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It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. hey everybody it's tim miller from the bulwark here last night late night i had mayor slayer pete budajay john uh after our state of the union live stream was deep into live stream hours in so we wanted to pull it out here for folks who missed it who decided not to suffer through the trump speech um i got to ask about a bunch of different stuff take questions from you guys so i'm looking down uh and getting uh feedback from our listeners which we really appreciated subscribe to the feed in the future if you want me to be pulling out your subscriber questions so pete had a bunch to say it was pete it's classic pete so stick around for that subscribe we'll see you soon my main question you you sat there you witnessed history i don't know if you know this uh this is the longest state of the union on record in the history of the republic there's never been a longer state of the union why did you watch it that's a great question i guess you know, I can't say that I watched it hoping that I would learn something. I guess I watched it because I'd promised to talk about it on television afterwards. Let me say this. I think the reason a lot of real people watch the State of the Union is they want to know what it's going to mean to them, right? You imagine, you know, I just caught up after bedtime with Chastin. He's putting the kids down at home right now, or, you know, he put them down and then he follows along. A lot of people around the country are doing that. You get done with dinner, you put your kids to bed, And then you tune in to see if your president can tell you how he's going to make your life better, especially because this president has made your life worse. Right. A year ago, he was promising the costs were going to go down. He has directly driven them up. And it would have been nice to hear some indication of what he was going to do differently this time in order to have different results. But obviously, that's not what happened. But I think a lot of people around America, if they were hoping to get some indication of how their everyday lives were going to be better, then they're going to be disappointed. because at most they heard the same empty promises that were used to from this president. And, you know, don't take this wrong way. I don't want to minimize you, but I feel like you can relate to the average American. You're kind of an unemployed American now. And so if you didn't have to be on TV or with me after, I feel like you kind of would have turned it off, right? I mean, like it was extremely boring. You know, great job for AI is to ask it to summarize it for you so you can read it in the morning, right? I mean, we heard some big news on AI that we are going to have a state managed economy now where Trump is going to demand that the Trump and the tech orgs have a deal and they're going to make sure to pay for the data centers. And if they don't, Trump's going to come out to them. I mean, look, I think the companies should be doing whatever they got to do to make sure that their data centers don't add to the price. We're all paying for electricity. A lot of different ways to make sure that happens. But again, the point is right now we're paying more for electricity. The president painted this picture that made it sound like the opposite, but we're paying more. Part of why we're paying more is the tariffs have increased the prices of the things that are needed to maintain utility grids. Part of it is that he's killing clean energy projects around the country. So, you know, look, it's not unusual. Everybody knows the president is loose with the truth. Everybody kind of braces for a lot of falsehoods. But in particular tonight, I think what's really striking is, you know, we're a year in. I mean, we're now substantially into the second year. All these things he said were gonna get better are getting worse. And it's time for Democrats to come in with a different message. Not just the message that everybody expects to hear from us, which is that this president is making you worse off, but here's what we could do differently, right? Now's a great open, I'm glad the governor, for example, mentioned things like childcare. I don think the president said a thing about childcare but I was just in New Hampshire had a set of conversations at the YMCA childcare facility there about the shocking percentage of people income that so many people are paying now in order to get childcare. We can talk about that. We can talk about what we're doing to boost wages. We can talk about what we're doing to make everyday life a little bit easier, healthcare, obviously. These are the kinds of things that I think somebody, whether they're tuning into a state of the union or just subjecting themselves to political coverage in general, most want to see is what's this going to do to make me better off? Yeah, I wonder what you think about how Democrats can effectuate that change in the future and like what the tactics are. Here's something that happened this week. As an example, Susan Rice, who was with you in the Biden administration, I created a stir because she was basically like, look, saying to corporations, hey, you're sucking up to Trump now. You're doing some of these deals now that are off the books, right? That aren't how business as usual