Trump’s Lawyers: Assassination Is OK, Actually

Brian Derrick: [00:00:00] The polls are broken.

Glennis Meagher: The stakes are unprecedented.

Brian Derrick: I’m Brian Derrick.

Glennis Meagher: And I’m Glenis Meagher.

Brian Derrick: And on this podcast, we recognize that like it or not, the future of democracy hinges on one thing, vibes.

Glennis Meagher: And vibes only.

Brian Derrick: So checking on the vibes this week, three years after a violent insurrection at the Capitol, we’re hearing two very different messages from the leading candidates who are very likely headed to a rematch in 2024.

Joe Biden: A day forever shared in our memory because it was on that day that we nearly lost America.

Donald Trump: Lost it all. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe. And

News anchor: Arguments over immunity for former President Trump in the federal election case have now wrapped up in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

A special counsel painted a picture of what they called a frightening future if presidents can’t be held accountable for crimes. I mean, what kind of

James Pearce: world are we living in if, as I understood my friend on the other side to say here, a president orders His SEAL team to assassinate a [00:01:00] political rival and resigns, for example, before an impeachment.Not a criminal act.

News anchor: On January 15th, the first voters in the nation will get their say on who will represent the Republican Party in the general election. The caucus is now shaping up to be a battle for second place between former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Brian Derrick: Then we’ll talk about perhaps one of Fox News most qualified guests ever who tried to predict the outcome of the 2024 election.

Jesse Watters: Paula Roberts is the English psychic who is on set to give us a reading right now. Uh, uh, oh. Uh, uh, oh. Uh, uh, oh. What is that?

Glennis Meagher: Brian! New year, new pod. How are we feeling?

Brian Derrick: New year, new pod. I’m so excited. What did your friends say when you told them that you were doing vibes only?

Glennis Meagher: They were super stoked. I’m also super stoked. Because this is the podcast I need for myself. [00:02:00] And like, conveniently, I’m co hosting it, and I have you here to chat with me, but

Brian Derrick: Attendance is mandatory.

Glennis Meagher: Attendance is mandatory for me, and everyone I’m going to be texting and, you know, pinging to subscribe. But going into this election year, I’m already exhausted. The news is 24 7. It’s impossible to keep up. And to have something that can just Be a weekly download of what I absolutely need to know. It’s going to be super helpful.

Brian Derrick: Totally. I think that there are a few kinds of podcasts out there. A lot of the political and news podcasts are either so wonky that they’re really only for people who work in politics or they’re really inflammatory and they’re looking for people Like using clickbait kind of tactics. And so I think that our ability hopefully here to break down the news in a way that’s really digestible for people inject some optimism into their week and also tells them what they have to [00:03:00] know in a really critical Election year is like a new vibe.

How have you explained vibes only as a concept to people?

Glennis Meagher: The way I explain it to people is there’s certain things that are objectively true about the state of our domestic policy and government in this moment, but that might be one thing and how people feel about it or a completely different reality.

And that’s the vibes to me. Like, look at the economy objectively is performing well, but the vibes around the economy are not great. That’s a vibe.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I agree. I feel like. Us calling this podcast Vibes Only is a recognition that people do not sit down at their table and pore over spreadsheets and candidate platforms and policy papers to figure out who they’re going to vote for.

They do it based on who they vibe with, who, what candidates resonate and who is speaking and acting in a way that Speaks to them as an individual person. And so a lot of that has to do with [00:04:00] authenticity and with communication styles and a lot goes into that. And to me, that is about the vibes is like how you’re generally feeling about candidates.

And this doesn’t just mean president, right? We’re talking like up and down ballot as we’re looking. All over the country, the vibes are what makes it feel like people are exhausted by politics or really excited to go out and vote for somebody that is going to make change. And so I feel like diving into those vibes is really interesting.

And if I might say so myself, I think that we’re the right people to do that because we spend so much time online, talking to people and sussing out the vibes as to like what the commentary is. It’s not just what’s happening. It’s how people feel about it.

Glennis Meagher: All right, Brian, speaking of vibes, let’s get into it for this week.

