Kara Swisher, Max Rose, Monica Trannel & Mitch McConnell

Republicans in Congress. First, we're gonna talk to Max Rose, who's running to represent New York's eleventh congressional district, and he's going to talk to us about the really interesting proposition he's made his opponent to be fined for lying in their race. Then we're gonna talk to Monica Tranelle, who's running to represent Montana's second district against former Secretary of the Interior Maga loser Brian Zinky. And if that weren't enough, somehow Mitch McConnell invaded our chat and came

by and gave us a comment. I'm Donald Trump's truth social posts saying he had a death wish, and he tells us what he thinks of that. But first we have the absolute pleasure of welcoming the host of On with Kara Swisher and Pivot. Kara Swisher. Welcome to Fast Politics. Kara Swisher, How you doing good. I'm so excited to have you for any number of reasons. You know, I'm a fan. I started a podcast at the same time you started a podcast, just you know, a continual many

many things. The first thing I want to talk to you about, because I just listened to it, was this incredible interview you did with Chris Cuomo. Yeah, it's so interesting because it is like, how stressed out do you get before you do those? And also how do you do that? That's a big question. Those are two big questions. Stressed out, not at all, not even slightly. I don't ever get stressed out when I do interviews, and I just going for the conversation. You know. I think a

lot of interviewers they have a list. I prepare and I think about the strategy around it, but I also change when needed, and when the conversation turns, I listen, which I think a lot of people don't do. I think a lot of people are interested in gotcha's. I'm

not even slightly interested in that. Whatever happens the conversation, although I am prepay heared if they say something idiotic or I don't agree with to push back, and I just I'm looking at it as a conversation and that's the and I think that's why it works so well. And I also don't mind asking hard questions. I don't sort of back into them. I don't go well, some people are saying that maybe and not me. You know

people do that, people do that. I'm like, all right, a lot of like with John Stewart, I'm like, a lot of people think you're irrelevant, but and I think maybe you are too, So tell me why you're not or I don't like this show and he's He's like, what don't you like about it? And then I said, I was thoughtful about it, And so I think they appreciate it and they know people are thinking that anyway,

and so I think that's what the power is. I suspect was interesting in the Cuomo interview was and you I think you and I have actually talked about this the brother, like would you advise your brother? Yeah, I brought that in thing. No I said no. And so when he was saying you understand his family, I'm like, no, I don't, and I wouldn't do it. So I think he I sort of blocked that. I've I've seen him make that argument and I didn't agree with it, and

so I was ready to go on that one. In particular, I pay attention to what they say, you know, and they're little whatever their little word is. But he got mad or at you about the T shirts. Yeah, I know he did, because it was like, you're a loser. I think that's I think that's what it was, is that, oh, now you're said you were at CNN, riding around in town cars with Jeff Sucker, you know, sipping the champagne at Cohn or wherever you are at the France or something.

And I think I was like, now you're selling T shirts, you know, out of a box in the back and the Bronx or something. I think I kind of was insinuating that too, so I but I wasn't. I was like, hey, this is this is an interesting shift in your life. And he was talking the March and March. I'm sorry, I don't mind. I talk March all the time. It was interesting now because I thought like, if you're gonna get mad about something, when you get mad about the

ethical questions and not the T shirts. But it spoke to like an ego, saying yes, well, hello, hello, nice to meet too. How we wears his suits? I mean, and you think I can't a lot of attention to physical things. He's very interested in how he looks, and that's fine. He's a very good looking man. And I always noticed that about people, how what they how they present themselves, both the way they do physically and what

they have to say to you. And I pay a lot more attention about what they have to say and the way they want to get it through. And sometimes I don't say a word he you know, he obviously there's one point he talks about how many awards he won and I didn't say anything. I didn't make fun of it. I just was like, okay, that's it's important for you to have people understand you're not an idiot. I think that was what that was. And I don't think he is, by the way. I mean, as someone

who has many children but is an only child. The weird family dynamics there that those two play out with each other, right, Well, it's very Italian. My family is Italian too. It's like royalty above everything. I don't think that's true. You know what I mean, and I think, but I understand that sentiment. I have a lot of relatives who are like that, you know, never talk to

my grandmother was never talk outside the family. I'm like, why, like it was, you know, So I understood that kind of thing is we'll keep our dirty Lenin's to our dirty cells, you know kind of things. And so I get I get that. I completely get that. One of the things that I really want to talk to you about is so my experiences is like a small time version of your experience. But I left the Daily Bees because I had not a great reb share and I moved somewhere where I could get a better reb share,

and um, they owned everything they did. Yeah, you made that deal, didn't you? So did Yeah, so I don't own my you know my feed is gone, yes, yes, my feed was gone to Yeah, I was. I knew that was the case. I actually put in my contract with the New York Time. You're talking about the New York Times, and I had I had a little bit of a back and forth and they didn't Actually there's no fourth from them because they never reply. I was kind of irritated. They did contact me privately, and they

