The State of the Union Is Long

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3:01I'm John Lovet-Tom M-Dktor. All right, guys, we are recording this at about 10 p.m. Pacific after enduring a speech that will go down in history as the longest state of the union ever delivered by a president, one hour and 47 minutes congrats to Donald Trump on beating the previous record holder, also Donald Trump. We're going to get into all the gory details, but let's start with some general reactions. What do you guys think? Dan? Speech was a crime. Speech was a crime. Yeah. It was a speech crime. It was a rhetorical crime, political crime. It's really stole people's time. Yeah. Time crime. Time crime. Break crime. Yeah. Yeah, it was mostly long and forgettable. It was kind of my take away. He tried to heighten the drama. He did something innovative. Instead of recognizing people, the audience, just having them stand up, he had them enter the chamber. I actually thought that was kind of it. That's a great way to get the record if you're trying to have the longest speech ever. Yeah, that's true. It's not a bad touch. I was genuinely surprised he didn't go harder at the Supreme Court justices. Yeah. Should have a little discipline there. I figured they would, I figured CZWiles would keep them on, keep the shot collar on that

4:04one. It went so long that we were on Jimmy Kimmel and they had to just do the show while the speech was still going. So we didn't even see the end. That's how long it was. And we're better for it. Honestly, we didn't miss anything. Honestly, if we had gone 40 minutes before it, we probably wouldn't have missed anything. I don't really get what he was trying to do here, other than set the record for the longest speech. Well, so the first 30, 40 minutes was basically Trump hosting his own award show. There was a combo of that, so he's given out awards to everyone. He's also honoring himself, of course, by just bragging about the country and the economy and everything like that. Let's listen to how the beginning went. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along, we're just always losing, but now we're winning too much. And I say, no, no, no, you're going to win again.

5:07You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever and to prove that point, to prove that point here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. Come on in. I'm a better microphone. You know, he's complained so many times about his mics at different events. And this was the worst one he's ever had. Anyway, that was a nice moment for the men's hockey team, I think. It was a nice way out of his rambling. We're winning too much thing that he's been doing since 2017, basically. He's brought it back recently. Yeah. Because we're winning again? Yeah, do you think that was, do you think the winning message is, I mean, that was a sample of it. That was the most ridiculous part before he brought up the hockey team, but that first 15 minutes was just straight like everything is amazing. Yeah. The, the, the, like, warmed over old lines like we're winning so much people are upset how much we're winning and watching Mike Johnson and JD Vance cackle behind.

6:11Chordowing. Chordowing. So funny. This charming, charming man can, can't stop myself from being so entertained was, was a bit much because it is still like, you know, we're a decade into this. It's still an embarrassment to have Donald Trump up there, you know, shouting and cavorting with these people and using his usual lines to great effect among Republicans who can't get enough watching them applaud things that a few years ago that if a democratic proposed they would say was an attack on the very foundations of the country, et cetera. I mean, the speech is fucking insane. Yeah. It just any person who knows anything about politics would have said, here's what you're supposed to do. The American people are unhappy. 60% of them think the country was better off when Joe Biden was president. Three quarters of them think the economy sucks. 50% of them think your, your, your policies have made their economic situation worse. 50% of them think their prices have gone up under you. 60% of them hate your tariffs.

7:11And so what you go in like your immigration policy, we haven't even gotten to that yet. So this is just the beginning is a, any speech has to do with the reality on the ground. And you have to acknowledge that reality in pivot. In no speech, even say the union changes the trajectory of any presidency. But this is the, this is the easiest moment a president has in their presidency. Not for the speech writers, but from a pure communications perspective, it is a fucking layup. You get a, you get guaranteed applause, you get guaranteed coverage. The press covers the straight demand or how insane the speech is. And it's where presidents have demonstrated the political people they have to make after when their approval rating is in the high 30s, like Trump says, right? It is when Bill Clinton said the air big government's over. It's what when Obama sort of pivoted towards like more ardent populism in 2012, sort of in response, Occupy Wall Street and prepare to run against Romney. And he did none of those things. He doubled and tripled down on the exact things that have made him this unpopular. Like it really is a speech he gave for himself, written by people only trying to please him