works. And if you act inappropriately, will come for you next time. So be careful. Do you think that is the right approach? Or do you think the right approach, you know, would be to try to get back to say, no, we're going to get back to business as usual. You're not going to get bullied by the White House again. I mean, look, we should make it clear that we're not going to behave. We would never behave the way this White House is. I do think there's a message, though, that needs to go out to these institutions that have not exactly been covering themselves in glory. You know, the companies that have folded, the law firms that folded, the universities that tried to play ball. And it's really just about what's in your own interest, not because we're out to come and beat you up, but just because of what happens when you fold these guys, which is, of course, they always come back for another pound of flesh. What we've seen from the handful of institutions that have stood up is they can get him to back off. Same as, you know, I think the lesson of the Indiana Senate Republicans, which is not a group I definitely at the beginning of last year would never have guessed that that would be one of the groups I would draw inspiration from or point to as an example. But you look at what they did in defying the president's demands on gerrymandering. 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The president didn't talk much about affordability, kind of mocks the idea of affordability. um abigail spainberger uh did in the response i wonder what your take uh your take is on this as you know somebody who's who's renowned as a communicator i i feel a little bit nervous that sometimes the democrats message on affordability feels a little stale but it's like this is this magic amulet that you say like say i'm gonna make things more affordable and now that's great that's a good message because trump's made things less affordable but like it gets more complicated than that And you know that might work for November and this year but like going forward how do you think Democrats can talk about that issue in contrast with Trump in a way that like credible and connects with people Yeah I mean the comparatively easy part is pointing out how he made things more unaffordable, right? So we can and should do that. We are doing that, whether it's the increase in healthcare premiums because of the Republicans' actions or things costing more at the store, all of that. That's kind of table stakes. But I do think it would be a terrible mistake if we do well in 26 and miss the bigger message, miss the bigger push, which is we need to paint a picture of how this country can be an easier place to live in. Yes, more affordable and also where your hopes and dreams as an American are likely to be fulfilled, the hope of owning a home. By the way, the hope of owning a home before you're 40, which is now the median age of a first-time home buyer. The hope of being able to start a family. It used to be in the 20s and now it's 40. The hope of being able to start a family, which so many people say is their, and young people say is their most important hope in life. And, you know, obviously conservatives are known for talking more about family. Now's a moment for Democrats to say, the biggest thing we can do to be pro-family, pro-your family, is to have policies that'll make it easier for you to start a family and afford it. That's childcare for sure. That's things like paid family leave. It's also things like making sure we invest in pre-k, invest in schools. Didn't hear a whole lot about public education from the president tonight either, obviously. Making sure that we're- Didn't hear anything about ICE. Can you believe that? He didn't talk about ICE. He talked about the immigrant deaths and stuff, but his mass deportation program, he didn't talk about. Right. I mean, because the American people have already turned on him on it, I think. Yeah. So he did his usual work to try to demonize all immigrants. But he did do one thing, which is interesting. It was a lie, of course, but he claimed that he was supporting legal immigration while closing on illegal immigration. That's what most Americans want to see, right? The important thing, of course, is not only have they gone way, way, way over the top in shutting down illegal immigration and brutalizing undocumented immigrants, but they've also made it basically impossible to be here the right way, whether it's through asylum, refugee process, or just normal, the normal quotas that I think all of us need to be trued up because until we do that, there's this huge yawning gap between the level of immigration our law allows and the level of immigration our economy requires. I think an adult conversation about that would be welcome. But it's interesting that he kind of, again, is a lie, but it's interesting that he gestured toward that and claimed that was what he was doing. You know, look, I think he's aware of his vulnerabilities on that. And I think he's also, you know, he's kind of aware of the vulnerabilities on corruption too. So obviously telling his story about fraud, that's the closest he came to acknowledging what's happening in Minnesota. He pardoned Chris Collins for insider trading, but he does want a law banning insider trading. That's an interesting, you know. Yeah, I mean, J.D. Vance is going to have a lot of work to do