SHOCKING GOP Plan to Fund War with Health Care Cuts

Positive America is brought to you by SimplySafe Home Security.

Right now, you're listening to us.

Maybe you have headphones on, maybe you're at the gym,

maybe you're driving, you're locked in.

If your security camera sends you an alert right now,

are you going to see it right away?

Probably not.

Passive security relies on you paying attention.

Real security works even when you're listening

to love it rant.

Traditional security systems only act

after someone has already broken in.

That's too late.

SimplySafe's active guard outdoor protection

can help prevent breakings before they happen.

While other security companies lock you in,

SimplySafe comes with no long-term contract.

They earn your trust every day

by keeping you safe and satisfied.

They're so confident in the protection they provide.

They even back it with an anti theft guarantee.

SimplySafe protects over 4 million people.

They have 20 years of experience at home security.

They were just named Best Home Security System of 2026

by US News and World Report.

And here's John Love It right here.

I set up a ZhibliSafe Home Security System.

Incredibly easy to do.

Once it was set up, boom, secure.

Good app, good customer support.

Good.

Just good.

We love it.

Right now our listeners can get 50% out there

in the new SimplySafe system

at SimplySafe.com slash cricket.

That's SimplySafe.com slash cricket.

There's no safe, like SimplySafe.

Hey, love it or leave it listeners.

It's me, the titular John Love It.

Here to tell you that I'm coming back to Washington DC

for Love It or Leave It Live at the Lincoln Theater

on April 23rd, that's right.

Spring in DC is all about cherry blossoms

and Love It or Leave It bringing you a stack lineup of guests.

That's what makes it America's number one late night

gay live comedy political podcast.

We're so excited to be back to DC.

It's a tradition now that we come around the time

of the car response and even though the car response

and are really no longer has comedians,

that I believe there's gonna be some kind of a magician

or a mind-milder.

Yes, a magician.

Yeah.

I'm a mentalist.

A mentalist, because I guess Trump wouldn't know.

And Trump's also going.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That's in there, yeah.

There's a mental case and then Trump is also going.

That's how it is.

Tickets won't last long.

So I'm pretty fast.

So get yours now while you still can at Kroger.com slash events.

Very excited for the DC show.

Got some big guests.

Some pretty exciting babies.

Kroger.com slash events.

hundred and media stars

Welcome to P, Wayne America.

I'm John Faber.

I'm John Faber.

Tommy's office week.

I think he's with his friend Lindsey at Disney World.

Yeah, Lindsay was saying that he wanted to go to Epcot and get the UK in France to take

over Morocco.

I don't know.

Well, that was about it.

I love the countries that Epcot.

All right.

On today's show, we'll talk about how Trump is touting diplomatic progress with Iran by

threatening the country with war crimes.

Why most experts think we're all underestimating the economic disaster that's coming and Republicans

new plan to pay for the war by cutting your health care.

We'll also talk about the new fight between House and Senate Republicans that's keeping

the Department of Homeland Security shut down while Congress takes a two week vacation.

And of course, the critical work of building Trump's ballroom is about to begin, even though

no one wants it in the design makes no sense.

Then you'll hear Tommy's interview with iOS Senate candidate Josh Turic.

Quick reminder, please consider becoming a crooked media subscriber if you haven't already

so that you don't miss out on any of the great content we're putting out for our friends

of the pod.

Let's get our new extra episode of Potsave America called Potsave America Only Friends.

Others subscriber only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Fyfer, access to all of our excellent

sub-stack newsletters like Potsave America open tabs, add free episodes of all your favorite

crooked pods, and you get to feel good about supporting one of the few independent, proudly

pro-democracy media outlets left in Trump's America.

So head to crooked.com slash friends and subscribe.

All right.

Let's get to the news.

We are now entering the second month of Donald Trump's brief excursion in Iran.

50,000 Americans are now deployed in the Middle East.

More than 8,700 people have died.

Tens of thousands are wounded.

Millions have been displaced.

Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to the worst oil shock in history

and a global economic crisis that's getting worse by the day.

President keeps trying to calm the markets by claiming that there's been, quote, great progress

in direct negotiations with Iran while simultaneously threatening to destroy the entire country's

access to electricity and water, which would be a war crime, and something you definitely

say when you're on the verge of a diplomatic breakthrough.

On Sunday night after multiple reports, the Trump is nearing a decision on sending in ground

troops to take control of the Strait and or remove nuclear material from inside Iran.

The president talked to reporters on Air Force One about the fateful choice that's weighing

heavily on his mind.

I did something today.

We just got these in from the architects.

A lot of people are talking about how beautiful the bar is for another view.

This is coming from right opposite the Treasury building, beautiful capital, a beautiful

building.

I think it'll be the finest ballroom of its kind anywhere in the world.

A lot of people are giving it really good reviews, some are giving it reviews without even

seeing the building.

Just like we're ahead of schedule on the ballroom, in a much bigger way, we're ahead of schedule

with Iran.

I think it's extremely well.

And that regards you as a fucking kid.

You never know with Iran because we negotiate with him and that we always have to blow him

up.

I think we'll make a deal with them, we're pretty sure, but it's possible and we won't.

I think we've had pretty huge change.

We can't do much better than that.

The regime that was really bad, really evil, was the first one that was done, the second

was appointed and they got there all dead, other than one who may have a little life.

And then she's a real, the third group, the third group of people that seem to be much

more reasonable than it really is for you, Chad.

He really did it.

He did the state of the union segue that we always joke about between domestic and foreign

policy, except it was.

And as we are ahead of schedule on the ballroom, so are we ahead of schedule in Iran?

It's actually a great metaphor, I think.

But maybe we can save that for the ballroom section of the show.

Unbelievable.

It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

All right.

I got the war going on, the oil shock, there's this DHS is shut down.

I got to go back to the press and the plane and Air Force One and just talk to them.

I'm going to take some questions.

So I got some pictures of the ballroom.

That's how we start.

Sorry, guys.

I can't focus on the word today.

I also got a board meeting at the Kennedy Center on late two.

So love it.

What are your theories about why Trump seems so eager to allege progress in negotiations

that no one else has been able to confirm or even happening?

So I actually think it does make sense.

So what's happening?

He is signaling to markets that the conflict won't escalate with the hopes that that reduces

the volatility of the markets.

That allows also those who support the conflict to say those who are afraid that it's spiraling

out of control that Trump is actually being quite reasonable.

And then when he says the regime's already been changed, the new guys are so reasonable,

they're easy to work with.

He's suggesting that while maybe in the past they've used negotiation as a cover to

murder everyone in the room or do strikes on Iran, that is a new group of people.

And you can take my word that you can trust what I'm saying now because I genuinely want

someone in Iran.

I can work with the other side.

You mean he's sending that signal to Iran, yeah.

And the other side of it though is Trump is trying to kind of put an asbestos blanket

on the fire he started in the markets.

That is not just because he wants the consequences of the ongoing conflict to have less of an

impact on the U.S.

He wants to increase his leverage over Iran.

The less pain we're experiencing, the more leverage he has in the conflict which frees

him up to escalate.

Which suggests that escalation won't be as big of a price for the U.S. to pay.

And when he says that we're already negotiating, Iran knows whether that's true or not that

that's Trump telling the world that it falls apart, Iran is to blame.

So it's Trump is trying to lower the cost of what happens if he decides to escalate.

That to me is like, but the only way that makes sense is if Trump is someone who only

thinks short term and discounts the cost of everyone thinking he's a liar in the future.

But that's what he does.

That's Trump is only a rational actor in the very short term.

And so I think that's how you can kind of make sense of the threats of escalation and

the promise and negotiation.

Yeah.

I was thinking about this.

So if you're Donald Trump and you have decided privately that you have painted yourself

into a corner and that you're kind of fucked and need to get out of this war and you're

looking for an off ramp.

What are your options for how to communicate that publicly?

Because it's Trump, I mean, no president would really want to do this, but especially

Trump, you're not going to be like, I really want to deal, you're not going to be like

come to the table.

So you have to act like everything is going wonderfully and they're the ones who are

begging for a deal.

And you also bet that no one's going to believe them because they're the Iranian regime.

So if they contradict you, then who cares?

And so part of this, I think it's to just say like, yeah, we've dominated them so severely

that they are just begging for a deal and things are going well, while like you said, communicating

I guess to Iran that you actually do want some negotiations.

And we should just know like, yeah, could there be secret negotiations happening here

in there?

Like maybe, but you know, Pakistan has offered to host the negotiations.

They already hosted some countries, the United States and Iran are not there.

No representatives were there.

The Iranian foreign ministry said today that like, there's been no talks directly with

the United States since the 28th, since February 28th, and that there won't be any talks until

the military campaign ends.

Also the near times of this piece too, that it is unclear who's in charge.

And this is like according to Western and American intelligence officials.

And so they don't really know who they're negotiating with or who has the authority to make

decisions in Iran right now.

Though I noticed this from intelligence officials in the piece too, says what's more officials

say hardliners within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have become more influential exerting

more power than the religious leadership nominally in charge.

So not a great sign that the IRGC, who are the, you know, the most hardline hardliners

in the whole country are the ones in charge right now.

Yeah, we also just, everyone involved in this is a egomaniac liar, so it's hard to

know what's really happening because they're also negotiating in public, right?

Like we know some of the states, the terms of the negotiation, tolls in the straight

of Hormuz, uranium enrichment, what happy, right?

But those aren't, yeah, but like, that's a good example of what Iran has asked for and

what the United States wants in their 15 fucking point plan.

They're so far, they're not even negotiating over the same thing.

Like Iran's like, yeah, we don't, we don't want any more, you, we don't want U.S. military

bases anywhere in the Middle East.

Yeah, I think it's not, I just think they're, I don't know how they even get kind of close

right now.

Well, it's like a game of chicken except we've already rammed the cars into each other.

Yeah, it's like, I don't know, what are you, we're just yelling at each other across

two blown airbags.

It's fucking, it's really, it's really bad.

I mean, Trump also gave an interview to the Financial Times where he said, quote, maybe

we take Carg Island, maybe we don't.

