The MAGA Meltdown Over Virginia Redistricting & Tucker Carlson's Crocodile Tears

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The MAGA Meltdown Over Virginia Redistricting & Tucker Carlson's Crocodile Tears"

Podcast: The Find Out Podcast
Hosts: Rich, Luke, Ryan
Release Date: April 23, 2026
Episode Theme:
A raw, funny, and incisive breakdown of MAGA outrage over Virginia's redistricting, double standards in media coverage, generational divides within the Democratic Party, the continuing grift of right-wing influencers like Tucker Carlson, and riffs on American politics in Trump’s second term.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the aftermath of Virginia’s new redistricting referendum, explores the broader implications for democracy and party politics, and lays bare the hypocrisy in MAGA complaints about “unfair maps.” The hosts also mock Tucker Carlson’s recent media mea culpa, critique the state of right-wing media and AI grifts, and take shots at state-level Christo-fascist policies.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Virginia Redistricting Referendum: Close Win, Big Fallout

([03:11] – [10:40])

• Results Breakdown:
  • The measure narrowly passed at 51%-49% (approx. 1.57 million to 1.48 million votes).
  • “I would have voted for it because it’s the same thing that’s happening in Texas with Republicans.” — Rich ([03:33])
• Implications:
  • Virginia previously reflected population somewhat fairly, but the new map is aggressive, with Dems fighting “fire with fire.”
  • “This map is through the 2030 election, and that is... the midterm after, hopefully, a Democrat is sworn in, and the first midterm after the White House changes. Power is usually bad for the party in power.” — Rich ([04:14])
• Turnout Analysis:
  • Higher Republican turnout than even 2024’s presidential race, due to anger over lost House seats.
  • “Republicans were more angry about losing their…their representative…than they were excited to vote for Donald Trump.” — Rich ([06:33])

Notable Quote

“From a fight fire with fire perspective, I think it’s great. You know, fuck these guys...the fact that Trump is just, like, pissed off about this — you started it.” — Luke ([05:10])

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2. Media Hypocrisy: Washington Post’s Double Standard

([07:52] – [10:41])

• The hosts compare WaPo’s editorial position on Texas (calm, not a “threat to democracy”) vs. Virginia (“plunges America deeper into the gerrymandering abyss”).
• “That literally sounds like Newsmax or some shit.” — Luke ([08:28])
• “That sounds like fascism right there is what that sounds like.” — Ryan ([08:33])
• The group critiques billionaire influence in media: “It is Jeff Bezos’s editorial board.” — Ryan ([08:42])
• Examination of Congressional inaction on gerrymandering and Supreme Court “shrugging its shoulders.”

Memorable Moment

“Texans didn’t vote on their maps. No, Virginia did.” — Rich ([09:39])
“Their tagline is democracy dies in darkness. And I’m like, wait, say democracy again — but really slowly.” — Ryan ([09:23])

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3. Broken Systems & Why Real Reform Feels Impossible

([10:41] – [16:56])

• Frustration with complicated, outdated electoral processes (districts, Electoral College).
• Wish for algorithmic, data-driven redistricting, but skepticism it could ever happen (“It would immediately become a kill the messenger situation… just another Pizzagate deep state.” — Rich [14:22])
• Cynicism about institutional reform, with Luke voicing doubts about winning real progressive change:
  • “This is exactly why every time there’s a progressive ideology brought forward, I’m like, yeah, but it’ll never work…” — Luke ([15:19])

Notable Quote

“The only math they know how to do is spelled with an e. That’s it.” — Ryan ([14:53])

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4. Where Change Starts: Money, Generations, and Values

([16:56] – [21:14])

• All agree curtailing money in politics is the linchpin.
• Ryan blames older Dems for simplistic party loyalty (“...they see, oh, there’s a big D next to his name. Yeah, all right...” — Ryan [17:58]), while younger groups are more issue-driven.
• Harm reduction voting vs. activism in primaries:
  • “Those harm reduction people...aren’t all that active in primaries, which is the exact time that you can do the non-principal take.” — Ryan ([21:14])

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5. Tucker Carlson’s “Apology” & Crocodile Tears

([22:27] – [27:14])

• Tucker recently gave an interview “apologizing” for misleading his audience — but it’s insincere, and he laughs at a sexist, racist comment about Kamala Harris mid-interview.
• “Anyone believing Tucker is on our side now is so slow, you could time you with a calendar.” — Ryan ([23:06])
• Broad consensus: Carlson (and others) are in damage-control mode with an eye on their own legal/financial exposure, not genuine repentance.

Memorable Quotes

“He said all the words that…implies he owns his mistake... But what it reflects, though, is the absolute terror across the hard right that they are going to be held accountable for what they’ve done over the last couple of years…” — Rich ([23:29])

“I don’t care if they die penniless on the side of the street. I don’t care if they spend the rest of their lives in the fucking clink...” — Ryan ([24:43])

Satirical Pitch

• The hosts brainstorm a “Running Man” style reality show:
  • “All the alpha influencers and the MAGAs...get to go to Alligator Alcatraz… webcams and drone cameras… we just raise money. Could probably cover universal healthcare for everybody, most likely.” — Rich & Ryan ([27:32-28:05])

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6. State-Level Insanity: Iowa & Texas as Christo-Fascist Laboratories

([31:48] – [39:40])

• Coverage of Iowa’s voucher program steering public school funds to exclusive, discriminatory religious schools.
• Real-world impact: closures of public schools, long commutes for kids, and barriers for non-Christian families — “state-sponsored religious indoctrination.”
• Bit on tax-exempt status for churches, with most agreeing taxation is overdue:
  • “If every church in America took in, like, two homeless people, there wouldn’t be homeless people anymore. And they don’t really do that.” — Ryan ([38:35])

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7. Democrats’ Chances in 2026 Senate Races

([41:41] – [46:19])

• Hopeful polling news:
  • Alaska: Mary Peltola polling ahead of MAGA incumbent Dan Sullivan.
  • Iowa: Joanie Ernst seat could be in play; “...that whole ‘some of you are gonna die, we’re all gonna die’ comment — really not a great idea...” — Ryan ([44:57])
• Caution against writing off “safe” states; things are in flux under Trumpism.

