Printer? I Hardly Know Her!

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I don't need a There are hundreds of hotel resort pools, spas, and private beaches that you can be enjoying today without spending the night. I booked a one-day pass at the Four Seasons Hotel in Spa, Nashville, and I'm like, wow, why am I just learning about resort pass? I may have only been 15 minutes from home, but it felt like a whole different world. I found myself settled into a cabana, just smiling. Umbrella drink, my favorite book, lunch brought right to me, and I'm thinking this is exactly what I needed. Luxury resort day passes start at just $25. It's a great deal. Go to resortpass.com slash janna and use my code janna to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code janna at resortpass.com slash janna. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, the Iran ceasefire officially expires just in time for Iran to potentially escalate the war. We'll talk about Trump's strategy of doing nothing, his decision to take out his frustration on South Korea, and his reaction to the U.S. military's attack on South Korea. His reaction to Jon Ossoff saying that all the president wants to do is, quote, travel with Natalie. We'll also check in on the Senate map, specifically why Mary Paltola rejected Kamala Harris's endorsement, and whether a stolen pen might help flip Texas. Then Tommy talks to Brian Poindexter, the union iron worker taking on Max Miller in Ohio. Before we start, just a reminder, if you haven't subscribed already, please consider subscribing to become a friend of the pod. You get ad-free episodes of this show, and all your favorite cricket shows. Ad-free. Plus, you get a whole bunch of subscriber-only shows, like our secret extra episode of Pod Save America, called Only Friends, and Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer and Terminally Online. You get access to a bunch of great Substack newsletters, and, you know, you get to support independent pro-democracy media. So, cricket.com slash friends. Go subscribe if you haven't already. Okay, let's get to the news. August 17th is Lovett's birthday. Oh. Wow. And the day that the MOU of Versailles officially died. Happy 50th, man. Boy. Yes. It's a big one. You don't look a day over 48. Oh, nice. Thank you, guys. You're mine. This light-hearted ribbing. That's what friendship's all about, here on my birthday. Now it's going to be in the history books. I ate a cupcake over the sink this morning before coming into work. Why'd you do that? Because it's Monday. And it's your birthday. Why'd you bring it in? What? I put a candle in it. Okay, that's nice. That's nice. Was Ari there, at least? No, no, no. Singing as well, or just you? Did Pundit? No, I have friends brought over cupcakes yesterday. Okay. I just ate a leftover one on the sink in a shameful way to celebrate the day. That's all. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that at all. It sounds tasty. Okay, well, happy birthday, Lovett. Thank you. So, the MOU died, but it never really lived. The 60-day ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran wasn't much of a ceasefire. In fact, five Americans were killed during that time, and it led to zero diplomatic progress on opening the Strait of Hormuz or the fate of Iran's nuclear program. The Wall Street Journal has a big story about how intercepted communications show that Iran actually used the last two months to prepare for a bigger, longer war, including churning out more missiles and drones. Trump has used the period to pretend the war wasn't happening, and on Monday he said that he's not in a hurry to end it, that Iran should raise, quote, the white flag of surrender, and he told Fox News that he's considering, quote, bombing the shit out of Oman if they get in the way. He expanded on all this during a press avail in the Oval on Monday. Last week you said that you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the United States. Could you elaborate? Well, I just think it's a great idea, yeah. I mean, we control it. We control it with the blockade. We have a blockade. We control it with a blockade. And I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We have total control over the Strait. Now, they can be a nuisance. They can put a mine in the water, and people don't like having mines hit their billion-dollar ships, you know, et cetera. This morning you said you would bomb the ass out of Oman if they got in the way of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Would you say you're out of patience with Oman as strategic partners? I don't think they'd behave very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things. Correct me if I'm wrong here. Didn't the MOU sort of set out that Oman was going to help media, mediate talks with Iran about opening the Strait? I think Qatar was the mediator, but Oman is who he is. The Iranians and Omanis have been negotiating a deal where they basically control the Strait of Hormuz and charge fees. So apparently that's why he's mad at them. Weren't they? Aren't we allies with them in some ways? Yeah, we shouldn't be bombing them. That's what I was wondering. Yeah, no, we don't want to bomb them. Yeah, they're sort of, you know, Oman is like, ugh, we can't deal with these. despotic, irrational, religious, authoritarian zealots, so we'll have to just deal with Iran instead. So I think most of us had forgotten that the MOU even existed. Seems like there's a pretty concerning gap between Iran's strategic thinking and what an Atlantic piece the other day called Trump's new strategy of nothing. Tommy, what do you think about where we are right now? That journal piece was interesting because it just got at the fact that the Iranians had a strategy. They had a plan for those two. They had a plan for those two for the next few months. They don't trust Trump. They don't trust him for good reason because he pulled out of the JCPOA and because the U.S. and Israel kept bombing them during talks. So they installed a bunch of hardliners, increased their military capacity, had conversations with proxy groups and prepared them for more fighting while we did fuck all. So Trump just has no path forward. Like, he knows if he restarts the war, it'll cost him politically. There's no way to bomb your way to victory here. So he just does these press avails where they get increasingly ridiculous. Like, now we're going to declare it a U.S. territory, like the Gulf of America. We're back to that kind of path forward. And as a way to pretend that we control it when we don't. It's also interesting that he talks about the naval blockade as if that's what is keeping the Strait open, even though the Strait is not open and we don't control it. But he's somehow trying to confuse people by saying that the naval blockade that we have of Iran is what it means that we control the Strait. He just doesn't want to deal with it. He doesn't want to deal with it because he doesn't like his options. He doesn't like the option of escalation. He doesn't like the option of accepting a deal that's worse than the Obama era deal, if that's even on the table at this point. So he just wants everyone to stop talking about it. And when it comes up, oh, we're in control of it and we won and it's good and they lost and they're crazy, but we'll see. And then on to the next topic. There's no strategy. He wants to focus on the ballroom. I thought the Journal story was interesting, too, because I think we've been talking for a while about how this could just end up being like, you know, Iran just keeps controlling the Strait and we all just kind of muddle along and Trump doesn't know what to do. But it sounds like they were talking about the various ways they could escalate the war and what they're thinking about preemptive strikes, sabotage of undersea internet cables in the Gulf, stirring unrest in Kuwait and Bahrain, and possibly ground operations in Kuwait. What they want to avoid is a scenario where every six to 12 months the U.S. or Israel bombs them, you know, whether it's regime change, decapitation strikes, you know, hitting their missile sites, hitting their oil and gas infrastructure. They want to increase the cost so that the U.S. and Israel think twice about doing this. And the strategy they've hit on for doing that has been pretty smart, which is bombing all these U.S. military installations in countries like Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and increasing the cost not only for us. But for those other countries in the Gulf. And you know, they've executed it pretty well and it seems to have been pretty effective. And so you're seeing like the Emiratis seem to be cutting side deals with the Emiratis, Iranians to create an off-ramp and I think others are pretty soon going to be looking to do the same thing because like they don't want to they don't want a non-stop constant war. I mean a Tehran defense analyst close to the government the regime in Iran told the journal that the main war in the Iranian view has not yet begun so that's that's something to look forward to huh? The other the other part of it too is having U.S. bases having the U.S. military present was meant to be kind of a bulwark a defense like look at how look at the security provided by Americans being on on our soil but now it's been the opposite it's trying all these attacks and then you know oh but the U.S. is our partner but it's a completely unreliable partner Oman we have trade agreement with and we're threatening to bomb them off the face of the earth so for reasons we can't quite understand. Yeah the only I understand why Iran would want to signal to be willing to escalate but I can't imagine they're particularly unhappy with a status quo that looks like this either. Yeah I mean they're I think it's deterrence I think they're trying to prevent getting attacked again but like we just remember the Iran-Iraq war lasted for eight years and it was like grueling and you know millions of my people died and the Iranians they live there that's where their country is located it's on the Strait of Hormuz like they know that Trump is going to give up and move on and get distracted and do something else and they're not going to do that. And so that's just you know they think they're playing for time. Well here's one thing that's distracting him the biggest news out of the Oval Office event was Trump confirming that he ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea which were scheduled to start on Monday. In a Truth Social post on Sunday Trump said he thought the exercises were too expensive and a danger to quote his very good relationship with Kim Jong-un. In the Oval on Monday he hinted that he's spoken to Kim in the last couple of days and made it clear why he's really pissed at South Korea. When I called recently the president of South Korea who I like I think he's very nice actually but I called him I said would you like to give us a little hand we don't need help with Iran but if you'd like give us a hand with Iran he said no thanks and I said wait a minute we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un your next door neighbor and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran. We can't go around and protect all of