Beardos, Weirdos, and Donald Trump

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Well, the answer, egg yolks. QB is made with egg yolks only, giving it this incredibly rich umami flavor that elevates everything. Burgers, fries, sandwiches, chicken, noodles. Chefs use it, restaurants use it, people who really love food and flavor use it. Whatever you're eating, QB it. So if you haven't tried QB yet, find the bottle with the red cap and see what everyone's talking about. You'll understand. QB, the original Japanese mayonnaise. ♪♪ Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we'll talk about Trump finally hitting the campaign trail, whether Republicans like it or not, and many of them do not. Uh, his morally binding, completely voluntary agreement with our AI overlords. Uh, Senator Eric Schmidt's national humiliation. Pete Hegseth's national humiliation. And why neither of them think what they did was humiliating, because shame no longer exists. Uh, then Dan talks with Reverend Adam Hamilton, who's mounting a very serious challenge against Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas. Dan, uh, the buzz around the office is that it was a fantastic interview and that Adam Hamilton's awesome. He is awesome. I just, I encourage everyone to listen. I encourage everyone to support him. I really was, uh, very impressed by him in a way I wouldn't have been impressed by a politician in a while. That's exciting. All right, everyone, well, stay, stay tuned after we, uh, blab on about the news for Dan's interview. Uh, all right. With 32 days left until the midterms, Donald Trump has finally hit the campaign trail in his so far successful effort to make the election about him and his 38% approval rating. The Republicans who are actually on the ballot, uh, don't seem as enthused about this strategy, but as one Republican operative told Politico, quote, these guys are in a pickle. They may not want Trump to come to the district, but there are still things Trump can do to help. Another GOP strategist working on midterm races was asked what would happen if Trump campaigned in their battleground states and said, quote, I suspect my candidates would come down with COVID. But one candidate who was seemingly COVID free on Thursday, Ken Paxton, who campaigned with Trump in Texas just a few days after audio leaked of Paxton telling donors what he really thought about Trump's midterm convention in Dallas. Here's the audio. From the New York Times. Do you feel like there's a little bit of a drag? So, to be honest with you, the numbers, when we did that convention, it dropped our numbers. Everybody's on the move. Right now, yeah, not good. Not good. Yeah, yeah, not good. That was Paxton saying that, yeah, Trump, someone asked him if Trump's been a drag and he said, yeah, Trump's been a drag and that after everyone, after that convention in Dallas, everyone's numbers dropped a little bit. I mean, Paxton, now, this is not the point here, but it's just truly unbelievable that someone, like most incredibly corrupt politicians who succeed have incredible charisma. Trump as an example, right? And Paxton, like, what is Paxton bringing to the table that allows people to just go along with his corruption? He's the personality of a snail. People who, you know, analyze Texas politics for a living and do Texas politics for a living have made the point that he has gotten as far as he has because of, you know, of his corruption. And so, like, because he has been so corrupt and gotten so much, so many people who are really wealthy in Texas politics to spend so much money getting him elected, he really hasn't had, like, a super competitive race, especially in, like, in a primary where he's had to rely on his charisma and talent campaigning. All he's had to do is just be the guy who a bunch of, you know, wealthy special interests poured a bunch of money into making sure he got elected so that he could pay them back. Guys, we really can't lose to this guy. I know. We cannot lose to him. So, here's Trump in Texas on Thursday proving that he's definitely not a drag. Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody. And I have to always remember that because he can be a pain in the ass sometimes, I'll be honest. Is he here, by the way? Oh, there he is. Good. I didn't even know he was here. I don't know. I don't care. You think that's what Paxton was looking for? He's like, well, he didn't call me ugly this time. Now, we don't think. The event's not over. Yeah, so it's possible he closes with the ugly thing, the bad dressing thing. There's so much in this remarks. Like, yes, is it helpful to Ken Paxton for Donald Trump to take his very poor approval rating, even in Texas, and just be like, see, Ken Paxton, he's always by my side. My stink is definitely on him, in case you're wondering. My stink is on him. But also, earlier in those remarks, before he gets to the acknowledging Ken Paxton's existence, he spends like 10 minutes at the top just saying how amazing the economy is and how we have numbers like no one's ever seen before. And the only reason people don't know it is because the fake news won't tell people. He also admitted yesterday, Wednesday, Trump said that he's done a, quote, very bad job of explaining his economic record. Did you catch that quote? Yeah. Rare sort of self-awareness from Donald Trump. Although, I wouldn't say, I don't think I had self-awareness because there's not much of an economic record to explain. Yes, there is that problem, yes. But I was surprised that he said that. So, you know, right as we started recording, too, Fox News has another poll, 5149. Tallarico. Tallarico over Paxton. So, take that for what you will. We can get into the polls a little bit later. So, this obviously depends on the specific race, but what do you make of the argument that was in that Politico story that in certain red states, in certain states and districts, Trump showing up could be a net positive because he will turn out his hardcore MAGA fans who otherwise wouldn't have voted? This is the bet for the midterms, at least in the White House, for putting Trump out there at all. This is not a strategy that a bunch of people have come up and put on a whiteboard based on data. It is based on the fact that Donald Trump will not shut up, will not stop saying unhelpful things. And so, the best thing they can do in their estimation is to say, is to have him say those things in rooms with lots of Republicans in swing states on this, you know, this like Hail Mary idea that he will turn out Republican voters. Now, there are two problems with this. The first is there isn't a lot of evidence in the statistical data that Trump will turn out Republicans the way he has before. There are two measures to this. One is what Trump's secret sauce has been in 2016, 2020, and 2020, particularly 2024, is he is turning out lesser engaged voters, people who don't really participate in politics for the first time. All the data we've seen in the focus groups is quantitative and qualitative data says that those are the first people off the Trump train. They made a bet on Trump about costs. He did not deliver costs. They are out. The other thing is, is that he doesn't even have the same sway with his base that he used to. His, I think the best sort of statistical proxy to understand what that is, is strong approval among Republicans. His strong approval among Republicans is now under 50. It was close to 70 on election day. And even as, obviously 2024, but in 2018 as well, where people feel like, And don't forget, now was through the roof, but Republican turnout was quite high there. And there's just not the same suggestion that Trump is going to have that effect. And then you put on the fact that those things don't happen in a silo. A president comes to a state, particularly, you know, if he comes to like a Kansas or an Iowa, that's going to get a ton of attention. It's going to be seen by all the independent voters. It's going to force the, especially in Texas. Yes. Especially in Texas. They're going to have to ask the question. All the candidates on ballot are going to have to ask the question, like the Ashley Hinson's of the world. Are they, are they going to come to the rally? And if they don't come to the rally, that doesn't seem to be good either. Cause that makes them look political and calculating. If they go to the rally, it just seems bad. He's putting them in all in a bad, in a bad position and we should be grateful for it. And we were actually paying for this travel with our taxpayer money. So win, win for us. I mean, even at that event that we just heard the clip from, he was like, is Paxton here somewhere? I believe, like, I think he's doing another event with Paxton or did another event with Paxton. Yeah. I think it was a fundraiser tonight. Right. So, so Ken Paxton, unbelievably unpopular, and, and, and corrupt still had the wherewithal to think that he shouldn't be like standing next to Donald Trump at the event. Well, I had a lot of questions about this event. Is this an official event? Yeah. Cause it's at some kind of a truck. It's at a, it's at the Peterbilt truck factory. And then I know the hatchet doesn't really count. And we, it's like a fake law, at least with Donald Trump's president, but it really is. He specifically like the one thing you cannot do in an official event is actually tell people to vote for certain people. And he tells them like 70, times to vote for Paxton and vote against Tallarico. Yeah. RIP the hatchet. Um, so Trump's also been doing white house events, uh, hyping economic wins for key candidates. So we talked on Tuesday about the future Iowa steel plant. He announced with Ashley Hinson, uh, standing behind him in the oval office, uh, coming to an Iowa town near you in 2030. Uh, he also announced a pledge this week from South Korea to invest in a natural gas pipeline in Alaska with Dan Sullivan standing next to him. Um, though it turns out that project is not only not finalized, um, but apparently South Korea afterwards said, um, no investment decision has actually been made. The project still has to pass commercial legal reviews. Uh, and the Korean industry minister told Reuters, he complained that the white house announcement went beyond what had been agreed. What are the, uh, what John, come on, who are you going to believe the