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Refried Beans | An Epic Day For Justice (feat. Amanda Litman) | 8/4/2022
00:50:38
Thursday, August 4th, 2022 In the Hot Notes: Alex Jones’ attorney accidentally hands over the entire contents of his phone to the Sandy Hook lawyer; the January 6th committee is prepping to subpoena the Sandy Hook lawyers for the phone; the Department of Justice has subpoenaed White House counsel Pat Cippollone and deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin; the Department of Justice has sued Peter Navarro to hand over all communications he sent and received using a private email account; and President Biden signs an executive order for Medicaid to pay for out of state abortions; plus Allison delivers your Good News. Follow our guest on Twitter: Amanda Litman
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- [00:00]
Alison Gill
MSW Media. Hey, everybody, it's ag. And welcome to Refried Beans, where we play an episode of the Daily Beans podcast from the same week either one, two or three years ago so we can see how far we've come. So please enjoy this episode from days gone by and note the date in the intro. Refried beans. I like refried beans. That's why I want to try fried beans because maybe they're just as good and we're wasting time. Is wearing Daily beans. Daily Beans. Jelly beans. Daily beans. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, August 4, 2022. Today, Alex Jones's attorney accidentally hands over the entire contents of his phone to the Sandy hook lawyers. The January 6th committee is prepping to subpoena the Sandy Hook lawyers for that phone. The Department of Justice has subpoenaed White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin. The Department of Justice has sued Pete Navarro to hand over all communications he sent and received using a private email account. And President Biden has signed an executive order for Medicaid to pay for out of state abortions. I'm your host, Alison Gill. Holy news day, Batman. This was an incredible day. I said yesterday it's going to get, it's going to start to get pretty ramped up. And today did not disappoint. First of all, before I get into the news, I want to let you know that later on in the show, I'm going to be having a discussion with the author of Run for Something and the co founder of runforsomething.net Amanda Littman. She is awesome. You do not want to miss that conversation. We will have a lot of stuff you can do to help save democracy in that conversation. And as I noted at the top of the show, we do have a lot of news to get to. I actually penned this entire script because there's so much I did not want you to miss. And there's a lot that mainstream media is not telling you. And I think it's just because they, they didn't notice, but I did. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right. So today was the gift that kept on giving. So much so that I do not even know where to start. So I put all the headlines in a hat and I just picked it randomly. And we're going to start here with this story from abc. A federal grand jury has subpoenaed former Trump White House counsel Patsy Baloney. That's Pat Cipollone. In its investigation into the January 6th assault on the US Capitol and its investigations and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. That's according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Speaking to ABC News, the sources told ABC that attorneys for Cipollone, like they did with the House select committee investigating January 6, are expected to engage in negotiations around any appearance while weighing concerns regarding potential claims of executive privilege. Now, it's been shown and decided by the appellate court that attorney client privilege does not apply to White House counsels when the person they're counseling is committing crime. So the crime fraud exception is a little bit different. Normally, a crime fraud exception would be that the attorney and the client are together communicating to further a conspiracy. But for White House counsel, it only has to be one sided, one guy criming. So that's in play. And I want you to remember that the move to subpoena Cipollone signals even a more dramatic escalation in the Justice Department's investigation, following appearances by senior members of Pence's staff before the grand jury a couple of weeks ago. And the former deputy counsel to President Trump has been subpoenaed as well. That's the deputy White House counsel in the criminal probe on January 6th. That's according to two sources familiar speaking to CNN. This is Pat Philbin. He was subpoenaed for testimony and documents, according to one of the sources. Philbin worked in the White House counsel's office under Pat Cipollone, as I said, who was also subpoenaed for documents and testimony. Executive privilege will play a role in the discussion over Philbin's grand jury testimony, as it has with recent grand jury testimony of Cipollone and vice presidential advisors Mark Short and Greg Jacob. But as usual, the media has failed to mention a story we covered last week that the Justice Department prosecutors are already prepping to fight in court to force former White House officials to testify about Trump's conversations and actions around January 6th. Confronting the privilege issue reflects the care with which the Justice Department is taking as it faces the unusual situation of investigating a former president. And it could bring about one of the first major court fights over the separation of powers in the January 6th criminal investigation. Philbin and Cipollone were both key witnesses to Trump's actions in the final days of his presidency. Cipollone repeatedly pushed back on efforts to overturn the election. That's according to Senate Judiciary Committee reports. He and Philbin opposed a proposal to replace the attorney general with someone willing to look into false claims of election fraud. We know that from his testimony to the January 6th select committee. The report said that both Philbin and Cipollone indicated that they would resign should such a plan be executed. Now, there was also some interesting testimony from Cipollone during a hearing that also, the media isn't mentioning this either. And this is where he was asked whether it was the president that disallowed Cipollone from joining a meeting. That meeting on January 4th between Eastman Pence, Trump and Jacob and Marc Short. He said, quote, I did walk to that meeting, but ultimately I did not attend. The reasons for that are privileged. Now, Philbin has already testified about the Capitol attack in a separate probe. Earlier this year, he appeared before the House select committee investigating