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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, Donald Trump touts a major accomplishment on affordability as only he knows how, by canceling it. We'll talk about why and why the president is fighting again with Republicans in Congress.
We'll also talk about Zoran Mamdani's House candidates going three for three in New York's primaries on Tuesday and why that's causing some Democrats to panic and Republicans to smile. We'll do a quick check-in on J.D. Vance's charm offensive. and whether it's winning over his wife.
And then Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running to be governor of Texas, stops by to talk about her race against Greg Abbott and why she might become Texas' first Democratic governor in nearly 40 years. Before we start, please consider subscribing to Friends of the Pod if you haven't already.
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Chapter 2: What led to Trump's last-minute cancellation of the housing bill?
And it's not like people are going to feel the effects of this housing bill, certainly not by the midterms, maybe not for a couple of years, because really it's just sort of reducing barriers to building more affordable housing and sort of changing some of the formulas for how the federal government gives money to states.
And now it's going to be based on whether they've actually produced more housing and built more housing. So they can still take credit for it, but I don't think Trump's going to be taking credit for it.
But- Even then, so when you, like, we should, we'll get into this, but as we know, a bill that does not actually impact people's lives has limited political impact. But the moment when people pay attention is the signing ceremony. 10 days from today, Thursday, is the 4th of July weekend.
Mm-hmm.
But it seems like a bad time to get attention for your bill.
Well, also, apparently, the Wall Street Journal has him saying, Trump saying to someone, one of his advisors, at my rallies, no one cares about the housing bill at my rallies. But when I say save America, then they can't sit down. And then apparently Punchbowl has four sources saying that Trump said to Mike Johnson directly, no one gives a shit about housing.
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Chapter 3: What were the results of the recent primary elections in New York City?
Yes, I remember he said that a few months ago.
Like literally like affordability is the top issue. And then when you dive into affordability, like sometimes it's groceries and gas, sometimes it's housing. But housing is, I think it's like one of the, maybe the top two or three concerns of most American voters.
And particularly younger voters. Like this shows up in focus groups. It shows it at, like, yes, is it true that people are not cheering for the 21st Century Road to Housing Act? Of course. Would it be helpful for... Republicans and Democratic incumbents to go to voters and say, here is a thing, a bipartisan accomplishment I had that is addressing your concern, even if you're not feeling it?
Absolutely. And Trump is just making that messier for Republicans because he can't. He's having some sort of insane temper tantrum over a bill that can't pass.
After canceling the bill signing, Trump did attend his previously scheduled lunch with Senate Republicans, which went about as well as you can imagine, given the circumstances. According to Senator John Kennedy, Trump was, quote, mad as a murder hornet.
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Chapter 4: Who is Gina Hinojosa and what is her campaign about?
and berated Republicans for not supporting him on an Iran vote, which then led to a shouting match with Bill Cassidy, who Trump recently drove from office. CNN reports that Trump told Cassidy to sit down. Cassidy refused and raised his voice. Trump called him a lunatic. Cassidy then referred to Trump as brother, and Trump told him he wasn't his brother. And then Cassidy eventually sat down.
John Kennedy later said that the meeting was a success because, quote, no one got stabbed. Which is an excellent bar to set. Trump also apparently isn't done trying to force Republicans to eat shit on Iran. The administration just asked Congress for $88 billion in funding, which would mostly help pay for the war. How do you think that's going to go over, Dan?
Well, before we get to the war funding, in this meeting, in the Punchbowl reporting on it, and Punchbowl generally gets like a full live texting of these sorts of things, it seems like no one pushed back on Trump on the SAVE Act, even though every Republican senator, with the possible exception of Mike Lee and maybe Rick Scott, know it can't pass.
None of them would say it to Trump's face, which is why they're in this mess to begin with, which is like a pure sign of weakness and failure from John Thune. Yeah. Like, you have him in the room. This is the big problem. You can't pass anything.
The House, it's why we should mention, Trump's got everyone so ginned up on this that Ana Paulina Luna has stopped, will not allow anything to pass on the House floor until the Senate passes the SAVE Act, which is something that doesn't make a lot of constitutional sense. It's like you're talking about a bank shot. Yeah. So it's like they can't pass the rule. They can't pass anything.
