Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And Donald Trump is now trying to walk back his comments on cutting Medicare and Social Security. We have an amazing show for you today. Congresswoman Debbie Murcisell Powell tells us how she plans on beating Senator Rick Scott to help Democrats keep the Senate.
Then we'll talk to Mom's Demand.
Actions founder Shannon Watts about what's moving the twenty twenty four election. But first we have the illustrious James Carvill. Welcome back to Fast Politics, James.
Carvell, Hey having done, We're so.
Happy to have you.
So can you talk us through what you see in the political landscape right now?
Well, I mean I disatisfaction with the direction to country and meet the prevent bidener Trump popular sight Lee, But the really important thing is Democrats are winning elections everywhere. Whatever. We got to hope this carries through through November. Most hopeful there.
So let's talk about that for a second, because the thing I'm struck by is like Democrats keep winning elections and even with these primaries, like there was a lot of anxiety about this uncommitted vote, and yes, definitely people did express their displeasure. But also like, for example, immediately afterwards, you saw Ilhan Omar go on CNN and say.
That she actually is supporting Joe Biden.
So it did feel like progressives definitely have things they're upset about as well they should, honestly, but it seems like they're still very much on board with the coalition. And all of this negative Biden talk is almost entirely from polls, right, I mean, is it from anything else?
Yeah, both lot, but they're part of our the lived experience, their foulso people talk to other people and they have a pretty good gauge of where things are. Enthusiastic people are. The under thirty in the black number was awful.
If Democrats keep winning elections but the polls are wrong, then when do we start questioning the value of the polls?
After the polls will kind of right. Even in twenty twenty two, no one wanted to read them. It could be off a couple of three points, but the idea idea that they massively off is.
But they weren't right in twenty sixteen, right, they were closer in twenty twenty.
In forty six, and they were more right than you thought. The popular vote number they had were very close with their a point and a half. The in state Poland was off because they undersampled people, that's true, but the popular vote was if anything.
Okay, So let's talk about like what's happening in Florida, because I think this is pretty interesting. You have this governor who really used his governorship as an audition for a Republican primary that he did not win. I mean, is there an opportunity there for Democrats despite the weakness of the state party. I mean, is there an opportunity to pick.
Up First of all, little crowds actually have a state poarder now before it was kind of dysfunctional thing. And we don't have primaries anymore. Sos MESSI messing primaries. We got our cadidy that they're not quite a good ronder. Santis is not popular anymore. He finds abandoning books that was misunderstood because they hate these got their books. But
the abortion issues cutting like crazy. We want the managin's like Jacksonville run a state house race and he still had that is just cutting like and the other things almost as bes abortion insurance rate and people that just started spiking up and people are living about it. And then you got Rick Scott because if you look at him and you makes you forget how big an asshole Ted Cruise is.
Yeah, it's true.
And Rick Scott has designs if he can get in the majority and the leadership.
Yes, he tried to knock macile roll. He's got that plan where lowwik also cutting people so security, medicaid, raising taxes on hotel mate.
Yeah, real class.
And then you have this Senate map where they have a lot of the Republican candidates are these carpetbagging billionaires who are coming into the state. You're seeing that in Wisconsin, you're seeing that in Pennsylvania. Talk to us about that phenomenon. I mean, do those people win? Does that help you?
Or? Now the guy in Wisconsin already getting himself into some trouble from the things he said, because they think, because I've made money, I've done one thing, I can do this thing. More often than not, it does not translate. Sometimes it does, but you've got to be pretty political. Yet they're pretty shortly politically and we'll see.
Yeah, I mean I feel like this hasn't gotten quite as much coverage as Joe Biden's age.
But Republicans have a real cash problem.
She duty. If I said, Joe Biden, I'm putting my granddaughter to be the feet. We're moving the DNC to Wilmington, and every dollar to cout them down there, we'll take it. What would be the reaction of people, Well, just what he did. For some reason, I'm on their exchange, right, I won't opt out because it's like, hey, Patriot, I sent you and now we'll go to Ted Cruz money. Well, you get off your ass and get moving.
Clearly, part of the cash crunch is this idea that if you run these billionaires, they'll win these Senate seats and then you don't have to give them money from the RNC, right, I mean that's some of the thinking here. Or they don't have to raise a lot of money because they already have the money.