January 6th. And during Cipollone's own testimony before the committee, he told investigators that on January 6, he was joined by a number of top Trump advisers, including Philbin, in pushing the former president to issue a strong condemnation of the attack. Now, according to Rolling Stone. And I want to point this out, too, Trump's prepping a defense to say, hey, my advisors told me to do this. I was taking their advice. I'm not culpable, much. Like in his tax thing, he was like, my accountants told me to do this. It's not me, it's them. However, the fact that he continually shut out these advisors, Hirschman, Justin Clark, Cipollone, Philbin shut them out from these meetings, including that Jan. 4 meeting, shows that he was kind of selecting his advisors and only allowing the ones who were giving him the illegal advice to continue to advise him. That is an overt act of willful blindness, in my opinion. I am not a lawyer, but that would be my argument to his defense, that he was being advised and he was only following advice. No, you weren't. Lots of reasonable people were giving you the opposite advice, and then you didn't like it, so you started to shut them out of meetings. Now, CNN reported last October that Philbin was at the time among a cadre of attorneys from the Trump White House, her campaign still at work for the former president and now focused on more narrow tasks, such as handling executive privilege discussions with the National Archives or communicating with potential ex White House witnesses called to Capitol Hill. And speaking of the National Archives, put a pin in this, because the Department of Justice has just sued Peter Navarro today to compel him to hand over emails he sent and received using a private email address. And the reason I'm connecting this to the National Archives is that the reason the Department of Justice knows that Navarro failed to hand over these private emails to the National Archives under the Presidential Records act is that the National Archives has emails from other administration officials showing Navarro's emails sent and received from ProtonMail and that Navarro failed to hand over his portions of those emails pursuant to the Presidential Records Act. The lawsuit has a lot of really important details in it that per usual, no one is mentioning. But I'm going to tell you about them. First example is what I just told you that the Department of Justice tells the court they know Navarro has emails because they have them from other people. But also the Department of Justice says in the filing that after months of trying to get these emails from Navarro, he asked for immunity. And the Department of Justice denied that request. That's why they're suing for the emails. Like we offered you a plea deal and you told us to off and now you want immunity. That's a no for me, dog. I'm paraphrasing now. The lawsuit opens with a brief intro that Navarro worked at the White House so he's, he's subject to the Presidential Records act and that his communications are also subject to the Presidential Records act, which I'm going to call the PRA from now on. And then they lay out the PRA and show that all of his communications and he fall under it. So that is the intro there. While serving in the White House, Mr. Navarro used at least one non official email account, an account hosted by the non official service protonmail, to send and receive messages constituting presidential records. Next, they tell the court that in 2017, White House counsel Don McGahn reminded everybody at the White House about the PRA. So Navarro can't claim he didn't know. In February 2017, they say the White House Counsel's office issued a memo to the White House personnel regarding the use of non official email accounts to conduct official business writing. If you ever send or receive an email that qualifies as a presidential record using any other account, for example, any other than the official government account given to you, you must preserve that email by copying it to your official EOP email or by forwarding it to your official email account within 20 days. Memorandum for all personnel through the White house counsel Don McGahn, and that's attached in Exhibit 1. Also in 2019, after new White House counsel was appointed, substantively identical guidance was reissued under the new Council's name. Then the DOJ outlines their due diligence. One of the reasons these investigations take so long is this due diligence part. Quote. Prior to filing this lawsuit, in an effort to avoid litigation, the Department of Justice counsel contacted Pete Navarro by email, official email, and United States mail to secure the presidential records that Mr. Navarro had not copied to his government email account. Discussions with Mr. Navarro's counsel to secure the return of presidential records ultimately proved unsuccessful. Mr. Navarro has refused to return any presidential records that he retained absent a grant of immunity for the act of returning such documents. And that's the second buried lead in this filing that no one seems to be mentioning. Navarro asked for immunity. Next we get to how the National Archives knew Navarro failed to hand his shit over. Quote, While serving in the White House, Navarro used at least one non official email account to send and receive messages that constitute presidential records. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis obtained copies of electronic messages from individuals other than Mr. Navarro as part of its investigation into the government's response to the Coronavirus pandemic. And those Messages reflect that Mr. Navarro used a non official email account, namely a ProtonMail account, to send and receive presidential records. Further, NARA's general counsel wrote to Pete and said, send us your shit. And they ignored that letter. Then we get to some interesting timeline shit, something else the media is not talking about. On June 1, 2022, Department of Justice counsel wrote Mr. Navarro a letter in an effort to secure the return of the presidential records without litigation. That letter is attached to this lawsuit. That June 1st date is interesting because Department of Justice subpoenaed Navarro on May 26. May 26, for all of his communications with Trump and Trump's lawyers and representatives. Department of justice does not mention their subpoena in this lawsuit, but they did give him till June 2 to comply with that subpoena and he refused. And they indicted him for contempt of Congress the next day, June 3rd. That the subpoena didn't come up in this lawsuit strengthens my take that the DOJ subpoena for his comms with Donald was targeting Donald and not him. This lawsuit is targeting him. On June 16, a