these countries especially when they're not there to help us. Tommy can you explain what's going on with the with the joint exercises and whether this is a big deal? So we have a lot of troops on the Korean peninsula is 28,500 and have had a mutual defense treaty in place with the Koreans since like the 1950s and so we do these annual exercises there's actually two there's one in the spring and the one in the late summer and they are basically drills to deal with the threat from North Korea and they've been described to me by experts as actually the most important because there's a lot of turnover especially in the South Korean military and so you need to have people like have some experience doing these things and also battlefield tactics are constantly changing the North Koreans just sent a bunch of troops to the front in Ukraine to fight on behalf of Russia and so they're learning how to use drones and electronic warfare and all these sort of modern systems and tools that you need to just understand. So the North Koreans understandably I think hate these drills because they view it as a pretext to some sort of invasion of their country. And that's kind of been the status quo and so something triggered Trump over the weekend I don't know what it was because he tweeted a photo of himself with Kim Jong-un out of nowhere as one does and then the next day he said he put out this post about wanting to scale down the exercises but put out the statement like as the exercises were about to start so to the extent you're scaling them down I don't think you're saving a lot of money because like the military hardware is going to be in place. The message as you said was basically like if you won't help us with our non-proliferation problem we won't help you with your little nuclear weapons problem on the Korean peninsula. I don't think that is a particularly rational way forward but it's you know Trump and it's filled with peak. He also said that the North Koreans had been respectful they're unthreatening and respectful. This came a couple days after the North Koreans fired a ballistic missile off into the ocean. A couple times. They're like second test in under a week. Yeah they've done like like I think 11 or 16 of them this year so it's you know not the most respectful move. Kim's position when it comes to resuming talks with the United States with Trump is that we first have to recognize them as a nuclear state. So that's a pretty strident position in my view. So again I think it's like a combination of this old hobby horse where he doesn't know why we you know have troops on the Korean peninsula. He doesn't think it's worth the cost. Plus he's bitchy that South Korea didn't help us with this stupid war with Iran and now maybe it's an effort to get diplomacy going with the North Koreans although I don't know why. He also said in that oval that Kim had gotten back to him. Yeah. Or implied it. No he finally did outright say yes. But he did one of those little teasing pauses first right? Yeah like it's very well they won't they. Talk about like you know Iran has some kind of a strategy. Like the U.S. has now involved itself in this newest quagmire in the Middle East if the president were focused on the U.S. and its long-term strategic imperatives and that was his main goal and all that was on his mind was the good of the country over the over time and our allies you might want to signal something like what is happening in the Middle East has absolutely no bearing on our ability to protect our allies in Asia right that that we are able to wage whatever war we're waging against Iran while maintaining protection for South Korea while protecting Taiwan while continuing to kind of perform the role that the U.S. performs as a defense against sort of Chinese aggression. Like that that would be something that a traditional foreign policy of either administration would signal right but instead he's like because of the war in Iran our relationship with South Korea is worse than ever we are less likely to protect them right and oh because we got this ship out there for so long we're gonna take another ship that's in the Pacific and we're gonna send that over to Iran because we actually are gonna tie these two conflicts together and that makes us weaker in both places. Terrific. I think that's great. Yeah and that I don't want any more microchips from Taiwan anyway. I'm all set. Well so the poor. The Koreans are suffering because of the war in Iran because they get like 60-70% of their oil through the Strait of Hormuz so we're screwing over all these countries in Asia to begin with. It's also like how could you not help us in this war that we decided to launch on our own without telling you without telling you for no good reason that has accomplished absolutely nothing but has hurt the rest of the world. Especially you and by the way where I said even in this sentence we don't need your help right it's like it's like you know Korea is coming over for dinner and like Trump's like you don't need your help. Yeah. We don't need to bring a thing. Where's the fucking wine? So as you mentioned the Navy pulled its last carrier out of Asia to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln which he was also asked about in the Oval. This is the aircraft carrier that's been in the Middle East since November and the conditions have been so horrible. There was also reports that at least two sailors tried to take their own lives by jumping overboard. When asked on Friday. Whether the deployment had gone on too long. Trump said no no no not nearly long enough. Here's how he responded on Monday in the Oval. Is there enough food on the USS Lincoln? Yeah it is. That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, good period of time. But over the years we've had him out there much longer. I was at a group meeting. Fake news story. Fake news story. So Pete Hegseth said the situation had been completely misrepresented and the commander of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper visited the ship over the weekend and wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the stories about shortages of food and water were old news and had been addressed. Which is a different statement. Very much so. So it seems pretty clear they're in damage control mode here. What do you guys think about this story? How bad is this for them? I think having a ship full of people slowly losing their mind because they're on one of the longest deployments ever, I think now maybe the longest deployment ever of a ship like this. They're going for the record set by the Gerald R. Ford, 326 days in Vietnam. So we're getting close. They're so close. They're so close, yeah. Sort of a worthy record to beat. And it matters that it's not a war that was approved by Congress, that the majority of the country wishes we weren't fighting, that has no real goal, that has no sign of ending. One thing, though, is that it's a grateful nation asking these service members to sacrifice on behalf of a cause that we all collectively endorsed, sort of a grave decision to send people there for months on end. But that's not what happened. And they know that, right? The people on the ship are aware of the fact that this is unpopular. They don't know why the fuck they're there. And it's awful. And then you have Hegseth caring more about the press and Trump pretending it's not happening. And it's disgraceful. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of respect for people who serve in the military. Sometimes he pretends to, but he finds the whole thing a bit embarrassing and confusing. I think he finds the idea of people sacrificing themselves and giving something of themselves without ego, showing discipline and a sense of purpose and mission kind of embarrassing to him because he's never experienced those feelings. And it comes out over and over and over again. So the Lincoln's been at sea more than 250 days, but no port call in 200 days, I think, because the Iranians hit. the base they would have used in Bahrain. rain. So they've had to just be out at sea. They've had two days off, I guess. Two days they've been at call. Yeah. And so, and that was on the way out there. And they've had food shortages, the plumbing's all messed up, they're having mental health issues. And the jobs on that flight deck are incredibly dangerous. I mean, they've flown something like 10,000 sorties, I think, off of the deck of that ship. And imagine you're on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, there's jets buzzing in, there's airplanes, there's rotors, right? Like you're doing this for weeks at a time with no days off. It's very risky. And then you hear the Secretary of Defense lie and just say, nah, there's no issues on that boat. And then you go down to wait in a 15-minute line, use the bathroom, and you see mold everywhere. And then you hear President Trump say, no, no, no, the deployments aren't too long. They should be longer. They're not long enough. So politically, this probably won't be all that damaging big picture, but it is one of the hidden costs of the war that people aren't talking about. And I think that's a big part of the and for the sailors on that ship and for their families and for the people who actually understand what's going on, to have your presidents like belittle your service like that, to have the Secretary of Defense just lie about the conditions you're living in, it's really messed up, you know? And these guys can't even call home half the time for operational security reasons. They're just isolated on the ship. And it is a lie that they're telling. And we know that because the sailors and Marines have, you know, anonymously, because they don't want to get in trouble, have been complaining about this. And, you know, Tapper, Jake Tapper on CNN, was talking to the wife of one of the service members who had to listen to the president say that and listen to Hicks say that. And she was like, they can't show some empathy at all for this. She's like, just take some accountability for what's going on with your military, your ships and your war. It's your war. It's infuriating. Care packages aren't getting there in time. They can't get toiletries on the boat. It's just like, it's inexcusable. And you're right, the lying is the worst part of all of it. Pod Save America is brought to you by ActBlue. If you're listening to this podcast, we don't have to tell you how high the stakes are in the midterms and in 2028. ActBlue is the platform that has powered Democratic campaigns for over two decades, giving candidates up and down the ballot, the tools they need to fundraise, organize, build an online presence and win. And this year they've launched an organizing platform built specifically for the people doing boots on the ground work. ActBlue field tools, taking back the house and winning vital local elections across the country. ActBlue doesn't start in October. It happens now. And the door is knocked and phone calls made by volunteers this summer. The energy is there and ActBlue field tools is built to mobilize it at scale. 