Trump deals himself FATAL blow on his LAST strength

19:43Dan Goldman:Right. Let me pick up on your last point. This is a guy who ran on, I am the peace candidate. Remember? Yeah. I am against endless wars. We put up on our social media a quote of his, I think it was in 2020 when he said, how crazy is it that we're spending trillions of dollars on the Middle East, and yet our own infrastructure, we don't have money to deal with our own infrastructure. That's what Trump said. Well, he was right then. And now he's continuing that process. A couple of things. I think most Americans now understand that tragically, it is a real tragedy. For the first time in modern American history, we have a president who does not believe in the Constitution.

20:32Dan Goldman:And the Constitution is pretty clear that it is the Congress of the United States that decides when we want to go to war. This wasn't suddenly an emergency response, right? Iran did not attack us, and the president had to act immediately. This was premeditated. They've been thinking about this for weeks. So once again, And the president of the United States is acting against the Constitution, which he does quite frequently on domestic issues and against the rule of law. Second of all, what I think is of great concern is Trump is taking the world into barbarism in the sense that if the president of the United States can violate international law, not just the United States Constitution, right?

21:25Dan Goldman:He can wake up in the morning and say, let's see, I think we'll go after Venezuela. What's today? Wednesday. Let's go after Iran. Oh, it's Tuesday. Let's invade Cuba or whatever. If the president of the United States thinks he can do that, why should any other governmental or terrorist leader in the world think that they don't have the right to wage a military attack against anybody they dislike? Right. You know, after World War II, the horrors of World War II, 50 million dead, the world came together and said, all right, if we're not going to eliminate war, let's at least establish some rules, you know, and that is that you don't simply attack another country without reason, that we try to work to eliminate war, to solve problems diplomatically.

22:14Dan Goldman:So what Trump is basically giving a green light, he's saying essentially to Putin, right? Hey, Vladimir, me, you did the right thing. You invaded Ukraine. That was pretty good. Yeah, we're going to do the same thing. How are you going to criticize Putin's invasion of Ukraine if you do, you wage a unilateral attack? Right. The second of all, in many ways, what this war is about is fulfilling, you know, Netanyahu is a right-wing extremist who committed horrible crimes, I think genocidal crimes against the people of Gaza. And now for years, for decades, Netanyahu has begged American presidents, Democrats and Republicans to join him in trying to destabilize Iran.

22:58Dan Goldman:He finally had in Trump a willing dupe. And Trump is now doing Netanyahu's work in Iran. And I think most Americans, whether you're conservative, progressive or in the middle, think that that is a pretty dumb way to do American military and foreign policy.

23:15Brian Tyler Cohen:What responsibility does Pam Bondi shoulder by virtue of the fact that she is in charge of the very DOJ that's covering up these files? I mean, we know that three million files haven't been released. We know that co-conspirators' names have been redacted while victims' names have been exposed, and yet obstinately they refuse to release anything else.

23:33Dan Goldman:Well, I mean, the demand, you know, people like Massey and Ro Khanna have done a very good job pushing them. We got to keep pushing. And she has the responsibility to do what I think my memory is correct. Trump campaigned on. Right.

23:47Robert Garcia:Yeah.

23:48Dan Goldman:Release the files. Well, release not three quarters of

23:51Brian Tyler Cohen:them. Release all of them. All right. We'll leave it there. Senator Sanders, as always, thank you for taking the time today. And thanks for all the work that you do.

23:57Dan Goldman:Well, you keep up the great work. Thank you.

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25:35Brian Tyler Cohen:Congressman, thanks for joining me. Sure thing. So you have some breaking news about a brand new subpoena that was just issued by your committee. Can you explain what just happened?

25:44Bernie Sanders:Yeah, we were able to actually keep a united Democratic Committee member caucus together, and we teamed up with Representative Nancy Mace to get a motion for Pam Bondi to be essentially subpoenaed in front of our committee. We've been trying to do this and been making this request of Chairman Comber for months and it hasn't happened. The fact that Pam Bondi, the AG, who's been responsible for hiding and deflecting and lying about the Epstein files, will now be in front of the committee doing the Epstein investigation is really, really important. So we're really glad this just happened. And I think it's a great move.

26:20Bernie Sanders:We had a couple of Republicans that joined us. Really, it was Nancy Mace to kind of help lead the way with all the Democrats on board. and we got a subpoena.

26:28Brian Tyler Cohen:That is surprising news. What's going to be the objective here as the attorney general comes before this committee?

26:37Bernie Sanders:Look, we have a long list of questions. We've talked about what we want to ask her. I mean, everything from the files originally being on her desk, why they began calling this investigation a hoax, why they tried to end the investigation so early, to why the rest of the files aren't being released. Where are the missing documents? Why are files being brought in and taken out? Why are they spying on members of Congress? I mean, the list goes on and on. And so there's a lot of questions that we're going to ask. And I think that the Democratic members have serious questions about this investigation.

