‘EMBARRASSING for us’: MS NOW reacts to Trump’s behavior at World Cup final — COMPILATION

[0:00] Spain is a wasted cause. [0:02] We don't want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way. [0:04] I'd like you to cut it off. [0:06] Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. [0:11] They don't participate. They don't pay. [0:14] I don't want anything to do with Spain. [0:16] They're hopeless. [0:17] Bad people because, you know, they have everybody else going and paying and working. [0:23] In particular Spain. There are a couple of others. [0:25] But in particular Spain. [0:26] The day when the American president called everyone in Spain, quote, [0:34] bad people. Hi again, everyone. [0:36] It's now five o'clock in the east. [0:37] In Donald Trump's world, one day you're calling an entire nation, an American ally, hopeless and full of, quote, bad people. [0:45] And the next you're trying to squeeze into their spotlight as they celebrate the biggest prize in sports, winning the World Cup. [0:53] At yesterday's final match, just 11 days after Donald Trump said those hideous things about Spain and NATO that do not represent the views of most Americans, [1:04] Trump represented America again, this time to present them, the winning Spanish team, with the World Cup trophy. [1:11] He shook some players' hands and then awkwardly refused to leave their stage. [1:16] FIFA president Gianni Infantino had to rush over to him and push him off the stage, literally and physically, to let the Spanish team have their moment. [1:26] Minutes earlier, Trump and Infantino had walked out to the field to a sustained chorus of boos, according to the White House press pool reporters, [1:34] which described the ambient crowd noise level at 78 decibels, getting up to 84 with all the booing. [1:41] The entire ordeal was classic Donald Trump, an attempt to hog the spotlight in an event he had already unsuccessfully and unnecessarily inserted himself into. [1:54] A few weeks prior, Trump called Infantino after a player on the U.S. team, Flo Balogun, received a red card and a one-game suspension, asking FIFA to review it. [2:05] Trump said he didn't tell Infantino what to do, but FIFA did later rescind the suspension for the player. [2:12] Balogun acknowledged after the United States' defeat that the, quote, outside noise over the reversal made the next match, quote, difficult. [2:21] So yesterday's moment on the World Cup stage was also telling for what it showed about the people around Donald Trump, those who appease him. [2:29] We've seen time and time and time again that anyone and any institution that bends the knee to Donald Trump ends up with a good amount of egg on their face. [2:38] It's just a matter of time. Washington Post writes about Trump and Infantino this way, quote, their relationship had been conspicuous for years. [2:48] Infantino had repeatedly appeared with Trump. FIFA rented office space in Trump Tower, and Trump has kept a model of the World Cup trophy near the Resolute desk. [2:57] The World Cup draw was moved to Washington at Trump's urging, bringing one of the tournament's signature pre-event ceremonies to the Kennedy Center. [3:06] At that event, Infantino presented Donald Trump with FIFA's inaugural Peace Prize, an honor with a murky selection process that was derided by critics and human rights activists, [3:17] as another sign of FIFA's willingness to flatter the American president, whose government it needed as a partner. [3:25] And what did the FIFA president end up with in return? [3:28] Having to literally shoo a man off the stage at an event that he tried to make all about himself. [3:34] Donald Trump's embarrassment of the United States of America on the World Cup stage is where we begin the hour, [3:39] with Pulitzer Prize-winning host of the podcast Pablo Torre finds out, contributor Pablo Torre, also joining us, national sports columnist, [3:47] professor of journalism at the University of Maryland, Kevin Blackistone is here. [3:52] Pablo, since you and I talked a little bit about the World Cup, tell me your thoughts, what went through your head as you watched this yesterday. [4:00] Yeah, I watched this live and replayed it a number of times, I will admit, [4:04] wondering if this was perhaps worthy of a generous interpretation, [4:07] and that generosity would have led to some, I think, accusation of outright senility. [4:13] This, if this is innocent, is something that you would have made fun of, Mr. President, with Joe Biden, right? [4:20] You don't know where you are. You're lost somehow on the most grand stage on the planet. [4:27] That's the generous