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 Donald Trump campaign manager Chris la Savita is trying to swift vote Governor Tim Walls, just like he swift voted presidential candidate John Carey. We have such a great show for you today. Fred Trump, who is Donald Trump's nephew, stops by to talk about his new book All in the Family, The Trumps and how
we got this way. Then we'll talk to former Olympian Monica Trenell, who is a candidate in Montana's first district against Ryan Zinki. But first we at the host of the Mary Trump Show, the One the Only Mary Trump. Welcome back to Fast Politics. My friend really like a person. I just really adore Mary Trump.
Hey, Molly, you know what, You're awesome. And what's also awesome is that we're having a conversation and it's time when things don't feel so apocalyptic.
I feel like there are some people who will be okay no matter what. I am not one of those people.
Like that's right.
You know.
I say this every time you come on, but it's because it really informs some of the questions I ask you, and I feel like listeners should remember these two things. You are very steeped in psychology and you have a degree in that, and you understand motivations and the psychological machinations behind the scenes. And you happen to be the niece of a guy that we've spent the last eight
years having to deal with. So in that way, you have absolutely the most unique perspective of almost anyone this cycle. And unfortunately for you, every cycle has spends twenty fucking sixteen.
So where is he now? Well, where's Waldo of American politics? Seeps to have disappeared from the patrol. This might sound like a weird thing to say, because he's obviously been on very stressful situations before, Like the second he got into the White House, you know, he was overwhelmed and out of his depths. Now, however, there is so much that he's dealing with that he can't handle, and it's all in terms that he actually understands and that resonate
with him. He's been overshadowed, he's out of the news cycle, and he can't compete in terms of crowd sizes like those are the things that matter to him, and for the first time, maybe ever in his career as a politician, he's not measuring up and there's literally nothing he can
do about it. You know, you know you're in trouble when the only headline you've gotten in the last week is Trump's complaining about his camp pain and doesn't know how to adjust to the fact that he has a new competitor who's twenty years younger than he is.
Yeah, it's funny because it's like so much of his psychology, so much of his gestalt, so much of his you know, makeup, is this like you know, when you start to trading up spouses right for a younger model, trading up you know, the sort of like getting on television, juicing the news cycle, and now all of a sudden you see him not knowing how to win, but also not being able to take over the news cycle again.
And this is just sort of his arrogance.
And let's face it, like Adnald had every expectation to think that he could do whatever he wanted and he would be fine in pretty much any area of his life, but even in terms of the campaign, because corpora media coverage has been so abysmal and so broke him. So you know, he and his campaign had strategies that only with the individual they are running against. No, it's a policy free campaign. It was all about Joe Biden's being old.
He picked JD. Vance, who did nothing to expand the electoral map for them because JD Vance was obviously willing to subjugate himself to Donald and humiliate himself in service to Donald. But because he had the same kinds of grievances and the same anger and misogyny and racism, right, he can't adapt because picking Vance kind of shrunk his campaign. Then when it was Kamala Harris not Joe Biden, he
literally was called completely flat footed. He hasn't been able to adjust, none of his attacks or saying you know, when you're your line of attack is to mispronounce somebody's name, you're basically letting everybody know that you don't realize that
prepbescent white boys can't vote. He literally can't get out of his own way, I say with glee, and it's a self reinforcing cycle of doo because the only thing he has to offer also then becomes the only way he can see out of this, which is to get angrier more aggrieved and more vicious in his attacks, and we've already seen the limits in that, so it's not going to end well for him. I'm very curious to see what happens at this press conference.
Yeah, you know me too. I think there's going to be a swift Boat Veterans for Change kind of thing, because remember that swift boat Veterans worked on John carry even though John Carrey had three purple hearts or some crazy I think it was three purple hearts, but that was Chris la Savita, who is now running Trump's campaign,
so you could see where that would be. What we see with Trump is that he had success in twenty sixteen and since then he has pretty much used that same playbook, say something ray assistant, inflammatory, dominate the news cycle,
appeal to the base. When we look at dominating the news cycle and appealing to the basse, we are able to see that that is what he did with the Black Journalists Association, the Association of Black Journalists is he felt he was slipping out of the news cycle and he used this racist attack and I think he thought, just like with Jade Van Sid it would galvanize the bass. But instead Harris was much more like Obama and able to just shut it down in two lines.