couple weeks later, counsel from Mr. Navarro contacted the Department of Justice to advise that we just, you know, we were just retained by Navarro as counsel. That's when he got a lawyer. June 16th, Navarro's counsel represented. They retained a document review and analysis firm to aid them in evaluating the extent to which Mr. Navarro had PRA records in his possession, custody or control. So, hi, it's two weeks later. I'm the lawyer now. I've hired a firm to look through these documents to tell me if any of this shit is subject to the Presidential Records Act. I'll get back to you. DOJ says over the Next several weeks, Navarro's council provided periodic updates on the status of their search and analysis process. And in order to assist and expedite the search on July 18, a month later, NARA's general counsel provided Mr. Navarro's lawyer with a list of search terms. We have all the emails, bro. Let us help you out. Look for hydroxychloroquine. Look for this, look for that. That will help you find these emails that are subject to the Presidential Records act. And this is NARA's general counsel, their lawyer. They know what's subject to the Presidential Records Act. Now, NARA requested Navarro prioritize the return of any PRA records responsive to those search terms. They don't list the search terms here. Then a couple days later, in an email July 22, Navarro's lawyer represented that their application of the search parameters that NARA provided had generated about 1700 documents. Three days later, on July 25, Navarro's lawyer estimated that based on their review of these documents, there's about 200 to 250 that were PRA records, Presidential Records act records. And then another four days later, Mr. Navarro's lawyer refused to produce any of them to the National Archives unless y' all granted him immunity for the act of returning such records. So. Oh, yep, we have them. Yes. We have Presidential Records act records. Yep. We didn't turn them over. Yep. We failed to, you know, send them to the official email account in less than 20 days. We'll give them to you if you give us immunity. No, no. Nope. But that's the background. Then there's the counts. Count one, Navarro has possession, custody, control of presidential records which belong to the United states and under D.C. law, including the law of Rep. Levin, should be recovered and delivered to the United States. Count two, Navarro has in his possession custody and control records which belong to the United States. Under federal common law, they should be recovered and provided to the United States, and the United States should be awarded damages. And then there's the request for relief. First, issue a writ of replevin authorizing the recovery of any presidential records in the possession, custody or control of Mr. Navarro. B, issue an order requiring Navarro to cooperate with one, the official serving and implementing of the writ of replovin or two other similar order to ensure the return of the records to the United States. C, award damages to the United States as appropriate. D, award plaintiff costs and reasonable attorneys fees incurred in this action. Pay back the taxpayers for this fucking waste of time, you piece of shit. And E, award other relief as you deem just your honor. Then of Course, DOJ actually attached some of the emails. It has to show Navarro used a private account. There are back and forth emails between him and a guy named Steve Hatfill. And it's all about COVID response. Most of it is about hyping hydroxychloroquine. I'm kind of admitting that it doesn't work, but we should go with it. Interesting emails. I imagine the Department of Justice will win this suit, though. It seems they have enough now to charge Navarro with violating the Presidential Records Act. But they're suing him instead. Usually a lawsuit like this is in lieu of charges. I could be wrong, but that's what I've been told by experts. That's not my opinion. We'll see. We'll see what happens. And in other news about idiots refusing to hand over communications. Alex Jones is fucked. In an absolutely bizarre turn of events during his Sandy Hook defamation trial today, it was revealed to Alex Jones while he was on the stand that the entire contents of his phone for the past two to three years was accidentally sent to the Sandy Hook lawyers by Jones's incompetent lawyer. And that the contents of his phone prove that Alex had perjured himself. Let's listen to that incredible moment when Jones realizes that not only is he fucked, but so is anyone he communicated with in the past two to three years.
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Alex Jones
So you did get my text messages. And it said you didn't. Nice trick.
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Alison Gill
Yes, Mr. Jones, indeed.
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Lawyer
You didn't give this text message to me. You don't know where this came from? Do you know where I got this?
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Alex Jones
No.
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Lawyer
Mr. Jones, did you know that 12 days ago, 12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone with every text message you've sent for the past two years. And when informed, did not take any steps to identify it as privileged or protected in any way. And as of two days ago, it fell free and clear into my possession. And that is how I know you lied to me when you said you didn't have text messages about Sandy Hook. Did you know that?
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Alex Jones
I see. I told you the truth. This is your Perry Mason moment. I gave them my phone. And then.
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Alison Gill
Mr. Jones, you need to answer the question.
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Alex Jones
No, I didn't know this happened. But, I mean, I told you, I gave him the phone over.
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Lawyer
You said in your deposition you searched your phone. You said you pulled down the text. Did the search function for Sandy Hook? That's what you said, Mr. Jones. Correct.
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Alex Jones
And I had several different phones with this number, but I did yeah, of course. I mean, that's why you got it.
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Lawyer
No, Mr. Jones, that's not why I have.
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Alex Jones
My lawyer sent it to you, but I'm hiding it.
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Amanda Littman
Okay, Mr. Jones, just answer questions. There's no question. Mr. Bankston also only ask questions.
