investment banks rolling subprime falafel in the interest
of extending the American dream and country ide and blah
blah blah blah blah. But in the end, it was
it was a big game, right, it was a diffusion
(05:03):
of responsibility. We're passing that onto the taxpair. It was
kind of a perfect crime, and very few or no
one went to prison for it. Right in this case,
you have no one really betting on anything. Nobody's speculating,
but kind of stupid risk management or being pretty in
a period of zero interest rates just makes people complacent
and they do stupid things like a Minsky moment. A
(05:25):
Minsky moment. Can you explain a Minsky moment for our listeners?
As I understand it that even in a great economy,
prettiness is going to sow the seeds of its own demise,
that reckless speculation that in a bullish period you're gonna
have people to kind of poke the bear. And I've
mixed the million metaphors. But you saw Bear Sterns do that,
You saw Lehman brothers do that. And so a sudden
(05:47):
decline in in sentiment out of a period of quiet
and zero interest rate policy and complacency causes everybody to
shift the pendulum to oh, my gosh, the world is ending.
And that's kind of arguably in hindsight, they might refer
to this as a Minsky moment. I you know, I
think about this, and yes, this was a very calm
(06:08):
environment just a week ago, and you had a very
routine thing. But interest rate hikes the weight the likes
of which we saw last year are going to hurt people.
It's going to hurt consumers, car dealerships, and it hurts
the market, and it hurts confidence. In this case, you
can't hike rates as much as you did without revealing
which banks were out there kind of speculating. But it
wasn't done in the interest of you know, I think
(06:31):
raw avarice or anything or greed. It was kind of
done in complacency and sloppiness. And shouldn't a bank that
was sloppy be taken out and executed summarily like this,
And that's a big question. Can Peter Tell be blamed
for any of this? You know, the yelling fire in
a crowded movie theater. It's one thing. If we're dealing
in a world of press releases and fax machines and
(06:51):
copper wire phones, it's another one. We're all experts on Twitter,
and if you're a VC and you could barket your
portfolio companies, get out of this situation, get out of
this situation. You're effectively it's the self. You control the
self fulfilling prophecy, you control the destiny, and you could
look smart afterwards. Well, look, I told you it was
going to fail, and it did fail because you pulled
(07:12):
your money out right, so you can create a crisis
and then look good. That's what bothers me is the
asymmetry of it. It's still private profits and socialized risk.
Because in the end, the FED did show its hand,
the FDIC showed its hand, Treasury showed its hand and
said we're going to make depositors whole, and this is
just one example in the market. Meanwhile, goes out and
(07:34):
shoots no shortage of regional banks and forces them to
come out and say that we're hail and hearty and
opens that opens them to that kind of that downward speculation.
Say it again, the line I that you just said
privatizes profits and socializes risk. Yeah, that was that was
the knock in subprime private profits, socialized risk. All these
(07:54):
bankers who made these securities and everything they profited, they
didn't comback their profits. The risk was ultimately borne by
the taxpayer. Now you have DC saying that the taxpayers
not bearing these risks. But for yeah, after one hundred
billion dollars of whatever the FDIC account that's depleted and
whatever levies that you charge on the industry, which by
(08:16):
the way, they lobbied against. What about this FED window,
this FED facility to buy um, you know, subpar securities
off of banks. Who's paying for that? That's a being
a question mark to me. I mean, it's a kind
of an existential question. Is the FED just not Is
it just its own entity, its own balance sheet? Does
that not recourse to the taxpayer? All sorts of moral
(08:36):
hazard has been kind of re revealed and rekindled by this. Yeah,
that's my feeling too. I want to talk to you
about now the anxiety this weekend was that there was
going to be contagion. Right, There was a lot of
anxiety about contagion. So is the pandemic over the pandemic
I mean COVID or the anxiety of contagion and the
(08:56):
anxiety of contagion. The echo chamber is thing like it was.
And they go back on YouTube and look at videos
of the crash of eighty seven or the Savings a
loan crisis. There. We weren't even tweeting this much, not
nearly this much in two thousand and eight and two
thousand and nine. You just have these prominent financiers and
self made experts out there saying that I sent a
(09:17):
problem with this or I heard this. That's not regulated.
You are effectively allowed to yell fire in a crowded
movie theater, and whatever the feds want to do, whatever
bumpers they want to put up, whatever backstops, it's still
up to the consumers to pull their money. Some atavistic
tendency takes hold, like you're thinking, all right, it's my
money cut the BS do. I have to get it out.