And quote, to be honest with you, my favorite thing is to get the oil in Iran.

But some stupid people back in the USA, why are you doing that?

But they're stupid people.

That's a great quote.

He's also claiming that Iran's parliamentary speaker has been allowing a few oil tankers

through the straight as a quote, tribute and a sign of respect to the United States.

So that same parliamentary speaker is moving forward in parliament with a plan to institute

a permanent toll for all ships passing through Hormuz.

And then blocking Israel and the United States completely.

The speaker also said, now, this is, remember, this is the hottest option.

This is the new guy that the Trump has said that they're probably negotiating with.

He also said that Iranian forces are quote, waiting for US ground troops to enter the country

so they can quote, set them on fire.

Does he seem like someone looking for an off-ramp?

So just trying to see the other side of this, take the same incentives in reverse.

Iran has to say that the US and global markets will pay a very high price for the conflict

continuing, that Iran will endure a long-term conflict and Trump's threats of escalation

are not effective leverage.

And you would do this while underplaying negotiations, while signaling with actions that you actually

do prefer a deal.

Because for the same reason, Trump wants to claim negotiations are ongoing in case he

escalates.

He wants to say there are no negotiations so they can blame Trump.

If he does decide to go after Carg Island.

So I think it is totally possible we are ramping up towards boots on the ground in Iran,

right?

We have Trump threatening it.

We have Trump moving troops into the region while at the same time you have Rubio saying

he doesn't believe troops on the ground are necessary, right?

That's what we're getting on the record.

The problem with all of this is both assurances to the market and threats that you don't act

on, right?

Those both have a clock, right?

Like if the assurances stop working, suddenly Iran's leverage goes up, right?

What does Trump do to respond?

Does he cave?

Does he take a great blow to his personal ego to end the conflict in a way that seems

like it redounds to Iran's benefit?

Or does he have to reset the clock by doing something escalatory, right?

That's what makes this all so dangerous because Trump only thinks one or two days ahead.

And so that to me is what makes all of this so alarming.

You can see your way to something like, look, you're right, they're so far apart.

We have no idea what the actual contours of a negotiation would look like.

But the truth is both Iran and the United States would benefit from the conflict ending.

That is like the undergirding truth of this entire war that never should have been fought

in the first place.

That can often be true while a war escalates and spins out of control.

Karen, I love it.

It was asked about all this and sort of Trump's conflicting messages at the briefing.

And she's talking about the negotiations and who they're negotiating with.

And she said at one point, some of the previous leaders are now no longer on planet Earth

because they live to the United States and they strung us along in negotiations.

And that was unacceptable to the president, which is why many of the previous leaders were killed.

I do not, I think if you were one of the current leaders in Iran, I think that, I don't

know if that gets you to the table, negotiate with us or die.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You think that's going to get them to the table, get them into a negotiating mood?

Trump has this belief in this strategic ambiguity.

And I'm not imputing secret method and like magic to Donald Trump's ability to negotiate.

It absolutely believes that there's value to being ambiguous that that gives you leverage.

But eventually, eventually, you have to actually say what you're for, right, like lay out

what the actual endgame would look like and accept some kind of a deal or the conflict

goes on forever, the threats from the White House press secretary that you're going to kill

more people unless you get a deal that has favorable terms.

All of that is the, is the, is the stick, but like, what is the carrot?

What does the deal look like?

What would you accept?

Right?

It can't look like Obama's deal, right, because that's the dreaded Obama deal.

It has to be favorable enough that Iran's willing to accept it.

So what does it look like to be a real world actor here?

So he's, you know, there's all these reports over the weekend, like we said, that so they

think it a taking card island or some of the other islands, they can control the oil or at

least use the, use the control of the islands as a bargaining chip in a negotiation because

I think as Trump and the rest of the government recognize that maybe taking card island is

easier than holding card island because then you have a bunch of troops on these islands

and now the Iranians can just, you know, shoot away at them and try to pick them off and

you've got, you know, holding it is, is pretty difficult.

In the same with the incredibly complicated and dangerous mission of going into Iran and

getting out the nuclear material, so you're starting to hear, you know, Rubio said, maybe

we don't need ground troops for the objectives and they think that maybe in a deal with

Iran, you get the Iranians to like go with you to get the nuclear material to take it

out or give it to themselves or whatever else.

But then the question is why would the Iranians voluntarily give the nuclear material to

the U.S. or open up the straight-of-formers and maybe Trump thinks they would do it so

that they wouldn't have all of their power plants and desalination plants bombed and that

the bombing would stop.

Although Trump's like, we have about 3,000 targets left and then we're done.

So then what happens when the 3,000 targets are done and the regime is still standing and

the straight-of-formers is still closed and the nuclear materials are still inside Iran.

And then you're fucked.

Then you have nothing else to do.

And then from the other side of it, which is why it's threatening war crimes for this

civilian population because he thinks that he's like, well, I need some kind of a leverage.

Well, I don't need to be like, he's just thinking of it as something very hard to rebuild

quickly.

I mean, there would be exact a great price for the government, but on the other side

of it, the two sides were incredibly far apart, apparently, before this war, right?

There wasn't a deal on the table before this war.

And so why would Iran suddenly say, oh, we're going to toll the straight-of-formers and

here are all these other things we're going to demand because they have to anchor this

into a negotiation in which there's some cost to the US, some benefit to Iran for having

endured this war, right?

They can't just go back to the status quo anti-before minus the nuclear program, at least that's

what you would.

That's what you do in a negotiation.

For them, the regime surviving, even with all this damage, is a win for them because

then they can say, and they can show the world, the United States and Israel gave it everything

they had, and they did not destroy the regime.

We're still standing.

We were able to control the straight-of-formers, and now we get, you know, we lost a bunch

of our leaders, but like we're Iran and they're the United States and Israel and we're still

standing right now.

Yeah, and that's a win for, it's not like the biggest win for them, but it's still a win,

you know?

There's been just all these reports that, wow, the Iranians are actually surprised by

how easy it was to secure this straight-of-formers, that they've learned something from this conflict,

that gives them greater leverage in the future.

All of this is about making the war a heavy price for the US, do you have to pay?

I noticed that the Ruby of Deda interviewed today, and I think was step-in-opolis, and then

like the State Department was tweeting out some of the clips in the State Department,

like the objectives of epic-fury are clear, destruction of the Iranian Air Force, destruction

of the Navy, diminishing of missile launching capability and destruction of factories.

That was it.

Those are the objectives.

Nothing on the nuclear material, nothing on, obviously, we've left behind like the Iranian

people rising up and taking over their government.

We've left that behind too.

Not even something on the straight reopening the straight, which was surprising, although

it is kind of ridiculous that now the objective of the war has become...

I'm doing a retaliation.

Yeah, yeah.

But is there a scenario where they're just like leaving and they're like, well, we'll

figure out the straight at some point, but our objectives are very clear.

We sunk a bunch of their ships and destroyed a bunch of their missiles and some factories

that built the missiles, and that's it.

That's all we wanted.

And the goal of the war was to destroy their missile capability, so that in the event

of a war they wouldn't have the missile capability.

Ruby also was actually very clear about this.

He said, and almost as an aside, that after the conflict is over, I'm paraphrasing, but

after the conflict is over, then we're going to have to figure out what to do about the

straight of our moves.

So they've even conceded that there's a problem that's going to be continuing.

Because I think if they decide not to go with ground troops, then they're going to want

to say, we didn't do the ground troops, big win.

They started, they're begging for a deal, and we're going to do some kind of negotiations,

but we're done.

We're out.

And the rest of the world's going to be like, well, the straight of our moves is still

closed.

There's still a toll about that.

And they're like, oh, we'll figure that out later.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

Whether you're dealing with anxiety, depression, conflict and relationships, or simply need an

impartial third party to help you deal with daily stress, BetterHelp is there to connect

you with the support you need, BetterHelp therapists.

Work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US, BetterHelp

does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals or short

questionnaire.

Helps identify your needs and preferences, and they're 12 plus years of experience in

industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first

time.

If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from

their tailored wrecks with over 30,000 therapists.

BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform having served over 6 million people

globally, and it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based

on over 1.7 million client reviews.

We love therapy.

You should get some therapy.

Everybody should get there.

We're therapy boys.

And as I said before, I'm not currently in therapy because I'm so busy.

Yeah.

It's make time for you, but when life is feeling overwhelming therapy can help sign up

and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash PSA, that's BetterHELP.com slash PSA.

Pudsey of America is brought to you by hymns.

ED is more common than you think and simpler to treat than ever.

Through hymns, you can connect online with a licensed provider to access personalized

treatment options, discreetly, and on your terms.

hymns offers access to ED treatment options ranging from personalized products to trusted

generics that cost 95% less than brand names.

If prescribed, you shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself.

hymns brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalized treatments

that put your goals first.

This isn't one size fits all care that forgets you in the waiting room.

It's your health and goals put first with real medical providers making sure you get what

you need to get results.

Think of hymns as your digital front door that gets you back to your old self with simple

100% online access to trusted treatments for ED and more all in one place.

Take that grower to the big show with hymns, you know, to get simple online access to

personalized affordable care for ED weight loss and more.

Visit hymns.com slash cricket.

That's hymns.com slash cricket for your free online visit hymns.com slash cricket featured

products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve of rare five for

safety effectiveness or quality prescription requires the website for details, restrictions

and important safety information, actual price will depend on product and subscription

plan.

Let's talk about the economic fallout from nor because that is around biggest leverage

right now.

Economists and energy industry experts keep telling reporters that the fallout is only just

beginning, even if the war ends soon.

Bloomberg talked to more than three dozen of these experts and said that quote, one message

was repeated over and over.

The world still hasn't grasped the severity of the situation.

Other countries are already dealing with energy shortages, food supply shortages, price

shocks.

Here's European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde summing up the view that the worst

is yet to come in an interview with the economist.

We are facing a real shock that is probably beyond what we can imagine at the moment.

Do you think there is just a sort of blind optimism that somehow this is going to be over

and the world will go back to normal?