Yeah.
First of all, the role out of her compan has been utterly impeccable in terms of the coalescing of the Democratic coalition choosing Timboles, and she's not going to play by Donald joules. And while he can't define her, she's already defined herself right, And that's something else he can handle.
Because as mightily as say the New York Times, for example, is trying to help him, they can't get a handle on it either, because there's nothing to attack here, like there really isn't, And I think adding walls makes it even harder for them. What I like seeing about the Democrats, and again this box is donalded even further is they're willing to go low, but they're also not willing to
get tangled up in the narrative of Donald's creating. And it's quite right brilliant, and it also exposes in a way it never has been before to people I guess who are paying attention. It shows that he's incapable of leading because he's unable to adjust to changing circumstances on the ground, to the point that he's pretending that Joe Biden wants to jump back into the race.
Yeah, I think that's right.
He is now trying to dominate the news cycle with something right to do a presser, and I think that he does want to keep going, you know, just to
keep getting his name out. You know, he got over the finish line in twenty sixteen and even in twenty twenty with these voters who don't vote right, these low propensity voters, and so those voters nobody really knows who they are, right because they are not what studied in politics, And so in his mind, he does still probably feel that there are these hidden Trump voters who will come out for him if only he can, you know, say enough racist stuff.
Yeah.
And the thing is that we know this culturally that in any society there's you know, maybe twenty eight percent of the population that's you know, has authoritarian personality that is sort of the worst of the worst. That's the Republican base, and they are as motivated as they can be. He he'll keep trying to motivate them more, but they can only vote once. And I don't think his support
among them has wavered. And I don't think there is you know, some hidden cash of them anywhere, And you're right, the undecided voters.
Who knows.
I don't even think that that's where the contest is. It's the contest is in the voters who seems still to think that there's no real difference between the two parties and they'll just vote based on last minute vibes. I guess I'm not really sure it's not playing for them because he doesn't understand that his brand of politic
has very limited appeal. I think he's also probably counting on because this is a guy who is incapable of admitting he lost to the extent that he's still lying about the twenty twenty election, and he believes that he deserves to win always, So therefore it's totally legitimate to lie, cheat,
and steel to get the win because he deserves it. Right, So he's banking on some combination of gerrymandering, voter suppression, and voter subversion, and having in place things like false electors and corrupt secretaries of stick to come in at the last minute and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Yeah, there certainly is a big movement among Trump world that the only appropriate answer to any of this is to cheat, right, I mean, that's the message that they're tacitly or not so tacitly. The idea is that they're going to cheat, so you should cheat too, which is in fact, we all know the Democrats did not cheat, that Trump really did lose the twenty twenty election. And I think that's what we're seeing, right.
Yeah, I don't think it's tacit at all.
And that's maybe the only good side of the fact that for years now Donald has been given permission to get away with everything. You know, this is somebody who pushes the envelope, waits to see if it worked. If it does, he keeps pushing the envelope. Most of the time. He gets away with it thanks to you know, the corrupt, illegitimate supermajority in the Supreme Court, or thanks to a Republican party that has gone all in on this trader.
He doesn't feel the need anymore to be circumspect, not to the extent that he ever was, you know, and you see this also with his surrogates. They don't see the need to moderate their commentary. So the good news for us is that means it's much more obvious what's going on. And we can be much more prepared. We know that there is preparation in the event that there is a fake elector scheme, or in the event that people on the right are trying to interfere with elections at a local level.
So I think that's good.
The more we know about what they're thinking, the better we are to prepare.
Yeah, I think that's true. What do you think he's going to do now?
I think he's going to do what he always does. He's going to double down.
This is somebody who's absolutely incapable of synthesizing information and analyzing it and coming to conclusions about things. He believes that he's great, right, so he's great. Why does he need to change anything. He's somebody with no self awareness and no capacity to course correct, because what does it mean if you have to course correct, It means that you were wrong about something, So he can't be wrong. It's what mature, intelligent people do.
You know.
They look at the facts on the ground, they analyze them. They see, oh, well, you know what, maybe I was wrong about COVID being like the flu, So now I need to do X, Y or Z. He can't do any of that. He can't admit that he made a mistake in picking events. He can't admit that it's a problem. If your entire campaign is centered arounded individual who is no longer in the race.
Right, could be a problem.
He's going to go with his greatest hits.
