Trump Campaign in Free Fall

While Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have stolen the spotlight in recent weeks, Trump is trying to recapture attention by any means necessary. So he finally re-agreed to the September 10 debate on ABC, and he broke his silence on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) which included a bizarre, rambling conversation between he and billionaire Elon Musk. 

Project 2025 is also back in the news this week as ProPublica found and published the training videos they produced to advise future Trump administration appointees on how to implement its radical agenda. We play out some must-hear clips from these truly shocking videos. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:14 Debate is On / Trump Campaign Flailing
• 12:51 Trump on X / Interview with Elon
• 19:28 Project 2025 Training Videos
• 31:35 IT'S GIVING
• 33:40 GROUP CHAT
• 37:00 GOOD VIBE GOODBYE

Transcript

Brian Derrick: [00:00:00] No AI generated crowd photos. 

Glennis Meagher: No 45 minute delays.

Brian Derrick: Just vibes. I'm Vibes president, Brian Derrick. 

Glennis Meagher: And I'm Vibes czar, Glenis Mahar. 

Brian Derrick: And this is Vibes Only, the one and only podcast that promises to check the vibes of American politics every week. And the vibes this week, 

TODAY Clip: Donald Trump overnight making a return to his old favorite megaphone, taking part in a streaming conversation on X with the site's billionaire owner, Elon Musk.

Brian Derrick: We'll discuss that so called interview and what it would mean for the race if Trump is once again a regular presence on the platform formerly known as Twitter. And 

TODAY Clip: after weeks of uncertainty, the stage is now set for a presidential debate showdown between Vice President Harris and former President Trump next month.

Glennis Meagher: We'll talk about how we finally supposedly got a debate locked and what it took for Trump to finally re agree to the next debate. And

Joy Reid: even more news about Project 2025 from ProPublica. Not only does the Heritage Foundation have a plan to remake America and a resume database for [00:01:00] volunteers, but they also have masterclass style video tutorials on how these folks can outwit bureaucrats, hide information from the public and implement their radical agenda without accountability.

Brian Derrick: We have to go through some of these Project 2025 training video "highlights" before playing an it's giving, pulling up our group chat and leaving you with a good vibe. Let's get into it. 

Glennis Meagher: Hey, Brian. How are you? 

Brian Derrick: I'm great. I'm having a banger week. What's your vibe? 

Glennis Meagher: My vibe is the DNC is a lot of work for all those who don't know. The DNC starts Monday.

Brian and I will both be there. And it's a really exciting time. The vibe for the DNC is like, Whoa, people are stoked. The energy is high. There's just a lot of logistics. So that's my vibe. 

Brian Derrick: I mean, the DNC vibes went from like. Do you have to go? No. Do you have to go? To now it's like, how can I get a ticket?

Who's going to be there on this day? Where can we meet up? Like [00:02:00] everyone is fighting to get in the door. It's going to be so lit. It's going to be really fun. 

Glennis Meagher: It's the hottest ticket in town, but conveniently for vibes only listeners, we're going to do a vibes only at the DNC. 

Brian Derrick: Can't wait. 

Glennis Meagher: Something else I can't wait for.

Brian Derrick: Oh my gosh, I am sitting here with a tub of buttered popcorn ready to go for the Trump Harris debate. 

Glennis Meagher: It is set for September 10th, 2024, which is the original date that ABC had already pre programmed based on their debate schedule. And you've made this point before that this is not, like, the debate Organization.

So it's a mission, right? Commission. Right. So we didn't know because, you know, Trump could just be like, I'm not showing up. And we had some discourse about Kamala should have just done a town hall, but we're going to get the real deal. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. And he still could, right? It's Trump. So we won't know until he literally steps up to that lectern, whether or not he is going to do it.

But the closer we get and the more [00:03:00] statements he makes that he does plan to attend, the worse it will look for him to bail. Like truly like he's running away. What are you most excited for in the debate? 

Glennis Meagher: Well, you know, the vice president has already said this multiple times, and we said this even before she became the candidate, she is a prosecutor.