27:09Bernie Sanders:And I'm glad that the attorney general will now be forced to appear in front of us.

27:13Brian Tyler Cohen:Is there any way that the attorney general opts not to comply, given the fact that it's the DOJ that's responsible for enforcing any subpoenas anyway?

27:21Bernie Sanders:No, this is a congressional subpoena. She's got to come in front of the committee. And all other other members that we have sent out to get a subpoena from, they've they've appeared. It's pretty strong. Racial subpoena is about as ironclad as you can get.

27:34Brian Tyler Cohen:Okay. Now, we have seen other administration officials, including just today in front of the Judiciary Committee, Christine Noem, come in front of the committee. And there oftentimes seems to be just an attempt by these administration officials to filibuster, to turn this into a partisan food fight. It becomes hostile and acrimonious. You know, you will ask these questions and committee members are going to ask these questions that are that are important and deserve answers. And how confident are you that she's not going to do engage in the same kind of behavior that all of these other administration officials are engaging in by just looking to filibuster or attack Democrats with, you know, with personal petty partisan attacks?

28:19Brian Tyler Cohen:Alex?

28:20Bernie Sanders:Look, I'm sure she's going to try to deflect and to attack back. But I think we've got a very skilled group of committee Democrats and oversight Democrats that are going to just ask the right questions. And we will make sure that we get answers and get those on the record. She will be under oath. So I think it's going to be a very interesting hearing. I'm looking forward to it happening sooner than later. I think the biggest question for us is where are the rest of the files? What happened to them? Why the over-redactions? And so I think we can try to begin to get some of these questions answered.

28:49Brian Tyler Cohen:What would success look like for you in the aftermath of this hearing?

28:53Bernie Sanders:Well, success would be actually getting the attorney general to explain to us why they have been involved in a White House cover up. Who's directing this cover up? Why are we protecting billionaires and co-conspirators? I think understanding where the rest of those files are and how he had access to them. I think those are going to be some of the top questions.

29:13Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, we just saw Bill and Hillary Clinton come and testify. You know, I've said numerous times that I'm in favor of them testifying. Obviously, there's, you know, most Democrats are in favor of them testifying as well. This isn't really supposed to be a partisan thing. This is just if anybody has information regarding the crimes that were committed by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, then they should be forced to appear and testify and give any information that they know. Now that James Comer has established this precedent wherein former presidents, presidents of the United States can be hauled in front of Congress to answer questions.

29:44Brian Tyler Cohen:What does that say about Donald Trump being forced to come and testify?

29:49Bernie Sanders:I mean, it says that we're going to have Donald Trump come and testify. And it should happen now, but we will 100 percent. This is a new precedent sent by oversight Republicans, and Donald Trump will be in front of our committee. whether he comes in now and he tries to defy us while he's in president. He's not going to be the president forever. And now we have a congressional new president sent to be able to bring in former presidents and we're going to do it. And it should be Donald Trump has to answer questions. And as far as the president's at the time for wife and first lady, they've also set a precedent for that.

30:22Bernie Sanders:And so we look forward to talking to Mrs. Trump as well.

30:24Brian Tyler Cohen:In terms of the fact that there were some Republicans on your committee who voted to subpoena Pampandi because she has information that needs to be shared with the committee to get to the bottom of this. And because I'm sure that those same Republicans were in favor of this this new James Comer precedent of hauling in the Clintons. Do you presume that there would be an appetite among your Republican colleagues to bring in Donald Trump, given the fact that, you know, if Hillary Clinton is going to come testify, who, as far as I know, I had no association with Jeffrey Epstein, then then, you know, do you think that that's going to be an issue in terms of having them buy in some support for Trump?

31:02Bernie Sanders:Look, we're going to try. I hope so. I think Trump, you know, he has lost some of his grip on some members of his party. The fact that we had some members actually join us, particularly Representative Mace, Representative Boebert, a few others on this subpoena of the attorney general, I think is pretty significant. And I hope that we can continue to do that. I hope they would agree that the president should come in and testify under oath to our committee. And if they don't, then we're going to push every day until he's in front of our committee, even if that means he refuses to or the committee chooses not to bring him in.

31:36Bernie Sanders:We will do it when we're in the majority. And we certainly will if we have to wait even until after he's president.

31:42Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, there are other administration officials who are also implicated in this. Kevin Warsh's name is in the files that Trump's pick for Fed chair. Howard Lutnick's photo was in the Epstein files, obviously, that they made an effort to suppress that information. Are some of these other administration officials who are directly implicated in the files going to be called to testify as well?

32:00Bernie Sanders:Look, we're going to have a very long list, I think, on day one when we're in the majority of who we get to subpoena. Every subpoena that we've had in this Congress has been because we've forced Republicans. We've been able to pick off two or three of them to join us. But for the most part, they've been unified in their opposition to these subpoenas. And so it's been because of our consistent pressure that we've been able to get these folks in front of our committee for this Epson investigation. So that's going to continue. We're not going to stop and push and demand just because we don't have the majority votes.

