Trump's Explosive Diarrhea of the Mouth

Summary

Pod Save America – "Trump's Explosive Diarrhea of the Mouth"

Date: July 17, 2026
Hosts: Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Abdul El-Sayed
Guest Segment: Alex Wagner interviews Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed

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Episode Overview

This episode dissects Donald Trump’s primetime address full of recycled election conspiracy theories and fresh management scandals, explores the broader GOP circus, and features an extended interview with Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. The hosts break down the ongoing narrative warfare over election security, MAGA corruption, and the culture war absurdities—before handing things over to Alex Wagner for a sharp, policy-forward discussion about immigration, policing, Israel/Palestine, and generational political change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dissecting Trump's Primetime Address (03:30–17:00)

Main Claims from Trump (04:35–10:32)

• Declassification and Conspiracies: Trump announces the release of "critical intelligence" exposing supposed vulnerabilities in US election infrastructure, tying it to shadowy “deep state” actors and foreign foes.
• Conspiratorial Rhetoric: Allegations included China’s access to public voter files (which are public anyway), unsubstantiated claims about US voting machine vulnerabilities, a Michigan voter registration scare already debunked, and a bizarre inclusion of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro meddling in Venezuelan elections.
• Quote [04:35]: Donald Trump: “This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.”

Host Analysis

• Muddled Narrative: Hosts note the scattershot, confounding logic: even as seasoned political watchers, they find it hard to untangle.
• Debunking Claims:
  • Public voter data is not secret nor unique to China; it’s easily accessible.
  • No evidence showing hacked or changed votes, according to the Trump administration’s own intelligence and documents.
  • Foreign interference attempts (China, Russia, Iran) are perennial, but without impact on outcomes.
  • Declassified documents released by Trump contradict his own speech—highlighting Russian interference on his behalf (13:17).
• Notable Quote [10:07]: Jon Favreau: “There’s wildfire smoke, inflation is high, people are struggling… and yet the President went out tonight to talk about random recycled voter conspiracy, election fraud, conspiracy theories.”

Political Context & Impact

• No News, Old News, or Just Nonsense? (15:28–17:18)
  • This “explosive” speech is mostly hollow: “He just vomited a bunch of things that didn’t make a lot of sense in a very tired, monotone voice…” – Dan Pfeiffer [16:10].
  • Hosts reiterate vigilance but refuse to be newly alarmed by this recycled, ineffectual script.
  • Networks had every reason to not air the speech; it was partisan and non-newsworthy [17:12].

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2. Republican Reactions & MAGA Corruption Roundup (21:15–34:35)

GOP Shades of Panic (21:15–24:05)

• Three Factions:

  • “Doomers” (scared by the electoral impact)
  • The “What Can I Do?” cohort, rolling their eyes
  • MAGA "freaks" energized by Trump’s drama (represented by Steve Bannon)

• Quote [22:39]: Dan Pfeiffer: “It’s so stupid. And the bigger political issue here is… you’re waving a sign that says, I do not care about you. I do not care about your problems. I care about me and my problems. And that is bad for Republicans.”

Corruption Lowlights

• Teleprompter Scandal (24:05–27:59):
  • Trump’s teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, is busted making $100,000 betting on speech content via prediction markets.
  • Reflective of absurd White House job titles: “The teleprompter operator has the rank of deputy assistant to the President… that’s your taxpayer money…” – Dan Pfeiffer [25:24].
• Trump Media Profiteering (28:02–31:18):
  • Trump Media is selling Wall Street real-time access to his “truths”—allowing privileged, profitable market trades off his statements before the public hears them.
  • “This would be like if Wall Street was paying the President to get a presidential statement before the rest of the people…” – Dan Pfeiffer [29:18].
• VP J.D. Vance’s Helicopter Rides (31:25–34:33):
  • Vance requests taxpayer-funded chopper rides for his son's golf lessons; Secret Service is fed up and jokes about a “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club.”
  • “You were getting taxpayer-funded helicopter lessons for your son's golf lessons… this is that.” – Dan Pfeiffer [32:37]
  • “Boy, are we a long way away from Hillbilly Elegy, huh?” – Jon Favreau [32:59]

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3. Culture War Sideshow Updates (37:40–46:35)

JD Vance on Joe Rogan (37:40–43:12)

• Vance’s awkward, meandering political identity on Rogan’s show: trying (and failing) to appeal to multiple publics, getting tangled on topics from Epstein to ice cream to anti-woke culture jabs.
• “He can never get there. He just cannot do it.” – Dan Pfeiffer [42:09]

Testosterone Testing for Troops (43:25–46:35)

• Trump's Secretary of War Pete Hegseth launches a “testosterone deficiency screening” initiative—played for laughs, but hosts flag the unscientific, culture war undertones.
• “We are, like, three minutes away from Pete Hegseth offering penis enhancements to service members.” – Dan Pfeiffer [44:10]

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4. Extended Interview: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed with Alex Wagner (50:00–85:54)

Immigration and ICE (51:13–57:14)

• Dr. El-Sayed calls for abolishing ICE, arguing it’s beyond reform and was never essential to American immigration enforcement pre-9/11.
• “ICE is about normalizing paramilitary force in contraposition to the constitutional order itself.” – Abdul El-Sayed [52:12]

Policing & Public Safety (58:32–61:26)

• El-Sayed clarifies he never called for complete police defunding and supports smart investments in law enforcement, community programs, and poverty alleviation.

Political Strategy: Win the Argument (62:14–65:29)

• El-Sayed rejects defensive “caricature politics,” urging Democrats to actively persuade and “tell our own story” across diverse communities—even on charged issues like immigration or Israel.

Israel/Palestine, Foreign Aid (65:29–72:06)

• Strongly opposes unconditional aid to Israel, centering American priorities and equal rights for all: “I just want equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for all people… our tax dollars ought to secure the interests of a foreign government?” [68:41]
• On AIPAC’s spending: “$30 million to try to put my head on a pike—to show every Democrat that thou shalt not say the conventional wisdom that maybe the interests of kids in our own country matter more…” [70:55]

Working in a Divided Senate (74:42–79:35)

• El-Sayed advocates for a shift away from corporate influence, crossing traditional ideological lines, and making the Michigan race a national testing ground for a people-powered progressive approach.

Protecting Democracy & Generational Change (79:40–85:39)

• Cites the need for massive, overwhelming wins to protect elections against interference or attempted subversion.
• Calls out congressional gerontocracy and stresses the imperative to center youth, especially as technology (like AI) transforms careers and governance.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dan Pfeiffer [16:10]: “He just vomited a bunch of things that didn’t make a lot of sense in a very tired, monotone voice that felt aggrieved the whole time…”
• Jon Favreau [28:46]: “Why don’t they just start asking the treasury to print money for the Trumps?”
• Dan Pfeiffer [29:18]: “This would be like if Wall Street was paying the President to get a presidential statement before the rest of the people so that they could make instantaneous trades…”
• Abdul El-Sayed [52:12]: “ICE is about normalizing paramilitary force in contraposition to the constitutional order itself.”
• Alex Wagner [65:29]: “With all due respect, the question of whether Israel should exist or not is essential when you're answering whether a US tax dollar should go towards protecting that right to exist.”
• Abdul El-Sayed [68:50]: “Why is it our responsibility to ensure that [Israel survives with our tax dollars]?”
• Dr. El-Sayed [85:44]: “This is literally the money versus the many in this race. I hope folks listening will get involved.”

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Important Timestamps

• 03:30 – Breakdown of Trump’s primetime speech and claims
• 10:32 – Discussion about the speech’s incoherence and intention to sow doubt
• 15:28 – Context on why the speech is not alarming, but vigilance is necessary
• 24:05 – Trump White House teleprompter operator betting scandal
• 28:02 – Trump Media sells access to “market moving” presidential statements
• 31:25 – J.D. Vance’s taxpayer helicopter for his son's golf lesson
• 37:40 – JD Vance’s awkward Joe Rogan interview analysis
• 43:25 – Pete Hegseth’s testosterone screening program for troops
• 50:00–85:54 – Alex Wagner interviews Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
  • 51:13 – Abolishing ICE and immigration
  • 58:32 – Policing, “defund,” and public safety
  • 65:29 – US aid to Israel, Democratic party politics
  • 74:42 – Functioning in a divided Senate
  • 79:40 – Election subversion and transfer of power worries
  • 82:54 – Congressional gerontocracy, youth, and AI governance

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Tone & Language Notes

• The hosts are characteristically irreverent (“explosive diarrhea,” “idiots,” “corrupt-a-thon”), but their analysis stays substantively grounded, direct, and often self-deprecating.
• The interview with Dr. El-Sayed is earnest, detailed, and occasionally confrontational—maintaining a spirit of respectful engagement even on contentious issues.

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For listeners: This episode is a salad of political absurdity, media critiques, and in-depth policy discussion—a showcase of Pod Save America’s blend of sharp analysis and gallows humor.

