Have Republicans Jumped the Shark

should not have been in possession of. Because guess what, there are documents that belong to the United States government, to the American people. But that is what is being stated right now. We do not know that for a fact,

but this is what I will say. Coming up in today's interview is with the communications director for the Frontline, a coalition organization that brings together a diverse coalition of people who you know are part of a marginalized community, vulnerable communities to our ever crumbling democracy, Leslie Mapp and I will get into a conversation about what are the

challenges that democrats are facing right now? And I say that because there are still many challenges that we are facing even though there have been a series of legislative wins that we have finally seen that we haven't seen in this country in decades. Right, and they did so with their fifty one to fifty margin in the Senate. We're talking about, you know, on incredible packages like the Inflation Reduction Act, like the Chips Package. We're looking at

things that the American people actually need. And what we realize and what we have known here on woke a APP is that Republicans don't give a fuck about what it is that the American people need. They don't even want you all to vote, right, And it isn't just about making sure that black and brown people don't vote. It's also going to be making sure that Democrats across the gamut are unable to vote right, that you no

longer have a voice, that this isn't a democracy. That we will weaponize institutions and agencies against our political opponents and foes, as evidence by Kevin McCarthy's tweet following news that Donald Trump's moralago home was in fact searched by the FBI with a lawful fucking warrant. Right. And So, but here's the thing that we have known the Republican Party has been showing its entire ass since their bullshit Benghazi hearings that they did that came up with, guess what,

absolutely fucking nothing. So while they wanted to turn around and say that, oh, the impeachment inquiries and the Mulla report, we're all witch hunts, guess what those actually ended with motherfucker's being indicted. Donald Trump just happened to offer up pardons in his pardon parade that he did. But if not for Donald Trump being pardoned, fucking a general would

be in federal fucking prison right now. I'm looking at you, Mike Flynn, who was part of the architect and the idea of overthrowing the government to secure Donald Trump in the presidency for twenty twenty. You're looking at people like Roger Stone that would be in federal prison if Donald Trump had not offered up a pardon. Right. So, the very idea that we continue to talk about going after criminals as a witch hunt right when in fact there is a pile a pile of legal evidence against them,

is just absolute bullshit. But it is the ability for Republicans to coalesce around lies, to coalesce around their belief in earth to to covalesce around people like Marjorie Taylor Green who are advocating a fucking sitting congresswoman advocating for violence. So when I say to you all this week that I am concerned, right, I am not in necessarily a celebratory mood. I think that the Department of Justice and

the FBI are moving in the right direction. But I think that what also needs to be seen is that violence is imminent because these people want it, because they are stacking up their own personal arsenals right of ar fifteens and whatever else they can get their fucking hands on, and they're just looking for the direction of Donald Trump to tell them where to go and how to storm the motherfucking castle now, right now, Donald Trump does not have a place in time like he did on January

six to offer up to the people that says, go gather here and go take these people down. But believe you me, he they know to stand back and stand by, They know to be on the ready for any head nod or wink in their direction. And that should leave us all feeling extremely fucking alarmed, right that a former president of the United States has organized his own fucking militia, but we aren't talking about it like that. And why

is that? Because they are a bunch of fucking white men that want to cosplay the fucking civil war, That's why, right. But if they were any other group, do you think that these people that have been sending out tweets since the search was announced, that they wouldn't have been picked up by the FBI on suspicion of being terrorists? Oh?

I know, we don't have domestic terrorists laws in this country, but believe you me, if the people that were offering up those tweets were people of color, trust and believe they wouldn't give a fuck if we didn't have a law on the books or not, they would be picked up and considered a threat, a national security threat. But these white folks are just allowed to be out in

these streets fucking wild, right. And that is the concern that I have, is that are we once again not going to see the writing on the wall, not going to pay attention to the alarms going off, and just ignore this until we see another January sixth, but this

time more death, more bloodshed. Right. So coming up next, my conversation with Communications Director Leslie Mack to talk about what kind of messaging Democrats need to be using right now, whether or not the Republicans have jumped the shark, and what it is that the people of these United States need to keep in mind as we make the slow march to midterms. Hey, I'm David Plots of Slaves Political Gabfest. As another election season accelerates, it can be tricky to