32:31Bernie Sanders:But when we do have the gavels and those majority votes, we are going to be able to supercharge this investigation and get the information that we need.

32:40Brian Tyler Cohen:Why do you think that there was an appetite among some of these Republicans to call in Pam Bondi if they're still going to be obstinate when it comes to calling in other administration officials?

32:50Bernie Sanders:I mean, I think that what's happening right now across the country is that the issue around Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes in Glenn Maxwell, accountability and justice for the survivors is actually very, very popular. It's something that all of us across the country, whether you're Republicans or Democrats, I mean, it's polling with Republicans in the 70th percentile. It's actually the single most bipartisan issue that's popular amongst both parties. And so it's bipartisan. It's Trump's worst political issue. I mean, I think there's the opposition from both parties is immense. He's more unpopular on Epstein than he is on issues around the economy and health care.

33:30Bernie Sanders:So I think that Republicans understand that there's a lot of interest here and that we have to just do the right thing by the survivors.

33:37Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, Trump has come out repeatedly and said that he's exonerated by all of this. What's your response to that?

33:42Bernie Sanders:I mean, that's a joke. Exonerated by who? No one's exonerated Donald Trump. He's the one that called it a hoax. He's in the Epstein files more than anyone. Mar-a-Lago is oftentimes where they trafficked women and girls. We have questions for the president. He's been named in the Epstein files multiple times. There are serious allegations against him that have been removed for reasons we don't understand. We've got to get to the bottom of it.

34:05Brian Tyler Cohen:When will the Pan Bondi testimony take place?

34:07Bernie Sanders:We don't know. you know, that's going to be up to James Comer. As the chairman, he controls the timing, but I imagine it'll happen sometime over the course of the next few weeks.

34:17Brian Tyler Cohen:Okay, well, we will leave it there. Congressman, as always, I appreciate you taking the lead on this issue and not letting it fall by the wayside. And I appreciate the time today. Sure thing. Thanks.

34:30Brian Tyler Cohen:I'm joined now by Congressman Dan Goldman. Thanks for joining me.

34:33Robert Garcia:Thanks so much for having me, Brian.

34:34Brian Tyler Cohen:So, Congressman, we just saw Kristi Noem endure a pretty bruising line of questioning a few days ago at these congressional hearings that obviously resulted in her losing her job. And so recognizing that these administration officials are not necessarily immune to pressure, how does that make you think about Pam Bondi, for example, as she is anticipating her own congressional hearing and as she continues to cover up these Epstein files?

35:01Robert Garcia:Yeah, well, it's somewhat apples and oranges. I think Kristi Noem demonstrated herself to be unqualified, unaware of what's going on, unwilling to take any responsibility or to hold any accountability on anyone. But perhaps the one thing that she did that really got her fired is she blamed Donald Trump for something that, well, period, blamed for something. Whether true or not, it doesn't matter. And so Pam Bondi is in a little bit of a different circumstance. I think her performance in front of me and the House Judiciary Committee a few weeks ago was far worse than Kristi Noem's performance. But keep in mind, Pam Bondi knows where all the Epstein secrets are.

35:59Robert Garcia:She has been part of this massive cover up. And if Donald Trump fires her, he is opening up the possibility of Bondi turning against her, which I think is the reason why he hasn't fired anyone to date is he saw what happened when he fired people in his first term and they often turned against him. And you see Bill Barr and John Bolton and a host of other people. And Bondi knows too much about him. She knows where all the skeletons in the closet are for him. I have no doubt in my mind right now that this is a massive cover up to protect Donald Trump. And Bondi is at the center of it. So it's very unlikely that she will get fired.

36:42Brian Tyler Cohen:And so can you talk about any personal liability that she might shoulder or any consequences we might see for Pam Bondi by virtue of the fact that she is really a willful participant in this entire cover-up. I mean, we know, for example, that she refuses to release three million files. We know, as I mentioned before, that we have co-conspirators' names who've been released while victims' names have been exposed. And so is there, you know, because she's the attorney general, is that it? Is there some world where she shoulders any legal exposure after she's out of office?

37:12Robert Garcia:Sure. I mean, there's a five-year statute of limitations. Criminal contempt would obviously be the one that you would focus on as it relates to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. But I would want to know more than that. I would want to know whether there are any witnesses who were precluded from coming and talking to them, whether there were any threats, whether there was any additional aspect to a cover up. Ghislaine Maxwell and that Todd Blanchett whole discussion, because there could be obstruction of justice as well. And depending on what happens, we don't have that information. But a cover up is an obstruction of justice.

37:59Robert Garcia:And so there are lots of different ways that you can get to that through the criminal law.

