Trump's Canada Trade War Is Destroying Republicans in the Exact States They Need to Win

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I'm Jessica Tarlow, and today we have a very special co-pilot, Katie Fang of The Katie Fang Show on the Midas Touch Network. Total superstar, legal eagle, all the things that are good. Katie, it's great to have you back. Thanks for having me back. I always like hanging out with y'all. We're a good hang, or we aspire to be a good hang. And I'm excited to hang with you on your turf coming up in a couple weeks. Can't wait. I'm being let out into the world. You're being paroled. You get to go hang out for a little bit. It's going to take a little while. I have a two-week parole. Pre-order, I disagree. Also, if you're in the New York area, a few seats left at the 92nd Street Y for live taping of Raging Moderates on September 16th. Okay, let's get into it. Just over 10 weeks until Election Day. By the way, isn't that insane? Yeah, we're at the end of August. I mean, if you, I mean, we're about to barrel into the last quarter of 2026. But yeah, we are on a very short runway for November midterms. Yeah. Yeah, I'm feeling the heat. Republicans also feeling the heat. Maybe more so than me, which is a good thing. And that's probably because Trump has decided to reignite a trade war with Canada just in time. It's landing on some of the exact swing state Republicans who were hoping that tariffs had faded from the headlines. Republicans in border states of Maine and Michigan are feeling the blowback as well as agricultural strongholds like Iowa and North Carolina. And Trump's announcement last week to temporarily ease tariffs on imported beef and attempt to lower prices for consumers has many rural GOP lawmakers whining. I actually have not seen Republicans speak out this loudly about something than the beef situation. Like, you're looking at John Barroso, Tim Sheehy, Pete Ricketts, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Steve Daines. They're all just like, dude. As they should. I mean, you know, it's like, I always have this issue that we applaud actions, especially by Republicans, when that should be the norm, not the outlier. Like, they should be angry when something impacts their constituents. On such a profoundly basic level. And this beef bailout, whatever hell we're doing, these 300,000 metric tons. Has anybody thought, I mean, I actually calculated that. With a recall, though, is there anything that has not been recalled that we can consume in American society lately? No, I think somebody said, like, I keep on seeing the meme on social that's like the prairie wagon and it says you died from explosive diarrhea or something like from like a video game. It's like, it's like, it's like, choose your own adventure of death. And it's like going to a buffet and deciding what do I feel lucky today? It's like, you know, Russian roulette buffet style. Totally. It's like there has been some good ink spilled about whether we can move on from lettuce now that like it doesn't have that much nutritional value anyway. I love salads, but maybe I'm just self-soothing. Well, I, you know, I am an arugula girl and I've been pleased to hear that arugula was not subject to any of the rules. I don't know if it was subject to recall or, you know, administrative actions, but no administrative actions have been taken. Let's be clear. They just sent somebody out from the USDA to Taylor Farms, I think, like a week ago, even though it had been going on for like weeks. But I, you know, that's that's my version of living dangerously. I am a Taco Bell eater. And so I have decided that I'm just rolling the dice, man. You know, this is my excitement. You know, let's see what happens. We all got to go some way. And at least you'll look skinny. That's generally what I say. When I think about diarrhea, that might just be a mom comment where I'm like those last few pounds. But in all seriousness, I guess, do you want to start with the trade war itself and where you think it goes or the electoral implications? Well, they're part and parcel, are they not? I mean, think about this. Combo bladder. And by the way, it's the war. The word war was actually used by the Canadians, I think, more so than we actually use that as Americans. Yeah. Prime Minister Carney said we're at war. We're at war. Which is the first time he's been very harsh before. Obviously, his Davos speech was a very big deal, I'd say, in the international community. And those of us who are paying attention here certainly heard him loud and clear. I don't think Donald Trump did necessarily. But admitting that we are in a war with our northern partner, you know, our North American pal. Our neighbor to the north. Biggest trading partner. All the things. And so I have to give the Canadians, I always give the Canadians credit. Let's be honest. But I have to give them credit for not mincing words in this instance. I think there has been a renaissance now of people saying, you know what? Like, we're just going to call it what it is. And so the use of war, I thought, was incredibly intentional, number one. And number two, I also think going toe-to-toe on this is a very, very brave and courageous move. And it has to have been done because eventually you