Are Republicans About To Impeach Biden?

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Speaker 4 Welcome to Pot Saved America. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

Speaker 10 And I'm Alyssa Mastramonico. Alyssa.

Speaker 4 Thank you for joining us again.

Speaker 4 This is, I think, the third time you filled in during the month of vacations here at Crooked Media.

Speaker 10 I love it. It's my insurrection.

Speaker 4 The question is, will you be here next week when we do the Zoom?

Speaker 10 I mean, I'll do anything. Anything you ask of me, Pfeiffer, anything of you ask me, I'll be there.

Speaker 4 All right, excellent. All right, let's get into it.
Okay. On today's pod, the House Republicans might impeach Joe Biden.
The right wing hatches a plan to destroy the federal government.

Speaker 4 Senator Maisie Arono talks to Alyssa about the tragic fires in Maui, and we answer some of your questions. All right.

Speaker 4 despite no evidence, and I literally mean zero evidence, it appears that the House Republicans are about to embark on an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden having something

Speaker 4 to do with the business dealings of his son, Hunter. Here's what Kevin McCarthy had to say to Fox News's Maria Bartaromo on Sunday.

Speaker 11 So, if you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry. And just so your

Speaker 11 viewers understand what that means, that provides Congress the apex of legal power to get all the information they need.

Speaker 4 All right, Alyssa. I'm not sure why this is not a bigger story.
And I think there's a very good chance this will maybe be the dominant story in American politics when Congress comes back next week.

Speaker 4 But it really seems like based on the reporting and Kevin McCarthy's habit of doing whatever the Freedom Caucus tells him to do, like the House is actually going to embark on this impeachment inquiry maybe as soon as next week

Speaker 10 here's my question for you have these people lost their minds buddy the s and l skit writes itself i mean

Speaker 10 this is like he's practically hyperventilating in that interview because he's already stressed this is such a circus it's like what do they say you elect a clown it doesn't make the place a kingdom it makes it a circus i don't know something like that but that's basically what he's done and that is what congress is going to be like like when they come back.

Speaker 10 The world, there's so many important problems on this planet, buddy, but let's make sure that we use the apex of political power for this.

Speaker 4 I mean, just so people are clear,

Speaker 4 the launching of an impeachment inquiry does not necessarily mean they are going to impeach Joe Biden, but in the history of the United States, impeachment inquiries have been launched quite rarely, and they almost always end in impeachment because these things get a momentum of their own.

Speaker 4 I mean, this is truly, truly bizarre. And it's particularly bizarre in a world in which Kevin McCarthy has an incredibly narrow majority.

Speaker 4 He can barely pass mildly controversial bills, let alone the impeachment of the president of the United States. He has 19 members who are currently in districts that Joe Biden won in 2020.

Speaker 4 And he is... going down this path.
Now,

Speaker 4 Kevin McCarthy, because he is the kind of guy who likes to to read the stage directions out loud during the play, decided to do an interview with the New York Times

Speaker 4 this week where he told, he basically told the New York Times that the reason he was doing this was as a way to convince the far-right members of his caucus to avoid shutting down the government.

Speaker 4 Does that make any sense to you? Or is that a plan so crazy that it could work?

Speaker 10 Honestly, I think it's not a bad plan for him. Like, look, every...
Yes, yes, no. Hear me out.
Hear me out. I'm not saying I think it's a good idea in general.
I'm saying, here's the deal.

Speaker 10 Kevin McCarthy has three constituencies, right? He's got Trump, he's got the Freedom Caucus, and he's got the moderates. Every day is about survival for this man.

Speaker 10 He serves two out of three with this move.

Speaker 10 He'll be able to raise some money off of it. I mean, buddy, listen.
There's a time back in the day when you could buy votes with a bridge to nowhere, you know?

Speaker 10 But like, now you got to try and impeach somebody.

Speaker 10 And so like, I don't know, call me clairvoyant, but I can't help but think that old Kevin hasn't heard the last from the Freedom Caucus on shutting down the government.

Speaker 10 Like they aren't exactly rational or cohesive.

Speaker 4 Now, to try to explain the substantive logic, and I use the term logic quite loosely here, the argument that McCarthy is making is that if the government were to shut down, Congress would have to stop this impeachment inquiry into Biden.

Speaker 4 And therefore, if you really care about impeaching Biden, you want to keep the government open. Right.
Now, a couple of flaws in this plan.

Speaker 4 One is Kevin McCarthy is essentially the one who determines what Congress can and can't do during a shutdown. Right.

Speaker 4 So the Freedom Congress just has to come to Kevin McCarthy and say, no, this is an urgent thing and we're going to keep it going. Right.
Right.

Speaker 4 Two, there's a very obvious way here in which the House Freedom Congress can have their shutdown and eat it too, because they can start the impeachment inquiry, shut down the government, take a break for three weeks while the government shut down, come back and continue the impeachment inquiry.

Speaker 4 So now Kevin McCarthy has the worst of both worlds, which is the government to shut down, something he thinks is quite unpopular and damaging.

Speaker 4 And he has this impeachment inquiry, which he has decided, I think incorrectly, to be slightly less politically damaging than shutting down the government. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So I just, like, it just, as a political professional and a human being who believes in rational thinking, this makes me want to scream. Because the basic,

Speaker 4 the most basic task of being Speaker of the House is keeping the government open.

Speaker 10 That is it. Yes.
That is table side.

Speaker 10 That's what you think, buddy. That's what you think.
Kevin McCarthy thinks his only job is to try to keep his job. And that's all he's thinking about right now.
And he doesn't care.

Speaker 10 He's like, he's like Jean Veljean and Les Miserables. He just keeps looking at the mirror and saying, one day more, one day more.

Speaker 4 That is the first musical theater reference on a Thursday pod to date. So congratulations.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 10 It's why you brought me here.

Speaker 4 But here's the thing.

Speaker 4 I guess the question is, what is the job Kevin McCarthy cares more about? Is it leader of the Republican caucus or speaker?

Speaker 10 Speaker. Right?

Speaker 4 Well, then this, then he is choosing incorrectly because polls show that 56%,

Speaker 4 now a poll came out and we will see more that, and this poll is done by a Democratic group. So take it with a modicum of salt.

Speaker 4 But that 56% of people think that impeachment of Joe Biden would be a partisan witch hunt or partisan phishing expedition, whatever the language is. But people don't like it, right?

Speaker 4 A majority of people don't like it.

Speaker 4 To keep his majority, he has to convince some number of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and are likely to vote for him again in 2024 to also vote for a Republican member of the House.

Speaker 4 How is impeaching Joe Biden or wasting taxpayer dollars on this on this

Speaker 4 completely bogus thing?

Speaker 4 How is that going to help him do that? It is so dumb. And I do think we ought to stipulate, and this is very important.
I should have said this earlier. And I just got so worked up about this.