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Alison Gill
Sure.
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Lawyer
Mr. Jones, in discovery, you were asked, do you have Sandy Hook text messages on your phone? And you said, no.
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Alison Gill
Correct?
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Lawyer
You said that under oath, didn't you?
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Alex Jones
I mean, if I was mistaken, I was mistaken. But you got the messages right there.
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Lawyer
You know what perjury is, right?
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Alison Gill
I just want to make sure you.
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Lawyer
Know, before we go any further. You know what it is?
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Alex Jones
Yes, I do. I mean, I'm not a tech guy. I told you, I gave in my testimony, the phone, to the lawyers before, whatever. And so you got my phone, but we didn't give it to you?
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Alison Gill
No.
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Lawyer
Mr. Jones, one more time. And please remember, if you need to assert a Fifth Amendment, you can. I need to know that you can do that. But you testified.
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Alison Gill
I could listen to that all day. And I have. I've been watching it over and over. So let's tackle a couple of questions. Was it legal for the Sandy Hook lawyers to use that information at trial? Well, since he was supposed to hand it over in discovery and didn't. Which is yet another reason the Sandy Hook lawyers are going to file sanctions against Jones's lawyer. Yes, they can. They can use this. It is legal because according to Texas law, the Sandy Hook lawyer received the phone contents over 10 days ago in a Dropbox the parties were using to share evidence during discovery. A Sandy Hook lawyer said, hey, Alex Jones's lawyer, you sent this shit to me along with medical records and your financial information. Did you mean to do that? Please respond. And according to Texas law, the opposing counsel has 10 days to respond. And if they do not, that info is free and clear to use at trial. A Sandy Hook lawyer didn't hear a peep for 10 days. So he went through it all. Found instances of Alex Jones perjuring himself during this defamation trial, along with info about his finances that show he had a lot more money than he claimed. More perjury. And found some medical records and told the court he destroyed those under hipaa, I imagine. Something else I pointed out today on social media. Those communications go back before January 6th. And minutes later, Rolling Stone reported that the January 6th committee was already prepping to subpoena the Sandy Hook lawyers for all the information, which I'm sure the Sandy Hook lawyers will gladly make a copy of and send to them. So Now, Alex Jones could be on the hook for perjury. And the Sandy Hook lawyers were heard on a hot mic talking about handing the contents of this phone over to law enforcement, provided they don't have it already from other sources. But Alex Jones 16 Communications could implicate the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, Ali Alexander, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Brennan Stroit, even Trump himself. I wonder how they're doing today. I wonder what kind of condiments he's throwing at the wall behind the omelet bar at Mar a Lago. Pretty fucking epic day for justice. Oh, and by the way, as a divorcee, one excellent footnote to this story. Alex Jones's ex wife is planning to subpoena those records as well because she says it's clear now that Alex lied to the court in the divorce proceedings about how much money he had. And I hope his ex wife and the Sandy Hook families and the Department of justice and the 1 6th committee drag this fucker for every single penny he has and then put him in prison where he belongs. Finally, we had some big primaries yesterday. Top story, Kansas. Fuck yeah, Kansas. I love you, Kansas. Kansas turned out in epic numbers to shut down the Republican initiative to remove abortion rights from the state constitution. And the measure lost in a landslide, nearly 60 to 40. Well, actually the measure won with the no vote, but you know what I mean. That's including people who were sent false information by the Republicans telling them a yes vote would save abortion access when it was a no vote. That would do it. I wonder what the numbers would look like if the Republicans hadn't outright lied to voters. But in my sister state of Arizona, Fincham, an election denier, won the Republican primary for Secretary of State. Kerry Lake is said to be the projected winner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. She'll be going up against Katie Hobbs, which I think probably makes for an easier race. And that douche nozzle Blake Masters. Blake Masters, he stepped on the ball. He won his primary and he'll run against Mark Kelly for U.S. senate. I hope these victories of Trump backed and election deniers make these elections easier for Democrats to win in the general. And the Republican Peter Magear of Michigan, one of the reps that voted to impeach Trump, lost his race to a Trump backed candidate, but that makes that race lean Democrat in the general because he would have been harder to beat. Dems put money behind the Trump backed candidate and hopes to face them and the general instead of the other guy. And it appears to have worked. And some people are weird about this, I'm not actually concerned about this tactic, given Republicans get Russian money and run full on fake candidates to siphon votes from Democrats and are even getting arrested for that shit. It's not the absolute high road strategy, but it is a legal strategy and democracy is on the line here. So it is what it is. And President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday that paves the way for Medicaid to pay for abortion services for people having to travel out of state. Speaking from the White House virtually, Biden continued to criticize the Supreme Court's June 25 decision to overturn Roe. Quote, Today I'm signing the second executive order that responds to the health care crisis that has unfolded since SCOTUS overturned Roe and that women are facing all across America. He said the executive order comes just one day after abortion rights activists secured a major win in Kansas that we were just talking about. The new directive allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to invite states to apply for Medicaid waivers so that states where abortion is legal can provide services to people traveling from a state where abortion may be illegal to seek services in their state. That's what the official said. Technically, these states would apply through what's known as a Medicaid 1115 waiver, according to a senior administration official. The official noted when the White House looked at declaring a public health emergency for abortion and what that would allow the federal government to do. This change to Medicaid was one of the things that a public health emergency would allow them to do, but the White House decided to do it by executive order instead. All right, I'll be right back with the author of Run for Something. Her name is Amanda Littman. She's absolutely fantastic. We're going to discuss what we can do to take back democracy. Stay with us. After these messages will be wrapped that. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I am super honored today to be talking to the author of one of my favorite books and probably one of the most influential books in politics in the last five years. She wrote the book Run for A Real Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself. Please welcome Amanda Littman. Hi, Amanda. Hi.