Well, appropriately it would be in RFC could give more. If you have a self funding guy in Wisconsin, you don't pay for that. That means you can give more off Pennsylvania a self puny guy, so you can what you need in the batter Race, Arizona Race, or higher race or anywhere else you are. It's a double benefit.
Yeah.
One of the problems that trump Ism has is it relies on these low frequency voters. Those are the people who have been able to sort of push them over the top. So those people tend not to be the kind of voters who are really reliable down ticket voters.
Right, No, I mean, I do what you're saying, but not that they're certainly not can produce small show on the top and take it as well a bottom, but it would lift the bottom.
Right if they're out there.
Right, So you have that the really good sentiment for Republicans filled with people who have their own money, so Trump can have the rest of it.
And then you have the Republicans in the House.
It strikes me, and again I'm curious what you think historically that the mess the Republicans are making in the House could have larger implications.
Can you talk about that.
They have a complete mills in the House or take last week Nikki here it drops out, which yes, mister, we do just ware the Albay. I have a dollar. You have a great State of the Union. That haiti great thing. I knew it was bad when I saw it. I didn't realize how bad it was, so I saw it.
It's really bad.
At some point, you hope some things start to kick in. That's the great hope.
She really embarrassed herself, though I think it.
Should be having a big effect than the years having right.
I mean again, though those are polls, but I'm hoping you could talk about the ken Buck dropping.
Out this week.
Now they have like a two vote majority, right.
And Buck drops out. He announced he wasn't going to run, so so Boba said, I'm gonna move to the fourth that they have a better chance. So she starts running. So Buck announcis they put to me? All right? Law kicks in. They has to be a primate. They have to have an election before the elect before the general election. And if you remember Congress, you can't run. You'd have to resign. She don't lose in November where she has
to resign her seat. That they are all of us staff down if she wants to be in a race, and what's she going to do the term where she makes the most money, which I'm probably staying in the race. I mean, she's no, she's not gonna win, but she gets hang on the sugar Tan till January next year.
The thing that I'm so struck by is and then they have two impeachments that they're trying to get out of in the house right now. You have the Majorcus impeachment, which I guess they may keep going with, and then you have the Biden impeachment, which it seems like there's almost no way they can keep that going.
These people are so incompetent. If we hit somebody downright dumb in the spector at homework, is thenle right, he's really dumb. We had one that game is comical of a response to the Union, K. But we would say something that stupid what we're doing, We'll put the person up there. We do we need dentwes how this has to happen. But yeah, they just fow ahead.
Part of it is they just don't have a lot of you know, like Katie Britt she's the.
Youngest, Marsha Blackman and Cindy Hedge with maybe she's the best they got.
Right, I mean, she's definitely better than those two. I wonder if the house mess does ultimately really affect where this goes now? I mean, do they lose the house because they're just so incompetent and they can't pass anything.
There's a lot of Republicans in the district's Biden carried and yeah, I mean it's not happy, it's just yes, it couldn't have the fact that the biggest one that we haven't talked about is Mark Robertson running the government.
I'll cart, oh, yeah, let's talk about that.
This guy says women, you shouldn't have the right to v big powercast denial. You can't believe the stuff that he said. And he is the Republican nominee for governor of Carolina? Who is giving him money? Is the r are you going to give him money? Is the RGA going to give him money? Is Glenn Yulkin going to endorse him and not indorse him? Is any candidate running with you a dark Holly? Would you vote for this guy?
What they did do with George Sars and George Sars give him like a foundation and the foundation something that it ends up giving to something, and that's George soarrs is a lecture. Right, it's just right down running for government in you know, one of the largest states in the United States. Look at aoc LC just cooked to me, kind of Naiden. I've done more men not the vote.
The guy who's running for governor of North Carolina, it's not the same as a progressive. I mean, he is a full on Facebook lunatic. Yeah, I mean, I don't even think like it's comparable to anything on the left. But I am curious, like in that case, it does seem like that Democrats could theoretically keep that governorship.
I think we will. I think this guy is so grotest. What I'm trying to do is before this is over, to have ramifications beyond that where they have to answer for these people, For George Satchel, I mean, make them put the mic in their pace. You know that the Republican National Committee is given money to this How do you approve of that? But you know that so and so gave money to Republican Governments Committee and they get anything.
So interesting. James Carvell, what are the races are you watching?
Yeah? I mean the Bobbysheed Tenate races, Pittspania, Michigan, Wisconsin, West Virginia. I must just see that.
Isn't Don blanket Ship running as a Democrat.
