Beardos, Weirdos, and Donald Trump

0:00Today's presenting sponsor is SimplySafe Home Security. You can replace a stolen laptop in 24 hours, but you can't replace feeling safe in your own home. Simply safe stops intruders before they get close protecting what matters most, your peace of mind. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break in is already underway, SimplySafe is built to stop it before it starts. Smart AI-powered cameras watch for potential threats and alert, a live US-based security specialist ready to intervene. The agent intervenes in under 30 seconds, speaking through the camera to stop an intruder in their tracks and calling for an urgent 911 dispatch when it's needed most. RCEO recently got us simply safe after hearing us read these ads for many years now and she said that the installation is just as quick and easy as we've made it out to be. So that's always good. She also loves how easy the app is to use and she loves that she can arm and disarm it from her phone and check the cameras right from her phone. So she's very, very happy. Join the more than six million people who entrust SimplySafe with their home security.

1:00Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit SimplySafe.com slash cricket that's SimplySafe.com slash cricket. And when you order, please write in PodSafe America in the checkout survey, it lets them know we sent you and really help support the show. SimplySafe, ahead of crime in real time. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. It's destroying athlete, creator, and YouTube Maxer. YouTube Premium enhances how I use YouTube with awesome features like offline downloads so I can download my favorite training videos before I hit the gym. So no Wi-Fi doesn't turn leg day into loading day. Plus, I get ad-free videos, background play, and so much more. YouTube Premium is like YouTube got some extra gains. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Hey, what's up guys? It's Hayley Bailey. Okay, I need to tell you about something. I just got YouTube Premium. It's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads so I can download my favorite videos before I travel and watch them whenever I don't have Wi-Fi. Because we all know airplane Wi-Fi is the worst.

2:02I get ad-free, I get background play, and there's like a ton more in there. You should try it. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. So try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Try out eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. That's a mouthful. Turn off screen. Finally, we are open this restaurant. Then move on to their menu for today. Delicious E לו gridell. It's €機會 is $38. よろしく유보기 573 subscription thanks forま. Good Bye. Welcome toPodCfedAmerica. I'm John Favreau. I'm Dan Fiverr. On today's show we'll talk about Trump finally hitting the campaign trail whether Republicans like it or not, And many of them do not. His morally binding, completely voluntary agreement with our AI overlords. Senator Eric Schmidt's national humiliation, Pete Hegseth's national humiliation, and why neither of them think what they did was humiliating because shame no longer exists.

3:04Then Dan talks with Reverend Adam Hamilton, who's mounting a very serious challenge against Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas. Dan, the buzz around the office is that it was a fantastic interview and that Adam Hamilton's awesome. He is awesome. I just, I encourage everyone to listen. I encourage everyone to support him. I really was very impressed by him in a way, which I've never been impressed by a politician in a while. That's exciting. All right, everyone. Well, stay tuned after we, uh, blah, blah, and about the news for Dan's interview. All right. With 32 days left until the midterms, Donald Trump has finally hit the campaign trail in his so far successful effort to make the election about him and his 38% approval rating. The Republicans who are actually on the ballot don't seem as enthused about this strategy, but as one Republican operative told Politico, quote, these guys are in a pickle. They may not want Trump to come to the district, but there are still things Trump can do to help. Another GOP strategist working on midterm races was asked what would happen if Trump campaigned in their battleground states and said, quote, I suspect my candidates would

4:07come down with COVID. But one candidate who was seemingly COVID free on Thursday, Ken Paxson, who campaigned with Trump in Texas just a few days after audio leaked of Paxson telling donors what he really thought about Trump's midterm convention in Dallas. Here's the audio from The New York Times. But you feel like you're a little bit of a drag. So did you want to give it a few of the numbers? And it's when we did that in the convention for Trump's our members, everybody's a new boss. Right now, yeah, not good. Not good. Yeah, not good. Not good. That was Paxson saying that, yeah, Trump someone asked him if Trump's been a drag and he said, yeah, Trump's been a drag and that after everyone, after that convention in Dallas, everyone's numbers dropped a little bit. I mean, Paxson, no, this is not the point here, but it's just truly unbelievable that someone, like most incredibly corrupt politicians who succeed have incredible charisma. Trump as an example, right?

5:08Paxson, like what is Paxson bringing the table that allows people to just go on with corruption? Someone made the personality of a snail. People who analyzed Texas politics for living and do Texas politics for living have made the point that he has gotten as far as he has because of his corruption. And so like, because he has been so corrupt and gotten so much and so many people who are really wealthy in Texas politics to spend so much money getting him elected, he really hasn't had like a super competitive race, especially in like in a primary where he's had to rely on his charisma and talent and campaigning. All he's had to do is just be the guy who a bunch of wealthy special interests poured a bunch of money into making sure he got elected so that he could pay them back. Guys, I really can't lose to this guy. I know. I know. So here's Trump in Texas on Thursday proving that he's definitely not a drag.

6:12And Paxson was up my side more than anybody. And I have to always remember that because he could be a pain in the ass sometimes. That'll be us. Is he here, by the way? Oh, there he is. Good. I didn't even know he was here. I don't care. You think that's what Paxson was looking for? He was like, wow, he didn't call me ugly this time. Now we don't think that the event's not over. Yes, so it's possible. He closes with the ugly thing, the bad dressing thing. There's so much in this remarks. Yes, is it helpful to Ken Paxson for Donald Trump to take his very poor, proven rating even in Texas and just be like, see Ken Paxson? He's always by my side. My stink is definitely on him in case you're wondering. My stink is on him. But also earlier in those remarks, he spent the before he gets to the acknowledging Ken Paxson's existence, he spends like 10 minutes at the top just saying how amazing the economy is and how we have numbers like no one's ever seen me for. And the only reason people don't know it is because the fake news won't tell people. He also admitted yesterday, Wednesday, Trump said that he's done a quote, very bad job

7:17of explaining his economic record. Did you catch that quote? Yeah, yeah. Rare sort of self awareness from Donald Trump, although I wouldn't say it's self-awareness because there's not much of an economic record to explain. Yes, there is that problem. Yes. But I was surprised that he said that. So you know, right as we started recording too, Fox News has another poll, 5149. Telleriko. Telleriko over in Paxson. So take that for what you will. We can get into the polls a little bit later. So this obviously depends on the specific race. But what do you make of the argument that was in that political story that in certain red states and districts, Trump showing up could be a net positive because he will turn out his hardcore mega fans who otherwise wouldn't have voted. This is the bet for the midterms, at least in the White House for putting Trump out there at all. This is not a strategy that a bunch of people have come up and put on a white board based on data. It is based on the fact that Donald Trump will not shut up, will not stop saying unhelpful

8:21things. And so the best thing they can do in their estimation is to have him say those things in rooms with lots of Republicans in swing states on this, you know, this like Hail Mary idea that it will turn out public voters now. There are two problems with this. The first is there isn't a lot of evidence in the statistical data that Trump will turn out Republicans the way he has before. There are two measures. This one is what Trump's secret sauce has been in 2016, 2020 and 2020, particularly 2024 is he is turning out lesser engaged voters, people who don't like just been politics and first time voters, all the data we've seen in the focus groups is quantitative and qualitative data says that those are the first people off the Trump train. They made a bet on Trump about costs. He did not deliver costs. They are out. The other thing is is that he doesn't even have the same sway with his base to do used to his, I think the best sort of statistical proxy to understand what that is is strong approval among Republicans. His strong approval among Republicans is now under 50. It was close to 70 on election day and even as obviously 2024, but in 2018 as well,

9:25where people forget, Democratic turnout was through the roof, but Republican turnout was quite high there. And there's just not the same suggestion that Trump is going to have that effect. And then, the fact that there's things that happen in a silo, a president comes to a state, particularly if it comes to like a Kansas or an Iowa, it's going to get a ton of attention. It's going to be seen by all the independent voters. It's going to force the, especially in Texas. Yes, especially in Texas. They're going to have to ask the question, all the candidates on ballot are going to have to ask the question like the Ashley Henson's of the world, are they with her? Are they going to come to the rally? And if they don't come to the rally, that doesn't seem to be good either because it makes them like political and calculated. If they go to the rally, it seems bad. He's putting them in all the bad, in a bad position and we should be grateful for it. And we are actually paying for this travel with our taxpayer money. So when, when for us, I mean, even at that events that we just heard the clip from, he's like his tax in here somewhere. I believe, like, I think he's doing another event with tax and or did another event with taxed in. Yeah. I think it was a fundraiser tonight. Right. So, so Pat Ken Paxton, unbelievably unpopular and corrupt still had the wherewithal to

