Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds, and the US debt is on pace to set a record high going all the way back to seventeen ninety. We have such a great show for you today, the nation's own git here stops by to talk about one of the very few bright spots, Leonard Leo versus Donald Trump. Then we'll talk to Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan about her run for the Senate. But first the news Somali.
We got very very bleak news out of the Supreme Court. Everybody's trying to say, like, oh, thank god, the courts are saving us. Well, there's five hundred thousand immigrants that the Court is not going to save from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Yeah, you know, it's important to remember then, while the Supreme Court occasionally does something to prevent a complete bax slide into authoritarianism, they are largely very much the most conservative Supreme Court in probably fifty years. They overturned Roe v. Wade, They empower corporations every day. These are not your fronts. And in case you're wondering. A pretty great example of
that was this Supreme Court decision. Trump administration can now end a program that gave temporary production to more than half a million immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. You'll remember we've talked about this a lot. This was we became this country after the Holocaust, right, a country that welcomed immigrants, that had a moral imperative to not to be the people who turned around the boat to go back to the desk camp. So what we are
now that country that does that. And I'm not surprised, nor should any of us be, but it's just an absolutely, it's just devastating and it's so sad, and people will go back to their countries and be murdered and we will have done it right, the GOP will have done it. And you know this is Mega. Mega does not want any moral compass when it comes to immigration. They just don't want immigrants unless, of course they're from South Africa
and then they can come, but otherwise they cannot. So here we are.
So Trump's very stupid, big cruel Bill are the big Beautiful Bill as they like to call it, is also has another nice thing hidden in it. It's going to roll back the Affordable Care Act, which will hurt so many different Americans for many years. When I had cancer years ago, it's one of the only reasons I am still alive. So this is very disheartening.
Yeah, I mean, the whole idea here, even though this bill does in fact raise the deficit about three zero point three trillion dollars, is that this bill, it tries to run against Medicaid expansion. It tries to roll back a lot of the expansion that happened under Biden, and it does all sorts of like seemingly fraudulent things like making it hard to stay on Medicaid, making it hard to register for Medicaid, making it I mean, all of these little bits, it's still not saving anyone any money, right,
I mean, this is like a rounding error. You know what would work here is if you fucking raise taxes. And in fact, I just want to pause for a second and just go into my thoughts here. This is I'm going to give you my thoughts. We have at this moment an opportunity and it's funny Trump said he wanted to do it. I actually don't believe he ever wanted to do it, but I think he knew that there was an appetite for it. And this idea of a tax bracket from people make over two point five
million dollars a year, which is a ton of money. Right, over two point five million dollars a year. That's a ton of money, and there should be a tax backet for those people. There is no reason that people that we have people making people who have one hundred billion dollars or you know, eighty billion dollars. It's just completely nonsensical, you know. And also they need to fund the irs.
So again, there are a lot of Democrats who have talked about this, I think pretty well, which is, you know, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, making sure your grandmother doesn't get, you know, get sixty four dollars instead of sixty five dollars. And that's what this comes
down to. We are niggling and diming the poorest Americans children on SNAP benefits, right, I mean, just they're cutting SNAP, they're cutting Medicaid, they're cutting they're just cutting all of the stuff that people need, and they're doing it in the service of tax cuts for very rich people. So This is one of the yet another sort of scammy thing that they're doing here.
Yeah, speaking of scams, many people always talk about how Trump is a product of our reality television. But now what we're also seeing is he's a product of the commercials that run between reality shows, which is saying that he's caused great mental anguish in his lawsuit with CBS, and he deserves much more money for his mental anguish. Just like a silino in Barnes at.
Stop giving into Trump. It doesn't work. You know, you have these law firms that made deals with Trump. Now you have every person in the world things they can get free pro bono from them. There was a great piece I think it was in the New York Times about veterans, Oh no, it was in the Wall Street Journal, veterans who felt they had been hurt by anti Trump forces trying to get these fancy lawyers to do pro
bono for them. I mean, this is just such a insane You cannot negotiate with him, do not try to make deals with him. So now, and he's also just so grifty. So now he turned down a fifteen million dollars settlement because he wants twenty five million dollars in an apology. But what really Trump wants. I mean, look, my man is grifty as how don't do this. It doesn't work. Like if you pay out Donald Trump twenty five million dollars, here's what's going to happen. He doesn't care.
