Total Eclipse of the Harp

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But before we get to it all, please consider becoming a paying subscriber to friends of the pod. As a subscriber, you will get ad free episodes of all your favorite crooked pods, subscriber-only content like PodSafe America only friends. Access to our excellent sub-stack newsletters, including open tabs, discounted tickets to CrookedCon and exclusive CrookedCon perks. I don't know what those are. And of course, it's the best way to support independent pro-democracy media. CrookedCon perks, actually I heard it was a you get like a special one-on-one session with Dan Pfeiffer. Every single subscriber. Yeah, you're gonna be busy. Yeah, so good luck to you. Anything for the team. Head on over to CrookedCon and Democracy. And Democracy, of course. Head on over to CrookedCon.com/ Friends to subscribe today. All right, so here are some headlines from this week that you would think might catch the president's eye. Oil rises to three-week high gas prices could set August record high with no progress seen on Hormous. Housing market is on track for its worst year since 2011. US workers are paying more for healthcare and next year will be worse. Walmart posts slowest sales growth in years as Americans tighten wallets. US debt hits $40 trillion faster than forecasters expected. And Dow falls 500 points after Treasury plan to tamp down yields fails. Just the last couple of days, Dan, those headlines. Not great, as they say. Unclear if Donald Trump is aware of any of these headlines. I don't know if his human printer has printed them out for him. Natalie Harp, who has become rather famous. But either way, his only public events this week have been an oval office greeting with a teenage lifeguard, an impromptu press tour of his White House renovation projects. New helipad, very exciting. A meeting with crypto leaders. That is, of course, the industry that has made him personally $1 billion richer. And on Thursday, a rare appearance at a Rose Garden event with his wife, where he sat quietly while she spoke. Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am. She did. She did hear that we missed her. Look at that happy couple so in love holding hands. What's their secret? I don't know. It's just what are the odds at this incredibly heartwarming, not at all, awkward photo opus schedule this week in the middle of Natalie Harp gate? I'm sure it was a complete coincidence. And usually Donald Trump shows up at events and sits quietly and doesn't speak. Famous for that. That is. So the John Ossoff riff that kicked off a week of hysteria on the right. It began with the senator saying that Trump doesn't want to do the job of being president. He wants to trade stocks and build his ballroom and travel with Natalie. Minus the actual travel part. I kind of think this week proves his point. Yeah, it is watching him this week. It's just a reminder that he is a very, very old, very, very stubborn man who's a complete darsacist. We've been watching him for a very, very long time now. But even after watching Trump for all these years, it is still stunning to the degree that he cannot even pretend to give a shit about anyone or anything else other than the things that top of his list, which happened to be hella pads, ballrooms, and enriching himself. And it's like obviously the Natalie comments have just touched off the drama of the week. But that was the message of Ossoff's speech there. And I think why it was so effective is because everyone can look at Donald Trump in everything that he does. And it's like, well, he seems like he likes getting rich. He likes renovations. And other than that, he pops off and yells at Democrats and people who've crossed him in some way. And other than that, you don't see much of them. That's about it. I guess the whole thing comes down to the fact that there are Natalie Harp is the one who controls all information that goes to the president. So maybe he's unaware of everything else that's happening in the world. Yes. But just you would think that anyone who turned on a TV to some channel other than Fox News would see what everyone cares about. Everyone's worried about what their political setting was. And they would try to do something to address it. Instead, he just keeps digging a deeper hole on a daily basis. And one thing we've been learning this week, and some of it had been reported in the past, is that other people in Trump's orbit and in the White House and in the federal government have been a little concerned at times that Natalie Harp is his main and sometimes only source of information and that if you want him to see a briefing memo or a story or a tweet, you have to text Natalie and she'll print it out, which makes the development that MS now reported just yesterday, even more interesting and troubling. Natalie Harp apparently declined multiple times over more than a year to seek a routine security clearance required for most White House staffers let alone the president's closest aide. And this apparently alarmed national security officials, secret service and others. Why do you think so, Dan? I mean, this is stunning. I mean, really, if you were to pick the person that you would want to influence as some sort of foreign entity or person with the financial interests in the White House, it would be the person who controls all information of the president. By some reports, she texts with world leaders on Trump's behalf. So it's not just that she chooses which truths to put in front of him or which tweets to print out or which crazy things from, I don't know, fortune to put in front of him. It's that she is the conduit to him. This is how you get in touch with him. She decides who he speaks to. She will type on his phone. And the fact that this person does not have the same security clearance that a White House intern needs to pass is truly in deeply irresponsible. And I don't think there's any conspiracy to it. I mean, they failed to do security clearances for it's like a systemic problem in this White House for lots of the White House staff, but it is sloppy as is everything else they do and and especially for people who are that close to the president all the time. I mean, she got on the secret plane with him. And this is someone who for a year didn't have a security clearance. And again, this is like, you get to the White House, you fill out this form. It's the SF 86. They ask about your entire life. The FBI interviews, you like, we've all gone through this. And to just be a top aid to the president, maybe his closest aid and not having done that at all is crazy. And you fill it out before you get to the White House. Yes. Filling it out is one of the conditions for entering the White House for most people. And she wasn't there in the first term. Again, right? This isn't like she's a returning character. She was at OAN and it's like, how many ends are there? God damn it. She was at OAN and he like first met her in 2019 or 2020 or something, just the convention. But anyway, so like, yes, she came to the White House for the first time in 2025 and just, you know, just started printing tweets for him. And that's it. Nothing else. Nothing else. And writing him notes that say, you are all that matters to me. I want to get back to that synergy we used to have where we talk about everything and nothing. I want to bring you joy to feel like we can get through a day without ever having a chance to see you. to talk work. I want things to always be right between us. Those I am just reading from notes that the New York Times obtained themselves, these are actual notes that Natalie Harp wrote to Donald Trump and left them in his personal spaces, alarming the secret service. These are all facts that are known that are out there. Also, once it's in a locker room, so she can be closer to him because she didn't have a room in one of the Trump clubs. JBL in his newsletter, he had a good take on this. I think it's somewhat similar to yours, right? Which is, he wrote, "Magger responded to all this by going into high dungeon and being outraged that Ossoff would dare suggest Trump was banging his human printer, but Ossoff didn't suggest that. He was pointing to the much weirder, unstable, and dangerous reality. The president of the United States has an in-house stalker and he relies on this unhinged woman to an extent that is both hilarious and terrifying." There's some reports that they refer to her as his human binky, but I do want to, you do this. Yeah, Maggie Haberman has said that, which adults shouldn't need binkies. This is now the second episode you and I have talked about binkies. What do we talk about? We talked about lovies. We talked about with the Max Miller. Oh, yes. We talked about the blue bunnies. Yes, we're out of it. Comfort items for, but in that case, we were referring to small children not the United States or the free world. The issue here is not that Democrats are suggesting that they're having an affair, because honestly, do we really think Trump's still in that era? No. Do you think someone to visit advanced age and deteriorating physical capacity is not having a lot of sex? No, I don't. No, I don't. I think she's obsessed with him, and I think he really likes her because of what he likes. Yes, men and women around him anyway, and she's the ultimate, like she will do literally anything for him, including run after his golf cart in Scotland, and then apologize later that she wasn't fast enough. I mean, she's not his girlfriend. She says nursemaid. That's the point we're making here. That's true. Believe it or not, the extended Maggie universe has collectively decided to devote most of their energy this week toward expressing outrage over Oshoff's three words, travel with Natalie. That's it. That's all he said about her, which has absolutely nothing to do with feeling threatened by Oshoff's political rise or wanting to be seen by Trump defending Natalie's honor. Here's one Oscar-worthy performance from Scott Jennings. He unleashed a comment so vile against a young Republican woman working in politics that every woman in this country, no matter your ideology, all to listen carefully and never forget it. What we are learning from Democratic men right now is