Speaker 4 I went down a path of attacking Kevin McCarthy, which I do sometimes, is I just want to be very clear. Congress has investigated this for well over a year.
Yeah. A U.S.
attorney has investigated.

Speaker 4 Hunter Biden, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who is now a special accountant, has invested Hunter Biden for five years, dating back to the Trump administration.

Speaker 4 In that time, the media has also dug deep into this. Right-wing media, mainstream media have thrown all their resources at this.

Speaker 4 And never at any time have they found a piece, a single shred of evidence that Joe Biden did anything improper as relates to Hunter Biden's business dealings. Not once.
Not a single piece of evidence.

Speaker 4 The person they're basing this on is the testimony of a former business partner of Hunter Biden named Devin Archer, who has been convicted of multiple crimes, is awaiting a sentence to prison, and also did not, according to the Democrats who heard his deposition, indicate that Joe Biden did anything other than say hello to his son and the people someone was speaking to while on speakerphone.

Speaker 10 Buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy. Are you under the impression that they're tethered to reality in any way, in any way whatsoever?

Speaker 4 Or? Of course not.

Speaker 10 Or that they're linear thinkers.

Speaker 4 Well, they, yes,

Speaker 4 I think we should hold them to account for not being linear thinkers and to create more than one move ahead.

Speaker 4 There has never been a human being in the history of the planet, with the possible exception of Donald Trump,

Speaker 4 more likely to fail the marshmallow test than Kevin McCarthy.

Speaker 4 If you said to Kevin McCarthy, I can prick your finger today or I can cut off your arm in six months, he would choose having his arm severed in six months.

Speaker 4 It is always what happens down the line.

Speaker 4 And it's just, it makes no sense. And this is just so, such idiotic galaxy brain thinking that I can't take it.
And it's frankly bad for, it's bad for Kevin McCarthy. It's bad for the House.

Speaker 4 It's bad for the Congress in general. It's bad for the country.
It is just, it's idiocy. And it's about to be upon us.
There's like, as you said, there's real things happening here.

Speaker 4 They have to pass a bill for funding for natural disasters. There's a hurricane hitting the southeast United States right now as we say this.
You just talked to Senator Hirono about the Maui fires.

Speaker 4 They have to give money to people. What are they going to do instead of that? This bullshit.
Yep. Yep.

Speaker 10 But this tracks, this tracks.

Speaker 4 I mean, yeah, yeah, it's on brand. We don't have to like the brand.

Speaker 10 Right. We don't have to like the brand, but this is like, they, they, none of them, I'm just going to go out on a limb here.
None of them wanted to be in Congress to help people.

Speaker 10 That's not why they're here.

Speaker 4 Other than that, other than Donald Trump. They want to be there to help Donald Trump.

Speaker 10 Oh, my God. Yes.
Help Trump.

Speaker 4 One interesting wrinkle here is that

Speaker 4 In the past, most impeachment inquiries began with a vote of the full House to say this is of such a serious nature that we're going to have a vote and to declare that we're going to look into this.

Speaker 4 Now, in 2019, Nancy Pelosi, quite deftly, I would think, decided, given the members that she had in vulnerable districts, said, we are not going to have a vote of the full house.

Speaker 4 We're just going to begin, which is procedurally you can do. That made Kevin McCarthy and every Republican.
quite angry at the time. He called it an abusive process, illegitimate, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 4 I'm going to give you one guess. How do you think Kevin McCarthy plans to launch this inquiry as soon as September?

Speaker 10 The same way.

Speaker 4 The exact same way, without a vote of the House.

Speaker 10 I mean,

Speaker 10 they're nothing if not hypocritical.

Speaker 4 Now, do you think that's a good, should we like slam him for his hypocrisy? Are we going to get him that way? No, of course not.

Speaker 10 Who cares? They don't care if their shit's devoid of merit. They're fine with it.
They don't care if, I mean, they just don't care. And so there's no point in trying to argue the point because

Speaker 10 we did it. So now they do it.
Even though Donald Trump actually committed crimes, some on national television. And, you know, these guys are trying to chase a Biden down a rabbit hole.

Speaker 4 I mean, just so we can,

Speaker 4 because everyone's memories have grown so short in this terrible age we live in, the reason the House impeached Donald Trump was because he was on tape

Speaker 4 blackmailing. the president of Ukraine.

Speaker 4 Of where?

Speaker 10 Ukraine?

Speaker 4 Oh, right. Yes, yes.

Speaker 4 Holding, extorting him over funding for the military weapons he would need to oppose what at the time seemed like a nebulous threat from Russia in order to get dirt on Joe Biden's son, Hunter.

Speaker 4 And that was on tape. So it seems like these are not two of the same things.

Speaker 10 Not apples to apples here.

Speaker 4 Now, even if the House launches inquiry and then Kevin McCarthy somehow gets the requisite number of Republicans to vote to impeach Joe Biden.

Speaker 4 on all of this bullshit, we know Joe Biden is not going to be convicted and removed from office because, as a reminder it takes two-thirds a vote of two-thirds of the senate to make that happen that is that did not happen for trump either time he was impeached it's not gonna happen for joe biden here especially because he did nothing wrong but if you're in the white house how do you view this do you view this as a

Speaker 4 gigantic pain in your ass something you can maybe welcome politically um

Speaker 4 What's your take on it?

Speaker 10 You know, I don't think they welcome it. I don't think it's that bad.
I don't know that anybody welcomes it. It's going to be a huge fucking pain in the ass.

Speaker 10 You know, it's like, I think that this is a White House that can more than is more than capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. They will have a team.

Speaker 10 There will be people outside, you know, an external group that will help them. They will keep doing the people's business.
You know, they will keep getting things done for this country.

Speaker 10 But it's a distraction and it's a pain in the ass. Again, a lot of other things happening in this country that they should be focusing on.

Speaker 10 And I mean, I think they'll continue to focus on those things, but this is like, it's a pain in the ass. It's a huge pain in the ass.

Speaker 4 Yeah, the reason why this is more of a pain in the ass than the other oversight investigations that have been ongoing for a year and a half now is under the rubric of an impeachment inquiry, Congress has its highest power to investigate its subpoenas.

Speaker 4 Well, we thought at least that its subpoenas would be taken more seriously. A lot of court decisions during the various Trump impeachments really brought that into question, but

Speaker 4 various officials or people like requests for documents, emails are more likely to have to be negotiated or acceded to under an impeachment inquiry, potentially than under the normal bullshit that like Jim Jordan's doing every day to end up on Newsmax or whatever else.

Speaker 4 Now, I will say, and this is maybe a bit of fortune for the Biden folks, is they just named Ed Siskel, the new White House counsel. Who is terrific?

