JD Vance Nosedives in Public Humiliation and Trump WH Bracing For Massive Midterm Loss

0:04Charlie Goldensohn:All right, I am back in studio with one of our favorite New York City based guests. I'm talking about Charlie Goldensohn. He is also known as Shay Chuck. If you want to follow him, we'll put that on the screen below. He is a New York based political strategist and commentator, and he is joining me today. And I would like to first play a clip for you of somebody I want the Republicans to want to run. I want this guy to be the 2028 nominee. Play the clip. See that when I see Iowa farmers who need to get that E15 to market. What is this? What is Zach? You're gonna have to help me out with her name here.

0:42I lost my page here. Okay. All right. Okay. There we go. Sarah Trone Garriott. There he is. I'm on the wrong page here.

0:55so while zach is fighting to make sure for the benefit of iowa but frankly for the benefit of the whole country ronnie what's your take on that what a fucking freak um yeah i mean i think like the initial take is just like folks need to remember i think that the republicans and the republican commentators like to position vance publicly as being the next person to step in he has a 35 % approval rating also, right? As Trump's ratings have plummeted and Republicans' ratings have plummeted, so have J.D. Vance's. I believe it was like an ABC poll recently put him at 35 % approval, like 48 % disapproval, which means that almost one in every two Americans not just has a meaningless perception of him, they have a bad perception of him.

1:43So this idea that he is electable, I think, or a better option than Trump is ridiculous. And I'm with you. Let him run. Let She's going to get Demal. She's going to embarrass himself. He's going to embarrass the Republican Party. Yeah.

1:53Charlie Goldensohn:So let's talk about like the Game of Thrones of it. So you have J.D. Vance, who I have a theory that Trump is personally rat-fucking him. He's trying to sabotage his ability to take over MAGA. He sent him to Hungary. Yep. Complete face plan. Sent him on the campaign trail, the turning point trail with Erica Kirk. It was so abysmally attended. Even Erica Kirk no-showed. He's named him the fraud czar, the most fraudulent president in history. He's like, hey, when y 'all uncover everything, it's on our fraud czar. So I think Trump is actively rat-fucking him. And then Marco Rubio wants to rise. And I'm on Marco Rubio rat-fuck alert here at IHIP News because it's coming.

2:38Charlie Goldensohn:Because I think Trump will want to run one of his kids. And the options are dumb and dumber or Ivanka. And we all know he likes Ivanka the most. They are floating that Dumb, a.k.a. Don Jr., is going to take over The Apprentice. I saw that. And there is reporting that back when Trump retired from The Apprentice, he said, the only one who could replace me is Ivanka. And so this is a guy who talks about eugenics. And he's very much thinking about legacy right now. He's putting his name everywhere. So what's your take on the jockeying of the heir apparent? Yeah. Well, there's one thing I would add to that list of responsibilities that he threw on J.D.

3:24Vance, which he's also failed at, which is negotiating the war in Iran. Yes. Send him to Pakistan. Send him to Pakistan. Yes. No success there as well, right? So like, I mean, he's setting him up to fail as this worked. This is not, you know, not justifying the Trump strategy, but just so folks understand, like, this is actually kind of stereotypical of presidents will tend to give their hardest battles to their vice presidents, that the policy battles that they knew are likely failures so that they don't have to own it themselves. So like that's absolutely what he's doing. In terms of the Ivanka Trump stuff, I mean, I just like – she blows my mind.

4:01The other day she was quoted as using stoicism to basically defend her lack of empathy. She positioned stoicism as the reason that she could ignore the actions of her father, the actions of her brother, the actions of her husband. and say that I don't need to digest these actions because I'm just going to focus on the things that make me feel good. That's not stoicism. Stoicism is looking towards empathy. It's looking towards justice. So this entire family is fucked up, right? And like this idea that any of them are like the ideal runner-up to Trump or that we would want any of them to come save us is ridiculous.

