Speaker 1: Two struggling out of work Democrat politicians. They're just looking
Speaker 1: for a job. That's all they want. They're just looking
Speaker 1: for something to do. This is the situation for Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris and Pete Bodhajid, as well as a little bit
Speaker 1: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. So I'm going to talk about these
Speaker 1: three politicians today and they're sort of stuck political places
Speaker 1: where they seem to be. And I think I'm going
Speaker 1: to start with Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: So there are.
Speaker 1: Several different stories coming out about Kamala Harrison.
Speaker 2: What's she going to do?
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris seems to be stuck with some indecision. She's
Speaker 1: not sure if she wants to run for governor of
Speaker 1: California in twenty twenty six or if she wants to
Speaker 1: run for president in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2: She's unsure. I think you have to do either one
Speaker 2: or the other.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can credibly run for governor and
Speaker 1: then immediately turn around and you know, you get sworn
Speaker 1: in and you know, I guess January of twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 1: and then you immediately say no, I'm trying to run
Speaker 1: for this office where I'll get sworn into something else
Speaker 1: in January twenty twenty nine. Doesn't seem credible. So she's
Speaker 1: she's got to kind of pick one or the other.
Speaker 1: So how would she do? Interesting little piece in National
Speaker 1: Review by Jim Garrity about this.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: He also notes that there are similar sort of efforts
Speaker 1: and rumblings about Pete Bootajige that Pete Bootagige might run
Speaker 1: for governor of Michigan, at which I think is by
Speaker 1: the way, completely hilarious. So you know, I'll talk about
Speaker 1: Bootajidge and Kamala kind of to other here. I have
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a history with Pete Bodhagic
Speaker 1: because I used to be a resident of the city
Speaker 1: of South Bend, Indiana, where Pete was once the mayor.
Speaker 1: He was seemingly an okay mayor. He was a huge
Speaker 1: abortion zelot, and he blocked efforts for zoning for sort
Speaker 1: of the useful zoning thing for a pro life pregnancy
Speaker 1: center in South Bend, which was ridiculous and obviously motivated
Speaker 1: motivated by his hyper abortion politics. But you know, it
Speaker 1: seemed like a whatever mayor of South Bend. For some reason,
Speaker 1: his job performance as mayor of South Bend vaulted him
Speaker 1: to some kind of national prominence. I don't think he
Speaker 1: was a bad mayor of South Bend, but I just
Speaker 1: don't know that he was like the greatest mayor in
Speaker 1: the history of the United States of America. South Bend
Speaker 1: was growing and developing regardless of him. It was growing
Speaker 1: and developing because the University of Notre Dame was growing
Speaker 1: and developing, and more people and more investment were coming
Speaker 1: around the university and more tax revenue. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's a gazillion new condos that have been built with
Speaker 1: a gazillion, you know, dollars worth of probably property tax
Speaker 1: revenue pouring in. That's all within the South Bend city limits.
Speaker 1: And I think the positive developments that have happened in South.
Speaker 2: Bend would have happened with or without Pete bootajigch.
Speaker 1: Nonetheless, boutajij was the mayor of South Bend, and everyone loved, oh,
Speaker 1: Mayor Pete. But the problem was he had no future. Indiana,
Speaker 1: while it did go for Obama in I believe at
Speaker 1: least in two thousand and eight, reverted back to its
Speaker 1: sort of more or less permanent Republican status. The local
Speaker 1: House of Representative seat where Boodhage was more or less situated,
Speaker 1: became a fairly reliable Republican seat. Jackie Wiloorski, the late congresswoman,
Speaker 1: came to kind of dominate it, and Bootajig had no
Speaker 1: options for realistically winning the governor's seat in Indiana or
Speaker 1: a US Senate seat from Indiana. Indiana was just too Republican.
Speaker 1: It was electing guys like Mike Pence. So Bootajig very
Speaker 1: sneakily changed his place of residence from Indiana to Michigan.
