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- [00:01]
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- [00:32]
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- [01:06]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Okay. Joining me today in studio is Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and host of Endless Urgency on substack and YouTube. It. It does feel like an endless urgency.
- [01:19]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah. Yep. Every single day.
- [01:21]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah. I had a guest on one time, and I said, what have you had it with? Monet exchange? Very famous drag queen. And she said, I've had it with living in unprecedented times. I want to live in precedent times again. Okay. You brought to my attention a video of Jeff Bezos just this morning on the news. This is stunning. Let's play the clip.
- [01:42]
Audio/Video Clip Speaker
What do you think?
- [01:43]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I think he has.
- [01:44]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I mean, I'm comparing him to his
- [01:46]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
first term, and I think he is a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term.
- [01:53]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And, you know, okay, Mike,
- [01:59]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I don't know. Where do I start? Like, Jeff Bezos looks more and more like Pitbull every day. So he's talking like him, too. Now. It seems like I. What discipline is he seeing from the President of the United States?
- [02:08]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Maturity.
- [02:09]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right? I don't understand.
- [02:11]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I mean, that is just gaslighting bullshit. And also, I think it's like this denial that he must have, like, his whole reputation. Jeff Bezos. Yeah. You won in capitalism. Bravo. Good job, Jeff. You did a great job. You launched five women into outer space for 30 seconds. Atta boy.
- [02:31]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Really getting Gayle King into space.
- [02:33]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Really good job there. But nobody likes him. Nobody likes him. And he has an opportunity to leave his imprint on this world, and he has chosen to fund and nurture and come coddle fascism. Fascism that kills people and is killing our country.
- [02:50]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right. Also, he can squeeze out like a little bit more money for Amazon and for himself. Like, I just don't how much is enough for these guys where they're not going to debase themselves like this. And I don't know if you've seen this, but Netflix has a new documentary up on Teddy Roosevelt. And I was watching and they were talking about Teddy Roosevelt's father, who was a very wealthy man here in New York City and he was a philanthropist. Like, that was what his job was. Job was, I have all this money, I did all this business and I'm just going to give it away and help the unfortunate. And I'm like, where are the philanthropists in the billionaire class? Like, where are they? We have Melinda Gates and that's about it. Like what is.
- [03:20]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Well, and the ex wife of Jeff Bezos MacKenzie Scott Bezos cannot spend money quick enough donating it to help marginalized people. I mean, she is spending money hand over fist. Mills on wheels, HBCUs and on the Trevor Martin project and on and on and on. And she doesn't want to be on tv. She's just doing this because she can't get rid of the money quick enough. But the majority of them, I agree, this group of billionaires is so appalling. And I believe they are just like in a complete state of psychosis. Okay, let's get on to this. So the person that Jeff Bezos debases himself for is Donald Trump.
- [04:02]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yep.
- [04:02]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Objectively embarrassing, incompetent, cognitive decline, mental illness, et cetera. He is laser focused on his ballroom. And as he talks about it, I say he's in his death bed confession era. He cannot tell, he cannot shut up. And so now he's saying, oh, it's going to have a hospital, it's going to have military, it's going to have all of this stuff. And the more he talks, the more you realize, oh, he has PTSD from Marine One picking him up in 2020. And he is doing everything in his power to avoid that. He wants to hunker down and die in this ballroom, in my opinion. Let's play the clip.
- [04:40]
Audio/Video Clip Speaker
Building a hospital. They're building, it's a military hospital. They're building a. All sorts of research facilities. Also meeting rooms and rooms that go hand in hand for the military using the ballroom.
- [04:55]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
It's amazing how his hair is the same color as the. That's the sky.
- [04:59]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It's. It's crazy. So what do you think, I mean, do you think this is his, his bunker, Hitler style bunker where he's just gonna go down there and that's gonna be the end of it, Man.
- [05:09]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I, I don't know, but I, I do think he's like obsessed with his legacy. Like, I think he knows that he's not that far away from death. Like one way or another, either he's dying from something right now, or in the next 10 years, he's just going to die because of an actuarial table. Right. And I think he is like, I got to build the arc to Trump. I got to build this ballroom. I got to do this and that. And he's such a, like old school rich person, like Jeff Bezos, for all the criticism that we have of him. And it's legit. He's not building like giant monuments to himself in the sky, right? Like, that's kind of like an old, like turn of the century, first Gilded age kind of thing to do. He's obsessed with building these things. So I think he just wants to like, build this ballroom, make it gaudy and ugly on taxpayer dime. Now, by the way, a billion dollars according to the Senate Republicans is what we need to spend. So I think he wants that so that we can't erase him when he's gone because he knows he's unpopular. He's the worst president in American history by a mile.
- [05:53]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So I had a scholar that studies dictators and autocrats, Ruth Ben Guy, on my show, and she said this is a feature of Autocrats, a psychological feature that they fixate on building a safe space because they operate from a default setting of fear. The number one thing that motivates him is fear and accountability. And so he is laser focused on building this ball room. And the more details that he reveals, the more it, it, it appears like he is building this. On one of the clips, he talks about if a drone hits it, the drone will. Drone will just bounce right off of it and it's going to have a hospital. And what he was saying that research facilities and all of this stuff. And so I'm fearful that this is because he's more focused on this ballroom than anything. I think the Washington Post did a study and he has mentioned the ballroom more than any other subject since it came up by a long shot. And so I think that Ruth Ben Guy is probably right that he is just laser focused on getting to his safe space because he has so much PTSD from Joe Biden beating his ass.
- [07:01]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah, well, he's so he's so paranoid. And the same thing goes back to, like, his food choices. Like, everybody makes fun of him for eating McDonald's and filet of fishes and all that, but the reason he eats McDonald's is because he thinks it's less likely to be poisoned if he gets it from a fast food joint. And like, there was a. My father was a former FBI agent and what friend of his did security for Trump when he went through Omaha, Nebraska during the first campaign in 2016? And apparently they had to go get him like Burger King and like, other stuff. And he was talking about how I'll only eat this stuff because it's not going to be poison. It comes in the wrapper. They can't get anything through the wrapper. And I'm like, what are you talking. He's a billionaire. He should be able to have like a chef that just follows him everywhere. Like, I just don't, I don't get it.
