Tommy Vietor: David Plouffe Would Have Murdered Us

[0] Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast.

[1] It's Friday.

[2] So you got me, Tim Miller.

[3] I'm your host.

[4] Charlie Sykes is still on vacation.

[5] I brought in a friend of mine who is here to help us out on the Friday episode.

[6] You might have heard of him.

[7] His name is Tommy Vitor.

[8] He did wonderful in an interview with Brett Baer about 10 years ago that you might remember him from.

[9] And he's also the host of the Pod Save the World Podcast, which I'm embarrassed to admit.

[10] I'm a big fan of.

[11] I'm a world out.

[12] And I asked Tommy to come on so we could talk about the world what's happening around the world.

[13] the globe.

[14] We'll do a little politics first.

[15] I think he's on another podcast.

[16] I don't recall what that one is called.

[17] So Tommy, thank you so much for being with us.

[18] Tim, it's great to be here.

[19] I enjoy being your token liberal friend.

[20] And I'm glad you were just telling me about how you went on a White House tour recently.

[21] You forgot some stuff.

[22] You may have recovered it by now.

[23] Everything good there?

[24] I'd never been to the White House.

[25] You people never invited me in the Obama's.

[26] You know, I guess you thought that who knows what I would have done.

[27] Maybe plant some cocaine in there.

[28] But Ben LaBolt, I was invited to the White House recently.

[29] I'm pretty sure I didn't leave anything there.

[30] I'm not 100 % sure, but I'm pretty sure I didn't drop anything.

[31] I was busy.

[32] I had a lot happening.

[33] So the jury's still out on that.

[34] I want to start.

[35] This is, I don't think appropriate place to start, but I'm going to do it anyway.

[36] I'm going to start by betraying a confidence and sharing a private text message you sent me. Okay.

[37] You ready?

[38] Oh, no. Am I a naive lib duck?

[39] If I think that Tim Scott is a good guy, question mark?

[40] I know shit like this plays in the media, but it also seems.

[41] to be from a genuine place, links to an article about Tim Scott doing kind of an undercover boss thing.

[42] You went on the pod save, I forget the other podcast is called, and talked about just kind of how hopeful and optimistic Tim Scott is.

[43] So my first question for you, here on the Bullard podcast, is this your moment?

[44] Are you kind of doing the straight shooter thing and officially getting behind the Tim Scott campaign?

[45] I'm just kind of wondering how you feel about that now a few weeks out after lunch.

[46] No. So, okay, here was the context.

[47] I was reading Ben Terrace's book from the Washington Post.

[48] I forget the name.

[49] It's out recently.

[50] It's very good.

[51] I blurted it.

[52] I also forget the name.

[53] It's hard to remember book names even when you blurred them, but it's a really good book, and you should buy it.

[54] Maybe I'll share that private text later in the conversation.

[55] I asked Tim Feed Red and he said, oh, yes, I blurbed it.

[56] He DC won up to me in like the biggest way, probably from Cafe Milano or something.

[57] But in that book, it makes it sound like Tim Scott is sort of like has some core decency to him is a guy who, you know, does things quietly, like go work as a janitor for a week, get to know people.

[58] I don't think his candidacy is going anywhere.

[59] Okay.

[60] But you were impressed with the integrity that Tim Scott showed, like, you know, on January 6th and throughout the Trump presidency.

[61] I just said, oh, it was your take on him.

[62] And do you think you'd be for him if you had to vote in the California Republican primary?

[63] I'm the annoying liberal here.

[64] I'm the one who's supposed to have like strident litmus tests about all conduct towards Trump and not be able to sort of hold two thoughts in my head.

[65] What are you doing to me here?

[66] No, I'm the never -trumper, okay?

[67] We are the ones who have been thrust out of the family.

[68] It was a family feud and I will not fucking allow anybody to reach anything.

[69] You know, seriously, like, do people like him?

[70] Like, your core response to me was basically, like, I don't know that anyone can get elected when you're talking about being a virgin into your 40s.

[71] It's just sort of a there's a weirdo vibe.

[72] I don't know that he's connecting with people.

[73] But I don't know, he's seen a couple little bumps in the polls, right?

[74] He's like 7 % some places.

[75] I think Ron DeSantis should be worried about him in South Carolina.

[76] We're going to get to Ron here a little bit because if he gets passed by Tim Scott and Ron in South Carolina, things are really going down.

[77] I just, like, the Tim Scott thing, there's just a fundamental disconnect, right?

[78] He seems like he is a decent person.

[79] I met him.

[80] He was super nice to me when he hosted John Huntsman back in 2012, speaking of Cucks, during an event in South Carolina and he hung out with me and Huntsman for a while, was nothing but gracious, was not really our crowd, but he kind of shined us up a little bit, which I appreciate it.

[81] And people I know that work for him, I know a lot of people who consult for him, everybody says he's a good person.

[82] The problem is, there's this fundamental disconnect where how do you reach the people that are grossed out by what happened in the Trump years when you're never willing to say anything bad about them?

[83] And how do you reach the Trump people if you're never willing to compliment all the things that they like about Trump, which is all the indecency and all the cruelty?

[84] And so it kind of leaves him in this sour spot where he has like a 2 % support among like Wall Street Journal Edboard readers, you know, who are like kind of hoping that 1983 is going to come back around.

[85] And so that leaves me a little cold, I guess, is all.

[86] Yeah, no, that's fair.

[87] And I think his statewide counterpart, Nikki Haley has got a similar challenge and that she won't really criticize Trump.

[88] And she's going for that in each group Republicans who like likes the UN General Assembly or something.

[89] So there's about four people they're fighting over there.

[90] We'll see how it goes.

[91] Yeah.

