Allison Jaslow Discusses Race to Flip NC Congressional Seat

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3:35Ben Meiselas:Go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20 to get 20 % off all IQ Bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20. Donald Trump is losing all support in North Carolina. That disastrous speech he gave, what, two weeks back? The reviews are in and he gets an F negative, negative, negative, not an A plus, plus, plus, plus. You're looking at some of the latest North Carolina polling. Donald Trump still sits at around a net negative 16 points from the YouGov poll, whereas the Democratic governor, Josh Stein, is at about a plus 22. You look at just all of the various issues out there, whether you're dealing with inflation, whether you're dealing with Medicaid and health care, whether you're dealing with the tariffs.

4:21Ben Meiselas:North Carolina is getting hit. It's a resilient state, but Trump and MAGA keeps on attacking the state. Of course, also the immigration raids that were taking place, Operation Charlotte's Web that was not targeting the bad guys, but was out there targeting people who are hardworking and the people of North Carolina hated that. This from the Charlotte Observer. Trump tries and fails to soothe the economic woes in a rambling North Carolina speech. I think they give him the negative, negative review that I give. Some of the local news also is stating the following. As voters in North Carolina see clouds over the economy, Trump gives a very sunny forecast in North Carolina, giving him an A plus plus.

5:04Ben Meiselas:What are we talking about? By the way, in that speech, rather than actually address what the people of North Carolina were feeling. It was just filled with Donald Trump ranting and raving like a lunatic and saying, oh, Hillary Clinton, she's the B word, everybody. Should I call her the B word? Like, dude, what are you even doing? Just talk about what people are going through and just stop this crap. Here's what went down. Let's play it. 50 or 60 points higher. Now, Hillary was smart. She was nasty. I wouldn't want to go home to her.

5:38She was nasty. Remember, remember, she was a nasty person. I was going to use the B word. I said, my wife would not be happy. My wife always says, please, please don't use foul language.

5:54Ben Meiselas:You were going to use the B word in a speech about the economy to refer to Hillary Clinton. Like, what are we even talking about here? How have we gotten to the place where that's even like a thing that that exists in the Republican Party? I could answer that question for you. because you've got MAGA Republicans in North Carolina, for example, like in North Carolina's third congressional district, a guy by the name of MAGA Republican Greg Murphy, you know, when he's out there just spewing the lies. I mean, this guy's actually like a physician. He knows that what he's saying is complete BS, but you know, he's MAGA through and through.

6:27Ben Meiselas:He wants to divide because it's all about power to a guy like Greg Murphy. And just to remind you like who Greg Murphy is just so you see like who are the mega Republicans who support this guy? It's like people like this. This is what Greg Murphy said about abortion and women's reproductive rights. Here play this clip. Do you think a big issue in the 2024 election? Yeah, it's going to be a big issue every time because you have folks on really on both sides, really probably more Democrat that wants abortion literally when it's coming, when the child is coming out of the birth canal, always to force the issue because it's an emotionally charged issue and that's what elections are.

7:03They're emotionally charged events.

7:06Ben Meiselas:Why would you even say, I mean, he's actually a physician, the guy, and he knows that's not true, but this is how he wants to divide people while Americans are trying to figure out just about their safety and security, saying abortions out of the birth canal. Come on, what are you even talking about? Heinous. And here's what he said recently about Medicaid, because, you know, he's part of the MAGA Republican group that just ripped away Medicaid from tens of millions of Americans. And, you know, they try to set that so it doesn't fully kick in until after the midterms. But I think the people are seeing who are losing their affordable care subsidies, which also this MAGA Republican Greg Murphy's taking away, that this is a guy who's taking away people's Medicaid.

7:44Ben Meiselas:But just watch how he even talks about persons with disabilities. Just listen to how he describes it. Here, play this clip. Another one was a 48-year-old woman that was disabled because she couldn't hear, but she could hear me ask the questions, and she had hearing aids in. You know, yeah, these are difficult challenges to overcome, but there are no reasons somebody should be on Medicaid disabled and not working. So yeah, is it as high the number as they state? I don't know, but it is sure something that the American public doesn't deserve. So his example of someone who he claims is defrauding Medicaid is a lady who can't hear, who needs hearing aids to be able to try and make out what he's saying.

8:28Ben Meiselas:And he's saying someone like that is defrauding Medicaid and that's why they're gutting it. Just think of it. That's the example of what he uses as someone. And by the way, and one of his own patients who was there to try to get him to help her, you know, be healthy. He's using her as a pawn. Think about how disgusting that is to attack Medicaid. You know, so with all of this going on, I mean, that begs the question, like can a guy like Greg Murphy be voted out? And the reality is that's a vulnerable district. Josh Stein, the governor, who we just talked about at the outset, won that district by plus three in the last election.

9:05Ben Meiselas:He's a very popular governor. North Carolina has been read the Republicans in that state legislature have been redistricting North Carolina so much. Some people are even describing it as a dummy mander in the sense that they may have helped create some Democratic openings. If there's a plus five, plus 10, plus 15 shift, we're seeing a 12 to 15 Democratic overperformance. So let's bring in the Democratic candidate who's running for that North Carolina third congressional district seat, Alison Jaslow. Alison is an Iraq veteran running for North Carolina's third congressional district. She was the CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans of America, really representing the post 9-11 generation of veterans.

9:51Ben Meiselas:And in that capacity, you testify on Capitol Hill. And so there was testimony that you gave recently before the Veterans Affairs Committee about the needs of veterans. And so Congress Member Murphy, who we just showed right there, he's on that committee while you were testifying. and he was too busy apparently to show up to the own hearing while you were there talking about what veterans need. I want to talk about that incident because that is part of, I think, your origin story too about why it's so important for you to run. But let's just talk about this district in general, what's in this district, but like why you think you can flip this district?

