Soledad O’Brien, Ian Dunt & Will Rollins

for California's forty one district. But first we have columnists at The Eye Newspaper, host of Oh God, What Now? In the Origin Story podcast, and author of How to Be a Liberal? Ian Done. Welcome to Fast Politics, my friend Ian Done. Like the podcast that happened before, it's pretty much exactly the same, Yes, it's it's almost exactly same. Anyway, Your country is small but really has an outsized influence on today's humor tactics. What is going on over there?

Such a continue? Well, we've just lost a prime minister. That took forty five days. That's how long Liz Trust got to be prime minister for, which is concidentally just a little bit shorter than the amount of time that the leadership election to select her took so in that alone, which is managing to achieve something extraordinary. You've gotta remember, right when I was growing up, I mean from to

we had four prime ministers since then. I mean, we are just reeling through these guys now and she's our latest. I don't know, are we her latest victim or as

she ares, It's impossible to tell at this stage. Certainly, the last three weeks have been some of the most astonishing and British politics that I've ever seen, which primarily involves a grotesque, contorted moral instruction as to what happens when you get sort of pure blood Thatcher right, Reagan Night near liberals in charge and just let them loose to treat the country as a laboratory. And what happens is they crash the economy, burned themselves to death, and

then instantly flee. This the crime. That's pretty much what we've seen. Well, I feel like the Lettuce. I mean, I don't want to bring up Lettus because let Us is such a pure vegetable. I guess the Lettuce didn't last forty five days, so she did last longer than let Us. No, were they cheated there slightly because I think they only launched the Lettuce countdown about a week ago. So the Lettuce one, yeah, the let us actually one, yeah, yeah, yeah,

the Lettuce one, hands down. It was a fucking knockout blow. Can the lettus become fromme, minister? Now? Well, that would actually be a pretty good option compared to the other ones that we've got facing us. I mean, the latest news coming in, I mean things are moving extremely quickly, so I don't know if this will still be the case by tomorrow, but it feels like such a venal appalling outcome that it must inevitably come true. Right, it seems like right, So it's it's that Boris Johnson wants

to come back. Yes, so of course from from his holiday in the Caribbean, he has sent in the national interest quote. Of course, the national interest is all that really concerned him. He is prepared to come back for the leadership election. The leadership election is going to take one week. It's going to be done by next Friday. Yeah, we why waste time. I mean, it's just your prime minister.

You get it done fast man, get it going. Remember the last one took months and months and months of the most deranged, reactionary hysteria as these guys just shouted at each other about trans toilets and woke woke karate and tofu and just the most blinked nonsense you could possibly imagine, while all the time you have this actual, objectively real threat of Ukraine and inflation and the currency sitting there on the sidelines waiting to stake over whenever

they were done. Congratulations, thank you very much. Yea, I know, we're very we're very proud of that. I think we're just trying to be world beaten. Is it the highest inflation in the world. Oh, I don't know about that, but it's pretty high. I mean, we're very impressed. All right, So where does this go now we have for us? Is he going to come back from the grim in or is he just going to stay there and do it on zoom? Well, who knows? Why should he even

show us that much respect? You know, he's the world king, right, so maybe he can just do the whole leadership election from his villa on the beach. But one week of the leadership election then, and this is the part that will just break my mind until the end of time. The current plan is to put the final decision back to the members of the Conservative Party Choice, and you're just like, well, what like they haven't done enough fucking damage,

you know. I mean, we're just saying they've exploded our economy. They selected Liz Trust, they demanded these kind of terms of debate for establishing who the new leader was. They were the ones that wanted the kind of leader who would sit there and say, I can't tell for sure whether France is an enemy of Great Britain or not. This is person that they decided they wanted. They've installed her.

It went hopelessly fucking tips up and now we're going to give them the car back after they crashed it into a brick wall and go off, you go, mate, have another try. And if it is that, if the if, thenmber zoo to Choice and this they probably will go for Boris Johnson. By the way, and so Donly, I mean, stop me as soon as this bores you, but I'm just I will just lay out the pure humiliation of

my country at length. There is a Standards Committee inquiry into whether he lied to Parliament over party Gate, which happened twelve thousand years ago during COVID time. Yes, I seem to remember it, right, So that happens next month.

So if they hurry up and install him now, he can then be found guilty by the Standards Committee inquiry, at which point he will have to leave and they can have a third toury leadership election just before Christmas, Mary, Mary, can you explain to us why you can't just have a real normal election. Yeah, because the Prime minister controls

when you hold elections. And essentially that comes down to the constitutional distinction between our countries, right, which is that the Prime Minister has no individual mandate, They don't have their own sort of autonomous political role, there's no support for them from the public. Party has a mandate, and the party has a mandate simply by virtue of whether it can command a majority in the House of Commons.