10:28think that he shouldn't be like standing next to Donald Trump at the event. Well, I had a lot of questions about this event. Is this an official event? Yeah, because it's some kind of a truck. It's in a, it's in a Peter Bill truck factory. And then I know the Hatch Act doesn't really count. And we, it's like a fake law, at least with Donald Trump's president. But it really is. He specifically don't like the one thing you cannot do an official event is actually tell people to vote for certain people. And he tells them like seven times to vote for Paxton and vote against Teleriko. Yeah. RIP the Hatch Act. So Trump's also been doing White House events, hyping economic wins for key candidates. So we talked on Tuesday about the future iOS deal plant he announced with Ashley Hinson standing behind him in the Oval Office coming to an IOTown near you in 2030. He also announced a pledge this week from South Korea to invest in a natural gas pipeline in Alaska with Dan Sullivan standing next to him. So it turns out that project is not only not finalized, but apparently South Korea

11:33afterwards said no investment decision has actually been made. The project still has to pass commercial legal reviews. And the Korean industry minister told Reuters he complained that the White House announcement went beyond what had been agreed to what is the price. What are the what John come on? Who you going to believe the Koreans are Trump. So like my instinct is that none of this shit moves the needle. But Tommy made the point on Tuesday's pod that the iOS deal plant was the kind of thing that got a ton of local press in Iowa. I don't know what do you think. I think that there's a way in which Trump can do these things that would be helpful. And he's doing the opposite of that, which is he's not that when you go these you watch his events, he's not saying like, you know, we didn't know what we're going to do. And Ashley Hinson would not stop calling me. She was like, you must deliver for Iowa. You must deliver for a week. He's still plants all my advisors were saying we can't do this. Ashley Hinson. She was up my ass every day doing it. And he doesn't do that or she did the same thing with Dan Sullivan. He takes credit for the whole thing and then makes the candidate stand there.

12:36Why he says, fucking insane things like the greatest economy of all time is what he said with Ashley Hinson standing behind. No, so yes, it may be the local newspapers. Tommy is correct about that. That you know, like new steel plank. I'm like, we all remember you guys talk to us on Tuesday, the Foxconn plant, like what a big deal that was in Wisconsin press. Obviously that local press up matters a lot less than it did before, but it matters more to say like Iowa. But what he's delivering there is not. I don't think it is helpful to Ashley Hinson or Dan Sullivan anyway, she performed. Also, how does it feel to read the headline about the new steel plank that's coming in 2030 while you're at the gas station? Feeling of your car with gas. It's like so far. It's been more expensive as long as you can remember. So there is that problem too. So polls seem good, maybe too good. This wasn't in our outline, but I thought I would bring it up anyway because you wrote a message box this week. I did. It really captured the vibe of all my group chats, not just the ones that you were.

13:37Well, the ones because I'm in a lot of them. I was going to say not just the ones that you're in, which is most of them. And it's called are the polls too good to be true. Like here's where I am. I could see a scenario where the polls are broadly correct. Democrats win National House vote by eight, nine, even more than nine, win the house. But then like narrowly lose the Senate because of a pretty small polling error. Like doesn't have to be a huge one. It's not even an error, right? Right. It's just all these polls in the key Senate races other than North Carolina and Georgia are within the margin of error. So the thing that's got everyone, you know, talking on Twitter is Harriet and pointed out on CNN this week that in 18, 20 and 24 polls, specifically in the states of Iowa, Michigan and Ohio, the same states where there's always polling error, all underestimated Republicans by more than five points. So that like, you know, if we're within the margin and it's a duel and shared and Josh Turk, by the way, the same Fox had that Texas poll, right as we started recording that

14:40has Hillary go up 5149 also has Josh Turk up 5149 in Iowa. But yeah, that like those, those states, you know, that would cost us the Senate. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's all on the table. It isn't always true that every polling error is bad for Democrats good for Republicans. Right. In fact, in 2025, there is a, the polls, particularly in New Jersey, dramatically overstate the Republican vote share. And so it could be and then you have had there are other examples of other years where the polls overstate, or probably the 2012 was a year where the polls overstated the Republicans. And so like there are a couple of things I'd say about this. And I also, I would mention because this is very important. I also, while I want everyone to subscribe to the message box, I also discuss this on polar coaster, which you can get along with ad free episodes of semiconductor podcasts. And the amazing newsletters like open tabs at Kirkkin.com slash friends. So I mean, it's a great, it's a great offer.

15:41And you get to be supporting pro democracy independent media, one of the last best independent media outlets left in America, especially now that CNN's under the thumb of the Ellicins. This is the, it's us, right? That's what we got. All right. So in the, so a couple of points I would make here. One, the, there is, polling errors are always possible. That is very true. There are, there is evidence outside of polls, which suggests a very good democratic year. I'll give you a couple of those. One, Democrats have outvoted Republicans in primaries, which shows high turn on our part. Special elections have been very, very able to Democrats now. You probably listened to us all 2023 and 2024 saying special elections are not predictive. And they are not necessarily predictive. But they are much more predictive in midterm elections than presidential election years. Because as these concentric circles of less engaged voters go out, they become less predictive, they become less predictive. But that there's less than that in the midterms. And in 2018, special elections were actually quite predictive.

16:43There's a point Amy Walter has made before. And then you just look at all what's happening in the world. High gas prices, inflation, housing costs, all of those things, low consumer confidence, mortgage rates being high. All of those things have historically correlated with very bad years for the incumbent party. So are the polls right or wrong? We don't really know. We don't know they're necessarily wrong, as you know you never just go to them before. There are some of the states that we need are the ones with the polling errors are the greatest. But even let's take the Latino vote. I'd like that's the point that has been made before about how the polls have in the past overrepresented the democratic share of the Latino vote, which is given, this is a big thing, given people impression of the Democrats who had wins the places they don't win. It's why we thought Florida was close many times and I'm not being. But here's the thing, it's not just polls that tell us that Latinos have shifted the Democrats. There are real actual voting results in 2025.

17:43Huge swings, 20, 30% swings to Democrats in heavily Latino precincts in New Jersey. In that special election that that was won in Texas, huge swing among heavy Latino precincts in the primary. I think this is like this isn't fascinating. Fasten anything in the primary, Texas primary now it's a primary. But James Telerico got more votes in those heavily Latino counties on the rear ground valley than Kamala Harris did in the general election. That's crazy. Yeah, and so there is a percentage that votes. That's actual raw votes. And so that's so all of that is to say I don't know if the polls are right or wrong. We should not assume that the polling error is necessarily bad for Democrats. But there is lots of evidence. And then today for the first time in like many, many years, Democrats outredricered Republicans in Florida. Which is very notable. So there is evidence for Democratic movement and Democratic enthusiasm and swing voter swing in the Democrats. Is that going to be enough to take the Senate? We don't know the answer to that. Yeah, and I would just tell everyone in the last month too. I feel like in the last, maybe not this week, but the week before, earlier this week too,

18:48you're getting some polls where there's like, you know, D plus 13, 14, 15, like there is a scenario where Democrats do have, like there is a blue wave, and Democrats do do quite well and take the House and win the national, like I said, win the national poverty over about like eight, nine points. And it's just really, really close in a lot of Senate states where, you know, those are red states, the Trump won by double digits. And it's like, you just need to get over that hump if you're the Democratic candidate. And like, hopefully we get there and all of them if the wave is big enough, but it's that's where the election is. Yeah. It's just, it is credible to believe that then Democratic national poverty about in 2026 with $4.20 gas a gallon with $7 diesel, that the Democratic share of the national poverty vote could be a couple points higher than it was in 2018 when Trump was in the mid 40s, when the economy was much better, when the majorities of voters approved the Trump's annual economy, like why couldn't it be a couple points better,

19:49at least than it was then? Yeah, I agree. Today's show is brought to you by Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice. You'd think challenging the publishing industry would take the combined efforts of writers, publishers, and activists instead, one 10-year-old helped spark the conversation. Marley Diaz was 10 when she noticed something about the book she was being assigned in school. Too many kids weren't getting to see themselves at the center of the stories they read. Instead of waiting for somebody else to change that, Marley launched hashtag 1000 Black Girl Books. What started as a three-month project became an international movement, putting diverse books into the hands of children around the world. Now 21 and a Harvard graduate, Marley's thinking beyond representation to the systems that determine which stories young people can access in the first place and what we risk when that access disappears. Here, Marley Diaz, on Into the Mix today, wherever you get your podcasts.