[92] Yeah.

[93] It depends.

[94] think on an ad this week, I hadn't seen it.

[95] I was supposed to talk about it on something else.

[96] So they sent me the Superpack out.

[97] And it's this Penn SuperPact that's like, Republicans stand up to despots.

[98] Like, Republicans stand up to the evil empire.

[99] Republicans don't bow down.

[100] And Nikki is also doing this thing.

[101] And it's kind of like, is that true actually anymore?

[102] Most Republicans actually, I think people feel pretty good about the way Donald Trump conducted foreign policy.

[103] I don't see a lot of evidence that there's unhappiness.

[104] No, I think Donald Trump's currently getting paid by despots.

[105] He's getting kickbacks from the Saudis and his other friends.

[106] So, no, it's going quite well for them.

[107] And people like it.

[108] Yeah, this is the thing where it gets frustrating, you know, you can give him credit where I can't because I was them in 2016.

[109] I was there in South Carolina.

[110] I followed Donald Trump around the spin room saying, loves Putin over his shoulder and like, thinks 9 -11 was an inside job.

[111] And I just like trolled him throughout the spin room thinking that this was going to land in South Carolina.

[112] I was like, there's no way that this guy can win in South Carolina saying 9 -11 was an inside job.

[113] And Putin is his buddy.

[114] You remember the scoreboard on that one.

[115] I saw it was wrong.

[116] So I'm awake, though.

[117] It's been nine years since then.

[118] It's kind of like it's frustrating to hear people that have not woken up on that front.

[119] Yeah.

[120] I think that's a great transition into the broader 2024 conversation because I'm looking at the strategies of all these people and wondering, did they learn anything?

[121] Were they asleep during that period when you were trying to troll this guy?

[122] Yeah.

[123] Okay.

[124] So let's start there.

[125] Ron DeSantis.

[126] We've had a lot of discussion on the board this week about his like weird creepy homophobic and homoerotic ad with the giga chad and oiled up giga chad and uh just kind of impressed by those muscles and demonstrating Ron DeSantis's white booted strength so we discussed that at length you can talk about that if you want to but I want to get into we haven't discussed as he goes on Tammy Lorenz podcast on the outkick network and he's talking to Tammy and she asked him at the ad and some of the backlash and And let's just play Ron DeSantis' response.

[127] I mean, I think, you know, identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream where he was having men compete against women and his beauty pageants.

[128] I think that's totally fair game because he's now campaigning, saying the opposite, that he doesn't think that you should have men competing in women's things like athletics.

[129] And so we've been very clear on it that we believe in protecting the rights of our girls.

[130] That's enough.

[131] I can't listen to his voice anymore.

[132] How do you grade that, you know, kind of move?

[133] All right.

[134] You have this very weird ad.

[135] Everybody hates.

[136] And you say it's fair game because Donald Trump has been a pioneer in advancing gender ideology.

[137] How do you think that lands with voters?

[138] So there's this really smart strategies out there named Sarah Long something, Longwell, I think is her name.

[139] And I read a quote from her.

[140] Yeah, she's really smart.

[141] And she said something like, you can't go around Donald Trump.

[142] You have to go through him.

[143] And I thought that was very well.

[144] stated.

[145] Like, this broader Ronda -Santa strategy of trying to outflank Trump from the right is confusing to me. But in this case, he's doing what all the 2015 -2016 candidates who ran against Trump tried to do, which is be like, aha, look at his record from back in the day when he was a liberal and cavorting with the Clintons and, you know, with the Mr. America, like, do any Republicans who watched him for four years in the White House really think that this guy is soft on LGBT rights or is like catering to this community.

[146] A pioneer in radical gender ideology.

[147] Is this credible to you?

[148] It's just a weird word.

[149] It's a weird phrase too.

[150] Who talks like this?

[151] Who thinks that Donald Trump was a pioneer in pushing radical gender ideology?

[152] I don't even know what that means.

[153] I mean, my old boss, Robert Gibbs, said the first rule of spin is it has to be believable.

[154] And I don't think that we pass that test there.

[155] I mean, I guess like the positive, Tim, is we're talking about this ad?

[156] Is that a good thing?

[157] I don't know in the sort of attention economy.

[158] Maybe it's, but like, what kind of can't.

[159] is finding this weird AI homoerotic imagery comparison to Patrick Baitman, a literal psychotic serial killer from an account called Proud Elephant and then sharing it as if it were their own.

[160] Like this is just a weird new out and proud elephant.

[161] Is that not how the Obama campaign work?

[162] You've been on more winning campaigns than me. So generally like when you're putting out a video, was it kind of like unvetted, you know, sort of fan blogs, fans sent in videos and and then like mid -level staffers just kind of put them out.

[163] Is that how the process worked on the Obama campaign?

[164] It's very DIY.

[165] Do it yourself.

[166] You find whatever you can on the internet and reshare it.

[167] I mean, no, like David Pluff would have murdered us in our sleep while we were awake some way.

[168] He would have found us and killed us if we had done something like this.

[169] Even Donald Trump.

[170] Even Donald Trump did back in 2016.

[171] Remember, he blamed the young intern, right?

[172] Like when he accidentally, or not accidentally, when he tweeted white genocide.

[173] Right.

[174] you know, 69 or whatever it was.

[175] And he was like, and he didn't realize, you know, that he was tweeting white genocide and it became a news.

[176] He's like, oh, it's just a young intern.

[177] DeSantis can't even pull that spin.

[178] Okay, I got one more DeSantis thing for you.

[179] And then we're going to, we're to get to the thrust of this interview, which is the inverse of what I have to deal with on Crooked Media podcast, which is me quizzing you about what the Democrats are thinking.

