Trump’s Controversial Cabinet Picks

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0:01:50 Welcome to Raging Moderates.
0:01:51 I’m Scott Galloway.
0:01:53 And I’m Jessica Charlotte.
0:01:54 Where are you, Jess?
0:01:56 I’m in New York.
0:01:59 I’m home, tending to my children.
0:02:03 Well, not right the second, but I don’t live as free as you.
0:02:05 You’re south of the border.
0:02:06 Don’t stand too close to my flame.
0:02:07 You might get burned.
0:02:10 I’m a rolling stone, Jess.
0:02:14 This is the midlife crisis that will go on several decades.
0:02:16 Is everyone in your family OK with that?
0:02:19 Or are they happy to see you go in the, like,
0:02:22 we’ll miss you for real way, but, like, you should go?
0:02:23 Oh, that’s interesting.
0:02:25 That perfectly described.
0:02:27 It’s like, so when are you leaving again?
0:02:28 I mean, we’ll miss you.
0:02:30 But when are you leaving?
0:02:31 We can’t live without you, though.
0:02:33 We live so well without you.
0:02:35 Without you, yeah.
0:02:39 I often joke about my partners constantly talking
0:02:40 about when I’m gone.
0:02:43 We call it loss, life after Scott.
0:02:48 And the money and who they’re going to have relationships
0:02:49 with and what they’re going to do.
0:02:51 I mean, and, unfortunately, he speaks about it
0:02:53 with a little too much optimism.
0:02:54 But anyways, back to me.
0:02:57 I met this thing called Baja Summit.
0:02:59 Have you heard of this sign?
0:03:02 No, but it sounds like something I’d like to be invited to.
0:03:03 Maybe next year, if you’re interested.
0:03:06 I was going to bring all of the teams.
0:03:08 So this is, let’s back up.
0:03:12 So Summit is a group of guys who created this community.
0:03:15 Initially, they bought some land on a mountain somewhere.
0:03:17 I don’t know, they must be rich kids, anyways.
0:03:20 And then they call it learning man.
0:03:21 During the day, it’s TED Talks.
0:03:23 And at night, everyone does drugs
0:03:26 and listens to world-class DJs.
0:03:30 And it’s got kind of a very hip granola, but successful.
0:03:33 A lot of people starting vertical farming startups
0:03:37 are really focused on their sleep or, you know,
0:03:39 talking about why it’s important to be poly
0:03:43 as they explore THC-infused muffins.
0:03:46 It’s very kind of, I don’t know how to describe it,
0:03:48 but I spoke at it two years ago.
0:03:49 They did Summit at THC,
0:03:52 which is they take over this Virgin cruise ship.
0:03:54 And the thing I first noticed is that no one’s drinking.
0:03:56 Everyone’s doing psilocybin or MDMA.
0:03:58 No one’s actually drinking.
0:03:59 So not really my people.
0:04:03 But it’s in really interesting concept.
0:04:05 They do a really nice job and I really had a good time.
0:04:06 So they said, “We want you to come back.”
0:04:08 And I said, “Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard them.”
0:04:09 Kind of a big deal.
0:04:11 I charged a lot of money and they said,
0:04:13 “Well, we’ll let you bring some people with you.”
0:04:14 So I was going to bring the team,
0:04:15 but then I’m like,
0:04:17 “The team doesn’t need to see me get this fucked up.”
0:04:22 So I brought a bunch of my college buddies from Los Angeles.
0:04:23 All right, Jess, enough of that.
0:04:26 Today, we’re talking about Trump’s controversial cabinet picks,
0:04:28 Republicans gain control of the house
0:04:31 and our predictions for the week.
0:04:32 But before we get to that,
0:04:36 we want to remind you to follow our show Raging Moderates
0:04:38 on its own podcast feed.
0:04:40 The Raging Moderates feed is where you get
0:04:43 to take advantage of our exclusive coverage and interviews,
0:04:45 including the one this week with John Fevro
0:04:47 from Pod Save America, love John.
0:04:49 So right now, please search Raging Moderates
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0:04:57 but quite frankly,
0:04:59 we don’t have a lot of subscribers on our feed yet.
0:05:02 And without that, quite frankly, we can’t make money
0:05:04 and Jess has two new kids
0:05:07 and I’m in the midst of a raging mid-life crisis
0:05:09 and they both take cabbage.
0:05:11 So please do us a favor right now,
0:05:15 right now and go to the Raging Moderates feed and subscribe.
0:05:17 We will be eternally grateful.
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0:05:25 Again- – Can I selfie?
0:05:26 – There you go.
0:05:28 Why not?
0:05:29 Okay, moving on.
0:05:31 Let’s go to Trump’s cabinet picks.
0:05:32 For a minute, it seemed like we’d see
0:05:34 kind of the usual suspects,
0:05:38 people including Senator Marco Rubio and Elise Defano,
0:05:42 but then came kind of the free gift
0:05:44 or the free toaster as a parting gift
0:05:47 if the toaster was fucking crazy and unqualified.
0:05:50 Fox News host, Pete Hegseth,
0:05:51 does no business make secretary of defense.
0:05:53 Okay, let’s move on Tulsi Gabbard
0:05:56 as director of national defense.
0:05:57 Well, she did serve.
0:06:00 Matt Gaetz, returning general, that’s my favorite.
0:06:01 That’s my favorite.
0:06:04 If you’re really gonna go dancing with the stars,
0:06:05 batshit crazy, go all in.
0:06:08 And then RVK Jr. at leading health and human services,
0:06:12 which I find, I actually find out strangely enough,
0:06:14 the one that’s most disturbing.
0:06:15 So to the extent you can,
0:06:18 talk about either Pete or Tulsi
0:06:20 for defense and national intelligence.
0:06:24 – Yeah, so I wanna be clear that just because
0:06:27 I get along with Pete and he’s always been lovely to me,
0:06:29 it doesn’t necessarily mean that I think
0:06:31 he should be head of the Department of Defense,
0:06:33 which oversees three million people
0:06:35 and having, managing a unit.
0:06:39 And I’ve been bothered by how people have been talking
0:06:42 about him and not even discussing his service,
0:06:44 which was outstanding.
0:06:47 So two decades as an infantry officer
0:06:50 in the Army National Guard, he has two bronze stars.
0:06:53 He did three tours, one in Guantanamo Bay,
0:06:55 one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan.
0:06:58 He also has the national defense service medal
0:07:02 and the expert infantrymen and combat infantrymen badges.
0:07:04 So like, he’s a real dude.
0:07:07 And I’ve seen a lot of feedback from people
0:07:10 who have served not like four star generals,
0:07:13 but like actual boots on the ground people
0:07:15 who are really excited at the prospect
0:07:20 of having someone with that kind of perspective do this job.
0:07:23 And that’s where I think the most interesting argument
0:07:27 for Pete comes in, that like he could be supported
0:07:31 by people who have the Lloyd Austin experience, let’s say.
0:07:35 But bring more of that on the ground perspective.
0:07:39 Now, it’s a little bit more complicated than that.
0:07:43 So over the years, and he’s had a good relationship
0:07:45 with President Trump who considered him for something
0:07:47 in 2016, and I honestly thought
0:07:50 that he was gonna get veterans affairs this time around.
0:07:51 And that made a lot of sense to me.
0:07:55 He’s led two veterans advocacy organizations in the past.
0:07:57 He cares deeply about veterans.
0:07:59 And so that’s where I thought he was gonna land.
0:08:02 And then coming out at defense was kind of crazy.