It will encourage him to go after you more if you don't do that and you fight him like Harvard is the American people say, oh wow, this person is not a bad person. This person is actually doing the right thing. And so it's just this is so easy. Don't do stuff like the Sherry Redstone thinks that by doing this she'll get the murder through. But the truth is what they should have done is they should have just kept negotiating and kept pushing back and eventually Donald
Trump would have forgotten about it and moved on. Instead, what they're doing, you know, or they could have fought back more publicly and then it would have become a big issue and either way they would have won in court. Instead, what they're doing, and this is what happens when you make a deal with Trump, is they now made a deal,
or they're trying to make a deal. They don't the courts do not have their backs right, because they have to say, you know, they're going to try to make a deal with Trump, and then we all know what's going to happen, which is Trump is going to change his mind, which is what always happens. You can't trust him, sooner or later he will recant the deal and change the deal, and so stop doing this. This is ridiculous, so annoying. It's also really really really bad for American democracy.
You know, what little we have left of really good news institutions. CBS is just ruining itself for a merger that you know, Trump still could end up stopping. And it's just so disappointing. I'm so disappointed and everyone involved in this really what what a as we say, A Shonda.
Yeah, So, as we discuss in the next segment on this podcast, The New York Times has a report out about Elon doing an amount of drugs that I've not seen since my days in the record business working with very famous drug addict artists.
Ed.
So Stephen Miller was asked about it, and he said, the thing that we all know, we're worried about drugs crossing the border, and they always look the other way when it's a rich white guy doing it.
It's so unbelievably bad. I mean, it's also this has never been about any of the things they say it is. You know, they say it's about fentanyl. It's not about fentanyl. This is that, right, It's about preventing drugs. It's about this, It's about that. It's not about any of this fucking stuff. It's actually about the Trump administration trying to get what they can get out of the country, to get what they can get out of the government, to make money.
And I really, really, really think that there is no world which it's good that you have somebody who has got tons of different security clearances and that person is also taking drugs. According to the New York Times, psychedelics.
Not just drugs, like drugs that really make you hallucinate and not think in your right mind while you're around levers.
That could do a lot of damage.
Yeah, Look for Stephen Miller, the answer is always racism. It's always right. So what he's really saying.
Real hammer and nail scenario, right.
So what he's really saying is I just want to use the drug stuff as a way to try to go to war with Mexico. So the point is that the worries about drugs, the calls are coming from in the administration, and there we go. So look, and you know, I mean, I think when you look back at Elon's behavior, this is not a person who behaved in a rational way. So you know from the chainsaw on stage, by the way,
he was holding the chainsaw wrong. It turns out I'm not a chainsaw ficial, but yeah, he was holding it wrong. I'm not. I know, you're shocked to hear that because of all the time I spend chainsawing, But I actually am not a chainsaw person. But yeah, I mean he was holding the chain you know, they're just at every point. And also you know all of the children, the many, many, many children, you know.
Yeah, it brings us back to the days of the White House prescription scandal being a kind of lighter, lighter thing.
Yes, yes, well, and these are the people who were so obsessed with Hunter Biden's laptop and drugs. All of a sudden, those people are now defending Elon. Gee, here's a contributor to the nation and the host of the time of Monster. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to fast politics. Get here. Always good to be on the proneground. I don't know. There was so much news this morning. I was like in the car reading between I'm not driving because nobody ever loves me drive because everybody's mean to me. But
I don't even know where to start, right? Do we start with that Elon Musk New York Times he's got bladder problems from ketamine. I mean, is that where we start?
Yeah?
Well, I mean I had a kind of like, I've been actually thinking about writing about this for a while now, and I guess this article gives me a good occasion too, because the Trump administration is on drugs, not in a good way. There's a kind of a lot of substance of use. And it's kind of curious because, I mean, the wrap on Trump was always like, well, his older brother was an alcoholic. He wasn't like people who drink
and whatnot. And I don't know, he's sort of in his yellow face because like it seems like you have to have uh, the you know, like, hey, heck Xeth serious alcoholic.
Who's the other one?
Judge a judge, box of wine. Judge Judge Pirow.
