After Super Tuesday, GOP Officially the Party of Trump (Again)

Glennis Meagher: [00:00:00] The polls are truly broken.

Brian Derrick: The stakes are clearly unprecedented. I’m Brian Derrick

Glennis Meagher: and I’m glennis Meagher. This week, we’re joined by Annie Wu Henry. Annie is a digital strategist from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She, like us, is chronically online and has helped craft digital strategies for organizations like the Working Families Party and AOC.

She received high praise for her role in John Fetterman’s Senate campaign, leading his TikTok content and strategy.

Brian Derrick: We’re excited to have Annie with us this week to check the vibes. And the vibes this week are

Jake Tapper: All right, former president Donald Trump declaring victory on Super Tuesday. It has been a Super Tuesday for Donald Trump.

Glennis Meagher: And a series of national polls* came out that generated bad headlines for Biden. We’ll talk about what to make of those and what was perhaps missed in the media frenzy.

Brian Derrick: And

MSNBC Reporter: We’ve learned that it was a nine to nothing decision ruling that Donald Trump can be on the ballot in Colorado and other states.

Brian Derrick: We’ll also discuss SCOTUS decision to hear [00:01:00] Trump’s immunity claim,

Glennis Meagher: and

Mitch McConnell: This will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.

Brian Derrick: Then we’re gonna play It’s Giving, bring you into the group chat, and leave you with a good vibe. Let’s go.

Glennis Meagher: Brian, I’m super stoked because We have Annie Wu Henry here.

Brian Derrick: Welcome to the pod.

Annie Wu Henry: Hi.

Glennis Meagher: Annie, there was recently a meta outage. What did you do with your downtime?

Annie Wu Henry: It was like that meme that’s like Instagram’s down and then like Instagram’s down. Um, with the two sides of the bus. Um, cause I do think if all social media was down, I would just Just be so much more peaceful in my brain because I feel like a responsibility when it’s up, but when it’s down totally like everyone else is not also there, so I’m not like missing things or moments.

So I enjoy when the tech companies fail us.

Brian Derrick: Totally. Life of a digital staffer. It’s true. And you’re like a very online girly. We [00:02:00] are defined as Chronically, terminally Terminally! Terminally online. Terminally,

Glennis Meagher: chronically. A couple pods ago, we talked about how Biden’s now on TikTok. Have you followed the account?

How do you feel about Joseph R. Biden’s, you know, foray into The TikTok digital sphere.

Annie Wu Henry: He’s on TikTok, .

Glennis Meagher: Period. Period.

Annie Wu Henry: That’s the thing that they’re doing. Um, no. So I was not surprised that they’re on TikTok, like they were going to inevitably be on that platform because there are a lot of people there and they have the resources to do it.

So it just would be a totally lost opportunity to not, you know. a wonderful tool, just like all of these digital spaces and things are, um, if utilized like effectively and You know, there are so many pieces that I think we just have to be doing them all.

Brian Derrick: So as we are [00:03:00] recording this, we are literally getting super Tuesday results in and they are drum roll, please.

Not shocking in any way, shape or form Donald Trump, uh, has. Pretty much pulled off a clean sweep of the Super Tuesday states so far, the ones that have been called. Um, and same for Joe Biden. There’s going to be a lot of chitter chatter around the edges. And so looking at the exact margins of the Nikki Haley versus Trump vote, the exact margins in a couple of states of like uncommitted votes for Biden.

And the media is going to make probably three days worth of news out of that for sure. Yeah. It’s a foregone conclusion that it’s Biden versus Trump today confirms that and Trump will officially win the nomination based on his performance. So far today, probably on March 12th next week. Thank you for that thrilling update.

But there are a lot of really important down ballot races happening that I think are a lot [00:04:00] more interesting and it could have a bigger impact on the rest of the year. And so a couple of those that were watching the U. S. Senate race in California

NBC News: in California, NBC News can now project Adam Schiff will win The California Democratic

Senate primary, meaning he will move on to the general election contest.

Steve Garvey, former MLB player, will be the number two candidate to go to the general election.

Brian Derrick: Annie, did you have a dog in that fight?

Annie Wu Henry: I mean, I have thoughts about primaries in, like, blue states. The thing that really annoyed me about that race was that, like, Whenever fundraising numbers came out from like, and Schiff and Porter were always in like top five of people who raised each quarter and where the Senate map is at, and like, where just in general, everything that’s at stake this cycle, it’s like those millions of dollars [00:05:00] being poured into like prime debt, all Democrats for a seat that will like, most likely go to a Democrat.

Just feels like lighting a lot of money that like is needed in a lot of other places on fire. And I really wish that like people within our party could put their egos aside for a second and like go have dinner until you figure it out. And it doesn’t cost the American people millions of dollars. A hundred million.