0:08:05 But there are these things that stick out
0:08:09 like he lobbied Trump to pardon several service members
0:08:10 accused of war crimes.
0:08:14 And I think two of them were pardoned
0:08:16 and they did bad things, it looks like.
0:08:20 There is a sexual assault issue that’s going to come out
0:08:22 and the Democrats are considering
0:08:24 whether they wanna try to make this part
0:08:26 of the confirmation process.
0:08:28 I imagine that they will.
0:08:30 And I don’t know, it’s a weird thing
0:08:32 ’cause we all sign morality clauses, right?
0:08:34 When we go and work somewhere.
0:08:37 And that seems like something that would be a violation
0:08:40 of it, especially when you’re talking about leading
0:08:44 three million people and being in charge of the Pentagon.
0:08:46 So I am conflicted because I think
0:08:49 that there’s interesting perspective.
0:08:50 I’m not sure if he’s right
0:08:52 that women shouldn’t serve in combat roles.
0:08:54 That’s like one of the main things that he argues
0:08:59 and that the wokification of the army is making us flat-footed.
0:09:01 But I do think having a different kind of experience
0:09:05 is an interesting facet of the nomination.
0:09:06 What do you think?
0:09:08 – I agree with you.
0:09:11 You know, he’s got outstanding chops
0:09:15 in terms of his commitment to the country and his service.
0:09:19 The question is, does he have kind of the gravitas
0:09:23 or experience outside to management?
0:09:24 I don’t know.
0:09:27 There’s kind of more executive experience, I would say,
0:09:31 in terms of managing, again, what is three million people?
0:09:36 The people who don’t like him are really flying that flag.
0:09:40 It was an allegation, he was never charged.
0:09:43 And he did pay somebody to sign a confidentiality.
0:09:45 I gotta think that these payoffs are gonna go away
0:09:47 ’cause they’re never confidential.
0:09:49 They always end up coming out.
0:09:51 And there’s just an, correctly or incorrectly,
0:09:54 there’s just a stain or an air of guilt, right?
0:09:56 When you paid someone off.
0:09:58 And you can also imagine a scenario
0:10:02 where someone makes an allegation and you decide,
0:10:04 you know, this would be easier for my career
0:10:06 and your lawyer advises you to pay it.
0:10:08 This is a touchy one.
0:10:10 At least you could make the argument
0:10:12 that they’re trying to bring in youth.
0:10:14 This person served.
0:10:17 This one seems actually kind of less batched crazy.
0:10:19 I think the thing that has the left all up in arms
0:10:21 is quite frankly that he worked at Fox.
0:10:23 – Well, that’s what they’re leading with.
0:10:26 And I think it reflects so poorly on them to say,
0:10:28 well, this guy’s a morning host.
0:10:31 It’s like, A, don’t be shitty about morning hosts.
0:10:35 But B, look at his bio before you do that.
0:10:37 And if you dig in, there is plenty for you
0:10:38 to be critical of.
0:10:41 I should also mention that he was taken off duty
0:10:44 for Biden’s inauguration because he was deemed
0:10:46 a quote unquote possible insider threat
0:10:49 because of a tattoo that he has on his bicep
0:10:51 that’s associated with white supremacist groups.
0:10:55 Now, he maintains obviously that that is not
0:10:57 why he has that tattoo, but it is something
0:10:58 that was taken seriously enough
0:11:01 that he was pulled off of protective detail.
0:11:03 – That’s just fucking strange.
0:11:06 He has a tattoo that is a, see, I didn’t,
0:11:08 I didn’t know that’s a new wrinkle on the peat ball.
0:11:10 – I think there are two tattoos
0:11:11 that people are focused on.
0:11:13 Pete has a lot of tattoos.
0:11:14 I don’t know this one.
0:11:15 This one’s really tough.
0:11:20 I just don’t know me that my tramp stamp
0:11:23 is going to keep me from being secretary of the interior.
0:11:26 Okay, let’s move on from this one.
0:11:28 This is a tough one or a worse one.
0:11:30 – Well, also, can we just say though
0:11:33 that in light of what we are about to discuss,
0:11:35 odds are that Pete is going to get confirmed
0:11:39 because they can only torpedo so many nominations.
0:11:42 And I think that Matt Gaetz is the top priority
0:11:44 in terms of not going through.
0:11:46 – Well, let’s talk about that.
0:11:49 Is this a strategy to do a blood offering?
0:11:52 Let Matt give Matt an opportunity to step down
0:11:53 before the ethics investigation comes out,
0:11:55 put forward this bad shit crazy guy,
0:11:57 so everybody else seems less crazy.
0:11:58 Is this a strategy where you think
0:12:01 the Trump administration knew that Gaetz
0:12:02 probably wasn’t going to get through,
0:12:04 but would be a great weapon of mass distraction
0:12:07 from how qualified or unqualified the other ones are,
0:12:10 but they aren’t someone who is,
0:12:13 as I would argue, more credible claims
0:12:14 is under current investigation.
0:12:16 Is that fair current investigation,
0:12:19 the House ethics report that they wrote about it?
0:12:23 This one feels, it would think that if there’s one position
0:12:26 where you have to be pretty squeaky clean,
0:12:27 it would be this one.
0:12:30 What are your thoughts on former representative Gaetz?
0:12:31 He stepped down, right?
0:12:35 – Yeah, so Johnson’s majority dwindles by the day.
0:12:40 So I would say yes, that I thought that it was 5D chess
0:12:43 or whatever yours, but whatever the best chess is.
0:12:44 The most thoughtful chess, except that–
0:12:47 – Called checkers, that’s the best chess.
0:12:48 Anyways.
0:12:53 – Except that it was reported that Trump made this decision
0:12:55 and didn’t consult Susie Wiles,
0:12:56 and basically it was talking to Gaetz
0:12:58 in like one part of the airplane,
0:13:00 and Susie Wiles was in the other part,
0:13:04 like playing dominoes with her grandkids
0:13:09 or something like that, and was like WTF, I’m sorry, what?
0:13:11 Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
0:13:16 So obviously Gaetz made this pitch in an urgent way
0:13:21 and auditioning it as like I can help you the most
0:13:22 of anyone, right?
0:13:24 Like I am unencumbered,
0:13:27 whereas other people might have some sort of moral compass,
0:13:29 but like I got nothing here, right?
0:13:31 And you know what I’m gonna do to boot?
0:13:33 I’m gonna resign right away.
0:13:35 I’m gonna scuttle this ethics investigation,
0:13:38 which I think probably to some degree appeals to Trump,
0:13:40 this idea of being falsely accused of things,
0:13:42 whether, I mean, it doesn’t really seem like
0:13:45 Gaetz was falsely accused ’cause there are people,
0:13:48 I guess that they’re plotting to get on the record
0:13:50 who were at these sex parties with him.
0:13:54 And the big problem is around this 17 year old
0:13:57 that he had sex with in front of a bunch of people
0:13:59 against a pool table at a party.
0:14:02 And I passed no judgment except the minor part of it.
0:14:03 – That’s a low recreational device,
0:14:05 people have sex against.
0:14:07 – No, I mean, the minor thing is not good.
0:14:10 And then there were all those exchanges
0:14:12 like that they were Venmo-ing him and his,
0:14:15 I don’t wanna say colleague, that’s like too nice of it,
0:14:19 his, what do you call people who go around
0:14:20 doing that together?
0:14:25 His pal who was like, his wingman, Venmo-ing people.
0:14:28 So I feel like Gaetz is the ultimate wrecking ball
0:14:32 that Trump wants and the one who will identify
0:14:35 deep staters like right away to him.