read. The less generous read is, I think, probably, for better and for worse, more appropriate, [4:33] which is, this is somebody who did not care about whose moment this was, and the through line in Donald Trump. [4:40] Nicole, is that it's always his moment. And so, do you like this, soccer? [4:46] Do you like what the American experience has been when it came to the literal moment at which the gold trophy is lifted? [4:53] Because, of course, all gold trophies belong to Donald Trump. [4:58] Kevin, your thoughts as you watch this go down yesterday? [5:01] Well, oddly, I thought it was befitting, right? It bookended this particular World Cup. [5:09] It started with Donald Trump's embarrassments and with Gianno Infantino's embarrassments. [5:18] As I said, corruption respects corruption. And it did. [5:22] And so, this World Cup, all in the middle, there were question marks about things that were going on. [5:28] You mentioned Balogun getting the red card, Donald Trump making a phone call to Infantino, [5:36] and miraculously, the red card goes away. [5:38] England suffered the same with a defender. [5:42] They didn't get to make a phone call, and their red card stayed intact. [5:47] We've talked about what happened to so many of the people that wanted to come here to either work for FIFA as a referee, [5:58] who got turned away because of his nationality, [6:01] the great fan for the Congo, who wasn't allowed to come here and do his thing in the stands, [6:08] because this country wouldn't honor a visa for him, [6:12] the fans that could no longer afford to go to a World Cup in this country. [6:20] And then you see the end, where Donald Trump makes a mockery out of what should have been a great moment for Spain [6:26] and a great moment for the people who love this particular game. [6:29] The beautiful game was turned into an ugly game. [6:31] You know, Pablo, it's not something we can measure for, [6:39] but Spain is a proud country. [6:43] They love, they love, love, love competition and sports. [6:50] And 11 days ago, Trump called all the Spanish people, quote, bad people. [6:55] What sort of intangible impact does an attack from an American president have on a country [7:00] and how their sort of proudest sports team performs on the world stage? [7:06] Yeah, I just think it's, you know, they call it in baseball, as you know, Nicole, they call it Bush League. [7:12] It feels like minor league stuff. [7:13] You know, it makes us look small. [7:16] And I want to point this out because there was another piece of writing that I wanted to cite here [7:24] because it was in The Guardian over the last several days that the vice president of U.S. soccer [7:29] put a name to it that I think I should just quote [7:32] because he raised the question that he provides an answer to. [7:36] And he says, while the World Cup will go down as a massive commercial success, [7:41] no amount of revenue will ever erase the moral stain of blessing Trump's wars [7:45] in the name of soccer. [7:48] This was the vice president of U.S. soccer writing in The Guardian, [7:51] someone who has been fed up watching the commandeering of his sport [7:55] and the U.S. national team program by a guy who does not actually care about the game. [8:01] And so what does it mean for Spain to have been insulted on the world stage [8:05] and then to be now around this, again, generously senile old man [8:11] who was trying to be in literally the team photo? [8:14] I think it's just embarrassing for us, you know, [8:18] and that's what U.S. soccer's vice president there was basically referring to in so many words. [8:24] Good evening from New York. I'm Chris Hayes. [8:27] Donald Trump has provided the country with another just unbelievable split screen this weekend. [8:33] The president of the United States, the first ever FIFA Peace Prize recipient, [8:38] yucking it up, partying at the World Cup finals, while the war he started with Iran and then [8:44] restarted faces one of the worst weeks yet and threatens to spiral out of control. [8:49] Now, for Trump this weekend, all eyes were on the gold, [8:52] as he and his family seemed to have a grand old time amid the backdrop [8:56] of even more U.S. troops killed under his watch pursuing his war. [9:01] The Army has identified two of the American soldiers killed in action over the weekend. [9:06] Private Isabella Gonzalez of Texas was just 19 years old. [9:10] First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan of Hawaii was 25. [9:15] Both were killed when Iran struck a military base in Jordan, [9:18] which maintains a large footprint from American forces [9:21] and serves as