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 GOP Congressman Klaigan says the FEDS are staging a civil war in Texas should stand their ground after the Supreme Court's ruling that the Biden administration and not Texas, has jurisdiction over border enforcement. We have
such an interesting show today. White host Press Secretary Kareeine Jean Pierre joins us to talk about the Biden Administration's achievements. Then we'll talk to Congressman Brendan Boyle about his unusual take on dealing with Speaker of the House, Mega Mike Johnson. But first we have the host of the focus group podcast, the publisher of the board, my friend, Sarah Longwell. Welcome back to Fast Politics.
Sarah Longwell, Molly Jock Fast.
What's happened you do these focus groups? I want to know what they're telling you. They are all so excited for Nicki Haley.
If only if only the centrist dreams of my heart were coming true and the Republican Party was abandoning Trump and going for that old school Paul Nikki Haley. But no, no, no, Mostly what we hear about Nikki Haley from folks is they don't trust her, which I don't know.
To me is always sort of well, I don't know, she's a uterus.
I shouldn't laugh, because this is how democracy dies. But it is kind of amazing.
Yeah, No, I mean, look, actually, i think there is a little bit of that.
And I've actually been shocked by how many people have said in the focus groups that they just don't see themselves voting for a woman. I mean genuinely surprised. Very little surprises me anymore, but I've been surprised by that. But actually, I think the main reason that she is not more of a fan favorite with these voters is that they don't like these pre Trump Republicans, and Nikki Haley to them represents a Republican party that they have come to not just a shoe, not just put aside,
but actively hate. Donald Trump really taught them to hate what they call, you know, establishment politicians, and she is to them the ultimate establishment politician. She is somebody who in an old Republican party, her foreign policy experience would be an asset, but here they see her as a warmonger.
You saw her.
She's had to come out and say to them, my husband's in the military, not a warmonger. I don't want people to go to war because my husband's But she has to defend herself against that because she's hearing it all the time, and you know, I just people say things like she'll be owned by corporate interests.
She's a rhino.
And I think it's nice that Nikki is the last person standing against Trump, but Desanta's dropping out this early, it's actually bad for her.
Vivid to the it's underappreciated. I think there was a for a long time.
People are like, well, the field needs to consolidate around somebody, And I think that would have been true if the field could have consolidated around DeSantis. But what's happening is the field is consolidating around Trump. Because if you add up Trump's polling DeSantis's polling, and like Vivagues, you get like eighty five percent of the party. Right, There's just not that many voters who want the old school kinds of Republicans. They they want Trump or somebody like Trump.
And I think that Nikki Haley and Mike Pence, Chris Christie and a lot of others, Maybe not Chris Christie, because I think he was more on a mission. But I do think a lot of these folks just misunderstand what's happened with the voters and they don't realize that the party that they thought they knew was gone. There's just not enough people to vote for Niki. He the reason that she's getting all this buzz in New Hampshire
is because there's a ton of undeclared voters. And look, when I've done focus groups with the undeclared voters who are going out to vote for Niki, they are MSNBC watching Democrats who are turning out, who are turning out to like vote against Trump, and they don't feel disgusting doing it for her in a way that they might have for DeSantis. But Desanta's is wrapping out like all that does, it's sending more. There's a reason that the and it's a reason the polling has started to divide again.
And you know she was running close there for a little bit, but now you know she's back down twenty points, and it's because the consolidation is helped Trump.
Yeah, that's a really good point, and it's funny because there's so many people in my life who I am socially friendly with. And this is purely anecdotal, so it should go in the New York Times. Is that they you know, they definitely are like secretly, you know, maybe they're Democrats, but they're secretly very optimistic about a Nicki Haley candidacy. And I'm like, you, guys, there is no mass where Nicki Haley can win this primary. And in fact, Trump has sort of raped this a little bit too.
He changed the rules, right.
Yeah, So there's a couple of things.
One, the rules were actually changed in twenty twelve in order to have a much more truncated primary, Like the Republican Party basically decided these protracted primaries are bad for us and so we don't want them, and so the rules were changed a long time ago. But then he and the RNC, and he's got a very talented campaign staff now in Susie Wilds, formerly of the Santus campaign, who hates around Asantis, so she went to work for Trump.
He really screwed up there.
Well, you know, you alienate like talented people, and like she decided that she hated him so much that she was going to go work for Donald Trump just to like end his political career, which he did. But they also, you know, they frontloaded a bunch of these states that are winner take all or winner take most, and so for people who love the drama of you know, a Super Tuesday and a long primary leading up to convention,
that is not what we're going to get. Now, maybe Nikkihilia has enough money to take a run at Trump, you know in South Carolina. She doesn't drop out right after New Hampshire. But I mean, when you get crushed in your home state, staying in, I mean, unless don't donors come to her and say, like, we really want to protract in primary and they give her enough money just to like run it out. I guess it's possible, but typically that is not how it works well.
And I want to ask you, like, is someone who all of us have faced the ire of MAGA before. It does seem to me it's it's scary to go against Trump. You have all of these Republican senators who have decided not to do this, right, almost all of the Republican Party has just been like, he'll go away if we close our eyes hard enough. So I mean doesn't she have some of that experience too.
I think so.
I mean, I think what's happening is she's not having that in New Hampshire, right, just because of the unique makeup of New Hampshire's voters and there's so many undeclared voters. So like Nikki Hay's walking down the street and people are like, hey, Nikki, and everywhere she goes.