38:06Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, Congressman, you obviously were were a council when Trump was being impeached. And so you're well aware of what it looks like when Congress does its job, when the legislative branch does its job to hold corrupt administration officials to account. I think a lot of people see what's happening right now and have this feeling that we are in a post-legal world where all of these people can just get away with their crimes and because they engage in this criminal activity so frequently that we're no longer able to be in a place where the law applies to any of them. And so it gives them a feeling of impunity and obviously they've run with that.

38:50Brian Tyler Cohen:This is the most corrupt administration we've ever seen. The financial corruption is staggering. The legal corruption is staggering. Trump's wielding the DOJ as his personal cudgel against his political enemies. And so what needs to happen in the aftermath of this administration to hold these folks to account. And can you talk about that, especially through the lens of having gone through a Biden administration where that wasn't really a priority, where the priority was mostly preventing the optics of politicization? Yeah.

39:19Robert Garcia:And perhaps overdone, gone too far on the other side of that. I think there are a couple of different ways of tackling this. And the one thing that you didn't mention in your litany of things that they have done that are just so blatantly corrupt is the fact that the FBI is not investigating those who killed Alex Preddy and Renee Goode. And what that really does give the ICE agents, CBP officers, that feeling of invincibility and impunity because they know that their brother executive branch agency at the FBI is not going to hold them accountable. And so it is that feeling of impunity. It is that knowledge that, well, Donald Trump is doing all of this stuff and he seems to be getting away with it.

40:13Robert Garcia:So I'm going to do it as well. I always go back, Brian, to this shocking comment that Chairman James Comer made at the Oversight Committee when he was asked why he spent so much time on the Hunter Biden investigation that related to 30, maybe 20 or 30 million dollars of money from foreign entities, not even foreign governments, and that he's not at all investigating Donald Trump receiving a 400 million dollar plane from Qatar or all of these investments in crypto companies from foreign countries and foreign companies that are just padding his wallet. And Comer's response was, well, Donald Trump does it all out in the open.

41:04Right.

41:05Robert Garcia:Well, yeah.

41:05Brian Tyler Cohen:After all, committing crimes in broad daylight makes them not crimes.

41:09Robert Garcia:Exactly. And so you are right that there's a massive accountability gap and the Republicans have done nothing. The FBI has done nothing and we can't expect them to. So we have two phases. The first phase will be when we take back the majority in Congress. Donald Trump will still be president for two years, but we will initiate a host of investigations. And it will be somewhat of a decision point where how many and which ones, because you do want to make sure that you're covering the gamut of conduct, but you also only have so many resources. So that will be an important part. And similar to how I did the impeachment investigation, we're going to get massive obstruction from this administration.

41:57Robert Garcia:So we're going to have to figure out alternative ways of getting information and proving the case, which we had to do as well in the impeachment investigation. So it's not going to be straightforward and easy, but it is going to be something that we are very, very focused on. Then you mentioned after 2028, after Trump is gone, after this administration is gone, and hopefully there's a new democratic administration, then you've got the possibility of criminal prosecutions. And that that can be good dating back, usually the statute of limitations is five years. So it can go back for the whole term and even in the campaign before if there's something relevant to that.

42:38Brian Tyler Cohen:And doesn't the clock start once the crime is finished? And so if they're still engaged in this criminal activity, if they're still engaged in this corruption, if Pam Bondi is still suppressing the Epstein files and defying the Epstein files transparency act, like the clock is still running. So that five year, that five year window hasn't even begun yet.

42:55Robert Garcia:No, that is absolutely true for the most part. And so I don't think the timing of it is going to matter that much in terms of the statute of limitations. And look, there's always the question when a new administration comes in, how much backward looking stuff are you going to do and how much forward looking stuff are you going to do? And I think, though, that because of the reasons you said that there's a feeling that we live in this post-legal world where the rich and powerful or the well-connected are not held to account, are not held to the same rules and laws that everybody else is. we have to do some of that accountability.

43:44Robert Garcia:We have to restore faith in the rule of law, that it is applied equally, and that even those who are powerful are the ones who they will be held to account just like everybody else. And that was certainly how I approached things as a federal prosecutor when I was doing that for 10 years is I was looking for the real masterminds, right? The ones who are really at the top of the pyramid, not the ones at the bottom doing the dirty work, because those are the ones, A, who are really responsible, but B, have a much greater deterrent effect on other people doing it in the future. And that's why doing at least some of these criminal investigations is going to be very important.

44:33Brian Tyler Cohen:And I think also important is going to be figuring out how to walk and chew gum at the same time because there needs to be a forward-looking agenda as well, especially in light of the fact that there is an opening right now. Trump had run as this working class champion. The Republican Party ran as these working class champions. We just saw the jobs report today showing a net loss of 92 ,000 jobs, which means since April, the U.S. has seen jobs lost, hasn't gained a single job, has only lost jobs. Compare that with, you know, the millions of jobs that were added during the Biden administration.

