Sen. Chuck Schumer & Ben Wikler

Then we'll talk to Ben Wickler, who's the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, all about the tight races there and why it's so important to focus your energy and your dollars there. But first we have Slade Sommer, who's editor in chief of The Recount here. Welcome to Fast Politics, Slade. I'm so happy to be here for the first time. That's right, you've never been to our new and improved many many times a week podcast, which happens pretty much all the time. The first thing we

have to talk about is the real queen has died. Yeah, I mean, if we if we need need a two week morning period for any nineties something year old queen, I mean the dimming of the lights for Angelo Landsbury is not enough. We need a cut we need a procession, we needed all. This was a woman who just personified all that is good in the world. So good night, good night to our sweet queen. She had a very good run. She lived to be but five days away from from her birthday. Yeah, I feel like we're lucky

to have had her as long as we did. Crazy weekend filled with crazy. First thing I want to talk to you about is um is a tunnel. Trump feels that the Jews as a Jew myself, I I feel it's particularly meaningful to me. I'm gonna read you the truth. It's not the truth, it's a trio is and also in for in quotes, Uh, no president has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly Comma, however, Comma are wonderful. Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than

the people of the Jewish faith. Incredible, incredible. I just want to say this, if you as a blanket rule and I think we can all agree on if you have said that actual literal neo Nazis contain very fine people, you have no right weighing in on American Jews. What is wrong you're willing is mashed potatoes. My favorite part is at the end when he says US Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel before it is too late. Explanation point. So

does he know something about Israel? I guess that that we don't know, Like, is he saying before it's too late because Israel will will be wiped off the map or something's going to be happening to American Jews that I'm not aware of. Yeah, I mean my guess is that this is some kind of little veiled you know, why aren't American Jews more religious? And what I mean this is really all about why don't they like me? Right? Yeah? Of course, at the end of the day, everything Donald

Trump does is validation seeking. Um, you know, usually for his father who was not Jewish. But you know, in this case, uh, the the millions of American Jews, many

of whom who do like Donald Trump. You know, that's the other thing, Like You've got a pretty sizeable number of American Jews who voted for you, not once but twice, which is to this American Jew is abs fucking littly baffling continue to I mean, look, I I you know, I had my bar mits for thirty years ago, you know, and the number one thing that I say to my father or all the time, or or did at the time was like, how do you or or any of your friends who voted for this guy in ten how

do you reconcile the fact that you are standing alongside people who want who see Jews eliminated? You know, how do you square that circle? And I've never, ever, ever once got an answer anyone I've asked that question. You know, it's it's crazy. It's backing the people who said Jews will not replace us quite famously in you know, got

a little pat on the back. If he really cared about American Jews, he would have come out pretty strongly and said like, you know, look, the Jews are not looking to replace your freaking tiki torches and polo shirts, your fucking clowns. It just is amazing. And I don't know how people square that circle. Speaking of voting for terrible, terrible, terrible candidates who can barely I don't a coherent phrase. Big debate in Georgia Hershell Walker with props with props

versus Reverend Warnock. I mean, what do you think? Yeah, so you know, look I don't want to come off as some you know, partisan you know, dick bag. I run a newsroom. We don't try and be you know, objective. We try and be fair about everything. And the thing that I really want to push back on is how many quote unquote neutral objective reporters bought the whole lowered expectations game. You know, Well, he didn't come out and piss himself on the stage, you know, which could have

very much could have happened. But yeah, very much could have happened, you know. But but like, actually look at what herschel walker said, and the expectations were not actually lowered enough. Yes, he had some coherent sentences, but he had a point. And this blew up for us at the recount this did you know half a million views

or whatever? You know, the fact that he doesn't understand the difference between healthcare and medicaid first and foremost, and then said Warrock wants to get you all on the government dole. But I think that he just wants to get you some of his healthcare, which is the government doll. Like he doesn't fundamental understand how the world works. I just do not understand how this guy is in a dead heat with a guy who has been a pretty decent senitor. Like I just don't get it. I do

not get it. I get it. They just don't care. They just want to partisan you know it, that's our next to his name, and they don't care. I mean, and to be perfectly honest, if it were herschel Walker, if it were Brian Kemp, or if it were some other you know, even David Perdue, for Christ's sake, if it were one of those people, it would be right now, no question. Even this close shows you how bad herschel agreed. I mean, my favorite moment though, was when he when

he got it. Like the thing that's like not funny about this is like this man clearly has traumatic brain injury, like and so it's awful to make fun of him is like what I make fun of myself for being dyslexic, what I make fun of like, like, you can't even make fun of him because it's really, honestly, it's just tragic.

