[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Star Media Podcast part of M.S.W.

[SPEAKER_00]: Media and the sexy liberal podcast network.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Kimberly Johnson in DC.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today my returning guest is reporter Sarah Burris.

[SPEAKER_00]: She writes for Solan, Ross Story, alternate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a lot of great news to talk about before we get into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Star Media Podcast is independent, listen or fund it, and woman run.

[SPEAKER_00]: Visit patreon.com slash start me up to see the variety of tiers offered, including the option to get a bonus what's up episode just for patrons every Tuesday.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like my online journal where I get a little more personal and I talk about whatever's on my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's also an ad free tier with a much shorter intro.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just visit patreon.com slash start me up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now please enjoy my conversation with Sarah Burris.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the show Sarah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for having me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a wonderful day because democracy is not dead.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, thanks for now, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but see, I have this issue with the democratic yours that want to just make the declaration.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, okay, number one, we are under fascist rule.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: an autocrat, or at least a wannabe, autocrat, is in charge, and the people who are running things are fascists.

[SPEAKER_00]: But democracy isn't dead because look what happened, you know, we had this election, and then not only that right before the election, we had this no-kingsmarch that was massive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in a full-blown fascist country, that's not really going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think, you know, I see all these people who just want to declare that America is over, and I hate when I say, I don't mind when I see people say they're afraid or they're concerned, but that declaration thing really pisses me off because it's not true.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a way to just lay down to the fascist and say, okay, we give up then you won.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it's like, no, we're gonna fight them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was amazing to see such, oh my God, you know, like, I had a feeling, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We all had a feeling Democrats were gonna win.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the blowout, like, what were you going through?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I imagine you were going through what we were all going through, just like being, so I know you were a reporter and everything, but you're an American, so you have feelings about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, us to God, I was looking mostly in Jersey because I think we knew pretty solidly that we were going to win in Virginia.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think even I predicted how big the win would be.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: I knew that it would be, you know, pretty decent, particularly in Northern Virginia, because this is what happens whenever you furlough a whole bunch of federal employees.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's definitely been one area and have nothing else to do, but go and vote, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, like watching it all night, I mean, I was, I was really surprised at the AG candidate that was so shady, actually right through.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like you could tell people were splitting tickets, but, um, [SPEAKER_02]: But then what was it?

[SPEAKER_02]: 13 state seats that we flipped for public in the down 13.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god, that's so amazing.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's true.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it gives me chills still thinking about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So Virginia, I started looking at a little bit on Monday to see what the early vote looked like.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it was breaking 51%.

[SPEAKER_02]: for Cheryl, and I think 39 for what's his name.

[SPEAKER_02]: I keep calling him Citronella because that's the only way I can remember.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if I know that, Citronella, the mosquito guy.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's my memory aid for remember, right guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so when I saw the early vote break for that, I was like, oh, dang, like, he better hope that [SPEAKER_02]: a lot of his people come out on election day.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, probably when was it maybe three or four o'clock, we got the exit polls in.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, the thing about exit polls is it's really just a snapshot of what happens in the morning.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so, I looked at the exit and I think it was like 62% of the voters think that the country is going in the wrong direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, oh my god, we're going to win this.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the polls had them very, very close.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to say for like the last month and a half, it had them like neck and neck and I mean, she had a wider margin before that and but yeah, I was just [SPEAKER_02]: I was looking at those, I was like, oh man, he's going to have, I don't know how he does it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how you bring in that many people in the afternoon to account for that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, I mean, even like, obviously, it's not going to have 62% when I'm going to have 100% of those people who are like, I'm voting for Cheryl, even at even at 50%.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right, even at 40% of those votes, it's like, mmm, that's in the bag.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, there's, there's no way [SPEAKER_02]: I think that he could ever come in and then it just was an embarrassment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it's so funny to watch the Republicans now.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think it was Brett Bear who was like, come on, people, we have to admit that this was really bad because it's like the Fox News is trying to make it seem like, oh, it's fine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, you know, there is something to say for them being mostly blue states.

[SPEAKER_02]: The thing that is different though is looking at some of those more local races in states that are not blue states, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like the three Democrats who kept their seats for the state supreme court in Pennsylvania.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's not only a big deal for Pennsylvania, but that's also going to be a really huge deal for 26 and 28 because those are the people who are going to decide whether or not you can vote by mail in Pennsylvania.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know what's interesting is that you know you mentioned the blue state thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, this was blue states for the most part.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, let's all look at Marjorie Taylor Green.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, she's praising Nancy Pelosi.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, pigs are not flying everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: She just wet her finger and held it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she's yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's the only Republican right now who can read a dang poll.