4:39They're all disgusting. They're all corrupt. And they've all been raised in this hellhole that they think is heaven and it's not. We know it's just a disgusting place that's led to a disgusting family, and we should want every single one of them as far away from power as humanly possible.

4:53Charlie Goldensohn:Yeah, and I think we should want every single one of them held accountable for the corruption that they're engaging in. The drone deals that Dumb and Dumber have engaged in, Ivanka's husband, and all of these double dealings with Saudi Arabia. And he's on the inside of all of this stuff with Trump's dipshit golfing buddy, Whitcoff. And they're the ones who are dog walking and lying probably to the American public and people in the cabinet to get us into this stupid war in Iran. So it's not just we don't want them around. The Democrats have got to start saying, not only are these people corrupt, but we're going to do something about it, which brings me to we can easily we can do podcasts every day about how fucked up MAGA is.

5:40Charlie Goldensohn:But it brings me to the opposition, which is the Democratic Party, because we live in a two party system. Unfortunately, unfortunately we do. So Pod Save America's Jon Favreau said this about the DNC's autopsy, the controversial autopsy report on the 2024 election. He did this yesterday. Play the clip. What I have heard that Ken Martin had his friend, Paul Rivera, who was unpaid, went around and talked to people, didn't even talk to all the right people. A lot of people weren't interviewed at all, did a shitty job. And Ken the whole time was like just letting him do his thing. And then when he came back and didn't have any of the good information, then they just wrote up the report what they had.

6:23It was a garbage report. And they realize and then Ken realized they couldn't release it. And so instead of either saying like, this was a bad thing, I'm going to try another. You're going to try another type. So we're going to hire someone else. We're going to do it right. Has apparently just decided to not be honest about it. Charlie. Yeah. So first of all, say this is what I've heard also, just for the record. normally I wouldn't be like saying things that are unsubstantiated but like this is the problem is that Ken Martin has turned democratic voters all of us myself included into conspiracy conspiracy theorists right like we don't know and so of course people are going to say that it's Gaza of course people are going to say that the report was terribly written or terribly executed and therefore they can't release it we don't know and that's an enormous problem and I think like One of the biggest issues here is that there is fundamentally, I think, a misunderstanding from the general public of what the DNC actually does, what Ken Martin actually does.

7:24And what they actually do, for the most part, is raise money. That's their job. They are like a fundraising mechanism for state parties and the Democratic Party who really focus on the presidential election, not really the midterms. They also set the primary schedule. They also set the debate requirements. I think the main problem here is that it doesn't matter that the general public is unaware of the actual responsibilities here because perception is everything, right? And it doesn't matter if Ken Martin thinks, well, people are too stupid to actually understand what I do. Perception is everything.

7:54You have now created a voting block. You've now created a donor class. You've now created an entire portion of our voters who think you're full of shit, who can't trust you, who think you're lying, and who frankly think that your responsibilities are something that you don't actually do. So they have created a story that didn't need to be a story. This thing could have been released and dropped and people would have forgotten about it for two weeks. But instead, we now have the six-month story that is actively doing damage to the Democratic Party. And Ken Martin has also said that he is focusing on winning elections, that he is focusing on looking forward.

8:28It is ridiculous in my mind to believe that this shit show that Ken Martin has created by not releasing this report, by lying about this report, by creating conspiracy theorists of the Democratic voting base, that that will not have voter impact in the elections. People do associate Ken Martin with Democratic candidates. Whether they actually have a responsibility or role there or not, that is how people perceive it. So if people do not trust Ken Martin, if people are losing trust in the DNC, of course, they're going to lose trust in some of these Democratic candidates. And I just think it's absolutely absurd.

9:02And they did that. They shot themselves in the foot here. It was such an unforced error. And every time I have this conversation or hear this conversation, I want to pull my hair out.