8:11and trying to do nothing to actually help Republicans on the ballot. I think I would have been surprised on me if he hadn't done that because like I couldn't imagine a speech where he was actually like, I'm going to acknowledge people's pain. Well, no, I mean, you got to do it in the most Trumpian way possible, but you could at least dial the rhetoric back. You can't say it's a historic turnaround. You can't spend 90 seconds touting all the prices, saying all these prices have gone down when they have not. Yeah. Right? Like there is a, like there's the way a normal smart person would do the speech and there's way Trump would do it. And even in that by in Trumpian terms, he did it worse than I even possibly imagined. Yeah. I mean, he thinks he can shape reality and kind of like bend it to his will. And I just, you know, when you're president, I don't think you can do that. People are pissed about prices. They're pissed about the economy. They're pissed about inflation. If you just scream that we're winning, like the navigator research did dial tests where people, you know, they dial the, turn to dial one way if they're happy with what you're saying, another way if they're unhappy or they're saying the dials went way down when he started to screaming that we're winning. Now, then the hockey team comes out, so I think you should forget that moment. There was like some controversy today about the men's hockey team being there.

9:15I think we should talk about it for a second because like we were pretty hot out of the gate criticizing FBI director Cash Patel for like burning money to fly over to Olympics. And then what Trump called the players when they're in the locker, after the game and Cash Patel like patched them in, he made some shitty comment about the women's team being like, well, if I invite you guys to the White House, I have to invite them too, which is like weird, you know, sexist, old man humor that's like lame and condescending and also once again shows that he doesn't know shit about sports because the women's hockey team is way better. They have historically have won a lot more titles, but I've seen a lot of people criticizing the players and I just, I think it's unfair because they're representing the United States. Like it's inherently a political job they're having this moment. Like politicians will try to use you for political purposes. I don't know their political views. I don't really care. I hope I never know them. But like I think it's unfair to ask them to not take his call or to reject an invitation to the White House. Like go if you want to go don't if you don't, but it's like they're not the bad guys here. It's a douchebag cash per tell for like crashing their party. Well, I mean, they did, it is their choice to go.

10:16I understand going being invited and they are in a difficult situation. Anybody representing America right now is in a difficult situation because the country is representing by an embarrassing cruel maniac. But when you choose to go and the way that they went, it is unavoidable that they were a part of a show that Donald Trump put on. They were the punchline to him saying the country was winning. They were used by Donald Trump and they can be okay with that. They can be uncomfortable with that and not be willing or interested in being involved in politics the next day. But as of right now, those men were all used by Donald Trump for political purposes. If they're okay with that, they don't have to say anything. They're free to do whatever they want. But they also could say they get all it sucks. They don't pick the president, right? Like they make the team. They work their whole lives to make the Olympics. They go to this game. They win the gold medal. They should be celebrated by our country, by our government. Like I get what you're saying. I hear you, but I just think like it sucks at the fucking onus is on them to be decent human beings. I think that we, it's sometimes hard to realize that not everyone is a political junkies like we are and also like feel the urgency of how bad the Donald Trump presidency is.

11:21Even though like most of the country isn't happy with Donald Trump, they don't necessarily unhappy with them the way we are unhappy with them or anyone who's listening to this unhappy with them. And I think our job is to make sure the people understand the emergency. But like if they don't because they're hockey players and they've been focusing on hockey for the last couple of years and they're just kids at this point, like, okay, they went away. Right. Credits of the win also is awesome. No, they didn't go. So like that's definitely a different tech. Right. Like there. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's sort of what are the responsibilities? Individuals have. I agree. It's unfair that they're in that position. But it would be good to hear what people think. Having been used as a tool by Donald Trump, are they happy with that? Are they okay with that? Like all of us have an obligation even if it's unfair. That's, I really do feel that way about it. The women's team seem to know that they would rather not go and rather spend the time with flavor. Well, I guess that, and I guess a couple of them, a couple of men didn't go. Right. I'm really so mad. Like if you don't, don't go, don't go. If you don't want to go, don't go. But like, don't get criticism. The Olympics are in the United States in 2028. Every single Olympian is going to have this problem or whether you're all going to boycott. Like, I just don't want to be. They should boycott. But I also find with it intending, I just wonder like, are you going to say how you feel