Transcript

[Jon Favreau]

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[Abdul El-Sayed]

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[Jon Favreau]

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

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

[Jon Favreau]

On today's show, Donald Trump unloads recycled election conspiracies in an impossible to follow primetime address. His teleprompter operator was apparently making money betting on his speeches. His media company is selling Wall street access to his truths and his vice president is demanding taxpayer funded helicopter rides for his kid's golf lesson. We'll dig into those stories. Plus J.D. vance's attempt to win back Joe Rogan and Pete Hegseth's obsession with testosterone. Then Alex Wagner talks to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed about the intense primary in that state that's heading into the final home stretch. Speaking of Alex, we're always adding new perks for Friends of the pod. And now subscribers can listen to Alex Wagner's Runaway country ad free. Welcome to the Ad Free group of pods, Alex Wagner.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's the inner circle, if you will.

[Jon Favreau]

And to everyone else if you haven't subscribed already. Now you get Alex's POD ad free as well as this one. As well as pod Save the World and Offline and Love it or Leave it and all your favorite crooked pods. And you get subscriber only shows like Polar Coaster with this guy that I'm doing the POD with right here.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Which never had ads.

[Jon Favreau]

Which never had ads. Cause it's subscriber only. Pod Save America only friends. And you get to be supporting independent media. So when Donald Trump screams at Brendan Carr to pull everyone's license, can't do that with us. Cause we don't have a broadcast license.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Cool.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yes.

[Jon Favreau]

Silver lining. That's what I think. Cricket.com friends if you want to subscribe. All right, let's get to Trump's big primetime address which he billed as really big news. Really big news. It doesn't get bigger. It's so big that we are recording this at 7pm on Thursday night because we wanted to bring you our analysis of this speech, which is why we're here late because it was so big.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Just like a table of nine people. At CNN,

[Jon Favreau]

dozens of 2020 election deniers got called to the White House for a top secret preview. Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno said it would be the most important presidential address since the Cuban Missile Crisis. And at 9pm Eastern on Thursday night, this is what we got. Though this might be news to you unless you're a Fox or CBS viewer since those are the only networks that carried it live. CBS really only did like half the speech and then they sort of like gave context around it. But anyway, here's what you missed tonight.

[Donald Trump]

I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference. Just as disturbingly, this vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you. They wanted to just make you sound like, like your president wasn't so hot when actually your president has done a great job. Recently we found significant numbers of burn bags, members of the deep state, very, very famous group of people. Many cases they did not want and they just didn't want it. They fought like hell not to have it. Donald Trump to win in a Rare move. NBC and ABC Fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about. They and others in the media, part of a pl. They want to continue this fraud. For whatever reason, they want to keep it going. Addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the Save America Act.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Wow.

[Jon Favreau]

So that was something. You know, in our meeting before the speech earlier this week, you said it would probably just be a bunch of rambling, nothing that no one would pay attention to and think about more than 24, 48 hours afterwards. And I kind of think you nailed it, Dan.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Well, I had to get one right eventually.

[Jon Favreau]

Let's get to Trump's actual claims, which, honestly, I mean, we played that supercut, but it was hard to follow. And we have followed this for, like 10 years. And also, like before the speech, while we were waiting around in the office to record tonight, I was like, going back and reading things about the 2020 election and what had been debunked just so I could prepare for this. And still it was hard to follow.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

And that stuff wasn't even really helpful. You didn't even being an expert in the conspiracy theories up to this point, was that helpful? Because these were new ish conspiracy theories.

[Jon Favreau]

Well, let's go through his actual claims. Starting in 2020, China allegedly acquired 220 million US voter files. And the deep state hid this from Trump. Now, all the documents that the White House released also confirm what the intelligence agencies and the government found back in 2020, when Trump was president, that not a single vote was changed. And also the voter files, voter information, voter registration information is public in most states. You can just get the information so

[Dan Pfeiffer]

anyone can get it.

[Jon Favreau]

The idea that our names and addresses are somewhere sitting in China, they're also sitting out there on the Internet.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Anyone can get it. Every campaign has it. It didn't require any hacking or any nefarious moves to get it. What do they want to do with it? Were their intentions good? Probably not, but Trump tried to make it sound much scarier than it actually was.

[Jon Favreau]

Our voting machines are vulnerable. Didn't really give a lot of evidence for that. That was all recycled stuff that the intelligence agency had said. There's, like, potential for vulnerabilities in some electronic voting machines, but nothing has happened. And other nefarious actors and other countries may have been looking at ways to hack into or interfere with voting machines, but no one has done it. And so there's no news there. There was a random episode in Michigan in 2020 where a bunch of suspicious voter registration forms were flagged to the police and then nothing happened and no votes were changed and no people were registered. And I guess it was never prosecuted. And now Trump wants that prosecuted.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, and it's, I mean, the thing about that is this has happened in the past. It actually happened on a race I worked on many, many years ago where people are doing voter registration drive and they just filled out the forms in order to get paid, which is fraud. But it's not voter fraud because the people who got registered, if they, they either don't exist or if they do exist, they don't know they're registered. So they don't vote.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, so that's, that's, it's an old one. It's been public. It's not, that wasn't anything new. DHS apparently found a bunch of non citizens registered to vote, but didn't find any non citizens who did vote. Also, it can't really be verified. Who knows what the non citizens registering to vote are. We haven't seen those documents yet. And then big one, there was some election meddling. There were some votes changed in Venezuela by Nicolas Maduro.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Someone's gotta get that Maduro guy. That guy should be serving time.

[Jon Favreau]

One of the revelations tonight was that Nicolas Maduro meddled in Venezuela's elections and somehow that ended up in Donald Trump's primetime address at a time when we are at war with Iran. The strait is closed, inflation is high, people are struggling. There's wildfire smoke that is making some half the cities in the Northeast and the Midwest unbreathable. Can't even go outside.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

You can't eat lettuce without getting explosive diarrhea.

[Jon Favreau]

Forgot about that. Right? There's lettuce, explosive diarrhea. And yet the President went out tonight to talk about random recycled voter conspiracy, election fraud, conspiracy theories. And let us know that Nicholas Maduro meddled in his own elections and that the Chinese have access to the voter file data that we do, too.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I mean, a couple of just key points here I just want to hone in on. First, you said it. I'm going to say it again. It's very important. No one has presented any evidence that

[Jon Favreau]

votes were changed, including the Trump administration this time around.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

This they could not find that they went into last time around.

[Jon Favreau]

They did that too this time around as well.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, they cannot do it. The second thing here is that they, China apparently acquired public information. Don't love it, but nothing you can really do about it. We make it public. Next, the idea to the extent that there was allegations, although this is very much disputed by intelligence community, that China was going to be involved in some sort of misinformation campaign. They're going to try to get involved, like hire journalists or media influencers or build bots or all of that. All of the things that Russia did on Trump's behalf in 2016 to be noted not to have evidence that they actually did it, but that they thought about doing it. But we also know that in every election, foreign intelligence agencies try to interfere in our elections. Russia tries it, Iran has tried it, the Chinese have apparently tried it. Nothing new there. No evidence that actually changed any votes. I think the most important thing here is if there were huge gaps in our election security infrastructure that allowed China to penetrate to do these things that Trump claims they did do, the person who was in charge at that time should be held accountable. And that person was Donald Trump.

[Jon Favreau]

No, careful on that, because he got ahead of that tonight by basically saying that everyone. That this was all uncovered and this was all known in 2020, but it was all the deep state, and the deep state hit it from. So this is like he's going to go after him.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

That's my next. That's my next point. His big complaint we spent a lot of time here is that the people who work for him didn't tell him things.

[Jon Favreau]

Right.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Well, it seems like a management problem. And I would also point out that the guy who is the Director of National Intelligence, who would have been overseeing the people who were hiding things from Donald Trump, is a man named John Ratcliffe. Is John Radcliffe in jail? Has he been. Has he been. Has he been, like, shamed out of public life? No, he's. Donald Trump picked him to be his Director of the CIA.

[Jon Favreau]

Look, these people, these are not incompetent public servants. These are victims of a deep state plot. Dan, no matter who you're talking about, there's always a deep state operative responsible for pulling the wool over their eyes.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

And then also, if you were someone who is deeply concerned about our election security going forward, would you have gutted many of the agencies and eliminated much of the funding that goes towards election security? Because that's what Donald Trump and Elon Musk did do.

[Jon Favreau]

One thing that's funny is as everyone is reading, all you can go to whitehouse.gov to look at all these docs that they declassified and released is everyone's looking at the docs. They're not really matching the President's claims in the speech.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Stop.

[Jon Favreau]

His own documents. His own documents. Sam Stein picked up this one here. Docs released by Trump tonight confirm Russia tried to spread claims Biden was engaged in criminal activity vis a vis burisma, and that it advanced those narratives with US Officials and planned a high profile corruption scandal at the peak of the 2020 presidential campaign. You might remember that that scandal turned out to be the subject of Donald Trump's first impeachment.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, his perfect phone call to Zelensky.

[Jon Favreau]

So that stuff's out there now. There was a lot of stuff just about Russia in the docs that Russia tried to interfere on behalf of Donald Trump. They put all that out there, too. Fucking idiots, man.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, it's so stupid.

[Jon Favreau]

And apparently, like there was an administration official told msnow before the speech because this was a speech that was cooked up, by the way, by John Solomon, the pretend journalist who then has become a special government employee. And also Bill Pulte. And an administration official told Ms. Now flatly that the intelligence doesn't show what Pulte and Solomon claim. Quote, the intelligence just doesn't say what you want it to say. I'm sorry. So they just, they cooked up some stuff for the president to say in his speech and get all mad and please him. Please grandpa, who's getting old and grumpy and wants to talk about election conspiracies. And then they just threw that in the speech and then they put out a bunch of docs that don't really say any of that.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Cool. What a great use of everyone's time.

