Lake America Great Again

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Measles, John Ossoff's opponent's latest Nazi problem, the latest one, and the latest from some key Senate races, including Dan's conversation with South Carolina's Democratic nominee, Dr. Annie Andrews, who's looking to pull off a big upset against the brand new Republican nominee, Darlene Graham, sister of the late Lindsey Graham. But first, if you're not already a paid subscriber to Crooked, what are you doing? You get ad-free episodes of this show, of all your favorite shows. And then you get a whole bunch of extra shows, like Polar Coaster with this guy right here, Dan Pfeiffer. Best show Crooked produces, many people have told me. That's the one. Terminally Online, our secret episode of Pod Save America, Pod Save America Only Friends. You get access to all of our great sub-stack newsletters, like Open Tabs. You get access to the Discord community and discounted tickets to CrookedCon and all kinds of other perks. So check it out. Subscribe. It's worth it. All right. Crooked.com. Friends. Crooked.com slash friends. Do you think maybe the reason we keep having to do this pitch is because we keep forgetting to put the link in so no one can actually do it? That and it's like, is it Crooked.com slash friend or friends or is it friend of the, who the fuck knows? I hope we have all of them. I hope they all work. Just think to yourself, I don't want to listen to ads and I want to access a bunch more good shit. So just like type in Crooked Media subscribe and I bet that'll get you right there. Google Crooked Media subscribe. I bet that'll get you right there. Crooked Media subscribe. More Dan. That's what you do. All right. Let's get to the news. Donald Trump had another big week of losing wars, raising prices and changing maps. His only public event on Thursday was a signing ceremony in the Oval Office where he officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America and said that either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean may be next because our president is a moron. Let's listen to how he explained the Lake Ontario change. So this is Lake Ontario in Canada and in the United States. But we're going to make a little change. We're going to call it something different than Lake Ontario. We're going to call it Lake America. And all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence. So Lake Ontario, that's gone. Lake America. So now we have a lake. And now we have a gulf because we have the Gulf of America. And now we have Lake America without the of. Thank you very much, everybody. Enjoy Lake America. Enjoy Lake America without the of. Without the of. Now, if you're all concerned that Trump isn't paying enough attention to the other stupid war he started that's now bankrupting the country, fear not. The president posted some great news about Iran this morning. Let's check out what he put on Truth Social. That is an AI image. Although, Austin. Claims maybe it's photoshopped. Either one. But it's Donald Trump. The American flag behind him. Some fighter jets. In the corner is George Bush. A picture of George Bush. And it says mission not accomplished. And then in the other corner, there's the Ayatollah for some reason. And it says mission accomplished 2026. Is that the dead Ayatollah or the other one? Who's to know? We don't know. Who's to know? We don't know. Is it the dead Ayatollah? Or the new, potentially gay, disfigured Ayatollah? Look, what you're going for in this moment is slightly better than George W. Bush's Iraq war. That's the message. And you definitely want to use the phrase because you really want, when people think about the Iran war, you want it to evoke the last biggest foreign policy disaster from a Republican president, which is the war in Iraq. So you just want to make sure that the public is connecting those two things in their mind. Even though the war is still very much raging because Donald Trump is a fucking moron who is busy changing the name of a Great Lake with the Sharpie and an executive order as opposed to focusing on any of the other problems that we have. Yeah, he's doing great. What did you think about that, Dan? What do you think about the big Lake Ontario change? This is why we get paid the big bucks to analyze the Lake Ontario change. It's a huge deal, John. That's a huge deal. The takeaway for me, I have two takeaways here because that's my job is to have takeaways on dumb shit like this. Ten years running. Ten years running. Hot takes on dumb shit. Great name for the pod. That was the runner up to Pod Save America. Donald Trump's not even good at trolling anymore. I know. I mean, we've said this before, he's lost his fastball. But he's just like this. You can almost feel the relevance just declining with every passing moment that people don't care. And he can't even like he's he does this for outrage. He can't do it. The second thing is that Democrats in the world have kind of figured out how to react to Trump. Like when this happened with the Gulf of America, imagine if this happened four years ago, everyone would be screaming from the rooftops. You know, what a gigantic deal this is. You know, what an embarrassment for America. How dare he politicize the once independent board of geographic names? And. And. And, you know, just like people would like stacking it with cronies. Exactly. But that that was the foundation of the American system. Democracy is at risk. We can't even count on lake naming anymore. And, you know, and like last year, people were like, oh, my God, what do we do if we don't change it on our map? Trump will prosecute us. I mean, if you remember, this is what got the AP banned from the White House. Oh, my God. I did forget. They forgot. They refused to call the Gulf of America. Now, no one cares. No, although it's kind of funny. I like I don't care about it that much. But I have seen some people be like, do you think he actually knows that Lake Ontario was not named after the Canadian province or named by Canada? But it was it's a it's an indigenous name from hundreds of years before. And I was like, guys, guys, we of course, we don't need to go down that road that you he wasn't thinking about that. And if you corrected him in advance, that wouldn't have made a difference. Yes. Yes. I just think it's better to respond to these things with ridicule than outrage. Yes. And so not like I guess the other option is to actually him fucking moron, fucking moron. So stupid. On a completely related note, Trump's approval rating is underwater by about 20 points with just 67 days until the midterms. For comparison, he was only about 11 and a half points underwater at this point. Before the. 2018 midterms, which is about the same as Joe Biden before the 2022 midterms. But according to The Atlantic, Trump recently met with his advisers in the Oval to come up with a strategy to overcome his dog shit approval ratings ahead of the midterms. And here it is. There's a theory that I get the vote. You know, this I see it all the time that when Trump's on the ballot, they win. When he's out of the ballot, the people don't go to vote. And I'm asking the people through your brilliant show, number one show. asking the people to get out and vote pretend i'm on the ballot that's it What do you think of that? That's a good strategy, right? Just in case you thought he was riffing there. Here's the headline from the Atlantic piece I was just referring to about that meeting. Trump plans to buy midterm ads about his own record. The president has come up with a simple plan to win the election. More Trump. That is Trump's solution to every problem. More Trump. Is more Trump. Think that'll do it this time? Doesn't work when the problem is Trump. I mean, my simple response is, where can I donate? I couldn't ask for any. Great. Go for it. Run more. Run more ads. Make sure that everyone understands that Mike Rogers, Susan Collins, John Husted, all of these people are completely associated with Donald Trump. A man whose approval rating is underwater in every state in this country, there is probably. There is no race, I think, anywhere where Trump is a net positive. It's just a question of how big an anvil he's going to be for the Republican on the ballot. Yeah. I mean, if everyone pretended that Trump was on the ballot and everyone voted based on how they view Trump, the job that Trump's doing, Democrats would win a Senate majority and a huge House majority. Yes. If every Trump disapprover voted for a Democrat, that would be. That's it. That's a 20-point generic ballot, just to do some very fast math there. It's funny that there's one sentence, and the Atlantic piece does, some GOP strategists favor focusing entirely on specific races in an effort to convince