It's a really screwball thing. But see, you know the Battle of I'm watching more and more closer than most people. And also Texas, tell me why if we were to pick up a seat, that's our best hope. Our best hope is for Texas, Mississippi.
But you think Dave McCormick, I mean, they're just going to keep running these guys right, again and again and again.
They Inquiry had a devastating story on McCormick. I think it was mister Joville about how they're all around state. Timight. I was from the staateum as you love the sat and everything. And then at the end of the day got in his jet moved back to Connecticut. Yeah.
They couldn't even move to like a fancy suburb in Pennsylvania. The guy's been running for Senate for like a year. I mean not even for a year. This is his second cycle of running for Senate and he didn't even think to like move there.
It's so crazy, all right, Molly, I got I let it.
Go, all right, thanks James.
Congresswoman Debbie Mercosol Powell represents Florida's twenty sixth district and is currently a Senate candidate in the Great State of Florida.
Welcome back to Fast Politics. Debbie.
Thank you so much, Mollie for having me. It's always such a pleasure.
So you're running for senator in the great state of Florida.
Would be a pickup for Democrats probably, as anyone who listens to podcast knows, we have a very tight, tight Senate map for Democrats, So it would be incredible to pick up a seat.
Tell me what's happening in Florida and what it's like.
Yeah, Mollie, look like you said, we cannot keep the Senate majority without picking up Florida. This is going to be critical for us to be able to hold the majority, and I think more and more people are realizing it. And the great thing for me, for us, for the country is that there is no more vulnerable senator than Rick Scott. We just had a poll last week that Emily's List release that shows that Rick Scott and I are statistically tied, and after hearing more I I'm up
by four points. The majority of Floridians are really just ready to elect someone new. They know who Rick Scott is, they know that he's someone that committed Medicare fraud. He oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the history of this country. They know that he wrote a plan to sunset social security and medicare. He's done nothing for our environment. Imagine.
I mean, we have been ground zero for first too many things.
I mean not only for attacks against our freedoms and liberties here in the state, but also for the effects of climate change. And he has denied that climate change exists. And so as I've been traveling Molly the state, what I've been hearing is the majority of people are organizing. They're really excited about my candidacy. They know that we have a really great opportunity to flip the state for the Senate seat. And I'm overwhelmed by the support. I
wish you could come with me. We are traveling all over the state and I hear the same things that they're ready. They're rejecting all the extremism, and that's who we are in Florida. People tend to forget we are an independent state that when we have the information and we have the right investments right that we win.
Yeah, talk to me about what you're seeing. You're in Florida.
I feel like one of the things we don't see in the sort of pundit world is what voters are saying you on the ground, So what are they saying you in Florida.
I can tell you that the top issue for us here in the state is the affordability issue. The high cost of living. Our inflation rate is much higher than the national average. The property insurance rates have not only doubled, but tripled for too many homeowners. Seniors are being priced out of their homes. Young adults can't afford to find their own place. They're still living with their parents because
rents are so expensive, people can't buy a house. And so, of course, when you hear when you're in Florida and you hear that the economy is doing great in Florida,
people are not feeling it. And this is because of the failure of the policies that have come out starting with Rick Scott, who created this insurance crisis that we have here in the state, but also under the current extreme politicians in Tallahassee in Florida, and so and also, I have to say a lot of what I've been hearing, MOLLI are professors, students, teachers, parents really concerned about the attacks on education.
As you heard University of Florida.
Let go over twelve employees that we're handling diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students are really upset about that. Teachers are frustrated. They feel like they don't have the freedom to teach. And these are places where academic institutions are places where our students should have the freedom of expression, the freedom
to express their ideas without being targeted or attacked. And we are an extremely diverse state, MOLLI like, almost over forty percent of our state are Latinos, black voters, Asian Pacific Islanders. I mean, we're a very diverse state. And those attacks affecting us all over, and parents and teachers, professors are very concerned about that.
What you're talking about here is the Ron DeSantis war on education. He called it the war on woke, but ultimately what it was was his dance gay legislation, which was making it so that teachers couldn't teach certain things that he considered or his people considered to be offensive.
And then he also took over New College of Florida. So sort of the results of that you're seeing on the ground right.
Well, yes, people are absolutely frustrated, but let's remember one thing. Rick Scott, Okay, he has become a poster child of the extremism that we're facing here in the state of Florida. He is siding with all of these politicians in Tallahassee who have all endorsed him.
The people that actually.