- [07:37]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Okay, now let's talk about. A lot of people claim that they voted for Trump because of inflation and for economic reasons. And he was recently asked about Americans struggling with rising gas prices. Let's play the clips.
- [07:53]
Audio/Video Clip Speaker
See a problem. And this is peanuts. And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won't be much longer, but you're going to have. And frankly, there is so much oil out there. One of the things.
- [08:07]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
What's your take on that? Peanuts.
- [08:09]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I mean, peanuts. Well, they keep saying it's short term pain, right? This is the same thing they said about the tariffs a year ago there. It's going to be a little short term pain, but they're going to bring back all these manufacturing jobs. It's going to be amazing. They always say we're going to, we're three weeks or three months away from the golden age of America or whatever. But he's so disconnected from the day to day lives of the average American. And he got elected. Obviously there's a ton of racism and sexism that plays a role in the MAGA movement. I'm not going to pretend like it's not there, but the people in the middle who are just getting killed in this economy. And I don't think the economy was that strong under Biden. Now, I think there were a lot of factors into that and he had dealt with a lot of it and it was getting better. Trump came in and poured gasoline all over it. But what were the promises he made in that campaign? Everything's gonna get less expensive on day one. I'm not gonna launch Another forever war and send your sons and daughters to go die in the Middle East. He's broken both those promises. And then when people go, hey, you lied to me, and I'm angry about that, and I don't like paying $6 a gallon for gasoline, he goes, I don't care. I don't care about your finances. Because Iran can't have a nuke, which Tulsi Gabbard says that Iran is nowhere near having a nuke. She's inside his own administration. So it's embarrassing. And it's why they're gonna get creamed in the midterms. They're gonna learn the same lesson a lot of the establishment wing of my party had to learn and in 2024 is you can't gaslight people into believing that the economy is strong when they can't pay their bills.
- [09:17]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Right. And I think if we consider like every, the majority of Americans have been poor at some point, at some stage in their life. And I think about the time when I was a young mother, my husband was in rehab. I mean, we were really struggling financially. And if I had to go to the pump to buy gas, and it was, you know, what used to be $60 is now $120. That is debilitating. That is very, very paralyzing. And so Donald Trump exclusively doesn't understand. Like, remember when he said groceries? It's an old fashioned word because he's never been to the grocery store. I, I doubt he has ever pumped gasoline into a car.
- [09:55]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
No, no. I don't even think he knows how it works. He probably assumes it's like the movies where there's somebody who pumps your gas for you, like a Tommy Boy or something like that. It's just, it's, it's embarrassing. And, and you're right, like every economic pain that he creates is a daily indignity for the average American. Right. Imagine you're sitting at home and you're trying to work with your partner to balance your, your, your checkbook so you can have enough to put away to send your kids to college, to pay for your mortgage. It's just a daily indignity, on and on. And you turn on the TV and the President's like, I don't give a damn about you. I don't care.
- [10:22]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah.
- [10:23]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Like, that's just got to suck.
- [10:24]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah.
- [10:24]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
At least Democrats, like, we're not perfect. And then, I know we're going to talk about this in a bit, but, like, at least Democrats give a, give a shit about people. At least we Try to.
- [10:32]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
There's no question that I lived in a red State for 50 years.
- [10:35]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Oklahoma, right?
- [10:36]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah.
- [10:36]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I grew up in Nebraska.
- [10:37]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oh, yeah.
- [10:38]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Far away.
- [10:38]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So Oklahoma. So Republican super majorities are incredibly damaging. I saw it firsthand. We had a Democratic governor, Brad Henry, in the early 2000s. Education was ranked 17th. Since then, Republican super majorities across the board, the entire state. Oklahoma's ranked 50th in education. 50th. So Republican policies, I say this over and over again. Republican policies are an anti family death cult. They have been lying about it for decades. Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, the smart Bush, all of them went into rural America and said, wealth will trickle down and we are, are compassionate conservatives. All of it was total. The Republican Party are pathological liars, which honestly, a lot of people are upset that Massey lost. I'm not.
- [11:27]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Okay.
- [11:28]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I'm glad that he lost because voting with Trump 91% of the time is not good enough for me. And if the Republican Party is going to be crazy, just let the freak flag fly. Get all of them crazy in there. And I am not going to give a participation trophy to somebody who says pedophilia is wrong. That should be a default setting. I am not going to allow a Liz Cheney who lied, looked in the camera and lied to Americans and said, these fourth term abortions are so dangerous. They are. Babies are being born and they're being killed. Because I live in a state where there is a total abortion ban. And I think everybody's like, oh, Kamala only campaigned with Liz Cheney one day. I felt that. I fucking felt that. Because I remembered when Liz Cheney looked in the camera and lied. And those lies are not good enough for the American people. And so I, I appreciate Thomas Massie's honesty on some things, but I disagree with Barack Obama. I don't want a strong Republican Party. I want the Republican Party to be defeated. Defeated. All they have done is drove up deficits, started wars and caused pain to the American worker and created this wealth disparity at a much higher rate than Democrats have.
- [12:48]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah, I mean, I, I broadly agree with you on that. Right. Like, I want, I want to have that idealistic view of American politics where there can be like a great debate between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. When I was, I was 18, I dropped out of college to go work for Barack Obama. What I believe was happening.
- [13:00]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I love him.
- [13:01]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I love, he's an amazing president. Like, he's a good human being, but like, he's also the Same guy in 2012 who said, well, After I win the presidential election, the fever's going to break and Republicans are gonna start working with us and like, the infection has gotten significantly worse over the 20 years and it's bad. And I think Democrats. This is why my substack is called endless urgency. Is I want the same endless urgency that I see from the Trump administration to use power to help people. I'm tired of watching Trump every single day come up with like 50 ways to drive me crazy and put money in his back pocket. Why don't we use power that way to make sure people don't go bankrupt when they get sick? And by the way, to save our democracy, which Democrats love to just shout from the rafters about saving democracy, but they don't have a plan to do it. They're uncomfortable with getting rid of the filibuster. They're uncomfort with making D.C. estate. They're uncomfortable with tackling big money and corporate money in our Supreme Court. Supreme Court. Like, we're going to have to pack the Supreme Court or we're going to have to get lucky and wait for them to die and hope that we have control of the Senate and the presidency in the process.