Speaker 4 We love that. We worked with him in the Obama White House.

Speaker 4 He was very instrumental in helping us respond, although Obama was unpeached, but he was the target of one gazillion bullshit investigations, helped us navigate all of those things.

Speaker 4 And so they have a very able hand to help them handle this. They have some really smart people doing the comm stuff on this.

Speaker 4 Beth LeBold, who's the communications director, was the person who handled the response to all of the Republican bullshit and the legal investigation stuff for us as well. So

Speaker 4 they are certainly not rookies in this in any way, shape, or form. No, they can handle it.
What do you think the politics of this are for Biden?

Speaker 4 Is it somewhat, even if it's annoying in the short term, is the mere fact of this a little bit of a political gift?

Speaker 10 I I think a little bit.

Speaker 10 You know, I think that President Biden is really good at taking on the Republicans when they really sort of piss him off by just making them seem small and seeming unafraid of them.

Speaker 10 And I think that that's what he'll do. He will get asked a gazillion questions when he's out campaigning and he'll be like, yep.
I mean, like, look, when you think about it,

Speaker 10 Donald Trump obfuscates, he denies, he tries to get away with things. And Joe Biden's just going to like dam into the torpedo.
He's going to be like, yeah, okay, fine.

Speaker 10 come for me here you go we'll give you whatever you want like take everything

Speaker 10 um you know like dust on his shoulder that's so i think it's you know i just it's hard it's hard to imagine you mean what you mean dirt on his shoulder right what did i say dust yeah

Speaker 10 did i did i mess up a rap lyric you you messed up the jay-z reference okay i meant whatever i'm supposed to have said but i did the brush

Speaker 10 i did the brush thing right um yes you did the brush but no i mean like it's it's hard to say it's like a net positive, but I think that they will, they will

Speaker 10 make the best of it, I guess.

Speaker 4 Yeah. No one wants to be impeached.
No. No one wants to deal with these things.
It is, it will be supremely annoying.

Speaker 4 If the House actually goes through with this, it becomes one of these things that is like hard to explain generations from now. Right.

Speaker 4 Like when people are just like going to whatever the hologram 3D metaverse version of Wikipedia is and they read about Joe Biden and it's like, how do we explain these people that there was this period in time the Republican Party was run by idiotic weaklings who decided to impeach the president for no reason?

Speaker 4 Like that will be a hard thing to explain.

Speaker 4 But it

Speaker 4 from a pure raw politics point of view.

Speaker 4 So I'm going to use this poll that I mentioned before that was done by the Congressional Integrity Project, which is a Democratic group that pushes back to the Protestants.

Speaker 10 You know, for someone who hates polls, you love polls.

Speaker 4 I think that they just provide us a little snapshot in time.

Speaker 10 Okay. That's good.
I just wanted to take a minute.

Speaker 4 And so this poll showed that 56% of voters, as I said, thought that this basically was stupid partisan bullshit, but an 88% of Democrats thought that. I would like to speak to the 12% who didn't.
But

Speaker 4 when you look at the 2024 polling today, the race is much closer than you want it to be.

Speaker 4 And the main reason for that is Joe Biden is currently underperforming with Democrats and people who voted for him in 2020. Right.

Speaker 4 And he's getting, in some cases, about 77% of Democrats. I wrote a long piece about this in the message box earlier this week.

Speaker 4 But one thing that will quickly solve that problem is Republicans impeaching him.

Speaker 4 This is exactly what happened to Trump's approval numbers in 2019, early 2020, when Democrats impeached him, Republicans went back to Trump. Right.

Speaker 4 And his approval numbers actually went up during the course of that inquiry. And so there will probably, this will, in some ways, remind people why the Republicans are fucking nuts and remind them.

Speaker 4 One of the validations of Joe Biden's presidency will be that these hateful morons are attacking him. Like, that is, that's how negative partisanship and polarization works in this day and age.

Speaker 10 Oh, thank you for breaking that down.

Speaker 4 Sorry, did I do that in an obnoxious way?

Speaker 10 No, it was perfect.

Speaker 4 Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 4 Okay, switching gears for a second here.

Speaker 4 And speaking of Kakamimi right-wing schemes, the Heritage Foundation.

Speaker 10 Oh, I'm so upset about this.

Speaker 4 That's why we had you here.

Speaker 4 The right-wing, a right-wing think tank has put together a 1,000-page plan

Speaker 4 and plans to recruit thousands of people to come to Washington to

Speaker 4 literally destroy the federal government as we know it and fire up to 50,000 civil servants if Donald Trump or some other MAGA-friendly candidate wins in 2024. This is called Project 2025.

Speaker 4 It sounds very scary, but it's quite confusing. Alyssa, you, when you were a White House Deputy Chief of Staff, you had many, many responsibilities.

Speaker 4 One of those was you were in charge of presidential personnel, staffing the government, essentially. Can you help explain what it is the Republicans are trying to do here and why it'd be so bad?

Speaker 10 Just know that I'm about to embark on a nerd spiral, so you can just sit back.

Speaker 10 This is first of all, these heritage people call their plan, it's actually packaged as like a coffee table book. Just, I don't know, think about that for a minute.

Speaker 10 There's something about that that makes it even more pretentious and annoying.

Speaker 4 But, okay, first,

Speaker 10 the U.S. government currently has about 4,000 political appointees.

Speaker 10 These are people who switch from administration to administration, and we have about 488,000 civil servants who are known as FTEs, full-time equivalents.

Speaker 10 Okay, those are the people who keep the government going. They don't change from administration to administration.
I oversaw the political appointees. That's how it should be.

Speaker 10 We were in the administration. I oversaw the political appointees.
The FTEs are basically our safety net.

Speaker 10 They're the reason we have a smooth transition of government because they're the career employees with specific expertise that keeps the government running.

Speaker 10 And if you actually go to usajobs.gov, you can see the process that they have to go to to apply for a job.

Speaker 10 What the right wants to do is return to the spoil system.

Speaker 10 This is what they want to do. It was actually President Carter who reformed the civil service in an effort to end political bias, which had been a problem since the 1800s.

Speaker 10 The civil service is what the GOP has dubbed the deep state because they believed they stood in the way of Trump. Buddy, to be honest, these people are meant to be the guardrails for all of us.

Speaker 10 This is what they do. We all come into government.
Most people haven't done it before. They have the depth of knowledge that helps every administration be successful.

Speaker 10 So basically, what the GOP wants to do is bring in 50,000 people to eliminate the people I just told you about. So, in essence, I'm just going to make a real clear example.

Speaker 10 They want to be able to hire somebody to work at the USDA Forest Service who isn't required to know how to put out a forest fire. That's what they want to do.

Speaker 10 Or, like, they don't even have to know what a tree is. It's fine.
They just want to bring in all of these new people. And this is the best part, buddy, as I went down the rabbit hole in this.

