Blue Wave on the Prairie? with Josh Turek

Hey folks, welcome to the weekly show with John Stewart and I am a four mentioned John Stewart. Today's program, a little bit different, so Tuesday, September 29th, originally we had scheduled one Senator Bernie Sanders, a young gentleman you may not be familiar, a Senator from the Great State of Vermont, who has some ideas about economic populism that I don't know if they're reflective of a change in this thinking, but it may be something he has consistently a profit for many, many years, but he is unable to join us today, unfortunately. So we do look forward to being able to feel the burn at a later episode, but, but, but, we are sticking with our senatorial theme, instead of going with an actual Senator right now, we are going with an aspirational Senate candidate from the Great State of Iowa. We're taking a little turn. This is a little fear. This is an opportunity for our audience to learn a little something about what's happening out there, electorally, in the heartland. So we're going to get to our guest for this week, who is running for the United States Senate in Iowa. He is a four-time paralympian candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa. Josh Turic joins us. Today we welcome a prairie populist to the program. He is running to be the Senator from the Great State of Iowa, Josh Turic, who is a candidate, as we were saying. First of all, Josh, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. It's quite the honor to join you. Oh, truly, truly, Josh, you know, I'm curious. What's your last name again? Turic. Josh, is it? Is that I can't? Yeah, Turic. No, I'm just, I'm just, I'm responding to the fact that you are surrounded by Turic wall paper. If the people can't see on the thing, Josh is right now sitting in. They've got him in a corner, and he's got the Iowa State flag to his left, and he appears to be in a kind of AI-generated Turic box. We'll call it. It's real. We call it the Turic dimension, and it's because far too often when I do these interviews, I forget to say the website. So, it's there. Turic for Iowa. How is it? You're now, this is the final stretch, man. This is, what do you got now, a month and a half? Thirty-five days to the finish. How long have you been on this road for running? You were in the state legislature in Iowa. Yeah. It sounds like I'm going to be going into a special session here on Friday, actually. Four hundred and five days, four hundred and ten days. It's been, been quite the journey, and one year we've taken this race from solidly R to toss up to leading in the polls. It's been been an incredible journey. Well, let's get some background for those, because your race, as important as it is in Iowa, and you and your opponent are running to replace Joni Erts, is that correct? She dropped out after mentioning to everyone in Iowa that we're all going to die. We're all going to die no matter what she does in terms of policy. We're all going to die anyway, so what difference does it make? We're all going to die in the very smug condescending apology in the graveyard. Yeah, that's, well, that was a political arbitrage for it, I would agree. So you're both running to do that. It doesn't have the national profile that like Al Sayed has gotten, you know, where people can really dig in on sort of bigger personalities or these kinds of things. So just give us a little, a brief run on what, you know, Iowa has not had a Republican senator for 30 years, is that? Oh, no, we've got, we've got two Republican senators right now. I mean, a Democratic center, I apologize. Democratic center. Yeah, the last one that we had was Tom Harkin, the father of the American with Disabilities Act in my political hero, right? And it's basically a much more rural state. Yeah. Pretty even divide between urban and rule, but I would say that, you know, one of the modern political divides is, is urban versus rule. And so, yeah, I think that that's one of the reasons why we have shifted more to the red than, than almost any other state over the last decade. But I think in our essence, we have always been a common sense state. I've been, I've been saying that for a year that we're a common sense state that's masqueraded more red than what we actually are. 30 years, we elected Senator Harkin, along with Grassley, and we've twice voted for Obama three times for Trump, more Obama Trump counties in any other state in the union. And in Trump's last midterm, we ended up winning three of the four congressional races, almost one all four. And so, I think we're, we're, we're a common sense state. It seems to be moving back into a sort of more purple direction, is that the feeling out there? And certainly swinging back our direction and it's because Iowans are hurting and, and, and uniquely hurting. Well, let's talk about that for a second, because that's, and then we'll dig in on the common sense aspect of it. But what is it about the economy in Iowa? Because it is not growing. It is, it is in a difficult place. I think it, I don't want to say wrong, but you're last. I think you might be last. We're fighting for the last for a lot of things. Yeah, 48th for income growth, 48th for personal income growth. Even if three states already seeing our economy contract, basically dead last for nearly every healthcare metric, OBGYNs meant to help providers, meant to health supports, Medicaid reimbursement, Medicare reimbursement, just in the last six years, since Ashley Henson went to Congress, we've closed 842 healthcare entities in a state of only 3.2 million. You've closed 842 healthcare entities in the state of Iowa. And by the way, state of what, 3 million? Yeah, 3.2 million. That's correct. 3.2 million. Okay. So you've closed 8? Wow. Okay. We've closed the 160 independent rule pharmacies. We've got a cancer crisis. We have the second highest rates of cancer behind only Kentucky, only state with a growing cancer rate. Is that based on pesticide use, is that, is that a farm related statistic? There's a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons would be the nitrates in the water. And that comes off of the run offs. That's correct. Yeah. Right. But I mean, look, we've got a lot going against us at least on the cancer side. Older state, poorer state, massive healthcare deserts, particularly in the rural areas, some of the highest levels of binge drinking, higher levels of smoking, highest levels of radon of any state. And then we've got this nitrate issue that we're not addressing the water quality issue at the state or the federal level. And then we've got public education, which was the point of personal pride for all islands, essentially the gold standard, including being on our quarter foundation and education. We've dropped to the bottom half. And now we lead the nation in foreign foreclosures largely due to terror policy and because of this war in Iran. So, islands are hurting and uniquely hurting. And is that a turn that happened, you know, you're a lifelong island. You're born to race there. That's right. You have born and raised in council, bless. So, tell me a little bit about how the atmosphere turned, you know, is it that it's always been at least, you know, in the time that you've been sort of more sentient and cognizant. A difficult place because, you know, it is not, you know, we talk about now, it's the gilded age and tech is coming in and all that. But it's always been a kind of hands-on state. And so, union work, really important, blue collar work, really important, farm work, really important. All of those industries have suffered over these last 40 or 50 years of kind of the Reagan era on-fold. Yes. Yeah. I would say that. I would say, you know, certainly we're living through some form of a second gilded age and you're just not going to amass that amount of wealth, particularly in like an agrarian, you know, ag community. And then I would say over the last 40 years as well that we had the first farm crisis when I was just a little kid in the 80s. And we ended up losing half of our small family farms then at that time. Basically, farmers were told, get big or get out and now we're heading towards what I've been calling a farm again in the second farm crisis. But 70 of our 99 counties, the rural communities, have lost population. I mean, we're essentially the only state that hasn't doubled in size in the last 100 years. It's in zero population growth. I mean, we're not keeping our young people. And so what, you know, in your mind, it seems like it's not unreasonable to think, okay, they turned away from democratic policies because they felt like that exacerbated the crises that were going on there. And they think they're going to, we're going to place this bet now on Trump and Republicans. And that clearly has not, not only is it not paid off, it seems to have sunk the state further underwater. Yeah. I think so for sure. I think that's why you're seeing, you know, all these farms close. I mean, the big, the big, big issue. I think actually believe that Iowa has not shifted on economic policy. Like when I'm out there, I call myself a commonsense, pretty populist. And I'm out there saying we need a livable wage, affordable housing, driving private equity out of housing, healthcare, nursing homes, I say healthcare