Doug Emhoff & Rick Wilson

Published Oct 14, 2024, 4:01 AM

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson examines why Democrats should not be freaking out about the latest polls. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff details the stakes of the election.

Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds, and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, who is now running for Senate, barely shows up to the state House. We have such a great show for you today the Lincoln Projects. Rick Wilson joins us to discuss Trump's further descent into madness. Then we'll talk to Second Gentleman Doug m Hoff about what are really mistakes of this election. But first the News.

Sunday shows one of them. Fox's Maria Barbiromo invited mister Trump on and crazy in suit. Let me show you not.

Let's remember you've got fifty thousand Chinese nationals in this country in the last couple of years. There are people on the terrorist watch list three hundred and fifty in the last couple of years. Like you said, thirteen thousand murderers and fifteen thousand rapists.

What are you expecting?

Joe Biden said he doesn't think it's going to be a peaceful election day.

Well, he doesn't have any idea what's happening in Rolfers. He spends most of his as day sleeping. I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country by the way, totally destroying our country, to towns, the villages, they're being inundated, But I don't think they're the problem in terms of election. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics, and I think they're the and it should be very easily handled by if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary, by the military, because they can't let that.

Happen towns and villages.

You know, sometimes you feel like it's just taken straight from the original German enemies from within. That's us, Jesse, that is us. I did take that implication opinion columnists. He doesn't like people with dissenting views. And again, look, the guy who starts the camps never just uses the camps for the immigrants, He also uses them for the people. Once you start a camp, it's very hard to sort of just you just sort of put everybody in it.

If history is any guide, I'd love to be wrong.

I hope to be wrong. Look is not surprising. Trump has said stuff like this before, somehow presented to the country thinks maybe he's kidding.

I don't know.

Last time he wasn't able to do it because he wasn't organized enough. This time, I'd be surprised if he was not able to put this whole thing together. And this moves us to our next news item, which.

Is one of the many people who once worked for Trump that really are scared of the idea of him becoming president again.

US Army General Mark Milly, you'll remember woke Mark Milly, by the way, not very woke, says that Donald Trump is fascist to the core. I'm sorry, okay, Mark Milly, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has a warning. It is that Donald Trump is fascist to the core. And then he says no person has ever opposed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as forty fifth president.

I'm sorry.

This is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying this. In a normal world, right, this would be on.

The cover of the New York Times. You will notice it is not on the cover of the New York Times.

In fact, the news cycle today is largely devoted to a poor poll for Vice President Harris as opposed to again, we're doing exactly what you're not supposed to be doing. Mainstream media is covering the odds and not the stakes. Once again, twenty three days before possible fascist takeover of this country and the mainstream media is covering the odds and not the stakes.

Boy, Yeah, well, in other stories that they're missing. Trump was a little waco at the Aurora, Colorado rally. As opposed to all the other ones, he was wacko up, but this one, I think there was a particular quote that was a little little alarming to us. What'd you see? Your mind?

Unbelievable.

So there was a lot of questions about why Donald Trump was going to Aurora, Colorado. It didn't make a lot of sense. Colorado is a pretty blue state. But it became clear when he got there. He is running on this idea of bringing back the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety eight. So the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety eight basically gives the president power to sort of go after people who are For example, was used during World War Two to in turn the Japanese right because the idea there was that people were Japanese were not loyal to this country, and so you could put them in camps and take all their stuff.

It's one of the darkest I mean.

That and Jim Crow are like two of the darkest pieces of American history, both of which Donald Trump is running for president on. He's running for president on Jim Crow. Right, he doesn't say it quite like that, but he kind of does. And the Japanese internment camps. So, and you have people who want this. I don't want to seem hysterical when I say this is so insane. Anyway, So Donald Trump went to Aurora to say that the Denver suburb has been taken over by Venezuelan gangs.

This is not true. And now he wants to use.

This alien Enemy's Act of seventeen ninety eight to basically put all of these people in camps. He's going to call it Operation Aurora. So, as you know, with the Republicans, fighting invisible crime is one of their signatures. And it looks like we're going to see more of this unless somehow Harris can win this election.

Yeah, and there really was great journalism done around how much of a made up issue. This was that was just the hysteric fever swamps of right wing citizen journalism who made this all come about this issue in Aurora.

