Vibes Only

The Hottest Club in NY is… the Manhattan Courthouse

• COURIER • Episode 19

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No pollsters. No media pundits "running around with their hair on fire." Just vibes. And the vibes this week: 

  • A new Times/Siena poll dropped this week that, again, showed Trump leading in 5 of 6 key swing states. We talk about the media discourse since it dropped. 
  • Michael Cohen testified this week in the case involving Trump paying off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal off in exchange for their silence in order to protect his 2016 campaign. 
  • Glennis and Brian preview a new podcast from COURIER called Grave Injustice. To understand the right-wing takeover of the Supreme Court and the cases that the Court is about to deliver rulings on... find, follow and listen to Grave Injustice on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
  • And Trump made some big promises to oil execs and asked them for $1 billion in order to deliver.

Thanks for listening this week. Email us at vibes@couriernewroom.com or send us a text to let us know what is on your mind!

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You can find out more about COURIER at couriernewsroom.com


[00:00:00]
Glennis Meagher:No pollsters

Brian Derrick: No media pundits running around with their hair on fire, 

 Glennis Meagher: Just vibes. This is vibes only a podcast that checks the vibes of American politics each and every week. And the vibes this week, 

Joe Scarborough: these polls, it's very funny. They put them out and the political and media class have their hair on fire for weeks.

Brian Derrick: And 

Norah O'Donnell: the former president coming face to face with his one time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who gave six hours of detailed testimony under oath. 

Brian Derrick: We'll give you the non cable news TV version of an update on that trial. 

Glennis Meagher: Then we'll talk about Trump's big promises to oil execs in exchange for a windfall for his campaign.

Brian Derrick: We're also going to preview a new podcast from Courier that examines the right wing takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court before playing an It's Giving, opening up our group chat, and leaving you with a good vibe. Let's get into it. 

Glennis Meagher: Brian, happy birthday. 

Brian Derrick: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Glennis. You're welcome. 

Glennis Meagher: Today is your birthday. Happy birthday to you. [00:01:00] I hope that you enjoy your day. 

Brian Derrick: Thank you so much.

That's very sweet. I'm spending it in Minneapolis at a conference. So 

Glennis Meagher: Minneapolis. 

Brian Derrick: Super fun. 

Glennis Meagher: Okay. Well, so we have a new poll to talk about, but again, for our listeners, we're going to talk about the vibes of the poll, but the poll was kind of, uh, I didn't love it. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, we're not gonna spiral about a poll because we literally say every single episode that the election isn't decided by polls.

Right? And so the sort of classic disclaimers belong here the same way they always do. Polls are not predictive. They're only a snapshot in time. There are inherent biases in them. They're most accurate after you know who actually is going to end up voting in the end, which no one can know right now. And so there are all these caveats.

And so there are all these caveats. They're really a tool for campaigns, not for everyday people looking to go about their lives without truly having a meltdown on a Monday. 

Glennis Meagher: Right. The headline was Trump leads in five key states as young and nonwhite [00:02:00] voters express discontent with Biden. 

Brian Derrick: I mean, not shocking, right?

That's barely news. I'm shocked. I'm not shocked, but I am saddened that it has gotten as much play as it has in the media. They just need something to talk about. 

Glennis Meagher: For me, I read a poll like that. And as you know, a democratic strategist and someone in the space, as I call it, I read that and I'm like, good, let's put more money behind reaching young voters and nonwhite voters.

Let's go Dems. 

Brian Derrick: Totally. Yeah. A lot of work to do on that front. You and I were both in D. C. last week. We were. And had a lot of conversations that I think are tangentially related to this space. And I had a lot of, I'll speak for myself, I had a lot of conversations with people who Meet the headline description that are very, very discontent with Biden.

And I actually came away from the event more hopeful about Biden's chances because in that conversation, not an online comment wars, I'm not talking about a back and forth in the [00:03:00] DMS, a real face to face conversation with people who you would think we have no political agreement on anything. If you saw our, our.

Profiles online. Actually, we like got to the same place and we were like, yep. Super worried about the future of democracy. Super worried about what Trump will do to women's rights broadly, but especially like reproductive rights for everyone and deeply concerned. About how the most marginalized communities will be impacted by a second Trump administration.

