February 17, 2023 • 45 mins
On the heels of Diane Feinstein’s retirement announcement, Rep. Katie Porter makes her case for why she's the candidate to support in California’s Senate primary. The Nation’s Jeet Heer talks about Gov. Nikki Haley’s soon-to-be footnote of a presidential run. Plus, CoinDesk Editor Ben Schiller brings us up to date on crypto’s implosion.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds. And it seems like the aliens won't
be rescuing us from the Republican Party yet. We have
a fantastic show. Today. Representative Katie Porter will make her
case on why she is the candidate who should have
(00:21):
your support in her run for the California Senate. Then
we'll talk to coin desks Ben Schiller about the latest
news in crypto. But first we have the host of
the Time of Monsters, the Nation's GT here. Welcome to
Fast Politics. GT Here. It's always good to be here.
(00:41):
You're a fan favorite and I'm so delighted to have
you here. I wanted to talk to you first about aliens.
They're real and they're mad. He would be very ironic
if the end of the human species came a vote,
because the Republican has decided to make a big stink
(01:02):
about Chinese weather balloon that went off track, and this
led Biden and Justin Trudeau to lons of war against
space aliens, and they retaliated by just bring the planet that.
I have to admit that's something I'm hoping for. But
that would be a funny turn of events. I see
this as like a way it could go down. So
I want to talk to you about the aliens and
(01:22):
the space blends. No, I actually want to talk to
you about what's really going on in life, which is
and not even life politics, because we know that's really
not life. Here we are, we are in this crazy
period in American life, the run up to the twenty
four election, which basically starts the day after the midterms
are over. I don't know if you read Political Playbook
(01:44):
this morning. I did. Republicans are embracing authoritarianism like you
can't fucking believe. Discuss yeah, I know. I mean if
you look at the true front runners are you know,
Donald Trump, who's like calling for a firing squads against
criminals and basically following the path of direct he in
(02:05):
the Philippines, and Rhonda Santis, who's offering a kind of
you know, while I'm the competent Trump put the fun
and fascism, Yeah, really take books out of your libraries
and smash teachers and make life very painful for LGBT people.
I mean, like obviously, yeah, I mean the two front
runners are both offering a form of authoritarianism. Yeah, so,
(02:27):
I mean, and then it's clear that's where the party wants.
And it's interesting why the party elite has settled on
the Santis, like they really seem to think he's their
answer to Trump. And it's because they understandand that their
base wants some sort of strong man who's very cruel
and punishes the enemies, and they think that the Santis
(02:48):
can offer that and also be a little bit more
stable or a little bit more pliable than Trump. Not
a good situation, yeah, I mean, I just wrote a
piece about this, that the Santis is really being covered
as a normal Republican candidate when he's really not. Yeah,
I know, there's all sorts of efforts to normalize him,
and it's coming from both he has a lot of
(03:09):
like what I would call the institution of Republicans and
the mainstream people National Review, Fox News. But also, and
I think it's very crucial, a lot of centrist people
who aren't wouldn't say they're Republicans, but they want that
kind of what they see as a return to normality.
So they want a Republican party they think they can
work with, and they are also really whitewashing descentists, and
(03:31):
I see that. I think you can see that a
lot of the coverage of descentists in the mainstream press.
I'll just reference Pamela Paul We can talk about for
a number of reasons, but he just had a before
her latest terrible column in defense of J. K. Rowling,
she had another terrible column. You know what liberals can
learn from Rhonda Santis basically whitewashing his reputation. I think
(03:54):
there's a you know, because people who have like a
kind of really personal view of politics and see Trump
has being bad because he's a vulgar criminal, all right,
and not because he ignores democracy, not because of his policies. Yeah,
they're all settling on you know, Ronda Santis, and as
I said, that doesn't extends well outside of the mainstream establishment. Republicans'
(04:19):
is a real effort. I mean, honestly, I'm not I
could work. I don't know, I don't I don't know
if de Santis has the juice. I think that if
you're really into meat, why would you take like a
veggie burger when you could get the real meat? You know,
like Trump is out there, you know, calling for people
to be executed by firing squad. Why would you? And
you see this in the fact that like none of
(04:40):
the so called challengers that Trump are willing to take
him on like that. You ask like de Santis or
Nicky Haley about Trump and they'll say, well, you know,
like he was a great president and he's very badly
treated and I don't want to fight another Republican. And
then you have Trump going like meat fall Ron to
(05:02):
all of my Italian American friends, nothing but respect. And
I understand the offensiveness of this, but it is also
very funny. Yeah, no, no, I mean the man is
very good and what he does when it comes to nicknames.
He is bad and evil when it comes to everything else. Sure, yeah,
but but the nicknames, I mean like the power dynamic, right,
(05:25):
like and think about it in school. Who has the power?
It's the bully that can, like you know, impose nicknames
on people. And who is like, you know, the second
in command. It's the people who allow themselves to be
nicknamed and bullied. And you know we see that like
with Trump Ley not to the meat fall the Santas.
But you know, like you know, yes, this is you know,
rufically racist attacks on Mitch mcconnald's wife. McConnell is like, well,
(05:49):
you know, I think we should be talking about the
issues that matter to the American public, like and then
going back to like Trump's attacks on Ted Cruise's wife,
like the purpose of these attacks the show Who's boss
and who cowers and lives in fear? And I have
to say, you know, you're looking at the Replican primary
so far, like you know, neither the Sentist nor Haley
(06:11):
nor Pence, you know who like Trumps like basically inside
of the Bob to kill, like none of them are
willing to, like, you know, like say anything deeply critical
of Trump. Yeah, exactly. And I mean I think that
if we find ourselves in this insane position right where
you have these Republicans who are completely terrified of Trump
(06:34):
because they don't want me and tweets, I want to
go back to this uh pla book issue that I
read this morning newsletter, um, where they were, you know,
quietly Democrats wonder if Joe Biden is too old. And
someone sent this to me, Someone in the business sent
me this and was like, oh my god, Democrats don't
have a base. What are we? What are we? What
(06:56):
are Democrats going to do? Oh my god, Oh my god,
I'm god. And I thought about this for a minute.
And look, one of Joe Biden's great genius things is
that at every point people have been like, but you know, ultimately,
and again at every point people have been like, but
ultimately he won the mid terms, and he had like
(07:20):
brilliant political instincts, right, he went against he said Republicans
are against democracy, and he went and gave all these
speeches and the mainstream media was like, man, who cares?
And it was the winning issue for him. Yeah, No,
that's right. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I can't think
any of these things. Seriously, there's no one of any
statue in the Democratic Party who's going to challenge Joe
(07:41):
Biden in the primaries. You know, I've done a little
bit of partying on this myself, and there's a lot
of other people have done more reporting. And so who
are these Democrats that don't want Joe Biden to run again?
If no one is going to challenge him in the primaries.
But beyond that, I mean, like he has been a
very successful president and especially the mid years. I mean basically, like,
you know, the best kind of midterms for the Democrats
(08:05):
going back, depending on how you look at it, either
to nineteen sixty two or really to like nineteen thirty four.
So and beyond that, I mean, I think that they're real,
you know, the whole age issue. I mean, like, you know,
like you just look at that state of the Union
and like he handled himself perfectly well and not only
have himself well, like you know, like it feels me
like after delivering an hour and a half speech, i'd say,
(08:26):
you know, time for a nap, and he spent like
another hour and a half just like hob nobbing with
the senators and members of Congress. To me, just feels
like a media thing more than anything else. I mean,
I will say, like, yeah, I'm not sure if there's
there's a groundswell of love for Biden as whatever, but
what you described as a genius is the fact that
he's very attuned to the party and he knows, you know,
(08:48):
where the party is at any given moment. As such,
he seems like a perfectly fine leader. Like I don't know,
I find all this stuff very hard to take seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This friend of mine was like, and Democrats have no
band because there's a lot of I don't know if
you know this about the Democratic Party, but it tends
to be a party that enjoys wringing its hands. Yeah,
(09:08):
the whole bench thing. I don't even know if that's
like true. I can think of quite a few people,
you know, starting with Whitmer, but a lot of the
candidates that ran in against Biden and lost, but you know,
did the very interesting things. You know, there's people I
don't even like, like Pete Buda Judge, but who seemed
to have like strong support among at least some faction
(09:30):
of the party. And the other thing is things are
so polarized that the thing with the Democrats is that
they will coal us around whoever the party leader is,
and the party leaders right now Biden, but whoever gets
the nomination, people coal ess around because the alternative is
like Trump or dissentist. So for both parties, I think
what we see is that like, look at all the
(09:51):
problems Trump had and all the flaws, and all the
people have to kind of hold their nose. But at
the end of the day, you know, when you're a
jet care jet all the way, m m m m, Yes,
when you're a jet you're a jet all the way.
I also think that we find ourselves in a world
where we have Nicky Haley just jumped into the race.
(10:14):
Actually got a d M from someone today that was like,
can you talk about Nicki Haley's candidacy. Okay, let's talk
Nicki Haley's candidacy. I feel like it's the perfect it's
like the perfect candidacy for UM two thousand and three. Yeah, no,
I I think that's right. Yeah. And Neil Haley can
(10:35):
run on some substantial things. She was a governor of
you know, South Carolina, and actually as governor a little
bit more moderate than what would expect from a Southern Democrat.
But having said that, I mean, what if you have
to look at what she's running on. She's running on
I will be your person of color friend, she said,
you know, like racism is in public in America, like
look at me. And Republicans love that sort of candidate,
(10:59):
but have ever like nominated them on a presidential level.