is a human right need to do something about the water quality crisis, public education. Everyone agrees with me on that and they particularly agree with me on driving out the naked level of corruption that we're seeing where I think Iowa has shifted. is shifted culturally. - Oh, I think, look, I understand. I come from the Redis district that's represented by a Democrat. - Right. - What a Trump-winner district by the one that you are now the representative of? - Yeah, the community of Carter Lake, he won by 18 points. My community of council bless, he won by 10 points. I was able to win my district by six points. So the only way I was able to win was by going out and dragging my wheelchair upstairs to have conversations with independence and Republicans. - Well, let's also make clear. And for those who are not familiar with your story, and it probably makes sense to grab a quick biography, you are in a wheelchair due to a condition known as Spina Biffet, I believe. - That's correct, yeah. - Due to my father's exposure to Agent Orange and Vietnam. - Yeah, people don't realize the downstream effects of those kinds of toxic exposures. - I say I'm an example of the generational consequences to these forever wars that we find ourselves in. And when you say you drag your wheelchair up, is it not ADA accessible? - Well, personal residences are not required to be ADA accessible. And then I know that people will think about a state like I one said, oh, that's a very flat state, but nowhere I live is in the look. One of two places on earth has what's called the Los Hills. And so where I live is very hilly. And so to be able to get out there and talk to essentially anyone, I am dragging my wheelchair up 10, 20, 30 stairs. And always when I would get up to the top of the stairs, the very first question I would get would be, how in the world did you get up here? And I would say, well, that's how important your vote is to me. And especially in the reelection, what I would say is look, I only won my first election by six votes. - Six votes. - That's true, yeah, I was the only Democrat to win a competitive election on the Western side of the state, one by six votes. - Yeah, that's wild. How crazy was the recount process? - You know what? Honestly, it went really smoothly. We brought in one R, one D, one independent, went through and you cooperated. The other, wait, did the other side storm the capital of council bluffs that did, they just let it go. - They let it in and came back exactly. Six came back six. - That's incredible. And did your opponent concede? - Yeah, she did, actually. - Shockingly. - What is going on in Iowa? - Hey, it's, there's a real Iowa nice. There's a kindness and a genuineness and an authenticity to the people in Iowa that exist almost no other place. (upbeat music) - Look, the algorithm is killing us. The algorithm, the way that it incentivizes the hostility and weaponizes ideology and all that. It's just, it's not right. But the antidote, the antidote is information and that's where ground news comes in. Ground news, it's this website, NAP. It's designed to give readers a better way and easier way to navigate the news. It pulls together every article about the same news story from all outlets all over the world and puts them in one place and not incentivize for like the worst, most hostile, most partisan take. It tells you where it's coming from. You, you can see starkly in black and white how these different organizations and algorithms are manipulating the information that we get. They show you how reliable the source isn't, who's funding it, who's funding it. Follow the money. Know who's behind the headline. Oh, who is this, a Rupert Murdoch fella? He seems delightful. He seems to have a somewhat pointed view of the world. Telling you, man, the Nobel Peace Center has even mentioned the ground news in an excellent way to stay informed. Nobel Peace Center. That's I think the one that Trump started. I think it's the 3D Prince Nobel Peace Prizes in just hands of mouth. The platform's independently operated, supported by its subscribers. So they stay independent and they stay mission driven. They don't get sucked into this slot. If you want to see the full picture, go to ground news. They can help you through the noise and get to the heart of the news. Go to groundnews.com/steward. Subscribe for 40% off. The unlimited access, vantage, subscription. Discount available only for a limited time. In this spring's price down to like $5 a month. That's groundnews.com/steward or scan the QR code on the screen. I'm curious, Josh, how you said it shifted culturally. Do you think was that the biggest and let's not pardon the pun? The hill for you to climb was it to convince people you weren't a cultural liberal or is it that you weren't? What is it they needed to hear from you that made them feel comfortable giving you their vote? A variety of things. Well, first, you know, even if I was speaking to the most ardent Republican, I would always find that even if it was just out of sympathy, they would say, okay, well, I'm gonna give you five minutes of my time because you're crawled up here. Okay. And then I would tell them my story. I would say, look, this is who I am. This is where I come from. This is what I'm fighting for. I got involved into politics because the privatization of Medicaid in Iowa was leading to a thousand percent increase in denial rates. I was working in healthcare. I was assessing and providing power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs for people with progressive conditions. So conditions like muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig's disease. And I would say, you know, I think we need representation up there and for the average person, like I don't come from wealth or privilege. My family grew up really humbly. Went to the goodwill for the clothes, shared clothes. And I said, I think we got a lot of people from privilege. I don't think we have enough people up here with life experience that have gone through real struggle both economically and healthcare. And I would find that, you know, a five minute conversation, people would agree with me. But I also wasn't afraid to say, look, I don't think the Biden did a particularly good job on the border. And we need to have safe and secure borders along with having an easier pathway to earn citizenship because I'm married to an immigrant and I've gone through the process myself. But that's still an economic argument. I mean, basically, you know, if the difficulty of Democrats to get traction was cultural. And I don't imagine in Iowa, I don't know if you have the kind of, let's caricature them as the DSA Democratic Party wing where they're saying defund the police or whatever caricature is being put out there. Was it you selling your biography along with your economic message that you thought made them comfortable hearing the message to give you a chance? How did you counter whatever misconceptions or prejudgments they might have had on democratic cultural issues, whether it's religion or LGBTQ? You know, we've been told that the country that the Democrats have shifted so far left that they are no longer in any way connecting to the common sense good people of the heartland. Is, would you say that's accurate? I would say that the Democratic brand is certainly damaged and, you know, there certainly were houses and groups of people that I would speak to where just even the term Democrat is a pejorative. So, yeah, I think being willing to say that, you know, like example, for example, the border or saying, you know, I believe in the Second Amendment. I think that we can have common sense gun regulations in place and also protect communities but also protect the Second Amendment. So I think showing some distance between the party and then also even the way I define myself. I would say, you know, you define me as a Democrat. I define myself as a common sense prairie populist and they would say, what does that mean to you? I would say, well, everything through the guise of what is best for the people, what is best for the workers, what is best for the middle class is being hollowed out. And people would say to me all the time on the doors, you know, I'm not going to vote for every Democrat. You might be the only one I vote for but I like your kind. You're a JFK Democrat. You're an FDR Democrat. You're, you know, Tom Herc in prairie populist and so I think making that distinction allowed them. But you know, what we've lost in places like Iowa is we've lost blue dog Democrats. You know, it's so, it's interesting to me because the way you describe your positions doesn't actually sound that different from the Democratic party platform. I mean, I think that generally like even Arden liberals would say like, well, the second amendment, the second amendment, but we could use some common sense goes there. So I'm curious, it's so interesting to me that, and I don't know if it's from where they get their information, but that you have to set yourself apart from Democrats to earn their trust if that makes sense. Yeah, well, and I think that oftentimes we, this, it's overly simplified too. Yeah, that, I mean, by the very nature of having a binary system, you're gonna be, you're gonna be a big tent party. And so