Koreans or Trump? Um, so like my instinct is that, that none of this shit moves the needle. Um, but Tommy made the point on Tuesday's pod that, you know, the Iowa steel plant was the kind of thing that got a ton of local press in Iowa. I don't know. What do you think? I think that there's a way in which Trump could do these things. It would be helpful. And he's doing the opposite of that, which is he's not that when you go to these, you watch these events, he's not saying like, you know, we didn't know what we were going to do. And Ashley Hinson would not stop calling me. She was like, you must deliver for Iowa. You must live for Iowa. We need steel plants. All my advisors were saying, we can't do this. Ashley Hinson, she was up my ass every day doing it. And he doesn't do that. Or she did the same thing with Dan Sullivan. He takes credit for the whole thing and then makes the candidate stand there while he says fucking insane things. Like the greatest economy of all time is what he said with Ashley Hinson standing behind him. Like, no. So yes, it may be in the local newspapers. I, Tommy is correct about that, that, you know, like new steel plant coming. Like we all remember you guys talked this on Tuesday, the Foxconn plant, like what a big deal that was in Wisconsin press. Obviously that local press stuff matters a lot less than it did before, but it matters more to a state like Iowa. But what he's delivering there is not, I don't think it is helpful to Ashley Hinson or Dan Sullivan in any way, shape or form. Also, how does it feel to read the headline about the new steel plant that's coming in 2030 while you're at the gas station filling up your car with gas that's like never been more expensive as long as you can remember. So there is that problem too. So polls seem good, maybe too good. This, this wasn't in our outline, but I thought I would, uh, I thought I would bring it up anyway, because you wrote a message box this week. I did. Um, it really captured the vibe of all my group chats, not just the ones that you're once. Cause I'm in a lot of them. I was going to say, not just the ones that you're in, which is most of them. Um, and it's called, are the polls too good to be true? Like here's where I am. I could see a scenario where the polls are broadly correct. Democrats win national house vote by eight, nine, maybe even more than nine, um, win the house, but then like narrowly lose the Senate because of a pretty small polling error. Like doesn't have to be a huge one. It's not even an error, right? Yeah. It's just the, all these polls in the key Senate races, other than North Carolina and Georgia are within the margin of error. So the thing that's got everyone, you know, talking on Twitter is Harry Enten pointed out on CNN this week that in 18, 20 and 24, polls specifically in the States of Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio, the same States where there's always polling error, um, all underestimated Republicans by more than five points. So that like, you know, if we're within the margin and it's Abdul and Sherrod and Josh Turek, by the way, the same Fox had that Texas poll, uh, right. As we started recording that has Tallarico up 51 49 also has Josh Turek up 51 49 in Iowa. Um, but yeah, that like those, those States, um, you know, that would cost us the Senate. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's all on the table. It isn't always true that every polling error is bad for Democrats. Good for Republicans. Right. In fact, in 2025, there is a, the polls, particularly in New Jersey, dramatically overstated the Republican vote share. And so it could be, and then you have had, there are other examples of other years where the polls overstated Republicans. 2012 was a year where the polls overstated the Republicans. And so like, there are a couple of things I'd say about this. Um, and I also, uh, I want everyone to subscribe to the message box. I also discussed this on polar coaster, which you can get along with ad free episodes of some of your favorite podcasts and the amazing newsletters like open tabs at cricket.com slash friends. So, I mean, it's a great, it's a great offer and you get to be supporting pro-democracy independent media. One of the last best independent media outlets left in America, especially now that CNN is under the thumb of the Ellison. This is it's us, right? That's what we got. All right. So in the, so a couple of points I would make here, one, the, there is polling errors are always possible. That is very true. Now there are, there is evidence outside of polls, which suggests a very good democratic year. I'll give you a couple of those. One Democrats have outvoted Republicans in primaries, which shows high turnout on our part. Special elections have been very favorable to Democrats. Now you probably listened to us all 2023 and 2024 saying special elections, are not predictive and they are not necessarily predictive, but they are much more predictive in midterm elections than presidential electioneers. Because as these concentric circles of less engaged voters go out, they become less, they become less predictive, but that there's less of that in the midterms. And in 2018, special election results were actually quite predictive as a point Amy Walter has made before. And then you just look at all what's happening in the world, high gas prices, inflation, housing costs, all of those things, low, low consumer confidence, mortgage rates being high. All of those things have historically correlated with very bad years for the incumbent party. So are the polls right or wrong? We don't really know. We don't know they're necessarily wrong as you know, you and I've discussed about before there are some of the States that we need are the ones where the polling errors are the greatest, but even at let's take the Latino vote, like that's the point that has been made before about how the polls have in the past overrepresented the democratic share of the Latino vote, which has given is a big thing, given people an impression of Democrats that wins the places they don't win. That's why we thought Florida was close many times and ended up not being, but here's the thing. It's not just polls that tell us that Latinos have shifted to Democrats. There are real actual voting results in 2025, huge swings, 20, 30% swings to Democrats in heavily Latino precincts in New Jersey in that special, election that, that was one in Texas, huge swing among heavy Latino precincts in the primary. I think this is like such a fascinating thing in the primary Texas primary. Now it's a primary, but James Telerico got more votes in those heavily Latino counties on the Rio grand valley than Kamala Harris did in the general election. That's crazy. Yeah. And so there is a percentage that's votes, raw votes, that's actual raw votes. And so that's, so all of that is to say, I don't know if the polls are right or wrong. We should not assume that the polling is wrong. We should not assume that the polling is right or wrong. We should not assume that the polling is necessarily bad for Democrats, but there is lots of evidence. And then today for the first time in like many, many years, Democrats out registered Republicans in Florida. It's a very notable thing. So there, there is, there is evidence for democratic momentum, democratic enthusiasm, and swing voters swinging to Democrats. Is that going to be enough to take the Senate? We don't know the answer to that. Yeah. And I would just tell everyone in the last month too, like, I feel like in the last, you know, maybe not this week, but like the week before earlier this week too, you get, you're getting some polls where they're like, I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on. I don't know whether it's like, you know, D plus 13, 14, 15, like there, there is a scenario, right? Where Democrats do have, like, there is a blue wave and Democrats do do quite well and take the house and win the national, like I said, when the national popular vote by like eight, nine points. And it's just really, really close in a lot of Senate States where, you know, those are red States that Trump won by double digits. And it's like, it's, you just need to get over that hump. Uh, if you're the democratic candidate and like, hopefully we get there and all of them, if the wave is big enough, but it's that that's where the election is fought. Yeah. It's just, it is credible to believe that then day Democratic national popular vote in 2026 with $4.20 gas a gallon with $7 diesel, that the Democratic share of the national popular vote could be a couple points higher than it was in 2018 when Trump was in the mid-40s, when the economy was much better, when majorities of voters approved of Trump's handling of the economy. Why couldn't it be a couple points better at least than it was then? Yeah, I agree. So today's show is brought to you by Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice. You'd think challenging the publishing industry would take the combined efforts of writers, publishers, and activists. Instead, one 10-year-old helped spark the conversation. 