EXCITING NEWS: Jared and Nick will be recording the podcast LIVE in VEGAS as part of Pete Dominick's Stand Up PodJam that takes place March 22-23 in Henderson, Nevada. Click HERE for info and tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/stand-up-podjam
This is a preview episode of The Muckrake Podcast's Patreon show that happens every Friday. To unlock the full show and a host of other great things, visit http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast
Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss the pickup of a Congressional seat in New York vacated by the disgraced George Santos and whether the Democrats can figure out how to frame the upcoming races in November. They then get into the historical context of the report that the Russians have some sort of space weapon that we all should be afraid of, before waxing poetic on the potential Machin/Romney presidential ticket.
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Weekender Edition of the Month Break Podcast.
I've been having a lot of trouble with the can exploding all over everything.
Oh, well, you know, there's a way to avoid that, I think, right?
You know?
Don't open the can?
Do you walk with a strange limp?
I'm juggling cans as I come in here ready to podcast.
Maybe I could make different choices.
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to the Weekender Edition of the Muckrake Podcast.
I'm Jared Jadis.
I'm here with Nick Hausman.
Nick, good news on the Las Vegas stand-up podjam front.
We're recording our first live episode Saturday, March 23rd.
I'm excited.
It's cleared.
It's ready to go.
It's happening.
It's a done deal.
It's hip.
It's where the kids are going to be.
Oh, and it's perfect timing.
It's like a spring break time.
People want to get away from the cold weather, come out to Vegas, come out to Nevada.
Come on now.
Come out to Henderson, Nevada.
Check the show notes.
This show, other shows, totally fine.
Reminder, Friday, March 22nd, I'm going to do my very first live bourbon talk, and then we're going to hang out, talk to people, see people, shake hands, kiss babies.
I don't care.
Bring your baby.
We'll kiss that baby.
Will you kiss a baby?
Well, you're not a kissing baby guy, are you?
I mean, in the post-COVID era, I don't know.
Yeah.
I think you were a baby kissing guy, but I'll high five the baby.
I will give that baby so many kisses.
I will.
I will.
I will give that baby kisses until you're ready to go.
That's Friday, March 22nd is the first bourbon talk live one.
Then on Saturday, March 23rd, Nick and I are going to get together.
We're going to do the first live McCraig podcast taping.
Uh, I'm going to show up on Pete show at some point.
It'll be a good time.
That's Henderson, Nevada details, uh, in the show notes, all that good stuff.
Nick, I got good news for everybody.
Guess what?
It's over.
The Republican Party.
Done.
Momentum.
Stalled.
In the special election in New York's 3rd District.
Long Island came out and voted for former Representative Mike Suozzi to defeat Mozzie Pillup in the special election to replace George Santos.
That mysterious rake, George Santos.
I gotta tell ya, I got Democrat fever now, Nick.
I think it's over.
I don't think we have to worry about November.
I think everything's totally fine.
Oh, can we stop the show now?
I think it's done.
I think before we even do our first live show.
We've done our service.
We've done it.
Now it's time for us to go into the sunset.
I like to think that we gave in a way.
You know, it was interesting because I think some of the exit polling indicated that, you know, it was a not-Republican vote.
You know, people were fed up in that district.
You know, it's funny because the reaction from Republicans is also revealing.
They seem to think that they Maybe not that they won, but that they're going to win in a few more months when they have another election for this with the same candidate?
I don't know.
It was a little confusing to me.
Can you help me straighten that out?
There's a lot of meat on this bone to break off in terms of what we need to think about.
But in true modern fashion, this morning, everybody lost their minds about it.
They were just like, this absolutely shows that this is done.
Look at this special election.
By the way, Swasey beat Pillow by eight points.
In an election that not many people showed up for.
Special elections are weird.
On top of that, let me check the notes here.
Swasey beat Santos by nearly 13 points back in 2020.
Everybody wants to tell everybody now.
Swasey did the blueprint, Nick.
And that is a moderate to a conservative Democrat is going to absolutely win every time.
And why?
Because Swasey in the state of New York, and we know We know how troubled New York is by illegal immigration.
