Cal. Democratic Candidate Angrily Ends Interview After Question on Trump Supporters; Comey in Court

Summary

2WAY Morning Meeting – October 8, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of 2WAY Morning Meeting features Mark Halperin, Sean Spicer, and Dan Turrentine discussing the news cycle's dominant stories: the looming government shutdown, heated Democratic messaging on health care, James Comey's court appearance, shifting dynamics in California's redistricting and New Jersey's gubernatorial race, and the viral confrontation between California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter and a reporter over Trump voters. The panel also explores broader trends in political strategy, crime in major cities, and the challenge of national party messaging.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Government Shutdown & Messaging Wars

• The prospect of a government shutdown leads the meeting, with a focus on both parties' strategies and messaging.
• Chuck Schumer’s Health Care Messaging: The panel critiques Schumer's new video, which blames Republicans for endangering health care during the shutdown.
  • Dan: Finds Schumer inauthentic but credits the underlying message: “It's like if your parents tried to make a video for the kids... the party does feel a little bit of wind at its back on this issue.” (06:49)
  • Sean: Argues the video is over-the-top. “Every hospital is going to close, you will never see a doctor again. First aid won’t even be available. Band aids are going out of stock. It sounded so over the top that I don’t think it’s believable.” (08:24)
  • Both agree that the Democrats are mimicking Trump’s punchy, exaggerated style to break through.

Judiciary Committee Hearing & Political Consulting

• Discussion about Democratic strategy at the prior day’s hearing with Pam Bondi.
  • Mark: Criticizes Democrats' poor use of hearings to drive news. (10:42)
  • Sean: Advises: “Keep the scope narrow. Don’t let her... They needed to keep that tighter... Here’s what you said, here’s what you did.” (13:05)
  • Dan: Observes Bondi was “talking to an audience of one” and “everything was a snark attack.” Warns that constant aggression and middle-finger politics don't win over the middle of the country. (13:52)
  • Panel agrees that Democrats must improve strategic questioning and play the long game for public opinion.

Comey’s Arraignment and Legal Predictions

• The group expects the Comey case will likely be thrown out, reflecting a consensus among legal analysts.
  • Sean: “From what I've read, I think there's a decent chance it gets thrown out... they don't really want to send him to jail. It's about getting an ink stain on his record.” (15:10)
  • Dan: “He's not going to plead to anything. And I think thrown out or acquitted.” (15:57)

Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Talks & Trump's Leverage

• The U.S.-brokered talks in Egypt are discussed, with the arrival of Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff suggesting a deal is close.
  • Sean: “Witkoff and Jared showing up is huge... they have a lot of latitude to close a deal, which is a great place to be in negotiation.” (16:33)
  • Dan: Credits Trump’s tactics for making Netanyahu cautious: “For the first time in my life, Netanyahu is a little afraid of pissing off a US President... The only thing standing between him and MAGA right now is Trump being in Trump's good graces.” (17:42)
  • Mark: Emphasizes Trump’s unpredictability as key leverage in these talks. (18:26)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Overheated Health Care Rhetoric

“Every hospital is going to close, you will never see a doctor again... sounded so over the top that I don’t think it’s believable. And that’s where again, they’re jumping the shark on this issue.”
— Sean Spicer (08:24)

On Democratic Strategy Imitating Trump

“The party is mimicking Trump now, right?...the party’s getting in on the game now, which is go big, go bold, it is shocking his language, it is a little over the top, so it penetrates, it's punchy.”
— Dan Turrentine (08:56)

On Handling Combative Hearings

“When Mark Halperin asks you a question, it's very... He knows where he wants to take you. And I felt like yesterday’s questions... they were not narrow in scope ... They needed to keep the questions narrow. Here's what you said. Here’s what you did.”
— Sean Spicer (13:05)

On Katie Porter’s Interview Blowup [37:13–41:40]

• Katie Porter, leading California gubernatorial candidate, abruptly ends a media interview when pressed repeatedly on her appeal to Trump voters:
  • “I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?” (38:16)
  • “I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m going to call it. Thank you.” (38:57)
  • Panel reaction:
    • Dan: “She considers herself an accolade of Elizabeth Warren. She is condescending and patronizing... you have to start with respect for the person who’s asking you questions. She doesn’t respect Trump voters and she didn’t respect those type of questions. That is Katie Porter’s problem.” (41:17)
    • Sean: “She comes across as such an arrogant, unlikable person.” (41:43)

On National Guard Deployments to Blue Cities

• James (Listener): Asks why both sides are entrenched over federal law enforcement in blue cities. (44:07)
• Sean: “You have a president in a second term... willing to spend his political capital and time not doing what a lot of people would, which is to spend it completely on their side, but to basically say, I care about the safety and security of every American...” (45:09)
• Dan: “On the Democratic side, why don’t they take the olive branch? Often it's because they hate Trump so much, they just cannot fathom saying, okay, we need the help.” (47:12)

On Health Care Policy Stalemate

• Beth (Listener): Voices frustration over the lack of practical health care reform and party gridlock. (51:02–55:14)
• Sean: “The healthcare system is broken ... Republicans don’t have a plan. We’ve been talking about it—you can’t just say repeal... I do think that we need to have...think tanks...let’s really talk about what we should be doing. You can’t just be against it. We need to be for something.” (53:19)
• Dan: “We need a plan. We don’t have one. Republicans need to stop talking about eliminating and how to improve it.” (55:06)

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:34–03:10: Rundown of today’s national news & political events
• 06:04–10:42: Analysis of Schumer’s shutdown/health care video & Democratic messaging
• 10:42–14:31: Democratic strategy at hearings and Pam Bondi’s performance
• 15:10–16:01: Predictions on the Comey arraignment outcome
• 16:01–19:19: Updates and insights on Israel-Gaza ceasefire talks and Trump’s influence
• 19:15–26:39: Trump deployments in Chicago/Oregon; panel debate on public perception and political risk
• 26:40–32:21: California redistricting, Prop 50, and shifting Democratic strategy
• 32:21–35:26: New Jersey governor’s race, negative ads, and Democratic recruitment success in Maine
• 35:50–41:30: California gubernatorial race, Katie Porter’s viral interview, and panel reaction
• 42:23–50:10: Panel takes listener questions on National Guard/federal deployments and city crime policies
• 50:33–58:14: Listener Beth prompts deep dive on health care policy, insurance, and legislative stalemate
• 58:56–59:41: Preview of tonight's show on assassination culture in politics
• 60:12–60:38: Closing remarks and sign-off

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Additional Political Insights

California, Redistricting, and National Implications

• Mark flips his prediction, now expecting Prop 50 to pass, citing Democrats' triumph in nationalizing the contest and out-fundraising the opposition (29:18).
• Sean: Notes McCarthy set expectations too high, hurting the NO campaign's credibility: “You underpromise and overdeliver... he comes out and says $100 million and then you say, oh, we've raised seven…” (30:32)
• Dan: Emphasizes how funding momentum becomes self-fulfilling: “People want to be with a winner and a lot of people who have money are pretty intelligent and don't want to throw good money after bad.” (30:41)

On Porter’s Failure with Trump Voters

• The panel agrees that in today's climate, messaging that shuns a large voting bloc, even in a blue state, is increasingly perilous.
• Porter’s refusal to directly engage Trump supporters is seen as alienating and short-sighted for the broader Democratic project.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Democratic and Republican political messaging is trending toward the sensational and combative, each side mimicking tactics that grab attention.
• Both parties are struggling in key states with turnout, fundraising, and in crafting messages that appeal beyond their respective bases.
• Major policy issues—health care, crime, and local governance—persistently defy bipartisan solutions.
• The episode highlights the importance of political tone, public perception, and the risks candidates face when they appear arrogant, dismissive, or unreceptive to tough questions.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Dan]

