Trump Bans Crooked Media

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That SimplySafe.com/Cricket for 50% off. Then when you order, please write in PodSafe America and how did you hear about a survey to let them know we sent you? Don't forget, there's no safe like SimplySafe. Welcome to PodSafe America. I'm John Favre. I'm Tommy Dittor. Love it is off today because he generously volunteered to punch up jokes for a very important midterm speech. Let's listen. And because we need somebody who will fight back against the fart left, we need Michael Watley in the United States Senate. Now, you may not have even heard that, but I actually, I usually don't miss speak, but I just called them the fart left, not the fart left. I promise that was an accident. What do you think? I just love its best lines since Pokemon go to the polls. Yeah, no. The sign of a good joke is when you say to the crowd, you might not have noticed that I just told the joke. Yeah, remember like 30 seconds ago when I said something, none of you laughed, none of you noticed it. I said the word fart by accident. My three and two year old would have loved that joke. He's so, he's like, what is the opposite of charisma? He's like a black hole for Riz. He just did. Get him on the campaign trail more. I'm malish as a guy for 24. Guys, I said fart. I don't usually miss speak, but I didn't, I didn't mean it, but I said fart by accident. Wow. All right, so on today's show, we're going to talk about Trump banning journalists from the White House, the ever-expanding war he started in the Middle East, why his focus on AI is limited to renaming it. The midterm polls are finally getting to him and why he wants to put snipers, drones, and ammo right near DC's airport. Then you'll hear Dan's interview with Kate Conley, the Democrat running against one of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the country, Mike Lawler. But first, Krikikon's almost here. And today we're announcing the first batch of guests who'll be joining us in DC. We hope you will too. I think you'll see some of your favorites on the list if you go over to Krikikon.com where you can check out the lineup so far and get your tickets before our early bird sale ends on October 6th. So get those tickets now. They're going fast. And stay tuned for more lineup announcements. We have a lot more great names to share with you soon. All right, let's get to the news. Trump's latest strategy to deal with the media coverage of his extremely unpopular war, tariffs, presidency is to simply forbid journalists from entering the White House. On Friday, Trump announced that he is quote, banning CNN, MSNOW, and Politico for quote, constantly reporting fake news. By Saturday, reporters from all three outlets had their credentials confiscated and were physically turned away from the White House complex. On Monday, the three organizations sued the administration arguing that the government cannot revoke access to journalists just because the president doesn't like their coverage. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox also announced that they would not supply a replacement television crew after the White House kicked CNN out of its scheduled pool rotation, which means the major television networks will not have pool coverage of the president and they're saying they will keep that up until this gets resolved. JD Vance, when he's not telling jokes, offered an insultantly dishonest defense of Trump's move Monday morning, only to be rebutted by Trump himself at a press conference with Zora and Mamdani later that afternoon. Do you think it's appropriate for the president to be banning media outlets just because he doesn't like what they report? Well, I take some issue with the premise, so he's not banning media outlets. What he's doing is saying, "We're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda." Sir, you talked a lot about free speech over the years. How is it not an attack on free speech? Politico is his anti-Trump as right-bar was anti-Obama or anti-vite. Now, why on God's green earth would Donald Trump be expected to give Politico special access when nobody in the media expected the Biden administration or the Obama administration to give right-bar special access? It's about basic fairness. And if they're fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house. This is a special house queasy mentioned. Well, the White House is the most special of all houses I have to say. Yeah, I told the president that we're going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn, and that is something that I believe in is everyone no matter the opinion or the critique that we engage. Now, it's president. It's interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me. So I wasn't very worried about that. Look at all that press. What does Jamie talking about? It's not special access. It's just like a credential to get onto the White House grounds that he says. And also, maybe no one in the media expected the Biden White House to give right-bar press pass, but that's what they did. White-bar did have access to the White House just like all the other journalists. He just could not be more wrong. It means it's a liar. The people you give special access to are the propagandists who prop up your agenda. They get special interviews and scoops and things. Also, JD Vance being like, he's not-- I mean, I take issue with the premise. He's not banning them. And then Trump's truth says, I am banning the following news outlets. He's like, I ban those motherfuckers. And then again, with Mamdani, was like, oh, yeah. I'm not letting them in the White House because they're banned. They're banned. I ban these losers. I am struggling with this one because it's obviously a clear violation of the First Amendment. It's an assault on press freedom. But also, the image of Natalie Harp showing him a super cut of like, MS Now Anchor's dunking on Trump is so funny. Like, Lawrence O'Donnell just like hitting them with some norms. I know. I want-- Nika from the top rope. I feel I'm happy that the Wall Street Journal got that reporting that it was Natalie showing him in MS Now. I need the video. Anchor? No, no, no. I want to know which segment, which anchor? Who gets the special prize there? These leak us. They upset Grandpa because Natalie was like, hey, hey, I got something to show you. Watch this. She's useful. She's useful. Oh, can't believe us off. Brought her up. How dare he do that when she just caused a fucking First Amendment violation and-- Well, that's not on her. She showed him the video. The presidents who cut it off. I mean, it just set it off. It's the saddest thing ever, though. Like, I think the White House staff knows that this is not a winning issue for them. I mean, the press office apparently was caught off guard. Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles was out of town getting chemo treatment, I think. And this is seemingly how the saw went down. Announcing she's cancer-free now. Yeah. And Trump's like, Natalie helps like, OK, now I run the White House and they're kicking out the press. Long term, it's bad and it's a big deal. I do think short term there's an opportunity for Democrats to message this. The fact is, the press will recover this a lot because it's about them. And they tend to cover things about themselves. And I think we just have to frame this as like, this is a weak feeble president lashing out because he doesn't want you to know about high gas prices or the Iran war going terribly or why his family is getting rich. Yeah, or just, you're right. So the president is going to talk about this all the time. And people who are already pissed that Trump is not focusing on anything they care about are going to be thinking to themselves like, why the fuck is he spending all this time banning the press and not focusing on anything else? Yeah. So there's that too. It's like, it goes along with the ballroom and everything else that he's talking about. In the short, short term, maybe this helps him because no one was able to see the press avail of the new heliporty rolled out today. Oh, well, let's just incredible. Yeah, so this is what happens. The White House tried to live stream. By the way, the White House just tweeted they're announcing Trump TV tonight at starting at 7 p.m. live, which I think is like, I'm confused. Isn't it just the White House dot gov? Like they are White House dot gov are we always streaming a White House events has to do about the administration. So I don't quite understand what that's all about. But anyway, the White House tried to live stream Trump's ribbon cutting event for his stupid helipad. But here's what happens when there's no press pool. This is a Newsmax coverage of it. Should say for our audio and the listeners. So there's no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe Tim, this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit. She sounds like a swarm of bees. Just a little bit. Backfiring just a little bit. One interesting thing there and the Mumbani press conference is apparently Mumbani's office made sure that when they were going to report for questions, both CNN and MSNOW reporters got to ask some questions. Nice smart move, which is great. That's clever. What do you make of how the rest of the White House press core has been handling this? The unity among Fox ABC everyone? Way better than in previous attempts to go after them by the Trump administration. I mean, so right out of the game. The TV Network said they're not going to be covering events that are designated as pool coverage until CNN is allowed back then. That is a sense of collective action in solidarity that there's hasn't been in previous instances. It's also interesting timing because this is UN General Assembly Week, Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming to the White House. So there's some big news. It does make me wonder a little bit how long