9:11Charlie Goldensohn:Yes. And I think that there's a through line here between the way MAGA treats their voter base and the way the Democratic Party is treating their voter base, which is in a very patronizing way. which is you get your orders from us and we, you vote blue no matter who. And yes, six months ago, we believed in transparency and we were going to release the full report. And six months later, we're, oh no, we're looking forward. And then I used to hear this whole uniparty argument and I would be like, that's such bullshit because I lived in a red state and there is a distinct difference between Republican policies and democratic policies.

9:49Charlie Goldensohn:But the disdain in the way these parties treat their voter base from an institutional level, the institution of the Democratic Party is so patronizing to me. It's so patronizing to say you believe in transparency and then turn around and say nothing to see here. We no longer believe in transparency. Yeah. I mean, something I would say to this audience listening here is like, one is I would do, I think we should all do our best, frankly, to like try to attempt to try to separate Ken Martin and his performance here from the democratic and progressive apparatus generally. Right. Like, do not let Ken Martin's terrible leadership and his inability to conduct an interview and his grotesque patronizing of you and us to impact the way that you feel about your local Democratic candidates.

10:45He is not – the DNC is not creating their platforms. The DNC is not creating the policy positions for the people that are running in your districts. They're just simply not. They might be helping provide some fundraising dollars. But I just want folks to understand that. The DNC is not constructing messaging and policy for your candidates. So as hard as it is to separate the two, just because that guy is fucking up and looking like an idiot and making the DNC look terrible, do not allow that to make you distrust the candidates who you actually like, who you are actually trusting. I think that's a very important thing.

11:16Charlie Goldensohn:No trickle-down fuck-ups. No trickle-down fuck-ups. Yeah. Yeah. Trickle-down doesn't work. Yeah. Exactly. So I think that's a really important point because we are in a really horrible time right now. And the opposition party has been underwhelming, to say the least. But there have been bright, shining fighters who have risen up that have given us hope, like Zoran Mamdani, like the two female governors that won in New Jersey and in Virginia. And you see that Democrats are winning. And so I believe fundamentally the Democratic ruling class is going to have to start listening to the base at some point.

11:58Charlie Goldensohn:And their days are numbered on that. You know, their corporate money they take, those days are numbered. And so there's this little civil, civilized civil war going on in the Democratic Party, which brings me to the Democratic California governor race. I know you're from California. And, you know, like two months ago, it was like, it's going to be Governor Eric Swalwell. And then, you know, all that shit happened. And justifiably, he is sent off to Never Never Land to sift through the sexual abuse allegations and just other horrible things that he participated in. And that leaves you with this really crowded mess.

12:40Charlie Goldensohn:And I want to talk to you specifically about Tom Steyer. So obviously it's really easy to hate billionaires right now. And it's kind of fun to hate them. And so this guy, Tom, is a billionaire running as a Democrat saying, tax me, tax me. Which I've always said, like, why doesn't Elon Musk, why doesn't Jeff Bezos, why aren't they saying, I want to show everybody. I want to pay taxes. I like this country. I want everybody to have health care. I want everybody to live a better life. But instead, it's like, you know, resentment party of one year tables now available with these people on their Twitter streams.

13:21Charlie Goldensohn:What is your take on him in a billionaire running? I think it's I'm still attempting to figure it out. Right. So I grew up in San Francisco in the city. I'm from California. I live in New York now. I've been on the East Coast for a while. I grew up knowing some of the Steyer family. Right. It's a close, small city. I think that some people are in California are saying that it is good how messy the California primary is, that that is what a jungle primary does. It forces battles. It forces this type of congestion. And ultimately, the right person will prevail. And I think that we also have to acknowledge that the progressive base, not everybody, it's a bit splintered, but there is a progressive base that is starting to consolidate behind Steyer.

14:11Steyer. Our revolution, which is no longer connected to Bernie Sanders, as my understanding, but an organization that started with Bernie Sanders years and years ago, they have endorsed Tom Steyer, right? Basically, every single environmental group in the country has stacked behind Tom Steyer. And it's hard to ignore that. When you have somebody else like Becerra, who I think is overall positive, right? But we have to remember Becerra is taking the max amount of donations from Chevron. I believe it was like$39 ,000, right? He is exceptionally unclear on where he stands on healthcare, specifically on single payer healthcare.

