MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell parses Donald Trump’s craven attempt to play both sides of his abortion stance. Congresswoman Becca Balint examines the Comstock Act and the effect it could have on reproductive health for women across America. Congressional candidate Whitney Fox talks about her run against one of Congress's most unhinged MAGA Republicans.
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 Donald Trump has lost his last ditch effort to delay the hush money trial. We have such a great show for you today. Congresswoman Becca Balint stops by to talk to us about the Comstock Act and the effect it could have on women's reproductive healthcare across America. Then we'll talk to Whitney Fox about her run against one of Congress's most unhinged Maga Republicans. But first we have the host of the Lawrence O'Donnell Show, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. Welcome back to Fast Politics. Fan favorite and honestly my favorite.
Laurence o'doll and survivor of the eclipse. More importantly, Yeah, the ninety percent eclipse in New York City, which was really great and was beyond my expectation for it. Actually the drop in temperature that was really amazing. You certainly come out of it with a newfound gratitude for the sun, something I've avoided my entire life. The sun has been my enemy, and I just I'm a shade seeker, but now I'm beginning to get it. I'm beginning to understand why the sun is there.
So one of the things I want to talk to you about today was, Okay, so we're now getting close to two hundred days from this election.
You know when I found out it's two hundred days right now, this second, this is when I found it out.
It's a depressing it's depressing.
Right, No, I don't find it depressing. Oh good, No, No, I mean, look, it is a little bit of life strategy involved, but it's mostly for you know, reasons of real information and the way things look. But the life strategy and this I learned this very very late in life. And it was a movie star who taught me this lesson. And so I can't say his name because it would be too much name dropping, but and the lesson was taught. The lesson was taught to me while we were waiting for our cars out of la at a Hollywood party where I had a pilot in development at a network at the time, and I said something about, you know, we're going to find out, you know, next week if they want to make the pilot. Out of ten scripts they make maybe you know, one or two pilots so and I kind of left it at that, and he said to me, well, you know, optimism is a choice. And by the way, that that was my bad imitation of him, so like anyone who's trying to guess so, and I went geez, And I never it never crossed my mind that it was a choice. I thought, you know, realism, which is to say, cynicism in the culture I grew up in, is the only reasonable position because you will arrive first at life's recurring destination, which is disappointment. So if you are expecting the worst, congratulations, you know you got it. But then every once in a while you don't get the worst. And so what that means is you spent a considerable amount of time feeling the depression of being hit by the worst, and then you didn't get hit by it. And in fact, you know, the network made my pilot and put it on the air. So I feel like, if the presidential election goes in the direction that I don't like on November fifth, I will have plenty of time beginning the midnight of November fifth to feel unbelievably depressed about it. And none of you people who got a head start on me will feel any less depressed than I will. Okay, so let's wait for them. These may be the final pleasant days of our lives. Let's not rush, you know, to the horror. If someone told you, you know, you have two hundred days of goodwill and you know goodness in your life, and then bad stuff's going to happen. I choose to enjoy those two hundred days.
That's sage wisdom right there.
I think it's the kind of wisdom you have to age into. I was not available to that idea when I was thirty five, Like, I was not available to it.
Yeah, no, no, I think for sure. One of the other very smart things you've said to me was that being an outsider to American politics and not is actually huge advantage when you're looking at it. I wonder if you could talk about that, especially right now.