that if you're a conservative woman in politics, you are less than human. Oh, they like to build themselves as the party of women. But is there anything uglier than the party of women explaining to a bunch of clapping seals at a rally? How female political staffers are really only good for one thing? Wink, wink, wink. They talk about Oshoff like he's the next Bill Clinton. Sounds like he shares Clinton's views about women in the workplace. Maybe they're right. What he said devalued every woman who goes to Washington to serve our country. And it sent a signal to every young lady out there who aspires to serve that even in the year of our Lord. 2026 with men like John Oshoff around, you'll never be truly viewed. Is anything other than a sex object and a political punchline? Sir, this is a Wendy's. This is travel with Natalie is what he said. The president wants to travel with Natalie. You know, I don't wash a lot of CNN and if I I know I'm going to get there. And if I'm ever served one of those clips on Instagram or TikTok or Twitter about that shows some giant fight on a CNN set, I scored my pass. Do not need that in my life. So when did the go T come into play here? You know, it's a great question. I am not a frequent viewer of those of those CNN clips either. And so it just sort of appeared one day. That was the most offensive part of that whole thing, honestly, to me. That was distracting for you. Yeah, it's hard to focus on the cogent argument. You're saying that's even more vile than what John Oshoff unleashed on this poor defenseless woman by saying that the president likes to travel with her. It sends a message to every man with a weak chin who heads to Washington. Now on one of those CNN panels, we could have played this clip, but there were so many Scott Jennings clips this week that you know, we had to pick and choose. But someone said, oh, I'm so sick of the fake outrage. And he lost his shit. I'm not quite Adam Mochler. Get your fucking hand out of my face, losing his shit. Scott Jennings has done in the past, but was like, how dare you put words in my mouth and say this is fake. This is, I believe this and I am defending her honor and this enrages me. Here's a quote from Thursday morning's playbook about Scott Jennings' histrionics. Others in Trump world dubbed Jennings Jockeying as a fairly obvious public audition for a White House press secretary job. He's been eyeing since the transition. The clips of Jennings defending Natalie made their way around the White House. Wow. That's amazing. How? How do they get there? Oh, in part because Jennings sent them to several senior staffers. Oh, okay. So he was so angry and outraged in such a genuine way that he yelled on CNN and on his whatever radio show. I don't know how you get it on the internet. And then got the clips already and then sent them to the people in the White House. He hopes would hire him for the job of press secretary because he's just so genuinely upset about everything. What do you think, Danny? Think Scotty might get the job. He was number three on my list. We did this, we did this last episode. I was going to hold off on this, but I'll do it right now. I know everyone this is every episode, but for those of you who missed, John and I did a very serious but very fake game where we power rank possible contenders. Trump has not picked the person yet, but you you outplayed me in that game. I did not have Scott Jennings. You picked no one, which was which is still correct at this moment. And so I picked Marco Rubio as a joke. Still possible. I guess you did great. You did excellent in that game. Here's the thing about the job of press secretary of Donald Trump. It requires you to go on TV, lie and just generally debase yourself publicly on a daily basis. Well, check. He's got that. So basically he wants to do the same job but presumably with a pay cut. I guess. Yeah. I mean, he's got that part nailed, but his problem is he's a giant pussy. And Caroline love it. Whatever else you want to say about her, she's pretty unflavable in that job. She got the lying part, right? That you just mentioned. She's nailed that. Same thing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But they are not nearly as emotional as Scott Jennings is. I mean, he almost cried when Adam Makler put up his hand on CNN. He loses his shit on panels constantly. Never lost her shit in that briefing room. Yeah, I tend to think he probably gets a little bit of a bit of a bit. Yeah, little yeah, he's a snowflake beta. I think he probably gets plotted for that sort of losing his shit on CNN. That's probably what they're going for. That's why they pay him. But in the White House briefing room, that's just not a particularly effective way of doing your job. Yeah. I mean, he would be bad at the job. It's worth noting that guy. I'm pretty sure it was like a relatively new level staffer from Mitch McConnell for many years before he was elevated into this role of America's heel on television by CNN. He also was he's like punching way above his white class here. He was also very much against Trump in 2016. Yeah. So he was a he was he was an early never Trumper that quickly switched, which is how we got on CNN the first place. Yeah, I think he was a never Trumper. Then I think he was an anti-anti and now he's you know, now he's full Trumper. It's and I'm sure the conversion must totally sincere and done in good faith. It will get everything he does is sincere. And if you don't believe so, he will send you the clip. How could a man who considers Mitch McConnell a father figure to him? Love Donald Trump in such a way. There's another clip of him. I could play another of him on a friend Adam Friedland show where he basically is like, yeah, I like put on a show. It's like wrestling. I do like and then at one point Adam's like, okay, yeah, let's I'll give you any topic and you have to argue the topic and you have to argue the the position. Even if it's not your position and he gives I forget what it was, but he gives him some liberal position and it was like frightening watching Scott just like get right into it and argue the position as if he completely believed it. So again, that part is all why he would be a great press secretary for Donald Trump, but I do not think he can handle the pressure because he is a pussy. I have to say heading into this podcast and it did not. My over-under on your use to the term pussy was definitely not too. And in fact, in the nine years we've been doing this podcast, it's maybe the first two times you use the word pussy on this podcast. It's the only thing I can think of when I think about Scott Jennings. The word the word. Yes. Wow. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You hear us mention BetterHelp often, but what really matters is what people are saying after they give it a shot. BetterHelp is an average-lip therapy rating of 4.9 out of 5, based on over 1.7 million client session reviews. The feedback from real people who have used the service speaks for itself more than 6 million people. Have used BetterHelp globally. BetterHelp therapists have at least three years and 1,000 hours of hands-on experience. 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There's a notice story that basically says Donald Trump is seriously considering Scott Jennings for this job that he is calling around, he's doing his thing where he calls around people and asks what do you think of Scott, how do you think he's been doing on TV. So this is live that he's he's thinking about this. But at the very end of and the notice story we should say is basically the headline is like Trump is thinking he wants to pick a man because he's had a bunch of women in this job. Who is the only man? Sean Spicer, right? Sean Spicer. Sean Spicer. So he's thinking of maybe having a man, Scott Jennings was named, Ari Fleischer was named, God help us and then but at the very end of the notice piece, it ends with this tidbit. Quote, a person close to the White House predicted that all of the attention on the president's close aide Natalie Harp could catapult her into the position. So to be fair, as we said, Harper did do a stint on the right wing outlet, one American news network, OANN, before working for Trump and where she sounded like a totally normal news anchor. Let's listen. We can't talk about winning back the House and Senate in 2022 and the White House in 2024. If we don't act on the fact that we actually did win the White House and the Senate in 2020, we shouldn't be afraid to say that because it's true. We, the people know America, as we know it, could be ending in the next two or four years, which is exactly what President Trump is warning of. It just shows how desperate the Democrats were to find the votes, to make up for President Trump's insurmountable lead. I mean, I'm not significant here, but I'm not sure if she fully clocked what insurmountable meant. Again, I mean, some real North Korea shit there, so she has that down, but I definition the lead was quite noticeable. What do you, what do you think Natalie for press secretary? You think that's how this whole thing ends? I can't imagine Trump separating himself from his human binky for several hours today while she preps for and does the briefing. Or her separating herself from him. Yes. It goes both ways. Yes. Even though it would obviously be a very lucrative position for her in the long run, she would become very famous. She would maybe get to graduate to a network better than OAN, like Newsmax, but she would turn it down because it would require separation from Trump. Yeah. And to be fair, to her, she has more power right now. She's probably one of the most powerful people in the world in the world right now. Why would she want to go be White House press secretary? Yeah. She is Cheepetto to Trump's Pinocchio just moving around one tweet at a time. All right. One more story about women being forced to babysit Trump administration bozos before we move on because there's two this week. Just segue. Jennifer Hegseth. Wife of Pete Hegseth gets a big story in the New York Times today on Thursday where she's described as her husband's most influential advisor and de facto producer, apparently attending highly sensitive meetings, traveling with her