So unlike the President, who have you know, his own set of votes indirect but nevertheless his own set of vote, the prominence absolutely doesn't. So the party can technically swap and change leaders as much as it wants, because no

one ever technically voted for the Prime minister. Now, that is all just a complete fucking sham at this point, right, It's constitutional technicality which has no real political meaning, because when we have elections, they look very much like your elections, you know what I mean, Like you're going to put that person, whoever the leader of the party is, on the front of every leaflet. There is a sense that you're putting your trust in that individual, as well as

the party and as well as the local MP. So really it is at this point just a very bare skeletal technicality, but it is the technicality, and on that basis they can do it. However, we have never seen this. We have never seen a party change leader twice in between an election. So they are pushing at those constitutional restraints about as far as they will go. And you have this real sense, this very kind of dynamic sense of utter outrage that this is happening again, and demands

for a general election. And while there's no constitutional mechanism for how that would happen at the moment, the sheer sort of tidal wave of outrage might potentially get so severe that it would force political action. Can you just explain to us, I just want to backtrack for a minute for those of us who are not extremely online, what happened last night that made Liz Trust decide that it was enough. So it comes down to fracking. It's it's quite amazing. So I know that the debate is

slightly different over there. I mean here, fracking is you can look at all political issues and it's one of the least popular things you can do, right, left, young, old, university educated, non university educated, nobody likes it. Liz trust in her infinite political wisdom, and because she's an extremely sort of ideological right winger, decided she wanted to push her head with fracking. So she's at this point just before yesterday, and by the way, yesterday afternoon, there was

a chance she could survive. She'd given up most of her agenda. She calmed the markets down. All she needed to do was just tread war. But even that was too much for her. So she decides, right, we're gonna we're pressing her head with fracking. The Labor Party, the opposition party, said well, we've got to vote today in Parliament, and what we're gonna say is that all Tory MPs need to vote with us against fracking, or we're going to put out attack ads against them, you know, saying

your local MP voted for fracking, blah blah blah. The Tory Party under Liz Trust said, you know what fun that we can't lose this vote, so we're going to turn it into a confidence vote in our own government. That lasted for approximately three hours, at which point they become so terrified of their own MP's voting against them that a minister stood up in the Commons and said, I've changed my mind. It's no longer a confidence vote. Our own MPs can can kind of vote how they

like now. And it was just for a few hours, probably about ninety minutes. It was utter chaos in Parliament. You had several sort of ministers, actual ministers, the Health Secretary of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Business Secretary of Great Britain Northern Ireland, trying to physically force MPs into the no voting lobby. MPs screaming at each other

that they could go and sunk off. The Chief Whip, who is the main disciplinary unit in Parliament, trying to make sure that MP's vote with their party, just decided to quit right then and there, on the spot. Her deputy quit right then, and they're on the spot saying sometimes I'm almost quoting invibating here. I've had enough of this and I'm sucking off now there's an awful lot of people shouting the word funk at each other. Last night.

It was very much my kind of political scandal. And then about an hour later both of them decided that they hadn't resigned. So, I mean, really, we're sort of operating in a kind of Schrodinger's cat world of does the whipping operation exist? Have they resigned or not? Is it a vote of confidence in the government or not.

Tory MPs basically at the stage of actually fighting each other, you know, just off the floor of the House of Commons, and I think at that stage sort of Tory MPs were just looking at its thinking like this actually can't be allowed to go on for one more hour. And therefore this morning they came and went to where the men in gray suits as they're called, and basically told her the game's up, Love, you've gotta go. But let's

backtrack for one second. Weren't there also resignations during this period? Yeah, Well, that story I just told you was one of about five political scandals that we had yesterday. It was like half a year's worth of news more than that, really, you know, in the course of twenty four hours. Another was the Home Secretary Sweller Bravenman, who has no real cognitive ability to speak of, and it's essentially a kind of moral black hole roaming around Westminster. I mean, a

truly horrible, horrible human being. You know, someone who once said her greatest dream and aspiration this is almost a direct quote, her greatest dream and aspiration is to deport refugees from the country. And you just think, wow, well, what high hopes you have for your life. You know, she's like a Disney villain come true, basically, right right,

So she quit. She left his Home Secretary pretty much being pushed by the Prime Minister supposedly because of the technical misdemeanor about sending out documents about immigration from her personal email account. Clearly hasn't been following American politics closely enough to know how much long term damage that can do.

