The Democratic Party’s Dark Secrets EXPOSED – Andrew Yang Isn’t Holding Back!

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But this week on forward it's like, look, you can't lose to Trump twice in eight years and be like business as usual. Everything's fine. I mean like you know that, that, that's catastrophic failure twice and the second time decisively and you lose zero out of, you know, you win zero out of seven swing states. I mean, that's a wrap. I think that the Democratic Party is going to fragment in a very serious way. Anyone looking at it would be like that. This, it cannot be business as usual. There are a lot of folks questioning what they should be doing politically and I think we're going to get a lot of those people. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Post Election day venting recap. Debrief with me and Zach. We're recording this a couple days after election day and I'd say that both Zach and I are pretty pissed off.

Yeah, it's not frustrated is my big word. It was a frustrating result for a whole bunch of reasons. How are you feeling?

Generally sad. People who know me know that I don't think Trump is a good person person or a leader or a manager. And so I'm not excited about the administration coming in, but I am happy to retrace our steps a little bit. So we thought that Trump was going to win for months and months because it was obvious where Joe Biden was a deeply unpopular aging incumbent thought it was asinine that the Democratic Party wasn't primary him. And along came our guy Dean Phillips, who was making that very, very case. And we said, you know what, let's do this. And I have to say now everyone is saying, oh man, if Joe Biden had only gotten out sooner. Correct. And now it's like where the Fuck were you in January when we were up in New Hampshire making this case? You were all probably penguin clapping, Joe, Joe, Joe. Joe's our guy.

And they're shitting on us, frankly, not the people.

Oh, yeah, that's true. There wasn't even a lot of neutrality like there was the Democratic machine maligned Dean up the wazoo, which I think is deeply wrong. I'm still ticked off about that. Mean Dean literally banked his career on trying to do the right thing for the party and the country, and he got shipped for it. Yep.

Let's start with you. And I have a lot to say.

So I have an overall thesis, too, please. Where my thesis has been that life's getting worse and disintegration. The institutions are degrading and disintegrating. Trust is eroding. And so with that as the backdrop, I thought that Trump returning was always possible or likely. Right. Because if you don't believe, you don't believe in news media, you don't believe much of anything. And the Democratic Party kind of played into their hands where a functional Democratic Party would have gone to Joe Biden in 2022.

2023.

Oh, yeah. End of last year at the latest. Be like, all right, Joe, here are the numbers. They're terrible. You are going to lose and you're.

Not as sharp, you know, in 2022.

And you're going to forget this conversation in about 45 minutes.

Correct. In 2022. He addressed House leadership in the fall of 2022, and he was losing his train of thought. His gait and his vibe was terrifying to folks that were in the room. And I spoke to Dean and there's colleagues on the record on this. And Pelosi had to finish his sentences and finish the point form was they're passing this infrastructure bill, this build back better. Might have been the second. I don't know how many of those we did. And they were terrified. And then he did not meet with House leadership since then. So we've known at least since 2022. It might even be 2021. But it was early. Keep going.

Yeah. So a functional party would have said, hey, Joe, this ain't it. We're going to primary you. You can feel free to run in said primary. And then Joe, I mean, that would have been humiliating to run in said primary. So then he would say, okay, I will graciously step down now. Joe didn't want to do this because he didn't want to be a lame duck, but this was arrogant, irresponsible, out of touch with reality, the whole nine. And the job of the party was to face reality. But instead, they propped up Joan, protected him and enabled him. And that extended even to when Dean Phillips, the only sane, courageous person in the room, said, yo, guys, this is not a good plan. They said, you are the bad person, Dean. And you know, that was malpractice. It was negligent. So this to me is the original. We've given the country back to Trump and it's 100% at our doorstep because Joe Biden screw up, number one. And I endorsed Joe in 2020. I have no problem with Joe winning and being president. But he never was running as a two term president, Said he's gonna be a bridge to the next generation. Implicitly said, like Dean said, that members of Congress were stunned when he said he was running again.

So.

Number one, Joe Biden should have gotten the F out of the way. Number two, the party should have been like, yo, Joe, this is like insanity. So let's have a primary. And so the number two is Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, like all of the candidates in waiting that you know are trying to run and that if they had challenged Joe, they could have forced the Democratic party's hand being like, wait a minute, what? You know, Gavin Newsom is running like, well, we can't just not have a primary now when like the governor of California is running. Yeah, like that. That would have been the right thing to do for the party, the right thing to do for the country. Then you have an energetic primary. The ratings would have been through the roof. You know, you probably have Amy Klobuchar and maybe Pete run again. And then you have Wes Moore, maybe you have Andy Beshear, maybe you have this whole next generation of candidates who run and then you fight it out. Kamala could have run.

Kamala would have run.

Yeah, Kamala would have run for sure. And then you would crystallize a ticket. So in my mind's eye, that ticket is something like Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro. By the way, that's a logical ticket given that those are two of the three states you really need to win.

You take those states, most likely.

Yeah, yeah, you probably take those states with Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro, you pile into Wisconsin and that's a winning ticket. No, none of that happened, obviously. So number one, Joe Biden screwing up. Number two, the party saying, hey, let's not have a primary and attack Dean of all people. Number three, all of the future presidential Leaders not stepping up. It infuriates me when people just miss their window being like, oh, my window's later. It's like, your window is never. You know what I mean?