[180] Perfect.

[181] And then we'll close on some world events.

[182] But we have one more DeSantis thing you wanted to talk about.

[183] I think that's fair.

[184] This is a very long ad.

[185] And so I'm not going to subject everyone to it.

[186] But here's a clip from another recent ad from the DeSantis campaign.

[187] Parents rights, defending.

[188] Tool choice, universal.

[189] Critical race theory, prohibited.

[190] DEI stopped.

[191] D -O -A.

[192] Child mutilation illegal.

[193] Girls sports, save.

[194] Communities protected.

[195] Our economy growing.

[196] And freedom, guaranteed.

[197] But winning the fight in Florida, is just the beginning.

[198] We must protect parents' rights and the innocence of our children.

[199] We must restore sanity in our society.

[200] We need every mama and every grandmama in every corner of the country to stand up and fight back by electing Ron DeSantis, president of the United States of America.

[201] Up until that last second, I thought that was going to be a really awesome Casey DeSantis for governor ad.

[202] Once Ron gets term loaded out, kind of like a little handoff situation there.

[203] But But what was your take?

[204] Our sound people, I guess I will say, were not impressed by the mixing and quality of that ad.

[205] But I'm wondering what your take was on it.

[206] With a little drumline.

[207] I mean, I just remember a couple weeks ago I was reading, I think it was in the New York Times, a long story, which is frankly kind of like a genre you see often about the candidate's spouse, Casey DeSantis, going on the trail with him, kind of warming him up to the crowd, making Ron look like a family man, bringing out the kids, telling stories about parenting, you know, sort of like.

[208] like the sweet, softer side of the DeSantis family.

[209] And then a couple weeks later, they have her voicing the, like, anti -D -EI adjut prop.

[210] And to me, I mean, it's just a very weird strategic decision.

[211] It's scary.

[212] Yeah, like, how do you do both of those things?

[213] Because she's a very attractive person, seems friendly, like, is clearly like good speaking to her.

[214] No, she's a beautiful woman.

[215] I mean, like, there's a lot about her that's appealing, I think, to audiences.

[216] there's a young family element, right?

[217] There's sort of a generational argument they're trying to make about like bringing kids back to the White House and fresh blood and people in their 40s, whatever.

[218] And then, but to have her be your henchman in this video in July of 2023, I mean, we're not in like the thick of the primary fight.

[219] We're six months out from Iowa.

[220] I just don't get it.

[221] Yeah.

[222] Henschman is a really good word.

[223] It's like Cruella.

[224] You know, it's like we're bringing like the tough, strong woman.

[225] And that's fine.

[226] That works for women candidates.

[227] But as the, you know, I need to kind of be the tough guy, the reinforcement for Ron for my husband.

[228] It's a little strange.

[229] The substance of it also a little strange.

[230] I enjoyed David Jolly's wife, tweeted that was like, I'm a mama that doesn't want people to be cruel to my kids' friends.

[231] And so Jamie DeSantis should not speak for me. Like, I don't know that all mamas share your view.

[232] Right.

[233] I'm wondering where you land on one more thing on this.

[234] We've an ongoing debate.

[235] I mentioned David Jolly in never Trump world about this whole like Trump.

[236] DeSantis thing?

[237] Is DeSantis actually scarier than Trump because he's more effective?

[238] Where do the Podros land on that matter?

[239] My answer six months ago would have been very different than my answer today.

[240] DeSantis for a long time seemed like a pretty disciplined, pretty effective, pretty ruthless kind of like engineer behind the scenes of accomplishing his political goals.

[241] And now I wonder if that's just because he had a super gerrymandered state in Florida where he could ram through whatever he wants.

[242] his campaign looks pretty bumbling and effective.

[243] And, like, less people think my, like, comment about Casey DeSantis was gendered, like, you don't see Doug Emhoff out there, like, lobbing bombs at, you know, the Trump family, right?

[244] He's fighting anti -Semitism and, like, going around the world, right?

[245] It's just like, there's not the typical role of a spouse.

[246] The spouse isn't delivering the attack ads, generally speaking.

[247] It's hard to think of an example of that.

[248] These guys rolled out their fundraising reports today, right?

[249] DeSantis raised 20 million, and he's got well over 130 million sitting in his super PAC.

[250] Right.

[251] So someone is sitting around doing a lot of focus groups, doing a lot of polling and testing to sort of figure out what their strategy is.

[252] Like these are maybe ineffective people, but they're not dumb.

[253] The net impact so far is to hurt his polling and to help Donald Trump's.

[254] And I'm just wondering, like, do you think they're seeing something in the numbers that suggests that this attack on Trump from the right is effective?

[255] Because Chris Christie is just being like, he lost, he's a loser.

[256] He's going to lose again.

[257] And that's where I would go.

[258] I can't.

[259] The answer is nobody knows.

[260] Right.

[261] I mean, sure, it's been tested to the Hilt.

[262] Establishant Republican consultants wanted non -Maga candidates in the center primaries, right?

[263] And they couldn't even do that.

[264] So like, forget beating Trump himself.

[265] They couldn't figure out how to beat Trump endorsed candidates, you know, in these primaries, even when it wasn't Trump on the ballot.

[266] And so, you know, sure, you look at the numbers.

[267] And it's one thing for a voter to respond to a poll and say, yeah, you know, I wish Trump would have fired Fauci or I wish the wall would have been built.

[268] Or I, you know, whatever.

[269] It's another thing, though, when you're executing a campaign, right?

[270] Like, these people get defensive of their man. Like, you have to demonstrate that you can take the mantle from him and that you will fight for them as hard as he did.

[271] And, like, that's very tough.

[272] And it might not be doable.