the solidarity will last, given that. I also wonder, to what extent, I don't know what we'll find out, I guess, what Trump TV is. I also don't know to what extent that the media world can cobble together what they need to create a new pool. Can you get real America's voice, or my pillow TV, or whatever to come together? Do they have literally the technical infrastructure and equipment? I don't know. Ultimately, though, I think this is about an audience of one. This is about what Trump thinks and how he feels. He's obsessed with mainstream TV coverage of himself. He watches CNN. He watches Scarborough and Morning Joe. His events suddenly are not covered, or if they just have a swarm of bees as audio, he's going to be upset about it. So, in the long run, they could probably find a way around the media. In the short run, we'll see. I think they're hoping that the court case saves them from themselves here, as my guess. Yeah, maybe. First of all, I think the press can't back down now, the White House press corps. They've started this boycott, and they have to just take it as far as it goes. I'm sure they also think that the courts will rule for them, which we can talk about that in a second. I imagine tomorrow, and some outlet, we'll see Republicans be like, "This is a genius fight." He picked with the press because no one likes the media, but again, I think that's too cute by half in this instance, because all people are going to hear is that Donald Trump got pissed that he was getting bad coverage and decided to kick reporters out of the White House, and I don't think anyone is going to buy that that's some kind of a brilliant move. You got to frame it. It's got to be about him being weak, or some sort of attack on him, because the pew polling on this is not quite as cut and dry as you would like. So there's pew research from 2026. 73% of adults see press freedom is extremely or very important to society, but 53% of Americans think it's okay for the government to limit press freedom if it prevents inaccurate reporting, especially if it has to do with national security stuff. So if Trump tries to make it some sort of national security issue, which occasionally he does, but it doesn't really have the discipline to do all the time, maybe this could be effective. I'm mostly where you are, though. I think each looks like an idiot. I talked to a bunch of reporters today, White House and other. Most of them said that they were relieved that the TV networks took collective action with the pool. Most of them are worried about that solidarity and how long it'll last. And one reporter said this person wished there was a little more, like some sort of organized protest, or boycott of print, or photojournalists, et cetera, and they could escalate a bit. Which I think they're starting to do. Did you see the post and the Times said that they're not going to put out any photos that they've taken today. So I think, throughout the course of the day, I keep seeing more media outlets put up their PR statements on this saying that they're like standing in solidarity. So I think that will probably keep going. But again, I think this all comes down to where this goes legally. The three outlets are asking the federal court to restore their access. The case has been assigned to Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump. And also just happened to oversee the Jim Acosta case back in Trump's first term. They tried to revoke Jim Acosta's press credentials. And then they were restored, basically Trump administration back down, and the judge ruled that there was no due process on that. So any hints on how this is going to go legally? I mean, I know, you know, which is that it seems like given that precedent, this guy should rule the exact same way, because the process here was Natalie Harp shown a hype video of Lawrence O'Donnell's Smackdowns or whatever, but we'll find out. Yeah, just so people know, like the legal case on this, Cheryl versus Knight is a 77 DC circuit case, right? And so this was sort of like the foundational ruling on this, which is once the White House voluntarily opens press facilities to journalists, it cannot exclude them arbitrarily or based on content, denying a credential, which would have been the case in just Jim Acosta's case, requires a legitimate justification, plus notice, an opportunity to respond, and a written explanation. And the court explicitly said first amendment interests are implicated in White House news gathering. So basically, none of that stuff happened, both on the process argument, that no one got any kind of notice, there was no reason other than, I don't like your shit. And then on the substance, the fact that Trump has admitted that they're being banned, because he doesn't like their viewpoints, and not because they did anything wrong, not because of a natural security issue, nothing means, like, I don't, there's no way he's going to win this case. It's our generation. It's our generation. It's our generation. It's our generation, imagine. And it's nice to think that there are some Trump judges on the courts that came from an earlier time, when they weren't just naggified. And Trump just continues to lean in on this and talk about it, like he's already assuming, he had another truth right before he recorded that this judge is going to rule against me, because he ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the planet. So mean. So mean. And he's like, and he's a Trump judge, that's sad and disappointing, but like, I have to keep these people out of the Oval Office, which should be always treated with decorum respect and dignity, because that's decorum and respect and dignity is what you think of when you think of Trump in the Oval Office. And it's like, this comes on the heels of them making a bunch of changes to the way the pool rotation works to put more conservatives in there to begin with. So it's already like, the pool events are already not what they used to be. Back in the day, there were just normal wire reporters and normal print reporters in their former often asking the president tough questions. Now, it's like, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend was in there every other day asking questions. It's a bunch of like right wing conservatives asking very Trump friendly questions, and he can't even take that. He's that pathetic and weak. And I will say, like, good for Fox. Yeah. And by the way, I will have this. We'll see how long it lasts, but like good for Fox for joining on this. Pause America's brought you by policy genius. It's so annoying when you learn that those little things everyone recommends you do to set yourself up for success, like meal prepping, resetting your space, or putting out your workout clothes before bed, really do make life easier. A quick act of preparation can make all the difference. So before the season gets even busier, check off one to do that can safeguard your family's future. 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That is the worst. I'm really mad. Don't be like John. Try for yourself today and if you're unsatisfied they will refund your entire order. No questions asked. Head to zbiotics.com/cricut. Use code crooked for 15% off your first order. That zbiotics.com/cricut code crooked. One person we haven't heard from yet is CNN's soon to be new owner David Ellison who's surely been busy celebrating the news that his paramount skydance conglomerate reached a settlement Monday with California and 11 other states that had sued to block its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery. The agreement would create independent editorial boards for both CNN and CBS news and require the company to release at least 30 movies a year with a $30 million penalty for each film if it falls short. The deal still hasn't formally closed but the settlement removes one of the biggest remaining, maybe the last remaining obstacle. Thoughts on California's Rob Bonta and the other state AGs deciding to settle and do those independent editorial boards make you feel any better about the picture. I don't think Bonta ultimately had a ton of leverage here. Ellison was threatening to move the studio out of California I think to Texas and then it was clear through some media leaks that Gavin Newsom and Bacera, Javier Bacera, is going to likely be the next governor of California and wanted a settlement. So he seemed like his hand was forced then that his legal options never quite matched up to his rhetoric. Yeah, elements of the settlement should help California, like you mentioned some of it, you got them to agree to additional spending on film development to increase the share of movies made in America, to keep up the studio lots here in LA. That's a big deal. But big picture, mega mergers like this are just terrible for the industry. They're terrible for writers, directors and actors and electricians and set designers and caterers and the LA economy generally and anyone who works in these movies. I think it'll be bad for us, people who like choices, like movies to watch that are good. Back in the day, there was just much more getting produced. There were cross-company productions, 21st century Fox could make a show that airs on ABC or whatever. And now its studios tend to air stuff that comes up through their own pipeline. So if you're Disney, you're only making stuff that you air on Hulu or whatever. And the last big acquisition, this Lasbac merger like this, was Disney acquiring 21st century Fox, which led to thousands of people losing their jobs. So I think for the industry it's just terrible. I guess it's good that there will be an editorial board, what do they say? It's like five current or former journalists with 10 years of experience. But who appoints them? Ellison Stowe. What tower do they have? What happens if they have an issue with the cover? The devil's in the details here. It also doesn't take a lot to distort coverage. You