Feeling the Win with Sen. Bernie Sanders

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Are we going to run the same old bullshit back that we did years ago and hope that we get a different result? We don't know, but the one thing we do know that can help us understand it is by talking to the people that are inside it and I'm delighted to get an opportunity today to talk to our old friend and one of the gentlemen that I think was really instrumental in providing the energy and ideas and substance for an electoral turn like this. And let's just get right to him for God's sakes. Ladies and gentlemen, delighted to welcome today independent Senator Bernie Sanders from the great state of Vermont soon to be, soon to be the chair of the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee because Senator, I need not tell you this, the Democrats are in the majority. Really, John? I didn't know that. When did that happen? Funny story, so Tuesday night, around 11th, Senator, how did you experience election night? What was your experience of it? When did you get to the point where you realized not only did the Democrats take the House, but they flipped the Senate as well? Well, I take election nights very personally and I stay home with family and close friends. You know, we don't want to be exposed to the public if tragedy strikes. I don't handle that too well. And I get very nervous about polls, I don't always trust them. But anyhow, a member of my staff, Brit, detected early in the evening that in a congressional race in Indiana, which we had not been following at all, some guy who I had not heard of, was doing much better than anybody expected. He went on to win. And that kind of set the tone that there might be a tsunami in the evening. And you, sir, if I may say, I mean, I don't know of many people who put their political capital online in the same way that you had. This is, when did the fighting oligarchy tour, when did that kind of get together? And I mean, you were out there. You did rallies in front of, I don't know, 300,000. You know, this is what happened, John. Yeah. After Trump won, it was incredibly demoralizing everybody in our world. And I thought it was important to just kind of start rallying the American people around the reality of what was happening. And we thought, I think way back in February or March, we, you know, where we, and what we focused on, interestingly enough, on marginal districts, where you had Republicans who had won by a small margin. And we went, I think we began in Omaha, Nebraska, actually. And then we went to Iowa, but we didn't go to these, you know, big, blue states. We went to marginal districts. And we did that throughout. Sometimes we, you know, went to LA and we went to Denver, but we, we focused on a lot of marginal districts. And it turns out that many of those districts that we visited early played a role in ending up, swinging those elections. Right. And, and by the way, did you feel the enthusiasm for having you out there and a lot of times you would bring AOC with you and other kinds of people? Did you have a sense that the enthusiasm that was being expressed had the possibility to be built into something more sustainable leading into the elections? Well, John, I wasn't looking at just from an electoral point to view what the, the energy was extraordinary. I don't, I'm not a historian, but we brought out turnouts all over the country. I think we were in Tulsa, Oklahoma, how's that for a communist stronghold? And, and I think we had 10, 12,000 people. We were in Idaho, John, Idaho might be the most conservative state in the country. We had, I don't know, many, many thousands of people out. And, and what I saw, John, what I detected, and I wasn't thinking politically at the time of electoral politics is what I believe then and what I believe now is there is massive discontent in this country, massive discontent. Maybe people can't put their finger on it, but people sense that there is something wrong. And that's a discontent, by the way, in my judgment, is what Trump picked up on. And what he did, of course, is blame, powerless minorities, often the undocumented, and say, those are the people. Yeah, problems. I know you're hurting. The undocumented people, all the trans people, all the, this people, all that people, are counted, or whatever it is, they're the cause of your problems. And what we try to do in that, would turn out to be 45 events all over the country, for hundreds of thousands of people, is to really talk about what we felt the most important issues facing the American people are, and what the causes of our problems are. And that's something, you know, John, that we don't do enough as a nation. And I think, you know, if you ask me, what is the most important issue in a nation now that faces many, many crises, I would say that oligarchy and the fact that a handful of people have more wealth and power than has ever been the case in American history. You remember the Gilded Age, right? Of course. We've got to study that in high school. It's much worse now. And we don't talk about it, but that is an issue that has to be taken on. And it's not just income and wealth inequality, which is huge. It is increasingly corporate control over the media. It is billionaire control over our political process. So one of the very positive things in this election is, you know, Musk spent $430 million to try to retain Republican control over the House of the Senate. People said no. But that danger of such few people with so much power is something that we have had to deal with. And you really saw it. You know, the Democrats did something that we haven't seen in a little while, which is they had candidates that come from the working class. And not in the sense of they were in the working class, but then they, you know, ran a tech company and got big. You elected a waitress. I think we're back a cook in Wisconsin. John, the week before, not the week before, a few days before the election, we went, we did an event with her in her district. And on, I got it right. I think it was the Sunday night or a Saturday night. She was waitressy. We went into her restaurant, literally, and she gave us some dessert in the next day we did an event with them. She's a real live waitress. Gave you the dessert on the House. She's just, she's just passing it. See, this is socialism, Bernie. How many times have I told you? And it was, she's a great candidate to work tirelessly. In Montana, we had a guy who used to jump into tires, smoke jumping. In Ohio, we had a guy who was an iron worker. In Pennsylvania, guy was head of the Firefighters Association. in Maine, Troy Jackson. is a, I think, fifth, sixth generation log. The guy in the woods cutting down trees and more. And Susan Collins used that as an insult. Susan Collins said to her constituents, we don't want someone, you know, he's great to buy a cord of wood from, but you don't want him in the Senate. And I thought he used it very effectively to talk about, but let me get straight. You know, because I'm a hardworking guy who worked as a logger, I'm not qualified to represent. I'm more qualified to represent manors because they align more with my experience than your experience with 30 years in Washington, forgetting about the working people. No, exactly right. And Troy is, I think, going to be a great senator precisely because of that reason. Now, you're, so you're back in Washington, but this is the lame duck session. Now, I don't know, I'd, I'd love to hear a little bit about the behind the scenes. The lame duck session is there's a bunch of people now who will not be back after January. Is there a sense that the Republicans are going to try to, as we see in Texas where the, the losing gubernatorial candidate said we've got a stripped power from the governor and send it back to the Republicans? What do you think the agenda is going to be in this lame duck Congress? Well, I don't, you know, I just got back here yesterday and I don't know, I don't, they can't do that. That's not going to happen. They may try to push piece of legislation through. I, I think the concerns that we have now, there's a government funding is going to expire in mid-December. And the issue is nobody wants to see the government shut down, but we want to pass a continuing resolution that will protect working families and change some policies. So, for example, as you are more than aware, Trump decided to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks in his big beautiful bill to throw 15 million people off of health care. I would like to see us repeal that provision, rescind that provision in the continuing resolution. Also, there are many of us who want to defund the war in Iran. Take away Trump's ability to wage that war. And we'd like that in the CR continuing resolution as well. But the real debate now, John, is not just about what's going to happen in the lame duck. The real debate is where we go from here. And it is no great secret. The Democrats want an extraordinary victory. They'll be 55, 56 senators, 250 plus members of the House. And the real debate is, if I may be blunt about it, do we kind of do the same old same old, but Democrats have always done, which is what to tell me, tell me what you feel like the status quo. Are you talking about the more kind of neoliberalism? Are you talking about being a little too deferential to corporate interest? What is it that would represent that same old same old to you? Give you one example, please. There are many, and I'd like to discuss them. Our health care system, I go around the country. And almost every place I go, I say to people, all right, please raise your hand if you're saying the American health care system is working. Nobody raises the hand. It is a broken and cruel and dysfunctional system in which we spend twice as much per person on health care as the people of any other nation. Do you know that? We spend double with the Canadians, the Europeans, them. Meanwhile, 90 million people are uninsured or underinsured, we don't have enough doctors, we don't have enough nurses. So, what do you do? All right, John, you're in my place. What's the worst? Wait, you're asking me? Yeah, of course, I'm asking you. You know, you know what I would do. Tell me. Oh God bless you, Bernie Sanders. What I would do is I would introduce, we have a system called Medicare. And it's when you pay into this system and you reach a certain age, it allows you, you would never go broke if you got sick. You have access to, you know, government-funded insurance. It takes it. You're no longer tied to your job where you have the freedom to make choices for your own agency as far as work is concerned. It would be to remove insurance from employment or under insurance from lack of employment would be one of the greatest drivers of liberty that Americans have experienced in decades. All right, you said it better than I did, John. Well, you're talking about his Medicare for all. Yes. All right. That's a very catchy name. I like that, Senator. I like that. All right. And the reason it's a catchy name is Medicare is a popular program. We out of expanded to a corporate dental hearing in vision. We got to lower the age. It's a four-year program. But here's the point, John, and stay with me on this one. So you're going to have people getting up there, Democrats, Republicans living in another world saying, the health care system is broken. We have got to make sure we restore those 15 million people who lost their health there. Have a nice day. That's about it. Credits for the ACA, maybe. Exactly. Yeah. Same thing. All right. And I support that as an immediate action. I'm not going to let 15 million people suffer in some dye because but what we have got to do is pass Medicare for all. Now, John, you know this. I'm paying, you know, being facetious here. How many nations in major countries in the world do not guarantee health care to all of their people? John, I think there's one actually that doesn't. You got it. There may be one. I can't, I can't recall the name of it right now, but I believe there might be one. It's Zambia. Actually, it's what it is. Now, Zambia probably has it. I don't know. The faming Zambia. Right. It's the United States. That's right. So that is the debate. Are we going to pass Medicare for all, which is bill that I introduced in the child home, the house. You know what the latest poll had 60, 65% of the American people supported, 80, 85% of the Democrats supported. Kind of a no brainer, right, John? I believe it's a no brainer. Well, we will see if we will get it done. I hate the news. I hate what it's doing to me emotionally. I hate that you don't really know where the information is coming from. Sometimes you don't know how it's being manipulated and it adds to the creeping fog of sadness that grows. But I have to keep up. I have to understand what's going on in the world. And that's why ground news. They've got a website. It's an app. It lets you compare news coverage across the board to understand how you're being zoomed. Do you know what I'm saying? You see, you can see how different news outlets will frame the same story. They've got a blind spot feed so you can challenge yourself about your news consumption. You'll see who owns what news outlet to understand why they're framing the stories the way they are. This is the one. This is the one you should get a hold of in light in yourself. Please, to get the same unlimited access to the Vantage subscription, go to groundnews.com/store and subscribe to get 40% off discount only available for a limited time. That's groundnews.com/store or scan the QR code on screen. So if you are going to do that kind of healthcare expansion, would you need that 60 vote threshold? No. In the Senate, you would not. Would you do it through reconciliation? How would you do a program like that? Look, what we understood when Biden was in power, we passed the American Rescue Plan, which was a really, it was a 1.9 trillion dollar bill, which to a large degree got us out of the recession caused by COVID. And I was active in that bill, did a whole lot of things. We did it through reconciliation. Trump's disastrous, big, beautiful bill was done through reconciliation. So I won't bore all of the people with Senate rules here. But bottom line, you have the opportunity to throw a lot of stuff in and you can get it done with 51 votes. And that is my view as to what we should do. We should raise the minimum wage to a living wage, 20 bucks an hour. And I, all right. So let's just stay on the issue of Medicare for all. Watch closely whether the Democrats are prepared to take on the insurance companies and the drug companies in Wall Street, very powerful entities and do what the American people want. So that is battle number one, battle number two. You may have noticed that in California, they're still counting the votes, but a proposal for a one year, five percent tax on billionaire wealth. Right. Okay. Right. The billionaires there spent $350 million to defeat it. They outspend the proponents like 200 to one and they managed to get 52, 53 percent of the vote. They defeated it. In my view, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, where the billionaires are just making money hand over fist, we have to impose a tax on them. This is also quite popular. It's what the American people want, according to the polls, over 60 percent of the people want that. Think we're going to be able to do it? No. Why not? Because the fear from the Democrats to take on bold moves that will reshape and readjust. You know, the country from favoring capital to more favorable towards labor will be considered to radical. And for some reason, everybody believes that allowing corporate interest to run rough shot over the American people to allow money to be speech to allow all those different things is somehow not radical. That's what I don't understand is, why is it radical to rebalance so that salary isn't for suckers? It's astonishing to me that being the outlying country that doesn't have healthcare for people, trying to alleviate that is the radical position. I really don't under, and please help me. I understand powerful interest, but so let's go back to the healthcare system. You say, so the fight about that would be the insurance companies, maybe doctors lobbies, maybe big pharma, but also people are reluctant, the ones that have healthcare insurance right now to give that up for something that they're not quite sure will be effective enough. How do you convince them? Yes, and the polling suggests now that a pretty strong majority wants Medicare for all. In this regard also, I would tell you that we're taking on the media. You're a media guy, right? You pay attention. I don't care for it. I don't really watch that. I don't know, of course. Tell me, how many programs you have ever seen on television, which discusses why we are the only major country in earth, not to guarantee healthcare to all people