There's cameras following her.
She's flanked by her work husband, Chris sa Nunu, and that I think feels good to her. I think when she goes back to her home state and people are like, why are you running against my man Trump? Get out of here, I think it becomes a less pleasant experience. I think that when it becomes unpleasant, the incentives for staying in start to diminish for her.
And then also there's like the security. Now, can you answer this question for me? Because one of the things that I've been struck by is it seems like the Trump base and again, this is polling. This is what I've read. I read something political about it today. It seems like the base has gotten smaller but harder.
Yeah, I think that's right.
There's a couple of things I always say to as like just truisms for how to understand what's happening to the Republican Party. One is sort of Trump owns the base, but the base is quite large in the sense that
it could win any primary. However, the gap between what that base wants, like what they demand, and what swing voters will tolerate, that GAP's gotten really wide, and so I think that there's an intensity to the base that's really high that allows him to him and his people to essentially win any Republican primary that they want, but it's getting harder and harder for them to win general elections because of how many voters they're alienating, people who
are sort of right leaning, independent, soft GOP voters, former moderates, people who liked Romney and John McCain, And so I do think that this is how it ends. People are always like, well, how are we gonna go back? How are we gonna save the Republican Party? And I think there's only one path, and it is sustained electoral defeat.
As the party continues to put up Trump and candidates like him, and only then only through sustained electoral defeat will there eventually be the right political incentives to reform itself.
Yeah, I mean, that seems to be the only way this goes. And the funny thing when I think about, like I was listening to Trump, It was listening to a clip of c Span. He was giving a speech in Iowa, and he said, and the next Senator of the state of Arizona Carrie Lay. And I was like, he doesn't even believe that. Yeah, she said she's still governor.
Yeah, I don't know how she runs for both positions at once. Really talented. Yeah, I don't think she's going to be the next senator. But look, I mean, I don't know if you remember Katie Hobbs, who she ran against for governor last time. Yeah, but God bless Katie Hobbs. But this is a negative charisma person who didn't run a particularly good campaign, and turnout in Arizona among Republicans
was quite high. A bunch of those Republicans voted for Katie Hobbs, the negative charisma democrat, over Carry Lake.
Because they knew what was at stinct.
Yeah, that's right. People know Carrie Lake is nuts.
And look, the fact is that, like I said, there's a big part of the party, big chunk that demands nuts, and then there are a bunch of swing of your voters who refuse to engage nuts, refuse to indulge it. That's what saves us time and time again. It saved us in eighteen, it saved us in twenty, and it saved us in twenty two, and now we got to do it again in twenty twenty four, and we're all more tired, and we're all more used to it all. It's not shocking or breathtaking anymore. It's all going to
be harder. But I do think that's what happened as long as the third party nonsense doesn't overtake us.
Yeah, exactly what you say, what you just said is what I say to everyone, is that ultimately we are in a situation where historically, and by historically I mean in the last eight years, not fourteen ninety two, historically voters have said, no, we don't want this. But that doesn't mean that if we are not vigilant in twenty four, I mean, he can win the electoral college. We've seen that happen before.
Totally. No Trump can absolutely win.
If no Labels runs a third party candidate, he.
Will certainly if there's a third party candidate, but also just if there's kind of, you know, a malaise that.
Overtakes people like in twenty six Yeah, where they're just.
Like, I don't know, I don't like Biden. I'm not doing it. I'm not going out there. But my big hope, not even just hope, that's sort of my expectation, is that local elections are really going to matter to young people. Abortion, there are a bunch of issues that these young voters care about. I think that nothing papers over the divisions
in the Democratic Party quite like Donald Trump. I think that people have forgotten what they hate about Donald Trump, and they're very focused on what they don't like about Joe Biden because he's the president. I'm one of the few people and I get yelled out at Twitter for this particular piece of analysis.
People don't like it.
But I actually think if look, if Trump's going to be the nominee, I think not having a protracted primary is fine. I think the sooner it's a contrast election between Trump and Biden, the faster Biden's numbers start to go up and voters re engage and we are reminded of what they don't like about Trump, and that starts to turn the vibes around, It starts to turn the negativity around around Biden.
Yeah, and one of the things I'm so struck by is that, I mean, if you were to pause for a second and just make this case. For Trump to win, he needs massive turnout of an electorate that only exists for him, right with these low frequency voters who maybe never voted. Right. The reason he won and the reason the polling was so off was because people voted for him who hadn't voted that's right, or voted once. So
it was a shifting electorate. So now here we are that electorate has to get out and in Iowa that is not what happened.
Yeah, I was tough, just I mean, so that is one hundred percent tro I am shocked by how small the turnout wasn't Iowa. It's just tough though, because both it was not a competitive race, right, so everyone knew Trump was going to run away with it. They were not excited by the Trump alternatives. I think this is like the under just underappreciated. They're like, why did Trump?
You know, why is Trump running away with it? And look, there's a lot of reasons that people are devoted to Trump, but like, also, you can't beat something with nothing, and nothing's what these other candidates were giving us.
And then it was cold as hey, you know, like it was like the coldest day ever.
And so I don't know, I don't know that I'll read so much into that, but I will be interested just generally if turnout and across the board and these primaries is way down. Although but it's again, it's gonna be trd because there's not a real race, so people are like it's Trump's.