12:26now that you've been used? That's all. What do you feel about this? Tell us. I do think it raises though sort of a larger issue about the speech, which is it felt like. Great segue. Yeah, well, I wasn't even going to say a way into what we're supposed to say a way into, but I was just just been thinking about this. It does feel like it took place in a different reality. Like, these speeches and his speeches now are still covered like a normal speech. It's like we're clapping the people in the panel or like, did he do his job and all this kind of stuff? And you're like, okay, he is giving this speech at a time when he is about to launch an illegal war after launching a previous illegal military action, paid for in part with legal taxes, the tariffs at the Supreme Court have now invalidated, but are also helping pay for, I don't know, at least, I don't know if it's illegal, but at least a lawless paramilitary force that is rampaging through the streets has killed two Americans didn't hear anything about that and has like locked up hundreds of people in basically internment camps. Like this is, and meanwhile, the president's like getting rich the whole time and tried

13:29to arrest several of the people sitting in that chamber. And it's a weird thing to cover this, to talk about this, to analyze this, just as a speech. Yeah, it pulls you towards a normalcy that should be very uncomfortable in this moment. Like we were watching on CNN and they're doing the, they're covering the exact same way they covered Obama speeches, Biden speeches, George W. Bush's speech was like, who's, who's high five of the president? Who's getting a selfie with the president? Look at this person who's in a tough election talking to the president and it's just, like I understand, like I don't know what else you do, we're doing a little bit right now. I mean, this, this goes back to, this is why I thought about it with the hockey team too, because it's like you're just, you make a decision in the moment you go and like we cover it and we do it and people talk about it on the panel and it's like, we're all just in the reality that we're living in. Yeah, by the same token, the conservatives were critical of Americans who were abroad in the part of the Olympics saying that they felt shame or embarrassment while being proud to be American. And of course, why are the Republicans saying that? They're saying that because they want everyone to treat this like normal. Of course. And the shame and guilt that on their hearts, they know they should feel for being part

14:32of this, right? Like this is the watching this all unfold. I think part of what you're getting at is Republicans right now are like uniquely unsuited to like speak to the actual harm that he's doing, the actual pain that people are feeling a because Donald Trump simply cannot admit fault. And B, you feel a bunch of people that are all in a bubble of information, right? Trump is in a bubble. These Republicans are in a bubble. They're all plotting each other, celebrating each other. These are people that have denoculated themselves against reality apart because it is necessary in order to support someone like Donald Trump. Positive America is brought to you by Helix. As you guys know, it is February is the darkest, gloomy days of winter, which means you're probably spend a little more time inside. You are probably lingering in your bed a little longer, maybe watch some Netflix from the comfort of your bedroom, which is why you need the most comfortable mattress money can buy. That's where Helix comes in. Helix is the most awarded mattress brand tested and reviewed by experts like Forbes and

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17:38safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. Positive America is brought to you by rocket money. I had a moment when I had realized I had to get my finances under control. It was when I was in what I called my last year and I realized that I had a lot of mail and it was collecting in a garbage bag and that there was some stuff from the IRS in there. But the cool thing was the first letter said I owed them money. The second letter said they were going to take it out of my account and the third letter said I was all good. Well. Sounds like you could use rocket money. And price of therapy at the time. Yeah. Personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions monitors you're spending and helps you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket money allows you to track subscriptions and cancel them within the app when there's just a few taps, saving you time and helping you avoid charges. You could even categorize automatic transactions across your account and customize categories with tags to help shed light on your spending patterns. Set budgets and goals get personalized insights and regular reports on your spending habits. You can even receive real-time alerts for large transactions, upcoming bills, refunds

18:41and low balances. The rocket money app can even consolidate your checking savings loans and investment accounts into a single dashboard to give you a clear picture of your finances. Let rocket money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com slash crooked. That's rocketmoney.com slash crooked. Rocketmoney.com slash crooked. So you know, the most important political task that if you want to call it a political task was to tell the American people that he does know the economy isn't improving quickly enough. We had exactly how he plans to bring down costs. Here's what that sounded like. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. Now the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters, suddenly used the word affordability a word, they just used it to somebody, gave it to them. They knew their statements were alive, they knew it. They knew their statements were dirty, rotten alive, their policies created the high prices, our policies are rapidly ending them.

