0:01

Welcome to

0:11

PODSave

0:20

America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

0:22

On today's show, the Supreme Court decides

0:24

that abortion medication can remain legal in

0:27

certain states for now, as

0:29

Senate Republicans block a bill that

0:31

would protect IVF. House Republicans plot

0:33

ways to overturn Donald Trump's conviction

0:36

and try to prosecute Merrick Garland. And

0:38

the Biden campaign takes voters' cost of

0:40

living concerns head-on while the Trump campaign

0:43

tries to woo CEOs with more tax

0:45

cuts. But first, on

0:48

Thursday, the world's most famous convicted

0:50

criminal returned to the scene of another

0:52

one of his alleged crimes. It

0:54

was Trump's first trip to the U.S. Capitol

0:57

since he urged a mob of violent extremists

0:59

to prevent the certification of the election he

1:01

lost. And boy did he get

1:03

a hero's welcome from many of the same

1:05

House and Senate Republicans who fled for

1:07

their lives on January 6th. And

1:10

at the time, many blamed Donald Trump.

1:13

But even though they've decided to forgive and forget,

1:15

the Biden campaign wanted to make sure the rest

1:17

of us don't. Here's the ad they released, time

1:20

to Trump's visit. On January 6th,

1:22

Donald Trump lit a fire in this country.

1:25

140 officers were injured. The siege

1:27

lasted for seven hours. Stoking

1:30

the flames of division and hate,

1:32

now he's pouring gasoline. They were

1:34

unbelievable patriots. Pledging to pardon the

1:36

extremists who tried to overthrow our

1:38

government. We will give them pardons.

1:40

Inciting them to try again. There

1:42

is nothing more sacred than our

1:44

democracy. But Donald Trump's ready to

1:46

burn it all down. I'm Joe

1:48

Biden, and I approve this message.

1:51

What a good time to plug our

1:53

book, Democracy or Else, which is on

1:55

sale. You

1:58

can pre-order it right now. it'll

2:00

be released a week from Tuesday. I

2:04

guess that counts as an organic plug, I guess.

2:07

Look, I came into the recording, the

2:10

book was on the table, which I guess is just

2:12

a not so subtle push from

2:15

everyone on the marketing team to start

2:18

pitching the book. But anyway, we'll get back to that.

2:20

I wanna get to that ad. Can we

2:22

just take a second to talk about how

2:24

unbelievably nuts it is that

2:26

this man was just welcomed

2:28

back to the Capitol by the people he nearly got

2:30

killed by Capitol. He didn't actually go in the Capitol,

2:33

we should say, but he was on Capitol Hill. I

2:35

mean, that is wild. I

2:37

was thinking back to the footage from

2:39

the Pelosi documentary that Nancy

2:41

Pelosi's daughter made that was in the

2:44

January 6th hearings. And they're

2:46

all huddled, Kevin McCarthy, Steve

2:48

Scalise, Nancy Pelosi, and they're on

2:50

the phone begging Donald Trump to

2:53

send help, to send the National

2:55

Guard to save their lives from

2:57

a murderous hoard that Donald Trump

2:59

set there. And he refused to

3:01

do so. And it's not just that

3:03

they led him back on the premises, it's that

3:06

they welcomed him with open arms. They applauded him.

3:08

They sang him happy birthday. They cheered him. It

3:10

is just like one of the

3:12

most intense cases of Stockholm Syndrome ever

3:15

documented. It is wild. It's

3:17

just so, it's so

3:19

pathetic. I just can't imagine being like

3:22

that with

3:24

any person, little in someone who almost

3:26

got me killed. It's

3:29

delusional in the sense that they've convinced themselves

3:31

that didn't happen. It's like, they're certainly like,

3:33

there are some senators, I'm sure McConnell, they're

3:36

like faking it, right? Like they're begrudgingly allowing this

3:38

to happen because this is what the voters want

3:40

or whatever else. But these people in

3:43

the house for sure, nope. It's

3:46

just they have wiped it from their minds and they

3:48

are just like, they have, it's all been rewritten in

3:50

that Donald Trump wasn't involved and there was an FBI

3:52

plan and it was a, you know, whatever conspiracy that

3:54

they have, just that they're not

3:57

faking it. I think they legitimately believe that

3:59

he is. is their hero and that he did not try to murder

4:01

them. Ask

4:05

Mike Pence. Yeah. So,

4:08

the Biden campaign has said they want

4:10

voters to be thinking about January 6th

4:12

when they cast their ballot in November.

4:15

Do you think there will be more of these

4:17

ads running everywhere the closer we get to November?

