
The world's richest man trolls Republicans into a potential government shutdown right before the holidays and the curtain closes on 2024...and it can't come soon enough. We didn't win the White House, the Senate, or the House, but we'll always have the Pundies. Jon, Lovett, Dan, and Tommy are joined by producer Elijah Cone for our annual awards show celebrating the worst takes of a year we'd rather forget. Plus, the guys listen back to their old New Year's resolutions and make some new ones for 2025.
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Jon Lovett
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Tommy Vietor
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Jon Favreau
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
Jon Lovett
I'm Jon Levitt.
Tommy Vietor
Tommy Vietor.
Dan Pfeiffer
I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
Jon Favreau
Well, guys, we made it. It's our last show of 2024.
Jon Lovett
Both have hats. Oh. The tribe has spoken. Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Jon Favreau
Saving these for a while.
Jon Lovett
Unbelievable.
Tommy Vietor
We thought we'd get a little more mileage out of them, but turns out short but sweet. Like the Viagra of Etsy purchases. You know, one time deal.
Jon Favreau
Well, they look great.
Tommy Vietor
It's gonna deliver.
Jon Lovett
It's just for those listening at home. They're both. They both. After we began, they both put on their the tribe has spoken hats.
Jon Favreau
That's right.
Jon Lovett
Not one for Dan. They didn't get Dan in on this.
Jon Favreau
We've been saving the.
Dan Pfeiffer
My task is to remind people because it was so long ago that you were on Survivor at one point.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Dan Pfeiffer
And the season just ended this week, right?
Jon Lovett
That's right. The finale was last night. Yeah. And many months ago I was on Survivor.
Dan Pfeiffer
You're still in the intro because I turned on the tv. That's right, it was on. And there you are.
Jon Favreau
I saw a picture of you embracing your nemesis slash frenemy. Old friend.
Jon Lovett
Yes.
Jon Favreau
Best friend turned frenemy turned what now friends again.
Jon Lovett
You know, Andy's out there living his dream and then. That's fine. But. No, but there I have a picture of, of our meeting which was funny, but I saw the. I saw the. My fellow castaways.
Dan Pfeiffer
Do they remember you?
Jon Lovett
Yeah, they remember me. You know me, short guy, first day. You're like. You're a producer, right?
Jon Favreau
Yeah, Pod. Pod something.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, that's right.
Jon Favreau
Podcast. You did a podcast.
Jon Lovett
All right.
Jon Favreau
Okay.
Jon Lovett
All right.
Jon Favreau
It's our last show of 2024 and that means it's our annual pundies episode where we will rank the very worst takes from a very bad year, including our own, if they could find any. You know, we'll also do our annual New Year's resolutions which we always break and always forget. Not to suggest that anything is more important than dunking on each other's worst moments, guys. But as we're recording this on Thursday afternoon LA time, the US government is basically in total chaos and non essential functions may shut down. Just in time for the biggest travel week of the year. All because Elon Musk tweeted us to the precipice of a government shutdown. I think because he thought the funding bill had too many pages. He was upset with the height of the stack of paper was upsetting to him.
Jon Lovett
Aesthetically not pleasing.
Jon Favreau
So he started tweeting and then Trump got involved and then they killed this bill that had been negotiated with both parties very carefully was gonna pass. Killed the bill. Then they. Now as we're recording, there's like a new bill. Doesn't seem like they have the Republican votes for that or the Democratic votes for that. And the government runs out of money Friday night.
Jon Lovett
And who is the current president? And is that person involved at all? Do we know what that person about this.
Jon Favreau
There was a statement from the White House on Wednesday evening.
Jon Lovett
Right.
Jon Favreau
That's all we've heard. President Trump's been doing some. Posting some truths. Elon Musk has been tweeting up a storm. J.D. vance, I think, has been tweeting.
Tommy Vietor
My favorite part is when Vivek pretends he's an equal partner in this Doge thing.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, yeah.
Tommy Vietor
Just like he's like, you know, Elon walks around with his kid on his shoulders at all times. That's Vivek. This little silly guy.
Jon Favreau
I guess. I guess in the old version and the new version, the new version of the bill, which doesn't know if it's to go anywhere that Trump and Musk approve of the big changes, they were able to eliminate funding for childhood cancer research.
Jon Lovett
Gotta stop.
Jon Favreau
So that losers, kids with cancer winners, pharmaceutical middlemen, pharma managers. And in China, now we can. We're allowed to invest more in China.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah. It's funny that Elon Musk does a lot of business in China. A lot of factories. A lot of Teslas would want restrictions on US Outbound investment in China to get knocked out of the bill.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, it's a coincidence. So that's what we're watching. Merry Christmas, everyone.
Jon Lovett
Wonder how it turns out.
Jon Favreau
Dan, what do you think? Anything?
Dan Pfeiffer
I think that we. There has been a lot of criticism in the Democratic Party and on this podcast about Joe Biden's absence from the scene. It is time to make a the a bug a feature and let's let Donald Trump own this shutdown. This is between Mike Johnson, Donald Trump, Elon Musk. Have to figure this out amongst themselves. Let them do it. And if they don't, this is on them.
Jon Favreau
You boys work it out. The new click. Okay, anyway, let's get to the good stuff. So we have not seen any of the takes or categories in advance. So without further ado, I'm gonna turn it over to our guest host, the Take master general himself, Elijah Cohn. Elijah, looking good.
Elijah Cohn
Thank you. Yes, I did put on my talks. This is the biggest night of the year for me. We've never done a pun after an election loss, let alone one like this. So I was so thrilled when this got put on my plate. So fun. Such a fun year to. To reminisce. Here's how it will work. We're going to go through a number of categories for bad punditry. I'll Read you a take, you'll react, and we'll go on to the next take. At the end, you'll decide who won the category. The category winners will compete at the end for worst take of the year. Have you guys seen a dog show? It's like a dog show format.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, you've said this a few times.
Jon Lovett
You've seen dog show. He's saying that, you know, first you put up the sporting dogs. Up to the little dogs, though. Then you have the. You got your. Your. Your. Your other dogs. And then the best dog in each category, you know, pugs and so forth. They all go head to head in a final category where you're deciding they're.
Tommy Vietor
Nuts while you judge them so they don't move.
Jon Lovett
Right, right. Exactly. And we're a group of adults.
Tommy Vietor
That was my takeaway.
Jon Lovett
Decide whether or not a Shih Tzu is better than a Labrador is like, no, this one's better, stupid.
Jon Favreau
The answer is worse.
Elijah Cohn
Well, let's kick things like that.
Jon Favreau
Sure.
Jon Lovett
For sure.
Elijah Cohn
We'll start out for an easy topic. This is kind of to whet our take appetites from the beginning of the year. The presidential primaries. Remember those?
Tommy Vietor
No, no, we didn't really have one.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, we didn't have none on our side.
Tommy Vietor
Dean Phillips.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, Dean Phillips is part of this. Here's a couple of takes. Let's start off with this piece from the Hill.
Jon Favreau
Oh, boy.
Elijah Cohn
After Trump wrapped up the nomination, a piece titled, quote, trump's GOP is already dying. Here's an excerpt read by one of our wonderful pod Save America producers.
Jon Favreau
Republicans have built themselves a party whose sole purpose is to appease and gratify Trump. In the process, they're quickly losing appeal to anyone else in America, including some.
Jon Lovett
Of the party's most faithful warriors.
Jon Favreau
The MAGA movement, once so skilled at enforcing loyalty, is cracking.
Tommy Vietor
Great reading.
Jon Favreau
Great.
Jon Lovett
First of all, that was beautiful.
Jon Favreau
Wow.
Jon Lovett
Nice Grammy for spoken word.
Jon Favreau
Sounds like. Is that Adrian? That was Adrian. That was a wow voice for radio you got.
Tommy Vietor
Who was that?
Jon Favreau
Is that how.
Elijah Cohn
Well, you guys.
Jon Favreau
I figured, you guys, we're doing the winning take.
Elijah Cohn
I figured you guys would react to each take as we go, but we could just do it. But I figure.
Jon Lovett
No, no, no.
Jon Favreau
But it's not like a guess who did the.
Elijah Cohn
Oh, yeah, no, no.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah. My reactions. That one didn't pan out.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah, No, I think that's gonna be a theme, Tommy.
Jon Lovett
Would that it were. Would that it were.
Jon Favreau
I feel like there was a lot of that going around. Yeah, probably. Probably some on this very.
Jon Lovett
Yeah. For sure. For sure.
Jon Favreau
Some wish casting. Yeah.
Jon Lovett
We're always talking about the cracks showing. We don't care about cracks.
Jon Favreau
I think we had. I think we had like, 45 episodes that had some kind of title about, like, Trump grip on the GOP loosens question mark.
Dan Pfeiffer
But we always put a question mark.
Jon Favreau
That's true.
Dan Pfeiffer
Protect ourselves.
Jon Favreau
And boy, was that answered.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah, we're just asking questions on this podcast.
Jon Favreau
Yeah.
Elijah Cohn
All right. Anyway, next up, we have billionaire Bill Amman talking about Dean Phillips's chances to win the Democratic primary ahead of Michigan's primary. Let's take a listen.
Jon Favreau
Biden's doing very poorly in Michigan.
Jon Lovett
His polls are terrible.
Dan Pfeiffer
The Muslim community is not happy with.
Jon Lovett
Him, and he really has spent no time there. And so if he's embarrassed in Michigan.
Dan Pfeiffer
It could be a catalyst for him withdrawing.
Jon Favreau
Then Dean will get funding.
Jon Lovett
If he wins Michigan or shows well.
Dan Pfeiffer
In Michigan and people say he's viable, he's the only choice we have. He'll attract from the center.
Jon Lovett
He'll attract from people.
Jon Favreau
Republicans who won't vote for Trump, in.
Dan Pfeiffer
Which they're a big percentage.
Jon Favreau
Could be 60% or more.
Jon Lovett
It could be 70%.
Jon Favreau
Won't vote for Trump. And also from the Democrats.
Jon Lovett
So I think he's a really interesting candidate.
Tommy Vietor
I was just premature.
Jon Favreau
If only. If only got the top right.
Tommy Vietor
Just wrong. Not the primary, the general right.
Jon Favreau
Bill Ackman never misses that.
Jon Lovett
Honestly, it's like that. That take has that take. It was. It aged poorly and then it aged well again.
Tommy Vietor
Right.
Jon Lovett
I don't know.
Jon Favreau
I thought it. No, it started well, it started off. If you'd cut the first 20 seconds of that. Well, I guess because he didn't. He didn't end up competing in Michigan.
Jon Lovett
Right. Well, I guess what I mean is just that, like, the. The liabilities he was describing were correct. They ultimately did become Kamala's liabilities and cost us the country. So there was some truth in that.
Jon Favreau
But Dean.
Jon Lovett
But Dean. Dean couldn't get it done. He wasn't the way. He wasn't the way. A Cassandra, if you will.
Dan Pfeiffer
The best part about that take, or the worst part, I guess, is the way in which Bill Ackman speaks so confidently about something he does not understand at all. It's like if I decided to just. To just expound on astrophysics on this.