Right.
It's funny because it's like there is this interesting thing where he can't adapt, and then he got so much free media on that insanity and twenty sixteen, and it's like it really is like an itch. He can't stop scratching. But if you like, go back and sort of unpeel, it was that we in American media had never seen anyone run for office who was so blatantly racist. I think there was so much legitimate shock by that, But now he's almost immunized us.
I think corpora media takes a lot of the blame for that because they've normalized this stuff. I mean, we're basically, you know, the implicit and sometimes explicit message is, well, we already knew this about him, so it's all baked in well, you know. I mean, I don't think you say that, hey, we already knew Ted Bundy was the serial killers, so we don't need to take note if he kills another person. That's insane. It's absolutely insane that his behaviors, which are egregious.
Has become so normalized. Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
Yeah, racism, mistogyny, treason, stealing classified documents, inciting it, insurrection, it's absolutely insane. He's an adjudicated rapist. So to be told that it's baked in and it doesn't matter, it's such an abdication of journalistic responsibility. I can't quite wrap my head around it. And it just shows us that many in the media have learned nothing. We can't pretend anymore that it's just it's so shocking that we can't.
We can't grapple with it. It's been eight years now, it's probably been more like ten years.
Now. What else is it going to take?
The problem is I don't think there's anything that will shape the media out of its corpor I really don't. I think, honestly, the only thing that would get the media to pay attention is if Donald actually did something, as you said earlier, presidential but he's incapable of doing it.
Right now now.
I just thought this peace Trump can only be Trump this week, and the media did set up this axios in fact, had this whole thing like a being shot and the face change is a man.
And then he was like.
They say it's changed me, but maybe I've gotten worse. Yeah, And it was like, come on, man, you had this opportunity. Everybody in the world just wants you to pretend to be normal, and he couldn't do it.
No, that's exactly it. He's exactly who he presents himself to be. The fascting part to me is that he's nothing he claims to be, so like that's the tension, but there's no version of himself. Donald Trump is all false self, right, He's the same person in any context, which is a serious red flip.
It's true.
I mean, I think you can be the same person at any context if you're normal. But the sort of weird, narcissistic insanity that he practices, he manages to be that way everywhere and all the time.
Yeah, I mean, I guess I should be more clear. What I mean is that when you treat strangers or you know, your buddies or your political allies, for the people you're allegedly most intimate with, the same way, that's weird. Yeah, Like that's really dysfunctional. I don't mean like he has the same core self. He has no cour self, which is part of the problem.
Yeah, and no values are no morals. Mary Trump Trum for joining us.
You're the vast Thank you so much for having me. I love chatting with you.
We have even more tour dates for you. Did you know the Lincoln projects Rick Wills that have Fast Politics, BOLEI jug Fast are heading out on tour to bring you a night of laughs for our dark political landscape. Join us on August twenty sixth at San Francisco at the Swedish American Hall, or in la on August twenty seventh at the Regent Theater. Then we're headed to the Midwest. We'll be at the Bavarium in Milwaukee on the twenty first of September, and on the twenty second we'll be
in Chicago a City Winery. Then we're going to hit the East coast. On September thirtieth, we'll be in Boston at Arts at the Armory. On the first of October, we'll be in Affiliate City Winery, and then DC on the second at the Miracle Theater. And today we just announced that we'll be in New York on the fourteenth of October at City Winery. If you need to laugh as we get through this election and hopefully never hear from a guy who lives in a golf club again,
we got you covered. Join us in our surprise guests to help you laugh instead of cry your way through this election season and give you the inside analysis of what's really going on right now. Buy your tickets now by heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as Unusual dot bio.
Fred Trump is the author of All in the Family, The Trumps and How We Got this Way.
Welcome too Fast, Politics, Fred Trump.
Thank you, Molly, it's great to be here.
Your sister wrote a memoir. You've really stayed out of the public eye.
What changed well.
The book was written to honor my father, Fred Donald's older brother, who is a very caring and charismatic guy. My youngest son, William, who has complex disabilities, who is the most courageous and inspirational person I know. He's the one who opened the door for me to advocate on
behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. My wife Lisa and I have been advocating on behalf of the disabled community for years, including Donald's years in the White House, but personally we wanted to wait until William was set up in a group home out of our home, where We've had some incidents, including dead animals thrown on our law on reporters coming up to our door cars in our driveway. So I've always stayed out of the spotlight.