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We love AG1. We have for a very long time. It's great. You just scoop it in some water or you scoop it in a smoothie and then you know you've got your daily dose of all the important things that you forget about. If you don't have AG1, all the vitamins, minerals, probiotics, all that, all in one scoop, just put it in your smoothie. It's great. Go to drinkag1.com slash crooked and for a limited time, get a free immune support bundle, including a bottle of omega-3 fish oil and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 with your first subscription order of AG1 NextGen or AG1 Pro. That's drinkag1.com slash crooked. One other pre-midterm Trump announcement that's sure to warm the hearts of Republican candidates everywhere. A few weeks after election day, the crypto company that runs Trump's meme coin says Trump will be the featured speaker at what they're calling the most exclusive dinner in the world for the top 185 buyers of Trump coin. Jeff Stein at the Washington Sun, who broke the story, estimates that buying a million dollars worth of Trump coin, that should land you on the top 185 based on the current leaderboard. Trump, who of course earns money every time one of the coins changes hands, has already made $635 million from this Trump coin, while the people who actually bought the fucking things have lost close to $4 billion. Also, you got to see the AI art on the announcement page because it's Trump if he was like, you know, a hundred pounds lighter and 30 years younger. Do you feel like Democrats in midterm races are making the most of Trump's insane corruption? Just a thought I had reading that. Are they making the most of it? I think you can never make too much of it. But I think you are seeing a lot of Democrats, and this is very, very refreshing, I think, making political corruption be a huge part of their message. Now, in some cases, you have very, very corrupt. Candidates like Ken Paxton, you have a bunch of other candidates who you see actually in a bunch of Democratic ads about these Republican members who come into Congress, voted against all these things, and also like, you know, quadruple their net worth while they were in Congress. You know, you see a lot about stock trading. They're not really making it about Trump, but that's okay, because what Trump is doing is by being so obviously corrupt, he is making it more believable that all of his minions in Congress are corrupt. And what I think is really, really, really impressive about the message, and James Salarico has an ad out today where he's sitting in a restaurant, and he talks about how Ken Paxton's corruption has cost Texas taxpayers $12 million, and then you have to pay the bill. It's a restaurant. There's a bill. Got it. It's very well done. But there was a Navigator poll. I thought this was super fascinating from a few weeks ago, Navigator Research, some of the smarter people doing polling on our side of the aisle. And in it, they talked about how now voters consider political corruption to be one of the leading reasons why Congress is so corrupt. And they talked about how now voters consider political corruption to be one of the leading reasons why Congress is so corrupt. And they talked about how they consider political corruption to be one of the leading reasons why Congress is so corrupt. And so you're seeing all these Democrats connect political corruption to their costs going up. And so Trump's like this overlay on top of it that makes all these other Republican candidates more vulnerable to these attacks. In this September New York Times Siena poll, it was a finding that I think didn't get enough attention. Voters find Republicans to be more likely to be corrupt than Democrats by 14 points. It's 48-34. And that didn't used to be the case. No, it's almost always been split. Yeah. I think that, you know, if you're a House candidate or a Senate candidate who's just running against a regular Republican, you know, you don't just want to talk about Trump because you're running against the Republican. But I do think corruption is a great issue to tie that Republican to Trump because the Republican Congress has done abso-fucking-lutely nothing about this corruption. And so if people are thinking, as they should, that like it's crazy for the President of the United States to make more money than he's ever made in his lifetime while they are paying more for like basic necessities than they've ever paid in their lifetime. And the Republican has done nothing about it that they're running against. I think that's a pretty good, pretty good ad, pretty good story to tell, pretty good moment to have at a debate. You know, everyone says that Ossoff does great because of his like, you know, lighting in the events and he's taught he's hitting corruption. But the way he hits the corruption, I think is effective because he tells a story about it. And it's not just enough to just, you know, hit the, oh, he's getting rich off whatever, but like tell the whole story about it. Speaking of stories, in the story that Jeff Stein wrote here, just this great part. They talked to a 26-year-old crypto guy who's lost $400,000 so far on Trump coin. And he was disappointed by last year's dinner because Trump only went for 20 minutes, didn't take any photos, and the steak was small and terrible. Um, and then, then the kid says, if it was an option, he could see himself voting for Trump again. We'll go to this year's dinner and said, quote, I hope the food is better this time. Really just like sums up the entire, the entire Trump experience for Trump supporters over two terms. I hope the food is better this time. That's, that's what they said when they went to the polls in 2024. Alas, my friend, I'm going to suggest it probably will not be. Uh, by the way, we do have a, a much better event, uh, for you to attend after the midterms that won't cost you a million dollars in Trump coin, Dan. Uh, it's how much crooked coin do you have to buy? It's crooked con in Washington, DC. We got a live pod, save America show a live, love it or leave it conversations and debates with all your favorite hosts, strategists, creators, democratic politician. It's going to be lively. It's going to be fun. Uh, we're going to kick off the debate about how to win back the white house in 2028 with some of the people who might end up on that primary debate stage. Um, and we'd love to see you. It's going to be November 5th through 7th in DC. You can go to crooked con.com for tickets and you get a discount. If you're a friend of the pod subscriber and all those other benefits that we just mentioned earlier. So you can go to crooked.com slash friends to become a subscriber and crooked con.com to get your tickets while they're still available for crooked con in DC. This is kind of my pitch for people. Yeah. If you work in politics and at any level, in any way, shape or form, and you, you should be crooked con because it is the place where you're going to meet the most people you can network. You're going to hear from some of the smartest people you're going to find if you're looking for the 2028 campaign you might work on or what you're going to do next or where things are going in politics. The people who have the answer to those questions are all going to be at crooked con. Plus it's going to be a shitload of fun. So much fun. All right. Uh, one issue I'm sure Republican candidates wish Trump would shut the fuck up about is, uh, AI and specifically, uh, data centers where he's wildly out of step with public opinion, including Republican voters. But alas, you just can't do that. Help himself, Dan. Uh, here he is answering a question from a reporter about data centers at the white house on Tuesday. The data centers are, and by the way, I'm very good at real estate. Some of those buildings are absolutely beautiful. They're big and they're, you know, big, strong, powerful buildings, but they're beautiful and they add greatly to a community. That's what people, they often describe the architecture of data centers. I think he has never seen a data center. No, he has no idea what they are. There's never been a data center that is not ugly. No. Have you seen these things? Yeah. It's a gigantic huge. Yeah. Some of fakers there's it's like it's terrible yes yeah i mean he truly has no idea what he's talking about in any way shape or form he he then elaborated on this point uh to time magazine in a 75 minute interview that just published because what else does he have to do but then sit down with time magazine for 75 minutes um he said quote i would like to have data centers it doesn't mean i want them right next to my house but certainly i like them in my county our nimby king he also repeated his line about how people who don't want data centers next to their homes must want to be poor and live in quote crime infested squalor so a lot of republican candidates are running ads right now trying to pretend that they have they are now against data centers they've always been against data centers um republicans and congress just failed to pass their completely toothless bill that would have asked companies to consider paying for higher electricity costs associated with data centers um do you think all that could help neutralize the issue even though trump continues to step on the republican message on this issue i do not john i think that having the leader of the republican party the person with the largest megaphone in the party the person who all of these candidates have lashed themselves to his hip this whole time stand in front of him and say i'm going to do this i'm going to do this a collection of current and soon to be trillionaires from the least trusted industry in the world to basically say that ai will not be regulated and we should have data centers everywhere is not going to be seen as helpful to republican candidates that's just my one man's take this is another one where like i have followed this i followed all the polling you you see republicans running ads on it so you know they must be nervous but just a little preview this weekend's uh offline oh please do i'm sitting down with um aaron brockovich oh um who has uh taken up the cause of data centers because people just like one day she woke up and people started sending her emails about data centers in their community because they know about her her past and what she's done and now she's fought for consumers and so i've like really been digging into the issue like people are so fucking angry and like people in rural areas and republicans and it is like a cross-party line it's it's a cross-party line if politicians even the politicians who are appropriately skeptical of the way data centers have been built so far i don't think anyone truly understands the like grassroots rage over this issue yeah it is those data centers is a manifestation of everything that people hate about our unfair economy and the their their fear and anxiety about the future of the economy under ai where they could lose their jobs not to mention all the the worries in the last couple weeks about ai and the future of the economy under ai where they could lose their jobs ending the planet right it is it's like no one really i think what data centers are there's like an actual so much of the you know what's wrong with our economy is just sort of like out there in the world it's it's like what are what are you really mad at like you're mad at a lot of things but now you have a physical thing that people are trying to put in your community and you have the ability