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Plus with a Nutrafol subscription, you can save up to 20% and get added perks like a free headspace membership if you've been looking for an excuse to take the plunge on meditation. Let your hair become one less thing taking up space in your head and see thicker, stronger, faster growing hair with less shedding on your head in just three to six months with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you visit Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code CROOKED to get your first month subscription. So if you're interested in getting the promo code CROOKED, that's Nutrafol.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com promo code CROOKED. So the story about the Lincoln is already finding its way onto the campaign trail. Here's Senator John Ossoff talking about it and a whole lot more on Sunday. And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president, the president, sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar. So Natalie, of course, refers to White House aide Natalie Harp, known as the human printer, who was chosen over several cabinet officials to join Trump in the catering cart on the way to the secret flight home. For their book, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan also got their hands on, quote, raw emotional letters that Harp had been leaving in Trump's private spaces, including one that read, quote, you are all that matters to me, notes that reportedly alarmed the Secret Service, according to Maggie. Hoo boy. Maybe that's why they had to switch planes. Yeah. So what do you guys think of Ossoff mentioning her by name? Because it made news. You know, he's obviously like alluding to the rumor that this is more than a president staffer relationship. There might be something romantic going on that you might be having an affair. It made news. It went viral. I think there's a question of whether it might kick up media coverage of these allegations now in a way that is frustrating to the White House. You can tell it really, really pissed off the White House staff because Stephen Chung, the communications director, put out some unhinged statements. And then the rapid response 47 account, which is like the White House rapid response account, went after the journalist who asked about the quote from CNN. So they are attacking everybody at the moment. This is what they tweeted, the White House rapid response account at Kristen Holmes. Someday your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous, and vindictive. It's quite troubling. Boy, I just, I just, I'm just sad to hear that she's going to allow her kids to have so much screen time. And also it's a sort of a thrilling idea to imagine our kids having electricity. The, uh, uh, there, I saw like Scott Jennings trying to, doing this tweet of like, uh, what do you say to young women working in politics? Yeah, they're trying, they're trying, the MAGA people are trying to say it's sexist. Yeah. I mean, I would just say to any young, any young woman thinking about politics, don't fuck Donald Trump as a rule, but also, uh, and in fairness, right, we have. Not that we know that that's happening. Of course not. Of course not. And just in fairness, like that's obviously the rumor that everyone's talking about. Um, but nobody's suggesting that Trump is trying to have sex with Dan Scavino, who was also in the cart. Right. But was he? Oh yeah. Yeah. And Walt, uh, Nauta, two of the old schools, um, so yeah, like I don't, who knows, uh, or, well, Pete Hegseth wasn't in the cart. He wasn't in the cart. But he was on the secret plane. He was on the secret plane. Yeah. And who knows what they're doing? Yeah. Look, the letters are like, whatever, people want to insinuate, uh, a romantic relationship. Like the letters are embarrassing and gross enough. The fact that she is called the human printer because she just sort of takes this dictation, the kind of worshiping praise she's heaped upon Donald Trump, uh, is really, I think, you know, is plenty, um, beyond just the sort of the rumors. But I do think like the amount of shit that like the amount of like Scott Jennings saying, oh, what are you going to say? What are you going to say to young woman who want to work in politics in that press conference that we just had it on our office, just a normal day. It won't even be covered. It's so like normal and expected. Now he just sort of lit into a CNN reporter, like stop yelling, stop talking, be quiet, just like sort of directed at this woman. Like he is just endlessly disgusting and sexist. So like, Oh, what would I, what would you say to young women? Cause of this insinuation, uh, like Donald Trump is a misogynist. He's a sexist. He's disgusting. And that will be the great show. And that will be the great shame of this era for any, for any woman associated with him, any man associated with him. He lit into this, that reporter in the most condescending sexist way in front of a 16 year old lifeguard who was his guest in the office. And then turned to the lifeguard. It was like, don't you agree? Don't, don't get into it. Can you believe these people? They get it. These lifeguards get it. This kid's like, I want to go home. This is the worst. No, he's, no, yeah. He's drowning in there. You don't even have to do the, like, what about how bad he is to women either on this. It's I don't know if I've included the word Natalie there, but there were like a million ways he could have done that that could have been fairly characterized as like cheap, cheesy, resist lib, blue MAGA bullshit, you know? And the point he's making is that, uh, any, first of all, anyone who watched the clip, it's not like you just get, uh, Ossoff insinuating something. You get this image of Trump, um, who like is a buffoon who like bungled his way into a war that we're all dealing with and paying for while he is corrupt as hell. not wanting to do his job and just hang out, right? - Right. It's inserted in that whole story. But, like, she wrote that letter that said, you're all that matters to me. The Secret Service is alarmed. Trump himself has said, according to Maggie and Jonathan in their book, that she will never leave me. After all of you will leave at some point and go on and make money, and she loves me as much as my wife and children, and she will never leave me. When you have all that out there, and he says, yeah, all he wants to do is travel with Natalie, I think that's fair. Yeah, it's reasonable. It's pretty reasonable. That's all he said. It's not not weird. It's just the facts as we know them. Again, apply all those facts to Barack Obama or Joe Biden or anyone else in the White House. Yeah, Joe Biden would kill to have someone that loyal. Instead of all leaking about how old he was. I'm sure Scott Jennings was very upset about allegations of infidelity about Bill Clinton or previous Democrat presidents. Right, yeah. You don't want to insinuate anything after she's leaving him notes in private spaces that say you're all that matters to me. Yeah. By the way. By the way, like, maybe it is just, like, I have no, no one of us knows, and like, I don't, I don't even care that much. In that case, in that case. It's just creepy. In that case, he does just want to travel with Natalie. Yeah. Maybe he just likes having a sycophantic, pretty young woman around him all the time who sends him worshipful letters. Yeah, and he takes her on the catering cart with him. Yeah. Maybe she was hungry. Yep. There's a, there's a third plane where you just get to avoid the consequences of all your bad decisions. That's right. It's a catering cart. That's where we go. Start a war, go to plane number three. Yeah, honestly, the mistake in Ossoff's statement there was saying all they want to do is fly on the defenseless plane gifted by the emir of Qatar, because that wasn't the plane they went on either. You might want, you might say that a second plane has hit the Trump administration's scandals, in a sense, you know? Yes. When you think about it. You may want to say that. Trump was actually asked about Ossoff's comments in the Oval on Monday, and here's how he handled it. When you travel with your aide, Natalie Harp, and build the ballroom and do your job as president, what is your response, John Ossoff? You mean Pee Wee Herman? Pee Wee Herman lookalike? No, I would much rather do other things. It's a, we're building a great facility here. We have President Xi coming on September 24th or so. I think it's September 24th. And we'd love to have 2,000 people coming to dinner and celebrating a nice evening, et cetera, et cetera. But we only have a room that's going to hold. 89 people and 89 people is not appropriate. So maybe more importantly, it's totally secure with bulletproof windows, bulletproof sides, it's a drone proof, it's missile every at the top of the line and we need it. And especially with what's happened, unfortunately, to the world, you could say the people that are opposing the ballroom are people that, in my opinion, are very disloyal to our country, very, very disloyal to our country. You know, when I was in. We went to the Great Hall of China. It was this big, beautiful building. And we don't have anything like that. And we have to have that. It's very important. It just went on forever. It's just amazing. President Xi's coming. What am I supposed to do? I need to make this place look nice and fit all the Chinese who come with him. And when I went there, they had this beautiful, everyone's saying wonderful things about him and they have this great building and everything. The handsome young senator says that you're focused too much on building a space for parties. And he's like. He's like, that guy, he reminds me of Pee Wee Herman. Now, let's talk about some of these parties I'm thinking about having. It's also, it's like, let me pivot from Natalie Harp to my true love, the ballroom. Right. Instruction. Honestly, if you don't love this ballroom, you don't love America. Not his best rejoinder. No. That's also tough because that's like the disapproval of the ballroom. Is it like. Pretty high. Pretty high. That's a lot of disloyal Americans. Let's pivot to something politically damaging. We haven't talked about the ballroom construction in a while. On Friday. The Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court to allow construction to continue after an appeals court upheld a ruling that Trump exceeded his authority by building without congressional approval. Trump's solicitor general told the court that construction is already 65% complete. So this injunction takes effect on Friday. They've got an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to save them. What do you guys make of this? What happens here if the court says he can't proceed? He's already got half of it built. More than half of it built. Doesn't really seem like a win for him. for anybody you know well it's gonna be a hole in the wall and a hole in the ground now then you gotta go to congress and get it through congress to fund it my pitch is you never finish it and you turn it into some kind of museum of of american failure okay and it's just like like it's like failure museum is a good idea it's a museum of reckless stupidity and there'll be exhibits and different things you can go explore it kind of like a sort of an avant-garde like generally at appomattox yeah it's a memorial