That is what she has historically done. She knows her way around an argument and, you know, completing an argument well. I'm just looking forward to her owning Trump on the facts and really anchoring herself in the policy that she wants to, you know, put forth as president of the United States and, you know, and defending the last four years.

I just, you know, I think there was this collective trauma from Joe Biden's debate, and this is going to be a 180. 

Brian Derrick: For sure. I agree with that. I do think that it's a challenge for her, and the bar will definitely be really high for what she needs to do, especially because the tone of the campaign is like joy and [00:04:00] hope and these things.

And. A debate oftentimes lends itself to a sharper tongue, right? Like the moments that go viral from debates. Let's think back to the Republican debates from this year when it's like Vivek Ramaswamy getting viral moments from like going scorched earth on everyone under the sun. If we think back to 2020, the debates went viral.

Think about like Elizabeth Warren going after Mike Bloomberg, like the things that get play oftentimes are the attacks and those prosecutorial type moments, which I think she will excel at. Right. But she also has to manage to balance that with the message of her campaign, which is like, we're not going back.

Let's look to the future and bring hope and joy. back to the country. So she just has to do both. Not saying it's impossible, just that it is a big task. 

Glennis Meagher: It's a challenge. She'll have debate prep. She's already prepped. I just think of the clip of like, Mr. [00:05:00] Vice President, I'm speaking. 

Brian Derrick: Right. Right. 

Glennis Meagher: Speaking. 

Brian Derrick: I think we're going to get some more of that.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, don't don't come for us, Donald Trump. Do not. 

Brian Derrick: Where do you land on one debate versus three? Because we also should mention Trump is like trying to push her into a Fox News debate and potentially one other, um, with like live audiences, particularly for the Fox News debate that he can try to work to his advantage against her.

What are you feeling on? Should you do more or leave it at the pre agreed upon as an 

Glennis Meagher: athlete at heart? I'm like three debate. That's more opportunities to win, baby. Like, more opportunities to prosecute Donald Trump and to advocate for her presidency. 

Brian Derrick: Totally. 

Glennis Meagher: What do you think? 

Brian Derrick: I think, like, I think that the left does not make decisions based on ego.

And so she should not be goaded into, uh, Like pissing contest with Donald Trump of like, how many debates can we do? I think she should do the first one and see how it goes. If [00:06:00] it becomes a giant platform for Trump to like spew misinformation about the 2024 election and try to cast doubt on the election results before they.

Even before the first vote is cast, then I think she should really reconsider whether Fox News is going to be a helpful platform to have a conversation with him, and she shouldn't do that if he is as unhinged as he has been for the last two weeks, which we have to talk about, right? Calling her a bitch and rambling about things that are completely either lies or irrelevant or disinformation and shows how incoherent he's become, then yeah, let's do one every day from now through November because he's only digging himself a hole.

So let's see, let's see on September 10th what the vibe is and then go from there. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, I'm also just seeing here in the notes that not only is Trump pushing for a Fox debate, he's pushing for the Fox debate before the ABC debate, which to your point shows that Or perhaps is [00:07:00] indicative that people will most definitely tune in for the first one, right?

So that's going to get the most viewership. But let's talk about why Trump even agreed. Because I know he was like flip flopping. Will I, won't I? And now he's like, I will. Is this because his campaign is flailing a little bit? And he wants more air time. 

Brian Derrick: Oh, it's wild. The pivot that we've seen in the last two weeks or so, particularly since walls was announced Harrison walls, barnstormed the country to literally sold out arenas in every swing state.

Glennis Meagher: It looked like concerts. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, for real. It was giving. Renaissance vibes at these, did you see the clip of that kid singing? Not Like Us? Yes. Uh, the Kendrick Lamar song? 

Glennis Meagher: Yes. The little white boy. Okay. Sorry. Not little white boy, but young, young white man, but young white 

Brian Derrick: man in ge. It was in Georgia, I believe in, in at the Atlanta one.

Oh my gosh. And he was like going to ham to Kendrick Lamar. It was just such good energy. I [00:08:00] really, I love to see it. And that's been the sort of fun online part that we all get to enjoy. But the numbers under the hood tell an even bolder story about what's happening where Harris is now up in the blue wall swing States, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Trump in reaction to that seems to be.

really spiraling out of control where that we had this report come out. Like I said, that he's been calling her a bitch behind closed doors, which is not going to resonate with women who have ever been in a workplace. Yeah. I 

Glennis Meagher: was like, Alexa play Meredith Brooks.