voters of the merits of individual candidates on local issues. Yeah. Yeah. That might be a good idea. I guess that one didn't get through the brainstorm. You know, Biden, to his credit, I think, in 2022, he basically just backed away. He didn't campaign. He sort of. His advisors, other than that one democracy speech he gave at the very end. Right, where they said he looked like Satan. Yeah. Which then sort of. Basically, the success of that speech sort of unwound democracy itself, but that's neither here nor there. But he had enough self-awareness to not force himself into the conversation. Same thing with Obama in 2010, George W. Bush in 2006. But Donald Trump is not capable of that, so he has to make it about himself, which is only going to help Democrats, because it's not going to turn out more Republicans. It's just going to further polarize independents and disaffected Trump voters against Republican candidates. Yeah. That's the part of the story where his advisors told him that his bad polling is just because the public still just doesn't know about all of his accomplishments. Run more ads about them. Run ads. Look, I think what you got to do is you got to tell people about the big, beautiful bill. Not enough rich people know about the tax cuts they're getting, and you should run an ad about that. It's just so great. That's what it is. When I read that story, I was so happy. It was such. It's such a good story. I mean, I can't wait to start seeing these ads. What do you think these ads are going to be? Do you think that, like, this is what they tell them, and they're like, oh, the accomplishments, and that it'll be like 10% accomplishments and 90% just, you know, we're running against a bunch of communists, Islamists, and terrorists, and, you know, we're going to destroy the country? Like, it feels like that would be their best use of money? I think what is likely going to happen here is, and I'll give an analogy here from my career. I once worked for a candidate who really, really believed that yard signs were incredibly important. That what signs? Like, yard signs. Oh, yard signs. Obsessed with yard signs. And so the field staff just put yard signs up in the candidate's neighborhood, on the way to the office, and on the way to the airport, and didn't worry about anywhere else. So my suspicion here is that there are going to be a lot of ads about Trump's accomplishments on Fox News. National cable buy, Mr. President. Right in between the catheter ads. Right. You can buy gold, a doomsday kit, a catheter, life insurance, and then find out about Trump's accomplishments. Find out about Trump, yeah. Which you can't find out anywhere else on Fox. Not on Fox News, no. There was no discussion of Trump. I do want to read you a quote from a big MAGA influencer on Twitter. Quote, I don't think the GOP fully grasp how badly they're fucking up right now. I'm very worried the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming. And this is a post that I saw because it went viral. And the reason it went viral is because it was reposted by, say, Donald Trump. What do you think? You think he didn't quite know? Do you think he didn't read the post? No, I think he read the post. You think he just, he thinks it's the GOP. It's not me. I'm not at fault here. We are watching in real time as his brain tries to reconcile an ass whipping in the midterm with his own personal view that he's infallible. And so it's got to be someone's fault. He's going to start blaming the Republicans long before. The votes are cast. They ran away from him. They didn't talk about the big, beautiful bill. They didn't talk about his accomplishments. No one talked about, you know, he's just going to be like, John Hughes said never ran on the, on Lake America. Never talked about it. All this tells me is I just, I'm imagining how the, how the 2028 Republican primary is going to go and the whole race, because anytime there's bad polls for the Republican nominee or things like Donald Trump, he is just, like you said, he's not going to be able to keep himself out of it. He's not going to be. I guarantee he will end up like criticizing, if not indirectly, directly the Republican nominee, because that's just who he is. When I worked for Al Gore towards the end of the campaign in my, in my very, very low, right out of college job for Al Gore, Bill Clinton, that was a big tension point this week. Bill Clinton, Al Gore was, it was a problem for Al Gore. Didn't campaign with them. Bill Clinton was very mad about this. Bill Clinton picked up the phone and called him over to the Washington Post, New York Times reporter to essentially, he couldn't take it anymore and complain about it. And it became a gigantic story. And the problem for J.D. Vance Marco Rubio, whoever else is that every reporter in America, it's not Trump's cell phone number. So the number of them who are going to get him on the phone when he's like on the toilet, watching TV, whatever else where he's just going to unload. They're not going to need to get him on the phone. He's going to go into the oval every day, gather all the cameras and say whatever the fuck he wants to say. Yeah. And yeah, he won't shut like George W. Bush. Basically stopped being president. And as soon as the 2008 campaign started, I mean, in every way, he stopped being president, but he was, you never saw him again. He did like no events, did nothing. And because he knew that he was a gigantic net negative for the Republicans, Donald Trump will not have that level of self-awareness. You think he'll be on the trail all the time in the next couple of months for the midterms? No, only because he's gotten quite lazy in his old age, maybe. I mean, I'm sure there will be some rallies and they will probably be in Texas is probably a place where I could, see him going. Cause Ken Paxton and we'll want him in Texas because he's Ken Paxton. He's going tonight. We're recording and he's going to night. He'll be there tonight for a fundraiser. Yeah. But what do you like? Is that a place where you do rallies? I mean, like there would be an argument that he, you could understand an argument of like, you have to turn out Trump voters in these red States. And maybe, you know, if you are, um, Ashley Hinson in Iowa, that you would want him to, to jet up, turn out in like the rural area. So maybe he'll, he'll campaign, which will be, the thing is, is that that is not limited to Iowa. So that's going to have an impact in Maine and Michigan and these districts in California and New York, the Democrats are trying to win. So he will be present in the conversation, which is, I think in the long run, great for Democrats. And again, if, if he's too lazy to take his fat ass out of the white house, he will be moseying on into the oval every day and just holding court with all the reporters while the Republican candidates are out there trying to distance themselves from Trump or, or, you know, get, get their own message out there or whatever they are trying to do. They won't be able to do it because Donald Trump is going to be in the way. I mean, there are a lot of cities in American named Ontario that he could start renaming right now. I mean, he previewed the Atlantic or Pacific name change, uh, that's coming. So we probably have that beat. Still, it still hasn't dealt with New Mexico yet. That is just, it's sitting right there, sitting right there, just in time for it to be an early primary state for the Democrats. Oh, there goes John Ossoff and Kamala Harris and AOC to new America. Uh, fortunately Trump's pathological narcissism is the gift that keeps on giving for the democratic party because in just a few weeks, he's also going to make every Republican candidate on the ballot endure a first of its kind two night midterm convention in Dallas. This is on September 9th and 10th, by the way, did you see it's going to be the opening NFL game on, on the ninth, the passing the Seahawks and then the 10th is that game. So that's two NFL games, primetime Donald Trump's convention. We'll be, uh, happening at the same time. Is the second one on Netflix? Yes. Cause it's in, uh, it's in Australia. Yeah. Um, this was a noble thing. It's like, it's very, very, very well known when the NFL season starts that count that they've been selling tickets to those games for a very long time. You didn't have to do it that week. You could have done it. You could have done Tuesday, Wednesday, could have done it Tuesday, Wednesday, could have done it. In fact, every, every Thursday for the next 18 weeks after that, they're out, you can't do that. Thursdays and Mondays, not a good time to do primetime addresses during football season. Here's some details, uh, and, uh, and how the, uh, the RNC chair is feeling about this. Listen, it's going to