1 00:00:05,094 --> 00:00:10,967 I mean, you the old saying, you can't tell me it's raining, you know, while someone's pissing down my leg, right? 2 00:00:13,692 --> 00:00:17,091 Welcome back to the hot dish comfort food for middle America. 3 00:00:17,091 --> 00:00:18,433 I'm Heidi Heitkamp. 4 00:00:18,433 --> 00:00:24,067 And I'm Joel Heitkamp, who are again joined by a hot dish favorite, Jess Piper. 5 00:00:24,067 --> 00:00:33,274 Jess lives on a small town or a small farm, I should say, on the Missouri Iowa border and was born and raised in rural America. 6 00:00:33,274 --> 00:00:39,678 After the 2016 election of Trump, Jess became politically active, ran for office in 2022. 7 00:00:39,678 --> 00:00:45,062 Way to go for state representative in northwest Missouri since then. 8 00:00:45,062 --> 00:00:46,401 You know what she's done? 9 00:00:46,401 --> 00:00:56,449 She's become the executive director of Blue Missouri, a grassroots organization that generates donations for Democratic state house candidates. 10 00:00:56,449 --> 00:01:00,035 Jess, welcome back to the hot dish and thanks for joining us. 11 00:01:00,618 --> 00:01:02,892 really appreciate you guys having me here. 12 00:01:02,892 --> 00:01:05,447 Joel, we got to meet in person not very long ago. 13 00:01:05,447 --> 00:01:08,141 Heidi, I just missed you by a hair. 14 00:01:08,141 --> 00:01:10,024 Thank you for having me on again. 15 00:01:10,194 --> 00:01:12,585 Well, you're absolutely terrific. 16 00:01:12,585 --> 00:01:27,289 And I want to talk about today kind of what do we know about whether the Democratic Party has actually begun to start paying attention to places like North Dakota, like Western 17 00:01:27,289 --> 00:01:35,391 Minnesota, like Missouri, the places that we know that if you run people and if you run good people, you can be competitive. 18 00:01:35,391 --> 00:01:36,551 Are you feeling better? 19 00:01:36,551 --> 00:01:37,552 You're feeling worse? 20 00:01:37,552 --> 00:01:39,285 Or are you just, you know, 21 00:01:39,285 --> 00:01:41,871 Where are you at right now, Jess? 22 00:01:42,396 --> 00:01:43,997 absolutely on fire. 23 00:01:44,138 --> 00:01:45,168 I am excited. 24 00:01:45,168 --> 00:01:46,258 I'm seeing excitement. 25 00:01:46,258 --> 00:01:54,727 And the crazy thing is, is when I report back about this excitement, I have a lot of Democrats who are trying to uh to tamp me down and say, don't get excited. 26 00:01:54,727 --> 00:01:55,487 Things are really bad. 27 00:01:55,487 --> 00:01:56,648 Things are going to be awful forever. 28 00:01:56,648 --> 00:01:57,419 And I'm like, you know what? 29 00:01:57,419 --> 00:01:58,850 They are really bad right now. 30 00:01:58,850 --> 00:02:06,997 But the energy, the excitement, the enthusiasm that I'm seeing all over, you know, on the ground and I'm talking in rule spaces. 31 00:02:06,997 --> 00:02:10,560 I'm going into places where there's like 78 people in the town, right? 32 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,220 I am seeing something that I haven't seen. 33 00:02:13,220 --> 00:02:21,840 I saw a little bit of it when we put Kamala in as the candidate, but then it's sort of, everything just fell apart. 34 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:27,800 And now I'm seeing that enthusiasm coming back and I'm excited because I just saw that I'm sure you guys saw too. 35 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:36,020 There's reporting that Democrats are willing to put seven figures into trying to recruit candidates in rural spaces. 36 00:02:36,289 --> 00:02:41,282 Well, I'm to say this before I ask you my question, which is knock it off. 37 00:02:41,282 --> 00:02:43,463 You came to to North Dakota. 38 00:02:43,463 --> 00:02:48,226 You spoke at the event and everybody expects someone to be that good now. 39 00:02:48,226 --> 00:02:49,707 So, yeah, knock it off. 40 00:02:49,707 --> 00:02:52,769 uh What I would add to that is why? 41 00:02:52,769 --> 00:02:53,950 Why do you feel this good? 42 00:02:53,950 --> 00:02:55,130 Why are you this energetic? 43 00:02:55,130 --> 00:02:56,531 Why are you this hopeful? 44 00:02:57,460 --> 00:03:06,225 Because I live in a maga space, because I live in a red state, a ruby red district that has never elected a woman, hasn't elected a Democrat in 32 years, and I look around me and 45 00:03:06,225 --> 00:03:08,850 see people talking about economics. 46 00:03:08,850 --> 00:03:17,684 I see them saying, what is going on right now is absolutely decimating my budget, which is terrible for people, but they know where the pain is coming from. 47 00:03:17,684 --> 00:03:23,747 And a lot of times that's on us to, when we're knocking doors and doing deep canvassing to try to connect the dots for people. 48 00:03:23,747 --> 00:03:25,828 I'm not having to connect the dots right now. 49 00:03:25,828 --> 00:03:28,489 People automatically know who is in power. 50 00:03:28,489 --> 00:03:32,731 They know the GOP in Missouri has had a super majority for 22 years. 51 00:03:32,731 --> 00:03:33,992 You can't blame a Democrat. 52 00:03:33,992 --> 00:03:36,873 We haven't had a statewide Democrat elected since 2018. 53 00:03:36,873 --> 00:03:38,874 What are you talking about, right? 54 00:03:38,874 --> 00:03:45,925 And then you look at the federal level, they had all three branches, you know, and then they've got SCOTUS captured. 55 00:03:45,925 --> 00:03:50,772 There is no one to blame this pain on except for the Republicans. 56 00:03:51,037 --> 00:03:52,678 Well, and pain it is. 57 00:03:52,678 --> 00:03:55,819 mean, you look at today, I was looking at statistics. 58 00:03:55,819 --> 00:03:57,800 We have record credit card debt. 59 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:07,843 We have record credit card defaults where people aren't able to make their bills um and pay and they're putting necessities on their credit card. 60 00:04:07,843 --> 00:04:12,585 We have rising, you know, insurance costs. 61 00:04:12,585 --> 00:04:17,667 mean, and Trump keeps saying it's the best economy ever. 62 00:04:17,807 --> 00:04:21,060 It's like, and the thing is, is that if you 63 00:04:21,060 --> 00:04:27,943 say something that people don't have personal, kind of a personal connection to, where they don't live it. 64 00:04:27,943 --> 00:04:34,965 But then when you say something that's totally contrary to what's happening in people's lives, you lose a lot of credibility. 65 00:04:35,105 --> 00:04:41,707 my sense is that Donald Trump is starting to gain a reputation of being out of touch. 66 00:04:41,908 --> 00:04:42,946 Isn't that what you think? 67 00:04:42,946 --> 00:04:43,796 think? 68 00:04:44,097 --> 00:04:44,958 It is what I think. 69 00:04:44,958 --> 00:04:47,080 I think that they are over their skis. 70 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,383 You can't tell me that things are better when I can see my receipt from Walmart. 71 00:04:51,383 --> 00:05:01,502 You can't tell me that things are going great when I see soybean farmers, you know, with gravity wagons driving, you know, millions of pounds of soybeans to a bin where they're 72 00:05:01,502 --> 00:05:02,573 going to sit. 73 00:05:02,573 --> 00:05:03,373 I know this. 74 00:05:03,373 --> 00:05:09,478 I know people are talking about, you know, beef from Argentina coming in and what trouble that's going to make for our ranchers. 75 00:05:09,478 --> 00:05:11,712 So I'm just talking about issues that are here. 76 00:05:11,712 --> 00:05:13,572 I'm someone who's on the ACA. 77 00:05:13,572 --> 00:05:15,592 I am self-employed. 78 00:05:15,832 --> 00:05:19,432 My insurance premium right now is a little less than $500. 79 00:05:19,432 --> 00:05:23,392 I just reapplied and it's $1,062 for next year. 80 00:05:23,392 --> 00:05:25,072 I can't do that. 81 00:05:25,072 --> 00:05:26,312 My neighbors can't do that. 82 00:05:26,312 --> 00:05:29,732 They're on Medicare and they're still seeing rises in costs. 