[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think it's a surprising thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's been frustrating because I, I very much respect the democratic party for fighting for what is right, what is good for people, what, you know, regardless of whether it's their voters are not like this fight for healthcare isn't necessarily like it will disproportionately affect democratic, I mean that Republican voters in rural areas who don't have access to, um, [SPEAKER_02]: to healthcare because they're not working for major companies that are typically in urban areas.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then at the same time, the tunnel trump is parading these 80s, 90s talking points of people of color being the only ones who are on food stamps, who are on snap benefits, and you just want to go like, [SPEAKER_02]: Because again, like, it's, it is primarily Republicans, you know, Trump voters who are on these staff benefits.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so like Democrats are really, really fighting for to make the lives of these Trump voters better.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, and it's their, their own elected officials who are scoring them all.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I mean, at some point, you're like, yes, do the right thing, help people very important at the same time.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're kind of like, they voted against their own economic interests.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, the thing is, Democrats are fighting for them, and if it works out for them, they'll stay ignorant.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're seeing a lot of people like on YouTube, there's a lot of compilation videos of Maga who are [SPEAKER_00]: now, you know, waking up to the fact that they've been screwed and they, you know, they're pissed off that it's actually happening to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They voted for something to happen to others is actually happening to them now and they don't like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't want people to go hungry, hungry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, you know, I mean, I know, like, for instance, I live in Maryland and my governor is a lotting a certain amount of money for food and I just want to throw this out here [SPEAKER_00]: Crime will grow, you know, crime is gonna go up when people can't eat because they have to eat and there's going to be, there's just gonna be more crime and then what the fascists are gonna do are they gonna say, look, everybody's out of control, martial law, or whatever they're gonna do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you need us, you need this strong man, you need the authority state.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's so obvious what's happening and so, you know, we've got in Maryland, [SPEAKER_00]: these benefits that are going to be taking care of at least for a portion of the population.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't imagine what it's going to be like in red states, if people can't afford to eat, it's going to get fucking ugly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I'm not saying I never justify violence, but if you look at human psychology, it's just when people are desperate.

[SPEAKER_00]: they act out in desperate ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of those ways is violence because they're hungry or they want to feed their kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just wanted to throw that out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But okay, now that we're on the subject because I want to get to this early on, there was, let me find the tweet here, or it wasn't a tweet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I keep calling it a tweet.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: I call him tweets too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's blue sky.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still calling it a tweet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't call it what up, skeet or whatever bullshit.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's Tennessee Haller on blue sky.

[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine it's elsewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what they're reporting is Speaker Johnson's an interview with two people.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Speaker Johnson is stalling.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I have such a hard time with this name.

[SPEAKER_00]: So pardon me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grahalva.

[SPEAKER_00]: I keep wanting to say it differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, until this guy, I guess his name is Michael, whatever, something vaneps and Tennessee gets in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it'll cancel out her vote.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're protecting pedophiles.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you live in Tennessee, there's a special election coming up on December 2nd, and this guy vaneps is on the ticket vote for the Democrat, please, because they're trying, evidently, if he gets in, maybe the government shut down will come to an end after that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanksgiving and anybody, you know, the airports a lot should, you know, what's happening with airports right now So I just wanted to throw that out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean have you heard anything else about this or do you know anything about this?

[SPEAKER_02]: So There's some weirdness about this in that the the So the discussion that's kind of happening in the Senate is there or definitely some Republicans who want to do a bill that [SPEAKER_02]: lots of money for the the ACA subsidies and reopens everything and and funds everything.

[SPEAKER_02]: They want kind of an all-inclusive bill that just does that.

[SPEAKER_02]: The problem with that is not that not enough Republicans will support it.

[SPEAKER_02]: The problem is the house.

[SPEAKER_02]: The house has become the [SPEAKER_02]: has maintained this whole time, you know, we signed, we would be passed this bill already, so just pass that bill.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that bill is, is so, is temporary and goes until November 21st.

[SPEAKER_02]: So even if, [SPEAKER_02]: the Senate signed that bill.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like past that bill, President signed it, it's still only funded until the 21st of November.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: So after you would still have to have this argument again, and for the next funding bill, and it was kind of one of those, it wasn't even a band aid, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's just like a, put your finger into the water kind of a deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so this idea that, [SPEAKER_02]: That his position has just been, I'm not going to bring anybody back because we already passed it.