- [13:52]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Like, insane.
- [13:53]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Which is insane. But. But you know what? They're being incredibly arrogant right now. None of the Supreme Court justices are retiring this year. And if Democrats pick up the Senate in November with. And we have to do it, by the way, with what I call a Fetterman proof Senate majority. So we have to have 52 Democratic Senate seats, otherwise Fetterman is just going to fuck us every chance.
- [14:07]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
No, you're right.
- [14:08]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [14:09]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
No, you're so right about that. Okay, and then let's discuss JD Vance. This is really interesting.
- [14:14]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
My least favorite politician ever, right?
- [14:16]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I think that J.D. vance is America's biggest prostitute.
- [14:19]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
He insulted prostitutes.
- [14:22]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It totally is. But he's changed his name three times, changes religion three times. Absolute nihilist to his core. Believes in absolutely nothing. Was purchased by some of the worst people on the planet, Peter Thiel and others. And he was placed into Trump's orbit because they purchased him and they purchased Trump. Trump to do it. Trump has been rap Vance every chance he can get. And I can't get enough.
- [14:45]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Great. It's hilarious.
- [14:46]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Fraud czar.
- [14:47]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
It's great.
- [14:48]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It's so good. It's so good. Okay, so here is. Watch this clip of J.D. vance. He's so bad politically. Play the clip.
- [14:57]
J.D. Vance (politician)
Signs that say no kings. They are very, very insistent that we not have kings. And then King Charles comes to the. The Congressional chamber, and these guys break out and rapturous applause. So maybe they don't care so much about kings as they pretend that they do. Maybe they just don't like the agenda that we're implementing that's actually making American workers and American families safe and prosperous again.
- [15:19]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I feel dumber for having listened to that. It's so dumb. I think that I'm dumber for listening to that.
- [15:24]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I want you to imagine him in the morning applying his eyeliner and practicing that because he thought he had it. He was like, I got the Democrats. I got them real good today.
- [15:34]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oh, my God, that is so funny. Because you know what? I can imagine it. Yeah, I can see him doing that. I think that J.D. vance. I cannot wait. I hope he's the nominee.
- [15:47]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Oh, me too.
- [15:47]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I want him to be the nominee. I want to watch him lose. I want to watch him face plant. I want to ridicule him. I want to ridicule the donors that have bought him. Because here's the thing. When you think about Bezos and Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, these guys are the biggest bunch of pussies. Want to control politics, but they won't put their name on the ballot and run.
- [16:10]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right? Right. And you know what? Say what you will about Trump, but at least he put his name on the ballot.
- [16:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
He did.
- [16:14]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
There's courage in that. Right. I give props to anybody that'll do that because you put your whole life on the line for it. But. But Vance is just such an exceptional weasel. He represents literally everything that's wrong with American politics. It's part of the reason why. And I get yelled at online about this. I bet people in the comments are going to flame me for it. And I love you guys for it, but I don't support getting R. Trump on the 25th Amendment. I don't support impeaching Trump, and it's because I don't want J.D. vance to be President of the United States. Trump is a disaster.
- [16:38]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
That's such a good point.
- [16:39]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
But if you. If you think that Peter Thiel and Paler don't have enough power in the federal government, like, then J.D. vance is your candidate because Peter Thiel has some kind of master plan to defeat or ascend the Antichrist into America. Like, I don't really understand what he's doing, but the guy's crazy. I don't want him to have any more influence. So I think the only thing saving us from something worse is Donald Trump right now and his vanity.
- [17:00]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I. You know, you bring up such A good point. Because impulsively and short sightedly, I think, okay, he needs to be removed or he needs to drop dead. And then I'm not playing the tape through because I want that just immediate discomfort gone. And I think about the cult completely falling apart. But you're right, they placed J.D. vance as a chess move in knowing Trump is old, knowing probably some insider information about his health, and he was bragging about passing cognitive tests during Trump 1.0.
- [17:31]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right.
- [17:31]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So this dementia diagnosis, I believe has been out there, you know, for a while. And so that is such a good point. We have to be careful what we wish for.
- [17:41]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah. I think the other thing here too is like a lot of Democratic politics, you've had a ton of them on your show. It becomes like this fallback position for the Democratic Party to get like claps and clicks and stuff without having a real plan on what to do. And so they go, we have to remove Donald Trump. We have to impeach Donald Trump. Be like, we've impeached him twice. We're not going to be able to remove him. Like, he's here. I think sometimes we've got to sort of face the threat that we, that we have in front of us and be prepared to deal with it, limit the damage as much as we can. Have an actual plan on what to do when we win in the midterms, when we win in 2028. Because I think right now in this trajectory, we're going to elect a Democratic president, unless somehow Donald Trump saves the job market and finds a way to raise wages and decrease prices, which he's not going to do. He's not even trying. So I just don't want Democrats keep falling into that trap. But also to think through the whole game. Democrats never do that. We don't think through step one and step two. Like, I spoke to the Democratic Lieutenant Governors association last year and one of them asked me about whether or not we should get rid of the filibuster right there. Should we go to the filibuster? Because it's important to protect us, like right now, you know, the Republicans could pass a nationwide abortion ban if they wanted to, if they didn't have the filibuster. Right. And I was like, look, you can get rid of the filibuster. I support doing that. I think it's, it's antiquated, it's ridiculous, and it prevents progress. But that's step one of like 5,000 uncomfortable, shitty decisions that the Democratic Party has to make. And it's like, day one, we're doing that. Day two, we're back in the Supreme Court. Day three, we're passing massive campaign finance laws. Day four, we're making D.C. puerto Rico, Guamo State. Day five, we're merging the Dakotas. Like, it's just, we got to be like, prepared to go and have that. I hate to say we need a Project 2029, because everybody says that, but we need that. It just can't be like, if we, if we get rid of the filibuster and all we do is like, fiddle with the Affordable Care act and raise the minimum wage, we'll get killed. And Nick Fuentes will be president one day. That's how bad it'll be.
- [19:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I agree. And I think that one thing Trump has shown the electorate is that you can govern all gas, no breaks.
- [19:20]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yes.