fire a few people there. You hire a couple over here. It's an entirely new network. So the Ellison's, their board gets to appoint the board. And I guess no more than two on the board may be affiliated with the same political party. So there's that. But you're right, there's zero word on what authority they actually possess, whether the Ellison's can ultimately override them if they find something. What are they looking at? What are they finding? It seems kind of bullshit. Even the look just to get into the settlement. I noticed Reuters report on this point. But Paramount itself is already projecting about 28 movies this year. So getting to 30 is an exactly forcing David Ellison to reopen the back lot. Yeah, yeah. And I are like a bunch of screenwriters. So yeah, I don't know that I think Bonta just didn't have the and the edges just didn't have the last cast stuck. One reminder before we move on, the impending Ellison takeover CNN is a perfect time to support one of the last independent pro-democracy outlets left in America, Cricket Media. We promise we'll never sell to the Ellisons. Never. Never. And if you subscribe today, we will thank you by giving you ad free episodes of all your favorite cricket shows, subscribe our only Bonta shows and all of our sub-stack newsletters. Join today. Keep independent media growing. Cricket.com/friends. So the place where American television networks won't be covering Trump this week is New York for the UN General Assembly just in time for the Iran War to expand to even more countries. Iran's Houthi proxies in Yemen have been attacking Saudi Arabia, including the capital of Riyadh over the weekend. Apparently, the Saudi crown prince begged Trump to launch strikes against the Houthis, which Trump reportedly went back and forth on before ultimately deciding to hold off for now. On a completely related note, US diesel prices have now climbed above $6.00 a gallon. I think we're at $6.50, we're in record territory, for fuel that basically touches every part of the economy, trucking, farming, construction, shipping. How big of a deal is the Saudi Houthi conflict and us potentially getting involved? I know we've done strikes before there. Yeah, it's a big deal. I mean, the Saudi Houthi conflict is a good example of how when you have a war that just kind of drags on like this, they tend to metastasize and expand and spread and reignite old conflicts in ways that make everything worse and harder to end ultimately. And so we have talked on the show now for months about the straight-offormose and the way the Iranians have restricted oil flows through the straight-offormose. That's the choke point in and out of the Persian Gulf. Now, the Houthi rebels have taken all this territory in the western coast of Yemen, along the Red Sea, and they've seized control of the Babel-Mondebs straight, which is the even narrower choke point in and out of the Red Sea. And in normal times, that waterway, I think roughly one-third of the world's seaborne oil trade goes through those two waterways. So that's a lot of oil and gas going through there. And so-- I love doing shows about this and hearing you pronounce Babel-Mondebs. Yeah, that's good. It's a lot of fun to know otherwise I wouldn't have known. There's a little island in the middle of the Babel-Mondebs straight and they grab that, so now they can just attack everyone from all these sides. It's also only 20 miles from our base in Djibouti. That's a part of this that's crazy. They can fire like drones and missiles at us if they want. Anyway, so they're on top of that. Like, there are these Iranian-linked Shia groups and a rock that fired at the Saudi pipeline that they've been using to export oil west across the country to get around this trade of foremost. I think it's 4% of supply-- global oil supply per day goes through this pipeline, which is offline for weeks now. So long story short, like the war is huge implications for global energy supplies. And then there's the humanitarian and geopolitical implications for the Saudis and other Gulf leaders, just like very quick backstory on this. 2014, right after the Arab Spring, the Houthis take control of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. 2015, the Saudis launches offensive with the Emiradis, try to take it back. It's a disaster. The US participates at first. Then Obama pulls off support, but then Trump goes back in and gives more support. Long story short, it's like hundreds of thousands of people die. The Houthis are not fully displaced, and it just ends in this kind of ceasefire in 2022 that freezes the conflict in place. But because of the reignite tradition of the conflict with Iran, the Saudis bomb this Houthi-controlled airport in July and thinks spiraled ever since. And now the Saudis are just like stuck. They can't-- they know they can't win the war without us, but they can't Trump get Trump to help them because he doesn't want to get sucked back in wisely. So just, again, imagine-- like, I don't have a lot of sympathy from Obama being sold on the Saudi crown prince, but imagine you're him. You bribe Trump and his kids with the golf courses in the hotels. You bribe Jared Kushner with all the money to the investment fund. He comes to the US. He promises to invest $1 trillion, $2 trillion, $10,000 trillion in the United States economy. Then Trump starts this war he doesn't want with Iran. His country gets bombed over and over again. Now the Houthis are going after them. He calls Trump for support, and Trump's like, "Nah." Maybe. Trump's like-- Really, at one point, he was like, "Yeah, I'm in. No, I'm not in." No, I'm not. I'm in. I'm a drama queen. But I guess the Houthis are only targeting Saudi Link ships and said they wouldn't go after US interests. So Trump's like, "Well, they're nice to me." It also shows, because I know that there's been other reports that the US is exceeding it, like, getting more oil through hormones. But it's like, you get one win over here, and then that's not going to stop the war. The Iranians and the Houthis aren't just going to put their arms down because why would they at this point? Do you see Alex Ward just posted a story with Wall Street Journal that Trump wants to invest $5 billion in a new fund to help Middle Eastern countries rebuild energy infrastructure that was damaged during the war that he started. Yeah, no, this is all great. This is a good use of money and a good use of time and money. Think back to the campaigns we used to work on in the early 2000s, and now the President of the United States is actually building-- it used to be like, you know, let's not be dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Let's create energy here. Now, we're literally going to rebuild with our money energy infrastructure in the Middle East because we started a war that was so fucking stupid. Meanwhile, gas diesel prices are like through the roof here. Also, we're rebuilding the energy infrastructure. The war's not over. So it's like, what are we rebuilding so we can get bombed again? I think what it demonstrates is they very long-term concern about oil and gas flows. I mean, what that is planning for is a future where the Iranians continue to control the straight of four moves. You need an end run around them somehow. And that's a lot of money. And also, we're also going to have to be planning for a future where we're probably pushed out of a lot of our bases in the Middle East. Both militarily, like the military bases are all damaged. There was a Pentagon IG report that said buildings and other infrastructure were damaged or destroyed at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan. And there was $184 million of damage to diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE as well. And that was only through the period through June 30th. Like, all the shit we don't know about is crazy. Can you imagine what the next president is going to walk into? It's a democratic president, and like just the shit that hasn't been reported yet. And the Washington Post had a piece last week that said the Pentagon was basically hiding the true death toll. I saw the Iran war. Yeah. And all the Hegs that I could say was it was fake news. Take me with my question. The other big international story this week is talks between the US and China, especially around the existential risks from AI. After meeting with China's vice premier, Scott Besson announced that the US and China are discussing a quote incident line. It's like basically an AI version of the nuclear hotline. So the two countries can communicate if there's some kind of dangerous AI event. Good luck on that line. Is this really China or is this the AI agent pretending to be? Yeah. Besson also said the two sides are planning another meeting about AI in Shenzhen in about two months. Not sure what the incident line is really for those since Trump assured us. Again, over the weekend, the concerns about AI safety are just like climate change and Russian interference in our elections, a democratic hoax. He did, however, announce the creation of an AI force modeled after space force. And he also said he's going to appoint a new AI czar, no word on what either of these things would actually do. But per usual, the president is focused mainly on the branding of AI. He thinks that's the issue. He posted a poll asking people whether we should change the name of artificial intelligence to hear your choices. Superior intelligence, extreme intelligence, or supreme intelligence. There was a follow-up about 12 hours after he put posted the poll, "Supreme Intelligence is out if losing." - Okay. - Trump attributed that to everyone hating the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court's been ruling against Donald Trump. And so now we're down to superior intelligence, extreme intelligence. By the time you guys are listening to this, he may have already picked, but I don't know what your favorite is. - Extreme intelligence