Yeah, because unfortunately politics now has too much data, way, way way too much data. You know. It's it's it's like what's happened to professional baseball? You know where they have you know the number of seconds between pitches and the number of times this guy has hit third pitch that has been thrown to him. And you know, when I was a kid. They had batting averages and runs, baut it in and strikeouts, and you know that was about it, you know, and it's really all you needed to know. I mean, if you look at the minimal data baseball players of say the nineteen fifties, of the you know, these Demaggio's and Ted Williams nineteen sixties, Willie Mays and these people, there's no new form of data that would increase your understanding of how great Willy Mays was at the game of baseball in every single angle of the game of baseball. And so that incredible limited amount of information that fans and coaches and players had and say the nineteen sixties and sport was adequate. You don't need this extra stuff. And so we now have this crazy amount of data, just a crazy amount, way more data than we ever had, you know, decades ago. So many different entities doing polls, you know, universities doing polls, the reason they're paying money to do a poll. Let's say your name is Suffolk University, and can I have a show of hands of people who've ever who know where Suffolk University is? Thank you? I'm the only one, okay, because pretty much everyone in my family except me went to Suffolk University. Suffolk University is a commuter college in downtown. It's in downtown Boston, which, of course, as you know, is Suffolk County, right. So the only reason you know Suffolk University can be known outside of this commuter college market that it has been in since my father went there when he was a Boston company. He went to College Knights. Is to do a poll, is to pay for a poll that we then announced to the world is a Suffolk University poll. Or here's another one, and raise your hand, and I'm going to exclude one state, but in forty nine states, if you can tell me where Quinnipiac College is, I will buy you a car. So you know, I you know. And I knew where Quinnipiac College was before it started paying for polls because I was working for senator representing the entire state of New York, and so you had to know about obscure little places like Quinnipiac College and upstate New York. These players are in this game trying to get attention for their schools so that kids out there applying to colleges will go, oh, yeah, I've heard of that place. I mean it's the likelihood of you applying to a college you've never heard of is much lower than you applying to a college you've heard of. And so when you think about what they're trying to actually do, it's not inform voters. No one's trying to inform voters with a pole. They're trying to inform reporters with a pole and say to report orders, this is the way you should think about doing your horse race coverage. And in the competition of you know, Emerson College, which is a college, okay, I'll do this one quickly, a college in Boston, Okay, which trains actors and musicians, and decided to get in the business of paying for polls so that they could attract more applications from you know, other places in the world and try to compete with NYU and USC in these places. So they're all in competition with these other businesses called things like CBS News and the New York Times, who also pay for polls, which is to say, they purchase news stories to put in a possessive way on the front page of the New York Times. Because the New York Times paid for this news by paying for the poll. So there's this poll saturation that is unhelpful. And the more you can pull back from that and ignore it, and the more you know about polls, the more you ignore them and you start to pay attention to them and around August of the election year, because only then do you start to get likely voter polls, which are the only ones that matter, and you start to get them in the so called battleground states which matter because you know, a pole of California doesn't matter, a poll of Massachusetts doesn't matter. Because the founders, in their infinite stupidity, which was as big as their infinite wisdom, I'm going to grant them infinite wisdom as long as we grant them simultaneous stupidity in creating the electoral college, which really wasn't so stupid from their perspective, because they were mostly anti democratic men. They did not believe in democracy as we understand it. They believed in this very select group of people choosing the people who would be in government. And so the idea that you know, just a giant popular vote of the whole country, of everybody you know over a certain age who can vote, they would think that was insane. They would object to that and so many of them. If they were, you know, back here today, they'd go, hey, we're really proud of the electoral College because at least that is anti democratic and that's that's working the way we wanted it to. But you know, so polls, you know, they become interesting when you're talking about likely voters. None of them are likely voter polls. Now they're all registered voter polls, you know, likely voter polls. Closer to the election, they become kind of interesting. But if you've lived through Michael Ducaccus's eighteen point lead after the convention, After both conventions in nineteen eighty eight, Michael Ducaccus had an eighteen point lead over George Bush, the first George Bush And there is no do Caucus Presidential library because it turns out those were useless polls and those polls were way outside the margin of error. We have not seen a lead that big in a presidential poll since Bill Clinton had a lead like that over Bob Dole in the spring of nineteen ninety six, and it narrowed, it went down. It was much smaller towards the end there. But you know, you have to know that there was not a single poll. And now I'm teaching ancient history. What it's worth knowing there wasn't a single poll in America that predicted that the Republicans would win the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years in nineteen ninety four. That was not predicted by a single pundit or a single poll. It was also not predicted at the very same time that the Republicans would win the United States Senate, win it back. They'd won it before, but you know, win it back in nineteen ninety four. So that and that, by the way, was the biggest electoral surprise of my lifetime. Were both of those things, you know, the Republicans winning the House, which literally had never happened in my lifetime, and the Republicans winning the Senate. Those were much bigger electoral sup eyes actually than Trump winning in twenty sixteen. And so there's just no comfort or wisdom to be taken in polls. And you know, if the polls, if every single poll you simply flipped the outcome, right, if you put the name Biden where the name Trump is, you know, Trump is ahead by two points or something in this poll. No one, no one rooting for Biden would feel better. You know, if you think, oh my god, Trump's going to win, where do you get that confidence looking at the poll? Because the polls are so tight, you know, they're just so narrow that if Biden was on the had the higher number in these polls every single time, no one would feel any more comfortable. You're not going to get comfort out of polls in the modern presidential election environment because they're just going to always run way too close.
Right, And it's still within the margin of error.
Again, a note about the margin of error when someone when you read the poll and it says the margin of error is, let's round it up to four points, let's call it three, which is a low margin of error. They're usually higher. Three points means that if someone is pulling at forty five, that person could be as high as forty eight or as low as forty two. It's actually a band of six points within which that person's number lives somewhere same thing with the other person's number. So pretty much every one of these polls all the time is a tie within the margin of error.