And one of the windows, not a real thing.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, you didn't have.

A window, by the way.

Yeah, I have a window. I mean, like, thank you, Yang gang. We just kind of, you know, like, carved one in a way.

But, you know, I'm saying.

Yeah, so. So number two is, you know, the party. Number three is all these candidates in waiting who now, like, I don't want to support any of the senior Most folks in that bucket because they. They copped out. Lack of spine when the country needed them. Yeah. It's like it was a lack of courage, lack of character, lack of conviction. And then the press corps that obviously, you know, was like, enforcing the fiction. And then fast forward to June, by the way. So June debate's going on. You text me and be like, hey, this is terrible. I'm like, yeah, you're right. And then I tweet something saying they should swap Joe out. Hashtag swapjo out. My phone then blows up and I get every major press outlet saying, hey, do you want to talk about this? And then I said, sure. So then, you know, we had this multi week arc of pass the torch. Joe, that was freaking fun as heck in the sense of it was a righteous cause.

We felt vindicated. We felt right. We knew we were right.

But yeah, Yeah, I mean, everyone owed Dean Phillips a massive apology at that point. Still do. Yeah. And then Joe finally gets forced out, and then Kamala gets anointed. By the way, even then, you could have had a hurry up primary. I don't. I understand why they were like, oh, we don't have time because Joe screwed us all by waiting so long because Joe waited till tomorrow. You could have.

You could have done it.

You could still have done a hurry up primary. Instead, you anointed Kamala. And by the way, this weakens your entire democracy argument. You know, voters went 50, 50 if they said democracy was their number one concern.

Yeah. They voted for Trump because democracy was a big concern.

Yeah. Because they legitimately thought it's like, you know who' not really into democracy? The Democratic Party.

Yeah.

And is that 100% legitimate critique given you didn't have a primary and you anointed Joe a candidate with. Yeah, you protected Joe and lied about his faculties and then you anointed candidate. Yeah, it's totally a legitimate critique. You know, you Know what's another legitimate critique is that you're. You're trying to marginalize and push out various candidates who, you know, and look, I mean, I came out with an op ed and like, I'm a productive, constructive fellow. So it's like I, you know, I was like, look, don't vote third party. But, you know, again, it's not exactly strengthening your pro democracy.

No, it's not.

Angle. So, so then we wind up in this campaign with Kamala, you know, having to make up a lot of ground because Joe's unpopular and like, it's abbreviated campaign and the rest of it. And then, you know, like, were there missteps in that campaign? Objectively, I believe so, yes. But one of the most obvious ones is like, go on Joe Rogan. It's all upside. You know, it's male, low propensity voters in the millions. And just ceding that audience to the Trump team, to me was just utter madness. You know, you have three hours with Trump, three hours with J.D. vance, and then I think another three hours with Elon. At the end of that, Joe Rogan's like, yeah, I guess this is where we're going. If you had Kamala on there and Tim Walls on there, then it's more of an even Steven experience. And by the way, some of those people might have been like, you know what? Like, I'm actually fine with this human or this ticket because it's not like Trump was, you know, supremely lucid for his three hours. No, he was like, kind of all over the place.

Not winning a ton of votes. I mean, some, but. Yeah, no, I mean, the biggest platform in the world.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, like turning that down. Oh, by the way, saying it's like, oh, like, I've got a schedule to keep in the States.

You got to come. The offer was you got to come to me. And we have to keep it to 45 minutes because I'm busy. Which madness, to me is insane. It is insane. It's like saying you don't say that to Stephen Colbert.

You know, you don't tell SNL to come to you.

Yeah, yeah. Geez.

You know, so it's so. So that, by the way, like, that's the kind of strategy you undertake if either one, you're up by a lot and you're like, hey, not worth the risk, which obviously it was not the case. Or number two, you just don't have confidence in your candidate to do certain things. Which then brings us back to you should have had a primary and, you know, and then you wind up with.

So.

So this is very upsetting. And one thing you said to me, Zach, which I feel. And we're going to, like, get. Get your thoughts on this. You're like. You're sick of being right.

Yeah. Sort of sick of sitting here talking to you about. Yeah, we called this and championed this.

And fought for this and fought for it. You know, like, if you. If you reflect on our time, I mean, again, thank you, Dean Phillips. But we're in New Hampshire. Making the case to real life voters being like, hey, guys, primary would be a really good idea. You know, we got 19% in New Hampshire, so it's not like we're pundits who are just like, oh, this would be a good idea. I mean, we packed up our bags, went to New Hampshire, you know, like.

Manchester for a month and a half.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Living. You lived in New Hampshire's not my favorite. Lived New Hampshire, by the way. I love you, New Hampshire.

Better cities than Manchester in New Hampshire.

