Obama’s Cheesecake Factory Roast Sends Trump World SPIRALING

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So since you're here, you probably enjoyed discovering new things, one great place to indulge your curiosity is TikTok. Whether it's how to forecast volcanic eruptions, strange phenomena that the James Webb Space Telescope picked up near the beginning of time, or a literal deep dive on the ocean's deepest reefs, TikTok has a wealth of fascinating videos just waiting to be discovered. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. Learn more at TikTok.com slash discover more. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway. And I'm Jessica Tarloff. Before we get started, we'll be live streaming all of next week, Monday through Friday during election week, to break down the results as they come in and help you make sense of everything. Make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss any of it. All right, let's get into it. With election day a week away, both parties are bringing out their celebrity firepower. Nicki Minaj is backing Trump and MAGA candidates, and has reported, being considered for press secretary. I did not see that coming. Oh, no? No, I did not see that coming. Were you blinded by her butt? And so you couldn't think of anything else? Meanwhile, Obama is out campaigning for Democrats, mocking Trump's gold-heavy White House renovations. But beyond the celebrity cameos, around 30 million Americans have already voted, and Democrats are making up a larger share of early voters in key Senate races. At the same time, Trump is suing states over election rules, threatening election officers, and offering $1 million for tip-offs that lead to voter fraud convictions. In Alaska, where Trump personally directed a DOJ lawsuit, Kalshi gives Democrat Mary Peltola a 75% chance that she wins the Senate seat, and 63% chance that Democrats take back control of the Senate. Let's watch Obama's viral video and Trump's response. I don't know if you've noticed, but he seems. very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV. And there's gold everywhere. What's up with the gold? Everything. more gold. He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory. There's gold everywhere, gold leaf. You have to remember, the White House, we have to explain that to Obama, because he doesn't understand it, because he's not. He's not a smart guy, let me tell you, in my opinion, he's not smart at all. Because the way he ran the country, only a stupid person would run the country like that. Guys like Obama don't see it. You don't see dirt, he doesn't see filth. And for you to say it's a cheesecake factory, that just shows why you're a lousy president. So, to be clear, I don't think it looks like a cheesecake factory. I think it looks like an Iraqi whorehouse. Your thoughts, Jess? Well, my thought today, since I already explored the cheesecake factory dimension, and whether it's elitist to say something like that, since the right is feigning outrage, I've now moved on to the fact that it is very strange that they don't take offense to the Saddam Hussein comment. And they're only focusing on the cheesecake factory part. Yeah, well, that's. To compare his decor to a quick service restaurant is much more upsetting to him than to be compared to a murderous autocrat, which he aspires to be. You probably kind of, you probably kind of think of Hussein as a, as a martyr. Could have been pals. Moving to the substance here. The people want to know, Jess, how are you feeling one week out? How safe, how does this feel right now? How, how is the momentum as we, sitting here on a Tuesday? Nothing is safe. But everything's looking pretty good. And as days go by, 'cause we haven't talked, we were together in Virginia on Friday, which was awesome. We had such a good time at the UVA Center for Public Health. center for politics um and had a great conversation with larry sabato and i would say that i was more nauseously optimistic than i am today i'm still nauseously optimistic but i'm not like actively throwing up and that's because we now have even more early voter data coming in and you know it has slowed down from you know peak levels you see the d number but i mean they're numbers are enormous right talking about like d plus 20 advantages in some of these places but watching the trend lines in nevada and seeing the marriage between the early vote and the mail-in ballots that are coming in john ralston um who's the guy from nevada tweeted out last night that it's looking blue so that's a good thing obviously what's going on in north carolina these texas numbers still love to see this if it's younger voters latino voters low propensity voters that's really going to be the story of this election which it very much was the story of the 2024 election just in the reverse order you know breaking for president trump um so i haven't seen anything that is concerning at this point obviously there's another week of voting to go and and stuff can change they could have the most monster election day in modern uh american history but right now it does seem like their base is just not interested in turning out in the same way and people who are on the ground like dana lash who's a conservative commentator hosts a radio show um she was posting about tarrant county saying like where are you guys because republicans can't hold texas without that um and the tala rico campaign continues to feel good about what they're seeing in the nauseously optimistic part the one thing that i will say that's different you know how i have a lot of people that have been in the room for a long time who have been like where should i send money am i wasting money she just loves to keep hitting act blue you know like where