0:14:38 And I think that’s really what Trump is paranoid about.
0:14:41 So I think he does want Matt Gaetz.
0:14:42 I think he probably accepts
0:14:44 that he’s not going to get Matt Gaetz.
0:14:46 I mean, it’s rumored that up to 30 Republicans
0:14:47 would vote against him.
0:14:49 Now that’s what happens every time they say like,
0:14:51 oh, this is definitely not gonna happen.
0:14:53 And like, maybe it’s just Susan Collins
0:14:55 and Lisa Murkowski and a couple of others.
0:14:58 But like, there are enough people in the Republican caucus
0:15:01 who are on record saying, I really hate this guy.
0:15:02 He’s complete scum.
0:15:05 So I think that Gaetz is like number one,
0:15:08 not getting through, but not because he was intended
0:15:12 that way, just because he shouldn’t get through.
0:15:14 – And what do you think of Tulsi Gabbard
0:15:17 for director of national intelligence?
0:15:19 – I know likey at all.
0:15:21 No, I think it’s really bad.
0:15:24 She’s part of this cohort of like former Democrats
0:15:26 that Republicans always throw in our faces.
0:15:27 Like my colleagues will be like, well,
0:15:29 we have RFK Junior and we have Tulsi Gabbard.
0:15:31 And I’m like, guys, this isn’t the own
0:15:32 that you think that it is, right?
0:15:36 Like people who can be persuaded over with the promise of,
0:15:38 and these are big jobs, right?
0:15:39 That are coming their way.
0:15:42 But the kinds of arguments that they’ve been making
0:15:45 against Democrats don’t really feel like they were
0:15:48 that solid, at least for the last few years.
0:15:51 But Tulsi Gabbard, you know, she was a Bernie Sanders
0:15:53 acolyte, she ran in 2020.
0:15:55 She had some very embarrassing moments during the debate,
0:15:56 especially with Pete Buttigieg,
0:15:58 who absolutely decimated her.
0:16:02 And I’m not one to lightly call someone a Russian asset,
0:16:06 but she is very partial for arguments that the Kremlin makes
0:16:08 and has been doing that since the beginning
0:16:09 of the invasion of Ukraine,
0:16:13 basically saying that Ukraine wasn’t respectful of them,
0:16:16 that they were running bio labs, American backed bio labs.
0:16:19 And that was the argument that Putin was using,
0:16:22 that they had to go in because they were gonna attack them
0:16:23 with what they were making in these labs.
0:16:26 And the truth is, it’s just public information
0:16:27 that these labs exist.
0:16:29 And it happens all over the world.
0:16:31 And we work together to make sure
0:16:33 that people can be protected.
0:16:36 And if there is something like a COVID that shows up,
0:16:39 she also went to visit Assad in Syria
0:16:41 and didn’t tell the US government and came back
0:16:44 and said like that the people there really like him,
0:16:46 which is obviously parroting talking points
0:16:50 that are completely unacceptable.
0:16:53 And Russian state TV, and they are very savvy over there.
0:16:55 They love her.
0:16:58 They call her their girlfriend.
0:16:59 What do you think about her?
0:17:02 – Well, I don’t think it’s fair to call her a Russian asset.
0:17:03 And I don’t think it does us any good.
0:17:05 Representative Wasserman Schultz
0:17:07 said she’s essentially a Russian asset.
0:17:10 And there’s no evidence as far as I can tell
0:17:11 that they actually control her.
0:17:15 Having said that, I think the more legitimate argument
0:17:17 is that she shows, you know,
0:17:19 she provides comfort to the enemy.
0:17:21 Russia is our enemy.
0:17:23 I would describe China as our adversary, our competitor,
0:17:25 but I wouldn’t qualify them as our enemy.
0:17:27 We have mutual assured destruction
0:17:30 because we’re essentially both capitalist nations
0:17:31 and they produce the shit we buy.
0:17:33 We need each other.
0:17:34 Russia is our enemy.
0:17:36 They are spending a lot of time and energy
0:17:38 trying to destabilize our society.
0:17:41 And somebody who finds empathy for Assad,
0:17:44 who’s one of the most murderous leaders in the world,
0:17:48 and for Putin, in my opinion, just doesn’t share our values.
0:17:50 I’m not accusing her of being a spy or an asset.
0:17:53 I don’t see any evidence of that,
0:17:56 but this is not somebody to have someone come in
0:17:59 that I think would be just such a puncturing blow
0:18:02 to the culture and the morale there.
0:18:04 Quite frankly, it just seems to be really bad management
0:18:07 on the part of the Trump administration.
0:18:08 – I think that that’s right.
0:18:10 And this isn’t just about the DNI pick,
0:18:13 but in general, to the culture point,
0:18:15 I think the argument that they’re trying to make is
0:18:20 that the culture at a lot of these places is not good,
0:18:22 right, that there are people within them
0:18:26 that are not being fair and just
0:18:28 in the way that they do their jobs,
0:18:32 that there are practices that are being put into place,
0:18:35 or rules that are coming to fruition,
0:18:39 that don’t make us safer, don’t make us more agile,
0:18:42 don’t make us the fighting force of the 21st century
0:18:43 that we need to be.
0:18:46 And I think that airing those grievances
0:18:48 and having those conversations is something
0:18:51 that Democrats have probably been too resistant to doing,
0:18:54 and it has forced the pendulum to swing
0:18:56 in the absolute opposite direction
0:18:59 where people just say, “Burn it all down.”
0:19:02 And that’s a terrible place to be,
0:19:04 ’cause there are millions of civil servants
0:19:07 that are doing a really fucking good job, right,
0:19:10 at what they do, and they are subject matter experts,
0:19:12 and they understand a hell of a lot more than people
0:19:17 who have, like Tulsi, no experience in intelligence.
0:19:22 And to add to that, our allies are not going
0:19:24 to share information with us.
0:19:28 And that’s the cornerstone of being able to be efficient
0:19:32 and to be able to do anything good in the world.
0:19:33 We have to be able to work with those
0:19:35 who we are on the same side as.
0:19:37 I don’t know what the future of NATO looks
0:19:41 under an administration with these people filled out there.
0:19:45 It will be tenuous in a best case scenario.
0:19:47 And this isn’t just like when Trump came in the first time
0:19:49 and said, like, everyone should pay their fair share.
0:19:51 You should pay like 1% more or whatever it was.
0:19:54 I mean, this is something much more substantial
0:19:58 and frightening, and it scares me to think about
0:20:00 and America isolated.
0:20:01 I mean, when they say America first,
0:20:05 I hear America isolated, and there’s a hell of a lot
0:20:07 that’s going to be going on behind our backs.
0:20:11 If you have people like Tulsi Gabbard in the DNI position
0:20:12 where you’ll say, “Well, we can’t go to her
0:20:15 and talk about this,” and that’s when bad actors
0:20:18 fill a power vacuum, and for non-bad actors,
0:20:20 for the people that we just typically work with,
0:20:22 they’re just going to go about their business
0:20:24 and not count on us in the same way.
0:20:27 And that’s extremely damaging as well.
0:20:31 – Okay, let’s take a quick break.
0:20:32 Stay with us.
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0:23:54 – Let’s talk a little bit about
0:23:58 the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOH.
0:24:00 Jelon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed
0:24:03 to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency,
0:24:05 which they’re calling DOHs, of course.
0:24:08 What is your, what are your initial thoughts on this?
0:24:12 – I feel like this is the toy you give to people or kids,
0:24:14 kind of like kids, I don’t know,
0:24:17 but like he needed to give them something.