husband to quote, keep him out of trouble and conducting job interviews at the Pentagon. Would you make that story, Dan? It seemed a bit odd to me. It's not your normal relationship. But then I tried to think, imagine you or I were secretary of defense or something like it. Okay. And I know my wife and I know your wife. And so I kind of imagined in both those cases, they would be our closest advisors. Yes. Although I would ask Emily would be like, I don't have time for your boring shit. No, she would. She would be producing you. She would be producing. She would, she would really, I don't know, I would, I would get into the production part of it for sure. I don't think she would be interviewing your press secretary. She would not care about the meeting with the Ukrainian officials with the talk. She would be deeply involved in both Holly and Emily and both cases. That's true. And, and clearly they'd have to be on the road with us to keep us out of trouble because we go on the road. We've done a lot of trouble together for the years and we were pretty, we're pretty boring. It's fine. Oh no. Good. One drink and then in bed by 9/30 so we can read the news, could stand to get in a little more trouble. All right. Enough of that. Let's talk about the midterms where democratic primary results continue to drive. The take economy, which is obviously what matters most here. Here's Politico. This is about Tuesday's results, Tuesday's primary results. #resistancedemocrats are flopping in primaries. Here's Axios. The rise of DSA is killing off resistance 1.0 Democrats and most definitively from the Atlantic quote, the resistance is over. Those headlines refer in part to Tuesday night's result in Florida, where state representative Angie Nixon, a relatively unknown DSA candidate, won a massive upset against Alexander Vindman in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary. You might remember Vindman as the former Trump National Security Aid from the first administration who became a national figure as a key witness during Trump's 2019 impeachment hearings. That's the first impeachment. Extra points if you can remember what that was about. Vindman was widely expected to win, refused to debate, to even debate Nixon, and outraged her by $15 million. She raised less than a million dollars total for a Senate race in Florida and won the primary. Nixon now advances to the general election where she'll face Senator Ashley Moody, who took Marco Rubio's seat when he was selected as Secretary of State. You wrote a great message box about this results, encouraging other Democrats to learn from Nixon's unexpected win. Tell us about it. How'd she win? How'd she pull it off? Which other dumb to take away? Sure. Nixon, as you mentioned, is someone who, she's a liberal. She joined the DSA during the campaign. But the typical coalition, both historically and in this cycle, for DSA or very progressive members has been young voters, white college educated levels, and a failure to make inroads with black voters and more working class voters. Nixon won here because she ran up huge numbers among black voters in Florida. And she won the counties that have the largest segment of black voters. She won by 30 points. Now she is from Jacksonville and Duval County, which is a huge slice of black voters, but she also did very well in the I-4 corridor, which is Tampa and Orlando. She did well in Miami-Dade. We're all a lot of black voters, and even more importantly, in Notable, she did really well in what's called the black belt in Northern Florida, which is the rural areas with large black communities. She just cleaned up in those counties, and then she took this really impressive number with black voters and then combined it with younger voters, more progressive voters, more college educated voters, to give herself a 13 point win in this primary. And you wonder why these progressive candidates fail and frequently present in primary Bernie Sanders, Howard Dean, Gary Hart, Bill Bradley, it's because they can do that half of the coalition with young and white voters, which can get them through in the old calendar Iowa and New Hampshire. And then you get to South Carolina and the South, all these black voters. And the only candidate who's been able to put the coalition together that allowed you to win is Obama, because he had college-educated white liberals, young voters, and black voters that have really high percentage. So, like, as they think about, like, how, at the, a very progressive, Democrat could win the Democratic nomination. It is going to look a lot more like what Angie Nixon did in Florida than Abdul-Assad did in Michigan or AOC does in New York or anything like that. It also reminded me of, I mean, in Florida in 2018, that is basically how Andrew Gillum running against DeSantis came so close to winning that state. He didn't win it, but he was a more progressive candidate, did really, really well with black voters, college-educated voters, younger voters, and that was enough to, I don't know, what was it, like, 18,000 votes? Something like that? Yeah. And it's how we beat Gwen Graham in the -- Right. --in the primary. In the primary. It does seem like Nixon will have quite a bit of an uphill climb, we should say, to win the general election. You know, some of the forecasters moved it from -- one of them moved it from, I think, likely Republican to say for Republican, and just because I think that -- now, I will say, I've seen her now do a couple of interviews, post-race, she's very good, very good. And if you did not -- if they did not report that she was DSA, you would never guess that she was DSA. Yeah. She is a work -- true. This is a lot of -- sometimes the DSA candidates, not all of them, but some of them have sort of the -- I don't -- this is not a fair thing, but this was used to describe Francesca Hange with the faculty -- faculty lounge problem, right, where how they talk about things. And that's not actually -- actually, a fair characterization of Francesca Hange's life, who worked herself up as a restaurant owner and a chef, but Angie Nixon is a -- is working class. She is a long-time champion of working class, but she's an organizer, a community organizer. And so she -- when she communicates, she communicates like a community organizer, not like some sort of academic, who's sort of studying this problem. She's someone who was deeply embedded in trying to actually solve the problems that working class families are dealing with. Well, and also she was very -- I mean, so I think Willie Geiss has her -- so do you support abolishing prisons? She's like, no, no, I don't support abolishing prisons. I support getting rid of for-profit prisons that are being like run horribly and costing us a lot of money. But like it was just -- she had all the answers. It was very good. So the challenge here is, if there was one state in the country where the DSA label is a problem, in particular, it's Florida because that so much of the Latino vote in that state has roots in Cuba and Venezuela, and the socialism attacks hit much harder there. It's one of the things that has moved Florida to the right in recent years. And again, it's just -- it's a gigantic state, so it's super expensive, and it's not the kind of state where you can say, all right, well, you know, look beyond the label and actually come meet me, you know, because it's just -- it's too big for that. So that's why it's going to be tough. Anyway, so Vindman wasn't the only, quote-unquote, "resistance figure" to lose this cycle, Dan Goldman, lead majority counsel during Trump's 2019 impeachment, Representative Diana Digett, 2021 House impeachment manager, both lost their primaries to left-wing challengers Harry Dunn, Capitol Police Officer in January 6th, lost his bid for a House seat in Maryland, George Conway, Trump critic, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, Bulwark, came in fifth with just 6% of the vote in the Democratic primary to replace Jerry Nadler. So this has spawned a lot of resistances overtakes. What do you think about those takes? Do these losses suggest a real trend to you or is the take-machine trying a bit too hard here? The take-machine by definition is always trying a bit too hard. But there is something real here, and it actually should not be that surprising. The Trump era began 11 years ago when he started running. He won election a decade ago. It's been a very long time, and that decade actually feels longer than an actual 10 years because of the pandemic. And here we are. We are struggling to remember in people who covered it every day what happened in Trump's impeachment in 2019 because it really feels like a hundred years ago. Ukraine, perfect call. Zelensky was involved, but it was before the war. Yes, but we didn't even know Zelensky like we know him now. He was even our hero. He was just a guy. He's just a comedian who got a job. And so that's all old and feels like in the past. I think that what has changed is that, and this is a good thing for Democrats, is we do not identify ourselves entirely as in opposition to Trump. And so standing up and fighting Trump is necessary in a Democratic primary politically, but it's insufficient. You have to be fighting for something bigger than that. If defining or something, as someone who's actually fighting to solve these big problems, that I think people over the last year or so have realized they're more than just Trump. Like, it's a rigged economy. It's people can't get health care. And Trump is contributed to that, and he's certainly not helping it. But if you're simply focused on Trump, that's a problem. The other thing that I think defined a lot of these resistance 1.0 characters is their institutionalists by nature, right? We were going to bring him down through Robert Mueller. We were going to bring him down through impeachment. And that stuff, I think, feels dated here. And it doesn't really, it doesn't have this hit in the same way it did before. So there are a little, so those folks are sometimes naturally out of touch with what's going on. But then when you look at each of these individual races, it really wasn't about the being resistance figures. Dan Goldman went down because of a huge dispute over Israel. George Conway was a