a key hub for U.S. airstrikes in Iran. [9:25] A third soldier died in Iraq in an unrelated incident that involved a downed Iranian drone, [9:31] which brings the total of Americans who have died in this war to 17, that we know of. [9:35] As the New York Times reports today, Trump's Pentagon has withheld information [9:40] about dozens of injuries related to the ongoing Iran war. [9:44] Pete Hegg says Department of Defense is obsessed with the culture of winning, total domination. [9:49] Any information contrary to that narrative is suppressed, apparently. [9:53] Those attacks not only injured dozens of U.S. service members, [9:55] they also damaged several helicopters, quote, [9:58] but the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted. [10:03] In response, a U.S. military official told the Times, quote, [10:05] Central command is not required to release information about injured service members, [10:10] especially when they quickly return to duty. [10:13] I guess the government doesn't think you need to know about the service members being injured [10:16] ostensibly on your behalf in a war being fought with your tax dollars and in your name. [10:23] And there has been reporting for months across all fronts of this war from many different sources [10:27] that the fundamental situation, the balance of power is not nearly as rosy as the administration [10:34] is constantly telling us, that the U.S. and Israel, for example, are running critically low [10:39] on missile interceptors because we were just completely unprepared for the reality of the war [10:44] and now its duration. [10:45] To that last point, it is not even clear if Trump is aware of that reality. [10:51] No, really, listen to this. [10:52] The Washington Post reporting, according to a single U.S. official, granted anonymity, quote, [10:57] we do not have enough munitions to safely sustain operations, [11:00] and I don't think the White House is aware of that. [11:04] I hope so in the White House is at least reading the Washington Post. [11:08] Meanwhile, over the past several months, thousands of people, thousands of people [11:12] are dead across both Iran and Lebanon and in Israel, including civilians. [11:17] They are apparently not a consideration at all for this White House, which, lest we forget, [11:21] bombed a girls' elementary school as one of the war's first acts. [11:26] The Yemeni militant group, the Houthis, are also now escalating. [11:29] They just announced a blockade of the Red Sea from Saudi Arabian oil. [11:34] Should they go ahead and fully close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, [11:38] that could reduce the global oil supply by 7 percent. [11:40] That, of course, on top of about the 10 percent that flows through the Strait of Hormuz, [11:45] which means everything is sitting on a nice edge in the Middle East right now. [11:49] Here at home, the second-order effects of the war returning fast. [11:53] Because oil is not moving through the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices are creeping back up. [11:57] National average back over four bucks a gallon, as our strategic reserves here in the U.S. [12:02] are down to their lowest levels since the Reagan administration. [12:06] This is a story that kind of flew on the radar a bit, [12:08] but we were using that strategic reserve to sort of float oil prices down. [12:13] And it's not clear at all that China and Japan will bail us out this time [12:17] with their own much larger-than-expected reserves and China's drastic reduction to imports [12:22] that it was able to pull off during the first phase of the war, [12:25] which really did save Donald Trump and American gas consumers' bacon. [12:31] Now, throughout all of this, you've got the commander-in-chief, [12:36] I don't know what you can even see. [12:37] I mean, asleep at the wheel? [12:38] Not always asleep. [12:39] Sometimes he's awake. [12:40] And when he's awake, he's mostly plotting and ranting about sabotaging our free and fair elections [12:44] so that he can rig it for the Republican Party or, alternately, publicly obsessing [12:51] over things like the font choice and the tiles for all his little redecorating projects. [12:57] Trump transparently does not care and can't even bother to pretend to anymore. [13:04] That's the reality. [13:06] The only reason he even seemingly bothered to comment on those deceased soldiers [13:10] is because a little watch news outlet had to call him up and force him to address it. [13:14] We hadn't heard from the president yet about these deaths, [13:19] so we decided to call him to see if he had a reaction. [13:22] And