83 00:05:29,732 --> 00:05:33,352 They're seeing their doctors leaving and going other places. 84 00:05:33,372 --> 00:05:39,932 You, I mean, you the old saying, you can't tell me it's raining, you know, while someone's pissing down my leg, right? 85 00:05:39,932 --> 00:05:41,072 I mean. 86 00:05:41,313 --> 00:05:43,428 I know what this is and it ain't rain. 87 00:05:43,428 --> 00:05:46,085 So you know, you can't lie to people's face. 88 00:05:46,085 --> 00:05:46,998 They understand. 89 00:05:46,998 --> 00:05:48,991 They see their grocery receipts. 90 00:05:48,991 --> 00:05:57,594 You know, Jess, the one thing I notice is when you're around a group of people and you used to just feel outnumbered, you know, when you used to bring up some of this stuff and 91 00:05:57,594 --> 00:06:01,836 you were like, man, you know, I'm the only one that's in this spot. 92 00:06:01,836 --> 00:06:04,137 That isn't the case as much anymore. 93 00:06:04,137 --> 00:06:07,858 You know, I call it the old man that are VFW all syndrome. 94 00:06:07,858 --> 00:06:12,180 You know, when you go there and Heidi knows a lot about this as well. 95 00:06:12,180 --> 00:06:18,656 uh When you go there, you guys, what you find out now is because of soybeans. 96 00:06:18,656 --> 00:06:19,287 most part. 97 00:06:19,287 --> 00:06:21,930 uh They're ticked off. 98 00:06:21,991 --> 00:06:23,023 They're really ticked off. 99 00:06:23,023 --> 00:06:24,975 And then you add beef into it. 100 00:06:25,076 --> 00:06:28,882 And, you know, they don't want these emergency payments. 101 00:06:28,882 --> 00:06:31,446 Just they don't they want the market. 102 00:06:31,446 --> 00:06:32,548 They'll take them. 103 00:06:32,548 --> 00:06:34,610 Don't get me wrong, but they don't want them. 104 00:06:35,612 --> 00:06:37,624 And that's what we've been saying the whole time. 105 00:06:37,624 --> 00:06:39,655 And people will say, well, they're going to bail them out. 106 00:06:39,655 --> 00:06:41,247 Maybe, maybe he will. 107 00:06:41,247 --> 00:06:42,138 But here's the point. 108 00:06:42,138 --> 00:06:47,123 If they don't have the market, how do you plant next year when you don't have a market for planting? 109 00:06:47,123 --> 00:06:49,726 So people aren't remembering that part. 110 00:06:49,726 --> 00:06:52,734 And I'm seeing people come together, too, just like you are. 111 00:06:52,734 --> 00:06:58,029 I mean, it used to be kind of a quiet thing if you were a rural Democrat, if you're rural progressive. 112 00:06:58,029 --> 00:07:00,421 And now I see people standing up and speaking more. 113 00:07:00,421 --> 00:07:01,393 And you know why? 114 00:07:01,393 --> 00:07:03,755 Because other people are doing the same thing. 115 00:07:03,755 --> 00:07:07,378 When I would knock doors, people would whisper to me and say, I'm the only Democrat on the block. 116 00:07:07,378 --> 00:07:11,382 And I'm like, I just knocked a door, two doors down and they're a Democrat too. 117 00:07:11,382 --> 00:07:12,924 You guys just didn't speak. 118 00:07:12,924 --> 00:07:16,127 You didn't put out signs because you were scared or whatever it was. 119 00:07:16,127 --> 00:07:17,737 But now I'm seeing that. 120 00:07:17,737 --> 00:07:30,382 turn around and people can be proud um of not standing with someone who's been accused of everything from pedophilia to ripping off investors and students. 121 00:07:30,382 --> 00:07:36,915 And so I think we're seeing a lot of people being proud not to be included in that sort of group. 122 00:07:36,915 --> 00:07:40,486 um And so, yeah, I'm seeing a lot of Democrats that are louder. 123 00:07:40,550 --> 00:07:50,075 I think it's interesting because we talk a lot about the bailout and I think we all know that for a lot of these soybean farmers, these are folks who have incredible, like 124 00:07:50,075 --> 00:07:52,087 millions of dollars of assets. 125 00:07:52,087 --> 00:07:55,709 There are people who have had some very good years. 126 00:07:55,709 --> 00:07:58,220 You know, they have a lot of new paint on the farmstead. 127 00:07:58,220 --> 00:08:02,332 That's saying that they aren't contributing to the economy. 128 00:08:02,332 --> 00:08:09,446 But at the same time, what they're saying is we've got billions of dollars to bail you out, but we don't have any money. 129 00:08:09,459 --> 00:08:12,351 to make sure that people can afford their health insurance. 130 00:08:12,351 --> 00:08:16,913 We don't have any money to help people afford their food. 131 00:08:16,913 --> 00:08:22,606 We don't have any money to do the things that would help a lot of the working class folks. 132 00:08:22,606 --> 00:08:33,801 And I always remind people, look, if somebody is making $15 an hour or $10 an hour, that's less than $24,000 a year for a full-time job. 133 00:08:33,801 --> 00:08:39,444 And so I think that those are the people who step back and say, 134 00:08:40,104 --> 00:08:44,978 I don't know that they really understand that I can't afford the gas in my car. 135 00:08:44,978 --> 00:08:47,489 I can't afford the car insurance. 136 00:08:47,489 --> 00:08:56,375 And God forbid that my car would break down and I would have to buy a part that now is experiencing outrageous increases in prices because of tariffs. 137 00:08:56,375 --> 00:08:58,757 And so I think they get it. 138 00:08:58,757 --> 00:09:04,410 And I think Trump in some weird way gets it too, but he didn't have any solutions. 139 00:09:05,554 --> 00:09:08,785 and you're talking about something that I was just thinking about today. 140 00:09:08,785 --> 00:09:10,945 They don't have solutions for anything. 141 00:09:10,945 --> 00:09:18,467 I saw them, you know, talking about a new plan, their healthcare rollout, which we've been waiting for for nine years. 142 00:09:18,467 --> 00:09:20,788 It was two weeks, you know, and it's been nine years. 143 00:09:20,788 --> 00:09:27,870 But it looks like Trump is going to do the same thing that the Democrats were asking for if he does anything at all, and that's extend the subsidies. 144 00:09:27,870 --> 00:09:29,651 And I'm like, why are you guys like this? 145 00:09:29,651 --> 00:09:33,952 Why don't you have any ideas about helping the people around you? 146 00:09:33,952 --> 00:09:35,392 And you're right to say, 147 00:09:35,392 --> 00:09:39,092 that people like my kids, my kids did all the right things. 148 00:09:39,092 --> 00:09:41,512 They got apprenticeships for carpentry. 149 00:09:41,512 --> 00:09:44,712 One is a soldier, and another one was a teacher. 150 00:09:44,712 --> 00:09:51,032 And he's now quit teaching because he couldn't afford to live as a teacher in this state. 151 00:09:51,032 --> 00:09:55,372 And people like me, I finally got to the age where I thought I've got most of the kids out of the house. 152 00:09:55,372 --> 00:09:57,372 I can start saving for retirement. 153 00:09:57,372 --> 00:09:59,192 I can't save for retirement. 154 00:09:59,192 --> 00:10:00,884 My kids need me to help. 155 00:10:00,884 --> 00:10:01,445 them. 156 00:10:01,445 --> 00:10:02,886 They can't get by. 157 00:10:02,886 --> 00:10:04,287 They can't buy houses. 158 00:10:04,287 --> 00:10:07,339 They can't afford child care and all of these things. 159 00:10:07,339 --> 00:10:17,126 And like I said, when all these things, you know, bubble up and people look around, you can really tell who is trying to, you know, help you in some way pass some sort of 160 00:10:17,126 --> 00:10:20,739 legislation, you know, to reduce child care costs or health care costs. 