The Divided States of America

31:39They talked about being raped and assaulted at 13, at 14, having Jeffrey Epstein tell them to go bring other high school students so that he could farm them out. I was absolutely disgusting. And I really don't care what your politics are, whether you're a MAGA supporter, a Democrat, Independent, Progressive, like, how can a country tolerate that? And we owe these survivors closure. And they were very clear that some of them don't have access to the files to be able to understand their own memories. They're talking to therapists who say, well, we need you to get the files to understand what really went on.

32:19And I just don't understand how this has become a political issue. We just need to get these files out and do right by these survivors. Well, I think I understand why it's become a political issue. And that's because Donald Trump is mentioned in them and was very, very, very close friends with Jeffrey Epstein and wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well. And on Howard Stern, he himself said he didn't want to date anybody below the age of 12. And so the American in public knew this when he ran. And this goes back to a brokenness that we're going to have beyond Donald Trump. And it is a brokenness within our culture.

33:01When somebody shows us how morally depraved they are, when they brag about seeing naked, underage pageant girls, because they can, because they own the pageant, and you have a daughter or you have somebody you love that you don't want to exploit it and you vote for him anyway, this is what you get. This party covers up for pedophiles. MAGA is the party of pedophile cover-up and they prove it. They can say they're not, but their actions speak louder than their words. And we need to expose our hypocrisy because while he was engaged in that moral and spiritual rot and engaged in the total degradation of women, He was out there, as was J.D.

33:43Vance, campaigning, saying, well, he's going to expose the corruption. He's going to expose the abuse. He's going to release these files. And MAGA believed it. I mean, this, if you talk to actually Republican members of Congress and MAGA Republicans, they will tell you this is one of the top issues for a lot of MAGA voters. This is one of the reasons they voted for Donald Trump, because they thought they're two Americas, rich and powerful people have impunity. They don't get justice, that Donald Trump's going to look after our families. He's going to protect our children. He's going to protect family values.

34:19The government has been corrupted. It's got all these elite bureaucrats. It's run by these Democrats who have these big donors. This was his whole spiel to the American public. And he's gotten in there and he said, OK, let's just move on because some of my buddies are in the fall or things in the fall that I don't want to expose. And he thought, like every other broken promise, he was going to get away with it Just like his broken promise on cutting Medicaid You know, he said he'd never do it, he cuts Medicaid Just like his broken promise about ending the war in Ukraine Just like his broken promise that he was going to bring peace in the Middle East Just like his broken promise that he was going to bring prices down His base has forgiven all of it And so it was a reasonable assumption for him to say, let's just move on And guess what?

35:00This time they're not This time they're not And that is why he is scrambling That's why he's calling it a hoax That's why he's laughing out. That's why the Speaker of the House shut down the house. That's why they're introducing these placebo resolutions that have no teeth. I mean, they're really concerned because they are the first time losing the confidence and trust of some of their base. Which is amazing. It took this long, but that's here and there. Here's one of my biggest gripes that really I just cannot wrap my head around, and that is Moses Mike Johnson. Oh, God. He sits there and he goes on and on about what a good Christian he is.

35:42Gavin Newsom attacks prayer. And that man shuts down Congress to cover for pedophiles. He sits there and listens to these women, what they had to testify to in the closed door meeting with Congress, comes out and says, these women have had justice delayed. They have been punished. They should never have had to wait so long. Then he goes and he does it again and again in the hypocrisy of him standing on his Bible, talking about what a great Christian he is while he continues to victimize women for this man and everybody else, gay people, the whole nine. But specifically lately, it's been child predators.

36:28I don't know how you can go into your office and be like, hey, what's up, Mr. Speaker? because it's so appalling. It's appalling and it's a betrayal of all our values. I mean, one of the things the speaker should be asked is, do you agree with Donald Trump that this is a hoax? Because he got to hear the victims themselves. And I don't care what your politics are. These women were breaking down in tears, talking about what it was like to relive being raped at the age of 13 or 14 and be bullied into getting other friends of theirs to come to have that faith. I mean, they were totally exploited because they were lower working class or because they were the daughters of immigrants.