that was the first thing I asked him, what his reaction was to the news of these [13:26] two U.S. service members that were killed in Iranian attacks yesterday. [13:30] The president telling me he finds it very sad. [13:33] He says it's a very sad thing. [13:35] We hate to see it happen. [13:37] But then the president told me it's in service to our country. [13:41] We're never, they're never going to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. [13:46] Again, I grow tired of pointing this out, but I feel duty bound to do it. [13:51] A year ago, during the bombing of Iran, he said the program had been obliterated. [13:56] And anyone who questioned it being obliterated was essentially disloyal and treasonous. [14:01] Now, Trump started this war, this version of it this year, [14:05] in part because the Israeli government convinced him to. [14:07] And then he got bored pretty quickly, as he does with all of his actual presidenting. [14:13] Remember, he did his little prerecorded video in the middle of the night with a baseball hat, [14:17] and that was that. [14:18] And then he went back to doing what he'd much rather do, [14:20] flying back to New York to hang out at the World Cup Finals. [14:23] That's why this guy is in it. [14:26] Now, I wouldn't say it was a warm reception from the crowd, as you can hear there. [14:30] Lots of people posted videos of what sure sounds like booing. [14:33] After all, Trump gets booed at basically every sporting event he attends. [14:36] I was in the garden on Game 3, and it was deafening how Laudy got booed. [14:41] This video comes from NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba. [14:46] What does it sound like to you? [14:48] For one local report, security at MetLife Stadium confiscated thousands of red cards [14:53] that fans were going to waive to mock the president's corruption. [14:56] Of course, he calling the head of FIFA to get a red card revoked on an American player. [15:00] Patrons say the cards were taken when security learned they were actually part of an anti-Trump protest. [15:06] And as for the game, the Trump curse struck again. [15:09] When Argentina, the team he clearly preferred, from a country with a Trump sycophant and buddy as president, [15:15] got shut out and lost. [15:17] But, you know, the man was clearly just thrilled with all the attention anyway, right? [15:23] That's what keeps him going. [15:25] Just look at him, soaking up all the glory with the champion Spanish team [15:29] who actually accomplished something. [15:31] Why is he on stage? [15:33] Why is he there? [15:34] It's so cringy. [15:37] He appears to be trying to photobomb their team picture after they've done something very impressive. [15:43] He was pulled aside by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. [15:48] The Guardian put it in a truly legendary photo caption quote, [15:52] Gianni Infantino carefully explains to President Trump that he is not part of the Spanish national team. [15:58] Trump also weirdly, grossly inserted himself in the actual process of handing out the World Cup trophy. [16:03] Look, look how he eyed the thing. [16:06] Like, you just like looks like he wants it for himself. [16:08] And all of this would pair well with the ridiculous FIFA Peace Prize the organization made him, [16:13] a kind of participation trophy after he didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize and was super bummed out about it. [16:18] And then, you know, just over two months after receiving that Peace Prize, [16:21] he started a regime change war of choice in Iran that everyone warned would be disastrous. [16:25] And now here we are, a war that continues to this day, leaving thousands dead, injured, displaced. [16:32] That's left American service members, families grieving and has left Trump utterly and completely unbothered. [16:41] Joining me now, MSNOW's Eamon Mohadeen. [16:43] I get that he thought this was one of the signature events of his term in office. [16:48] But why, like, just let the Spanish have it. [16:50] Just let them enjoy. [16:50] There's no way that Donald Trump can be surrounded by a bunch of young, successful, attractive, [16:58] highly accomplished men and athletes and not want to be a part of their success story. [17:02] And by the way, this wasn't the first time Donald Trump did this, right? [17:05] Literally a year ago during this same similar tournament, the FIFA Club World Cup, when Chelsea won, [17:12] they went through this same kind of ceremony where Chelsea had just won the World Cup. [17:15] Donald Trump goes on stage, hand the trophy. [17:18] You're supposed to leave. Let the