Republican with relatively low name ID running against a really stacked field of local elected officials like Mike the last year in Alex Boris. That was my problem with this is I just don't think any of the dots connect. Like, yes, what they have in common is they all are, you could call them all resistance figures. But every single race was different for different reasons. It just, I think it was, it was how in each of the races, Trump was really wasn't that big a deal. Like, he wasn't the dominant figure in the conversation, which wasn't good for the people who became famous for standing up to Trump. Well, it's also not just how long we've been doing this, which is a long time. But it's what is coming next, which is like, we are almost at the end of the Trump era. Yeah, you can see the light. You're right. And so if you're, I mean, and this is going to be especially true in the 2028 primaries, but like all of those democratic candidates that are going to run for president, why would they talk that much about Trump? They'll probably talk about how they're going to fix the damage that Trump has done. But like, they're, it's sort of like, we dealt with this in the campaign in 2007, 2008. It's very similar where there was a lot of bush-passing, obviously. But at some point in that primary, I remember Obama was like, the real question is, like, we know that George Bush isn't coming back as president and the question is, what's next? Like, what's next for the country and where are we going to go and what's going to happen? And like, that's where all these democratic candidates are going to have to pivot very soon after the midterms. And then we won the nomination and we ran approximately $80 million of ads with a video of John McKinney getting into a golf cart with George W. Bush. Well, that'll be, and that will be the campaign against JD Vance. Yes. It will be, or if Mark Rubio somehow makes it out or anyone, if anyone is the nominee connected to the Trump administration, then that six months or seven months or whatever the campaign that will all be about Donald Trump and then, but in terms of a primary and what you're going to do for the country, it's beyond Trump at that point. So I think that's something to keep in mind for people. Pots of America is brought to you by Cook Unity. I love Cook Unity. I get it every week. Right now in my fridge, I have this Greek gyro, I have this chicken salad. I have a great penne and broccoli and chicken pasta that I really like. They just have a lot of great options. I get four every week. It just is so that I know, like, whether it's lunch or dinner when I get home, that a couple of times a week, I don't have to think about it. I just have a great meal from Cook Unity. 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That's 50% off your first order by using code "Cricket" or going to cookUnity.com/Cricket. Positive America is brought to you by Joe Lee. If you struggle with chronic skin concerns like dryness and sensitivity breakouts or scalp issues, you probably try a lot of products with ingredients that promise to address them. But what about the ingredient with which your skin comes into the most frequent contact? Your home's water. Water quality majorly affects your skin and hair. So give both the best chance by switching to a Joe Lee shower filter. If you have hard water like most of us do here in LA, Joe Lee is the solution to filter out chlorine, heavy metals and everything else you don't want in your water that can damage your skin and hair. The Joe Lee shower head installs in minutes, fits all showers, delivers amazing pressure and elevates any space. 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Former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola was the top vote getter in the state's jungle primary on Tuesday, where she outperformed Republican Dan Sullivan by 5.4 points with 98 percent of the vote reported. Alaska unsurprisingly takes a while to count. There's still some few rural areas coming in. The top four vote getters now advanced to the November runoff election, which is expected to include the other Dan Sullivan, Dan J Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher who Republicans maintain entered the election to sabotage the nominee Dan S Sullivan, and whose candidacy is now being probed by Trump's DOJ, who got a grand jury to subpoena witnesses connected to the campaign. Before we get to that, let's start with Peltola's results. What did you make of her outperforming the real Dan Sullivan and what it may or may not portend for the general election, which will happen in a couple months? It was certainly a good sign, because she won by 5 points, even if you took out, if you gave all of the fake Dan Sullivan's votes to the real Dan Sullivan, she still wins by 2.5 points, so that is good. Now it's positive sign. Now it's worth just noting that about 133,000 people, I think, voted in this primary. The last Senate race had twice that, that in 2022, and Rikowsky was up. And probably even more this time, because this was be a more competitive race. So this is only about half the electorate in Alaska voting, but look, a 5-point lead or a very Republicanist, a state of Trump on my 13 points, is a great place to be in August of the election year. What about Dan Jay Sullivan? Do you think he's on the ballot come November, or is the DOJ going to intimidate him off the ballot? I know there was already a ruling that he could be on the ballot from, I believe, the State Supreme Court. I think they are going to try to intimidate him off the ballot. Why else would they be doing this? They think if this is a very, very close race, then Dan Jay Sullivan could be very bad for Dan. S. Sullivan, if I think you did that correctly. You did. But he seems pretty committed to his goal of being Senator and confusing people. I think it's cool. His goal, he wants to show people Alaska, John. Of course, of course. Yeah. Don't make, don't make the DOJ's case for them for them. I don't want to get this to be. I know nothing. You're going to end up in an ad. This is the first I've heard about this. First I've heard about this Dan Sullivan character. I don't know. I'm going to look into it. Maybe he's like, maybe he's going to be a great leader for Alaska. Who knows? Anyway, that's Alaska. On the other side of the country in South Carolina, Congressman Ralph Norman in Darlene Graham will face off in next week's runoff election to decide which of them will replace Senator Lindsey Graham on the November ballot. Darlene, who's currently serving out the remainder of her brother's term, was the top vote getter in the first round of the primary and has Donald Trump's endorsement. He will be campaigning for her in the state on Friday, apparently. But during her one and only debate with Norman this week, she gave one hell of an answer to a question about foreign policy. Let's listen. I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question? Are Taiwan and the South China see national security issues for the United States and if so lie or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security that I'm not that informed on national security. So but I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years. So I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the army. I'm not a polished politician up here. I national security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military. In case I didn't make it clear the first time, I will say a second time that national security is not my thing. And just to be extra clear, I'll say one more time, I am not an expert on national security. Just to make sure you have all the context you need for the ad and that you don't have to infer anything. Rough, Dan. Rough. Right there is exactly why you don't pick people with no qualifications to be senator just because they're blood relatives of the previous senator. Yeah. I kind of she wins the primary because it's the general. She wins the special. I think well, no, what I'm saying is obviously South Carolina is a long shot here. I do think that any Andrews is the Democrat running on the Democratic side and before Lindsey Graham passed away, there were polls that had her within a couple of points. She has raised a lot of money. Again, still a huge long shot, but I think she probably at this point, I think it's an easier race. I think she has a better chance against darling Graham than she does Ralph Norman, even though Ralph Norman is like Freedom Caucus crazy. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right. Yeah, 100%. That this is, we just randomly passed the Senate seat along like it's the the Iron Throne. So the next person regardless of how long qualify they are. Yes, I think that that like once again, hard state, we have been quite burned by summer polls in South Carolina Senate races before. For sure, for sure. Look, in a very democratic year with a very, very bad candidate and a good Democratic candidate in the Andrews, anything is potentially on the table. It'll also be interesting to see Trump's endorsement, going to campaign for her. Does that like Trump has now had a couple endorsements that haven't gone well, including Tuesday night. Three on Tuesday night. And this will be a pretty high profile if she, if she goes down. So that this is going to be the role to tell the people who can't and with the Democratic Party can pass the marshmallow test. Because the short term one marshmallow benefit is we all get to dunk on Trump next Wednesday if she loses. But then they definitely get the Senate seat. We can delay gratification to November. We might have a shot at an extra Senate seat. Yeah. Everyone practice being like, oh, Trump's endorsement still still matters. That Donald Trump, his grip on the party is still strong. Everyone just practice that for a little bit. All right. So one issue that does seem to be panicking Republican campaigns all across the country right now is data centers. Earlier this week, Axios reported that the NRSC, the Republican Senate campaign arm, sent a memo to AI companies warning them that voters opinions on data centers may lose them the Ohio Senate race. The memo details how shared Brown has made opposition to data centers a quote centerpiece of his campaign