Yeah, exactly exactly. She said, you're normally like the human response, you know, like very sympathetic. You know, they should be doing it, but like, you know, should you be in charge of the Pentagon while.
You're working on these issues?
I know, necessarily no, but it actually and I think there's a couple of things going on here, which is, I think that people mistakenly think of drugs as like this hippie left wing thing, right, but in Silicon Valley, like sort of performance enhancement, drugs have become a big thing, like ketamine. Uh, And it's all a part of you know, this kind of like culture of neoliberal competition and you have to be one step ahead and you have to you know, like and then also their faith and technology.
Do they think that these things will make to us a brainiac's super rain that's faster than everyone everyone else? And it actual has a long kind of history on the right, going back to the nineteen fifties. Brian Doherty has a great book on the radicals for Capitalism, on the libertarian movement, and he basically shows in the fifties or already, these businessmen who are like, you know, they
wanted to cut taxes, real hardcore republicans. But you know, we're also doing a lot of experimentation with LSD and other things. It's easily like it's part of this culture of individualism. And also they think that they're superman.
Oh yeah, and I want to talk about this because it's so interesting. Like Trump one point oh, you and I both have been writing about this. Yeah forever, right, I feel like we've fucking aged so much, you know, Trump one point oh.
I have to say, I'm only like like you as you look like ten years younger than when I first met you. I feel that there's a year like ver veritable, dury and gray, that there's a painting in that closet behind you that's rapidly agent. Yes, yeah, yeah, you're keeping up your spirit of youth.
Oh, thank you with botox and fillers. But that's fine. Yes, but Trump one point oh, grown ups in the room, Yes, Stom but still a lot of damage. But but disdain from from Silicon Valley Trump two point zero. Silicon Valley decides we can buy this guy pretty cheap. Let's go.
Yeah. No, that I think that's that is a large part of the story. I think it's also that Trump felt burned by both the loss of the election and then some of the establishment blowback, and also the fact that visually everyone that worked for his first administration with a book saying this guy's a psychopath should be power. So he decided, you know, like that it's the second time around. You know, I'm not gonna go like listen to Mitch McConnell as to who I should put in the pensagon.
I'm just gonna try.
Him, you know, like the whoever is like kisses my ass the most and we'll like And also all these hardcore ideologs who were radicalized along with Trump, who you know, like, so it is it is a very and we reach a point where, like, I mean, the other bit of news which ties in with this is like Trump on the Federalist Society ran the show. They were the ones we're making all the judicial appointments, and now Trump is finding that some of those judges are not as much
in his pockets. Yes they should be, yes, And so he's just just like post about Leonard Leo saying, you know, he's a sleezebag who hates America in his own way, and you know, like this is like your cossack, let them flight because Leonard Deal is one of the most evil men in America.
Yeah, yes, but not for the reasons.
That Trump thinks.
Right. So this is the breaking news is that today this this podcast will air tomorrow on Saturday, but we'll still be talking about this because it's so stupid, and I also want the record to show that we are laughing to keep from crying. Personally, I am as upset as I've ever been about the state of American It's terrible, I mean, right, but Leonard Leo, I want to go into this because Leonard leon really is incredibly responsible for
everything we're going through right now. Donald J. Trump, on truth social a very mad We could read some of the truth, but basically the net net of it is he's very mad at Leonard Leo. We think this is about the tariffs and the case that Leonard Leo's group is bringing with the surviving Koch brother about where they're going to take away tariff authority from Trump because Trump is a mad king and he is really fucking up the American economy.
Yeah, no, that's right, and I think there's a couple of other issues as well, which yeah, please. Leonard Leo also had helped appoint a lot of Trump judges from the first term, and some of these judges are the ones that are flitting against Trump. And so Trump does feel this is a great portrayal because you know, he appointed those judges with the idea that they give him whatever he wants. But Leonard Leo to backtrack a little bit.
I mean, like obviously, you know, going back to Roe v. Wade and the Warren Courts, the courts were a big kind of center for the right wing that they thought they had to take back the courts. And Leonard Leo with the Federal Society was the guy that came up
with the strategy. And it came up with the strategy partially because initially they had problems, like they would nominate a Republicans would nominate someone like Sandra Day O'Connor or justice suitor, and they would be conservative on some economic stuff, but they would still uphold Roe v. Wade right, they would not go that extra mile. So the Federal Society was basically designed to make sure that this does not happen.
