Trump Defends Vivek Ramaswamy as Disgusting Ad Sparks GOP Backlash

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I mean, he, this is like taking campaign money and buying a billboard to announce your own DUI. I'm trying to think of anyone who's committed this type of own goal. He's doing what Republicans have been told to do by the algorithms, and that is known and I'll just double down. Just double down. This was massive mail-in security with a media budget. Congratulations, VEK. You wanted an October surprise? Well bitch, I'm sure you're surprised. Welcome to Region Monarchs. I'm Scott Callaway. And I'm Jessica Tarlov. Before we get started, we'll be livestreaming Monday through Friday during election week to break down the results as I come in, subscribe so you don't miss any of it. All right. Let's get into it. We're now on the home stretch. So let's look at the map and the numbers we're watching. Larry Sabato's crystal ball currently puts Democrats at 223 seats leaning their way compared with 200 for Republicans with 12 toss-ups. That puts Democrats over the 218 seats they need to win the House. A new strength in numbers. Vericide poll has found a strong majority of voters wanting the next Congress to undo many of Trump's policies. Cal State gives independent Senate candidate Brian Bangs just a 6% chance of winning a South Dakota over incumbent Republican Mike Browns. Tomorrow you'll have a bonus episode featuring him and several other underdog candidates we wanted to put or bring some sunlight to. In South Carolina, a recent Trafalgar group poll has Republican incumbent Darling Graham with only a narrow three-point lead over Democratic challenger Dr. Andy Andrews. And then there's Trump who has hit a new low approval rating. With the most recent New York Times Santa Paul showing him with just a 36% approval rating among likely voters, Trump was on the campaign trail again yesterday in South Carolina showing his support for Graham where he was mocked and heckled multiple times. Let's watch a clip. Four testers are some believe they'll do whatever they can to win. They get $250 for that and they screw up their lives and they go home and mom slaps them around for it. I voted for that man, don't you ever do that again, son. I still love you son hard to believe is Lindsay could always get it done, I don't know. He passed away unexpectedly. We love Lindsey Graham. I'll tell you, these people are crazy. In fact, you know, in a certain way, I hate to say that so Lindsey, he respected Darling more than any person alive. That includes me and I wasn't happy about it, Darling. I wasn't. I don't mind when they do that, but it's always right at my punch line, you see? It's just so awful. Even in a tight race, South Carolina hasn't elected a Democratic Senator since 1998. I mean, obviously him spending time there is a pretty negatively-coupled indicator. Would you make it to South Carolina race? So it's a long shot, not quite as long as some of the other ones because it's essentially it's like an open lean Republican seat because Darling Graham is not Lindsey Graham and it's a very different relationship certainly to the electorate. A la she doesn't have much of a relationship to them. She and her brother's story, it's wonderful stuff how he stepped in and raised her after parents died, make sure she got to college. Those are all good things, but it doesn't make you built to be a U.S. Senator. And I was looking back at what happened in 2020 when Jamie Harrison was running against Lindsey Graham and it was a 10 point race in 2020 and Donald Trump was on the ballot. So there was a turnout machine factor there and he won't be on the ballot. That's why he's showing up in person. I think that Dr. Annie Andrews is a sensational candidate. You can tell by the way that they're going after her and I said this last time we were chatting. The narrative that Democrats are going to do well in this election doesn't so much have to do with us. I'm not even, I'm just in full panic mode about us, but looking at how they are behaving. The arguments that they're making, which wreak of desperation and disgusting stuff, I want to talk about the Vivec ad about Amy Acton and Ohio with you because that looks to be like a nuclear bomb that he set off for his campaign. Now a governor, the Republican governor has come out and told him to take it down. And John Houston is running on the Senate side against Sherrod Brown, or I should say Sherrod Brown is running against Houston since he's that's the sitting Senator said he certainly wouldn't have put up that ad. They're going after Annie Andrews saying she's a radical. Usually pediatricians aren't the most radical people out there. And of course, they're talking about transgender issues and trying to tar her with this lie that she transitioned everyone. And I thought it was really smart. I don't know if you've seen it. Annie Andrews went direct to camera to say this is a lie. I don't believe in this. Politics can get pretty ugly. And when it does, you deserve to hear the truth. My career as a pediatrician has always been about taking care of kids. And I've got three of my own. So I want you to hear me loud and clear. I don't support biological men playing women's sports. And I don't support and haven't ever performed gender surgery for minors. I'm Dr. Annie Andrews and I approve this message because darling Graham lying about me won't do a thing to help you. And I'm not