Yeah. One of the things, though, that Trump has definitely seen is that a bore is that he's lising on abortion, and that is why last night or yesterday he put out this statement. You talked about this on your show last night. You've talked about this really in an important and interesting way, and you have a little bit of history from your earlier career in the working in the Senate. So I'm curious what your take on this is. It's like nineteen seventy three again, right, yeah, Well.
You know, Trump has never understood abortion politics since he became a candidate. And because he never understood anything about it, he just adopted the Republican position word for word in his first run for the presidency, and he understood by the way that he absolutely had to do that in order to get the nomination. And Mitch McConnell had to combine with him to produce a list of judges that he would nominate. Now, no one's ever done that before in the history presidential campaign saying here's the list of people I will nominate to the Supreme Court, if you know, with the vacancy that was being held open for him, and that list, of course, Trump didn't know a single name, Honor, He didn't know anything about it. It's just like, this is what I have to do, so I have to do to get the nomination, then to hold onto those votes, I'll do it. And now he's discovering the challenge because he thinks, you know, he's a moron. Of course, so he thinks he's found a solution that can work for the Republican candidate, and of course it doesn't because he has now embraced as right and just every single abortion in the biggest abortion state in the Union, which is of course California, because it is the biggest state for everything, including agriculture and every other thing that begins with a California or any other letter, California has the most of it. So Donald Trump is saying, you know what, it's up to the states, So every single abortion in California is one hundred percent fine with me. And he's also saying at the very same time that the Idaho law that sentences you to prison for five years for involvement in an abortion is also totally fine with Trump. And so one of the reasons why Donald Trump would be very afraid of a presidential debate, which I suspect has a strong chance of not happening and I hope doesn't, because they're not debates, and they're just stupid exercises. But the problem for him in a debate where he can't escape being confronted with certain things being said to him is so, Donald, you approve of the five year prison sentence in Idaho. You think that is correct, that states should be allowed to do that, and he has to say yes or no to that. Of course, he wouldn't say yes or no to it. He would just run around in crazy verbal circles. And at the same time, you can say, Tom, you approve of every abortion in California and New York, Right, you approve of all of those. And so that's the crazy box. You know that he has put himself in, and he's a known liar. Trump voters know he's a liar, right, and so everyone on every side of the issue knows he's trying to lie his way through it. That's what he's trying to do now, while, of course, because he has no other accomplishments, werowdly taking credit for overturning roversus way, you know, just proudly taking credit for it as something that is opposed by a very very large majority of the voters.
Yeah, that video was so incredible because he's like, I did that, And then he's like, but, by.
The way, can I say a word about the video because I do this this thing on my show that for the first time last night, after the show, I began to second guess. I won't give Trump the whole screen, right, because it's just too repulsive in every way to have him on the screen. But when we have to see him say something, I give him half the screen and then I occupy the other half. Or if I have guests, I give him a small amount of the screen and we all occupy the screen so that you at home will not be alone with Donald Trump on your screen. And however, after the show last night, so I see a tiny image of Trump because I'm looking at it in this tiny monitor during the show when we do those shots, right and after the show, I see the full screen video. Stephanie Rule runs the full screen video of him saying the same stuff, and I couldn't believe what was on his face. There was some unbelievably strange bronze mud, someone who like someone who grabbed some forty year old bronzer, and just he looked like a monster to anyone who was looking at that, and You've got to wonder like the people working for him. I guess they're so terrified. None of them consider him mister president, which is what they have to call him a person. The shit on your face really is a bad idea, you know? Or are they just doing us the favor. Are they sitting there going, you know what hey like in their memoirs and then go, yeah, I'm the guy who made sure Trump look really awful in his videos. You know, thirty years from now, that's that's going to be their big reveal. I just couldn't believe what he looked like.
I too had that same thought. Thank you so much, Lawrence for joining us. I hope you will come back.
Always a pleasure. Thank you very much.
Spring is here and I bet you are trying to look fashionable, So why not pick up some fashionable all new Fast Politics merchandise. We just opened a news store with all new designs just for you. Get t shirts, hoodies, hats, and top bags. To grab some head to Fastpolitics dot com. Becca Blind represents Vermont's Soul congressional district. Welcome back, Congresswoman.
Thank you so much.
One of the things that's so exciting about you is that you are young. You represent Vermont's only congressional district. Yes, the stuff that is high on your agenda is the kind of really smart stuff that I too care passionately about. So let's talk about the Comstock Act. When did you learn about this act from more than one hundred years ago?
Yeah, So it's like a undred and fifty year old misogynistic law, right design role women, one hundred and fifty years.
Created to prevent pornography from being sent in the mail.
Right, Well, yes, pornography, but also anything.
That was considered obscene, a corruption of.
Morality, and it criminalized sending contraception, anything related to abortion through the mail.
And it was not exclusively that.