Yeah, you know, I want you to talk about that, because that's one of the things I've been really struck by is like they never gave us and I'm not a Republican primary voter, so whatever, but they never gave any choices. There wasn't even jab right. There was never a world where the Republican governor who got in trouble for bridge Gate was going to be the nominee.
Yeah, this is right, And look he ran as kind of a kamikaze candidate to make the case against Trump, and I think that's fine. The big thing is that DeSantis kind of cleared the field early because everybody was like, this is going to be the guy, right, and so a bunch of other people didn't run that. I think we're looking at it. You're Tom Cotton's your Josh hawleies. Everyone was like, all right, DeSantis has got this. And then DeSantis both he was a bad candidate and he
had a bad strategy. The more people saw of him, the less that they liked him, and instead of you know, I don't know if I was on the show talking about this a year ago, I bet I was though about how many people who were kind of there was a chunk of move on from Trump voters in the Pulican primaries, and they were all very dasantis curious and as DeSantis, instead of trying to consolidate that group, he decided to wrestle Trump for his death cult of always
trumpers right, he alienated much like Trump did the move on from Trump voters because they didn't like six weeks abortion ban or his unwillingness to defend Ukraine, Like these were the people who wanted to get beyond that. And then on top of it, just like a black hole of charisma or like actively off putting and weird, and then Trump started attacking him, and like a lot of those people, the maybe trump ors whatever, they kind of just drifted back to Trump.
Well, I think he's he's the only one who could do it. He's the only one who's tough enough.
And like DeSantis, you cannot set expectations that you're a fighter and then like not fight, not fight for it. So it was never I don't know, I've been saying this now forever since Desanta's sort of got in, I was like, oh, it's over because he waited too long to get in, and once he did and you got any look at him, I was like listening to myself back in March of la We're on a debate and like it was like resolved, DeSantis will be the nominee, and I was like, I'm taking the opposite of that.
I'm taking the opposite. This guy's not doing.
It, like just even conventional wisdom wise, like he's wearing lifts. You know, there's so many reasons why in the television age, we don't nominate people like that. The moment I'll remember of Ron Desanta's on the campaign trail is a little girl is eating an icy at the Iowa State Fair and he says there's a lot of sugar in.
That totally normal, super fun guy. Yeah, wants to hang out, right.
I mean it was like imagine Donald Trump or any retail politician being like, that's too much sugar for you, little girl. I don't know.
I mean I remember when Donald Trump told the seven year old that Santa wasn't real.
So right, but like this is where this is where.
I mean, this is a thing.
I obviously find Trump repellent, but like there's a kind of charm that I think people find in Trump when he's doing things like that, because it's sort of funny, whereas DeSantis seems like a like a scold. Hey, but can I ask you something? You and I got in an argument at our New York show about like the Dysanti is more dangerous than Trump.
Yes, I still believe it.
Really, Can I tell you why?
Okay, So I know we did get into it. I mean it was, yes, yeah, okay, So this is why. Because policy wise, he's much much smarter and he's much more organized. Again, he's a terrible candidate, not charismatic, can't win,
thank god. But the anxiety I had was like, for example, in Florida and I've actually I was talking to Jason Stanley from Yale about this, and he was saying, like, one of the scarier things that Dissantis did was New College in Florida, because he took over an academic institution, and that was something that actually I had said. I was talking to another academic and I said, this is like,
so I'm getting over my skis here. I said, no other American president, presidential candidate, or governor, and he was like, no, Actually Nixon did that, so there is some history of that. But that scared me. And then also just the way in which he used his state as a lab. But the thing that scared me the most about DeSantis was
how virulently anti LGBTQ he was. I had a lot of anxiety that they might be able to make that a Republican issue or that because like those kind of things where we as a culture had won so many victories, that he might be able to start rolling those things back, which I mean, I think the Supreme Court would like to. But I was really gratified that that stuff didn't take off.
In fact, the opposite, which is that Congress codified it as a result of their people feeling like there was any threat to that at all.
But I still think he's smarter than Trump, and policy wise, he has you know, he's got that sort of heritage foundation.
This is just to me, not like I mean, this is the difference between I guess me being having spent my life as a Republican, like I don't know if he like cuts taxes too much or focuses too much on energy and ebends or even talks too much about sort of woke cultural policies. To me, this is like a lot different than Trump being like, oh, I'm not going to leave now, which I think is a real possibility in twenty twenty four.
Oh, no question, agreed. But I do think with DeSantis, like the stuff with the book banning like the Moms for Liberty, Like I know it was culture war stuff that he thought would help him, but it ultimately undermined so much of the public school system. I feel like that stuff that they do in the public schools with the anti trans stuff and then don't say gay stuff like and the book banning that to me is so insidious.
And maybe that's because I come, you know, my grandfather was jailed during the House on American Activities, So I do feel like when they start coming for the intellectuals. You know that you're in a lot of trouble. So maybe it's my own historical hysterical, you know, anxiety, but that always really worried me.
Yeah, and I guess I understand that like Trump, you know, Trump's like, hey, white sopremacist, let's have dinner.
Yeah. The one thing about Trump is that he has a lot of enforced errors.
Yeah.
Unfortunately so does DeSantis. So maybe it's you know.
We still hold our positions on that then, but I'm glad I wanted to check in.
I see your point, and we can we can be panicked about all of the people. Sarah Longwhile, I really appreciate you joining us so interesting, Thank you.
Thanks Molly.
