Adam Kinzinger: Trump Has Never Seemed this Scared

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Speaker 50 Hello, and welcome to the Bullwork Podcast.

Speaker 51 I'm your host, Tim Miller. We are back with a fave.

Speaker 53 He is a former member of Congress from Illinois.

Speaker 54 He served in the Air Force and on the January 6th Committee.

Speaker 56 He can do some bicep curls. And he's the subject of a new documentary, The Last Republican, which is available on Apple TV, Prime Video, and other platforms.

Speaker 59 It's Adam Kinziger.

Speaker 60 What's up, man?

Speaker 61 Hey, I'm at the Bullworks studio today.

Speaker 61 And you're not here.

Speaker 16 I know it sucks.

Speaker 55 I did get to see you in person, give those arms a squeeze and see your wife.

Speaker 62 And it was, you know, it was a funeral.

Speaker 24 So, what, yeah, but it was still good to see you. But I had to pop up to New York.

Speaker 61 You know what's funny is they

Speaker 61 did the old, like, put out some pictures, you know, from the funeral, like the AP pictures. And they did put out one of Sophie and I, but we're laughing in it.

Speaker 8 And we're the only ones where people are laughing. I'm like,

Speaker 8 what were you laughing about, do you think?

Speaker 61 I don't know. Probably George ate, you know, George made a couple jokes.
George Codway,

Speaker 61 future congressional camp.

Speaker 8 George W.

Speaker 17 Oh, no, George W you met, not George Conway.

Speaker 66 George W, yeah.

Speaker 61 Yeah. Or else Sophie and I were laughing about something.
I don't know.

Speaker 50 I wanted a couple more jokes at the funeral.

Speaker 67 Can I give notes on the eulogies?

Speaker 67 The grandchildren's eulogies were really amazing.

Speaker 69 And W is like a character. So he was just MW character.

Speaker 70 And Liz was obviously good.

Speaker 71 I wanted one of them to give me a joke about Dick Cheney accidentally shooting the guy, though.

Speaker 8 I know. I feel like it's not.
I figured you got to just own it.

Speaker 50 I figure you got to just own it. And there was a prime spot.

Speaker 10 One of the grandchildren, and again, you know, not to criticize a young person's eulogy for their grandfather, because she was great.

Speaker 52 And I was getting emotional.

Speaker 72 But she has a line where she's like, you know, whatever they called him, grandpa, Dick, sometimes would let us sit in the front row of the fishing boat and he wouldn't get mad even if we accidentally hooked him with our rod.

Speaker 50 And I was like, this is the prime spot to say,

Speaker 55 because he has some experience with that.

Speaker 61 Tim, I honest to God, at that exact moment, thought the same thing. I remember at one point in the funeral being like, they should joke about him shooting somebody in the face.

Speaker 61 And it was exactly there because it would have been perfect. Like, he hooked some people, but that's all right.
He has no place to judge. You shot a a guy in the face, right?

Speaker 64 Well, if you're doing a

Speaker 64 eulogy, send your drafts to me and Adam.

Speaker 81 We'll just make sure you're not missing anything.

Speaker 56 We've got a bunch to discuss today.

Speaker 82 I guess we should start with Donald Trump saying that Democratic lawmakers should be that they have done sedition and which is punishable by death.

Speaker 79 That was a bleat that Trump put out.

Speaker 57 This is in response to something we talked a little bit about with Susan Glasser on yesterday's pod, but in case you missed that, you're supposed to be listening every day, but just in case you missed that, there was a group of Democratic House and Senate veterans who put out a video that was basically saying,

Speaker 83 you know, to the men and women in uniform, if you get an illegal order, you shouldn't follow it.

Speaker 8 You should follow your oath and the code of conduct.

Speaker 53 I played the club yesterday of Stephen Miller saying this was insurrection.

Speaker 69 His boss went a little bit further saying this is sedition and punishable by death.

Speaker 8 I want to hear both your reaction to just the video that the Democratic veterans did as a fellow veteran and the message, and then what you think about Trump.

Speaker 61 Yeah, so on the video itself, I think it's it's fine.

Speaker 61 I think it's good. It's just the question is in what context?

Speaker 61 If they're saying it, and I didn't see the whole video, if they were saying like, hey, these current strikes on drug boats, those are illegal and you should refuse to execute it, then I think that's a bridge too far because you can't put necessarily geopolitical decisions on an individual soldier or airman or whatever.

Speaker 61 They did not give that example. Okay, then good.
So then in that case, what they said is not, shouldn't even be controversial. In fact, I tweeted it yesterday.

Speaker 61 I came home and tweeted, military members should refuse illegal orders. That's basic constitution.

Speaker 61 The fact, though, that they then jump into, while they're talking about the drug boats, they're talking about what Donald Trump is doing, that says more about the Republicans defending him.

Speaker 61 The fact is, as a military member, it is your responsibility not to do an illegal order. And that's basic.
It shouldn't lead to threats of execution, for God's sakes.

Speaker 61 On the second part of it, like, you know, having been at Cheney's funeral and recognizing that probably even three-quarters of the people in there were not Dick Cheney fans, but they were there because they honored the fact that this is a man that, you know, did service to his country.

Speaker 61 They honored that he was an honorable person.

Speaker 62 Rachel Maddow was there for one example of somebody who wasn't, you know, probably.

Speaker 8 Probably not a big Dick Cheney fan. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 61 But then leaving that and seeing this time where there's like the left, the center, and the right, some on the right, not many, you know, all coming together to celebrate this man's life.

Speaker 61 And then seeing the contrast when I got cell phone reception that Donald Trump's calling for execution, it is just, it was a perfect kind of example, visual example of how far we've fallen.

Speaker 61 And so I'll say this to the members of Congress that said, you know, to the military members, don't execute an illegal order. Keep saying it.
First off, it's your right as an American to say it.

Speaker 61 Secondly, it is the responsibility of the military to not execute an illegal order, period.

Speaker 91 I'm always cautious when I say this because I want the Democrats to do more.

Speaker 73 I'm always like, do more, try things.

Speaker 64 Not everything's going to work.

Speaker 85 And so when I offer some feedback on something that they try, I don't want it to mean like, don't do anything or that I'm being a hypocrite.

Speaker 76 So I want them to do stuff.

Speaker 59 You know, these folks are veterans, so I trust their judgment on what other members of the military need or want to hear right now.

Speaker 79 And they're probably hearing more from active duty folks who are worried about the types of orders they're getting, either with regards to, you know, probably mostly with, you know, the military in the streets of our country and posse comitadas.

Speaker 89 But

Speaker 16 just as a political matter, there's so many places to go at Trump right now.

Speaker 81 I'm not sure this is like the sharpest spot to be picking a fight with him on.

Speaker 58 I've watched that much Fox, but I do watch Fox in the Plane when I get an excuse to.

Speaker 89 So when I was flying up here, I watched it and like a lot of coverage of this on Fox.

Speaker 93 And that says to me that Fox thinks this is much better turf for them to be discussing than, I don't know, the economy, Epstein, Trump's other behaviors, the war.

Speaker 64 What do you make of that?

Speaker 61 They're looking for any way, I think, to get off what's been going on. Donald Trump's losing his mind.
Even the call to execute is losing losing his mind. So they want to go back to the reason.

Speaker 61 What was the thing that people felt was inappropriate? Here's where I kind of at the beginning was starting to say where I would have some concerns with how they did it: is, you know,

Speaker 61 when you start saying that, you know, it's up to the individual what an illegal order is, I think you put an unfair burden on your average soldier, right?