Speaker 10 The Heritage Foundation actually held a jobs fair for the government in waiting. And do you know where they held the jobs fair?

Speaker 4 In a Fox News green room.

Speaker 10 Even better. It was at the Iowa State Fair.

Speaker 10 They held their jobs fair at the Iowa State Fair because, buddy, bring your turkey leg and beer and come over and learn about working at Treasury.

Speaker 10 That's

Speaker 10 what they want to do. They're government in waiting.
And buddy, they are putting so much effort into this.

Speaker 10 And it is truly so stressful to me because at first, like when you you get in the government, you meet the career employees,

Speaker 10 they might be a little judgy of you. They're like, who are these political whippersnappers? And the truth is, you're like, who are these people who've been here for forever? And guess what?

Speaker 10 You fucking need them. America needs them.
We all need them. They are American heroes.
And this is such a tragic situation.

Speaker 4 I mean, to put it into just like some real world context from our lives. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Like you and I, and I think Favs was with us, were on the first bus of people who went from Barack Obama's inauguration the moment he becomes president.

Speaker 10 I was already there.

Speaker 10 I had to miss inauguration. You always forget this.
You always forget this.

Speaker 4 Well, then you can speak to that because

Speaker 4 you walk in to the White House. And Obama became president during what we now know to have been an active terrorist plot.
Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Big deal. And the White House feels empty.

Speaker 4 All the offices. The Bush people are all gone.
Totally.

Speaker 10 It is tumbleweed. There's tumbleweed through the whole thing.

Speaker 4 You think it's tumbleweed in the offices that we're going to sit in, right? There's a little post-it note with your name on it.

Speaker 4 Your desk is empty other than some nice people put like some pencils and pens there and there's a phone and there's a post-it note on the computer with your temporary password. Yep.
Yep. That's it.

Speaker 4 And that's it. That's it.
But then you go downstairs and you were like, who are all these people waiting in line to get coffee?

Speaker 4 And you realize it's all the people, the full-time national security professionals who've been there for years who are monitoring the sit room

Speaker 4 to make sure that the country is protected and thought through and there is a continuity plan plan if something were to happen while we're there. Right.

Speaker 4 And they're going to take the, and they want to get rid of those people. And the reason they want to get rid of them, and you have to think about this in the context of January 6th.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 The reason Trump could not pull off the

Speaker 4 things like seizing the voting machines, instituting martial law, various things he wanted to do with the Justice Department was because there were career employees there who would not sign off on it, who threatened to resign en masse if he did these things.

Speaker 4 It's why he had such trouble with the Pentagon, because there were all these career military people who were not going to do what he wanted.

Speaker 4 And so they want to get rid of those people because those are the, that is the bulwark against the craziest things that the Republicans want to do.

Speaker 4 And then you have to put that in the context of the overall vision of right-wing government, which is, as Grover Norquist, the Republican anti-tax advocate once said, is shrink it down to the size that you can drown it in a bathtub.

Speaker 4 Because if you get rid of all these people,

Speaker 4 you can't. do research on climate change.
You can't implement the food stamp program. Everything they want to get rid of is they want to break government so that people don't want government anymore.

Speaker 10 And that's what this is about. I mean, one of their plans is to give employees at DHS power of law enforcement.

Speaker 4 Political appointees.

Speaker 10 Everybody. A whole bunch of people.
Whole bunch of people. Just, you know what? You work here? You're now law enforcement.

Speaker 4 What? And there's no one to stop them.

Speaker 10 There's no way to stop them. If they, if they, if Donald Trump wins or

Speaker 10 that other guy, Ramaswamy, they will do this. They, they will absolutely do do this.

Speaker 10 It is, it is, it is really, everyone should be really terrified. This is truly terrifying.

Speaker 4 It's hard to explain to people, but I think you did an excellent job of explaining why it affects people's lives, right?

Speaker 4 And that's, that's the thing we're going to have to do during this campaign for a lot of people. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 4 Alyssa, Donald Trump, a former president of the United States, with a hurricane hitting his home state of Florida,

Speaker 4 went on Instagram to offer a message to Floridians and frankly, all Americans. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 12 Wow, my interview with Tucker Carlson has turned out to be the single most watched video and interview in the history of the world, I guess.

Speaker 12 Such a great honor to have participated, 262 million views, and counting more than doubling the longtime reigning champ, the Oprah Winfrey interview of Michael Jackson.

Speaker 12 So I want to congratulate Tucker and I want to thank everyone.

Speaker 4 Thank you very much. Alyssa, tough hit for Oprah, huh? How do you think she's handling this?

Speaker 10 You know what? I think she's doing great. You know why? I don't know what other people did, but I went back and watched the Oprah Michael Jackson interview.
What a fucking trip.

Speaker 10 I had totally forgotten about that. 1993 never felt so fresh.

Speaker 4 Alyssa, I decided to put this in the outline two and a half hours ago. Yeah.
In that time, you have interviewed a United States Senator and you watched a 19 to 83 interview with Michael Jackson.

Speaker 10 I did. It was incredible.
Elizabeth Taylor was there. Buddy, you know that when you invite me to do the pod, I was prepped and ready to go by last night.

Speaker 10 I had nothing but time on my hands this morning. So, yes, I watched the video, the interview of Oprah at Michael Jackson's house, Neverland Ranch.
That shit was wild.

Speaker 10 But also, I think you and I both know, like, as many people watch the Donald Trump interview as attended his inauguration.

Speaker 4 Are you saying it was not the largest crowd to ever witness an inauguration history?

Speaker 4 Listen, buddy.

Speaker 4 As the soon-to-be Dancing with Stars contestant Sean Spicer said. I was just like, like, what is he doing? He's so pathetic.

Speaker 10 Like, he's just so pathetic. Like, like, you have to, like, how does Melania even look at him? But also, he's always so horny to like be with the elites.

Speaker 10 Like, he had to say Oprah because secretly he wants Oprah to like him. He wants Oprah to call him up and say, good job.
And that's never going to happen because that interview is iconic.

Speaker 4 I mean, it is. He has many times over the last seven to eight years mentioned the fact that Oprah used to be nice to him and now she's not.

Speaker 10 Yeah. He also invited the Clintons to his wedding.
Just saying he's had a real journey.

Speaker 4 I don't want to play the role of fact checker or something I pointed myself to in last week's pod with Tommy.

Speaker 4 But to be clear, when Donald Trump says 262 million people watched his interview, that is not true. No.

Speaker 4 I know. I'm sorry.
Yeah, it's true. Oprah's record stands the test of time.

Speaker 10 With one extra view right over here.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 4 Everyone's going to be shocked to hear this, but Elon Musk is playing a little fast and loose with the view count on Twitter. What a Twitter view means is really what we used to call an impression.