20:49Pots of America is brought to you by AG1. October hits different. As the season shift and daylight fades, your entire rhythm changes with it. Waking up to pitch black mornings when you have a full day ahead takes a toll, adjusting to the shift requires intentional choices to keep your energy up and stay ahead of the curve. That's where your AG1 comes in. It won't change the sunrise, but it will help you power through it, giving your body what it needs so the dark mornings don't tank you before you even start. One scoop cold water every morning before anything else. When your body is navigating seasonal change, your nutritional foundation matters more than ever. The last thing you want is a nutrient gap on top of everything else your body is adjusting to. AG1 next gen has 75-plus ingredients, vitamins, minerals, pre- and probiotics, superfoods, backed by four separate gold standard clinical trials. Key nutrient levels improved within three months of consistent use. It's not a one day fix. It's what happens when you stay consistent. October is when immune support really earns its place in your routine. AG1 next gen is specifically formulated to support immune defense so you stay ahead of the season. We love AG1. We have for a very long time. It's great. Just scoop it in some

21:54water or you scoop it in a smoothie. Then you know you've got your daily dose of all the important things that you forget about. If you don't have AG1, all the vitamins, minerals, probiotics, all that, all in one scoop. Just put it in your smoothie. It's great. Go to drinkag1.com slash cricket and for a limited time get a free immune support bundle including a bottle of omega-3 fish oil and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 with your first subscription order of AG1 next gen or AG1 pro. That's drinkag1.com slash cricket. One other a pre-med term Trump announcement that sure to warm the hearts of Republican candidates everywhere. A few weeks after election day, the crypto company that runs Trump's mean coin says Trump will be the featured speaker at what they're calling the most exclusive dinner in the world for the top 185 buyers of Trump coin. Jeff Stein at the Washington Sun who broke the story estimates that buying a million dollars worth of Trump coin should do it. That should land you

22:57on the top 185 based on the current leaderboard. Trump who of course earns money every time one of the coins changes hands has already made $635 million from this Trump coin. Well the people who actually bought the fucking things have lost close to $4 billion dollars. Also you got to see the AI art on the announcement page because it's Trump if he was like you know a hundred pounds lighter and 30 years younger. Do you feel like Democrats in midterm races are making the most of Trump's insane corruption? Just a thought I had reading that. Are they making the most of it? I think you can never make too much of it. But I think you are seeing a lot of Democrats and this is a very very refreshing I think making political corruption be a huge part of their message. Now in some cases you have very very corrupt candidates like Ken Paxton. You have a bunch of other candidates who

24:00we used to actually have a bunch of Democratic ads about these Republican members who come into Congress voted against all these things and also like quadruple their net worth while they were in Congress. You see a lot about stock trading. They're not really making it about Trump but that's okay because what Trump is doing is by being so obviously corrupt. He is making it more believable that all of his minions in Congress are corrupt. And when I think it's really really really impressive about the message and James Hillary comes in and out today reciting in a restaurant and he talks about how Ken Paxton's corruption has cost Texas taxpayers $12 million and then you have to pay the bill. It's a restaurant. There's a great. It's very well done. But there was a navigator poll. I said this was super fascinating from a few weeks ago. Navigator researched some of the smarter people doing polling on our side of the aisle. And in that they talked about how now voters consider political corruption to be one of the leading reasons why costs are going up. And so you're seeing all these Democrats connect political corruption to their costs going up. And so Trump's like this

25:02overlay on top of it that makes all these other Republican candidates more vulnerable these attacks in this September and New York Times. Santa Paul was a finding that didn't I think didn't get enough attention. Voters find Republicans to be more likely to be corrupt than Democrats by 14 points. It's 4834. And that didn't used to be the case. No, it was it's almost always been split. Yeah. I think that you know if you're a House candidate or a Senate candidate who's just running against a regular Republican, you know, you don't just want to talk about Trump because you're running against the Republican. But I do think corruption is a great issue to tie that Republican to Trump because the Republican Congress has done abs of fucking looting nothing about this corruption. And so if people are thinking as they should, that like it's crazy for the president of the United States to make more money than he's ever made in his lifetime while they are paying more for like basic necessities than they've ever paid in their lifetime. And the Republican has done nothing about it that they're running against. I think that's a pretty good, pretty good ad, pretty good story to tell, pretty good moment to have at a debate. You know, everyone says that Oshoff does great because

26:08of his like lighting in the events and he's tied, he's hitting corruption. But the way he hits the corruption, I think is effective because he tells a story about it. And that telleriko ad tells a story about it. Like it's not just enough to just, you know, hit the, oh, he's getting rich off whatever. But like tell the whole story about it. Speaking of stories in the story that Jeff Stein wrote here, just this great part, they talked to a 26 year old, uh, uh, crypto guy who's lost $400,000 so far on Trump coin. Um, and he was, uh, disappointed by last year's dinner because Trump only went for 20 minutes, uh, didn't take any photos. And the stake was small and terrible. And then the, then the kid says, if it was an option, he could see himself voting for Trump again, will go to this year's dinner and said, quote, I hope the food is better this time. Really just like sums up the entire, the entire Trump experience for Trump supporters over two terms. Yes. Yes. I hope the food is better this time. That's what they said when they went to the polls

27:12in 2024. Last, my friend, I'm going to suggest it probably will not be. By the way, we do have a much better event for you to attend after the midterms that won't cost you a million dollars in Trump coin, Dan. Uh, it's crickered coin. You have to buy it's crooked con in Washington, DC. We got a live Potsay of America show, a live love it or leave it. Conversations and debates with all your favorite host strategist creators, democratic politician. It's going to be lively. It's going to be fun. Uh, we're going to kick off the debate about how to win back the White House in 2028 with some of the people who might end up on that primary debate stage. Um, and we'd love to see you. It's going to be November 5th through 7th and DC. You can go to crooked con.com for tickets and you get a discount if you're a friend of the pod subscriber and all those other benefits that we just mentioned earlier. So you can go to crooked.com slash friends to become a subscriber and crooked con.com to get your tickets while they're still available for crooked con in DC. This is kind of through my pitch for people. Yeah. If you work in politics and at any level in any way, shape or form

28:15and you, you should be crooked con because it is the place where you're going to meet the most people you can network. You're going to hear from some of the smartest people. You're going to find what if you're looking for the 2028 campaign you might work on or what you're going to do next or where things are going in politics. The people who have the answer, those questions are all going to be at crooked con. Plus it's going to be a shitload of fun. So much fun. All right. One issue I'm sure Republican candidates wish Trump would shut the fuck up about is AI and specifically data centers where he's wildly out of step with public opinion, including Republican voters, but alas, you just can't help himself. Dan, here he is answering a question from a reporter about data centers at the White House on Tuesday. The data centers are, and by the way, I'm very good at real estate. Some of those buildings are absolutely beautiful. They're big and they're big strong, powerful buildings, but they're beautiful and they add greatly into a community. That's what people, they often describe the architecture of data centers. I think he has never seen a data center. No, he has no idea what they are. There's never been a data center that

29:19is not ugly. No. Have you seen these things? Yeah. It's a gigantic huge. Yeah. Some of them are like 20 acres. It's like, it's terrible. Yes. Yeah. I mean, he truly has no idea what he's talking about in any way, shape or form. He then elaborated on this point to Time Magazine in a 75 minute interview that just published because what else does he have to do, but then sit down with Time Magazine for 75 minutes. He said, quote, I would like to have data centers. It doesn't mean I want them right next to my house, but certainly I like them in my county. Our Nimby King. He also repeated his line about how people who don't want data centers next to their homes must want to be poor and live in quote crime-infested squalor. So a lot of Republican candidates are running ads right now trying to pretend that they have they are now against data centers. They've always been against data centers. Republicans in Congress just failed to pass their completely