Every primary season you see someone who runs on that
is Herman Kane, Dr Vent Carson, you know again, who
had like even more than very impressive biography, impressive the year,
but I mean the whole point is like like the
idea that we know we're not racist, and then these
(11:20):
kind of specifically run on that, Yeah, it doesn't racism
doesn't exist. Is that? Yeah? Yeah, you know, like that's
an appealing message for a certain type of Republican But
in each of these cases, these are kind of who
often enjoy a bubble of support. All it took was
Trump to start talking about Ben Carson might have life
to somebody and was a very dangerous guy, and he
(11:42):
pulled it. He pulled it very quickly. And I you know,
like I'm just you know, speaking as a seek, I'm
not looking forward to whatever ethnic nickname that Donald Trump
comes up with, Nicky Healey. I can imagine several of them.
So that's a niche she's trying to fail. I think
it's a limited niche, and we've we've already seen that
at to the extent. Yeah, I mean, she's a kind
of Jeb Bush. You know that that faction of the party,
(12:05):
which we've already seen is weak. I don't see a future.
We would not be so worried about the Republican Party
if it were the kind of Republican party that nominated
Nicki Halett. That's right. The thing is, even if it
nominated her, she'd be then come under all the pressures
and we already see this like to actually get where
she wants to be. Her first campaign event was with
(12:28):
this preacher Haiggy, who's like, you know, like a really
awful like anti Semite and Bigett who said like all
the terrible things that that sort of fundamental licenseys. So,
I mean, the whole pitch would be that she can
appeal to more moderates when she gets the domination. But
to get to the nomination, she's gonna already you know,
she's already made all these compromises and she's not going
(12:51):
to get the domination. So so so I think the
whole thing is a fiasco from start to finish. Yeah,
it's a fiasco. And the other thing is that Trump
has has ruined any normal There's like one and again
normal needs to be in quotes because she's not particularly normal.
But there's like one Republican presidential candidate who hasn't been
(13:13):
completely sullied by the everything Trump touches dies law of physics,
and that is Liz Chaining. Yeah that's right, that's right, Yeah,
I know, who will not also get the nomination. If
she runs right, there's no world and when she she
couldn't even win her seat, you know, I mean, unless
there's something where the Santis and Trump cancel each other out.
(13:36):
But I just don't even see that. Trump is already
called to meet ball Ron. Yeah, no, no, I I
think that's right outside with NICKI I'll make a prediction
she won't even get enough votes that Trump will feel
the need to come up with a nickname for her.
Oh that makes me slightly sad. Yeah, so she won't
even get a nickname out of this. Yeah, that is
(13:57):
the worst possible. If you can't even get nickname, then
you have a lot of trouble. What else are you
seeing in our political landscape? Right now? Biden is going
to talk about the aliens today, Republicans continue to desperately
try to make content for Fox News. Is there anything
else on your landscape? Well? Yeah, I think we should
(14:19):
mention like the situation in Ohio with the train rack
and well, first of all, the sort of really terrible
exploitation of this by Republicans who are doing two kinds
of things, one of which is to make this into
a white genocide narrative, saying like well, nobody's covering this,
and they're covering stuff up because it's white, working class
Trump supporters. I'll say the politics of this, which is
(14:41):
I think that this has led there's a certain class
of democratic pundits and commentators and online personalities who have
decided to respond to this by simply saying, well, there's
nothing to see here, you know, like this is unfair
to pee Buddha judge and there's not much he could
do anyways. And I obviously think that's the wrong approach.
(15:02):
I mean, they're real issues with train safety, with deregulation,
with the fact that you know, like this company is
behaving terrible. I mean they offered, you know, like five
thousand people, they offered twenty five dollars, which is five
dollars per resident who are being evacuated. And there's much
more that could be done and should be done. And
I think the more proper approach we're seeing this from
Shared Brown and but also from Eliane Omar, is to
(15:25):
call for congressional investigations to look into this, because, I mean,
on the one hand, one shouldn't engage in fearmongering. On
the other hand, this is an environmental disaster already, like
you know, the water is being affected in animal life
is being affected. And I don't think that one should
simply take the word of the company that causes disaster
that all is Hunky Dorrian. Right, Yes, those are not
(15:47):
the people to go to. Yes, yeah, trains like they're
virtual monopoly, like you can't actually have competing train lines,
and so therefore they have to be regulated. And there's
a real issue. And I think Trump has a lot
blame here, but not just Trump in terms of like
how the training industrsement de regulate it is. So I
honestly think that this is a political issue. And rather
(16:09):
than you know, like having you know, you put your
head in the sand and say nothing's going wrong, I
think that's going to feed this sort of you know,
very racist Republican exploitation of this. Yeah, I think the
elian Omar approach, the shared Brown approach, is the right one. Right. No, No, Look,
this is a major environmental catastrophe caused by stock by
(16:30):
backs and a lack of people listening to unions very
much things that liberals believe in. This should be something
we are all talking about as much as possible. And
the reality is Biden is a president of everyone, whether
or not they voted for him, and that's an incredibly
important data point. But thank you so much. The time
(16:53):
has already gone by, and it went by quickly. Here
Congresswoman Katie Border represents California's district and is a candidate
for the Senate. Welcome too fast, politics, Katie Border. Thank you,
nice to be back. Why are you the best woman
for the job? So I think I'm the best person
(17:15):
for the job, I want to say, um, although I
do think it's really important that we continue to try
to achieve a balance of men and women in politics.
We know that organizations that have women in leadership about
perform organizations that underrepresent women. So the Senate is no
exception to that. But I think that, you know, what
I can really bring to this race is, as a
(17:37):
relative newcomer to politics, is a real sense of what
we need to do in the next two to ten
years to build that durable majority. I want Democrats to
win this cycle, but I want them to win the
cycle after that and the cycle after that, which means
that we have a politics that really speaks to what
voters are worried about in the future, whether that's climate
(17:58):
or housing or leaning up government. So I want to
ask you, you come from a purple state. It became redistricted,
it became more rad you won by three points. You
become sort of a really good example of a Democrat
who can win in a difficult district, which is again
unusual because of the way the Congress is made up.
(18:21):
Why are you the right person to win a primary
in a very blue state. Yeah, So I represent a
purple district in Orange County, and with redistricting, have now
represented about a third to a half of Orange County,
which is very purple. But I think what I've learned
from that is how to get voters to see that
you're fighting for them in Washington, and that is something
(18:44):
that I think all voters want across the ideological spectrum.
So in Orange County, I focus on making sure that
I am standing up to the bad guys in Washington.
Sometimes that is Trump Republicans, make no mistake. But sometimes
it's a corrupt e O who isn't delivering for his
customers or his employees. Sometimes that's a government official who
(19:06):
just won't pick up the tools that he has and
do a better job for the American people. And so
I think one of the things that can offer in
this race is I know how to win in tough districts,
and we have tough districts in California, and we have
a lot of them, as you mentioned, Molly, across the
United States. So I think California needs someone who can
be a political leader helping us win and get rid
(19:29):
of the California Republicans who are failing California. But also
somebody think the country needs California to have a Senator
that can go on the road and get out in
every part in pocket of this country and be able
to connect with voters. That's how we're going to hold
this House and the Senate for generations to come. This
is obviously, I mean, I think you've done a really
good job in Congress and you've become a star there.
(19:51):
I'm curious what is motivating you to go to the Senate. Well,
you know, I think the Senate has long been perceived
to be the kind of last line of defense for America,
for our economy, for our rights, for our democracy, and
I think that it's that's really at peril. And I
think we in my time in the House, most of
that time the first four years my first two terms,
(20:14):
we had a Senate that failed to step up, who
hid behind the filibuster UM, senators who often cited more
often with Republicans than with Democrats, or were unwilling to
kind of get in the fight and stand up to
corporate power. And so I think that you know the
class that I was elected with in folks who were
who ran to kind of stand up to Trump and
(20:34):
bring new energy to Congress, You're seeing lots of us
look to take that same energy and help spread it
throughout politics. So I have candidates colleagues who have gone
into the administration, like Dev Holland, UM. I have candidates
who have gone into becoming lieutenant governors UM. And I
think you're seeing some of us run for the Senate.
And I think that's good that we are bringing that
(20:54):
at that energy and that perspective on what needs to
change in Washington to every all that for kinds of
institutions that make up our government. Elizabeth Warren was your
law professor. You're very influenced by her. Anyone who's watched
to do question and knows that what are other ways
that you might be more progressive than people now? Yeah,
And I think what I've learned from Elizabeth Warren Um
(21:16):
watching her and working with her for years um as
a law professor before I ran for Congress. UM. I
guess that was it. Two things come to mind. One
is that she is a teacher, and so am I.
And her ability to talk about issues in a way
that invites people into the conversation. She's been her career
before she became a politician, making it easier for people
(21:39):
to understand the law, making it easier for them to
understand how the economy works and whether it's working for them.