But anyway, New Hampshire is lovely. I was glad to be back. I saw some familiar faces. Thank you, Yang. Yang, thank you. You know, it was great. I mean, I was pumped up. It was real. Yes. That was 100% real. And the fact that everyone was like, oh, you know, it's not like, competitive or whatever. It's like 19% in New Hampshire is no joke, people. By the way, if Nikki Haley had not taken all the independent votes who are going against Trump, because if you're an independent, you had to choose either the Republican primary, the Democratic primary to vote in, and, you know, logically, you might choose the Republican primary. You know, it's like, he probably gets 35.

Oh, the numbers on Dean were crazy because not only that, most people still, like, only half of voters, a little more than half, actually knew he was running because there was no formal primary. So to win 20% amongst half, like, Dean had a. The fact that 20% of your party voting in that thing was like, no, not the incumbent president is already insane. Especially. And then look at the numbers. Like, half of them didn't even know this was who the Eldean was. Yeah.

And one of the things that also should infuriate us, and this is something, if you reflect on it, too, it's like, let's say Instead of getting 19%, he got 29%. Like, you know, would the press have covered it differently? I'm not sure.

No, because that was our takeaway. We could have got 40. He would have a one. He would have to get 51% because.

The press freaking ignored it immediately thereafter. And it's like, man, what a fix that that's in. By the way, anyone watching this, objectively, it's a real turn off. You know, it doesn't make you think that this party is on the up and up and that the, you know, media is playing it straight.

Well, I'm very frustrated. I'll say a couple things, so I am. You've been public about your endorsements. I haven't really. I'm not a Trump guy. I haven't been, obviously, working with Andrew for many years. But my big thing is, you know, Trump has never been, to me, has never shown an intention of being a man of integrity. And I think it's a job of a man. And my definition of a strong, strong masculinity is those who protect folks who can't protect themselves. And I don't think Trump has ever shown that almost ever, as I've never liked him. And there's a lot of other reasons in nitpick, et cetera, but that's not where I come from. But I have been, prior to this race and Kamala's coronation, I was very critical of the Democratic Party, working for Dean, Moving, New Hampshire, et cetera. But we've been. I've been personally on this podcast and on Twitter pretty silent about a lot of the flaws in the Kamala Harris experience, I'm going to call it.

Oh, yeah. Because when the campaign's on, you can't be like, you line up, you line up.

And I think that's important. I think Dems are actually normally kind of bad at this and been better in recent history of lining up. The adage was Dems fall in love, Republicans fall in line. It's better to. It's easier to win elections.

By the way, it's a reverse now.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it is anymore, frankly. But it's usually easier to win if you fall in line, and I think that's fine. But now that this race is over.

Oh, the blame game's on.

Yeah. And I, you know, I deserve it.

By the way, too. I've been putting online. It's like, look, you can't lose to Trump twice in eight years and be like business as usual. Everything's fine. I mean, like, you know, that's catastrophic failure twice, and the second time, decisively, you lose zero out of, you know, you win zero out of seven swing states. I mean, that's a wrap. I think that the Democratic Party is going to Fragment in a very serious way. Anyone looking at it would be like that. It cannot be business as usual.

We saw Bernie Peso.

Yeah. You have this massive monetary advantage, and it gives you diddly in terms of, you know, it's like you have the media, by the way. I mean, you know, it's like there are a bunch of things so big picture like this people don't believe. And you needed a candidate who could go on a neutral platform. Like, let's say, you know, and I'm just gonna say this like a Joe Rogan and actually move some hearts and minds. You know, it's like. And I almost posted this, and like, you know, it's like that should. Your ability to sit down for, like, a two to three hour interview with Joe Rogan should probably be a prerequisite if you're gonna be a major party nominee.

It's a prerequisite for almost everything in this country. Like, how long is the interview process to get a job? I don't know about hours straight, but it's. You have plenty of people spending time with you to get to know you.

Yeah. And Joe, by the way, Joe's, like, a lot less hostile than a Fox interviewer would be. I mean, Joe.

Joe was a liberal for a long time. Yeah.

He supported Bernie, you know, and he's part of, like, now, you know, by the way, I mean, how many Americans have gone Bernie to Trump?

Like, a lot.

A lot. Because Bernie had that anti institutional edge vibe. Yeah. I mean, I had it too. Thank you again, everyone. And, you know, it's funny, because I got asked the other night, it's like, hey, given that you're sort of this, like, entrepreneur, anti institutional, like, why aren't you with Trump?

Yeah, a lot of people. I get my comments a lot. It's like, why weren't you on the RFK train? Why are you going so hard? Is what I heard. Going so hard for Kamala, which is not fundamentally true, but why?

I would have gone harder for Kamala if they'd actually asked me to do something, but I was on their shit list because I was so mean to Joe.

That's true. So why. But why endorse her?

I don't know if you know. Yeah, I knew that, like, the campaign, you know, a friend said, hey, you're on there. Like, you know, don't use.

Do not touch. So why endorse her? That's.

You know, I thought that either she or Donald Trump would be president. I do not think Trump has the right character or temperament or managerial interest. And so it's like, if you ask me, hey, business as usual, customary politician versus Trump. I take the non Trump option.

There would have been probably a spot for you in the administration if you endorsed Trump and went hard for him.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there are all sorts of things. It's just for me, you know, it's not about you can move angling, you.