Well, maybe they're overly optimistic and determined to stay optimistic.

Too much has already been damaged and there is no way that it can be restored in a matter

of months.

Most people are actually talking about years.

And I think this is a crisis where we are learning almost bit by bit day by day what

the actual consequences will be.

What countries will be most affected?

What of the commodities will be the most in demand?

I saw some people comparing this moment to March of 2020 where a lot of the wonks and

nerds and public health experts and economists were warning about how bad things were about

to get because of COVID while the public hadn't caught up quite yet.

The top of energy advisor for the S&P called the relatively mild market response so far

that we're seeing, quote, irrational optimism.

What do you think?

Yeah, I think people think about this as oil being affected, but there's helium which

is needed for semiconductor manufacturing and MRI machines.

Cutter produces 35% of the world helium, key ingredients for fertilizer like ammonia,

urea, sulfur and phosphates, you have liquid natural gas, aluminum production and cutter

is down.

Doubtled its customers using the price of plastic, John.

Thank you for that.

It's also, so it's not just hitting the rest of the world, probably even harder than

the United States and we're already seeing that.

I'm just going to read you a couple quotes from different world leaders.

South Korea's president today said, quote, the world is in turmoil over the energy crisis.

The situation is so serious that it is even kept me up at night.

The immediate problem is grave enough, but the outlook ahead seems even more unstable.

The situation is worse than expected.

Italy's defense minister.

Of course, I have to nick another hit for that.

I am forced now to think, I am forced now to know things about what would happen in

the coming week and the effects it will have in the economy and our daily lives that no

longer allow me to sleep, not a lot of sleep for foreign leaders all around the world.

Yeah, there are ways the US might be insolent.

We have a lot of natural gas.

We have more helium than Qatar, but the possibility of a global recession will not spare us.

I think this was a world historic mistake, John.

I'm really worried about it.

I'm glad that I'm glad that anyway, we're taking this seriously.

We're talking to a couple of ways you can play back that clip when I was in the other

country.

Like 2000 points in the stock market and there's fucking gas lines everywhere.

No, it's really fucking bad.

It's really bad.

We did that to prove a point.

We were highlighting the point.

And if this gets this information in front of more people, perhaps that was the goal too.

The destruction, also, even if you open the straight, things will not bounce back.

There will be ripple effects for a long time.

I genuinely think, you see this is Ruby, he's implying this a lot of times that he's

trying to tell the Europeans and other countries, we need you to open the straight or hormones

because, honestly, Iran is so mad at us, but also because we do actually have more helium,

we do have natural gas.

We are insulated from some of this, but in the long term, the ripple effects of this,

the way this will ricochet across all different sectors, all different countries, it will

come for us.

We will not be spared.

We are insulated better than other countries, but we are also more sensitive than other

countries because our consumers are pussies.

That's it.

It's just like, oh, a couple of cents.

Iran is banking on the fact here that American consumer is paying higher gas prices, is going

to cause a much bigger political problem for Donald Trump relatively speaking than even

some of these much more severe crises in the rest of the world.

And we're not insulated because once there's a global recession, God forbid, that is going

to affect the United States, you can't fucking escape that.

And a recession while gas prices are cresting over $5 a gallon, people are already upset

about prices, like that is a worst-case scenario politically for Trump in the world.

And again, we're talking about the straight being open again, but like that attack and

Qatar on the natural gas, like knocked out roughly 28 million tons of supply from the

market this year of liquid natural gas.

That represents nearly the entire global supply growth forecast for 2026.

It could take years, especially from the New York Times, years for the flow of liquid natural

gas from the mid-east to return to pre-war levels.

And that is just like, forget if the straight open tomorrow, that's just, it's done.

It's destroyed.

And that might benefit some American fossil fuel companies.

That might actually help some stuff prices, but we will, consumers will not benefit from

that.

Consumers will pay for a global change in supply.

Also Trump's job-owning, the him trying to calm the markets with his crazy truths,

not really working anymore.

It's already start like, he did it, well, first of all, did you see our new guy in Iran

that we're negotiating with the Speaker of Parliament, trolling Trump on Twitter now?

He did see this.

Heads up, pre-market so-called news or truth is often just a setup for profit-taking.

Basically, it's a reverse indicator, do the opposite.

If they pump it, short it.

If they dump it, go long.

Be something tomorrow, you know the drill.

The idea that we're in a back and forth where you have Trump trying to work the markets

to avoid him feeling pressure to end the war, and you have Iran trying to work the markets

in the opposite direction, just so publicly, so baldly, because if the markets don't respond

to what Trump is saying, he loses leverage in the negotiation.

I mean, maybe, honestly, as I'm talking to myself and just seeing it as a sign for

hope, John.

Well, but I think that when Trump, the latest truth, when he said great progress and

stuff like that, it just didn't, it's changing the markets less.

Like, if the markets are responding, not as much as they used to, the price of oil right

now is still now way above 100, it was like 110, whatever.

I don't know.

I don't remember which firm, but a firm has created a kind of pressure index.

So there's a taco index that a financial firm has created.

And basically, it looks at a couple different indicators to put them together to suggest

the amount of pressure Donald Trump is under to argue for when he will cave on something

important.

And the reason I think that matters is because, yeah, you're right, the individual statements

aren't causing the same kind of like corrections as we were seeing in the past.

But I do think the underlying problem, and it speaks to what's going on in this conflict

too, is that the markets ultimately expect Trump to respect the markets, right?

The whole, the whole, the kind of irrational optimism of the markets is based on the idea

that Donald Trump cares what happens to these markets.

And that is like, not something that's going to show ups and downs, but it's going to

be baked into an overall expectation, right?

And the question is, when does that give?

Yeah, well, that gives because at some point Donald Trump caring about the markets isn't

enough.

Donald Trump respecting the markets or being worried about the markets isn't enough because

if the oil isn't there or the gas isn't there, you know, like other fertilizers isn't

there.

There's nothing he can do about it.

It stops being a symbolic television fight and it starts being a real, which is like

world consequences, which is where you can see from the price of oils and the markets

right now.

Like that is where we're getting to right now, where they realize like, okay, Donald Trump

can care all he wants about the stock market and his approval rate and all that said,

doesn't matter.

He can't stop it.

He doesn't have the only vote here.

One group of people who can't be accused of rational optimism are the mega types who

broken with Trump on Iran.

There's a great Twitter exchange on Sunday where Ann Coulter tweeted, quote, there's Ann

Coulter, watching Fox News assure viewers the Iran war is going super well and Trump

as a total stud is like watching the same network assure viewers that the Dominion voting

systems rigged the 2020 election and Trump was the winner to which Marjorie Taylor Green

responded, quote, Fox News is now the fake news brainwashing boomers to support what we

voted against.

What a, what an exchange.

I love it.

There's nothing that makes me happier when Republicans get a taste for just a moment of

what it feels like to be a Democrat.

Like that, it's like they can't, like what is happening?

They're, they're misinforming the public.

They're inoculating them against the reality of what's going on on the ground in a way

that I find displeasing brainwashing the boomers, they just, they just started brainwashing

the boomers.

Hey, hey, somebody call the police, Fox News has begun brainwashing the boomers.

Breaking news, things didn't seem to be going much better over at CPAC.

The annual conservative gets together that just wrapped in Texas.

Let's take a listen.

A ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe.

It will mean higher gas prices, higher food prices.

And I'm not sure we would end up killing more terrorists than we would create.

When it comes to Iran, how do you feel about that?

I'm not happy.

I'm not happy at all.

President Trump ran on no new wars.

I do question some of the things when it comes to, are we just going to bend over

everything for Israel, you know?

This isn't, you know, what I voted for.

What I voted for was domestic policy change at home and, you know, realistic foreign policy.

I think a lot of people conservative, young conservatives right now kind of disillusioned

with Trump and I would say myself one of those.

So what can he do to win you back at this point?

Not much.

What a bunch of lib cucks.

Was that a, was that a DSA meeting or was it?

There was somebody Matt Gaetz.

Matt Gaetz, there was somebody in the time story said that MAGA is dying and that

it was like a young person that said they felt like they had more common at this point

with the left than they did with older members.

Yeah, yeah, she was like a 27 year old Florida strategist.

MAGA is dying.

What a, what a, what a, what a quote.

Politico's up with the story full of more quotes like that from young men who attended

and, and we played this last week on a couple of our YouTube's.

But you've probably seen the, the crowd unexpectedly cheered.

The mention of articles of impeachment from Matt Schlapp.

What do you make of the seeming discrepancy between what the polls are showing

in terms of MAGA support for the war and what we are seeing and hearing from

both very prominent MAGA types and some of the attendees at CPAC?

So if you break up Trump supporters by age and this is what Politico did as well,

that more than two thirds of those over 35 think Trump has a plan

when it's less than half of those under 35, two thirds of older MAGA men

were willing to sacrifice American lives in Iran compared with less than half of younger MAGA men.

If you get your news on television or through Facebook, kind of in the old economy

and the old economy looks a lot like what Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying about Fox.

But if you're younger, you're not watching Cable the same way young people,

forget MAGA, no young people are watching Cable.

So where are you getting your news?

You're consuming it from digital right wing news, which is much less interventionist,

much more heterodox generally.

So because it's an older coalition, a huge shift amongst younger supporters

might not show as big of an impact in the polls, but it does represent where they're headed.

And I think the thing that's interesting about what you're seeing here at CPAC,

and I think it's same can probably be said about turning point USA, is the whole old right wing

media machine that Fox News came out of, radio came out of. It existed to create a space that was

in defiance of the mainstream media, and that was the enemy, the enemy was the mainstream media,

and you were defying that, that consensus. But the attitude, whether it's Tucker Carlson,

or Daily Wire, or any of these other, or the Rogan kind of independent universe,

it's less about defying any one institution or defining yourself against the mainstream media

than it more is about just being comfortable with being heterodox and being willing to say

when even your own side is wrong. I think that's a genuinely different vibe from Fox,

as you would find and say, like the Daily Wire, and these young people are of that world,

which is willing to be like, hey, we didn't vote for this, like, fuck this. This is not about teams.