Jon Favreau
Podcast, I mean, that is his brand. That is Elon's brand. That is the brand of all the bros. The billionaires who are running the government now.
Jon Lovett
I don't know. Maybe they're smarter than they seem. They're having a better holiday than we are.
Elijah Cohn
And to round out the category here we have another piece from the Hill that was written after the election, but it's about the 2028 primaries. It's titled America Needs Another Reagan. Nikki Haley is Already Following His Path to power. The piece, as you might imagine, is about how Nikki Haley is poised to win the 2028 Republican nomination. Here's an excerpt.
Jon Lovett
The 2024 election might go down as the first podcast election. Trump benefited from appearing on podcasts like the Ben Shapiro Show. Tim Pool interviewed him, and his appearances on Theo Vaughn and Joe Rogan helped secure his victory. During the election, Harris was tepid about doing podcasts and leaned more toward the mainstream media, which appears to have cost her. Haley, on the other hand, understands the appeal and has started her own podcast.
Jon Favreau
Again. I was going to say, I love these takes that are, like, mostly right. And then swerve.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Jon Favreau
Like, crashes into a wall right at the end.
Jon Lovett
Right at the end there. Couldn't stick the landing. Couldn't stick the landing.
Jon Favreau
Yeah. Well, I mean, look, her podcast has rocketed up the charts.
Tommy Vietor
What is her show called?
Jon Favreau
I don't know.
Tommy Vietor
Okay.
Jon Favreau
I don't know. Has anyone heard it?
Jon Lovett
It's actually called Call Her Nothing is what it's called.
Dan Pfeiffer
I can't wait for five years from now, when we're doing this exact podcast, to look back on our response. The worst pun take will be our take about this in our incoming president elect, Nikki Haley.
Jon Favreau
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, she's really kept. Has she said anything since the. I mean, I guess it just shows her reach that. I. I cannot tell you anything that Nikki Haley has said or made news on her podcast. Anyway, we wish her the best. Nikki, come on.
Jon Lovett
Come on.
Jon Favreau
Pod Save America.
Jon Lovett
She's in the. She's in the quiet car of the Trump train.
Elijah Cohn
So who won? Who wins the category?
Jon Favreau
Oh, it's called Nikki Haley Live. It's. I think it's on Sirius xm. It's a. It's a.
Dan Pfeiffer
It's a radio. It's a radio show.
Jon Favreau
Radio show. It's our sister show.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, we're doing it. By the way, those are the cross promos we've been doing.
Tommy Vietor
Who was the first one? The first one was the worst, right?
Jon Lovett
Yeah, the first one was just wrong. Just completely wrong.
Jon Favreau
What was the first.
Elijah Cohn
Trump's GOP is already dying.
Jon Lovett
Trump is cracking.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, I think that has to be the.
Jon Lovett
That's it.
Jon Favreau
That. That's the one that we can be sure of.
Jon Lovett
Can you tell us Who. Who authored that?
Elijah Cohn
Yes, I can.
Dan Pfeiffer
Please tell me it wasn't an issue of message box.
Jon Favreau
And can you also tell us how many more takes from the Hill are we going to do?
Elijah Cohn
We're done with the Hill.
Tommy Vietor
Hill to die on, huh?
Dan Pfeiffer
Who wasn't?
Jon Lovett
That's right. Max Burns the Hill.
Jon Favreau
Max Burns the Hill.
Jon Lovett
Washington's second choice to read on the toilet, right?
Dan Pfeiffer
I think it's like third or fourth now.
Elijah Cohn
You guys didn't get the memo that we're doing all Hill takes for the pundies this year.
Jon Favreau
Justice for Roll Call.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Elijah Cohn
All right, let's get to the good stuff. Appetizers eaten. Here come the main course. The worst polling take of the year.
Jon Favreau
This was from Polar Coaster.
Elijah Cohn
This was a terrible year for polling. Or was it? Cross tabs are in the eye of the beholder. Let's take a look at the worst polling takes of the year. First up, we have Nate Silver. Nate's modeling was actually pretty accurate this cycle. But in October, he got in a Twitter fight where he made a big bet with a super rich investor named Keith Rabois. Here's the exchange, which will be done in a dramatic reading by our producers, Saul and Feyre.
Jon Lovett
Nate, you are a buffoon.
Elijah Cohn
Minimum Trump win in Florida is 8.
Jon Lovett
Points and more likely 10 to 14 points. Dude, you've got to stop huffing the Twitter vibes. How much money are you willing to bet on a Trump plus 8 point spread in Florida? Florida 100K. Okay, have your lawyer drop a quick contract and it's a deal.
Dan Pfeiffer
Nate.silver.media gmail.com no contract, no bet, because.
Jon Lovett
You'Ve been nutty lately.
Elijah Cohn
On our payment risk, Donald Trump won Florida by 13 points.
Jon Lovett
Did he get. Wait, did we ever get confirmation as to whether there was a deal?
Jon Favreau
Well, you know, what happened is there was. This was revisited. I hate that I know this. This was revisited when the New York Times, the other Nate dropped a poll about Florida, a Florida poll in the weeks before the election that showed Trump, I think, up 13. Nate Cohen basically nailed Florida. And so when Nate dropped this poll, then everyone started ragging on Nate Silver about the bet. But I don't think the bet had happened.
Jon Lovett
Well, lucky for Nate, I don't think.
Jon Favreau
It'S sufficient, but boy, is that a bad take.
Jon Lovett
Yeah. God, just the confidence.
Jon Favreau
It's like, it's like how many of us have had takes that we were so sure of? We put $100,000 on the line.
Jon Lovett
It's also just like even where There are times where I feel sure of something. I'm so chastened by the history of recent events and my awareness that the future will come. You'll have to measure it against what you thought in the past.
Elijah Cohn
All right.
Jon Favreau
Okay, next.
Elijah Cohn
Our next take is for a really nerdy topic for the polling sickos. Here's serial polling poster Adam Carlson talking about race depolarization, the theory that Trump wouldn't win a larger share of the black vote.
Jon Lovett
Speaking as a pollster, it's wild to me that people take early polling at face value without question, even at the subgroup level, believing wholeheartedly we're about to undergo mass racial depolarization simply because the polls told me so is an easy way to look silly in November.
Jon Favreau
Thank you to whoever found this one.
Dan Pfeiffer
You're welcome.
Jon Favreau
Look, you know, to. To his credit, did not put a hundred thousand dollars behind it.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Dan Pfeiffer
And I think admitted he was wrong in the end.
Elijah Cohn
Yes, to his credit, he did tweet out verbatim, I was wrong about race depolarization.
Jon Favreau
Race dep. Race depth for the real nerds. That's what they were all calling it mockingly.
Jon Lovett
But yeah. And even more importantly, it's a huge problem for the country what's happening.
Jon Favreau
You know, although I think less racial polarization is helpful.
Jon Lovett
I guess.
Jon Favreau
I guess I don't think we want to be polarized by race. It's not helpful for us right now.
Dan Pfeiffer
Because, I mean, in the battleground states, but.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, be a divided country. We're all Republicans, but that's also not the world I want to live in.
Jon Favreau
You know, just because we have trouble now getting white people to vote first and black people and Latino people.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, I'm calling that a problem.
Jon Favreau
That's a problem.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah. We just suck.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Jon Favreau
Any who else you got?
Jon Lovett
No.
Elijah Cohn
You knew this was coming. A couple of days before the election, Ann Seltzer dropped her famous Iowa poll. It had Kamala Harris leading Trump by three in Iowa. In reality, Harris lost in Iowa to Trump by over 13 points. Trump is now suing Ann Seltzer because of this. Here's a clip from friend of the Pod, Sarah Longwell, reacting to the poll when it came out. Never.
Jon Lovett
She's not been the wrong one. Like, there have been times where she.
Elijah Cohn
Has produced things that look like outlier results.
Jon Lovett
And what pollsters learned is that when Ann Selzer's poll looks like an outlier, you better shift your polls to think more like hers.
Elijah Cohn
It doesn't go the other way.
Jon Favreau
I Think the rare take that will appear on the pundies and in discovery.
Tommy Vietor
A take so bad it might get you thrown in jail. In Sarah Longwell's defense, she was right there. I mean Seltzer has historically been right. She has been someone who's been willing to put out polls that did not match the herded class. But yeah, it ended up being very, very wrong.
Jon Favreau
Look, we, we all saw, we were getting on a plane to, to Vegas, Phoenix and we were, we were cheering, we were excited, we got ourselves was exciting.
Tommy Vietor
It's quite exciting.
Jon Lovett
Yeah. I think the, I feel, I feel like the interpretation that Sarah has there is completely fine. The hope that the, that Seltzer was right is completely fine. She's taken enough for this poll and she had the kind of courage over convictions to do a poll the way she was accustomed to doing it. Taking what the data showed her and releasing it. Which is what a lot of pollsters refuse to do, which is why all the polls heard she got this one wrong. But it, but it may just be truly one of those things where there was an outlier, which should happen in a lot more polls.
Tommy Vietor
Whose take are we judging?
Jon Favreau
Sarah or I think the poll.
Elijah Cohn
This one goes to Anne. Yeah, okay.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah, yeah. And poll was wrong. Yeah.
Tommy Vietor
Lock her up.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, we have one more in this category. Sometimes the worst polling takes are to bail on the polls altogether and come up with your own pseudoscience method of predicting elections. Professor Alan Lichtman is a man who claimed to have a system like that called the thirteen Keys. He became quite a character in this cycle with many takes and posts. But here's one example that we particularly enjoyed of him getting into a fight with Nate Silver.
Jon Lovett
Nate Silver claims to have applied my keys to predict a Trump victory. He doesn't have the faintest idea how to turn the keys. He's not a historian or a political scientist. He has no academic credentials. He'll be wrong again in trying to analyze the keys.
Jon Favreau
I mean, this is tough.
Jon Lovett
No, I honestly don't think it is. I think it's the fucking keys. It's different.
Jon Favreau
That's where I was leaning. That's what I was saying. I mean like Ann Seltzer is being sued and did have the biggest missed from the best pollster ever. But again, she said when she put out the poll it could be an outlier and I'll be comfortable with that. Like she actually, she made a joke.
Jon Lovett
She said, you'll distribute my ashes over D'Amore Point.
Jon Favreau
And now that's what the lawyers will do. It's Alan Lickman hands.
Jon Lovett
Because you know what, because there's. We're people. People make mistakes. People get things wrong. The best methods lead to an incorrect result. But she had the humility and like the expertise to put behind it and the rigor. This guy's running out there being like, I've, I've been in the sarcophagus and found the secret eye that tells you how politics will be in the future. And it's just embarrassing.
Tommy Vietor
I love making up your own system. It's like a, it's like a degenerate gambler. It's like I always hit on red sevens.
Jon Lovett
It's, it's muddy at the Beltway.
Jon Favreau
And honestly, Nate Silver, while spectacularly wrong about Florida and putting $100,000 on it, you know, I guess I have a little respect for putting the $100,000 on.
Tommy Vietor
His money in public.
Jon Favreau
That's pretty. I mean I don't know if he actually did it, but even saying that.
Jon Lovett
Right. The rest of us are cowards before time.