if he's going to be the new fraud czar, right? I mean, first of all, he's got to figure out how these guys are getting pardons from the White House, the well-known fraudsters. You might have to look into the billion or two or three or whatever it is that the Trump family has made. I mean, I suppose, you know, one charitable way to look at this is, you know, given the fraud convictions of the Trump organization, Trump figured out that he should outsource the investigation of fraud to somebody else in the administration. But I'm a little worried about what's in store for J.D. Vance if he takes that mandate seriously. a couple listener questions really quick but first i mentioned earlier that you know it's important democrats try to connect with the average american gavin newsom this week uh was such they made up such fucking lies about him they had some bullshit up about how uh when he was saying that you know he's just like everybody else because he got a 960 on the sat and that made me wonder what you got on the sat oh god nothing you have 1580 i don't even who's good i don't remember exactly you can't remember your sat score no is that true yeah i have to really think about it okay we're gonna start um yeah and that whole thing as you know like these uh i don know there there always a kind of a fresh drama of the day but uh you know i i A lot of people I met actually in politics and outside of politics who have found a way through not just hard work but like really original structuring of their thinking to turn dyslexia from a disadvantage into something that actually part of how they been empowered to think differently So I was moved by his story about how he did that. maybe it didn't come out right on in one or in a particular format but look as part of somebody's life story i got nothing but respect especially in a field as like verbal uh right and as full of words as politics um anybody who maneuvers through that and and becomes a very effective politician has a ton of respect for me yeah classic story like a fake outrage thing that actually draws attention to something that humanizes them so i think kind of a backfire there. Okay, really quick. I'll let you go. The listener questions. This is an important one from C. King. What is a realistic path for the Congress to end the president declaring war without congressional authorization? That's happening all over the place now. I don't believe that the 2002 Iraq AUMF qualifies for Iran in Venezuela. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm wondering what you think about that. Great question. I mean, it's kind of a meta question, right? Because it's how can Congress enforce its own enforcement, for lack of a better way to put it. I mean, look, I think the bottom line here is that Congress, which is led by Republicans, needs to decide whether it's actually prepared to constrain the president, which means not only saying or passing resolutions, but actually dropping the cover that they run for him if he is not complying with the law. There's only two, we got three branches, right? So there's only two other ones to look at. One of them is the courts, and the other one is the Congress, each one pretty rickety in terms of its capability for checks and balances. But the other thing to remember is that if one or both of those branches fail, the ultimate backstop actually is the people. And every time he backs down on matters big and small, whether it was on the original version of the tariffs last year or whether it's on my mind, just because I was in New Hampshire where he just backed down on placing this big ICE detention facility because people stood up. When people stand up in a way that you just cannot ignore and cannot shout down, I think for the big picture stuff, if Congress fails us and the courts fail us, that's actually the ultimate backstop that we have. Last one from Michael Elder. Will Democrats be ready immediately to make policy the course correct when we retake the government? I like that. What would be the first thing that you'd want Democrats to do? And would it be bulldozing the new East Wing ballroom? So we got to learn from them, right? They broke lots of things at once. We should be ready to build lots of things at once. And so look, in the past, it was like, okay, what should our one priority be? Then we'll move on to the next priority. We're not going to have time for that. We got to do major structural and institutional reform, get it underway on all the unsexy but super important stuff like tackling money in politics, dealing with making Congress more representative, less corrupt, and at the same time, take the big policy swings and show people that we're working for them by actually delivering better health care and more affordable child care and all of the things that we care about as Democrats. I think it's going to be really important. There's not a lot I want to emulate out of this White House, but one thing they definitely do is lots of things at once. Aim big and do lots of things at once. We should be prepared to do the exact same in different ways. Yeah, sure. You can actually do things. All right, Thank you for staying up. Sorry for the technical difficulties. All good. Secretary Mayer, Slayer, Father, Pete Buttigieg. We'll be talking to you soon. All right, brother? Take care. Thanks. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side.
