Republicans are Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud

Brian Derrick: [00:00:00] It’s not truth social.

Glennis Meagher: It’s not the wildly contrasting candidate records.

Brian Derrick: None of that. For better or worse, democracy hinges on vibes. And the vibes this week

Seth Meyers: He posted 70 times on Easter, what’s in the baskets at the Trump family Easter egg hunt? Cadbury meth eggs?

Glennis Meagher: We’ll talk about Trump’s Easter meltdown, coupled with right wing media’s freak out over the trans day of visibility landing on Easter Sunday.

And their insistence that everything they don’t like, including the Baltimore Bridge accident, is all Biden’s fault.

Brian Derrick: We’ll also discuss new rulings by the Florida Supreme Court that upend decades of legal precedent and effectively allow a six week abortion ban in the state. They also issued a ruling saying that a proposed ballot amendment could appear on November’s ballot.

We’ll talk about what it means for abortion seekers in the state and the implications for the 2024 election.

Glennis Meagher: We’ll also talk about some shocking literature produced by extremists from the Heritage Foundation and a publication called The American Conservative that lays out the right wing agenda.

Brian Derrick: [00:01:00] Here to discuss all of that with us is Katie Grossbard.

If you don’t follow her already, Katie Grossbard is a whiz on Instagram and has incredible news roundups day in and day out. She’s also an attorney, a founding member of I Am A Voter and This Is About Humanity, and she’s an incredible digital creator. We love everything that she does, and we’re so excited to have her here on the pod this week.

Welcome to the pod, Katie Grossbard.

Glennis Meagher: Katie We’re so thrilled to have you today. Thank you for joining us. Thanks, mark. Um, especially because you, like us, are, I would argue chronically online. Do you identify as being chronically online?

Katie Grossbard: Yes, I am in the support group for sure. ,

Glennis Meagher: literally. But I am very grateful for all of your roundups.

I love them. They’re funny. They make me laugh. They keep me informed and a very helpful short like cliff Noy way. So thank you for that. Thank you.

Brian Derrick: We have to comment on the meltdown that we all meltdown witnessed from Trump. Over the last seven days or so, uh, particularly [00:02:00] centered around Easter. Glennis, what happened?

Glennis Meagher: Well, because I’m the resident lapsed Catholic.

Brian Derrick: I was thinking more so because you definitely followed this more closely online. I did follow

Glennis Meagher: this. So, uh, Trump on Easter, which was this past Sunday, had an absolute meltdown. He posted over 70 times on Truth Social, which is just like, are you just sitting there, like, firefingers typing away?

He just ripped in to almost everyone on planet Earth. We can’t read the whole thing. It’s way too long. It’s a true paragraph of hyper negative information, which is not what Easter is about, okay? Easter is about, as we know, Easter eggs, Easter bunny, JK, lol, Christianity. All of the above. Yeah, all of the above.

Many people in the conservative movement on the right wing had an absolute breakdown because this year, per chance, Trans Day of Visibility fell on the same day as Easter. So everyone just thought that this [00:03:00] was the woke mob. Hijacking Easter for what?

Brian Derrick: Katie, you have a unique vantage point online. What did you see happening as Trump was basically going on a tirade and the conservative ecosystem was whipping up this frenzy over trans day of visibility?

Katie Grossbard: Yeah, I think a couple of things. One is disclosure. I’m not on Trump social. So anything that, I want that to be very clear. Um, anything that’s happening over there has to be filtered through the lens of whatever social platform it gets to for me to then be a part of it.

Brian Derrick: Well, who has the time to read 70 posts

Katie Grossbard: every day?

If anyone I knew posted 70 or more times in a day, I would be calling someone. Yeah, you get them committed. There’s a problem there. I think ultimately it’s, there’s a couple of things. I think one is I almost have a moment where I like it in the [00:04:00] sense that people see the mania again, and it’s back in just your normal conversation is like, what is this guy doing?

And I think that is. helpful on one hand, because that has kind of been in the background in these past couple years. But on the other hand, it’s so divisive and so meant to stir up this kind of controversy without any inclination to look up anything. And I think we have to remember that that’s part of the strategy.

They could have easily looked it up and said, Oh, this actually was, we actually decided this a long time ago. Just happens to be how the calendar works and here we are, but it doesn’t matter because it’s not based in fact.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I want to, I want to dive in to trans day visibility, but first can we double click on something you just said, which is that people have forgotten or suppressed a lot of memories around the Trump years and he has been out of the limelight.[00:05:00]

For a while. Are you a believer in Trump nesia? Is that a real thing? Um, and what does it look like for us to combat that?

