John Heilemann: Trump will Pay at the Ballot Box
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Have you looked at Trump's win loss record? In his ten years, he You know, got elected in twenty sixteen. Every time there's been a midterm election, off-year elections, Trump has just been a loser. He's been a loser for the Republican Party. That's how we do accountability. We have a legal system that should meet when people break laws, should meet out that kind of accountability. But in the political system, the way that you pay for doing crazy, stupid, self-destructive, country destructive things, you pay at the ballot box.
Hi there everyone. This week's guest is so familiar to you that he's going to get a brand new introduction. Partly so that I can brag about my pal. John Heilman is one of the best and most astute political journalists in our country. He's my wingman and covering a moment in the Trump story where the bottom calls about every 48 hours and says, come get me before I go lower. He spent hours interviewing Trump, he spent decades interviewing voters and elected officials, campaign operatives, leaders in media, tech, entertainment, and diplomacy. His Rolodex spans the entire globe. But for all his cool accomplishments and interests and hip creative friends, he never forgets the constellation of political nerds and campaign hacks and flax he's covered for decades and befriended over the years.
There is no one who has been a more present or enthusiastic booster of my career, especially as I leapt from campaign spokescal to cable news rookie. He put me in a co-anchor chair at the very beginning of my career. We share a love of and for our dogs, and he is the indispensable voice on Deadline White House. So this is the best people, and this is one of my best friends and one most favorite people, the host of the podcast in Politik and Chief Political Columnist for Puck, John Homo's here.
I feel like Cuba Gooding at the end of Jerry Maguire when he's sitting there with Roy Firestone, he's like, I'm not gonna cry, Roy. I'm not gonna cry.
See, I thought you were gonna say, um, in the movie where he's like Tom Cruise walks out and Cuba Gooding's like, Oh, I thought we were just finally starting to communicate. Oh, we're just finally starting to communicate, totally.
Why does John Heilemann say Trump will be paid at the ballot box?
No, that's uh very generous uh introduction. And uh, you know, the glib way of doing the these is when you say, Thank you for that kind introduction, you read it just like I wrote it. Um but but but but that's that's I was a little too emotional to get to be that glib and uh clever.
But I feel like people I mean, you can turn on the show any day that you're there and there's always like the layer of your, you know, fearless commentary, which in and of itself puts you in a category of your own. I think a lot of people are afraid of what they'll find in their, you know, Twitter feed. But a lot of people don't know like our origin story. And you were one of the first people to let me sit next to you and help anchor a show.
I don't know if you remember this. There's a I haven't seen it in a while, but it was a We were doing with all due respect at Bloomberg and when someone was on the road and we'd had the empty chair, we're always looking for uh people and and you were one of the first people that we had come in and co host the show. You'd never hosted a show before at that point. Were you on the view at that point at all? I don't know. I can't remember if you were done the view yet, but it I think I have done the view yet,
but it might have been like that seas like I think that might have been the year, but I think the first thing I did was fill in for for you or Mark.
Yeah.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:41
2
Why does John Heilemann say Trump will be paid at the ballot box?
2:41–9:42
3
How does Heilemann describe Trump’s impact on the Republican Party?
9:42–25:11
4
What lessons did Heilemann learn from creating *Game Change* and its film?
25:11–49:41
Speakers
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