Get like, get a grip. Come on. Heaven forbid a woman is direct, 

Brian Derrick: right? Totally. 

Glennis Meagher: It's I mean, to your point, women, we deal with this every single day in corporate America, men can be direct men can advocate in a, in a, in a way that has authority and a woman does it. And she's, she's a bitch. And it's like, [00:09:00] what?

Brian Derrick: Right. And I think that this is the pickle of the Trump campaign where, because he is so incoherent and off message. The more he's in the news, the more it hurts his standing in the race. And so it becomes a very difficult problem to solve because the answer in a normal situation would be get out there, hit the talking points, attack your opponent, sell your vision and try to muscle your way back into a lead position.

That's not very doable for Trump because As we've said, he is truly in a, what I would consider like a feedback loop of the worse he's doing, the more out of control he is, which drives worse numbers, which makes him spiral more. I mean, just in the last two weeks, he's defended the attackers on January 6th.

Again, 

Dan Huff: the hostages. We're 

Brian Derrick: calling them right. Exactly. Who he always refers to as like political prisoners and hostages. He gave a noncommittal answer [00:10:00] when asked whether he would ban medication abortion nationwide. He pretended like the thousands of videos and photos of Kamala Harris's campaign rallies were AI generated.

And fake, which is obviously outrageous. And there's literal 

Glennis Meagher: like frame by frame of like the same arenas of the Harris Walls rally versus like the Trump rally. And it's like 80 to one. 

Brian Derrick: The whole crowd size thing is insane. Uh, he said that Jewish people should have their head examined. That's a quote. If they don't vote for him, he said he was not a big fan of Biden's brain.

He's raised additional conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, said mail in voting should be ended while his own campaign promotes it, bragged repeatedly about his own crowd sizes using numbers that are contradicted by the media who attended the same events. So that's in a week, right? So this is a person who's in free fall.

Glennis Meagher: And is, like, wildly misogynistic and [00:11:00] homophobic and xenophobic. Like, it's all of these, like, pillars of hate that are combined with this, like, delusion that he has about his reality that you just listed from the past week. 

Brian Derrick: And, because I want people to understand this, and it's a really close election. And those might feel like completely contradictory things, but both are true.

And the reason is, most Americans, are not aware of this list, and most Americans do not read and pay attention to these things the way that we do and the way that the people listening to this podcast do. And so you have to remember that the average swing voter in Pennsylvania who might decide the entire election via the Electoral College probably doesn't know that most of this stuff is happening, and that's why we see this like weird incongruence between how the race should look and how it does.

Glennis Meagher: Some also don't care. Because Donald Trump represents the America that they want to see, but I want to hammer home that point. I want to [00:12:00] continue to talk about it over the next three months. It is a very close race. So even if Brian and I are on here, like talking shit about Donald Trump and saying how unhinged he is and all of these wackadoodle things that he's saying, it's still a very, very tight race.

Yeah. Period. 

Brian Derrick: Particularly in the Electoral College. I've never been more confident that Harris will win the popular vote by a significant margin, but that's not how it works. 

Glennis Meagher: And we'll do a, we'll do a vibes only episode on that just to like break it down. 

Brian Derrick: I would love that. I have some like wild scenario planning to dive into.

Glennis Meagher: That is, so I should get my go bag ready with my cliff bar. There's like, yeah, 

Brian Derrick: exactly. There's like some weird shit going on in Nebraska again that could end up being really important There's some weird stuff going on with the 12th amendment that could end up being really important. So maybe on a future app, we can do it.

Glennis Meagher: Let's talk about, we're going to stay on Donald Trump for one quick more minute because he's back on Twitter. Did you catch this? 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, [00:13:00] I did catch it, but only because I was looking for it. I don't think that it made the waves that the Trump Twitter announcement would have made in 20, 18 or 2019 when we all just sort of were at the mercy of his sticky little fingers on his iPhone 

Glennis Meagher: 12.