So we were very much in agreement that our best path was a Biden reelect. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And I think that's something to remember for people who are chronically or terminally online, whichever description you prefer, which is the democratic tent is so large. And as such, we have. So many different opinions around key issues, but at the end of the day, the majority of that tent is rowing in the same direction.

I felt that way leaving the event this week and was grounded and motivated by that for sure. 

Brian Derrick: So what did the poll actually tell us? Well, first and foremost, Wisconsin is [00:04:00] where Biden is currently doing the best and he has a clear path to victory. Right now, already in Wisconsin, Nevada, on the other side of the spectrum, is definitely going to be the hardest for Biden to win for a myriad of reasons.

But that's especially concerning because there's also a competitive U. S. Senate race there that we need to win in order to hold the U. S. Senate. The rest of the battleground states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, are sort of in the middle. Of those two. But yeah, after a couple of months of what felt like a lot of Joe mentum since the State of the Union, he's like really been rallying, he's been barnstorming in these states.

We've seen a, I think, a much more aggressive calm strategy and a stronger presence online. I think this poll sort of threw people for a loop a little bit because they were hoping that Numbers would have improved more than they have 

Glennis Meagher: again for me as someone in this space. I see it. And I just hope that people making key financial decisions are realizing that we should put more money behind messaging and reaching those voters.[00:05:00] 

Did you see the Joe Scarborough clip? 

Brian Derrick: I did. I did. And so on morning, Joe, they were talking about these polls, 

Joe Scarborough: New York times. Traditionally has consistently slanted toward Donald Trump. And what's so funny is the Times will release their polls, liberals will run around with their hair on fire for about a month, right?

And then like three days later, polls will come out that will show a deadlocked race. Anybody out there believes it's a double digit lead for Donald Trump, wake up. They're all tied. You know, we can show you polls that show Pennsylvania Biden ahead, Wisconsin Biden ahead. You go down the list. I, 

Brian Derrick: I, I wish I was on, I could have had a back and forth with them.

I think that Joe's characterization that all New York Times Siena polls favor Donald Trump is not really accurate. Um, and also the New York Times Siena poll was the most accurate it's been [00:06:00] in decades in 2022. It had like about a 1. 5 percent error margin. And so like, yes, polling is broken. We can say like as a whole, because of like many different problems with the ecosystem that pumps out these polls and the attention economy and blah, blah, blah.

But like, if you're going to pick on one, I wouldn't really be picking on the New York times Siena poll as like, Pretty 

Glennis Meagher: established and well funded. And I feel like even I, if I were to say. on my caller ID, like New York Times, Sienna, I'd be like, Oh, it's my, it's go time. I'm getting pulled. 

Brian Derrick: I do have to say, we talked about this with Dan Pfeiffer.

And if we're going to go deeper into polls in the future, we'll probably bring somebody like a Dan Pfeiffer on again, who's an expert in this. We can bring somebody from like GSG or something. But I have to say that a lot of my friends still are like, I've never gotten called or, or like, or have this impression that like they call a thousand people and then they're like, well, 51 percent of [00:07:00] those people said this.

And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, like that's not how these polls work. You're like getting a certain number of black men Voters between the ages of 18 and 36. And then you're waiting those responses to like, try to fit what you think is going to be the ultimate turnout. And that's why they are so broken is you have to actually know who's going to end up voting in the end.

But I just want to clarify that, like, no, they're not calling a thousand people and then just reporting out what they said. That's not how these polls work. 

Glennis Meagher: No. So just another poll as far as vibes only is concerned, and we literally have it in the trailer. The polls are broken. So whatever, you know, we'll keep you posted if more polls pop up and we'll chitchat about them.

But everyone just remains steadfast. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, we don't need, you don't need to panic and spiral over polls at this point in time. You need to do what you can to get the outcome. That you want out of this election. And that doesn't just mean the presidency. That means across the board. [00:08:00] If you're someone who's plugged in enough to be reading polls, then you're someone who's plugged in enough to be doing the work.

So you should be doing something. 

Glennis Meagher: Brian, I'm going to pivot a little bit. I'm going to bring it back to our home city of New York. We have this big trial and the trial is heating up because we've got some key players. Now, what 

Brian Derrick: week is this? What week are we in? 

