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ICYMI, Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman hosted a live show immediately after Donald Trump gave an address to the full Congress where Republicans rejoiced like it was a frat party in 1986 while the Democrats, for the most part, sat there cowardly and stone faced. They watched this so you didn't have to, and offer their analysis of the whole debacle.
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The fascist president of the United States of America just gave the longest address to Congress slash State of the Union we've ever seen.
Hey Nick, how you doing?
Is that right?
Is that measured?
Or are you just saying things like Trump says things?
No, I'm fairly certain that is the longest address to Congress slash State of the Union we've ever seen.
I mean, psychically it's really felt that way, so I won't argue with you.
I... You know, honestly, Nick, watching that putrid speech for as long as it went and as many lies and as much trauma as it involved, I felt like I died.
I recycled back through the karmic chain and then came back and found myself right where I left off.
Well, you know what it was for me?
It started out awful.
Then it got really...
It got worse!
Yeah.
Boring.
Like, I could barely get my eyes open, and then it got awful all over again.
And then it got even worse, and then they decided in the last 2% of the speech that maybe they should make it a speech.
Yeah.
They still haven't figured out how to write for this guy.
They have no idea how to write a speech for this man.
Because there is a way.
Like, we understand the speech pattern.
We understand the thought process and how he does it.
There is a way you could write it that wouldn't be...
Because, like, if it's Miller or whoever's writing these things, it is...
That, the prose they're writing is so, it's like a 7th grade, you know, like running for council or whatever, class president thing.
It's horrible.
It's bad, and it turns out that when you have a complete and utter narcissist who only gets off on being worshipped and the fealty of sycophants, that it doesn't work out.
Hey everybody, welcome to the live McRake post.
Address of Congress reaction show and analysis.
For those of you, and Nick, I have noticed that a lot of the people who attend these things and listen to these things, they have decided that they don't want to listen to Donald Trump speak, they don't want to participate in this, and they rely on us.
To tell them what happened and what occurred.
There's no other way to put it.
This was an absolute shitshow on every possible level.
We'll get into the specifics.
This was a completely and utterly toxic farce of a speech.
The Democratic Party revealed itself to be what we have always known that they are.
We'll talk more about that in just a second.
This was wild.
Absolutely wild and different from basically anything that we've seen from Trump in his first term.
This was a completely different animal.
I'm not even sure what I was expecting.
I mean, I don't know where I put my mind in the beginning.
It looks just like all the other State of the Unions from every president.
They kind of walk in, they're all chatting, they're all waiting, whatever.
But I guess I was not prepared for basically the scene in Wolf of Wall Street.
If you remember this movie.
Where it's the most misogynist, male-dominated, you know, awful toxic masculinity room that they trade in or whatever in this movie.
And they're...
They liken it to sort of like you're in a zoo, kind of what it feels like.
It's slow motion, the way they're beating their chest and all that stuff.
And it's exactly what it felt like out of here.
I think they were looking for some sort of release, right?
It's been going really shitty.
None of the polls look good for Trump at all.
Most of the country seems pretty upset about it.
The economy is on the brink of absolute disaster.
Yeah, there was a huge drop in the stock market today.
And they needed something to cheer them up, is what it looked like, or whatever.
And man, was it like a manic display in the beginning when he first got on there in the first several of the applause and the standing ovations.
It was overwhelming.
And, you know, here's the thing.
We've covered a lot of these.
We've done live shows and reactions and analysis after States of the Union, after the conventions, you name it.
We've covered this for years now.
And the thing about it is, during Trump's first term, There was a lot of this.
You know what I mean?
A lot of the elements that we saw take place tonight were there within Trump's first term.
But there was a clarity.
There tonight.
That not only is this not okay, but it was an understanding that there is something really, really rotten taking place.
Whether or not it's the erosion of federal regulation, the destruction of liberal democracy itself, or just the fascistic takeover of the government by oligarchical forces.
And on top of that, Nick, the fact that we are basically at war with American allies and that the economy is on the brink.
That came together in one of the most surreal and depressing spectacles that I have ever seen in American politics.
The last time that I felt like this, and I was thinking about it tonight because, again, this was a rambling disaster of a speech.
The last time I felt like this was back during the War on Terror, during George W. Bush's, it's us against them, it's the free world versus evil, you name that, the axis of evil bullshit.
