October 7, 2024 • 49 mins
The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson takes the temperature of VP Harris's chances of winning the election. Laura Gillen, who is running against Congressman Anthony Desposito in New York's 4th District, details her hotly contested race.
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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 Elon Musk jumped up and down
at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Do with that
information what you will? We have such a great show
for you today. The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson takes the
(00:24):
temperature of VP Harris's presidential campaign. Then we'll talk to
Laura Gillen, who is running against Congressman Anthony di Esposito
in New York's fourth District, a hotly contested race.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But first the news.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So Mary, Governor Walls did the thing that a lot
of people get testy about as he went on Fox News,
and I think it went pretty well. Why don't we
listen to him real quick? Can you tell us what
you think?
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I want to talk of that abortion too, because this
came up at the debate. It's been a winning argument
for Democrats on many ballots. But I want to clarify
what the law is there in Minnesota. Abortion Finder, a
website that helps women find access, says abortion is legal
throughout pregnancy in Minnesota. There is no ban or limit
on abortion in Minnesota. Based on how far along in
a pregnancy you are, you sign the bill that makes
(01:13):
it legal through.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
All nine months.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Is that a position you think Democrats should advocate for nationally?
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Look, the Vice President, I have been clear the restoration
of Roe versus way. It is what we're asking for,
way to make our own the law. The law is
very clear. It does not change that that has been
debunked on every occasion.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Itzy, let what you signed is there's not a single
limit through nine months of pregnancy. Row had a trimester
framework that did have limits through the pregnancy. The Minnesota
law does not have that.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
This puts This puts the decision with the woman in
her healthcare providers. The situation we have is when you
don't have the ability of healthcare providers to provide that,
that's who you end up with a situation like Amanda's
Warsky in Texas where they are afraid to do what's necessary.
This doesn't change anything. It puts the decision back on
(02:03):
to the woman, to the physicians, and we know that
this is simply something to be brought up.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Tis to be very clear.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Donald Trump's asking for a nation wide abortion bank, and
again we don't see this.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
She said repeatedly that she will not sign a national
abortion band. Are you calling that just it's a flat
out line.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Yes, of course, and Senator Vance has in the past
said so too. Now, look, they may see this as
an election issue. We see it as a right of
women to make their own bodily decisions. And that's what
the states like my state have the ability to put that.
In states like Georgia force women to cross the border,
and then we have a death of Amber Thurmot. So
(02:41):
let's be very clear, trying to cut hairs on an
issue on this is not where the American public's at.
They want the restoration of roe versus Wade. Vice President
Harris said she would sign it. That's what we'll do
with election.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I think a lot of people have wanted Walls to
do this because he's really good at it, and also
because honestly, these fucking dishonest Fox News hosts right like,
clearly Trump is going to sign a national ban.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
If he doesn't, it'll be shocking to me. JD.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Vance is already numerous times on various podcasts in podcasts
intimated that he is going to ban abortion, that his
goal is to stop abortion and we've seen Alito and
Thomas both say that they'd like to use the Comstock
Act to prevent the mailing of abortion pills. So obviously, yes, yes, yes,
(03:38):
Tim Walls on Fox News put him on there every
fucking day until the election. And look, we see your
favorite Mayor Pete. When Mayor Pete goes on Fox News.
It is actually sometimes it's the only truth that these
people see, Like Jessica Tarloff, it's not fun, but it's
a necessary evil in our siloed media ecosystem. And I
(04:01):
think it's so smart to get him up there. And
the truth is, he reminds a lot of Midwestern people.
I've heard this again and again of the dads they
lost to Fox News.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So I think it's very smart to have him up there.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And I think he's going to continue to debunk these
right wing talking points. And the reality is, yet again,
like the biggest lie that Donald Trump loves is this
idea that women are carrying fetuses till the you know,
till they're thirty eight weeks and then having an abortion.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
For yucks.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Nobody is having a last trimester abortion unless the baby
is dead or dying or about to die.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And the mother too will die. That's it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's how it's you know, it's one percent of all abortions,
and it's because things have gone so horribly pear shaped
that this is the only choice for anyone. So I
thought that was a really good point. And the fact
that he was able to go on that show and
remember those women's names, well, that blonde woman was yelling
at him, good for you, Governor Walls.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
So, Mollie, I feel like the mainstream media is really
having a hard time with their lack of access to
VP Harris and Governor Walls. She's going on Call Her
Daddy this week and the Howard Stern Show, but not
doing appearances with them. What are you see in here?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
So this is something that people in the mainstream media
themselves are quite mad about. As a member of the
mainstream media, I write for Vannie Fair, I appear on MSNBC.
I actually think that the Harris campaign is doing this
totally right. They don't owe the mainstream media anything. And
the other thing is that our internet and our radio
(05:39):
and our televisions are very siloed now, so for her
to go on places where political people live in a
certain space, right, it's MSNBC, it's CNN, it's the New
York Times.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
They know her.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
She needs to go on the shows where she's going
to be able to activate the ones, Twoes and ree
is the low propensity voters. Those are the people she
needs to win. So I think it's very smart for
her to go on Call Her Daddy. I think it's
very smart for her to go on Howardster and those
are huge audiences that can produce viral moments, and she
(06:17):
needs to be as around as possible, So I think
it's very smart. She's also doing sixty Minutes, which is
traditional mainstream media. Look, there is a thing happening here
which is a real phenomenon, which is because there are
no gatekeepers. Because social media has taken over to some
(06:37):
effect and killed a lot of newspapers and magazines, The
mainstream media doesn't.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Have the power it used to have.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Right, You used to be able to rely on newspaper
endorsements to help presidential candidates. That doesn't happen anymore, and
in fact, so much so that New York Times is
no longer even doing endorsements.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So I do think that for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It really is a phenomenon where the mainstream media is
feeling its power diminished and they're not happy about it.
But we have like a little bit more than thirty
days until this presidential election, and it's the election to
see if we're going to have more elections. So I'd
rather she goes on call her daddy and we just
all take the.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
L for now, agreed. So here's an interesting one. Most
viral tiktoks are at a fifth grade reading level, but
Trump speaks at below that. What do you see it here?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I love that you have that bit of information.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Most viral tiktoks are at a fifth grade reading level,
but Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Is at a fourth grade reading level.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know people on the left that love to be
mad at the New York Times, and with good reason.
I'm sorry, I'm speaking to my husband now. He is
right to be mad at the New York Times. That's okay.
I know the opinion page makes you mad sometimes. But
this is an incredible story they did which took a
ton of work, which is they fed into a computer
all of these different Trump speeches and they were able
(07:58):
to sort of analyze the words, the speech patterns, where
he went with this stuff. And it's quite interesting and
definitely worth reading, and the analysis found that Trump speaks
at a fourth grade level.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Far below that of his rivals.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And again, I don't want to say anything nice about
Rohn de Santis ever, but he speaks at an eighth
grade level, which is almost high school, so good for him.
Trump's speech complexity has not changed dramatically as he's aged.
But that said, he uses thirty two percent more negative
words than positive words, which again, in twenty sixteen, he
(08:35):
gave a speech which you'll remember famous liberal George W.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Bush described as some weird shit.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Okay, And that was when he was only doing twenty
one percent of negative words. Now it's gone up to
thirty two percent. He uses swear words, and he's more disinhibited,
which is a sign of aging than when he ran
so really interesting piece with a ton of different bylines.
Peter Baker leads it, it's definitely worth looking at this
(09:05):
piece about Trump's language.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Milly, there is really unexpectedly great economic news out this week,
and I feel like it really broke the right wings
Brad And says, usual.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, there are these jobs numbers that show basically that
they've lowered a twelve month recession probability to five points
this is from Goldman. It's a big deal, and it
shows that we've hit that kind of soft landing those
numbers that we had thought were impossible during the supply
(09:37):
chain crisis.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Basically, these is a blowout.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Economic numbers, and I think that what's interesting is that
a lot of the other numbers that were reversed down
have now been reversed up. So the federal unemployment rate
fell to four point one, which shows that the economy
is resilient and that maybe the Fed doesn't need to
lower rates anymore. The other the thing about it is
(10:01):
that Republicans could not absorb this news in a way
that was healthy and normal. For example, Rubio, Marco Rubio.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Who used to be little market.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Right, little marcall who used to be thought of as
like a normal senator, but now because he wants to
have the kind of virality or whatever it is that
Marjorie Taylor Green gets. He said on X the Juggernaut
of Disinformation and misinformation, another fake jobs report out of
(10:39):
the Biden Harris government today. Rubio said sixteen of the
seventeen reports have been significantly revised downwards after media helps
them with their fake headlines. Quote quote quote, but actually
that's not even true. The latest jobs report shows we've
actually seen that that's not true, that they've been reversed.
We had a labor economist say he is just wrong
(11:00):
and mischaracterizing the current data. The Bureau of Labor and
Statistics we all know as a nonpartisan agency, they don't
really give a fuck who's in power. And at least
a few of the seemingly positive revisions are going to
be negatively revised to the original revisions.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That's really common.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Rubio is just mad to see good news happening in
the economy because he's worried it won't help Trump. Trump,
of course said that all the jobs were being taken
by immigrants, which is Trump's de facto on everything. So
in fact, the jobs report were not fake news, they
were real news.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
We have even more toward dates for you. Did you
know the linked projects Rick Wils that have Fast Politics
maleijug Fast are heading out on tour to bring you
the night of lasts for our dark political landscape. Join
us on August twenty sixth, that'sifed Cisco at the Swedish
American Hall, or in LA on August twenty seventh at
the Regent Theater then we're headed to the Midwest. We'll
be at the Bavarium in Milwaukee on the twenty first
(12:09):
of September, and on the twenty second, we'll be in
Chicago at City Winery. Then we're going to hit the
East coast on September thirtieth, We'll be in Boston at
Arts at the Armory. On the first of October, we'll
be in affiliate City Winery, and then DC on the
second at the Miracle Theater. And today we just announced
that we'll be in New York on the fourteenth of
October at City Winery. If you need to laugh as
we get through this election and hopefully never hear from
(12:31):
a guy who lives in a golf club again, we
got you covered. Join us in our surprise guests to
help you laugh instead of cry your way through this
election season and give you the inside analysis of what's
really going on right now. Buy your tickets now by
heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as
Unusual dot bio.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Brick Wilson is the founder of The Lincoln Project and
host of the Enemy's List Welcome Back, Too Fast Politics.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Rick Wilson Junk Fast. How are you on this fine day.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, your day is better than mine because you're in
California and I'm in New York.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
That's a fact.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That is a fact.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
But you are three hours behind, so I do have
that on you. I want to start by talking about
our text exchange, so because I think it's really important.
