March 13, 2023 • 56 mins
The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson joins us to talk about the cards stacked against Governor Ron DeSantis ever becoming president. Congressman Eric Swalwell details the failures and incompetence of Jim Jordan as committee chair. Plus, Planned Parenthood's VP of Abortion Access, Danika Severine Wynn, talks to us about the horrors of a post-Roe America.
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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 now Mike Pence says Donald Trump
endangered his family. On January sixth, we have a fun
show today. Congressman Eric Swawell stops by to talk to
us about what it's like to have a Speaker of
(00:21):
the House who's an abject moron. Then we'll speak to
Danica Saverino Wynn, the vice president for Abortion Access at
Planned Parenthood, and she will talk us through the horrors
of post row America. But first we have the host
of the Enemy's List, the One, the Only, the Lincoln Projects,
Rick Wilson. Rick Wilson back on the podcast. Greetings, Molly
(00:43):
John Fast, Welcome back. I am delighted to be with
you as always. Yay fucking better be I mean delighted
to have you as one is. Ron de Santis struggles
with charisma, struggles with nect in with voters. It's short
will be our next president? Discuss the last point is
(01:06):
the problematic one of this of this theory, because all
sides in the magic eight ball of Republican politics point
to know. Look, is he short? He's shorter than me,
and Dan Bongina says, I'm a dwarf at five ten.
He literally tells people I met Wilson, he's only five one.
Like the fuck are you talking about? Bro? I'm taller
(01:28):
than you, bitch. But DeSantis is like five seven, five eight,
somewhere in that zone. And he's taken his people in particular,
flip the fuck out if you mentioned his lifts or
his little cowboy boots with their kicky little heels. I
gotta tell you, I got so much twitter, like we'll
run to Santos. Where's cowboy boots? Like men do? I'm like,
(01:52):
uh huh, tell me more, tell me more about this
soft handed lawyer who's never been outside of Dana's fucking life.
Can we talk about the Michael back so, he says.
De Sander struggles with connecting with the audience. He has
trouble speaking. I mean, how does he even become a
real candidate? Mom? He doesn't? Okay, Look, he is Jeb
(02:13):
Bush without the smoldering sensuality. Okay, he's he's Marco Rubio
without the without the thick masculine musk. I mean, this
is a guy who cannot make eye contact when he's
talked to normal people. Right. I noticed it when I
met him a few times when he was well before,
like well before he was a maga congressman. He was
a Paul Ryan acolite when he was a backbencher, right
(02:35):
when he was a normal, sort of basic bitch, a
boot Republican. Okay, this guy does not look you in
the eye. Now. Is that because he is arrogant or aspergery,
I don't know. But he does not focus on people.
This is a notorious problem with his staff in Tallahassee
as the governor, where he does not want to go
into meetings, he does not want to focus on people
or things. He goes and schemes away and he talks
(02:57):
to Casey and that's it. Somebody this weekend was making
a case to me that the driver here, Yeah, Ron
de Santas is ambitious, But he's ambitious because Casey. If
you look back, this woman is Tracy Flick and she's
every little she's every cliche that Republicans used to say
about Hillary Clinton. Oh, she's the scheming mastermind behind the scenes.
(03:20):
She's the reason he's going to be a president. It's
the same exact story, only much more real. Bill Clinton
had a native ambition about him and a set of
skills that Hillary could help him amplify. I mean, Casey,
the Santis should be the one running for president. She's
the one with the real, raw ambition and the talent.
But also, I mean, Bill Clinton was charismatic as fuck. Yeah,
(03:43):
oh yeah, bitches, don't a panties on the stage is?
Eddie Murphy used to say, I mean, this is a
guy who had the gift. Okay, I'm gonna be honest
with you, guys. Donald Trump had the gift. That has
the gift right, absolutely, no question. Now it's a different
thing than Bill Clinton had. As Bill Clinton made people
who met with him feel like they had a personal connection,
(04:04):
that he got them, that he understood their internal needs
and where their family was at and where their life
was at. And he had that gift of real connection
with people. It saved his ass. Even though he came
in well behind in New Hampshire, people thought they connected
with him, okay, and it changed the course in the
vector of his campaign. None of the other Republicans in
(04:25):
twenty sixteen had that gift, and frankly, so far, none
of the other Republicans in twenty twenty four have that gift.
I've said this one hundred times and people who are
not experienced in presidential campaigns, and I've not been around
the block and seen the elephant a couple of times.
I'm gonna tell you something. When ron De Santist goes
to New Hampshire, Okay, or goes to Iowa, He's going
(04:47):
to have to go and sit with the deputy county
state committeeman for bumfuck County New Hampshire, and that motherfucker
is going to want to talk about the gold standard
or some other crazy shit that he's obsesk about. Okay,
He's gonna want to talk to Ronda Stantz for an
hour in a diner. Okay, right, And you know who's
gonna do. You know he's gonna sit there. Fucking Nicky
(05:08):
Haley will go there, and Tim Scott and the rest
of the idiots and Mike Pens and they will sit
with this guy. Go. You know, your thoughts on the
gold standard, the Breton Woods Agreement are really profound, and
I'm going to make that a part of my presidential playform. Now,
Ronda Santas will go in there and go to jan
I went to Harvard and Yale. I went to Harvard
and then to Yale. I was at Yale and also Harvard,
and I have a degree from Harvard and a degree
(05:30):
from Yale. And I'm I'm not woke. And it's he's
like this Johnny one note kind of player. And you
want somebody who can go into these small meetings and
these small states and connect with people. And again, the
gigantic death star machine that Ronda Santa is inherited right
from Jeb that you helped create, you monster from Jeb
(05:51):
and Rick Scott and Charlie Chris and also you right
ye may well, look, I'm one of the many people
who helped build a big, fat, super effect Republican campaign
method in Florida. There were guys who did the grassroots stuff,
and there were guys like me who did the media stuff.
And this gigantic machine, it is a very specific flavor.
They were like the Cantonese restaurant. Okay, in a small town,
(06:14):
there's only one Cantonese restaurant, not in my town. But yes, well,
I know you're you don't live in a small town.
You live in a tiny village on the up whatever,
let's not say yes, I see I left it out there,
even though ye yes, tasteful, wasn't it. But look this,
this desire of these people in these states like Iowa, Okay,
(06:36):
to have the person who's who they who possibly could
be president of the United States come and sit in
their living room or sit in their local diner, or
come to their child soccer game or whatever the fuck
it is. Rhonda Santis has a problem. First off, he's
constitutionally personally unable to connect with people like that. Okay.
And oh, by the way, I know that they've already
(06:58):
been pitching a story out to national reporters that's like
the softer side of Ron de Santis, the one you
just don't seem friendly individual who people are finding strikingly
connected with. But it's bullshit. They're working so hard on
that story, and it's just and it's sad because I've
had a couple of reporters to go, are you fucking
kidding me with this? What the hell? But but what
(07:21):
but I mean Michael Bender story for a minute, the
headline was something to the effect of well, awkward, well
struggling with connecting with people, Ron de Santis, you know,
I mean, how do you start from there? You put
Ron de Santis on the National Review cruise ship, and
he's gonna do fucking great. Okay, I'm not even very well.
His constituency right now are basically three groups, Okay, Wall
(07:46):
Street and hedge fund dudes and Silicon Valley dudes who
desperately do not want to be forced again to be
in the Trump universe. They love the tax cut. They
hate him aesthetically, which is the worst reason to hate
Trump right. Hate him as he's a race assayst hate
him because he's an idiot. Hate him because he's a scumbag, racist,
authoritarian dip shit who tried to wreck our country. But
(08:08):
my wife doesn't like the way he says nast do
things about women's vaginas. You know, come on, those are
the people that are Rohnde Santis is number one fuel
in the engine. And we've talked about this before. Those
guys in twenty sixteen said to Jeb Bush, you, sir,
other leader, we will never abandon you. We will stand
by you until the last dog dies. Nothing. Oh hey, Jeff, listen,
(08:30):
I gotta I gotta give Trump some money. Man, Just
we love you. You're a young guy. You can run again.
But I got I got. This Trump thing is really crazy.
I gotta give him some money or I'm gonna miss
the train. And they did this like clockwork. They're gonna
do this to Ronda Santis again too. They're gonna say, Ron,
you're young, you're so talented, You've done such a great job.
But look, man, you know it's maybe it's just not
(08:53):
your time. Maybe Trump's gonna win. So listen, I'm gonna
I'm gonna have to give him a million or two,
you know, just to shut him up so he doesn't
attack my company. And that's going to happen, just like
it did in sixteen. The other part of this, Molly,
it's it's important understand about retail politics is the best
day of your campaign is the first day. If If
you think that Rohda Santis is having stories written about
(09:14):
him now about being awkward and weird and diffident and
off putting and a guy who doesn't look people in
the eye or connect with humans, imagine what it's going
to be like when every other Republican candidate is nuking
the living shit out of him every day. I also
want to say this, de Sanna's thought he was going
to be clever and go to Iowa on his book tour, which,
(09:36):
by the way, I read two chapters of that book
you did. That shit is the hottest garbage and the
reviews are so bad. You know what his editor sad
to me tell me it's written by him. Well, I
heard it was written by a bunch of other other
goons that rewrote what he wrote. It feels like a
focus group. The power to be free, the freedom to
be power, the freedom to be, the freedom to be
(09:58):
the fed, the power of freedom to be free. How
about the freedom to write a book that no one
will read, but many special interest groups will buy copies
of Oh they're like I heard the Club for Growth
is buying one hundred thousand copies and he's gonna make them.
He's gonna make a bank on this thing. God bless him.
But well, transfer, Hey, I'm a I'm a capitalist, but
you know anyway, But look, the first day of your
(10:19):
campaign is the best day. The only easy day was yesterday, right,
And I gotta say something that people are not going
to like, because I'm not one to give Donald Trump
props very often, but there's a sign this week that
Donald Trump has professionals advising him in the campaign. He
has a really good team, unfortunate way he does. And
Chris Lassavita is a brilliant campaign strategist. He's a very
(10:41):
very very smart guy. Do not liberal listeners underestimate them.
This is not the Corey Leewindowski Brad Pascal fuck show.
These are smart, professional people and there are some of them.
As my friend Terris sent I pointed out yesterday that
I've worked for de Santists and know where the bodies
are who worked for his Santis and know how to
rat shit, know it pisses him off. And my god,
(11:02):
if there's one person in America that can piss people off,
it's Donald fucking TRUMPA yeah, but anyway, Trump was out
there blasting to Santis when he goes to Iowa for
being a Paul Ryan accolyte for wanting to shut down
the ethanol program, which which I listen listen to. Santis
isn't wrong. If I wanted to shut down the ethanol program,
it's a goddamn nightmare, crony capitalist bullshit, But in Iowa
(11:23):
it is these sacred cows. And also ethanol is not green. No,
it's not great, but it does which was the fucking
bullshit where I'm sold that ethanol was great. But ethanol
is Iowa's favorite thing. It's Iowa's favorite thing. So he
went out there and what is he What else does
Trump know about the Iowa electorate? It's old as fuck.
I don't have the data in front of me right now,
(11:44):
but I seem to recall the Iowa electorate is the
fourth or fifth oldest in the country for turnout in
Republican primaries. It's old. So Trump's out there saying de
Santis wants to end your so security and Medicare Medicaid,
and he wants to kill ethanol. And I mean, this
is a guy who being advised by people who are
giving him talking points. Now, is he executing them in
his Trump and fuck weirdo way? Yeah, of course he is.
