00:00All right, look, for years, we have heard complaints that Democrats would rather keep
00:05the moral high ground than bring a knife to a Republican fistfight. Democrats have been
00:11insulted. They've been mocked. They've been questioned. Things like, what are you going
00:16to do about it? They've been yelled at, often by their own voters, saying, do something.
00:22They have been told, and you've heard it, that Democrats are busy playing checkers,
00:26Republicans are playing chess. Or, of course, you've heard that little comparison to
00:30Republicans who are credited for better or for worse with being able to hold the party line,
00:36be united, even when it might be hypocritical or damaging to their own messaging or brand.
00:42Democrats have been accused of being complacent and reactive, always one political step behind,
00:49or so it seemed. Well, tonight, maybe the listening tourists have broken through,
00:55at least on one topic, at least in one state, California. That's where Governor Gavin Newsom
01:01is calling an audible, launching the Democrats' biggest gamble yet to try to fight back against
01:08Trump. And he is doing it, well, through the art of the troll. Take a look at this. And I want you
01:14to read it closely, okay? It's on your screen. It's highlighted for effect. It's from Gavin Newsom's
01:19office, promising a beautiful rally with other Democrats tomorrow to destroy Texas Governor Greg
01:28Abbott's, quote, totally rigged plan to redraw the political map. And yes, it's in all caps. And yes,
01:35there's lots of exclamation marks, even a declaration of Liberation Day.
01:40But the biggest threat? A blunt force campaign to flip control on Capitol Hill and take away Trump's
01:49majority. Now, stylistically, yes, you saw it. It is trolling. But underneath, substantively,
01:57the taunts are Newsom's plan to rewrite California's own map, to try to cancel the gains that Republicans
02:06would get in Texas. Later this week, we're going to announce the campaign. Next week,
02:13the legislature is going to move this forward with two-thirds. We're going to get it in a special
02:17election on November 4th. And we're going to fight fire with fire. We're going to neutralize
02:22whatever Abbott does next week or whenever they move forward the next special session.
02:27Well, Newsom's warning is not just about his state of California. He wants other Democratic
02:31states to step up to the plate because he says this fight is spreading all across the nation.
02:40We'll also hopefully inspire some other states. There are many other democratically-led states
02:45that can move forward. And we just cannot sit back passively. They're hardly done here.
02:51They're going to move. They're going to run the table on us. They're rigging this election in plain
02:56sight. In Texas, the governor there, Governor Abbott, he is hearing this message loud and clear. And he
03:05is promising to raise those stakes. If California tries to gerrymander five more districts, listen,
03:13Texas has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our state. We can play that game more than they can
03:19because they have fewer Republican districts in their states. And yep, they call it a redistricting
03:28war, call it a try to win at all costs, call it a race to the bottom, whatever it is you want to call
03:34it. Here are the facts. We're about 446 days away from the midterm elections. And I know that seems
03:41like a long way away. It is not. That's perhaps why there is this new sense of urgency over how Democrats
03:47are going to try to confront Trump and Republicans. Now, Governor Newsom says that he's going to fight
03:52fire with fire. You've heard that phrase. But right now, we're not talking about just one blaze.
03:58The battle is stretching beyond district lines. Democrats have a new strategy when it comes to
04:04taking on Donald Trump. They are fighting fire with fire. That includes California Governor Gavin
04:09Newsom, who's playing the part of the ultimate troll on social media as the Texas redistricting battle
04:15heats up. Newsom has been mimicking Trump's all cap style, calling him names, hitting his poll numbers
04:21and ending posts with Trump's signature phrase. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
04:26This is kind of theater. I'm not really sure it'll work. What do you think?
04:32Look, we have to take the fight to Donald Trump. And I mean, I would argue that we should focus like a
04:37laser on the issue of affordability, lower cost. And I saw polling from CNN recently indicating that
04:42Donald Trump's greatest vulnerability at the moment is inflation. He's underwater by 25 points
04:47since 2024. There's been a 34 point swing against him. So that's where our focus should be. And we
04:53should be adapting to the brave new world of alternative media. So I appreciate Gavin Newsom's
04:58strategy of taking the fight to Donald Trump. I support it. Let me play Beto O'Rourke also kind
05:04of addressed this redistricting bit. And it's the way he did it that I think got a lot of people's
05:08attention. We want California and New Jersey and Illinois and Maryland and every other state
05:16where the Democrats hold the governor's mansion, the assembly and the state Senate to redraw their
05:21congressional districts now, not wait for Texas to move first, to maximize Democratic party
05:27advantage. Listen, you may say to yourself, well, those aren't the rules. There are no refs in this
05:34game. Fuck the rules. We are going to win whatever it takes. We're going to take this to him in every
05:39way that we can.
05:42Ellie, I mean, is he right about the lack of referees? I think it's really what the point
05:48that he's making. So I think anything goes. Yeah, I think there's an interesting dilemma in the
05:51Democratic Party. I'm interested what you both say. I mean, there's the attempt to out Trump Trump,
05:55which we've seen from Gavin Newsom we saw right there. And then there's the sort of laser focus
05:59that Representative Torres just put on the economy and real issues. They're not necessarily
06:03mutually exclusive. But I'm not sure which one works better for Democrats. I'm not sure which
06:09one will actually move the needle with voters. I have an answer to that. I think the one that
06:13works better is the one that's authentic to the person delivering the message. And sometimes I
06:17watch people say this stuff and I cringe because it's just not who they are. They're not they're not
06:22that person. And then sometimes I watch people say exactly what Beto O'Rourke just said. And I said,
06:27OK, well, you know what? That sounds to me like a guy who says this in private. So he probably can say
06:31this in public. And I think a lot of times you have a lot of politicians who are trying to be
06:34something that they're not. They're trying to troll Trump in a very Trumpy way when they're not like
06:38Trump at all. And sometimes there are people who are very Trumpy or at least have the capacity to
06:42troll very well. Gavin Newsom being one of them, or at least on Twitter. And it comes across as being
06:47authentic. And so I think, you know, look, J.B. Prisker is doing it well because J.B. Prisker,
06:52I think, is being true to himself in the way he's delivering it. Others whose names I don't really
06:56necessarily want to mention are not doing it as well. They're more about peace and love,
07:00but sometimes try to pretend that they're all about being Trumpy and they're not.
07:03It's kind of interesting because I actually feel like Gavin Newsom kind of started this process
07:06trying to reach out to the other side. And now he's gone in really the other direction where
07:11he's taking on Trump more directly in Trumpism. And it wasn't working for him then. But it is kind
07:16of working for him now. I mean, the reach of his podcast, of all of this stuff has been amplified by
07:21this strategy. He understands new media. I mean, we, sorry, but we increasingly live in a world
07:28not of cable news or network news, but vertical videos, social media. And I feel like the message
07:33from Democrats from an early and era is that you adapt to the brave new world of media or
07:37you become extinct.
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