You're in opera, And then left with one of the most passive, aggressive minister of resignation letters I've ever seen, which she kept on saying, I have recognized that when I make mistakes, I have to quit because I see that that's how a serious politician behaves. And you think, is there's some kind of coded message that you're trying to provide to Linus. She also, by the way, and this is a particular sort of importance to me as someone who absolutely despises semi colon's, because no one can

clearly tell you what the semi colon is actually. Poor Glad, we've hit into the very important stuff here. Continue. This is the really cause, I mean, the stuff around refugees is bad, but the semi colon stuff is frankly unbelivable. She used two semi colons in one sentence, one sentence of no more than nine words, and for that alone, really she should have left her position. Where does Jeffrey Epstein's friend Andrew fit into this? You love this subject,

so I don't know. And even American taxpayers were paying for some pet files, room and board, I would also be stuck on it. He has, Yeah, he has absolutely nothing to do with this and the contact with it we did. We did have a very enjoyable early moment with King Charles. Now, oh that's right, congratulations, I'm getting your first job at sixty five. I mean our older stay. Yeah, and I think he's older. I think he's I think he's in the seventies. All right, well, congratulations. King Charles

explained to me how King Charles factored into this. So they had the Monarch always has a weekly meeting with the Prime Minister and always has that. I mean, you know throughout he obviously didn't have very many of them with Liz Trust, but he did have one, and they videotaped it, or the video taped the opening moments, and it is some of the most glorious King Charles content you will ever see. Does he yell at her about

a pen or now, no, mercifully not a pen. What she should have done, has gone in there with a pen and made him fly into a berserker rage. But instead it opens the door. He's just crashed the British economy. And he just looks at her and says, oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear you back again. Yeah, if you look up the video you will find it online. But dear, oh, dear back again is the direct quote of what King said. The Prime Minister turns up in his door, and for

that alone, I am lost in admiration. I want to hate him, but that is pretty good. He's sort of quite funny in his own He's just got this sort of broken well dressed autumnal melancholy to him that think suits us very well as a country. So I think he's going to be He's gonna be fine, as you know, for the next few years. So you think he's going to be your next prime minister? Honestly, if you put out a poll right now and said who would you

like to take? Should we just should we just let the king take over and go back to the take of absolute monarchy, you will probably get majority support for that. It does sort of feel like you're like, oh, well, maybe democracy doesn't work after all, because go back to the sixty hundreds it was a much more stable political system. So who becomes your next prime minister? About and by the way, if you're wrong, we plan to play this clip in our next Yeah that's fair enough. That's fair enough.

If I had to put money on someone, I probably say it will be Rishi soon At Oh wow, okay, probably. And he's a little smarter than everybody else, right, Yeah. I mean, he's wrong on pretty much any subject you put to him, but he operates within the realm of reason, logic, and empirical reality, and for that you have to give him considerably more credit than any of the last three Prime ministers that we've had, he wouldn't have done what

we've seen over the last few weeks. You know, he would have made sure that you're you know, you're making sure that the bond markets are not going to panic, that you're actually checking the work that you're doing at the Treasury and the Office of Budget Responsibility before you just start spaffing yourself crazy with with tax cuts. He has a bit more restraints and intelligence to him, he

is superior. The key thing really will be can they put any kind of restraint to make the Tory membership participation token Can they try to make sure that ultimately the MPs the Tories in Parliament stitch up the decision. If they can, I think it's going to go to Richie Sack. If they really allow a meaningful role to the Tory membership, then probably it will end up going

back to Boris Johnson. And so everything really comes down to they're currently saying the members will get to say if that's just tokenistic and symbolic, we might be all right. If it isn't, and they're really going to do that, things are only going to get worse from here. Oh, a late note, and Boris doesn't come back. Oh no, he definitely could if the members have a say. They love that guy, They absolutely love that guy, the hair, all of it. He taps into some fundamental part of

them that they find tremendously appealing. And they think he's a winner. Even when he's losing. They think he's a winner. They'll go for him above anyone else if they get a chance to do it. The question is are they going to get that chance? Oh Jesus Christ, thank you, Ian, Please come back soon when your country has another prime minister.

Oh thanks, see you very sure you. Solidad O'Brien is the executive producer of the Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks, which is streaming now on Peacock Welcome Too Fast Politics. Solidad O'Brien, Hey, thank you, thanks for having me. Okay, so we are here to talk about the Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks. Yeah. It's been an interesting project because I would have told you before we started this doc that I knew quite a bit about Rosa Parks.

But when the documentary came to me through our directors Ruba Richen and Johanna um Hamilton's you begin to realize, like, wow, there is so much that I don't know, and also a lot of what I think I know is actually not accurate. We we we base our doc on a book by the same name by Geene theo' harris. Really it's an excellent, excellent book. But this idea of Rosa parks as tired and grandmotherly and meek, and you know, just one day this accident. I think the New York

Times described her as an accidental matriarch. It's just not true. None of it is true. She's like a badass activist and was for for decades before the Montgomery bus boycott, and continued on in her life in the same fashion. So I'm always very interested in, Okay, what's the real narrative and also why does the other narrative exist? Why are we comfortable with the sense of of this woman's story being very you know, accidental, I guess would be the word i'd use. Why. Yeah, you know, I'm not

sure I fully wrapped my head around it. I think some of it is the story of activism being decades long, a bulb, slag, hard, a person who's angry and frustrated. Mrs Rosa Parks literally severely dislike white people. Her grandfather when she was young used to, you know, have a weapon at his side because he was afraid of the Ku Klux Klan. And she was angry that she was, you know, not allowed to do many of the same things. You know, the busses, for example, at the schools for

white kids were very different. We should very clear on all the different advantages that white children had that she did not have access to. And it made her very mad. And so I think that I think that there's just this comfort, especially maybe when it comes to black women, of it's sort of this accidental thing. Rosa Parks said no, she said, um, I was tired, no more tired than