Kareem. Jean Pierre is the White House Press Secretary. Welcome back to Fast Politics. What is your title as press secretary? Do people call you like madam secretary?
Now?
Right, it's so funny.
I have people who call me madam Press secretary, Madam secretary Press sec.
It is very very interesting.
There's got to be like a protocol, right.
I have no idea. If there is, I don't know what it is, but it's so it's actually really the secret Service guys call me press sec, which is actually really cute. It's funny at the same time. But I don't think there's a protocol. I'm just Koreed.
That fine.
With Koreed, I.
Do feel like I am informal, but I also want to be you know, respectful too, because you know, there's a lot of hard work that goes into getting these jobs. And I feel that way with members of Congress too, except Chip roy So and Louis Gomert, but he's not even in Congress anymore. Let's talk first about yesterday. It's fifty first anniversary of a right that is no longer
that was a constitutional right that women lost. Roe v. Wade talk to me about we never knew a pre Row world, but we do know a post Row world.
Yeah.
What we've been seeing since twenty twenty two, since the Supreme Court overturned Row is completely devastating and the impacts of a tax on women's freedom, it is just again devastating and quite unbelievable to the fact that we're here and we're seeing what it looks like to not have Row as a constitutional right, a constitutional law.
Is this a sad day?
It is truly a sad day. But what I'll say is this, the contrast between what we're seeing the Bien Harris administration and the Republican elected officials is so clear. Right we are standing the president, this president, President Biden and Vice President Harris, and this entire administration is standing with majority of Americans right. Majority of Americans want their
rights protected. Majority of Americans want to see women have the ability to make these really deeply difficult decisions on their bodies and medical decisions. Obviously, they want to see that. We saw that coming out of the mid term elections in twenty twenty two, we saw that coming out of the elections in twenty twenty three. That's what they want. And so Republican elected officials are standing against that. They're
not standing on the right side of history. And if you look at the statistics and the data of what we're seeing just across the country, you're looking at twenty one states have abortion bands. In effect, it affects twenty seven million women right of reproductive age right now who live in the states with abortion bands. You have nearly one in three women would need to be able to
travel in hour both ways to seek abortion care. You have over three hundred and eighty state bills restricting access to abortion care were introduced just last year Congression Republicans have introduced three national bands. And so these are extreme and these anti abortion extreme bands hurt women of color in particular. I'm sure we've talked about that. Moly, when you think about black and Indigenous women are already two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy related
causes that white women. You think about the six point five million Latinos, which is like forty two percent of all Latinas ages fifteen to forty nine live in those twenty six states. So it has all it has done is provided chaos and confusion across the country. It is incredibly dangerous. These warring stories about women who have a miscarriage. They're experiencing a miscarriage and they can't get the care that they need. They're turned away from emergency rooms, and
you know, they nearly die of blood loss. And so this should not be happening in America, but this is what's happening. This is what's happening in this country.
Yeah, so maternal fetal health for black women in this country, our numbers are embarrassing, I mean astonishing for an affluent country. I know that this has been something you've talked about. Vice President has talked about like the amount of like medical racism that is baked into the system is sort of shocking. I was wondering if you could talk about that for a minute.
Yeah, it is very high among women of color, black women in particular. You've seen Congress actually put a legislation to deal with this about two years ago, I believe. And so because this is such a huge issue.
So if you think about.
Those numbers were high before Row was overturned. Now you have a situation where Roe is overturned. So it's even more dangerous now for women of color. And so look, this is something as you mentioned. You know, the Vice President kicked off her tour on Reproductive Freedom's tours. She kicked it off in Wisconsin yesterday, which is kind of ground zero for the fight for reproductive freedom. And what's happening right now how that state legislature wants to push a pretty restrictive ban.
Will you talk our listeners through exactly what's happening in Wisconsin, because I think it's important. There are a lot of states where you have a democratic governor. So can you just Yeah, the machinations there.
Yeah, So I'll talk a little bit about that. But as I as I stated yesterday, she kicked off her she kicked off her tour in Wisconsin. She's going to be going to other states to really lift up what's going on posts Will Row and these attacks on women's women's right to make decisions, as we all know, on their own healthcare. So, following Dobbs, Republicans elected officials they fought and are continuing their fight right to enforce these
extreme abortion ban and that's what we're seeing. And so if you look at Wisconsin, these bands are from like eighteen forty nine and it includes no exceptions, including in cases of rape or incest. And so that's what the Vice President went to Wisconsin to talk about, these dangerous attempt to continue to curtail reproductive rights and how is it impacted patients women and also doctors. Let's not forget doctors are also being put in horrible positions because all
they're doing is trying to do their jobs. And so women in Wisconsin being forced to travel to different states for care, and clinics being forced to close their doors. And if you think about what Republicans did last week in the States, Republican officials they proposed another new abortion ban. So that's what the Vice President went to do in Wisconsin to highlight that, to take it directly, take it directly to the state legislature. And that's what we're seeing.
We're seeing that across the country because of what the Supreme Court did in twenty twenty two, because of how the extreme decision that they made to overturn Row. This is what we're seeing across the country. As I mentioned at the top, twenty one twenty one states.
Right, and the thing that I'm struck by is not just that, but it's much more dangerous to be pregnant in those states.
It is.
It's a lot more dangerous because you may not get the care that you need to save your life. Again, these are difficult, deeply, deeply personal, difficult decisions that women have to make. And I also want to add the President he brought together he convened his task force right after Roe was overturned. He put together a task force.