161 00:10:20,739 --> 00:10:22,698 And the other ones who are like, screw you. 162 00:10:22,698 --> 00:10:23,609 We don't care about you. 163 00:10:23,609 --> 00:10:24,911 We're not working for you. 164 00:10:24,911 --> 00:10:34,128 And that's basically like in states like Missouri and probably North Dakota and a lot of places too where you can look at your representatives and they're like, I don't care. 165 00:10:34,128 --> 00:10:35,703 I don't care what you have to say. 166 00:10:35,703 --> 00:10:37,404 I'm not working for you. 167 00:10:37,514 --> 00:10:39,054 So two points I want to make. 168 00:10:39,054 --> 00:10:42,455 The first point being that we've all seen the polls. 169 00:10:42,455 --> 00:10:44,596 We know where the approval ratings are. 170 00:10:44,596 --> 00:10:49,127 I just think it's like a movie that you've seen five, six, seven times. 171 00:10:49,127 --> 00:10:50,278 You're sick of it. 172 00:10:50,278 --> 00:10:53,539 know, and the movie has a bad ending. 173 00:10:53,539 --> 00:10:55,279 Let me ask both of you this. 174 00:10:55,279 --> 00:11:01,581 I'm really curious what you think about this, because on my talk show, I said a number of times. 175 00:11:01,581 --> 00:11:05,282 Eighty year old man, I don't care what side of the aisle you're from. 176 00:11:05,282 --> 00:11:07,802 shouldn't be president of the United States. 177 00:11:07,802 --> 00:11:12,002 If you're 34, you don't get to be president of the United States. 178 00:11:12,002 --> 00:11:15,022 Well, if you're 80, you sure shouldn't be able to. 179 00:11:15,022 --> 00:11:20,142 Is anybody noticing how physically he's breaking down? 180 00:11:20,242 --> 00:11:25,502 I mean, I don't care which one of you two answered this, but he doesn't look so good, you guys. 181 00:11:26,708 --> 00:11:28,279 He's sleeping through interviews. 182 00:11:28,279 --> 00:11:34,882 I just watched an interview of him with Marco Rubio speaking next to him and he is dozing off. 183 00:11:34,882 --> 00:11:37,394 There's something very wrong with him. 184 00:11:37,394 --> 00:11:40,596 And when you talk about things like that, I don't wanna be ageist. 185 00:11:40,596 --> 00:11:43,097 I don't wanna come across as ageist at all. 186 00:11:43,097 --> 00:11:48,714 But you've got Chuck Grassley who will be 96 and has not said he's not going to run. 187 00:11:48,714 --> 00:11:49,966 for Congress again. 188 00:11:49,966 --> 00:11:51,739 mean, something's gotta give. 189 00:11:51,739 --> 00:12:01,343 You've got Mitch McConnell, who has terrible health issues, falling down and passing out when he should be on the Capitol floor. 190 00:12:01,343 --> 00:12:04,868 So I see he's breaking down. 191 00:12:05,181 --> 00:12:12,866 Well, I think the reason why he's falling asleep is because he rage tweeted a hundred tweets the night before. 192 00:12:12,866 --> 00:12:14,367 I don't think he sleeps. 193 00:12:14,367 --> 00:12:22,212 mean, I think he needs a melatonin or something that is going to put him back on. 194 00:12:22,232 --> 00:12:30,497 But I'll tell you, the reason why he gets by with that and Joe Biden didn't is because he'll walk to the back of the plane and mix it up with the reporters. 195 00:12:32,019 --> 00:12:34,380 The things that he likes to do, 196 00:12:34,438 --> 00:12:41,835 which is to be in the limelight, to be talking, even if he says ridiculous things, he can still do those. 197 00:12:41,835 --> 00:12:57,029 And so, I think that people say, look, yeah, he may be taking a nap in middle of important meetings, but he's still mixing it up and making decisions that I either like or I don't 198 00:12:57,029 --> 00:12:57,449 like. 199 00:12:57,449 --> 00:13:00,592 so, Joel, I'm not, I mean... 200 00:13:00,592 --> 00:13:05,732 I know this dust up with Governor Walz talking about, you know, what's the MRI? 201 00:13:05,732 --> 00:13:12,575 I think this is funny because my husband said, you know, when he said he had an MRI, no one, you get an MRI for a lot of reasons. 202 00:13:12,575 --> 00:13:15,606 No one doubted it wasn't an MRI of his brain. 203 00:13:15,606 --> 00:13:19,047 It was taken for granted, right? 204 00:13:19,047 --> 00:13:20,167 It could have been his knee. 205 00:13:20,167 --> 00:13:22,358 It could have been his, you know, chest. 206 00:13:22,358 --> 00:13:29,540 But, um you know, I think that there is some camouflage going on about his healthcare needs, but. 207 00:13:29,540 --> 00:13:40,438 As long as he gets up and he's feisty and throws those punches, know, whether it's, you know, shut up, piggy or whatever it is, you know, people will say he's still able. 208 00:13:40,566 --> 00:13:43,247 Yeah, but he's always been good at drawing attention. 209 00:13:43,247 --> 00:13:47,139 I mean, he always has been ask his, you know, look at what his sister said about him. 210 00:13:47,139 --> 00:13:49,030 Look what his niece says about him. 211 00:13:49,030 --> 00:13:50,330 But it's different. 212 00:13:50,330 --> 00:13:51,661 I mean, it's just different. 213 00:13:51,661 --> 00:13:57,973 mean, all have lived that kind of life where we've worked outside, worked with our hands, you know, that type of thing. 214 00:13:57,973 --> 00:13:59,274 I don't believe he ever has. 215 00:13:59,274 --> 00:14:03,756 But, you know, so I think that there's bound to be a little less deterioration. 216 00:14:03,756 --> 00:14:06,657 You know, it may be a bone spur on your foot here and there. 217 00:14:06,657 --> 00:14:10,038 But what I'm talking about is just 218 00:14:10,135 --> 00:14:15,312 the way he talks, just the way he walks. 219 00:14:15,312 --> 00:14:16,554 I might be overstating this. 220 00:14:16,554 --> 00:14:17,966 I don't believe I am. 221 00:14:17,966 --> 00:14:21,250 I think that they're not telling us something. 222 00:14:21,250 --> 00:14:24,144 uh think we're going to find some things out. 223 00:14:24,419 --> 00:14:25,259 I agree with that. 224 00:14:25,259 --> 00:14:29,293 I think that there is more to the story than is being told right now. 225 00:14:29,293 --> 00:14:34,947 But the bottom line is he still holds the party with an iron fist. 226 00:14:34,947 --> 00:14:38,300 He still is making the decisions. 227 00:14:38,300 --> 00:14:40,211 It seems to be slipping a little bit. 228 00:14:40,211 --> 00:14:50,740 um Jess, I want to talk a little bit about Tennessee because that election, as we're talking right now, people are out voting and you've worked with 229 00:14:51,027 --> 00:14:52,705 the Democratic candidate in 230 00:14:52,705 --> 00:14:58,607 You've been working with that candidate, talking about how to talk about rural issues, and I want you to visit about that. 231 00:14:58,607 --> 00:15:05,329 But I think one thing that's remarkable about that campaign is the Republican has not embraced Trump. 232 00:15:05,329 --> 00:15:07,911 They haven't run any ads saying, I love Donald Trump. 233 00:15:07,911 --> 00:15:10,633 I'm going there to, I mean, it's been very local. 234 00:15:10,633 --> 00:15:16,237 So are you seeing that trend kind of across the board in, uh certainly in the South? 235 00:15:16,819 --> 00:15:21,281 mean, I am, and Afton Bain is an absolutely incredible candidate. 236 00:15:21,281 --> 00:15:22,861 You couldn't ask for a better candidate. 237 00:15:22,861 --> 00:15:24,702 She's very connected to rural voters. 238 00:15:24,702 --> 00:15:31,524 m She's worked in a space where she has gone out and tried to warn her constituents that ICE is coming. 239 00:15:31,524 --> 00:15:39,357 um She was thrown out of the um General Assembly Room when she was 19 or 20 because she was protesting. 240 00:15:39,357 --> 00:15:48,944 the abortion ban and they have these crazy pictures of her like holding on to a railing and the state police pulling her away and they're like trying to make her some sort of 241 00:15:48,944 --> 00:15:49,351 criminal. 242 00:15:49,351 --> 00:15:51,896 And I was like, no, she was standing up for your rights. 243 00:15:51,896 --> 00:16:00,943 uh But she understands um what it's like to live in a rural space and to be able to talk to rural people about what's going on. 244 00:16:00,943 --> 00:16:04,736 She's worked with rural organizing for a decade nearly. 