As I've said before, when I have Iranian relatives call
(09:40):
me and ask me about something, it's hit a certain
trip wire, which it did. I had a cousin contact me,
you know, five days ago, and say, should I be
spreading money around several different accounts in Los Angeles? I
was like, well, you're with Wells Fargo. You know. The
asymmetry of this is Wells and City Group and Bank
of American JP, Morgan Chase, some of the original sins
of prime. They're too big to fail banks. They're going
(10:02):
to become even bigger. Right. That's another worry that a
lot of people have, is that the too big to
fail banks are now going to get bigger. I want
to ask you, was this caused by woke banking? I mean,
I love this Republican talking point. The Silicon Valley Bank
has the money of founders fund, Peter Teel, many Peter
(10:24):
Teel portfolio companies. It is run by all white guys,
and yet somehow this is all the fight of woke banking.
Explain that's a canard in this case. I just don't.
I don't buy any have that it was. Was there
nosed the function of kind of woke board governorship, I
mean corporate governance? I mean, you had you had strange
(10:46):
people on that did anybody at any point say here,
come prick my finger and show me how this thing works. Yeah,
the risk controls were terrible in this case. And they
teach you in finance one on one. But the thing
about finances, and I saw Elizabeth Warren on TV, I
think she was Rachel Maddow is there are people out
in the world that think banking should be boring, and
there are others that believe banking is a kind of
(11:06):
a calling your lubricants to kind of capital formation, and
you're doing good for society, making a market, and you
should be able to make a killing at the same time.
And they don't want it deregulated, just like the airlines
don't want you telling them that you can't pack your
jetliners and then refuse somebody their seat because you have
load capacity numbers and you have this tried and true
(11:28):
formula of paying a person for getting bumped. They don't
want that. They want to avail themselves of complete flexibility,
complete pricing power, and that to the banks. They've had
it here. They've had zero interest rates for the longest
time you could be in hog Heaven. I think JP
Morgan in twenty twenty one had more than a forty
billion dollar net profit. What's not to love. You're getting
money for nothing, in the words of Dire Straits, and
(11:50):
yet one of the most successful banks in the country
managed to turn that into a catastrophe. I mean, what's
wrong here? Yeah, no, I know. So now we got
these in place numbers today. I'm sure you saw all
those different alerts where some are saying this was good
news and some are saying it's bad news. Inflation is
going down, it's just taking longer than anyone hoped. And
(12:12):
you know what, this is stale news at this point
because what just happened this week is certainly psychologically a
deflationary shock. But the market's trying to force the ft
at the very least say we're done hiking, and in
fact the worm is turned soon we're going to be
cutting rates because this is, unfortunately the codependency that's been
set up this century. We've had so many years of
emergency low interest rate policy that people have come to
(12:35):
expect it, and if you don't do it, it's like crying.
I'm crying uncle. Look, the market's crying uncle. The banks
are failing. It's bloodshed out there, and that forces the
Fed's hand. I need you to talk through this for
a minute. I know what you're talking about, but I
need you to go slower on this. What happened with
the failure of Silicon Valley will ultimately have a deflationary effect.
(12:55):
Can you explain that? Yeah, people perceiving that there was
a shock just Silicon Valley and isolation that for a
good twenty four hours. There were many portfolio companies and
many vcs are like, WHOA, our slowdown right now is
a downright crisis because there are firms that are going
to fail if they can't get their cash out. I
have no idea. Tell me more. BuzzFeed, Fox, Roku companies
(13:17):
worried about making payroll. Perhaps company is worried about making Yes, Yes,
I have the vcs we know and love. Perhaps spent
the whole weekend screaming about how we had to yes,
and some to their credits said, will be a backstop,
will be a bridge loan to these companies to make payroll.
But what they wanted all along was for that above
(13:38):
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars insurance thing, that taboo
to be shattered, and they effectively got that. But they
had to tweet a lot about it. First, they had
to tweet a lot about it and wax wax, kind
of martyr about this. We're dying to the cause. I now,
poor bunnies. But look at everybody else. Look at first
Republic had to go through a hell, Charles Schwab, all
these other things. And meanwhile everyone around the country is
(14:01):
calling everyone else and saying, should I move my money
to JP, Morgan Chase or a Well or one of
these things that is already the designated is a too
big to fail bank, And that's just going to worsen
the outlook. If you're expecting to get money on your
deposit to compensate for inflation and everything. The big banks
don't want to do you a favor. The small banks
are there to hold your hand and get through payroll
(14:23):
and everything. Right now, they're just scrambling into telegraph to
the market that we're okay and that that kind of
talk is cheap. And I wonder why the FED doesn't
have a kind of a good housekeeping seal or a
real time you know, like even in New York, you
eat at a dumpy sushi restaurant and you can see
that it says BC on the outside and you're taking
your life into your own hands. You can't you know,
(14:45):
you can't with the bank because many are are not
susceptible to these stress tests. I don't get it. I
know that a lot of people I know and love
are mad at Elizabeth's Warren. But this is a regulatory failure.