Jon Favreau
Okay, so Alan Lickman winner.
Elijah Cohn
There you go. Congratulations.
Dan Pfeiffer
Or loser, depending on how you think about it.
Elijah Cohn
Do you think Trump will sue Alan Lichtman?
Tommy Vietor
I. Oh, I hope so.
Jon Favreau
Is that the wrong end up being. End up being Commerce Secretary?
Elijah Cohn
Let's move on to a category that you guys did request this year. The worst Blue Anon slash Blue Maga discourse of the year. If you don't know Blue Anon and Blue Mag are what they sound like. Just pro Biden right wing influences that are dyed in the wool willing to go to the mat for the president. Let's get into it. First up is a post from pro Biden influencer Chris Boosie responding to the calls for Biden to step down.
Jon Favreau
What Democrats are doing to Biden and Harris is no different than what Republicans.
Jon Lovett
Tried to do on Jan.6. The only difference is no one is.
Jon Favreau
Storming the Capitol building. That is a key difference. Key difference. I think I was told by this person directly that I was January six thing. Joe Biden as, as were all of you.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah man, you were deep in your mentions.
Dan Pfeiffer
If you. You could pull off off memory Chris.
Jon Favreau
Boosie take Chris busy has quite a few followers. Dan the quite a few followers.
Jon Lovett
This is an insurrection commentary was some of the dumbest and like the indignity of having to actually walk through why it's so stupid.
Jon Favreau
I don't think we even have to.
Jon Lovett
I don't think we ever had to. We never did. So stupid.
Jon Favreau
If you're, you're either stupid enough to.
Jon Lovett
Believe it or you're full of. And I don't need. I don't need to convince any of those people.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, you know, if you think that trying to pressure Biden to step down was like, January 6th, agree to disagree.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, good luck. And good luck in life. I hope you figure out how to tie your shoes.
Tommy Vietor
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Elijah Cohn
Next is a post from a now deleted account that shows the direction that the conversation took in the days post. Biden and Trump debate. Let's take a listen.
Jon Lovett
My guess is some top media owners were on Epstein Island. They're taking down Biden and democracy to save their own skin.
Jon Favreau
This is so good. So good. I remember this one.
Jon Lovett
Okay, so let's do another take, but this time kind of more throw it away.
Jon Favreau
Who was that?
Jon Lovett
Who was that?
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, they deleted their account. We couldn't find who it was. They're scratched.
Jon Lovett
So this is somebody claiming that it's a conspiracy on Epstein's island to remove Joe Biden.
Jon Favreau
Again. I remember. I think I have this one saved somewhere.
Jon Lovett
Wow. Missed it. Missed it.
Dan Pfeiffer
Do we think this person really thought this or they were just trying.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah, just trolling.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah.
Jon Favreau
I remember being struck by who it was. So they might have deleted their account, but it was not some like rando with two followers. It was a, it was like a, it was being, it was being retweeted.
Elijah Cohn
I think it's called like St Ashley's staircar.
Jon Favreau
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Tommy Vietor
Wow, that's a deep pole.
Jon Lovett
I don't know.
Jon Favreau
Like, I think it was like a K Hive person.
Dan Pfeiffer
John, I don't want to fast forward ahead to the New Year's resolution part of this, but I have some ideas for you.
Jon Favreau
I think you do.
Jon Lovett
That is chilling. The two of you throwing that name out there, being like, I remember who said it. It was that. That is chilling. Yeah.
Jon Favreau
If, if, if, if the text exchanges between Elijah and I end up in discovery, this is what it's going to show.
Elijah Cohn
Don't let this, don't let them shame you, John. All right, next is a post from a very Popular Resist account. Seth Abramson. Let's take a listen.
Jon Lovett
No, the call for Biden to step.
Dan Pfeiffer
Down is not organic.
Jon Lovett
It is the closest thing to an.
Dan Pfeiffer
Internal coup America has seen since what.
Jon Lovett
Trump tried to do at DOJ in 2020.
Jon Favreau
I mean, I want to know, did Chris Boosie go first or did he go first? Did Seth Abramson go first? Because they're very similar.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah, there's a lot of blue MAGA going on.
Jon Favreau
Right. January 6th, the coup.
Tommy Vietor
I mean, it wasn't an original thought. It was sort of the dumbest thing you could pull for in the moment.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, it's very frustrating and stupid.
Jon Favreau
I do think Seth Abramson's been on the mark, you know, time for some game theory.
Jon Lovett
Is that, is that. Oh, that's not the game theory guy.
Dan Pfeiffer
He's the.
Jon Lovett
What happened to that guy? Where'd that guy.
Tommy Vietor
Oh, that guy is, I think, I believe, fully red pilled now.
Jon Lovett
Oh, that checks out.
Jon Favreau
That's correct.
Jon Lovett
That checks.
Jon Favreau
He's Tulsi's deputy at dni. Now it's really time for some game theory.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Elijah Cohn
And last, we have a super viral post from an influencer named Tristan Snell. It's a photo of you guys. Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Rob Reiner, John Cusack, Chris Hayes, Stephen King, Michael Moore, Seth Meyers, and George Clooney. The caption simply reads, these are the folks calling for Biden to quit. Gosh, if only there was something they all had in common. Playing on the discourse of that time that it was racist to call for Joe Biden to step down in favor of Kamala Harris.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah.
Elijah Cohn
The kicker is Tristan Snell.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure.
Jon Favreau
Another kicker. Kamala Harris, black.
Jon Lovett
Right. That's also an important thing to know.
Jon Favreau
Yeah. Joe Biden, white.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah, yeah, pretty white. That one wins for me because it's. When you. When you think of the most ridiculous theory Joe Biden should not run for reelection as racist, I think is number one.
Jon Lovett
It.
Jon Favreau
It was. It's pretty bad.
Jon Lovett
A white guy accusing other white guys of being racist for trying to dethrone a white guy. It reminds me of this other, like you'll see like a white male comedian refer to white women and make fun of them because he knows he can't say women and so he has to add the white so that he can make fun of women. You know, it's like, I'm suspicious. I'm suspicious. Color me suspicious.
Jon Favreau
That was a good one.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, that was that.
Jon Favreau
I think that wins for me as well.
Jon Lovett
That also was a moment where also the worm kind of turned.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah.
Jon Lovett
I was just like, are we really that, like, are we really doing this?
Dan Pfeiffer
The replies to that tweet were actually encouraging about the future of the Internet.
Jon Favreau
I mean, I will say I'm not even going to name the person. There was a member of Congress who went on CNN and not only said that it was racist to call on Joe Biden to step down, but that it was ableist.
Elijah Cohn
Right, sorry.
Jon Lovett
Oh, yeah, yeah. No. And you know what? Honestly, I would like a cogent, comprehensible president. If that makes me an ableist, so be it. If that's what ableism means now, then I'm an ableist.
Jon Favreau
It was Ableist.
Jon Lovett
Unbelievable.
Elijah Cohn
So we're deeming. We're crowning Tristan Snell to move on to the best in show category.
Tommy Vietor
I think so.
Jon Favreau
Oh yeah.
Elijah Cohn
Okay, great. Let's move on. It's a great tweet to worst discourse of the year. This is a little different.
Jon Lovett
This is good.
Elijah Cohn
We're not just going to do the a single take. We're going to sample a take and then talk about the whole discourse. Cuz 2024 was quite a year for discourse, much like the toilet is quite a place for. And if that comparison left a bad taste in your mouth, get ready to pucker up for these.
Jon Lovett
First up, what else do you want in the toilet?
Elijah Cohn
Elijah Hallie wrote that. Shout out, Hallie. That was a good one. First up, we have the debate commission discourse. Joe Biden and Donald Trump organized their own debates this year instead of working through the nonpartisan Debate Commission. Many pearls were clutched. But here's a particularly wonderful string of buzzwords from New Jersey assemblyman and RFK junior adviser Jamel Holley. He called the Commission on Presidential Debates, quote, an institution that has stood as a beacon of nonpartisanship before saying this.
Jon Lovett
Regrettably, the sanctity and integrity of the debate process are now facing mounting challenges as we political operatives discreetly maneuver behind.
Jon Favreau
The scenes to undermine the established norms.
Jon Lovett
And protocols that have long governed these crucial events. So.
Jon Favreau
So the discourse is the. Is skipping. The debate Commission.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah. The norms and the protocols and Rep. The debate commission.
Jon Lovett
So that was about RFK Jr believing, according to the. The rules that have traditionally been used, that he would have gotten a slot at a presidential debate which. Which might be true. And then there was a separate discourse about whether it was bad for the country that the debate commission was basically ignored. And then the candidates spoke directly and figured out debates with the networks. Right.
Tommy Vietor
The Commission on Presidential Debates was formed in 1987. This wasn't like the founding fathers. What are we talking about here?
Jon Favreau
Who also didn't get a lot right either.
Elijah Cohn
Okay, that's a little warm up discourse. You guys want to get to the real shit?
Dan Pfeiffer
Real discourse. Yeah.
Jon Favreau
And amuse Bouche.
Elijah Cohn
All right, next up, we have Chapel Row not endorsing Kamala Harris forcefully enough. This was a moment that combined several issues. Israel and Gaza, LGTBQ rights, the youth vote, and the importance of celebrity endorsements. Let's take a listen. Here's Chapel Row.
Jon Favreau
Actions speak louder than an endorsement. Here's the full quote that a lot of people are just not reading. I have so many issues with our.
Jon Lovett
Government in every way, she says.
Jon Favreau
There are so many things that I.
Jon Lovett
Would want to change, so I don't.
Jon Favreau
Feel pressured to endorse it. Someone.
Jon Lovett
There's problems on both sides, and I encourage people to. Use your critical thinking skills.
Jon Favreau
Use your vote.
Elijah Cohn
Vote small.
Jon Favreau
Vote for what's going on in your city.
Dan Pfeiffer
The change she wants to see in.
Jon Favreau
The US Is this election year, she says instantly is trans rights. They cannot have CIS people making decisions.
Jon Lovett
For trans people, period.
Dan Pfeiffer
So here from my mouth, if you're.
Jon Favreau
Still wondering, no, I'm not voting for Trump. And yes, I will always question those in power.
Jon Lovett
I'm sorry that you fell for the.
Elijah Cohn
Clickbait that kicked off a shitstorm for a week.
Jon Favreau
You know, it was.
Jon Lovett
The whole thing was so. Everything about it was stupid. Everything about it was frustrating. Like, I love Chapel Roan. I think Chapel Roan, like, a lot of the people criticizing Chapel Roan should go outside and touch grass and like, I'm being perfectly clear and then kind of like punta, just like, fucking losing it. Like. Like the, like being like, how dare you misinterpret my completely elliptical and confusing way of talking about politics. Allow me to make myself perfectly clear. I'm once again going to say something similar that's very hard to interpret. It was like, for no one. And it's like, you're not a political expert. You're putting yourself out there. You became incredibly famous in this year. That must be an insane amount of pressure. Why are we. Why are we doing this?
Jon Favreau
Well, now that we can look back on the race, I think we would all agree that celebrity endorsements were the difference maker.