- [19:21]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Democrats, it's, you know, we have to be careful. We have to be forward thinking. And. And Joe Biden's biggest error was appointing Merrick Garland. And that allowing we do not punish the Republicans. Law breaking enough.
- [19:39]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Agreed.
- [19:39]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
We have. We didn't punish the Confederacy enough. We didn't punish MAGA enough. And now they're getting a $1.7 billion SL taxpayer funded. Which JD Vance said in the same face plant of a press conference. He said January 6, people have not received enough sympathy from the American public. Just, they're just in a constant, constant state of victimhood.
- [20:08]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [20:08]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
While at the same time wanting to be tough guys.
- [20:10]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right. I mean, it's a party of petty grievance. That's all that it is. Like, if you go on X right now, there'll be somebody complaining about Roseanne Barr being fired for saying something racist. Valerie, Jared, like, they're obsessed with that, guys. I see people talking about it all the time and I'm like, why can you guys never face accountability? They're the party of personal responsibility, and they can never take responsibility for anything that happens to them. And on accountability for a second is, you know, I'm about to be 40. I've been doing this since I was 18, for two decades now. And like, I have witnessed three major moments in American history where it was so obvious about this deep well of criminality that the American government didn't do anything about. All right? I entered a job market that was a mess in an economy that was destroyed by Wall street here in New York City. Nobody went to prison for that. I watched an insurrection that was led by President of the United States. People creating fake electors and trying to rig the election and just lying. No Basically, a bunch of people went to prison, then they got pardoned by the president.
- [21:00]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Not the hot, not the high dollar at the top. Right.
- [21:02]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Exactly. They're mad because Roger Stone got arrested at 4am and there was a CNN news camera there. Right. So that makes it okay for them to go after Don Lemon. It just doesn't. It doesn't make any sense. And then now we've got the Epstein class. Right. We've got the biggest sex trafficking ring that I know about in the history of the United States. It's clear as day that there's no way that just Delaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are the only two people who ever be arrested for this. I mean, Maxwell's dead and Ghislaine is running a minimum security prison. So those are three months. How do you get the American people to buy into our system of government and our criminal justice system if they watch an entire class of people never be held accountable for anything. So when we take over, and I do think we're going to win the midterms, I do think we're going to elect a Democratic president in 2028. And I hope it's not an institutionalist. Hope it's somebody who understands how to use power. When we do that, we have to hold them accountable. I don't care what it takes. We can't let this level of criminality go. Trump is. Trump has taken four and a half billion dollars. How much he's increased his net worth. They're just, they're, they're liars and they're thieves. And I think the American people will reward us if we establish the criminality that they've done and we power through and then we go make a difference in their lives on, on, on economic policies too. We have to do. We gotta walk and chew gum. We gotta get accountability. We gotta fix our democracy, we gotta fix the American economy. And that's a hefty task for whoever becomes the next president.
- [22:14]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It is. But let me say this. Democrats are good at like, we won in 2020. We can win a cycle. And right now, if you look at the Democratic polling, the approval rating is abysmal. It mirrors magus. The only reason that Democrats are winning right now is because Trump is that bad. And independents are swinging over.
- [22:35]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Sure. Base is very mad at us right now for the way that the Democratic Party establishment handled the beginning of last year.
- [22:40]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah, justifiably. And how they still continue to handle it. Which I want to take you to the. I think there's two worlds with the Democratic Party. Right now there is the consultant class that does a lot of focus groups and is very data driven and has no passion. It's like, okay, what are we going to believe? What's working here? And then you have the actual base of people that have really swung further and further left. I think you've seen people get deprogrammed off of corporate news and in that deprogramming, they've also deprogrammed off of this idea of corporate rule and corporate welfare and oh, we have to take all this money, enable. In order to compete with the Republicans, we have to take all this PAC money. I think the Democratic establishment has no idea how radicalized and deprogrammed the base is right now. And one thing that tells me this is for, I think, think we're on like week eight of the Hassan Piker bedwetting syndrome.
- [23:46]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
It never ends.
- [23:47]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
By Democrats. Yeah, by Democrats are the biggest bedwetters in this. And I have sons that are of the age and all of their friends where they get their news from places like Twitch. And it is absolutely Gen Z suicide for Democrats to partake in this simply because Hassan Piker calls out Israel for war crimes, as I see it.
- [24:13]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Well, I think there's, there's a couple of things. Like I, like, I've never met him but I've watched the show before. Like I don't hate the guy or anything. I do think he said some things that are problematic that go a little bit too far. Like I, I think you know this about me. Like I do a lot of like going on Newsmax and trying to go fight the good fight.
- [24:26]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oh yes, I've seen those clips. You're great.
- [24:28]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Thank you.
- [24:28]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
You do such a good job with that.
- [24:30]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Thank you. I'm doing two hours in studio with Newsmax right after this.
- [24:33]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oh my gosh. Okay. We'll have to watch it.
- [24:35]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
It's gonna be.
- [24:35]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
You are. I forgot about that. You're phenomenal on that. Thank you for doing that.
- [24:39]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
It's important of to me, it's like I'm trying to reach that. Like, you know, 90% of them are going to.
- [24:43]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It's so important.
- [24:43]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [24:44]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I mean, I'll tell you, I love Jessica Tarlov.
- [24:45]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I do too. She's great. Like I. So I'll tell you a funny story. The first time I did Jesse Waters show, I looked down, it was like two minutes to go and my father called me. My father is a three time Trump voter, watches Fox News all the time. Knew I was going to be on Jesse Waters and I picked up the phone. I went, yeah, dad, what's up? And he goes, just remember, you're the bad guy. You're the heel, like in pro wrestling. And that actually, like, mellowed me. It was like, okay, I'm the heel. Like, all right, I'm going to show up and I'm going to be myself and I'm going to know that 90% of the audience is going to hate me. But I want that 10% that's going to go, I don't like that guy, but I am getting fucked right now. Like, that's not right. Like, why did Trump do that thing? You just start that conversation. Yeah, we need more people to do that on. Hasan is like, you know, I do think he said some things that make it hard for Democrats to communicate. Like when I go on Newsmax, that's why I brought this up, is like, they'll play a clip of, like, Hasan piker being like. And I'm going to misquote him. So, like, I apologize to people, but I once did a hit on Newsmax where it was right after the White House Correspondent center shooting or whatever the hell happened there. I don't want to call it a shooting because I don't really buy the story that they're telling us either. But they played a clip of it being like, the capital, the street should run red with the blood of capitalists or some shit like that. And, like, it's unhelpful. Like, it is unhelpful. Now, I don't think he's a bad dude or anything.