And I really try to do that. I try and
my questioning and speeches I give, and my social media
to give Americans information to teach them, because then they
can pick up the tools of democracy and make their
voices heard, whether that's voting or call in their senator
(22:00):
or representative. I think the other thing that Elizabeth and
I share is a real commitment to understanding the importance
of a strong and stable, globally competitive economy. We have
both seen in our personal lives as well as in
our professional lives what happens when the economy fails. It's
not just as President Trump obsessed about the stock market
(22:22):
going down it's people who are out of work, it's
kids who are going hungry, it's families that are losing
their houses, it's it's a whole generation of folks who
are being held back from having a secure retirement. And
so I grew up in Iowa during the farm crisis,
the watch families get more closed on around me. And
then when I got to California, my entrance into public
(22:44):
service was then Attorney General now Vice President Kamala Harris
asking me to hold the bank's feet to the fire
on stopping cheating people out of their homes, on actually
making them follow the law and hold them to the
terms of the deal that they had signed. And so
in doing that, I got the chance to travel the
state of California and talk to people and see firsthand,
(23:05):
especially in a state where home ownership is such a
challenge for people, how terrible the consequences are of allowing
big corporations to cheat and to rig the economy in
their favor. And so I'm a strong proponent of capitalism.
But to have capitalism, you have to have competition and
consumer protection, investor protection, consumer choice, price transparency. And when
(23:28):
we don't have those things, we have to be willing
to challenge corporations and change the rules to deliver that.
So would you change the filibuster? Yes, absolutely, Look, the
filibuster is not functioning to protect democracy. It's functioning to
protect the rear end of senators who don't want to
take a vote on tough issues, and so it's actually antidemocratic.
(23:51):
The whole point of the filibuster, remember, besides it's deep
and racist history, and for that I recommend people read
Adam Gentilesen's book. But the whole of the filibuster in
theory today is to protect the rights of the party
in the minority. It's just a rule of procedure, no
different than a rule that says you have to raise
your hand before you can be recognized. But when that
(24:13):
rule isn't working, and instead of protecting the minority, it's
allowing the work of the Senate to come to a
complete halt, I mean, depriving the American people of knowing
where their senators stand on issues. Than it is failing
our democracy, and we should get rid of it and
substitute other ways to protect the party in the minority
(24:33):
and make sure that they're able to be heard. We
have tools to do that, in the House, and they
work very very well. They're just not the filibuster, and
the filibuster isn't working as a rule of procedure, and
we shouldn't elevate it to anything more or less than
what it is a rule, a rule that can be changed.
I want to push you here. The California historically kind
of elects the most left candidate in the primary. Talk
(24:56):
to me about the lefty bona fide is you have. Well, Look,
I started into politics, and from the get go I
ran a little bit differently. I didn't take corporate pack money.
I'm one of four members of the House of Representatives,
four out of four thirty five who don't take federal
lobbyist money. Despite those things, I was the second highest
(25:17):
fundraiser in the House slash cycle, behind only Kevin McCarthy,
who does take pac money. Of course, he takes every
count of money. You can raise the resources you need
to win the toughest, most expensive races in the country
without being behold into big corporations. And I'm proof of that.
And so I think that really matters to progressives. Um,
(25:39):
we need people to believe that we're fighting for them,
and I have shown that and I show that not
just in my words, but in my actions and in
my decisions and the consistency of votes. I've also been
in leadership in the House Progressive Caucus. I was elected
by by colleagues to have the number two role, the
deputy chair representative from Illegia Pol last Congress, and in
(26:00):
that role, I work closely with Caromela on trying to
build progressive power, but also get a lot of our
colleagues to see that the issues that progressives the Progressive
Caucus was fighting for, issues like affordable childcare and investments
in housing, actually have the support of the vast majority
of Americans, and also to highlight for people you can
(26:23):
be a strong progressive and win tough races, and I
that's exactly what I've done three times here in Range County.
And so I think when I'm in the Senate race,
I think I have the ability to both know how
to talk to independence and persuadable Republicans, whatever portion of
Republicans that is, and get them on board. And I've
(26:43):
had to do that to win every time. And at
the same time, I ran in two seventeen, when I
first launched my campaign on things like Medicare for All
and the Green New Deal. I ran as an unabashed
progressive and I have stayed that way. And I think
that consistency of values is something that should give people
comp and instant as I'm campaigning, when they asked me
a question and I give them an answer, they can
(27:04):
they can count on that. So I have to ask
you about the staffing thing. You know, there's been accusations
that you were not a nice boss. Have you been
able to sort of quell this? Yeah, I am a
terrific staff and there's no way that you can do
this job without them. We are a team, and we
are in partnership, and we count on each other. And
(27:26):
that means sometimes they say to me, you let me down,
and I told you to give this speech, or what
happened to my third paragraph? And and sometimes I say
to them, what are we That third paragraph didn't seem
to fit with the rest of the speech. What are
we gonna do? But I'm really proud of my staff.
I'm proud that I have promoted from within several times,
that my district director, for example, started out as an
(27:47):
intern in my staff. I'm proud that, you know, my
communications director has been with me from day one. I
have seen him grow and he has seen me grow,
and that is an amazing relationship to have. I expect
a lot of my stuff. I looked the expect a
lot of myself, but I don't think the American people
deserve any less. With regard to the most recent stuffer,
(28:07):
the recent stuffer who has said that I wasn't treating
her fairly, I will say three things. One, I consulted
with house employment counsel about what to do when she
broke our office policy with regard to COVID safety. Too,
I have a duty to protect the people who work
in my office. If someone isn't following office policy with
regard to security, or ethics or COVID, they are putting
(28:31):
all of us, including constituents who might come into the office,
at risk. So I have to think about my obligations
as an employer and as a representative to keep people safe.
And the third thing is I'm grateful that she was
able to finish out her term. She worked two years
for me as a wounded warrior fellow, and I was
really grateful to have her contributions in the office, and
I wish her well in her new endeavor. Where are
(28:53):
you on congressional staff unionise saying, oh, I'm in support
of that, and I think we've seen some offices trying
to unionize. I think the republic things are taking in
with that. But I think it's really really important. Look,
I don't think this is a tough one. Every worker
should be free to organize and decide to join the union.
That that is a core principle. I think President Buying
here has the exactly is exactly right. You would say
(29:15):
I'm a union guy, I would say I'm a union gal. Yeah,
I think that's definitely true. We are having a lot
of transit issues. The train collision, we had a bunch
of nearer misses with aviation. What do you think should
happen here? I mean, some of this is because of
corporate buybacks, especially when it comes to and when you're
(29:35):
talking about unions, I'm thinking about the the train workers
who fought and fought to try to prevent this train
accident from happening, and we're warning us about it. What
do you think needs to happen here? There's a fundamental
problem I think with this. Well, Look, I think what
we see in transit is emblematic of what we're seeing
in several other industries right now, which is the consequences
(29:58):
of years of deregulation and Washington kind of giving corporations
what they want and how telling to them. Um and
so I think what those what this works out in
is in transit is these folks have lobbied and bought
and paid for sometimes bills that deregulate the industry, that
take away safety protections, that limit the resources of regulators
(30:22):
to do their jobs keeping us safe. I think the
union busting and anti union activity that we've seen in
transits also a factor. So I think when you decade
after decade, each of these things is well, is just
a little bit to help the business, is just a
little bit to make it easier to do business. But
when you pile those things up and nobody is willing
to stand up the corporate power, at the end of
(30:44):
the day, you have corporations that are putting profit ahead
of their core business mission, in this case, to get
people from our goods from point A to point me safely.
That's your job. If you're an airline, that's your job.
If you're a trucking company, that's your job. If you're
a train along the way. We want you to make
money and be able to contribute to our economy. But
(31:06):
they are more focused on making money for themselves, on
lighting the pockets of their executives and their shareholders, than
they are on executing their core business models successfully. And
I think there is a role for greater federal regulation here.
I think we need to make sure that our cabinet secretaries,
all of them in every department, are willing to stand
up to those that they're regulating. I think we've seen
(31:28):
great leadership at the Federal Trade Commission and with regard
to antitrust on this front, and I think we need
to keep pushing President Biden, who has shown a real
willingness to stand up for workers and stand up for consumers,
to make sure his cabinet in every department is doing
the same thing. I have one more question with the
environmental impact in Ohio terrible right, What comes next? It
(31:49):
just seems to terrifying. Well, I think one of the
really important things is that our government officials need to
be on the ground making their own assessment. We cannot take,
as we often have in these situations, the corporation's talking
points switch out the head or on the paper and
speaks out the letterhead and then make them the government
talking points. The American people and especially the people living
(32:13):
in East Palestine need to know that they are safe.
They need independent verification and testing, and we need to
not take the fact that we're not finding harms today
as a guarantee that there won't be long term harms.
We have to have to learn the lessons of environmental
justice and the lessons of pollution from our past, and
(32:34):
we can't keep repeating the same thing because it's simply expedient.
For those whose campaigns are funded by the railroad of hand,
we have to hold them accountable and the government has
to be a trusted partner in delivering that safety information.
Katie Porter, thank you so much for joining us my pleasure.
I know you, our dear listeners, are very busy and
(32:55):
you don't have time to sort through the hundreds of
pieces of pundentry each week. This is why every week
I put together a newsletter of my five favorite articles
on politics. If you enjoy the podcast, you will love
having this in your inbox every Friday. So sign up
at Fast Politics pod dot com and click the tab
(33:16):
to join our mailing list. That's Fast Politics pod dot com.
Ben Schiller is the managing editor of Coin Desk. Welcome
to Fast Politics, Ben. It seems like this is not
crypto's greatest moment. It would certainly not be crypto's greatest moments.
Definitely having a tough time, and that's coming from the
(33:39):
pullout from the FTX scandal, which was a forty billion
dollar implosion, and it's coming on the back of a
lot of big claims of the industry mate in Washington,
d C. Which has turned out not to be true.