4:20

Yeah, I assume so. They ran this ad today

4:22

because Trump was going to the Capitol. There'd be

4:24

a ton of coverage of Trump going to Capitol

4:26

Hill. We would all talk about it. Very

4:29

clever. It worked. We

4:31

are doing it. Mission accomplished. Well, you know,

4:33

because every social media share

4:35

or news coverage airing of your ad is

4:37

free. So, that's what you want. You

4:40

don't have to pay for everyone. You want to get some free ones. They

4:42

got some free ones here. You're welcome, Biden campaign. What's

4:45

interesting to me is I think that this will

4:47

ramp up at the end. I do, certainly for

4:49

the segment of voters that Sarah Longland, I spent

4:51

a lot of time talking about on Wednesday's pod,

4:53

these former Republicans, two-time

4:55

Trump voters, Trump Biden voters

4:58

who are very uncomfortable with Donald

5:00

Trump, specifically because of January 6th. You

5:03

want that in their mind. The question

5:05

is, how are you going to

5:07

make that breakthrough at the end? Because

5:09

it's going to have to be more than

5:11

just ads. There's going to have to be

5:13

a full bore surround sound style campaign to

5:15

bring people back into

5:17

that moment, to remember what they

5:19

were thinking on that day. That

5:22

day when most Republicans, hardcore Republicans,

5:24

turned away from Trump on that day. For a brief fleeting

5:26

period of time, but they did. Can

5:29

you get people back there through

5:31

high profile events, surrogates, ads? Could

5:33

you take out a

5:35

30-minute spot or have

5:37

a 30-minute YouTube documentary? You

5:42

really need your version of the Michael

5:44

Moore, a Rock War documentary that ran

5:46

in You need something

5:48

like that to bring people into that moment. It's going to

5:50

be more than just some digital and television spots, although you

5:52

should run those and they will run those. I

5:55

do think, I imagine in debate

5:57

prep, they will be talking about a

5:59

moment. and the debate probably in this

6:01

debate coming up and then maybe even

6:04

more likely in the one in September

6:06

where Biden brings it up because I

6:08

think Donald Trump talking about January 6th

6:11

is not gonna be his best moment. I don't

6:13

know, I'm just guessing. Not in the prediction business,

6:15

but we'll see. But I do think that the

6:17

messengers, you could imagine some

6:19

of the police officers that were injured who

6:21

have already spoken out about this. And have been troubling the

6:23

country. Michael Finno and Aaron Dauk. Yep,

6:27

so you can imagine that. Or like a

6:29

Cassidy Hutchinson, right? People who testified at the

6:31

January 6th hearing. So I do think that'll

6:33

get ramped up. And I think you're right.

6:36

Primary audience is certainly the voters that Sarah's

6:39

talking about, the two-time Trump voters who are

6:41

now sick of Trump. I

6:43

also think, we've heard

6:45

Biden mention January 6th now at

6:48

the NAACP event where

6:50

he said, does anyone doubt if

6:52

these were, if the protesters were black,

6:54

that Donald Trump wouldn't have sent in

6:57

the National Guard to put

6:59

them down, which he refused

7:02

to send any help at all. So I think

7:04

that like, there is, for some

7:06

voters, I think voters who are tuned out,

7:08

voters who maybe aren't too happy with Joe

7:10

Biden who aren't sure if they're gonna vote,

7:12

I think reminding them of the kind of,

7:14

not just like, hey, this happened in January

7:16

6th, but this is the kind of violence

7:20

that Donald Trump has incited. This is the kind

7:22

of chaos that he has incited. And why would

7:24

you think that he's not gonna do that again?

7:27

In general, you probably wanna try to focus people on

7:29

the fact that one of the two people running for

7:32

president turned to violently overthrow the government four years ago.

7:35

Just something that you wanna- That's a data point.

7:37

File away when you head into the voting booth.

7:39

There's something you wanna think about. So

7:41

Trump met privately with all the House Republicans,

7:43

then all the Senate Republicans. There

7:46

were no reporters in either meeting, but there

7:48

were plenty of sources leaking to reporters who

7:50

were in the meeting. So

7:52

here's a rundown of

7:54

what happened. Trump called Milwaukee

7:56

the swing state city that's hosting

7:59

the Republican- convention, a quote,

8:01

horrible city. He referred

8:03

to the Justice Department as dirty bastards. He

8:05

complained about Taylor Swift not endorsing him. He

8:08

said Nancy Pelosi's daughter once told him that

8:10

if things had been different, he and Nancy

8:12

would be perfect together. And

8:16

he once again praised one of

8:18

his favorite make-believe friends. Apparently the former

8:20

president made reference to Hannibal Lecter and

8:23

said, nice guy, quote, he even had a friend

8:26

over for dinner. So we've seen Trump out on

8:28

the campaign trail praising Hannibal Lecter. Apparently

8:30

he did it again this morning. Not sure. We

8:33

fully understand the context of that. What

8:35

fucking world do we live in, Dan?