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[Beth]

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[Mark]

Good morning. The President today is in Washington. Intelligence briefing at 11 o' clock and then 3 o'. Clock. Words I don't believe have ever appeared on a White House schedule before. The president participates in a roundtable on antifa. White House press pool suspect there'll be a lot of questions at that Vice President no public schedule. The House remains out. Speaker Johnson print press conference at 10:00am Eastern Time in the Rayburn room. There's a Senate hearing on social media censorship and the Senate is going to vote around 1120 once again on the dueling stopgap funding bills. No one expects that to change. Jeffries holds a forum on health care at noon. Supreme Court hears arguments on cases involving mail in ballots and Double Jeopardy at 10. Comey is arraigned in Virginia at 10. Not expected to be a long hearing. Federal proceeding. So no cameras in the courtroom apparently no perp walk. Talks underway in Egypt now despite reporting here and elsewhere that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had previously been at the meetings there. They're parachuting in here for the third day amidst reports that people are optimistic and some reports that the agreement involves new controls on Al Jazeera, which would be interesting. Mayoral forum underway currently in New York city with all three leading candidates. Mr. Mondame is talking about free enterprise this morning in front of Crane's New York business business leaders. 7:00 clock tonight, debate in the New Jersey governor's race. The final face off between the the two candidates and amidst again a lot of concern and Democrats that that race is slipping away potentially. Wes Moore had a press conference this morning to talk about air travel disruptions. Gavin Newsom 5:00 clock tonight with the first partner to talk about improving nutrition in California schools. And Vice President Harris has a press conference or not a press conference. A book event in Georgia tonight in Atlanta at 6:30 continuing along a book tour in which she just called people in the Trump administrations a Word so bad I won't even say it here. Even though we have a pretty high bar for profanity use. Gentlemen, good morning, Sean. Sean, what would you like to start with today with all those things in the news.

[Sean]

You know, I think government shutdown is probably the biggest, but I'll defer to my colleague there.

[Mark]

And there's one, one vote for government shutdown. Dan, do you vote for government shutdown too?

[Dan]

Sure. All right.

[Sean]

See, the Democrats want to shut down. It just showed it right there.

[Mark]

Reminder, reminder. This. This is based on the network news division's morning meetings. We run through the schedule. We just did it. And we welcome you to participate. If you're here in the two way platform, would like to get in on the conversation before too long. Please raise your hand if you're watching on X and YouTube. Our instructions are simple. Extend the presumption of grace to all. Think about peace, love and understanding in everything you do. And no smack in the chat. It's that simple. And our program today, brought to you by our friends at Fairway and Green. Right now you get 20% off site wide for things as handsome as what Sean is wearing. Sean, tilt back a little just so people can see the morning meeting. That's a nice vest. Is that, is that lined, that vest inside?

[Sean]

Oh, it's so comfy. Yeah, it's not lined. It's got a very nice.

[Dan]

A wind block.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah, wind block, absolutely. So that when I'm sitting in my kitchen, I feel very warm again.

[Mark]

You can get, you get golf shirts, vests on the site. You'll see it's Fairway and Green, extraordinarily nice products. And you can get embossed on the sleeve our catchphrases. Dan, tell them what they can get.

[Dan]

Peace, love and understanding. Conversations like no other. And of course, no smack in the chat.

[Mark]

Smack in the chat again if you want to be. If you want to be well outfitted and feel like you're one step closer to Dan than you feel right now. The best way to do it, according to science, is to go to Twoway TV Fairway and you'll see a link to go to the site and look at all the stuff. You can get the custom products like Sean and I are wearing, or you can just get their regular merch, which is all very, very nice. We recommend it. Thank you for attention to this matter on the shutdown voted by two out of three hosts to be our lead. Really, all three of us. The president today, as I said, is doing this antifa event, but will likely get questions about all manner of topics. Here's Washington Post headline 103, Trump threatens shutdown layoffs. So far, he hasn't followed through. The press is kind of turning a little bit towards favoring the Democrats, as they typically do in general, but also during shutdowns. Politico has a story suggesting that health care is breaking through for the Democrats. One person who's emphasizing health care, yet still, yet still and again is Senator Schumer. We, the three of us, could speculate quite accurately about the staff conversation that led up to Chuck Schumer making this video. It's several minutes long. We'll show you the top of it. You'll see, you'll see echoes of the Bernie Sanders AOC video we showed you the other day. Ladies and gentlemen, the gentleman from Brooklyn, the Senate Minority Leader, Charles Chuck Schumer on the shutdown.

[Sean]

So now we're in a government shutdown, and you may be asking yourself, how the hell did we get here? Donald Trump and the Republican Party are hell bent on taking health care away from 60 million people, closing community clinics, rural hospitals, nursing homes, all so they can keep, keep giving tax breaks to their billionaire friends.

[Mark]

It's a disgrace.

[Sean]

So Democrats have three words for this. No way.

[Mark]

All right, it goes on. There's some real people in there. Schumer stands up Perot style at a chart and makes the case for health premium increases. Dan, we've been pretty hard on Schumer here. As a messenger. How do you rate that video?

[Dan]

Well, the video and the messenger, it's a little uncomfortable because it just, it's like if your parents tried to go, you know, make, make a video for the kids, so to speak, the message is actually pretty good. And I mean, I wouldn't curse. That's not my style. And I don't really think it's him. But, like, I think the party does feel a little bit of wind at its back on this issue, whether it's right now or going into the midterm. So, you know, as is often the case, Schumer's the last to climb on board. And it looks totally inauthentic and clunky, but other than that, like, there is a good foundation to it.

[Mark]

Yeah. Sean, do you think that your party's threatened by the message, forget the, you know, the execution of the video. The message of rising health care premiums is that, is that a political threat either in the context of the shutdown or beyond?

[Dan]

Sure.

[Sean]

I mean, I think the average person recognizes when they're getting a notice and Again, remember who it is. So you've got. Most Americans get their health insurance through employer. I'm well aware of this. I have a payroll to cover. So those costs are real to me and my company. And I think for people who run a company who are self employed or contractor, those are real costs. So absolutely anything that affects your bottom line, I do think you can't decouple the messenger from the message. If it's not delivered well, then it's almost like it doesn't matter. It's like a bad marketing campaign for a product. If it doesn't sell well, then it doesn't matter. That was, that was to say cringeworthy is an understatement. It just, it's bad. And I also think beyond that, it's way over the top.

[Dan]

Right.

[Sean]

So, and again, I don't mean to be giving free advice for the Democrats. It's just every hospital is going to close, you will never see a doctor again. You'll not. First aid won't even be available. Band aids are going out of stock. I mean, it sounded so over the top that I don't think it's believable. And that's where again, they're jumping the shark on this issue. And if they stuck to something more simple and easy, you're getting premiums, your costs are going up. Even if you don't, your employer is going to blah, blah, blah. It would have been simple and easy. They can't help themselves by go way too far because what he said is just patently false.

[Dan]

Well, I think the challenge is the party. I keep saying this, the party is mimicking Trump now, right? I mean, whether it's the immigration conversation on healthcare, whether it's the idea of like cities are hellscape, war zones, the party's getting in on the game now, which is go big, go bold. Like it is shocking his language, it is a little over the top, so it penetrates, it's punchy. We're talking about it, right? Sounds very familiar to Donald Trump. If you're talking about me, I'm winning.

