George Conway & Howard Polskin

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Then we'll talk to the writings Howard Polskine about the splintering of the MAGA movement as they turn on President Trump. But first the news. So Molly, last we talked, it was looking like Congress was going to expel four members. We now have two members that are leaving their seats. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez will be retiring. What do you see in here? You know, Eric Swalwell, I have been friends of them. I have had him on my podcast. I am horrified. I am just horrified. These are not anything. And I, you know, I'm very friendly with his wife, who is just a really wonderful person and who is really going through it right now. And so I just want to say that it's just so incredibly crappy when powerful men do terrible things. So we don't know the extent of it. There was a woman who came forward today who alleges some really terrible stuff, including rape and, you know, really attempted murder. I mean, if these allegations are true, it's pretty terrible. So and we know there are more women and we know this is just going to be a fire hose. So look, I am so pleased that he resigned right away. I know that he may have done that, that this may have been a sort of broker deal to get to get rid of both him and Gonzalez in the same sweep. And I know that when they resign like this, it means they get to keep their pensions and if they get expelled, they don't. So it's not happening just out of the goodness of anyone's heart. But I'm really proud that Democrats are knowing that this is the right thing and are not trying to be like just because Trump, because Trump is a genuinely bad person who is at least alleged and adjudicated, at least to the civil court, as having done some really terrible sexual stuff. But I'm really happy to see that Democrats are not trying to have a race to the bottom with Trump and they're just able to let this candidate go. So look, I think everyone is very disappointed in the person who our ex-wife will turn out to be. I do want to say that he has these children and I hope that things work out for his wife and that she ends up being OK because it's really none of her fault. And we see so often that there are women who are married to men who turn out to be not what they thought. And so I think the most feminist thing any of us can do here is just support her and her children and all of that. So I'm really glad to get to talk about this. And I'm glad Democrats are taking this very seriously. So an interesting news. Virginia has joined the effort to ensure that whoever wins the popular vote becomes president. And since more we keep hearing about that woke centerist Abigail Spanberger. And so this is like a great thing. And we've done a lot on this, by the way. We've done a lot on this national popular vote. So the idea is if you win the popular vote, you win the presidency. There are any number of reasons why this should happen. But the biggest is that it's an democracy and if the person who wins the most votes should win and it means that everybody's vote counts, right? It means that just because you live in California, it doesn't mean your vote gets thrown out just because you live in a state with a lot of people, a lot of Democrats doesn't mean your vote gets kicked out. And it also means that our elections are not decided by West Virginia or by a state that's not very populist. I think ultimately it's better for everyone to have a vote like this, to have it work like this. So it's very cool. It's very cool. Again, Republicans are really angry at Abigail Spanberger for many different reasons, all of which are completely about she's effective and that is making them completely crazy. I mean, it's a real lesson that you cannot make these people happy and you just have to do what is the smart thing and a national vote that is by popular vote as opposed to an electoral college is just head and shoulders a better way to do voting. Yeah. So I've been having a thought that I was curious what you thought about. When we get excited about people like Pam Bondi getting fired, we like it because it's a wound to the armor of the Trump administration. But one of the things that keeps striking me is the people who consistently replace people in the Trump administration usually as a step down and Todd Blanche with this quote that Americans should be happy. Trump is deeply involved in the DOJ is striking me as even below Pam Bondi. Look, Todd Blanche, Justice, Jeanine Box of Wine, Piro and all sorts of others. We see a lot of these really sort of craving characters from season one of Trump messes up our democracy are now all competing to be the head of the DOJ. A few thoughts here. One is Todd Blanche is spin the most pathetic. He has done these like I love you, Mr. Trump, and even if you don't pick me, I will still love you. So we gave this interview to NBC News where he said that he is not concerned that Trump encourages or directs or expects the Department of Justice to do its job. Donald Trump, in fact, orders them to pursue his enemies. This is