Trump Sabotages Trump Agenda

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23:18Jon Favreau:Pod Save America is brought to you by Z-Biotic. Saturday night with my wife and friends, Sunday morning with my kids, those are both non-negotiables. You always say that. I simply must be at my best for the children. The problem is the second one used to feel a lot harder after the first one. Not with Z-Biotics pre-alcohol. It's a small thing I added that makes the whole weekend work. It's like, I got to make sure that I'm fully aware to take care of these kids because I got to find their parents. Z-Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking.

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24:21Jon Favreau:Try it one time when you have like two or three drinks one night. I guarantee you it will make you feel so much better the next day. Go to ZBiotics.com slash Crooked to learn more and get 15 % off your first order. When you use Crooked at checkout, ZBiotics is backed with 100 % money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to ZBiotics.com slash Crooked and use the code Crooked at checkout for 15 % off. Well, before we get too excited about what that midterm might look like, let's talk about what's going on on the democratic side.

24:51Oh, fun. Speaking of intraparty turmoil, we got some fresh drama brewing thanks to the good people of New York City who had quite a primary on Tuesday. A slate of three candidates endorsed by Zoran Mamdani won their democratic primaries in deep blue house districts. In the seventh district, democratic socialist Claire Valdez won the open seat over a pretty progressive opponent endorsed by the retiring democratic member of Congress. In the 10th district, progressive city comptroller Brad Lander defeated incumbent Dan Goldman in a race that was largely about Israel. Both men are Jewish. Lander ran as a self-proclaimed liberal Zionist, but hit Goldman on voting against legislation to block military aid to Israel and taking money from pro-Israel lobbying groups.

25:39And then the biggest upset of the night in another race that was largely about Israel, four term representative Adriano Espiot, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the first undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress, lost his Harlem Bronx district in an upset to a leftist community organizer named Dario Liza Avila Chevalier, a Democratic socialist who also believes in abolishing prisons, police and all deportations. Now, there were plenty of other primaries in New York and elsewhere on Tuesday where mainstream and moderate Democrats not only won, but in some cases fended off more progressive challengers.

26:18But to give everyone a flavor of how the DSA victories are landing in the world of politics, here are reactions from James Carville, Zoran Mamdani and Hakeem Jeffries.

26:29Jon Favreau:Everybody's always said, no, no, we're a coalition. We're a big tent. And there's some there's just some shit that I can't be in the same camp with. Let's negotiate the terms of a schism here. Maybe we can part under some kind of advantageous terms for both of us. But I'm done. I'm not in that fucking political party. What is the Democratic Party, if not its voters? And what we saw yesterday evening were Democrats across the city turning out and voting for a new kind of politics. You can't think this is a positive development in New York politics, can you? and all they'll just, you know, Dems will be Dems or something like that.

27:09Jon Favreau:I don't see how you can say that. You need to reject those things, I think. First of all, I've clearly rejected those things. That's number one. Number two, and my record speaks for itself, this is not a Dems will be Dems situation. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America right now. Are you kidding me? I'm happy to talk about primary elections in one of the bluest cities in the country. at the end of the day listen our focus is going to be on ending this national nightmare in this country that America is suffering okay your reaction to the results um and then we can do the reaction to the freak out um and I know you wrote a wonderful message box about this today so thank you tell us about it sure so let's just start with the elections themselves no one should dismiss this.

28:02Jon Favreau:Like two incumbents losing election on the same night is a big deal. Since 1946, so from 1946 to 2024, more than 98 % of incumbents have won renomination. Wow. In the House? In the House. So it is very rare for members of Congress to lose their primaries, two losing on one night, one of them being the chair of the CHC, and then specifically losing to a political novice with a, I would say, a colorful history of online posts. They just seem to be in vogue this cycle for Democrats. That's a big deal. We shouldn't dismiss it. It is a – I would say the Lander-Goldman race is a little different in the sense that Lander is a citywide elected official who ran for mayor, his high name ID, and the endorsement in full support of the very popular mayor, Democratic Socials mayor of the city.

28:58Jon Favreau:And in each of these races are a little different in what drove it. But I think the thing we should take away is like so much else that's happening in this country, like is it happening when when progressives beat establishment candidates in the second district of Maine in the California race where Randy Villegas won, Graham Plattner forcing forcing Janet Mills out of the race. like there's a giant warning sign for the democratic establishment here, where the support of people like Schumer or even Hakeem Jeffries is certainly not an asset in your campaign. It may be a detriment. It is very clear that the groups on the left, Justice Democrats, Democratic Socialists of America, our revolution are out organizing, out fundraising, out working, outmaneuvering the traditional party institutions.

29:48Right.

29:49Jon Favreau:That is happening. They have captured the energy. They are being more creative. They're being more strategic. They're being more aggressive. And if you are someone in the democratic establishment, you should be deeply concerned about what this says about where the party is, what the standing of the party is, what the ability of the party infrastructure is to actually win elections. So this is a big deal. Now, to Akeem Jeffries point, this is taking place in a city that Kamala Harris won by 38 points in what was a bad year for Democrats, right, particularly in a city like New York. And so this is a very, very, very democratic city.

30:23Jon Favreau:And all across the country, you're seeing, yes, you're seeing progressive candidates win and you're seeing progressive candidates lead like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, according to the most recent polls. But you're also seeing moderate candidates in Alaska, North Carolina. I don't know if it's fair to call Sherrod Brown a moderate, but he's certainly not a democratic socialist. He's an economic populist. And you saw in New York, you know, just on that very same day in like New York 17, one of the most important districts in the country for Democrats take the House. You have a more moderate veteran candidate win.

30:56Jon Favreau:That's the Mike Lawler district. That's the Mike Lawler. That's Kate Connolly who won that primary. And so you're seeing it's like there is a mixed picture, but there is in all the races. But there is true. It is very true that there is an antipathy toward the establishment. We can talk about why that is. There is more energy on the left and there is sort of greater tactical, strategic and organizational energy and success among the groups on the left. I think that's all right. I also think it's useful to sort of define what the freak out is about because it's even more, it's even narrower, I think, than just like, you know, there's some progressives winning in places and DSA places and moderate.

31:40Even just the three races we're talking about here from Tuesday night, we're talking about three races and three house races. And in one of those races, Claire Valdez seems like a normal DSA candidate in the vein of an AOC or a member of the squad. We talk about Brad Lander. Lander is basically like a standard progressive Democrat.