Even though I was in the rough and tumble commercial real estate business in New York for thirty five years, I always was, I guess you could say, the quiet one. But now that William is settled in a home outside of ours, I felt it was the time not just to advocate on behalf of the disabled in a more meaningful way. If I have a platform now, I'm going
to use it to to the highest level. But the way the country started going off the rails during Donald's residency, up and including the insurrection and now the absolute just disgusting rhetoric and amped up views of his followers made me want to come out and say in a different way than any other book that has been written. I've known Donald during his formative years. He was the first person to put a golf club in my hand, for instance.
I've known him through his business career, known him during his political career and in the White House, so I know Donald personally better than anybody does.
Was it scary? How did you feel doing this?
You know, Lisa and I were concerned about potential security issues again, which is why we wanted William to be in a different environment than being at home. Our two older kids are one generation removed from Donald. I just felt it was the right time. It's too important for me to stay silent after what has been happening over the past few years, and as you probably know, what's going to be happening over the next ninety some odd days.
Did you tell Trump that you were going to do this? And was there pushback? And I know I saw what Eric tweeted. I mean, just talk to me about making that decision.
Yeah. Interestingly enough, we had thought about a book years ago, but it didn't start evolving until September or so of twenty twenty three, and I did reach out to Donnie. I won't call him don Junior. I call him Donnie and Avanka and Eric with the thoughts that I wanted to do at that point, which was a again to honor Dad and William, but also go into where our family's next generations should go. I'm upholled by the attitude, dudes,
of just the violence and the horrible rhetoric. So I wanted to try to get to them and say, hey, can we tone this down? And I will give her credit. Avoca did write a very gracious note to us with some ideas on that, and you know, I promised I would not use anything without letting her know. We wound up not using what Evoga said. But I do appreciate it as far as Eric's and I of course have read it, and I appreciate the way my sister Mary took him down in a tweet a week or so ago.
But I'm sure Eric has not read the book. I'm sure Donnie or Donald has read the book. I encourage your listeners to do so to understand in a first person account, really what the truth is. It's interesting to me that in Eric's statement he didn't mention anything about the comments his father made about his nephew, my son William.
Will you talk about this comment he made that was so shocking to you?
Yeah, it started, Molly right after Donald was inaugurated. That's when I knew I'd have the ability to advocate more personally for the disabled community, and again I reached out to Avanka and she was very helpful in leading us to some Cabinet secretaries. I brought down just a fantastic group of advocates on several occasions, and it culminated in a White House meeting in the Oval office with Donald and he seemed engaged and understood where we were going.
This was very high level topics regarding the intellectually and developmental disabled community. And the meeting dispersed and I was called back in and Donald greeted me with the typical Haye, L how's it going? And we sat down and he goes, those people the cars, why don't they just die? And obviously that's a shocking thing to say, especially for someone in such power that could do such good, And that
was his comment. And then flash forward three years later when he and I were on the phone call together to discuss some funding issues regarding William's well being to pay for his therapeutic needs, which unfortunately this country insurance won't cover. And his response was, he doesn't recognize you let him die and move down to Florida. Now, I don't know how you can explain somebody saying that about another human being, but to say it about your own
grand nephew is just shocking. And I still can't wrap my head around it. And my only response was, no, Donald, he does recognize me.
You know, I've had experiences like that where somebody has said something that was so crushing because your whole life is your children, and you have his disabled child, and you don't know what to say. I mean, right, I mean I must have just been a horrible moment.
It was. And here's the thing, Molly. Donald has never met William. He never asked to meet William. So he's making this judgment about somebody he has no firsthand knowledge of. I mean, his grandnephew, his relative, his blood. And I often say, you know, Donald hates losing. He hates losing
more than anything. In my mind, he's the big loser for not getting to know William and understanding it and maybe using that for good as opposed to using the disabled or the wounded veterans as props and something to make him feel good.
Do you think having a disabled child changed you?
Absolutely? But my mother and my father were very, very caring people. Dad certainly was the big rooter for the underdog. That's how he was. And my mom was just so much involved in volunteering at a local hospital, and she knew a family back in the sixties and I remember it child had cerebral palsy and Mom would go there every week to help pat down the kid, to give him the feeling and the touch that was necessary for him. So I've been involved in this one way or another.