like exactly what the Department of Justice is not supposed to be doing is pursuing Donald Trump's enemies. It's just such a stupid. I mean, look, it's absolutely stupid. It's also just not how it's supposed to work. And again, we talk so much on this podcast about what norms look like. And what Donald Trump has done here is he's careened through yet another democratic norm, created a just a very stupid reality where you have a DOJ that's just completely weaponized. It's basically an arm of Donald Trump's campaign. And again, it's someday when these guys lose by huge margins, we're going to have to fix this shit and it's not going to be easy. Yeah, I just hope there's no karaoke machine in the White House because I could really see him doing a version of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You that really brings us to tears. Tears of rage. Yes, yes. OK, so this is an interesting trend. So one of the things Democrats are thinking about to get people out to vote just as abortion has helped marijuana legislation in the past. One of the trends we're starting to see is that data centers are really working. So we see a really hate. Yeah, we see a Missouri town fire, half its city council over a data center deal. Wisconsin two weeks ago passed the nation's first anti-data center referendum. And a lot of people are starting to see that this is a trend. The Working Families Party is recruiting anti-data center candidates. Pretty interesting. Yes, sign me up for anti-data center candidates. I hate data centers. They are the fucking worst. And look, when I went to Arizona earlier this month, I saw that there were Arizona. Basically, voters have been at war with their data centers. Like they have tax incentives for data centers. Like the Republican electives have really made life as good as possible for data centers in a completely stupid way. So look, this is a good issue. And like, here's the thing about data centers. Yes, there are construction jobs to build them. But once they're built, it's not a lot of jobs to keep them running. So, you know, instead of building like a school or a hospital or a something that someone could work in, there aren't that many jobs and there aren't that many benefits, uses a lot of electricity. Sometimes people who are neighbors end up having to pay for that electricity. They also use a ton of water. So in a place like Arizona, it doesn't work. The math doesn't math. So you have a place like Arizona with like a very, you know, they're in the middle of this hundred year flood and the data center, you know, they're building data centers, which are going to use their water. So this is all to say that being anti data center is good. And by the way, the way we build data centers, and by the way, they're shmongest, too, they take up acres and acres and acres. There are ways to build them where they're greener. I mean, I don't like them any which way. But like I think that making sure they have their own power sources that you don't end up paying for their power, like this is the kind of stuff that we need to be thoughtful about. I mean, so much of American building is sort of like troubleshooting problems after they've already happened. And it just makes me really upset that we can't. This is like a really good issue. People hate it. A great example here is in this city of 12,000 people along Mississippi. That's an hour south, half hour south of St. Louis. They have such a backlash against data centers, which by the way, are like gonna are going to put everybody out of jobs that they have people just like running on an anti data center platform. That's I think quite cool. So it is a dystopia, but it's a dystopia with a little bit of human pushback. And we like that. Eddington was a documentary. Eddington was a documentary. I've been doing a little spring reset with my closet lately, focusing more on quality over quantity. I'm just building a wardrobe of pieces that are well made, versatile and easy to reach for every day. That's why I keep coming back to Quints. The fabrics feel elevated. The fits are thoughtful and the pricing actually makes sense. Quints makes beautiful everyday pieces using premium materials like 100% European linen, organic cotton and super soft denim with styles starting at around $50, their spring pieces are lightweight, breathable and effortless. 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Paycore's intelligent HR solution empowers leaders to turn down the pressure. Their unified platform includes payroll, talent management, compliant software and a lot more connecting you to the people, data and expertise you need to drive long term business results. Visit paycore.com slash leaders and go from work flood to workflow. That's paycore.com slash leaders. Every business has an ambition. PayPal Open is the platform designed to help you grow into yours with access to business loans so you can expand and hundreds of millions of PayPal customers worldwide. Your customers can pay all the ways they want today with PayPal, Venmo, PayLater and all major cards so you can focus on the future. When you need a partner