Yeah, like literally just like. figure it out.

Brian Derrick: In addition to the U. S. Senate race in California, there are a handful of really important primaries happening for congressional races to replace Katie Porter in California, for example. The Republican primary running against Don Davis in North Carolina, at least two really competitive Texas districts, and Democrats are pretty much guaranteed to flip.

A [00:06:00] district in Alabama after redistricting because it was a racial gerrymander. And so whoever wins that democratic primary tonight is a walk on guaranteed to win in November. And then the other one, the other spicy one that I wanted to include is that, do you guys remember Tricia Cawtham? In North Carolina, that state legislator who switched from Democrat to Republican.

Glennis Meagher: Oh my God, yes

NBC News: . And here are the results tonight for the Democrats trying to take over that seat. Nicole Sidman winning that race tonight.

Brian Derrick: That is going to be I think a race that gets a lot of national attention because she belongs on NBC’s The Traitors. Literally. Not in the state house in North Carolina.

Glennis Meagher: Totally. Totally. She is a traitor.

Brian Derrick: We gotta get her out of here. Um.

Glennis Meagher: She’s not a faithful.

Brian Derrick: Also, important DA races happening in LA, Austin, and Houston, and important Judicial race is happening in Arkansas, Texas and San Francisco, so don’t [00:07:00] just look at the delegate count and move on. The presidential is going to be what the presidential is going to be, and we all know what the situation is there, but there are tons of other important races that people should be paying attention to

this weekend. We sort of had a nuke of a poll that came out. The New York Times put out this poll that was. Pretty damaging for Biden if, if you buy it, if you buy into their top lines and the through line was people think that Biden’s really old, uh, which is hardly breaking news.

Annie Wu Henry: Yeah, he is.

Brian Derrick: Absolutely.

Did you did you see this poll? Did you see the conversations online happening like around this, this updated New York Times Siena poll? And how do you think about these these generally?

Annie Wu Henry: Yeah, I saw the poll. I didn’t like really read into it that much. I just in general, like hate polling, um, hate discourse around polling.

The [00:08:00] attention we give it in general.

Glennis Meagher: Whenever I see these polls, I’m like, let me see the receipts, like literally let me see the data. I want to know who you’re calling, who’s answering that phone call.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, and we’re not the only ones to feel that way. Um, our favorite Fox News commentator, actually, like actually our favorite one who gets in there and really throws some bows, Jessica Tarlov, did have a take on this.

Jessica Tarlov: New York Times Siena poll had him tied with women, with Trump. At 46. So Biden won 57 percent of women in 2020 before Roe v. Wade was taken away and before we’ve had seven or eight referendums on reproductive choice and before women have become again the angriest coalition of voters and now suddenly they’re tied.

That makes no sense to me. I know that Donald Trump released gold sneakers and he’s been indicted so he thinks that black people like him more now, but do you really think that he’s going to get 20 percent plus of the black votes? Completely upends electoral history. The Hispanic vote in the New York Times Siena poll, so only 3 percent of their interviews [00:09:00] were done in Spanish when about 20 percent of the Latino electorate, uh, is only Spanish speaking.

So that seems like it’s not particularly representative. And then the Gen Z vote. Again, this idea that Donald Trump is appealing to a generation that cares about the things that he cares about the least on the planet, like reproductive choice, climate change, gun safety. Something is a bit funky.

Brian Derrick: Annie, you are the voice of a generation. Talk to us about Gen Z. Um, actually saying like the data is showing this like massive change potentially or alluding to some massive change among young people. Talk to us about the vibes that you’re seeing and how you can interpret like Gen Z’s current position and the role that they’re going to play in 24.

Annie Wu Henry: Yeah. I mean, I think Gen Z, I don’t speak for all Gen Z, but like, I think I’m also cusp. But like, but because of that, [00:10:00] sometimes I think that I like view Gen Z and like, but I’m interacting with them. I mean, vibes of Gen Z overall are like not great. I think most of their lives vibes have been not great.

And so their vibes are like not great, especially in the political world. And that’s not with a certain candidate or party or any of it. It’s just like bad vibes overall and like distrust of the system and like A bunch of generations before them like screwing them over and like they don’t they’re expected to fix it and they’re like how and like can’t afford anything and whatever I think that with Gen Z, there’s this narrative that we Need to be weary of and I don’t want to like scare people because I don’t think it’s like this thing We can’t come back from or whatever, but I do think there’s this overwhelming thought that Gen Z like is more With the data and all the things that [00:11:00] have shown like Gen Z is more generous Gen Z is more likely to accept LGBTQ all these things that like we could put into like the Democrat Bucket and then we align that unequivocally with like, Gen Z is gonna vote Democrat, or Gen Z is Democrat, and that’s, I don’t think that’s a perfect through line.