Speaker 61 So, first off, if you're in the streets as a National Guardsman, you know, an E3, which is kind of like a basic enlisted or whatever, it is not on you to go through your moral decision matrix to figure out if you being on the streets in dc or in philadelphia or wherever you end up going is a constitutional order it is the responsibility of your high-ranking officers if there's a an order like that where your responsibility comes in as an individual member is uh if you get an order to shoot an american citizen right so something that obvious if your lieutenant or captain says hey you know kent state State, shoot those protesters or whatever, that is your responsibility to say no.

Speaker 61 And so I think we need to be very clear because the one thing I don't want to do is take a well-meaning kind of, you know, E3, E4 in the Army Guard, have them take some stand that they think is moral that actually really shouldn't have that kind of, you know, really isn't a moral stand, really is not, you know, refusing an illegal order.

Speaker 73 I do think Trump's reaction is maybe in part because he thinks this is a good ground for him to fight on, but also

Speaker 9 the stench is on him.

Speaker 65 And I don't really mean the stench that you were talking about before, about how he literally smells like, he literally smells bad.

Speaker 77 That's always on him.

Speaker 71 So he does literally smell bad, but he also has the lame duck stink starting to get on him in a very real way.

Speaker 70 You know, I'm sometimes hesitant to do the like, Trump's really losing it now.

Speaker 63 Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 73 Because it's like Trump has always been like kind of crazy and an emotional, emotional roller coaster and up and down.

Speaker 94 But you do look at it and it's like quiet piggy.

Speaker 54 He yells at a reporter.

Speaker 89 He's now yelling at Democrats and saying that they should be killed.

Speaker 8 It feels like somebody that's flailing right now in his political standing.

Speaker 61 Yeah, to me, too. I actually put out on my sub stack yesterday, Shameless Pitch, follow me, a six-minute video after the funeral.
When I had heard what had happened, it's like, dude.

Speaker 61 And that was kind of my take. Is this doesn't mean that Donald Trump is now on a permanent downhill trajectory, but I think he feels cornered.

Speaker 61 This is the first time probably every Republican has voted against him on something.

Speaker 61 And I I don't know if we ever did in the first administration, but certainly this administration on the Epstein list, for instance, he was forced to come out and be like, fine, release it.

Speaker 61 He's obviously afraid of it coming out. This has obviously set him on a trajectory of kind of like self-destruction or like,

Speaker 61 you know, fear, whatever it is.

Speaker 61 And plus, you know, the election results a month ago, the impending election results in a month in a year, the fact that he probably has advisors, if they are advising him, telling him that he has to recognize and say publicly that cost of living is out of control.

Speaker 61 But he takes that personally because if he says it's out of control, he's admitting he's at fault.

Speaker 61 And I think all of this has forced him into a corner where he's going to lash out at somebody and he can't necessarily lash out at every Republican because he still needs them.

Speaker 61 So he's going to lash out at a reporter because he's angry, calls her piggy, or he's going to lash out at Democrats that said to refuse illegal orders because he's just, he's angry and that's where he's displacing his anger.

Speaker 61 I think your kind of knee-jerk reaction on that is correct. I think he's

Speaker 61 very worried. Now, he could come back from this, let's be clear.

Speaker 4 Don't you think if Trump was shirtless, he would look kind of like a pig?

Speaker 8 Oh, he's kind of like distended belly,

Speaker 56 kind of like that pink skin.

Speaker 61 He's got a pig face kind of now. I mean, if you think about it, like the wispy hair is kind of like pigs have hair.
It's like that hair, actually.

Speaker 8 Yeah, a little, you know, kind of a little bit of a projection situation.

Speaker 53 Yeah.

Speaker 82 All right, you know about the neighborhood cat, the boy named Aretha.

Speaker 89 It's a cat that is after my own heart. It's kind of failing at getting my own heart, but it's after it because we are aligned on the kind of temperature we like.

Speaker 66 If it just dips below like 72, that's too chilly for me and Aretha.

Speaker 82 So Aretha will come into the house. So we're getting into the chilly season.

Speaker 83 And,

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Speaker 89 Sometimes we'll stay in the house.

Speaker 56 It was just the other night, maybe last week, that the cat wanted to get out and was meowing.

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Speaker 57 My husband is sleeping with earplugs in.

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Speaker 71 They're the ones that wanted to bring the damn cat inside.

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Speaker 86 on the Epstein stuff.

Speaker 55 Well, I want to talk about the, there's some emails that came out from Jelaine Glenn Maxwell in jail.

Speaker 57 She's getting extra toilet paper privileges.

Speaker 76 So there definitely is something happening there still.

Speaker 24 You know, why did she get this special treatment?

Speaker 59 Why was the guy that Raskin talked to that worked at the prison that was like, I'm tired of being Jelene's bitch?

Speaker 66 So something weird is happening there.

Speaker 83 And even after now that Trump has folded to MTG and others on the Epstein situation, it still seems like they have some games that they're planning on playing with the actual release.

Speaker 24 The cover-up is still on, I guess, at some point. But I'm wondering what you think the status is.

Speaker 61 Yeah, I mean, look, it's take Jelaine. I hate when people correct how I say her name.
Who gives it?

Speaker 8 I don't even think she really deserves either of them. I kind of appreciate the correct.

Speaker 54 I don't know if it's intentional or not, but Sarah has just settled on ghislane, which is like

Speaker 64 very far off.

Speaker 86 And she's not usually, you know, potty talk.

Speaker 24 So I don't know if it's just her botching it in a funny way or if it's intentional. I don't want to know.

Speaker 53 I don't ask her because I don't want her to stop saying it.

Speaker 61 Stick with it.

Speaker 8 Stick with it.

Speaker 61 Yeah, I think here's the thing with Jelaine Maxwell. So they have all the files that are going to come out.
And I think the big question is: are they going to be redacted?

Speaker 61 Is there going to be stuff that isn't released? I think there's enough public pressure on this now that if there is stuff redacted or if there is stuff that doesn't come out, that's going to be known.

Speaker 61 And the pressure is going to ratchet up more. Okay, so there is whatever is going to be in the files, that's going to be out.

Speaker 61 But the one thing that they know is that Jelaine Maxwell can probably do far more than the files can.

Speaker 61 She probably, in theory, could testify, I saw Donald Trump or I communicated with Donald Trump or whatever, and is very clear that I don't think there's anybody that honestly doubts she's going to get a commutation or a pardon.

Speaker 61 I think it's pretty clear. It may come at the end of Trump's term.
Why would you do that, except that she could take you down? Unless you have an affection for child sex traffickers.

Speaker 61 If you have an affection for child sex traffickers, okay.

Speaker 61 Otherwise, the only reason is because you're protecting yourself. And I think that's the big question.
And again, it's not just that there's their entertaining commutation or pardon.

Speaker 61 She was actively moved to, you know, from a prison perspective, a really nice place. Like, if you and I were in prison, it's where we'd want to go.
And yeah.

Speaker 8 She's getting the triple ply on the

Speaker 61 dude, my hotel here doesn't even have triple ply.

Speaker 61 And if you're President Trump and you know that she can bury bury you you're willing to take the hit of a pardon or a commutation to protect that information like the real truth is i i think

Speaker 76 trump doesn't even remember yeah you know what i mean like he doesn't know what she knows yeah the only part of his spin that is accurate we don't know exactly what the reason was because he's told 90 different stories but like he did stop becoming friends with epstein so like in these last in these late latest rounds of emails they're not hanging out because they weren't hanging out for whatever reason in the late teens So like their friendship was in the first round of Epstein, like before he went to jail the first time for being a pedo.