kind of sounds just like X games. Like it's like sponsored by Mountain Dew. (laughing) - I'm surprised he didn't go with like Trump intelligence. - Yeah. - Just TI. - Just that exists. - So it seems like he's taking this pretty seriously. Are you at all hopeful about the best in announcement? - No. (laughing) - I mean, it's very funny. It's not funny at all, but it's terrible. It's like all the AI experts are like, "Please God regulate us and do it immediately." And Trump is like, "Well, what we could do is set up a new branch in the military. We just need 18 months to hammer out the legal framework and a couple of years to cobble together all the resources." And all the AI people are like, "Well, now the recursive self-improvement is happening now and we could achieve artificial general intelligence by, I don't know, next year." And by the way, these things are already breaking the law and lying to us and hacking its companies and maybe creating biological weapons. But yeah, the name is Zarr. Some sort of industry stewed, she was probably a donor. - The Zarr's job is apparently going to be to spearhead the AI rebranding effort. - Oh, it's only a rebranding. - It's a rebranding effort because Trump wants everyone to think that it is just economically beneficial for everyone. - Also, there's this huge New York time story of the weekend that basically reported exactly what you said last week, which is the only reason the Trump is like, let it rip is because he is afraid that any kind of regulation will hurt the economy. - It's all, there's just no clearer example of this administration being out of ideas than floating an AI force, like space force. - It's that it caught all of his advisors by surprise. - I bet. - They are forced to, no one knows what it, they haven't been able to answer any questions about what it is or what it does, which is why we're not explaining more to you. - Again, like you said, it's like it's so incoherent. If all these concerns are hoax, why do we need a Zarr and then another branch of the military, I guess, to deal with it. I wonder which random donor floated this idea? 'Cause there are a lot of the AI kind of maximists, the people who have the most money invested, all just think it's a branding problem. - Yes, it's not. - David Sachs, who was the president's AI advisor, still is, unofficially, he left the White House. This is who's being replaced. He said that basically the reason the polls are like they are about AI is because the media has bought into the Duma narrative. The Duma narrative has been ceded by some combination of the CCP and the effect of altruists. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - And so they've funded this narrative, the media has bought onto it and that's, and then now people are just watching the fake news and that's the only reason people could be concerned about AI. - Yeah, that are the fact that the models are hacking at the companies and that's the only thing. - That seems to be an issue as well. - Look, I hope the incident line works. Like I hope that they have a more productive meetings with China, but they're gonna have to take some kind of a real step on this. - Yeah, I would love for them to figure out a land line connective between the two. - And they're gonna need a code word. - I was gonna say it's gonna have to be kind of old school. Maybe like two cans in a string. You don't wanna do this as a VOIP if we're talking about AI. Like on the China piece, so Xi Jinping is coming to the US this week. I was talking to our old friend and former colleague, Danny Russell, who's a top Asian expert. Yeah, he's pretty skeptical that there's gonna be a big focus on AI because. - Trump doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. - Trump thinks it's a hoax and doesn't care. I think Trump is likely to get Xi to stop supporting Iran in some way. Like the Chinese buy like I think 80 to 90% of the Iranian oil exports. So maybe he'll get them to try to curtail that or some sort of sanction saying, but like I don't think the Iranians are gonna go along with that because they don't care. And then Xi will try to get Trump to stop supporting Taiwan, which he's proven to be pretty effective at kind of chipping away in that resolve. The focus will be the pageantry. I think Trump is meeting him at the airport. - Yeah, no. - There's gonna, also Melania just announced like there's gonna be a flyover. - Okay. - Be a love flyover. - Get a love of flyover. - Maybe Trump will shine his shoes or something, carry his bag. They'll probably, they will, what they will certainly do is make a bunch of economic announcements that they've already made and that never came to fruition in the first time. It'll be like soybeans and Boeing jets. And then. - Trump will exaggerate them and say they promised a trillion dollars and to give us the best deal possible and they're gonna create a billion jobs. - A gazillion trillion Boeing jets. And then the win will be announcing an extension of the trade war truce that we never needed to start. And then maybe like a summit on, you know, was Xi at APEC or like another AI thing. - Yeah, the other AI challenge with China is, and I talked to Helen Toner, who's, was on the board of open AI and she's an AI expert also a China expert when I was on offline this weekend. But she, she said the problem too is that in China, like she and the rest of the government there, they're just behind us, not only on the technology, but because they're behind on the technology, they're also behind on worrying about the existential risks because they're not seeing them in their labs yet because their models aren't quite as advanced as ours. And so they don't know if it's just like propaganda from us or whatever else and so they're not quite there yet. So it's like pretty nerve wrecking, but that's where we are right now. - Yeah, they're also not big on freedom of expression or thought really. So they're not gonna let their models do anything. They don't tell them what to do. - Right. - The Chinese are also more focused on kind of practical implications of AI, like the robotics piece for manufacturing and stuff that they can, you know, use in their economy, although their economic problems are high youth unemployment and housing bubble and a bunch of other stuff that will not be solved by AI. So both leaders have some big problems. - Yeah. - I don't know if they're gonna solve them this week. (upbeat music) - Podsave America is brought to you by HIMS. ED is more common than guys talk about, isn't it Tommy? - It is. - The good news, getting real treatment is simple and through HIMS, it's 100% online. HIMS connects you with licensed healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options from home, no awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines. 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Pots of America is brought to you by Hungry Root. Ask any parent, planning everyday meals for your family is easily one of the most exhausting, daily chores. Hungry Root takes the guesswork out of weeknight dining. There is no mental energy expanded on meal planning because Hungry Root does it for you, delivering everything you need right to your door to eat healthy every day. Hungry Root takes into account your health goals, your dietary preferences, and your budget to curate a custom delivery for you each week. From there, they tailor your deliveries accordingly. Once you note an ingredient to avoid the gluten or dairy, it stays on your block list. They source only high quality ingredients like meat and seafood with no hormones or antibiotics, plus organic produce and non-GMO options. Think of it as the convenience of a meal kit combined with a variety of a grocery store. Getting started with Hungry Root is simple. 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The Wall Street Journal has a similar story, detailing the president's frustration with his political headwinds, including the recent mail-in ballot loss at the Supreme Court and his hand-picked federal reserve chairs decision to increase rates. But according to one administration official, what has Trump upset the most is that no one in Washington has, quote, "publicly thanked him for trying to overhaul the Kennedy Center." Can we pause on that part for a minute? Yes. Why would anyone be happy about him potentially demolishing the Kennedy Center? (laughing) He thinks it's just dilapidated and he's gonna try to rebuild it. And he doesn't understand why people aren't like, thank you, Mr. Trump, for rebuilding the Kennedy Center. Did you read the story about how, I guess there was some bad weather and like a big chunk of something fell from the ceiling. Yeah. And it landed on the ground. Is that just like cleaning it up? They left it there for days and days and photographed it. Oh, I'm not. Chalk outlines like it was like a crime scene to just, I don't know, show to the world how terrible this place was. Yeah, if you don't maintain it, the Kennedy Center will turn into a mess. It is telling that that is what he's most upset about, though. I mean, I'm wondering like, you know, we've talked before about, do you think Trump Knows the polls are bad. Do you think he's just like in a bubble? And I wonder if like reality finally piercing his bubble is gonna change his behavior at all or does he just not give a shit if Republicans lose? What do you think? - My assumption has been that he just genuinely doesn't care. I think I'm there too. - It would not surprise me if he's been getting bad information for months and months and months and now something is gotten in front of him that is a surprise. We talked about Natalie Harp earlier, her job, she's the human printer, she follows him around and gives him news that he likes. But I guess ultimately like if Republicans, he doesn't have a legislative agenda to begin with really, probably like a tax cut. But like if Democrats take the Senate or