And it's really a reckoning moment for crypto in the
capital now. So we are about to go into a
week of crypto. Crypto meats government exactly. Yeah. I mean,
(34:01):
legislators are lining up to crack down on the industry,
and I have a lot of hearings, particularly from the
Senate Banking Committee, and then there's a lot of action
on the kind of regulatory front with the SEC of particular,
So Gary Gainslow, who's the chair of the SEC, is
under a lot of pressure from legislators to really come
down hard on the industry. For various reasons. A lot
of industries have a partisan like Republicans have oil and
(34:24):
gas but in this I think both sides are very
piste off crypto, right, Yeah, I mean I would argue
that they're really taking it personally. So I mean, just
to backtrack a little bit, I mean, for a long time,
you could have been around since the invention of bitcoin,
which is about twelve years ago, and for maybe ten
of those years it wasn't really taken seriously in d C.
And then last year there was a massive full run
(34:46):
and there was a lot of money flowing around, and
crypto really started to get some traction with members of Congress,
and there was sort of talk of favorable legislation, you know,
the packs formed, and particularly there are a lot of
donations flowing around, particularly from SBF or san Band Freed,
who was the CEO and founder of f t X.
Him and his colleague gave money to up to a
third of Congress, So I mean, you know, hundreds and
(35:08):
hundreds of people. So when the ft X folded in
this kind of very dramatic way, I think there was
a kind of a loss of faith both in him obviously,
but also in the industry in general, because a lot
of things he'd been saying, and he was a charming guy,
had this kind of tousel head, kind of young princely image,
you know, when they when he turned out to be
a charlatan, I think they really took it personally and
(35:29):
there had no reason then to really be the champion
of the industry. And that's what we're seeing now is
kind of blowback. But didn't SPF actually give money Republicans too? Absolutely,
it was it was an equal handed operation. I mean
he joined the Biden election, and you know, the first
Biden election he gave very heavily to Democrats, but when
it came to the last two years, he was giving
even handily to to both sides. Yeah. So it actually
(35:53):
the idea that he's some kind of that this is
a partisan crime is really not accurate, not at all.
I mean, I think his personal leanings are definitely to
the left, but in terms of building up his political
capital in Washington, he was definitely giving to everybody. There's
more than just SPF. That is a problem problem. Yeah.
(36:14):
I mean, the the legislators and particularly SEC are going
after all aspects of crypto. I mean, I don't want
to get too into the weeds on this program, but
you know, there was a big enforcement action from the
SECC this week coming down on a company called Kraken,
which is a leading exchange regarding its staking service, which
sounds a bit sort of in the weeds, but it's
a big deal for crypto because that's a big source
(36:36):
of revenue and a big What is staking staking is
when you take your bitcoin or another coin and you
give it to a company like cracking, and then they
give you a return on that money. So it's basically
a form of collateralization in the same way that you
would give money to a bank and they would give
you an interest rate. And what is wrong with their
staking service, Well, this goes back to what Gary Ginster
(36:57):
has been saying about crypto all along. If you want
have been listening, which is that you know, when you
issue a coin and you have an expectation or give
the other party an expectation of a return on that coin,
then you can reasonably expect that asset to be called
a security. And this is what the argument has been
about all along, where Gary Gains has been saying that
(37:20):
all tokens are basically securities, and the industry has not
wanted to really believe him or really go along with
the logic of that. So you know, they've been operating
as if these assets are not securities, and Gary Ginsler
has secretly or not so secretly been thinking they have
been securities. But what about candidates Like in Yomy we
(37:41):
have Cynthia Loomis, who has been very big on crypto.
In Miami we have the Miami mayor who is a
slightly lefty Republican and he went big on crypto. I mean,
did these people and also like all this clebrities who
did crypto ads, Like, is there any kind of like
(38:04):
regulatory problems for these people? Do does anyone have to
pay a fine? I mean not that I know, I've know.
I mean most of these people have. They've taken money
from SPF for or some other discredited crypto person, have
given the money back, or they've given them the money
away to somebody else. That's the only penalty that they faced.
Do you think that people have not been hard enough
on like this? You know, like think about like last
(38:26):
year's Super Bowl was almost all crypto ads and celebrities
got millions and millions of dollars, and even like all
the n f T stuff that is connected to crypto
that also is a huge payday for celebrities like Onwyneth Paltrow.
I mean, do you think that there's been enough reporting
on just the kind of how unfair that was and
(38:47):
how misled a lot of people were, or do you
think we'll generally not and just going back to ft
X again. I mean, he had a number of celebrity endorses.
Larry David, for instance, did a big Super Bowl ad
last year, and of those people have gotten into trouble
for taking all of that money. I don't believe they're
even party to the bankruptcy proceedings that are going on now.
(39:08):
It's noting like people are trying to plow that money back,
so they've got a free reign. I mean, the only
example really of a celebrity who has gotten to trouble
is Kim Kardashian. So the SEC made a big kind
of scapegoating moment out of going after her for pitching
a a nonsense coin, what we call in the industry
a ship coin called ethery and Max, where she basically
(39:32):
went on her Instagram and and said this was this
was the greatest project ever. And the SEC went after
that for basically an illegal activity, and they used her
celebrity against her, and as a sort of an example
for others not to follow, you know going forward. That's
really interesting. What else you seeing a coin desk right
now in the industry itself, which is what we cover,
(39:52):
you know, and we broke the the spf ft X story,
So we're kind of seeing both sides of it. On
the one hand, you know, this is a reckoning moment.
On the other hand, you know a lot of people
in the industry are not really getting it. So I
think there's still that argument to play out now. So um,
you know, the industry would argue that the sec has
(40:13):
not been clear in what is and what isn't legal,
and it's now being rather sort of capricious and arbitrary
and enforcing traditional securities laws. On the other hand, I
think most people would say, most reasonable people would say,
you know, the the industry has been living under kind
of a wishful thinking and imagining that they're different from
the rest of the financial system when they're really not.
(40:35):
And uh, you know, Gary Gansler has been saying for years,
as I said that, you know, most tokens are securities,
and the lawyers working for these companies have not wanted
to really listen to that message. And they've been telling
their clients, these companies that they can go and do
lots and lots of kind of exotic things when you
know there was no kind of legal basis for that.
So I think we're seeing a process of innovation, sometimes
(40:58):
you know, worthy and often not worthy, really catching up
with the law, and regulators starting to really do what
they've say they're going to do in principle actually an actuality.
So I think, as I say, it's it's a reckoning moment,
and it's going to be interesting to see how this
plays out because there are a lot of big fish
in this industry that haven't faced any regulatory action in
the past who are now likely to face it. So
(41:21):
it's a it's a big moment. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean,
doesn't it seem like bitcoin is still kind of overvalued, Well,
it depends how you look at it, I guess. You know,
it's been an argument about how you value bitcoin for
for years and years and what sort of role it
actually plays, and there's an argument there. I mean, on
the plus side, you know, it does have millions and
millions of people out there who really believe in the
(41:42):
project and really are invested in it, not only financially,
but in terms of its values and in terms of
its kind of bigger message and that kind of ideas
that it kind of holds onto. On the other hand,
it's made some claims about being a source of value
in in inflationary times hedge against inflation, which really hasn't
proven true. It's made some claims about being a currency
(42:04):
on the Internet, which isn't really true. And so I
can kind of see it both ways. On the one hand,
you could say, well, there's an enormous community and that
community equals something important on the Internet. On the other hand,
you can say, well, it's made these big claims and
it hasn't really fulfilled them. So you know, it's kind
of an argument now about whether Bitcoin is going to
remain the pre eminent cryptocurrency or whether some other, more nimble,
(42:26):
more technologically advanced projects will really begin to take over.
And that's particularly ethereum, but not only ethereum Um, and
that that argument is very much so sort of taking
shape now, and it's both an ideological argument and it's
also a practical sort of technological and financial argument. Jesus,
what an interesting and strange time we live in. What
(42:49):
would be an exchange that would seem better, you know,
would that be a theoryum? I mean what coin would
be more stable than Bitcoin? Well, I mean none of
them are particularly stable and less you include what are
called stable coins, which are expressly designed to be stable,
i to to not fluctuate in price. And that's always
been a problem with Bitcoin as a currency. It's it
(43:10):
goes up and down too much to be um something
you would actually want to use in a store, because
you know, if it's going up, then you don't wanna,
you know, spend it, because then you're losing the potential upside.
The industry came up with these this idea of stable coins,
which are sort of mediums of exchange which retain their value.
But now even though stable coins are now under trouble,
(43:31):
you know, in trouble legally and in terms of regulation.
And just this week a stable coin project called pack Sauce,
which is based here in New York, was forced to
stop issuing a stable coin on behalf of a very
big crypto company called finance. It's called be USD. That's
also seen as rather foreboding for the market because if
the stable coins, which are supposedly stable are also going
(43:54):
to full foul of the law, then that could really be,
you know, an existential threat to the industry going forward,
because if you don't have stable coins, and you don't
have big companies like FTX, and you have these other
issues that the industry is facing, then what do you have?
And that might be good for bitcoin because bitcoin is
a sort of unmediated project. That's kind of the whole
(44:16):
point of it. It kind of ticks on in the background.
It doesn't need any kind of CEO or any management,
and that can be good in a time when crypto
or other aspects of crypto are relying on intermediaries for
its well being. So that might actually be good for
bitcoin in the long term. Well, a little bit of
good news for bitcoin. Uman, you so much for joining us.