[Sean]

Well, one thing I'll say is when you sent that around, Mark this morning, it was the first time I've ever logged into blue Sky. And so that's right, it's called Blue sky.

[Dan]

Yeah, that's right.

[Sean]

But, but so I assume, or I would, that his team is posting it to other platforms. But, but to me, that's very telling. You're really trying to just to Dan's.

[Mark]

Point, your base, I'll say I only knew I only found out about that thing from one thing that came across my feed. I wonder how many people here watching us live saw that Schumer video, heard about it before we, we played it. My point is I don't think they did a particularly good job of promoting it. Probably took him half a day.

[Sean]

But I wonder if this is just him covering his left flank because he knows AOC is going to primary middle lose.

[Mark]

Well, there's still no reason to put it out there.

[Dan]

I mean, well, I think it's more that he again, he is so unsure of himself and unsure of what's happening that it's like, okay, the water's warm. I'm going to go in and do this right. He's not the front. AOC is the front. AOC is unafraid. She's not poll testing it. She's not looking around the room to say, okay, what do you all, you know? Is this popular? Has anyone else done this yet? And that's his problem as the leader is he's not leading.

[Mark]

I want, I want to ask you one, we'll talk more about the shutdown, I'm sure. I want to ask you one forward looking question about yesterday's hearing with Pam Bondi. As usual, I just was appalled by the performance of the Democrats. Not because some of the issues they raised weren't germane and serious, but they don't really seem to have an understanding of how to use a hearing and to actually drive news in their direction. So if you two were formed a political consulting firm, we'll call it ST Strategic Advisors. That's what Chad GPT. Well, ChatGPT. Not yet. I've got a logo though, also the Turntine Spicer Group. Spicer Turntine Strategies. You like any of these?

[Sean]

Go alphabetical.

[Mark]

Atlas. Atlas Strategies, Cloakroom Strategies, Pivot Point Partners.

[Dan]

I think there is a cloak room Strategies.

[Mark]

Yeah, I think there is two Chachi PT should have known that anyway, if you were to you guys were a bipartisan firm but you were consulting with the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, what one piece of advice would you give them if they could turn the clock back and do that hearing over to get more out of it because. And if they knew that Bondi was going to just come armed with opposition research, like what could they have done better?

[Dan]

So I actually disagree with you a little bit, Mark. I think that it was not a first off. No one watches these hearings and it is the inside. I actually thought, because look, if Ham Bondi had dropped some of those zingers like just One or two. But she went so personal back at every single person.

[Mark]

I don't want to. I don't. I'm sorry. I don't want to deconstruct the hearing.

[Dan]

I'm not going to.

[Mark]

I'm just asking you what they could have done better.

[Dan]

Looking forward.

[Mark]

Done better.

[Dan]

That video of her doing that is going to end up in ads online. I thought it was not a good day for Pam Bondi.

[Mark]

What could. But I'm asking you what Democrats could have done better not to critique Pam.

[Dan]

I think she walked into the trap.

[Mark]

Okay.

[Sean]

All right. I mean, to answer your question, by the way, this is. What you're asking is a fantastic question, because I remember when I went over and hosted my own. My first TV program, they brought in this TV trainer and they said to me, think about who you like watching and what they do. And what they do well. Right. And then. And then let's try to like. And one of the things you realize that sometimes you think you do well, but you don't, is ask questions. And I've talked to you about this Mark in the past. Like when. When Mark Halpern asks you a question, it's very. He knows where he wants to take you. And I felt like yesterday's questions, they. They were not narrow in scope. They needed to come in and say, you said this. How do you define.

[James]

Boom.

[Sean]

Keep the scope narrow. Don't let her. They. They dropped too many snowflakes and let her go off to the races. They needed to keep that tighter. They needed to keep the. The questions narrow. Here's what you said. Here's what you did.

[James]

Boom.

[Sean]

Instead, Blumenthal goes on this thing, and she just took the bait and went hard at him. And also, he should have pushed back, you know, Senator Pam or Attorney General Bondi, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Dan]

Simple question.

[Sean]

I'm not accusing you of anything. Did you. I mean, this is like, you know, did you order the code Red?

[Dan]

But I think the challenge, Sean, is to take your media training analogy in a different direction. One of the things you tell a political candidate is you're not talking to the interviewer. You're talking to the audience that you're trying.

[Mark]

Hold on, hold on one second. Hold on. Just throw up cnn, please, while Dan talks. Go ahead, Dan.

[Dan]

Okay, so she was talking to an audience of one, and she was talking to a network of one. And so everything was a snark attack. They could have asked her, what do you think of Jesus Christ? And she would have said, sir, you once said, Jesus Christ Is, you know, the worst thing ever. It was all the middle finger. And I think I keep saying this, it's beginning to look bad for them. You can't do this all the time every day and think that you're going to win the middle of the country. I thought it was a bad day for them.

[Sean]

I don't disagree with your analysis on that in terms of winning the country, but, but that's not who you're trying to win right now.

[Mark]

Guys, we're moving, we're moving off this, we're moving off this.

[Dan]

Moving off.

[Mark]

Got too much to get to. There's the stakeout for Comey's arrival for the 10 o' clock arraignment. They brought in two prosecutors from North Carolina to handle the case. The president, I think, finally understands that the more he talks about the case, the more likely it is to be thrown out. And the balance of opinion in the legal community, even amongst people who aren't biased, matches my own view, which is this case is going to be thrown out by a Biden nominated judge. Now maybe they'll get it reinstated further up. But gentlemen, what's your current view of where this case will end up? Thrown out, conviction plea, Sean?

[Sean]

I'm probably, from what I've read, I think there's a decent chance it gets thrown out. I, I, I just, how many I, what I was told last week is they were going to amend the indictment and add more to it.

[James]

That happens.

[Mark]

Yeah, I was told that too. Some, some lawyers are telling me they can't amend it because of the statute of limitations. I don't know if that's true or not. But, but Sean, even with it, even with a revised indictment, you still think most likely.

[Sean]

Well, again, what I was told is that it was going to be revised, be more robust, really focus on, on specific complaints. If that's the, if that's, if that occurred or occurs, then my chances for some kind of narrow deal, again, they don't. This isn't about sending him to jail. It's about getting an ink stain on his record.

[Mark]

Yeah, I don't think he'll plead to anything, Dan.

[Dan]

Yeah, he's not going to plead to anything. And I think thrown out or acquitted.

[Mark]

Yeah. Okay. Israel talks again. We've, we've mentioned this yesterday, very little coming out about where things stand again. People are pretty optimistic. And the word before Witkoff and Jared went was that they would only go to kind of, there's the CNN headline, gaza cease fire talks. Gaza cease fire talks resume as Israel intercepts Another aid floatel that they would only go if they thought, you know, they were there to close. So either of you have any insight into where this is, or we'll just wait and see?

[Sean]

No, but I will. I mean, obviously Witkoff and Jared showing up is huge for two reasons. One, it shows the significance of it, and second is obviously Steve Witkoff has, I think, a lot of authority to act on the President's behalf to close a deal. Jared even more so. And I've been in the room on the trade side. I've been in the room. When you get to a certain level, you've got to call the President and say, this is where we are. Da, da, da. I think between Witkoff and Jared, they have a lot of latitude to, to close a deal which, which is a great place to be in a negotiation like this.

[Mark]

And what they've done brilliantly is they've gotten all stakeholders to feel invested in this deal, and nobody feels like it's tilting. They've done. They've done a ton for Israel in this deal, but they've done a ton for Saudi, for the. For Qatar. They've done a ton for everybody. Now, maybe they haven't done a ton for Hamas, but they've not done nothing for Hamas. And, you know, Hamas is Hamas. So I think they've. They played the politics of this quite well in terms of creating momentum. And normally when you have these deals, there's a judgment that, that there's a winner or a loser. Everybody right now seems pretty happy with it. Dan.