8:37

What is happening? I mean, the scariest

8:39

part is- A CNN report. Like he

8:42

did mention Hannibal Lecter again, the guy

8:44

who's the Republican nominee for president and

8:46

a convicted felon. Once again, talking about

8:48

Hannibal Lecter for no discernible reason. Stay

8:51

tuned for more contacts. We're calling our sources to

8:53

see what he's talking about. Supposed to just like

8:56

so much of Trump

8:58

coverage should just be someone yelling like, what the

9:00

fuck is I'll say possibly can enter a microphone.

9:02

Instead, it's just like, not entirely sure what that

9:04

meant there, but I'm sure there was a reason

9:07

why he mentioned a fictional serial killer in a

9:09

meeting with congressional Republicans. So

9:11

this is not that he's been doing frequently for

9:13

some reason? I don't know. What

9:16

do you think about the Milwaukee thing? This is sparked a-

9:19

I think every elected Democrat from

9:21

Wisconsin has now tweeted about it.

9:23

I think like the mayor has

9:26

already said something about it. The mayor did a press conference. There's

9:29

a press conference already. We're recording

9:31

this Thursday by like an hour

9:33

after it was tweeted that Trump said

9:35

that. It was just full blown, probably

9:37

billboards coming up everywhere. It's going to

9:39

be great. I love it because it

9:41

just is a reminder that with like

9:44

as much as everything's changed, the media

9:46

is disintegrated. Trump's insane. Is that there's

9:48

still just like some old school politics

9:50

that happens. Politician says something bad

9:53

about a swing state. You just dust off

9:55

the playbook. You know, leap into action. You

9:58

get the mayor out there. You get Congress. I'm

10:00

sure they're getting small business. There's gonna be an

10:02

ad on Milwaukee radio by the end of the

10:04

day, there's gonna be a bunch of like small

10:07

business people and veterans from Milwaukee talking about just,

10:09

I love it, it's great. Hammering for it. Is it gonna

10:11

really matter that much? Probably

10:14

not, but can you make it slightly uncomfortable

10:16

for a few minutes? Can you just as

10:18

a way to like throw some grist in

10:20

the mill during the Republican convention in Milwaukee?

10:23

Absolutely. It's funny that all

10:25

these Republicans from Wisconsin and other Republicans who

10:27

were in the meeting, the

10:30

stories are all different. Like some of them

10:32

are like, he never said that. I don't know what

10:34

you're talking about. That's completely false on that other side.

10:36

Oh, he did say that, but he was referring to

10:38

the fact that the crime rate is so high in

10:40

Milwaukee. So he was talking about the crime and

10:43

then someone else was like, oh no, he was talking

10:45

about how they stole the election in Milwaukee in 2020.

10:48

I was like, none of this is making it better,

10:50

you dipshits. Just stop talking. It's

10:53

funny, but like, this is how Trump views cities

10:56

in America now, right? Like he knows

10:58

that cities are full of Democrats and

11:00

Democrats don't like them. And so every city has

11:02

to be a hellhole that's crime

11:05

ridden and dirty. He says it about

11:07

DC. He says it about Chicago, Milwaukee.

11:09

Doesn't matter if it's a swing state

11:11

city or not. He

11:13

just needs every urban area where

11:16

there are Democratic voters that do not like him.

11:18

He wants to turn the rest of the country

11:21

against. And by the way, this is

11:23

part of his plan that he wants to

11:25

send the National Guard into the cities. He

11:28

wants to invoke the insurrection act and send the army

11:30

into these cities to fight crime and

11:33

to deport immigrants.

11:35

And he wants to have police do mandatory stop

11:37

and frisk. Like this is his agenda. This is

11:40

how he actually feels about cities. So it is

11:42

funny in a traditional politics thing, but it's also

11:44

the guy deeply hates cities right now. Yeah, and

11:46

it is the Fox News view of urban America,

11:49

right? Like that's how he knows about cities, right?

11:51

It is that it's how it's portrayed. And it

11:54

has, yes, let's say it is amusing in

11:56

this weird context, but it has some knock

11:59

on effects out. the line about policy

12:02

and Trump's actions that it can be very

12:04

damaging to the people who live in those

12:06

cities, regardless of what he called them. Yeah.