you're gonna have, I mean, I say oftentimes, especially up at the Iowa legislature, there are times where I have more agreement with my moderate Republicans on issues than on my most extreme left wing, you know, Democrats. And so then they end up putting us into overly simplified buckets of, well, this is the progressive or this is the moderate This is the- establishment. So that's why from the very very beginning, I said, I made comments and comments since might be the most important part of this. I think that's what's truly lacking in DC along with empathy and a variety of things. But common sense, Prairie populace, with the guys not necessarily being this overly tribalistic, you know, always going with the party. I think what's missing in DC as well is we got to get back to country over party and saying no, no individual party has a monopoly on good ideas. And what I've always tried to look at is whether it's a Republican idea or a democratic idea. What is best for my constituency for for the state of Iowa and for the people and always through that guys of what is best for the middle class and what's best for our workers? Cause you're as you're right. You were living through this second gilded age in the middle class as being hollowed out. How are they viewing Trump's policies through that lens? You know, you sort of talk about common sense. When they look at, I would imagine that Iowa faces disproportional damage by tariff policies, for instance, and the Iran war. I would think disproportionately, Iowa's economy is vulnerable to that. Would that be fair? 100%. I've been saying that I think that the tariffs and the war in Iran has hurt Iowa more than any other state. When you go out there and you speak to farmers, in particular, the rural communities. First, to level set, you go out in the rural communities in Iowa. It looks like a vacuum cleaner has gone through those communities. They've lost population. The main streets are desolate because we've done nothing to look out for the small brick and mortar, small businesses. We've just looked out for the large multinational corporations. I say that you have four pillars in the rural communities to be successful. And that is you've got to have a grocery store. Well, snap cuts disproportionately hurt rural communities. So we're closing grocery stores. They may, they might only have a gas station as an option. You've got to have a pharmacy because we've done nothing on pharmacy benefit management. The middleman, it has really hurt the rural independent pharmacies. I told you the number of healthcare clinics that we've closed. You've got one in one in five I ones that are unmedicated. Two in five of those are in rural communities. You know, the big, beautiful bill, 110,000 I ones losing healthcare, 119,000 I ones seeing their healthcare premiums, double or triple because of the loss of the ACAs. Thousands more losing basic food assistance just to give tax breaks to billionaires. That really hurts rural communities. Then you've got to have a functioning public school as well. And because we're giving public money to private schools in the last three years, we've closed 18 rural schools are consolidated. All of that is hurting these rural communities. Then you add that on to the fact that the administration gives 20 billion dollars to Argentina so that the Chinese can buy their soybeans. Meanwhile, we create more soybeans in any other state in the union and bring in 500,000. Correct. That's exactly right. And then, and then the tariffs, I think farmers need markets, fair markets more than any other group. The commodities prices went upside down. That's why we leave the nation farm foreclosures. Then you add in the Kudagra here, which is the war in Iran, which has led to gas prices going up more in Iowa than almost any other state, a diesel being at an all time high as farmers are going in to do harvest. And then seeing a further increase on input prices like fertilizer costs. So you're having farmers that are looking at their bottom line for fertilizer for next planning season. This isn't going to work. I'm going to be upside down and we're already leading the nation in foreign foreclosures. So is there any offset on that for biofuels and ethanol and things? Because I know Iowa obviously, you know, huge in ethanol and biofuels and things like that. Is that price also up? Does that help offset in any way the damage done by tariffs in the higher diesel? Well, not at the moment. I mean, we actually, we just saw soybeans drop another 40 cents yesterday. I mean, you're basically looking at it being at break even point. Horn has gone up slightly, but that's because the yields are looking like they're going to be particularly low. There's some ways that we can add in some demand with like a year round E-15 program. But no, at the moment, you're going out there and I'm talking to farmers. And the word that we hear the most is betrayal. They're like, look, we, we've supported Trump. And these policies, particularly on tariffs and the war in Iran, uh, it's killing us. And you should go out and rule eye when you see a lot of Trump flags and a lot of Trump signs, right? They are gone. Let me ask you, does it then shock you? Which it does me that this is even close, that whether you have a D in front of your name or an R in front of your name, the, the party that they put their trust in, which are there's a Republican governor. There's two Republican senators. There's a Republican president. They control the Senate. They control the House. They control the judiciary. These policies are uniquely harmful to the type of economy and the type of population that Iowa has. How in God's name is this even still a race? Because of citizens united in the lack of campaign finance reform. They have dumped $55 million into this race. And you've got billionaires like, oh, yeah, like Musk and Americans for prosperity, the Koch brothers that have just, I mean, money has just rained in on this state to try to buy off this election. Does the information that Iowans are getting? Is it so distorted? Like they know the, the facts on the ground, they feel the realities on the ground. What kind of commercial about you could they run that would make people go, well, uh, I'm getting poorer. My cost of living is going up. But what do they say about you that that somehow challenges what they're feeling on the ground? It's always the most ridiculous stuff on culture wars, you know, that I'm in favor of having open borders, which is fundamentally incorrect and illegals to be able to get healthcare benefits or vote. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's all just culture war nonsense. And it's, I mean, this is why I say that we've, I've got to go up there. And one of my number one priorities is going to be to root out the naked level of corruption that we're seen. You look at the current administration. I mean, the Trump administration making himself $2 billion more wealthy. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter was selling his product farm to not have a conflict of interest. I'll tell you the woman that I'm running against, Ashley Henson, in just six years of going up to DC up to 15 times more wealthy. Since she was going to sell all of her stock still owes up to owns up to five million dollars of insurance stock, as I essentially had her husband operating as a shadow lobbyist for the insurance industry. And then even though she's now a multi-millionaire taken $50,000 of taxpayer dollars to give herself a luxury DC apartment, as she's taking millions of dollars in corporate tax corporate pack money. Whereas I'm not taking a nickel other because I want to be representing people, not corporations. Is there a fatalism about Iowa voters that you talk about? Because obviously you make a strong case about, you know, the corruption, the self-dealing, the fact that they won't divest from their portfolios and they're making money on insider training. But to Iowa voters, is there a sense of fatalism that, hey man, that's both parties, that's politics? I guess I'm curious about why these culture issues are so sticky in the face of reality and facts. I'll tell you this, that this is certainly one of the issues that I think has moved the most in the 400 days that I've been in the race, is I'm hearing more and more and more from Iowa and saying, no, this is a level of corruption that I'm not comfortable with and we have to address it. And so even when I'm talking to an extreme conservative saying, look, we need to root out this corruption on both ends. We need to overturn Citizens United. We need to pass it as Glow's Act. I'm in favor of term limits banning members of Congress from owning a trading stock, putting mandates of members of Congress to host annual town halls because they should be accountable to the people. That is unanimously agreed upon in Iowa. And the other thing would say, I don't think there's a fatalism to this. I think that the one thing that gives me hope in this is that regardless of how much money you spend and what you tell people, you can tell them the sky is pink and Josh is a horrible piece of shit. But the reality is when they're going to their grocery store, they're seeing their prices, they're seeing farmers going into foreclosure, they're