0:24:20 Elon Musk is principally responsible
0:24:21 for him winning the selection.
0:24:23 Like besides Trump, I’d say the number two
0:24:25 in that effort is Elon Musk.
0:24:28 And Vivek was, I think the first one who dropped out
0:24:30 to really endorse him and has been, you know,
0:24:31 totally Trump-y.
0:24:34 I don’t really know what this is going to be.
0:24:37 I mean, Elon Musk has like 50 different things
0:24:40 that he’s doing, and he’s launching more rockets this week.
0:24:42 So he seems to be obsessed with being part
0:24:44 of the Trump orbit, or these articles
0:24:46 about how annoyed Trump is at him,
0:24:48 that he just like won’t go away.
0:24:50 And he’s at Mar-a-Lago all the time.
0:24:52 But what I’m concerned about,
0:24:57 if they actually do get some degree of power,
0:25:01 is that they’re going to go around getting rid of things
0:25:02 that, A, you shouldn’t be getting rid of,
0:25:06 but also just like firing tens of thousands of people.
0:25:08 You’re going to have a spike in the unemployment rate.
0:25:10 I don’t know what happens to like Maryland
0:25:11 and Virginia and DC, right?
0:25:14 If you get rid of such a huge swath
0:25:16 of quote, unquote, bureaucracy,
0:25:18 but that they aren’t actually thinking
0:25:20 these things through.
0:25:22 They’re just, I mean, Vivek was giving an interview
0:25:24 where he said something like, you know what we’re going to do?
0:25:26 We’re going to take social security numbers.
0:25:29 And like, if it starts with this digit, this happens to you.
0:25:31 And if it ends with this kind of digit, that happens to you.
0:25:33 And like, there is an actual reason
0:25:35 why our social security numbers are the way they are,
0:25:38 like based on where we were born.
0:25:40 But when you hear someone talk like that,
0:25:44 it’s very hard to take it seriously.
0:25:47 And I am concerned about these mass reductions.
0:25:50 And Vivek was on with Maria Bartiromo over the weekend.
0:25:53 And she was even, I mean, she’s very partial
0:25:57 to Donald Trump and this idea of creating more efficiency.
0:25:59 And she was given him the eyebrow raise.
0:26:03 She was like, dude, what are you talking about?
0:26:07 – So first off, it sounds sort of like an oxymoron
0:26:09 to have a new department.
0:26:11 If it was a task force, first off,
0:26:14 this thing has no power, is my understanding,
0:26:16 that these, any sort of spending cuts
0:26:18 or reductions in labor force in the government
0:26:19 would have to be approved by Congress
0:26:21 or specific departments.
0:26:23 – This thing effectively has no teeth.
0:26:24 It can make recommendations.
0:26:27 – Well, that’s part of the like giving, yeah,
0:26:28 your kids like a toy.
0:26:30 – Yeah, like, it’s like almost like an ambassador
0:26:32 shipped to the Bahamas or something.
0:26:35 So, and it just strikes me as you’re starting off
0:26:36 in the wrong foot when you have a department
0:26:40 of government efficiency that has two co-heads.
0:26:42 Anyways, and if you look at where the spending is,
0:26:46 their ability to actually like where they would make cuts,
0:26:48 it gets pretty narrow pretty fast
0:26:51 in terms of what they could actually look at for cuts.
0:26:54 One thing I really do like about this though, is they are,
0:26:56 they’ve kind of put out a call to say,
0:26:58 we’re looking for hardworking people.
0:27:00 I actually think the benefit here won’t be cutting,
0:27:02 it’ll be adding employees or a certain type of employee.
0:27:04 And that is they have put out sort of this call that says,
0:27:06 if you’re interested in working for the government
0:27:08 and you want to work really hard
0:27:12 and bring new ideas and innovation, please send us your CV.
0:27:16 And I actually met a guy here who sold his company,
0:27:20 is wealthy now and is trying to figure out his new thing
0:27:22 and his purpose other than improving his sleep
0:27:24 and wearing an aura ring all the time.
0:27:30 And he’s sent a resume into a friend of mine knows Elon.
0:27:33 And of course, I like to call him First Lady Elania.
0:27:35 He knows him and he asked if you could get my resume
0:27:37 in front of him ’cause I’m really interested in this,
0:27:39 a dogerole or whatever it is.
0:27:43 And I really do like the idea and think if this group
0:27:45 accomplishes the following, it’ll be worthwhile.
0:27:49 And that is if it brings some aspirational kind of innovation,
0:27:51 coolness back to what are largely seen
0:27:56 as unfairly kind of stale lame jobs.
0:27:57 In other words, government,
0:28:00 other than going to wearing a uniform for the military,
0:28:02 I would argue that going to work for the government
0:28:06 outside of our security apparatus or a defense apparatus
0:28:08 does not have a lot of aspirational value.
0:28:10 And if they can restore some of that,
0:28:12 I think that would be a really good thing.
0:28:13 Your thoughts?
0:28:14 – Yeah.
0:28:19 Listen, I think that the best inventions
0:28:21 or the most progress that we make
0:28:24 is when the public and the private sector get together
0:28:27 and they bring the best ideas from both of those backgrounds.
0:28:29 So there is potential for that.
0:28:33 And I don’t wanna underestimate Elon Musk ever.
0:28:35 I think Vivek is a smart guy.
0:28:38 I don’t think he’s an Elon Musk level thinker.
0:28:41 I think very few people in the history of the world have been.
0:28:44 So I think that there is potential in that way,
0:28:47 but at least from early quotes about it
0:28:49 or the way that it has been discussed,
0:28:54 it feels much more just like taking a hammer to everything.
0:28:55 And I think that when you do that,
0:28:58 and in a lot of ways that’s what Trump is, right?
0:29:01 He’s just, he’s a disruptor, he’s gonna blow it all up.
0:29:05 And I hope that they will be more thoughtful about it
0:29:10 and also consider that there are millions of people
0:29:12 who have given their lives.
0:29:15 And that is why they serve, right?
0:29:18 I mean, people in mid-level bureaucratic jobs,
0:29:20 I understand it’s not sexy, right?
0:29:23 It’s not the thing that gets your name and lights in any way,
0:29:26 but they do feel a duty to serve.
0:29:28 And I know that you obviously think
0:29:29 that that’s something really important.
0:29:31 We’ve been talking about national service
0:29:32 and things like that.
0:29:36 And I hope that this doesn’t end up in discouraging people
0:29:40 from wanting to serve in whatever capacity they can,
0:29:42 or in a whole bunch of people losing their jobs.
0:29:45 Like we have a very good unemployment rate.
0:29:50 If they decimate these departments, you will see a spike
0:29:53 in that and these are good paying jobs as well.
0:29:55 – There is something to be said about the notion
0:30:00 of bringing more competitive, I don’t know, merit-based
0:30:05 as opposed to tenure-based culture to government work.
0:30:07 What’s interesting is I believe stake in local employment
0:30:09 is either flattered down.
0:30:11 The federal, the kind of the administrative state does
0:30:13 has gotten bigger, both under Republican
0:30:16 and Democratic administrations,
0:30:19 but a certain level of, I don’t know, full body contact,
0:30:24 capitalism, the majority or 90% or 80% of the workforce
0:30:26 has to face every day.
0:30:28 I think a little of that in the public sector
0:30:30 would probably be a good thing.
0:30:33 The first piece of data, I think though,
0:30:35 that is gonna really check back
0:30:38 the Trump administration’s current policies
0:30:39 is if one, there’s all of a sudden
0:30:43 a pretty significant uptick in unemployment,
0:30:44 although I don’t think they’ll be able to affect this.