[Dan]

Well, I think they're also, and I give Trump credit for this. This is where being a little bit of a uncontrollable bully is playing to his advantage. I think for the first time in my life, Netanyahu is a little afraid of pissing off a US President. And that fear, you think? Given that, I think he sees that he's losing support in this country. The only thing standing between him and MAGA right now is Trump being in Trump's good graces. And I think he knows that if he pisses Trump off and Trump truly does kind of say, you know what, like, go, good luck. The world's going to keep condemning you. The French and everyone are going to recognize your opponents. You have no friend, like, you're going to win the battle and lose the war.

[Mark]

I withdraw my head shake. That was very compelling. And I will say again, Trump's move on Ukraine, where he said, I think you guys can win. Good luck, you in Europe, was initially read as he's supporting Ukraine and thinks they can win. And of course, now everybody realizes really more we've washed our hands of this. Good luck. Good luck in your senior year. And I think that has a carryover to Israel, where Netanyahu, as Dan just suggested, realizes Trump could walk away and say I'm done spending time on this. And that would leave Israel very isolated under the circumstances. All right.

[Dan]

If they walk away and Netanyahu blew this up and Netanyahu asked for another 50 billion in arms. If Trump said FU, I agree. Trump going to provide it. And young mad and Congress provided.

[Mark]

Yeah, yeah. And the left isn't going to provide it either. Democratic Party. So, so I would love to interview Bibi about the public opinion polls and about Charlie Kirk's memo to him because they really have screwed this up from a, from a American support point of view. All right. Big day tomorrow in the Trump deployments, particularly in, in Oregon and Chicago. In Chicago, the district court hearing is tomorrow to make an initial ruling on whether these deployments are, as we say in Chicago, kosher. And then the court of appeals is hearing the appellate, appellate having an appellate argument on the district court ruling there. So we'll, I don't know, we never know if these, if there could be rulings from the bench or quick decisions or we could end up waiting weeks for decisions. But for now, yesterday group of administration officials were in Portland today, some folk yesterday and today I believe folks are in Chicago. Here is the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche on FOX and Friends talking about all of this.

[Todd Blanche]

And it's something that the reason why Director Patel and I were in Chicago yesterday was to address the leadership, the federal law enforcement leadership that's doing everything they can on the ground to stop it. But we have, we have organized efforts by domestic terrorists, and that's what they are to do things like box in law enforcement's cars where they can't even move. And as we know from, from arrests that were made this weekend, some of these men and women that are boxing in, these federal law enforcement officers are armed with heavy machinery. And so this is not a peaceful protest. And when that word is those words are used, it's a shameful because what we have going on right now is literally domestic terrorism in Chicago.

[Mark]

Sean, my view now is that unless there's an unfortunate incident where, where a federal official, military, active duty military or guard kills someone or something really dramatic that's caught on camera. But this is, we're just, this is all just preliminary action, we wait for the courts to adjudicate it what do you think of that point of view?

[Sean]

I think that's fair. I will say again, we've talked about this before. The reporting on this is one big blob, right? Trump sending troops. Trump. And this is where what we've talked about in the past matters. There's a difference. Federal agents are called 1811s. They are federally sworn law enforcement agents. They have authority. They can go wherever they want in the United States, full stop, any day they want. Right. So sending ICE or CBP or FBI is. Isn't an issue. It's 100% allowed under current law, the same way you would surge for any other law enforcement activity. The National Guard, as we've discussed, is a different beast. And I think one of the things that we've seen since the ruling in Los Angeles is the scope of what they're being told to do, which is to guard federal assets. I think the court is gonna look favorably on. They've recognized what the court has said in the past. So, again, I think the big distinction on reporting that generally is coming out now is it's a big blob. Trump sending people to Chicago, Trump sending to Portland and not understanding the nuance of who he's sending, where to do what. That's where I think the courts are gonna come in and do things in a very narrow, sort of surgical way that may rule for him or against him, but not affect the totality going forward.

[Mark]

Totally agree, Dan.

[James]

Yeah.

[Dan]

I mean, I don't disagree with the substance of what you're saying, but I think politically, he's entering a danger zone. I. I think it is. Look, when he went into Washington and we talked about, it was so unique. Right. There's crime. Most people in D.C. said in their polls and surveys said there's crime. And we're trying to make it safer, period. Right. Carjackings and murders were being cited as declining. It didn't happen week over week in Portland and Chicago. It's a little more amorphous. It's like, well, there's a crime problem and there's a homeless problem, but it's. But they're there for immigration, but then they're not yet moving on immigration. So we're amassing force, and you're protesting force, so we need more, you know, force. And I think they're beginning to run the risk of losing the general public support that doesn't pay a lot of attention to this stuff. That is okay with Trump, in theory, trying to crack down on crime. They support immigration kind of broadly, but they're Looking at this increasingly kind of like this is getting out of control.

[Mark]

I say we're, I say with respect, you could theoretically be right, but I see no indication that that's happening.

[Dan]

Well, actually, I would disagree, Mark. On every single polls, immigration numbers are coming down dramatically. Yeah, but actually, but, but I don't.

[Mark]

Know that, I don't know if it's because of this, though.

[Dan]

Well, then what would it be for that's in the news that would drive the average person.

[Mark]

Oh, I think it's the deportation of people who are not, who haven't committed other people.

[Dan]

It's all of it. I think it's one big thing that you're out of control.

[Mark]

It would take a lot of data to convince me that putting military force on the ground with the intent of dealing with immigration or protecting ICE or restoring order is going to be net unpopular. Take a lot of data to convince me that that would be.

[Dan]

Well, you know, I'll flip it. I'll, I want to see data that it's not popular because his trend lines have been in one direction.

[Sean]

Just going back to my other point, I will say there is a danger here in how this is being perceived because using National Guard for state duties, as we've discussed in the past, I know it's nuanced, but it's also doing some reputational damage. The idea we're not sending active duty military. These are not federal. This is not the army, this is not the Marine Corps. These are active duty folks that are under the governor's auspices that the president is calling up again. I know that sounds nuanced, but it, but reputationally, Dan, I'm actually kind of agreeing with you. Just, I mean, I think that they've got to, they've got to start making sure that there's a little bit more explanation behind what's happening and why. Because I think everyone sort of saw DC For a million reasons and thought, hey, that's good. Chicago again, I don't, you know, Chicago is reputationally known for having a crime problem. I don't know that Oregon has this, you know, when I don't think that much of Portland to begin with. Sorry, Portland, but, but I just have never known there was a big.

[Mark]

Wait till you see what the President says about Portland and Antifa today at his 3 o'. Clock.

[Sean]

All right, well that's, you know what.

[Dan]

Though, Mark, Overarching all of this has been the stories that are here was the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. Trump does not want to talk about the economy and health care. And it said he wants to talk about immigration and crime because he thinks that's a better thing. It is starting to feel like he's finding ways to insert this into more of your life. And the average person says, that's not my number one priority. And that's his problem. That's part of the reason his numbers are going down. Yeah, except there's not the whole politics.

[Mark]

Of it if there's not an election for 13 months.

[Dan]

Yeah, but do you disagree that he's searching for problems to redeflect public attention?

[Sean]

Oh, I. I think this is Trump.

[Mark]

I don't disagree that. Yeah, that's what he does. And he's done immigration and crime for 40 years.

[Dan]

Right.