Brian Derrick: And Muslim bands and like all these things that he would just like remember just tweet out and then would become national policy. And like his own administration was like running to try to figure out how to do something that he decided at 3am was the right direction for the country. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, and Elon Musk, lest we forget, he owns Twitter.

So this was nothing short of just a political ad for Donald Trump. Judd Legume. Is that how you say his name? Sorry, Judd, if I'm calling you a bean and you're not. Judd Legume, who Brian and I have talked about his newsletter. I subscribe. I love it. It's called Popular Information. I would love to have him on the pod, actually.

He did [00:14:00] a newsletter on this. And he made the point of like, by Elon Musk buying this platform, it is only now just, you know, an opportunity for Musk to advocate for his political beliefs. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, it started over 40 minutes late, which was very reminiscent of DeSantis's campaign launch, which he also tried to do on Twitter X, whatever, and was also a complete failure.

So really a bad look for the company and the platform itself, which the 

Glennis Meagher: actual tech 

Brian Derrick: been struggling. But Yeah, I think that in thinking about why this is a close race, the second reason that always comes to mind is like, how many institutional and systemic factors are working together. openly or secretly in favor of Republicans and Trump.

And so to have what was what like the preeminent online forum for political conversation, openly supporting a candidate and instituting [00:15:00] policies and sometimes even violating those policies to advance the position of that candidate is like a very real factor to consider. I think about how the account white dudes for Paris.

Right. Was banned and like blocked and then frozen. And I think about how it was reported that Kamala's account was frozen. People were unable to follow the account for a period of time during the first like 24 or 36 hours after the launch of her presidential campaign. And so like these very real sort of saboteur like actions from a Huge platform, again, all working in Trump's favor, even though right now it seems like it's not enough to save him.

Glennis Meagher: No, and Musk has proven himself to be a conservative bigot. This is only in the last, like, month. Musk, he claimed that Walls mandated that schools provide tampons for boys in middle school. Not true. Tim Walls actually passed An amazing piece of legislation in Minnesota that required men, free menstrual [00:16:00] products, be available for students at schools, which is an amazing thing.

Menstrual products are expensive. He shared a doctored video of the VP calling herself the ultimate diversity hire. It was literally doctored, not real fake news. He attacked the VP for identifying herself to an audience that included blind and visually impaired people. So he mocked her for doing what one does, which is you, She said, I am Kamala Harris.

My pronouns are she, her, and I'm sitting at the table wearing a blue suit, which is how you can identify for the audience what they would be seeing. He also claimed that she shouldn't be president because she doesn't have children, unless we forget Elon Musk has children that he's disowned. So, Hmm. Hmm.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. So. Basically, Musk has been working in favor of Trump all along, and this is just the next natural step in his campaign activities, which was to host Trump for this live interview that they were claiming, and Trump's team was claiming, was going to be the interview of the century. Quite a [00:17:00] bold claim, especially when Oprah's still alive, but instead we kind of got this like, wackadoo.

Catch up between two drunk uncles, like where neither one of them was normal. You know what I mean? Like they were trying to outdo each other on who could be weirder and say more outrageous things. So the conversation was super rambly, but there were a couple of things that I would like to highlight.

Number one, Elon starts out by talking about the assassination attempt against Trump and specifically saying that that is why he is supporting Donald Trump, whether that's true or not. Yeah. I, I don't, I don't really buy, but it should be embarrassing even if it is true. The second thing was they did a weird bit on nuclear energy and how Musk was like, nuclear fallout is not really that big of a deal.

And like, did this weird dive into a topic that neither one of them seemed to be particularly educated about. Meanwhile, Biden's department of energy has like invested more in [00:18:00] domestic nuclear fuel supply chain than. administration. So even if that is the policy you support, you're talking to the wrong guy, right?

And then there was also this quip about free speech coming from Elon Musk, which is hilarious. Someone who openly just bans accounts on Twitter that he disagrees with saying that because he didn't shut down the media and didn't go shutter. The CNN offices. That means that Trump believes in free speech.