245 00:16:04,736 --> 00:16:05,906 So. 246 00:16:06,237 --> 00:16:07,227 She's a great candidate. 247 00:16:07,227 --> 00:16:11,270 And on top of that, you also have a very, very unpopular president. 248 00:16:11,270 --> 00:16:22,196 So you have, you know, her uh opponent, like you said, not leaning into Trumpism because he can't, because he's, you know, he's embroiled in the Epstein mess because of the 249 00:16:22,196 --> 00:16:28,239 tariffs, because we are, you know, committing war crimes by bombing Venezuelan fishing boats. 250 00:16:28,239 --> 00:16:32,662 And that's really deeply concerning to Republicans. 251 00:16:32,662 --> 00:16:35,333 uh He told them no more wars. 252 00:16:35,333 --> 00:16:37,085 And what is he doing right now? 253 00:16:37,085 --> 00:16:42,008 So there's a lot of reasons this uh opponent of Afton's can't latch on to Trump. 254 00:16:42,008 --> 00:16:46,212 And every single one of them is, um you know, real to his voters. 255 00:16:46,212 --> 00:16:48,313 So he has to distance himself. 256 00:16:48,313 --> 00:16:51,495 And like you said, I mean, this is a long shot. 257 00:16:51,495 --> 00:16:55,479 But if anyone could get it done, if anyone could get it done, it's Afton. 258 00:16:55,479 --> 00:17:01,053 And it couldn't be at a better time because of what is going on, you know, with Republicans. 259 00:17:01,375 --> 00:17:03,818 So, Heidi, my question is to you. 260 00:17:03,818 --> 00:17:05,279 What's a win here? 261 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,605 As we have this conversation, know, voting is going on in Tennessee. 262 00:17:09,605 --> 00:17:17,564 uh Obviously, a lot of folks that are going to watch and listen to this uh here on the hot dish are going to know what the results are. 263 00:17:17,564 --> 00:17:18,145 I get that. 264 00:17:18,145 --> 00:17:21,649 But what do you think a win is in this election? 265 00:17:21,893 --> 00:17:26,354 I think a win is for her to come within four or five points. 266 00:17:26,354 --> 00:17:33,196 um And certainly, you know, it would be earth shattering if she won in that district. 267 00:17:33,196 --> 00:17:46,540 But this has been a trend all along, including special elections in Florida, the special elections that we saw uh in the elections that we saw in uh New Jersey, which was a 268 00:17:46,540 --> 00:17:48,420 landslide that no one predicted. 269 00:17:48,420 --> 00:17:50,021 They thought it was only going to be three points. 270 00:17:50,021 --> 00:17:51,727 It ended up double digits. 271 00:17:51,727 --> 00:17:55,938 Abigail did really well in Virginia. 272 00:17:55,938 --> 00:18:01,380 And so what I do is I look at the margins and how much of that has shifted. 273 00:18:01,380 --> 00:18:10,502 I also look at the rural vote and in all those places, there's been a come home or a tapping down of turnout. 274 00:18:10,642 --> 00:18:16,814 I wouldn't say necessarily people changing their mind, but Trump keeps saying, well, I wasn't on the ballot. 275 00:18:16,814 --> 00:18:18,244 Trump's always on the ballot. 276 00:18:18,244 --> 00:18:21,362 He's no matter what, he's always on the ballot. 277 00:18:21,362 --> 00:18:28,085 But by the same token, wasn't, mean, uh people are like, well, I don't care about that race. 278 00:18:28,085 --> 00:18:31,846 And so they are what we call low propensity voters. 279 00:18:31,846 --> 00:18:35,728 And so right now what you have is high propensity voters, i.e. 280 00:18:35,728 --> 00:18:40,170 motivated Democrats who are going out and making huge statements. 281 00:18:40,170 --> 00:18:49,455 And if that continues into the midterms, a uh margin of five or less will scare the shit. 282 00:18:49,455 --> 00:18:52,282 out of the Republican majority in the House. 283 00:18:52,801 --> 00:18:54,195 What do think, Jess? 284 00:18:55,379 --> 00:19:00,020 I think she's got a shot and I think that Heidi is spot on. 285 00:19:00,020 --> 00:19:07,482 The whole thing too about running everywhere is that is reducing those margins in places like where I ran. 286 00:19:07,539 --> 00:19:09,103 I didn't have a shot. 287 00:19:09,103 --> 00:19:11,123 Okay, I got 25 % of the vote. 288 00:19:11,123 --> 00:19:18,145 But the fact that we're telling people just leave that 25 % on the table is outrageous, right? 289 00:19:18,145 --> 00:19:24,691 The fact that we say there's no way that you can win so there's no reason to run is insanity because 290 00:19:24,691 --> 00:19:29,852 getting all those people to run in districts that won't flip, still gets people out. 291 00:19:29,852 --> 00:19:31,513 They're still voting. 292 00:19:31,673 --> 00:19:33,994 you know, change happens at the top. 293 00:19:33,994 --> 00:19:35,644 And everyone's really focused right now. 294 00:19:35,644 --> 00:19:41,335 And we can focus on Afton because she's the only congressional race, you know, in the game at the moment. 295 00:19:41,335 --> 00:19:46,427 I think, I think there's, uh there's movement for change. 296 00:19:46,427 --> 00:19:54,949 And even if she doesn't flip that tonight or tomorrow, it's still, it's going to scare the shit out of them, just like Heidi said. 297 00:19:55,607 --> 00:19:59,447 Yeah, from my standpoint, you're first off, you're spot on right. 298 00:19:59,447 --> 00:20:07,747 Having served in the legislature for 14 years, the races that we didn't win for sure were the ones where we didn't have a candidate. 299 00:20:07,747 --> 00:20:09,727 We knew we were going to lose those ones. 300 00:20:09,727 --> 00:20:10,727 Right. 301 00:20:10,727 --> 00:20:15,027 And so, you know, we're looking for candidates in my home district. 302 00:20:15,027 --> 00:20:18,027 And normally people don't take meetings. 303 00:20:18,167 --> 00:20:19,087 They're taking meetings. 304 00:20:19,087 --> 00:20:22,447 You know, I and a couple others are on the search committee. 305 00:20:22,447 --> 00:20:25,462 And, you know, we've got 306 00:20:25,462 --> 00:20:28,233 a couple of really good people interested. 307 00:20:28,233 --> 00:20:33,594 And these aren't, know, boy, I'll just put my name on the ballot kind of guys. 308 00:20:33,594 --> 00:20:37,535 I mean, these are the guys that are willing to go find out if the little dogs bite. 309 00:20:37,535 --> 00:20:39,016 I mean, they're going to knock on doors. 310 00:20:39,016 --> 00:20:42,487 uh So I don't know if you're seeing that. 311 00:20:42,487 --> 00:20:45,297 I know that that's what you've been working so hard on, Jess. 312 00:20:45,297 --> 00:20:47,958 uh But I like it. 313 00:20:47,958 --> 00:20:52,239 I like that I don't feel like I have to beg people as much as I did before. 314 00:20:52,965 --> 00:21:03,620 The one thing I want to say to Joel is when you run candidates, and you actually have a dialogue, you can change minds and people say, Oh, you know, I, I agree with that. 315 00:21:03,620 --> 00:21:06,231 Jess, she's she's right about schools. 316 00:21:06,231 --> 00:21:09,182 She's right about what's happening with county roads. 317 00:21:09,182 --> 00:21:10,953 She's her township roads. 318 00:21:10,953 --> 00:21:21,607 And you know, so they may not vote for it because they're Republicans, but she normalizes the Democratic Party, she had done and when when the only thing that people see 319 00:21:21,607 --> 00:21:27,279 who are Democrats, is Washington Democrats, we're gonna continue to lose. 320 00:21:27,279 --> 00:21:37,283 And that's why we need to run local Democrats, Democrats who understand these issues, Democrats who aren't walking lockstep with the National Democratic Party, people who have 321 00:21:37,283 --> 00:21:38,724 different ideas. 322 00:21:39,444 --> 00:21:41,005 We don't have litmus tests. 323 00:21:41,005 --> 00:21:44,846 And so to me, all of that is a rebranding. 324 00:21:44,846 --> 00:21:51,499 Getting people to run is a rebranding exercise that we desperately need in the middle of the country. 