Katie Grossbard: I definitely am a believer in it. I think we have to, to some respect, acknowledge that the vast majority of people are not like you guys and me. Like we, they are not in the weeds of this stuff every single day.

And they are, Much more concerned with their daily lives. And right now, the person that they can look to, to either thank or blame is the Biden administration. It has nothing to do with Trump. Now, as that’s kind of teed up again, if they’re upset right now, an alternative Is a viable option to them, unless we remind people just how bad it was, what’s at stake and make this issue more about the, the election as a whole, you put democracy and reproductive freedom and gun violence prevention, all the other things on the table and remind everyone what [00:06:00] happened and what could happen.

And make those stakes abundantly clear. Meanwhile, also elevating the fact that there’s some manic behavior going on that doesn’t seem like the person you want in charge of. Domestic or foreign policy or any totally

Glennis Meagher: he’s a gaslighter, a mass master gaslighter, which is something, you know, Brian had talked about this last pod and what he just like pinpointed again with what you said of like this collective amnesia of how he speaks, how he, how he talks about people, how he interacts with the Christian nationalist movement.

He is not in fact like a good practicing Christian, right? Like there’s a clip that went viral of him, uh, during Easter doing the Lord’s prayer, which is like Christianity 101. Like you learn that. When you’re six years old, he doesn’t know the words. He’s truly saying watermelon, watermelon, and it’s like he is just pandering to who, who he thinks is going to listen to him.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. I appreciate that point, Katie. And I do think it’s about framing this as a choice, not just a [00:07:00] popularity contest, right? We’re not trying to like assign Biden a letter grade or like slap his hand for something that you’re upset about. It’s a choice and, and we have to move forward with whatever choice is made.

So I love your framing there.

Katie Grossbard: And on that point, if we’re really talking about vibes, do you really want those Easter Sunday vibes? Branding.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. I don’t want

Katie Grossbard: those

Glennis Meagher: vibes. I don’t want those vibes. No. Chaos. Chaos. Some of the right wing, we have some examples here of how the conservative movement lost their minds.

Mike Johnson, he tweeted the Biden White House has betrayed the central tenant of Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Banning sacred truth and tradition while at the same time proclaiming Easter Sunday as transgender day is outrageous and abhorrent. The American people are taking note. No, we’re taking note at your lack of understanding of how the calendar works.

That’s what we’re noting.

Brian Derrick: And the comment around [00:08:00] banning sacred truth and tradition, very intentionally vague where what a lot of conservatives were complaining about was a rule that You couldn’t submit like ultra religious designs for this Easter egg decoration contest that the White House hosts. And it’s the same policy that was in place during the Trump administration and the administration before that.

It’s always been the policy, but it really is just this complete untethering from truth. And they feel no pressure to be Not just honest, but like to have any relationship with the truth anymore. And I think that Trump has given them a lot of like leash and permission to do that. There was a really epic tweet takedown.

I think it was Matt, my friend, Matt Bernstein, Matt XIV of Caitlyn Jenner. Did either of you see it? No, tell us, tell us, tell

Katie Grossbard: us, tell us from what I remember. Um, So Caitlyn Jenner posted being up in [00:09:00] arms about this situation.

Glennis Meagher: And for people who don’t know, Caitlyn Jenner is a transgender woman.

Brian Derrick: Right.

Glennis Meagher: Conservative.

Brian Derrick: Everybody knows that now.

Katie Grossbard: Well,

Glennis Meagher: you know,

Katie Grossbard: Zeitgeist baby. But that, and that, but that was kind of the bit, wasn’t it? I mean, Matt said, does someone want to tell Caitlyn Jenner that she’s trans?

Brian Derrick: Wait, well, not only that, not only that, she had tweeted. In the past, in observance of Trans Day of Visibility.

Katie Grossbard: Years ago, yes, of her celebrating Trans Day of Visibility, and it was not that long ago. It was not that

Brian Derrick: long ago. But this is

Katie Grossbard: my point, is to tie it back to what we were saying before. There is no bottom in terms of like how low, there’s no need to actually Find a fact, tell the truth. It doesn’t matter that immediately someone will Google all of this and say, isn’t this you, wait, you did this before, hold on, this isn’t new.

It doesn’t, it’s, it’s meant [00:10:00] to stir up all this emotion and controversy. And then it kind of just takes over the news cycle.

Brian Derrick: Or what?

Katie Grossbard: The people that were going to celebrate Easter celebrated Easter, the people that were focusing on trans day of visibility were focusing on that, and if they were doing both, they were doing both, and some people were doing neither.

It didn’t change anyone’s decision on Sunday. Right. Right.