and why we spend twice zero. You got a media out there, you know, the pharmaceutical industry does a lot of advertising, insurance companies and so forth and so on. So we're taking on the media, we're taking on all of the lobbyists. But I think, and let me go a little bit deeper if we could, John, even beyond policy. Sure. You worry, you are aware of what's happening in Europe, where in Germany, France, UK. Over the last few years, massive growth in support for extreme right-wing parties, right? Right. That's right. You look to Trumpism in this country, right? And a lot of people around the world in Europe and in the United States, and this is what I think Trumpism is about. All of their people who are racist and sexist and homophobes absolutely. But I think most of the Trump supporters of people who are saying, you know what, I'm working hard. I don't have any money for retirement, my kid is going to do worse often than I am. You know, I can't afford this, I can't afford that, what the hell is going on in Washington? Do they know that I'm alive? At least Donald Trump is going to do something, right? We like Donald Trump. Well, what he's going to do, the whole, I think, foundation of Trumpism is resource guarding. The idea is, I work, I play by the rules. And what the Democrats are going to do is give a bunch of undocumented and trans people free everything. Right. And I think that's their resistance. Yeah, that is. And that's what's going on in Europe as well, the blame is always a person to blame. That's right. You can blame, you know, historically in this country, Blacks, Gays, Latina, whatever you may be. And Europe, big deal, obviously, all right. But what I'm saying here is democracy right now in America and in Europe is in a fragile state, okay? And people are saying, government doesn't do anything for me. Why would you give me, you give me this crap every year, you want me to vote for you, you do nothing. My family is worse off, my kids are worse off, I'm going to go to a strong man type of government, at least Trump, you know, he's powerful guys, yelling at everybody, right? You'll do something, he'll do something. And you Democrats have your 18 year programs, you don't do a damn thing. So what I worry about is not just the collapse of a health care system, where the millions of workers are working for salvation wages. I worry very much done that in a sense, this may be the Democrats' last chance. If they cannot, in a very concrete way, improve the lives of working people. So working people say, you know, I voted for the Democrats, and you know what, something really happened. Democracy actually works. My life is better today in a concrete way rather than just, you know, rhetoric. So to me, it's a very fragile moment. And we have got to act and we have to act mostly. So what I want to see is us go forward, the Medicare for all proposals, a four year proposal. You know, we've got to start it. I want to see attacks on billionaires, which frees out the legislation that I have, John, a 5% annual tax on billionaires would bring in about 400 billion a year. With that money, we could build, start the process of building 7 million units of low income and affordable housing, okay? And people to work addressing the housing crisis, universal and free childcare, free public colleges and universities. And in the first year, a $3,000 stipend for every working class person in America to get them through difficult times. People will, if we do that, people say, you know what, Democrats made a difference. You know, I think it's a triage situation. And I think, you know, I think mom Donnie has done this effectively in New York. So he comes in and the reputation is socialist, radical, Muslim. He's going to turn the city upside down. It's going to be a free for all. It's going to be an open world, a grand theft auto experiment. It's not. But what he did was he did pothole democracy. He basically just triage. Let me go through. What do you got a pothole there? But, and wouldn't the Democrats be well served to do pothole democracy writ large on that scale? Like health care. But the thing I would ask you exactly, you know, Medicare for all, unfortunately, begins to become a kind of a meaningless slogan in the way of like when the media used to use the words, the big lie. And it was a stand in for something that I don't think the public. So can you break down and make the case that Medicare for all would actually lower the cost of health care for people, be cheaper for the country. In other words, why aren't, why is it so difficult for Democrats? And maybe there's not enough support for it to make that case for Medicare for all in a manner that is rational and easy to digest for those that fear that type of change. For instance, they would say, well, the, you know, there'd be wait times. Well, if you look at the wait times right now for people to see a gynecologist or a specialist, they're enormous. Absolutely. In the system we have. All right. Good point. And again, we are taking on the whole system here. So I have the opportunity to chat with you. I don't can't do that on CBS. I can't do that on NBC. I don't want to hear this. Understood. All right. But we try. I'll go tell them. You tell me. I'll go tell them. Well, don't laugh. I am going to tell them. All right. Here is the point, not a complicated point. No healthcare system in the world, not in Canada or Europe is perfect. That's true. And technology makes it difficult. You got to keep up and all that stuff. But what most Americans believe, what I believe, what you believe is a, the functional, the rational healthcare system is not to make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies, right? And that's what this system is doing. So right now in many ways, the system is working. It's designed. As designed. They're making huge profits. The CEOs of these companies make tens of millions of dollars every year. What's the problem? So our, we have got to flip that on its head and say, well, the function of a rational system is to provide quality care to every man, woman and child. Now, you know what? That's pretty hard to do. All right. How many resources do you put into rural America? How do you rebuild hospitals? How do you get enough doctors? We don't have enough doctors. We don't have enough dentists. We don't have enough nurses, okay? How do you use AI in a productive way, okay? But the reason that healthcare is so expensive right now is that it goal is to make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. And that's how the whole system is based. For example, we spend far, far less per capita on primary healthcare than do other countries. Right? You don't have to be a genius to figure out that if people are sick and they don't get into a doctor's office, what happens? They go to an emergency room. Very expensive. They have a hospital, outrageously expensive. Gee, what about keeping people healthy to begin with? Wow. That's a crazy and radical idea, all right? That's what Medicare for All could do. So we know the, we got the numbers that in, and the other point that you made, John, which is not made enough, and I think we don't make it enough. Right now, there are millions of people in America who are stuck on their jobs, right? They don't like their work, right? They want to do something else, but they have decent healthcare, all right? Maybe their wife is ill, their husband is ill, their kids are ill, they got a healthcare. That is good. And they are scared to death of leaving that job. When you guarantee healthcare to all people, you know what it does? It frees up people to say, wow, I can do what I want to do and I'm going to have healthcare my family. That's a huge deal. No, I think that the healthcare costs and the fear of what a catastrophic health event would mean to families, you know, it's so shocking to me. And maybe it's because healthcare is one of those items that just does not fit well into that for profit arena. It's just not one of those. There's too many variables. It's people aren't able to compare us in shop. There's a certain urgency to when you have to get in. People can charge you anything they want because it's to keep you alive. And recognizing that is the first step to reforming the system, not just buying into, well, why don't we just then give subsidies to give people access to this broken system? How do we fix that? That is exactly the debate. You know, this company admit mobile. I don't want to keep you in suspense. You got over price phone bills and you can lose them by switching to admit mobile. I feel like Ryan would have said that so much more charmingly than I just did because his voice doesn't sound like he's been smoking for 60 years, which sounds like because it was true for quite some time. But the way that he says it, it draws me in. And I do appreciate getting the opportunity to also have my voice be heard on the pro mid mobile side. You know, the fucking things, 15 bucks a month. When you're looking for better, what do you think you're going to grab one for nine? It's 15 bucks a month. High speed data unlimited talking text, largest 5G network in the nation. 