Yeah, yet again, right, we keep seeing this yep.

So I find this particularly disgusting, which is that House Speaker Mike Johnson says that hurricane aid can wait until after the House recess, after the election. What are you see in here?

Mind?

Look, FEMA has money.

Now, Hurricane season doesn't end till November, and sometimes it can go even later.

You know, in the past presidential elections it's been right up to the election at times.

Right, So there is still hurricanes, natural disasters, fires. For now, FEMA's okay, but it's a delicate balance. It would be a great time to pull everyone back, especially in the House, and authorize.

More money for FEMA.

There's no reason not to do this except that Mike Johnson a doesn't really care. And again, look, this is Republicans not wanting the federal government to work, right. When they're not lying about federal government response, they are, in fact making sure that the federal government doesn't have the money it needs to do the things that it promises it's citizens. So I'm not surprised that Mike Johnson didn't want to do this, but it's very annoying to me, and it really does set up a possible cash crunch later on in the month.

Very annoying.

So another subject that seems to have been very glazed over as Bob wood Word's revelation that Trump and Putin are besties who gets gifts said to them in the form of COVID tests? What are you seeing here with Kamo's reaction to this.

This is something that I think a lot of people hoped that she would do, which is she is really running on some of this stuff. So the idea the Donald Trump during the COVID pandemic was more interested in getting COVID tests to Vladimir Putin, a nefarious Russian dictator, than he was to his own people. I think it was a pretty good sign about where Donald Trump's loyalties lie. I'm glad that Harris is blasting Trump on this, and I hope she makes this her closing message. Speaking of closing messages, you know who's you know who is working real hard to try to pump up his bestie. Do you know who that is?

One musk?

Yes, everyone's favorite South African billionaire, his social media platform is doing all the stuff that he was convinced Twitter was doing before he bought Twitter. So remember you'll remember the Twitter leaks where he and listened to all of these journalists to spread stories about how old Twitter was suppressing speech.

Well, guess what Elon Musk is doing it? Can you guess?

Is it suppressing links and suppressing speech and manipulaing the for you page? So it's a right wing hellscape.

Wait, it's like you're in my brain.

Yeah, So Elon is doing all the things that he accused Twitter of doing. He's suppressing the links, he is taking them down, he's throttling speech. And you know again, why is he doing that? Because this was never He was never a free speech absolutist. All of these people who say they were free speech absolutists.

They are absolutely not that. They are just people.

Who want to get their own way. And look, Elon Musk has if Donald Trump becomes president, he will have no regulation and that means that as AI grows, he can be the king of AI and he can do whatever he wants with it. And this is why and a lot of these tech pros they want two things from Donald Trump. They don't want to be taxed, right, and remember in twenty fifteen and there's a huge his tax cuts expire. So the billionaires, the people who are benefiting from the Trump tax cuts, do not want to lose those tax cuts. So that's part of it. And then the other part of it is they do not want government regulation. So, for example, the fact that you can't trust anything you see online, right, almost anything you see online is untrustworthy at this point. Everything you see on x is untrustworthy. That is because there's no government regulation, right, there's no They're not trying to regulate Facebook, they're not trying to regulate AI. They're not trying to regulate anything. So if Donald Trump becomes president again, he will and I don't think anyone will be surprised by this, he will not regulate AI. He will not regulate Facebook. And he will also not regulate like the clean water or clean air or even you know, remember all the stuff with Boeing Like this is lack of government regulation. This is what happens when the federal government doesn't regulate things. This is why Elon Musk wants Trump back in office, because he knows that less regulation benefit.

One hundred percent. We have even more tour dates for you. Did you know the Lincoln projects Rick Wilson have Fast Politics, MALEI jug Faster are heading out on tour to bring you a night of laughs for our dark political landscape. Join us on August twenty sixth at San Francisco at the Swedish American Hall, or in la on August twenty seventh at the Region Theater. Then we're headed to the Midwest and we'll be at the Vivarium in Milwaukee on the twenty first of September, and on the twenty second we'll be in Chicago at City Winery. Then we're going to hit the East coast. On September thirtieth, We'll be in Boston at Arts at the Armory. On the first of October, we'll be in affiliate City Winery, and then DC on the second at the Miracle Theater. And today we just announced that we'll be in New York on the fourteenth of October at City Winery. If you need to laugh as we get through this election and hopefully never hear from a guy who lives in a golf club again, we got you covered. Join us in our surprise guests to help you laugh instead of cry your way through this election season and give you the inside analysis of what's really going on right now. Buy your tickets now by heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as Unusual dot bio.