transing. That's how they say it. They say they're transing people or we're transing people. Not transing anyone, certainly without parental consent. So the desperation, I think, is the story here. And there are a lot of very smart people who would say that it is not a waste of your money to be sending it to Annie Andrews, people who thought that we massively overspent with Jamie Harrison. There's a Congressman Ralph Norman, who's an old school Republican type who ran in the primary with darling Graham for Lindsey Graham's seat. And he said, I'm going to stick to my promise to support darling Graham, which he pledged after she won the nomination, but he said, my family is not going to vote for darling Graham. They're just not. And added, no, I would not do an event with her and I made that pretty clear. So this is a small subsection, perhaps, of Republican voters in the state. But I think it's meaningful that he's so openly talking about the fact that darling Graham doesn't pass the test for his family and that he wouldn't want to, that he wouldn't want to stand shoulder to shoulder with her and help her campaign. Yeah, should we, should we talk about Vivek? I mean, I'm always down to talk about Vivek. Vivek is one of those guys who whatever room he walks into thinks he's the smartest guy in that room. And he just found out that this room has mirrors. And he, he basically tried to make act in the story and instead gave her an origin story. I did know about her. And when I heard about this, I found out that this was a woman who as a girl was physically and sexually abused by a stepfather, who the mother decided to stay with. And after the father was charged, fled and the mother stayed with him until he died. And child services and protective custody took her and her brother away from the dangerous household. They have not spoken since, I mean, this is this plays into this whole Epstein class of Republicans are fine protecting pedophiles. And I had no idea any of this. had gone down. And the moment, and I got it, believe there's a ton of people in Ohio who immediately upon learning about this, did their own research and did what I did. I went immediately and donated some money to our campaign. I think we're going to find out she had the biggest one day. All this was, this was a grenade with the pen taped to his forehead. I mean, I don't think I've ever, I'm trying to think of anyone who's had committed this type of own goal. There was a moment where he could have come out and said, this isn't terrible. It's not going to apologize. This was campaigns are busy. You know, you approved stuff 20 times a day. I want to apologize to my opponent. This was, this was terrible. And instead, he's doing what Republicans have been told to do by the algorithms. And that is no, no, no, just double down, just double down. I don't, this might be a really interesting moment in campaigns where people decide there is a line. And the line, if crossed, we're not talking ethically or morally. People are absolutely happy to, to breach that line, but where it can absolutely blow up in your face. I've seen on Kowshi who went from the likelihood of her winning from like 72 to 76% of four-point move in 24 hours. You know, this was, oh gosh, this was, I, I don't think I've ever, have you ever seen anything like this? Nothing springs to mind. I mean, I've seen October surprises have enormous effects. We could talk about the Komi letter in 2016, which was 11 days out, which is essentially where we are. But Hillary Clinton didn't do that to herself. Right. That was something that happened to her. The refusal to even make space for the idea that perhaps this wasn't a good idea is I think something that is so endemic to the political class. And especially to the Republican political class. And that's the lesson from Donald Trump. Never apologize, never explain, never surrender. Right. Lose an election, never surrender. I mean, the man is still out there talking about how he won Minnesota. So, you know, it doesn't surprise me in that sense. And I know as well that Vivek is like a particularly shitty person. And that he's not well liked and Nikki Haley completely clocked him in the 2024 debate. She was going harder at him. Chris Christie as well. And you know, whatever you think of their politics or the idea that they could take on Trump, I think a separate from character judgments that they made about this weasley guy and smart electorally for Houston to distance himself from this. I already mentioned Governor DeWine coming out, but now JD Vance in bed with this. And this is the kind of lack of moral fortitude and frankly political instincts that I think can dog him in future endeavors. If he is going to run for president in 2028, because if your compass is so fucked, that you see something like this and you know that the woman was sexually abused by her stepfather. And you don't think that that's a moment to pull back and create some distance there. You don't have to sell him out completely down the river. Right. You can say, you know, like you said, things are busy. You know, I don't I don't think that was the best ad, but you know what was talking about what's going to happen if Democrats get back into control. Right. And your taxes and they're going to like the buildings on fire and they're going to trans all your kids or whatever they're saying. But I think this was a real mistake and you're seeing that like Scott Jennings