45:11Brian Tyler Cohen:I think we had an average of roughly 400 ,000 jobs added per month, meaning in one month of the Biden administration, we saw more jobs added than the last year in the Trump administration. And so what has to be done from that standpoint, from a focusing on Americans who are obviously having a difficult time right now, economically speaking, what needs to be done on that front to rectify this disaster that Trump has ushered in?

45:37Robert Garcia:Well, I think it would help if he got rid of tariffs, if he stopped using all of our money on foreign wars. I think it would certainly help if he were invested in the middle class and that he were not just cutting taxes for billionaires. I think there are any number of different things that can spur the economy, which spurs growth, which spurs job creation, but he's just not focused at all on that. And he's trying to gaslight everybody into thinking that he, you know, that the prices are down when they're up. I mean, it's your own pocketbook. How is he, why does he think that he can literally convince people that he knows better than what they are having to pay?

46:24Robert Garcia:And so there are any number of a host of things. And I think that the first thing that we have to do is tackle wealth inequality, which has just skyrocketed exponentially under Donald Trump long before that as well. And we're in a world right now where the very select few at the top are getting super, super rich and everyone else is struggling. And if you're a wage earner, your wages are relatively going down compared to inflation. If you're an asset holder, your assets are going skyrocketing. So a bill like my Robinhood Act, which would make billionaires pay their fair share because Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and the top 25 earners and top 25 wealthiest people in America have an effective tax rate of about 3 % because they have all these tax avoidance schemes.

47:21Robert Garcia:We got to tackle that. And that will then allow us to have more money. Both, I think we need to pay down the deficit, which is becoming a huge albatross, but also we can invest in things that families need, universal childcare, right? So that parents can stay in their jobs, grow their careers while their kids are well taken care of, which is a win for the parents, a win for the child, and a win for the economy because that we're growing the economy. So we have to be thoughtful about where we are investing the money from the government so that we are spurring job growth and creation. And that's just the opposite of what Donald Trump has been doing.

48:04Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. Well, to that end, Congressman, you're obviously running for re-election this term and midterms are fast approaching. For people who want to help your campaign, what can they do?

48:11Robert Garcia:Well, they should go to dangoldman4ny.com. All my social media handles are also dangoldman4ny. We're moving. We're really pushing ahead with a great group, a great campaign, a great platform. We help to be in the majority so I can hold this administration accountable and we can fix our rigged system. So any support, volunteers, financial, otherwise, is always welcome. Great.

48:40Brian Tyler Cohen:I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. Congressman, as always, thank you for the time.

48:45Robert Garcia:Thanks, Brian.

48:50Brian Tyler Cohen:I'm joined now by Democratic strategist and senior advisor to Target Smart, Tom Bonnier. Tom, thanks for joining me.

48:55Tom Bonier:Great to be here.

48:56Brian Tyler Cohen:So you had a really interesting, I think the most interesting takeaway from the Texas primary. Can you explain what that takeaway was? Yeah.

49:05Tom Bonier:Well, your your folks will remember you had a great conversation with Mark Elias about this the other day about the Texas gerrymander. It was the domino that set off all the other redistricting around the country. But Republicans went to say, we're going to grab a bunch of congressional seats by redrawing the maps mid decade. And so they created these districts that they believe to be out of reach for Democrats, where they're just going to knock off some Democratic incumbents, put some districts out of reach and basically steal a handful of seats. And what they were relying on was the fact that Donald Trump in 2024 did pretty well with Hispanic voters.

49:43Tom Bonier:So they created a couple of districts that were Trump plus 10, another one that was like Trump plus 15. And, you know, when they did it, it looked like maybe a smart move. I do have to say, I think at the time I did say this, this might be a dummy mander. You have to be careful. I'm not saying I'm a genius. You know, like the swings again, you've been talking about this for a long time. These types of swings we've been seeing elsewhere in special elections would potentially put these seats in reach. Anyhow, when you look at the primary results in Texas, how many votes were cast by Democrats? How many votes were cast by Republicans?

50:19Tom Bonier:Because keep in mind, in Texas, you can pick either ballot. There's no partisan registration. So they're going to go where the excitement is. And what happened is in all four of these districts that are new districts they created to be their safe seats and all four of them, more Democrats voted than Republicans, which was, I have to admit, even a shocker to me. I thought, look, these might be within reach in November. Maybe we could pick one or two of them off. this isn't, you know, definitively saying now Democrats are going to win them, but it's about as good of a sign as you could possibly ask for going into, you know, coming out of this primary.

50:57Brian Tyler Cohen:And you put some of that information on Twitter. I'm going to throw that on the screen. You know, in these four districts, Congressional District 9, 28, 34 and 35, I mean, the 28th Congressional District had 66 ,000 Democrats turn out against 16 ,000 Republicans turn out. In the 34th, 56 ,000 Democrats compared to 36 ,000 Republicans. So these aren't small differences that we're seeing. And so to your exact point, I mean, these might be, you know, if these trends hold, which look, anything can change in politics, certainly over the course of a few months, which is what we the amount of time that we have between now and the general election.