19:43We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting down with. We want homes for people, not for corporations, corporations are doing just fine. Resel, thank you very much. Good luck with your home. You'll get one soon. Good luck with your home. You'll get one soon. So I noted that the, that he talked about, you know, economic accomplishments made up a bunch of statistics, lies about the economy, all the kind of stuff. The first time he mentioned any kind of economic policy proposal, any action he was going to take or policy he wanted, you know, turned into a law, was at 9.50 p.m., what do you think? Did he move the needle there on the, on the econ stuff, Dan? No, I mean, but he moved it backwards, right? It just, it is, it's just, I hate to harp on it, but this is the perspective I look at is that he's a, he's a president with a party controlling both House of Congress in the minimum term, and where the economy is in a broad issue. And he did the exact opposite thing, anyone on the ballot would want. You just cannot, like we, we saw this when we worked for Obama, if you go up there and

20:46you tell people the economy is great when they know it's not, you were sticking a thumb in their eye. It is why his approval rating sucks right now. Yeah, I will say like he does then, the speech is just a kind of, and a matter of craftsmanship just terrible. Meanders incredibly long for its own sake, takes to the minute 50 to get to these proposals. But you could do like, I do think like, I imagine when you look at the dials, you will see that the, the, like the, the, the populist economic policies is actually put forward, not the incorporations by houses, so that people can buy them the kind of, what are the, the Trump accounts, like no tax on tips, no tax on over time. Like those are all things that I think a more disciplined administration administration that really did try to do the actual economic populism that we were afraid Trump would do from the beginning. That didn't do the big beautiful bill that cut taxes for the wealthy and sort of gave everybody else, mostly nothing like that is the worrying version of Trump to me. But I just think the fact that he can't get there till minute 50 and will not now spend the next two weeks hammering it will go do various events in which he talks about the

21:49random things on his mind while posting true socials about Adam Schiff is why, like, ultimately doesn't matter. I think in this case they made the same classic mistake that bad political operas make with pulling information on time and say, they tested these, they tested these number, these policies, these policies, all tested to the roof. I guarantee it. Democrats are public. People want something to do on, and we should just go through something like something on housing that you mentioned, he wants people wanting to do something on prescription drugs. So he's made up a bunch of shit that he's done on prescription drugs that isn't really true and then he isn't going to do. He also talked about, he, he got agreements from AI companies to maybe defraise some of the costs of the data centers to be electricity, like, yeah, good luck. Good luck waiting for your electricity bill to go down on that one. But so yeah, I'm sure those are the things that all pull up. But this is, but you policies don't happen in a vacuum. Policies are connected to the person who proposes the policies and the person who proposes the policy tells you that this is the greatest economy in history and all your prices have come down. When you know none of those things are true, you're not going to believe he's going to do those things. Yeah. Tommy, our friends at Politico, you know, with the big headline is, the line across the

22:52top of the tree right now, it's late. It's Trump sticks to the script. Republicans needed the president to sell their message to kick off the midterms. They're breathing a sigh of relief. Get the fuck out of here. It was that can't be real. That cannot be real. Trump. And then the headline underneath it, Trump allies relieved he's sticking to the script, but do see warning signs. One Republican strategist that got on background said, I wish we had more detailed steps to take. Yes, because there are no steps to take. Also, sticking to a shitty script is not something you brought up. That is, that is what it is. You stuck to the script, guys. Who are the authors of that piece? You know what? No one put their name on it. Well, the political live, no one put their name on, but the actual piece, it's a Dasha Burns. It's a Dasha Burns joint. Okay. I just think we're at the point where it's a good night for Republicans when the president doesn't call for the public execution of members of the Supreme Court. Exactly. He's presence. That's where the bar is. Honestly, I like the same reaction watching. It's like, I've used surprisingly disciplined in that he didn't like try to kill Amy Coney Barrett or whatever. It's like, it didn't throw his feces.