0:30:46 What they might be able to do though
0:30:48 is substantially spike inflation
0:30:51 if any of this shit around tariffs
0:30:52 or these immigration policies.
0:30:56 And the moment that inflation starts to spike again back
0:30:58 from, I mean, it was a real yeoman’s work
0:31:00 on behalf of Chairman Powell to get inflation
0:31:04 from whatever it was, 5, 6, 7% down to 2.2 again,
0:31:06 which is where economists say is sort of the sweet spot.
0:31:09 If in one quarter or one month, it’s in announces,
0:31:12 or they announced that the CPI has spiked
0:31:14 50, 100, 150 basis points,
0:31:17 you’re gonna see a serious rethink
0:31:18 of some of these policies.
0:31:19 And I think that’s coming down the pike
0:31:23 if he just gets a fraction of what he’s asking for
0:31:24 in terms of tariffs.
0:31:26 But actually, I’m less triggered by this,
0:31:28 this Department of Government Efficiency,
0:31:30 ’cause I think it’s gonna be hilarious
0:31:32 when these two think they can run up against Congress
0:31:34 and tell them to start cutting jobs in certain areas.
0:31:36 I think it’s gonna be really funny
0:31:40 to see what actually happens or doesn’t.
0:31:44 And finally, let’s save the best or the worst for last.
0:31:47 RFK Jr., question mark, your turn, Jess.
0:31:51 – Hi, everyone who’s listening,
0:31:54 I’m sure has heard before that, you know,
0:31:57 about RFK Jr. and his vaccine skepticism,
0:32:01 but you know, there are 83 dead kids in Samoa
0:32:04 and they blame RFK Jr. who showed up four months
0:32:06 before a huge measles outbreak
0:32:09 and talked about how dangerous those kinds of vaccines are.
0:32:11 He’s now trying to sugarcoat everything
0:32:14 and make it like, you know,
0:32:17 it’s just about you doing what you want,
0:32:19 but not giving any of the information
0:32:24 about how unbelievably good and effective vaccines are.
0:32:25 Like this isn’t about,
0:32:27 do I want the COVID booster or not, right?
0:32:30 These are kids that are not getting measles vaccines.
0:32:32 There’s a very funny meme with Marco Rubio
0:32:35 and it says Marco and then RFK Jr. and it says Polio.
0:32:38 Yeah, so I did enjoy that.
0:32:40 Ultra processed foods are bad.
0:32:43 Pesticides in our food supply are bad.
0:32:47 All of that can be true without having to get RFK Jr.
0:32:51 And I don’t know, I mean, you’ve been on Silo Sibbins
0:32:53 in Mexico, so perhaps you didn’t see Marr
0:32:55 from the weekend or from Friday, I should say,
0:32:59 but he had on Dr. Casey Neans, do you know her?
0:33:00 I don’t.
0:33:03 So she’s a Stanford educated doctor.
0:33:06 She wrote a book, “The Secuge Head, Good Energy,
0:33:08 The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism
0:33:09 and Limitless Health.”
0:33:12 And she was talking just about
0:33:15 how we have no prevention system for chronic disease
0:33:18 and that she wasn’t taught anything in medical school
0:33:21 that actually helped her treat human beings
0:33:24 and what a racket it is and how we can do so much better.
0:33:26 And she was giving crazy stats,
0:33:28 like our life expectancy for American men
0:33:32 is 73 in Japan, it’s 83 same in Switzerland.
0:33:34 We’re the sickest of the top 11 high income countries
0:33:35 in the world.
0:33:39 And she said in the interview, you know, I’m not a Trumper,
0:33:41 but it excites me that RFK Jr.
0:33:42 is talking about some of these issues.
0:33:46 And so I say, can we have Dr. Casey Neans
0:33:50 as our HHS secretary because she doesn’t have a brain worm.
0:33:55 She didn’t take a dead bear cub and put it in Central Park.
0:33:58 And going back to the morality clause,
0:34:00 RFK Jr. is a prolific philanderer.
0:34:02 I think it’s the most generous way to describe this.
0:34:04 And his wife ended up killing herself over this.
0:34:06 He was detailing all of his affairs
0:34:09 and a diary in lurid detail.
0:34:13 Like, why do we need morally bankrupt people
0:34:15 in these huge positions of power?
0:34:19 – Well, it’d be worse if this happened for the presidency.
0:34:24 Anyways, I mean, we’re not, we should even go there
0:34:25 because I don’t know if it–
0:34:27 – I know, it just upsets me.
0:34:29 Like– – I get it, I get it.
0:34:31 The thing about RFK Jr.
0:34:33 There are some aspects of what he says
0:34:36 that I think are so powerful.
0:34:39 And this notion that there’s this, and I believe this,
0:34:42 there’s this unholy alliance between
0:34:45 the industrial food complex that wants to get you addicted
0:34:47 to sugary, shitty food and then hand you over
0:34:49 to the diabetes industrial complex
0:34:51 and then tell people who are obese
0:34:54 that you’re finding your truth, not a ventilator.
0:34:57 And this is the epidemic that kills more people
0:34:59 than COVID every year.
0:35:02 And Americans share one thing, and that is,
0:35:04 not more than 50% of Americans are anything
0:35:06 except maybe on Netflix and Amazon Prime,
0:35:09 but the one thing we do share is that 70% of Americans
0:35:11 are obese or overweight.
0:35:14 And he has gone right after the food industrial complex
0:35:15 and said that we have all the wrong incentives.
0:35:18 Kids should be able to have a healthy lunch.
0:35:20 He’s really good on this stuff.
0:35:23 And then, but the problem is when a guy named Kennedy
0:35:25 who’s handsome and gets an official title,
0:35:29 and I don’t care, he’s trying to basically whitewash
0:35:33 all of the incredibly insane things he said about vaccines,
0:35:37 you’re going to have, you know, when kids get rubella
0:35:40 and measles, you know, they end up losing limbs
0:35:42 and they end up dying.
0:35:43 I don’t care if it’s the semiconductor,
0:35:46 the printing press, the iPhone,
0:35:48 whatever you think is the premier innovation
0:35:51 of the last 100 or 200 years,
0:35:52 I guess the printing press was more than that,
0:35:55 but I would argue that the premier innovation,
0:35:58 the premier technology, the most impressive thing
0:36:00 that shows how when we come together,
0:36:03 we can do just tons of good for the species is vaccines.
0:36:07 Vaccines have saved tens of millions of lives.
0:36:09 And for this guy to be coming up,
0:36:11 and this is a true story, you know,
0:36:13 or telling people the best thing you can do
0:36:14 when you see a new mother and her baby
0:36:17 is to come up and whisper, don’t get her vaccinated.
0:36:20 – Yeah, wasn’t you doing that like on a hiking trail
0:36:21 around LA?
0:36:23 I mean, this shit is just,
0:36:26 it’s just unacceptable to fly in the face of science
0:36:30 like that and spread this kind of misinformation
0:36:33 that at the end of the day results
0:36:35 in a level of death, disease and disability
0:36:37 that is just unneeded.
0:36:39 It’s just such a shame ’cause on so many things,
0:36:42 I think he could really be a change agent,
0:36:45 but the notion that we’re gonna have an anti-vax person
0:36:47 in this role is just fucking insane.
0:36:50 And then, so just as Trump took stocks up
0:36:52 because the general assumption is he would cut
0:36:54 corporate taxes, which would increase earnings
0:36:57 and thereby increase the value of the shares,
0:36:59 we have seen a similar meltdown
0:37:00 across the pharmaceutical sector,
0:37:04 specifically those who get a lot of money from vaccines
0:37:07 on word that Kennedy was gonna get HHS.