And I think that we need to like, people still want their voices to be heard, they want their votes to still be earned, and like, just because they’re generous and like, support the queer community, like, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to like, Listen to them and hear them and like really include them and respect their voices because I think sometimes they’re taken for granted.

I think Gen Z just like, they like real, they like like the authentic and raw and unfiltered, like all of that. And with politics, none of that ever feels that way. Like it’s such a curated political theater, like world of it all that I [00:12:00] think, I don’t know. I just think we need to like, Put in the effort that they’re worth if we want them to show up and do all the things, because I think they’re willing to.

It’s just, they, they want an actual seat at the table. They want their voices to actually be heard. They want to be actually taken seriously.

Brian Derrick: There definitely is, I think, a misconception among like a larger part of the electorate that feels like progress and a leftward shift are inevitable. And maybe that’s being finally questioned and that bubble’s being popped a little bit.

And a lot of people do did maybe feel like, Oh, Gen Z is, is just. By default, more progressive is going to shift everything is going to shift the Overton window to the left and Republicans are screwed long term because they can’t win these voters and maybe we’re starting to see How that might not be the case or might not hold forever.

We saw a lot of coverage [00:13:00] of the New York Times Siena poll about Biden’s age, essentially. It was, it was functionally about his age was the top line, but we haven’t seen the same coverage of the fracture within the Republican party, that there are actually a large number of people showing up to Republican primaries in South Carolina, in Iowa.

In New Hampshire, and again in several of the Super Tuesday elections, and they’re showing up saying that they will not vote for Trump if he is the nominee in November. And a significant portion of those people are Republicans. Like we’re not just talking about independents. We’re not just talking about people who crossed over the aisle to vote for Nikki Haley or something.

These are 20 33 percent of the people voting in these Elections and it goes way up if you Ask them. What about a conviction? If he if he is convicted of one of these, um, many, many [00:14:00] criminal charges, and that should be hugely concerning. And I think that it should be bigger news than it is. But all that anybody can really talk about is Grandpa Joe.

Glennis Meagher: I know it’s just not as it’s not as exciting for like legacy media. I think for them, obviously talking about the sitting president and the way he presents is more elderly than Donald Trump is is much more, uh, times. Appealing it’s the vibes old

Brian Derrick: man vibes old man vibes old

Annie Wu Henry: vibes. I was talking old people.

There’s like three different vibes of old people. Oh my god, old people vibes don’t have to be like a bad vibe. Like, I was talking about Tick Tock to like, there’s a lot of old people on Tick Tock that like, are having, like, like, fame from being, like, an impersonal Grandma, grandma, what’s her name? You know who I’m talking about.

I know the grandma you’re talking about. Like, there was the retirement house or whatever it’s called. There’s the old days. Like, there’s, there’s lots of, you know, and so, I think, like, old people, there’s, like, [00:15:00] maybe there’s more than three, but there’s, like, angry old people. There’s, like, cute, endearing old people.

There’s, like, old people who are, like, I’m old, I’ve lived my life, I don’t give a fuck anymore, like, I’m just, like, you know, I’m in my retirement, I’m doing life, like, I’m gonna be crazy, I’m gonna see what I want, I’m gonna teach you lessons, like, all that, which is, I feel like, a lot of the people we see on the internet.

And then there’s, like, the old people that just, like, come off as, like, old, and, like, decrepit. And I think like, people don’t have to be one of those things. Like you can be the other thing you

Glennis Meagher: don’t don’t pigeonhole yourself into one category. You can be an amalgamated old.

Annie Wu Henry: Yeah, like, you know, like, look at Martin Scorsese.

Why is he your number one old person? No, like Martin Scorsese and his daughter are on TikTok. And they’re like, like people love him for it. And like, I think some of it’s because he’s like coming off as just like he doesn’t really Like, he’s [00:16:00] not coming off as senile, but he doesn’t understand TikTok, which is very valid.

Like, there are people who are like 37 and don’t understand TikTok, so like, it’s fine.

Glennis Meagher: Wait, okay, are we 37? Are we like I’m pushing 37. Um, I

Annie Wu Henry: do think But you understand that there are people Like, there are people I know that are like in their 20s and don’t answer. So it’s not like

Brian Derrick: 30.

Glennis Meagher: We all know this here.

I’m a tick tock head. Martin Scorsese is actually really funny. But what’s funny is the juxtaposition of him being one of the greatest American filmmakers of all time, all of a sudden on this like 92nd clip app and trying to play around with it.