Wrote that bill that now has been found to be unconstitutional, has endorsed Rick Scott, and he proudly stands next to the most extreme legis here in the state of Florida. And so what we've seen across the country and what we're seeing here in the state is the same thing. They're rejecting that people in Florida they want to be left alone. What they want is economic opportunities. They want to make sure that they can have a job that pays for their bills, that their children can go to
a school and be safe of gun violence. Again, and this is a state where they passed a permitless carry last year. People can carry a loaded gun and public concealed without a without a license, many times without a background check.
What act doing standing with them?
I think right now what we need to remember, especially for my Senate race, is that Rick Scott wants to run for leader. Okay, the arrogance of this man, because he used more than sixty million dollars of his money to win this Senate seat, and he barely won, by the way, and.
It wasn't obstential election.
But he's so arrogant thinking he has all the money in the world to run to buy this seat again and then become leader of the Senate. And what does that means that he is going to push this extreme agenda. That means that he will push for a national abortion man, he will sunset Medicare and social Security, and he will continue on this road of attacking education. He did that
when he was governor. He made like on the first week that he was governor, he made major cuts to our education funding here, particularly to universities.
I was working at FIU when he did that, so I remember clearly when that happened. So it's very dangerous.
And Molly, I'm so glad you're putting an emphasis to my race and the importance of the Senate because too much we're hearing about the presidential But we're still in the United States of America. We have three branches of government. We have the executive, we have the legislative, and we have the judicial, and we can actually hold the line if all else goes. We need to be able to hold the line in the Senate.
Yeah, and you're not going to be able to have judges if you don't have the Senate. I'm just curious, like, when you look at this education issue on the ground, people they understand what's happening, they see it.
Talk us through that a little bit.
Oh, I'll give you a couple of examples.
I've been traveling everywhere and I was just in Gainesville, for example, last week, and I had a grandmother, a woman who came to me and said, you know, my grandchild is a first grader and because of the tax on education, she has now had three different teachers this acad year. It's not even over yet. Because teachers are leaving. They're so frustrated, they don't know, they're worried that they're going to teach the wrong thing and there's going to
be a retaliation. I had another teacher here in Miami where she said, look, we can't teach, we don't have books, our classrooms are empty, and we don't know what we can or cannot do, and we can't continue that way.
And I've had parents.
I had a mom telling me the same thing about her daughter. Her daughter loves to read. He'll give you a perfect example, Die of a Wimpy Kid. I mean, I don't know if you read that.
Yes with my kids.
Yes, my son loved that book.
Right.
Teachers are worried for these fourth graders to be able to read that book, and now they have to have a permittion slip from their parent and it can read the book I mean to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Yes, Yes, that's a story that I just heard from from this parent. Why you know, it has maybe some inappropriate language, but it's not inappropriate.
But you know, part of this is that these people don't actually read, so you know, their anxiety about books is this larger anxiety that people have about education and educating people so they can think for themselves.
Do you see any reverberations.
From the New College thing, which is if you want to tell our listeners a little bit about what it is, that would be amazing too.
Yeah.
So New College was one of the more liberal arts public universities here in the state of Florida.
Kind of a gem.
Yeah, incredible small here in this state. And two of my best best friends actually graduated from New College, and from one day to the next This was a little over a year ago. The governor fired the president and he replaced him with someone that's being paid between a salary and benefits close to a million dollars, someone that's streamiss, someone that's following this white Christian nationalist agenda.
They fired faculty members, and a.
Lot of the students retire, you know, a lot of the students organized protested. But Mollie, as I tell you about New College, and as I tell you about what's going on here in our state, we need to remember one thing right, and it's that the state of Florida is one of the most important states in the country. We have twenty million Americans living here in the state of Florida. It is one of the biggest economic contributors to our economy in the country.
And we cannot leave Florida behind.
And so as I'm telling you the story, what's hitting me is that what happened at New College, which was, like you said, set a gem, could be very well be happening very quickly to most universities across the country. If we lose our democracy, we have to do everything in our power for people to understand what's at sake. And this is what's happening here in Florida. But if we don't hold the Senate, if I don't win my Senate seat, if we don't hold the White House, this
will be happening. This story will be the same all over the country. That's why it is so critical for people not to just look at Florida and say, wow, that's crazy, what's happening in Florida. No, no, no, there are many, many, many Floridians that reject that what's going on in Florida. But this state has been gerrymandered, there's voter suppression, it's been taken over by these extreme politicians that don't represent who we are or our values as Floridians.