Speaker 1: Now he was from South He was living in South Bend,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, like a ten minute drive away
Speaker 1: from the Michigan border. But now Bootajig has positioned himself, Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: I could be a Michigan resident. And so he seems
Speaker 1: to be positioning himself to try to run for God
Speaker 1: of Michigan. But again, I think with Boodhajij he has
Speaker 1: to make this calculus. Do I want to run for
Speaker 1: president maybe in twenty twenty eight. Do I hold on
Speaker 1: to some sinecure between now and twenty twenty eight so
Speaker 1: that I can run for president against not Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: against jd Vance presumably. Now let's talk about Kamala if
Speaker 1: Kamala decides to run for governor. There is reporting out
Speaker 1: there that some of the prominent people who are planning
Speaker 1: to run for governor might drop out. I don't think
Speaker 1: all of them will drop out, but some of them might.
Speaker 1: And I think it's a question of how much goodwill
Speaker 1: with the donor class Harris has been able to retain,
Speaker 1: because that's the fundamental truth about running for a statewide
Speaker 1: office in California. Do you have the goodwill of the
Speaker 1: donor class. That's what determines who wins the Democrat nomination,
Speaker 1: the Democrat primary process in California, and that determines who
Speaker 1: will win. It's part and parcel of why I think
Speaker 1: Harris was not ready for primetime, why she was a
Speaker 1: bad presidential candidate both in twenty sixteen and in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. To win a statewide office in California, what
Speaker 1: you really need is the money to run television ads
Speaker 1: within the Los Angeles media market. That is kind of
Speaker 1: the key thing. The LA media buys are crazy expensive,
Speaker 1: and so if you're well funded enough to do that,
Speaker 1: that helps you win a lot of the kinds of
Speaker 1: traditional things that you'd think of as like essential or
Speaker 1: a politician to win office, winning a debate, you know,
Speaker 1: having debate chops, interview chops, one on one chops. A
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff is not as important in California
Speaker 1: for statewide office. I think people just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of California politicians tend not to get very
Speaker 1: many reps as a debater, and as a result, when
Speaker 1: they then get to primetime, like Kamala Harris, they don't
Speaker 1: look that great. They don't look that great in a
Speaker 1: lot of different kinds of situation, in interview situations and debates.
Speaker 2: Et cetera.
Speaker 1: Let's not forget how Kamala Harris got absolutely skewered in
Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen Democrat debate when she went up against
Speaker 1: Tulci Gabbard. So what you need to win is the
Speaker 1: goodwill of the donors, and Harris has always had that.
Speaker 1: Harris has always had the good will of the donors
Speaker 1: more so than anybody. She has been a creature of
Speaker 1: the California donor class. She got introduced to that class
Speaker 1: by Willie Brown, who took her from the obscurity of
Speaker 1: being just another attorney in the Alameda County Prosecutor's office
Speaker 1: to all of a sudden, you know, big fancy job
Speaker 1: within the San Francisco DA's office and then running for
Speaker 1: DA of San Francisco and then Attorney General of California,
Speaker 1: and then Governor Willie Brown introduced her to that magic
Speaker 1: circle of San Francisco area donors as it's sometimes referred to,
Speaker 1: and they were the ones who propelled her advance. I
Speaker 1: think people saw her after she won attorney general and
Speaker 1: people were already starting to think, is this the next
Speaker 1: Barack Obama? They thought, Okay, she's Attorney General of California.
Speaker 2: Now could she become you.
Speaker 1: Know, senator, you know, a US senator represent in California,
Speaker 1: you know, if Barbara Boxer steps down, and she was
Speaker 1: the anointed pick when that happened. The donor class liked her,
Speaker 1: knew her. I think she has the ability to be charming,
Speaker 1: particularly in social situations. There's a lot of sort of
Speaker 1: reporting in history about her, the way that she was
Speaker 1: able to effectively work the social circles within the San
Speaker 1: Francisco glitterati class, and she rode those connections to getting
Speaker 1: nominated senator and getting the backing of those donors to
Speaker 1: win her attorney general, her state wide attorney general's race,
Speaker 1: and then to win her statewide US Senate race. I
Speaker 1: think this has always been my theory. I've never really
Speaker 1: read much reporting on it. I to this to my
Speaker 1: dying day. I will believe that Joe Biden only picked
Speaker 1: her to be vice president because the donors forced her
Speaker 1: on him. The donors wanted her. Biden sort of painted
Speaker 1: himself into a corner by saying, our learned her practice
Speaker 1: the first black woman, so he was restricted to black women.