Speaker 79 And that, you know, is 25 years ago now.

Speaker 91 It'd be kind of like, like a reporter calling me and saying, hey,

Speaker 85 your buddy from college is, is dropping a cache of texts that you sent him like 25 years ago. I'd be like, I hope not.

Speaker 52 I don't, you know, I don't know what's in there.

Speaker 8 Maybe I didn't do anything.

Speaker 8 But there's got to be something bad in there.

Speaker 65 I don't even know.

Speaker 8 So I think that's probably where Trump's mind is on her, right?

Speaker 84 It's like, he doesn't fucking remember exactly.

Speaker 53 He knows he did bad, you know, and he knows that there were young girls around all the time.

Speaker 77 He said it.

Speaker 64 It's possible he didn't remember that birthday card legitimately because they were friends.

Speaker 8 They were hanging out.

Speaker 64 They were creepy.

Speaker 85 And like, that was just the life that he led for like a decade.

Speaker 56 So the details are probably a little fuzzy.

Speaker 8 That would be my guess.

Speaker 61 I think it's true, but also like he's scared of something because I've never seen him this scared.

Speaker 90 But he's seen some stuff in the share files because they showed him something.

Speaker 8 They've showed him something. Yep, yeah, in the share files.

Speaker 61 And plus, they what they had, like, DOJ count the number of times his name's mentioned. Yeah, I would not want my name a thousand times in the Epstein files.
That's just

Speaker 56 have you seen Megan Kelly's latest defense?

Speaker 53 She's out with a new one today. Oh, about she's out with a new one today.

Speaker 97 It's not if she's off the ephebophilia defense, and now she's on to, they're coming after Trump on this, and the only thing they've got is this woman that Epstein brought to his office and he groped her.

Speaker 6 And I'm like, that's it?

Speaker 8 I was like, that, I mean, that's bad as it is. Like, he was a child sex trafficker, came to his office with a young woman who is of age and he groped her.
That's sexual assault.

Speaker 69 That is bad.

Speaker 68 But Megan, that's where Megan's landing right now.

Speaker 61 As much as I'm in shock about how bad the Republican Party has gotten still, I'm in as much shock that Megan Kelly is who she is right now.

Speaker 61 Like, when she was at Fox, she was like kind of reasonable, right? She was all for Fox.

Speaker 61 She's the one that's at NBC, she went woke yeah she was doing like trans youth episodes it's crazy it just goes to show like the thing i i have a lot of respect for anybody who argues something that believes it okay i can't stand rand paul's politics but i think he really believes it and i respect that he believes it okay what i can't take are people that know better you know like a mike johnson like a megan kelly marco rubio for god's all senates basically yeah basically everybody and uh i don't understand Megan.

Speaker 61 I mean, she is now, maybe the money is so good that she has to try to out-crazy everybody else. But to sit there and at one point even say, you know, 15, I mean, come on, guys.
15 is not that bad.

Speaker 61 How that even comes out of her mouth, I don't know, but she's got to live with that. I'm sure she feels guilt, but she'll never express that because you can't express sorrow in MAGA or you're woke.

Speaker 64 What a great transition to the topic I was most excited to talk to you about.

Speaker 8 Oh, good.

Speaker 79 Which is your old friend Marge.

Speaker 9 You were in Congress with her, right?

Speaker 8 Marge D. Taylor Green?

Speaker 91 You were together.

Speaker 51 So you've met. You've hung out?

Speaker 61 I'm not going to go with hung out, yeah, but I know her a little bit.

Speaker 8 You've chatted. Yeah.

Speaker 9 Like, I've never chatted with her.

Speaker 56 Like, a lot of the people we talked about as more.

Speaker 60 Like, I know a lot of the people because I was a Republican, you know.

Speaker 9 But like, she was after my era.

Speaker 65 So I didn't hang out with her ever, but you have at least spoken.

Speaker 24 You guys have spoken about something besides work.

Speaker 61 We've communicated before. We've communicated, but not like she's not a pal.
Got it. Okay.
But I'll give you what I can.

Speaker 74 You tweeted, I I don't have it in front of me, something

Speaker 80 to the extent of you're going to have a bunch of I told you so's coming when Marjorie Taylor Greene goes back to her old ways.

Speaker 46 So you're not as excited about it as maybe me and JVL.

Speaker 8 I think I would put her in the camp of the Rand Paul, though, of somebody that's saying what she believes. No?

Speaker 61 Come on, Tim. You're better than this.
Listen, I think with Marjorie Taylor Greene, I think it's all a scam. I mean, I think there is definitely a political decision.

Speaker 50 You don't think she's authentically crazy?

Speaker 61 Oh, well, yeah, she is that. She is that.
But I think, like, there's rumor that, what, Donald Trump chose not to support her for governor or senate. I think that could cause something.

Speaker 61 Or she could, and I'll give her this, a little credit, which is like, she could see the tea leaves, which is like, Trump is going away.

Speaker 61 If I want to run for president or governor or whatever, I'm going to have, if I can be the former crazy that now is normal, that, I mean, it's not a bad tactic, to be honest with you, because you'll maintain credit with the crazies.

Speaker 61 I think you were talking the other day about like, she's one in theory that could take on Donald Trump and win because she has a street cred.

Speaker 61 And then if she's like now normal, she could win some of the normals.

Speaker 61 I just think she was not sitting around one day, read a certain passage of the Bible, and realized that everything she was doing in Congress was wrong, right?

Speaker 61 Until she comes out and says, and this is what drives me nuts, is not a single that I've seen reporter has asked her,

Speaker 61 Tell me your thoughts on January 6th now. What do you think January 6th was? Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election or did he lose? And if she starts coming clean on that stuff and like.

Speaker 53 Maybe she genuinely believes the election was stolen.

Speaker 61 Well, yeah, then that just tells you everything you need to know. But she doesn't believe it.
Like, I think she's actually smart. I think she's, she knows better.

Speaker 61 But until she starts kind of what I will call repenting a little for her past instead of just saying, you know, that I'm not buying it. Now, I hope I'm wrong.
I want to be honest. I hope I'm wrong.

Speaker 61 I hope she really did find politics, Jesus. And I am all for this like inner party battle that's occurring now.

Speaker 61 What I worry about is everybody's going to start really believing that Marjorie Taylor Greene's good.

Speaker 61 And then she's going to like, you know, flip double birds at the camera one day and be like, I was trolling all of you. I can't believe you're that stupid, right?

Speaker 56 I want to listen to a little bit of Marjorie Taylor Greene because I want to believe, baby.

Speaker 52 I want to believe.

Speaker 72 Let's listen.

Speaker 98 I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no, actually six years for.

Speaker 98 And I gave him my loyalty for free. I won my first election without his endorsement beating eight men in a primary.

Speaker 98 And I've never owed him anything, but I fought for him for the policies and for America first.

Speaker 98 And he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is.

Speaker 98 A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me.

Speaker 65 Are you ready?

Speaker 50 Are you ready to hear the patriotic string music going?

Speaker 43 No.

Speaker 61 No.

Speaker 61 This is the same woman that thinks Zelinsky is like the worst person, doesn't care if Russia invades and destroys Ukraine. The same person who,

Speaker 61 well, let me tell you about my experience with Donald Trump. I could tell you, but you know, you guys all know my experience with Donald Trump.
I'm sorry that he was a meanie head to you.