32:04Jon Favreau:Yeah, standard New York City progressive Democrat. Yeah, but it also has said like, you know, after he won was like, I want to go help frontline members who are out there and I hope some of the moderates come help me and I've helped moderates before. And so like that's that's Brad Lander. Really here, the panic is over. Daryliza Avila Chevalier. And I will just say she might be the most left wing candidate to ever win a Democratic primary in our lifetime. There's been a lot of focus on her old tweets, which she has deleted and mostly apologized for. I'm fine with that. My general position is to give people a chance who want to take back something they said or posted.

32:45Certainly would love to take back things that I've posted. And I also think that like some of her tweets have been taken out of context and exaggerated. Here's where I have a problem. She has not apologized for attending an anti-Israel rally on October 8th, 2023, a rally that was condemned by Zoran Mamdani, AOC, and Brad Lander, who we were just talking about, who actually left the DSA because it promoted that rally, where attendees chanted that Hamas's resistance was justified the day after October 7th. the day after they slaughtered a thousand Israelis. And to this day, she still defends attending that rally.

33:29The other problem I have, she sat for an interview with the New York editorial board last week, last week, where she said she's against all deportations. She's for open borders because, quote, bordering is a very modern construct, actually. The borders are in our hearts and our minds. She wants to abolish prisons and refused to say when asked. She got four different chances on this. Refused to say that a convicted murderer should be sentenced to any jail time at all. And they kept giving her another chance. Like, are you sure? But what happens to the murderer that just convicted? Nothing. Now, maybe she turns over a new leaf in Congress and like her voting record doesn't match some of these more extreme positions.

34:20I hope so. But I think the reason I bring this up is because when Democrats get questions about this, I think the answer is easy and important to give, which is that she currently holds a range of views that go from moronic to abhorrent. And not only those views not align with most Democrats in the country, nearly all Democrats in the country, all elected Democrats, actually most elected Democratic socialists. But like, I don't even think they align with like a lot of the people who probably voted for her. And so, like, I think people should just you just got to say that. And I don't think you lump her.

34:59I think it does a disservice to the other progressives and the other even DSA members to pretend that she is part of this, like, there's new energy and it's great and whatever. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's one thing to have these views in the past and be like, you know what? I've learned. I've grown what she said about Summer for tweets. But to sit there a week ago and be like, yeah, no prisons, no borders, no police. Here's the thing. Also, who cares? Well, but I already see people doing the like, you know, like, well, we got to understand the energy. No, no, we got to understand the energy with a lot of these candidates.

35:34She is, that was a mistake. And like Momdani endorsing her, also probably a mistake.

35:39Jon Favreau:Yeah, I mean, you'll notice that when Bernie Sanders did his congratulatory tweet afterwards, he congratulated Brad Lander and Clara Valdez. Oh, he did? Because Bernie's fucking smart. That's why. I mean, those are the two. I, those are the two he specifically endorsed, but he did two, not three. but also she's one member of Congress. Right. This is who the voters picked. So in two years, someone's got the opportunity to challenge her. Maybe she comes to Congress and she's a productive member. Maybe she's not. It doesn't, but it's, it's just like, I think when we get to the panic. I'm not saying it's the end of the world.

36:10I'm saying that, I actually think it's very easy here. Oh yeah. What I'm saying, what don't do is like, she is a, she is about to be the biggest celebrity on the right of all time. She's going to, she's already like starring on Fox in every fucking segment and it's going to be like that forever. And you know what? Most people, when they hear her, there's tape of her saying all these things last week. When they hear that, they're going to be like, this is fucking nuts. And then if they go to Democrats and be like, what do you think? And Democrats are like, ah, it's not a big deal. Everyone's freaking out over nothing.

36:40Then you would not blame the voter for being like, well, that's weird. Why wouldn't you just say it's crazy?

36:46Jon Favreau:The Republicans will try to make her a celebrity, a face of the party. I think they're going to really struggle to pick an unelected member of Congress as the face of the party when they have struggled to make AOC or Nancy Pelosi or someone else's face at the party. But let's say it comes up. Like, he can come up in a debate, come interview. If you're a member running in any district, frankly, but it's strictly a frontline member in a purple district or a red district, there's no greater gift than the opportunity to distance yourself from someone in a party. So that's an easy gift. That's why I said that.

37:13Jon Favreau:Yeah, so I think, yes, like, for sure. I think that the freak out, there's a couple, let's try to like break, The freakout is not just about her. The freakout is about a few things that are sort of political and institutional. One of them is there's always this fear that Democrats are going to nominate candidates too liberal to win the general election. That is not a fear here. No. Right? These are some of the most Democratic districts in the country. These people are all going to Congress. Yeah. They're all going to Congress. So that's – and that – we are not seeing a situation where currently we'll see what – people are going to have an argument about Maine, about Maine Senate.

37:52Jon Favreau:But we have not – as of yet, for the most part, we have not been – the Democratic voters, not the institutions, not the groups, anyone, not the party apparatus. The voters are not picking candidates who may be too liberal to win. The two possible exceptions there are Randy Villegas, which is the DCCC picked a different candidate in that race. And then Matt Dunlop instead of Baldacci, the son of the former governor in Maine 2nd District. We probably were running the Maine 2nd District under any scenario. You need a very, very good year for that. That's really like only – Unless Jared Golden had not retired.

38:24Jon Favreau:Right. Jared Golden is like Joe Manchin, right? The only person who could win that was probably Jared Golden. And the other fear is that this is evidence of like an upper, a Tea Party like moment for the party. And there are it's I think it's a bad comparison because the Tea Party was a very specific thing in time. It was about a very specific thing in time. It was largely it was a sort of astroturfed corporate funded reaction to the election of a black president. But what you are saying is the party base saying they are done with the establishment. They are done with the leadership. They have great skepticism.

39:02Jon Favreau:I think there's three reasons why that skepticism exists. One of it is – and it's different in every race. And it's even different in some of those races in New York. One is anger that the party has failed to stand up to Trump. Yep. The second is that the party is too captured by corporate interests, too, you know, unable, unwilling, too cowardly to take on the interests and to advocate for working people, right? That they're not addressing people's economic pain. And then the third reason is Israel and Gaza. And that was obviously particularly prominent in the land or Goldman race, where that was a primary point of distinction between the two of them.

