Trump caught by surprise as his election scheme backfires and angry voters push back

[0:00] Okay, there are so many things to talk about, but I just have to start with the Virginia election that happened this week. [0:07] This was an election that was about redistricting, and it all started, I should just note, when Trump decided that he deserved, in his words, not mine, five additional seats in Texas, and he pressured the governor of Texas last summer to completely redraw the maps in Texas. [0:25] So what this set off was basically a redistricting arms race across the country, but what they didn't anticipate, Trump and the Republicans and his lackeys, that is, is that there would be a lot of anger, a lot of Democrats are pissed off, a lot of governors and different leaders in different states have become super creative about what to do. [0:45] So first, in California, Governor Gavin Newsom pushed forward a redistricting ballot initiative that passed, he actually sent it to the voters, which is very different from what Trump did in strong-arming Abbott and other governors in other states as he's been trying to do across the country, and in Virginia this week, it was the vote that was put to voters. [1:05] Now, they didn't know this was going to pass. They did a lot of work pushing for it to pass. Abigail Spanberger, the new-ish governor, Barack Obama did a campaign ad pushing it for it to pass, not because they're for gerrymandering, but because they don't want to play with one arm behind their back. [1:24] And if Trump and the Republicans are going to try to work the system, change the system, make it almost impossible for Democrats to win, they were going to not take that lying down. [1:35] And I think that frankly surprised Trump and a number of the Republicans who were the architects behind that, because now that this Virginia initiative passed, it means that in that state, actually, they're going to gain three to four seats. [1:49] Because of the maps being redrawn in the state, it means there'll be ten seats, about eight that are likely, very, very likely Democratic, two that are more swingy, but lean Democratic, one Republican seat in the state. [2:02] And that means that Democrats are now back on an even playing field with Republicans. [2:08] Now, there's some funny business in Florida that could happen, but that is a huge, huge freaking deal. [2:13] Now, I should note, a Virginia judge has issued an order blocking the state's election board from implementing, basically, the will of Virginia voters. [2:22] Now, the attorney general of the state, Jay Jones, says he's going to appeal that order. [2:27] So there's a non-zero chance. [2:28] This is going through courts, which was fully expected. [2:31] There's a non-zero chance that this could not move forward. [2:34] Although I should note that this particular judge has been overturned in the past. [2:39] Now, despite all of that, and we'll watch all of that, this is still, this shows how a big deal this is to Republicans, that they would take this action so quickly. [2:49] The other reasons it's a big deal are because, well, Abigail Spanberger, she was absolutely attacked and pilloried for the last several weeks, like she hadn't done enough by some Democrats. [3:00] Republicans were attacking her for not actually being a person who is bipartisan. [3:05] That is such complete bulls**t. [3:07] Well, this passed. [3:08] She used her political will to get it passed. [3:11] And now she can move on and keep moving on to the rest of her agenda. [3:13] But this was hugely, hugely important. [3:16] The other thing that stuck out to me about this, and I think this is an important one, is how nasty the campaign was. [3:23] I mean, there were a lot of outside groups funded by none other than people like Peter Thiel. [3:29] He may not have funded this particular initiative, but he has helped fund one of the groups that helped fund this initiative, where they basically sent out mailers with disinformation on them. [3:41] Mailers suggesting that Barack Obama was against this. [3:44] He was not. [3:45] He didn't add for it that Abigail Spanberger was against this. [3:48] No, she signed this to get it on the ballot. [3:50] They also sent out incredibly offensive mailers targeted at black communities, suggesting that if you voted for this, if you were a yes on redistricting, you were voting to bring back Jim Crow. [4:05] So there was insanely nasty tactics worked that they used here, I should say, and they did not work. [4:12] They did not work. [4:13] They may be very turn people off. [4:16] But the moment after, what we learned from this is that voters' passion and voters in Virginia basically wanting it to be even and not wanting to allow, not allowing Trump to seize power and take power no matter what, they were like, no, we're not going to let that happen. [4:33] And that's pretty significant, although the nastiness of the mailers is just a sign that everybody should pay attention for what's to come. [4:40] The last thing I'm going to leave you with, in case this comes up among your friends and neighbors and whatever it may