It was his fourth meeting with the task force that he did yesterday to talk about ways that we can continue to do what we can from the federal level to protect women's rights and women's women's right to make a decision on her own body. But look, the President has been very clear, the Vice President has been very clear. In order to make real change and to protect lives, we have to make sure that rose the law of the land. So Congress has to act. This is something
that Congress needs to take action to protect women. Again, majority of Americans, this is where majority of Americans stand. This is what they want to see.
Yeah, So tell us about that task force, who's on it, etc. And then also I want you to talk about there was a court ruling about doctors being allowed to perform emergency abortions, and then the Biden administration is trying to push back federally, which I think is really important and interesting.
Yeah, so a couple of things that the President was able to announce, took us some executive actions, and he took new actions yesterday. Is trying to see what we can do right to make sure that we protect these
women legally and these doctors. And so you have doj who actually you know, are handling those pieces as I mentioned, when when they are in a state where they can't have an abortion and they go to another state, there could be legal ramifications for them, and so the Department of Justice is some thing under the direction of this president is certainly helping in that way. And so we're going to continue to make sure that women receive the medical care that they need in an emergency such as
a miscarriage. You heard me talk about the horroring stories that we've heard from women about that We're going to defend access to safe and effective medication abortion. So that's really important that something that the President is doing, you know with HHS. Obviously expand access to affordable contraception, another thing that the Department of HIHS is doing, and then
also strengthen privacy protections for patients and doctors. So those are the many ways that the President is zeroed in on on making sure that we protect We do everything that we can to ensure that we protect women and their freedoms to make these decisions and trying to figure out they how are they going to protect their own health and so that's what the President has been doing and that's part of what the Task Force is doing
as well. This is the different parts of what the task Force talks about and try to figure out, Okay, what else can we be doing to really assist women across the country.
Yeah, it's really important. And it's also because we have this very conservative a Supreme core. It really is like an added tension, right because they still have this methapristone case on the docket.
Exactly. No, that's exactly right. And let's not forget Mallie. The overturning of Roe was just the tip of the iceberg.
Right.
If you think about what Thomas said, you know, there are other rights and freedoms that they want to zero in on, and so that is really important that the American public understands like this is just the tip of the iceberg. And so we have to be really clear about what's what's ahead of us here. And when you talk about majority of Americans saying, hey, we don't want that. You don't want a freedoms to be attacked. We want to have our freedoms. We want our freedoms to be protected.
That's what the president is talking about, right, That's what the President wants to do. He wants to make sure that we're protecting those freedoms, not just for women, and obviously that's really important as we talk about role here, but for everyone else.
So you guys are a very like loan drama white house.
Right, That's right.
It's mostly a criticism I hear lobbed at this white House is like there's not a lot of turnover. A lot of the stuff you read, it's sort of like, you know, there's a lot of like innuendo and gossip, but at the end of the day, it's about things that aren't even that salacious. So why do you think A that you, Chris are such a low drama white house and b why people seem mad at you for it?
I'll say this, when the president walked into this administration, let's not forget what she was dealing with. He was dealing with multiple crises. There was the pandemic, right that was killing thousands of people a day when he walked into this administration. So he had to put together a comprehensive plan to deal with a strategy to deal with COVID and making sure people were getting shots, making sure people are getting masks, making sure people were getting the
basic needs, just to make it through the pandemic. And why did he have to do that because the last president didn't put together a comprehensive plan. So that was one crisis. The economy was on a tail spin, right. We had to deal racial inequality. There was climate change. Now, if you look at all of those crises that I just named were coming out of the pandemic. Why because the President took that very seriously and knew that he had a job to do. You look at the economy.
The economy is strong right now. It is strong when you think about unemployment at four percent, creating fourteen million jobs in his first two to three years of this administration, more than fourteen million job. You think about wages have risen faster than inflation for ten months in a row. You think about all of those things, and consumer sentiment is high. That's because of the work that this president has done climate change. He has taken more bold progressive
action than any other president on climate change. And we're going to continue to make a big, bold announcement on how we're going to make sure we protect our climate here racial inequality. The first couple of days of this administration, he made sure he signed an executive order for all the agencies to look at how can we really deal with racial inequality in these agencies, to do a real
policy review on how agencies are working through that. Look, there's always a lot more work to do, always, and the President understands that, and so he's going to continue to do that. Right right now, we continue to talk about the economy, building an economy from the bottom up, biddled out, making sure that we leave no one behind, making sure we continue to lower cost for Americans. So that's what the President understood.
Ray.
He understood that there was a crisis happening. He didn't have to run for president. He didn't have to, but he understood where the country was at the time. He understood that we needed to save the soul of this nation. After what he saw at Charlottesville, he decided, I'm going to run and I'm going to try to make a difference and do the work that needs to be done, you know, because he believes this country is so great,
and it is great. And so look, this is a president who was centered for thirty six years.
Thirty million years.
Yes, he was been vice president for eight years, and he has the experience. He understands how this town works. He understands what the American people are talking about around the kitchen table because he's been there when he was growing up in the middle class middle class, working class family, and he gets it. He gets it, and so he's going to take this very seriously because of what we're dealing with as a country and in the world.