Brian Derrick: And I think the unspoken part. of what you’re pointing out is that they are able to do this now in a way that politicians couldn’t get away with in the past because we live in separate media ecosystems that do not intersect. And so Mike Johnson can tweet that knowing even if he’s called out by a million liberals on Twitter that, algorithms are going to sort most of that content away and that he can have the screen grab that he once shared hundreds of thousands of times on conservative news feeds [00:11:00] and on other platforms and turned into a meme and then pumped out via far right accounts and because we live in these separate eco chambers there isn’t a common place to do the Sorting of fact and

Katie Grossbard: right.

Brian Derrick: So ultimately, you’re

Katie Grossbard: not ultimately you’re not changing minds. By doing this, you’re just putting more support in the base that you already have.

Glennis Meagher: Totally. You’re just like strengthening the machine that the media machine Fox and friends had suggested that trans day visibility should have been changed the next day, April 1, they could have moved it to the first April Fool’s Day probably would have been a more appropriate day.

Then Easter Sunday, like get a grip and then Fox News in one segment, they had like rotating, um, headlines, you know, over the TV,

Brian Derrick: erasing,

Glennis Meagher: thank you. Media brain, media brain, erasing Easter question mark, rotten egg question mark. Biden takes action to minimize importance of Easter inclusiveness over holiness [00:12:00] and shell shock.

Brian Derrick: I’m literally cross eyed. Truly. The idea that you can erase Easter, baby, you’ve got Good Friday, you’ve got Good Saturday, you’ve got Easter, you’ve got Easter Monday, like, we are all aware.

Glennis Meagher: You also have Lent, you have Palm Sunday, you have Good, like, it goes on and on.

Katie Grossbard: But again, also just going way back, I mean, church and state.

Like, go about your religious dealings and do whatever you want. I think it’s also fascinating that younger people are trending towards less religious in this country. And I just think the, the harping on something that everyone is fully aware of, we know about Easter, we get it. We see it. We know it.

Again, I don’t think it actually is intended to be anything other than a riling up of both sides to just cause chaos.

Brian Derrick: Right. The whole thing for me felt very don’t look up where like all the politicians basically will just embrace whatever the opposite of [00:13:00] what their opponents do. And so like if Biden is going to support trans day visibility, we have to be against it.

Even if we just did the same thing. Five years ago

Glennis Meagher: to your point, Fox said in 2021, they tweeted this on trans day visibility, trans day visibility is dedicated to celebrating transgender people to all the transgender men, women, and non binary folk. We see you and stand with you cut to three years later.

And this fiasco.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. Three years. What a difference it makes when you’re, when your political strategy hinges on Enraging your base and playing the victim. Yikes.

Glennis Meagher: A lot about that. Yes

Brian Derrick: we are.

There was one more element to Trump’s. week of madness that I wanted to bring into the fold, which is his attacks on the daughter of one of the judges that is [00:14:00] overseeing one of his criminal trials. The one starting April 15th, which is in New York related to the illegal campaign finance violation.

Stormy Daniels. Trump attacked the judge’s daughter on social media after the judge had issued a gag order saying that Trump couldn’t comment on the jurors, and they’ve since had to expand the gag order. His attack on the, on a judge’s daughter related to one of the cases that he has ongoing. Katie, you are an attorney.

Can you walk us through, what is a gag order, why does that matter, and how do we get Trump to stop talking? Yeah,

Glennis Meagher: and why, to add, why does Trump keep getting additional gag orders? Isn’t it like one size fits all? Or, I guess, no, right? So,

Katie Grossbard: First, I’m going to say, I don’t know how to get Trump to stop doing this.

I’m just going to start there. Cause if I could do that, I think I’d be absolute billionaire. [00:15:00] I’d give you all

Brian Derrick: my money. Yeah. I think

Katie Grossbard: I would be winning at life. Okay. So gag orders are basically, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. You don’t want people who are charged with crimes to be walking around saying all this stuff and potentially tainting the jury pool.

That’s usually what it’s about. Is that there’s going to be. Interest in the public form, and we don’t want it to be impacted by things that are being said. The thing that’s interesting about this is obviously that it’s much more, much more public, many more eyes are on this, and it also seems to have zero impact on what he does.

So the original one was covering, I think it was people that were witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and I think it did cover some of their relatives, if I’m remembering correctly, and it also now includes the judge’s family, but I think there’s some sort of [00:16:00] caveat in the rule, and I would have to look it up, so I don’t know if I’m right, but the judge, I don’t know clearly, If the judge can be included in the gag order, because the judge is the person that’s supposed to be the most impartial.