37:17And, you know, it was horrific to me. It was one of the survivors said, well, Epstein would brag about knowing former presidents. He'd brag about knowing powerful people. They went to the police and the police didn't do anything. And they said, well, we can't do anything because of Jeffrey Epstein. So it's not just rich and powerful men who assaulted them. It's rich and powerful men who covered this whole thing up. And Speaker Johnson could make this whole thing. He doesn't need us to do the discharge petition against the 218 signatures. He could put this thing up for a vote tomorrow. He could, in Article 1, say, Article 1 of the Constitution, say, Mr.

37:53President, stop insulting, dehumanizing people, women. Stop calling it a hoax, just like Thomas Massey did. Just by the way, Marjorie Taylor Greene, these people have played with the president saying just recognize their humanity. Just meet with that. Meet with that. And they're not breaking through. But what's the point of being in Congress? What's the point of being Speaker of the House if you're simply just going to take your marching orders from Donald Trump? You know, a lot of these supporters of Trump, because he's so wildly insecure, their number one job is to coddle him. The Manosphere and the MAGA movement and a lot of these MAGA men are engaged in this high-level coddling.

38:36And the highest level that I see right now is the Speaker of the House who has abdicated his co-equal branch of power. He has abandoned his faith. And in fact, he weaponizes his faith against the good people in Louisiana and all these Bible-belt states that we live in currently right now. who Speaker Johnson and other Republican politicians do something that I call Christian signaling. They say, well, you know, the good Lord says this. Meanwhile, they're doing exactly what the good Lord wouldn't want them to do, which is taking health care away from people. And the MAGA politicians that weaponize the faith and manipulate it against the people who the only culture they have in their towns is that church, their whole friend groom is that church is the most despicable aspect of the MAGA movement.

39:29And there's not a bigger Christian hypocrite on the planet than Mike Johnson, who acts with impunity all of the time to a man who is the exact opposite. And I'm not a Christian. I'm not even religious. I'm an atheist. But I'm a 10 times better Christian than Moses Mike Johnson is because I care about people losing their health care. I care about people having benefits. I think it's wrong, absolutely wrong, morally wrong, that Walmart workers in rural Oklahoma make minimum wage, and then they have to go get government benefits because you can't live off minimum wage. And then the Moses Mike Johnsons of the world belittle them and say, you're lazy, you're so poor.

40:16Meanwhile, who's getting the corporate welfare there? It's Walmart, the billionaires, who every single heir is a billionaire in the top 20 of the richest people in the world individually. When you split them up, if you put them all together, I think they're richer than anyone. And we are subsidizing these billionaires to treat their employees like shit. And then there's this Christian party, this Christian movement that then belittles poor people. It makes me fucking crazy. I don't know how you just don't whack him over the head when you see Well, because I believe in the Christian. I know that's why you're in charge.

40:50Right. Cool. The Democratic Party actually practices not responding in kind necessarily, which is which is the Christian teaching. I mean, I have a Hindu faith and Gandhi read the Sermon of the Mount, which was to say I actually care about poor people, care about have kindness. Don't insult people. Stand up for people. Stand up for for for basic values. But you have a Republican Party that basically is giving tax breaks to billionaires in my district. Look, my district has five companies over a trillion dollars. Apple, Google, NVIDIA, Tesla and Broadcom. There's one company that is even close east of the Mississippi River.

41:28That's JP Morgan. That's 800 billion. And if you really believe that the Silicon Valley tech billionaires need more tax breaks and that to pay for their tax breaks, we should take away health care from working class Americans and middle class Americans, then that's basically the Mike Johnson vision. That is the Republican vision. I mean, all the other stuff is there. But ultimately, what they've done is taken away money, taken away things from working in middle class folks and given them to the billionaires in places like my district. And the guy who represents more billionaires than anyone in the world is saying tax the billionaires more.

42:06Like, I don't understand how this is a hard vote. Let me jump in here real quick. You don't take any APEC money either, do you? I don't, but APEC does not like me. I got it. They've been tweeting at me these days. I've taken two positions that are radical in terms of, you know, quote unquote, democratic people with a national platform taking, but are totally consistent with what the American people, in my view, want. And they don't like me because have taken those two positions. One of them is that we should stop all military sales that are being used to kill civilians in Gaza. And they think that's heresy, that I've supported Delia Ramirez's bill to do that and supported Bernie Sanders to do that.