I think it's like watching a Shakespeare play like it's I mean, you have a party that is cruelly running a man who's disabled, and so like I actually feel like it on some level, it really shows the innate cruelty of the Republican Party. Yeah, it really does. I mean they ran the same play with Donald Trump. Well he ran his own play, and now that are copying it, which is, we don't care about policy, we don't care about anything. We care about name recognition, and we care

about standing up. You know, somebody that is just gonna spout whatever, fucking nonstense and be a personal story, no politics, you know whatsoever, and you know, and and hope it works out. You know, worked out for Tommy Tumberville, worked out for Donald Trump, and it's seemingly still working out for herschel Walker. I'm not convinced that Warnock is winning

that election. No I'm not. I'm not either. I mean I think we're not going to know until until you know whatever, right, Well, hopefully we know like sooner than that, but what twenty four days or something. Yeah, I mean I think that's right. And it's the thing where herschel Walker though, was like, well you don't understand, I'm a police officer, trained with police officers, and then he puts up the he holds up the badge like it was like funny, but it was also I thought like profoundly

heartbreaking and weird and and sad. It was. I also loved that the moderators jumped in and they were like, that's a proper we agree, Like all of a sudden,

it becomes a process story, you know. And I just I just cannot imagine why so many journalists tripped over themselves and not not partisan journalists, actual reporters tripped over themselves to be like, you know, hey, he did find hey that you know, he actually did work with the with the cops, you know, And the best treat I saw on the subject and apologies to you know, my my grandfather who was a policeman, you know, who's been dead for thirty years, you know, but apologies to the

police community here. But like the best tweet I saw it was like, look, this guy has held a gun to his his ex wife's had maybe he is a police officer. It's but yes, it's I mean, but it is. I mean, so that's the thing is, like it does seem like we're in this kind of like uncharted totally. But ultimately and then I think we need to talk about Ron and on. Yeah, we certainly the great state of Wisconsin. Yeah, I mean, look, you know, so that

was another debate that was last week. And for all the talk of the Walker Warnock debate, the Rong John Barnes debate is even more interesting to me because you know, there was the Marquette poll that came out that showed it was pretty much a dead heat, but among likely voters it's a six point swing for Johnson. You know, this is Barnes had a little bit of a polling lead earlier, you know, as we came out of the summer. I actually think that's maybe run away. And so these

debates just do not matter. I don't think. I hope they do, but they do not well. I mean, I think what's important with Ron Johnson is he you know, Mandela Barnes was leading until Ron Johnson. You know, they ran a ton of ads. Yeah, they got some cash, right, and they made him sound like he was like, you know, light on crime, and that Ron and On was somehow

going to stop crime. I mean, it's such an interesting thing because, like Ben Wickler will talk later on on this episode about exactly the tax cuts that Ron and On delivered. Soon before Ron and On got an enormous donation from the people whose tax cuts he for the people who got the tax cuts. They then donated that money to Ron Johnson, who is now running ahead and

may very well win. I mean, just shocking stuff. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm flashing back thirty years to the movie Ghost and maybe maybe maybe Liz trust the you know, the uh, the UK Prime Minister. The spirit of Ron Johnson went into her like Patrick Swayze gave the Whippie Wilberg. You know, Ron Johnson got his spirit in there. You know, Orlando, it's autumn sunrise. Any other references to Ghost we can make, you know, I will say this about Ron Johnson, he is very committed to

the bit. You know, he got laughed at quite a bit in that debate by you know, quote unquote college students. I don't know whether or not that's true or not. I did not see the crowd at any point. You know, it's possible that he's actually right about that, that there were some young people who hate Ron Johnson in the in the audience, and they did really laugh and boo at him quite a bit. But it was also deserved.

I mean, there was that moment where it was like, say something nice about the other guy, and Mandela Barnes actually said something very nice about Ron Johnson, and Ron Johnson was like, well, your parents were nice. Why do you fucking hate America? You piece of ship? You know? Like that that is something you should boom, Like that is absolutely something you should boo. It is everything that is wrong. I don't give a shit about the civility.

I'm not the civility police. I actually think there's too much civility in politics, is you know. But at the same time, like, if you are asked to say something in ten seconds about your opponent that is nice, just do it and walk off the stage like a normal fucking person. I do not get it. I really don't. The number of times I've said I just do not get it on this podcast I apologize for. But like, there's so many things these days that I'm just like,

can you be a person? People are people? Just be one of those, right right? I know Bennon has pushed on the War Room that you specifically, he said, would you answer that question? No, you have to always be saying democrats are not human because the whole idea is now to dehumanize democrats. I think he listens to Bennon. I think that's a great point. Yeah, I mean it's also scary. I mean that's like what you that's what you do when you want to kill your opponent, right,

is make them seem like they're not human. So that's pretty scary stuff. I mean, I wouldn't put scary stuff past Bannon. Yeah. Sure, the radicalization, I'm not sold that there's like talking points that go out, you know, but like the radicalization of the you know, I'm gonna bring this back to the fact that Bannon ran Breitbart after

his hero, you know, Andrew Breitbart passed away. And the thing about Bannon is that, like he realized through that exercise, he was so early to the game, you know, between the Tea Party that he helped build and cultivate and then the bright bark Comments section, which really gave rise to Donald Trump, and then Donald Trump. Donald Trump gave

rise to so much in his stead gremlin style. You know, I do think that, like Bannon is the guy, and I'm not giving him like all the credit, but he is the guy who kind of married the tea party upset with the government philosophy with the kind of bullshit you know, radical bright bark comments aisle, and he found a way to foment this rage that so many people