[Mark]

All right, last topic is what we call political potpourri for 200. And we'll go through some topics pretty quick and then get to your questions. So, again, if you're here on the platform, want to be involved, raise your hand. California redistricting. I had said that no would win unless two things happened. Unless Gavin Newsom made yes about Trump. Vote yes to send a message to Trump. And if the NO team, led by Kevin McCarthy couldn't raise competitive money. So today I am announcing. I'm switching. I thought no would win. Now I believe yes would win. And I primarily believe it for two reasons. One is they've defined it a lot of these ballot measures. It's who defines it. In Austin, Texas, once they were, they're trying to build light rail. And no won. And they won because, again, with the best slogan ever for a ballot measure. Costs too much, does too little. That's how they defined it. Not reduce traffic, not save the environment. In California. Number one, the Democrats have done a really good job with their advertising and their messaging. Send a message to Trump he can't run California. We're gonna do it our way. We're not gonna let Trump gain more power. And then number two, and this is from Punchbowl this morning, matching things that I had heard, but really putting it in sharp relief. Put up 111A. There are two people raising money for no Mr. Munger, who spent money in the past, but then Kevin McCarthy. And here's what Punchbowl reports. The group led by Kevin McCarthy has spent a little less than $7 million on ads. In total, it slashed his spending from 4 million last week to less than 2 million this week. So far, that's on TV ads, which is all, really, that matters in California. Privately, many Republicans believe it's growing more likely that Prop 50 will pass that's thanks to spending advantage as well as the fact that Democrats have successfully nationalized the race with ads featuring Donald Trump, according to most multiple sources in both parties. Next slide. Now this is the tell is the statement from the spokesperson advising Kevin McCarthy's group fundraising for the anti Prop 50 effort isn't going as well as hoped. Republicans in Washington are privately miffed that McCarthy said he planned to raise $100 million, but it spent less than 7 so far on ads. McCarthy's group said in a statement, quote, it is continuing to invest the necessary resources to run a data driven campaign that can reach key voters efficiently with available resources. Quote, no amount of campaign cash, clever spin or all caps posts can hide the truth. Prop 15, blah blah blah. Sean, what are the weasel words and the tells in that statement that lead you to believe that the McCarthy people basically know it's over?

[Sean]

The whole first sentence. No amount of cash, clever spin or all cap? I mean, listen, I will say this. I had a meeting with a bunch of California politicos a couple days ago from up and down the coast and they were very, they thought that they were on the verge of this going over the top, meaning that the whole goal is to keep it under 50. It's polling at just below 50. So if it were held today, maybe not. But I agree with you. I think the momentum, this is a low propensity, low turnout thing. It's the only thing on the California ballot, right? Nothing else on the ballot. And Dems have the message right now. And so this, they've got the momentum and I agree with you. Look, I will say reputationally, I know Charles Munger's been very helpful as far as what I was told in terms of the money and the support that he's got. He cares about this personally as a Schwarzenegger because they put a lot of time and effort into this and they believe in it institutionally. But I got to say on a, on a reputational issue, McCarthy's got a problem here because you go out, you throw a splashing number and as every, all of us know, you, you under promise and over deliver and he comes out and says $100 million and then you say, oh, we've raised seven and we're slashing. That's a problem.

[Mark]

Dan, explain as a veteran fundraiser how hard it is to raise money following Haley Barber's dictum. In politics, good gets better and bad gets worse.

[Dan]

It's really hard once the momentum starts going the other way because people want to be with a winner and a lot of People who have money are pretty intelligent and don't want to throw good money, you know, good money after bad. And so you need incredibly committed people who can see through the trees to a path to victory. And I'm with you, Mark. I thought this would fail. It's traditionally very hard to break through in California. It's a big state. They're very finicky about stuff. But we also have to add that if this is successful, boy, does Gavin Newsom look like he had. He is the winner in 2025. What a year.

[Mark]

And one of the many benefits of a victory for him is imagine how many names he now has. Additional names he has in his fundraising email address to raise money for a presidential.

[Dan]

Again, people want to pick a winner.

[Sean]

Let me just. But the bigger issue beyond that, I agree with everything. I think this is, this, I hate to say it, this would be a big win for Newsom. Right. Politically. But it's also a huge loss for us. We have a net of five seats in Texas. This would pretty much there's. And here's the problem. And this is where, again, the, the data matters. You not only wash it by getting five additional seats, but you take a bunch of potentially toss up seats and put them further into the blue column. That takes a lot of money off the table going forward. And then you're looking at pickups, what, two potentially in Missouri, two potentially in Indiana, a couple in Florida. So just to get back the five that you wanted. And this is what I said when Texas did this, we would have gotten two, probably three anyway by doing this. If this washes out those five.

[Mark]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Then the whole thing of doing this is problematic.

[Mark]

It's a huge thing. And of course, it makes it harder for California to ever be a purple state again because. Because of all sorts of factors, including wiping out a bunch of House members. All right, New Jersey governor's race tonight. There's the final debate. Here's my question for you guys. Just one question. We'll go quick through two more topics and play one funny video. Why aren't the Democrats going harder negative after the Republican nominee? Like, I don't see any negative frame on that guy as he's risen up. Why is that, Dan?

[Dan]

That's a great question, Mark. And he's run before, too.

[James]

So.

[Dan]

Yeah, the oppo file. And I'm just going to have a generalization. Most politicians in Jersey have some dirt under their fingernails.

[Mark]

Sure. Yeah.

[Sean]

What are you talking about?

[Mark]

Dirt or worse, the clean ones only have the dirt. I'm just amazed. Like Maybe there's negative stuff happening like in mail and stuff. I'm sure there is, but I just don't hear her ever when she's on camera. I never hear her going after him. I just hear her defending herself poorly. So we'll see what happens in the debate.

[Sean]

By the way, if you're, if you're listening and you're from New Jersey and have mail, please, at some point, send us a PDF.

[Mark]

Send us a PDF. Another win for Chuck Schumer. A recruitment in Maine of Governor Mills to run for the Senate seat against the Don Quixote effort to beat Susan Collins. It could, it could happen this time. I'm not sure she's going to get through the primary. I'm sure she's done a ton of polling. But Dan, she's running against several candidates, including two populous blue collar Democrats who aren't say they aren't going to quit the race. How does she navigate the populist piece of this to win that nomination?

[Dan]

I am going to be so curious about that because you have two states now, Maine and Michigan, where you have the full spectrum. You have a Bernie Sanders inspired left young candidate. You have kind of a conservative or middle of the road Democrat backed by the dscc, recruited by the DSCC and Chuck Schumer. And then you have kind of someone who's in between them. And this is where I think you look at Bernie Sanders, you look at aoc, you look at Elizabeth Warren. Schumer has spent so much effort to appease them and keep them in the tent that I have to wonder what the party is now doing to try to navigate this. Because one thing Schumer has done historically is navigated these primaries really, really well. And I think about Pennsylvania with Bob Casey back in 2006, he was kind of, you know, pro life. They found a way to kind of grease the wheel to get him through because I look at it as a Democrat now. We have a candidate in Maine, we have a candidate in North Carolina, we have a candidate in Ohi Ohio. You need four seats. I'm not saying we're going to win all three, but what happened in 2006 was very late. You got Jim Webb in Virginia against George Allen. A race broke late as momentum built and it was the final one. It was all we needed was six. You see a path now. It's still a long shot. I, you know, 20%, 10%, whatever. But you can't kind of walk or can't run until you walk. And this is a huge step now. You're one away.