(12:07):
But he has a platform that message gets out there,
and DeSantis is out there taking these very mild sort
of s sideways bank shotty kind of well out of
a winner and whole. Oh yeah, that shit's gonna last
about five fucking seconds. When Trump gets too on a
debate stage rips out, you're livering, right, tiny d That's
(12:30):
the other thing that has triggered the run hotties, as
I've come to call them lately. Is it when I
said tiny d the other day on Twitter? It was
all the usual like Mark Hemingway and Baseball Crank and
all the Republican like desant isn't want to be subcabinet members.
They're like, you have fallen so far, Wilson, how dare
you use an insult? I'm like, they're like, you're just
(12:50):
like Trump. I said to Mark Himya, I'm like, bitch,
when I run for president, you can bring this up again, Okay,
but I'm always I am, I am who I always have.
Then I'm up in your shit. Mark, I Meanway was
like her grandfather was a communist worth noting, and I
was like, okay, I was like, that is worth noting,
you fucking idiot. I'm a communist as long as I've
(13:12):
known you, Molly. The one thing you've brought up in
conversation over and over again as your desire to see
the means of production. I mean, you never stopped talking
about it. I don't know why I'm a communist. Let's
go Stalin twenty twenty eight. Let's dig him up, zombie Stalin.
But I think the important question is So Fox News
has had a pretty bad week, and I think the
(13:36):
top line here is Hell hath no fury like a
voting machine company scored. Well. Look, I know their attorneys,
clairelock I know I know that legal team very well.
I know attorneys at Clairelocke who I am very familiar
with the ability of that law firm to rain down
hell on bad guys and what they have produced in
this The reputational harm that Fox has cast itself by
(14:00):
the divergence of its bullshit to its reality is a
gift that will keep on giving, I think for some
period of time, because what has been shown here extraordinarily
clearly is as I've been saying for years and years
and years. It's all a fucking act, especially with Tucker.
I've a people this for years. Tucker's a nihilist. He
(14:22):
loves money, he loves being in this spotlight. There's no
there there other than that. And so this this idea
that he's despises Trump and all that. I mean. The
problem for Fox that it writ large is their dominance
for a generation in politics in America was because there
was not an alternative. I mean, Chris Roddy had Newsmax.
(14:44):
It was kind of like Onesie two zy stuff down there,
and it was on you know, channel four thousand, six
hundred nineteen on Dish or on in mar SAT or
some bullshit. What about OAN? But now you have oa
N which you can't spell ononism without on on is
you know o AN and Fox and the streaming channels
in Lindell TV and Red State Broadcasting. I love Lindell
(15:08):
the best. I watch it constantly. I never turn it off.
That's right. It's on the big screen in the living
room all day, all night. Yeah, but how how do
you even get it? I don't know. I sense it
when I'm sleeping. I close my eyes on my pillow.
But the optionality now in the right, and these people
are tuning into places that this is a little scary too,
(15:30):
by the way, that are even less moderated and even
less considered, and even less giving a fuck about legal repercussions.
That their audience is tuning in because they were trained
for a long time seek out the pure, seek out
the ones that will punish the rhinos, I mean, and
own the libs. These other networks. Is the outlets now
(15:51):
own the libs better than Fox. And now there's a question. Now, people,
some fraction of Fox viewers are going to watch Tucker
and go I think he's playing me again. He hates Trump,
and slowly but surely it corrodes the audience, and when
there's an option to go somewhere else, you know, they
might vote with their clicks. Now, does this mean that
(16:13):
Fox is going to disappear tomorrow? Of course not. They're
the largest cable network in the country, and the last
round of negotiations with the cable carriers they browbeat and
blustered and screamed and jumped up and down and said,
ah h, you know, we're the big thing. You've got
to pay us the twenty bucks a month per head. Right.
I think as there's a new round of negotiations coming
up with the big carriers, that may change. Now. I
(16:35):
also have a point that I want to make that
I've been critical of the White House and the administration
on something for the fucking last time. President Biden. Use
an executive order and take Fox off every goddamn military
cable system in the country. It is radicalizing people in
our US military. It is a danger. It is a
foreign propaganda network that is absolutely being used to corrode
(16:59):
faith and belief in the American system among our military.
Just fucking say no, take it off. Do it now.
The other thing you could do, mister president, is to say,
nor will the United States government do further business with
any cable carrier that carries the Fox network. You see,
this is the kind of thing where when Donald Trump
was using executive power, and when rodn Santus in Florida
(17:22):
uses executive power, which he does every day, every fucking
minute of the day, these people put it in their
spank bank and masturbate to it for a fucking year.
I love you, just you gotta push it a little
over the top. Go on, God, I do, Molly, I've
got to push it. I've got to push it. Good
Christ Yeah, continue these ideas. Are they not conservative? No,
(17:43):
they're not particularly conservative. But the other side is using
every weapon in the book. Right. And when Donald Trump
said the things took companies like Caterpillar and Ford, you'll
do what I want or I'll punish you politically, Republicans said,
this was the greatest leadership we've ever seen. I'll do
any question. Well, guess what. I'm a skeptic of executive
orders as a broad in a broad sense, except for
(18:06):
some very narrowly crafted areas. But this is the kind
of thing that it is a fifth column that is
pumping propaganda inside the military every day. If al Jazero
was somehow the network that Republicans claim it is, and
it was pumping this into our into every government office
every day, people would lose their fucking mind. So it's
(18:28):
tuned for the president to also do what Rupert Murdoch
is doing to him and to this country and fuck
back right right? No, I agree, I mean, and I
think that is a really good idea. Now, talk to
me about the implication. I mean, does this hurt the
does this hurt the opinion host? Does this hurt the money? Honey?
Talk to me, Well, look, I think it hurts the money, honey,
(18:51):
because she seems like she's getting thrown under the bus.
I feel like she may be the blood sacrifice, but
she's not the right sacrifice. Susanne Scott is the right sacrifice, right, Yeah,
they'll get someone worse though. Arena Burganti is the right sacrifice. Oh,
are you allowed to evoke the name Arena Baganti? Arena Burganti? Yeah,
Aagan Arena Burganti. Go bring some kind of beetle Jews
(19:13):
Hell's game. No. Look, this is something that Fox is
really wondering right now. If they throw somebody off the
sled and let the wolves eat them doesn't work. I
don't think it does honestly. And bartar Romo is cuckoo
and everybody and Fox has known it for a long time.
She is sort of an Ale's legacy project that has
(19:33):
somehow been protected there. I don't know what the what
the rundown is, but is Rupert going to have to
kill somebody to get dominion to go away? I don't
think it works, right even if he does. Even if
he does, it doesn't matter. It doesn't change their case
against him because they were working for him at the time.
It seems like you cannot satisfy dominion. Like they know
their brand is ruined, you know, I mean they know
(19:56):
that Fox did this. Fox News took this to deliberately
with full knowledge it was false and what I believe
as a non lawyer, but I can look at the
world and see how things lie with a state of
malicious intent. From the jump. They knew what would happen.
They knew it was a lie. They perpetuated the lie.
(20:18):
They joked internally about how crazy the people they were
putting on the air were. They were koops and lunatics
and nuts and everything else. They brought every aspect of
this problem on themselves. They brought every single part of
this problem on themselves. They knew it was a lie
from the start. They knew there was no secret fucking
backdoor into the voting machines by the ghost of Hugo
Chavez or Zombi Fidel Castro, or that ladies with psychic
(20:42):
powers weren't secretly telling them where the code in Rome
was being used to manipulate I mean it, just the
lavish insanity of it would have been enough of the
giveaway for an actual journalistic enterprise to say, hold up,
this is too crazy. But it wasn't because they knew
they were going to play their audience. And the other
part to this Molly, I think is really important. It
goes back to the first part of this conversation about
(21:03):
where the Fox audience goes. Just like MAGA believed that,
or just like the Republican Party once believe that they
controlled Maga, that they could make could bring him out
of the closet every two years or four years and
get them to devote the right way and put them back,
just like they believed that the mob would never eat them,
that the alligator would never crawl up on the dock
when they were out of fried chicken for it and
(21:24):
eat them. I feel like you're speaking from personal experience.
That's one of my grandmother's favorite phrases, because you know,
she's like, you can throw that frat chicken in that
alligator all day long, but when you're out, it's going
to crawl up on the dock and eat you, right,
And that's what's happening. And that, yes, if you're wondering
how southern she was, there's no greater. You cannot pokee.
You cannot spike the southern meter any higher than my
(21:46):
grandmother was. But Fox is a captive of its audience now,
and if they start conforming their behavior to reality, which
is why, by the way, this desperate play that Tucker
is doing this week, and I don't know this for
a fact, but I've heard four and I don't know
if it's true, but I've heard before that the nightside
hosts are incentivized in terms of their comp by advertising,
(22:07):
oh and eyeballs. So they're trying to get the audience
to stay with them. That's why Tucker is doing this
whole historical rewrite of January sixth. I'm trying to make
it into the tourist visit blah blah blah. That's why
they're starting, I believe, to make the turn back toward Trump.
Captive of the audience, thank you Rick Wilson for joining us.
You are more than welcome. Congressman Eric Swallwell represents California's
(22:34):
fifteenth district. Welcome back to you fast politics, my friend,
Congressman Eric Swawell', I'm very excited to have you. Shall
we first talk about that committee hearing from yesterday? Yeah,
just shooting layups over here, Molly with these guys. Congressman
(22:55):
Jim Jordan. Paint the scene here for a minute. Jordan
has created a Subpoena compliance Committee, and I was named
by the Democrats to lead that. And essentially he sends
these letters to the Department of Justice that read like
a Jim Jordan ranch. Before they even read the long letter,
(23:16):
He's sent them a subpoena and then he brings them in.
So yesterday's hearing was about protecting parents under the guys
of protecting parents, well, he does not like the FBI
looking at parents who terrorize school board members, and so
he has a conspiracy theory that Merrick Garland has designated
all parents as domestic terents. Now, of course there's no
(23:39):
evidence of that and came out of that. But I
did make sure to read many of the death threats
that were sent to volunteer school board members and you know,
shows some of the violences occurred at these school board
hearings and look at Jim Jordan and their gang and
say like, is this who you guys stand with? Now?
You know, when you're not visiting terrorists at the DC
(24:02):
jail who are responsible for January six, Now you're going
to come in here and be on the side of
people who are terrorizing school board members. These are parents
who are threatening school board members. And Jim Jordan is
upset that the FBI is then going to question them. Yes,
he wants to be tough on terrorists unless the terrorists
(24:25):
like Jim Jordans. That's kind of my faith. Wow, tell
me about what your sort of takeaway was from this experience. Oh,
first of all, by the way, taking a step back,
it's pretty fucking rich that Jim Jordan's of all people
in the world would hold a hearing on subpoena compliance, right,
(24:48):
I mean, really is shocking that a guy who was
referred to the Ethics Committee because he didn't honor a
congressional subpoena has some thoughts on people honoring congressional subpoenas. Now,
the DJ witnessed did what Jim Jordan was not willing
to do, which was show up, talk to Congress talk about,
(25:09):
you know, what he knew and didn't know. And it
was quite easy. Jim Jordan could have done it. He
could have raised his right hand and answered questions about
the crime that he witnessed leading up to January sixth,
but he refused to do it. And he wants to
lecture all of us about what the Department of Justice
should do when he's the one signing the subpoena. Why
do you think that is? We're living through this krrupt
(25:30):
bargain where for Jim Jordan to have a gabble and
Kevin McCarthy to have the title of speaker. There's installment
payments that have to be made, and so Marjorie Taylor
Green has to go on the Homeland Security Committee. We
have to harbor the International Wanted criminal George Santos, And
(25:50):
we have to buy into this idea that police officers
should not be looking at parents who terrorized school board
meetings because those parents share the beliefs of Magan Nation.