follow these days. And you know, look, I don't put it past Ron Johnson's team to to watch the War Room on a daily basis, or or herschel Walker's team to watch the War Room on a daily basis. And you know, I think I think that like, instead of you know, this talking points thing, they all just get this sense of dehumanization for democrats, for you know, average people, and it's dangerous. It is incredibly incredibly dangerous, not just

for democracy, for actual living people. Yeah. No, I mean, look, we're in a country that is like a powder keg, and you know, all we we really need is people to be taking down the temperature. So whenever Ron and on or the this crew you know, makes it worse, I mean, it's just it's, you know, it's terrible, and like ultimately when you know, when something terrible happens but will be on their hands, of course, that doesn't make

any of us feel any better. Right, Yeah, I'm gonna I'm just gonna say one more thing about the subject of you know, herschel walk r memo oz Ron Johnson, you mean candidate quality. Actually, I'm actually gonna say the opposite of what you might think I'm about to say, which is regardless of what you think about the credative quality, which is, you know, my Mitch McConnell is becoming way

too much of a Tom Broke And I apologize for that. Yeah, but I still think it's better than some Mitch McConnell's go a little like Bill Clinton. Yeah, totally, totally, but you know, you got the cannon quality like a little sorry boy. But you know the thing about that is like it doesn't matter, and it's even more of a problem because nobody is focused on the fact that the Democrats are probably going to lose Nevada all of a sudden. You know, this guy, Adam lax All too is the

grandson of a former senator. His dad was you know somebody. He's the former attorney general. He's up on Catherine Cortez Masto in you know, obviously everything within the margin of area everything, Isa. I want to put that out there, but I do think that lack salt. I never make predictions, but I do think that lack Salt will beat Cortez Masto.

And now you're talking about the fact that the Democrats do need to really pick up seats and Fetterman is coming back to the mean as as you know, mement Oz is uh, you know, really hammering among crime, and the press is doing its part to hit him on the you know, the caption ing and the post stroke where which is ridiculous considering Fetterman can run circles around

herschel Walker and we're not having that conversation. But you know these states where Democrats said, we really could use a pick up here, you know, as like a bonus. You know, I think this Nevada thing is trouble for Democrats and I just think that, like you really, it would have been nice to sweep all three and you know, now I think it's much closer to picking up potentially one of those, which is just going to cancel out

Nevat so get her stuff. I think there's a lot of anxiety on both sides about how it goes down in the mid terms, and I think that anxiety for Democrats is, you know, is palpable. I am not in the business of giving Democrats any any tips, but I do not understand why abortion is not the number one

story in America. Every single day. They have allowed Republicans, they have dropped the mantle on that, and they have allowed Republicans to talk about crime in a way that look, there, you know, minor crime, you know everything, but violent crime is up. That is a fact, you know. But violent crime is not up, but they're still talking about it is if you could be killed any time you leave your house, and that is a massive problem because people

care about that. The Flapan report not great. So you've got Republicans hammering on these two prongs of you know, inflation and crime. And I have not seen abortion on a one in a month, six weeks. And you know, if i'm Democratic Operatives, I have to figure out a way to put that front and center again. Yeah, I mean I also wonder and again this is like I wonder why there isn't more January six, like one party no longer believes in democracy. That strikes me as an

important data point. I agree, And I think the footage that came out of Pelosi and Schumer um, you know, I was not expecting that. All I thought was they were going to do the vote on the subpoena and they said, hey, we have never before seen footage. That never before seen footage was incredible, and if I were a Democrat. I know that Nancy Pelosi is toxic and a lot of Midwest and Southern states, you know, but like, and I'm not saying for me or for Democrats or whatever.

I'm just saying, you know, in terms of the party line. And you know, I thought that she would appeal to independence and and humor as well. I thought the footage that seven minute video that they put out, I thought would would really appeal to independence, showing how they still wanted to get the job done. They weren't cowering, they weren't you know, going after people they weren't being part of. And they said, how are we going to clear this

thing and get it so that we vote today. She even called Mike Pence and and had a great conversation with my Pence and getting stone walled by the Department of Defense and and other places, having to call the

National Guard, having to called governors. You know, that footage to me where Republicans knew that Donald Trump would not lift a fucking finger to save them, and they all got together in a little bit of self interest and a little bit of the national interest, and said we got to get this done because this is a guy who does not believe in you know, he wanted to go down there, and you know pull Us had that very famous self punch him act quote. Yes, thank you

so much, like this was super interesting and great. Al Right, excellent, Molly, thanks so much for having me. Jetfie, thanks so much for having me. Take care Sarah. Chuck Schumer is the Senate Majority of leader as well as the senior senator from New York State, and he was so excited to talk to us today. We couldn't even get in a hello before he started to tell us as story about

what went down on January six two one. It's the night of November five, January the January, and it's the election in Georgia, and we know if we win those two seats that I will become majority leader, which has really been a dream and a goal of mine. And the election, as you remember, is very close past midnight. I stay up till four in the morning when the news services declared that Warnock and Asov had run and I will have achieved my goal of being majority leader.