[Sean]

Yeah. I just got to say, look, I, you mentioned this. There's an age issue, there's a money issue, there's a populist issue. She Janet Mills and if I recall, at least most New England states have late primaries like August, September. So this guy, Graham Platner, who Bernie Sanders back, he's an oyster farmer. I believe he raised like 1.4 million in the first quarter. That's not, that's a big number, especially in Maine.

[Mark]

He's wicked good. All right. Lastly, California Governor Newsom, term limited. Kamala Harris isn't running. So you've got this field. And again, they use a jungle primary. So Rick Caruso, the Republican, may well run. He's kind of a Republican. He's a Republican, he's an independent, he's a Democrat, he's a shopping mall billionaire developer. But there's a number of Democrats in the race. Former mayor of Los Angeles, Vilaragosa Javier Becerra, a couple others state office types and but Katie Porter, the former congressman, is considered now the front runner and she did a long interview with the California station and the reporter did the interviews on social media this morning saying everybody's obsessed with this short clip. Please, please watch the whole interview. Well, I urge you to watch the whole interview if you wish, but here are the three minutes everybody's talking about presented with that comment. Cuz we're out of time, but we want everybody to see this is the person who's the front runner. And I'll just say to me, one of the fundamental questions for any Democrat who cares about the future of the party is, is how do you appeal to Trump voters? It's fundamental because if you want to build a majority party and you want to understand how someone who you think is so horrible is able to win two out of three presidential elections, probably should have some intellectual and professional curiosity. How do you win Trump voters? How do you appeal to their aspirations, their hopes, their dreams, their deal with their fears? Here's California gubernatorial frontrunner Katie Porter in a perfectly pleasant interview setting. Roll tape.

[Dan]

You're a Democrat. Sit down.

[Interviewer]

You say to the 40% of California voters who you'll need in order to win, who voted for Trump, how would.

[Katie Porter]

I need them in order to win?

[Interviewer]

Well, unless you think you're going to get 60% of the vote. You think you'll get 60%. All everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you.

[Katie Porter]

That's what you're in a general election. Yes, if it is me versus a Republican, I think that I will win. The people who did not vote for.

[Interviewer]

Trump, what if it's you versus another Democrat?

[Katie Porter]

I don't intend that to be the case.

[Interviewer]

So how do you not intend that to be the case?

[Beth]

Do you.

[Interviewer]

Are you going to ask them not to run?

[Katie Porter]

No, no, I'm saying I'm going to build the support. I have the support already in terms of name recognition. And so I'm going to do the very best I can to make sure that we get through this primary in a really strong position. But let me be clear with you. I represented Orange County, I represented a purple area. I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before. That's not something every candidate in this race can say. If you're from a deep blue area, if you're from LA or you're from Oakland, you haven't, you don't have an experience.

[Interviewer]

You just said you don't need those Trump voters.

[Katie Porter]

Well, you asked me if I needed them to win.

[Interviewer]

So you don't.

[Katie Porter]

I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?

[Interviewer]

The question is the same thing I asked everybody that this is being called the empowering voters to stop Trump's power grab. Every other candidate has answered this question. This is not correct.

[Katie Porter]

And I said I support it.

[James]

So.

[Interviewer]

And the question is, what do you say to the 40% of voters who voted for Trump?

[Katie Porter]

Oh, I'm happy to say that it's the do you need them to win Part that I don't understand. I'm happy to answer the question as you have it written and I'll answer it.

[Interviewer]

And we've also asked the other candidates, do you think you need any of those 40% of California voters to win? And you're saying no, you don't?

[Katie Porter]

No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that.

[Mark]

Okay, so, so you.

[Katie Porter]

I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you.

[Interviewer]

You're not gonna do the interview with us?

[Katie Porter]

Nope, not like this, I'm not. Not with seven follow ups to every.

[Interviewer]

Single question you ask every other candidate has answered.

[Katie Porter]

I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation which you ask me about every issue on this list. And if every question you're going to make up a follow up question, then we're never going to get there and we're just going to circle around.

[Interviewer]

I am an investigative referral.

[Katie Porter]

I had to do this before ever.

[Interviewer]

You've never had to have an organization.

[Katie Porter]

To end an interview.

[Interviewer]

Okay, but every other candidate has done this.

[Katie Porter]

What part of I'm me, I'm running for governor because I'm a leader, so I am going to make.

[Interviewer]

So you're not going to answer questions from reporters. Okay, why don't we go through. I will continue to ask follow up questions because that's my job as a journalist. But I will go through and ask these. And if you don't want to answer, you don't want to answer. So nearly every legislative.

[Katie Porter]

I am. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you and I don't want this all on camera.

[Interviewer]

I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either. I would love to continue to ask these questions so that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels about every one of these issues that they care about. And redistricting, it's a massive issue. We're going to do an entire story just on the responses to that question. And I've asked everybody the same follow up questions.

[Sean]

God, I would hate to be staffing her.

[Mark]

Dan, if you were staffing her and she came off, what would you say?

[Sean]

I gotta go.

[Mark]

What would you say? What would you say to her if she, if you were staffing her and she did that?

[Dan]

Well, the challenge is that is who Katie Porter is. I spent a lot of time around that office. For those who don't know, she went to Harvard Law School. She, Elizabeth Warren was one of her professors. She considers herself kind of an accolade of Elizabeth Warren. She is condescending and patronizing. She absolutely believes that she is right. You are wrong. She's smarter than you. It comes across. So, you know, you have to start with Mark. The fact that like you have to sit and ask questions and have respect for the person who's asking you questions. She doesn't respect Trump voters and she didn't respect those type of questions. You just can't talk to people like that. And that is Katie Porter's problem. It's why so many people dislike her and disliked her in Congress.

[James]

I mean.

[Mark]

Yeah. Do you guys, do you guys think, do you guys think she's the front runner?

[Sean]

I hope so. We might actually have a chance in California if she is.

[Dan]

He is. She is today. Because the base loves her.

[Mark]

Yeah, Y. Can I do.

[Sean]

First of all, the funny part about this is that, I mean, you know, to Dan's point, she, it's, it was just the funniest. Like some of the media part of it was Bad. But, like, Katie Porter wasn't wrong on the math.

[Dan]

Yeah, of course.

[Sean]

But, but, but to, to the way she phrased it, just say, gosh, you know what? I think I can win. But I, you know, she, her Orange county point was well taken. She just, she comes across as such an arrogant, unlikable person. And by the way, the idea of we don't need this on camera, I mean, and the reporter, basically, here are the questions. I mean, that doesn't look good on anybody, by the way.

[James]

No.

[Mark]

James and Susan, welcome in. Again, we always give preferential treatment to people with babies, animals, or couples. So just so you know, that's how the game works. Susan, James, welcome. Thank you for being part of Two Way. Tell folks who don't know where you are and what's on your mind for Sean and Dan and the ghost of Katie Porter.

[James]

All right. Good morning. I'm James. I'm here with my lovely wife, Susan. We're in Washington State, hence the Seahawks.

[Dan]

Yeah. Okay.

[James]

Yeah. This is my first time actually being on, so I wanted to.

[Mark]

Great. Welcome in.

[James]

Thank you for your channel or for the work you guys are doing. I really appreciate it. I hope catches on and that there's more of it. So both sides of the spectrum talking nicely to one another. It's a crazy concept, but it might work.

[Mark]

It might work. We'll see if there's a market for it. We've got it cornered, so we're feeling pretty good about that. But thank you for your kind words.

