Can Newsom Stop Trump's Steal?

Summary

Pod Save America: "Can Newsom Stop Trump's Steal?" — Detailed Summary

Release Date: August 15, 2025
Hosts: Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer
Guest: Governor Gavin Newsom

---

1. Economic Policies and Inflation

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the recent economic turmoil marked by soaring wholesale prices—the fastest increase in three years. The hosts attribute this surge to the lingering effects of Donald Trump’s tariffs, which economists believe are beginning to choke consumers and drive inflation higher.

• Donald Trump on Inflation [03:02]:
  "We've ended Biden's inflation nightmare. So we had the worst inflation in the history of our country, and now our inflation is down to a perfect number, a beautiful number, hardly any at all."

Jon Favreau questions Trump's optimistic portrayal, suggesting that despite Trump's claims, higher prices are unmistakable to everyday consumers.

• Tommy Vietor [04:07]:
  "People will notice when stuff for Thanksgiving costs more... They can't miss it. And it is not the..."

Tommy emphasizes that despite Trump's attempts to downplay the situation, the reality of rising costs is evident to the general populace, undermining Trump's narrative.

2. Bureau of Labor Statistics Controversy

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Trump's interference with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). After Trump fired the BLS head over unfavorable job numbers, he nominated E.J. Antony, whose qualifications and affiliations raise concerns about impartiality.

• Jon Favreau [07:00]:
  "Best of all, Antony just happened to be in the crowd outside the Capitol on January 6th."

• Tommy Vietor [12:00]:
  "He's like Tocqueville, if you will. Right? He's just reporting on what's happening in America."

The hosts express skepticism about Antony’s ability to maintain unbiased economic reporting, fearing potential manipulation of data to favor Trump’s agenda.

3. Trump’s Militarization Strategy in D.C.

The conversation shifts to the increasing militarization of Washington D.C., with hundreds of National Guard, Federal, and ICE agents patrolling the streets under Trump's directive.

• Jon Favreau [20:23]:
  "They arrested one delivery driver off the street in D.C. Thursday morning... It's just like, why would she think it wasn't renewed yet?"

Tommy critiques the performative nature of these deployments, arguing they are more about intimidation and demonstrating power rather than effectively addressing crime.

• Tommy Vietor [25:02]:
  "They are manufacturing a crisis that is completely made up in order to deploy federal agents..."

4. ICE Actions and Human Rights Concerns

A troubling segment highlights ICE’s aggressive tactics, including detaining individuals with legitimate visas and misidentifying minors as gang members.

• Jon Favreau [37:39]:
  "Imagine the trauma that that kid's gonna go through because of a fucking visa wasn't renewed."

• Tommy Vietor [41:06]:
  "How many people who don't have a voice... are getting disappeared..."

The hosts condemn these actions as inhumane and liken ICE’s transformation under Trump to a “secret police” force, raising alarms about potential authoritarian shifts.

5. Gavin Newsom’s Redistricting Initiative

Governor Gavin Newsom announces California’s plan to request voter approval for new congressional maps aimed at increasing Democratic representation. This initiative is positioned as a strategic countermeasure against Republican-led redistricting efforts in states like Texas.

• Donald Trump [56:50]:
  "These are good people, ice. They're good, tough people. That's all."

• Tommy Vietor [56:47]:
  "It's a very smart, well done plan... but it's not a slam dunk."

Newsom argues that independent redistricting commissions are essential to prevent gerrymandering and protect democratic integrity. The hosts discuss the challenges ahead, including potential backlash and heavy financial campaigning from Republicans.

6. Trump’s Alaska Meeting with Putin

The episode also touches upon Trump’s upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, expressing skepticism about Trump’s ability to broker peace.

• Donald Trump [46:16]:
  "I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelensky will make peace."

• Tommy Vietor [50:46]:
  "He knows how to play Trump because he's been playing Trump for years."

The hosts doubt Putin’s intentions for peace, anticipating that Trump may leave the meeting with pro-Russian sentiments, thereby undermining global stability.

7. Promoting Active Participation and Awareness

In the latter part of the episode, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor emphasize the importance of voter engagement and public awareness to counteract Trump’s strategies.

• Tommy Vietor [43:14]:
  "We could lose this thing. It's not an exaggeration."

• Jon Favreau [73:25]:
  "He's rewriting history. He's censoring historical facts... This is it, guys."

They urge listeners to remain vigilant, support initiatives like Newsom’s, and actively participate in safeguarding democracy against authoritarian tendencies.

8. Light-Hearted Moments and Listener Engagement

Amidst the heavy topics, the hosts incorporate lighter moments, including a discussion about a humorous but poorly executed joke by Marco Rubio.

• Jon Favreau [78:06]:
  "JD Vance screwed up the joke... It no longer even makes sense."

These segments provide a brief respite and showcase the hosts’ ability to balance serious discourse with humor.

Conclusion

The episode "Can Newsom Stop Trump's Steal?" presents a comprehensive analysis of the current political climate, focusing on Trump's economic policies, potential manipulation of government agencies, militarization tactics, and the aggressive actions of ICE. Simultaneously, it highlights Governor Newsom’s proactive measures to uphold democratic standards through redistricting in California. The hosts advocate for increased voter awareness and participation as crucial tools in countering authoritarian moves and preserving democratic integrity.

Notable Quotes:

• "We've ended Biden's inflation nightmare... hardly any [inflation]." — Donald Trump [03:02]
• "He's manufacturing a crisis that is completely made up in order to deploy federal agents..." — Tommy Vietor [25:02]
• "This is crony capitalism. Corruption at a level we've never seen in our life." — Donald Trump [66:50]
• "This is an emergency measure. Again, temporary, transparent and very Democratic." — Donald Trump [58:19]

---

Subscribe to Friends of the Pod!
Support Crooked Media’s work and gain access to exclusive, ad-free content by subscribing here or on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

[Jon Favreau]

Today's presenting sponsor is simply Safe Home Security. There's a lot of performative tough on crime Talk out there. SimpliSafe Home Security is effective against crime. Their active Guard uses smart tech and live agents to proactively deter criminals, not just react once they're already in.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I set up a SimpliSafe system. It's incredibly easy to do. I customized it to my house, I ordered it, it came, I installed it myself. It worked great. The app is great, the customer support is great. Highly recommend it.

[Jon Favreau]

Most security systems only take action after someone breaks in that's too late. SimpliSafe's new Active Guard Outdoor Protection helps stop break ins before they happen. Someone's lurking. Agents talk to them in real time, turn on spotlights and can call the police proactively deterring crime before it starts. Name Best Home security system of 2025 by CNET 4 million plus Americans Trust SimpliSafe ranked number one in customer service by Newsweek and USA Today. Monitoring plans start around a dollar a day 60 day money back guarantee. No contracts, no hidden fees. Just visit simplisafe.com cricket to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month free. That's simplisafe.com crooked there's no safe like.

[Andy Richter]

Simplisafe hi there, it's Andy Richter and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three where do you come from, where are you going, and what have you learned? New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bowen, Ted Danson, Tig Notaro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers, and more. You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter Call in show episodes where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating, disasters, bad teachers, and lots more. Listen to the three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Favreau]

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.

[Tommy Vietor]

I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

[Jon Favreau]

On today's show, we got vehicle checkpoints and street patrols in newly militarized D.C. ice is out of control and showing up at Democratic political events. Trump thinks Putin wants to make peace ahead of their Alaska meeting. Gavin Newsom talks to us about his big redistricting announcement today. Today. And we'll end with a few minutes on the podcast Guest everyone's talking about this week. How's that? But let's start with this week's big economic news. Wholesale prices, which are Basically, the prices that producers like farmers, factories, other businesses get paid for their goods and services just rose at the fastest rate in three years. Economists say this is a sign that the cost of Trump's tariffs are starting to hit hard and will start affecting consumers in a bigger way, driving up inflation. So what does Donald Trump have to say? Here he is just hours after the report was released.

[Donald Trump]

We've ended Biden's inflation nightmare. So we had the worst inflation in the history of our country, and now our inflation is down to a perfect number, a beautiful number, hardly any at all.

[Jon Favreau]

Perfect number, beautiful number, hardly any at all. He didn't need to say that. Like, he could have said nothing about inflation after a bad inflation report, but he chose to go in the other direction and say that it's completely solved. What do you think? Is he going to be able to lie his way through higher prices and inflation?

[Tommy Vietor]

I spend a lot of my time worrying about how Trump can sort of gaslight reality, how he can get either his right wing media or to echo and amplify what he's saying, how he can sort of cow the media and other stakeholders into going along with what he says. This is one place where I am not worried about it. Right. It's just people know how much things cost and they notice when they go up. You go to the grocery store one week and you buy milk and eggs and beef and vegetables, and then you go back the next week, you buy those same things and they cost more. People notice that it was the first week of school in our house this week, but all across the country we're going back to school over the next month. When you go school shopping, you realize that school supplies and school clothes cost more than they did last year. People will notice that. They'll notice when stuff for Thanksgiving costs more, when presidents over the holidays are going to cost more. You can't miss it. And it is not the. We went through this whole debate in 2024 about how the media was covering the economy wrong and they weren't giving Biden credit for it. And what we then realized was the people who don't follow the media at all, the ones who have the worst opinion of the economy because they see the reality of what's happening. And so Trump can lie about this, he can pretend like it's not happening, he can cook the books in these reports, he can do whatever he wants.

[Andy Richter]

But.