42:44And the other, I'm leading the effort. This is what really gets them upset. I'm leading the effort for the United States to recognize a Palestinian state, a Palestinian state, by the way, that would have elections, that would not have Hamas, that would not be armed, and that would recognize the state of Israel. It's a two-state solution that 147 other countries in the world have supported, and that France, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia are going to support. But they think that that crosses a red line. And I have news. Let me ask you this. When you say AIPAC is not happy with you, and they've been going after you, what does that look like?

43:23Well, they've certainly tweeted at me almost every other day. If you just go on by Twitter saying Kana is a Hamas apologist, they try to think because I'm a person of color and because I'm a Hindu fed, maybe they can make me sound un-American and threatening. They've said I'm never going to get beyond Congress. I mean, they know that I'm very secure in my district, but they basically say if you want to run for anything bigger, if you want to be in leadership, this is going to kill your career. Why are you doing this? You have such a good economic vision. Let me get this straight. Let me get this straight.

43:53AIPAC is bullying you and calling you a terrorist because you won't take their money and you have moral clarity on this genocide that is occurring that American taxpayers without health care are funding. Is that what you're telling me? Well, bullying would imply that they're succeeding or having any impact. It's more like they're being like little chipping at my ankles or something, because I think they're totally are a extreme fringe group. But they but the bullying, unfortunately, works with with a lot of other members. Let me ask you this. Let's just get to the nut cutting here, because I think the Democrats have a big problem.

44:31We had Zoran Mamdani on our. Thank you for doing that. Yeah, we love you. And I am very disappointed, as are a lot of other people, that he won a Democratic primary. And he didn't just win. I mean, he cleaned their clocks. OK, so it should be over. And now he's having to battle Democrats. And then people within the party are not endorsing him. And the one thing those people that aren't endorsing him have in common are AIPAC donations. And I see this like this, Congressman. a pack funded maga i mean a lot to get trump 2.0 and if we have politicians that are tethered to the same people that are calling you a terrorist which is just so ridiculous i think it works with the maga base but what they don't realize the democratic base is a little smarter thinks things through a little more so it doesn't work as well with this base i'm very concerned about this uh minority leader, not unshackling himself from APEC money, especially considering when you look at polling of the Democratic Party, it's abysmally low.

45:39And it should be really high right now, because we're the opposition party. It's a layup to draw a comparison, a split screen between Kanks and all the crap he's doing. And it just should be a layup. And I just feel like we are really screwing up. I feel like he has a moment. We have the leaders we have, but I feel like it's our job to push him over, just like MAGA, Trump pushed all the crazies over there. And I'm just really, really worried for our party that this APAC donations have shackled some of our strongest speakers, and they don't have moral clarity, and thus are not credible messengers to the base.

46:19No, absolutely right. I mean, everyone should endorse and get behind Mamdani. This idea, no, I'm not in his state. It's become a test. I mean, he mobilized 50 ,000 students. Have you done that? He's talking about the economy. Have you done that? And so instead of trying to learn from him, I'm not saying you can't disagree with him, but he just won the Democratic primary. He's going to be the mayor. He's done something no other person since Barack Obama has done in our party, maybe Bernie Sanders, but he's mobilized an entire young group of people. He's created energy, he has a hopeful vision. And instead of saying, hey, let's talk, let's see what you did, let's incorporate this, we're like, no, no, we're not going to endorse him, we're going to keep hands off.

47:03Look, there are three basic buckets right now in the Democratic Party. There are people like me and Bernie Sanders and Zoran and a few others who are saying, stop the arms sales that are killing civilians, recognize a Palestinian state, this is a moral issue. Then there are the people who are basically doing the AIPAC line. Oh, you know, we can never disagree with Israel publicly. They're an ally and we should never have a disagreement. But then there's the vast middle. And this is a cynical middle because Dr. King said, you know, be most concerned with people who don't take a stand. And what they hope, and I'm not going to name names because that's not my interest, but you can hold them accountable when they come on your programs.