325 00:21:52,349 --> 00:21:52,900 It really is. 326 00:21:52,900 --> 00:22:00,156 And you know, I knocked on a whole lot of doors and the difference between what I want and what a Republican wants is this much, that much. 327 00:22:00,156 --> 00:22:04,220 And people would always say, they would listen to everything I said and agree with it. 328 00:22:04,220 --> 00:22:10,447 And then of course, you know, they'd say, well, I'm a Christian, I can't vote for you, but ah we can get, we can get past that. 329 00:22:10,447 --> 00:22:18,143 And that's what a lot of people know, need to know if they're, you know, paying attention to national politics and don't really know much about the heartland or anything like that. 330 00:22:18,143 --> 00:22:22,803 Religion is very tied up in the politics and vice versa. 331 00:22:22,803 --> 00:22:26,503 So that's something that we need local candidates for. 332 00:22:26,503 --> 00:22:28,943 And people ask me all the time, what's the best candidate? 333 00:22:28,943 --> 00:22:31,023 What is your ideal candidate? 334 00:22:31,023 --> 00:22:40,623 The only ideal candidate is the candidate who understands their neighbors, who understands their community, who understands their district, because you don't have to have the crazy, 335 00:22:41,123 --> 00:22:43,923 wild, whatever it is. 336 00:22:44,139 --> 00:22:44,920 to win. 337 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,141 You just have to know your space. 338 00:22:47,141 --> 00:22:54,805 And that's why you said, Heidi, uh when you're talking about national Democrats, what goes in DC is not going to go in Burlington Junction, Missouri. 339 00:22:54,805 --> 00:22:56,055 We've got to understand that. 340 00:22:56,055 --> 00:22:59,307 And that's why you have your local candidates knocking doors. 341 00:22:59,307 --> 00:23:02,969 Even if they're not going to win, it's still changing minds. 342 00:23:02,969 --> 00:23:06,090 When I knocked doors, people couldn't believe I was a Democrat. 343 00:23:06,090 --> 00:23:07,783 I don't look like what they show. 344 00:23:07,783 --> 00:23:09,864 on Fox News or OAN or Newsmax. 345 00:23:09,864 --> 00:23:11,905 I don't fit any of those categories. 346 00:23:11,905 --> 00:23:22,311 They cannot believe that I talk like them, that I'm from where they're from, that I'm a gun owner, that I'm a grandma, that I do, that I'm, you know, we have cows and chickens 347 00:23:22,311 --> 00:23:28,014 and a little donkey that I absolutely adore because I'm from this community. 348 00:23:28,014 --> 00:23:29,635 I represent the community. 349 00:23:29,635 --> 00:23:36,379 And that's how we win is putting people on the ballot that represent their community. 350 00:23:36,747 --> 00:23:39,108 I want to throw something into the conversation, though. 351 00:23:39,108 --> 00:23:46,611 The other it had to been about three weeks ago, I spoke at a Democratic event uh just in Minnesota. 352 00:23:46,671 --> 00:23:49,112 Normally a crowd of 100, a crowd of 250. 353 00:23:49,112 --> 00:23:51,583 And it wasn't because Joel Heitkamp was going there. 354 00:23:51,583 --> 00:23:52,124 Trust me. 355 00:23:52,124 --> 00:23:53,124 They're energized. 356 00:23:53,124 --> 00:23:53,834 They're excited. 357 00:23:53,834 --> 00:23:55,015 They've got candidates. 358 00:23:55,015 --> 00:24:00,717 uh But I said some things that night that tick some people off. 359 00:24:00,717 --> 00:24:04,599 And I'm going to throw this into our conversation, which is, look, 360 00:24:04,599 --> 00:24:06,700 uh We can have social issues. 361 00:24:06,700 --> 00:24:07,641 We can. 362 00:24:07,641 --> 00:24:12,714 And those social issues, think Democrats will be there uh to do the right thing on. 363 00:24:12,714 --> 00:24:15,336 But that isn't what these races are about. 364 00:24:15,336 --> 00:24:22,821 And if we focus on them, all we're doing is playing into the hand of what the Republicans want us to talk about. 365 00:24:22,821 --> 00:24:25,923 I think we did that in the last presidential race. 366 00:24:25,923 --> 00:24:30,716 I think we do that in the motivation why certain candidates come into the race. 367 00:24:30,857 --> 00:24:34,519 And, you know, afterwards, 368 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:36,781 Watch me get in trouble here. 369 00:24:37,102 --> 00:24:50,153 Afterwards, I had a mother of someone who is dealing with their sexuality uh come up and just chew my ass and say, listen, you know, these are the issues. 370 00:24:50,153 --> 00:24:53,936 And I said, I could not possibly disagree with you more. 371 00:24:53,937 --> 00:24:57,160 Those are the issues that we need to be there and help. 372 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:01,303 But if we're not talking about roads and bridges and water and sewer and. 373 00:25:01,447 --> 00:25:11,846 As you mentioned, you know, the activities is your church and how you got to sing every verse at the Lutheran Church, whereas at the Catholic one, we don't, you know, if I mean 374 00:25:11,846 --> 00:25:15,920 those things, Jess, uh that got me in a little trouble that night. 375 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,802 But I saw a lot of heads doing this when I brought it up. 376 00:25:18,802 --> 00:25:20,383 I don't know what you see. 377 00:25:21,427 --> 00:25:24,478 I see that obviously we support trans people. 378 00:25:24,478 --> 00:25:26,830 Obviously we support abortion rights. 379 00:25:26,830 --> 00:25:30,091 Obviously we support the LGBT community. 380 00:25:30,091 --> 00:25:38,215 However, when you're knocking on a door, and this works both ways, I never had someone come to the door and ask about the bathroom a kid uses at school. 381 00:25:38,215 --> 00:25:39,355 Never. 382 00:25:39,427 --> 00:25:47,059 I never had someone say, but my kid might lose out on a scholarship to Mizzou because of a trans athlete. 383 00:25:47,059 --> 00:25:48,179 Never. 384 00:25:48,179 --> 00:26:00,117 So the things that we need to focus on are things that everybody is concerned about while also being completely upset, know, accepting of our party and what we stand for for 385 00:26:00,117 --> 00:26:01,028 everybody. 386 00:26:01,028 --> 00:26:03,129 And that means everybody. 387 00:26:03,130 --> 00:26:07,153 you know, rural people aren't marginalized people. 388 00:26:07,153 --> 00:26:09,964 However, they kind of are, right? 389 00:26:09,964 --> 00:26:12,316 They don't really matter to most people. 390 00:26:12,316 --> 00:26:16,339 And so I kind of, and because, you know, I have relatives that... 391 00:26:16,339 --> 00:26:18,000 that fall all over the spectrum. 392 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,841 I understand what it feels like to feel like you don't matter. 393 00:26:21,841 --> 00:26:23,382 And maybe that's what that mom thought. 394 00:26:23,382 --> 00:26:25,783 Maybe she thought that you said, my son doesn't matter. 395 00:26:25,783 --> 00:26:27,003 It's not what you said. 396 00:26:27,003 --> 00:26:29,585 What you said is, of course your son matters. 397 00:26:29,585 --> 00:26:36,748 But I don't know if I need to talk about trans kids when I'm knocking on a door, unless it comes up, right? 398 00:26:36,748 --> 00:26:45,351 But other than that, what you're doing is what Democrats do, have this huge umbrella where people can fit in and find 399 00:26:45,452 --> 00:26:49,443 their group and know that they're supported and loved for who they are. 400 00:26:50,017 --> 00:26:51,829 Well, I agree with all of that. 401 00:26:51,829 --> 00:26:52,690 I do. 402 00:26:52,690 --> 00:26:59,637 I'm just saying that every campaign I've ever seen win and Heidi, you did this when you ran for the Senate and you won. 403 00:26:59,637 --> 00:27:02,620 It wasn't 10, 15 issues. 