trusted by millions, there's one platform for all business. PayPal Open. Grow today at paypalopen.com. Loan subject to approval and available locations. George Conway is a candidate in the Democratic primary for New York's 12th congressional district. George Conway. Molly Chong Fass. Fancy meeting you here. Are you in a box? I am in a little MSNBC pop punks. I want to ask you out. No, I live here now. I want to ask you a question, George Conway. Be a purse. I want to start by talking about Donald Trump versus the Pope. So the Pope says peace is good. Donald Trump basically gets offended because he's like, how dare you say peace is good? That is obviously an insult to me. And then Donald Trump basically goes to me more with the Pope. Yeah, you know, it's surprising that the ostensible winner or the person who would award himself the Nobel Peace Prize would criticize. Hope for advocating peace. I just want to let that irony sit there for a moment. That's one of the many ironies. That was a brand he was experimenting with earlier in his presidency. So we're no longer the president of peace. We've decided to become the president of Iowa and I'll a whole civilizations. Yeah, all makes very sense. Very much sense. That makes a lot of sense. I think the FIFA people are going to want that peace prize back. I soccer. The FIFA Peace Prize. Yeah, they made up for him. Yeah, I would get I would ask for that back. Yes, yes. And then he will he will tweet at them. He will go to war with FIFA. Yeah, but it's hard. If you've got a war with FIFA, it's hard because they're like every country. So you have to basically declare war against the entire world and blow them all the soccer stadiums. I don't know if that's feasible. I mean, I don't think you should give him any ideas. So yeah, I would. Yes, I am not in charge of giving Donald Trump ideas. That's not my job. I agree. So so you are actually a real Catholic. You are. Yeah, you're a real Catholic. We've grew up. I mean, I'm you know, I'm baptized a Catholic confirmed a Catholic. You know, am I am I the Pope? No, by no means. Am I but you know, am I a parish priest? No. No, but you have a serious relationship to the Catholic Church. More and I love you to talk about a little above average. I don't I don't want to overstay. But you grew up in the Catholic Church. That's fair. Yes. Yeah, I attend one year Catholic school and the nun pulled my tooth out once. That's yeah, that's kind of a rite of passage. I was complaining about a toothache in first grade. Yes, see, there you go. But anyway, the point of the story is Donald Trump not really a Catholic. Discuss, discuss, you know, he's not really a Christian of any sort because he is is and represents and does everything we tell our children not to do to be selfish, to have a lack of empathy, to hurt other people without remorse, to steal, to lie, to rape. He's he's a bad man. So it really isn't surprising that he has a problem with the Pope. He would have a problem with Moses, with those 10 rules, those silly rules on the tablet. Those rules are directed at him. It's so unfair. So JD Vance is a Catholic convert, right? Correct. OK. Yeah, I mean, he he's so untold. He has a book coming out about Catholicism. He has is that the book with the with the with like the Presbyterian Church on the cover? Yes. Yes, it is not super, not a ton of attention to detail here. But JD Vance is also he's had a pretty bad weekend. Like end of the week, he went to Hungary to help Victor Orban lose by a pretty incredible margin. And then he went to Iran where he was unable to do anything. Yes, he didn't go to Iran. He went to Pakistan. He went to Pakistan to negotiate with the Iranians, but he's negotiating basically with no cards because he has no cards because Donald Trump threw them in a giant fire. And we have no cards left because basically it used to be once upon a time, the Iranians would comply with some of our requests at great after a growing amount of effort, because, for example, we could bomb the shit out of. Yes. So we could bomb the shit out of we could oppose sanctions on. So that's how we ended up with their commitment in the JCPOA, not to enrich Iranians. Trump tears that up. What's the sanctions back in place? So if you're the Iranians, what you're thinking, well, we're getting the sanctions anyway. So why not enrich the Iranian? And so they do. And then the other thing that they've never done is interfere with navigation in, you know, in the straightest straight of the warm use. Straight of the word is 20 20 percent of the world's oil. I mean, it was never in 20 percent of. Yeah. And it was a third of the world's fertilizer or fifth of the world's fertilizer. It's bad. It's very bad. And they never did that because they knew that, you know, we would bomb the shit out of them. They ever did that. And it's not really in their interest because oil, they don't they need to sell oil to. But we bomb them anyway. Right. So what are we? And then they would stood the bombing. You know, we took out an Iotola and replaced an old Iotola with a new Iotola. Younger and more energetic and many