47:51What they hope is that they can be so anti-Trump in different ways, that they can stop Trump from militarizing our streets. They can stop Trump from deporting immigrants without due process. They can stop Trump from going after MRNA, that they can legitimately stop Trump on different things and get the support. and they never need to utter a word about Palestine, because why should they utter a word about this when it's going to make them unnecessary enemies? So let's just be quiet. Well, let me tell you something. I was just with Bernie Sanders in Concord. We did a rally up there and there was a group of Democratic voters afterwards, people over 50, white women and men, not young people, not people of color, not people of different faiths.

48:34And I was talking all about economics. And then the questions came, and most of them were about Gaza. And most of them were about what we're doing about Gaza. And the reason they wanted to know is because they feel that we have lost our place as moral leaders. We've lost it in the United States, and we've lost it around the world. It's not foreign policy. It's who we are as a people. And they want people to have conviction to speak out about who we should be. So I think there is a huge disconnect between our party and the base. And it's only growing on this issue. Pumps, I never want to disappoint my dogs.

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52:07We look at that and say, OK, well, you've lost the last two presidential elections over that. So we need new messaging. We need young people. We need to regenerate people to believe in the party. And then they go against their base like 90 to 8 on the Gaza and Israel thing. So I'm like, is Democratic establishment going to be able to come together and mobilize how their party wants? Are they going to stay in the same spot? Some of them are going to stay in the same spot, and some of them are going to have to be run against. Look, Bill Clinton, when he won in 92, it was a different time. He didn't win by running with the party.

52:43He ran against the party. It was a different point. Obama ran against the party. Obama was never supportive for anything he ran for. For Congress, he ran against the party. For the Senate, he ran against the party. For the presidency, he ran against the party. And I just think we need people in the House and the Senate and others saying, we need a new vision, a new vision for this country, a vision that actually understands how difficult it is for someone young today. Look, so I've had this debate with someone whether it would be better to be born in 1975 in America or today. And the person said, we've made a lot of progress.

53:14We've made progress on race. We've made progress on women's rights. We have a better life expectancy. We have better medicines. But the reality is for many people, young people, they can't buy a house. They can't afford child care. They have much higher health care premiums. They don't have a sense that they're going to have a good paying job. And we're not speaking to those basic things. And they want to have a moral conception of America's role in the world. And so the Democrats need a totally more connected, grassroots, fresh vision, willingness to say that the old guard needs to step aside.

53:48And the good news is we have a bunch of these new leaders coming up across the country. So I want to talk to you about something that I've noticed. And I want to get your take on this. So you mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene having clarity and support for the Epstein victims. And I commend her for that. I also think what we have with Marjorie Taylor Greene is she is a lot more politically savvy than I originally thought. And she is seeing beyond MAGA. And she hangs out with Bannon, who is a pretty astute political strategist, a nut, but he is a competent political strategist. And I believe that they are seeing beyond Donald Trump and what's going to happen to the cult after the cult leader dies, and it's going to be in disarray.

54:39So if I am a rural Oklahoman, a rural person in California, because you have a lot of rural spots there and a lot of MAGA there, and I dabble in the news, I don't monitor the 24-hour news cycle like the three of us psychos here do. And I see Marjorie Taylor Greene say, it is not America first. These politicians are Israel first. They have health care in Israel and we don't. And you see that living there on the internet and you're processing it. It hits hard. And And I think the Democratic Party is starting to get outflanked by some people on the right who are doing this for grifting reasons. I mean, I want to be crystal clear with our audience.

55:29Marjorie Taylor Greene is an anti-Semite. Her dislike of Israel, she's been on the record for a very, very long time saying anti-Semitic things, the Jewish space lasers, et cetera. She cherry picks when she wants to care about Palestinian kids, but she doesn't give a shit about gay kids in rural America. So you always have to be cautious of the people who cherry pick which groups they support. My larger point, Congressman, is I see her as someone we need to keep an eye on because she is looking beyond Trump. She's starting to strategize beyond them. And then I look at the leaders in our party, present company excluded, of course.