And what they did was they created a huge, you know, like multimillion dollar industry within the legal system where they
would I call it the legal grooming project. Would they would take these very impressionable young adults who were in law school, and they would show them that if you joined the Federal Society, you could suddenly get be an intern at top law firms and at the Supreme Court, and they would pick up people like the people that they picked up were like, you know, Brett Cavanaugh, Amy Coney, Barrett Gorshak and others at Clarence Thomas and hook them up with this legal system and make sure that you
have these people who are like in the mafia, they're made men and made women in the case of Colney Vera, that they are you know, they'll be loyal to the team more than the Constitution. He got to the point where, like Leonard Leo was basically the one picking judges both under Bush Junior and under Crump. And this all worked out wonderfully for the Republicans that got you know, they got Row overturned, they got you know, citizens United, a lot of things. But now there's a kind of crisis
point with Trump because it's two different legal visions. Trump's legal vision is I'm the king, right, This is like mel Breson History of the World. It's good to be the king. You get to do what you want. You know, Now, the Federal Society they still have a very right wing position, but it's this is a movement institution. Their thing is we want our judges who are going to overturn any laws that are social welfare, are going to overturn Biden's thing.
And so for them it's very important that the courts be an independent power unit. And also that Trump doesn't do like, you know, anything that goes against the free market, like the tariffs, and so this has become a kind of division point, so that you know, we now have these two very bad factions.
Uh.
And you know when I read Trump's tr social post saying that Leonard Leo is a sleeve bag, it was, you know, you know, that great meme, you know, heartbreaking. Worst person in the world makes a good fight, worst person you know makes a good fight.
So I think one of the central tensions of this problem for Donald Trump is that Trump has two justices who are in the tank for him, Thomas and Alito, and anything he wants, Thomas and Alito will sign off on the other three justice is it's more complicated, and then you know, and then there's Roberts, who again often will sign off with him, and Thomas and Alito are very tight with Leonard Leo. Yes, in fact, there's all
of this reporting about Tom. You know, Thomas is basically Alito has bought his house, he bought his mother's house, He's made Yeah.
Leo was the guy who set him up with what's this guy named crow the right, Remember Harley Crowe bought Yeah, he's the one who did the vocations and yeah, and then literally also got a job for Ginny Thomas. He got her a job which is kind of hidden the
financial sources up. So totally corrupt guy. And this is actually going to be a kind of juncture point or this is a possible division, and it's kind of complicated for those of us, like you know, who are not I mean, I just sort of taking let them fight attitude, like the extend the judges are stopping Trump. That's all
to the good. But my colleague at the Nation, Elie Mastelle, makes a kind of good point, which is that some of the Trump's judges, just because they're so incompetent, are actually like in the long term better because they'll make like really bad decisions that other judges like higher up, will overturn. Because whereas a Letyard Leo, I mean, these are people who work within the system and know how to maximize what they want out of the system.
Right. It's the difference between a Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is very smart but overturns Roby Wade very ideological. Though I do think recusing herself from that decision with the religious schools because it was Notre Dame involved, and she was a law professor at Notre Dame. She is very moral. Yeah, Like, I hard to imagine Alito and Thomas recusing themselves.
Oh they haven't, they haven't. The al there's the cases where you know there are people who gave them money are involved, and.
Then they're just like, yeah, So I do think she but she is very smart and very ideological and and newly, you know, you listen to her and you think, oh wow, we're in a lot of trouble, whereas someone like Judge A Lean Cannon, who I mean, she also has delivered for Trump, but she's clearly not a high level thinker the same one.
No, No, yeah, well, I mean you should point that. I want to reason I brought up because I think it's a counterint point, but I think it's an interesting one that Ellie knows the law as well as anyone is that like actually in terms of like ultimately overturning this stuff, like to have some of those crazy Trump judges, even though they'll go along with them, like their stuff is like so badly written and so badly thought that it's going to force the Supreme Court and others to
overturn it. So it's an interesting kind of me's It's a terrible dilemaivion, like like do you want to die of like liver cancer or do you want to die of throat cancer?