Yeah. It's also a very anti-institutionalist. Yeah. And Fox has obviously never really been that,

maybe when they first started, but like they are the institution, right? I also, like,

one of the most common mistakes made in analyzing polls is that they are always, always,

always a lagging indicator. And that a poll is telling you about what public opinion was two or

three, four weeks earlier. I mean, just in the way that the poll was actually fielded, but also

in just the way public opinion sort of filters down to folks who aren't paying as close attention

to the news, but maybe still answer a poll. So like, even today, you know, in Nate Silver's polling

average of Trump's approval, he has Trump sub 40, like 39.7 for the first time. This is average

approval rating 39.7. He said his net approval is negative 17.4. That's the approval and the

disapproval. Just by comparison, Trump was negative 19.1 after January 6th. So he's 17.4 now. Biden

bottomed out at negative 20.5 after the debate. So Trump is like just in the worst territory that

he's ever been and that other presidents have been. And to the point about the base and Nate goes

into this as well, Trump's strong approval. People who approve strong wave Trump is down to 22.4

percent, which is its lowest ever. And the strong approval number has declined by more than his

overall support, which means that like, maybe you're not seeing it in like, do you like Trump or

not like Trump, but the people who really like Trump, the base, the people who are excited about

or down to 22 percent. Yeah, it's why it's why you see a lot of reports about CPAC being a bit

more space than usual in the ballrooms, that there's not the enthusiasm there was. Yeah, and that

the there was a poll, I think it was the Harvard poll that came out today that showed more

Americans for the Biden economy than the Trump economy. There's a lot of people re-evaluating

the comparison of Biden to Trump right now. Yeah, I mean, and I think that's because at least

at the beginning of the Biden economy, when inflation was really bad, there was like, well,

there was COVID inherited COVID, and then like over time, you know, people have less patience

for Biden not having fixed inflation. But again, with Trump, the difference is he did this.

Like it's been so rare that there's been a crisis like this, like an economic crisis, especially

where you're like, not oh, the president presided over a session and maybe you can blame them for

this or that. But like, no, no, no, this is a he did the tariffs, he did the war. He just did him.

This doesn't know. No one made him do it. He just did it. The like the Trump kind of yo-yo of

attention on him leads his approval waiting to fall sub 40. If you're lucky and then it bounces

back to mid 40s, they're after and kind of hovers. I do feel like we're into the more end of the

Biden term. He shouldn't be running and we're still mad about inflation or post Katrina Bush where

he's kind of found a floor and there's no way off of it. The people can come to a conclusion

about Trump. I think that's where we're at. Yeah. Meanwhile, the the Yahoo's who were running

in the midterms, the Republicans, they seem to be running some kind of experiment on just how

unpopular they can make this war with voters in an election year. I give you the following Axios

headline from Monday morning that's undoubtedly coming to a message box near you. Quote, GOP

ways, health care cuts to pay for Iran war. Amazing. Just Axios puts up that the message box

shapes spotlight on the cloud. Dan spring break. Yeah, Dan's on spring break. He's with his

family. He probably just like, what? What? Should you hear that? He like presses three keys on a

piano, a little door opens up. He takes the pole down to the message box cave. Apparently Republicans

in Congress are thinking about putting together a big new budget bill that would fund both the war

and Iran and ICE paid for in part by cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare. Just one idea. We're

just floating the idea, but boy, is it a good one. For my question here, I'll just read you Axios's

Wyatt Matters bullet. New efforts to rein in health programs are sure to be controversial

and open the GOP up to election year attacks that they're cutting health care to pay for an

unpopular war. No shit. You think? There's a Steve's police was asked about this and he said

that they're looking for waste fraud and abuse. And it's so galling. It's so galling because

it was a year ago when they passed the big beautiful bill and cut a trillion dollars from health care

claiming it was waste fraud and abuse. So are we meant to believe, Steve? They didn't get it all.

They got to go back in. Did you leave some behind like the nuclear dust in Iran? Yeah, like just

some like to go back of waste fraud and abuse that you were going to come back to later. I can't

think of a less popular way for them to try to find $200 billion to spend on the war in Iran,

but they're getting close. Now, this would be a budget reconciliation bill because they know

there's no way they could get 60 votes in the Senate. It would only need 51 votes in the Senate,

which Republicans do technically have. What do you think the chances are they can get to 51?

I should say, I guess I assume I said that assuming that the House will pass it, but I don't

even know if I assume that the House will pass it. I don't assume the House will pass it. They don't

have that. They don't have that much wiggle room in the House, less and less. All the time,

Bobert has come out pretty forcefully against any kind of a supplemental. I don't think it gets

better when the pay for us are health care. But then again, some of these Republicans,

even ones that haven't spoken yet, have one of the only places they've been willing to draw

on is they will not vote for bills that raise the deficit. It seems like they will need to find

some kind of a pay for. I don't know how this thing gets through the House. In terms of the Senate,

Godot assumed columns as a no. I mean, how do you imagine? It's inconceivable that she'd be,

I mean, look, she's who knows, but you assume she's a no. You assume Rand Paul is a no. So they

can only lose one more. Murkowski has expressed skepticism. She's a no. There's no way she'll do that.

So then you then that's it. And then I bet like, if she's a no,

why would Dan Sullivan be a yes, because he's running against Mary Paltola?

Who just has a new poll. Right. So it's like, then you maybe lose Sullivan. You're right. Tillus is

there. By the way, if Kornin gets through this primary, we don't know when this vote will be,

but you know, before the vote, Kornin's politics are fucked anyway. You slice it,

but I would assume if you're in the Senate, what you're saying is we're not going to touch this

unless the House passed it, because I do think it's really hard to figure out how you get this kind

of a thing through. Now, maybe they pick up John Fetterman also on the side. But what about for

John Fetterman? That would be we're going to fully fund dice. We're going to fully fund this

war. We're going to cut your health now. I bet at the end, the health care cuts, if you

had to ask them whether they'd rather stomach health care cuts or a bill that raises the deficit

in order to fund the war, I think they would go for, I think most Republicans in this caucus

would go for that. It doesn't reconciliation, like there was a reconciliation that,

so they're going to define some fake way to pay for it. This is a fake accounting bullshit.

Yeah, but look then, but then we're talking about parliamentarians again, and you do have Republicans

in the Senate who are committed to that. It's very, the politics of this are dog shit. Fetterman

Fetterman aside. Got to assume you have not a single Democratic vote. No, I hope that's the

same in the House, but you don't know. It's just that they couldn't make the politics of this war.

No, they couldn't.

Pods, say the America's brought you by policy, genius. Spring is a season of growth and renewal.

The perfect time to ensure the life you're building is protected, keeping your loved one secure

as a top priority. And policy genius makes finding the right insurance policy straightforward.

And simple policy genius is an online insurance marketplace that allows you to compare quotes

from some of America's top insurance side by side for free. Their license team helps you get

what you need fast. So you can get on with your life, easily find what you need. Coverage amounts,

prices, terms, no guesswork, just clarity. Policy genius helps you find the most affordable policy

that meets your needs. They answer questions, handle paperwork, and advocate for you throughout

the process. Policy genius has thousands of five star reviews on Google and Trust Pilot

from customers who found the best policy fit for their needs. I was just talking to a friend of mine.

I used the third in line, just in a country. And obviously he's really concerned.

He's just really concerned about making sure he has the best life insurance policy. And I said,

check out policy genius. Yeah, forget about the job security. It's more about the life security.

Yeah, this was just somebody who said, hey, I want to make sure because I was seventh in line.

And then I was there was some developments. And I was like, oh, man, it sounds like

things are pretty crazy in that country right now. He's like, yeah, it's pretty crazy in this

country right now. Policy genius. It's Germany. It's Germany. And I'm talking to you guys,

of course, Germany, Lichtenstein, project your family with a policy that grows with your life

with policy. You can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting at $276

a year for $1 million in coverage. Head to policygenius.com slash crooked to compare life insurance

quotes from top companies and see how much you could save that's policygenius.com slash crooked.

Hey, love it or leave it listeners. It's me, the titular john love it here to tell you that I'm

coming back to Washington DC for love or leave it live at the Lincoln theater on April 23rd. That's

right. Spring in DC is all about cherry blossoms and love or leave it bringing you a stack lineup of

guests. That's what makes it America's number one late night gay live comedy political podcast.

We're so excited to be back in DC. It's a tradition now that we come around the time of the

correspondents and or even though the correspondents in a really no longer has comedians that

believe there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind, mind melder. Yes, a magician. Yeah,

I'm a mentalist. A mentalist because I guess Trump wouldn't go. It's also going. Yeah, yeah,

that's it. Yeah, there's a mental case and then and Trump is also going. That's how it is. That's

tickets won't last long. They're selling pretty fast. So get yours now while you still can at

crooked.com slash events. Very excited for the DC show. Got some big guests. Some pretty exciting

maybe. Crooked.com slash events. Speaking of ice and DHS, the agency is still closed nearly

50 days into the shutdown. Despite the fact that the Senate unanimously passed a bill on Friday

that would fund all of DHS, including TSA, except for ice and border patrol. But then House

Republicans decided to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by rejecting the Senate's unanimous

bipartisan deal passing a bill instead that would fund all of DHS for another 60 days and then

leaving town for a two week recess. Trump then sided with the House right after signing a

likely illegal executive order to pay TSA workers, which I guess is now happening. But raises the

question of why didn't he do that weeks ago. Trump also still hasn't given up on course in

Congress to pass the SAV Act and was asked about all of this on Air Force One.

No, ice is vital to the well-being of our country and they are able to protect us from the animals.

I think the Senate is playing it too soft. We're dealing with very sick individuals. The

Democrats are sick. There's something wrong. They're like terrors.

Do you think leaders don't told me that they do not have the votes to try to make the

bill? I know, but that's part of being a leader. You have to get the votes.

You have confidence. I mean, I like him so much. He's a high quality person. But

this would be a leader. You have to get the votes. You have to get the votes.