I think it is because they're not being regular related
the way the larger banks are. Federal banks have a
different regulatory standard and which they lobbied for. All of
(15:05):
these guys flew under the radars somehow. That do you
tell me how that a majority of their deposits were uninsured,
i e. Over the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
FDIC protection limit and the FED or no mechanism came
in and said, you need to husband a ton of
this cash in the event that something happens. Suppose I
don't know. Suppose it's an awful earthquake, the big one,
(15:26):
the nineteen oh six one that hits the Bay area again,
they're going to see runs on everything. You're going to
see a regional depression. Why wasn't anybody there simply for
that pH test. That's what's stocking to me. And I
can see why Elizabeth Warren and Sheila Bear and the
like are kind of apoplectic about this. Yeah, and I
do think like, ultimately, you cannot trust these companies to
(15:46):
regulate themselves, which means and I want to just have
two more seconds on this. If we have banks doing
shit like this, and we have trained companies doing shit
like this, imagine what tech companies are doing. But here's
a problem. Here's where I don't have faith the many
octogenarians in the Senate, in the House. You're gonna have
(16:07):
to present this on a CD ROM to them like
they're gonna be fighting the last battle. Look how long,
Look how long it took them to kind of you know,
Sarbanes Oxley and all the subprime deeds that were kind
of the crimes of two thousand and three to two
thousand and seven. And now we've already we already kind
of took care of this after subprime we regulated the banks.
(16:29):
They were all saying, this is deeply unfair. You get
a president who comes in whose deeply deregulation, as Ronald
Reagan was in his first term, and you kind of
undo things like this. It could have been somewhere else.
You could have seen bodies buried elsewhere. Nobody really expected
this to emanate from Silicon Valley, which is one of
the foremost think about its Silicon Valley Bank, Molly. I
(16:49):
had a doorman when I lived in New York from Tanzania, right,
and I remember during the financial crisis, he called me cousin,
and back and forth, I'd call him cousin. He comes
from the cradle of civilization. I would that if you
do a cheek swab test, we're probably distant cousins. He
was a day trader, and he would day trade on
the side, and he always talked to me about apple
options and everything. And at some point in two thousand
and eight, two thousand and nine, I think Bank of
(17:11):
America stock was in the low single digits, and he
turns to me as I'm going to work or going
to catch the bus outside, and he goes, cousin, do
you really think the Central Bank, the Federal Reserve will
let Bank of America fail? Think about it, cousin. And
so similarly Silicon Valley Bank. I mean, that's so iconic.
Would you let the Bank of New York film? We
danced with it with Lehman Brothers, and it was catastrophic
(17:33):
over a weekend. And that's where speculators have everybody else
kind of over a barrel. And that's that's still rankles,
you know. So the fan won't raise rates now because
they're too free down. I just don't know how they
come out and do this. You can't have a special
rate that's for let's say real estate which is too hot,
(17:53):
or fomo hospitality spending which is too hot, but the
banks pay another rate. You're having the banks effectively send
distress signals to the Federal Reserve. They might at worst
kind of put them on a hold. And let's see
to what extent the system can kind of the panic
can heal itself through the summer. But this is a
treacherous time. That's why no one has ever no one
(18:13):
has ever remembered a period where the Fed is hiked
this much without causing a deep recession. Right, And the
thing is we have now because of this bank run.
This should cool the economy. I feel it's deflationary. Like
what I said about those firms, is all of them
if they're suddenly trigger shy, if you were going to
go get another round of venture that's already been slow,
everybody else is thinking about signing off on an investment
(18:37):
or something, but more worried over the last you know,
seventy two hours about cash management and getting their money back.
It's about return of your capital, not return on your capital,
and that's always chilling, you know. Yeah, so interesting, Thank
you so much. This was great my pleasure. Mount Congresswoman
(18:57):
Catherine Clark is the Democratic whip and represents Massachusetts fifth
Congressional district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Congresswoman Clark, Oh, I
am so pleased to be here with Yumali. Well, we're
delighted to have you. I think we should start with
the budget. This is like such an interesting and I
think kind of brilliant development. The Biden administration offered up
(19:21):
a budget. The Republicans are now coming back with the budget.
The House Republicans. This may actually be someone playing three
dimensional chas you know, a budgets. There always a reflection
of our values and what we see. And President Biden
is that he sees us, he sees women, he sees families,
(19:41):
he sees communities, and that is reflected in what he's proposing,
you know, whether it's childcare, the reinstating the child tax credit,
paid leave addressing maternal health, having people of high wealth
and large corporate rations pay their fair share so we
(20:02):
can invest in climate rescue and invest in in our
families in this country. That's what his budget is doing.