[James]

My question, it goes back to the deployments of the National Guard and particularly deploying into these deep blue cities in deep blue states. I'm kind of puzzled on both sides of it. Both sides of the spectrum here. On the one hand, I'm a believer in the federalist system, the 50 states. We're 50 states with 50 governors and 50 little experiments to test. And I do believe that there's an independence of those states that should be respected. On the other hand, earlier we were talking about the crime in Chicago, and everybody knows that. And Sean, you mentioned you're not as aware of Portland. We can both attest. I mean, we live in a close to a Seattle, which is another very deep blue city and deep blue state, and been to Portland, and our lived experience, as all the cool kids say, is there are real problems in those cities. They've really gone downhill in the last five to 10 years just in terms of feeling comfortable there. You know, there's a lot of crime. There's just a lot of, you know.

[Dan]

The just Just a lot of huge problem there. Yep.

[James]

So what I don't understand is, on the one hand, there's, there's deep blue cities in red states where it feels like the Trump administration could work out with the governor and use National Guard to go help, help cities like that without having such a fight on his hands all the time about it. And, and possibly demonstrate the concept can work. And then maybe the blue states would say, all right, well, maybe we would like to be in on that. So I don't understand why pursue this with the blue states? And then the other side of it is, why are these blue state governors so unwilling to take the help? Because it's real. It may not be a war zone in Portland, but Portland is a difficult city to feel comfortable in. And so I thought my question to you is why? Why pick these fights and on both sides.

[Mark]

Great, great, great question. Well framed, Sean.

[Sean]

Well, first I will say, I mean, he has. Memphis is in Tennessee. Governor Lee is supportive of this. So it. And, and he's talked about going to Louisiana, where you've got Jeff Landry, a Republican governor and a Democratic mayor in New Orleans. So, so there are states where that's the case. I think to some degree. There's more prominence in some of these other places. Chicago is very obvious. And I think beyond that, I think Trump also likes the fight a little bit. I will say one overarching thing that I have found fascinating is you have a president in a second term not facing reelection spending political capital in blue areas. Right. And to me, that's a signal of safety. I mean, the president's willing to spend his political capital and time not doing what a lot of people would, which is to spend it completely on their side, but to basically say, I care about the safety and security of every American, and I'm willing to go into blue cities to show that as well. That's actually a significant message for President Trump to be showing. I do think that I've argued this for a while, James, that I think it would be better for them to try to at least appearance wise, not it's to say, great, we want it. Like Kristi Noem yesterday met with Oregon's governor. I think showing that they're trying to work together is actually politically helpful. And the more that they would say, we tried to meet with J.B. pritzker. He doesn't care about this. We're gonna try to do anything. But just mechanically showing that you're trying, I think would yield a better, bigger picture result. And I know that, like I said Noem did that yesterday in Oregon. The more that they do this, the more that they would isolate them. And I think that would be a smarter political tactic.

[Mark]

Dan, before you answer, you know, one thing I meant to show before and I forgot. Paul, if you could throw up the Trump Truth social post from this morning, Sean talked about the importance of being seen as reaching out Donald Trump Truth social. Chicago mayor should be in jail for protecting, failing to protect ICE officers. Governor Pritzker also. So reaching out in the sense of offering them a place to stay, I suppose, but necessarily. Dan.

[Dan]

Yeah. This is the same conversation that my mom and I had this morning because she, she asked the same, same thing. I think on the Democratic side, why don't they take the olive branch? Often it's because they hate Trump so much, they just cannot fathom saying, okay, we need the help. Thank you. Right. That, that would be your response in New York City. All right. The governor, Kathy Hochul, called up the National Guard in the spring because there was problems on subways with crime. Right. And it just, the tree fell and no one heard it. And people applauded Kathy Hochul for being serious and doing something to combat it. Why does Trump target what he does? It's raw politics. Like, he loves that J.B. pritzker is thinking of running for president. He's a great foil. Why is he picking on Portland, like of all the cities in the country? Because in 2020, that was ground zero for some of the George Floyd stuff. The attacks on the federal building, the social unrest. And he hated that that happened on his watch. Right. So part of his revenge tour is, I'm coming for you guys now. You're the poster child. I agree with you. I've spent a lot of time in Portland. The crime, the homelessness, the open drug use, this was even before stuff was legalized. Like I was there in the mid 2000, 2003, 2004. It's never seen people. It's basically like that.

[Mark]

It's basically, it's basically a citywide opium den.

[Dan]

Right. It's also a beautiful American city with incredible history.

[Mark]

That, that slamping park with rose thing, that's beautiful.

[Dan]

Yeah, the Pearl District and everything.

[Mark]

There's good sushi, but. But the second hand fumes keep you from. You have to get a second order of unagi. So hungry.

[Sean]

One more point on James's question. On the Democratic side, there is a, like, look, most of these, maybe not all the governors, but definitely the mayors ran on or advocated in most of these cities defunding the Police, decriminalizing, a lot of things. So to admit you now need help is to admit that the policies that you advocated were a failure.

[Dan]

And that's, Can I just add a piece to that, though? Because you're right and you're wrong. At least in major blue cities in the last two years, mayoral and city council and district attorney races have been about undoing what was a terrible experiment that went, it failed, literally. We were talking about this this morning. We as a party have to say that those efforts, while well intentioned, completely failed. And now you have in New York. I know this is controversial. Stop. And Frisk has quietly come back in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. by Democrats, Democratic leaders. The communities are okay with it. The district attorneys are being thrown out that will not prosecute small crimes. They finally took down the plastic shelving. I don't know, Mark, about your neighborhood. In some of the local pharmacies it's come down at least it has on the east side in some areas.

[Mark]

Not at the drugstore at 3rd Avenue and 65th Street. It's still.

[Dan]

But if you were to admit this in a public way, the base would be incensed. And that's why Democrats will not say to Donald Trump, thank you, James and.

[Mark]

Susan, thank you for getting up early and joining us. Please stay part of our community no matter, no matter what happens. And now the question I have to ask Beth, besides where are you? Is how's that Bobby?

[Beth]

Oh, this is Nelly. She got me on the show. I heard your little. I didn't even know the pets got you to the.

[Mark]

Yeah, pets, couples, babies, automatic.

[Beth]

I love it.

[Mark]

Welcome in, Beth, tell folks who don't know where you are what's on your mind.

[Beth]

Yeah, I'm calling from New Jersey and Mark, just to answer your question, you were asking about the governor's race and why don't they have negative ads? And I can tell you the local ads around here, their negative ads say that Jack is Trump, you know, 2.0. And to which I say to my husband, I'm like, good, we need that around here. Like I like that's their negativity. And other than that, I really haven't seen.

[Mark]

Yeah, Michael, Michael, see if you can find the negative, negative ad like that and let's show it before we go.

[Dan]

Running on taxes or something that I saw watching football game weekend.

[Mark]

They're just not, they just don't seem to be driving a consistent message. I never hear, I never heard her talking about him. So.

[Beth]

No, and I know, I know that, you know, he, he Trump came very close to, I mean, by New Jersey standards, to winning the present. So whatever. So my question or what I want to talk about is health insurance. And you know, we can all agree that it's broken. Obamacare is a disaster, in my opinion. But you know, back in the 2016 election, we had, right before the election we had a town hall and I'm in New Jersey. 07 Leonard Lance was my congressman and I went to a town hall with him and kind of meet and greet kind of thing. And I think he thought he was in friendly territory. And I looked at him and I said, what's your plan? You, you Republican. And he looked at me with these big eyes, had no answer. And I said, you, you're like the dog that finally catches the car. Like, so what is the Republican's plan? And to this day he kind of shuffled his feet and kind of chuckled and said, maybe you ought to run for Congress. I said, maybe I will. So my question is, back in Trump 1.0, they talked about having a menu of costs for health care services. And I thought that is so smart, it's so great. I remember going, when my daughter sprained her arm, I was charged $1,800 to have her, her arm wrapped, like a seven minute visit with that. And I remember talking to them afterwards and they said, well, if you don't have insurance, the cost would be like 180.