Jon Lovett
That's true.
Dan Pfeiffer
It just depends on your celebrity, right?
Jon Favreau
Winners, Hulk Hogan, Joe Rogan.
Elijah Cohn
Losers, Taylor Swift, Beyonce.
Tommy Vietor
Fully opted out of this discourse at the time.
Dan Pfeiffer
I paid no attention to. I mentally muted the whole thing for a week.
Jon Favreau
I did too.
Jon Lovett
Well, I think, like, the Bigger thing to take from it. It's not like this one moment about Chapel Rome, but, like, you know, like, there was like a big chunk of people like, like there are, like, the people that got behind Trump were super excited and gung ho about it. A few people were like that about Kamala, but there were a lot of people like Chapel Roan that felt like it was uncool or problematic to full throatedly get behind a Democrat. And, like, I would like that to not be true in the future. It'd be great if we were a place, a movement where chaperone was excited and it was valuable for her to be a part of it and for in both directions. That'd be cool. That'd be nice.
Jon Favreau
Boy, would it. Boy, would it.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah. What a discourse. All right, next up, we have the discourse. Should Democrats be doing more to reach men? Here's a tweet from our friend Travis Helwig, who texted me before this to say he disavows his phrasing but stands by his point. Let's listen.
Jon Lovett
If Kamala loses, which is very possible, there needs to be a real discussion.
Dan Pfeiffer
About how Democrats speak to and reach young men.
Jon Lovett
There are very few straight men under.
Dan Pfeiffer
40 in the Democratic consultant class.
Jon Lovett
So when ads try to reach young men, they come off as deeply inauthentic.
Elijah Cohn
This spawned many responses accusing Travis of needing to shut the fuck up and hating women.
Jon Lovett
Too many fags in the Democratic Party, huh, Travis? Jesus Christ.
Tommy Vietor
I think if Travis had just left out that one clause about the makeup of the consultant class, he had a great point, which is, we didn't do great with young men this cycle.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, I mean, look, I think. I think when you look at Democratic consultants, most of them are like men over 40, right? The under 40 men are usually operatives, staffers, stuff like that. But I don't know. I'm 40 now. Look, Travis didn't. Didn't word it artfully.
Jon Lovett
You were 40?
Jon Favreau
Yeah, I'm in my 40s. I should have said that's what I meant. But yeah, clearly we did have a problem getting men.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, we have a huge problem. I think it is like, I think putting it at pointing at consultants is whatever, but, like, it's a collective inability to sound like normal people. Also a bunch of podcasts where it's like, hey, you come over here. You can say whatever you want. We don't care. I don't love that. But on our side, it's like, you better be careful. There are trip wires and you're going to hit them.
Jon Favreau
I Will say that the gender gap, at least according to the exit polls, ended up being not as large as the poll suggested.
Dan Pfeiffer
Because we did worse with women. John.
Jon Favreau
That's right. That's right. That's what I was getting at.
Jon Lovett
Dan.
Jon Favreau
That's what I was getting at. We did worse with women. So guess we had a women problem as well.
Jon Lovett
We had, we. Look, we have. We're having problem. A human problem. We need more human, like we're having a difficulty reaching.
Jon Favreau
Yeah.
Jon Lovett
Voters. Human beings.
Jon Favreau
But I will say even among Gen Z where we also had a big problem, the split was. The biggest split was college educated, non college educated. Not men, women. Right. So it's. And we'll see more when the data comes out. But we have a problem with people.
Tommy Vietor
Who don't have college degrees and a problem with Travis.
Jon Lovett
And we have a big problem with Travis.
Elijah Cohn
Huge problem.
Jon Favreau
Who does hate women, which is.
Elijah Cohn
We'll appreciate you saying that. Here's our last discourse in a stacked category. You knew this one was coming again. Should Biden drop out. You guys were subtweeted by the campaign after saying you should drop out. Being referenced in a fundraising email as self important podcasters. Anyone who called for Biden to drop out was called traitors by several parts of the Internet. We read a lot of those kinds of takes in our blue and on section. What do you guys think?
Jon Lovett
I don't have a cliff.
Tommy Vietor
This is such a setup. Think about what.
Jon Lovett
Here, here's what I've just been. I've been thinking about just as we watch the final few weeks of the Biden administration and it becomes clear in just these past few weeks how ridiculous the assertion was that he was in shape to be president over the next four years. That my regret is that it took until. Not just seeing him once behind the scenes when we went to the White House, not just seeing him a second time when we saw him at that fundraiser, but till the debate, to be full throatedly honest, because I feel like, like we. This.
Tommy Vietor
I wasn't there.
Jon Lovett
I said. Didn't I say. I. I said my. I was doing. We saw him. Yeah, well, some of us were there. I. Sorry.
Jon Favreau
He was at the Clooney fundraiser.
Jon Lovett
You're part of it. You're fucking part of it. You'll be on the lawsuit. The.
Tommy Vietor
I don't like your collective tone but.
Jon Lovett
Like I think like, because he wasn't dropping out and it seemed like a fait accompli. It was hard. Like we were very hard on, on Biden and wanting him to get out there to dispel questions about his age. But looking on it back, like, is, could we have gotten there faster? Could we have pushed harder? I don't know. But I come away from that moment being like. Like thinking more about how we got to that place in the first place.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah, look, Joe Biden shouldn't have run. Again, the hard part about this was what people don't remember is in the 2020 primary, there was also a conversation about Joe Biden's age. I think we all were on the side that he was probably too old to be running, then said as much on the show. He won the primary. That made them very angry. They didn't speak to us for four years. And so the midterms happen. I think Joe Biden took the wrong message from in 2022, that Democratic success in a midterm when a bunch of completely outside the mainstream, crazy Republicans ran for Senate seats and lost like Dr. Oz, that it meant that the White House was strong, that he should run for election, and that was some sort of indication of his political strength. Obviously it was not, but I felt like from our my position, like I was wrong in 2020, who am I going to tell the incumbent president not to run for president in that moment outside some sort of, like, major event or indication? Like, I think we talked.
Jon Favreau
Boy, did we get one of those.
Tommy Vietor
We talked a thousand times about the polling, about his age, concerns about it. We would constantly ask the question, how do you fix this? And I think almost every one of those conversations started with, I don't know that it is fixable, but if it is, here are the things I would try to do. They didn't really try to do any of those things because obviously there's been all this reporting now that, you know, keeping a full schedule was challenging for the president, et cetera, et cetera. So we don't have to belabor all of this, but that's kind of the backstory that people don't remember.
Dan Pfeiffer
I just think it's worth remembering that after the debate, Joe Biden was behind the whole time. He was behind to Trump, basically, from the summer of 2023 onward. By the time the debate was over, Joe Biden had a 3% chance of winning the election. And the idea here was we could not go into election with a dangerous authoritarian who had a 97% chance of winning. So we had to look for another option. And that option was Kamala Harris, who probably went into it with a 45% chance of winning. And she was not able to get that last 5%. But there's two questions. There is the could Joe Biden have served four more years? I think the indication is pretty clearly no and is could Joe Biden have win the election? And by the time the debate was over, it was obviously highly unlikely that he would do so. And there is one last moment to try to make a change to give us a chance to win. He, in the end, weeks later than we had hoped, but did step aside. Kamala Harris ran a very good campaign, not a perfect one, but gave her a shot to win an election in a very, very tough environment. And that's sort of where we, that's where we were. And, and I will say to all, not the blue and non people from the discourse section, but most people, like there was a. Could be a good faith disagreement on Joe Biden's electoral chances or Kamala Harris electoral chances. But in the end, most people came together to try to get her elected and worked pretty hard at it.
Jon Favreau
I just want to say one more thing here. Like Joe Biden, this decision was Joe Biden's and like a very small circle of people around him and mostly family. Mostly family. And, you know, Wall was out today with like, he was more cloistered in this, these four years than he ever has been in his whole career. He had a small circle of advisors. Not a lot of other people got in. And I remember when we did a crooked off site, like a year, more than a year before the election, and we did like a political section where everyone could ask us questions about the coming race and politics and all you guys, our staff, like peppered us with questions like, why is Joe Biden running? Joe Biden's too old. And I think then we said, number one, no one is challenging him. No one has decided to challenge him. And number two, like, he is deciding with the people around him that he wants to run for president and he gets to decide. And people think it's like the party this, that the other thing, like, he was, he wasn't even listening to members of Congress by the end. At the end, like, Chuck Schumer barely got to his house to try to convince him. He was like, you know, he wasn't listening to many people, so.
Jon Lovett
Right, right, right. But he did. But the pressure did come.
Jon Favreau
The pressure came. But yeah, it was pretty close to. Pretty close to him not doing it.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, that's true.
Elijah Cohn
So should Joe Biden drop out? Worst discourse of the year?
Jon Lovett
No, I don't think so. No, I think so. Some of the best discourse, some of the best and Most the best discord we've ever had.
Elijah Cohn
Okay, so Chapel, Rohner, Travis, or the debate commission?
Jon Favreau
Debate commission.
Tommy Vietor
Just to be nice to Travis.
Jon Lovett
The debate commission. We choose debate commission. Sometimes an ugly, shitty little pug makes it to best in show and that thing never wins thing.
Elijah Cohn
Okay, debate. We're really doing debate commission as the worst discourse of the year. All right, that's works for me.
Dan Pfeiffer
Does it sound like it works for you, Alexa?
Jon Favreau
I didn't even know it was discourse. Really?
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, I was on paternity and I was like, I can't believe how many pods were talking about the debate commission.
Jon Favreau
But oh, did we?
Dan Pfeiffer
There was a lot of reminding people that they tried to kill Joe Biden by not making Trump get a covetous.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Tommy Vietor
That was bad.
Jon Lovett
They did.
Elijah Cohn
All right, the debate commission. Worst discourse of the year. Love it.
Jon Favreau
All right, I don't want to give Travis that.
Elijah Cohn
Not Chapel round. Okay. The most bizarre right wing take of the year. It was a banner year for right wing takes. And I for one, thank our glistening waxy gray overlord Elon Musk for all the accurate right wing takes headed our way in 2025. However, the right had their swings and misses too. Hey, they can't all be. Tom Hanks died the first week of COVID and was immediately replaced by evil Tom Hanks.
Jon Favreau
I forgot about that.
Elijah Cohn
Let's take a look. First up, we have something from favs close personal friend Jesse Waters about commenting on birthdays.
Dan Pfeiffer
The oldest president in history just got a little older.
Jon Favreau
It's Joe Biden's birthday.
Jon Lovett
The Big 82 for the Big guy.
Tommy Vietor
And Primetime would wish him a happy birthday, but we have rules here. Men don't wish men happy birthdays.
Jon Favreau
What a fire.
Jon Lovett
He's. He's always tongue in cheek about those kinds of things, but it is just a reminder that masculinity is a prison that locks from the inside. Oh, is it gay to have a birthday, fellas? Is it gay to wear pink, fellas?
Jon Favreau
Can someone note when Jesse Waters birthday is so we can all wish him a happy birthday from as many people as possible?
Elijah Cohn
It's a funn. That's good.
Jon Favreau
Just, you know, I feel like he. Like Lovett said, I think he needs it.