So maybe they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t need to be protected. But the statement from the judge after the latest gag order was in place, it was actually talking about when you said like, why are they important? Judge, I believe issued a statement that was like, this threat is extremely real. And that The fact that the defendant would feel comfortable, you know, attacking the families of anyone associated with this is a real threat to like, if this process is going to be respected, and if just the judicial system is going to run the way it’s supposed to.

So I think absolutely, I think ultimately, that’s kind of That’s kind of what’s going on there, but also it’s a real eye opening thing for people who are paying attention because what keeps messing with [00:17:00] me is that in any other circumstance, a lot of this stuff would be more impactful. There’d be an actual repercussion, or you would feel like the justice system was working.

And it seems like at every turn, something’s happening that makes people feel like that’s not true. And it’s hard. To explain a that it’s a long game and we really have to let this stuff play out, but also that, yes, unfortunately, there are things that seem unfair in this, in this way,

Glennis Meagher: totally. And you made a ton of great points, but something that’s been sticking with me with all of these Trump trials and the gag orders is that he is.

He’s making these cases seem not serious, or he’s delegitimizing these judges, the process by which one is tried in the United States. And we all know where that, you know, lands us, like cut to January 6th, but I can see clearly what he’s doing, and it’s really manipulative and scary.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, and you, you did answer my biggest question when I was reading this news, which was, at what point do they just put him [00:18:00] in jail?

Because if you were just a rando, and you continually violated what the judge was ordering you to do, we all know that any normal person would eventually just be put in jail. And they say, okay, you can wait for your trial in jail then. And I think

Katie Grossbard: that’s what’s hard is people are watching this like two systems of justice play out and whether it’s about the money that he was supposed to put up and it going down substantially.

And obviously I’m as frustrated as anyone, but I do have to say that if you can make a case, this is why everyone gets a lawyer, right? If you can make a case that you cannot pay that amount, that happens. A lot, at least in cases, I mean, things that I’ve been a part of, but I also know the frustration of knowing that people end up in jail because they can’t pay a 700 bond and that it all seems unfair and the whole premise is like the judicial system is supposed to be.

Brian Derrick: Well, we’re going to put it to the test. We have less than two weeks to go before this trial is [00:19:00] going to start. So we will definitely stay tuned in and I will be watching your channel for more

Glennis Meagher: deets

Brian Derrick: as the trial unfolds.

Glennis Meagher: So I know we’ve already talked about. About right wing media already in this episode, but there’s two more things I want to touch on.

One is the bridge collapse last week. I think the whole world saw that the bridge in Baltimore collapsed. It was a horrible tragedy, horrible accident, but to this right wing media machine that we’ve been talking about, they got information and started messaging immediately blaming the bridge collapse.

DEI blaming the bridge collapse on immigration. Twitter was, or X rather was just, it was wild. Katie, did you see this on your feet at

Katie Grossbard: all? I did. And I, I posted about it. I think it’s remarkable how fast this stuff. And how it seems so deliberate at this point and strategic. And [00:20:00] we have to, yeah, we have to be so aware and vigilant because I think years ago, maybe it would have felt like, Oh, weird.

There’s some dark corner of the internet. That’s going down a weird rabbit hole, but the vast majority of us. We’re ignoring this, that doesn’t make any sense, clearly that’s not what’s going on. Now it feels like they got a seat at the table and you start looking for actual factual news. And if you are one of the many people that gets that information on social media, you are being bombarded with a lot of different versions of a story, only meant to, again, drum up anger and, I mean, some of it makes no sense.

The idea that you’re taking something that is so brutally awful for families and for people that are in that community and you are then going to turn it into something before we’ve even gotten information about it, before we even identify victims, you’re going to then turn it into something that is not only chaotic, but also, you know, Really offensive.

So offensive. [00:21:00] Here’s a short

Glennis Meagher: list of who the right wing media machine blame. This is from a Wired article. Obviously, President Biden, Hamas, P. Diddy, Nickelodeon, former President Barack Obama, aliens, Sri Lanka, the World Economic Forum, wokeness, Ukraine, foreign aid, CIA, and, uh, Israel, Jewish people, China, Russia, COVID vaccines, Black people, and lockdowns.

Brian Derrick: What about the boat? Nobody decided to say the boat?

Katie Grossbard: Wait,

Brian Derrick: I did see The

Katie Grossbard: boat is not on the list. Also, I would love to hear the explanation for Nickelodeon.

Glennis Meagher: Well, I think it’s because that documentary just came out. And they wanted a distraction, so they had a boat crash? Right. I don’t know.

Brian Derrick: Okay. It truly feels like they’re just trying to connect trending topics to a politically advantageous perspective and amplify it.

Right. It’s like Mad Libs. It’s kind of like political Mad Libs.