Speaker 1: And so what does he do well? He picks this
Speaker 1: person with whom he had never worked. He never worked
Speaker 1: with Kamala Harris. They didn't overlap at any point in
Speaker 1: the Senate. She started in the Senate after he left
Speaker 1: as Vice president. She didn't work for the Obama administration.
Speaker 1: He had no track record of working for her, and
Speaker 1: in fact, he had ample reason to dislike her. And
Speaker 1: there's you know, been reporting, you know, whispers and rumors
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 2: Nothing substantiated, no one on the.
Speaker 1: Record that Joe Biden hated her guts because during one
Speaker 1: of the twenty sixteen debates, Harris basically tried to suggest
Speaker 1: that Biden was a racist because of his position on
Speaker 1: bussing policies, like suggested right to his face that he
Speaker 1: was a racist, so Jill never liked her. Biden has
Speaker 1: no reason to like her, no track record of working
Speaker 1: for her, he says, a black woman. But there were
Speaker 1: other black females he could have picked, people like Susan Rice,
Speaker 1: who went on to play a very prominent role in
Speaker 1: the next Biden administration, sort of the quiet but extremely
Speaker 1: influential role. There were other black women he obviously could
Speaker 1: have picked. And it was also a thing of like
Speaker 1: usually you figure, okay, you pick a vice president either
Speaker 1: because they can help deliver you a critically important swing
Speaker 1: state or because you think, you seriously think they would
Speaker 1: be very good at governance. And Harris was neither. She
Speaker 1: wasn't delivering an important swing state. Biden was never going
Speaker 1: to lose California, And clearly she wasn't very good at
Speaker 1: governance because Biden was clearly undermining her her entire time
Speaker 1: as vice president. You know, as much as during the
Speaker 1: campaign we wanted to criticize Kamala Harris for her performance
Speaker 1: on the border, a really close examination would show how Biden,
Speaker 1: I think, in just my opinion, Biden really set her
Speaker 1: up such that there was no way she could have
Speaker 1: succeeded the ambit of what he gave her responsibility for.
Speaker 1: It sounded like she was totally in charge of the border,
Speaker 1: but actually the things she was even able to affect
Speaker 1: any change to were pretty darn limited and there was
Speaker 1: no way she was going to fix anything. Now you
Speaker 1: can look, she was a member of his administration, supported
Speaker 1: his policies. I think she has to take the blame
Speaker 1: for the failures of the Biden administration on the border.
Speaker 1: But clearly Biden was not helped. He was not doing
Speaker 1: anything to cover her with glory. So I'll always put so,
Speaker 1: why did he pick her if he hated her before,
Speaker 1: hated her during, hated her after. I think it was
Speaker 1: because the donor class really wanted her and made him
Speaker 1: take her. They probably said, hey, you're old. We want
Speaker 1: this person that we like and trust just in case
Speaker 1: anything happens, and he said, all right, that's the condition
Speaker 1: of you guys giving me a bunch of campaign money
Speaker 1: and then I'll do it. So does she still have
Speaker 1: that donor support? I mean, I gotta think that these
Speaker 1: not every single one of these donors from California is
Speaker 1: jumping at the opportunity. I mean, she lost an election
Speaker 1: where she outspent Donald Trump significantly. She ended her campaign
Speaker 1: with twenty million dollars in debt. Her campaign probably had
Speaker 1: to hit up some of these California donors to pay
Speaker 1: off her campaign debt. You know, she was still sending
Speaker 1: campaign donation emails after the election was over. How bad
Speaker 1: do they want? So? Do they want to help her
Speaker 1: out now that she's sort of looking for this consolation
Speaker 1: prize of being governor of California. I also wonder, frankly,
Speaker 1: does she actually want to be governor?
Speaker 2: This is the reality.
Speaker 1: Being governor is a much more difficult job than being senator.
Speaker 1: You can tell Gavin Newsom is totally over it. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want to be working right now. Being governor requires,
Speaker 1: you know, traveling all up and down the state, overseeing
Speaker 1: emergency efforts when bad things happen, making decisions about stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing Newsome, after you know, the two plus years
Speaker 1: of COVID, is probably so exhausted.