it's a memorial to our worst excesses yeah for sure the nicks we have the nixon we have all the trunks in pg like a quibi contour quadrant no for sure yeah wow quibi could be catchy somewhere jeffrey katzenberg's like i got a weird feeling he's doing the audio of the tour this is quibi yeah you're very short it's quick it's great about the quibi sections you get in and out in and out in and out of quibi but uh something like that where you kind of never finish it and leave it as a kind of a warning to others like um remember when they when george rr martin could do the yeah yeah this is where the seventh book of this is where the seventh book of it remember when there was a there was this contest or this this um uh organization was trying to figure out how would you mark nuclear waste sites because a thousand or many thousands of years from now if humanity has fallen you would need to have language and an architecture that would make people afraid even if they were more kind of had gone backwards sure and there was a quote hold on i want to find it there was a line that was uh we could also market like an old nuclear site that we're trying to protect the the future of nuclear waste sites and we could also have some language that says this place is a message and part of a system of messages pay attention this place is not a place of honor no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here nothing valued is here what is here was dangerous and repulsive to us this message is a warning about danger and we just make that what the whole vibe is of the kind of half-built ballroom it's a very pithy message wow free free pitch for a democratic candidate in one of those first primary debates who's gonna take it who's gonna take it nothing is honored here i do find it interesting that the whole thing started is like i want the ballroom that's what i want i just want my nice pretty ballroom and now because there's um legal uh consequences potentially he's like actually it's it's all for the military the military needed this space and they are apparently like look the underground there's a like world war ii era presidential emergency operations center and they are i guess rehabbing that um and now trump's making it sound like it's basically building a fortress around the white house where there's going to be drones protecting the white house and now all of dc and but like couldn't the drone base be somewhere near the white house and protected it's got to be it's got to be a ballroom it has to be on the roof that's how drones also he also said they drilled five stories underground which probably something that the military didn't want him to say it's also like boy trump sure does care about the military said two sailors splitting a taco for lunch it's unbelievable i'm very like open to the idea that drone advances in drone technology have made the white house more at risk than before and then maybe a you know a tent full of world leaders on the south lawn has more risks to it than we understand or acknowledge but it does seem like he's sort of manufacturing all these security needs in real time yeah just so he can get new drapes i would just say also if we're at the point where we have to worry about a military scale drone swarm tackling a state dinner at the white house a lot of things have already gone wrong where's our drone port yeah well this was the ufc threat right that someone was going to hit the ultimate fighting event on the south lawn with some sort of drone and the fbi broke it up yeah but it's bad news um you guys see the uh in related corruption news the uh the news on friday that world liberty financial the trump family and uh steve wickhoff's son's crypto venture got preliminary approval to act as a bank what do you guys think about that it made me excited that one day our tax dollars would get to bail out that bank that's exciting you know that is exciting that nice yeah i think one day we can be a part of it that's right it's just sort of it's like kamala doesn't have a good answer on the view 15 years later we're bailing out world liberty financial it's like what the fucking god damn it yes joy i think there's many things i do differently and then all of a sudden whenever you're heard of world liberty financial president asaf is like yes world liberty financial is too big to fail yeah i'm not happy about it i didn't want to bail out the bank either but the crypto yeah uh first president in history to approve operate and supervise his own bank another historic first for mr trump um pretty crazy because it's like it's one thing to launch a coin but uh not everyone gets to have the uh the federal government uh basically uh you know stamp that with its with national approval by giving it a charter um because the occ which is the office that does this that can uh give banks charters uh for the government basically went years without receiving a single application between 2011 and 2024 so it's not like they give charters to anyone who wants to start a bank but now they're giving one to the president's family which will be regulated by the federal government so it's not like they're giving one to the president's family but now they're giving one to the president's government i don't see the problem with that yeah it also just opens up uh the door to a lot more kinds of corruption from foreign sovereign wealth funds and all kinds of other ways in which this now allows Trump to find new and exciting ways to make money. So great job, everybody. It also does seem like a pretty big official stamp of approval on the crypto business and industry at a time when Congress is supposed to be negotiating and writing laws to actually govern these things, which doesn't make me feel great. Yeah. And I think that that timeline I mentioned 2024 was because after 2024, suddenly all the crypto ventures and all the, you know, they wanted to get, they wanted to start banks too, but you know, who's got approved? World Liberty Financial. Yeah. I mean, so my understanding of the reason you would want this if you're the Trump family is that currently their stable coin reserves are held with a third party. So now the Trump family can issue and redeem and then hold collateral themselves and not have to pay a third party. So if you have, if you have issued $4 billion worth of USD one, which is their stable coin, you have to hold $4 billion worth of USD one. So if you have issued $4 billion worth of USD one, which is their stable coin, you have to hold $4 billion worth of collateral, probably in the form of treasuries, that gives you interest income. And now you keep it all yourself rather than have to like go through some third party. Also, it's a competitive advantage with all the other stable coins, right? Because now if you want to do business with some in crypto, why not go to the, use the stable coin that's backed by the U.S. government? Because that's what that's, that's what this is doing now. Yeah. There's definitely an imprimatur of the U.S. government on the Trump business now. Thank you. That's the word I was, I was, I was grasping for earlier. Thank you. Our lightest underwear yet designed with micro perforations for max airflow all summer long. So you stay cool, dry, and significantly less swamp like from the very first layer air is built to keep your base layer breathable, lightweight, and barely there. 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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. Let's do a, uh, let's do a midterm update. Uh, focused on control of the Senate. Dan and I talked on Friday's show about Nate Silver's new model. Uh, he currently has the odds of the Democrats flipping the Senate at 56% as of right now. Over the weekend, the Silver Bulletin had a piece on the seven Senate races most likely to determine control. Texas, Michigan, Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, and North Carolina. Dems need five out of those seven. Uh, and apparently they almost left North Carolina off that list because the model is quite confident that Roy Cooper will flip that state and even more confident that Ossoff will which is why it wasn't on the list. Wild. Wild is that confident about Georgia. Um, we're going to zero in on developments in Texas, Michigan, and Alaska today. But before we do, anything stand out to you guys in the analysis of the other Senate races? The, the one thing just overall is how the models have to like how scandals and other kind of individual factors of a race matter less as polarization and party line and the sort of partisan voting becomes more and more what defines kind of the outcomes because it tells you that as much as you're hoping that fundamentals kick in in some places, right? If they kick in too hard, say in Michigan to kind of get Abdul over, then you have to worry about what's happening in Texas. You have to worry about what's happening in Alaska. Right. Um, and so that was sort of my, my takeaway from it. And the other was just, you know, you look across this, this, you know, Oh, what's the pivot going to be? And you think about the difference between 2006 and 2018, both years where there was somewhere like an eight ish swing towards Democrats or a point, uh, uh, um, uh, lead by Democrats. And because of the map and because of luck, we lose the Senate, uh, in 2018, or we don't, we don't gain the Senate in 2018, we lose seats. And then in 2006, we actually managed to eke out a victory in the Senate, not because we did so much better in a bunch of different races, but because in three or four races, Montana, Missouri, Virginia, we won by 10,000, 40,000, just a small, small margin. And because all of those happened to tip right at the end, just over the line, the whole direction of the country changes. That's, that was, that, that was what I was sort of panicking, getting anxious about as I was looking at the numbers. Yeah. I mean, I was getting anxious looking at them because they are more bullish than I thought sort of feel emotionally. Like Nate has Democrats winning Ohio at a 62% probability. That's surprised me. Very bullish on Ohio and Texas. Very bullish on Texas. He has Maine at 70%. Michigan, it's 68%. Now, look, I think we can pull out Michigan and it's a state we should win, but I do think like it's going to be a battle. I guess I was just sort of surprised at how lopsided some of these numbers seem. I was surprised on the flip side of that, how they are bearish, more bearish on Iowa and Alaska than I would have expected. Iowa, they have 44% for Democrats to win and Alaska at 42%. So they were bigger underdogs, those two than I thought. And also, you know, I look at this lesson, I think for everyone listening, like if you're looking for, you know, where do I donate and where do I want to volunteer and which races should, you know, they go down the list at the end and they're like, well, there's a couple other races that are, you know, getting a lot of attention. But Florida, where, you know, Democrats are, according to the polls, like maybe up a couple points, but just the fundamentals and the model and everything else just make it seem like there's not a great chance in Florida. Like it's quite a long shot. And then even more of a long shot, Nebraska, which