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8. AI Grifts & the MAGA Gold Rush

([46:19] – [48:05])

• Wired reports an Indian scammer made thousands selling access to a fake AI “MAGA influencer”; tried a liberal version but “Democrats know that it’s AI slop. The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people. Super dumb people. They all fall for it.” (Wired article, recounted by Ryan at [47:19])
• Satirical idea: Use AI-MAGA grifts to fund universal healthcare.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “From a fight fire with fire perspective, I think it’s great. You know, fuck these guys.” — Luke ([05:10])
• “That literally sounds like Newsmax or some shit.” — Luke, on WaPo editorial double standard ([08:28])
• “You can independently verify that this is better. Well, you can if you’re capable of math. ...That’s true. They’re not.” — Rich & Ryan ([14:47])
• “Anyone believing Tucker is on our side now is so slow, you could time you with a calendar.” — Ryan ([23:06])
• “If every church in America took in, like, two homeless people, there wouldn’t be homeless people anymore.” — Ryan ([38:35])
• “...the MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people. Super dumb people. They all fall for it [AI influencer scam].” — Wired article, via Ryan ([47:19])

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Tone & Style

Authentically irreverent, informed, often hilarious, and deeply cynical about both MAGA politics and centrist complacency. Profanity is frequent; humor and satire are used to underscore the seriousness of political dysfunction. The hosts riff off each other with running gags and sarcasm, lightening intense analysis with banter.

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Timestamps: Key Segments

• [03:11] Virginia referendum results and political implications
• [07:52] Washington Post editorial hypocrisy
• [10:41] Frustration with American political systems
• [16:56] Generational and monetary root causes of Democratic inertia
• [22:27] Tucker Carlson’s “apology” and right-wing influencer grifts
• [31:48] School vouchers and Christo-fascism in Iowa
• [41:41] Senate races and polling surprises
• [46:19] AI fake MAGA influencer scam
• [47:59] Wrap-up and satire on grifting for good

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Closing Thoughts

The hosts end with hope that shifting generational values, changing demographics, and a few strategically-placed upsets (plus, perhaps, some clever grifting) might still expose a path out of America’s current democratic malaise. In the meantime, they promise to keep finding the “signal” amid the “absurd noise”—and encourage like-minded “normal dudes” to stick around, laugh, and fight.

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Best enjoyed for: Insightful left-wing analysis, sharp humor, and cathartic political venting — with a strong anti-bullshit ethos.

Transcript

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[Rich]

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[Rich]

Hey, everybody. This is not Tim. Once again, he. Where is he? He's in D.C. or Virginia. Where is he?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Schmoozing.

[Luke]

He's schmoozing in D.C. yes. He's. He's not having a colonoscopy again.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Not this time.

[Rich]

So I know that we beat that to death last time.

[Luke]

Let's do some more.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Let's beat him up.

[Rich]

Is there a possibility there was like a follow up scan or biopsy?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because, like, I mean, I would come up with an excuse to. Rather than say, I've had two colonoscopies in six months.

[Luke]

Yeah, that would be a little alarming that.

[Rich]

That's true. We're gonna start.

[Ryan Reynolds]

All right. Check the logs for. Checks the logs at Walter Reed.

[Rich]

Do they have the. The flight tracker for. For regular people too, like they do with the military planes and see where Tim is at?

[Luke]

Yeah, I think Tim is actually working with our favorite dark money people down there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Let's go.

[Luke]

Love that.

[Rich]

Yeah, I take back everything. I love that fire hose of dark money. It's great.

[Luke]

Who doesn't love dark money?

[Rich]

So, yeah, welcome to find out podcast. I don't even know what I'm doing here.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You got to work on this, man. You're a fallback and you are quite a step down.

[Rich]

It's true. I am about an inch shorter than Tim, so it's a slight step down. Um, we. What do we. What do people Say, we have a great show for you today. We don't have a guest. You've got Rich stuck with us and Luke. And we are going to do our best to keep this show on track, even though dad is not here to yell at us when we go over and give me, like, weird looks when I'm going on too long. Like, all of that stuff is out the window.

[Luke]

I mean, Tim's job is hard. Let's be honest. Like, I don't.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Tim's. Tim's job is hard.

[Luke]

It's not easy.

[Rich]

He's got to, like, keep going. Right? You're like, all right. And then always have, like, the next thing locked up. So.

[Luke]

Oh, my God, I don't have any. Luckily, we have editors, so even if there's like, a five minute, like, well, what the next. Somebody will fix it in the back end.

[Rich]

So we're just, like, stupid on Twitter looking for rage bait for seven minutes. So it doesn't take seven minutes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Virginia, it passed by.

[Luke]

How much I want to see the numbers here because, like, very close.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Very close.

[Luke]

Percent.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's like 49 to 51 or something.

[Luke]

Yeah, terrible.

[Rich]

I think the expectation was that. Yeah. 51. 49. 1.574 to 1.485.

[Luke]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Rich]

So I'll be totally honest. I was never quite sure how I felt about. About this referendum. Obviously, I would have voted for it because it's the same thing that's happening in Texas with Republicans. Virginia was not like Kamala Harris won it by like, six points or five.

[Luke]

Wasn't heavily Democrat.

[Rich]

It was not a landslide. This is not a place where Democrats have 20 and 30 point margins everywhere to just, like, cut down. And so when you. When you spread your. Your votes a little thinner, I mean, this is going to give them what. What is it? A 12 to 1 potentially, or 11 to 1 or something like that.

[Luke]

I think it's 10. 10 to 1, I think.

[Rich]

Right.

[Luke]

Like 6 to 5 or something now.

[Rich]

Right. So. Right. So right now it somewhat reflects, but it used to be gerrymandered worse for Republicans. So, like, we all. We all know who started this, but this is a state that did kind of reflect the population, of course. You know, fight fire with fire. And so we're doing what we have to do to get the biggest margin possible in 2026 and 2028. But there is a. This map is through the 2030 election, and that is. That is the midterm after, hopefully, a Democrat is sworn in, and the first midterm after the White House Changes. Power is usually bad for the party in power.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right.

[Rich]

Unless you're killing it. Unless you're doing everything right.

[Luke]

Which we won't.

[Rich]

You know, we have a pretty good track record of. Of. Of like Charlie Browning ourselves with the ball. Painful.

[Luke]

Absolutely fucking painful. Yeah. I don't know. But I mean, I do, like, from a fight fire with fire perspective, I think it's great. You know, fuck these guys. Like, the other thing that bothers me so much about it, I mean, it's not unexpected, but, like, the fact that Trump is just, like, pissed off about this. Like, you started it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You started this. Every. Every. Every fucking Republican that's up here, like, Democrats are fascist. They're doing gerrymandering. Motherfucker.