Katie Grossbard: Pick a noun, pick a verb. Totally.

Brian Derrick: And that’s who we’re going to blame. And [00:22:00] then tweet the heck out of it until people believe it. The end. Yeah.

Glennis Meagher: And it’s, it’s all part of this, like laying the framework, whether it be like Trump needing the gag orders, because he’s making people not take the judicial process seriously to like the right wing media to there’s this new thing that has come out.

Uh, from the American conservative, which is a right wing blog that is a partner of project 2025. If you don’t know what project 2025 is, I’m not going to go into it right now. Google it. It’s very real. It’s very conservative and it very much wants to take over this country. But in this article, it’s very scary.

They advocated for the repeal of the 22nd amendment, which is. The constitutional amendment that says a president can only serve two terms. Why do we think they’re advocating for that? Oh, so Donald Trump can have a third term.

Brian Derrick: The title of the article is Trump 2028. Like they are not joking. This is not satire.

The only thing I kept thinking

Katie Grossbard: about, honestly, when I saw it was for everyone that is [00:23:00] Biden’s age, you’re telling me we’re going to get like seven more years, eight more years. Of this guy, like he’s not younger than Biden, like he’s three years younger than Biden. like, math is not mathing on this. Yeah, I know.

Glennis Meagher: It’s like, does he have a sorcerer’s stone or something? Like he’s, he’s an old man. 2028, that’s going to be a weekend at Bernie’s for real.

Brian Derrick: I mean, at that point we would just, if that’s a situation that we’re in, then Trump is going to die in office. Like, like he’s never leaving.

Katie Grossbard: Well, it’s just not a democracy anymore.

Well, right!

Brian Derrick: 2028.

Katie Grossbard: If we’re changing, I just, in any other circumstance, they would not be advocating for that.

Brian Derrick: For the naysayers in your life who are like, no, Trump’s not a threat to democracy. No, he doesn’t mean it when he literally says he wants to be a dictator on day one. No, it’s all overblown and dramatic.

Like, these are the kinds of things where This should raise alarm bells. I’d rather

Katie Grossbard: be called dramatic at this point. Same.

Brian Derrick: Totally. [00:24:00] Something that we’re not being dramatic about. are the stakes of the election in Florida in November. No. Because this week we got a ruling that we’ve been waiting on from Florida’s Supreme Court that told us two things.

First, it allowed their abortion ban to go into effect, which, effective May 1, will mean there’s a six week abortion ban, essentially a total abortion ban, in Florida. And the Supreme Court has overturned decades of precedent to say they’re going to allow that to happen. And at the same time, they also said the ballot measure that has already collected like over a million signatures to qualify for the ballot in November will also proceed.

And so they simultaneously Allowed Ron DeSantis’s total abortion ban to go into effect and said [00:25:00] voters can have their say in November about whether they want to keep this. Katie, predictions?

Katie Grossbard: Well, first and foremost, It is still legal in Florida right now.

Brian Derrick: Thank you.

Katie Grossbard: It has not gone into place yet. And I want people to know that.

And if they need to get medications or anything currently, they can. Predictions. I am going to be positive about this for sure. I think that between this and the legalization of marijuana. ballot measure. I hope that they’re both extremely motivating for voters. We’ve seen time and time again, that this is an issue that people vote on and turn out for.

I think that. In Florida, Florida is often the butt of a lot of jokes and we make a lot of fun of Florida, but I am going to believe in Florida and Floridians and I think that ultimately this will be good for us and bad for them.

Brian Derrick: I absolutely agree. I [00:26:00] think that this is a winnable fight. It is both tragic and infuriating that Florida will now lose.

live under this ban for a number of months. But we must, must win in November. It’s worth noting that Florida does require a 60 percent threshold to pass this amendment. So we can’t just win with 50 percent plus one. We have to cross 60%. But Florida also has a history of passing a lot of ballot measures.

That’s how Florida restored the right to vote for people who have served their time. Um, Must win in November, infuriating that this would even be considered. as the law of the land in Florida, especially when we think about the reason this bill passed and was signed was for DeSantis’s presidential campaign.

This was a political stunt. When he was in the primary, he was trying to prove himself as like [00:27:00] the first Furthest Right. The most restrictive on abortion. And Florida only had a 15 week ban at that point in time. And so he was trying to one up and score political points against his opponents bypassing the six week ban.

And now tens of millions of people will be affected. It’s horrifying.

Okay. Horrifying. But we have to make it a little bit worse first. Yeah. We can’t, we can’t let everybody go quite yet. Um, we can’t move on until we talk about what is happening as it pertains to IVF. Because the battle, when we say repro rights, we don’t just mean abortion. We are fighting for a whole slate of rights that Republicans are dead set on taking away.