be a trouble Palooza. It's going to be spectacular star studded event, obviously headlined by the best showman that's ever lived in Donald J. Trump. RNC official tells us a primetime showcase for president Trump's success candidates and causes that have propelled the 2026 midterms to unprecedented focus. There is also going to be a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and a section about Charlie Kirk's legacy mobilized. young voters for Republicans. Wow. Just wow. Did you know that that was the Republican, the chairman of the RNC? You know, it's interesting because I did not know who he was or what he looked like. And then I watched a separate interview with that guy today from it on CBS where he says the exact same words, Trumpapalooza, greatest showman on earth. So it wasn't like a one-off, we're just on Newsmax thing. The message is Trumpapalooza. Tommy and I talked about him yesterday. Check out our YouTube for extra content, subscribe. And after talking about him yesterday, I still don't remember what his name is. Yeah. Gruters? I literally was on the screen one second ago. Really a forgettable face. Who cares? Who cares? What would you guess is the thinking behind this boondoggle? Just more of like what we got in that Atlantic story that Trump was just like, got to make this about me? Yeah. I mean, that's certainly a part of it. I think this was his idea. He came up with it. He's made that clear to everyone. Brilliant. I think if you think back to Milwaukee Republican convention, you know how most candidates campaign throughout the convention, then they arrive at the convention the day of their speech and they make their grand entrance. Maybe they come to get there the night before and they accept the nomination, then they do their speech. If you remember, Trump went every single day. It was Milwaukee the whole time. He sat in a box the whole time. Oh yeah, that's right. And while in that box, when he wasn't sleeping, he just sat there with a shit eating grin on his face and I think he's, I think that was probably one of the greatest moments of his life. And I think he's trying to replicate that. I really do think he wants people to say he wants to create a forum where people say nice things to him, to his face. Just so we don't get too excited here. I was trying to think like, is there any world in which this convention turns out to be a net positive for Republicans? You know, we'll be two nights of prime time of just them trashing every democratic candidate and just dumping out the oppo file on all of them. Who do you think is going to cover it? Uh, just the cables. Yeah. I think, I think MS, I would bet that MS and CNN cover Trump's speech and Vance's speech, but I can't imagine they're going to cover much more than that. Fox will be the whole, the whole thing. I'm sure they'll use it. They'll have reporters there and they'll use it as content during the day. I don't think that content will necessarily be good for Republicans, but I don't think these speeches are going to get covered and seen by a lot of people just other than Fox viewers. Republican strategists are, um, are, uh, saying that it's a, it's turned into a quote shit show. Uh, this was to, to puck. Um, and it's, do you know the national Republican campaign committee is asking house members to cough up $25,000 for themselves and a guest to attend the convention. And, uh, and that's the cheaper rate. The, uh, the top rate is a hundred thousand dollars. It's a con, right? It's just like another way to make money. Un-fucking-believable. It's amazing. Make it, make it four days. The Republican strategist added, uh, to puck. Nobody understands why we're doing a midterm convention. It's just another show that Trump is going to put on to remind the voters that he is sitting there and maybe they don't want to be reminded of that. Ouch. That's perfect. That's a Republican strategist. So, so good. Uh, of course, anonymous, of course. Don't want to, don't upset Mr. Trump. This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to elevate your online presence and drive your success. Squarespace provides all the tools you need to promote and get paid for your services in one platform. Whether you offer consultations, events, or other experiences, Squarespace can help you grow your business. 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Head to squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash crooked to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash crooked. Pod Save America is brought to you by Tommy John. If you've ever found yourself adjusting your underwear halfway through a long workday or an endless flight, you know the struggle. Most performance underwear gets the job done for workouts, but it usually feels slick, synthetic, and completely uncomfortable for everyday wear. Enter Dry Comfort. By Tommy John. This isn't just summer underwear. It's engineered to regulate your temperature and keep you cool, dry, and comfortable year-round. The real game-changer here is Tommy John's first ever brushed microfiber fabric. It delivers all the stretch, breathability, and moisture management you need, but with an exceptionally soft, luxurious feel that doesn't feel like typical workout gear. Tommy John takes care of it all, you know? 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It would also empower the Postal Service to just not send mail ballots to states that don't comply with all the new rules. Blue states have sued over the EO, but on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled they don't have standing to do so. It would be better if they didn't. So we're going to have to wait and see. At least not yet. And so now the whole thing is in legal limbo as the rule finally goes into effect. And now blue states are suing again. And so, of course, this is exactly where you want to be when the first round of mail ballots are supposed to be sent out next week. Can you fill people in on how bad this is? What happens now with all these different court cases? This is very confusing. I'm going to say something like that. And I think a lot of the stories in the initial reaction were sort of misleading or incorrect. There are two court cases, one from the blue states and one from the League of Women Voters. Both those cases are in front of the same judge. And the judge put temporary restraining orders in place for both of them or injunctions to prevent the administration from going forward with this plan. The Supreme Court ruled in only one of those cases. That one is something versus Trump. It's something versus California. It's the blue states. It's the Supreme Court. It's the blue state case. But the injunction in the League of Women Voters case is still in place. And the order continues to say, and even the Postal Service put out the rule for how they would implement this plan on last Friday night. Even that rule stipulates that that cannot go in place until the other injunction is lifted. So we're kind of in the same place where we were before. The alarming part is the Supreme Court felt the need to intervene here and to, once again, sort of really twist the. As I read it, the irreparable harm standard in a way to try to pave the way for Trump. But it has not. We are where we were before. Not a lot has changed. There's a couple of questions here. One is how the hell would the Postal Service actually implement this plan? Who is going to be checking these mail ballots against these databases? How do we know the databases are correct? What happens when states do not submit the database, like most blue states will not submit these rolls? And there obviously would be a long court case around that. It's a question about how this could possibly be implemented in time for this election, even the Supreme Court were to green light it in the very near future. It's interesting because obviously Trump has said he doesn't like mail-in voting and he wants to stop mail-in voting. And he has signed other EOs to this effect that have been. Can I ask you a question on this, John? Sure. He's a resident of Florida, correct? That's why he's mail-in voter Donald Trump. That's why I called him. Yes. Because hypocrisy is important to people. We got him. It's over. We did get him. So his argument is like, no, I should be in control of mail-in voting and I should stop it and I should be able to do that. The DOJ, their arguments here are very much not, oh, the federal government should have a say in how we control elections and run elections because they know that is explicitly forbidden in the constitution. So their argument in court about this is. Well, the federal government's not doing anything to interfere with how the states are administering their elections. And if the states want to send mail