And so Jim Jordan has formed one of the largest
law firms in DC with the Weaponization Committee, the Subpoena Committee,
(26:12):
the Judiciary Committee, and it's essentially just a law firm
that has one client right. And so they're going to
work on behalf of Donald Trump and the Republican Conference
will be this vessel state of Maga Nation so that
they can just carry out all of Trump and his
supporters grievances. But it's backfired every single time. Right, You've
got Matt Gates reading from like the China Times to
(26:35):
make a point. By the way, that was an amazing
moment where the witness was like, where did you get
that from? That? Lauren Bobert is citing statistics from the
Trump administration to own the Bind administration. Matt Gates, two
weeks before the China Times debacle, brings in a guy
(26:55):
to say the pledge of allegiance, who's an accused murderer.
After trying to make the point that Democrats don't want
to say the Pledge of Allegiance and Molly during that
debate where David Cecillini had the crazy idea that if
you're going to come in and say the Pledge of
Allegiance again and Gates doesn't give a shit about saying
the Pledge of Allegiance, by the way, this is just
to like try and give a Democrat to vote against it, right.
(27:16):
Cellini kind of pushed back and said, well, if you're
gonna say the Pledge of Allegiance, we should at least
be able to vet who this individual is. And Tom
McClintock on the Republican side, I'm not shitting you, says, well,
it's not like we're going to bring in somebody who
committed murder, which they then did. Yeah, he actually did.
So it's just a comedy of heirs right now, a
(27:40):
failure to launch, so to speak, on their side. As
I said, it's just shooting layups right now with these guys.
It's not the hardest work we've had to do. I
want to know Kevin McCarthy has his job. He is
nominally Speaker of the House, speaker light Speaker of Light, right,
I mean really I think he is Kevin McCarthy the
Speaker of the House, or really is Tough Garlson the
(28:00):
Speaker of the House. Yeah, so I would say he
has the title. Marjorie Taylor Green has the job because
he can't do anything without her support. Part of the
reoccurring payment plan that McCarthy has to stay in a
speaker was that installment payment to Tucker Carlson, you know,
with the sensitive security footage from January six and so
we're going to see more, you know, installment payments that
(28:24):
Will Jeffert has our national security, like one of them
being defunding the troops by seventy five billion dollars, which
was another promise he made to become speaker. And by
the way, well, I really don't think Kevin McCarthy wants
anything more than just the title of speaker. I don't
think he's never demonstrated like that he's got an idea
that would solve a problem. I think he just knows
(28:46):
enough to know that it's cool to be speaker. And
beyond that, I don't think he really cares about like
the job of governing and getting shipped done. Yeah, there's
no evidence to support the idea that he is pictually
interested in this job, like in legislating. Correct. And if
(29:07):
you think back to the first one hundred days when
Democrats were in the majority in twenty nineteen and then
back again with Biden this president, we delivered a lot.
I mean, we were busy, we were working passing historic
legislation as marks of what we do when we were
in the majority in the Senate, in the White House.
And then we did it again when we had that
kind of holy trinity, and we're able to do it.
(29:30):
But here they promised a border bill, they haven't delivered that.
They've promised a budget and his hockey and Jeffreys has
said the budget has gone into the witness protection program. Like,
we have no idea where their budget is. And again
I think it's just he doesn't know how to do this.
He doesn't really want to do this. He just wants
to be called speaker. What other stuff are they cooking
(29:51):
up there? There's this congressional delegation that Marjorie Taylor Green
is leading to the DC jail. They really call them
codel This is, you know, like a taror deal. They're
going to go visit those responsible for January six, which
again for the first time in their lives, they care
about the rights of inmates. But again it's only it's
not because of any concerning or criminal dress. It's just
(30:13):
their friends. It's these are these people that they rooted
for during the riot. We are now behind balls. This
was the pathway to the most disappointing mid term performance,
you know, for the party, not in the White House ever,
that they just pulled off, and it doesn't seem that
they've learned from it at all. You know, the voters
(30:34):
rejected this nonsense in November, and it's just they're just
doubling down. Yeah, it is really interesting that they are
completely uninterested in like stopping and saying, well, like this
was the kind of stuff that lost us in twenty
twenty and twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two. Perhaps we'd
(30:58):
like to pause in client reflect action and try for
something else. But there seems to be no interest in that.
Huh No. And again that's because no one has figured
out how to grab the mantle of leadership from maganation,
which again is not the majority of Republicans, but it's
the loudest, most violent, most provocative, and so everyone else
(31:22):
just wishes this problem away and no leadership has emerged,
you know, to try and solve it or variant, and
so it persists. And I think we're in for another
cycle or two where it's chaos versus competency on the ballot.
If you look at this Republican Party right, so we're
it certainly looks like Trump is in for more legal
(31:44):
problems in your mind, I mean, do you think that
these people will go along with the Santis, which is
the hope of the donor class. I mean, you're with
them every day. I mean, do these seat people seem
like they would switch their allegiances. I still seem only that,
you know, Donald Trump commands thirty tot of you know,
the Republican base, and if it's a crowded field, he's
(32:05):
going to keep that base. And by the way, Ronda
Santis is one charmless guy. I don't know if met him,
but we don't elect charmless people to be president of
the United States. The way that Trump has been like
just pounding him and getting so personal with him, calling
(32:26):
him a groomer, you know, etc. And de Santis isn't
punching back. It reminds me of Ted Cruz and that
didn't last long. If you're not going to punch back
against Trump, I think you're going to be chewed up
and spit out, just like the other eighteen candidates in
twenty sixteen. And so if he's not willing to do that,
and I think he will join the ranks of you know,
(32:47):
Jeb Scott Walker and many of the other rising stars
you know in the party whose names and whereabouts were
all unclear on now, right, I mean it seems like
the on de Santis could very much have a ted
cruise trajectory. Again. If you're not willing to punch back
and you can't do again, you can't do it in
(33:09):
a you know, Marco Rubio immature way, right, you're going
to have to land punches. And to me, you're I
don't want to give these guys advice, But Donald Trump
is a loser, right. He lost the House in eighteen,
he lost the White House in twenty. He weighed in
against the advice of everybody in the party in twenty
two and just lost across the board. And so you
(33:30):
can run a cult in America, but in a democracy,
I just don't understand how you can run a party
and lead a party if you're a three time loser,
and it doesn't seem to me that you need to
say anything more than that. But if you do that,
you better be able to stand up to what's going
to come back from him. And if you're not able to,
then you're not going to beat him. And you certainly
haven't passed the test of being president, which means having
(33:54):
to stand up to a lot of bad people in
the world. So let me ask you about what is
happening with the Congress now? Is there any serious stuff
getting done in this Jim Jordan Congress. Yeah, they're about
to make the AR fifteen the National Gun of America.
(34:15):
And I get a lot of letters asking me where
are we going to name a national gun of America?
So that makes sense that they've focused so much on that. Yeah,
because it's it's a problem. I mean, you're not kidding,
you're actually being serious. Yeah, they're seeking to do that. Yes,
there's legislation. Wait what, Yes, I'm not I'm not kidding.
That's pretty stupid. But Molly, the way I see it,
(34:37):
there are three things they have to do, really like,
they can do all their crazy They can name national
guns of America. They can go to the DCH jail,
you know, and have as many visits as they like.
But you have to pay America's bills by extending the
debt ceiling. You have to keep the government open later
this fall, and you have to keep Ukraine in the
(34:57):
fight against Russia. And you're going to have to mondo
the crisis of the moment right now as we speak.
You know, there is a major, major banking crisis. Silicon
Valley Bank, which banks a lot of tech biotechs startups,
is in collapse. And if we don't find a way
to guarantee deposits beyond the FDIC limit, a lot of companies,
(35:20):
small and medium sized companies are not going to be
able to make their pay and it could it could
tank the global economy if we don't get it right.
And so again, you can go to the dcjail all
you like, but you actually have to do real things
when a real crisis comes. And I'm just afraid that
these guys may not be up for it. So if
they can take time away from the DC jail and
(35:41):
just focus on paying our bills, funding the government, keeping
Ukraine in the fight, and responding to a crisis like this,
everything will be Okay. The good news is there's competency
on our side. We only need just a few of
them to cross over. We don't need Gates and Jordan
and Green and Bobert. We just need a few responsibles
to cross over, and we'll be fine. Because that's the
(36:01):
next big dramas the dead ceiling in June. Yeah and
so yeah, Secretary Yelling said, you know, this is around
the corner. There's no magic wand away. There's no going
back in time and changing spending that we already agreed
to in dollars. I already went out the door. We
just have to show the world and creditors that, you know,
(36:21):
when we wrack up a bill, whether you're at a
bar or you're at a federal bank, we pay our bills.
And so Republicans want to use this to otherwise pass
priorities that they couldn't pass, you know, in Congress. You know,
so again it's it's very antimajority. They want to enact
harsh cuts to Social Security or Medicare, or get deeper
(36:45):
into Hunter Biden's laptop and leverage the need to extend
the debt ceiling. And it's just not going to work.
I agree with the president on not negotiating around this
because a big chunk of that debt is Donald Trump's
debt and spending that they did in twenty seventeen, you know,
the Trump tax bets, and so that's not negotiable. Yeah, unbelievable.
(37:06):
Thank you, Thanks Molly. Danica Saverina Wynn is the vice
president for Abortion Access at Planned Parenthood. Welcome, Too Fast Politics, Dannica,
thank you for having me. So I wanted to talk
to you about what I mean. I don't want to
talk about it, but I feel that we have to
(37:27):
talk about this post row landscape. So first, will you
explain to our listeners what you do and how you
are functioning in this post Row world. Sure. Yes, I
am a midwife by training. I provide sexual and reproductive healthcare,
including medication abortion. I also have the privilege of working
(37:50):
for Planned Parenthood Federation of America or PPFA as the
vice president of Abortion Access. As you can imagine, that
is a busy job nowadays. Is the ruling in the
Jobs decision that overturned revivweight means that I spend a
lot of time working with my team and teams across
(38:10):
the national office to ensure that in states where abortion
is still legal, that we are able to provide care
to the best of our ability and see as many
patients as possible and sure they get the care that
they need and deserve. Will you explain to us a
little bit about what's happening right now with medication abortion
in America. Yeah, absolutely so. Over the past several years,
(38:34):
medication abortion has increased in popularity for a variety of reasons.
Now more than half of abortions in the United States
are abortioned by pills, which is another term for medication abortion.
It's typically done early in the pregnancy, usually up to
about ten or eleven weeks gestation in many places. Right now,
(38:55):
there is an active case in the Northern District of
Texas where one of the medications that's used for medication abortion,
it's a typically two step process, mithopristone, is at risk
of being taken off the market. This ruling is unprecedented
as this drug has FDA approved and has been used
(39:15):
for years with an incredible safety record. What it means
is that we could lose access to the most effective
method of medication abortion and also a very effective method
for miscarriage management in this country, and it could impact
both states and without access to abortion. So I want
to ask you a little bit about how the FDA
(39:40):
monitors method pre zone because it's pretty interesting. Will you
talk about that, because it's not monitored like a normal drug,
it's actually monitored more right, Right, myfopristone has been under
what's called the rems by the FDA for a long time.