Rick Wilson is the founder of the Lincoln Project in the host of the Enemy's List, Welcome back to Fast Politics Ribolls.

Hello, hollast, what's going on.

We're racing towards the end of the Trump Apocalypse. The campaign is in his final three weeks. Shit is getting, as the kids say, very real. And Donald Trump went to Coachella and left ten thousand people stranded in the desert.

The vibes are anxious.

I do for me, do for our podcast listeners what you do for me at least five times a day.

Look, guys, Trump's central strategy right now is to make Democrats feel like the world is over. The election is lost. We're all doomed. There's nothing ahead of us but a thousand year Trump Reich. It's not true. We are moving in the right direction. The race is close. Of course, she's been a cannon for less than ninety days. Donald Trump is one hundred percent well known brand we are not behind. We are ahead in Key State. We are moving further ahead in Key states. The zone flooding of garbage polls from Trafalgar and Rasmus and all these other one off instantaneous polling operations to alter the polling averages is to depress you. It is to make you get up in the morning and go, oh shit, well he's gonna win again. I'm not going to bother to go vote because what it does matter this is and look, nothing in Donald Trump's world right now is going the right direction. You had the chief of his the chairman of his Joint chiefs of staff say he's a fascist.

You arek Milly, he is a fascist. He is a fascist.

And he didn't like walk around that like he has fascist tendencies or he's fascist adjacent. He was like, no, he is a fascist.

Yeah.

For Mark Milly, I just want you to take him in here as someone who has worked in national security and for Dick Cheney, Dear God, forgive all of us. My poor grandfather, my poor communist grandfather in his grave, going oi Gavault, But just talk to us about what it means for someone like Mark Melly to go public.

One of the most sacred things in the senior leadership of the American military is that they try to stay out of politics. They do everything they can to stay out of domestic politics. They're not And look, they may have their inclinations Republican or Democrat, it may go back and forth. You might be able to tell what their inclinations are. I can tell you I knew one Air Force Chief of staff who came across like a swaggering two gun cowboy all the time and was a bleeding heart progressive liberal Democrat. And I've known plenty of these guys who would sooner die than come out and say, oh, now I'm involved in politics, even once they're retired. But General Millie, who is a very principled guy and who learned one hard lesson that during the Loafiante Square Park thing when he walked with Trump at Trump's insistence, he recognized what this guy was trying to do a minute too late. He's made up for it now. He's gone back through this whole problem and addressed it in a way that I think is really important. He is not allowing Trump to skate on this. He's saying the F word. He's saying that he's speaking the truth out loud. He's not playing any games, and that's happening increasingly because that's what Trump is. Don't be afraid of it. Folks call him what he is, call him by his name, right right, And look, the racism is now in is now up at eleven in these speeches. I'm telling you my bet that he's going to drop the end bomb at some point in this campaign. I like my money on this because it's that overt. I think all of it, Molly comes down to one thing. Trump is. He cannot change. He can never get new customers, fire up his base and they'll maybe drag him across the line. And he's to depress Kamala Harris's base so they don't come out and vote. I persuading anybody. There's nobody new coming into Trump's world and going wow, I suddenly.

Realized, I love fascism. It's the best. No, I agree. I think that's a really good point. And we are in a moment in American life where he is really it's a real hood off moment for Trump.

I think that's fair.

He was a hoodoff moment he is he is right now in the pointy white it's everything but the pointy white hat. At this point, the Harry crosses. He's doing a national rally, an American Bund rally at Madison Square Garden, just like the American Nazi Party did the American the Bund did back in the nineteen thirties. And this is one of those examples of like history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes with a really good beat. It's ridiculous.

Do you think just give me two seconds here, do you think that? Like, what do you think the thinking is Behindella? Couldchella, New York, Madison Square Garden? Like, what do you think the thinking is on those?

He thinks it drives a lot of media.

