Vibes Only

Gerrymandering Just Cost Dems 5 House Seats

• Vibes Only • Season 3 • Episode 2

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0:00 | 41:04

Brian and Glennis are back in studio for week two and a lot just happened. Trump's economic disapproval hit 70%, the highest of his political career. Inflation jumped to 3.8%. Gas hit $4.50 a gallon. The Supreme Court greenlit racial gerrymandering as long as you call it partisan. Five states moved to redraw their maps in seven days. And the President of the United States looked into a camera, on his way to Marine One, and said "I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."

In this episode, Brian Derrick (Political Strategist and Founder of Oath) and Glennis Meagher (Political and New Media Strategist and Co-founder of Generator Collective) walk through the economic data dump that should be the only thing Democrats talk about: the biggest monthly jump in credit card debt since the pandemic, a savings rate at its lowest level since 2022, consumer sentiment cratering, and 80% of Americans saying Trump's policies are driving up the cost of living in their communities. While he spends a billion dollars on a gold ballroom and proposes a $1.5 trillion military budget, the largest in U.S. history and more than the next ten countries combined.

Then the redistricting wave. Brian breaks down all five fronts. The Supreme Court ruling that opened the door. The Virginia Supreme Court body blow that overturned a ballot measure passed by voters and cost Democrats four seats. Tennessee breaking up the city of Memphis. Louisiana pausing a primary 40,000 votes in to redraw the map. Alabama getting a green light to eliminate its only majority Black district. He pulls out the board and walks through the math: Democrats are likely down five additional seats before a single vote is cast, which means flipping the House is now an eight seat lift, not three. The path is still there. He explains why.

Plus the bombshell that Iran still has 90% of its missile capacity after $70 billion in U.S. bombing. The Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel circus on Capitol Hill (including Patel demanding $21 billion for the FBI while polygraphing his own agents over leaks). The unconstitutional War Powers Act workaround the Trump administration is trying to pull. The California gubernatorial jungle primary heating up between Tom Steyer, Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter, and Matt Mahan. And the Nebraska Senate move where a Democrat won her primary specifically to drop out and clear the path for independent Dan Osborne, after Pete Ricketts tried to buy the seat by recruiting a fake MAGA Democrat to split the vote.

Also: Glennis recounts sitting ten feet from JD Vance and Kash Patel at a USA hockey game in Milan with effectively no security, the Mitch McConnell Capitol Hill moment that even Brian is calling elder abuse, Spencer Pratt running for LA Mayor as a 9/11 truther, the leaked Sam Altman texts that have now turned "directionally very bad" into a meme, and Glennis pitches a startup idea live on the pod called facial DNA.

The midterms are six months out and the receipts are piling up - stick with us.

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Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick (Political Strategist and Founder of Oath) and Glennis Meagher (Political and New Media Strategist and Co-founder of Generator Collective), two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week for you in terms of politics, elections, and culture. Consider us your weekly pause from doomscrolling and consultant-speak, just some solid vibes (and receipts) every Thursday morning.

GLENNIS:

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN:

Well, Is it?

GLENNIS:

We've had a crazy morning.

BRIAN:

We've had a crazy week. So much has happened since we recorded last time.

GLENNIS:

Really?

BRIAN:

At least I get to be here with you in person.

GLENNIS:

It's true. You know, community is important, Brian. These times. I will say my commute this morning was shockingly easy. It never really happens where you show up right on time when the bus arrives, and there's a cool breeze, and there was no line for the coffee, and I was like, "Today's gonna be a great day." It's all about mindset.

BRIAN:

Absolutely. I'm gonna channel a little bit of your mindset this morning.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. Namaste. We gonna talk about hantavirus?

BRIAN:

Hantivirus. You didn't like that joke.

GLENNIS:

Cut that. Uh- Well, first thing, before we dive into the news of the week, I don't know if it's all over your For You page, but the United States kind of had a freak-out about the hantavirus.

BRIAN:

Did we?

GLENNIS:

You know what happened.

BRIAN:

Tell me.

GLENNIS:

You know how we, you and I have both been to Patagonia?

BRIAN:

Yes. So

GLENNIS:

this was, like, one of those excursion cruises. So everyone thinks it's like a Carnival Cruise. No, it's, like, people who are on a bucket list cruise, and they were doing, like, bird watching and going to all of these, like, places, and someone at some point picked up the-

BRIAN:

Someone slept in a cave full of rat poo?

GLENNIS:

No, it's the Andes virus. I looked into it, obviously, because famously I had an email back and forth with my landlord when I had a mice problem saying that I would sue when I got hantavirus.

BRIAN:

That is very on brand for you.

GLENNIS:

Then he wrote this whole long thing that was like, "Hantavirus is actually very, very rare." The only thing I'll say about it is, like, United States of America, there are Americans who, who were on the ship, but they're now in Omaha, Nebraska, in the only government-funded, like, quarantine center. They'll be there for 42 days.

BRIAN:

Strange place to do that.

GLENNIS:

I know. We were slow to respond because Donald Trump left the WHO, so we're not in the loop. And I looked it up. He's, like, defunded the CDC upwards of $11 billion, so.

BRIAN:

Yeah. NPR did do a story about how his funding cuts had specifically hurt hantavirus treatment research that was going on. Yeah. So to the people who have died, sorry.

GLENNIS:

No, honestly, rest in peace. It's horrific. Yeah. And Donald Trump yet again has proven to us that we are, because of his leadership, grossly unequipped to handle.