And it's the same thing that could happen if we don't win my Senate seat and we send Rick Scott back to the Senate, if we don't win the presidency, everything right now is on the line. So when you hear about Florida, everyone just think that this can be happening across America after the November election if you don't do everything in your power to support me to beat Rick Scott. This guy wants to be my majority leader. That's what he wants to do. He was with Donald
Trump last week kissing the ring. That's what's happened.
Pay attention. Don't leave Florida behind.
I mean, he is an abject moron, so the one thing that would be good is that he's very stupid. But we're Democrats able to get abortion on the ballot or is it not decided yet?
I know the Supreme Court was looking at it.
It looks very very likely, Molly. But the decision will come at the end of March, is what we're hearing.
So we were expecting.
We also have an amendment that's going to be in the ballot legalizing recreational marijuana, so.
That's also wildly popular.
Well, that and abortion will drive millions and millions and millions of our voters out to the ballot box. And I really want you to come down and spend some time with me. Here you'll see who.
Floridians really are. I just met with fishermen.
A lot of them are Republicans and Independents, and they will vote for me. They want to help me because they know how terrible Rick Scott has been on the environment, and we depend on a clean and healthy environment for our economy, for our fisheries for coastal communities.
Right, talk to me about what you've had with the algae, because that's a really interesting local issue.
Can you talk about that.
Yeah.
So one of the things that I focused when I was in Congress is bringing a significant funding for Everglades rustoration because we need to have clean water flow south. The majority of Floridians get their water, like one out of three Floridians get their drinking and clean water.
From the Everglades.
And what we've seen is that because of overdevelopment for years and years and years and the farming, a lot of the toxins have come down into that water, and the water has been flowing instead of coming south and clean itself naturally through the Everglades through the marsh, it's been sent east and west and it's been filled with toxins. Is starting to happen right now again. They're sending that
water east and west and that produces fishkills. And what did Rick Scott do when he was governor, He repealed some water protections here in our state, and that's what cost the largest fishkill that we had sin here in the state of Florida. So they call him Red Tide Rick because of the red tide, because of the fishkill, and so that's why these issues, you know, there are a little complex, and there's a lot that we need to do, including working very closely with the Army Corps of Engineers.
But there are a lot of things that we can do and.
That we should be doing that no one in Washington deceased doing from Florida, to make sure that we protect the everglades, to make sure that we have this water flowing south. We are now seeing a very disturbing trend in some of our coastal communities down close to Key West Marathon in the Florida Keys, we're seeing some large sawfish that are dying. We don't really know what's going on, and they're doing research. That's one of the things that
I've been watching the Fish and Wildlife Commission do. They're doing some research now, but it's starting to be more and more reported, and that's a direct impact of the
water is getting much much hotter. You know, we had a very very hot summer last summer, and the water temperature was over in the Florida Bay Area over one hundred degrees and now we're seeing the effects of that, and so the environment is key, and it is an issue that a lot of people vote on here in the state of Florida, and it's an issue that Rick Scott has failed time and time again.
So it really does sound like these are regulation issues that some of what's happened with your water and the fishing staff is a lack of sensible government regulation, right.
Yeah, And you know, the state has a lot of power in that as well. And it really did happen under Rick Scott, and that's why I keep bringing it back to him. He was he has been the politician in Florida as it relates to the environment. He, like I said, repealed protections on the water. He took away money from the Environmental Protection Agency. He banned the term climate change from being used in any of the state agencies.
He's a climate denier and just one of the things. Also, you know, I don't know if you all remember, but this is something that affected the twenty twenty two election. Also, we had a huge hurricane that hit the West coast right before the election in September of twenty twenty two, and it really destroyed Santa Beel Captiva, a lot of
the communities in the West coast of Florida. And what they were asking was Senator Rubio and Scott at the time, is for there to be this tax relief for a lot of the disaster hit communities.
And they haven't done anything. And so you see Scott with the navy hat all over the place that he loves to use.
But it's all a show. It's all a show. These families were telling me. This is what we've been asking them time and time again. They said that we're going to do something. They didn't do anything. So as we see more severe storms, and as we see these communities being completely devastated, small businesses being devastated by these storms, Rick Scott could care less what he wants his power and he wants to continue to use that Senate seat
for his self enrichment. And we can't let him do that anymore, not for us, not for America.
Jesus. It's such a tough situation and such an important seat.