So what that means is that there is a registration
(40:00):
basically that has to happen in order for it to
be dispensed, and prior to very recently, it wasn't only
able to be dispensed in an office setting, so people
had to go into an office to be provided with
the medication. And because of that, we have even more
extensive data than we would otherwise about the safety and
effectiveness of mythoprestone. Right. But I want to point out
(40:22):
I think really an important kind of thing that Republicans
are doing the Anti Choice Crew. Part of their argument
is that methapre zone is not safe, right, which is
patently false. So it is unfortunately a case where we
have politicians and decision makers in government making a decision
(40:44):
about evidence based research without the knowledge and training to
do so. So these are decisions that should be made
between a person and their healthcare provider because we understand
and know, oh that that's the best and safest way
to provide care. And in this case, we have a
(41:07):
situation where there's basically junk science being used to make
decisions about medical care that's incredibly personal. I mean, it's
incredible that we're in this place in twenty twenty three
where we're having to demonstrate over and over again that
the literature and the research clearly show safety. Yet there
is a potential that one judge could make a decision
(41:29):
for the whole country to remove a medication that is
completely safe from the market. Yeah, it's it's completely crazy.
I mean this reminds me a lot of SBA, because
in Texas, SBA was passed and we kept thinking that
someone would do something sane and no one ever did
right in the right right. I mean I feel like
everyone was like, yeah, yeah, SPA. I mean, but they
(41:52):
were like but eventually, and so I'm curious. I mean,
this is so is a similar attitude people have, which
is that, oh, a judge can do an injunction against
this right. I mean, there's a lot of feeling that
maybe the legal channels will prevent this from being enacted. Sure,
I mean, there are a lot of different ways that
(42:14):
this could come down, and really we won't know the
exact ramifications or impact of this case until we actually
see the decision and see how it's written. Advocates will
continue to fight every step of the way to prevent
methocystem from being taken off the market, but at the
end of the day, we really just have to question
how did we get here and what are they coming
for next? Well, yeah, I want to just also mention
(42:37):
that if this keeps getting kicked up in the courts,
which a lot of these anti choice activists are quite
good at finding things and getting them kicked up in
the courts, ultimately our Supreme Court is profoundly anti choice. Yeah.
We saw that certainly in the oral arguments for the
Job's case. I mean, their feelings were pretty clear if
(42:59):
you read through those or arguments or if you were listening.
So it is incredibly alarming to have a politically active
Supreme Court. That's just not how it's supposed to go.
And so knowing that that is a possibility definitely should
make people worried about what that means, what The larger
implications are for healthcare, because abortion is healthcare. Healthcare is
(43:22):
a human right, and this could just be the tip
of the iceberg. If one judge is able to take
a medication off the market, what's next? No, exactly. Now
here's a question for you about this. There's a case
in Tensis right now of these women who could not
get the treatment that they needed because of the SBA law.
(43:43):
Can you talk a little bit about that. What we're
seeing is a case where five people have come forward
who medical care was denied and delayed as a result
of the restrictive laws in Texas, cases where they were
experiencing fetal loss or significant harm to themselves due to
(44:06):
complications in their pregnancy. The idea that somebody needs to
be so sick that they are in critical danger of
death before they can get life saving medical care because
of restrictive laws and not due to any type of
science is alarming. And these are a perfect example of
(44:27):
how it's not just about abortion. It goes so much
further a mess right. This has impacts on miscarriage management,
It has impacts on providing people life saving care during pregnancy,
has impacts on IVF and again like We just really
need to think about what the larger ramifications are if
(44:47):
we do not rise up together and fight against this.
The thing I'm struck by is that we're finally starting
to see these women who are not pro choice, but
who have gotten pregnant and have had needed miscarriage management,
They too, are starting to understand this. Yeah. I mean,
(45:09):
we hear stories, unfortunately all the time, of people who
faced harm or near harm because of restrictive laws like
lens in Texas. I've certainly heard stories as well if
people worried about moving during their pregnancy to a state
with an abortion ban because they worry about their health
and state of health care for them while they're pregnant.
(45:30):
Criminalization of pregnancy is absurd. Having life threatening health outcomes
because of laws is absurd. There is no place for
a politician in an exam room in a hospital. Providers
should really be able to make the best decisions based
(45:52):
on evidence and based on science that they can for
their patients without having to worry about prosecution. As this
goes on, we're seeing more and more just how much
abortion really is healthcare. Yeah, I mean, I am grateful
in many ways that you said that, because I do
think it is allowing people to understand just how complex
(46:13):
this issue is and that it really does have a
much larger impact than conservatives in our government would like
you to believe. Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting. So
there's clearly like a concerted effort from these anti choice
activists to take away all choice period paragraph whatever that
(46:35):
looks like, and abortion and miscarriage management, which isn't even
a choice, right, it's just what it is. What else
do you see on the horizon of them going after
I mean, I think they've made it very clear that
they want to see a federal ban on abortion. Actually
they said that they want to leave it to the states,
but then they're clearly signaling what they would do if
(46:57):
they are able to get the majority in twenty twenty
four elections, and so that's terrifying. But I think we're
also seeing attacks on what we are seeing attacks on
gender affirming hormone therapy, we're seeing attacks on contraception. I
think the restrictive access that could happen even in some
(47:18):
states has trickle effects on our whole country. Twenty something
states cannot take care of everyone across the country when
it comes to their sexual and reproductive health needs, and
in situations where we are seeing the ability for government
to interfere with even the medications that we have on
the market outside of the FDA and outside of evidence
(47:42):
is striking. I wanted to talk for one second about
the larger implications of like the morning after pill, for example,
like that has We've seen a lot of conservatives come
for the morning app right, they're sort of that IVF.
I mean, those are sort of what is first control maybe,
(48:03):
I mean, that is what seems like it's on the
agenda for them. Yeah, And it's the constant misinformation campaigns
that I think allow them to march forward and continue
to spread lies that you know, the morning after pill
or emergency contraception is the same as an abortion. It's
patently untrue. It is that is not how it works. Similarly,
(48:26):
you know, we heard those arguments when they were working
really hard to prevent the morning after pill from going
over the counter. But despite the science, despite the evidence,
they continue to push forward misinformation as a way to
push forward their agenda of removing choice. Such a bomber.
(48:46):
What is it like working with people on the ground.
Are you seeing a lot of panic? I mean, so
I am a provider who because of my work with PPFA,
I see patients about once a month. I can tell
you that my colleagues across the country who are in
(49:08):
health centers day in and day out, are overwhelmed and
they are hearing stories that are heartbreaking about people traveling
distances for care that are beyond reasonable, beyond unreasonable. Rather,
they are hearing stories of people having to cobble together
funds and patchwork support for child care in order to
(49:31):
travel from southern Texas to Kansas, for example, or to Illinois.
They are being asked to provide care for more and
more people, and they want to because people who work
in this space typically it is a passion. They're there
because they want to support patients. And so I think
(49:52):
the patients are struggling, and the patients deserve access to healthcare.
But the providers are all so struggling, and they have
been asked to take on larger and larger caseloads to
serve more and more people because of restrictive laws in
some states. Do you think Republicans just keep going? I mean,
(50:12):
do you think they ever are like, Wow, this is
not popular. People don't like this. I mean, that's The
thing I'm always shocked by is like I feel like,
shouldn't sooner or later they have a kind of come
to Jesus moment and they're like, this is ridiculous. Obviously
this is not serving anyone or but that seems to
not be what's happening. I mean, we would only hope
because truly it's not reflective of right what the people
(50:36):
across this country want. Democratic Republican I mean, it's so clear. Yeah,
overwhelmingly we see that people support the right to abortion access,
and so I don't know what it will take to
get folks to recognize that this is not the will
of the people. That I do hope that in upcoming elections,
(50:56):
as more and more of this comes out and as
people really see what the agenda is here, that they
are going to make their voices heard in the voting
booths and they're going to make sure that folks who
are ignoring the will of the people are not in
charge of our country. Thank you so much, Donica, that
was really I really am glad you came, and I
hope you'll come back. Thank you so much. Thanks for
(51:18):
having me. I appreciate you raising up awareness about the
state of reproductive healthcare and abortion access in this country.
So in Florida, Ronda Santas fired a prosecutor named Andrew Warren,
a state attorney. Yes, who we've both been talking to, right,
we both talked to him after Ron fired him. It
(51:39):
was revealed this week that when Ronda Santis's staff brought
him the report, he wanted to say, tell me how
he's a liberal sorrows controlled libtard liberal. It turned out
they were like, we don't have anything on this. So
he just fired him based purely on executive preference, not
for cause. Can he do that? There's a long reason
(52:01):
why governors are more powerful right now that they don't
want to talk about on the air, But I'll tell
it to you off the air later. But Florida governors
have a lot more power than they used to since
the two thousand constitutional revision. Okay, so this is a
state issue. Yeah, it looks like he can. But in
the legal case that was brought against De Santists, it
doesn't look like that they told the truth about this.
(52:24):
So I don't know where it leads. But the moment
of fuckery here is a pure example that Rod de
Santists for every one of these National Review jerk offs
who think I want to live in the limit the
power of government. Right, Well, your boy Rod de Santis,
who you write twenty thousand words a week about claiming
that his farts smell like rainbows and honeysuckle, and then
he's the best tallest person ever and the smartest man
(52:46):
in the room, and the savior of the Republican Party,
that women get pregnant just by looking at him, and
that the women sings a sweet song every night when
he puts his head on the pillow. All this bullshit.
This is a guy who is rampant, who is a
rampant record of an abusive state power. He is the
number one abuser of state power in the country and
that includes states like fucking Tennessee and Mississippi. People, Okay,
(53:08):
so Florida, stan Is. This is one more example that
if you are a limited government conservative, the few that
are left, this is not your guy. But if you're
an unlimited government conservative, which is the new breed of Republican,
well there you go. My moment of fuckery has got
to be the poor Nicky Haley destroying herself as she
(53:30):
continues to try to win people over with raising the
retirement raid and cutting medicare. Oh yes, there's just nothing.
There's nothing seniors want to hear more. Then, hey, grandma,
you can eat that food into your seventy She is
an incredible politician because two weeks ago she was like,
(53:51):
there should be a competency age for everyone over seventy five.
Those are your voters. So they love for you. You
say that they're in competent already, they love that. And
then the second thing, which my other favorite, is that
everyone who's in their twenties now should not, you know,
have raised the retirement age. They are rioting in France
(54:11):
right now because of this raising. Is what seventy right,
Mark it down. Nicky Haley is going to come in
third or maybe fourth in her own home state. Mark
it down. Put it down. I'm putting one hundred bucks
on it. Mark it down. She's going to come in
third or fourth in her own home state. This person
(54:33):
is not a good candidate, yea. She is a candidate
who has again remember what I said earlier, your best day,
your campaign's your first day. She's on the downhill slope
in this thing right now, headed toward political oblivion at
rocket speed. She is not a good candidate. We need
to have to understand that some people have the gift.
Nicky Haley does not have the gift. Do any of
(54:54):
these candidates have the gift besides Donald Trump? And again,
the gift is a curse. But I don't do you
see anyone who's like charismatic and who's going to go
on there and charm the field. Name one of those
people who has the gift. You can't even the hypotheticals. Okay, well,
Mike Pence, no, certainly no Scott, Tim Scott maybe gift adjacent,
(55:14):
but he's not. He's not ready for this thing for
a host of reasons that need not be discussed. He's
not going to survive the vetting. Oh Tim Scott isn't. Yeah,
no way, no fucking way. Let's put it this way.