56:11And they are not making this moral clear case. And that kind of shit will hit hard that these politicians are putting Israel first. They're not putting America first to rule suburban voters. That simple messaging will hit hard and drive them to the voting booth. you're absolutely right uh you know what we need in this party it's not progressive liberal moderate it's just conviction-driven politics we've lost the sense of conviction and you know people will disagree on some of the things i stand for they may disagree on not selling military weapons uh to israel that are being used to kill civilians they may disagree on medicare for all they may disagree on child care ten dollars a day they may disagree that we should have a all tax on billionaires.

56:56But the one thing they won't say is, I don't know what he stands for. Let's just put out what you want to do and let the chips fall where they may. And who cares? You don't win an election like there are a lot of other things you can do. I got to tell you, I was at the press conference with Marjorie Taylor Greene today. My staff is having a little bit of an anxiety attack because the roll call had a moment of us giving each other a hug after one of the powerful testimony of the women. And it was an emotional moment for everyone there. But the point is that she was, if you listen to what she said, she said, there are forgotten Americans.

57:36That was FDR. FDR had that phrase, forgotten Americans. And there's an America that works for the rich and powerful. And the problem in this country is that the America that works for the rich and powerful is not working for those of us who are forgotten. And I'm here because I want to stand up for justice for forgotten Americans. I want investment for forgotten Americans. I got to tell you, if we do not understand that frame and then have our affirmative vision in that, if we allow that to be filled with darkness of anti-immigrant or anti-trans or anti-gay or anti-other countries, then we're going to lose elections.

58:14And I think that it's important for us to recognize that the other side has tapped into a fundamental anxiety, anger with people. And there's certainly an anger. And I've always supported Israel as a Jewish democratic homeland. I don't have Marjorie Taylor Greene's view. My nieces are Jewish. I mean, we had a Hindu-Jewish wedding. My godfather is Hindu and married someone Jewish. That's not the point. The point is people are sick of all of the money going for foreign wars, foreign from Iraq to Afghanistan, wars in the Middle East. They want that money for a Marshall Plan in America. They don't understand.

58:50They feel they built this country. And now their kids don't have the same shot at the American dream. Seventy percent don't believe in the American dream. And it's kind of like we do the same thing. I was, you know, just because I'm candid with you, I was having a conversation with someone in our caucus and they're like, let's do 100 town halls around America on Social Security and saving Social Security. I was like, I'm all for saving Social Security. But you've got to be kidding me if you think that the Democrats that talk about roads, bridges and Social Security for the last 50 years, if that's going to break through to the American people.

59:22It's on like a yawn. It's like we're on autopilot. Snooze fest. It is a total snooze fest. Here's what I feel where the Democratic Party is right now. Like when it was Obama, it was like, oh, we're moving forward. It's progress. Let's go. Hope and change as we can. I feel like the Democratic establishment right now, it's like when you're on the New York subway and it's stopping, it goes, you know, that squeak. And I feel like they're all just stuck in that. And now the Democratic establishment is the conservative party. They're wanting to conserve and preserve the same party that advised Kamala Harris to not be left and go trot around with Liz Cheney.

1:00:05And I just think like, OK, you guys lost two elections to an idiot, to a total fucking moron. Like, we're not going to listen to you all anymore. Like, you lost to Donald Trump. He can't blend his makeup. He talks about Hannibal Lecter. He tried to give a microphone a blowjob. This is a layup for God's sakes. And so when I hear that these Democrats, we're going to spend$20 million to learn how to talk to men. I'm just like, oh, Jesus fucking Christ. Come to a flyover state, hang out with us for a week, and we'll let you know exactly what you need to do to go talk to people. Because if you don't do it, Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to do it.

1:00:43And she doesn't have the purest intentions in that. She hangs out with Steve Bannon all the time. who the economic populist message that you said that she said, the FDR style stuff, that's what Bannon's talking about. And these people are seeing beyond the cult. You know, there's like Laura Loomer, who's like, all she can see is Trump. That's it. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others are looking beyond. And then there's other people like, I don't know if this guy lives. Oh, we have to ask you about this. What's his name? Peter Till. Does he live in your district? He does not. He lives in the Bay Area.