players enjoy this moment. [17:22] Nobody's supposed to be on that stage except the players and the coach, not even the medical staff, [17:27] not even the technical staff, not even some of the assistant managers. [17:30] And Donald Trump injects himself in there and awkwardly stands there knowing that he's not supposed to be there. [17:37] So much so that even the president of FIFA, Infantino, who has done this a few times, [17:42] tried to suggest to him, hey, you should be exiting stage right. [17:45] He doesn't. He tries to stand in the middle of that picture and steal the thunder of the Spanish players. [17:50] And look, like I said, the idea of Donald Trump being, as the Washington Post said, [17:56] being showered with gold confetti and being surrounded by all these highly accomplished, [18:00] very successful athletes is probably something he wanted for the image and being part of that success. [18:05] Let's talk about one of those successful athletes on the Spanish team, Borja Iglesias. [18:10] He said he would only shake Trump's hand to avoid prison. He hoped it would be over very quickly. [18:17] How much did the president's feud with Spain's president just linger over all of this? [18:21] Big time. You know, the athletes were asked about it. The soccer players were asked about it, [18:25] as you mentioned there. You know, he look, the Spanish athletes are a reflection of their country, [18:31] just the same way American athletes are in others. [18:33] So they come in all different kind of political views and stuff. [18:35] But some of the Spanish players have been very outspoken, not just about the United States, [18:40] but about foreign policy, about war, about the genocide in Gaza. [18:43] Many of them have expressed their views about it, and they understand America's role in all of these global issues. [18:48] And as you mentioned, there's been this feud between the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, and the United States. [18:53] And the words of President Trump certainly reverberated around Spanish media. [18:58] A lot of Spanish media covered Trump's comments about Spain being very bad people, [19:03] criticizing the country, threatening the country with more tariff wars or trade wars. [19:09] So that was not lost on the players who were playing here in the United States. [19:12] And then on top of that, you had some Spanish athletes, former Spanish team players, [19:16] who were denied entry into the United States. [19:18] One of the former World Cup winners of Spain's 2010 team was denied entry into the United States [19:25] because he participated in a soccer game in Iran. [19:27] And so his ESTA visa, or his ability to enter the United States, was denied. [19:32] And he appealed to Donald Trump and to the American administration to let him into the country [19:37] so that he could be here with his teammates and celebrate. [19:39] And he was granted that. [19:40] So the politics between what the United States has done towards Spain and the tensions around this World Cup [19:47] were not lost on these Spanish players as they were lifting that trophy [19:49] and making these types of comments in the run-up. [19:51] Of course, athletes are going to be asked about their politics and their worldviews. [19:54] So I think for a lot of the athletes, like we heard there, it was not lost on them [19:59] that they were playing in this climate, that it was Donald Trump who was going to present this trophy. [20:02] And he's had very harsh words towards the Spanish government. [20:05] I have less than a minute left, but I just want to say the president was also with PM of Canada, Mark Carney. [20:10] And he told him, you've got to stop these fires from coming in and poisoning our air. [20:15] Maybe they should pay us some damages or something. [20:17] We should do some tariffs. [20:19] As if Donald Trump doesn't know how, you know, forest fires happen [20:23] and that they're part of things that happen in this country. [20:26] And, you know, again, it's the way that Donald Trump approaches geopolitics [20:30] and also, like, personal relationships. [20:32] It's a sporting event the world is trying to celebrate. [20:35] And Donald Trump is using the stage to his own, you know, personal advantage, [20:39] but also this kind of, like, retribution that anything that happens outside the world [20:43] that could potentially be harmful to the United States, [20:46] he wants to exact a price for it. [20:47] And it's just not the spirit of the tournament. [20:50] It's not the cordiality that is often afforded to world leaders [20:52] who are coming here to participate in