other and angry areas. And yeah. And there are lots of Iotolas left. So. What are we going to do to them now that they would stood the thing that they we threatened or they always didn't want us to do and wanted to avoid if we'd done that now? What leverage do we have over them now? Yeah. No. None. So J.D. Vance is the perfect person to send to this negotiation because you don't want to send. Yeah. He's doomed to fail and he's the perfect sucker to go and do this. Yeah. Is Donald Trump's vice president the worst job in American politics? I mean, any job for Donald Trump is the worst job in American politics. Certainly, you wouldn't want to be, for example, to pick something that somebody may have to do. But his attorney general, because you absolutely cannot. At least with vice president, you don't really have a job. So if you can kind of stick to not having to do anything, it's probably could very easily be the best job in the Trump administration. Problem with some other jobs is that you're actually responsible for stuff and you can blame you for it. But now he seems to be putting all of this on Vance. So Vance will take the blame if the best deal the US can get is essentially capitulation to the Iranians. So that maybe I don't know why he chose Vance over over little Marco. I really don't. It's precious. It's precious weird that the Cypriot area of state is not conducting these negotiations. It is a little bit weird, right? Yeah. Yeah. Why do you think it is? I don't know. I have no idea. I really don't. I would love you to talk about, you know, we're seeing this little wave building up from all of the different ways. The Cook Political Report moved a bunch of Senate seats. From, you know, toss up to Lean Dem or from Lean R to toss up Ohio, Sherrod Brown, North Carolina, a lot of movement in the Senate map. What do you think is going on here and what do Republicans do with those? They can't do much. They are basically being lit up by Donald Trump. I mean, remember last year they couldn't go and have town halls. They stopped to stop doing that. This year, some of them are bothering to run for reelection. And finally, we're seeing some serious cracks on the right among right wing influences who are basically not had it with Donald Trump. They're basically saying he's crazy. They're basically saying we should, we should be removed under the 25th Amendment. And so things are not going well for the Republicans. And they're stuck between a rock and a hard place because if they criticize Trump, there are still plenty of fanatics who like him. But if they stick with Trump, well, then they lose a lot of people who Trump is right now losing. And I mean, it's finally all of it's finally coming home to roost. And I explain this on MSNBC on Saturday morning. The problem with Donald Trump for these people is they kind of think Donald Trump is a moron, an idiot, a lunatic. I mean, he understands all of that in some at some level. And so he creates his own reality to pretend like he's competent. And that is the reality, the fake reality that he's conducted his whole life. He's a great businessman. When in fact, you know, he bankrupted any number of companies and he kept himself going because his father created this cash cow of a part of the buildings out in Queens. And so he's created his own reality. And that was useful to people on the right because Trump hated the same people. A professed to hate the same people they hated. It was a way of owning the Libs because the liberals got so upset at Trump. And Trump stood up to some extent against things that they didn't like. At least they thought he did. The problem is that, you know, having this left brain that is connected with reality and this right brain that has to adopt this fapeness, I mean, it creates this cognitive dissonance is what psychologists call it. And that creates a lot of stress on the mind and on the emotions. And now that he is actually doing some things that are completely insane, that even they can't rationalize and in fact, that they particularly dislike like this war, right? Cognitive dissonance is becoming too strong for them. And also, he's become less useful to them. Right. So now people are kind of cutting and letting loose on him. And that's happening with the Megan Kelly's and the Joe Rogans and Hucker Carlson's. We're seeing a lot of that, MTG. And we're seeing a lot of the influencer types, the formerly true red magas, basically attack him. And now you still see polls. He's going down in the polls as the less the less committed people who voted for him are basically done with him, especially the Hispanics that he won over very briefly. Yeah. And then you still have some people who are going to say there for Trump when a pollster calls because that's just their habit. It's there. It's been their habitual way of identifying those themselves for the last several years, but deep down, they're very, very upset. And I know somebody whose mother was saying that she was very, very depressed and the mother was a was a pro Trump person, but she wouldn't tell her child what exactly she was upset about. And