[Tommy Vietor]

But if prices keep going up, people are going to notice it. And whether they directly attribute it to tariffs or not, they're going to blame him because he's the person in charge. So I have some measure of confidence on this one.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah. The people, including the Biden administration, who were blaming the media coverage back in 2024 and 3 and 2 for the inflation, they were wrong then, and the Trump administration's wrong now. And they're also both wrong that people aren't going to realize it themselves. I also think that because Trump is so insulated and just in his own reality, not only are people not gonna believe him, but he's not going to understand the level of frustration and anger out in the country about inflation, because no one is gonna tell him about that. And anytime he hears any information about that, he's gonna think it's fake. So that's just another. It's also another opportunity for Democrats to go out there and make a huge deal about this, because, you know, you're already starting to see in. I think Axios did a set of focus groups with voters in Georgia, all of whom were Biden voters who switched over to Trump in 2024. And I've seen a few other focus groups you're starting to hear from, from voters who voted for Trump, maybe for the first time, that costs haven't gone down. That was their main reason for voting for Trump. And they're frustrated, and things just keep getting worse. And it doesn't necessarily mean that they are suddenly enamored with the Democrats. The Democratic Party has some work to do. In fact, they are not. But they are definitely souring on Donald Trump. And this is before the tariffs have really shown up in some of the economic data and higher prices that people are going to be facing starting this fall and probably into next year.

[Tommy Vietor]

Another interesting thing in the. In the inflation report that came out was a huge, historic increase in fresh vegetables, which is also related to labor shortages because of Trump's deportation raids. And so people are going to notice the price increases, and I think they will hold Trump accountable. The secret sauce for Democrats here is make people understand that Trump has made the problem worse.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right through his tariffs. And the tariffs are going to keep getting worse and worse. They are kicking in now. The reason why these costs are going up now is because the companies knew the tariffs were coming. They bought huge stockpiles of things to try to get them through the tariffs. Those stockpiles are now expended, and now they are passing. They have to buy it. Now they're actually paying the tariffs, and they're passing those costs on to other people. And we know this from the last time we had supply chain shortages right after the pandemic. Even companies who are not affected by the tariffs will also raise their prices because they see an opportunity to make more money in price gouge in this environment. So prices are going to go up everywhere. And it's because of Trump's policy decisions. I think this really, that's the important point for us to get through to people.

[Jon Favreau]

It's more mad king shit. The guy comes into office and unilaterally illegally slaps a giant tax on American consumers so he can try to cut off our trade with the rest of the world. Because he doesn't understand economics.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah.

[Jon Favreau]

And because he wants to extort our allies and other countries into making fake promises to please Donald Trump, that they're going to like, invest in America, invested in a bunch of money in America that they'll never make good on. But they just needed to, like, get out of whatever negotiations they were in with him. And so now he thinks he controls the rest of the world. He said today too, Canada and Mexico do what I tell them to do. So he just wants more power, he just wants more control. And all of us are gonna be paying as a consequence, and he could crash the economy or at least send us into a recession because we already weren't in a great place before the tariffs and now he's just making it worse.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I mean, we could be headed towards stagflation, which is the worst of all scenarios, where you have high prices and low growth, which is sort of what the economy is modeling out to if these trends continue. You made an important point on his media diet, which I just want to hone in on for a second. Trump has been always very good at figuring out why people are mad at Democrats because he watches right wing media and he sees what animates their audience. But watching right wing media will never tell you why people are mad at Republicans, which is how he missed reactions to the pandemic. It's why he's missing the reactions to inflation here, and it's why he doesn't fully understand the consequences of his Epstein problems down the line.

[Jon Favreau]

And he also, he understood around Liberation Day when the market started crashing, because he does care about the stock market and he watches the stock market, but now that the stock market has basically like, all right, these are the tariffs and, you know, we just wanna make sure we get a rate cut and maybe we can get a rate cut. And, you know, we care about AI investment more than anything else. So he thinks the stock market's going well and so Again, he's going to be totally insulated from other economic news. And one way he's trying to hide the bad economic news is by hiding the bad economic numbers. Last week we talked about how he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because Trump didn't like the jobs numbers. And this week he nominated E.J. antony as the replacement. Who is this guy? Well, 37, got his PhD five years ago from Northern Illinois University. On an unrelated topic, works at the right wing Heritage foundation, writes for the Daily Caller, Breitbart, the Federalist, goes on the War Room, which is why he was Steve Bannon's suggestion for the job. He's been criticized as utterly unqualified and extremely partisan by even conservative economists, including Trump's first term pick to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A Trump guy, conservative, headed up the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is like, I liked Trump, but this guy too much. Anthony has called the jobs numbers, quote, phony baloney. He's compared the Bureau of Labor Statistics to a random number generator, said that Trump should take a chainsaw to the agency, and told Fox News last week after he was nominated that that the government should stop putting out monthly jobs numbers until the system is fixed. Best of all, best of all, I know it's hard to believe there's more. Antony just happened to be in the crowd outside the Capitol on January 6th. But don't worry, the White House says he was just there for unrelated meetings. I hadn't realized there was also an economic roundtable happening at the Capitol on January 6th. Did you know that?

[Tommy Vietor]

I think you're being overly cynical here, John. What I think happened here is that it's clear that Mr. Antony has a deep reverence for America's government and democracy. And he simply just happened to be in Washington on January 6th to tour the Capitol. And while he was there, he also just happened to run into a large group of people, many of whom armed, carrying gallows with the Vice President's name on them, who all shared his political views and his views on the election. And he just thought he would stay. He found new friends.

[Jon Favreau]

And honestly, he's kind of like he's.

[Tommy Vietor]

And then when he was there, he was just observing. He's sort of like Tocqueville, if you will. Right? He's just reporting on what's happening in America.

[Jon Favreau]

I gotta say, when I first read this, I hadn't seen the picture. And when I read it, I was like, okay, maybe he really was in D.C. and maybe he was like, at the. Like, just, you Know across the street somewhere. Then I saw the picture. He's like in the fucking crowd.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, of course it's not.

[Jon Favreau]

He's not sure. Yeah, he was there for an unrelated meeting. I'm sure. Also, have you seen him in his office? There's like these videos of him in his office and the big picture behind him is the Bismarck, which is a famous Nazi warship from World War II.

[Tommy Vietor]

I had not seen that. That's new information I made.

[Jon Favreau]

Also, I'm sure he's just a naval ship enthusiast.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yes, I'm sure he's. When he is not standing in the periphery of a mob trying to murder the Republican vice president, he is just building ships in a bottle.

[Jon Favreau]

Maybe he just loves ships and his favorite ship just happened to be a Nazi ship from World War II. Not all the other ships.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I mean, he's a maritime enthusiast. What can you just do?

[Jon Favreau]

Who among us doesn't have the Bismarck hung up in our house and office somewhere? All right, what are the chances we can stop this asshole's confirmation? And if not, what are the chances we can trust the government's economic data going forward?

[Tommy Vietor]

Let's start with the former. So I'd like to think that being at least on the periphery of the mob that tried to murder the people who are going to vote for his nomination would be disqualifying. However, these Republicans suck. They confirmed a pro Russia kook as the head of US Intelligence. They confirmed a weekend cable anchor with a reported drinking problem and all sorts of other misconduct issues as the head of the Pentagon. And they confirmed a anti vaccine enthusiast as the head of Health and Human Services. So I'm not going to place a large wager that this will be the moment in which they find courage to deny Donald Trump what Donald Trump wants.

[Jon Favreau]

I can't wait for these fucking confirmation hearings. Because you know they're going to ask him like, are you going to suspend the monthly jobs reports? He's going to say, of course not. I think that I'm going to treat the job with the integrity it deserves and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, he's just going to do whatever he wants.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, then they're going to confirm him. They're like, he told us what he needed to hear. He seemed like a serious guy. And then he's going to suspend the reports or do whatever else. Now the latter part of your question is how worried should we be that he cooks the books? You have pointed out on multiple occasions because you're a realist and you generally wage War, both publicly and privately against anyone who is hyperbolic in their concerns about Trump. Which has really gone well for you, I think, over the years.

[Jon Favreau]

What?

[Tommy Vietor]

I'm just kidding. But generally when, here's what I actually, the nice, truly nice way, I'm the optimist. No, it's not that you're the optimist. It's that you read the details and then so when everyone's like, he's cooking the books, you actually look and see. And so you understand and have pointed out on this podcast that there's a quite a process that goes through that involves a ton of civil servants that the, that actually the BLS director by current practice did not even see the numbers until they're basically finished. And you and I know from being in the White House that there is a very serious procedures for keeping those numbers secret because they are market moving information. Right? Like, no, we would, you and I would learn the numbers at 8:30 in the morning with the rest of the world when they came out. Like, no, almost no one. Only like the President's top economic aid would like get the numbers in advance and no one else would.

[Jon Favreau]

I know. And we, and because we couldn't know, we would like watch their expression all day thinking like, are they happy? Are they not happy? Does that mean the jobs numbers are good? Does that mean they're bad? It seems so quaint right now.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, yeah. I would sort of wander by their office to see if I could kind of get a sense of what was happening. So there are some checks in place that prevent the cooking of the books. However, I do not come. Once again, I'm not incredibly confident that something that if Trump doesn't want numbers, he's going to find a way to force something else. You can see them saying, oh, there was a bad data sample. Right. We're not gonna do it this month. You know, you just, there are things like there are levers that we have not thought of that they will, they can pull to try to either make the report, a bad report go away or change the numbers in some way, shape or form. And they are coming up with. The other thing is they're coming up with a new method to do it. The odds are the new method maybe not so statistically rigorous, but will get them the answer they want right under the current process. It's hard for them to cook the books. They're coming up with a new process that could be very book cooking friendly, if you will.