And what we are seeing from the Republicans is not
much of anything. They are refusing to put forward a plan,
and they're trying to distract us from what they already
(20:24):
said they would do, which is roll back the inflation
rejection at roll back the cost savings we've already put
in place, and double down on their anti healthcare, anti abortion,
cuts to social security and medicare agenda. So let's talk
(20:45):
about abortion, because those of us who cover abortion and
those of us who watch our rights being taken away
from us. You know, there is a case in Texas,
Texas the place where all women's civil rights go to
die with the pills right now, and there's a judge
who may end up making it impossible for women to
(21:05):
get these pills, which are used also in miscarriage management.
You have been very public on your miscarriage. Talk to
us about what it's like to watch our rights being
taken away and what you think Democrats in the House
can do. It is terrifying to watch what is happening
to watch this judge out of Texas. That really is
(21:28):
one of the worst cases of form shopping to get
these cases in front of this particular judge. And you know,
we will see what this opinion ends up being, but
we are anticipating that this judge is very willing to
substitute his personal beliefs and opinions or an FDA approval
(21:53):
process and meditation that has been safely used for decades.
And that should be frightening to any American, no matter
what your views on abortion are, because that is such
a government intrusion and putting one person's belief systems over
(22:15):
science over healthcare for so many And I recently went
to Texas and met with providers and navigators and advocates,
and it was one of the most chilling visits in
conversations that I have had, just to see what women
are struggling with to get basic healthcare and being told
(22:40):
when they had a situation that is very common one
that I lived through where you have a miscarriage but
it is partial and you need to have abortion care
to prevent infection. These women are being told to go
home and wait till infection sets, so they spiked a
(23:01):
fever and the tails of sepsis, of women losing limbs
because of sepsis because they could not get the care
they needed. This should not be America in twenty twenty three,
but it very much is, and it is terrifying. Yeah,
and I mean and it's also I mean, I think
(23:23):
a really important data point here is its minority rule. Right,
American people are largely pro choice. This is a really
a safe and I would actually, I'm hoping you could
talk just for a minute about the FDA approval process
that these drugs go through, because they actually go through
a higher standard of FDA approval than normal drugs, that's right,
(23:44):
And it is a rigorous process, and you know with
abortion medication, it is one that took place in decades ago.
So not only do we have a very top approval
process for these drugs, but we have decades of use
where we know they are safe and affectives and what
(24:05):
we are seeing your point about the American people understand
what is at stake here, but this is a fundamental
freedom and that if local politicians are going to come
into your life and tell you if and when to
have children, regardless of your family situation, your doctor's advice,
(24:27):
your particular faith. That is an intrusion into fundamental liberty
and it is an economic issue. And so I think
it's why we saw that when abortion bands were on
the ballot in Kansas and Montana, in kntuct that they
were defeated because people understand and the American people are
(24:53):
for access to healthcare and the GOP is way at
a step with where we are, but in certain states,
in fourteen states, this has taken the holes. And the
danger of this potential decision out of Texas is that
it really is a step towards a national band. That
(25:16):
is really hard to comprehend how we are in this
situation and how we need to stay together to fight
back with everything that we have. I mean, I agree,
and it's completely almost shocking. So I want to ask
you this weekend, it was a pretty rough weekend for
those of us in the tech sector and all tech
(25:39):
adjacent with the Silicon Valley bank situation. Can you talk
me through just a little bit of how was the
decision to backstop that and how and the things the
government is doing now to make sure that this doesn't
that there isn't more contagient. The weekend was definitely spent
on the phone with people who were impacted. And in
(26:01):
my communities, right you have a lot of tech in
Boston too. We have a lot of tech in biotech.
Fifty to sixty percent bank with Silicon Valley Bank because
they are quite established in this area. And I also
heard from childcare centers that also bank there because they
(26:21):
took over a Boston bank a few years ago. And
so it was everything from small businesses too large that
were very concerned they weren't going to be able to
make payroll. And as we are on the cusp of
implementing all the climate protection policies and programs and construction
(26:46):
that we were able to put in the inflation reduction,
that this threat to the tech sector was really brought home,
and this threat to small businesses in my communities and
around the country. So our priorities were very clear. We
had to protect those businesses, investors, stockholders, they could ride
(27:09):
this out, but we needed to make sure that people
who for no fault of their own, were caught up
in this. And we're looking at payroll not being met
and all the ripple effects of that furlough notices and
layoff notices being sent out because companies had to get
rid of their payroll that they were afraid they weren't
(27:32):
going to be able to access. So I commend the
administration and Treasury in the FDIC for prioritizing those businesses
and making sure that when these banks opened on Monday,
that that was there, that depositors knew they could get
a hundred percent of their money back, and that was
(27:56):
our number one priority in making sure that their needs
were met and that at this still challenging post pandemic
part of our economy, that we were not going to
see widespread layoffs and failure to make payroll around the country.