I was of any on any other work day. I was tired of being treated badly and talked a lot about the Emmett Till story really being what motivated her on that particular day of the bus boycott. But but that's not I'm tired and my feet hurt, right, that's tired, and I'm sick of injustice and I'm sick of oppression and I'm not going to take it anymore. And that's

a very different story. Bus boycotts were extremely All of the activism of that time, but especially this was extremely organized by black women, by the way, and interestingly and amazingly, I mean, teachers would send notes home with the kids in school to say, you know, tell your parents not to put you on the bus because the bus boycott is going to start on Monday. Imagine being able to keep that secret. Like that's insane if you think about it. So, yeah,

it was very organized. It wasn't haphazard, it wasn't accidental at all. So I don't know why the story of Rosa Parks, who who was a big fan of Malcolm X, who was a fan of the Black Panthers, who was a fan of Dr King. There was very little that was not intentional about Rosa Parks. So but the story that we are later told was that she that all of this was not intentional. Yeah, and I think I think it was also a lot that we didn't know

about what happened. I mean, in my understanding, you had Rosa Parks, she didn't want to give up her seat, a seat by the way, that was in the middle of the bus, an area that was a little bit of a Noman's land, right, Black people could sit there until a white person came in. And then when the white person came in because they didn't want to sit next to black people, that black person would have to vacate an empty seat. That mean it was crazy. So then at the end of the bus boycott, it's resolved

and then it all goes back to normal. That would have been my retelling of what happened, And I think that's pretty typical of how we learn about the stories. But the reality is Rosa Parks was never able to work again in Montgomery her husband and never could get a job in Montgomery. The the story in fact, did not end at all for her. One of the reasons she moved on to Detroit was because that's where her

family was and that's where opportunity was for her. So I think even that little tiny detail kind of colors how you think about, like, oh, she was a civil rights legend who never was able to be employed again.

That's interesting and different than how we understand it. She moves to Detroit and is interviewed by a reporter who wants to talk about racism in the South, and she has a little dig in there where she says and in the north right because she is now in Detroit, pushing back and fighting against racism in the North in Detroit, and and very much being leveraged for her ability to help bring awareness to protests. So yeah, there was very little that was accidental about Mrs Rosa Parks. Yeah, I

mean that is so interesting. And I'm actually thinking about Watergate. The guy who stopped the Watergate Burglars, you know, was a person who ended up being so important in history and also had a very tough time, you know, like that kind of notoriety ultimately was very tough on his life too. Yeah, exactly. We talked about this, not as

much as I wish we had would. Black women gave Democrats the Senate, right, they have been like an enormous organizing force in the Democratic Party and an important voice

for political change in this country. This is part of that legacy, right, Yeah, Listen, I I think the contributions of women are very frequently overlooked, and some of that I think is just you know, he who gets to write the history kind of gets to pick the players that they highlight, and and it's very interesting to me to see even the women who were organizing the March on Washington, for example, right, didn't actually necessarily get to even speak at it at all you think about it.

So and that led to frankly a Rosa Parks not getting any of the financial upside that came with being the face and the voice of a new civil rights movement. Dr King would go on to give speeches to travel the world, and Rosa Parks who would also travel, but she just wasn't paid. There was one we have a stubb from from her her tax returns, where she and her husband combined made just under seven hundred dollars one years before they had to leave the state and and

go somewhere else where they could find employment. So I do think women's contributions are often overlooked, even when they're contributions are not just supporting contributions, which are important anyway, but are often very central. I think we just in history we just tend to overlook them. There there is a woman named Recy Taylor who fits very strongly into

the Rosa Parks story. Rosa Park's job as a secretary for the end of a CP is to travel around the country and record acts of violence against black people. Imagine that that's your job. I mean, that's crazy. So she goes to interview Recy Taylor, who has been raped by a bunch of white men on her way home from church, who have informed her if if she tells anybody, they're gonna kill her. Recent Taylor immediately goes to the

sheriff and reports it. But being the time that it was, there was no sense that justice was ever going to happen. And so Rosa Parks gets on a bus to go and talk to Recy Taylor, and just this idea of these two women, you know, both who know like there's no justice in the short term. There's Recy Taylor is recounting what happened, and Rosa Parks is taking notes and absolutely recording what happened because it matters to posterity, but not because it's ever gonna be solved or that the

men will be brought to justice. They won't. And so I just there's a certain amount of bravery in that, in doing that in the face of like, you're not doing it for yourself. Later, when there's a documentary um more recently now about Recy Taylor, you realize, like all those facts and data points mattered, It did make a difference, It just wasn't going to make a difference. In rec Taylor's life at that moment because justice would not be served.