Speaker 2: From being governor.
Speaker 1: He's just completely checked out to his two years of
Speaker 1: managing COVID terribly. And I don't think Harris has given
Speaker 1: much evidence. You know, a lot of reporting kind of
Speaker 1: indicates that she doesn't. Really She was not always willing
Speaker 1: to actually do the reading and do the briefing and
Speaker 1: really study the issues, and not always seemed like she
Speaker 1: was really willing to work hard and go the extra
Speaker 1: mile does which he actually want to be governor. I
Speaker 1: think being a senator is a much more natural fit.
Speaker 1: It's a much easier task being a senator. You go
Speaker 1: to committee hearings, you get your information fed to you
Speaker 1: by your staff, you vote on stuff.
Speaker 2: You know. It's not that hard.
Speaker 1: Relatively speaking. But the Senate seats are unavailable. Adam Shift
Speaker 1: just got elected to the Senate and Alex Paedia got
Speaker 1: elected in twenty twenty two to the Senate, so his
Speaker 1: his Senate seats not open until twenty twenty eight. If
Speaker 1: Harris is going to wait until twenty twenty eight, she's
Speaker 1: not gonna wait until twenty twenty eight to run for Senate.
Speaker 2: She's running for president.
Speaker 1: If she waits that long. So and I would say
Speaker 1: this if I were another enterprising, smart Democrat, I feel
Speaker 1: like I could really make a name for myself in
Speaker 1: a Democrat gubernatorial fight with Kamala Harris, make a pretty
Speaker 1: compelling case and say hey, why would we vote for
Speaker 1: this person? She wasn't that effective a vice president she
Speaker 1: lost to Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Our party.
Speaker 1: Lost all this ground in California under you know, with
Speaker 1: her as the presidential candidate in twenty twenty four, why
Speaker 1: should I bowance scrape to Kamala Harris?
Speaker 2: Who the hell is she?
Speaker 1: I think someone could make a pretty compelling case for
Speaker 1: themselves as a Democrat to run against Kamala. Maybe the
Speaker 1: donor class goes to all these people and says, get
Speaker 1: out of the way, clear the field for her, or
Speaker 1: else you'll never get a job in California politics.
Speaker 2: Again. That's this is the thing with California Democrats.
Speaker 1: They have the kind of money muscle to threaten people
Speaker 1: to get out of the way like that. You know,
Speaker 1: That's why Gavin Newsom didn't face any challenges when he
Speaker 1: was recalled from the Democrats side. So it will be
Speaker 1: interesting to see when we return. Whom might Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: face in California if she runs for governor, and who
Speaker 1: might she face if she decides instead to wait and
Speaker 1: run for president in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2: That's next on the John Girardi Show.
Speaker 1: So if Kamala Harris pour out of where Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: needs a job. If she runs for governor, who might
Speaker 1: she face if she runs again for president in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Whom might she face?
Speaker 1: So she might run for governor in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: she might run for president in twenty twenty eight. She's
Speaker 1: got to do one or the other. In all likelihood,
Speaker 1: she can't do both. It would be insane to run
Speaker 1: for governor, serve for like, you know, do a two
Speaker 1: year two years in office, you know, with much of
Speaker 1: the second year just being completely consumed with campaigning. Who
Speaker 1: might she face in California, Well, there had been a
Speaker 1: lot of rumblings that Javier Bessera might jump into the
Speaker 1: governor's race. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Javier
Speaker 1: Bsera kind of depends on a lot of the same
Speaker 1: donors that Kamala Harris gets. Rob Bonta, the current attorney general.
Speaker 1: I don't know that there's a single attorney general for
Speaker 1: any state in the country who doesn't think that he
Speaker 1: or she shouldn't become the governor of that state. Rob
Speaker 1: Bonta seems to be intimating he wants to be governor.
Speaker 1: I don't know that's a smart thing for Bonta. He's
Speaker 1: been involved in a couple of different alleged corruption scandals
Speaker 1: for different things.
Speaker 2: I think maybe if I was him, i'd sit this out.
Speaker 1: Tony Atkins, the state Senate leader, the former state Senate
Speaker 1: leader from San Diego area, former abortion clinic executive, huge lefty.