be, is a couple of the points you're going to hear opponents of this make. [4:49] One of them is this was a narrow margin. [4:52] Yes, it was a more narrow margin than what Abigail Spanberger won by. [4:56] But guess what? [4:57] They actually put it to the voters. [4:59] That's the difference. [4:59] And this actually runs out in 2030. [5:02] So they're not talking about gerrymandering forever. [5:04] They're just talking about being on an even playing field for now while Trump's up to his crazy tactics. [5:09] The second thing that you're going to hear people say is that Democrats are now supporters of gerrymandering. [5:15] No, Democrats are just not going to lay down and let Trump take power and seize power and hold it on his own by not playing by the rules because he can't win on its own. [5:23] That's what this is all about. [5:25] Now you're equipped in case people bring it up wherever you may be. [5:28] OK, speaking of another dose of good news, there's some pieces of good news. [5:32] I want to talk about them. [5:33] The other thing, and you may have seen this and I have watched this so many times, but this past week, [5:38] my former boss, Barack Obama, I worked for the man for 10 years, and Mayor Mamdani went to a school in, where did they go? [5:47] They were in New York City. [5:48] They went to this school. [5:49] And I just have to play this video for you because it is so freaking joyful. [5:55] And it's also just a reminder of the normalcy of what politicians and people who are trying to make your life better should be behaving, [6:02] how they should be behaving. [6:03] So let me play it. [6:03] The mayor says he's the best singer. [6:06] I did not say that. [6:07] Just a little pressure here. [6:08] Just a little pressure. [6:09] I'm going to ask my friend, the president, to also join me in this. [6:13] The wheels on the bus go round and round. [6:17] The wheels on the bus go round and round. [6:23] Remember the book said we're strong together? [6:28] So you're going to have to all help me get up. [6:30] Now, there's no way that Mayor Mamdani, who's in his 30s, needed actual help getting up. [6:47] But I still did love that moment. [6:49] And that is just a reminder. [6:51] Politicians, most people who run for office, and they don't even have to agree with each other, [6:56] do it because they want to make people's lives better. [6:58] And they love interacting with kids. [7:00] They love interacting with people. [7:02] That's normal. [7:03] That's what we should see. [7:04] Now, what it also made me think of, because there's always a moment of humor, [7:07] is how the current president interacts with kids. [7:10] And I just got to play you a little bit of that, just as a reminder. [7:29] You know, Biden, he'd use the auto pen. [7:32] He'd have an auto pen following. [7:34] He didn't sign. [7:36] He was incapable of signing his name. [7:38] Who among us doesn't bring up Joe Biden ever using the auto pen among children at the Easter egg roll? [7:45] Who among us? [7:46] I mean, the man could not be more awkward, except sometimes he can and he surprises you, I guess. [7:52] OK, speaking of things that are definitely not normal, normal in any way, shape or form, there was this kind of banana story, not shocking in some ways, that broke the Atlantic, broke it on Friday. [8:06] And Sarah Pistpatrick, this amazing, bold reporter, broke the story. [8:11] And the article basically talks about how FBI Director Kash Patel, yes, that guy, has been excessively drinking on the job. [8:21] He's had unexplained absences that have been deeply concerning to colleagues. [8:25] Of course, they should be. [8:26] And there has been even an incident is talked about in the story about how there was breaching equipment requested, [8:32] which is basically equipment used to open a door or a facility that can't be opened because he could not be awakened. [8:40] Now, I should note he said everything is false and he's filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit about this. [8:48] But there's reason this is so concerning. [8:50] One, on its face, it's concerning. [8:51] But the FBI Director is a person who should be, frankly, sober at almost all times, somebody who is going to be on the cusp of any conversation that is about a security incident in the country, a threat to a community, anything like that. [9:08] And this is they're talking about a guy who has been intoxicated in the workplace, is incredibly paranoid. [9:14] It's a really unbelievable read. [9:16] Now, he was asked about this, and in addition to filing his defamation lawsuit, I think what he had to say was quite, quite telling. [9:25] I do want to give you an opportunity to respond directly to the allegations in the Atlantic article that your unexplained absences created a national security risk. [9:36] And beyond that, can you say definitively that you have not been intoxicated or absent during your tenure as FBI Director? [9:43] I can say unequivocally that I never listen to the fake news mafia. [9:48] And as when they get louder, it just means I'm doing my job. [9:51] This FBI Director has been on the