What a heartbreak. It sounds like you've learned a lot from making this movie, from putting this together, But what were the things that really were shocked by? Yeah, you know, I think for our producers are director or producers, and our directors Ruba Richard and Johanna Hamilton's I think all of us we're just surprised at how little we knew about a story we thought we knew. I mean I I was shocked when I was told that there had

never been a full length dock in Rosa Parks. I was like, uh huh, but let me google does to make it? Doesn't? You know? It doesn't. That doesn't make any sense. And we've opened the dock with a great show called to Tell the Truth, which people of a certain age will people will be a certain age to

know it, and if you're younger, you won't. But a bunch of celebrities sit around and try to guess the identity of three people you know, and they you know, And each one stands up and says, I'm Rosa Parks,

and the next one says, I am Rosa Parks. And the third one says, I am Rosa Parks, and the celebrities have to figure out through questions who is the real Rosa Parks, And all the celebrities get it wrong until they come to Nipsey Russell, who has to accuse himself because he says he knows Rosa Parks performed at

an event for her. And you realize, like, here is again a woman who is so central right to what is happening in the country at that time, and yet you know, goes basically unnoticed, like no one can identify her. That is such a metaphor I think for how Rosa Parks and how history really has treated Rosa Parks. Yeah, I'll say, I mean, and also such a bomber, and our history has treated a lot of women of color

and women also. But at some point someone comes in and says, you know, she she wrote a lot of stuff. Maybe we should look at it. We should examine what she was saying and what she was doing, what was important to her and what mattered. And that to me is I mean, I think for anybody who's a journalist, right, it gives you the sense that it does matter that actually being the person who sometimes these days sometimes it feels like you're standing alone in a cordon Field show,

like this is not factually true? Why was a lie? Use the word live. But you know that it does matter to create a record for posterity, that that being fact based does mean something and it is important and we all should count that as having value. Let's talk about fact based since you're here. You think the media has learned its lesson? Not at all. I mean, I think you're seeing it right now. There's a great I mean, you know how much I dislike Crystaliza mostly I will him,

so in some ways it's unfair. I dislike him I mentally and I once was at a party and he looked at me and I looked at him. It was very awkward. Yeah, I would love that actually, because I literally would have no problem going on and saying like you are literally the symbol of mediocrity. It's like you have an important platform and every day you just undermine

it with stupidity. So today his heat tweets something about how we could all learn something from Wakonda about how cities like but or you could actually point to actual cities that exist. If you want to talk about how transport in cities could is really important to focus on and how we could rethink, like, you don't have to go to Wakonda, where's actually today, real live stories and you just undermine your own credibility at every turn with stupidity, And so I don't I think he's a very good

example of No. I don't think the media has learned a lesson because there's no but no consequence. There's no consequence for getting it wrong, there's no consequence for for lying. There's no consequence for giving a platform to people who lie. And I just don't think they've been able to figure it out. You know, social media has really given traditional media a run for its money, and that's who they're competing with. So you have to be more over the top.

You you have to get the clicks you and and if that means hate clicks or like clicks or or just oh my god, this is the craziest shift I've ever seen clicks, then then that's what you're gonna do, because that's how you're being judged. And unfortunately, I think I think our audiences, I mean, I anchor a weekend syndicated show, and we find the audiences really actually want

to learn something that's good. Actually, I can't imagine running into a news director's office saying we should talk about the power grid in Puerto Rico and how solar power is on you know, but but you know, that was our one of our best shows was literally going to Puerto Rico, and a big chunk of the show was talking about people who fearful of another storm and are as a mess, decided that they would work towards self sufficiency and really create, you know, build solar power in

their own communities. People were very interested in how people were making that work. That was a couple of million people watch that show, you know, And so it's you know, we like to do what is jerrymandering, explain how this process? Watch what happens when hospitals feel like they're not getting enough of a profit by having a baby center and instead, you know, can treat adults and that's better for their

bottom line. What happens to pregnant women, etcetera, etcetera. So I just think that this take on everybody needing a listical and a quick, funny, quippy type you know, analysis is stupidity. It's just and and the audiences don't want it. And there was a piece in York Magazine that sort of got to this in a weird way. But there's a theory going, at least in some parts of the far right media industrial complex, that this sort of wow factor of Donald Trump will not be enough to keep

audience is interested in. Yeah, I think they're learning that and listen that they should have come to that much sooner. People loved Donald Trump rambling on often like an idiot making no sense at all. Right, he's the classic word salady, like what are you even saying? This makes no sense, but that no one wanted to do the analysis of like this is nonsensical. Why is CNN keeping their shot on a podium with a countdown where nothing is happening?