Is this a regulatory failure? It could be. I think
(28:17):
we have to look at where we are at some
of the regulatory rollbacks from the Trump administration. Our number
one priority was making sure people could access their money
and make sure that these businesses, large and small, we're
not going to be forced to shut down. And we
wanted to make sure this did not become systemic with
(28:39):
regional banks around the country and that we stopped the
run on these banks. But we have to look into
the full investigation of what happened here, and hold those
bankers responsible for what they did, and also look to
our regulatory schemes and how we can further strength and
(28:59):
our banking system to make sure that they are operating
with stability and not taking too big a risk with
depositors Funday, yeah, exactly. Republicans have this very small margin,
but they still do have the House. How worried are
you about this debt ceiling crisis? It's not a crisis yet,
(29:19):
right theoretically. I mean, this whole crisis is one that
they had made up to further take a blow at
families in this country. It is a manufactured crisis, and
we only have to look back to the Trump administration
where one quarter of all the debts, all the deficit
(29:44):
in our country was brought on us by the Trump administration,
which is really one of the few areas of overachievement
of that particular administration that they could do that or
sort here. I shouldn't laugh, because we all suffered. But yes,
and then you know, then what we saw during those
(30:07):
four years were the GOP coming without any reservation to
raise the debt ceiling because they understand that that is
debt that they have already accrued, and that is what
we need to do. I mean, if we think this
banking situation was a crisis, I can't even imagine what
(30:32):
is going to happen if Republicans allow our economy and
the global economy to go over the cliffs. And what
they have said consistently until very recently is this is
the way that they can cut Social Security and Medicare.
And now the times to you know, cover that off
(30:55):
and backtracked on that. But it's out there. It's what
they wrote down, it's what they said on video on television,
and they don't have a plan. They want to say,
you know, the president needs to come and negotiate with us,
all right, put your terms out there, but they don't
(31:15):
want to show their cards because they understand that it
will be totally rigged against the American family and that
they are very clear who they work for. The first
build they put on the floor in their new majority
could have been about a million things that American people
care about, what's lowering the cost of healthcare, creating good jobs,
(31:38):
paper communities. But instead they protected high wealth tax chiefs.
That was their first of all, and their second and
third were about further anti abortion measures. So that's what
they are, and how they come out of this get
feeling crisis that they have manufactured is going to be
(32:01):
up to them. But we are here with the President's
budget that reflects the values of creating an autonomy that
works for everyone, and we're ready to negotiate with them
on all of this. But their focus isn't on the
American people. It's with power. It is with consolidating their
(32:25):
own power, and it's rewarding the very wealthy. And we
just can't let them make the winner circle in this
country so small. And we're going to continue to push
for all all those pieces of the budget and our
autonomy that work for families, because that's how we regain
our economic strength and grow for the future. I mean,
(32:48):
it's such a small majority, and you know, I mean
it's four or five seeds and Santos. The fact that
he's still even in there as kind of mind blowing.
I mean, do you think there's a world in which
Democrats are able to do I mean, if you just
look at the math, some of these candidates have one
in these very swingy districts. I mean a lot of
(33:09):
them won in New York. I mean do you think
there's a world where you could lull one or two?
You know, you really only need to lull like three
or four right over. I think that we have the
ability to work around like, let's say, the death feeling
that there are Republicans who understand how devastating taking our
(33:29):
economy into a deep recession. I don't think we really
even understand what would happen if we jeopardize our economy
in this way. So I think we're going to continue
to reach out and look for those partners. But we
are so focused on they have a five person majority
(33:50):
and we need to win the House in twenty twenty four.
And I can tell you that Democrats are optimistic. We
are energized, and we are fueled by meeting the needs
of the American people, putting people over politics, and we're
going to continue our work of loring costs, creating great,
(34:11):
paining jobs, and safer communities. That's where our focus will remain,
and the American people are with that agenda. It's why
we were able to defy political gravity in twenty two,
and it's why we're going to win in twenty four.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Congresswoman Clark Thank you
(34:31):
so much, Molly. So good to be with you. Carlton
Huffman is a Republican operative. Welcome to you Fast Politics, Carlton.