Speaker 1: She is sort of intimated she might want to run.
Speaker 1: Antonio Viiregosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles. There's some
Speaker 1: rumblings that he might want to run again. Viaregosa has
Speaker 1: been in the past kind of a little bit within
Speaker 1: the Democrat Party, the sort of non establishment character for
Speaker 1: statewide races. He ran against Gavin Newsom back in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: didn't get it. Does he want to try again. I
Speaker 1: think Harris would likely just beat out all of those
Speaker 1: people just based on nothing more than name recognition. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm betting I'm rattling off these this list of names.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm guessing a lot of you listening
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily know right off the bat who several of
Speaker 1: those people were. So I think she's got a good
Speaker 1: shot against any of those people. And there are also
Speaker 1: these news reports that there are some people who might
Speaker 1: just decide not to run for governor in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six if she runs, So there's a possibility that her
Speaker 1: very presence could clear out the field that maybe she's
Speaker 1: still got enough donor support and strength that they could
Speaker 1: threaten people to get out of them. Not physically threatened,
Speaker 1: but like, you know, the way that Democrats are able
Speaker 1: to do. The California Republican Party doesn't have enough money
Speaker 1: to threaten people to get them not to run for
Speaker 1: things like hey, if you run for this, you're going
Speaker 1: to screw this up. So if you run, we're never
Speaker 1: going to fund you again for any other race. The
Speaker 1: Democrats can do that, right, They've got the money, they've
Speaker 1: got the muscle, they've got the means to actually make
Speaker 1: credible threats like that. Now what if she runs for president?
Speaker 1: Who are the likely Democrats? Well, there's Pete Boodhagg. He's
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be chomping at the bit. I think some
Speaker 1: of the other twenty twenty twenty has beens might think about, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe now it's my shot. Kirsten Gilibrands, the Elizabeth Warrens,
Speaker 1: the you know several others might think, h you know,
Speaker 1: what if it's my time. And of course Gavin Newsom,
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom's gonna run in twenty twenty eight, and I
Speaker 1: think Harris needs to do the calculus here, of because
Speaker 1: Harris and Newsom are I've always argued, basically the same person.
Speaker 1: They're the same person, They came from the exact same
Speaker 1: political universe, they have the same exact donor class, the
Speaker 1: same kinds of people support them, same kinds of people
Speaker 1: have funded their life. They both are Willy Brown proteges.
Speaker 1: Their relationships with Willy Brown were only slightly different. So
Speaker 1: I think that might weigh into her decision. You know,
Speaker 1: is the donor class willing to roll the dice again
Speaker 1: on another Kamala Harris presidential run.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe those donors tell her, look, we'll fund you for governor,
Speaker 1: but we want to give Gavin a shot. You had
Speaker 1: your shot twice, you didn't win. We're going to fund Gavin.
Speaker 2: And maybe that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much agency, necessarily Kamala Harris has
Speaker 1: in all of this, or how much of her decision
Speaker 1: making is going to be made for her by the donors. Now,
Speaker 1: when we return, I want to talk about the the
Speaker 1: political ambitions and future of a Democrat who I think
Speaker 1: will people thought was going to play a major role
Speaker 1: in the Democratic Party going forward, and maybe will she
Speaker 1: run for president in twenty twenty eight. Alexandria Ocasio Cortes
Speaker 1: next on The John Girardi Show. It's not a quinkie
Speaker 1: dink that the most extreme and crazy partisans for either
Speaker 1: party are in the safest seats. Bernie Sanders is a
Speaker 1: senator representing Vermont. No Republicans going to win Vermont, So
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders is safe in Vermont. No. Marjorie Taylor Green is,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the more one of the harder
Speaker 1: right people within the House of Representatives. A lot of
Speaker 1: people on the left of side. How comes she's not?
Speaker 1: How does she stay in office? Well, because she represents
Speaker 1: a hugely right leaning district. It's not rocket science.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: How does Maxine Waters continue to exist as a politician. Well,
Speaker 1: she's in a huge, you know, massive Democrat majority district.