There were also some parts of Comstock that were about male scams basically. But that we're most concerned about, of course, is the fact that this was essentially criminalizing women's bodies. And so it is so outrageous and ridiculous that we're even having to talk about this now.
But this is the playbook.
It's from eighteen seventy three. It was an anti obscenity law that banned the mailing, sale, advertisement, or distribution of any drug or implement that can be used to cause an abortion. When did you realize that Republicans were cooking up a plan for this.
I was in the state legislature before I was in Congress, and we saw so much in the playbook that the Republicans were using in state legislatures, and they really signaled to us it wasn't just that they were going to try to make abortion difficult. They wanted to completely ban it.
So we in.
Vermont we said about codifying reproductive rights in statute and then in our state constitution. But I don't know if you know this about me. I have a master's in history, so you actually knew about those, yes, And when you think about you know, here's this man who was a Union Army veteran who essentially went from his place in Connecticut to New York City and felt like, oh, you know, New York City is a denisin. We have to control these licentious women. And so it also got to the point of ridiculousness. I was telling my staff earlier. He would also try to ban the showing of Bodicelli's The Birth of Venus in New York. So it was Sweeten really sweeping what he considered to be obscene, and so it's shocking to think that this is what the Republicans, in the MAGA movement, in the Trump movement, what they want to do is bring us back to that time when women don't just have access to their own bodies and making sure that we have a right to a full range of reproductive health, including abortion. They want to bring us back to a place where contraception is also called into question whether we have a right to that. It is absolutely about controlling women's bodies and dragging us all back to the eighteen seventies. Think about that.
When I listened to these oral arguments and I heard a Leado and Thomas talking about the Comstock Act, what I thought was really interesting was they didn't refer to it by the name. They referred to it by the number. And I think that was very intentional because they knew.
But they're sneaky right.
Leto said telling effective, well, that's a widely known do you come in do run into interference with the widely known and commonly used you know? And he didn't say Comstock Act, he said you know two three four seven or something, And I was like, oh shit, they're really going to use the Comstock Act to try to ban sending stuff.
In the mail exactly.
We heard them say, quote, this is a prominent provision. It's not some your sub section of a complicated obscure law. Right. Every field knew about it, So they're they're breathing more legitimacy. Back to the Concept Act, which has been considered dead law for a long time. I want to bring up for listeners that if you haven't taken the time to go back and look at what project twenty twenty five is all about. And Jonathan Mitchell, who is one of the lead architects, he is this extremist attorney who he's always looking for loopholes and he's looking for workarounds. He does not want the Supreme Court to have jurisdiction authority over these issues, and so he's trying to do an.
And run around it.
He was the one with the mastermind behind the creepy provision in the Texas law that said Americans could spy on each other and turn.
In bounty hunters, right xactly exactly, And so he said, quote, there's this smortgash board of options available to us because comstock is still on the books.
That's what we're dealing with now.
Right, I remember that. And what's interesting I think about SBA was SBA really was the was the precursor to grow A full year before the Supreme Court was able to overturn Roby Wade. With Dobbs, they had really pretty much outloud abortion in Texas. It's just a little like bit of trivia. Comstock Anthony Comstock was actually ultimately later in his life became Bruce Choice.
Yeah. But what happened in all of the years of his crusade is he actually delighted in the fact that he was terrorizing women who he saw as not upholding morality and had him in several instances floating about the fact that he pushed women to suicide over the issue of contraception and abortion. It's so important for us to understand that things that we think are absolutely beyond the pale and crazy and would never happen. That's what they're planning for right now. That's what they want. They absolutely want us to lose the ability, not again, not just to lose our ability to have.
Access to abortion.
They are entertaining the fact of not giving people access to a full range of contraception, and they also want to bring back felony punishment that is part of the Constack Act. They want to punish women for making decisions about our own bodies.
Right, These are not misdemeanors.
It's shocking that so many Americans thought that Republicans were not focused on over turning Roby Wade, because they they absolutely signaled that that is exactly what they've been working on for so so long, which is why we have to think really carefully about all the different things that we can put into place, you know, considering overturning Comstock being one of them. We were talking earlier today, my staff and I about how they're going to try to moderate their views because they've been caught saying the quiet stuff out loud. And so you've got a situation where Carrie Lake made a statement today saying that Trump didn't speak for her when it came to abortion, because they're realizing now that he didn't speak for her, and also that the Arizona decision was going to be politically damaging, and so we can't be fooled. You've got Trump himself has changed his position on abortion thirteen times in the last twenty five years, so he can't believe anything that he says he, you know, he and those like him, they push forward anything that's politically convenient. So what we need to look at is the playbook that they're all following, which is the Project twenty twenty five playbook reinstituting comstock, controlling women's bodies, and beyond that, criminalizing our decisions about our own bodies.