That's the thing.

He thought Cochello would drive a lot of media, and that what they and I did hear some somebody inside the campaign, my friend Mike Madrid had the theory and then I did confirm it with somebody in the campaign. They thought Trump thought, in particular, there'd be a lot of hispanics at the Coachella rally. Who really showed up to the Coachella rally? Old Trump, old white Trump dudes always do. Donald Trump's brand is very old and also elderly.

And not young.

I see whispers.

Jesse really wants us to talk and he's like been telling me about this earlier. He wanted me to talk about this too. I'm not sure why damning video shows Rogerstone plotting a coup for November. I mean, damning video. Does this surprise anyone? I would be surprised if there wasn't a Rogerstone video.

You've got videos this weekend out from Roger Stone, from a certain former national, from a certain form in general whose.

Name, because you're on court with him, because.

He's suing me for ten million dollars for being mean to him on the internet the internet for retweeting someone.

Yes, well, don't be me and them on the internet. That was the mistake. You've got Robert Stone.

You've got this guy. If you guys haven't yet encountered Ivan Rayelkin, who's running around talking about how they're going to storm precincts in Pennsylvania to make sure those dastardly communist precinct agents aren't stealing Trump's votes with guns.

Of course, is that the guy who got arrested in Coachella or is that someone else?

That's someone else?

Oh yeah, that guy seems great to but any look.

At you hear you have Roger Stone admitting on tape, yes, we purge, We're purging a million of them. And Molly, I'll give you just one guess as to the race, and that's the composition of them. And when it comes down to Roger Stone and so all of it really comes down to I think, and I'm actually today I heard the Justice Department was firing off letters to Virginia and Florida and other places, suddenly waking the fuck up twenty three days out before the election's here, Hello, finally saying to these states that don't do this, you can't do this. It's the elite. But as always with the Justice Department, they are they never fail to show up late without the right number of fire trucks.

Yeah, they seem really behind the behind and not all that proactive. Now again, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but it certainly does that feel good.

Look, I will take any sand thrown in the gears of the Republican effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans. Millions of these people that are being taken off the ballot are being done. It's being done in coordination with state Republican parties curating the vote. Yeah, I've been told by two separate sources that the Republican Party of Florida is giving the lists of people who have to come off of the ballot or off of the voter file to the counties saying this is the list you're going to use, and the governor's going to insist on it.

Jesus call me crazy, but it's not how any of this is supposed to any of.

This is supposed to work. And look, you've got a lot of these people that are telling you what they're going to do. They are they're going to do what they tell us they're going to do. Listen, I'm sanguine about the elect I am ready for a really ugly two months between Wednesday, the day after the election and January sixth's. Yeah, that's going to get hairy, and it's going to get ugly, and it's going to get I think it's going to get very dangerous for the country during that window.

Yeah, that's not what. That's not good. That is not good. It's funny.

What's nice about talking to you is you give us stuff to worry about that I actually have talked to you quite.

A lot, so I was already worried about that.

But before that, I was just worried about the election. But it's nice to know that in twenty days we will be worried about a whole other slate. I really appreciate that, because I was worried that I would be worried about the wrong things. I want you to explain to us a little bit about what's happening right now, sort of with the rest of the election.

It's funny.

I was talking to someone who's a straight reporter today who was saying, Democrats are you know, very gloom and dooming, glooming and dooming. Sure, Then he goes, you know, this is like his dark side. He goes, if the point, if we're off a little bit in the polls, you could see how Ted Cruise could lose.

I think that Ted Crews has a chance to lose. It is in narrow path. It requires Colin Allred spending every minute of the maining part of this campaign in Harris County and the Houston metro area. And I'll just be frank. He needs to go to every black church in that area over and over again. He needs to reve up African American turnout between three and five percent, and Ted Cruz can't win if he does that. He should not fuck around with anything else. Don't do any don't take any votes in Washington, don't go out trying to win over El Paso. Sit in Harris County. You're going to get a huge percentage, almost a quarter of the vote, a little more a quarter of the vote out of the Houston metro area. I mean, occasionally dip over to Dallas, but that turnout up. Ted Cruise is unpopular, he's unlikable, he's old.

Let you get to say terrible things about Ted Cruise. What's nice about bringing this up is now you're able to go on. Yes, he's a fish, microwaiver.