- [25:53]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I think it's equally as unhelpful for a Cory Booker, who I asked on my podcast, is Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal? It's a yes or no question. And he actually has power. He actually has the ability to go in. Are we holding a twitch streamer who uses metaphors to an account that we don't hold our Democratic politicians who actually have life saving power? Isn't that the problem with the Democratic Party? We're bedwetting over a streamer. Completely bedwin. It was a metaphor. And here's the thing. Like, like I said, Liz Cheney has caused real life damage. Women are dead in America. Are dead because of the lies that she fed into the rabid pro life movement.
- [26:39]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yes.
- [26:40]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yet she's not held to account for that. She gets rewarded by the Democratic Party as, look at our trophy. Look at our big catch. Look at who we're going to trot around on the campaign trail with, while women in red states that are rape victims are like what? Yeah, like, it was a huge betrayal.
- [26:56]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Well, it's. I mean, it's a. It's a questionable strategic decision that the Harris campaign made to bring in Liz. Janie. I know, like, I'm a former Harris advisor, but I worked on this.
- [27:03]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I love Kamala.
- [27:04]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I do, too.
- [27:04]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I want to say, like. Like, a lot of the politicians I pick on, I like 90% of the stuff they do well.
- [27:10]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
And I think, like, being a good Democrat, we should be able to, like, deal with dissent. Like what I hate.
- [27:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
We're not in a cult.
- [27:14]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I know, I know. And it's like we just watched Thomas Massey get killed because he doesn't think we should be covering up for Pedos even though he votes with Donald Trump 95% of the time.
- [27:20]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah.
- [27:20]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
So, like, I think it's good. Like, I think it's fine to criticize Corey Bookers. Fine to court Chris says Kamala Harrison, Chuck Schumer. We should do that without hating each other. Right?
- [27:27]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I agree.
- [27:28]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
And I agree with you. I think that, like, Hassan and other streamers and other content creators, including you and I, by the way, like, we're held to a higher standard than a lot of elected officials.
- [27:35]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah.
- [27:36]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
President of the United States is up in the middle of the night for like four hours. Between crazy conspiracy theories, it's barely a blip on the radar. Like, what are we doing?
- [27:42]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
He talked about committing a genocide.
- [27:44]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yes. I'm going to annihilate the people of Iran. It's like the thing that he said.
- [27:47]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Fox News, the pro life channel, rolls out. Literally. I went to a basketball game with Hassan the other night, and he said every.
- [27:54]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
The Knicks.
- [27:55]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
No, Oklahoma City Thunder.
- [27:57]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Okay.
- [27:57]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Versus the Lakers. Hassan was cheering for the Lakers, wore LeBron jersey. I'm a die hard Oklahoma City fan. Oklahoma City swept them. It was beautiful. It was a beautiful event, but I
- [28:08]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
just wanted to get in. The knicks having a 0.01% chance of winning yesterday's game and coming back last night.
- [28:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oh, they did such a good job.
- [28:14]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
There were people, like, chanting in the streets. It was like we'd won a war.
- [28:17]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
But Hassan said every at the top of the hour on Fox, at the top, it was him. And so here's my thing. People tend to find somebody who is actually a really good messenger. And I know this because my children who are college aged and their friends, when they'd all come over and hang out, they are talking about things like wage inequality. They are talking about things like corporations buying politicians. These are things they're not going to hear on corporate news.
- [28:51]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
No, they're not.
- [28:52]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And having a smarter electorate is better. And so I think there's been a lot of false equivalencies. And I understand MAGA because Hassan packers like catnip for them. He's good looking, he says provocative things. So that's going to be the top of the hour.
- [29:06]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
He's not white, so they're going to turn him into a book.
- [29:08]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Although he. He identifies as white. Hassan does. Yeah.
- [29:11]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Oh, well, they treat him like he's not.
- [29:12]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
No. Yeah, he knows that. But he identifies as white because when
- [29:14]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
they talk about him, they're like scary Muslim. Yeah.
- [29:18]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
But I do think the component of the Democrats that go after him, like third way.
- [29:26]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [29:26]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And a lot of them bedwetting about that instead of saying, look, we need to partner with him and build a big tent here. And the thing that I think causes them to beat up on him is because he has absolute moral clarity and a lot of the Democrats don't. On Israel's genocide in Gaza, displacing millions of people in Lebanon and dog walking Donald Trump. Our own State Department said this, by the way. This is not. Yeah. Marco Rubio said it, the Secretary of State, that Trump did this for Israel and we're killing little kids.
- [30:09]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah. I mean, I think it's. I think that's right. And I also think it extends beyond that, too.
- [30:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Okay.
- [30:13]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Which is most of the Democratic candidates that I've worked for, not all of them, but most of them don't really know what they stand for and don't really know what they believe in.
- [30:21]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
That's devastating.
- [30:22]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
It sucks.
- [30:23]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So devastating.
- [30:24]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right. And you, and you bring up like the consult. It's depressing. But you bring up the consulting class like, I am for better, for worse. I'm a card carrying member of the Democratic Party's consulting class.
- [30:33]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
You are a good one. You're.