[Jon Favreau]

What a great use of everyone's time. What's your level of alarm after listening? Because on one hand, it's all stupid and they didn't really prove anything and they didn't even make up any good story. They didn't even, they didn't even put out a good lie. On the other hand, it's clear that his intention is to sow doubt among Americans in the sanctity of our elections. And clearly, as sure as the Sun Comes up is going to cry foul if Republicans lose the midterms.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I mean, this is a man who cried foul at an election he won in 2016. So.

[Jon Favreau]

Right. So it's like that's. You didn't need a speech or declassifying a bunch of documents for that.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

But sure, I think we should be very vigilant because Donald Trump is going to try to interfere in these elections. Like we know that. That is obvious. I think he has less power to do so than he believes. And a lot of Democrats fear these elections are run by the states. States Decide how they're run, how the votes are counted, how they're certified. Those things are written in law. The courts to date have been very skeptical of any of these Trump efforts across the board from 2020 all the way through here. But he's going to try and we should be vigilant. I am no more worried after this speech than I was before. This was just stupid. This doesn't. This is like. I think people thought he was going to. You know, there was reporting early on that he was just going to declare that John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were illegitimate senators. I don't know what power he has to do that, but that. Or that he would call for the seizing of something or the confiscation of this thing. He did none of that. He just vomited a bunch of things that didn't make a lot of sense in a very tired, monotone voice that was felt aggrieved the whole time and

[Jon Favreau]

then moved bird bags. Bird bags.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah. I mean, it was. We can get into the. The performance level of this, but it was. I would actually. You may need to talk to Pete Hexeth. I'll get some of that tea.

[Jon Favreau]

Yelling about the burn. I couldn't follow that one either. Something about Obama and burn.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

We knew about these burn bags was a thing. I was trying to remember this because we' actually talked about it because this is.

[Jon Favreau]

Catch the Cash Patel thing.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I think these are the Cash Patel burn bags.

[Jon Favreau]

It's so hard to keep all these episodes.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I know. It's our. Literally, our job is to keep these things straight and we can understand what the fuck he was saying. Like, what would a normal American think of this before.

[Jon Favreau]

I mean, we should talk about the FCC threat, the networks who didn't cover my speech, my election fraud speech where I spout conspiracies are now going to lose their license. They should lose their license. Is that a real threat?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I mean, I think it's a thing that Trump really would like to see happen. And I'm sure Brendan Carr will try to do some things. I don't think he really has the ability to do that. Just to make this very clear, it is not unusual for networks not to air speeches if the topic of the national televised address is not sufficiently newsworthy. This happened with Obama. None of the networks covered Obama's 2014 speech about immigration, where he's going to announce immigration executive action, where there actually was news in it, but they all thought it was too political to cover in 2022. You remember the Joe Biden speech on democracy that he gave. None of the networks covered that one either because they thought it was too political and newsworthy. This was very political and not newsworthy. And then when you add on top of it, it was funny watching Fox's coverage because Fox is so afraid of getting another 3/4 of a billion dollar lawsuit like they did in the Dominion suit. And so they were just so they promoted the speech without ever talking about what was in the speech. And then after the speech they had to repeatedly say fox can't verify these claims. Like the lawyers were really all up in Bret Bear's ass, which was amusing to watch. So it's not like the networks are well within their rights to not cover this. And it's not unusual and it's not Trump derangement syndrome or anything like that. This is a speech that did not merit that level of coverage, even if the things he were going to say were not possibly litigious lies.

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So Republicans had some thoughts on this whole thing before the speech. Politico helpfully captures three different outlooks here. First, the doomers, like the anonymous former Trump administration official who said, quote, the people I talk to are scared shitless. This is about what it will do to their midterm chances. Next is the what can I do? I'm just a simple member of Congress cohort represented here by Senator John Kennedy, quote, when moms and dads lie down to sleep at night in Cant, what are they mostly worried about? I would say cost of living. But he's the president and he can talk about whatever he wants. Finally, freaks like Steve Bannon said that the, quote, revelations in the speech, quote, will be the exact tonic the MAGA grassroots base need to fire them up to remind them of what they're really fighting for in these crucial November elections. Dan, who's right?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I don't think Steve Bannon is right. Like is picture this, is there a group of January sixers who live in swing districts who are just like tapped out on Trump or just waiting for this, waiting for a call to arms to go vote, you know, for Mike Lawler in New York? I don't think so. I think that is coke from Steve Bannon.

[Jon Favreau]

All the blood has been squeezed from the stone. There is just nothing. There's nothing like, what do you. I Totally agree. Like, I just don't understand how this gets anyone motivated, especially since it's so hard to fucking follow.

It's just.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, it's so stupid. And the bigger political issue here, and the reason why that first group of scared shitless people are correct, is it's not just the crazy things he said. It's what he chose to talk about. We are in a world where this is an election entirely about affordability. Large majorities of people, including Trump voters and people thinking about voting for Republicans in this midterm think that Trump is not spending enough time focusing on lowering people's costs. So what does he do? He has a nationally televised address to talk about declassified intelligence that's unintelligible about a six year old election. Yeah, like, it's just you're waving a sign that says, I do not care about you. I do not care about your problems. I care about me and my problems. And that is bad for Republicans.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, I don't think it's gonna. I don't think it's gonna fly. I mean, unless they combine. You know, as we get closer to the election, he'll probably do a. You know, the communists and socialists are trying to steal the election to take over America so they can, you know, so there can be Sharia law and, you know, they can take all your property and, you know, it'll be something like that, like the left speech that'll happen. The left speech is scary and the left is scary, and the way they're gonna win is to steal the election. And so that's why you have to be vigilant.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

But that wasn't even the gist of this speech.

[Jon Favreau]

No, no, that was.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

This speech was. From what I can tell, it was China tried to steal an election in the past, and then a bunch of people in the government didn't tell me about it. Vote for Republican. It's not a good message.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, that's about right. All right, well, that's enough of that. Trump had the added challenge of delivering that speech tonight with a new teleprompter operator. And that's because his former prompter guy, Gabrielle Perez, was placed on unpaid leave Thursday morning after it was reported that Perez made more than $100,000 on Kalshi, placing bets on words that would appear in the president's speeches. Kalshee apparently flagged Perez's trades back in March, the same month the White House published a memo warning staffers against trading on prediction markets and eventually referred his case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is conducting an investigation. Think of how rich we could have gotten if kelshi was around 20 years ago.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

That's your first takeaway on this missed opportunity?

[Jon Favreau]

I mean, we're talking about a teleprompter and knowing about a speech. Yeah, of course that's what I'm gonna think about.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I mean, that was your chance.

[Jon Favreau]

Perez, who often makes this is from the ABC story that broke the news. Perez, who often makes final edits to Trump's speeches, including changes from Trump himself. Oh, my God. Kill a teleprompter operator who was making the final changes to the speech. That's terrifying to me. Backed out of bets mid speech. When Trump went off script. He was live edging the atlas.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

This is very inside baseball. But the thing that was most stunning about this is the teleprompter operator has the rank of deputy assistant to the President.

[Jon Favreau]

I know, I saw you.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Which makes him essentially the diplomatic rank of an ambassador and one of the highest paid people in the White House.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, that's a lot of money.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, usually. Think about it this way. The deputy director of the NEC has that same rank. The deputy communications director may have that rank. Doesn't always have that rank. The, you know, just very, very high level people make huge decisions, have the same rank as Trump's favorite teleprompter guy. And that's your taxpayer money going to pay this guy. And that wasn't enough for him because he was making $100,000 extra off Kalshit.

[Jon Favreau]

I have a question. Why only $100,000? Yeah, I mean this guy, he had all the goods. This guy could have just maybe, maybe it's just trumping off script so much that he couldn't, he just, he was, he was.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I wonder how many best lose.

[Jon Favreau]

I mean, this is also, it's like talk about the multitasking. You're operating the prompter, you're doing that, you're watching that. But also now he's going off script. So now you gotta with your other. You have your phone in your other hand. You're on calsha. You're trying to change the bet.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

No, you're not changing the bet. You're changing the speech.

[Jon Favreau]

Right, the speech. Oh, that's true.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yes.

[Jon Favreau]

Oh, my God. Ahead of tonight's address, Kalshee Traders. This is just a little fun fact. A side note here. Already wagered more than earlier today. They had already wagered more than $800,000 on whether Trump says words like Hormuz or rigged election. He did an accomplishments Topper. Boy, did he, it's about how horrible everything was before he became president. Now how wonderful everything is. And go to TrumpRx and here's your Trump account.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

He gave three websites. The best part was he gave, this is so funny. He says, and if you want to read the documents, you can go to

[Jon Favreau]

whitehouse.gov Again, that's whitehouse.gov it's like, yeah, yeah, you, you've never heard of that one.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I mean this is very, I mean this, obviously he's a boomer, but this is a pre, essentially pre Google way of doing this, which is people just Google it now. You don't really have to do the website.