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Amanda Littman
Thank you for having me. What a beautiful and generous introduction.
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Alison Gill
Think. Well, it's done so much, right. I mean, who hasn't heard of Run for Something? Because we have all been, you know, sort of on the sidelines complaining about specifically or not specifically, but more often than not, local government, city council, school boards, and then also Congress and all the way up to Senate. And it never really occurred to me to, like, you could Just run for something. And I think that you started this whole idea that this is us, this is our government, and we got to do this ourselves. I remember back during the Mueller investigation, people were like, is he going to save us? Is he going to save us? And I'm like, no, we're going to save us. We have to do this. It is our democracy. We get the government we create. I'm so glad that you wrote this book and started this org, which is runforsomething.net, by the way. Everyone needs to visit that. But let's talk a little bit about where you started, and then let's work our way up to your plan for 2022 for the midterms. So let's go back to 2017, when this idea first hit you.
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Amanda Littman
So I am a campaign rat. I worked for political campaigns my entire career. I started out back in 2012 with Obama doing online fundraising, worked for his nonprofit for a year, worked for the Florida governor's race. After that, moved to New York to work for Secretary Clinton's presidential campaign, which, as you may recall, lost one. About a week after election day in 2016, I got a message from somebody I went to college with. Hey, Amanda, I'm a public school teacher here in Chicago. I'm thinking about running for office. You've worked in this space for a while. You seem to know this world. What do I do?
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Alison Gill
Who do I call?
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Amanda Littman
I just didn't have an answer for them. Because at the time, if you were young, if you were newly excited about politics and you wanted to do more than vote and more than volunteer, there was nowhere you could go that would be guaranteed to welcome you with open arms. And that, to me, felt like a symptom, not just in the Democratic Party, but in our democracy writ large. I reached out to a whole bunch of people, one of whom became my co founder, Ross Morales Ricado. And we were like, great, let's start an organization that will solve this problem. We wrote a plan, we built a website, and then we launched Run for Something on Trump's Inauguration Day, thinking it would be really small. We'd get maybe 100 people who wanted to run for local office in the first year, and this would be our side project. But 1,000 people signed up in the first week. As of today, we're up to more than 130,000 young people all across the country who've raised their hands to say they want to run. We've endorsed more than 2,000, helped elect more than 650 across 48 states, all under the age of 40, mostly women, mostly people of color, to things like city council and school board and library board and American River Flood Control district trustees and state houses and state senates. And I wrote a book and there was a podcast for a while. And everywhere I go at cocktail parties and lunches, I get to talk to people about running for office.
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Alison Gill
It's cool, man. That's so awesome because I'll never forget you said you went up, worked on Hillary Clinton's campaign. After that loss, Obama, who was on his way out of office, appeared on a podcast. Yay, podcasts. And talked about how he can still have hope, what gives him hope. And his answer was all of the young people in this country who over the next four to eight years are going to be turning 18 and growing up in this political environment. Those young people, I think, are the future. They're going to wash over this country, he said, like a wave of hope. And so taking that sort of forward thinking in combination with reaching out to young people to encourage them to not just vote, but to be voted for and to run themselves, I think was truly visionary at the time. And I think that's why you saw, you know, you'd think you get a hundred people, you know, now you're in the six figures. And it really helped us in 2018 with the blue tsunami, I might say helped us again in 2020. And now talk a little bit about how, like, what your strategy is for 2022, not just in these local races, which are so very important. I talk to a lot of people running for local water boards and city council, because that's where the rubber meets the road, right? Is where you live, but also for Congress and for state houses, because I think our state legislatures are going to be hugely important in the future, especially considering that SCOTUS this, SCOTUS this Gilead extreme Supreme Court, which is a national security threat, is going to be hearing a case called Moore v. Harper, where it could be left up to state legislatures to decide who gets to be their candidate. Not the voters, but the state legislators. And those sorts of races are critically important. So I can't imagine the scope of what you're looking at in 2022, but I'm interested on how you're tackling this.