51:34Brian Tyler Cohen:But if these trends hold, then you're right. We may be looking at a dummy manager situation where the ultimate irony is not just that Republicans attempted and failed to redraw these maps to garner themselves a few more seats, but that that sparked off a chain reaction where Democrats reciprocated. And we're certainly not going to see Republicans overperform in the five seats, for example, that Democrats drew in California, meaning this would like this whole thing may very well be an unforced error wherein nothing really changes in terms of the Democratic seats in Texas. But now because of that, you have a bunch of Democratic seats that are newly redrawn in California to counteract something that never even materialized in Texas.

52:15Tom Bonier:That's right. I mean, the net effect of the redistricting now, again, when we went into this, I'll speak for myself, but I think a lot of Democrats were very concerned that this was the Republicans ace up their sleeve. And through these these types of anti-democratic measures, they could come in and basically hold on to the House by just gerrymandering every state. And to your point, they did this in Texas, which meant Democrats truly had no choice to be able to go into these other states. And, you know, again, in a lot of these places, voters actually voted, which is something they didn't do in Texas.

52:46Tom Bonier:Obviously, California passed by a landslide in terms of the new map there. But now, you know, the outlook is, and we see this, that it is more likely than not that the net effect of the redistricting around the country is going to be beneficial to the Democrats. Democrats might pick up a few seats net just out of the redistricting measure. So, yeah, a big mistake. I think they have to have a lot of regret. And to the point that you made about those districts and just the huge turnout disparity, some people might look at this and say, well, it's just the primary. You know, do people have a reason to vote?

53:19Tom Bonier:But the confounding factor for that argument is 80 million dollars were spent by Republicans on the top of the ticket in this Senate race to go out and energize their voters and turn them out. They spent a record amount of money. Yes, Democrats spent a lot of money, but less than half. Right.

53:35Brian Tyler Cohen:And by the way, it's not like this was an uncontested primary by Republicans. It's not like like just John Cornyn was on the ballot, in which case, you know, what's the point of turning out if you're just basically voting for the incumbent? There was a pretty bruising primary between two candidates who have who are on different ends of the ideological spectrum within the Republican Party. So if ever there was a reason to draw these Republicans out, not just ideologically, but also financially. I mean, this is a pretty damn good test case.

54:01Tom Bonier:There was absolutely every reason for them to turn out. And again, you know, we've talked about these four districts that, again, are primarily Latino districts, not exclusively, but again, significant Hispanic population across these districts. And so, you know, that's another element of this that I think beyond just these four districts has to cause great concern for Republicans that in general, Hispanic voters just came out. They chose a Democratic ballot. They chose to come out in this race. And not only did they choose to come out, they came out in record numbers, not just exceeding Republican turnout.

54:35Tom Bonier:The other number that blew my mind is that when you look at a lot of these Hispanic majority counties in the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas, you had more people voting Democratic in this primary than voted for Vice President Harris in the general election in 2024, which just doesn't happen. You don't have primary turnout exceeding general election turnout, and you'd never see it exceeding presidential turnout. But it happened in these counties, and that has to terrify Republicans.

55:04Brian Tyler Cohen:Can you talk a little bit about that Latino vote? Because I think the fatal flaw for these Republican maps is that they were drawn with this idea in mind that the realignment that we saw in 2024 was going to be permanent. And in fact, it doesn't look like that realignment is permanent. In fact, it looks like we're seeing some pretty, pretty egregious swings in the opposite direction. There were certain jurisdictions in this past November election cycle that saw upwards of 50 point swings among Latinos back to the left. So can you talk a little bit about the Latino vote in this election and what it portends for Republicans moving forward?

55:38Tom Bonier:Well, and the point you made is something I think we need to reemphasize here is that we were all subjected after the 2024 election to this notion that there was not just a swing in this election, but literally the term you used, the realignment. Patrick Ruffini wrote a book about this, about the emerging Republican multicultural working class majority. We were all told that this was suddenly people were realigning off race and ethnicity lines into class and economic lines. And obviously there was a fallacy then. But if it was a realignment, there's been a realignment in the last year and what we saw.

56:15Tom Bonier:Because to your point, Latino voters across Texas, but to be clear, this hasn't been limited to Texas. When we've looked at special elections around the country, we've seen Latino voters swinging back massively to Democrats. When you look at the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, we saw the same thing where not only were Democratic candidates going back to the margins that we saw from a decade ago, but actually in many cases exceeding them. Does that mean that Democrats can can take Latino voters for granted and just assume that their votes will be there in November? No, of course not.

56:51Tom Bonier:We're talking about swing voters. But the fact that we saw these margins, just ridiculous margins, ridiculous turnout among Latino voters, especially in South Texas, is an incredibly good sign for Democrats. Not just for James Tallarico in the Senate race, which is what he'll need to be able to make this race competitive and potentially win it, which I believe he can. but again around the country.