Tommy Vietor
July 9th. We got a minute.
Jon Favreau
Sounds like he needs birthday wishes from his bros. Yeah, you know, from his.
Elijah Cohn
Bros, personal friend John Favreau. All right, next we have a right wing meltdown for Taylor Swift dating Travis Kelce. There were plenty of worthy clips here, but this from oan host Allison Steinberg takes the cake. Let's take a listen.
Jon Lovett
Well, yeah, Soros might own her music, but the devil surely owns her soul. Suddenly becomes political.
Jon Favreau
And now she's plastered all over magazines, airports, the NFL, and now even the Super Bowl. It's just 247 nauseating coverage.
Jon Lovett
And we're supposed to pretend we don't see the psyop? If Taylor Swift is really owned by.
Jon Favreau
Soros, we might actually have a rare chance to unite against him.
Jon Lovett
Using Taylor Swift as the Trojan horse.
Jon Favreau
Instead of pushing the Alphabet Mafia and murdering of babies to her fans, she.
Jon Lovett
Should be warning about the dangers of the corrupt elites. I mean, that's something we could all come together on.
Jon Favreau
Right. But of course, that'll never happen with this guy pulling the strings, now, will it?
Tommy Vietor
Wow, that is.
Jon Favreau
I was waiting for what. What is the Trojan horse metaphor there?
Jon Lovett
I think it's that. Yeah, I think it's that George Soros, via his vehicle of Taylor Swift, is going to push a pro gay, pro trans, pro abortion agenda at the Super Bowl. At the.
Jon Favreau
I don't know if she stuck the landing on that one.
Dan Pfeiffer
What's the Alphabet Mafia? That's kbq.
Jon Lovett
That's lgbt.
Jon Favreau
Okay, that. That helps a little bit.
Jon Lovett
Yeah. We're the Alphabet Mafia. Wow.
Jon Favreau
That's a. That was. That's.
Dan Pfeiffer
That's a great.
Jon Favreau
For me, it's a contender.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Tommy Vietor
The only problem with it is it, it's. It's got to be some percentage performance art, right? They know what they're doing. You know, they're like, this is so crazy and ridiculous. It's going to get me clicks.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, for sure. For sure. But I don't think she also was sort of incomprehensible.
Tommy Vietor
Oh, absolutely.
Jon Lovett
It's also just like, like goldfish level memory. Like, Taylor Swift has endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, endorsed Marsha Blackburn's opponent, got involved in a bunch of different issues. Ties does pride every pride when she's on tour, like, just. It just. This is just part of her politics. In the documentary, there's a documentary about it where she's on film talking about.
Jon Favreau
Famously talks about.
Jon Lovett
Talks about politics. Just like you're just paying attention, but. But like, even though you don't have, like the world exists when your eyes are closed.
Jon Favreau
Right? That's.
Tommy Vietor
That's like the tour. I know this is new to you, but. Yeah, it's not new.
Elijah Cohn
Right, next we have what is quickly becoming a classic clip of RFK Jr. Being confronted with his own words by CNN's Casey Hunt about vaccines. Let's Take a listen.
Jon Lovett
So you have gained notoriety for your skepticism about vaccines. And over the summer, in an interview, you said, quote, there's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective. Do you still believe that?
Jon Favreau
I never said that.
Jon Lovett
So stop me. We have the clip. Please play the clip. Play the whole clip. Talked about that. The media slanders you by calling you an anti vaxxer. And you've said that you're not anti vaccine, you're pro safe vaccine. Difficult question. Can you name any vaccines that you think are good? I think some of the live virus vaccines are probably.
Jon Favreau
Averting more problems than they're causing.
Jon Lovett
There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective. So you did say it.
Dan Pfeiffer
Do you still believe it?
Jon Lovett
Well, here's what.
Jon Favreau
Here's what I.
Jon Lovett
Here's what I would say. First of all, I'm not anti vaccine. How is that statement not anti vaccine?
Tommy Vietor
Well, it's not anti vaccine. I just think it will kill you. Which I will repeat to everyone I see.
Jon Favreau
Boy, do I feel safe.
Jon Lovett
There's a. There's a fallacy in philosophy that Tom will remember from his studies, which is. It's called no true Scotsman. No true Scotsman. Which is. He says, I'm not against vaccines. He's like, well, you've said this. Or bad. I'm just for safe vaccines. What. Can you name any safe vaccines? No, I'm for safe vaccines, but there are no safe vaccines. What are this? Vaccines. But that's not a truly safe vaccine. What about this vaccine? It's not a truly safe vaccine. It's a way of. It's a. It's a. It's a way of claiming something while never actually allowing it to be true.
Jon Favreau
Sounds like Twitter.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Elijah Cohn
Fun.
Jon Lovett
Yeah. Guys, give me charge of the water. Enjoy, everybody.
Tommy Vietor
Very bad.
Jon Lovett
Drink up. Drink.
Jon Favreau
Drink while you can. Yeah, get all those shots.
Jon Lovett
30 years from now, all the. Everyone's teeth are going to fall out of their fucking face and be like, I wonder why this happened.
Tommy Vietor
This is a good example of where we need members of Congress to for once be really disciplined at his confirmation hearing and not give speeches and just be like prosecutors narrowing in, asking him question after question to try to get him to say what he really thinks. Because he's also said that, you know, he thinks the polio vaccine killed many, many more people than polio ever did. You know, he says things that like, he. He has this veneer of just. Just asking questions or I'm, you know, I just want more data or research. But underneath that are really radical views and they just gotta tease them out.
Jon Favreau
Of em, you know. That's a great point, Tommy. It's. Now this is gonna bug me because like the January 6th committee now all facing jail time. The January 6th committee, like that was the first set of hearings where I was like, oh, they finally nailed it. They didn't go. Every member on the panel giving their big long speeches, doing this, putting on their dog and pony show. It's like they had a plan. They stuck to the plan. They got right to it. It was good tv. Wouldn't it be so nice if the Senate Democrats did this for all the hearings?
Jon Lovett
You have one person who's going to.
Jon Favreau
Prosecute, you know, flip for it.
Jon Lovett
Like we said about the January six hearings. So good they should be illegal.
Dan Pfeiffer
Oh, interesting. Do you know who the ranking member on the committee is?
Tommy Vietor
Who?
Dan Pfeiffer
Bernie Sanders.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah, he'll be very good on this. By the way, if the J6 committee goes to jail, we should produce a song with them.
Jon Favreau
That's great.
Dan Pfeiffer
What if they do one? What if they do one with the Insurrectionists? We Are the World style.
Jon Favreau
That's good.
Jon Lovett
Like a rap battle. Like what's the jets and the Sharks?
Jon Favreau
Do we think Mark Zuckerberg will, will put his hand on his heart for that one too?
Tommy Vietor
Probably will. I am. We'll remix it.
Elijah Cohn
And our last take of the category, we have one of the most insane right wing talking points of the election cycle. You know it, I know it. Let's take a listen in Springfield.
Jon Favreau
They're eating the dogs that came in.
Jon Lovett
Eating the cats. They're eating, eating. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.
Elijah Cohn
And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame.
Jon Lovett
Residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town's geese. The town geese.
Elijah Cohn
They're taking the geese. You know where the geese are in.
Jon Lovett
The park, in the lake, and even walking off with their pets.
Elijah Cohn
My dog's been taken.
Jon Favreau
My dogs were so 77 million people. Thumbs up, thumbs up to that guy.
Jon Lovett
I think we're the ones eating crow.
Dan Pfeiffer
It feels like in hindsight. One lesson here is that if your political opponent comes up with a dangerous conspiracy theory that incites people on a major issue in the election, you don't turn into a catchy song and then have all of your influencers shared on TikTok for hours at a time.
Jon Lovett
I think that was a difference maker, Dan.
Dan Pfeiffer
Just saying, like, it's just, it's a way of thinking about things going forward.
Jon Favreau
I like, want to listen to it. It's really catchy.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, that's. It's in your head. It's great. It's great.
Tommy Vietor
They're eating the dogs who did this.
Elijah Cohn
They're eating the cats.
Jon Favreau
The kiffness.
Jon Lovett
They're eating the pets of the people that live there. It's great.
Elijah Cohn
They're eating the dogs.
Jon Lovett
They're eating the cats.
Jon Favreau
Anyway.
Jon Lovett
You know that gorgeous. We had a. At Williams College, we had a steel pan band and I was the drummer.
Tommy Vietor
Did you guess?
Jon Lovett
Wait, what?
Jon Favreau
Yes. Yes.
Jon Lovett
No, we had a.
Jon Favreau
It was.
Jon Lovett
It was white guys. I was the only white member because I didn't play the steel pan. I didn't know how to play steel pan, but I could play. They needed a percussion.
Jon Favreau
They needed a Tristan Snell.
Jon Lovett
They need to play a drum set. And so I played the drum set. I played the drum set.
Elijah Cohn
In our.
Jon Lovett
In the Williams College steel pan band.
Tommy Vietor
There'S a cool steel pan. Any single human Larchmont can Do you.
Dan Pfeiffer
Think crooked could put up a $100,000 reward? Nate Silver. Anybody can hear the video of this.
Jon Lovett
It's just before there was usual. It's just before you would be.
Tommy Vietor
Someone had a flip cam or something.
Jon Lovett
Yeah. Shamik was busy at the. At the newspaper till two in the morning wasting his college life on op eds. How. Yeah. Williams record really make a difference. I was playing. I was playing music.
Elijah Cohn
All right, so who wins the category? We got Jesse Waters, Taylor Swift, Vaccines and the dogs and the cats.
Jon Lovett
I think vaccines for me. No.
Elijah Cohn
Oh, wow.
Tommy Vietor
Not to the fun takeness.
Jon Favreau
Not dogs and cats.
Dan Pfeiffer
So Taylor Swift, dogs and cats, Jesse Waters. Is there another option?
Jon Favreau
Did I forget vaccines and vaccines?
Jon Lovett
I think Trump's take really was the take of the year. I mean, it became the discourse. It was the hinge point. It was one of the policy hinges of the whole election.
Jon Favreau
I mean, it is tough because it's like we're doing worse takes. It was like a bad take that won, but, you know.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Jon Favreau
Best worst takes. I don't know.
Dan Pfeiffer
I'm still flummoxed by the fact that Lovett was in a college version in Jimmy.
Tommy Vietor
I know.
Jon Lovett
That'S not right. That's not right.
Elijah Cohn
So we're moving dogs and cats to the final group.
Jon Favreau
I don't know. I'm not. I'm not wedded to it.
Tommy Vietor
No, that's fine. I imagine more of a rusted root Dan, if we're being honest.
Dan Pfeiffer
Oh, that's fair. That's fair.
Tommy Vietor
For love it. I mean, selling nitrous balloons and there.
Jon Favreau
Is an argument for vaccines just because now we're gonna be living with that. Like.
Jon Lovett
Right, that's the take that can kill.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah.
Dan Pfeiffer
I mean, the problem always is we don't really have any scale for making these judgments. So it's really.
Tommy Vietor
Let's just pick one because we're, we're dragging this out vibe out.