39:46Jon Favreau:And the Chevalier race with Espionage. And the Chevalier race, yes. Yeah. And you see that in each of the knob, the dial turns to different levels in each different race around the country around those three things. The other question is, is the party moving dramatically to the left? Right. And I think that one is interesting because it is an incontrovertible fact that the party is more liberal than it was 10 years ago. Like when Obama ran for reelection in the Gallup polling, 42 percent of Democrats considered themselves liberal or very liberal and 36 percent considered themselves moderate. Today, north of 54 percent consider themselves liberal or very liberal and 34 percent consider themselves moderate.

40:32Jon Favreau:Now, I could do a full podcast on how that number happens because the moderate number stays the same and the liberal number goes up. Right. And it's certainly not from conservatives becoming liberals. It's because the conservatives left the party and they're replaced by white college educated liberals who were former Republican voters. But like that is true. But in white college educated voters and just high educated, highly educated voters in general have just become more specifically become more liberal in their own. Yes. And it has led to as the party has become less working class in its orient in its identity and frankly, its orientation, cultural issues, social issues, climate change, democracy.

41:13Jon Favreau:immigration, crime, LGBTQ rights have risen in priority for the party, and that has made people identify as more liberal. But it is worth just remembering that the core part of any successful democratic coalition is Black voters, and Black voters remain more moderate than the party. You see this in this really fascinating Pew political typology study that came out last month. It's very clear that black and latino voters and asian voters are much more moderate or more moderate i was a much more moderate more moderate than the sort of this activist more liberal democratic base particularly particularly crime and immigration crime and immigration yeah the two and then the other question is are democrats becoming socialists and this is also really interesting because you know in there is this gallup poll that everyone fixates on we showed that 66 percent of registered democrats have a positive view of socialism and then in the new New York Times poll that we've talked ad nauseum about, 49 % of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, it's one sample, have a favorable view of socialism.

42:19Jon Favreau:And interestingly enough, a plurality of every OH cohort, including Democrats over 65, have a favorable view of socialism. Now, here's a pop quiz for you. I asked Caroline this on Polar Coaster, but can you guess which group has the highest favorability of socialism let's see uh young men well which age cohort uh yeah it is it is actually men 30 to 44 okay but 30 but 30 44 that's us right it's you that's you that's not thank you for pointing that out thank you for pointing that out no it's not it's not me anymore if i come 40 yeah that's true it was you you just moved in but it's actually it's millennial it's millennials more than younger it's by about nine points actually um it's interesting which I think is coming of age in the Great Recession.

43:04Yeah. Well, and it speaks to sort of the question that you're raising by these maybe surprising results to some people, which is I do think it is more of a commentary on capitalism and the failures of capitalism, at least how people have felt that in their own lives, than a love of socialism. Or I think if you asked then, and I haven't seen a poll that's done this, like what do you think of when you think of socialism? they think of like Bernie Sanders and universal healthcare, not abolishing prisons.

43:36Jon Favreau:Yeah. Which is not necessarily a, a lot of socialist countries had a lot of prisons actually. Yes. Famously. So famous. Yes. So someone had, someone had gulags, you would say, and you know what? And you know what? Every country has borders. That's true. Every single one, both, both in their, in their mind and in reality. So I was gonna say the socials and then you, hit on the key point here, which is it's I think it's more of an indictment of capitalism than socialism. And so I guess the question is, if you're a Democrat, like, how do you react to all of this? And like the advice that I give, I've been giving candidates other people is one.

44:15Jon Favreau:You have to. You have to find a way to separate yourselves from the establishment that everyone hates, like you can't be a typical Democrat and you have to understand what makes people so mad about it and show that you have a solution to it or different from it. The second thing is you don't have to embrace socialism, but you sure as hell better understand what is causing people to embrace socialism and speak to that economic pain. And you got to find a way to have some sort of energy and excitement and authenticity in your belief. What is, I think, powering some of these, not social necessarily, but some socialists, some DSA, some more progressive candidates is they are speaking with authenticity and conviction about issues, whether it's Abdul talking about Medicare for all in Michigan, whether it's Plattner talking about how the elite system has failed him and failed so many manners.

45:13Jon Favreau:It's how Zoran has talked about cost of living. It's like there's this authenticity and conviction to it that most of the people that you don't get from a lot of moderates, not all moderates, or some of us really do it, but it doesn't show up in the same way. I think there's another, there's two more reasons that I think there's so much anger at the democratic establishment right now. One is, we have said for a long time now, since Iraq, that people, they don't want to spend money on endless foreign wars. They don't want to lose American lives in forever wars. They also don't want to spend a lot of money because they feel like we spent, and they're right, like billions and billions and trillions of dollars on Iraq and other foreign adventures that have not worked out.

45:58I think that is how most people who are upset with how Biden handled Gaza feel, right? It is not Israel has no right to exist. It is why is our money being spent or being sent to Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli government who have just slaughtered thousands and thousands and thousands of people in Gaza and are now doing the same in Lebanon. And that feeling cuts across party, ideology. It is not fucking horseshoe. It is not like the far left and the far right. Go sit in a focus group. Go talk to most voters. It's a very common feeling. And the fact that people look at the democratic establishment and don't feel like that they are on or they feel the same way or they're acting the same way is a huge fucking problem you also said people are mad that uh the democratic establishment hasn't stood up to trump enough i also think dave weigel made this point today uh reported some before that they're still mad that uh the democratic establishment fucking lost to trump again like that is i know we're all like we don't want to go back and look back at 24 and all that kind of stuff.

47:10Like we lost to Donald Trump for the second time after the guy was convicted of crimes and, uh, sent an insurrectionist mob to the Capitol. Like, so that's the original

47:20Jon Favreau:sentence. Yeah. The people who were in charge there, people aren't going to feel too, uh, feel too warm and fuzzy towards them. Like that is just, that is, that to me is looming over everything. Like, yes, there's the corporate stuff and economic, like all that is real money in politics, establishment, too cozy. All of it's real for sure. But like, if we had just beaten Donald Trump, then a lot of voters would not think that. Yeah. And so that's going to be a big one too.

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50:46So here's something fun. The primary season isn't over yet. And the left is targeting a few other big races in places that aren't as blue as New York City. We talked about some of these. But in Colorado, Democratic Socialist Milat Kuros is running against Congressman Diana DeGette, though that's also a safe seat, even though it's in Colorado. In Wisconsin, DSA state rep Francesca Hong is running for governor in a crowded field that includes Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez and Mandela Barnes. And in Michigan, our pal Abdul El-Sayed is in a tight Senate primary with Mallory McMorrow and Representative Haley Stevens.