30:24toothless bill that would have asked companies to consider paying for higher electricity costs associated with data centers. Do you think all that could help neutralize the issue even though Trump continues to step on the Republican message on this issue? I do not, John. I think that having the leader of the Republican Party, the person with the largest megaphone in the party, the person who all of these candidates have lashed themselves to his hip this all time, stand in front of a collection of current and soon to be trillionaires from the least trusted industry in the world to basically say that AI will not be regulated and we should have data centers everywhere. It's not going to be seen as helpful to put Republican candidates. That's just my one man's take. This is another one where like I have followed this. I followed all the polling. You see Republicans running ads on it. So you know they must be nervous. Like just a little preview this weekend's offline. Oh please do. I'm sitting down with Aaron Brockovich, who has taken up the cause of

31:27data centers because people just like one day she woke up and people started sending her emails about data centers in their community because they know about her past and what she's done and that she's fought for consumers. And so I've like really been digging into the issue. Like people are so fucking angry and like people in rural areas and Republicans and it is like a cross party line. It's like one of those issues that I don't know if politicians, even the politicians who are appropriately skeptical of the way data centers have been built so far. I don't think anyone truly understands the like grassroots rage over this issue. Yeah it is. Those data centers are the manifestation of everything that people hate about our unfair economy and the they're fear and anxiety about the future of the economy under AI where they can lose their jobs. Not to mention all the the worries in the last couple of weeks about AI ending the planet. Right. It is like no one really think that what data centers are there's like an actual so much of the you know

32:28what's wrong with our economy is just sort of like out there in the world. It's like what are what do you really matter like you're mad at a lot of things but now you have a physical thing that people are trying to put in your community and you have the ability to possibly stop it and it is people are incredibly incredibly far up about it. And a lot of the pro data center people are like well yeah but you know if you do it the right way they they pay taxes and they take care of the electricity bill and there's a way to design them now that they don't use as much water and like all that stuff is true but some of these people like they drop down a massive data center in your community and you've got people living nearby who can't sleep at night because it's so noisy and because it's like so bright that like look you can see in their houses like the lights coming into their houses in the like 2 a.m. like it's just fucking and in all these deals get done without any kind of local input and so there's like NDAs the AI companies come in they build the data center local officials don't do anything about it and then people just get fucked and have like this gigantic data center next to them instead of like farmland or forest it's wild anyway.

33:28In Michigan Abdul has a new ad that is the actual real sound of a data center playing for 30 seconds. Oh that's awesome. Then with words talking about the data centers all the money that my credit is taken from pro data center interests etc. That's good because you really have to listen to the sound of it. Yeah it's so loud. So again that time interview with 75 minutes what else jumped out at you in that interview. So there are two things here the first is why did Donald Trump do an interview with a magazine that doesn't really exist anymore or at least time exists but the value of time for a politician was being on the cover and then that cover sat on new stands at airports everywhere people saw it right even they never picked the magazine they saw you. The reason that Donald Trump did this is he's an old man but also this interview put him on the cover which made it put him on his 56th cover I believe which makes him now the person who's been on the cover the most. Now you may say John who is number two on that list it is Richard Nixon which should tell you the value. Well that it's not always a positive to be on the cover.

34:34It's not like 56 years about that. You can be honest for a lot of reasons. Yes. He's Donald Trump. He says Maggie Haberman always pointed out he's frozen in the 1980s he thinks time magazines of the deal. He thinks it's so important. He's on the cover. He's now got the record that's all that matters. Yeah it's so embarrassing but they're in the interview there's two things. I mean one the whole thing it is hard to read because it's so fucking eco here I like like reading Trump is so much worse than listening to Trump because it's really hard. You kind of understand his verbal text when you're listening to him what's he been doing for so long and you kind of you go along for the weave but when you have to read it and like the direct question is answered and he asked and he still asked answering the question from before and you don't really know what he's talking about but like it is you truly cannot be more detached from reality than he is in this where he keeps talking about he obviously talks about how wonderful the economy is that's his thing but he look insisting the straight cannot be more open than it is right now. He also says like they ask him are you going to ramp up bombing after the midterm Iran and he said yeah possible

35:38I might annihilate Iran because annihilating by annihilating them we've created peace in the world. Yeah yeah so just think about the logical that I know we've done this a thus time just but the straightest completely opened we've won but also our next move maybe to annihilate Iran. Now at the end as I think a truly perfect little thing that just shows what Trump's priorities are and what his fears are he says there he it's kind of hard to understand because it's so incoherent but I'm pretty sure what he's saying is that he has been bothering Susie Wiles to get her to declare to find someone who can declare the oval office in its current form to be historical landmark so the next president can't come in and take down all the gold. Is it first of all is if that's going to stop them because clearly that would have stopped Trump right man with a passionate adherence to building codes in historical preservation Donald Trump who demolished the East wing of the White House. Yeah so the the Iran things stuck out to me and

36:41then also there was a Wall Street Journal headline today US sending third aircraft carrier up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East so the whole after the midterms resuming the bombing thing that's that's real. He says that nominating Gorsuch he regrets nominating Gorsuch Kavanaugh and Barrett and that he wants loyalty in a Supreme Court justice so if you if you weren't psyched to take the Senate back before this is another reason to work hard to take the Senate back because he's you know going to appoint some I lean cannon if he gets the shot says he could use in the Insurrection Act a lot of people had told him have told him he should use it around the midterms round elections so that's fine but he's never thought of sitting ice to the polling places. Never thought of that never once thought of that I'm sure not. But the Insurrection Act is a lot of people are telling him he should use it which there's been reporting that they are. He of course floats preemptive partens for all of the staff. He said here's his answer to why he changed artificial intelligence to superintelligence which all of those fucking douchebag AI tech people

37:46have gone along with and now we're saying that themselves because that they have no shame either. He said quote it's not artificial intelligence because artificial intelligence is like CNN. It's fake. This is truly really this I mean I don't you can't say anything stupid as thing Trump has done but he's so fixated on this in ways I can't say and maybe it's because he likes making these fucking beta corrupt tech oligarchs just adopts his language you're like I made him change yeah Lake Ontario to Lake America on Apple Maps the other day. Aha. See what I can do here next week is gonna be like Dario tell him what your name is now it's Mario now. Yes. Hey, hey Samantha Altman. Hey Mark, Mark, Mark. What if you changed the name of your company to a technology you would later abandon called the meta. Oh wait, you didn't know that. I still laugh about that every

38:51stick on time. And we were all gonna be in the metaverse. Yeah. He also he says basically like the last 15 minutes of the interview. He is like forcing time magazine to appreciate like his molding and he's he's he says that the White House is in better condition now than when it was built and then he said everything I do is ahead of schedule which is like normal thing to say about an 18th century building. Yeah. You've been renovating for over a year. And then oh, he also flipped out at the end. Yeah. Yeah, like while he's talking about the White House and the renovations they said something about like have you seen Mitch McConnell lately and he was like you haven't asked me one fucking positive question and all this 75 minutes. So that was he was really upset by in there. And then just one more thing on AI. Have you heard about him using Grock? Did you see this part? I read this and I find it to be both disturbing and thoroughly unsurprising.