I don't know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no no. And I think that's a really good point. I also think that as we are in this bizarre moment in American life, well all our democratic institutions are really under attack. You know, if we get through this thing, it will be a lot of luck.
Well a lot of luck. But I mean, the other point I would make about all the court staff is like what is missing in all this equation is Congress, right, Like, yeah, under the American constitution like checks and balances, Sure, the courts are supposed to be there, but the courts actually don't have a lot of power. And this notorious cases where you have presidents like you know, Andrew Jackson has said, well, the judges made their decision, let them enforce.
It, right.
But the institution that could actually like actually fight back against the president is Congress. And there's like two things. One is that the Republicans are totally on board with Trump, even when they go against stuff that their donor class wants and they themselves think, and so there's no checks from the Republicans. And the Democrats, you know, like with varying degrees, have taken a let's play dead strategy.
Yeah, so so Congress is the missing equation, like yeah, and then I'll catch you.
Exactly because I swear about this. There's a real problem now with threats to judges, right, like no problem. Yeah, you saw the article where it's like dozens of judges got these pizza deliveries and it's all under the name of this the son of a judge who had been killed by litigant and this is clearly a threat. It's like it's a mafia thing. We know where you live,
right yea. And judges are very worried because they're getting more and more threats, especially with like Trump saying like, you know, impeach the judges get rid of the judges and the inst titution that protects the federal judges. Below the Supreme Court is the US Marshall, which is controlled by the Attorney General, you know, like Pam Bondy by Trump. So so so judges like now are pushing it to they want Congress to like remove the US Marshal from the control of the White House and to make an
independent police force. They don't think that like, you know, the president that's threatening them is gonna should be running the police force that protects them, right, Yeah, it's like putting a mafia boss in charge of the cops.
Yeah yeah, so so.
But again Congress is missing and I'll give Corey Booker credit because he's the one he's actually introduced the bill to do exactly that, to like you know, like beef up security for judges and to make the US Marshals independent. And I think more Democrats need to be on this, and I think he's actually a winning issue, Like I think that Americans want check and balances. They understand the
danger and you really have to be out there. Uh as for further midterm saying, you know, you give us the House, you give us the Senate, protect the judges.
Yeah, and you know, I want to I think that's totally right. I also to think so many of our problems that we are having right now are because Congress refuse to regulate anything. I'm going to tell a very annoying story. I'm at a book party. A member of Congress is complaining about how there is no fact checking on social media, and I have a fork and want to stab my eye out because I'm like, oh, I
wonder who could have done? Like they don't you know, you're going to fucking regulate stuff or the world is going to get ruined. Like this is how it is. Right. Republicans don't like regulation ideologically, Democrats don't like regulation because it's they have to work.
Yeah. Well, I think in particularly of a silicon value, the Democrats unfortunately helped create this monster because they have ties with Silicon Valley. Yes, they still take a lot of money, and so things like crypto and social media
don't get regulated. And it is exactly I mean, that is the institution that has really failed, and it's a big problem, and it has become you know, like, it's not surprising that so many members of Congress are old and ailing and yeah, I think if if you're an ordinary Democrat, I think that the main institution you should be looking at thinking about where you can affect change
is Congress. And you have to sure be like, you know, bothering your congressmen going to those town hell beatings, and if they're not, if they're caving it to Silicon Valley, you have to like primary them. You have to like replace them with Democrats who will fight. I mean, especially like I think there's a lot of these people in blue districts. It was like New York and California, where you know you could easily if you primary them, you're going to get another Democrat who could be a better
Democrat than the stronger Democrat. So so Congress is a real battlefield here for like, if we're going to fix this thing, that's where the battle has.
I agree, And I also just think we need our members of Congress to work. This is not you know, this, this is their fucking jobs. And I get so angry because I feel like the reason that Democrats are pulling poorly is not because Republicans are doing great. It's because Democrats are not doing enough, and that the people are mad because they are, Like, your job is to take care of us, to take care of those judges, to
do this fucking work. We don't care that you have a book deal, We don't care that you have a podcast. Nobody wants, you know. I mean, such a great example of just wandering an opportunity to enact change, to you know, do the stuff we need as Americans for us. And I really do think these members of Congress have You know,
it's funny because I'm friends with this activist. He's an activist among other things, and he has a whole theory of the case that all members of Congress are just incredibly selfish and obsessed with their own celebrity and unable, you know, that they're just not in there for public service, and we need to push our elected to be in there for public service.