[273] There just might be a plurality of people within the Republican Party that are so deep in the cult that, like, there's no way to walk that line.

[274] The thing about the DeSantis strategy that I don't get, or I do get it, is like, it's the Ted Cruz strategy.

[275] Like he has the Ted Cruz consultants, it's the Ted Cruz strategy, and they're doing it again, and it failed.

[276] And I think that their theory of the case is that the Ted Cruz strategy didn't work in 2016 because people hadn't seen Trump.

[277] And now that he's actually as a governing record, there are more substantive things to hit him on.

[278] I guess.

[279] I think that's the theory of the case.

[280] But it's still, to me, like it seems like, you know, the definition of insanity.

[281] I'm with you.

[282] Yeah, the Ted Cruz consultants, this guy, Jeff Rowe, who's flying around his private jet paid for by, you know, Ted Cruz campaign.

[283] donations or whatever.

[284] Yeah.

[285] attacking Trump over like the handling of the Miss Universe pageant.

[286] I mean, who gives a shit about any of that at this point in time?

[287] It just seems so bizarre to me. Okay.

[288] Let's move on over to the Dems.

[289] I guess question number one I have for you is what's the panic level?

[290] Talk to me about the panic level in Dem world about whether Joe Biden is up for this real act.

[291] I mean, I think people are anxious, but like Democrats are always anxious, right?

[292] I mean, people were anxious in 2012 about Obama's reelect because things weren't looking so great.

[293] Maybe you should have been a little more anxious in 2016 on the other hand.

[294] Yes.

[295] You know, yes.

[296] I worry that the 2016 is the apt comparison here, not 2012, but anyway, continue.

[297] Listen, that's in the back of my head constantly.

[298] And for entirely personal reasons about, like, you know, my own credibility and thinking and things I said at the time about how Hillary would never lose and you can't lose Pennsylvania and right, Democrats can't lose Pennsylvania, yada, yada, yada.

[299] Were you quoted saying that Hillary would beat Trump from Jay.

[300] I've been featured in any mash -up YouTube videos because if so, if not, you're doing better than me, but anyway.

[301] I can't recall.

[302] I can't recall.

[303] But I mean, I think on the Biden front, like the weird thing about it is I think if you sat a bunch of Democrats down and said, what would you think about a candidate who did the biggest investment in clean energy in our nation's history?

[304] What would you think about the infrastructure bill?

[305] What would you think about the Chips Act and all the way sticking it to China?

[306] They would probably like that.

[307] but then when you tack those things to Joe Biden, there is this large sort of negative feeling that comes into the polling.

[308] And I think a lot of that is age.

[309] A lot of that is probably like frustration with inflation, et cetera.

[310] So I think you have time to fix those things.

[311] I think the way you fix them is you get him out on the trail.

[312] You do more and you worry less about gaffs and you just kind of like show him out there doing the jobs.

[313] But also, listen, like when you look at polling about, you know, are you open to a third party candidate?

[314] it, it's constantly hovering between like sort of 30 and 40 some odd percent.

[315] Like we Americans are, I think, are always kind of unhappy with whoever is president, even when we love them, like Reagan or Obama or some of the others.

[316] So I think once there is a actual campaign being run and you're choosing between Joe Biden and an alternative, my hope is that the numbers will move in Biden's direction because of the record that we talked about and because Trump is manifestly unfit.

[317] I'm just obviously assuming that he's the candidate.

[318] But yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I think the numbers right now look great.

[319] They obviously don't.

[320] Yeah, so, I mean, I'm torn on this personally because Biden has, you know, objectively governed well.

[321] You know, I had some nuts I disagreed with.

[322] I disagreed with Afghanistan.

[323] I disagree with student loans.

[324] Objectively, he's governed extremely well.

[325] Sometimes I feel like the bulwark is like his biggest cheering section, even more than the libs.

[326] Maybe not everybody at the board, but a lot of us.

[327] And like because he has.

[328] has accomplished or nobody thought he could accomplish, doing bipartisan, you know, all those, all those things you just listed were bipartisan.

[329] You could add on to a gay marriage and some others.

[330] And so he deserves a lot of credit for that.

[331] I mean, he's objectively had a better first term than Obama did, right?

[332] You'd agree with that.

[333] I think the Affordable Care Act was a pretty big deal, but, you know, the first term's not over yet.

[334] Okay, I tried to slide that one by you.

[335] So I concur with, you know, the fact that he's doing great.

[336] On the other hand, he didn't have to campaign in 2020, really you know i mean like the basement campaign thing was like a little bit of a joke but also was reality like he didn't have to do hello scrant you know you know how tiring that is right and not to being the president is a tiring but it's just it is a different animal like flying around i'm in michigan i'm in pennsylvania i'm in georgia and he didn't have to do that like he's looking old my democratic friends who are not in politics who you know this is the constant thing that they asked me like are we sure are we sure and so it is a little concerning given the threat of trump to me that sometimes I feel like it's like the pros on the damn side that are the ones that are like tamping down that like that legitimate fear and so I'm just kind of wondering if you can reassure me that that behind the scenes the pros have this under control I cannot reassure you I mean I guess so like all our cards on the table we share the same anxieties I hear the same things about Biden to age the question you then get to is what are also old what do you're both old what do you do about that right like I don't think anyone should be primarying Joe Biden.

[337] I think he's done a great job like you said.

[338] But let's say you wanted to primary Joe Biden.

[339] Right now, your alternatives are Mary Ann Williamson, who's on her third campaign manager in a couple days, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who would rather inject your kid with bleach than a vaccine, apparently.

[340] He's running in the wide open Steve Bannon Lane of the Democratic primary.

[341] You know, it's just like a lot of room to run there.