[SPEAKER_02]: That dies on the 21st.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it really will be a case.

[SPEAKER_02]: It will be obvious at that point that he, he intentionally does not want to.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, release the Epstein files or pass anything or bring anybody back to work and I don't know how you get around that at the same time He's also got I mean Donald Trump finally stuck his head out of the bedroom door, you know, of the TV room door to be like, oh, hey, something's going on out there, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so finally, because he's never ever going to accept accept responsibility for anything he could have done, uh, he's he's casting the buck saying the shutdown is the reason that you guys lost this election.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I wonder if that then means.

[SPEAKER_02]: that he will start brushing Johnson to bring people back.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't, I don't know if Johnson will then say, but I can't because the obscene files.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that will sort of become a question for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: That will, that will tell me whether or not [SPEAKER_02]: Donald Trump is really scared of the Epstein files more things that there's some way that he can really stuff without his name in it because he would he would keep hammering this because he knows that there's going to be you know more elections fallout if this you know from special elections if this stuff continues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I just like to remind people, as I often do, that in 2018, we saw a massive turnout for the midterms, and it's because of Donald Trump, and that's when we had guardrails.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we don't have any guardrails, and we don't know what's gonna happen with these snap benefits and all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the midterms, I think are gonna be bigger than we probably ever seen.

[SPEAKER_02]: And really helps so.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really, I think it makes sense because I mean, even when you go back to the traditional American politics thing, you know, it was always the party that was out of power that would fight, you know, in the midterm, blah, blah, blah.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's different this time because people are recognizing, you know, I think that there, I spoke with this woman, Mamma, Mamma, I was like, Mamma's porch politics, she's so fucking awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, she is a woman who lives in rural Ohio.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she was saying that just about two months ago, she noticed that like there was no there were no Trump signs and this is Trump world that she lives in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there was like no Trump signs, there were no farmers for Trump on the bales of hay that you usually would see and then she talked about going to some like open-air market that was usually very Trumpian, no Trump [SPEAKER_00]: Trump Booth was like empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought that was interesting and it's not it's clearly not about the ice sending people to foreigners because I think a lot of these people don't care But what they do care about is the high cost of groceries and the tariff prices and all that stuff So I think they're starting to and then the like the farmers are upset So I think maggots starting to feel it right now and that's why I think there are going to be in I think we're gonna see a lot more red states pissed off [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, it's interesting because, you know, boomers have gotten a lot of black.

[SPEAKER_00]: for, you know, in some case, like my mom's a boomer, and she's about progressive and liberal as you get.

[SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of boomers went the way of maga, and, you know, we've seen the result.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think we heard a lot of, I don't, I'm gonna ask you about this, because I don't know, did you hear about on the No Kings protest, that a lot of the protesters were like older white Americans, so a lot of boomers did you hear that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I saw them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I saw them.

[SPEAKER_02]: I definitely saw that too, and I mean, Republicans were sort of making fun of the protests because they were saying, oh, these are just all blue-haired old babies.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're definitely were a lot of young people, and in some states, there were a lot of people of color, but yeah, there were a whole heck of a lot of, of older white faces, I do think that [SPEAKER_02]: The older folks who have been supportive of Trump in the past, like they are among the people who are being directly affected by the SNAP benefits, because most people on SNAP who are older can't work, and then [SPEAKER_02]: And then you just made a huge slice out of Medicaid and so for anybody who's in, you know, assisted living or nursing home who can't necessarily afford it gets that funded by Medicaid.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I mean, I think, you know, we're putting older people in a very difficult financial situation.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really just, I'm not sure that those folks are willing to do more than just like, you know, march in the streets and vote, like, I need those folks to start talking to their families at Thanksgiving.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: It needs to go beyond like your echo chamber and your, the silo in your life and folks need to start having real conversations about [SPEAKER_02]: about these issues.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you mentioned the farmers and ranchers are so pissed.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, to some extent, yes, it is the tariffs, but the Argentine thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: I, oh my god, they're so pissed about the Argentine thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, okay, so not only are you putting tariffs on our stuff and screwing me with sending soybeans to China, now you're sending my competitors a whole bunch [SPEAKER_02]: You know, undercut me in selling soybeans to China, and then you're going to start bringing in beef from Argentina that, you know, cuts down my my price of beef that I'm making, you know, my profits for my beef.