I can't sleep, and I finally I get in the car the next day at seven thirty in the morning in Brooklyn, from where I live and drive down to d C. I get to the floor of the Senate at one pm on January six. It's my first time sitting on the floor as the putitive majority leader. Because you know, those two seats determined whether McConnell or I would be the majority leader, and to the surprise of many, we won them both. I was exil a rated. I get to the floor of the Senate at one pm.

I haven't given my even my first speech as the pudited majority leader. And at close to two o'clock, just an hour later, a police officer grabs me by the collar and I'll never forget that feel. He says, Senator, you're in danger. We we got to get out of here. And so we go. We rush out the Senate Chamber door and make a right turn and go down the hallway and then we open another door and there they are. There are all of these hooligans, all of these insurrectionists.

I was within twenty feet of them. Had one of them had a gun, had two of them rushed to block off the door, who knows what would have happened. Did they see you? They did, But we run out the door the other way, and the first time I knew there was a tape of this is during the impeachment here and where they showed a tap of all of this, You see us running out the door the

other way. So I called January fifth and six the Best of Times the Worst of Times, you know, named the first sentence in the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. So then they rush us out, and all the senators are put and are going into a room in the one of the house at the Senate office buildings. I want to go with them, but you know, the police tell me, no, no, no, since you are the leader of the Senate. The four leaders are sent to a secret place. We're not even close to know

what it is. They always have one. There's one now and I don't know what it is. I can tell you what the other one was then, because it's no longer the secret place once it gets exposed and used. It was Fort McNair about a mile away. Get there and separately their details have brought Pelosi, McConnell and McCarthy and Pelosi and I, you know, we said, what is going on? Why isn't the military here, Why isn't the

National Guard here? And why doesn't that the president called people to leave, you know, because no one knew exactly what was going on then, even though we knew we had fomented it. So we spent much to the afternoon trying to get and this came out in this tape that Alexander Pelosie Nancy's daughter done. I didn't even know she were doing a take a filming of this. Probably if she had asked to said I don't know if it's appropriate, but there she wasn't and ended up doing good.

So you were with those other two GOP leaders. There's one good part of that, but it's Pelosi and myself mainly trying to get the Secretary of Defense, the attacting Attorney General, the heads of the National Guard, the governors of Virginia and Meryltis send someone there because it was clear that the capitol police were outnumbered and couldn't handle it themselves. And you know, we got very unsatisfactory answers.

I was just furious at the acting Attorney General. I said, go order this and go tell Trump to put out a statement that they should leave the capital immediately. And they were just fuming and falling. You know, they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. It took a long time, much too long to get the military, you know, the people from either the National Guard or en forces there to clear the capital. Why do you

think that was well? We learned later there was very poor communications between the Capitol Hill police and these groups. They had not been prepared for it. They underestimated the seriousness of Donald Trump's calls and the right wing groups calls to go to the Capitol. But they were just unprepared and the chain of command was rotten. I called

on McConnell because he was the lead. He had picked the pre chiefs, previous chief of police and sergeant at arms to fire them because they were so bad, which they did. They did. He fired the I believe it as the sergeant at arms, and then the police chief went as well. But then what happened was a good moment in American history. McCarthy and McConnell, the two Republican leaders Pelosi and myself get together and say we should not let these effin insurrectionists destroy our democracy. And it's

imperative to see that the democracy continued. And so we said, let us go back to the Capitol and resumed counting the votes. Police and the law enforcement people were strongly against it. At one point Pelosi was trying to look for an alternative place, but the consensus emerged that we got to go back there. Law enforcement didn't want us to go because they said, we're not sure we've cleared out the whole place. There could be someone there, Someone

could have put a bomb in there. We haven't looked at all the stray packages and pieces of debris that we're floating around. And we said we don't care, and so we resumed at eight p m. We resumed the counting of the votes, and it went till three in the morning, and we did it. And that was a

good moment in democracy. And while in my judgment, both McCarthy and McConnell have been far too supplicant to Trump on most of this stuff, they should be denouncing right now the lies he is telling about the election, which has do so many people. At least that was one fine moment. Unfortunately, they retreated from that fine moment in the later days and still are in retreat, and they're letting Donald Trump throw the country into turmoil. When you

saw them in that secure location, were they scared? I don't think anyone was scared. We were just furious about what happened and resolute that we shouldn't let these guys win, and we ordered do everything about it. The trouble is that you command, the head of the country was in their favor, and so to get the army, to get the National Guard, to get everybody to work when he's the head of the chain at command wasn't so easy. And look, there were not enough people in the administration

who stood up to him. The attorney and all those secretary of Defense should awarded it on his own, on their own. They didn't, um So tell me what happened after that. Well, after that, we counted the votes, and you know, we went back and we tried to both figure out who should investigate. As it turned out, McConnell didn't want an investigation, so it's only the House investigation. But I have to tell you they did a very

very good job. I think it was very good actually that Alexandra Pelosi filmed it so people can see the history and see what happened. I was unaware of it. I the first time I saw those takes of what happened there was when they were shown at the hearing, I didn't even know that. Do you wish that they had started impeachment that night when the Republicans before the