I hope you will come back, Thank you, Molly, anytime. I'm ready, and I want you to come with me and Florida come down and visit.
Yes, before it gets too hot.
Thank you, Dabby, thank you.
Shannon Watts is the founder of Mom's Demand Action and a co founder of every Town USA.
Welcome back to Fast Politics, Shannon.
Watts, Hey, the how are you?
I am good and very excited to have you tell me a little bit about out what you've been doing.
So I found in Mom's Demand Action back in twenty well believe it or not, and I was a full time volunteer for about eleven years, and I just decided that my role was finite. It made sense to hand the baton over to another leader, Angela Farrel Zabala, at the end of twenty twenty three, and I thought, Okay, I'm going to take a little bit of a break.
And then I got a call from my friend Ria Schreiber, who asked me to write a book about women and kind of women in leadership or or really how women can come alive.
You know.
I started what is probably the world's largest field experiment for empowering women, and so I want to tell some of those stories so that other women can learn from that.
The Vice president went to an abortion clinic a planned parenthood. There is a ton of talk about what it means to be a healthcare voter and just the importance of women. Women voters for so long. I always feel like women's issues like abortion, which is an everyone issue, have been sort of put on the side, But it seems like it really has been deciding elections.
Oh absolutely. I mean, let's just talk about women over fifty. There's about sixty two million of us across the country and they turned out to vote right older women, which I guess you could call with it or fifty, but they cast about one third of the ballots in twenty twenty two and they only make up a quarter of the voting age population.
Can you say that one more time? That's crazy.
So women over fifty there's sixty two million of us and they cast one third of all the ballots in twenty twenty two, even though they only make up a quarter of the population of the voting age population. So the other piece of it is that they are pretty evenly divided by party and ideology, and they are incredibly diverse, right, So that is what makes this group of women such
a key swing voting block, and they decide elections. And when a look at who will decide this election and you parse the data, it's really about one hundred thousand swing voting women who live in eleven counties in five states, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona. It is really why you see, as you said, Vice President Harris talking about abortion today. And there's this
other fascinating study that's out. I don't know if you saw it, but it shows that over a quarter of all female black voters are saying abortion is their top issue in the presidential election. Right, this used to be white women evangelicals who are making abortion their key issue, and now it is black women and they're on the opposite side because they know they will be most impacted by these bands or these draconian laws. I think that's amazing.
It is amazing, and it really is absolutely just an incredible, an.
Important group of voters.
You know, it's a problem because Trump has said that Trump is worried, right, he's trying to back it off. He's saying now he'd like a fifteen week federal band, which would actually be more restrictive.
But the way he's.
Selling it, he's trying to sell it as he's a moderate, so he knows he's in trouble here.
To be clear, these swing voters, these women we just talked about who come out in droves. They are on the fence on a lot of different issues. They could go either way. Now they've trended toward Joe Biden. As we know, it's white women who are always lagging based to white supremacy and patriarchy. But for the most part, women trent toward Joe Biden. But they are very worried about the economy and the sixty two million women over fifty that we talked about, they are very worried they
won't be able to afford to retire. And so these are conversations that if you want to bring those women your way, those are the things.
You have to be focusing on.
It's such an insane thing to think that these women somehow think that Donald Trump, who is the other day complaining about entitlements, is somehow going to be better for the economy. Then Joe Biden knew, who has made our country have one of the best inflationary soft landings of any other wealthy country in the world.
You're exactly right, and I think you could argue that the Biden administration could do a better job of championing their wins because it is an amazing economy. But when you look at the polling. When women say they're a bit of a for Donald Trump, it is because they think that he will be better for the economy. Now what they didn't learn the first time around. I'm not sure, but I think that Joe Biden can make that case, and if he can make it effectively, he can pull
those women back over. And he needs to be talking about how they can.
Afford to Yeah, to believe that Donald Trump will be better on the economy than Joe Biden is a pretty good sign that voters need more information.