The last couple days, there's been a real vibes based
media meltdown about Vice President Harris, which has included a
lot of pieces by smart people that we're friends with
(13:30):
about how she's not doing enough and how this election
is slipping through her fingers the way that it felt,
but it wasn't actually true because the fundamentals were different
for Hillary Clinton. But it felt to a lot of
people in twenty sixteen that that last month where Hillary
Clinton was fundraising and not on the trail in the
way that Donald Trump was, that it was slipping through
(13:54):
her fingers. So I feel like, if I'm having that anxiety,
then our listeners are also having that anxiety. So I
need you to talk them and also me at the
same time, which is more bang for the book.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Off the ledge.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Here's the thing, Mally, Hillary in the last few weeks
of the campaign of days was not on the air
spending money in Wisconsin and other states. That is more
important than showing up at four hundred interviews, you know,
for the seventeenth time with the Washington Post or The
New York Times or Bloomberg. The Harris team is not
taking this lightly. They are pounding away in the States
(14:28):
with massive television de buys, massive digital ad bys. They
are doing the work. This is not some twenty sixteen
on repeat thing. Because they learned those lessons, they understand it.
I also want to say a number of these pieces
that have come out have very much had that vibe
of self serving bullshit. Well, she doesn't do interviews with
(14:49):
our outlet, therefore it must be must be about to lose.
I don't buy it. I think there are awful lot
of these people who were at the Times in particular,
who still haven't gotten there pound of flesh out of her,
and so I think a lot of it comes down
to the fact that they aren't getting the candy they
want to eat. I don't think that that is a
(15:09):
side of a doomed campaign. Look, Donald Trump hasn't led
a pole in the national polls for now eleven days.
This race is going his way. He's not moving any
state numbers, you're going to see a lot of I
know that. Something they're doing right now. They're trying to
surge all the right wing polesters Trafalgar Rasmus and lunatics.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Resputant ress mutants.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
They're trying to serve a lot of poles with those
people right now in order to reset the polling averages
and the aggregators and the betting markets a little bit,
to make it look like a closer race than it
really is. I don't think this race in the electoral
college map right now is done. But you'd much rather
be in Haerriss's position than Trump's. They're now at the
(15:56):
point we're talking in the last four weeks of this campaign.
They still just announced their field program for Wisconsin. And
it's bullshit. It's a tempkin villa, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The guy with the long hair of the walk Away guy.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
It's that, and it's Charlie Kirk and it's Elon Musk,
and it's some weird collab between all these freak show guys.
And look, I just don't see this race right now
at the fundamentals level. The vibes level is always going
to be what it's gonna be but at the fundamentals level,
at the money, at the organization level, at the media level,
(16:29):
and at the polling level. This is not a race.
If it was a national race, it would be over
and done. It's an electoral college, right, so it's a
little closer. But I don't see great things in the
future for the Trump people in Pennsylvania. I don't see
great things for the future for them in Wisconsin. I
think all the vectors are moving in the right direction. Again,
close race. Can't take your foot off the gas, can't blink,
(16:52):
can't stop. But they're not gonna do what Hillary did
and say, you know, we're gonna save a lot of
this money for Wisconsin because we don't need it, because
we're up three points. Again, I'm clear eyed about everything.
Trump has a powerful grip over a big part of
the Republican base that has never waivered, but that base
smaller than it's ever been. There are more and more
people listening to the messages that say, hey, if you're
(17:15):
a Republican, you can be a Republican and a conservative
and still not vote for Donald Trump. That's a great
message to hear, and that.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Is what happened in Wisconsin, Right, you mean this year, yeah,
in that hand, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, Liz Cheney talk, yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
My organization, Our organization is pounding away every single day.
Say to Republicans, this is not your values. These people
don't believe what you believe. Run like hell, You'll you'll
be food as you get away from the blast radius.
You don't have to do this anymore. You're not stuck
with this anymore. And there are a lot of Republicans
who in twenty sixteen, we had a lot of quiet
Trump voters and we didn't know they were out there.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
They were low propensity, they were ones and twos, right.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Ones and twos. And we had in twenty twenty, we
had a hand full of quiet Biden voters and they
showed up, made a difference. But now we're looking at
a world where I think there are some quiet Harris
voters and Republicans out there. We're seeing some evidence of
that polling. It's developing. Still, it's not a done deal,
but this race is not what it was in the
Vibe world. Ever, She's always had more of an advantage
(18:20):
in this contest than people think she's had.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I'm hoping you could do a minute or two to
talk about how much higher her favorability is.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
Well, let me stay with Donald Trump. Donald Trump's always
had a very interesting boundary in his polling, and you
couldn't get him much above forty one percent or pretty
much below forty three percent. It is risted down wall.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
He had a ceiling and a floor, right.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
A ceiling and a floor. Right now, Kamala Harris is
she's favorable, and she's running about ten points above where
she was when she got in the race, quelve points
about where she was and when she got the race.
So right now you have Kamala Harris with very solid
favorability and you have Donald Trump with very solid negatives.
Donald Trump nationally is not a beloved figure. Okay, He's
got about a six percent unfavorable ratio at about a
(19:05):
forty three percent faith in a lot of polls, and
like I said, in most polls now it's drifted down
to about forty one. So you've got a much more
likable candidate in Kamala Harris, and you've got a much
more unlikable candidate in Donald Trump. And when you have that,
that contest that had to head poles matter, they had
to head numbers matter, and all these states, they're close.
I'm not gonna I'm not going to bs. They're all
(19:27):
in the in the electoral college. But the direction of
the trend line is moving her way in all these.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Places, and it continues to write.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Yeah, of course, and look, we're going to end up
with an election in the electoral college where it's probably
going to be you know, a half a million votes
either way decide this election. And that sounds crazy, but
that's how this is sort of structured. Right now. We
will have to go in and be prepared for Donald
Trump and his people to engage in their Shenana Gannery
(19:55):
and their bullshit at the end of this election, to
say we were cheated, we have to do a recount,
blah blah blah. But I think she's going to win
this thing, Molly. The fundamentals are all in her stack
and they're not moving in his direction.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I want to say that her team has really done
the stuff that needs to be done in a way
that I think, like, for example, there was all this
anxiety and now she's announced that she's doing all of
these really important media heads.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Yeah, the campaign is running at a very very very
very high level. The campaign is moving in a lot
of ways. That echoes some success stories in the Democratic
Party right now, where the numbers are closer in the
Southwest states, particularly that anyone had an expectation they would be.
The numbers are closer in places like Florida and Texas
(20:40):
that anyone thought they should be, and that's lifting up
a lot of Democratic candidates in those places. You know,
Jackie Rosen in Nevada, Rubin in Arizona. Even as we
look at the scrut in Ohio and other places, Pennsylvania's
looking pretty good, Ohio's looking pretty good. And when you've
got you know Rick Scott, who has spent you know,
sixty five miss billion dollars of his own money in
(21:01):
Florida and he's tied with DMP. Now I know for
a fact his people are on the phone begging for money,
begging for him to put more money in the superpack
because they're afraid all these things are adding up to
you know, there's a broader blue surge, if not a
blue wave in the country. Look, Trump has also engaged
in the most desperate level of campaigning I've seen even
(21:24):
from Trump in the last few weeks.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I need you to do two seconds on the jump,
that record scratching Elon Musk jump that stopped all of
our hearts and made him America his weirdest immigrant.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
Discuss that expression on his face during the jump. It's
seared in my mind now. But Elon Musk has gone
full red pill. He's a full on trumper now. None
of it, at the end of the day, outside of
our weird social media bubble, will be truly consequential, except
insofar as he manipulates the Twitter.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Machine, the algorithm on Twitter. But not a lot of
people aren't on Twitter anymore, right, correct.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
A lot of people moved to threads and elsewhere. I
think Elon, as somebody jokingly wrote the other day, it's
like ketamine meat adderall on the stage, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
And that is just a joke, is it, though? That's
just a joke.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
As we look at that moment on the stage, as
we look at this idea that Elon is going to
be this like big mover in the Maga movement, you
know what, He's in the Maga movement. He's now part
of it. He's now bought into it. I don't think
that I've ever seen two thirsty your motherfuckers on a
stage together I don't know that it means anything beyond
(22:33):
inside the red pill works.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Right, So let's just for a second talk about the hurricane,
because there is a lot of anxiety in the mainstream
media that this hurricane could be there's another hurricane.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
I don't have to tell you. You both live in Florida.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There's another hurricane coming that's going to hit just the
state weirdly, like they're coming for Desantas.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Great to the town I was born in Tampa, Florida,
like a freight train right now, it's a Cat three
or Cat four on impact. It's already an area that
was so super saturated and so flooded just ten days ago.
Now that there's a lot of concerns that this could
be a truly catastrophic impact on Tampa. And look, this
is again, since they control the weather, I don't know
(23:18):
why they're going right at a area.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I was just I was about to say, like, this
is bad for the Jews. We tend not to control
hurricanes during yamki Bar, but I just was curious. So,
I mean, we have like these this hurricane, the first hurricane,
and the second hurricane, the first hurricane. Still the cleanup
is not done. There's a disinformation barrage right with Laura Lumer.
(23:45):
It's somewhere in the close to the helm, and there
are Republicans. Does Tom Tillis ever say like enough is
enough here or now?
Speaker 6 (23:53):
All the Republican governors, Republican governor of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee,
and Virginia, our old buddy Glenn Younkin, all of them said,
FEMA's working great, We're doing our best. It's hard work,
and look, I'm really angry about it, Moy. For one
reason is that I know how many of this emergency
operations stuff, how complicated it is, how difficult it is.