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The things you want to do are we getting into a debate now about will the democratic leadership and this gets into and it's a much larger debate and it's very heated about whether Chuck Schumer should continue to be the majority leader of the Senate. You know, when it when it goes back over in January into that session, how came Jeffries as well? Are is he too tied to status quo solutions that maybe haven't worked in the past? Is he too tied to the kinds of parliamentary protocols of the Senate and too deferential to the parliamentarian at certain? What's your opinion on where what the leadership in the Senate should be? Look, I have known Chuck Schumer for a very long time. Actually Chuck and I grew up in the same neighborhood went to the same elementary school. Did you really? Yeah. I didn't know them then, but you know, we grew up in the same neighborhood. And I have known him for a very long and Chuck actually is a very nice guy works very, very hot. But to answer your question, I think Chuck's views, you know, when you talk about status quo politics, that's what you're talking about in terms of Chuck. Do I think we need new leadership, which is going to move the democratic party in a much more vigorous way to protect the needs of working families? Yes, I do. Absolutely. And do you have someone in mind that would represent that kind of vigorous new leadership? Or are you still in kind of because his institutional knowledge is helpful? Yeah, absolutely. But if it's not helpful to utilize to move the system urgently, then what are we doing? Well, urgency is I think the key word. And if you talk to people like Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota, Troy Jackson, Maine, Rob Dua Sayed, Michigan, they have come from the battlefield. They have had hundreds and hundreds of meetings with people. And what they will tell you is urgency is the word people are sick and tired of the status quo. We cannot have leadership in the democratic party who are going to do the same old same old. We need to stand up for working families take on the big money, interest, and improve life for ordinary people. So that is what I think we have got to do. Yes, you have their names. Chris Van Holland is one guy who is indicated he might be interested in running for leader that he chooses to do that. I will support him. You will support him, okay. Because it's an interesting dilemma because, you know, right now I can feel the push back on those who had criticized that status quo leadership of Democrats. They're very effective right now at pushing back. I'm seeing those sorts of underground influencers that are working through the speaker's office and the majority of leaders are trying to shore up support and attack anybody in myriad ways that might question whether or not that's the best way forward. And sometimes attacking those people in pretty ugly ways, I would say. Look, the establishment is what the establishment is and they want to maintain the kind of society that exists right now, kind of social relationships that exist. I think it's got to change. And again, I think it's not just that you need health care for all that we need to raise the minimum wage that we need to deal with AI in a way that we have not even begun to deal with. We've got to deal with climate change, the safer planet for our kids, but it is if we don't do it, if we, you know, if after this election, all that happens, it's the same old same old people can say the hell with everybody, right? We gave you Democrats a chance, you blew it, the hell with it all screwed democracy. So we have got to be bold and your point is right, the established all of the media, the corporate media will tell us, oh, this is Bernie is too radical and it's blah, blah, blah, blah. At some way the American people are right. In my view, what this election was about, yeah, it was absolutely a rebuking of Trumpism and his narcissism and his contempt for the Constitution, but it was also a demand on the part of millions of people who are struggling today to put food on the table and pay for health care and worry what kind of life their kids are going to live. That's what this campaign was about. If they say to those people, hey, forget about it, we're going back to the same old, same old man, that will be a betrayal of massive consequence. Because we don't look, when you think about what people say, well, we're running big deficits and now suddenly the media is very interested again and Republicans are very, as they've lost control, they are suddenly very interested again in deficits. It's so interesting. The criticism of Democrats was always tax and spend liberals. You're going to tax people and then spend that money to help people. Well, the Republicans appear to be tax cut and spend Republicans. They still spend sometimes in far greater measures than the Democrats do, but they also cut revenues to the government. It makes no economic sense what they seem to be about. Well, what they are about is protecting, I mean, you see it. The one thing I got to acknowledge about Donald Trump, he's pretty upfront, right? I mean, he has the wealthiest people in the world sitting right behind him. These are my guys and I'm going to make them rich. And by the way, I made myself two billion dollars richer. What is your problem, America? Not to mention the reflecting pool that it's every so nice. But again, John, I cannot overstate that if we do not act boldly. And that means improve the lives of working equal to point you made 10 minutes ago. Yes, I want everybody to think what it would mean to their lives if they did not have to worry about what happens when their kids get sick or when their mother can't afford a prescription drug. That anxiety, people would breathe in a way that they are not breathing today. People would say, thank you, Democrats, you have made a difference. If we raise the minimum wage to 20 bucks an hour, millions of workers will say, thank you, Democrats. You know, one of the things, maybe not talked about enough from this election, when my memory is correct, something like 43 out of 44 communities that voted on data centers, voted no for data centers in their community, one way or another. And meanwhile, until very recently, the issue of significant Godrails around AI, not a subject with discussion. So you had Mosque and Altman and Bezos. They're pushing this unbelievable transformative technology on the American people, right? And are we discussing it? Do we want it? Well, I think, you know, we're working hard on that issue. And I think it's an issue. It's got to be put on the table. My own view is not only do we need a moratorium on the construction of data centers, national moratorium, Alexandria, Qantas and I introduced that six, seven months ago, but we need to do a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on superintelligence. I have talked to some of the leading figures in the world on this issue. And John, I suspect you have as well. What they are saying is that if AI becomes smarter than human beings and if human beings are unable to control AI, there may be very, very dire consequences. Okay. But why the hell are we not discussing this issue? You tell me. Not only are we not discussing this issue, Americans are being asked to finance at their detriment, but very transformation. Hey, we've got this thing that is here to ultimately replace you. Can I have 50 trillion dollars to start building it? Is that cool with everybody? Oh, and we're also going to need a lot of your water and electricity. We good? Is that okay? It's, you know, it's so interesting, the demonization of what they call socialism. Hey, nobody has a proper definition of what it really means. And nobody in America is talking about the nationalization of industries other