That's exactly right. And look, I do think that Joe Biden knows how to do this versus Donald Trump. There are a lot of different organizations. I've been called to be as street part of them, right that are going to be surrogates for the presidents who are going to start having conversations. But I really do think that's the piece of this. Right, You find the spark. What is it that is lighting women up. What are issues that they care about? We know, reproductive health, maternal health, abortion,
the economy, children's safety, our own safety. And then you
start the fire. You create spaces for women who are passionate to connect and encourage action and I'll just give you an anecdote, right, I mentioned that a few months to me an action, I started really the largest field experiment for having these conversations and when our volunteers decided to run for office, because if you spend any time at the state House at all, you realize these people aren't rocket scientem right when they knock the doors in
rural areas, these are mostly damn women. Even Republicans are saying to them, put your signs in my yard because I am so afraid my kids aren't safe from their schools. And I think safety and freedom and rights that is a place where all, hopefully all women can meet and have agreements. And so that's what the Biden administration needs to tap.
Into, right, And I think that the way to do that is with saraguts, Right, I mean advertising saragats and doing things like visiting a planned parenthood clinic in Minnesota. I mean, aren't these the things that will yes so talk to us about that?
It is getting out there having these conversations. You know the other thing about the Biden administration, this is the youngest most diverse administration in history. And I understand their concerns or issues or whatever, The problem is with Joe Bynesage.
I think his wisdom is an asset. But let's say that's your conc Not only does he needs surgates to be having these conversations, I think he needs to put the surrogates out front and center to show how young and how diverse they are and that they understand what women's concerns are.
It is a very diverse cabinet. It's a very young cabinet.
But the admin has also just done a lot of like really kind of smart things when it comes to infrastructure spending, when it comes to the Chips Act, when it comes to economic things, and now this new budget is really set up to protect social security and medicare. I'm reminded of this idea that good policy makes good politics.
That's exactly right. And the other thing, you know, you just jogged my memory about the fact that also this investment that the administration is about to make in a women's healthcare and research right.
Oh yeah, talk about that.
Yeah, Jill Biden is working on legislation.
MARYS.
Shriiver has been a huge champion of it. And when you talk about systemic sexism, the fact that menopause, which is currently impact and tens of millions of women at any given trum It is so understudy, it is so underfunded, and women are winning so much longer. Do you go back to nineteen hundred, not that many women lived past the age of fifty, but now it's very likely you're
going to live to eighty and beyond. And we know part of the reason that women struggle so much with things like Alzheimer's or bone fractures or heart disease, and because our shell moones go off a cliff at age fifty, and yet it isn't being studied. So I mean, for this legislation to be passed and signed into law by the president, I think would just be another example to these sixty two million women over the age of fifty that the president is listening and that he cares.
Yeah.
But also, we talk so much about how this administration has trouble communicating. Do you think that part of it is the problem with just the fractured media ecosystem. I mean, the idea that Trump is better in the economy, and I've seen pauls that reflect this seems insane to me, especially because he did these tariffs that were very inflationary.
I mean, he's not very smart.
About the economy, and in fact, he had all of these personal bankruptcy and he still owes about half a billion dollars for a fraud judgment.
So I'm just curious what you think about that.
Well, you know, I before I started mompting in action, for twenty years, I was in corporate communication, So I know a thing or two about how to message. And the problem when you are up against an opponent like Donald Trump who has absolutely no guardrails or scruples, is that what he says people believe, and when you say it often enough, they believe it even more. We've talked about the fact that you know, this is cult like, right,
that's the kind of messaging that he's propagating. It's very very effective, It's incredibly sticky, and sometimes you know, even very intelligent people have card time sorting back from fiction. It's understandable. So I think when you were up against someone like that, it's really incumbent on on the Biden Harrison administration and all of their s and all of the different democratic machinery to be going hard and to really tout fact that Joe Biden has done so much.
I mean even just on the issue of gun safety. Right, he's the first president in a generation to get gun safety legislation through Congress, and it's saving so many lives. It's making a huge difference. And so I hope that what we will see is the administration you're using every tool at its disposal, and at the end of the day, they should have more tools than Donald Trump does because they are the incumbents to hammer this home over and
over again with the right audiences. And I do think, look, I know that the State of the Union address would be forgotten, you know, in a week, but I do
think it was a reset. I think it's an opportunity to kind of look at at what is effective and what isn't in terms of communications, at start over again, at spend the next however many months we have until the election, making sure that they are talking to again, undred thousand women in eleven counties in five states who will decide this election.
So crazy, I mean, it's just, you know, we forget how small all these margins are. And it's funny because it's like, you know, I grew up in a time. I guess I kind of did. I grew up in a time, right, Florida. I mean, Florida decided that two thousand elections, so we shouldn't be so shocked at how small these margins are.
But I'm still so shocked at how small these margins are.