the House, the oversight stuff will annoy him, but what his team will do is obstruct signal and refuse requests and then know that Trump doesn't have to worry 'cause he has immunity thanks to the Supreme Court and he can issue pardons to whomever he wants and everyone will be fine. I guess the X factor is he's got a $400 million super PAC. I think he's reserved what 130 million you said. - Yeah, he is good double that. - The thing that's changing I guess is he's starting to spend from that. We talked about how he didn't want to touch it for a while. So he's starting to spend and he is committed to campaigning. I don't know if that's a plus though for all these Republicans that Trump is gonna go campaign with them. I think the real plus would be him not doing crazy shit every day, like complaining about the Kennedy Center and threatening to tear it down and threatening to end banning press from the White House. Like probably what would help him trying to end the war and actually focus on bringing people's cost down. - The smartest thing he could do would be just to cut a deal to end the war in Iran at least through the midterms. - Yes and call off the trade war. - Yes. - But all he can do is today, his idea of helping everyone out was a big announcement today that he said, well he said an announcement's coming on Potash, which I guess we're going to buy it from Belarus now, a Russian satellite state because we were paying too much to Canada and it's really going to help farmers, which it does in the United States, it's important to farmers, but like we were buying it from Canada now because we pissed them off. He's going to announce a deal with Belarus for Potash. - And I think initially we used to get it from the Russians, but that that supply got cut off after the full scale invasion of Ukraine. So then we turned to Canada, but then we started a trade war with Canada. So right now we're back to basically buying it from the Russians, all kind of full circle. It's a fertilizer by the way for people saying, what is a Potash? - And Republicans are starting to break with him on the campaign trail. Tom Tiffany, he started the year by saying, make Wisconsin great again, 2020 election denier. He's recently criticized Trump on renaming Lake Ontario, data centers, beef import policy in Iowa, Ashley Henson skipped JD Vance's event. - I love that. - Today she's like called for an end to the war. Mike Rogers is calling for an end to the war now and AI guardrails. - Real quick on Ashley Henson. Today she called for an end to the war with Iran, but I think a couple of days ago she voted against a war powers resolution that actually ended the war. So come on Ashley. - Also like yeah, Mike Rogers. - Yeah, that's the guy for AI guardrails. Who was fucking the responsible for the Patriot Act. - Johnny deepstakes. - Love the surveillance state more than anyone else running. - Yeah, he's too deep to date for Tucker Carlson. That guy is of the establishment. - Things are so bleak for Republicans that they're starting to act like Democrats and anonymously voice their concerns to any reporter who listen. So we're getting one Republican describe the president as kryptonite for GOP candidates. - Love it. - And the journal has strategist warning that the enthusiasm gap could put both Iowa, let's just talk about in Kansas, in play for Democrats this year, if the Republican nominees in those races don't begin to distance themselves from Trump, Republicans do have one thing going for them though, fuck load of money. Republican super PACs spent around $204 million. This is just in the first half of September. That is two weeks. And Trump's super PAC alone has now reserved more than $130 million in additional advertising. As you mentioned, Elon Musk's America PAC has quietly spent $3 million in the Texas Senate race. He's trying to stay under the radar for obvious reasons. Fair shake, the Pro Crypto PAC, which spent over $40 million against Sherrod Brown in 2024, is up with a new $30 million spend against Sherrod in the Ohio race. And all that spending combined with the RNC's major cash advantage has Democrats now warning that they don't have enough money to keep up and they're worried that it could result in a smaller majority or maybe losing the Senate or not flipping the Senate. Let's start with the cash advantage. Like how worried are you about Democrats being outspent? - Very, very, very, very, very good. - We are going to get drastically outspoken. I mean, the crypto stuff is so gross. Like, first of all, what has your industry built or created? Since we all started to hear about this hype cycle that has done anything to create jobs or helped this country besides like-- - I'm done junior and hunter got some. - Yeah, I make a couple of Winklevies rich. You know, the Winklevos twins, I don't know. They'll probably cite some made up figure at us, but I just don't believe it. I'm sure you like I am starting to get lots of calls and texts from people on campaigns who are like, hey, our internals have us up a little or within the margin of error, but our greatest fear is getting outspent drastically in the closing days. And so like, there are some candidates out there who are able to raise money. It's such a clip that hopefully they're going to like, kind of battle to even like Jon Ossoff is a great fundraiser. He's got some cash on hand as opponents sucks. He'll probably still get outspent. But I was talking to someone working on the governor's race in Wisconsin today. So Democratic candidates, David Crowley, young, exciting candidate who got in really late, as we all remember, and won the surprise upset in the primary. His team thinks he could win. He thinks they could even get a trifecta in Wisconsin legislature if they're successful, but they are getting outspent almost everywhere. And part of the problem is that Tom Tiff and either Republican is getting millions of dollars from literally three people. It's like three billionaire Republican mega donors, like the U-line family, and the Hendrix, the other one, who have put in well over half of their money. So there's all this late cash coming in. Elon Musk's money will come in late and they're just going to dump horrible attack ads on the heads of all these Democrats. And I guess we will see if those ads are effective in an environment where everyone is just furious about the price of gas. But that is the real risk. Plus gerrymandering. Yeah, I mean, to look for the upside here, they've been spending some of these candidates who have been outspent 30 to one over the last several months and their polling has held up. What was there one you mentioned in Texas? Gina Enojso, who's running against Greg Abbott and has not been head the polling that Taylor Rico has, but is getting closer. She's been outspent 39 to three. Jesus Christ. And her polling is closing. She's doing better. So I think there is a, I talked to Sarah Longwell about this when she was on the pod. I have this theory that there's like a diminishing utility to just a ton and ton of money on ads because hopefully, people are just like, I don't, it's too much. I don't want to see them anymore, especially like this late. I will say in some races though, like if you are a lesser known Democrat, if you have not run for office before people don't know you, like that's when I worry about the spending because then you get defined without everyone, like a Troy Jackson in Maine. I worry about people like that who are just trying to get known or David Crowley, like you said in Wisconsin, who is well known in Milwaukee, but not maybe through the whole state. So that kind of worries me. But you know, on the other side too, I just saw that one Republican Super PAC is pulling out of North Carolina. Yeah. And the Senate Leadership Fund, which is the big Republican Senate PAC, is now warning donors that they could lose iOS. So they are worried about Josh Turk and iOS, which is good. But I do, for anyone who wants to contribute and who can contribute, like, and you're wondering like where you should contribute, vote save America, if you guys just go to votesafeamerica.org, like we have a Senate Fund and a House Fund, and what the VSA team does is they put like the races that need the most money that are most competitive in each fund, and then like your donation just gets split between all the races. And we continue to like update the list every once in a while. So someone has enough money, or the race is no longer competitive, it drops off the list, just so like your money's not being wasted. So it is a really good time now, if you can contribute to like go and donate to these candidates. - Yeah, I think you're right. I think there is a diminishing marginal return to an attack ad. Like when you're sitting at home, and you're watching LSU Ole Miss, and you see the same attack ad for the 20th time, it just annoys you by the end, although that probably means it's like seeped into your brain. - It's like, are you even watching at that part? - Are you like, I'm going to the bathroom. - Yeah. - Getting beard. - Some candidates by now will have name ID, and people who have some sense of who they are. Someone like James Talleriko in Texas, right? It's been a bit of a national figure, has gotten press, has been able to run ads. But Shane Goldmecker at the New York Times reported that Republicans are outspending Democrats in Texas Senate this week, 25.9 million to 1.1 million. That is a massive margin. So it's going to be just a real uphill battle for a lot of these candidates, and then yeah, the lesser known ones, when it's low information voters who were deciding the last two weeks, and they go into the polls, and like the only guy they've heard of is the one who had some horrible attack ad, run against him or her for the last couple weeks, like that's not a good setup. What do you make of the Kansas? Like I don't know what to make of Kansas. I have not put enough time and