where should i be giving and she was giving a dr annie andrews for a long time who's running in south carolina against jarlene graham and i've been saying to her i mean i don't know like it's south carolina right and jamie harrison lost by 10 points in 2020 so it wasn't losing by 20 30 points for a very conservative state but still and now south carolina seems fully in play internal polling looking like annie andrews least tied ahead in some cases um people are she got this really important endorsement from two former governors of south carolina one democrat one republican though um i was saying to a colleague that if nikki haley came out for her that would be like the real nail in the coffin um but south carolina not a waste of your money mississippi not a waste of your money scott collins is incredible i mentioned him last week talking about that ad about pick another protein um he just continues to be fabulous he's out on the campaign trail with kamala harris who seems to be lighting up crowds uh down there in mississippi which has the largest black voting population in the country so we'll just say kansas mississippi not a waste of your money um there was another really good one alaska obviously but mary patola up to a 75 chance is something i'm curious about what happens with the the lawsuit and what they're going to do with that because i brought it up yesterday on the five and i got a considerable amount of pushback for saying that this was obviously them pre-butting the fact that they're going to lose and that the way the ballot is it's so clear who the dan sullivan is who's the republican and who the other dan sullivan is and my colleagues jumped down my throat about it and even uh dana perino you know so this wasn't greg or jesse was saying you know come on this has to be a setup from the democrats to have another guy with exactly the same name um so i'm i'm curious to see where all of that goes but in general i'm feeling pretty good and feeling a bit better about maine actually why do you feel better about man a few more high quality polls have come out um but it just looks like the country is trending bluer at this moment and maine is a blue state that has just re-elected susan collins 57 times and so maybe if this is just the nationwide trend and troy jackson isn't lighting the house on fire the people will just be like this is fine you know? What do you think? Well, it does feel like the thing that surprised me is that typically what you find is when one party has momentum, it starts to tighten at the end, that there's this center of gravity around which both parties circle. And then ultimately, they kind of both get pulled in closer towards the median. And what seems, and granted, maybe my algorithm is selecting the things I want to hear, but it feels as if it's not tightening. If anything, it feels like the Democrats are expanding their lead and, you know, places like Kansas are in play. Trump inflation approval is at 22% versus Biden's at 29% heading into his own bruising midterm. That's the stat that kind of jumps out to me. If you were to try and apply the cleanest apples to apples decline in modern midterm data, it's the number that actually predicts turnout, not the gold ballroom jokes. When celebrities get involved, it motivates and tickles the sensors of the base, but it doesn't switch the minds of swing voters. And Reuters Ipsos found that 69% of Americans think Trump's policy decisions are influenced by his private business dealings. That's essentially basically saying we no longer trust these folks. And it's not a policy critique. It's a trust erosion. Once two-thirds of the country assumes self-dealing as the default explanation for governance, or specifically this administration's governance, you've lost the normal mechanism of persuasion. And something I do think is a bit of a tailwind for Democrats is there seems to be a feel that the left is gagging on far-right autocrats slash with a mix with a dash of corruption and a whole smattering of inflation rubbed over it. It feels like the world, if you will, of the West is pushing back on it. I think it's been overstated because I think in Brazil, while, you know, he's in charge of the House, every room is now occupied by conservatives. And actually, LATAM has gone more conservative recently. The polls in Serbia or the election in Serbia was very much a student-led turnout. It'll be very interesting to see if youth shows up. You know, we keep waiting for youth to get more engaged. We'll see. I hope that's the case here. But what I do think the underlying trend across all of this is that there's a lot of criticism that's going to follow this. Now, obviously, these issues around Iran tariffs. But I do think the underlying issue that's going to face not this election, but really be kind of day one issue is what's going on in France. And that is the West has basically been weaponized by old people. You know how there's this whole statement on the left of eat the rich? It's not. It's eat grandma. And again, the stats, I just can't help but go to in France. And it's where we're headed, folks. We're on the same trajectory. We're just a decade behind. French retirees, on average, have greater incomes than people who are working in France. And one third of the education budget is spent on teachers who no longer teach. Old people voting in more old people who vote themselves more money at the cost of young people, basically young people around the West for the last 20 years. And that's the kind of thing that's going to happen. And I think it's starting to bubble up. And I think you're seeing all sorts of anger. The more immediate issues, obviously affordability, and some people would argue accountability. But it'll be a real