But yes, William has changed my life. He just brings such warmth. If you look at his eyes and his smile, people just automatically fall in love with him. But let's be clear, there are millions and millions of disabled people who need help that I've been lucky enough to give to William. But we need as a country to move forward and helping this vast community. And if you saw today, Senator Hassan wrote a beautiful op ed piece in the Boston Globe. In fact mentioned my book in the opening lines.
So there's got to be a movement. And as long as I have what I think I have is some kind of platform, I'm going to use it full on to write some very long standing wrongs for this community.
Do you think that Donald should be president again now?
And That's why you may have heard that I am not only voting for Kamala Harrison and Governor Walls, but I will campaign on their behalf. Two things in my mind, First of all, for the country. She is what stands between us and very dark dystopian times, especially under Donald and what is morphed into the Republican Party. Certainly not the Republican Party I remember years ago with Project twenty twenty five. Now she will keep our freedoms intact and
move them forward. She also and if you've read the literature and heard Governor Wallace talk about the disabled, that's going to be a great partnership for this very fast community.
How do you think Trump got here? You know him, you grew up with him. How do you think that he's sort of found himself in this situation.
He's always had the ability to make people feel good about themselves, even though he just doesn't care about them. He uses people as props. Call it populism, call it whatever you want to, but that's in my mind what he does so well. I think it's just grotesque, but it happens. I call it trickle down cruelty. He will make this group of people feel good about themselves because the group below them are lesser people. That's how he
does it. He will use them as props and then cast them aside as soon as his goals are met.
Do you think that Trump believes what he says? Like, for example, for many years he was a dam and there's certainly things that he seems to have supported that don't necessarily jive with some of his lived experience.
Do you think that's also true or now?
Oh, oh, certainly, I'll use two example. Abortion writes he was obviously pull on, and you know, the word abortion has been twisted into pretzels over the years. You know, women's reproductive health is what it is in my mind. Gun control, he would always say, oh, I have a gun permit, okay, But he wasn't out there, you know, shooting targets, are shooting animals. But all of a sudden
he's the biggest gun advocate there is. In fact, I remember one time, and just to give a little indication of how close I was after the Vivaldi shooting, I called him up. I was shocked, like, well, maybe shocked,
we've become numb unfortunately told that gun violence. So I called him up and he got back to me and I said, Donald, You've got to do something about this, and his answer simply was there's nothing I can do, which was disappointing and maybe goes to your point that he's changed to believe in what others are telling him to benefit his political career in his future right.
And that certainly sounds right. Do you think that he really does just not have a belief system or do you think he now believes these things, or do you think he just is clinging to power.
I think he's clinging to power. And I think he is famous for saying something time and time and time again. You know which on which on which on woindt hut. I don't know if that's he says it that much for him to believe it or for his supporters to believe it. I don't think he has much of a belief system. I think it's what he needs to stay in power and to grow that power is what he will accept and take forward with him.
Yeah, that makes sense. If you sort of had a thought about what you would think the way to do feed him would be, what would it be? I mean, you know him from growing up, You have a certain insight into him.
There's one characteristic that he and I share well, besides the love and passion of golf. We are both relentless. He will stay after something and not let it go. I have the same relentlessness in me. And there's a fun little anecdote in the book about when I was running for student council president that the great q Farsol school that actually Donald was thrown out of the way. If I were to advise the Iris campaign, and I hope to do so, you cannot stop. You have to
keep going. There are things that get out under his skin that will set him off, and you have to use that for the positive of your campaign. You can't rest on laurels for a second. And Molly, you know this. It's going to get ugly. It's going to get ugly, and they have to prepare for that. The Harris campaign does. He's got a lot of queens in him, as I do. And just buckle your seat belt.
Oh god, I mean I think that that's, you know, sounds very to me. There was a lot of stuff that the family did with the money stuff. Can you talk about that just for a minute?
I can, and I think it brings up an extremely important endpoint to it. When my son William was born, he had hundreds of seizures a day, and he was born at Mount Sinai hospital that you may be familiar with. I was born there, Mary was born there. All three of my kids were born there. It's within a half a mile of where Donald and my aunts and uncle other uncle lived. They never visited him ever, and they
didn't even all to see how he was doing. In fact, there was one time when my grandmother asked me two weeks in or so she knew that Lisa and I needed to just get out and have a dinner, and said, oh, I have some relatives in from Scotland. You mind having dinner? And Lisa and I of course is my grandmother had such a nice relationship with her. And as we entered the restaurant there was Donald and Milania and all he could muster up was, hey, I hear your kids sick.