51:22So it does feel like there's a little more at stake in the Wisconsin and Michigan primaries. What is your read on those?

51:28Jon Favreau:You know, it's very hard to play the prospective electability game, right? The argument here is, among some, and I'm not making this argument, that Hong and Abdul are less electable than other candidates on the ballot. And in Wisconsin, there's already a movement. one of the center left candidates has dropped out and endorsed Rodriguez. And as there's a movement to try to consolidate the field around Rodriguez, I honestly don't know enough about that race to know for sure that one candidate is more electable than the other. Um, it, I know that's a very hard race, right? It's, that's a, it's a very tough state winning a third term in a row is always challenging for governors.

52:14Jon Favreau:So, you know, that's going to be a tough race. Michigan, the polling is, you know, Abdul is leading in the polls. Haley Stevens is in second. The candidate that I have supported, Manny McMorrow, is in third. There have been hypothetical tests against Mike Rogers, who's a very, very good candidate. He lost by just, I think, about 24 ,000 votes to Alyssa Slotkin in 24. You know, the polling shows that we've seen shows maybe McMorrow and Stevens a couple points, doing better against Rodgers than Abdul. I don't know what to make of that, whether that is real or not. It's not a dramatic difference in that.

52:51Jon Favreau:So it's hard to say. Abdul is obviously a very, very talented candidate, a very talented communicator. Would he be able to navigate the tax that will certainly come to him as a Bernie-endorsed candidate, a Muslim candidate, who will be attacked for his views on everything in his background? he certainly is talented enough to be able to navigate that but i am not i can't look at those races and say if we nominate the you know hong or abdul we're certainly going to lose like it's it's not that it's not that clear to me and it's certainly no one has presented evidence to that fact yeah it's tough i mean look i i'm and i'm supporting abdul um his friend had a pot on crooked um but you know i'll be honest like that that is the race where and again because it's it's less about like, I mean, it is about who these candidates are, but it's also very much about the environment in the state.

53:44And, you know, even like Plattner is running in a state that is much, much more democratic than Michigan. And I do think that if a Bernie endorsed sort of more lefty candidate can pull it off in Michigan, I do think Abdul can do it. But I think it's gonna be tough. and like he's going to face all kinds of attacks, not just for his ideological position, but many unfair attacks, like you said, because he's Muslim. So I think that's going to be, that's going to be challenged, I think. And then I think with Francesca Wong, same thing. And I don't know her as well, but I saw it like she'd had, you know, she'd had some past support for or advocated at one point, like defund the police.

54:26And then last week, you know, she had a video that said, there's no way I'm going to cut public safety. And that to me is like, OK, this is the kind like, yes, this is what you need to do to win these states. And like if you are a further left candidate in a state like Wisconsin, in a state like Michigan, I'm not saying like just, you know, change all of your fucking positions. You shouldn't do that. But you do have to run like you're running a general election in a purple state, which you are and know where the voters are and know, you know, I'm sure for Wong and for I know for Abdul, like the most important issues, Medicare for all, health care, sort of economic populism.

55:07and I would imagine that they're going to emphasize those above all else and then have something to say on some of the attacks that are going to come their way on crime and immigration and cultural issues. But I don't think that's going to be easy. But I do think like I saw that, I saw what Wong had done about there's no way I'm going to cut public safety and contrasted that with some of the stuff that we just talked about in New York City. And I'm like, see, that's the difference right there. And Mamdani, right? Mamdani campaigned, has all kinds of past positions And he has increased the police budget since he's been mayor.

55:39And guess what? And he's done all of his other stuff that he talked about, right? The rent freeze, I believe, is going into effect today. He's trying to do all the other stuff. And he's wildly popular.

55:47Jon Favreau:Yeah, it is like there when we talked about some, you know, the Tea Party comparison here is that in both the 2010 and 2012 Senate races, the Republicans nominated a bunch of candidates And it's in states they should have won, like Indiana, Missouri, Delaware in 2010, where Mike Castle would have walked into the Senate. And instead, they nominated Christine O'Donnell, who did not walk into the Senate. Nor did she fly in on her broomstick. Nor did she fly in on her broomstick. Deep cut. There's a 15-year-old reference to a Senate race. 15? Yeah. Okay, 15. 2010, yeah. 16. 16 years. But one of the mistakes those candidates made is they also ran terrible races because they refused to acknowledge the reality of the states in which they were running.

56:36Yes. And you can be a liberal candidate.

56:40Jon Favreau:You can be more liberal than the electorate and still win if you are running a smart strategic race that does acknowledge the realities of what it takes to win in a state like Wisconsin or Michigan. And it depends on which issues you're more liberal than the electorate on. Yeah. That's a big way. We use like liberal, conservative, left, right as just like these catch-all terms, but it really depends on what you're talking about. That's right. That's right. And it's not just issues. It's obviously things you've said, things you've done, who you are, your cultural connection to people. But yes, you can, like if you were a serious candidate, can win in the right environment, running the right campaign.

57:19Yeah. All right. So Tommy talked to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan this week about their new Trump book, Regime Change. Go listen to that interview you if you haven't already. It's great. But one of the more incredible anecdotes in the book is a dinner at the White House in October of last year where Trump asks Rupert Murdoch, in front of Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, who are sitting at the table, which one he liked best and to rate both of them. And Murdoch reportedly said of Rubio, Marco is brilliant. And said of Vance, I think J.D. has the potential to be great. Vance apparently tried to laugh it off with a sarcastic line.

58:01Oh, thanks. Thanks, Rupert. Thanks a lot. Of course, we here at Pod Save America think Murdoch and Trump and others are just being grossly unfair to our boy, J.D., who has continued to just ooze charisma during the press tour for his new book. Just as one example, check out this exchange with conservative columnist Ross Douthat at The New York Times. Let's be honest. The tone of the administration is not consistently a Christian tone.

58:33Jon Favreau:There is a tone of aggressive uncharity to people who aren't on board with the administration's policies. The tone argument is in some ways, I think, people see what they want to see. And I also think that tonal arguments are ways of, frankly, policing working class ways of communication and covering them in elite preferences. okay i think the tonal arguments are ways of policing working class ways of communication and covering them in elite preferences few things first of all you sound like the right-wing version of a woke scold from academia who can't get off blue sky that's what that sounded like Two, I'm not sure how the Manhattan billionaire president calling Americans he doesn't like human scum is a working class way of communication.