and warns the companies that are for Republican nominee John Houston loses quote, data centers will get the blame politicians across the country will take notice and they will not go near the next one. The NRSC goes on to ask the companies to quote fix Ohio and see data centers. I guess by not having them. Though they don't say that more broadly data center backlash has forced elected officials and candidates in both parties to recalibrate their messaging. For example, the Republican and Wisconsin's gubernatorial race Tom Tiffany is running ads now calling his opponent data center David Crowley. First of all, what do you think of the NRSC strategy of pleading with AI companies on this one? What do you think they're up to there? Well, the text is we're pleading with the AI companies to do a better job of PR for data centers. The subtext is we want the AI companies through the through the leading the future super PAC that has 120 million dollars or so in the bank to spend money to help make sure that John Houston wins, because if John Houston loses, everyone will read that as being a lost I do entirely to data centers and will be very, very bad for the industry's ability to build data centers around the country. Because then every Republican will be anti data center. So it is just basically a fundraising ask to get the super PACs to come in here and help you. And I'm just going to throw out a guess here, but if the super PACs do come in and help you, I wonder if they will go the route of APEC and maybe not run ads trying to make data centers more appealing and defending data centers, but perhaps run ads again shared Brown on unrelated topics that they think they have a better political argument on because that seems to be what super PACs do these days. If you are a super PAC representing a very, very unpopular interests group, then yes, that's what you're going to do. Yeah. So here's how Sherrod is talking about data centers and his opponent. Oh, I was electric grid. Big corporations treat it like a game, gobbling up energy to feed their data centers. No matter how much it raises our prices, it's the latest way they've rigged the system, costing the average Ohioan thousands of dollars with prices still going up. I'm sure Brown, I'll require the data centers pay the full cost of their electricity, not you. They don't get to play games with your energy bill. That's why I approve this message. What do you think of that ad? What do you think of this debate in general, which is now popping up in, I mean, we mentioned Ohio, but in Wisconsin, but it's happening in races all across the country, gubernatorial races, house races, Senate races, it's everywhere. Just as an organic plug, it makes it organic if I say it that next week on Monday, we're going to have a whole special on data center ads, the brain time or Cohen and I did on the Crooked YouTube channel. So people should check that out. Part of our Political Experts React series. But this is, you're right. This is happening everywhere. It's a huge issue in Texas where Gina, in a hosta, and Greg Abbott are competing to see who could be the most anti-datacenter. She is an incredible ad that Brian and I watch that is where she asks a AI chatbot about why electricity prices are so high when it's happening in data centers. Just today in Michigan, Mike Rogers came out for one year moratorium on data centers. Josh Peru, who had been very pro data center, is now anti-datacenter. He is an attack at up today criticizing his opponent for being pro data center. This is, I think potentially, the signature issue of this selection for some reasons. One, it galvanizes Democrats and Republicans. The polling in here is two thirds. Don't want a data center in their community. Two thirds think the data centers are being built too fast. People are very concerned about the impact of AI. Data centers represent several things in one fell swoop for people. Fear about AI. Fear about, in economy, it's leaving them behind. A lack of control with these big tech overlords who are making decisions for their lives. A crooked system where they're all giving money to politicians and to Trump and building ballroom so that they can do whatever they want. And most importantly, affordability. Because the state of the data center issue is the biggest Texas in Maine in particular. It's around where they have the highest electricity and utility prices. And so you're going to see every politician is going to, it's going to be very hard for defining if politicians are going to be pro data center other than Donald Trump, who's out there every day talking about why data centers are great. And it's like just an incredible contrast for Democrats. Because microadgers can be formatorium. Tom Tiffany can sort of lie about his position. But at the end of the day, they are Trump Republicans and Trump wants to build a data center on every corner in America. Democrats have had a couple different positions on this, different Democratic candidates. There is the moratorium. We want just a moratorium on data centers, no data centers. And then there is, and I think this is where Tom Tiffany thought he had an opening with David Crowley. And Josh Shapiro, similarly with his executive order that he just signed, sort of has this position, which is no data centers unless all of these conditions are met. And so I think in Pennsylvania now, you can't even get a permit from the state for a data center unless it is approved by the local community. And also they have to pay for all of their own costs, all of the higher electricity rates. It gets into the weeds here. I went down a rabbit hole on this. You can't have them pay for all of the potential increases in electricity because it's spread across multiple states, which is a problem. But there's a big part of the power generation and the electricity that they can pay for to hold rate payers, to hold everyone else harmless on this. So that you don't have higher rates because of this. There's also they can do stuff about the water issues and the energy issues. And then you can, as opposed to some states who have been giving tax breaks to data centers, which seems crazy to me now. There's states like Virginia. And there's a big story about Loudoun County where there's more data centers than anywhere else, which basically the data centers have to pay so much in tax revenue to the community where they're in, that these communities now, like Loudoun County, are becoming, like you're getting all these property tax cuts and you're building these great schools and giving teachers raises. And so it's like, you can set out all these conditions for data centers that could help a community and could still get them built. Or you could say no more, Torium, that's it. Do you think that a Democrat with a position like Shapiro, like David Crowley, do you think that's still a politically good position to have and still gives you the contrast you need against Republicans? I think it is a moratorium is a much cleaner position. And I think the way to think about a moratorium is it is not an argument that will never build data centers again. It's that if you want to build a data center, you have to negotiate with the local community. And the starting, and I'm cribbing from another organic plug, a very excellent conversation. You have a fashion cure on offline about politics in general. But you got to, you dug deep on data centers because more perfect union, his organization has done a lot of work here, is the point of the moratorium is says, our view is no data center. If you want to build a data center, you're going to have to come to us and you're going to have to meet our demands. And here is what our demands are. And what's important is the local community, this is why the tax incentives are so stupid. Is the local communities have the leverage here? Yes. These companies are desperately, desperately, desperately trying to get the data. These communities are desperately, desperately definitely need these data centers to continue building their large language models to do their work. And so they need it. And if we don't get data centers, they're fucked. And so to use that to make decisions about where it is, how much they're going to pay, what standards are going to be in place, how are they going to protect the community from bad, harmful environmental impacts, the increased costs, all of those things. Because there are, there are going to be, this was Crowley's point when I talked about this, which is not, it was not delivered the most politically savvy way because of the politics here. But there are communities in Wisconsin, other places that are in rural areas that are looking for an economic engine of some kind. And so they're open to this idea. And what the AI companies are doing before. Because originally, I was like, but they don't even create that many jobs. There's jobs building the data center, and then there's like a couple of security guards. That's exaggeration, but they don't create a ton of jobs. But the revenue that they could potentially provide that is like a constant stream of off-fuckload of revenue to a community, that lets the community do quite a bit of good. Previously, I think the AI companies were taking advantage of these communities. And now the communities have gotten organized. They are pushing back, they're getting support from leaders like Shapiro or Tony Evers or others to be able to go into these negotiations and come out ahead. And then make an honest decision. Is this the right thing for our community? Based on our economic needs, our environmental concerns. But at least they have a fighting chance against these companies instead of just them, just essentially bribing the local council and moving in and getting it done before anyone even has a chance to blink. - I totally agree with you, though, that I think it's a really smart way to think about it, which is it is much easier and cleaner and more accessible to say, yes, I want a data center moratorium. And then when someone says, oh, no data center built forever, then you're like, no, a moratorium unless a whole bunch of conditions are met. And then you can, or unless you negotiate with the local community and everyone's conditions are met in the local community where it's going to have the biggest impact, you know? As opposed to saying, well, I kind of will like data centers, but I need this that and the other thing, just for political communication here, I do think it's easier to just talk about a moratorium. Okay, up next, you will hear Love Its Interview with Iowa's Democratic Senate nominee, Josh Turing. (upbeat music) - Potsy America is brought to you by Bill. If he was a question, are you getting rewarded for paying your rent or mortgage right now? If the answer is no, you need to check out Built. Becoming a built member means earning points on every housing payment no matter where you live. Built points can be redeemed for fights, hotels, lift rides, Amazon.com purchases, future housing payments and more. It's great to use it for lift rides. It's great to use it for gift cards. You can use it on Amazon.com. 