than perhaps Donald Trump, who's strong armed his way into, you know, getting pieces of companies. But they don't understand that government picks winners and losers all the time. The thing that they do mostly though is they pick they decrease friction for corporate interest and increase friction for normal human beings. And all we're saying is, why don't we reverse that? Right. Right. You got it. Is that the type of, now this gets into a more difficult conversation to be able to do that in a Senate that is paralyzed by 60 votes. What does happen to the filibuster, which is considered sacrosanct, even though I think it was only instituted in the 1900s and had been amended a few times throughout the 1900s. What's your position on that? That's a good question. And here's what my hesitancy is. I can, you know, absolutely support doing away with the filibuster bringing democracy to the Senate where majority rules, which is not the case right now, two things. We can do a lot right now with legislation, budget reconciliation bill, as I mentioned before. Right. But that's a cheat. That's a cheat that relies on manipulating kinds of what, what budget reconciliation is really supposed to be used for. I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. Okay. It has been done a number of times in very big ways. That's what Trump did. That's what we did when Biden was in office. In terms of the filibuster, it goes both ways. The theory of the filibuster is it protects the minority. And what I have to say is the Republicans Trump wanted to do away with the filibuster, the Republican leadership, in a sense, resisted them. They had the power to do it. They didn't do it. So it's a difficult issue. I can go, I haven't formulated. I want to hear all of the arguments. But remember, it goes both ways. Let me, let me make the case for dissolving the filibuster that's not about, you know, they say protecting the minority. But there's a lot of checks and balances in the country there. But isn't there an argument to be made that when you win an election, you should be able to institute the policies that you wish because then two years later, four years later, the public will judge. But if we don't allow these, the voters who put in these majorities, including Republicans, I'm not saying we have to stop Republicans from doing it, but we'll let Democrats do it. I'm saying, let them do what they say they're going to do in the way they say they're going to do it. I think you make the argument, you make the argument, which might be the right argument. I mean, that may be the most important point. I mean, I do worry about minority rights. But on the other hand, you are saying, hey, there's an election. One side, one, let them do the things. People don't like a ticket for a amount of office. And that's a strong argument. That may be the strongest argument, and I am absolutely not unsympathetic to that. All right. So let's talk about the things that are necessary to protect that very potential for democratic change through legislation. And that's the decisions that the Supreme Court have made over these last 20 or 30 years that I think have put democracy in real peril. I'll go through those real quick. I think citizens united, I think, Kalei, I think the decisions they've made that have increased corporate influence on elections, the decisions that they've made that waters down the definitions of corruption, the decisions that they have made that has made the executive branch invulnerable to any kind of oversight, how the decisions they've made that made partisan gerrymandering possible. Do you believe that we need a constitutional amendment? Because I think if they're deeming it, unconstitutional legislation won't do it, that will protect nonpartisan gerrymandering that will protect this flood of corporate money. What do you think is the best remedy for that? Okay. I think for us thought, everybody, if you, I think if you talk to every Democrat, and you say should we overturn, should we overturn citizens united, they will all say yes. But having said that, I don't think that has been the real energy that we need. So getting rid, you know, we got to pass something here in the Congress, and then we've got to take it to the States, and that is to me a major, major priority. The current campaign finance system, as a result of citizens united, is horrific. It allows billionaires to buy elections. We've got to change you now. One of the things we can do immediately, and I pushed hot on it, maybe it will happen, is we can, in fact, it turns out that legally institutions like the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, kind of like private clubs, you can make your own rules. And one of the rules that they can make is to make it very, very difficult for any candidate running for Congress, or president of the United States, who allows a super PAC to support him or her will pay a price. In other words, you can get super PACs out of the political process. That's something that I want to do. The other thing that I want to do is move to a public funding of elections. So right now, Mr. Musk is funding the elections. I think a small amount of money we can have, you know, you want to run against me fine. I can't spend more than X amount of dollars. You raise it publicly. It's a fair fight, rather than me getting a Zillion dollars from Mr. Musk. Right. And making it so that super PACs are now out of the game. Exactly. I guess what you would call dark money, a way to get dark money out of the game is there a way to also put maybe finite limits on election season in the way that they do overseas? I think that's real. I don't know how you do it. I think it's really important because from the media's perspective and this drives me crazy, what we need in this country is a serious discussion on serious issues. We don't have that. What do you have? Not on any of them, Bernie. Not on any of them. Right. And then, you know, if you have serious, for example, you know, you bring people who are interested in running for president on your show. Tell me what you think about health care. What do you think about income and wealth inequality? What do you think about climate change? People can then say, okay, I like that guy. I hate that woman. I like this woman. Whatever it may be. Instead, it's a horse race and it's a beauty contest. Who is going to run in 2020? No, no, no, no, no. So, and it never ends. And the media loves it, it gives us something to write about, right? Well, I absolutely agree with you. And I think most Americans, they're sick and tired of these never-ending campaigns, talk about the bloody issues and candidates who are good, who articulate, who's are attuned to where the American people will rise to the surface, those will be your candidates. My view. Christmas time is here again. You know, I think I really just wanted to sing a Christmas jingle. And then I figured once I was, you know, when you start a song and you have nowhere to go, but you feel like I've got to, I've got to kind of own this or you're doing it publicly and people are staring at you. Well, that's what happened to me. I began to sing a Christmas jingle. And now Quince will be the beneficiary of my dual-tide spirit. Man, this place, if you're looking for gifts, it's Quince, baby. Be generous. Stop thinking of yourself for once. That's right. You heard me. Buy some gifts for other people. Quince is this company. They focus on high quality staples for wardrobe. It's a wardrobe thing. Quince has everything you can need for the upcoming season, jewelry, leather bags, hotel quality bedding, chef grade cookware. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. 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 asked where you heard about them, let him know it was the weekly show. Best way to support the show. You brought up a really interesting point, Senator, that we don't really have those discussions. And I'll bring up immigration, I think, is a great example of that. We have this unbelievably reckless and chaotic enforcement issue right now going in there. But we've never, and Lankford tried to have it when you guys worked on a bipartisan solution and put in some limits. But even then, we never got to the core issue of, does this country need immigration? What are the economic benefits and detourments of that immigration? Where do they want to? What are the numbers that we believe this country can absorb? Are there places in the country that that is not something that seems to be part of any of the discussion? You're right. You're absolutely right. All right. For a stock? Yes. I can tell you to the state of Vermont, we have a labor shortage. And I can tell you that Trump's policies have made it harder for people who are running nursing homes. You got the staffing they need, running child care centers. If we got rid of all of the undocumented people in agriculture in America, whether in California, Vermont, anyplace else, the price, whoops, the price of food would soil. All right. So the point is, how do you have a rash, is the converse of that? Oh, let's just have open borders. Anybody wants to come into America? 