23:52If you walk up there and you read the script, like Battlefield Earth or something, I don't think it's a good win. Right. It's also a script where he says the only way Democrats can win elections if they cheat, where he points it. By the way, off script, he points it like, these people are crazy. They ruin the country. They're destroying the country. Yeah, we'll get to that. So on the econ stuff, he, he's suddenly on board with the stock trading ban and called out Nancy Pelosi. And when I thought, I assume they all thought it was a really clever move. Do you remember when Donald Trump was against the stock trading ban, when Josh Holley was on board with it and was going to vote with the Democrats, and then Trump posted that Holley was just being a pawn for the Democrats and he was being used by them and he came out against it. Now, he's the poor. Sound of the sex rate. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Wow. And you know what? Trump is smart. He got Holley to not do it. And Trump becomes the most corrupt president in history. He makes more money they could ever imagine. Now he's going to fuck all these Congress people over who are trying to get their beaks with. Great move by him, actually. They should ban stock trading. They should ban buying and selling crypto or owning crypto companies.

24:55They should ban Colchee as a service or like or betting on Colchee if you work in the US government in any capacity like, great, do it. Like we've been talking about this for decades now. Also, Trump has control of the House in the Senate. Right. Do what we're waiting for. Yeah. Nancy Pelosi's fault. I'm sure all these, yeah, I'm sure all these like testable, but like nothing's going to happen. And then what's going to happen when the midterm is rolling around and none of the stuff that Trump talked about tonight actually goes into law or actually happens or makes anyone lives and makes lives better up this tomorrow. On the tariffs, because you know, he did, he mentioned that he said it was a disappointing decision. I said disappointing a couple of times. You could tell he was, you tell he was close to maybe losing it, but he did, he held it together. It is interesting, I think, on the tariffs that he just, you know, he's going full steam on a tax increase. It's insane. I think it's insane. And as we always know, when you're running in a midterm year and people are upset about the economy and they think the cost are too high, you run on a large tax increase. Yeah. I think the fact that they landed on the word unfortunate, which he like hammers, it's unfortunate. It is unfortunate. It's unfortunate.

25:56I feel like that was a victory inside of a room where people were trying to get him to be as mild as possible. I wonder part of this too is he's also convinced himself in the interim that they actually couldn't stop him and he's using tariffs like he did before and it's not, like he feels like he was able to put the tariffs back on. Anyway, the, the, the, the, again, like Republicans being willing to cheer this stuff, although they cheered tariffs less when he's just saying how we're going to make these other countries pay when I think people feel like it is affecting making people, it's incredibly unpopular because people know the cost are going to them. We now have evidence from these tariffs that's 96% of the cost go to Americans that as all information people have. So yeah, he's, he's not going down with the tarot ship for sure. I also think there's, he had a choice to make because he was initially acting like the Supreme Court decision is going to destroy the country and the world and it was the worst thing that ever happened. But then also he still has all the authority to do all the exact same tariffs and they're going to be even better than before. Yeah, now they're stronger legal for like, you can't, you can't really do both of those things. That's mean he's decided to pick the strength over the weakness, right, because he realized

26:58it was fun to bitch about the Supreme Court, but like that wasn't, that's not where he wanted to land. I did enjoy the side by side shot with Amy Coney Barrett kind of looking kind of that sort of frozen face and Trump continuing to go on about how much stronger his legal authority will be. Yeah, I'm sure she practiced that. I did spend a lot of tonight talking about immigration, which he still thinks there's a winning issue for him. There was a lot of secure border talk, a lot of detailed gruesome accounts of Americans who've been killed by immigrants and then it got even darker. We'll balance our budget. The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception, importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders, brings those problems right here to the USA, and it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent taxes and perhaps most importantly crime. We will take care of this problem. We're going to take care of this problem, we are not playing games.

28:01So Tommy, it's obviously gross and dishonest, but do you think that even works for him? Yeah, I mean, it has become standard issue that there is always a section where he narrates a series of grizzly crimes and then they cut to some poor person whose life was just decimated by these actions. I guess I have TDS, but it's grotesque to me. I also found the unbelievably racist attacks in the Somali community to be grotesque and dehumanizing and just like you were saying to not meeting the moment of the things people are worried about. He starts immigration section by saying not a single undocumented person has gotten into the country. So why are you still focused on it, right? We're all mad about the economy, not this. Yeah, also pirates operate on the water. Well, we'll throw back, you know, I'm not really a pirate, he's all the bad. I do think Dan that he, the way they constructed this speech was they knew that to the extent