to possibly stop it and it is people are incredibly incredibly fired up about it and a lot of the pro data center people are like well yeah but you know if you do it the right way they they pay taxes and they take care of the electricity bill and they're not going to pay taxes and they there's a way to design them now that they don't use as much water and like all that stuff is true but some of these people like they drop down a massive data center in your community and you've got people living nearby who can't sleep at night because it's so noisy and because it's like so bright that like you can see in their houses like the lights coming into their houses and like 2 a.m like it's just fuck and and all these deals get done without any kind of local input and so there's like ndas the ai companies come in they build the data center local officials don't do anything about it and then people just get fucked and have like this gigantic data center next to them instead of like farmland or forest it's wild anyway in michigan abdul has a new ad that is the actual real sound of a data center playing for 30 seconds oh that's awesome that with uh then with words talking about the data centers and all the money that my credit is taken from pro data center interests etc that's good because you you really have to listen to the sound yeah it's it's so loud yeah um so again that time interview uh was 75 minutes uh what else jumped out at you in that interview so there are two things here the first is why did donald trump do an interview with a magazine that doesn't really exist anymore or at least time exists but the value of time for a politician was being on the cover and then that cover sat on newsstands at airports everywhere people saw it right even they never picked the magazine they saw you the reason donald trump did this is he's an old man but also this interview put him on the cover which made it put him on his 56 cover i believe which makes him now the person who's been on the list now you may say john who is number two on that list it is richard nixon which should tell you the value well that it's not always a positive to be on the cover it's not like 56 times about that it's just you can be on it for plenty of bad reasons yes he's donald trump he's as maggie haberman always pointed out he's frozen in the 1980s he thinks time magazine's a big deal so important he's on the cover he's now got the record that's that's all that matters yeah it's so embarrassing but they're in the in the interview there's two things i mean one the whole thing it is hard to read because it's so fucking incoherent like like reading trump is so much worse than listening to trump because it's really hard you kind of understand his verbal tics when you're listening to him he's been doing it for so long and you kind of you go along for the weave but when you have to read it and they're like the direct question is answered and he asked and he's still answering the question from before and you don't really know what he's talking about but like it is you truly cannot be more detached from reality than he is in this where he keeps talking about he obviously talks about how wonderful the economy is that's his thing but he's like insisting the straight could not be more open than it is right now he also he also says like they ask him are you going to ramp up bombing after the midterms maybe on and he said yeah possible i might annihilate around because annihilating by annihilating them we've created peace in the world yeah yeah so just think about the logical i know we've done this a thousand times but the straight is completely open we've won but also our next move maybe to annihilate a run now at the end is i think a truly perfect little thing that just shows what trump's priorities are and what his fears are he says there he it's kind of hard to understand because it's so incoherent but i'm pretty sure what he's saying is that he has been bothering suzy wiles to get her to declare to find someone who can declare the oval office in its current form to be historical landmark so the next president can't come in and take down all the gold is it first of all is if that's going to stop them yeah because clearly that would have stopped trump right yes a man with a passionate adherence to building codes and historical preservation donald trump who demolished the east wing of the white house oh yeah so the the iran thing stuck out to me and then also there was a wall street journal headline today uh u.s sending third aircraft carrier up to 10 000 more troops to the middle east so the whole after the midterms resuming the bomb is going to stop them because clearly that would have stopped trump right like a man with a bombing thing that's that's real um he says that nominating uh gorse he regrets nominating gorsuch kavanaugh and barrett and that he wants loyalty uh in a supreme court justice so if you if you weren't psyched to take the senate back before this there's another reason to work hard to take the senate back because he's you know going to appoint some eileen cannon uh if he gets the shot um says he could use in the insurrection act a lot of people had told him have told him he should use it around the midterm around elections so that's fine but he's never thought of sending ice to the polling places never thought of that never once thought of that i'm sure not but the insurrection acts a lot of people are telling him he should use it which there's been reporting that they are um he of course floats preemptive pardons for all of his staff um he said here's his answer to why he changed artificial intelligence to super intelligence which all of those fucking douchebag ai tech people have gone along with and now are saying that themselves because they have no shame either he said uh it's not artificial intelligence because artificial intelligence is like cnn it's fake this is truly truly this i mean i don't you can't say anything's the stupidest thing trump has done but he's so fixated on this in ways i can't understand and maybe it's because he likes making these fucking beta corrupt tech oligarchs just adopt his language you're like i don't know i made him change yeah uh lake ontario to lake america on apple maps the other day see what i can do here next week is gonna be like dario tell him what your name is now it's mario now hey hey samantha altman hey mark mark mark what if you change the name of your company to a technology you would later abandon called the metaphor oh wait you did that already i still laugh about that every single time and we were all gonna be in the metaverse yeah um he uh he also he says basically like the last 15 minutes of the interview he is like forcing time magazine to appreciate um like his molding and he's uh he's he's he says that the white house is in better condition now than when it was built and then he said everything i do is ahead of schedule um which is just like a normal thing to say about an 18th century building you've been uh renovating for over a year yeah yeah um and then uh oh got first of all he also flipped out at the while he's talking about the White House and the renovations. They said something about like, have you seen Mitch McConnell lately? And he was like, you haven't asked me one fucking positive question in all this in 75 minutes. So that was, he was really upset by the end there. And then just one more thing on AI. Have you heard about him using Grok? Did you see this part? I read this and I find it to be both disturbing and thoroughly unsurprising. Very disturbing. So Elon introduced him to Grok. And at the time, this is from the Time Magazine story about the interview. At the time, Trump was ordering missile strikes against Venezuelan boats he alleged were smuggling drugs into the US. He asked Grok how Venezuelans would react if the US captured Maduro. And according to the official who was present, the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall. After Trump ordered the mission to seize Maduro the following month, celebrations broke out in the streets. Trump, according to officials, came away thinking Grok was ingenious. We are so cooked. So cooked. Not great. So that data center clip we played came from Trump's press avail with America's AI overlords where they all announced what Trump called a morally binding accord calling on every lab to quote, implement robust internal controls to monitor the capabilities and alignment of their models, work with unspecified outside monitors and create independent committees of their board members to monitor safety. They very explicitly punted on the consideration of any actual laws or federal regulations because why would they talk about that with the president of the United States at the White House? Thoughts on this one, substantively and politically? Substantively, I feel worse about AI than I feel about Trump. than I felt before this meeting because there's not that we ever thought Trump would take this seriously but now this is this fake morally binding document morally binding because it's not legally binding is a now so this sort of fig leaf that will give Republicans an excuse not to respond to the very real dangers of AI and the public pressure to regulate AI. They can just point to this fake thing and say it. The shit eating grins of some of the people who don't want AI regulation because they got what they want here. which is it's totally fake. We are no safer. In fact, we're less safe than we were before. We're continuing on the same dangerous path and this was one of those things where everyone lost. Trump looked like a moron. He was bad for him politically. All of the tech companies, even the ones who had earned respect by speaking out, you know, first Dario from Anthropic and then all the others, even Elon who spoke out about the need for regulation and slowdowns and all the above. All the others, they all just look ridiculous as they stand there with shit eating grins on their face as Trump just blabbed about nothing. The country lost. I mean, just the whole thing was so stupid. Also, the entire frontier industry has now publicly conceded that advanced models pose risks serious enough to require some kind of independent testing and oversight. But we are supposed to trust that this testing and oversight will happen internally on the up and up based only on the word of Donald Trump and these tech billionaires. That's what we got to go on. Donald Trump, who's chief AI advisor is someone who wants no regulation. And who, along with Donald Trump and some of these folks, originally called Dario's concerns about safety a hoax. It was all fake. It's all a hoax, blah, blah, blah. And now they're saying, oh yeah, there's serious risks, but we're going to take care of it. There is that funny part in the interview where he tells them about the rogue AI agents breaking into the government. He's like, who did that? Who's rogue? Rogue. We got to get those people. Who's this rogue guy? Yes. Pods of America is brought to you by Mint Mobile. Fall brings changes, but your phone bill shouldn't bring surprises. Cut the clutter and ditch big wireless gimmicks for Mint Mobile. Right now, every Mint plan is just $15 per month, even unlimited. Switch today for high-speed data and reliable coverage on the T-Mobile platform. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right with premium wireless for $15 a month. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even bring your current phone and your number. 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The perfect pair of pants? Or the tee you somehow always reach for first? Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy. And that's what Quince does best. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and merino wool. The styles are timeless, versatile, and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day. Their 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at just $60, giving you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand with a high-quality, without the luxury price tag. And when the temperatures start to drop, Quince makes it easy to build on those everyday staples with premium down jackets and classic wool outwear. Versatile layers designed to keep you warm and comfortable all season long. Everything at Quince is priced 50-80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for high quality, not brand markup. Love Quince. Got a bunch of polos from Quince over the summer and got some excellent shoes, sneakers that I still wear. Got one of those Mongolian cashmere sweaters. For the fall. And, you know, I'm going to go shopping again soon because love their website, love the stuff they have, and it's super affordable. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Pod Save America. It's the best way to support the show. So, Congress is now out of session until after the break. After the midterms, and while the Republican majority left town without accomplishing anything they wanted to, they were able to step on one final rake. Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt, who woke up on Tuesday to an Axios piece heralding the alleged buzz he's been drawing as a possible 2028 VP pick for J.D. Vance, humiliated himself while questioning former Trump special counsel Jack Smith during a Senate judiciary hearing. This is a hard one to follow, but Schmidt was in the midst of spinning up a wild conspiracy that back in 2024, Jack Smith had secretly met with Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis in Atlanta based on a series of unvetted text messages that, according to Schmidt, supposedly proved that Smith had attended an Atlanta Hawks NBA game. But then this happened. Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024? What city would that be in? Atlanta. No. What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair? I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Kaitlin Clark was playing right around that time. And the Marshal Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa. Could it then be that University of Iowa game? If Iowa's the Hawkeyes? Is that the team's wrong, sir? I fucking love Amy Klobuchar. You have to watch the look on her face where she knows that she has just fucking drilled Eric Schmidt and called him out to be such a dumbass. It's so good. The whole thing is so good. Well, so, you know, afterwards, Schmidt, of course, acknowledged his mistake and was deeply apologetic in an interview with TMZ. Let's look. No heads are going to roll over this sort of thing. Like, whoever gave you that information, isn't, like, their job to Jeopardy? No, I asked him a question. Like, were you in Atlanta? He answered no. He's lied before. So, I guess we'll take him in his word that he wasn't in Atlanta? I don't know. So, that wasn't, like, an embarrassing moment or something from where you're standing? No, I asked questions. I asked questions and we'll see if he answers truthfully. He's not answered truthfully before, so people can decide if that's the truth or not. I suppose that the Department of Justice can ask him really where he was that night. I don't know. I asked him. The Hawkeye game. What's that? The Hawkeye game, wasn't he? That's what he says. Oh, no, no. We can see in the audience that he's in that section. I've seen him in the section that night. For that night? Great. Well, then he was at the Hawkeye game. I just asked him if he was in Atlanta. That's great. That's great. Good. That's great. That's great. Apparently, Schmidt's general counsel, who was the guy holding up the poster board with the text messages on it, was supposed to be moving over to the White House to take a role in the staff secretary's office, but Politico is now reporting the job offer is in danger of being rescinded. The thing is, even dumber than it seems. seems yeah because i watched this clip pretty cold because all i saw was someone who would just quote tweet it as holy shit and so i didn't know any like i got to experience the whole journey like the game the hawkeyes eric schmidt being embarrassed eric mcconnell made dirtbag watching jack smith figure it out in real time it was beautiful but then you realize like yes he fucked this up but even if he had to secretly discover that he'd been to an nba game i thought there was gonna be some evidence that funny willis what was the point game but he's just proving that he was trying to prove he was in the same city one of america's largest cities and also a airport that you must fly through to go on anywhere in the south um he's just proving that he was in a city that funny willis lives in like what i don't care if he had dinner with funny willis what the fuck would that prove what are you trying to like what is the allegation here that she brought a case against donald trump that was very public that she tried in a court of law and that he also brought a case against donald trump like are you trying to like what what the allegation of like random collusion was stupid in the first place also have you i am now bought into the theory that it wasn't actually a mix-up between the hawkeyes and the atlanta hawks oh interesting because nowhere on that poster board did it say like that they were it didn't the text messages said nothing about the hawks game it just said a game what they what what schmidt staff is saying is the only men's basketball game that was scheduled for that night was the atlanta hawks game and so the fact that they knew he went to a game no one thought that it could have been a women's basketball or a men's college basketball game there was no apparently there was no men's it's impossible that's that is not true that is not true there was a men's college basketball game that was scheduled for that night that is not true on every single night so i know what people were saying that there was no men at that time at seven like because i guess they had the time or the game they said that at that time for some reason there was no men's or nba men's college or nba game scheduled and that the women's uh hawkeyes game in maryland was the only one that was scheduled and so he went to see caitlin clark i mean it's just it's so fucking stupid i i do think that like um i mean it was funny to to to watch and to see him be humiliated but i was also like sort of angry that he isn't humiliated and he's not humiliated on the right like have you seen any of the right-wing media cover this no so some of them are just ignoring it which is like what you'd expect from them he appeared on turning point usa on the turn on the old charlie kirk podcast um afterwards and the exchanges on this podcast are so like the interviewer is like uh you know you called him out by the way you caught him on this nba game in atlanta and then schmidt's like yeah i did he's like got to give you your flowers you know you had text messages from his team confirming he was going to the hawks game he sat there acting dumbfounded completely clueless and then uh and then and then schmidt was like yeah well he later claimed it was another game but here's my thing my job is to ask questions so they just they just acted not like it just didn't happen but that the whole thing did happen but then he got him yeah i mean he looks like a moron he knows it looks like you can see it in his face in that tmz clip like he can he can say all the words he wants he can bust or he can pretend he knows he's looks like a fucking jackass in front of the world and his like his political that this like ends his political career but he will be like this will follow him for a very long time i hope so i hope so um the axios piece i mentioned um that vance sees schmidt as quote trustworthy intelligent articulate and a deft political operator who do we think who do we think gave jim vande hei that idea uh for that axios piece because it was very short and all it said is we hear we hear that that vance sees him this way yeah the whole that is a very interesting story because it's like it had jim vande hei's byline right yep and there was no it's just rare like it didn't say someone close to the vice president someone close to schmidt it just said we hear yeah that was very that was the sourcing interesting and you know what if you're going to publish rumors like that i'm glad they blew up in your face the next day not even the next day three hours later yeah does vance think that this fucking moron is a deft political operator probably does he reality check he's a fucking moron yes here's why it matters he sucks oh speaking of being intelligent and articulate on wednesday secretary of war pete hegseth delivered what he called his state of the force address which to be clear is not a thing yes very important to understand uh hegseth announced a new drone command and office of religious affairs reporting directly to him so that's wonderful a 20 reduction in generals and admirals and something called project meridian which is an effort to study the future of warfare that will be led by next generation leaders like elon musk and newt gingrich when i think next generation i think yeah when i think a guy who led the republicans to the 1994 majority future of warfare got to get newt gingrich on that um all that was pretty tame though all those announcements compared to um what he actually said in the speech let's listen no fatties no trannies no beardos no weirdos no wimps no radicals just warriors the ideological clowns are out the patriotic cowboys are in with testosterone testing on top our so-called press makes iranian state media look reasonable a free press is of course important but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they're undertaking is fundamentally anti-american it's sick it's a national betrayal it's treason our department is you might say putting on the full armor of god because while we wage physical war we all know the real battle is spiritual god is good evil is not got him there and america's military must understand the difference send me to fight the redcoats send me to fight the communists send me to fight the islamists send me pete hegseth evil's not good you heard it here first god is good evil not good um what'd you think of uh roid rage dr seuss there what's he doing like what is what is he doing who writes this stuff why does he think that this like weird fucking like roided out beat poetry is like something that people are going to like i don't like no trannies no fatties no weirdos no beards no beards no beards take that jade no beards no beardos no weirdos shot of the 2028 republican primary no beardos no weirdos except the the guy i uh i tapped to to run project meridian elon musk yes i mean it's such like a he is a walking seven-day life skit like at all times yeah i know i was thinking i'm like this will be a good colin jose will have a good time with us this weekend they'll probably have to do the schmidt thing too maybe they'll do both it's just it's a lot of good material yeah it's a big big week for sketch comedy yeah it's hard to it's hard to even like mock that it's just like you just just play it that's all you have to do is play it that guy is i cannot fucking believe he is in charge of the united states military john he is in charge united states military and we are stuck in a quagmire in the middle east that was poorly planned and poorly executed and he's like bragging about like no weirdos no trend you know this know that it's like you're losing a fucking war dude you you you are in charge of the least popular war since vietnam and he's successful it's like unbelievable yeah just congrats pete hegseth what do you think america hegseth 2028 i mean maybe hegseth schmidt the content gods are not that benevolent no i think that's right all right dan uh when we come back we'll hear dan's interview with kansas senate candidate reverend adam hamilton pods of america is brought to you by cook unity uh you guys know if you've listened i'm a huge cook unity fan i've been a cook unity fan since long before they were a sponsor i eat it almost every night cook unity is the first chef-led meal delivery service that makes your meals in small batches inside local micro kitchens across the u.s not factories so every dish arrives with the kind of freshness you'd get at the restaurant itself and you can get it at the restaurant itself and meals from michelin starred chefs james beard winners food network stars uh you go to cook unity.com slash crooked or use code crooked before checkout for 50 off your first week basically you can go online there's like you know over 300 options i think every week you can decide what looks like your favorite they have new options every week so 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And if you're thinking, wait, what is Kewpie? People ask what makes it different, from basic mayo. Kewpie is made with egg yolks only, giving it this incredibly rich umami flavor that elevates everything. Chefs use it. Restaurants use it. People who really love food and flavor use it. Whatever you're eating, Kewpie it. So if you haven't tried Kewpie yet, find the bottle with the red cap and see what everyone's talking about. You'll understand. Kewpie, the original Japanese mayonnaise. Join me now as Adam Hamilton, the Democratic Senate nominee in Kansas. Welcome to Pod Save America. Hey, Dan, thank you for having me. Very excited to have you. I've been wanting to have this conversation for a long time. I was in Chicago for the library opening and Kathleen Sebelius, the former governor of your state and the secretary of HHS for Barack Obama, pulled me aside and said, you have to check out our new candidate in Kansas. And I was like, Kansas? Come on, Kathleen. And she's like, no, trust me. And here we are a month before the election. Your race is now on the map. We're talking. And so I'm excited to get through all of this with you. But I want to start with, you know, you have an unusual background for a Democratic candidate these days. You were, you know, founded a large megachurch in Kansas. You were a former Republican. How did you find yourself running for Senate as a Democrat in 2026? Yeah, well, I've been a Democrat. I've been an independent. I've been a Republican. I was a Republican. I was a Republican a lot of the time. I was a Republican. But I was a Democrat during Obama's administration. I was, I actually preached his second inauguration at the National Cathedral the day after the inauguration. I served in his administration for two years, the last two years of his second term. It was a presidential appointment working for how faith communities and the administration could work together to solve problems in communities. And I was really honored to do that. So, you know, I've been all of those things. But yes, I am a, I am a United Methodist pastor. I started a church 36 years ago with my wife and I and our two kids. And we started from scratch. And today we're a church of 24,000 people, about 25,000 people on a given Sunday, in person, online and on TV. And on the High Holy Days, you know, our Easter and Christmas for us, we'll have 100,000 plus people who join us for worship. So, and I'm very proud to be a Democrat and believe that the things that Democrats, you know, at our best that we believe align very closely with things that were important to Jesus and what we find in the Gospels. How have you found sort of the day-to-day grind of politics and running for office and how that differs from your day job? Yeah. So this is now my day job. I, you know, for the last four months, I've taken a leave of absence from my church. I still show up and do a few little things and preached once during that time. I really have loved this. I was just telling, I was teaching a conference of a thousand pastors and church leaders last night. And, you know, speaking to them and I, I just, I really love this because for 38 years as a pastor, 36 years where I'm at and two years before that, you know, I have, I work in the church and I send people to go out into the world. And of course I, you know, go out in the world too, but I, I send them to their day-to-day jobs to live out their faith. And now I'm that guy who's going to my day-to-day job. That's not in the church, but it's actually meeting with people, caring for people. And I've actually found it not that different, you know, being a good pastor is about listening. It's about caring for people. It's about noticing, paying attention, trying to encourage and inspire people. And as a candidate, that's what I'm trying to do. I, you know, every group I meet with, I'm, you know, I'm looking to see, I try to, you know, touch every person, connect with every person. I try to listen to stories and I try to figure out how can I inspire and encourage them. And, you know, it's interesting. I carry, so, you know, here's my daily routine just in the mornings. And it always has been, I wake up in the morning, I get on my knees first thing and I just lift up my hands, you know, and I just say, God, here I am. Please use me to bless other people, to help them and encourage them, help me to pay attention. And, you know, I've always prayed, help me to be, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt is meant to make everything better that it touches, you know, and that's kind of how I see what I'm trying to do every day. And I carry a piece of rock salt with me in my pocket, wherever I go. And just, you know, I reach into my pocket, you know, and I just say, God, please help me to be a blessing to the people I talk to. And that's what I'm still doing on the campaign trail. So it's, it has been a lot of fun. I've met people I would have never met otherwise. I get to do things like this with you and, and have conversations I might've never had otherwise. And what's really fun is a lot of the people I talk to, you know, are not people who go to church. They're people who've been sometimes alienated or hurt by church people. And I get to have a chance to have meaningful conversations with them. So it's, it's actually been really rewarding. That's, it's been a pretty terrific thing. That's great. That's really, that's actually really great to hear. Not the, actually the answer I expected. Cause a lot of times you talk to people who have done all these other things in their life and the day-to-day of campaigning is sort of drudgery to them, right? Like it's a me, they want to serve, right? They want to help people, but this is the means to an end. The I really do. It is hard though. I will tell you if I'd known, it's the kind of things like having children. Dan, do you have kids? I do. I have two kids. Yeah. Yeah. If your parents told you how hard being a parent was, you might never have them. You're glad you did when you do it. And that's a little how I feel about campaigning. Like, you know, there, there are many weeks you'll walk, you'll work seven days a week. I mean, you know, 75 hours a week, 80 hours a week as a candidate. And I've been used to 36 years of working six days a week and 60 hours a week, but I've been