Vibes Only
The polls are broken. The stakes are unprecedented. And the future of democracy, like it or not, hinges on one thing – VIBES. Vibes Only is here to check the vibes of American politics and break down the need-to-know news of the week. And while one of the two major parties in the country has overwhelmingly embraced a right-wing movement whose whole vibe is undermining democracy and social progress, it’s clear we need voices that can meet voters where they are and clearly and effectively call that BS out for what it is.
Co-host Brian Derrick has earned a reputation for his ability to break down political news and define the stakes to his sizable and dedicated social media audience. Co-host Glennis Meagher is a digital media savant who has built platforms to encourage millennials and gen z to engage with politics, some for the first time. Even when the news of the week could easily kill the vibe, Brian and Glennis are like those needed friends that have the unique ability to keep it real AND pull us out of a doom spiral.
New episodes of Vibes Only are available on Wednesdays wherever you get your podcasts.
Vibes Only
GOP Fully Embraces MAGA with Extremist Platform
This week, Brian and Glennis check the vibes of American politics as Joe Biden emphatically insists "I'm not going anywhere," while folks in DC and across the country continue to murmur. Meanwhile, the GOP announced its extremist agenda with a full embrace of MAGA, and Trump is likely on the verge of a VP selection.
They take on Project 2025's president who publicly fantasized about civil war in this week's IT'S GIVING segment, and they leave you with a good vibe.
Reminder that you can vote for Vibes Only at podcastawards.com in the Politics & News category and People's Choice!
Subscribe to Vibes Only wherever you get your podcasts! If you enjoy the show, spread the word! And please consider giving us a rating and review so others can find it.
You can WATCH full episodes of Vibes Only on YouTube.
Follow COURIER on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Facebook, and Twitter/X.
You can find out more about COURIER at couriernewsroom.com
Glennis Meagher: [00:00:00] No polls.
Brian Derrick: No pundits.
Glennis Meagher: Just vibes. This is Vibes Only, a podcast that promises to check the vibes of American politics every week. And the vibes this week.
Joe Biden: The bottom line here is that we're not going anywhere. I am not going anywhere.
Glennis Meagher: We'll check in on that storyline, which persists more than a week after Biden's debate performance.
Brian Derrick: Then we'll move on to the unprecedented stakes in this election as we take a look at the official GOP platform released this week.
Glennis Meagher: Stick around for an It's Giving, some group chat goss, and a good vibe goodbye. Let's get into it. Good morning, Brian.
Brian Derrick: Good morning, Gigi.
Glennis Meagher: It's hot. It is another hot one in New York.
Brian Derrick: Yeah, it's a scorcher and the tea is still piping.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, the tea's still piping hot, just like the weather. Let's talk about it. There's just been so much discourse since we last spoke on the same topic. And I think this is going to be going on until convention, especially because Joe Biden was like, challenge me, come for me.
And I was like, [00:01:00] no, don't say that, please. So what, let's talk about the vibe here. What's changed. What hasn't changed? How are we feeling?
Brian Derrick: Yeah, the July 4th holiday was a nice reprieve from the internet, much needed for me personally at least, but I think we all came into this week butts clenched because it's really high stakes, a lot of moving pieces, and it honestly feels like the vibes have shifted.
Hour by hour, based on the information coming out, as you just alluded to, Biden started the week with a bang. He released a letter that he sent to all the Democratic members of Congress that said, I'm here. I'm saying, get used to it. And then he went on morning Joe and did a. Phone appearance on morning Joe, which is a show we know he watches and sort of said that it's just the party elites and donors who want me out.
Glennis Meagher: Thank you so much for thinking all of these Americans are elites, but okay. I digress. [00:02:00] Sorry. Continue.
Brian Derrick: No, I'm happy to be, to be grouped in. He's definitely talking about me. Yeah. I think that the Biden campaign is. honest, it sees their best path forward as a very aggressive position of sort of daring people to come out against him publicly and making it harder, especially for congressional Democrats who have started, there's around a dozen or so who have started coming out in favor of him stepping aside, making it a harder political decision for them by applying pressure for them to fall in line.
And so We quite, we kind of have a crescendo right now where yes, in the donor space, but also in terms of polling and just the vibes that I'm hearing from people, there is this increasing desire with the convention looming for him to get behind somebody else. And then at the same time, they're increasing the pressure of saying, I'm not going anywhere.
One of the, these two [00:03:00] things. Has got to give.