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I am very happy to be joined by Leslie Mack, who is a digital strategist and communications director for the front Line, to talk about you know, the latest and greatest that Democrats are doing or not doing, but also with the latest development to the backdrop of big Democratic wins. And I say big Democratic wins because not a single Republican has decided that the American people are worth fighting for,

that our issues are worth fighting for. And so Leslie want to start out with this breaking news all over the place that will continue to be breaking news because it's unprecedented. The FBI had issued was issued a warrant to go into the home of a former president Donald Trump. We really at this point are not one hundred percent clear as to the contents of what that warrant was

at the time of this recording. It's being speculated that it is about archival documents that Donald Trump illegally took from the White House to Mara Lago, and that they went after his safe. Of course, there has been a outcry of Republicans that this is a witch hunt, this is unprecedented, This opens up all of these things because they live on Earth two and believe that the only people that should ever be investigated are Democrats and Hillary

Clinton's emails or Hunter Biden's laptop. I want to get your initial reaction to this unprecedented news and the extraordinary times that we find ourselves living in right now. Well, I think one, I just want to state for the record, I really wish I want to be back in incedented times.

Like generally speaking, I've kind of had enough of being present from time, correct, But also let's acknowledge that, yeah, unprecedented things are happening across the board, so we shouldn't expect anything different when it comes to whatever the Department of Justice is going to be doing with regard to Donald Trump, because we frankly he was an unprecedented president and his actions were unprecedented as well. So yeah, we should expect things to be unusual because this is a

response to unusual situation. But what has struck me the most has been the media's kind of framing. I think Cheryl and Eiffel shared this earlier on Twitter. She was saying, like, why are all of these headlines Donald Trump says, FBI rated? Why are we framing it again around his narrative, his point of view, Even this detail about his safe is

directly from him. One. There are facts you can report, Yes, the FBI rated Marlago, they went in there, you can say those things, you can say, they better have comment on it. But even seeing the framing of how the media is framing it is already, you know, concerning to me.

And as you mentioned, what little we do know is that apparently this is related to the National Archives request for documents that were taken out of the White House by Donald Trump, presumably and allegedly, and that they've been requesting these things back for some time and included confidential and classified information. So interesting to note though, whatever they find on this search they can utilize in any other

investigations that are ongoing. So it makes anything they find their fair game as long as the warrant, you know, holds up and you know he wasn't there. So I think that's the third thing I think is really important because I feel like this positioning of like, oh, they rated a president at home at it's just so histrionic for no reason. He literally was twenty states away in New York at Trump Tower. I The other thing I thought interesting the White House is claiming they also were blindsided.

They found out the same time the rest of us found out when the news broke, which I think is smart on the Department of Justice is part to really kind of keep this siloed in separate, because they shouldn't be colluding with each other around these sort of things. I think certainly, you know, the President is welcome to have opinions about what the Department of Justice could or

should do. But ultimately, even getting a warrant of this nature for you know, the home of a former president means that a judge signed off that there was significant evidence. I would have had to being presented in order for that.

So I'm no legal expert, but those are the things that stuck out for me about the what's happening that media point, and then just noting that you know, getting this warrant was would not have been a short order, would have been a very tall bar to reach us far as you know, validity and evidence presented in order to get it even you know approved. You know, it's funny because both of us have communications backgrounds and expertise.

And I got to tell you that as I was watching the news break, I was screaming at my TV behind me, as one does in these unprecedented times, because I listen to every pundit come on and reiterate Donald Trump's talking points, and I'm like, have we not, like, my fucking god, have we not learned anything from twenty sixteen, from twenty twenty that this man, if he is, if he is unremarkable in so many other areas, that the place that he shines is in controlling the media, is

in setting the tone in the narrative and the idea that it is just being followed up that even the chirns are saying, you know, Trump says his place was raided, and it's just like, dude, they didn't go in with their FBI windbreakers and guns blazing and throwing people on the ground as they have been known to do. Right they you know, this was a legal search to your point, I'm not a lawyer either, but I'm just like, why

why do you believe? I guess I'll ask this, why do you think is it just laziness that the media continues to follow this narrative or do you think that it's something else. I think it's where they get the

clicks from. And so we we are in a stage where media, you know, is beholden to grabbing folks attention, grabbing people in a really specific way, and so it it you know, leads better or certainly would be more offensive inflammatory to frame it the way they're framing because they know people like us are gonna push back on this, and people that are I'm supportive of forty five are going to be you know, buoyed by you know, this

mouthpiece that they're giving Tom to him. And so, you know, that's where I think that the murkiness starts to come in with the media, because the expectation is that they're unbiased and that they're reporting correctly, when in reality, you know, the bias comes in through capitalism, and the bias comes in through the metrics that are utilized to you know, justify or not justify investment in media and media personalities. So that's the thing I think that that I noted.