We know it. Man.

Oh yeah, but he's only able to exist in an environment like Texas. Tech Cruz would be even in any other red state. By this point, the guy doesn't give a shit about Texas. He doesn't even live there anymore. He lives in DC. He's got his podcasting in Empire of his and that's what he cares about. The guy doesn't spend a lot of time. He's disengaged from work in the Senate because he knows he'll never get leadership even when the Magas take over, and all of it comes down to this like likability question in a big way. And I think a lot of Texans have seen Ted Shenanigans now for two cycles and he's an unlikable guy. And look, Texas is in transition. If it's not this race, it's won two years from now. A lot of Californians are moving there, a lot of folks from the new Northeastern moving there. A lot of younger people are moving there. It's a young state, it's getting younger every day. It's a Hispanic state, getting more Hispanic every day. And while that doesn't mean one hundred per one to one correlation with the Republican.

Votes DEMOCREDA votes, excuse me.

It certainly is a much more favorable environment that we would have had eight years ago or even four years ago.

Talk to me about sort of what she's doing her closing message, because I did this thing with Carvil last night and Carvil was saying, what's her She has to have a really strong closing message.

And also she's.

On her way through all of the swing states next week, like a crazy swing stage, putting.

In the work. Okay, Yeah, that matters. That counts a lot. Remember Donald Trump is still skipping days on the trail two golf even right now this week.

Even now I thought they weren't letting him golf because of security.

He's still He's still sneaking it in Florida.

I'm told at doraw.

But she's doing the work, She's getting out there. I don't think of campaigns in the same way I think of thought of campaigns even two years ago. I think going on Call Her Daddy was more important for her campaign than any ten rallies. You can't buy that level of media coverage and that level of audience engagement. I think going on Howard Stern as Scott Gallows of the day, this is this maybe the year of the podcast presidency. Trump is going on Crypto Bro podcasts and the Manisphere podcasts and the Milk Brothers. Whatever the hell that is sounds like amboys, milk boys. Excuse me THENLK.

I don't even I don't even know what any of that.

I'm just honestly, I don't even think you do want to know about it these But she's out there talking to people with audiences in the tens of millions. He's out there talking to people of audiences of guys who have a den crippling Hentai fetish in their mom's baseball.

Also, Trump did Let's talk about Trump's stranding people in Coachella for a minute. How is that a good way? Like, don't let the followers get mad that they're stranded somewhere or now.

They're blaming the deep state, they're some they're blaming the mayor of Riverside. They're blaming everybody else except for the motherfucker who organized the buses for the event. And that was Donald Trump's campaign. And when they left these people hanging out in the desert, all of a sudden, the tough guy. Look your feelings, They're like, I feel so abed and it alone in the desert. I okay, boo fucking who blame Donald Trump? You want to blame somebody, Blame Donald Trump because Donald Trump was a motherfucker who left you in the desert. Donald Trump was the guy who didn't get the buses set up in a way where they had enough capacity and enough gas in the buses to do the entire operation.

So let's talk about Liz Cheney again, went on She's really doing God's work here.

She went on the Sunday Shows.

She said she doesn't think that Maga Mike Johnson will do his job certifying the election. She was in the Republican leadership up until two years ago. I mean, this is wild tough.

She knows who he is, She understands who Mike Johnson is. She is correct, and let's remember on this same Sunday shows this week, Mike Johnson said we had a peaceful transition of power in twenty I want to say this, like very bluntly to my friends in the media. Anytime a Republican official says that you had a peaceful transfer of power in twenty twenty, or says, well, Donald Trump was shooting in the election, the solution is not to say, well, let me ask you another question. The solution is to frog marks them out of the fucking building as security comes and takes them off the set, and that you never invite them back, because these people are willfully engaging in what they know, and the hosts and the networks know to be egregious lies. The idea we had a peaceful transfer of power in twenty twenty is truly epic in its shamelessness less, having none of it. She's having none of it. And look, I think her performance in this role that she is in right now as a truth teller about what the has become and is becoming, is peerless. I think she's absolutely I think she's absolutely gone out there and truely put country over party.

Yeah, just agree with.

Kamala Harris on everything. I don't agree with on everything.