seeing their communities hollowed out and decimated. Meanwhile, you know, someone like Ashley Henson becoming 15 times more wealthy. That, you know, that's enough. And you can't lie to what people are experiencing first and when they're going to the gas pump. Right. When farmers are seeing what their input prices are, what their commodities prices are, that is directly because of her votes and because of the current administration. And they're ready for change. The great thing is we don't have to win this thing 100 to zero. I just got to get one more vote in her. What if you had to win at 100 to zero, though, that would, that'd be something. Wouldn't it now that would that would put you back in your Paralympic days, where you're like, we got to dominate this team. Yeah, that's right. Has your is your background for you because it's it's really a pretty remarkable story of of tenacity. You know, is that the kind of thing that you think prepared you well to again overcome what is in many ways a caricature of what a Democrat could be. What prepared you well for this for sure? Well real quick, but you're a big basketball fan. I know this year you're a nix fan and right this was this was a great year for you. Congratulations first time since 73 very kind of you. I was excited for him as well. The basketball is at its best when the mecca is rocking. Thank you. Have you ever seen a Paralympic wheelchair basketball? I have indeed. It's okay. And for those who don't know, it's like it's it's sometimes called murder ball. It's basically no, you're confusing two sports. Oh, is that true? Yeah, murder ball is is quad rugby played by by quadriplegic and is an exception sport, but but wheelchair basketball can be very rough. It's not murder ball, but it's like rugby in wheelchairs. Yes, that's correct, but a but an amazing sport in everyone that is playing it, especially at the Paralympic level, is dedicating their life to it. You know, you're playing professionally. I was training eight, nine hours a day to be able to represent my country. And I was a part of the team that went we went 28 years as basketball nation without winning a gold medal. And I'm really proud to be a part of that team to be able to break that streak. You would ask me about what has prepared me well, two things. I think growing up in the way that I did in a place like council blossom in a family that we went to the goodwill, we shared clothes, went to the free summer lunch programs, had the wrong color lunch tickets, and also growing up with the with the healthcare adversity that I grew up with 21 surgeries by the age of 12, spending a lot of time by myself at Schreiner's hospital. I think the majority of time for people that go through that kind of experience, it breaks them. But the ones that it doesn't break, it builds a mental strength in character that can't be broken. I say to people all the time, this is very hard when I'm going through. This isn't the hardest thing that I've gone through in my life. Sitting in a body cast by myself with no air conditioning in a room with 30 other patients, you know, as an eight-year-old, that was the hardest thing that I went through, but that really put. Well, you haven't gotten to the Senate yet, Josh. Admittedly, the cast in the room is very tough, but the Senate, I've been down there. It's so fun, Josh. Well, I think one of the most difficult parts is we're running at damn geratocracy up there. And I say, well, I'm going to join, we're going to expand the disabled caucus up there with myself and Tammy Duckworth, but we're expanding that more by the day with people like Mitch McConnell joining me in wheelchairs, just due to age. Or Grassley or any of these guy, I mean, you know, they're talking about. I think he's. I don't know if he's now 107 or 108, but I think he just turned 94, 93 and 94, and he's probably only going to run for two or three more terms. I would think. Hey, John, how about this? He has been a Senator. I'm 47 years old. He's been a Senator as long as been alive. He's born in 79. He was elected in 1980. He's been involved in representative government since 1958. That's the Eisenhower administration. And I don't understand, Josh. This is the thing that drives me crazy. Why there is no accountability from the voters. I do believe there's a certain inertia that sets in, because they can look at the conditions on the ground. They can see the tangible results of the terrible policies and votes that are made supposedly on their behalf. And yet, it's still difficult. For instance, like with Trump voters, is there a bridge that you have not been able to cross with a Trump voter, like whether it's a conspiratorial mindset or something along the lines, your life experience, your personal story, the ideas that you're throwing out there, where there's some people that are just like, can't get past the, the D. Absolutely. Yeah. But what gives me hope again is one, we've got 30% of Iowa voters that are independence. They're the king makers in this process. And over and over and over, I have run into people as I've done this for 400 days, gone to all 99 counties. So many people in rural communities, farmers, young people, I mean, when I went to Iowa, state did some tailgating up there. I was at the University of Iowa and lots and lots of young men, in particular, saying, I voted for Trump, but I cannot stand this naked level of corruption. I've had enough. He's disappointed me. And so I think that there's a lot of, let's call them classical conservatives or moderate Republicans that no longer align with what they're seeing with MAGA. And lots of people sitting around and just looking like, what is, like Ronald Reagan used to say, you know, when he first ran, are you better off than you were four years ago? I mean, that's one of my messages of like, are you better off than you were two years ago, four years ago, six years ago, when, when actually hints and went up to DC. And by every single metric, we are not dead last or nearly every economic metric, healthcare, water quality crisis, cancer crisis, public education, failing, and now leading the nation and foreign foreclosures, gas prices, skyrocketing, unnecessary war in Iran, we need change. And I think that lots of I ones are looking around saying, this isn't the state that I knew where I grew up and we got to have change. So that's what gives me hope. I got to tell you something about work. The biggest pain in the ass would work. So when you got to see, you got to stop trying to do everything yourself. Well, you little control freaks are in for a treat. Little thing called up work. That's where businesses find highly skilled three lands professionals for specialized work. With business plus, you can access the top one percent of talent on up work and free to sign up and posting a job is easy. I don't see it downside. Do you see it downside? No, that's why it's not called down work. That's why it's called up work because there's only an upside. You see what I did there verbally? Upwork is like a great resource for those you who busy working, but don't have time to handle things like contracts and payments in one place. You can spend more time running your business. Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is upwork.com to connect with top talent, ready to help your business grow. That is UPWORK.com. We often spend a lot of time in this political era talking about who are these rural conservative voters? How do we talk to them? How do we reassure them that we're not crazy and we're going to do that? Let me ask you the flip side as well. Iowa has cities. Iowa has the kinds of problems in urban areas that many do, whether it's housing insecurity, food and the types of issues that occur in all the cities. We know how you're making your case to those who have moved away from the Democratic Party are more reticent. How do you make your case to the traditional base of the Democratic Party that is no longer enthusiastic that the Democratic Party is responsive to their needs? Either that they've gotten fatalistic. How have you made the case to that community? Well, I think that we've fired up the base. I mean excitement seems to be at an all-time high right now. They're looking at a situation where in Iowa we can probably duplicate what we did in Trump's first midterm and win three congressional seats. We're pulling ahead in a gubernatorial race. We've got a once in a generation opportunity to be able to win this center race. This is the first time in Iowa since 1968. We have an open governor's race, open center race, and two open congressional races. People are fired up. They're out knock indoors. I think that what I'm excited about is we've got the right candidates with the right message in the right work ethic. I think far too often what's happened, particularly in Iowa over the last decade, is too many people that have run as Democrats, candidates have run in Iowa have looked at this as an incorrect math problem where they have just exclusively focused on urban turnout. But no, this is ultimately at its core a rule state, and you've got to be willing to go into all nine counties, including the deeply read counties, get directly in front of them, not vilify them. What I say when I'm in front of them, just like I have