Annie Wu Henry: Yeah, but yeah, but it’s cute. And it’s endearing. And like America loves it.

So

Glennis Meagher: yeah, and America’s got to get used to old people vibes because we’re going to be

Annie Wu Henry: around bad old people vibes, people.

Brian Derrick: What I’m hearing from you, Annie, is that we are speaking directly to [00:17:00] the White House. And we are saying, let Joe Be free. Because he doesn’t give a fuck. Like, Joe, when he’s actually being really candid,

Annie Wu Henry: That was his Dark Brandon moment.

Brian Derrick: 100%. Like, that is his really natural tendency. And I think that they really gatekeep him and don’t let him, Or like, don’t want him to be in those settings Let him go rogue. Let him do it. Let him attack Trump. Let him say what he wants to say. We want to we want to see it. We want the I don’t give a fuck vibe, Joe.

And that’s not

Annie Wu Henry: the meme. Like, like the actual dark Brandon moments aren’t the meme. The actual dark Brandon moments. No, like when he just like says shit, right?

Glennis Meagher: My heart to me, Brian, we’re gonna talk about him again. Clarence. Clarence. I have a I have a you know that John Waters clip. I hate the Supreme Court! I

Clip from John Waters’ “Desperate Living” (1977): HATE THE SUPREME COURT![00:18:00]

Glennis Meagher: So, we got some news from SCOTUS. 9

Brian Derrick: 0 decision. 9 0 decision.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Nines across the board. Reverses the Colorado Supreme Court decision, which kicked Trump off the state ballot. And the ruling said, Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the states, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against all federal officeholders and candidates.

We reverse.

Brian Derrick: Raise your hand. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. No, no hands. Let the audio, let the audio reflect. No hands. This was, this was in the bag for him all along. I’m sorry. But like from the day that the Colorado Supreme Court came out and with this ruling, it was pretty obvious that this is where we were going to end up.

Annie Wu Henry: I’m not like, well, also Colorado as a state, like any of the states that have been doing this, like haven’t been a swing state that I also, even if it happened was like, this is dramatically gonna, uh, [00:19:00] Shift anything, like, let me know when it’s Nevada, let me know when it’s Pennsylvania, let me know when it’s Michigan, like, um, but in general, I’m not totally a, like, I wasn’t surprised.

And I also like, kind of agree and like, not to agree with, but like, I agree that like, this wasn’t about his participation in like an insurrection or anything. Right? Correct. This is about a state being able to say like, this person can’t be on the ballot, and like, If this was reversed, we would not like want that.

And from a democratic standpoint, like

Brian Derrick: they did not claim that he did not participate in an insurrection. They did not rule in any way on whether or not he had acted in a way that was contrary to the Constitution, to the powers of the office of the presidency, to, to The country’s, um, sort of [00:20:00] founding principles.

Um, they just said that it was not for the Colorado Supreme Court to decide.

Glennis Meagher: So the Supreme Court is going to hear another case,

Brian Derrick: correct? This is the January 6th case. In the January 6th federal case, Trump’s lawyers have advocated this stance that he is completely immune, that he has pure presidential immunity.

We’ve talked about this before. They said he could order the assassination of a political opponent and it would be fine unless the Senate convicted him first. And so. The Supreme Court last week agreed to hear that case, which is a huge win for Trump because as we’ve said all along, the goal in many of these cases is not to actually win them, but simply to delay.

Delay, delay, delay, delay, delay. And when in November, and then he can order the [00:21:00] department of justice to drop the cases. Right. And so this is not good because this is one of the strongest cases. I think like it’s related to his attempts to overturn the election to stay in power. to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, like all of these core things that really should matter greatly to the American people.

And we want the trial. We want the evidence. We want the case to be made that he was furthering an insurrection against the country. And now we are not going to get that case until the fall at the earliest because they’re going to hear the immunity portion of the case as to whether or not he was immune.

They’re gonna hear that in April.

Glennis Meagher: Mitch McConnell. He made a little announcement this week, stepping down the thing. It was so like he’s politicians are so dramatic. He’s like, I’m stepping down from Senate leadership and like half the internet was like, Oh, he’s stepping down. Thank [00:22:00] God he’s like 82 years old and is like, you know, Skeletor.

Yeah. But no, he’s just stepping down from leadership. So when talking about some of his accomplishments, uh, as Senate, in a leadership position in the Senate, he said,

Mitch McConnell: the most important decision I’ve made in my entire political career was not to fill the Supreme Court vacancy with Justice Scalia passed away,

Glennis Meagher: which if we all can recall.