0:37:11 And check out this, Eli Lilly down 13 and a half percent,
0:37:13 Nova Nordisk off six and a half percent,
0:37:18 Pfizer 4.6 percent and Moderna down 9.3 percent.
0:37:21 I mean, this is literally hundreds of billions
0:37:24 in market cap drawdown because of an individual
0:37:25 who is seen as anti-vax.
0:37:27 So the market, so far the market
0:37:30 has been remarkably prescient.
0:37:31 And if the market is correct here,
0:37:36 what they’re saying is this guy will decrease substantially
0:37:39 the adoption and usage of vaccines,
0:37:42 which is, in my view, just again,
0:37:44 see above death, disease and disability.
0:37:47 – It begs the question and I wanted to note as well
0:37:49 that the World Health Organization has reported
0:37:53 that global cases have surged more than 20 percent
0:37:57 and over a hundred thousand kids have died now.
0:37:59 And it’s in the last year, I think,
0:38:01 over not getting their measles vaccine.
0:38:03 So that’s obviously a huge problem,
0:38:06 but this is where the like, we don’t need experts
0:38:09 for anything like the Joe Rogan philosophy
0:38:11 of like, “I’ll just look it up myself.”
0:38:12 – Dr. Google.
0:38:15 – Yeah, and you can get a lot out of that,
0:38:18 but I don’t know, I still want my doctor
0:38:21 to tell me what she recommends
0:38:24 and certainly what she recommends for my children.
0:38:25 What happened during COVID
0:38:28 has just monumentally fucked up society
0:38:32 and just opened the door to all sorts of lunacy.
0:38:34 And there were people who were saying vaccines
0:38:36 cause autism before all of this,
0:38:38 RFK Junior being one of them,
0:38:42 but now that, I don’t want to say it’s mainstreamed,
0:38:44 but that certainly people aren’t getting,
0:38:46 you know, the raised eyebrow like they used to
0:38:49 when they say things like that is deeply concerning.
0:38:52 – Yeah, it’s anything,
0:38:53 this falls under the rubric of anything
0:38:56 that the far left and the far right agree on
0:38:58 is just a really bad fucking idea.
0:39:00 Actually, the anti-vax movement started on the far left,
0:39:01 you know, sort of this granola,
0:39:05 don’t put big corporations in your body.
0:39:07 But I find that the far left and the far right
0:39:09 come together to agree on things like reckless spending,
0:39:11 anti-Semitism and anti-vax.
0:39:15 So be very careful when you hear AOC
0:39:19 or I don’t know, Ted Cruz on agree on something.
0:39:21 All right, Jess, let’s take a quick break.
0:39:22 Stay with us.
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0:41:14 – Welcome back.
0:41:16 Republicans have officially clinched the house,
0:41:18 re-electing Mike Johnson as speaker
0:41:20 and Democrats are hoping to shrink the majority
0:41:22 to one or two seats.
0:41:23 But things start to get tricky
0:41:24 because three new Trump appointees
0:41:26 are currently serving in Congress.
0:41:28 A governor to Santus has started
0:41:29 scheduling special elections,
0:41:30 but that could take a while.
0:41:32 Jess, how might these open seats impact
0:41:36 the house’s ability to get things done initially?
0:41:37 – Cool, hugely.
0:41:40 I mean, Mike Johnson has made jokes about it.
0:41:43 And there are some who are thinking
0:41:46 that Trump is playing checkers in this.
0:41:49 But again, I’m low to give him that kind of credit,
0:41:51 but that basically he just wants everything
0:41:52 to be about him.
0:41:55 And he doesn’t want to give anyone the capacity
0:42:00 to be powerful except for him as the tip of the spear.
0:42:03 Not the spear, which is a cool place to go to a concert.
0:42:05 So having a slim majority like this
0:42:06 is a big problem for Johnson.
0:42:09 And he has a bold agenda.
0:42:10 I mean, he’s been talking about it for months,
0:42:11 things that he wants to get done,
0:42:14 obviously extending the Trump tax cuts.
0:42:16 He wants to do stuff on China.
0:42:17 He wants to address the border,
0:42:18 boosting oil and gas production,
0:42:23 though we’re producing more oil than we ever have in life.
0:42:27 Expanding school choice and going after
0:42:28 size and scope of the federal government,
0:42:31 which I guess Doge is going to be eating into.
0:42:34 But Johnson will really have his hands tied on all of this.
0:42:36 And I think they’re gonna do another continuing resolution
0:42:38 in March to keep the government open.
0:42:42 But I don’t know how fast these appointments
0:42:44 are going to be to fill these open seats.
0:42:46 Ron DeSantis has a lot ’cause he’s Marco Rubio.
0:42:48 He has Gates, he has Mike Walts,
0:42:51 who’s going to be national security advisor.
0:42:53 And who knows?
0:42:57 I mean, Trump isn’t done necessarily in what he’s doing.
0:42:58 So it’s gonna be slim.
0:43:02 And in the Senate, at least as far as these confirmations,
0:43:04 go John Thune, who’s the Senate majority leader,
0:43:07 now has said he’s open to recess appointments.
0:43:09 Apparently Mitch McConnell has said he isn’t
0:43:10 and he’s the one who is in charge
0:43:12 at this particular moment.
0:43:16 But when you have a bunch of lunatic appointments
0:43:17 or potential appointments
0:43:20 and you’re going to lose Susan Collins
0:43:23 and Lisa Murkowski probably on every single one of them,
0:43:26 you have a very, very slim majority to be playing with.
0:43:28 Even with JD Vance as the tying vote.
0:43:32 So it feels kind of lame-ducky
0:43:37 even for the trifecta that they were able to pull off.
0:43:38 What do you think about him?
0:43:39 – I just want to come out.
0:43:42 I actually like Mike Johnson.
0:43:43 There’s something about him.
0:43:45 Speaker of the House is supposed to be administrative role
0:43:48 and I don’t like his politics.
0:43:51 But I think he’s done actually a pretty good job
0:43:53 keeping all the fucking crazies in line
0:43:55 so we can do basics like have funding for the government
0:43:57 and pass a budget.
0:43:59 I think he’s, I actually think he’s done his job.
0:44:01 And I like John Thune
0:44:02 because I just think he’s very handsome.
0:44:04 I think it’s important to have him.
0:44:04 – Oh, I was going to say that,
0:44:09 but I didn’t know if I was supposed to objectify people.
0:44:11 But yeah, John Thune, like if your husband looks like that
0:44:14 at 63, you’re like, I nailed this.
0:44:17 – Yeah, no, that’s winning.
0:44:20 One more big story, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey’s race
0:44:22 is heading to a recount.
0:44:24 How’s that race looking, Josh?
0:44:25 – Well, bad.
0:44:31 So I understand why Bob Casey wants,
0:44:35 I mean, the issue is with ballots that weren’t dated properly
0:44:38 and there’s been court battles back and forth on this
0:44:41 and the right is trying to spin this as election denialism,
0:44:43 which it absolutely isn’t.
0:44:45 And this has been done in the past,
0:44:48 but basically everyone accepts that Dave McCormick
0:44:50 has won that seat.
0:44:53 And, you know, we defended really well.
0:44:55 Democrats did on a comparative basis.
0:44:57 I mean, we held four of five,
0:45:00 Sherrod Brown potentially I guess could have held on,
0:45:02 but looking at the trends that was unlikely
0:45:04 and we knew that we were going to lose John Tester.