family members, like my father, two-time Obama voter, three-time Trump voter. I say, look, I understand why you voted for Trump. He said he was going to lower your gas prices, lower your energy prices. He was going to keep us out of forever wars. Everything has been the opposite. Meanwhile, he's only looked out for the haves, for the billionaires and the large corporations, his friends. While all of you, the rural communities, the farmers, the middle class, struggling just to make ends meet, I want to go up there and actually work for you for the people, because I've been there. I've experienced that same thing myself. So has your father, do you think he's going to vote for you? Has he, has he moved towards your camp or no? He's still, he's still a little hesitant, still trust you. Still thinks I'm not going to go this way. Still 50-50. No, he, the straw that broke the camel's back was Trump put out of video the other day, you know, supporting Ashley Henson and criticizing me. He's like, I can't believe he can just lie about all that about you, Josh. And I said, oh, you wouldn't believe what else he's lying about, Dad. There's all kinds of stuff. How is your dad not in a commercial for you now? Not saying, look, I was a Trump, okay. Well, not about that. He's actually, he's in a commercial talking about his experience in in Vietnam. Oh, wow. And you know, in an early interview, he had said, You know, I went to war, but Josh has been through hell and he wants to go up to DC to go in fight for the people. I say that one of my political North stars is a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt where he says the test of our progress of a society is not whether we add more to those with abundance but whether we have enough to those with the least. And I've seen the least, I've been around it my whole life and I think that government has an obligation to take care of the most vulnerable citizens, the elderly, the poor children, the disabled. And I think it's an obligation that we fall far too short on far too often. - Josh, why didn't you hear the siren song of right wing populism? What was it about, you know, you and your dad have very similar stories. You were raised in the same place. You had the same economic troubles. He, having fought in Vietnam and seen how we abandoned veterans once they come home, especially to fight their own battles with illness and disability. He saw what you went through with your medical journey. He saw what you had to fight with. Why did you and he diverge? - It's a great question. You know, the very first time that I voted, I ended up voting for W Bush. And so I was a registered Republican. I think that the more time, a couple of things, the more time that I spent, you know, I've been a director of a nonprofit organization for more than a decade around disabled kids. My time in assessing and providing mobility devices, seeing the difficulty for individuals, but also my time abroad. I played professional wheelchair basketball in places like France, Spain, and Italy. During that time, it certainly made me appreciate the infrastructure that we had in place with like the American with Disabilities Act. But it also made me see some of the huge advantages of the healthcare system that was in place with like a public option that you had in a place like Spain and the huge advantages that it was providing, you know, the most vulnerable in society. And I think as well, you see your country far more clearly when you with a little bit more distance. And so in the same way of like the way JFK described himself as why he was a Democrat because he believed and looking forward, not back, because he cares about people's jobs, their wages, their healthcare, their civil rights, their education. This is the reason why I'm a Democrat. 'Cause in our essence, I believe we care about the little guy. We care about the middle class, we care about the worker. And I think ultimately, if we're gonna get back to winning in prairie states, because we have a long history of winning in prairie states. - Sure. - La Fala and Wisconsin, I mean, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota. I mean, Nebraska. You have to remember. - Nebraska. - Yes. - We had Bob Kerri and Governor Ben Nelson in South Dakota. - Right. - 30 years, Harkin. If we're going to, once again, win in prairie states, it's gotta be with an economic populous message, a prairie populous message of going out there. And not just being a lesser to evils, being a corporate Democrat, saying no, you're not gonna have to hold your nose going and voting for me. - Right. - You're gonna say, I believe in this guy. - The affirmative case. - Correct. Yeah, I believe in him. I believe in his message for the state, for the country. I'm gonna go and vote for him. And I'm gonna tell all my family and friends to go out there and vote for him. - You know, there's the big divide about there's red and blue and all that sort of thing. I am interested, though, in the divide between urban and rural. And do you have policies that you think are, or ideas that diverge from those two groups? Is that a difficult tightrope to walk? That you have policies that you think, boy, rural voters might, I think, buy into that. But urban voters, boy, they're not going to be positive about that. Or have you not faced that? - No, I think that there certainly are policies that are gonna be more salient and important. For example, when, I'm talking about ending these tariffs and putting, for example, we need to pass a dam farm bill because we're three years overdue, or a right to repair mandatory of country, of origin, labeling, year round E15. Those issues are certainly more salient in rural communities. But regardless of where I'm going in Iowa, urban areas, rural areas, I'm here in the exact same thing, the exact same story. And that is people telling me over and over, Josh, I am struggling just to keep food on the table. Both me and my wife are working and we're still going to the food bank. I'm struggling to keep the electric bill. If I'm taking my medicine, I can't afford it. I'm having to make this impossible choice of this month. Do I take my pills or pay my bills? And with this war in Iran, I can't keep gas in my tank. It is a consistency all across I was saying, I'm making more money than I ever have. And it's going not as far. Meanwhile, everyone up in D.C. and people like my opponent, Ashley Henson, are getting more and more wealthy, but that is not trickling down to me. - Right. - And is she, I don't know much about her to be perfectly frank. - Better. - If you were to look at, if you were to look at, Mac or to Michael, that's snarky. I like that. What do you think has allowed this inequality to take shape? 'Cause I think most people would agree the economy is at the very least unbalanced that we have for too many years favored investment and capital over labor. And now the buzzword on the right is, oh, so you want socialism. No, I want to stop privatizing things that don't work well in a market system like healthcare, like Medicare, like all those things that are getting ruined by privatization. And insurance and all those different markets. And rebalance so that labor gets a fairer shake, the same shake that money gets. - Yeah, 100% agree. I mean, the move is always the same. Whether it's education or healthcare, it is defunded to the point where it appears like it no longer works. So then we can privatize it so that it doesn't function and we can make millions and billions of dollars in profits off the backs the most vulnerable. - This is such an important cycle. I really, I want to slow down for a moment 'cause I want to have the audience really understand it is a cynical cycle, but it is an important one. So walk us through a little bit. Your knowledge of the medical cycle and how that is done. - Yeah, so for example, in Iowa, the privatization of Medicaid, which was the reason why I got involved in this. As I said, I was providing power wheelchairs for individuals with progressive conditions and over and over and over every day. I would hear from these folks saying, Josh, I can't get a direct care worker or I can't get a wheelchair. And I would say, why is this taking place? Well, the privatization of Medicaid and then I found out we had never had a permanent disabled member ever in the history of the state. You can know where it stayed about 150 years. And so that's what inspired me to run. And so what takes place before Medicaid was privatized in Iowa, you would go and talk to any person with the disability. They would say it wasn't perfect, but it was functioning. Now after we have privatized it, we've got 27,000 disabled individuals in Iowa that are on weightless. The longest weightless currently is nine years for care. Denow rates, skyrocket, holy shit. Yeah, can you imagine if that's your son or nine years? Nine years, that's the intellectual disability waiver. That's correct. So what would they do? So before they privatize it, okay, maybe it's bureaucratic and maybe it's not quite as responsive as you'd like it. But is the idea then that the Republicans would say, oh, this system is fraudulent or people are taking too much of a advantage of it. So we're going to cut it or we're going to put requirements on it and the system