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Amanda Littman
So we are expecting to endorse about 700 candidates this year. We're already up to about 550. We have a couple more classes coming. They are in 48 states. Good thing to remember is that there are elections basically everywhere this year, and about half are running for state house or state senate. About a third are running for municipal office. Another 20% ish, little less running for state legislative for school board or education offices, and the remainder running for things like judges or DAs or sheriffs or legal roles. We really wanted to think about a couple buckets of work going into 2022. One was making sure we're running really great candidates for state ledge, especially in places not just where we can flip them in 2022, but where we can lay the groundwork to flip them in 2032 and 2042. Thinking long term about what sustainable power looks like. And that's definitely kind of a hot take in the Democratic party of thinking a little bit more long term. But that's the point of what we're doing, is to try and engage for what happens next. The second thing we really wanted to focus on was school board races. You know, we have seen the far right engage on these elections in a way that's both unprecedented and have they've been doing it for a long time. A little bit of both. The amount of money that they're spending is pretty unprecedented. The far right and the Republican party has always seen school board races as training ground, both for candidates, but also for activists. Best way to get someone fired up about politics is to mess with their kids schools. So in everything from during COVID the most controversial parts of COVID during mask mandates and school closings and openings and the like, now thinking about LGBTQ equity in schools and what kind of books kids are reading and how safe or not safe they are, we want to make sure that there's really good school board candidates to give people an option. So in particular, one of my favorite examples here is we're working with a candidate, Danielle Helzer, for Nebraska State Board of Education. Danielle is running against a Republican opponent who doesn't really believe in, like, a comprehensive sex education curriculum for the state that's being funded in part by major Republican elites across Nebraska. This is part of reproductive health, you know, is making sure that kids understand and teenagers in particular know how their bodies work and how they can take care of themselves and how they can have safe sex. She's ready to fight for that. Her opponents are not. And then we're really thinking about election administration and democracy. So a big part of that program is making sure there's pro democracy candidates running for things like city council, but also county clerk, election administration rules, depending on the state and the county. These are all run by a variety of positions. So we really wanted to make sure There that there are folks who are not just not Nazis, which is a real problem, but in particular competent pro democracy, pro voter leaders who can really ensure that our elections are run fairly and that every voter has access to the polls. It's a bunch of work and it's really exciting to get to see it start to pay off already.
- [34:02]
Alison Gill
Yeah, it's got to be like some of the most rewarding work that you can possibly think of. I want to drill down on something that you mentioned about the sort of instant gratification of voting in one election versus planning ahead for 3032, for example, because as you said, that is not something that Dems generally do. We generally get riled up over something right then and vote. And then if we don't end up getting the things that we wanted, we get very despondent and disillusioned and then maybe don't vote again because it didn't happen right then. And this is something that Republicans have excelled at. These, these long con. Long games where for decades they've tried to overturn Roe, for decades they've tried to gerrymander. And these are like super long term plans. How do you convince somebody who's young that, you know, and these are young folks who are so used to getting what they like, getting instant results, if you will. Right. And it's not a bad thing. I'm not saying that this is bad, it's just different. Right. Because they get so much data and so much information. More, way more than I did when I was their age at once. And it's, you know, they have a lot to work with and that kind of. They can make things happen very quickly. But that's not really how democracy works. And that's sort of kind of the appeal of autocracy that Republicans run on is like, well, look, nothing gets done, so we need a dictator to just do stuff. What's that like, that sort of interaction to be like, this is going to be like a lifetime project for us.
- [35:41]
Amanda Littman
I think that's why we focus on local politics and local elections so specifically because while Congress move slow, sometimes they do stuff, sometimes they don't, but they move slow. And the White House is managing an executive branch and a federal government that is millions and millions of people, big on the local level. You can win an election, legislate, and then live the impacts of that legislation within a year or two or three years. Just this week, and thanks to the part of the leadership of a state senator we helped elect in 2018, Andrew Benardis, who is now going to be my representative in the state Senate. They turned on speed cameras 24 hours a day here in New York City. That didn't exist before. And it was one of the things that he ran on and then helped lead on and is now living through. He's going to drive, hopefully not speeding cameras that he helped make happen. It is, I think, a really beautiful way to see the impact of governance on the local level and I think helps restore faith and trust in the process. The other piece here is we always remind folks the leaders that you see on the national scale today, pretty much to a T got their start locally. Barack Obama got a start as a state senator. Bernie Sanders got a start as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Almost all of them, basically every politician you like, with a very few exceptions, got their start locally. So this is not uncommon. This is how it's done. And that's not to say you should wait your turn. It's to say that politics is something that like everything else, takes practice and time and skills to be good at. And you will be better if you start in the place where you can really make a difference first.
- [37:17]
Alison Gill
I love that because you start small and you see results and then as you move up, you understand how those results impact all of us. You know, I call that, you know, the whole trickle down economics, right? Give all the money to the rich people and somehow it'll trickle down to the rest of us. I like to think of this as trickle up politics. You start at the local level and that impacts every level, going all the way up to the national executive and Congress, the U.S. congress. And I think that that's such a perfect way to do it, especially, you know, young. You start young, you want to see those results. You can get those results when you do these things locally and how big an impact these state houses and state legislatures are going to have on, on just simply how we count votes and listen to the people. Because you and I both know, and I think everyone who listens now, who's listening now, can agree, hey, if you've got a better idea, Republican, then you'll, maybe you'll get more votes. But if we don't count the votes for what the people actually want, which could end up being what state houses and state legislators do, then we aren't really living in a democracy at that point. And so I think what you're doing is, is amazing and it's got to be a lot of hard work. And I want to know if you could tell people how they can help support this organization because it takes a lot.