had were using the feed. I in my contract there was a thing saying I could I could try to buy the feed. They could decline. Certainly, they don't have to sell it to me, but I had the ability to do so, and I did. They said no, and I wrote them a note at the time that said, hey, I get it. You want to keep the feed, but as long as you do a show that's called Sway or you know an host, that's fine, whatever, but you can't just use it for anything. And if you do that,

you can't. I didn't say they couldn't do it. I said, if you do that, you have to tell people. Because they didn't sign up for Tom Dick and Harry, they signed up for Karro Swisher and so you just need to to disclose. And I felt that was pretty reasonable request. And I said that, and they ignored it, and they were gonna put it on a show that I actually pushed them to do with with people I very much like Kevin Ruce and Casey newton Um and I really did push for that show. That show was not going

to happen, and I couldn't. I think I was critical to making it happen. And so I think they're wonderful and everything else, but they were going to do without really being as disclosure, giving as much disclosure. I am an opt in person, not an opt out person. The New York Times rights continually about the sins of tech companies doing opted out, which is, you don't get a choice. We just shoved this in you like you're like some One of the tweeters said it's a friend of mine.

Brooke Camerling said it was like shoving the YouTube album at you, like no one asked for it, and so that was my issue. And you know, they've done a trailer that's kind of jokey but not still not the same thing. I would like them to say, you didn't sign up for this, Like a lot of people were sort of why is this here? Why did this suddenly get here? And I think you need to explain. I don't think it's cool, and we had a difference of opinion on it, and they just did it anyway. But

that's fine. I just wanted to point it out because they weren't pointing it out, and so that's all. I knew what I was doing when I when I did the show, I knew it was there. Yeah, at least you could buy your feet I wasn't allowed to buy my RSS. Well, you are allowed. You can always make a thing. I just put I put in the contract for this reason because at news coorep. You know, this

was long ago. Nobody thought about this. They own all my interviews, right, they own every interview I've ever done, and thousands of them, you know kind of thing, And so I get it. That was the deal I made for sort of a shitty salary. I gave away all my content and it wasn't that shitty. But in one case, when I had the Code conference, I owned a piece of it, and I really enjoyed that because then it was up and down based on my mine and Walt Mossberg's perform it. If we did great, and we did

a great show, we made a lot of money. And boy did we make a lot of money. Newscarp did not like that deal. After it happened. They were like, but they wouldn't give us a salary raise. That was where it started from. They declined to raise our salary for what we were doing. We were bringing lots of income to the company. But you know, whatever, it does feel like on the content side, they've really figured out ways to keep as much of the content as possible

without I'm not saying they're screwing you. It's just why wouldn't they Why wouldn't they want it? And so my whole thing is I'm not going to be this sort of I'm some sad victim of like, oh no, they took myself. I took the money for it. In the case of news Corps, I knew what I was doing, and in one case I did very well because I own the revenue, owned part of the revenue. In another case, I wanted them just to disclose that's all I didn't. They can do whatever they want with it. It's theirs.

It is theirs. I'm not arguing that point. I just think when things drops into your feed without you asking for it, I don't think that's right. I just don't know. I think it's and then pretending it's a okay is not right either. So that's my that's my was my quibble, and it's a quibble by the way I think people find it interesting to know what goes on. You know, we're sort of taught to not kind of talk about what happens behind the scenes. Why we're the press. It's

so ridiculous, you know someone from the time. A lot of people from the Times wrote me saying thank you for saying this, you know, off the record, but they do. They're like, why do you have to talk outside the same thing with Cuombo. I'm like, because why what don't we ask people this all the time. I don't mind telling people not everything, obviously, but I think in something like this, I don't know why this needs to be

quietly fixed. I think it's just a good point. And I was already kind of irritated because when we saw when we left News Corps, we wanted to buy our archives of all things to seven years of amazing reporting and very groundbreaking reporting and also a lot of early videos of all the early Internet. People. Have a Peter Teal video that's really quite If you watch it you understand him and um and it was very early on

before he was careful right. They said no, and then I got I extracted a promise from the CTO at the time to preserve them and make sure the archives were didn't it's called link rock. I don't need to do it malevently. It's just when they moved platforms, these links die, and it's sort of like when you have

a physical archive. If you've ever been in an archive in newspaper, they clip, they have clips, right, real clips, and if someone takes when it's gone like and so maybe it's on microphici, but that degrades, and so the Internet is not supposed to degrade, right, but it does. And so I was like, there's gonna be link rot here, and that's what happened. And we were I was working on my memoir of Silicon Valley and all the articles

have disappeared, and it's really quite disturbing. All that amazing work by reporters, Like I had a lot of the current crop of really well known tech reporters all work for me at one time. Kurt Wagner, Mike Isaac, all kinds of people speaking of stuff that can be out there, um elon Musk's tax Yeah. I was just looking at them. I was just reading, like little light reading. Are there are things in there that you didn't know or that you were surprised about? No out now they're all like this.