57:15Brian Tyler Cohen:Well, it's difficult to talk about just the Latino vote when we're speaking about realignments without also discussing the youth vote. So what are your main takeaways as far as younger voters? Because this was a blinking red light for, I mean, it is existential for the Democratic Party to feel like we are going to lose the youth vote in a way that the 2024 election showed. And so are you seeing those same trends? Are they swinging back? Is there something in the middle? What can we look for moving forward in terms of the political affiliation of young people?

57:49Tom Bonier:You know, a lot of encouraging data so far. We think back to 2018 and the great blue wave election that was really fueled by massive record setting youth turnout. There was no group that surged more in turnout between the catastrophic 2014 midterms and the blue wave in 2018. And then to your point, what we saw was some receding in that in terms of turnout, especially in 2024. We saw younger voters of color, as we've been discussing, actually crossing over and voting for Donald Trump, younger men especially. And so, you know, again, we talk about Virginia, New Jersey. We saw incredibly encouraging the youth turnout surges in those states, which I don't think people have talked about enough, were just massive and drove those massive landslide margins in those gubernatorial elections.

58:35Tom Bonier:And here in Texas, again, we only have the individual vote history for the early vote, but that's over a million votes cast. It's almost 60 % of all votes were cast before election day. So it's a pretty good data set. And when you look at the individual data there, youth turnout, again, surged by more than any other group. In the 2022 Democratic primary, so the past, the last midterm primary election in Texas, voters under the age of 30 were only 6 % of votes cast in the early vote. In the early vote this year, they were 10%. It's a huge increase. And also just a more diverse group. And again, when you look at the actual performance there, when you look at these college campuses, you look at the turnout that they got at UT, record-setting numbers.

59:20Tom Bonier:So, again, incredibly encouraging. I think Democrats have to look at that and say, this is great. We see that there's a path there, but also there's work to be done between now and Election Day.

59:31Brian Tyler Cohen:And by the way, that's why Trump and Republicans are so hellbent on trying to pass the SAVE Act, because, for example, student IDs wouldn't be a valid form of ID, whereas, you know, these these more Republican favorable forms of identification are. So that's like one instance of, you know, why they're so worried. But this really is a huge misstep, I think, by Republicans because they had a chance, like this once in a generation chance to redefine themselves with young people in a way that hadn't been done before. Like I'm a millennial. I remember being on a college campus. And this was a college that was probably a little bit more conservative than most.

1:00:09Brian Tyler Cohen:And you could not find somebody who was not like an Obama voter. You had much wealthier kids on this college campus. You had you had kids that weren't so wealthy, but like there was no race based divide. There was no wealth based divide. And it was just it would be kind of kind of social suicide to not have been an Obama voter back when I was in school, like in 2007 to 2011. and now they had this opportunity where Republicans really had one culture in a way that I didn't think I would see, certainly in my lifetime, but to squander that so quickly by basically just engaging in Bush-era redux, like foreign incursions in the Middle East, lying about the Epstein files, saying that you're going to lower prices and then raising prices.

1:00:56Brian Tyler Cohen:I mean, just taking all of this goodwill and basically in one year, just blowing all of that up and missing out on a generational opportunity to win over a generation, a younger generation in a way that we haven't seen Republicans capable of doing.

1:01:11Tom Bonier:Yeah, that's exactly right. When I was looking at the data leading up to the 2024 election, this is something I flagged on Twitter at the time, was this really disconcerting trend where, especially among young men in the partisan registration, we were actually seeing these huge gaps emerge where young men under the age of 23, they were actually more of them registering Republican than Democrat, which is not something we have seen in generations. And so to your point, Republicans had made incredible headway. And then they basically took all of the rationale that was given to these younger voters, especially younger men to vote with them, and then have thrown it out the window in the past year.

1:01:52Tom Bonier:And to your point about winning the culture. They are now, you know, very much conceding the culture in different areas, much to their detriment. And so you're seeing a reversal in the voter registration data. But I think more importantly, you're seeing it in these elections, like the 2025 general elections, you know, the age gaps in New York. And I know New York City is New York City. It's its own thing. But to see record setting age gaps for Mamdani and in his victory, but also seeing that for the gubernatorial candidates, the Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, now to see that repeated in Texas, it's enough of a sample size coming together where, again, I think Republicans have to be looking at this and growing very concerned about the mistakes they've clearly made and what path that leaves them to potentially holding on to Congress in November.

1:02:43Tom Bonier:It's a much more narrow path at this point, which is why I think they are choosing this voter suppression path, like you say, with the safe fact and so on and so forth.

1:02:53Brian Tyler Cohen:Well, look, I think that there's a lot of good news here for Democrats to take, but I don't want to be Pollyanna about this, especially considering the fact that right now, you know, we don't have the House, we don't have the Senate, we don't have the White House, we don't have the Supreme Court, and we don't have the majority of state legislatures. And so I think that we have to also have some humility here. And so which lends itself to my next question is, what are you most worried about as as far as Democrats are concerned in the lead up to this election, while there's still some time to maybe rectify some of those issues?