0:45:07 So it’s turning into more of a swirl, I think,
0:45:10 than we could actually win this seat,
0:45:13 but he wants every ballot to be counted.
0:45:16 And I think that is how democracy works and all this,
0:45:17 but Dave McCormick has gone to DC.
0:45:19 He has an office with his name on it.
0:45:22 We no longer have Bob Casey seat.
0:45:24 – Hmm, there you go.
0:45:27 So, Josh, any, before we wrap here,
0:45:29 any predictions for the weekend?
0:45:31 – It’ll be interesting to see if there’s progress
0:45:35 on the treasury pick, which I wanted to talk to you about.
0:45:37 Like it was supposed to be down to just two,
0:45:39 Howard Lutnick and Scott Besant.
0:45:42 And now apparently there are a couple others
0:45:45 that are in the mix, Rowan who started,
0:45:49 Mark Rowan, Apollo and Kevin Warsh,
0:45:52 who was in contention in 2017 as well.
0:45:54 And of course everyone’s battling over like
0:45:57 whether tariffs are a good thing or a bad thing.
0:46:00 But I think that that will matter a ton in all of this.
0:46:03 And one thing that Trump has been able to do,
0:46:05 like he did with Mnuchin is kind of
0:46:07 attract some normal people, right?
0:46:10 To come that want to do monetary policy.
0:46:13 So I’m curious if you think like,
0:46:16 if he cares the most about how the economy is, right?
0:46:18 Cause that’s how people will remember him.
0:46:22 And the stock market is already down to pre-election levels.
0:46:26 We should note, do you think,
0:46:27 well, A, do you have any insight
0:46:30 on who he is going to pick for this job?
0:46:32 And they’re doing like a survivor type thing
0:46:34 where they’re all going down to Mar-a-Lago.
0:46:37 And where do you think he’s actually gonna net out
0:46:39 on the tariff idea?
0:46:43 – So I can, I mean, as is the narcissist,
0:46:44 kiss my ring, bend the knee thing.
0:46:49 I can’t stand these public blowjobs of come down
0:46:53 and Mitt Romney and after,
0:46:56 after shitposting me, you know, beg for forgiveness.
0:46:59 And then I’m gonna publicly release these photos.
0:47:02 I don’t like these public tryouts, as you called it.
0:47:06 I don’t know, the voice or America’s Got Talent
0:47:08 or whatever it is, I find it,
0:47:09 I just don’t think you should treat people
0:47:11 this way of the stature.
0:47:13 I don’t know, John Paulson.
0:47:15 John Paulson is famous for one enormous trade
0:47:18 and that is the sub subprime credit trade
0:47:21 where he went short a bunch of subprime bonds
0:47:24 and made like 50 X his investors money.
0:47:26 Other than that, Paulson, the fund itself,
0:47:28 not that that indicates whether you’re qualified
0:47:31 for the position has not performed that well.
0:47:36 The guy I find incredibly impressive is Mark Rowan.
0:47:38 I’ve been at Apollo conferences
0:47:40 where he’ll give an overview of the economy
0:47:44 in this guy just as like get some serious fucking brain power.
0:47:48 I also like the way he handled the controversy around Penn
0:47:51 in contrast with Bill Ackman.
0:47:52 He was very upset.
0:47:54 Mark Rowan, who’s I guess very involved with Penn
0:47:56 was very upset about the comments
0:47:58 or the lack thereof of the president
0:48:01 basically got her fired,
0:48:04 but then didn’t get drunk on power
0:48:06 and start deciding like who should be fired where
0:48:09 and how we should redo the educational institution.
0:48:12 I actually think he handled that very well.
0:48:14 He was forceful yet dignified
0:48:18 and I know personally, having seen him in action,
0:48:20 when it comes to the economy,
0:48:21 you don’t want to bring in a candidate.
0:48:24 I mean, you just, you don’t want to bring in someone charismatic
0:48:29 but stupid or whose views are outside of the mainstream,
0:48:31 but the adults in the room have to be the people
0:48:33 to get the jobs around the economy.
0:48:37 Now, not having said that HHS is arguably even more importantly
0:48:40 and more important, but America,
0:48:41 I see America as a platform for two things,
0:48:44 the defense of our shores and our citizens
0:48:47 and to create atmospherics for prosperity such that
0:48:49 people can develop economic security
0:48:50 for them and their families.
0:48:52 And if you’re worried about rights, it’s pretty easy,
0:48:53 shove more money into a community
0:48:55 and they’re going to get more rights.
0:48:58 So I hope that it’s Rowan, but I don’t,
0:48:59 and that’s not even to say,
0:49:01 I think the other ones wouldn’t be good picks,
0:49:05 but I know firsthand this guy is very impressive.
0:49:06 I mean, I don’t, the other stuff
0:49:08 has more checks and balances on it.
0:49:10 These guys in my opinion
0:49:14 have the most consequential impact on America.
0:49:18 I mean, if you, Taylor Swift was person of the year,
0:49:20 she shouldn’t have been, it should have been,
0:49:21 it should have been Chairman Powell.
0:49:25 He has a lot more impact on everyday lives
0:49:27 than almost anyone in the administration.
0:49:29 So anyways, I hope it’s Mark Rowan,
0:49:32 but I have no insight into who it might be.
0:49:35 – Well, I’m glad we listened to you then.
0:49:37 – No, that was insight actually having heard him
0:49:39 and I had forgotten about his role
0:49:44 in the anti-Semitism on campuses issue.
0:49:47 I think the only one in that group of four
0:49:50 who’s a little nutty is Lutnick.
0:49:53 The rest of them are pretty normie picks.
0:49:55 So we’ll see where Trump wants to go with that.
0:49:57 And this is like a place where I feel like Suzy Wiles,
0:50:00 we may see the impact of her.
0:50:06 But I’m excited for somebody to bring a bit of a balanced
0:50:07 or more nuanced perspective,
0:50:11 at least on the tariff’s pitch in all of this.
0:50:14 And maybe he’s just using it as a negotiating tool,
0:50:16 I don’t know, or maybe he’s going to destroy the economy.
0:50:18 So that’s, I guess what I’m watching for this week
0:50:21 and I’m interested in, and we’re gonna talk about this
0:50:24 with John Favreau from Pod Save America
0:50:26 on the raging moderates feed,
0:50:28 which you have to go to and subscribe.
0:50:33 But this autopsy, which continues to go on now
0:50:37 a couple of weeks in that Democrats are performing
0:50:39 on ourselves has been enveloping me.
0:50:42 I’m reading more content listening to more podcasts
0:50:46 about what went wrong and where we go from here.
0:50:49 And I continue to be hugely conflicted.
0:50:51 And I know that you’re just in the like,
0:50:54 we got our asses kicked camp,
0:50:57 but now that the popular vote is below 50%.
0:51:01 And it’s the third smallest win since 1888.
0:51:06 I’m feeling less self-flagellatory, is that a word?
0:51:11 And just thinking like, let’s pick ourselves up
0:51:13 and let’s dust ourselves off,
0:51:17 let’s figure out how to expand the base again, right?
0:51:20 Bigger tent, but that we don’t need to sit around
0:51:24 and embarrass ourselves constantly about what happened.
0:51:26 So I don’t know if you’ve changed your view on this,
0:51:27 but that’s where I am. – I have been.
0:51:29 I think that where it mattered,
0:51:32 he got enough votes to go seven for seven
0:51:33 in the swing states.
0:51:35 And I worry that Democrats are gonna find
0:51:40 some sort of cold comfort or keep making hollow excuses.