was sort of a surprising to me as well. And Kansas, people have been talking about Kansas recently. And then of course, like, you know, we've talked about races in Mississippi and South Carolina and stuff like that. And those just aren't on the radar at all. So, you know, if you want to pay attention and help out in a Senate race, those seven tend to be the big ones. So Texas is the most likely tipping point state. In the model, meaning that it's the state most likely to determine control of the Senate. Right now, Silver has the odds of Tallarico winning at 59%. One big reason is that Ken Paxton is an awful candidate. And sure enough, Tallarico is out with a new ad where he's endorsed by the guy whose $1,000 pen was once stolen by Ken Paxton. Let's watch. This is Ken Paxton. And this is Ken Paxton stealing someone's $1,000 pen. Here's what happened. The incident happened at the Collin County courthouse, the same courthouse where Paxton would later be indicted for investment fraud. Paxton walked up to the trays next to the metal detectors, rummaged through them, and came across someone else's expensive Montblanc pen. He decided to take it for himself. The pen belonged to Joe Joplin, a local attorney who'd accidentally left it behind. It was a special gift from his wife. When Joe realized it was missing, he contacted courthouse security. This is the footage they pulled. Ken Paxton on camera stealing this man's pen. After the police got involved, Joe got his pen back. He could have pressed charges, but he decided against it. Because Joe's a nice guy. He'd never take someone else's pen. But he also hasn't forgotten who took his. Hi, I'm Joe Joplin, and I endorse James Tallarico for the United States Senate. Vote for James Tallarico. He won't steal your pen. Paxton response ad. Finders keepers. That trans-loving Jesus freak wouldn't steal a fucking thing. Just note that I also think you should go to jail for having a $1,000 pen. I was going to say, yeah, you're not exactly. I noticed why they didn't put the cost of the pen in the ad, because it doesn't exactly help our friend Joe. Maybe it writes beautifully. It's crazy. Maybe it has a beautiful feel. I've never written with a $1,000 pen before. I think that's a great ad, because obviously, on the list of Paxton scandals, this one is the lowest in terms of the impact or the consequences. But it's a fun story that can go viral. I think they did a really good job telling it there. Yeah. I mean, midway through, just reminding everybody that he was indicted for fraud. He is – somebody was – I think maybe it was Josh Bauer or someone made this point that it is shocking how in every aspect of his life he seems to be a prick or a sleaze just without exception. His wife of many years who is a state senator leaving him on biblical grounds because of this affair he had that his people that worked with him were whistleblowers. They believed he was taking bribes. He was impeached in a bipartisan way but not removed. He's only in this – he's only gotten the nomination because Trump didn't like John Cornyn and sided with Ken Paxton as a fuck you to John Cornyn. But even Republicans in Texas would obviously have preferred someone more electable. He's also just not a great fundraiser. He just seems like a shitty fucking guy that nobody likes and it puts Texas in play. Including Republicans. He just seems like a fucking asshole. Well, in Nate's model, the fundamentals put Texas at R plus 3.4. So even with the huge shift towards Democrats, it's still more of a Republican-leaning state. But Tallarico is ahead in the polls by 1.9 average right now. And the reason that they have it as a toss-up but it's almost at lean D is just because Tallarico is a good candidate and also Paxton is such a bad candidate and has all these scandals. And also Tallarico has raised an ungodly amount of money. Ken Paxton is not even – he's also not a prolific fundraiser. Tallarico has raised $65 million to Paxton's $9 billion. Oh my god. What I didn't realize until I read Nate's piece is that Beto O'Rourke had trailed in every single poll against Ted Cruz. What were we thinking? And Tallarico – Beto's great. No, no, I know. I mean like we were all so – I was excited. I thought he could win. The Tallarico is leading Paxton by, as you said, 1.9 percent in the polling average. It's pretty good. I mean I imagine all of these races are going to tighten because they just always do when people pay attention. But 2026 is a very blue year and Paxton is a very bad candidate. Ted Cruz was able to eke out a win against Beto. Not because Beto didn't get the votes he thought he was going to get but they were surprised by the turnout of Republicans. And we don't like Ted Cruz but Republicans like Ted Cruz. And Ken Paxton is sort of just a different animal. It's a worse environment. It remains to be seen if it's a worse overall national political environment. But certainly in Texas, Ken Paxton is not – is just not nearly as good a candidate as beloved charismatic figure Ted Cruz. Yeah. And I also think Trump – I mean Trump's approval was – Fairly bad in 2018 at the time but you didn't have the economic approval as low as it is right now. Exactly. Yeah. That's a broad point. So I think that is the tailwind that I think that Beto did not get in 2018 that Tallarico probably is. We haven't really talked about Alaska where Mary Peltola is trying to unseat Dan Sullivan. Last week, Kamala Harris signed a fundraising email for Peltola urging people to donate and then Peltola's campaign basically rejected it saying, quote, "Mary isn't seeking endorsements from anyone from the lower 48. Her focus is and always will be the American people." Yeah. Her focus is and always will be Alaska. Adding to the intrigue, someone leaked to internet journalist Yashar Ali, presumably someone from Harris' camp, that actually it was Peltola's campaign that asked Harris' political operation to send a fundraising email. Peltola is pretty close to Sullivan in the polling but still an underdog overall. Who do you guys believe here and what does it say that the Peltola campaign rejected Kamala's endorsement at least publicly? I mean I think it shows that they just don't want to nationalize this race in any way, shape, or form. That the National Democratic Party brand is toxic. The entire debate about the Democratic ticket in 2024 is politically toxic and they want nothing to do with it, which makes me surprised that anyone on her campaign would ask Kamala Harris to send a fundraising email on her behalf, especially one where the funds were split 50/50 between Kamala's PAC and Peltola's campaign. Now, I could be wrong. What do I know? But, you know, Peltola is running an entirely Alaska-focused campaign where she's like, you know, I'm not going to vote for her. I'm not going to vote for her. She's running an entirely Alaska-focused campaign where she's like talking about salmon fishing and local stuff. I don't know. I think she would want to nationalize it. Yeah. Who knows? I can see there being like, you know, oh, this is an opportunity. Kamala Harris is going to get us – is going to raise money for us, maybe one part of the campaign, not talking to another part of the campaign. Maybe people don't know. That seems like the most – Right. Or – and also maybe like when you actually read the email, it's just like it wasn't meant to be something that was so clear like we're together, splitting the money 50/50 so it ends up looking worse. Or maybe it was fully authorized but then by the time it gets to the candidate, they realize it's a mistake. They want to denounce it. But to me, it's sort of – you look at this and it's like, all right, Mary Paltola has clearly decided that this email and this connection is a liability so we're going to deny it and say we don't want any endorsements for the lower 48. And whoever is inside Kamala's org, assuming that that's where that came from, cared more about kind of whatever, claiming it was authorized than doing what clearly the Alaska campaign thinks it's best for itself, is to get out of this. It seems like it would be more benefit for Paltola, for Kamala Harris to say, "I would never raise money for that woman. She's too moderate. Too much of a – That's right. Yeah. Too focused on jobs. Yeah, too much – she wants to bring people together too much. And you know what else? I hate fish. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, it's a weird one. It's very strange. Also, like Mary Paltola didn't endorse Kamala in 2024 because it's just like – it's Alaska. Unsung part of the uncommitted movement. Again, it's – yeah. She has to – you know, she has to outrun – like Donald Trump won the state by what, 13, 14 points? Like it's an uphill climb, you know, so she has to really reject the National Democratic Party. America has got to be far away and quiet, you know? Yeah. And like she has run really successfully statewide in Alaska before. There's something called a split ticket war score which sort of like rates your candidate quality, your ability to outperform the ticket. And she was like D+9 and D+22 in her house run. Monster. Yeah, so she has very successfully separated herself from the National Party struggles and won. Yeah. Finally, we're in the middle of recording Friday's episode when Fox News dropped their Michigan poll which has Mike Rogers ahead of Abdul El-Sayed by four points, 51-47. Same poll has Democrat Jocelyn Benson up five points in the Michigan governor's race. The Senate Democratic Super PAC then released an internal poll that shows Abdul ahead by six but of course that didn't exactly calm the waters. What do you guys think about where the race is and what Abdul has to do over the next few months? So, first of all – Probably get more votes, right? Yeah, he should probably get more votes. I mean, look, it's hard – Than the other guy? What do they have to do? Yeah, it's hard to – you know, first of all, it's hard to trust any of these polls because we just saw an outcome in which Abdul won by a point and the polls had him up by much more overall. Like it's hard – it's just hard to know. The one thing that was interesting from – I think it was the Fox poll is that there was just a – Mm-hmm. There was a bigger group of people that were voting for Mike Rogers for Senate and the Democratic governor candidate than the reverse. Yeah, Benson. And so regardless of whether, you know, you think the poll is exaggerating and you – what does it – like that to me I think is sort of interesting and instructive about what he has to do because it's clearly people that either because of what Abdul has said in the past because the state was blanketed in tens of millions of dollars and anti-Abdul advertising, whatever it may be, there was a lot of people that should be voting with the Democrats and would be – Mm-hmm. If they hadn't been sort of exposed to so much anti-Abdul messaging. And so what does he have to do to bring those people along? How does he address some of the things that Mike Rogers is going to be advertising, whether or not AIPAC puts more money into the state? Like there's going to be a lot that he has to go up against. And one thing I just noticed about sort of some of the ways in which he's responded to this