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Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman talk about Nancy Pelosi's legacy as she announces she will not seek a leadership role in this congress, plus Donald Trump announces his candidacy in the most boring, un-energenic way imaginable.
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Welcome to the Weekender Edition of the Muckrake Podcast.
I'm Jared Yates-Axton.
I'm here with Nick Halsman.
Nick, I'm so glad this weekend's here.
How are you doing?
Oh, I cannot wait.
I'm going out of town.
We're going to have a little party.
We'll have a little fiesta.
Well-deserved, or not even well-deserved, much-needed, I suppose is the phrase we're looking for, and I cannot wait.
Oh, man.
I'm so excited to hear that, getting out of town.
I'm having a working weekend.
That's not the worst thing in the world.
Tomorrow night, or I guess tonight when everyone's hearing this, I'm going to be giving the keynote speech for the Parkland Institute's conference in Canada.
That will be, I believe, at 9 p.m.
Eastern.
I have the details over on my Twitter if anybody wants to tune in.
I have a lot of things to say and a lot of things to get into.
But today, for this show... Wait, wait, wait.
That's exciting.
The keynote speaking.
I cannot wait to hear more about it.
I'm really excited.
You know, I talked in my bourbon talk this last week and I said I'm opening up this new sort of phase of not I don't want to say my career, of my life.
And it's what we're doing.
It's what we've been doing.
It's a new direction in terms of organizing and trying to build and influence the future.
And I'll be laying out a lot of that stuff this Friday night.
So I'm pretty excited.
Thank you.
That is great.
That is great.
And don't forget, if you want to hear this whole podcast, then you have to go over to patreon.com slash muckbrakepodcast.
And let me tell you something.
We got some shit to talk about, Nick.
This is going to be a jam-packed episode.
You want to go over to patreon.com slash my Craig podcast because we're going to start with Nancy Pelosi in the house.
We got to talk about Donald Trump's disastrous campaign rollout, what it means, where it's going.
We got to talk about, Nick, we got to talk about the fact that like We narrowly averted World War Three in Poland.
And here's the thing, Nick.
I want to go ahead and I want to give people the hard sell.
Are you ready?
Yeah.
Are you ready?
I think so.
I have a really hot take about what happened in Poland.
Wow.
Spicy meatball perhaps.
I have a really hot take.
And listen, if people want to know exactly what happened in Poland, I think you and I are the right people to listen to on this thing, because this thing is on our wavelength.
Do you agree on that?
Yeah, for sure.
Luckily there were some adults in the room, but yes, I will not even try and guess what this is, so I don't want to ruin your fanfare.
There are some adults in the room, is what I will say.
But we have to start with something.
It's really incredible, by the way, that a former criminal president who attempted a coup, announcing he's going to run for president again, is in our segment B of the show.
But something really momentous has happened on two fronts.
Yeah, I've been wondering about it.
will belong to the Republican Party going into the new term.
They have already wasted absolutely no time by telling everybody exactly what they're going to talk about, which is the thing on everybody's mind, Nick, Hunter Biden's laptop.
Because why not?
Yeah, I've been wondering about it.
I haven't heard about it for a couple of days and I'm excited.
And we'll discuss that in a second, what the ramifications are and just how dumb it is.
But Nick, Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will remain in Congress but will not seek a leadership position.
Leader, Whip, there is no greater official honor for me than to stand on this floor and to speak for the people of San Francisco.
This I will continue to do as a member of the House, speaking for the people of San Francisco, serving the great state of California, and defending our Constitution.
And with great confidence in our caucus, I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress.
For me, the hours come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect. - Now, we need to talk about the ramifications of this, what it means for the Democratic Party going forward, but we should probably take a minute, Nick, and we should talk about Nancy Pelosi.
We should talk about this decision, legacy, all of that.
What are your initial thoughts on Nancy Pelosi stepping back from leadership?
Well, this is her last term, right?
I'm actually surprised that she actually is going to serve out these two years because of her husband.
It felt like perhaps that would be enough to make her say, hey, I want to take care of him.
We still haven't really heard much besides how he's doing, so I don't really know what's going on there.