So we’re starting this podcast three [00:05:00] years after a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. We’ve all heard of it. We’re going to talk about the politics of that day and the state of democracy three years on. So here we are three years later, what’s happening. But let’s start with some things that are just coming out.

New revelations. We’ll call them from J six Trump. I’m fine. This like one of 1000 of Trump’s like smoking guns for January six from the independent, a Trump aide, Nick Luna told Jack Smith’s team about the moment. That Donald Trump was informed that vice president Mike Pence had been moved to a secure location and the president responded, so what?

Which implies so many things, so many things.

Brian Derrick: Truly. I feel like it was recently established also, or confirmed that Trump was the one who tweeted out, Mike Pence didn’t do his. Duty while rioters were already like inside the Capitol attacking members of Congress and this just piles on that Trump [00:06:00] absolutely had no concern at best had no concern for the safety of his vice president and at worst was actively working to undermine his literal personal safety demise.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, yeah, and just to confirm for the audience what vice president Mike Pence was doing at the time was certifying. The election, right? And saying, Donald Trump, you lost.

Brian Derrick: Totally. We just had the January 6th three anniversary. Like you said, what was your vibe on the day when you saw what was happening at the Capitol?

Glennis Meagher: This is almost ironic. I remember exactly where I was because I had, I was taking that week off. Anyone who works in electoral politics, government, you know, that election year, the last like three months, you’re on like 24 seven, you’re just making it happen. And I was like, hi, we had just gotten past the Georgia special.

And I was like, yeah, buddy, dude, I’m going to clean my fridge today. And I was cleaning my fridge and my friend, Aaron, who’s not in [00:07:00] politics at all, but she watches like, you know, CNN, she texted me and she’s like, you got to turn the TV on. This was like. 11 a. m. Or something. So I turned it on and then I was sitting in front of the TV for the remainder of the day, right?

And it’s truly like a sense memory. Like, I remember where I was when that was unfolding on TV.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, it felt as momentous now. In the moment when it was happening, I was like, Whoa, this is historic in the worst possible way.

Glennis Meagher: Worst possible way. Let’s talk about Biden’s strategy as it relates to January 6th, talking about it, leaning into the threats.

That January 6th, all of the energy and rhetoric around it posed to our democracy. Do you think this is going to land with voters?

Brian Derrick: I do, but I almost think it’s irrelevant. I would say what Biden is doing is and should be seen as the [00:08:00] default, the baseline of what should be expected of any American president now or in the future, which is a recognition of the closest that we have come.

To a failure to peacefully transfer power in this country, and that should be recognized by presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike. And so anything outside of that should be seen entirely through a political lens that someone is advancing a political agenda. And I genuinely feel like it’s the same as trying to spin.

9 11 in some way using conspiracy theories the same way that people are trying to use conspiracy theories to spin what January 6th means and was so I don’t even see what Biden is doing him making a speech on January 6th to acknowledge the threat to democracy posed by this extremist movement I don’t even see that as like a political stunt or political move I see it as a baseline [00:09:00] responsibility of the president that I would expect anybody to Do you disagree?

Glennis Meagher: I completely agree with you, but unfortunately, we operate and exist in a reality where that is not the case from our elected officials. We saw Elise Stefanik, who represents New York 21, where I’m from, she was on Meet the Press, and she Has changed the rhetoric around what we’re saying about those who are, you know, in prison or in jail for January 6th.

She’s calling them January 6th hostages.

Elise Stefanik: I have concerns about the treatment of January 6th hostages.

Brian Derrick: That truly makes my blood boil. It really does. I don’t even like, and I think I did say the word rioters. I don’t even like what people call them rioters because that understates what actually happened.

I will for once in my life agree with Lindsey Graham, who the day after January 6th in 2021, Got up at a press conference and said we need to [00:10:00] arrest and prosecute every single person that entered the Capitol grounds and called them domestic terrorists.

Lindsey Graham: I will, for the next six years, God willing, every week, ask of the Department of Justice, what kind of progress are you making in holding those accountable, the domestic terrorists who took over the House and the Senate chambers?

Brian Derrick: And that is exactly what we all watched happen in real time on TV, like we watched that happen and to now three years later have this completely revisionist history about who they are or what miscarriage of justice has led to their time in jail. That’s called justice. Like that, that is called accountability and it’s crazy to refer to them as hostages.