on CNN last night. This is really bad. And it has the potential to be like kryptonite to this campaign that was already struggling. You know, Amy Acton was favored already now by more. And Sherrod Brown is running a sensational campaign. And so the ticket looks increasingly strong in this sense. She also, and I don't want to make it seem like she was using her terrible experience to, you know, profit off of it or to, you know, to her advantage. And that said, well, completely she wasn't talking about this. It's not even a key part of her story. A la you didn't even know this about her. But they were smart to come out right away with ads refuting it and talking about the damage. Her brother was really powerful. Her brother was great. And I think it also matters that the national review a conservative outlet was one of the first ones to get out there and confirm her story. And that there are still some issues like pedophilia that you should be on the right side of history. And Nancy Mase, who, you know, has had some recent very crazy moments, was on her podcast talking about it. And, you know, to her credit, she has gone against the administration in terms of getting the voting to get the Epstein files released and has taken a lot of slings and arrows as a result. And she was saying, this is the stuff that ends this version of the Republican Party that people say, I just, I cannot abide by this. Yeah. And I think there's a deeper issue here. And that is we're evolving a generation of men who confuse cruelty with strength. And that conflation was effective in 2024 for Trump. People were so sick of a starched blah, blah, say anything to please the crowd be so politically correct and ineffective and disingenuous that when a guy came in and started using racial slurs, people saw it as authentic and real. And now we have a generation of young people, especially young men, who again think they're cruelty of strength. And I'd like, I would like to think that this is an example that people are beginning to gag on this. And, you know, this was like, this was massive male insecurity with a media budget. And congratulations, Vivek, you wanted an October surprise. Well, well, bitch, I'm sure you're surprised. Okay. So can I say something because you brought up young men? Of course. So the Harvard youth poll came out, which has been incredibly accurate in predicting what's going on with 18 to 29 year olds. They found Democrats leading Republicans 63 to 26% amongst likely voters. So not just registered voters. 63% say their midterm vote is opposition to Trump and his policies. So you like to see that 63% number that's back in the realm of where Democrats had been in past elections. But, you know, I would still, if I could have my way, it would still be nice to see that people are motivating because they believe in something, not just because they're pissed off about the alternative. And I know midterms are always referendums on the president and the party in power. But I still, I feel like we could have done better in making the case that, yeah, you shouldn't want Trump there and the tariffs and the war in Iran. You pay more for this. You know, he broke promises left, right and center. But this is the affirmative vision for the future of the country under Democrats, if you give them back that power. And these are the policies that will put more money in your pocket and make sure that you have health insurance and that you can own a home. And I know that individual candidates talk about this stuff. But I'm just bemoaning the national sentiment about it. Support for the show comes from pendulum metabolic daily. GLP ones are everywhere nowadays. But did you know that your body actually produces GLP ones naturally? Here's the rundown. For years, researchers at Harvard, Berkeley, and Stanford have been studying the gut bacterium called Acrimensia. It's the key ingredient in pendulum metabolic daily because they found it does great things to your metabolism. Basically, acrimensia helps signal your body to produce more of its natural GLP one. And that, we know, helps regulate your appetite. pendulum metabolic daily is a probiotic backed by rigorous clinical research. It helps you feel fuller longer, experience fewer cravings, and make it easier to stay on track with your health goals. Our producer Eric gave it a try, and here's what he thought. Just taking pendulum has been great. 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Now through December 11th, Seoul is offering our listeners up to 60% off their entire order. Just go to getsole.com and use the code moderates. That's getsole.com promo code moderates for up to 60% off. Don't wait. Some strengths are already selling out. And after December 11th, they're gone for good. So moving from bad to worse, Russia says it's sending its first diesel tanker to the U.S. today under a recent deal made with Trump. After fraying a 74 year old American in prison in Russia for four years, it looks as though Russia, Ukraine and U.S. could resume peace talks soon, though the details aren't certain. And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Elon Musk ordered the Starlink slow down. That's had a huge impact on your crane's ability to defend itself. Just do you think there's really any hope here? What do you make of this prospect of peace talks? Well, I feel like the backlash has been so severe that we are probably not going to see a president she Putin and