29:02that anyone outside of Trump fans and Trump supporters were watching the speech, they're watching the beginning. They're watching like the first 30 minutes, maybe the first hour. And so the first 30 minutes is like the award show where it's hard to at least disagree with him. He's not going to say anything to partisan. He's going to tell a lot of lies, but he's not going to say anything to partisan. Then as it got into like later in the speech, that's when he started the dark immigration stuff, the Democrats. This is like juice on the base, you know, who's the people who are still hanging on at hour. Yeah, I think that presupposes a little more strategy than they brought to the table here, but you are correct in hell of a structure and you everyone always starts the economy. Like that is the standard way of doing it. Normally, you get to it like a minute five, not a minute 55, but you know, teach their own. I think from like one thing from political perspective is Trump is living in a 2024 reality and 2026 reality. He's talking about the border, he's talking about, he's talking about is if people trust him on immigration and are deathly worried about immigration and crime. Now, the things, those things are true anymore.

30:03His immigration approval is now as bad as his approval in the economy, which is quite bad. People think ice is a threat to American citizens and legal residents, people think ice is going too far. And so once again, I know Trump is chemically encyclotically incapable of this, but there is a way to do this that is pretty simple to acknowledge that you don't even have to admit any fault, but that you that we are like you could have mentioned the body camps thing, which was their proposal that they did. Did you guys hear him mention ice at all? I don't see the other thing he said the word, did he? I don't think he said the word. I don't think so either, which is wild, because I mean, it's certainly an acknowledgement of how unpopular they are, but like you think that the way the Trump administration is with everything else, it would have been like the men and women of ice are, you know, trying to keep us protect us and they've faced all kinds of assaults and stuff like that. Did he, did he hit it at all when he was talking about the funding fight and wanting to make sure? No, but the Homeland Security. Yeah, he's just Homeland Security wider. He focused on like, you know, rescue stories and like brave people who are no longer funded because of thems and DHS.

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34:09A mentalist. Because I guess Trump wouldn't go. It's also going. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. There's a mental case and then Trump is also going to take it's won't last long. They're so I'm pretty fast. So get yours now while you still can at crooked dot com slash events very excited for the DC show. Got some big guests. I'm pretty exciting. Maybe. Crooked dot com slash events. Work moves fast. Every email reports and proposal counts. That's where Grammarley comes in. It's your one place to think right and finish. Grammarley's AI agents help you find natural phrasing fine tune tone and confidently write wherever you work. It's the premier writing tool that 93% of users trust to get more work done in a world of generic AI don't sound like everyone else with Grammarley you never will download Grammarley for free at Grammarley dot com. Moving in on the hour mark Trump really started to get nasty towards the Democrats in

35:10the room who mostly sat quietly and refused to clap for him take a listen. These people are crazy. I'm telling you. They're crazy. Democrats are destroying our country but we've stopped it just in the nick of time. If you agree with this statement then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens not illegal Larry. In that issue you should be ashamed of yourself not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself blocking the removal of these people out of our country and you should be ashamed of yourself. They are Republicans mega so excited about that moment it was clearly planned it was a setup they are very proud of themselves you know Scott Jennings called it a moment of the night Stephen Miller tweeted Democrats declared to the world they're searing disdain

36:11for and profound disloyalty to the actual citizens of the United States. They refused it was a moment that chills to the bone which will live for a thousand years. A thousand years is so funny a thousand years from now that was like the second one too he did another one that was like long and involved it was crazy the really think that's like the big they really got I think they said a trap that an incredible trap so clever who's ever done that delivered a line that you only assume that one side will stand for even though you know that like most people come on preemptively saying everyone will stand for this unless they're insane I mean this is once again like a little bit of the like bizarre surreal normalcy of it which is back when we do this there you try to find moments and then you would try to use whatever platform you had to make that be the moment you just tell the report this is the moment this is the moment this is the moment of the speech is the moment you should show so they try to do that here also