[342] Yeah, no, he's got the, you know, sort of the Silicon Valley general class, David Sachs and those douchebags sort of all in for.

[343] him and getting their money.

[344] So good for them.

[345] David Ball Sachs is the bowl was the board podcast style on that.

[346] Just so you know.

[347] That's very good.

[348] I hate that kind of.

[349] So there's not going to be a primary candidate.

[350] So basically he's going to run.

[351] The question becomes how does he address these concerns about age, fitness, et cetera.

[352] I have not heard from anyone, anyone I know who's encountered Joe Biden, who's worked in the White House, who's ever suggested to me that he's sort of lacking the mental capability or fitness to do the job, the opposite actually.

[353] I think Kevin McCarthy, in fact, right, recently said, what a great job Joe Biden did negotiating over the dead ceiling bill.

[354] They've got to figure out a way to translate that to show him looking active out on the trail and I don't know, doing rigorous things.

[355] I mean, it's going to be challenging, but I do think you show, not tell in these cases, and to your point, like, that is going to require getting out into the country, doing a bunch of big rallies, doing energy events, lighting up the surrogates, getting Obama out there, getting all the popular governor, to, like, hit the trail early.

[356] So, you know, it's just going to take a huge team effort, basically.

[357] Yeah, boy, Josh Shapiro, trying to carry us across the finish line.

[358] It's burning down other parts of I -95 so he can rebuild them.

[359] That's what we're going to do.

[360] So we'll talk about the, I guess, elephant in the room here, which is a pun that doesn't really work.

[361] But isn't part of this also that, like, you just mentioned that we're going to, you know, get the governors out there, like, shouldn't it be Kamla?

[362] You know, it's just, generally speaking, this is not the responsibility of the vice president.

[363] I get that.

[364] You know, Joe Biden was just a supportive character for Obama, a good one, a helpful one in certain ways.

[365] You know, Dick Cheney basically was the reason for the Bush administration's disaster.

[366] So, you know, anyway, I think that he's not exactly a good model.

[367] Like, there's no model, right, for this, like a president that people have concerns about at this level.

[368] But here we are.

[369] Explain to me why.

[370] Why aren't they doing everything possible to, to buffer up?

[371] I think they are.

[372] So listen, let's just be honest, like, Kamala Harris is getting beaten up in large part because she's the vice president, right?

[373] That job comes with all this scrutiny, far more so than senator.

[374] Happened to Al Gore.

[375] Yeah.

[376] Our buddy Jonathan Martin, great reporter over Politico, wrote this sort of fan fiction about Gretchen Whitmer and how everyone would love for her to have been the vice president, for her to run in primary Biden this time around.

[377] And that's all, you know, J .M .R. can do that and sort of lob these grenades into the West Wing if he wants.

[378] But the reality is the minute.

[379] Do you think Gretchen Whitmer liked that column?

[380] Just quick aside, brief aside, we'll get back to column.

[381] Do you think Gretchen Whitmer was happy that Politico wrote about, you know, the dreams that she was sitting there and in the last wing instead of combo?

[382] You don't think she planted that?

[383] She's burning J. Mart's book in her backyard.

[384] No, I'm sure she wants to kill that guy for running.

[385] But the reality is for Gretchen Wittler's great.

[386] I hope she does consider running for president someday.

[387] But anyone who gets into the race, you immediately start getting pummeled and your approval goes down and, you know, you get vetted, right?

[388] So it's like, it's going to happen everyone.

[389] Kamala Harris, from what I can tell, is going to be leading a lot of the messaging about abortion access in this country.

[390] I think that will be the single most important issue Democrats run on in addition to the economy in 2024.

[391] Emily's lists announced that they're spending $10 million to sort of burnish her reputation and talk about the things she's done.

[392] The ads that I've seen that have come out from Emily's list so far are mostly about her fighting for abortion rights and abortion access.

[393] I didn't mean to leave her out when I talked about governors and Obama.

[394] I was thinking about people who weren't like on a court of the ticket.

[395] But I think she'll be obviously key and out in a lot of states and leading a lot of messaging, especially on abortion rights.

[396] I didn't think that you meant to this slight.

[397] It just is an obvious thing that people have concerns about, especially when you talk to folks who are, you know, just watchers of politics.

[398] But some of the conventional wisdom, that's like, okay, so let's say people have like really strong concerns about Kamala Harris and they want Biden to drop her from the ticket.

[399] and do something unprecedented and announce a new VP.

[400] How long do you think that new cycle lasts?

[401] Three days, four days?

[402] Yeah, and who is that person?

[403] There's no magic person.

[404] It's not what I'm asking for.

[405] I'm asking for we are where we are.

[406] Okay, if we had to hide you on this podcast last year, maybe there's a conversation about, okay, how do you, you know, should there be a Biden challenge?

[407] Should there be old wise men?

[408] I don't know who that is.

[409] Should it be your old boss, Obama being like Joe, like, really, man, like we need somebody else where we're concerned about fascism.

[410] Okay, but that we are where we are.

[411] My question to you is, okay, let's say that there's a, inside crooked media.

[412] And, you know, the Johns decide they no longer want you to be part of the team.

[413] And, you know, you get bought out and pushed out.

[414] There's kind of like a progosion -style coup inside crooked media.

[415] Okay.

[416] And you get called by the vice president.

[417] And she's like, I need one person.

[418] The only person I have in the world who can help me right now is Tommy Ditor.

[419] Help me burnish my creds.

[420] What could they do?

[421] Like, what are you doing for her right now?

[422] I mean, I think she's doing a lot.

[423] She's doing a lot of, like, she's talking about abortion rights.

[424] She's doing a lot of interviews.

[425] I don't know.