Speaker 61 You've been a meanie head to a lot of people, Marjorie Taylor Greene. I'm sorry Trump was a meanie head to you.
And let's remember, where were we six months ago?

Speaker 61 We were sitting around talking about how Elon Musk may be the new savior now because he's fighting with Donald Trump. And now he's in the Oval Office, you know, laying on the ground to Donald Trump.

Speaker 64 The only thing that's different about the Elon thing is I think that most of us were just enjoying the

Speaker 87 cat fight, you know, like we just wanted, like, we were just enjoying the show kind of more than I actually, like, I don't think anybody was like, you know, Elon's really turned a corner.

Speaker 91 I don't even know if Archie's turned a corner.

Speaker 8 I'm just saying that, like, I don't know. If she keeps saying good things, I'm going to be like, great.
Let's keep listening. Let's keep hearing them.
Yeah.

Speaker 61 Okay. So I've got a good middle ground for us.
Let's appreciate the thing she says.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 61 Let's honor the thing she says.

Speaker 8 Honor. Wow, that's pretty far even.

Speaker 61 Yeah, I'm good with saying honor the thing she says, but let's not believe it.

Speaker 85 Okay.

Speaker 8 That's fine. I'm with you.

Speaker 61 Honor the chaos and not believe it. All right.

Speaker 8 And I hope I'm wrong.

Speaker 75 Yeah, hope instead of believe. Okay, we've landed in an area of agreement.

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Speaker 28 Are your AI agents helping users or just creating more work?

Speaker 33 If you can't compare your users' workflows before and after adding AI, how do you know it's even paying off?

Speaker 40 Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 46 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 49 That's pendo.io podcast.

Speaker 54 I want to talk about one other hill thing.

Speaker 56 I've been dying to talk about this all week, and I just haven't really had an appropriate guest for it.

Speaker 81 I don't know if you are either, so this might end up just being a Tim rant, but I had to just have to talk about it before the week is out.

Speaker 8 Have you been following the Chewy Garcia situation at all?

Speaker 64 And this is your, it's kind of near you and

Speaker 8 a district.

Speaker 61 Illinois thing, too, by the way. Yeah, you probably knew him pretty well.

Speaker 8 Did you know him a little bit?

Speaker 65 Yeah, just a little bit.

Speaker 61 But this is Democratic Machine Politics. I'll let you explain it, and then then I do have thoughts.

Speaker 80 Yeah, so for people who haven't been following this, it's a longtime democratic operative Hispanic in Chicago.

Speaker 71 As you said, it's like one of the few left of traditional machine politics.

Speaker 82 Like you, you know work your way up, you're the alderman, you're the whatever, and then eventually, you know, you become the member of Congress.

Speaker 76 In this case, he decides he's going to retire.

Speaker 59 He tells his chief of staff, gives the chief of staff a heads up that he's going to retire so that the chief of staff can go out and get the, I think it's 2,500 signatures necessary to get on the ballot.

Speaker 82 They do that under the radar.

Speaker 65 The chief of staff files right before the deadline to file for Congress, right?

Speaker 81 So it's like you can't, nobody else can get in the race after a certain point, which is just as a quick aside, it's insane that it's this early in Illinois.

Speaker 91 You should be able to file for Congress

Speaker 8 up to four months before the election or something.

Speaker 7 You know, whatever you need to just get the ballots done.

Speaker 24 But anyway, so in Illinois, you have to file by a year out.

Speaker 80 And the chief of staff gets in, doesn't tell anybody.

Speaker 24 The deadline passes.

Speaker 69 Julie Garcia says he's retiring.

Speaker 80 So now the chief of staff is the only person in the race.

Speaker 96 There's no primary.

Speaker 8 This is an outrage.

Speaker 61 It is.

Speaker 61 It is. So I didn't know this happened.
And then there was the Democratic member who spoke about it on the floor.

Speaker 61 And I'm like, you know, there's all this like self-Civil War censure stuff going on in the House right now. And I'm like, wait, there's some blue-on-blue action going on here.
What's going on? And

Speaker 61 I read the story and it's outrageous. But this happens all the time in Illinois, Tim.

Speaker 61 This was probably less so now, but particularly when it comes to like state reps and state senators, you would always get this where the state senator, it was bad among Republicans too, by the way.

Speaker 61 This wasn't, you know, Republicans used to have power in Illinois and they did it too.

Speaker 57 And there's an example of this in a Florida district, too, of a Republican doing this recently.

Speaker 8 This is not, you know, it has happened.

Speaker 61 Yep. You just handpick your successor because probably what happened, the chief of staff literally was at the state board of elections probably one minute before filing filing closed and turned it in.

Speaker 61 And you get a stamp, you know, it'll say like 4:59 p.m., whatever.

Speaker 61 It probably closed at five. So literally, nobody else could have gotten in.
And then, of course, you can withdraw your name off the ballot up to a certain period of time. So this is outrageous.

Speaker 61 And, you know, I hope there's a Democrat that runs a write-in campaign because I think this is outrageous enough that they actually may have a shot. Probably not.

Speaker 61 But like, yeah, this is, and this is the, again, this is what happens when you have this like this entitled feeling in politics. And you, you know, you get it.

Speaker 61 It happens a lot among Democrats in Illinois, but it's like, it really exists on both parties right now where people just feel entitled to a seat.

Speaker 61 I left 12 years, you know, after 12 years in Congress, and it's amazing how many people tell me that they think that was early. Do I wish I'd have stayed for 20 or 30 years? Like, not really.

Speaker 61 I mean, 12 years, it's hard to stay passionate for the job for 12 years. But yeah, there's people in there 30, 40 years, and they just feel entitled to it.
You represent 700,000 people.

Speaker 61 The chances that somebody is in your district that's better than you is pretty good.

Speaker 71 I mean, if we're being honest here, yeah, you know, especially just in the context of what we're doing now, like Democrats trying to take the mantle of democracy, being like, we're fighting for democracy.

Speaker 62 And it's just like, not to get on the high horse too much, anything, but like, this is just, this isn't democracy.

Speaker 8 Like, this is, you're not, this is not an English lordship.

Speaker 87 You get to pass down the seat to your, you know, your nephew if you want to.

Speaker 61 And it would be, it would still be an outrage, but it would be different if it was like a state senator that he put there or a state representative. He put a staffer

Speaker 61 who has never been elected by the people of that district.

Speaker 61 At least a state rep maybe had been elected by 120,000 people of that district, had been through elected politics.

Speaker 61 It's egregious. And I hope he feels shame for it, honestly.

Speaker 76 I do too.

Speaker 62 So I do want to say, to the member you mentioned was Marie Gluzenkam-Perez, who I'm a fan of, that she was the one that brought a censure to the floor on this.

Speaker 8 The Democrats freak out, and it's not really down ideological lines.

Speaker 79 Like, it's for some reason, the progressive caucus gets really defensive of Garcia.

Speaker 79 And, like, one member from Illinois, I'm forgetting her name, like, says that Marie Luzen Camp Perez is like giving aid and comfort to the authoritarians by doing this.

Speaker 77 I'm like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 6 You are the authoritarian.

Speaker 24 Like, you're the one that is subverting democracy.

Speaker 72 And then Hakeem Jefferies came out in defense of Garcia.

Speaker 63 And so a bunch of the establishment types did as well.

Speaker 85 And so I said on Twitter that there were 26 Dems that sided with Marie Glosingham Press and said this was bad.