Lash forward seven weeks later, seven weeks after William being in the neonatal intensive care unit of three different hospitals, we're home and we get a note from Donald's attorney saying, in essence, we were cut out of my grandfather's will. Now Donald was going through very very bad, humiliating financial distress at that time, so bad and so humiliating that the banks had to put him on an allowance. So he hatched this scheme to take Mary and I out
of my grandfather's inheritance. So he not only took advantage of my grandfather's his father's dementia at the time, he trod on my father's memory, his brother, and at the most vulnerable time of my life to help me out or tried to take me out of as well. And the thing I hope your listeners will understand is Donald was my trustee after my father passed. Donald was named the trustee for me. So here you are, the guy who's supposed to protect me and my family did the
exact opposite. So I can simply ask, if I couldn't trust him to take care of me, how can the country trust him to take care of them?
Yeah? I think that's right.
Thank you so much, Fred, Oh Molly, my pleasure.
Are you concerned.
About Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second term could be? Well, so are we, which is why we teamed with iHeart to make a limited series with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty five would be for America's future right now. The first four episodes, with the final episode coming next week, are available by looking up Molly John Faun Last Project twenty twenty five
on YouTube. If you are thinking you are more of a podcast person and not a YouTuber, you can hit play when you get to the video, put the phone on lock screen and it will play back. New episodes are dropping in the next week as well. We need to educate America on what Trump's second term would do to this country. Please watch and help us spread the word. Monica Trenelle is the Democratic nominee in Montana's first congressional district.
Welcome to Fast Politics, Monica.
Thank you for having me, Mollie. It's great to be back after last cycle and give you enough day. Where we are in twenty twenty four.
Let's hear it. But first talk to me about the Olympics.
The Olympics are such an amazing experience. I just absolutely love watching the highs, the lows, the athletes, the finish line, the photo finishes, just every piece at the high jump. I mean just seeing these athletes in the prime of their careers, representing their countries and putting it all on the line. It is always such a pick me up to experience this moment, and I mean having been there, it really touches something inside of me and I am
so inspired. You feel like it's so great to have this moment where we see the best in people and we realize we can be our best selves. We can be our Olympic selves. Right, we can all do that every day. It's such a great reminder that we can be better than we are.
Just remind me what's for you?
You did rowing? So I was in the women's eight in nineteen ninety six and I was in the single I read the single for the United States and two thousand. If you remember Muhammad Ali with the torch in Atlanta above his head. I was standing in the infield next to Shaquille O'Neill, who is a very large human.
So explain to me what your campaign looks like and sort of the lessons you've learned from your last campaign.
Well, we did a lot right last time. We made it a three point race without any outside resources. So this cycle, what's different is we have we're starting from a higher foundation. I have more name recognition going into it. And I have put lots and lots of miles on the ground here in Montana. This is the western district where the only state in the country to lose a
congressional seat and then get it back. So it was an open seat in twenty two after the twenty twenty census, and I think one of the things I learned is that we have a lot of first time to Montana voters, not first time voters, but new in Montana, so people who've moved here, which is why we have this seat. And realizing the issues on the ground are housing, housing, and housing. So we've had a farmously fast growth and
how that impacts people on the ground. So making sure that I'm connecting with people, getting out talking to people, building relationships, building trust. Montana, like everywhere, is retail politics. You have to do it on the ground. You have to have those base to face conversations. And I will be the only Democrat between Seattle and Minneapolis and down to Denver. So really making sure that rural America has a voice, which is how I grew up, It's what
I know, and this is my home. So really getting that rural voice out and amplified is important to me. And that's what I'm doing on the ground, walking in parades, shaking hands, building relationships, building trust, to work for the only home that I have.
So talk to us about what Montana is like, what the election looks like there.
Montana has always been a purple date, and we vote for people, not parties, and so we take every candidate on their own terms and their own merits. We have done that through our history as a state, and so we're very purple. We have had a strong track record of champions in the Democratic Party for public lands and civil rights. Mike mansfieldly metcalf Pat Williams Senator tester for sure. So I'm asking people to vote for me as a person.