It is not news. So but it's it's about an event, right, It's what we used to call event izing something, making it an event, so you can push viewers to that as opposed to So we're gonna explain to you what is happening, how this works, and what this means for you, because we're gonna center you in the policy. I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but it's doable. So yeah, I think the magic is wearing off because He's now become the equivalent of a bit of a like rambling

crazy person. Lots of anti semitism thrown in. Always been a little dashes of racism there, like okay, what's let's you know what's next. He might have worn out his welcome, but certainly no one a few are saying we need to move away from this as a whole. And and a good example is Kanye. Right, the number of people were like, what Kanye is saying is terrible. So coming up in the next half hour, we're gonna have our interview with Kanye where he will spew more anti semitic

content for us, and we're gonna be horrified. Stand By Chris Cuomo interviewing Kanye, He's in the back of a car staring out the window. It's dark out. Who even knew that was an interview option? Yeah, it's because it's not. Because no one does that. That is what they call low rent, low grade, low quality bs. No producer is going to let that shop through, right. No one's like, Okay, we got him, let's take it. It doesn't work like that. But again, if your goal is just to have him

repeat his you know, anti semitic talking, points. Then you're fine because guess what you get to make news people who are like, where the heck is Chris Pomo or you know. Now you put your little show on the map to some degree for some people. And and that's what it's about. And it's very I mean, it's not complicated.

That's literally what it's about. And while you can also tisk tisk, you know, Kanye West saying things that are consistently because he's been saying it a lot now, consistently anti semitic, it's right, it's not it's not shocking, right, it's shocking that it's shocking. Donald Trump goes to jail, yes, or now? I don't think so, because I don't think

America is really willing to do that. And I think a good example is, of course Nixon, right, that they didn't even let it get to Nixon admitting culpability, right, and which I think ultimately had a huge impact on the nation. I just don't think that is how our country works, and I think there's a tremendous reluctance to do that. I think you see it in the way people like to talk about Listen, normal Republicans, regular Republicans, right,

this idea that there's a really super normal Republicans. Then you have like the crazy people, and then you have the Democrats. And I think what you actually see is really the two Republican groups working in cots very much using each other and understanding that one needs the other. But when you want to believe in your little heart that there's this normal group that you can deal with and talk to and legislate with, you know, that shows me that there's a bit of a just a really

lack of understanding of how it's all going. Yeah, so interesting. Thank you so much for joining us Solidad O'Brien, thank you for having me. It's always nice to talk to you. One day we'll get to do it in person. Maybe. Will Rollins is the Democrat nominee for Congress in California's forty one district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Will Rollins, candidate for the United States Congress. And what's your district now called? It's California's forty one. Wow, So tell us the story

of the forty one district and how you got here, etcetera, etcetera. Yeah. So, I was a federal prosecutor for the last five years, specialized in counter terrorism and counterintelligence cases in the Central District of California, which covers all of Riverside County. Got into this race because I believe my opponent, Ken Calvert is a threat to our democracy. But the longer story of how I got here really goes all the way

back to high school. You know where all the popular kids started Model U N. Yeah, So I walked into my first class of the day on September eleven, two thousand one. It was a Model U N class. Somebody turned on the TV. We watched as the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, and, like a lot of kids who were sixteen seventeen eighteen, I started thinking about enlistening in the U. S. Military. But in my case,

there was one big problem. Closeted gay kid hadn't told a soul, not my parents, not my family, not my friends, and didn't want to be out. It was scared. So I thought about a different way to work in national security. Went to Dartmouth, took Arabic, thought about joining the CIA. Really sucked at Arabic. That was not going to be

my path. Eventually made it to Columbia Law School Clark for a couple of judges and was lucky enough to get hired at d O J and UM really loved being a part of the team that helps protect this country from threats from Russia, China, ran Isis al Qaeda.

But I was hired in under the Obama administration. And what happened after that presidential election, you know, huge rising the threats from domestic extremism, So whether it was you know, neo Nazis going after Charlottesville or q and on conspiracy theorists attacking US Navy hospital ships because they thought COVID was part of the government conspiracy, huge rise in hate crimes. And then January six, and I launched this campaign because of what my opponent was doing while those of us

in federal law enforcement we're responding to that attack. You know, he was voting to overturn the election. He was voting against a commission to even investigate the attack, and then called for dropping charges even after five cops had died as a result of that attacks. So that's why I got into this race. You're on the ground in it's a Trump plus one, but you know there's parts of that district that's very liberal and parts of the district

that are more conservative. I mean, what are you hearing from people? What are the concerns of voters? What are people talking to you about. It's shifted over time, but there are two major ones that I've heard consistently, especially after the DABS decision. I mean, and that's why I think we're building a pretty incredibly broad coalition that's going to flip the seat. So one is economic. No doubt that inflation is having a huge impact on our wallets.