[Jon Favreau]

I mean, we have seen this play out now across many agencies with Doge and other actions by the White House, which is hack comes in, who's unqualified, who's just a Trump loyalist, and a bunch of people with integrity, who are civil servants and nonpartisan, sound the alarm, talk to reporters, resign, there's an uproar, they sue, it goes to the courts, and for a day or two, everyone's like, oh, no, the BLS people, like a top BLS official who'd been there forever has resigned because Antony is cooking the books or they're worried that he won't give them the job, he won't give the President the jobs numbers that they all calculated. And so everyone will freak out about it, and then the lawsuit will work its way through the courts and we'll be on to the next thing. And meanwhile, Trump will be just, you know, talking about whatever numbers he wants to talk about. So, like, I do think that there are these safeguards in place, but the ultimate safeguard is our attention, our public attention on the shit that they're doing. And that seems to be waning on a host of issues, which is what I worry about.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Pod Save America is brought to you by AG1. AG1 is the drinkable multivitamin with gut health support. And now they're introducing AG1 next gen, three new flavors with all the benefits of the original AG1. The new flavors include Tropical, which is vibrant and fruity. Ooh, like some hosts. Berry, which is subtle and sweet. Not like our host.

[Unknown Speaker]

Is that going to be a bit of John, I guess.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

And citrus. Sweet and tangy. That's our Dan.

[Jon Favreau]

He's tangy.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Of course, you can get AG1 original with the subtle sweetness of pineapple and vanilla. One scoop of AG1 contains your multivitamin, pre and probiotics, superfoods and antioxidants into one delicious daily habit. I, like, made a change and I started making a morning smoothie where I'd put basically some frozen fruit, some non dairy milk, some AG1 and some protein and honestly, creatine. There's a lot of data for creatine. And so you do that smoothie, you feel like no matter what happens with the rest of the day, you're good.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, that's right.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

You're Good.

[Unknown Speaker]

I love AG1.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

So it's the easiest thing you can add to your daily routine to support whole body health. It's backed by clinical trials. AG1 Next Gen is clinically shown to support gut health and fill common nutrient gaps. AG1 is a comprehensive nutrition supplement that provides nutrients to support body, brain and gut health. Make your daily health drink more flavorful. Give new AG1 flavors a try today. Head to drink ag1.com crooked when you subscribe, you'll also get a free welcome kit worth $76 that includes five AG1 travel packs, a shaker, canister and scoop. That's drinkag1.com crooked to get started again, drinkag1.com crooked hi there, it's Andy Richter.

[Andy Richter]

And I'm here to tell you about my podcast, the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three questions. Where do you come from, where are you going, and what have you learned? New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bowe and Ted Dance and Tig Nataro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers and more. You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter Call in show episodes where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating, disasters, bad teachers, and lots more. Listen to the three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Favreau]

So outside the White House, the big Balls inspired militarization of D.C. continues apace. There are now hundreds of National Guard troops, Federal agents and ICE agents patrolling the streets of Washington along with the D.C. police, all under the command of Donald Trump. Some are standing around next to big army trucks taking pictures with tourists. Others were protecting the Soul Cycle and Georgetown Cupcake on M Street. Very dangerous areas for those who don't know. And then there are the armed masked ICE agents who set up a vehicle checkpoint in the middle of busy 14th Street Wednesday night. They stopped cars, they handed out citations, they arrested people for permit violations. They also drew a big crowd of protesters. Here's some of the DC sights and sounds from that night. Just know, right? Learn, teach, tell your boys like yo, everybody's out from FBI to police. So do your thing. Let them know. Don't be smoking outside, don't be drinking.

[Tommy Vietor]

Outside because Donald Trump is tired of it.

[Donald Trump]

Read the Constitution.

[Jon Favreau]

Just in case anyone still thinks this is all just about crime in D.C. here's Trump deportations. Are Tom Homan and Republican Congressman James Comer talking about what they're really up to and what they got planned?

[Tommy Vietor]

Your federalization of the Police has a.

[Jon Favreau]

30 day limit unless Congress acts to extend it.

[Tommy Vietor]

Are you talking to Congress about extending.

[Jon Favreau]

It or do you believe 30 days is sufficient?

[Donald Trump]

Well, if it's a national emergency, we can do it without Congress.

[Tommy Vietor]

President Trump doesn't have a limitation on his authority to make this country safe again. There's no limitation on that.

[Jon Favreau]

We're going to support doing this in other cities. If it works out in Washington D.C. why don't you vote to allow President.

[Tommy Vietor]

Trump to come into Chicago or New.

[Jon Favreau]

York City or Philadelphia and try to combat the criminal activity in their city? So I think that this is an experiment that's probably needed in a lot of the Democrat run cities in America. So let's start with, you know, we Both lived in D.C. for many, many years, you longer than me, you went to college there. What did you make of the scenes from, from D.C. it's just so surreal.

[Tommy Vietor]

Because we know that crime is actually down in dc. Violent crime is down in dc. There's still too much crime for sure, but it is down significantly from where it was in 2023. We don't have a full picture of what's happening, but they seem to be the federal troops, the FBI agents, the ICE agents, whatever else, seem to be in the places where there's less crime, right where they are in the more well to do areas, the places where tourists are and not all the, all parts of the city, particularly the parts where lots where longtime D.C. residents live. It's like almost like they're avoiding the crime. It's performative, not actual. It's like the people they're trying to protect are big balls, right? People who were driving like just, who were like, were driving a carjack. I just. If you had told people in the election that seven and a half months or whatever it is in the Trump's term, there would be mass federal agents walking the streets of D.C. harassing people, telling them that Mr. Trump wants them inside. I mean, we are so far beyond like I was joking with you before about hyperbolic concerns. Like it like this is like, this is very real. You go through all things, you listen to what Tom Homan had to say there that we are having. They're manufacturing a crisis that is completely made up in order to deploy federal agents and then assert unlimited authority for the President to control the population through those forces that he deployed under false pretenses. It's what happened in la, it's happening here now. They want to expand it to everywhere else. And we were just spend this time talking about the BLS numbers. What happens when they start rigging the crime numbers to make it seem like crime's gone up in certain places to justify sending these troops in?

[Jon Favreau]

I mean, and they don't even need to, they're just saying, they're just asserting it, you know, and look, there's this debate about, you know, is crime really down? Is it Just crime. Is it down from pandemic level highs? And so now it's still at a higher level than it used to be before the pandemic and all. It's like, yeah, too much crime for sure. All in on crime fighting strategies. I'm all in. Let me. You know, there's a whole. We talked about this earlier in the week. Like there's this whole menu of options that The President, the D.C. police Department, Congress, which, you know, cut a billion dollars from the D.C. budget. They were, remember, they were going to restore all the money they cut from DC in the bill way back when.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. How's that going?

[Jon Favreau]

They just never got around to that. Even though everyone was like, oh yeah, we'll fix that later.

[Tommy Vietor]

They've been very busy hiding from Epstein questions. So they've been right.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah. Could have used the money to put more cops on the street. Didn't do that. Instead we have National Guard there standing at Union Station next to this huge army truck, just looking bored, taking pictures with tourists. And then, I mean, for people who don't know DC or don't live in DC, M Street in Georgetown and 14th street, where the vehicle checkpoint was, are the most like high trafficked, touristy areas of D.C. some of the most. And I, you know, I kind of think it's a show of force. They want the libs who live in those areas to see what they're doing. They want people to get angry. They wanted those protesters to be there. And the vehicle checks, you know, the checkpoint, what the hell was that for? That was to make people pissed off. That was to scare people. That was to show people we're in control and you're not and we can do what we want and we can even do more. And what are you gonna do about it? And you know, you heard those protesters and thank goodness they were all peaceful protests. But like, how long does that last? Because, you know, it's human nature. Yeah. There was already the, the, the most, the most violent protest we've seen so far was the, the, the man, the man who threw the sandwich. Have you, you heard about the, the guy?

[Tommy Vietor]

Yes.

[Jon Favreau]

Subway sandwich, I believe that was right on. I think that was like right around in Dupont on. That was like right near my old apartment.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, that subway over there, that someway still open? I guess. It's a great question.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, I used to go there all the time. Anyway, it turns out he was a Justice Department employee who threw a subway sub at the officers. They arrested him and charged him with a felony. Pam Bondi, the Attorney General now, I guess the Chief ofpolice of DC as well, tweeted about it, and she said, oh, we also found out he was a Justice Department employee. And no tolerance. No tolerance for hurting law enforcement or threatening law enforcement here in the Justice Department, except for the guy who's the senior advisor in the justice department, who at January 6th, I don't know if he saw E.J. anthony, the new Bureau of Labor Statistics guy, there while he was there, but was screaming for people to kill cops. So no tolerance, though. No tolerance for hurting police officers. What did you make of sort of the protest angle and how that could go?

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I mean, it's understandable. It's the right thing to do. Peaceful protest is important. We want to shine a light on this so people understand what. What's happening. It's important that it stays peaceful, not for the politics of it, but because who knows how Trump and these officers would use that as a way to justify violence and even more aggressive actions. I mean, it's just. It's very. The goal here is to make people feel powerless. And one way to show that you're not powerless is to use your voice. Right? To use your presence to send a signal that you are not afraid. And kudos to the people who are doing that. Good for them.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, no, I totally agree. And obviously, don't throw things at law enforcement or federal agents.

[Tommy Vietor]

Not even sandwiches.