BRIAN:

Well, we're also poor because we have a ton of new economic data. We will get to that. Let's start with redistricting, because it has for sure been the story of the week. We got some crazy updates on that front. It feels like it's been going on for over a year, and we get, like- Yeah ... one big thing a month, and then we got five in a week. To quickly recap for people. Yeah. First, we got the Supreme Court decision saying it's fine to racially gerrymander as long as you say that it's for partisan gain. And then we got brutal news from the Virginia Supreme Court, who overturned the will of the people to redistrict mid-decade. And so the Virginia Supreme Court, which is elected by the general assembly in the state, those justices are selected by the legislature- Yeah ... not by popular vote.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. But the people who are in the legislator were - legislature- Right were voted

BRIAN:

by the people. Correct. And Virginia has had Republican majorities in the legislature on and off over the last few decades, and so this is a right-leaning court, and they're calling on some sort of technicality around the timing of the vote. So one of the plans that was put forth was actually to force the entire Supreme Court to step down and replace them all- Mm and get a better decision. It's exactly what Republicans did in North Carolina- Mm-hmm ... with their redistricting, and it's what Republicans just did in Utah with the Supreme Court there. When they didn't like a decision, they packed the court.

GLENNIS:

It's crazy. And for those who don't know, some Supreme Courts, state Supreme Courts in this country, the people vote for those judges, and others, the government in power appoints, not unlike our Supreme Court. Virginia had a ballot measure. People voted- Correct ... to redistrict. Just like California. And now the Virginia State Supreme Court said, "No, no, no." Yeah."You have a clerical error."

BRIAN:

Right. It was all about, like, the timing of the vote. And so that was a body blow. That was, like, honestly getting fucking punched in the face, because we worked so hard to get that- And if I- ballot measure passed ... sorry ... it was four seats, which was going to nullify the Florida gerrymander. Having that overturned was really detrimental to the math of Democrats canceling out all the Republican gerrymandering going on. Then we started to see states move as a result of the Voting Rights Act decision from the Supreme Court. First Tennessee passed a map that broke up the city of Memphis. Then we had South Carolina- Yeah ... working on a vote. As of time of recording, unclear whether that will pass or not. Louisiana is in the middle of a vote to re- to gerrymander after their primary- Wow ... was already underway. 40,000 people had already- Right voted in a primary that they then had to disband. And they paused the elections. Postponed. Correct. Postponed. Correct. And now we have Alabama, who initially said that they weren't going to because it was subject to a Supreme Court ruling, get a green light from the Supreme Court. They worked like that- Yes to make sure that Alabama could go gerrymander their state further to, to eliminate the only majority Black district. Really bad decisions. Let's call it like it is, balls and strikes. Bad decisions, rough, rough news on the redistricting front, and it is also true that there's still a path to flip the House, and that's what I've been trying to get people to focus on.

GLENNIS:

Right. That's what your Instagram and TikTok yesterday were saying. You have a board. Where's the board? Bring it out. There it is. Okay. Whoop. There's the board. So- Here we have- This is our path.

BRIAN:

Yeah, this is the path. These are all the states that redistricted since-

GLENNIS:

Okay... BRIAN: 2024, and this is Ultimately, we're likely, the most likely path right now is that we would lose five additional seats- Yeah, okay ... as a result of redistricting. It's not great, but it's achievable. Like, we can, we can still flip the House. Well, to that end, uh, I saw this morning Trump has a disapproval rating, 70%.

BRIAN:

I think that's just on the economy, right? Or is that overall?

GLENNIS:

On the economy. Yeah. And did you see what he said yesterday? Tell me. He said, when asked about the American people, "I don't care about the American people's financial situation. All I care about is nuclear weapons in Iran and them not having 'em."

BRIAN:

Yeah.

GLENNIS:

Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America, said direct to camera,"I do not care about the financial situation of the American people." Right. What? Yeah.

DONALD TRUMP:

I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. You heard

GLENNIS:

it here first, people. Why would you vote for anyone who supports that man? Any Republican who helps enable his policies, they do not care about you, and they are saying it directly to your face now.

BRIAN:

And it shows up in the data, which we've talked about. Okay. Well,

GLENNIS:

I'm more vibes. You're more data. In your hopeful tone and with your board, so your board says that we're losing five seats kind of no matter what, but you still think that there's a path to, uh, winning the House, question mark, question mark?

BRIAN:

So the most likely scenario right now is that we will be down an additional five seats. Because Republicans already have a three-seat majority, that would mean that we need to net gain eight seats in the House. On average, since about the year 2000, the president's party has lost over 20 seats in the first midterm election cycle. So from Bush, Obama, Biden, Trump. Mm-hmm You typically lose a lot of seats because there's a backlash- Yeah ... to a change in party in the White House. That puts us in a better position, especially considering the economic conditions right now that people are really upset about and are planning- Yeah ... to vote on around gas prices and the price of everything, their wages going down, things like that. And Trump

GLENNIS:

saying, direct to camera,"I don't give a shit about you." Yes. While his net worth more than doubles. Skyrockets. Yeah.

BRIAN:

There is still a path. That being said, it's not a lock, and we still have a ton of work to do. That's right. We still need to support candidates so that they're able to get their message out against really, really well-funded Republicans. Yeah. There's an unprecedented amount of money in the Republican Party right now as people try and buy favors and influence in the Trump administration, and with Republicans in Congress. There's still a ton of work to do, but it is achievable that we can still flip the House, and with a healthy majority too.