Glennis Meagher: I don't even know. Like, truly, I don't know.

Week four, three or four. I think they said it would be like maybe a six week trial. 

Brian Derrick: A survivor season is much more structured. I need more structure. I need to know when the merge is. There it is, 

Glennis Meagher: the survivor reference. I think we went one week without it. So, Stormy Daniels, Justified last week. And then Michael Cohen is now testifying.

And he was, if you may recall, his fixer. He's a lawyer by trade, a fixer by doing. 

Brian Derrick: The LinkedIn says lawyer. The business cards say fixer. This 

Glennis Meagher: is fixer. Yeah. Have you been following at all or any of the headlines or have you tapped out? 

Brian Derrick: So I'm loosely following. [00:09:00] Yes. What I have picked up on is that live video is very important to make these things interesting.

Glennis Meagher: Oh, because it's boring. 

Brian Derrick: There are no cameras. There are no cameras in the room. And it really, I think, dramatically reduces the number of people who are paying attention and are interested in this. Because imagine if they had played that clip on socials of Stormy Daniels having a back and forth with the defense's counsel on her sexual Encounter with Donald Trump, like that would be the internet would break the most viral video ever, but like screenshots of court typographer transcripts are not as spicy.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, I think a big takeaway, which I think was We all knew anyway, but Michael Cohen did confirm for everyone that everything in the Trump world at that level required Donald Trump to sign off on it. So he was fully aware of what was going on. He also did another payment. [00:10:00] Karen McDougal. She was paid 150, 000 in an arrangement that was made after Trump received a complete and total update on everything that transpired.

So Michael Cohen is conferring, confirming for all that Donald Trump was briefed on this and he was like, check, check, check, let's do this, pay them out. Kill this story, make it go away. 

Brian Derrick: Right. 

Glennis Meagher: And 

Brian Derrick: let's remind all of our listeners, this trial is not about Trump having affairs. This trial is not about trying to embarrass Donald Trump.

He's not on trial for being just like kind of generally gross and. harassing women generally. He is on trial for violating campaign finance laws and for spending money on things that were clearly intended to benefit his campaign and then hiding that illegally. Like that is what he's on trial for. And to say that this isn't a big deal is to allow someone in the future to spend hundreds of thousands.

millions of dollars buying the silence of people who worked for them or [00:11:00] who participated in some sort of corruption scheme, or who know very important details about why that person is ill suited to be in office, and then allowing the public to never hear about any of that because they're going to just bury it all if you have enough money.

And so that's what this is about is maintaining some semblance of integrity in our campaign system to say, No, you cannot just silence all of your critics with money so that we elect more and more millionaires and billionaires because that's already a problem now. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, it's a calamity of a courtroom.

It's really unhinged. There's another thing that this is petty. I'm going to go to a more petty angle, but Michael Cohen, we learned in his testimony that it wasn't Donald Trump who came up with the locker room talk to explain away his access Hollywood team 

Grave Injustice Trailer: described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals.

You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that? 

Donald Trump: No, I didn't say that at all. I don't think [00:12:00] you understood what was said. This was locker room talk. 

Glennis Meagher: That was actually Melania. That was a Melania thing. So, we see you, Melania. 

Brian Derrick: That's very House of Cards. Oh, 

Glennis Meagher: for sure. 

Brian Derrick: Doesn't she end up, in like early seasons of House of Cards, doesn't she end up like covering up for his something?

It's like very that. 

Glennis Meagher: For sure. It's you. I think there was this kind of assumption that Melania was very passive or is very passive in the relationship. And this might just be a peak of knowledge of like, Oh, maybe not so much. Maybe she is at the table talking about strategies and how to, you know, handle crises.

Something else is happening with this trial. That has just started happening this week, is people who are vying for either a prominent position in the Republican Party or to be Trump's VP are now coming to New York. We don't want you here, by the way. Fly home. And going down to the court and like doing pressers and like sitting vigil for their president.

Dear Lord, Donald Trump. 

Brian Derrick: The press conferences are embarrassing. They are sycophants, [00:13:00] just like desperately trying to get some morsel of attention from Trump. It's really sad. 

Glennis Meagher: More than anything, when I saw that like J. D. Vance was down there and like Tommy Tuberville was like, the jurors aren't even American citizens.