It's you know, actually, here's what I think it was good for people to see. Ellen is very reasonable off Twitter, you know what I mean. I think he came off incredibly well He's like, okay, interesting, he wasn't ranting. I mean, Joe Rogan was wrapped out time to get the woke mop and he just went okay, Like he didn't go yeah, Joe, yeah, you know what I mean, like, which which you would do on Twitter when I talked to him and he goes in and out. But I do over the many years,

he's very reasonable to talk to. He's not the character he plays on TV, right, you know, I think it's kind of interesting. There's a little bit of that in him, you know what I mean. We've had some beefs over the years, but I never feel like they're crazy beefs. They're like he didn't like something and he said so. He's very forthright in that regard. But he doesn't play these juvenile games that he does on Twitter, right, you know, the dunking, the ridiculous dunking, stupid jokes and stuff, and

some of it are fun. Some of it's funny, by the way, I like a lot of what he does on on Twitter, but a lot of it's really kind of yuck, kind of cruel and mean, and so he's not like that. So that's one thing I wanted people. It was interesting for people to see. He's the one that's being like interesting, good idea, you know, that kind of thing. And I think some of them sucking up to them was kind of funny, fun you know, he gets sucked up to all day long and twice on Sunday.

But I thought that was interesting. I thought some of the ideas for the CEO of Twitter or funny weird, like his one guy from Uber who I know pretty well what Steve Jervison suggested him. I mean, this guy got sucked up into some really unpleasant stuff in Twitter. I was like, oh, that's not a good idea, although very smart guy. So it was interesting to watch people, you know, especially Jack Dorsey, who was sort of this open wound kind of person and that that was but

he's like that. If you know him and spend any time with him, he is an open wound. You know. It's like, oh, dear, humanity is going to be dashed if Twitter doesn't exist. That was the thing. And they do that all the time. Whenever anybody says, you know, it's for the good of humanity in the Internet industry, I'm always like and ding ding, and he means he means it. He actually means it. He's he's very earnest

and you got that sense from him. Yeah, his power, his feeling of powerlessness, which is I think bullshit, because he has a lot of power. Even know he doesn't have the controlling stock. He's jacked doors, he created it. He could have been public about it. He just is loath to be like Elana, who is at least gets out there and throws a punch. You know, can you explain to our listeners, but also mostly to me this

Republican tech anti trust vote. Republicans had decided they wanted to break up big tech, but now they're sort of now they maybe don't want to break up big tech. Well, I said, I've heard. I mean, I think Kevin McCarthy has made it. He went out there and he's from Californian. It's like, you go with us and we'll make sure you're safe. I think that's it seems to have done from many reports allegedly. But I'm please. I mean, this guy is at the bottom of the barrel and then below.

That's my take. What's under the bottom of the barrel. That's right. So here's the deal. They don't like this anti trust bill. There's some issues with it. I I understand their their objections, but this is how legislation goes. This is Amy Klovi Shark Grassley bill. And so they managed to torpedo the other one, the journalism bill that Senator Klobachar had by ted Cruz that Eternal showed um adding on some dumb censorship thing. And so the issue

is they all feel understand the power at tech. One group is cynically, I think, saying oh, censorship when it's not really the big issue. It's power really, and the other one is probably going a little too far right. Ultimately, innovation takes care of many of these things and competition. But I do think this industry has never had any regulation attached to it, and every other industry that this size and power does and this is the most powerful and doesn't have any And so I think, you know,

they want to. I think they want to sort of preserve all things, and they'll do what they want. Trump was actually quite a you know, he attacked Bezos quite a bit. He attacked a bunch of companies at the same time. Because he loves power, he wants to be near them, and he loves wealth, and so he wants to be near them. So it's a mixed bag for a lot of people. I think, you know, at some point there will be a privacy bill past a national privacy bill. Uh an anti trust needs to be up dated.

No question is just going to be a long slug. And let me just say Center Cloba Chars tried her best, and they're spending nineties some million dollars saying that she broke is trying to break the Internet, which is just untrue. I mean, the idea of people in Congress understanding technology she does, that's not true. She does, for sure, and she understands journalism. I think a lot of people do.

I think you just saw that dumb hearing with Mark Zuckerberg and some of the like, especially and I'm not trying to be agist, but old guys don't understand it. What is this email? You know, that kind of thing that was what it looked like. I think a lot of people in the Hill get it. It's you know, it's a business. They don't listen. Nobody listen. I don't think Congress can fly a plane and they understand how to regulate the that industry. You know, they don't understand finance.