I think that it’s shown how far these people are willing to go to advance their agenda and hold on to power because it’s a very inconvenient truth for them that these are. Their supporters that yes, it was violent that yes, [00:11:00] people died and that yes, this was a direct attack on democracy. Yeah, and I just want to

Glennis Meagher: say that words matter rhetoric matters and we have to maintain and not normalize that what they did was okay by any any means.

You know, it’s not okay, and we can’t say it was okay. I think we’re learning now that voters are feeling slightly different three years out. Essentially, we’re seeing that the disapproval of January 6 insurrectionists is not as strong as it as it was three years ago. So, you know, I don’t want to normalize any of that behavior.

I want to call out any politician who’s using this, you know, word hostages literally – shut up.

Brian Derrick: I did see some interesting data surrounding the anniversary around what accountability has looked like. More than a thousand people have been charged, 700 people have been sentenced or pled guilty. There’s like a wide range of what those charges actually constitute and people are getting years, years long sentences in prison.

Glennis Meagher: Good. [00:12:00]

Brian Derrick: Absolutely. And the fact that now there is a sizable chunk of the Republican Party that wants to claim that these are. Good people who were doing some sort of patriotic duty, I think shows the Marjorie to mainstream pipeline that’s going on in the Republican Party, where you really have these far, far right voices like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, incubating and agitating these pretty extreme ideas.

And then Like pushing those out so aggressively and consistently that it starts to trickle into the full, to become the full Republican mainstream. And so Marjorie Taylor Greene has literally been calling them political prisoners for three years. And now you have people in leadership of the Republican party doing the same thing.

When again, the day after they were calling them domestic terrorists.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, we can’t normalize it. We can’t, we shan’t. We shan’t, we shan’t, Brian.[00:13:00]

Brian Derrick: So of course we do need accountability for these people who stormed the Capitol and attacked police and all of these things, but we also need accountability for the person who brought them there and sent them to the Capitol to attack. And that’s Donald Trump. As we all know and have seen over the last three years, he has been charged.

For the effort to overturn the 2020 election. That is the Jack Smith case, one of four ongoing criminal cases against him, and it’s a lot to track, right? We’re talking about over 91 indictments now, and it’s a lot to keep track of. This is sort of the news exhaustion that we’re talking about on this pod, that how can anybody Reasonably be expected to keep up with this, but we will break it down for you in the simplest way possible here.

So what we need to know this week is that Trump appeared in court in DC. So this is a federal case. Trump is claiming that he has absolute presidential immunity [00:14:00] and that’s what his lawyers are arguing. Not even that he didn’t do it. But just that he is immune from this prosecution because he was president.

Trump’s lawyers are advancing a view of presidential immunity that is so extreme. I don’t think we even realized until this week what this case was really going to look like. Totally. Trump’s lawyer made an assertion in court. That said, our president, the chief executive of our country, could hypothetically have a political opponent assassinated.

Judge:

Yes or no question. Could a president who ordered SEAL Team 6

to assassinate a political rival who was not impeached, would he be subject to

criminal prosecution? If he were impeached and convicted first.

Hands up. So your answer is Is

Trump Lawyer: my answer is qualified yes.

Glennis Meagher: it’s absolutely unhinged. And it’s quite scary.

It reminds me of when Trump, when he was campaigning said that he could shoot someone on fifth Avenue and he can get away with it just because his supporters supported him so profoundly and deeply the [00:15:00] delusion of thinking that. And thinking that a president could have absolute immunity in criminal cases.

Totally.

Brian Derrick: And the idea that anything he does while president is part of his official responsibilities, right? Because of course, these activities, undermining an election, assassinating a political opponent, are not part of the job. Of the president of the United States. And so what this really furthers is that as president, you can do literally whatever you want and what he’s pointing to is that the only way to hold a president accountable is impeachment and conviction.

And so they’re playing this very circular. Logic where when it was time he was impeached the second time for this and when it was time to convict Republicans were like, no, no, no, because he’s leaving office. So we can’t, we can’t convict. It’s too late. And then now that they acquitted him in the Senate.