I hope you'll come back. Thanks very much, money if
(44:37):
it's a pleasure. Jesse Cannon, Molly John Fast. We've all
been waiting for Fatty Willis to head it down, and
it's here. I know you'll be shocked to hear this.
She thinks there may be some lying liars who lie
in Trump World. Congratulation to all involved. That's it for
(45:03):
this episode of 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. H
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 it seems like the aliens won't
be rescuing us from the Republican Party yet. We have
a fantastic show. Today. Representative Katie Porter will make her
case on why she is the candidate who should have
(00:21):
your support in her run for the California Senate. Then
we'll talk to coin desks Ben Schiller about the latest
news in crypto. But first we have the host of
the Time of Monsters, the Nation's GT here. Welcome to
Fast Politics. GT Here. It's always good to be here.
(00:41):
You're a fan favorite and I'm so delighted to have
you here. I wanted to talk to you first about aliens.
They're real and they're mad. He would be very ironic
if the end of the human species came a vote,
because the Republican has decided to make a big stink
(01:02):
about Chinese weather balloon that went off track, and this
led Biden and Justin Trudeau to lons of war against
space aliens, and they retaliated by just bring the planet that.
I have to admit that's something I'm hoping for. But
that would be a funny turn of events. I see
this as like a way it could go down. So
I want to talk to you about the aliens and
(01:22):
the space blends. No, I actually want to talk to
you about what's really going on in life, which is
and not even life politics, because we know that's really
not life. Here we are, we are in this crazy
period in American life, the run up to the twenty
four election, which basically starts the day after the midterms
are over. I don't know if you read Political Playbook
(01:44):
this morning. I did. Republicans are embracing authoritarianism like you
can't fucking believe. Discuss yeah, I know. I mean if
you look at the true front runners are you know,
Donald Trump, who's like calling for a firing squads against
criminals and basically following the path of direct he in
(02:05):
the Philippines, and Rhonda Santis, who's offering a kind of
you know, while I'm the competent Trump put the fun
and fascism, Yeah, really take books out of your libraries
and smash teachers and make life very painful for LGBT people.
I mean, like obviously, yeah, I mean the two front
runners are both offering a form of authoritarianism. Yeah, so,
(02:27):
I mean, and then it's clear that's where the party wants.
And it's interesting why the party elite has settled on
the Santis, like they really seem to think he's their
answer to Trump. And it's because they understandand that their
base wants some sort of strong man who's very cruel
and punishes the enemies, and they think that the Santis
(02:48):
can offer that and also be a little bit more
stable or a little bit more pliable than Trump. Not
a good situation, yeah, I mean, I just wrote a
piece about this, that the Santis is really being covered
as a normal Republican candidate when he's really not. Yeah,
I know, there's all sorts of efforts to normalize him,
and it's coming from both he has a lot of
(03:09):
like what I would call the institution of Republicans and
the mainstream people National Review, Fox News. But also, and
I think it's very crucial, a lot of centrist people
who aren't wouldn't say they're Republicans, but they want that
kind of what they see as a return to normality.
So they want a Republican party they think they can
work with, and they are also really whitewashing descentists, and
(03:31):
I see that. I think you can see that a
lot of the coverage of descentists in the mainstream press.
I'll just reference Pamela Paul We can talk about for
a number of reasons, but he just had a before
her latest terrible column in defense of J. K. Rowling,
she had another terrible column. You know what liberals can
learn from Rhonda Santis basically whitewashing his reputation. I think
(03:54):
there's a you know, because people who have like a
kind of really personal view of politics and see Trump
has being bad because he's a vulgar criminal, all right,
and not because he ignores democracy, not because of his policies. Yeah,
they're all settling on you know, Ronda Santis, and as
I said, that doesn't extends well outside of the mainstream establishment. Republicans'
(04:19):
is a real effort. I mean, honestly, I'm not I
could work. I don't know, I don't I don't know
if de Santis has the juice. I think that if
you're really into meat, why would you take like a
veggie burger when you could get the real meat? You know,
like Trump is out there, you know, calling for people
to be executed by firing squad. Why would you? And
you see this in the fact that like none of
(04:40):
the so called challengers that Trump are willing to take
him on like that. You ask like de Santis or
Nicky Haley about Trump and they'll say, well, you know,
like he was a great president and he's very badly
treated and I don't want to fight another Republican. And
then you have Trump going like meat fall Ron to
(05:02):
all of my Italian American friends, nothing but respect. And
I understand the offensiveness of this, but it is also
very funny. Yeah, no, no, I mean the man is
very good and what he does when it comes to nicknames.
He is bad and evil when it comes to everything else. Sure, yeah,
but but the nicknames, I mean like the power dynamic, right,
(05:25):
like and think about it in school. Who has the power?
It's the bully that can, like you know, impose nicknames
on people. And who is like, you know, the second
in command. It's the people who allow themselves to be
nicknamed and bullied. And you know we see that like
with Trump Ley not to the meat fall the Santas.
But you know, like you know, yes, this is you know,
rufically racist attacks on Mitch mcconnald's wife. McConnell is like, well,
(05:49):
you know, I think we should be talking about the
issues that matter to the American public, like and then
going back to like Trump's attacks on Ted Cruise's wife,
like the purpose of these attacks the show Who's boss
and who cowers and lives in fear? And I have
to say, you know, you're looking at the Replican primary
so far, like you know, neither the Sentist nor Haley
(06:11):
nor Pence, you know who like Trumps like basically inside
of the Bob to kill, like none of them are
willing to, like, you know, like say anything deeply critical
of Trump. Yeah, exactly. And I mean I think that
if we find ourselves in this insane position right where
you have these Republicans who are completely terrified of Trump
(06:34):
because they don't want me and tweets, I want to
go back to this uh pla book issue that I
read this morning newsletter, um, where they were, you know,
quietly Democrats wonder if Joe Biden is too old. And
someone sent this to me, Someone in the business sent
me this and was like, oh my god, Democrats don't
have a base. What are we? What are we? What
(06:56):
are Democrats going to do? Oh my god, Oh my god,
I'm god. And I thought about this for a minute.
And look, one of Joe Biden's great genius things is
that at every point people have been like, but you know, ultimately,
and again at every point people have been like, but
ultimately he won the mid terms, and he had like
(07:20):
brilliant political instincts, right, he went against he said Republicans
are against democracy, and he went and gave all these
speeches and the mainstream media was like, man, who cares?
And it was the winning issue for him. Yeah, No,
that's right. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I can't think
any of these things. Seriously, there's no one of any
statue in the Democratic Party who's going to challenge Joe
(07:41):
Biden in the primaries. You know, I've done a little
bit of partying on this myself, and there's a lot
of other people have done more reporting. And so who
are these Democrats that don't want Joe Biden to run again?
If no one is going to challenge him in the primaries.
But beyond that, I mean, like he has been a
very successful president and especially the mid years. I mean basically, like,
you know, the best kind of midterms for the Democrats
(08:05):
going back, depending on how you look at it, either
to nineteen sixty two or really to like nineteen thirty four.
So and beyond that, I mean, I think that they're real,
you know, the whole age issue. I mean, like, you know,
like you just look at that state of the Union
and like he handled himself perfectly well and not only
have himself well, like you know, like it feels me
like after delivering an hour and a half speech, i'd say,
(08:26):
you know, time for a nap, and he spent like
another hour and a half just like hob nobbing with
the senators and members of Congress. To me, just feels
like a media thing more than anything else. I mean,
I will say, like, yeah, I'm not sure if there's
there's a groundswell of love for Biden as whatever, but
what you described as a genius is the fact that
he's very attuned to the party and he knows, you know,
(08:48):
where the party is at any given moment. As such,
he seems like a perfectly fine leader. Like I don't know,
I find all this stuff very hard to take seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This friend of mine was like, and Democrats have no
band because there's a lot of I don't know if
you know this about the Democratic Party, but it tends
to be a party that enjoys wringing its hands. Yeah,
(09:08):
the whole bench thing. I don't even know if that's
like true. I can think of quite a few people,
you know, starting with Whitmer, but a lot of the
candidates that ran in against Biden and lost, but you know,
did the very interesting things. You know, there's people I
don't even like, like Pete Buda Judge, but who seemed
to have like strong support among at least some faction
(09:30):
of the party. And the other thing is things are
so polarized that the thing with the Democrats is that
they will coal us around whoever the party leader is,
and the party leaders right now Biden, but whoever gets
the nomination, people coal ess around because the alternative is
like Trump or dissentist. So for both parties, I think
what we see is that like, look at all the
(09:51):
problems Trump had and all the flaws, and all the
people have to kind of hold their nose. But at
the end of the day, you know, when you're a
jet care jet all the way, m m m m, Yes,
when you're a jet you're a jet all the way.
I also think that we find ourselves in a world
where we have Nicky Haley just jumped into the race.
(10:14):
Actually got a d M from someone today that was like,
can you talk about Nicki Haley's candidacy. Okay, let's talk
Nicki Haley's candidacy. I feel like it's the perfect it's
like the perfect candidacy for UM two thousand and three. Yeah, no,
I I think that's right. Yeah. And Neil Haley can
(10:35):
run on some substantial things. She was a governor of
you know, South Carolina, and actually as governor a little
bit more moderate than what would expect from a Southern Democrat.
But having said that, I mean, what if you have
to look at what she's running on. She's running on
I will be your person of color friend, she said,
you know, like racism is in public in America, like
look at me. And Republicans love that sort of candidate,
(10:59):
but have ever like nominated them on a presidential level.