14:49Sometimes publicly, he says he's for it. Then he goes into back rooms with medical donors and says he's against it. And the reality with Tom Steyer is once you separate the billionaire piece, which is very hard to separate, but once you separate that, he's extremely clear on a lot of these positions. He supports single payer. He supports a billionaire tax. And a lot of people hit him on not being super strong in the billionaire tax support. But the reason he doesn't support it as much as we'd like him to, and by the way, he said absolutely he will vote for the billionaire tax in California. The reason he said he doesn't love it is because he thinks it's not strong enough.

15:19It's a one-time tax. He thinks that the tax should be raised. He thinks that they should tax billionaires more and that the duration of that tax should be extended. And so, you know, I personally do struggle with somebody or anybody in politics or business who has basically spent their career building wealth. And then once they build that wealth, they feel like, okay, now's the time to give back. It's hard for me to trust that person. Because then the question is, well, if you had never built that wealth, would you be giving back or not? Right? But I do think the reality of political elections is that sometimes you have to choose the best of the options that you have.

15:56And for me, out of all those options on the table right now, as it stands, I do think that Steyer is probably the best option. It is extremely difficult for me to say that knowing he's a billionaire. It is weird. I don't quite understand it. But like, you know, and again, I'd like to say like, it's messy. That campaign in the election is messy. But in terms of his message, in terms of his policy priorities, I do think, frankly, that he stands above the rest.

16:20Charlie Goldensohn:I, I support him. And I think that there's going to be a reckoning where everybody's kind of gonna, everybody's going to have to come to terms with the fact that billionaires have to be taxed. We cannot afford these people. We cannot afford to have these people. And if a billionaire leads that charge, because there's so much attribution, false attribution and deference given to these billionaires by all of these capitalists with no capital, that, oh, we can't upset the billionaires. Wealth is going to trickle down. All of these lies that maybe somebody coming from inside the Death Star to say, tax me, and maybe a J.B.

17:02Charlie Goldensohn:Pritzker doing the same and having a class of benevolent billionaires to say, this is immoral. This is wrong. Tax us. I agree with you. How did they get there? All of that stuff. But at this stage in the fascist takeover, we have to get the public on board. We cannot afford these people. And the problem with the Republican Party is they'll say, oh, we cut taxes. Well, yeah, they always cut it for the rich people. But they never cut them for working class people. Right. Ever, ever, ever. And so I don't know. I mean, he could make me eat my words at a later date. But I do think we're going to have to have actual billionaires, unlike Bill Ackman, who is an actual billionaire, but who's a victim.

17:46Charlie Goldensohn:And Elon Musk, who is a white supremacist victim. And we're going to have to have actual that say, this is insane. Tax us, tax us to hell and back. Yeah. I mean, two quick things on that, which is I'm not comparing Steyer to Zoran, but the way he will be held to account will be exactly like Zoran, right? Which is the way that people are going to perceive Zoran's success in two years or 10 years is going to be, was he able to accomplish the policies that he campaigned on, right? Right. If he's not, people might view his, regardless of how well his leadership is and how many other policies he's successful on, if he's not able to execute the stuff he campaigned on, people may view that as an unsuccessful time in an elected office.

18:32The same is going to happen with Steyer. Right. If he's running all this stuff as a billionaire and then he's not able to execute the stuff, then everybody's going to say, well, you're full of shit and we trust billionaires. Totally. Less than. The other thing I'll say is this is not an endorsement. These are paid consultants, but people should know, I think, that the consulting and the advisors to Steyer are the same advisors as who ran Soran's campaign. They're the same advisors who ran Graham Plattner in Maine. So just so folks understand, that apparatus around Steyer, there are a lot of legitimate, real progressives and not just supporters, but operatives who are helping there and who believe in his cause.

19:07So I think folks should understand that.