The Arizona judiciary, right their Supreme Court allowed the reinstatement of a law from eighteen sixty four, so right around just you know, one hundred and sixty years ago, but who's counting. So now you cannot get an abortion. A doctor who helps perform an abortion could go to jail from two to four years.
And no exceptions for rape and incess It is clear that when you say there will only be exceptions for the life of the mother, that is so ill defined. You've got doctors right now living in fear that they're going to be prosecuted or locked up.
And so this this is terrible for women.
And girls in Texas right now, excuse me, well in Texas too, but in Sona.
Basically, if you look at when that law was.
Passed in eighteen sixty four, okay, women weren't allowed to vote right, slave right, exactly right. They couldn't own property if they were married, they couldn't sign contracts, and so this is essentially again when we say they want to bring us back one hundred and fifty years, it's no joke, like it's not hyperbole. We need to understand that these these attorneys, these conservative attorneys and all their apologists in Congress, they want a national band in.
Every possible the way. And the reason why they want.
To rein state essentially comstock is because two thirds of all abortions right now.
Are the pills that come in the mail, and they're trying to get around sending stuff for the mail, and you won't be able to get birth control pills in the mail.
Either, exactly.
And as I was talking with an attorney friend of mine who works in this space, and she said, they're also concerned that if you have a sweeping interpretation of comstock, that means also you can't send medical gloves through the mail, you can't send anything that could possibly be used within an office for abortion right. So it's absolutely would bring it to a nationwide band, and they could do it by simply bringing back into use this archaic one hundred and fifty year old law.
It was originally a morality law for a different time. One of the things I'm struck by is, you know, there's this new byn ad where you have this woman in Texas who's so brave and really these women who have come forward, you know, they've had these terrible, tragic situations and then they've had to go in front of people and to share one of the most personal, devastating things that can happen. But during this ad she narrates that she had to carry it. You know, she was a human coffin until she was allowed to give birth to a dead baby. And one of the things that I'm struck by is like, better legislation, more clear legislation would have prevented. It's one thing to want to ban abortion. It's another thing to give so little of a shit that you don't write the laws in order for them to be enacted. And you have women as collateral damage throughout the country, and now you have all of these women living in states where they can't have abortions. So talk to me about like legislative you serve with some of these people, you're in committees with them. I mean, do they just not give a fuck, or are they just stupid?
I'm sorry, that was many of them believe, and they show this through their actions. They believe women are second class citizens. They do, and they legislate that way, you know, and they have candidates running on the GOP ticket this year who said women shouldn't.
Be allowed to vote.
Like they're saying the quiet part out loud, that is they absolutely they want to control us, they want to take away our rights. They do not believe that we should be treated as full citizens. I honestly believe that based on what I'm seeing and what's interesting too, Molly So having worked so hard on reproductive issues in my home state, which is, you know, a very left leaning state, Vermont, right, even among some of my Democratic male colleagues, they would say to us, you know, in caucus.
Why are we working on this?
Why aren't we working on something that really impacts people, And of course the women in the caucus, you know, we would be absolutely furious.
But that is this idea that is still.
Very much in I think the minds of Americans, an American men in particular, even if they see themselves as being supportive, being pro choice, they do not understand that this issue is not just about abortion. It's about the economy. It's about women's autonomy. It is about our ability to control when and how we have children. It is our ability to not, as you said, carry a dead fetus in our because some men don't actually even understand how the women's reproductive systems work.
And I have been on multiple call in shows in my.
Time as a politician talking about these issues. When I would get callers and I would be so it was so clear to me they didn't understand women's bodies, and ultimately they believed it was the woman's responsibility to manage whether they got pregnant or not. And you know, and since we're you know, we're being real with each other. One of the things that I would say to constituents if it was a male caller saying it was all the women's responsibility, I would ask them straight up on live radio, have you always used protection when you had sex?
And they would sort of you know, well.
No, no, no, no, for real, like if you are policing my body, let me reflect back to you know, a logical conclusion there, And we have to have full roaded allies in this. And yes, women need to show up at the ballot box on mass this November.
But dan it, we need our allies.
We need all of the people who love and support the folks that will be impacted and are impacted by these laws to stand up and to not make women have to once again do the work that benefits all of us.
I mean, it's funny because it's like, I think so much about when SBA passed and everyone was saying, me, you're crazy, this is not going to be the end of Row. And even when Roe was overturned, you had people like Rich Lowry and Sarah Igris Flores writing abeds saying that Roe was baked in voters don't care about Row, And I mean, how much do women have to die before anyone gives a shit about them? And it really is, you know, we're half the population here. Guys like so crazy and just infuriate into me.