The election here in Montana, in this western district, which is sixteen counties, is rural and urban. It is college campuses the Montana State University campus and the University of Montana campus in Missoula. And two tribal nations the Mscopi Pecuni, the Blackfeet tribe up in northern Montana on the Canadian border, and then the Confederated sal and Coutney tribes around Flathead Lake.
So interesting demographics. It really spans the rural, urban, young, old and we have a minority population with the Native American vote that is outcome determinative.
What does that mean.
That means that there are fifteen thousand registered Native American voters that could make the difference in the election one way or the other depending on how close this is. And we expect it to be a plus election up and down the ballot, So we're going to win on small margins. So we need to get everyone voting, and we need to also have some crossover persuasion votes.
Also, you have a really important centers.
Oh for sure, Senator Tester is on the ballot, and that was one of the reasons that compelled me to run again because with his resources on the ground, it will help get out the vote in a way that will really make a difference for me. And so having people voting means that I can focus my resources on meeting everyone and making sure that they know who I am and that they have an option and that they can vote for me as well. So that Senate race is one of the most expensive or most important. Now
every want to praise at Molly in the country. I mean, there are a couple of others that are pretty high profile, but Senator Chester is an important person on the ballot, and so he's bringing resources that I can put to good use for me if I use them correctly, which is making sure people who are going to be voting know me as well.
Right. So do you feel and again, we on this podcast talk a lot about this idea that down ballot races support top of the ticket candidates and vice versa.
Do you feel like that it's a really interesting time. I've certainly been aware of those conversations and a lot of different venues, and I've heard your conversations around it too. I think it's a situation where we don't really know who's driving what in a lot of ways in these unique districts like Montana. There are a lot of states where the get out the vote effort or the voters
and presidential races really do drive turnout. But Montana is its own unique brand and it's a very independent state. And so I think having candidates starting down ballot who are going to drive excitement and generate enthusiasm that certainly can drive turnout and help higher ticket races. But last year and twenty two of the sixteen counties in this new district, I was the only Democrat. In two of those counties, I was the only Democrat on the ballot,
So that makes it pretty tough to generate turnout. So having down ballot candidates in the legislative races certainly helps on the ground for people who were really connected. And I will say that there has been a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for voting in the last three weeks. That is new, and the college campuses in this district I
think will help that as well. So I think in this age where we don't know where people get their news and their information, I think the question of is it a top down or bottom up or a both? And I think that's sort of an open question and a strategic approach that we're all trying to figure out.
Yeah, And I also think that it's interesting to me that when we're focused on really giving people choices, they vote for them, right, I mean, that gets them excited. So tell me sort of how you're campaigning in Montana and the people you're talking to, what are their concerns.
I'll answer that last question first, their concerns and order our housing. Housing and housing that is the top issue, and there's no number two that's even close. It's really top of mind for us because we've had so much growth and it's been so rapid, and there have been a lot of people coming to Montana who are buying up huge swaths of land and property and really squeezing out the people who have lived here, or even people who have come here recently and are setting down roots,
they feel squeezed too. So the median home price in Montana right now is in Western Montana's over seven hundred thousand dollars, and if you're a teacher making thirty thousand dollars a year, that's just not going to work. I've talked to the sheriff in Flathead County told me that some of his deputies are living in campers. I've talked to schools who have jobs open for teachings and they're not getting any applicants because they can't find a place
to live. The labor market is a huge part of that lumber mill closing because they can't hire workers because there isn't a place where those people can afford to live. So it's really housing, housing, and housing, and that's driving so many other pieces of the conversation. So that opp of mind.
Are people not able to build houses because of restrictions or is there something else?