(24:15):
There are tens of thousands of FEMA workers, National guardsmen,
You've got state emergency operations people. You've got volunteers from
the Red Cross. You've got people from the rescue organizations
like the Cajun Navy and South in Louisiana and Virginia
water rescue people. You've got World Central Kitchen. You've got
all these folks trying to do a great job down there. Unfortunately,
(24:38):
on the MAGA side of this, they are out there
lying their asses off and saying, oh, well, they can't
be rescued because immigrants took all the money. It is
just so crude and stupid, and.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
It's also totally fascinating, right because Trump used FEMA money
for immigrants.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
Yeah, exactly actly. He used FEMA money to pay for
kids in cages and some other immigration stuff during his terms.
But Biden has not. And the problem with Elon right
now controls the largest social media site in our politics.
He's been spreading this misinformation at a level that, as
Trump would say, no one's ever seen before. I don't
(25:20):
think there's a situation right now where we can do
much about it. I mean, they're going to do this.
This is feeding the right wing media machine, and they've
been desperate to get Trump on a new strategic tack,
and this is what they're trying to do it with.
I don't think it's going to work. And I'll tell
you why. The practical nature of the logistics of western
North Carolina and the rescue effort, you know, those folks
(25:42):
are those folks are largely going to be offline for
the next month. The roads, the comms, the cell service,
the power. It's going to be slowly rebuilt. It's not
going to be rebuilt because Donald Trump is tweeting stupid shit.
It's going to be in trucks in their neighborhood. But
government has done a full press on them. I know
people from every you know, federal agency are on the
(26:04):
ground there trying to make this thing less of a
devastating historical event and to repair it quickly. Now, I
will say this, in Florida, I'm absolutely fucking livid. I'm
furious beyond words that Ron de Santis has once again
fucked his own state because we have spent the last
three years of his administration in a war on woke
(26:26):
And luckily we were lesbian in school, but we highest
property insurance rates in the country. We are totally unprepared
for another storm of the category that Milton will be
hitting one of the largest metro areas in Florida. The
current track, it's going to run through Tampa and head
over to Orlando. This is not great news. This is
a bad thing. And so you know, DeSantis has deployed
(26:48):
all these Florida resources up to North Carolina in an
effort to play the game of oh Vima won't help
them because of the immigrants. But he's now going to
be under the gun again. This is a guy who
years now has ignored a gigantic red alert issue for
the people of Florida. When even Rick Scott and Marco
Rubio are separating from Ron DeSantis on this next storm,
(27:12):
that's a big deal. That's how incompetent this leadership has
been and how completely arrogant he's been to think that
the only thing we needed in the state of Florida
was to make sure no one said that we're gay
in a classroom.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Right that it turns out that that does not prevent
climate change.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Strangely enough, thank you, Rick Wilson. I wanted to give
you one more piece of optimistic news right now. In
early voting, okay, early voting, and in early ballot requests,
the Democrats are running at about a sixty percent to
thirty percent ratio over Republican ballot requests and early voting requests.
So that is up from twenty twenty two, and it
(27:53):
is up by a lot from twenty twenty. The program
that's been run by the Harris campaign in that regard
to get out the vote early is working. It is
that fraction.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Oh, that is very good, Rick Wilson, Thank you all.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
We're welcome.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Are you concerned?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
About Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second
term could be. Well, so are we, which is why
we teamed up with iHeart to make a limited series
with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty
five would be for America's future. Right now, we have
just released the final episode of this five episode series.
(28:28):
They're all available by looking up Molly Jong Fast Project
twenty twenty five on YouTube, and if you are more
of a podcast person and not say a YouTuber, you
can hit play and put your phone in the lock
screen and it will play back just like a podcast.
All five episodes are online now. We need to educate
Americans on what Trump's second term would or could due
(28:52):
to this.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Country, so please watch it and spread the word.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Laura Gillon is the Democratic No in New York's fourth district.
Welcome Too Fast Politics.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
Laura, Thank you, Mollie. Excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
You are running for Congress.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Tell us what your district is, what it looks like,
give us a little sort of two minute explainer on
your race.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
Okay, so my district is New York for it's a
district on the island. It's the south shore of NASA County.
It is a district that is wonderfully diverse.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
It's a district I have really deep roots.
Speaker 7 (29:32):
My Italian immigrant grandfather king with his young family and
settled in the district in a town called Baldwin and
got a job in the town of Himstead as a
sanitation worker and worked on the back of a garbage truck.
My mother grew up where there is no money for
girls to go to college, so she did not have
that opportunity, but do their sacrifices, I was able to
(29:53):
go to Georgetown, and in two generations we saw my
family go from the back of the garbage truck to
the owners CEO's office when I was elected supervisor and
CEO of that same town, the town of Hempstead, which
is the largest town in America. So my congressional district,
District four is largely comprised of the town of Hempstead,
(30:14):
with the city of Long Beach added.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
To it as well. So it's a district that I represented.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Already explain to us a little bit about your opponent
and his recent scandals.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
So look, you know, Anthony dis Gazito was just there
was just reporting in the New York Times a thorough
investigative report that you know, found that you know, as
soon as he got into Congress, he put his fiance's
daughter on his congressional payroll, which is against nepotism rules.
You know, Well, let the Ethics Committee decide. But it
(30:46):
appears that it could violate the House rules of ethics.
And then kind of inexplicably, but his mistress on the
payroll with his fiance's daughter in his district office.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
There is a rule in.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
The ethics community that you can't, i think, be having
a sexual relationship with someone who's on your role, and
so it appears that that would violate the ethics role.
But again we'll let the Ethics committee decide whether or
not there's a violation there. But it shows a lot
about his values. Yeah, I think it shows a lot
about his intelligence.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
It's a sitcom, but not a good sitcom.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
No. But see, this is the thing, like the taxpayers
were left holding the bag west thirty thousand dollars that
were paid to these women and all of these those
payments stopped, by the way, is because he got caught
because the mistress's husband told. And this is what I
think what's reported in the new York Times told the
son of the fiance, and so that that's what ended
(31:46):
the marriage and ended the payments to these women. But
the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for this, like this is
the kind of nepotism cronyism that I ran to extinguish
in the town of Henstead. He was peddling it there.
He got reprimanded at a Supreme court for doing this
kind of stuff in the town of Hempstead, and he
still continued to do it in his commrecial office. Peoples
(32:07):
are sick of this stuff. They want epicators who are
just going to go and fall problems and start making
their lives better instead of finger pointing and carrying on
this kind of nonsense in their office.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yes, I am actually very excited to have you on
this podcast because I heard you speak at an Emily's
List lunch and you were really great, and I actually
made the effort to get you because, first of all,
in twenty twenty two, Democrats lost a bunch of seats
(32:40):
that were in Biden districts or very competitive Swingy districts.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And maybe that.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Was because of the governor, and maybe it was because
of the midterm, but sort of Democrats took their eye
off the ball. You are one of those seats, and
you have this amazing story of having worked in the
district and coming from the district.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Right, Yes, I.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Mean look in twenty twenty two, I can say in
my race it was a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
It was mostly lack of resources.
Speaker 7 (33:14):
You thought in the race really late because nobody was
expecting being combig Democrat Cathleen Rights to retire, so I
had a very short runway to raise the resources you
need to win an election in the most expensive media market.
And then we had redistricting which kicked our primaries to August,
so you know, I was I'd spend a lot of
(33:35):
money on an expensive primary at the end of August
and then start to refill my coffers in September when
you're supposed to be kicking into full gear television and
try to raise money again. And no one in DC
thought took this race seriously. Unfortunately, they thought it was
a safe seat. We kept trying to tell them it
is not safe. But the news is that has all
been corrected this citing.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yes, it really has been.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
The d triple C has been and I think just
really putting their foot on the gas. Talk to me
about what that looks like for you. Yeah, this has
been a totally different race for me. Got in really early,
so I'd had that long runway to raise the resources
I need to make sure we're on TV communicating with
voters telling them what's at stake in this election and
(34:19):
how important it is that they come out and vote,
and that they come out and vote for me. So
we've had great fundraising. We just finished K three with
a really amazing number. We raised two point four million
in T three, But that money's going right out the door.
I mean, it's so expensive to run these ads that
you see on TV on cable, so researchers are something
we always need more of and are happy to accept.
(34:41):
But also we have an organizing strategy that has really
not been seen in Nasha County other than perhaps for
the special election of Tom Swasey in February, which worked, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
It worked.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
It's constituency driven organizing, making sure we have we are
reaching out to all our different ethnic groups, religious groups,
and just engaging all these communities and getting them excited
about the election and coming out to vote. I think
we knocked ninety thousand doors already, and people are coming
from not just this district but from other places because
they know how pritically important it is that we win
(35:14):
this seat. Because this is a seat we can win.
If Democrats come out to vote, we are going to win.
We have a registration edge. We just need people to
come out to vote. That's what went wrong in twenty
twenty two. It's low turnout.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, I didn't have.
Speaker 7 (35:26):
The resources to get people out and had this field organization.
On the Republican side, they had Les Delden working this
area really real hard because he knew the only way
he could get to that governor's mansion is every like
mad up person onlinely came out to vote, so.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
He worked this area hard.
Speaker 7 (35:43):
They only had midterm drop off on the Republican side
of thirty thousand voters in this district. On our side,
we had drop off of one hundred thousand voters and
I only lost by nine seven hundred votes. If ten
percent were Democrats showed up, I would be in Congress
right now. So we're not letting that happen this cycle.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
What I think is very interesting about these quote unquote
moderate Republicans right like Desposito Lawler, This crew are pretending
that they're moderates, but the reality is they go into
Congress and they vote for every crazy Mike Johnson thing. Right,
(36:23):
So they voted to impeach Biden, they voted to impeach
my orcists. All of them have done the same kind
of stuff that Trumpers do, right, I mean, they have
voting records. Ds Posito has a voting record that's almost
the same as Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
Right, Yes, and he said he respects Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Amazing Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I don't know if you know this, but yesterday she
tweeted about how Jews they could be Jews could not
be Jews. Sounds like Jews as a Jew, tend to
feel like she's talking about me can control the weather.
I mean, so if you're I mean, so you're running
against someone who respects her, Yes, said it to Jake Tapper.