Speaker 4 All it means, doesn't mean you watched the video, it doesn't mean you started the video, it doesn't mean you paused on the video as you were scoring through Twitter feed.

Speaker 4 It means it showed up in your feed. So if, for instance, you follow Donald Trump, you follow Tucker, some reporter you follow

Speaker 4 retweeted it, that counts as a view. Some progressive person you followed quote tweeted to tell you how stupid Trump is, that counts as a view.

Speaker 4 The folks at Mashable did an estimate based on the video view count, and that just means you watched some of it or started it.

Speaker 4 You don't have to watch all of it or even most of it, that it was closer to like 12 or 14 million people, I think. And

Speaker 4 that was actually not only the... not the most watched video in history.
It's not even Tucker Carlson's most watched interview. His interview with Andrew Tate, the

Speaker 4 sex trafficker and misogynist, that one actually had more video views at the time than Trump. So the only reason I bring this up is because Trump's a nut and we should make fun of him.

Speaker 4 But also, I think there is like an object lesson here for progressives, which is Donald Trump did the Tucker Carlson interview because he's a shallow, spiteful man. He wanted to screw over Fox.

Speaker 4 Like there's nothing more to tell Fox that he is mad at them than to do an interview with the person that Fox is currently in litigation for over violating his non-compete.

Speaker 4 But he also is doing something that is like, it's not intentionally strategic, but it's something that he, that ends up happening so often that it is like a

Speaker 4 downstream strategic benefit of Trump's sort of crazy media style, which is Donald Trump believes that Tucker Carlson helps him become president. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And therefore, he takes his time and he lays hands on Tucker Carlson as a media figure. Because Tucker Carlson went off to do this Twitter show.

Speaker 4 And if you really, has anyone even thought about Tucker Carlson since he launched this Twitter show? No, no one sees it. No one cares about it.

Speaker 10 Also, can I just say I think I'm a better interviewer than Tucker Carlson?

Speaker 4 That was like a bad interview.

Speaker 10 That was a bad interview. It's also why people don't have to like dunk on Trump.
Like we all hate him, but stop quote tweeting. It's just giving him more views.

Speaker 4 Yes, you're giving him what he wants is your attention.

Speaker 4 He doesn't care if your attention is good or bad. He just wants your attention.
But what Trump does by doing this interview is he helps make Tucker Carlson a more influential figure.

Speaker 4 It gives him more followers, more viewers, bigger part of the conversation.

Speaker 4 And that is a lesson that Democrats up and down the ballot can learn learn from Trump, which is we should do the same thing for our media allies, right?

Speaker 4 It is why we, it is why more politicians, why we love when politicians do interviews on Potet of America or hysteria.

Speaker 4 It's why Elijah and Ben make me beg people to smash the subscribe button on the Pots of America YouTube channel, because

Speaker 4 that helps build up our following and make sure more people see our stuff.

Speaker 4 And so if you believe, if you think progressive media is, if you're a progressive politician, you think progressive media is a net benefit for progressive causes and progressive politics, then you have to do more stuff with them.

Speaker 4 That is my pitch for people to come on Pet Save American Hysteria. That was

Speaker 10 well done.

Speaker 4 Thank you.

Speaker 10 I didn't totally see where it was going right at first. Then I was like, oh, I get what he's doing.

Speaker 4 It made me force people to listen to Donald Trump for 28 seconds, but hopefully there's a payoff here. Okay.

Speaker 10 Or Oprah and Michael Jackson.

Speaker 4 That's right. And you got to watch that interview.
Okay. When we come back, Alyssa talks to Senator Amazing Arano.

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Speaker 10 Senator from Hawaii, Maisie Hirono. Welcome to Pod Save America.

Speaker 14 Good to be with you always.

Speaker 10 Aloha.

Speaker 4 Aloha.

Speaker 10 We are a few weeks out from the fires that ravaged Maui, specifically in Lahaina and Kula. We see the aftermath of Hurricane Edalia across the south.
Mother Nature feels very pissed at us right now.

Speaker 10 I saw that a recent brush fire, another one, albeit brief, caused an evacuation of Lahaina. Are the fires fully contained on the island at this point?

Speaker 14 The fires are contained 100%,

Speaker 14 as far as I know, in Lahaina, but everyone is ever watchful, you can imagine. The fires have been contained, as far as I know.

Speaker 10 What are the unique challenges of being an island state when it comes to recovering from a disaster like this?

Speaker 14 We are also a very tourist-dependent state, and when something like this happens and

Speaker 14 people no longer come to our state, it's going to have a devastating impact on our economy and our ability to recover. And that is why the governor and the mayor of Maui County is asking people to

Speaker 14 help with the economic recovery by continuing to visit not Lahaina, but the other parts of Maui, being very sensitive to the fact that there is a lot of grieving and loss being experienced by the people of Maui.

Speaker 14 But still, the recovery is going to take

Speaker 14 time and resources. And part of that are tourists who will come in and

Speaker 14 support the economic recovery of Maui. Again, being very sensitive to what we are going through.

Speaker 10 Are there other ways that people traveling to Maui can be conscientious tourists other than just not going to Lahaina? Are there ways that they can help?

Speaker 14 Well, they can certainly go to a website that I've been suggesting people go to. It's called Hawaii CommunityFoundation.org, and they have set up a special fund for Maui Recovery.

Speaker 14 Hawaii CommunityFoundation.org, all

Speaker 14 under, not underscore, just type that in. And they are accepting contributions from literally all over the country and the world.

Speaker 14 There are a lot of people who hold Hawaii and Maui dear to their hearts. And so those kinds of contributions are really, really important right now.

Speaker 10 And I have been following them as well, Senator, and they have been very transparent about how much money they're getting and what they're giving away and to whom.

Speaker 10 So they have really been doing heroic work. Yes.
On Maui, there are still 300 people reportedly missing.

Speaker 10 Several news reports are saying the mayor of Maui was derelict in his duties and didn't call the state for backup.

Speaker 10 Are you confident that if people made catastrophic mistakes, that they'll be held accountable?

Speaker 14 I think that that is all going to reveal itself as

Speaker 14 we continue to recover. And as you probably know, there are multiple lawsuits.
The county has already filed a lawsuit against the electric company. The electric company will probably countersuit.

Speaker 14 Then there are private suits going on.

Speaker 14 So all of that that kind of information will reveal itself and there will be a lot of finger pointing i'm sure but at the same time the recovery is going to require time resources and

Speaker 14 really the recovery should reflect the values and the voices of the people of Lahaina in particular. It is not about, as the president said yesterday.

Speaker 14 It is not about the federal government or anybody else swooping in and saying, here's what you all are going to do. Here's what Lahaina is going to look like.

Speaker 14 No, it's going to be done very much reflecting the values and voices of the people there.