ballots to anyone they want, they can do that. But if they want to use the postal service, if they want to use the postal service for this, then they have to have our new special logo on the envelopes and they have to have the barcode that allows us to see if they have given us the information and the lists are right and the citizenship lists, which are coming from DHS, which definitely can trust that, so yeah, that is the argument. The argument they're trying to make is this just like a minor cosmetic thing for the design. of the ballots like you can do whatever you want you just have to use the postal service you know what i say huge business opportunity for amazon jeff bezos to the rescue um yeah your ballot there in two days free shipping i do find it hard to believe that even the supreme court would throw this coming election into complete chaos with like well we we said that about the about the clay decision as well and they did yeah but this is even this is yeah i mean it's not we don't have to talk about the merits of the decision is worse but it is it causes more chaos like yes like the clay decision is is horrible but it is done yes um and this is like next week the mail ballots are going out so for at least in some states so like i think it's north carolina um yeah so like what's going to happen it seems logistically impossible right to now they can allow it to happen and yes trump doesn't care if no mail ballots go i don't want to tell them about the republican democratic breakdown of mail balloting in florida all of a sudden florida lean d if you stop delivering the mail there no the most supreme court thing to do would be like you know the worst parts of it don't take effect for the midterms all of it takes effect afterwards and then in head of the midterms the dhs gets to compile their own list if they want because it's that's the purview of the federal government something like that but we shall see um so if trump has his way mail-in ballots will be dead but measles very much alive uh cases have reached a 35-year high as u.s kindergarten vaccination rates have reached a record low all since the president put a vaccine skeptic without a medical degree in charge of america's public health uh just a reminder that two weeks ago the president signed an executive order directing people to get the mmr vaccine which protects against measles mumps and rubella as three different shots even though that option currently isn't available to patients and then this week uh pennsylvania tragically announced that uh two unvaccinated people had died from the illness governor josh shapiro blamed the deaths on the administration which did not sit well with rfk jr who blamed the outbreak and the documented drop in vaccination rates on a familiar foe we're doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak this is a worldwide epidemic and it's happening because of the lockdowns because many kids did not get vaccinated during the lockdowns then you had a dramatic diminishment of public faith in the regulatory agencies during the covid period because of government overreaching because of the gas lighting and the manipulation so and even in my discussion with governor shapiro yesterday and he said to me well we've seen this big drop in vaccination rates in the state from 97 to 92.3 he admitted on the phone that it all happened during the biden administration let's see let's see what could have caused uh the public to lose faith in in uh vaccinations during the biden years could it have been some people um perhaps people that ended up becoming the secretary of health and human services constantly spreading anti-vax propaganda that was incorrect possible possibly fair it might have just been the lockdowns might have been the lockdowns and fauci because yes and the lab leak you don't have to explain why you just say that just say just say just say yeah wuhan fauci that's why um so kennedy was also interrupted during a different anti-vax screed this week by the most unlawful president of the united states the president of the united states the president of the united states the president of the united states the president of the united states we have a responsibility to do better on an autistic sorry about that it's quack it's quack dan this would be like if pete hexass ringtone was a beer can opening that's good that's good okay so reed churlin our our fearless uh uh editor-in-chief and uh an author of open tabs so reed churlin our our fearless uh editor-in-chief and uh an author of open tabs subscribe become a friend of the pod to get that crooked.com slash friends um and reed said he wrote in open tabs on thursday morning that we would that you and i would not agree to discuss this story on the show so eat shit reed because here we know what dick move by reed it was it's like let me just put out there that i am going to as the noble journalist that i am proposed we talk about this very serious health thing and i'm sure these political hacks that i'm forced to do are going to be very serious and i'm sure these political hacks that i'm forced to work with will reject it and so like what are we supposed to do now like we have to do it i don't do i want to do it i don't really know but i have to because reed did that it's like when barack obama wanted to give like lengthy policy addresses and get into the weeds and be like i would be able to do this but axelrod told me i couldn't well that'd be like if he said it publicly first yes he's like i wanted to give this very important speech but my political advisors will probably say no anyway here we are brightening your day by talking about the measles outbreak what did you think of the back and forth between rfk jr and shapiro and why hasn't this whole issue gotten even even more attention it's just because what do we all do about it i think rfk jr is a terribly terribly dangerous and particularly dumb human being and he sounds ridiculous in his explanation of this and he spent so much of his time trying to explain why he america's most famous vaccine has no responsibility for a drop in vaccines has led to the greatest spread of measles in the last 35 years i think it is i mean this is you know like he has responsibility here you know is like this is and it should be a gigantic national scandal i don't know that we have the media infrastructure or the mental capacity as a country to have national scandals the way we used to like we like in the old world people would be like in the oval office every day being like mr president explain the measles and every member of congress would talk about it it would lead all the local news that we saw in the old world and we would be like oh my god we're going to have a local news about the measles cases there just doesn't work that way anymore um which is probably not good for democracy in some respects but i do think people know about this like this is a thing that i'm sure you hear about um as a parent with with other parents it is real concerned about it i remember when this was maybe a year or so ago i guess when uh jack who was then i think about to be five was you know because you get your measles your mmr in two doses and whether you should be a big discussion about whether you should be taking the measles vaccine or not and i think you should see whether you could like put forward or push forward the second dose because you're a fear that you could get measles in this world like so i think people are talking about it but there is this sort of weird world where like no one holds trump responsible for any of this stuff so it's just like happening on his watch why he renames lakes yeah i mean i do think it's um it's politically damaging and widely known too because you're right like anyone if you anyone who goes to the pediatrician with kids that age like i'm i'm i'm i'm not going to be able to do that i'm not going to i heard it at my pediatric like you're going to hear about it you'll be like oh well they did the thing about mmr but we're still recommending because we are doctors who understand science that you should get your mmr vaccine in two doses and not three separate vaccines that don't exist currently um but like you know the the damage is also being done like slowly over time right which is just sort of degrading the public's trust in public health and look some of it's it some of it did start i think it's hard to have a public health debate and a debate and a conversation too since covid and um all the polarization around that as well and so now that has like as people thought at the time the polarization over covid and the covid vaccines has now transferred to measles and will continue to spread to other things and so it's going to take a long time in more than just the change in an administration