(37:05):
I believe that's amazing, but it is. I mean, it's like,
I'm surprised at how like the mainstream media is so
desperate to have normal Republicans that they'll put people like
ds Posito and Lawler on television when they really are
not mainstream Republicans not.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
He has voted and he voted for Mike Johnson to
be Speaker of the House. He is as right as
you can get. He sponsored the Life at Conception Act
of a national abortion Band no exceptions. That the most
traconian law that you can imagine, no idea he voted
for him. I mean, he is so out of line
with the values of this district. He even voted for
(37:42):
that bill to restore Confederate monuments at Arlington Cemetery. Twenty
percent of this district are black and brown people. Right
to restore a Confederate monument. He is not moderate. He
will do whatever what his party bosses telling him to do.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
But I think also it's important to realize that if
Democrats are able to take back the House, there'll be
a check God forbid. You know, you guys will if
you are elected to Congress, certify the election and if
Trump wins, which will be catastrophic for everything from climate
to democracy. But do you think that you know, at
(38:26):
least you guys will be able to provide a check
on that, right?
Speaker 7 (38:30):
Absolutely? I mean that is why this race, and these
really top targeted races are so crucial. For our democracy
because we don't know what's going to happen in the Senate.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It's a tough map.
Speaker 7 (38:41):
We don't know what's going to happen for the White
House because it looks like it's going to be a
tight race. We can get the House back if we
win the seats. These are winnable races as long as
we have the resources and the people. The body's knocking
on the doors to get people out to vote, because
we need to have at least one branch of the
government to protect us from whatever might come out of
(39:05):
the White House or the Senate.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
If we lose control of the Senate. Yeah, it's really important.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
And if Democrats pook the House and Harris wins, which
is what all of us who believe in democracy would like,
what will happen is that you guys will be there
to swear her in and to certify the election. We
won't have to worry about whether or not Mike Johnson
feels like certifying the election, right.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Right, or he's afraid to certify the election. It's such
a crazy thing.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Tell us a little bit about what your district looks like,
because it's a really interesting district.
Speaker 7 (39:44):
Yes, it's a wonderfully diverse district. It's about in terms
of demographics, twenty percent Black, about sixteen percent Latino, roughly
seven percent AAPI, and then the balance would be white.
And we had a lot of different We have the Bytowns,
which is startably a very large Jewish area of the district.
(40:05):
It's become more orthodox now. It's a very compact district.
It runs from Garden City, Westberry, down to our beaches,
from the Queen's Border and out to the Wantass Seaford area.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Can you tell us a little bit about what you're
doing to win in your district? It's ads, but it's
also what events going around, door knocking, What are people
doing for you and what are you doing?
Speaker 7 (40:31):
Yeah, so we are you know, look, we are hard
at work. I am in this race to win it.
We are knocking on doors. We opened up six offices
across the district. We're doing meet and greets, We're doing
coffee meetings. We're going to start doing train stations. That's
a typical way you campaign.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
On Long Island.
Speaker 7 (40:50):
You go to Long Island Railroad train station in the
morning and top on their way to work.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
So we're going to start that.
Speaker 7 (40:55):
I think next week, and you know, raising the money
that we need to pay for these ads and pay
for the mail because that's a really important tool to
communicate to voters.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
What are the concerns that you're hearing?
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Like?
Speaker 2 (41:09):
What are people?
Speaker 1 (41:09):
I mean, do people understand what a danger trump Ism is?
Do they remember that? Are you hearing about inflation? What
are you hearing?
Speaker 7 (41:18):
Well, there's definitely one thing that has really resonated, I
think since twenty twenty two, since the Dobbs decision is
the real threat to our reproductive freedom. I think in
blue states there is a certain complacency after dob like, Oh,
we're safe in New York, So I'm not as worried
about that. Now people are seeing what the aftermath of
(41:39):
Dobbs is. That Clarence Thomas laid it out in his
concurring opinion that they're not just coming for choice, They're
coming for IVF were contraception, They're going to come for
LGBTQ rights. That was just the beginning, and we're seeing
this play out in some of the red states now
where women are dying because they're not getting health care
(42:01):
that they need. And so it's an issue that people know,
whatever the Republicans of the fake modern Republicans are saying,
now when push comes to shove and get pushed to
sign a national abortion bill, if the Republicans are in charge,
that is what it's going to happen. They're not fooling
people on that issue. So that's an issue that a
lot of people are concerned about. I mean, look, they're
(42:23):
concerned about the cost of living. This is a really
expensive place to live. Losing that state and local tax
deduction really hurts people. We pay among the highest property taxes.
And you know, my opponent, Anthony Dias Canzita said he's
going to get us that tax deduction back. He's been
in the majority for almost two years and he hasn't.
So cost of living concerns is a really big issue here.
(42:44):
And quite frankly, the border is a really big issue.
People are really concerned about it because they saw the
forty thousand migrants that were busted to New York City
by Greg Abbott, a move by the way that my
opponent applauded instead it was a good move to do.
And they're concerned about the border. They're concerned about fentanyl
coming across the border, and so it's an issue that
(43:06):
needs to be tackled. And you know, again, this is
typical of my opponent and some of his colleagues. They're
talking about it, they're campaigning on it, they're saying it's
a crisis, it's a disaster. But they're the ones in power,
they are in the majority, and they're not doing anything
to fix the problem because they're just trying to campaign
on it. Two years they've done nothing.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
When Harris gave her speech at the border, she actually
talked in a really detailed way about how to stop
the flow of fentanyl, and she explained that there are
two cartels that are bringing much of the fentanyl in,
and then there are the different components of fentanyl, some
of which comes I mean, it just all comes from
(43:44):
different places.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
And how you would do that?
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Do you think that voters got that message and processed it,
And do you think that there's enough of a like
she actually has a plan to stop fentanyl.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I think it.
Speaker 7 (43:59):
Needs to be amplified. I think she needs to put
it out in more paid communications what her plan is,
and you know, and her experience as a prosecutor and
how she knows how to tackle this problem. I think
I think it would be helpful for her to like
really amplify that message because it is a message that
is not just a top issue in my district. I'm
hearing it from my other candidates and running in other districts.
(44:21):
It's it's a real concern and it should be a concern.
Our immigration system has been broken for a long time.
It needs to be fixed. We need people to get
the political courage to reach across the aisle because you
no matter who wins, our majorities are not going to
be like they needs to be in the past because
the way districts have been gerrymandered and the majority is
not going to be that large. So if you want
a comprehensive legislation with the buying of the American people
(44:45):
that's going to last and not just be thrown out
when you know when the next election happens, you need
to have by parties in leadership. We saw that going
forward in the Senate. Right, we saw that bill. It
was a hard fought compromise, but Donald Trump wanted to
campaign on it, so he killed it. Was that ill perfect,
probably not perfect. It didn't address certain things that we
wanted to address. It might not have bet on it
(45:06):
be aggressive as aggressive that it should have been in
some parts, but it was a compromise and it was
a step forward. And what we've had then is nothing.
So this is something that absolutely must happen in the
next Congress, and it must be done in a bipartisan fashion.
And that's what we're not seeing from the Republican members
of the House. They just sat on their hands and
(45:26):
the bill that they did pass had no input from Democrats.
Now one Democrats lined off on that bill. So that's
performative politics, that's not legislating, right, right, right.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
What do you think the Harris campaign could be doing
better that would help you when in your discher I.
Speaker 7 (45:42):
Think it's great that she's talking a lot about Project
twenty twenty five and some of the dangerous things in there.
I think talking about the border and articulating how she's
going to work to solve that crisis. I think that
and what executive power she will bring to the table
to solve to try to help work with Congress to
solve the crisis, I think that would be very helpful.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Do you think that voters understand that there was a
real agreement and Trump killed it or now?
Speaker 7 (46:09):
I do think that they understand that I think that
certain people don't care. I think people who are undecided
or more open minded about it can see quite clearly.
I mean, this is not just this is not hyperbole,
This is information.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
This is what happened.
Speaker 7 (46:25):
So and you have Republicans saying like this was one
of the most conservative bills that we could have passed ever,
and they killed it like their own plan is calling
them out.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
Yeah, James Langford from Oklahoma, thank you, thank you, thank you, Laura,
thank you so.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Much, Noon Rick Wilson, Malla Jeong Fast.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Do you want to know what my moment of fakery is?
Speaker 6 (46:56):
I certainly do.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
There's a member of the Trump family who.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Despises me in a way that I feel Eric should,
but I'm just not even on his radar. Do you
know who that member the Trump family is.
Speaker 6 (47:10):
That'd be Cochley von Felsson.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
It would be fayle Son von felsn Don Junior, who
recently tweeted that I was getting my own show. It
was not true, but it was so infuriating to him
that it captured his imagination anyway. Read a piece in
The Wall Street Journal by Molly Ball where she says
that actually the New gatekeeper of Donald Trump. Well, in
(47:37):
twenty sixteen, it was his beautiful and totally, i want
to say, enabling daughter.
Speaker 6 (47:45):
Definitely not the subject of any bizarre of his incess fantasies.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yes, and also not complicit in all ways that she's
now moved on to Miami and trying to make it
in high society. Her brother, who is really bubble down
on the basist instincts of trump Ism, is now, according
to this piece in the Wall Street Journal, his daddy's gatekeeper.
You know, I was having a few days where I
(48:10):
was like, I'm definitely not going to get MO. I'm
not on anyone's radar. I'm not going to get MO.
But wow, I'm definitely going to get MO. So that
is Donald Trump Junior sending me to Gitmo. Is my
moment of fuckery? Rick Wilson, what's your moment of fuckery?
Speaker 6 (48:25):
Leela Suckery? Is the entire maga right wing media ecosystem
right now that are lying their asses off about what's
happening in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida.
These people are sick. They are stoking these insane conspiracy
theories that range from Marjorie Taylor Green saying they control
(48:45):
the weather, to these lies that immigrants are getting hundreds
of thousands of dollars a year but everyone else in
the zone of the hurricane is only going to get
seven hundred and fifty dollars. All these lies are ratcheting
up a sense of despair and these conspiracy for no reason.
And you're seeing how thoroughly effective the right wing media
ecosystem is at breaking the mental constructs that should underpin
(49:10):
people's thoughts about the world and turning them into this
bizarro fantasy land. I mean, and I know they don't
fucking care. It is horrible for this country what they're doing.
It is terrible for this country. And Elon is the
chief these rocket fuel for this stuff, and he has
been a promulgator of some of the worst and most
destructive of these stories. So that's my moment of fuckeray.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Thanks Rick Wilson.
