Sen. John Fetterman on the Democratic Divide

Look, you know, I don't know when I'm going to leave this job. I don't know when I'm going to stay in this job. I don't know how these things are going to do. But when I do, you should replace me with Indeed. You should call Indeed when you're replacing me. Because, listen, this podcast, it requires skills. You need a face. You need a pie hole so that you can open your pie hole and just spout. That's, not everybody can do that. And so, you know, if you need to hire, you got to say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. You can reach candidates that meet your specific criteria. Like if you want them to have skills or pie hole certifications. Maybe even you want to know what the location is. Only Indeed can get that stuff done efficiently. Trust me, you know, you got to kiss a lot of frogs unless you use one of these services. They're like Indeed. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. And support our show by saying you heard about. Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. When you get older, you got to have yourself a little bit of the comfort. And that's where the avocado green mattress comes in, man. And unlike most mattress brands, they'll only sell you online. They do have stores too. You can go in the store. You can try them out. Unbelievably comfortable. Avocado mattress is designed for comfort, support, helping your body stay aligned. You know, the last time my body was aligned. It's been, I think it might've been the last time the Mets won the world series. That's how long it's been since it's been aligned. But these mattresses, avocado green mattress, responsibly sourced organic materials that are built to last. So get an avocado green mattress. Avocado products are made, not manufactured and thoughtfully crafted with real materials to deliver lasting comfort and support. You can experience them in person at an avocado showroom or premier retail. Or shop online at avocadogreenmattress.com slash TWS to check out their mattress and furniture sale. It's avocadogreenmattress.com slash TWS. Avocadogreenmattress.com slash TWS. Period. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the weekly show podcast on this. Summer day, August 4th, Tuesday, primary day, election day. Here are you, here are you. I voted. Sticker. That was my one man show called primary day, which happens in August, which as you know, is great for turnout. We don't know actually what happened in those. We're taping this podcast before the results are in. So by the time you hear it, you will know the results of all the hot primaries in Michigan and everywhere else. And it'll look like. We don't and that we're ignoring it, but we're not ignoring it. People, I'm not a time traveler, but we are going to be talking to somebody who has very strong opinions about what should happen in this very primary season. And he doesn't know the results of it either. So we're going to be talking about elections and the results of elections and what those elections might mean for people, all while ignoring the results of said elections, which might make us seem crazy. But there's probably so much more in this conversation that's going to make it seem crazy. So let's just get to it. So, ladies and gentlemen, we'll get right to it. We have with us today a senator, United States Senator for the great state of Pennsylvania. Go fight in Quakers. Ladies and gentlemen, Senator John Fetterman. Sir. Yes. First of all, where's where's Senator Fetterman? I see is a guy wearing a suit and tie. So, yeah, this is not a I. It's not a I. If I could impose a suit, I would. But but now, yeah, I'm in I'm in a suit. But normally I have a job interview today. Yeah. Well, I mean, but it just I thought, well, I'm already in it. So maybe I could just be a treat for everybody. I feel terrible now. I thought I'm sorry if you dressed underdressed in honor. You might have a business. Casual. So how are things going down there? Do you like being a senator? Is that a is that something that is that an enjoyable job or is it just you sit around just fighting with everybody? What's what's the vibe down there? Well, I mean, it's it's kind of a mixed thing. I mean, it's it's it's obviously an honor to be one of Pennsylvania's voice here in the United States Senate. And it's also some some of its professional wrestling. Not really kind of important. But some of it's very important as well, too. And that's really why people, I assume, get into this to be part of that conversation. So overall. But I think I've said this. People would be surprised. It's not exactly really glamorous. And now, like for me, I have a 300 square apartment here in D.C. back there. And it's not like that's not a lot of snappy, you know, West Wing kind of dialogue. Back and forth thing. A lot of it's more like kind of a thing. But but sometimes it is really important thing that will impact a lot of millions and millions of American. Are you guys going to have your your recess in August or is that are they. I know they're keeping you there. Last night, there was an overwhelming, like overwhelming bipartisan procedural vote last night for a continuing resolution. And I think it was eighty nine four. And so overall, that's can I guess the four. Yeah. No, no. Shut down. No shut down. Yeah. Rand Paul. Yeah. Well, of course, he he votes no one like he would be like cheeseburger and he would vote that shit down. I mean, but but yeah. And then I think it was Warren and then I think Sanders. But but overall, some people didn't go there because it was a travel day. But that's a strong statement saying that we want to avoid another shutdown. And and I'm elated to know that. Well, without a doubt, I mean, we've been through the two longest shutdowns of all American history and and that maybe at some time put me at odds with my party because it's always a bad thing to shut our government down and it shuts down parts of critical of our country. And it also punishes a lot of these workers. Now, everyone here in the in Congress are paid, but the people that aren't are like the people on the front line, like a TSA and doing those things. So overall, we have. We have to find a better way to to figure out things without shutting our down in kind of a tantrum. How how at odds are you with the party? You know, you said it sometimes puts you at odds. You clearly you're the guy everybody points to now as you're in the, I guess, mansion or cinema role, the the kind of contrarian. So so what's your relationship now with the. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I know. I mean, there's it's really it's not it's it's not that that at all. I mean, I mean, I deeply respect them as well, too, but I'm not that I think that's it's like an easy take to assume that. And that's just not me. If if you look at my voting record, I'm in 90 some percent voting the Democrat line. And now how I differ, how I differ is and that's become much more and more pronounced Israel, you know, after 10-7, the Gaza war. And nobody really saw how things would continue. We wouldn't be part of it now. Here we have at the Iranian war now and then in smaller other kinds of way, shutting our government down, countless kinds of vote to shut our government down. I would vote with the Republican side, not because I'm a Republican, but just the Democratic Party. We used to always be the party that says we must never shut our government down. That was part of what the Democratic Party really was. And I represent I represent Pennsylvania, really the most purple state, really, in the country. And now I don't represent just Democrats. I represent all people here in Pennsylvania. So these views are firmly rooted in basic kinds of Democratic values. But after the Trump reelection, that just kind of flipped some things on its head. And you do you attribute that to, you know, the what they call Trump derangement syndrome? Do you believe that that the Democrats? Democratic Party in those instances is suffering? I agree. It is a real thing. It is a real thing. And that makes it more difficult to try to call balls and strike. And, you know, I'm aware I'm aware that if I happen to disagree with, like, the party line, you know, there's a price to pay. But I think it's more important to be. Hey, I honestly think this is this is the right take. And I think what's appropriate and and no, I mean, There's a lot of stories of how I've become, you know, increasingly more unpopular with, with Democrats in my state and I'm aware of it, but these were all very specific choices because I think, you know, this is the correct take. And now I would rather have people know what I happen to believe because again, they are, they're rooted in very democratic kinds of values. Well, let me, let me sort of, so let's, let's tease that out a little bit. Cause I, you know, in, in America right now, the Republicans have the Senate, the house, the judiciary, they have the trifecta Supreme court, and they have the presidency. Yeah. Democrats represent, it's a pretty 50, 50 country. Wouldn't you say? I mean, we're, you know, right now, at least Democrats are represented by, you know, millions and millions and millions of