[426] Just get her out on the trail.

[427] I think people in politics worry too much about gaffs and misstatements and missteps.

[428] And I think, like, you get better by reps and those things get smoothed over when you're out there all the time.

[429] And that's what I would do with Biden and with her.

[430] It's just have them out more.

[431] Like, I know it's like overly simplistic, but that's what I would do.

[432] I agree with that.

[433] I think more is more.

[434] And I get all these.

[435] And there's certain things, targeted things that come was doing.

[436] I think they're smart.

[437] And I'm on the VP's list and I'm seeing the stuff that they're doing, but it's not breaking through into the news.

[438] and, you know, that's Trump's fault and that's our media culture's fault.

[439] But I feel like just in general, you need to up the risk quotient, right?

[440] Like, what is the risk?

[441] Frankly, like, there really is no downside risk for Kamala Gaff, you know, like at this point, right?

[442] Because, like, the people that have an ingrained view of her as being not up for the job or whatever, which I think is frankly bullshit for the most part, but the people that have that view, like what, they're going to feel even more strongly about that, right?

[443] Like, you need to try to win the people over who haven't seen enough out of her.

[444] And that might mean, you know, going into some places that are not quite as safe.

[445] Yeah, I think it means going to places that aren't quite a safe.

[446] But also I think, like, you know, you and I sort of came up at the same time in politics and communications in D .C. And I think our brains are still like, imagine like a big risk for her would be like going on Meet the Press.

[447] I think this day and age, the bigger question is like, how are you reaching people that have never even heard of what Meet the Press is?

[448] They don't even know that the show exists.

[449] Like, what cultural shows are you doing?

[450] What YouTubers?

[451] Like, that's why I worry about the RFK Jr. Joe Rogan sort of nexus of, you know, sort of like 11 million, like young men of all races, by the way, who think that government is full of shit and everyone lies to you and all politicians are bad.

[452] So why not just throw your hands up and try the guy who's saying something kind of radical sounding and new.

[453] Like I think, you know, I'd love to see like Gavin Newsom go on Joe Rogan or some like really good Democratic messenger go on and start trying to read those people.

[454] I've been on this kick for like two years.

[455] Absolutely.

[456] And Barstool and all of that.

[457] I think those are all getable folks.

[458] And if she's going to talk about abortion, like, who better to talk about that with than like PFT?

[459] Like, right?

[460] Honestly, I mean, none of those.

[461] If you're going to talk about abortion, you're going to go to, you know, Planned Parenthood and Emily's list of stuff.

[462] That's fine.

[463] That's okay.

[464] But like, reach the dudes who don't want to have to be a dad at 21 to not be too blunt about it, right?

[465] Like, try to reach them and, and you co -opt the freedom message.

[466] Maybe Kamla's not the right person for that.

[467] But like, I do think Democrats sometimes leave that on the table and assume those folks are hostile when they're not.

[468] And they are hostile at a certain point, but they're getable and hostile, if that makes sense.

[469] Yeah, you have to do some preaching to the choir, but I do think there are a lot of sort of barstool Republicans who liked Trump because he was on the apprentice and he was a billionaire and he dated all these people.

[470] And it was sort of like a, they like that brash kind of, you can't cancel me image of him.

[471] They did not sign up for Mike Pence's politics.

[472] They didn't sign up for Ralph Reed telling them what to do.

[473] And you even saw Dave Portnoy, the CEO.

[474] of Arsenal Sports saying that the overturning Dobbs was a red line for him, that he would vote Democrat because he thinks it's insane to tell women what they can do with their own bodies.

[475] Like, we should lift up messengers like that and use them to communicate to people who might listen to them.

[476] Okay.

[477] So going back to Gavin, this was the one I really wanted to ask you about.

[478] What is he doing?

[479] Because I guess in some level, like him going on Hannity did achieve what you were just talking about, right?

[480] because I just, just from being a consumer of social media, I saw that in a lot of places that were not like political nerd, me too, you know, setters.

[481] You know, people were interested by this.

[482] Like, you know, it's something you don't see anymore.

[483] Everybody's in their own bubble.

[484] So, you know, he's fighting it, you know, going toe to toe with Hannity.

[485] So I thought that was an interesting strategic move to do that.

[486] But so talk about that booking in particular, but also just, Rosalie, like, what is Gavin doing?

[487] And is it actually contributing a little bit to concerns about Joe Biden that he's out there so much, and, like, shouldn't you be worried about the homeless people in Los Angeles a little bit more?

[488] So, two -part question.

[489] Yeah, well, two -part question there.

[490] I think that, like, letting yourself fall into the trap of, will ex -person going out make Joe Biden look worse as a bad one?

[491] Because then you're just taking all your surrogates off the field, potentially, if you can convince yourself that they might make the president look bad, right?

[492] So I wouldn't do any of that.

[493] I want Gavin out there.

[494] I want Obama out there.

[495] I want Michelle Obama.

[496] Like, get everybody out there, first of all.

[497] Second of all, Look, I mean, when I first read that Gavin was going on Sean Hannity, I was like, that is a mistake.

[498] Go on Rogan.

[499] Like, what are we?

[500] Why Hannity of all people?

[501] Like, you're not reaching anyone who's convincing.

[502] You're reaching a dead or dying audience of the most hardcore Trump fans you can find.

[503] I was wrong.

[504] He did a great job on that.

[505] I've spent some time with Gavin.

[506] He's like hyper competitive.

[507] He talks about politics like you and I talk about politics.

[508] He wants to win.

[509] He's frustrated that we don't fight back more.

[510] He watches Fox News all the time.

[511] He thinks we live in information bubbles and want to push back and reach people in different places.