Speaker 6 (49:32):
Yuh.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best
minds in politics make sense of all the chaos. If
you enjoyed this podcast, please send it to a friend
or an enemy and keep the conversation going
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 Elon Musk jumped up and down
at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Do with that
information what you will? We have such a great show
for you today. The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson takes the
(00:24):
temperature of VP Harris's presidential campaign. Then we'll talk to
Laura Gillen, who is running against Congressman Anthony di Esposito
in New York's fourth District, a hotly contested race.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But first the news.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So Mary, Governor Walls did the thing that a lot
of people get testy about as he went on Fox News,
and I think it went pretty well. Why don't we
listen to him real quick? Can you tell us what
you think?
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I want to talk of that abortion too, because this
came up at the debate. It's been a winning argument
for Democrats on many ballots. But I want to clarify
what the law is there in Minnesota. Abortion Finder, a
website that helps women find access, says abortion is legal
throughout pregnancy in Minnesota. There is no ban or limit
on abortion in Minnesota. Based on how far along in
a pregnancy you are, you sign the bill that makes
(01:13):
it legal through.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
All nine months.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Is that a position you think Democrats should advocate for nationally?
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Look, the Vice President, I have been clear the restoration
of Roe versus way. It is what we're asking for,
way to make our own the law. The law is
very clear. It does not change that that has been
debunked on every occasion.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Itzy, let what you signed is there's not a single
limit through nine months of pregnancy. Row had a trimester
framework that did have limits through the pregnancy. The Minnesota
law does not have that.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
This puts This puts the decision with the woman in
her healthcare providers. The situation we have is when you
don't have the ability of healthcare providers to provide that,
that's who you end up with a situation like Amanda's
Warsky in Texas where they are afraid to do what's necessary.
This doesn't change anything. It puts the decision back on
(02:03):
to the woman, to the physicians, and we know that
this is simply something to be brought up.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Tis to be very clear.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Donald Trump's asking for a nation wide abortion bank, and
again we don't see this.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
She said repeatedly that she will not sign a national
abortion band. Are you calling that just it's a flat
out line.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Yes, of course, and Senator Vance has in the past
said so too. Now, look, they may see this as
an election issue. We see it as a right of
women to make their own bodily decisions. And that's what
the states like my state have the ability to put that.
In states like Georgia force women to cross the border,
and then we have a death of Amber Thurmot. So
(02:41):
let's be very clear, trying to cut hairs on an
issue on this is not where the American public's at.
They want the restoration of roe versus Wade. Vice President
Harris said she would sign it. That's what we'll do
with election.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I think a lot of people have wanted Walls to
do this because he's really good at it, and also
because honestly, these fucking dishonest Fox News hosts right like,
clearly Trump is going to sign a national ban.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
If he doesn't, it'll be shocking to me. JD.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Vance is already numerous times on various podcasts in podcasts
intimated that he is going to ban abortion, that his
goal is to stop abortion and we've seen Alito and
Thomas both say that they'd like to use the Comstock
Act to prevent the mailing of abortion pills. So obviously, yes, yes, yes,
(03:38):
Tim Walls on Fox News put him on there every
fucking day until the election. And look, we see your
favorite Mayor Pete. When Mayor Pete goes on Fox News.
It is actually sometimes it's the only truth that these
people see, Like Jessica Tarloff, it's not fun, but it's
a necessary evil in our siloed media ecosystem. And I
(04:01):
think it's so smart to get him up there. And
the truth is, he reminds a lot of Midwestern people.
I've heard this again and again of the dads they
lost to Fox News.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So I think it's very smart to have him up there.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And I think he's going to continue to debunk these
right wing talking points. And the reality is, yet again,
like the biggest lie that Donald Trump loves is this
idea that women are carrying fetuses till the you know,
till they're thirty eight weeks and then having an abortion.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
For yucks.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Nobody is having a last trimester abortion unless the baby
is dead or dying or about to die.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And the mother too will die. That's it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's how it's you know, it's one percent of all abortions,
and it's because things have gone so horribly pear shaped
that this is the only choice for anyone. So I
thought that was a really good point. And the fact
that he was able to go on that show and
remember those women's names, well, that blonde woman was yelling
at him, good for you, Governor Walls.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
So, Mollie, I feel like the mainstream media is really
having a hard time with their lack of access to
VP Harris and Governor Walls. She's going on Call Her
Daddy this week and the Howard Stern Show, but not
doing appearances with them. What are you see in here?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
So this is something that people in the mainstream media
themselves are quite mad about. As a member of the
mainstream media, I write for Vannie Fair, I appear on MSNBC.
I actually think that the Harris campaign is doing this
totally right. They don't owe the mainstream media anything. And
the other thing is that our internet and our radio
(05:39):
and our televisions are very siloed now, so for her
to go on places where political people live in a
certain space, right, it's MSNBC, it's CNN, it's the New
York Times.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
They know her.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
She needs to go on the shows where she's going
to be able to activate the ones, Twoes and ree
is the low propensity voters. Those are the people she
needs to win. So I think it's very smart for
her to go on Call Her Daddy. I think it's
very smart for her to go on Howardster and those
are huge audiences that can produce viral moments, and she
(06:17):
needs to be as around as possible, So I think
it's very smart. She's also doing sixty Minutes, which is
traditional mainstream media. Look, there is a thing happening here
which is a real phenomenon, which is because there are
no gatekeepers. Because social media has taken over to some
(06:37):
effect and killed a lot of newspapers and magazines, The
mainstream media doesn't.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Have the power it used to have.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Right, You used to be able to rely on newspaper
endorsements to help presidential candidates. That doesn't happen anymore, and
in fact, so much so that New York Times is
no longer even doing endorsements.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So I do think that for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It really is a phenomenon where the mainstream media is
feeling its power diminished and they're not happy about it.
But we have like a little bit more than thirty
days until this presidential election, and it's the election to
see if we're going to have more elections. So I'd
rather she goes on call her daddy and we just
all take the.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
L for now, agreed. So here's an interesting one. Most
viral tiktoks are at a fifth grade reading level, but
Trump speaks at below that. What do you see it here?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I love that you have that bit of information.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Most viral tiktoks are at a fifth grade reading level,
but Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Is at a fourth grade reading level.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know people on the left that love to be
mad at the New York Times, and with good reason.
I'm sorry, I'm speaking to my husband now. He is
right to be mad at the New York Times. That's okay.
I know the opinion page makes you mad sometimes. But
this is an incredible story they did which took a
ton of work, which is they fed into a computer
all of these different Trump speeches and they were able
(07:58):
to sort of analyze the words, the speech patterns, where
he went with this stuff. And it's quite interesting and
definitely worth reading, and the analysis found that Trump speaks
at a fourth grade level.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Far below that of his rivals.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And again, I don't want to say anything nice about
Rohn de Santis ever, but he speaks at an eighth
grade level, which is almost high school, so good for him.
Trump's speech complexity has not changed dramatically as he's aged.
But that said, he uses thirty two percent more negative
words than positive words, which again, in twenty sixteen, he
(08:35):
gave a speech which you'll remember famous liberal George W.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Bush described as some weird shit.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Okay, And that was when he was only doing twenty
one percent of negative words. Now it's gone up to
thirty two percent. He uses swear words, and he's more disinhibited,
which is a sign of aging than when he ran
so really interesting piece with a ton of different bylines.
Peter Baker leads it, it's definitely worth looking at this
(09:05):
piece about Trump's language.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Milly, there is really unexpectedly great economic news out this week,
and I feel like it really broke the right wings
Brad And says, usual.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, there are these jobs numbers that show basically that
they've lowered a twelve month recession probability to five points
this is from Goldman. It's a big deal, and it
shows that we've hit that kind of soft landing those
numbers that we had thought were impossible during the supply
(09:37):
chain crisis.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Basically, these is a blowout.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Economic numbers, and I think that what's interesting is that
a lot of the other numbers that were reversed down
have now been reversed up. So the federal unemployment rate
fell to four point one, which shows that the economy
is resilient and that maybe the Fed doesn't need to
lower rates anymore. The other the thing about it is
(10:01):
that Republicans could not absorb this news in a way
that was healthy and normal. For example, Rubio, Marco Rubio.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Who used to be little market.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Right, little marcall who used to be thought of as
like a normal senator, but now because he wants to
have the kind of virality or whatever it is that
Marjorie Taylor Green gets. He said on X the Juggernaut
of Disinformation and misinformation, another fake jobs report out of
(10:39):
the Biden Harris government today. Rubio said sixteen of the
seventeen reports have been significantly revised downwards after media helps
them with their fake headlines. Quote quote quote, but actually
that's not even true. The latest jobs report shows we've
actually seen that that's not true, that they've been reversed.
We had a labor economist say he is just wrong
(11:00):
and mischaracterizing the current data. The Bureau of Labor and
Statistics we all know as a nonpartisan agency, they don't
really give a fuck who's in power. And at least
a few of the seemingly positive revisions are going to
be negatively revised to the original revisions.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That's really common.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Rubio is just mad to see good news happening in
the economy because he's worried it won't help Trump. Trump,
of course said that all the jobs were being taken
by immigrants, which is Trump's de facto on everything. So
in fact, the jobs report were not fake news, they
were real news.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
We have even more toward dates for you. Did you
know the linked projects Rick Wils that have Fast Politics
maleijug Fast are heading out on tour to bring you
the night of lasts for our dark political landscape. Join
us on August twenty sixth, that'sifed Cisco at the Swedish
American Hall, or in LA on August twenty seventh at
the Regent Theater then we're headed to the Midwest. We'll
be at the Bavarium in Milwaukee on the twenty first
(12:09):
of September, and on the twenty second, we'll be in
Chicago at City Winery. Then we're going to hit the
East coast on September thirtieth, We'll be in Boston at
Arts at the Armory. On the first of October, we'll
be in affiliate City Winery, and then DC on the
second at the Miracle Theater. And today we just announced
that we'll be in New York on the fourteenth of
October at City Winery. If you need to laugh as
we get through this election and hopefully never hear from
(12:31):
a guy who lives in a golf club again, we
got you covered. Join us in our surprise guests to
help you laugh instead of cry your way through this
election season and give you the inside analysis of what's
really going on right now. Buy your tickets now by
heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as
Unusual dot bio.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Brick Wilson is the founder of The Lincoln Project and
host of the Enemy's List Welcome Back, Too Fast Politics.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Rick Wilson Junk Fast. How are you on this fine day.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, your day is better than mine because you're in
California and I'm in New York.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
That's a fact.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That is a fact.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
But you are three hours behind, so I do have
that on you. I want to start by talking about
our text exchange, so because I think it's really important.