So stay in the

Brian Derrick: seat. Yeah. To steal a seat on the Supreme Court. Pretty consequential. Pretty consequential. That gave us Dobbs.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. So, uh,

Annie Wu Henry: time to say goodbye. And then they went and did the opposite because they refused to do it for when Obama was still in office, but then we had to wait.

Brian Derrick: Right. So then, then RBG passed away and rather than follow a normal confirmation process, they jammed Amy Coney Barrett through faster than a Weeks!

Annie Wu Henry: He announced it! [00:23:00] McConnell himself, in his like statement as Senate Majority Leader, like, that was like multi paragraph like statement about RBG’s passing included that they would be moving along with proceeding to fill the seat in his statement. about her passing. Like horrifying. The level of disrespect.

Glennis Meagher: Trump nominated Amy Coney, Amy Coney Barrett just weeks before the

Annie Wu Henry: election. Like people had already started sending in mail in ballots.

Glennis Meagher: McConnell’s rationale for blocking Obama’s appointment was that it was an election year. So Obama nominated Garland in March of 2016. Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett.

On September 26th, 2020.

Annie Wu Henry: That era, the vibes were so bad. And like, they just like, I mean McConnell, all the Republicans in general, like I think it was a Lindsey Graham clip of like literally him [00:24:00] saying like, if this is, if this was reversed, like I would still be whatever and he just like, he was like, he used my words against me, I think was the clip.

If there’s a

Lindsey Graham: Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, let’s let the next. president, whoever it might be, make that nomination and you could use my words against me and you’d be absolutely

Annie Wu Henry: right. And he was like,

Brian Derrick: I don’t care.

Literally. And I think they don’t care. That is the legacy of Mitch McConnell. We talked about legacy. The legacy of Mitch McConnell is partisan politics above all that literally anything is fair game if it advances your personal power and position. That is what Mitch McConnell stands for above all else.

And that is what he will be remembered for for the next two generations as we deal with the Supreme Court being completely taken over by the far [00:25:00] right and a generational challenge for us. To figure out how to fix it and how to restore confidence in a court that has been captured by ideologues. You know what I mean?

Glennis Meagher: Do I know what you mean? You know what I mean? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, do you get it? Um, yeah. So, we got work to do, people.

Brian Derrick: That work starts now with replacing Justice Sonia Sotomayor. There’s an incredible piece by actually a personal friend of mine, Josh Barrow, who is an incredible writer and thought leader in the space, and he wrote this great piece about why.

Justice Sotomayor must retire this year to ensure that she is replaced by Joe Biden, that Joe Biden picks her replacement in order for that to happen. As we have seen, because of the way that Republicans have now handled the Supreme Court appointments, we have to have both the White House and Senate to get an [00:26:00] appointment through.

And we cannot guarantee that after November, we will have either one of those things in the next four years, in the next eight years. In the next 12 years, we cannot say for sure. And she’s turning 70. She’s turning 70 this year. And so it’s a huge gamble to say, okay, we just hope that at some point in the next, I don’t know, eight years, we have both the Senate and White House at the same time.

12 years. Totally. That’s a risk that we should not be willing to take. Thoughts? Agreed? I

Glennis Meagher: agree. I don’t want to be in a position that we, we as, you know, Progressive individuals have been in because of people not wanting to retire. Um, I, you know, I’m not obviously a Supreme Court justice. I can’t imagine it’s that easy.

Are you

Brian Derrick: not? Cancel this pod. Breaking news!

Annie Wu Henry: You actually are, you are actually like, eligible though. There’s like very few actual requirements. I did take

Glennis Meagher: the LSAT, Annie. I took the LSAT. You don’t even need to be a lawyer.

Annie Wu Henry: You don’t need [00:27:00] to like, what’s, the more I learn about the Supreme Court, like, you don’t really need to be anything, like, and you just have to get appointed and then be

Brian Derrick: conferred.

Sorry, I didn’t finish my thought. We need Justice Sotomayor to retire. To be replaced by Glenis Mahar.

Glennis Meagher: I do have opinions and I do like to write very strongly worded emails. So this could be a good fit.

Brian Derrick: A good fit. You can

Annie Wu Henry: beef with your op. Like, then you can really Totally! With Clarence Thomas. You guys would literally be like

Glennis Meagher: This is it.

This is my play. This is my play to do that. I was like, get on Vibes Only. Start, start pitching myself. The lawyers

Brian Derrick: would never be making a case and Glennis would have a little toy RV on, on the desk. On the desk. Just

Glennis Meagher: kind of like. If my price is right fantasy would be, would come

Brian Derrick: alive. Just trolling. Just trolling Clarence Thomas.

Oh my

Glennis Meagher: gosh. Just like. Just driving back

Brian Derrick: and forth. And let me just say, because I did get yelled out online when I, [00:28:00] when I posted about this. It is, it goes without saying that we think that Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito should also retire. Like, they are 73 and Oh, and 75 and so they are older and so I think that they should retire too, but that is seems less likely because they are ideologues.

Both of them are actually pretty much zealots. And so the odds of them letting Biden choose their replacement are like slim to none. And so that’s why we are saying to Sotomayor like you have a vested interest in making sure the juris prudence that you have set forth, that you’ve spent your entire career building a school of thought around the law, and that that will be better preserved if you, if your replacement is picked by Biden, whereas.

Clarence Thomas and Alito feel the opposite. And so it’s just less likely. It’s not to say that we’re, we think women should retire sooner or anything like that. [00:29:00] Obviously I’m just saying, I’m just saying, I think the men should go to, they just are not as incentivized to do so.

Glennis Meagher: For sure. There’s outlets.

You’re right. So justice Sotomayor, if you’re listening today to vibes only. This is our plea to you to please consider. Plea to you. If

Brian Derrick: you’re catching this on TikTok.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, please consider retiring. I’ll throw a banger of a party for you. We’re going to

Brian Derrick: talk about one more person

Glennis Meagher: who’s stepping down. Woo!

Woo! Hurston Cinema.

Bye, girl. But also, okay, we’ve talked, we talked about her recently on the pod about how she loves to be the center of attention. Yes. Hell’s surprise that she was like, you know what day I’m going to announce? Super Tuesday. Totally. Like, what? No. Get

Brian Derrick: over it. Guys, this is, this is great news. Sinema has [00:30:00] stood in the way of a lot of progress.

She has, she left the Democratic Party a couple of years ago, like during Biden’s term, again, was very much like attention seeking kind of move. She insisted that she was going to mount an independent run for the seat and has finally announced that she will not be running this year, which leaves the Democratic Laying wide open for Ruben Gallego, Carrie Lake, absolutely bonkers.

Election denier extraordinaire running as the Republican. And this makes it a two person race that I think Ruben’s odds greatly improved today.

Annie Wu Henry: And then there’s no worry about, you know, Democrats who maybe still like cinema, like sticking with her. And there’s no, like, there’s no 15 of

Brian Derrick: them.

Annie Wu Henry: Um, yeah, people just genuinely disliked her.

Um,

Glennis Meagher: it wasn’t a vibe when she was like, [00:31:00] I’m going to be an independent. It was like, okay, go sit at the table by yourself because Bernie won’t even have

Annie Wu Henry: it was just attention. It was just for attention and to be like, well, I’m going to back people into a corner. Um, But yeah,

Glennis Meagher: yeah, which by the way, like I do appreciate anyone who’s willing to have a real conversation about like the dysfunction in the two party system, but only to progress policies that are going to help Americans and she didn’t do that.

So

Brian Derrick: thank you again, say that again, because I’m all for people who like have their own Policy positions and who like see things a different way. If you’re going to vote against the party, like that’s all cool, but you need to have like a consistent value system that you’re operating from. And hers was just like the last donor that she, that she met with was the person that she was representing and it just changed constantly.

She killed the tax on the carried interest. There was a policy to close the carried interest loophole, which allows. [00:32:00] People working in finance who make tons of money to make more money and to not pay taxes on it in the way that they should. And they were going to close that loophole and use that money to pay for part of the original Build Back Better package.

And she was like, Nope, we’re just not going to do that. My donors aren’t down, essentially. And her old

Annie Wu Henry: quotes, when you see old quotes of hers, like from before she was in office, and I think she did some organizing and different things. There’s one article, oh God, that I read one time, and it’s just like, it’s so off base from where she is now.

And it’s just so clear that she doesn’t have a value system that she really like. Right. Feels undercore, and, but, and it’s also just so disappointing because I think when she first was elected she was this, like, a little quirky, girly, that, like, was wearing some, like, fits that, like, would piss off Republicans, and, like, she’s, she’s bisexual, and, like, people were like, oh, like, she’s just, like, a little quirky, silly [00:33:00] girl, and, like, that’s great that we’re having, like, and then she just went and didn’t care about literally anyone.

But herself?

Brian Derrick: Giving is giving. It’s giving. Well, this week is, is actually giving Another One Bites the Dust. While McConnell and Sinema are heading for the doors, we have one person who literally can’t get enough and is coming back for more.

Glennis Meagher: I

Brian Derrick: have an important announcement to make. As of today, I am unsuspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States.

I had suspended it because I was losing the horse race. But something so much more important than the horse race is at stake here. And we

Glennis Meagher: must respond.