10:29Ben Meiselas:I mean, the guy seems to be a MAGA sycophant when the country is just looking for normalcy right now. Well, as you mentioned earlier, the partisan gerrymandering that's happened a number of times here in North Carolina may just have finally backfired. Recently, redrawing the maps once again, they've been drawn a number of times in recent years to try and target Democratic Representative Don Davis. They inadvertently made one of their own members vulnerable. You know, in an environment where people are eager to have their voices and views heard in Washington, but feel completely overlooked. You know, I come from a working class family.

11:11This is a very working class district. And I think it's clear that working people of all types in all corners of the country right now are not getting the representation they need in Washington. And I think we can make this a real race.

11:25Ben Meiselas:Talk about inside your district. You've got Camp Lejeune. You've got the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. You've got Greenville with East Carolina University there. And then you've got a guy who's representing the district, Veterans Affairs, who in the disastrous budget bill harmed veterans, harmed the benefits getting to veterans. And then you show up to testify. Hey, can we just explain to you like what your policies are doing to the veteran community? You're saying, look, I represent this generation of veterans, one of the largest groups that does this type of work. You want to hear from us?

12:04Ben Meiselas:He goes, nah, I'm too busy to even show up to listen. What does that tell you, Allison? Well, I mean, the case I think I'm going to make to the voters of the third district of North Carolina is you should fire the guy who can't even show up to do his job and hire somebody who does. You know, it was a privilege as the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to represent our membership and the post-9-11 generation, which is a generation I belong to as an Iraq war veteran myself in front of Congress. And it's very disappointing, especially the way that a lot of politicians want to be seen next to veterans, especially when it's in campaign season, that he couldn't even show up for a few minutes at the hearing, even if he was stretched in multiple directions.

12:44So that's something that definitely we're going to be making sure that voters know about. And especially in a district, as you noted, that has two military installations. You know, not only there are a lot of working people there, but a lot of military families, a lot of veterans who've decided to call that district home after getting out of the service, and they deserve a better voice in Washington.

13:03Ben Meiselas:Look, we hear about how Trump's policies are almost disproportionately, they're harming everybody, but disproportionately harming rural areas. And for those who don't know North Carolina's third, try to give a brief background of that. It is predominantly rural, a rural area, as you said, working class, rural. And, you know, you're seeing there all of the all of the stuff, whether it's the Medicaid being cut, Affordable Care Act subsidies, whether it is farmers getting hit hard by the tariffs, whether it's just the input costs across all manufacturing in general going up and and manufacturing suffering.

13:45Ben Meiselas:like your district particularly is getting hit hard. And then somebody like a Congress member Murphy is out there repeating the Trump line that everything is great, that this is actually a golden age. And they're telling the people in your district where you live, when you speak to them, no, no, no, no, don't believe what you feel and experience. We, the Trump regime are telling you You're doing amazing. So listen, you're doing great. And are people buying that? Well, let's first talk about health care, since that seems to be such a hot topic these days. Governor Cooper, one of his key achievements when he was governor was to finally bring Medicaid expansion to North Carolina.

14:32And that just doesn't help everyday North Carolinians. It helped hospitals. And already we're seeing hospitals, you know, worried about the impact of the cuts that happened earlier this year to Medicaid will have on their ability to provide care in communities. And you mentioned beforehand that Greg Murphy is a doctor. And I'll tell you, given some of his health care policies, whether it's having people pay more for their health care in just a few days here or booting people off of their health care, that's certainly not a doctor I want caring for me.

15:04Ben Meiselas:So tell us also outside of the health care sentiment. I mean, just the tariffs against the world. Donald Trump says it's never made people richer. You had Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary, saying because of what they claim to be the GDP number, although there's a lot of question marks about a lot of their numbers right now, the same way they used inflation numbers from Black Friday sales to show discounted prices as their inflation numbers and then just claim that rental inflation 0 % by just putting in zero. Also, I think 40 % or 50 % of the consumer price index now is just Trump giving estimates and making it up at this point.

15:41Ben Meiselas:But in any event, they're saying, look, you're 4.3 % richer now because of our GDP number. Everybody's richer. So when they're out there saying that, what's your rebuttal? I mean, if you have a lived experience other than being in Club Mar-a-Lago, you're not experiencing this. Yeah. As I mentioned before, I come from a working class family, actually a union household. And, you know, we were able to have good benefits because of my stepdad's grocery store worker job. But, you know, many times we were living on the edge. And I think trying to tell people who are living on the edge, when you have over 60 percent of Americans saying it's their living paycheck to paycheck, that everything is fine, is a tough sell.

16:25People are hurting. people are also seeing the privileged continue to get policies that work for them and handouts for them while they still feel squeezed. And I just don't think it's something, and you saw this with the Biden administration as well, like I don't think you can sping your way out of people's everyday realities.

16:46Ben Meiselas:Before we go, where could people find out more about the campaign? Where could they learn more about you? Let's be very clear. This is a very big race, North Carolina's third. You know, it is one of these seats that is flippable. People want to learn more about you. Where do they go? Sure. You want to go to AllisonJaslowforCongress.com, where you can learn about the life of service that I've lived and how I'm ready to take this next step in serving, not just the people of North Carolina, but also my country. It's something I've dedicated my life to. And, you know, I'm ready to give people the leadership that they deserve that is so sorely missing in Washington for so many of us.

17:29Ben Meiselas:Allison, we got to get you back on. We'll talk more about, I really would like to learn more about your service. People can go and learn more about you by going to the website. We thank you for your service and we wish you all the best and we hope you come back before the election. All right. All right. Thank you for having me and zeroing in on this race. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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