Trump summit sans Zelensky. And I sincerely doubt that it will happen at all if one of the rules is that Zelensky has to be there. And I don't think that those peace talks should involve China. You have the U.S. the Europeans, the NATO alliance, Russia and Ukraine. And I think Zelensky is smart to be making his case everywhere that he can. Going on a show like Diary of CEO, which has enormous reach and also brings his comments into algorithms that might not necessarily be seeing him on news programs. That is smart strategy and he is incredibly media savvy. I have learned to not be tremendously optimistic about the prospect of a good outcome when Putin is involved. He, I don't want to say is in a great position or enjoying all of this because they obviously have huge strains economically and they are losing thousands of soldiers on a daily basis. They are having to chase people down. Essentially, I mean, Russians are hiding from them to avoid being sent to near certain deaths. But he has the era of the president. He is a humanitarian in the eyes of Steve Whitkoff. And I think that he and the Iranians can't believe their good luck that Trump 2.0 is behaving like this, frankly. Yeah. So with respect to the diesel deal and the tanker math, the whole deal covers about nine days of U.S. diesel and the first 300 ton tranche covers about half a day. And one tanker covers a few hours depending on the size. We're treating this one tanker as if it's the Berlin airlift. It's a rounding error with a symbolic flag on it that we've basically decided to aid in a bet our enemies while abandoning our allies who are fighting our fight. The free to American, look, it's good news. We should celebrate it. But the reality is hostage diplomacy rewards the hostage taker. And unfortunately, we've created a series of incentives. I didn't like it when they released. I forget her name, that WMBA player, Brittany Griner. Yeah. In exchange for I think food and absolutely played by like a fucking fiddle. And in exchange, we released the merchant of death who was selling weapons to anybody who would kill Americans. He absolutely played on the special interest group pressure to release. And I'm going to be clear, she was imprisoned illegally. But hostage diplomacy is one of the most difficult situations we face. But unfortunately, it results in a series of incentives to just take more hostages. I personally think that I would like to see this war continue. I believe that Ukraine is on the winning side. I think the momentum is on the side of the Ukrainians. And I would like to see America step up and provide a fraction of the munitions that they expect to rate it on Iran or expended on Iran to bring Putin to his knees and send a message the entire world that when the West clasps hands and decides that pushing back on murder, s autocrats when they invade Europe is a feature, not a bug, and something we will continue to do in the last century and this century that it's going to make for a safer world. If you look at the Russian economy, it is in a vice. GDP is shrinking rates of 14% and war spending is about 20% of the budget. Imagine if the U.S. was spending $6 trillion a year on its military, Ukraine is hitting refineries and export terminals, and Putin isn't coming to the table because he wants peace. He's coming to the table because he wants, he's running out of money and we keep handing him more and more leverage and more and more ability to continue this war machine. Margaret that summarized it perfectly when she said the Kaiser Wilhelm when asked if he wanted war. He said, no, I don't want war. What I want is victory at an acceptable cost and we have to ensure that Putin receives a strong signal from the West that victory is not going to come in at an acceptable cost here. I think this is going to go down and again, I said this before, there are a lot of things that the Trump administration will just be absolutely stains on the Arab Trump, whether it's tariffs, whether it's ice, whether it's a rollback of bodily autonomy. I mean, there's just, you know, pick your poison here, but I think the number one thing that will hurt us the most moving forward was the fact that we abandoned kind of Ukraine and its our of need. So yeah, I think Zelensky should show up to the peace stocks. And my attitude is I hope that they continue to get the support and show the incredible skill to continue. My favorite streaming media program that I love to stream is seeing Yandex and oil refineries go up and flames that there is no streaming video. I enjoy more HBO up your game. Scott's just watching refineries get blown up. I wanted to add to your comment about the stain and moral rod of abandoning Ukraine. We've also abandoned NATO. And that's an important element in this. And I know it has always been part of Trump's plan to change the way that NATO works. And he was right to push other member states to pay more for the common defense. There's no reason that we should be footing the bill for all of it. And they can afford to go up from 1% to 3% or whatever the numbers were by our allies who stand shoulder to shoulder with us when we've got a problem. Right. And when we're asking them to come fight our wars, say for the war in Iran, which I think that they were very smart to say, hold on, wait a minute. We're not doing that. But these are countries that believe in the importance of international organizations that bring like-minded countries