I know you don't you both well.

Yeah, but I'm more of a sick guy it anyway, But I own some glocks. But long story short, this idea that you've got two types of people, the people telling you the truth about the world actually looks like the list Chinese and the people demanding that you accept a lie that they know and to be a lie and that they know that you are stuck in this media generated self referential frame of oh god, if I'm not if I'm not objective, and I don't pretend that this is a real. No, you don't have to. Martha Raddick should have said, get the fuck off my get the fuck off my set, or Walker, get the fuck off my set, leave go, you're out, shut the mic off. That's the correct answer, and then that will be the one thing that punishes the lie. These guys. For all that they hate the mainstream media, they are desperate to use it to overturn the freedoms and liberties that make the mainstream possible.

Okay, well, so I play you guys one thing before we go live from a Trump rally right now, All right, this is Trump talking about a chart to have a strong order, and.

That's why we had that beautiful chart.

Was my favorite yard in history.

Sleepy that I kiss it, just making a face I sleep on day.

I kiss it.

Well and to that, Melania says, thank fucking good.

Written tomorrow night, Monday night.

Yes, indeed, Monday night, dude, nude all no, not.

Nope, not that is nope, not that.

Are you concerned about Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second term could be?

Well so are we, which is why.

We teamed up with iHeart to make a limited series with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty five would be for America's future. Right now, we have just released the final episode of this five episode series. They're all about By looking up Molly Jong Fast Project twenty twenty five on YouTube, and if you are more of a podcast person and not say a YouTuber. You can hit play and put your phone in the lock screen and it will play.

Back just like a podcast. All five episodes are online.

Now we need to educate Americans on what Trump's second term would or could do to this country.

So please watch it and spread the word.

Doug Emhoff is the second Gentleman of the United States. Welcome to Fast Politics, Doug.

I'm Mollie.

It's good to do this.

I'm a listener. Now I get to be beyond. So this is cool.

Well, I'm delighted to have you and I think of Now I'm not going to ask you to do the borad voice. I'm not going to ask you, okay, I'm just going to clear the air.

No asking you to do or was it or was it there's a whole controversy.

Was it or was it for art?

Or was it just you know? Who knows?

It is so cool, all right. I was born in the seventies hippie parents. They had a marriage that sort of imploded over my mother's career, among other things. So you have this really strong marriage where you have stopped doing your career to support your spouse, like I also have a marriage like that, but I'm just hoping you could talk about what that is like.

So it's funny when this comes up. I don't think it's so unique. This is just a husband and a wife who love each other very deeply. We support each other, and we are there for each other. We're there for our family, and we've got this big, huge, blended family. And I'm pretty old school. I mean, my main thing in life is to protect those that I love and be there for my family and support them. And so because my wife, in her chosen career, went from United States Center vice president, and because of that unbelievable career move, it was a no brainer. I worked right up until the time that Joe Biden called her to be on the ticket. Very happily. I was very successful. I felt left a full play to work. But for my partner, who I love very much, who had this opportunity, it's just part of who I am. Again, it's very old school. I don't think it's a new thing. And this is what you know you should do is be there for those who love and this is something that was necessary to support her. And it's okay. Now I get to be second gentleman, and I get to support her as a vice president. I get to travel the world representing this country that I love so much. I get to stand up for US Jews in this fight against anti Semitism. I get to focus on issues regarding you know, the Dobbs decision and encouraging men. Hey look, I'm focused on this issue because it affects all of us, not just women, women or dying, but it affects family planning, it affects other rights potentially, which we saw in the Dops decision. So it's given me an ability to have this platform, which is really satisfying in terms of, you know, like a career. It's actually just been an incredible experience. I get to teach at Georgetown Law School to keep my head in the legal profession. So this is this has been great. This is not I have not become less of a dude. I'm not less of a person because of this. She loves me the same that I love her. She supports me just as much as I support her. So this is this is kind of business as usual.

We're both Jews and you're just talking about that. One of the things I see a lot in my life are fancied Jews, because that's a group that you know, I sort of know, and Trump has managed to get this insane message to them that somehow he is better for Jews.

Just make it make sense.