have to punch a bully in the nose. And that's exactly what we have. And of course, toddler Trump. You know, answer is not to say, God, you know, I should have been more measured on the way I dealt with this. It's I'm going to change the name of a lake. Lake Natalie. Now, what are we changing? Lake on what? Lake America. I mean, come on. So, you know, I am impressed with the steely determination that the Canadians have about this. But again, I think it's inextricably intertwined with the implications in November. How do you how do you not deal? With more punishment towards Americans and but it's but it's a cell phone. It's done by Trump. It's not like it's not like we asked for it. Trump did it to us. Yeah. You know, this coupled with the war in Iran, it's almost hard sometimes to zone in on or narrow down exactly, you know, where the pain points are coming from, because there are so many elective decisions that this administration is taking that are having really serious implications for the average American. And they're screaming it from the rooftops, right? Like, this isn't some hidden issue for this. Every time they get in front of a camera, if you go out and interview people, even people who like Donald Trump and may be sticking with him, say, my cost of living is a problem. School what's going on with school supplies is huge. You have a daughter. I have to, you know, the back to school bill. What recourse do you think Americans are going to take? Because I understand you can show up and and vote Republicans out. You won't get Donald. Trump out. And he's not listening to advisers about this anyway, because even if there are tariff friendly advisers within the cabinet and want to go along with this, there are folks in there who do know what the real implications of this are and that they're paying out more than they took in from the tariffs anyway, which is why corporate profits are soaring. And the average American is still getting stuck with the bill for this. So what do you think actually happens on the ground as a result of being put in this financial pressure cooker? Well, I think I agree. Obviously, you can't go in November of twenty twenty six and vote out Donald Trump. But I think one thing we have learned from Republicans in the GOP is they are incredibly, incredibly sensitive, like hair, like hair trigger sensitive to public sentiment. And I think if you go and you vote out a lot of Republicans and then you also end up getting a Democratic majority. That can control the levers of power that can control oversight, investigations, exposing fraud and corruption and grift. I think that you actually could sway somebody like Trump and cabinet members to be able to do better by Americans. I don't think that there is impervious to what the populace of the popular vote is or what the populace wants as they like to pretend to be. Trump is an insulated democracy. idiot in and of itself. himself, courtesy of people like Natalie Harp and others. But I also know, and you would confirm this, I am sure, that not everybody that surrounds Trump is a raging idiot. Right? No, not everybody around him is. And I do think there is an adequate amount of pressure that can be placed on the White House from Congress. So when you vote them all out, when you get rid of the GOP clean sweep and get them the hell out of there, I think that message you can't ignore, especially if you want to be able to try to make an angle towards having another Republican in the White House in 2028. Yeah, I'm curious. And my mind always goes to this kind of the strategist side of things, because, you know, I've been disappointed, and Scott and I talk about this a lot, and you and I have even had this conversation before, that for the average person, the Democratic Party just being against Trump or trying to unwind all of the things that Trump did may not be enough of a unique selling proposition to bring them over to our side. Maybe they vote for us in the midterms, but does that make you someone that's enthusiastic about the Democratic Party, someone who will then stick with us in 2028, you know, 2030 when the census kicks in, and we're going to be in a whole heap of trouble once those new lines are drawn? And so I'm curious to how you think about Democrats' response to things like this trade war, seeing what Mark Carney is saying, understanding also that Mark Carney is moving up the date of when the war starts. Donald Trump was talking about tariffs that would kick in in January 2027. He was trying to get himself through the midterms, and Mark Carney said, let's go. September. September 8th. Have your Labor Day, barbecue, and then you come back to higher prices. Well, you can't even eat the beef, though. You can't have a hamburger on Labor Day. You can't even have a salad. I mean, hello. Listen, how can Democrats not see this as a gift? But there's a difference between a gift. I almost reject the idea of taking these gifts because it makes you work less hard, right? When you think that something is getting handed to you on a silver platter, like everyone does this. They open up, you know, start scrolling in the morning and you say, how is this possible? Right? Like, how is there another Kevin Hassett interview where he gets up there and says, the