Now they want to say, Oh, well, they had to have convicted in order for him [00:16:00] to be held accountable. So it really is this paradox that means that Trump just gets away with whatever he wants. It’s pretty absurd. Paradox

Glennis Meagher: or political hellscape that we’re living in. If only Mitch McConnell voted to impeach him, we would not be here today.

I hope Mitch McConnell lays his head down on that orthopedic pillow. I hope that he doesn’t sleep every night, knowing that all of this could have been avoided if he had just shown a remote. Iota of leadership.

Brian Derrick: Totally. Had Republicans stepped up and convicted, there would be no question now that Trump was ineligible to hold office again.

And that is disappointing, but this is where it leaves us. We have this complex legal landscape that’s evolving day by day. So what happens? next. So Trump’s assertion that he’s immune from prosecution in this case was heard by a three judge panel on the Fifth Circuit. [00:17:00] And there are a few things that could happen next.

So far, judges seem pretty skeptical of a blanket immunity claim from Trump. And so I think that there are a few potential paths forward here. The appeals court, which is who heard the case from Trump this week, could rule against Trump, and then he could appeal that to the Supreme Court. If they agree with the lower court that he does not have pure immunity here, then we could see this trial starting as soon as April, in just a number of weeks.

If the Supreme Court decides to take up the case, then it could take months. And that’s what I think Trump is really after here is not even winning on the merits of this argument, but just the hope that the Supreme Court will agree to hear it and he can delay, delay, delay so that he can. In his eyes, win in November and then immediately pardon [00:18:00] himself or become immune to all of this and it all becomes irrelevant.

So he’s really hanging his hat on winning in November and making as much of this as possible go away. Yeah,

Glennis Meagher: and there’s no world in which the Supreme Court just, like, would fast track all of it. I

Brian Derrick: mean, Jack Smith tried. It was an unconventional play for the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, to go directly to the Supreme Court and say, We don’t have time for this appeals court to deal, and so we need you to decide right away whether Trump has immunity from this or not.

And they declined. They said, We’re not going to decide that. You go talk to the appeals court first.

Glennis Meagher: But this is the appeals court that we’re just hearing from now, so they did, in fact, do

Brian Derrick: it quite quickly. 100%. This whole thing is moving faster than it ordinarily would, but it still might not be fast enough.

Yeah. Especially if the Supreme Court decides to take up the case, and that usually takes months. Yeah.

Glennis Meagher: And I just want to say, all Americans should not want any president, [00:19:00] Republican, Democrat, anyone, to have blanket immunity. Right. Period. Hard stop. It is not good for America, for democracy. It’s an unhinged constitutional assumption.

Brian Derrick: 100 percent agreed. This is, as a reminder, one of four ongoing criminal cases against Trump. And so we’re going to hear a lot about Trump being in court, Trump’s lawyers being in court, civil cases, criminal cases for the entire year. I think that my overall message to people is don’t get too wrapped up in like every little detail about it and focus on the big arc, which is likely that it will come down to the ballot in November.

Correct.

Glennis Meagher: We know there’s 91 federal indictments. This is one of the 91. It is exhausting. There are so many, but this is one that we will be watching quite [00:20:00] closely because it does have such consequential ramifications to our political system. So we’ll keep you informed on this and any other Trump case that’s quite important or necessary to know about and the others don’t worry about.

It’s too much.

Brian Derrick: I will also add that this is the one that is Essentially colliding with this big question around whether Trump is really eligible to be running for president at all. And so we’ve all seen the news in Colorado, the state Supreme court there ruled that he was ineligible to appear on the ballot because he had participated in an insurrection.

And. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says if you’re an insurrectionist, you’re out of here, you’re not allowed to hold office anymore. Maine, the Secretary of State there, decided the same thing, had the same interpretation, and these cases are making their way. [00:21:00] Up to the Supreme Court at the same time that all of these criminal charges are ongoing where ultimately the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in and say, is Trump eligible to be running?

Do you feel like you have a strong sense one way or the other of how you think that’s going to go? No. Or how it should go. Yeah,

Glennis Meagher: how it should go. Trump should not, anyone who tried to incite an insurrection should not be given the responsibility and the power of the presidency again. He does not like the America.