GLENNIS:

For sure. I mean, Republicans are selling out the American people every single day. Every day. Yeah. Let's talk about the price of that.

BRIAN:

Oh. So- Okay.

GLENNIS:

Pull out the receipts ... some

BRIAN:

new data came out this week. I just wanna give you a couple of stats.

GLENNIS:

On inflation?

BRIAN:

On everything.

GLENNIS:

Okay.

BRIAN:

You already commented that 70% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. That, just for reference, that benchmark never was more than 50%- Wow ... like his whole first term. So we're talking about- Weeks ... 20 points up in disapproval. How embarrassing for

GLENNIS:

Trump, the man who, The Art of the Deal, who thinks that he's this great businessman, while we always know that he's been bankrupt, like, X amount of times and doesn't pay his contractors.

BRIAN:

It's almost 80% of Americans that say that Trump policies have driven up the cost of living in their community. That's crazy. Vote out the Republicans who support him. So here's a few numbers that we can put on how fucked up Trump's economy really is. Inflation numbers came out this week. Oof. Absolutely savage. 3.8% in April. Gas prices had jumped to over 4.50 a gallon on average. This is the highest that inflation has been since the pandemic when there was a global- Shortage when the- ... economic disruption ... economy

GLENNIS:

shut down.

BRIAN:

I don't think there's ever been an inflation spike so closely tied to a single president's decisions. Like, there's just- Never ... a direct line A to B from him attacking Iran to the surge of inflation happening right now. Mm. At the same time, paychecks are shrinking. So in a economic report, it shows that prices are outpacing wages for the first time in three years. So even in the Biden years, even in, uh, the second half of his term when inflation was still coming down, brought it down from, like, 7% to almost the target percentage of 2%, wages were still outpacing- Yeah inflation. And so people were still overall, like, doing better, even though people were mostly reacting to the prices that were- Yeah ... higher, which is fa- a fact. We saw a new report on debt. Americans are leaning more on credit cards and loans to pay for their everyday expenses because they can't afford anything. They can't afford food. So we've had the biggest monthly jump in borrowing since 2022. Again- Yeah ... global pandemic, uh, uh, economic stoppage worldwide. The amount that people are saving on a monthly basis- Mm-hmm ... dropped to just- Yeah ... 3.6% in March. Lowest level since 2022. Because if

GLENNIS:

food is costing more, if your gas is costing more, if it costs you $100 to fill your tank, you can't save anything. That's

BRIAN:

right. Consumer sentiment cratered to a record low. Americans are so pessimistic about their economic and financial future. Over 60% say the economy is getting worse. Only 15% say that it's improving. Two-thirds of Americans say the country feels out of control. Like, these are absolutely- Huge

GLENNIS:

numbers

BRIAN:

horrible numbers for Donald Trump because everyone knows and sees that he's responsible. So regardless of what numbers you wanna look at, it's really bad.

GLENNIS:

No, it's really bad. It's also-- I was just looking as you were talking, uh, do you see the headline that, like, Deloitte and some other big firms are cutting paid family leave?

BRIAN:

No.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. So Deloitte is cutting paid family leave, but... And there was another big firm and I, and I don't recall. Uh, so not only is everything becoming more expensive, huge corporations are cutting, like, your, your basic employee benefits, right? Right. Right. And the most fucked up part about who Deloitte is cutting that leave for is mostly for support staff.

BRIAN:

Wow.

GLENNIS:

So, like, IT team, the admin staff. They're saying, "You know what? We're cutting all this in half for you." Deloitte is a Big Four. Yeah. They're, they're-- They-- Anyone who's ever worked in the Big Four knows- Yeah ... they're charging you $500,000 a month- Yeah ... to create a graph chart.

BRIAN:

I think that it's also interesting. Did you see that commencement speaker that got booed on- Yeah ... online? This is all connected, right? That you have recent grads in particular, or, or upcoming grads- Yeah ... that are getting completely blocked out of the job market- Yeah ... because entry-level jobs are being eliminated and transitioned over to AI, and leaders of, of companies of different sizes are downsizing their hiring plans. Yeah. Of the jobs that have been created during the Trump administration, vast majority have been from small businesses. Right. Because a lot of people are, like, trying to start their own businesses-

AID TO MCCONNELL:

Yeah... BRIAN: because they're sick of being corporate America, and so they want more control over- Yes their own claim. I think that that's kind of the future, and I, I, I do think there's an opportunity there for Democrats- Mm-hmm ... to be the party of small business, independent- Mm-hmm... freelancers, like, all- Farmers. Totally, right. Yeah. All kinds of, uh, employees and workers that are left out of the equation generally because corporate America is showing that they're not- Here to show for us. They're here to pay off Donald Trump and- Totally. Yeah ... be thanked. Yeah.

BRIAN:

Because they're posting quarter after quarter of record profits as they crank up prices- Slush ... on all of us- Yeah ... at the same time.

GLENNIS:

Yeah, and slash their employees. Yeah, and it's, it's, you know, it's, it's worth mentioning again that Donald Trump's... The reason why his net worth has more than doubled in the second term is because of crypto, is because of AI. Right. Mainly crypto, but the crypto/AI world is all kind of interconnected in a gross way. And again, what did he say? He doesn't give a shit about you. This is so mind-blowing to me. How can the President of the United States of America look into a camera as he's about to o- board Marine One, paid for by the US taxpayer, for, you know, to go to China to help fix this tariff situation and the trade and, like, whatever the hell he's doing in China, and he, he looks in the camera and says, "I don't give a shit about you."