starts to collapse. Yeah, it's always under the guise of waste fraud and abuse. And we're going to make this far more efficient. Well, you're not. What you're doing is you're denying services and supports to individuals by denying them those services. You maximize profits on the back end. And especially with what we're seeing with AI becoming more and more ubiquitous in this region. I mean, we're seeing just blanket denials to individuals because they realize there's a certain portion of the population that will die, unfortunately. Another portion, especially with your dealing with severe physical disabilities or intellectual disabilities, they will not understand that they can appeal. They can appeal again and get a fair hearing, which I would disability rights is one, basically all of their fair hearings. And so it's this really horrible cycle of we're just going to deny, deny, deny we're going to make you go through all of these additional steps and hoops, prior authorizations, face-to-face doctor visits for ridiculous things. Like you imagine, I need a wheelchair repair and I've got to go visit my doctor, the ridiculousness and that. You got to show him that you actually, because the systems are set up adversarial. How do I show him if my wheelchair is broken? Right. How do you even get there? How am I supposed to fly there? It's insane, but the adversarial relationship, especially of these healthcare systems, and by the way, your father can probably talk your ear off about how the VA was set up adversarially. That's correct. That basically in the under the guise of, because their whole goal is to not [BLANK_AUDIO] money on the veteran. In the same way that the insurance company, their whole goal is to maximize, you know, your monthly and not give you money to spend on on that healthcare. That's how they make their profits. So under the guise of waste fraud and abuse, they set up an adversarial system. Correct. For that 95 to 97% of the people who are just trying to access benefits they've earned have to jump have to be their own lawyer, doctor, advocate while trying to navigate grievous injury, grievous illness. It doesn't function. And now we're seeing the exact same thing in Iowa with public education, which again, as I said, was a point of personal pride for all Iowans, the gold standard. And now we have given public dollars to private schools with essentially a blank check. So what has happened? Now we spend $1,200 less than the national average per pupil. We have gone from basically number one in public education down to depending on the metric you use somewhere around 33. Always the same. privatize it, defund it, and then maximize profits to large corporations. Meanwhile, the average person falls further and further behind. And I don't understand why the state would think that these types of services, education and health care would function better through what almost looks like a private equity system. Correct. Well, particularly on education, I mean, it's, I've said that public education was an American idea because our founding fathers recognized that for this beautiful experiment of democracy to function long term, we needed an educated electorate. And to see, you know, what what I've seen far too much in my time just in the legislature is this imbalance because so much of the education funding goes through property tax where you've got a fluid communities that end up having services and supports that are more similar to like a division one college. Then you've got less affluent, less affluent communities that end up running out of paper. I mean, every single kid, I think the single greatest indicator of future success in life is access to quality education. And that shouldn't be, you have to win the genetic lottery to have that. Well, teachers will tell you too. I mean, for God's sakes, these teachers have to put their own money. And Lord knows they're not paid very well in the first place. But oftentimes they're funding their, their own classrooms. Have you debated your opponent yet? Not yet. We've got two on the schedule. November of the seventh. And I think the 13th are the, are the two, but I'm excited October. Please don't say, yeah, that's right. Okay. You say, I think you might have said November of the 7th or 13th. Oh, didn't know. No, no, sorry. October, October, October 7th and October 13th. No. Okay. Because if you did it in November 13th, I just think that'd be bad planning fair, fair point, my friend. I love the NPR. The sweet dulcet tones. I love that they use like a lot of jazz in their interstitial music. You don't get that from a lot of, you know, you watch these cable news shows and it's all this. Bapapapapapa. Fush. By loom. Iran. We're all going to die. You turn on the NPR. Trying to fall political news is it's a lot. You get the midterm's approach and you get the headlines and it's like, so here's a cheat code. The NPR politics podcast right now. NPR politics has its eye in the midterms and the issues that are actually going to affect your life. It's not just fear mongering helps it declutter the chaos from a team of very experienced political journalists, offering clarity without judgment, giving you a better understanding of the days news. Damn it. NPR national public radio politics podcast. It's good stuff. Listen out of the NPR politics podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get the podcast. How is Trump going to try and exploit Iowa in this final run up? I know he was there yesterday with some plan about a new steel plant. No, no, they were, they were in DC. Oh, that was in DC. Yeah. Yeah. They all went there, including my opponent. Yeah. My assumption is he'll, he'll, he'll come here and and and get out on the stump for them. But again, uh, Iowans can't be deceived what they're seeing directly. Iowans are hurting. They're hurting uniquely and they're upset and and they should be and that's urban areas, rural areas and and people, particularly Iowans. They don't want to be represented by someone that has used their position of power to to to make themselves more well. I mean, 15 times more wealthy as she's voting to cut healthcare in a state with a cancer crisis and a healthcare crisis, food assistance and social security just to give tax breaks to billionaires as she's voted five times in favor of the tariffs, seven times in favor of the war. She's got a lot to answer for and an Iowans are upset and I think that being a common sense prairie populist out there with my message of, you know, I don't want to just represent Democrats and you said, I'm really proud of my time in the legislature. I was recognized as one of the most effective and one of the most bipartisan. And I've said, no party has a monopoly on good ideas. I will go up there and I always will vote what is best for the people of Iowa and always through this lens of what's best for the people, what's best for our workers. Is she? So in terms of her attacks on you, you said the one about open borders. Does she have an attack on you that you most fear? That seems to have been most effective. That's holding you back. What are the the final types of things that you need to counter that could help you make your your closing argument? What I need to counter is what's what's behind me here and this is why they put this up is I'm not taking any corporate pack money in this. She's taking millions of dollars of name recognition. It's well, it's it's name recognition, but it's also raising money. I mean, down the stretch, she's already got $55 million into this. How much money does she have now? 55 million has come into the race. And I mean, it's it's pouring in from the super PACs. I mean, it's Elon. It's it's coming from the Koch brothers, Americans prosperity all over the place. And this could end up being the most expensive US Senate race per capita in American history. I mean, they are dumping the money in because they're looking at the same poll numbers. And so what keeps me up at night is can we raise the money? And so behind me here, people want to help us out. Teryk4iowood.com chip in a few bucks because if we can raise the money and we can be competitive on paid communications, we're going to be able to win this thing. Have you thought about doing ads on what $55 million could do for the people of Iowa that is not that would not, you know, what if Elon Musk and the Koch brothers poured 55 million dollars into Iowa to help improve conditions there? I am into that. And again, it is it is a moral in in grotesque the amount of money that we spend on this. We could end homelessness. We could make sure every single child never goes hungry. Right. We could make sure that we had affordable healthcare for people. The amount of money that gets dumped into these elections. That's why I want to go out there. It is it's grotesque. It absolutely is. And this is the problem. You have outsized influence from billionaires in large corporations that are able to buy off the political process. I say we can have oligarchy or we can have democracy. But long term, we cannot have both. And so we're going to have to address this very, very quickly. Or we're going to see a furthering of this wealth divide in tax avoidance. And we're going to see a furthering of this second gilded age, at least a