is, you know, he's under so much incoming. You know, a bunch of different Democrats have been asked, like, well, how do you explain for what you said in the past? And I think often the reaction is to kind of argue with the person asking the question. And they all do. All the politicians do this. They sort of are like, well, I actually didn't mean to fund. I meant that we should look at where the money is going as a version of something Abdul said in the past and others have too. But you look at what sort of I think some of the more effective ways of answering that kind of question. Mamdani had an incredible one I think on Friday or late last week where the question is, do you think woke one was crazy? He basically just ignores that. And he says, we all change and we all grow. I have said things I don't agree with anymore, but I believe in supporting the police and having a good relationship with the police and we're getting crime down and we're addressing these issues. And like what was to me, what he's doing, what makes him such a good politician is he's saying he's not he's he's answering the feeling underneath the question, which is what is the reassurance on this issue that gives me credibility across another range of issues as opposed to constantly fighting to a draw? By answering the previous critique or sort of trying to win on points, but rather saying something that is like a value statement that rejects the factual statement you said in the past. Right. Just like a clean moral thing that resets what he currently believes and stands for. I think Abdul's like kind of core primary message is still the right one. It was get money out of politics, put money in your pocket and pass Medicare for all. That's a great general election message. You just have to stick that obviously the primary again. Taley Stevens became more about U.S. support for Israel and AIPAC funding and dark money generally. And I think trying to move away from that would be beneficial. You know, Abdul, he's going to have to try to find some kind of like white working class independent voters that maybe ever voted for Republicans in the past. He's got to turn out black voters and Democratic base voters. They didn't necessarily get in the primary. So he's got to do two different things at once. Reach a base community and reach these sort of more moderate. Swing voters. I think he's got the political skills to do that. He's an exciting, dynamic guy. He's good on the stump. He can raise a lot of money. He's got like a lot of money. of skills and mike rogers is kind of like a washed up old intel committee guy who would rather be in florida seemingly than in michigan running this race but i think we need to treat it as a 50 50 race like i just i think this is going to be a close one to the bitter end yeah the poll doesn't surprise me that much only because i think 60 million dollars of negative ads against you and then mike rogers has none of that and people mostly remember him as a sort of old school establishment pre-trump republican and obviously like alyssa slotkin ran a great race against him in 24 but i think the image of mike rogers they have in their head is like okay maybe i don't agree with him but he doesn't seem threatening and 60 million dollars in negative ads making abdul seem like a scary muslim uh socialist extremist who's going to come you know kill you know kill you know kill you know kill you know kill your family is um you know that's the kind of poll result you're going to get i also think that you know there's work he has to do with black voters uh and that you can see in this poll and and then the voters that tommy you were just talking about and like look if he just goes to he just goes to all these voters who say they're going to vote for jocelyn benson a democrat just has to convince those voters to like hey you're already voting for one democrat vote for another you know yeah and i think that like some of his ads and you see this online like he's had some even in the primary he had some like sort of cringy millennial cringe videos that i was like what is that but it's it's i think the point is to make him seem unthreatening to people which they are going to try to make him seem as threatening as possible because of his name and religion which is they're already doing and that's going to happen right up until election day and so to try to address that um just by you know showing up everywhere and being who he is and seeming unthreatening is going to be helpful i do think having made it through the primary whether all these attacks come out ahead has also given him a lot of credibility and you know by the same token that there are these crossover voters that show where a liability is what a poll like this won't show is there are going to be people that are brought into that are going to kind of decide to vote maybe be excited and energized to participate because of abdul and then those are democratic votes they're going to that are going to go uh uh down the ticket right and those those like those will be people he brought into the process that won't show up in the same kind of way and so i do think he has that kind of credibility with the people that came along and so like that does give him the space i think to kind of figure out how um to kind of whatever overcome that kind of scary muslim thing that they're going to throw at him i mean he doesn't have to change his views on things but he can he can certainly moderate rhetoric um to sort of appeal to a broader audience that's all yeah that like i don't i don't of course i don't think it's any it's not about changing what he views i think like that is but there is like i think honestly it's because if people if he can just have that conversation which is the abdul we know like that will work like he is even like the sort of they're calling him a socialist which they'll call anyone a socialist but he pointedly in interviews like i don't identify as a socialist like he believe like like there's just the version of him that existed in the ads is not the version of him that is real and now we have three or four months for him to actually put that in place it's very funny that in the primary they made these kind of cringy blues clues goofy videos where abdul just seemed silly and all this sort of like winced at them at the time and then republican accounts like libs of tick-tock found them last week and sort of resurfing sitting them and be like oh my god have you seen this how cringy and it's like you could not do a better job if you tried to target these ads to the audience they're trying to reach it's like republicans and sort of like conservative audiences who now see this goofy silly side of abdul as they are trying to paint him as this dangerous radical fringe candidate it's very very um hilarious that they were this stupid about their tactics on the republican side the campaign also gets is that why that first ad out is that of the grandparents yes they just they there's they know that they understand this all right when we come back tommy talks to ohio house candidate brian poindexter pod save america is brought to you by blinds.com there's a version of your home you haven't lived in yet where the light behaves just how you want where the rooms feel finished where you sleep till you decide to wake up not when the sun does blinds.com has spent 30 years making it easy to find the perfect fit with over 25 million windows covered 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it makes it much cooler and better in there but then we can put them back up and uh look out the window you know you got to look out the window sometimes take in the view put down your phone you know uh the ability to customize any window it's free sample sent right to your door it's really easy highly recommend it blinds.com blinds.com is giving our listeners an exclusive fifty dollars off when you spend five hundred dollars or more just use code crooked at checkout limited time offer rules and restrictions apply see blinds.com for details keep it listeners louis fortel here i have something i've been dying to get off my chest dr robbie is the real villain of the pit there i said it okay but that's not actually the big news here's the big news emmy nominated television host nina parker is officially the new co-host of keep it that's the confession the dr robbie thing was just you know me needing to say it somewhat out loud okay shots fired and i hear your dr robbie and i raised you sex in the city wasn't really a show about finding love it was a humiliation ritual on bad friendships the clothes were cute though oh yeah the choo-choo in the opening credits really cute every week nina and i will bring you an inside look at all the pop culture drama the hottest takes you can handle and honestly maybe some you can't plus celebrity guests galore we're gonna guide you through gorgeous wreckage of pop culture we are unpacking the biggest stories in tv film entertainment news we're gonna go all the way to gen z from youtube taking over the horror genre to olivia rodrigo redefining pop music and then we're gonna also talk about maybe you partying with madonna a little bit oh yeah that one time at the abbey it was sweaty but in a good way new episodes drop every wednesday on youtube and wherever you listen to podcasts this is janna kramer from wind down with janna kramer i had this moment the other day where i thought why am i waiting for my next vacation to enjoy life i don't need a week off just a day to rest and recharge would be amazing and so i went to resortpass.com there are hundreds of hotel resort pools spas and private beaches that you can be enjoying today without spending the night i booked a one-day pass at the four seasons hotel in spa nashville and i'm like wow why am i just learning about resort pass i may have only been 15 minutes from home but it felt like a whole different world i found myself settled into a cabana just smiling umbrella drink my favorite book lunch and dinner i didn't even know i was going to be there for the rest of my life i didn't even know i was going to be there for the rest of my life and i'm thinking this is exactly what i needed luxury resort day passes start at just 25 dollars it's a great deal go to resortpass.com janna and use my code janna to get 20 off when you spend a hundred dollars that's code janna at resortpass.com janna my guest today is the democratic party's candidate for ohio's seventh congressional district uh brian poindexter welcome to the show show thank you for having me tommy i'm happy to be here and uh looking forward to answering your questions all right well uh glad to have you so your opponent max miller has made a lot of news lately for the worst reasons um i'm gonna ask you about him in a minute but first like just tell the audience about yourself your background and why you decided to get into this race well yeah i'm just a regular every everyday average working guy i've been a member of the iron workers local 17 for the past 19 years where we've built some of the tall buildings and bridges and schools and hospitals in the cleveland area i've been a nine-year member of burke park city council um you know where i've showed up and fought for people