39:54Very disturbing. So Elon introduced him to Grock and at the time this is from the the time magazine story about the interview. At the time Trump was ordering missile strikes against Venezuelan boats. He alleged were smuggling drugs into the US. He asked Grock how Venezuelans would react if the US captured Maduro and according to the official who was present the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall after Trump ordered the mission to seize Maduro the following month celebrations broke out in the streets. Trump according to officials came away thinking Grock was ingenious. We are so cooked. Not great. So that data center clip we played came from Trump's press avail with America's AI overlords where they all announced what Trump called a morally binding accord calling on every lab to quote implement robust internal controls to monitor the capabilities

40:58in alignment of their models work with unspecified outside monitors and create independent committees of their board members to monitor safety. They very explicitly punted on the consideration of any actual laws or federal regulations because why would they talk about that with the president of the United States at the White House thoughts on this one substantively and politically. Substantively, I feel worse about AI than I felt before this meeting because there's not that we ever thought Trump would take this seriously but now this is this fake morally binding document, morally binding because it's not legally binding is a now sort of sort of fig leaf that will give Republicans an excuse not to respond to the very real dangers of AI and the public pressure to regulate it. They can just point to this fake thing and say that the shitty den grins of some of the people who don't want AI regulation because they got what they want here which is this totally fake. We are no safer. In fact, we're less safer than we were before. We're continuing on the same

42:01dangerous path and this was one of those things where everyone lost. Trump looked like a moron. He was bad for him politically. All of the tech companies, even the ones who had earned respect speaking out, first RIO from Anthropic and then all the others, even Elon who spoke out about the need for regulation and slow down and all the above all just look ridiculous so they stand there and with shitty den grins on their face as Trump just blabbed about nothing. The country lost, I mean, just it's the whole thing was so stupid. Also, the entire frontier industry has now publicly conceded that advanced models pose risks, series enough to require some kind of independent testing and oversight. But we are supposed to trust that this testing and oversight will happen internally on the up and up based only on the word of Donald Trump and these tech billionaires. That's what we got to go on. Donald Trump who's chief tech chief AI advisor of someone who wants

43:04no regulation. And who along with Donald Trump and some of these folks called the whole originally called Dario's concerns about safety of hoax. It was all fake. It's not it's all a hoax boba. And now they're saying, oh yeah, there's serious risks but we're going to take care of it. So there is that funny part in the interview where he tells him about the the age of the A. Rogai agents breaking into the government. He's like, who did that? Who's road? The rogue. We got to get those. This rogue guy. Yes. I Paz of America is brought to you by Mint Mobile. Fall brings changes but your phone bill shouldn't bring surprises. Cut the clutter and ditch big wireless gimmicks for Mint Mobile. Right now every Mint plan is just $15 per month even unlimited. Switch today for high speed data and reliable coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right with premium wireless for 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even bring your

44:06current phone and your number choose from three six or 12 month plans and say goodbye to a monthly bill. Ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile. It's so easy sign up online and get three months of premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month go to Mint Mobile.com slash crooked. That's Mint Mobile.com slash crooked. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at Mint Mobile.com slash crooked. That's it. There's no catch. Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 months plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy includes up to 20 gigabyte hotspot capable device required availability speeding coverage vary. See Mint Mobile.com. Paz of America is brought to you by Quince. You know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing on repeat the sweater that goes with everything the perfect pair of pants or the tea you somehow always reach for first. Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy and that's what Quince does best. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere organic cotton

45:11and marina wool. The styles are timeless versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day. They're 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at just $60 giving you this softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand without the luxury price tag. And when the temperature starts to drop, Quince makes it easy to build on those everyday staples with premium down jackets and classical outwear versatile layers designed to keep you warm and comfortable all season long. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middleman. So you're paying for high quality not brand markup. Love Quince got a bunch of polos from Quince over the summer and got some excellent shoes, sneakers that I still wear, got one of those Mongolian cashmere sweaters for the fall and you know I'm going to go shopping again soon because love their website, love the stuff they have and super affordable. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about

46:15them, let them know it was Pots of America. It's the best way to support the show. So Congress is now out of session until after the midterms and while the Republican majority left town without accomplishing anything they wanted to, they were able to step on one final rake. Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt, who woke up on Tuesday to an Axios piece, heralding the alleged buzz he's been drawing as a possible 2028 VP pick for JD Vance humiliated himself while questioning former Trump special counsel Jack Smith during a Senate Judiciary hearing. This is a hard one to follow but Schmidt was in the midst of spinning up a wild conspiracy that back in 2024, Jack Smith had secretly met with Fulton County District Attorney Fahni Willis in Atlanta based on a series of unvetted text messages that according to Schmidt supposedly proved that Smith had attended an Atlanta Hawks NBA game. But then this happened. Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden

47:17State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024? What city would that be in Atlanta? No. What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024 the day after Willis and Wade announced their fair. I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time and the Marshall Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa. Could it then be that University of Iowa's the Hawkites? I fucking love Amy Klubuchar. You have to wash the look on her face where she knows that she is fucking drilled Eric Schmidt in calling out to be such a dumbass. It's so good. The whole thing is so good. Well, so afterwards Schmidt of course acknowledged his mistake and was deeply apologetic

48:17in an interview with TMZ. Let's look. No heads are going to roll up this sort of thing like whoever gave you that information isn't like. No, I asked him a question like were you in Atlanta? He answered no. He's lied before. So I guess we'll take him in his word that he wasn't in Atlanta. I don't know. So that wasn't like an embarrassing moment or something from where you're standing. No, I asked questions. I'll see if he answers truthfully. He's not answered truthfully before. So people can decide if that's the truth or not. I suppose that the Department of Justice can ask him really where he was that night. I don't know. I asked the Hawkeye game. What's that? The Hawkeye game, wasn't he? That's what he says. Oh, no, no, no, we can see the audience that he's in that section. That's great. I've seen him in the section that night. For that night, great. Well then he was at the Hawkeye game. I just asked him to sit in Atlanta. That's great. That's great. Good. That's great. That's great. Apparently, Schmidt's General Counsel, who was the guy holding up the poster board with the text messages on it was supposed to be moving over to the White House to take a role in the Staff Secretary's office, but Politico's now reporting the job offer is in danger of being

49:19rescuers. The thing is even dumber than it seems. Yeah. Because I watched this clip pretty cold because all I saw was someone who would just quote tweeted his holy shit. And so I didn't know any like I got to experience the whole journey like the game, the Hawkeye's, Eric Schmidt being in Barrett's, Eric Schmidt coming in dirt bag, watching Jack Smith figure it out in real time. It was beautiful. But then you realize like yes, he fucked this up. But even if he had to secretly discover that he'd been to an NBA game, I thought there was going to be some evidence that funny willess what was the point game, but he's just proving that he was trying to prove he was in the same city, one of America's largest cities and also a airport that you must fly through to go almost anywhere in the South. He's just proving that he was in a city that funny willess lives in. I don't care if he had dinner with Fanny Willis. What the fuck with that proof? What are you

50:20trying to like what is the allegation here that she brought a case against Donald Trump that was very public that she tried in a court of law and that he also brought a case against Donald Trump. Like you're trying to like what what the allegation of like random inclusion was stupid in the first place. Also, have you I am now bought into the theory that it wasn't actually a mix-up between the Hawkeyes and the Atlanta Hawks? Oh, interesting. Because nowhere on that poster board did it say like that they were it didn't the text messages said nothing about the Hawks game. It just said a game. What they what what Schmidt staff is saying is the only men's basketball game that was scheduled for that night was the Atlanta Hawks game. And so the fact that they knew he went to a game. No one thought that it could have been a women's basketball or a men's college basketball game. There was no apparently there was no men's basketball. There's impossible. That's that's not true. That is not true. I was I men's college basketball game on every single night.

51:22So I know what people are saying that there was no men at that time. It's like because I guess they had the time or the game. They said that at that time for some reason there was no men's or NBA men's college or NBA game scheduled and that the women's Hawkeyes game in Maryland was the only one that was scheduled. And so he went to see Caitlin Clark. I mean it's just it's so fucking stupid. I do think that like I mean it was funny to look to watch and to see him be humiliated. But I was also like sort of angry that he isn't humiliated and he's not humiliated on the right like have you seen any of the right wing media cover this. No. So some of them are just ignoring it which is like what you'd expect from them. He appeared on turning point USA on the turn on the the old Charlie Kirk podcast afterwards. And the exchanges on this podcast are like insane. So like the interviewer is like you know you called him out by the way you caught him on this NBA game in

52:24Atlanta. And then Schmidt's like yeah I did. He's like got to give you your flowers. You know you had text messages from his team confirming he was going to the Hawkeyes game. He sat there acting dumbfounded completely clueless. And then and then and then Schmidt was like yeah well he later claimed it was another game. But here's my thing my job is to ask questions. So they just they just acted not like it just didn't happen but that the whole thing did happen but that he got him. Yeah. I mean he looks like a moron. He knows those like you know you can see it in his face in that TMZ clip. Like he can he can say all the words he wants. He can bless or pretend he knows he's looks like a fucking jackass in front of the world. And his like his bullet that now this like ends his political career. But he will be like this will follow him for a very long time. I hope so. I hope so. The Axios piece I mentioned claims that Vance, C. Schmidt as quote, trustworthy intelligent articulate and a deft political operator. Who do we think who do we think