[Jon Favreau]

Especially not even like a sandwich. You know, don't be burning cars, doing, causing all. Don't give them an excuse. Right. And, but also, I mean, we noticed this in Los Angeles, too. Like, a lot of these. These National Guard, especially the Guard who are there, they don't want to be there either. And they're just there because that's their job and they were sent there. And so, look, there are people, plenty of people with bad intentions in ice right now. There are sometimes police officers with bad intentions. But I do think everyone should keep in mind when you're out there protesting that, like, let's focus on Donald Trump and his administration, because that's who we have to oppose. That's who we have to fight. And, you know, it's scary that it's getting to this point, but authoritarian takeovers, like, and I talked to Eric Khenowith about this a couple months ago in that episode about the 3.5% rule and protests, and you get to a point where you want the security forces of the authoritarian government to eventually defect. That is like, one way authoritarian regimes fall. And so you want as many of these cops and Federal agents and ICE agents and National Guard to at some point be like, when Donald Trump or Pete Hegseth or Pam Bondi tells them to fucking fire on a crowd or something like that. God forbid you want them to be like, no, of course I'm not gonna do that. This is crazy. And so I'm not saying, like, you have to bend over backwards to be nice to them, but, like, just keep in mind who the real villains are here, which are the people in the White House who are giving these orders. So it certainly seems like Trump would need 60 votes in the Senate to maintain control of the D.C. police indefinitely, because every 30 days now, I guess he has to reauthorize his control of the police force. He won't get that. We heard him talking about declaring a national emergency. We've already seen him deploy National Guard troops here in LA over the objection of our governor. Obviously, he can do it in DC because the President controls the Guard in dc. Is there anything stopping him from doing this in cities across the country and just saying, screw Congress, I don't need their authorization for dc, I'm just going to take the police force, do what I want, and I'm going to start sending in troops to Chicago and everywhere else.

[Tommy Vietor]

There's not that much to stop him, right? There are very few limits here. The one thing is he is resource constrained. You can't do this everywhere. All the time. He have, like, it does it for him. They'll try, they'll do a vote because they want to make Democrats vote against this, which I have no problem for them voting against. But in their mind, they think, you know, Trump, in this press conference thing he did earlier today in the Oval Office, where we heard the sound from, he like, he's like, democrats are against crime. Democrats want crime. We're trying to stop crime. My Democrat friends are calling me. They're thanking me for this. He gives zero shits about the people of dc. Maybe he cares about, like, his staffers who live in dc, but then probably not even that. He just wants to send a message to the rest of the country that he's tough on crime. He wants to try to make this a political issue. Crime is, I would say, nowhere near the top of people's issue list. When you look at polling, people are concerned about crime just generally in their lives. But as a political issue, it's not what Trump wants it to be. Yet he's trying to raise the salience of it to make himself more powerful. The other thing about this that I think is just really notable Trump's intentions and some of the potential consequences of this approach substantively is in the Oval Office media availability, Trump was asked isn't by one of the rare real reporters who was allowed to be in this ass kissing fest that he did with the press about isn't this going to make us more vulnerable? They're taking away resources from their real jobs, including terrorism. And Trump says no, the terrorism is there. He thinks about this in terms of an internal threat to the country. And my internal threat to the country means an internal threat to him and his power, not how do we stop a foreign terrorist organization from attacking us. Right. It is liberal protesters in cities who are trying to take us down.

[Jon Favreau]

I mean enemy from within. He said it all through the campaign. He's been saying it ever since. One more note on the politics of crime. Cuz I saw on CNN Harry Entton was going through some polls saying that people trust American. People trust Republicans more on crime than they do Democrats. Donald Trump has good ratings on crime, right? And so it's like, oh, Democrats should be careful and all that. And you know, the polling is all right. But I will just remind everyone at when Trump took office, everyone kept saying the same thing about immigration. Republicans and Trump have a huge advantage on immigration. When they started sending people to El Salvador, maybe we shouldn't make this an issue. This is a distraction. This is his turf that he wants to play on. And it is true that people care about a secure border. It is true that people would want to deport or detain at least people who have criminal records who are in this country undocumented for sure. People. It turns out now that Democrats stood up and fought this and we've all made a big deal of this. People do not like sending people to a gulag without due process. People do not like ICE agents, masked and armed rounding up legal residents, American citizens scaring the shit out of people, taking away people who've been here for decades, working hard, who are trying to become citizens. People don't like that. And now he's underwater on immigration. And so I do not think Democrats should look at this issue and say, okay, because people genuinely don't want to live in a place where there's crime and do want to make sure there is enough law enforcement to fight crime, which is true, that that also means they want to live in a police state. And that also means that they're fine with, you know, vehicle checkpoints in their neighborhood and National Guard troops on the mall. Because I don't think that's true.

[Tommy Vietor]

This is a very important point because when Trump began his presidency, he had huge advantages on immigration and the economy, and now he's deeply underwater on both. It's just important for Democrats to look at this and not say, here's what voters think now. It's what do we want voters to think next November when they go vote and how do we get them to understand that? And we know from his response to what happened in LA that all the polling shows that was deeply underwater. Even Republicans did not like sending military troops to an American city. And so there is precedent here of us of people rejecting Trump's approach here. And I think it can happen again. We just have to not be afraid of the issue.

[Unknown Speaker]

This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform designed to elevate your online presence and drive your success. Squarespace provides all the tools you need to promote and get paid for your services in one platform. Create a professional website to showcase your offerings and attract clients. Whether you offer consultations, events or other experiences, Squarespace can help you grow your business. Squarespace employs a complete library of professionally designed and award winning website templates with options for every use and category. No matter where you start, your website is flexible to what you need with intuitive drag and drop editing, beautiful styling options, unrivaled visual design effects on brand, AI content, and more ways to list what you offer. No experience required. Squarespace domains make it easy to find the best name for your business at one fair price. An all inclusive price, no hidden fees or add ons required. Every Squarespace domain comes with advanced privacy and security tools included to ensure your domain remains online and protected. Plus, Squarespace provides everything you need to bring more of your dream to life. Whether that means building a website or adding a professional email service, don't wait to claim your name. Invest in your dream domain today. Head to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to Launch, go to squarespace.com crooked to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com crooked hi there, it's Andy.

[Andy Richter]

Richter and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three questions. Where do you come from, where are you going, and what have you learned? New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bowe and Ted Danson, Tig Notaro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers, and more. You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter call in show episodes where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating, disasters, bad teachers, and lots more. Listen to the three questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Favreau]

Speaking of ice, big part of Trump show force is about giving ICE free reign. Freer reign to intimidate, detain, arrest and in some cases disappear whoever they want. Now that the D.C. police are under Trump's control, they announced Thursday that they'll be helping ICE find and transport immigrants. They arrested one delivery driver off the street in D.C. thursday morning. Wouldn't tell him or anyone why. The man just yelled to a local reporter, quote, they're taking me. This continues to happen all over the country to people with no criminal record who are here legally, including US Citizens. A New Zealand woman who lives in Washington state and her six year old son, both with valid visas, were recently stopped by ICE at the Canadian border. They had dropped off her other two children at the Vancouver airport. They were going to fly home to New Zealand to see their grandparents and the mother and her six year old son drove back, were stopped at the border when they're coming back to their place where they live in Washington state and she's got two visas, she's got an employment visa and a visa to live there and because one of the visas was just renewed but the other one was still pending approval, but she thought they were both renewed. It's just like honest mistake. It was the same card, so why would she think it wasn't renewed yet? Because of that they detained her and she's currently locked up in a detention center in South Texas with her six year old and she has been there for three weeks. And we only know about this because one of her friends called reporters and it was in the Guardian and they're trying to raise money for her legal fund to help her get out. But like this woman, she's got two sons who are in New Zealand, she's got another six year old with her. Imagine the trauma that that kid's gonna go through because of a fucking visa wasn't renewed. This is a just as someone from New Zealand here in LA, a 15 year old student with severe disabilities was in a car with his mom outside school when a truck full of masked men surrounded them, pulled the boy out of the car, handcuffed him. The fucking liars at Homeland Security said, oh, mistaken identity. They thought he was Ms. 13. They were looking for an Ms. 13. You were looking for an Ms. 13 member who was actually, you mistook a 15 year old with severe disabilities, sitting in a car with his mom outside of school for a fucking MS.13 member. That's all they could say. You don't get anything else from dhs. You don't get anything else from the Trump administration. Someone asked Trump about it at the press conference today. He just didn't answer. He just said, oh, there's horrible people, there's terrible people. That's what it's about. These are good people, ice. They're good, tough people. That's all. And just today, ICE agents showed up outside Gavin Newsom's redistricting event. You're going to talk to Newsom in a bit. We're going to talk about the event. He holds this event here in la, and suddenly, bunch of ICE agents are right outside the event. Someone asked them, someone went up to them, recorded on their phone, said, why are you here? And one of the agents, federal agent, said, we're just here making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don't have politicians who will do that. Yeah. So they're just doing their jobs in ice. They're not political, they're just straight shooters. I don't know. I feel like it might be time for, like, Democratic leaders and anyone who doesn't want to live in a police state to get even louder about this and to become more focused on what ICE is doing. I don't know. What do you think? Any ideas here? It feels like it just keeps happening and we're just like, okay, here's the.

[Tommy Vietor]

Thing that haunts me about this, is that I think we have an iceberg problem here, that we are only seeing the tip of what's happening. Because it just happens to be that some of these most horrible cases are people like the family in New Zealand who have friends who can get word to the Guardian, or people happen to witness what happens and they had their phone and recorded it. How many people who don't have a voice, who don't have friends, who know Guardian reporters, are getting disappeared, who are in custody right now, who, when they get released, even if they ever are fortunate to get released, don't even know how they would make their story known to the world? Yes, we're seeing a fraction of what's happening. This is the fight. This is the moment. I was listening to your conversation with Pete Buttigieg from this past Sunday, and you asked him, quoting Rachel Maddow, that we are now living in an authoritarian state. And you can, as Pete sort of did, you can argue we're this close. We're not that close. We can argue where we are on the scale, but we are much fucking closer than we ever thought we would possibly be. And if you can't yell and scream about this, if you cannot make this a cause that you care about and are passionate about and you're a person in politics and I am not sure why you're in politics. I understand all the polling we just talked about, tariffs and the economy and inflation, all of that, but I also think voters want to see us fight for something real. And you have to stand up for people shining a light on. This has worked. It has driven Trump's numbers down. It has taken his greatest political strength, which is immigration, and made it into a liability. He is underwater on immigration and when you make it about deportations, he's even more underwater. When you ask specific questions, people do not like what's happening, including some Republicans and specifically the voters that we need who are gettable for us. And so it's not just. I'm not asking anyone to go on some sort of political suicide mission because of some Sorkin esque way in which we're gonna win this, it's the right thing to do, but it also can be good politics if we do it right.