Jon Favreau
All right. Dogs and cats.
Elijah Cohn
All right, cool.
Jon Favreau
Okay, we're going to take a quick break, but before we do that, a reminder that now through January 1st, we're offering 25% off new annual Friends of the Pod subscriptions. A Friends of the Pod subscription is the single best way to help Cricket Media continue our mission of building a progressive, independent media company at a time when it's never been more important. Plus, you'll get access to ad free episodes, exclusive bonus content, a Discord community and more. Sign up today@qriket.com friends or through the Pod Save America feed on Apple Podcasts. Pods of America is brought to you by the International Rescue Committee. For more than 90 years, when crises strike from war and violence to floods and famine, the International Rescue Committee has been there helping displaced families survive, recover and rebuild. The IRC responds within 72 hours of an emergency and stays as long as needed, providing humanitarian aid to millions of families. Right now, in crisis stricken places like Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Ukraine, severe winter weather is putting displaced families at even greater risk. Many makeshift camps can't withstand the extreme cold. Some people live without reliable electricity, while others can't afford the fuel to heat their homes. Pregnant women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities are especially vulnerable. Your tax deductible donations can help the IRC provide critical emergency food, clean water, shelter, fuel, medicine, blankets, winter gear and cash assistance you can give confidently. Because the IRC is consistently awarded top marks by charity watchdog groups for their efficient use of donor contributions. Donate today by visiting rescue.orgrebuild that's rescue.orgrebuild this is an advertisement from BetterHelp. The holiday season is, as they say, the most wonderful time of the year. It can be filled with joy and happiness, but it can also be the most stressful time of the year. Scheduling conflicts, added expenses, family dynamics and drama can all take a toll. So it's important to slow down and not lose sight of your mental well being. Therapy is a great way to do just that. Not only during this stressful time of the year, but all year long. And BetterHelp online therapy is a great way to get into therapy. BetterHelp is designed to be convenient, flexible and built around your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a credentialed therapist that fits your needs and preferences. Once matched, you can connect via phone, video, text or chat. Whatever works for you. It's surprisingly affordable, too. So this holiday season, give yourself a gift you can appreciate all year round. Therapy's important. Obviously, it's been a stressful time, stressful couple weeks, stressful couple months, stressful year, nine years. It's a great gift to yourself to go to therapy and talk with someone about it. It's really helpful. Visit betterhelp.com PSA today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com PSA.
Jon Lovett
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Jon Favreau
It's the first technology designed not just.
Jon Lovett
To serve us, but to be us. I'm Baratunde Thurston, and on my new video podcast, Life With Machines, I'm going to talk to all kinds of folks.
Tommy Vietor
The people hitting the gas pedal on.
Jon Lovett
This transition and those trying to pump the brakes. Watch and listen to Life with Machines powered by Lenovo in partnership with intel. Intel Core Ultra 7 processor powering Intel VPRO. Lenovo. Lenovo.
Elijah Cohn
And now for the coveted worst take of the year from a pod Save America host. Time to look in.
Jon Lovett
Oh, boy, Here we go.
Elijah Cohn
Let's kick things off with John Lovett. Play the clip.
Jon Lovett
Being a speechwriter is about figuring out the best way to convince a bunch of people. Too easy. Come along with you or agree with you or support you. I think that's a lot of what Survivor is. You know what?
Tommy Vietor
That was a good take.
Jon Favreau
Technically true take.
Dan Pfeiffer
Technically true. Technically true.
Jon Lovett
And good at both. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Really crushing on both this year. Got my finger on the goddamn pulse this year. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Tommy Vietor
Next up, next up, next up, we.
Elijah Cohn
Got Tommy Vitor talking about VP choices.
Tommy Vietor
Oh, no. I think Kristi Noem is a potential favorite to be the vice presidential nominee. Electoral benefits of South Dakota, there are none. But I do think the Trump campaign knows that abortion is likely to be the single biggest headwind for their campaign. They want diversity on the ticket that could be gender based. That could also be racial diversity. I think they'll ultimately decide that Donald Trump is gonna need to peel off some of the suburban women that he has lost to Joe Biden. They're gonna need to try to push back on concerns about stripping away abortion access. She's terrible on the policy, but I do think they're gonna view it as a identity. This was.
Dan Pfeiffer
This is a great this is a totally fascist.
Tommy Vietor
This was before the puppy killing thing and came out her book, the Puppy Murder. And this was me and Brian TYLER Cohen ranking 10 different candidates. So we had to make a case for everyone we chose.
Dan Pfeiffer
This is Tommy. They. The judges, they're you. Here.
Tommy Vietor
Thank you.
Dan Pfeiffer
You know what I would do if I were you? I would sue them.
Jon Favreau
I'm looking at you also. She did. She did become the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Tommy Vietor
Yeah, she's dhs.
Jon Favreau
That's not enough.
Jon Lovett
Now she's in charge of the tsa. The. The one thing is, it's funny because, like, that was a very, like, cogent and reasonable take, but Trump was like, actually, I don't need to worry about any of that. I'm going to pick the opposite. A piece of shit guy that makes women uncomfortable and it won't matter.
Jon Favreau
Abortion, Abortion. A headwind. Now.
Jon Lovett
Disagree.
Jon Favreau
I'm for whatever you guys are all for.
Jon Lovett
I think people hate the Biden administration so much that I can choose one of the biggest assholes around.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, Tommy, it was a good year of takes for you. We had to dig. We had to dig out of here to pods and go to liberal tears. All right, next up, we have Dan After Trump was convicted. Let's hear it.
Dan Pfeiffer
The prevailing narrative that the conviction won't really matter is, I think, pretty disconnected from both what the polls actually say and the reality of an election that is likely to be this close. I stand by that. 1000. Look, he would have won by 10.
Jon Favreau
If he had counterfactual. It's not. It's hard to prove. Hard to prove.
Dan Pfeiffer
And the polls are a snapshot in time, so do better next time, Elijah.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, I feel like. I feel like. No, no, I think polls are. And that's so important to keep in mind that polls are. If we've never. If you've ever heard us say that polls are a snapshot in time. I just think a lot of what.
Jon Favreau
I think is, like, a shitty Polaroid.
Jon Lovett
You know, if you look back on the year, what you take away from all of these, like, very reasonable. Like, these are all opinions about, like, ways things could matter at the margins in a race that wasn't really fought. Like, but we were. But. Oh, but would. Would that it mattered. But we're so. It doesn't. But even still, I mean, like, the.
Dan Pfeiffer
Argument we always made, it would come down to 100,000 votes. It came down to 237,000 votes.
Jon Lovett
That's true. That's true.
Elijah Cohn
All right, and last we have. I don't like Jon Favreau reacting to Joe Biden going on Seth Meyers.
Jon Favreau
I was so happy with that. I was so happy. And like, you know, the appearance was not perfect. Right. Like, he still trailed off at times. You know, he interrupts himself once in a while. But if you are. If you're someone who's like wondering whether he's sharp enough for the job or knows his shit, like, more appearances like that should give you more confidence. I mean, he was pretty good on Seth Meyer.
Tommy Vietor
I remember that interview at all.
Jon Lovett
You know, I, I remember. I don't. I'm not judging. We were all in that headspace. Yeah, but man, were we grading on a curve.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, no, I mean, I thought you should have gone with the State of the Union discourse, which I think was looking back at talk about a grading on a curve.
Jon Lovett
Well, he was good.
Dan Pfeiffer
I mean, he was.
Tommy Vietor
He was good.
Dan Pfeiffer
He was good. He was. He was fine. Like, he was not. It was not the historic speech. It was treated by some people. But yeah, it was good.
Jon Favreau
It was fine. Yeah.
Tommy Vietor
That guy.
Jon Lovett
In my head, it was at least evidence.
Dan Pfeiffer
It was evidence of energy and coherence.
Jon Favreau
That's. Well, that's all. That's the point. I was about old Seth Meyer.
Jon Lovett
And I would say, by the way, that's the bar that we had set for ourselves. And it was too low, too low. We're like, Joe Biden is losing the election, but good news, he can occasionally do a public event. That's kind of a draw. What are we doing here?
Tommy Vietor
Not winning.
Elijah Cohn
State of the Union wasn't forward looking enough. We did go through that tape. It was all. He did a good enough job. He cleared the bar. This one we felt was forward looking and it was. You'll be reassured by more appearances like this.
Jon Favreau
Elijah.
Jon Lovett
There were no more appearances.
Dan Pfeiffer
There are no appearances.
Elijah Cohn
The debate is an appearance.
Jon Favreau
Elijah, could you give us the. There's something. There was something missing from that take. What was the date of the take?
Elijah Cohn
February.
Jon Favreau
February of 2024. Yeah, that was. Okay. February 24th.
Jon Lovett
So after state of the Union.
Jon Favreau
After. So. Right, okay. Yeah, that's. That's. But that was, that's when he was cooking.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, no, that was, that was.
Jon Favreau
He was off the seat.
Elijah Cohn
No, that was State of the Union. It was pre State of the Union.
Jon Favreau
That's like really cooking the last little.
Jon Lovett
Air out of the balloon, you know.
Tommy Vietor
Well, the adrenochrome was really flying around at that point.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, that was the, the Seth Myers appearance, though, where Amy Poehler had to come out.
Jon Favreau
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was at the point where he was no longer doing things by himself.
Elijah Cohn
Who won the worst take of the year by a Pod Save America host?
Jon Favreau
That's tough.
Dan Pfeiffer
I think we're going to collectively sue you for such bad takes.
Tommy Vietor
I like.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, I will just. I have to say, in terms of. In terms of bad takes, the meta bad take of the year was. Hey, guys, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm gonna go on Survivor. I think it'll be good.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, like that.
Jon Lovett
That was a bad take.
Tommy Vietor
Did you have fun?
Jon Lovett
Yeah, I had a good time. I had a good time. Missed three dinners.
Jon Favreau
You did miss three dinners.
Jon Lovett
Missed three dinners.
Jon Favreau
Three dinners. I don't know. I don't pick. Maybe. Maybe we shouldn't pick. Maybe everyone else.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, you guys pick Couch Producer Couch.
Tommy Vietor
Not prepared.
Dan Pfeiffer
I mean, let the audience pick.
Elijah Cohn
Yeah, you got to pick Best in show. Someone makes best in show. I'll say.
Dan Pfeiffer
Here's one thing I can tell you. Our worst take is not winning the Pundit of the Year, no matter what it is.
Jon Favreau
Thank you, Dan. That's a good take. Yeah.
Tommy Vietor
Good take.
Elijah Cohn
Okay.
Jon Lovett
Yeah.
Dan Pfeiffer
Okay.
Elijah Cohn
Well, then I won't give my opinion on it. It doesn't matter.
Jon Lovett
No, no, tell us. Yeah, let's hear it.
Elijah Cohn
Oh, it's for sure. You should be reassured by more public Joe Biden appearances. Come on.
Dan Pfeiffer
Okay, I'll tell you, you are misreading John there.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, I didn't see that.
Dan Pfeiffer
More public appearances like this.
Jon Favreau
Like that. Yeah.
Dan Pfeiffer
And the next one was not like that. It was an epic fucking disaster.