Republicans could get like re brainwashed. Well, if not that night, in the weeks after, some people say it should have happened, but you know, the House had to set it up and set up a committee and see that were they were unsure if this kid would have been much better if it were bipartisan, and the Republicans were hemming and hawing. So you know, there's some criticism, but I don't give them criticism. I think that they did the best they

could under very very difficult, unusual and unique circumstances. Nothing like this had ever happened. So what happens now? Let's talk about the Senate map. Right now, there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast, including my husband, who want to know what the mid terms like, who they should be you know, got a couple of weeks left, who they should be focused on for these mid terms. Yeah, well, first let me say this. You know, four months ago,

all the pundits and all these prognosticators, etcetera. So there's no chance Democrats will keep the Senate it is fifty fifty. It's very tough. And let me just say before I go into what will happen, I am so proud of what we did these two years. We had one of

the most productive session Senate's in history. We've done amazing things with the first major bill on climate which will reduced the carbon going into the atmosphere by the first time that we've gone after the prescription drug companies and lowered Broupal's drug prices. From the author of the Brady Lawn assault weapons ban, I really care about rational laws

on guns. We had the first laws in thirty years that actually did some good and you know, and didn't let young people go out eighteen year old and go out and buy assault weapons. We did a whole lot of good things. We saved people with COVID and brought the vaccines back, be the biggest infrastructure bill in the history of the in the in decades and decades. We reformed the post office, which had been going, you know, getting real trouble. So we did so much. The list

could go on and on. The Chips Bill, Chips and Science Bill. I just announced along with Governor HOCl that we're going to have the biggest project ever in upstate New York on chip fabs, four big chip fabs, a hundred billion dollars, the size of forty football fields. So all of this was great stuff that we did. Now that's why there's an imperative I think to keep the Democrats in the center and the Republicans were in charge.

What were there? Big things putting right wing judges on the court, will repealed row By Wade, and did a lot of other bad things that are anti environment, anti women, anti union, things like that. And then the other thing they did is tax cuts on the very rich, exacerating the income. So there's a real difference between the two parties being in charge, and it makes a real difference

to the average person. What do I think will happen? Well, they said four months ago, they said we don't have a chance, but we caused we'd accomplished so much and did a lot over the summer. So proud of our caucus. You know who got this done. You needed fifty votes running from Bertie Sanders to Joe Mansion. We did it. They said we didn't have a chance, but now people think we do. Now there's a huge amount of dark money coming in on the Republican side, and they're putting

on all kinds of commercials which shade the truth. But I'm still very hopeful we will keep and maybe even enlarge our margin in the Senate because the people know we're on their side. The people know that they're sort of a right wing cabal led by Donald Trump running the Republican Party, and even those who say they, oh, they don't really agree, always go along with it. But who do you think the listeners of this podcast should like? Who would be people you would push? You know, it's

a very close race in Pennsylvania. I would ask people to send their small contributions, to do phone banks, even to go there and knock on doors. That would be important, very important state. Nevada is a very close state. But Georgia you've seen, you know, it's a tough state for Democrats. Nevada, Ohio, Arizona, these are states in New Hampshire that really are close. They're all close, So any of the eight battleground states

I would recommend people get involved. This is so interesting, and thank you so much Leader Schumer for coming in and talking to us about what happened and were you just floored? I was surprised. I mean, I recognized, I recollected what happened. Obviously, it all happened, It's all true, but I had forgotten the vividness of it. So there it is. Yeah, it was amazing and everybody was very brave, and I think it would have been I would have been really worried. Yes, me too, you know. All right,

Thank you, Molly, thank you, thank you very much. Ben Wickler is the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Welcome to Fast Politics, Ben Wickler, Thank you so much, Molly. It is great to be with you and your beautiful, beautiful listeners. Ben your what is your title? My title is chair of the Democratic Party. It was kind okay, So you I knew about you for a long time, and I knew that you you were sort of very well respected, and then you decided to go home to Wisconsin,

which is where you're from. Is that right, That's right? So I grew up, Yeah, I grew up in Madisone. Actually moved back into the house where I grew up and Ranford chair in the spring of and now work with Democrats all over the state of Wisconsin in rural areas and cities and suburbs and exurbs to get out every possible Democratic voter and make the best case we can.