[Jon Favreau]

But yeah, that was his, his, his accomplishments list was part of like he likes to show that he's a winner and take care of everything. But you could tell it was also like the consultants and the political people or the Susie Wilds, whoever is like, you got to talk about this, this polls. Well, you got to talk about this. You got to talk about this. And you know, you can talk about all your election conspiracies as long as you do this list at the top. You know, that's what was the third website he did.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Whitehouse.gov Trump Rx and I think he did one other one, didn't he?

[Jon Favreau]

The Trump accounts. The Trump accounts.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Trump accounts, yes.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, Trump accounts for all your kids. So believe it or not, the teleprompter operator. That's just one of three corrupt dates we have for you from the last 48 hours.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

If only we could ever get that corrupt eight sting we've been asking for,

[Jon Favreau]

for years, whatever someday. On Thursday, the Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that owns Truth Social, announced that it will sell Wall street banks and investors, quote, a direct licensed real time feed of the platform's most market moving truths, including of course, Donald Trump's. In other words, the President's family company is now charging Wall street for early ish access to the market moving statements of the President who will then profit. Why don't they just start asking the treasury to print money for the Trumps? That is, I don't know why we're going through all of these schemes and this and that and everything's so complicated. Just go to Scott Besson, ask him to start printing money, put it in your pocket, walk away.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

This is truly one of the most wildly corrupt things that has ever happened. And that's saying a lot. I don't, that's saying a lot. But I just think about this. A truth is a presidential statement. We laugh about it, because they go out on this stupid fucking platform that no one pays any attention to.

[Jon Favreau]

Well, I was going to say the whole. It's funny because the platform is so bad and it's such a poor product and badly designed that it's so slow that they, that basically the fix to make it like Twitter is something now that Wall street has to pay for.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Well, they basically, they're, they, they're going, think of it this way. This is, I want to dumb this down for people. This would be like if Wall street was paying the President to get a presidential statement before the rest of the people so that they could make instantaneous trades off of that information. Example, president announces a new ceasefire with Iran. You can use that to buy oil futures. He says, the end of the ceasefire, you can sell your oil futures faster than anyone else because you have paid money to the President to get access to that market moving information before everyone else in this country.

[Jon Favreau]

And it's not like everyone, it's not like it's a pay to play thing where it's open to everyone. No. Like it's not like, you know, Twitter pro versus Twitter or whatever, you know, whatever the fuck it is, where you can just pay more and now your tweets will come faster. It's only available to banks and investors.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yes, yes. It's basically as you're getting information on your terminal before the public. And in this day and age, with the way trades are made, 5 seconds is worth millions and millions of dollars. A second is worth millions of dollars.

[Jon Favreau]

I was trying to think of, is there a law? Is it just a thing that presidents shouldn't be doing? Is it in that category or is there some kind of regulation? I mean, I don't know.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, it's the abuse of power, I guess. Yeah, it's a high crime and a misdemeanor.

[Jon Favreau]

I was gonna say that the core of the problem lies in the fact that the President's market moving statements aren't first released by the White House, but by the President on his own private media platform. That is the core of the issue. Yes, that it goes out on truth. Social first, and then the federal government, which is supposed to be responsive to the people, then they put the truth out a couple seconds after Trump does it. On Trump bleeds.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

There's some obvious things the founders missed. This was one that I understand why they didn't foresee happening.

[Jon Favreau]

Finally, last one. The Secret Service is apparently fed up with the Vice President's travel demands, which last week included a request to fly his son to a golf lesson aboard Marine Two. That is the VP's military helicopter, which would have cost taxpayers up to $25,000 per hour around that. Though the trip was scrapped due to high winds. But such requests have become so common that the vice president's security detail are reportedly now exchanging stickers and challenge coins among themselves that read Bobcat OTR Survivors club. Bobcat being Vance's secret service code name. OTR is and off the record. So it's like a movement that's not planned in advance or that's not announced to the public in advance. Fun update to this after msnow broke the story, Vance canceled another planned helicopter ride for his son's golf lesson.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

John, where are his son's golf lessons? Are they in Philadelphia? How could he get there? Oh, they're on the other side of town.

[Jon Favreau]

You remember when Marine One used to take Malia and Sasha to school every day, right?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Jon Favreau]

That was the thing that happened that just. They'd hop on the helicopter.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

That is.

[Jon Favreau]

What the fuck.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I've said this before, but I worked for a politician once who did something that was so fucking stupid that one of our advisors said that is an A plus answer to the Polis A101 question of how to lose a presidential election. This is that you were getting taxpayer funded helicopter lessons for your son's golf lessons. Not even like baseball game, Boy scouts charity work. It's fucking golf lessons.

[Jon Favreau]

Boy, are we a long way away from hillbilly elegy, huh?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yes.

[Jon Favreau]

What would memaw and papa say about this?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Up from your bootstraps right into the helicopter. I mean it is like he is so fucking lucky that that trip was canceled by the wind.

[Jon Favreau]

But then he just. It was canceled by the wind, but then he planned another one and then canceled another one because of the story. It is, you know, it wasn't like, oh, close call. Let's charge ahead.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's stunning in it and just beyond just a specific one. Can you imagine the Secret Service is in charge of the Trumps and the Vances. That's their job. And out of that the biggest asshole is J.D. vance. Like you're. You're a more demanding worse boss than Donald Trump.

[Jon Favreau]

How fucking high and mighty is J.D. vance going to get when someone asks him about this and what kind he's going to do some kind of. How dare you talk about my children like he's going to. I just. I imagine that's what we're going to get from him. I cannot dare we shoot an emergency

[Dan Pfeiffer]

pod because I'm going have so much to fucking say about it. It's going to be so bad. He's going to. He is right now watching footage of Richard Nixon's checker speech to try to do this. And he was gonna fuck it up.

[Jon Favreau]

I'm even too young to.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

I mean, obviously I am too. I understand there's 1958 or something.

[Jon Favreau]

58. Like I learned about the checker speech at some point in life. And it is a piece of information that has now gone out of my.

Pod.

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[Jon Favreau]

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[Dan Pfeiffer]

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Speaking of J.D. vance's travel, he did make the trip to Austin this week to sit down with Joe Rogan for nearly three hours because nothing else is going on. It was pure awkwardness sprinkled with occasional attempts at political maneuvering. Here are some of the highlights. If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Guilty.

[Jon Favreau]

We did mishandle. Especially the communications of it.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

What do you think should have been done?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I think that we should have just

[Jon Favreau]

dropped everything at the very beginning.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

So what is going on with Iran where it seems like the President keeps saying that a deal has been reached, negotiations have been successful, and then it all falls apart and we start bombing them again. Yeah.

[Jon Favreau]

So how long do we have here?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Because this is. We got as much time as you need. If it was your call, would you have done exactly the same thing?

[Jon Favreau]

Well, one of the President said publicly that JD was less enthusiastic about it, I think was the exact phrase that he used. I mean, my attitude towards this man, as you know, is the Vice President. I'm not a public commentator. Like, my job is to give the best advice I can to the President of the United States. Republicans still fundamentally have a cool problem. Thing I couldn't get over Biden is. Is just bad staff work, man. The way that he ate ice cream, I mean, it's like, you know, we could bring some of this stuff up, but it's like they would get him eating ice cream in the most ridiculous, suggestive way imaginable. What? Suggesting what?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's very clear.

[Jon Favreau]

What is he thinking about when he sees Joe Biden eating ice cream?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Sex. He thinks about sex.

[Jon Favreau]

He thinks about sex.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's a cardinal rule of this podcast that we do not kink shame. We've always believed that no bullshit, no kink shaming. But I would say it's weird that J.D. vance watches Joe Biden eat ice cream and he thinks it's suggestive. That's weird.

[Jon Favreau]

We can bring this up. We can bring this up. What are you talking about?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

He's so awkward.

[Jon Favreau]

So here's one review from the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro. I tuned into Joe Rogan yesterday and heard Bernie Sanders economics, Barack Obama's foreign policy, and Ro Khanna's conspiracy theories. And then I realized JD Vance was talking. I want a candidate in 2028 who doesn't mirror the Democrats and who can win. Mr. VP, this is not the way. So Vance tried to tiptoe away from Trump on Epstein and Iran. He also did the Jeffrey Epstein had connections to Mossad and the highest levels of intelligence. CIA, Mossad, all that kind of stuff. So do you think it worked? And what does it tell you about how vance sees the 28 race?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It did not work. Also, how excited is Ro Khanna to be on that list?

[Jon Favreau]

Definitely tweeted that out. Definitely tweeted that out.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Huge win for him. Also sounds like a pretty good candidate to me. Obama's foreign policy, Bernie's economics, and Roe's take on the Epstein files. Well, I mean, his takes on the Epstein files are pretty good.

[Jon Favreau]

Yeah, they are good.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's not going great for him, and he is trying to tiptoe through a minefield, but he is very clumsy and he's not very good at it, and that is his problem. I'm not here to give JD Vance political advice, but you really have to pick a side. And he's trying to be all things to all people. He's trying to be Trump's most loyal soldier to the MAGA people. He's trying to be Joe. He's supposed to get it with Joe Rogan about Epstein and he wants to be the anti war guy, the anti war people. You can't do all those things without.