It is, it's infuriating, and we have to turn that fury and that anger into action because, as I said, we know the playbook, we understand what it is that they're trying to to do, and I strongly believe that it is absolutely about controlling women's bodies and their minds.
Our ability to vote.
These folks are not trustworthy partners in government.
Okay, that's the understandment of the year, right.
Yeah, it's interesting though, as you say that, they say, oh, Roe is not going to be overturned. I got that as well when we were codifying it in our statute in Vermont and in our Constitution. I definitely heard that you are reacting. You're hysterical, you're over the top. This isn't going to happen. And here we are not just with Roe overturned, but with these sick conservative attorneys trying to bring back into play one hundred and fifty year old misogynistic law.
It is a desperate attempt to try to control us. Can't let them.
Thank you for joining us.
Really appreciate you, Oh appreciate you.
Whitney Fox is a candidate in Florida's thirteenth congressional distract. Become to Fast Politics. Whitney Fox, thank.
You so much for having me, Mollie, happy to be here.
So tell me what district are you running in and tell us a little bit about your race.
Sure, yes, I'm running in Florida's thirteenth congressional district. It's the Saint Petersburg Clearwater area of Florida, and I'm running against Anna Paulina Luna, who you might know.
As a podcast.
Yes, tell us a little bit about what your district is like.
Sure, So my district is a very moderate, pragmatic district. It's Charlie Chris Old seat previously.
Wow.
A third of our voters are independence and a lot of.
Our district they really pride themselves on their independence here in Nllis County. So it's a great little place here in Florida, and they are fired up and ready for November.
Let me tell you that.
Anna Paulina Luna, I think of her like Marjorie Taylor Green, but not as famous.
Right, That's exactly right.
And it's interesting because this is not a Marjorie Taylor Green or Matt Gates district, Molly. This is a like I said, very moderate district of thoughtful voters and they are eager for new leadership. They are shocked that Luna one.
How did they lack that person?
Yes, you might know.
Twenty twenty two was a rough year across the board in Florida. I mean, voter turnout was quite low and for Democrats it was it was a pretty tough year, so that she won with just fifty three percent of the vote in twenty twenty two.
So for her, this is her first term in office.
She's done a lot of crazy stuff. Talk to me about sort of her a little bit about sort of what she's famous for.
Yes, well, I think that she's most famous for really being focused on chasing culture war headlines, and you know, then she is addressing everyday issues of Americans.
She's concentrated on you foes.
She's written a children's book about how the election was stolen, So I mean it was, you know, a children's book, like a banana that looks like Biden and an oran that looks like Trump, and the banana cheats to win a foot race.
So these are the tides.
Of things she is concentrating on, I mean, And every chance she gets, she's calling to defund government agencies whenever they don't give her what she wants. She tries to shut down the government every chance she gets. Impeachment's ousting any speaker if they have a conversation with a Democrat. So she's just in DC, causing chaos and doing nothing for her constituents, which is part of the reason why I'm running.
What is your story in Florida and how did you get there?
Well, I was born and raised here in the Tampa Bay Area. This is where I grew up. I'm now raising two little girls of my own, a four year old and a two year old, and my parents live here. And I've been working for our district and public transportation. Most recently so I was the director of Communications and marketing and working on legislative priorities at our Panela Sun Coast Transit Authority. And you know, really seeing the people who rely on public transportation and how it connects us to everything from affordable housing and food of course, are to jobs or medical appointments, and really a lot of people are struggling here in the district. But what really fired me to run for office was, I'll be very honest with you, was having a baby. The medical bills, the lack of paid parntal leave, the lack of affordable childcare.
I couldn't believe that.
This is how we start families in America and that we aren't in the streets screaming about it. Because I think it's so important that we care for people from the very start. And you know, so many other countries have figured out how to take better care of their people, and I think that we could be doing a much better job.
What would that look like in your mind?
I think it really starts with focusing on the issues that people care about, right, like the affordability crisis that we're facing here, especially in Florida are.
I mean, our inflation.
Is two times higher than the rest of the country, and people are really struggling with skyrocketing insurance and you know, not finding affordable housing. So I think that that's something that we definitely need to address. You know, I think about when I grew up also, I remember, you know, I was raised by my single mother here in Tampa Bay, and we used to kind of every Sunday, we have an activity of clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper and organizing them in her coupon box before we'd go grocery shopping. And I know what it's like to grow up with, you know, a single mother and making sure that we're making ends meet. And I know that a lot of families are struggling with that today as well. And even more so, we also have a lot of seniors in our district and they're scared of losing their Social Security and Medicare and worried about boarding prescription drugs and especially on their fixed incomes. But really it's just a we're focusing on taking care of people, and people are tired of the polarizing politics and they just want a functioning government so that they can make, you know, put food on the table, roof over their head, and work one job and you know, get their basic needs met. And I think that of course, a big one for us is it's going to be fighting for reproductive rights. I mean, that's a.