Glennis Meagher: I know and I will, just before we get into it a little bit further, you and I, we always say, and we have said, and we'll continue to say, no matter what we are going to do everything in our power to get Joe Biden reelected. If he remains the candidate, period. If he's our guy, he's our guy, we will do the damn thing.
Period. But there are, I'm gonna go through some of the electeds who have come out over the last week with their concerns. Adam Schiff said that the performance rightfully raised questions about Biden's ability to campaign. Mark Warner, a Senator, was calling on Democratic Senators to convene this week to talk about President Biden's candidacy.
John Tester. I love John Tester. I used to work for the state of Montana. Great guy. He also went on the record and said that President Biden has got to prove himself to the American people. Yeah. So people are coming out and it's, I mean, More and more and I, and I have to think that there's more behind the scenes that are agreeing with these electeds who have come out publicly.
So [00:04:00] we'll see. Every day is a new day.
Brian Derrick: A lot of people are alluding to that. Ro Khanna, who's a congressman from California, just did an interview and he is saying like, yup, I'm kind of hearing different things from some members of Congress. Behind the scenes versus what they're saying publicly, I can personally attest, and we've talked about this, that it's the same in like the political operative world and some of the campaign staff, even in sort of Biden's atmosphere.
And then there's like the donor question of it all, which is another really important factor in the race. I was actually just on pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway specifically to talk about how donors are to this current debacle that we find ourselves in. Yeah, there's so there's a lot to dish on.
It's easiest to report about the really big donors because they get their quotes in the press, the press, like, really feeds on rumors about donors who write seven figure checks. And so, um, I do think that there's the most [00:05:00] information and it's the easiest to create a narrative around how really ultra high dollar donors are reacting, but I genuinely see a similar pattern across giving capacity.
So we'd like even lower dollar donors, grassroots runners, I think, are also weighing their options for how do we ensure that our democracy endures and we have the strongest possible chance to keep Trump out of the White House. A few of the noteworthy donors that have. Come out publicly as supporting an alternative path forward would be Ari Emanuel, who is the CEO of Endeavor, Netflix co founder, Reed Hastings, IAC chairman, Barry Diller, who's married to DVF.
And all of them have given millions of dollars to democratic causes and all are now saying that they're either pushing Biden to step aside or they're going to withhold further contributions until he does. So it's a game of chicken. In a big way, people hate to hear it. I work in campaign finance, so I've accepted the reality, but like it costs [00:06:00] hundreds of millions of dollars to communicate with hundreds of millions of people to win all of these races.
And it's not just the white house, but like to win all of these races. And so until we switch to publicly funded elections at some undetermined point in the future, It is part of the calculus that you have to fund these campaigns. And so it is important to think about like, how can we ensure that we have the resources that we need to win when the stakes are high.
Glennis Meagher: We talked about it a few weeks ago and how Joe Biden has used the money that he already raised. And now Donald Trump's raising might be too little too late because Biden has built like the, ground game infrastructure from that money on top of all of the money that needs to be raised for the ad spends to your point, communicate to those individuals in different states.
Brian Derrick: Yeah, I feel like the big themes that I'm seeing online are one, around logistics of like, is there enough time? How can it work? Like, can you get somebody else in? Can they use the money? All of those types of things. The second is around the primary [00:07:00] process of like, is this disenfranchising democratic primary voters who voted for Biden by switching sort of at the last minute?
And then the third one is around maybe ageism, which I find potentially the most frustrating. But Maxine Waters had a clip go very viral.
Maxine Waters: We're now at a point in time. Where people are talking about Biden is too old. Hell, I'm older than Biden. I
get up every morning. All right. And I exercise. All right. And I work late hours. All right.
Brian Derrick: And I'm like Wait, exactly. I feel like that's proving the point of it's not about his age. We're having a conversation about, is he the best person to prosecute the case against Trump? And so it has nothing to do with like, Oh, all 81 year olds.
Once you're 80 gotta go. Like, I don't hear people saying that
Glennis Meagher: we're not sending him to the home before the home. Like, frankly, he's like in it right now at the White House. [00:08:00] So, um, Yeah, I I'm allergic to that ageism argument.
Brian Derrick: We didn't even discuss the George Stephanopoulos interview. It had about 15 percent of the viewership of the debate.
And so it was higher than expected, but still like we're talking about less than 10 million people.
Glennis Meagher: It also wasn't live. It didn't serve the purpose it needed to serve.
Brian Derrick: It wasn't live and it didn't get to play online. Like how many clips did you see on socials afterwards?
Glennis Meagher: Nada.
Brian Derrick: Literally, literally none.