59:31And I do think it's a bit insulting to working class Americans that J.D. Vance assumes that they all speak about their fellow Americans that way. I'm also not sure when loving thy neighbor and Christian charity became an elite preference. That is an elite preference now. Wild. just from top to bottom wild is that just me I don't know I couldn't I couldn't believe that when I when I saw that

59:57Jon Favreau:I would say you did say to say to us in our production meeting today that you could do a whole podcast on this topic I think it was like the last time I tweeted actually I mean I've been like retweeting things here and there but the last time I really tweeted was a week ago and because I've been trying not to tweet that much but I saw that and I just first of all I couldn't stop laughing and then I listened to the whole interview because with Ross, which was fun, which was a real journey. I think people should know that you had a day to yourself in Chicago. I did. A beautiful summer day in Chicago, but you were by yourself.

1:00:32Jon Favreau:You could have done anything in the world and what did you do? And I did and it was a beautiful day and I walked down by the lake and I walked all the way to Lincoln Park where we used to live and I had a great day. But while I was walking, I was listening. You thought to myself. I was listening to interesting times. with Ross Douthat and J.D. Vance. And J.D. Vance. Good for you. Look, I very much agree with you here. It is like using the term tone policing is just perfect. But like the bigger point with this is, and it says something about J.D. Vance, which is J.D. Vance came from a working class background.

1:01:08Jon Favreau:Like his story is very famous. But what he, and it is a, you know, as told in his book and the Netflix movie of which he was a producer, made of his life story, tells you is that he picked himself up by his bootstraps, went to an Ivy League college, went to the military, became quite successful, became a venture capitalist, CNN commentator, all the things that, all the checklists on the MAGA resume that you need, Hollywood producer, venture capitalist, and Hollywood producer, or CNN commentator, all the above, and became an elite. Like, that's his story. The story is someone who was raised in this incredible, difficult scenario involving drug addiction and poverty and rises to the most elite pinnacles of American society becomes the vice president of the United States.

1:01:57Jon Favreau:But what he has taken from that is that he's become elite and he looks down his nose at everyone else. Because this is the – he tries to, in the Trump era, not the pre-Trump era, but the – in his post, Trump's not really – no longer Hitler. I shall work for him and serve him era. He tries to put on the clothes of an anti-elitist. But he is not – he is a pure elitist. And there is nothing more elitist than saying that basically telling someone not to be a dick to their fellow citizens is anti-working class. look when trump goes out there and you know and and rob reiner dies and he celebrates with it with the truth social post or uh celebrates that bob muller dies with the true social post that's just what working class people do you know when they're doing at the diner at the bar that's just how they talk and and the reason he knows that is because he serves a working class president donald trump donald j trump cares about the working people is of the working people.

1:03:03And that's just, that's how he talks.

1:03:04Jon Favreau:That's how working class people talk. When the working class president fires off an offensive truth from the gold toilet upon which he's sitting, that is working class talk. Yeah, when he says, look, we just can't afford child care. We can't afford to give people child care, but also check out my ballroom and look at the gold, look at the gold everywhere. That's again, if I had a nickel for every time a working class person said that, I wouldn't be working class. I'd be as... Oh, J.D. Vance. Amazing. Ross Douthat, he looked like he wanted to laugh too. Which is the first time that's ever happened in Ross Douthat's life.

1:03:46Jon Favreau:A truly humorless man. I felt bad for Ross because he had to... The problem with that interview was he had to cram too many topics in because J.D. Vance only gave him a certain amount of time. And so there were so many crazy things that J.D. Vance said that you could tell that Douthat wanted to follow up on. and he just had to, he moved on to the next thing. And I was like, you should have, I would have just, I would have asked him about that sentence maybe. You would have done a whole podcast. JD Vance, come on offline, do a whole podcast about this. All the other stuff, I would have just given up and I would have been like, let's talk about the tonal arguments and the tone policing.

1:04:15We don't want to be tone policing. Anyway, one more of these from JD Vance. There was another very human, very authentic Vance moment this week that also got a lot of attention. Apparently Usha Vance hosts a YouTube series called Storytime with the Second Lady, where she and a guest read to kids, Very nice. And this week's special guest was J.D., who is allegedly her husband. Let's see how it went. Today's special reader is my husband, Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance. Thanks for joining us today, honey. Of course. Good to see you.

1:04:49Now, if you're just listening to this, pause it. Go to the YouTube app on your phone. Go to Pod Save America YouTube or your laptop. Get to the nearest YouTube app you can get to and watch this. Because what he does there is he says, good to see you. And then reaches awkwardly across and gives her two fatherly pats on the knee. Very light pats on the knee. Just light pats. pulls the hand back, and then they just sit and stare at each other. Is that how you and Howley greet each other after a long day apart, Dan?

1:05:23Jon Favreau:I will say that if you can't, look, it's hard to be a public figure, right? For sure. The glare of the spotlight is intense. But if there's one moment where you could possibly be yourself, it would be sitting with your wife. And he is incapable of doing that. Like, it honestly seems like they have never met each other. It's like, you also, it's not like he had to like give her a big kiss or like, he could have just done nothing. He didn't have to tap her knee like that. It's like, you can see it like going through his head. He looked like he was about to be like, looks like you got a bun in the oven there.

1:06:06Jon Favreau:like it was honestly it's just it's i mean i just it's like the first meeting between a man who's never had a date before and a mail order bride it's just so i just don't also also like i hope everyone realizes that they can they could have edited that, right? They could have done another take. They could have cut that part out. It wasn't a live performance. It was a White House thing. Yeah, it does make you wonder, are there somewhere on the cutting room floor of the White House, are there nine knee pads that were less affectionate than that one? Did he perhaps like high-five her for the first time?

1:06:58Jon Favreau:Is there a fist bump? Did he shake her hand? Nice to see you. I'm JD. Yes. Wow. Yes. Anyway, watch out, Marco Rubio. As Rupert Murdoch would say, he's got the potential to be great. He certainly does. He certainly does. That potential, it's there somewhere. We have not seen it yet. Neither has Rupert, but it's there. Okay, when we come back, I'll talk to the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, Gina Hinojosa.