Speaker 53 I said, we'll be doing a montage set to some soft string music in their honor later this week on the pod,

Speaker 16 a group that is ideologically diverse, that actually

Speaker 73 opposes bad things, opposes anti-democratic actions when they happen on their own side.

Speaker 57 A couple of the names, some of the faves who have been on.

Speaker 91 Jake Auchincloss, Angie Craig, Sharice Davids in Kansas, important seats over there.

Speaker 24 Greg Landsman, Ohio.

Speaker 63 Nice. We really like him.

Speaker 8 Vinman.

Speaker 53 Alex Vinman's brother's in Congress.

Speaker 8 You forgot about that.

Speaker 25 He's there, Pat Ryan, my boy Pat Ryan, and some others.

Speaker 61 So appreciate all of them. Shout out to all of you.

Speaker 8 Shout out.

Speaker 54 Three presents.

Speaker 8 I'll take a present.

Speaker 25 As long as it wasn't a no.

Speaker 8 We got a present from Suhasa Summer Money.

Speaker 6 You're not a present guy?

Speaker 61 No.

Speaker 61 It's weak. President is so weak.
In fact, when I got to Congress, I remember I wanted to vote present on something because this was a hard decision.

Speaker 61 And it was like Boehner or somebody that's like, kid, you never vote present on anything as he took a drag of his cigarette so no I only ever voted present on like a quorum call that's it be a man be a woman well what do you think about this

Speaker 93 I think that if I went to Congress I would just say at the front that I am not voting on any non-binding resolutions.

Speaker 8 Yeah. Non-binding resolutions are not real.

Speaker 96 It's in the name.

Speaker 52 It's non-binding.

Speaker 8 It's a tweet.

Speaker 3 It's just a tweet on a piece of paper.

Speaker 24 And so if you want my opinion about something, I'll tweet about your I'll tweet and let you know my opinion or put out a press release or post on your on your app of choice.

Speaker 52 There are a lot of non-binding like, oh, we're going to condemn this or condemn that.

Speaker 96 It's like,

Speaker 25 what is that? What's the point of that?

Speaker 61 Yeah, okay. I could see it.
If you go in there and you're like, I'm going to vote present on stupid things, I'd be for that. Listen, my very first kind of big bill in Congress was HR1.

Speaker 61 It was this, you know, Boehner's basically like has this open rule for all spending for Congress. So we were were there like a month and everybody could present whatever thing they wanted.

Speaker 61 It was painful, but I would vote no on like really stupid things.

Speaker 61 Like some of the people in my colleagues, we're going to take $10,000 from the White House lighting bill and put it to the deficit reduction fund. And I would vote no on all that stuff.

Speaker 61 That's also how I got the reputation of being the Republican least likely to cut spending. But I had the same approach.

Speaker 61 I'm like, I'm not going to vote yes for stupid messaging amendments, but it cost me.

Speaker 2 We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, these words are more than just the opening of the Constitution.

Speaker 7 They're a reminder of who this country belongs to and what we can be at our best.

Speaker 9 They're also the cornerstone of MS Now.

Speaker 12 Whether it's breaking news, exclusive reporting, election coverage, or in-depth analysis, MS Now keeps the people at the heart of everything they do.

Speaker 15 Home to the Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, the briefing with Jen Saki, and more voices you know and trust, MS Now is your source for news, opinion, and the world.

Speaker 16 Their name is new, but you'll find the same commitment to justice, progress, and the truth you've relied on for decades.

Speaker 21 They'll continue to cover the day's news, ask the tough questions, and explain how it impacts you.

Speaker 23 Same mission, new name, MS Now.

Speaker 25 Learn more at MS.Now.

Speaker 28 Are your AI agents helping users or just creating more work?

Speaker 33 If you can't compare your users' workflows before and after adding AI, how do you know it's even paying off?

Speaker 40 Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved, so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 46 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io/slash podcast.

Speaker 49 That's pendo.io/slash podcast.

Speaker 24 Some other news.

Speaker 57 I want to talk about the Russia-Ukraine deal. These guys are, it's like Dr.
Jekyll and Mr.

Speaker 82 Hyde on the Ukraine-Russia stuff.

Speaker 65 Yeah, like what the hell?

Speaker 63 You never know.

Speaker 54 I guess it's kind of cyclical, where it's like, oh, we're siding with Russia now.

Speaker 88 And then it's like everybody kind of has to rub their bellies again and remind them, like, no, actually, we're not on Russia's side.

Speaker 6 Russia's a bad guy.

Speaker 52 And then they start to come around. And then Trump's like, oh, actually, maybe I'm really for Ukraine, even more than I've ever been.

Speaker 73 I'm going to give them weapons now. And that happens for a week.

Speaker 20 And then that starts to die down.

Speaker 75 It's like, wait, I'm on Russia's side again.

Speaker 57 We're back to the Russia side of the cycle. On the Washington Post this morning, White House is pressuring Ukraine to sign on to its new.

Speaker 72 peace proposal by Thanksgiving or lose U.S.

Speaker 59 support to the country.

Speaker 60 I find this kind of weird that we've chosen the Thanksgiving deadline.

Speaker 60 The people in Ukraine care about Thanksgiving.

Speaker 54 It's like, oh,

Speaker 73 you're putting the future of our country on the line.

Speaker 56 You're giving us a deadline of the day that you weirdos mass murder a bunch of turkeys.

Speaker 63 I don't really understand how that's relevant to my war.

Speaker 99 But Marco Rubio put out a statement, ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas.

Speaker 64 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 24 We went through the ideas yesterday.

Speaker 57 It was Glasser, but I mean, it's basically a a Russia wish list.

Speaker 61 Yeah, totally. And here's what drives me nuts.
So, Republicans will, some of them will oppose this, right?

Speaker 61 They'll say this is bad, but they won't blame Trump for it. They'll say Steve Witkoff, right? Or, you know, who Michael Weiss calls Dim Philby, which I like.

Speaker 61 You know, and there's this like Witcoff versus Kellogg versus whatever thing in the administration. Ultimately, Donald Trump is responsible for this.
Let's just be clear.

Speaker 61 He always defaults back to Russia. So him expressing any like you know, affection for Ukraine is the exception.
Affection for Russia is the rule, and let's just it's always like that.

Speaker 61 So, what this plan is, and you guys went over the points of it, but it's basically a surrender for Ukraine, who is winning this war.

Speaker 61 I mean, you know look, both sides are you know, beating it, they're like boxers in the 10th round that are barely standing up, but Ukraine is winning this fight, and I think Ukraine has to be the one willing to say what conditions they're willing to have peace for.

Speaker 61 And

Speaker 61 I always knew it. So, you know, there's this corruption scandal in Ukraine right now, which is terrible.

Speaker 61 And that's a moment where the Trump administration is like, I think we can get them because they're weak. So I think that's why they've kind of come in with now.

Speaker 61 But I was thinking about this. I'm like, yeah, there is a corruption scandal in Ukraine, which is which sucks.
It's terrible.

Speaker 61 But the corruption scandal going on in the United States makes that look like nothing.

Speaker 61 We have a president that basically has Saudi Arabia here and is probably going to build a number of Trump hotels now.

Speaker 61 I think probably part of the unspoken deal of a deal with Ukraine will be a Trump hotel in Moscow. He's always wanted that.
You know, $2 billion in credit.

Speaker 61 We could go through all the corruption, a free jet from Qatar.

Speaker 82 We're doing a hotel in Vietnam, a UAE, Dubai.

Speaker 65 Yeah, everywhere.

Speaker 61 Everywhere Donald Trump goes, his kids just happen to follow. He's not involved in the business.
So they just happen to follow. And yeah, so the corruption here is incredible.