The last couple days, there's been a real vibes based
media meltdown about Vice President Harris, which has included a
lot of pieces by smart people that we're friends with
(13:30):
about how she's not doing enough and how this election
is slipping through her fingers the way that it felt,
but it wasn't actually true because the fundamentals were different
for Hillary Clinton. But it felt to a lot of
people in twenty sixteen that that last month where Hillary
Clinton was fundraising and not on the trail in the
way that Donald Trump was, that it was slipping through
(13:54):
her fingers. So I feel like, if I'm having that anxiety,
then our listeners are also having that anxiety. So I
need you to talk them and also me at the
same time, which is more bang for the book.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Off the ledge.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Here's the thing, Mally, Hillary in the last few weeks
of the campaign of days was not on the air
spending money in Wisconsin and other states. That is more
important than showing up at four hundred interviews, you know,
for the seventeenth time with the Washington Post or The
New York Times or Bloomberg. The Harris team is not
taking this lightly. They are pounding away in the States
(14:28):
with massive television de buys, massive digital ad bys. They
are doing the work. This is not some twenty sixteen
on repeat thing. Because they learned those lessons, they understand it.
I also want to say a number of these pieces
that have come out have very much had that vibe
of self serving bullshit. Well, she doesn't do interviews with
(14:49):
our outlet, therefore it must be must be about to lose.
I don't buy it. I think there are awful lot
of these people who were at the Times in particular,
who still haven't gotten there pound of flesh out of her,
and so I think a lot of it comes down
to the fact that they aren't getting the candy they
want to eat. I don't think that that is a
(15:09):
side of a doomed campaign. Look, Donald Trump hasn't led
a pole in the national polls for now eleven days.
This race is going his way. He's not moving any
state numbers, you're going to see a lot of I
know that. Something they're doing right now. They're trying to
surge all the right wing polesters Trafalgar Rasmus and lunatics.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Resputant ress mutants.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
They're trying to serve a lot of poles with those
people right now in order to reset the polling averages
and the aggregators and the betting markets a little bit,
to make it look like a closer race than it
really is. I don't think this race in the electoral
college map right now is done. But you'd much rather
be in Haerriss's position than Trump's. They're now at the
(15:56):
point we're talking in the last four weeks of this campaign.
They still just announced their field program for Wisconsin. And
it's bullshit. It's a tempkin villa, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The guy with the long hair of the walk Away guy.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
It's that, and it's Charlie Kirk and it's Elon Musk,
and it's some weird collab between all these freak show guys.
And look, I just don't see this race right now
at the fundamentals level. The vibes level is always going
to be what it's gonna be but at the fundamentals level,
at the money, at the organization level, at the media level,
(16:29):
and at the polling level. This is not a race.
If it was a national race, it would be over
and done. It's an electoral college, right, so it's a
little closer. But I don't see great things in the
future for the Trump people in Pennsylvania. I don't see
great things for the future for them in Wisconsin. I
think all the vectors are moving in the right direction. Again,
close race. Can't take your foot off the gas, can't blink,
(16:52):
can't stop. But they're not gonna do what Hillary did
and say, you know, we're gonna save a lot of
this money for Wisconsin because we don't need it, because
we're up three points. Again, I'm clear eyed about everything.
Trump has a powerful grip over a big part of
the Republican base that has never waivered, but that base
smaller than it's ever been. There are more and more
people listening to the messages that say, hey, if you're
(17:15):
a Republican, you can be a Republican and a conservative
and still not vote for Donald Trump. That's a great
message to hear, and that.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Is what happened in Wisconsin, Right, you mean this year, yeah,
in that hand, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, Liz Cheney talk, yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
My organization, Our organization is pounding away every single day.
Say to Republicans, this is not your values. These people
don't believe what you believe. Run like hell, You'll you'll
be food as you get away from the blast radius.
You don't have to do this anymore. You're not stuck
with this anymore. And there are a lot of Republicans
who in twenty sixteen, we had a lot of quiet
Trump voters and we didn't know they were out there.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
They were low propensity, they were ones and twos, right.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Ones and twos. And we had in twenty twenty, we
had a hand full of quiet Biden voters and they
showed up, made a difference. But now we're looking at
a world where I think there are some quiet Harris
voters and Republicans out there. We're seeing some evidence of
that polling. It's developing. Still, it's not a done deal,
but this race is not what it was in the
Vibe world. Ever, She's always had more of an advantage
(18:20):
in this contest than people think she's had.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I'm hoping you could do a minute or two to
talk about how much higher her favorability is.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
Well, let me stay with Donald Trump. Donald Trump's always
had a very interesting boundary in his polling, and you
couldn't get him much above forty one percent or pretty
much below forty three percent. It is risted down wall.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
He had a ceiling and a floor, right.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
A ceiling and a floor. Right now, Kamala Harris is
she's favorable, and she's running about ten points above where
she was when she got in the race, quelve points
about where she was and when she got the race.
So right now you have Kamala Harris with very solid
favorability and you have Donald Trump with very solid negatives.
Donald Trump nationally is not a beloved figure. Okay, He's
got about a six percent unfavorable ratio at about a
(19:05):
forty three percent faith in a lot of polls, and
like I said, in most polls now it's drifted down
to about forty one. So you've got a much more
likable candidate in Kamala Harris, and you've got a much
more unlikable candidate in Donald Trump. And when you have that,
that contest that had to head poles matter, they had
to head numbers matter, and all these states, they're close.
I'm not gonna I'm not going to bs. They're all
(19:27):
in the in the electoral college. But the direction of
the trend line is moving her way in all these.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Places, and it continues to write.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Yeah, of course, and look, we're going to end up
with an election in the electoral college where it's probably
going to be you know, a half a million votes
either way decide this election. And that sounds crazy, but
that's how this is sort of structured. Right now. We
will have to go in and be prepared for Donald
Trump and his people to engage in their Shenana Gannery
(19:55):
and their bullshit at the end of this election, to
say we were cheated, we have to do a recount,
blah blah blah. But I think she's going to win
this thing, Molly. The fundamentals are all in her stack
and they're not moving in his direction.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I want to say that her team has really done
the stuff that needs to be done in a way
that I think, like, for example, there was all this
anxiety and now she's announced that she's doing all of
these really important media heads.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Yeah, the campaign is running at a very very very
very high level. The campaign is moving in a lot
of ways. That echoes some success stories in the Democratic
Party right now, where the numbers are closer in the
Southwest states, particularly that anyone had an expectation they would be.
The numbers are closer in places like Florida and Texas
(20:40):
that anyone thought they should be, and that's lifting up
a lot of Democratic candidates in those places. You know,
Jackie Rosen in Nevada, Rubin in Arizona. Even as we
look at the scrut in Ohio and other places, Pennsylvania's
looking pretty good, Ohio's looking pretty good. And when you've
got you know Rick Scott, who has spent you know,
sixty five miss billion dollars of his own money in
(21:01):
Florida and he's tied with DMP. Now I know for
a fact his people are on the phone begging for money,
begging for him to put more money in the superpack
because they're afraid all these things are adding up to
you know, there's a broader blue surge, if not a
blue wave in the country. Look, Trump has also engaged
in the most desperate level of campaigning I've seen even
(21:24):
from Trump in the last few weeks.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I need you to do two seconds on the jump,
that record scratching Elon Musk jump that stopped all of
our hearts and made him America his weirdest immigrant.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
Discuss that expression on his face during the jump. It's
seared in my mind now. But Elon Musk has gone
full red pill. He's a full on trumper now. None
of it, at the end of the day, outside of
our weird social media bubble, will be truly consequential, except
insofar as he manipulates the Twitter.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Machine, the algorithm on Twitter. But not a lot of
people aren't on Twitter anymore, right, correct.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
A lot of people moved to threads and elsewhere. I
think Elon, as somebody jokingly wrote the other day, it's
like ketamine meat adderall on the stage, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
And that is just a joke, is it, though? That's
just a joke.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
As we look at that moment on the stage, as
we look at this idea that Elon is going to
be this like big mover in the Maga movement, you
know what, He's in the Maga movement. He's now part
of it. He's now bought into it. I don't think
that I've ever seen two thirsty your motherfuckers on a
stage together I don't know that it means anything beyond
(22:33):
inside the red pill works.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Right, So let's just for a second talk about the hurricane,
because there is a lot of anxiety in the mainstream
media that this hurricane could be there's another hurricane.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
I don't have to tell you. You both live in Florida.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There's another hurricane coming that's going to hit just the
state weirdly, like they're coming for Desantas.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Great to the town I was born in Tampa, Florida,
like a freight train right now, it's a Cat three
or Cat four on impact. It's already an area that
was so super saturated and so flooded just ten days ago.
Now that there's a lot of concerns that this could
be a truly catastrophic impact on Tampa. And look, this
is again, since they control the weather, I don't know
(23:18):
why they're going right at a area.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I was just I was about to say, like, this
is bad for the Jews. We tend not to control
hurricanes during yamki Bar, but I just was curious. So,
I mean, we have like these this hurricane, the first hurricane,
and the second hurricane, the first hurricane. Still the cleanup
is not done. There's a disinformation barrage right with Laura Lumer.
(23:45):
It's somewhere in the close to the helm, and there
are Republicans. Does Tom Tillis ever say like enough is
enough here or now?
Speaker 6 (23:53):
All the Republican governors, Republican governor of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee,
and Virginia, our old buddy Glenn Younkin, all of them said,
FEMA's working great, We're doing our best. It's hard work,
and look, I'm really angry about it, Moy. For one
reason is that I know how many of this emergency
operations stuff, how complicated it is, how difficult it is.
(24:15):
There are tens of thousands of FEMA workers, National guardsmen,
You've got state emergency operations people. You've got volunteers from
the Red Cross. You've got people from the rescue organizations
like the Cajun Navy and South in Louisiana and Virginia
water rescue people. You've got World Central Kitchen. You've got
all these folks trying to do a great job down there. Unfortunately,
(24:38):
on the MAGA side of this, they are out there
lying their asses off and saying, oh, well, they can't
be rescued because immigrants took all the money. It is
just so crude and stupid, and.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
It's also totally fascinating, right because Trump used FEMA money
for immigrants.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
Yeah, exactly actly. He used FEMA money to pay for
kids in cages and some other immigration stuff during his terms.