to actually like rebuild people's faith in public health which is awful i think this is the kaiser family foundation poll um but trust in federal officials recommendations i think specifically vaccine recommendations has been cut in half in recent years because you have republicans who have been polarized against these institutions during the trump during the biden administration and frankly honestly the first trump administration and then you have a bunch of democrats very skeptical of rfk jr you know i talked a little bit about this with annie andrews in the interview here later who's pediatrician had some smart thoughts about what we can do about it um basically the argument was that rfk might actually be losing the war on vaccines um you think there's a case for optimism i don't know if it's optimism um but i think it's possible that he's not winning the war with at the same rate we feared when he started that a lot of the institutions are still holding that people are turning to these independent scientific boards to get their recommendations they're still trusting their doctors over um you know quacks no pun intended like rfk jr um so i i don't know if it's hard to be optimistic given what has happened with muslims country right now but it's possible that it's not as bad as we think it is or we thought it would be when it started yeah i i thought that it was interesting that uh the piece makes the case that you know the maha support especially at this point is it's loud but it's like thinner than it than it seems and um public trust in in doctors right if not public health officials is still quite high and i think it's possible that it's not as bad as we think it is and i think it's possible that it's not as bad as we think it is and i think it's possible that it's not as bad as we think it is officials is still quite high um and so even though that some of this faith that this trust has been degraded over time um it is still you know it's it's it's not quite as bad yet, as it might appear. I think the other, if you're looking for silver linings in this dark cloud is the way the Trump administration is governed has undermined the Maha movement and the power of that movement, like putting the seed oil lobbyists in charge of the UNB, the chief of staff, the Department of Ag, all the stuff with the glyphosates, that the power of that movement has diminished or fractured some, which I think has the potential to slow the spread of some of these dangerous conspiracy theories. Pod Save America is brought to you by Sundays. Is your dog a picky eater? It's surprisingly stressful. You wish they could tell you the problem. Maybe if they could, your dog would say they know the difference between processed brown pellets and real food. Sunday starts with 80% plus. All natural meats and then add superfoods like kale, ginger, and blueberries. No fillers, no nutritional blends, no chemicals, just simple, complete nutrition. And Sunday has just launched a brand new fish recipe. 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It's just all around a better life for your dog. Make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to Sundays4Dogs.com slash Crooked and get 50% off your first order. Or you can use the code Crooked at checkout. That's 50% off your first order at Sundays4Dogs.com slash Crooked, Sundays4Dogs.com slash Crooked, or use code Crooked at checkout. My name is Erin Haynes. My name is Mitch Landrieu. My name is Jennifer Palmieri, and we're hosting a new series of videos. From left, right, and crooked media called Long Play. For both major parties, the path to winning America runs through the South. But to win it, you have to understand it. Let's talk midterms. As we mentioned, Trump on Thursday night was in Texas to take his pretend I'm on the ballot strategy for a spin, attending an RNC fundraiser for the Senate race that he characterized this way. We have a very good candidate, Ken Paxton, and he's running against Telefrico, they call him, because he is a little free. And that's not a man that represents the value of Texas. New poll from Texas Public Opinion Research on Thursday showing Telefrico up six on Paxton and Gina, you know, Hossa down seven to Greg Abbott, which, you know, bummer poll about the governor's race, but it does suggest that they didn't oversample Democrats in that poll, at least. What are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to know exactly where the polls are in this race. I mean, it's hard to know exactly where the polls are in this race, but in almost every single poll, Telefrico has been leading by a few points, something that Beto O'Rourke never did in 2018. And so, you know, once again, we were about as well positioned as we could be, hope to be in a Texas Senate race in late August of the election year. And so I feel cautiously good about it, like a lot of work to do. Telefrico has been spending money, Paxton hasn't been spending money, I think his super PAC just bought TV time right now. People expect, you know, maybe these will be the Trump agenda ads, but where MAGA Inc will spend their money will be Texas, because Paxton is a very bad fundraiser. And a lot of Republicans who are PACs do not want to sort of be associated with him. So Trump obviously has a kinship with Crooks, so he would jump in there. So we'll have to see when the spending like stabilizes or equalizes. But Telefrico is in a good spot right now. It is funny, all the Republican candidates who don't want to appear with Trump and may not want to appear with Trump in the lead up to the election. So I think it's a good spot. I think it's a good spot. In the lead up to the midterms. Maybe the only one less popular than Donald Trump right now is Ken Paxton. Yeah, that's true. So he's probably like, yeah, come on back anytime. So there was also some big news on Thursday in the Georgia Senate race. I'll just read the headline from the Washington Post. A former Mike Collins staffer posted KKK and Nazi images. Some Republicans see a pattern. John Ossoff sees a pattern as well. He jumped on this right away. Let's listen. Well, what's new today is yet more documented evidence of the congressman's ties to white nationalism and neo-Nazi ideology. We already knew about the neo-Nazi propagandist based at his house who produces content for his business. We already knew that his office was briefing some of the nation's most notorious white supremacists on their efforts supporting a Holocaust denier. Now this morning, thanks to the reporting in the Washington Post, we've seen yet another member of the congressman's staff. This time, with swastikas and the costume of the Klan. And absolutely, Georgia voters reject this, and not just Democrats, but Democrats, independents, and Republicans. So the staffer in question is Preston Parra. He's a former staffer who has described himself as a twink fascist. Twink fascist, Dan. And as Ossoff mentioned, posted a swastika, made up of the words twink. And you're probably thinking, we could, we, maybe we can post an image afterwards, but I don't think we should post a swastika. That's the art for the episode. Basically, basically it was, yeah, he, he typed out in a tweet, a lot of just a whole bunch of words, twink, twink, twink, twink over and over, but then made it into a swastika. Just in case you were wondering how you, how you pay post a swastika made up of the words twink. Um, and, and then of course, as Ossoff referenced also, he posted a photo of himself in a KKK robe, which he told the post was generated with grok. I guess that helps. That helps, right? Yes. Um, he also recently posted, uh, Deutschland Uber Al's, Al's, allies. I'm just going to skip that, skip that one. He says these posts were meant to be satirical. Uh, but he did tell the post quote, I do think that the white race contributes more to the world. Uh, unbelievably, this is not a one-off. Mike Collins's former chief of staff was revealed to be in a group chat with Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, where people praised Hitler. Another former Collins staffer was fired after yelling anti-Semitic slurs at a Republican Congressman Mike Lawler. That was a Rand Paul's son. Uh, and then there's Mike Collins's son-in-law. It's the guy running against John Ossoff, his son-in-law who has quite recently shared Nazi imagery and propaganda online, including, a post he said his wife made the wife would be Mike Collins's daughter that shows what he calls quote, proof that Jews control our government through finance. The son-in-law also warned that restoring an America populated by people of white European descent would require quote, clearing out land of other people. This is his son-in-law in family photos together. Not like, you know, black sheep of the