Speaker 61 You know, it'll be interesting to see what I, because what I think is likely is this will be rejected or this will be the beginning of like kind of back and forth negotiations.

Speaker 61 And the question is, will Donald Trump actually cut off U.S. support?

Speaker 61 The most important thing he needs to do, not even weapons, because Ukraine's been able to step up on weapons, is like the intel sharing piece. That's really important.

Speaker 80 Well, we'll talk about the economic stuff because I think as much as maybe even more than Epstein, the economic situation is what's underlying Donald Trump's unraveling.

Speaker 17 Another jobs report.

Speaker 80 We did gain jobs, but it was only in the healthcare and social assistance sectors again.

Speaker 79 I guess maybe a little bit in leisure and hospitality.

Speaker 25 Private sector employment has declined in each of the last five months outside of healthcare, basically.

Speaker 68 We've got taking care of old people, cryptocurrency.

Speaker 57 AI data centers and private prisons holding up our rickety economy right now.

Speaker 87 I don't want to pretend like I'm an expert on what's happening with the Bitcoin market, but something that I did notice from back during when inflation was going up back after COVID is that like all of these fake products started to do really well.

Speaker 74 You remember the NFTs, the fake basketball cards, the digital cards, and the digital monkeys and stuff.

Speaker 64 Like when people had a lot of cash and had a lot of time on their hands,

Speaker 79 those assets were going up.

Speaker 24 And right now,

Speaker 70 I just think it's noteworthy that Bitcoin is crashing in the last week or even a little more.

Speaker 93 And that tells me that that's possibly an indicator that people are like, ugh, you know, not secure about their finances, right?

Speaker 82 And they're like, you don't have as much, you don't have as much interest in the play money when things are getting tight.

Speaker 24 So that might be an indicator.

Speaker 53 There could be some other things going on.

Speaker 69 But, but just across the board, things are looking pretty, pretty rough.

Speaker 24 And they don't really seem to have a plan.

Speaker 60 Like, the other thing that jumped out to me is John Kennedy was on the floor yesterday, basically, like, we need to do another reconciliation bill to help with get people money.

Speaker 94 Like, that sounds

Speaker 8 desperate.

Speaker 61 Yeah, I mean, look, John Kennedy probably did is like, we need to get a wagon ride of money to the people in their haystraw, you know, like that stuff.

Speaker 8 Like, I hate that.

Speaker 25 Yeah, it's like you went to, you were a road scholar, sir.

Speaker 8 Please

Speaker 5 stop with the foghorn leg horn.

Speaker 61 Just stop. That's like Tim Burchett in Tennessee, too, does that.
And I'm like, come on, man. He said, like, biscuit wheels on a gravy train.
Like,

Speaker 8 anyway, I hate that stuff.

Speaker 88 You're the true Yankee, Adam Kinzinger.

Speaker 50 You moved down to Texas.

Speaker 72 This is why the people in Texas, that's going to be an issue for you if you ever decide we want to go after running against Ted Cruz in two years.

Speaker 54 You're going to start to have a little bit more appreciation.

Speaker 8 Landman, what's the show? That's the West Texas show, right?

Speaker 61 Yeah, Landman. Okay, so on the Bitcoin stuff, yes, I think you're right.
It's like Bitcoin is like the most not real asset, right?

Speaker 61 And I don't want to get into the debate on it because it is real, but it was kind of an invented asset, right? It's not backed by anything except it's scarcity. That's the only thing that backs it.

Speaker 61 And then stock, actually, risky, yes, but you actually have a tangible asset with stock. And I think as people get nervous, they pull away from those like things that they're a little scared of.

Speaker 61 So I think that makes a lot of sense. And I think the great Gatsby party that the Trumps did,

Speaker 61 it was almost like too perfect for what we actually feel like we're in.

Speaker 61 I mean, it does feel a little bit like we may be coming to the end of this kind of decade or two of just kind of crazy prosperity where we're literally inventing stuff.

Speaker 61 I want to invent, you know, flubigation and then make it worth $100,000 and then just sell it to people, even though it's not real.

Speaker 61 That's what crypto is. And so, yeah, it feels like we're coming to the end of that.

Speaker 61 One of the things that's frightening to me, by the way, and I just thought of this, and this is probably off topic, but I think it's important to mention so I don't forget.

Speaker 61 The betting markets on politics are really frightening to me.

Speaker 61 I was looking at them the other day, and like every vote coming up in Congress, you can bet on how a member of Congress will vote yes or no.

Speaker 61 Now, imagine if you're that member of Congress, like me, let's say Adam Kinzinger's still in, and I can go vote on Adam Kinzinger, and let's say the odds are 97% that I'm going to vote yes, but I put $1,000 on 3% that I'm going to vote no, and then I vote no.

Speaker 61 Like, guarantee you that stuff's happening, Tim. And the question about like tariffs, when are the tariffs going to be lifted? Before June 30th or after June 30th?

Speaker 61 But weirdly, the odds always shift right before that. And by the way, I think Don Jr.
or Eric is on like the board of Caulchi, the betting site.

Speaker 56 And this is also, this ties right into the crypto stuff, too, which is like Barron supposedly, I mean, like, there's reporting out there has made

Speaker 62 obscene amounts of money betting

Speaker 68 on, you know, when Trump's doing those announcements about like, oh, I'm going to do the crypto reserve or whatever.

Speaker 95 And then Barron is putting money in.

Speaker 64 Baron also has a cut of the Trump coin.

Speaker 91 You know, it's not even just Don Jr.

Speaker 6 and Eric.

Speaker 8 Like, this is definitely happening.

Speaker 92 Did you see the Kalshi?

Speaker 56 My girl Jillian Kent over at CBS did an interview with the Kalshi founders or CEOs or whatever.

Speaker 70 I'll put a link in the show notes because it was pretty funny.

Speaker 82 Like, Don Jr.'s on their board.

Speaker 57 Yeah.

Speaker 64 So, Kalshi, for people who don't know, is these betting markets that Adam's talking about, where you can bet on a, you know, sports and politics, just random things that happen, like, who's going to be the next LSU coach or whatever?

Speaker 81 You know, like, there's those, you can bet on a bunch of different stuff.

Speaker 54 And she was asking them about that.

Speaker 8 Like, why is Don Jr.

Speaker 96 on your board?

Speaker 8 And like, watching them stammer and stutter and try to just be like, well, you know, like, we just need, we just need expertise from people who are champions.

Speaker 88 And it's like, it's like, okay, like something's up. Like something, we don't know exactly what's up, but something is up.

Speaker 61 And you also see like these, these companies, I know of one specifically, I don't know the name, and I guess I probably shouldn't say if I did, but like they were getting ready to go public, and magically, Eric and Don's hedge fund buys into it before it goes public, right before they get board seats and then it goes public.

Speaker 61 I mean, if you could invest and get private shares right before they go public, you'd be the richest guy in the world. And that's what the deal is.

Speaker 61 So if you're, I mean, if you're a startup and you're like, hey, we can bring in Don and Eric and guarantee that we'll be successful. We just got to do this little thing.
You would be, you would do it.

Speaker 8 Who wouldn't, right?

Speaker 61 But the betting market stuff, I mean, I think we're going to find out because I don't think you have to identify who you are when you bet on this stuff.

Speaker 61 And, or you could do it on, we're going to find out that there are members of Congress betting on their own actions. And it's one thing to sports bet on yourself, which I think is illegal.