Can actually move votes. I mean, it's not massive at the moment, but, you know, in a race where 100,000 votes or 50,000 votes or 10,000 votes matters, it was somewhat stupid to ignore. It's not just you, it's.

Well, there's like, you know, the general outlook too. You have to be additive. I mean, you should be fighting for anyone who's in that kind of independent, neutral zone. Yes. You know, and so like, I would have been a logical call, but they're just like, no, because you were mean to would actually give me actually be a better probably bonus point because like, I actually seem like I have a point of view that's not a hack.

Yeah, yeah.

The rest of it. But, you know, it's like, again, it's the kind of move you might make if you were five points ahead. You know what I mean? I am good at some things, you know, I'm not very good at cooking healthy food for myself. I'm really not good at all. It's one reason why I'm so excited to share with you. Factor Meals factor is ready made food for you. Two minutes. Real food. It's made by chefs, designed by dietitians, delivered to your door. You heat it for two minutes and eat. I love the cheesy chicken and peppers. I love the roasted veggie and pesto tortellini. If that sounds delicious to you, it truly is delicious. So, you know, you should check it out and enjoy food that someone else better than you at cooking has prepared like I do. Head to factor meals.com yang50off and use code yang50off to get 50% off your first factor box. Plus free breakfast for one year offer only valid for new factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with factor.

I will no longer be silent. I'd like to say what Moniz be said and I think the biggest thing, I'm very frustrated with the outcome of this election and the entire process and less about ooh boo hoo, Trump won. I'm just frustrated how he got here. And the reason I'm frustrated is because this was so avoidable. This was so avoidable.

And what someone said was, it's predictable and preventable.

Yes, for a number of reasons. One, Trump is very beatable. And don't let these results skew that.

Yeah, he's unpopular.

He is deeply unpopular with women. There's a large percentage of people that voted for him that do not like him.

Oh, yeah, the double haters. Did you see that stat? Yeah.

Or they don't like Joe, but they dislike.

Oh, no, in this case, they dislike both candidates.

They dislike Kamala, left, or more.

They chose Trump. Something like, you know, 67, 22. Yep.

He is old. He's 78, getting older. And by the way, if you don't agree with this, all the evidence you had and need was in 2020, where the Democrats nominated objectively a plain vanilla moderate. I'm gonna use the word competent politician, and you can, you know, take that with a grain of salt, but relatively competent. And he ran the table. Trump is very beatable. And there's a reason Nikki Haley and Desantis hung around in that primary for as long as they did because they weren't sure that Trump could actually pull it off. If the Dems nominated, if Biden's coherent. Right.

Or if the Democrats had their act together, it was a real case, reasonable ticket.

Yep. So he's very beatable. The second thing is that the Dems. And you made this point earlier, the Dems have a pretty solid bench. And I'm not talking about the usual suspects from 2020. I'm talking about Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro. I'd throw Wes Moore in there, folks would throw Whitmer in there, folks would throw Buttigieg and even Newsom in there. I don't know if they have as good of a shot to win, but they're talented. There is at least three, if not more candidates from the Democratic Party that would have, frankly wiped the floor with Trump, I think would have won or at least.

So what I said was, Joe Biden is an historic loss. Kamala Harris is a dignified loss. Your best people is a chance to win. Yes. And so there's. There's no guarantee that, like, a Whitmer Shapiro ticket would have won, but it would have given you a better chance.

You would have done better. Yeah.

Especially if, by the way, they had the energy and legitimacy of having won a primary.

Yes.

Because, you know, you know what, that. That stuff actually matters. You know, you get people who are into it, you know, like that. Like they. They. Their opponents transfer over.

There's energy, there's endorsements, et Cetera, et cetera. The third thing is that in this process, the Dems lost whatever they had left of the moral high ground. And this is what drives me probably the most nuts, where they told us that Biden was sharp as attack. They were covering that up for at least a year, probably longer. They refused to have a primary. And I don't mean like, he's the incumbent. We don't. You know, that's what we're proactively kicking Dean and other candidates, Marianne, off ballot by state.

They canceled primaries.

North Carolina. They're getting calls from the White House saying, don't put them on, even though the requirement is just that you had to have media coverage to be a candidate. So you don't. And then you shiv Dean and others for running and saying you're against the country, you're a fascist, because you're gonna help Trump win, you're gonna weaken Biden.

Nonsense in Congress for decades, forever. But instead, he's out.

Yep.

And then we thank you again, Dean.

Thank you, Dean. We then. Crown. Crown. I'm using that word intentionally. A deeply unpopular vice president. Deeply unpopular, who, last time that candidate ran for national office at the presidential level, was embarrassed, did not get to voting. We literally have a track record of what this looks like at scale, and it's not good. So we crowned this person. And you combine that with general distrust in media and the media backing a lot of these decisions, you combine that with, I'm gonna call it these Trump court cases, and some of them are the civil cases, I think have more legs. But some of the ones like the one in New York is objectively a version of nonsense. It's a thing that they're vilifying him. It's very clearly politically motivated at worst. At best, it's awful.

And it's an aggressive application.