I've spoken on this several times. You know, Look, if you go back to Charlottesville with the tiki torches and Jews will not replace us. And when Trump got up there and a woman died and he's saying to neo Nazis and people holding tiki torches, saying Jews shall not replace us, that they will fine people on that side of it, this is who he is. He's had dinner with known anti Semites. There's a long record of anti Semitism and Donald Trump. And then just go back a couple of weeks. He was literally at an event purporting to be against anti Semitism, and he committed anti semitism at that event, with the dual loyalties bs and blaming the Jews when he loses the election. This is who he is. And listen to what Kamala Harris is saying. She just did a big call to the Jewish community today. She gave beautiful remarks at our home on October seventh, just listen to what she's saying, and like, I literally have to tell people, Look, do you think I would literally be married to someone who didn't support Jews or Israel as a Jewish person? Come on, this is somebody who supported Jews and Israel well before she met me. She was the one who took me to Israel when she was the United States Senator. She's the one who pushed me to really lean into this fight against anti Semitism. She's the one who pushed me to spearhead our White House National Strategy to counter anti Semitism. And every day since that horrific day of October seventh, even when it's been so hard for me to do, push me to speak out loudly in this now crisis of anti Semitism since October seventh. I would not be doing this but for Kamala Harris.

You have a really good sort of divorce, like one of the great divorces. Your ex wife is really committed. She was at the DNC. She is one of the biggest supporters of Harris. As a child of divorce parents. It is super moving to watch. How does that work?

Well, you're talking about Kirsten, She's incredible, so look, even during our divorce, we committed to each other that we were going to remain very close together and also be there for the kids, and whatever other issues were happening, we would just deal with those separately and make sure that she and I had an excellent relationship and an excellent relationship with the kids. And that's exactly what we did from day one, and that carried over into when I met Kamala, and so she accepted Kamala into her life. Personally, they are close themselves and as parents, and you know, everyone talks about Kamala to Mamala, but I love what Ella said after a couple of years. She said, you're a three headed parenting machine. And that's because of the relationship of Kirsten and Kamala and the relationship that Kirsten and I preserved and actually gotten closer over the years. So she is a fierce protector of our family like we all are. And you know, every time something comes at us, she's the one out there pushing back because that's how we roll, and that's how close we are. And it's a testament to Kirsten and to Kamala, and it's great and it's just really brought our family even closer going through this experience the last two plus months, it's brought us all closer. So you know, this is it's been great.

Are the kids, they're like young adults. That has to be a huge strine.

So Cole is thirty now and married, he's been married for a year. El's twenty five. So it's interesting though, Molly, they still need us, and especially now with all this going on. So we're really whatever little free time we have, we're really focused on Cole and Ella and Cole's wife Greenley, and you know, Kamala's grand nieces, and we just want to make sure that they know that we are still there for them and we're going to be around. So we're taking them on the trail. So I was just on a west coast swing and I picked up Cole in La and then he came to Phoenix, Arizona with me for a couple of days with Greenley. Ella is going to meet me this weekend in Philadelphia for an event or two, which happens to be my birthday, so I get to spend part of that day with her, and so we're just including them and making sure we're in constant contact. From the road. But yeah, I mean, look, this whole experience has been surreal for all of us. It came about so suddenly, and it's just been a rocket ship for two plus months. But everyone understands we've got to win this election. And between Kamala and I, like, there's very little couple time right now. We're not really seeing each other. We're trying to FaceTime stay in touch. But we know the mission, we know what our responsibility is. We're very accountable to it. We spend whatever time we have talking about I give her notes from the field, here's what I'm hearing from these states I'm going to, And it's all about what more can we do to make sure we're doing everything we can as a couple to win this election. That's it. That's all we're focused on, right and.

That goes to the stakes of this election and the case for why this is not a usual election.