family kind of thing. Like just, you know, they have pictures of the whole family together. And the daughter, he said the daughter made that post. Um, as you heard Ossoff alluding to there, you know, Mike Collins clearly has a long history of surrounding himself with, uh, pretty bad creeps. How do you think this plays in Georgia? This is another one that's sort of, it hasn't gone under the radar because every time I see Ossoff, he does mention that Mike Collins is a bigot. I was not aware of the long history of all of these different staffers this latest story. Yeah. He talks about all the time. He's been hammering this at the stump from, for months now, ever since Mike Collins became the nominee. Um, you know, it's obviously I would say close associations with neo-Nazis is not a net positive in any state. And so not good for him. What I think where this, there are two ways in which this is very hurtful to Collins and helpful to Ossoff is one, you know, like the metric that really has been deciding elections is who's seen as more extreme, hard to get more extreme than just hanging at, palling around with neo-Nazis and people posting swastikas. So that's not good. Also like the best thing they have in Ossoff is Republicans right off this race. And the more of this stuff is out there, the harder it is for Collins to raise money, the harder it'd be like, as Republicans look at how they're going to spend their money. Do they really want to put their money behind the guy who parties with white nationalists and hang out with white nationalists all the time or go to some of these other races? And so he can kind of, there are times in which you can win a race before it even starts. And Ossoff is kind of doing that right here by sort of just like delivering a mortal blow to the Collins campaign, you know, months, you know, 60 some days before, six, seven days before the election. Yeah. It made me realize like, oh, Well, I mean, Ossoff, very talented, has been a great senator, is – which I don't know if you listened to Sarah Longwell's focus group, the latest one. She has a bunch of Trump voters who like Ossoff. It was very interesting. And a lot of it was like he's just really great constituent services. Yeah. Like they can always get a hold of him. He's helping people. So that's all why he's doing well. But then having Mike Collins as an opponent, probably also helping. Yeah, and certainly making his life a little bit easier. Ossoff also released another statement on Thursday after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution pressed him for a response to, you guessed it, Hassan Piker's statement on his Twitch stream from last week that, quote, if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action against American Jews. What followed has been a week of various elected Democrats condemning Piker. Abdul El-Sayed, who has campaigned with Piker, condemned the substance of the comments without condemning Piker himself, though he did say he doesn't speak for Abdul, that only Abdul speaks for Abdul. Ossoff, through a spokesperson, replied that he, quote, unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric, like those comments, and that, quote, all Americans must have the freedom and security to speak out and petition their government without fear of reprisal. Now, those of you who follow me on Twitter might be thinking, John, didn't you just call on all Democrats? To take the don't talk about Hassan Piker for a day challenge? Why, yes, I did. And most of political Twitter, including several Democratic politicians, failed. So I am intentionally failing today in order to make another plea. I think it's one thing if, like John Ossoff, you are pressed by a reporter to respond to whatever the latest Hassan Piker statement is. Um, I do not think that spending every day from now until November talking about, denouncing, defending Hassan Piker will either make Hassan Piker go away or help Democrats win the midterms. Uh, I think it will instead keep one very polarizing leftist influencer at the center of the discourse and give Republicans and right-wing media excuse after excuse to cover each new denunciation. What do you think, Dan? Is this a trap? Yes. If I, if I answer the question, I have failed the test you set up. Well, I, that's what I'm saying. I failed it. I've already failed. Okay. Failure. I tried. Didn't work. Okay. So I'm going to do this briefly. The main goal here is to elect Democrats to the Senate majority. We cannot really elect Democrats to Senate majority without Abdul winning in Michigan. And my perhaps naive belief is that everyone in this debate wants Abdul to win and the best way for Abdul to win is for everyone, people condemning Hassan, people condemning the people condemning Hassan and Hassan himself to move on and stop fighting about this. We need, we are 67 days away. We need to be talking about Mike Rogers, about what he, like his corruption, how he, a vote for Mike Rogers is a vote for Donald Trump and Donald Trump's agenda. It's a vote to make Donald Trump in charge of the Senate. Like we have to get focused on the main thing. And the main thing is Mike Rogers. Mike Rogers is corrupt. Mike Rogers wants to give your, give your money to rich people. It doesn't want you to have healthcare. He, a vote for him is to ensure that Donald Trump gets to appoint more Supreme court justices. Like this is, and like that, that is a thing. We got to talk about Mike Rogers. Well said. We're going to leave that as the last word, maybe ever. When we come back, South Carolina Senate candidate, Annie Andrews. Thank you very much for joining us and we'll see you in the next episode of Better Help. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. While we're big fans of Better Help, the real story is in the feedback from people using it every single day. Better Help has an average live therapy session rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on over 1.7 million client session reviews. The feedback from real people who have actually used the service speaks for itself. More than 6 million people have used Better Help globally. Better Help therapists have at least three years and 1,000 hours of hands-on experience. They also hold all required education. Training and certifications across a range of mental health specialties, meaning the perfect therapist for you could be a few clicks away. Better Help makes it easy to get started, answer a few questions, get matched with a therapist based on your needs, and switch therapists at any time if it's not the right fit. You all need therapy, even if you don't know it yet, because, you know, the world is crazy and so is your life and it helps to talk to someone and especially helps to talk to someone. And if you're too nervous about going to do it in person, Better Help is perfect. You can do it from the comfort of your home. See the reviews, see what stands out, and see if Better Help. Better Help is right for you. Visit BetterHelp.com slash PSA. That's BetterHelp.com slash PSA. My name is Jennifer Palmieri, and we're hosting a new series from Left, Right, and Crooked Media called Long Play. And that's where Long Play comes in, across six southern states. Long Play examines the issues driving voters and the assumptions that no longer hold in a region that could shape the future of our politics and our country. Joining me now is the Democratic nominee for Senate in South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews. Dr. Andrews, welcome to PodCast. Thank you so much for having me, Dan. I want to get into the race. I want to talk about Darlene Graham. I want to talk about what Donald Trump said about you today, just now. But I just want to start because I think I imagine that the South Carolina Senate race hasn't been on the radar. A lot of our listeners were focused on Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, et cetera. You're a pediatrician. How did you end up running for Senate? Yeah, I'm a pediatrician. I've worked in children's hospitals for 20 years. I never envisioned I would pivot into politics. My first foray into politics was when I was a pediatrician. My first foray into politics was in 2022 when I ran for Congress in South Carolina's 1st District against Nancy Mace. I saw the ugliest side of politics in that race. But I ended up in politics because for the first 15 years of my career, working at the bedside of sick and injured children, I very quickly started to understand the impact of broken policies coming from failing politicians on my patients and their families. So I naively started advocating at my state capitol for better policies for kids and families in South Carolina. And what I was saying was falling on mostly deaf ears. So it became abundantly clear that to catalyze