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But the thing that I'm proudest of is that video we made of your vegramas while me grunting while hitting baseballs. No wait, sorry. The thing I'm proudest of is the work we do through votes of America. See, we don't want our shows to only leave you feeling anxious about the state of the world. We want to give you something you can actually do about it. Just this year, our listeners have raised millions of dollars and filled thousands of volunteer shifts to help candidates and causes into 2026 midterms. And we have no plans to slow down as we head into 2028. As far as I know, there's no other media company that does what Cricot does. We make entertaining, thoughtful content that brings people into politics, and then we give them a direct way to get involved. And if you believe in that mission, one of the best ways to support us is by becoming a paid subscriber. Your subscription helps us keep making the shows you love and building a media company that doesn't just talk about politics, but helps people change them. And if the mission sounds great, but you feel like you need some sweet subscriber benefits to get you over the finish line, we've got you covered. Subscribers get ad-free shows, plus excellent exclusive podcasts, newsletters, and much, much more. So thank you for listening and supporting what we do. Head to Cricot.com/FriendsToday to learn more and become a subscriber. (upbeat music) - So I'd love to talk to you about You're endorsement from Barack Obama which you announced last month with a video. Let's let's just start with a clip Well again Who's got next? I got it You ready for me Josh? I'm ready Let's go. We play in horse or what we're playing Iowa. Tell me how things are going out there everywhere we go Urban areas rule areas people are ready for change. I thought I had that one. That's Iowa right there, buddy A lot of people have heard me say this of all the things I've done in politics Iowa was my favorite thing there was just a magic About regular folks showing up in gyms like this like this and just talking out. How do we Move our state forward how to move the country forward. I don't tell you what people all across the Iowa are saying that they're feeling That hope that optimism for the first time in a long time. That's my sense. That's why I think it's gonna happen First of all, just how did that video come together and what was it like actually shooting it on that day? Sure. It came together. We I had I was in Chicago and I ended up meeting with with David Axelrod through a colleague of mine in the Iowa legislature and Set down was trying to convince him on myself on on Iowa that this thing is absolutely winnable We could be seat number 51 in the US Senate and when we finished He texted me said look. I'd love to be helpful. However, I can I said I've got this crazy idea Where we've been including basketball so much and playing Iowa with people go into the YMCA in in Des Moines and I said I've got this crazy idea where all I need is President Obama just raises hand five times just five shots and He said, well, let me see what I can do and 40 hours later text me back and said I Think he's interested. I think this thing is gonna happen and came together and incredible I mean my political hero it was a surreal moment as I'm shooting and I'm looking over and I'm like oh my god I'm I'm I'm playing horse against or as we're calling it Iowa against President Obama and Honestly a great shooter really really good shooter. I will say My first reaction when I saw the ad was wow I am shocked that he agreed to film an ad that is about him missing shots and ultimately losing the game He must really want like he must really want to do this because he's competitive and this is like Oh, they're gonna show you winning and you're gonna show the times where he's like missing shots like that He must have been a little reluctant Well, we didn't know who was gonna win. We played a little. No, I'm not suggesting it was a rig game So I'm not suggesting it, but he still obviously was gonna be he was going to be shown missing Yeah We came out here. Here's what I'll say he came out. He missed his first shot or two. I gave him a letter I he gave me a letter I because I'm having one of those surreal moments of looking over like oh my god I'm playing President Obama. I ended up beating him I OWA to I But he was he was talking trash to me the entire game He's like, look, I'm not gonna let you win. I said Mr. President with all due respect I'm certainly not gonna let you win. I have a reputation here. I'm a I'm a two-time gold medal some a four-time Paralympian like I'll never hear the end of it if I let you beat me. You're a prop. He's gotta go that's right so on the other hand, I Saw a post recently so Trump Said that you are lazy Donald Trump has accused you of being lazy now when you were Recuperating from 21 surgeries or being bullied by other kids or training for the Paralympics or Being cut six times and then winning multiple gold medals or dragging your own wheelchair up the stairs to canvas for votes Do you ever stop to think about how much further you could go in life if you weren't such a lazy piece of shit? I found that one fascinating because So much of my story is overcoming adversity as you said I grew up in a working-class family working-class community where we went to the Goodwill for clothes shared clothes 21 surgeries by the age of 12 had my first surgery one day old and Then as you said, I mean, I was cut six straight years from the national team I kept coming back year after year after year saying eventually I'm gonna get good enough. You can ask anyone of my national team Teen mates. I was absolutely one of the hardest workers and to win I represent the reddest district that's represented by a Democrat in the Iowa legislature The two communities I represent Trump won cartel ache by 18 points and won council bus by 10 points I was able to win by six six percent and I went out every single day rain or shine hot or cold Drag in my wheelchair upstairs To have conversations with independence and Republicans because the math just didn't work any other way and so I almost got a chuckle out of saying You're lazy. It's like if nothing else. I'm an unbelievably hard worker Intruously, I'm really proud of my time in the Iowa legislature. When I first joined the legislature I was told outright you'll never get a subcommittee You'll never get a committee. You'll certainly never get anything signed by the governor and I said I refuse I'm the first permanently physically disabled member of the Iowa legislature I'm like you can teach a monkey to come up here and push the red button over and over I've got to get stuff done and so I did the hard work behind the scenes that nobody over here about building relationships, striding finding stretch bail fellows Where we can disagree on 90% of policy, but we're going to agree on this one thing that's going to really help people and I was able to be One of the most effective and one of the most bipartisan members of the Iowa legislature I think that's what people want. Yeah, you recently put on an ad Talking about your bipartisan record including your willingness to work with Trump if you're elected the Senate I just want to understand the voters you're trying to reach and like What I when I see that at I think oh, there's a hump you're trying to get people over there's a bunch of people out there Maybe to satisfy with the state of things in Iowa in the country, but they're a little bit uncomfortable with the idea voting for a Democrat And I'm just curious what you're trying to say to those people and what it's like being out talking to those kinds of voters I believe to my core that More than Republican versus Democrat. I think particularly in Iowa I think what people want is they want a representative that is going to do the hard work behind the scenes that what they want is they want a Representative that is going to work to solve people's problems Through policy, but through bipartisan policy and so what I want them to understand about me is I'm not an overt tribalist I'm a common-sensory populist. So my political North Star is always What's best for Iowa? What's best for Iowans? What's best for the middle class? What is best for our workers? and I think we've got to get back to this country over party mentality and So I say I agree with President Trump that we shouldn't have tax on tips or overtime or that we need to drive private equity out of housing Fight like hell where where and when we need to but also be willing to do the work behind the scenes to To provide solutions to fields problems because I think that's what I once demand and so I think that's the that's the purpose of that So you recently stopped by the Iowa Speedway to talk to voters part of what politics is today is The fight on the ground to break through the assumptions people have based on what they're seeing on Fox News based on what they're seeing on social media including just getting people to kind of Not adopt the tone of what that what politics has on the internet and I'm just curious What it's like being on the trail in Iowa in red places at a NASCAR event where there's gonna be a lot of people that are not just independence or moderates or Maybe Republicans who are unhappy with Trump a true die-hards for Trump and