They know how to figure it out. That's what they're there for, is figuring it out. And so this idea that they're not tech savvy, it's kind of it's it's a little bit of a canard. They can they can write. It's it's about advertising. You know about advertising kids, You certainly do. And so that's the kind of thing. I don't think they have to be experts in Technology's what tech always brings out. You don't get what we do, right, I get what you do. It's capitalism after all, right,

I think that's pretty much what's going on here. Do you think ultimately like the metaverse? They put so much money into that. I mean this is meta, right, yeah, meta and the metaverse? Yea. Zuckerbroobs put so much money into that. I mean, where do you see this all? Sort of? I think he's wasting his money right now. Um, And I think his business right now is under siege. Obviously, Facebook's stock is down a lot. They're not really a very big tech company right now compared to the others.

I think they He's bored with his main business, just the way the Google founders became bored with search even though it paid for everything and wandered off into all kinds of weirdnesses. I think this is what he's hoping will be the next big thing, and I think he's I think he's wrong. Doesn't mean I'm right, but I think that that the the technology is not there, the equipment is not there. I don't think the interest is there. I do think where Apple is going around are, which

is augmented reality, is very interesting. And I do think we'll all have glass as that will tell us. You know, it's just it's just a different form factor. If you view the Apple the headphones, the Max, the AirPod Max or the AirPods, think of those with a camera in them. That'll be interesting, right, Yeah, it will be. They're going to have a camera in there. That's so obvious, you know, the way they're building these things. And then what and

then what and then what? And so I think there will be a lot of are There will be certainly VR for certain things, watching entertainment, porn, all kinds of stuff. Makes sense. But I think them I don't think Facebook is the most creative companies, and when they wander into creativity, it's really a problem because they're not creative. Yeah, I think that's right. Thank you so much for joining us.

This was super interesting. Yeah, thank you so much. Max Rose is former congressman is running to represent New York's eleventh congressional district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Max Rose, what's calling on everybody? I just said to you before we started recording that we're just gonna the shed. I think we have to talk first about this fucking redistricting in New York. Come on, man, But look, look, the redistrict teams irrelevant. We're gonna win this district. I've won this

district before. I'm not worried about that, buddy. But I do think you'll find it very interesting what I just came from doing. I just came from doing a press conference where we rolled out a no lying pledge. Now, this seems like something that would actually be rolled out in my my son's daycare center, a commitment to not lying.

We put it out there that requesting Nicole Mallley Tackers, my Republican opponent in this race, that she joined us and signing this pledge whereby if any independent fact checker from media to whoever else it might be, declares that we have in fact lied, then they will have to contribute two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to a campaign that addresses the addiction crisis. Excuse me, it's actually a million.

And if a superPAC comes in and an independent fact checker deems that the super pac is lying on one of the candidates behalf, then that candidate has to do two hundred and fifty dollars a day to a nonprofit that addresses the addiction crisis until the superPAC ad is taken down. Now, I'm interested and keen to see whether or not my opponents signs onto this. But our politics has just gotten disgusting. The things that you know, the

Republican Party is seeking to say about Democrats. And there's been moments where the Democratic Party has said crazy things about the Republican Party. There's a lot that we can say about them that is not a lie that we've got to elevate. But our politics is just completely ripping apart this country. Um, it's leading to violence, it's leading to division, and I thought that this UH could be one small effort towards addressing them. Let's talk about what

is going on in Congress right now. You are, you have been a member of Congress. You are out of Congress right now running a and for your seat. You're watching Congress from afar. Talk to me about what you're seeing there and what you are, you know, what you're

pleased with, what you's freaking you out. I think that there have been a string of really tremendous legislative wins, many of them, the vast majority of them actually bipartisan, from the Infrastructure Act to an actual successful piece of gun violence prevention legislation, to the Chips Act, which is gonna dramatically reinforce America's software based and chip based manufacturing

prowess too. Really an unprecedented bill to address the affordability crisis in the United States of America and the threat and the reality of climate change climate chaos was crazy though to think. And then I do want to get to the issue of jobs. Imagine if Kevin McCarthy had been the speaker, not one of those pieces of legislation would have even hit the floor of the United States

House of Representative. He would have undertaken a completely obstructionist form of congressional leadership with the sole intent of trying to deny the Biden administration any type of legislative win. This guy is so far to the right of Mitch McConnell, as is the vast majority of his caucus, which completely bends to his every whim is quite scary when you

think about it. They are showing us. He is showing us who they are, where their party stands, what they want, and they want two things, and they believe them to be interconnected. One is that they want the American people to be absolutely miserable. They do not want to do anything, nor do they want to present any legitimate plan that is tied to their own advancement. But the reason why they want that is because they believe it's sincerely to

their electoral gain. That this is unfolding right before our eyes. No, there's no need for any innu end though, there's no need for any subtlety. There's no need for any guesswork. We know what three would look like. You merely have to look to it all the things that they voted against in then you move on to the issue of DABS, and my opponent is perfectly emblematic of where they stand.