But Biden has not. And the problem with Elon right
now controls the largest social media site in our politics.
He's been spreading this misinformation at a level that, as
Trump would say, no one's ever seen before. I don't
(25:20):
think there's a situation right now where we can do
much about it. I mean, they're going to do this.
This is feeding the right wing media machine, and they've
been desperate to get Trump on a new strategic tack,
and this is what they're trying to do it with.
I don't think it's going to work. And I'll tell
you why. The practical nature of the logistics of western
North Carolina and the rescue effort, you know, those folks
(25:42):
are those folks are largely going to be offline for
the next month. The roads, the comms, the cell service,
the power. It's going to be slowly rebuilt. It's not
going to be rebuilt because Donald Trump is tweeting stupid shit.
It's going to be in trucks in their neighborhood. But
government has done a full press on them. I know
people from every you know, federal agency are on the
(26:04):
ground there trying to make this thing less of a
devastating historical event and to repair it quickly. Now, I
will say this, in Florida, I'm absolutely fucking livid. I'm
furious beyond words that Ron de Santis has once again
fucked his own state because we have spent the last
three years of his administration in a war on woke
(26:26):
And luckily we were lesbian in school, but we highest
property insurance rates in the country. We are totally unprepared
for another storm of the category that Milton will be
hitting one of the largest metro areas in Florida. The
current track, it's going to run through Tampa and head
over to Orlando. This is not great news. This is
a bad thing. And so you know, DeSantis has deployed
(26:48):
all these Florida resources up to North Carolina in an
effort to play the game of oh Vima won't help
them because of the immigrants. But he's now going to
be under the gun again. This is a guy who
years now has ignored a gigantic red alert issue for
the people of Florida. When even Rick Scott and Marco
Rubio are separating from Ron DeSantis on this next storm,
(27:12):
that's a big deal. That's how incompetent this leadership has
been and how completely arrogant he's been to think that
the only thing we needed in the state of Florida
was to make sure no one said that we're gay
in a classroom.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Right that it turns out that that does not prevent
climate change.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Strangely enough, thank you, Rick Wilson. I wanted to give
you one more piece of optimistic news right now. In
early voting, okay, early voting, and in early ballot requests,
the Democrats are running at about a sixty percent to
thirty percent ratio over Republican ballot requests and early voting requests.
So that is up from twenty twenty two, and it
(27:53):
is up by a lot from twenty twenty. The program
that's been run by the Harris campaign in that regard
to get out the vote early is working. It is
that fraction.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Oh, that is very good, Rick Wilson, Thank you all.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
We're welcome.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Are you concerned?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
About Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second
term could be. Well, so are we, which is why
we teamed up with iHeart to make a limited series
with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty
five would be for America's future. Right now, we have
just released the final episode of this five episode series.
(28:28):
They're all available by looking up Molly Jong Fast Project
twenty twenty five on YouTube, and if you are more
of a podcast person and not say a YouTuber, you
can hit play and put your phone in the lock
screen and it will play back just like a podcast.
All five episodes are online now. We need to educate
Americans on what Trump's second term would or could due
(28:52):
to this.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Country, so please watch it and spread the word.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Laura Gillon is the Democratic No in New York's fourth district.
Welcome Too Fast Politics.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
Laura, Thank you, Mollie. Excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
You are running for Congress.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Tell us what your district is, what it looks like,
give us a little sort of two minute explainer on
your race.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
Okay, so my district is New York for it's a
district on the island. It's the south shore of NASA County.
It is a district that is wonderfully diverse.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
It's a district I have really deep roots.
Speaker 7 (29:32):
My Italian immigrant grandfather king with his young family and
settled in the district in a town called Baldwin and
got a job in the town of Himstead as a
sanitation worker and worked on the back of a garbage truck.
My mother grew up where there is no money for
girls to go to college, so she did not have
that opportunity, but do their sacrifices, I was able to
(29:53):
go to Georgetown, and in two generations we saw my
family go from the back of the garbage truck to
the owners CEO's office when I was elected supervisor and
CEO of that same town, the town of Hempstead, which
is the largest town in America. So my congressional district,
District four is largely comprised of the town of Hempstead,
(30:14):
with the city of Long Beach added.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
To it as well. So it's a district that I represented.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Already explain to us a little bit about your opponent
and his recent scandals.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
So look, you know, Anthony dis Gazito was just there
was just reporting in the New York Times a thorough
investigative report that you know, found that you know, as
soon as he got into Congress, he put his fiance's
daughter on his congressional payroll, which is against nepotism rules.
You know, Well, let the Ethics Committee decide. But it
(30:46):
appears that it could violate the House rules of ethics.
And then kind of inexplicably, but his mistress on the
payroll with his fiance's daughter in his district office.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
There is a rule in.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
The ethics community that you can't, i think, be having
a sexual relationship with someone who's on your role, and
so it appears that that would violate the ethics role.
But again we'll let the Ethics committee decide whether or
not there's a violation there. But it shows a lot
about his values. Yeah, I think it shows a lot
about his intelligence.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
It's a sitcom, but not a good sitcom.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
No. But see, this is the thing, like the taxpayers
were left holding the bag west thirty thousand dollars that
were paid to these women and all of these those
payments stopped, by the way, is because he got caught
because the mistress's husband told. And this is what I
think what's reported in the new York Times told the
son of the fiance, and so that that's what ended
(31:46):
the marriage and ended the payments to these women. But
the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for this, like this is
the kind of nepotism cronyism that I ran to extinguish
in the town of Henstead. He was peddling it there.
He got reprimanded at a Supreme court for doing this
kind of stuff in the town of Hempstead, and he
still continued to do it in his commrecial office. Peoples
(32:07):
are sick of this stuff. They want epicators who are
just going to go and fall problems and start making
their lives better instead of finger pointing and carrying on
this kind of nonsense in their office.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yes, I am actually very excited to have you on
this podcast because I heard you speak at an Emily's
List lunch and you were really great, and I actually
made the effort to get you because, first of all,
in twenty twenty two, Democrats lost a bunch of seats
(32:40):
that were in Biden districts or very competitive Swingy districts.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And maybe that.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Was because of the governor, and maybe it was because
of the midterm, but sort of Democrats took their eye
off the ball. You are one of those seats, and
you have this amazing story of having worked in the
district and coming from the district.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Right, Yes, I.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Mean look in twenty twenty two, I can say in
my race it was a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
It was mostly lack of resources.
Speaker 7 (33:14):
You thought in the race really late because nobody was
expecting being combig Democrat Cathleen Rights to retire, so I
had a very short runway to raise the resources you
need to win an election in the most expensive media market.
And then we had redistricting which kicked our primaries to August,
so you know, I was I'd spend a lot of
(33:35):
money on an expensive primary at the end of August
and then start to refill my coffers in September when
you're supposed to be kicking into full gear television and
try to raise money again. And no one in DC
thought took this race seriously. Unfortunately, they thought it was
a safe seat. We kept trying to tell them it
is not safe. But the news is that has all
been corrected this citing.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yes, it really has been.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
The d triple C has been and I think just
really putting their foot on the gas. Talk to me
about what that looks like for you. Yeah, this has
been a totally different race for me. Got in really early,
so I'd had that long runway to raise the resources
I need to make sure we're on TV communicating with
voters telling them what's at stake in this election and
(34:19):
how important it is that they come out and vote,
and that they come out and vote for me. So
we've had great fundraising. We just finished K three with
a really amazing number. We raised two point four million
in T three, But that money's going right out the door.
I mean, it's so expensive to run these ads that
you see on TV on cable, so researchers are something
we always need more of and are happy to accept.
(34:41):
But also we have an organizing strategy that has really
not been seen in Nasha County other than perhaps for
the special election of Tom Swasey in February, which worked, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
It worked.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
It's constituency driven organizing, making sure we have we are
reaching out to all our different ethnic groups, religious groups,
and just engaging all these communities and getting them excited
about the election and coming out to vote. I think
we knocked ninety thousand doors already, and people are coming
from not just this district but from other places because
they know how pritically important it is that we win
(35:14):
this seat. Because this is a seat we can win.
If Democrats come out to vote, we are going to win.
We have a registration edge. We just need people to
come out to vote. That's what went wrong in twenty
twenty two. It's low turnout.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, I didn't have.
Speaker 7 (35:26):
The resources to get people out and had this field organization.
On the Republican side, they had Les Delden working this
area really real hard because he knew the only way
he could get to that governor's mansion is every like
mad up person onlinely came out to vote, so.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
He worked this area hard.
Speaker 7 (35:43):
They only had midterm drop off on the Republican side
of thirty thousand voters in this district. On our side,
we had drop off of one hundred thousand voters and
I only lost by nine seven hundred votes. If ten
percent were Democrats showed up, I would be in Congress
right now. So we're not letting that happen this cycle.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
What I think is very interesting about these quote unquote
moderate Republicans right like Desposito Lawler, This crew are pretending
that they're moderates, but the reality is they go into
Congress and they vote for every crazy Mike Johnson thing. Right,
(36:23):
So they voted to impeach Biden, they voted to impeach
my orcists. All of them have done the same kind
of stuff that Trumpers do, right, I mean, they have
voting records. Ds Posito has a voting record that's almost
the same as Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
Right, Yes, and he said he respects Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Amazing Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I don't know if you know this, but yesterday she
tweeted about how Jews they could be Jews could not
be Jews. Sounds like Jews as a Jew, tend to
feel like she's talking about me can control the weather.
I mean, so if you're I mean, so you're running
against someone who respects her, Yes, said it to Jake Tapper.