Yeah, I mean, you know one thing I worry about. I'm teaching your class right now at USC, and you know, these are kids who are under twenty two years old, and they don't get the value of their vote. They only have grown up knowing sort of this dysfunction in our political system, and they feel tired and they feel like their vote doesn't matter. And I even talk to people, you know, in my own age group who feel tired. And we just can't afford to be tired, because, as
you said, the margins are so small. We keep being told every election is the election of our lifetime. But it's true, the stakes keep getting higher. Isn't just for these federal elections. We have to be voting up and down the ballot in every single cycle. Our Volunteer Made Action volunteers run for office and sometimes win by less than one hundred votes. So that really means that your vote is incredibly powerful and you should be using it.
What is the pipeline between Mom's demand and running for office.
Can you talk a little bit about that.
Yeah.
So, you know, what we realized a couple of years in was that as soon as you gave women the skills, women gun violence survivors and now students, it was just sort of intuitive, right that they would say, oh, I know how to advocate. Why wouldn't I do it from the other side of this desk? And especially, as I said, after you spend time at state houses where eighty five percent of the lawmakers, our men, most of them are
white men, and again they are not rocket scientists. So our volunteers, I think we've had something like over two hundred win and hundreds of more run and you know, you don't always win the first time, so they run again. And so we have this program called Demand a Seat. It trains volunt tiers on how to run, what office to run for. And then because you are a months to inaction volunteer, you have really, you know, a built in kitchen table of door knockers and advocates and funders
who can help you win. And you know, the saying is if you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the menu. And we are seeing women's rights and freedoms on the menu everywhere. So I think there is a moral imperative in this country for women to run for office. You don't have to do it at the career, you don't have to do it for a life toing, But I do think you should look around and think about where you can help make a difference.
Yeah, Mom's demand really did change the game when it comes to gun violence. Will you talk a little bit about what that looks like.
Well, when I started a month to mean in action back in twenty twelve, about a quarter of all Democrats in Congress had an a rating for me in RA a quarter. So they were voting with the gun lobby. They were afraid to go up against them because what the gun lobby had where all of these grassroots supporters who were actually really just gun buyers, right, And when they had a bill up at the state House or at city council or even in Congress, gun extremists were
the ones who were showing up. And I think in many ways the Sandy Hook school shooting was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now, shame on me and every other white woman who waited too long to get involved while black and brown children were being killed in their communities for decades, and you know, black women were
advocating without much attention at all. But I do think that finally that was a watershed moment, and I felt like it was my job, it was our organization's job to teach white women when they came into the movement. You can't just advocate for the safety of your children and their schools. This is not just about an assault weapons ban. This is about unlocking dollars for community violence intervention programs. It's for background checks, it's for red flag laws.
It's a whole host of things to try to look at a complex issue holistically, which is what the bipartisan Safer Communities Act that Joe Biden signed into law did. But the last twelve years, Monsterman Action is now twice as large as the NA was, over ten million supporters. And we did what we set out to do, which is to crush the NA. They are no lawer a political power. The problem is that we did not account for the fact that the right wing would absorb the
dogma of the NRA and take it even further. Right guns are now an organizing principle for the right way, and I don't just mean around guns.
So guns are a.
Way to get new recruits in the door, to raise money, and to excite the base about a whole host of issues that have nothing to do with guns. That fever has to be broken before we start to see a real difference. But again, fifteen Republicans voted for the bipartisan Saper Communities Act. That is a seismic shift in American politics. Not a single Democrat has an a rating anymore from
the NRA. They're very proud of their ass So I understand that it can be frustrating because it's incremental, but it is happening.
Yeah, it's a real sea chain and a really important one. Thank you so much.
Shannon wants, of course, thank you for having me.
And no moment.
Jesse Cannon my young fast player from a few seasons ago. Mister Steve Minuchin, you may remember him as being part of the Trump administration.
Posing with a giant sheet of money and being married.
Sorry used to say, having a wife who made one of the most demented movies of all time and who is very young.
Today on CNBC, Steve Minuchin.
Lied about paying down the debt and he said he was starting to pay off the debt when he was in the Trump administration before COVID.
Of course that was complete fiction because.
They had recently passed an enormous tax cut and had no interest in paying off the debt. But this whole kind of weird fantasy about what the Trump economy was and not about the pandemic and the economic catastrophe that followed lying about the Trump economy.
That is our moment of fuckery.
Steve Mnuchin doesn't just pose with money, He's also a liar. 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.