hundred years ago when we had the first gilded age, we broke up monopolies, we broke up standard oil. We went after the rock of fellers. There was an urgency to it. The FDR, the new deal and everything else. There was an urgency to that. And my hope is out of this second wealth divide that we're going through that we end up arriving at some form of second, you know, FDR new deal where we actually have representatives up there in Congress in the US Senate that are fighting for the people and are going to go up there and legitimately work on, you know, a livable wage, affordable housing, affordable healthcare, drinkable water, functioning public schools, infrastructure and addressing corruption. Make America competent again. That's sort of thing. Yeah. And let's make sure that we bring back, you know, not only hope and positivity and inspiration is something I'm really trying to lean into because I'm seeing that there's been an intentional cynicism and nihilism that is set in due to the fear mongering. But, you know, let's let's bring back empathy. And again, what we're missing in DC, we got 70, what is it? 73, 74 millionaires in the United States Senate. We don't need more multi-millionaires. We need more people from places like councilless Iowa, like me, with lived economic struggle, healthcare struggle because when you've experienced it firsthand, you will have a different level of empathy. You'll have a different level of fight. And that's what we need in U.S. Senate, we need fighters for the people. And at Summer Special, look, you're a great case example of seeing how good policy can make huge difference, like the ADA that Harkin championed and, you know, that I'm sure makes a huge difference in people's lives. I say that I am The American dream of that in no other country on earth could someone with my economic background my health care background Ultimately go on when gold medals represent my community and the Iowa legislature ultimately run for US Senate But all of that was because I mean I went to public school in Iowa when we were number one in public education where we had a fully funded AA So that me as a disabled child had the services and supports that I needed That you know, I had my health care through VA because of my father's service like I only ended up going to college My parents couldn't afford it was because of a wheelchair basketball scholarship and because the help of vocational rehabilitation Over and over and over the services and supports that I needed were there for me I want to make sure that these same you know supports like Social Security Medicare Medicaid are there for the next generation or Affordable homes because now the average age of a homebuyer's 40 years old, right? Josh, I'm curious of you and you're like the team that's working on this for you talk about you know here in New York Mamdani was really good about lighting up social media to kind of you know, they had a very strong Game of Lighting up on social media that helped mitigate maybe the difference Financially in the amount of money that people were spending Do you have the same sort of discussions where you are is it how do you mitigate? The difference between the amount of pack money that they're getting thrown at and and what you have other than just having to raise it from small donors are there other strategies? A lot of it is small donors. I mean it is sometimes it can feel like You know, I've showed up to a to a gondul, you know carrying a knife Because you know, I've made it really really clear that I don't view a lot of these issues as morally ambiguous of You know, I'm not taking any corporate pack money in this because I do not want my hands tied to corporate interest I wait if I'm able to get up to the US Senate I want to be able to go up there and and fight for the people and as broken as the US Senate is I really still believe Maybe in this you know, you say you haven't gone up to the Senate yet. I still believe in this kind of beautifully naïve optimistic way and it's best when it's functioning The US Senate is still the greatest vehicle for societal change and I hope if we can elect folks like Myself and some of these other amazing candidates that we've got running That we can actually bring that back and be willing to work across the aisle like I've done in the Iowa legislature And and be able to help the people because I know this so there's a lot of I ones that are hurting and struggling and they don't feel heard by their representatives in DC right now Is Iowa a kind of not completely unique but still small enough that you can personally Help mitigate the the money difference because you can touch more islands than you know, you're running in California for Senate You're talking about you know tens and tens of millions of people You know if you've got three million people where you can Through force of your tenacity make yourself seen and heard to so many more percentages of islands. Yeah, absolutely We've got 3.2 million islands. We've got 99 counties It is a big state bigger than what people realize, but I I still believe especially as a state That has had you know the Iowa caucuses for all this time retail politics are still king and I once have a unique demand on On them on you as a candidate myself of they want to see and hear from you directly But in in a unique way that you know, maybe only a few states you can do this in I've got the ability through every single day working as hard as I can doing as many forms as I can Events I can get in front of as many of the 3.2 million islands as possible and what I have learned Representing a very very rural community is if you give me five minutes to get in front of somebody You know, I'm not going to win them all over But we're going to trim the margins and all of these votes that I win over are also double votes It's one out of her column and one in my column sure and in many ways it was the Trump strategy You know look he was very smart to go into cities and say what have you got to lose? What have they done for you? You know to make the case that promises that have been made even by Democrats have not Materialized and I think you're in probably a really good position. Do you feel You know good ground and volunteer game you can you feel like you got a nice little army behind you I think we've got a small which is becoming larger by the day army of of volunteers that are going out every single day knocking doors we are working as hard as we can Every day to get the message out that means through the old legacy medias of Certainly radio as is more farmers are spending time in the combine We're spending a lot of time with local newspapers because anybody is still getting a small newspaper certainly a voter Television is still king because this is an older state and then new forms of media You know this every evolving landscape with putting out good quality content on instagram and facebook and and tiktok But I think the message is really resonating And I think that there is there is something unique about my story my background my resume and my politics Focusing on the issues that apply to all 3.2 million iones this common sense per populous message That is really resonating with people all across the political spectrum And I think that's what's going to help us get across the finish line here Well, I wish certainly all the best and I won't keep it too long because I know you got you got your work cut out for you But I really appreciate you spending the time with us today Josh turret Who is running for the u.s senate in the great set. I'm a I appreciate my friend You Uh, I don't understand how it's close. I really don't either theme girl I don't it's fucking below. It's blowing. It's blowing my mind. It is so obvious. Yeah, it's literally it's literally like so the ground has turned To feces and it's raining acid and uh, no one can go outside All due to the policies of the people in charge right now. So uh You know, it's about 50 50. We don't know Now I know it's crazy and it's like the whole time I'm just like I can't believe it's close Like are the people of Iowa aware of what you're saying? Like I think this is their lived experience. Yeah, it does make you wonder though Is it a question of What is the information that is being beamed into people skulls because it is when you lay it out with like look the guys tariffs Have made your lives unaffordable the iran war has made Getting to the different unaffordable places unaffordable. Yeah Uh, we're going in to try and uh, change that around. He's giving everything that he could possibly give to You know the class of people who don't need it You know, what do you think of that and you're just like what I heard that the CIA was making you know, you don't know Where they're getting their information what there and and maybe it is that the That the money that is being spent is enough To challenge Reality yeah, or just that I mean you think about a state like Iowa where it is Geographically like I was well below the national average on issues like illegal immigration on issues Even in like having like a foreign born population like I was extremely white and you see how animated they are By the issue of immigration. It's just untethered from the reality But it's not like he is a