working 75 hours a week and I'm, you know, I'm 62 years old. It's like, I'm exhausted when I go to bed at night, but also I'm grateful that I get to do it. You had, there was this clip of yours from a recent event that went viral where you were sort of taking on the question, whether you were liberal or conservative. And you said, yes, both talking about what you meant by that. Yeah. Well, people ask me that all the time. You know, there's I can't figure you out. Are you liberal or conservative? And my answer is yes, of course. And when they say, no, no, which one is it? I'm like, I don't think you have to pick. To be liberal means to be generous of spirit. It means to be to be open-minded. It means to be willing to reform or change how you see things. And I think we all need to be liberal in that sense. And then on the other side, to be conservative is conserving values, things, traditions, things that are important. And I think at our best, we conserve and we're liberal. We are willing to reform and see things with new eyes, willing to be generous of spirit and generous with our resources. And at the same time, to conserve things that are important and should be conserved. And I tell people, everybody, Dan, you, me, we're all liberal compared to somebody else. And we're all conservative compared to somebody else. There are people further to the left than you are. And there are people to the right of where you are. And the same is true with me. And I think if you could actually, you know, if we can look at liberals and conservatives, you know, whatever we mean by those terms, and we can listen and try to bring people together, we might actually be better off than if we just go to our corners or our side. And I think that's a good thing. And fail to listen to the people on the other side. And so that's something I'm running on is, look, I've spent 36 years pastoring a church where 35% of our members are Republicans, 35% are Democrats, 30% are independents. And we're better together than we are apart. You know, we might argue and disagree about some things. But I always find when I'm talking with somebody who is a reasonable and thoughtful person who's more conservative than I am, I'm going to be, my position is going to be better. My understanding of things are going to be better because I listen to them and not just the people in my own, you know, in my own circles. And I've come to know that, you know, I'm called to love people wherever they are on that spectrum. We can strongly disagree with each other, but not hate each other. And I think we need more of that today in our country. We need more people coming together saying, look, we have more in common than what divides us. And let's figure out how we can work better together rather than what our politicians tend to do. And that is to divide us, to polarize us. You're on MSNOW recently, and you said that you pledged to serve only two terms, and that you were not going to Washington to hold trials on, you know, hold trials for Trump. Talk to me about the decision to self-term limit and what it is, like, what are you trying to avoid by not doing Trump trials? Like, what are you going for? Sure. So, first of all, when it comes to term limits, I believe that we should have a maximum of three term, well, I'm going to say 18 years. So, if you're in the Senate, that's three term limits. And to me, that's a combination of service in the House and the Senate. I think there needs to be age limits. And I think 80 seems like a good age, Um, and I'll say that we've, we've all known people who are in their eighties who are sharp as a tack, but, but we also know that there, we have seen people wheeled into Congress in their wheelchairs and their aides trying to tell them how to vote. And that's not serving the American people. That is just not okay. We got to do better. And as a pastor, my denomination requires me to retire at age 72. So I think, you know, setting 80 is a pretty generous limit. Like it's time to have new blood and fresh ideas coming in to the Senate. So I, and I think that's true. You know, it's true in the white house in terms of an age limit. It's true on the Supreme court and, uh, and also terms, I think 18 years would be a pretty good maximum in the Supreme court. So, uh, and when it comes to, what was your second question? I don't remember what you said. About the, you talked about trials for Trump. Oh yeah. You weren't going to Washington trials for Trump. So, you know, clearly if I'm in the Senate and articles of impeachment are passed in the house, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to consider those just like anybody else. I mean, that's your job, but the idea that we should spend the next. So I'm, I'm looking at this and thinking I've got six years. If I get elected, I have six years. I don't want to spend the next two years, you know, focused on impeachment and, you know, and what I want to focus on. One of the things I want to focus on is solving the problems we're facing right now in our country, the problems that are hurting for Kansas farmers and small businesses and school teachers. And we got some really urgent things going on and we got some really big issues related to social security and, you know, healthcare and immigration reform and, and the national debt. If I spent the next two years focused on impeachment trials and not focused on solving those big problems, what a waste of my time. Somebody else could have done that. I really want to solve some big problems. So that's the first thing. And the second is that I think all we're going to do. So let's put up guardrails to make sure that the abuses that have happened in the last two years don't happen again. There are things that have happened that are corrupt. There are things that have happened that have happened that are not American. They're not consistent with our constitution or our values. Let's make sure that we do everything we can so that this is not repeated. But I think if we go in and think this is, look, if we take the house and the Senate or, you know, one or both of those, and we're going to start having these trials, I think what that's going to mean is we're going to further divide America as opposed to trying to figure out how do we solve for the future? I understand the feelings behind wanting to do those things. I just think for me, you know, and I'll, and I'll do them if that's what comes before the Senate, but I want to focus on how do we heal our country and how do we put up guardrails to make sure that the abuses that have happened don't happen again. And I think that's going to be a big issue. Don't happen in the future. So it has been nearly a hundred years since Kansas has selected a Democrat to the Senate. 1932, I believe was the last time, you know, Kansas is obviously a very Republican state. It's a state that Trump won by a lot by all measures. It seems like you have made this race quite competitive. I keep seeing the electoral analysis, move it to, you know, from safe Republican to lean Republican. I see polls that show it close. Our own vote save America has added your race into our Senate. Senate raising fund. And we try to only focus on the races where Democrats have a real shot to win. Why is Kansas on the map this cycle in a way it hasn't been for many, many, many decades? Yeah. Well, and I'll say one of those rating services now has this as a toss up. So I'm very glad for that. And if you travel across Kansas, you see this, there are people who voted for Trump three times and they never really liked, you know, his, you know, his many things about him, but they thought, you know, well, he was a Republican or they thought he was standing up for them. Certain ways. But there are people who are saying now the decisions that are made, the chaos, the erratic nature of things like the tariffs, 55 tariff changes, or maybe 56 now in the last year and a half, it hurts farmers. It hurts ranchers. It hurts small businesses and large businesses. It hurts jobs. I mean, as an example, you know, a couple of weeks ago when the president announced that Bombardier makes crummy airplanes and we shouldn't sell them in America and he imposed a 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods. Well, Bombardier's US headquarters are in Kansas. We have 1500 employees, you know, good paying jobs. And there are people now wondering what's going to be the future of my job when the president calls our employer a crummy airplane builder. I mean, that's just not okay with people. And, you know, that's one example, but there are so many others where people are just saying, this is hurting us and we're tired of being hurt and disappointed. You know, a president who's not, who's betrayed them. I think they feel betrayed by the president. They certainly feel betrayed by Roger Marshall, their Senator. So it's one thing that's going to do certain things. You know, he's erratic, he's chaotic. You don't know what he's going to do, but you expect your Senator to stand up and say, Mr. President, this is hurting my people. Stop. But our president or our sitting Senator seems to act like the, you know, the lapdog of the president. He seems to, he's a yes man. He says whatever the president wants him to say. He comes back and tries to make the case, you know, tariffs are working, but the people in need the war, but they know they're paying record prices for diesel and have spent $700 million more on fuel this year than they did last year. Or that 63,000 people no longer have health insurance that had it a year and a half ago. One in 50 people in Kansas lost their health insurance this last year. I mean, people feel it and they know, and they say, we need a Senator who's going to speak up. They're not hired by the white house to be their spokesperson. They were hired by us to be our champion. And so that's why, and I'll tell you when I travel across the state, Dan, it's really interesting to hear the number of Republicans come up to me and say, I've never voted for a senator. I've never voted for you. We have two former Republicans, Republican governors who are endorsing me. We have a former leader of the, of the Kansas Senate who is endorsing me, a former leader of the Kansas house endorsing me. I mean, these are Republicans. These are all Republicans who are saying we have to go, you