It was the last time that I felt this sort of destruction of my soul as I watched this, and watching it take place, and watching the Democratic Party express itself in the most incompetent and cowardly way imaginable, it really drove home for me not just the horror of what we've seen over the past few weeks, but the horror of the last few years of American politics and culture in general.
Yeah, and it has to give you sort of pause in the sense that how long does it take to recover from that destruction that you mentioned, all those different things.
The thing that's really also that we were always worried about was the destruction of norms.
And it sounds pedestrian because it's like, well, how are norms even that important?
But it hit me today earlier that...
It was those norms that prevented an oligarch from taking over and creating an authoritarian government.
Like sort of the whole thing, this whole experiment for all these years has sort of been predicated on the fact that no one was going to try to do what Trump has been trying to do.
And you have to have that norm put over the whole thing and that sheen or else this is what you get.
Look how easy it is to make that happen, right?
And that's sort of what it is.
He hasn't been in the office six weeks.
You know, if you're on that side, there is cause, I suppose, to be celebrating because, you know, I don't know.
He's trying to make it seem like he's done more in six weeks than other administrations have done in four years.
He's the greatest president.
Well, he actually said he's the greatest president of all time and that George Washington is number two.
I mean, that's literally something he said tonight.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, and what's that called when you turn yourself into someone like that?
There's a name for that kind of leader?
Megalomania.
Yeah, that, just an autocrat, authoritarian, all those things.
Fascist, you can fill in the blank.
Well, and we'll get into the actual speech itself and go through the beats here in a second like we usually do.
But Nick, I was interested, what are your main takeaways from tonight?
I have a few things that I left this absolute debacle feeling, but what were your main takeaways from this absolutely disgusting performance?
I mean, I guess it's the solidification of what he's doing and how enough of this country is falling in line and they're willing to believe everything he says, you know, which is exactly what happens like in North Korea, you know, when the leader can say whatever he wants to say, they have to believe him.
So that creep is definitely solidifying there.
So that's what's kind of grabbing me here.
I do think that it'll also, on the flip side, solidify the resistance.
Right?
And the other big takeaway I got from this part of that is, I suppose Congressman Al Green listens to our show.
Well, listen, we call it like we see it and we give credit where credit is due.
Al Green tonight, Representative Al Green tonight, did one of the most courageous things that a Democrat has done in...
He stood up in the middle of the speech and refused to sit down.
He interrupted it.
And eventually, and let me tell you something, Nick.
I've been a...
I've spent way too much time watching these speeches, paying attention to these things, paying attention to trends and histories.
I have never seen, first of all, the Speaker of the House gavel a joint session of Congress with an address from a president into order, and then also order the removal of a member of Congress in the middle of that.
I think I speak for you and all of our listeners today.
Thank you, Al Green.
Thank you for doing something courageous and what the moment called for.
The rest of the Democrats, and this is one of my main takeaways from this.
Sitting there with your bullshit paddles.
And Nick, I don't know if you paid attention to the paddles whatsoever.
The Democratic Party, and I'm telling you, this is the most apt metaphor that I've ever seen from the Democratic Party.
They couldn't even decide on what the paddles should say.
There were like 16 different messages on their dumbass paddles that they kept holding up.
And you know what?
By sitting there within Congress and sitting there as if any of this was normal.
You lent this asshole and this fascist movement the veneer of normalcy.
And the fact that they didn't interrupt him constantly, the fact that they didn't march out in protest, is an absolute shame and blot against the Democratic Party.
And for the record, anybody who listens to this podcast, who's in the Democratic Party, whether you're a representative or a staffer or a strategist or a fundraiser...
For the record, if you are not willing to fight this battle in the face of absolute fascism and you could not hear this speech and not hear fascism, get the fuck out.
You need to leave and find you another job that's going to pay you a lot.
Except for Nick, we both know that they really like the insider stock trading.
They really, really enjoy the insider stock trading.
So that might be what keeps them.
But if you're not going to fight this fight, if you're not going to stand up for actual liberal democracy and you're not going to stand up for the United States of America, get the fuck out of here.
And Al Green, by being the one person, and there were a couple people who left.
Andrea Salinas left and Maxine Dexter left.
And by the way, Thank you for that.
The people who stayed in their seats and gave this a veneer of normalcy, fuck you, get the fuck out of the way, and let's find some people who are going to actually do what's necessary.