(37:05):
I believe that's amazing, but it is. I mean, it's like,
I'm surprised at how like the mainstream media is so
desperate to have normal Republicans that they'll put people like
ds Posito and Lawler on television when they really are
not mainstream Republicans not.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
He has voted and he voted for Mike Johnson to
be Speaker of the House. He is as right as
you can get. He sponsored the Life at Conception Act
of a national abortion Band no exceptions. That the most
traconian law that you can imagine, no idea he voted
for him. I mean, he is so out of line
with the values of this district. He even voted for
(37:42):
that bill to restore Confederate monuments at Arlington Cemetery. Twenty
percent of this district are black and brown people. Right
to restore a Confederate monument. He is not moderate. He
will do whatever what his party bosses telling him to do.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
But I think also it's important to realize that if
Democrats are able to take back the House, there'll be
a check God forbid. You know, you guys will if
you are elected to Congress, certify the election and if
Trump wins, which will be catastrophic for everything from climate
to democracy. But do you think that you know, at
(38:26):
least you guys will be able to provide a check
on that, right?
Speaker 7 (38:30):
Absolutely? I mean that is why this race, and these
really top targeted races are so crucial. For our democracy
because we don't know what's going to happen in the Senate.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It's a tough map.
Speaker 7 (38:41):
We don't know what's going to happen for the White
House because it looks like it's going to be a
tight race. We can get the House back if we
win the seats. These are winnable races as long as
we have the resources and the people. The body's knocking
on the doors to get people out to vote, because
we need to have at least one branch of the
government to protect us from whatever might come out of
(39:05):
the White House or the Senate.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
If we lose control of the Senate. Yeah, it's really important.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
And if Democrats pook the House and Harris wins, which
is what all of us who believe in democracy would like,
what will happen is that you guys will be there
to swear her in and to certify the election. We
won't have to worry about whether or not Mike Johnson
feels like certifying the election, right.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Right, or he's afraid to certify the election. It's such
a crazy thing.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Tell us a little bit about what your district looks like,
because it's a really interesting district.
Speaker 7 (39:44):
Yes, it's a wonderfully diverse district. It's about in terms
of demographics, twenty percent Black, about sixteen percent Latino, roughly
seven percent AAPI, and then the balance would be white.
And we had a lot of different We have the Bytowns,
which is startably a very large Jewish area of the district.
(40:05):
It's become more orthodox now. It's a very compact district.
It runs from Garden City, Westberry, down to our beaches,
from the Queen's Border and out to the Wantass Seaford area.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Can you tell us a little bit about what you're
doing to win in your district? It's ads, but it's
also what events going around, door knocking, What are people
doing for you and what are you doing?
Speaker 7 (40:31):
Yeah, so we are you know, look, we are hard
at work. I am in this race to win it.
We are knocking on doors. We opened up six offices
across the district. We're doing meet and greets, We're doing
coffee meetings. We're going to start doing train stations. That's
a typical way you campaign.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
On Long Island.
Speaker 7 (40:50):
You go to Long Island Railroad train station in the
morning and top on their way to work.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
So we're going to start that.
Speaker 7 (40:55):
I think next week, and you know, raising the money
that we need to pay for these ads and pay
for the mail because that's a really important tool to
communicate to voters.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
What are the concerns that you're hearing?
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Like?
Speaker 2 (41:09):
What are people?
Speaker 1 (41:09):
I mean, do people understand what a danger trump Ism is?
Do they remember that? Are you hearing about inflation? What
are you hearing?
Speaker 7 (41:18):
Well, there's definitely one thing that has really resonated, I
think since twenty twenty two, since the Dobbs decision is
the real threat to our reproductive freedom. I think in
blue states there is a certain complacency after dob like, Oh,
we're safe in New York, So I'm not as worried
about that. Now people are seeing what the aftermath of
(41:39):
Dobbs is. That Clarence Thomas laid it out in his
concurring opinion that they're not just coming for choice, They're
coming for IVF were contraception, They're going to come for
LGBTQ rights. That was just the beginning, and we're seeing
this play out in some of the red states now
where women are dying because they're not getting health care
(42:01):
that they need. And so it's an issue that people know,
whatever the Republicans of the fake modern Republicans are saying,
now when push comes to shove and get pushed to
sign a national abortion bill, if the Republicans are in charge,
that is what it's going to happen. They're not fooling
people on that issue. So that's an issue that a
lot of people are concerned about. I mean, look, they're
(42:23):
concerned about the cost of living. This is a really
expensive place to live. Losing that state and local tax
deduction really hurts people. We pay among the highest property taxes.
And you know, my opponent, Anthony Dias Canzita said he's
going to get us that tax deduction back. He's been
in the majority for almost two years and he hasn't.
So cost of living concerns is a really big issue here.
(42:44):
And quite frankly, the border is a really big issue.
People are really concerned about it because they saw the
forty thousand migrants that were busted to New York City
by Greg Abbott, a move by the way that my
opponent applauded instead it was a good move to do.
And they're concerned about the border. They're concerned about fentanyl
coming across the border, and so it's an issue that
(43:06):
needs to be tackled. And you know, again, this is
typical of my opponent and some of his colleagues. They're
talking about it, they're campaigning on it, they're saying it's
a crisis, it's a disaster. But they're the ones in power,
they are in the majority, and they're not doing anything
to fix the problem because they're just trying to campaign
on it. Two years they've done nothing.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
When Harris gave her speech at the border, she actually
talked in a really detailed way about how to stop
the flow of fentanyl, and she explained that there are
two cartels that are bringing much of the fentanyl in,
and then there are the different components of fentanyl, some
of which comes I mean, it just all comes from
(43:44):
different places.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
And how you would do that?
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Do you think that voters got that message and processed it,
And do you think that there's enough of a like
she actually has a plan to stop fentanyl.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I think it.
Speaker 7 (43:59):
Needs to be amplified. I think she needs to put
it out in more paid communications what her plan is,
and you know, and her experience as a prosecutor and
how she knows how to tackle this problem. I think
I think it would be helpful for her to like
really amplify that message because it is a message that
is not just a top issue in my district. I'm
hearing it from my other candidates and running in other districts.
(44:21):
It's it's a real concern and it should be a concern.
Our immigration system has been broken for a long time.
It needs to be fixed. We need people to get
the political courage to reach across the aisle because you
no matter who wins, our majorities are not going to
be like they needs to be in the past because
the way districts have been gerrymandered and the majority is
not going to be that large. So if you want
a comprehensive legislation with the buying of the American people
(44:45):
that's going to last and not just be thrown out
when you know when the next election happens, you need
to have by parties in leadership. We saw that going
forward in the Senate. Right, we saw that bill. It
was a hard fought compromise, but Donald Trump wanted to
campaign on it, so he killed it. Was that ill perfect,
probably not perfect. It didn't address certain things that we
wanted to address. It might not have bet on it
(45:06):
be aggressive as aggressive that it should have been in
some parts, but it was a compromise and it was
a step forward. And what we've had then is nothing.
So this is something that absolutely must happen in the
next Congress, and it must be done in a bipartisan fashion.
And that's what we're not seeing from the Republican members
of the House. They just sat on their hands and
(45:26):
the bill that they did pass had no input from Democrats.
Now one Democrats lined off on that bill. So that's
performative politics, that's not legislating, right, right, right.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
What do you think the Harris campaign could be doing
better that would help you when in your discher I.
Speaker 7 (45:42):
Think it's great that she's talking a lot about Project
twenty twenty five and some of the dangerous things in there.
I think talking about the border and articulating how she's
going to work to solve that crisis. I think that
and what executive power she will bring to the table
to solve to try to help work with Congress to
solve the crisis, I think that would be very helpful.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Do you think that voters understand that there was a
real agreement and Trump killed it or now?
Speaker 7 (46:09):
I do think that they understand that I think that
certain people don't care. I think people who are undecided
or more open minded about it can see quite clearly.
I mean, this is not just this is not hyperbole,
This is information.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
This is what happened.
Speaker 7 (46:25):
So and you have Republicans saying like this was one
of the most conservative bills that we could have passed ever,
and they killed it like their own plan is calling
them out.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
Yeah, James Langford from Oklahoma, thank you, thank you, thank you, Laura,
thank you so.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Much, Noon Rick Wilson, Malla Jeong Fast.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Do you want to know what my moment of fakery is?
Speaker 6 (46:56):
I certainly do.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
There's a member of the Trump family who.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Despises me in a way that I feel Eric should,
but I'm just not even on his radar. Do you
know who that member the Trump family is.
Speaker 6 (47:10):
That'd be Cochley von Felsson.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
It would be fayle Son von felsn Don Junior, who
recently tweeted that I was getting my own show. It
was not true, but it was so infuriating to him
that it captured his imagination anyway. Read a piece in
The Wall Street Journal by Molly Ball where she says
that actually the New gatekeeper of Donald Trump. Well, in
(47:37):
twenty sixteen, it was his beautiful and totally, i want
to say, enabling daughter.
Speaker 6 (47:45):
Definitely not the subject of any bizarre of his incess fantasies.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yes, and also not complicit in all ways that she's
now moved on to Miami and trying to make it
in high society. Her brother, who is really bubble down
on the basist instincts of trump Ism, is now, according
to this piece in the Wall Street Journal, his daddy's gatekeeper.
You know, I was having a few days where I
(48:10):
was like, I'm definitely not going to get MO. I'm
not on anyone's radar. I'm not going to get MO.
But wow, I'm definitely going to get MO. So that
is Donald Trump Junior sending me to Gitmo. Is my
moment of fuckery? Rick Wilson, what's your moment of fuckery?
Speaker 6 (48:25):
Leela Suckery? Is the entire maga right wing media ecosystem
right now that are lying their asses off about what's
happening in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida.
These people are sick. They are stoking these insane conspiracy
theories that range from Marjorie Taylor Green saying they control
(48:45):
the weather, to these lies that immigrants are getting hundreds
of thousands of dollars a year but everyone else in
the zone of the hurricane is only going to get
seven hundred and fifty dollars. All these lies are ratcheting
up a sense of despair and these conspiracy for no reason.
And you're seeing how thoroughly effective the right wing media
ecosystem is at breaking the mental constructs that should underpin
(49:10):
people's thoughts about the world and turning them into this
bizarro fantasy land. I mean, and I know they don't
fucking care. It is horrible for this country what they're doing.
It is terrible for this country. And Elon is the
chief these rocket fuel for this stuff, and he has
been a promulgator of some of the worst and most
destructive of these stories. So that's my moment of fuckeray.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Thanks Rick Wilson.
Speaker 6 (49:32):
Yuh.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best
minds in politics make sense of all the chaos. If
you enjoyed this podcast, please send it to a friend
or an enemy and keep the conversation going
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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