So let's talk about the economics. Soft landing. We had inflation, it was still lower than a lot of countries. One of my great joys in life has been going on GV News and gb News. Is this like terrible right wing station that was created to protect Brexit, you know, brexoneers owned by the Murdocks, of course, going on and saying like, you guys sanctioned yourselves, which by the way, they hate it, and you say that, but it is true. But there has been much softer landing here, almost miraculous.
Why do you think that the Biden administration gets so I mean this morning, I don't know if you saw the New York Times, perhaps you've heard of it. I have to read you this headline, and you tell me if this is not slightly shocking. Biden can't bank on good economic sentiment.
The President is going to continue to do what he's been doing, which is talked directly to the American people about what we have been able to do as an administration and how we have been able to deliver on the most important issues that they have, right, and the economy is a big one. I mean, the fact is inflation has fallen by two thirds. That's the fact. Let's not forget. There were predictions, prediction after prediction after prediction
that there was going to be a recession. And what the President was able to do is he helped maintain a strong job market as inflation fell. And we're going to do the contrast right while we got to do the contrast right, while we're trying to make sure we're create eating, good paying jobs. And we're doing that because of the policies that this president has put forward, because of the Inflation Reduction Act, because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Deal live. And let's not forget I send bipartisan that in that word, right, because this is a president who knows how to bring the other side and get things done. Because of the chips and science ac right, we're able to bring manufacturing jobs back at all of these things that I'm talking about. That is really very much part of the reason we're seeing an economy that is much stronger.
And meanwhile, on the other side, congressional Republicans they don't have a plan to lower cost You know, Maganomics fails middle class, right. They want to do Google ways for wealthy and big corporations. They want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. I want to bring you back to the State of the Union of twenty twenty three when the President called them out during his speech and he got them to
basically back off. Right, this is congressional Republicans and it was one of the best moments during that speech.
Another thing they want to do.
They want to raise costs on family to think about healthcare to utility bills.
That's what they want to do.
The Inflation Reduction Act that I just mentioned. Only Democrats voted for that, and that piece of legislation alone is going to have the most effect on climate change, fighting climate change and healthcare, fighting big farmers.
So that medicaids do two seconds on the insulin because Biden did the thirty five dollars insulin and then didn't get credit for it because the drug companies were like, we are lowering into thirty five dollars and I was like, wait, where have I heard that before? So let's explain that.
Yeah, And they did that because of the Inflation Reduction Act. They were called out right. They knew once the Inflation Reduction Act was passed that now the President had the ability to indeed fight Big Fama right and give the ability to Medicaid to really look at those look at those certain drug costs, drug prices and lower them, right, actually negotiate to lower those prices. And insulin. Can you
think about insulin for seniors. Seniors were paying hundreds of dollars, more than two hundred bucks a month a seniors were paying on insulin. Now it's capped at thirty five bucks.
And you're right, the.
Big Farmer was looking at that and they were like, Okay, now we're going to do thirty five bucks, not just not just on insulin for seniors, but for everyone. That's this president. That is because of this president. And can you imagine that no Republican voted to have insulin capped at thirty five bucks for seniors. Not one Republican voted
for that, not one. And so you know this is Look, you know, we're going to try and do everything that we can to speak directly to the American people to make sure our message is clear and so that they know what this President has done because all of these issues that I just talked about, these are issues that the American people overwhelmingly care about. Whether it's healthcare, whether it's climate right, whether it's infrastructure, whether it's good paying jobs.
Obviously bringing manufacturer, but these are things that they overwhelmingly care about, and so we are meeting those needs. And we're going to continue to do that. This president is not going to stop.
Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate you. I'm really god that you came on.
Thanks. Welcome.
Congressman Brendan Boyle represents Pennsylvania's second district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Representative Boil.
Great to be with you, Molly.
You're a fancy congressman, but not necessarily a famous congressman.
I'm definitely not famous.
I think everyone who knows me would dispute the fancy part. But you know, I kind of have the best of both worlds. I've been in Congress. This is the beginning of my tenth year, able to work on some important issues, and yet at the same time, you know, I put on an eagle shirt and a hat and go fill up my gas and my constituents know me. But otherwise I can be pretty anonymous. So I really do have the best of both worlds.
You're a ranking member of Budget, which, considering that you are actually eleven years old, is pretty amazing. You're actually not younger than Jesse and I, which is why you're allowed on this podcast. But you look very young.
I look older on radio and look even older on podcast. But yeah, so, as we were figuring out, we're the same age, born in the same year, which for congressional terms makes you very very young.
But being forty six.
And already being in leadership, being a ranking member hopefully after November, being chair of the Budget Committee, it's a great position to be in.
And I'm excited about what.
Really post November could potentially bring with Democrats in charge.
So I just want to correct the record here. I'm just turned forty five, so we are actually not the same.
For Jimmy, that's right, I apologize more importantly.
But no, so let's talk about what is happening in the United States House of Representatives right now. So, first of all, Republicans have what is the majority now? Is it one seat?
So at the moment, Republicans could only afford to lose two Republican members voting with Democrats because they've lost three members. Kevin McCarthy, after he was booted out, he decided to quit.
Can you imagine how mad he would have to be? Too endangering majority like that?
Yeah, I mean, well, it's very true to who Kevin is that he would take his ball and go home once he was voted out.
So that's one seat.
Then George Santos obviously was booted out, left involuntarily, and then a third Republican member just resigned this past week to take a different job.
So with those three seats they are down. Essentially they have an.