Sorry, yeah, yeah, I mean I think there's some of that. I mean there's other issues. There's also the money factor. You know that they have to be raising money, and and I think that we need to really move to a small donor model. The larger issues that they find it easier to sort of punt and to like just leave everything to either the president or the courts. And
this is a real problem. I think if American democracy is going to be saved, I strongly feel Congress more than the President's He's the battleground and that's where you actually have to fix things.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's right.
I think that's absolutely And we see that's the internal battle of the Democratic Party where like any attempt to reform to say, well, you know, some of these members that are like ninety years old and dying, maybe they.
Should reside like like that resistance.
That's that's like, see, yeah, you know, when you raised this stuff, you can attack like you're you're an ageist, You're like, uh so I actually think that, like yeah, I mean, but I also think that it's good that Democrats, ordinary Democrats are mad at their own party and they're mad at Congress.
I think that's where that is the pivot point at which things can get better.
Yeah. Get here, Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Always great to be on the program.
Peggy flan Again is the Lieutenant governor of Minnesota and a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Minnesota. Welcome Too Fast Politics.
Peggy, thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.
I'm so happy to have you. We met each other at the Democratic National Convention and I interviewed you there. But because you are from the great sit of Minnesota, you are the lieutenant governor. For my I feel like he's my buddy, but I really feel like he's kind of everybody's buddy. Tim Walls.
Yes, absolutely, I get to spend a lot of time talking about Tim Walls and how great he is. And you know it's part of the gig as being lieutenant governor.
But you, yourself, you have a really inspirational and important story. So you know we have to do a Tim Walls name check. But now tell me how you found yourself in public service? Sure, so you know I didn't.
I didn't expect to be in public service as a as a kid, I wanted to be a ballerina nurse, which is exactly you.
Know what any ballerina nurses are. Yes, a really popular career path. Yes, yeah, popular group.
But I spent my whole life, you know, growing up in a family where you know, we felt like the bottom could fall out at any moment, and I know that there's a lot of.
Folks who feel that way. Can you explain to us why you felt like that? Absolutely?
So I grew up with my mom, with a single mom who was just amazing, and I grew up in an apartment which we were able to move into because of a Section eight housing voucher. The Childcare Assistance program allowed my mom to go back to school and to get her certificates in phlebotomy at Saint Kat's and helped to lift our family into the middle class. But you know, Medicaid was my healthcare as a kid who had really
severe asthma. It is how we paid the bills, how we made sure that I had access to all the medications that I needed, and sometimes it felt like I was in the hospital more than I was out when I was, you know, and coming up in elementary school. And you know, finally snap or back in the day, what we call the food stamps is what kept food on our table for our family. Were really fortunate. These public programs helped to support us.
But also, you.
Know, what we see happening right now, it certainly feels really personal for myself, and I know it feels really personal for folks all across the country. But I grew up around women and strong women who just did the damn thing. So you know, my aunties and my grandmas who just led organizations and were you know, political organizers, and so I just I saw that and never questioned
whether or not women were in leadership. But I spent my college career studying child techology and American Indian studies. I went into working for nonprofits and American Indian nonprofit and saw firsthand how Native students and their families navigated the public school system and it wasn't great and the outcomes weren't great, and so I thought, you know, we need to find somebody to run for the school board and talk to a lot of folks, a lot of advocates, a lot of leaders.
In the community.
And one day people turned around and they looked at me and they said, why don't you do it? And I was like, that's not what it meant, So be careful what you asked for, I guess is the moral of that story.
But I did.
I decided to run. I was twenty four, without any kids in the district, but thought, you know, we need to make sure that we have a voice at the table and a diversity of voices. And so was elected there and really enjoyed my time there, making sure that community had a voice, and it learned an incredible just an incredible amount of navigating these systems and how we
can make them more accessible for folks. And of course at the same time was working in nonprofits for the Council of Churches and then for a decade at Wellstone Action, which is the nonprofit that grew out of the late great Senator Paul Wellstone's campaign, which is incredible and where I actually met Tim Walls, who at the time was a teacher who this stream of running for Congress, and you know, that then led me to be tapped by Marian right Edelman, the head of the Children's Defense Fund,
to run Children's Defense Funds in Minnesota, where I got to, you know, fight for family economic security and work to
move policies that were good for working families. And that certainly just led to my time at the Minnesota Legislature, and then was tapped to run with Tim Walls to be his Lieutenant governor, always focusing on these issues of family economic security, and so that is I think the through line from when I was a kid, you know, to now just knowing that there are so many folks who are experiencing just a lot of fear and insecurity, and it doesn't have to be that way, and we've
got got more work to do. So I'm excited to try to big network that I've done throughout my entire career to Washington.