50 million people want to come in, no problem. Nobody except Republican liars are talking about that in that way, right? Do you look at them? What does it look like? Right. Right. And the answer is we need to have that discussion, but who I will tell you, that undocumented people during COVID, you know who worked in the meat packing plants? You know who died? Those are undocumented people in many cases. So we need starting tomorrow, instead of doing this disgusting, attacks against the undocumented people, breaking up families, throwing people who have lived in America for 20 years, hard working people, throwing them out of the country. We need to have that discussion. And I think the answer is we certainly need comprehensive immigration reform. People who have lived in this country who have not broken the rules who are law-abiding, raising their kids. They've got to be a path toward citizenship, absolutely. And we've got to start the demonization of undocumented people. Because as Democrats, hopefully, with the kind of direction that you're talking about, start to move in that more rational direction. What do you think? What are your fears for what the Trump administration might do? Certainly they're not going to just step aside and say, look, the people spoke very loudly. And so now we're going to allow Congress to retain its position as a co-equal branch of government. Where do you think that pushback will come from? And what do you think you can do to ameliorate that? Well, in my view, when I think the view of most Americans is we have a president who is mentally unstable. I mean, I don't mean to say that in a fanbatory way. I mean, it would be the nicest way you could put it. But I also want to say this, and I've said this before. And the ugliest aspect of Trump is his desire to divide us up his racism. I mean, the kind of stuff that he was saying about Abdul El Sayed, he's a terrorist, a jihadist. I think he thinks that every black member of black woman who's a member of Congress is low IQ. You know how often he, your black woman, you say something, you low IQ, all that stuff. And that's ugly and terrible. But Trump is, while he may be mentally unstable, he is not stupid, and he is not a bad politician, and he is an incredible narcissist. I am, and I may be dead one on this one, John. But I am not so sure that if we did something like passing Medicare for all, and Trump looks out, he says, "Oh my God, the American people want this, it's got to be an impact." I could call it Trump healthcare, I'll be known forever. So I am not so sure that handle well, he may not be supportive. He has no ideology, you know, talk to the Wall Street Journal, they don't think he's a conservative, a racist maybe, but not a conservative, got it? Well I think he might be moved, he might not, in which case what we have got to do, John, from a policy point of view, you know, some of my colleagues say, "Well, you know, we've got to, he's the president, you've got to temper down, you've got to be more conservative to see if we'll do something." I don't think so. I think you go forward with strong legislation, if he vetoes it, maybe then you can sit down and talk about how you could work out some compromise. But our job is to come forward with strong legislation. Well, he even, you know, look, you saw how it went in the days, right after the election, he sits down for an interview and he says, "I went too far in immigration, I think it was too tough. I definitely think we can work out a deal. You know, these are here, these workers, they're here, they've been working." He of course only puts that in the hotel industry, so it's only waitresses and, you know, room service and that kind of thing. And then MAGA freaks out and he comes around yesterday and says, "No, no, no, no, no. We're never doing amnesty." So he is truly all over the place and I worry the issue, as you say, he may be agnostic ideologically, but he has empowered a real core of ideologues, russ of vote and the rest of them. That's right. It's really difficult, they view this as their one shot to save our Christian national republic. Like that's where I think you might find it most difficult. Yes, vote is and some of these guys are absolute extreme right-wing ideologues, no question of the matter. And is that something that, you know, you can work on protecting the areas of government that they have hollowed out, is that something else that the Democrats could begin to rebuild while they have this house and Senate majority? I hope so. Having said that, what we have got to do, one of the things that saddens me very much is with all of the demonizing of government. You're seeing a lot of young people, you know, who wants to go to work for the government, right? I mean, there was a time where people were idealistic, you know, I want to work for the government. I want to help. Ask not what your country can do for you. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And I worry about that. I worry about the same thing in terms of teaching. I mean, think how, how much teaches are attacked of you. It is so hard to be a public school teacher that you're underpaid, classrooms too often too large, kids have problems, but what we have got to do is create a culture in this country where we want the best and the best and the best, you know what? It's great to be a teacher. I'm so proud of being a teacher. I am proud of working in the government because I am doing, I am protecting the environment. I am protecting workers, but we need to create that culture and we need to break down. There's a lot of bureaucracy in government and we need to deal with that reality. So, you know, you talk about Mamdani and, you know, I talked to him a fairly often. He's doing a fantastic job in New York City and one of the things that he is trying to do is not only fill potholes and fix playgrounds and he is just the general ethic is we are going to make government work and it's going to work efficiently and we're not going to have all these stupid consultants out there wasting money. We're going to put money into childcare, into transportation, right? And that is the model I think we've got to adopt nationally. It's about your quality of life. Exactly. Exactly. You walk outside the streets being safer and cleaner and also when your elderly parents need care or your child needs care, that we're not going to, you know, you can become a teacher and not worry that you'll never be able to survive. Absolutely. By choosing that profession, that's right. What more important profession is there than teaching kids? You know, it's funny. We've had this long conversation and I always enjoy talking to you and what we didn't talk about is this sense of investigation and accountability. I fall on the look. I'd love for there to be accountability for the corruption that is running rampant in this country. I'm not so sure I believe in our government's ability to hold people to account because I just haven't seen it. Even, you know, if you think about the SEC or those things where banks misbehave or literally longer money for narco terrorists and all they have to do is pay a fine, what's your position on those kinds of issues in terms of accountability? We say there is no way to say there is no way to say there is no way to say there is no that we're going to impeach everybody there's one side of it and the other side is well we we do have to look into you know why Donald Trump Jr. has a drone company and why he's got a $600 million dollar you know I got a contract. So what's your position on that? My answer is that I think we can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time. I see I'm not sure I've I've seen a lot of people trip. I but I think you cannot ignore you know all of the corruption within the Trump administration all of the illegal