Al Green highlighted what the Democratic Party needed to do.
First of all, he did it too early.
I don't want to criticize him at all because what he did is courageous and needed to be done.
And that's what we had said.
I had said at the end of our last show, someone needed to interrupt this, stand up to him, and confront him in a very dramatic way.
Fucking Al Green is 77 years old.
With a cane!
The man stood there with a cane!
Yeah, he's not loud enough.
I'm sorry, he's not.
So that's why I thought when he was the guy to do it so early, okay, great.
This is going to be a coordinated thing.
They're going to do it every few minutes, and then eventually...
That's what should have happened.
A lot of people didn't happen.
That wasn't coordinated at all.
Do you know why?
Do you know why it didn't happen, Nick?
Because...
Because Hakeem Jeffries, prior to the State of the Union, sent out a message to every representative of the Democratic Party that said, you do not need to make a scene.
You should make a scene.
Do not make the story about yourself.
And do you know why?
Because Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, who, by the way, go spend time with your family.
Get the hell out.
Speaking of insider stocks, you have traded enough insider stocks for the rest of your life.
Get the hell out.
Basically, the entire reason that Hakeem Jeffries has the position that he has, Nick, is because he wants to make sure that the billionaire donors aren't going to get spooked out by even the beginnings of a scent of radicalism.
And he basically told everybody, you can bring in your signs and your paddles, which were...
Absolutely pathetic and embarrassing.
But Hakeem Jeffries went ahead and pulled the cord and said, we're not going to do this.
Thank God Al Green used his conscience in this case.
But I'm with you.
Every single minute of this debacle should have been interrupted with collective action.
Period.
Now I'm starting to wonder if a King Jeffries was worried that, like, if it was somebody who was, like, in their early 40s, like someone who was, you know, eligible to run for president and who could be, that we're looking for that next person in the party, this could have been a moment where if you did that properly, you would have gotten a lot of attention.
You could have built something out of that confrontation.
And are they worried about that?
Are they trying to protect this party and make sure that they can shepherd exactly who they want to come in or not?
I have no idea, but they should have turned their backs.
You know, you could easily turn your backs on him and sit that way for a while or whatever that was.
They could have slowly marked out.
They obviously never watched the movie Animal House, so they could have just marked off singing, you know, whistling the national anthem as they walk up, whatever.
This was a moment, and I'm saying we need something much more radical, much more confrontational to deal with this and rally everybody who was really upset about this, which is still, you know, if you're looking at the Democrats and the independents still, you know, it's a...
80-90% of them are completely against what Trump is doing.
I think that the country is in the wrong direction.
But we have no direction.
We're just wandering around.
So here is the thing, and I want to drive this point home because, again, there are people within the Democratic Party and strategists, consultants, and elective representatives who listen to this show.
Nick, let's have a quick little discussion.
News coverage tomorrow.
Will it mention Al Green and what happened with him?
Probably buried later in the article.
It would be buried, correct?
Yeah.
Okay, so what would have happened if almost every single minute of Trump's address, and by the way, he got pissed off about Al Green, and that is what led to a lot of retaliatory rhetoric, which we'll talk about in a little bit.
What would have happened if the entirety of this thing would have been disrupted by one member of the Democratic caucus?
What would have happened?
Would that have been the main story tomorrow?
That would, and they probably would have goaded Trump into saying something that he would regret.
Something pretty bad, because he already did say some really rank shit.
Okay, so then all of a sudden you change the story.
There are tens of millions of Americans right now who are becoming radicalized and pissed off about what's going on.
They're looking for leaders.
The Democratic Party could step up for those people.
But on top of that, Nick, there are tens of millions of Americans who don't pay that close of attention to politics, unless there's some...
What is the message that they got from the Democratic Party today and yesterday and the day before that?
That everything's actually normal and that there's not an oligarchical coup being carried out.
And that we're not on the side of the new modern day axis.
So instead, the Democratic Party, what did they do?
They carried dumbass paddles into this thing.
They color coordinated.
Isn't that nice?
Next time I'm out in Los Angeles and we go out on the town, Nick, we might color.
So we can look cute and have a good time together.
That's what the Democratic Party did tonight, as opposed to actually take action to point out how bad this was and how disgusting and fascistic it was.
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