He sounds like an online lefty pundit. You got to get, you just got, it's leadership. You

already, or right wing pundit, too. You go get the votes. Go get the votes. When you get the

leaders about, you get the votes. One thing just to note that if Mike Johnson had brought

the Senate bill that had passed unanimously to the floor of the House, it would have passed

with a huge majority of Republicans and Democrats, a huge majority. It would have gotten through

fine. He's doing his own politics. He's protecting himself against a few members of his

caucus. He's worrying about Trump. That's what's happening here.

Now the House Republicans and like Mike Lee and others in the Senate are trying to say that

the Senate Republicans have, quote, buyers remorse over their compromise. That's what Steve

Scalia told ABC. Mike Lee said the Senate should reconvene immediately. How did they

fuck this up so badly? Do you think that flies? We actually had buyers remorse. We didn't know.

We didn't know that we were cutting a deal with the Democrats to reopen the government.

It doesn't matter what they say, how they describe it. They left THS shut down and went on vacation.

Trump is paying TSA agents because that's what's been getting the worst headlines, but I don't see

what the argument would be for why TSA agents should be paid, but not the other 50,000 or 100,000

people that are going without a salary who also work for the Coast Guard and do all kinds of

vital work that are also working without P. But that Americans don't see day-to-day when they're

traveling. It's also retroactive, the EO that Trump signed for TSA, so he's now paid them for

the two paychecks they missed, but no one knows what happens as we continue to go on and the shutdown

drags on. There's no pool of money to pay them in the future unless the government opens up,

so we're going to be right back where we were, so the lines and the airports are better today,

but what happens a couple of weeks from now? Yeah, so let's assume that the filibuster continues

to hold, and we don't have a reason to think it won't, though. I could see the Republicans realizing

there are only way out of this is with Democratic votes, and so they need to start threatening to

remove the filibuster to get some Democrats to be more amenable to some kind of compromise.

That's just one path that this could go, but assume the filibuster is holding, Democrats have a

pretty simple position, we talked about this with Murphy, Chris Murphy on Friday, Senator from

Connecticut. We won't pay for ice unless they're reforms, and we've laid out those reforms.

Now, originally when this shutdown began, it was so that there would be a negotiation over what

the level of reform would be, and the reforms necessary are impossible,

funding without the reforms would be unacceptable, so you'd end up with some kind of compromise.

There are people on the left that say the agency and some other online warriors that are not

ideologically from the left that like any kind of compromise is unacceptable. Meanwhile,

because ice is funded through the big, beautiful bill, the only way of changing ice is actually

through funding it. That's just the reality. That's what the original contours in negotiation were,

but now actually we're actually trying to extract something else, which is to force ice to live off

the money that it spent on the big, beautiful bill without our votes, but Republicans don't seem to be

able to pass something without us, so I don't know what happens from here. But again, I don't understand.

They have the, if they do another reconciliation bill, they have the ability per the deal that was

passed unanimously in the Senate to fund ice without the Democrats, because they just need 50 votes

in the Senate, 51 votes in the Senate, and they need a majority in the House, so just fucking

open the rest of DHS like everyone else voted to do in the Senate, Republicans and Democrats,

and then the Democrats can say like we didn't vote to fund ice or to give ice more money,

but if the Republicans really feel so strongly about ice, they can fund ice through reconciliation.

Yeah, I do think this starts to boil down to how they pay for the $200 billion supplemental plus

additional money for ice. And then we get back to our last conversation about why passing a new

budget bill is just so hard. Yeah, I will just say like one one one pick up in all of this is if they

really can't get to some kind of a deal without Democrats, if the House won't accept anything,

Democrats will accept and the Senate won't get rid of the fellowbuster, added political pressure

on reconciliation, if they, how can they possibly do a supplemental for Ron without funding DHS?

You're telling me we're not going to fund the Coast Guard, but we're going to buy bombs for a war

nobody voted for? They think it's going to, and that's probably part of the pressure too. It's like

we're, oh, you're going to keep, you're going to keep everything shut down there. Maybe they can

make the funding bill about DHS and not necessarily the war, which also seems fucking crazy.

I mentioned earlier that both the Senate and the House are on a two week recess. TMZ has become

very politicized now. The outlet. They're hungry for the, the juicy details of what members of

Congress are doing while TSA staff are, quote, according to TMZ, selling their blood to keep a roof

over their heads. They caught Lindsey Graham at Disney World and posted some of these photos with

the headline, Lindsey Graham living in fantasy land as government shutdown drags on. TMZ also

posted a story about Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia being in Vegas, though Garcia responded

by pointing out that his dad lives in Vegas and they quote, speaker Mike Johnson should have never

sent us all home, making it clear that the House could have simply passed the Senate's compromise.

Garcia also said, like, call us back. We'll come back. We'll, we'll pass it anytime, you know.

What do you think about the recess as an additional pain point for Republicans in the politics of all

this? And do you think it's enough for Democrats to just say what Garcia did about recess?

Republicans because of a fight between Donald Trump, Senate Republicans, and House Republicans.

That's who the fight is between kept the Department of Homeland Security,

right, meant to protect us from all kinds of threats, which are, you know, rising in a time of war

that they started. They have not been able to come to agreement amongst themselves to fund

DHS. There is an agreement with Democrats. We made one. We passed 100 to zero in the Senate,

not a single objection. 100 to zero passed a bipartisan funding bill to cover DHS. It to end,

and, uh, and allows ICE to continue to operate, right, according to what Republicans wanted,

because ICE has a sitting on tens of billions of dollars from the big, beautiful bill.

And in the last moments, Republicans abandoned that and then left the city, just left,

while that is ongoing. So, like, we, of course, we should be exploiting it. And, and, yeah,

Robert Garcia can go visit Vegas, you know, put a couple.

Democrats can do whatever they want because it's like, like, you know, uh, you want,

Democrats have nothing to do with this at this point. Democrats went back to D.C.

And we're hanging out in Congress. They still can't do anything.

Yeah, like, they don't control Congress. They can't figure out. They can't solve the

fucking Republicans problem for them. We, we do so much, like, so much of politics now is just

like all these kinds of, like, symbolic battles. And like, the truth is Lindsey Graham being a

Disney world is like a symbol is an aesthetically bad thing, right? Because he should be in D.C.

working. The problem is Congress is in in session. Uh, because Republicans don't know what to do

anyway. And they all want to go do whatever they do on their recess in their districts and on

their free time. Uh, for Lindsey Graham, I guess, is to go to Disney World with friends. I thought,

I was like, oh, he's there with a nephew or a niece. He's, he was just there with friends.

Going on space mountain, apparently holding a toy for a young girl who was going into the bathroom.

I was like, oh, I'm just weird. I don't understand Lady Graham's life.

I don't understand it. I don't know what brings him joy. If I'll tell you what brings him joy,

space mountain, dropping, dropping bombs, dropping bombs and around, brings him joy. Yeah.

Yeah. I saw him at he was also, he had a, he was at the buffet at that contemporary,

at the contemporary hotel. I've been at that buffet. It's great buffet. Me too.

On the hour, the big, the big mouse comes out, says hi to the kids. They're with my nephew

at the time. So that's what Lindsey Graham is up to.

We should just stop there. Yeah. Speaking of home insecurity shutdowns,

did you see the Washington Examiner's story about how Border Patrol had to shut down several

social media accounts that Greg Bravino tried to bring with him to retirement after being

booted from Minneapolis and Trump's good graces? There's a funny story. I did see that. You know,

back when LA used to make television shows, people would talk about what showrunners would be

the hardest people to work for. And inevitably, it was like men in their like 50s who just

fucking hated their wives and their lives because all they had was their jobs. And so like,

even though the show would basically, they'd written the script. It's already done. And they'd be like,

we got to keep working. We got to keep going. We got to power through because they didn't really

want to go home. I feel like Greg Bravino maybe doesn't want to go home. What's he working?

What's he posting? What's he posting? Well, he apparently he'd amassed 850,000 followers on Facebook,

Instagram, and X combined. And so when they tried to take those accounts back because they were

the government accounts that belonged to whoever the commander is out in fucking California wherever it

was, he said, those are my followers. So I'm taking them with me. It's, hey, man, Pavino, you

want your RSS feed? You got me. Appreciate that. It's a present Todd. Yeah. It's ridiculous.

It is funny because when you go to the Twitter account now that used to be Greg Bravino and now it's

just like, you know, whatever that central command for Border Patrol is, it looks like an official

account and there's no picture of any person attached to it. But the tweet at the top is,

Governor Pritzker. Perhaps you'll get a clue and realize illegal aliens, all caps will continue

killing Americans until they removed. Like Stein in NC and Newsom spelled OME in California.

This is your fault thumbs down, thumbs down. Just an official account with a lot of posts calling

women sweetie. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, um, yeah. Anyway, good luck, Mark Wayne Mullin trying

to get your, get your arms around that department. All right. One last thing before we go, as you heard

a bit earlier, Trump isn't letting the war and the shutdown get in the way of his real priority,

building the ballroom, which he explained in great detail to the reporters on Air Force One,

even flipping through visual aids that he'd brought along for the occasion. Let's take a look.

These pictures we just made today. We have all bulletproof glass. We have drone proof

roofs, ceilings, everything. Strong proof to say, a view of the columns.

And they are going to be made. They're going to be hand carved and beautiful.

In top of the line, they'll be Corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful by far.

This is a view of it from the north. And that's, if you see it, it fits in with the white house. It's

almost a twin to the white house. It's something we just wanted to paint tribute to the white house.

And so that fits in beautifully. Let me just see another one.

Where's another one? Here's another one. I'm trying to excuse me. Wait, I do want to do this now

because it's easy. I'm so busy that I don't have time to do this. It's so busy. But, uh, fighting wars

and other things. But this is very important because this is going to be with us for a long time.

Very important. Times had an incredible piece this weekend titled, uh,

Trump's ballroom design has barely been scrutinized. Architects say it shows.

What'd you make of their critiques? I think we have a, um, we can actually, the times did

are, it's just very tall. Yomans work here. Very tall. Very tall. Yeah, you see right there,

it says very tall. Grand staircase doesn't lead to ballroom. Uh, there's another

arrow that just says no entrance here. And then another arrow on the side that says entrance

is actually here. Uh, one just says unnecessarily big. So, uh, yeah, first of all, so man,

when you're walking into a building and someone just says, don't worry, it's drone proof.

It doesn't make you feel good. Doesn't make you excited about it. So there's no way to build a,

I don't know what it was, 90,000 square foot ballroom, uh, without it being a hideous

monstrosity, you're adding a wallmark to the White House. So it's going to be ugly. Uh,

I don't care how many colorantian columns you throw at the thing. You know, Trump made that,

they made the point that just as it were a head of schedule on the ballroom, we're also

a head of schedule on the war in Iran. I actually do think it's a good analogy because

he knocked down the east wing. Uh, and that in a completely capricious and unplanned way,

only to turn around and quickly kind of based on just sort of sketches, approve a massive change

to the White House. And the second you start peering at it closely, it raises all kinds of questions.

Questions that nobody seems to have asked because they're all being driven by Donald Trump,

who only wants to be told, yes, sir, great ideas, sir, taller than ever, sir, Quintian columns,

sir. Also, the first architect went the way of the first diatola. Yeah, yeah. Uh, they, they,

they shook hand the first architect. This is the second one. Um, and they also have like, uh,

fake windows on the north side, uh, with bathroom stalls behind them, apparently. This, this thing

looks like I, I had not really, um, because there's a lot going on, um, really concentrated on

how ugly and stupid this thing looks, but it is really bad. It's vandalism. No, these are,

these people, these people are vandals. It's three, the ballroom is more than three times as large

as the White House residents. That's, so there's the West Wing, the, the White House residents is

everything you see, mostly when you look at pictures of the White House, it is three times the size

of that. What a fucking eye sore that's going to be. Yeah. So I remember like Ryan, we, remember

we've like made that graphic that show, I, I couldn't believe what they were saying that they're

really making something this big was that because you actually look at the, the, the, the footprint

that they were talking about before we saw the plans, uh, it's like, that can't be. It's so much

bigger than the actual White House, but then you look at what they've actually laid out and

that is what it is. And as like these drawings make clear, like it is going to, it's just going to

be a blight in that area. It's going to change all kinds of sites. It's going to be bigger than

the White House. It's going to be more, you're going to see it. It's just so big. So that's what you'll

see. You won't see the White House. It's all you'll see. It's, you know, when we first started

talking about this and people were like really angry about it. I was like, and they were like,

every democratic candidate who runs for president has to like promise to immediately bulldoze

the Trump ballroom. And I was like, you know, at the end of the day, it's Trump built it. But if

it's a ballroom that's nice or whatever, you know, I don't think any president should have put it in.

I certainly don't think Trump would have, but like you're really going to bulldoze it. That seems

like this. Yeah. I think you fucking take this thing down. Then that's three times the size of

the fucking residents. I think before we even get there, I do think like it's clearly been something that

broke through for people. And the idea that we are at a time when people are spending so much

for gas when we're at war, when people feel like the Trump has fundamentally failed to care about

the things he said he was going to do. The fact that they are building this monstrosity is just

going to be a beacon of everything that has gone wrong with this administration. And we should

use it that way. And by the way, like, I don't know how you're going to build something this big

as quickly as they claim they're going to build it. He's already behind, right? He already

fired one architect to get somebody who's willing to do this. So it is going to be it is already a

debacle and it will continue to be a debacle. And no, it's not the most important thing in the world

that he's doing this. But as a symbol of everything, Trump represents this vanity project where he's

kind of like vandalizing DC for his own ego maniacal purposes while the world burns. I think is

like a fitting tribute. I'll tell you if the approval ratings keep going down and you know,

they lose the midterms and all that. And it's like year seven and eight and he's got us in

whatever other fucking God knows what wars. And he's sitting at like 25 30% approval. He's going

to be spending most of his days just he's going to be the foreman of the foreman of the project. He's

going to be wandering around this old man in the ballroom. Look at that cornerstone hard hat on

little light walking around like, oh, this was beautiful. This is this is from this is

Carrera marble. Beautiful stuff here. Every I chose every toilet. I chose every toilet. They said

they said it couldn't be done to have this kind of a toilet here. I said we could have just

the smallest possible coterie of aides and sick of fans around him being like, sir, the ballroom

is going great today. It's amazing. JD Vance is in Iowa claiming that he never wanted the war

with Turkey and he actually wasn't for it. Oh, all right. Speaking of the midterms,

Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turk stopped by the cricket studios on Friday to talk with Tommy

all about his race. You'll hear that right after the break.

Puts in America is brought to you by Act Blue. Act Blue provides Democrats up and down the

ballot with the tools they need to run effective campaigns and win fundraise, organize, build

campaign websites and donate with solutions that are easy to use. Act Blue has been there through

our country's biggest moments. Our partners at Votesave America create digital fundraising pages

on Act Blue platform for initiatives like the anxiety relief program. It's easy to create the

donation pages and add features like goal tracking monitors and design custom branding and the funds

are processed quickly and safely. Act Blue never sells your data or personal information. They

focus on security so you can focus on what matters most. We love Act Blue. Votesave America uses it.

It's critical to the Democratic Party's infrastructure. Why are Republicans trying to go after it in

unfair ways? Well, because they know it helps. It's effective. And what's the magic? The magic is

it's easy to use and easy to donate. That's it. That's what's great about it. So whether you're

running for office or want to make an impact, Act Blue has the tools to help you make it happen

because the right time to get involved is right now. Donate, organize and raise money for candidates

and causes you believe in at actblue.com slash crooked. Hey, love it or leave listeners. It's me,

the titular john love it here to tell you that I'm coming back to Washington DC for love it or leave

it live at the Lincoln theater on April 23rd. That's right. Spring and DC is all about cherry blossoms

and love it or leave it bringing you a stack lineup of guests. That's what makes it America's number one

late night gay live comedy political podcast. We're so excited to be back to DC. It's a tradition now

that we come around the time of the car response and even though the car is honest and are really

no longer has comedians that I believe there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind,

mind melder. Yes, a magician. Yeah, I'm a mentalist. A mentalist because I guess Trump wouldn't go.

It's also going. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. There's a mental case and then and Trump is also going

that's right. Tickets won't last long. They're selling pretty fast. So get yours now while you

still can at crooked.com slash events. Very excited for the DC show. Got some big guests.

Some pretty exciting maybes. Crooked.com slash events.

My guess today is running to be the Democratic nominee in this year's Iowa Senate race,

Josh Turic. Great to have you in studio. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. So you and

Zach Walls, you're running to be the Democratic nominee. It's an open seat. We've invited Zach to

come on to. We're trying to figure that out. The primary is June 2nd. I just want to say at the top,

I am very bullish on Iowa this cycle. We have a huge opportunity in Iowa, I think, because we have

Rob Sand running for governor. He's great candidate. You have a wide open Senate race. You have three

targeted house races and you can run in Iowa for just a little less money than Texas. What do you

say? We're cheap date. You're a cheap date and a state that I think for a lot of structural

reasons that we'll get into is primed for a flip. I just hope people who are listening think about

Iowa, invest in Iowa because it's not the flashiest state right now in terms of where the attention

is in the media, but I think it's really important. Let's just start with your story though. You

represented the United States in four Paralympic games. That's right. You said you won two gold medals,

and wheelchair basketball. More amazingly, I think I heard you say you got cut six times before

you made the team. I did. Can you tell us your story and your experience, like how you got there?

Yeah. Well, first, born with my disability, born with a condition called Spina Bifida,

due to my father's exposure to Agent Orange and Vietnam. So I had my first surgery one day old.

I had 21 surgeries before I was 12, almost all of which took place at Shriners Hospital in Minnesota,

because it's the only way that my family could afford it. Yeah, wheelchair basketball is one of

the things that honestly saved me. Is a kid I was bullied really, really badly and actually ended

up leaving public school briefly because of how badly I was bullied. And wheelchair basketball really

gave me something to fight for and fell in love with it. Got a scholarship to play at Southwest

Minnesota State University, scored over 4,000 career points there. So just barely, barely beat out

casual facts there with the four thing on points. Something I'm really proud of.

And then I had an amazing opportunity of something I didn't even know existed, which was to play

professional wheelchair basketball. It doesn't exist here in the States. And I had the amazing

opportunity to play and live in places like Spain and Italy and France and Australia. By the time I was

done between club and country, I got to live in every continent or at least visit every continent,

play basketball and every continent on Earth besides Antarctica. And then the highlight of my

career without a doubt was was four Paralympic games, two gold medals. And you were right.

I made my very first Paralympic team straight out of college and that was 2004. And as you know,

as a basketball nation, if you don't win, it's basically like gold or failure. And we got knocked

out in the quarter finals. And then they they changed coaches and I say there's a beauty and a

beef to represent the USA in basketball. The beauty is that you're going to have an amazing

opportunity to win a gold medal. The beast is there's so many good players that you never know if

you're going to have the opportunity to represent again. And they switch coaches. And for six straight

years, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. And I just kept coming back and I said eventually you are not going

to take my dream away from me. Eventually I'm going to get so good that you're going to take me.

And I finally made the team again in 2011, you know, which was the qualifier for the for the Paralympics.

And then in 2012 won a bronze medal in London. I led the team in scoring and rebounding.

And that bronze medal means almost as much to me as those gold medals because it represents

that hard work and struggle of trying to get back there. And then it had to for like the great

fortune of being able to end my career back to back gold medals. That was that was amazing with

my brother. And you do you create a real deep brotherhood. That's incredible. I mean, like,

okay, I mean, that's gritty as hell. Getting cut twice would probably end me, but six times. And

you're just stuck to it. Like what were you doing with the rest of your time? Were you like working

and then I was playing professionally. Okay. So yeah, I was professionally training every day

there and then trying out for the team and just like, just couldn't vibe with this coach.