37:11this is an idea that it was not originally my idea but I pitched a bomb on two separate state of the unions was to do this for racing taxes on the wealthy not about the not about the immigrants no but to make to make the Republicans not stand up and you wait we didn't do that I don't think we ever I think I know like we did on that George Bush is moved George Bush is moving during this with his move was always to say something kind of partisan and then end with something everybody would have to applaud for so it's like we're going to deregulate we're going to let you get cut down some of the trees that we don't need anymore we get rid of some of this onerous taxation because America is going to have the strongest economy in the world that everybody got fuck I know I see Miller also said this was the most shocking image in the history of the U.S. Congress such a fucking lizard I mean if you watch the speech or even if you watch clips it's just so obvious that Trump is trying to go to Democrats into this dumb child he was not subtle yeah and also like it's just no longer interesting like the shock value of like them screaming back and forth is gone I don't like anyone really benefits from clips of the president screaming back and we're like I bet Elan Omar will benefit in her community the people she represents

38:14will probably like that she's fighting on their behalf given like what he's done in Minnesota but most voters will watch that and think like this is what I don't like about Washington we're saying that she was shouting that as he's making this sort of attack on Democrats for not keeping citizens safe that her district two people were killed by ice yeah yeah also like everyone's watching those speech they know that the Democrats haven't been replying to anything else like they don't think it's a fucking theater so in the alternate universe where politics never got the stupid this state of the union would have largely been about or at least significantly about Iran and explaining to the American people what exactly we plan to do with the gigantic fighting force we have a massed in the Middle East Trump did get to it quite late pretty briefly here's what he said they've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America we are in negotiations with them they want to make a deal but we haven't heard those secret words we will never have a nuclear

39:19weapon tell me what what was new there anything I mean that that line that they're working on missiles that will soon reach the United States of America jumped out of me it sounded like bullshit I got checked it was some experts who have had intel access much more recently than I have and they said it was wildly implausible though obviously we don't know what we don't know but I think it's just him trying to scare the free text for going to war like Iran it does that they have a large diverse array of ballistic and cruise missiles they can hit a lot of bases in the region they can't hit Europe they can hit Israel for example and that's why an attack could lead to a scary response but the idea that they're going to hit the continental US is like is nonsense the other thing you said that was a lie though was this claim that what is it the secret word the secret word no nooks the the the preamble of the JCPOA the Iran nuclear deal that Obama negotiated with Iran and the Trump pulled out of says quote Iran reaffirms that under no circumstance will Iran ever seek develop or acquire any nuclear weapons that was in the JCPOA that both sides agreed to obviously we don't trust them that's why there was all this verification that went along

40:20with that deal but Trump just pretends it didn't happen and he's you know the source of all this problem the the the really remarkable thing to me is like we're on the cusp of war he made no case for it I realize that's because it's wildly unpopular but that problem doesn't go away if you just start the war with them in the case I mean I guess it does I guess we don't change the popular way we're walking towards a conflict that nobody wants yeah solves his problem that people don't want the war that he's about to about to launch all right so after the speech uh Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger gave the democratic response because we were in the studio with Kimmel while it was happening um we heard good things uh which is which is rare for one of these things um we haven't had the chance to listen yet so we thought we just uh react to it here for the first time you guys have the clip the president is planning for new tariffs another massive tax hike on you and your family they have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies they have sent children a little boy in a blue bunny hat children to far off detention centers and they have

41:25killed American citizens in our streets our broken immigration system is something to be fixed not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities he's enriching himself his family his friends the scale of the corruption is unprecedented there's the cover-up of the Epstein files the crypto scams cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms so I'll ask again is the president working for you we all know the answer is no that was great i was impressed it was good to uh here's something it was good to hear it return to reality yes this is what's happening in the country yeah and just also this is just a good old fashion speech writing you know just the just sort of some cogent sentences that kind of thing like the old days what do you think time i mean you know hearing my initial reaction was hearing like a moderate like Abigail Spanberger code that hard at ice funding really tells you off

42:26far the politics have shifted on the issue generally it was like the kind of thing you would imagine she be advised not to touch and now she's just laying into it there yeah i like that she did in front of a crowd yeah that's good yeah i think i think responses should only be in front of crowds yeah i think that's right he's got the crowd i mean he's a great crowd because i have to have the crowd didn't stand up i'm the other half didn't a bunch of people just didn't show up at the speech either but it is nice to have a little energy behind you then to have the like straight direct to camera kind of also they didn't complicate the simple she just gave a speech edipotent with flags behind her instead of like trying to put her like in a weird room or like a factory floor all the other dumb things we've done over the years that is true no bad idea when we listen to walk down the steps bobby jindal bobby jindal and it was like a weird yeah i remember rubio reaching across for the water that was incredible man now he's now secretary state could be the next president so looks like he got the last laugh president as well so let's do still time for laughing he's got like three jobs and with the archivists for a while yeah that's awesome you're fired from that all right before we go any kind of closing thoughts we get it we got an insta poll from cnn uh-huh uh-huh the apparently the