attention into it. I do think that we have a really, really good chance in Iowa, and that is very real. Like Rob Sand is winning, if not by a comfortable margin, at this point, like he could very well win. I think that Josh Turek has a real shot at winning that race, and then down-dallot. There's a lot to target. how's races and other statewide races we can win. And presumably, if you could win in Iowa, you could win in Kansas. I just don't know the demographic lay down as well. - Yeah, and again, I think for people listening, the distinction is, you can watch the Kansas race unfold and be really hopeful when you see a poll and wow, would it be great if we could pull that one out? But if you have $100 to give, and right, thinking about where's my money gonna go the furthest and have the maximum impact, I'd probably go to an Iowa before I went to a Kansas. Because we'll probably have a better shot at that. If we're winning Kansas, then we've won. We've probably won Iowa and Ohio and Alaska and all of them. All right, one last thing before Dan's interview with Kate Conley, if you thought D.C. has been in need of more national monuments that double as military installations and weapons depots, you're in luck, Trump just announced that the giant arch he plans to build near Arlington National Cemetery will now be transformed into a, quote, top grade military complex that will quote, "How store and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones plus snipers on both the roof and plaza areas?" What the fuck, you went on to say the military requested this, which seems extremely believable, right? - Yeah, I think that we should put a bunch of weapons and explosive devices in a gigantic, very tall, very easy to spot and target monument. The more recognizable from the air, the more easy to hit with the drone yourself, I think the better. - The Pentagon is almost literally next door. - You can see it, you can see it. - This isn't like highly controlled airspace near Reagan National Airport. - Apparently, the FAA asked the arch designers to put like a torch on it so that planes would more easily see it as they're taking off and landing from D.C.A. Yeah, I saw this. I was like, you are so fucking brain dead and stupid. If you believe this or if you report uncritically on this claim, absolutely no one in the military is asking him to store drones in the arch. Why would you need snipers on the arch? Who are they aiming their guns at? - It's not near the White House. - The people who are visiting the tomb of the unknown soldier? - Yeah, are you firing at Arlington National Assembly? What are you talking about? - Also, why are we storing ammo inside a tourist monument? We're just, people are gonna come take pictures and there's just gonna be a whole bunch of fucking missiles inside, what are we doing? - The dumbest, most made up thing ever. Clearly what happened is he started to build the ballroom 'cause he wanted to place to have parties and then someone told him that the national security arguments were pulling better. So we started highlighting the fact that there's a Pentagon, blessed bunker deep in the bottom of it or whatever it is. And I was trying to apply that same rationale to the arch but it just doesn't make any sense. - Just go ahead with the arch, go ahead with the. It is like, if we don't win in this fucking environment, we're never winning. Do you see the people who surrounded the Kennedy Center and created like a human shield to prevent the demolition? Like a shout out to them. - It's pretty good, there was a good, yeah. - It's hard for me to get worked up about the cultural stuff but then you read about the Kennedy Center and I think it was actually Eisenhower's idea. They pitched it to Kennedy as just an American cultural center. The Kennedy family championed it. Then Kennedy was assassinated. So they named it the Kennedy Center. It's just like living monument to an American president who has gunned down and Trump is like, let's bulldoze that thing. - Yeah, it's one of those things that you see the headline and you're like, well this is silly, like it's bad but it's. And then it doesn't, like not caring about it, doesn't really survive one read of a story where you read this like people's jobs, performances, the business, like it's a cultural monument in DC and then you start getting really mad about it. - It's just, it's so strange of a thing to focus on. Like I'd love to know at what point and Trump went, Trump's 2.0, he got pointed in that direction. I bet someone, maybe Natalie Hart, maybe Rick or Nell, started showing him clips or headlines that came out of Kennedy Center performances by artists that didn't like him or something. - Yeah. - And he like decided to blame the building that housed them. - I also think, also I've kind of nailed him on this when he was like, he's building all these monuments because no one will do it when he dies. - He's got it. - And then Trump's like, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. Like I think, I think that's really why he's, like this is gonna be my legacy. He's facing the end of his life. He knows this is it and he's like, he wants to be able to tell himself and then have a bunch of shit named after him and like that's gonna be his legacy. - Yeah. - He wants tangible things to point to, not like, you know, and then I had this accomplishment that helped people. - Right, no, he doesn't care about helping people. Yeah, he cares only about himself and his, how he's remembered. - I'm sure you've noticed that some of our friends over at the bulwark, they've had a long conversation. JVL is very focused. He's basically a single issue voters on who in the Democrats running in 2028 will bulldoze the ballroom. And I'll be honest, like when I hear that conversation, I find myself kind of indifferent to that and but also aware of what the politics will probably be like in that primary and that will have, you know, a debate stage full of Democrats trying to outdo each other in the ways they will fire bomb or otherwise take down the Trump ballroom. But then you think what Trump's totally fine with bulldozing a Kennedy ballroom, a Kennedy event space. - No, I just had this idea during our last pod with Dan and Alex on Friday. And I think my view of this is, you know, next president, as a Democratic president, day one, you have your affordability agenda you're talking about cost of living relentlessly. Like your, like your Zoran Mamdani, right? For like the first month, that's it. But quietly, there's just a special office set up in the White House and that person's job is to remove Trump's name from everything. - Yeah. - All over America, every government office, every official, just we're gonna erase Trump from history as much as we can. We're gonna rename all the shit that he built. We're gonna knock down what we can. And we're not gonna talk about it or brag about it because people are gonna be like, why are you focused on this and not focus on me? It's just gonna happen in the background. - Yeah, I think that Xi Jinping did this to Hu Jintao. Just quietly erased him from the Communist Party history. That's what we're doing. - All in favor of that. - Yeah, though. - Honestly, if I'm the next president and that bottom is built, I'm using that thing. - Yeah. - And we're gonna name it the Brock H. Obama bomb. - Yeah, the D.I. - Perfect. - All right. - Workspace. - When we come back, Dan talks to the democratic nominee in New York 17th District, Kate Conley. (upbeat music) - Positive America is brought to you by Helix. If you're like me, sleep is very, very important to your life. If you get a good night's sleep, you're better at work, you're happier at home, you're more productive, you feel better, your body feels better, and if you get a bad night's sleep, all bets are off. Real sleep starts with a right mattress. Upgrade your sleep quality with a Helix mattress. How do you know which mattress is right for you? 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That's helixsleep.com/cricut for 27% off-site wide helixsleep.com/cricut. - I'm Nate Silver. - I'm Galen Druke. - And I'm Claire Malone. - We're back. This time with our friends at Crooked Media for a new show called Still Counting. - Yeah, numbers are hard. It takes very easy. - And frankly, numbers have only gotten harder. - What does the data actually say? How do we reconcile that with the other things that we're seeing in American politics and around the world? And how do we use that data to understand or maybe even dare to predict the future of American politics? - New episodes every Wednesday starting September 9th. Subscribe to Still Counting on youtube.com/atstillcountingpodcast or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - Joining me now is a Democratic nominee in New York 17th District, Kate Connelly. Kate, welcome to Positive America. - Thanks so much for having me. And thanks for all you guys are doing to bring these conversations to light. We got one hell of a fight ahead of us. - No, if we just said 47, 45, 47, less than 50 days to go is where we are. - 47 or so. - Okay, Kate, you've been a lot of very serious and dangerous things in your life. You've been a military police officer. You've been a special operator. You've deployed to combat zone six times. You've hunted down terrorists. Let me ask this question. Why the hell are you running for Congress? - So there is a saying in the special ops world run to the sound of the guns. And what that means is when there is a fight out there, that's where you belong. Like that's where you're needed. Go to where you can help. Go to where you can solve problems. And right now for this country, for my family, for the Hudson Valley, this is the fight that I know means the most and makes the most difference for the future. - When I was doing research for this interview, I learned that you and I actually have something in common. We have both been permanently