I wonder if you could talk about you grew up somewhat on a rez, right.
No, I did grow up on the res, but my dad was on the res. I'm kind of the perfect combination of my parents. So I'll say that. You know, my mom, right out of high school, she went and she volunteered on Hubert Humphreys presidential election in nineteen sixty eight. And then my dad was absolutely a rabble rouser and protester, and you know, he said, my girl, you know, I want to burn the system down and you want to
change it from the inside out. We need both, and I think you get you know, that combination, you get me. I'm a member of the of Whieters, which is an Ojibwe five in northern Minnesota. And my Ojibwe name is ji Waved McQuay, which means speaks in a loud and clear voice woman, you know, which I think is pretty on the nose, which is all false. And I'm part of a really strong urban native community here, we've got in the Twin Cities have an incredible urban native community as well.
So you are running for Senate. Lieutenant governor is a very different job than being a member of this at it, but governorships and lieutenant governors say, you know, it's a similar thing. It's all about the executive branch, right making
things happen, making things work. Why do you think and this is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, why do you think the Senate in Congress has so much trouble actually like legislating and getting things done in a way that governors and lieutenant governors do well.
I think there's a difference between, you know, the executive branch and the legislative branch and the judicial branch. And by the way, I think having three full branches of government is a really important thing, even if there's some folks who don't share that philosophy right now, you know,
certainly our politics are are really polarized right now. But as someone who served in the Minnesota Legislature, one of my favorite things about being part of a body like that is that you have to figure out ways to work together, to work across lines of difference to see where are those places and spaces where we you know, might not agree on everything, but we can find that
one thing where we're able to move forward. You know, when I was a Children's Defense Fund, you know, I worked with Republicans and Democrats because it was absolutely needed and necessary. And sometimes, you know, folks on my side of the aisle might get a little crabby and would say, why did you have a Republican author that bill? I said, because they're in the majority, and in this moment, two years in the life of a child is a really
long time to wait for the next biennium. We've got to go and we've got to We've got to move
and do this work. I've been troubled, as I know, there are so many folks who are just worried and afraid about what is coming out of Washington, d C. I mean, just recently have heard from Senator Joni Erntz who was talking about Medicaid cuts and folks were asking her about it and she said, you know, and they said, you know, people are going to die, and she said, oh, well, we're all we're all going to die someday, right.
I know, that was incredible, you know, like, that's correct. You know, someday we all walk on.
We all go. But the reality is we shouldn't ever have to think that our senators are trying to kill us, right or that they are part of that process. So, you know, the dysfunction in Washington. I think we need more folks who are less Washington to be at the table, which is one of the reasons why I'm running. And things like Medicaid and making sure that we are doing everything that we can to protect it is incredibly important right now as I travel across the state of Minnesota
and talking to folks. You know, just the other day was talking to a mom named Chris who's got a nine year old kiddo named Bentley, who relies on Medicaid for his healthcare and relies on access to special education services right through the Department of Education. And she just wants to be a good mom and wants to make sure that all of that is there for her to be able to care for her son. And so it's not just nameless, faceless folks writer or numbers on a spreadsheet.
It's people like Bentley and you know, his his mom, Chris, I think about you know, the prescription drugs. And in this moment where I think Democrats especially like we are fighting back, but I actually think we have to ask for more and we have to tell people what it is that we're for Congress negotiating the price of ten prescription drugs right, lowering the costs for folks on Medicare. That's great, But my question is why not all of them? We should be asking for more and we don't get
what we don't fight for. And I think in this moment that is the contrast and the opportunity for us as Democrats or Medicare and you know, needing to make sure that we're covering vision and hearing and dental, all of the things that are critical to the overall you know, health of folks. And while I'm on a role, I guess I would also just say, you know, the pre author rization of medical decisions, some person at a desk deciding whether or not you're going to get the treatments
ever die, right, so live or die? It's outrageous. We should demand more. And those are the things I think that people expected us right now. It is all of us against extremist billionaires. We don't have to agree on everything, but that we can agree on, and we should be doing everything possible to help people afford their lives.