Speaker 10 To that point, I think for a lot of folks, it's hard to imagine a drought on an island. But Maui was in fact experiencing a drought, and the fires were largely fed by non-native plants.

Speaker 10 Something I think it's really important for our listeners to know.

Speaker 10 Loads of plants were brought onto the island in the late 1700s and 1800s, like guinea grass, for purposes they no longer serve, like feeding cows.

Speaker 10 Colonists turned from cattle farming to other forms of agriculture, but left these grasses that grow up to six inches in a day.

Speaker 10 They're both drought resistant and decompose less quickly, making them essentially kinling in a situation like this.

Speaker 10 Will recovery efforts include addressing issues like these invasive species that make your lands more vulnerable to fires?

Speaker 14 Of course.

Speaker 14 There are other areas of Hawaii that are vulnerable. Hawaii has wildfires just like any other state.
And the numbers of acres percentage-wise is akin to other states.

Speaker 14 But of course, this was the most devastating in loss of life and property an entire town burned to the ground, a very historic town.

Speaker 14 And yes, so the conditions that led to this disaster will need to be investigated, including the presence of invasive grasses that needed to be cut back.

Speaker 14 There are other places where these invasive grasses have grown.

Speaker 14 And we need to make that the management of the lands, the fallow lands, is part of our efforts to prevent and mitigate these kinds of disasters.

Speaker 10 This morning, some news broke. You can always count on Oprah to make a splash.
This morning news broke that Oprah and The Rock have launched an assistance fund called the People's Fund of Maui.

Speaker 10 They donated $10 million to kick it off and say every cent will go to the people of Maui.

Speaker 10 According to the press release, residents 18 and over who live in the affected area and who were displaced by the fires will be eligible to receive $1,200 a month to help through the recovery period.

Speaker 10 Maisie, do you think we're at a point now where climate disasters are so frequent that we're going to have to rely on private citizens to provide relief for survivors?

Speaker 14 I'm really glad that private citizens, particularly I would say,

Speaker 14 the people of Maui, when I was visiting the shelters, it was very clear. All the people were there volunteering, including high school kids who were volunteering.

Speaker 14 But this is a joint effort by government. We have to acknowledge, we, our country, has to acknowledge, I would say, the connection between global warming, climate change, and the frequency and

Speaker 14 how damaging all of these disasters are. So hurricanes and flooding and wildfires, these in my view, and in the view of scientists, are connected to global warming.

Speaker 14 And we need to acknowledge that and as a country, deal with it. And that is why the Inflation Reduction Act has $300 billion to deal with global warming and climate change.

Speaker 14 But we know that there are some states where you can't even use the words climate change. Well, hey, everybody, wake up because

Speaker 14 this is the time for all of us in a bipartisan way to say that we are doing things

Speaker 14 in our globe that is

Speaker 14 really setting the stage for these kinds of

Speaker 14 global climate-damaging events to continue to happen, and we need to deal with it in a way that will prevent and mitigate global warming.

Speaker 10 You touched on this a little bit ago, but we have been hearing stories about unsavory developers and real estate agents trolling to buy up land.

Speaker 10 Do you have confidence that the people in Maui will be provided with the means to keep the land they own and rebuild the homes that may have been destroyed?

Speaker 14 I believe that there will be ways that, especially at the county level there may be a moratorium on building or sales of land and whether that that can that will be challenged i'm not sure but there is a general i would say consensus and support this is no time for people to come flocking in and and trying to buy up the land that's in la haina this is not the time for any of that kind of

Speaker 14 activity to be happening. I believe that there is a moratorium on this kind of of activity.
I certainly hope so.

Speaker 10 Let's talk a little bit more about giving and how people can help. I have focused my giving toward the Maui Humane Society.
I am wearing their t-shirt today.

Speaker 10 Since in Hawaii, pets are considered part of the Ohana, the family.

Speaker 10 They're doing incredible work. Are there other organizations? We already talked about the Hawaii Community Foundation.

Speaker 10 Are there other organizations you would love our listeners to be aware of and to support?

Speaker 14 If you go to Hawaii Community Foundation, there is a list of all of the organizations.

Speaker 14 They're trusted organizations that the money that goes into this special fund through the Hawaii Community Organization. Please check through that to see if the Humane Society is among them.

Speaker 14 Or you can probably just

Speaker 14 go to Humane Society Maui. and scroll through, but make sure that these are legitimate organizations that are accepting these funds.

Speaker 10 And we will make sure to link to these organizations in our show notes so people can just click over and support.

Speaker 10 And also, I just want to say that for me, growing up, we always went to Maui in the winter and our favorite thing was coconut syrup.

Speaker 10 So I have ordered loads of coconut syrup to help support businesses. So if you are near me, you will be getting coconut syrup soon.

Speaker 14 Well, there you go.

Speaker 10 Thank you. Maisie, thank you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today, Mahalo.

Speaker 14 And thank everyone who cares about Hawaii to help our recovery. Mahalo no iloa.
Thanks for the focus. It's going to take a long time for us to recover from something as devastating as this.

Speaker 14 It's still heartbreaking.

Speaker 10 It's so heartbreaking just watching. And I really feel it's terrifying to hear people talk about the conspiracy theories of what they think happened.

Speaker 10 So I really wanted to get you on today to be able to kind of like.

Speaker 14 Yes, we need to push back and

Speaker 14 focus our energies and what's really going to help. And then that is not about, you know, there's going to be as Kevin McCarthy, he wants to do an investigation into the federal response.

Speaker 14 Politicizing this tragedy is not what we need

Speaker 14 at the moment or anytime, frankly. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Hawaii CommunityFoundation.org.

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Speaker 4 all right before we go alyssa and i wanted to answer a few questions submitted from the friends of the pod community on discord if you love pod save america if you love crooked media if you want more content you want ad-free episodes of pod save america if you just want a to be part of a community of people who are working together to defeat mag republics and save our democracy particularly an online community that's that elon musk is banned from you should go to crooked.com slash friends and join the friends of the the Pod subscription community.

Speaker 4 I promise you, if you like what you're listening to here, you will love that. And these questions were submitted by people as part of that community.
Alyssa, our first question

Speaker 4 is from Mont Govern,

Speaker 4 who asks, in light of McConnell's apparent health issues, if he does retire in the near future,

Speaker 4 who do you think would replace him as the party's leader? And what would that mean for the Senate?

Speaker 10 Thune, right? John Thune. Wouldn't Thune replace him?

Speaker 4 There is a battle between three Johns. John Thune, John Cornyn, John Barroso, who I swear is a real person.

Speaker 10 John Thune, don't tell anyone. John Thune's the most handsome, though.

Speaker 4 Alyssa. What?

Speaker 4 You were speaking to someone who

Speaker 4 spent two years of their life running campaigns against the leader.