But, you know, I am happy.
I don't know about you, but I'm happy.
It is time.
By the way, it is nice that she can still be around and be that sounding board and what she wants to do as a mentor or whatever you want to call it.
That's good and I'm very excited to find new leadership.
Now, we have to discuss who the new leadership is going to be and that's another part of the segment, but I think this is great.
It's a great way for her to go out on her own terms and sort of establish a legacy for herself.
It's a complicated thing because on one hand, and this is something that we've covered on this podcast many, many times, it's time.
In fact, it's past time.
Nancy Pelosi has been in charge of the Democratic caucus within the House for 20 years.
That's too long, and it lasted way too long.
I want to go ahead and give her due where I can give it because Here's the honest truth.
I have a lot of problems with how Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have run the Democratic Party.
I think it's been detrimental to the country and the people, not in the way the Republican Party is, but in their own particular way.
I will say this.
An incredible leader in terms of keeping people under the same banner, under the same plan, under a leadership of discipline.
Nancy Pelosi was able to, in a very, very turbulent time, And I have to tell you, John Boehner and Paul Ryan and now McCarthy, they have shown that this is not an easy job, particularly in the modern time.
At the House of Representatives, it's nearly impossible.
But Nancy Pelosi has provided steady leadership for the Democratic Party, and the main way that she's been able to do that, and we need to talk about this and expand it out and what it means and what it could mean, She has done it by controlling the purse strings of the Democratic Party.
She is the gatekeeper in terms of where the money goes, how the money is distributed, and on top of that, being the person talking to the donors and the donor class.
She has done a masterful job in those regards.
I have problems with how the Democratic Party has cozied up to corporate and special interest, how they've moved away from their base, obviously, and Pelosi played a role in that.
It was past time for her to go.
It has been past time for a new generation to take over leadership.
And I will just say it takes a lot of courage and strength to walk away from power and not be forced out of power, which we're going to talk about Trump later.
I think Chuck Schumer and I think Joe Biden should pay attention to this.
Well, sure.
I mean, Pelosi really just needs more time to Manage her stock portfolio as members can continue to keep trading on the stock market.
Why?
Why wouldn't they?
Why wouldn't that be allowed?
And it was outrageous that she'd never had any interest in even discussing that, looking into it, coming up with some sort of ideas.
And, you know, and listen, it looks poor.
It looks bad on her and her husband, unfortunately.
But you called this anyway.
You had called this.
I mean, as far as her stepping down.
from leadership slash then I think ultimately stepping down very soon when she did her trip overseas to where did she go to Taiwan Taiwan and so so this is not this is all part of the process but you're right Leahy is still around hell Chuck Schumer still around to you mentioned and and he's really excited
To take leadership in the Senate like he's raring to go and I'm like you should be talking like Nancy right now and looking for the next person to come in and start managing this and so but but I'm excited that we're oh and then Steny Hoyer is stepped down too I don't know if you saw that he would have been next in line so we're really gonna get you know some new leadership in here and I'm not exactly sure that I'm confident that that's gonna be effective but I I we need it's nice to be able to have a nice smooth transition to the younger generation.
It seems at this point a slam dunk that Hakeem Jeffries out of New York is going to take over the leadership position.
I'll say this about Jeffries.
I think he's up to the task of taking over behind Pelosi's shoes.
I think that he can maintain the donor class.
I think that he can maintain leadership.
I have some issues with his politics.
Also, by the way, any conversation about the House of Representatives right now, Has to also focus around just how much the state of New York cocked this whole thing up.
Like the House of Representatives would not belong to the Republican Party if it wasn't for two states.
The state of New York and the state of Florida.
And the Democratic Party screwed up both of those states.
The New York Democratic Party screwed everything up because they were afraid of leftists.
They were afraid of progressives.
And so as a result, they basically painted themselves into a corner They're too busy patting themselves on the back right now for the showing that they did have.
That's right.
And here's the thing about Hakeem Jeffries.
would have the Democrats in control of the House, of the Senate, and of the presidency if it wasn't for the Democratic Party shooting themselves into their own feet.