that share the same values and believe in democracy in the post-World War II order together. And we are telling them essentially f off you foot the bill for this. And then we are lying about those arrangements, which I think is really sinful. That if you go ask the average American what we're doing vis-à-vis Ukraine, they will tell you that we are sending billions of dollars that we have given them every weapon that they need. And that it's out of our hands at this point because we haven't cut off the tap. And that's how the administration wants it. And I like that Zelensky is making sure to go back to go and push back against that narrative to say, give us access to these weapons that we buy with European dollars because they're the ones that are happy to pony up for this. And they have a geographical necessity in being part of this maybe in a different way. But it's real shady work on the part of the administration. What do you think about the Starlink thing? Because they're still pointing fingers, even with that Wall Street Journal reporting about Musk. And they've talked to some officials within the DOD as well who said it actually didn't get run up the chain to Trump, but that high ranking officials knew that this was going to happen. And they're talking about terms of services. And it was a corporate account versus an individual account. Like sounds like a a load of bullshit to slow down the shield for the Ukrainians. But what are you thinking about it? So just with respect to your comments around America's involvement of support, quote unquote, support of Ukraine, there is no support. There's negative support. We are not sending any money. What we are doing is trying to force them into a surrender that essentially schedules the next war when Putin decides it was a good idea and now goes for Finland or Poland. And we're also putting pressure on on Ukraine. Just surrender. And the only good thing about withdrawing our support, we're not sending any money right now to Ukraine. And to Europe's credit, they've stepped up is that Ukraine no longer really needs Trump's approval for anything. So let's see, it's kind of like honey badger. Don't give a shit. He doesn't have to be deferential to the US because he's not getting anything. And then when you have one person who does not hold elected office, who is reportedly addicted to ketamine and sleeps of the loaded gun next to his bed, throttling back technology that the Ukrainians believe will guide their defensive drones to shoot down inbound ICBMs from Russia. I mean, let me link it to the political end of this. There have been so many Democrats and Republicans scared to raise their head above the parapet for fear that they will anger the world's wealthiest man and with citizens united, he can throw $300 million at the Republican opponent for Senate and Texas. He'll do that on November the 4th. If if Democrats take the House and the Senate, I can't imagine how many times Musk is going to be asked to come in front of Congress. I believe that there's going to be calls for massive regulation, maybe a divestiture or even possibly, and I don't think this is a good idea, but I believe there will be calls to nationalize Starlink. If Charles Lindbergh, who was a hero in the 30s, who believed Hitler just wasn't that bad. And by the way, there were a lot of people who saw, thought that we should not go back to Europe, that we paid a huge price, that we didn't get anything from it, who was not our problem. And we should be, have a more, we should have an alliance, or at least a benign neutral, a complexion towards Hitler. And he was a hero. If he'd figured out a way to work with McDonald Douglas and developed the most amazing aircraft in history, and had sold them into, under the Len Lee's program of FDR, had sold them into Britain to help it defend the island, such that a seven-mile strip of ocean defended democracy has Britain held out and, you know, fought them off with the RAF and radar. If all of a sudden the owner of McDonald Douglas, Charles Lindbergh said, without the knowledge of the RAF, I'm going to disable their weapon systems mid-flight. What would we have done to Charles Lindbergh? I mean, I use this word, I like to think I use this word carefully, but if Elon Musk is guilty of throttling back defense technology that the Ukrainians that they had as they were inbound projectiles into civilian areas in Ukraine, then he is guilty of being a traitor to the West. And they're all pointing at each other. I believe I actually do believe him. I don't think there is any way he could have done this without the president's approval. I don't think he's that high, if you will, to start dialing back without the Ukrainians' knowledge, their ability. I mean, you imagine they're about to deploy defensive drones and they stop working. And then they find out a day or two days later on the Wall Street Journal that Musk dialed the back and then Musk says, oh no, it was star shield. It was the defense department. And they're like, no, sorry, girlfriend, it was you. This is going to be topic number one. After they'll be about 48 hours of analysis on what went right, what went wrong on November the 3rd, the 4th and the 5th will be post mortem. The 6th is going to be about Starlink and Musk and Ukraine. Republicans are angry at this. Democrats see their red meat here and like, oh my gosh, this is a bipartisan issue that everyone is going to be angry about. Because