Speaker 10 I didn't say that he was smart or capable.

Speaker 10 I don't think any of the three of them are, but he's the most handsome.

Speaker 4 Would you say Mitch McConnell was a successful Republican leader? In all the ways we hate, but would you say he was successful?

Speaker 10 I mean, yeah, probably. Would you say he's handsome? Definitely not.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 4 Okay. Just some context here for people who may not have seen, Mitch McConnell

Speaker 4 earlier this year had a bad fall. He was absent from the Senate for weeks.
He was very mysterious about what caused the fall or how he was dealing with it. He came back to the Senate.

Speaker 4 During a press availability a month or so ago, he froze up.

Speaker 4 And during that and had a clear health issue while speaking to the press and had to be escorted away from the microphones by the three Johns I just referenced.

Speaker 4 And then just yesterday on Wednesday at a, he was in Kentucky, he had a similar incident where he was asked a question about running for re-election and then just froze. He did not speak.

Speaker 4 An aide had to come up and talk to him. He eventually had to be sort of taken away from the microphone.
McConnell's staff has told no one anything about what is happening, what the issue is.

Speaker 4 They haven't had a doctor talk to anyone.

Speaker 4 And so there's real questions about not just whether McConnell will run for re-election in a few years, but whether he can continue to be Senate leader or even senator from Kentucky right now.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And you are probably right.
So the order here is that Thune is the number two in the Senate.

Speaker 4 Cornyn has been in Senate leadership for a long time. He's a sort of a little bit more of a political person than Thun is.
He ran the NRSC. He's a little more of a MAGA media personality.

Speaker 4 I could tell you nothing about John Barroso.

Speaker 10 Like at all. I don't know that.

Speaker 4 I don't know that I don't know that anyone could either.

Speaker 10 And I appreciate that you could tell me a little something about the second John, but the reason I said that Jon Thune should do it because he's the most handsome is because that's all I know about any of the three of them.

Speaker 4 John Thune, as I mentioned, I ran two. I helped.

Speaker 4 I worked on two Senate campaigns against him. We won the first one, lost the second one.

Speaker 4 He is a able politician. I would say he is not a deep thinker.
would be a fair way to say it. He certainly was not strategic like McConnell,

Speaker 4 but he would probably be a better messenger if he were to become the leader of the Senate. Like McConnell is never on television because,

Speaker 10 I mean, he is utterly untelegenic.

Speaker 4 And he speaks like every McConnell interview, his whole career has been basically like someone reading the Almanac of American Politics with marbles in their mouth.

Speaker 4 Like you just can't understand the words. And when you can't understand the words, it's in Senate jargon.
It's terrible. Thun is a good messenger and probably better for that.

Speaker 4 Cornyn is really a kind of a gross, disgusting individual in his politics, but also a smoother messenger. And like I said, if John Barroso walked in this room right now, I wouldn't recognize him.

Speaker 4 So maybe he's probably not the one who's going to win. But the change in the Senate would probably be same politics, less able execution than McConnell had.
All right. I buy it.
Okay. Next question.

Speaker 4 Melissa, and this one is definitely right up your alley. Okay.

Speaker 4 MG asks, who is the person in the White House in charge of all the flags? Like, or is there a room full of every country's flag and they just pull it out during state visits?

Speaker 4 Do you send along flags before international visits? MG wants the flag scoop and also wants to know when if this person in charge of the flags retires, can they apply for the job?

Speaker 10 Well, as a matter of fact, flags are handled by the visits division at the State Department, and they work in coordination with the White House Military Office when the visit is at the White House.

Speaker 10 And since MG is very stoked on flags, I will add this little nugget, which is that the lowering of the flag over the White House is a function of the White House staff secretary's office, and they actually draft a proclamation for the president to sign that determines how long the flag will be at half mast.

Speaker 4 Is there a room with the flags?

Speaker 10 I mean, they're not kept in a bunker, so the others, there's a room somewhere with flags.

Speaker 4 Where are the state flags?

Speaker 10 Like the United States of America?

Speaker 4 Yeah, the 50 states, because aren't those always put up all the time?

Speaker 10 Why are you trying to make me look like an asshole who doesn't know anything? I don't know where the fucking state flags are kept. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 10 I am fairly confident in saying that they are kept in the White House military office.

Speaker 4 Okay. That's good.
That's a good answer. Thank you.

Speaker 4 All right. Katrenya asks, people make fun of the West Wing for its rosy portrayal of an idealistic White House team, but surely you had a few West Wing moments over the years.
What's one you remember?

Speaker 10 What's one you remember?

Speaker 4 Mine's not that rosy, but I'll give it to you anyway because it was quite funny.

Speaker 10 Mine's funny. Mine's not rosy.
Mine's just funny, too.

Speaker 4 In the

Speaker 4 I remember early, early days of the White House. We'd only been there maybe like a month or so.
And

Speaker 4 for those who don't know, on the weekends, White House staff can get, when the president is not working in the West Wing, White House staff can give family, friends a private tour of the West Wing where you can see the Oval Office behind Rope and Stanchion and the cabinet room and all this other stuff.

Speaker 4 And they can happen after hours during the week and on Saturdays and Sundays.

Speaker 4 And particularly in the early days when a Republican, right after a Republican been in the White House for eight years, the White House was packed, particularly there's so much excitement over Obama being president.

Speaker 4 The White House was packed with people giving tours. And it was like, there was like traffic on Saturdays and Sundays, like trying to get to your office because there were so many people doing tours.

Speaker 4 And I was stuck walking up the steps from the basement of the West Wing where you would get coffee and breakfast for me.

Speaker 10 And visit me and visit me.

Speaker 4 And visit you, yes. And so I was well, I had gone and got breakfast, and I was headed up to my office, and I was behind a family getting a West Wing tour from a staffer.
And

Speaker 4 one of the people on the tour says, you know, this looks nothing like the TV show The West Wing, which is true. It does not.

Speaker 4 But at the exact moment she said that, for reasons that are still hard to explain, around the corner comes Rob Lowe. No! Like just as she says it.
No, Sam Seaborn. It was wild.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he had been in the White House for a meeting on environmental policy, I think, with our climate change people, but it was just like exact perfect time.

Speaker 4 And he was just like, so that's what you think, huh? Or something like that. And they just like jaws dropped everywhere.

Speaker 10 Buddy, that's an amazing story. I actually never knew that.
I didn't know that story.

Speaker 4 One day I'll tell the story about when the entire cast of True Blood was trapped outside of the of the White House trying to get in a Toro direct on the day bin Laden was killed

Speaker 10 because everyone was in town for the correspondence dinner.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's right. Right.
Anywho, what's your okay?