[512] So I think it's like part of that effort.

[513] It's part of his fight he's picking with the state of Texas, basically.

[514] In Florida.

[515] Yeah, in Florida too.

[516] And he's, I think, really, you know, finds DeSantis disgusting.

[517] So, you know, I like the competitiveness.

[518] I like the fight.

[519] I think you got to make sure you're sort of doing these interviews and things in focused ways.

[520] But I think the Hannity thing was a huge success.

[521] I'm not sure what the next act would be.

[522] So doing this as a figure skating judge, I thought he crushed on Hannity, real honestly.

[523] Like 10 out of 10, great job.

[524] And, you know, maybe he should be, I don't know, like Biden should just name him emissary to arguing with cons.

[525] So I just want to grant that.

[526] Is he the best messenger, though, right now?

[527] Like, is he doing a good job as your governor?

[528] I think he's doing a good job as our governor.

[529] I mean, look, I think there are, we're about 40 million people in this state.

[530] It is also, there's a lot of devolution.

[531] like there's a lot of power that's dispersed to municipalities and cities and states to make it hard.

[532] One of the best parts about that interview was when Hannity was pushing him on homelessness in California.

[533] And he was like, I think it's a disgrace.

[534] You know, like he basically was like, we failed on that front.

[535] We've done some of what we tried to do, but not all of it.

[536] Unfortunately, like, I don't think like Gavin like rolling his sleeves up is going to be how you fix that.

[537] I think you need to build a lot more housing in California and do a lot of things that take time.

[538] and that are results of years of failures, frankly.

[539] But, like, I think he can't chew gum here.

[540] I think you can do a Hannity interview and govern this date.

[541] I'm not worried about that part.

[542] All right.

[543] I want to go around the world with you.

[544] You are the host of a global podcast.

[545] But before we get to our Around the World game, I just want to talk about, like, what your worldview is now, right?

[546] Like, just kind of stepping back.

[547] I have a running gag with Ben Rhodes, your co -hosts, but how him and Bill Crystal are kind of, like, meeting in the middle right now.

[548] Like, they're both slowly nudging towards each other.

[549] and that this would horrify both of them.

[550] And if I told both of them this in 2011, they would have spit on me, you know, but like here we are now.

[551] And like it almost, they could do a road show like Ben and Bill where there's very little disagreement, I think.

[552] And the crux of this, I guess, is that, well, we know why Bill's gun cuck.

[553] But in Ben's case, I think the crux of this is that as you look at the internal threat of Trump and you look around the world and you see a lot of Trumpian threats and, frankly, even worse threats, if you're looking at she and other places around the world and Putin.

[554] And all of a sudden, like, the idea of, like, American hegemony is starting to seem a little better, maybe.

[555] Then it seemed to 2008 when we made some errors, when we made some bongles, it's starting to seem a little bit better.

[556] So, anyway, where do you kind of land on that?

[557] What's your foreign policy philosophy these days?

[558] And where are you on American hegemony and American exceptionalism and American greatness?

[559] Oh, boy.

[560] Wow.

[561] So there was a period of time where, because we were in the middle of a Cold War, the United States treated every country like it was a proxy in that war.

[562] And that led to supporting coups and backing right -wing death squads.

[563] Shout out Elliot Abrams, who just got named to some position by the administration.

[564] More evidence, by the way.

[565] If Elliot Abrams can get appointed in a Democratic administration, then the Bill and Ben Buddy comedy that I'm pitching might be possible as well.

[566] Anyway.

[567] So I don't think, you know, American hegemony is necessarily the right thing.

[568] I mean, we want a really strong military.

[569] I think we want great diplomats.

[570] I think we want great alliances and relations like NATO, et cetera.

[571] I think where your theory of the case of the Bill Ben, what's it called when two black holes collide, whatever that is, falls apart is I think Ben and I have been much harder on the actions taken by this current Israeli government than basically any party in Washington would allow us to be.

[572] We've both criticized our own boss even for slapping so many sanctions on Venezuela and basically some crushing the economy there to the point where, you know, a quarter of the population is left.

[573] We are very pro around nuclear deal and diplomacy.

[574] And I don't think Bill was the biggest fan of that at the time.

[575] I think he might have started a super pack of sorts with a friend of ours, mutual friend.

[576] There's still some remaining disagreements.

[577] There's still some remaining disagreements.

[578] But like the notion that so tell me what this is wrong.

[579] Tell me if I'm projecting incorrectly on what the incoming Obama view was.

[580] in 08.

[581] But there's this view in 08 that we have all these bungals that the U .S. has fucked up in Iraq and Afghanistan and that really like a little bit of retrenchment, not isolationism, you know, but a little bit of a retrenchment is maybe called for and having being more humble.

[582] And I wonder now if you look at it and maybe that was right in 2008.

[583] I wonder if you look at it now in 2023, especially with what is happening with Putin and China and you see the threats of kind of these rising despots in a lot of places.

[584] What's the opposite of retrenchment?

[585] What's that retrenchment?

[586] Maybe it's time for a little bit more forward -leaning of American involvement.

[587] The Obama theory of the case wasn't retrenchment.

[588] It was, we got to end the war in Iraq.

[589] Then he sent tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan in an effort to deal with al -Qaeda there.

[590] And then there was the pivot to Asia, which I think he regrets.

[591] I mean, I regret it.

[592] Obviously, the end of the war in Afghanistan was horrific.

[593] Like all of us, I think were shocked by the images.

[594] is like we did not do enough to get the people who helped us out of there, et cetera.

[595] But I think what happened there is the result of 20 years of failed policy.

[596] And Joe Biden was just sort of like the last man standing in a game of musical chairs.