By the way, I know everybody at home is just like, that's not the Democratic Party I know.
They're too busy patting themselves on the back right now for the showing that they did have.
That's right.
And here's the thing about Hakeem Jeffries.
Hakeem Jeffries, there's a couple of things I feel about this.
Again, like Hakeem Jeffries goes along to get along, he has neoliberal tendencies, but one of the things that he does do, a lot of his constituency, like he deals with a lot of like fairness in housing, right?
If we could start turning the Democratic Party, particularly in the House, towards making renters lives better, that makes the Democratic Party better by 2-3%.
Do you know what I mean?
If we can start moving towards that stuff, as opposed to, and this is what Pelosi did, and you and I know this, Pelosi made the lives of donors, and the wealthy, and finance capital, and tech made their lives so much better.
If we can even start to shift that, the Democratic Party can change.
And going back to the discussion we had about the Republican Party on Tuesday, Nick, both parties are so vulnerable right now to where they could go and what they could become.
This two years we're talking about is going to make such a difference.
And this leadership stepping back and letting this new generation take over, there are opportunities here.
And by the way, while I say that, and then I want to hear what you have to say about Jeffries and everything, I just want to go ahead.
I almost forgot.
Solidarity with every Starbucks worker in this country on strike against that ugly corporation.
every Starbucks worker in this country on strike against that ugly corporation.
And those are the type of people that can make the Democratic Party better if only they're allowed to.
And those are the type of people that can make the Democratic Party better if only they're allowed to.
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, absolutely.
And, you know, either way, I'm encouraged.
And, you know, either way, I'm encouraged.
I don't want to sort of both sides and think that both of these parties are at the same kind of crossroads like you're describing.
Right.
There is hope for the Democratic Party.
There is a path to becoming a majority again in the House where the Republican Party seems like the crossroad is either terrible or like a little less terrible.
And, you know, that that's they don't seem to have nearly as much hope as as the Democrats do.
But you're right.
This will hopefully begin the process.
And I think it's because of the new voices we need to lead that will shift a little bit of that and maybe have a little bit more discipline in places like New York or like things wouldn't fall through the cracks like they like they have been.
for all these different years.
And you know, it's even like in the big cities.
I live in Los Angeles.
And you know, homelessness is a huge problem.
Homelessness is a problem everywhere in the big cities of this country.
And because most of those big cities will just give their votes to the Democrats anyway, I feel like there's a little bit less pressure for them to do stuff.
Even though, again, it's probably the hardest problem to solve of any of the things.
And it's also local.
But you have to imagine that there are things that the House can do as well to ameliorate that and figure out other ways and put pressure on the local governances to do something more than they're doing now, which goes to housing.
That's the biggest thing we can do.
So if Jeffries can bring that to the table, and again, I feel like there's been moments in his career where we haven't felt like he's had either everyone on his back or he's had the presence to be that leader.
We'll find that out pretty damn quick, and either he'll stay or he won't.
But I'm excited for the possibility of what he can do and what his perspective is.
And he's certainly battled through a lot to get here and knows the score.
And speaking of the score, I'm glad you brought up homelessness or houselessness because here's the thing, Nick.
That is a major problem in this country.
And here's the thing, Republicans are basically like, put them in a van and ship them out out of town or arrest them, right?
And here's the thing, the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party should be the party of, let's take care of these people and like, let's get them homes, let's get them healthcare, let's get them social care.
But the Democratic Party, as a neoliberal party, they're taking care of the people who don't want to see them, right?
But they don't want to feel bad about it, either.
You know what I mean?
They don't want the cruelty of shipping them out of town.
They want to believe that they're good people and that they care, but they don't want to See it and live in it.
You know what I mean?
And by the same time, they're protecting special interests that don't want to build housing.
Particularly not in my backyard, Democrats, who don't want a housing unit nearby, right?
Or they don't want a clinic nearby, or whatever.
That's who the Democratic Party has been.
The question now, and here's the thing, Nick, do young people want to be Democrats?
Probably not.
No!
They don't!
They do not at all.
They don't want to be Republicans or Democrats.