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1:09:05When it comes to the Supreme Court, summer is just starting, but the Supreme Court term is ending, which means we're waiting for some massively consequential and possibly devastating Supreme Court decisions on birthright citizenship, trans athletes, and absentee ballots. I'm Leah Littman, and along with my co-hosts and fellow law professors, Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw, we'll break down every opinion and what it means on Strict Scrutiny. New episodes of Strict Scrutiny drop every Monday, and keep an eye on your feed for emergency episodes when the big opinions come out. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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1:10:21Gina Hinojosa, welcome to Pod Save America. It's great to be with you. So there's been plenty of national focus on the Texas Senate race between James Tallarico and Ken Paxton. There's been less attention paid to the gubernatorial race that you're running against three-term incumbent Greg Abbott, who's running for a record fourth term as governor. We'll get to him in a minute. But for all the people listening who are meeting you for the first time, who are you and what made you get into the race? Yeah. So I am running for governor of Texas because what I see in 2026 is that everything is on the line.

1:10:55And this is perhaps our last best chance to save what we hold dear in Texas and in this country. And to explain, I grew up on the border with Mexico. I grew up in the real Grand Valley in Brownsville, Texas. And I was raised on the promise of the American dream there. We used to cross back and forth between Texas and Mexico all the time back then. And I remember as a little girl being struck by the extreme poverty I witnessed in Mexico. And I remember asking my dad, why? Why when we cross into Mexico, are there beggars? I said, beggars, we didn't have homelessness then, we didn't have a word for it.

1:11:42They said beggars. And then when we crossed back into Texas, there are none. And I'll never forget, my dad said, because in Mexico, they have the rich and then they have the poor and they don't have much in between. And in America, we have a strong middle class. And he was talking about the American dream. And working Texans right now are struggling to achieve the American dream in a big way. It is why I'm running for office. It happened to me. I never meant to run for anything. I made my husband promise to never run for office before we got married, but they try to shut down my son's school. So I ran for the school board.

1:12:26One, that fight for schools took me to the Texas house. And what see in the Texas House is the reason our schools are shutting down. The reason we are struggling so much is because we are paying into a system that is working against us. It is one big grift. It is policy that is driven by moneyed special interests. And I refer to it as the Greg Abbott corruption tax. We pay more, we get less because we are all paying the Greg Abbott corruption tax. And now we have over 100 schools shutting down in Texas. We have over 150 school districts operating at four days a week, whole school districts, because they can't afford to operate at five days a week.

1:13:13We have the most people being disconnected from their electricity of any other state. We have the most uninsured of any other state. We have the most uninsured children of any state. We have the most bankruptcies. We have the first major American city in Corpus Christi to potentially run out of water, despite the fact we are paying about 75 % more in property taxes under Greg Abbott. That is Greg Abbott's record, and he owns it. And that's where I'm running. I have a plan to save Texas schools and to put money in your pocket. And I think it's important that people understand, yes, we fight for our public schools because of our kids and our community, but we fight for our public schools because there can be no American dream without strong public schools.

1:14:01Because public schools provide the opportunity, the gateway for the American dream. And of course, if we can't afford to live and thrive in Texas where we live, then there can be no American dream. dream. When I was a little girl, Texas was the American dream manifest, right? But that is why I'm running. We have to fight to win back the American dream. So you're no stranger to politics, even though you didn't think you would run. You've served in the Texas House. And I believe your father, who you mentioned, was chair of the Democratic Party in Texas for about a decade. What did you learn from him about politics and the state of the Democratic Party in Texas?

1:14:49Yeah. Well, to be clear, the number one lesson I learned was that I did not want that life for myself. Interesting. How come? Because my dad belonged to the world and not to me. And I wanted a quieter, simpler life. I'm a lawyer. I had a small practice. I thought that's what I would do. I would be the best at my small practice. And that is why I made my husband promise to never run for office. But life had other plans. So that's what I mostly learned. But I will tell you that it is in the Texas house where I have learned that really there's so much noise, but there is one fight. And that fight is the fight of 2026 in this country, in this state.

1:15:40And it is, are we going to be a state that is by and for the people or are we living in the billionaire's world and we're just here? That is the fight. That is the fight that is behind why schools are closing. That is the fight behind why we can't afford to pay things. That's the fight behind why Corpus Christi is running out of water. That is the fight. Speaking of billionaires and money in politics, the man you're running against is sitting on more than$100 million. A recent poll had about a third of Texas voters saying they don't know enough about you to have an opinion. How do you introduce yourself to a state as big as Texas, especially when the current governor has so much money to run his own ads and campaign?

1:16:27Yeah, you're right. Texas is giant. Running for governor of Texas is like running for president, right? We're doing things differently. we've divided the state up into seven regions, running like full congressional campaigns in each of those regions because we are such a big and diverse state. What the polling shows is that since the end of last year, my name ID has gone up 20 points. We went from nine points down to five points down as that's happened. And so as people get to know who I am, they're with me. and people want change. What I am seeing across the state, what elections are showing in Texas, what polling is showing is that there is this anti-incumbency energy in Texas right now.

1:17:15And Greg Abbott offers more of the same. And his problem, even though he has all that money in his campaign account, is that you use money to tell people who you are and what you're about. And that's his problem. People know who he is and what he is about and they don't want it anymore. They want change. The number one response I get from people when I say I'm running for governor against Greg Abbott, he can run again? Like, really? Don't we have term limits? Well, and I'm sure there's plenty to say about him and his record. What is the one specific thing he's done that you would point to if a voter, because you'll probably need some of these voters, right?

1:17:54People who voted for Greg Abbott three times now. You have a three-time Abbott voter who's at least open to a different choice this time but isn't sure. What's the one thing you'd say about what Greg Abbott has done to persuade that person? He's given a billion dollars in no-bid contracts to his donors. He's the most corrupt governor in Texas history. I'm not saying something. We've never had this level of corruption. But every major challenge in Texas is about follow the money right back to Greg Abbott's donors. So it's common for challengers to say the incumbent is corrupt, worked for billionaires.

1:18:31Beto said a version of this about Abbott in 2022. Lupe Valdez said it in 2018, both still lost by single to double digits. Why do you think this will land in 2026 where it hasn't worked as well before? Well, what we are seeing is that it is already landing in Texas. and 2018 you referenced that was the closest we've come in a long time to potentially flipping a seat statewide in texas that's when bet that ran against ted cruz right that's the last time we have points right yes right that's remember it that's the last time we had a midterm election with trump in the white house right and democrats swept we picked up 12 seats in the texas house um we flipped all of harris county houston so democrats swept in a big way we were not ready Right.