Because elections, over and over, presidential elections, Senate majority determining elections, governors, races that decide whether we will have a constitutional crisis in four they all happened in Wisconsin. So I want to talk to you about this because we've had a

lot of the ladies of Legislature of Michigan. We've had all of them on this podcast, from Gretchen Whitmyer to you know, to Dana Nassall, and I've been like really prized at how Michigan has really you know, they've sort of managed, in my mind, to kind of turn it around. You know, they have this militia and these women who are running that state are fighting back, and it's just sort of fascinating. Wisconsin is a different kind of state, but still a swing state. Will you explain to our

listeners what is happening in Wisconsin. Yes, So, Wisconsin is a state that has a deep progressive history and tradition that I'm incredibly proud of and and grew up you know, learning about and feeling like that was the real part of our state where the first state to declare the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. The Republican Party was born as a radical anti slavery Party of Wisconsin. First state ra ratify the Nineteenth Amendment for state to have public sector unions,

protections for LGBTQ people, survivors are domestic violence. The state that produced the people that wrote the Social Security and Medicare Act, all these great things. But we also have this history of really intense hard right politics, including Tail Gunner. Joe McCarthy was the Wisconsin Senator. Yeah, he put my

grandfather in jail. We're not fans in this family. Well, the party that I lead, Democratic Party of Wisconsin, was basically reformed as a Progressive Party in n to counter Joe McCarthy and the you know, there's a very clear turning point. When Wisconsin used to have the Progressive Party, it was actually the had one gubernatorial races, We had socialist mayor's in Milwaukee. There's a whole bunch of pieces, but they came together because of Joe McCarthy, and we

have been, you know, fighting ever since. So we're the only state in the country where four of the last six presidential races has come down to less than one percentage point eighteen the governor's race, our friends in Michigan won by ten points. We won by one point one points, which is a Wisconsin landslide, but is brin close. If you look at the population of each state, Michigan is

fifty one non college educated white voters. Wisconsin is Scott Walker, when he was governor, passed a series of laws that made it very hard to vote, especially targeting young people, people of color, people with disabilities, low income people. So in the if you look at the index of the states where it costs the most time and money to be able to cast a ballot, at the very very

bottom of the list is Alabama. Forty six is Texas, forty seven is Wisconsin, fort is Arkansas, forty nine is Mississippi. It's a voter hostile environment created by Scott Walker to to rig the rules right in a way he was a visionary and making it order for people to vote. I here's an example of this kind of related things. So we also have extreme Jerrymander and unlike Michigan, there is no ballot initiative process, so we can't have a referendum to demand fair maps as they did in Michigan,

so you can't do anything. Well. The path to getting fair maps, there's two different ways that we can do it. One is hold the House when the Senate pass the Freedom to Vote Act in John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And if we do that, that band's partisan gerrymandering at the state level and we'll get fair maps here. So that's Plan A. But Plan B six months later, we have a state Supreme Court race on April for the majority of the State Supreme Court and for the for

the seat that will determine the majority. And if we win that, then you could imagine a state Supreme Court striking down the ultra ultrapartisan gerrymandered maps here. Um. In the meantime, we have to prevent Republicans from getting two thirds super majorities, which they could realistically get on November eight. So the down ballot races here are incredibly important and a huge focus for us, alongside the governor's race and the Senate race and the Attorney General's race and these

other pieces that the whole country is looking at. I'm scared. This is very this seems like daunting. Tell us some good news, please. So the good news is that we won in eighteen by smashing all of our previous records for grassroots organizing, for knocking indoors, for these local neighborhood teams that are are organizing. Program is built around and what normally happens in midterms after you and the presidency is the energy dies down, the number of volunteer shifts

drops and doors knocked down. We're breaking all of our records this year. Oh wow, tell me more about that. That sounds good. There We've had millions of voter contact attempts driven by our hundreds of teams all over the state. And I was just at an office opening last night. There's there's all these people that are fired up and

just like signing up for shifts every single weekend. I think We've raised four times as much money through the state party this year as we did in eighteen, and I've been able to provide a ton of support to the governor who's running a powerhouse campaign. I mean, again, on the daunting side, it's been sixty years since the Democrat won the governorship in a year with the Democratic president, and sixty years ago was right after the human missile crisis.

So JFK was super popular and we won by a single percentage point, so it's not you know, it is it's hard, but we are tied or headed in every single poll in the governor's race had by one or two. But it's you know, there's no no one has found a situation where the Republican has a lead. And that

means that it is within reach. Like if we do everything we can every second until the polls closed on November eight, and then you know, after that, everything we can to make sure every provisional ballot, every ballot cure opportunity, everything happens. Uh, we we have a very real shot

at making history and doing this. And if we do, we stop Republicans from being able to overturn the next presidential race because Wisconsin was the tipping point state in both and it's it's Republicans get the governorship, they could throw the next election even if Trump loses. But if we if we're able to win this, uh, you know, we can actually create a sea wall with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania's governors to prevent Republicans from being able to

overturn the race. And that is something we're writing for. This is so insane that we have to like do this to keep Republicans from overturning the election. I mean, this is what is necessary obviously because one party no longer believes in democracy. But it's so insane. I mean, it's just like we have gone down the rabbit hole and we are just used to this now. But it is like it it's always worth like pulling back and being like, holy shit, there are no grown ups in

the Republican Party anymore. It is really wild and it's I mean, it's a lived reality for people in our state. Like the Republicans in our state legislature poured more than a million dollars in taxpayer funds into a special council investigation into that just ended a few months ago, and the guy in charge of it is a conspiracy. Theorist recommended retroactively decertifying the election, which is not actually a