guy who is no he's not like defund ice and open the borders and also by the way talk about a state that relies on low cost Yeah immigrant labor to exploit like come on people you can't have it both fucking ways But that's just it's just like reality doesn't seem to really play it then I feel like that's going to be the legacy the Trump administration has been The reality distortion field that he has been able to create through I mean JD Vance even Was sort of upfront about it, which is like hey man if I've got a lie Yeah, to get what I need to do that well, I think just people said when they go you know They're not actually eating the cats and dogs right you know that it's like does it matter you can just say shit right You can just say $5,000 if we win the midterms. I I guess you can say I mean even this like steel mill Yeah, then he announced it for 2030 like did anything ever happen with the Foxcom plant in Wisconsin? No, nothing happens within here But but what did he say we've got 30 trillion dollars of investment coming and you're like is that But promise do you remember there was a great Uh, I thought it was really revelatory about what these pledges are like Do you remember early on in the Trump administration? There was a dinner where he was sitting with the Titans of tech. It was yes And Zuckerberg was at the table and they were all talking about the big pledges that they were gonna make to this country To do that and Zuckerberg and it's on like a hot mic where he turns and he goes what should I say? 500 billion. What do you want me to say? Yeah, Trump's like make it a big number And so it's a good julienne. Yeah About fake fucking news It's monopoly money. It's like it doesn't matter bastards. What do you got for us Brittany? All right. We got three this week John. Oh John. Oh, this is a bad one. I can tell by the giggle that this might actually be a bad one. No, I'm just preparing myself. John, do you think business leaders and politicians consider Trump a stable genius or a useful idiot? Oh, I mean, I don't know that they've ever had a more useful idiot. I think, again, going back to the statement about how much do you want me to say I'm giving you and all I have to do is let me get this straight. If I give you a million dollars for your ballroom, I can have a five billion dollar Pentagon. He is the best investment. Any of these business leaders have ever made quid pro quo corruption. He even said when he came in about foreign business, hey, I don't want it anymore that we can't bribe officials in other countries. He stated it explicitly. I want us to be able to bribe other countries officials. And certainly if we're going to do it overseas, why shouldn't we be able to bribe officials here? And so it has been the store is open. And if I'm one of those exploitative, corporate, radar type individuals, this is the greatest thing that has ever happened. And they've got the money. I mean, that's what's been so crazy about this midterm election is like, yeah, all of the corporate money has been flowing to the president's pack, the president who is term limited, the president who is not on the ballot, this election. Like, is there anything more obvious than what's going on? And the president who is not, look what he's amassing. No one even knows where the Venezuelan gold is. Like, no one knows where the oil is going. He is now, you know what, he reminds me of a chipmunk. I don't know if you've found, I've been, I don't want to get into what I've been doing every day. Or Disney princess over here at the exact same time. Every day. Instagram knows what you lay out far more than any chipmunk. These, I don't know if you've ever seen a chipmunk. This is not a lot, this is not, this is not a chupacabra. This is, they're very, very little. And yet I'm giving them nuts that are bigger than their heads. They come in, they take it, they move it and they're just store, are they going to need all those nuts for winter? They are not. I have overpopulated their Fort Knox, but they still hoarded anyway because it's just who they are. Yeah. Do these Trump people have more than they will ever need in a thousand lifetimes, of course, but they keep hoarding it because it is who they keep exploiting. This is the great, they have finally found the golden teeth. And it is us. Yeah. And they keep doing it because they can. Who's stopping it? Nobody. In fact, the Supreme Court continues to make it easier and easier to suck all upon the golden teeth of the people. Well, they're like, I also have a hoard of acorns that I need. That's right. So listen, everybody, I believe the chipmunk theory is the one that's really good. You know what, get Jason Furman back on the show. I want to talk to him about the chipmunk economic theory and let him, let him smug me out. All right. What else we got? Next. John is the downside of Democrats winning back the House and Senate that Schumer and Jeffries will get more ear time. Here we go. It is at this important time of Sukkot, which is the Jewish holiday of backyard building. You can take a little love and a look, I think what's going to happen is they're going to have to fucking do something. They're going to have to deliver. They're not going to be able. It will not be sufficient to make their entire personalities opposition to whatever Trump politics are. They're going to have a, they're going to have to have a prescription for rebalancing this economy in a smart and urgent way. And that is not, I am not confident that that is in their DNA. I'm not confident that it's in Schumer's DNA certainly, which means I'm actually hopeful that he won't be there as the leader that they will come in and say, we're not, we're not going to go down that corporatist path again. We are going to make the changes that the American people are demanding that we make in an urgent way that is not bound by some idealized vision of what the parliamentarian might think is okay. Fuck that. Like if you if you are granted control, if you if they give you the ring, do something with it. God, I hope so. Yeah, you're best. It's but in reality, John, they're just going to fuck it up. You know, chipmunks, when they legislate, they rise to the challenge, those chipmunks. All right, let's go back to the chipmunks. And not least, by the way, I have named them. Don't think I haven't. And Alvin Felix and Oscar. So the two that come most often, Felix is this. He is the most high functioning chipball. This is what the people want to know actually. So insane. He is so smart about how he always comes in. He gets the biggest stuff first. The almond, the pecan, the acorn, he grabs those and then he'll come back and he'll throw a bunch of sunflower seeds ago, but he's got a very prescribed system. He is a gorgeous chipmunk. The stripes on the body are symmetrical. He is a Kardashian of chipmunk. Just beautiful chipmunk. And then fucking Oscar comes in. And Oscar looks like he's been through it. And Tracy keeps saying she's like, I think it's because he's coming through the hollies and I'm like, no, I think he's an alcoholic. Like he comes out, his tail's like a little fucked up. And he's always got like a little cowlick and things. And he's just like, what do you got? What do you got to sunflower? Is that a sunflower? Yeah, your life together, Oscar. Put one in there. Try to like grab an acorn in his hand. He can't see it. Yeah, anyway, sorry, I forgot we were talking about. We have one more question. John, the NBA season starts next week. So when we get to the end, are you prepared to say it six or six? I will never, I will never, I don't care if they win it. I will not acknowledge it. It will, it will know. Listen, I can be impressed by their off-season work. And by the way, not a franchise known for its good off-season work. Like that is a franchise that is much more known for like, what if we bring in James Harden and Ben Simmons? Those guys got to work great together. Like it's never been a functional franchise in that regard. I mean, trust the process. Like, are we talking about a process like the Iron Age? Like how long is this process? It's become a punchline. That being said, boy, what an impressive off-season. Like the idea that you could turn Paul George into Jalen Brown and LeBron James and add that to Tyree's Maxi and Edgecomb and Embed. Like that is a formidable, you know, that they're they're they're going to be tough. And for us not having Mitch anymore. Yeah, it's I understood some of what you've just said. That's hilarious. That was that was for Oscar, not Felix. Jillian is Oscar. Yes, fuck yeah, coolness. I'm a mess. Great show. Brittany, how do they keep in touch with us? Twitter, we are weekly show pod, Instagram threads, TikTok Blue Sky, we are weekly show podcast. And you can like, subscribe and comment on our YouTube channel, the weekly show at John Stewart. You can do all those things. Thanks again, our producer, Brittany Mammadavik, producer, Jillian Spear, video editor and engineer, Rob Vitola, audio editor, and engineer, Nicole Boyz, our associate producer, Rebecca Routenberg, and our executive producer, Chris McShane, Katie Gray. We will see you next week. The weekly show with John Stewart is a comedy central podcast is produced by Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions.