Tim Walz is Winning Over America! (with Molly Jong-Fast) | The Michael Steele Podcast

Cold Open all these people were saying Shapiro Shapiro Shapiro he's you know very handsome he's he looks like someone from an urban area you have walls who's like hunting and carving you know school buses out of butter and you know he's go he's riding rides at the fair you know the guy looks like a Midwestern guy you need to win those middle of the country states and this guy's your guy for that [Music] hey folks welcome to the Michael steel podcast I'm Michael steel good to see you everybody thanks for joining us uh in our conversation really excited uh to sort of do a little bit of a deep dive with a buddy of mine Molly Jung fast uh and you're gonna you're going to have a blast with her certainly uh I do appreciate you guys you know taking time to listen to the podcast catching us on iHeart radio Spotify Apple podcast wherever you uh get your podcast really appreciate that certainly if you enjoy the episode you're about to hear be sure to share this episode with a friend leave us a review uh I do I do like to get the feedback and try to you know make this as comfortable a listen for all of you as it is for me having the conversation so I appreciate everybody joining us as I said I'm really really excited to have Molly Jung fast uh with us she is not just a political analyst and a buddy of mine over at MSNBC more in Portland she's a special correspondent for uh Vanity Fair and the host of her own podcast which I've had the pleasure of being on Fast politics with Molly Jung fast uh we have a great conversation on the heels of the announcement of uh vice president Harris Harris's vice presidential pick uh we'll get into what made sense about that versus what didn't make sense about that uh that and a whole lot more coming up next on the Michael still podcast so get your favorite adult beverage settle back and enjoy the conversation hey everybody Welcome to the Michael steel podcast so glad you Interview Begins could drop in on this oh very very slow news day it's just I can't even believe how how boring it is uh the last uh four or five weeks in politics have been I excited to have my buddy my MSNBC cohort partner and friend we we in the last I guess few months Molly you and I have been teamed up together more we ever thought we would be but I'm always happy when I'm teamed up with you because I think you're you're you know sometimes it's hard to hit the right mashup of speaking and listening when you're a guest on a show and I feel like you are very um you you have a lot of really important and interesting Salient points to say but you're also very generous yeah you know I you know I just learned in early on in all of this when you're in that space you've got six to eight minutes to have a conversation and there are five people on the screen yeah just have to be mindful of the fact that the G sitting next to you really like to talk too she like to say something so just shut up and let her talk you know we we have a lot of fun and I mean it's just really funny when you stop and think about the the the mishmash of bedfellows that have emerged over the last 10 years where I know back when I was RNC chairman I can only imagine the stuff Molly was writing about the the RNC at the time and and that's all good you know that's was a healthier uh time relative to where we are now in our nation's politics where there were clear bright lines on policy and prescriptions to solve problems and just generally how we viewed um the path forward today we find ourselves aligned existentially together around the idea about who we are as a country and the value of the proposition that the founders put in play where you and I both know that neither one of us had a seat at that table at the time um we now find our ourselves aligned not only at that table but protecting that table yeah uh in in such such an important way and and so before we get into a lot of the breaking stuff uh the vice president's made her choice and um and all of that just sort of setting the stage of how you're seeing this moment because you you've laid down some nice pipes on this uh on air in your writing um and certainly on your own podcast um you you've had a chance to sort of talk about that so how do you see this moment um as the ticket starts to take sh take shape voters coming at the end to the end of summer National Convention for the Democrats uh in about a couple of weeks 10 days assessing what we where we are and and what this is all about yeah Where We're At 90 Days Before the Election and we're only like 90 plus days from the election right I just want to say one thing which is during your RNC time you were part of the rnc1 was for the good you know and you did you were part of that audit you know right and that in the moment when the RNC was trying to to Really bring along a big tent and so I really do respect that and you know I think that you and Tim Miller and that crew were really trying to do something that's worthy and and that I hope Republicans will do again I mean in my mind I just would like to have political parties that are both believe in the fundamental tenants of democracy right right not complicated right and but um so what I would say is you and I think also an interesting thing is that you and I have really been agreeing with each other about a lot of what's happened and so I think we are very much on the same page which was that well Biden did have a really bad debate he had to get to the moment of wanting to drop out on his own I think that the that were a lot of people who are like he needs to drop out tomorrow right I don't think he could do that and I don't think that the Democratic base could live with that they need to be you know those three weeks were really critical for convincing him for convincing everyone else and and still showing that he he's quite you know he did that really good press conference with the the NATO press conference where he showed that he really had full command of what was going on he arranged this incredible hostage relief release uh situation which ended up being wildly complicated but but he also needed to know that the polls were not with him and that he wasn't able to campaign to win this election and I think the way it was handled was really just right you know that Nancy Pelosi is yet again a she just what Nancy wants Nancy gets yeah yeah you know I think that I think that analysis is is is very close to uh how uh parts of this narrative that didn't that weren't front and center on Morning Joe or any of the other shows that we may have appeared on um that they were talking about beneath that surface there was a real palpable pulse that I think had its own separate beat from what the the party officials were out there saying certainly um folks in the media who were trying to rush bum rush in my view the president off the stage without any real sense of okay well who do we replace him with right because as you know there were there were people fraught inside the Democratic party ringing their hands over a potential candidacy by kamla and then you had those who was like well we can replace her with a white man and like I'm sitting there going okay white people what planet are you guys operating on right now favorite was like we we we'll just have a whitmar you know a whitmar new ticket I said I you know that you have a vice president right there like none of this works its way you know it was like the worst westwing fan fiction and then at the moment when I thought we were all going to die of just stupid you know what's his name from the West wi comes out and says democrats should make Mitt Romney the nominee right right right yeah you know that's why they call it fiction folks so but but here we are now so kamla in in a little less than three weeks has been able to literally transform the Democratic party into a fighting machine um for the fall it has raised in excess of $310 million it has um brought into the fold in excess of2 200 thousand volunteers um it has galvanized the media's attention in a way that they're now forced to write stories that they tried for a long time to ignore meanwhile the Democrats M like that one meanwhile democ uh Republicans uh are still trying to clean up on al9 with the you know the cat lady uh whisper and and the craziness that is has been the roll out of their vice presidential choice uh JD Vance let alone and we'll get into the conversation that the president himself had at the National Association of broadcast journalists but before we get there let's let's focus on uh the new narrative that emerged today um and and that is comma selection for a running mate she has chosen uh the Tim Walz as Kamala's VP Pick the current current governor of the great state of Minnesota uh and he has uh Tim wals has come to the table in a way that a lot of folks around town are sort of scratching their head going well we didn't see that coming yeah because they they kind of gotten bought and sold into the the Josh seiro narrative and there's a lot of good things to be said about Josh Shapiro and his governance of of the state of Pennsylvania there's even more to be said about the importance of Pennsylvania in the mix but here you have in this pick um a former High School teacher uh a former coach who took his team to the Statewide championships um a veteran uh Army of the Army National Guard enlisted an enlisted that's important that's absolutely thanks for that is an inlisted member of the National Guard a former member the United States Congress but more important than all of that in my view someone who speaks American if you know what I mean what what's your take I I mean that that is entirely my take and it's funny because I you know it's like we have such a similar take even though we come from such different places but when you when every all these people were saying Shapiro Shapiro Why Tim Walz Was Chosen Over Josh Shapiro Shapiro and I'm Jewish so you know I like Shapiro but but I'm thinking to myself he's thin he's you know very handsome he's he looks like someone from an urban area he wears these very Urban looking suits you have walls who's like hunting and carving you know school buses out of butter and you know he's go he's riding rides at the fair you know the guy looks like a Midwestern guy and everyone's like no Shapiro is the real you know the pick that's going to appeal to more people I'm like this guy Waltz looks like a Midwestern guy you know he sounds like a Midwestern guy his whole thing is Midwest so you need to win you know you certainly need to win uh Pennsylvania but you also you need to win Michigan you need to win Wisconsin you need to win those middle of the country states and this guy's your guy for that yeah I I agree with that I think and so on the Shapiro point one of the things that I came to in my thinking around this uh Molly was okay let's say that there is something that doesn't vet past the vet vetting muster with the ticket and they have to move off Shapiro which clearly something did somewhere whatever um the question becomes because Pennsylvania is such an important piece of the Cog of the of the three wish Michigan Wisconson in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania is the most important because they can Democrats can afford to lose Michigan they can afford to lose Wisconsin they cannot afford to lose Pennsylvania right and and Morning Joe kind of went out you know Joe Scaro went out on that that was clearly his push and his thing I disagree with Joe in terms of you only way you get sh get Pennsylvan is through Shapiro I think you can get the the for me the next question was well if I don't pick Shapiro who else then can help me win Pennsylvania who can speak Western Pennsylvanian who can speak uh know Ohio who can speak in into that sort of Rust Belt um Community uh the guy who can carve school buses out of butter um the guy who who can gives you give you tips on how to repair your F-150 the the guy who the guy who's standing there with his granddaughter saying okay so each year we decide to do this this thing at the amusement park I represent the I'm going to go get on the on the ride over here that's kind of safe so where do you put what are you putting us on it's like this crazy ass ride and he's sitting there with his granddaughter yeah having the crap scared out of him but he's loving every moment of it that's what we see and I think that that's one of the the one of the big advantages that now comes to this ticket that makes it a little bit harder and I'll get to the whole Progressive piece in the moment because right you're arguably um you know in that you know that space you you have policies that you advocate for that fit in that space you get the progressive conversation and I think that's kind of being misrepresented here yeah me too I really do I I think that right now America likes America's Dad yeah I think they kind of like this idea that this guy 60 years old yeah you know can come hang out a Granddad he's got kids he's at the amusement parks with the with his grandkids he's you know he's sitting in the in the front yard you know fix in the truck I mean they they get it yeah I The Usefulness and Importance of Vice Presidents I think he's very likable and and I think that's one of the things that for whatever reason Trump was not focused on with the Vance pick what's interesting to me about Trump is that uh Mike Pence was such a useful vice president for Trump he really did create this permission structure where evangelicals felt they could vote for Trump because of Mike Pence which was humongous so when Trump is saying the VP doesn't mean anything I mean it meant a lot for you in 2016 it sure did baby I mean so that I think is kind of interesting and and I do think she I think she picked someone who's very likable and and I think that is is you know you have to run and get elected but he's also been a very effective governor and those two pieces I think are good I also think like historically the vice president has not necessarily been able to deliver the state that that except with the exception of LBJ there isn't a long history of that so so that makes me think that you know you might as well I mean remember Hillary's How Hillary's VP Pick Compares to Kamala's pick like she liked him but he wasn't I mean he's good he's nice but you know but on that but on that point Molly um the the conservative rating of uh Hillary's vice presid presidential pick Tim kanaine and kamla's vice presidential pick guess who's the more conservative of the two I I bet it's kamala's yes yeah I mean by a factor of three no we're just being spun on the idea that he's a radical leftist I mean he's a governor he's a I mean the the whole idea that somehow and and he and the way he governed is not so far from the way Shapiro did right I mean they agree on much more than they disagree on right and the reality of of Shapiro being Pro fracking when you're in Pennsylvania versus this guy being anti fracking because he's in Minnesota where there's no fracking I mean yeah I don't I think people are reading a lot into those so of course naturally there is a response because there must be right the response and this is how uh JD Vance who has been tasked today this is the the the the sort of makeup sex portion of the GOP campaign because it didn't it didn't the the the the the evening together didn't end as well as everyone thought it would so now he's got to go out and bird dog the Trump uh Waltz campaign so in in the great state of Pennsylvania this was JD Vance uh shortly after the announcement kamla Harris listened to the Hamas swing of the party she selected Tim Waltz a guy who wants to ship more manufacturing jobs to China who wants to give illegal aliens driver's license and who wants to make the fentol crisis that we just heard about so much worse because he refuses to do his job and actually make it easier for American citizens and not illegal aliens to live a good life so I think what it says is that kamla Harris is running as a San Francisco liberal she has governed as a San Francisco liberal and she's chosen a running mate who will be a San Francisco style liberal the last thing that I'll say about Tim Waltz is to her credit kamla Harris and Tim Waltz do make an interesting team because if we remember the rioting in the summer of 2020 Tim Waltz was the guy who let riers burn down Minneapolis and then K Harris was the one who bailed the riters out of jail no there there that so folks just so y'all don't be confused now there is the sum and substance of the campaign against this ticket what say you Molly I mean I my favorite part of the story is like remember who was president then like I I mean they they I seem to remember that Donald Trump was President then and you know like we're not going to talk about that at all I mean this is all they had we knew this was coming you know I mean M speechless mol's like what what I just KN I mean I just saw you know Minnesota we knew that that's what they was used and and look there was a there were Flyers at that event for anti- Josh Shapiro which showed pictures of him looking Urban wait I I'm going to read to you what they said I mean you know they had a plot of attack for all of them but you know ultimately the riots they're hoping remember the Republicans have been working on this Riot thing because they saw um that it worked for Richard Nixon right so they're hoping that that but these but yeah so Shapiro had this these flyers were scattered at a media table at the Vance event in Philly Josh Shapiro fraud.com disease corrupt liing con man I mean you know like so this is just there it there it is they were ready they were ready Plug and Play so whether it was Shapiro so all of the pining and lamenting by by Debunking the Claim Josh Shapiro Wasn't Chosen Because He's Jewish Republicans right now about Josh sapiro not being chosen ostensibly because he was oh my God I'm going to say it imal please forgive me I have to say it yeah because he was Jewish I mean that's why they didn't pick him because Democrats Secretary of State in this Administration is Jewish I know Janet Yan is Jewish I mean you know KLA Harris's husband is Jewish yeah there there is that you know it doesn't get I mean we're like .1% of the population and H you know half the people in The West Wing or I mean I I I'm not saying we're not great but I'm just saying like it it's a you know it doesn't necessarily mean that you know just because she didn't pick a Jew as her running mate doesn't mean she's anti-semitic right right and and and that but that's not the point they want to convey and it really does speak to in a lot of ways um where where the Republicans will want to take this election um that it will be folks in so many respects very personal um we've already seen that and we'll talk about in a little moment about how Donald Trump himself has questioned the ethnicity um and race of of kamla Harris yeah and has doubled down on that as have others inside the Republican Party um in what ways though do you think when it's all said and done this further changes the trajectory of the campaign you know as I mentioned as we came in the money raised the volunteers in place let's let's do talk about that one little piece pull it out for example what happened um the year uh that George Floyd was murdered and the response by countless Americans not as well as people globally to that event um and yes there were riots in Minnesota and yes the governor responded slowly uh to that um but what what do you think at least my take on it Molly is I think KLA Harris and her team probably would have counted for that you know I think in in making this Choice they're like okay we know this is going to be a thing so let's go back and revisit what that was and then reframe it the way it was how how do you see moments like that being played up in a way that could make it difficult that could have some impact on some of those other things that we talked about that are good right now money volunteers Etc yeah oh no she definitely has I think she vetted these candidates I think she knew this was coming I would also add that part of the reason she was not the Democratic nominee was because she was really too much of a cist to win the primary contest after the George Floyd murder so in fact she was not the wild Progressive right that was Elizabeth Warren that was Bernie Sanders she was very much in a center lane which was after the George Floyd M murders not murder not as popular as it might have been before so I think she and that's part of the problem with this like radical leftist narrative is she really was quite a centus candidate and had um and had these very kind of you know she come she's a prosecutor she's a sex crimes prosecutor she is the police you know and one of the things they used to use against her was that they would say she was a cop kamla the cop so you know that's the Democratic candidate camel or the cop she's running against a guy who is a felon is a felon right so I don't know if you really want to raise up the cop narrative I if you're a Republican and the fact that she raised money for a bail fund is literally all they can find is that like one she was like donate to this bail fund and they're like she supported the Riders Trump has said he's going to harden the January 6 Riders if they're not guilty they were found guilty I mean Rachel's Scott was amazing the other yeah absolutely but that you actually I think you you you draw right out of the gate the the response the repost to all of the stuff that they can say about about this ticket the one thing though that I think is going to be very interesting to to see them try to get around The Branding of um and that is the way already even before he was the nominee uh Tim Waltz uh branded this The Democratic Party's Branding of "Weird" Against Trump ticket as weird and Weirdos right out of the gate it is one of the things that stuck and what it said to me is the reason it stuck so quickly is because that's pretty much how most Americans view them because if they didn't that doesn't resonate doesn't land the way it did right it if you call somebody weirdo people go why' you say that it's not weird I mean yeah K his nose but that's weird right but they think it's weird so there it is I mean Vance is from fancy Silicon Valley and to a lot of Americans that's a little weird right right you know I mean they have some weird you know some of these fancy Silicon Valley people have some really weird plans and uh I don't think he's wrong about that yeah it you know it's it it's kind of for me the the way the way you stitch together narratives and it's you know it's a craft that you know you learn in the in the course of doing politics that even a narrative that's that doesn't lay well in the fabric you know that you're stitching you you you do have ways in which you can make it work and sometimes all you need is that bridge Stitch to kind of get you back on track and that's what I think this weird this quote weird narrative does it is a bridge Stitch that at the end of the day helps Democrats really not just uh move the narrative along but also creates an impression um when people hear it and when people see it so now when they look at JD Vance when they see him when they hear him that word yeah he sitting right there across his forehead um and it's going to be I think difficult to overcome particularly again and I've already seen a meme on Twitter where you have America's dad a picture of the governor with you know like 15 children hanging off of him hugging him and smiling and a picture of JD Vance next to it uh you know America's dad and the weirdo yeah I mean it it worked it worked and and there have been actually quite a few moments in this campaign where both uh the the uh vice president and her vice president um really have smartly had these moments where they've just tapped into things I'm thinking of her we're not going back line right like that's another line right this is the first election the first presidential since the overturning of row white women have for the first time lost rights the way that people of color did during the Jim Crow laws in the South so this is like the first time that a group of people in America have lost their rights that way right Jim Crow there were there have been other horrible rights reversals in American history but this is a big group and it's pretty recent so I want I have to wonder like when she said that line we not going back it really did become like a rallying cry and you saw it everywhere you still see it and and it was she just sort of had her finger on what the moment was yeah and that's that's and I think for me at least and when I go back and I look at 2010 and I look at you know how we again stitched together the various campaigns because in in inevitably all the campaigns were linked by a single thread or maybe a couple of threads that were woven out uh through them thematically kamla and and and certainly um Governor have found a way to at various times crystallize that moment for the for their campaigns and I think that's going to be very very important we're going to get into uh a little bit more cray cray it's it's it's another level of cig pray uh that folks the week at nabj that's all I have to say we we're having a lot of fun with my friend Molly Jung fast I'm I'm I'm I'm sitting here and I had fun with Molly when I was on her podcast we had a great time and so Molly this is my opportunity to return the favor uh and to have a little fun with you um the president of United States former president of the United States let's be clear the former president of the United States Donald Trump um was invited and Trump at the NABJ accepted an invitation to speak at the National Association of black journalists and uh he did and the program got started uh about 30 minutes late and you'll hear this addressed in the clip was just so I'll fact check for folks ahead of time the reason they started 30 minutes late was not because of poor equipment not because someone showed up late no it was simply because Donald Trump was advised that he would be fact checked real time during the course of the conversation because journalists who have this little things called Integrity did not want the moment to go by where he said something that was demonstrably and factually incorrect without factchecking it real time Donald Trump like the petulent little 10-year-old that he is had a hissy fit and refused to go on the stage and it wasn't until they decided to reconfigure how they were going to do the factchecking that Donald Trump then stopped pouting and went on the stage and when he did Molly uh this is what we heard Mr President we so appreciate you giving us an hour of your time I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room sir a lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today you have pushed false claims about some of your Rivals from Nikki Haley to former president Barack Obama saying that they were not born in the United States which is not true you have told four Congress women ER who were American citizens to go back to where they came from you have used words like animal and rabbit to describe black District Attorneys you've attacked black journalists calling them a loser saying the questions that they ask are quote stupid and racist you've had dinner with the white supremacist at your Mara laga Resort so my question sir now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that well first of all I don't think I've ever been asked a question so in in such a horrible manner first question you don't even say hello how are you are you with ABC because I think they're a fake News Network a terrible Network and I think it's disgraceful that I came here in Good Spirit uh I love the black population of this country I've done so much for the black population of this country uh including uh employment including uh opportunity zones with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs I done so much and you know and I say this uh historically black colleges and universities were out of money they were Stone Cold broke and I saved them and I gave them long-term financing and nobody else was doing it I think it's a very rude introduction I don't know exactly why you would do something like that and let me go a step further I was invited here and I was told my opponent whether it was Biden or Camala uh I was told my opponent was going to be here it turned out my opponent isn't here you invited me under false pretense and then you said you can't do it with zoom well you know where's Zoom she's going to do it with zoom and she's not coming and then you were half an hour late just so we understand I have too much respect for you to be late they couldn't get their equipment working or something Mr I would love very Nast I have answered the question I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln all right so uh the rest of that folks was an absolute show uh and that was the highlight that was the highlight that was the opening uh the reporter of Rachel Scott of ABC News um held held serve uh with an incredible amount of dignity um there have been some um Molly and I would love to get your thoughts on this too in addition to your response to that what we heard plus the whole thing was that at that point where he came out and started uh with the fake news of ABC and going back against Molly that the the leadership of nabj had put this on should have stepped out on the stage and said time out we are not doing that here you're not allowed in our house to disrespect our reporters um I'm thinking specifically of my friend Roland Martin who was very adamant about that um that at that moment Donald Trump should have been checked uh period for his uh approach to this but in in many respects this was a win for Donald Trump because I hope people realize and again I want to get your take on it Molly uh this this uh meeting this gathering this sit down was not for the black journalists in the room it was not for a black audience this was appeal an appeal to his white nationalist base to let them know I can come in their house and still own them I I mean I I think that's right and I think and and also remember to create a permission structure for white people who worry that he's racist yes right it's both he's a he tries to use this for both things um but I think that's right I would say Rachel Scott is so young Rachel right Rachel Scott and she's so young and she just did a magnificent job and she didn't you know he kept trying to intimidate her and make her feel bad and she just held her own in really impressive way so I thought she did a really good job and I mean I thought and I also thought what was interesting was that Harris really shut him down you know she said she said Harris Fox News well no oh I'm sorry yes KL Harris afterwards she had two lines that were like he's still dividing people the way he always has he's still you know something effect of like he's still a racist he's who he is and um I thought that was really effective and it also showed she's sort of gone to this Obama likee way of trying to shut him down as opposed to like creating a whole outrage cycle with the free media which I think is really she's done successfully what did you think this highlighted overall though I mean Beyond I mean my take was okay the audience was not who everybody thought the audience was what what was your what was your takeaway in terms of um what the interview itself said about Trump's approach to this race uh as well as any particular takeaways that folks may have missed well I mean for sure it's like the CNN Town Hall if you have Trump somewhere and you don't or the CNN debate if you have Trump somewhere and you don't fact check him then you enable him right because he has these lies he has them down he just gets going if you don't if you can't sort of pause the conversation say that's not true but so and again that's the thing with a lot of these Republican Congressman right uh Congressman Senators right now is that they they do a lot of time say things that are demonstrably untrue right right and uh that is it's a very tough to fact check in real time but that's what you have to do when you when you platform these people so I would say when you if you don't do that Trump does win but I do think I'm conflicted because I also think it's important to show voters who he is right because when Trump goes away his approval numbers go up and when he's when he's platformed people remember what they didn't like about him that I think that's very true and I think it's while why it's important uh that folks understand the approach I think that more and more folks are advocating that we now have to hear him again we have to hear him in his own words again we need to remind because everyone's sort of living in this lot land that somehow uh four years ago things were better off for them um right you know this time um in you know in this by the summer of 2020 um some 250,000 Americans had died from covid yeah the president of the United States had dismissed it as well it'll be over in a few weeks um he started advising uh people to do crazy things with uh bleach yeah and and more importantly he set up a war between and among citizens over wearing a freaking mask he politicized The Mask so you know I think it's important in addition to that to go back and just remind people of who it is we're talking about um and so that's why that moment on that stage yes it may have served Trump's purpose in terms of who he wanted to talk to but served our purpose too for reminding us of who he is yeah yeah I think that's really true I think that's really true how do you one of the aspects that you've seen coming out of the the The Campaign which I think is an interesting one for for kamla Harris and her team is this idea of we're not going back yeah Kamala's "We're Not Going Back" Statement uh and it's such a an an a not just powerful but empowering statement in so many ways how do you read that language and and the elevation of this idea we're not going back what does it mean for women what does it mean for uh you know people of color across the country and what does it mean largely for the country itself well I think look I mean the Trump's whole stck is that he's going to bring everyone back to the 1950s so and he's been doing that for eight years right that we're going to go back to make America great again again right right you know original original but you know it's a it hearkens back to Charles Lindberg and Ronald Reagan use the slogan too so it is this uh you know there was a time in American life when a white man was King right that's really what they're saying is you don't want these people coming to our country you don't want women trying to have their fair share you know you don't want you know you just want to be by virtue of the fact that you're a white man get stuff and and and you know like I think that that was sort of the message and here we have a woman who has I mean that video one of my favorite moments is the video that the RNC research account tweeted which was her laughing about how you have to if they don't open the doors for you you have to break down the doors you know if they if they if they don't open the door behind them behind you and I think she's she's uh you know she's a historic candidate she was a district attorney Attorneys General first female Attorneys General of the State of California first you know second black woman Senator ever right I mean it's crazy you know she was the first um East Asian Senator ever I mean it she was a history maker and the first female vice president so I think that you know you have this one cand who has this very dark vision of bringing America back to the 1950s ending no fault divorce you know regulating the birth control pill which has been has approve yeah and you know wants to make it so you can't send meth prisone on the mail you know so that you have the Ten Commandments in your schools I mean this is really like you know kind of Christian nationalism sprinkled with 1950 stuff and then you have this other candidate who is just sort of breaking down down bar barriers and and and who really has sort of is all about forward motion and has a life that was not available to her mother well it's it's interesting you you hit on a number of things that um that strike chords I think particularly ironic ones when you look at and listen to a party that's now and again I'm still a member of this party largely because it pisses them off and and it gives me it gives me the power to look them in the eye and say say they're full of and to call them out on it um and it gives me an opportunity to wrestle back at some point uh whatever remnants of of you know traditional republicanism may exist um but at the same time it also uh you know gives an opportunity to sort of push out and and make people focus on the fact that a party that now is deeming itself this sort of white Christian nationalist uh standard Bearer um that is all about telling women uh to to live by the Ten Commandments um and and at the same time um supporting a a governor Gator candidate in North Carolina the lieutenant governor there who from a church Pulpit says it's a time for killing yeah um killing those who disagree with him killing those who in his view um uh stand in the way of you know of pushing out narratives that support Women's Health uh and Reproductive Rights Etc it still amazes me Molly how much of the country buys feeds off that pum and still will buy those narratives which is why I think when you look at this race despite the the good momentum that's created that there's still an appeal out in the country for that there's still an appeal for Donald Trump amongst a lot of Americans amongst a lot of white females who you know Donald Trump won their vote 45% of white women voted for Donald Trump which is yeah and that's in the and that's on the heels of Access Hollywood and and all the other things that we learned um between 16 and and now about this man what do what caution do you throw up at this point um for and I'm not going to put in the context of Democrats running the race but Americans who are who are looking to stand and fight on behalf of the country uh knowing that on the other side of that fight is this this this mindset that says yeah you know let's make America great again yeah I mean I definitely am concerned and I think we all are I mean look the stakes this is not like she's running against Nikki haly or Mitt Romney or someone who a you know who's who's a respectable conservative who will say I lost we know what Donald Trump's going to do if he loses or if he wins he's going to say he won we know I mean so I do think it's really scary and then the other thing is we know what the polls are showing now and she has a lot of momentum but you and I both know that polls have been wrong and so we really I think that I'm certainly not not going to feel great until we're in [Laughter] January so so final point for let you go uh I I I talked alluded to it before and spoke a little bit about it but um when you look at the the various factions within the Democratic party they have aligned themselves very well and I know that there was a lot of concern about the more Progressive members of the party uh but Bernie Sanders has come out and endorsed uh you know Governor walls um aocc I believe has done so the progressive wing of the party seems okay again not saying that that means he is this hard left Progressive but what's your take on the on on the Coalition the the reemergence of the coalitions within the Democratic party coming to um a a better place to move forward into the fall well Joe Mansion also endorsed him so he's got and Joe Mansion is more than happy to be a pain in the butt about stuff right so there's he does not you know he wouldn't just be you know a lot of Democrats you'd say Well they're just pulling the party line but Joe Mansion has no interest in that so look he's a very well-liked governor with a lot of friends and he's very good at reaching across the aisle having relationships with people these are the things you want in a candidate and these are the things you want in a vice president someone who can go I mean one of the the great things that Biden was able to do was he was able to go down to the Senate and make deals and and so I do think it's it's quite good and and I would add that um I I think that I I don't know I mean I think the progressives have been really good partners with Biden and they have been you know Biden has done a lot of progressive legislation but they have really had his back I mean you know to a fault right AOC and have really had his back um I don't you know I this whole narrative about how how Shapiro was the more cous more electable pick never really held water to me because you know and and again we talked about this a minute ago but it it he he really you know really in my mind was a question was a choice between someone who comes from Philadelphia and is urban versus someone who is sort of from rural Minnesota and his more has a sort of more Farmery uh situation so I never thought of it as sort of left versus right but I think it's definitely being um you know painted that way I also think that um I I think that he's I think he's also the vice president so he's not the president you know he's and as you and I both know like it you you don't want a vice president who take you know where they become the story right yeah and and yeah exactly note to Trump you don't want a vice president who becomes the story thank you so much uh I love it I love our conversations I really appreciate you coming on she is the host of fast politics with Molly Jung fast uh she is uh an incredibly uh important writer in many respects because she captures a lot of stuff you also read Molly stuff if you aren't reading it's really really good special correspondent uh to Vanity Fair um and certainly my friend and and cohort over at MSNBC is a political analyst there thank you so much Molly for coming on the Michael steel podcast and having a little bit of child time with us thank you for having me all right folks that does it for our time together you know I love it when you do the voodoo that you do so well when you download share and like all that good stuff so glad you could be a part of listening to us on uh our new platform iHeart Radio where we're just so happy to be a part of of that fam also still catch us on Apple podcast Etc you know where to find us uh if you enjoyed this episode like I said be sure to share it follow me on Twitter at Michael steel follow follow Molly on Twitter for sure at Molly Jong fast um until next time y'all Summer's about to wind down soon so get get that be time in because you know the tan thing it you know doesn't doesn't hold up for everybody so until next time y'all be well