Elon Musk: I think it's obvious that you're, you're, you're a believer in an advocate of a free speech because during your first time as president, you were attacked relentlessly every day, often very unfairly with fault, you know, with false attacks and, and you didn't try to shut down the media. You didn't try to, uh, inhibit their freedom of speech.

And I think that says a lot. Which of course 

Brian Derrick: is preposterous. And Trump has done more to erode free speech and damage the credibility of reputable news [00:19:00] organizations than any other individual alive today. 

Glennis Meagher: Sounds like a really compelling conversation. 

Brian Derrick: It was not a total flop. As we said, I don't think that Trump is showing an ability to turn things around.

And if things continue to move in the same direction that they have the last two weeks, he's in serious trouble and his path to winning the electoral college will become narrower and narrower. 

Glennis Meagher: Good. Okay. Project 2025, Brian, we've talked about it a lot. On this pod and in the last couple of weeks, Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from project 2025, even though he a couple of years ago when I first started writing the project was at the, you know, inception and did a speech JD Vance, his own VP pick has written the forward to the book that is now being delayed to post election because the conservative movement saw the backlash that project 2025 [00:20:00] had.

just in the American consciousness because it is so deeply conservative. Well, we got a gift, which is all of their training videos were released or found by ProPublica. Found. 

Brian Derrick: They are insane. They're insane, right? We have to get into some of them. It is I know, there's no words. I was left dumbfounded after going through just clips, just clips of what they're saying.

There's like hours and hours of footage that this is something that an organization the size of The Heritage Foundation and all the Project 2025 coalition groups could stand behind and have a serious face. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, I'm a very pragmatic person and I tried to think, okay, what if training videos for CAP were released?

Brian Derrick: Center for American Progress. 

Glennis Meagher: Right. Like an organization that has, you know, democracy, you know, front and center doesn't compare these, these are, there's, there's [00:21:00] no world in which anything on, you know, center center left, if that were like found and released, by the way, they're probably all public anyway.

It's insane. Let's, let's get into it. 

Brian Derrick: I mean, to be clear, even a far left organization, if Justice Dems released their training videos, it would be like, here's how we get Medicare for all. Right. It would not be, here's how to hide your correspondence from accountability organizations. Here's how we're going to, um, eliminate, um, Best practices from government administration.

Like, it's like truly a how to destroy the government for dummies. And dummies are the only people that are going to be buying into this shit. It's nuts. So let's, let's dive in 

Glennis Meagher: the first one. I feel like level sets for the viewer, what, um, their, their framework is, which is before [00:22:00] they even get into a lot of the even more nefarious videos that they have.

They basically are like, if you're not on board with this stuff, sit it up, sit it out, 

Brian Derrick: get out, 

Glennis Meagher: get out. Like you don't have a seat at this table, 

Brian Derrick: kicking it off with Dan Huff, who was a legal advisor. In Trump's white house. So this is someone directly related to the previous Trump administration. And as you said, he's literally saying.

Dan Huff: So if you're not on board with helping implement a dramatic course correction because you're afraid it'll damage your future employment prospects, it'll harm you socially. Look, I get it. That's a real danger. It's a real thing. But please, Do us all a favor and sit this one out 

Brian Derrick: basically saying the quiet part out loud that they want to push things so far that anyone involved is going to become toxic.

Let's get into why because they cover in great detail what they are really asking these people to do. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. So this is a 50 minute Video that is [00:23:00] hosted by Bethany Cosma, and she was a conservative activist and former deputy chief of staff at the U. S. Agency for International Development in the Trump administration.

The video is called, which is like so camp and over the top, quote, hidden meetings, the monsters in the attic. What do you think the monsters in the attic could be? 

Brian Derrick: It's very cultish. 

Glennis Meagher: It's a video discussion that brings up left wing codewords, suppose it, left wing codewords, and biased language that future appointees should be aware of and root out.

So, we're talking about, like, Climate change. They talk about climate change a lot. She says in the video, 

Bethany Kozma: Climate change, allegedly, is everywhere. And if the American people elect a conservative president, his administration will have to eradicate climate change references from absolutely everywhere. Now, when I think of climate change, I immediately think of population control, don't you?