404 00:27:02,620 --> 00:27:03,401 It wasn't. 405 00:27:03,401 --> 00:27:06,744 You had message and you stayed on message. 406 00:27:06,744 --> 00:27:08,916 And, you know, everybody has their own message. 407 00:27:08,916 --> 00:27:14,251 But what I'm telling everybody when I speak at these different events is. 408 00:27:14,581 --> 00:27:20,181 find the message that connects with the majority of the people out there that's on their mind. 409 00:27:20,181 --> 00:27:23,026 You said that earlier, Jess, you say that in your book. 410 00:27:23,026 --> 00:27:28,317 uh I just think we as Democrats fall into that rat hole way too many times. 411 00:27:28,317 --> 00:27:32,957 Yeah, and I think that we don't know how to kind of respond. 412 00:27:32,957 --> 00:27:40,857 I always go back, Joel, to what our dad used to say when we come home and complain about somebody, say, well, how's that person hurting you? 413 00:27:41,197 --> 00:27:42,977 How's that person hurting you? 414 00:27:42,977 --> 00:27:45,017 I mean, you know, why do you care? 415 00:27:45,157 --> 00:27:51,017 You know, you should care about whether you can afford, you know, to put tires on your car. 416 00:27:51,017 --> 00:27:55,097 You should care about whether you can afford to send your kids to college. 417 00:27:55,097 --> 00:27:58,385 You should care about whether you can afford your health insurance. 418 00:27:58,385 --> 00:28:04,268 Those are things that are uh the economic issues that define us. 419 00:28:04,268 --> 00:28:10,552 you know, I always say that people say, well, what's the difference between Democrats and Republicans? 420 00:28:10,552 --> 00:28:16,775 And I always say Democrats believe in trickle up and Republicans believe in trickle down. 421 00:28:16,775 --> 00:28:22,098 I mean, they think if the money goes to the richest, eventually that will make the economy better. 422 00:28:22,098 --> 00:28:25,580 I said the Democrats have always been the party that invests in people. 423 00:28:25,580 --> 00:28:27,470 They invest in human beings. 424 00:28:27,470 --> 00:28:29,531 And that's what we're about. 425 00:28:29,531 --> 00:28:38,855 We're about making sure that every child has a chance, that every child has a good start, that every family has an opportunity to be successful. 426 00:28:38,855 --> 00:28:50,510 And for us in rural America, that that challenge is getting tougher and tougher because not just because of what's happening with the ag economy, but also rural America is small 427 00:28:50,510 --> 00:28:53,573 manufacturers, the tariffs are tearing apart. 428 00:28:53,573 --> 00:28:57,873 our small manufacturing base, the mom and pop manufacturers aren't making it. 429 00:28:57,873 --> 00:29:07,281 I mean, you hear story after story and, you know, debt is becoming a huge problem and it, you know, healthcare is gonna be a huge issue. 430 00:29:07,281 --> 00:29:11,113 And so there's a lot for us to talk about in rural America. 431 00:29:11,113 --> 00:29:13,325 Are we gonna win back rural America? 432 00:29:13,325 --> 00:29:20,917 You know, we're probably not gonna win in rural America, but I will tell you, if we pick up 15 points, we can win everywhere. 433 00:29:20,917 --> 00:29:27,034 Yeah, Jess, obviously we're going to have to go when you want to go because you're out there changing the world. 434 00:29:27,034 --> 00:29:28,779 But how do people find your book? 435 00:29:28,779 --> 00:29:30,031 Tell people about it. 436 00:29:30,729 --> 00:29:34,575 So I haven't written a book yet, but maybe someday, but I do have a sub stack. 437 00:29:34,575 --> 00:29:37,964 So that may be what you're referring to, but I'm. 438 00:29:37,964 --> 00:29:41,009 my sister-in-law hand me a bunch of stuff to read that you wrote? 439 00:29:41,009 --> 00:29:42,471 What's this all about? 440 00:29:42,499 --> 00:29:45,341 So I write a sub stack two or three times a week. 441 00:29:45,341 --> 00:29:46,872 I put out an essay. 442 00:29:46,872 --> 00:29:50,925 So I probably should maybe combine those, but it's the view from rural Missouri. 443 00:29:50,925 --> 00:29:53,767 And I talk about what's going on in the heartland. 444 00:29:53,767 --> 00:30:04,034 um you guys, if you're not on sub stack, maybe you should think about it too, because we have a lot of friends on the coast who thought, you know what? 445 00:30:04,034 --> 00:30:06,396 People in Missouri just vote against their self-interest. 446 00:30:06,396 --> 00:30:07,997 And then I told them, you know what? 447 00:30:07,997 --> 00:30:09,708 I don't have anyone to vote for. 448 00:30:09,708 --> 00:30:11,799 And they're like, oh my god. 449 00:30:12,111 --> 00:30:14,622 I had no idea you didn't have Democrats running. 450 00:30:14,622 --> 00:30:19,193 So the view from rural Missouri, I'm on the platforms except for Twitter. 451 00:30:19,193 --> 00:30:21,464 I ghosted 160,000 people. 452 00:30:21,464 --> 00:30:22,591 I am done. 453 00:30:22,591 --> 00:30:28,306 And you guys know about that big dust up about how all those accounts were actually from other countries. 454 00:30:28,306 --> 00:30:30,337 So I'm glad I left now. 455 00:30:30,337 --> 00:30:38,419 But I really do appreciate both of you and thank you for having me on even with my technical difficulties because I live in BFE. 456 00:30:38,685 --> 00:30:39,437 Ha ha ha! 457 00:30:39,437 --> 00:30:39,811 uh 458 00:30:39,811 --> 00:30:43,091 that's why Renee gave me a stack of papers too. 459 00:30:43,271 --> 00:30:46,011 So Jess, thanks for joining us here on the hot dish. 460 00:30:46,011 --> 00:30:47,087 Appreciate it. 461 00:30:47,159 --> 00:30:53,506 and you are just absolutely the right solution for the problem that we have in rural America. 462 00:30:53,506 --> 00:31:02,246 Keep it up and if we can uh kind of, if we can get one of you in every one of these states, guess what? 463 00:31:02,246 --> 00:31:03,548 The world will change. 464 00:31:03,548 --> 00:31:04,841 There's no doubt about it. 465 00:31:04,841 --> 00:31:05,412 Thank you, friends. 466 00:31:05,412 --> 00:31:07,838 And I guarantee you, there is one of me in every state. 467 00:31:07,838 --> 00:31:11,485 They just, they weren't obnoxious enough online. 468 00:31:12,368 --> 00:31:13,069 Thank you. 469 00:31:13,069 --> 00:31:13,617 m 470 00:31:13,617 --> 00:31:13,968 Jess. 471 00:31:13,968 --> 00:31:15,411 Thanks for joining us. 472 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:25,661 So, Heidi, I want to talk about loyalty. 473 00:31:25,661 --> 00:31:34,146 uh In this case, it isn't so much the loyalty of uh a person to the president of United States like Pete Hagseth does. 474 00:31:34,146 --> 00:31:36,227 I'm sure he mows Donald Trump's yard. 475 00:31:36,227 --> 00:31:38,128 I'm talking about the other way around. 476 00:31:38,128 --> 00:31:44,272 I'm talking about the loyalty that Donald Trump has to people that he knows are trouble. 477 00:31:44,272 --> 00:31:45,913 In this case, Pete Hagseth. 478 00:31:45,913 --> 00:31:52,136 I mean, what we saw happen uh in the high seas is disgusting. 479 00:31:52,409 --> 00:31:54,432 is nothing but disgusting. 480 00:31:54,432 --> 00:31:59,820 And where do you see your old friends in Congress, in the United States Senate taking this? 481 00:32:00,676 --> 00:32:06,431 I will guarantee you that there are pullaways. 482 00:32:06,431 --> 00:32:15,548 By that I mean people going onto the floor of the Senate, pulling people aside and saying, really, you're going to let this happen? 483 00:32:15,608 --> 00:32:18,471 This is what you think is appropriate. 484 00:32:18,471 --> 00:32:25,056 And I think Roger Wicker uh this weekend stood tall and said, you know, this needs to be investigated. 485 00:32:25,056 --> 00:32:28,919 I think that Mike Rogers said the same thing over in the House. 