Jon Lovett
Right.
Jon Favreau
If Joe Biden performed like he did on Seth Meyers the entire campaign. Yeah.
Tommy Vietor
All of us are really taking this well and not at all getting defensive about our takes.
Dan Pfeiffer
I didn't.
Tommy Vietor
I didn't go off for five minutes about how I was on a different show.
Jon Lovett
Liberal tears is not. I think we had bad takes. It's just. Would Michael Phelps be as good of a swimmer if he had diarrhea in the pool and then killed himself?
Tommy Vietor
Huh? Probably not.
Jon Favreau
I could name, like, five worst takes that I had.
Elijah Cohn
Go ahead.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah, do it.
Jon Favreau
No, no, no.
Elijah Cohn
All right, let's go. The winning group, Worst takes of the year. From the primaries group, we have Trump's GOP is already dying. From the polling group, we have Alan Lichtman's 13 keys. From the Blue Maga group, we have wanting Joe Biden to drop out is racist. From the discourse group, we have the death of the debate commission. From the bizarre MAGA group, we have they're eating the dogs. And the cats. And from the worst take by a pod Save America host. We have undecided. It's not winning.
Dan Pfeiffer
So, I mean, it's Alan Wickman.
Jon Favreau
I think it's Alan.
Jon Lovett
Yes. And I think, look, and it's funny because it feels like. It feels like.
Jon Favreau
Like mean, like we're punching down.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, but, but, but I think it's worth just saying, like, there was a lot of people like Alan Lickman, which were people that were looking at, like, a miasma of contradictory data and saying they knew the answer. And, like, how many times are we gonna do this? Because I cling to those people, too. Like, you know, you're like. You're just, like, reading all things. And there's this person, like, looking at me like, here's why it's so clear what's gonna happen. And, like, you want. Want those things to be true. Like, you want to believe those things, but you just can't. And this was like a signal. Ridiculous example of it. But no, you're not going to confidently predict the future based on your 14 political science fucking keys.
Tommy Vietor
Political science isn't science. And I think you have to allow for uncertainty. And when you speak in such definitive ways, I think you really leave yourself open to being punched down or up.
Jon Favreau
Yeah.
Elijah Cohn
All right, well, that'll wrap up the 20, 24 pundies. Thank you, guys.
Jon Favreau
Alan Lickman wins.
Tommy Vietor
Alan.
Jon Lovett
Alan Lickman, your prize money's in the mail.
Jon Favreau
I think now we can use a picture of Alan Lickman for the.
Tommy Vietor
Oh, that's good. Maybe the one from the live stream he did that night where he was like, ah, keys.
Jon Lovett
Hey, we found a set of keys in the parking lot.
Jon Favreau
Alan Ligman, come get your keys. All right, we've got one last order of business before we sail off into Crooked's holiday break. Our New Year's resolutions. As always, we'll be confronted with our resolutions from last year to see how we did. Unfortunately, I'm up first. Part of my resolution is, like, similar to Dan's, which is my attention span's gone. I have a strategy, which is I want to take a walk. 20 to 30 minutes a day, maybe over 10 on this, realistically, where I don't bring my phone and I don't listen to anything on Tick Tock.
Tommy Vietor
The silent walk.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, the silent walk.
Jon Lovett
John, how many walks did you take this year?
Jon Favreau
It would be zero. Zero silent walks.
Jon Lovett
Not one walk without your phone.
Jon Favreau
Not without my phone. But I will say this is what I did. This I did every Tuesday. My Tuesdays in the middle of the day. I would take a walk and I would listen to a podcast, but I would not look at my phone. Exactly. I didn't do it, but I did. I did. You know, I can't believe you have gone.
Dan Pfeiffer
You have gone back to back years of doing none of your resolution. Don't forget the volunteering one of last year.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, okay. How many years am I going to get the fucking volunteer in?
Jon Lovett
1. This is our last chance to talk about it. Yeah, how's that late alarm? You get that leak at that carpal tunnel up?
Tommy Vietor
He's defrosting turkeys all day long.
Jon Lovett
I need more corn for the chili.
Tommy Vietor
He's got a big bell and a.
Jon Favreau
Santa suit outside of Kroger. Oh, my God. All right, let's hear. Let's hear Tommy's. That's what I say.
Tommy Vietor
Next year, I want to skip this recording again so that I cannot be held accountable. Once again. Screwed that up. I somehow got on a list that has led me to get dozens of cold emails from random tech consultants. I want to find that list, destroy it, and destroy whoever created it. Wow.
Jon Favreau
What are they talking about? Weird fucking resolution.
Tommy Vietor
That's weird. I think what happened is I decided to come in just being a jackass with jokes, and you guys were serious, and it kind of changed the vibe.
Jon Favreau
Oh, wow. Did you. How'd you do? I don't think I get a lot of the tech consultants out of your inbox.
Jon Lovett
How's your spam problem, Tommy? A lot of self reflection going on.
Tommy Vietor
I think you made this joke last year.
Jon Favreau
Okay, okay. Oh, Oh. I guess I didn't do my resolution. Oh, let's do them all at the end. Okay, that's great. Great, Dan. Let's do Dan's.
Dan Pfeiffer
The thing I really want to work on this year is regaining some semblance of my attention span.
Tommy Vietor
0 for 2.
Jon Lovett
Dan, did you do that? Did you do that, Dan?
Dan Pfeiffer
I would say no. No, I did not.
Tommy Vietor
The irony of you saying this, Dan.
Jon Lovett
Is you write books.
Jon Favreau
I wrote books.
Dan Pfeiffer
Wrote, Wrote.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, but like a weekly. A couple days a week. Is it every day out? The other day in the message box.
Dan Pfeiffer
A couple days a week.
Jon Favreau
It feels like all the time.
Jon Lovett
It feels like all the time and never enough.
Jon Favreau
Always impressive.
Dan Pfeiffer
I did not do the things I wanted to do to regain my attention span. I doubled down, I think two weeks after I gave this resolution. I set up push notifications for that account that retweets all of Trump's truth socials, which was a sign that I wasn't going to make it this year.
Jon Favreau
All right, let's hear Lovitz.
Jon Lovett
My resolution is to not spend the year worrying about food and diet. Like, for the first time, to go into this year without any kind of, like, emotionally unhealthy relationship with food and diet and exercise. That's my resolution. And to keep that going.
Jon Favreau
Oh, yeah. Wow. How did you find the willpower to do that? I think you nailed that one.
Elijah Cohn
Some help.
Jon Favreau
Where did you gain the strength?
Jon Lovett
First of all, thanks.
Jon Favreau
Ha ha.
Jon Lovett
Yeah, yeah. That we're making America healthy again. One injection to the hip at this time. Now, this resolution came after I'd already started taking. I know.
Jon Favreau
That was what was even worse about it.
Jon Lovett
No, but. But I will say I did also fail because I'm still. I, like, I'm better. I'm definitely better, but I still do have, like, an unhealthy relationship to food. It's so hard. But, like, it's interesting, like, all of our resolutions, like, attention span and like, and. And diet, it's all about, like, trying to find some, like, inner result, like, reservoir of discipline to defeat, like, a cultural force. And it's hard. It's hard because, like, I'm now, like, I'm better about the diet stuff and I am, like, a little bit crazy about exercise. So I don't know. I don't know. Better. Better than I was. That's for sure.
Tommy Vietor
Should try my 13 keys to.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, all right.
Tommy Vietor
Never fails.
Jon Favreau
Now we'll go around and do our resolutions. My resolution this year, this one I'm gonna. I'm gonna nail.
Dan Pfeiffer
I cannot fucking wait.
Jon Favreau
More posting. Okay, I'm going. I'm more. Posting more Twitter fights. It's gonna be Twitter. It's gonna be blue sky. I'm jumping in the discord. I'm. And post TikTok stitches. TikTok stitches.
Jon Lovett
Really? Is this serious?
Jon Favreau
Yeah, more. I'm going to just say what I want.
Jon Lovett
Well, okay.
Jon Favreau
Getting there. I'm get. I'm getting in the discourse. You've all seen it. Yeah, I've been doing it.
Dan Pfeiffer
You've been doing this for six months now.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, well, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Since Biden. Since Biden had that great debate.
Dan Pfeiffer
Oftentimes I'll just open up my phone on a Friday night before bed and was like, man, what was John thinking at 9:30 to jump on this third rail?
Jon Favreau
I will say, though, like, in the. In the. In the month or two before the election, I kind of. I kind of settled down a little bit on the post and I did a lot of checking but not a lot of posting. I'm posting now.
Dan Pfeiffer
Pro selection. You are. You're just in it. And it's funny to listen to be like, in a. In a group chat with you where you're texting your anger about something and see how long you've held yourself back before you start tweeting about it.
Jon Favreau
It usually starts in the group chat. I usually test it out there, and I'm like, oh, it's going to Twitter.
Jon Lovett
What's the goal?
Tommy Vietor
You know, it doesn't make you feel good.
Jon Favreau
I mean, part of this is that I can't feel good, that I can't. I can't stop it. So I might as well lean into it.
Jon Lovett
Right? That's the argument for Trump from Republicans in the House.
Jon Favreau
No, it's a joke. It's a joke, guys. But what I am. I. I am going to. Well, like, I'm going to. The reason I'm going to post more is because I'm going to. I'm going to put out my thoughts. Right. I'm not going to get in Twitter fights, stuff like that, but I want to write my thoughts down more. And if it's in post, that's great. If it's in articles, that's great. But I'm going to. I realize that just talking is. Is not good enough for me. I want to actually write my thoughts down, so. I know, and I really actually want to. I don't want to be on Twitter as much posting, but I do want to. I've been talking to our Discord subscribers, and they're great, and so I want to get in there more.
Tommy Vietor
They're nice.
Jon Lovett
Great. Yeah, I think that's great.
Jon Favreau
Okay.
Jon Lovett
I think it's good to write things down. I think sometimes writing things down is to. You figure out what you really think when you actually try to write it down.
Tommy Vietor
That's right.
Jon Favreau
Yeah. And, like, some of it is there's times where I've just been, like, writing stuff down that doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't go on Twitter. It doesn't go anywhere. But sometimes it actually just helps to sort of, like, you know, type something out.
Dan Pfeiffer
I cannot wait to read your diary in discovery.
Jon Favreau
Yeah, that's. It'll be good. It'll be good. All right, Tommy, who's. Who's in your inbox that you're getting out this year?
Tommy Vietor
Who are the big CRM manager? Salesforce.
Jon Favreau
Salesforce.
Tommy Vietor
Coming for them. Coming for your tower. I want to. Want to talk to more smart people off air experts. Talk to a really smart Guy about Sudan in Somaliland today. I could elaborate if you guys want to hear more about it.
Jon Favreau
I love it. You can tell by your face. Classic, classic Tommy Riddles.
Tommy Vietor
So impressed for, but really helpful to talk to these very smart, nerdy, nice people and just do it to get smarter on background. It's the thing I like doing. I want to get good at using AI tools. I tried to use ChatGPT to write me a list of resolutions and I failed. So I want to get better at that.
Jon Favreau
Okay, all right, so tell me experts and AI experts.