Yes. So you combine all this Dems, whatever, out here saying democracy is on the line while subverting democracy is. There goes your moral high ground. There you go. And that in politics, when a strength becomes a weakness, it's catastrophic too. So if the Democrats message in 2020 was restore the soul of America. You know, Joe, like, back to basics. We're gonna. We're the party to restore sanity. And then you do all the things that are insane and saying all the things you're doing, the things that you're accusing Trump of doing, you lose your moral high ground.

Joe Biden failed the George Washington test. He failed the character test.

Yes.

And we all are saddled with a return of Trump as a result and everyone should be very, very ticked off at the folks who protected him and pretended everything was gonna be all right. Correct. And you know, Dean Phillips, not to make too much of this, but Dean Phillips sacrificed his career to try and start that conversation. People still wouldn't have it. Nope. I mean, it was insanity.

And then to top it off, number four, we didn't have a message or a great messenger, but the message here was, I mean, you had a candidate. This was driving me nuts. Like, they were. From a comms perspective, if you're in politics, you work in communications, you work in comms. Criminal malpractice offenses here, we could not answer. We did not have answers for the easiest of layups. Like, hey, what is your biggest weakness? What have you learned over the past four years? What will you do differently than Joe Biden? And we also. And then, in addition, we didn't have answers to, what's your plan on the border? What's your plan on the economy? These were. I mean, you can watch Kamala's CNN town hall, and you don't get answers to any of these. And it is brutal. Combine that with, I mean, what was the closing argument in this campaign?

Not Trump.

Trump's a fascist. I'm not exaggerating. Closing message. Kamala Harris said my closing message. That's her title speech. Trump is a fascist. Combine that with not going on Rogan, not embracing a lot of these podcasts and these bigger audience malpractice.

It's like, Trump is a fascist, and I will be conceding to him within 72 hours. You know, I mean, like that. That's like the.

Who are you trying to convince with that, by the way? Like, who. Even if it's true, do you think they're going to believe the Democratic Party in saying that? Right. Like, who's listening? That's like, oh, you know what? Kamala says he's a fascist, probably Right. Like, that, to me, is an insane sort of calm strategy. And lastly, well, to defend that a.

Little bit, it was former Trump officials who said it.

There were plenty of people that have said this about it. I'm not saying it's not.

They decided. They decided to.

To lean in.

Right. Yeah.

To make that decision. And, and then to top it off, like, at the end of the day, the Dems got stumped. We got absolutely smoked. Like, we did not gain any county over Joe Biden for. We didn't out. We did not outperform Joe Biden in any county by more than a couple percentage.

You say, you say we like, you're a Denver.

We, like, sorry, yeah, we being the party I'm talking about right now, the Democrats not outperform. Like, not one. So this isn't one of those things, like, oh, man, you know, we ran a good race, and that is a message right now.

It was a weak, corrupt bureaucracy failing the American people. If you think the job was to keep Trump out of office, and by the way, I think that was the job. That was the only job. It's why I endorse. It's like, I'm happy to be a team player and help try and keep Trump out of office, even though I'm not even on the team. Or you guys, it's like, I'm an American. I have my own point of view. I will say that again. I have family and friends who voted for Donald Trump, and I do not have a problem with Trump voters. I just happen to think that, you know, he's not a good guy or, like, the person that you want to put on the top of everything, for sure. And so that does lead us to, like, what. What we see happening next.

And I'll just add quickly as we go to, like, this is. I'm so frustrated because this is not. This is not a Monday morning quarterbacking situation. This isn't a couch pundit situation. Like, this is a.

We went fought at all.

I did the work. Like, I got in the game. We got in the game both in 2020 and this year with, like, this cycle with Dean and what ha. We tried and what happened. Y' all shat on us and him. And I'm not, you know, I'm appreciating.

The people here did not. Right.

But folks did.

Thank you for the love.

And now look.

Thank you for sending Dean 20 bucks.

Now, look, right now, where we are, we say Trump's a threat to democracy, but not enough of a threat to actually be thoughtful and critical about how we approach and solve things.

Oh, no. I mean, again, this is the corrupt bureaucracy is that you have a bunch of professionals whose job, in some ways is not to win. Their job is to be employed, stay relevant.

That's a big critique of the consulting class.

And so if you go against your boss, the president, you are lessening your own employment prospects. So let me not do that. Even though our odds of winning are just getting thrown out the window, but it's like, we win or lose, I'll have a job. And just, like, the total lack, by the way. So the fact that my phone was the one blowing up when Joe had That catastrophic debate. And then I was on TV every day being like, yeah, Joe's got to pass the torch. And I was like, why am I the one that they're calling? It's because you could barely find a Democrat who would go to a microphone and say that. And then you're just like, what is going on with you guys? You know, it's like there are a million of you. Like, there was. There's just, like, this group think going on. There's, like, a real lack of independence and judgment and courage and character. And you know what it is instead, conformity and careerism. And it failed the American people on a colossal scale. So I think the Democratic Party is gonna have a really hard time looking people in the eye and saying, like, hey, we did an effective job with your resources. We have a genuine connection to the American people. What it is, is we have a professional layer that we think with our money and our ads and the media, we can project messages, and it's gonna be enough to win. And, oh, what? You mess with us, Dean Phillips, then we're gonna bully you and use like.