change for America's kids and families, I needed to explicitly engage in politics on behalf of America's kids and families. And so I ran for Congress, and here I am in this U.S. Senate race. As you mentioned, you ran against the very charming and wonderful and affable Nancy Mace last time around. What did you learn from that race, which was a very tough race in a tough year, and you lost by, I think, about 14 points? Yeah, I did. It came down to partisan voting lines. You know, that was a redistricting year. It was a purple seat. When I got into the race, knowing they would probably draw it into a very safe Republican seat. And that's what they did. But what I learned is, you know, all of these fights are worth fighting, no matter how uphill the challenge is. You know, it was very clear to me that South Carolinians needed to have a choice on the ballot. That was the election cycle where Roe fell. And so as a doctor and a mom, I was able to give a voice to so many women in South Carolina who were feeling totally left behind in that moment. And I strongly believe now that second-time candidates are waiting. I'm a much better public speaker. I'm a much better fundraiser. And so what I say often is if I wasn't a loser congressional candidate, I wouldn't be such a strong Senate candidate this cycle. I often point out to people that Barack Obama also lost his first race for Congress. So there you go. There you go. I want to play a clip for you. This is a moment that went quite viral from your opponent, Darlene Graham's victory speech on Tuesday night. Gun control. Government-run health care. Abortion until the moment of birth. Bad idea after bad idea. Annie Andrews backs them all. I have a different background and vision for our state. I'm a hard worker with a servant's heart. I grew up in the back of a bar and liquor store in one room in central South Carolina. My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet. We didn't take vacations. If they were sick, they had to go to the doctor. They had to get up and go to work because the doors weren't open. We weren't making money. My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father just over a year later. Okay. Before you get to all the bevy of accusations at the front of that, I just, it seems to me that there is a inherent logic problem with what she's saying here. What was your reaction to this clip? Yeah, I think she sort of unintentionally unveiled her health care plan in that moment. And it seems to me that her health care plan is. Work hard even while you're sick until you die. And I believe that Darlene's parents deserved better than that. I believe everyone in America deserves better than that. You know, I maybe I should ask her for to fill out an in-kind contribution form for my campaign because she is making the case for what I'm running on that, you know, we need a health care system that is patient centered, that health care is a human right. And I think that story just really highlights how broken America's health care system is, that working people should be able to take a sick day when they're sick. sick And they should also be able to afford health care when they're sick. Talk to me a little bit about your health care plan. We're having a big debate in the Democratic Party about how to deal with health care. We have people calling for Medicare for all. We have people who are skeptical of Medicare. Where do you fall in that debate? Yeah, I mean, the other thing I'll say about that clip before we move on is she has negative charisma. I think that it's very clear that this is the weakest candidate Republicans have put on in a Senate race this cycle. And so that creates such a huge opportunity for us here in South Carolina. But my health care plan is, number one, as I said, I believe health care is a human right. I know we have to shift from this profit-motivated health care system that we have in America to one that is truly patient-centered. I'm also a really pragmatic person. And I believe that we can't let perfect be the enemy of good, that we have to work hard across the aisle to move the ball down the field, just like we did when the ACA was passed. And so I think the next obvious step is a public option so that folks who don't have access to employer-based health insurance. Can purchase a plan from the federal government, removing the profit motivation from that transaction. And I think that will force private insurance companies to offer more comprehensive benefit plans at lower premium rates. And then there'll be a domino effect as Americans realize I'm getting a much better deal from this federal government plan where my money isn't going to line the pockets of insurance company shareholders, but it's actually going to the provision of health care. And once more and more Americans have that realization, then and really in my view, only then can we have a true. Productive bipartisan conversation about how then to take the next step to building a health care system that really does serve everyone in this country. Kind of can't believe I'm about to say this sentence, but at an event this morning in the oval office where the president states was announcing that we were changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. He began that event by talking about your race. He congratulated darling Graham and he said, and I'm going to quote, she still got a run against a radical left lunatic in the South Carolina. People are not going to stand for that. I mean, Trump says a lot of things that this is obviously you saw that in the clip I played from Graham. This is sort of the case against you. How do you respond to that? Yeah, I mean, what is so radical about thinking that if you work hard during the day, you should be able to afford to put food on the table and keep your lights on at the end of the month? What is so radical about thinking every county in South Carolina should have an OBGYN? What is so radical about thinking that you should be able to afford to see a doctor when you get sick? What is so radical about thinking if your community doesn't want to see a doctor when a data center, there shouldn't be a data center built there. I believe that Darlene's policies, whichever ones she actually has, are the radical policies. I'm fighting for every day South Carolina kids and families, and I am so proud of my policy platform. I'm proud of my record of being a public servant and fighting for South Carolinians. And nothing that is said in the Oval Office is going to change that. South Carolina is a it's a tough state. It is one Trump won by about 18 points. It's more Republican than a lot of these other Senate races. And Republican states that Democrats have gotten hopeful about, like Texas and Ohio. I think a lot of Democrats out there have a lot of scar tissue because they got their hopes up about Jamie Harrison beating Lindsey Graham. So a lot of people, I imagine they're going to be impressed by this interview. They're going to be interested in your candidacy, and they're trying to decide whether this is a good place to invest their time and energy. What is your case for why you can win this race in this very tough state? So this Senate race in 2026 in South Carolina really couldn't be any more different than the race that Jamie Harrison. Ran in 2020 first and foremost, it's a midterm year. The president is not on the ballot to to boost Republican turnout. Secondly, Jamie Harrison was running against a powerful incumbent senator who was very well funded. Now I'm running against a virtual unknown who, as we already said, has no political talent, clearly bad political instincts and an absolute lack of charisma. We also have an incredibly divided Republican Party, despite the fact that Trump spent millions of dollars propping. Darla. Lean up in the election earlier this week. She only won by five points and in Ralph Norman's speech that night, he didn't give a ringing endorsement to Darlene. He's bitter that Trump got involved. Ralph Norman's supporters are really upset about the fact that this is just going to potentially be a Graham dynasty. And so the Republican Party is incredibly divided. And then I'm a very different candidate than my friend Jamie Harrison. I'm not a career politician. I'm not a former state party chair or lobbyist. I'm a pediatrician and a public school mom who comes at politics from a dairy farm. You're very different perspective. And so, you know, we I got in this race over a year ago thinking there was a chance that the stars would align, that this could be the year that we could win this Senate seat. And the stars have aligned in a way that we never in a million years thought that they would. And now we are in a real position to win this thing. We just released a poll this week that shows that I'm tied with Darlene right out of the gate, 41 to 41. And this is a very real, robust poll. And then on the informed ballot, I go up by five points and the way that I'm doing that in a state that Trump won by eight points. 