it's like that Saturday night live skit with the mom who's basically saying, I now realize I made a mistake. Yeah. And and so we're seeing basically the collapse of Trump and the collapse of Maga Republicanism. It's happening at an accelerating pace. It's something that I would have thought should have happened five years ago, if not seven years ago. But it's finally happening. And I think it has a lot of ramifications. One is there is going to be a blue tsunami this year. Because I don't think Trump is going to turn this around. I think he's so disconnected with reality. He's he's so far gone mentally. Not that he was ever there, but he's now basically he's basically forsaken reality. He's not listening to anybody who's people who are trying to tell him like he's he's ruining ruining the world for his Republican friends. So I think we're going to see a blue tsunami. And the other thing that I think is and this is, you know, the thrust of my campaign, which is we have to get rid of this guy. We have to impeach and remove him. And it's not separate from all the issues that we need to address on, you know, on an economic level for people here in this district and elsewhere. Because we can't accomplish any of that until he's gone, until this criminal regime that only in his best interest instead of the interest of the people that spends money on ice instead of on health care. We have to get rid of him and we're not going to survive 33 more months of what we've seen in the past 15. Yeah. And one response to that whenever it has been, well, they're never going to remove him. The Senate is never going to do that. We've been through this twice, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This time is going to be different because they're done with him. They have really, really done with him and they're going to be even more done with him in a few months. And the fear calculus of the cowardly Republicans who have been shamefully forsaking their duty to the country and the oaths of office to to tout out to Trump, even though he trannels on the authority of Congress and violates the law left and right and commits high crimes and misdemeanors. The fear calculus for these cowards is going to run the other way. And so as I watch this, I really do think the conditions are there or a political democratic renaissance that involves the impeachment and removal of this criminal. Now, if there were a presidential election this year or next, that would do it too. And we would have a situation like we saw this weekend in Hungary, where it finally became a mud jar, one this election by going out to the countryside and explaining to people how the criminality and the corruption was hurting them personally and economically, which is exactly what is happening in the United States. But we do not have an election until 2028. And we cannot. I don't know if the world can survive the damage that this one psychopath has done to the world economy, what he's done to our democracy, what he's done in the last 15 months. So I is going to get somewhat worse before it gets better. But I think we are going to be able to rid ourselves of this evil man sooner rather than later. I think sometime in 2027, we will be done with him. I'm becoming increasingly optimistic about that. That being said, it's going to be a tough year to a year and a half. And putting back together, Humpty Dumpty, that Donald Trump kicked off the wall, you know, that everything from the Justice Department to the economy and to our politics, our broken politics. Oh, right. I mean, everything USA. Yeah, is USA. You name it. The damage has been substantial. It is going to and it's going to take years to fully recover. But I think people I think we're going to be. I think we're going to make it. But I think we're going to have a difficult year. And I think people have to be determined. They have to get out to vote. They have to get other people out to vote. They have to get out on the streets. And they basically have to exercise their civic duties and responsibilities to defend our democracy like ever before, because this is the moment of truth. Because he's going to get, you know, and he's crazier than ever and he's going to get more dangerous than ever. We saw that with his threats to destroy a whole civilization. We see that he's already planning to do things to affect the 2026 midterms. It's going to get worse before it gets better. But we can see the signs that his base, he's destroying his own base. He's destroying his own credibility. He's destroying his own power. And even though that means he's more dangerous because he's even more desperate, I think I think we can see a path, a difficult path, but a path that can be traversed with great determination. George Conway, will you come back? I will always come back. How many times have I come back? Have I ever failed to come back? Howard Polskine is the founder and chief curator of the writing. Welcome. Welcome, Howard. Oh, it's great to be here, Molly. So I want you to tell our listeners what it is you do. Well, every morning between 8 30 and 11 30, I go through about 40 