interesting test. Now, the difference is when young people in other nations get angry, they vote and they riot. In our nation, they play video games and they trade crypto on Robin Hood. It doesn't appear like this rage is trying to get us out of here. But it's a real interesting test. Translated yet into voting. That's what I'll be watching for this at this election. But on the Alaska election interference, I think you would have to say, while the Supreme Court is in the back pocket of Trump and is largely conservative court now, the judiciary or the courts more broadly have done what I would call their job. They've been a backstop for democracy and the Constitution. And just as when I was trying to renovate a house in Florida and my neighbor decided he didn't want construction while he was living there and just showed up to local review board meetings and hired lawyers and basically delayed my construction by six months. Eventually, it happened. Eventually, I think you are going to have a Democratic senator seated from Alaska. They can delay it. They can make noise. They can create even greater distrust around our institutions. But I do think that seat, if you will, is going to hold and all that nonsense is going is going to go away. Any thoughts? That has been what history has shown us. And our election lawyers are the best. Mark Elias and Norm Eisen and a whole cast of characters, but those two in particular. So I'm not necessarily sweating it. I just think that it is a harbinger of their attitude that they're going to be taking towards elections and that there's going to be a lot of time spent in a courtroom that I would rather spend popping champagne bottles, having, you know, Mary Putnam be the Democratic senator from Alaska. So fingers crossed for that. I want to say on the youth front, definitely right about what's going on in France. And you're seeing unrest also in Italy. You're seeing it in Albania, which is a little bit more complicated than France and Italy, because this process actually started pushing back against this deal that Jared Kushner made with the Albanian government to develop, I think it was a $4 billion resort that Ivanka called, you know, this incredibly special project. But the underlying message is we're sick of corruption. And you see this everywhere. And you see this in our elections, too. And I think from the dueling Michigan rallies. So you have Obama, who I want to note on that because you mentioned it and talking about, you know, Cheesecake Factory and Saddam Hussein. But he's out there to rally the base because that's what Abdul needs at this point. He needs to shore up. Jewish voters and Black voters. And President Trump is also out there to try to rally the base who are sitting on their couches thinking, I don't have a tremendous amount to show up to vote for, especially without Trump's name on the ballot. But on this corruption point, you know, we're all paying a lot of attention to Donald Trump's obsession with John Husted's ass or Nicki Minaj's ass and the weird short circuits where he makes those noises and just goes like, and then we're supposed to ignore that it happened. But the most important thing I think that he said was we're making hundreds and hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars. But my people said, please don't mention that, sir, because people are paying a little higher. That number is going to come way down. But what we've done for this country, we're making money like this country has never made before. No, I could just see the fake headlines. President Trump is talking about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. That'll be the headline. But I said, I don't give a damn. I'm going to say it. We'll make it a freaking fortune. Our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time. And this happened at the same time that his trade filings came out. And he owns 81 million in oil and gas stocks. He's placed more trades than all 535 members of Congress combined. And the stat for everyone who loves to, you know, rag on Nancy Pelosi, and what she's done, you know, she has her own Nancy Pelosi stock trader account that's mocking her constantly online. He placed more stocks in a single day than she has in 12 years. People are noticing this and they are demanding action across the board. I really liked Rahm Emanuel's full package of ethics reforms because he understands that this is a democratic problem, too, that the perception is everybody in these positions of power is doing this. But Donald Trump is doing it to a level that we have not seen before, you know, making $3 billion. But the fact that he is coming out there and just telling you to your face, I don't give a damn. If we can't make something of that, if you can't convince people to vote for you, especially young people, you know, inspire in them the idea that maybe we could be the change, that we can fight for a better future for them that is fair and where they can get ahead, that I almost feel like we should pack up our toys and go and are not worthy of being on the ballot in this way. Because this is silver platter stuff. Gold platter stuff, I guess I should say, to use the Saddam comp. So. Yeah, there's a dangerous trend in America, and it really kind of defines an autocracy, and that is people who ascend to power begin monetizing public assets. And we have done it more elegantly and thoughtfully and wrapped it in regulatory capture and shareholder gains here and this notion that how's your 401k and everyone benefits and workers are people. But essentially, we've monetized and incarceration. We've decided to make them for profit. Probably the greatest level of anxiety in the United States is vis-a-vis the monetization of our health care