this. [20:54] Canada was a host of the World Cup, like the United States was, like Mexico was. [20:58] And so the idea that you would use this stage and also, at the same time, [21:02] use that kind of rhetoric against your neighbor, [21:05] I think it just speaks to the character of who Donald Trump is. [21:08] David Mohadine, it's always so good to have you. [21:10] Thank you so much. [21:11] They know Donald Trump in New Jersey, where this World Cup match had the booze raining down [21:18] when he walked out with FIFA's president. [21:37] When Spain was celebrating its victory, you could see Trump sort of lingering on stage. [21:42] Australian broadcasters also discussing whether he'd stay in the photos. [21:50] In 2026, the champions of the world in. [21:57] It was now, so they can edit him out of that. [22:03] They can edit him out of that. [22:07] That's real-time commentary. [22:09] And it happened, as Forbes reported. [22:12] The FIFA World account posted this shot, where, if you look closely, [22:17] you can see the leader of the free world's right arm getting cropped. [22:22] Now, Trump's unpopularity abroad is well known. [22:26] But again, this was match held. [22:28] And the booze you hear are inside the United States. [22:30] His approval stuck in the 30s over the war, as we were covering at the top of the show, [22:36] the economy, and other failures. [22:38] Republicans close to the operation say it's time to make the midterms a kind of, quote, [22:43] hate election. [22:44] Republicans admit, Axios reports, the midterm forecast is bleak. [22:48] But if they can just make voters hate Dems more than Republicans, [22:52] maybe the losses won't be as bad. [22:55] I want to bring in a special guest. [22:56] Brian Tyler Cohen is the host of the No Lie podcast, [22:59] which has billions of views online. [23:01] He's interviewed all kinds of heavyweights across the Democratic Party, [23:05] including that rare get in American politics, [23:09] a recent sit-down with former President Obama. [23:12] We've seen the de-evolution of the discourse. [23:17] How do we come back from a place that we have fallen into? [23:21] Well, first of all, I think it's important to recognize that [23:25] the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling. [23:31] You know, it is true that it gets attention. [23:36] It's true that it's a distraction. [23:40] Cohen is also the author of the new book, The Day After, [23:44] How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World. [23:47] You can get that right now wherever books are sold. [23:50] Brian is one of these new voices that we've been listening to. [23:54] As you know, the world keeps evolving. [23:56] Welcome back. [23:57] All right. [23:58] Thanks for having me. [23:59] Yeah. [24:00] The top story here relates to your book. [24:01] So reading from a passage, you talk about how before 2024, [24:06] this duality that Bill Clinton had discussed, [24:08] strong and wrong was beating weak and right. [24:11] You say you could say that demonizing the opposition is bad for the country. [24:15] You can't say it's worse than Trump's presidency. [24:17] The truth is Republicans have been playing the long game. [24:19] Dems playing the wrong game. [24:22] Bars, Brian. [24:23] And you go on to write, why are Dems so far behind with this kind of politics? [24:27] It works. [24:28] Look at the two times Dems did play hardball. [24:30] You point to 96 in 2012 where the campaigns really did diminish their opponents sailing [24:36] to victory rather than the talk we've heard so often about going high. [24:41] How does that apply today when we see these reports, [24:44] everything from abuse of power, revenge indictments, ice at the polls, [24:49] to a propaganda campaign that Axios reports would be just about hating Dems? [24:55] Well, look, they have run that playbook over and over and over again, [24:59] and largely it's been successful. [25:01] I mean, how many elections can you remember, Ari, [25:04] where Republicans had deferred to this idea of migrant caravans [25:07] or demonizing gay people or trans people, [25:10] as was the case in this latest election? [25:12] There's always some minority to punch down on, [25:15] always some scapegoat that's the cause of all of our woes, [25:19] as opposed to the people who are actually causing a lot of the problems in this country, [25:22] who in large part are the millionaires and billionaires [25:25] who benefit from the policies of this administration. [25:28] It is notable that you have Republicans who continuously run [25:32] on punching down on these small minorities, [25:36] but at the same