It wasn't a matter of vibe. I mean, I just had to get bigger, faster, stronger, better. I mean,

you're looking at being one of the 12 best players in the entire country. And but

I had that discipline and that that work ethic of whether it was focusing on my diet or my

supplementation or my sleep, I was just willing to do whatever it took to get to that next level.

I would go and shoot a thousand shots every single day, rain or shine, hot or cold, go and lift

weights every day. Most days, I would end my day with a road push in my in my everyday wheelchair

and I would go for somewhere between seven and 14 miles. I mean, I was just willing to do the

work, which honestly, I think was some of the very best preparation for what modern politics has

turned into. Like that discipline and hard work, inability also to just ignore the external

noise and just keep your head down and do the work. It's really been great preparation for this.

I was going to say most politicians, we can't get them to like show up to vote. So I feel like you're

you're a little ahead of the game there. You mentioned Spina Bifida, your dad served in Vietnam. He

had Asian Orange exposure, which is linked to Spina Bifida, cause Spina Bifida. But also,

I think makes you eligible for VA benefits. Correct. That is correct. Yeah. So I'm just curious,

that is a very different connection to the military and war than most Americans have. And we

are at this moment, we're recording this Friday, March 27th. By the time it comes out on Tuesday,

we could have troops on the ground in Iran and yet another crazy, in my opinion, regime change war

in the Middle East. I just wondered how your experience of like hearing your father's story and

going through the VA care process has shaped your views of these issues. Yeah. And we're looking at

going into another forever unnecessary conflict that I've seen far too often in my life. It's not

just my direct family connection. It's in my time in wheelchair basketball as well. I've played

with so many men and women that have come back missing arms, missing legs that are just never the

same. And then my dad, he spent 22 months in Vietnam exposed to Asian Orange and it's reason for

my disability. And these conflicts, they don't just disappear. They have generational consequences.

And certainly I'm living proof of that generational consequence. And for example, like a state like

Iowa, even though we don't have boots on the ground in Iran, we are already paying a high price

for this conflict. We've already lost three islands because the base that was hit in Kuwait,

those were largely national guardsmen from Iowa. And we're looking at spending a billion dollars

there, no strategy, no idea what's happening, why we're there. And we've got to stay like

Iowa where we are dead last for economic growth. One of two states already in an economic decline,

we're closing hospitals and schools, dead last for road quality. We could use that billion

dollars a day in a state like Iowa as opposed to another unnecessary forever conflict.

Yeah, I mean, there are a bunch of reports we don't know if they'll actually do this,

but that the administration was going to go to Congress to request $200 billion for the war in Iran.

And I just, you know, I think in the beginning, there was this sense of like,

should Democrats vote for it? Well, they'd be called weak. They'd be told they're not supporting

the troops. I hope by now Democrats in Washington understand that this is an enormous opportunity

to show voters that we want to spend that money anywhere else.

Correct. Anywhere. Schools, roads, bridges, like anything you want in Iowa, like not

bombs that get dropped on, you know, far away places and people. We cut a trillion dollars

in with the big beautiful bill to people's health care. 110,000 Iowans lose their health care

benefits. Thousands more lose their food assistance. We don't have money for the ACA subsidies to

continue, which is another 117,000 Iowans looking at premiums, doubling or tripling. We've closed

in the last 15 years in Iowa, 250 more medical clinics than we've opened. And so we're closing

nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities and rural hospitals all over the state. But we have

money for an unnecessary war in Iran. It's just such a disconnect and it's not America first.

No, it really isn't America first and you're seeing a lot of Republicans get extremely pissed off

and turn away from Trump. Change a gears a bit. So California governor Gavin Newsom often talks

about having dyslexia and like sort of the obstacles that's created in his life, how he's overcome

them. I think President Trump must have caught and interviewed with him talking about that,

probably in the context of his book tour. And now just attacks Gavin Newsom about it constantly.

Here's one example I wanted to play for you and should get your reaction.

Gavin Newsom has admitted that he is a that he is learning disabilities.

Honestly, I'm old for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president. I don't want

I think a president should not have learning disabilities, okay? And I know it's highly

controversial to say such a horrible thing. The president of the United States, Gavin Newsom

admitted that he is learning disabilities, dyslexia, everything about him is dumb.

So he's an asshole. What message do you think those comments send to kids in this country with

dyslexia or learning disabilities? Really any disability? It's gross. It's not the first time he's

done it either. I mean, unfortunately, I've dealt with bullies my whole life and we've got a bully

in the Oval Office. And I think my message would be to any disabled person out there, any disabled

kids is don't let what anyone says to you, including the president of the United States, prevent you

from living your best life or being able to live your dream. And you can look at someone like me.

I grew up poor, I grew up disabled, 21 surgeries. I feel like I am the American dream. But I have the

American dream because of something like the American with Disabilities Act, the father of the

American Disabilities Act, Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa. And don't let that define you.

I think that's my message is that you can ultimately be what you want to, and you can do what

you want here in America and do not let anyone stop you or make you feel like you are less,

including the president of the United States. And unfortunately, I will say that one of the reasons

why I got into politics initially, I got involved in politics for two reasons. One is because

of the privatization of Medicaid in Iowa, it was driving up rates, denials, and delays, a thousand

percent since we privatized. That was hurting the disabled population the most. Second reason why

ran is because there had never been a permanently disabled member in the Iowa legislature. We're a

state of 150 years governing body of 150 members. We didn't even have a ramp in the capital. It's the

people's house. It should be open to the people. And the disabled population, one in five islands,

blind death, intellectually disabled, physically disabled, and yet almost no representation.

One of the reasons why I'm doing this as well, running for the U.S. Senate, is I don't think we

have enough individuals up in the U.S. Senate that are disabled that come from my minority group.

I think you could make the argument that out of any minority group, we are the most

underrepresented at every single level of government. And then additionally, I think we need more people

in D.C. from places like council bless Iowa with real lived experience, both on the economics

and on the healthcare side. Because when you have lived it firsthand, you'll have a different

level of fight and you'll have a different level of empathy. And that's what we need. We need

folks that are going to go up there and fight for the people and fight for our workers and fight

for the middle class. Fight for the people that can't afford to make political donations or have

a lobbyist. Yeah. It's remarkable. I remember early on, Trump at a rally made fun of a disabled

reporter. It was like a big deal. Yeah, you made fun of this. I used to work in the press office

on the campaign for Obama and then the White House. And he was one of the scariest reporters out

there because he was so good. You know, like this guy was like the heaviest hitter and then Trump's

like belittling him for something. He's the worst person in the world. And it's a decade later,

he's still pulling this shit. We're kind of like a nerd to it. But your point about just the total

lack of empathy in government and the lack of focus on people who he doesn't understand or who

don't have a lobbyist or representation. And the interesting thing is that Iowa actually

has this really proud history of having a fighter named Tom Harkin. It was like the greatest

champion for a lot of communities. Can you just talk about Tom Harkin and sort of what he means

to the state and what he's meant to you? Yeah, for 30 years, we had the amazing opportunity to

have Senator Tom Harkin as our senator from Iowa. He was championing issues like FMLA

to make sure that you've got leave. And certainly he is the father of the American with

Disabilities Act. And you know, it's great because I now have a friendship with him. And

they say never meet your heroes. And he was everything and more. And just an amazing human being.

And this is one of the reasons why I'm also running for this is because

for 30 years in Iowa, we had this amazing opportunity to have something that was really fighting

for the people, fighting for the most vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless,

the poor, children, you know, the schools, a true prairie populist, the same way that I define myself

looking for a livable wage, affordable housing, affordable health care. That's what he was fighting for.

And I think that this is a once in a generation opportunity that we have here in Iowa

to win his seat back. And that we can once again, from Iowa, having someone that's really

fighting for the people. Yeah, I agree. It's once a generation opportunity. Iowa is a huge ag state

and President Trump seems to be doing everything he can to piss off farmers, to make their lives harder,

to destroy their industries in literally decades of work. In some cases, there's tariffs.

There's Trump pitching a $20 billion bailout for Argentina, where a bunch of farmers are growing

soybeans that compete with Iowa farmers. Literally. Now there's this war with Iran that is

preventing fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which is jacking up prices in America

and starving people in Southeast Asia potentially. What is the impact of Trump's policies been on

farmers in your state? And what would you say to a listener who thinks, you know what, you guys

talk about this stuff all the time. You act like economic concerns are what move voters. But then,

you know, you all these farmers will get mad about some segment on Fox News and they'll vote on

some culture thing. It's a real farm crisis. What I'm calling a farm again. Our farmers, we've

now lead the nation in farm foreclosures in Iowa. It is a massive problem. You're looking at

commodities prices being upside down. And that is largely driven because of the tariffs. That's also

because of us giving $20 billion to Argentina so the Chinese can buy their soybeans. Meanwhile,

Iowa soybean farmers just left out there hanging these markets where maybe we'll never come back.

You're absolutely right as well. You're looking at fertilizers. You're looking at now somewhere between

25 and 30 percent of Iowa farmers do not have fertilizer. Meanwhile, we're maybe a month or two away

from planting season. What does that mean for them? Can they plant their crops if they don't

have fertilizer? Me with the yield will be weighed down. The yield would be dramatically different.

I mean, you're already looking at all these folks being upside down. I mean, our farmers have not

made money in a decade. And now their commodities prices are actually upside down. So they are

planting soybeans and they are losing money on that. And this is, and it's not just

exclusive to tariffs, they've been getting beaten up because of consolidation and anti,

you know, we've not done anything to break up the monopolies. We've not done anything on

antitrust. And farmers are hurting and I tell you everywhere that I'm going all across Iowa,

but the place that we are getting the biggest amounts of turnouts of Republicans

is in rural communities. And the word that we hear the most is betrayal. And they say these

folks will say, we turned out we voted for Trump. And now look what you've done. And you go in

these rural communities and they've lost their pharmacies are gone. They've lost their grocery

stores. Their healthcare clinics are closing, particularly in the rural areas. Their schools are

closing. We close 16 schools in the last three years in Iowa, almost all in the rural communities.