BRIAN:

Well, it comes back to the ballroom for me as well. Yeah. That it's the ultimate optical fail that he's putting a billion dollars into what we know is gonna be, like, a golden, gaudy ballroom. Disgusting. While 80% of Americans are saying Trump is directly increasing prices for me. Yeah. While he's spending a billion dollars on a ballroom, while he's painting the Reflecting Pool so that it looks like your neighbor's backyard.

GLENNIS:

And he's not doing the correct government contracting system. He gave it to his buddy. You're supposed to get three bids on any government contract, and you go with the cheapest. I know this. I used to do advance work, and you'd have to go out and go to the community and get three bids from people for certain things and be, "Okay, this is the best, the, the best value for the American taxpayer." Trump gave the deal to his buddy way above market of what it would cost.

BRIAN:

Of course, and it's the same thing they did for all the ICE contracts, right? Yeah. Like, Kristi Noem was in hot water because she'd given this $120 million- Oh... contract to a company that it was- Started the day before ... started the day before by people that they were friends with. Like, it, it, it's the most- It's atrocious ... corrupt- Yeah, it's crazy ... administration in history by miles and miles and miles. It's not even on... It's, they're not even playing the same sport. Yeah. But let's-

GLENNIS:

A billion, a billion dollars is kinda like chump change when you're talking about the military budget. Did you see... Sorry to pivot here, but did you see any of the Hegseth-Patel Capitol Hill? I

BRIAN:

saw snapshots. What have you seen?

GLENNIS:

Well, not much, 'cause I try to avoid both of them at all costs. There's one thing I wanna highlight before we get into it. I don't know if you saw the Mitch McConnell.

AID TO MCCONNELL:

Yeah. Yes.

GLENNIS:

I am an empath- I don't like that man, right? I'm an empath. That is elder abuse. Right. That man is not on planet Earth. He is halfway up to wherever he's going or down. Like, did you see that clip?

BRIAN:

Yes. Mitch McConnell was chairing a hearing and was attempting to- Cloaked in- ... lead this... Right. Right, like this hearing and saying that- He's a trained man it, it requires quite a bit of involvement to move the agenda along and- Consciousness. It requires

GLENNIS:

consciousness ... there's

BRIAN:

official, like, orders of business and whatever, and he had no idea what was going on. He was trying to shut down the hearing and be like, "Okay, we're done. I'm gonna pass it off all..." And there were- Four people left to go four more senators who still needed to speak. So one of his aides has to get up and come and whisper in his ear and tell him- I was like, "What?" ... exactly what to say. Thank you all for being here. Like, excuse- Baldwin, Shaheen, and Kennedy. Hmm? Baldwin, Shaheen, and Kennedy still have questions.

AID TO MCCONNELL:

Wrap up after.

BRIAN:

Hold here. Very cringe.

GLENNIS:

It was so, like, it was elder abuse and I was so deeply uncomfortable watching it. The man looks like he's... The, the Lord's gonna call him home soon.

BRIAN:

Absolutely.

GLENNIS:

God.

BRIAN:

It's not even just because he's a Republican. It's like, get these people out of here. I can't say it enough times. Like, I- Yeah do not think that it is unreasonable to want our electeds to be the sharpest people in the country. That should not even be controversial. Up for debate. The fact that we're debating whether it's okay to die while you're in office is psychotic.

GLENNIS:

It's psychotic.

BRIAN:

Is insane.

GLENNIS:

You know, the, the military budget, the proposed military budget is-

BRIAN:

1.5 trillion

GLENNIS:

which is 500 billion more than it's ever been. Yeah. It is the largest military budget in the history of the United States of America.

BRIAN:

And importantly, it's more than the next 10 or so countries spend on their military combined. Combined. Right. So it's not like, "Oh, we have to keep pace." That's... They're always like, "Oh, we gotta... We have to beat China." But it's like, okay, China's- China's like, ooh ... spending like maybe 200 billion or some- something like that. I'd have to pull the number. Uh,

GLENNIS:

what? Yeah, I think more people need to be calling their represe- representatives and asking, "What is going on with this military budget?" It is such a waste of US dollars to have to inflate it that much, and Hegseth didn't have the best answers, obviously. He's also barely in the room. You, you know, he's saying we have to give our... I don't... Are they always calling soldiers now? It's something like, uh-

BRIAN:

Warriors... GLENNIS: warriors or war, war people. We need to arm them and make sure they have everything they need. And they're like, "Whose arm?" They- No, they're like- Before that you're wasting bombs in Iran. And they don't get raises. Like, when we pass these budgets, it's not going to military personnel, let me tell you. Yeah. It's going to defense contractors that end up spending Billions of dollars on things that we don't need because- Yeah ... it's what lines their pockets. They spend money on the most profitable things. They, like, we literally weren't even prepared for these fucking Amazon drones that, uh, uh, Iran was attacking us with all over the Middle East. Yeah. We were 0% prepared. Where did the last $10 trillion of defense contractor money go if it wasn't to prepare for the most obvious- The CEOs... things that would be attacking us, right? Yeah. Like, th- that's bananas. So- Do you

GLENNIS:

wanna hear a crazy stat? Oh, yeah.'Cause I looked this up recently. I forget what the exact number is around, uh, defense contractors out of the military budget. I think it's, it's around 50 billion, just goes straight up to defense contractors.