right wing websites to find out what the right is thinking. And it's and I put them all together in a newsletter with about 15 headlines that's dedicated for mainstreamers and progressives. So they know what the right is thinking. So in two minutes scanning that, they get at the 50,000 foot field. And it's called the writing with an R. Yes. Yes. And you've been doing it since in 2017, I decided to do this right after Charlottesville. That was the trigger. So why did you decide that after Charlottesville? Because I thought I was a informed citizen of the United States. And then Trump got elected. And I thought, how did this happen? How did half the country go the other way? And I started going to these websites, like Brightpart, that I'd never been to before. I'd never even been to the National Reviews website. And I discovered this whole other way of thinking that was informing the voting habits of half of the country. And I said, why it would be so much easier if someone would just push that to me. And all of a sudden I thought, like, well, maybe that's my job. You know, it's funny because it's like the election of Trump. What it did was there were certain people and I count myself in this who realized that there were things that needed to be done that were just not being done, like the writing. So I want you to talk about what it was like when in 2017, when you started reading these sites, like, what were the predominant sites? What were the predominant themes? There was a lot of what I what I saw back then. There was again, there was certainly a demonization of the others, Oslo. So you had sites like Brightpart, which were focusing very heavily on Muslim crimes against Scandinavians. I always remember that that was a big thing. So, you know, you'd you'd see these things surfaced. Rush Limbaugh was a big influence back then. He did a really good job with his radio show. He would always he would post the the text almost immediately and have it broken down by subject having said it was was really easy to access his his work. That was pretty important. Pat Buchanan was a big voice then. And, you know, things started to change somewhat, but not dramatically. Foxnews.com is still the big eight thousand pound gorilla in the space. Everyone else is chasing them, but far, far behind. So I want you to talk about what it was like when Biden got elected, right, going from being the party in power to the opposition party. I just wonder what you saw that changed in Republican messaging. They had a field day on him. I mean, they they feasted on him like a dead zebra in the plains. I mean, it was brutal. It's like they never ran out of awful adjectives to describe them. And in a way, when I read that, when I'm reading this alone in my office, I'm going like, Democrats have to do something. This cannot hold. They're going to they're going to lose. Yes, the far right readers. I mean, they're never going to vote for Biden. But the people who are in the center and center right, that's going to sway them and push them over to the right. Additionally, I could also see where a lot of what was getting written about. Trump was picking it up in his messaging. So when Trump says people are saying, well, what he's really saying is like Infowords reported this bullshit information. That's what he's really saying. When I used to go to CPAC, I would notice that there be certain things they would come up with, like they're trying to take away your hamburgers, right? AOC wants to take away your hamburgers. Or Trump had this whole thing about abortion, where they throw the baby in the garbage. Just give me some of those that you've seen from, you know, things where you know it's not true, but they try to shop it anyway. You know, the biggest example I would say was at the beginning of the pandemic. Oh, interesting. That was reprehensible. And what they wrote, what right wing media wrote, resulted in people dying. And Trump was to blame for a lot of that. The apex of that came in January, I'm sorry, in June of 2020, when Mike Pence wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, basically saying the pandemic is over. And I could see what was happening is like the GOP talking points were so like, get that message out there because this is the pandemic is damaging to Trump's reelection campaign so that that was published by the Wall Street Journal was shameful. Yeah. Do you see a lot of connection between the Wall Street Journal editorial page and some of these really bright, barty, info war sites? The journal goes both ways on Trump and some of the crazy. They're not as crazy and some of it makes sense and I can get behind in a way that that's what makes a great opinion page. And they never know what you're going to get. And, you know, sometimes it sparks outrage. Sometimes you go, yeah, that makes sense. And that that's what happens to me a lot of times because it's pushed my thinking more to the right than just so you know, I'm left of center. I was further left of center. So, you know, it's like, hey, you can teach an old dog new tricks. I'd love you to talk about that because that's