votes, but they don't really have the way that the Republicans have governed any state. In anything. And so wouldn't you say that trying to use any leverage that they possibly could have to get things like reforms to ice agents that don't seem to be trained that, uh, are creating violence in the streets of America that aren't going after the worst of the worst, but are frightening, hardworking, uh, immigrants into staying in their homes. Don't you think that's a legitimate reason to try and leverage, uh, whatever opportunity they would have TDS seems like a, a convenient excuse for a lot of legitimate concerns. Hmm. Yeah. Well, the only actual tool and the only actual real leverage that Democrats have, that's the filibuster a hundred percent, you know, and I, I just had an op-ed in the Washington post, and I was trying to remind, uh, America and Democrats specifically that we, including me, we were so wrong about scrapping the filibuster back in the 2022 cycle. Now we all ran on that and we all were committed to eliminate the filibuster. And if we were successful, we may have passed some things back in 22, but a hundred percent in January of 2024 or 2025, you know, they would have been able to run the table, a hundred percent run the table. And if anyone that's listening have been horrified or troubled by the lot of the lot of legislation being proposed, that would have been amateur hour compared to how they would have been able to remake our society because they would have had the trifecta. Trump was at the apex of his power and they could have passed and done everything. And if the Senate was working on basic majority, like the house, we would have rendered ourselves as essentially a smaller version of the house and they would have been able to remake our society. Wouldn't you say they, they have remade our society, you know, by using gimmicks like reconciliation, by using, using executive power in ways that hadn't been used before. Haven't they done that already? Yeah. Well, a lot of those executive orders were just overturned or stopped by the courts. And now I know I kind of took, I kind of got whacked when I said, well, what is a real constitutional crisis? That's when, that's when the president is going to defy, you know, court orders. And because it doesn't describe the solution in the constitution, that is a crisis. And as far as I know that the president hasn't defied a single court order, a lot of noise, but he hasn't defied any specific ones. Well, he has, I mean, he's, he's defied court orders and congressional law. I mean, just even in the TikTok case, you know, you guys voted that that had to be divested and he just, he ignored that. He just didn't do it. And then he, he handed a pretty powerful social media tool to his friends, the Ellisons and, and, and other people. I guess that's my point is I understand you're saying there are certain norms or things that you don't want Democrats to do, but given the legitimate concerns that people have about, executive overreach, uh, you know, these types of, sure. Absolutely. That's a real thing. Of course. Yeah. But, but I'd like to revisit this idea of the filibuster, the democratic party, and I am part of it. And I was definitely part of that to eliminating the filibuster, how dangerous that was if we were successful and they would have been able to pass every single, you know, wishlist, you know, on the Republican playbook. And now we would have been a whim of the political extremism. They'd be able to pass everything. The only thing that we, we've ever stopped save, save America act and other things. Yeah. That's, that's the only thing the filibuster has, has actually done. In fact, you've played kind of a role in getting their nominees going. You've been kind of the, the contradictory vote from the Democrats to get him some pretty controversial appointees. I I'm just curious because the filibuster seems like it hasn't really stopped them from doing, getting the people that they want, getting unqualified people into the cabinet, into the, the department of justice. Yeah. I mean, and many of them, many of them I didn't vote for. And if you're going to bring up Blanche, I'm not going to vote for him as well too. There's some that I would vote for. And then there's, there's many that I haven't because that it's just, I don't believe that's the kind of right person for, for, for the job overall. I really try to call balls and strikes. I do think like, for example, Mayorkas, he did, he did a terrible job. He was, it was never should be impeached. He didn't break the law, you know, incompetence, you know, is not, you know, for impeachment, but, but overall trying to describe an onerous assessment that as, as, as a Democrat from Pennsylvania, that's been, that's been my role. And if you look at my voting record, you know, I haven't, I haven't changed these core things like pro-choice. I don't pick on, turn our back on the gay or trans community in America and very, very pro-immigration, very, very pro-union, all of those kind of boilerplate kinds of democratic issues that ha that hasn't changed. So, so that that's where we're at. And now you talk about ICE. Absolutely. You know, like I called for a gnome, she has to go. And now we brought in a new leader. Now I've said this deport all of the criminals, a hundred percent deport all of them. I hope we could all agree on those things. We need to secure our border. We do need to secure a border. And, and I've said, do not target otherwise hardworking, you know, migrants that are a very important part of our economy, specifically like in my state in agriculture too, or terrorism or these other kinds of positions to trying to find the right balance of, of secure a border, deport all the criminals, but stop targeting otherwise innocent kinds of migrants here. But they are, they are doing that. My wife was a former dreamer. Yeah. Right. But that's my point. My point is, so they are targeting those people and, and they are, you know, there've been killings and, uh, even, uh, Holman has admitted that the training on the killing and in, I can't remember if it was Maine or if it was the one in Minnesota, you know, there's quite a few of them. So I guess my question to you is you're agreeing with, uh, uh, the majority, I think of, of Democrats on that. Yeah. But not agreeing vocal, like, right. But not agreeing with their method of, of Trump. How do Democrats influence that? If the Trump administration is running roughshod over what you just said, they're not just doing the criminals. They've deported citizens that are, or, or they've jailed citizens. They've taken, uh, uh, immigration, which was generally a civil concern and made it a criminal concern. They want to build giant warehouses where they just bring people that are there on, on civil violations or what used to be civil violations. So if they can't use things like a threat of a shutdown, where would, where would you suggest they use their lack of power? Well, you know, I, I work with the new secretary Mullen and now all of those warehouses in Pennsylvania were canceled. I mean, that that's a fact and shut the government down on that. There wasn't one single ice reforms or anything, you know, like, you can want reforms and you can engage in those dialogue, but shutting the government down when that has zero, zero impact on the way Homeland Security is going to operate because they were funded through the big, beautiful bill. The thing that I never, I did not vote for that as well too. They had a limited money. So for me, it was a decision said, should I just vote to shut our government down? Even though every single Democrat in my caucus knew that it would have no direct or even an indirect, leverage over ice to behave the way that we all want them to do. So do that. That's, that's a demand from an agitated, angry base. And I'm willing to say, look, that's the wrong thing. That's the wrong solution for a reasonable conversation to have with people saying we want to make those kinds of changes for ice. So, so what is the way to make those changes? Because my understanding of the shutdown was they were saying, we will shut it down unless you make those changes. Not that, uh, somehow that those changes would be made because it wasn't funded. I, I understand that that's what you're saying, but that was the threat. Yeah. And, and there was no, There was no no forced any kinds of things. So we you know, the Democratic caucus there walked away with empty pockets about shutting our government down on both sides. So that's it's it's a reasonable kinds of concerns, but it's the wrong tool or the solution in order to achieve it. Win elections, win elections, and then that puts you in the better position. Ground news, that's what I'm talking about, because these guys, they're not. Listen, you know me, I'm not a big fan of the news outlets, those bastards. That's right. Can I say that on this? Bastards. Ground news is a website and an app because this is America in the 2020s. You got to have an app and it helps you better understand the news you consume. They got a blind spot feed, helps you find stories that aren't being covered by your side. It is instructional in a way you begin to see the matrix, the matrix. Not the matrix three or even to the matrix, the actual matrix, the one with Neo, the real not the you know what I'm talking about. You can see who owns every news outlet and you compare how these different outlets frame their stories like Bezos might frame it differently. Now, I'm just I was just a name that popped into my head. No reason, no reason why to get the same unlimited access to the Vantage subscription. Go to ground news dot com slash Stewart. And subscribe to get 40 percent off. I've partnered with ground news to get you the discount that is available only for a limited time. That's ground news dot com slash Stewart or scan the QR code on screen. Thank you to ground news for sponsoring this episode. And now you have you have my my party, you know, they're returning back to the worst impulses, abolish ice, abolish the border and say these kinds of. Extreme things you're saying the Democratic Party is returning to abolish ice and and abolish borders. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the people that are winning, like, you know, you know, when we're filming this, you know, in Michigan, both, you know, the person that's going to win is a calling to abolish ice. And then the governor race in Wisconsin, she in fact, she even said abolish prisons as well, too. She's but she said that she had said that previously and she's walked that back in the same. Same way that a lot of people. Well, I mean, in the heat of the George Floyd moment said defund the police and then ultimately said, you know what, that that was an emotional response. And I think that was the wrong policy. But aren't you elevating what seems to be a I mean, how many people have like three, three DSA or five there? It seems like the Democratic Party is is largely still just the Democratic Party. And there are some people that associate with. Either the DSA or social democracies that are that are gaining a foothold. But I don't imagine how many what are we talking about? Three or four? Well, it's it's it's actually many more. There's one in Colorado. There's many in New York. And now I just seen the recent poll over a third of Democrats identify themselves as socialists or or have sympathies towards in that kind of way. So it is it is a significant issue. Right. And. And I would remind people we got wrecked in twenty four because a lot of the extreme things that we we were saying in twenty twenty now came back to haunt us. And that's why we found ourselves here in the minority. And I'm saying, hey, we can't go back to the same extreme views because we have to win actual battleground states. It's not echo chambers in Brooklyn or now. And here you see the people with these extreme views are breaking through. In Michigan and in Wisconsin and places like in Colorado and there. So I'm saying let's resist these extreme kinds of views to abolish everything. And now the DSA is is an emerging factor here. Now, that's I'm not elevating him. I'm just describing what I'm witnessing that's coming as a regular Democrat. And now that's that's the reality. And I think I expect Al Sayed will win by double digits. Well, let me let me see if I can frame this in a slightly different way. Why do you think it is that there is a kind of momentum behind these more, you know, as you would call them extremists? Or I would say, you know, they're a mix. There's a certain nuance to it. But don't you think that that's happening for a reason? In other words, the same sort of impulses and energies that drove Donald Trump's rise. Economic populism. A dissatisfaction with the status quo on the Democratic side. Couldn't you say that this is happening because establishment Democrats, the party that you're talking about, that you think is the more reasonable party, hasn't delivered for people in the way that they think is appropriate? You know, these moments don't happen out of thin air. These are conditions on the ground where people are dissatisfied with. The status quo. And you have candidates that come up and they present economic proposals and other proposals that feel more urgent to the moment. In other words, why are you blaming them when in some ways you could be blaming yourself and your colleagues? It's not. Well, I'm not blaming. I'm describing here where we are and what's happening now, too. And I'm like, when we have people winning elections, saying absurd kinds of positions. That were absolutely toxic back in 2020 and saying, stop saying these kind of extreme things are not workable in the real world overall. And don't we want to win? Do we want to be the people, you know, leading leading the conversation instead of having another kinds of subordinate position like we are currently in and have been since in January of twenty twenty five? So you think you lost in twenty twenty four because of the. The extremism of Kamala Harris and Tim Walls or the Joe Biden administration? Yeah, I mean, I mean, I was I was on the, you know, in fact, El Sayed, for example, he was a big leader in the uncommitted, uncommitted saying, don't vote Democrat, don't vote for these people. And now, like some things that I've never done, you know, I drove thousands and thousands of miles all across Pennsylvania to try to elect Vice President Harris. And I've done that. But on the ground. It's very clear we're going down because the energy and a lot of the way that they've been positioned as people that are not in touch with people. And we've lost the argument. And at no point that I had a strong feeling that we can win this. And anyone spent time in Pennsylvania there during that election. We all understood we have a serious challenge. But don't you think this. This new sort of energy and economic populism. Is a response to that. Well, what is that? Is that socialism? And in more, it's communism. It's, you know, that that's not an economic model that has never worked in in the history. But that's aren't you just that sounds like a caricature that doesn't say El Sayed is running on. He wants to ban corporate money, wants to tax, I guess, higher taxes on billionaires for housing and education, Medicare for all. You know, when you say that's communism. That feels like that feels like a caricature. I never said that. I call real communists that that are cheering for communism. People like Hassan Piker, for example. You know, he's a big, big influence, you know, in the Democratic Party conversation. And he is he is a communist. He celebrates Mao and describes and is going to be proud to visit Cuba and stand on people on those sides. That's not a smear. That's just the using the kinds of words and the. Positions that he has has made part of part of his his platform. So you're saying he says, I'm a communist and I want America to be communist. No, I'm saying I'm saying that that he has the kinds of views. Now, you were very, very instrumental in delivering aid for victims of 9/11, you know, like, you know, you've been you've been here and you've been very effective for do that now for an individual. It says that America, we deserve that. Hey, I'm deeply offended by that and I don't support that and I'm certainly not going to campaign with him or I'm not going to explain that way. Well, Bill Maher said that the 9/11 terrorists weren't cowards and you went on his podcast and you talked to him all the time. So I guess what I'm saying is, aren't you cherry picking certain things and maybe losing the forest for the trees to the two things are not the same, you know, making it making a. Statement compared to saying that we deserve that opposed to describing it in different terms. So that's just not that's just not that not. But he's he's not running. And Bill Maher is not a communist to Bill Maher does not describe Hamas is a thousand percent better than Israel. So for you, it's it literally is they've made statements in the past or or their economic policies are more sympathetic to socialism. So let me let me shift it a bit. You want capitalism to survive. Yes, absolutely. I'm absolutely proud, proud American capitalist. And I do think, you know, I'm much more concerned about our country losing losing to China in the race. And now for me, another unpopular view that I might have as a Democrat data centers, data centers, if we ban them or we have a long term moratorium, China would be elated, elated on that. And you have frontier models like Mythos and now the new AI version one. They've been able to break out. They've been able to break out and to hack and go attack other kinds of organizations. Thank God that they're American companies. The second the Chinese are able to have those frontier models and unleash them on there. So that's going to make these small, small potatoes in terms of the kind of economic damage that that an AI model with. Those kind of capabilities like Mythos, you know, in the Chinese hands or say another one. You know, that's what I'm really concerned about for me. But that I mean, that's a case for stronger regulation, which we aren't doing because the AI companies should have. We should have regulation. Right. But there we're not doing it because the AI companies are paying millions and millions of dollars into our government. But I want