Oh, you want to work for Dean Phillips? You can get no business with the dnc.

Yeah, yeah, someone did a favor for Dean, and then they blacklist him. I mean, it's freaking garbage. And so you've got this little, you know, machine, but that's shrinking all the time and saying, like, hey, this is going to be enough. And then when it's not enough, you're like, oh. It's like, oh, no. I mean, it does remind me of, like, a corporation that has just lost its way. And we've seen this before with any number of corporations. And then does the corporation have what it takes to actually restore its original values and have a human at the helm who will do things that are short term harmful to the organization's interests, but better in the long term? So I wrote a critique of the Democratic Party for Politico, and I concluded being like, they will do none of these things. It's like, there's a punch list of things that you would do, starting with, you should apologize for sandbagging Bernie Sanders in 2016. You know, it's like everyone saw that, and it's like, oh, you know, like, there's. And they will do none of these things. Anyone. And the Democratic Party right now is like, hey, okay, we lost to Trump for the second time in eight years. We'll get him next time. Who's up next? You know, it just becomes like, this revolving door of personalities while Our communities fall into the mud, and that's why they took this loss. So I do not think it's gonna be business as usual for the Democrats. I think there's gonna be, like, a real reckoning. And I, you know, it's like, again, I'm happy to tell the Democratic Party, here's what you should do, but we all know that they will not do any of those things. Instead, what they will do is they will jockey for their place on the totem pole even as, like, the ground shrinks beneath their feet.

And you said it best earlier. I'm so tired of being right. And I know there's people listening to this. I'm so. They're tired, too. They're tired of being right. And what I mean by being right is like, knowing that this is the wrong path, knowing that this is foolish while the country suffers. You know what I mean? Like, the results of this, of trying to keep the country strong and whole. It's not. You watch these decisions be made. We fight for them. We spend time and money, energy, uproot our lives to help, and then either not listened to, you're ignored, you're dismissed, et cetera. And then the country suffers because these poor, stupid decisions are made. And I will say this. Jon Stewart had an awesome rant on election night about there will be all these takes. And, you know, we're not really making them on, like, why Kamala lost and who didn't show up and what were the fatal errors. Like, we had a couple here, sure. Like Brogan, etc. But the reason to be frustrated was not, like, what happened on election day and election night. The reason to be frustrated is because this was totally 1 million percent avoidable and predictable.

Because.

Yeah, we fucking predicted it.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, if we could see it coming, why could they? Yeah.

And it's so. It's. It's infuriating and like, so that, like, who's this loss on? Who do we blame? Democrats? You blew this. You freaking blew this. Right? It was in your lap. You had it and you blew it. And it's all the things you fight for, whether it's women's rights, etc, like, those things that we say are so important. Existential. Apparently not existential enough to. To get smart about how we. How we make them happen. Instead, we just fall in line, do stupid things. And it's. It's at the feet of leadership. It's at the Bidens, it's at Pelosi, it's at Kim Jeffries, it's at the DNC leadership. It's at every. To your point, every future Democratic leader, these governors that said nothing like that. It was a lack of courage, a lack of intelligence, in some cases a lack of honesty and integrity. And I'm frustrated.

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Well, again, it's one reason why Dean, you know, deserves his flowers here. Is that what happens in these rooms? And someone in D.C. told me this. Well, there are a couple of things. So if you remember my campaign, someone said, D.C. is not a town of leaders, it's a town of followers. Truer words were never spoken. But the other thing is that everyone looked around and be like, well, it's not my responsibility to, you know, save the, the Dems from, you know, losing to Trump.

Oh, sure.

You know, and then you look around and be like, whose job is it actually? You know, like, which of you has that responsibility? Now, in theory, all of them do, but in reality, all of them were like, not me, not me. I, you know, I just work here. I'm just like a, a person. And by the way, that culture is apparently endemic to dc. Everyone's like, oh, I'm just like this and that. Like, who could, who would I be? It has been really fun. Again, thank you for sticking with us for the, from the bottom of my heart. Because it's been fun just being a guy, being. And someone said to me, it's like, only in politics can stating the obvious be considered courageous, revolutionary. But, you know, every once in a while I'm like, hey, guys, like, he old. You know, and then people like, huh?

How dare. Like, like what?

Like a profound observation. Like, let's get you on TV to talk about that. And then I just point and be like, he old.

Yes.

You know, and there are all these other people being like, wow, like so, so perceptive, so independent. I mean, like, it's just like a banana environment that we've descended into.

Yes.

But I will say one of the. Okay, so let's talk about what happened.

Where we go from here.

Yeah.

What's next. Yeah, we got our bitch fest out.

And I feel good about it. So one thing is like, look, the illusions are dying before our eyes. Everyone's like, I mean, I got my phones. I'm blowing up, like, being like, okay, I'm done. What can I do? Time for something new. Like, you know, status quo is not a reasonable response. So Donald Trump will be president. He'll have his team. Like, I dearly hope that he does better than I have feared. You know, as president, I personally, I'm.