Definitely a pleasure to be on the show, even if
I regret the circumstances. First of all, how did you
meet matchlap I just happened to be working on the
Hershel Walker for US Senate campaign as a regional director
(34:53):
for the Atlanta metro region, and he was coming to
Georgia for an event in Perry on October the nineteen
and needed a ride back to the Hilton Garden End
that day, and that was the first time I'd ever
met him. Explained to me a little bit about whatever
you feel comfortable telling. Man. It started out as a
normal day. We were coming back from Perry, where I
(35:16):
had picked him up, and we drove back to his
hotel in Atlanta that day, and it was an interesting conversation.
He talked about Disney firing him for his comments about
Black Lives Matter, spoke very fawningly about Kerry Lake, and
managed to sneak in some compliments to Victor Orbond throughout
(35:36):
that nation. While processing all of that got him back
to the hotel. Thought that that was the end of it,
and thought that would be the last guy I'd ever
see of him. And then I found out that he
had technically invited himself to a rally the next day
that was going to be in Macon, Georgia. And then
I received a text from him that afternoon invited me
(35:56):
to come out to drinks at the Capitol Grille and
Buck and seemed to be a normal livitation. I had
been around a lot of Principles before and surrogates and
had been invited to dine or have a beer with
multiple ones, and thought that this was going to be
just like one of those, when it ended up going
(36:17):
quite the opposite direction. When did you realize that this
is not what you thought it was? I would say
at the Capitol Grill whenever he had finished dining with
a donor, he came out from that dinner and then
joined me at the bar, and at that point seemed
to make the conversation entirely about personal things and tried
(36:41):
to focus the conversation on me as opposed to keeping
it at a professional level, and made the point multiple
times that he was sorry that the bar was dead,
and seemed to want to go to a livelier place.
And then that's whenever I suggested Manuel's Haven there close
to midtown Atlanta, and we went down there, and definitely,
(37:05):
within a few moments of sitting down at Manuel's cavern,
it took a turn from the weird to the very uncomfortable.
Can you say a little more about that. So it's
a bar stool set up, and so we're sitting next
to each other on the bar stools, and I've been
with friends to that place, and I never got as
(37:26):
close to them as he got to me too, literally
to the point that he had full thigh on thigh
contact and it was sustained contact, and I tried to
move away from him. I tried to make it subtle
so it didn't seem too obvious and make the situation awkward.
And that's whenever he turned into me very closely. And
(37:49):
that's whenever he bumped into it. Being Georgia a constitutional
carry state, so I was carrying my firearm with me
and he bumped into it and he asked what it was,
and I said, it's my sixth hour and he goes,
what's a sixth hour. I'm like, it's my firearm. And
then mister defended the Second Amendment goes, well, I grew
up in Kansas, so I don't know that much about guns,
(38:10):
and but that was how little close that he was
to me. And I was like starting to get very
uncomfortable at that point, and so I intently turned away
and was focused on the baseball game that was only
at the time. And then he said to me, in
a tone that I will never forget for the rest
of my life, do you have a problem looking at me? Yeah.
(38:31):
I turned and made just very brief eye contact with
him and just tried to alk, really say, well, we're
just two dudes having a drink watching sports. But just
the look in his eye I could tell that it
was not an innocent look. And I was very quickly
at that point wanting to get out of that bar,
get him back to his hotel, and be done with
(38:52):
that night. And then you still had to drive him
other places, right, I had to drive him back to
his hotel, which was a Hilt Garden in in College Park.
And that's when the most agregious grouping went on. Yeah.
So literally after we af you turn off of Highland Avenue,
you turn onto the John Lewis Freedom Parkway, and before
(39:12):
you get on the interstates and you see the entire
Atlanta skyline spread in front of you. And it was
right at that point. I mean, there's about a fifteen
twenty minute drive, and but then just a few minutes
of that drive starting, he put his hand on my
leg and left it there for pretty much the duration
of the drive back to the parking lot of the hotel.
So were you completely surprised by this or had did
(39:36):
you have some hint that this was not totally unusual
behavior for him. Subsequent to this happening and talking to
more people that are in his orbit, became aware that
he did have a certain inclination. But before that I
had no clue whatsoever. I definitely would not have accepted
(39:58):
an invitation to go out that evening. And also, you know,
you should be free to go wherever you want without
being harassed. I mean, you know, even if you knew that,
he still doesn't have a right to do it. Yeah,
for me, it's a kind of a weird thing too
that in my head I would have probably if he
had kept it to what happened at the bar, I
(40:19):
probably would not have said anything. I would have just
chalked it up to the fact that the man's been drinking.
He had at least eight Tito's and bob Ga and
water Jesus at evening. So I would have chalked about
to say, okay, the man was drinking and forgot himself,
and I would have left it alone. But the that,
but after his hand was on my leg, just as
(40:42):
we were getting back to the Hilton Garden inn is
whenever he reached over and groped me for at least
five seconds. Then he texted you after that. He actually
called me too, he asked after he had groped me,
and I was just since dounn silence up to the entrance.