That he lives in the, the, he does not like the constitution, the way it was written or what it was written for. He does not want to operate under our political system. So why would we give him the keys to the castle again?

Brian Derrick: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I have a unpopular opinion there, which is that I think that it is a precarious position for us to be in.

And if secretaries of state are continuously [00:22:00] making decisions about candidate eligibility on. Undefined terms. I

Glennis Meagher: agree with that. I do think that the powers need to balance themselves and those in power need to come up with what we want to define the constitutional rules as. Yeah. But morally, I don’t think someone who wants to incite a riot against certifying the election that he lost.

Should be president. I

Brian Derrick: absolutely agree. I absolutely agree with you, and I think the Supreme Court will be the ultimate adjudicator of that eligibility. We have Republicans trying to, of course, muddy the waters and jump in. And say, Oh, well, if you disqualify Trump, we’re going to disqualify Biden. We already had the secretary of state in Missouri jump in to try to go tit for tat, essentially.

And I’m honestly less concerned about that because that’s obviously on its face, ridiculous. And I’m more [00:23:00] concerned about. Republican secretaries of state who might try to keep BLM activists or organizers off of ballots in the future for like state or local office. We have seen the lengths that they will go to in states like Florida to silence protests and voices that oppose what they’re trying to do.

And I am very concerned that this could be a tool for them to keep people out of office in the

Glennis Meagher: future. It’s a valid point and I feel like I want to turn into the Hulk when you make said points because it is not the same and it is so wildly frustrating. It’s not like on November. X, you know, 2020, we woke up and we’re like, all right, Brian, let’s go to the Capitol.

Let’s get ready. You know, Hillary didn’t win with Matt. And it’s not like BLM protesters are trying to overturn an election. Like the core of that, the core of thinking that you can as president change the answer chops my ass. But speaking of..

Brian Derrick: Of your chapped ass?

[00:24:00]

Glennis Meagher: Okay, so we’re talking about this, this one guy, Donald Trump, and the 2024 election.

Talking about January 6th. Let’s talk about the GOP

Brian Derrick: primary. It’s happening, baby. It is here. It’s time. It’s go time. We’re a week out from the official start of the 2024 election cycle. I think that’s why it’s important that we’re doing this pod now. So that we’ll be with y’all for the Ups and downs and twists and turns.

It’s going to be a really tumultuous year, even though the outcome feels kind of pre baked. Like we know that it’s likely going to be Trump Biden 2. 0, not that that’s what everybody’s looking for, but that’s likely what we’re going to get. And. That still means that there’s going to be a lot of like anxiety and stress along the way that hopefully we can, the, the noise and make sure that the signal gets through.

But starting next week you have [00:25:00] the Iowa caucus followed by the New Hampshire primary. So we’ve all been following along as the veep stakes or whatever you want to call it. The Republican. Primary debates are all these candidates jockeying for second place because Trump is leading all of them by double digits, significant double digits in, in both of these states.

But I am curious what you’re looking for are going to be nothing, nothing.

Glennis Meagher: I got to be real with you, Brian. It exhausts me. It all exhausts me. And I know that’s like a privilege to be exhausted by politics, but the Republican GOP primary, I’ve seen enough. Like, like cut to South Carolina for me, like, let’s, let’s see what’s happening.

Let’s cut to more like Trump’s indictments. Like it’s, it’s a lot and I can’t give you a really good answer right now because

Brian Derrick: Yeah. Or it’s, it’s a lot of who, whose line is it anyway? where everything is made up and the points don’t matter because [00:26:00] Trump is beating all of them by double digits. And we pretty much already know what’s going to happen.

So it’ll be somewhat interesting to see if Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis comes in second place. But at the end of the day, that’s pretty meaningless because Trump is probably going to be on track to win the nomination in mid March. Cool.

Glennis Meagher: Sorry. No, that’s literally how I feel. It’s like so Exhausting. There is a debate today, though.

And, uh, the debates have had some, for me as someone who is so ingrained in pop culture and viral moments, some goodies. So maybe tonight I’ll have some new content to play with for the interwebs the next

Brian Derrick: day. Yeah, always some, um, spicy moments from those.