to get back to sort of what we're talking about. You're saying you're a capitalist. So this is I. I just want to reframe the argument a little bit because Piker, I don't think is a communist. I think he said he's socialist. But the point being, do you think capitalism isn't one of the reasons there's so much energy on the left now for this type of populist rhetoric is that many people believe that capitalism, as we are practicing it, meaning a lot of corruption, crony capitalism, a lot of the playing field is tilted. Towards capital investment and away from labor, that capitalism as it is being practiced in America is increasing inequality and leaving too many people behind and that this energy is not there necessarily to destroy it, but to reform it in a way that will re balance the scale. So what I'm asking is, don't you think this is coming from the lived experience of people under the way capitalism is being practiced in America in this moment? The second we we hinder our own ability to develop these kind of tools, the Chinese will seize the lead and then they would weaponize that in ways and the kinds of damage they could inflict are untold trillions. And that that's my real concern for a lot about that overall. than denigrating them and caricaturing them why not work with them so that the capitalist system you love what what does that mean by working with them and and now like so overall i i don't necessarily agree with everything of your argument sure sure well it's like it's like the great depression you know we're not in the great great depression you know and the economy continues to to grow overall and with with without a doubt um and then some things are too expensive without a doubt there are but eventually i think the market will address that back in 24 the whole world was eggs eggs eggs eggs eggs you know out of control and now then when it when it returned back to a normal price uh people don't talk about eggs anymore so it's it's a lot of these other thing you know overall and then world war ii and that reminds the world that we saved we saved democracy in our country and we are the good guys and there are people on the far left now they're making it seem that that america is is the problem or we are the we are the aggressor or we are behind uh many of the troubles here across the globe so in other words if el sayed or aoc or bernie sanders has proposals uh that strengthen a social safety net or readjust tax rates or change the way that or here's just a simple one tax capital capital gains in the same way you would tax salaries like work is for suckers work is taxed at a higher level than uh investments doesn't that doesn't that tilt the playing field to people who already have money and if the progressive left is saying these are the types of things that we need to do wouldn't that appeal to you well what appeals to me is eliminating unlimited money and politics without a doubt and that's a position that they hold well it's it's not they they don't own that it's like i've been saying that i mean any reasonable person realized that unlimited money is a poison in american democracy i've been saying that from the beginner it's not it's not something that they own or for that now my race my race my race was 320 million dollars in my race in 22 and then in the 24 cycle was half a billion dollars for a senate race and now watch watch how out of control that race is going to get here in 26 and then in 28 it's going to make my race look quaint in terms of the the billions of dollars that are being thrown at that that more than anything is the accelerant on and it's fueling a lot of the extremism for now too and and also another problem is the primary system too the extreme extreme views are the most activated and they are the most part of the primary sure and then that pushes people away from a reasonable kinds of solution for thing to you know it whether on both sides left or right too and and i i reject both the extremes on on either side but it seems like you're more comfortable angrily denigrating the extreme or what you consider the extreme on the left than the right like in in the way that you felt uh in in the way that you talked to el sayed like why call them pro hamas if they just want to criticize i said that because he's campaigning with people that are absolutely pro hamas well who you mean hassan piker you say is pro hamas and so you're you're basing this just on that he said he is you know like if you campaign and proud to align yourself with pro very pro hamas people it's like yeah i you know i i have a pro view for hamas but i guess what i'm saying is i feel like you're caricaturing people's views if they're critical of israel if someone says i think hamas and israel are both uh criminal organizations you know doing uh killing people for terrible reasons that's how is that pro hamas that's not saying you know what i'm saying it's like people that just says hamas is a thousand percent them are democratic or ally israel then yeah that's pro hamas but saying they're less evil than israel if they think israel is evil is not the same as pro i'll give you an example no like okay like pikers pikers said a lot of incredibly you know very pro hamas kind of thing i'm not gonna it's like it's like if you support hamas and campaign with people that support hamas then that identifies someone as pro hamas i guess what i'm saying is i don't i have not seen statements where these candidates say i am pro hamas what i have seen is statements where they are very critical of israel the israeli government and the way that they have conducted themselves in gaza and by the way they're not alone the icc and the un and human rights watch have all been unbelievably critical and i guess i'm having trouble figuring out why i feel like you're caricaturing it let me let me go out this a different way you're pro gay rights yes yeah i mean i'm coming up on the 13th i'm on the pro 13th anniversary i was the first first person to to solemnize a gay marriage you know when it was illegal in pennsylvania beautiful yeah and you're and you're uh someone who is pro trans rights or or i i absolutely i okay i was i was the only democrat that's saying you know when when when they actively were trying to ban trans americans from our military right there you know so what the right would say about that is that you're pro mutilation of children that's what they would say that would be their caricature of your position do you agree that that's what they would say what i would what i would say is what i'm saying is is right now our party is starting to elect people who are pro trans rights and who are pro trans people that are going to struggle to win in the kinds of places that are going to define who's going to win in 28 that's that's a fact and now a lot of these ideas and a lot of these extreme views are coming from the kind of people that have never won a real competitive election in state that holds both sides you know and hold people accountable to explain a way forward when we live in a very divided country right now so overall i think the responsibility is to police to police your own ranks you know and it's like there's plenty of people as i've been criticizing some of the republican views but overall describing what garbage is garbage like p hustle in maine you know like i was you know like he was an absolute garbage oh platner platter yeah i mean like so that's not a caricature and you were saying that before the allegations of of rape what i'm saying is it's like a nazi tattoo on your chest means like yeah you probably have nazi inclinations and if you are accused of roughing up your ex-girlfriends yeah that's that's that's a non-starter for me and if you think an american hero you know that's being being shot by the taliban that is a dumb motherfucker that deserves to die i think that disqualifying is too i think maine has a better person to to represent you know my party so i there's just a couple things here and i appreciate you the conversation if your concern is elections you've been very fair here absolutely if your concern is winning elections i don't know if you coming out and calling people pro hamas which i think is a caricature of many of their positions is that helpful to them and second of all you've been very you know you called president trump a jag off in 2016 like we all we all have tweets i put it on a shirt i sold them you put it on a shirt and now you've been very complimentary to him and if your concern with graham platner is you didn't think he was very nice to women you're ignoring an awful lot of evidence for the current president about his relationship with women so my point is there seems like there's a way to go about this that embraces as you said the 90 of things that you agree with and try and utilize that energy to reform a party that has a worse uh public image than herpes in terms of getting things done this feels like it's playing into the hands of republican caricatures why can't people on the democratic pie finally figure out why trump was so competitive and winning two out of the three last cycles why is he still in power and why is he still in power and why is he still here why are we still