He asked if I wanted to come up with him,
(41:03):
and I declined, both out of just number one, just
shock at what had just happened, and also just wanting
to I mean, I've been wanting to get away throughout
most of that evening, but now I definitely wanted to
get as far away from him as possible. And shortly
after I left, he called, and I just was eager
(41:25):
to just get the conversation over with, and so I
just told him like, yeah, this is the plan for
tomorrow morning, and at what time do we need to
be ready, and I immediately began texting and calling several
close friends and folks that I've been talking to throughout
that day and began to let them know immediately what
had happened. And by the time I got to the
(41:46):
place I was staying at in Atlanta, just broke down.
Tell me about your decision to come forward. The very
next morning, I just knew that I had to tell
the campaign because I was not going to be alone
in a car with him to me, and if I
had gone through with it, I'd have been alone again
in a car with him for hours that day, and
I just was not going to do it. And so
(42:08):
the Walker campaign. Whatever else folks may say about that campaign,
the folks that handled the situation handled it perfectly. They
believed me, They took every action that could to protect me,
and I cannot say enough great things about those individuals
on the campaign. It's good, I will say. As far
(42:28):
as publicly coming forward, I just knew that I could
not let him get the opportunity to do this to
anybody else without the world knowing the kind of man
that he is. He came forward to the people in
the campaign. But when did you decide to really come
out with the allegation. I knew that in the campaign
I wanted to keep off the radar. Obviously, the October
(42:51):
was not the kindest month to the Heart Correction campaign. Yes,
I mean, and it felt like I mean, I am
a hartisan Republican. I wanted us to win that race,
so I did not want to serve as a distraction.
But I knew if he had attempted to disrupt my
professional well being at that time, I would have said something.
But I definitely knew that as soon as the campaign
(43:12):
was over at the right time, I was going to
say something to be sure that whether he's held to
account by a judicial standard or not, that the world
is at least going to know the kind of man
that he is. Yeah, and when that happened, what was
it like? I mean, like a lot of people will
have experiences like this, don't want to come forward because
they're worried about what happens once you come out. So
(43:34):
tell us a little bit about what happened when you
came out. I would say for every person who has
had trepidation about coming forward, I mean, I can definitely
speak to that experience firsthand that it is rough. I
will say that I have had the blessing of people
believing me, But at the same time, the opposition has
(43:55):
been very vociferous, if not just downright ruthless in terms
willing to go through every bit of my past, and
I will admit that I do not have a perfect past.
It's a past that I've turned away from in many regards.
But still at the same time, it comes out in
this context, it's going to be used against you. And
I've suffered as a result of this because Tom Tillis
(44:16):
said you were a very good campaign aid. Like I said,
I cannot send up nice things about Senator Tillis personally
and politically. Like I said, he's a good man. And
I've had a lot of other folks too behind the
scenes that have been willing to give words of support
and encouragements, and not just words, but have taken actions
as well. So I consider today that dedicated my professional
(44:40):
life to the advancing conservatism and advancing the Republican Party.
This episode has definitely disrupted that and will likely do
so indefinitely, But I still consider it worthwhile if it
means that not one more person has to go through
what I went through at the handsome match lap because
the behavior that he exhibited that night, it was not
(45:02):
behavior that you would say as a one off kind
of episode just because that they were drinking. Do you
feel like there were people who turned away from you
because your allegations were about their guy? I would say that,
I mean the majority of people, at least that I
know firsthand. I mean, I have not had anybody in
(45:24):
my personal or professional life turn against me because of
the allegations. I know that some people have had to
distance themselves from me because of the APO jumps that
the other side has done on me, and I definitely
understand their reasoning for it, because I've never wanted to
be a cause of damage to anybody that I've worked
(45:45):
for or worked with. I want to like talk through
the timetable of this. So you come out as an
anonymous source, yes, but people behind the scenes know who
you are, but not publically. And then at some point
you are forced could come out publicly. Can you explain
what happened there? Well, you had several folks that were
associated with the slaps that went ahead and put my
(46:08):
name out there. Right, that's a very trumpy thing, right,
And without getting into the who and their background, but
they went ahead and put my name out there, and
it was shortly thereafter that someone who was associated with
some Shenanigans during the twenty twenty campaign that I worked
with was the one who put together the APO that
(46:29):
was sent to the North Carolina Legislature that calls me
to resign my position. The OPO contained views that I
had once expressed that I had long walked away from.
But at the same time I acknowledged the ugliness of
them and regret them and definitely don't just apologize for
offense that they caused anybody else, But I mean they
are an offense to me that I ever helped them.