53:29gave Jim Van to high that idea for that Axios piece? Because it was very short and all it said is we hear we hear that that Vance sees him this way. Yeah the whole that is a very interesting story because it's like it had Jim Van High's byline right. Yep. And there was no. It didn't say someone close to the vice president someone close to Schmidt. It just said we hear. Yeah that's very sourcing interesting. And you know what if you're going to publish rumors like that I'm glad they pull up in your face the next day. Not even the next eight three hours later. Yeah. Does Vance think that this fucking moron is a deft political operator probably does he probably check he's a fucking moron. Yes. Here's why it matters. He sucks. Oh speaking of being intelligent and articulate on Wednesday Secretary of War Pete Higgs F delivered what he called his state of the force address. Which to be clear is not a thing. Yes very important. It's not a thing. Higgs F announced a new drone command and office of religious affairs reporting directly to him. So that's wonderful. A 20% reduction

54:33in generals and admirals and something called project meridian which is an effort to study the future of warfare that will be led by next generation leaders like Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich. When I think next generation I think. Yeah when I think a guy who led the Republicans to the 1994 majority future of warfare got to get Newt Gingrich on that. All that was pretty tame though all those announcements compared to what he actually said in the speech. Let's listen. No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdoes, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors. The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in with testosterone testing on top. Our so-called press makes Iranian state media look reasonable. A free press is of course important but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they're undertaking is fundamentally

55:33anti-American. It's sick. It's a national betrayal. It's treason. Our department is you might say putting on the full armor of God because while we wage physical war we all know the real battle is spiritual. God is good. Evil is not. Got them there. And America's military must understand the difference. Send me to fight the red coats. Send me to fight the communists. Send me to fight the Islamists. Send me. Pete Higgseth. Evil is not good. You heard it here first. God is good. Evil. Not good. What do you think of a roared rage doctor Sous there? What's he doing? Like what is he doing? Who writes this stuff? Why does he think that this like weird fucking like roided out beat poetry is like something that people are going to like. I don't like

56:34no tranny's no fatties no weirdos no beardos no beard no beardos no beardos no beardos no beardos no beardos no first shot that's 2028 Republican primary no beardos no beardos except the the guy I I tapped to run project meridian yes I mean it's such like he is a walking seven day life skater like in all times yeah I know I was thinking I'm like this will be a good Colin jost will have a good time with this this weekend they'll probably have to do the Schmidt thing too maybe they'll do both it's just it's a lot of good material yeah it's a big big week for sketch comedy you it's hard to it's hard to even like mock that it's just like you just just play it so I have to just play it that guy is fuck I cannot fucking believe he is in charge of the United States military John he is in charge of this military and we are stuck in a quagmire in the Middle East that was poorly planned and poorly executed and he's like bragging

57:35about like no weirdos no tranny no this no that it's like you're losing a fucking war dude yeah you you're you're in charge of the least popular war since vietnam and he's successful it's like unbelievable yeah just congrats be it hexf what do you think it's America John hexf twenty twenty eight and maybe hexf Schmidt the content gods are not that benevolent no I think that's right all right Dan uh when we come back we'll hear Dan's interview with Kansas Senate candidate Reverend Adam Hamilton you positive America is brought to you by cook unity uh you guys know if you've listened I'm a huge cook unity fan I have been a cook unity fan since long before they were a sponsor I eat it almost every night cook unity is the first chef-led meal delivery service that makes your meals in small batches uh inside local microkitchens across the US not factories so every dish

58:38arrives with the kind of freshness you'd get at the restaurant itself meals from Michelin star chefs James Beard winners food network stars uh you go to cook unity dot com slash cricket or use code crooked before checkout for 50% off your first week basically you can go online there's like you know over 300 options I think every week you can decide what looks like your favorite they have new options every week so you pick your your meals you pick how many meals you get delivered and then you pick the day of the week so like I do Sundays and then Sunday afternoon all the meals come they're all fresh put them in the fridge and then it takes like a couple minutes to heat them up every night and you can't believe that you're eating a meal that wasn't just made for you by a chef like standing in your kitchen it's really really good love cook unity so they have over uh 10 different dietary preferences high protein low sodium GLP1 pescatarian gluten free and more they have over 25 global cuisines Mediterranean Korean Thai Mexican Italian and more just really great stuff taste what happens when real award winning chefs make fresh small batched

59:39meals just for you go to cook unity dot com slash cricket or enter code crooked before checkout to get 50% off your first order that's 50% off your first order by using code crooked or going to cook unity dot com slash crooked this message is brought to you by avocado mattress and if healthy comfortable sleep matters to you this is one organic brand worth knowing when you're shopping for mattresses you can spend hours reading reviews and scrolling through photos but the only way to truly know if a mattress is right for you is to feel it for yourself that's why avocado invites you to come lie down every avocado mattress is got certified organic assembled in our California facility with organic cotton wool and latex no polyurethane foams no fiberglass certified by made safe and ewg verified it's a difference you can feel so curl up try any of our avocado mattresses in person at an avocado mattress store or 600 premier retail locations nationwide find out which of our five comfort levels is right for you because buying a mattress shouldn't be a guessing game and there's no one size fits all when it comes to better sleep find your comfort come lie down

1:00:44at avocado visit avocado green mattress dot com to find a store near you that's avocado green mattress dot com avocado green mattress dot com if you like youtube you'll love youtube premium it's destroying athlete creator and youtube maxor youtube premium enhances how i use youtube with awesome features like offline downloads so i could download my favorite training videos before i hit the gym so no wifi doesn't turn leg day into loading day plus i get ad free videos background play and so much more youtube premium is like youtube got some extra gains try youtube premium for two months free at youtube dot com slash premium hey what's up guys it's hailey balie okay i need to tell you about something i just got youtube premium it's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads so i can download my favorite videos before i travel and watch them whenever i don't have wifi because we all know airplane wifi is the worst i get ad free i get background play and there's like a ton more in there you should try it if you like youtube you'll love youtube premium

1:01:44so try youtube premium for two months free at youtube dot com slash premium trial eligibility varies terms apply cancel anytime that's a mouthful join me now is adam hamilton the democratic senate nominee in Kansas welcome to potsype america hey dan thank you for having me very excited to have you and want to have this conversation for a long time i was in Chicago for the library opening and Kathleen civilians the former governor of your state and the secretary of hs jess from brachabama pulled me aside and said you have to check out our new candidate in kansas and i was like kansas come on Kathleen and she's like no trust me and here we are a month before the election your race is now on the map we're talking and some excited to get through all this with you but i want to start with you know you have an unusual background for a democratic candidate these days you were you know founded a large mega church in kansas you reformed republican how did you find yourself running for senate as a democrat in

1:02:462026 yeah well i've been a democrat i've been an independent i've been a republican i was a republican a lot of the time but i was a democrat during obama's administration i was uh actually preached his second inauguration at the national cathedral the day after the inauguration i served in his administration for two years the last two years of his second term it was a an a presidential appointment working for uh how faith communities and the the administration could work together to solve problems in communities and was really honored to do that so you know i've been all of those things but yes i am a i am a united methods pastor i started a church thirty six years ago with my wife and i and our two kids and uh we started from scratch and today we're church of 24,000 people about 25,000 people on a given sunday in person online and on on tv and on the high holy days you know our eastern christmas for us i will have a hundred thousand plus people who join us for worship so and i'm very proud to be a democrat and believe that the things that democrats you know at our best that we believe align very closely with things that were important to Jesus and what we find in the gospels how have you found