economy is perfect? Yes, we're great. How can Scott Besson be threatening another round of sanctions? He says it's coming tomorrow's D-Day, and then there's absolutely nothing. How can Trump still be saying, you know, the gay Ayatollah is on notice and tomorrow is bridge and power plant day? How can we be in another trade war? The war is over. Yeah. Right. So the idiot part, that may be baked in there, but I worry about what we do with this many gifts and it is making it easier for us to coast versus doing the hard work of governing and coming up with a policy platform that we can go out to the public and sell them on. Say, this is what we stand for and these will be the deliverables. Here are your 10 million affordable housing units. I'm high on that one right now. I picked 10 million randomly, but it sounds good. That's a lot. So wait, wait. So let me be clear here. A few things. One, though, I don't look the gift horse in the mouth, but I will take those gifts. And because these self-owns are so, major, these are not small moves. These are major, major problems that are being dropped into the laps of all Americans. Let me be clear. This is not just impacting Republicans. This is also impacting Democrats in terms of just regular everyday Americans. But how do you not capitalize on the gifts that are given? The Democrats have been a little problematic as of late because of the infighting. I will tell you that. I think it's been incredibly not productive to sit there and have this infighting within the tent. But that being said, there is nothing wrong with having multi-pronged messaging about what your policies will be. I think that, you know, I bristle at the idea that when people criticize Democrats or candidates that are Democrats and they say, well, you can't say that you only stand against Donald Trump. I'm like, you know, it actually works because what he stands for are all the things that have been destructive and horrible for this country. But I'm also for accountability and I'm also for taking people the hell out that have been sitting there enabling this asshole to lead us to where we are. If that's not a policy plan, I do think it is. Because again, you cannot extricate the man from the problems. You can't say that once Trump is gone, all our problems are going to be better. You have to get rid of all the other people that have been around him that I'm allowing this shit to happen, which is all the Republicans, because they've had a power trifecta now in the House, in the Senate, in the Oval. So you know what? Yeah, I understand that I can't take him out, but I sure as hell can take out a lot of the foundation underneath him. And that is why I'm OK with that going into the November midterms. And I think a lot of people are so exasperated with their day to day situation, whether it's their disgust over the things that perhaps are intangible, but they know are happening, which is the corruption, the grift, the theft, the fucking self aggrandizement and the self benefiting that is happening. But I also think they feel it, too, when they're standing there pumping gas and say they're deciding, well, you know, I can't get a full tank today because I have to be able to try to go and negotiate for beef trimmings, you know, at the grocery store. I mean, people are capable, I think, of being motivated by hatred and it actually can be productive. And that is a little bit of a weird thing for me to say because I like to live in a little of a Pollyanna world sometimes about having optimism. But I have optimism that comes from getting rid of the majority of the Republicans, if not the Republicans in Congress right now. I'm not mad at that glass half full. I totally get it. And I'll just sit here wishing and hoping and praying for my bumper sticker to come from Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer so that I can be satiated. But you're absolutely correct. And maybe we just take it one day at a time and we just say we have 68 days until the midterms. Let's get through this. And then once we have a new leader of the party who will be the candidate is for 2028, then we're going to have a set of policies that come with him or her right based on their previous. work and the way that they see the world. I want to talk about immigration issues, but just because you brought up the democratic civil war and how you don't want to waste time on it. So I'm going to I'm going to make you waste like 60 seconds on it. Oh, what do you think the status quo of it is? You know, I work in conservative media, so I have to talk about it all the time or at least talk about it for a few seconds before I weave somewhere else. Do you think it's going to be a unified front, I guess, enough for the midterms? And in particular, what do you think is going to happen in Michigan? Because that is the real test of it, even though Abdul El-Sayed is not DSA and he is not a socialist. And you know who's technically DSA is Angie. Angie Nixon in Florida is technically DSA. Just over a few months ago, though. Just over a few months. No, no, no, I understand. And listen, you know, and let's speak plainly. I think I think a big problem that people have with Abdul El-Sayed is that, you know, he's not a leader. He's not a white guy. Right. I