And you go down their main streets, it looks like a vacuums come through there. And now we're

leading the nation in farm foreclosures. These are folks that are waking up and saying,

enough is enough, the state in the country needs change. And I think that they're going to be

willing to vote for someone like me, a common sense prairie populist.

The other area where I'm seeing a lot of accusation of betrayal is the maha movement,

the make America healthy again movement, which you know, I think sort of kicked off with vaccines

and vaccine hesitancy, if not outright sort of anti vaccine sentiment. But there's also just like

healthy foods and getting dyes out of foods, right? There's a lot of it that's like,

make sense, common sense. But it seems like a recent Trump decision to give immunity from lawsuits

to companies that make the weed killer roundup has infuriated those voters. I know roundup has

ties to cancer, can cause cancer. And I read somewhere recently that the highest concentration

of roundup is in Iowa. It's correct. It also happens to be part of the cancer belt, which is

sort of the highest concentration of cancer. What is the impact of that ruling on your state?

And like, you know, I was talking to Rob Sand when he was in here and he said, every single town hall

he has some person in their thirties will say, I have cancer, my friend is cancer, my family is

cancer. And like it didn't used to be that way. That is correct. Yeah. Iowa, we're the only state

with a growing cancer rate. We have the second highest rates of cancer behind Kentucky and we are

quickly catching Kentucky. This is an issue that I actually think day by day is growing in terms of

there's not a single town hall that I have done where I haven't heard this issue about addressing

the cancer rates and addressing the water quality issues. And it is, it's there is a direct correlation

to what we're seeing with the nitrate levels, with the pesticide levels that is leading

unquestionably to the cancer rates. And certainly, this is an issue that has touched my life

personally. I lost my grandma to pancreatic cancer. My father, because of exposure to aging orange,

he's dealt with several bouts of cancer. And nearly the day that I launched my campaign,

my sister got diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. And she just underwent a double mastectomy

about two weeks ago to tell you how broken the health care system is. She has private insurance

and her private insurance came in and basically said, you don't have enough cancer. They said

because you, yeah, they said because you only have stage two breast cancer, not stage three or

stage four, we will not cover the PET scan to see if the cancer spread to other parts of your body.

That's insane. So we did not know if the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes or any other place

until she went under the knife. I mean, this is what is so fundamentally wrong with the health

care system is your maximizing profits just for the off the backs and most vulnerable. But absolutely,

this addressing the cancer rate and addressing the root cause, which is the lack of regulations in

place on what we're seeing with the nitrate levels. And there's some common sense things that we

can do that the farmers are in favor of doing. We don't have to go over to the farmers. We can put

a lot of incentives in place. We could put incentives so that they don't put down fertilizer in the

fall and in the in the winter. We can put down incentives so that they put down cover crops or

they have lamb barriers like many other states do. Or we can at least have an EPA that's well-funded

and with some enforcement's mechanisms in place and maybe droplets allowable with nitrate

levels. But it's certainly something that is resonating with all islands regardless of where they

sit on the political spectrum. Yeah, I think it's a it crosses across all families are dealing,

you know, crisis of someone. And I went retired of us just looking out for large corporations

and billionaires. Well, in giving this chemical company, I think I got a national security exemption

because some version of Roundup is used as like with like white phosphate or something

some military use. It's insane. Yeah, it's awful. Anyway, so you're in a democratic party primary.

I realize you are probably Iowa nice, but ultimately like voters are going to have to hear why

you're better at the job than Zach Walsh would be. What's the pitch? And why do you think you're more

likely to win in November? I will be Iowa nice and I won't say anything disparaging about my

primary opponent, but I will I will say this first and foremost, I think this comes down to

electability. I represent the reddest district that is represented by a Democrat that was won

on election day. The two communities that I represent Carter Lake, Trump won by 18 points

in my hometown of council bus, Trump won by 10 points. And I was able to win my district by

nearly six points. That is 50% more over performance than any other Democrat in the state.

My opponent comes from a Harris plus 37 has never even run against Republican. So I know

that I have proven results of being able to resonate with the 35% of the voters that are

independent and also with moderate Republicans, even though I was so far down ballot, I actually got

more raw votes than Kamala Harris did. I know that there's something specific about my story,

my background, my resume that really resonates with independence and with moderate Republicans.

And I know that especially my story, the hard work of focusing on the economic populism,

that's going to resonate with a lot of people in rural communities and with farmers. Second,

I would say that it's meaningful and important that the people that have left the race,

like JD Shulton and Nathan Sage, the people that know us best that we're out there on the campaign

trail with us, have endorsed me. I also think that it's really important that I've got far more

endorsements of the people that work up at the Iowa Capitol with me and with Zach. They know

us the best. I've gotten by far the most amount of endorsements there. I think that that means a lot

to me and raised the most money since I've been in the race. And then I also think that there is

an authenticity and a credibility that I think really, really resonates. I come from a working class

family, a working class community. I'm the only one in this race. It's not a millionaire.

And I think that that's what I ones are looking for. They're looking for someone that's genuine

that is not doing this for the position, for the money, for the fame, but is really doing this

because we need people in DC, not from wealth, not from privilege, but are really going up there

to do like what Senator Harkin did and fight for the people of Iowans and fight for small businesses

and fight for small family farms and fight for social and economic justice and fight for social

safety nets that are being eroded. These social safety nets like Medicare and Medicaid

and Social Security are going to go up there and fight for people's health care in a livable

wage because my state is really, really struggling, like no other state, dead last for economic growth.

Yeah. So right now the attention is on like Texas and some of the other states. Do we want to,

do we want to keep it that way? Do you want people to pay more attention to Iowa? Do you like

that the national media is focused elsewhere and you can kind of just run your own race,

focused on Iowations? You know, I don't want this to be siloed. I don't want this to be about,

I want to get to the US Senate and to heck with everybody else. And so I like the attention being

on Iowa and my message to your viewers would be the very best place to invest this year is in Iowa.

Iowa, I understand that people on the coast will say Iowa is a red state, but we are not. We

are a common sense state that has masqueraded more red than what we are. 30 years we voted for

Senator Harkin. We're state that has voted twice for Obama three times for Trump. We have more Obama

Trump counties than any other state in the Union. But in much more recent history, Trump's last midterm

we won three of the four congressional races. We almost won all four three points away. Yeah.

And in the last midterm that we had, we were 1.5% away from having three of our six state

white officials being Democrats. That means your average Iowa voter went and voted for three

Dems, three Rs. We also are a state that has bottomed out. And sometimes I think you have to bottom

out as a state like Kansas did before people are willing to go a different direction. But we are

dead last for economic growth. We're 48th for personal income growth. We're one of two states

already in an economic decline. We're basically dead last for every single health care metric closing

health care facilities all over the state. We lead the nation in cancer rates and now we lead

the nation in foreign foreclosures. We have bottomed out and then we have no power of

income. Let's see, this is the first time since 1968, open governor's race and open Senate race

and two open congressional races. Iowa is going to be the center of the political universe.

This is a state that we can legitimately see flipping three congressional races. We can win

this open governor's race and we can win this open Senate race. I mean, we had an independent poll

that came out the show myself and Ashley Henson tied. So that's why I want the national attention

in that regard of this isn't just about me. This is about we in Iowa have this once in a generation

opportunity where if we go and we're organized and we're coordinated, we not only have the opportunity

to change our cities or change our communities, you know, change our counties, we can fundamentally

change the state. The amazing opportunity we've got in Iowa is if we're able to flip these three

congressional races, we flip Congress. But then the amazing opportunity which people would have

said was blasphemous to talk about a year ago, which is you need four states to flip the Senate.

Maybe North Carolina, maybe Maine, that looks really good. Ohio looks very good with shared

brown, but seat number 51 in the U.S. Senate majority control. I believe it's Iowa and we can

win this and we can win it with a candidate like me. I think I think we should be investing a lot

of money in time in Iowa. Hey, Mitt, if voters want to, if they like what they're hearing and they want

to help you out, where do they go? Yeah, they go to my website, TURICTUR-EK, the number four,

Iowa, Turk for Iowa dot com. We are not taking any corporate pack money. We were relying off of individual donors

and so if people all around the country hear this, please support. We really can. We can win this race

and we can not only change the state of Iowa. We can change this country and we can once again have

in the U.S. Senate someone from Iowa that is fighting for the people like we did for so long with my

political hero, Senator Tom Harkin. We can do it folks. Well, Josh, great to meet you. Thank you for

having me. That's the luck of the campaign. That's our show for today. Thanks to Josh Turk for

coming on. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday. If you want to listen to Podsave

America, add free and get access to exclusive podcasts. Go to Cricket.com slash friends to

subscribe on supercast, substack, YouTube or Apple podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a

review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Podsave America is a

Cricket Media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari.

Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reed Churland is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our

head of news and politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our

sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglund and Charlotte Landis. Matt DeGroat is our

head of production Naomi Sengal is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team,

Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Heffkoat, Mia Kelman, Carol Pellavi, David Tolls, and Ryan Young.

Our production staff is proudly unionized with the writer's Guild of America, Beast.

Hey, Lover, leave it listeners. It's me, the titular John Lover. Here to tell you that I'm coming

back to Washington DC for Lover, leave it live at the Lincoln Theater on April 23rd. That's right,

Spring and DC is all about cherry blossoms and Lover, leave it bringing you a stack lineup of

guests. That's what makes it America's number one late night gay live comedy political podcast.

We're so excited to be back to DC. It's a tradition now that we come around the time of the

car response and or even though the car response in a really no longer has comedians,

I believe there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind-milder. Yes, a magician.

Yeah, I'm a mentalist. A mentalist, because I guess Trump wouldn't know. It's also going. Yeah,

yeah, that's right there. Yeah, there's a mental case and then and Trump is also going.

That's what it is. Tickets won't last long. They're selling pretty fast. So get yours now while

you still can at crooked.com slash events. Very excited for the DC show. Got some big guests.

Pretty exciting, maybe.

crooked.com slash events.