Americans to your early point think we're supporting Ukraine. No, we're not. We're shutting down their defensive technologies. And we're trying to convince them to surrender by sending over our real estate appointees and sons and loss. So this is, I think this is going to be the political story of the new term, especially if we get the kind of wins that Democrats are expecting. Any thoughts? Oh, I agree with you. I made the case on the 5 that, you know, this will be top of mind for oversight hearings. You know, this isn't about necessarily even, you know, Elon Musk, fire inspectors, generals that are looking into his companies, right? That's what doged it. It created a protective bubble around important people in their government contracts. And so that's going to be something you look into, look into FEC stuff, right? And hopefully we get to some campaign finance reform, though, or need monster majorities for that. And then this is going to be top of mind for people. And you're right, that even Republicans who are somewhere between the old Neocon model and whatever America first is today don't want to see defense capabilities that they've legitimately paid for the Ukrainians or the Finns or the Poles, whoever had that particular contract, you know, cut off. And what does that say about us? Either that someone did it consciously or that you have that kind of mess up, right? That this is something that could happen. And it raises, you know, huge questions about modern warfare and how safe we are putting eggs in that basket. If this was something, as Rubio said, like, I don't know what happened, you know, it just turned off. So from South Carolina to Ohio to Ukraine, let's come back to Michigan, where Wednesday's debate between Democrat Abdul Al-Sahead and Republican Mike Rogers got heated. Al-Sahead hammered Rogers over a size of Trump and the war on Iran while Rogers attacked Al-Sahead over his alleged connections in the Muslim Brotherhood accusations. Al-Sahead has repeatedly denied. Let's watch a clip. He asked the new brother Muslim Brotherhood, excuse me, head, Moracy in Egypt to defund the police there too. Let's talk about this. He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I've never been a part of because my mom who's a nurse in Missouri, it doesn't make any sense. And it's actually really quite beneath you, Mike. It's really quite beneath you. It's not working. To call on the question, my loyalty to the Constitution, I'm talking. I'm talking. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. And the question that you would ask that, I think, is actually really quite shameful as somebody who's actually served under that Constitution. It is shameful. How is this race closing in the final dates? Did you watch the debate? What did you think of it? And how does this race appear to be closing as we get to the, as people had to start heading for the voting booths? I didn't watch it top to tail. I saw, you know, highlights through the clips. And I wanted to say about this in particular that I thought it was a really strong pushback from Abdul there. And I particularly liked that he invoked the Constitution and American values because I think that there are some people who, you know, don't think that he is Muslim Brotherhood or anything like that, but want to hear him talking about Abdul the son of Michigan, which, you know, he does in a lot of his ads, especially the super cute ones with his grandparents. But to use the fact that Mike Rogers is someone who honorably served this country, you know, under our flag under this Constitution, that he would be stooping to this level and this line of attack. And it goes back to what you were saying about closing on desperation, right? They're not closing on economic policy, right? Or the, the brass housing, healthcare, you know, whatever it is, they're talking about trans issues and jihad, essentially. And I really, really liked that. And I wanted to add, so Abdul was on with John Stewart on his podcast. And everybody who knows anything about how the recovery of 9/11 was handled knows what Iraq star John Stewart has been in fighting for funding for first responders and people affected by the enormous terrorist attack. And John Stewart said, Mike Rogers holds a special place of disdain in my life. This guy was a real pain in our ass in 2010. We were trying to get this the Droga Act for 9/11 first responders. And he was particularly obstinate. Oh, that's just a New York problem. And he voted against it all the while talking about how much he respects the heroes of 9/11 and I'm a patriot and it was all bullshit. And I think that's a very salient point of attack, you know, adding on to what Abdul was just talking about with, I believe, in the constitution and like, you should be ashamed for targeting someone for how they pray as that's enthrined in the constitution. And then to also say, what's up with that? Right. You know, you're all for protecting 9/11 heroes and these first responders, you know, they ran towards the problem. And then you voted against making sure they had access to the funds that they so desperately needed and deserved. What do you think? You like it? Yeah, look, I watched a couple clips and I thought, I thought, Elsa, it's going to win and it distinct to the content. I think what happens is when people watch a debate, they kind of go for, I mean, 85% have already decided. And they're just going to pick things that