- [30:35]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Well, I don't think. I don't. That I'm a good one. Like, I don't want to, want to like overstate it. Okay. But like, thank you. I mean, I write a lot of fundraising emails. It's like what I do in my day job, but it's. So I apologize if you got any fundraising email and you liked it. I wrote it, didn't like it. But it's. A lot of them just don't quite know. And maybe they have like a couple of things that they believe in, but it's tough. And like, do you remember during the shutdown towards the end of last year, Hakeem Jeffries kept having like, every Democratic member of the house stay in D.C. and they kept doing these unity events where they were all together and they were posting, like, a video, being like, we're all here and we're working and we're ready to go, and the Republicans scattered all across the country to go talk to voters and stuff. Now, it didn't work because people were mad at the Republican Party, but I kept saying, you know what I want? I want all 200 members of the Democratic Party to be out there on podcasts and local news shows and cable news and go out there and doing it. And, like, half of them can't do it. And the half of them that can do it, who can articulate a vision, Maybe only, like, five or 10 of them are even good at TV. And good at TV is such a relative thing. Like, they can't have conversations like this because they don't know what they're about. And if you drop me or you in the middle of any room, even if it's an uncomfortable room, with, like, people who I don't agree with, like, I did bar fight with Michael Knowles. It's a daily wire show in Nashville where you're at a bar, you're drinking, you're chatting. And I cornered Michael Knowles on Epstein. And, like, afterwards, I stayed for, like, two hours and talked to everybody in the bar. Could not have been a more conservative crowd who hated me, but I won some of those people over. And, like, you can't do that with a lot of Democratic politicians because they don't know what they believe in. And you can tell when you watch them on tv. You can just see it. It oozes out of them.
- [32:02]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oh, that's so devastating to hear. But I think I. We know that. So the way I see the Democratic Party right now is there are two camps. There are the pro people Democratic Party, the Zoran Mamdanis, the Abdul Al Said, the Grand Platners, the people who are not. Not taking corporate money, period. They're not doing it. They're calling. As Alyssa Slotkin likes to say, I call balls and strikes. But she can't call. She can't call it a genocide, which is a ball and a strike. And so it's that double speak that Democrats do that the electorate is done with. And then you have the Cory Bookers, the Alyssa slotkins, the Mallory McMorrows, the Hakeem Jeffries, the Chuck Schumers, who play Patty cake with the same pimps that buy off, like, the vice president who bought off Donald Trump. So the Way I see it is you have pimps and hoes, and I think the Pimps are the PACs and the corporations and the prostitutes are the politicians that are willing to be bought. So Donald Trump is a big prostitute. J.D. vance, in my opinion, is the country's biggest prostitute. And I know a lot of y' all probably thought I was gonna say Melania, but that's not what we're talking about right now.
- [33:15]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
J.D. vance might be the skankiest with the eyeliner again.
- [33:17]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
He is the skankiest.
- [33:18]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I want to know how he does it, because, like, I'm like a J.D. vance type, like, in the face. I want to know how to get that.
- [33:23]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Maybe we'll put some on you before you go on news.
- [33:25]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
That'd be good. We'll do like a tik tok. Tik tok collab.
- [33:27]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah.
- [33:27]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [33:28]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Okay. So I. I also think there's some hoes in the Democratic Party. They get purchased and they get bought. When you find out, like, as I weaned off of corporate media, and I find out that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are taking money from Palantir.
- [33:44]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right.
- [33:45]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It's devastating. It's like, no, I am so sorry. That is just not how it works. You do not get to say, oh, I'm an opposition party, when you have the same pimp that MAGA has. And so I see this as an existential issue right now, and there can be degrees of progressivism, degrees of liberalism, degrees of being a Democrat and independent or whatever, but I see the. And there are two things that will get people elected that would make the Democratic Party favorability rise up, and it is fighting, which goes to your believing in something. Not being a nihilist, and number two, not being a prostitute.
- [34:25]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [34:25]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
What do you think?
- [34:26]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I. I think I broadly agree with that. I maybe, like, disagree on some of the candidate choices and stuff like that, and that's maybe a separate fight for another time. But I think that the two people that I see talk about this, like, I always articulate this. Like, right now in the country. The problem is it's the Epstein class versus everybody El else. Like, that's just the way that I think about it, because there's a powerful, wealthy, influential group of people who are abusing our campaign finance laws, who are abusing little kids and getting away within the criminal justice system, who are spending so much money to rig it. And it goes beyond partisan politics. Like, there.
- [34:54]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
See, I think that still frames it in the Trump era. So because there are Hakeem Jeffries isn't a part of the Epstein class.
- [35:01]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Well, but.
- [35:01]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And Chuck Schumer isn't a part of the Epstein class. But my God, are they compromised? But here's My God, are they a contributing factor to the Democrats abysmal approval rating?
- [35:10]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Can I make this point? Is that the people in the Epstein class are playing both sides. To them, partisan politics is a game. And Thomas Massey's actually talked about this as Miriam Adelson and Paul singer are the two who spend so much money through AIPAC, through these shell organizations to spend $35 million to unseat him yesterday in Kentucky. They're also spending a ton of money on Democratic campaigns all across the country. They're propping up state legislative organizations. They get them all the way down here, right in state Senate and state House and they work their way up. So they're polluting our politics at every level. So the answer is like there's style questions that we can argue about. There's do you care about Medicare for all a public option. Like those are legit conversations. We. But until we break this very small class of people like Peter Thiel who does play both sides, like Paul Singer, Mary Madison, who play both sides, we have to break them. And right now the problem is our campaign finance laws are a joke. They're an absolute joke. They're not enforceable. The ones that are enforceable are ridiculous. The FCC is an absurd organization that never accomplishes anything and it just doesn't matter. And then on top of that, you have a foreign government problem, which is that there are influencers that are being paid by foreign governments through corporations to act as mouthpieces. They're basically foreign agents. We know Benny Johnson and Tim Pool were taking money from Russia. We know that Viktor Orban, likely through Russia would be, my guess, was paying for cpac. I believe there are influencers on the left. They're taking money from China just based on the way that they're talking. Laura Loomer is rumored to be like an Israeli influencer. Like if there's all these rumors and innuendo, we have to get to the bottom of that too, because those things are polluting our politics. So forget like Democrat, Republican labels for a second. Just for a second. I'm not saying they're not important, but. But that class, they're ripping us off. And we're all busy fighting with each other about whatever's going on in social media that day about Hasan Piker versus Third Way or whatever, which is dumb.
- [36:48]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
It is so dumb.
- [36:49]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I mean, oh, my God. I was, like, done with it after 70.
- [36:52]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I thought it would end. They're still going at it, and all he did is.
- [36:54]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
He's bigger now. Like, that's all that it is. Like, third way made him big.
- [36:57]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So much more popular.
- [36:58]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Well, I mean, and they also. And, like, look. No, again, no insult to Asan. I think what he's built is impressive. They also talk about him like, he has the influence of Joe Rogan. Like, he has 30,000 people who watch him on Twitch. Joe Rogan has, like, 50 million people who watch him. It's not even remotely the same. It's just.