Only breathing room of being able to lose two Republican members. And at the moment, Steve Scalise unfortunately is having cancer treatment and so they don't have him to vote as well. So I mean, functionally speak, well, this has been a very dysfunctional House Republican leadership. The reality is their actual majority closely as zero.
Yeah, luckily they are a well oiled machine. Just being ironic here, I see two things on the horizon here in the Senate. One is this tax bill, which, by the way, I've been hearing about this tax bill for a long time because full disclosure I actually had dinner with Senator Widen a while ago. I was at a dinner with him, and they have been working on this
tax plan for a long time. It would bring back probably the single most progressive piece of tax legislation ever, the child tax Credit, which lifted children out of poverty, which if you're a human and you want children to not starve, it's a pretty amazing little bit of legislation. That bill will now probably come to the House of Representatives right.
This bill was marked up by the Ways and Means Committee last week. It is unclear at the moment what Speaker Johnson is going to do. Like so many different issues, we are constantly hamstrung by the fact you have Republican leaders who are afraid of their own voters, and so there's a real question whether Mike Johnson will put this bill on the floor ultimately, though I think it's more
likely than not. And the reality is one of the most important things that House Democrats and Senate Democrats achieved coming out of COVID was the expanded child tax credit. A forty six percent reduction in child poverty in one year.
Just absolutely remarkable.
What expanding the child tax credit did, and the fact that it was that expansion was allowed to lapse, I think is unconscionable. So to me, this is really one of the most important things that the government can do, and so I'm hopeful that we will be able to get it done. But the caveat is we're in such a dysfunctional House of Representatives because the rasiest ten members or so of the Republican Conference is really running the show.
Yeah, could this bill come to the floor and could Democrats whip the vote and get this passed?
Oh, there's no question that if this bill is going to pass, it will require more Democratic votes than Republican votes. Really, for anything substantively to get done in Congress, even with
Republicans supposedly in charge, it has taken Democratic votes. Whether it's raised the debt ceiling, whether it's to keep the government funded, and the lights on, whether it would be to expand the child tax credit, it always requires Democratic votes because the Republicans aren't able to actually forge a majority for any sort of policy whatsoever.
Right because they don't really want to govern.
They have no agenda.
I mean, one of the funniest jokes in Washington was someone asked me about met Gates's legislative agenda, there is none. It's all about owning the Libs. It's about beating up on woke. It's about bending down and kissing Trump's ass. That is what the Republican Party is about today. There is no legislative agenda. I mean, if you talk to people like Marjorie Taylor, I can't imagine you're going to Marjorie Taylor breenal the podcast.
Yes, she's coming on next week, so that's next week's show.
But if you did and you asked her what the legislative agenda was, you would get no response that that's not why they're there.
So talk to me about this border immigration bill that may or may not happen. What is in it? Will it to pass? Does it help Republicans? Could it help Biden an election year? Sort of talk us through and what's in it?
Yeah, So unfortunately this is a big unknown at the moment. The action on this is happening at the Senate. There our negotiation going on between a few Senate Democrats and a few Senate Republicans that would essentially be an all of the above approach that would include funding for Ukraine, israel iwan as, well as a beefed up southern border
and possibly some asylum law changes as well. There's a lot uncertain though, and you know, on the House side, I think there is a certain degree of nervousness in terms of what exactly is being talked about. The reality is there is no agreement at the moment. This is really drifting on for months, And speaking for myself as someone who's a passionate supporter in Ukraine's fight for freedom and believes that if.
We were to abandon them it would be one.
Of the greatest mistakes in US foreign policy history, I do think that this goes on another couple weeks. We really need to start thinking about what Plan B is as opposed to the current or and.
The Biden administration go around Congress.
Well, I mean, we do see in other sort of weapons shipments that there is some ability to go around Congress. Now at the kind of scale that is needed to help the Ukrainians, probably not. And you know, speaking as a member of Congress, I don't necessarily advocate for going around what is literally the first Article of the Constitution, So it's not something I would necessarily advocate for. But
the reality is, again we're into late January. Now, this can't drift on forever while the Senate sits around negotiating with itself.
At some point we do need to move forward.
And I'm someone who is talking to other members about what a possible plan be could look like for you, Frand.
It is so interesting to me with this very slim majority. I know a lot of members of Congress I've talked to. While Mike Johnson's views are very extreme, they find him to be actually pretty affable guy. I have a question, which is, like, it seems to me from everything I've read.
I'm not a member of Congress, i haven't been to DC in like a month, but it seems like the sense I get from everything I read and everything I listened to is that Mike Johnson is actually more open to making a deal than Kevin McCarthy was.
You know, I have a kind of a counter intuitive or maybe contrarian take when it comes to Mike Johnson. I've always felt that it would be a lot easier to deal with him than it would be Kevin McCarthy. Kevin was constantly, you know, looking over his shoulder. He was deeply distrusted and disliked by a number of House Republicans.
I feel like for Mike Johnson coming out of the Freedom Caucus, he has more credibility and it's easier for him to reach an agreement with us and make a compromise than Kevin Karthy, who was, you know, walking on eggshells from the moment he won on the fifteenth ballot
last January to get the job. So, you know, I know there are some House Democrats that might and some analysts who might disagree with me on that, but at least for the short term, I think that Mike Johnson actually gives us more of a chance to reach an agreement. There's also the reality that you know, they followed through. They made the threat, and they filed through on it. They filed the motion to vacate the chair. It happened. Are they really going to go to that just a
couple months later. I'm doubtful of that. So that's another reason why Mike Johnson has a little more latitude than Kevin McCarthy ever did.