Speaker 10 So my story is about the two of us. And I bet you won't remember it, but I, every time.
I'm like a little down in the dumps or something, I will think about this.

Speaker 10 You and I, it was, I don't know what year it was, but our offices were across from each other, right? Next to the oval. And, you know, you and I, we would always pop into the other person's office.

Speaker 10 That was, that was

Speaker 4 January 2013 until March of 2014.

Speaker 10 Okay. So we were across the hall from each other.
And I'm pretty sure it was, well, you know how my feet would always get hot.

Speaker 10 And so I would not have my shoes on in the West Wing when I thought no one was paying attention. So I popped over to your office to chat and the door was open.

Speaker 10 And as I'm standing there barefoot in your office, BB Net and Yahoo, I'm pretty sure it was Bib Net and Yahoo and POTUS walk by.

Speaker 10 And POTUS, who like didn't always stop and be like, this is Alyssa and Dan,

Speaker 10 stopped and immediately looked in and saw my feet and gave me the face. It's like, Jesus fucking Christ, Alyssa.
And I was just standing there in your office. And I was like, shrug emoji.

Speaker 4 Nothing I can do now.

Speaker 10 Anyway, it's like, how can you, I don't, like, that doesn't, it's like, it was the weirdest, weirdest, funniest thing. And I'll always remember it because you were also quite embarrassed.

Speaker 4 I mean, in fairness, it's Barack Obama's fault. He knew all of us for many years before he hired us to these jobs in the White House.

Speaker 10 No one should have expected anything more from me. Okay.
Utterly professional, got the job done, but often barefoot.

Speaker 4 All right. Last question.
Okay. Jen Woda asks, what's the best advice you've given each other?

Speaker 10 Okay, so I'm going to go first because Pfeiffer has given me two hugely important pieces of advice that I cannot wait to utilize weekly. Okay.

Speaker 10 So the first one was I was in my office and I was like real bummed out.

Speaker 10 And I wish the reason I love to tell this is because I think that like people who listen to the pod think of you in a very specific way. And I need them to see this side of you.

Speaker 10 And this is not a nine story. It's not a 90210 story.
So

Speaker 10 you come in and you're like, Alyss, buddy, what's wrong? And I'm like, and I tell you a story about someone who has really let me down. And you're like, buddy, okay.

Speaker 10 I say this with love. And I was like, uh-oh.
You're like, you have to stop being constantly disappointed by people who will only disappoint you.

Speaker 10 And it was like a light bulb went off in my head because that is literally an entire cornerstone of my personality is being disappointed by people who are only in my life to disappoint me.

Speaker 10 So that was the first one. Here's the other one.

Speaker 10 Someone knew,

Speaker 10 you might remember this one. Someone knew had joined us in the West Wing.
And I went into your office and I was like, I don't know about this one. And you're like, buddy,

Speaker 10 listen, you always dislike somebody before you like them. In two weeks, you're going to be cackling in your office together and I will be right.
And you were right.

Speaker 10 And so now when I go through life and I meet someone and I'm like,

Speaker 10 what a fucking asshole. I'm like, Alyssa,

Speaker 10 hold, hold your fire. Pfeiffer might be right here.
And nine times out of ten, you are correct. So you have really just lifted burdens off of my brain.

Speaker 4 I know exactly who you're talking about in both those instances. And I feel like, I feel like that, I feel like that advice worked well in both cases.
It did.

Speaker 10 And in life. And so I just, you know, it's been, I don't know how many years we've been friends, but since you gave me that advice, I think, think about it routinely.

Speaker 4 We've been friends for 16 years, Alyssa.

Speaker 10 And I look better than when we met.

Speaker 4 That is a fact.

Speaker 10 Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 Thank you so much.

Speaker 10 Leaving government does wonders for your skin.

Speaker 4 I don't know that I could single out a single piece of advice you gave me because there is no question in my mind that I would not have

Speaker 4 survived. Because you're a goldfish.
Like, what is it? It means you have no memory. It means you have no memory.

Speaker 4 Yes, no.

Speaker 4 Because I don't, there's no way I would have made it through the White House, a whole bunch of like really challenging periods in my life without you there. There's no question about that.

Speaker 4 But the one most,

Speaker 4 I mean, and you literally saved my life once by sending me to the hospital during a medical emergency and giving me top-notch medical care from someone who's now a right-wing microcongress.

Speaker 4 Absolute maniac.

Speaker 4 But at the time, at the time,

Speaker 4 that did save my life.

Speaker 4 But the most, like, obviously the most impactful and valuable piece of advice you gave me is that you told me to date my wife. Like, I did.
You were a full endorsee. You encouraged me.

Speaker 4 You, so without that, I wouldn't have, my life would be very different, much sadder. And so that was the,

Speaker 4 couldn't be more lucky to have you have done that. So thank you.

Speaker 10 See, we had to give the people what they want.

Speaker 4 I know I don't have to tell you guys this, but everyone needs more Alyssa Master Monaco in their life.

Speaker 4 So be sure to check out her podcast, Hysteria, where she and co-host Aaron Ryan break down the stories that affect women's lives, talking about everything from reproductive rights to rom-coms.

Speaker 4 New episodes drop every Thursday. Make sure to tune in to Hysteria wherever you get your podcasts.
Pod Save America is going back on the road.

Speaker 4 Tickets to our live shows this fall and winter are available now. There are no off years in politics.

Speaker 4 And with so many important state elections this year, 2023, we're excited to be stopping by Battleground States to help break down the news and help you find ways to make an impact.

Speaker 4 Join us for live shows in cities like Louisville, San Diego, San Jose, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans. Get your tickets now at crooked.com slash events.
Alyssa, thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 4 Thank you to Senator Hirono. We will talk to everyone next week.

Speaker 16 Pod Save America is a crooked media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez.
Our producers are Andy Gardner-Bernstein and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick.

Speaker 16 Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglund and Charlotte Landis.

Speaker 16 Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Madeleine Herringer, Ari Schwartz, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.

Speaker 16 And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Mia Kelman, Ben Hefcoat, and David Tolls.

Speaker 16 Subscribe to Pod Save America on YouTube to catch full episodes, exclusive content, and other community events. Find us at youtube.com/slash at PodSave America.

Speaker 4 What's poppin' listeners?

Speaker 10 I'm Lacey Mosley, host of the podcast Scam Goddess, the show that's an ode to fraud and all those who practice it. Each week, I talk with very special guests about the scammiest scammers of all time.

Speaker 10 Want to know about the fake heirs? We got them. What about a career con man? We've got them too.
Guys that will wine and dine you and then steal all your coins.

Speaker 10 Oh, you know they are represented because representation matters. I'm joined by guests like Nicole Beyer, Ira Madison III, Conan O'Brien, and more.

Speaker 10 Join the congregation and listen to Scam Goddess wherever you get your podcasts.