And then you know, also, yes, certainly they should have learned this in twenty sixteen, should have learned in twenty twenty. But I always go back to two thousand and five one Stephen Colbert coined truthiness and it was the word of the year that year, as like this this tipping point in media around truth around actually like naming a thing as fact and also reporting statements from biased individuals as facts, which is what we we're seeing here because

honestly we don't. Trump says that everything that comes after that is here say, everything that comes after that is coming from a not trust worthy source of information, but it's not presented as such. So you know, we talk about this when we talk about the media using police, you know, statements and other institutional statements. As you know, well they've they've got this is the official word, but

it's how official is it? So it's not And you know, and and the reality is is that any time that there is a warrant that is put out, that is issued. That warrant is then left with the person who's home or office or place was searched. And so Donald Trump has access to that warrant. So if they're in fact, was any type of nefarious or foul play, release the warrant right and then the public will be able to make a decision. No, you can do that if you

want to, right. So you know, I want to switch gear years and talk about Democrats and where we are right now as we make the slow march to midterm elections. I have, like you, have been called out on Twitter for daring, daring to air the fact that you know, Democrats up until recently hadn't been doing much right, hadn't been offering the American people anything other than the fact of reiterating that this Republican Party is a viable political

party and not a white supremaist cult. Right, have been offering up things like rational, they were rational Republicans left, And I'm like, where you know where I'm looking and you know, and I have been told like you were that by virtue of just lifting up the obvious that we are going to be the reasons why Democrats lose in midterms. It has nothing to do. Wouldn't have had anything to do with them not offering policy or offering or painting the picture of who the enemy of democracy

actually is. It will be the tweets about it. So I just wanted, you know, before we dig in, like, how does that make sense? I mean, it's it's it's

wild to me for a number of reasons. One because the folks like you and me are the ones that got this dude in the White House in the first place, worked very hard to do so to turn out the vote in twenty twenty, both for the general election and for the Georgia runoff, and it was across mostly progressive movement spaces where we saw, you know, the uptick in Black voters, the uptick and Indigenous voters, the optic and Latin X voters, which made the difference in all of

the swing states that Biden was able to win, and certainly in Georgia, where I cannot you know the amount of hands and attention and money and resources that poured into Georgia after the election, which was really difficult for folks because it was a quick turnaround to kind of switch gears and redo a lot of the work that

was already done for the general election. So to hear, you know, folks like us be vilified for one saying the obvious and two you know, I've always been clear that my vote is not some sort of you know, blank check that you don't get to cash in when I go into the ballot box. No, no, no, you,

It's actually an I owe you. You owe me a response to the things that me are meaningful to me, and as an organizer, especially one that works a lot with grassroots organizers, when I'm voting, I always know i'm voting for who is going to be my opponent around the most progressive and most you know people focus policies that I want to support. So yeah, the entire framing of twenty twenty was, yeah, we'll vote for you and

also expect us. So here we are. There are many things that will keep people from the polls, but my tweets are definitely not one of them. You sure. Also, I've never told anybody not to vote, So that's that's the real crux of the thing, is like you'll never You can search all of my tweets from twenty two thousand and eight, when I joined the platform. So now you will never ever have seen me say don't vote. I've certainly said I understand why people why people don't vote.

I have empathy. I completely understand the rationale. I get it, and I think it's really important that we acknowledge those things. It's impassable to do organizing work without acknowledging the realities that people are coming into UM spaces with and the very valid perspectives and conclusions that they should be able to draw UM. And that's the real crux of things. I want, I want more. I'm always gonna want more. I should want more. So should you, So should everybody listening.

We should all be demanding more, because that's our role in this entire process as the people, is to continue to push, to continue to demand more for our lives so that we're not just surviving, we're thriving. And more importantly, we are in a significant downswing across the board we have. No matter how much they want to tout these unemployment numbers, inflation is driving costs up. Salaries are not moving at the rate that they should be. In haven't for a

really long time. Our minimum wage situation is a joke. Mass incarceration continues to run rampantly through our communities. You know, all of these things are still issues on top of a crashing housing market and a housing crisis the likes of which we haven't seen yet. My husband was talking to me this morning about like, oh, do I think this looming crash is going to be worse than two thousand and eight? And I really said to him, I said, you know, we did. We weren't coming off of a

pandemic in two thousand and eight. We weren't dealing with the scope of housing crisis that we're dealing with, because that was not when we had corporate interest buying in a in the residential housing market, which is what we're

seeing now, which is really a big problem. We also were not coming off of four years of like like blatant fascism um in the White House and throughout all of our institutions, and we weren't dealing with things like food shortages and um, you know, so many fundamental things. So yeah, I don't. I don't know why everybody isn't being loud. That's really where I'm at with it, Like, if not now when I don't, I don't get it. What are we gonna what else do we need to see?