[Luke]

You started this, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is all on you.

[Luke]

Like, nobody. And he did it, like, out of turn. Like, it was like, no, just pass it now. Like, nobody's ever done that before. Like, he did it in the most unprecedent. So it's like, what do you want? Like, I think they expected Democrats just, like, take it and it's like, no.

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Luke]

You know, no. I got. Got to thank Gavin Newsom for that. I know he's not a fan of most people here, but I like him. I think he did a good job.

[Rich]

I like. I still like Gavin. Well, in California and Virginia, still did it the right way, which is they put it to voters, you know, Right. They allowed the democratic process, and that's why this was so close. I mean, Spanberger won by, I think, 15 points, you know, like seven months ago, six months ago, and now this won by. It looks like it's going to land at maybe three points. It's actually 51 and a half to 48 and a half. So.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, still not great.

[Luke]

That's what I don't like. Why, though, if she won by such a huge margin, who are these people who were like, yeah, but let's defend the Republican seats? Like, it makes no sense to me.

[Rich]

What I saw was that turnout in.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's it. It was turnout 1000%. It was.

[Rich]

Turnout was higher than it was for Trump in the 2024 election. Wow. So Republicans were more angry about losing their. Their representative. Rightfully so. It's the People's House. Right. Then they were excited to vote for Donald Trump, which, like, that's defensible. I don't know how anyone was excited to vote for Trump, but places where he was running up, you know, 20 and 30 and 40 point margins. No. Won by like, 50 points in some of those.

[Luke]

Yeah. I'm looking at these different places here. Like. Yeah, if you go way out into the west, all those counties are crazy numbers.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Literally.

[Rich]

Maroon 89 to 11, Scott county, you know, 6,000 to 800, but still.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Rich]

Versus.

[Luke]

The thing that's interesting though is you go to like Fairfax county and where there's huge liberal population, the numbers aren't like awesome, like 70, 30. It's like, you know, a lot of people came out to vote against it. That's kind of weird, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I think the. I mean, I haven't seen numbers, but I. I have the five. That turnout among us was not the same as it was to. To vote for Spamber.

[Luke]

I guess it makes sense. I mean, I think a lot of people, it's like they're only so engaged, you know, like at a certain point they're like, I'm done. I don't care. She's in. Well, I. I did my part.

[Rich]

Right, Right. And Yeah, right. Because this is for the midterms. This is not for the actual leadership of your state, you know, locally. Wow.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Did you guys see the headline comparison between Washington Post about Texas and Washington Post about Virginia?

[Rich]

Oh, God, no.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The Texas gerrymander freak out. What's happening in the Lone Star state is not a threat to democracy. Virginia plunges America deeper into the gerrymandering abyss. The redistricting scheme was always a power grab by Democrats and voters went along with it.

[Luke]

This is the Washington Post. Washington Post sounds like Fox News. Well.

[Rich]

Oh, that. So that was the editorial board. Oh, so that was. That's their editorial board, though.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's their editorial board.

[Rich]

It's not an opinion written for their board. It is actually on behalf of their board.

[Luke]

That's crazy. You what? That's. I mean, that literally sounds like Newsmax or some shit.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That. That sounds like fascism right there is what that sounds like.

[Luke]

That's crazy.

[Rich]

Holy. I mean, it is Jeff Bezos's editorial.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Exactly. That's oligarchy.

[Rich]

Right There was the other one. Their own editorial board.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rich]

Oh, Jesus Christ. Okay.

[Luke]

So up. Holy. That's not what I.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That is majorly. Luke.

[Rich]

That feels like a you video. We video in the last episode. But that feels like a you video.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That might be me.

[Rich]

Jeff Bezos's hand picked editorial board. I don't know if they're hand.

[Luke]

I like that. Just like, just a line. The Washington Post over your head. You know, it's boom.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We're brainstorming here. We're cooking now. But that. Oh, that's ridiculous.

[Rich]

I love that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I knew it. Was coming and yet still like.

[Rich]

Yeah, it's still shocking when it's real. It still pisses you off. Well, their. Their tagline is democracy dies in darkness. And I'm like, wait, say democracy again. But really slowly, because Texas. Texans didn't vote on their maps. No, Virginia did.

[Luke]

That's insane. Like, yeah, it was just like Abbott scribbling his signature on some. There you go. It's all fixed.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yep. You. If you're a blue guy here, you shouldn't die.

[Rich]

The subhead on the Washington Post one about Virginia. The redistricting scheme, as you said, was always a power grab by Democrats. Voters went along with it. The Supreme Court said that partisan redistricting is illegal because the federal government has not ruled against it. That's what they said. They said, if you don't want this, you have to make a law that bans it. Not the Supreme Court don't. I mean, the Supreme Court could have, but case law is. Is always a little wobblier than statutory law. So if Congress. And that's what I like about this one and why I would have voted for it if I lived in Virginia, is Congress just needs to say, oh, wait, maybe all of us should hate gerrymandering because, yeah, it's fucking stupid. Yeah, it is a fucking stupid abuse of power. And it should absolutely be illegal under the clause that we all deserve. Equal protection.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Equal representation.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Rich]

And it's really presentation.

[Luke]

My, My, my hot take on this whole thing is I think that Congress is just like, more and more. I look at this and go, this is just a terrible system. Like, I really don't like the. Just the general.

[Rich]

It's pretty fun system.

[Luke]

It's really bad. Like, I feel like we don't think about it at all. We're just like, well, of course it's the House and it's the Senate and it's these reps. This is dumb. Like, we're overcomplicating so much shit. Like, you know, obviously, the electoral vote versus popular vote is that shit as well. It's like, can we just simplify this and make it be like, all right, each state gets X. Like, it's just like, it's a Senate with X amount of people. Popular vote done. Like, why do we have to have all this complicated shit with the districts? It's like, it seems really inefficient. And I don't understand why we're doing it.

[Rich]

I mean, our politics.

[Luke]

I understand why we're doing it, but it's dumb.

[Rich]

We understand how we got here. But we don't. Yeah. The logic no longer holds up because.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Why are we staying with it?

[Luke]

Yes.

[Rich]

Right.

[Luke]

It's dumb as shit. Well, I saw some video the other day about at least about the electoral vote versus popular vote where like, there are a number of states that are adopting, wanting that to be the case, and if enough get there, it actually will become the way that the law is written. Which is interesting federally, like, but it's like certain tipping point. States have to switch it. But that'd be cool.

[Rich]

You need some, some Michigan's and some Pennsylvanias to adopt those. Those things because. And I've. The math doesn't seem like it would make sense, but it actually does make sense. You need it. You just need enough. As far as gerrymandering, though, I mean. Yeah. We just never revisited the problem. People used to vote by your geography because if you were, if you lived in a farming state, 100% of people were farmers or they worked directly with farmers, providing them with food or fixing their machines or whatever. Now you've got people coding AI software for anthropic or OpenAI in the middle of Kansas, and you've got urban farmers with chickens in their backyard in San Francisco. It's a. There's. There are almost no rules when it comes to geography besides things like water and, you know, climate change, things like that. And so we have, I mean, we have a national political environment, we have a national economy to a large degree. We should have some sort of national reflection or some sort of change in how we draw districts to reflect that. Yeah, there have been, I mean, Harvard's, Harvard, Brown, Georgetown. There are very smart people who have gotten together to come up with algorithms that would draw fair districts every 10 years because the population does change, people do move. Right.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Rich]

If we wanted to have an algorithm that's optimized, I think, for socioeconomic diversity, you know, you have a certain number of. You're. You're trying to reach a quota of people of different races, ethnicities, gender and economic class in each district so that every district is fair. They can do that. They can do that with purely. Purely with data. And no political person has to be at the table.

[Luke]

That's not going to go over well.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's, that's where you get like a, you know, a standalone, unbiased election board to handle all of that for us.

[Luke]

Right.

[Rich]

Yeah, maybe people from like.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But that'll never happen.

[Luke]

No, of course not.

[Rich]

Get Canadian or, or people from. Yeah, like, like Sweden to do it. They're just like, I Don't. I don't give a really what. You know, they're not going to tip the scale for like District 12 in Virginia.

[Ryan Reynolds]

People are so dumb that they would rather they would look at a state like North Carolina, which is like a light blue state, gerrymandered into a ruby red state.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And say, no, that's fine them all. We can't let another country or somebody else control our elections to way that's actually fair.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Rich]

It would immediately become a kill the messenger situation where whoever was in charge of the algorithms, it would be just another like Pizzagate deep state.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh my God. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

[Luke]

Yes, I can.

[Rich]

Unfortunately, tech is drawing our algorithms. I'm like, look at the. Look at the house though.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Look at the numbers, you fucking idiot.

[Rich]

You can independently verify that this is better.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, you can if you're capable of math.

[Rich]

That's true.

[Luke]

They're not. You know, that's the hard part. I mean, this is the only math

[Ryan Reynolds]

they know how to do is spelled with an e. That's it.

[Rich]

I've never heard that before.

[Ryan Reynolds]

These are.

[Luke]

These are some of the magic lines you throw out there. I'm just like, how the did you come up with this?

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Nah, man. I worked on a construction site for two summers in high school. That's all you need.

[Luke]

That's true.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I've been. I was bullied so much. All of these things were logged deep into my skull.

[Luke]

That's great. I mean, I'm gonna turn to a real bummer statement here that people are gonna hate. But like, this is exactly why I like every time there's like a progressive ideology brought forward, I'm like, yeah, but it'll never work. Like, like all this, all these institutional challenges that are ahead of us. Like, I don't know. I have such a hard time looking past that and getting to the point where it's like, yeah, let me embrace universal healthcare, whatever the it is, you know, Or I'm just looking at this going, this is so institutionally. Like, how is anybody able to think we could actually do this? You know, Like, I just, I don't. I don't ever believe it, which is a super bummer thing. But I just, I can't see past it.

[Rich]

When you look at like the. What is it? The seven Mountain Mandate? Like there. There are these seven pillars of society, and it's like education and the media and the government and religion, all the things that, that magas have said they need to control. They're all in a pretty bad place right? Now, it used to be that government and religion, like, kind of played nice together, and people understood the separation of church and state, and they wanted someone. Well, we. Right, and we believe in democracy. And the people who didn't were like 20% or 15%, but now it's like 40%. And so they've chiseled away so much of all of those individual institutions that now it's like, where do you start? You have to pick somewhere. Do we. Do we. Do we start undoing media monopolies? Like, that's a good argument.

[Luke]

Money. I mean, you start with fucking money. Like, that's.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You start with the fucking Citizens United. 100%.

[Luke]

100%. It's that. And it's got to be like, everything that curbs money going to the pockets of politicians is the only way you can have, like, downstream systemic change.

[Rich]

No more.

[Luke]

Yeah, 100%. But that'll never fucking happen because the people who benefit from it are the fucking people who vote on it. It's like, that's the most frustrating part, right?

[Rich]

So. So. So if. Because a lot of Democrats, it's like, it's just like the electoral college with states looking at each other, like everyone's looking at everyone else thinking, as long as you do it, too, then I can agree to do it. But, like, we have to do this at the same time because. Because if one side gets out ahead of the other, it's going to go poorly.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This might be a little bit of a hot take, but I blame people of Rich and Tim's generation.

[Rich]

Oh, yeah? Why wait? Because people.

[Ryan Reynolds]

People in my generation are starting to look at that, and maybe even yours, too, Zach, are starting to look at that shit and go, this. I'm not doing that. I am not supporting you. I am not supporting you if you

[Rich]

do that shit 100%.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I won't vote for people who do. But people in Tim and Rich's generation. Look at that. Look at they. They see. Oh, there's a big D next. His name. Yeah, all right.

[Luke]

I agree with that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And they don't. They don't value the difference in candidate. Like. Like. Correct. They don't care if a character takes PAC money or not, pack money or corporate money or not corporate money. They care about red or blue. That's what. That's. As far as their discernment goes, I agree. Because that, for them, for them, their whole lives, that's been the. That's been the most important factor, which definitely, up until, you know, 15 years ago, probably still would have gotten. Gotten you across the finish line. But it doesn't now.

[Luke]

No, I agree. Like, I, I think the critical difference between. And rich, I know you're millennial, not

[Ryan Reynolds]

Gen X, but I'm gonna, I'm just gonna. I'm. I'm age blind. I can't make the distinction.

[Luke]

I don't see, see gray hairs. That's what you see. Two guys with gray hair, and that's what you do.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This fucker's almost bald.

[Luke]

But I do, like, I think, like, I mean, there is. I do think that, like, I kind of fold in the middle there. Where, like, where I think my generation and Luke's generation really succeed is niche. Whereas, you know, like, Gen X and boomers are very broad black and white thinkers. Whereas, like, millennials and, and Gen Z are very, very capable of going, yeah, but what about this specific thing and that specifically. And able to, like, segment their thinking much more niche. So, like, I think that's a huge piece of it where we kind of go like, well, what's the context? And the context didn't really matter. All like, it was very simple context. Like early elections, like, even in 2000 and shit, if you had somebody come out and say like, one negative thing about you, it'd be like, oh, fuck, the campaign is ruined. And it's like 8,000 negative things a day, and it doesn't matter. And that's the difference of, like, the ability of millennials and Gen Z to really segment and inflate and deflate their value systems to decide where they're going to land. And like, I agree, over time that'll probably be the case. But then again, millennials might shift and pull a fucking Gen X and a boomer and be like, yeah, we're getting old. We don't want to deal with the niche, so we'll just fucking vote for the D or they are.

[Rich]

You know, I think that was the trajectory we were on, Millennials, specifically, because, I mean, after Obama was elected, there was this great, like, sigh of relief, as if the whole country had just moved on from racism. And that didn't. Nothing was bad. Nothing bad was ever going to happen. And then we got gay marriage and, you know, stuff started moving on the climate. And I feel like everybody let their guard down and they felt like, well, as long as we just aren't stup and we continue electing smart, thoughtful people like President Obama, and Those people are 95 to 5, 99 to 1 on the left, you're good. But there's another thing, Luke, where just on behalf of the harm reduction Argument, especially I think with marginalized populations, they look at like, I won't get six months if I don't.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, no, no, I, I, I see that.

[Rich]

Vote for the safest regardless. And so, you know, it's the lesser of two evils thing. And so like if you have, if you're in immediate pain, you don't have the privilege of saying like, well I'm going to take a principled stance on who I vote for. You're going to, you're going to say like, this person might give me a thousand dollar rebate next year and so I'm going to vote for them. Or they might, they might give me free health care. Like I gotta, like I gotta shoot my shot on this.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But I do find that occasionally those harm reduction people, which I totally see the value in, like if you're in a spot or you know, people, or even if you just care about the general well being of everyone, you are going to take the harm reduction approach. But like I find that those people aren't all that active in primaries, which is the exact time that you can do the, the non principal take. Like that's when you get to two your real opinion.

[Luke]

Yeah, that's true.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You can do more than come out for the presidential election. God damn it.

[Luke]

Yeah, that's the hard part. I mean, I think a lot of the people who end up voting in those situations are like, they're coming out in the last two weeks and making a decision. But like in the end those are the people who have like the most on the line when it comes down these elections, which is really frustrating by the way. I have to hop and go, oh shit.

[Ryan Reynolds]

All right, now it's gonna be a Rich and Luke show.

[Luke]

It's a Rich and Luke show, everybody. Enjoy. This should be interesting. I'll see you guys later.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Let's ride. Oh, and Ellie's here too. She's in the background though.

[Rich]

I am so glad he's gone. I fucking hate that dude.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I fucking hate that guy. God, Tim's gone too. It's great.

[Rich]

Yeah, I mean, what are we talking about?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Just kidding. We're just kidding.

[Rich]

Let's talk about Lord of the Rings.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We could talk about that. We could also talk about Tucker Carlson because did you see his interview the other day?

[Rich]

I, I saw all of the clips that came across.

[Ryan Reynolds]

My, that's what I saw too. The big I'm sorry we misled people and blah blah, blah. And then like I saw a bunch of Democratic influencers that shared that clip without watching the whole Thing and missed the part in the background where the guy that's interviewing or that's talking to Carlson calls Kamala, quote, cackling, cackling, camel toe. And then Tucker laughs and they go on with the show. But these people are sharing this in this video like it's some kind of a, you know, revelation. Tucker's done with maga. Tucker's gonna be on our side now. And I gotta tell you, if you believe that for a split second, you are so slow, you could time you with a calendar. I mean, Jesus Christ, that dude is never gonna be on our team ever.

[Rich]

I don't know. I'm gonna hold out hope.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No. Anybody holding hope there is fucking stupid.

[Rich]

No, obviously, thousand percent agree. I mean, yeah, Tucker Carlson is an entertainer and he has been his entire life. And I think the thing that. That I take away from this, that's inspiring is not that he did issue, like, he apologized. He. He said all of the words that implies that he owns his mistake. And he said, like, this is on us, that, you know, we. We had a hand in this and, like, we are the reason he got elected and we need to own that. Correct. Those are all the right words. I think what it reflects, though, is the absolute terror across the hard right that they are going to be held accountable. Well, they know they've done over the last couple of years and really the last, I mean, 25 years, but it's just gotten really bad, really fast. And they are looking at their ratings, their future viewers, their future audiences, their future brand deals, like, all of. All of the ways that they make money. They know that this is drying up probably even faster now than they expected, especially with the war in Iran. And so they are looking for how do I keep my paycheck and how do I stay out of prison after this is all done?

[Ryan Reynolds]

And in my opinion, neither should be true. I don't care if they die penniless on the side of the street. I don't care if they spend the rest of their lives in the. In the fucking clink because there are thousands of people whose lives have been ruined or are just over because they misled and lied and got on their knees for a orange con man for years. They have done irreparable damage and it's

[Rich]

going to take us 10, 20, 30 years if we do everything right, if

[Ryan Reynolds]

we can fix it.

[Rich]

Yeah, what if they spent, like, we could make a deal. Like, what if they could survive, like, one year in the Dilly Detention center on their own with measles and. And Maggoty food then, then if they can make that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How about you those, though? I'll, I'll cut you a deal, Carlson. We'll put you in alligator Alcatraz that you giggled and joked about. And we'll, you know, the gators around, we'll just make sure they don't have any food for a while. And if you can get out of that hell swamp, you get to go on with it. But that's the, that they cheered about. And that's the thing. I feel like these, these very same influencers that are like, oh, Carlson's on our side are forgetting the fact that six a year ago now, he was cheering for that.

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And personally, I am never, ever going to be cool with somebody who cheered for that.

[Rich]

Yeah, they, they were very excited when it was desperate starving immigrants who were trying to get away from cartels potentially getting eaten by alligators as they tried to escape this prison. But when it's what a. A MAGA creator losing a thousand followers a day because nobody cares anymore and because every.

[Ryan Reynolds]

What you're supporting is unconscionable.

[Rich]

Well, protect those people, though, because they're, you know, they're good.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay, Tucker, you go do the same stint in seacot that Kilmar Abrego Garcia did. Go kneel on rice and eat with your hands tied behind your back. Have fun with that.

[Rich]

I think they would do pretty well. I'm sure that they all, you know, they're all alphas, so they're.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, yeah, they. Tucker's a big. I, I Do they let you have bow ties in seot? I'm not sure.

[Rich]

You know, there's probably a risk to yourself if they let you have a bow tie. I mean, that would be, that would be an end.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Rich]

How long is a bow tie? I used to wear bow ties at a job.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Like, I've never worn a bow tie in my life.

[Rich]

You know what I would love is because I'm pretty sure they, they wanted to make, like, they joked about making it a reality TV show, right. Of like, the immigrants trying to get.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, they did. They did. They joked about all that shit.

[Rich]

So let's, let's do what you said. Like hungry alligators, all the alpha influencers and the, and the magas who said and did horrific things over the past couple years. They get to go to go to Alligator Alcatraz. And then we set up, like, webcams and have, like, drone cameras following them around. It's like the Running Man. Like, they, we just alligators.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm for it. You know how much money we could raise to help fix this. If we just marketed that, we could

[Rich]

probably cover universal healthcare for everybody, most likely, which would get less expensive because of all the MAGA influencers getting eaten by allocators.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It would be like, it's like crowdfunding. Universal healthcare. It's an alternative form of paying your taxes.

[Rich]

I kind of love it. Let's roll with this. I'm going to write up.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm for it. I am for it.

[Rich]

Oh, man. What else we got today? We haven't talked about Iran, but it's like, I don't even know what to talk about with Iran.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They seized two ships today. I saw that. Tried to go through the strait, which is.

[Rich]

That tracks because Trump just announced yesterday the indefinite cease fire.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Cease fire. Yep.

[Rich]

You know, I got to give us credit because I think it was just in. Was it just in our Tuesday episode, I lose track. We predicted that, that Trump was going to Taco Tuesday on Tuesday because that was when the two weeks was up. And then we got to Tuesday and. Or I think it was even on Monday. He already had announced like, oh, well, it's. It's actually Wednesday. And then on Taco Tuesday, he still announced the indefinite ceasefire. So. Oh, yeah, he like pre Taco'd like when you, when you have like one or two street tacos and you're like, I need seven more street tacos immediately.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right? He had like one of the little tacos and now he's got the full one.

[Rich]

Right? The amuse bouche taco and then the full plate of tacos on Taco Tuesday. So now we have an insane. An indefinite ceasefire as Iran seized two ships. I think I saw some were three maybe, but at least two. And now Trump is looking at trying to get to the same agreement that Barack Obama got to with Iran seven years ago as a possible break.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Even if only we had had that deal. If only somebody else that's infinitely better at everything about being a president had established this deal. And then some ignorant jackass that despises the fact that everything. A lot of the good in this country can be traced directly back to his predecessor, a black man that is better than him at everything. And he has done as much damage to get rid of anything that Barack Obama ever did. And it has been infinitely terrible for this fucking country.

[Rich]

Yeah, if, if we could go back in time because this is the thing like we. Everybody says, like, well, you know, Joe Biden didn't do this and Barack Obama didn't do that. They were still Operating in the political environment, in the world that existed then, which was that there were like, bright lines that never. That were never crossed by any president like in the last.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, you didn't defund Medicaid. You didn't defund US aid. You didn't kill 600,000 people. You didn't bomb countries for the hell

[Rich]

of it just for fun.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You didn't send SEAL Team Six to go kidnap the fucking leader of another country.

[Rich]

Right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's not.

[Rich]

Not really how they operated, based on manufactured excuses. So I, you know, I give them a pass. They. Nobody could have possibly predicted how far Trump would go. But now that we do know, if I could go back in time, it would be amazing if, If. If Obama had just signed all the deals like John Barron. Just, just. He was that selfless. If you had. If we get. Went back in time right now and we were like, Obama, we need.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You have to do this. Otherwise. Otherwise the future is terrible.

[Rich]

The future debate. Affordable Care act will be funded indefinitely. And the Iran nuclear effort of John Barron by effort of John. Barry, we're gonna need you to take one for the team. We know that's too much to ask. I think. I think it would have worked out. You know, I want to make fun of Iowa. I wish I could say I was making fun of Iowa. Sucks.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Iowa sucks.

[Rich]

Do you know anyone who lives in Iowa?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Me. Oh, it's fucking terrible here.

[Rich]

Condolences.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I need all the condolences I can get. You know, it's been like a really bad month for Iowa.

[Rich]

What? What? What in the past month has happened in Iowa?

[Ryan Reynolds]

We had that with the schools in Cedar Rapids where funding went from public schools to Christian schools that turn away gay kid or kids of gay parents.

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And the University of Iowa had what they're calling. It's technically a mass shooting. There was a big fight at Barclose and a guy pulled a gun and shot at the people fighting him and then hit people in the crowd. And the photos of people of interest at the police department and the University of Released are all of African American people. And the. The white hoods have come out.

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because all of the comments everywhere, Instagram, Facebook, public news comments, all of them are people talking about the usual suspects and like that. And it's. It makes me hate living here even more.

[Rich]

Yeah. I don't think there's anything like between maybe next door comment sections and Facebook local news station comment sections.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, my God.

[Rich]

That's like a royal rumble of the. Of the bottom feeders. It's like Paul and Julia Smith, like they share a profile and they're both, you know, they both have like the MAGA hats on and they're just saying it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And they only have a Facebook. They only have a joint Facebook account because one of them cheated.

[Rich]

I'll give you one guess who it was. Paul. Paul. And literally just with their faces and usually like pictures, their grandkids with like eagles and American flags superimposed.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. And then, then you go through like the comment history and it's just all racist. Yeah, Warren.

[Rich]

Right. It's like, oh, what race was the suspect? Or. Yeah, even the more, the more obtuse usual suspects I was. Iowa's. Iowa used to actually be an okay state. What?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, it's almost like the Republicans took over and it went to absolute. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened.

[Rich]

Not for super wealthy people though. Let's be fair.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is fair.

[Rich]

You know.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Do you know in Iowa you can look up your cancer rates by county.

[Rich]

You're really.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because the water is that by contaminants and runoff and fertilizer and all of that shit. They can trace your likelihood of getting cancer down to the fucking county. And Kim Reynolds looks at that and goes, it, you know, don't really, it doesn't really matter because.

[Rich]

Is it though, is it the wrong counties that are not.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh yeah, well, a lot of the, A lot of the blue counties, you

[Rich]

know, the, the thing that I saw that, that like I had to. I probably fact checked this four times on, on the vouchers program there. What do you call, what do you guys call that? Educational school credits or something like that. The vouchers are going to these private religious schools and that's one thing. So obviously taxpayer money that is funded by everybody is getting diverted away from public schools to these, these religious schools. There's a major, a major.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hey, don't worry, don't worry though. In Texas now they can mandate that schools put the ten Commandments on the wall, by the way. I don't know if you saw that that happened today.

[Rich]

As long as we all follow spreading they. So the taxpayer dollars are going to the religious schools and, and that's one thing. But then at the same time those religious schools are giving at least the one that I, the one that I checked. And this one is a pretty big network of Catholics churches across the Midwest. They actually give high school students a $3,000 a year, like $2,500 a year discount if you are a member of a local parish. So a poor atheist or a poor non Catholic Christian who wants to attend that school with taxpayer funded vouchers pays full price. And it's like $12,000 a year to attend this, which like everybody has that laying around. 8,000 comes from the voucher. So if you are a 40 or $50,000 a year household and you've got, you know, two or three kids, maybe one or two of them are in high school, it's $4,000 out of pocket per year per kid after the voucher. Whereas if you, if you're not a Catholic, if you're not an attending Catholic, if you are, then you break even. And so wealthy religious white families are the overwhelming majority of the people who attend this very fancy school. And now they're closing six schools in Cedar Rapids in the public school system there because they had the funding diverted toward the private religious schools. So it's state sponsored religious indoctrination. Indoctrination. And that you have to drive like one person profile had to drive 15 miles. I think it was round trip to drop their kids off at another school because their local school closed. And of course those are never the families who have maybe reliable transportation who can afford the extra.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Whose parents go to work at 9 o' clock in the morning and can drop their kids off every day.

[Rich]

Yeah, exactly. Right. They're, they're an ER nurse working like the graveyard shift. And so, right. It's, you know, I knew that things were bad. I knew that vouchers were. But this new layer that allows voucher money to go to religious schools that yes, kick kids out or just bar kids from entry entirely, even if they are Catholic for being gay, is also giving discounts, is also giving discounts to the religious families. I didn't know you could even do that. But it's legal.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I thought that was kind of, you know, not allowed. But I guess the Christo fascists are doing whatever in the wide world of fuckery they want these days.

[Rich]

I think it's, it's been controversial my whole life to say we should start taxing churches.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't think it should be controversial at all.

[Rich]

I don't think it is as much anymore. I was just talking to a Republican and they said like, no, actually I would be totally on board with that because there's like the whole libertarian side of, of the, of the Republican Party which is shrinking. But they're, they tend to be a little bit more of the, like, everybody should be equal. Even if it's my people. My, like my people should be equal to every other, every other group we should. We should bring that back up. But that's like a third rail, right. Yeah, I'm for it. We'll cut Medicaid, but not tax churches.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. I mean, because, like. And they don't really do anything either. I saw that if every church in America took in, like, two homeless people, there wouldn't be homeless people anymore. And they don't really do that. And, like, I don't know if you saw that TikTok series ever about the lady calling churches and asking for formula and got turned away at, like, almost every one of them. They were like, are you a member here? And she was like, well, no. And they're like, well, go yourself, then. We hope your baby starves.

[Rich]

And then, like, in so many words.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And then, like. But she would call mosques, and I don't think she ever got turned away to mosque.

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And it was like, huh.

[Rich]

I think maybe we should tax these. Maybe. I. I'm starting to think that I would be on board with that. No, I've been on board with that my entire life. Because what is it? The Catholic Church, I think, is the largest landowning organization in the United States.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. With like, you know, the Mormon Church is trying to catch up.

[Rich]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because they're buying up all the land in Missouri because they think what's his fucking name is coming back.

[Rich]

Oh, like Adam Smith or.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, the og. What's his fucking name? Brigham Young.

[Rich]

Yeah. Brigham Young. Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because he started his journey in Missouri.

[Rich]

Oh. Oh. He's. That's obviously where he'd go then. That's always been my problem with. Because that's the first thing they throw out. If you say, like, hey, we should tax churches or. Or like, if you. If you go so far as to say, like, Christianity has had a. Maybe a net negative impact some places in the. In the world. Or just like.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Or the entire world, religion in general,

[Rich]

people immediately go to. Well, they feed. You know, they feed people. They build houses. But it's always conditional. And it's like, it's not charity.

[Ryan Reynolds]

If you go there and you're like, you have to believe in my guy with us in the sky, or else I'm not building you this house.

[Rich]

Yeah, exactly. Proselytization. Is that the word? Proselytri? It's like religious imperialism. You go to Africa, you go to the Mid east, you go to the Philippines. I don't know if they go to the Middle East. I don't know if they try that. But they do go to Southeast Asia and Africa a lot. And they Build schools and they build churches and they provide health care and everything. But at the same time it's like there's this implication that now you need to attend the church because the first thing they do is build a church. And so then they start holding services and that's how they spread their religion. It's really no more than marketing, but it's like with good.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The Catholic Church is the original multi level marketing scheme.

[Rich]

Is that where everybody got their ideas?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I guess so.

[Rich]

Believe in my God. And also, would you like to buy some Tupperware?

[Ryan Reynolds]

And also you can be like a deacon and you can bring some more people in and we can all make money.

[Rich]

Don't forget your kids. Yep.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Gotta dunk them in some water.

[Rich]

Oh, well, there's more stuff to make fun of. Are you doing anything cool? Is there any good news besides Virginia? That was pretty good news. Is there any good news?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Virginia's pretty good.

[Rich]

I feel like we're spiraling for doom Spiraling, which is like, I could scroll if I wanted to do that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, I'm pretty. Just angry this week. I don't really have anything that I'm talking about that's good this week. I have my script, I have my like general rough ideas for the rest of the week and all of them are angry.

[Rich]

Yeah, I saw something that was better. I'm looking up some, some Senate polls right now because I saw a thing, I feel like it was this morning. There's actually a pretty good chance of Democrats taking the Senate and it's based on, of all of the places, Alaska, the, the, the vote in Alaska. I'm, I'm digging up the poll right now, so I'll just like, where's the music? I need some like, there's not a lot of polling in Alaska and so that's why it's not getting nearly enough attention. But it's Mary Tola, I think, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, she's in Al. She's Alaska.

[Rich]

Right. She's running against Dan Sullivan and she's leading right now as a. Like there were polls in January that had her up 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 points. She has an overwhelmingly favorable rating among Alaskan voters. Like, everybody assumes that Alaska is just a, a slam dunk, deep red state, but Alaska is actually. It's not, it's not. And it's. The voters there are, are pretty weird as far as like who and what and why they vote for. They, they voted for Mark Begich years ago and he was in Congress for a term. And when you look at Lisa Murkowski she's not super hard. Right. She's actually probably one of the most frustrating voters in the Senate for, for, for Donald Trump. She's constantly shutting stuff down. She didn't want the SAVE Act. She wouldn't even vote to end the filibuster so that they could vote on the SAVE Act. She's been pretty reliable and I think she's pretty popular. But now it's the other guy, the Trump appointed guy or the Trump, the Trump loyalist Dan Sullivan, who's running against Peltola. And as of the Alaska survey, research did a poll March 19th to 22nd. So like sort of mid Iran dumpster fire. Peltola was up by 5 points, 49 to 44. It's not like 20% of the people are undecided. Right. She's like pretty much everyone is saying who they want to vote for and she's up in January. She was up by 2 in two different polls. These are the kinds of things where when you look at like the Democratic, you know, campaign committee and when you look at the media, they, they just treat everything like it's locked in. But we've seen so much shit get blown up, like literally and figuratively since 2024.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't know if you got it. That joke's that funny.

[Rich]

It's not funny. Iran, among other things. But in Venezuela. But also like the things we've been talking about, they blew up Medicaid. Like, nobody thought that they were going to touch Medicaid because you don't touch entitlement programs. Like that's the oldest rule in politics. The, the original third rail. But they've started doing all these things that are truly unprecedented and that obviously results in unprecedented find out period. So I won't be surprised if, if Talarico wins in Texas. I won't be surprised if Paltola wins in Alaska. Places that are.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There's a Senate race in Iowa that I'm got my finger on.

[Rich]

Right. Joni Ernst seat. Right. How. How's that looking? How's that showing up?

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I mean, it's close, but I think it's. I think there's a chance. I mean that whole some of you are gonna die, we're all gonna die comment. Really kind of her really not a great idea to say that.

[Rich]

Yeah. She, she went really hard. Oh yeah. So echelon insights pulled April 3rd through the 9th and found that Walls. That's how you say it, right? Walls.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I think so.

[Rich]

Is leading.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I've DM with them.

[Rich]

Nice. We should. We should get him on, because Joanie Ernst is a monster. She's the one who said everybody's going to die. It's just a fact of life. Meanwhile, she's worth, like, millions of dollars and retiring in her, what, 40s, 50s? Because she's just kind of done with it. 60s. I don't know how old she is, but she's not. She's not 80. And she's just stepping out because she makes enough money. Don't you wish you could just check out of the economy when the economy gets shitty, when things get tough, you're just like, I'm just going to retire. Be kind of nice. Anyway, we should get him on because, yes, we. We need to sort of break how we think about the Senate map. We need to break.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, you can't, like, you can't think about these things as, like, guaranteed, because they're not.

[Rich]

Right. Especially now. They never are. And I always hate when they say state. States are safe red or safe blue or whatever, because they're still humans that live in those states and they can still vote for whoever they want. So I.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay. Actually, I do have one little bit of good news before we leave. Well, it's not so much good news, but it's funny. According to an article by Wired, a man in India says that he made thousands of dollars scamming MAGA fans with a fake AI influencer that he named Emily Hart. It helped pay for his medical school. He has millions and millions and millions of views on Instagram and Facebook with it. It's obviously like a blonde MAGA bikini girl and has thousands of thousands and thousands of followers. And the funny thing is, he says that he tried a liberal version, but it didn't work. Quote, democrats know that it's AI slop. The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people. Super dumb people. They all fall for it.

[Rich]

I mean, I wish I could say I was surprised, but when you see the ones of, like, the. That woman who's like, the shape and. And appearance that MAGA people respond favorably to, like, sitting on in the Oval Office with her bare feet up on the desk with Donald Trump, I'm like, you guys. And they're like, thank you for your service. God bless you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How fucking stupid do you have to be?

[Rich]

So if the feet are in the picture, it's a pretty fucking big tell. I'm just gonna tell everybody that right now.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, when they got six toes and

[Rich]

they're fucking crooked, there's no bare feet. And usually in pictures of the military, unless it's like a body.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Rich]

This is amazing. The Wired article on it, this scammer used an AI generated MAGA girl to grift quote super dumb men.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's fucking amazing.

[Rich]

It is kind of amazing. We need to do this and then funnel the money into, like, Democratic campaigns.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Again. We're funding universal healthcare.

[Rich]

Right? Like, take one for the team, guys.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm for it.

[Rich]

You don't know, but you're funding good things. I think that's a good place to end before something.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think so.

[Rich]

We do breaking news alerts. This was.

[Ryan Reynolds]

All right. We have to do our. We have to do our pitches. All right. Like Tim. All right.

[Rich]

Right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You can get merch@findout podcast.com make sure to subscribe on YouTube. That's our biggest growing platform. And we have. Stay tuned. There's going to be Get Angry on Friday and Nola Haynes is not a spy on Friday, I think, as well. Well, bam.

[Rich]

What about American Power is American Power.

[Ryan Reynolds]

American Power's on Wednesdays, but they're still. And it is still going crazy. American Power and Get Angry both going crazy.

[Rich]

All right, well, I'm not angry about that. No. And buy a merch. Did you say buy merch?

[Ryan Reynolds]

And buy merch? Yeah. Find out Podcast. Find out, Find out podcast dot com. All right, you can also. You can also consider getting a [e-mail] or YouTube. They do media. We do. We do. We do memberships there, too.

[Rich]

The paid memberships on YouTube. Yeah, do that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You guys are the best.

[Rich]

And if you don't like the podcast, go to my channel. Oh, that's rich. And then join my channel as a paid member, too.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Don't do that. Don't do that.

[Rich]

Tim always says that part. I'm just trying to be honest.

[Ryan Reynolds]

All right.

[Rich]

Zach's not going to watch all of this, do you think?

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, I don't think he's paying attention.

[Rich]

He's still on, but they're going to have to cut him off. So he's going to. Anyway, it's gonna be like a seven hour long recording by the time he gets back from wherever he is.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Thank you all for listening. You're the best fans in the world.

[Rich]

We do have the best fans.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[Rich]

All right, bye, everybody.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Goodbye, everybody.

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