mean, like, I'm so tired of people just trying to, you know, pussyfoot around these issues. I mean, let's just speak plainly about it. Do I think we can get to November? Yeah, I think resoundingly so. I think a lot of people have this attitude, which is it can't get any worse at this point. Right. And I think that's maybe not so great long term strategy. But I think it works in the short term to get us through November to get us back to where we need to be. But then my concern actually is interesting. My concern is actually beyond November. I think we can get our shit together together. I think we can get to November. My concern is, OK, now we're there. I don't want to have a dog who caught the car moment. What's going to happen when we're actually there? So that's when we really need a plan. I think the infighting is unhealthy. I am I am strongly behind the individual candidate. I am not into the labels. I don't think the labels are helpful. I don't think they're healthy. I don't think they make sense. I think you look at the person. I think you look at what their pillars are, what they stand for. And you know what? I'm sick of I had this conversation with Stacey Abrams the other day. I'm sick of I'm sick of the Democratic purity test that happens. We always talk about the Trump loyalty test or the Republican loyalty test. I'm sick of the Democrats purity test. Why does somebody have to meet all check all the damn boxes? It's never going to happen. And, you know, it is a remarkable thing that some people cannot get out of their own ways to understand that sometimes it's not just for you. It's for the collective good. And I don't think that there's there is anything that is redeeming about Republican candidates right now going into November. So for anybody to sit there and be like, well, you know, they are a member of the DSA. So I just don't really think I can. I just I don't have the time or the patience for that. I have time for you all day long to talk about it. But I don't really have the time or the patience for that. When I see that ish, I just keep on going because I'm like, it just does. It's not helpful. It's not helpful. And then don't come running to me and whining and crazy screaming about how shitty things are when you could actually sit there, be in a position of power. To actually change things. But you're going to sit there and you're going to be pissed because the person has a DSA affiliation. I can't just can't. All right. Well, I know how you feel about that now. And you are a Florida resident. I Florida resident. And you think I want Ashley Moody? You think Ashley Moody is helping me? She just participated in a $10 million fucking theft of taxpayer money. She's not going to help me. So I'm not supposed to vote for Angie Nixon because she's DSA. Okay, this is the stuff I'm talking about, right? I can't. I totally get that. I think a lot of what Angie Nixon has been saying since she won has been very effective. I think she's given stellar interviews. But I'm curious if you think that David Jolly has a chance, because I really like David Jolly. So full disclosure, David Jolly, his wife, they're friends of mine. So here's the caveat. I've known David for years. David, you know, is a former Republican. I'm a former Republican, right? I mean, we can change. We can find our ways to embrace the right side of things. And I think David has a very real chance. Why? Because Byron Donalds is the Republican nominee for the governor of the state of Florida. And Byron Donalds, there is literally no daylight between him and convicted felon Donald Trump, not even a speck of daylight between the two of them. And Byron Donalds was also a Republican. You know, not doing anything for Florida in Congress. So once again, you get somebody who doesn't have, you know, anything of a contribution of quality or substance for years to make my life better in my state. So, yeah, David Jolly has more than a viable chance to be able to become the next governor of the state of Florida. I love it. That would be great. And yeah, Byron Donalds, I think he like once mustered the strength to say that teaching that slavery was good. And for Black people was a bridge too far in the Florida education system. But besides that, pretty Trumpy. Mm. Mm-mm. 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You think Mark Wayne Mullen is smart enough to think to do this shit? Clearly not. You think Christie was smart enough to do this shit? Well, no, that I know. No, no. You think Mark Wayne? Come on. I'm very concerned about it and also very concerned that we don't talk about it a lot and that these things I mean, you obviously do a ton of legal analysis on your show and have a lot of lawyer guests and are paying close attention to these things. But as someone who is speaking kind of in the national discourse of politics, I guess a lot like on The Five and sometimes on Raging Moderates, I am a little bit ashamed that we haven't been paying closer attention to these kinds of moves and that if we don't have a scenario like what happened in Minneapolis, that we're not paying very much attention to this immigration policy. That's all part of the plan, is it not? It's the Steve Mann and flood the flood the zone with shit. And then everybody's running