doing it because we keep losing and now we keep returning back some of the extreme thing that's not a caricature that is a fair assessment of where we are with these kind of things but we didn't you kamala harris is was not a progressive left candidate she was not a tim wall like they're i i i guess everybody said donald trump couldn't win yeah i campaigned all across it that and now you know all those signature kinds of Trump things. beautiful bill i did not vote for that and save act i said we'll not vote for that and some of these big signature ones and when we vote for blanche and this week when we're filmed i won't for him either as well now too so what really matters is the votes and what's behind that and what's really set me apart of most of the democratic party is israel and that's fair it criticized john federman on israel without a doubt a hundred a hundred percent so that's been primarily and that's been driving our party in ways is is that so for you you could agree with them ninety percent but israel is the red line absolutely israel for me like i i can't ever turn my back to israel after after where it's at but so and and i mean no disrespect on this but that is not our country so it's i don't understand you're saying that uh these candidates may have great ideas for our economy they may want to do the exact same thing you want to do in terms of getting money out of politics they may want to increase the social safety net they may want to uh change the balance of power from capital back to labor but if they don't agree with you on israel you don't want them in your party well i don't know who you're referencing to specifically no i'm i'm i'm referencing what you just said name one partner so in other words syed or aoc or bernie sanders i assume you agree with a lot of what they say economically and what i'm saying is like if you are a dsa member if you are a member of a specific political party run under your own banner and now i think bill maher said something very insightfully he said you know the dsa are colonizing colonizing the democratic party so just be democrats if you're going to run under the democratic party for that why have a dsa party for overall but aren't there aren't there things it's it's just an organization it's not we we have a two-party system we don't it's like the freedom caucus in the republican party there are you know there's randy fine and ogles and all these nutbags that are also part of uh an area and republicans i'm sure may not agree with all of them on all kinds of things but there is no other party i guess you could you could try it but my point is if you don't disagree with them on a lot of things why not use some of that energy and even like mamdani in new york is dsa but there are things in the dsa platform that he disagrees with and i'm assuming there's probably things in the democratic platform that you might disagree with but you don't disavow the entire thing you're literally saying it's all we can all have discussions except when it comes to israel which is not america it seems like a weird line to draw well i don't think that's weird i think i think what history demonstrates is is that when when people or a government or people turn their back to to the jewish community things end really badly jewish community and israel are not the same thing brother man they're not that that is not the same thing no no no it's like hey it's like if i have to pick a side for for after 10 7 and after iran you know i'm always i'm always going to stand with israel i'm always going to vote and support whatever that's necessary to protect themselves and to prosecute hamas hezbollah and iran too and the the very left never said a peep after iran executed 30 to 40 000 young people in there just for protesting for democracy you think that the left is pro iran pro not not the country but the the regime what i'm saying what i'm saying though is like if if if anyone in the democratic party is fine with iran building a nuclear bomb i disagree with that person i i think most people are again i i think you're caricaturing the issue but i want to is there anything you would criticize israel about no what what i what i would say is is that i have not a single democrat that's willing to go on record saying i'm cool it's okay if iran builds a nuclear bomb and and i supported last summer last summer uh bombing the the iranian nuclear facilities i think that was a necessary and important thing because iran is becoming close close close to to building a nuclear bomb and that would i think the case was not made by this administration that iran was close netanyahu's been claiming they're two weeks away for the last 20 years but my point is so would you say everything israel is doing is for their own self-defense that the way that they've taken destroying its enemies yeah yeah that is destroying its enemies or flattening a tiny area and pushing two million people into 30 to 35 to 40 percent of that territory and having a siege of that area is that in their is that in their self-defense no what i'm saying it's like people forget that that hamas were just rapists and they were terrorizing and killing civilians and then they stole five no how many 250 uh people from their families and they kept them on the ground and brutalized them and and raped them and starved them for over two years and that's why they refused to give them back and that's what forced israel to engage in that gaza war when they refused to uh send their people and there is nothing in the prosecution of that war that gives you pause what do you mean the killing of tens of thousands of children no absolutely awful absolutely because hamas has embed themselves you know behind these people and using the palestinians as human shields sin war described the death of innocent palestinians as a necessary sacrifice that's how hamas has designed that there are people in netanyahu's cabinet who have said they would like to nuke the palestinians not hamas the palestinians i i'm just i guess what i'm trying to get at is i don't understand why we can't criticize even someone that you think is an ally for actions that we deem to be morally reprehensible like i don't understand how you can defend the settlements in the west bank and like i don't understand how you have no criticisms over their actions over their increasingly messianic ultra right-wing government that seems to think relentless war is the like that you can't and bomb people out of resistance it have you ever seen a movie called gatekeepers it's people that have been in shin bet and ran the army in israel and they're talking about how the strategy that israel has uh of of disproportionate retaliation even though they are by far the most powerful force in that region is not a path to keep israel safe everybody i you know obviously it's a podcast so like you got to do ads that's just kind of the way the world works and you do the ads and you try and be selective in terms of the companies like somebody might come to you and say uh would you know we'd like to advertise with you and you're like wait but don't you guys make uh a death star but every now and again a company comes along and you're like oh shit i use those hey hey you actually go like oh yeah those are great and that's where we're at now bombas bombas is great i use those and and and not just like not in in the sense of like oh socks yeah i mean everybody uses those i'm not a delicate flower i'm not i'm not one of those bold dock cider no sock dudes that we all read about in the 80s bonfire the such none of that no i wear the socks for comfort but the socks i wear are bombas they're phenomenal socks they're they're soft they're top of the line uh they feel incredible on on the feet when your feet feel good that's the starting block that's the the baseline that's your foundation you know what i'm saying now they got t-shirts and underwear too what start with the foundation and build all the way up in comfort and generosity by the way head over to bombas.com slash weekly and use code weekly for 20 off your first purchase that's b-o-m-b-a-s.com slash weekly code weekly at checkout do it now you fucks you what i'm saying is is that the that israel was entirely open to a two-state solution they were offered a two-state solution you know i actually got a chance to talk to a former president clinton about that and reminds the people that they were offered 96 of the west bank and they get to pick four percent you know for part of israel and they had east jerusalem as the capital and they would have had their entire nation and now going on 26 years now they reject that they did not want a two-state solution they have a one-state solution and they're not going to be able to do that they're not going to be able to do that they have a one-state solution and that's from the river to the sea and that's part of why anti-semitism is run amok in our college campuses and in the in the streets and now they're protesters showing up in my office at my home and following me and screaming and calling calling about and claiming about genocide. And now it's not a genocide. And if there was a genocide, that's because Iran refuses to relinquish this idea