[Jon Favreau]

And even if you could, he's not clever enough to pull it off.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, maybe some political genius could pull that off. But he is not that. He is not deft enough to do that. He is awkward, he is uncomfortable. He is, he doesn't. He can't really do it. Like even in this when you watch the. I didn't watch all of this obviously because I have self respect. But I have watched a lot of the Rogan Vance interview throughout the whole thing he's trying to be like, you know, Joe, I get you get it. And so he goes to this thing where he brings up the MMA fighter at the White House saying Michelle Obama as a man and he thinks Joe Rogan is going to be on his side because what he wants to say to appeal Joe Rogan is these fucking woke liberals trying to cancel jokes. They don't even get comedy. You just laugh and move on. And even drift worker was like, I don't know, man. Saying that at the White House wasn't a great idea. It's the White House. I don't know why you'd make that joke. He's just like, he just can never get there. He just cannot do it.

[Jon Favreau]

He can't read other people. He's very low EQ for a politician. You can tell with interviews because he doesn't know. He's always uncomfortable with the audience, with the interviewer because he's trying to read what's going to make them laugh or nod or whatever. And he doesn't know.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

He is a little bit of Al Gore running for president in 2000. You're like overthinking everything you're doing and you can't. And you're missing the connection people. You see it with crowds too.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Well.

[Jon Favreau]

And the other parallel there is going to be Gore's relationship to Clinton and how Gore tried to separate himself a little bit from Clinton. And that was a hard thing to do.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, this is.

[Jon Favreau]

And Bill Clinton is not Donald Trump.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

And Bill Clinton did not take that well either.

[Jon Favreau]

He did not. But was also in despite his. His scandal at the time still popular and.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

And Donald Trump unlikely to be. I don't think Donald Trump's appropriate to me in the 60s like Bill Clinton's

[Jon Favreau]

was not going to be popular but also not going to be like hey JD if you need to criticize me don't worry. Go for it. Yeah.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah. No, I suspect not.

[Jon Favreau]

So that's gonna be tricky for him. All right, last thing before we get to Alex's conversation with Abdul. It's been an extremely busy week in politics, so you could be forgiven if you missed this major announcement from Secretary of War Pete Hegzha.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Today I'm authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate and at your absolute best. Because it's well established science that as we age, testosterone levels often naturally drop. This initiative, it's not about artificial enhancement. It's about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.

[Jon Favreau]

So if you visit highteedepartmentofwar.com you can get 20% off your next testosterone treatment by using the code Pete. At checkout,

[Dan Pfeiffer]

we are, like, three minutes away from Pete Hegseth offering penis enhancements to service members.

[Jon Favreau]

It's so cr.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

What?

[Jon Favreau]

That was fucking nuts.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

He's so down. Some weird rabbit hole born of his own insecurities.

[Jon Favreau]

I was looking into this because I was like, where did this come from?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Because you're aging.

[Jon Favreau]

Because I'm aging. No, my tea is fine. Don't worry.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

That's what everyone says it podcaster, until it's too late.

[Jon Favreau]

I was like, is this just a random maha thing? And it is, but there was some report a couple years ago, and this was a thing in Congress where long deployments can sometimes reduced testosterone levels in military. But, like, so you take, as usual, like a kernel of something, and then you turn it into this.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Like.

[Jon Favreau]

Like all these doctors are like, no, of course you don't. You don't screen for this unless someone's having symptoms. And then you look at it and then also test and like, the idea that you're just going to test everyone once a year, testosterone levels, like, can. Can jump just based on the hour of the day and age. And so it's like, it's a weird thing to do. And also, if you do have. If you do have lower testosterone, apparently, like, the first move isn't always just hormonal replacement therapy, which is what Pete Hegseth is offering. Like, there's some doctor was like, you could just go to bed earlier and drink less because apparently excessive alcohol consumption can reduce testosterone. So. I don't know. A little close to home for Pete.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Yeah, I think. I think Pete maybe was doing a little of his own research, thought what was good for his Goose was good for the gander.

[Jon Favreau]

So testosterone testing is now mandatory if you're over 30 in the military. But the flu shot is optional.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Did they bring the flu shot back?

[Jon Favreau]

It's optional.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's optional.

[Jon Favreau]

It's optional. Yeah. Who's to say? If you want the flu shot, great. If not, whatever. Well, look, you're getting your t screened.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's important on the flu shot because it's not like the largest flu pandemic in world history started at a military base.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Wow. Just look.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

It's another reminder that hiring the weekend anchor from Fox News to run the military was a suboptimal choice.

[Jon Favreau]

Gender affirming care for everyone in the military.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Gender affirming care for our troops. Great job, Pete.

[Jon Favreau]

Who would have thunk from Pete Hegseth

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Woke comes for them all eventually.

[Jon Favreau]

All right, Dan, that's all for the news. When we come back, Abdul El Sayed.

[Alex Wagner]

Foreign

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[Alex Wagner]

Hi, everyone. Alex Wagner here. I just wrapped up a great conversation with Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul. Al said a couple things I just wanted to know. We were originally going to host a debate with all three Senate candidates, but we ran into last minute scheduling issues. Not surprising. And then Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the race. So with the August 4th primary less than than TikTok three weeks away, we decided to proceed with individual conversations and interviews. We have of course, invited Abdul's opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, to come on the show and we are hoping that she will say yes. Once again, please come on the show, Congresswoman Haley Stevens. We'd love to have a conversation. Also, as many of you know, Abdul used to host a podcast here on Crooked and John, John and Tommy are supporting him in the race and have contributed to him his campaign. Dan was supporting Mallory McMorrow. Everybody had a dog in that fight but me. I'm Switzerland. I'm, I'm neutral territory. Which is why I had the pleasure of doing the interview with Abdul. And you can see I did not pull any punches, nor did he. Not that it was bloody. So with all of that throat clearing and housekeeping out of the way, give it a listen. Here's my conversation with Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El Sayed. Joining me now is Dr. Abdul El Sayed. I started this conversation offline saying I wanted to call you Doc, but I'll just call you Abdul because you've given me permission. Thanks for joining me today.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Honored. Honored to be here. Like, as you know, there is a live conversation about whether or not I am actually a doctor, despite having spent a lot of time in grad school earning both a PhD and MD. So, like, I just prefer Abdul. It's unambiguous. But then even then, people are probably like, but his whole name is Abdul Rahman. So I don't know, what can we even say?

[Alex Wagner]

I mean, just casually dropping Ph.D. and Doc, you know, Dr. In there is something my mother wishes that I could have done. I never will. So thanks for doing the work for both of us.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Well, hey, you know, I, for, for children of immigrants everywhere. Also, all that means is like, I wasted away.

[Alex Wagner]

So you're ruining it for the rest of us.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Just, well, no, I wasted away my 20s and here's the other side of it. Like, I'm unemployed and I ask everybody I know for money. So, like, look how that turned out

[Alex Wagner]

for Me just trying to get a job here, folks. Okay, I just want to caveat this. I want to timestamp our conversation because we leave a news hurricane hell. We are recording this on Wednesday when you had a very rare open slot in your campaign. So thank you for doing that. And just go forth with that knowledge. Everybody who's listening and watching to this, our chummy, lighthearted conversation is now going to take a pivot for the very serious because, well, we live in 2026.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Yeah, that part.

[Alex Wagner]

Yeah. Right. Real talk. I want to start with ICE. On Monday, ICE officers shot and killed a 25 year old legal resident of this country, Joan Sebastian Guerrero. They shot him in front of his wife and daughter. That was about a week after killing 52 year old father of three, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. You are running on abolishing ice. And on one hand the polling shows that public opinion has moved pretty dramatically on this issue. It is a strong one for Democrats. On the other hand, it is about 50, 50 overall. And we really just haven't seen continued national outcry and protest and mobilizations after the murders of Alex Preddy and Renee Nicole Goode. ICE is still capturing 2,000 people a day. What is your message to the other 50 out there who might be a little reticent, hesitant about abolishing ice?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

We can have a safe and secure border. We can enforce immigration policy, but we don't have to do it while shredding our Constitution to the interests of Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. And maybe it's just that I ran government agencies. There are not that many people who run for Senate who've actually worked in the bowels of government. And anybody who's ever run a government agency will tell you that once you have a culture of impunity set in, it's almost impossible to take that out. You can't reform it, you can't retrain it. And for most of our existence as a country, we've been able to enforce immigration policy without having to have ice. Ice is what, 25 years old? Not even. We don't have to have this. And let's also understand what ICE has become. ICE is not about immigration. ICE is not about the southern border. Think about the places where ICE has been the loudest. You're talking about Chicago, in Minneapolis. ICE is about normalizing paramilitary force in contraposition to the constitutional order itself. So I think we can win a future where we have a coherent, thoughtful, peaceful immigration approach. But that doesn't start with ice. That starts with a pathway to citizenship and protecting our southern border and enforcing policy without tearing apart the basic constitutional rights that people are losing left and right when they're shooting people in the streets. It should tell you that this is not about the thing they tell you it's about. It hasn't been under Donald Trump, and frankly, we should have known that after the first Trump administration. But the last point I'll make on this, Alex, is that as Democrats, we have to decide that we actually want to be in the business of persuasion. And I think too often we're afraid of issues that they tell us we're going to lose on, and we don't do the work of actually having the conversation that's persuasive. They tell us the same thing about health care. They tell us this about immigration. They tell us this about so many issues that we could win the argument on if we had the courage to have it. And I'm just not willing to do this without having the courage to have it.