Like, like, it did not accomplish, I think, the goal that it set out to do. I saw it as sort of impact neutral. But what I am currently missing from Biden in this forceful, I'm not going anywhere, only God Almighty can convince me to drop, is the plan. Stay the course. is not the option that anyone is looking for.
We need a real pivot to show how you're going to reverse the current trajectory of the race because you're [00:09:00] losing and you're dropping in support currently. And so we need a plan for how you overcome that. Current trend, and that's what I'm not hearing is like, okay, we want live interviews every week. We want you to go on Fox news and prosecute the case against Trump.
We want more rallies that are unscripted, like show people that you're the guy. And that's what I am not seeing hearing getting from team Biden at this moment. It's more of like nothing to see here, move along. It's already done. Don't question it.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, totally. I mean, my strategy this cycle, and it has been even before the debate, is uplifting the amazing administration he has built out, reminding the American electorate that we hire an administration, not just a president, when we elect them.
them. So I think a lot of work needs to be done there from Team Biden around the [00:10:00] amazing like a lot of work needs to be done there around, you know, highlighting Pete Buttigieg, Miguel Cardona, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, Lena Kahn, like the list goes on. There's so many amazing people in the Biden administration.
Oh, and by the way, Kamala Harris, our VP,
Brian Derrick: that's where we have to go. We have to before we move on, we have we have to talk about our Vice President Kamala Harris. And
Glennis Meagher: I love her. Sorry. Sorry, world. I love Kamala.
Brian Derrick: I don't think that an apology or disclaimer is required. I think she's having a bit of a moment as people see her in a different light than we have the last three and a half years.
We know that the job of the vice president sucks. Like they're not. It's not your deputy chief of staff role or it's not like a VP role or Of a company where you have a vertical under you that you're responsible for. Let's be real. The VP is a plan B. That's why we have a vice president. And so you get a lot of words thrown at you and a lot of tasks get sort of [00:11:00] tagged to you, but you do not have authority to do anything more than represent what the president is, is really trying to do.
And so I think all of that works. against her over the last three and a half years as to how she's seen as being effective on some of the most difficult problems that our country faces. But I kind of think that she does have a unique quality and skill set for the moment that we're in.
Glennis Meagher: Kamala had a major, major, major moment online over the 4th of July holiday.
Kamala Harris: Sadly, the press has not been covering it as much as they should in proportion to the seriousness of what just happened. When the United States Supreme Court Essentially told this individual who has been convicted of 34 felonies that he will be immune from essentially the activity he has told us he is prepared to engage in if he gets back into the White House.
In 122 days, we each have the power to decide what kind of country we want to [00:12:00] live in. When there has been a full on intentional attack against hard fought, hard won freedoms and rights. When I talk about the family that raised me, Yes, they took me in a stroller as they were marching and shouting for justice, knowing that justice will not be achieved unless we are prepared to march and shout and fight for it.
And one of the ways we do that is through our vote.
Glennis Meagher: Uh, babe, you said someone needs to prosecute the case against Donald Trump. We have a killer prosecutor ready to go, ready to rumble. And to me, I haven't felt like excited about this opportunity, this election cycle really until that moment happened. And I kind of saw, whoa, there is something here, right?
And that's something I don't want to let go of yet. Because I think, you know, when you're so in the weeds, like we are, and we're so pragmatic in how we execute on our positions, it's refreshing to feel motivated and inspired again, in America, [00:13:00]
Brian Derrick: 1000%. If you think back to the episode that we did talking about the Drew Barrymore appearance, and
Glennis Meagher: that was like, that was like cringe.
It was like Drew got a grip.
Brian Derrick: But it's exactly what we said was, we don't want Mamala. We want Prosecutor Kamala. Like, that is when she's the best, is Judiciary Committee Kamala. And that is the person that we want to see on the campaign trail, whether it is as leading the ticket or as Vice President. But like, that's the person who we need in this moment to more forcefully make the case against Trump than Biden is currently doing.
Right. And to be clear, like, we're almost There in the sense that this, this conversation will be over in a month at most, and we will have a straight line of sight to November and it will be all hands on deck at that point in time.
Glennis Meagher: All hands on deck.
Do you know that song?
Brian Derrick: No, it's giving girls aloud.
Glennis Meagher: No, it's Tinashe.
What? Wait, can I play it really fast for you? [00:14:00] Really fast so you can hear that it's a real song. Okay,
I had to fact check that because I can't let my girlie pops down. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break and then we're gonna fill you in on everything that we are up against this election cycle.