1:03:52sort of the day-to-day grind of politics and running for office and how that differs from your day job yeah so this is not my day job i you know for the last four months i've taken a leave of absence for my church i i still show up and do a few little things and preached once during that time i really have loved this i was just told i was teaching a conference of a thousand pastors and church leaders last night and uh you know speaking to them and i i just i really love this because for 38 years as a pastor 36 years where i'm at in two years before that you know i have i work in the church and i send people to go out into the world and of course i you know go out in the world too but i i send that they're their day-to-day jobs to live out their faith and now i'm that guy who's going to my day-to-day job that's not in the church but it's actually meeting with people caring for people and i've actually found it not that different you know and being a good pastor is about listening it's about caring for people it's about noticing paying attention trying to encourage and inspire people and as a candidate that's what i'm trying to do i you know every group i meet with i'm you know i'm looking to i try to you know touch every person connect with every

1:04:53person i try to listen to stories and i try to figure out how can i inspire and encourage them and you know it's interesting i i carry so you know here's my daily routine just in the mornings and it always has been i i wake up in the morning i get on my knees first thing and i just lift up my hands you know and i just say god here i am please use me to bless other people to help them and encourage them help me to pay attention and you know i've always prayed help me to be Jesus said in the sermon of the mount you were the salt of the earth and the light of the world salt is meant to make everything better that it touches you know and that's kind of how i see what i'm trying to do every day and i carry a piece of a rock salt with me in my pocket wherever i go and just you know i reach in my pocket you know and i just say god please help me to be a blessing to the people i talk to and and that's what i'm still doing on the campaign trail so it's it has been a lot of fun i've met people i would have never met otherwise i get to do things like this with you and and have conversations i might have never had otherwise and what's really fun is a lot of the people i talk to you know not people who go to church there people have been sometimes alienated or hurt by church people and i get to have a chance to have meaningful conversations with them so

1:05:56it's it's actually been really rewarding that's it's been a pretty terrific thing that's great that's really that's actually really great to hear not the actually the answer i expect it's a lot of times you talk people who have done all these other things in their life and the day to day of campaigning is sort of drudgery to that right like it's a me they they they they want to serve right they want to help people but this is the means to it and the fact you're finding joy in it is really fascinating uh we do it is hard though i will tell you i if i know i it's the kind of things like having children dan you have kids i do i have two kids yeah if your parents told you how hard big a parent was you might never have them right right i did when you do it and that's a little how i feel about campaigning like you know there there are there are many weeks you'll walk you'll work seven days a week uh i mean you know 75 hours a week 80 hours a week as a candidate and i've been used to 36 years of working six days a week and 60 hours a week but i've not been working 75 hours a week and i'm you know i'm 62 years old it's like i'm exhausted when i go to bed at night but also i'm grateful that i get to do it no you had there was this clip of yours from a recent

1:07:01event that went viral where you were sort of taking on the question whether you're a liberal or conservative and you say yes both talk me about what you meant by that yeah well people ask me that all the time you know there's uh i can't figure you out are you liberal or conservative and my answer is yes of course and when they say no no which one is it and i'm like i don't think you have to pick to be liberal means to be generous of spirit it means to be to be open-minded it means to be willing to reform or change how you see things and i think we all need to be liberal in that sense and then on the other side to be conservative is conserving values things traditions things that are important and i think at our best we conserve and we're liberal we are willing to reform and at the same see things with new eyes willing to be generous of spirit generous with our resources and at the same time to conserve things that are important should be conserved and i tell people everybody uh dan you me we're all liberal compared to somebody else and we're all conservative compared to somebody else there are people further to the left than you are and there are people

1:08:01to the right of where you are and the same is true with me and and i think if if you can actually you know if we can look at liberals and conservatives you know whatever we mean by those terms and we we can listen and try to bring people together we might actually be better off than if we just go to our corners or our sides and fail to listen to the people on the other side and so that's something i'm running on is look i've spent 36 years past during a church where 35% of our members are Republicans 35% are Democrats 30% are independents and we're better together than we are apart you know we might argue and disagree about some things but i always find what i'm talking with somebody who is a reasonable and thoughtful person who's more conservative than i am i'm gonna be my position is gonna be better my understanding of things are gonna be better because i listened to them and not just the people in my own you know in my own circles and um and i've come to know that you know i'm called a love people wherever they are on that on that spectrum we can strongly disagree with each other but not hate each other and um and i think we need more of that

1:09:02today in our country we need more people coming together saying look we have more in common than what divides us and let's figure out how we can work better together uh rather than what our politicians tend to do and that is to divide us to polarize us you're on ms now recently and you said that you pledged to serve only two terms and that you were go you were not going to Washington to hold trials on you know hold trumps trials for trump talk to me about the decision to self-term limit and what it is like what are you trying to avoid by not doing trump trials like what are you going for sure so first of all when it comes to term limits i believe that we should have a maximum of three term well i'm gonna say 18 years so if you're in the senate that's three term limits if you're and i and to me that's a combination of service in the house and the senate i think there needs to be uh age limits and i think 80 seems like a good age um and i'll say that we've we've all known people who are in their 80s who are sharp as attack but but we also know that they're we have seen people wheeled into congress in their wheelchairs and their aides trying

1:10:05to tell them how to vote and that's not serving the american people that is just not okay we got to do better and as a pastor my denomination requires me to retire at age 72 so i think you know setting 80 is a pretty generous limit like it's time to have new blood and fresh ideas coming in to the senate so i and i think that's true you know it's true in the white house in terms of an age limit it's true on the supreme court and and also terms i think 18 years would be a pretty good maximum in the supreme court so uh and when it comes to what was your second question i'd remember boys about they you talked about trials for trump oh yeah you weren't going to wash your trials for trump so you know clearly if i'm in the senate and articles have been peachment or passed in the house i'm going to you know i'm gonna consider those just like anybody else i mean that's your job but the idea that we should spend the next so i'm looking at this and thinking i've got six years if i get elected i have six years i don't want to spend the next two years you know focused on impeachment and you know and what i want to focus on one of the things i want to focus on

1:11:06is solving the problems we're facing right now in our country the problems that are hurting for Kansas farmers and small businesses and schoolteachers and we got some really urgent things going on and we got some really big issues related to social security and you know health care and immigration reform and and the national debt if i spent the next two years focused on impeachment trials and not focused on solving those big problems what a waste of my time somebody else could have done that i really want to solve some big problems so that's the first thing and the second is that i think all we're going to do so let's put up guardrails to make sure that the abuses that have happened in the last two years don't happen again there are things that have happened that are corrupt there are things that are happened that have happened that are not American they're not consistent with our constitution or our values let's make sure that we do everything we can so that this is not repeated but i think if we go in and think this is look if we take the house in the center you know one or both of those and we're going to start having these trials i think what that's going to mean is we're going to further divide america as opposed to trying to figure out how do we solve for the

1:12:06future i understand the feelings behind wanting to do those things i just think for me you know and i'll do them if that's what comes before the senate but i want to focus on how do we heal our country and how do we put up guardrails to make sure that the the abuses that have happened don't happen in the future so it has been nearly a hundred years since cancels has selected a democrat to the senate 1932 i believe was the last time the you know cancels is obviously a very popular state to say that Trump won by a lot by all measures it seems like you have made this race quite competitive i've been keeping the the electoral analyst's move it to you know from safer public in to lean republican i see uh polls that show it close our own votes of america has added your race into our senate raising fund and we try to only focus on the races where democrats have a real shot to win um why is cancels on the map this like one away it hasn't been for many many many decades yeah well and i'll say one of those rating services now has this as a toss up so i'm very glad for that

1:13:08and if you travel across cancels you see this there are people who voted for trump three times and they never really liked you know his you know his so many things about him but they thought you know well he was a republican or they thought he was standing up for them in certain certain ways but there are people who are saying now the the decisions that are made the chaos the erratic nature of things like the tariffs 55 tariff changes are maybe 56 now in the last year and a half it hurts farmers it hurts ranchers it hurts small businesses and large businesses it hurts jobs i mean as an example uh you know a couple of weeks ago when the president announced that bombardier makes crummy airplanes and we shouldn't sell them in america any imposed a 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods well bombardier is us headquarters are in kansas like we have 1500 employees you know good paying jobs and there are people now wondering what's going to be the future of my job when the president calls our employer a crummy airplane builder i mean that's just not okay with people and you know that's that's you know that's one example but there are so many others where people are just saying this is hurting us and we're tired of being hurt and disappointed you know president