banned from Russia. - Get it. (laughing) - So what did you do to piss off Vladimir Putin? - I don't think I can talk about it. - Okay. - But it was, you get sort of the Biden administration right? - It is a, it is a, a badge, I proudly wear, going back to, you know, I started my military career after 9/11 with West Point and then spend the majority of my military career, six years, start off as an MP officer, military police, but then in the special ops world. And so a lot of counterterrorism, a lot of going after and hunting down truly the world's most dangerous terror groups that we're trying to kill Americans and all over the world. And then we did some strategic competition work, too. But yeah, it just goes back to look 21st century. There's some very real threats that are adversaries, suppose, and Russia is certainly one of them. I know you can't talk about it, which is even more evidence of whatever you did is much cooler than what I did, which was- What did you do? I want to know what you did. Yes, so I was in the Obama administration at the time, and I happened to be scheduled to go and meet the press right after Russian-vaded Ukraine, the first time. Crimea, the first time, yeah. Crimea, the first time, and I read the very aggressive talking points written for me by Ben Rhodes and the NSC, and I angered some people, and so I ended up on the list when they did the first sanctions, and I checked before I came here, still permanently banned. I mean, listen, I would say you should be very proud of the work you've done, and if only our federal government would continue to call out Russia for the wrong it is doing. I always joke my wife that if she ever says she's interested in visiting Russia, I know we have some real problems. Okay, so we talk, we make a lot of fun of Michael Waller around here. He is on - as you should. As we do. Crooked dozen, yours is perhaps the most competitive race in the country, it is incredibly important one, it is one that we need to get the majority, and so I thought that maybe the best way to sort of show the core contrast in the race, we would play one of your ads and one of Waller's ads back to back. Let's take a look and I'll get your reaction. In the Special Ops community, there's a saying, run to the sound of the guns. That's what I've done my entire life. Joining the army after 9/11 combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, hunting down brutal terrorists, protecting what makes this country great is why I'm running now. Because the politicians you created this mess are not going to be the ones who fix it. How do you tolerate what's being done to our country? To New York. The answer is you don't. I fought for my country, fought to protect our democracy, and I'm ready to fight for New Yorkers. Let's f**k go. I'll do whatever it takes to get things done. I stood up to both sides to get salt back and make things more affordable. I had to take on the left and the right. I call a Mr. Salt. He didn't stop. This guy was up paid and then. Kate calmly opposed increasing salt, jacking up our taxes $4,000 a year. Yeah, I'm not going to let that happen. I'm Mike Waller. And I approve this message. I will let you get your response to the actual accusation this at in a second. But I want to begin by pointing out that whoever addressed Mike Waller that morning hates him with a passion of a thousand sons. I don't know what is up with those pants in that shirt, but it's not a good fit. I will say that so you don't have to. But the other thing I was going to ask you is, in Michigan, Abdul Asayad is repeatedly challenging microaggers to line up and play some football. Yeah. I imagine you would probably enjoy a pull-up or a push-up competition with Mike Waller. I would get so much joy from that. So much joy. And you do. Do you want to respond to what Lawyer says about soccer as a big issue in your district? So just going back to the biggest difference between me and Mike Waller. We are about the same age group like 30 miles apart. We are fundamentally different people. He is a lifelong political operative and politician who has found every way possible to profit off of democracy while I was defending it. And you see that and the values he demonstrates are lack thereof where his biggest argument this cycle is about a lie. So when we look at salt, right? The federal income tax was created in 1913. For 104 years, we never had a cap on state and local tax deductions. Donald Trump to punish blue states, like New York, like California. In 2017, implemented the first ever cap on state and local tax deductions. To deliberately double tax democratic states. In his own tax bill, that was ending. The cap was ending entirely in 2025. The best thing Mike Waller could have done last year is absolutely nothing for salt. And it would have ended. But instead, Republicans to continue to punish blue states, reinstated the salt cap. And this time made it permanent. And this temporary bump-up that he talks about from 10 to 40 K goes away in five years when he's off running for governor or senator, whatever the heck he's going to do next. And what he fails to talk about is how his decisions, his votes on so many things like the tariffs eight times, Iran war six times have jacked up the cost of living for families in the Hudson Valley so much that anything he's trying to claim is so grossly inadequate to the cost they're paying because of Trump and Mike Waller and their incompetence. In this ad, you can see that Waller is trying to position himself as a Republican who works with Democrats, who stands up to Trump periodically. And he has found some moments to show a little difference like he voted for the ACA subsidies to be extended. But can you talk a little bit about how Waller and his relationship with Trump are hurting your district? Yeah, and even those subsidy extensions, that was after he voted to end them with the one big ugly bill. So this is the con artist that he truly is where he shows up. He does like this, this big act to pretend like he's standing up for the people of the Hudson Valley, but really his actions themselves show you that he doesn't care. He's inflicting harm. And so this goes back to his voting record with Donald Trump is actually 100%. He was the deciding vote and the one big ugly bill that kicked nearly half a million New Yorkers off of their health insurance. And when you look at who Mike Waller is, honestly, Dan, it's just follow the money. It is loyalty to Trump and then his own political ambition. That's how he votes. And he was going to run for governor until Trump twisted his arm to have him run for election to see it again, right? Yeah, when Trump told him to sit down and instead go home, I would have paid it watched his face. But that goes back to representing New York 17 isn't what Mike Waller wants to do. It's his consolation prize. And we've seen it in his conduct where he is jacked up. His literal votes have increased the cost of living in our district on families that are just struggling to make ends meet in a way that's unforgivable. Another big issue in your race, and frankly, races over all this country is data centers. You know, you have said that you were open to data centers if they are more of a net positive and negative for communities. There's a massive data center of the Hudson Hudson Valley. There are more there's an expansion of that that's coming. You talk a little bit about your policy on data centers and how it differs from that of Mike Waller and Donald Trump. So on Mike Lawler's watch, there were five data centers built in his home county of Rockland County. Mostly benefiting financial services company is from what she took tens of thousands of dollars. There's three more that are scheduled to be built also in the same county. When you look at how Mike Lawler has voted on this issue last year going back to when this issue actually came up, he voted to reduce restrictions on data center construction to give data center companies $80 billion in tax breaks as big tech has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign. And now what we're seeing with Elon Musk and Donald Trump is tens of millions in dark money. My position on data centers is very simple. If they're going to be built, they need to be a net positive for the communities they are built in. That means they're not exploiting them. They're not exploiting their infrastructure. They're not jacking up energy rates or water bills. Do it responsibly. Do it the right way. And this is where I do believe government has a role to ensure that's what's happening because what we're seeing from these corporations is they're not choosing the right way for people, for communities. And so government needs to ensure that they do. And that's where I support Kathy Hawkel's current moratorium. Let's take a pause and figure out how to make sure these these companies are doing it right. The broader conversation about AI is really sort of jumped really into the public sphere in the last week or so with Daria Amade and the heads of the frontier labs warning about risk and wanting additional regulation, the anthropic researcher who resigned and said that he thought that we were could AI can kill all humans within 10 years, which was not what I wanted to hear. And so now there's a big debate in Washington that's going to lead to nothing because Michael Oliver and their projects have gone home to offer the election. Yeah, God forbid they do their job. Exactly. I'm actually looking at it for this country. But have you thought about the kind of AI regulation bills that you would support if you're in Congress next year? 100 percent. And you know, I talk a lot about my military career, but my last two years in federal service was actually at the cyber security and infrastructure security agency or SISA, where we were already doing work on how do we help build guardrails and regulate AI when it comes to our critical infrastructure