[Jon Favreau]

I totally agree. And I just, I wanna, I mean, I don't, I wish I had better answers cuz it's like, yes, we should organize, we should protest. You know, I do give a lot of Democratic politicians credit who were maybe a little nervous about taking on this issue at first. They've come around. Obviously, you know, Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador. Like people are standing up on this. But it's a really tough information environment, media environment. It's hard to get the message through. It's hard to get people to pay attention. And I just think we need to figure out new creative ways to get people to pay attention to this. Because this is like the National Guard, the D.C. takeover, all that kind of stuff. Like to me, ICE is the most dangerous development here. The transformation of ICE, which was always, you know, ICE was never a great organization in the first Trump term, but now it is. You know, I've been calling it secret Police and like, look, it's not much different. I don't think it's an exaggeration, I don't think it's just something I'm saying. It's like they wear masks, they have guns, they jump out of trucks now at fucking Home Depots to start just grabbing anyone they can. And like, yes, are they picking up criminals? Are they picking up dangerous people who shouldn't be in this country. Are they picking up undocumented people who. Even if they should be in this country, you know, well, they came here illegally and so, yes, of course. But they're also just rounding up, detaining and deporting people who absolutely do not deserve to be treated like this. No one deserves to be treated as inhumane as a lot of the people that they're rounding up are being treated right now. We don't even have time to talk about fucking alligator Alcatraz. There's now reports out of there that the conditions are just fucking horrible, horrific conditions. People have been stuck there. They haven't been. That's the other thing, too, is like, it's not everyone's, oh, well, they're deported. Go back to your country. It's like people aren't getting sent back to their country. That's even. That would be better than this, right? People are getting just like, stuck in these fucking squalor in these detention centers that, like, they're not getting the food they need, and they're just there and they're stuck there. And it's. It's so unbelievably fucked up. It is a stain on this country. We're going to look back on it like, like Japanese internment, like all of this others. I mean, it's just. It's so bad. It's so bad. And if you're a Democratic politician and you have a platform, if anyone who has a platform, you should speak out about it. All right? When this episode drops on Friday morning, Trump will be en route to Alaska for his meet cute with Putin. The White House has been. White House has been tamping down expectations for the summit, saying now they're saying it's basically just a temp check. You know, you're just gonna see how he's doing. Just fly to Alaska to check out how Putin's doing. Thankfully, Zelensky and European leaders were able to connect with Trump before the meeting so they could urge him not to hand over Ukraine to Putin and try to hammer out a negotiating strategy. That's what they said. The reports are. They hammered out a negotiating strategy with Trump, who, you know, I'm sure he's going to stick with it because he is famously disciplined. Trump was asked about the meeting in the Oval on Thursday, and here's what he said.

[Donald Trump]

And I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelensky will make peace. We'll see if they can get along and if they can, it'll be great. You know, I've solved six wars in the last six months. Little more than six months now.

[Jon Favreau]

Six wars? What the fuck is he talking about?

[Tommy Vietor]

I can name two. I mean, he didn't solve any worse. Let's be very clear. He started a war or tried to finish a war between Iran and Israel, and he claims to have averted a war between India and Pakistan, although that's quite skeptical. But I don't know what the other four are.

[Jon Favreau]

There's an Azerbaijan, Armenia thing that was in the Oval last week that I think he's claiming. He, you know, I don't know. Do you see that? He cold called the Norwegian Prime Minister to ask for the peace prize.

[Tommy Vietor]

You just don't want a president who's that thirsty.

[Jon Favreau]

So anyway, I mean, you know, he's.

[Tommy Vietor]

Gonna get the prize, John. That's happening.

[Jon Favreau]

Do you think he's on his way to the prize? If he gets the. Is he gonna. Does Vladimir Putin want peace? Is Trump right? Does he want. Do you think Vladimir Putin wants peace? He seems like a peaceful guy, right?

[Tommy Vietor]

He wants a piece of Ukraine. Seems like that's what he wants. I don't know what. Yeah, you should boo me, probably. Honestly, we should just edit that out. I'm sorry. We just went through this very deep, serious, heartfelt discussion on immigration, and I had to make.

[Jon Favreau]

That's what we needed.

[Tommy Vietor]

I had to be a jokester, like Marco Rubio was.

[Jon Favreau]

I was going to say, don't give it away. Don't give it away.

[Tommy Vietor]

He obviously doesn't want peace. It is in his interest to keep this going, or at least he's not leaving without something that he can go back to the Russian people and say, it was all worth it for this, that I achieved. I followed through on my post Soviet expansionist goals. What I worry about in this meeting is that Trump's a fucking idiot and Putin is not. And Trump is easily swayed by Putin. I know it is resistance fan fiction, but he did last time they met in person, or at least one of the more recent times they met in person. Endorsed the FSB over his own intelligence agencies when it came to the Russian involvement in the election. Like, he's probably gonna. The main delivery will probably be some sort of statement about how it really.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, yeah, It'll be the Russia investigation. Yeah, No, I worry about that. Look, the best outcome for the world would be if, you know, Putin pisses Trump off somehow. Like, you know, we've seen now for the first time ever in the last couple months, like, a few flashes of anger from Trump about Putin because he says, he talks to him on the phone, he says the one thing and then he gets out the phone and then he just bombs another Ukrainian city. And, you know, Trump got a little angry about that. So if Putin says something to piss Trump off, you could see Trump leave the meeting and be like, all right, now I'm gonna be tough and whatever, but Putin's probably not that dumb. And so, yeah, Putin knows how to flatter him. Putin's going to tell him what he wants to hear. He's probably going to try to tell him in a, in a pretty private way. I'm sure it's going to be a couple of them and interpreters and God knows who else. So we're not even going to know. And I don't know. I'm not, I'm not expecting much from it. And, and, and Trump keeps saying now too, like, well, I'll get a temperature check and I'll see, I'll see how Putin is in the first couple of minutes and I'll know if I can make a deal. And this will be the first of many meetings. First of many meetings. But I don't know, I kind of think he's setting it up for, you know, coming out of the meeting, having some deal where then he goes to Zelenskyy with the deal and then Zelensky says no because it's a crazy deal that he can't accept, both because it's probably a bad idea and all because of his own constitution doesn't allow him to accept a deal that's bad like that. And the Ukrainian people aren't gonna want a bad deal either. And then Trump can say, well, Putin tried, but, you know, Zelensky said no and he's just getting greedy. So I'm washing my hands of this whole thing.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's a very likely outcome. He's going to leave that meeting more pro Russia than when he goes in because Putin will flatter him. Talk about some property opportunities there. The one thing is, I don't think Putin will give him a fake award. I think he is unlike the rest of these fucking yahoos, he's got enough pride to not show up with a special letter from the king or an invitation to a special party or a gold plated thing like Tim Cook did. But I think he knows how to, he knows how to play Trump because he's been playing Trump for years.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Or he walks in, drops a video.

[Jon Favreau]

Cassette on the table, the pee tape.

[Tommy Vietor]

And he says, do you know what this is? Or even better, he just Puts it there and never mentions it.

[Jon Favreau]

Or he cooks up some emails that show that actually the 2020 election was rigged and Trump actually did win the 2020 election. And then he'll be like, waving that.

[Tommy Vietor]

I'll trade you these emails for the dumbass.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, that's. Oh, my God. But, like, Trump is a victim of the last person he talked to as well. Like, he's easily flattered. But the readout from the calls with Zelensky and the European leaders were like, oh, these were good calls with Trump. I think he sort of got it. Yeah, because again, he's easily fooled by Putin. He's probably easily manipulated by the Europeans and Zelensky as well. So who knows? He could leave the meeting and be, like, pro Russia, and then he could talk to Zelensky and the Europeans and maybe they'll bring him back. It's. It's ridiculous that this is. That the entire world has to do this with this fucking man. That we have to just cater to his crazy whims. All right, two quick things before we go to break. Cricket's got some great news to share. The subscription content that we're always talking about that we don't shut up about is now available on Substack. Oh, look, I guess they don't trust me with this. Dan, feel free to riff about the importance of. Of Substack. Okay, go ahead.

[Tommy Vietor]

Do you know what? I spend my time waiting for permission to riff, just sitting here, silently biting my tongue, waiting for whatever faceless person writes that copy to say, dan, you may riff now. Look, you could do this. You could do this better than I would. But my short riff would be, in this modern media age, we have to be everywhere. You have to be on all the platforms, and Substack is a growing platform for politics. It is going to become, I think, very influential in the 2028 election. You already have Pete Buttigieg, Chris Murphy, Jake Auchincloss, a whole bunch of politicians getting on there now. More and more media personalities, more progressive media is happening there. So Crooked needs to be there. Go subscribe.

[Jon Favreau]

And when you do subscribe, you will unlock ad free episodes of all your favorite Crooked shows, like this one. Plus Love it or Leave it, plus Pod Save the World, plus offline, plus exclusive content like Polar Coaster with Dan. Dan's got a whole secret show you guys don't even know about. It's behind the paywall. So subscribe. And you go on Substack. You can get the message box there. Because Dan's been on Substack. He knows what's up. And then you can also get polar coaster and learn all about what's the latest with the polls. And also you can get a show inside 2025 where there's a new episode out right now. And in honor of us joining Substack and our whole pitch about digital media, the two of us and Elijah did a whole episode about the future of digital media and where we are now and what's working and what's not and right wing media, how it grows, how we can defeat it, how we can counter right wing media, all the good stuff. It was a great episode. It was pretty fun.

[Tommy Vietor]

I won't say anything. Si. Not allowed to riff.