But we've got a representative who historically has cared more about his own wallet than any of the rest of ours. Will you explain that to us for sure? So this is a guy who's net worth has increased up to twenty million dollars since he took office in and he's done that by using inside information and our tax dollars to fund his own private real estate investments. And this

is something that even Fox News has covered. Chris Wallace did a seven minute segment on Ken Calvert's use of tax dollars to put in a highway exchange near his own private real estate holdings that then led to a nearly half million dollar profit in the mid two thousand's. And so part of what I've been talking about with constituents and voters in this district is we need somebody to step up and fight against the kind of systemic corruption that is taking a real bite out of our wallets.

Because if you've got somebody in Congress who cares more about their own real estate dealings than actually delivering for their constituents, then we're not going to have a meaningful plan to fight against inflation. And that's why if you look at how this guy is going to vote, all

you need to do is follow the money. Hundreds of thousands from the oil and gas industry votes against cracking down on oil company price gudging, hundreds of thousands from big pharma, votes against capping the cost of prescription drugs and insulin. Glad that there are voters who are interested in some of the policy proposals I've been talking about, like banning all members of Congress from trading stocks, banning corporate contributions. So those really cut across partying lines. Really

there are Republicans who support that. Yeah, I'm ordinary Republican voters. Voters support it, but not Republican politicians. Right, that's right, And there there's a big opportunity for folks like me who are willing and to be fair, you know this

is a bipartisan problem. Yeah, And I think that's what's made me optimistic about our chances here, because when you can campaign on an idea that is as popular as banning members from trading stocks, and you're willing to say it again and again and talk about how that is going to help UM lower our collective costs because you can actually get, for example, also corporate contributions out of campaign finance, which is a heavy lift, but one that

again is popular and cuts across party lines. UM people want that, and it's it's great to be a candidate campaigning on popular ideas that the country really deserves to have enacted. Do you think it's a bit weird that Republicans are sort of getting all of these votes on the economy, right, Like you read these pollings and they say, you know, voters trust Republicans on the economy, but what

would Republicans even due to ease inflation? Right? In my case, I'm running against a guy who is running TV commercials lying to voters about what he even legally can do about inflation. So he's telling people I'm going to repeal the California state gas tax. That's basically what he's what

he's telling people in his TV ads. Well. As a federal legislator, he has zero authority over the California state gas tax, and there's no way that a Republican House, for example, bowl could get that done, and so there

are no credible plans. He's also a guy who has taken credit for infrastructure projects that he voted against, and I think this is you know, unfortunately, when the electorate becomes fatigued, it is difficult for voters, regular voters to just sort through the amount of bs that is put out from our elected politicians, especially people like Calvert who have refused to have any debate or exchange with me

of any kind. And that does a disservice to our entire democracy when people are willing to spout lies, won't debate their opponents, and expect to somehow cruise to victory on a platform that is unexplained or based on um entirely on falsehoods. What do you need now? I think we need to get turnout up and that that's kind of the second big issue that really I've seen again cutting through party lines. You know, I tell the story about my aunt was a lifelong Republican, changed her registration

and after the Supreme Court's decision in Dabbs. And I'm running against somebody who joined that lawsuit to overturn Row, who voted in for a national abortion ban with no exceptions to save the life of a woman, and who's even voted to allow child predators to sue to prevent their victims from getting an abortion. And I have had so many conversations with voters in this district that are

both Republicans and Democrats. I remember talking to Republican cops and firefighters in this district who have said, I've got a daughter, There's no way I want her growing up in a world where she doesn't have the right to control her own body or her own destiny. And I think if you look at every special election in the US House that has happened since Dabbs, you know Democrats are outperforming that Biden number by an average of five points.

And the coalition that we're building really cuts across the spectrum because there are so many people who are libertarians, who believe that the government shouldn't have a place in your bedroom or your doctor's office, who don't believe that federal agents should be dispatched to search medical files or to stop and arrest women before they board planes to travel to another state, or to cross state lines on a bus. That is an Orwellian nightmare for people across

the political spectrum. And when we're running against people who believe you should use the law to dismiss charges against people who who attacked the U. S. Capital, but that it's okay to prosecute women who get an abortion and their doctors. It is a testament to how urgent the moment is for the United States and why I think we will flip this seat because he is out of touch with most of Americans. What do you think Biden could do that would help you as a congressman running

in a purple district. I think we need to talk more about tax relief are working families, and I think we should have been talking about this from January. And there are a lot of economists who are understandably concerned about the impact that tax cuts could have on inflation

right now. But I think that it is possible to both provide targeted tax relief for people who are suffering the effects of higher interest rates, which are going to impact how much you pay every month for your car, how much you pay for your mortgage, and our ability to get some of those working families, like people in Riverside County where that family average income is about seventy thousand per year and they're seeing people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos pay zero dollars twice in the last

decade in federal income taxes. And we we as a party have an ability to champion those working families and to talk specifically about how targeted tax relief for that that folks in that bracket, while also making our tax system a little more fair, can both help put more money in the pockets of people who need it and also allow the Federal Reserve to do its job and get inflation under control without hopefully, you know, causing an