0:51:43 You know, we only lost by more people unsubscribed
0:51:45 to the Washington Post and he won Wisconsin by,
0:51:46 I keep hearing all this stuff that,
0:51:49 oh, actually it was closer than we think
0:51:50 and we shouldn’t change a thing.
0:51:53 I worry that the Democrats won’t take this.
0:51:55 You know, crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
0:51:57 And I think this is an opportunity for Democrats
0:51:59 similar to after the ’80s go.
0:52:02 We have to stop institutions,
0:52:07 whether it’s the ARP or unions, dictate our policy
0:52:10 and start thinking about what actual people need from us.
0:52:13 And instead of deciding that we’re sort of some,
0:52:17 you know, self-appointed cops for social justice
0:52:19 or some sort of political orthodoxy,
0:52:22 let’s get back to the Clinton years
0:52:23 where we’re gonna have budget surpluses.
0:52:26 Let’s be the adults in the room around the economy
0:52:28 and start talking about the deficit.
0:52:30 And instead of playing identity politics
0:52:32 and being more obsessed with race
0:52:34 and quite frankly, Republicans and seeing everything
0:52:37 through the lens of your identity
0:52:40 starts seeing stuff through the lens of do you have money?
0:52:42 Let’s double down on the middle class.
0:52:44 Let’s double down on youth.
0:52:47 And for God’s sakes, let’s fucking figure out a way
0:52:51 to have less insane people representing our party.
0:52:52 Let’s pivot towards the middle.
0:52:53 And the thing that really scares me
0:52:55 is this whole narrative of well,
0:52:58 we weren’t bad shit crazy enough on the left
0:53:00 that we should have doubled down on these values.
0:53:02 I think that would be a disaster.
0:53:05 So I’m hoping that similar to what happened
0:53:07 after Reagan, Democrats rethink things
0:53:10 and form a coalition in the middle
0:53:13 because that’s where the majority of Americans are.
0:53:14 And that’s the opportunity.
0:53:17 It’s pivoting towards the center and being more focused
0:53:20 on what actually impacts people’s lives
0:53:22 as this constant virtue signaling,
0:53:25 this constant inability to have a sense of humor,
0:53:30 this massively over reactive viewpoint
0:53:31 where we’re offended at everything,
0:53:33 representing every special interest group
0:53:35 to the extent that all we’re doing
0:53:39 is not representing the 24% of people specifically.
0:53:42 And I know everything is a nail and I’m a hammer,
0:53:44 but I generally believe this was the election
0:53:47 of young people failing and their parents.
0:53:49 And if your kid isn’t doing well,
0:53:50 and I’ve said this before,
0:53:51 you don’t give a flying fuck
0:53:54 about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine or trans rights.
0:53:56 That’s just a luxury you don’t have
0:53:58 when your kids aren’t doing as well as you.
0:54:00 That brings shame and rage throughout the household.
0:54:02 And I think Democrats would be smart
0:54:04 just to get back to the basics.
0:54:08 And as James Carville said, it’s the economy, stupid.
0:54:10 And I worry that they’re gonna make a bunch of excuses
0:54:13 for why, no, we should have doubled down
0:54:17 on our current virtue signaling meets identity politics.
0:54:19 – Thank you for my TED Talk.
0:54:22 Thank you for my TED Talk.
0:54:25 – So without disagreeing with you, ’cause I don’t,
0:54:29 I just want to note that Kamala Harris did not talk
0:54:31 about identity politics issues.
0:54:33 And the problem with that was,
0:54:35 is that it let Trump define her
0:54:39 and our refusal to push back on certain things,
0:54:41 like the trans, anti-trans, you know,
0:54:44 she’s for them, I’m for you, cost us.
0:54:47 Their blueprint did polling on where the late breakers
0:54:51 would turn them, and bigger than inflation was social issues.
0:54:55 And so it’s always a delicate dance.
0:54:58 It is the economy, stupid.
0:55:02 It’s not as simple as like, she did try to pivot
0:55:04 to the middle, but she wouldn’t say the shit I said
0:55:06 in 2019 is crazy, right?
0:55:08 And I should have never said that.
0:55:11 And there’s a great piece in the New York Times
0:55:14 about Democrats kind of pushing back
0:55:15 against special interest groups.
0:55:18 It’s called like, when will Democrats just say no?
0:55:20 And it’s by this guy, Adam Jettelson,
0:55:21 I think it’s how you pronounce it,
0:55:23 who worked for Harry Reid,
0:55:26 and then for one of our faves, John Federman.
0:55:28 So that, I found that really interesting.
0:55:29 But that’s it.
0:55:32 – Good stuff. Anything fun personally?
0:55:34 Jess, doing anything interesting, anything good?
0:55:35 – No, I was in LA last week though.
0:55:38 I had a, I had lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
0:55:39 I thought of you.
0:55:41 – What’d you get?
0:55:43 Did you get the $54 Cobb Salad?
0:55:44 – It’s crazy.
0:55:45 I mean, I wasn’t paying.
0:55:46 So I felt better.
0:55:48 But I, my favorite thing to do there though,
0:55:52 is to try to figure out who everyone else is.
0:55:55 Like, who, there was a kid, I swear to God,
0:55:57 I thought he was 15, 14, 15, right?
0:55:59 And he was waiting for his room, right?
0:56:01 I figured his parents are like somewhere else
0:56:03 or he dropped him off early, whatever.
0:56:05 And then it turns out that the room is for him.
0:56:07 – It’s Justin Bieber.
0:56:11 – No, well, maybe he looked like a tech Justin Bieber.
0:56:13 Then there were a lot of women with babies.
0:56:15 So my ovaries swelled.
0:56:19 But yeah, the people watching at that place is incredible.
0:56:22 But yes, the Cobb Salad, amazing.
0:56:24 – I’ll be there Wednesday and Thursday night.
0:56:25 Yeah, I love it there.
0:56:27 My second home, that’s great.
0:56:28 – Second second home.
0:56:29 – Yeah.
0:56:29 – Especially when you live in London.
0:56:30 – There you go.
0:56:31 – Oh, London has so many great hotels
0:56:33 for you to become like a hangar there.
0:56:36 – Yeah, it’s, that’s wonderful.
0:56:38 So back to me.
0:56:43 So I go from Los Cabos tomorrow to Vegas
0:56:44 for a speaking gig.
0:56:46 Then I go to LA for a couple of days.
0:56:49 Then I’m back to Vegas for F1.
0:56:50 And then I’m going to Brazil next week.
0:56:53 I’m going to Sao Paulo for a speaking gig.
0:56:54 Yeah.
0:56:55 Have you been to Brazil?
0:56:56 – I have not.
0:56:57 – It’s lovely.
0:57:02 It’s, I think it’s, first off, the beef is outstanding.
0:57:03 And the people are really hot.
0:57:07 So, you know, peanut butter and chocolate, beef and hot people.
0:57:08 How can you go wrong?
0:57:10 How can you go wrong, Jess?
0:57:10 – I don’t know.
0:57:13 – And one day maybe you’ll see your family again.
0:57:14 – Oh, them.
0:57:15 Them.
0:57:16 Yeah.
0:57:17 I don’t know.
0:57:18 I think, I think they’re doing just fine.
0:57:18 All right.
0:57:20 That’s all for this episode.
0:57:21 Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
0:57:24 Our producers are Caroline Shagrin and David Toledo.
0:57:27 Our technical director is Drew Burroughs.
0:57:29 You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday.
0:57:31 I think we’ve made that abundantly clear.
0:57:32 That’s right.
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