[Jon Favreau]

No riffing. Yeah, you already did your riffing, so sit tight with your riffing. Anyway, go to crooked.com friends to sign up, subscribe, get all the content your heart desires and ad free episodes and It'll be great. Cricut.com friends.

[Unknown Speaker]

Positive America is brought to you by Helix. Love a good Helix mattress. Very, very comfortable. We have one in our in our guest room. Everybody who sleeps at our house says, that's the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. Where'd you get it? And I say, helix. You know what else? They'll ship it to your house.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Right to your house.

[Jon Favreau]

How about that?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

How about that?

[Unknown Speaker]

How about that?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Comes in a box.

[Unknown Speaker]

Helix knows there's no better way to test out a new mattress than by sleeping on it in your own home. That's why they offer a 100 night trial and a 10 to 15 year warranty to try out your new Helix mattress.

[Jon Favreau]

Everybody sleeps differently.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's why Helix has several different mattress models to choose from, each designed for specific sleep positions and feel preferences. So how will you know which Helix sleep mattress works best for you and your body? Easy. You take the Helix Sleep quiz. You find your perfect mattress in under two minutes. Love it. I think you were a Don Lux.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's right.

[Jon Favreau]

I don't remember the name of my.

[Unknown Speaker]

Mattress, but it's great.

[Jon Favreau]

It's a.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's a perfect.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Just the names of the people you brought to it.

[Jon Favreau]

Just the notches.

[Unknown Speaker]

And the best part about the Helix mattress, they just ship it straight to your door, right? Free of charge. Here's what you do. You go to helixsleep.com crooked for 27% off site wide. That's helixsleep.com crooked for27% off site wide. This deal is exclusive for Pod Save America listeners. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you helixsleep.com crooked hi there, it's Andy.

[Andy Richter]

Richter and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three where do you come from, where are you going, and what have you learned? New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bowen, Ted Danson, Tig Notaro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers, and more. You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter Call in show episodes where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating, disasters, bad teachers, and lots more. Listen to the three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Favreau]

All right, Big News on Trump's Attempt to Rig the Midterms Gavin Newsom announced today that he will ask the California Legislature to draw and voters to approve new congressional maps for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. The plan is to put the measure on the ballot this November 4, 2025. We expect to see the maps on Monday, but Newsom said Democrats are aiming to pick up five more House seats and protect four more swing districts currently held by Democrats. Right before we started taping, Newsom jumped on a call with Dan to talk more about the announcement. Here's that conversation.

[Tommy Vietor]

Governor Newsom, welcome to Pod Save America.

[Donald Trump]

Good to be with you.

[Tommy Vietor]

Let's start with the big announcement today. Can you walk our listeners through the process that California is going to go through to redraw their maps for the 2026 midterms?

[Donald Trump]

So on Monday, the legislature will introduce in both houses a constitutional amendment that includes new maps that will be done in a transparent way to request of the voters on a special election on November 4th to move forward with mid decade redistricting that in essence will neutralize or neuter whatever happens in Texas. We won't move forward. It's a trigger. Unless Texas or other Republican states move forward. It will be temporary. It will be done on an emergency basis. It will also be done in a way that reinforces our commitment to nationwide independent redistricting.

[Tommy Vietor]

How will the reinforcement, the nationwide redistricting work? What part of the provision is that?

[Donald Trump]

Just. It's a policy statement, a policy statement in support of that framework. It's also in the initiative itself. It also reinforces as policy our current statewide independent redistrict Commission. It just calls for the change of the congressional maps, not the state maps or the statewide elected maps in California. Just specific again to the congressional maps in 2026, 2028 and then reverts back the census in 2030 and then the.

[Tommy Vietor]

Commission will redraw the districts again post census like they would do in any other.

[Donald Trump]

Exactly. So again, we've had for about 15 years. People may not know this in California about independent redistricting. And while it's true, and some of my Republican friends point this out, there are not that many Republicans differences in California because of the independent Redistricting Commission. A lot of these seats are extraordinarily competitive, which is incredibly important. And it's a proof of of the framework, something I've long supported. Independent redistricting. I actually oppose very publicly the repeal of the Independent Redistricting Commission. So this is an emergency measure. Again, temporary, transparent and very Democratic. Since we're going to ask the people to ultimately decide.

[Tommy Vietor]

I know we'll see the maps on Monday, but can you give us a sense of how the maps could change the equation in terms of keeping the House? Is it a direct response to what Texas doing? I don't know if you can speak to how the seats change.

[Donald Trump]

So here's the so the maps are likely to come out as early as tomorrow, Friday, this weekend, certainly are going to be out formally on Monday. And again, the legislature has to make ultimate determination of whether or not there's going to be a special election in this constitutional amendment and on the ballot. That will be done over the course of next week. We hope they'll conclude that business by Thursday. It will be done again with the maps being fully present and discussed. On that basis, though I haven't reviewed personally, the maps quite literally have not seen the maps. But my understanding of the maps is when I say neutralizes or neuters what's happening in Texas, it means a pickup of five seats, fire with fire. I mean, we're just making no bones about it. We'll pick up five seats, likely pick up five seats with the right candidates to neutralize what's happened in Texas. And there is a likelihood on the basis of some of the new maps that some of the more competitive districts, there's a number of them, probably minimum of four that are quote, unquote, toss up seats, there'll be some changes there as well. So we talk about punching a little bit above our weight. Again, Texas chose this fight. They made this decision. If they choose to have an exit ramp, we won't move forward. But if they do, we'll neutralize them and we'll also punch a little bit above our weight in those four additional seats.

[Tommy Vietor]

Outside of the press conference you held today, there were ice Agents showed up. I'm assuming that's not a coincidence. Can you maybe react to that?

[Donald Trump]

It's pretty sick. I mean, what more evidence do you need? I don't think we needed to say a word at our press conference. I mean, he sent the Border Patrol. He sent the regional head of the Border Patrol out here. And by the way, Dan, I want folks to know where we are. I'm at the Democracy Center. I'm at the site where the Japanese were bussed in 1940s. Quite literally. It's not figurative, and I hope people are listening. ICE or Border Patrol was out there at the exact same site that the Japanese were being picked up and bussed decades ago to intimidate, wasn't you? Think of all the places to be in this country, they chose to be here at this exact time. That's how weak and pathetic the Trump administration is, how desperate they are. What more evidence do people need at what's at stake in this country and why California needs to do this?

[Tommy Vietor]

This will be a special election. Is there anything else on the statewide ballot or will this measure be the only thing on the statewide ballot?

[Donald Trump]

Yeah, what's nice about this special election, it will coincide in a very date that people are very familiar with, November 4, because it will coincide with a lot of existing municipal elections. So people have reason to come out to vote for many different things. But look, I think at the end of the day, there's going to be a huge turnout in this. I think people are really tuning in and recognize what's at stake. I mean, what more evidence do you need down here in Southern California where they nationalize, or rather federalize the National Guard? I'll remind everybody, because they need to be reminded. Donald Trump did not send the military overseas in his first term. He sent 700 active duty Marines within the United States of America to an American city here in Los Angeles. He just literally threatened to take $1 billion to extort $1 billion from one of the finest research institutions in the world, ucla. And let me make this crystal clear to everyone watching and make it crystal clear to the folks at Harvard, if you. We will never, ever sell our soul to Donald Trump. Harvard, I pray you are listening. How could you, of all institutions, on tens of billions of dollars, What? The point is your damn endowment if you cannot stand on principle. This guy is coming after every institution of independent thinking from the media, going after people that disagree with him in institutions large and small, higher education, obviously. And now, of course, intimidating people, threatening people, showing up, by the way, not Just ICE and Border Patrol showing up for an event like this. That is a preview thing, Dan, of things to come, I assure you. Just like the National Guard was a preview two months ago of what's going on in D.C. and will go on in other American cities. You will see the same kind of activity intimidating people around November 4th here in the state of California and around Election Day next year. And in 2028, that's what Donald Trump will do. He will send out ice, he will send out Border Patrol to intimidate and chill free expression, free speech, and the right to access the polling booths. Mark my word.

[Tommy Vietor]

Are there things that you can do as governor to prevent that or provide protection or security or safety or comfort to people as they vote?

[Donald Trump]

Well, we're doing our best here. They were kicked out of the plaza here because they were on private property. But look, they can assert their rights. We do not legally get in the way of federal law enforcement activities that are funded by the federal government despite well established policies. Our sanctuary policy that is not inconsistent with many other jurisdictions all across this country, by the way. Same sanctuary policies that Rudy Giuliani used to celebrate as mayor of New York City. Just reminding people for what it's worth in that respect. So look, we'll do what we can, but there's limits ultimately on that. But there cannot be limits in mindset. People have to understand that what is occurring here is a preview of things to come.

[Tommy Vietor]

Let's talk a little about the politics of this initiative. It's theoretically a low turnout election. I think there could be high turnout for low turnout elections, people engaged. But there's a poll out today from Politico which I will stipulate does not test the actual measure that you guys that you're hopefully put on the ballot, but does show some like, resistance to the idea of drawing redrawing the districts. How are you like, what is your polling show? How are you thinking about how to sell this to a state that has supported independent redistricting on multiple occasions? Yeah.

[Donald Trump]

And this supports independent redistricting. We're not eliminating the independent redistrict, the commission. And I think that's consistent on that basis what Politico is calling for. It's the pathway that we're trying to take here. This is temporary. We keep the independent redistricting commission. We reinforce and affirm our desire to see it happen nationwide. I'll remind everyone listening. Democratic Party has overwhelmingly supported national independent redistricting. The Republican Party does not believe in it. They want to continue the gerrymandering they want to continue to pick their voters. They want to continue to rig elections. This is not isolated to Texas. This is coming to Indiana, potentially Missouri, obviously Ohio is already on a fast track in places like Florida. These guys are not screwing around. They do not play by any set of rules. It's not a different set of rules. They're going to try to rig the system. This provides power to the people to stop Trump, power to stand up against rigged elections, power to stand up for our democracy. And it's why it has profound impacts all across this country. But look, we have drafted this with a pathway to win. We're very sober about what we're up against in the mis and disinformation will come from the rnc. We expect them to put tens of millions of dollars into this. We expect others to come out against it. And so we're not, we're not, we're not naive about that. Eyes wide open. And we need people that are listening to support our cause and we need folks low dollar to make contributions to show up. This is about all 50 states, not just 58 counties in California.