UH your recession. Wouldn't theoretically tax cuts actually make inflation worse because they would create more money and create more spending. Well, that's why I say it needs to be targeted, because I think and if if you look at all the studies on what's happening now with inflation, is the people who are really getting hit by it are feeling the people in the working families in my district, they're feeling the pinch of inflation as a punch. The people making

forty million a year, that's they're not feeling it. So there's a big difference between I think those targeted tax cuts and making our tax system a little bit more fair, um, and having people in the top four families in the United States who pay an average of eight percent pay

something similar to what the rest of us pay. I think if you balance that, while the Federal Reserve also raised his rates, there's a way to provide immediate relief for working families without adding to the inflationary problem because most consumers spending happens among some of the top income earners in the United States, and whereas people at the bottom right now are struggling to even fill their tanks

with gas or buy groceries at the grocery store. And when I'm running against somebody who has actually voted to increased taxes on Californians, because that's what Kevin McCarthy told him to do when he capped the state and local income tax deduction in seventeen and lowered that mortgage interest have UM. That's another issue that I've been able to

highlight in my district that Republican small business owners. I see a ton of them nodding their heads when I'm talking about it because they know, yes, their their taxes went way up thanks to that round of cuts, and in California, because we are, like it or not, a high tax state, and so you need that deduction to help your bottom line. And Calvert is the only candidate in this race who's actually raised taxes on a lot

of those um small business owners in in California. So you think a targeted tax cut for the for working people would help Democrats, Yeah, it is, and I think you have to be fiscally responsible about it. You can't just say that it's gonna be a tax cut for working families without also making the tax system more fair. But I think that is long overdue anyway. You look at our levels of income inequality, and we've reached sent a century high level of oligarchic concentration of wealth in

the United States. The top four d families here control of all wealth in the United States, more than a hundred and sixty million people. And it's really not about punishing success. It's about saying that if you are a small business owner, if you're a teacher, if you're a cop, you should not be paying more of a percent of your income than the wealthiest human beings who have ever

existed in the United States. It's just not fair. It's regressive, and in fact, what we're doing is punishing people who have to work for a salary for a living because they're seeing their income taken away each year, whereas people who are billionaires can borrow against their assets and pay nothing, little to nothing in federal income taxes. And so I think if you use this as an opportunity to make

that system a little more fair. We all know the Federal Reserve is going to continue to raise rates, but there are a lot of creative ways to make that system fairer and to keep inflation under control while also giving people at the bottom who are feeling the pinch of that inflation as a punch, a little bit more money in their pockets. Why do you think working people don't necessarily associate like democrats, You know, like we've seen

democratic president of the Lord, the deficit we've seen. Why do you think that that Democrats aren't able to sort of claim that Moniker is good on the economy, I think we get distracted in some ways, and our our messaging can be diverse and confusing. I mean, even the way that I'm talking about this now is not simple enough. And I'll be honest about that, you know, and we as a party and people like me as a candidate, cannot stop trying to simplify that message and repeat it

again and again and again. And I think if, as we had seen inflation continue to rise, if we had had a simplified version of what I just discussed on this on this podcast and explained how we can put money into the pockets of working families while also making our taxes toem more fair and keeping inflation under control, that could have helped. And I think that, you know, it's helping in my district when I talk about it

with voters across party lines. But we really can't give up on repeating that message about our fight for working families enough. I think we have to keep saying that again and again, and uh that message will eventually. I believe we can claim that mantle because we've certainly earned it. And if we say it enough and we simplify it, I'm confident that the voters are gonna eventually get that

and we'll turn out and support us in November. Thank you so much, Will Rollins, Thank you Molly for having me. Really appreciate it, Molly, John Fast, Jesse Cannon. You know, I tried to watch Tucker the other night. I lasted two whole minutes, but I just watched this clip you sent me, and I do not like it. You know, I watched some Tucker today in my hotel and then the cable went out, so I thought it was a

sign from God. One of the things that Tuck across and really loves is to use his rabid fan base to target journalists, largely women journalists. Funny thing that way overwhelmingly and he Brandy's a Drowsney got it on Tuesday went because Tucker was mad at her for something she had written. On Wednesday night, he went after Tiffany Cross, who's a young anchor woman who's black, and he did a sort of montage of different guests of hers saying

things he considered to be anti white. I mean, he really was working hard to try to find clips to get his space excited. And you know, as someone who has myself had the experience not with Tucker, but though he did say he thought it was stupid, but not with other Fox hosts and people like that, of being targeted by them, it's actually quite scary. I mean, emails get flooded with death threats and people telling you you suck.

You know, they say mean things about my kids on Instagram posts, and it's just a really grim way to live. And like Tucker knows he's doing this, but it works and it scares some journalists away, and that's the goal. I did notice that in this segment he said something about white women as the key to reproducing the white race, and you're like, can you believe this ship is on TV. We've gone really far down the rabbit hole in a bad way, and so we will honor that in our

moment of gray. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to your the best minds and 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.