BRIAN:

Oh, it has to be way more than that. Probably more. I,

GLENNIS:

I was looking at the stat of how much defense contractors out of the defense budget get. It's a grossly enormous sum. And then I was like, you know what? I wonder how much of the average American, like, of our tax dollars, how much do we pay into that to the contractors? Like, not everything, but to the contractors themselves, that every single American, about $1,800-

BRIAN:

A year

GLENNIS:

you're paying to contractors.

BRIAN:

To defense contractors- Yeah ... specifically?

GLENNIS:

Specifically.

BRIAN:

Yeah.

GLENNIS:

That's crazy. Totally. Almost $2,000 I'm sending over to, like, Blackwater and-

BRIAN:

No, it's bananas. I'm- ... Halliburton ... I'm all for research, and I'm all for America having the strongest military in the world, and I think that we can achieve that for a fraction of the cost of what's going on right now. Pass an audit, have some transparency- Yeah ... stop handing billion-plus dollar contracts to your friends, and stop starting unnecessary conflicts just to profit off of the bombs that you drop on other countries. Yeah,

GLENNIS:

Eric Trump, Donald Trump, sitting on those drone boards.

BRIAN:

It's absurd.

GLENNIS:

The only thing I'll add, which is kind of an, an issue because it's unconstitutional, is the fact that the Trump administration and Pete Hegseth are creating fake rules around the War Powers Act, and that, do you, are you aware of this? The President of the United States of America is allowed to, like, start conflicts.

BRIAN:

Yep.

GLENNIS:

But after 60 days, they- Oh, sure ... have to seek congressional approval for a vote to say yay or nay that you can continue to do this. They are saying because there's a ceasefire, the 60 days is paused, and it resets. No, it's

BRIAN:

absurd.

GLENNIS:

It's fake news. It's not real. They need to vote on

BRIAN:

it. And Republicans are such cowards. They refuse to call him on anything. They refuse to- Some Republicans are

GLENNIS:

not, but you guys, we have to-

BRIAN:

Mm, take a vote. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll give you credit when you take a vote. The other person that was on Capitol Hill that we should be talking about is our friend Smash Patel.

GLENNIS:

Yeah, but I didn't, he was asking for $21 billion for the FBI budget, and I'm like, "What? To drink beer with the hockey team?"

BRIAN:

Right. I feel like he should know more about the many- attacks and threats that are ongoing against- He was never a cop ... lawmakers. FBI are,

GLENNIS:

FBI agents, they're like federal cops. He was never a cop. He was a prosecutor. He was a lawyer. He

BRIAN:

was a podcaster.

GLENNIS:

He was a podcaster. Was he

BRIAN:

not?

GLENNIS:

He was a podcaster. He was also a prosecutor and a lawyer. You know what he said he wanted to turn the FBI headquarters into when he got, uh- Frat

BRIAN:

house?

GLENNIS:

No, a museum of the deep state.

BRIAN:

Hooyah. How's that going? Where are the Epstein files?

GLENNIS:

There was a really interesting Daily, I don't know if you listened to it, it was a former FBI... It was a couple. Her husband was in the FBI, and she was in the FBI, and she ended up leaving because the FBI is now asking people to do things that are-

BRIAN:

Well, he just polygraphed the shit out of everyone, too What are they doing

GLENNIS:

that now? He's polygraphing the FBI agents to see who, who told the press that he was a heavy drinker. Get a grip.

BRIAN:

Who told? Like, you're- Who told? I- You're like the- I do remember that chapter meeting in my fraternity when- Wait, what?... somebody got in trouble."Who told? Who took that video?" It's very that, you know? Yeah. It's very that energy. It's like

GLENNIS:

I don't, like-

BRIAN:

It's not that I regret what I did, it's that I'm very upset that someone told the press that I did it.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. I went to the Olympics when we were on hiatus. I thought, you know what? Flex. Let's go to the Olympics. Flex. And I was sitting at a USA hockey game, I forget who we were playing, women. Go USA women's hockey. And I'm like recording, you know, I had my prosecco. It was in Italy, so it was fun. And I'm like recording, and I'm like, "What the hell?" And I realized JD Vance and Kash Patel are like from here to like your office.

BRIAN:

Yeah.

GLENNIS:

And I was like... One, there was little to no security,

BRIAN:

to your point. You should, you should've gone over and said hello.

GLENNIS:

I thought about pretending to be like, "Thank you so much for your..." And then just being like, "Hockey." You should have."USA." But then I thought, nope.

BRIAN:

But in Italian. Where was it?

GLENNIS:

Milan.

BRIAN:

Yeah, yeah. I'm sure there are more clips still to come of them on the Hill, but it's always such a zoo. It's just a circus, honestly. There's- Because the whole administration is-

GLENNIS:

Deeply unqualified ... a fucking

BRIAN:

joke. Do you think that any other cabinet secretaries are gonna get pushed out?

GLENNIS:

I don't know.

BRIAN:

I would guess we'll get two more by the midterms.

GLENNIS:

Oh. I mean, I kinda thought, like, Patel and Hegseth were on their way out, but maybe not if Trump's still... But this is kind of the, the thing. They go and they testify and then, like, a couple weeks later Trump's like, "You didn't do a good enough job. You're out."

BRIAN:

Right. I mean, we didn't even talk about it, but the other update in Iran is this bombshell report that just got dropped. Definitely somebody leaked it. I think it was to the Times. That we

GLENNIS:

actually haven't done anything? That we haven't

BRIAN:

done anything, and that Iran still has 90% of their missile capacity. Nuclear? No. Or I, it didn't specify. The report that I read did not specify nuclear or not. So all the bombing, the $70 billion that we've burned dropping bombs on Iran accomplished next to nothing other than doubling the cost of your gas.