1:19:22Maybe we could have flipped the whole Texas House had we been ready. We are ready in 2026. And so for the first time, we have Democrats running in every congressional seat, every state house, state Senate seat. And already we have seen dramatic improvement in our performance. So Democrats overperformed Republicans in the primary. That rarely happens in Texas. I had eight opponents in my primary, and still I got twice as many votes as Beto got in 2018 because people are doing the work for change. And 2018 is different because we have two strong candidates at the top of the ticket. Beto was pretty much the only one who could raise real money in 2018 and took on all the arrows, took on the entire campaign.

1:20:14It's different this time around. What we've yet to see, though, the thing that is to be determined is are people going to believe what they see with their own eyes in Texas where we're winning Tarrant County? Tarrant County, for instance, that was the most Republican county in the whole United States of America. We flipped a state Senate seat, swung it 31 points to elect Taylor Ramet. Steve Bannon embedded himself in Tarrant County the month before that happened and said right off the bat, I'm here because as goes Tarrant County, so goes Texas, so goes the nation. Well, we won it. And it's not just Tarrant County.

1:21:01It happened in Syphair. It happened in Arlington. It happened in Leander. It happened in Denton, Pearland. It is happening all over Texas. And what we are seeing in 2026 is people just want change. Education is a signature issue for you. You mentioned 100 plus schools are closing. 150 plus districts have gone to four day weeks. For someone outside Texas, what is actually happening to the public schools right now? And what did Abbott do to cause it? So what I see in the Texas House, I sit on the Public Education Committee with James Tarrico. We co-chaired the effort to fight vouchers in 2023, and we beat Greg Abbott then.

1:21:46We had rural Republicans join with us to defend public schools and vote against vouchers. Greg Abbott took out those Republicans who voted with us in their primaries by putting a million dollars in against each of them in their primaries. And so then he got the votes and we passed it, vouchers, last year. Vouchers is an example of what has happened to our public schools in Texas. It is just vendor contract after vendor contract to somebody who is connected to Greg Abbott. And that is where our money for our public schools is going. So Greg Abbott received$12 million, the largest campaign contribution in all of Texas history from an out-of-state billionaire, Jeff Yaz, who has a financial interest in vouchers, right?

1:22:32That is the kind of grift and corruption that people are feeling in a real way. And so those alliances I made across the aisle with MAGA moms, with football coaches in rural communities, with superintendents, principals, people who love their public schools are angry in a big way at Greg Abbott for what he's done to our public schools. And I believe that that will be the difference in this election. People see this as our last best chance to save public schools in Texas. Education used to be an issue that Democrats talked about every campaign cycle all the time. I feel like in general, the party has been fairly quiet about it recently.

1:23:14I've heard you talk about it now. Rahm Emanuel has been talking about it recently. but in general, why do you think the Democratic Party has sort of shied away from focusing on education? And what do you see as a positive vision in public education and education in general for both, you know, Texas and the country to take? We've just gotten lost in all of really a lot of high tech solutions to education that have not worked. In Texas, it's happened in a big way. Now they're trying to push in Houston, Texas. Greg Abbott took over Houston ISD and trying to put in 100 AI schools in Houston with this idea that we don't need teachers, we need education guides.

1:24:00And so it's just a way for them to make money off of our public school dollars. So I'm proposing a back-to-basics approach where we pay teachers their worth, and it doesn't feel sexy. All right, back-to-basics, pay teachers their worth, novel concept. It doesn't happen because nobody makes money off of it but teachers, right? Billionaires don't make money off of it. And I think in lots of ways, Democrats have moved away from just the basics. Again, it's the American dream. How can you have the American dream without strong public schools? Public schools tell every child you can be anything you want to be if you put in the work.

1:24:44How are we letting it happen that our public schools, and it's not just Texas, but it's in Texas in a big, big way, are dying on the vine? In Texas, there is a unique kind of pride. Texas public schools are Friday night lights. They are enshrined in our Texas constitution. They made us who we are. People have big pride in public schools in Texas. And I think that is why it is resonating in a way that there is a possessiveness and an understanding that this is a part of who we are and people are ready to fight for their public schools. What do you do about low-performing public schools and low-performing teachers?

1:25:22It's never the right answer to take power away from parents and community when our public schools are struggling. I do think we need a back to basics approach, money in the classroom. We have had a teacher exodus in Texas. We have for the first time, Texas is hiring more uncertified teachers than certified teachers by a lot. We now have teachers who have no college degree being hired in Texas. I have a neighboring school district. Their number one source of new hires is out of the country because they can't find people to work for what we pay who have the experience. We all know it's, again, not rocket science.

1:26:09The best thing we can do for a child's education is put a great teacher in the classroom. And we have steered so far away from what we know works. So again, it's a back to basics approach, making sure we have great educators in the classroom. Looking at the polls, some of your strongest numbers are with Latino voters. Some polls have you up nearly 20 points. Trump, of course, carried Latinos in Texas in 2024. You've said the Latino vote can be the difference if we choose to be. What does choose to be mean? And what has the party gotten wrong over the last several years, decade, at seeing sort of Latino voters either drift away from the Democratic Party or, you know, in the case of 2024, toward the Republican Party?

1:26:53I think we have taken our eye off the prize of what are we fighting for. Again, I think there is one fight. It is the fight about whether it is a country or state that is fine for the people. That is the fight for the American dream. They are one in the same. And I think we get distracted by culture wars and social issues. We take the bait all the time. And I get it. I mean, it is infuriating things that Republicans do and say to different groups that consist of our coalition. But when we're fighting about those things, we are not talking about the thing that impacts all of us. And that is, can you afford to live and thrive in Texas?

1:27:38And that has to be the fight. So the Latino vote is hugely important to your point. You're right. Absolutely. In 2018, Beto got 64 % of the Latino vote. Again, the closest we've come in a long, long time to winning as Democrats. When I get 64 % of the Latino vote, I win because there are more of us in the voting population than there were then. To give you a sense of where Latinos are in Texas in 2026, Taylor Ramet, who flipped that state Senate seat, got 79 % of the Latino vote in his election. All right. That is the potential. Of course, we're taking nothing for granted. I am heavily focused on engaging the Latino vote in this election.