So if the Democrats, and as this generation, as Pelosi's, Biden's, Schumer's generation starts to shuffle off the stage, the question is who takes over?
Because that generation has kept so much power, right?
So how do you replenish the ranks?
Right now, the Democratic Party is only bringing in young neoliberals, And by the way, never Trump Republicans, right?
You're literally stalking your ranks with people who are interning at the Lincoln Project, or lawyers, or former CIA agents.
You're only talking about people who can't go and talk to people.
And here's the thing, talking about the House, Nick, the Republicans literally...
We've talked about whether or not they were going to impeach Biden eight times at this point because of the makeup of their majority.
I don't know if they can.
That's a question, right?
We'll see.
Because that those New York House members, I don't know if they can afford to go along with it, but also having one hearing after another about Hunter Biden's laptop.
Who cares about Hunter Biden's laptop?
That's not a rhetorical question, Nick.
Who actually cares about Hunter Biden's laptop?
Well, let's take a trip down this path, right?
Let's kind of go with where they're thinking, because it's not hard to imagine that they believe that in that laptop there is going to be definitive evidence that Joe Biden was involved in these business deals with Hunter Biden, and that because of that, Because, by the way, there isn't any law against a citizen.
You know, Biden was just a citizen investing in whatever.
But let's just say, because of that, he is compromised and being controlled by, I don't know, pick a country.
China?
China.
Yeah.
Okay.
So here's my question, Nick.
How much do you think about Hunter Biden's laptop?
I can't think of anything funny to say, so I will just say never.
Okay, 0% of your life.
No, that's not true, because... We have a show.
We have a show, but also, I have thought of it in recent past, and first of all, it's sad, but second of all, I feel bad for him, but like, the prodigiousness of his filming of himself.
I think you're exactly right.
That's what the Republicans think are going to happen.
You mentioned the young kids who don't want to be Democrats.
They know that you're not supposed to do any of that stuff, especially with what he was doing.
Like he's got stuck in some weird time warp where he's like, look at technology, fun, and then I'm going to, you know.
So that is what I think about.
This is a poor, unwell man, I want to point out.
This is not a well person.
Fair enough.
And I think about that.
That's what I think about.
I think you're exactly right.
That's what the Republicans think are going to happen.
And there's one group of people who also believe it.
Well actually, I guess it's two groups that splits into one.
Which is, one, people who watch Fox News.
Yeah.
And two, the people online who are obsessed with all of this shit.
No normal person in this country thinks about Hunter Biden.
No normal person in this country thinks about Hunter Biden's laptop.
You're not going to keep the House of Representatives by just running up very online, very right-wing, very narrow topics.
Like, they want people to help them.
They want somebody to use the wings of government.
Like, that is an opening for the Democratic Party to be like, hey, let's run it up the flagpole.
Let's show how we would help people.
And I happen to believe there's some stuff that the Democratic Party can do.
And listen, this isn't something I would normally say, but the way that this makeup of the House looks like, there's some stuff they could throw out that Republicans would be like, OK, let's do that.
They could get a couple of Republicans to cross the line if they do some stuff that is very, very specific and targeted.
And if you do that, you change the Democratic Party, you start changing the entire electorate.
I mean, it could happen.
Like, things are open right now.
Yeah.
Wait, let me ask you this.
Do you think that GYM Jordan really believes in Hunter's laptop?
I mean, he might, right?
He sounds so crazy to me right now with this shit that it sounds like those guys might actually believe that this is going to do something.
Oh, actually, it's not true.
Forgive me, because I forgot my other point.
My other point is, here's why they believe it, is Benghazi did such a good job in sinking Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, and it really did.
That was how they found out about the email server, that they're convinced that once they do this, they'll find something on Biden that will hurt him for 2024.
The joke might be on them, that Biden Maybe he doesn't run.
Maybe somebody much better, a much more viable candidate runs anyway.
I don't know.
That whole thing makes me nervous.
You know what it reminds me of?
Yeah.
This is going to be the only time I bring up Harry Potter on this podcast.
Are you ready for this?
The only time?
I'll never bring up Harry Potter again on this podcast.
It's like at the end of Harry Potter.