at the local level uh built a reputation of being somebody who shows up when they need me the most but more importantly i've been a father of two daughters and i have a bonus daughter i've been helping raise them up to be strong independent loving caring uh women uh and that's kind of where i got that's the most prideful thing about um about me is i'm a good good family man and uh take care of my family uh to the best of my ability and uh yeah that's me in a nutshell did you help build this new brown stadium and do we feel okay about them moving uh you know out of downtown uh well i actually worked a little bit on the old stadium oh nice in 2014 in 2014 when we uh we redid the scoreboards uh i was on that that was a that was a good job it was like tailgating every day for for work that's awesome any sunday uh any sunday job site visits you just got to be there uh yeah uh it was like sunday every day because i was we were on seven days a week doing 12 to 14 hour days to get it done before the season started so a lot of hard work went into it but it was it was a little easier being that we were uh you know building the brown stadium yeah that's uh the news the new stadium uh is underway now it's just now getting started they're still doing underground work and stuff like that so i haven't we haven't seen anything come out of the ground yet got it got it coming got it so your opponent max miller uh congressman max miller he's been accused of some awful stuff throwing scalding hot water at his ex-wife holding a gun to her head uh fracturing their two-year-old daughter's collarbone but despite all of that he's refused to get out of the race and he's instead decided to um start start attacking his father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, on social media. What's your reaction to these charges and the way Max Miller has responded to them? Well, yeah, they're very serious allegations. And I, you know, I've said it since day one, if they prove to be true, he shouldn't be in Congress, he should be in jail. And, you know, I stand by that statement. You know, the folks I talk to all across this district, whether it's knocking the doors, doing the town halls, you know, I get asked about it a lot. And, you know, one of the things that is most troubling is him withholding the blue bunny from his daughter. You know, that's personal to me because, you know, my youngest daughter, Ashley, she had bear bear growing up. And I remember going on vacation one time, we had to turn back around and get bear bear because she forgot bear bear at the house. So I had, you know, turned around, got bear bear, and then we were okay to go on vacation. But I just know how personal connections children make with their, with their security blanket or their stuffed animal. And, you know, it just shows the kind of leverage Max Miller holds over people he loves. And if he does that to people he loves, imagine what he does to people he don't really like or doesn't don't understand. Yeah. And that, that kind of behavior has no place in Congress. Yeah. My daughter has two little pink bunnies that she calls her loveys. And one time, uh, I thought I might've dropped one at the airport and lost it. And you would have thought my reaction was basically like I'd lost a child. It was like fucking Defcon five in our house. We were scrambling for this thing. Thank God we finally found it like under a blanket or in a pillow or something, but you're right. I mean, it does show a level of vindictiveness that is shocking to me as a father. I would do literally anything to ensure my daughter felt comfortable, felt safe, had a good night's sleep. The idea that he would need to, uh, give the bunny over to only the court appointed like minder guy that he wouldn't give it to someone else who he deemed a stranger. Uh, we, we know all this by the way, cause he released a text message where, you know, he had had this conversation with someone, I don't know if it was Senator Bernie Moreno or like, you know, uh, someone who had been, um, uh, dispatched by Senator Moreno to have this conversation with Max Miller. But Max Miller thought that the text messages he released, like showed his side of the story, but really it just showed him being, uh, a sociopath. Yeah. I mean, I'm no, I'm no therapist or, uh, you know, psychologist. I, I wouldn't be able to diagnose him as that, but, uh, but I know as a father, I, I would, uh, do whatever I had to do to make sure my baby had her bear bear. Um, I don't care who, who I had to give it to, to make sure she got it. Yeah. Same. Uh, so I know that, you know, as you know, probably better than anybody, like the hardest thing, um, about politics is most normal people just don't have time to read up on it, right? They're busy, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like getting the kids to school or going to work or doing whatever. Um, they don't seek out political news. So when you're trying to help, you know, voters understand kind of the stakes in an election or understand about a candidate, um, it takes a lot to kind of get something to break through. Has this story about Max Miller, the allegations against him, has this broken through to voters in your district? I ask in part because there was like, I think a Washington Post story or something that suggested that most voters they talked to as they kind of walked the streets, hadn't heard about it. Well, yeah. Uh, you know, a lot of people are, um, tuned out from politics because, you know, politician haven't given them anything to pay attention to, especially when you consider the fact that most working people, especially the hardworking families of this district are doing everything they can just to make ends meet. You know, they're working, um, you know, two or three jobs in some cases they are working overtime just to, just to get by. And, you know, workers used to work and live paycheck to paycheck. Now they're not even making it to the next paycheck. So yeah, it's, it's, it's understandable. I mean, I would tune out because they got more important things in their life to worry about. Um, but what I hope they would do is, is lift their head up just for a second, pay attention to what's going on in this race and, and, you know, support somebody like me who understands what they're going through, because I actually live what they're going through and, and put somebody in Washington who's going to fight to make sure that they can make that, um, you know, make to that next paycheck, ensure that they can start building a life and start realizing the American dream that they have taken from us. Yeah. I mean, I've seen a lot of interviews you've done. I've read a lot of stuff. You've, you've a lot of interviews you've given. I think you do a really admirable job of trying to like refocus the conversation on issues and the economy and the stuff that voters actually care about. And that, that makes a difference in their lives. And I think that's important. I really do respect that. I do think that there's also a kind of a threshold question about character from our elected officials. That's very important. And I'm wondering how you view that in this context, like is an allegation. Like those that Max Miller's facing, is that a place where we should draw a line as a country and just say, no, like this guy should not serve in Congress or how are you thinking about that? Well, yeah, I mean, we, um, we've seen politicians be accused of all sorts of things over the past, you know, few years, especially as it seems like it's ramped up with, uh, with character issues with politicians. Um, but I think it's, it, it, it's really a test of, uh, uh, of the American public, what we're willing to accept from our representatives. And to me, I think it's, it should be a guiding factor. I think, I think Democrats, Republicans, and independents can come together and, and set the bar of what we expect from, from politicians. Um, you know, not saying that anybody has to be perfect, you know, certainly I'm not perfect. Uh, I've had, you know, mistakes in my younger years and stuff like that. But, um, but what is the, what is the bar that, uh, that we're gonna set of what we can expect from our leaders? And, um, I think this is an opportunity, uh, to unite people. Um, that's what, uh, my goal is. Um, my main goal in this run is to really unite, um, our district, uh, through the party divide, through the political, um, different differences in political spectrum to, uh, get people to understand that we have more that unites us than divides us. And when we're, when we put aside some of the political differences and come together, um, there's strength there. And, uh, you know, that's what I hope to bring. And I, I hope people, um, heed the call and, and say, Hey, we, we cannot accept politicians who aren't gonna live by at least a minimum standard of ethics. Yeah. Mm-hmm and decency. Um, so back on the issues, I mean, Trump ran on the, the promise basically that he would get cost down and get inflation under control. That was kind of like the core promise of his campaign. Uh, instead gas prices are up. They've been up for a while. Tariffs are making things more expensive. And then I know in Ohio, you've got people leaving the stakes. They can't find good jobs. Um, Trump won in your district by 11 points in 2024, I think. Have you been able to talk to some of those Trump voters and, and do you find them receptive to the argument that maybe they made a mistake by voting for him and that Trump has made things work and that, you know, they might be open to voting for a Democrat this time, um, to kind of correct that. Yeah. I'm not, um, I'm not afraid to talk to anybody. Um, you know, I've, I've talked to, uh, people who voted for Trump in the past, people who voted for, uh, Biden and everybody in between, um, you know, not afraid to have those conversations. Uh, you know, to me, it's not, it's not about a Republican and Democrat issue. It's worker to worker issue. And, and Trump was able to, to, uh, capture the attention of the worker. You know, this district is, is a very strong working class district. Um, it's, it's a, a gerrymandered district, but the one thing that unites the whole district is the fact that everyone works hard for a living. And, um, you know, Trump captured that message. He said, uh, he's going to bring back manufacturing. He's going to usher in a golden age for workers. And what we got was a golden shower instead, you know, people are working harder and harder. We're getting less and less. Um, and, and this district also too, uh, in 2018, like Sherrod Brown, uh, would have won this district, right. When he ran for, uh, send in 2018. And it's because he Sherrod Brown has always run on the message of fighting for workers. Now his record fighting for workers backs it it's backed up by real results. You know, um, me as a member of iron workers, local 17, uh, the legislation he brought forward actually saved our pension from, from default. And, and so along with the teamsters and, um, so many other things that he fought for actually came, uh, to bring real value to workers lives in Ohio. And, uh, and, and, and that's what I'm running on. I'm I'm running because working families haven't