Brian Derrick: Do you know Lee McGowan, the person people call politics girl on Instagram? She's the woman online always talking to us from her kitchen. I absolutely love her videos. And she's the host of the Politics Girl podcast, which is amazing. Every week, Leigh deep dives into the issues affecting America and its people.
It's not the news, it's the big picture, what it means and why you should care. Leigh breaks down complicated topics conversationally, so you can understand what's going on and be able to speak to it. There's no fancy talk, no big words, and she gets the best guests. Ultimately, the goal is for you to leave the podcast feeling smarter than when you came in.
Honestly, this is the stuff that matters. New episodes drop [00:15:00] every Tuesday. Listen to the politics girl podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your pods. I know your time is limited, but if you spend it with Lee, she'll make sure it's worth it.
Glennis Meagher: The RNC. Did you see they announced their like thematic whole of the convention?
Brian Derrick: Tell me. Okay.
Glennis Meagher: So it's by day Monday, make America wealthy. once again. Tuesday, make America safe once again. Wednesday, make America strong once again. Thursday, make America great once again.
Brian Derrick: Wait, what is this once again? Since when is it once again instead of just again?
Glennis Meagher: Well, I think because they're alluding to it was all of those things when Donald Trump was the president.
Brian Derrick: It kind of sounds like whimsical. So what's the new what's it's not MAGA anymore. It's my gal. Make America Great Once Again, McGow!
McGowa, McGowa.
McGowa?
Glennis Meagher: Um, okay. It's so funny, Make America Wealthy Once Again, Trump, like, added seven trillion [00:16:00] to the national deficit.
Brian Derrick: Well, I feel like that is saying the quiet part out loud, because they're talking about making a very specific group of people wealthy. He's promising trillions of dollars in giveaways. To billionaires and oil execs. Like that's where the money is flowing to. So that's an interesting choice to call attention to his tax policy, which is extremely unpopular.
Glennis Meagher: Right, right. They also announced their platform and it truly just reflects MAGA and Donald Trump. I'm going to go through some of the other RNC platform proposals. Scare me. Yeah. And I, they're not just scare tactics. Like they have what it takes to actually make this law of the land. If Donald Trump gets.
So it calls for the largest deportation in American history. This is in line with everything Donald Trump is saying against like the other, the, the migrant, remember the Muslim ban?
Brian Derrick: That's coming back for sure. No, no question. If, if he is, these, these are the type of types of things that we should be the most concerned about this along [00:17:00] with like deploying the U S military, I think, because there are things that the president can do unilaterally without Congress and some of the other type like legislation would actually require Republicans to have a majority in the Senate and House as well, which is possible, but not guaranteed.
This is something that Trump can do. And probably our listeners are not fans of deporting tens, 10 plus million people, um, dreamers included who have been in the country for their entire lives. Maybe some people in your life are, or like are more concerned about the trends in immigration over the last couple of years.
But I think when people think about what they're That kind of mass deportation effort looks like they might feel differently. We're talking about sending Border Patrol into cities across America, rounding people up in raids, putting them in camps and shipping them, many of them to countries that they've never been in or haven't lived in for potentially decades.
And so the [00:18:00] reality of that, it's a nightmare. It truly will horrify America to watch it happen in real life.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And my initial reaction is like, that's not America, you know, that's not America. Donald Trump wants to build an iron dome over the U. S., which if you recall, I think he still thinks it's an actual dome, like a stadium that closes over a country.
He wants to deport pro Hamas radicals. And I know that there's a lot of criticism to be had about, like, state and campus and federal responses to the pro Palestinian protests in this country. And it's not a lesser of two evils argument at all. It's just, this is the reality. You won't have the right to protest under a Donald Trump second term.
They will come for you.
Brian Derrick: That sort of ties into Trump has explicitly promised to deploy the US military domestically to quell protests, as well as to enforce. They see as the law in cities like New York [00:19:00] and Chicago and Seattle and San Francisco, which I can just imagine means like rounding up homeless people, people suffering from addiction and putting them in prison.
I'm not really sure what would even happen, but it is very reminiscent of Kent State. To me, that's what is sort of pushing toward, and it could be a worst case scenario for grassroots movements, whether it's about Israel and Palestine or another issue, to have that very chilling effect of deploying the U.
S. military to college campuses.
Glennis Meagher: They want to cancel Biden's electric vehicle initiatives, which provide thousands of dollars of tax credits to those who are buying electric vehicles, which is like, okay, we already knew you didn't care about the environment, but just confirm that for us.