When the Dabbs decision hit, the leadership of the extremist National Republican Party, for the most part, was saying, well, Look, this is a this is a court's issue, right, This is a this is not something that the federal government

should talk about. This is a a court's issue. And then you saw immediately the trigger states come into play, women's lives on the line, health on the line, freedom on the line, and they vote against protecting the very basics of that freedom which had been enshrined in precedent for over a half of over a half century. But then Graham drops the abortion ban, and suddenly it becomes a legislative issue, and they duck and they hide and they cower, yet another indication of where they will stay

and should they actually not forbid have power. There's no one who was more upset about Dobbs than me. I mean, I've written, like I went back and looked, I've written like fifteen pieces of bad Dobs. I mean, I have been on the Dobbs wagon. But do you really think that McCarthy would be the speaker of Republicans take the House?

Because I don't, Well, look, I'm not gonna it's difficult to get myself in the mindset of predicting what the extremist wing of an extremist national party would be doing and may I add when I talk about their extremism, that's not illustrative of any extremism of your average, you know, Republican that you find in the community. Now, this is the extremism of their leadership. So I can't get myself in their mind. I think Kevin McCarthy, if I would have bet, I think that that that he would lock

it up. That is, unless Donald Trump said he wanted to be speaker, and they'll do whatever Donald Trump says, right or Donald Trump says he wants Jim Jordan to be speaker. I mean, this is the thing that I feel like we keep doing as normal people in the world, is that we keep thinking that like Republicans wild just do something normal in a normal way, like normal people do. All evidence since two thousand and fifteen has shown us

that Republicans will do whatever. Is Really the craziest thing, under no circumstances is elevating Kevin McCarthy to the Speaker of the House normal or saying I don't care what he was, Let's talk about what he is right now and what he is plain and simple is two things. I don't know if this doesn't necessarily make him insane,

This is just a statement of fact. One. He is willing to do and say anything that Donald Trump says to include a democracy, and who's willing to do and say anything that results in in in the Republicans winning, to include lying, which is why I made that pledge to there put that pledge out today. So I don't think that's the same choice. There's probably things they could do that are even more insane, But no, man, that's not that's not the SAE. I just feel like they

continue to make themselves hostages to Donald Trump. Yeah. Look, I think that what we have seen from Donald Trump, and just let let's just take from onwards, is a series of highly erratic behavior that doesn't put the country first, whether that is waging war on our democracy and elections, on the constitutional process, or that that's taking classified materials back to moral Lago so he can show it to his country club buddies over and over and over again.

Though it's him first, not the country first. And and that just wasn't the attitude or the mindset that I was taught in the military. You know, when I was in basically training, you were taught army values, and at the top of them was was selflessness. It was putting the country first, was protecting and upholding the Constitution. I

just don't see that from him. Now. What I refuse, though, to allow, or to stand by as the Democratic Party does, is we cannot allow for that critique, which I think is a statement of reality, to then bleed into an indictment of the millions and millions of people who voted for Donald Trump. Many many of them I think are a very good, decent patriots. I'm not gonna get into that language. And I think it's wrong when you know, you see folks all the way at the President Biden

talking about, you know, an indictment of mega Republicans. I don't want the conversation to go in that direction, right all right. I mean, I understand that you're running for an R plus whatever seed, and I get that that's the I understand that clearly there's a lot of bad behavior happening on the side of the Republicans. The nuances

of whether or not. I mean, I do think there are people who voted for Trump who are not MAGA, who are just people who vote for an R. I think that it's smart of Biden to try to separate those groups. I don't think that he's trying to throw all Republicans out with the bath Order. I think he's trying to make a differentiation between people who want lower taxes and people who want to overthrow the government. And I think that that is a worthy distinction to make.

The worthy distinction to make is addressing the Trumps agenda and addressing particularly more recent Trump is record that's worth.

But I refuse to give up on the millions upon millions of people who quite frankly, where Obama supporters than Trump supporters, or maybe they voted for the first time for Donald Trump, and they did so because, quite frankly, they had been ripped off by an economy that had completely destroyed the middle class and the working class, where you see titans of finance paying lower tax rates than people who are working, whether it's in a factory or

driving a truck or all the like. People who hate the idea that Democrats and Republicans are both taking corporate pac money, and so they see someone saying, oh, we're going to drain the swamp. Now where my sympathy lies, though, is that none of that happened right now, and so we have got to execute a narrative build a narrative, build an argument that rightfully says because it's the truth. It's the damn truth that the things that they spoke about to never happened, that it was a lie that

they were hoodwings. That's what I'd like to see. I don't think Biden's not saying that. I mean, again, certainly that message and the message that labor is the way to lift the working man up so that he can negotiate and get better pay. I mean, I think that's pretty obvious. I don't see Democrats running on that message. I think that's a real problem. And look there, you know, one of the things that Donald Trump did very well was he said to people, I will do for you,