1:03:27Yeah.

1:03:27Tom Bonier:I mean, what am I not worried about? I think anyone who's lived through the last eight years or so has to be concerned about sort of everything. But I think you've hit on a lot of the high notes here, just in terms of the potential voter suppression efforts, Republicans will stop at nothing, whether it's the SAFE Act, whether it's this idea of putting Trump's ICE soldiers at polling places to try to suppress the vote, they will stop at nothing. And also, just again, my concern would be Democrats, especially folks who are investing in this and funding these campaigns, to look at it and just say, well, it's so great.

1:04:04Tom Bonier:Things have gone so well in these special elections and these primary elections that we don't need to invest in this further. And it couldn't be a bigger mistake. We need to be communicating more effectively, more directly with these communities that have underperformed with us in the past. So younger voters, younger voters of color, especially voters of color generally. We don't have the luxury, frankly, of taking any demographic group off the table and say, well, they're good. We don't have to talk with them. And so we need that investment. We need to be doing that work. We need to get louder, frankly, because what we're doing is working.

1:04:40Tom Bonier:Right. That's the good news is what we're doing is working. What they're doing is incredibly unpopular. But if we take our foot off the gas pedal for a second, we'll pay for it. Yeah.

1:04:50Brian Tyler Cohen:And I think, too, the way I'm thinking about this is like we've been lucky enough to have, you know, the Mamdani's of the world and Mikey Sherrill's and Abigail Spanberger's win their elections. But like, you know, these if we've learned anything from 2024, it's that to your point, I mean, these coalitions are not guaranteed and these voters are not are not inelastic. and so I look at this stuff as the audition. I mean, like we have the opportunity to prove to people who live in New York, who live in Virginia, who live in New Jersey, who live in these different jurisdictions where we have new democratic leadership to prove to those people that they should get reelected and that the Democratic Party can work for them.

1:05:34Brian Tyler Cohen:But I mean, you know, you said it, like we're not in a position where we can say, oh, now that we've been elected, like it's all just smooth sailing from here. A lot of these people are running on affordability. That means you actually have to prove it because, you know, they voted for Trump, who ran on affordability, and things are getting more expensive, and there's a backlash against him. So I think that this is very much a situation where, you know, this just blind partisan allegiance of the past is gone, and that a lot more people who come into the political process are not, you know, just team blue or team red, and they're perfectly content to go one way or the other if it means that the previous party who was representing them failed to own up to their campaign promises.

1:06:16Brian Tyler Cohen:And so, you know, I look at the people who've won, again, as this isn't the end of the line, it's the beginning. This is their audition. This is the opportunity to prove that democratic governance can work. And if it doesn't, we can very easily lose these people again.

1:06:30Tom Bonier:Well, and to your point about the blind partisan allegiance being gone, I think that's one that we can't hammer home strongly enough, that when you look at the exit polls from New Jersey, Virginia, and New York, when you look at the data we have from the national polls, what we know is that the Democratic Party's brand has never been worse. Now, the Republican Party's brand is awful, too. But the good news is when you look at our successes in those races, we succeeded despite that. Right. And it wasn't because our candidates, by the way, were running from the Democratic Party. They weren't. But they were actually putting forth an agenda, a message that resonated.

1:07:11Tom Bonier:And so, you know, eventually if we have enough candidates doing that success, that becomes the new brand.

1:07:16Brian Tyler Cohen:Right, exactly. And I've said that before. I know that so many people are worried about the brand problem, but the brand is reflective of the Democrats who are in office. And if we start to get enough Democrats in office who are popular because they are meeting people where they're at and they're more relatable to people and they're younger and more tech savvy, more progressive, whatever it is they're looking for, then we no longer have to contend with some nebulous brand problem because, again, the Democratic brand will be reflective of those more popular politicians. So, you know, I think that was really well put.

1:07:44Brian Tyler Cohen:Tom, as always, I appreciate the work that you're doing. Where can people who are listening right now and watching right now see and hear more from you?

1:07:51Tom Bonier:I'm on all the various platforms, T-B-O-N-I-E-R. You can find me in any of those dark corners.

1:08:00Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, the toxic cesspool that is the internet these days. Well, highly recommend for anybody who's watching and listening. If you're not yet subscribed to Tom's channels, please go ahead and subscribe. Tom, as always, I appreciate the time.

1:08:11Tom Bonier:Thank you.

1:08:12Brian Tyler Cohen:Thanks again to Bernie Sanders, Robert Garcia, Dan Goldman, and Tom Bonnier. That's it for this episode. Talk to you on Wednesday.

1:08:21Brian Tyler Cohen:You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesley, and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera. If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five-star rating and a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels, or you can go to briantylercohen.com to learn more.