Hopeful and optimistic that Donald Trump can unite the country and do a good job. That's what I want.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I want. I will say I'm dubious because it's not like his ambitions are a secret. I mean, he said it's like, hey, I'm gonna get revenge on this. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna, you know, do the rest of the thing. And then you give him the job. He like, I was just kidding with all that retribution and Trump stuff does that. I mean, he almost never has then opted to be magnanimous. That's not his M.O. his M.O. has been. What's that? You mess with me, I'm gonna mess with you. I'm gonna bully you. I'm gonna do.

It's like the legend of. There's a legend, the Republican Party, talking about how Trump deals with foreign policy. It's like. And I'm not sure if that's true or not, but the story is. He says to Putin, I'm gonna bomb the shit out of Ukraine. And Putin's like, no, you won't. And Trump says, but I might. And that's like his sort of MO and the reality is, if you're Putin, he's like, well, he might. Right. And at times, that makes him great at negotiating.

Right.

It's a negotiating tactic. Right. And it makes him. I don't think. I don't have any particular problems with a lot of Trump's foreign policy. That's what you get with Trump and everything, right? Domestic, I'm deport them all. It's like, no, you won't. You can't do that. But I might. Like, okay, maybe.

Right.

Like. And that some of that's really dark and terrifying.

You know, one Trump story that stuck with me and just random. It's small in the scheme of things, but years and years ago, he ate at a Chinatown restaurant banquet with, you know, 20 of his friends. And then this is before any of the political stuff.

Yeah.

And then he just didn't pay the bill. He just walked out and was like, hey, you know, you should just count yourself lucky that we can. I graced you. Yeah, I graced you and I walked out like. And that, to me, it's like, man, like that. That's not the dude, you know, New.

Yorkers don't like for a lot of reasons. And a lot of it's shit like that.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just like the stuff with Atlantic City where he stiffed. He had like, small contractors spend a lot of money because they think they're working on the Trump casino, and then he just stiffs them with the bill and makes him sue him, et cetera. Like a lot of things like that. Like that I don't like. That's the lack of integrity.

Yeah, yeah. Part of it too is, you know, and if you think of the roles and functions people have, and this is something that I grapple with in a very significant way, but I came up as an operator, I ran a company, and if you have someone who's all sales and no follow through, then what happens is they go around spreading messages and doing things and then there are people behind them being like, what happened? What happened? And there was a Tim Alberta story about the Trump campaign where all the staffers were totally burnt out because they were. You know, the fact that, that you and I are still having this conversation together means that, you know, it's like working with me is not, you know, like something that, like, makes you lose your hair after X months. I mean, maybe a little bit. I know I've, like, done some things, but.

No, you're.

No, no, but, but you know what I mean, like, generally speaking, like, like I'm, I'm someone who expects there to be like, long term relationships and, you know, the rest of it. Like Trump's like, make a deal, make a deal and make a deal and make a deal. And then it's like, oh, you know, and then like, what happens after? It's like, yeah, it doesn't matter, I'm on to the next deal. It's like, you know, I can spin various things, so I just dispositionally dislike that. And like, I am deeply concerned. Hoping for the best.

Yeah, look, I hope he's a great president.

Hoping for the best. Like, one thing I put out there is like, look, if this crew. And this is one of the most interesting things about this time in American politics, one reasons why the Democrats lost was that a lot of people who are working class just did not believe the Democrats actually were going to do anything for them. And the Republican Party has become the party of the working class and the folks who don't have college degrees. And so one of the major questions right now is will this crew actually make life better for working class Americans? And if they do, if they succeed, then you could see a long term realignment where the Democratic Party, by the way, it's already happened. I mean unions like union endorses, Kamala Harris and the union leaders like f that I'm voting for Trump. And so then you have this fissure between the institution and the individual. But if they can actually fulfill their promise to working class Americans, then you could see like a long term shift in the way these people vote. And I will say I would be all for anything that makes life better for working class Americans. I don't care who does it. If this crew passes an enhanced child tax credit, which by the way, J.D. vance said he's into, like, I'll be the first to be applauding like, you know, I could give a shit who does something that alleviates unnecessary poverty and deprivation. And so am I cautiously hopeful that maybe we'll see some of that out of this crew? Yeah, I am.

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Yeah. The Dems have not shown us any track record that they can get things done like this, so who knows?

Yeah, no, it's. It's true. They might have more license to do things like the revived enhanced child tax Credit, because, you know, it's their people. They'll be like, hey, guys, we're doing it. Whereas if the Dems. And this is something I don't like about that crew is that, like, if the Dems propose it, they're not for it, and then if they propose it, then they're for it. Yeah. Yeah.

So what. Where do you think we go from here, man? What should we be expecting? Where's your head at?