Huge issue here in Florida.
As I'm sure you're well aware with everything that's going on in the state of Florida with when it comes to abortion and the new six week band that's going to be going into effect and the ballot measure that's going to be on you know, on the ballot this November. That's going to be a big point that we're talking about on this race.
You have a maga governor who has really not spent much time worrying about what's happening in Florida because he's been busy trying to run for president. Now that dream is dead. You have inflationary problems you have. Your insurance premiums are crazy. Talk to me about the flood insurance climate staff in your state.
That's probably one of the number one issues that we're hearing about when it comes to insurance. I mean, everyone's feeling that it's a huge issue in Florida and people are struggling, and I know that that's something that we are A lot of people will say, oh, that's an issue that's going to be addressed or needs to be addressed at a state level, but we're not taking that as an answer. We are looking into what can be done at a federal level and what actions can we take to help people, whether that's making sure that they have proper incentives to make upgrades to their homes and really investing in infrastructure right because we want to make sure that we are investing in the right infrastructure to make sure that when these storms hit, when hurricanes even comes, that people are prepared, that our infrastructure is prepared. One dollar spent in prevention is we're fixed dollar and recovery. So instead of waiting until a storm hits or where there's flooding and you know, fixing it afterwards, we need to make sure that we're putting the proper things in place beforehand to be prepared for those types of things.
So one of the major conversations that everyone has been having with me, the sort of like annoying behind the scenes conversation that people keep having, is people in the pundent industrial complex keep saying Florida does not really imply. It's nice that Biden thinks Florida's employed, but he doesn't really think for Florida's implay. So is Florida implay?
Well, I definitely think it is, especially I mean even before the ballot measure, but now even more so, I mean our race specifically with you know, Anna Pauline A Luna in District thirteen. We know that this is the most flippable congressional seat in the state of Florida, and it's because of how extreme Anna Pauline Aluna is and that is not aligned at all with the people here in this district.
And we know that people are.
Just tired of the red versus Blue, the Democrat versus Republican, and they want a functioning government and things have just gone too far in Florida and too extreme. And thinking about the fact that Anna Paulina Luna supports a national abortion ban without exceptions of rape, invest or life of the mother, that she has these extreme stances of wanting to shut down the government focusing on all these other issues.
That bring back family separation right exactly.
So we know that a lot of people are feeling that it's just gotten too extreme. I mean I have moderate Republicans in our district reaching out to.
Me saying, what can I do to help you? She has got to go.
So we think that it's very true that things have just gotten too extreme in Florida and people are tired of it.
Clardik was sort of known as a safe haven for abortion in the South. Really do you think now you have a six week fan and you're as extreme as any other Southern state? I mean you as a Florida resident, someone who grew up there. I mean, are people kind of shocked by that?
Well?
Yes, well, and I think my heart is broken for what this is going to do for.
Women, for families. I mean this is huge.
I mean recently I volunteered as an escort at a women's clinic, escorting women from their cars to the clinic. And they need these escorts because there are protesters who are just shouting the most violent things at these poor women as they are looking for just contraception or a well women visitor, reproductive healthcare. And a lot of the women I escorted were from outside of Florida, were from neighboring states. And to think that now Florida is joining in these neighboring states and that there is no access anywhere in the southeast of the country, this is dire.
Women will die, I mean, doctors will leave the state.
There will be a chilling effect on women seeking medical help for SEE related issues. And then what's next, Florida will be investigating miscarriages as potential felonies.
Well, that's happened in Ohio. I mean remember the Brittany Watts case where Brittany was actually had to sit and wait to find out if she was going to be indicted for what was it called mishandling a corpse and she had gone to the hospital twice for this miscarriage. I mean, these are women having miscarriages being arrested.
It's terrifying because I mean I myself had a miscarriage and it was a frightening experience.
I mean mine, Yes, yeah, if you're over the age of thirty and you're trying to get pregnant, you know you're more likely. I mean, yeah, go.
On, Well, good for you to go through that emotional roller coaster and that you know, traumatizing experience of having a miscarriage and now having to be afraid of, you know, obviously a third degree felony if they're going to investigate you, if they think it could have been an abortion or not seeking the care that you need. It's heartbreaking to think that women will be afraid to seek the care that they need if they do have a miscarriage.
It's just completely disturbing. So what are you hearing from voters? What are they saying? What's your sounds?
Most of the voters that we are talking to, whether they are Democrat, independent, Republican, they believe that women should have the freedom to make these decisions themselves without government overreach. I mean, the people in my district feel very strongly that government should not be reaching into this issue. They should not be in their bedrooms, they should not be in the doctor's offices, and they are fired up and they are ready to go to war because I mean, I have had many conversations with older women who've said, we've.