[SPEAKER_02]: and screw me that way too.

[SPEAKER_02]: At a time, at a time when he's talking about how we need to cut services, we need to cut the government because we're over spending and you're forking over, you know, first people were pissed about it being $20 billion dollars and now it's $40 billion dollars.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah, people are super pissed that normally would not be, and there are people who are, I think, a lot smarter than typically political folks have given them credit for.

[SPEAKER_02]: They understand the commodities market, they understand stuff like that, and I remember when we [SPEAKER_02]: a term with among farmers.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was fine enough just because I think folks were saying, yeah, I want to be able to at least pay my bills.

[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, I heard a lot of them who were who were like, I just want to make a living.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I don't need your hand out.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need to just be able to do my job and sell my [SPEAKER_02]: You know, some of my goods on the market, if you could just get out of the way of that, that'd be really helpful.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I mean, obviously folks are going to accept whatever cash, whatever bailout he gives you.

[SPEAKER_02]: But it's demoralizing to them, I think, to spend their lives being conservative and talking about all these takers and then hate all this money from the government.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it's I think we're going to see that's going to show up in the midterm.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, I, I obviously was wrong when I predicted that Kamala Harris would win.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, it was just a year ago November six, because the voting day last year was November fifth, and that was just so traumatizing for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I literally had a rock in my stomach for six weeks, but I, [SPEAKER_00]: I, and I was thinking about the difference of how we're feeling now, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not that we're out of trouble or anything like that, but it felt really good.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, um, but, you know, going back to what you said, I think that I just got sidetracked, but I, I do think that because people are going to be hurting, and I mean, just, unfortunately, that's what it takes because if people are comfortable, [SPEAKER_00]: they don't do anything, they just stay in place and they think, okay, everything's fine and I got mine and I'm good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then when they start feeling it, so I think what happens is my hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want, of course, anybody to suffer, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, there are people suffering in this political climate, various different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I hope that it's just enough, where it's not too bad, but it's just enough to wake up the majority of the population.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know we're not going to get all of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at least the ones who are paying attention, I hope we get some new voters here, because I always say the Democratic Party there's this massive amount of, [SPEAKER_00]: you know, the electorate that they could tap into.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of trying to turn conservative voters into democratic voters, go out and find new democratic voters.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I mean, I think hopefully we're on a new trajectory, and that's, do you feel like there is a energy shift because of these, [SPEAKER_00]: you know, this election and the no kings.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously Donald Trump, but I'm we're going to talk about his health in a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean with everything that's going on with Donald Trump, how he's behaving, do you think that there is at least the starting of an energy shift in this country politically speaking?

[SPEAKER_02]: I do think that there's definitely a start of a shift.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know that it necessarily is because, you know, Trump is falling all over himself lately.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think people are, I think when you spend the last two years of a campaign talking about economic issues and talking about how bad the economy is, [SPEAKER_02]: And that you're this great savior of the economy and you're a business man, and you know how everything works and day one everything is going to be so much better.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that was sort of Obama's message in Virginia and New Jersey.

[SPEAKER_02]: He just asked a very simple political frequently politically asked question, are you better off?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the answer is an equivocally no.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think the empty promises about I'm going to make your lives so much better came from, you know, the years and years of Biden passing all of these incredible pieces of legislation like landmark legislation that gives a bunch of cool stuff to people and then, you know, at the same time.

[SPEAKER_02]: because of the pandemic, fighting, inflation and trying desperately to fight off you know, any kind of like an economic downfall like what we had in O7 and O8.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so Trump coming in saying, oh, you know, as things were getting better and better, Trump is telling people, this is bad, this is bad.

[SPEAKER_02]: And but then he comes in and makes it worse.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then he starts throwing it in your face, it's one thing I think to say, you know, oh, I'm going to do these terrors, I'm going to do these terrors.