Brian Derrick: It’s giving zombie apocalypse. It’s giving literally back, back, back again, Shangela. It’s, it’s kind of

Glennis Meagher: giving to me like who framed Roger Rabbit and that if I feel like she should be like smoking a cigar and like the way that she like, it’s [00:34:00] giving shoulder choreography, like.

The way she’s like moving her body. I don’t like, mind her. I think you know this about me. Like, I don’t think she was ever a true threat to democracy or the election. Uh, I

Brian Derrick: mind. And I, what? I mind. Yeah. I mind

Annie Wu Henry: her. I, it’s kind of giving like, If Gwyneth Paltrow played a presidential candidate in a movie and like had to make a video to talk about it, like, like very like

Brian Derrick: goop.

It is giving goop. Goop. It is giving goop.

Annie Wu Henry: Giving like Gwyneth Paltrow when she’s like being real, but

Brian Derrick: like it’s It’s giving the Gwyneth Paltrow on the stand at her

Glennis Meagher: trial. You ruined my ski

Brian Derrick: holiday. Yeah,

Annie Wu Henry: exactly. Exactly. Like there’s no one that’s looked more like their ski route holiday was ruined and they’d go to trial for it.[00:35:00]

Then Gwyneth Paltrow at that trial that that’s, that’s, that’s why

Brian Derrick: unsuspending your presidential campaign is camp. Like just by definition, you can’t do that gracefully.

Glennis Meagher: The glitter in her eyes as she’s talking about it, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. Marianne Williamson is back. 100%. Like, girl, where are you going?

Where are you going?

Annie Wu Henry: It’s kind of giving oh my god, what’s her name? Um, the president of the, like, resistance in the Hunger Games.

President Coin! It’s

Brian Derrick: kind of giving It is giving President Coin.

Annie Wu Henry: I did enjoy that her suspended campaign before it was unsuspended got more votes than Dean Phillips’s not suspended campaign.[00:36:00]

Brian Derrick: Annie, we already know that you are in way too many group chats. You are definitely that girl. You are giving that, the group chat, girly. Are you active in the chat or are you a silent viewer in the chat? Good question, Brian.

Annie Wu Henry: I’m not actually in that many group chats. I’m active in the ones that I’m in.

Like a few specific ones, but, and they all, like, I know what, like, I send different things to different ones. Um, one is a staffer Swifty chat. Um, and

Glennis Meagher: then I’m a new Swifty, Annie. I’m a new Swifty. I don’t know if you know this about me.

Annie Wu Henry: Um, we’ll discuss, but yeah, I, I don’t have that many. I also feel like the ones that I’m in, like, they each have their own vibe and they’re each like discussing.

Specific things. I don’t know. Well, you

Glennis Meagher: Annie, you brought something up earlier that we said, hold it for the group chat. [00:37:00] Jason Kelsey. This is fly. You go fly Philadelphia.

Annie Wu Henry: What’s going on? Yeah. Jason Kelsey.

Brian Derrick: She just, she just took off her coat and she’s wearing a big Jason Kelsey shirt.

Annie Wu Henry: This is also a Taylor Swift, Jason Kelsey, like thing.

It’s 321. Let’s go, bitch.

Glennis Meagher: Wow. Okay, so it’s a combo.

Brian Derrick: I don’t

Annie Wu Henry: understand. So I really like that so much of the world like outside of just like, Eagles fans have been exposed to like Jason Kelsey and like all that he is. People should go watch his documentary like just like a good guy. It’s called Kelsey. Um, and he was, he’s just like, he’s got his kids.

He’s got his wife who like he talked about at the press conference. And like, if your partner doesn’t treat you like that, like. It’s not it.

Brian Derrick: If it’s not that, I don’t want it. Right.

Annie Wu Henry: Brian

Glennis Meagher: has it hung over his kitchen. You know, like the old, the [00:38:00] farmhouse

Annie Wu Henry: poster. Ray Dunn? Absolutely. Is it like Ray Dunn?

Glennis Meagher: No.

Wait, what? Who’s

Brian Derrick: that? What’s that?

Annie Wu Henry: Ray Dunn is the, like, brand at TJ Maxx. Oh, for sure. It’s that. It’s exactly

Glennis Meagher: that. It’s exactly that.

Brian Derrick: Not Annie getting the joke more than we get the joke. Than us. We’re like, who? That you’re trying to make.

Annie Wu Henry: There were a lot of funny tweets of like, cause he was crying during the whole press conference.

Oh, we saw. Iconic, but people were like, Lord, please take Jason Kelsey’s pain away and give it to the Supreme Court. Lord, please take Jason Kelsey’s pain away and give it to Mitch McConnell. Mine

Glennis Meagher: was like, who the F did I marry? Where the F is Kate Middleton, which I also like, don’t really care. Like let Kate.