(46:50):
But I can sit here and say that I turned
away from them, not just in words but indeeds. The
fact that I expressed Coro Confederate views and nationalist views
gave way to a place in my life where in
twenty twenty, I attended a Black Lives Matter rally in
support of the memory of George Floyd and a mod
Rbory and definitely have made a point of standing up
(47:15):
and saying that black lives matter to the point that
it cost me several conservative friends, because I felt it
was the right thing to do so the ugliness that
I once held in my heart back in the late
two thousand oughts and then the early two tens gave
way to a very different person by the time two
twenty had come around. But at the same time, when
(47:37):
it comes to politics, people are going to dig, and
I unfortunately gave them some opo to use and they
used it. So this lawsuit made it so you had
to come out. You revealed yourself to the Washington Post. Yes,
and that was a pretty big deal. What happened then, Well,
the other side definitely, I mean definitely come out at
(48:00):
trying to dig and try to put out other stuff
as well. I will say, as far as the issue
of Raleigh that was reported, can you talk to us
about the nineteen year old woman Without getting too much
into detail about it, I will just simply say it
was a party that took place from the night of
February the fourteenth and to the night or to the
(48:21):
morning of February fifteenth. With that incident, it was investigated
by the Raleigh Police Department. It took both their testimony
and my testimony, and I will just simply refer back
to what the Raleigh Police detectives who investigated the case
said to me, a crime did not occur here. The
case is closed. And so if I was in any
(48:42):
way guilty of any or at least had given enough
calls for any kind of behavior, I would not be
standing here just as a plaintiff. I would be sitting
here in a very opposite way in terms of the
criminal justice system. Right, but this woman was granted a
protective ordiner who was Can you just is strapolate on
that for a minute? Is that sort of standard? This
(49:04):
is my first time dealing with the situation like this,
so a right, I mean beyond just the fact that
I'm confused by the situation, by the simple fact that
the Roley Police Department investigated it and found no calls
for charge. So why after the fact that protective order
was sold and granted. I can only testify that that's
(49:25):
the decision of the judge in that case. Right explained
us where you are now, You're out there, people know
who you are. You are. I mean, what is the
next step here in your case against match Lab? We
go forward with my name on the case that we
are going to go forward and we'll see, I mean,
(49:45):
what the timeline is on that one. It is something
that could stretch well into later this year or into
next year. But at the same time, I know the
truth about what happened on occover of the nineteenth, twenty
twenty two, and Matt knows it too, and we're going
to do I mean, as far as myself, I'm going
(50:06):
forward on this case and the truth will be bore out.
Have you heard from anyone else? I would say privately, quietly,
I have heard from some folks, but nothing, nothing with
any specificity. So that's sort of interesting. Do you think
that there'll be other people coming forward? I can only speculate.
I can definitely say if people witness what is happening
(50:28):
to me, I can understand any trepidation about coming forward
about stuff like this, whether it's in regards to the
specific individual or others. But for me, I feel that
the victory has already been one in the sense we'll
be able to protect themselves against anything that Matt Slat
will do, whether it's behavior that is tied with alcohol
(50:50):
or it is who he is periods. But I can
just sit here and say that I am satisfied that
people will be able to protect themselves in regards to him,
and that's a victory in another itself at the end
of the day and makes whatever I'm going through worthwhile. Carlton,
thank you so much for joining us and talking through this.
I know that there's a lot of not the funnest
(51:13):
use of twenty minutes for you, So I really appreciate
you joining us. I appreciate to you give me the
time and your coverage of this. Molly junk Fast, Jesse Cannon.
So my moment of fuckery today is about an industry
that is near and dear to my heart because my
(51:34):
beloved husband is a venture capitalist. It's about venture capital.
Over this weekend, the sixteenth largest bank in America, Silicon
Valley Bank, had a run on It was unable to
raise the capital it needed and was seized by the
federal government. And over the weekend a lot of Silicon
Valley people were pretty freaked out. And in the end,
(51:58):
the federal governments stepped in on Sunday and did the
right thing and shored up the bank and was able
to prevent a bank run, which was very good. Now again,
is it good. It's good that there wasn't a bank run.
Is it complicated, Yes, it's complicated. Our venture capitalists now
(52:19):
congratulating themselves mercilessly. Yes, you guys, the government helped you
shut the fuck up. And I say this as someone
who loves many venture capitalists. It looks very bad when
you take a victory lap when you've had help from
the federal government, especially because a lot of you are
(52:41):
not big fans of the federal government. And for that
it is my moment of fuckery. I feel like all
these people thought they were John Gulf before the weekend
and then really have changed over to really loving that
government subsidy. I would say they and rant and found
out that's really good. That's it for this episode of
(53:04):
Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to
your the best minds in politics makes sense of all
this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send
it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again,
thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.