I mean, they're right there on the border with Mexico.
Everybody lost their minds.
Because, Nick, what do they do every time?
Every time a moderate Democrat ever wins anything or does anything or whatever, people want to come out of the woodwork and say, this is the way.
We have to be more like Republicans.
Let's go forward and do it.
I hate to be the killjoy here.
I know I'm the turd in the punch bowl.
I'm sorry.
But this is not what everybody is calling it out to be.
Well, uh, fair enough.
I will say that New Yorkers, despite not being on the border of Mexico, you know, they are dealing with a lot of immigrants.
They deal with immigrants, but they kind of, like, really enjoy immigrants.
That's the state that welcomes immigrants and says it's part of our culture, and I just think this whole Swazi thing is bullshit.
Okay, fair enough.
I mean, I can certainly see why it resonated to some degree, like what he was saying.
Basically, Republican talking points, sort of, on the border stuff.
But yeah, you kind of pick and choose.
It's almost as cynical as what the Republicans are, too.
I mean, I think for a long time you had Republicans who were the normal ones.
They would just do kind of like a pick and choose of the issues they liked that they would support the whole party for.
And hold their nose and kind of ignore everything else.
Hey, big deal.
It doesn't hurt anybody, right?
And it kind of is the same way.
That said, Swazi, you know, does align himself with a lot of the other Democratic platform, which is encouraging.
I take it that you wouldn't be a fan of some other people in the Democratic Party who kind of are only Democrats in name only then.
No, they suck.
And quite frankly, and by the way, we're talking a lot about that today.
We have to have a lot of discussions today about Democrats that are not even behaving badly, just they're wrong about most everything.
No, I don't like Swasey.
I don't like the cut of his jib.
I don't like how he presented himself.
I don't like this entire campaign that he ran.
I actually think the fact that he only beat Pilip by eight points, Pilip is a really bad candidate.
And on top of that, was not endorsed by Donald Trump, didn't go that entire route on everything.
The fact that Swaziland only won this thing by eight points, I think, actually shows that this was not a good way to go forward.
But you know what, Nick?
I am not the political genius that the Democrats are.
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy just lost it.
Loved it.
Couldn't have enjoyed this more.
Shot off both guns as if he was Yosemite Sam, you know, like out in the desert ready for a duel.
Chris Murphy had this giant memo ready to go and let me tell you something, it was well received with the likes of Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden.
Looking at the Swazi victory, he said, quote, Republicans can't claim that the border is in crisis and vote against the bipartisan bill written by their own leadership that would fix the problem.
But their abandonment of the bill they requested presents Democrats with an opening to flip the narrative on the border.
How are we going to flip it, Nick?
Let's say let's let's go there.
They're going to say Democrats want to fix the problem.
We have proof Republicans want to exploit the problem to divide us.
We have proof.
A new winning argument on border security and immigration writes itself in 100 words.
Quote, Republicans said the border is in crisis, but then they voted against a bipartisan bill written by their own members that would fix the crisis.
They voted against it for one reason.
Donald Trump told them he wanted to keep chaos at the border because it helps him politically.
Republicans don't care about fixing the border.
They only care about using the border as a political issue to demonize hardworking immigrants.
The only party that is willing to vote for legislation to secure our border and protect and improve our nation's history of safe and legal immigration is Democrats.
Chuck Schumer, his hat spun around, he took off like a rocket.
He loved it.
He couldn't love this more.
Joe Biden loved it.
The people around him loved it.
This is apparently, and I've talked to a few people within the Democratic Party, they truly believe That the winning argument in November of 2024 is that if you want to secure the border, you want to build a wall, you want to make sure that there aren't illegal immigrants coming through, the Democratic Party is your party.
This is utter madness.
I don't know how else to phrase it, and I'll talk about why specifically, but this is lame, lame, lame.
Interesting.
I mean, wouldn't you argue that this is a way for them to take back an issue that they've been getting hammered?
No, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't argue that.
I would argue the exact opposite.
Okay, because I feel like this is the kind of thing, I mean, here's the only question is, who are they talking to?
There it is!
Who are they talking to, Nick?