Heal in peace. Taylor Lorenz was in my group chat because she had a pretty amazing interview. Bing, bing, bing,

Brian Derrick: bing, bing. Yup. Brian, want to take this one? Taylor Lorenz, who is sort of the whisperer of many influencers and has, is a [00:39:00] journalist for the Washington Post, did an in person interview somewhat, somewhat impromptu.

Like I think that it was supposed to be five minutes and ended up being an hour long interview. With who is famous for running the account lives of tick tock, which is this far, far right anti LGBT propaganda machine that like targets hospitals, schools, teachers, super transphobic, like consistently results in death threats and bomb threats to, um, places that are literally hiding.

Yeah, right. Lots of doxing going on, trying to get people fired, has gotten many teachers fired, like things like that. And

Glennis Meagher: doxing, for those who don’t know, is basically when someone exposes your whereabouts, like where you live.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, personal information. Identifiable information, exactly. And so Taylor Lorenz sat down with Chaya, and it Is an incredible interview.

She sort of dismantled her. [00:40:00] Like she had, it was like, um, 404 network error, like connection not found. She just had no answers to anything. No answers

Glennis Meagher: to

Annie Wu Henry: anything. I think that like, I don’t know, I don’t know what she thought because like Taylor is like very. Talented journalist. Absolutely. And I think because she’s like, and this is, I don’t think

Glennis Meagher: she thought anything, Annie.

I don’t think there was. I know she thinks

Annie Wu Henry: do not compute, but like I feel like she thought that she was gonna get there and like own it, but like. You have to answer questions and there was going to be, like, a camera so you can’t, like, skirt around things like maybe you can on the internet. Right, on Twitter.

Brian Derrick: Um, because

Annie Wu Henry: it’s a real life

Brian Derrick: interview. It’s a person that’s talking to you. Yeah, and Taylor’s, like,

Annie Wu Henry: intelligent and good at her job. Totally.

Brian Derrick: It’s a really crazy interaction, like the whole interview, she really has no, she’s like, Taylor’s asking her very basic questions, like, [00:41:00] what is the harm of, like, a trans person existing in the world?

Like, what harm does that cause you or someone else? And zero, yeah, she, yeah, she literally says like, well, there doesn’t have to be a material harm, right? It’s like the answer there doesn’t make any sense.

Glennis Meagher: Annie, thank you so much for joining us.

Brian Derrick: Truly. Thanks for having me. So much great insight. I love, love following you online.

If you’re not already following Annie, you need to at Annie underscore Woo underscore 22. Annie Woo 22. Thanks for coming on Vibes Only.

Glennis Meagher: Thank you, Annie. We’ll see you soon.

Brian Derrick: Our good vibe goodbye for you this week comes from the great state of Arizona. So in Arizona, Governor Katie Hobbs is canceling 2 billion in medical debt for over a million [00:42:00] residents. This is a win on many levels. So in 2022, we flipped. The governor’s seat in Arizona and Joe Biden passed the American Rescue Plan and then boom, here we are two years later, still seeing the benefits of that as Katie Hobbs uses that piece of legislation to now forgive medical debt for people who are in dire need.

It’s

Glennis Meagher: amazing. I would love to see more of this. We know that the health insurance industry in America is Not great. So this was the largest ever initiative to cancel the debt. It was through a partnership with, this name is a little too much for me, but RIP Medical Debt. A little too on the nose.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, totally.

And um, basically this is, this program is going to help Arizonans who are earning less than 400 percent of the federal poverty line or whose debt is 5 percent or more of their income. So the [00:43:00] people who need it most if this is like a I think a redistributive kind of program in the right way where people spending money on medical debt is not helping the economy like that’s not lifting people up.

That’s just a drain on people’s resources. And we should all be able to have the medical care that we need. So I love to see this big win. for Arizona. Big win for Biden again. And thank you, Katie Hobbs. And those are the vibes this week. Thanks again to Annie Wu Henry for joining us. And thank you for listening.

We’d love to make this a two way street. We’ve promised to check the vibes on American politics and to keep the pulse on how voters are feeling in this moment heading into the 2024 election. So we’d love to hear from you. How are you feeling? What questions do you have? Thanks to those of you who have already reached out.

For those that haven’t, don’t be shy. We’d love to answer your questions and share your thoughts on the show. You can email us at vibes at couriernewsroom. com. You can find Courier or Gwyneth and myself on social media. And finally, tune in again [00:44:00] next week to catch our thoughts on your questions or comments.

And of course, Our takes on the need to know political news of the

Glennis Meagher: week. 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, RC Di Mezzo, and Danielle Strasburger. Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of Courier.