Every primary season you see someone who runs on that
is Herman Kane, Dr Vent Carson, you know again, who
had like even more than very impressive biography, impressive the year,
but I mean the whole point is like like the
idea that we know we're not racist, and then these
(11:20):
kind of specifically run on that, Yeah, it doesn't racism
doesn't exist. Is that? Yeah? Yeah, you know, like that's
an appealing message for a certain type of Republican But
in each of these cases, these are kind of who
often enjoy a bubble of support. All it took was
Trump to start talking about Ben Carson might have life
to somebody and was a very dangerous guy, and he
(11:42):
pulled it. He pulled it very quickly. And I you know,
like I'm just you know, speaking as a seek, I'm
not looking forward to whatever ethnic nickname that Donald Trump
comes up with, Nicky Healey. I can imagine several of them.
So that's a niche she's trying to fail. I think
it's a limited niche, and we've we've already seen that
at to the extent. Yeah, I mean, she's a kind
of Jeb Bush. You know that that faction of the party,
(12:05):
which we've already seen is weak. I don't see a future.
We would not be so worried about the Republican Party
if it were the kind of Republican party that nominated
Nicki Halett. That's right. The thing is, even if it
nominated her, she'd be then come under all the pressures
and we already see this like to actually get where
she wants to be. Her first campaign event was with
(12:28):
this preacher Haiggy, who's like, you know, like a really
awful like anti Semite and Bigett who said like all
the terrible things that that sort of fundamental licenseys. So,
I mean, the whole pitch would be that she can
appeal to more moderates when she gets the domination. But
to get to the nomination, she's gonna already you know,
she's already made all these compromises and she's not going
(12:51):
to get the domination. So so so I think the
whole thing is a fiasco from start to finish. Yeah,
it's a fiasco. And the other thing is that Trump
has has ruined any normal There's like one and again
normal needs to be in quotes because she's not particularly normal.
But there's like one Republican presidential candidate who hasn't been
(13:13):
completely sullied by the everything Trump touches dies law of physics,
and that is Liz Chaining. Yeah that's right, that's right, Yeah,
I know, who will not also get the nomination. If
she runs right, there's no world and when she she
couldn't even win her seat, you know, I mean, unless
there's something where the Santis and Trump cancel each other out.
(13:36):
But I just don't even see that. Trump is already
called to meet ball Ron. Yeah, no, no, I I
think that's right outside with NICKI I'll make a prediction
she won't even get enough votes that Trump will feel
the need to come up with a nickname for her.
Oh that makes me slightly sad. Yeah, so she won't
even get a nickname out of this. Yeah, that is
(13:57):
the worst possible. If you can't even get nickname, then
you have a lot of trouble. What else are you
seeing in our political landscape? Right now? Biden is going
to talk about the aliens today, Republicans continue to desperately
try to make content for Fox News. Is there anything
else on your landscape? Well? Yeah, I think we should
(14:19):
mention like the situation in Ohio with the train rack
and well, first of all, the sort of really terrible
exploitation of this by Republicans who are doing two kinds
of things, one of which is to make this into
a white genocide narrative, saying like well, nobody's covering this,
and they're covering stuff up because it's white, working class
Trump supporters. I'll say the politics of this, which is
(14:41):
I think that this has led there's a certain class
of democratic pundits and commentators and online personalities who have
decided to respond to this by simply saying, well, there's
nothing to see here, you know, like this is unfair
to pee Buddha judge and there's not much he could
do anyways. And I obviously think that's the wrong approach.
(15:02):
I mean, they're real issues with train safety, with deregulation,
with the fact that you know, like this company is
behaving terrible. I mean they offered, you know, like five
thousand people, they offered twenty five dollars, which is five
dollars per resident who are being evacuated. And there's much
more that could be done and should be done. And
I think the more proper approach we're seeing this from
Shared Brown and but also from Eliane Omar, is to
(15:25):
call for congressional investigations to look into this, because, I mean,
on the one hand, one shouldn't engage in fearmongering. On
the other hand, this is an environmental disaster already, like
you know, the water is being affected in animal life
is being affected. And I don't think that one should
simply take the word of the company that causes disaster
that all is Hunky Dorrian. Right, Yes, those are not
(15:47):
the people to go to. Yes, yeah, trains like they're
virtual monopoly, like you can't actually have competing train lines,
and so therefore they have to be regulated. And there's
a real issue. And I think Trump has a lot
blame here, but not just Trump in terms of like
how the training industrsement de regulate it is. So I
honestly think that this is a political issue. And rather
(16:09):
than you know, like having you know, you put your
head in the sand and say nothing's going wrong, I
think that's going to feed this sort of you know,
very racist Republican exploitation of this. Yeah, I think the
elian Omar approach, the shared Brown approach, is the right one. Right. No, No, Look,
this is a major environmental catastrophe caused by stock by
(16:30):
backs and a lack of people listening to unions very
much things that liberals believe in. This should be something
we are all talking about as much as possible. And
the reality is Biden is a president of everyone, whether
or not they voted for him, and that's an incredibly
important data point. But thank you so much. The time
(16:53):
has already gone by, and it went by quickly. Here
Congresswoman Katie Border represents California's district and is a candidate
for the Senate. Welcome too fast, politics, Katie Border. Thank you,
nice to be back. Why are you the best woman
for the job? So I think I'm the best person
(17:15):
for the job, I want to say, um, although I
do think it's really important that we continue to try
to achieve a balance of men and women in politics.
We know that organizations that have women in leadership about
perform organizations that underrepresent women. So the Senate is no
exception to that. But I think that, you know, what
I can really bring to this race is, as a
(17:37):
relative newcomer to politics, is a real sense of what
we need to do in the next two to ten
years to build that durable majority. I want Democrats to
win this cycle, but I want them to win the
cycle after that and the cycle after that, which means
that we have a politics that really speaks to what
voters are worried about in the future, whether that's climate
(17:58):
or housing or leaning up government. So I want to
ask you, you come from a purple state. It became redistricted,
it became more rad you won by three points. You
become sort of a really good example of a Democrat
who can win in a difficult district, which is again
unusual because of the way the Congress is made up.
(18:21):
Why are you the right person to win a primary
in a very blue state. Yeah, So I represent a
purple district in Orange County, and with redistricting, have now
represented about a third to a half of Orange County,
which is very purple. But I think what I've learned
from that is how to get voters to see that
you're fighting for them in Washington, and that is something
(18:44):
that I think all voters want across the ideological spectrum.
So in Orange County, I focus on making sure that
I am standing up to the bad guys in Washington.
Sometimes that is Trump Republicans, make no mistake. But sometimes
it's a corrupt e O who isn't delivering for his
customers or his employees. Sometimes that's a government official who
(19:06):
just won't pick up the tools that he has and
do a better job for the American people. And so
I think one of the things that can offer in
this race is I know how to win in tough districts,
and we have tough districts in California, and we have
a lot of them, as you mentioned, Molly, across the
United States. So I think California needs someone who can
be a political leader helping us win and get rid
(19:29):
of the California Republicans who are failing California. But also
somebody think the country needs California to have a Senator
that can go on the road and get out in
every part in pocket of this country and be able
to connect with voters. That's how we're going to hold
this House and the Senate for generations to come. This
is obviously, I mean, I think you've done a really
good job in Congress and you've become a star there.
(19:51):
I'm curious what is motivating you to go to the Senate. Well,
you know, I think the Senate has long been perceived
to be the kind of last line of defense for America,
for our economy, for our rights, for our democracy, and
I think that it's that's really at peril. And I
think we in my time in the House, most of
that time the first four years my first two terms,
(20:14):
we had a Senate that failed to step up, who
hid behind the filibuster UM, senators who often cited more
often with Republicans than with Democrats, or were unwilling to
kind of get in the fight and stand up to
corporate power. And so I think that you know the
class that I was elected with in folks who were
who ran to kind of stand up to Trump and
(20:34):
bring new energy to Congress, You're seeing lots of us
look to take that same energy and help spread it
throughout politics. So I have candidates colleagues who have gone
into the administration, like Dev Holland, UM. I have candidates
who have gone into becoming lieutenant governors UM. And I
think you're seeing some of us run for the Senate.
And I think that's good that we are bringing that
(20:54):
at that energy and that perspective on what needs to
change in Washington to every all that for kinds of
institutions that make up our government. Elizabeth Warren was your
law professor. You're very influenced by her. Anyone who's watched
to do question and knows that what are other ways
that you might be more progressive than people now? Yeah,
And I think what I've learned from Elizabeth Warren Um
(21:16):
watching her and working with her for years um as
a law professor before I ran for Congress. UM. I
guess that was it. Two things come to mind. One
is that she is a teacher, and so am I.
And her ability to talk about issues in a way
that invites people into the conversation. She's been her career
before she became a politician, making it easier for people
(21:39):
to understand the law, making it easier for them to
understand how the economy works and whether it's working for them.
And I really try to do that. I try and
my questioning and speeches I give, and my social media
to give Americans information to teach them, because then they
can pick up the tools of democracy and make their
voices heard, whether that's voting or call in their senator
(22:00):
or representative. I think the other thing that Elizabeth and
I share is a real commitment to understanding the importance
of a strong and stable, globally competitive economy. We have
both seen in our personal lives as well as in
our professional lives what happens when the economy fails. It's
not just as President Trump obsessed about the stock market
(22:22):
going down it's people who are out of work, it's
kids who are going hungry, it's families that are losing
their houses, it's it's a whole generation of folks who
are being held back from having a secure retirement. And
so I grew up in Iowa during the farm crisis,
the watch families get more closed on around me. And
then when I got to California, my entrance into public
(22:44):
service was then Attorney General now Vice President Kamala Harris
asking me to hold the bank's feet to the fire
on stopping cheating people out of their homes, on actually
making them follow the law and hold them to the
terms of the deal that they had signed. And so
in doing that, I got the chance to travel the
state of California and talk to people and see firsthand,
(23:05):
especially in a state where home ownership is such a
challenge for people, how terrible the consequences are of allowing
big corporations to cheat and to rig the economy in
their favor. And so I'm a strong proponent of capitalism.