Speaker 61 It's another to do it when it comes to voting. Like that is corrupt.

Speaker 2 Well, we don't have a public corruption unit anymore in the Department of Justice.

Speaker 8 That's pretty noteworthy.

Speaker 80 But I got to tell you, if and when the Democrats take back the House next year, I'm just going to be like a dog on a bone on these guys about how they just like the oversight stuff has to be an absolute immediate priority.

Speaker 87 Looking into Don Jr.

Speaker 89 and

Speaker 91 these businesses,

Speaker 93 making all of these businesses that they've invested in since Trump has gotten back on come before Congress,

Speaker 77 subpoenaing them, like holding them in contempt if they don't.

Speaker 53 And here's the thing, people then say to me when I say this, like, well, Trump will just pardon all of them.

Speaker 8 It's like, well, I don't know.

Speaker 67 Are they doing any state crimes?

Speaker 56 I think if we start, if Congress starts investigating them, you know, and then you find that

Speaker 68 whatever, some of this inappropriate behavior is happening.

Speaker 87 you know, in California and New York, right?

Speaker 53 Like this stuff can be referred to attorneys general, Democratic Attorneys General in some of these states.

Speaker 61 And even if not, like getting this stuff out there is the most important thing.

Speaker 8 Absolutely.

Speaker 61 And this is why it's important for Democrats to talk about this now is.

Speaker 61 There are people making decisions today in government about whether to be corrupt or not.

Speaker 61 And if they know that they have maybe another year of free reign and then they're going to be held to account, they're much less likely than if they think they have three years of free reign and then they're going to get pardoned by Trump, right?

Speaker 61 So this is an important thing for the Democrats to hear, which is, yes, affordability is the number one issue.

Speaker 61 I'm not saying do this around that, but as part of that, talk about how you're going to have hearings about Qatar and the jet. You're going to have hearings about domestic.

Speaker 61 And you will help to at least discourage, I think, future corruption.

Speaker 61 And you're also letting the American people know the contrast of what you are compared to this corrupt administration, which is beyond.

Speaker 61 This is beyond any corruption.

Speaker 54 ICE, we're going to investigate the FBI agents that have been reviewing the Epstein files and were asked to flag Donald Trump's stuff.

Speaker 66 We're going to be coming for you, the crypto people, everybody doing business with Don and Eric.

Speaker 91 The Democrats are coming. Watch out.

Speaker 57 Oversight's coming for you.

Speaker 61 Yeah. And like ICE, by the way,

Speaker 61 you read about the shooting of that woman where the guy was, the ICE agent was bragging that five shots, seven holes.

Speaker 61 Like, okay, that's the kind of stuff we need to put in front of the American people, right? So they know.

Speaker 2 We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, these words are more than just the opening of the Constitution.

Speaker 7 They're a reminder of who this country belongs to and what we can be at our best.

Speaker 9 They're also the cornerstone of MS Now.

Speaker 12 Whether it's breaking news, exclusive reporting, election coverage, or in-depth analysis, MS Now keeps the people at the heart of everything they do.

Speaker 14 Home to the Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, the briefing with Jen Saki, and more voices you know and trust, MS Now is your source for news, opinion, and the world.

Speaker 16 Their name is new, but you'll find the same commitment to justice, progress, and the truth you've relied on for decades.

Speaker 31 they'll continue to cover the day's news ask the tough questions and explain how it impacts you same mission new name ms now learn more at ms.now are your ai agents helping users or just creating more work if you can't compare your users workflows before and after adding ai how do you know it's even paying off Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 46 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io/slash podcast.

Speaker 49 That's pendo.io/slash podcast.

Speaker 73 We got a little off top.

Speaker 100 We got one other economy thing I just can't skip over because I think I got a B-minus in Econ 101.

Speaker 73 So I'm not an expert on identifying recession trends, but I think this might be a recession indicator.

Speaker 53 Over on Fox, they were discussing Christmas plans and the state of the economy.

Speaker 5 And I I want to play a little clip.

Speaker 101 Also, remember, adults don't need gifts, okay? Focus on the people in your life who are aged three to 18.

Speaker 102 Grandma doesn't need slippers.

Speaker 101 If they don't live by you, don't get them a gift. Now's not the time to spend and break the bank sending packages across the country, Dana.

Speaker 102 Focus on the people in your life, ages three to 18.

Speaker 51 The Trump economy.

Speaker 59 Grandma doesn't need slippers anymore.

Speaker 61 Dana's the one that continues to surprise me because she's not.

Speaker 65 That wasn't actually Dana that just said Dana is interviewing the other.

Speaker 79 yeah, yeah.

Speaker 61 Yeah, I mean, that's so tone-deaf, it's crazy. I mean, it really is.

Speaker 61 It's like that's the equivalent, really, of like Elon Musk also telling people that, yeah, it sucks to be poor, just don't buy things, right? Like, just don't spend money.

Speaker 61 And uh, all these people on Fox that are wealthy that have done everything to put Trump in place and promote him and promote him, his politics, are now just like everything is great, just don't buy stuff for people and you'll be good, right?

Speaker 61 Like, isn't Christmas supposed to be about sharing and joy? Isn't didn't the woke liberals kill Christmas in the past? And now it's the right trying to kill Christmas?

Speaker 61 My God, Christmas is under attack from all sides, Tim. We have to, there's a war.

Speaker 50 Christmas is definitely under attack from Donald Trump right now.

Speaker 97 You can only have two or three toys if you're a little girl because, and the tariffs or the dolls, you only need two or three dolls.

Speaker 52 You don't need more.

Speaker 54 And grandma, you know, sticking with the holy slippers you got.

Speaker 64 We can't afford.

Speaker 61 The war on Christmas is in full swing, and it's the right this time.

Speaker 5 It's coming from MAGA.

Speaker 57 As As mentioned earlier, you live in Texas now.

Speaker 8 Do you have any hot takes on the Texas Senate race that's developing either side? Not really.

Speaker 61 Look, I like Colin Allred a lot just because I know him. And I think he actually ran a good campaign, given it was not the best year, obviously, Ted Cruz.

Speaker 70 One thing on Colin, because I do think that I understand people have a bad taste in their mouth about 2024

Speaker 87 and want to move forward and want to have fresh people and ideas.

Speaker 62 And

Speaker 82 there's a we're not going back element to this that I totally relate to but I do think sometimes he's like slandered when people assess that race because he did lose by more points than like Betto had or whatever but the environment was horrible he outperformed it wasn't really his fault he ran he ran I think eight points ahead of Harris yeah eight points yep so you know I mean

Speaker 61 I had the had it been a closer election that maybe could have been in place I don't know anyway um that's just my thoughts on yeah I agree I agree I think he's been unfairly hit with that him I liked Terry Vertz who was going to run.

Speaker 61 He's backing out of that race, and he's running for Congress now, which is very smart. But he's

Speaker 61 a commander of the space station, astronaut, great dude. I think he has a shot actually at winning the House.
And the Tall Rico, look, I mean, obviously, I've seen all his videos and stuff.

Speaker 61 He's an amazing speaker.

Speaker 61 The thing I worry about, he has to address, and I think he's probably in the catbird seat to win, is he has said things like, from what I understand, things like God is non-binary, stuff like that.

Speaker 61 And I got to tell you, folks, you can get mad at me for saying this. That don't play in Texas.
So you're going to, even among Democrats. So he's going to have to figure out how to walk through that.

Speaker 61 But he is well-spoken.

Speaker 58 Our God in Texas has a huge slong.

Speaker 8 In Texas.