19:08Charlie Goldensohn:I think this is interesting. I think that it could be an impetus that could be contagious among the billionaire class because the dam is breaking on this thing. And regardless of anything, I think that if a billionaire is saying tax me, we have to say, listen to them, you know, because this is a huge problem. All right. Moving along. The Trump administration is preparing for a Democratic Congress. Pop this up. Kyle Griffin is reporting the White House Counsel's Office is giving private briefings to the Trump ad man's political appointees on how to best prepare for congressional oversight as staff begin to brace for the likelihood of significant Democratic victories in the midterms, according to two people briefed on the topic.

20:05Charlie Goldensohn:And before I get your take, I just want to say that this gives me a little bit of hope, combined with the fact that Trump, who I say is in his deathbed confession era, he'll say, nobody understands why, but always the opposing party wins in the midterms. Nobody can explain it. So people around him are telling him, you know, the blue tsunami is coming. Despite that, I still think he'll cheat. He'll send eyes to the polls. He wants to militarize against the public. I believe all of those things. But getting these reports is important because I think a lot of people face these news stories and just think, fuck it, I'm going to be a nihilist.

20:46Charlie Goldensohn:I don't give a shit anymore. And it's really important that we get everybody engaged and have massive voter turnout because we're never going to get Republicans to peel off and vote for us. But we can get couch sitters to the polls that typically would end up voting Democratic. Yeah. I'd actually disagree with the last piece. I think we can get, I think we're not going to get MAGA freaks to vote for us. I think there's some Republicans I think might be gettable, maybe. Because you're from California and I'm from Oklahoma. Yeah. Well, and the other thing I would say is it's for me, it's not just about like, yes, we need to vote, of course.

21:22But I do think like when it comes to this story about the White House and Trump and his staff being briefed on like, what is congressional oversight look like? Right. What we know from the past, from both his last presidency and this one, is that the administration doesn't really give a fuck about oversight. right? Even when Dems have power. And so in my mind, there's like two questions there or things that have to happen. One is that they need to, that Democrats in Congress need to have oversight, right? And they need to subpoena as often as possible. But then that media and the Democratic Party has to ensure that the bully pulpit is not forgetting what's happening, right?

22:07Like, it's going to be very easy for Trump to ignore subpoenas if media just treats it like another 24-hour news cycle. That's what they're going to try to do. They're going to try to create more news. They're going to try to create more bullshit to bury the stories about the subpoenas and bury the stories about impeachments and bury the stories about oversight. It is up to us. It is up to you. It is up to traditional news. It's up to the Democratic Party, Ken Martin, to ensure that voters are not forgetting about this stuff, to ensure that we're not forgetting that Republicans are breaking the law every day when they ignore these things.

22:38And that to me is the main thing of the story. It's like, we already know what Trump and his admin is going to do. It's what are the Democrats going to do and what is media going to do to ensure that voters understand what's happening?

22:48Charlie Goldensohn:Yeah. And how seriously is Hakeem Jeffries, if he becomes speaker, how seriously is he going to take this? Because to me, you have to face the accelerator in the same way, if you're driving a car, in the same way that MAGA did. They came in and they smashed that accelerator through the floorboard and look at how fast the breakage is. And it must be swift. And the biggest lesson we learned is the Merrick Garland lesson. Merrick Garland fucked us. He fucked us so hard. He lollygagged, he dithered, and now we're back here again. And I do not want this to be a contagion within the Democratic Party where we're always giving deference to criminals.

23:34Charlie Goldensohn:We gave huge deference to Donald Trump and all of the people that funded January 6th. And I hope to God that they really accelerate through this thing. Yeah. I mean, I think we may have talked about this before. And so excuse me for repeating myself, but I think this is another good example of trying to make sure voters and everyone understands what institutions are. And when we talk about the Trump administration or Trump trying to, or successfully breaking down a lot of these institutions, I think that people, We tend to view institutions as these like non-human, perpetually existing physical things.