- [37:12]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Well, I think he has 30,000 that
- [37:13]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
watch him live, and then he does really well on YouTube.
- [37:16]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Millions and millions. Yeah.
- [37:17]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I'm just saying that there's, like a. There's a difference.
- [37:19]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
No, totally. There is. No, they. They elevated him to that. Okay. They did. Last question. So there's this vote blue, no matter who.
- [37:26]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Sure.
- [37:27]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Mantra. And generally, I'm a harm reduction voter. I lived in Oklahoma City, and I typically would always vote blue. All my candidates always lost. I'm so excited to register and vote New York because I'm actually going to vote for people that win for the first time in my life.
- [37:43]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
New York politics, an absolute cesspool, though.
- [37:45]
Audio/Video Clip Speaker
Good luck.
- [37:45]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah. It's much better than Oklahoma politics.
- [37:48]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Well, for sure.
- [37:49]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Oklahoma politics, these people are depraved.
- [37:51]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah. But every now and again, you got to. You got to look. You look at the eye of an Andrew Cuomo. So. Or an Anthony Weiner.
- [37:55]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what the Oklahoma politicians are. They think the earth is 6,000 years old.
- [38:02]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I mean. Yeah, 100%. I worked in Kansas for a year. I mean, there was.
- [38:05]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So you get it.
- [38:05]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Chris Kobach was. You got to. Look, I'll. I'll tell you about him off street, but he was crazy person. He was the Attorney General, so.
- [38:11]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
So Graham Platner.
- [38:12]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [38:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
A lot of people are bedwetting over him.
- [38:14]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Sure.
- [38:15]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And obviously, he had this tattoo.
- [38:18]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yep.
- [38:18]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And he covered it up. And I think. Okay, that's unfortunate. Like, that sucks, because this guy speaks to people. He gets big crowds out. He's put himself out there. His ptsd, his problems, his struggles. It's been somewhat refreshing to see that. And then you have this big pushback from the establishment. Chuck Schumer, despite Graham Platner pulling 20, 30 points higher than Janet Mills. He endorses Janet Mills. So obviously, Graham Platner is going to be the Democratic nominee.
- [38:49]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yes.
- [38:49]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And a lot of people do. I'M wondering, the vote blue no matter who lecturers, are they going to endorse and vote blue no matter who? Because they didn't do that with Zoron.
- [39:03]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing. I mean. And you and I talked about this briefly before we got started.
- [39:06]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Give me your take on that closing thought.
- [39:08]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
So, like. So, like, with, with. With Zoran, like, I was pissed about this because. And like, look, I'm. I. I'm not quite like, movement progressive or. I probably straddle the line a little bit. I work with a lot of establishment politicians. I work with a lot of, like, I've worked with Ilhan Omar and Michelle Wu and a bunch of great progressives. And I'm probably like a normie Dem, is what I would say. I don't know what that really means anymore because the, the party's moving around.
- [39:26]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah, yeah.
- [39:27]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
But the number of times I've worked on a race and I've been really excited about the progressive candidate that I was working on, and I was in love with them. I thought they were going to be amazing. And then we lose the. And I got lectured. Or you got lectured or the. Or the folks watching at home got lectured about. Well, the primary's over. The voters decided you have to rally around the candidate, and we did. I mean, the progressive wing of the party rallies around the centrist when they need to. All right, there might be a little, like, you know, hurt feelings and stuff like that, and. But they didn't do that with Zoran. And I think that's a problem because there's going to be a time when there's a big fight. Maybe it comes in 2028, where a centrist wins or a more establishment candidate wins. And you need the left to rally. They didn't rally around Zoran and left Cuomo with an opportunity to win that race. Right. I mean, it was closer than I think a lot of us thought it was going. And I think that's a problem with Platner. I want to believe him. This is the way I would put it is like one. And I say this is like one of the founders of White Dudes for Harris. Like, if we're going to bring in more white men, well, guess what? White men in the last 20 years have done said some really problematic things. And obviously there's a line that shouldn't be crossed, particularly on, like, sexual assault and racism and stuff like that. I want to believe, though, that Graham's story is true. Right. He went into the military, he got this tattoo. He didn't Know what it was? He said some stupid things on the Internet and then grew over time. My guess is if you found stupid stuff that I said when I was 18 and 20, I probably say some things, things that I would regret. Now is an adult and a dad and a husband and an activist. So I want to believe that. And I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, he won the primary, right? He went into, you know, restaurants and community halls all across Maine, won people over. Janet Mills, I think, was a strategic mistake by the establishment. Like, Janet Mills is actually a super badass governor. Like, she's a really good governor. She's done some really amazing things, but she's also, you know, 70 something years old and at a time when people are pretty frustrated with that. So I think Platner also got lucky that that was the candidate that they coalesced around. I'd be curious what would have happened if they had gotten around like a Troy Jackson or something for Senate, who's running for governor right now and I think is phenomenal. So I don't know. But I do have a little bit of that worry. And I know this will get me, like, people in your comment section will be mad at me. I'm a little bit worried that he could be a Fetterman type. And I say that because I worked against Fetterman in that primary. A very similar group of people screamed at us when we had concerns about Fetterman. And then Fetterman turned out to be who he is. Now maybe Platner is going to come in and be amazing and that'll be great. And, and we just don't have a voting record to rely on for him. We don't have something. He just kind of came out of nowhere. Candidates who come out of nowhere make me nervous because they say all the right things, but I don't have anything to back it up. So again, I would, if I was a main voter, I would vote for Grant Platner because he's better than Susan Collins. And I want Democrats to win, but I have those concerns and it's going to be incumbent on him and his campaign to win people over. That that's just all ultimately what it is.
- [41:59]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
I think it's a very fair assessment that when you don't have a voting record, like Donald Trump came out of nowhere, politically speaking. Was he famous? Yes, I, I, I like him. I think if he were, you know, like this horrible person that they claim he is, I don't think he would be so morally clear. About genocide and the killing of children. That, you know, that really, that to me right now becomes. I think Tenisi Coates said this for the Democratic Party, and I think this is a true assessment. If you cannot draw the line at genocide, you're not going to be able to draw it anywhere.