1:28:25And if we choose to be as if Latinos will show up, we have seen this year that Latinos are showing up and we need Latinos to show up in a big way in November. I think one challenge Democrats have had over the last decade is sort of assuming that for Latino voters, immigration is the top issue. When, as you said, the economy, affordability is still number one, just as it is with non-Latino voters. Um, that said, Trump has decided to make immigration central, um, to his second administration, even more than it was in the first. I think that personally, what I've seen from Democrats over the last decade is fear around the issue of immigration.

1:29:06And so when you ask Democrats about immigration, people either say, okay, we need a strong border for sure. But what Trump's doing with ICE is horrific and wrong. and that's about as far as it goes. Yeah. At some point we'll be in power again, hopefully. So hopefully you'll be governor. What is a positive vision for immigration that you think can rally the country behind the Democratic Party that recognizes, as my old boss, Barack Obama, would always say that we're a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants? Right. I think we have to stress that we're for border security. We all want that. I grew up on the border.

1:29:48Of course, I want border security. And what is happening right now is not that. And the district attorney in Harris County will say he has child sex abuse cases that he cannot prosecute because the witnesses have been detained or deported or too afraid to come forward. That makes us less safe, not more safe. And here's the other thing. The other thing is that it's hard to be generous to immigrants when Americans are struggling themselves so much. It is hard to be generous with the American dream when people feel like it's out of reach for themselves, right? I think it's a classic example of the, you know, put your oxygen mask on first and then help others in need.

1:30:35We have to recognize that Americans working, Americans, working Texans are not making it. We need to make sure they get the oxygen mask first and that we message and we work to deliver for Americans first, really, for Texans first, that we're doing everything we can to address, again, the one fight. The one fight. Is this going to be a country and a state for us or for moneyed interests? Do you think we need to revamp our asylum laws? Sounds like it, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And can I give you an example? So Biden's last, the December before his last year in office, remember we had the caravans at the border.

1:31:23It was chaotic. People in Texas were angry. And I got a call. I was chair of the campaign committee for the Texas House at the time, I got a call from my member at Eagle Pass, who is a frontline member. And he said, Gina, they have shut down the border to Eagle Pass in Mexico. This was the week before Christmas. To all commerce, it is killing our local businesses. We are going to lose. And I said, okay, let me see what I can do. So I called the Biden administration and I said, we need an emergency meeting. Within 48 hours, we had their top border officials on the phone. I had my border members on the phone and the Biden officials heard an earful about how this is not working.

1:32:11Something needs to change. That next week, the Biden administration sent delegates over to negotiate enforcement on the Mexican side. And what you will see in the numbers is that crossings plummeted when that happened. We need, when it comes to immigration, like common sense solutions. I think that there is no question that Biden avoided the issue and did not deal with it until it was out of control. And we need to make sure that we have people in office who stop playing politics with immigration and just work on real solutions. I unfortunately have to ask you about the screw worm, which I had never heard of until a week or so ago.

1:32:56For listeners, the new world screw worm is a flesh eating parasite that infests livestock. It was eradicated from the US 60 years ago, but now it's back in Texas cattle for the first time. Two things. How bad is this for Texas? And also the reporting is that all the cuts from Trump and Doge slowed the federal response. Has Abbott said one word criticizing the administration that hamstrung him in Texas? And if not, what does that tell you? Yeah, that Abbott is a weak governor. We have a governor who understood years ago that the screw worm was coming. It is in Texas now. It is going to be very hard to eradicate.

1:33:36It is spreading in Texas. Now that it is here, we're looking at disastrous consequences. And I don't think it's just for Texans, but yes, for Texas ranchers, for the price of beef, that we have a governor who either didn't care enough or didn't have the sway, the juice with the administration, and a secretary of agriculture from Texas under the administration to say, hey, I understand you're doging all this other stuff. Save this. This is important, and we need to make sure we're doing what we need to do, is a failure on Abbott's part. I lay this on the lap of Abbott, that he could not communicate with the Trump administration the urgency of making sure we had a solution before it was too late.

1:34:22And here we are now with screwworm in Texas and spreading. So there are – last question. There are just so many very important, very competitive House and Senate races this year that could decide control of Congress. There are other gubernatorial races that, at least on paper, seem closer, more competitive even than yours. for people who are looking to donate their time and their money to midterm races this year? Why should they choose yours? Because the fate of the union depends on Texas in 2026. After the U.S. Supreme Court decision on redistricting that gutted the Voting Rights Act, there are now no rules.

1:34:59And what will happen in Texas, because Republican leaders have already said they're going to draw new lines next year, we lose five Democrats in Congress under a new map. With no rules. That's on top of what the Brennan Center predicts will happen at the end of the decade through census, which is four years away, that Texas will gain four to five more congressional seats because we're growing faster than all the other states. We take from blue states those congressional seats. If Republicans control that, that's another four to five seats that Democrats lose in Congress. That's 10 seats in Congress that Democrats that are off the table for Democrats.

1:35:46The governor of Texas controls 10 % of Congress. We need a governor in Texas who will veto their rigged maps. This is the most important governor's race in the whole country for that reason. Gina Ina Rosa, thank you so much for joining Pod Save America. Good luck out there. Everyone always says, Democrats are dreaming of Texas again. Same thing as you said. At some point, we have to win Texas because Congress, the maps, but also Electoral College. That's right, also. As the Midwestern states start getting a little redder, we've got to make up for it somewhere. Texas is just too big to ignore at some point.

1:36:28Right, well, congressional seats equate to electoral votes. So, right, if there's no way to win Congress, then there's no way to win the White House. Yeah. So, well, thanks for what you're doing. Good luck out there. Thank you. And talk to you soon. Thanks. That's our show for today. Thanks to Gina Inohosa for coming on. Dan will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with Strict Scrutinies' Leah Littman. Have a good weekend. Bye, everyone. Pods of America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Farrah Safaris with Ree Cherlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill.

1:36:57Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hethcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kirill Pellaviv, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.

1:37:11You know that song that goes, every rose has its thorn? That basically describes every June. When it comes to the Supreme Court, summer is just starting, but the Supreme Court term is ending. Which means we're waiting for some massively consequential and possibly devastating Supreme Court decisions on birthright citizenship, trans athletes, and absentee ballots. I'm Leah Littman, and along with my co-hosts and fellow law professors, Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw, we'll break down every opinion and what it means on Strict Scrutiny. New episodes of Strict Scrutiny drop every Monday, and keep an eye on your feed for emergency episodes when the big opinions come out.

1:37:44Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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