Tommy Vietor
Maybe there's some overlap there.
Jon Lovett
It's. Well, the overlap is one is a group of people helping to make the world clearer. The other is a technology that will make it much harder. So in a way, they're in competition. So that's interesting.
Jon Favreau
Yeah.
Tommy Vietor
We'll see who wins.
Jon Favreau
Let us know.
Tommy Vietor
Pick your fighter. Finally. I've been reading a book about mindfulness meditation, but I haven't been doing it. I think it'd be good to do it. It's good for you.
Jon Lovett
Okay. Tommy's gonna meditate.
Jon Favreau
It is good.
Jon Lovett
Maybe. Maybe while you're meditating, you'll see John one of his walks.
Jon Favreau
Ladle in one hand. Famous stroll, Twitter in. That's right.
Tommy Vietor
That's your late alarm. So funny.
Jon Favreau
Dan.
Tommy Vietor
Dan, what do you got?
Dan Pfeiffer
So, two things. One, I am going to make another run at my attention span. And the thing I've started doing since election, which has caused me to miss many of John's best Twitter fights, is to put my phone away before I put my kids to bed and not look at it for the rest of the night.
Tommy Vietor
That's so smart.
Dan Pfeiffer
So no longer two, screening, like watching TV or something like that. So that's one. Whether I will manage to continue doing that, Open question, but I want to do that. The second thing, and it's related to Tommy's path towards mindfulness is.
Jon Lovett
That's not even a joke.
Dan Pfeiffer
I'm being serious here, Pat.
Jon Favreau
It was the path towards mindfulness.
Jon Lovett
Okay.
Tommy Vietor
That's the winding path. There's some dead ends along the way.
Jon Lovett
The path is the mindfulness. Guys.
Dan Pfeiffer
This is really both mindfulness and attention span is. I want to take up yoga in 2025. I started doing it some this year just as a way downward.
Tommy Vietor
Dan.
Jon Lovett
Dan.
Dan Pfeiffer
Yep.
Jon Lovett
I'm so excited for you. When you're next in la, you and I, we're going to Pilates.
Jon Favreau
Oh, I'd love to watch.
Jon Lovett
You know what's funny is I debated.
Dan Pfeiffer
Whether I would do this one publicly and then I was like, Lovett has been basically doing a one man pitch for Pilates for weeks now. So this is safe space.
Jon Lovett
I do yoga too. I do yoga too.
Tommy Vietor
Where do you do it, Dan? Do you go to group classes?
Dan Pfeiffer
Yeah, they've been doing hot Vinyasa yoga.
Jon Lovett
Nice, nice.
Dan Pfeiffer
But I want to do it regularly. Like, I do it every once in a while now, but I want to do it somehow.
Tommy Vietor
It feels good. It's really good for you.
Jon Lovett
It's good. Father of the fanfic Downward.
Tommy Vietor
Downward Dan. Yeah. How do you say that?
Jon Lovett
Downward Dan. Downward Dan's pretty good.
Jon Favreau
Love it.
Jon Lovett
So I feel like we are coming to the end of the year where we made a lot of shows and we did a ton of content and there was a lot happening. And I want to try next year to do a little bit less, a little bit better and really be deliberate about. Cause I do think that, like, Joe.
Jon Favreau
Biden, you're quiet quitting too, A little.
Jon Lovett
Bit more than him. No, but, like, I do think that, like, we're heading into the another Trump era. It's going to be exhausting. And like, we keep saying, like, you know, we got to make sure that we're, like, disciplined about what we care about, discipline what we pay attention to. And I just want to have apply that to, like, what we cover, how we cover it. I want to make sure that, like, so we like, took down one, the Tuesday Love or Leave It. And that's in part because I want to try to make the Thursday show even better. And I want the time and space to think about that and to think about other things to do outside of these two shows. And like, I want to have the mental space and like, the, the. Not. It's not about time, but.
Dan Pfeiffer
Or.
Jon Lovett
Or even, like, work. It's just like the, like the creative space to think about how to. How to talk about politics. Because so much of what we've just been saying for. For the last couple weeks is there's something about how Democrats sound and we need to figure out how we're communicating. And, like, you're not going to figure that out in the churn.
Jon Favreau
All right, well, good luck, everyone. I'll be posting that. Feels like a pretty good place to end it. As I mentioned, we're going to be on our winter break the next two weeks, but we'll be tidying you over here in the feed with special access to an episode of our subscriber show inside 2024 with Dan and Alyssa, all about how presidential transitions work in an episode of assembly required with Stacey Abrams about the Trump administration's plans for health care. Big thanks to the takemaster General Elijah for hosting, to Hallie Keefer for writing, and to our PSA staff for the hours they spent combing through the very worst of the Internet and this show to bring you today's episode. You guys are fantastic and beautiful performances.
Jon Lovett
And the performances incredible.
Jon Favreau
Farrah, Haley, Saul, Adrian Reid heard his voice there too. I'm guessing David was involved too. Who else do we miss from our producers? That's everyone. All right guys. Everyone have a great holiday and we will talk to everyone in the New year. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad free or get access to our subscription discord and exclusive podcasts, consider joining our Friends of the pod community@cricket.com friends or subscribe on Apple Podcasts directly from the Pod Save America feed. Also, be sure to follow Pod Save America on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for full episodes, bonus content and more. And before you hit that next button, you can help boost this episode by leaving us a review and by sharing it with friends and family. Pod Save America is a crooked media production. Our producers are David Toledo and Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari, Reed Churlin is our executive editor and Adrian Hill is our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Kanter is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by Hallie Keifer Madeline Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt de Groat is our head of production. Andy Taft is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Phoebe Bradford, Joseph Dutra, Ben Hefcoat, Mia Kelman, Molly Lobel, Kiril Pelaviev and David Toles.
Jon Lovett
This AI moment hits different it's the.
Jon Favreau
First technology designed not just to serve.
Jon Lovett
Us, but to be us. I'm Baratunde Thurston and and on my new video podcast, Life With Machines, I'm going to talk to all kinds of.
Tommy Vietor
Folks, the people hitting the gas pedal.
Jon Lovett
On this transition and those trying to pump the brakes. Watch and listen to Life with Machines. Powered by Lenovo in partnership with Intel Intel Core Ultra 7 processor powering Intel V Pro, Lenovo Lenovo Variety raves Maria is absolute perfection in Entertainment Weekly hails.
Jon Favreau
Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie brings tragedy.
Jon Lovett
And triumph to the last days of opera singer Maria Callas. Finally, I am in control and critics agree it's a towering tour de force.
Tommy Vietor
Performance from Angelina Jolie and a career best.
Jon Favreau
My life is opera.
Jon Lovett
There is no reason in opera Maria, directed by Pablo Larrey for your consideration.
Jon Favreau
Now playing. It's like Peterson on Netflix.
Pod Save America – Episode: The Pundies: Worst Takes of 2024
Release Date: December 20, 2024
Hosts:
Introduction
In the season finale of 2024, the Pod Save America team dives deep into their annual "Pundies" segment, where they dissect and rank the year's most egregious political takes. Hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer, and guest host Elijah Cohn, the episode promises a no-holds-barred analysis of the worst punditry that shaped the political landscape over the past year.
Segment 1: Setting the Stage ([02:11] - [05:05])
The episode kicks off with a light-hearted exchange about the hosts' participation in "Survivor," setting a humorous tone. Jon Favreau announces the transition to the Pundies segment, emphasizing the focus on ranking the worst takes of 2024. The conversation quickly shifts to the looming government shutdown, attributing its potential occurrence to Elon Musk's provocative tweets and subsequent involvement from Donald Trump. The hosts express a mix of frustration and disbelief at the unfolding political chaos, highlighting the precarious state of the U.S. government.
Notable Quote:
Segment 2: Introduction to the Pundies ([06:07] - [14:18])
Elijah Cohn takes the reins as the guest host, explaining the Pundies' format inspired by dog shows. Categories are introduced, including bad punditry across various topics such as presidential primaries, polling, and discourse. The first category delves into the presidential primaries, examining flawed analyses and predictions made by pundits and influencers.
Segment 3: Worst Takes of 2024
Presidential Primaries ([08:02] - [12:35])
Polling Takes ([14:54] - [22:06])
Highlight: Nate Silver engages in a public Twitter bet predicting a substantial Trump win in Florida, which ultimately proved inaccurate.
Notable Quote:
Highlight: Alan Lichtman’s "Thirteen Keys" system fails to accurately predict election outcomes, showcasing the dangers of pseudoscientific methods in political forecasting.
Notable Quote:
Blue Anon / Blue Maga Discourse ([22:06] - [31:11])
Highlight: Influencer Chris Boosie equates Democratic pressure on Biden to Republican actions on January 6th, leading to widespread backlash accusing him of being racist and ableist.
Notable Quote:
Highlight: A deleted post suggesting a conspiracy on Epstein Island to remove Biden, further inflaming partisan tensions.
Notable Quote:
Discourse Challenges ([31:11] - [45:12])
Highlight: Discussions around the neglect of the Debate Commission, with Assemblyman Jamel Holley criticizing the traditional debate process for favoring certain candidates.
Notable Quote:
Highlight: The "They're eating the dogs and cats" conspiracy theory gains traction, depicting migrants as threats to local communities, which the hosts vehemently dismiss.
Notable Quote:
Bizarre Right-Wing Takes ([45:12] - [56:08])
Highlight: A series of absurd takes, including claims that celebrating Joe Biden's birthday is a sign of weakness in masculinity and unfounded accusations linking celebrities like Taylor Swift to nefarious agendas.
Notable Quote:
Highlight: RFK Jr.’s problematic statements about vaccines, undermining public health efforts.
Notable Quote:
Worst Takes by Pod Save America Hosts ([59:56] - [69:24])
Segment 4: Awarding the "Worst Take of the Year" ([66:42] - [69:24])
After deliberation, the hosts crown Alan Lichtman’s "Thirteen Keys" method as the worst take of the year. They criticize his overconfidence and lack of empirical grounding, emphasizing the pitfalls of deterministic political forecasting.
Notable Quote:
Segment 5: New Year's Resolutions ([69:07] - [77:38])
The episode concludes with the hosts sharing their personal New Year's resolutions, humorously admitting their shortcomings in maintaining them. Jon Favreau aims to reduce phone usage during walks, Tommy Vietor plans to enhance his mindfulness practices, Dan Pfeiffer focuses on improving his attention span and taking up yoga, and Jon Lovett resolves to foster a healthier relationship with food and diet.
Notable Quotes:
Conclusion
As 2024 wraps up, Pod Save America provides a candid and entertaining critique of the year's most questionable political narratives and statements. Through humor and sharp analysis, the hosts not only highlight the worst takes but also reflect on their own roles in the political discourse. This episode serves as both a retrospective and a hopeful look toward improving political communication and engagement in the coming year.
Notable Quote:
Final Thoughts
"The Pundies: Worst Takes of 2024" encapsulates Pod Save America's commitment to cutting through political noise and fostering meaningful conversations. By addressing the most flawed opinions and fostering self-reflection among the hosts, the episode offers listeners valuable insights into navigating the complex world of politics with clarity and integrity.