Brian Derrick: Did you see the people to judge takedown of that congressman?
Scott Perry: Now, recognizing that attempts to bribe the industry and the public into V, EV adoption have literally [00:20:00] failed at this point. Is there some point where you will stop, where the administration will stop, where the federal government will stop this requirement and let the market decide as opposed to this central planning model
Pete Buttigieg: and this dictatorial policy?
Well, thank you. Uh, given time is limited, I will confine myself to addressing the factually incorrect portions of what you have said. There is no mandate. You can purchase a gas car if you want to pay, uh, uh, gas prices at the pump. But if you don't, you can purchase an EV.
Brian Derrick: Ooh!
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, it was it's great. And just again, when we elect Or hire a president.
We are electing and hiring this administration also, including Mayor Pete. I'm a big Mayor Pete fan. Everyone should follow him on social media. He has a really effective social media account. They want to cut funding for woke public schools. And I'm dying to know, what is the criteria by which you decide a public school is woke?
Brian Derrick: No, all of them. They want to eliminate the Department of Education.
Glennis Meagher: Oh, okay. So goodbye. It's all,
Brian Derrick: it's all of them. They, they're literally trying to gut all public school [00:21:00] funding.
Glennis Meagher: Cool.
Brian Derrick: I have to mention, and in Oklahoma, there's ongoing litigation right now where they're trying to set up the first religious public school, explicitly Christian public school.
Glennis Meagher: Well, okay. So in Louisiana, they now by law have to have the 10 commandments displayed in every classroom. And then in Oklahoma, they are trying to get like the Bible as a historical document. They want to block trans women from competing in sports.
Brian Derrick: It's like a red herring kind of argument that they have found can boost their base and like rile people up, but it's not a real issue and is not something that, especially in grade level sports, there's like a handful.
of trans women competing in sports in each state. Like, it's just not something that has historically been a real issue on the ground for parents in schools. It's like, it's just a political cudgel.
Glennis Meagher: Totally. This one is truly LOL. They want to force patriotism on college campuses. Like, what? My issue with [00:22:00] this is, like, Republicans and conservatives don't get to define patriotism.
Totally. So, don't force feed me your perverted patriotism that is actually just, like, MAGA, alt right Christianity. It's not the same.
Brian Derrick: Yeah, I don't even know what that looks like. Exactly. It's gonna be,
Glennis Meagher: like, Who's going to be the Goebbels or whatever of literally it's like Nazi adjacent that they're going to have like a propaganda minister on patriotism on college campuses,
Brian Derrick: right?
It's going to be those little white boys in their masks that march around. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Glennis Meagher: So lame. And this is they continuously want to disenfranchise. Americans, they want to move elections to paper ballots with same day voting, and you have to have proof of citizenship in order to vote, which is just a disenfranchisement 101 tactic.
Brian Derrick: Paper ballots and hand counting votes. are less accurate than the technology that we have developed to do that. There are [00:23:00] many studies that show that. That's literally why we have it. And then you also, it's laughable that the same people who are now demanding that, I don't know, potentially 5, 10, 50 million votes get tabulated by hand are the same people who demand results on election night.
Or else it's sketchy and seen as fraudulent in some way that they're counting votes for days. And so which do you want? Do you want the results quickly or do you want accurate results? Because you cannot have five million votes counted by hand in three hours on election night and have your announcement by midnight.
It doesn't work that way.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. So this is just a portion of their platform. We're not telling you all of these things. to scare you. They're not fear tactics if it's reality. So just keep that in mind as we continue to have this dialogue about the 2024 election that Republicans are not here to play. They are here to instill super [00:24:00] conservative values throughout America.
Brian Derrick: We've talked about it before, but Elections are choices and the most effective type of messaging around elections is contrasting between the two choices. And so as you are having conversations with friends about what this election is about, it's helpful to have the information and always deliver it in that format of this is what one side is about and pushing for, this is what the other side is about and pushing for.
We cannot wait to bring you the DNC platform as it is finalized. The other major news. That could be dropping literally any moment is Trump's VP pick.
Glennis Meagher: Wow.
Brian Derrick: Wow, Mary. Um, Is that from,
Glennis Meagher: oh, Mary?
Brian Derrick: No, that's from me right now. Wow. The, the mentions that Omeri is getting on the pot are wild.
Glennis Meagher: I need a ticket. I want, I want a ticket to Omeri.