that they can destroy Israel. Now live in peace and now live your lives and stop funneling billions into Hezbollah and Hamas trying to destroy Israel. That's the honest and the dynamic in the region. And now there will be a democratic election in Israel in October. Will Netanyahu win or not overall, but that's the true only democracy in the entire region. So it's like, I've never said that Israel is perfect. What I'm saying though, that's our special ally. And now until we're in Italy at war, I'm going to stand with our, our special ally and describe the circumstances with Hamas or Hezbollah or the way Iran continues to behave. No one's saying it's not a dangerous neighborhood, but I think, the behavior of that government is worth more than, and as they're not just special neighbor and ally, we're the ones who fund a great deal of it. You know, they've, Israel has made in the way that they've sort of indirectly funded Hamas, it very difficult for moderates, you know, when, I mean, we're getting into a whole thing here, but I think you believe Netanyahu and his government operating in good faith that they really want a peace deal. And I'm saying they're not. Netanyahu has been very clear that he doesn't want a two-state solution. He said it, he said, it's not going to happen. There will be no two-state solution. And yet they say that they're a democratic state, but demographics there would say they can't be a true democracy because they'd be worried about that diluting what they consider to be their Jewish state. Now that's a whole different thing. Other argument of whether states should be this or that. But the point being that when we went to war in Iraq or we went to war in Afghanistan, I criticized America for the way that they were prosecuting that war and the cavalier way in which we were wasting American treasure and American lives. That doesn't make me pro-Al Qaeda in the same way that if you criticize Israel for a devastating, an enormous group of people because of Hamas, not Palestinians, Hamas. They are not the same. Jews are not the same as Israel. They are the government that the Hamas, the Palestinian people have elected. They elected them in, what is it, 2008. And there hasn't been an election since. And it was a desperate people in a siege situation. Yeah, because, because they elected a murderous, you know, system now. Sharon pulled out the settlements from Gaza. And then you had a double-blind study. Was Israel going to help the mob? Was it going to help the moderates? Or was it going to empower the extremists? And Israel's actions during that time empowered the extremists and undercut the moderates. And they've done that over and over and over again. Look, you can say that the Palestinians are trying to kill the Jews, right? But it's, let's say it's Hamas or Hezbollah or whatever it is, or Iran. Jewish settlers are killing Palestinians. And when they asked Netanyahu about it, he said, well, it's just like 100 to 150 juvenile delinquents. And we can't quite get a handle on it. Meaning Israel wasn't able to control this small element that was killing people. Does that mean that the international community should say you don't deserve a state because you don't have total control of the violent elements in your mess? But that's what they're saying. Why does Israel get to decide? Well, the defining question is, does Israel engage in a genocide in Palestine? Well, according to the people that define those things, yes. Okay. Well, and I strongly disagree with that. By definition, that wasn't a genocide. The Jewish community actually experienced a true, true genocide for that. Now, if Israel's goal was to eliminate as many Palestinians as possible, they could have accomplished that a long time back. They were not engaging in a genocide. Just because you're killing a group, just because you're killing a group slowly doesn't mean you're not killing a group. Just because you could do it faster. No, no, no, no. That was the terrible cattle, the collateral, you know, of an urban war that forced Israel to fight behind because Hamas was holding their hostages and refused to disarm and send our people back home. I think they've killed like 1,200 Palestinians since the ceasefire. Yeah. Most of them were killing Hamas leadership. And I think that's necessary, you know, when you have people that were responsible for organizing 10-7. And I was like, I think it's entirely appropriate to eliminate them. I think eliminating the people who organized 10-7 is entirely appropriate. That is absolutely correct. But in the same way that if we had gone into Afghanistan and just flattened it, the American people would have been out raged, that we had no discernment, that we couldn't tell the difference. The issue here is dehumanization. Whether you're dehumanizing Jews and relating them to Israel, when you dehumanize a group, when you're unable to discern the difference between the worst of the worst, the same way we're doing with our immigration policy, it all ties together through Middle East policy. If we allow dehumanization to happen, we're not going to be able to get in any form. Then we are complicit in the results of those dehumanizing actions. And by being unable to tell the difference between a democratic socialist and a social Democrat and a Hamas supporter and a communist and a Zionist and a Jew and Netanyahu and an actor in good faith, we lose the ability to solve the problems that we're facing because we are caricaturing and dehumanizing. John, is it a fair question here? Has become the term Zionist, that's become a slur on the democratic side. If someone refers to you as a Zionist, that's become essentially a slur for people to say that thing. And that's part of where the party has lost its way in there. If you're describing people that I'm very sorry about, I'm very sorry about that. I'm very sorry about that. supportive of a jewish state and they've weaponized that against people i think if they believe that that jewish state is acting in a manner that is uh overly violent and dehumanizing and constantly at war in a region that's where that's coming from well or it's like if hamas refuses to disarm and they refuse to send their people back home i mean then still right now they've never been able willing to just disarm and now start the process that made them viable targets and i support israel eliminating people that were part of planning 10-7 i i think most people support people eliminating those who supported 10-7 but will israel disarm the settlers i mean they've they've given them weapons and those weapons are yeah being used to kill there are moving they're moving parts but what makes it impossible right now because hamas and iran and hezbollah refuse to say look we've lost and now we have to find a better way to rebuild our society and i'd remind people that iran eliminated and and just killed in their streets and and just killed tens of thousands of its own young people yes they're hanging they're they're hanging they're holding back and they're fighting for democracy too i don't see the kind of college protest outrage and saying how iran has done and they continue because they don't consider iran an ally they don't give money to iran we don't give billions of dollars a year to iran we sanction them we try to do various things to remove uh we try and scorn them we try and create the situation to undermine uh that regime but what we haven't learned is that 40 and 50 years of endless wars don't get rid of that regime and we're not going to get rid of that regime we're going to the peaceful results that we are searching for they don't make it that the whole point of all of this is to build coalitions of of nations of good faith to try and create uh uh a safer and and less violent world and not just play into it with bigger weapons and more weapons because we see what happens all the bombing that we've done in iran and they've got some lawnmower parks and a they continue to keep the straight a whore moves close like when are we going to learn that violence or in stephen miller's thing right makes uh might makes right when are we going to learn that's not necessarily the case that the whole point for us should be to create a society and institutions that move us away from that violence because we've already discovered a quarter century ago that peace and negotiating a very incredibly insanely fair settlement they reject the that they don't want that you know we've tried other thing right now and if if hamas and iran did not done what's happened in 10-7, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. I don't know that we wouldn't be having this conversation right now because at every turn, the answer has always been tighter control over areas that Palestinians live in and more bombing and more things. I don't necessarily know that that's the case. And all the Arab states in 2002 offered Israel to normalize relations for the granting of a Palestinian state, and Israel rejected it. And Rabin, who was trying to make peace in that area with the Palestinians, was assassinated, not by Hamas, but by an Israeli extremist. So the idea that they are somehow blameless or have done nothing wrong is, I don't understand