In order for him to, like, kill the bad guy, he had to go on, like, a scavenger hunt and find, like, so many things that he had to destroy.
I think they're called horcruxes, something like that.
Yeah, right, right.
Like, this thing, you're exactly right, Nick.
So, like, the Republican imagination for the way that they handle business, it goes back to Clinton, actually.
Because Clinton, you get Lewinsky discovered through Whitewater.
Right?
Whitewater leads to Lewinsky, then you go.
And you're exactly right.
Benghazi leads to emails.
And if you remember, this is something we don't talk about a lot.
They wanted the emails, the thousands of emails, right?
Because what they believed, and this has been scrubbed from our collective memory, they thought there was going to be proof that either Hillary Clinton knew that Benghazi was happening and sacrificed a bunch of lives, or remember that this is a blast from the past, Nick, or that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton teamed up to create ISIS or ISIL.
And used it to basically try and carry out their own ends.
This was the MacGuffin.
This was the thing in Pulp Fiction that everybody's trying to run out for because that's what Republicans need.
Their lives aren't based on empirical fact.
It's not going out and finding the thing that will prove what they believe, right?
It's about chasing shadows and illusions because the things that they believe are Have never been real.
Right.
Their success is determined.
And by the way, we're going to talk about Trump here in a second.
Speaking of, their success is based on whether or not they can make themselves believe in the shadows and the illusions that are necessary for them to move forward.
Yeah.
And by the way, out of that, the emails, the biggest outcry they were able to generate for themselves is that she sent a few that had some classified documents attached to them.
Weird.
Yeah.
And you can imagine how that's going to make them feel when they find out about what's going on with Trump, which is obviously going to be a thing they're going to try and shut down, which is not really going to happen unless they try and like, I guess, defund the Department of Justice or something like that.
And so, you know, it's just rife with all this stuff.
But we cannot lose our focus on that, which is the only reason why they're going to waste millions and millions of dollars, as they've done before with Benghazi and with Whitewater, is because it's some sort of political thing that they're going to dredge up some detail that will hurt him, hurt Biden ultimately in the presidential election.
But I think at that point, it will have hurt the Republican Party more.
Right, I think at this point they're going to see through it, I would hope.
I would think enough of them do.
But we'll see, because Fox News, while they might be moving on from He That Will Not Be Named Yet, to reference Harry Potter, but they will still drink the Kool-Aid all day long on Hunter's laptop.
I mean, that's going to be riveting for them.
And before we move behind the paywall, because we never know.
I don't keep track of which Democratic strategists and consultants are listening to the show and which ones are on the Patreon.
I want to offer some advice for them.
This is some free advice.
I don't require any consultant fee.
Right now, if you are a true believer and you want to change this party, it's time.
The moment is ripe for it.
Akeem Jeffries, as he's taking over the leadership, that agenda is going to shift and change.
You got to learn from Pelosi's inability to really create a messaging system.
The Democrats responded.
They reacted constantly.
You have to roll out some sort of a large plan that shows that the party can change things and make things better.
And three, if the Republican Party doesn't go along with it, you need to have an answer in 2024.
The Republican Party is keeping us from doing this plan that we want.
Here is the plan.
Vote for us in 2024.
Those are the answers.
This is the moment where leadership is vulnerable and where things can happen.
And take that check to the bank.
Do with it what you want.
Period.
Yeah, and by the way, sit back and just, you know, collect all the goodwill you're going to get when the Republicans continue to run every major conspiracy out there and then literally are wasting our dollars on congressional hearings on this stuff.
It's going to be fascinating and awful and all those things.
But, you know, it's kind of like where it's time to talk about Trump, right?
It's kind of like... Real fast, by the way, here's another piece of advice because you nailed it, Nick.
Every Hunter Biden laptop hearing put up a big giant placard that says how much money it's costing the people.
And you have been listening to a free preview of our Patreon exclusive Weekender Show.
If you want to get in on all the fun and get that bonus episode every week, not to mention exclusive content Live hangouts, question and answer sessions.
We're even going to do some of these live, so you can come and watch how the sausage is made.
All you have to do is go over to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast.
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