thing that you can do. And Tim Michael is running for governor, said everything, like he was asked about this and he said everything is on the table, Like we're living in this, you know, totally disconnected from reality world,

because that's what Republicans are defining our politics as. And like our job is to keep trying to like cut holding that in touch reality, Like in Wisconsin right now, we have a law that was past that bans abortion in almost all cases, and the Republican Canada for governor says that this is an exact mirror of his position, and our governor is suing to strike it down with the attorney general, and we have a decent shot at like it's a it's a law that you know, there's

a very strong argument that it's been superseded by many other laws that have been passed. But because no one is sure, and because the Republicans running to lead the state want to throw doctors in jail and investigate people for miscarriages to see if there's a crime that's been committed. Like that, you can't access an abortion legally in the state of Wisconsin right now. You can't have an abortion

in Wisconsin. Yeah, all the providers are shut down. And that's because why they went back to the old laws, right, the pre ROW laws. Yeah, and they like there are several laws about abortion access that were passed after Row

on the assumption that ROW is in place. And so the governor's argument in court is that those laws should be the ones that we were vert to now, not the eighteen forty nine law, but no court has decided yet whether the eighteen forty nine laws in place, and no hospital, you know, and doctors like they don't want to be investigated and thrown in jail. You can't get insurance for a practice that's providing services that there's no

clarity about whether they're legal or not. And so like the clinics in Wisconsin have shut down, and people are like, there's a story in the Washington Post about someone who had neck topic topic pregnancy and was like bleeding for ten days before doctors decided should reach the threshold in the two doctors have to agree that your life is before they'll do anything. And it's and it refers not

to pregnancy. It refers to the abortion, which is a procedure that's used in cases where there's no there's not a viable pregnancy happening. And I think an important thing to specify here is and a topic pregnancy is a pregnancy that happens in the flopian tubes. There's no world in which a new topic pregnancy can ever lead to a baby period paragraph it doesn't happen. So this is like they're deciding whether they're going to let her die

or not. Yeah, the discussions that ob GYNs are having about like do you wait until someone goes into sepsis before you declear that it's a life threatening situation. It is a dystopian it is It's horrific, and this is what they want, Republican candidate for governor wants. So making sure that but like people understand that those are the stakes in this in this moment, and it could go

either way, and it is tied. And if you know, people for anywhere in the country, if you call Wisconsin voters, if you donate to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin or the governor's campaign, the attorney general's campaign, if you're in Wisconsin, you knock on doors, like this could come down to a couple of votes per ward across the state. It did in the last three major state wide elections. Literally, like you know, two or three voters in every ward

determine the state wide result. It's that close, and it looks like it's going to be that close until the final the final moments. So I'm going to throw up. But first and Jesse, I can feel Jesse's anxiety even while he's muted. I just want to ask you what is happening with Ron and on? Oh my god, So Ron Johnson, I could spend a couple of hours talking about how absolutely terrible he is. I mean beyond the pale,

beyond the pail. And he's you know, he's monitored personhood amendments that have no no exception even for the life of the parents. He's why should he I mean he's no, yeah, he isn't like women, I mean, forget it. Yeah. He said that if you don't like Wisconsin's abortion laws, you can move That was his response. But of course he's also trying to pass a national abortion band. He also said, well, why don't we just have a referendum, which he knows that we don't allow our friend to in their state.

So the governor actually called a special section of our legislature and then Ron Johnson said, oh, no, we shouldn't rush this. He's he just doesn't want people to think about what he's trying to do to them, and the the you know, there's that there's also he's really the only senator in a in a tough reelection fight who's openly talking about putting Social Security on the chopping block. He wants it to be voted on every year about whether to cut it or abolish it or what to do.

So social security is one of these things where it is wildly popular. I mean rich, even rich people feel entitled to their Social Security. I have seen this firsthand. So security must poll at point. Now, you know, nobody is like, no, I don't want the money I've been paying into for my entire life. I don't want that. So I don't understand if Republicans are taking these wildly unpopular views. Why are voters not understanding that or not seeing it or not voting against it. I mean, we're

working to make sure people do know about it. But this is right now. What Ron Johnson has done. His one major achievement in the Senate in terms of actual laws is that when Trump proposed a giant tax cut for the wealthy, Ron Johnson said, no, I'm a no vote unless you add a giant tax cut specifically for

people who own pass through companies. And it happens that the two people who like poured thirty million dollars into his last campaign, their multi billion dollar companies are structured has passed through corporate entities rather than as you know, ce corporations it's like a tax talk about a return on your investment. That is that family that starts with the name starts with the U, right, yeah, the U Lines.