job twice as many days as every director before me. [9:57] What that means is I've taken half as many days off as those before me. [10:02] What that means is I've taken a third less vacation than those before me. [10:06] I have no idea what his math is there, and I'm not going to even begin to explain it to you again. [10:13] Okay, there are also moments, I was thinking about this as I was watching this particular podcast, where people might think, [10:21] oh, this is an easy conversation, an easy podcast, I'm just going to have a conversation. [10:25] And then they say something that is so telling. [10:29] And I just have to play, Katie Miller, there's always a podcast moment from Katie Miller's podcast. [10:34] I mean, there are moments where you're like, what on earth was this person thinking when that came out of their mouth? [10:40] But she is, of course, the wife of Trump advisor Stephen Miller, so we can feel for her on that note. [10:46] But she had Laura Trump on this week, and there were a lot of crazy moments during this interview. [10:51] But there was one in particular that I think is, well, quite telling about how this administration sees the war. [10:58] What's the last text that the president sent you? [11:00] Oh, I think it was a video that the White House put out, and it just said, love, love DJT. [11:12] It was like a video of some, like, bombing. [11:17] He's proud of it. It was good. [11:20] Send you a video of a bombing, love DJT. [11:21] Yeah, pro-America. Let's go. Why not? [11:24] He's just like all of us sending, like, their best hits around. [11:26] Like, when you did something great on the internet, you, like, send the ex-posts. [11:30] He's, like, sending the tweet. [11:31] Totally. [11:32] I mean, do you love that, Katie Miller? [11:36] You love it when the current president of the United States sends joking texts about bombing Iran? [11:44] Was it hilarious when the girls' school blew up? [11:48] Was it hilarious? [11:49] Is it funny that 13 of our members of the military have died? [11:53] Is it funny that members of the military who have been guarding the Strait of Hormuz, [11:58] because nobody can figure this all out or how to end it, don't reportedly have enough food to eat? [12:02] Is that all freaking hilarious to you? [12:04] Well, I guess good on you. [12:06] But that is telling us everything we kind of need to know. [12:08] Again, the wife of Stephen Miller there and Laura Trump, the daughter-in-law of Donald Trump there, [12:13] just laughing away about bombing videos from the war. [12:18] So there you go. [12:19] There's another story this week that I thought was important to talk about, and it is this, the use of AI. [12:26] Now, we all are engaging with AI. [12:28] I use it sometimes to trip plan or meal plan or things like that. [12:33] But there are a lot of impacts of AI. [12:36] And one of the things that has been exploding as of late is the use of it to make fake images. [12:43] And the New York Times said a really interesting story about this. [12:47] The thing about it, and these images that I want to talk about are ones that are fake MAGA women. [12:54] And these are not real people, obviously. [12:56] A lot of these women are quite attractive. [12:58] And they are often saying the same thing. [13:01] Now, what is the reason for this? [13:02] Sure, could it be somebody who supports Trump or likes Trump wanting to create the perception that he has all these hot women supporting him? [13:11] I guess maybe that's possible. [13:14] We don't know that to be the fact, though. [13:16] It's possible. [13:17] But there are other possibilities, too. [13:19] It could be people who are just trying to take advantage of just how it's hard to differentiate between accurate information and inaccurate information online, [13:29] who are just wanting to monetize on it, who are trying to boost their own statistics. [13:34] That's obviously monetizing, who just want to kind of create confusion out there. [13:38] All of those are options. [13:40] And there was a story that Wired wrote this week, too, or last week recently, I should say. [13:46] And they talked about how the man based in India basically created an AI-generated MAGA girl. [13:52] Now, he's not the only one doing this, but this was quite telling. [13:54] Because he basically admits in the story that he made thousands of dollars by appealing to, as he described it, super dumb men in order to pay for his medical school. [14:07] And that's what he that's who he targeted by the creation of these MAGA women. [14:12] It almost doesn't matter. [14:14] I mean, it just the delivery traffic is what matters when you're when you're a creator like that. [14:20] But it's important to recognize that a lot of this stuff is out there and it's totally fake. [14:25] It's not the only example of where it's being used. [14:27] But I just want to show you some of the examples. [14:29] The New York Times did, again, a great story about this. [14:31] And they did a great job of kind of showing the visuals of what's fake and what to look for out there. [14:37] So let me just show you that. [14:38] And