Brian Derrick: We will continue to push Omeri for tickets. Dear listeners.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: Okay. So Trump has really narrowed the list, of course, [00:25:00] to all men. The top three contenders right now are J. D. Vance, Senator from Ohio, Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida, and Doug Burnham, Governor from North Dakota. Who do you think it's going to be and why?
Okay. And. When are we going to hear because it is clock is ticking.
Glennis Meagher: I think it's going to be Marco Rubio because Florida.
Brian Derrick: Same are
Glennis Meagher: people. I don't like him, but I think that in the Republican establishment, he's very respected and I think that he's, I'm using air quotes, even if not in like practice, I think his vibe to like establishment Republicans who are not super mega is that he's like more traditionally Republican than a Donald Trump mega.
And I, I think that maybe the Trump team thinks that they can. He can help get some of those people who might be noodling over. I also think there might be some concern on the conservative Republican side about the ballot prop in Florida, and that might pivot people to vote Democrat at Top of Ticket. So they're using this as an [00:26:00] opportunity to There's two ballot props that I think, the marijuana and the abortion, that they think, well, that could maybe push more people to vote Dem.
So that's my Marco Rubio hunch.
Brian Derrick: I feel like that choice makes a lot of sense. I've been hearing from people if Trump is worried about his chances in November, he will pick Rubio. If he thinks he has it in the bag, he's gonna pick J. D. Vance. J. D. Vance is definitely his preferred bro to vibe with in the White House, no doubt.
J. D. Vance is literally cut in Trump's image. Totally. He was a never Trumper and now will do anything for Trump's attention. And, Adulation, whereas Marco Rubio brings a totally different constituency. I think that he could be really helpful with this push that Republicans are making for Latino voters, which is really important to the future success of their party.
They cannot continue to win even in many of the places that they are winning right now, long term, if they do not diversify their 96 percent white coalition. And so, One [00:27:00] of the challenges, Rubio would be a very smart choice, but one of the challenges with his residency is that the 12th amendment says that the president and vice president cannot be from the same state or that state is not eligible to like cast votes in the electoral college.
And so, Whoa, I didn't know
Glennis Meagher: that.
Brian Derrick: If it were Rubio, then Trump or Rubio has to establish residency outside of Florida or they cannot win Florida's electors. And that would be a challenge. Potentially catastrophic for, for their path to victory to 270.
Glennis Meagher: Wow. That's an interesting, fun, constitutional fact that I did not know.
A
Brian Derrick: little tidbit.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: So we will see Trump is speaking at a rally in Florida tonight, Tuesday night, when we're recording this. And potentially we could get a pick tonight, but I think that he might even wait a couple days and do it at the convention for additional views and attention. They're hard to say.
Maybe we'll know going into the convention instead.[00:28:00]
Glennis Meagher: Hi, listeners. We wanted to loop you all in on a podcast from our friends at Girl on the Gov that's focused on humanizing candidates and elected officials through candid combos. Not so shockingly, the podcast is named Girl on the Gov, the podcast, and it's hosted by Sammy Cantor, the blonde, and Maddie Medved, the brunette, who hand the mic to movers and shakers every Wednesday to discuss politics, pop culture, and everything else in between from their POV.
It's a little bit Alexis! Kidding, but it is a little bit keeping up with the candidates meets getting to know who elected officials are from their off hours and alongside digestible policy analysis to keep you informed on the latest. Tune into episodes with Rep Colin Allred, who is looking to boot Ted Cruz from a job.
Will Rollins, who's running to flip a seat in Southern California and almost 250 other episodes anywhere and everywhere you get your podcasts and watch the show on YouTube. Okay, so it's giving Brian, we're going to look at something a project [00:29:00] 2025. It's giving, let's see.
Kevin Roberts: We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless.
If the left allows it
Brian Derrick: to be.
Glennis Meagher: What?
Brian Derrick: It's giving Is that a threat?
Glennis Meagher: It's giving You're gaslighting me? The left never wanted to take up arms. The right does.
Brian Derrick: It's kind of giving Marvel villain. It's kind of giving Civil War coming to a theater near you. Summer 2025. Like, that's I didn't see
Glennis Meagher: that movie.
Brian Derrick: No one did.
But now they're trying to reenact it. IRL.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: I mean, it's giving done, done.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Did you see that right stuff guy on Tik TOK? So he's the guy who started the conservative dating at the right stuff. Who's now also become the spokesperson for project 2025, who also used to be Donald Trump's bad boy in the white house.