GLENNIS:

Maybe this is what happens when you have Anthropic or GPT tell you where to bomb.

BRIAN:

And this is why we're nowhere close to opening the Strait of Hormuz or getting any sort of progress, is because they can still literally bomb any ship that passes through the strait. That's why there are no- The bomb can't. Yeah, correct.

GLENNIS:

Aren't there also mines? You know, like they- Yeah ... they put mines down. It's such a cluster. And, but like lest we forget, what was Pete Hegseth's highest ranking in the military before he got promoted to the top seat? Major. It's like me getting appointed to being like the CEO of Apple.

BRIAN:

You'd do a great job. Just because I have an iPhone. You, you and Tim Cook would totally- Tim

GLENNIS:

Cook's out.

BRIAN:

Well, no, I know, but I'm saying like transition team.

GLENNIS:

Oh my God. Yeah.

BRIAN:

It's literally like- Get me my AI AirPods. That's what, that's, that's what they're doing now, is they're putting cameras in AirPods so that I can see the insides of my ears.

GLENNIS:

Really?

BRIAN:

Not, well, the cameras are gonna face the other way, but. So

GLENNIS:

that you can record, they can record everyone and get everyone's facial DNA and like retinas? That's like the meta cloud. Facial

BRIAN:

DNA?

GLENNIS:

Yeah, whatever. Wait, I just made that up. What is facial DNA?

BRIAN:

I mean, like- Well, if you just made it up, it's nothing.

GLENNIS:

Well, that's, this is why I'm gonna be CEO of Apple. But that does sound revolutionary. Doesn't it? I could like patent that. You're like," BRIAN: Wait, trademark that." Yeah. Hell yeah. I see a new small business that I can open.

BRIAN:

Big business.

GLENNIS:

Big.

BRIAN:

Eliminate, eliminate your, um,

GLENNIS:

f-

BRIAN:

family- Family ... family leave policy.

GLENNIS:

Yeah.

BRIAN:

That's big business.

GLENNIS:

Wait, the last thing I'll say about this, 'cause it's AI adjacent, is did you see the leaked text from the, that, between Altman and like someone else? Mm. It's really funny. Every- It's, I mean, it's not funny because, you know, Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman- Yeah ... because OpenAI was supposed to be a non-for-pr- or a type of structure that was a not-for-profit that could make money, but would always like remain a not-for-profit, and they were like, "Actually, we're gonna lean more towards the for-profit," and they made all this money, and Elon was like,"I want my money back," or whatever. All these texts are, have come out now. And like someone was like, "Is it dir- directionally good or directionally bad?" And the person was like,"Directionally very bad." And now people are like, "Is it directionally good?" Oh

BRIAN:

my God.

GLENNIS:

So Iran is directionally-

BRIAN:

Very bad.

GLENNIS:

The last thing I want to kiki about- Yeah ... is California.

BRIAN:

Dude,

GLENNIS:

I- Did you watch The OC?

BRIAN:

No.

GLENNIS:

Okay.

BRIAN:

I've put this off for as long as possible, and at this point I have to get, I have to roll up my sleeves and get involved in the California gubernatorial-

GLENNIS:

Yeah ... primary. So for those who don't know, is this the correct what it's called?'Cause I looked this up and I was like, this feels strange. It's called a jungle primary?

BRIAN:

Yeah.

GLENNIS:

We should have a better name than that. But essentially, the way a jungle primary works is that the two candidates who get the most votes wins.

BRIAN:

And then move on to the general.

GLENNIS:

Right.

BRIAN:

Correct. There's been all this drama over trying to prevent two Republicans from moving on.'Cause if you have 20 Democrats run and only two Republicans, all the Republicans vote for the same two people, uh, essentially, and then all the Democrats split their votes, and the two Republicans move on. It's an overblown concern in my opinion, because there was always going to be consolidation. People have been freaking out since, like, February saying,"Drop out, drop out, drop out." Yeah. Which is just sort of a necessary part of the process. But now we've had a more consolidated field. The Republicans are no longer polling in first and second place anymore. Handful of Democrats that are still in it, including Tom Steyer, billionaire, philanthropist, progressive. Xavier Becerra, former California attorney general, former Biden HHS secretary, relatively moderate. Mm-hmm. Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, young up-and-comer, strong communication style, Pete Buttigieg vibes-ish- Okay ... to me, so like kind of moderate, but slightly more populous. Kind of a- Okay ... abundance agenda oriented.

GLENNIS:

Okay.

BRIAN:

Katie Porter, progressive.

GLENNIS:

Famously berated staff. Yeah.

BRIAN:

Former member of Congress. Famously yelled at her staff on Zoom, but, like, honestly not that big of a deal in my eyes. No, it's not. Like, everyone needs to chill the fuck out. I have heard worse, personally, from members of Congress.

GLENNIS:

Same, but it wasn't... The thing is, most people don't know that. Right. So it's just like, it's an own goal. I would say that Tom Steyer's kind of the front runner at this point. Correct. But there's an interesting dialogue happening on the left, which is the not all billionaires question. You know, there's a huge, uh, movement that's about, you know, billionaires shouldn't exist. I don't believe in the fact that billionaires shouldn't exist. I think that billionaires should be taxed fairly. Yeah. There should be a tax structure by which being a billionaire is exceedingly hard, and it should be a bug, not a feature of our economy. Tom Steyer is a, a famous billionaire, and the question now is, are you a class traitor, Tom Steyer? It's this new- Right.