I think about The people who don't want you to have Children because of the impact on the environment. [00:24:00] Perhaps not everyone will make that connection, but after spending time in the international space trying to protect life, I can tell you that this is part of their ultimate goal to control people.

Brian Derrick: This is the perfect example of what Project 2025 is about. A normal presidential campaign runs on policy that the president can implement or that they will work with Congress to try to pass. What Project 2025 is about is all of the soft power and bureaucratic decision making that goes on in the government and how to systematically turn that to the far, far right.

And so in this particular clip, they are calling for every reference to climate change as a concept to be eradicated from every government document and agency that we would erase The [00:25:00] idea of climate change from the U. S. Federal government. That is the purpose of this. So it's not going to be a bill that goes to Congress.

It's not gonna be an executive order from the president. It's going to be a silent erasure of all of the science behind climate change. And this is why I have said for over a year that if you believe that climate change is an existential threat, Yeah. Or even just the most serious threat facing humanity at this point in time, you need to be all in on what was then Biden, now Harris, because this is a, this is, this will happen.

Like this, this is the plan. This is what will happen if Trump is elected. And it is a catastrophe for the climate. 

Glennis Meagher: And I don't want to pile it on, but when you combine that with what's happening at the stream core and you look at Chevron deference and that being overturned, and we talk about the EPA and the people who have the right or, you know, the, the authority to talk about pollution and [00:26:00] air quality.

And if that gets stripped from the hands of scientists, It's a full court press. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, next one. So this guy who's part of, he was the former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, but he's dressed like a monk from a Keanu Reeves film. 

Glennis Meagher: Can we take a beat on that?

I know this is like for our audio only listeners, but he literally, I thought he was a priest. He's a man of the, he's a man of the cloth. At least he is. 

Brian Derrick: The absolute barnburner comment from him was, 

Alexei Woltornist: The American people who vote for a conservative presidential administration, they're not reading the New York Times.

They're not reading the Washington Post. Actually to the contrary, if those outlets publish something, they're going to assume it's false. So the only way to reach them with any voice of credibility is through working with conservative media outlets. 

Brian Derrick: That should explain a lot about our current politics, because whether or [00:27:00] not you believe the New York Times has like a left leaning bias or the Washington Post even has a left leaning bias.

The idea that anything they publish is automatically a lie is how you end up living in the upside down and in a world of alternative facts where Donald Trump is your Messiah, right? Like that really explains a lot about 2024. I 

Glennis Meagher: wonder! If they like purposely chose him as the evangelist for this specific topic, because there is such a deep, you know, trust in religion in the, you know, Christian nationalist movement, just just saying bizarre, bizarre, 

Brian Derrick: bizarre, let's cap it off.

Glennis Meagher: This one's very ironic, given Donald Trump's specified documents. Legal troubles as I'll call them. Tom Jones, not to be confused with the beloved singer songwriter, but a former Senate investigator. And now he [00:28:00] runs the American accountability foundation. 

Tom Jones: You know, the adage we hear a lot now is like, wow, this meeting could have been an email.

Well, in the federal government, this email probably should have been a meeting because what you probably want to do is if you need to resolve something, it's probably if you can do it, it's probably better to walk down the hall. Buttonhole a guy and say, hey, what are we going to do here? Talk through the decision, work it out.

If you reduce it to writing, maybe you can protect it under some of these exemptions. But man, that's a lot of a fight. You're probably better off going down to the canteen, getting a cup of coffee, talking it through, and making the decision, as opposed to sending him an email and creating a thread that Accountable.

us or one of those other groups is going to come back and seek and you're going to have to explain why you're withholding it and you're going to fight in court. It's going to be a lot of expense. It's an email that's better resolved with a meeting. 

Brian Derrick: Can I put an exclamation point on that? This is the man who runs the American accountability foundation.

Glennis Meagher: I know. And [00:29:00] he's 

Brian Derrick: literally joining us here today to tell you how to hide from accountability. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Basically he's just saying, don't put it in writing because they're doing things that are illegal. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I think that when a core part of an organization's training involves how to hide your communications from public view, that should raise alarm bells with all of us.