But to have capitalism, you have to have competition and
consumer protection, investor protection, consumer choice, price transparency. And when
(23:28):
we don't have those things, we have to be willing
to challenge corporations and change the rules to deliver that.
So would you change the filibuster? Yes, absolutely, Look, the
filibuster is not functioning to protect democracy. It's functioning to
protect the rear end of senators who don't want to
take a vote on tough issues, and so it's actually antidemocratic.
(23:51):
The whole point of the filibuster, remember, besides it's deep
and racist history, and for that I recommend people read
Adam Gentilesen's book. But the whole of the filibuster in
theory today is to protect the rights of the party
in the minority. It's just a rule of procedure, no
different than a rule that says you have to raise
your hand before you can be recognized. But when that
(24:13):
rule isn't working, and instead of protecting the minority, it's
allowing the work of the Senate to come to a
complete halt, I mean, depriving the American people of knowing
where their senators stand on issues. Than it is failing
our democracy, and we should get rid of it and
substitute other ways to protect the party in the minority
(24:33):
and make sure that they're able to be heard. We
have tools to do that, in the House, and they
work very very well. They're just not the filibuster, and
the filibuster isn't working as a rule of procedure, and
we shouldn't elevate it to anything more or less than
what it is a rule, a rule that can be changed.
I want to push you here. The California historically kind
of elects the most left candidate in the primary. Talk
(24:56):
to me about the lefty bona fide is you have. Well, Look,
I started into politics, and from the get go I
ran a little bit differently. I didn't take corporate pack money.
I'm one of four members of the House of Representatives,
four out of four thirty five who don't take federal
lobbyist money. Despite those things, I was the second highest
(25:17):
fundraiser in the House slash cycle, behind only Kevin McCarthy,
who does take pac money. Of course, he takes every
count of money. You can raise the resources you need
to win the toughest, most expensive races in the country
without being behold into big corporations. And I'm proof of that.
And so I think that really matters to progressives. Um,
(25:39):
we need people to believe that we're fighting for them,
and I have shown that and I show that not
just in my words, but in my actions and in
my decisions and the consistency of votes. I've also been
in leadership in the House Progressive Caucus. I was elected
by by colleagues to have the number two role, the
deputy chair representative from Illegia Pol last Congress, and in
(26:00):
that role, I work closely with Caromela on trying to
build progressive power, but also get a lot of our
colleagues to see that the issues that progressives the Progressive
Caucus was fighting for, issues like affordable childcare and investments
in housing, actually have the support of the vast majority
of Americans, and also to highlight for people you can
(26:23):
be a strong progressive and win tough races, and I
that's exactly what I've done three times here in Range County.
And so I think when I'm in the Senate race,
I think I have the ability to both know how
to talk to independence and persuadable Republicans, whatever portion of
Republicans that is, and get them on board. And I've
(26:43):
had to do that to win every time. And at
the same time, I ran in two seventeen, when I
first launched my campaign on things like Medicare for All
and the Green New Deal. I ran as an unabashed
progressive and I have stayed that way. And I think
that consistency of values is something that should give people
comp and instant as I'm campaigning, when they asked me
a question and I give them an answer, they can
(27:04):
they can count on that. So I have to ask
you about the staffing thing. You know, there's been accusations
that you were not a nice boss. Have you been
able to sort of quell this? Yeah, I am a
terrific staff and there's no way that you can do
this job without them. We are a team, and we
are in partnership, and we count on each other. And
(27:26):
that means sometimes they say to me, you let me down,
and I told you to give this speech, or what
happened to my third paragraph? And and sometimes I say
to them, what are we That third paragraph didn't seem
to fit with the rest of the speech. What are
we gonna do? But I'm really proud of my staff.
I'm proud that I have promoted from within several times,
that my district director, for example, started out as an
(27:47):
intern in my staff. I'm proud that, you know, my
communications director has been with me from day one. I
have seen him grow and he has seen me grow,
and that is an amazing relationship to have. I expect
a lot of my stuff. I looked the expect a
lot of myself, but I don't think the American people
deserve any less. With regard to the most recent stuffer,
(28:07):
the recent stuffer who has said that I wasn't treating
her fairly, I will say three things. One, I consulted
with house employment counsel about what to do when she
broke our office policy with regard to COVID safety. Too,
I have a duty to protect the people who work
in my office. If someone isn't following office policy with
regard to security, or ethics or COVID, they are putting
(28:31):
all of us, including constituents who might come into the office,
at risk. So I have to think about my obligations
as an employer and as a representative to keep people safe.
And the third thing is I'm grateful that she was
able to finish out her term. She worked two years
for me as a wounded warrior fellow, and I was
really grateful to have her contributions in the office, and
I wish her well in her new endeavor. Where are
(28:53):
you on congressional staff unionise saying, oh, I'm in support
of that, and I think we've seen some offices trying
to unionize. I think the republic things are taking in
with that. But I think it's really really important. Look,
I don't think this is a tough one. Every worker
should be free to organize and decide to join the union.
That that is a core principle. I think President Buying
here has the exactly is exactly right. You would say
(29:15):
I'm a union guy, I would say I'm a union gal. Yeah,
I think that's definitely true. We are having a lot
of transit issues. The train collision, we had a bunch
of nearer misses with aviation. What do you think should
happen here? I mean, some of this is because of
corporate buybacks, especially when it comes to and when you're
(29:35):
talking about unions, I'm thinking about the the train workers
who fought and fought to try to prevent this train
accident from happening, and we're warning us about it. What
do you think needs to happen here? There's a fundamental
problem I think with this. Well, Look, I think what
we see in transit is emblematic of what we're seeing
in several other industries right now, which is the consequences
(29:58):
of years of deregulation and Washington kind of giving corporations
what they want and how telling to them. Um and
so I think what those what this works out in
is in transit is these folks have lobbied and bought
and paid for sometimes bills that deregulate the industry, that
take away safety protections, that limit the resources of regulators
(30:22):
to do their jobs keeping us safe. I think the
union busting and anti union activity that we've seen in
transits also a factor. So I think when you decade
after decade, each of these things is well, is just
a little bit to help the business, is just a
little bit to make it easier to do business. But
when you pile those things up and nobody is willing
to stand up the corporate power, at the end of
(30:44):
the day, you have corporations that are putting profit ahead
of their core business mission, in this case, to get
people from our goods from point A to point me safely.
That's your job. If you're an airline, that's your job.
If you're a trucking company, that's your job. If you're
a train along the way. We want you to make
money and be able to contribute to our economy. But
(31:06):
they are more focused on making money for themselves, on
lighting the pockets of their executives and their shareholders, than
they are on executing their core business models successfully. And
I think there is a role for greater federal regulation here.
I think we need to make sure that our cabinet secretaries,
all of them in every department, are willing to stand
up to those that they're regulating. I think we've seen
(31:28):
great leadership at the Federal Trade Commission and with regard
to antitrust on this front, and I think we need
to keep pushing President Biden, who has shown a real
willingness to stand up for workers and stand up for consumers,
to make sure his cabinet in every department is doing
the same thing. I have one more question with the
environmental impact in Ohio terrible right, What comes next? It
(31:49):
just seems to terrifying. Well, I think one of the
really important things is that our government officials need to
be on the ground making their own assessment. We cannot take,
as we often have in these situations, the corporation's talking
points switch out the head or on the paper and
speaks out the letterhead and then make them the government
talking points. The American people and especially the people living
(32:13):
in East Palestine need to know that they are safe.
They need independent verification and testing, and we need to
not take the fact that we're not finding harms today
as a guarantee that there won't be long term harms.
We have to have to learn the lessons of environmental
justice and the lessons of pollution from our past, and
(32:34):
we can't keep repeating the same thing because it's simply expedient.
For those whose campaigns are funded by the railroad of hand,
we have to hold them accountable and the government has
to be a trusted partner in delivering that safety information.
Katie Porter, thank you so much for joining us my pleasure.
I know you, our dear listeners, are very busy and
(32:55):
you don't have time to sort through the hundreds of
pieces of pundentry each week. This is why every week
I put together a newsletter of my five favorite articles
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(33:16):
to join our mailing list. That's Fast Politics pod dot com.
Ben Schiller is the managing editor of Coin Desk. Welcome
to Fast Politics, Ben. It seems like this is not
crypto's greatest moment. It would certainly not be crypto's greatest moments.
Definitely having a tough time, and that's coming from the
(33:39):
pullout from the FTX scandal, which was a forty billion
dollar implosion, and it's coming on the back of a
lot of big claims of the industry mate in Washington,
d C. Which has turned out not to be true.