He did this like face camera. He does a bunch of them, but, or he said that on 4th of July, Americans who don't support the second amendment aren't allowed to celebrate it because. They wouldn't have fought back [00:30:00] against the British. And I'm like, babe, I would have fought back tooth and nail, but a shotgun from 1775 is markedly different than you and your conservative loser group of whatever wanting Larry to have a bump stock that really chat my ass.
Don't tell me I wouldn't have fought back against the British. And by the way, it's the, it's the French who saved us in the end.
Brian Derrick: You would have been great. I'm positive that you would have been awesome. I mean, it's giving project 2025 like press tour. It feels like he's intentionally leaking information about this future.
Like, Oh, we're going to announce the second civil war coming to you 2025. Like. That's a crazy thing to be threatening pre election.
Glennis Meagher: And it's not a joke. It's serious. They are 1, 000 percent serious. Ron DeSantis has a private army in Florida that he [00:31:00] has that is to uphold election results. Like, that's part of its purpose.
It's like essentially a private militia. It's like, they are 1, 000 percent serious and they are, I can't even talk about it. It's like, it's like freaky deaky. It's like, Real. And I know we like joke about it and we're like, it's giving loser cause they are losers, but it's also like, it's giving, they're going to come knock, knock down your door in six years.
If Donald Trump wins.
Brian Derrick: Yeah. It's giving high stakes election.
Glennis Meagher: Yes, for
Brian Derrick: sure. We'll be talking more about them and their plans for project 2025 in probably our next app, because there's a lot for us to dive into there.
Glennis Meagher: So tune in
group chat, Brian. I have exciting news out of New York city. I haven't sent this to anyone yet, but, uh, I did see it on the interwebs and it's kind of half comical and half like really good. We're changing our trash protocol in New York. So anyone who's visited New York [00:32:00] knows on trash day, especially in the summer.
One, plug your nose. Two, you gotta have fast feet. You gotta be twinkle toes because you are dodging master splinter. Like, the amount of rats that are running out of these bags is absolutely unhinged. To the point where the sanitation commissioner hired a rat czar whose sole job was to begin to eradicate the rat problem in New York City.
So, Mayor Eric Adams, the king of the nightclub, he did a little presser.
Literally, I love that, it's so deeply unserious. It's
Brian Derrick: literally a clip of Mayor Eric Adams at Gracie Mansion rolling out a garbage can and putting A big garbage bag in it while Empire State of Mind plays to like the glory of New York City.
Glennis Meagher: New York City is the greatest city in the world. How do we not have trash cans [00:33:00] yet?
Like mandated trash cans.
Brian Derrick: Bananas that it took him three years. He's been in office for three years. He was elected in 2021. I'm going
Glennis Meagher: to be fair here. This is not just an Eric Adams thing. Where was everyone else? Why is this only happening in 2024, the year of our Lord, to put, do you have an answer? Yeah.
Brian Derrick: Well, yes, I, I think that it has been a problem for a long time and people have always complained about trash being left out on the streets in New York instead of having a proper system. But it got way worse during the pandemic and it was a main issue of the 2021 mayoral race as to how we were going to solve it.
And it's something that he ran on. And so the fact that we're getting the solution two years later and it literally the solution is garbage cans. Like what were you doing?
Glennis Meagher: Same garbage cans that you have like Everywhere else. At your parents house that you roll out for, you know, county waste to come pick up.
Brian Derrick: Right. It's very, a day late and a dollar short, but like, [00:34:00] sure, let's see. Let's see. I'm
Glennis Meagher: happy. So, anyway, that was big news that we're finally going to have trash cans in New York City. Yeah. What else was in your group chat?
Brian Derrick: A lot of Biden content. I've gotten texts from people that I haven't heard I've heard from in like years about the Biden stuff.
So that's definitely dominated the group chat. I was at our good friend Emily Amick's book launch last
Glennis Meagher: night. The pub day is today. Democracy in retrograde. Buy it at all your bookstores.
Brian Derrick: And then of course it was the July 4th holiday and my other sort of group chat was about the vast differences in reactions to July 4th, particularly if with people who are left of center.
I always post something about how patriotic. I am and feel and how proud I am to be American. And then I always have lots of friends who post the exact opposite content. And I think that that's part of the beauty of being American and that we're allowed to say those things without fear of someone showing up at your door.
But yeah, that caused a lot of conversation in my chats [00:35:00] as well.
Glennis Meagher: Two more things that you and I were talking about, cause I don't want the vibes community to forget that Brian and I are footy heads and there was some really awesome soccer on this weekend that we were texting about in the euros. And there's a new reality show I want to tell you about that I got hooked on in the last 48 hours.