[Sean]

I know.

[Beth]

And I said, how, first of all, how's that even legal? You know, and, and, and number two, like, I think the, the answer is somewhere in between. Our old system of you had a $10 copay and you did whatever you want and when as many times as you want. We need to have a system where they have some skin in the game so that you're paying a fair price or whatever that may be. I, I don't know. Those are just, I don't know. Those are my general thoughts, Sean.

[Dan]

I'll just tell Beth.

[Sean]

I think you're absolutely right. Look, I mean, the healthcare system is broken, number one. It's insane how this works. We reward the wrong thing. We don't, we don't deal with wellness and long term. I think what Bobby Kennedy and HHS, Dr. Oz and Marty Makary are doing, to really look at some of these things is big. But, but you're also right politically. I've said this before, the Republicans don't have a plan. We've been talking about it. You can't just say repeal. I am a huge fan of market driven forces. Help get, get more. I mean, you go now to an orthopedic, no one will accept insurance, right? They'll say, great, you come and then you, you go deal with it on your own. And that's a problem. So I do think that we need to have, we, this is something that I think Republicans should really look into now, all of these think tank type things and say, okay, let's really talk about what we should be doing. You can't just be against it. We need to be for something. And healthcare is continuing to be a major, major problem. It's gonna get worse, by the way. You're getting fewer and fewer primary care physicians. You're having healthcare costs rise. We have chronic diseases becoming a massive, massive problem. So again, I, I, it's, it's a huge problem for the party and I wish we would have somebody step up, start to drive it again. We were there for a little bit and then we took our foot off the gas and just went, bye, bye.

[Beth]

Let me ask you, do you think like that, that whole talk of having, you know, the menu driven, that just seemed to go away. Do you think it's because of the lobbyists that, oh, 100%. So, yeah. Why can't, why can't. I would think, Dan, you too, you're like the logical Dem. I love hearing your point of view because you, you seem to, you know, your common sense, like, why can't Democrats and Republicans get together and, and, and come up with a plan, you know, centered around something like that? Like, I just, I'm so sick and tired of the everybody pointing fingers and nothing gets done.

[Dan]

Beth, you, did you vote for Trump?

[Beth]

I did, absolutely.

[Dan]

Three times or.

[Beth]

Yes.

[Dan]

Okay, so I find it really fascinating that you're mentioning this. Right. Because our goal was to bring health care to the forefront. And it's, it's working. Right. Number one, this is a huge issue because right now the conversation has been the Republicans want to roll back all of this stuff and Democrats want to defend the gains that they've made. So often I say the reason we fail is something's better than nothing. But in this instance, what Republicans want to do is take away the subsidies, take away a lot of the Medicaid expansion, et cetera. The challenge is we have no plan to make it better, and Republicans have no plan to make it better. If I'm thinking about 2028, and I'm J.D. vance. And I'm Gavin Newsom, this issue is going to come to the forefront. And one of the Obamacare things is it was modeled After Romneycare in Massachusetts which was supposed to be embrace the private sector and the free market, don't have government run health care. And it all, it largely has not really worked. We got more people covered. So we feel like that is good that more people have some insurance because remember you used to hear the stories of people had to sell their houses and they had half a million dollars of debt and like you don't hear that as much but you Sean, me, Mark, everyone could give you health care horrors of ourselves, our children or our parents. So we need a plan. We don't have one. Republicans need to stop talking about eliminating and how to improve it.

[Sean]

And one petty political point and Republicans face this with tax cuts. When you don't, when you pass stuff that has a window five years, seven years, two years, you own that. And the Republicans dealt with this with tax cuts. We passed it during the first Trump and then we had to realize we, we got lucky that Trump got reelected when he did so we could make him permanent Democrats again. I don't this, when they passed this they only, you know, they created this problem. I mean. Yeah, because of the window.

[Beth]

Hold on.

[Mark]

We're starting at the ends of time here. Here's the Cheryl video which will appeal to Beth because it says they're going to bring Donald Trump to New Jersey.

[Beth]

Good.

[Dan]

Magas coming for New Jersey With Trump endorsed Republican Jack Cittarelli. Trump brags Cittarelli is now 100% MAGA. We've got to stop him. With Democrat Mikey Sherrill, Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor, mother of four, drove a longtime Republican, Republican incumbent out of office. Now Mikey has a plan to drive.

[Bridget Fetisi]

Down costs so families can get ahead.

[Dan]

Including a crackdown on predatory landlords jacking up rent. Courage to fight, strength to win for governor. Democrat Mike.

[Mark]

Take it back, take it back. Just like a few frames. Just what did that graphic say?

[Dan]

Republican fear Magas coming for New Jersey.

[Mark]

Let's go all the way. The end. Go all the way there. Back, back, back.

[Sean]

Go back.

[Mark]

The Democrat. Oh, the Democrats. Republicans fear. Got it.

[Beth]

No, we don't. We, we roll our eyes.

[Mark]

Yeah. All right.

[Dan]

Beth.

[Mark]

Beth, thank you for joining. Grateful to you.

[Beth]

Okay, thank you.

[Mark]

Appreciate it. Sean, what do you have tonight?

[Sean]

Tonight is double Johnson, Double Johnson. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and then Senator Ron Johnson. We're going all in on the Johnsons.

[Mark]

All in on the Johnsons. All right, Megan McCain at noon today on Two Way. Her guest, Clay Aiken, her friend and a musician, political activist and my friend Leland Vitter, whose new book is out now. Incredible book recommend it to you tonight, 6:00pm Eastern Time. On two way tonight. Amongst our guests, Republican strategist C.J. pearson. Bridget Fetisi tonight, 7:00', clock. Asking about the culture of assassinations. Here is a bit of a preview for you.

[Bridget Fetisi]

In the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting, political violence has gone mainstream. The number of people celebrating his murder was somewhat shocking to me, although it wasn't a complete shock as people were celebrating assassination culture when Luigi Mangione killed CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson. When did it become okay to express a desire for someone you disagree with or don't like to be murdered? When did it become okay to celebrate it publicly? Have you ever been shocked by a friend, relative or colleague expressing a desire for someone to be killed in casual conversation as someone you know, been radicalized? Have you been radicalized? Have you been radicalized by other people's radicalizations? How do we.

[Mark]

All right, that's tonight, seven o'. Clock. Bridget. Remember this program available as a podcast. If you like it, perhaps you watch it on YouTube or on X or here in the two way platform. But if you miss an episode or you want to go back and say, wait, wait, wait, did Dan really say that? Dan really say that? I got to make sure it's available podcast on all the podcast platforms, Apple and Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. And again, we'll see you in 24 hours or 23 hours right here. Gentlemen, closing. Closing remarks.

[Dan]

Just congratulations to Sean on being promoted to a naval captain. It was a beautiful ceremony.

[Mark]

Well done.

[Dan]

Secretary of War had beautiful remarks. Congrats, Sean.

[Sean]

Thanks, brother. Appreciate it.

[Dan]

Thank you.

[Mark]

I thought you were going to be made Deputy Secretary of War. I thought that was good.

[Sean]

You know, you never know.

[Mark]

Next step, next step. Congratulations. Thank you all for being part of two way. We will see you tomorrow, 9:00am Eastern Time. Great picture and thank you for being part of this. Have a great day.

[Dan]

Have a good day.

[Mark]

I'll see you on Smerconish right now.