Given all spinning too fast at this point. At some point we got a girl. I mean I was like, what, n I just had this because when that news came out, I think I just screamed like like just like wait what like oh? And by the way, you know that time warp that you feel like you're living in and and nothing really makes sense and time is a construct. Oh, by the way, the Earth is spinning faster. But you know, don't be alarmed. I guess that's about It's cool. Don't

worry about it. Totally fine. Ask the dinosaurs. You know. The question that I have for you is all of the things that you listed out just now, in terms of answering your husband's question, would things are would this crisis be worse? Obviously the answer is yes, right, because we have so many other compacted crises that obviously, um,

things would be worse. The thing that I'm asking, though, is that with the Inflation Reduction Act that is going to be signed with the Chips Act that was just that was just signed into law, with these wins right that Democrats are are making and have been making in the last couple of weeks, it's been the best uh, probably week of Biden's presidency ever, right and right, and he had COVID and uh and his numbers right, his polling numbers are in the toilet um And so do

you think that these wins then, even though because I'll get to Cinema and Mansion my two least favorite people, do you think that these wins, though, match up against all of the things that are still coming our way? Do you think that the American people will see this as Democrats are working for us and so I'm showing up in midterms in the way that Kansas just showed up and said no to the overturning of abortion access

in their state. Oh my gosh. One. I think that the Democrats have a messaging problem off the bat, because they're actually not framing their wins as wins enough, and they're not pushing, you know, and talking about them and framing them in the right way. And in addition to that, I think there are some fundamental things that were left out. We can talk about immigration, which is something that this

president ran on, you know. We can talk about voting rights around this country, which is kind of important to all this other stuff. You know, So it's it's a yes, and for me, which is yes. I think that they should be there should be stronger messaging around these wins, around what it took to get there. I mean the fact that they're not leading with the fact that Kamala Harris just joined a very small club. It's been one hundred and ninety years since the vice president has cast

as many tie breaking votes in the Senators. She has this. That's huge. That's something that you should be like putting your hat on, saying like, look, you sent us with fifty. We've got this tie breaking vote because you got us in the White House, and we're utilizing that. We're actually using that tool more often than almost anybody in history, especially with two more years left in this in this

presidency at least right now. You know, obviously we'll see what happens in twenty twenty four, but in this first term for Buyan Harris White House, and so I think that they need to like think about how they talk to people about these wins and also what they mean for their broader fights ahead, and and those other things I mentioned need to be addressed because these are issues that people are living with day to day that need

to be fixed. Need to be addressing again, like I said, that President ran on so those those things still need to be tackled. Yeah, and I don't and I don't see that happening, right I, particularly again following the news of around Donald Trump, Republicans have already signaled that they ain't come into the table, right like that they you know, this,

this to them was a declaration of war. And so that being said, and given what we have seen, which is that there are two people inside of the Democratic Party that have more power than the president and the vice president, and that is Joe Mansion and Kursten Cinema, Kurson Cinema, we know is in the pocket of you know,

hedge funds and corporate interests. Because above all that needed to come out of the IRA Bill was the fact that we were going to tax hedge and special interests to a tune that was going to result in fourteen billion dollars of revenue, right, And she said, oh no, no, we can't do that because those poor hedge fund managers,

you know, they couldn't come off that money. Then you then you have Mansion, right, who makes all of you know, they wanted to congratulate him on the concessions that he made, when at the same time all of the things that he got in that bill for the coal miners in

in West Virginia. So I ask like, are we just supposed to sit back and continue to applaud these people for being able to hold progress in this country hostage to their whim or do we air out right how unbalanced our democracy actually Isn't It isn't just because we have one rapid political party that has turned into a

white supremacist cult. Yeah, it's definitely multiple things. One is, as you mentioned earlier, the Democrats refusing to admit that the other side is not acting in good faith around any of these issues or even any of these conversations. I mean, we can look at them the vote around

the insulin um capu. These are senators, Republican senators who previously ran on lowering insulin um costs, who have speeches in twenty twenty voted for this, but because they want to not give the Democrats a talking point, they're voting against it as a block. So it's not even as you know, this is directly you can see how they're operating, which is not in the best interests of their constituents at all. You know, Mansion ultimately operates West Virginia as

if it's his own plantation. I mean, this is this is how he runs it, and his interests in the coal industry should should actually bar him from even being in office at all period. That the levels of conflicts of interest against his constituent is really astounding in that case, especially as long as he's been in in politics in