system, where we've decided that 17% of our GDP is really there to serve as nutrition for shareholders and the top 10% wealthiest who get the best health care in the world. We are now monetizing legislative or political power, monetizing the White House. Now, granted, we've been doing this for a while, but it's been kind of triple A by And Trump basically said, "Why? are you corrupt for millions of dollars? I'm going to be corrupt for billions. But when he said, I thought he generally has pretty good political instincts. When he said at that rally, we're making a ton of money. Well, who is we white man? My dad doesn't work at Exxon. I don't own Chevron stock. I'm trying to figure out a way to pay my rent. And every day or at once a week, I get this punch in the gut. When I go buy, when I go fill up my SUV, it's $180. And I'm just reminded that something is going wrong. Every day, people pass a giant billboard that is essentially a report card on the current administration called gas prices. And they're everywhere. You can't drive anywhere without seeing a reminder that this is not working. And for him to say, I mean, to be fair, American oil companies are making a lot of money. Albertans making a lot of money. It's a transfer of wealth from every American citizen. Supposedly 20 to 30 percent of the cost of every item in the grocery store is what it costs to get it there. So obviously, diesel fuel impacts absolutely everything that came across. It's just so you could even see the audience looking around like, OK, nobody here is making a lot of money. We just know we're spending a lot of money. I've interviewed countless politicians. And if there's one thing we all find disconcerting is when they butcher the facts with some bias half-truth. Give us a break already. So when I had the chance to debate conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, our natural response was bring it on. Why? Because it was sponsored by USA Facts. And each debate segment started with a presentation of government data and facts, employment, government spending, income data, housing, and more. The topic? The American dream. Is it still within reach? We argued. We found some common ground. We actually debated. And there were no personal attacks. Watch the full debate on the USA Facts YouTube channel. We think you'll find it unlike any other debate. That is entertaining and informative. We hope you check it out. Zero. Zero.com. Zero.com. Zero.com. For a literal deep dive on the ocean's deepest reefs, TikTok has a wealth of fascinating videos just waiting to be discovered. Let's turn to elections abroad. We referenced the elections in Brazil. Meanwhile, Israelis are heading to the polls in a pivotal election that could end Benjamin Netanyahu's decades-long dominance. His biggest challenger, is Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief who lost his son in Gaza and has emerged as a serious threat to Netanyahu, whose handling of the security failures surrounding the October 7th attacks remains central to the race. Jess, any thoughts on what a potential change in leadership for Israelis' approach to the war or regarding Israelis' approach to the war and regional security? I am so excited for there to be a change and hopeful Eisenkot can pull this off. You already see Netanyahu is out there saying that there are irregularities. They're trying to steal the election from us just eight hours after the polls opened. And he's freaked out because this is monster turnout, right? Like we've been talking about how excited we are about our early voting. The turnout is going to be huge. It's going to be huge. The turnout in Israel's election is staggering. It's reached its highest level on record at the midway point with 3.3 million people or 45 percent of eligible voters already casting ballots by 2 p.m. local time. I don't know if you've been watching the videos from airports of Israelis coming home to vote because you have to vote in person. What is it, 63,000 of them? I've been crying watching these people come back to their mind to save their country. And an Israeli, I was so taken with this. She said any moment now they'll head back home. I'll probably never know who they are, but they came to give us a chance at a better life here. And that seems to be the feeling on the ground that this is finally the first election since October 7th. People have a lot of feelings about what has gone on over the past year. And I think that's really optimistic. I was I saw Eisencott was accompanying a former hostage to his polling station in near Oz. The kibbutz were 25 percent of its residents were either killed or kidnapped on October 7th. And, you know, people talking about this is the first time that they feel like maybe there is some daylight on the precipice because they could turn the page on this. Phoebe's dependence on Ben-Gavir and Smotrich, I think, has just destroyed his prime ministership. I mean, his natural character, also a big problem. But when you have these guys out there constantly talking about how you can just level Gaza, that they could go somewhere else, Ben-Gavir is saying, let's just send them to France. That would be fine. That's the kind of stuff, even if you are prone to like Phoebe or maybe think that he has carried out the response to October 7th in a way that you're supportive of, you just think there is no future peace. And they're also looking at what's going on in the West Bank and that the Netanyahu government is doing nothing about this. And I think the story of the American Washington Post journalist, 64 years old, who's beaten up by Israeli settlers a couple of weeks ago, who's been doing a ton of interviews, is really shaking people. And they see that their global reputation is in the gutter