South Carolina is not going to produce a presidential candidate
right now. Right there's just not The flaws are too
vast for the for the rest of the field, it's
(55:35):
not going to happen. But none of these people that
are even perspectives, I mean, Jesus Christ, Josh Holly, ted Cruise,
even if they wanted to get in right and there
are still a lot of there like I'm not going
to run, but they're working out right, right. None of
them have the gift. Some of them have the gift
with Republican like own the Libs stuff, right, But that's
not sufficient to win a presidential nomination. It's not sufficient
(55:58):
to win a presidential race. And I will tell you
a great candidate with a bad campaign can sometimes pull
it off. A bad candidate with a great campaign can
rarely pull it off. Rick Wilson, there it is, and
there it is the moment of wisdom. Thank you, Yes,
I shall not return. That's it for this episode of
(56:21):
Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to
your the best minds in politics makes sense of all
this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send
it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again,
thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds. And now Mike Pence says Donald Trump
endangered his family. On January sixth, we have a fun
show today. Congressman Eric Swawell stops by to talk to
us about what it's like to have a Speaker of
(00:21):
the House who's an abject moron. Then we'll speak to
Danica Saverino Wynn, the vice president for Abortion Access at
Planned Parenthood, and she will talk us through the horrors
of post row America. But first we have the host
of the Enemy's List, the One, the Only, the Lincoln Projects,
Rick Wilson. Rick Wilson back on the podcast. Greetings, Molly
(00:43):
John Fast, Welcome back. I am delighted to be with
you as always. Yay fucking better be I mean delighted
to have you as one is. Ron de Santis struggles
with charisma, struggles with nect in with voters. It's short
will be our next president? Discuss the last point is
(01:06):
the problematic one of this of this theory, because all
sides in the magic eight ball of Republican politics point
to know. Look, is he short? He's shorter than me,
and Dan Bongina says, I'm a dwarf at five ten.
He literally tells people I met Wilson, he's only five one.
Like the fuck are you talking about? Bro? I'm taller
(01:28):
than you, bitch. But DeSantis is like five seven, five eight,
somewhere in that zone. And he's taken his people in particular,
flip the fuck out if you mentioned his lifts or
his little cowboy boots with their kicky little heels. I
gotta tell you, I got so much twitter, like we'll
run to Santos. Where's cowboy boots? Like men do? I'm like,
(01:52):
uh huh, tell me more, tell me more about this
soft handed lawyer who's never been outside of Dana's fucking life.
Can we talk about the Michael back so, he says.
De Sander struggles with connecting with the audience. He has
trouble speaking. I mean, how does he even become a
real candidate? Mom? He doesn't? Okay, Look, he is Jeb
(02:13):
Bush without the smoldering sensuality. Okay, he's he's Marco Rubio
without the without the thick masculine musk. I mean, this
is a guy who cannot make eye contact when he's
talked to normal people. Right. I noticed it when I
met him a few times when he was well before,
like well before he was a maga congressman. He was
a Paul Ryan acolite when he was a backbencher, right
(02:35):
when he was a normal, sort of basic bitch, a
boot Republican. Okay, this guy does not look you in
the eye. Now. Is that because he is arrogant or aspergery,
I don't know. But he does not focus on people.
This is a notorious problem with his staff in Tallahassee
as the governor, where he does not want to go
into meetings, he does not want to focus on people
or things. He goes and schemes away and he talks
(02:57):
to Casey and that's it. Somebody this weekend was making
a case to me that the driver here, Yeah, Ron
de Santas is ambitious, But he's ambitious because Casey. If
you look back, this woman is Tracy Flick and she's
every little she's every cliche that Republicans used to say
about Hillary Clinton. Oh, she's the scheming mastermind behind the scenes.
(03:20):
She's the reason he's going to be a president. It's
the same exact story, only much more real. Bill Clinton
had a native ambition about him and a set of
skills that Hillary could help him amplify. I mean, Casey,
the Santis should be the one running for president. She's
the one with the real, raw ambition and the talent.
But also, I mean, Bill Clinton was charismatic as fuck. Yeah,
(03:43):
oh yeah, bitches, don't a panties on the stage is?
Eddie Murphy used to say, I mean, this is a
guy who had the gift. Okay, I'm gonna be honest
with you, guys. Donald Trump had the gift. That has
the gift right, absolutely, no question. Now it's a different
thing than Bill Clinton had. As Bill Clinton made people
who met with him feel like they had a personal connection,
(04:04):
that he got them, that he understood their internal needs
and where their family was at and where their life
was at. And he had that gift of real connection
with people. It saved his ass. Even though he came
in well behind in New Hampshire, people thought they connected
with him, okay, and it changed the course in the
vector of his campaign. None of the other Republicans in
(04:25):
twenty sixteen had that gift, and frankly, so far, none
of the other Republicans in twenty twenty four have that gift.
I've said this one hundred times and people who are
not experienced in presidential campaigns, and I've not been around
the block and seen the elephant a couple of times.
I'm gonna tell you something. When ron De Santist goes
to New Hampshire, Okay, or goes to Iowa, He's going
(04:47):
to have to go and sit with the deputy county
state committeeman for bumfuck County New Hampshire, and that motherfucker
is going to want to talk about the gold standard
or some other crazy shit that he's obsesk about. Okay,
He's gonna want to talk to Ronda Stantz for an
hour in a diner. Okay, right, And you know who's
gonna do. You know he's gonna sit there. Fucking Nicky
(05:08):
Haley will go there, and Tim Scott and the rest
of the idiots and Mike Pens and they will sit
with this guy. Go. You know, your thoughts on the
gold standard, the Breton Woods Agreement are really profound, and
I'm going to make that a part of my presidential playform. Now,
Ronda Santas will go in there and go to jan
I went to Harvard and Yale. I went to Harvard
and then to Yale. I was at Yale and also Harvard,
and I have a degree from Harvard and a degree
(05:30):
from Yale. And I'm I'm not woke. And it's he's
like this Johnny one note kind of player. And you
want somebody who can go into these small meetings and
these small states and connect with people. And again, the
gigantic death star machine that Ronda Santa is inherited right
from Jeb that you helped create, you monster from Jeb
(05:51):
and Rick Scott and Charlie Chris and also you right
ye may well, look, I'm one of the many people
who helped build a big, fat, super effect Republican campaign
method in Florida. There were guys who did the grassroots stuff,
and there were guys like me who did the media stuff.
And this gigantic machine, it is a very specific flavor.
They were like the Cantonese restaurant. Okay, in a small town,
(06:14):
there's only one Cantonese restaurant, not in my town. But yes, well,
I know you're you don't live in a small town.
You live in a tiny village on the up whatever,
let's not say yes, I see I left it out there,
even though ye yes, tasteful, wasn't it. But look this,
this desire of these people in these states like Iowa, Okay,
(06:36):
to have the person who's who they who possibly could
be president of the United States come and sit in
their living room or sit in their local diner, or
come to their child soccer game or whatever the fuck
it is. Rhonda Santis has a problem. First off, he's
constitutionally personally unable to connect with people like that. Okay.
And oh, by the way, I know that they've already
(06:58):
been pitching a story out to national reporters that's like
the softer side of Ron de Santis, the one you
just don't seem friendly individual who people are finding strikingly
connected with. But it's bullshit. They're working so hard on
that story, and it's just and it's sad because I've
had a couple of reporters to go, are you fucking
kidding me with this? What the hell? But but what
(07:21):
but I mean Michael Bender story for a minute, the
headline was something to the effect of well, awkward, well
struggling with connecting with people, Ron de Santis, you know,
I mean, how do you start from there? You put
Ron de Santis on the National Review cruise ship, and
he's gonna do fucking great. Okay, I'm not even very well.
His constituency right now are basically three groups, Okay, Wall
(07:46):
Street and hedge fund dudes and Silicon Valley dudes who
desperately do not want to be forced again to be
in the Trump universe. They love the tax cut. They
hate him aesthetically, which is the worst reason to hate
Trump right. Hate him as he's a race assayst hate
him because he's an idiot. Hate him because he's a scumbag, racist,
authoritarian dip shit who tried to wreck our country. But
(08:08):
my wife doesn't like the way he says nast do
things about women's vaginas. You know, come on, those are
the people that are Rohnde Santis is number one fuel
in the engine. And we've talked about this before. Those
guys in twenty sixteen said to Jeb Bush, you, sir,
other leader, we will never abandon you. We will stand
by you until the last dog dies. Nothing. Oh hey, Jeff, listen,
(08:30):
I gotta I gotta give Trump some money. Man, Just
we love you. You're a young guy. You can run again.
But I got I got. This Trump thing is really crazy.
I gotta give him some money or I'm gonna miss
the train. And they did this like clockwork. They're gonna
do this to Ronda Santis again too. They're gonna say, Ron,
you're young, you're so talented, You've done such a great job.
But look, man, you know it's maybe it's just not
(08:53):
your time. Maybe Trump's gonna win. So listen, I'm gonna
I'm gonna have to give him a million or two,
you know, just to shut him up so he doesn't
attack my company. And that's going to happen, just like
it did in sixteen. The other part of this, Molly,
it's it's important understand about retail politics is the best
day of your campaign is the first day. If If
you think that Rohda Santis is having stories written about
(09:14):
him now about being awkward and weird and diffident and
off putting and a guy who doesn't look people in
the eye or connect with humans, imagine what it's going
to be like when every other Republican candidate is nuking
the living shit out of him every day. I also
want to say this, de Sanna's thought he was going
to be clever and go to Iowa on his book tour, which,
(09:36):
by the way, I read two chapters of that book
you did. That shit is the hottest garbage and the
reviews are so bad. You know what his editor sad
to me tell me it's written by him. Well, I
heard it was written by a bunch of other other
goons that rewrote what he wrote. It feels like a
focus group. The power to be free, the freedom to
be power, the freedom to be, the freedom to be
(09:58):
the fed, the power of freedom to be free. How
about the freedom to write a book that no one
will read, but many special interest groups will buy copies
of Oh they're like I heard the Club for Growth
is buying one hundred thousand copies and he's gonna make them.
He's gonna make a bank on this thing. God bless him.
But well, transfer, Hey, I'm a I'm a capitalist, but
you know anyway, But look, the first day of your
(10:19):
campaign is the best day. The only easy day was yesterday, right,
And I gotta say something that people are not going
to like, because I'm not one to give Donald Trump
props very often, but there's a sign this week that
Donald Trump has professionals advising him in the campaign. He
has a really good team, unfortunate way he does. And
Chris Lassavita is a brilliant campaign strategist. He's a very
(10:41):
very very smart guy. Do not liberal listeners underestimate them.
This is not the Corey Leewindowski Brad Pascal fuck show.
These are smart, professional people and there are some of them.
As my friend Terris sent I pointed out yesterday that
I've worked for de Santists and know where the bodies
are who worked for his Santis and know how to
rat shit, know it pisses him off. And my god,
(11:02):
if there's one person in America that can piss people off,
it's Donald fucking TRUMPA yeah, but anyway, Trump was out
there blasting to Santis when he goes to Iowa for
being a Paul Ryan accolyte for wanting to shut down
the ethanol program, which which I listen listen to. Santis
isn't wrong. If I wanted to shut down the ethanol program,
it's a goddamn nightmare, crony capitalist bullshit, But in Iowa
(11:23):
it is these sacred cows. And also ethanol is not green. No,
it's not great, but it does which was the fucking
bullshit where I'm sold that ethanol was great. But ethanol
is Iowa's favorite thing. It's Iowa's favorite thing. So he
went out there and what is he What else does
Trump know about the Iowa electorate? It's old as fuck.
I don't have the data in front of me right now,
(11:44):
but I seem to recall the Iowa electorate is the
fourth or fifth oldest in the country for turnout in
Republican primaries. It's old. So Trump's out there saying de
Santis wants to end your so security and Medicare Medicaid,
and he wants to kill ethanol. And I mean, this
is a guy who being advised by people who are
giving him talking points. Now, is he executing them in
his Trump and fuck weirdo way? Yeah, of course he is.
(12:07):
But he has a platform that message gets out there,
and DeSantis is out there taking these very mild sort
of s sideways bank shotty kind of well out of
a winner and whole. Oh yeah, that shit's gonna last
about five fucking seconds. When Trump gets too on a
debate stage rips out, you're livering, right, tiny d That's
(12:30):
the other thing that has triggered the run hotties, as
I've come to call them lately. Is it when I
said tiny d the other day on Twitter? It was
all the usual like Mark Hemingway and Baseball Crank and
all the Republican like desant isn't want to be subcabinet members.