time, the first thing they do is pass tax cuts, for example, [25:41] that heap favor, heap benefits onto the wealthiest Americans in this country [25:45] as we see income inequality explode. [25:48] And by the way, Republicans know that this is potent. [25:50] That's why they run on it. [25:51] But the problem is, when they get into office, [25:53] they never actually deliver on any of those things. [25:55] It's always about finding some small minority to beat down on [25:59] as the cause of all of our nation's problems. [26:03] What are the issues that you think currently work best against Trump? [26:08] The issues that currently work best against Trump, [26:10] well, I mean, his blatant corruption [26:12] and his inability, unwillingness to deliver on the very things [26:16] that he promised on the campaign trail, [26:17] both of those things in concert, I think, [26:20] tell a really clear story about who this president is working for, [26:23] which would be bad enough unto itself, [26:24] but even worse given the fact that this is somebody [26:26] who came into office on this pretext [26:28] that he was going to focus on the little guy. [26:30] It was him who decided to run an America First campaign, [26:33] and really the only person that stood to benefit from this [26:36] is not the 350 million people in this country. [26:39] It's Donald Trump himself. [26:41] He's the one who's tripled his net worth. [26:42] He's the one who's encrusting the Oval Office in gold, [26:45] building himself a monument in the form of a ballroom [26:48] and maybe a triumphal arch who's gotten a new airplane out of this [26:51] that's going to, of course, go to him after he's out of office. [26:54] And so, again, the person who stands to benefit [26:56] from all of Trump's priorities as we see costs rise, [26:58] as we see health care gutted, [26:59] as we see food assistance gutted, [27:01] as we see gas prices rise, [27:03] is only one guy. [27:04] It's Trump. [27:07] What do you see in the early primaries, [27:09] which, of course, are just a smattering, [27:11] and this conversation about generational change? [27:13] We follow this now across two elderly presidents, [27:17] an elderly Supreme Court, [27:20] Mitch McConnell, mystery about his health status. [27:24] But I think we'd all be fair to note [27:27] it's a problem in both parties [27:29] and across every branch of government. [27:30] How much of that does account, [27:32] does that account for some of the energy [27:34] behind younger Democratic candidates? [27:36] I think that's a huge driver [27:38] of the future of the Democratic Party. [27:40] I mean, there's no doubt, as you mentioned rightfully, [27:43] that gerontocracy is a problem in this country. [27:45] My generation, millennials, [27:46] have largely been locked out of power forever. [27:49] And frankly, some of the millennials [27:51] that are getting into office now [27:52] are the most popular politicians in America, [27:55] whether it's Zorn Mamdani in New York, [27:57] whether it's AOC, also in New York, [28:00] whether it's John Ossoff down in Georgia. [28:02] This is what happens when you actually make a bridge [28:05] to the next generation and allow people [28:06] who are more charismatic, more dynamic, [28:09] more articulate, more tech-savvy [28:11] to have their spot in the spotlight, [28:13] have their chance in the spotlight [28:14] to actually show what they can do. [28:17] And so I think this should be a blinking red light [28:19] to existing members of the Democratic caucus [28:21] that, you know, if you stand for the things [28:25] that you claim to stand for, [28:27] make way for people [28:28] who are going to be more effective arbiters, [28:30] more effective shepherds of that exact message, [28:33] because the people who are seeing popularity, [28:35] the people who are able to better relate [28:37] to the electorate are those younger people [28:39] who've grown up in these ecosystems [28:43] where the vast majority of Americans [28:44] are already getting their news. [28:46] Yeah. [28:46] And that you could be a great shepherd [28:48] and still eventually say, [28:50] it's time to have a shepherd's retirement. [28:53] Let somebody else out on the hills, you know? [28:56] Brian, as mentioned, [28:57] a lot of folks know you online, [28:59] folks know you from the Obama interview [29:01] to our viewers. [29:02] We appreciate you coming back. [29:03] And that book, if you want to learn more [29:05] about what Brian's saying is the day after, [29:07] how to wield power in a post-Trump world. [29:10] You can Google that or get it [29:11] wherever books are sold.