They're trying to pass the appropriation bills. They have to go home on Friday because they can't do anything. And she's demanding that they attach the SAVE Act to either the FISA bill or the defense authorization bill, which the Senate will then take out in both those cases. But so the whole thing is you have Trump has got everyone chinned up about this.
But no one will say to his face why this can't work. It is one thing for his like terrible, slavish, obsequious advisors to not say it. But here are members of Congress, senators who are not up for reelection this year. Maybe some of them are not up for reelection ever again, who are incapable of mustering the courage to say to one man a simple math fact.
And it's like they could have even talked beforehand and said, all right, I'm going to bring it up, but back me up if I do. Yeah. Strength in numbers. Still nothing. Still like Bill Cassidy, I guess, got up and yelled at him about the Iran war powers vote. Yeah. And then changed his vote.
And then changed his vote because the White House afterwards gave him a briefing that he wanted and then he felt sad that he raised his voice. I'm like, the guy cost you your job. You're not going to be a senator anymore because of this man. for I guess voting for impeachment the second time.
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Chapter 5: How did Republicans react to Trump's decision on the housing bill?
We tried that in the Obama years, too.
Us, too. Yeah, it never works. But you say it anyway. And so he's going to have to deal with that. Gas prices are going to be still high. And so that's going to make the $88 billion look even worse to voters, I think.
Yeah, I mean, it's terrible. Honestly, it probably would have been better to do it when the war was going on. So you could make it be about protecting the troops. And instead, it's just like, here's the bill has come due for this unfun thing that no one wanted and everyone hated.
Yeah. And, uh, and by the way, we're, we've cut all your Medicaid too, and, uh, everything else in the government. So good luck with that.
But we do, we do have money for ballrooms and, uh, algae, the war on algae. We have to, we're still better for the war on algae.
It really does make you think like when these Republicans hit the trail in the fall, like they don't have much to say except that Democrats are ā as our next topic, Democrats are all crazy socialists. Like I don't know what else they can say about themselves and what they've done in Congress.
I don't really imagine anyone talking about this housing bill because like you said, the housing bill hasn't really had any effect on housing prices whatsoever. I don't think that's going to land very well with people.
They will do, and it's not going to work, and it's going to be pretty pitiful, and it is like leading with your chin, but they will talk about the tax provisions in the big, beautiful bill, the no tax on tips, the Social Security stuff, tax cuts for middle class, which will then allow every Democrat to point out that most of the tax cuts went to billionaires and corporations, and that we are paying for those tax cuts for billionaires and corporations by cutting health care, food assistance,
closing rural hospitals, et cetera.
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Chapter 6: What challenges does Hinojosa face against Governor Greg Abbott?
Even just the three races we're talking about here from Tuesday Night, we're talking about three races. And three house races. And in one of those races, Claire Valdez seems like a a normal DSA candidate in the vein of an AOC or a member of the squad. Right. We talk about Brad Lander. Lander is basically like a standard progressive Democrat.
Yeah. I've said in New York city, progressive.
Yeah. But it also has said like, you know, after he won was like, I want to go help frontline members who are out there. And I hope some of the moderates come help me and I've helped moderates before. And so like, that's, that's Brad Lander. Really here, the panic is over. Daryl Iza Avila Chevalier.
And I will just say, she might be the most left-wing candidate to ever win a Democratic primary in our lifetime. There's been a lot of focus on her old tweets, which she has deleted and mostly apologized for. I'm fine with that. My general position is to give people a chance who want to take back something they said or posted. Certainly would love to take back things that I've posted.
And I also think that like some of her tweets have been taken out of context and exaggerated. Here's where I have a problem.
She has not apologized for attending an anti-Israel rally on October 8th, October 8th, 2023, a rally that was condemned by Zoran Mamdani, AOC, and Brad Lander, who we were just talking about, who actually left the DSA because it promoted that rally, where attendees chanted that Hamas's resistance was justified the day after October 7th. The day after they slaughtered a thousand Israelis.
And to this day, she still defends attending that rally. The other problem I have, she sat for an interview with the New York editorial board last week, last week, where she said she's against all deportations. She's for open borders because, quote, bordering is a very modern construct. Actually, the borders are in our hearts and our minds.