I will represent you, I will fight for you. Of course they didn't do any of that, and he had no interest in ever doing that, but messaging wise, it was a very persuasive message to voters, and um, I do I would love to see Democrats doing more of that. But the center here is labor. Without a doubt, the center is labor. But if you think, I mean, come on, man, I've known you for a little bit. Now you have

New York City street smarts. If you think that the right pathway to winning over people's hearts and minds is by telling them that they're the enemy or telling them that they're stupid. I mean, come on, it's besides the fact that it's politically incompetent and idiotic, and it's also immoved. So I'm like, what the hell are we thinking talking like this? It just doesn't make any sense to me. You know why? It is that the TRUMPUS agenda is enough for us to have a very vociferous commentary on

not on the people who who support them. Okay, just explain to me a little bit about what your race looks. Isn't your district a little bit different? Now, it's a little different, but for for all intents and purposes, it's about the same in the end, And this is one of, if not the only, urban swing districts. What this race is going to be about is classic on the ground, organizing door to door to door. There's gonna be a lot of energy that poculates on the ground before prognosticators

noted it. How do I know that because that's exactly what we experienced in Look, let's let's flash back to right when I first declared in seventeen in the district that Donald Trump had won by more than the state of Texas. I was swing left. Came out with the top seventy five list of of pickup opportunities for the Democrats. I wasn't on it. It wasn't on it. I was

counted out every step of the way. But what we did is we ignored that noise of you know, these cook report journalists or Nate Silver who sits in his pajamas. Let's criticized pajamas. You're fine criticizing Nate, but the pajamas is a bridge too far. But you know what what we did is we ignored that noise and we went on the ground, lawn size, street side door knocking, knocked over a million dollars, and we're gonna knock well over that this time around about the fact that we can

have a better politics in this country. We can have a better America, a better city. Talking about my own service background, look, I nearly lost my life in Afghanistan, and more importantly than any sacrifice that I ever made, that sacrifice paled in comparison, utterly pale to the sacrifice

I saw other people make. And they did that because they stood for what this country's potential is and I think that we when when we take that sacrifice and then we turn around and spread lies about elections, When we turn that around and say that I'd rather do anything to try to win an election, to include lying about my opponent ripping this country apart, taking away the

freedoms of millions of women. That spits on the sacrifice of so many of the people who have done everything they could to build a better country, to build the America. They know it's possible. That's what my race is about. That's what people on the ground. No, no, it's about. And I don't mind the fact. In fact, I kind of savor the notion that some people are doubting our prospects because we'll be under the radar and then on

election day we'll have the last laugh and more. And and what what would we do is we actually to actually put in the work. All right, Thank you, Max Hey, it's good having you too, and I look forward to seeing you soon. Monica Trannelle is running to represent Montana's second district in Congress. Welcome to Fast Politics, Monica tre Now, so you are running for Congress in Montana's newly created

second congressional district. So because it's a newly created district, first you have to explained to us what that means and what it looks like. So Montana is the first state to ever lose a seat and then get back. So we had two professional seats through nineteen ninety and in the US we lost a seat because of a

population decline. And then in the census, the population of Montana was over a million, and so we were allocated a second congressional seat through the census redistricting reallocation process since we have been the fastest growing region in the country in western Montana. So this new second seat, which is actually mt O one, was created through the census. It's sixteen counties and two tribal nations of Blackfeet and Sailushkoutni travel Nations are also part of this new district.

Um it's in western Montana and it lies mostly between Glacier and Yellowstone National Park, So it goes from Canada down to Yellowstone National Park, just to give you a sense of where it is. So it's huge, and is it a gerrymander district. I don't know how you gerrymander with only two districts but explained to us what how it was created and was it created to kind of

disadvantage democrats or not. So Montana has a nonpartisan redistricting commission, and so you know, the redistricting commission went through the process, went through the entire process, looked at the population and tried to make it a contiguous population. We have, you know, tried to make the tribal nations sort of roughly fairly

represented as well as rural and populations. So it contains the two biggest university towns in Montana, the University of Montana Missoula, which is the Grizzlies, and the Montana State Bozeman the Bobcats. So we have the brawl of the wild in this district. Like I said, it's the fastest growing area in the country. We don't register by party here, so the new voters who have come to Montana in the last two to four years, and we had a big explosion through COVID, there are a lot of unknowns

about what this district looks like. John Tester would have won this district by ten points in his election and Steve Bullock in the governor race, well, so he was our governor. He was our outgoing governor. In he ran for Senate against Steve Banes, and he would have won this district had there been a third party candidate. So it is competitive. And I ran in twenty for our utility commission in seven of the sixteen counties that make

up this district. And I got forty eight percent of the vote for a UM utility commission race in a year where no Democrat won, and I was the highest performing Democrat by vote share in the state of Montana that year. And you are not running against any Republican. You are running against a very special Republican. He explained to us a little bit about your opponent. So the makeup of this race is three candidates. We have John Lam a Libertarian, and Ryan Zinky, who is the Republican nominee.