- [38:43]
Amanda Littman
There's three things your listeners can do to get involved. The first is run for office. If you're the kind of person that listens to this podcast, you're the kind of person, think about it. We have information up on our website, runforwhat.net, also go to runforsomething.net, where you can look up your address, your information, see what the offices are available to you in 2023 or 2024. You'll then start getting information from our team just about how to start thinking about your campaign. You'll join a call, maybe you'll read some of the materials, maybe you'll buy the book, take it on your terms. It's not a commitment. It's just saying you want to learn a little bit more. Second thing you can do is volunteer for a local campaign. You know, you talked about trickle up politics. This also works in elections. We've actually done research on this. Your doors knocked for your local race, whether it's a school board or a state legislature, will also help the rest of the Democratic ticket. And in fact, you might be the only Democrat or one of the few Democrat voters or volunteers knocking doors in your area because the maps for where the congressional races and the senate races and the governor's races need to be strategically present and where we really need to win. The state legislative races and school board seats don't always overlap, but you can really gin up the turnout for the entire ticket in your community. So go knock doors for a local race. We have every run for something endorsed candidate on our website. You go to runforsomething.net and you can find one near you. Third thing you can do, every donation matters. We're trying to build something big. We're trying to build it fast. We're trying to make it last. So if you can show up, you can give a dollar, you can give $5, you can make it monthly again. Runforsomething.net donate where you go.
- [40:15]
Alison Gill
Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. And I think a lot of people don't realize if you're knocking doors for waterboard, you get that cool person out to the poll, they're going to vote for your candidate for water board, your candidate for city council, the judge that you want them to vote for, the congressional legislator for state house and assembly that you want and all the way up to president, you know, if that's what's on the ticket that year. And I think that that sort of, again, that trickle up politics that bottom up. Like, you know, just we the people. I think it's awesome and I appreciate all that you're doing. Everybody grab the book. It's called Run for A Real Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself. It's so important we get involved. I appreciate your time. Amanda Littman. Thank you.
- [40:56]
Amanda Littman
Thanks for having me.
- [40:57]
Alison Gill
Everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news after these messages. We'll be right back, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?
- [41:11]
Alex Jones
Everyone?
- [41:12]
Alison Gill
Then good news, everyone.
- [41:19]
Amanda Littman
Good news.
- [41:20]
Alison Gill
And if you have any good news, confessions, corrections, pod, pet picks, misheard song lyrics, Halloween photos, anything you want to send in. If you got a small business you want me to give a shout out to, please send it to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. And also August 22, myself, Midas Touch Far, Angela and Kathy Griffin and the How We Win podcast. Steve Pearson. We're all going to be at Largo in Los Angeles live. And that's again August 22nd. And the cool thing, every single dollar you spend on a ticket goes toward the How We Win fund, which is a great fund where they've taken all of the data and information and figured out where your dollar gets the most bang for its buck for Democratic candidates in the midterms. So just go to howwewinlive.com for tickets. You can also donate there if you don't want to come to the show or you can't come to the show. It's the How We Win fund and you can go to how we win live.com for tickets and info. Largo Los Angeles, August 22nd. It's going to be badass. First up from Rick, Pronouns he and him. Thank you for converting the fuckitry and fuckery of politics into something bately palatable. You're welcome, Rick. This feline is Cleopatra Cleo and she is queen of all that she sees. The canine is Ziggy Marley Stardust bound puppy and the most awesome little mutt ever. We don't know what he is, but I think he is. And I'm gonna guess here. Oh, but first of all, look at that beautiful calico. I had a cat with that coloring. It's so rare. It's like this gray with little orange creamsicle swirls in it. We had a cat named Em. Her name was. Oh, I remember her name. We called her Emma sue, but her actual name was MC which stood for Mumford's Cat. Because we had a dog named Mumford and we decided that it was Mumford's cat, so we called her mc, which morphed into Emma sue and then just Emma and then the dog. I wish Dana was here to see this dog. Meh. So adorable. I'm gonna guess Poodle Wheaton.
- [43:29]
Amanda Littman
Dad.