why we can't criticize them. Well, I am not ever going to think, well, they're not going to do anything wrong. They're not going to do anything wrong. And I don't understand why we can't criticize them. They have a valid point if they're killing and firing rockets at civilians, and now they're raping them, and they're filming, you know, setting families on fire for the way they behave that thing. And they abuse the own Palestinians, too. And all of those accusations have been disproven. No question. About starving people. And now the UN just acknowledged, well, actually, Hamas has been stealing all of the aid, and they keep the prime stuff, and they resell the stuff to the poor Palestinians as well, too. A lot of that thing was. So, I just got to. I mean, even senior military officials had told the New York Times in July of 2025 that there was no evidence that Hamas systematically stole UNAID. But that's not the point. Yeah, well, in July of 26 is that there was evidence there. They were right. It's actually true. I think if we don't have the ability to criticize a so-called ally for egregious and violent behaviors, then we are not an ally. And we shouldn't be, because we should have the ability to stand up morally in situations that we need to, even for people that we believe to be on our quote-unquote side. And our inability to do that is a real detriment to our own moral foundation. Yeah. I mean, I'm very much aware what the Democratic base would demand of me and to have these specific kind of beliefs and views. And take the kind of votes. And I refuse to do that, knowing exactly that that would put me in political peril. And I don't have any regret about those things. But overall, for me, when you have this existential kind of a war after 10-7, and how things continues to continue for under those terms now, it's like, what side? Hamas, Israel. Israel, that's an easy choice. Hezbollah firing tens of thousands of rockets at civilians in Israel. Israel. I'm absolutely going to support Israel. Iran is the same thing right now. What about team humanity? Oh, yeah. I mean, I am. Where it's not actually that choice. It's about why are we willing to sacrifice so many young people that have nothing to do with any of this in that region for this idea that it's merely Hamas versus Israel? That's just an over, I think, simplification of what's happening there. I mean, and what's becoming is this entire conversation. Yeah, you're right. You're right. It's going to be a very fair conversation. No, no, no, no, no. I appreciate it. And it's like this become the ultimate litmus, you know, as Democrats emerging right now. And I'm not dumb. I know voting, voting against the war powers thing, I know that's incredibly toxic as a Democrat right now. But I do think it's fundamentally important to make sure that Iran is not able to build a nuclear bomb. So that's just put me where I'm at. We have different views. And and that's that's defining the Democratic Party. In some ways, I think we have the same views, but with different strategies. I guess what I would say is, I'm not down with the nuclear bomb. And I'm not down with Hamas. And I'm not down with a murderous Israeli regime that dehumanizes a huge group of people either. I'm not down with a world that has lost the ability to solve its problems through collective action and diplomacy. That's the biggest problem. And our government is complicit in that as well. Now, you know, that dysfunction, how do we get back to that, Senator? How do we get back to a functional like even the immigration system? Lankford comes up with a solution that both parties sign off on. And Donald Trump comes in before the election and says, tank it, because I want to run on the dysfunction of the immigration system. Yeah. And I knew I knew we would get rolled on that. I'm like, there's no chance that Trump is going to hand over one of their largest kinds of issues. Like, I fully expect that we were going to get rolled over the bipartisan deal on on immigration now. So that's that's what happened. So in your mind, is it possible to get back to that? Or are we now just in a dysfunctional cycle? And are you more worried about the progressive left than you are about the right? I'm, I'm worried about we people are forgetting, it's like, how do we win elections? It's like, you know, have have the kind of views that the majority of people that are going to define who's going to be the next wave of leadership, you know, you have to win these people over and not offend them or to put them off the way that's already happened, and have made the Trump administration so competitive over the last three cycles, winning two of the top three, and could have easily won the one in the middle now to now there was no voter fraud in Pennsylvania as a lieutenant governor, I've described that secure, you know, absolutely fair, fair, fair. If you only complain about an election, if you lose, then obviously, that's demonstrating that that's what's behind those things. So that's, that's where we're at. And these extreme views that have never won, have never won a meaningful election. Overall, I'm saying, let's consider like, let's not revisit that after we've seen how badly that's ended. Any possibility they're running to the left in the primary, and will tack a little bit to the center in the, in the regular election? Well, I mean, who knows how that's going to be? The under these extreme things, you know, Trump administration has made virtually anything politically possible. And that's why you have some of these people. And our party winning that have described things in extreme views that it's made, it's okay, or they dismiss it, or say that it doesn't really matter. Right? Well, we certainly appreciate the conversation, Senator, you've been very generous with your time. You've been wearing a suit, which I have to tell you, gives you a little gravitas. As you were talking, I was like, you know, I wasn't gonna listen to this guy, but I'm But overall, John, you know, I've always been a long term fan, like we discussed where, when you made some guys famous, because of the six degree from Bacon, Kevin Bacon. Yeah, that's how long I've been with you. Back then. Did you go to college with those guys? Yeah, yeah, I went to college with those guys. Yeah. All right. The six degrees of Kevin Bacon, guys. Yeah. Found out the genius that Kevin Bacon was was connected to entire the universe overall. So that's how long I've followed you. But thank you for having me on. And this was a very fair conversation. Well, that's very kind of you, sir. I appreciate your time. And I appreciate your time. And I appreciate your passion. Likewise. And, and enjoy. Enjoy the rest of your day. Okay, well, you as well. Thank you, sir. Take care. Hey, folks, I know most people look at me and they think to themselves, well, that that's a fashion play right there. But actually, you know what I am? Comfortable. You might be thinking about it. Sure, if you wear the same t shirt as last week, but do you know where you can find clothing that fits into this? A company that I actually love, Quince. Quince has got all the fall staples, denim, the boots, leather jackets, the unbelievably soft, what do they call in there? 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters. And I'm not talking about, you know, Des Moines cashmere, Mongolian cashmere. So what makes Quince different? They work directly with ethical factories. They cut out the middleman. You get top quality materials and craftsmanship at half the price of other premium brands. Go to quince.com/TWS for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com/TWS, free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/TWS. Folks, I don't know if you can hear it in my voice. I'm tired. I didn't sleep well last night. I need a good night's sleep. I was tired. I was tired. I always need a good night's sleep. And you know what I could do? I could buy a new mattress, a little maybe a princess bed, maybe get a little four-poster thing, throw some mosquito netting on there, spend a ton of money. Or I got to do the only thing that matters, get some nice sheets, some nice, clean, freshly done, comfortable sheets. That's what you need, the bowl and branch way. It's the best way to get a better night's sleep is the bedding. Get the nice bedding. You don't want the chafing bedding. You don't want, I sleep in corduroy. Who would do that? It makes no sense. You can upgrade your sleep with Bowling Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping. BowlingBranch.com slash TWS with code TWS. Bowling Branch. B-O-L-L-A-N-D Branch.com slash TWS. Code TWS to unlock 15% off. Exclusions apply. That was interesting. Yeah. I'm not really sure what to think here. He definitely feels very strongly about certain issues. One in particular. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we all just got out of one of those movies. You know those movies where it's like sort of, it's like there was like a weirdly traumatizing scene in the movie. Yeah. And now we're all just like, do you guys? I'm going to take the C train. Do you want to go get something? I guess I'm just going to go get a slice and maybe go home. Just sit in the quiet together. And yeah. But it, I'm weirdly thrown off right now. Yeah. I mean, what I will say in looking into him is like, he's right. He does vote with Democrats over 90% of the time. And even though, you know, he doesn't grant that same leniency to other people that vote with him, that would vote with Democrats. 