because of this stuff. Because of what's gone on in Gaza, because of Bibi Netanyahu, because of Ben-Gavir and Smotrich, because of what goes on on the West Bank, I'm optimistic that there will be a change. And I think, you know, the numbers obviously in turnout, the big jump in Arab turnout as well. And I hated this. I saw Ambassador Huckabee posted, you know, Israelis and Arabs alike will head to the polls. And people are noting Arabs are Israelis. Stop talking about this. This is some other country, right, that's invaded Israeli space. They're Arab Israelis. And you can see already the lines being drawn in the sand for supporters of Netanyahu. And, you know, Trumpian to the bone, scared of what he will do when a result gets called that he doesn't like. But I'm very emotional today. I think it is a very good thing to see all of these indicators that maybe change is coming. What are some of your views on October the 7th or the response to it? I think most Jews in the diaspora, at least, really feel like it's time to turn the page here. And again, I think a lot of it comes down to age. Netanyahu is 77. Eisenhower is 66. And I think Netanyahu is similar to Trump two, you know, two years ago, is running to stay out of prison. And the diaspora, it has gotten so hard for Jews in the diaspora right now to defend the actions and aggressiveness of the Netanyahu government. And as I said before, when I went to Israel to go to the Nova Music Festival Memorial and I went to the affected areas, thinking I'd feel sadness and horror, of which I did feel, mostly what I felt was rage. I looked across the plain or the open field separating where these kibbutzes were in Gaza. I know enough about technology and motion sensors and defensive equipment. I just can't figure out how the fuck helicopter gunships weren't out there in seven or eight minutes. I just, this was arguably one of the greatest defense and intelligence failures in modern history. And Israel has a very honorable reputation of having a reckoning across this side. This is how Golda Meir came to power, is the generals before her, the leadership before her, was held accountable for failed defense actions there. And his deal, Netanyahu's deal with the public was always, you may think I'm too conservative, but I'll keep you safe. Well, he didn't keep them safe. And so I really, and in addition, what they don't realize, long after Netanyahu is dead, the 75% of Americans, young Americans, who think Israel is a bad actor, whereas 75% of my people my age think they're a good actor, the former is going to be in power soon. And if Israel doesn't begin acquitting itself with a little bit more, you know, restraint, it's going to lose the support of all of the West. Because at some point, guys like me who think of Israel as the good guys and think of Entebbe and Munich, we're going to be gone. And it's going to be people who just see, okay, that Gaza has the greatest concentration of child amputees, who just see that this guy manipulated a fairly feeble-minded president into going to war with Iran, which seems to have destabilized the entire region and has put targets on our air bases instead of them being seen as shields and has totally disrupted the global economy. So if you care about. And I've been very, like, reticent. I was asked to come on some podcasts, and I thought, I don't want to be a Musk figure who's exporting political division, and I realize I have a fraction of the footprint for him. So I just sort of care a lot about Israel and think it's time, as it is in the U.S., I think it's time to turn the page. The issue is, is that we, in the U.S., Election Day is profound. Election Day in Israel is meaningful, but it's not profound. Because then the real maneuvering begins. And that is, even if Eisenhower gets more seats, if you will, in Parliament, he still won't have a majority, and he'll have to create coalitions. And there's a chance that the person can lose on Election Day and still win control. There's a lot of chess playing, and there's a lot of wheeling and dealing post the Election Day to try and create coalitions. And Netanyahu has been, you know, he has been, you know, who's that amazing chess player? He's been Bobby Fischer or whoever the. Gary Kasparov. Gary Kasparov or Magnuson or whoever the new nine-year-old is that keeps beating everybody. He has been amazing post-election at forming coalitions and, quite frankly, making deals with uncomfortable bedfellows to maintain and cling to power. So very much hoping, very much hoping there's a change here. All right. Any thoughts on Brazil? Yeah. So this was a surprise that Lula was able to hold on to power, but the last couple of weeks have been a big turn, huge grassroots mobilization effort. You know, Lula's 81 years old. So, you know, we talk about the old guys a lot. And Flavio Bolsonaro, obviously much younger, but also connected to his very corrupt father. But I loved listening to Claudia Scheinbaum talking about how Lula's victory is a breath of fresh air for Latin America. And Latin American countries, except for Brazil, have been drifting, in the right wing or rightward direction in their elections as of late. So this is really defying the odds. There's some talk of election interference, of course, from the right, but that doesn't really hold up. Only 34,000 votes came in after the original deadline, and Lula won by 4.4 million votes. But I thought this was so interesting because I was struck by a debate moment with Bolsonaro and Lula last week, where Bolsonaro brought up, how Lula was winning a majority of votes of people in jail. And Lula snapped back, I want 100% of them, including your father, which I thought was such a great, you know, quick, witty retort. But I hadn't paid