Yeah, so your question is really what's the issue and how do we now? I have that housing plan on my website, and really the first it has three parts assessment, accountability, holding bad actors, accountability, and affordability making sure that we have housing stock that people can afford to buy. But the first assessment goes to your point of what is driving the shortage, what's behind it? And so I address
that in my plan. I talk about assessment, and they're really the need to understand do we actually need to build more units or do we need to loosen the housing supply that already exists by disincentivizing second, third, fourth home ownership or corporate ownership of houses that are in a highly desirable area and then renting them out so airbnbs and short term rentals, and making sure that houses are where families and people go to sleep at night
and love and fight and raise their kids and you know, figure out their lives. But it's not an investment portfolio piece. So the assessment piece of it is really really important. In two of our counties, the vacancy rate is fifty percent, so you're talking about a lot of houses that aren't getting lived in for a lot of the time. And so do we actually really want to just build more or do we want to incentivize making sure that houses are places where people live in a community. And to me,
I think that's really more of the issues. So the holding bad actors accountable is really about following the money, making sure that we're not making it economically desirable to hold on to lots and lots of empty houses. From a corporate ownership perspective, so where we see private equity buying up nursing homes, private equity buying trailer lots and raising and then selling off the land lots for higher dollars,
we need to tackle that with economic policies. And then the final one is making sure that there are in fact available houses that people can buy and that they can live in.
Yeah, so important.
And so it's not a building problem, it's not an inventory problem.
It's people aren't incentivized to fill their houses.
Well, I think that it is an inventory problem in one way, but I think that's a part of a larger problem. Right, So what do we mean when we say inventory. We need to make sure that what's available in Anaconda, for example, they're building houses that are three hundred thousand dollars.
Right, and people don't have money.
Yeah, that sounds may sound great if you're in New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles, but in Anaconda.
It's crazy. For Montana.
Yeah, that's not an affordable house if you're a law enforcement officer or a teacher. And you know, I've talked to people who are working multiple jobs making twenty dollars an hour and they can't find a place to live. And a lot of the you know, issues around that, they impact our small businesses because small businesses need their workforce to be invested in the community, to live in the community. They small businesses don't benefit from high turnover.
They need to be able to stay here and be invested in what they're doing. So that's really important, and you know, I think that that's the piece that we need to take on. And you know, I have in my housing plan, I have this follow the money piece of it. And I'm uniquely positioned to do that because that's what I've spent my entire career doing. I've taken on big corporate interests, I've followed the money in monopoly utilities.
And believe me, if you can follow the money and monopoly utilities, you can follow it anywhere because they are really good at hiding where their produits come from. That's, you know, the fact that people are benefiting off of our pain. That's what people really hate. And you know, that's a huge contrast between me and my opponent Ryan Zinki, who he has an address that he's registered to vote from in Monte and that address is a place that's
listed on Airbnb. You can go rent it now, And that is not right.
Ryan Zinchi also really sucks.
He was in the Trump administration.
He lives in Santa Barbara. He was fired by Trump for ethics violations.
Right, which is imagine being fired by Trump for ethics violations.
Well, so it's the corruption, and it's the you know, the lack of integrity. But it's even deeper than that. It's about his selling off Montana's lands, selling off public lands. You know what he has done to personally profit from his office.
He's a privateer, really, right, didn't he also build the skiff? And wasn't he behind the tactical pants controversy where he used government bunny to buy all new clothing.
You know, he is using public office for his personal gain. Remember the scandal where he spent one hundred and thirty nine, one hundred thousand dollars on doors for hisfice in the interior. And this is when people one hundred and thirty nine, one hundred thousand dollars think about what that would buy
you and a house. People in Montana are looking to have a trailer for ten thousand dollars and he's spending you know, multiples of that on a door for his new office and the secretary of theterier at our expense. Those are the kinds of things. And the fact that he is the properties that he owns in Montana he has listed as airbnbs. So it's the fact that he is profiting off of the thing that is hurting us.
Most people are coming to Montana and making a profit from the housing stock, and we can't find a place to live. The people who are serving and living in our communities can't find a place to live. That has to change, and I'm here to change it.
Absolutely so true.
I'm so right, Monica.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you, Molly. I really appreciate everything You're doing.
No moment thick On, Jesse Cannon, Molly junk Fast. I sure heard a lot of yuppin today, a lot a lot of yuppin.
Donald Trump held this press conference, he said, there was a lot of build up. A lot of us heard about it. That were a lot of theories about what he was going to habit this press conference. Would it be the sort of twenty sixteen you know, remember when he had that thing about all the papers the taxes. In the twenty sixteen cycle, he had a lot of these press conferences and you know, where he would trot out people or have kind of stunts, and a lot
of us thought that was what was coming. But instead, instead all those people fucking flew down to Florida and they were greeted with exactly what Trump always does in our plus rally speech, and that was it. And he took a few questions and the answers were all part of around speech, and that, my friends, is our moment of fuck ray. 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.