So the primary shows how disliked Ryan Zinky is. He has not lived in Montana for a long time. He lives in Santa Barbara. That's his primary home, that's where he pays taxes, and that's where he looks like he's from. There's that out of the primary. I came out of the Democratic side in a competitive primary where I was outspent and out fund raised by with sixty of the vote. Ryan Zinky came out of the Republican primary, which was hotly contested, with just about forty of the vote. So

sixty percent of Republicans do not like Ryan Zinky. We have a poll. We just did it. I'm happy to share it with you. His unfavorables are high and they are locked in. People do not like Ryan Zinky. Um, and that's what we're I am shocked. I am shocked because he did I mean, he did this thing which Sarah Palin did too, which was he left his congressional seat to theoretically run the Department of Interior. Yeah and so, and he just embarrassed Montana. He made a fool of himself.

And you know, he did these caricature things like, you know, putting the reel of his fly rod on backwards and riding a horse to work, which was just absolutely a joke. I mean, I grew up horseback riding. I grew up on a ranch in eastern Montana with my nine siblings. We came home from church on Sundays and went horseback riding. That's what we did. And for him to make a caricature of Montana is a joke. I mean, we have a proud history of really strong progressive thinkers, independent thinkers

from Antana. Mike Mansfield was the longest serving majority leader in our history. Um Lee Metcalf. Those two were instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Mike Mansfield put them directly on the Senate floor for action. Lee Metcalf was a parliamentarian who oversaw the debate for seventy five days of the Civil Rights Act. We have an awesome tradition of progressive thinkers in Montana. And Ryan Zinky is a joke and he's

an embarrassment. There is no place for him in this state. I'm just looking at US investigation finds a former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinky misused position to advance the development in his Montana hometown and failed to disclose his involvement when questioned by ethics officials. Right, that's from that's a February Inspector General report. Right, And in August there was a second one that came out, right, And there's also Trump

Intier Secretary cross Lines in Land dealing with Aliburton. Yeah, Watchdog finds that's another one. Here's a guide to eighteen federal investigations going into Ryan's Zinki. So, I mean, it's a pretty amazing guy to run against right, censorship and climate change report, all of those things are terrible, right, But here's very visceral. He took his after he was fired for lying and for ethics, violent relations and the Trump administration, which, right, by the way, is there's no

small feat. I mean, I don't even know. Yeah, it's almost impossible to get fired for athletics violations when ethics is not something you're interested in. Yeah. So he's flying around, he's doing fundraisers in Florida. He's using our tax dollars to fly to Florida and inn have added and all

over the place, using an utter of dollars. But here's this, this is something that to me, he after he got fired for ethics violations and the Trump administration, he continued to use his d o I identification and was caught with it at the airport six months after he quit, and then he had to turn in his identification to his lawyer. So I mean that to me is just this. He has no moral compass at all. He will do anything for money, anything. How do you win in Montana's

first district. It's retail politics. It is winning the way John Tester wins, the way branch whites are wins. You show up, you talk to people. I was in a parade in Dylan, Montana, which is Beaverhead County, the size of Connecticut, with a population of about nine hundred people, hundred voters, and I was shaking people's hands in the parade and I shook a guy's hand to had a mega hat on, and he said, you got my vote. Don't forget about us. You know. I got in Mineral County,

which is the county that borders Idaho. It's between Missoula and Idaho. I was out there and they said, you're the first Democrat who's come here maybe ever. I have a sign in Rika, which they've said they've never had a Democrat sign in that town before. Yeah, so I think it's it's showing up. It's showing that you care. I mean to me, I grew up in rural Montana. I get it. I know it. I had as many siblings as I did classmates when I was growing up,

and this is my home. It's what I know. And so when I'm campaigning in rural areas and people say, you know, don't forget about us. I know what that means, and I am totally convinced, and this election will prove me out. But I think people in rural Montana and rural America, they want somebody to be their champion. They want some time to show up for them. And we all want that, right Like, that's not different from our

urban areas. We all want them. The thing I think a lot about, especially in rural communities is the hospital problem. Right Like, there's a real hospital problem. I don't know how far you have to drive to get to a hospital, but I mean it's a real problem. And that's something that I feel like that's way for Democrats to win