- [42:41]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I agree with that.
- [42:42]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And I think that's a very. The people who cannot say that still to this date, the genocide deniers, history's not going to be kind to them. And then you see they have moral breakage not just from that, but that just kind of like trickle down breakage.
- [42:56]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Right.
- [42:56]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
You know, and you see it and sadly. But I do believe this. I want to leave people with some hope. I do believe that generally, the Democratic Party, if you're fighting for LGBTQ plus people and you're fighting for equality, and the biggest thing that we haven't talked about is the anti black racism is on the rise more than anything in the United States right now. It is the biggest form of bigotry constantly, consistently. And now they're removing black voices from
- [43:23]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Congress and the mask is fully off now. Totally the Jake Langs of the world. Did you see Jake Ling is now banned from National Stadium after putting up a white supremacist banner in a baseball game?
- [43:31]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah. And so, you know, I. I believe that the Democratic Party is the best place to get people to a place where we can all support universal human rights, that all of the forms of bigotry are connected, whether it's misogyny, transphobia, homophobia. And I'm just very. My biggest litmus test is for any Democratic politician that concedes and capitulates to right wing framing. Like Rahm Emanuel was on my podcast and he threw trans people under the bus.
- [44:04]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah, he did. And that's when you torched him for it.
- [44:06]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
That is the biggest red flag to me, because if somebody will throw less than 1% of the population under the bus who doesn't want anything except for to be able to vote, have a job, have health care with the same thing that everybody else wants, if a Democratic politician is willing to do that, then they will continue moving the goalposts and at some point you will be on their list of people. And so that's my biggest litmus test, is Democrats who capitulate to right wing framing.
- [44:34]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah, well, and I. There's a ton to unpack there. Like, I want to respond to, like, so many different things. Like the, the transgender attacks inside the party really pissed me off, particularly after 2024, because that com. They ran that ad against Kamala Harris that she's for. They them, not us. Right. And it was a really powerful and effective ad. So I understand the, like, reaction that the Democratic establishment had to that, like,
- [44:58]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
it goes to your point. They don'. Believe in anything.
- [45:00]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
They don't believe in anything. But also, it was like, the reason that ad worked was not because it was about transgender stuff. It was a very clever framing to make Kamala seem. They were othering Kamala. She doesn't care about you. The biggest knock on the Democratic Party in every. You mentioned polling and focus groups earlier. So I'm going to be the consultant that mentions. They say, oh, the Democratic Party, they're really. Well, meaning we kind of agree with a lot of what they say, but they're fighting for other people, not for me. So that was what that ad was doing. It was reinforcing the narrative that Kamala Harris was going to come into office, she was going to fight for everybody else and not you. And Kamal's campaign didn't have a good answer for that. And in fact, they outright ignored it, which I think was a mistake. Again, Monday morning quarterbacking. But I want to on the Democratic Party for a second. Okay. Because I get asked this all the time, okay. Like, Mike, why are you a Democrat? Like, Democratic Party sucks. Like, why are you a Democrat? And the truth is, like, if I quit doing what I did right now, I might become an independent like a lot of other people do.
- [45:46]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah, that's enticing.
- [45:46]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
But I. I do think we need people who stay and fight in the parties because there's so many independent voters now that the both parties are just kind of left to the. To their own devices of, like, whoever stays. And the people who stay are the ones who win. And to me, the Democratic Party remains as imperfect as it is the best case scenario to save democracy, to save decency in this country. And it's the only group of people in this country who give a shit about whether or not you have a good paying job, can afford to buy a house, retire with dignity, take a vacation, et cetera. It's basically the core tenets of what I believe the American dream are. So, like, I'm going to stay and fight, and I'd rather stand side by side with people that I don't fully agree with on everything, like Zoran Mandani or Graham Platner. Right. Who I have some concerns about it I think are legitimate, but I know that they're at least trusted trying. Now, the one thing I'll add on Platner just to get back to that for one second is because again is you talk about the consulting class and I think the framing of this is often a bit off is that Grant Platner also has a ton of consultants who work for him and they're very good. I know a lot of them. They work really hard. They're very smart and clever and creative. So again, the thing that I worry about is that the consultants are doing a really good job creating a brand and then don't know what they have in their product. That's what I worry about without that record. But again, he's the nominee. Let's move forward with it. But I think that, that sometimes it's, we should just always like take a deep breath and be more discerning when somebody shows up and says the right thing, you know, and sometimes they turn out to be amazing because like AOC came out of nowhere. Nobody knew who the hell she was. She was a bartender. So. And, and sometimes it works out but sometimes it doesn't because it's Fetterman. So like I get, I get nervous.
- [47:07]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah. I, I really, I think he's the real deal. That's my take on it.
- [47:11]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
I want to believe he has never
- [47:13]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
shied away from any question. He's been on my podcast. You know this. You'll, I'll invite politicians on.
- [47:18]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Yeah.
- [47:18]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And they want to.
- [47:19]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
You'll destroy some of them. That Rahm Emanuel interview was.
- [47:22]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
They'll ask what are we going to talk about. They want the whole thing like pre scripted. Graham Platner, Zorin Momdani, the people who genuinely believe in something. There's no script beforehand. Bernie Sanders I had on last week. Can Bernie come on. Sure.
- [47:38]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Can talk about anything.
- [47:39]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
And that's it. Because he believes in something. And I put Graham in that camp right now. Does he have to prove himself? Yes. 100 he does. But everybody does. And so I think this is really fascinating stuff. And I just on a personal note, I think that people like you and Jessica Tarlop that go on right wing media, I think it is so important because so many of those people live in these crazy cult like bubbles and for them to hear just a little seed of a fact here and here and here I think is such an incredible public service that you do that. So thank you for doing that. That's incredible. We're going to watch later on today. Loved having you in person. I think that these conversations about the Democratic Party are so important and so help healthy.
- [48:21]
Guest (Democratic strategist and political commentator, possibly Mike Nellis)
Thank you. And thank you for having me on. I mean, you guys have built something really special here, and this setup is amazing, and I'm very excited to get to know you.
- [48:26]
Host (likely a progressive political commentator or podcaster)
Yeah. Thank you.
- [48:38]
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