BRIAN:

I've seen. I've seen that online.

GLENNIS:

I think yes, it's a little different to be a class traitor.

BRIAN:

My money, I agree with you. Um, Steyer is the front runner, but I would actually probably bet on Becerra right now.

GLENNIS:

He's in hot water for an interview that came out yesterday.

BRIAN:

Over what?

GLENNIS:

He was like, "This is a puff piece, right? This is just like a personality profile. You're not gonna hit, hit me with hard questions." And she's like, "Well, I'm gonna ask you questions." Are you, like-

BRIAN:

I don't think anyone's gonna care about

GLENNIS:

that hardly. There's a movement on my end against him, I'll say that much

BRIAN:

I feel like Republican/Republican-minded independents will actually come home to center-left candidates. Mm. Because they will see that there's not a path for the Republicans to win, as there has been consolidation-

AID TO MCCONNELL:

Yeah... BRIAN: on the left. And people are so upset with governance in California generally, particularly the population centers, that I think that people want change- Yeah... BRIAN: from a Newsom- Fire's and I feel like that's too similar of a profile and platform and vibe. It's a prediction. We'll see.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. Let's see. Are you following the mayoral at all in LA? Oh, God, no. I'm not. I'm not really. I just know that- Okay ... Spencer Pratt, I was a big fan of The Hills.

BRIAN:

LA mayor's race, Karen Bass running for re-election against two people, for the most part. One is Spencer Pratt, who's like this reality star who shockingly hasn't been asked nearly enough about 9/11.

GLENNIS:

What, is he a liar?

BRIAN:

Oh my God. He like went on the Alex Jones show and- I

GLENNIS:

didn't know that... BRIAN: Alex Jo- yeah, and Alex Jones will speak out about 9/11." Which- And Spencer Pratt is like, "Yeah, I can't believe no one asks me about 9/11," because he's, he believes that it's an inside jo- it was an inside job. Why would anyone give a flying fuck what Spencer Pratt thinks about 9/11? Yeah. This was like years ago. Yeah. Well, he, he has a big following'cause, you know, Laguna Beach and The Hills, but then also with the Palisades fire, he became an advocate for, like, victim almost more. Like- For, for

BRIAN:

anger.

GLENNIS:

Yeah.

BRIAN:

I think that he was just like a vehicle for grievance, right? Yeah. And then there's a woman from city council, LA City Council, I think, running to Karen Bass' left. Mm. That's my understanding of the mayoral race. I'm honestly not following it more deeply than that. Let us know

AID TO MCCONNELL:

vibes. Oh, God. Vibes California if you want any more. The

BRIAN:

prediction markets have been going nuts, like wild 30-plus point swings in the last couple days. So I can't really tell you, I mean, not that that's what I base my shit on, but- Yeah, I hate the prediction markets ... I, I just, I, I can't really tell you what's gonna happen in LA. I don't follow it enough and I,

GLENNIS:

I avoid it generally. Well, I hope it not Spencer Pratt because he's unhinged. We're gonna d- bring back Clickbait or Double-Click. Oh, yeah. But this time neither of us know the headlines.

BRIAN:

Clickbait or Double-Click. We're gonna review some news from the week that our producers shared, and we're gonna tell you guys whether it's clickbait and you should ignore it, or if we really need to double-click and think about it more.

GLENNIS:

Okay, I'm gonna start with the first one. Okay. I don't know if you saw this. Barney Frank in hospice has advice for the Democrats. Barney

BRIAN:

Frank was the first out gay member of Congress. He apparently had some, I actually didn't watch it, but he apparently gave, like, a really uncomfortable interview essentially on his deathbed

GLENNIS:

No, it was like he was propped- But he's not dead yet no, he was, like, propped up. He looked not unlike Mitch McConnell looked as, chairing the committee yesterday.

BRIAN:

I'm immediately gonna say clickbait. Yeah. And whoever's doing the interview, honestly, leave the man alone. Let him die, and write your fucking eulogy in The New York Times. You, you, we actually don't need to hear what he h- has to say right now. If it was, if he hasn't been relevant and, like, leading in the party for years- Why does he get to go first?... why

GLENNIS:

now? Yeah. It's, it's like, you know at the end of church, they used to be like, "Go in peace."

BRIAN:

To love and serve the Lord.

GLENNIS:

Yeah, like... Well, we didn't say that.

BRIAN:

Oh, they did in my church.

GLENNIS:

Wow. Uh, maybe they did and I just, like, blacked out that much. I'm like, "Thank God it's over. I can leave." But that's how I felt though. I was like, "Go in, go in peace." Like, this is sad. Like, why do we care what Barney Frank is saying? Also, like- Clickbait ... also the producers at MSNBC, look in the mirror.

BRIAN:

Clickbait.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. Story two, inflation accelerates after weeks of war in Iran. Oh, that's a double click. Yeah.

BRIAN:

That is everything, and if you're not talking about the economy twice as much as you're talking about any other issue, you're not doing your job as a Democrat right now, period.

GLENNIS:

Period. And we have, as a party, a wealth of content to catalyze any sort of direct-to-camera video or response because, as mentioned ad nauseam on this podcast today, Donald Trump does not give a shit about the American people and their economic situation.

BRIAN:

Story three, Hantavirus outbreak tests Trump officials who criticized COVID response. The Washington Post. Why did I say that?