Speaker 1: And AOC is one of these people. I'm sure AOC
Speaker 1: has driven Pelosi crazy over over the years, in part
Speaker 1: because AOC has the luxury of being able to say
Speaker 1: the most unhinged, crazed, insane liberal crap possible with no
Speaker 1: threat of repercussions to her political future. She lives in
Speaker 1: a district that's like a plus twenty eight Democrat registration district.
Speaker 1: I mean, she could murder someone in broad daylight and
Speaker 1: she'd still win that House district. So and I'm sure Pelosi,
Speaker 1: who for her years as Speaker had her eye towards
Speaker 1: the broader picture of the party. Ironic because Pelosi is
Speaker 1: in a super hard left district herself. But Pelosi, from
Speaker 1: her leadership position, has to think about look out for
Speaker 1: the interests of Democrat members of the House who live in,
Speaker 1: you know, districts that voted for Donald Trump, or districts
Speaker 1: that voted for George W. Bush or whatever, or John McCain, whatever.
Speaker 1: And so AOC's bomb throwing from the far left I'm
Speaker 1: sure has driven Pelosi insane over the years. Now, AOC
Speaker 1: is finally going to be old enough to run for
Speaker 1: president in twenty twenty eight. You have to be thirty
Speaker 1: five years old, and I think she's turning thirty five
Speaker 1: sometime between now and the twenty twenty eight election. So
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight, she'll be old enough to run
Speaker 1: for president, and I think she's gonna run. Now, some
Speaker 1: stuff has happened recently with AOC that sort of might
Speaker 1: indicate where she sort of stands within the Democrat Party,
Speaker 1: and it's not super high. So right now, a lot
Speaker 1: of sort of mini elections are happening within the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives for basically they're sort of horse racing going
Speaker 1: on for committee assignments and who's going to be on
Speaker 1: the Republican side, who is going to be the chair
Speaker 1: of all the different committees in the House in the Senate,
Speaker 1: And on the Democrat side, who is going to be
Speaker 1: the ranking member on all the different committees on the
Speaker 1: House and Senate. So each committee has a chairperson who's
Speaker 1: from the majority party and a ranking member who's the
Speaker 1: lead person from the minority party. In every committee, the
Speaker 1: majority party has more members than the minority party. So
Speaker 1: there was this mini election just recently on Tuesday, just
Speaker 1: yesterday that AOC just lost. Democrats were deciding who should
Speaker 1: be the ranking member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee,
Speaker 1: and AOC just lost to Representative Jerry Connelly, who's from
Speaker 1: Northern Virginia. Now, AOC has been heralded as the voice
Speaker 1: of a generation, literally called that by like GQ magazine,
Speaker 1: all these magazines that do these glossy spreads about how wonderful.
Speaker 2: AOC is the.
Speaker 1: Darling of all kinds of New York media, and she's
Speaker 1: in New York City. She's got this media advantage that
Speaker 1: you know, she's bopping around between Washington and New York City.
Speaker 1: She can be in the spotlight as much as she
Speaker 1: wants all the time. She's young, she's exciting, she's got
Speaker 1: this huge social media following. Everyone likes her, blah blah,
Speaker 1: she's pretty, Like like, oh, sorry, am I not allowed
Speaker 1: to note that? But oh, that has zero percent of
Speaker 1: anything to do with her appeal outraged feminists listening to this.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many outraged feminists are actually listening
Speaker 2: to this.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, is that why she goes all dulled up
Speaker 1: on the cover of GQ magazine and you know, uh
Speaker 1: with with perfect makeup and big old you know, pretty
Speaker 1: earrings and lipstick.
Speaker 2: And blah blah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The fact that she's pretty has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: anything with her success. Okay, sounds good.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I think AOC still wants to run, But I think
Speaker 1: she's going to be the Bernie Sanders of this next generation.
Speaker 1: As much as she's been hyped by the media as
Speaker 1: the voice of a generation, you know, this generational political talent.
Speaker 1: She's so great, she's so amazing. She's mended fences with
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi clearly not mended fences that much. Basically, she's
Speaker 1: still not even able to win a ranking membership for
Speaker 1: a committee she wants. She gets beat out by some
Speaker 1: seventy four year old so Hakeem Jeffries, who's the minority
Speaker 1: leader for the Democrats now in name, I guess unlessen
Speaker 1: until Nancy Pelosi goes away. Hakim Jeffries has boasted about
Speaker 1: that House Democrats have clearly been in the midst of
Speaker 1: a generational transition. But then, in contrast to this, and
Speaker 1: Jim Garrett has been writing about this at National Review.