around and the chaos is the point. And then you kind of don't know what to focus on. But even when you talk about the decision from SCOTUS, for example, right, about the executive order and about mail-in and about voting lists. Well, that's all tied to immigration, because how do you not make it to a voting list? According to the Trump administration, it's because you're, quote, an illegal alien. And so this idea of election integrity is what's driving a voting list. I mean, it's all there. It undergirds everything that is happening right now. This immigration concept is just, to your point, it never percolates to the very top. And so we all I mean, we're all guilty of it. Even in independent media, we focus kind of on the headline and the marquee issue. But undergirding it is immigration. Undergirding it is let me eliminate from this country minorities. Let me eliminate from this country, you know, the great replacement theory. You know, let me do that. Like, it's all there. And that's all the goal. Let's deploy ICE so that, you know, when we have our midterms coming up in November, we can make sure that there is a presence there. Let's do all of this stuff. But we're going to do it under the guise of immigration enforcement. It's there. It's totally there. And because you brought up the SCOTUS case about the USPS taking in mail-in ballots, I want to touch on that. So 23 states, D.C. and Pennsylvania, Governor Josh Shapiro filed a suit Wednesday in Boston federal court directly challenging this finalized USPS rule that would restrict who gets mailed a ballot. There has been talk of the fact that this couldn't even actually happen in the amount of time that that we have that the USPS would have to build this big database and system. And they can't do that in 68 days. But obviously, it is meaningful on an ideological level. It's meaningful in a forward-looking sense because, you know, 2026 matters a lot. And I think they will do whatever they can to make sure that it is harder for people to vote. But 2028 is really the crown jewel, right, when they try to keep the presidency. So can you talk a little bit about the ruling from the Supreme Court? I thought in Justice Jackson's dissent, a point that I think is really important and applies to every facet of what the Trump administration does, that they're just trying to sow chaos. And that if you can confuse enough people, you will be able to get the result that you want. Yeah, so this federal judge in Massachusetts had two separate cases, one that was brought by what we call the blue states, which are the Democratic attorneys general, and then one that was brought by the legal women voters. And the case was not ripe, meaning that the judge moved too fast, right, as in like the people that were suing have brought their suit too fast because there had yet to be this thing called a final rule that came from the United States Postal Service. The final rule that was coming from the USPS dovetailed exactly with an executive order that Trump did last year. And in the end, that rule did drop late Friday. The decision from SCOTUS came out Monday. So a lot of us were surprised why that would have happened because there was briefing over the weekend that let the Supreme Court know that that final rule did get issued. But in the end, the Supreme Court said it's premature. It's not ripe yet. And that is the reason why they said you cannot block moving forward on implementing this rule or this idea of creating these lists. But then just yesterday, the federal, this, federal judge who had the cases, there had been an injunction in one of those two cases that had been untouched by the Supreme Court. And she said, look, I looked at the reasoning from the Supreme Court. It's kind of on all fours with what is happening in this other case. So I'm going to lift this injunction. But she's already signposted just for everyone who's paying attention, including the litigants in this case and the Department of Justice. She's already signposted that she's not going to find this rule to be legal. And that's the reason why we have this new kind of onslaught of litigation. So the decision that was made by SCOTUS was on technical procedural grounds. But now that the U.S. Postal Service has issued its final rule, now we can go to war substantively on the legality of it. And I'm going to tell you right now, this judge is not going to sustain that rule. So putting aside the technical barriers of entry to be able to implement, execute on this idea of the generation of lists that are shared by the DHS with the USPS and all this other caca, that is a Herculean task that is not going to be realized by November. But it's going to be mired down in the litigation of it being even legal in the first instance, which it isn't. The states get to do what they need to do to be able to administer their elections. That is the law. But once again, the Trump administration thinks that it's above the law. So what happens next then from the Trump administration, besides proverbial kicking and screaming? They try to run to the Supreme Court again, right? I mean, that's their thing. I like to equate it to them running to hide behind. They don't get something they like. They run to mommy to hide behind mommy skirts. That is