One of the things that we see is that voters are really really mad at Democrats. Yeah even Democrats. Republicans for sure, but democrats too. Why do you think they're mad at Democrats? And what do you think a Democratic party can do to win them back?
I think one, we have to listen and we've got to show up. We've been holding what we're calling kitchen table conversations all across the state of Minnesota, and they are last town hall and scripted questions and more big facilitated conversation. I am most comfortable when we have flip chart paper on the wall and post it notes and markers, and so that is what these events are all about.
And we've got folks who are showing up, of course who are Democrats, but also people who have said, you know, I've never been to anything like this before, but I'm really freaked out, and so I'm going to try to do whatever it is that I can, and we say
come on in. And there have been a handful of Republicans who've also come to these events who said, you know, I didn't vote with you or I didn't vote for your party, and rather than blame and shame folks and get on our high horse, we said, come on in right again, we can find common ground. But I think right now Democrats and members of the Democrat Party again
have to say this is what we're fighting for. It is not enough for us to be against Donald Trump, which absolutely we are, and we should use every tool in our toolbox to push back, but we also again have to tell people what we're for. And we don't have enough leaders in Washington who understand the struggles that people are facing right now and in this moment. And I think folks can see right through that, and that is also part of the frustration that people have with
the Democratic Party. People need to know we're going to show up for them and that we'll be on their side, and that we are not going to just simply engage in electoral strip mining right before the election, where we show up to people's communities tell them how important we are, like it's the you know, like the circus comes to town and then we leave that we are doing the work now, you know, for us here in Minnesota in this campaign, of course, it is about you know, winning
the US Senate seats. Absolutely, But if we're doing it right, it's about building lasting infrastructure for twenty eight and thirty and thirty two, and it's about working in partnership this summer and fall with our legislators and our legislative candidates to make sure that they have, you know, organizers on the ground that we are strengthening the work that they're doing doing Apartment Knox, showing up for folks so that you know, we are ready to go in twenty six
to win back the House, to build a bigger majority in our state senates, and make sure that we can continue to deliver on the things that we need to deliver on, to make sure that people feel seen and heard and value. That work should be happening all the time, not just before the election. And I think that is
also something that people need to see from us. So ideally, you know we are we're building that on our campaign, but also this should be I think what democrats and candidates and leaders are doing all across the country.
Yeah, such a good point. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Lieutenant Governor L. G. Plan Again, thanks so much for having me.
I appreciate you.
They're all set on.
Jesse Cannon, Mai Jung Fast So Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa one of those town halls. And what we know about town halls is there's a rule. They don't go well for Republicans these days. Well, why don't we listen real fast when we.
Are talking about the corrections in this reconciliation bill. Again, it's corrections of overpayments and people that have not been eligible for these programs by law as it is currently written. So when you are arguing, when you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid.
Benefits one point four.
Million one point for they're not they are not eligible, so they will be coming off.
So people are not well.
We all are going to die.
So we in say the one in said spokes Okay, no, but but what you don't want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going.
To focus on those that are most vulnerable, those that made the eligible enow.
Wow, wow, you know it's funny because I read reporting about it but hadn't heard her.
Her fellow Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley once talked about pulling the plug on ground that seems like tripping over the plug and not even caring that you did it.
Well, I mean it's pretty great where she's She's like, well, we're all gonna die. I mean, yes, but we don't want our senators to kill us.
Thank you, Sylvia Plath, Thank you.
Johnny Ernst is up in twenty twenty six. Now she is in Iowa, and Iowa is an R plus whatever a gazillion state. But you know, this is the thing. You don't have to have this person. You don't have to have this person represent you, like you could have someone a Republican even, who doesn't say things like that, just like, we're all going to die day this callousness. Voters are either going to be okay with this or they're not right. This is all a question of who
you elect. But let me just say this is really just so incredibly gross.
Agreed.
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