if you've had any interesting conversations With some of those people on the campaign trail. It's been great. My favorite thing about doing this is being I love people. I love being able to get out there talk to people hear their stories hear what they're going through And then when you when you're willing to listen to people is when you can actually per you know think about well Here's a solution that we could provide to them through policy. I love being able to get all over the state to a state That I was born in raised in we've got 99 counties. It's a beautiful state. Oh really really good people There there there truly is an Iowa nice. I've been all over the country all over the world There is a uniqueness to the people of Iowa But I think that modern politics the coin of the realm now is Meeting people about politics in an apolitical fashion. So that's why the Obama video. We include so much basketball Bring them in with the basketball then talk to him about politics. I did rag-grey the Des Moines registers great annual bike ride across the Iowa. I did day one I did 60 miles the hottest day of the hilliest day the humidest day But there was 40,000 riders out there being able to talk to people Engaged with them and the same with NASCAR so part of this For me is I think that a mistake that too many Democrats have made over the last decade in my state is they have thought about this math problem and correctly They thought we've just got to maximize turnout in the urban areas poll county Johnson County But ultimately we're a rural state and so you've got to be willing to go into the lion's den You got to be willing to go into all 99 counties every one of these mid-sized small communities and go and and talk to them and what I've learned Representing a really red district is you won't win every single one of them over But you will win enough to trim the margins and every one of those those Republicans that we win over is a double vote. When did I hurt call them and what am I calling them? - But what's it, I'm really actually, okay, those are the people you're getting and those are the people you wanna get to win this race. But Iowa is a state that sent Tom Harkin to the Senate for 30 years. Barack Obama won it twice, it then shifted to the right and swung very hard to Trump, right? Like what are you hearing from the people, like in terms of the long road of kind of getting people to see either Democrats in a different way or politics in a different way? I'm curious about what those conversations are like. With the people you're not gonna get, right? Like you're talking to people, you're not winning them all over. What are those conversations like? What are they missing, right? You're running against somebody that voted to cut healthcare in Iowa to fund the war in Iran, it's deeply unpopular. But there are people that are gonna be upset about that, but still be unable to vote for you. And I'm curious what that is like. - Well, I've had a handful of conversations even with some Republicans when I was on rag bri, and they said, you know, you don't have my vote, but I've got a whole lot of respect for you. And certainly I appreciate that. But what I'll tell you is, regardless of where I am in the state of Iowa, urban areas, rural areas, I keep hearing the exact same story, which is, Iowans are struggling just to keep food on the table, a roof above their head, pay their electric bill. And now with this war in Iran, be able to put gas in their tank. I think that the, the couple of things, Iowa is, we basically hit the bottom. We're one of three states already seeing our economy contract. We're basically dead last for every healthcare metric. Just since Ashley Henson's been elected, 842 healthcare entities have closed in Iowa. And she's voting for cuts to healthcare. I mean, 110,000 Iowans are going to lose their healthcare out, right? Because her votes, 119,000 Iowans seeing their healthcare premiums double or triple, or horror stories like I've heard, quadruple. We're a state that we were basically the gold standard in public education. We've precipitously dropped down from the gold standard, now down to the bottom half, because of giving private schools public money. We've got a water quality crisis that's not being addressed. We've got a cancer crisis. We're basically the only state with a growing cancer rate, second highest rates behind Kentucky. And now we leave the nation in farm foreclosures, largely driven by the tariffs. But also, I think this war in Iran, which Ashley Henson has voted in favor of continuing six times, four times in favor of the tariffs. It is disproportionately her Iowa. We've lost three Iowans in the conflict. And then you're looking at this driving up fuel cost, fertilizer cost, and diesel cost, which is disproportionately hurting the farmcars. This is a state that is really hurting, that is ready for change. Everywhere that we're going, people are saying to me, this is not the Iowa I know. This is not the state that I grew up in. We need change both at the state level and the federal level. And I think that a common sense parapopolis, like myself, is where they're willing to park their votes. But it's a state that's ready for change. So your opponents, votes for the big beautiful bill, votes to send more money to the Pentagon, additional funding for the war in Iran, also really embraced. And just a lot of Republicans kind of held their nose and thought Doge was kind of OK. They were unsure where to. She's a huge fan of Doge, part of the Doge caucus. It seems like there's-- that just seems like bad politics to me, kind of unabashedly so. Is it just about getting Elon Musk to drop money in the state? Is she-- what is your argument against Ashley Hinson? And why is it that this is somebody running for the Senate in Iowa who seems to be not really even worried about her past positions in the race, confusing? She comes out when she announces that she's going to run for the US Senate. She says, I want to be Donald Trump's best ally in the US Senate. Says nothing about Iowa, nothing about islands, nothing about the middle class, a state that is hurting farm economy that's collapsing, cancer rates, et cetera. Yeah, she has voted for cuts to health care, to food assistance, just to give tax breaks to billionaires. It's been a level of essentially naked corruption with her. She has now up to 10 times more wealthy than when she entered Congress just six years ago, taken $50,000 of taxpayer money to give herself a luxury DC apartment. I think the calculus was, she looks at a state that Trump carries by 12 points. And she says, all I need to do is just get Trump voters to turn out and vote for me. And I'm just going to have a cake walk to the United States Senate. But this is a fundamentally different state. And I don't think she was prepared for a common sense parapoplus, like myself, with proven results of being able to win over independence and moderate Republicans. And we're getting big turnouts, particularly in the rural areas of 30% of Iowa voters are independence. And so these are the Kingmakers. But we're also getting a lot of card carrying Republicans that have said, vote for Trump, vote for Ernst, vote for Grassley, even vote for Henson. And enough's enough. We need change. We need change at the state level and the federal level. And I think this is a once in a generation opportunity that we've gotten Iowa to not just change the state. But in Trump's first midterm in Iowa, we won three of the four congressional races. We've got an amazing opportunity here to change the country just in Iowa. And I think we're going to come November. We're going to do something really special. It's just like part of what the Republicans are counting on is that not only is this a Trump state, but that the Democratic brand is so tarnished that they can overwhelm the ways in which you are unique as a candidate to try to kind of ride on the idea that like, oh, people just generally find Democrats, I don't know, annoying, whatever it might be. How much is just being a Democrat, a hindrance to you? And what would you like the Democratic-- if you asked Iowans or the people you're trying to reach, it's like, what does the Democratic party mean to you? What would you like it to be in people's minds? The reason why I'm a Democrat and what the Democratic party means to me is because I think at its essence, it's fighting for the little guy. And so I'm always reminded of a quote from JFK where it's why do you align politically the way that you do? Because I believe in looking forward, not back. Because I care about people's wages, their jobs, their health care, their schools, their civil rights. I think that's the essence of why I'm a Democrat. And I think that at our best, that's really who we are and what we stand for. I think that going forward, especially if we're going to win in prairie states like Iowa, it has to be really clear that we are the party of the people, party of the middle class, party of the workers. That's why I define myself as a commonsense prairie populist. And that's certainly the way forward. We can't be the lesser of two evils. We can't just be a corporate version. We've got to go out there with really, really clear ideas and the other thing that I say, I am just absolutely laser-focused on cost, corruption, kitchen, table issues. That's what this election's about. The issues that apply to 3.2 million islands. So that's a livable wage, affordable housing, affordable healthcare, affordable pharmaceuticals, drinkable water, addressing the cancer rates, functioning public schools, infrastructure, and addressing corruption. And that's a corruption in terms of the need for campaign finance reform. But that's also going out there and talking about the need for ethics reforms, turn limits, banning members of Congress from owning and trading stocks because people like my opponent, Ashley Henson, shouldn't be going up to DC in six years becoming 10 times more wealthy. Or putting a provision in place where I believe that every single member of Congress should be forced to have at least one annual town hall. Because I believe that members of Congress should be accountable to their constituents, to the people, not just to the billionaires, the large