[Alex Wagner]

Help me understand, though, practically what that means, though. You're talking about peaceful immigration policy. Is there immigration enforcement and who does it if it's not?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Yes. I mean, before we ever had ice, we had ins. But the point here is that you can't enforce immigration policy to the breaking of all of the other laws, including our Constitution itself. Like when they're trying to pursue warrantless policy where they don't actually have to get a warrant to enter your home to pursue immigration detention. What that tells you is that this is actually about lawlessness, not law enforcement. And so there's an approach here where you abolish ice, you fire the people who've been hired without the right vetting or training. You start again with a very particular kind of force, with high training, high where you are enforcing at the edge of cases that really are about somebody who has come and broken our actual laws, rather than blanket enforcement that is supposed to be loud and in your face, specifically to weaponize the idea of immigration against a political party or political movement like that really is what this is about. If you think about Donald Trump, you think about Stephen Miller, you think about J.D. vance. The thing that they want to tell you is that immigrants are bad. It's the same reason that they are trying to get people to move abroad when they're applying for permanent residency and a green card. Right. This is not about immigration enforcement. This is about immigration itself. And I'm so sorry. I happen to believe that immigration has been a very, very good thing for this country, not just because it's been a good thing for, you know, people like me. It's been a good thing for this country. We in this country, we're struggling to build public policy that gets people to want to have kids. And if you believe in capitalism, then you should know that capitalism only works because the economy grows. And part of the reason the economy grows is because we've immigrated our way out of this problem. The problem here, though, is that these same people who are trying to weaponize ICE against the idea of immigration itself don't also want to pass policies like, I don't know, paid family leave and free childcare and free health care and investing in housing so people could actually imagine having kids. So all of that is to say we actually have to win the fight around immigration itself, that immigration is a good thing, and that ICE is against the Constitution itself. Like, we have to go and have that conversation. We really can enforce that policy if we thought from scratch about what the immigration system is supposed to look like. But again, we're not willing to have nuanced conversations because we're so afraid of our own shadows.

[Alex Wagner]

Yeah, I mean, reaffirming that immigration is a good thing seems like the big work ahead of us, given how vilified immigrants have been. And then making the case for permanent residency for people who've been here illegally for sometimes, you know, decades. That's a big shift in sort of the way America writ large thinks about immigrants and immigration.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

But Alex, I'll tell you this, right? I've been up and down my state now, and I live in one of those states that everybody says, oh, well, you can't possibly win the state of Michigan talking about immigration. I'm sorry, but like, you know, Michiganders are open minded and they're good hearted. Donald Trump sold this lie to us that the reason that the economy's not working is because an immigrant took your job. The reason that you're out of health care is because an immigrant took your health care. The reason you're out of home is because an immigrant's living in your home. That, that was the whole. They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs.

[Alex Wagner]

Yeah.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

And the problem with it is that we're so busy running away that we forget that we too have mouths that we can use to be talking about what the real problem is. If you're out of a job, it's because some corporations trying to figure out how to automate your job right now. If you're out of a home, it's because we have not invested in housing for a very long time because the banking industry ran amok and then collapsed the entire housing infrastructure. And then we stopped building housing. If you're out of health care, well, it's because a huge corporation has figured out how to buy up all the hospitals in your location and then squeeze the money out of them and then shut down the ones that are not making them money. Right. These all have answers. And if you're not advancing the answers to the actual problems, and you have nothing to say about those actual problems, what you're basically saying is, well, his answer is the best available one. And then we wonder why we're losing now. Why are we not talking about corporations? Why are we not talking about how unlivable it is? Well, it's because too often Democrats take money from the exact same corporations that are part of the problem. And so, like, we've got to get serious about actually thinking about how we advance an argument about what's wrong and how we fix it. And when we do that, I actually think we can have winning arguments about immigration, too. But you can't leave his argument sitting there without advancing an alternative argument that it's not Trump bad. Yes, of course, Trump bad, Trump heinous. But, like, why are you good? That really is the question we have to answer.

[Alex Wagner]

Okay, on that same topic, areas where Democrats have. It feels like the rug pulled out from under them by Republicans. I want to talk about police and law enforcement. There's a whole lot of back and forth and without getting into the minutia, the idea of defunding the police. Right. You told the Detroit News that you never, ever called for defunding. CNN then uncovered old statements from, I think, 2021 and 2020, 2020, where you did affirmatively say we do need to defund the police, though you were clear that you didn't mean completely defund then you also deleted a lot of old posts and old tweets. May be old news, but it does beg the question, what is your actual position on whether or not police departments get too much funding?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

So, look, I've, in the interim, worked in Wayne county in. In that role. I worked very closely with law enforcement. And of course, when you get life experience, you get a lot more nuance about how things actually work. I'm going to venture this idea that it shouldn't really be that controversial, that everybody really just wants to get home safe at night and stay safe at home. And the question we should ask is, how do we design a system that does that? Right now, our current system is anytime there's any sort of social unrest. We answer that question with somebody with a gun. And that has led to a lot of harmful circumstances, and it isn't always efficient to stopping the thing that we actually want. So what I think is that we need more investment in recruitment, retention, and retirement for law enforcement. We need those things. Why? Because too often the people who work in law enforcement in urban communities don't come from those communities. And that's partly because the people in those communities don't believe that they can have a good life in those jobs. And so I would rather have people from those communities who say, hey, I'm here to keep my neighbor safe, rather than I'm policing against this whole community. But on the other side, we need a lot more investment in the things that actually keep people safe. It's not always a person with a gun. It might also be behavioral health response. It might be preventing violence through community violence intervention programs. And I think we need those things, too. And then there's the question of the poverty that tends to drive all of it. How are we investing in public services, public schools, public wellness? Like, those are things that. That we need, too. So rather than start with this one question about defund or not defund, and play into again the same un. Nuanced, cynical approach to politics that Republicans want to play, how about we talk about what we want to build? So, look, I get why now everybody's sort of dragging this out, but I've tried to be nuanced about what I mean, even when I used that word. But I do think it's important for us, again, to go and win the argument. And I'll tell you, I've been up and down the state. You go to communities in the rural parts of my state, and you say those things. Most heads are like, yeah, actually, no, that's kind of what we want. So let's do that, you know, in

[Alex Wagner]

the context of a podcast interview. Right. There's space and time and bandwidth to talk about the nuances, but unfortunately, politics right now is a caricature of itself, but also makes a caricature out of candidates. And the reality is that Donald Trump won your state by, I believe, a point and a half, at the same time that Alyssa Slotkin won her seat by about a third of a point. And I sort of wonder, you know, extrapolating from your complex answers to issues that I think really trigger the right and are easily packaged to stoke fear among swing voters and independents, are you of the mindset that you need to win over people who voted for Trump and more broadly, folks in the middle or for you? Is this a turnout election?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I think there's a third way here. I hate using that word.

[Alex Wagner]

Third way. Yeah. Be careful, dude. You're running as a Democrat.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Let's step back for a second. Right. I want us to think about what Donald Trump teaches us. If there's anything to learn from his experience. You're right. Politics turns people into a character. Donald Trump, in theory, should be the easiest person to caricature. And yet he won elections. But you know what he did? He went everywhere and said the same things everywhere. And Democrats play this defensive style of politics. We're so concerned about what they're going to say about us that we forget the fact that we too have mouths and voices and ideas that we could be advancing anywhere and everywhere. And I think if we do those things and we're faster about defining ourselves and defining others, that we can win both the kinds of voters who voted for people like Donald Trump and also those folks who have sat out for a very long time. And the reason I believe that is because, you know, our internal polling shows me up pretty substantially, despite the fact that outside spending has hit $50 million in my race. $50 million. Now, if it was all about what people are going to say about you or what they're going to say about your opponent, I shouldn't have a prayer in hell in this race. And yet what we've done is politics the old fashioned way. I go everywhere, I talk to everyone. I do not shy away from booking these conversations or any conversation because I know what I believe and I'm willing to talk about it. And when people actually, you give them the opportunity to listen in nuance, People are really smart. And so I just reject the idea that I'm going to be turned into a character. And the way that I reject it is to make sure that you have heard me and that I've put myself anywhere, whether that's a town hall in your local community or on the radio or on a TV spot, or campaigning with Hasan Piker, God forbid, or listening and talking to you here on Pot Save America. And the last thing I'll tell you is this, right? So I'm proving out that this tactic can work just like Donald Trump did, ironically. But also the last thing I'll tell you is this. The real divide in our politics is not around some left, right spectrum, like, are you a Democrat or a Republican or right wing or left wing or blue or red, and that there are these people in the Middle who walk around wondering where they sit on the left right spectrum. Most of the time people are like, yo, I can't afford my health care and steak is so goddamn expensive and I'm really, really worried about the quality of my kids school. What are you going to do about that? And so I don't play the game where I hew to a particular set of talking points. I try to talk out what I think we need to do and be completely honest. And I stand up around these, you know, third rails you're not allowed to touch in politics, you know, every time I, and we haven't got into yet. I'm sure it's on your question set. But like Israel, I'm like, look, the question about Israel isn't about the theoretical right to exist of a country that exists. The question about Israel is do they have a right to our tax dollars? Because I live in a community here in Michigan where there are places not too far from where I live where the median income is $14,000 a year and those people send their kids to schools that haven't changed for 50 years. They can't afford basic infrastructure. Like it's like you're traveling on gravel roads in the middle of a city and then you want to tell me that the best use of my tax dollars is to send them somewhere else. And you know, when you say that and then people hit you on it, people are just like, yeah, no, actually I agree with what he's saying and I'm not so interested in a theoretical question about the right of a country to exist. I'm wondering what you're going to do with my tax dollars and why you're sending them there when I could be using them here.