attention to this. So he called Lula nine fingers. And the story behind that is Lula lost a finger at 17. He was a metal worker, so he lost it at work. And Lula was able to spin that into an attack. Bolsonaro for growing up in a gated community, not knowing what real work is, you know, being part of the elite cabal, the corruption narrative that we're seeing all over the world, and that that had a real impact on the outcome. It's a really interesting framing for this election as well. I didn't know about the nine finger thing. And I was thinking about Jon Tester, who also, you know, the former Democratic senator from Montana, who also lost a finger in a farming accident, not as a metal worker. And the funny story about how, you know, he knew that an ad against him was AI because he had 10 fingers in it. All of these elections seem to be coming down to the same themes. And it appears that the remedy to bad outcomes is more people voting. And so I would just implore everybody, if you want change, wherever you are, show up and vote. And miraculous things can happen, like in Serbia as well. I mean, we don't even know that much about the student list. And what their policies are going to look like. But you can take down autocrats and you can bring on good outcomes, like what happened in Hungary. By the way, did you see that there's talk of Viktor Orban for UN Secretary General? Say more? That's it. I mean, it's like the idea that you would put Viktor Orban in any sort of important position of power, let alone in an international organization, which is meant to hold people like him accountable, kind of blew my mind. I'm sure that'll be, you know, Trump's pet project. Well, isn't the head of the UN Humanitarian Commission from Iran? I mean, the good thing about the UN is it tries to involve everyone and gives everyone a chance, a seat at the table. The bad news is it gives everyone a seat at the table, regardless of if they should be at that table or not. I mean, this is both the strength and the weakness of the UN, isn't it? Fine. All right. Well, I just. Forget that point. No, no, you're right. I just saw the headline and I was like, come on. Like, can't we just let Viktor Orban disappear? But what do you think about the nine fingers? A powerful nine fingers. I think it is. I think it is powerful. I blew your mind with that one. I'm totally, I'm totally blown away. Okay. Oh, by the way, Jess, I am now with you. I'm famous too. Wait, first of all, you're more famous than I am, but what happened? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not only more famous, but you're more liked. Anyways, I had a ridiculous famous addict attack me today on X or whatever they the Nazi porn bar social media platform. You didn't see this. This is so exciting. The owner of X? The owner of X. Oh, he's on to you, not just Kara? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he's come after me, although he's not threatening me with prison or a sword fight. Oh, there's always tomorrow, Scott. By the way, Elon, I've never seen you naked, but I'm fairly certain my sword is bigger than yours. Just saying. Nickname in college, tripod. I won't say anymore. Uh, I put out. A thread saying Tesla's the patient and Musk's SpaceX merger and SpaceX shareholders are the organ donor, that basically SpaceX is going to have to save Tesla shareholders. And he responded, he has never had any clue. Gotta be honest, it's sort of accurate. It looks like mine got more likes, so I feel validated by the bots. Anyways, he's coming for me now, but notice when it's a dude, he has no clue. When it's a woman, they. Call you worthless and stupid and should go to jail. Yeah, so, yeah, I'm not. Anyways, but I'm with you. I'm, I, the three of us can share in our Stockholm, uh, syndrome or whatever it is, but the three of, we are the three musketeers. All for one and one for all, Jess. All for one and one for all. Quite the, uh, the sell if the three of us were trapped there. I don't know who would want out first. Between you and Kara, I feel like I would have just. Just enjoy myself and kind of watch you two bicker, but, um. Oh, no, um, Kara and I would strangle each other and you'd be trying to negotiate a peace. It's like I tell my kids when I leave the house, jokingly, I'm like, don't add to the population, don't subtract from it, and if you get arrested and put in jail, establish dominance early. It's great to tell young men. That's what I say to my kids. Yeah. That's not very notes on being a man, by the way. It is. I tell them, I tell them, go outside, join a gang, shoplift, get arrested, just do it outside. Just get it. You're allowed. I'm like, you get a free pass on any trouble you get into outside of the house. You get in trouble on a fucking screen, there's going to be hell to pay. We're going to have a serious conversation. Anyways, uh, anything else before we move on to our interview with Joanna Mendoza? I mean, no. Let's talk to Joanna Mendoza. All right. Are you tired of hearing about business, tech, and finance from the bros? We are the Tiger Sisters, a top business podcast with the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tiger Sisters releases every Monday, and we decode money, power, and love. And who doesn't love all those things? We are the internet's Wall Street and Silicon Valley big sisters. Tune in every Monday for late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. Check out Tiger Sisters on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Tiger Fam. How will Israel's upcoming elections, shape its relationship with the United States? The most probable scenario is not going to be a clear winner, and therefore there will be another election, and Trump's Middle East agenda is going to be pretty much