and unconstitutional actions you can't ignore that on the other hand if that is all you do and people say you know what thank you it's a very interesting you guys inside the belt we have in a great time I still can't afford groceries I can't afford to fill up my gas tank my kid can't afford to go to college go to health. So I think we have got to do both we got a whole Trump accountable but we have got to like a laser figure out how we are going to improve life for working families 60% of whom John are living paycheck to paycheck they need to help they want help we've got to deliver. Well that's a magnificent Coda for all this and I know I think you've got votes to do today is that correct sir among all the things yes we got a lot all right you got a lot to do as always appreciate your time appreciate your insights congratulations I think the foundations that you led all throughout your career but especially since you ran for president and in 2015 I think those seeds really sprouted and I think paid big dividends in this election season so congratulations to you sir thank you all very much keep up the great work John all right sir independent Senator Bernie Sanders hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to you again soon take care senator bye-bye ladies and gentlemen I hope you enjoyed that edition of two old Jews nodding and agreement at each other I certainly did yeah yeah really I'd be like we've got to get that done he's like you're absolutely right John we got to the oligarchs the oligarchs cannot be allowed to continue to control our politics then he would say something I'd be like yeah bless up energy was through the fucking roof come on I love it he's he's he's excited um you know I it's interesting it is the clearest path to some legislative changes that I've seen in a while and uh I was most interested to think if he thought the leadership would be on board with that kind of urgency and it's clear he does not yeah I would say that wasn't the most um encouraging response right and it's really unfortunate I'm curious like what they actually want to do then or like what they think their mandate is which is just you know putting the same subsidies in place that people have come to miss but still couldn't afford that's right before and I think though if they don't want to just once again paper over a broken system yeah they are going to have to become better at not just using the catchphrases of policy but they have to really be able to understand how to explain to people what this will do overall they can't just be we need Medicare for all it has to be here's what's happened to your health care prices here's why the subsidy system doesn't work here's why we have to make that reform here's the four-year pilot program to do that and then at the end we'll revisit it but I think they've got to become much better like we said with immigration and everything else it's it can't be just a bumper sticker culture no and I think they have to recognize that people are smart enough to understand all that information they're desperate for it that's correct and I think that's what last week really showed is like people can understand when you lay things out for them and they can follow along so don't have to people like their idiots it was so like people were offended by the five thousand dollar track proposition because they're being treated like idiots yeah that's right and he I think he's become very comfortable treating people like idiots oh my god he goes to his rallies and he says you're all idiots right and which is why the day before the election he's got the balls to go down to the reflecting pool and show people pictures of fucking drains he's literally holding up trains this is what the people want well I know the people I know the election is tomorrow but I know people are very concerned I know I thought I was going to drain the swamp but what you didn't know was this swamp this is the swamp and this is the only thing I meant the literal swamp that I created I have to say I am encouraged by how formidable this new slate of Democrats appears to be and and you know even in our discussions just briefly with Josh Turk in Iowa and El Sayed in Michigan they're understanding of the intricacies of the healthcare systems they're looking to overturn are impressive yes and that they came out I mean right off the bat you know peggy flan again I'm Dola said they said Schumer's not gonna cut it they didn't wait to you know they didn't even wait for orientation I love that there's going to be an orientation chuckle just be up well welcome I hope you enjoy I don't know if you know we have a gym the picture of them all with him is so brutal he never sheds it's so bad it's brutal visiting grandpa before they sent him to the home yeah brutal Britney what are the people feeling this week all right John we've got four this week John what do you think happens when you die what when I die or well I hope I'll be missed or do you mean my I'm just gonna give Trump's answer well I mean I'm a religious person yeah that was my by the way that was my I think might have been my favorite quote of the interwell I'm I'm clearly I'm a religious man I you see my piety on display does traveling to strip clubs and casinos counties church as as a religious man I owned a few casinos not all of them and I am uh who's tables did they overturn in the temple I can't remember if they were if they were mine or not uh but yeah I found that to be uh by the way one of the most disarming interviews of Trump that I've seen and I don't know if it's because his manner is he does not have a confrontational manner this Ross and I'm gonna say his name wrong as I've done doubt that or do that do that I don't know I'll just say it differently each time but he drew him out in a way that I thought it wasn't winning the interview it was allowing someone to expose uh their inanity enough rope kind of yeah to have an interview where 20 minutes earlier Donald Trump says I'm a financial genius you don't understand I see the matrix when it comes to finance in a way that nobody in history ever has juxtapose with how did you get three billion dollars richer while you were there and he's like I don't fucking know also everybody did yeah also turns out the insights he has into finance are insider trading yeah get into stock those are good insights I think there's uh I think a billionaire goes to sleep at night and a billionaire fairy puts some money in your pillow and then you got to belly but my favorite part is he's like the stock market so great and you're like if you run through how he's made his money it was a meme coin it was fucking world liberty financial it was grift yeah it wasn't the stock market buddy yeah bribe scams and insider trading right the trifecta but you didn't have to say you motherfucker you could just let him do it and it it's so self evident to anybody watching and I thought it was it was really well done and one of the most pleasurable you know watching the online version you know one of the most pleasurable 40 minutes I would say it was for play for for many people uh what what else what else the people want john do you think petexet scares people more because he is so macho or such a moron not macho it's people can't handle testosterone and alpha male energy there is nothing uh that says alpha male more than look at me fucked up in a dunk tank on fox news and now I run the most powerful military in the entire world like yeah super chill anybody who's so fucking insecure that they have to march on stage and say no trannies in the military like fuck go fuck yourself like like that that tiny percentage of people who swore in oath to the constitution to defend this country who put themselves in harm's way to defend this country that you believe is weakening our ability to fight then you don't have it the the the military should reflect the public that it represents in all facets is lack of understanding now i've just gotten by the way a tet to sleep. It's all about story. The story of his defacing our fighting forces. It's such a narrow, cartoonish caricatured vision of what it means to have a force that's effective. And by the way, utilized properly. It's not just about the strength of it. It's about not getting us into reckless situations that people could see forming from a mile away that would constrict our ability to get fuel for the next year. Totally. Other than that, I think he's doing a good job. Oh, my God. Yeah. Of course. And handsome as the day is long, like the push ups, the squats. Oh, actually, thank you. Squats, the hair. And from what I understand, he has kung fu grip. Oh, yeah. No, he has the didn't you guys ever have the GI Joe with kung fu grip? No, I know. Why that reference seemed to go over everybody's head. There was GI Joe, the world famous. Yeah. Demi Moore. Further back and made a plastic and no genitals. And then they came out with the big upgrade of the GI Joe was GI Joe now with kung fu grip. And as someone who had a GI Joe, I never thought like the complain I never had with GI Joe was it doesn't hold things well. Yeah. What is he holding? Yeah. He's dropping his gun. He's like pull ups. Yeah. I don't know what's going on. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The kung fu grip. So yeah. Not a fan. You love it. Yeah. Not a fan. Do you agree that he should be impeached? Christ, I don't. I mean, does here's what I believe. He sucks so badly that the president should fire him, that the chaos that he's bringing. Now that doesn't mean that the military shouldn't be reformed. But this is a guy who's also advocating for $1.5 trillion dollar budget for the military. This is not somebody who's bringing an efficiency and a new direction. This is somebody who has a cartoonish view of what a fighting force is. And also, let's double their money. So like the idea that impeachment is the only recourse for any of this. You should be fired for fucking sucking. Fucking sucking. That's part of the t-shirt. Let me say this. That is not Clarence Darrell level of persuasion. Let me see if I can rephrase that. No, he shouldn't be impeached. We should live in a system where the people that run our institutions are accountable enough that obvious, lousy performance has consequences to their employment. Well, now you're asking for the world's most reign it in. Okay. The idea that impeachment is our only recourse, which is already, you know, a cost of yes, yes, political. Is that it? No, we have two more. Oh, John, how do you think Congress should prepare for Trump's pre-partening himself and taking all of the guests to Marlago? Good. Take him. Go. Let him go now. Tell him now. Pre-parten yourself. Go to Marlago now. Apparently, there's an airport there with your name on it. Just waiting for you to fly in there with whatever boxes or whatever you want to fucking bring. Bring the reflecting pool. We'll build another one. I don't give a shit. Just go. Go back to Florida. He's one of the few guys who normally you go to Florida and bring back souvenirs. He brings the souvenirs back to Florida. Classified documents. Take the ballroom. Bring the ballroom. He's taking that ballroom. Just if I had the confidence that he would leave, I just meant there's very few people I know that do that extensive renovation to the place they live because they're planning on moving. That's the thing that I go. Let me get this straight. He's going to build a ballroom and an arch and then be like later. I don't think you know anybody that loves home renovation as much as he does though. Why don't we just give him an HGTV gig? We'll give him a budget. Now, you're self out. Move him out. It could be, you know, a real example of how gold cherubs can sparkle up any drag room. But I'm anywhere. Do you think he's going to leave? I do. I really like. There was a time when I was. There were some dark moments in the last two years where things felt pretty bleak, but I don't feel like that anymore. I think there's no appetite for him to stay and I think even he can tell when the party's over. I think he's not having fun anymore. When he was winning and dunking on people, but I think the fun of winning is gone. What does he really like? I think he's at all four at this point. Even the sick of fans that would laugh when they were asked by the media, I think he's going to run a third term and would say, "Oh, I don't know. The country loves it." They're in the end of appetite for that anymore because they know he's toxic now. Yeah. I mean, Melania is already left. The thing that I wonder about is those who would abandon have abandoned, but in the bunker is only the most devout. Sometimes in the bunker, it's very easy to lose perspective on and have an unbelievably skewed and surreal view, which he already does of what the actual world thinks of you. I don't know that that. Maybe it does permeate him at some level. But boy, in the bunker meetings with him and Stephen Miller and Hegg Zeth and Russell vote, I'm sure they're not like, "Wow, this all go wrong." I'm sure it's all like you're a man of substance and history. It sounds like someone is vacuuming your street. That's the street cleaning. That's what happens. I'm done. They told me that he wouldn't clean his streets. Last and not least, John. How long do you think it takes Trump to get through his morning routine? You know, the hair, the bronzer, the regrettals. So, there is no morning routine because he has no circadian rhythm because he is a creature of all times. You can tell people don't tweet at one in the morning and 3.30 in the morning and 5.30 in the morning. So, I think he lives a life of small respites from it. So, there is no preparation. Yeah, in his meetings. That's when he's sleeping. That's right. He waits until the meetings to kind of shut it down. Because I'm on my tweet and got to sleep somewhere. As people that look, I'm the wrong person to ask about preparations as you can tell from how I look. As people who may understand a little better, the render times of that kind of thing, what would you give his hair? What would you say he had? I woke up like this, John. No, I understand. I understand. How did you guys? Yeah, thank you for that. I don't know because he's not like taking, you know, he's not, it doesn't appear that he's taking a lot of time with it. It does look purposeful. It's not super well applied. But also, how is it applied? I really, my biggest hope is we find out, is it bronzer, like a tin, like a spray tin? Like, how is it happening? He's got white around the eyes. So, if it's a bronzer, he can't be that fragile in terms of like putting it around his eyes. It's got to be something else. And that's a tanning goggles, tanning bed goggles. Oh, yeah. But you can see the cutoff point too. I know. I've got so many questions. We can spend an hour on this. Do you think he goes in with the suit and the goggles? And so he's just getting like a weird guy. He's just getting his face spray tan. I don't think he's been naked in over nine and a half years. God willing. Let me ask you a question that gets to kind of the fundamental of this in a different way. There are times when I look at myself in the mirror and I think, I look like no one loves me. Do you know what I mean? Like that, I look like no one before you walk out of the house goes, I love you and I'm not going to let and Lord knows Tracy tries, but it's I'm just going to say she does. But do you think Trump looks like no one loves him? Yeah. That's what I think. I think he looks like no one loves him because if someone loved him, they'd go, my man, he certainly looks like nobody stands up to him. Yes. Anybody that had the nerve to say, you know, maybe blends a little bit. Yeah. So you think it might be fear or not, not lack of love. It's, it's more, it's more like the more Mark Adolfi like, yeah, you really epilepsy. Okay. You can be feared and unloved. You can be bold. Yeah. Well, very much enjoyed it. Britney, how are the people going to get in touch with us? How they going to keep it touching? Twitter, we are with Lisa pod Instagram threads TikTok blue sky. We're with Lisa podcast. And you can Like, subscribe and comment on our YouTube channel, the weekly show at John Stewart. - And do so, and we will answer your questions as they appear. Thanks as always to our fabulous team, producer, Brittany Memevedek, producer, Jillian Spear. Video editor and engineer, Robert Tolla, is off on paternity leave right now, but we are lucky enough to have a stand in Sam Reed. So thank you, Sam Reed, audio editor and engineer Nicole Boyce, associate producer, Rebecca Rotenberg and our executive producer is Chris McShane, and Katie Gray, the fun never stops. Thanks so much guys, excellent as always, and we'll see you next week. Boyce. (upbeat music) The weekly show at John Stewart is a comedy central podcast is produced by Paramount Audio and Bus Boy Productions. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Paramount Podcasts.