[Tommy Vietor]

How could our listeners who either in California or around the country who want to help, is there a place they can go yet or is that still to come?

[Donald Trump]

Yeah, we have a website up for people to take a look at and just, you know, and you can see right behind me quite literally Election Rigging Response act is quite literally the name of the initiative that will have an actual numeric once the legislature moves forward as early as next Thursday when a number of pieces of legislation will land on my desk. The constitutional amendment and the special election moving directly forward on November 4th. But look, this is an opportunity to be for something, not just against someone. This is an opportunity to protect our democracy. The enduring values that many of us were taken for granted for the last 249 years CO/ branches of government, popular sovereignty, rule of law, not rule of dawn. And it's an opportunity to participate. You have the power, your voice choice, show up, contribute and participate. This is a big damn deal. Because if the most un trumped state in America can't do this, we're in real peril as a nation. And our democracy, I really believe may not recover if he rigs the midterms and gives him complete unfettered power with no oversight into 2028.

[Tommy Vietor]

As you mentioned, this is not like you're directly responding to Texas which is under their current version of the maps trying to pick up five seats. But Ohio is moving forward. Indiana is Moving forward. Missouri's moving forward. Ron DeSantis is making noise. Have you talked to your fellow blue state governors about whether they can do similar things, whether it's New York or Illinois or Maryland? Do you know where that stands?

[Donald Trump]

Yeah. We've got to move. I mean, look, I really applaud. I admire what JB did in hosting the Texas delegation. Obviously, Kathy Hochul as well. I really appreciate what they're saying on this topic, and it's been wonderful. And, of course, we're so proud of what Texas delegation did because they put a lot of wind in the sails of what we're doing. They raised so much awareness. And by the way, Dan, I don't think that. I know that we've seen it numerically with polls we did just a few weeks ago, and people not even understanding what redistricting is or what it isn't. And now how overwhelming it is universal, almost how people now understand what's at stake. But now it's time to put a stake in the ground. It's not just about rhetoric. It's about moving that rhetoric to a different reality. And it's about doing whatever we can, not just in those two states, but in other states all across this country. I know Marilyn's talking potentially about something in January. I know that Kathy in New York has something not totally dissimilar to what we have in California. There's a version of that in Michigan. But look, at the end of the day, there is no do over here, man. There's no do over. If we fall short, if we see this guy roll up and go to all those other states, just like J.D. vance rolled up into Indiana just a week ago, I mean, we could lose this thing. It's not an exaggeration. It is not. This guy's rewriting history. This guy is censoring historical facts. This guy is taking down independent thought, independent media, journalists, the rule of law, and lawyers. I mean, this is it, guys. And so I just, I pray that people dial things up in other states, not just here in the state of California.

[Tommy Vietor]

There has been a bit of a debate within the Democratic Party about just how to think about Trump as to whether he's an existential threat to democracy as we know it or someone who is sort of a very, very bad, but sort of a passing problem. And the goal, we just have to survive the next three and a half years. I take it from how you're acting here that you certainly believe this to be an existential threat. How do we convince more people, and particularly Because I think one of the arguments you're gonna have to make and all of us will have to make in the course of trying to get this passed, is you're gonna have a lot of well meaning Democrats who do not like Trump, but worry about the idea that we're getting in the mud with them, that we're speeding up the end of democracy. So what's sort of the best argument to those people?

[Donald Trump]

He's gonna roll it over. I mean, look, if we roll over, it's over. Over and out. There's no independent redistricting nationwide. If he rigs the 2026 election before one vote is cast, there's no 250th anniversary of we the People in the Enduring the Best of Roman Republic and Greek democracy. We're not going to be out there celebrating that there's no rule of law. It's the rule of dawn. The extortion racket. He's running capitalism. I mean, I'm old enough to remember my Republican friends supporting free enterprise. I think it was Churchill said, a healthy horse pulling a sturdy wagon. I'm a small business person and proud to have created a thousand jobs myself. This is crony capitalism. Corruption at a level we've never seen in our life. This is sick. I mean, this is real, guys. This is. He's an invasive species. This is not about parties. This is about power. I'll say it again, it's about the rule of dawn. I. He sent, they sent me a 2028 Trump hat. That wasn't just to own the lib, wasn't just to have fun. They mean it. He means it. I sat there 90 minutes, Dan. 90 minutes. I work with Donald Trump 1.0. No Democratic governor worked more closely with him. No one communicated more. Just objective fact during COVID He's different. I spend 90 minutes with him as the first Democratic governor to visit him in the White House after the fires in la. Try to have an open hand, not a closed fist. You can't work with him. Ask the mayor of dc. No one worked harder to have a relationship with him. And she just had her police force federalized. You only work for him. I'm not going to work for Donald Trump. UCLA is not going to sell their soul like Harvard or Brown or Penn or Columbia. Shame on all of them. We're not. And we're going to fight like hell to protect our democracy, our liberties, our freedoms. I love Republicans. I love them. I don't care what your party affiliation is. I honestly don't. I care about this country and our democracy. I care about the rule of law. It's all on the line. This is not about redistricting. It's not about the lines that are being drawn on maps. It's the line we have to hold to protect our democracy.

[Tommy Vietor]

Governor Newsom, that's a great place to leave it. Thank you so much for joining us and good luck with us. We'll be watching closely.

[Donald Trump]

Thanks for having me, Dan.

[Jon Favreau]

Okay. That was a very fired up Gavin Newsom. What'd you think, Dan? What do you think of the plan?

[Tommy Vietor]

It's a very smart, well done plan. I think from the perspective of putting this together to get the buy in you need from all the people to get the buy in. The broad coalition of people he had at his press conference, including some people associated with the redistricting commission. It's very smart. Putting the trigger in is very smart. So if Texas doesn't do it, then. Or the other Republican states don't do it, and California does feel need to proceed forward, only doing it till the next census is smart to revert back to redistricting. It's hard. I think the politics of this are challenging. Not that it can't be done. I certainly think it can be done, but it's not a slam dunk. I think as you look at the ballot, you look at the some of the initial polling, it's going to take work and the Republicans are going to dump money in here. So. But I really do. We talk all the time about how Democrats are not fighting. Right. And there are many who are. But for the most part, the sense it's been within the base, we felt it that people do not recognize the threat of Trump and are not responding as such. And you cannot say that about Gavin Newsom right now. He did not have to do this. We believe, you know, he. I certainly didn't ask him this, but my suspicion is one day he's gonna run for president. He's putting a lot of skin in the game here. Cause if he does this and loses, it's gonna be very damaging to him as governor for the final part of his last term and in a potential presidential campaign. And he's stepping up and he put a bunch of money into this. He's putting time into it. It's like we need more of this. I'll be honest.

[Jon Favreau]

I feel a little less worried about the polling.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. I just think I'm gonna. Cause I'm also not. I don't care what the polling.

[Jon Favreau]

Oh, no, definitely. Oh, not. Not than you just that in general, because I saw the Politico poll, which, I mean, if you just go by that Politico poll, it's like, it seems awful, right? It's like 36% support it and it's, you know, it's 2 to 1 against. So. But first of all, the wording of the question is of course that's going to get 36%, right? It's like people are not tuned into the stakes of the fight yet and by November they will be. Not everyone, but like not everyone's going to vote, right? It's going to be a high, it's not going to be a high turnout election. It's not like this is going to be a, you know, a presidential election or a midterm election even. Like this is, this is going to be a low turnout election. The people who are most interested in the issue are going to go turn out, sure, Republicans can spend a lot of money to try to make sure Republicans can go and deny California the seats, right? But then you need a bunch of Republican voters who are like paying really close attention to politics in the news and turnout in low turnout elections, which Republican voters haven't been for the last several cycles. And California is a heavily Democratic state. And do you get a lot of voters? Do you get a lot of young voters? Do you get a lot of working class voters? Probably not, but you get college educated libs. They bet they're going to the poll who pay attention to, who listen to pod Save America and pay attention to politics and pay attention to news. And so like I do, I feel better about that. But I think you're right, it's still gonna takes work, it's gonna take a big campaign, it's gonna take a lot of work, it's gonna take a lot of money. But I feel okay about it.

[Tommy Vietor]

But in the course of the listening to you and thinking about it, I've actually convinced myself even more to feel better about it because I was thinking about like these sorts of measures do fail, but they usually fail when people are going to vote for other reasons like a presidential election or gubernatorial election and they have to fill out their ballot in California and they've been inundated with tens of millions of dollars of TV ads and all they know is whatever the spin of the people with more money on the side where this probably performs more like than a typical ballot initiative is the abortion constitutional amendments in places like Ohio and elsewhere where the only reason you're turning out is this and you're more likely to turn out for this to vote for than to turn out to vote against, it is my guess.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah. And I think the challenge with state and local ballot initiatives is we live in a nationalized media environment. And so someone's not gonna know the local ballot debate that's going on unless you like see a billboard or get a mailer. But everyone pays attention. Everyone who pays attention to the news pays attention to national news. And if you pay attention to national news, you know about this. And so I think that's gonna help. All right. It's been a heavy pod, very heavy, as most, as most of them are these days. So we're gonna end with something for everyone to hopefully laugh at. One of the biggest stories of the week involved a podcast host leveraging their relationship to land a high profile guest with a highly anticipated announcement.