Speaker 1: He cites this piece from Mike Lillis, who writes for
Speaker 1: The Hill. On Wednesday, the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee
Speaker 1: confirmed the ranking member positions for the senior lawmakers of
Speaker 1: four top committees, Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services,
Speaker 1: and Appropriations. Here are the ranking Democrat members for those committees.
Speaker 1: Richard Neil, Democrat from Massachusetts going to Ways and Means.
Speaker 1: He's seventy five Energy and Commerce. Frank Palone, a Democrat
Speaker 1: from New Jersey, who's seventy three the ranking member for
Speaker 1: the House Financial Services Committee is going to be that
Speaker 1: spry young thing, Maxine Waters, who is eighty six years old,
Speaker 1: and the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee is Rosa Delaro,
Speaker 1: who is eighty one years old Democrat from Connecticut. None
Speaker 1: of them faced competition from younger members, and again the
Speaker 1: Oversight Committee, AOC third age thirty five, got beat out
Speaker 1: by a seventy four year old. The trend will continue
Speaker 1: on Monday, when the Steering and Policy Panel is scheduled
Speaker 1: to fill out its committee roster, which will keep a
Speaker 1: number of veteran lawmakers in the ranking member spots they
Speaker 1: currently hold. That includes Representative Benny Thompson, Democrat from Mississippi,
Speaker 1: who seventy six at Homeland Security, Nidia of Velasquez, a
Speaker 1: Democrat from New York who's seventy one, ranking member of
Speaker 1: the Small Business Committee, Zoey Lofgren, Democrat from California who's
Speaker 1: seventy six on the Science, Space and Technology Committee, and
Speaker 1: Gregory Meeks, a seventy one year old Democrat from New
Speaker 1: York on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Jim Garretty notes all
Speaker 1: of those members of Congress are close to a decade
Speaker 1: older than the actresses that starred in The Golden Girls
Speaker 1: when they started filming that program back in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: Good thing, the Democrats are putting the Joe Biden era
Speaker 1: and his style of jeriatrics sclerotic leadership behind them. Huh
Speaker 1: So what does this tell us? What does this tell
Speaker 1: us about AOC's presidential futures? First, the old folks are
Speaker 1: still running the Democratic Party, and I think the Democrat
Speaker 1: establishment has always been better able to keep its hand
Speaker 1: on the scales of things than the Republican established establishment
Speaker 1: has been able to do for the Republican Party. Exhibit
Speaker 1: A of that reality is Donald Trump became the Republican
Speaker 1: nominee and Bernie Sanders never did. Okay, the Democrat establishment
Speaker 1: never wanted Bernie Sanders. They did whatever necessary steps were
Speaker 1: needed to, you know, put their hands on the scales
Speaker 1: to tip things away from Bernie Sanders, change the whole system,
Speaker 1: their whole super delegacs, all these different things to ensure
Speaker 1: that Bernie Sanders would never ever, ever ever become the
Speaker 1: Democrat nominee. They do a Hail Mary intervention in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty to get Joe Biden to win the Democratic nomination.
Speaker 1: They go through you know, they do everything possible to
Speaker 1: ensure there's no competitive primary in twenty time twenty four,
Speaker 1: the Democrat machine gets what it wants, that they're able
Speaker 1: to push Joe Biden out of the presidential election even
Speaker 1: when they want. Republicans ain't got that kind of muscle.
Speaker 1: So if AOC runs, who's going to fund her, Well,
Speaker 1: she's not getting any of that Gavin Newso money. She's
Speaker 1: not getting any of those California big time donors. They're
Speaker 1: giving to their boy. Gavin Newsom's their boy, he's always
Speaker 1: been their boy, and he's gonna stay their boy. And
Speaker 1: those rich donors from California, they're not crazy about Bernie
Speaker 1: Sanders style socialism, and that's what AOC is probably. Also,
Speaker 1: just to note, some of these donors are probably not
Speaker 1: crazy about how anti Israel AOC has been, so that
Speaker 1: she might also weigh against her when we're talking about
Speaker 1: who's going to give money to whom. Now, in politics,
Speaker 1: the surprising becomes reality much more quickly than people expect.