Speaker 93 Yeah, that's right. God is a man.
And he ran.

Speaker 61 He ranches, and he can rope you.

Speaker 61 God is a rancher.

Speaker 61 But the other thing is, here's the question. I don't know the answer to this.
Does his good speakingness come across as genuine? If he can tie that with genuineness, he's going to be great.

Speaker 61 But I think people right now, the biggest trait they look for is genuineness. That's my opinion.

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 25 Jasmine. Yeah.

Speaker 93 Just talking to my kitten in. Jasmine Crocker.

Speaker 61 That would be interesting. That would be a whole new dynamic.
Yeah. She's really good at

Speaker 61 the attacks and speaking and everything.

Speaker 73 She's good at going after Trump.

Speaker 100 I don't know. And I think that I'd have some concerns with her in a Senate race in Texas.

Speaker 80 I think statewide viability.

Speaker 61 I think a primary right now in Texas for Democrats is probably the best thing because it's going to shake out all these different theories.

Speaker 61 And Texas Democrats, I think, understand that, you know, generally they don't need to put the most, you know, liberal firebrand out there because they actually want to win Texas.

Speaker 61 So I think they kind of get the game. What about the other side?

Speaker 2 How are you assessing Paxton, Cornyn, and then Wesley Hunt is now a third?

Speaker 8 Yeah, I think it's so.

Speaker 61 Here's the thing. It's possible Hunt could actually pull a sneaker here because people are scared of Paxton.

Speaker 61 You know, the other dude, John Cornyn, they, you know, obviously they think he's too liberal or whatever.

Speaker 61 So so Hunt may pull that little sneaker, but I think right now it's probably still Paxton because, again, the Republican Party, and particularly in Texas, it's like whoever the craziest is will get my vote.

Speaker 61 And that's usually how it is.

Speaker 24 All right, the movie. I just, I'm going to admit, I haven't watched it.

Speaker 8 Okay, come on.

Speaker 50 I have a lot of time with you, okay?

Speaker 52 And I have to watch Candace and Steve Bannon, you know, to know what's happening over there.

Speaker 97 And I need the nuggets.

Speaker 76 I got to watch the nuggets.

Speaker 10 And life is busy, but I'm going to watch it.

Speaker 57 So I'm coming in blind.

Speaker 65 Many of the listeners are coming in blind, and this is

Speaker 99 to encourage them to watch it.

Speaker 8 So give us the pitch.

Speaker 10 So it's called The Last Republican.

Speaker 61 You can get it on like Amazon Prime, Apple, Google. And it's like multi-layers, I would say.
So it goes over the January 6th stuff. So they followed me during all the hearing.

Speaker 61 You actually get some really cool video from the floor of the sixth, like cinematic

Speaker 61 that exists. But it's also a story between me and the director, Steve Pink, who did Hot Tub Time Machine.
He's very far left.

Speaker 61 And so we have this like kind of fun interaction where we, and it was not, it was unintentional, where we kind of like make fun of each other, but we grow to really respect each other.

Speaker 61 And I think it's a great human story.

Speaker 61 And then you see the human story of, you know, just me, Sophia, and what it's like to go through what we went through at the same time, having a baby, for God's sakes, right? Like all these changes.

Speaker 61 You will not regret watching it. I promise you that.
It got amazing rates. Got like 80 or 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaker 8 That's a good pitch. Yeah.
So watch it.

Speaker 61 It's only an hour and a half. So you're not going to get, and it's fun.
It's funny. The Last Republican.
Go watch it. I will know if you don't.
And if you don't, like, we're not friends anymore, Tim.

Speaker 61 Really?

Speaker 8 Yeah. We're not friends.
It's over.

Speaker 97 I've got to send 90.

Speaker 97 You're assigning me 90 minutes of homework.

Speaker 53 You know, I was a little contrarian SOB as a young man.

Speaker 91 If you assign me homework and say I have to do something, I will not do it out of principle.

Speaker 61 Okay. Let me incentivize you in a better way.
There are pictures of me as a 12-year-old with Republican yard signs.

Speaker 8 So how about that?

Speaker 65 You think you were a dork?

Speaker 61 I've got some good pictures.

Speaker 51 You were dorkier than me? Okay.

Speaker 57 Finding dorky Adam pictures is a good incentive.

Speaker 75 I will watch it.

Speaker 55 What was it like having the cameras around all the time?

Speaker 51 Did you feel like you were able to be natural?

Speaker 61 It was an interesting thing because I made it a point to try to be natural because

Speaker 61 I don't want to do this and perform for the camera. I want this to be genuine.

Speaker 61 And I didn't love having cameras around because unlike some people, I'm not one that loves walking around and having all this attention and cameras where I look like I'm producing something and feel cool, but we barreled through it.

Speaker 61 And I'm glad we did because it's just, like I said, it's good from a historical perspective, from a personal perspective. And we wanted to be able to show that to our son, Christian.

Speaker 61 And I think when he's old enough to appreciate it, it'll be cool.

Speaker 65 That is really cool for him.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 65 When I was doing the circus, it was harder than I thought to be natural.

Speaker 76 Like, it was, there was definitely a learning curve there of you can't control it.

Speaker 82 Like, I found myself using a

Speaker 91 voice or something.

Speaker 75 And I'm like, that's not my voice.

Speaker 8 Why am I doing this? Why am I talking like that? Yeah. Or,

Speaker 61 or I would have like where they're there and like a friend would come over to the office and I'd be like, hey, just so you know, there's cameras here.

Speaker 61 So they're not like, you know, saying things that we would not want out there.

Speaker 61 Like that kind of stuff.

Speaker 8 Oh, what kind of stuff might they be saying?

Speaker 61 I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 8 You know, things, things and stuff. So gossip, stuff.

Speaker 8 All right, brother.

Speaker 54 It was good to see you yesterday at the funeral.

Speaker 10 Yeah, you too, man.

Speaker 50 Thanks for coming on the podcast.

Speaker 51 Appreciate you.

Speaker 16 We'll be doing it again soon.

Speaker 57 Everybody, go watch it.

Speaker 54 The movie's The Last Republican.

Speaker 59 You can find Kins and Gur over on Substack

Speaker 25 as well.

Speaker 52 And we'll be back.

Speaker 8 Wait, what day is today?

Speaker 24 I've had a long-ass week, bro.

Speaker 56 It's Friday.

Speaker 61 Friday. Hell yeah.
All right.

Speaker 100 Well, then we'll see you Monday with Bill Crystal.

Speaker 8 Bye, everybody. I'm coming up only

Speaker 8 to hold

Speaker 8 you under.

Speaker 8 And coming up only

Speaker 8 to show

Speaker 8 your role

Speaker 8 And to know you

Speaker 8 is hard

Speaker 8 we wonder

Speaker 8 To know you

Speaker 8 all wrong

Speaker 8 we won't

Speaker 8 really too late to call, so

Speaker 8 we wait for

Speaker 8 morning to wake you is

Speaker 8 all

Speaker 8 we got.

Speaker 8 But tear down me

Speaker 8 as hardly gold in

Speaker 8 tear down me

Speaker 8 all

Speaker 8 they will.

Speaker 8 And every occasion, I'll be ready for

Speaker 8 hero.

Speaker 8 Every occasion was more

Speaker 8 scarce funeral

Speaker 8 to the outside,

Speaker 8 the dead leaves

Speaker 8 they are alone

Speaker 8 for they die,

Speaker 8 and trees

Speaker 8 hang

Speaker 58 The Board Podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.

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