43:27the percentage who said it was a very pot who felt very positive about the speech was like the lowest in the last ten years so that's something of course those insta polls there are always more republican or more i mean they're there uh people watch the speech and to be people who are already supportive of the president so if it's like a democratic president this polls more democratic if they're republican president i think it was a cbs poll that came out today said that only 18 percent of democrats are planning on watching the speech yeah it was it was wild but i think i think that's i think there are a lot of them are that that's the time when democrats lie out of the poll stress i think i heard the the cnn polls like thirteen or fourteen points more republican than a typical poll which is like fine but still thirty percent yeah and the questions is any of this matter anymore no probably not i don't think it does at all i think that like uh by the time you finish listen to this podcast uh you'll never think of the speech again stilt bombers can be headed to tron right now yep great shame of our nation a historical atrocity that he is in office is proving we'll continue to hover at thirty eight percent yeah but i do not but uh unlike what someone told politico i do not think that he that's sticking to the script gives

44:30the republicans what they need for the midterms i think that's what they needed that was that's that's it that's insane stupid thing they need a genie and a lamp that they can rub an s3 wishes till at this point yeah i don't think and that's it that's his biggest audience until the midterms the boy just so crazy we have president the bar is so low that's like he read the words everybody you read the words they made no sense they didn't they really didn't make it any better but he read them look mostly great work look look they've changed the headline now what trump avoided in the state of the union could haunt him in november but then i know but then the subhead is like jazz the president state of the union was notable for something his second term has largely lacked restraint uh you know i will just we started screaming the democrats are crazy i guess that's the first i i would love to just like show this speech to uh mid like kind of a typical republican in nineteen ninety six maybe like what happened was the president injured like what's going on there were mistakes he avoided making trump did not attack the supreme court he did not blitz

45:30members of his own party who have criticized him he avoided rambling angry digressions from the script amazing but then he was no he avoided no new ideas on housing or health care to defining issues in the midterm campaign yeah me mean no mention of the Jeffrey Epstein scandals i mean in fairness yeah i don't i don't think he was going to go on a stepwinder on Epstein yeah good there i got some of these files in my pocket and redact them on black tv they know that's what a showman would do so take out the file take off the black tape he didn't blitz members of his own parties he had a free safety like tackling speaker johnson you know what he was for better versus see someone someone else for this one oh i don't want to be sure paragraph this is this is this is uh you you i stoked little throughout this one uh they changed it they changed the whole thing uh uh but it was it's unlikely to change the political trajectory of trump's second term in some ways it was nearly indistinguishable from trump's daily pattern the oval office that's correct that's correct that's correct good job political i mean it is it is also an accurate description of what happens tonight

46:42if you want to listen to pod save america ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts go to cricket dot com-slash friends to subscribe on supercasts sub stack YouTube or apple podcast also please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here here at Krugin. Podsave America is a Krugin media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reed Churland is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglund and Charlotte Landis. Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Naomi Sengal is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Heffkoat, Mia Kelman, Carol Pellavive, David Tolls, and Ryan Young. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the writer's Guild of America at East.

47:42Hey, Loveter Leave Listeners. It's me, the titular John Lovett. Here to tell you that I'm coming back to Washington, DC for Loveter Leave It Live at the Lincoln Theatre on April 23rd. That's right. Spring and DC is all about cherry blossoms and Loveter Leave It bringing you a stack lineup of guests. That's what makes it America's number one late night gay live comedy political podcast. We're so excited to be back to DC. It's a tradition now that we come around the time of the car response and or even though the car response in a really no longer has comedians, that I believe there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind-milder. Yes, a magician. Yeah, I'm a mentalist. A mentalist because I guess Trump would know. It's also going. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. There's a mental case and then Trump is also going. That's what it is. Tickets won't last long. They're selling pretty fast. So get yours now while you still can at Kricket.com slash events. Very excited for the DC show. Got some big guests. Pretty exciting maybes. Kricket.com slash events.