Speaker 1: That's why they're surprises. Could AOC overcome whatever these handicaps are.
Speaker 1: Clearly she doesn't have a lot of support from Clearly
Speaker 1: she's not very well supported by the establishment of her party. Clearly,
Speaker 1: the establishment of her party likes the baby boomer generation
Speaker 1: more so than they like her. They're clearly not quite
Speaker 1: ready for a millennial like her. But is she able
Speaker 1: maybe as to position herself as sort of an anti
Speaker 1: establishment character enough will the country be tired of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump by the time we get to twenty twenty eight
Speaker 1: such that she becomes a more attractive, interesting, singular figure
Speaker 1: than Jadie Vance, than Gavin Newsom. That's the real question
Speaker 1: is will she be able to sort of shove out
Speaker 1: the rest of her Democrat competition in order to get
Speaker 1: to Jade Vance. I think it's possible, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: There's one old broad standing in her way.
Speaker 2: Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi's still going. Nancy Pelosi is.
Speaker 1: Going to be a power figure in the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: until she literally dies. Pelosi actually broke her hip recently,
Speaker 1: just like a week ago, during a trip to Europe.
Speaker 2: So you know, hope you feel better.
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi was the key link between the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: and the donors. That's why she's always That's why they
Speaker 1: made her speaker. She was always the key link between
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party and the donors. She was clearly far
Speaker 1: more influential than anybody in decision to get Biden to
Speaker 1: drop out than any other elected Democrat, and she played
Speaker 1: a much bigger role in all of that than any
Speaker 1: other elected Democrat did. She was the link between the
Speaker 1: donors and the rest of the party, and she was
Speaker 1: the voice of the donor saying the donors are not
Speaker 1: going to give any money if Biden doesn't drop out,
Speaker 1: and far more so than Chuck Schumer, far more so
Speaker 1: than Hakim Jeffries. For the love of God, you can
Speaker 1: still feel her presence her sway.
Speaker 2: Over the Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: And I don't think Pelosi's forgotten or one hundred percent
Speaker 1: forgiven AOC for their various clashes. When we returned some
Speaker 1: big developments from RFK Junior on abortion issues next on
Speaker 1: the John Gerardy Show Quick Thought Here there were some
Speaker 1: great encouraging tweets from Senator Josh Holly from Missouri about
Speaker 1: his meeting with RFK Junior. Various Trump cabinet appointees are
Speaker 1: making the rounds on Capitol Hill and meeting with different
Speaker 1: Senators who will be voting on their confirmation, and Holly
Speaker 1: reported a lot of things that I've been really worried
Speaker 1: about with RFK Junior. I guess one of the main
Speaker 1: things I've been worried about is RFK Junior has been
Speaker 1: an abortion advocate for pretty much his entire adult life.
Speaker 1: And RFK made some commitments to Senator Holly that I
Speaker 1: thought were really encouraging. He noted that he's going to
Speaker 1: support all of the first Trump administration policies on the
Speaker 1: Mexico City policy, defunding abortion abroad, defunding abortion domestically, reinstating
Speaker 1: restrictions on Title ten money, that Title ten money won't
Speaker 1: be able to go to abortion providers, That he's going
Speaker 1: to appoint all pro life deputies within the Department Health
Speaker 1: and Human Services, on and on and on. This is
Speaker 1: all really really good stuff. Now, the one thing I
Speaker 1: didn't hear anything about was how are we regulating the
Speaker 1: abortion pill. That's the bit the biggest driver of the
Speaker 1: increase in the number of abortions that we've seen over
Speaker 1: the course of twenty twenty to twenty twenty four. President
Speaker 1: buying loosen restrictions on the abortion pill. The number of
Speaker 1: abortions has jumped by one hundred thousand per year in
Speaker 1: the last four years. Will he restrict that I really.
Speaker 2: Hope so that'll do it. John Rolady shows see next
Speaker 2: time on Power Talk