Donald Trump: I am disappointed in looking at the Americans, supposedly American citizens in that courtroom. 

Glennis Meagher: Now I really want to go down. Now I want to go down there and I want to be in the overflow room and then I want to go out for their presser and I just want to, I want to be the vibes only heckler. 

Brian Derrick: I want you to go down.

I would, I want to hear more about it from, I want to hear about it from you firsthand on the front lines. Okay. I mean, I guess the other thing that I will say is the other reason they're here is like yes to kiss Trump's ass and try to score political points, try to get on the ticket. They are also making a Calculate a decision to try to make this trial as political as possible and having politicians swarming around talking about like national political issues and talking about Joe Biden makes the whole thing into more and more of a circus, which is going to [00:14:00] ultimately sort of detract from how it's seen in the average voters eyes if they can, if they can try to invalidate the verdict before it ever comes out.

Glennis Meagher: Totally. It is an absolute circus, but We see you. We see what you're doing. 

Brian Derrick: We see you. And so this all comes down, in the end, to whether or not there's a conviction. Truly, none of this really matters if he's not convicted. What if he is? I think that we're seeing that in real time. That like, people are not, people are not being turned off by the testimony.

People are not fighting. following closely enough to understand like the true details of what he's really being accused of and the ins and outs of the financial transactions and fraud. But like if he is a convicted felon, what data we have, whether that's from survey groups, focus groups, whether that's from polls, like the data that we have says that people do care.

Like that the average sort of middle of the road voter does care whether someone is convicted of a felony and that that will hurt him in November.[00:15:00] 

Glennis Meagher: Okay. Speaking of the law, 

Brian Derrick: can we get like a law and order sound effect? 

Glennis Meagher: So courier, I thought that it potentially, you know, as someone who is running for a not vacant or available seat on the Supreme court, And I thought I pitched internally. I hate the Supreme court, the podcast courier did the appropriate thing, and they have found a true expert to talk about the Supreme court.

So courier has a new podcast, grave injustice. We have a trailer 

Grave Injustice Trailer: for the first time in American history, future generations will have fewer rights than past ones. It's dead. Five 

Joe Scarborough: justices ended the right of American women to choose abortion under the constitution. Supreme court has delivered another blow to the voting rights act.

Grave Injustice Trailer: Supreme Court strikes down the president's student loan debt relief plan. Despite growing dangers from climate change, tonight the U. S. Supreme Court curbing the government's power to fight it. And by the time the U. S. Supreme Court hands down its [00:16:00] 2024 rulings, they'll have even fewer. 

Norah O'Donnell: What Rahimi is doing is reversing progress in a pretty spectacular way.

Grave Injustice Trailer: They 

Brian Derrick: made it possible to strike down partisan gerrymandering, and now of course they're And 

Grave Injustice Trailer: if you think these hand picked operatives cloaked in judicial robes are satisfied, think again. So what is next? What can we expect from this chaos court and the networks at work to serve them up cases that will expedite their agenda?

In this series, we'll seek to answer those questions, examining issues at the heart of the cases the court is currently deciding. I'm Lisa Graves, and I've spent the better part Of three decades working to protect fair courts from right wing extremists. This is grave injustice. This podcast will cover further attacks on reproductive freedom, personal safety, our government's ability to tackle critical issues like consumer protection, climate change, mitigation, and much [00:17:00] more.

We'll talk with experts and attorneys and advocates about what's at stake and the people who have the most to lose. Follow Grave Injustice wherever you get your podcasts. We're releasing episodes every Thursday throughout the season.

Glennis Meagher: The host of this podcast, she's done amazing work at exposing dark money and the bad guys like Leonard Leo, who we've talked about and all of the different things that he's funding, like these amicus briefs that then the Supreme Court reads and then rules on. So I think if any vibes only listeners have any.

Curiosity in the slightest about what is going on at the Supreme Court. Give it a listen. 

Brian Derrick: For sure. I think that this is the perfect time for this to be coming out, honestly, because we're about to start getting a bunch of big decisions in June. There are a lot of important cases this term in front of the Supreme Court.