She wants to abolish prisons and refused to say when asked. She got four different chances on this. Refused to say that a convicted murderer should be sentenced to any jail time at all.
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Chapter 7: How is the Democratic Party responding to recent election outcomes?
And they kept giving her another chance, like, are you sure? But what happens to the murderer that just convicted? Nothing. Now, maybe she turns over a new leaf in Congress and like her voting record doesn't match some of these more extreme positions. I hope so.
But I think the reason I bring this up is because when Democrats get questions about this, I think the answer is easy and important to give, which is that she currently holds a range of views that go from moronic to abhorrent. And not only those views not align with most Democrats in the country, nearly all Democrats in the country, right?
all elected Democrats, actually most elected democratic socialists. But like, I don't even think they align with like a lot of the people who probably voted for her. And so like, I think people should just, you just gotta say that. And I don't think you lump her.
I think it does a disservice to the other progressives and the other even DSA members to pretend that she is part of this, like there's new energy and it's great and whatever. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's one thing to have these views in the past and be like, you know what, I've learned, I've grown, which she said about some of her tweets.
But to sit there a week ago and be like, yeah, no prisons, no borders, no police. Here's the thing. Also, who cares? Well, but I already see people doing the like, you know, like, well, we got to understand the energy. No, no, we got to understand the energy with a lot of these candidates. She is. That was a mistake. And like Mamdani endorsing her also probably a mistake.
Yeah, I mean, you'll notice that when Bernie Sanders did his congratulatory tweet afterwards, he congratulated Brad Lander and Clara Valdez. Oh, he did? Because Bernie's fucking smart. That's why. I mean, those are the two he specifically endorsed, but he did two, not three. But also... She's one member of Congress. Right. Right. This is who the voters picked.
So in two years, someone's got the opportunity to challenge her. Maybe she comes to Congress and she's a productive member. Maybe she's not. It doesn't. But it's just like I think I'm not.
I'm not saying it's the end of the world. I'm saying that I actually think it's very easy here. What I'm saying, what don't do is like, she is a, she is about to be the biggest celebrity on the right of all time. She's going to, she's already like starring on Fox in every fucking segment. And it's going to be like that forever. And you know what?
Most people, when they hear her, there's tape of her saying all these things last week. When they hear that, they're going to be like, this is fucking nuts. And then if they go to Democrats and be like, what do you think? And Democrats are like, ah, it's not a big deal. Everyone's freaking out over nothing. Then you would not blame the voter for being like, well, that's weird.
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Chapter 8: What strategies are being discussed for engaging Latino voters in Texas?
As of yet, for the most part, we have not been, the Democratic voters, not the institutions, not the groups, anyone, not the party apparatus, the voters are not picking candidates who may be too liberal to win.
The two possible exceptions there are Randy Villegas, which is the DCCC picked a different candidate in that race, and then Matt Dunlop instead of Baldacci, the son of the former governor in Maine 2nd District. We probably were running the Maine 2nd District under any scenario. You need a very, very good year for that. That's really like only, it's Jared Golden. Unless Jared Golden had not.
Right.
Jared Golden is like Joe Manchin, right? The only person who could win that was probably Jared Golden. The other fear is that this is evidence of like a Tea Party-like moment for the party. And there are ā I think it's a bad comparison because the Tea Party was a very specific thing in time. It was about a very specific thing in time.
It was largely ā it was a sort of astroturfed, corporate-funded reaction to the election of a black president. But what you are seeing is the party base saying they are done with the establishment. They are done with the leadership. They have great skepticism. I think there's three reasons why that skepticism exists. And it's different in every race.
And it's even different in some of those races in New York. One is anger that the party has failed to stand up to Trump.
Yeah.
The second is that the party is too captured by corporate interests, too unable, unwilling, too cowardly to take on the interests and to advocate for working people. They're not addressing people's economic pain. And then the third reason is Israel and Gaza.
And that was obviously particularly prominent in the Land or Goldman race, where that was a primary point of distinction between the two of them. And you see that in like each of the like the knob, the dial turns to different to different levels in each different race around the country around those three things. The other question is, is the party becoming moving dramatically to the left?
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