very interesting. So do you feel like it's made you I mean, explain. It's made some of my friends, my my park slope friends, you know, question my sanity and think like, are you going over to the dark side? But in a way, it's like, no, I feel I'm a smarter person for reading the right. I think it's important. You know, I'm suspect of people who spend way too much time just immersing themselves in progressive media. I think it's healthy to dabble in the right. You could see like things like drag queen story hour, which seem to be accepted. The right up in arms about that. And that's an issue where I go, you know, I think they have a point on that. That doesn't necessarily need to be. And it's politically harmful for Democrats. What are they still stuck on? What are the things that you're seeing? Like today I saw in your newsletter, they're focused on Eric Swalwell and the idea that everyone knew and everyone in the media knew. And that goes back to that thing with Biden, where they were very focused on the idea that everyone in the media knew that something was wrong with Biden. I mean, is that the pervasive narrative right now? Is that where they are? Is there other stuff? Yes, that like right away, I knew like, oh, that's going to be that'll be that'll be the story for the week. You know, they're going to go on that right now. What seems to be the the pinata that they're focusing on a lot is Jennifer Newsom. They have been attacking her the last two or three weeks. It's been relentless. Oh, why? For being woke. That's basically it. But they have been relentless. And Gavin Newsom has certainly been at the top of the list of a target of right wing media this year. No question about. Who are the other targets besides Gavin Newsom? And Michelle Obama is always a great target for them. She's not running for office. She's not in, I mean, really still. Yeah. I mean, they always perceived her as the biggest threat in in the last presidential election. That was their fear. There's a particular villainization of powerful women of color. That never goes out of stock. Barack Obama is a perennial. They will keep hammering them. I mean, I always say what MAGA really stands for is make America white and heterosexual again. So anything that kind of goes against it becomes a target of right wing media. I know this, but it's also just ridiculous. So I'd love you to talk about what you're seeing right now in the like culture of war space for such a long time. Their biggest obsession was trans people in women's sports, which they didn't really care about, but for whatever reason, they they thought it was a winning issue for them. Are you still seeing that? And are you seeing other things like that where it's a small issue that like the right has seized on? Yeah, yeah, women's sports. I think anything relating to transgender issues, I think we'll see a lot of homophobic tinge articles in June for Pride Month. I mean, dad, you can expect your watch by that. 100 percent, 100 percent. And I think it really scares corporate America. Are they still obsessed with the Clintons? Always. Always. I mean, that picture of Bill Clinton in a hot tub. I mean, just that sort of Bill Clinton hot tub equals clickbait. So there have been like places where there are men, MAGA voices that broke with Trump. And I'm thinking of Epstein and the war. We saw Megan Kelly break with Trump on the war. We've seen Tucker. I saw polling recently that Tucker broke with Trump on the war and that it actually hurt Tucker, ultimately, that Tucker's numbers went down and Trump sort of. I mean, obviously the war is not popular, but that Trump could survive it much more than Tucker could survive not. Are you seeing breaks with Trump? And if so, on what? Yes. I mean, there are breaks with Trump and it's fashionable in mainstream and progressive media circles to say, wow, there are cracks in Trump's foundation, but he always comes back. I would say the biggest break I saw in the past was immediately following J6. Almost all right wing media outlets were against Trump and criticized him. Hey, we're basically saying like, take a hike, buddy. And he came back and you would have thought that that was it. That was the kiss and death. So I'm not ready right now to say, wow, Mago World is against Trump. These big voices are. And plus, you know, let's not forget the biggest voice in right wing podcasting has been Shapiro, who's got 10 times the audience of Candace Owens. He's pro war. I thought his numbers were going down. No, no, he's so strong, Molly. He's a huge force out there. So I think Trump's post of him depicting himself as a Christ like figure. I'm wondering how this is going to impact him as an anti-Trump. I certainly hope it takes him down and it hurts the GOP. The midterms. Are you seeing anything in what you're looking at that shows anti-Trump stuff when it comes to that meme like and the war with the Pope? I mean, are there people taking the Pope's side here? Well, the Washington Examiner wrote today that, you know, basically, Pope Leo was wrong. The current chief wrote that. Yeah, the Pope was wrong. Yes, yes, yes. Because