GLENNIS:

Because you want, you want us to know that the WaPo is saying that. Uh, we could, like, already double click this, 'cause this, like, Hantavirus is, like, thank God it's not an influenza, like, or, or, or a, a COVID, but we're ill-equipped and ill-prepared.

BRIAN:

I'm saying clickbait. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm, like, I- No, you're- ... feel bad for the people, but I also think that- It's not about

GLENNIS:

the people who died. That is sad and yeah, cruise ships need to have, like, a better, like, system, but the fact of the matter is we are lucky from a public health perspective that this was a very hard-to-contract-

BRIAN:

Yeah, right like- You gotta, like, really be- ... auntie's

GLENNIS:

virus. You have to get like- ... up

BRIAN:

in somebody's grill.

GLENNIS:

Yeah.

BRIAN:

But okay, here's what I'll say. There's this theory that is becoming more popular among Democrats, electeds, and operatives- Mm-hmm ... that we want people to be talking more often about issues that Democrats are trusted on, and talking less about issues that we're not trusted on. And I think that healthcare Great for Democrats. Public health policy is somewhere that people currently do not trust Democrats. I think that there's a overall- For what,

AID TO MCCONNELL:

for what reason? Because

BRIAN:

of COVID. I think that the public at large, independents and, like, the average voter- 'Cause

GLENNIS:

of the vaccine that Trump had us take?

BRIAN:

thinks that Democrats mishandled the pandemic, and that k- they had schools closed for too long, that they were shut down for too long, that the economy was too disrupted, and s- depending on who you ask, that there was, like, overspending that led to some inflation. And so I actually think that it is not a helpful contrast to draw right now more attention to pandemic response because most people are not voting based off of pandemic preparedness.

GLENNIS:

I think public health pandemic response versus, like, how states handled COVID are two different things.

BRIAN:

Yeah. That's fair. Okay, and our last headline, Trump wants to pause the federal gas tax to try to reduce the surging- Yeah ... spiking, sailing costs of filling up at the pump.

GLENNIS:

Clickbait. Like, no one even knows the federal gas tax exists. He's trying to create a solution for a problem that he created this cycle that we've talked about. Trump's my dog. Yes. A couple cents on your $5 a gallon gas is not gonna help stop the war. Yeah.

BRIAN:

I mean, I, I guess you're right. This is not gonna come to fruition, and soon the majority leader in the Senate has already said that they're not gonna vote on th- Mm-hmm that they're not gonna vote on this, which it would require. It is clickbait in that sense, but I will also say Democrats should be talking about the price of gas every single day. All day, every day. All day, every day. Yeah. Democrats should be talking about the price of gas, so if this is just another way to be like, "Well, we know he's not gonna deliver on it, so Trump, where's our, where's our gas tax holiday?" Yeah. Where's the... What, what are you actually doing to reduce the price of-

GLENNIS:

Yeah... BRIAN: oil that you caused to double? So you think it's a little political theater that Dems should-

BRIAN:

Yeah... GLENNIS: play a part in. Poke it. Yeah, poke at it. Poke at it. We should send him off with a good vibe. We have some good news for y'all from this week when, in the Nebraska primary, we got our choice of candidate for Nebraska Senate, who is going to drop out. So there's this weird situation in Nebraska where you have an independent, Dan Osborne- Okay ... who's running for the second time, came within six or seven points of winning last time in a really, really red state. He overperformed- Who is he

GLENNIS:

caucusing with?

BRIAN:

He has not made any commitments to caucus with Democrats, but, like, let's be real, he's- Okay he's, he's our guy. Knowing that a Democrat cannot win statewide in Nebraska right now, Democrats wanted to line up behind this independent who could win over more voters and potentially make it competitive. But Sensing that, seeing that, feeling threatened by that, Republicans, specifically the candidate who, Pete Ricketts, who's running, who is the senator- Ricketts,

GLENNIS:

Ricketts, a disease that public health would help with if you got it

BRIAN:

billionaire family.

GLENNIS:

Oh, really?

BRIAN:

Mm-hmm. He self-funded. He bought the seat. He recruited somebody, a MAGA candidate who had voted for Donald Trump three times, to run as a Democrat in the seat- What?... to try to pull votes away from the independent, so that if even 5% or 10% of Democrats voted for the Democrat in the race 'cause they didn't know who anybody was, then it would totally kill- Okay Osborne's chances of winning. So we ran a Democrat against this fake Democrat with the promise that she was just gonna drop out and endorse Osborne.

GLENNIS:

And she won. And she

BRIAN:

won, which was actually a, like, really tough sort of maneuver to pull off 'cause it was so convoluted.

GLENNIS:

Very, like, undemocratic that this billionaire bought fake Democrat.

BRIAN:

Right. And so now we have the ability to consolidate Democratic and Independent support behind Osborne in Nebraska, and potentially add another state to the number of seats in play for the Senate.

GLENNIS:

Great. Go Nebraska. Go Cornhuskers, right?

BRIAN:

Yeah, nailed it. Come on, Big Ten.

GLENNIS:

Hell yeah.

BRIAN:

Awesome. And with that, we will be back next week to check the vibes with you again.

GLENNIS:

Hit follow, or if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you subscribe, like the video, and drop us a comment.

BRIAN:

It is gonna help us reach new people and get everyone engaged for the midterms.

GLENNIS:

But either way, even if you don't hit sub, but you should, we'll be here next Thursday, so we'll catch you

BRIAN:

then. See you guys. Bye.

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Brian Derrick

Co-host
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Glennis Meagher

Co-host