[Alex Wagner]

With all due respect, I mean the question of whether Israel should exist or not is essential. When you're answering whether a US tax dollar should go towards protecting that right to exist. And it sort of raised. Let me just ask you the question because I mean I, I think you've made it a zero sum game between like funding for for example, schools and aid to Israel. The US budget is large and there's a question about, you know, to what degree Congress should prioritize spending on Israel. Which gets at the central question for I think a lot of Jews in this country and a lot of Jews in your state, Israel, you know, the Jewish identity and Jew, the Jewish statehood is essential to them. And they may think that war is a genocide in Gaza and they may completely disagree with Bibi Netanyahu, but their Jewish identity is as essential to them as their American identity. So I, I wonder when you are thinking about those people and they may support you, how do you help them understand where Israel exists on your list of priorities? Is it immoral to support Israel at this point or is there some other avenue?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Look, I grew up, I was really grateful to grow up in a community with a large Jewish community, about 40% Jewish. I had the privilege of being welcomed to shul and being welcomed to seder and going to bar and Bat mitzvahs. Growing up, I learned a lot about the Jewish faith. I learned so much about the Jewish contribution to American culture in society. And I will do everything I can to protect Jewish Americans in this country from anti Semitism. I also in as much as I love the Jewish people and Jewish culture, I love and revere Palestinians and Palestinian culture. And most importantly, I love and revere the people I am running to serve here in Michigan. So the idea that Michigan tax dollars should be sent to a foreign government that wants to foreclose on Palestinian rights to peace, dignity and self determination, which I hold equal to Jewish rights to peace, dignity and self determination. But the idea that our money is being sent to a government that wants to foreclose on one community's right to self determination and being misused away from solving the needs of the people I'm actually serving is a pretty crazy thing. And in setting up this question about, about Israel's right to exist, you rightly point to the idea of whether or not there is American intervention that ought to be spent to enforce that. And I think the vast majority of Americans would say, whatever you think about Israel's right to exist, our tax dollars should not be used for the interests of a foreign government when they need to be used for the interests of the people living in our community on its own. So I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity and self determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike. But I also understand that in an era where people ask you how you gonna pay for that when you want to give people health care? Or how are you gonna pay for that when you want to give people good schools? It's pretty crazy to be sending our money over there when it could be

[Alex Wagner]

used over here so no funding to ensure the survival or future of the Jewish state.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Well, I turn that background on you, Alex, and say, why is it our responsibility to ensure that?

[Alex Wagner]

I'm just asking because I think.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

No, I mean, but like, but why is it.

[Alex Wagner]

I think that.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

But hear me out, hear me out, hear me out. Why is that the essential frame from which we work. Like, why is it assumed that the United States ought to be in the business of backstopping a foreign government? Like, I'm just saying, like, I don't want ill will for, for Jewish Israeli people at all. I really don't. I just want equal rights to peace, dignity, self determination for all people. But the notion that somehow our tax dollars ought to secure the interests of a foreign government, like, this is the United States and our own kids don't have good schools. And you're telling me that that should be a primary concern over there. Like, imagine we said the same thing about any other country, any other one. Like, my family's from Egypt, okay? Like, would it be crazy if somebody was asking me, like, hey, do you think Egypt has the right to exist? People? Like, Egypt exists. I'm like, well, if somebody wanted to change the nature of Egypt, do you think the United States should be spending all of its money to make sure or any of its money to make sure that that happens? People like, I don't know what that, that seems like a different country's issue. But like, I'm just saying that, like, you can both say that Israel exists, but it doesn't have a right to my tax dollars. And it is not our responsibility as American taxpayers to take money away from kids who don't have good schools and give it to a country to buy bombs and tanks. Like, the idea that, that our conversation even, even questions. That is itself a big question we should be asking, like, why is this the frame of the debate?

[Alex Wagner]

I think APAC affiliated super PACs have spent about $15 million so far.

[Jon Favreau]

30.

[Alex Wagner]

Defeat. You're 30. Okay, I'm wrong. Sorry, Updated stats. And your opponent, Haley Stevens is their preferred candidate. You've called her a sort of Trojan horse for the pro Israel agenda. You've accused her of failing the moral Rorschach test by not calling what's happening in Gaza the atrocities a genocide. Here's my question. There's only one Democrat that's going to win this. If she wins, are you going to campaign for her?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I'm going to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. senate. But, like, here is the important question here. I'm going to campaign against Mike Rogers for sure. And look, I've already said that, like, I'm committed to making sure Democrats win and Republicans lose.

[Alex Wagner]

Do you want her campaigning for you if you're the nominee?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

But here's the bigger question. I just want to go back to this point that you made because it's such a really, really important one. You rightly pointed to the reason why the frame of the debate is always about the theoretical right to exist of a country and where we put our money. Because if you say what I just said, which I think the vast majority of Americans, I'd be like, yeah, that's just conventional wisdom that we should be more worried about people in our own country than the existence of another country. If you say what I said, there is one super PAC that's going to spend tens of millions of dollars to annihilate your political existence. I mean, that's why most politicians sit in this political consensus that says that you cannot touch the third rail of Israel. Meanwhile, people in their own communities are like, why not when my own kid goes to a school that looks like it did 50 years ago? And so that exactly is it, is that you have a particular super PAC that has become the biggest spender in our whole race. $30 million to try to put my head on a pike, to show every Democrat that thou shalt not say the conventional wisdom that maybe the interests of kids in our own country matters more than whether or not we think about the theoretical right to exist of another country.

[Alex Wagner]

Do you feel like there's some opportunity to work with Trump on this? I know, I just. Bear, bear. Before you respond, let me just remind people, I mean, it's Donald Trump, right? But, you know, this is someone who is increasingly at odds with Prime Minister Netanyahu, even though he also bear hugs him from time to time and has effectively fought a war with him for him. But they now have divergent interests in terms of the war in Iran. And I'm old enough to remember when Donald Trump called Bibi Netanyahu fucking crazy. That's a quote.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

That was like four weeks ago.

[Alex Wagner]

Exactly. So is there, I mean, is there an opportunity for Democrats to try and take advantage of that opportunity and move the needle using Trump on Israel?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

So I'll tell you this. I'm less concerned about Trump himself and more concerned about voters in Michigan who Trump lied to. And I can't tell you the number of people who've come up to me at town halls and been like, I voted for Trump three times and I'm voting for you. I'd be like, why? And the answer is usually two things. Number one, you really want me to have health care. I really want you to have healthcare. Number two, it's, you really want to keep my money here. So we're running a pretty simple campaign. Money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all. And the thing about democracy is if you can win the debate, you can win voters over, you can win the conversation, you can start to change public policy. So, look, I think Donald Trump has been burnt by the Israeli government, and he's burnt, feeling the burn right now. He got duped into fighting a war that Donald, frankly, Bibi Netanyahu, has been trying to find an idiot big enough to fight for the better part of 40 years. He finally found the dumbass who would do it. And now Trump's in the situation where he's like, damn, I'm trapped. All for what? So Israel could try to annex southern Lebanon. You know, like, who wins out of this war? Certainly not the American public. Not even Donald Trump. I mean, maybe the, the Iranian regime who now figured out how to control the flow of the world's energy supply, and certainly Bibi Netanyahu, who is annihilated southern Lebanon. So I think there's an opportunity here to prove out that people in this country are sick and tired of being told what we can do from a foreign policy standpoint by a foreign government. And to point to the obvious policy failure that has us paying $5 gas here in Michigan to get to a point in our politics that actually says, look, maybe this is not the right approach here, and maybe we could actually have a politics for our people, by our people and in the interest of our people.

[Alex Wagner]

Right, but you are, you are not running to be, you know, the mayor. Right. You are not running to be an executive. You are running to be in the Senate, which is an increasingly dysfunctional body where the term is six years. And if you have the majority, it's going to be a slim one. And you're going to have to work with people like Mary Paltola and Roy Cooper, who were backed by Chuck Schumer and are much more in the centrist wing of Democratic politics. How do you think about making common cause with them if it's a new Democratic majority? How are you going to work with people that come from a pretty different ideology than you?

[Ad Read / Sponsor Voice]

Yeah.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

You know, I think part of the reason there's so much attention being paid to this particular race is because Michigan is unique. Not only is it the greatest state in the country, hands down, way better than Ohio, who produced Ramaswamy and J.D.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

vance.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Like, bad record for Ohio. God bless you, Sherrod Brown, but you're doing the Lord's work.