hijacked by the political crisis in Israel. I'm John Feiner. And I'm Jake Sullivan. We're the hosts of The Long Game, a weekly national security podcast. This week, we speak with Barak Ravid, global affairs correspondent for Axios. He explains the stakes of the elections for Israel and the world. The episode is out now. Search for and follow The Long Game wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. Joanna Mendoza is a retired Marine running to unseat Republican Juan Sisco-Mani in Arizona's 6th District, one of the country's most competitive House races. With control of Congress on the line, Joanna, welcome to Raging Moderates. Thank you so much, Scott. It's good to be here. We appreciate how busy you are, so we'll bust right into it. We're in the final weeks of the campaign. What are the issues you are most focused on that you think matter to voters the most? Well, we've been, you know, during the district over the last 20 months that we've been campaigning and what we hear consistently from folks is cost. They can't afford the cost of gas, of groceries, of rent. And, you know, the prices are just, it's killing folks. And that's what we hear about the most, including health care. Now that the Medicaid cuts are really going to start to take effect here towards the end of the year, people are really going to see and feel that devastation. And then the last thing I'd say is corruption. People are concerned about. You know, the misuse of of taxpayer dollars by this administration. And, you know, they work hard for their money and they want a government that is responsible, fiscally conservative, and that uses their taxpayer dollars correctly and lawfully. If elected to Congress, which or how would you how would you address affordability? Yeah, well, I mean, we can start by, you know, working on trying to eliminate these tariffs, raising the costs of prices for folks, especially our border states. I mean, those are those border communities. They rely on on legal trade with Mexico, our oldest trading partner. You know, we can also ensure that we reinstate those safety net programs like SNAP, which is devastated. It's close to about 500,000 people in the state of Arizona that have been impacted by this. In addition to ensuring that that we're that the top one percent, the wealthy are paying their share of tax. We've seen under H.R. One that, you know, a lot of these programs were cut to give billionaires tax breaks. And that's really pissing a lot of people off. Yes. Yeah. Senator Gallego won your district, even though it's held by a Republican right now. He's been talking a lot about investing in Latino communities. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing on the ground with Latino voters and what that kind of investment would look like? Yeah, well, I mean, I think it's important to note that the district is first and foremost, it's a more modern version of Gabby Gifford's old district. We have about 80,000 veterans that call Arizona six home. We also have a couple of military bases and we have about 25 percent Hispanic community. And so the district has been a swing district for a really long time, even before redistricting. So what we're hearing from folks, you know, in in across the board, including Hispanic community, is that costs, the economy, good paying jobs are a top issue. You know, people like the dignity of work. They like to earn their paycheck. And right now, because of the scarcity of jobs, because the jobs aren't, you know, paying good wages or providing any type of benefits, health care, vision, dental, people are working two to three jobs just to make ends meet. And so the economy is always top of mind, especially for a lot of Hispanic voters and especially here in Southern Arizona. Most recently in one of the rural counties where I grew up in Pinal County, Casa Grande, where the Lucid EV plant is laid off, about 700 people now jobs in those communities and especially in rural communities are devastating. And, you know, I can't even imagine, especially as we enter winter, how people are going to make ends meet. I mean, it's just it's it's insane. Your opponent voted for these Medicaid cuts as part of the big, beautiful bill. Bill, you already mentioned rural hospitals, really important element in your race. How do you think that if you were elected and if we do have control of Congress, that we can blunt some of the damage done specifically in health care and perhaps be able to keep some of these hospitals open? Yeah, well, again, you know, reinstating the safety net programs like Medicaid. I mean, here in Arizona, we call it access. I grew up on access and without it, you know. I mean, I wouldn't have been able to go on to serve my country because it allowed me to grow up healthy. But I think we can start there. And also, you know, one thing that a lot of folks aren't really talking about is the shortage of health care professionals across the nation. I just here in southern Arizona. But we're seeing doctors, nurses, they're they're they're leaving the medical field. And, you know, some have even stated that, you know, it's because of COVID. It's because of the current administration. It's a tax on health care professionals and them being afraid to be targeted for, you know, providing, you know, health care to people. So those need to be addressed as well. But look, I'm going to be one of 435. I'm running to represent my district and I'm running to represent to ensure that the needs of the people in that community are met. And again, the top three things that we're hearing about are costs, care, so health care and corruption. And Joanna. When you look at when you think about we talked a lot about domestic policy and tariffs and economic policy. What do