She said it, This is not only the most important election of our lifetimes, it's the most important election of the nation's lifetime. And what I'm now saying is people need to kind of what you're talking about with your Jewish friends, we need to just get out of this Trump has this fog that he's created, this fog of disinformation, gaslighting, misinformation to try to run out the clock because they try this character to her of her as she's not qualified, she's not competent, she's not intelligent. All got debunked when the American people got to see her in person and got to know her, saw how she literally just kicked his ass on that debate stage to a point where he's now trying to run out the clock and run away from her. Won't debate her again, won't go on sixty minutes. He's avoiding her, and all he does is lie, lies about the female relief. He's lying in, gaslighting and creating this fog around him to just run out the clock. People need to just push that fog away and just see what's in front of them. You've got somebody with a horrible president the first time. He's way more dangerous now he's degrading in front of our eyes and the things that he's talking about. Dictator on day one, terminating the Constitution Project twenty twenty five, extrapolating out the Dobs decision to take away more freedoms, damage to the environment, more guns on the street. This is not a world that any of us would want to live in. So if people can actually see what's in front of them, one hand, terrible president the first time, way more dangerous, chaotic, will make everyone's life worse. And then Kamal Harris, who has been a prosecutor for twenty years putting away murders, rapists, and sexual offenders. She was an elected district attorney, elected attorney general where she took on the transnational gangs at the border, United States senator and vice president for four years in which she's in the Oval office with the President helping make decisions in the situation room. She's already a world leader. This woman is eminently qualified. She has exceeded the most unrealistically high expectations every step of the way, DNC speech, debate, you name it. She's on a media blitz right now. Do you want to learn more about her, go watch Stern and all these things she's doing. And she's relentless focused and determined. She's going to be a president for everyone. She's not going to embarrass us on the world stage. And this is why a bunch of Republicans are for her. List Cheney, General McCrystal, and others. So it's all out there. People just need to open their eyes and see what's right in front of them. In this way, it's a binary choice.

You guys have a gun, She's got a gun.

Yeah, she's a responsible gun owner.

Is that super scary?

No.

She believes in the Second Amendment, and she's talked about her career law enforcement and having a gun. But she's responsible gun owner and also believes in reasonable and effective gun safety laws. So children are not being murdered at school. Do you know that the number one cause of death for young people in this country is gun violence? Yeah, and it's so preventable. So both things can be true. You can be a responsible gun owner, you can believe in the Second Amendment. Nobody's taking your guns away. She's not doing that. But she wants to make sure that gun violence is not the number one cause of death for our young people in this country, that you can go to school, and go to the market, and go to the bank and not be gunned down by a weapon of war.

There are a lot of people Listener's podcast who are voting for her, is not a question, but they have a lot of anxiety, a lot. Number one anxiety is the campaign, reactive to what they're seeing on the field, etc.

Oh definitely, that's why we are all out there each and every day in all seven swing states. It should not be this close, and people should have anxiety because we can't have Donald Trump come back. So instead of just quivering and doing what Dems often do, channel that into action. Folks, Channel that into door knocking and sending out messages and coming to some of these seven swing states, come to the office, go canvas with us, and do what she and I are doing each and every day that we've been doing since July twenty first, NonStop, twenty four to seven. This is what we're doing. So join us in taking action, channeling that rage, that fear, that anxiety into helping her win, rather than hand ringing.

Thank you, Doug no momently, Jesse Cannon.

My junk fast. So Trump is really really playing with a hand that is dangerous. He's suggest that a heckler should get the hell knocked out of her after a rally the other day.

I don't want to normalize fascist rhetoric or autocratic rhetoric, but I would say, is it not the first time Donald Trump has hoped that hecklers would get beaten up. He also did this earlier in twenty seventeen. I think he called he said to be rough with a Heckler. Look, it's part of the whole autocrat thing, right, that you should punish people. He's low key encouraging his supporters to dehumanize the other, to go after the other. This is very much textbook stuff, but it's really dark and it shows where we are. I think it's really important to remember this is setting the table for worse stuff. Right. He's not saying to go after a Heckler because it's this one Heckler, Right, He's saying it because he wants them to do the stuff they did at January sixth. He is encouraging violence, and it's really scary. It's really bad, and it's also just really from the autocraft playbooks. So look again, this cannot be more clear. This is an election about these stakes, not the odds. We should be thinking about the stakes of this, not the odds. Voting canvassing, talking to your friends, make a voting plan, make them make voting plans. This is a real moment for American democracy and is a real question of if we're going to be able to keep it. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday to hear the best minds in politics make sense of all the chaos. If you enjoyed this podcast, please send it to a friend or an enemy and keep the conversation going

Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast

Join noted author & pundit Molly Jong-Fast for irreverent humor that cuts right to the heart of our  
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