And it's really a reckoning moment for crypto in the
capital now. So we are about to go into a
week of crypto. Crypto meats government exactly. Yeah. I mean,
(34:01):
legislators are lining up to crack down on the industry,
and I have a lot of hearings, particularly from the
Senate Banking Committee, and then there's a lot of action
on the kind of regulatory front with the SEC of particular,
So Gary Gainslow, who's the chair of the SEC, is
under a lot of pressure from legislators to really come
down hard on the industry. For various reasons. A lot
of industries have a partisan like Republicans have oil and
(34:24):
gas but in this I think both sides are very
piste off crypto, right, Yeah, I mean I would argue
that they're really taking it personally. So I mean, just
to backtrack a little bit, I mean, for a long time,
you could have been around since the invention of bitcoin,
which is about twelve years ago, and for maybe ten
of those years it wasn't really taken seriously in d C.
And then last year there was a massive full run
(34:46):
and there was a lot of money flowing around, and
crypto really started to get some traction with members of Congress,
and there was sort of talk of favorable legislation, you know,
the packs formed, and particularly there are a lot of
donations flowing around, particularly from SBF or san Band Freed,
who was the CEO and founder of f t X.
Him and his colleague gave money to up to a
third of Congress, So I mean, you know, hundreds and
(35:08):
hundreds of people. So when the ft X folded in
this kind of very dramatic way, I think there was
a kind of a loss of faith both in him obviously,
but also in the industry in general, because a lot
of things he'd been saying, and he was a charming guy,
had this kind of tousel head, kind of young princely image,
you know, when they when he turned out to be
a charlatan, I think they really took it personally and
(35:29):
there had no reason then to really be the champion
of the industry. And that's what we're seeing now is
kind of blowback. But didn't SPF actually give money Republicans too? Absolutely,
it was it was an equal handed operation. I mean
he joined the Biden election, and you know, the first
Biden election he gave very heavily to Democrats, but when
it came to the last two years, he was giving
even handily to to both sides. Yeah. So it actually
(35:53):
the idea that he's some kind of that this is
a partisan crime is really not accurate, not at all.
I mean, I think his personal leanings are definitely to
the left, but in terms of building up his political
capital in Washington, he was definitely giving to everybody. There's
more than just SPF. That is a problem problem. Yeah.
(36:14):
I mean, the the legislators and particularly SEC are going
after all aspects of crypto. I mean, I don't want
to get too into the weeds on this program, but
you know, there was a big enforcement action from the
SECC this week coming down on a company called Kraken,
which is a leading exchange regarding its staking service, which
sounds a bit sort of in the weeds, but it's
a big deal for crypto because that's a big source
(36:36):
of revenue and a big What is staking staking is
when you take your bitcoin or another coin and you
give it to a company like cracking, and then they
give you a return on that money. So it's basically
a form of collateralization in the same way that you
would give money to a bank and they would give
you an interest rate. And what is wrong with their
staking service, Well, this goes back to what Gary Ginster
(36:57):
has been saying about crypto all along. If you want
have been listening, which is that you know, when you
issue a coin and you have an expectation or give
the other party an expectation of a return on that coin,
then you can reasonably expect that asset to be called
a security. And this is what the argument has been
about all along, where Gary Gains has been saying that
(37:20):
all tokens are basically securities, and the industry has not
wanted to really believe him or really go along with
the logic of that. So you know, they've been operating
as if these assets are not securities, and Gary Ginsler
has secretly or not so secretly been thinking they have
been securities. But what about candidates Like in Yomy we
(37:41):
have Cynthia Loomis, who has been very big on crypto.
In Miami we have the Miami mayor who is a
slightly lefty Republican and he went big on crypto. I mean,
did these people and also like all this clebrities who
did crypto ads, Like, is there any kind of like
(38:04):
regulatory problems for these people? Do does anyone have to
pay a fine? I mean not that I know, I've know.
I mean most of these people have. They've taken money
from SPF for or some other discredited crypto person, have
given the money back, or they've given them the money
away to somebody else. That's the only penalty that they faced.
Do you think that people have not been hard enough
on like this? You know, like think about like last
(38:26):
year's Super Bowl was almost all crypto ads and celebrities
got millions and millions of dollars, and even like all
the n f T stuff that is connected to crypto
that also is a huge payday for celebrities like Onwyneth Paltrow.
I mean, do you think that there's been enough reporting
on just the kind of how unfair that was and
(38:47):
how misled a lot of people were, or do you
think we'll generally not and just going back to ft
X again. I mean, he had a number of celebrity endorses.
Larry David, for instance, did a big Super Bowl ad
last year, and of those people have gotten into trouble
for taking all of that money. I don't believe they're
even party to the bankruptcy proceedings that are going on now.
(39:08):
It's noting like people are trying to plow that money back,
so they've got a free reign. I mean, the only
example really of a celebrity who has gotten to trouble
is Kim Kardashian. So the SEC made a big kind
of scapegoating moment out of going after her for pitching
a a nonsense coin, what we call in the industry
a ship coin called ethery and Max, where she basically
(39:32):
went on her Instagram and and said this was this
was the greatest project ever. And the SEC went after
that for basically an illegal activity, and they used her
celebrity against her, and as a sort of an example
for others not to follow, you know going forward. That's
really interesting. What else you seeing a coin desk right
now in the industry itself, which is what we cover,
(39:52):
you know, and we broke the the spf ft X story,
So we're kind of seeing both sides of it. On
the one hand, you know, this is a reckoning moment.
On the other hand, you know a lot of people
in the industry are not really getting it. So I
think there's still that argument to play out now. So um,
you know, the industry would argue that the sec has
(40:13):
not been clear in what is and what isn't legal,
and it's now being rather sort of capricious and arbitrary
and enforcing traditional securities laws. On the other hand, I
think most people would say, most reasonable people would say,
you know, the the industry has been living under kind
of a wishful thinking and imagining that they're different from
the rest of the financial system when they're really not.
(40:35):
And uh, you know, Gary Gansler has been saying for years,
as I said that, you know, most tokens are securities,
and the lawyers working for these companies have not wanted
to really listen to that message. And they've been telling
their clients, these companies that they can go and do
lots and lots of kind of exotic things when you
know there was no kind of legal basis for that.
So I think we're seeing a process of innovation, sometimes
(40:58):
you know, worthy and often not worthy, really catching up
with the law, and regulators starting to really do what
they've say they're going to do in principle actually an actuality.
So I think, as I say, it's it's a reckoning moment,
and it's going to be interesting to see how this
plays out because there are a lot of big fish
in this industry that haven't faced any regulatory action in
the past who are now likely to face it. So
(41:21):
it's a it's a big moment. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean,
doesn't it seem like bitcoin is still kind of overvalued, Well,
it depends how you look at it, I guess. You know,
it's been an argument about how you value bitcoin for
for years and years and what sort of role it
actually plays, and there's an argument there. I mean, on
the plus side, you know, it does have millions and
millions of people out there who really believe in the
(41:42):
project and really are invested in it, not only financially,
but in terms of its values and in terms of
its kind of bigger message and that kind of ideas
that it kind of holds onto. On the other hand,
it's made some claims about being a source of value
in in inflationary times hedge against inflation, which really hasn't
proven true. It's made some claims about being a currency
(42:04):
on the Internet, which isn't really true. And so I
can kind of see it both ways. On the one hand,
you could say, well, there's an enormous community and that
community equals something important on the Internet. On the other hand,
you can say, well, it's made these big claims and
it hasn't really fulfilled them. So you know, it's kind
of an argument now about whether Bitcoin is going to
remain the pre eminent cryptocurrency or whether some other, more nimble,
(42:26):
more technologically advanced projects will really begin to take over.
And that's particularly ethereum, but not only ethereum Um, and
that that argument is very much so sort of taking
shape now, and it's both an ideological argument and it's
also a practical sort of technological and financial argument. Jesus,
what an interesting and strange time we live in. What
(42:49):
would be an exchange that would seem better, you know,
would that be a theoryum? I mean what coin would
be more stable than Bitcoin? Well, I mean none of
them are particularly stable and less you include what are
called stable coins, which are expressly designed to be stable,
i to to not fluctuate in price. And that's always
been a problem with Bitcoin as a currency. It's it
(43:10):
goes up and down too much to be um something
you would actually want to use in a store, because
you know, if it's going up, then you don't wanna,
you know, spend it, because then you're losing the potential upside.
The industry came up with these this idea of stable coins,
which are sort of mediums of exchange which retain their value.
But now even though stable coins are now under trouble,
(43:31):
you know, in trouble legally and in terms of regulation.
And just this week a stable coin project called pack Sauce,
which is based here in New York, was forced to
stop issuing a stable coin on behalf of a very
big crypto company called finance. It's called be USD. That's
also seen as rather foreboding for the market because if
the stable coins, which are supposedly stable are also going
(43:54):
to full foul of the law, then that could really be,
you know, an existential threat to the industry going forward,
because if you don't have stable coins, and you don't
have big companies like FTX, and you have these other
issues that the industry is facing, then what do you have?
And that might be good for bitcoin because bitcoin is
a sort of unmediated project. That's kind of the whole
(44:16):
point of it. It kind of ticks on in the background.
It doesn't need any kind of CEO or any management,
and that can be good in a time when crypto
or other aspects of crypto are relying on intermediaries for
its well being. So that might actually be good for
bitcoin in the long term. Well, a little bit of
good news for bitcoin. Uman, you so much for joining us.
I hope you'll come back. Thanks very much, money if
(44:37):
it's a pleasure. Jesse Cannon, Molly John Fast. We've all
been waiting for Fatty Willis to head it down, and
it's here. I know you'll be shocked to hear this.
She thinks there may be some lying liars who lie
in Trump World. Congratulation to all involved. That's it for
(45:03):
this episode of 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. H
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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