[Alex Wagner]

Okay, Ohio. Diggs. I, I'm, I, I take, I'm not involved in this. I just want to say for everybody in Ohio that's listening, that's all on document.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

It's all on me. I'll take it. Like, I can't stand Ohio. But I'll tell you this. The reason people are paying attention is because a lot of folks have often said that a politics that really centers in on the needs of everyday people can't win outside of, you know, these Democratic bastions like New York. And the point that I'm often making to folks is that people need the same things wherever you are in this country. And a politics that delivers on getting money out so that we can finally put money back in people's pockets by, like, standing with unions and keeping our money here and taxing billionaires their wealth and standing up to big corporate monopolies and oligopolies, that kind of politics, it can win anywhere. And so in winning the race itself, we are shifting the conversation about the kind of politics we can have nationwide. And so, look, I'm looking forward to working with folks like Roy Cooper and Mary Peltola and building strong relationships, But I also think that they operate from a standpoint based on a flawed set of assumptions that I'm trying to upend in this race. I know that we can deliver for Michiganders if we actually get corporations out of our politics and start standing with the people. I know that Medicare for all is broadly popular if you're willing to reject the influence of big pharma and big insurance corporations in trying to dominate what we can possibly talk about. I know that keeping money here rather than supporting a foreign government over there is broadly popular. And I want to prove it out. And when. When we do in this race, I want to be able to have conversations with folks and think, hey, look, we did this in Michigan. I think you can do it, too. And I think we can actually build a politics that actually gets stuff done. Done. Because here's the problem with it. Look at my own race. Dte, our local utility, Blue Cross Blue Shield, our local health insurer, Big Tech, apac, they're funding both my Democratic opponent and my Republican one. So if either of them win, guess who wins? Big Tech wins. Blue Cross Blue Shield wins. APAC wins. DTE wins. And we're all out here being like, well, oh, the body is so dysfunctional. We never get stuff done. Well, because we never really have a contrast. That's about getting stuff done. Because guess what? Either way, the corporate lobbyist is showing up with the same bill. And then. And then they tell you, oh, look, you have a bipartisan Opportunity to get legislation done in bipartisan because corporations have bought off both parties. And then you pat yourself on the back for being bipartisan to do the thing that helps the corporation and not the people.

[Jon Favreau]

You.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

You.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

You got elected to serve. And I think we have an opportunity here to actually win the debate and then actually start doing things that deliver for people. Because none of us got into this work. Like, this is a shit job. I just want to be clear. Like, it's just a shit way to live your life. None of us got into this because, you know, you don't want to deliver for people. And the hardest part for me is, like, I carry people's stories with me. I mean, I trained as a doctor, and I learned how to listen to people in pain. But people bring you their stories hoping that you can help. And I know, I know, I know, I know for every single person in public service, like, you're doing this because you really want to help those people, but the system has rigged it, so it's almost impossible to do. What if we actually took it on and won? So that's the conversation I'm hoping to have with the 99 other senators in the country. I think some of them will go better than others, but I think we can prove out that we can actually win on our morals if we can do that here in Michigan. Now, here's the hard part. They're spending a shit ton of money, right, to stop us. $50 million already come in. 50 million. We're being outspent eight to one. And yet, you know, we're still leading the conversation. So it's got to be people coming together around a politics that is of the people, by the people, and for the people, standing up to the power of the corporations who are keeping us from having the things that we need and deserve.

[Alex Wagner]

I have two quick questions.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I know you can make them long questions if you want.

[Alex Wagner]

Okay. You talk about taking power. You talk about Democratic control. The president this week is focused on election interference, not his own, which is measurable, but on alleged intellectual election interference. All of this is a bid to distort, if not steal, the results of the 2026 midterms. Are you worried about a peaceful transfer of power? Is there something Democrats should be doing that they're not doing if, in fact they win the both houses, one or both houses of Congress? Are you worried about a peaceful transfer of power? And is there something Democrats should be doing that they're not doing?

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I am. I'm really worried about it. Donald Trump understands the stakes of this. And he basically told the Republicans as much. He said, if they win, I'm going to be impeached. And you know, there is nothing about that man that is about the dignity of his office. It is entirely about self preservation and self enrichment. And that's how he's used the office. Now. He understands that our winning is the single biggest threat and he's acting accordingly. Now, the problem that we so often have is, is that we don't actually meet the demand with the right level of urgency. So I think it's incumbent on all of us to be narrating exactly what's happening. Look, here's what he's doing. Here's why he's mobilizing ice. Here's where they're buying detention facilities. Here's what he said he wants to do. Here's where he's sending election interferers, and here's what they say they're going to do. We need to be very, very clear about that. And then we need to mobilize people past it. The way to make the elections unriggable is to overwhelm them with the power of a message that gets people out to actually win. Like, we can't keep winning these razor thin elections anymore when they want to steal them, because razor thin elections are way easier to steal. And so, you know, people talk about like, are you going to win the middle or are you going to bring people out? It's like, we don't have a choice but to do both. We've got to win people who are disaffected by him, and we've got to win the people who've been disaffected by the political process itself. We've got to win in massive waves. That is the way we protect our democracy. That is the way we take back power, hold him accountable, and finally, finally get the kind of Democratic process back that allows people's actual will to reflect in government.

[Alex Wagner]

When you talk about people's will being reflected in government, I would assume that means also having people that represent different generations of people, different generations of Americans. Uh, there's been a lot of criticism about the gerontocracy, the, the aged seniority in Democratic and Republican ranks, but especially in Republican. Well, I won't even say especially in, in Democratic and Republican ranks. Do you think Mitch McConnell is alive? I mean, do you think he owes

[Dan Pfeiffer]

a public, as a public.

[Alex Wagner]

Do you think he owes voters a

[Abdul El-Sayed]

video question that I, I don't have the data to be able to answer?

[Alex Wagner]

Do you think. Well, do you Think he owes voters a video. Do you think the fit the photo of an.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I just say that photo is unconvincing. Yeah, but, but, but let's step back. Like, the idea that politicians should die in office is crazy. And you know, let's, let's not be the pot calling the kettle black. Like, we had our whole Dianne Feinstein situation too. I just think that it's important to have.

[Alex Wagner]

Well, I think people would say Joe Biden is case number one of someone perhaps being too old for office. But anyway, that part. Dianne Feinstein.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

But, but I mean, we just, just this week we're dealing with one person who passed away and another who, like, we don't know if he passed away. And so I just think that, like, we do need to reinvigorate our politics. I think that that's going to naturally happen with time. But I also think that part of the problem right now is that the way that we do politics makes it so that it is too easy to accumulate and hold power once you've already gotten it. And part of that is a filibuster. Part of that is campaign finance law. Part of that is the role that's played by like television and media. Like, I just think we're not actually having a robust debate about who we are and who we want to be that reflects a whole half of the voters. And so part of what we've tried to do in our campaign is rather than, you know, talk down to young people. I'm 41, so I don't even know what that means. Like, I'm particularly young.

[Alex Wagner]

We're going to count you as young.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

But, but, but Alex, I'm the oldest I've ever been. So all of, all of that is to say that like, part of the way that you engage young people, to bring them back to the process is to actually ask them what they want for the future that they have the highest stake in and to center them in the campaign and to make policy around what it is that they say they want. So when we focus in on affordability of housing, when we focus in on education affordability, when we focus in on AI, this is about reflecting the need and the urgent fears of young people in our society who are saying, look, I just took a sixty thousand plus dollar loan for the opportunity to have a job that an AI looks like it's about to take what the do I do. And if we don't have an answer for them, then we're not serious about governing. It's interesting, I was talking to some folks and they're like, well, you know, this AI thing, I think it's overblown. I'm like, not if you're under 30. And this is the first era in which you have a. The people who are, who are the most afraid of a new technology are the youngest people most of the time. The people who are the earliest adopters and who like it the most are young. But like it's because young people both use AI and understand the danger of AI. And so, you know, we've put AI front and center. We have an AI for Democracy plan which is about putting democracy ahead of AI and making sure that at least 50% of the board representation of every AI hyperscaler is democratically selected. And we're doing that because I take seriously that young people are going to have to live in the world that we legislate in and that means centering them in these campaigns. And I think once we do that and young people make a habit of it, I think we're going to start to see a lot more turnover.

[Alex Wagner]

Will there be a day when the 41 year old actually feels old in the US Senate? TBD on that one.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I'll be 42 by that point, but I'll let you know.

[Alex Wagner]

Okay, keep us posted, Doc.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

I will, I will.

[Alex Wagner]

Dr. Abdul Al said it is a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for entertaining my numerous questions. We will be following the race very, very, very carefully. Good luck out there.

[Abdul El-Sayed]

Thank you. And look, if for folks who want to get involved, go to abdul4senate.com I hope you'll trip us off. 5 bucks or 10 bucks or we're phone making. This is an opportunity. It's literally the money versus the many in this race. So I hope that folks who are listening will get involved. Alex, thank you for a really thoughtful conversation. I'm really grateful for it and I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Alex Wagner]

Okay, definitely.

[Jon Favreau]

That's our show for today. Thanks to Abdul for coming on. Dan will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with Run for Something's Amanda Lipman. Dan, what'd you guys talk about?

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Amanda and I had a great conversation about what's happening in the Democratic Party right now, where the party can go from here, and the really inspiring story she's hearing from the hundred thousand people who have signed up to run for office since Trump was elected in 2024.

[Jon Favreau]

If you want to be inspired, you just talk to Amanda Lippman. Works every time. All right, everyone, have a good weekend.

[Dan Pfeiffer]

Bye everyone.

[Jon Favreau]

Pod save America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts and Farah Saffari, with Ri Cherlin, Elijah Cohn and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt De Groat, Ben Hefcoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, David Toles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young and Naomi Singel. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.