Glennis Meagher: To your point about it being like the release season, you know, of the Supreme Court, where they're going to be talking about all of their rulings. And by talking about, I mean, ruling [00:18:00] and creating a new policy and law. New Music Friday. Yeah. New Music Friday. The Supreme Court is taking away your rights.

This podcast can be super helpful to just be slightly more informed going into the June season. So you're not like when Roe v. Wade was overturned, super shocked as I think so many Americans were. So give it a listen. 

Brian Derrick: Definitely. I'm super excited to listen to it myself and think that it will be a helpful tool.

As the term progresses, 

Glennis Meagher: for sure. And as I interview for the Supreme court, I'll have more talking points. Exactly. 

Brian Derrick: Those confirmation hearings are no joke. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Oh my God. I could never. Oh my God. I'd be 

Brian Derrick: like your 

Glennis Meagher: honor. I'm nervous. Or Senator, can't do it. Your honor. I know I'm getting them all mixed up.

It's easily done. It's a bunch of old white guys. 

Brian Derrick: You're just like too used to being in criminal court. 

Glennis Meagher: It's true. So in case you missed it, Donald Trump [00:19:00] made a big promise to oil execs. 

Brian Derrick: But it wasn't just a promise. It was a sale. 

Glennis Meagher: What's going on here? 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. So Trump meets with all of these, uh, Oil execs who are obviously no fan of the Biden administration.

Biden's done everything he can to keep gas prices low as we transition to more clean energy. Like that's been a priority from day one of the Biden administration. And he's actually made huge headway. In doing that, just this year, solar and wind surpassed coal in the amount of electricity that they generate in the United States.

So like we are on our way making real progress in this shift. And that makes a lot of like oil companies who make hundreds of billions of dollars on destroying the planet, um, really angry. And so Trump had the art of the deal in mind when he had these oil execs down and said, Hey, I can just. literally rip [00:20:00] up all of Biden's policy root and stem.

If you pay me a billion dollars to do it, he wants a billion dollars raised for his campaign by these oil executives. And it really is that transparent, like people who were in this meeting just walked out of it and told the press because I think that they were probably just Kind of galled at how like, 

Glennis Meagher: that was my question, 

Brian Derrick: the corruption is.

Yeah, 

Glennis Meagher: totally. Weren't these, these oil execs are hearing probably what they want to hear. Like one of the things that Trump said he would do on the first day, which you would think is super exciting for an oil exec, because it means they're going to be making billions, if not like a trillion dollars is reversing, you know, Biden's freeze on.

Permits for new liquefied natural gas exports United States, which is, it was a big deal in the climate world a couple months ago. And Biden made that announcement that they weren't going to actually moving forward with this like very large port in the Gulf. And Trump said, you'll get it on the first day.

So now you're an oil exec. You're like, wait, what is going on? So for them to leave that meeting and then be like, New York [00:21:00] times, this is not good. 

Brian Derrick: Right, right. People should be, absolutely outraged and really angry just at how deeply this violates the spirit of our election system to be able to just dump a billion dollars in this way into trying to buy a policy that Very clearly does like existential harm to communities all over the country is shameful, like it's, it's beyond words.

Glennis Meagher: This is something we're going to be talking about more, I think, as we get closer to the election cycle. And we do have to talk more about the choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. You know, Joe Biden has called global warming an existential threat. He's recognized that as president. 

Joe Biden: Let's face reality.

The climate crisis doesn't care if you're in a red or blue state. It's an existential threat. 

Glennis Meagher: He's finalized more than 100 new environmental regulations aimed at cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, restricting toxic chemicals, conserving public land and [00:22:00] waters. Whereas Trump's, like, climate change is a hoax.

It's fake. 

Donald Trump: All of this with the global warming and that, a lot of it's a hoax. It's a hoax. I mean, it's a money making industry, okay? It's a hoax. 

Glennis Meagher: And he just said, like, cut me a check and I'll get money back in your pocket, big oil. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I think that this is going to continue to be a theme throughout the year.

As you're saying, like, we have to highlight the differences. And I've been really upfront about it. Like, I have always said, if you believe that climate is an existential threat, You have to be riding with Biden. Biden is your only opportunity to make real change this decade, right? Yeah. If we roll back the progress that we've made over the last four years, we're not just going back to how things were in 2020, right?

Like we're going way back. 