know, Adam Hamilton's values and his character align more closely with ours than Roger Marshall, the Republican sitting Senator. You know, obviously, you know, you mentioned a whole bunch of things that Trump has specifically done costs in general, whether it's healthcare, costs, fuel costs, housing costs are up and hurting people. If you're elected to the Senate, are there some specific things that you want to do some policy solutions that you're going to focus on that will actually help address costs for Kansas, Kansas residents, Kansas farmers, et cetera? Yeah, well, immediately. So there's certain things we have to do immediately. And I think among those are we need to wind down the war in Iran. We need to wind it down quickly. And I don't know exactly what that looks like yet. I just know that we got to work on this. Unfortunately, in the state people were, you know, dismissed from the State Department. So, you know, this is a problem, you know, the president has inflicted on us, but we got to figure that out. We got to get out of the war as quickly as possible. It's going to take months once we get out to see the fuel prices come down, fertilizer prices come down, but sooner, not later. I think when it comes to healthcare, we need to, we need to look at how do we reinstate people who are taken off of Medicaid. And by the way, it's interesting, the, the Republican Senate, Roger Marshall, and others voted to eliminate a trillion dollars from Medicaid over the next 10 years. The president offered to bribe Americans $5,000 a person if they would elect Republicans, it was going to cost a trillion dollars. And I thought, where are you getting that trillion dollars? I mean, you cut a trillion dollars from the budget off the backs of poor people. And now you're going to take a trillion dollars to buy people's votes in the United States. I mean, this is just, this is immoral. It's indecent. It's, it's laughable, except for it's not really it's just sad. And so I'm going to say, we're going to focus on those things that we have to reverse and fix immediately. Then we got to, oh, and then I would say when it comes to the tariffs, there's a, there's a bill, a piece of legislation that's out there that says, because there's a place for tariffs, but there's a piece of legislation that says before the president can impose a tariff, the president needs to make the case to Congress. This is why we need it. It can't just be because he's irritated with another country at two in the morning. It's gotta be, here's the need. Here's why it's, it matters. Here's the cost to American and here's the ultimate impact of it. And, and that's Congress clawing back some authority that is slowly given to the president over a period of years. So that's the starting point. Then you go into, we got to work Republicans and Democrats to solve the really big problems. And so, you know, one of the big topics in this race has been your opponent, Roger Marshall's conduct in his previous job as a, and when he was in medical practice, there was a New York time story that showed that he had sued hundreds and hundreds of his patients. Your campaign is running a truly excellent. If I do say so myself in devastating political ad about a woman who was arrested because she reviewed, she didn't pay a very small bill to Roger Marshall. Can you talk a little bit about how that's playing in the race, what it says about Marshall and how voters may be consuming some of this information now that it's out there? Yeah. You know, it's interesting before this, there weren't a whole lot of people who were largely passionate for Roger Marshall. I've not met very many, you know, he just happened to be the Republican Senator in the race and we always elected Republicans. And so we elected him. But this has been, I mean, this is a very serious issue. And a lot of folks have felt before, like he doesn't listen. He doesn't seem to care about the people of Kansas. But when they heard that he'd sued 700 of his former patients for, you know, for bills ranging from a hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. And, you know, it's not that he turned it over to a collection agency and the collection, it's his own personal lawyers who sued and then had 81 of them arrested. And then there were something like somewhere between, well, at least, at least 10, probably more than that, who spent time in jail for unpaid medical debt. And, or actually the charges were, you know, something other than that, but they were related to his, what he was doing. You look at this and just go, I mean, I've talked to a dozen doctors who've said, this is not normal. This is not how we do it. You know, when we have somebody who's poor and they're struggling, we're going to figure out, you know, how to either work with them or we're going to write off the, write off the debt. We're not going to have them arrested. And this story of Misha, who you're mentioning, she reached out to our campaign. And she described, you know, the fact that she was she missed a $50 payment. And she they came to arrest her for, I don't know, not appearing in court or whatever it was, but it was all tied to the same thing. And, you know, she's asking she's eight months pregnant. She's saying, please don't handcuff me in front of my children. Like people hear this and they just go this. Everybody across the state of Kansas, if you hear it, you just got to go. That's not OK. That's not that's not normal. But here's the part that really gets me. So people can judge that as however they want. I'm going to say you go to Washington, D.C., and then you vote to cut out sixty three thousand Kansas off of off of health insurance, not renewing the subsidies, taking people off of Medicaid. I mean, how do you justify that? Now you're taking people who were who were at least had some kind of insurance they could pay you and you've taken away insurance from them. And then when they can't pay their doctors because they're still going to go to have a baby or go to the emergency room. Now, are you going to suggest that the doctors sue them and have them arrested if they don't pay? I mean, this is just. Messed up. Last question for you here. And really, it's always it's always our last question. It's always the hardest. Don't be prepared. For people who, you know, you're being outspent or probably are putting money in here. The fact that Roger Marshall is running ads against you in September and October tells you that he really believes this is a real race. If you're going to win, you need help. If folks have been inspired by this conversation, they want to flip the Kansas Senate seat for the first time in nearly 100 years. How can they help your campaign? I love you for asking. Well, you know, here's the thing. I've staffed a lot of politicians in my life and I've watched them try to awkwardly jam in the website for donations into their answers. And so it is my duty to them to make them not have to do that. So my comms person is across from me going, yes, yes. They're always telling me, please get the website in there. Yes, yes. It's so hard to do. Yes. So it's Hamilton for Kansas dot com. All spelled out. Hamilton for Kansas. One word dot com. And, you know, people can. I love it when people reach out to friends who live in Kansas and say, I heard this guy, you know, pass on the pass on the podcast to other people. Send them the link to have them watch it. If you know somebody in Kansas, we need, you know, so if you happen to live in Kansas, volunteer. We need volunteers. But we also need people who will financially contribute. So we have a chance to win this race. But I was told this last week that the Republican Party is looking at pouring twelve million dollars into this race. Roger Marshall. So just to give you some idea, since the first of the year, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing he's raised about four million dollars. And since the first year, we've out raised him like three to one. And we only got in, you know, five months ago. But we've raised him, you know, like three to one. His donors, just to give you some idea, his donors, the last quarter that was reported, he had 27 named donors from Kansas who donated to his campaign. Everything else came from corporate PAC money and people. He had more people in Florida donating than he had in Kansas. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of people from every county in Kansas. But we still need help from people all across the country. And if people believe that that having another Democrat, a decent, a Democrat who cares deeply about people and who will work across the aisle, if they think that's needed in the Senate, we have a chance to win. I need their help. And I'll just say this. I love this idea. I mention this everywhere I go. If you can imagine on November 3rd and you're watching the news and you're seeing what's going on and you see at 10 o'clock at night, you know, Kansas has elected a Democrat for the first time in 94 years. I mean, that's a that's a history making event. And I'd love for your listeners and viewers to be able to say, I helped make that happen. That's my guy. And help. Make it happen. So if you can, please help us. We'd love all the help we can get. And Dan, I really appreciate what you guys do and grateful for you having me on today. Well, absolutely. Thank you for joining us. Good luck down the stretch. We'll be rooting for you. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Thank you. That's our show for today. Thanks to Adam Hamilton for coming on. Love it. We'll be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with bestselling writer Michael Lewis. Have a good weekend. Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Michael Goldsmith with reach. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hefcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kenny Moffat, Adam Lippert, Joseph Dutra, Desmond Taylor, Dan Farrell, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Singel. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. This is Dr. Laurie Santos from the Happiness Lab. Research on the science of happiness consistently points to the importance of social connection. That's why I've been thinking about how I can turn more of my shared experiences into rituals. 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