West Virginia. And then Cinema oooh, I just keep waiting for her girl boss energy to fly her a little too close to the sun because it's really outrageous her behavior, but also you know, a very good reminder of the ways that white feminism operates within these institutions so often against the interests of themselves and the interests of other marginalized people. So yeah, it's definitely I wish that they

would air those things out. But we also have a president that will go on a you know, tonight show and say what a great person Mitch McConnell is for everybody to hear. So you know, that's the other part of it, is that we have a very you know, concentrated amount of power amongst people that are very close to each other personally and consistently UM utilize personal connection in place of their moral obligations, and it's really disappointing

to see so so often, UM leslie. Last question for you, where do you see us going right in mid in in you know, for mid terms. I know, I'm asking you to read tea leaves, but you are on the ground, right, You are working with um you know, with organizations, with communities and constituencies that frankly are always ignored until it's time to cast a ballot. And so, you know, given every everything right, we got multiple viruses running amok in

this country. We got voter suppression, we got abortion being overturned, we got you know, continued gun violence against against black people in this country, uh put on by the state. We have, so white supremacy, which they didn't even touch on, is just running them up to the point where you had pundon saying, well, now that Donald Trump has been you know, has been searched by the FBI, he's going to weaponize white supremacy once again right against the government.

So we have all of these things, it's like the anti is just up and up and up. Where do you see us going as we make this March to midterms and beyond. Well, I'll say this, one of the things that's been giving me hope is so much of the really groundbreaking work that's happening in the labor sector and with unions. To me, a strong labor movement is really our last hope of having an economic lover to hold as leverage over these institutions that are consistently failing us.

So that's been giving me some hope. I think that we have some opportunities in that area to really galvanize people around the people power that exists there. And I'm also really bullied by people generally speaking, who really have much more nuanced and deep analysis of this moment than I ever would have had at their age, and are really aware of what's happening in a way that's really dynamic and allowing them to have some impacts not just in their circle of influence, but also as they start

to age into voting age. I think it's going to be critical, but we can't forget about the voting voter suppression that's happening, and they're going to be at play in this midterm. We're talking about highly gerrymanderd maps that just came off of a really dirty data pull from the most recent census that the Trump administration was able to run. So we have the joy still in charge of the USPS, which is critical around mail in ballots

and getting people to vote safely. And then, as you mentioned, we have another you know, disease that is starting to get to I guess an emergency was officially declared now at this point, and you know, kids going back in school in the fall. I have been of the opinion that we just are going to see COVID outbreaks every fall, and so I'm expecting to see that again, which of course will affect turnout and how people are able to vote.

So I don't have much prognostication to do. I do think that this is going to be a crucial moment for this democracy. I'm not even well before twenty twenty four. I think the results from this election are going to be far reaching and really deep scope. We can look places like Pennsylvania, where we have a governor on the GOP side that would completely have overturned the twenty twenty election and taken away the votes from the people of

Pennsylvania without any qualms whatsoever. We've seen in a number of states where Democrats have put their support and money behind these candidates with the assumption that they'll be easier to beat. I don't even understand the strategy. It didn't work in twenty sixteen. I don't know why you all think it will work this time around. But you know, they're rolling the dice with you know, black and brown

people's lives, which they like to do so often. So I think those are those are the issues, and I think those are the big things that are going to be at play. I think that grasscreets folks are going to do their work and turn folks out. I think especially reproductive justice organizers and organizations are going to do a lot of heavy lifting, as they always do in these moments, and so I look to them for what to do, what not to do, and how to turn

folks out. And I think it's going to be an interesting to see if the American people remember all of these things that are happening now in a couple of months, because, as you mentioned earlier, this news cycle is a whirlwind and things go by so quickly. I mean, I'd be shocked if there's headlines next week about the Trump raid at Mara lago like, and I mean that sincerely. I don't even think that it'll be in the new cycle anymore in seven days, which is we call it unprecedented.

But that's the real unprecedented part is how whiplash fast this new cycle is right now? Oh my god. Yes, and maybe that is the reason why the earth is spinning faster than we figured it. Leslie Mac, thank you so much for making the time to join Woke f I hope that you will come back and join us again as we get closer to midterms. Anytime, anytime, It all no problem. I appreciate you. That is it for me today. Folks on Woke f as always power to

the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.