Already fought this fight. We thought this was settled.
We know what it's like to not have access to reproductive health care.
We're not going through that again.
And they are very fired up. And then of course we have many people who are upset about all the issues about IBF as well. I mean people who are struggling to have families and want to go to process. I mean, that's really raised a lot of eyebrows with especially moderate Republican women who are very upset about what's happening with that, you know, not potentially having access to IBF.
I mean, that's a legislative thing that could have also been avoided. But I think what's so interesting about that one is that you had Republicans, you know, they had this quest for embryonic personhood and they had been working behind the scenes to do this for a while. Like with so many of these reproductive health laws that Republicans have passed, they're so badly thought out. Like IVY is an enormous business, right, Doctors make a lot of money. It's super expensive. Yeah, what did they when they you know, they closed down They end up closing down all the iView clinics in Alabama, right, because nobody put together that embryonic personhood would then shut down IVF. And furthermore, like when they legislated it, they just decided they would indemnify the clinics instead of actually creating you know, some kind I mean, like is this there are still very much on this embryonic personhood gig right.
Right well, and like you said, I mean, all of this is just unnecessary and could have been avoided. I mean, it's the natural consequence of you know, life begins at conception laws, and they just didn't care what the consequences were. And I think that especially with the Republican Study Committee's budget that they just put out, I mean, which Ana Paul Lena Luna is obviously a.
Part of eighty percent of the Republicans.
Yeah, so, I mean, which endorses legislation that would threaten IVF nationwide and backs the Life at Conception Act granting will rights to like you said, to embryos from the moment of fertilization. So it's terrifying what it is, and we have a lot to fight for. And trust me, this is a These are bipartisan issues that people feel very strongly about in my district. Especially you know, having these conversations with both women and men and families, and the story that I've heard and that they've told me, it's heartbreaking and they are scared, especially with the six week band going into effect and you know, become.
All all of this.
I mean, Florida is now the primary battleground for abortion rights here in America, especially being the third largest state.
Yeah. I mean that's the other thing I think with this abortion ban is that the numbers in Florida, I mean are humongous. So now you'll have women and all of these southern states who will have you know, miles and miles and miles. I'm wondering, what are you doing. You're talking to people in your district. You're out there, You're doing town halls. Tell me how you're campaigning.
Yes, I mean we are talking. We're going to different community events, of course, talking to voters. And one thing that is really important to me, especially you know, being a mom of two little ones, is meeting voters where they are and we are even you know, going to playgrounds to talk to families and having playground meetups. We're doing, you know, going to different community events and organizational events to make sure that we are out talking to voters. We're having even a mother's Day event where we're saying, come and you know, we'll have activities for your spouse and the.
Kids while you come. Come in and hang out and have.
You know, a relaxing mother's day, and we'll talk about the issues. There's not really not been much of a focus, especially from a mother's perspective, I think in Congress. I mean, I recently learned that I think it's less than seven percent of members of Congress or mother's with young children. So I'm making sure that we are tapping into these different voters that maybe don't get a chance to have their voices heard or have these conversations. So definitely making sure that we are getting out to speak with the people in the district and hear what issues are most concerning to them.
Yeah, and I think that's really a good point. I mean, this is a flippable seat, and Florida's a different state than it was two years ago or four years ago.
It truly is.
And I think that that's what's so interesting, you know about this race, is because a lot of people are feeling hopeless this election year, and then they are having a hard time knowing what they can do and feeling all they can do is vote. But our race, we are getting a lot of feedback that people are saying that we are inspiring hope, and this is a race where you can actually make a difference by you know, supporting our race, supporting my candidacy, or this being not just the most livable seat in the state of Florida, but our shot of getting a one of the most conservative far right extremists and Freedom Caucus members out of Congress. So you know, investing in a race like ours can actually make it a difference and supporting us and people of lives, especially on these issues like abortion when Anna Pauline de Luna is the supporter of a national abortion band.
Thank you so much, Whitney Fox.
Of course, thank you so much for the time. I really appreciate it.
Molly No Moment, Jesse Cannon, Molly John Fast.
We often joke about how the MAGA people say the choi a part out loud that they shouldn't be saying. But then what it's funny is when the MAGA people have their Venn diagram overlap with the RFK people because they are one in the same.
RFK is New York. I don't know she works for his campaign.
She's a ballad expert.
Oh even better, and she has said she has said the choir part loud. She said that basically the only reason he's running is to make Biden lose. These people are not smart, and thank god they're not, because this is one of the most important elections, probably the most important election we'll ever and they're not smartness. They're saying the quiet part loud is our moment of fuck right. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.