Oh, I should say that election night was a terrible night for the democracy reform movement. Like, all the ballot initiatives that I was super excited about, most all of them did not pass. You know, you had DC Pass, interestingly, you had some local wins, but the big statewide ones, I mean, I want to say that this is a very, very difficult result for someone like me who's like anyone but Trump for the democracy reform movement. Very, very rough. And so looking up at it, we have to figure out what our big opportunities are. And I will say, like, there are some opportunities I'm excited about. One opportunity for us in the short term is that there are a lot of folks questioning what they should be doing politically, and I think we're going to get a lot of those people. So who's joined forward? Independents. Yes. Folks who've been out on the duopoly. Yes. Moderate Republicans who are not into Trump. Yes. And now it's Democrats who don't think the Democratic Party is going to get it done, which I don't know, which you all consider me. I mean, I'm a former Democrat who doesn't think the Democratic Party or the duopoly is going to get things done. So there's some energy for us. Even next week, we'll be talking about. About something really big that could help with the public sector. But I will say in the short term, it's absorb, vent, grieve, learn, do some things. I mean, people have been texting and calling me, and I have said to folks that this is a tough time. My general thesis has been that America is going to be going through, like, a very, very tough time. And I think that we're going to be beginning that kind of period. I also think, by the way, no matter who won the White House this time, the economy cannot stay, you know, fired. Up and buoyant forever. I mean, like, I always thought in the next four years that you'd have the shoe drop at some point. You know, I mean, there was like a somewhat sh. Labor report that came out just last week. Some of the infrastructure investments. That is ironic, the Biden administration put in place are going to be coming out during the Trump term. And so Trump will get a lot of credit for that stuff because they're always funny.

You have Republican congressmen getting excited about rural WI Fi that they voted against.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, let me cut a ribbon on that.

Congratulations, you did it. You voted against this.

So, I mean, I will say this is someone, you know, I was talking to someone to say, like, hey, it's going to be rough water ahead. So, you know, what you do when there's rough water ahead is you just try and build a better boat. And that can mean a lot of things to different people, but that's what I think we should be doing.

One of the fun things I always find after an election is to ask, where do you think the party goes from here? The parties go from here. The Republicans, somewhat obvious. They get Trump for four years and then Vance, potentially, unless you have a Mike Pence situation, which is not out of the question, but potentially the future of the party, but. So let's start with the Dems. Probably more interesting. Where do you think the Dems go from here? You think? I saw. So Bernie Sanders basically put out a statement, an email, saying, screw this, Democrats suck. Where do you. I think I don't. My gut says the Dems won't actually learn from this unless there's a leader. There has to be a strong.

Yeah, yeah. They're going to be leaderless.

You need to.

Joe Biden's about to go into his dotage.

Yep. I'm, you know, I don't. I don't know if we learn from this. That's probably my.

Yeah, I think the Democratic Party is going to be adrift until a leader emerges. And, you know, they're not going to be that excited until there's an election on. So, you know, 26. Depending on what happens, there will be attempts to retake the House. Attempts.

I mean, it depends what Trump does in the first two years. And if it's something that pisses off enough Dems, maybe they rally together on a policy or message.

But this is always one of the things, man, that's like, you know, like people cannot stay energized forever where there's a lot of exhaustion you know, if like someone compare. It's like when Trump won in 16, you know, you had like the women's march and all this stuff. There's like a compulsion, a reaction now. You know what there is? Resignation. It's like, oh, we're going through this again. Like this sucks and the country deserved better. Yeah. It's reality. It's disheartening.

Let's end with something hopeful. Sure, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful for policies that help the masses.

Same, same. You know, and I am interested in some of the big ticket, anti bureaucracy things like, you know, like that. I mean, that's very interesting.

Yeah. I'm curious what RFK does with food additives.

I mean, that's a real issue. It's like if you can clean up.

Our food, not sure you can do it. But he's one of the few people actually talking about it, so that's exciting. I like less wars, which seemingly is a, a platform of Trumps for where.

When motivated by the right thing, I'm, I like less wars. I mean, I don't like just capitulation.

Yeah. I don't like letting people run. Rough job. There's part of it. Yeah. We need to stay and there's, there's studies on, you need to keep your armies fresh. So take that. And I'm optimistic because we'll be in the front row still fighting.

I'm in the build mode. So this is what I'd say to folks out there. We have ourselves, our health, our families, our friends, our jobs, our economic prospects. Some of you follow me, I think, because, you know, you sense that I'm someone who likes to try and build things, whether it's a party, a movement, campaign, a company. You know, it's like, like there's nothing impeding us from building in our own lives. And that's what I mean by, you know, rough waters. Build a better boat. Like, I'm disheartened by American politics. I'm disheartened by this result. I do think some of the biggest macro problems need government to try and address at scale. But what we have to do is we have to address and improve things in our own lives first. And by the way, that's true regardless of what's going on in our politics, because our politics aren't going to solve those problems for us necessarily. So I think this is like a, hey, let's build our own stuff. Let's get things done. Let's solve problems and we'll have other chances at making things happen at the highest levels, I'm sure. What's funny is you don't anticipate things. Sometimes it's like when Dean is running, we're like, oh, shoot. Really?

That sounds like a lever we can pull. Yeah.

Yeah, that's something we can help with. So there'll be opportunities, but let's build stuff in the interim and also enjoy our families, our friends, our own lives. I mean, you know, it's like, you know, it doesn't do. It doesn't do anyone any good if we stew and, you know, like, become unduly negative. You have to have perspective and act positively and be there for your friends and yourself.

Sir. Keep building. I love it. Good talk, man. Love you guys.

We'll be back in four years. I'm just kidding.

We'll be back.

I mean, I'll be back next week. I think Zach's gonna be. Zach's gonna get the week off later.

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