Glennis Meagher: Way back. Another 

Brian Derrick: MAMALA moment for us to dive into for our it's giving segment this week. Vice president [00:23:00] Kamala Harris was. Having a frank conversation on a panel at a conference and things got spicy. 

Kamala Harris: My mother would say to me, don't you ever let anybody tell you who you are.

You tell them who you are. We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open. Sometimes they won't. And then you need to kick that fuckin door down.

Excuse 

Glennis Meagher: my language! 

Brian Derrick: Period. 

Glennis Meagher: You know what I immediately hear in my head? Duh duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh. 

Brian Derrick: Let's go, girls. It's giving Shania Twain. It's giving Here's Kamala! It's giving good for you, girl. It's giving Kamala uncensored. And I love to see it. It's the opposite of the mama la vibe that I always complain about.

I'm like, yes, that's the Kamala that we wanna see. I love, yeah, the honesty. Say it. [00:24:00] We've come so far that we can have a woman vice president laying it down and totally people loving it in a way that I don't think that that quote would. 10 years ago, 20 years ago. 

Glennis Meagher: Totally. And it's, it's so true for women.

The amount of like meetings I've walked past where like, I'm supposed to be in the room and I've just literally walked in and been like, Oh, did you forget to invite me? I'll take a seat right here. 

Brian Derrick: Kick it down, baby. 

Glennis Meagher: We have another clip of Donald Trump. He was at a rally in New Jersey. So not far from us.

And I saw a lot of clips online of people leaving this cause he just kept talking, but let's see what he says. Something a little weird. 

Donald Trump: Silence of the lamb. Has anyone ever seen a silence of the lamb? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.

Remember the last scene? Excuse me, I'm about to have a friend for dinner, as this poor doctor walked by. I'm about to have a friend for dinner, but Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations, the late, great Hannibal Lecter. What is [00:25:00] he talking about? 

Brian Derrick: It's giving the Drag Race roast episode when one queen absolutely bombs.

Every season, it's giving that. It's just not funny. Yeah, it's not 

Glennis Meagher: funny. It's not funny. I'm just reading here in the notes. Also the context of that is that he's comparing immigrants to Hannibal Lecter somehow, which as we know, this is a classic dehumanization, like out of the textbook. And it's also like, he's not a real person.

Does someone like at a minimum shouldn't have someone been like, Hey, By the way, this was from a movie, a fictional character, and by the way, the actor is also still alive. Wait, is he? Yes! It's Anthony Hopkins! 

Brian Derrick: So it's just giving a senior moment. Let's call it a senior moment. 

Glennis Meagher: It's a senior moment. Not only is Anthony Hopkins still with us, the character in the movie never even died.

So, Donald Trump's just killing people in his head. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. No one's no one's 

Glennis Meagher: no one's dead. [00:26:00] 

Brian Derrick: Glenis. We have good news for the group chat. In addition to being able to email us at vibes at courier newsroom. com listeners can now also text us. If you. Go to the link at the top of the show notes. You can directly text us your thoughts on the episode.

If you have questions, things you want us to talk about or bring into the group chat segment next time, then just shoot us a text and you'll be hearing from us next week. 

Glennis Meagher: Brian, that's super exciting. But I'm just reading the show notes and our producer is letting us know that it is a one way street. So we're not ghosting you.

If you've texted the group chat, the way the technology is, we can't text you back. I don't even text Glenn is back. Yeah. It's true. You're just gonna end a really toxic cycle of us on texting each other back. But keep texting. Chatting us because then we can see and we can talk about it on the show. And again, you can always reach us at email at vibes at career newsroom.

com. But we love it. The community is growing. The vibes are growing. The group chat is [00:27:00] growing. Brian, what was in your group chat this weekend 

Brian Derrick: or this 

Glennis Meagher: week? 

Brian Derrick: Well, one of our group chats was Hey, how does that coffee taste? Because we were staring at each other across a room last week when we were all in DC.

The group chat truly came to life in person last week. A lot of digital content creators were all in the same space vibing and it was super fun to get to meet people IRL. So much of my group chat was actually coffee chats in person in DC. 

Glennis Meagher: Totally. It was really nice to be IRL with a bunch of creators.