Yeah. And this is also, I just want to point out, part of a larger trend of Republicans at every level of office around the country trying to hide more information about their communications their finances that pertain to how they get into office and how they behave when they are in office. It is a direct result of accountability organizations, nonpartisan accountability organizations using FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, requests, and other tools to try to bring into light what these electeds are doing and how these bills are getting passed.

And [00:30:00] when ALEC or a related dark money Uh, entity or organization or corporate lobbying arm drafts a bill and hands it to a legislator who they just got elected and says, pass this. We need to make more money like those. These are the types of things that bring that into the light and stop it from happening or get that person pushed out of office.

And so it's really a big deal. To try to have a concerted effort to push your policies to be more extreme as we saw in the climate reference here to purge anyone who will be a problem or an obstacle out of the administration like Dan Huff is talking about to only work with friendly media organizations who will not push Tough questions, and then to hide all of your internal communications about those efforts.

Is a literal roadmap to an [00:31:00] authoritarian government. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Unless you're a Nazi because they were actually meticulous with their paperwork, but that that's a conversation for another day, but yeah, it's, it's really scary. You know, we talk about it and it's like kind of camp and it's so over the top that it's like, what, but they'll do it.

They will do it. I mean, they've invested the money to do training videos. To make sure every single person they are hiring in that pool of 20, 000 pre vetted conservative staffers, they're watching those videos. There's 20, 000 people that are brainwashed to think these things. Take it seriously, please.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, we better.

Glennis Meagher: Trump's pulling out some old. 

Donald Trump: She wants, uh, no Merry Christmas, even. I just heard today she's a big fan of fighting no Merry Christmas. No, we're gonna have Merry Christmas, just like we got for everybody seven years ago. We brought it back. It was in deep trouble, we brought it back. It's 

Glennis Meagher: giving you needs to see a cardiologist.

For those who can't see that video, he's so red, he might have a circulation issue. 

Brian Derrick: It's definitely giving victimhood, [00:32:00] perpetually. It's like, Always, always, I'm the victim. If you're a Christian and thinking that you're being persecuted in the United States, get a grip. 

Glennis Meagher: He also ruined Christmas, lest we forget, when he called the seven year old and said, Are you still a believer 

Donald Trump: in Santa?

Because at seven it's marginal, right? 

Glennis Meagher: That was actually pretty funny when he did that. It was so dark and he's like, Negotiating with a seven year old about if they believe with believe in Santa or not, 

Brian Derrick: it's too much. 

Glennis Meagher: So Donald Trump also he's on the campaign trail, obviously. And he's trying to create some oppo against walls.

Who's perhaps one of the most likable people ever. And he's creating different worlds. 

Donald Trump: He has positions that are just not, it's not even possible to believe that they exist. Uh, he's going for things that. Nobody's ever even heard of heavy into the transgender world, heavy into lots of different worlds.

Brian Derrick: It's giving didn't prepare for the reading [00:33:00] challenge on drag race. 

Glennis Meagher: Literally, the library is not open with Donald Trump and the library typically is open for Donald Trump. So that's, you know, that's a real decline, a cognitive decline, I would say. Yeah. It's giving grasping for straws, like, come on, dude, what are you 

Brian Derrick: walls as the most radical left.

person that you've ever that you've quote like ever ever seen is hilarious to me like 

Glennis Meagher: yeah the the the hunter tim walz the hunter who owns a shotgun the most radical left get a grip 

Brian Derrick: heavy into lots of different worlds it's giving space explorer

Glennis Meagher: group chat i want to talk about something that's been going viral and this is not uh drag phobic but did you see jd vance in drag 

Brian Derrick: I texted Matt immediately, who, okay, if you're not online and did not see Matt XIV, as he's known on the socials, [00:34:00] posted a photo, obtained a legitimate photo of JD when he was in law school, fully in drag, in makeup, in a wig, in everything.

Some sort of frock dress situation. I don't know. It was like a 

Glennis Meagher: skirt and a top. It was. Yeah, yeah, 

Brian Derrick: yeah. Girl. 

Glennis Meagher: I'm kind of. 

Brian Derrick: I cackled. Oh, I cackled. 