realized that golden age and, and, um, you know, wall street, wall street's doing great. Um, the billionaires are doing great. Corporations are doing great, but when does it trickle down to the rest of us? When, when do we get value for the labor that I'm putting in and I'm putting in more and more and more value. And that's what everybody across the district's asking. That's what I'm hearing at the doors. Um, you know, people working again, two or three or four jobs in a, in a household just to make ends meet. And, um, people are fed up on it. Yeah. You said that, uh, that golden showers trickling down just forever. Um, you've argued that, uh, I saw you in an interview talking about why Democrats have struggled so much with, uh, male voters winning over men. Um, you argued that culture and not policy is kind of at the root of it. Can you expand on that and explain what you're thinking? Yeah. Well, like, I mean, the democratic party has always stood up for workers, but over the past few cycles, especially, uh, that, that message of fighting for working families kind of got put on the back burner and, um, you know, it was almost like, uh, they were more, um, you know, the democratic party is a big tent, right? We have a lot of different ideals and, um, and perspectives, which is good. That's I think the more people we bring in, um, to the fold, more ideas get, we can find the right idea, but where I think they were highlighting some of the issues that were kind of more fringe and more, you know, important issues that need to be discussed, but shouldn't be the forefront core of the message. The forefront core of the message should be the most expansive and one that includes the most people. And I think, you know, I think workers issues, you know, that covers everybody. You know, I don't care if what lifestyle you live, you have to work for a living and that work should have value. That should be our core message. And if people and the way I see it, if people are making, um, progress in their personal lives, um, then they have the resources and energy they can use to fight for some of those other more, uh, more fringe issues. You mentioned earlier in the interview and you've talked about it in the past, sort of having a, what you call it, a rough and rowdy upbringing, some brushes with the law, uh, when you were younger in your early twenties, what, what, what happened? And like, what do you think, what did that experience teach you that has been valuable in later life? Yeah. Yeah. I grew up on the West side of Cleveland. It was a pretty rough neighborhood. Um, so, you know, I mean, it was nothing for a couple of dudes to get in a scrap at a basketball game or, or, uh, somebody who drive down the street, looking at you wrong, they hop out of the car and next, you know, you're throwing down. It's, it, it was, um, it was a unique situation growing up. Um, and then, you know, grow going into adulthood, that was my environment. I brought that into adulthood. I learned quickly that, uh, that wasn't the way, um, you know, and I had some, I had some run-ins with the law. I made mistakes. Um, I own the mistakes. I didn't blame somebody else or sue somebody in the silence over it. Um, and then I, I, I paid my price for it. Um, and I moved on and learned from it. And, you know, I want to point out that this was very early in my adulthood, you know, from 18 to 22 years old. Um, but, uh, and then I had, I, then I had a child and that kind of changed everything. No longer was I the rough and rowdy guy just worried about me and myself. Um, I had to worry about a family. I had to worry about my family. And I had to worry about, you know, building a life for my daughter. And then I had another daughter and, um, come full circle the past five years as an iron worker, I've been able to teach, uh, the new iron workers coming in and, you know, find those rough and rowdy, uh, iron workers that were kind of like me when I was that age, kind of help them develop their skills as an iron worker, but also make good decisions. So they weren't getting, um, you know, having the issues that I had when I was younger. Yeah. Well, listen, if you didn't want to beat up a Steelers fan at a, at a, at a game in your early twenties, like, were you even a fan? I mean, look, I'm as a Patriots fan, we've all been there, you know, was it a Yinser? Yeah. Cause you know, they're, they're tough. I wouldn't fuck around with those guys. I'm not proud of it. Let's just say I made some mistakes. Um, you know, now when I, now, when I go to a game, I just watched the game and mind my own business. Yeah. No, I trust me. Me too. I remember being at my first ever Red Sox game when I was like a kid and there was a huge rumble in the outfield right next to us. And I was like, you know, 12 or 13 and it looked like Hulk Hogan was getting in a fight with some other massive dude. I was like, all right, never. Not for me. I would not fare well there. You know, I grew up in Cleveland. Don't, don't Google a 10 cent beer night. You'll, you'll, you'll see what, uh, what I grew up with. Yeah. It gets, uh, it gets wild in Cleveland. Uh, speaking of Cleveland, who are the Browns going to start a quarterback this year? Is it going to be Deshaun, Shador, maybe bring Joe Flacco back? What are you thinking? Uh, I don't, I don't know what, what they're going to decide. Um, if it were me, if I were making that decision, I would keep developing Shador. I think, uh, I think he's got a bright future if he gets the reps. Um, I think, I think it gives our offense a little bit more fluidity as he, you know, played a little last year. Um, but time will tell. I'm not very hopeful for the season, but I, I hope it shocked me. Come on. Normally, normally I'm, normally I'm like, this is our year Superbowl, but, uh, I don't, I don't have that feeling this year. You guys have Tampa week too. You got to see Baker Mayfield come out of that tunnel on the next who, you know, lost a bunch of weight, got a tan looking great, you know, made a lot of money somehow that that's rough. Yeah. I, I wish Baker would have never went anywhere personally, but, uh, but you know, I understand the business of the NFL. Um, I'm proud that Baker Mayfield is doing well. Um, but I really just hope our Browns do well and beat Baker Mayfield. And we too, this, this time next year, do you think, you know, maybe we got Baker back on the team or are we talking about, uh, developing Arch Manning? How's this going to go? Man, this is a tougher interview than I thought. If you're asking me to like, I got to solve the, uh, district seven problems and, uh, and the Browns problems. I'm going to hurt here. Yeah. You're qualified BGM. Uh, last question. So we talked about earlier. I mean, this, the Browns are about to move to a new stadium with a dome. Um, does that make you sad at all? You lose those like late season kind of Lake Erie snow games. You know, I, I've, I've been to a lot of, uh, snow games. Like, um, the last great one was, uh, what was it? Not last year, the year before, last against Pittsburgh, we beat them. Uh, it was a blizzard. It was a Thursday night game. Yeah. Great time. But like, no, I'm, I'm all about the stadium. Uh, you know, one it's in Brook park. I'm a city councilman in Brook park. So to, to bring the Browns at Brook park is a, is huge for our area. Um, I'm an iron worker. So building stadiums and buildings is kind of my thing. Um, but really what I like about the dome more than the open Lakefront stadium is, uh, it's like, you know, maybe sixties or seventies can't sit out in the cold anymore. Um, they'll be comfortable the whole game or that, uh, that young family bring in their, um, their son or daughter for their first game. You know, I, I've taken, I took my daughters down on the Lake and I remember good games that they wanted to leave, you know, partway through the second quarter because they're freezing and they're cold and it's rainy. So I think, I think it'll be good. It'll keep people in the stadium, even when, uh, the Browns are two and 13 or whatever, it'll, it'll keep them in the stadium, you know, keep, uh, you know, somebody else still want to go because it's a more comfortable experience. And, and, you know, let's keep in mind too, fantasy football is kind of a real thing. And, uh, I hate when I, my receiver goes up in a, uh, in an ice ball game and now he gets me three points. Yeah, no, I get that. Listen, I went to the Patriots, uh, Broncos game in Denver last year with that like snow whiteout game. And it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in terms of a sports fan, but it was so cold. And it's like a lot of layers to, uh, to keep us there. And I, and I get, you know, once you guys have a dome, maybe you get the, uh, Superbowl in Cleveland, you get to all sorts of year round, uh, opportunities for events and shit like that. That's big economically. Uh, Brian point Dexter, thanks for joining the show. Where can folks find your campaign and, uh, and help out if they want. Yeah. Um, thanks for having me. Uh, people can go to point Dexter for congress.com. You can hear a little bit about my backstory. You can watch our videos and really get a sense of who I am. Um, I'm really just the guy that I'm tired of watching my community have such a hard time. And, uh, I'm going to run and fight hard for working families. We appreciate you joining and, uh, everyone check out the campaign and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. And, uh, great to be here. That's our show for today. Thanks to Brian point Dexter for coming on. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday. Pods of America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin McKenna Roberts and Ferris Safari with Reed Churlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hethcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kirill Pelleviv, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. Keep it listeners. Louis Fertel here. I have something I've been dying to get off my chest. Dr. Robbie is the real villain of the pit there. I said it. Okay. But that's not actually the big news. Here's the big news. Emmy nominated television host Nina Parker is officially the new co-host of Keep It. That's the confession. The Dr. Robbie thing was just, you know, me needing to say it somewhat out loud. Okay. Shots fired and I hear you're Dr. Robbie and I raised you. Sex in the City wasn't really a show about finding love. It was a humiliation ritual on bad friendships. The clothes were cute though. Oh yeah. The choo-choo in the opening credits. Yeah, it's really cute. Every week, Nina and I will bring you an inside look at all the pop culture drama, the hottest takes you can handle, and honestly, maybe some you can't. Plus, celebrity guests galore. We're going to guide you through gorgeous wreckage of pop culture. We are unpacking the entertainment news. We're going to go all the way to Gen Z from YouTube taking over the horror genre to Olivia Rodrigo, redefining pop music. And then we're going to also talk about maybe you partying with Madonna a little bit. Oh yeah. That one time at the Abbey, it was sweaty, but in a good way. New episodes drop every Wednesday on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts.