Hi, I'm Mollie John Fast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walls as her next vice president. We have such a great show for you today. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi joins us to talk about her new book, The Art of Power. Then we'll talk to historian Heather Cox Richardson about rural voters and the
history there. And as a special Fancy exclusive bonus, we are re airing my famous interview with Tim Walls where he and I really became friends. But first we have the host of Talking Fed's former US attorney Harry Littman. Welcome to our weird Fast Politics, Talking Feds Mashup. I'm Mollie John Fest, and here is Talking fed's host Terry Lipman.
Welcome to another what we call at Talking Fed's land Molly mash up with Molly John Fast, special correspondent for Vandy Fair, host of the podcast Fast Politics, and man, what a propitious time to be talking to her. There's been a thing or two happened since we last convened Molly, you can give me your little legal questions, but then I get to throw my politics. But they're gonna be what's going to tune me out and tune you in?
And that's just fine.
What do you got, Well, that's not necessarily true, Okay, So explain to us what legal jeopardy does Trump face right now?
Still a lot depending right now, depending on whether he wins the election, if he loses the election, kind of everything that there's been this clock about the clock's gone. We lost that battle, but other cases still remain, with the exception of that Fulton County case that I'm not sure will ever be revived and see the light of day. But the January sixth case, it's gonna be trimmed down because of immunity. The mar Lago case it's gonna go,
and maybe probably not without cannon. And just yesterday, Molly, you had Jenna Ls plead guilty in an Arizona case. So there are these state elector cases. Trump is in charge there, but he's co conspirator number one in the indictment. So that and also the civil case in New York, those things, for the most part are not going away. So everything with the exception of the trim down January sixth and Fulton County's anybody's bet that's again if he loses.
So why is Fulton County gone?
Well, it's just such a mess.
It's not clear that Humpty Dumpty can put the pieces back together again.
In theory, there's going to be an appeal.
This is her off the case, whether.
To kick her off not just her, but it would be her whole office. It's this big, sprawling case and I don't know. People that I talked to in Georgia tended to use the word moribund. There's no reason you could try to revive it, but it has this feel of being pretty mothballed.
But it could come back.
In the Arizona case that Jenna Ellis just agreed to plead very very very bad news for Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epstein. That's some of the same kind of conduct and could still ensnare Donald Trump because guys like Meadows and Julianna, if they're looking to get a good deal like Jenna Elis just got, they got one person to give up.
That would be the former president of the United States.
My turn, my turn, My turn.
As we speak, the ticket is set. Tim Wallas's Kama Harris VP pick. You know you talked on Rick Wilson's podcast about well, a lot of things about Kamala Like a lot of people, I haven't really seen Walls, but you know, until he's he came to the fore calling JB. Vance and the Republican Party weird, which is a separate thing to ask you about. But what I've heard is relative to the other finalists, maybe a little Minnesota bland. Yeah, so let's hear about Tim Walls.
Okay, So first of all, Tim Walls, the two things that people have been saying, which neither of which are true. One is that he's some wild leftist, which he's not, and two is that he is not interesting. So what I would say about him is this Tim Walls. Why he came on my radar was two things. One, he was the head of the governors the Democratic Governors Association, which is something that you get when you're popular with other governors and you're good at raising money, two things
you want in a vice presidential candidate. And if you look at j Events like popular or Ron DeSantis.
Like in the first line, Yeah.
Right, you're already ahead of the game. Then the other thing about him is that he's famous for being able to enact really and I don't even want to say progressive legislation because I think it under sells what it is. But free breakfasts and lunch is six weeks paid leave, you know, sickly more. You know, he had a real relationship with the union.
Yeah, unions love him.
And he was a teacher and he was also an enlisted man, so he wasn't an officer. He was really in it the way Reuben Diego was. And I think that if you look at him, he's a very kind of Midwestern guy. Right. He was born in Kansas, he grew up there. He had a father who had misfortune. He enlisted to save his family and make money, so it's a really relatable story. I also just find him to be a pretty charismatic guy.
You do, Okay, we'll be learning that too.
Yeah, he's very Midwestern and his affect is full Midwest. But you know, he hunts, he fishes, he has guns. He's all about gun safety. But he doesn't take money from the NRA like he's a really I think he's a really impressive guy.
Okay, cool.
I got much more on him, but you go next, and now I'll come back on the walls too, question.
Jenna Alice tell us everything on Jen Alice.
Her qualifications for getting where she got, and it was pretty high up and pretty visible, were only that she would say whatever crap Trump wanted her to say.
She puffed about her resume.
She never had really any credentials, but at that time in the Trump land, that got you in the room your ticket, I want debated her on Fox and she they gave her the last word and she just like lied flagrantly, you know. So she would say, now she got, you know, works her way there, and she's one of the team with especially Rudy, who she's really close to, you know, and it totally thick the whole especially false Elector's part of the scheme.
So she goes. So now Arizona.
And I mentioned this only in passing Molly, that's a part of the overall liability picture for Trump and team Trump, all the President's men. Trump, they go to Arizona. They do the whole three way deal. First, they try to badger the legislature into saying the you know, withdrawing certification because falsely they make up all these lives about why it's not accurate. Legislature says goodbye anyway. Second, they go on the phony elector plan and they literally have the
co defendants in that case. You know, I am the actual elector for Donald Trump. Just a flagrant lie. And then third they on January sixth try to pressure Mike Pence into breaking the law. So you got the classic full case in Arizona. It was brought only recently, but it's now one of four or five state cases. And Jenna Ellis was subject to nine charges like all the rest of the gang here, Boris Epstein, mark Man Is,
Rudy Giuliani. They're giving her a full walk, no charges at all, if but only if she testifies truthfully in yanked at any time. And she It really is interesting because they have put her out in the cold, did Team Trump? They didn't pay her legal fees. She tried to do a gofund me and kind of got nowhere. And she's just a kid without any you know, she was in the cold. So she's always I had pointed
to her repeatedly she was just a dangerous figure. She is right now state witness number one and she is absolutely in the middle of it all. She could kill Juliani in particular, but also Epstein, maybe Meadows, And of course there is co conspirator number one in that indictment, being Trump and those guys that could put pressure on them.
One last thing.
I assume if Trump becomes president, he can make enough mischief that even the state law cases go away or get put on hold. But Mark Meadows can't, Boris Epstein can't rudy Giuliani Camp. This is now set, this case will happen. She'll go forward as the star witness, and you know Meadows in particular, who's kind of known the most but has kept out in trouble with very good lawyering. He really is looking at serious time in state prison
in Arizona. This is a real deal, and it dovetails precisely with Trump saying, you know, I'm not going to pay your bills.
I'm not.
So she was this loaded weapon and Arizona prosecutors picked her up.
It's a real thing.
Wow, that is wild stuff. Yeah, it's wild stuff. All right.
Back to Tim, so you mentioned, I do think that the contrasts with juven not very funny and totally stupid, snarky JD. Vans will be distinct, but you know they'll have one debate, so they're looking in general. They talked about could Shapiro give them Pennsylvania? Could Kelly give him Arizona. The hope here, supposedly is he's such a solid Midwesterner that he actually helps with Michigan. Other than what you've said, what does he sort of do for them? Do they hope in this razor sharp election?
Historically vice presidents have not delivered their states. And if you look at like John Edwards in North Carolina, and really the last vice president to deliver a state was LBJ. So it's sort of not how it moves. I would say, if you're just looking at him superficially, he reads like a Midwestern guy. He didn't go to an Ivy League college. He went to school on the gi Bell. He is a Midwestern guy, whereas Trump's vice president went to very
fancy schools, worked in Valley. It's just a different look. A lot of people wanted Shapiro to be picked. I think that Shapiro is a very good governor. But people got very involved in the Shapiro Walls matchup.
Including shooting him down. Shapiro drew a lot of flat right.
Right, and I'm not convinced they are so different. I mean, Shapiro was an attorneys general, more like Kamala Harris's record, whereas Walls was a member of Congress and then a governor. I mean, the reason why I thought Walls was a better pick was just because he had military experience, which again he's the highest ranking governor who was an enlisted man, so that is like, you know, he really was. He was in the National Guard for twenty years, so he
knows the Guard. And then I would say also, I think he worked well with the legislature that was very split to get a lot of things past. Now the same has really been true for Shapiro. But I mean I think that that was ultimately what it was. I don't think, I mean, people on the right are going
to say it was because Shapiro is Jewish. I don't think that's true as a Jew myself, but I do think Shapiro looks more like someone who would come from an urban area, and Walls, you know, with the ice fishing and the hunting and the guys, looks like someone who would come from a rural area.
Looking more generally Shapiro Planet place Ferns up a little to the right, especially on Israel, and Walls a little to the left. So it does suggest she was worried about her left wing.
Now, yeah, not really. There's almost no daylight between Walls and Shapiro and Israel, except that Shapiro is Jewish. You know, they're almost the same. And in fact, the thing is this idea that one is more right than the other. I mean, they're really so close the free breakfast, They're doing so many of the same things legislatively. It's really like a style question.
I think bipartisan too.
I mean it's put down in the middle of Minnesota, kind of leaning red, and they've gotten to life.
Okay, your turn, So just explain to me what the document's case. What happens now with the documents case. You had this Aileen kNN and the trumpy judge, and she basically kicked it out right.
She not only kicked it out she like there's just no way around it. She was in the tank for Trump. You know, you had Merrick Garland. The DJ is not in the business normally of personally insulting judges, and if they were. Merrick Garland, would it be but you know the case, what I the way I wrote about him always, it doesn't even make sense to analyze, oh the weakness of this argument, or that it's just a total favor
to throw Trump. But it's her last favor, I think, and it's a big one because it means he's got the talking point now until the election of that's been thrown out.
But it's going to be reversed.
I think they're going to probably move to bounce her, I think, and that would that would get her done. Here's the interesting point about it. You know, she said there's no constitutional legal authority to use the Special Council, and the next day, if they were really worried about time, the DOJ could have filed it again with a regular US attorney. Everyone recognized that a lot of people were urging it. But this is a really punctilious DOJ under
Merrick Garland. They liked the Special Council rag and they want to be able if they prosecute a Donald Trump, for the public to have confidence. So they don't want to do it with the US attorney. They want to vindicate their right to bring it with a special Council, which you know, if you're actually prosecuting the former president deputative opponent, then your boss, the president.
That's when you need it for.
So they could have just at five screw you and refiled it but not not challenged her legal ruling. It would have hung out there, but you know it wouldn't have gone anywhere. But instead doj acting in its institutional interests and taking time. Now it's going to go to eleven Circuit has set a schedule. It's going to be the normal plotting schedule. But I'd say around February March,
her ruling's been reversed fifty to fifty or better. She's off the case, and now she's done all the damage for Trump she can do in that case, which by the way, is the strongest and the most cut and dried where they really have him dead to write will rezoom.
And it will go to a new judge.
Probably it'll stay in that district, and there'll be a strategic call of trying whether to bounce Cannon. But I think everybody, even the judges, wants to and this is it's a good opportunity. It's a hard thing to do in the eleventh Circuit, but I think it'll happen. So that's what we'll see.
If Trump loses, Trump goes in jail.
You know, I think I've said this, I said, appreciable chance he spends for the rest of his life.
In jail, and people are, oh, it's just the.
Math, right, isn't that a federal world?
Yeah, but the penalties are severe, not to mention all the other cases, not to mention January sixth. You know, we could have had a whole different history here where years ago we cut some big deal with Philosopher Kings of like, all right, you don't have to go to jail, but get out of here and don't come back. But we've been so determined to treat him like others that that's what it means if he doesn't win. Yeah, I think, Mollie, I think he's going to jail and maybe dying in jail.
Because those federal charges, they have a sentencing structure that is very punitive.
Right, depends what you say. It's a serious fucking crime. He took national see wait, yeah there. I mean, he's looking at big at real time, and he's pretty old. And again, if he loses, but we've been thinking by November. By November, but that's beyond now, but we're back to a serious as a heart attack series of charges against him.
Wow.
All right, I want to fold walls into this, but I just want to talk about Harris. When we could see the writing on the wall, it just seemed like, well, Biden's got to go.
But it can't be Harris. It has to be Harris.
But it can't be Harris because of her lackluster campaign in twenty twenty and her not being very focused and like the woman's she hasn't made a false move yet. She's like like like made a deal with the devils.
She's the kid.
She's energized, everybody electrified. She's got joy and vigor and makes Trump look old and grumpy.
What happened? And what is she doing so right? And how long can it last?
So I would say a few things. One is the conventional wisdom that told us Harris shouldn't be the candidate. It's the same conventional wisdom that's telling us that Shapiro must be the vice president, right, which is that this is the election where nobody knows anything, just nobody knows, right. There were some anxiety about Harris. She came out of the gate incredible she. I mean, I would say a
few things I think helped her. I had written about her a ton and interviewed her, and I had always thought that two years into the Biden president presidency she became a much better orator, like a real Obama lever speaker. Now that said, she had spoke very very well when she announced her candidacy. You'll remember in California she actually gave an incredible speech and she had it in her but she didn't start like hitting. She didn't start hitting home runs every time she got at bat until she
was about two years into it. She also got a new chief of staff around then who is very very good, and there were.
Raps on the old one that it was just chaotic and not happy place yet.
Right, and then in the last two years you've seen much less turnover and much less you know, and the office is like a machine in that way. So that was one thing. I think the three weeks that took Biden to come to that decision were huge help to her because it didn't feel like she was taking him out. Her office also was super careful never to make it sound like she you know, So that was another thing. And in fact, someone an insider told me that she believed he should stay in, So the way it came
out was just exactly right. And then the third thing was that he had to see he was losing in the polls, which he started to see, and the base needed to see he was losing in the polls, because until the base saw it, you know, people would come over to me and they'd say, are they going to take away my candidate? Like, until they could see it, it was you couldn't explain to people. And the truth was none of us knew, I mean, back to this hole.
Nobody knows what's going to happen election. And then the other thing was that he really couldn't do the campaign schedule. That said, since he's dropped out, I mean, he's done incredible stuff. For example, the day he dropped out was the day he secured this enormous, very complicated, multi country a prisoner release package that was incredible, the kind of
thing that would make a presidency for anyone else. And also, I would like to add real proof that he's not Jimmy Carter, because you'll remember that Donald Trump had said that Putin was going to hold Evan Gershkowitz until he became president and then release him then just like Reagan, you know, maybe got those kidnap victims released when he So I did think that it was you know, Biden
is really a good president. I mean, he's an old guy, and he can't crisscross the country and he has some speech issues, but he's done really well and so I think that really helped her too. But she's really become a next level order. And then the one other thing that I think is really important in this story is that he the message from his campaign and the message from people in his campaign, and the message from him and his people was if you want to honor me,
you will help her. And that is such a staunch contrast too. You'll remember the other time a president stepped down to elevate his VP, he was much more on the fence about the whole thing. So I do think that was very helpful too.
So Thursday night he now gets to play a great role because he doesn't have to bring you know, when it comes through Thursday night, the rafters a rock in Chicago, I think we'll both be there. I'll hope to see you. But man, if as much happens between this month and next month, We're gonna have a lot of match and to do always a pleasure. Molly, thanks so much for being here.
Thanks for having.
Did you know Molly, John Fast and Rick Wilson are heading out on tour together to bring you a Knight of Last, to bring some lightness to our dark political landscape. Join us on August twenty sixth in San Francisco at the Swedish American Hall. We're in la on August twenty seventh at the Region Theater. Then we'll hit the Midwest at the Bavariam in Milwaukee on the twenty first of September, and the twenty second will be in Chicago at City Winery.
That will be on the East Coast September thirtieth and at the Armory the first of October, and Philly at City Winery, and then DC on the second at the Miracle Theater, with a few more dates to come. If you need to laugh as we get through this selection and hopefully never hear from this guy who lives in a golf club again, we got you covered. Join us along with some surprise guests to help you laugh instead of cry your way through this selection season and get the inside analysis of what's.
Really going on right now.
Buy your tickets now by heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as Unusual dot bio.
Nancy Pelosi is the former Speaker of the House and represents California's eleventh district. Welcome Speaker Pelosi.
Thank you, Mollie.
Nice to be with you, Nice to have you. So let's talk about this book. I want you to sort of explain to us because this book is not a memoir, So explain to us what it is.
This is a book about decisions, decisions relating to China, what happened in the in the room where it happened on the economic downturn in two thousand and eight. It's about important decisions where I was present to tell them what we saw at the time. I could have written this book any number of times that didn't really have time with the book. Now when I was no longer leader or Speaker and had the time to write it.
It's coming out now and we're in an election, but that's when the book was ready, and that's the timetable of it. But it's about several decisions, whether it was the Tarba Act in terms of saving our country from the Wall Street meltdown that happened there, about the decision to go Intoto, the Iraq War, which I completely opposed and thought was wrong for our country, our attitude towards
China in terms of security, trade, and human rights. It's about what happened on January sixth, It's about what happened in my home to my husband, to go into that a little bit about that, And it's about the leadership.
You know, it's about.
Power, and that's what it's called the art of power.
So we had all of that.
And again my China is from Taiwan, from tay Channaman to Taiwan, and I have different phrases. For example, when we talk about the Iraq War, my statement at the time was the intelligence does not support the threat. About what happened to the economy in September two thousand and eight, the statement from the Chairman of the Fed, we won't
have an economy by Monday. The pat of the healthcare bill, which is so transformative for our country but took so much courage on the part of our members, that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. And again about patriotism for our country as it relates to January sixth, and then just some thoughts about why I love the house. People always ask me why, and you run for something else when you're appointed to something.
I know I love the house.
So it's about my service and leadership there, demonstrated by a few specific events and major pieces of legislation that I was a part of.
Can we talk for a minute about the horrible attack on your husband, Paul Pelosi, who was at home. Now, you know, no offense, but he's not a young guy, and a physical attack is much worse on someone who's older. Will you talk about that? And also your decision to write about it.
But I thought it was very important to write about it because people asked about it. So I want the horror of it all to be clear for the purpose of trying to eliminate that kind of action, political violence from our society. Here it was in our very own home, an assault on our home, making our home a crime scene, an attack on my husband, who is not even that political.
Actually the guilt I have for his paying the price for my activism, and again what it has come to, what it meant to my children and meant to my grandchildren. With something I thought it was important to write something, and I didn't write everything about it because frankly, Molly Paul and I have never discussed it. The doctors tell him to revisit it, and he doesn't want me to
suffer it undergo it. So what I had written about is somewhat of what is in the public domain and our individual experiences, but not his because now what I know about it from him is what he testified in court. But we've never had that discussion. So it's that still traumatic for us, and the trauma will live on. He's getting better, but he's not there yet.
Yeah, And I mean that when you have an older person have an injury like that, it's a completely different kind of thing. Can you explain to us about the horrible way that the right treated him? You know?
It's so interesting thing is what's next. When this happened, it was really painful for my children, my grandchildren, to see former President of the United States, his family, sitting governors make fun of what happened, to laugh at it,
to make it a joke. That was so painful. It was so painful that someone was done civilized we would never do that to somebody else, of course, but that is nature of what provoked it in the first place, in terms of their rhetoric, their political nasty rhetoric, and how they reacted to it. Can you imagine making jokes about somebody getting over that hit over the head with the hammer three times a centimeter from death? Elder abuse
as you described that. We think of him as vigorous in all the rest, But of course a lot of his physical well being was affected by what happened that day. But you know what, let me compare it to something else. On January sixth, when these people made an assault on the Capitol, on our constitution and on our democracy, and it was all over, and they saw the danger and
the threat and all the rest. Overwhelmingly the Republicans voted against accepting the electoral College vote peaceful transfer of power. So I was like, what you're voting against this? In large numbers, all of your leadership, we have an assault which they see the danger of that they were all in,
mostly all of them were in. Not the leadership because they had security, but that their stats were in that the maintenance people in the capital and the custodians that keep the capital beautiful had to clean up the poo poo of these people actual theiration, but also their foul language criticizing these people and derogatory and discriminatory terms. So there's a sort of a lack of respect that you see in both cases.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's right, But I also think you have experiences, both in your work and in your home the sort of real cruelty of the right. And I think like the McCarthy slash Johnson's speakerships have shown us very clearly how talented a vote whipper you are were. I mean, I feel like people respected you, but because you made it look so easy, a lot of people just assumed it was easy. And then those two knuckleheads they lose rules votes. They're not able to
vote whip the way you are. Do you get a quiet satisfaction out of this.
No, I don't think so. I mean, I would rather see the Congress function in a way that is respectful and try to bring people together. But I take great pride in my legislative skills and my leadership, so I don't I won't diminish that. And it all springs from the courage of the members. Right to be respectful of the members because it's their vote, their job, title, and
their jump description are one in the same representative. So we had beautiful diversity, regional, generational, gender, gender id ethnically, we have beautiful diversity and our caucus and so they have different points of view, and I always say, our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power. One point, we were two votes. We were only two votes because a couple of people ran for all left to one run for governor, to join a community action group and
you know different things. We lost three and so we had five, were down to two. But we still had our shared values. We listened to each other and saw where we could find our common ground and if we couldn't, sometimes we had some Republican votes to take us over the top. I was just determined that we would get
it done. And that determination their courage, our values and again respect, respect, respect for everybody in the Congress, but also knowing what our members were willing to take a risk on.
It's respect, but it's also an ability to get people to do things. And as someone who was quite good at getting people to do things, I have a lot of respect for you. I have to tell you, because when you see how hard it is to get people to vote for things, even it's not you know, some of this stuff. It's just a question of being able to get people to say they're going to do something and do it. I mean, it's actually a really hard job.
Well, I'd say this one of the hardest things I had to do, and I say this in the book, the hardest thing I had to do.
When we had a.
Democratic president, Barack Obama, and we were doing the Affordable Care Act. It was hard because the other side was putting out negative false information. They were there for the insurance industry, they were there for the pharmaceutical industry, they were there for the anti governance croud and the rest of that.
But we knew that what we believed in.
We worked together to craft our priorities and we prevailed. But when we lost the House, and people said it was because of the Affordable Character, I don't even think that. I think we lost it because of what happened on Wall Street and the Republicans renaveed on their promise of votes and we had to bail it out. And that was attributed to us, even though it wasn't about Wall Street, it was about our economy.
Anyway.
A lot of things came to bear in that election, including the fact that because of the Supreme Court deciding for Citizen Ju nine, it so called Citizen ju nine. It The amount of money that was spent in two thousand and nine was that's a non election year, but one million dollars of dark this dark money and twenty ten over one hundred million dollars.
At least we were going to win.
We had the candidates, we had the resources, we had the ideas, all of it. And then in June boom they just put in tons of money. And again unemployment was high, like nine percent. You know, there are other factors about it, but nonetheless, nonetheless, when we lost and they came in, there were Republicans would put up these things that sound like motherhood in apple Pie when motherhood and pie used to be popular, right. They put up these propositions about the Affordable Care Act, And so my
members would say, well, that sounds good. They're advertising that in my district. I can vote for that, And I said they can't. Now this is when I say to you the hardest part, Molly, Now you can't because it undermines the Affordable Care Act. And they would say, well, I know my district better than you do. I said, well, I certainly so, but I know the Affordable Care back
better than you do ye and not vote for. So I'm having to say to these lovely members of Congress Democrats, some of them weren't even there when we did the Affordable Care acts.
You know. They came later, you know, in the.
Next election, and I said, you just have to vote with the president. But they didn't want to, and I had to have shull. We say the friendship in my voice a little less friendly.
Did helping a million kids prepare you for this job?
Not quite a million, but some days it might have felt like that I did.
But I have a lot of kids. I mean I only have three of you have five. I feel like there are certain skills you've got as a mother, of just like of dealing with people and helping people deal with each other that are actually weirdly relevant to dealing with members of Congress.
Now let us praise mothers. Others are what are domestic engineers. There are coachspers, they're diplomats. They have to resolve differences of opinion, all the rest that say, chauffeur you, religious advisors, all the rests. Mothers are everything I have to say that when I talk to women, and I said, well, I'm just a housewive.
How can I run?
I said, don't ever say to me, you're just a housewif, being a mom, being a housewif. Put that in the plus column. Give yourself a gold star for that. So, yeah, just in terms of respecting different views, and there are different views and families, you know, that's for sure. It probably was helpful. But what was helpful too, is I never even washed my face someday. I mean, you don't have any time for anything. You know, time is the
most valuable commodity and it is finite. And so how you manage your time, how you multitask, how you respect different views and try to resolve differences among the children and that. But the most important thing about it for me was that having the five children just drove home the message to me that one in five children in America lives in poverty. And anything motivated me to go from housewife to house speaker. It was the one in five children that in America lives in poverty. That was
my why. That's why I left home. I had no interest in running for congress. Shy and bashful as I was, I loved being the chair of the California Democratic Party because I was a volunteer and I could work behind the scenes to promote other candidates and our position, our candidates, our agenda and the rest.
And that was great.
Then when people came and said you should be running for Congress, I thought, why me. I've never even wanted to thought about or anything, And then I did. And then again, being a mom being bringing family together, that can be a very challenging task. That's anybody who's had Thanksgiving dinner.
Yeah. Do you think Democrats can win the House this cycle? Definitely.
I thought we were going to hold it last time, Mollie. Everybody was sitting in thirty forty seats, and I said, we're not. I don't know why these pundits are saying this. They don't talk about because we had great candidates. They had a very good contrast in terms of their position versus the Republicans in terms of women. Was ready to choose climate, gun violence protection, fairness in our economy, and what worked in their district. And I thought we were
going to I thought we could hold it. While they were saying we're losing thirty we can all but in losing five seats in New York, which was stunning, but we'll win those back in haw Keen will be speaker, so we will win. I'm no doubt we will win the House of Representatives and hopefully hold or grow in the Senate. But I don't I don't know the number. I'm not I'm data district or district on the ground in terms of the House, so I can speak with some authority there.
And of course the.
Most important thing we have to do is to make sure that, under no circumstance whatsoever, that Donald Trump comes within a mile of the White House.
Yeah, that's certainly true. Are there any congressional seats that you're thinking about that you're sort of watching to flip that you are excited about.
Well, we have a couple in California that we think that we should be able to get. I mean, we have a big majority in California. They're fifty two members. We have forty. They have twelve. I like to jump
down to single digits now that's there. And in New York, for example, we can I think get the five bat we already have one back in terms of Swazi or and we can get a chunk of those, But in between the coast, there are so many great candidates who are courageous enough to put their name forth, knowledgeable enough to speak to their vision and their values and their priorities, and clever enough to be strategic in how to present it and get the job done, and compassionate enough to
show people what is in their hearts. So we have a great not only My goal is not to just win, it's to win with more. You know, they win the five. Yeah, we're can win the four, but I want more than that. And Susan Delbeny our chier. She's fabulous. He's just fabulous. And I just take my leads from her and from Hakim and our leadership. And Hakeem will be the Speaker of the House. When I stepped aside, I was hoping that it would be that he would be the speaker at that time.
He's really really talented. You picked her. It's great, you did a great job, and I continue to believe that you have real incredible powers of persuasion and picking and et cetera that almost no one else in the world has. So thank you, Nancy Pelosi.
I get better to our caucus that he's their choice and I take my lead from him, and his strength springs from the respect he commands in the caucus. Katherine Clark and Pete Apolar sed Lou, I mean, we're in really good shape with our leadership. And Susan Bella, she's wonderful. I used to say of her. The one place I love to go in the campaign is to Washington State because I don't have to do anything. Sometimes I think I have to do the floors and windows and cook
the food and set table and raise the money. With her, you just walk in the door because she commands so much respect and people love her, and you know it's going to be worth your time to go.
Are you concerned about Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second term could be, Well, so are we, which is why we teamed with iHeart to make a limited series with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty five would be for America's future right now. The first four episodes, with the final episode coming next week, are available by looking up Molly john Fast Project twenty
twenty five on YouTube. If you are thinking you are more of a podcast person and not a YouTuber, you can hit play when you get to the video, put the phone on lockscreen and it will play back. New episodes are dropping in the next week as well. We need to educate America on what Trump's second term would do to this country. Please watch and help us spread the word. Heather Cox Richardson is a historian and author of probably the most popular substack in the entire world.
Welcome back, Heather. First things first, I think is, you know, Democrats do have a rural voter. I don't even want to say it's a problem, because it's always not been the Democratic sweet spot. But you know, a couple months ago, I was at a dinner talking to the sort of most the member of Congress, a guy called Jared He's probably not far from you, Jared Golden. He's actually upstate. Yeah, yeah,
he's a main he's a rural main congressman. And he was talking about how hard it is to speak to rural voters as a Democrat you live in a rural area. Tim Walls is in some ways a rural pick because he can speak to a lot of rural American activities. So talk to me about what this divided country looks like, not even you know, divided on many levels, right.
Well, right, I will say that coming from an area that is rural, you know, we always laugh a little bit at the idea that we're some kind of zoo animal, that you know, what's wrong with rural America, because in fact, you know, we're just people here and in many ways, you know, we always joke that it's people in the big cities who are more provincial than us because they think they can have everything right where they are, whereas we recognize that we need to have ideas from outside
and people from outside. So that is a start for looking at the rural urban divide. There's also the issue of the fact that quite deliberately, during the Nixon administration, his advisor at the time, Pat Buchanan, made it a real point to try and divide the country along that fissure by saying that the you know, the elites don't like people like us.
Right.
That was this very deliberate straw man. And the other thing that I would say about this moment is that as I look around me, the difference between people who are died in the Wolmagga Republicans in rural my part of rural America and the ones who are not is really the people who consume right wing media. And that's a place I think that Democrats really did fall but fall behind is on not combating the rise of the Fox News Channel in the nineteen nineties and talk radio
as well. So I'm not entirely sure that there's a huge difference between people who live in small towns versus people who live in cities so much as those particular lines.
You know, one of the things that Jared said, I said, you know, my question to everybody always is how to hear people get their news? And he said radio. And I think a lot about right after radio host shock jock Rush Limbad died, he had been the greatest get out the vote turnout machine for Republicans ever, And I just wonder if you could talk a little more about Democrats seating the airways on radio.
Well.
So it's very interesting what has happened since Limbad died in twenty twenty one, and that is not only was he a person who got at the vote, he was also the person who established what the talking points of
the Republicans were going to be. So with his laws, you'll you see the Republican Party really splintering, especially as people are trying to get airtime by going on farther and farther right wing podcasts and splitting the vote up that way between you know, people taking their their own little issue to some right wing person and people who are more established in the party and who are trying to attract more moderate voters sort of saying no, I
don't want any part of that, and yet being harnessed to it. So Limbaugh's loss was a big one for the Republicans. So I think was the settlement, the seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars settlement that the Fox News Channel had to pay for pushing the big lie that Trumpet won in twenty twenty because they too backed off on the idea of there being this one line that the Republicans were all going to adhere to in the face of you know, reality, in the face of opposition,
in the face of anything. And since then, I think, since twenty twenty one, you've really seen the Republican Party absolutely fall apart. And that's something that we have not really seen reflected in the coverage of the party. So much is that splintering now The Democrats, in contrast, as I say, I don't think they were as quick as they should have been off the mark in terms of making sure that they countered the Fox new Channel. Though remember the Fox News Channel never paid for itself. It
was where it was because of the cable fees. And what I think you have seen really since the rise of the Internet, and since the rise of zoom during the pandemic, and since the rise of things like newsletters is the ability of people with a much more progressive position to get their message out into more rural communities. And you know, I think of somebody like Jess Piper and Missouri, who you know, has been really out there in front on issues that rural people really care about,
like public education. This whole idea of the vouchers that concentrate public tax money in private schools might work for you know, right wing voters in urban areas, but you're if you're in a small community, you're going to lose your public school. And she's been out there in front, through social media, through a newsletter, and in so many different ways, reaching the people who previously might not have been able to voice their content of believing in progressive causes in rural communities.
Yeah, And I think that's a really good point and public schools are such an important element of rural community, but so are hospitals. And as we both know right now, states are getting money from Medicare expansion, Medicare Medicaid expansion, and that money can save rural hospitals. And some of these red staate governors are rejecting this money.
Yes, and the terror of having a desperately ill child at two or three o'clock in the morning and not being able to get medical care. You know, that's something that has nothing to do with your political position. It has to do with sort of our fundamental beliefs as human beings that we should sup each other in a community. And those, by the way, are not values that I
think rural America ever walked away from. It's just that it has been hard to find people to articulate those in the past forty years for various reasons, both in terms of the degree to which Republicans have flooded the airwaves, but also in the degrees to which Democrats always seem to be on the back foot. And one of the things that's so interesting about the now vice presidential Democratic nominee Tim Waltz is that he's been out in front saying, yeah,
you know, call me a monster. I'm making sure kids get fed and get medical care and get educations. You know, do you really want to say that this is partisan because it's not. These are community values in the United States of America.
Yeah, they really are. And I think you know, with this framing that somehow Walls is this very lefty guy, when in fact much of the policy is actually just popular, is kind of nutty. I'm wondering if you could talk to us just a little bit about the sort of this is a moment that's very without historical president, but I'm wondering if you were to figure out a president what it might be.
Well, you know, one of the things that I'd like to say to people is, although we focus on the Donald Trump moment and what that has meant, both in terms of its continuity from the Republican Party and of its new authoritarianism, that's a crisis. But at the same time we I think we are also looking at I'm sorry, I'm going to go all country on you here a
title change. That is, for forty years, we have operated largely under the idea of neoliberalism, the idea of letting markets determine the way societies work, and you know all the things that that that came with that, and we could break that down by party and by who was involved in all and all the different aspects of it, but that clearly has failed. And what the Biden Harris administration did is it reminded us that in fact, the previous system, the one we had between nineteen thirty three
and nineteen eighty one, actually worked. That if you invested in ordinary Americans, the economy group people did better, The radicalism declined, all the things that people had said in those years from thirty three to eighty one, and of course they tried to expand it so that they weren't centering basically white nuclear families. They tried to expand their idea of protecting ordinary Americans to center around children and
their caregivers. But what we're seeing, I think, is this moment in which we are leaving the past behind and creating something new. And what that new looks like is
not yet articulated. And it's one of the reasons I find this moment so exciting is that there are new voices, and there's new ways of looking at things, and there's new ideas, and there's new literature, and there's new art, and there's new music, and that excitement is of course terrifying for people who just want to cling to the old. But it's also a moment in which we don't really
know what the future is going to look like. So one of the things that I'm watching is this is precedented in the sense that this this is very much like the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties looked like. It's very much what the eighteen nineties and nineteen oughts looked like. What I'm interested in is the breakdown of the old lines of partisan politics into this very simple dichotomy of
are you in favor of democracy or a dictatorship? And then on the other side of that, you know, I'm watching especially Republicans for Harris, and I think there's a great deal of discomfort there as you know, well, I'm not a Democrat, and the answer to that is no,
you're not. But in ten years, I don't think we know what either either party's going to look like or who's going to be on which side of which divides, so that in the eighteen sixties, for example, there are people who went into the Lincoln administration who were fervent pro slavery Democrats who simply believed in defending the Union. And you know, five or six years later, they tended to be the you know, the more radical people, and you know, you just didn't know which way people were
going to jump. And I think we're looking at something very similar now. I actually find it really exciting.
Yeah, I mean I find it terrifying. But maybe that's our difference in worldviews. I'm trying not to go too dark because anytime I run into someone who listens to the podcast, they're like, you're very dark. But when we talk about this kind of problem in the Republican party, right, we have this Republican party that no longer believes really
in our system of democracy. And I actually think what we were talking was a little bit you know, with Nixon, this was a slow progression, right, anti democracy make it harder to vote. I mean, there certainly it harkens back to Jim Crow, but the Republicans sort of got on board, and then Trump was sort of the coup de grass. Now a large percentage of this country is banking on the idea that if Republicans are defeated at the ballot box, these anti democratic impulses or really it's sort of an
illness will go away. I worry that they won't.
Well, they never have in the past, for sure. I mean, we always have those people. But at their highest a reactionary right wing movement never gets more than thirty three percent, and that's its ceiling of support in any society, and certainly in the United States. I would suggest that it would be possible for us finally to grip or to come to grips with the idea that we're never going to get rid of it fully unless we make sure
our guard rails are very very strong. What tends to happen is we tend to support democracy in the United States and then think, oh, we're done, everything's good now, and then of course those reactionary forces gain momentum and go forward again. And you know, we don't have to live that way. We don't have to have this pendulum going back and forth. Other countries don't. We don't have to do that. I will say. In terms of the darkness,
I think I've got some years on you. And one of the things that I know a lot of people who are terrified of the new faces in government and the new ideas and so on. And you know, one of the things that I find very comforting, first of all, is I find new stuff very exciting. But I mean, I don't know how to say this without sounding a bit dark, but if you look at the past many years, it would be hard to do worse than some of the people who are looked upon as being legitimate American leaders.
And I really don't want to call out individual names, but it's hard to imagine that you couldn't swing a cat in a barroom and do better than you know, Chad Wolf or do better than you know and that list is not short. Yeah, there you go, Tommy Tupper, Like, literally, I could cross the street to my ninety some year old neighbor and he would do a better job than Tommy Tupperville.
I mean, it's not saying much, but yeah, for sure, Yeah, no, I agree. I mean I think that's a good point. Republicans have been doing this for a long time.
Yeah, you know, so, am I going to agree with everything that the next generation of politicians does? Absolutely not, But you know what, let's take it out for spin.
Yeah, no, I agree. And the reality is, I mean, even Richard Nixon, who were really hearkening back to another time he was terrible. So there have been a lot of terrible Republicans. You did this interview with Joe Biden. Joe Biden seems to have a real interest in academics and historians. Can you talk to me about interviewing him and also about that?
Yeah, I think he does have an interest in history. I'm not sure in historians, except as the one reflects the other, and that is that I think he recognizes that he has lived through a lot of crucial years in the United States and has been an actor in a lot of them. And one of the things that
I have found fascinating about him two things. Actually, one I have found fascinating is that he is having lived through the changes he lived through and having to work with people like strom Thurmond, he has become a really masterful negotiator, which you know, that's not rocket science. Everybody says that about him, but you know, it's really astonishing.
He just negotiated the largest multi country prisoner deal. I think there's some historical president for this, but not much.
That's correct, and I would I mean, that is obviously huge. His focus and his great strength has always been in foreign affairs. But the one that got me was the fact that he managed to get through the House of Representatives under House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, a National security supplemental bill to give money to Ukraine, and.
A lot of people thought would never get passed.
I thought it would never have get passed, and I would have lost it months before Biden did. And he just kept scratching away at it, and you know, through one person and through another until he got it done, which I just that has just been astonishing to watch.
The other thing that I think is interesting about Biden, to go back to where we are in this moment today with the naming of Walsa, the governor of Minnesota, as the vice presidential nominee, is I think there is level at which Biden has always held himself or has been held I'm not going to attribute blame to either side here from what has been accepted as inside the Beltway, being part of the in crowd, or maybe not the Beltway,
maybe in the sort of eastern political circles. And I think he's very aware of that, and I think that it may in fact have influenced not only his presentation by the media, but also the way he approached politics. That is, he is exceedingly warm. He is very aware of what it means to have to take care of an ill child or have to put food on the table.
He's very in tune with the kind of world that is not always represented in, for example, the New York Times, and that embrace on his part of what could be characterized as sort of the down home rural experience. I think it's actually mattered a lot. It's mattered a lot in the way he has shown in the media, it matters a lot in the way people interpret him, and I think it's mattered a lot in the way that he has governed.
Yeah, he has also just lived through an incredible tragedy. It's very hard as a Democrat not to look at the incredible momentum that Harris has and to not feel that it was the right thing for Joe Biden to drop out. But I also think that the way it happened ultimately, you know that those three weeks were critical in her being able to rally support among the base, that it really was a sort of seamless process. What's your thinking.
I think that's right, and I think he managed it actually simply beautifully. I was terribly concerned that if he stepped out that we would get the kind of disarray and infighting that we saw after nineteen sixty eight, for example,
or in the nineteen sixty eight campaign. And you know, it was thirty two hours from him announcing after the talk shows were over on Sunday that he would not accept the Democratic nomination to her being the presumptive nominee because she had ironed out all the number of delegates that she needed. That was absolutely masterful. And I will also point out that one of the things that he has always been really good at is taking a bad situation and in my mind, I see him almost as
if he is stepping on it to something else. What he did in the way that he tapped Harris for the nomination was he vaulted himself into the position of being a statesman. And you know, we haven't had a
real statesman in a very long time in politics. I mean, we have people like Jimmy Carter, of course, who really excelled in human rights, but in American politics to be able to stand above the fray, It's been a long time since somebody could stand above the and we need that in this election because somebody's going to have to be protecting the sanctity of the vote and the ability to count the vote. And of course that falls under
Biden's Article two powers. So it's going to be hard for the Supreme Court at that point if he feels the need to do anything, to say he can't do it. And similarly, also in his Article two powers are the
ability to conduct foreign affairs. And I will point out there's one or two little things, and of course I'm being facetious and not meaning to denigrate anything that are hanging out there right now that I suspect he would like to be able to do without being accused of being partisan if he does them.
Yeah, I think that's right. Thank you so much for joining us, Heather.
It's always a pleasure, Molly.
Tim Walls is the governor of Minnesota and the presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee. Welcome Too Fast Politics.
Governor Laws, thanks for having me.
You know, Jesse and I have long wanted to have you on this podcast because some of the progressive legislation you have passed has become sort of like the wish list of all liberals. So you're kind of a big deal.
It's like the new Deal. We did the new Deal out here.
So yes, you and Governor Pritzker are sort of two of our people where you've done the impossible. So you shot to fame in my mind when I saw that picture of you and the children.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, so talk to me about some of this progressive legislation, how you've done it. And also can we talk about that photo of the children when you've signed the free breakfast.
Yeah, well thanks for bringing it up, Molly. I can die a happy man after that. And look, I've got a great comms team and everything. And people were writing them saying this was the most brilliant thing, and they're also very humble. They said, look, this was organic. We in Minnesota passed free breakfast and lunch for all of our kids. No more meal shaming, no more different colored ticket, no more families having to worry about filling out all
the paperwork whatever. For goodness sake, we can feed our children. So we went out to Webster Elementary School to sign that, and I did a signing and we had all the advocates in the legislator, but we were in a school with these kids and they were kind of just all setting around. These are elementary school kids, and they were into this. And I remember my signing statement. I said,
and now all your classmates can eat. And these kids, they're pure joy of understanding what it means to be a decent human being, just sprung up and they just kind of mobbed me. It was this happy grandfather photo type of thing, but just symbolic of what we can do. So and I think that, you know, going back to why do we get this done? Because how do you argue about that? It's just a smart thing. Look, these are also markets for our farmers out here, or a
big agricultural state. I always try and drop troop bombs on all of you. We produce more turkeys than any other state, so just so you know, we're the turkey capital of the world world, and so we have all this. We produce a ton of food and our kids can eat. And I think we went into this session saying, look, there has been a pent up desire and people ask me what, you know, what are you most proud of? There is a list of things here that is really awesome.
It's things that we fought for decades over I think For me, it was changing this attitude progressives by nature are you know, we're progressive and we're hopeful, but we can also be pessimistic. People, Oh it's a nice day, but it may snow tomorrow type of thing. Very minispotent about that. But I said, we were conditioned that bad things happened. Pasting good things took decades, because twenty years to get driver's licenses for folks who are undocumented, that
is absolutely ridiculous. They're here, they're working, they're doing stuff. Get them a driver's license. Keep people say we did all those things at once. So for me, it changed people's attitude, and especially with young people. I had a young eighteen year old who worked on a lot of this stuff, was in turning at first and working and said, you know, I worked on your campaign governor. We won, and five months later we have paid family medically, eat
free breakfast and wat is legal. This stuff's not that hard, and I'm like, oh my god, we've created monsters here, but in a good way. So that's how that came about, and that I think that photo was just accumulation of what kind of progressive dreams is. Look when our people, you know, they want to make it like we have an extreme agenda. Yep, it's just crazy. We want these elementary kids to eat. That is just really wild, and
it really just stuck. It was pretty hard to push back against that photo.
When you watch Republicans argue about free mails and those like we don't want you know, some middle class kid getting a free breakfast, and you really do see how little this whole thing makes any sense, right Like you are a wealthy country.
That's where they're stuck right now. They don't have anything Molly, And on this one they actually said this to me, Look, there's going to be people that don't need this tax break. When have they ever talked about wealthy people that they're worried that somebody's going to need it who doesn't need it?
And I'm telling you what I heard on this problem was for those families who did not qualify for free and produced lunch, whose kids wanted to eat at school and now could and because of the way our country still you know, the division of labor still falls heavily on women. Eric mothers date, Thank god, I don't have to make breakfast in the morning. It's like my life so much better. That was the thank you like, look, we can afford it and everything, but this is just
so much easier. So I agree, they got no pushback on it. That's your pushback. We can't afford to feed our kids.
So one of the stark contrasts I think of between blue state and red steak governors is in Arkansas and a lot of other states, you have a red steak governors signing legislation that makes it easier for companies when they have underage children working, to not have to pay the same kind of fines because likely they have underage children working. That has been real movement in these red
states to make the fines lesser for child labor. Talk to me about what it looks like to be a blue state governor in that kind of America.
Yeah, it feels like Victorian England. David Copperfielders. It was a really great when showed the contrast. I think it was the same week I signed the breakfast, I think the governor of Arkansas signed you know, child labor laws, and I'll tell you what, her picture did not look as happy as the kids in my picture who were organically thrilled. Look that's what they're doing, and unfortunately this is in very dangerous business. We also are you know,
protein backing states from meatpacking plans. These are dangerous places. There are no places for kids and trying to look, we're all dealing with, you know, labor shortages that we're trying to get. We simply take a different approach and said we're going to protect union workers and we're going to pay people more and lo and behold. When you pay people more and give them worker protections, people move
to your state and start working in those businesses. So this truly is the race to the bottom versus the idea of lifting up and building. And again we're making the case out here. We did all of these things and for the first time on the CNBC they do their survey of the best states for the business climate. We moved into the top five, replacing Texas. Because it works when your workers are well paid, they have paid timumitically, they have healthcare, their children have daycare, they have and
you have an education level. Look, we made college free to folks that are making less than eighty thousand dollars. Those are those working families that we need to participate in our economy. So I agree with you. The contrast could not be greater. And when we start measuring this, you really start to see it. And I don't know
where the end state is for them. I don't know how telling people forcing your kids, Oh it'll teach them character whatever, as they lose an arm and you know in the equipment it makes no sense.
Well, I mean part of that is there's no paths as citizenships. So these children are smuggled over and they go get jobs and send all their money home. I mean it's just as unfair.
Exactly right. And and here for twenty years, we tried to make the case, you know, post nine to eleven. Oh, they could be terrified. We didn't give them driver's licenses. All they wanted to do was drive to work and then drive over to the school and pick their kid up and go home. And they're here processing those turkeys that I talk to you about doing the work is
necessarily paying their taxes. And we made the case here in Minnesota is look, it is a moral imperative that people be safe, that they be protected, and we provide healthcare for those children.
Yeah, talk to me about healthcare, and then just talk to me about what you're doing on a local level for healthcare.
Well, you know, we have no system that makes any sense in this country. We spend twice as much as the next country in terms of that, and yet we rank what thirty eighth in maternal mortality rates. It's just a shame and it really comes home to press here. We've got more people ensured than I think almost any other state, and of course we're home to like the Mayo Clinic. So these are just recognized as the best healthcare system in the world, which is great if you
can get in. And so what we've done is we have Minnesota Care, which you know, folks can buy in and need it. We expanded that to folks regardless of their documentation status because once again, you know, the basic human rights of being able to take care of folks on These are folks that are here working in proceeds that they're waiting for a legal system that is again takes seven to nine years to get your asylum claim process.
Would have been nice if Congress would have passed the legislation that would make that ninety days and put money into it, but.
You know, Trump didn't want them to, so of course they.
Don't want to because they want to complain about this and these are in our communities. So I think for us here, what really is interesting about this Molly, it becomes harder and harder. What you know, we asked asking Republicans and those who don't look at this this way, is what's your complaint and what's the alternative? You know, where's this workforce going to come? And I think there's a real dynamic shift happening and we'll see if it
happens fast enough. The business community. The business community understands that we need to have immigration reform. The business community needs to believe and they know that we need childcare. That's a big issue for parents that can't find working out of the workforce. They get all these things, but there since so conditioned that many of these chambers of commerce are just they think it's the old Republican Party. This is not where elected officials in the Republican Party
are at today. So I'm actually somewhat hopeful that we're making the case that, look, not only can we take care of people and do the right thing and these progressive ideas about you should have health care and food in a safe place to live, and you should be educated. In the long run, that's how you grow the economy, and I think in minnesota's starting to work.
Yeah. I mean, that's a really good point. And Paul Krugman had a really good piece on the idea that maybe that this migrant served is actually maybe one of the things that saved us from having a recession, which is kind of an incredible idea. So talk to me about what you are doing with the DGA to bring this idea of abundance national a.
Yeah. Well, and I'm really proud of the DGA. You mentioned that you've got folks like Baby Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, You've got, of course Gavin Newsom, but you've got folks Roy Cooper, you got Basher Andy Basheer at in Kentucky. And on Saturday, this last Saturday, I was at the Democratic dinner in Topeka, Kansas with Democratic Governor Laura Kelly.
These ideas work everywhere, and I think one of the things the DGA does is we're out there to make the case that governors are the front lines of protection on all of these things, certainly on reproductive care in vitro and voting rights and protections of our children and food and all this, and that as Congress becomes more gridlock and paralyzed, it becomes more important than ever to elect these governors. It's super inspirational. See Lord Kelly, Andy
Pasher win. But now we've got to win down in North Carolina. And so what the DGA does is it goes out there, it supports, and we're super successful. We've defended twenty three of twenty four of our incumbent governors over the last three cycles. This year, we have no incomebent governors, but we've got as I said, in North Carolina. After Rui Cooper's term limited, Jay Insley up in Washington State, John Carney and Delaware, we had an open seat in
New Hampshire. The DGA goes out and helps these local candidates. They know their best message, they know what stands, but we raise the money, have some of the technical expertise and try and provide the support to get them elected. Because you said it, mind, you just want to start comparing life expectancies, healthcare. Heck, compare happiness. They've got to think.
Happiness in Minnesota, by the way, usually ranked second in this and I'm okay with that because we're behind Hawaii in the happiest.
Right and you guys have some weather issues.
Yeah, COVID brought this to the front. It's statistically provable. If you lived in a red state, your chances survived I think COVID was greater.
Was lesser. If you lived in a blue state, your chances of surviving COVID were greater.
You shoot me, Yeah, exactly right, and that these red state governors put you that's exactly right. We're very proud. We're. One of the things we had is we're one of the ten states with the lowest death rates on that and lo and behold, our economy recovered pastor and we had surpluses. So I think we're out there making the case that if you want to see your personal life improve,
elect a democratic governor. So if your listeners, Molly, I'll put in a shameless plug for the DGA on that if they want more information on these great governors, and trust me. Like in North Carolina with Josh Stein, he is literally running against the guy as central casting of a marble villain. This guy is demonized the survivors of school shootings. He's called school teachers the most evil thing on the planet. He said, when you're pregnant, it's not your baby, it's all baby now just insanity.
So he doesn't think women should vote correct.
I mean, the guy is on every front. So if they want more information on these this, if you want to know where your impact makes a difference, these state ride races make everything. We're able to codifire abortion rights, were able to make sure that we're a trans sanctuary state here in Minnesota. And be clear, I ran against a guy who had the absolute opposite opinion and all that, and in states where those type of guys won, life is hell. Women's life is put at risk. The vice
president was out of here last week. For the first time in American history, is setting vice president or president stood in an abortion clinic. Abortion clinics are healthcare clinics, by the way, that's what they're referred to, and stood in there and talked to a young woman from Idaho who had to travel from Idaho to Minneapolis figure out how to do that. Luckily she had the resources and everything.
But it's just unacceptable. Democratic governors protect that. So if they want to text me here it is Molly, It's Tim at three zero two zero one. And what they'll do is get information on these races.
Yeah, one of the things I've been really struck by is the Medicare expansion. One of the things Democrats have done when they've been in red states is they've been able and again it depends on the state legislature, but they've been able to pass these expansions. Explain to us why it happens when they do that.
For example, and there's two things that are the most despicable things in the world. Using Medicare expansion, using federal dollars. And you know, many of the cases of Minnesota is a payer state, we get far less back from the federal government to give a lot of these red states get an awful lot of federal dollars back. But in the case of Medicare expansion, you're able to expand it
to more people, make the eligibility there. And from a person's on the most basic level of this is it means somebody who couldn't get access to affordable health care does in the easiest way, and it comes with the federal money that helps. You've got to put in a little bit on state. But there's two things that I
find the most despicable thing in the world. They turn this down, they being Republican governors, turn it down and there's been a new program that is an absolute godsend is the Summer EBT program, the Summer SNAP and I believe it's fifteen of these states have turned it down. Now, these are folks that my bed is is. I bet in their businesses they took PPP loans for themselves. I bet you, they take upsity payments. I bet you they
take other breaks, but on them. The governor of Nebraska said this just creates dependency, and the governor of Iowa said, we don't have hunger here, which you all know is crazy. So I think tying back to this, having Roy Cooper in North Carolina meant eight hundred thousand more North Carolinians were able to access Medicare at affordable healthcare, which, again, even if you're a cruel not caring about human beings getting this, it means they're healthier, they spend less money
in the long run. At the end, more people are able to work and take fewer days off work, and your economy growth. When people are healthier, your economy does better. So no, they turn it down, and it's because we don't want the iman. You know, they don't want socialism. It's their message. It is the most despicable and those two programs the most damaging things they can do. But it apparently appeals to their base. I don't know, I don't get it.
Just cruel, right, and it's also I mean more likely the base doesn't know that it's available to them, right, because nobody is going.
To turn down good point.
Yeah, and nobody's going to turn that down. And by the way, they when they turn this money down, it's not like they get the money first, so they just don't.
Get No, they don't get it, and then apparently they don't care. That's what this thing with the summary BD program. You know, these are the worst time for kids in hunger is the weekends and breaks, as you will, well, that's why they have to pack, backpack, send food home. We were at school last year before we were you know, got through our school meals program, and there's a teacher talking about that she's had some of her children eating
crayon because they couldn't get enough. They didn't know, and people are assuming, oh, there's there's charity things out there. Whatever. These are parents that are just trying to make ends meet, working hard, and it's hard enough to navigate government when you're not in that situation your child's hungry, or you're worrying about homelessness or whatever. I just the cruelness of it is what really strikes me. And I'll tell you I'm going to make one more plug for what I
would encourage states to do and elect democratic governors. During the pandemic, the federal government at the child tax credit, we saw the big reduction in childhood poverty in our nation's history. Well, we took that and put it on steroids. In Minnesota, we have the most aggressive and generous child tax credit, seventeen hundred and fifty dollars every child, no limit on that. Whether you have to file taxes or not, you get that. We have seen over three hundred thousand
children qualified. We have returned four hundred million dollars. And what it basically assures is in those families for the first time, they have a guaranteed income source to take care of those children. It is estimated by all measures that that will reduce Minnesota's childhood poverty rate by a third. We're already the third lowest in the country. We will be by far the lowest of childhood poverty in the country.
And again, what I would say is they'll go to school, they'll have good childcare, their parents will pay femin medically. But imagine that mom and dad can take time off after they have the baby to bond with that child. We're going to have a better, healthier, well qualified workforce for jobs of the future. So I come back to this again, Even if you don't want to add the humanity side of doing this, it's just smart to do.
Yeah, Jesus fundamentally, you know, I spend all day talking about politics, and the thing that I'm struck by is that Republicans have terrible policies. Yes, Like there's just not a single policy where you're like, oh, that's actually kind of God.
Yeah, And I don't know, maybe it's we're bad at this year listeners saying this too. For God's sakes, how do you argue against these things that were making the case and in the long run, you can save money, you can have a better economy. Look, if if their stuff worked, I don't disagree with them because they're Republicans. I disagree because their ideas don't work and they're weird. In a lot of cases, you think it you go
was that it worked. I don't have an ideological dog in the fight that I'm going to ram this thing through just because I like it. On some things, I am, but none of the big ones. On most of them, we just wanted to work and they don't really have a response to it. Hell, they're fighting here. One of the things Minnesota, you know, we're proud we set troops to defend the nation, you know, but we had a flag year that was pretty racist. It showed you know,
indigenous being driven out. You know, it's manifest destiny time, and they did it. So we got a new flag that included everybody. But oh, you'd have thought the world ended for Republicans. Now that's their big thing. They need to be elected this year so they can overturn the flag and put back up the racist eighteen hundred flag. That's the whole we can party right now. It's like a ven diagram of you know, Gadson play some of that.
I don't get it, but I think what we need to do, we need to do a better job of telling people. Look, I'm a regular dude who hates politics. If you're that guy that's out there, well, here's how that's going to save you money. Here's how this's going to do this. Oh and by the way, we've got background checks and you know, red flag laws around the guns, but you can still own a firearm, no problem. We just don't want you shooting kids in our schools, and
we're going to try new things so you don't. It's really not that controversial. And I don't think we've done a great job. Apparently we haven't. My God, my wife. My wife and I are public school teachers, and she said, we don't need standardized testing to show we're failing. They're still not voting for us on these things, which I think we have to do a better job of educating.
All right, you can be her governor next. Thank you governor.
Yes, thanks Bali, you're the best.
No moment full Jesse Cannon.
By John Fast.
I feel like previously the derangement syndromes take a little while to develop, but Walls derangement syndrome went zero to one hundred in about two minutes.
I think we should have expected walls derangement syndrome. I think we should have been waiting for walls derangement syndrome. Turns out that Republicans are very, very, very very mad about walls. I just want to point out, like, this is a man who carved butter into the shape of a school bus. Okay, he's a very sort of folksy Midwestern guy, and the right wants you to believe he's a member of Antifa.
Would you say he's driving them up the walls?
Thank you, friend, He's not going to build the walls.
He's not.
Governor Walls most famous for giving poor kids free breakfast. We did a great interview with him a couple months ago.
Find it they're very mad that he gave students tampons.
Yeah, he gave students tampons. He is a really great educator. He is a really great serviceman. I think he's a really good candidate who connects with the Middle West. So online, right, not very happy thoughts, prayers, whatever. And as a special, fancy exclusive bonus for those of you who will continue listening, we are re airing my famous interview with Tim Walls
where he and I really became friends. Tim Walls is the governor of Minnesota and the presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.