1:01:17I've met him once. You have? I met him in 2013 or 2012, 2013. We had a professor in common. But, you know, I gave a speech at the Cleveland Club. I mean, he's got a very, very radical vision, much more than Donald Trump. He's smart in terms of what he wants to do. And his vision is scary. It's basically that people who are born with what he calls elite genius or elite IQ, that they actually are better at governing than the rest of us, and that we should just allow these kind of billionaires, tech folks, to govern, to rule, because democracy is too messy, and we don't trust the instincts of ordinary folks, and that's not what's going to make civilizational advance.

1:02:07So he's got like a—it's like a defensive elitism. Now, of course, he couldn't win an election, But what they've been smart enough to do is to have the MAGA populism of a Marjorie Taylor Greene or a Donald Trump when he's campaigning, but then to govern with the Peter Thiel's basically giving business what they want. And businesses, unfortunately, some of them, you know, there's this convening in the Rose Garden with all these tech leaders. And they're just like, oh, we'll just keep our heads under the table and let our businesses thrive and deregulation. And, you know, the pendulum always swings back and the Democrats will be in charge and maybe Gretchen Whitmer will be president in 2029 and then we'll be behind her, too.

1:02:47And I'm like, yeah, the pendulum swings back, but it doesn't swing back automatically. And if all of these people have that view, then it's not going to swing back. But it's very cleverly ingenious what Trump's done. They've got populist rhetoric combined with deregulation for business. And so they basically are giving populism in language, but they're actually helping the economic royalists in practice. And that's how they have their coalition. Which is also called lying. Right. Yeah. You know, just to put it simply, I mean, he's lying to these people who are their taxes are going to actually go up.

1:03:27Yeah. Under the BBB. GBB. And oh, my God, it's just I'm very worried about the elections, the midterms. And I believe that Trump is showing the signs or the people that that are pulling the levers. I don't know if it's Stephen Miller. Sometimes I don't think Trump's all there. I mean, I really think he's showing significant signs of cognitive decline and dementia. But whoever is pulling the the the levers, that they are going after elections. They're starting to put the military in blue cities. They're priming the public the way authoritarians do. If you study this, authoritarians get the public primed to this.

1:04:09They get the military primed to this. He militarized DC, which is where a peaceful transfer of power would have to take place. I, for one, am very, very, very concerned. And I don't think it's hyperbolic to assume that he doesn't want the midterms to take place. My evidence in this would be January 6th because he doesn't like to lose in anything. What do you think? Are you worried about this? Of course I'm worried. I'm worried about the militarization of the streets. I'm pleased that Governor Pritzker, Governor Newsom are standing up to him. Governor Moore is standing up to him. And we need the Democrats and citizens to say, like, we didn't fight a revolution to have the military on our streets.

1:04:50This is not a difficult proposition. We need our lawyers on our side to be there defending elections. We need to pass this ballot initiative in my state on redistricting. I mean, the reality is he's trying to redistrict out seats in the in the black South and in Texas because he knows he would lose a fair election. And so we can have a vision going forward that people like Zoran are having, which is the energy and a positive vision and what we're going to do. But we also at the same time have to use every procedural and legal tool in our toolbox to understand the threat we face and make sure that we don't cede an inch to this person who wants to undermine every institution.

1:05:35Look, Donald Trump will take as much power as we let him. Like it's a it's a it's and I think we will prevent him from doing that, but not because I think we're going to appeal to his sort of better angels or there are going to be any people in the White House are going to check. He's going to keep grabbing, grabbing, grabbing. That's his philosophy of life. He thinks if you don't take as much power as you can, you're a sucker. That's his philosophy. Maximize power. And we have to be willing to check and fight him at every step of the way. And secondly, we have to offer our affirmative vision to connect with young people and others that we have a moral vision for this country.

1:06:11Okay, well, now we're going to play our game. It's called Had It or Hit It. Oh, my God. Welcome to Had It or Hit It. I would hit it. Had it. Had it. I hit it every day, sometimes twice a day. Okay, Congressman, Had It or Hit It, J.D. Vance. Had it. That's a no-brainer. he is absolutely the worst i haven't forgotten about him for a while yeah yeah he he's the worst we call him uh little smoky because of the eyeliner like we just think he's a new cycle away from popping a smoky eye um but you know we like to we can we have a lot more liberty to really browbeat these people on our podcast than you do as a dignified congressman so we'll take that a lead.