It's on Peacock. It's called, so this is for reality people who just like to have a smooth brain at the end of the day. It's called Love Undercover. And it is like five really famous soccer players from Europe. Come to L. A. And they date like L. A. Women, but they're undercover. So they have these covers because Americans
Brian Derrick: don't know anything about your V and soccer.
Yeah, they're like, they're like some of the most famous people in the world.
Glennis Meagher: Totally. And the editing on the show is so funny because they just make the whole thing a joke. And it's really, it got me. So if you need to detach from the political reality of America and you want to watch something that's just L O L love undercover.
It's on Peacock. I'm cracking up watching it.
Brian Derrick: Oh, I am [00:36:00] intrigued. I am intrigued and I normally am not a reality TV person.
Glennis Meagher: It's, it's really camp.
Brian Derrick: Survivor doesn't count because that's art. Two other quick reminders before we go, you can cast a ballot right now. If you go to our show notes and click on the link, you can vote for us for best political and news pod at podcastawards.
com. It would mean a lot. Last week was one of our biggest episodes. ever. And we continue to grow because you all are supporting Daring Pod with your friends and posting about it on social media. I saw so many awesome DMs and tags last week. So please continue to do that. And then one weird thing before we go,
Glennis Meagher: Ooh, I love weird.
Brian Derrick: Did you see that Billy McFarland who just got out of jail for defrauding thousands of people into the fire fest
Glennis Meagher: is
Brian Derrick: now working for the Trump campaign
Glennis Meagher: that tracks. That makes
Brian Derrick: sense. Things that make sense. That makes sense. He literally scammed
Glennis Meagher: people out of money. He put them in a dangerous situation in the Bahamas.[00:37:00]
He and Trump are cut from the same. Yeah. I
Brian Derrick: was going to say, if you take out Bahamas, you could be talking about either one of them. Totally. He's now working for the Trump campaign, connecting them with rappers. Waka Flocka Flames has come out in support of Trump. I don't know if there's a connection there or not, but like, there seems to be some sort of strategy in this rapper community to try to make inroads.
I'm guessing with African American voters, but like, yeah, just in case you needed this timeline to be a little bit more unhinged. Now we have the Billy McFarland Trump crossover that absolutely nobody was asking for.
Glennis Meagher: I have an idea. Let Billy McFarland plan a fire festival for conservatives and have it be like in an island in the middle of nowhere and let's just leave them to figure it out.
I'm down.
Brian Derrick: Lots of unhinged vibes. Should we send them off with a good vibe?
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, this is a holistic good vibe. You know, every month you hear the jobs report, the jobs report, and I'm like, okay, girl, go off. Uh, the June jobs report, 206, 000 jobs were created last [00:38:00] month. So this is a record 15. 7 million jobs that have been created during the Biden administration.
And this is the highest share of working age Americans in the 20 years. So Americans with jobs is a good thing. So it's a good vibe.
Brian Derrick: Definitely. And it's always tricky to tie big major economic indicators like jobs reports to the president because you can only control so much. But we can say that there has been direct investment from this administration via the Chips and Science Act and via the Inflation Reduction Act into bringing back industries.
That really have suffered not just since the pandemic, but over the last decade plus. And so seeing the return of those jobs is a huge win for the administration. Definitely something that Biden will run on. Vice president Kamala Harris was celebrating this investment when she said that it's going to help ensure that the benefits of the industries of the future.
From artificial intelligence and clean energy to biotechnology and more are shared with communities that have been overlooked for far too long. So [00:39:00] making sure that this AI boom and the associated tech that is really lifting up the stock market and creating all these jobs and things is actually going to benefit everyone and not just a handful of people at the very, very top.
Glennis Meagher: Amazing. Those are all the vibes this week. Thanks for listening. We hope that you are all taking care. We know that Things are heating up and the stakes are so serious. Many of you are scared, and we get it, but we hope that you get some reprieve and that you ultimately turn that fear into something productive.
We all have a part to play in preventing the worst come November. Finally, don't forget to vote for your favorite political and news podcast at podcastawards. com. Thanks again, and join us again next week to check the vibes.
Brian Derrick: Vibes Only is a production of Courier, a civic media company that protects and strengthens our democracy through credible, fact based media.
Based journalism and seeks to create a more informed, engaged and representative America. Vibes Only is produced by Devin Maroney with support from couriers Kyle Tharp, R. C. DeMezzo and Daniel Strasburger. Tara McGowan is founder [00:40:00] and publisher of Courier.