what they have done time and time again with the Supreme Court. And so really, that's what we need to look at, the determination by the Supreme Court on whether or not they find legality behind any of this action that's taken by the United States Postal Service and the DHS in terms of trying to circumvent what is legally the state's role in the way that it administers its elections. Now, it is a profound expansion of executive power to say, well, yes, the president has an interest in making sure that, you know, no, quote, illegal alien ends up voting. I mean, that in and of itself is factually a lie. This idea of there being voter abuse happening by illegal aliens is a hammer in search of a nail because the numbers don't bear it out. And it never has ever been at a number that would merit or justify this type of action being taken either from putting soldiers at polling places, or, you know, immigration agents at polling places to any of the other stuff they've done with any of the immigration operations that they've done to, quote, round up illegal aliens, et cetera. None of it, none of it is what it is. This USS Lincoln sailor's father, Jess, he was driving his car to the mechanic. He's been in the country for 19 years on a work visa. And as I said, he wasn't arrested in a drug den. He wasn't arrested robbing a bank. He wasn't arrested, you know, stealing at a convenience store. The guy was driving his car to the mechanic. He's a handyman. That's, that's just what he does. I mean, so again, it's a hammer in search of a nail. The conservative media and the administration does a great job of making it a hair on fire moment to make us live in this constant state of fear that there's something going on. And yet the irony that abounds is this country has been run for the last two years now by Republicans. So if this is truly a hair on fire moment, and this country really is in the shitter like they're saying it is, whose fault is it? Oh, God. Gosh, I'd say it's the Republicans. They're even going back to blaming Obama about a lot of this stuff. And as I regularly point out on The Five, when there are instances of fraud, it's usually a Republican. And you've had lawsuits from Republican groups like in Arizona, for instance, fighting back against some of the measures that people like Stephen Miller want, because they know that it's going to end up disenfranchising legal voters who don't update the voter rolls, for instance, or who might not have the kind of ID that they're asking. Yes. six months. Open soon. Limited time offer. New members only. BJ's. Home of the save cozy season is ahead and you'll be spending way more time inside is your home ready don't worry with wayfair you can upgrade your space without breaking the bank score up to 70 off during their labor day clearance on furniture area rugs mattresses and more plus surprise flash deals you can't miss whether it's one room or the whole house wayfair has pieces for every style and every home i want to talk a little bit about meta there's big settlement huge so meta has agreed to settle claims from a bipartisan coalition of dozens of state attorneys general that it knowingly designed instagram and facebook to be addictive to kids they'll pay up to 17.1 billion committing to new usage restrictions for under 18 users two hours per day on facebook and instagram limited notification during school hours and more meta is also publicly calling on tiktok and youtube to join their quote long-standing efforts to empower parents and support teens um i call bs on that one on the long-standing front i'd also add that i would love to see restrictions for everybody and i know that is more difficult but adults are having the scrolling problems too uh yes me amongst them the algorithms the the auto scroll you know everything it's the desired result is for adults and for children right totally um i'm curious uh what you think of this i'm curious what you think of this i'm curious what you think of this settlement obviously that sounds that's a very big number it's not that big of a number in the context of what these companies make and i assume that mark zuckerberg is not that upset about this and then gets to kind of sit on a high horse and say youtube look at me like come along you know come along with us on this journey of helping people and taking care of the youth yeah yeah no so 17 billion is a drop in a bucket it's less than i think what their profit was from the last like their last declaration of government and i think that's a big number and i think that's a big number of like profit i like to look at it from the legal perspective of the following they were in a trial and for anybody who is litigating spending all this money to prepare and then literally right when you start this trial and you settle it's a sign that you knew you were about to get your ass kicked right not like they didn't know going in but it was a game of chicken and meta blinked and hard on a substantive level yes i i'm grateful as a mother of 11 year old i'm grateful for these you know baked in obstacles that will protect my child from exploitation and and from all of these other things that are design defects they are design defects that have been baked into these platforms um grateful for that but