18 points is because I'm appealing to those really critical independent voters and center right Republican voters. I'm plus 33 points with independents right now. We just launched our first general election ad on Wednesday. So we have a leg up on Darlene in that. She just spent all of her money to escape her own primary. And we've been building a war chest to compete in November. So this is a change election cycle. People are looking for a new generation of leadership. They're certainly not looking for a rubber stamp for this or any other administration. South Carolina is. Now the first Democratic primary state. You're going to have a lot. There are already a lot of Democrats coming through your South Carolina who may possibly just happen to be considering to run for president. Do you plan to campaign with any of these national Democrats coming through? Have you thought about that? You know, this is a question a lot of Senate candidates are getting in these sort of red states. You know, I'm really focused on spending as much time as I can with South Carolina voters. That's what's most important. That is my path to win. And that's also why I'm in this race. You're right. There's a lot of national Democrats who are spending time in South Carolina. And I think that's great because, you know, as we expand the Senate map, that path is definitely throughout the Southeast. We need more Democratic Party investment in the South. And having all of this first in the nation attention is only going to help us grow strength as a party in South Carolina. So I welcome these visits. But what I've been saying is I'll return these phone calls on November 4th when I'm South Carolina's next senator. And then we can start to strategize about what 2028 is going to look like. So. No campaigning with sort of national Democratic or national Democrats or presidential candidates. All South Carolina is what you're saying. It's not our focus. We're taking it on a case by case basis. You know, Pete Buttigieg was just in town for our our issues, annual issues conference. And, you know, I had the fortune of saying hello to him there. But we're really focused on spending time with voters. And you're a candidate. You're also a doctor. I wanted to get your reaction to the what is going on in this country with the measles outbreak. You know, there's reports that RFK Jr. may have lied to Congress. We know. This is now, I think, by some measures, the largest measles outbreak in the United States in 35 years. What's your reaction? I mean, most of what comes out of RFK Jr.'s mouth are lies. So I'm not surprised to hear that. But I got in this race. I seriously started considering getting in this race the day RFK Jr. was nominated to lead HHS because as a pediatrician, he's been my professional arch nemesis for decades. He's nothing more than a grifter and a conspiracy theorist who's been peddling an anti-vaccine conspiracy theories for decades while simultaneously enriching himself. And as a result. As a pediatrician, I've watched over my 20 year career, a slow and steady rise in vaccine refusal and vaccine hesitancy. And that is the exact reason that we are seeing a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases all across this country. In South Carolina, we just had a measles outbreak in Spartanburg County, where there were nearly a thousand documented cases of the measles. So one of the reasons it is so urgent that Democrats win in November is because we cannot allow RFK Jr. to have two more years of unfettered. Access leading our nation's Department of Health and Human Services. This executive order from the Trump administration dismantling the routine childhood immunization schedule is not at all based on an evolution of scientific evidence. It is based on political ideology. Children will unnecessarily get sick and suffer, and some will die as a result of this disinformation campaign from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr.'s ascension, everything we're talking about here, the rise of vaccines. Skepticism is all sort of of a piece with sort of the rise of the quote-unquote make America healthy again movement where you and I imagine this is something you probably run into with a lot of some of the families of your patients where people have very legitimate questions about, you know, food safety, how to, you know, what's the right choice for their kids. And that is and, you know, people like RFK Jr. and others have sort of weaponized that and pushed the country in some dangerous directions. Have you thought about how? As a senator or as a public figure, you know, you with your medical expertise can push back on the the rise of Maha and maybe have conversations with these well-meaning, I think, parents who maybe are getting a lot of bad information from social media. Yeah. And I like that you said well-meaning parents because I don't blame the parents, you know, even the parents of the children who are dying from these preventable infectious diseases because they've chosen not to vaccinate their children. Parents don't know where to turn for reliable information. I never in a million years. Thought that I would say the sentence, we cannot trust the medical recommendations coming from our federal government, but we can't. We have to turn to our individual physicians. So I encourage parents to talk to their own pediatricians to follow along with what the American Academy of Pediatrics is saying, because that is an evidence based organization. But what they've done is really clever and dangerous because they're laundering this really, you know, anti-science agenda under this umbrella of making America healthy again, of addressing the chronic disease epidemic that children in America are facing. So when I'm asked what I agree with the Trump administration on, one of the things I say is they've shined a light on the chronic disease epidemic amongst children in this country. But where we disagree is the root causes of that chronic disease epidemic and actually the solution. So you can't in one sentence say we want to address chronic diseases in children. And then in the next action, you've got the Medicaid program, which is the largest insurer of children across the country. You can't put someone like RFK Jr. at the helm of HHS and pretend like you're following scientific, you know, scientifically sound medical recommendation. So they've shined a light on the problem. I'm going to win my election. I'll go toe to toe with RFK Jr. We will impeach and remove him. And then we will take that big bright light they shined on this epidemic and actually address it through an evidence based, scientifically sound approach. Before I let you go, I want to give you a chance to tell our listeners where they can go to help your campaign if they so choose. Yeah, so they can go to. Dr. Annie Andrews dot com and they can follow along on social media. We're very active on social media at Annie Andrews MD. We also just launched a new exciting Web site called Debate Me Darlene dot com, where they can go and see how many days, hours, minutes and seconds it's been since I challenged Darlene Graham to debate me this general election season. So lots of ways to follow along. I encourage people to check out the Web site, chip in what they can and help us expand the Senate map through the South. And this really exciting opportunity in South Carolina. Dr. Annie Andrews. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us on Pod Save America and good luck down the stretch here. Thank you so much, Dan. That's our show for today. Thanks to Annie Andrews for coming on. I will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with our old friend, David Plouffe, about how the midterms and 2028 are shaping up. Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts and Farrah Safari with Reed Cherlin, Elijah Cohn and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heathcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kiril Pellevive, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young and Naomi Single. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. My name is Jennifer Palmieri. And we're hosting a new series from Left, Right and Crooked Media called Long Play. Across six southern states, Long Play examines. The issues driving voters and the assumptions that no longer hold in a region that could shape the future of our politics and our country. You can binge the whole series right now by subscribing to Long Play series on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.