corporations, the donors, and the lobbyists. That's what I'm focused on. And that message is clearly resonating with islands. - How much money is coming in to the state from outside groups, like, how much you worried about that? And what are you, what can people listening do to help right now? - If they wanna see us be able to win this US Senate race, if they care about the country, they care about addressing corruption. If they wanna have somebody that's gonna be in their fighting for the people, not just for the billionaires and the large corporations, certainly join us. Go to TURIC4Iowa.com, in chip in a few dollars, because I'm not taking any corporate pack money in this. - Yeah, Ashley Henson, she's sitting on already $50 million between all the packs and the super pack money. The state's being flooded with it, because we've got congressional races and attorney general race that's gonna be competitive, a competitive gubernatorial race, and this Senate race. And it's funny, I was just with my parents the other day, and my mom gave me a stack of mailers that she had received. And it's just out of state super pack, super pack, super pack. So the money is there, but this is a real chance for us to have to win this and be able to change the state and change the country and have a voice in the United States Senate from Iowa, like what we had for so long. For 30 years, we had Senator Tom Harkin, my political hero, the father of the American with Disabilities Act. And I believe that this is our opportunity to have someone in the US Senate that's gonna be fighting for the people, fighting for Iowa and Iowa, and fighting for social and economic justice. And these social safety nets have allowed so many of us to be successful, like you. Social Security Medicare and Medicaid and not just like what Ashley Henson has done just enriched herself and just looked out for the halves for the billionaires and the large corporations. That's the opportunity that we've got this year in Iowa. So I married a minister. I'm sorry, I've married into the best state fair in the country, but I would love to hear why the Iowa state fair is second best. The Iowa state fair is incredible. And have you been to the Iowa state fair? No, I've only been to the Minnesota state fair. Okay. Well, then you've got to come to ours before you make a final determination. But I know the people in Minnesota will say, well, we get a few more people in the door than Iowa. So ours is better. Iowa state fair is absolutely amazing. You've got animals from every part of the state, so many unique people, unbelievable amounts of crazy food. I mean, I was eating pickled pizza and deep fried Oreos. I mean hot dogs, corn dogs, I had a corn dog with peanut butter and jelly on it, which honestly, pretty decent. And then you've got all these games and just people from all over the state. And it is, it's a beauty and a great energy. I did my Iowa soapbox there. And look, there were some people there with signs that were clearly not in favor of me, but they were respectful. And afterwards, I heard from a lot of people who said, look, Josh, I'm an independent. I didn't think I was going to vote for you. But I like what you said. I like who you are. I like what you stand for. You got my vote coming November. Here are some of the current items that you can get at the Iowa state fair. You can get the, these are all on a stick, bacon, cheeseburger, corn dog, hot cheeto, mozzarella corn dog, rattlesnake corn dog, jumbo plumber, foot long corn hot dog, dilly dog. What's a dilly dog? I don't know what a dilly dog is. Chicken, bacon, ranch, waffle on a stick, star-spangled swine. That's, why not? That's pork belly with an apple chipotle rub, bacon, pecan, pie on a stick. And finally, and this is, I found mystifying something called yummy thing on a stick. No other information provided. Are you aware of what the yummy thing is and what the thing we'd be eating would be? I am not, but I will certainly be back there again, a handful of times. And so I will definitely try the yummy thing on a stick, but yeah, anything on a stick and anything that can be deep fried, we've got it there at the, at the Iowa state fair. It really is. It's just absolutely incredible. I've loved it. And I was also able to clean them out of a few stuffed animals that I ended up giving to my wife with the shooting games, which I was proud of. Coming like a ringer. I will say a little disappointing to see that osse e-bols and could praise a salad on a stick, made it onto the menu. I feel like the socialist must be stopped. That shrimp corn dog was listed as a health food, which I think is actually kind of makes me, that makes me feel America's going to be okay. Yeah. I didn't want to ask, you talked about being bullied as a kid. Have any of the people that, to the point where you almost, or you did leave school, or you almost left school? Yeah. And sixth grade, I left public school and went to a small private school that my aunt was running, only had a handful of kids in there, eight, nine kids. And then I went back and finished public school. I went back for high school. Have you ever heard from any of the kids that bullied you? Have you ever seen them again? Now that you've kind of risen? I've run into a handful of them. Look, when it's tough growing up, disabled, it's tough growing up in the kind of economic situation that I grew up in, I have run into a few of them. I don't hold it against them. You're young, you're a kid. We all make mistakes when we're that young. They were probably going through a lot themselves, but I will say this, I certainly would never want to go through again what I went through. I mean, the 21 surgeries by the age 12, I spent a lot of time up at Schreiner's Hospital by myself, full body cast. You can imagine a full body cast as a kid in the summer heat in Iowa with the humidity. And we didn't have air conditioning through the whole house, so you're taking a hangar just to try to itch yourself. So I went through some really, really tough times, but what I believe is those that come out of that sort of circumstance, I believe that it creates a mental strength and a character that can't be broken. And I think it has uniquely prepared me well for what this is. I said people all the time, they'll say, "Josh, thanks for running. Thanks for what you're doing. I know how hard this is." And I say, "This is really, really difficult." Now, life of hard things, including winning gold medals. This is harder than winning gold medals, but I say, "This is not the hardest thing that I've gone through." And the thing for me is because I have gone through the level of economic struggle and healthcare struggle, I have a different level of empathy and a different level of fight. And I think I really do believe to my core that is what is missing in DC. We've got 73 millionaires in DC, a lot of people who have come from privilege. You don't have a lot of people that have had to worry about missing a meal, keeping a roof above their head, or healthcare struggles. Where's my direct care worker going to come from? Medicaid weightless, things like that. And this is what we're missing. And I know I have that fight for the people because I've gone through that. I've experienced that same struggle myself. Do you think having Spina Bifida puts you at an unfair disadvantage for dealing with spineless politicians? I've never heard that one before. And I'll say this, that there has been very little representation from the disabled population at every level of government. That's at the local, the state, certainly at the federal. There are very few with congenital disabilities. You can imagine if you're blind or deaf, there's communication barriers nearly impossible to overcome same with intellectual disabilities. So you're left with a small subset of individuals with physical disabilities. And I'm not up there to represent just the disabled population. But I do believe that my background and experience of everything that I've gone through makes me a much better legislator. And I think that's what's sorely missing in DC. And I'm ready to go up there and fight for the people, the people of Iowa, in Iowans because everywhere I'm going, people are hurting and they're struggling. And I felt that struggle. I felt that pain. And we shouldn't be living in the richest country on earth in this unbelievable level of wealth divide that we're experiencing right now. We're billionaires and, you know, people like Elon Musk and the levels of what they're paying on their taxes and things like Social Security, etc. There's a whole lot that we can do. Josh Sharik, thanks so much for your time. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Good luck. I appreciate it. We've got to go to TurkforIowad.com, help us out. We really do. We've got a once in a generation here opportunity to change the state and change the country. And with everyone's help, we're going to be able to do something really special come November. Thanks, Josh. Turk for coming on. Dan will be back on Sunday. You're going to talk to Daniel Butterfield, who's the executive director of priorities, USA. That's the big Democratic Super PAC. And I think you're going to talk to her all about how Democrats can get their message out to a lot of voters who just don't pay that close attention to politics. Yeah. Daniel is one of the smartest strategists in our party and they have done deep research on how swing voters, the voters we need most are actually getting their information and they have a lot of really interesting thoughts about how to get them, get their message to them and how we can begin to win the fight in the 20-28 election right now. I'm really looking forward to that conversation. Everyone check it out and have a good weekend. Hi, everyone. Pause in America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Ferris Safaris with Reed Charlene, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heffko, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, David Tools, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's guild of America East. Hey, everyone. My name is Elijah Cohn, and I've been a producer here at Crooked Media for a decade. 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