[597] There's some things tactically that I would have done differently, like maybe push out the withdrawal date even further outside of the fighting season.

[598] So there was less of a chance the Taliban would kind of roll through the countryside as quickly as they did.

[599] But like Monday morning quarterback from a guy sitting in Los Angeles in shorts, Right.

[600] I mean, I think basically you had a 20 -year nation -building exercise that fails and a government that had no legitimacy and a military that decided at the end of the day it didn't want to fight against the Taliban.

[601] So more broadly like, I think what Obama was trying to do is refocus on the right places, in particular Asia.

[602] And then, of course, like the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sort of upended everything.

[603] So in short, you're saying you wouldn't define yourself like as an American greatness conservative right now when it comes to your form.

[604] policy world, yeah.

[605] You love America, but you're just not quite there.

[606] The thing that I learned in the White House is like, Barack Obama's the most powerful man in the world, and most of your days are spent responding to events outside of your control.

[607] Like, he didn't announce in Springfield, Illinois, being like, in one day, I'm going to plug a giant fucking hole in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that BP created for me. You know what I mean?

[608] It's like, that's every single day.

[609] The Arab Spring turned into years of just sort of like rolling crises, right?

[610] So it's like, there's all these events that happen but on your control all you can do is manage them as best you can all right before we do around the world okay you you brought it up so then one more so looking back arab spring do you feel like in retrospect you know we could have maybe been more you know support like there was a little bit of PTSD from iraq and maybe we could have been more supportive of you know freedom loving people in the middle east or do you think that it was just there was just nothing that we could have i know because obviously the arab spring has fizzled and you know was we're about to go around the world you're going to find yeah it's fizzle it's winter in most of these places.

[611] Well, you know, look, Tunisia was sort of like the one bastion of hope, and that's, that's gone south recently.

[612] In Egypt, there was a transition to the first democratically elected president in history, Mohamed Morsi, and he was booted out by a military coup.

[613] I mean, a lot of the story here is, like, ultimately, the guys with the guns have a lot of power and influence, and that was challenging.

[614] Well, you do love freedom, though.

[615] We haven't met maybe as closely as I thought we have, but we do, we do both love freedom.

[616] And I, and I like that.

[617] And that's, That's what I like about these exchanges of ideas.

[618] We both don't like Trump.

[619] Fact.

[620] Bad.

[621] Orange Man is bad.

[622] Okay.

[623] All right.

[624] We're going to close here with a little game.

[625] I want to call, Where in the world is Tommy Vitor?

[626] I'm ready.

[627] Tommy Vitor.

[628] elder millennials out there.

[629] I really do love Podza of the World.

[630] I really do.

[631] I feel obsessed with all the stupid response.

[632] I have to know every micro advancement of the Asa Hutchinson campaign.

[633] God love you, Asa.

[634] And I feel like it's making me dumb.

[635] And so Podshead World is a refreshing break for me to like learn about other things that's happening to use my brain.

[636] Though sometimes I, you know, you guys do, I'm like, I had to skip last those two weeks ago or whatever.

[637] So it's like, the Trump docks.

[638] I'm like, oh, fuck, Tommy.

[639] I want to hear about what's happening in Peru.

[640] Tim, but you know how it goes.

[641] You put out of a subject that's like the coup in Sudan, 190 ,000 listens, Trump docs, 300 ,000, right?

[642] These are high numbers.

[643] It's a depressing state of content in this country.

[644] Dropping your download D there.

[645] Oh, we heard that.

[646] Okay.

[647] Where in the world is Tommy Vitor?

[648] Okay, we're going to go around.

[649] I want to just 60 seconds from you on what is happening in these hotspots.

[650] You have a new podcast also called Pod Save the UK.

[651] What is happening in the United Kingdom elections go?

[652] The next election isn't until January 2025, basically like a parliament can last up to five years, then it dissolves automatically, and then there's a election takes place like a little less than a month later.

[653] The PM can call an early election, but that has not happened yet.

[654] Basically, Rishi Sunak, the current Tory party prime minister is in charge.

[655] He's relatively weak.

[656] He was not popularly elected.

[657] He was chosen by the 170 ,000 some odd dues paying Tory party members.

[658] who are more conservative after Liz Trust was given the boot, Keir Starmor and the Labor Party is wading in the wings.

[659] They have a huge opportunity to win back a lot of seats because of Tory Party weakness and because the S &P, the Scottish National Party, is dealing with some big scandals from its former leader, Nicholas Sturgeon, and her husband, who was like the CEO of the party or something like that or the treasurer or something.

[660] So if labor can win a bunch of Tory seats back and win a bunch of S &P seats back, It could be in a really good spot, but it just won't happen for a while.

[661] So you're optimistic.

[662] Labor.

[663] It's been a long time in the wilderness for labor.

[664] In a weird way, I thought there's been some Republican Party labor parallels, you know, sticking to a toxic leader for way too long.

[665] Jeremy Corbyn, obviously there's some differences.

[666] But you think there's a way out of the wilderness there?

[667] I hope so.

[668] I mean, I think they're kind of trying to decide, okay, what are we going to be as a party?

[669] Are we going to play four corners?

[670] Are we going to get really aggressive, especially when it comes to Brexit?

[671] Because they're not saying we got to undo Brexit and get back in the European Union.

[672] they're saying we have to sort of like fix the mess that it's created.

[673] But I think a lot of Labor Party supporters would like to see them go even further than that.

[674] All right.

[675] Next up, Carmen's flying down to Egypt.

[676] Tell us what's happening in Egypt.

[677] So, I mean, things aren't great.

[678] The latest news I saw is that they're going to have elections before the end of this year instead of next year.

[679] Early.

[680] President, yeah, President Abdul Fattel