support their current current beliefs or emotions. But Elsa, I just came across as more confident and you just came across as stronger, quite frankly, so I thought, okay, this is so close. I wasn't sure. I don't have a strong feeling on this race. And I have issues with both candidates. But watching the few clips in the debates, I thought, oh, he handled it. I thought I also had handled one of the debate and came across more as a leader. And as you said, called on the Constitution was calm back in his face forcefully. - So the lurking question is still what's gonna happen with Jewish voters in Michigan, vis-a-vis Abdul. And I know some that are voting for him and some who are on the fence and some who say they're gonna leave it blank, that they're gonna vote for Drossel and Benson at the top of the ticket. And leave it blank. And I just wanted to read something from this letter that he wrote to the Jewish community, which I thought was particularly impactful. And I know that words versus actions sit differently with people. But he said, "Rodgers in Trump "feel threatened by our plurality, "the collective power in Ipluribus Unum." But that's what small people with small ideas do. They want us to be small like them. They've been hard at work distracting from their disastrous policies by pointing to my faith and attempting to sow division. They know that if we band together, our movement is unstoppable. Together we can practice to Kunalam. We can get money out of politics. We can put money in your pocket and we can deliver Medicare for all. And I don't know if it's ways people who don't feel like he has properly made them feel like he is going to focus on Jewish safety comments about Israel not being our ally versus not even saying, you know, they're a misbehaving ally. But I don't know. I thought those were really powerful words. And I liked the idea of contextualizing all of us who share these liberal values and support the same set of policies into one bucket. And I also really liked he has a new ad up about being a man of faith and how the country would be better off if we had more people of faith in these positions of power. And I think that resonates. You know, James Talleriko is talking about a similar thing. They just pray differently. (upbeat music) - Hi everyone, I'm Cara Swisher. - And I'm Scott Galloway. - Twice a week we get together on Pivot to sort through the biggest stories in tech business and politics and we're taking the show back on the road for a live tour in November. - So we'll bring hot tags, I'll bring the inside and the dick jokes and Cara will try. Keyword is tried to keep me in check. You'll get to see her hit me in person live. - I'll do it. If someone has to do it. - We'll cover AI, whatever chaos Washington is cooked up that week and every billion are misbehaving. - That's all of them. - And you'll also get to participate in audience Q&A. So bring your best questions Scott. We'll probably answer ones you didn't ask. We also have secret special guests which you'll enjoy for every city. - Get tickets at pivottour.com. That's pivottour.com. - We are selling out so don't wait and we look forward to seeing you. - Are you tired of hearing about business, tech and finance from the Rose? We are the Tiger Sisters, a top business podcast with the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tiger Sisters releases every Monday and we decode money, power and love. - And who doesn't love all those things? - We are the internet's Wall Street and Silicon Valley big sisters. - Tune in every Monday for late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. - Check out Tiger Sisters on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. - Welcome to the Tiger Fam. - Today explain producer Denise Gera wanted to make a show about Susan Collins. - But today explained how Sean Ramaswaram was like. - More ring. But then Denise said. - She's like a ninja. - Susan Collins is not Denise's beat though so we asked Alex Cites Wald from Maine's mid coast villager. He's writing about her race which couldn't decide the balance of the United States Senate. - Ninja would not be the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Susan Collins but actually pretty good comparison she's quiet. She is flexible, she's quick. She can do things that seem impossible. She's lasted a lot longer than any Republican in New England or a blue state like her. Susan Collins is a ninja. - On the 2000th episode of today explain from Vox. Monday to Friday afternoons wherever you listen except YouTube but that's like where you watch, right? Kinda, thanks. - So let's end on a positive note here, Jess. It appears that the Manusphere personalities who helped Trump win young men in 2024 are losing favor with that audience. New polling shows double digit drops in favorability for Rogan, Muskin, Carlson, Walt Trump, fans and the GOP are all viewed on favorably by men 18 to 30. I just want to highlight some data here because I think it's a convenient and lazy argument or belief in America that young men are basically Neanderthals and are exceptionally conservative and kind of are the problem when it comes to getting in the way of a liberal society. And the data just doesn't support that. Gen Z men call themselves liberal more often than conservative 38 to 31% and only 24% identify as Republicans. So the most referred to conservative cohort is actually more progressive and conservative. Roughly six and 10 