That was awesome. That was great. No, actually, I want to talk about this. So this is for Amtrak people. So Joe Biden, you especially, I was on the Amtrak back to New York. I didn't text anyone this because I like to be in the quiet car, but the quiet car like filled up. So I was on like a normal loud car. And the way people act like the Amtrak is like, You can't, no one's going to remember what you were saying.

Like someone who works at a very prominent newspaper was sat behind me. And [00:28:00] now I know the ins and outs of like the dailies department of that newspaper, because they were talking so much shit. And I was just like, Whoa, like that group chat doesn't exist because they are just screaming it in the Amtrak, which I've, I was Texas, a different group shopping, like there is the Amtrak is a wild West.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. You do always run into interesting characters on that New York, DC leg. Totally. Also, in my group chats this week, the whole RFK having a dead worm in his brain. 

Glennis Meagher: Right. Like, casually mentioned that. Too much. 

Brian Derrick: I was like, we've jumped the shark, we are in season 8, and we lost the original writers of the show, and we're just like, totally making stuff up now.

That's what that feels like to me. 

Glennis Meagher: Also, no one cared. Everyone was like, That tracks. Like everyone got the alert and everyone was like, okay, that fully makes sense. And then it closed it. They didn't even read it. 

Brian Derrick: I can't, I cannot. Do 

Glennis Meagher: you, okay, this is a little niche for us Americans, but do you follow Eurovision at all?

Brian Derrick: I did not follow [00:29:00] it this year. I saw headlines and that was it. 

Glennis Meagher: Because there was a little drama like the Dutch contestant got into like I think an altercation of some sort during the last day of rehearsals with someone on the production team and like I think they might have been favored to win and Eurovision was like you're out.

Chopped, which I appreciate. I just love and I want to preface this with I am a straight woman But I just love how like gay adjacent Eurovision is like it's just so fun and camp and over the top and I was seeing all of these tick tocks that were like making fun of all the straight contestants like pretending to be gay just to win because It was like, whatever.

And then can we talk about the thing I want to talk about? 

Brian Derrick: Tell me. 

Glennis Meagher: That crazy clip that I sent you right before we recorded. 

Brian Derrick: Oh my God. Oh, absolutely. So a far right wing candidate for secretary of state of Missouri treated us to a instantly canon clip on Twitter of Her [00:30:00] running with like a weighted vest on and she's like in America You can be anything you want to be so why would you be weak and gay?

And it's like what? What 

Glennis Meagher: are we doing here? And it was funny because every single person who's actually secure and not projecting like most Republicans do just immediately clocked it for what it was, which was just so over the top and hilarious. Like SNL couldn't write this shit. It's like, 

Brian Derrick: what? No, it's really, I'm like, okay, so we haven't come as far as we thought.

Glennis Meagher: No, and that's exactly right. That's like kind of like the, on the, on the downward slide of the comedy of it, it's like, oh, this person is fully serious and is fully homophobic and xenophobic and. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, but it is funny.

Glennis Meagher: All right. Good vibe. Goodbye. So we're [00:31:00] going down to North Carolina, North Carolina had a Medicaid expansion, which I'm very passionate about healthcare. So this is good. Uh, many more North Carolinians became eligible for healthcare, many for the first time via a Medicaid expansion late last year. So now current day, North Carolina is now up to nearly 450, 000 people who now have healthcare.

So. That's a good vibe. Anyone who has health care in this country, I'm like, okay, especially when they didn't have it before and because a policy was put in place that expanded their access to health care. Thank you. Don't stop. Never give up. 

Brian Derrick: Hold your head higher. Reach the 

Glennis Meagher: top. Reach the top. 

Brian Derrick: Thanks so much for listening and for reaching out.

You can totally send us a note via text by following the link at the top of our show notes. And if you send us a question, we might be able to respond on the pod next episode. Thanks again. Tune back in. Same time. Same place. 

Glennis Meagher: Vibes Only is a production of Courier, a civic media [00:32:00] company that protects and strengthens our democracy through credible, fact based journalism and seeks to create a more informed, engaged, and representative America.

Vibes Only is produced by Devin Maroney with support from Courier's Kyle Tharp, R. C. DiMezzo, and Daniel Strasburger. Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of Courier.

People on this episode

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Brian Derrick

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Glennis Meagher

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