he won a piece. Is that wrong or what? I have to go back, but that was that was the headline I put it in today's newsletter. It was like, oh, that's interesting. And basically saying like Trump has done so much for peace and stuff like that. What has the Pope done? Yeah, what has the Pope done? A really good question. That Pope, that's such an insane saying. What has the Pope done? Yeah, you would think like attacking the Pope is like the third rail of politics. I don't care who you don't go there. But you really do actually think that Trump could actually win in Mago World against the Pope. I mean, the fact that I even have to consider such a question shows how far gone we've gone, but yeah, he might be able to. I mean, so much that he's withstood and come back stronger than ever. Like, yeah, this this could be a possibility. On the other hand, it's rational and logical to think like, no, that's going to take him down. There's going to be a huge political price to pay for this. Are there Democrats they like in this world of right-wing media? No, I mean, could there be a man? Yes, fair men. Yeah, a guy wears shorts in January in a hoodie. Right. They like that guy. Looks like Bill Belichick dresses him. Yeah, that's who they like. But other than that, I mean, I'm seeing headlines all the time. And a lot of time I don't even include them in the news roundup. Right. So Democrats are the most awful people on earth, stuff like that. Do you think that like they're still staunchly pro-Zionist? Yes. After October 7th, the right-wing press really was on Israel's side. They were against the campus protests. You know, the New York Post in particular was very vocal and had many compelling editorials and op-eds on the subject. But now still even after all the. And OK, do you see when you read these things that there's any big change over the last 10 years? In right-wing media? No, I mean, there will be small changes, stuff like that. But, you know, the big thing is basically pro-Trump, you know, Trump, good, Democrats, bad. That's really it. You know, there's no such thing as kind of country club Republicanism. And that's gone out the window. So in fact, I used to call things conservative. I'd say this is this is this newslanders about conservative media. And a few friends said, no, that doesn't really describe it because conservatives signaled something that William F. Buckley would be about or. Right. No, this is right-wing media. So that's that's why I call it right-wing media. How are they dealing with the loss of Viktor Orban? To be determined. Right. You haven't seen that yet? Yeah. That's a big one. I mean, listen, I'm someone who goes, I'm from the only one. I'm a few people in the country every morning. I go to the website, the Hungarian conservative. Oh, wow. I'm kind of surprised that I thought they'd be all over this. And hardly anything. Plus, I also read that there is sister publication, the European conservative. I'd hope to see more in there, but I read it in. Do you think that they're doing this thing where conservative media does, where they don't or right-wing media does, where they don't cover things if they don't like them? Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment, Molly. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting, Howard. I'm so glad you came on. But you think it cooked your brain a little. Not to put too fine a point on it. A little bit. Yeah. I'm not overdone yet. I'm a bit left in me. Don't worry about it. Good, good, good. Howard, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Molly. And now your moment of thought. Jesse Tannen. Molly, who would have thunk that the administration that brought us Project 2025 filled with religious zealotry, with a departmental warhead, with all sorts of crazy Christian tattoos, would be having government workers inundated with religion in emails. Yeah, I would have thought that. This has never happened before. One government employee tells Wired, I have never gotten a message like this from anyone on Easter Sunday, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent an email titled, he has risen to the entire agency. She then talked about Jesus Christ, the greatest story ever told, and the foundation of our faith, by the way, at that same time, Donald Trump was posting photos of himself, right? I mean, wasn't he fighting with the Pope? Oh, yeah, yeah. And I thought that he has risen was Pete from his head over. Yeah. Yeah. So the USDA, these employees are pretty offended. Also, my favorite part of the whole story is they think the word and made them think it was written by AI. So if you're going to cross the church and state threshold, at least write your own copy, I definitely thought it was weird and a bit uncomfortable. And that's a buy by God for my colleagues as well. You're not going to make anyone religious zealot by sending them spam. I feel like this is a lesson that this cruise ship learned a long time ago. Yeah. That's it for this episode of fast politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. 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