Speaking of spicy moments. We had a very interesting segment appear on Fox News the other day. I don’t know if you caught it. Paula Roberts

Jesse Watters: is the English psychic. [00:27:00] Who is on set to give us a reading right now. I would like, Paula, for you to give me a reading on President Trump.

Paula Roberts: Just the one card. One card.

One card. Let’s do just one card. We like that

Brian Derrick: one. High stakes. Uh

Jesse Watters: oh. Uh oh. Uh

Paula Roberts: oh.

Jesse Watters: What is that?

Paula Roberts: I mean, I do recognize that I’m on Fox TV. I have a sense of loss. A sense of loss, but it’s very specific. No, let me move on.

Paula Roberts: It’s a sense of loss. It’s as if, um, he may be thinking more about what he’s lost and not still taking full advantage of what he still has.

Jesse Watters: That’s a great interpretation. ‘

Paula Roberts: I don’t make it up.

Brian Derrick: It’s giving Miss Cleo.

Glennis Meagher: It’s giving reality check. It’s giving wake orbiting Mars. Like the. [00:28:00] She, she also like, I saw what she was trying to do there. She’s trying to say like, listen, he needs to like, let go of 2020 and focus on the indictments.

Brian Derrick: It’s giving a sense of loss.Are you kidding me? No, it’s giving SNL skit. A tarot card reader on Fox News? Are you serious? What timeline are we in? We are in the worst timeline. This is outrageous. I guess they really think so low of their audience that they’re like, Yeah, that’s the political analysis that they’ll trust. Let’s get a tarot card reader.

Glennis Meagher:  I’ll say though, that is a great kind of moment to exemplify vibes. Only even Fox News. It’s like, what are the vibes for 2024? Well, they’re the 10 of Cups card. The

Brian Derrick: polls are broken, so we’re moving forward. We’re tarot card only

Glennis Meagher: tarot, which, hey, I’m like all about that, like, but it’s a no [00:29:00] for me. It’s giving vibes only.

Brian Derrick: It’s giving vibes only. The whole thing felt like an SNL skit. To me, I loved it.

Glennis Meagher: I, I, I low key love her. I love any old lady in a wig. That’s going to be me one day.

Brian Derrick: And on Fox news too. I see that

Glennis Meagher: God willing. God willing.

Glennis Meagher: Okay, Brian, let’s talk about our group chats group. This also, we would like to invite our audience to be involved with our group chat at some point today.

We’re going to talk about our group chats, but what was it? What was happening in yours?

Brian Derrick: Okay. Wait a second. Let me first say. Glennis and I are literally in many of the same group chats and a lot of them are people who work in or adjacent to politics. And so I just feel like our group chats are a good way to check in on what people are actually talking about.

Cause it’s not just the most clicked on article at the New York times. It’s like, Oh, what are people sending to their friends? What’s the [00:30:00] commentary? What are the vibes surrounding the news of the week? And everybody has that group chat. Everyone has that thread that they check when things really hit the fan, whether it’s like a Taylor Swift thing or if it’s something happening in Congress or it’s the Senate twink or it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene or whatever it is, people go to the group chat.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, we want to, we want to arm the audience with some additional tidbits. My group chats. Well, one I want to say our group chat was deep on antibiotics. I had a case of strep, which was awful. And I just want to shout out antibiotics. I would not have made it before antibiotics existed. Shout out to a Scyther myosin,

Glennis Meagher: but the golden globes were this past weekend.

My chat was kind of going off there. I don’t know if you caught it. Joe Coy opened, he was the host and. It wasn’t great. I’m not a comedian by any means, but it was boring. It was [00:31:00] lazy The jokes didn’t land and it was cringe. It was cringe.

Jo Koy: Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up.

You got you’re kidding me, right? Slow down. I wrote some of these and they’re

the ones you’re laughing at.

Brian Derrick: I got a lot of that on my news feed, but i’m not an awards girly. So I definitely Did not get that in the group chat.

Glennis Meagher: I am an awards girly. I just like The dresses and, you know, I want to see what the celebs are doing.