The U Lines are the biggest funders of the Stop the Steel rally, and they had poured, you know, giant amounts into his race. Is some of the biggest Republican donors in the country. And then Diane Hendrix is the wealthiest woman in Wisconsin. She owns ABC home. She also poured a ton of money and both of their companies

are passed throughs. Those three people. They got a two hundred and fifteen million dollar tax cut in the first year just because of Ron Johnson's proposal, which is by the way, the most aggressive tax cut that the former head of the Drug Committee and Tax Station had ever seen. He called the Congress is worst tax idea. So they

got this giant payout and they have this time. They've set up the biggest single candidate superpack in the country that spent twenty two million dollars running ads twenty four hours a day in Wisconsin. Just like basically lying about crime and trying to demonize Mandela Barnes, whos are a great democratics sented candidate and the just on splot and

also they are racist these ads too. So they show like crime scenes that are fuzzy and they it's like put Mandela Barn's his name on them and they like circle in red, you know, someone running, and then they zoom in on Mandela at the end and say Mandela Barn dangerous. Different. Yeah, I mean that's not subtle at all. This is not a racist dog whistle. This is a bull horn. But the whole thing is like trying to get like, if you ask voters, there's a poll came

out this week. Voters are not generally afraid for their personal safety, but they think that this is there's now a crime crisis happening across the state. So depending on how you look at it, like there's a most of the polling is finding the race is tied or like

a one point race. The Marquette University Law School poll that came out yesterday found that if you ask people the likely voters, which they turned as people who say they're absolutely certain to vote, Mandela is behind registered voters. Mandela is tied with Ron Johnson. And the whole thing is, you know, an attempt to terrify voters about a racialized

crime wave that is not happening. And our job as Democrats is to cut through that say, like, you know, he's they're they're trying to scare and divide us so that that they can rob us blind no matter what we look like or where we live. They're coming from some security and they're taking aware of freedom. And that's that message getting out and enough volume is the key to being able to turn this, to turn this into the

year that Ron Johnson's political career ends. What's so striking to me about this Ron Johnson campaign is that a few months ago before these ads started in August, Mandela Barnes was running about six seven points ahead that so here there was a poll that had in seven points ahead. Our view has been that this is almost certainly a

toss up race all the way through. If you look at that poll, about a third of the voters didn't know anything about Mandela and so it was basically a referendum on Ron Johnson, and who sucks exactly like if it's a referendum on Ron Johnson, Johnson loses. So Ron Johnson's whole thing is to try to turn this into a referendum on Mandela Barnes and blackness. Yeah, I'm like a caricature on blackness, like a version of Mandela that doesn't you know, his only exists in the minds of

the Republican you know, superpack ad makers. You know, Mandela is the son of a public school teacher and a third shift autoworker and knows he's been on this podcast before. He's really impressive. He is fantastic. And the more people here directly from him, like people like him across the state. When they hear from them, people are really into it and they get that he gets them in a way

that they know that Ron Johnson doesn't get them. Like, we have to make sure people actually see the actual Mandela Barnes, and then we have to punch back against Johnson, who is you know, his entire he's a he's a very wealthy individual because his father in law was a billionaire who set up his brother in law and him with a company that had one customer, which was the father in law's company. And so he's running as a kind of self made businessman. But that is the actual

source of his wealth. And incidentally, his company was structured as a pass through also, so he cast out for five million dollars after that tax gout that he passed for donors. That's his thing is, you know, scare people, divide people, spend conspiracy theories, cover up for Trump's crimes, and then with the other hand, shovel money to the people that keep him in office, and uh, you know, take a cup for himself. And that's like, the more people know about the reality of this race, the better

we do. And that's that what runs out than terified of. So I appreciate that you've had Bendela, and I appreciate the chance to talk to you about it. Like, this is a race that we can win. That is, you know, if we if we ask all the voters, it is tied right now. We just have to make sure we cut through the noise with the truth and and punch back as hard as were getting punched. Yeah, thank you

so much. This was so interesting, Ben, really really grateful for the chance to join you, and thanks for all all you're doing and thanks for your listeners. I should say they can volunteer with STEMS dot org slash volunteer. We will put people to work no matter where they are every second from now until the end of the election. It's worth the time, Molly junk Fast, Jesse can in Man. You know, when Joe Biden's eating ice cream, I'm like point five or son happier, which is a lot for me.

I mean, I as someone who's a regular ice cream eater myself had it last night. My favorite thing about him is like he's he's quite thin, but he's always eating ice cream, which it really is true, which is a reason that I stopped eating so much ice cream. It's sort of impressive to me. But one of the great moments in Joe Biden dum was him saying and I didn't think he was dumb. I actually thought it

was brilliant, hilarious, and he was absolutely right. So the clip is Joe Biden eating and ice cream being asked about the I think what will soon be Britain's shortest serving prime minister. Liz to us she's not going to outlast that head of Lettuce. After all, we should explain to the audience that a British TV show right now has a camera on a picture of Liz trust and ahead of Lettuce to see which one less longer. Okay, here's the clip. Well, it's predictable. I mean, I wasn't

the only one who thought it was a mistake. And yeah, but look, yeah but I think that the idea cutting taxes on the super wealthy time money anyway. I just think that I disagree with the policy that's up to written to make that judgment. Not only where's your money the Lettuce or Liz Trust, I still think the let us Outlives list trust his political career. I'm with you. I'm running over to politic Better or whatever we could

do to a place that bet for us. Now, with all the Royalty body for this podcast, exactly, 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. MHM.