So, we’ve seen some pieces come out about how conservatives are publicly saying that they support IVF, and then privately organizing and fundraising for abortion. against it. They are threatening to basically, this is actually a direct quote, to [00:28:00] rerun the Roe playbook, that they want to chip away at IVF slowly the way they chipped away at Roe v.

Wade for 50 years until they can ultimately ban it entirely. Katie, where do you find hope and persistence in the fight for repo rights when Republicans seem to be swinging farther and right on the issue?

Katie Grossbard: I feel like It’s hard, uh, only because we’ve seen it work in the past now. Like we’ve seen the fall of Rose.

So there’s something a little more terrifying cause we’re not protected like we thought we were. But at the same time, the, the hope and the optimism weirdly comes from the most stressful days in my life, which are usually election days, because we’ve seen time and time again, that this. Is not good long term politically, the people who are showing up and being very, very activated by these issues are not staying home.

And I think that when [00:29:00] it comes to IVF specifically, at least the people that I, that are in my life, this has really, really hit people that are maybe not as. politically engaged and maybe aren’t as outspoken about something like abortion, but are, they themselves have gone through IVF. They know someone close to them who’s gone through IVF.

There are people who are really struggling to have children, have families, and let alone like same sex couples where, you know, there, there are just so many. Different scenarios where someone they know, or they themselves have been affected by the ruling that they heard about in Alabama. And I think on so many fronts, it’d be people that would never care about what’s going on in a court in Alabama.

And then this got through that, and now people are very, very aware of what’s happening. And the really harsh reality of what could happen if that were to take effect nationally.

Brian Derrick: I did not know. Thank you for that. Number one. I [00:30:00] did not know that much about IVF before Republicans started coming after it so hard this year.

And I’ve been shocked at the, what I have learned, how common IVF really is, how many people need IVF in order to have the kids they want to have. And I kind of just want to walk around and be like, 1, 2, 9. You wouldn’t be here without IVF. Like, you know what I mean? It’s like, I think it’s 10 million.

Americans have been born via IVF since it became a thing. And I’m where like, come on out. Like, like, you know what I mean? It’s it. That’s crazy. And I also think

Katie Grossbard: part of it is a lack of education. Like what I’ve been talking about for so long is just how we don’t know a lot about our own bodies, about reproductive systems, about how difficult it is for people to have babies.

And I think because that has all gone kind of under the radar, there are a ton of people that don’t really know a ton about IVF and don’t know, and maybe people in their lives [00:31:00] haven’t openly shared that that’s something that they Went through as well, but I’m hoping that with this news and with the way people are beginning to speak about it, that there’s a real trend toward openness in that way, because as people are more educated, it’s, I think that’s going to be the biggest positive impact.

Glennis Meagher: Totally. And it’s also, I struggle with one. It just feels like a blatant attack on women’s bodies and control over women’s bodies. Conservative individuals also need IVF. It’s just an assault on women’s rights and on family’s rights. So just, They’re coming for IVF too, so we have to just stay on top of it, even though it’s really hard to read.

Speaking of families, Brian, we’re going to keep the family planning going. Biden HQ, they tweeted this clip of Michael Nose from the Daily Wire to talk about some more of the right wing agenda. Let’s take a look.

Michael Knowles: I couldn’t. It is. I care about divorce as a political fact. I think divorce should. Basically be outlawed or it should be at least [00:32:00] greatly restricted.

Brian Derrick: It’s giving red flag. It is giving 500 red flag emojis. It’s giving, put that in your Tinder and see what matches you get. It’s giving, I want

Katie Grossbard: to know what his wife. Has to say about that. It’s giving when you want to sneak away from a first date and tell your friend to call with like an emergency so that you can get away.

Glennis Meagher: Okay, group chat. So Katie, this is our like group chat vibe. How many group chats are you in? And what’s your role in a group chat? Would you say?

Katie Grossbard: Oh, goodness. I’m probably in four or five. Okay. That’s a lot. But a couple of them are like iterations of the same, like there’s a giant one and then there’s like two side ones.

Oh my God. Is this tea? Are you breaking news? No, they all know. They all know. It’s more like a big one. We’ll have, you know, everybody. And then the side one is like just three girls that care about pottery. And then like, it’s just different, different avenues of communication. Everyone doesn’t need [00:33:00] to know about the Pilates class.

You know, I need

Brian Derrick: to keep me

Glennis Meagher: in

Brian Derrick: the pottery.