Brian Derrick: I support that for you. I love that for you. I feel like my group chat this week was really popping off with some unhinged behavior. First we saw Lauren Boebert, who if you know me, you know I hate talking about, but I will say that the group chat really did pop off because she apparently attacked her ex husband in, like, a public restaurant.

And the police were called a whole drama and [00:32:00] we could talk all day about her long list of scandals and controversies, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, etc. And she’s really just adding to the list. It’s wild that she actually has a shot at being re elected to this Congress. It’s

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, she’s not scared of a public performance.

We’ll say that much. We need to fact check if the screenshot I sent you today was actually her.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, GG did send me this iconic screenshot of Lauren Boebert crouching behind a Nissan Altima like chain smoking. It is an inexplicable image that is now burned into my mind. Speaking of images that are burned into my mind.

Glennis Meagher: Oh, I’m obsessed with this.

Brian Derrick: This story was so crazy. Also came to me via a group chat. This former Congresswoman in Texas has been posting these food [00:33:00] pics and acting like she’s out here cooking all of this authentic, I believe she’s Mexican, all this authentic Mexican food. And it turns out someone did a quick check and she’s just.

Posting other people’s food,

Glennis Meagher: stealing, stealing people, like chefs included food pics, it’s unhinged behavior. I was when you, when you sent it to me and then I started Googling the images and like what she’s saying, it’s, it’s giving delusion at its like highest form. Also, my best friend is a chef and like a food stylist.

You can’t just take that.

Brian Derrick: You’re personally offended.

Glennis Meagher: I mean, I can only make a grilled cheese. If you took my grilled cheese and posted it…

Brian Derrick: If you told me, if you just described this behavior I would say with 100 percent confidence that that was George Santos. Like, this is a George Santos move through and through.

Glennis Meagher: I literally forgot about him.

Brian Derrick: R. I. P. And this is a [00:34:00] George Santos move and I’m like, wow, it’s catching on quick. She wants, I guess, like, the cameo?

Glennis Meagher: I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any room for food plagiarism in our political system. Period. It’s pretty campy, to be honest.

Brian Derrick: Well, we could probably talk about unhinged behavior in Congress all day long, but I kind of want to end on a good vibe.

Glennis Meagher: Okay, so, Brian, good vibe, goodbye. In Florida, I think you know about this story. We have a dear friend who’s working on this initiative, actually. They have been trying to Protect abortion at the state constitution level. So how they need to do that is to collect. What is it? 900, 000 signatures. Yeah, they did that, which is amazing.

It should be celebrated. It required hundreds of hours of work and organizing and a lot of really smart people hustling, going door to door and getting these [00:35:00] signatures and they did it. So Florida is one step closer to. Having abortion be protected in the state constitution.

Brian Derrick: It’s absolutely huge. Like that is, that is such a big deal.

We’ve seen honestly, Democrats in a lot of different states move to protect abortion access where they have the votes to do so, but in the states that we don’t and where Republicans are pushing bans in some of those states, we can fight back through direct democracy, put a ballot. Uh, put an initiative on the ballot.

We saw it work in Kansas, in Montana, in Kentucky, in Vermont, in Ohio, like, we have won again and again and again. And so it’s super exciting to see Florida is going to be the next one on that list. We are going to get on the ballot. We are going to win in November and we’re going to secure reproductive rights for everybody in the state.

So super exciting. I think that there are like eight more states where we could see ballot initiatives on abortion access this year. So definitely going to stay tuned there. But the message is simple. You come for our rights, [00:36:00] we’re going to come for your seats. Period. That’s it for our first episode.

Thanks for listening. If this shows your vibe, go subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, if you haven’t already. Please rate it, preferably high, and join us again next week as we give you everything you need to know to join your snarky group chats, to talk shop at happy hour, or to vibe check your friends that might need a reminder about what’s at stake in the upcoming election.

If you want to join in on our group chat, send us a note or hit us up on social media. at Courier Newsroom, or you can find me at Brian Derrick, and Glenis at Glenis Mahar. We may call you out for your comment on our next group chat segment.

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 Moroney, with support from Courier’s Kyle Tharp, [00:37:00] RC Di Mezzo, and Daniel Strasburger. Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of COURIER.