to make sure that we are protecting the American public's security and safety and ensuring that these systems that are so critical are done the right way, properly tested, properly vetted, ensuring that they can't do physical harm to people. And it's that kind of approach that government should be taking and ensuring again that these companies where we have seen over the years how tech companies are not putting public safety and security first, right? Look at software. We have to constantly update our systems because features and speed to markets always been the priority. Look at social media and the harm that has done to our country to our kids. And so for us to think that suddenly AI companies are going to do the right thing is beyond naive. We have a responsibility to go in and set guardrails to make sure again that this technology is being harnessed for net good and public safety and security is built in. And for people who try to say that that that's mutually exclusive from, you know, being the world leader or regulating, I push back wholeheartedly. We're America. We can do hard things. We can be the world leader in AI and also regulate responsibly to make sure that we are doing this the right way. - Given your time in serving in uniform, I really want to talk to you about Pete Hexeth and what he has done at the Pentagon. But let's start with, where do you think things in the Iran war and the execution of that war by this president and his cabinet? - Just saying his name makes my neck pain a little bit. This guy is such a disgrace to the office and should never have been confirmed. And I do believe should be impeached. Every day, every decision he's making is making America less safe. And our brave men and women in uniform deserve a hell of lot better than this guy. So what do we do? You know, this administration got us into a reckless war of choice in Iran. We're suing the worst course of action imaginable. Let's go back to like this plan, this course of action that they executed. It wasn't new. Like this option was on the table for prior administrations, Democratic and Republican. And it was never chosen because and every war game and tabletop exercise never ended well then. - Yeah, that ended like this, right? - It closed the street. - Yes, good. And so this just goes back to the irresponsibility of this administration. And the fact that Pete Hexeth is sitting there lying about the real conditions on the ground, the real impacts of national security. We are degrading the readiness of our force. You know, we were talking about the USS Lincoln that was redirected from the Pacific theater to the Middle East in deplorable conditions. We're not even talking about the damage that's been sustained to our forward operating bases in the region. And what that means for long-term national security. It is so screwed up, it is so incompetent. The American people should be outraged. We're not any safer because of this. And on top of it, now we're watching gas prices in diesel skyrocket, where I literally have families in my district having the side between, do I fill up the gas tank to get to work or the grocery cart? - In addition to the exit to the war, Hexeth came and he made a whole bunch of changes to sort of the physical requirements to serve. You know, there is a report in the Wall Street Journal this week that he is just demanding, I think, and I'm using a quote from one of his most impeccable grooming standards for people who serve the military. What do you make of all of those changes? What they're about and what impact they may have on our readiness and the men and women who serve. - What he has done, removing some of the best leaders and our generation from the military. You know, the best commander of the best boss I ever served under General Donahue who was just forced into early retirement. What we are seeing play out, where the American people deserve the best military in the world, right? That means the best talent. And this administration led by Pete Hexeth enabled by Congress because I don't think Congress is getting enough accountability here either. They're letting this play out. They are literally firing anyone who stands up to do the right thing. And this goes back to being in the military. I sworn oath to the Constitution. You go out there and you stand shoulder to shoulder with men and women every day putting your life on the line to serve a country. It's never, never about politics, right? It's you put country over party, over any person. And those are the ethical standards that we should be expecting. And this administration, because of its security, because of its corruption, is literally firing our best leaders who demonstrate that. That's so fundamentally wrong. It's fundamentally on American, you know? - On a less serious note, I was texting with someone who knows you and works with you and I was like, what are some interesting things about K, coming out there that are very, very interesting and fascinating and fascinating by all? And this person told me and I quote that you recently discovered ice cream. (laughing) - How is that possible? - It is true. On the trail, as you can imagine, my normal eating standards and workout standards have not been met. And so it is really then a matter of whenever possible, eat what you can. It honestly reminds me of deployments. Like there's like these rules on deployments. It's like always go to the bathroom when you see a bathroom. Always eat when you can eat, always sleep when you can sleep, right? Campaigning is the same way. - That's the exact same rules when you're on the campaign trail. - It's real. And so now look, I used to be more disciplined where I wouldn't let myself eat a lot of these things. And now I'm kind of an addict when it comes to ice cream. - So yeah, can we wait all this time in your life to discover ice cream? - I will say it has been a game changer. (laughing) I gotta do a little more cardio to level it out now. - When Brock about me used to campaign, he is also a very, a city-based eater with he of the Apocalypse Seven Almond story. - Yeah, yeah. - But that's the thing you do on the campaign trail. You visit restaurants, you order the local stuff and he would often, and he would, he would, he have a sweet to some of those, but if he didn't want to eat it, he would have two bites, bring it into the car and hand it to a staffer. (laughing) - Yeah, here we go guys, it's really good. - That's right. - Yeah, just on my kind of game. It was good. That is too funnier. - When you and I were talking before this began, you were saying that your race is now seeing a massive influx of super PAC money being spent against you to support Mike Lawler, talk a little bit about that and then also for people who are listening to this interview who, you know, are compelled by you, understand the stakes of your race, where can they go to help? - Yeah, so, you know, as a reward for Mike Lawler's loyalty, Donald Trump and his buddies are hooking him up, you know? Mike Lawler's voted with Donald Trump 100% the time. Like I talked about earlier, six times the Iran War, we were just talking about doing nothing to rain them in. He also went over to Dallas last week and was a keynote speaker. - I was very struck by that. Like, it was surprising to me, which speaks to your point about his ambitions is that in the money is that a lot of people in battleground states and districts stayed as far away from Dallas as it possibly could. And here is someone who's in a district that Kamala Harris want, albeit narrowly, but still going to Dallas. This race is really, I think, the embodiment of what is fundamentally wrong in our politics, where if this was just really about me and Mike Lawler and giving voters the options of who we are, I would crush him, absolutely crushing. But what you see happening, and this goes back to like ending Citizens United, I've promised to not take corporate PAC money while he's taken millions. Like we've got to get this money out of politics, but our race is a great example of the only path that Mike Lawler has to winning in November to beating me, is by having Donald Trump save him and Elon Musk and pour all this money in. In 2024, Mike Lawler was the number one recipient in the house of Elon Musk's dark funds. And so we're seeing that again, this cycle, they're pouring it in to try to save Mike Lawler, their little puppet, but we're not gonna let it work. And so that goes back to like, this really is a fight. I do believe not just about right versus left, but right versus wrong. And what is happening right now in this country is wrong. This isn't what I fought for. This is what I lost friends for. And so we gotta fix it. But with that, it's a fight that I know I can win, but given what we are seeing, I can't win alone. And so certainly need all the help we can get to fight back to make sure we send Lawler packing and off to his next career and get him the hell out of Congress. So please check us out, it's katconlay.com. We would love to have you on the team. - Kate Connolly, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck in the selection. - Thanks so much, looking forward to kicking his ass. (upbeat music) - That's our show for today. Thanks to Kate Connolly for stopping by the studio. Dan and I will be back in your feed with a new show on Friday. Pods in America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Ferris Safari with Reed Charlene, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heffkoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, David Tolls, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's Guild of America East. (upbeat music) - I'm Nate Silver. - I'm Galen Druke. - We're back. - Yeah, numbers are hard, take so easy. And what does the data actually say? - New episodes every Wednesday, starting September 9th. Subscribe to Still Counting on youtube.com/@SillCountingPodcast or wherever you get your podcasts.