486 00:32:28,919 --> 00:32:30,280 And so I think 487 00:32:30,376 --> 00:32:35,330 It just, the look of this is just so bad. 488 00:32:35,330 --> 00:32:37,062 And you saw what Hegseth did. 489 00:32:37,062 --> 00:32:39,343 He threw the Admiral under the bus. 490 00:32:40,545 --> 00:32:43,147 What a great leader he is. 491 00:32:43,147 --> 00:32:45,509 And I didn't see it. 492 00:32:45,509 --> 00:32:53,745 Mr., I'm the Secretary of War, somehow doesn't know what's happening with something absolutely that significant. 493 00:32:53,745 --> 00:32:59,680 so my concern is at what point do 494 00:32:59,874 --> 00:33:03,507 The other Latin American countries say enough is enough. 495 00:33:03,507 --> 00:33:06,830 This is, I mean, you might expect this from Russia. 496 00:33:06,830 --> 00:33:09,852 We never expected this from the United States of America. 497 00:33:10,034 --> 00:33:13,556 And I think it goes further than the Latin American countries. 498 00:33:13,556 --> 00:33:17,249 think it goes to uh Europe. 499 00:33:17,509 --> 00:33:20,011 I think that they look at us and say, you know what? 500 00:33:20,011 --> 00:33:21,432 You can't trust these guys. 501 00:33:21,432 --> 00:33:23,363 You can't trust them with information. 502 00:33:23,363 --> 00:33:25,855 You can't trust them as allies. 503 00:33:25,855 --> 00:33:27,916 They turn on you in two seconds. 504 00:33:27,916 --> 00:33:30,758 I think it goes beyond that. 505 00:33:30,758 --> 00:33:35,652 But I don't trust these guys, the Republicans, to actually do what's right on this. 506 00:33:35,652 --> 00:33:38,644 They can talk on the Sunday show is all they want. 507 00:33:38,644 --> 00:33:39,458 uh 508 00:33:39,458 --> 00:33:44,110 their one phone call away from waking up afraid again and wetting the bed. 509 00:33:44,110 --> 00:33:46,651 mean, I hope you're right. 510 00:33:46,651 --> 00:33:47,632 I do. 511 00:33:47,632 --> 00:33:51,813 I pray to God you're right that they actually start doing their job as Congress. 512 00:33:51,813 --> 00:33:56,065 But I guess we're talking about six years. 513 00:33:56,065 --> 00:34:06,180 then if you add in the four of Biden, that's that's, you know, 11 years or nine years, I should say, that you're left scratching your head. 514 00:34:06,180 --> 00:34:07,060 You know. 515 00:34:07,139 --> 00:34:09,962 Well, you know, it's interesting. 516 00:34:09,962 --> 00:34:19,321 I think the Tennessee race that we just talked about, you know, where people are starting to distance themselves from Trump, they're starting to see, and the poll numbers are 517 00:34:19,321 --> 00:34:19,781 horrible. 518 00:34:19,781 --> 00:34:25,587 Of course, he's going to dispute that and say he's got the best poll numbers, the best economy in the history of the world. 519 00:34:25,587 --> 00:34:29,351 But you can't hide a lot of the stuff that's been going on. 520 00:34:29,351 --> 00:34:30,221 the... 521 00:34:32,035 --> 00:34:48,355 This may be inside baseball because, you know, is the average person in America going to think blowing up two people floating on a log or on a piece of a boat in the ocean is a 522 00:34:48,355 --> 00:34:49,895 loss to humanity? 523 00:34:50,135 --> 00:35:00,335 you know, remember this, this comes at the same time that this president has pardoned a known drug runner from El Salvador. 524 00:35:00,407 --> 00:35:04,238 You explain that to me and pardoning fraudsters. 525 00:35:04,238 --> 00:35:06,719 mean, this is the biggest grift. 526 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:15,221 And so I think that you've got to look at, know, kind of widen the aperture to get people to really start thinking about this. 527 00:35:15,221 --> 00:35:27,024 He's blowing up, you know, I'm not going to say innocent people, but certainly helpless people in middle of the Caribbean and then pardoning known drug dealers. 528 00:35:27,344 --> 00:35:28,567 Explain that to me. 529 00:35:28,567 --> 00:35:34,587 and I want people to know what I was getting at with my math, just so you know, I can do math. 530 00:35:34,587 --> 00:35:38,887 mean, he started and entered our life in 2015. 531 00:35:39,067 --> 00:35:39,887 He did. 532 00:35:39,887 --> 00:35:50,767 I mean, he was been part of our life politically since 2015, which, you know, look at that that kid you got that's, you know, was just born then and see how tall they are now. 533 00:35:50,847 --> 00:35:53,935 That being said, it also comes at a time. 534 00:35:54,039 --> 00:36:07,308 uh when former colleagues of yours and new members of the Senate and the House that served this country in uniform, that are Democrats, said to people in the military that, you you 535 00:36:07,308 --> 00:36:08,909 don't have to do this. 536 00:36:08,990 --> 00:36:12,642 If it's an illegal order, you don't have to do this. 537 00:36:12,642 --> 00:36:22,909 And so to me, to have the timing be such that that's all still a controversy where Donald Trump's saying that they're traitors and they should be hung. 538 00:36:22,909 --> 00:36:27,429 and then shortly thereafter, it's one of two things. 539 00:36:27,429 --> 00:36:31,376 Either they committed a war crime or they murdered. 540 00:36:31,539 --> 00:36:34,264 I mean, it's one of those two things, Heidi. 541 00:36:34,264 --> 00:36:34,984 Yeah. 542 00:36:35,104 --> 00:36:47,444 Yeah, no, mean, by any code of international justice or military justice, you do not murder helpless people in the sea. 543 00:36:47,584 --> 00:36:54,484 And without a declaration of war, I mean, think about this, there's no declaration of war. 544 00:36:54,884 --> 00:36:59,064 The so-called emergency is that they're running drugs. 545 00:36:59,064 --> 00:37:01,924 We've never seen any proof that they're running drugs. 546 00:37:01,924 --> 00:37:05,269 um I wouldn't dispute it, but let's see the proof. 547 00:37:05,269 --> 00:37:08,204 And the last time there were two survivors, guess what they did? 548 00:37:08,204 --> 00:37:09,757 They sent them home. 549 00:37:09,757 --> 00:37:11,008 Why would they send them home? 550 00:37:11,008 --> 00:37:15,104 What are they afraid that these folks are gonna basically talk about? 551 00:37:15,345 --> 00:37:16,240 I mean... 552 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:22,822 The other the other thing I would add is, you know, you you've got connections to south of Tucson. 553 00:37:22,822 --> 00:37:29,353 And I did a radio show or two down there where we talked about and visited with the farmers and ranchers. 554 00:37:29,353 --> 00:37:30,354 I shouldn't say farmers. 555 00:37:30,354 --> 00:37:31,324 were all ranchers. 556 00:37:31,324 --> 00:37:43,837 uh And the one thing that these very, very conservative men and women said to me was that the individuals that are crossing the border, bringing in drugs, doing all this are being 557 00:37:43,837 --> 00:37:44,957 forced to. 558 00:37:45,247 --> 00:37:57,095 that they've met them, that these individuals are being forced to do this because their families are being held hostage back home. 559 00:37:57,196 --> 00:38:08,764 So why would that be any different than what these individuals in the boats are doing if, and this is a big if, if you assume there's drugs in those boats? 560 00:38:08,764 --> 00:38:12,997 I mean, Heidi, we don't know who the people in the boats are. 561 00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:25,220 I, you know, it is, it is the classic kind of legislation by ramble, right? 562 00:38:25,516 --> 00:38:33,282 You know, there's no rules, no rules apply to Donald Trump as he deploys his international strategies. 563 00:38:33,282 --> 00:38:44,190 And I will tell you, and Jess hit on this too, that a lot of people, and I've met, you know, I was at the Iowa caucus, I listened to the arguments of Trump over Nikki Haley. 564 00:38:44,190 --> 00:38:50,194 And one of the strongest arguments that people made were from veterans who said he doesn't believe in forever wars. 565 00:38:50,194 --> 00:38:53,386 You think he's pretty close to going to war in Venezuela? 