young men support legal abortion in all our most cases. That mirrors the national view on it. Men hold their policy views weekly. Their party idea is a hoodie, not a tattoo. They're not quite frankly, they're just not that political. And people talk about young men going to the Manusphere and going more and more conservative. If you talk to young men, they gave up on the media as obsessed with Andrew Tate, not young men. Young men have moved on. The support for Andrew Tate is in the single digits among young men. And also this notion that they're more conservative than past generations is just not true. Young men have about the same level of conservatism as past generations of young men. What's changed is that young women have become much more progressive and you can understand that with the tax on their bodily autonomy. The bottom line is the average young man wants a job and an apartment and a partner, that's not a conservative agenda. It's an American one. And Democrats have treated them like a problem to fix instead of voters to win over. I would argue that young men haven't left the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party has left them by telling them they don't have problems, they are the problem. And I think we're going to see a lot of young men show up for Democratic candidates in a week. Yeah, I'm not particularly surprised by this because I don't think it was really about the manosphere necessarily. It was about the promise of better economic outcomes. And they didn't get better economic outcomes. So they're looking at the people that hosted and shepherded in these conversations into their lives and saying, it's just not that interesting at this point. It doesn't translate necessarily into an enormous amount of goodwill towards the Democratic Party to your point about not catering necessarily to this demo. But I'm not surprised to see this. And I think some of it also has to do-- I know there's a stereotype about young people and that they don't really care about facts, right? And they just want to have fun and just give me content that feels good. I think they also see a lot of these quote-unquote manosphere characters struggling with reality and that they don't know basic facts. Every day, there's another Rogan clip out there where he's saying, what's going on here? Or I didn't know that. And then you have, he's like a Shane Gillis shows up who is an enormous history buff and is paying attention to the day-to-day of politics and is like, excuse me. Like, you're surprised that this is what ice looks like with a Stephen Miller in there. Or that President Trump got us entangled in this war in Iran. And I think that people, especially as you get closer and closer to election time, do want to be informed, at least to some degree. There was a joke that I wanted to make, you know how you say empty suits. And they've decided these are empty t-shirts or hoodies. I also think that there's a conversation, not necessarily with a Rogan or a Theo von, but with Tucker Carlson, around who's funding this, right? Who's interests are you actually putting forward? Is this really what you think? Is it someone or some check that is pushing you to have this kind of point of view? And maybe I'm giving them too much credit that way. But I think that's the case. I also think we should separate Andrew Tate. Because I feel like a rapist is different from just a guy spewing crap on a podcast. I know that he had a well of support. But Andrew Tate is like a tape brothers, in general, are particularly repulsive category that should inflame people in a different sense than Joe Rogan. Yeah, just an additional data if you look at 24 versus what looks like it's going to happen in 2026. Basically, young men voted in about the same proportion of Trump as older white women. Similar levels, roughly 50% are more age. And now, the difference in 2026 is the young men have swung hard back against him with about only a third approving of Trump versus older women, which, quite frankly, have held in more strongly for-- I'm playing identity politics here, but older white women who've been more loyal to Trump. The bottom line is, young men were the swing block that looks like it's swinging back. And they're about the economy. And they felt that Trump would be better for the economy. And now they feel it would be worse for the economy, whereas older white women have sought-- often been abroken. And the reality is, no Paul publishes older white women as its own group. So that side is based on proxies. But I find that this group is constantly pilloried and always reflected in a negative light when the reality is they are stereotyped and that they are not nearly as conservative, not nearly as, you know, thuggish as people would like to think. And the manosphere makes for great media. But the reality is, again, the media is more obsessed with it. And young men have largely moved on. Trump's embrace of the manosphere was more of an embrace of macho, crypto rockets, and an embrace of masculinity because the Democrats had run from it. And I think a lot of people felt that the Democratic Party had been just overly feminized, if you will. And he flew right into it and said, no, I'm your dude. And by the way, that positioning appeals to a lot of women as well as men. But anyways, here's for young men coming back to the light, if you will. Welcome. Should we leave it there, Jess? Yeah. Let's leave it there. (upbeat music)