1:06:56Okay. Had it or hit it, Twitter, formerly known as X. Had it. I'm on it. But you know, they still have manipulating these algorithms. I mean, it's not what it used to be under Jack Dorsey. Yes. And I've had it because it is not a safe space for women. It's terrifying. I mean, we talk a lot of smack on the podcast, Congressman, and then Fox News gets wind of it and they'll browbeat us for a day straight, which is fine. We're big girls. That doesn't hurt our feelings. It's fair game. But then the darkest cultists on Twitter come and find you and they send you messages of wishes for sexual violence to you and your family and your children and you report it and nothing happens.

1:07:42And it's just, it's disgusting that a place that could be, you know, an open digital town square is now not a safe place for women. And Elon Musk is just sitting there like retweeting Nazis and shit all the time and all this horrific, horrific white supremacist shit that is awful. And I just, it's, I mean, I wish that we could get to an administration where I could have you on and we could have a serious conversation about making social media safer. You would be such a big thing. You'd be such a credible messenger considering where you're located, your district is located. But we can't talk about that now because we have to talk about trying to save democracy, which is just overwhelming.

1:08:27No, it's connected. Social media has really led to some of the anger and falseness and a vitriol that's hurting our democracy. You know, one thing I noticed, and this is anecdotal, so I don't have data, But I said to my team, oh, did we really the Epstein news conference? Did it really get out there and flood the zone? And they said, yes, it's been covered and extensively everywhere. And I said, oh, the reason I was asking is I didn't see much on X about it. They said it's all over TikTok. It's all over Instagram. It's all over MSNBC, CNN Network. It wasn't all over Fox News and it wasn't all over X.

1:09:04So, you know, the manipulation of who's getting to see what. By the way, if we had done that press conference under Biden, you don't think they would have had hundreds of views under X. I mean, you know, so it's a huge, huge issue for us. Yeah, it's a really, really big problem. OK, last one. Had it or hit it, the United States of America. Hit it. Look, you can't have a story like mine. My grandfather spent four years in jail alongside Gandhi fighting for independence, at least to the Civil Rights Act, at least to the 1964. immigration reform it so my parents could come to america i'm born in philadelphia in 1976 our bicentenary indian american of hindu faith in bucks county pennsylvania 99 percent white i have teachers who believe in me little league coaches who believe in me even though i can't hit for anything they say kind of plays i've got community who believes in me and this country elects me at the age of 40 to represent arguably the most innovative economic district in the world it's a great country.

1:10:06It's a resilient country. It's a kind country. It's a country that's hurting, that's exhausted, that's been subject to fear and demagoguery. But this is a resilient nation. And I love the country and I believe in the country. And I'm very confident we're going to come back. I needed to hear that. I needed to hear that. And I just want to give you an opportunity to speak to Americans about an article that I read in the Washington Post about the ICE recruitment. And there was a person that they were recruiting to be an ICE officer. And they asked him, what prompted you to want to get involved with ICE?

1:10:48And the direct quote, I'm slightly paraphrasing, is that he wanted to be able to go hunt Indians and bash their heads, their skulls into the ground and then see them get deported. And as a man of color with immigrant backgrounds, and I believe with everything in me, the best part of being an American is multiculturalism, is the spice, the flavor, the culture. Can you speak to our listeners of color or from immigrant backgrounds about the fear that is intentionally and willfully being projected onto them and how you can comfort them through this really, really scary time of being an American of color with this fascist regime in charge and escalating these ICE raids?

1:11:41Well, first of all, I understand that fear not in an academic level, but at a personal level. When I go to this day and I go overseas and we're on a military plane or on a congressional code, my mom will call me and say, please don't lose your passport. And I say, mom, it'll be okay. I'm a member of Congress and they're not, they're going to let me back in. But my parents clinged to their papers when they came here and they had a green card. And there was a sense all they wanted to do was to work hard, to have a better life for their kids, to live the American dream. And they loved this country because this country gave them so much.