566 00:38:54,327 --> 00:38:55,609 Well, that's about oil. 567 00:38:55,609 --> 00:38:57,381 uh That isn't about drugs. 568 00:38:57,381 --> 00:38:58,933 The whole thing is about oil. 569 00:38:58,933 --> 00:39:00,035 It's about money. 570 00:39:00,035 --> 00:39:02,678 It's about the people that he surrounds himself with. 571 00:39:02,678 --> 00:39:04,661 uh Let me ask you this. 572 00:39:04,661 --> 00:39:09,307 uh The economy today on a scale of one to 10, where do see it? 573 00:39:09,367 --> 00:39:11,049 It depends on who you are. 574 00:39:12,085 --> 00:39:17,185 Well, let's assume I'm not a billionaire or not somebody who's in 575 00:39:17,185 --> 00:39:21,165 that you're somebody making less than $150,000 a year. 576 00:39:21,165 --> 00:39:23,225 This economy is really bad for you. 577 00:39:23,225 --> 00:39:25,105 Number one, you have job insecurity. 578 00:39:25,105 --> 00:39:26,245 You don't know. 579 00:39:26,945 --> 00:39:35,385 You aren't feeling secure in your job and you are not, as we have saw in kind of during the Biden years, people were job moving. 580 00:39:35,385 --> 00:39:38,285 You know, they were going, oh, I can find a better opportunity here. 581 00:39:38,285 --> 00:39:39,725 There were labor shortages. 582 00:39:39,725 --> 00:39:42,325 And now people are hunkering down. 583 00:39:42,325 --> 00:39:44,885 They're taking a smaller 584 00:39:45,550 --> 00:39:55,424 bonus or a smaller pay increase and the bottom quartile or the bottom third, their wages aren't increasing enough to keep up with inflation. 585 00:39:55,424 --> 00:39:56,755 And they're already in debt. 586 00:39:56,755 --> 00:40:04,718 There's an interesting chart that I saw today of the amount of uh defaults on consumer debt. 587 00:40:04,718 --> 00:40:13,181 And so we're gonna see what happens and the consumers so far have been spending money this Christmas and people will say, high camp, you're so full of it. 588 00:40:13,181 --> 00:40:13,742 Look at that. 589 00:40:13,742 --> 00:40:14,692 And I wanna say, 590 00:40:14,692 --> 00:40:19,072 How much of that's getting paid by cash and how much of that's getting put on the credit card? 591 00:40:19,072 --> 00:40:23,672 And when does that come home to roost when credit card interests are 28 %? 592 00:40:23,672 --> 00:40:26,232 I mean, it's untenable. 593 00:40:26,832 --> 00:40:32,472 We talk a lot about debt and deficit for the federal government, but I'm really concerned about consumer debt. 594 00:40:33,193 --> 00:40:39,507 one tell for me in what you just described is how many 28 year olds are you seeing buying a home? 595 00:40:39,908 --> 00:40:42,930 know, how many people are buying a home at that age? 596 00:40:42,930 --> 00:40:57,219 uh My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to do it, you know, but you're not seeing people like my producer who has a fairly good job uh be able to buy a home. 597 00:40:57,300 --> 00:40:59,641 It's just not in the cards for them. 598 00:40:59,641 --> 00:41:02,493 So that separation continues to get 599 00:41:02,886 --> 00:41:03,741 Wider and wider. 600 00:41:03,741 --> 00:41:06,083 There's no question about that. 601 00:41:06,345 --> 00:41:15,882 I I think that at some point, the analysis on homeownership is how many people want to actually own a home, have the responsibility of owning a home. 602 00:41:15,882 --> 00:41:25,750 But the bottom line, when you look at kind of trying to make ends meet, you know, it's the old hamburger helper example. 603 00:41:25,891 --> 00:41:32,728 You know, when ground beef is six, seven dollars a pound, they're going to try and stretch that as best they can. 604 00:41:32,728 --> 00:41:33,759 They aren't going to eat out. 605 00:41:33,759 --> 00:41:40,379 McDonald's has seen a dramatic reduction in lower income Americans actually eating at McDonald's. 606 00:41:40,379 --> 00:41:44,124 And you're going to see those trends continue because people can't afford it. 607 00:41:44,287 --> 00:41:44,728 Yeah. 608 00:41:44,728 --> 00:41:49,612 Well, I think for the most part, people still in America want to want to own a home. 609 00:41:49,933 --> 00:41:52,416 And we're to find out where that goes. 610 00:41:52,416 --> 00:41:55,619 And it's really sad to me that they're not able to right now. 611 00:41:55,619 --> 00:42:02,266 um You know, but at least you could take out what is it, a 50 year mortgage that he's proposing now? 612 00:42:02,266 --> 00:42:07,444 I mean, in other words, you'll you'll never own it, but you can borrow money. 613 00:42:07,444 --> 00:42:13,104 and I think when you look at the numbers, it's like $200 less a month, and you're to pay for 50 years. 614 00:42:13,104 --> 00:42:18,364 It's just it was boneheaded to begin with that absolutely boneheaded. 615 00:42:18,364 --> 00:42:25,524 So Joel, when you when you question people always ask is, are do you see any trends? 616 00:42:25,524 --> 00:42:30,638 I mean, you talked a little bit about more people stepping up wanting to run more people coming to meetings. 617 00:42:30,638 --> 00:42:41,803 But do you see any trends in terms of the break in and kind of the uh president's overall, for lack of a better word, of popularity? 618 00:42:41,803 --> 00:42:56,076 Well, living here where the hot dish is, you know, in the middle of this country, I think that the two biggest mistakes he's made economically have been soybeans uh and beef. 619 00:42:56,076 --> 00:42:57,898 And you could throw corn in there, too. 620 00:42:57,898 --> 00:43:08,037 I mean, you could throw Mexico and Canada and everything that goes with it, because all of that relates back to something that farmers value a lot, which is their equipment. 621 00:43:08,105 --> 00:43:12,236 And if they're not making money, they might be able to buy that hamburger you're talking about. 622 00:43:12,236 --> 00:43:14,927 I'm not trying to pretend they're going broke completely. 623 00:43:14,927 --> 00:43:22,939 What I'm trying to say is they're not able to do what they have been able to do for the previous four years. 624 00:43:22,939 --> 00:43:27,320 And so they're starting to admit that. 625 00:43:28,241 --> 00:43:37,463 And what I always remind them of and, Heidi, I know that you always kind of roll your eyes at me on this, but I call it the bathroom test, uh which is 626 00:43:37,503 --> 00:43:42,257 When you go to most public bathrooms now, there's advertising. 627 00:43:42,257 --> 00:43:43,959 I'm sure there is in women's stalls. 628 00:43:43,959 --> 00:43:46,561 Certainly there is a bit of men's urinals. 629 00:43:46,561 --> 00:43:53,037 But those those ads used to say help wanted help wanted help wanted help wanted. 630 00:43:53,037 --> 00:43:55,299 I mean, this is how I did my research, folks. 631 00:43:55,299 --> 00:43:58,122 ah They don't say that anymore. 632 00:43:58,122 --> 00:44:04,527 You know, I mean, go to a pub, look at those signs and what you're going to find is they're not saying help wanted anymore. 633 00:44:04,599 --> 00:44:08,041 ah that people are trying to sell things and they're trying to sell them cheap. 634 00:44:08,041 --> 00:44:17,985 And so I just think, as you say, the economy isn't doing well for the people that hang out in the bars and restaurants that I do. 635 00:44:17,985 --> 00:44:19,106 How's that? 636 00:44:20,407 --> 00:44:21,887 Yeah, well. 637 00:44:22,152 --> 00:44:23,923 another episode of The Hot Dish. 638 00:44:23,923 --> 00:44:33,876 Thanks for joining us today on The Hot Dish brought to you by One Country Project, making sure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington, D.C. 639 00:44:34,027 --> 00:44:36,852 You know, learn more at onecountryproject.org. 640 00:44:36,852 --> 00:44:39,276 That's onecountryproject.org. 641 00:44:39,276 --> 00:44:43,973 We'll be back next week with more hot dish comfort food for rural America.