[Tommy Vietor]

Not Gavin Newsom today.

[Jon Favreau]

Here's a clip.

[Tommy Vietor]

So Marco Rubio is known as a funny jokester.

[Jon Favreau]

What's the funniest joke he's told you or the funniest moment you've had with him? Okay, so you guys will have to determine whether we can actually put this in the final.

[Tommy Vietor]

So he.

[Jon Favreau]

So this is, we were talking about something very serious related to the Middle east, and he starts this joke totally deadpan. He's like, you know, I learned something interesting about the Middle east because I had a constituent call a few years ago when I was in the Senate and a woman was visiting Israel and her husband died while they were in Israel. And I was like, oh man, that's terrible. And she was trying to get help from us for how to get the body back to the United States. And she said to me, you know, man, I don't know, maybe I don't to want wanted back. The last time somebody was, was. Sorry. The last time somebody died over here, they rose from the dead three days later. And I didn't know until the very end that it was a totally bullshit joke. I was like on the edge of my seat, like, what happened with this.

[Tommy Vietor]

Poor woman and her husband?

[Jon Favreau]

He's got jokes. He's got jokes. Dan, these Marco Rubio's joke.

[Tommy Vietor]

I have so many thoughts here. One, Mark and Ruby first of all.

[Jon Favreau]

We should say, because we didn't introduce it, cuz I tried to make it seem like it was Taylor and Travis. So that was Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, former White House employee Mike Pence, Communications director Elon Musk, DOGE spokesperson, went left the White House to work on the private sector for Elon Musk. Now she's got a podcast because there's no cuz, as she says in her intro video, to intro the podcast. There's just no space online for conservative women to talk about politics. So that's. So anyway, so her first guest, JD Vance. I watched the whole thing. You can all watch the thing. We have a great. Lovett and I did a Great react on YouTube. That is very funny. Check it out on the Pod Save America YouTube channel. I watched all 44 minutes of it. I don't know if you did, but all I can say is it's all like that. It's all like that.

[Tommy Vietor]

But can we break down this clip for a second?

[Jon Favreau]

Yes, we can.

[Tommy Vietor]

I follow politics pretty closely. I follow Marco Rubio's presidential campaign pretty closely. I've never once heard Marco Rubio described as a funny person. Hey, I can't think of a single moment in his public life where he has been anything other than dour.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, what about when he. What was the dick joke he made about.

[Tommy Vietor]

It wasn't even a joke. It was an attack. It was like an attack. Yeah. It wasn't. It wasn't a funny joke. It was just, like, lashing out.

[Jon Favreau]

I often laugh at him in that big chair. Marco in the big chair. That's Tommy's Twitter picture.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. That's not. That's not a joke he made. It wasn't a thing he did.

[Jon Favreau]

No, that's what I'm saying.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, he wasn't doing.

[Jon Favreau]

He's someone I have laughed at before, but never someone I've laughed because of.

[Tommy Vietor]

Okay, one, two. J.D. vance screwed up the joke. Whatever it is, the joke makes no sense. The last person who died in Israel did not rise three days later also.

[Jon Favreau]

And then she decided maybe she doesn't want her husband back because the last guy who died there. Rose 3. The sentence doesn't even make sense.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, they use the term jokester. Okay. We got a lot of questions about that. Neither of them, neither Katie Miller nor J.D. vance seem to have any. They discuss humor like I would discuss astrophysics, like it's something I'm vaguely aware exists, but I have no familiarity with it.

[Jon Favreau]

JD Vance goes on to butcher his favorite dad joke, which is a joke from Pulp Fiction that is also bad.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's not a dad joke either.

[Jon Favreau]

It's not a dad joke. So there's that. Also about Marco Rubio. I don't know if you knew this, Dan, but this Marco Rubio jokester thing was in a series of. There was a round of this interview of. It's called Cabinet Confidential, and you had to pick which Cabinet member you'd want for various activities and for playing basketball. Marco Rubio was the pick, even though he's not a tall guy.

[Tommy Vietor]

I mean, you can be good at basketball and be short, but I. He doesn't.

[Jon Favreau]

No, no. Oh, sorry. I only said that because that's what J.D. vance says. He, like, randomly throws out there that Marco short when no one asks.

[Tommy Vietor]

He's got to appease. He's got to appease Trump.

[Donald Trump]

J.D.

[Tommy Vietor]

Vance is someone who clearly has never had real friends. It's just like, he just lacks that. He's like a facsimile of a human and a poor one at that. Just like, he just doesn't.

[Jon Favreau]

I think he had a group of dorky friends.

[Tommy Vietor]

No, I don't even think that. Because, like, there's just sort of. For men, women, anyone? Just, like, he just doesn't seem to be able to relate to other people. Like, I think he played Magic the Gathering, which is something he said he was very into by himself.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah. And we're not allowed to make fun of that here because there's some Magic the Gathering fan.

[Tommy Vietor]

I mean, look, every. I'm not going. That's what he wants to do with this first time. That's probably the most human thing he's ever done.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah.

[Jon Favreau]

No, I don't. Yeah. Believe me, 44 minutes of this conversation. That is the. Maybe the best thing, honestly. He was also asked by Katie Miller, which member of the Cabinet would you want to sit next to for a transatlantic flight? He just talked to the whole time and he said, probably your husband. Although I guess he's not a member of the Cabinet. What, sitting next to Stephen Miller for a transatlantic flight?

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, a.

[Jon Favreau]

That's. I'd fucking jump out of the place.

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, obviously, he doesn't really believe that.

[Jon Favreau]

He's just saying he really likes him. No, I think he really likes him either way. I've heard him say, this is my whole. Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Even if he really believed it, if he had grown up around other humans, he would have known that that's the kind of thing you were to say. And your good friends who actually like you would make fun of you for it. It, like, you have this. You are trained in a Pavlovian way not to be a doofus like this, but he's incapable of that because he's just not. He's never been around people in a normal way in his whole life.

[Jon Favreau]

I know. I know. It was very unsettling. It was very unsettling. I've been having this fear that J.D. vance. Like we're underestimating J.D. vance in 2028. And I still do. I think he. I think he. Because I think he code switches well and can be like, he was good in the debate with Tim Walls, or at least he was more normal than he is. But I think that this kind of stuff, like, he. He can't do human. Can't do the small talk.

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, that's the human. He is a podium politician. He's good at a podium. He's good in debate.

[Jon Favreau]

He is good.

[Tommy Vietor]

What he can't do is have normal conversations with people. And the problem for him is, as.

[Jon Favreau]

Trump, he might not need to, though. He might not need to by then.

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, because the media's been taken over.

[Jon Favreau]

Because the media's been taken over, retail politics goes away. And it's just like, you know, he's just looking into screens.

[Tommy Vietor]

The only thing, the only media outlet in America is Lindell tv. See, that's what you do, John. You take it from the beginning, you wrap it at the end. Now we're done.

[Jon Favreau]

You know what, Dan? Here's the thing. People listening to this don't even know the Lindell TV thing because you and I did that as a YouTube response before this recording. Oh, gosh. This is how long we've been doing.

[Tommy Vietor]

So much content, Scott.

[Jon Favreau]

This is how long we've been talking today. Just because we're trying to fucking see.

[Tommy Vietor]

Are we on YouTube? Are we on Substack Live? Are we on a podcast? Are we just in a WhatsApp group? I do not know.

[Jon Favreau]

Who knows? Who knows?

[Tommy Vietor]

Is anyone listening to this? Okay, fine, whatever.

[Jon Favreau]

Anyway, one of the. Yeah, one of the reporters of the press conference was from Lindell tv. Mike Lindell, the Pillow TV guy. But anyway, to know all of this, you should go subscribe to Pod Save America on YouTube. First of all, you can watch the rest of this hilarious JD Vance, Katie Miller react that. Love it. And I did. You can also see what. What Dan and I did today as reacting to the press conference. And you can save Elijah's job because if we hit a million subscribers before the end of August, Elijah keeps his job.

[Tommy Vietor]

What happens if we reach 1,250,000 subscribers?

[Jon Favreau]

Then Tommy owes Elijah $250,000, and Tommy has to sit down with JD Vance for a video where they discuss their shared favorite television series, Emily in Paris. Because also in that video, JD Vance goes on and on, and he has a whole bunch of takes about Emily in Paris. I don't know. I don't know what else is happening here. That's our Pod for today. Thank you to Gavin Newsom for joining the Pod, giving it some energy and thanks to all of you everyone. Have a fantastic weekend and we'll be back next week.

[Tommy Vietor]

Bye everyone.

[Jon Favreau]

If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad free or get access to our subscriber discord and exclusive podcasts, consider joining our friends at the pod [e-mail] friends or subscribe on Apple Podcasts directly from the Pod Save America feed. Also, please consider leaving us a review to help boost this episode and everything we do here at Crooked. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our producers are David Toledo, Emma Ilick Frank and Saul Rubin. Our Associate producer is Farah Safari. Austin Fisher is our Senior Producer. Reed Churlin is our Executive Editor. Adrian Hill is our head of News and Politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Kanter is our Sound Engineer, with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Matt de Groat is our Head of Production. Naomi Sengel is our Executive Assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Hayley Jones, Ben Hefcoat, Mia Kelman, Kirill Pelaviev, David Toles and Ryan Young. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America EAS.

[Andy Richter]

Hi there, it's Andy Richter and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, the three Questions with Andy Richter. Each week I invite friends, comedians, actors and musicians to discuss these three where do you come from, where are you going, and what have you learned? New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bowe and Ted Dance and Tig Nataro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers and more. You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter Call in show episodes where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating, disasters, bad teachers, and lots more. Listen to the three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Did you know that parents rank financial.

[Jon Favreau]

Literacy as the number one most difficult.

[Tommy Vietor]

Life skill to teach?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Sign up for Greenlight [e-mail] podcast.