I have a few more things to say about it. [14:39] If this triggers you, then good, keep scrolling. [14:43] But if you love Trump, you just earned yourself a follower if you follow me. [14:47] If you voted for Trump three times and love our great military, you got a new friend. [14:53] God bless you. [14:54] God bless America. [14:55] If this f***ing offends you, good, keep scrolling. [14:57] But if you love Daddy Trump, you just made a new friend. [15:00] I'm friending everyone that drops the state they support Trump from. [15:03] Offended? [15:04] Keep scrolling. [15:05] Voted for Trump? [15:06] You got a Texas follower. [15:08] Drop your state below. [15:09] I'm following back. [15:10] OK, all those people, fake, AI-generated, fake, fake, fake, hot women. [15:15] That's what that was. [15:17] And it's trying to appeal. [15:19] Who knows? [15:19] Again, it could be for any range of reasons. [15:22] I don't know. [15:23] But what is interesting about it is that you can tell if you look closely because you can see what's called hallucinations. [15:31] And in this case, it's kind of AI trying to reproduce things that they don't effectively do. [15:38] So let me just show you some examples. [15:39] So there's a MAGA hat where MAGA is actually spelled wrong. [15:44] You can see that. [15:44] It's M-A-G-R. [15:45] That is a tell that that is a fake video. [15:49] OK? [15:49] Then you can tell on the other hat, make America great again, not again. [15:54] It's a misspelled caption. [15:55] That is telling you these are fake. [15:58] But it is very hard to differentiate between these. [16:01] And why it's important to know about them is because it's going to be out there in our political – it is in our political ecosystem. [16:08] And even if the purpose is for somebody to monetize or make money or pay for medical school, it's going to mess with people's perception of whose people's supporters are out there. [16:17] And it's going to be only a growing problem. [16:19] OK, more to say. [16:21] We're going to keep talking about the AI thing because it's like one of the biggest factors in politics, I think, right now. [16:27] I just want to leave you with, again, a positive – we've got a few bookend of positive things. [16:31] And this one is about the astronauts. [16:33] I think we all remember watching – just following along with the astronauts when they were in space just a few weeks ago, their landing, the stories of all these people, the incredible footage of mission control. [16:46] Just – it was so exciting to watch. [16:48] And what they're doing now is they are continuing to put out photos of their experience in space. [16:57] So I'm showing you right now on the screen. [16:58] It's a video of Earth's set. [17:00] It's taken by Artemis II commander Reed Wiseman. [17:02] And you remember him. [17:02] He had lost his wife. [17:04] He's raising two daughters. [17:05] He took the photos using his iPhone. [17:09] He noted, I should say, the Zoom was 8X and comparable to the human eye, which I guess was purposeful there. [17:15] But it's so interesting because you're getting kind of this inside look into their own perspective and their own experience and how rare that is. [17:24] And I feel like this was a moment where people across the country of all different backgrounds sort of paused and wanted to watch and take it in [17:31] and felt a tremendous amount of pride for it. [17:34] I would also note – and you may remember this – but I felt like this was such an important thing along with these photos to reshare, I guess, again. [17:42] Because Victor Glover, who was also, of course, one of the – he was the Artemis II pilot of the mission that we all watched and were glued to our TVs about just a few weeks ago. [17:52] And he delivered this message. [17:56] I don't know if delivered a message. [17:57] He kind of spoke off the cuff. [17:59] It felt – and it was so powerful and I think so powerful to hear in a moment like this. [18:03] And it was on Easter Sunday when they were in space. [18:06] But I just wanted to play that out for you. [18:09] For me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. [18:17] And, you know, when I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, [18:23] it's – you have this amazing place, this spaceship. [18:27] You guys are talking to us because we're in a spaceship really far from Earth. [18:31] But you're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. [18:37] And I think maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we're doing is special, [18:42] but we're the same distance from you. [18:44] And I'm trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special. [18:47] In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. [18:51] You have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. [18:57] I think as we go into Easter Sunday thinking about, you know, all the cultures all around the world, [19:01] whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, [19:04] this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, [19:09] and that we are the same thing and that we've got to get through this together.