i also think the timing of this and nobody's talked about this so i'll just float this theory with you because i know that you won't think i'm too crazy you know there's a new movie coming out in a couple of weeks called the social reckoning do you know about that movie by you know with uh aaron sorkin it's actually supposed to be it's being couched as a follow-up to the social network right and it's about mark zuckerberg and kind of like the facebook and it's the expose from a whistleblower at facebook who went reached out to a wall street journal reporter and it's the it's the you know movie version of that and it thought and i thought to myself because i saw a trailer for it right yesterday and then i heard about the settlement i was like oh because i wonder because this movie i think is coming out in the next few weeks and the movie does not paint a flattering picture right about the behind the scenes at facebook and how they knew the way that they've been designing facebook and other platforms was exactly for the intent to ignore dangers that would be posed to children and other users that might be more vulnerable and susceptible to the design platform that they had created so i was thinking that would probably be really shitty if you're in the midst of this trial and the next thing you know is this all comes out in this movie which is going to be a great movie i'm sure with aaron sorkin and so but just from but from a legal standpoint this extinguishes a number of other lawsuits that were going on or that were about to go on and you know meta will pay a little bit more money for some of those as they come up for settlement or as they come on on closer to trial but it's really not enough but you got to be grateful that you have people like rob bonta and other and this was bipartisan by the way we have seen republican attorneys general step up and do this but you really got to focus a lot on the work that these democratic attorneys general are doing because it's stuff that the doj should be doing right but our trump doj won't do this because zuckerberg sits behind donald trump at the freaking inauguration and hangs out with donald trump at every moment that he can with all those other people right you're we're asking for hope and for protection um that should come from our federal government it's not coming and so we're grateful for when our attorneys general step up which is why i tell people please pay attention to your state and local races because it's not just the feds that you should care about you should really care about who's running for your attorney general as well yeah i i think that is very smart to mention i am this is a bad transition but i do want to get it in since i just said page enter to local races and now i want to talk about a senate candidate but we did have a runoff uh in south carolina darling graham lindsey graham's sister won even though she had one of the more terrible debate performances that i've seen i'm not talking joe biden bad i guess that had bigger implications um but you know it felt like for a second maybe ralph norman would have a chance uh cal she has the odds that she wins the seat at 86 percent currently uh that seems very high prediction markets aren't the be-all and end-all of these things and we certainly saw that on primary day like in wisconsin for instance um but what do you think about the election process and what do you think about the election process and what do you think about her getting the seat as a sibling i understand filling the seat but this does feel like a bridge too far and someone who is openly telegraphing that they have no idea what they're doing that that and that is the crux of the problem right because i have been an open advocate of looking at the candidate not necessarily looking at the letter just look at the candidate right and i have also been an open advocate of you don't necessarily have to have a background as a politician a lawyer for example to run for congress i have met along the way some really incredible candidates that are farmers for example right yeah maybe doctors like dr annie andrews who's running in south carolina for that scene i mean you don't have to be a politician you don't have to be groomed for this job in fact sometimes i think it's better that you're not right you go and clean darling graham has nothing to offer first of all that's not even her last name okay let's stop with that that's not even her last name that's on me i shouldn't do that it's norton right norton norton something norton something norton i don't know anyway she she's what is she what is she offering i'm sure she's a lovely lady what is she offering nothing and if you are the people of south carolina what is it nordone but now her wikipedia is changed to darling graham but for all this time until her brother dropped dead he it was freaking i know i'm gonna edit it back because the people decide what goes in wikipedia that's right but she has nothing to offer so you're a few of the people of south carolina why would you elect somebody who has nothing to offer you she's not gonna offer you anything she even just substantively she has nothing to offer and so i forget kalshi because i think that's horseshit too you i believe annie andrews has more