They're like, you have fallen so far, Wilson, how dare
you use an insult? I'm like, they're like, you're just
(12:50):
like Trump. I said to Mark Himya, I'm like, bitch,
when I run for president, you can bring this up again, Okay,
but I'm always I am, I am who I always have.
Then I'm up in your shit. Mark, I Meanway was
like her grandfather was a communist worth noting, and I
was like, okay, I was like, that is worth noting,
you fucking idiot. I'm a communist as long as I've
(13:12):
known you, Molly. The one thing you've brought up in
conversation over and over again as your desire to see
the means of production. I mean, you never stopped talking
about it. I don't know why I'm a communist. Let's
go Stalin twenty twenty eight. Let's dig him up, zombie Stalin.
But I think the important question is So Fox News
has had a pretty bad week, and I think the
(13:36):
top line here is Hell hath no fury like a
voting machine company scored. Well. Look, I know their attorneys,
clairelock I know I know that legal team very well.
I know attorneys at Clairelocke who I am very familiar
with the ability of that law firm to rain down
hell on bad guys and what they have produced in
this The reputational harm that Fox has cast itself by
(14:00):
the divergence of its bullshit to its reality is a
gift that will keep on giving, I think for some
period of time, because what has been shown here extraordinarily
clearly is as I've been saying for years and years
and years. It's all a fucking act, especially with Tucker.
I've a people this for years. Tucker's a nihilist. He
(14:22):
loves money, he loves being in this spotlight. There's no
there there other than that. And so this this idea
that he's despises Trump and all that. I mean. The
problem for Fox that it writ large is their dominance
for a generation in politics in America was because there
was not an alternative. I mean, Chris Roddy had Newsmax.
(14:44):
It was kind of like Onesie two zy stuff down there,
and it was on you know, channel four thousand, six
hundred nineteen on Dish or on in mar SAT or
some bullshit. What about OAN? But now you have oa
N which you can't spell ononism without on on is
you know o AN and Fox and the streaming channels
in Lindell TV and Red State Broadcasting. I love Lindell
(15:08):
the best. I watch it constantly. I never turn it off.
That's right. It's on the big screen in the living
room all day, all night. Yeah, but how how do
you even get it? I don't know. I sense it
when I'm sleeping. I close my eyes on my pillow.
But the optionality now in the right, and these people
are tuning into places that this is a little scary too,
(15:30):
by the way, that are even less moderated and even
less considered, and even less giving a fuck about legal repercussions.
That their audience is tuning in because they were trained
for a long time seek out the pure, seek out
the ones that will punish the rhinos, I mean, and
own the libs. These other networks. Is the outlets now
(15:51):
own the libs better than Fox. And now there's a question. Now, people,
some fraction of Fox viewers are going to watch Tucker
and go I think he's playing me again. He hates Trump,
and slowly but surely it corrodes the audience, and when
there's an option to go somewhere else, you know, they
might vote with their clicks. Now, does this mean that
(16:13):
Fox is going to disappear tomorrow? Of course not. They're
the largest cable network in the country, and the last
round of negotiations with the cable carriers they browbeat and
blustered and screamed and jumped up and down and said,
ah h, you know, we're the big thing. You've got
to pay us the twenty bucks a month per head. Right.
I think as there's a new round of negotiations coming
up with the big carriers, that may change. Now. I
(16:35):
also have a point that I want to make that
I've been critical of the White House and the administration
on something for the fucking last time. President Biden. Use
an executive order and take Fox off every goddamn military
cable system in the country. It is radicalizing people in
our US military. It is a danger. It is a
foreign propaganda network that is absolutely being used to corrode
(16:59):
faith and belief in the American system among our military.
Just fucking say no, take it off. Do it now.
The other thing you could do, mister president, is to say,
nor will the United States government do further business with
any cable carrier that carries the Fox network. You see,
this is the kind of thing where when Donald Trump
was using executive power, and when rodn Santus in Florida
(17:22):
uses executive power, which he does every day, every fucking
minute of the day, these people put it in their
spank bank and masturbate to it for a fucking year.
I love you, just you gotta push it a little
over the top. Go on, God, I do, Molly, I've
got to push it. I've got to push it. Good
Christ Yeah, continue these ideas. Are they not conservative? No,
(17:43):
they're not particularly conservative. But the other side is using
every weapon in the book. Right. And when Donald Trump
said the things took companies like Caterpillar and Ford, you'll
do what I want or I'll punish you politically, Republicans said,
this was the greatest leadership we've ever seen. I'll do
any question. Well, guess what. I'm a skeptic of executive
orders as a broad in a broad sense, except for
(18:06):
some very narrowly crafted areas. But this is the kind
of thing that it is a fifth column that is
pumping propaganda inside the military every day. If al Jazero
was somehow the network that Republicans claim it is, and
it was pumping this into our into every government office
every day, people would lose their fucking mind. So it's
(18:28):
tuned for the president to also do what Rupert Murdoch
is doing to him and to this country and fuck
back right right? No, I agree, I mean, and I
think that is a really good idea. Now, talk to
me about the implication. I mean, does this hurt the
does this hurt the opinion host? Does this hurt the money? Honey?
Talk to me, Well, look, I think it hurts the money, honey,
(18:51):
because she seems like she's getting thrown under the bus.
I feel like she may be the blood sacrifice, but
she's not the right sacrifice. Susanne Scott is the right sacrifice, right, Yeah,
they'll get someone worse though. Arena Burganti is the right sacrifice. Oh,
are you allowed to evoke the name Arena Baganti? Arena Burganti? Yeah,
Aagan Arena Burganti. Go bring some kind of beetle Jews
(19:13):
Hell's game. No. Look, this is something that Fox is
really wondering right now. If they throw somebody off the
sled and let the wolves eat them doesn't work. I
don't think it does honestly. And bartar Romo is cuckoo
and everybody and Fox has known it for a long time.
She is sort of an Ale's legacy project that has
(19:33):
somehow been protected there. I don't know what the what
the rundown is, but is Rupert going to have to
kill somebody to get dominion to go away? I don't
think it works, right even if he does. Even if
he does, it doesn't matter. It doesn't change their case
against him because they were working for him at the time.
It seems like you cannot satisfy dominion. Like they know
their brand is ruined, you know, I mean they know
(19:56):
that Fox did this. Fox News took this to deliberately
with full knowledge it was false and what I believe
as a non lawyer, but I can look at the
world and see how things lie with a state of
malicious intent. From the jump. They knew what would happen.
They knew it was a lie. They perpetuated the lie.
(20:18):
They joked internally about how crazy the people they were
putting on the air were. They were koops and lunatics
and nuts and everything else. They brought every aspect of
this problem on themselves. They brought every single part of
this problem on themselves. They knew it was a lie
from the start. They knew there was no secret fucking
backdoor into the voting machines by the ghost of Hugo
Chavez or Zombi Fidel Castro, or that ladies with psychic
(20:42):
powers weren't secretly telling them where the code in Rome
was being used to manipulate I mean it, just the
lavish insanity of it would have been enough of the
giveaway for an actual journalistic enterprise to say, hold up,
this is too crazy. But it wasn't because they knew
they were going to play their audience. And the other
part to this Molly, I think is really important. It
goes back to the first part of this conversation about
(21:03):
where the Fox audience goes. Just like MAGA believed that,
or just like the Republican Party once believe that they
controlled Maga, that they could make could bring him out
of the closet every two years or four years and
get them to devote the right way and put them back,
just like they believed that the mob would never eat them,
that the alligator would never crawl up on the dock
when they were out of fried chicken for it and
(21:24):
eat them. I feel like you're speaking from personal experience.
That's one of my grandmother's favorite phrases, because you know,
she's like, you can throw that frat chicken in that
alligator all day long, but when you're out, it's going
to crawl up on the dock and eat you, right,
And that's what's happening. And that, yes, if you're wondering
how southern she was, there's no greater. You cannot pokee.
You cannot spike the southern meter any higher than my
(21:46):
grandmother was. But Fox is a captive of its audience now,
and if they start conforming their behavior to reality, which
is why, by the way, this desperate play that Tucker
is doing this week, and I don't know this for
a fact, but I've heard four and I don't know
if it's true, but I've heard before that the nightside
hosts are incentivized in terms of their comp by advertising,
(22:07):
oh and eyeballs. So they're trying to get the audience
to stay with them. That's why Tucker is doing this
whole historical rewrite of January sixth. I'm trying to make
it into the tourist visit blah blah blah. That's why
they're starting, I believe, to make the turn back toward Trump.
Captive of the audience, thank you Rick Wilson for joining us.
You are more than welcome. Congressman Eric Swallwell represents California's
(22:34):
fifteenth district. Welcome back to you fast politics, my friend,
Congressman Eric Swawell', I'm very excited to have you. Shall
we first talk about that committee hearing from yesterday? Yeah,
just shooting layups over here, Molly with these guys. Congressman
(22:55):
Jim Jordan. Paint the scene here for a minute. Jordan
has created a Subpoena compliance Committee, and I was named
by the Democrats to lead that. And essentially he sends
these letters to the Department of Justice that read like
a Jim Jordan ranch. Before they even read the long letter,
(23:16):
He's sent them a subpoena and then he brings them in.
So yesterday's hearing was about protecting parents under the guys
of protecting parents, well, he does not like the FBI
looking at parents who terrorize school board members, and so
he has a conspiracy theory that Merrick Garland has designated
all parents as domestic terents. Now, of course there's no
(23:39):
evidence of that and came out of that. But I
did make sure to read many of the death threats
that were sent to volunteer school board members and you know,
shows some of the violences occurred at these school board
hearings and look at Jim Jordan and their gang and
say like, is this who you guys stand with? Now?
You know, when you're not visiting terrorists at the DC
(24:02):
jail who are responsible for January six, Now you're going
to come in here and be on the side of
people who are terrorizing school board members. These are parents
who are threatening school board members. And Jim Jordan is
upset that the FBI is then going to question them. Yes,
he wants to be tough on terrorists unless the terrorists
(24:25):
like Jim Jordans. That's kind of my faith. Wow, tell
me about what your sort of takeaway was from this experience. Oh,
first of all, by the way, taking a step back,
it's pretty fucking rich that Jim Jordan's of all people
in the world would hold a hearing on subpoena compliance, right,
(24:48):
I mean, really is shocking that a guy who was
referred to the Ethics Committee because he didn't honor a
congressional subpoena has some thoughts on people honoring congressional subpoenas. Now,
the DJ witnessed did what Jim Jordan was not willing
to do, which was show up, talk to Congress talk about,
(25:09):
you know, what he knew and didn't know. And it
was quite easy. Jim Jordan could have done it. He
could have raised his right hand and answered questions about
the crime that he witnessed leading up to January sixth,
but he refused to do it. And he wants to
lecture all of us about what the Department of Justice
should do when he's the one signing the subpoena. Why
do you think that is? We're living through this krrupt
(25:30):
bargain where for Jim Jordan to have a gabble and
Kevin McCarthy to have the title of speaker. There's installment
payments that have to be made, and so Marjorie Taylor
Green has to go on the Homeland Security Committee. We
have to harbor the International Wanted criminal George Santos, And
(25:50):
we have to buy into this idea that police officers
should not be looking at parents who terrorized school board
meetings because those parents share the beliefs of Magan Nation.