you think is the most pressing foreign policy issue that you would want to want to be involved in? Yeah, I mean, look what's happening with the war in Iran. As someone who served this country for 20 years, they took an oath many, many times for many years. And that oath doesn't expire. You know, the cost of gas. I mean, people, especially rural communities, get penalized a lot more than everybody else, even though people say, well, it's a couple of cents cheaper in rural communities. Yeah, they have to fuel up a lot more because they have to go into town for groceries to drop off their kids at school to medical appointments and any other number of errands that they have to run. I know that because I currently live in a rural community. But the war in Iran, in addition to costs and the price of gas is, you know, this district is is is very heavy with military families and service members and the treatment of our service members being sent to a war in Iran. That is not approved by Congress. That's not approved by the American people is a top concern for me because I know what it's like to deploy. I know what it's like to have the privilege of leading men and women in combat. And this administration has no understanding of what sacrifice is, what service is. And, you know, I'll have to tell you, Scott, that it's not going to be the Barron Trumps of the world that, you know, that the kids of the of the Trump family going to these wars is going to be kids in small towns like mine. Across America who are making the sacrifice to serve this country and keep the homeland safe. And and we have elected leaders right now who don't understand the immense responsibility. So it's a top of mind issue for me, not just our service members, but their families. I know you probably all heard about, you know, the families, the military families that were turned away in Bahrain trying to get out of the country because of the attacks on those military bases there. And they were turned away. By this administration, completely unacceptable. And it pisses me off. And I really want to use some colorful language, but I won't. So it's it's worth it's worth noting that you did spend more than two decades serving in the Marines. So in a popular war, general consensus that the war needs to end or they start involvement in the war. But, you know, they say, what is it? Campaigns are done in poetry and then it's it's in prose when you're actually governing. How do we actually. Exit this war? Do we just just pull up and leave and cede control of the Strait of Hormuz to the RGC? I mean, how give us a little bit more color on what ending this war actually looks like on the ground? Well, you can't just get up and leave now because we're committed to the region. And the fact that there was already a negotiation in place and this administration just, for lack of better words, messed that all up. It's a hot mess over there right now. So we can start by ensuring that a war is prior. Resolution is passed, which my opponent, Mr. Siskamani, voted several times against a war powers resolution, ensuring that Congress is appropriating the funding and the resources and the oversight, which is very important, especially if we're going to continue to have our service members, America's kids in harm's way. So I think we can start there. I'm not an expert in conflict resolution, but there are a lot of members within the House that are. And I think that, you know, there can be some solutions put on the table, provided that we have members who are on the Republican side are willing to push back on this administration and the president. And so, you know, I'm really calling for them to step up and do what's right for our service members and their families and for the country. Can I ask something just building off of that? I don't know if you saw this from yesterday, but Gallup had a new poll out and the question. Which values does the country most need today? And listed 12 values. Republicans put patriotism as number one. For Democrats, it was ranked as dead last, you know, as someone who served the country honorably for 20 years and now going to public service in a different way. What do you make of that? And what does patriotism mean to you? Yeah, I mean, I've been a vocal critic of how the Democratic Party has left, you know, veterans or service members rule. folks, working folks behind. And I will share with you that a A lot of folks who I speak to here on the ground as we go throughout the district talking to, you know, folks, is that they do feel a sense of patriotism. You know, I tell them, fly your flags. You know, that flag does not belong to one political party. It belongs to we, the people. You know, wear your red, white, and blue. And I tell them, it doesn't matter if you're Team Red or Team Blue. As long as you're Team Red, White, and Blue, then, you know, you have a place on our campaign team. And that is something that we need to change. That is something that people need to understand, that it doesn't belong to the Republican Party. And so I've been actively talking to especially a lot of Democrats about that. It's like, you know, have pride. On the back of our shirts, we have a distressed flag, you know, to show that, you know, we love our country and that we're willing to fight for it. There's a lot of work to be done there, but I've been actively working on changing, you know, that message. Well, we wish you the best of luck. It's a very exciting race, closely watched in the toss-up category. And I'm very excited for this new camo wave to come through Congress. Joe Mendoza, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much, Jessica. You guys have a good one. Have a great day. Have a great day. Have a great day. Have a great day.