12:09

So according to the media outlet notice, one source

12:11

in the room said that Trump's speech was quote,

12:14

like talking to your drunk uncle at the

12:16

family reunion. Finally,

12:18

some honesty. But let's hear what Republicans

12:20

said in public about the meeting. He

12:23

was funny. He was joking around

12:25

constantly with everyone. He

12:28

was really sweet to me. He

12:30

saw me in there and he was like, hello,

12:32

Marjorie. He's always so sweet and recognizes

12:34

me. He said very complimentary things

12:36

about all of us. We had

12:39

sustained applause. He said, I'm doing a very good

12:41

job. I mean, we're grateful for that. And you

12:43

know what Trump meetings are like. He's electric. He's

12:46

got an incredible fastball. And

12:49

I think that was just exciting. After all

12:52

he'd been through how strong this man is.

12:54

This is an outstanding group of people. I'm

12:56

with them a thousand percent. There was me

12:58

a thousand percent. We agreed just about

13:00

on everything. And if there isn't, we

13:02

work it out. I like Marjorie Taylor

13:05

Greene being like, he recognized me. He said

13:07

hello. No

13:09

shitty recognized you. So

13:13

judging from that North Korean propaganda

13:15

clip, it seems like Trump doesn't have

13:17

to worry too much about support from

13:19

Republicans in Congress. What do you think

13:21

was the purpose of these meetings? I

13:23

know they're traditional, like the nominee goes

13:26

to Capitol Hill, meets with the members

13:28

of their party and whatever. But is it

13:30

like coordinating message and strategy? Is it just

13:33

Trump telling stories and everyone gets to fawn

13:35

all over him and tell him how wonderful

13:37

he is? Like, yeah, it's the latter. It

13:40

is just part of a long running,

13:42

really lifetime effort

13:44

to fill the giant gaping hole that is

13:46

his self-esteem. He knows they're going to applaud

13:48

him. He knows they're going to love him.

13:50

They're going to send it, sing him happy

13:53

birthday. He wants to be there. Anyway,

13:55

for this business round table event, we're meeting

13:57

with CEOs. So you might as well swing.

14:00

by there, have Marjorie Taylor

14:02

Greene and others, throw some adulation your way,

14:05

get to kind of ward your dominance over people

14:07

like Mitch McConnell and some other senators you hate.

14:10

It seems like a real win-win for him. They know it's isn't gonna,

14:12

you know, I don't think there was, it didn't sound like there was

14:14

a lot of message coordination going on there in any way, shape, or

14:16

form. Well, he did, we're gonna

14:18

talk about abortion in a bit, but he

14:21

did tell them all like, hey, chill out,

14:23

go with the message. We left it to

14:25

the states, you know, that's the winning

14:27

message. So he did a little bit of that. It

14:29

does seem like from all the coverage

14:32

overall, he's playing really nice

14:34

with Republicans, even the

14:36

Republicans who he's fought with in the past.

14:38

He met with Mitch McConnell, and

14:41

by all accounts, they had like a

14:43

cordial meeting with Mitch McConnell, and he

14:45

endorsed Larry Hogan for Senate after Larry

14:48

Hogan told people to respect the verdict, and

14:50

Trump's senior advisor, Chris Lissavita, like tweeted at

14:52

Larry Hogan that his campaign is over, but

14:55

Trump today said he was endorsing Larry Hogan,

14:57

which by the way was an endorsement that

14:59

then Larry Hogan said he's not really accepting.

15:01

He's like, yeah, I'm not endorsing Donald Trump,

15:03

I'm not voting for him. Sounds like he

15:06

really wants to win this thing, huh? Donald

15:08

Trump? They all do. They all wanna win.

15:10

And it's very clear, it's clear in how

15:12

they're acting, it's clear how now they're coordinating,

15:14

it's clear in the candidates they're nominating, right?