And so Jim Jordan has formed one of the largest
law firms in DC with the Weaponization Committee, the Subpoena Committee,
(26:12):
the Judiciary Committee, and it's essentially just a law firm
that has one client right. And so they're going to
work on behalf of Donald Trump and the Republican Conference
will be this vessel state of Maga Nation so that
they can just carry out all of Trump and his
supporters grievances. But it's backfired every single time. Right, You've
got Matt Gates reading from like the China Times to
(26:35):
make a point. By the way, that was an amazing
moment where the witness was like, where did you get
that from? That? Lauren Bobert is citing statistics from the
Trump administration to own the Bind administration. Matt Gates, two
weeks before the China Times debacle, brings in a guy
(26:55):
to say the pledge of allegiance, who's an accused murderer.
After trying to make the point that Democrats don't want
to say the Pledge of Allegiance and Molly during that
debate where David Cecillini had the crazy idea that if
you're going to come in and say the Pledge of
Allegiance again and Gates doesn't give a shit about saying
the Pledge of Allegiance, by the way, this is just
to like try and give a Democrat to vote against it, right.
(27:16):
Cellini kind of pushed back and said, well, if you're
gonna say the Pledge of Allegiance, we should at least
be able to vet who this individual is. And Tom
McClintock on the Republican side, I'm not shitting you, says, well,
it's not like we're going to bring in somebody who
committed murder, which they then did. Yeah, he actually did.
So it's just a comedy of heirs right now, a
(27:40):
failure to launch, so to speak, on their side. As
I said, it's just shooting layups right now with these guys.
It's not the hardest work we've had to do. I
want to know Kevin McCarthy has his job. He is
nominally Speaker of the House, speaker light Speaker of Light, right,
I mean really I think he is Kevin McCarthy the
Speaker of the House, or really is Tough Garlson the
(28:00):
Speaker of the House. Yeah, so I would say he
has the title. Marjorie Taylor Green has the job because
he can't do anything without her support. Part of the
reoccurring payment plan that McCarthy has to stay in a
speaker was that installment payment to Tucker Carlson, you know,
with the sensitive security footage from January six and so
we're going to see more, you know, installment payments that
(28:24):
Will Jeffert has our national security, like one of them
being defunding the troops by seventy five billion dollars, which
was another promise he made to become speaker. And by
the way, well, I really don't think Kevin McCarthy wants
anything more than just the title of speaker. I don't
think he's never demonstrated like that he's got an idea
that would solve a problem. I think he just knows
(28:46):
enough to know that it's cool to be speaker. And
beyond that, I don't think he really cares about like
the job of governing and getting shipped done. Yeah, there's
no evidence to support the idea that he is pictually
interested in this job, like in legislating. Correct. And if
(29:07):
you think back to the first one hundred days when
Democrats were in the majority in twenty nineteen and then
back again with Biden this president, we delivered a lot.
I mean, we were busy, we were working passing historic
legislation as marks of what we do when we were
in the majority in the Senate, in the White House.
And then we did it again when we had that
kind of holy trinity, and we're able to do it.
(29:30):
But here they promised a border bill, they haven't delivered that.
They've promised a budget and his hockey and Jeffreys has
said the budget has gone into the witness protection program. Like,
we have no idea where their budget is. And again
I think it's just he doesn't know how to do this.
He doesn't really want to do this. He just wants
to be called speaker. What other stuff are they cooking
(29:51):
up there? There's this congressional delegation that Marjorie Taylor Green
is leading to the DC jail. They really call them
codel This is, you know, like a taror deal. They're
going to go visit those responsible for January six, which
again for the first time in their lives, they care
about the rights of inmates. But again it's only it's
not because of any concerning or criminal dress. It's just
(30:13):
their friends. It's these are these people that they rooted
for during the riot. We are now behind balls. This
was the pathway to the most disappointing mid term performance,
you know, for the party, not in the White House ever,
that they just pulled off, and it doesn't seem that
they've learned from it at all. You know, the voters
(30:34):
rejected this nonsense in November, and it's just they're just
doubling down. Yeah, it is really interesting that they are
completely uninterested in like stopping and saying, well, like this
was the kind of stuff that lost us in twenty
twenty and twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two. Perhaps we'd
(30:58):
like to pause in client reflect action and try for
something else. But there seems to be no interest in that.
Huh No. And again that's because no one has figured
out how to grab the mantle of leadership from maganation,
which again is not the majority of Republicans, but it's
the loudest, most violent, most provocative, and so everyone else
(31:22):
just wishes this problem away and no leadership has emerged,
you know, to try and solve it or variant, and
so it persists. And I think we're in for another
cycle or two where it's chaos versus competency on the ballot.
If you look at this Republican Party right, so we're
it certainly looks like Trump is in for more legal
(31:44):
problems in your mind, I mean, do you think that
these people will go along with the Santis, which is
the hope of the donor class. I mean, you're with
them every day. I mean, do these seat people seem
like they would switch their allegiances. I still seem only that,
you know, Donald Trump commands thirty tot of you know,
the Republican base, and if it's a crowded field, he's
(32:05):
going to keep that base. And by the way, Ronda
Santis is one charmless guy. I don't know if met him,
but we don't elect charmless people to be president of
the United States. The way that Trump has been like
just pounding him and getting so personal with him, calling
(32:26):
him a groomer, you know, etc. And de Santis isn't
punching back. It reminds me of Ted Cruz and that
didn't last long. If you're not going to punch back
against Trump, I think you're going to be chewed up
and spit out, just like the other eighteen candidates in
twenty sixteen. And so if he's not willing to do that,
and I think he will join the ranks of you know,
(32:47):
Jeb Scott Walker and many of the other rising stars
you know in the party whose names and whereabouts were
all unclear on now, right, I mean it seems like
the on de Santis could very much have a ted
cruise trajectory. Again. If you're not willing to punch back
and you can't do again, you can't do it in
(33:09):
a you know, Marco Rubio immature way, right, you're going
to have to land punches. And to me, you're I
don't want to give these guys advice, But Donald Trump
is a loser, right. He lost the House in eighteen,
he lost the White House in twenty. He weighed in
against the advice of everybody in the party in twenty
two and just lost across the board. And so you
(33:30):
can run a cult in America, but in a democracy,
I just don't understand how you can run a party
and lead a party if you're a three time loser,
and it doesn't seem to me that you need to
say anything more than that. But if you do that,
you better be able to stand up to what's going
to come back from him. And if you're not able to,
then you're not going to beat him. And you certainly
haven't passed the test of being president, which means having
(33:54):
to stand up to a lot of bad people in
the world. So let me ask you about what is
happening with the Congress now? Is there any serious stuff
getting done in this Jim Jordan Congress. Yeah, they're about
to make the AR fifteen the National Gun of America.
(34:15):
And I get a lot of letters asking me where
are we going to name a national gun of America?
So that makes sense that they've focused so much on that. Yeah,
because it's it's a problem. I mean, you're not kidding,
you're actually being serious. Yeah, they're seeking to do that. Yes,
there's legislation. Wait what, Yes, I'm not I'm not kidding.
That's pretty stupid. But Molly, the way I see it,
(34:37):
there are three things they have to do, really like,
they can do all their crazy They can name national
guns of America. They can go to the DCH jail,
you know, and have as many visits as they like.
But you have to pay America's bills by extending the
debt ceiling. You have to keep the government open later
this fall, and you have to keep Ukraine in the
(34:57):
fight against Russia. And you're going to have to mondo
the crisis of the moment right now as we speak.
You know, there is a major, major banking crisis. Silicon
Valley Bank, which banks a lot of tech biotechs startups,
is in collapse. And if we don't find a way
to guarantee deposits beyond the FDIC limit, a lot of companies,
(35:20):
small and medium sized companies are not going to be
able to make their pay and it could it could
tank the global economy if we don't get it right.
And so again, you can go to the dcjail all
you like, but you actually have to do real things
when a real crisis comes. And I'm just afraid that
these guys may not be up for it. So if
they can take time away from the DC jail and
(35:41):
just focus on paying our bills, funding the government, keeping
Ukraine in the fight, and responding to a crisis like this,
everything will be Okay. The good news is there's competency
on our side. We only need just a few of
them to cross over. We don't need Gates and Jordan
and Green and Bobert. We just need a few responsibles
to cross over, and we'll be fine. Because that's the
(36:01):
next big dramas the dead ceiling in June. Yeah and
so yeah, Secretary Yelling said, you know, this is around
the corner. There's no magic wand away. There's no going
back in time and changing spending that we already agreed
to in dollars. I already went out the door. We
just have to show the world and creditors that, you know,
(36:21):
when we wrack up a bill, whether you're at a
bar or you're at a federal bank, we pay our bills.
And so Republicans want to use this to otherwise pass
priorities that they couldn't pass, you know, in Congress. You know,
so again it's it's very antimajority. They want to enact
harsh cuts to Social Security or Medicare, or get deeper
(36:45):
into Hunter Biden's laptop and leverage the need to extend
the debt ceiling. And it's just not going to work.
I agree with the president on not negotiating around this
because a big chunk of that debt is Donald Trump's
debt and spending that they did in twenty seventeen, you know,
the Trump tax bets, and so that's not negotiable. Yeah, unbelievable.
(37:06):
Thank you, Thanks Molly. Danica Saverina Wynn is the vice
president for Abortion Access at Planned Parenthood. Welcome, Too Fast Politics, Dannica,
thank you for having me. So I wanted to talk
to you about what I mean. I don't want to
talk about it, but I feel that we have to
(37:27):
talk about this post row landscape. So first, will you
explain to our listeners what you do and how you
are functioning in this post Row world. Sure. Yes, I
am a midwife by training. I provide sexual and reproductive healthcare,
including medication abortion. I also have the privilege of working
(37:50):
for Planned Parenthood Federation of America or PPFA as the
vice president of Abortion Access. As you can imagine, that
is a busy job nowadays. Is the ruling in the
Jobs decision that overturned revivweight means that I spend a
lot of time working with my team and teams across
(38:10):
the national office to ensure that in states where abortion
is still legal, that we are able to provide care
to the best of our ability and see as many
patients as possible and sure they get the care that
they need and deserve. Will you explain to us a
little bit about what's happening right now with medication abortion
in America. Yeah, absolutely so. Over the past several years,
(38:34):
medication abortion has increased in popularity for a variety of reasons.
Now more than half of abortions in the United States
are abortioned by pills, which is another term for medication abortion.
It's typically done early in the pregnancy, usually up to
about ten or eleven weeks gestation in many places. Right now,
(38:55):
there is an active case in the Northern District of
Texas where one of the medications that's used for medication abortion,
it's a typically two step process, mithopristone, is at risk
of being taken off the market. This ruling is unprecedented
as this drug has FDA approved and has been used
(39:15):
for years with an incredible safety record. What it means
is that we could lose access to the most effective
method of medication abortion and also a very effective method
for miscarriage management in this country, and it could impact
both states and without access to abortion. So I want
to ask you a little bit about how the FDA
(39:40):
monitors method pre zone because it's pretty interesting. Will you
talk about that, because it's not monitored like a normal drug,
it's actually monitored more right, Right, myfopristone has been under
what's called the rems by the FDA for a long time.
So what that means is that there is a registration
(40:00):
basically that has to happen in order for it to
be dispensed, and prior to very recently, it wasn't only
able to be dispensed in an office setting, so people
had to go into an office to be provided with
the medication. And because of that, we have even more
extensive data than we would otherwise about the safety and
effectiveness of mythoprestone. Right. But I want to point out
(40:22):
I think really an important kind of thing that Republicans
are doing the Anti Choice Crew. Part of their argument
is that methapre zone is not safe, right, which is
patently false. So it is unfortunately a case where we
have politicians and decision makers in government making a decision
(40:44):
about evidence based research without the knowledge and training to
do so. So these are decisions that should be made
between a person and their healthcare provider because we understand
and know, oh that that's the best and safest way
to provide care. And in this case, we have a
(41:07):
situation where there's basically junk science being used to make
decisions about medical care that's incredibly personal. I mean, it's
incredible that we're in this place in twenty twenty three
where we're having to demonstrate over and over again that
the literature and the research clearly show safety. Yet there
is a potential that one judge could make a decision
(41:29):
for the whole country to remove a medication that is
completely safe from the market. Yeah, it's it's completely crazy.