1:14:13who's not who's betrayed them i think they feel betrayed by the president they certainly feel betrayed by Roger Marshall their senator so it's one thing if your president's going to do certain things you know he's erratic he's chaotic you don't know what he's going to do but you expect your senator to stand up and see mr. president this is hurting my people stop but our president or our sitting senator seems to act like the you know the lapdog of the president he seems to he's a yes man he says whatever the president wants him to say he comes back and tries to make the case you know tariffs are working but the people in kansas know they're not you know or the war we need the war but they know they're paying record prices for diesel and have spent 700 million dollars more on fuel this year than they did last year or that 63,000 people no longer have health insurance that had a year and a half ago one and 50 people in kansas lost their health insurance this last year i mean people feel it and they know and they say we need a senator who's going to speak up they're not hired by the white house to be their spokesperson they were hired by us to be our champion and so that's why and i'll tell you when i travel across the state dan it's really interesting to hear

1:15:15the number of republicans come up to me and say i've never voted for a democrat before but i'm voting for you we have two former republicans uh republican governors who are endorsing me we have a former leader of the of the kansas senate uh who is endorsing me a former leader of the kansas house endorsing me i mean these are republicans these are all republicans who are saying we have to go you know adam hamletons values and his character align more closely with ours than roger martian the republican sitting senator you know obviously you know you mentioned a whole bunch of things that trump is specifically done cost in general whether it's health care costs fuel costs housing costs are up and hurting people if you're elected to the senate there's some specific things that you want to do some policy solutions so you're going to focus on that will actually help address costs for kansas kansas residents kansas farmers etc well immediately so there's certain things we have to do immediately and i think among those are we need to wind down the war in a ran we need to wind it down quickly and uh i don't know exactly what that looks like yet i just know that we got to work on this unfortunately in the state department many of our you know

1:16:19are best states people were you know dismissed from the state department so you know this is a problem you know the president has inflicted on us but we got to figure that out we got to get out of the war as quickly as possible it's going to take months once we get out to see the fuel prices come down fertilizer prices come down but sooner not later i think when it comes to health care we need to we need to uh look at how do we reinstate people who are taken off of medicaid and and by the way it's interesting the the uh republican senate roger martian and others voted to uh eliminated a trillion dollars from medicaid over the next ten years the president offered to bribe americans five thousand dollars a person if they would elect republicans it was going to cost a trillion dollars and i thought where are you getting that trillion dollars i mean you cut a trillion dollars from the budget off the backs of poor people and now you're going to take a trillion dollars to buy people's votes in in the united states i mean this is just this is immoral it's indecent it's it's laughable except for it's not really it's just sad and so i'm i'm going to say

1:17:22we're going to focus on those things that we have to reverse and fix immediately then we got a oh and then i would say when it comes to the tariffs there's a there's a bill a piece of legislation that's out there that says because there's a place for tariffs but there's a piece of legislation that says before the president can impose a tariff the president needs to make the case to congress this is why we need it it can't just be because he's irritated with another country at two in the morning it's got to be here's the need here's why it's it matters here's the cost to american and here's the ultimate impact of it and and that's congress clawing back some authority that's slowly given to the president over a period of years so that's the starting point then you go into we got to work republicans and democrats to solve the really big problems and so you know one of the big topics in this race has been your opponent Roger Marshall's conducts in his previous office uh they had met him when he was in medical practice there was a new york time story that showed that he had sued hundreds and hundreds of his patients your campaign is running a truly excellent uh if i do say so myself in devastating political ad about a woman who was arrested

1:18:24because she received it didn't pay a very small bill uh to Roger Marshall could you talk a little bit about how that's playing in the race what it says about Marshall uh and how voters may be consuming some of this information now that it's out there yeah you know it's interesting before this there were a whole lot of people who were you know largely passionate for Roger Marshall i've not met very many you know he just happened to be the republican senator in the race and we always elect republicans and so we elected him but this has been i mean this is a very serious issue and a lot of folks have felt before like he doesn't listen he doesn't seem to care about the people of Kansas but when they heard that he'd sued 700 of his former patients uh for you know for bills ranging from a hundred dollars to several thousand dollars and you know it's not that he turned it over to a collection agency in the collection it's his own personal lawyers who sued and then had 81 of them arrested and then there were something like somewhere between well at least at at least ten uh probably more than that who spent time in jail for unpaid medical debt and uh or actually the charges were you know something other than that

1:19:28but they were related to his what he was doing you look at this and just go i mean i talked to a dozen doctors who've said this is not normal this is not how we do it you know when we have somebody who's poor and they're struggling we're going to figure out you know how to either work with them or we're going to write off the right off the debt we're not going to have them arrested and this story of Misha who you you're mentioning she reached out to our campaign and she described you know the fact that she was she missed a fitted dollar payment and she uh they came to arrest her for i don't know not appearing in court or whatever it was but it was all tied to the same thing and you know she's asking she's eight months pregnant she's saying please don't handcuff me in front of my children like people hear this and they just go this everybody across the state of Kansas to be here and you just got to go that's not okay that's not that's not normal and but here's the part that really gets me so people can judge that as however they want i'm going to say you go to Washington DC and then you vote to cut out 63,000 Kansas off of off of health insurance not renewing the subsidies

1:20:30taking people off of Medicaid i mean how do you justify that you know now you're taking people who were who were at least had some kind of insurance they couldn't pay you and you've taken away insurance from them and then when they can't pay their doctors because they're still going to go to have a baby or go to the emergency room now you're going to suggest that the doctors sue them and you know have them arrested if they don't pay i mean this is just messed up last question for you here and uh really it's always it's always your last question it's always the hardest don't be prepared uh for people who you know you're being outspent or pulling so putting money in here in fact that Roger Marshall is running ads against you in September and October tells you that he really bleases real race if you're going to win you need help if folks have been inspired by this conversation they want to flip the Kansas Cennetie for the first time in nearly a hundred years how can they help your campaign i love you for asking that nobody well you know a question here's the thing i staffed a lot of politicians in my life and i've watched them try to awkwardly jam in the website for donations into their answers and so it is my duty to them

1:21:31to make them not have to do that so my my comms persons across we're going yes yes yeah they're always told me please get the website in there yes yes it's so hard to do yes i love you for asking so it's hamiltonforcanzas.com i'll all spelled out hamiltonforcanzas1world.com and you know people can i love it when people reach out to friends who live in Kansas to say i heard this guy you know pass on the pass on the podcast to other people send them the link to have them watch it if you know somebody in Kansas we need you know so if you happen to live in Kansas volunteer we need volunteers but we also need people who will financially contribute so we have a chance to win this race but i was told this last week that the republican party is looking at pouring $12 million into this race Roger Marshall so just to give you some idea since the first of the year i'm not sure but i'm guessing he's raised about four million dollars and since the first of the year we've outraised him like three to one and and we only got in you know five months ago but we've outraised him you know like three to one his donors just to give you somebody his donors the last quarter that was reported he had 27 named donors from Kansas who donated to his campaign everything

1:22:34else came from pack corporate pack money and people he had more people in florida donating that he had in Kansas we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people from every county in Kansas that we still need help from people all across the country and if people believe that that having another democrat a decent a democrat who cares deeply about people who will work across the off they think that's needed in the senate we have a chance to win i need their help and i'll just say this i love this idea i i mentioned this everywhere i go if you can imagine on november third and you're watching the news and you're seeing what's going on and you see at ten o'clock a night you know Kansas is elected a democrat for the first time in ninety four years i mean that's a that's a history-making event and i'd love for your listeners and viewers to be able to say i help make that happen that's my guy and help make it happen so if you can please help us we we'd love all the help you we can get and dan i really appreciate what you guys do and grateful for you having me on today well absolutely thank you for joining us good luck down the trash will be rooting for you thank you so much have a great day thank you that's our show for today thanks to adam hamilton

1:23:36for coming on love it will be back in the feet on sunday with a conversation with best-selling writer michael louis have a good weekend bye everyone positive america is a crooked media production our show is produced by austin fischer solruban mccanar Roberts and michael goldsmith with recharling a lajacone and adrien hill our team includes matta groat ben heffko Jordan canter charlotte landis kenny moffat adam lipper joseph dutra desmentaylor dan feral david tolls me mea kelman ryan young and neomy single our staff is probably unionized with the writer's guild of america east