Glennis Meagher: How’s pottery. I’m, I’m kind of interested in getting into pottery. We are getting into it. Well, we’re going to start with our listeners because we’d like to invite the audience into our group chat. I’m going to start with the first one. Hello, Glenis and Brian.

How scared should we be about RFK Jr.? Thank you. Love you, Becky. Thanks, Becky. Yikes. He’s a, he’s a, I’m worried about him. He’s a spoiler. com. edu. gov.

Katie Grossbard: He knows it. We know it. Everyone knows it.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. It’s his only role. We should be incredibly, incredibly worried. He, his campaign just announced that they’ve collected enough signatures to get on the ballot in North Carolina.

The, uh, Biggest unknown with RFK right now is whether he makes a deal with the Libertarian Party, which would give him access in, I think, over 30 states. At the same time, there’s opposition within the Libertarian Party to him because he actually doesn’t [00:34:00] reflect a lot of their viewpoints. But if that deal goes through, we should all Kind of be shitting ourselves, to be honest, as I’ve sort of said before, any third party candidate, whether it’s RFK, Cornel West, Jill Stein, whoever, you name them, a random no labels person, any vote that they get lowers the threshold needed for the winner to win.

And we know that Trump cannot get to 50%. In battleground states, he in the last two cycles that he’s ran has only ever broken 50 percent in one state. And it was Georgia and it was 2016 and it was 50. 77 percent tiny margin that he that he won by. And so if it were a two person race, I think that Biden would have it in the bag in a big way, honestly.

But third parties mean that A president might win with like 44 percent of the vote if somebody’s polling, if a couple of other third party candidates are pulling a couple of percent each. And so we should be incredibly worried. You should be calling [00:35:00] out your friends who are supporting or amplifying RFK.

And other third party candidates because the math says that they are widening the path for Trump to win period,

Katie Grossbard: let alone the fact that didn’t he just come out and say that Biden is a threat to democracy. I think a threat, not just a threat. I think we also have to pay attention to litter. I mean, a yes, very scared.

B. He’s literally saying that out loud. Right. And see, I would love to know anyone who thinks, like, I’m not against third party candidates as a general idea. We just currently don’t have the political landscape where that is going to be successful in a national way.

Brian Derrick: An independent candidate? has not won a single electoral vote since the 1960s.

So the idea that someone would suddenly get 270 of them is preposterous. Anyone who’s telling [00:36:00] you that does not understand the political system that we are operating within.

Glennis Meagher: Next question from listener Lauren, I’m a listener in Maryland, hoping you could talk about the risk that Larry Hogan poses. I feel like the race hasn’t been getting much attention because he is still popular in our state and is pulling ahead of both Dems running against him.

Sicky face.

Brian Derrick: Larry Hogan is the former governor of Maryland, extremely popular Republican. Lots of people were trying to recruit him to run for president as an alternative to Trump. He said no. There is an open seat. for in the US Senate from Maryland this cycle because Ben Cardin retired. And it should be a safe Democratic seat.

Maryland is very blue. And because Hogan is so popular, suddenly, there’s conversation of that being an at risk seat in a in a cycle when we are defending seats in Arizona, Montana, Ohio, Michigan, [00:37:00] Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

Seth Meyers: And

Brian Derrick: so, the idea that we’re gonna have to put a bunch of money and effort behind defending a seat in Maryland is not welcome news.

Currently, polling does give us cause for concern, but it is a little too early to say whether we should all be like panicked about Maryland. Let’s see who comes out of the Democratic primary. There are currently two candidates. And once we’re on the other side, I think we’ll have a better indication of how competitive it will really be in November.

Glennis Meagher: What else was what was in everyone’s group chat? I can tell you what was in mine. Big time.

Brian Derrick: Tell me new

Glennis Meagher: music. Cowboy Carter. Have you guys listened? Of

Katie Grossbard: course. Multiple times.

Glennis Meagher: Same.

Brian Derrick: I listened halfway through during a workout, and it was not the vibe for my workout, and I haven’t gone back to it yet. Okay. So, I’m, I’m gonna get angry DMs about that, but sorry.

Glennis Meagher: You are gonna get angry DMs, and it’s like an album that’s meant to be like listened to from like start to finish. It’s a [00:38:00] story. It’s a story, it’s so good, I love it. There was some other new music this week, which I haven’t listened to, I don’t know if we have a clip of it, but. Laura Trump came out with a single, have you heard this?

I have not.

Lara Trump: My ups and downs

seems

who I. Know that anything is possible.

Glennis Meagher: Okay, I’m gonna say something really mean. I feel like when she walks into a plastic surgeon’s office, he looks at her and he says anything is possible. When she like, asks for what she’s getting. Oh my god!

Brian Derrick: Wait, did this just come out?