in rural areas. So as illustrated specifically in a couple of instances where in places I visited, so Troy, Montana, which is up in the very northwest corner and fun fact, it's actually the lowest elevation in Montana, there is not as a there's not a place as a woman where you could get an annual check up, so which means that you couldn't get a prescription for birth control pill. You'd have to travel and you have to travel significant distances. Yeah,

so the other piece of that too. I mean you've identified distance, but we have to tribal nations which have in health services and so. And we also have, you know, our most significant minority population, our Native Americans, and once they come from the tribal nation into other areas like their urban centers, they don't automatically have healthcare that follows them, and so there are those issues as well, So healthcare

issues delivering it. In Montana, we have you know, I think fifties seven and fifty nine, I don't know the exact numbers, but something like that are critical access healthcare facilities. So you know they they are large distances. Um. And then I heard a story there was a motorcycle accident out on one of our highways and it took it was over an hour before the first responders arrived. So everybody being okay, but those you know, an hour is the difference between life and death. I also think the

tribal nations. I just want to get back into this because I spend a lot of time in New Mexico, so they really have shown up and delivered states to Democrats before. Yes, that population is a significant voting block and it's important that you know, we show up there

and I've certainly been working to do that. And I actually went to my early elementary education at St. Libray on the Cheyenne Nation in eastern Montana, and so I have some a perspective of life in you know, that world, and I know Republicans have been trying to make it harder for those people to vote in different ways identification laws, especially because a lot of the Indigenous people don't have those kind of identifications. Can you talk about that a

little bit. Yeah, So we actually have some really great voter protection laws which the legislature, our legislature meets every two years. Legislature really walked back a lot of the voter protections that we've had in place, and so they were there were some significant voter suppression laws passed and these those have been litigated and the Supreme Court of Montana just last week issued a decision um rejecting those laws as I'm constitutional. So right now, as we stand today,

we have good voter protection laws in place. Um, but you know that's always subject to change and confusion as a significant component of it too. So we you know, there's on again off again, on again, off again. But today for this election, right now we're able to do same day voter registration UM and and the you know, the voter options are still broadly protected in Montana. That's fantastic. Is it Ryan choice voting in your state? No, it's not.

But we do have a third party Canada, a libertarian. And so this we just did a poll. Like I said, there races within two points. Were super excited about that after getting my message out. Our poll shows that I'm up by seven and where people know me and they also know Ryan Zinkie, I'm up by twelve. So I you know, I grew up here. This is my home. I spent my entire career here standing up to our monopoly corporations and winning. I have ranch clients across the state.

This is the place that I've been in working for I've been in Montana working for Montana's, delivering from Montana's my entire professional career. I have nine siblings. Everywhere I go, people say, oh, I know your sister, I played basketball against your brother. You know I dated your brother or whatever. You know. This is my two sides, the dated the brother. This is my home, It's my only home. I don't have another one. I'm not going into in Santa Barbara, right. Yeah, Monica,

thank you so much for joining us. This is great. Yeah, thank you so much for everything you do. I love your podcast, love hearing everything you do, fun stuff. Thank you for making time for me, Molly, John Fast, Jessie Cannon, I heard Mr Trump sent a truth. Yes, I will now read to you a truth. Is the truth? Or is it a truth? Because there's many of them, and there's many truths Tonald Trump as many truths to drop.

Is McConnell approving all of these trillions of dollars worth of Democrats sponsored bills without even the slightest bit of negotiation because he hates Donald J. Trump and he knows I am strongly opposed to them. Or is he doing it because he believes in the fake and destructive Green New Deal, which, by the way, that's a blast from the past, and is willing to take the country down with him in any event. Either reason is unacceptable. He

has a capital letters death. Wisha. This is really weird. Wait, Jesse, is that Mitch McConnell entering the zoom room. Molly, let me tell you something. I'm curious outrage. I hardly. I'm I'm matter than a I'm matter than someone who finds out their first cousin can actually like safely bear their genetic load. I will tell you one thing. I'm so I'm so livid with Donald Trump right now. I'm saying these terrible racist things about my wife and claim and

I have a death wish. I'm so livid right now that I'm absolutely gonna support him is the nominee of the Republican Party. I'm absolutely so angry. My masculinity has been so deeply offended that I'll swear I will fight Donald Trump until we are down on the mat rolling around. And I I found it myself straightly aroused by the entire process. I refused. What's fan besmirks the honor of my beautiful wife.

And except in so far as I will cower like a like a frightened small mammal being chased across the plains of the of the Jurassic era by some sort of gigantic rep pile. But I find Rick Scott, it's enough of a red pile in my life already to complete these to ser I will look tolerate it, except in so far as I completely will thank you Old Crow. Certainly not Rick Wilson. He's a terrible human being who marks my accent, who marks my action and my and

my manliness every day. It's definitely not goodbye. I'm only Jessica call. 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.