Glennis Meagher: You know, I hate to bring them up, but I'm really curious what George Santos has to say about all this. 

Brian Derrick: I'm starting to think that Republicans do more drag than liberals because it's everyone.

It's everyone in a shake and go from party city. It's so funny to me. Of course, anybody who wants to do drag should do drag. No one's saying that they shouldn't. No one's saying that he should not have. We're just saying that it is. hypocritical AF to do drag yourself and then claim that people doing drag are groomers and pedos and all the crazy shit that Republicans spew about the LGBT community [00:35:00] at large and especially drag artists.

And so it's just like, Oh, that was so satisfying to see. And my thought immediately just went to like how dumb Trump feels having picked him and how damaging this is. is for the ticket overall with like key constituencies. 

Dan Huff: Um, 

Brian Derrick: because it underlines for the base, not for the swing voter, but for the base, what's one of their most potent like lines of attack, their obsession with like trans people in drag.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. The anti LGBTQ party line. Yeah. I had the same thought. Cause I'm with you. You want to do drag? Do drag. Just don't tell other people they can't and don't tell other people it's wrong. 

Brian Derrick: And also, like, you need a little help, you know? 

Glennis Meagher: Well, yeah, he definitely needs help. The it was a rough eyeline, I'll tell you that much.

But yeah, you have to wonder, like, most candidates get a very, very, very, very, very thorough vet. So [00:36:00] J. D. did not get that. 

Brian Derrick: Well, that's the crazy part is we didn't even talk about it, but Iran hacked the Trump campaign and released the oppo. It's, it's standard, the vetting, we'll call it vetting, but it's essentially like you do oppo on yourself in order to like vet a candidate.

Like what could they say about this person everywhere tweeted, whatever. They had a 270 page dossier. On JD van full of crazy shit that he's done and said, and so like there was ample material, but they definitely missed what is probably a printed photo from when he was in school, that someone like developed off of a camera or disposable camera or something and had in their house.

They missed the drag era. They missed JD's drag era in the off. Oh, 

Glennis Meagher: but you know what, Matt XIV, he, it wasn't the country of Iran. It wasn't their secret service or whatever. They're Internal whatever is it was Matt XIV broke the drag story. It was the 

Brian Derrick: gays. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah.[00:37:00] 

I'm obsessed with this headline that came out of the white house. This is our good vibe. Goodbye. I always rant that I feel the government waste taxpayer dollars. Well, Joe Biden's administration has answered my rant. This was the headline of the fact sheet. Biden Harris administration launches new effort to crack down on everyday headaches and hassles that waste Americans time and money.

Period. Literally eagle screech. Eagle screech that. Like, I am obsessed with this. 

Brian Derrick: It includes making it easier to cancel subscriptions and memberships with a single click. Making airline refunds automatic when they cancel your flight, allowing health claims to be submitted online, cracking down on the, like the customer service doom loops where you cannot get a real person on the phone.

Glennis Meagher: Literally the, the screaming into phone speak to representative Joe Biden administration is going to make that easier. 

Brian Derrick: And building in some [00:38:00] accountability for like chat bots, again, that just make things so difficult when they don't need to be in 2024, the year of our Lord. So I'm very behind this policy.

And it's one of the things that maybe people aren't going to vote based on, but like, is a real quality of life improvement if we can get all of this put into place and humming. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, they literally said Americans are tired of being played for suckers. Amen. Fly, eagle, fly. Let's go. 

Brian Derrick: And those are all the vibes this week.

Join us next week for a special episode from Inside the Democratic National Convention. In the meantime, send us a note using the link at the top of the description of this podcast. Or record a voice memo on your phone and send it to us at vibes at courier newsroom. com. You might have your voice memo played on the next podcast.

And finally, if you don't already follow the podcast on your platform of choice, Apple, Spotify, whatever it is, make sure you're following or subscribe to the show. So you don't miss any new episodes. Things are really [00:39:00] going to heat up between now and November. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch you next week.

Glennis Meagher: Vibes Only is a production of Courier, a civic media 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, Arcee D'Amezzo, and Daniel Strasburger.

Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of Courier.