Katie Grossbard: Yeah.

Brian Derrick: [00:39:00] No. Yeah.

Katie Grossbard: Wait. I only, I saw it like in the corner.

It was like peripheral vision. I knew that it happened, but I was like, I’m for sure not listening to that. That’s not for me. I’m scrolling.

Brian Derrick: I saw the same thing. I saw something about it. I kept scrolling immediately. It was like, that’s

Katie Grossbard: not for me. I’m appreciative that I heard it here first. I think that was good for me.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. You can’t

Katie Grossbard: unhear it.

Glennis Meagher: Also, what’s the point?

Brian Derrick: The grift! The grift! You just have to literally have things on the shelves for people to buy with the Trump name on it and make as much money as you can. You have to go overseas and you have to sell anything with the Trump name on it and make as much money as you can.

Like, it’s the whole family. That’s all that they’re doing.

Katie Grossbard: Don’t you just see them writing it and they’re like, what rhymes with like, it’s literally just Chat GBT. Yeah, exactly. It was like A country ish song, Chat GBT.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And like, is she right? She’s the chairwoman of the RNC now. Yeah. Yeah. So everyone’s probably listening to it at their desk.

Brian Derrick: Honestly, maybe that’s why they record it is because they are not allowed to [00:40:00] play anyone else’s music at any of the rallies. They keep getting cease and desist letters.

Glennis Meagher: Anything else? We don’t have to end on Lara Trump. The thing that was

Katie Grossbard: going in my group chat, which is normally not at all the thing that’s going on in my group chat was sports related because of women’s basketball.

Okay. And Clark. Yes. I feel like otherwise no one really is that interested, but the women’s basketball teams have been making some new fans of the people in my group chats, which I love

Glennis Meagher: sports in general. I feel like, I know that seems like such a. Kind of awful thing to say, but I feel like finally in the cultural zeitgeist in America, we are embracing women’s sports as like on par with male sports and I am here for it.

I love it.

Katie Grossbard: All the ticket sales stuff, like the statistics of how much the tickets are for the men’s games versus the women’s games. I want everyone to be supported. Don’t get me wrong, but I’m loving it.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, but I’m like, I want women to be more [00:41:00] supported. I’m like, give us more money. After what happened with like the World Cup and everyone blaming like, everyone get a grip, get a grip.

Brian Derrick: Did you guys see the story about the sports bra? The

Katie Grossbard: bar?

Brian Derrick: The bar. It’s a bar. I

Katie Grossbard: love that. I want to go there so bad. Wait, no.

Brian Derrick: It’s a bar that just plays all women’s Sports. It’s in Portland, Oregon. And it pulled in like a million dollars in the first six months or something. It’s doing, it’s doing really well.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for coming on Katie. So smart as always. We love your perspective. We’ll be watching closely. If you do not already follow her, please go follow. It’s at Katie Grossbard. And make sure to subscribe to her stories and turn notifications on because she has the best news roundups on Instagram.

Katie Grossbard: Thanks guys. This was fun.

Brian Derrick: Well, Glennis, we had a lot of heavy topics, especially from the far right today, [00:42:00] but we’re going to send them off with a good vibe. Goodbye. And for our good vibe this week, we can always rely on the legislation factory that is Michigan where Democrats flipped the legislature in 2022 and Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been busy.

And in the last week, that included bills to support IVF patients and legalize paid surrogacy. So we have this awesome piece from Kyle Kaminsky, who’s a reporter at the Gander. And basically, Whitmer has signed these bills to make it easier for people living in Michigan to start a family. It’s going to give them access to in vitro fertilization treatments, and it’s going to repeal what is currently in this, like, state level restrictions on surrogacy contracts.

It’s called the Michigan Family Protection Act, and it is a big step forward at a time when Republicans are, like we said before, putting reproductive rights under attack in many states. [00:43:00]

Glennis Meagher: Hear, hear. That is a good vibe. Thank you, Governor Whitmer.

Brian Derrick: Thanks, Big Gretch. And those are the vibes this week. Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for sending us messages all week long.

It was fun reading them and responding to some of them on the pod today. Keep sending us messages at vibes at couriernewsroom. com, or you can DM us on social media. I love voice memos. And since so much is at stake, and it all depends on We’ll be back week after week to keep checking the vibes. Find us next time, same time, same place.

Glennis Meagher: Vibes Only is a production of Courier, a civic media company that protects and strengthens our democracy through credible, fact based journalism and seeks to create a more informed, engaged, and representative America. Vibes Only is produced by Devin Maroney with support from Courier’s Kyle Tharp, Arcee Dimezzo, and Daniel Strasburger.

Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of Courier.