Right, well, if they're talking to anybody who's already in the Democratic Party, then that's not really going to resonate very much anyway, but I suppose he thinks he has their votes regardless.
So again, we're getting back to the thing we talked about in the last show, which was what is this nebulous slice of people in this country that somebody, they're all battling for to decide these elections, right?
Does it really even exist?
Is there someone he's talking to?
Help me, I don't know.
Is there?
I'll get to the actual ramifications and things here.
Nick, what Joe Biden and a lot of Democrats want to believe is that There's a Republican voter out there, Nick.
He has watched Fox News every night for the past, I don't know, going on 30 years.
Every single night.
His brain has been baked like a tourist in Bali.
You know, just sitting there, just taking in all the Fox News.
He believes that the border is a problem, but he finds one well-written quote from a Biden speech that says, I'm serious about the border.
He grabs his remote, he turns off Fox News, and he says, I'm done.
I'm ready to vote Democrat, all that other shit, we're done.
That person, Nick, I hate to tell you, I hate to tell our listeners, you know who that person is?
That person is Santa Claus.
That person is the Easter Bunny.
That person is the Tooth Fairy, like, engaged to a leprechaun.
That person does not exist whatsoever.
This is literally an excuse for Democrats to move further to the right And to agree with the Republican Party on things that they agree on, and they've always agreed on.
This has nothing to do with an actual electoral strategy.
Fair enough.
But it also serves to, you know, I guess rile up the base, because they did do a bipartisan bill in the Senate that was supposed to address some of the things at the border, and these assholes won't even take it up in the House.
Okay, so here's the thing, and I'm glad you brought this up.
Do you know who wrote that border bill?
That Joe Biden and the Democrats presented?
I do, but I forgot.
The Heritage Foundation.
Oh, okay.
The literal Heritage Foundation is who cooked up that border deal that the Republicans didn't go with.
Which everybody, and listen, I'm amped up today, Nick.
I'm hot about this.
Can you tell?
I'm hot about this.
Every person on Twitter who came after me and said, Jared, you ignorant ass.
You don't understand what's happening.
This is a plan.
This is a wonderful, beautiful plan.
Can you not tell that this is a PSYOP that's being done to do this, to do that?
No, this isn't QAnon.
The Democrats don't want to pass this bill.
They want to point out Republican democracy.
They're going to go for it.
They're gonna do it!
This wasn't a plan.
This is what they wanted to do all along.
And meanwhile, this isn't going to change anybody's mind.
This isn't going- Like, all of the voting electorates right now are cooked in.
The only thing that you can do to win this upcoming election is change the conversation in a way that changes what the electorate is.
None of this does it.
Or, you're having a turnout battle.
Which is what every presidential election has turned into for God knows how many cycles now.
How many things?
Can the Democrats give their base to look at and have to hold their nose before they pull the lever?
This is a self-inflicted wound, and you know what we haven't talked about yet, Nick?
It's so dangerous that you're using these vulnerable people, these immigrants, these refugees, as a political pawn, and all you're doing is poisoning the discourse and moving it further and further to the right.
You're playing with these people's lives.
That's all you're doing, and it has absolutely nothing to do with a winning gambit for November.
Well, fair enough.
And by the way, the PSYOP wasn't there.
I think the Democrats would have loved to have passed this bill.
Like, they wanted to actually pass it, and so did some of the Republicans in the Senate.
You know, the thing is, a couple things in that bill, though, were important and would have helped.
Certainly adding more people to help process people who are claiming asylum could have done something demonstrably good.
But I think the Democrats continue to display that they're playing by the old same rules like we want something.
You guys want something.
Well, OK, we'll give you this and you give us that and then we'll go on our way.
And we don't really necessarily have to stick to any of these principles that we want to in terms of progressivism or anything.
But like, you know, it's stuff like functioned back in the day.
I can remember growing up, and things would function that way, and when they got things done, I don't know if everybody was happy or anybody was happy, but was that better?
Was the 80s better?
A Tip O'Neill-run house, which didn't impeach Ronald Reagan for Iran-Contra, which is ridiculous, was that better than what we have now?
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