90% of the time, because he disagrees with them over Israel. Like he is better. You know, I think about it in baseball terms. Like he has a high war. He's better than, he's better than Mehmet Oz in terms of wins above replacement. But I would rather, you have no idea how happy you're making me right now. If you start going into advanced Senate analytics, he has a high war. Fantastic. You know, he's better than a Republican in that position. And I think a lot of Republicans would say he has a high war and that he's better than a Democrat in that position. But I think, I think both parties would rather somebody more in line with their viewpoints in that position. And so the fact that he's running again, I think is totally delusional. Well, he's going to have to pull either an independent. I don't think Republicans, I mean, maybe he can win there as a Republican. I just don't know how. No, I don't think he can win there. I don't know what he would have to do to, to, to flip that around. He made a totally fair point that in terms of the signature legislation of this administration, he has not been on board with it. What he has done is made it a little bit. He's, you know, grease the wheels a bit on tough votes for them. He's made it so they can peel off a couple of people here and there. Susan Collins, guess what? You get to look good to Maine because John Fetterman has flipped sides and that's called politics. And if you're not good at doing that, you shouldn't be in politics. And the other thing that I think he didn't acknowledge is that it's one thing to vote with Democrats 90% of the time. It's another thing to recognize people's frustration with Democrats, not delivering when they had power, when they're out of power. Like the reason why the energy is coming from the left is dissatisfaction with this. It's not extremism. Kamala Harris didn't lose because the country thought she was nuts and extreme. It's that Democrats didn't believe in her enough. Didn't present a vision. She didn't present a vision. Only had 107 days. I remember the days you guys brought it up last time and I didn't know that it was 107. And now this time I know he's never going to forget it ever tattooed on his arm. I'm never going to forget it ever again. Uh, Brittany, uh, should we take a deep breath and do some questions? Should we take a shot and do some questions? It's all like, I do feel like, what the? All right. All right. What do we got? Brittany, John did senators corn and until us just get bamboozled by Trump and Blanche or will Trump and Blanche keep their word? Oh, I think though, keep their word. You know, there's a saying in Washington. There is no more honorable, a promise and a Trump promise. That's why, you know, they don't just build triumphal arches for everybody. You have to earn the triumphal arch. You have to earn the drained reflecting pool. No, I think that in many ways, Tillis and Horne and took a large knife to the lining of the Senate to their own integrity. I mean, even in the thing, like it's not just the weaponization, uh, fun, the 1.8 billion, which I'm sure he'll reconstitute in some other, Hey, it's 1.776. All right. 1.776. That, that, that's a good point. And watch, we're going to find out there's a weird 1.776 billion dollar gap in, in snack benefits to babies that don't have formula. Like he'll find it somewhere. But the idea that they didn't have the balls to be like, oh, and you're not immune from the IRS. Yeah. Like you're, you don't just get to do whatever the fuck you want, whenever the fuck you want to do it. Like that was their principled stand. Like, and they've got nothing to lose. Nothing. They've already lost it all. You know, it's nice to know about that though. Sometimes you think, you know, what these guys are cowards that they hold what they really believe for political expediency. They don't ever say it. They don't stand on principle because they're fearful of, of losing their livelihood in the Senate. And it's nice to know that for these guys, they're actually just shitty. That there is no moral principle that they're standing on that freed from the, the bounds of, of primaries and losing your job. They still suck. Period. Just the worst. Love it. What else we got? John, do you think a third party created by Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor green is the answer to the flaws of the two party political system? You know, I don't know. Um, but you know, obviously being one of the first people on their mailing list, I'm going to, I'm going to assume that I'll, that I'll find out, um, to get into the platinum subscriber, uh, circle that I had to do. And there's just a few, uh, fealty. Uh, my favorite thing was the picture of it. Like it's a picture, but it's taken for like, I don't know if there was an adjunct restaurant or like a different, like there was a little area over there by the Sunday bar. And they were like, do you guys want to take a picture of this? Oh, and make sure no one can recognize, recognize us from way back. You want to make, you want to make sure you get in the entirety of the restaurant. You want to get in all the decorations. I think it was Tucker's house. What? Oh my God. You're right. He lives in a cracker barrel. His basement. It looks like it literally looks like an Applebee's. Yeah. So this is, this is the new Tucker, by the way. Yeah. The cabin in Maine Tucker. Yeah. He was the old, the old Tucker was I'm Buckley. I've got the thing. I'm a young, uh, conservative with a sassy mouth and a, uh, contrarian streak. And now he's like, no, I'm actually the Marlboro man, honey. I'm going to head on out to the, to the podcast minds, put in my eight hours a day, toiling with the microphone, get some dirt under his fingernails. Let me get that dirt under them. Let me rub a little bit on my forehead and take one of them pictures in that. What do you call it? Sepia. Let me, let me put five zinc, in my pants. Is that shoeless tobacco? Or are you just happy to see me? America first baby. What else we got? Last not least. What is James Carville? That is. Did you see disclosure day? Yeah. No. Now you know what he is. Oh, that's not fair. You know, at the, at the, at the end when he stood up, he was so tall. Oh, listen. Cut to black. Listen. All right. You know, my favorite part about it was when he goes, I'm not going to be a part of a, any part of a party that Hudson Piker is a part of. Well, didn't you just say like he's a communist, so he's not part of your party. So don't worry about it. Or is he has a, I'm not going to play a part in a party that house and Parker has a role in. And you're like, don't worry, you won't. I don't know. I don't know if he understands how time works. Yeah. Like that's, I mean, and not to be gross about it, but like, yeah. Okay. No, I think that's fair. Yeah. That young guy. Yeah. That's a, a fiery preacher for economic populism and, and, and other things. Nope. I'm going to wait till he burns himself out. And then I'm going to come back in, in 2040. It's the nineties, baby. Let's go. And reestablish me and Mary Madeline are going to do a show. Why do they keep putting him on TV? Cause he's available. Cause he'll say things that get aggregated. Like that's they, in the same reason, like, you know, they, they, they, they clip things. He's a guy that will say, and by the way, contradict himself every couple of months. As soon as he's been proven wrong. Which by the way, like when was the last time you won something? Yeah. Fuck. Oh, like, He tries to soak it. Clinton had, it's the economy, stupid. So now he's playing on that still. It's like, that was, I don't know, 1992? It was, yeah. And he was out there now like, it's the socialism, stupid. And everybody's just like, was that a play on, what is he talking about? Like, he's literally out there like, tip a canoe in communism too. Like 40% of the electorate did not vote in that election. Right. I don't like Ike. I don't like Piker. It's like, nobody understands even the reference. Nobody understands my reference point. And I'm fucking 20 years younger than that dude. All right. How do they keep in touch with us? Twitter. We are Weekly Show Pod. Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Blue Sky. We are a weekly show podcast. And you can like, subscribe, and comment on our YouTube channel, The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart. Oh, and I'm sure they will this week. Holy shit. As always, unbelievable job. Producer, Brittany Mametovic. Producer, Jillian Spear. Video editor and engineer, Rob Vitolo. Audio editor and engineer, Nicole Boyce. And our executive producers, Chris McShane and Katie Gray. We shall see you next week. The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart is a Comedy Central podcast. It's produced by Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions. Available on Plus and Pro plans. Paramount Podcasts.