than a good chance to be able to do this really yeah i have a lot of friends who hope that's the case my best friend she's a doctor and she loves dr annie andrews and did you see by the way the comments that darlene nordone and andrews have been saying that they're going to was making about health care where she says like this crazy you know my parents you know they worked hard and they couldn't take a sick day and they died when i was 11 and 12 and it's like yeah one had lymphoma and one had a heart attack and so maybe a better health care could have made it so that you weren't an orphan at 11 or 12 years old health care in your state especially of south carolina we would have been a good thing for you i mean maybe some more rural health centers that have been taken away because of the big bullshit bill would have benefited some people in that area it is not a self-fulfilling prophecy people need to understand like there is nothing preordained about what you need to suffer if you are a voter in south carolina there is nothing preordained about that you can be making up your mind and doing something different right and having things be better and that applies not to just south carolina but to the places that are going on in november there is a way and a path to better and that is not the republican path it is the democrats and that's where you need to go and that's what people i believe are going to be doing in november from your lips to god's ears um if god has ears um i want to end on a little dolly parton conversation um total icon clearly someone who has affected so many i loved you know at the changing of the guards and at buckingham palace yesterday um that they honored her as well you know she was very consciously apolitical never publicly took sides um but an outspoken voice for so many of the important causes that we all believe in lgbtq rights marriage equality and was always embraced by conservative audiences she declined the presidential medal of freedom offered by trump during his first term because she didn't want it to look like a political statement and he did order the flags to be flown out of the house and she was always embraced by conservative audiences I'd have to. staff, and her memory. Her record includes a couple of choices that stirred some political controversy anyway. She stayed true to her beliefs regardless of who it may upset. She gave a million dollars to Moderna to help fund COVID vaccine research, and her imagination library has sent more than 300 million free books in five countries since 1995 at no cost to the families who sign up. I was reading something that a mom to a blind child wrote about how her son's books arrived in Braille and how meaningful that was and how she made sure that the libraries also had Braille copies so that everyone had access. And I mean, the whole story, like 11 kids in that trailer, like this, I'm not a very religious person. It feels like Dolly Parton was God's plan, right? That this woman could come out of that kind of background. She was also an icon for the LGBTQ plus community. And she was very, very quick to also say like, who am I to judge? Who am I to judge? And that also included support for communities of color. I mean, you know, she could have taken the ease. The thing about her is she could have taken the easiest path out always, right? She could have sat in a lap of luxury, well-earned, hard-earned, especially as a woman growing up and fighting for her own place, you know, professionally. But she didn't. She had the grace of understanding that she was given this ability to move people's lives. She was given this ability to move people's lives and to make them feel different and to enjoy life. She was given this ability to move people's lives and to make them feel different and to enjoy it by the way that she used her God-given talents. But then she also used those God-given talents to sit there and expand the aperture for other people's worldviews, right? Just this idea of giving a book, one book alone to a kid. Think about how that broadens their life. Maybe to a kid who never gets to travel. Maybe to a kid who lives in a home that is so closed and shut down that they don't know what something is like somewhere else. I mean, that is a ticket to another world. And that's what she did. I mean, just her literacy push alone, I think, was spectacular. But the idea that you could accept anybody for who they are and her self-deprecating humor, I thought was fantastic. I was like, you know, she was always so quick to kind of joke about her hair and it was just her nails, her makeup, everything, right? But you know what? I love it. I love it. Yeah. Also, I know that she wasn't well, but it does feel like a little bit of dying of a broken heart. And I hope that they're reunited wherever they are. Yeah. Her husband died. Yeah. Last year. About a year ago. So Dolly Parton, amazing. I'm so glad that we were able to experience so many of her gifts. And she will be loved a long, long time, as will you in a different kind of way. But Katie Fang, thank you for joining me. Oh, I love you and everybody who's tuning in. So I'll take that love back. I appreciate it. Great. Thanks for having me on the show. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.