15:17

Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy, like these are not

15:19

great candidates, but they're not Dr. Oz and

15:21

Hersha Walker either, right? This is, they have lost

15:23

enough time to get the Senate level that

15:26

they are being very ruthlessly strategic about

15:28

who their candidates are. And

15:30

Trump has, you know,

15:33

I don't think these people are political geniuses, but he

15:35

has people around him who are steering him towards

15:37

being smarter about this, like endorsing Larry Hogan. Like

15:39

that's an, I'm sure Mitch McConnell asked him to

15:42

do it. It's an easy yes, and he wants

15:44

that Senate seat, right? And he's making sure

15:46

that he has a chance. And it is, it's

15:48

also true that nothing focuses the mind like the

15:50

chance of spending the rest of your life in

15:52

prison. So it's, you know. I was just gonna

15:54

say, this is why, because everyone's like, you know,

15:57

it's Trump, I'm sure people

15:59

around Trump have. told him these kinds of

16:01

things for years. And it's just like

16:03

in one ear out the other. And

16:06

he immediately goes back to his

16:08

undisciplined crazy self. But as

16:10

we heard from the meeting, he's still. That part of Trump is

16:12

still there, right? But

16:15

like when it comes to political decisions

16:17

and political moves, he really is. He's

16:20

more disciplined than he's been because you're right. He wants to

16:22

keep his ass out of jail. Well, it's like you think

16:25

about 2016, right? Like ultimately

16:27

Trump wins or loses. What's the difference

16:29

in his life? One is he becomes president of the United States,

16:31

and he's got to theoretically do a lot of work. Or he

16:33

just goes back to playing golf every day. 20

16:36

has to keep doing the hard job, or goes back to playing

16:38

golf every day. Now it's get

16:41

back in the White House or go to prison. It's not get back

16:43

in the White House and go back to playing golf. And

16:46

so yeah, that's obviously going to focus your mind. The

16:48

stakes are incredibly high for him in a way. They've

16:50

never really been before. He's really always had all of

16:52

his businesses and all of his politics and all of

16:54

his life. He's had a giant, probably

16:57

gold-plated safety net underneath him, and now he does not.

17:00

Which is, again, why the message about

17:02

Trump's only doing this for himself, and he

17:04

only cares about himself, and he's only running

17:06

for himself, and he's only going to fight for

17:09

himself in the White House. Just it works so

17:11

well because it happens to be true and

17:13

truer than ever before. He's always been for

17:15

himself, but now you know that this is

17:17

the only fucking thing he's thinking about. He's

17:19

not thinking about anything else he does, any

17:21

other policy, anything else. I did

17:23

see some testing that showed the post-conviction that

17:25

one of the most compelling messages

17:28

about Trump is that he is running to stay out of prison. Yeah,

17:31

I've heard that, too. And then that has become

17:33

more intense after the conviction. So,

17:47

not sure they discussed this in the meeting,

17:49

but Trump apparently called Mike Johnson after the

17:51

guilty verdict and told him that Johnson needed

17:54

to help Trump overturn the conviction and

17:56

or defund special counsel Jack

17:59

Smith's investigation. They're

28:01

probably circling one moment where

28:03

Biden can really drive home that Trump is going

28:05

to fight for rich people and Biden is going

28:08

to fight for everyone else. The

28:10

fact that Trump, one of the things that Trump told the CEOs

28:12

was that he was going to further lower the corporate tax rate

28:14

if he was elected. It's not just

28:17

extending it, but he would make it even lower. That is just

28:19

incredibly unpopular. It's incredibly powerful. It's what you're going to do.

28:22

I think you're exactly right. Let's pick some corporate villains. I

28:24

hate the term shrinkflation. I don't think it's the one that

28:26

should come out of the president's mouth. I hear about the

28:28

fucking Snickers one more time. That

28:31

is a real thing you hear people talk about. Have you seen the

28:34

TikTok video of the Chipotle CEO

28:36

trying to justify that their portions

28:38

haven't gotten smaller? It

28:41

is a thing you hear from people all the

28:43

time, particularly parents who pack kids lunches. That is

28:45

very real. Talking about that

28:47

price gouging, see that Trump's going to reward these

28:49

people with more tax cuts. They're just going to

28:51

go to higher CEO pay, more money in the

28:53

pockets of wealthy investors. There's just

28:55

such a rich vein to tap here.

28:59

I hope and very much hope and expect that's what they'll do in the

29:01

debate too. Also he

29:03

didn't say this at the business round

29:05

table, but reportedly Trump told Republicans, I

29:07

was Republicans in that meeting, he floated

29:10

an all tariff policy that would lead,

29:12

he said, to completely getting rid of

29:14

the income tax. It

29:17

sounds wonky. What is that all about, tariff policy? He

29:21

already has said he wants to

29:23

put a tax on every single

29:25

thing that is imported into this

29:28

country. That's not like

29:30

the Chinese made cars, right?

29:33

Biden's doing some stuff like that too. Every

29:36

item that even has a part in it

29:38

that's made somewhere else, he wants to slap

29:40

a tax on that. Then he

29:43

wants to get rid of the income tax. The

29:46

income tax is paid mostly by really

29:48

rich people. Rich

29:50

people in this country now would have to pay no tax. 40%

29:54

of people in this country pay no federal income tax because

29:56

they don't make enough money to do it or they pay

29:58

negative because they get a...