- [43:31]
Alison Gill
Kind of a tall something tall in there. I don't know. I don't know. You'll have to do a doggy DNA Rick, and let me know what's in there. So adorable. Next up from Dee. She and her ooddeedsd on Twitter. Hi Beans Queens. Let me start by saying how much this podcast and other MSW podcasts help keep me informed. Thank you for that. Last night, August 2nd, after the results for the Kansas referendum to remove the right to an abortion from their state constitution failed, my creative juices started flowing and I knew I had to make a shirt in honor of my birth state, Kansas. I created four different designs of shirts to honor this monumental vote for choice. I have a very small online business and I'll be making a donation to organizations supporting the right to choose in the coming weeks from the sale of these shirts. I've already sold two. I would love to send one to your team. Please let me know your sizes for anyone interested in receiving one and I will get them shipped to you. They are unisex 100% polyester because I do not do an iron on of the design but use sublimation which causes the ink to infuse into the fabric and become part of it so the design lasts longer. They are for sale at my website at www.bakedfish.fun. okay, baked fish.fun. for my podpat tax, I give you our sweet kitty, Stormy, who is a Manx Siamese mix. I love Manx. He likes to think he's king of the universe. Of course he does. Thanks again for keeping us informed. And look at this cross eyed baby. That's what I love about Siamese is their little eyes. They're so goofy. Oh, what a sweet, sweet baby. All right, let's see. There's no place like home to row the vote with a ruby slipper. Beautiful. Row, row, row the vote with the sunflower. Oh, these are beautiful. These are so, so beautiful. If anybody wants any of these shirts, we wear a medium, by the way, Dee. And if you want to send them to us, there's a address@dailybeanspod.com, we have a PO Box. The website again is baked fish. Like, you know, don't fry fish, you bake it. Bakedfish Fun F U N. These are so Great. Thank you for making these. Congrats on your home state, Andy. No pronouns. So the other day I was texting a friend about Kimberly Guilfoyle and it autocorrected to Kimberly golf pile. Considering how Ivana ended up somewhere off the front nine, it makes perfect sense. Pet taxes Groot with the love of my life, who happens to be a three year old pug. Oh, walks with Groot. Look at Groot. So adorable. Next up from Susie from Branson. Pronoun she and her yes please. I want a holly cookie for my 2022 or on Christmas. And yes, there are secret groups in the ruby red states of closet Dems. I have three friends at a school in Arkansas. We meet secretly when we want to let off some steam. Thanks for what you do every day. Cool emoji. Heart emoji. Getting ready to lose my kitty too to a tumor. My heart hurts for you. Aw, Susie. I'm so, so sorry. It's tough. It's really tough the first day. Second day, a little better but still just walking around like a zombie crying. Third day, still checking to see, you know, go in to visit him and remembering he's not there. Day four. Much better. Much better. So we're here for you. Take all the time that you need. It's hard losing a little for a baby. Next up from Josie Pronoun. She and her dear beans Queens. I know I mishear a lot of lyrics, but never had a good example until someone on Twitter put Pearl Jam alive into my head. I finally looked up the lyrics. Oops. End of the first verse. I always heard it as your real daddy was dying. Sorry you didn't see him but I'm playing guitar instead of I'm glad we talked. Somebody made a comment on the official YouTube video for Alive Now. Eddie is the only lead singer of a big four grunge bands who is still alive. So the song, one of my all time favorites is also prophetic. I'm still alive podpet. I think my favorite was Jeremy and it hit me with a surprise left. Yeah drop on open just like today I heard. Oh it's just such a good song. And it's fun to sing like him, isn't it? He's got such a distinct voice. Him and the four non blondes lady and the tri. Oh my God. Do a tryee. They're just fantastic. My pod pet tax. My now 28 year old Hanoverian pookie who is at this photograph is only 26 but already fully dusted with powdered sugar. This is a Horse. Okay. I'm like 26. Okay. Hanoverian horse. Pookie. Thanks to Marissa Rothkop for the new nomenclature for old people. Gray hair. Yes. Dusted with powdered sugar. I saw that on Twitter. Josie. It was so perfect. Look at the beautiful baby. Oh, I like that stripe down the back and the blaze and the socks. What a beautiful baby. Thank you for sharing. It's a good boy. Horse. And thank you for the walk down Pearl Jam memory lane. Sorry for the. Sorry for the singing. Nobody really needs that. But, you know, sometimes it just has to be done with such a unique voice. And these shirts again, for Kansas, incredible. You can get them at Bakedfish Fun. And your aminals there, Rick, are just absolutely gorgeous. And don't forget to pick up your tickets or donate. Howwewewinlive.com Aug. 22, Largo in Los Angeles. Me, how we win. Steve Pearson, Midas Touch, Frangela. And of course, the inimitable Kathy Griffin, who is just seriously one of the coolest people on the planet. All right, everybody, that's the show for today. I'll be back tomorrow. What kind of news is going to happen tomorrow? You fucking got me. Let's see. I bet we're going to see that January 6th subpoena for Alex Jones's phone faster than we think. I think I was like, all right, let's see how fast the January 6th committee can whip up a subpoena for that phone. I think it's going to happen. I think we're going to see one from his ex wife, and I think they're going to hand that shit over to the Department of Justice. That's an incredible, incredible bunch of evidence. Two and a half to three years worth of Alex Jones communications. He was at that January 5th rally at Freedom Plaza that. Remember when Trump was opening the door of the Oval Office so he could hear it thinking, yeah, they're going to be fired up tomorrow. And then the next day saying, let him have weapons. They'll march to the Capitol. He knew exactly what he was doing. All right, I will be back tomorrow with more news. We'll see what it is. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and vote blue over Q. I've been ag. And those are beans. Refried beans. I like refried beans.