Yeah, and it does seem to me, I mean, it seems clear that he feels that when he negotiates. I also think that ultimately Kevin McCarthy really did he made this. There was this sort of like he would say, well, you know, I'm a good guy and I'm here to sort of work things out. But then he started impeachment hearings. He did a bunch of stuff that was really not
the kind of stuff a good guy does. The idea that there's an impeachment going for vibes is kind of nuts, right, Like you have to have something to impeach the guy.
On Yeah, I call it this Seinfeld impeachment. Seinfelder was supposed to be a show about nothing. This is the impeachment about nothing, literally nothing, just to do it because it's one of the few things that you can get most House Republicans to agree on. But you know, I'll say this about Kevin McCarthy. The reality is, when the history of this era is written, no single person did more to enable Donald Trump.
Thank Kevin McCarthy.
You're talking about that mar Lago trip.
Absolutely Ultimately, one of the first lines of his oh bit will be Kevin McCarthy knowing better, constantly and consistently enabled the worst excesses of Donald Trump. And you know, say what you will about Mitch McConnell, but at least on January sixth, Even before the riot, McConnell stood up to Trump, and McConnell made a great mistake by not finishing him off when he could have gotten the ten
additional votes on the impeachment conviction. But nonetheless, there have been times when McConnell at least had stood up to Trump. Not once ever did Kevin McCarthy stand up to Trump.
Yeah, that's right. Coming into this election cycle, a lot of the more normal Republicans are leaving, both of them. I'm thinking. I'm thinking about, you know, the Speaker pro Templar mckenry, the kind of people who you know, took their job seriously, may not have believed what we believed, but were quiet servants of the government.
What happens now, Yeah, Unfortunately on the Republican side, it's the wrong people who are leaving. You know, the kind of people who are leaving were inventional conservatives, Republicans pre Trump, as we've seen in this era. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't have the will to fight, they recognize, and we're seeing this playout obviously in the primaries as well.
The pre Trump Republican party is long gone.
It is dead, and so what you see is that the members who want to stick around on the Republican side are the performance artists. They're the people who who love the chaos and the craziness, and people who are more substantive, like McHenry have decided to leave and do something more lucrative in the private sector.
So I am moving forward.
I am concerned about the House of Representatives unless Democrats are in charge. When we're in charge, even with a small majority, we're able to pass big, meaningful pieces of legislation like we did last term. If we're not in charge, it'll be more chaos and confusion.
What do you think sort of their argument is like, there are so many seats where Republicans sort of we're able to you know, I'm thinking of Mike Lawler in New York. I'm thinking of d Esposito in New York. I'm thinking about the special for Santos's seat that's happening right now. The seats in California, for example, the Palm Spring seat is up where my dad lives.
Spoiler.
A lot of these Republicans have had to vote on legislation that is cutting the federal government by thirty percent, stuff like that. I mean, do you think Democrats will be able to be organized enough to use that stuff to run against them. Do you think it will matter with swing voters?
Well, I mean, the presidential race is certainly, as usual, going to dominate the attention. But the reality is, if you're a Mike Lawler, one of those House Republicans, what exactly do you have to run on? There is literally nothing best Republican majority has achieved. They have been known from the very first day for constant in fighting and function. So saw an article just a few days ago where a couple of House Republicans apparently were out loud saying what I just said.
One of them called it embarrassing. They're right.
So I think they're going to have a really tough time come November because unlike two years ago when House Democrats who were in challenging seats had things that we could talk about, on the Republican side, there is really nothing.
They will be able to point to that they achieved.
All they will really be able to do is engage in fear mongering about the border and the sort of you know, issues that really adamate the Republican base.
It's funny because it's like it's not funny, but inflation, the murder rates down, inflations down, the economic indicators are better. So it's going to be caravan time ifox news.
Yeah, you know. The good news is that we've had election after election in which the caravan type campaign has proven unsuccessful. The border as laid has become obviously more of a real and serious issue, but the sort of hype and fear mongering that Republicans have done on it historically has actually not really succeeded for them. I mean,
they lost the twenty eighteen House elections badly. They won more seats in twenty twenty, but still lost the majority in twenty twenty two in a midterm election in which on average they should have picked up a couple dozen seats, they only won in the high single digits and left them with such a small majority.
And the reality is.
They're also going to have to be talking about the possibility of a national abortion band in this post.
Dobbs reality.
So, frankly, when I look at the White House, when I look at the Senate, when I look at the House, the elections that I'm the most optimistic about from a Democratic perspective are the House elections.
Yeah, thank you, Representative.
Boyle, great being on thank you.
They no moment Secon.
Jesse Canon, Mali Jong Fasta, did not take a crystal ball to know that Donald Trump.
Was going to win New Hampshire tonight. And all these people saying Nikki Hlly was going to do it or.
Not right, but he lost Dixville, Notch oh Man.
Damn, that's where all my money was.
Donald J. Trump. He may have won the great state of New Hampshire by totally dominating the primary and making all the other Republicans afraid to go against him, but he did not win the hearts of the people of Dixville, Notch all seven voters. They voted for Nicki Haley and for that, Donald J. Trump winning a second state in the twenty fucking four Republican primary is our moment. A fuck Gray. 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.