1:12:24And I understand for many people who are immigrants today or the kids of immigrants, that they're living in a different time of fear, very different from when I grew up. But I've got to tell you this. When I was growing up, there was no Indian American in the United States Congress. Today, there are six Indian Americans. When I was growing up, the thought that we would have an African American president was inconceivable. The thought that an Indian American, African American woman, Kamala Harris, would get 48 percent in Pennsylvania, I would have thought she wouldn't get 30 percent. This country is making progress in spite of itself.

1:13:02Come with pride. Talk about the love you have for this country your family has because immigrants tend to be patriotic reach out to people who don't have the kind of bigotry that that story uh displayed and i believe that we are going to do something together we're going to become the first cohesive multiracial democracy in the world that will be our generational achievement and i fundamentally believe we'll get there and we need all of you not to not not just to to be be there but not to give up on the american story on the American promise. I love that so much. And I just know that we get a lot of messages and DMs from people who are just really terrified, which is the desired effect of a lot of what they're doing.

1:13:42But I'm so happy to have you on. And just a personal thank you for helping me not descend into complete nihilism. Because when I see somebody that actually has conviction, and they don't change, and they always fight for it, I'm like, okay, we're all here. We're going to do this thing. And it just means so, so much. So thank you for all the work you do. Thank you for not taking APAC money and having clarity for the Democrats. And we're going to keep pushing them here. I've had a podcast. Well, thank you. I love when you make news because I know you're pushing us in a good way. And I've been seeing your viral clips all over since my last time.

1:14:20So I know it's not easy. I know you get a lot of abuse, but know that people are listening to you and that you're making a big impact. So keep fighting and keep pushing us. I'm grateful to you, genuinely. Thank you so much. Thanks for always being on. You always have a spot here if you want to come on. We've got IHEP news, and we really appreciate your willingness to share your time. Thanks so much. I just like him a lot. Here's the thing. I feel like a better person. I feel uplifted a little bit because of him, and I shouldn't because it's a swamp out there. We should. That's the purpose of a politician.

1:14:55That is. That's right. But, you know, I'm sitting there thinking he's talking about his story, how he came to America, all of that. And then I think how the immigrants are demonized. And his parents had all this patriotism. Yeah. You know, and they just worked hard. They want their kids to be safe. They always had their papers. And just the way these people are treated. It's just awful. Just like, you know, he's a million times better person than Moses Mike Johnson. It's not even comparable. From top to bottom, he genuinely cares about every American, even those that hate him. Even those Americans that would look at him and say, you're not a real American.

1:15:38He's still going to vote for them to have health care. He's still going to fight for them to have health care. And he doesn't begrudge them. And so I don't know. I just, I needed that. I did too. Thank you, Congressman Roe. Kylie, did you like the congressman? I love him. And it made me emotional. And when we have these people on, some of them really do leave me leaving here feeling better about things. They do. For a slight amount of time, at least. And you know what? You can just tell the difference in the bullshit factor. When we start talking about AIPAC, you don't have to go through the word salad.

1:16:11Like with him, it's just it's wrong for us to sell weapons that kill civilians. We should not fund this. And that's the end of it. And if you talk to some of these other politicians, we have to go through this horrific circle jerk of bullshit, which we need to start shutting down. Yeah, we do. Right, pumps. To promote our book. The Hottest Read of the Fall has turned into the It Book of the Summer. No, take two. Wait. Take two. Take two, Kai. Wait. The Hottest Book of the Summer has turned into the It Book of Fall. Nailed it. This is like embarrassing. I'm so bad. Give it to me. Take three. the hottest book of the summer is now the it book of the fall buy it wherever you get your books or um audio books and you also need to listen to our other podcasts at i hit i hip news that was okay-ish we'll see you next tuesday or thursday because we're falling apart over here yeah I'll tell you what I've had it with.

1:17:12Let's hear it. I'm at it with that. Listen up, patriots, gaytriots, and natriots. We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called IHIP News. It's Monday through Friday, every day, 15 to 20 minute hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America, always served with a side of petty grievances. We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever you get your podcast and YouTube. Please go rate, subscribe and review so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind. Pumps, what does an eagle say? Caw-caw. A little bit more enthusiasm. Caw-caw.

1:17:56That's it. That's the patriotism that this country needs right there.

1:18:07Thank you.