I mean this reminds me a lot of SBA, because
in Texas, SBA was passed and we kept thinking that
someone would do something sane and no one ever did
right in the right right. I mean I feel like
everyone was like, yeah, yeah, SPA. I mean, but they
(41:52):
were like but eventually, and so I'm curious. I mean,
this is so is a similar attitude people have, which
is that, oh, a judge can do an injunction against
this right. I mean, there's a lot of feeling that
maybe the legal channels will prevent this from being enacted. Sure,
I mean, there are a lot of different ways that
(42:14):
this could come down, and really we won't know the
exact ramifications or impact of this case until we actually
see the decision and see how it's written. Advocates will
continue to fight every step of the way to prevent
methocystem from being taken off the market, but at the
end of the day, we really just have to question
how did we get here and what are they coming
for next? Well, yeah, I want to just also mention
(42:37):
that if this keeps getting kicked up in the courts,
which a lot of these anti choice activists are quite
good at finding things and getting them kicked up in
the courts, ultimately our Supreme Court is profoundly anti choice. Yeah.
We saw that certainly in the oral arguments for the
Job's case. I mean, their feelings were pretty clear if
(42:59):
you read through those or arguments or if you were listening.
So it is incredibly alarming to have a politically active
Supreme Court. That's just not how it's supposed to go.
And so knowing that that is a possibility definitely should
make people worried about what that means, what The larger
implications are for healthcare, because abortion is healthcare. Healthcare is
(43:22):
a human right, and this could just be the tip
of the iceberg. If one judge is able to take
a medication off the market, what's next? No, exactly. Now
here's a question for you about this. There's a case
in Tensis right now of these women who could not
get the treatment that they needed because of the SBA law.
(43:43):
Can you talk a little bit about that. What we're
seeing is a case where five people have come forward
who medical care was denied and delayed as a result
of the restrictive laws in Texas, cases where they were
experiencing fetal loss or significant harm to themselves due to
(44:06):
complications in their pregnancy. The idea that somebody needs to
be so sick that they are in critical danger of
death before they can get life saving medical care because
of restrictive laws and not due to any type of
science is alarming. And these are a perfect example of
(44:27):
how it's not just about abortion. It goes so much
further a mess right. This has impacts on miscarriage management,
It has impacts on providing people life saving care during pregnancy,
has impacts on IVF and again like We just really
need to think about what the larger ramifications are if
(44:47):
we do not rise up together and fight against this.
The thing I'm struck by is that we're finally starting
to see these women who are not pro choice, but
who have gotten pregnant and have had needed miscarriage management,
They too, are starting to understand this. Yeah. I mean,
(45:09):
we hear stories, unfortunately all the time, of people who
faced harm or near harm because of restrictive laws like
lens in Texas. I've certainly heard stories as well if
people worried about moving during their pregnancy to a state
with an abortion ban because they worry about their health
and state of health care for them while they're pregnant.
(45:30):
Criminalization of pregnancy is absurd. Having life threatening health outcomes
because of laws is absurd. There is no place for
a politician in an exam room in a hospital. Providers
should really be able to make the best decisions based
(45:52):
on evidence and based on science that they can for
their patients without having to worry about prosecution. As this
goes on, we're seeing more and more just how much
abortion really is healthcare. Yeah, I mean, I am grateful
in many ways that you said that, because I do
think it is allowing people to understand just how complex
(46:13):
this issue is and that it really does have a
much larger impact than conservatives in our government would like
you to believe. Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting. So
there's clearly like a concerted effort from these anti choice
activists to take away all choice period paragraph whatever that
(46:35):
looks like, and abortion and miscarriage management, which isn't even
a choice, right, it's just what it is. What else
do you see on the horizon of them going after
I mean, I think they've made it very clear that
they want to see a federal ban on abortion. Actually
they said that they want to leave it to the states,
but then they're clearly signaling what they would do if
(46:57):
they are able to get the majority in twenty twenty
four elections, and so that's terrifying. But I think we're
also seeing attacks on what we are seeing attacks on
gender affirming hormone therapy, we're seeing attacks on contraception. I
think the restrictive access that could happen even in some
(47:18):
states has trickle effects on our whole country. Twenty something
states cannot take care of everyone across the country when
it comes to their sexual and reproductive health needs, and
in situations where we are seeing the ability for government
to interfere with even the medications that we have on
the market outside of the FDA and outside of evidence
(47:42):
is striking. I wanted to talk for one second about
the larger implications of like the morning after pill, for example,
like that has We've seen a lot of conservatives come
for the morning app right, they're sort of that IVF.
I mean, those are sort of what is first control maybe,
(48:03):
I mean, that is what seems like it's on the
agenda for them. Yeah, And it's the constant misinformation campaigns
that I think allow them to march forward and continue
to spread lies that you know, the morning after pill
or emergency contraception is the same as an abortion. It's
patently untrue. It is that is not how it works. Similarly,
(48:26):
you know, we heard those arguments when they were working
really hard to prevent the morning after pill from going
over the counter. But despite the science, despite the evidence,
they continue to push forward misinformation as a way to
push forward their agenda of removing choice. Such a bomber.
(48:46):
What is it like working with people on the ground.
Are you seeing a lot of panic? I mean, so
I am a provider who because of my work with PPFA,
I see patients about once a month. I can tell
you that my colleagues across the country who are in
(49:08):
health centers day in and day out, are overwhelmed and
they are hearing stories that are heartbreaking about people traveling
distances for care that are beyond reasonable, beyond unreasonable. Rather,
they are hearing stories of people having to cobble together
funds and patchwork support for child care in order to
(49:31):
travel from southern Texas to Kansas, for example, or to Illinois.
They are being asked to provide care for more and
more people, and they want to because people who work
in this space typically it is a passion. They're there
because they want to support patients. And so I think
(49:52):
the patients are struggling, and the patients deserve access to healthcare.
But the providers are all so struggling, and they have
been asked to take on larger and larger caseloads to
serve more and more people because of restrictive laws in
some states. Do you think Republicans just keep going? I mean,
(50:12):
do you think they ever are like, Wow, this is
not popular. People don't like this. I mean, that's The
thing I'm always shocked by is like I feel like,
shouldn't sooner or later they have a kind of come
to Jesus moment and they're like, this is ridiculous. Obviously
this is not serving anyone or but that seems to
not be what's happening. I mean, we would only hope
because truly it's not reflective of right what the people
(50:36):
across this country want. Democratic Republican I mean, it's so clear. Yeah,
overwhelmingly we see that people support the right to abortion access,
and so I don't know what it will take to
get folks to recognize that this is not the will
of the people. That I do hope that in upcoming elections,
(50:56):
as more and more of this comes out and as
people really see what the agenda is here, that they
are going to make their voices heard in the voting
booths and they're going to make sure that folks who
are ignoring the will of the people are not in
charge of our country. Thank you so much, Donica, that
was really I really am glad you came, and I
hope you'll come back. Thank you so much. Thanks for
(51:18):
having me. I appreciate you raising up awareness about the
state of reproductive healthcare and abortion access in this country.
So in Florida, Ronda Santas fired a prosecutor named Andrew Warren,
a state attorney. Yes, who we've both been talking to, right,
we both talked to him after Ron fired him. It
(51:39):
was revealed this week that when Ronda Santis's staff brought
him the report, he wanted to say, tell me how
he's a liberal sorrows controlled libtard liberal. It turned out
they were like, we don't have anything on this. So
he just fired him based purely on executive preference, not
for cause. Can he do that? There's a long reason
(52:01):
why governors are more powerful right now that they don't
want to talk about on the air, But I'll tell
it to you off the air later. But Florida governors
have a lot more power than they used to since
the two thousand constitutional revision. Okay, so this is a
state issue. Yeah, it looks like he can. But in
the legal case that was brought against De Santists, it
doesn't look like that they told the truth about this.
(52:24):
So I don't know where it leads. But the moment
of fuckery here is a pure example that Rod de
Santists for every one of these National Review jerk offs
who think I want to live in the limit the
power of government. Right, Well, your boy Rod de Santis,
who you write twenty thousand words a week about claiming
that his farts smell like rainbows and honeysuckle, and then
he's the best tallest person ever and the smartest man
(52:46):
in the room, and the savior of the Republican Party,
that women get pregnant just by looking at him, and
that the women sings a sweet song every night when
he puts his head on the pillow. All this bullshit.
This is a guy who is rampant, who is a
rampant record of an abusive state power. He is the
number one abuser of state power in the country and
that includes states like fucking Tennessee and Mississippi. People, Okay,
(53:08):
so Florida, stan Is. This is one more example that
if you are a limited government conservative, the few that
are left, this is not your guy. But if you're
an unlimited government conservative, which is the new breed of Republican,
well there you go. My moment of fuckery has got
to be the poor Nicky Haley destroying herself as she
(53:30):
continues to try to win people over with raising the
retirement raid and cutting medicare. Oh yes, there's just nothing.
There's nothing seniors want to hear more. Then, hey, grandma,
you can eat that food into your seventy She is
an incredible politician because two weeks ago she was like,
(53:51):
there should be a competency age for everyone over seventy five.
Those are your voters. So they love for you. You
say that they're in competent already, they love that. And
then the second thing, which my other favorite, is that
everyone who's in their twenties now should not, you know,
have raised the retirement age. They are rioting in France
(54:11):
right now because of this raising. Is what seventy right,
Mark it down. Nicky Haley is going to come in
third or maybe fourth in her own home state. Mark
it down. Put it down. I'm putting one hundred bucks
on it. Mark it down. She's going to come in
third or fourth in her own home state. This person
(54:33):
is not a good candidate, yea. She is a candidate
who has again remember what I said earlier, your best day,
your campaign's your first day. She's on the downhill slope
in this thing right now, headed toward political oblivion at
rocket speed. She is not a good candidate. We need
to have to understand that some people have the gift.
Nicky Haley does not have the gift. Do any of
(54:54):
these candidates have the gift besides Donald Trump? And again,
the gift is a curse. But I don't do you
see anyone who's like charismatic and who's going to go
on there and charm the field. Name one of those
people who has the gift. You can't even the hypotheticals. Okay, well,
Mike Pence, no, certainly no Scott, Tim Scott maybe gift adjacent,
(55:14):
but he's not. He's not ready for this thing for
a host of reasons that need not be discussed. He's
not going to survive the vetting. Oh Tim Scott isn't. Yeah,
no way, no fucking way. Let's put it this way.
South Carolina is not going to produce a presidential candidate
right now. Right there's just not The flaws are too
vast for the for the rest of the field, it's
(55:35):
not going to happen. But none of these people that
are even perspectives, I mean, Jesus Christ, Josh Holly, ted Cruise,
even if they wanted to get in right and there
are still a lot of there like I'm not going
to run, but they're working out right, right. None of
them have the gift. Some of them have the gift
with Republican like own the Libs stuff, right, But that's
not sufficient to win a presidential nomination. It's not sufficient
(55:58):
to win a presidential race. And I will tell you
a great candidate with a bad campaign can sometimes pull
it off. A bad candidate with a great campaign can
rarely pull it off. Rick Wilson, there it is, and
there it is the moment of wisdom. Thank you, Yes,
I shall not return. That's it for this episode of
(56:21):
Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to
your the best minds in politics makes sense of all
this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send
it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again,
thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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