[SPEAKER_02]: But like I said, with the Argentina thing, then he's just throwing it in your face, like I know your family is hurting right now, but I'm going to take this $40 billion and give it to these people because my friend told me I need to.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I think I hope that that will be like you said, like I really don't want people to suffer, but I feel like for the last several years, maybe the last decade even, I kind of have just sat back and wanted to be like, you know what, let's just hand the Republicans every ounce of power to whatever they want.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and just be like, okay, tell me, how's this working out for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, let's live under like the time and rule and see how that works out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I mean, to a degree that's happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Democrats are doing everything they can and they should because it is the American people that they're working for, not just Democratic voters, but, you know, hey, if this is what we have to go through.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, sometimes I think, [SPEAKER_00]: I always say, and I hate saying this, but it's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, sometimes the only way to get someone to stop smoking cigarettes is tell them they have cancer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we wait until we get the disease to go, oh, now I got to change my habits.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like people who are diabetic or eat the wrong way and or eat too much or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they learn, oh, maybe I should have been eating better all along or whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: they're not being proactive and you know I feel like this is what we have to deal with when people aren't proactive we've got this whole electorate who you know have the electorate doesn't even vote or I don't know what the actual number is because a lot of those people are kids but still you know I I think that it's important to make sure and I would like for Democrats you know this new [SPEAKER_00]: kind of we're going to have we're going to have a change in the party we're you know the parties always evolving so as the party evolves I hope that the the democrats coming in working with the older democrats that are there realize that they need to get a hold of that group of people but okay i'm going to switch over because you wrote a piece for raw story and it's called exhausted unfollowable ramble trumps health question after south africa flood flood so i just want you to talk about that a little we can talk about trumps health because that's [SPEAKER_02]: So, um, so if, for folks who, with who watch that, it was like a Miami business forum thing, or whatever, whole bunch of business leaders in a, in a, having a rubber chicken, you know, lunch.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, um, and he gives this speech where he's leaning on the podium a lot.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, he always rambles.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's be real.

[SPEAKER_02]: But even this was a lot of rambles for him.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this is his crowd.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it should be very easy for him to talk about business and to talk about those kinds of, he could even talk about his leveling of the East Wing and all the businesses that he's, [SPEAKER_02]: supporting in the local DMV by having them do construction or whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like he could there's a lot of stuff that he could be that he could be talking about about what he's done for big businesses.

[SPEAKER_02]: And instead he's talking about [SPEAKER_02]: like communism and people coming to the United States from Cuba and then he started saying people were coming.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said Cuba and South Africa and I'm like when was South Africa communist nation?

[SPEAKER_02]: And [SPEAKER_02]: But then like he, he prizes this idea of Cubans coming from, from there to escape communism, but then what he really means is South America when you have places like Columbia and Venezuela where people are desperately trying to escape the government for the same reasons that Cubans were crying to escape the government.

[SPEAKER_02]: But those people are getting sent back.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it was funny because the nuance of it, of course, just flew over his head, but at the same time you're just like, wow, what the hell is it with South Africa?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like why are you so obsessed?

[SPEAKER_02]: with Africa that you like want to send people to South Sudan and you're attacking, you know, the mayor of New York for being born in Uganda and like, it's like, dude, what is this really about?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, you know, maybe part of that is he's got Stephen Miller in his ear.

[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, the larger piece of it is that I think he's regressing to the politics that he remembers, which appears to be the 80s and 90s kind of politics, which is why he's making comments about, you know, the people on snap or mostly in people of color.

[SPEAKER_02]: you know, it may very well be that he just doesn't have any short-term memory because there's some kind of, you know, something going on with his brain.

[SPEAKER_02]: I, one of the things I did when he, like when he, when he got elected and had the inaugural speech, [SPEAKER_02]: Um, I went back and looked at his elevator speech, you know, whenever he or his escalator speech, when he came down the big gold escalator.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, and I encourage folks to do it, like, just compare a recent speech to that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Or, you know, something from 15 and 16, comparing those two speeches, he is a different person.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Brian Kim, White House reporter said the same thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's, I think if you, if he's in your life all the time, it's difficult to do to nail it because it's been a slow progression toward, you know, either dementia or insanity or whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: But it, and, you know, I'm half joking, but it is, it is definitely, like something is definitely going on with him that we are, we as a country and are talking about.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the comment that every time he has one of these big gaps, I always remember the Joe Biden gaps, and you just want to ask the question, what would happen?

[SPEAKER_02]: If Joe Biden did this, you know, the Jake Tapper wrote an entire book about about, you know, the Biden not being mentally equipped to handle the presidency at the time.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm just like, why are we not talking about this more as a country.

[SPEAKER_02]: you know that it's it's very clear Trump has some serious health issues.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it did sort of happen a little bit when we saw the bruises on his hand and saw him.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you can see like he has really changed the way he gestures.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't have any his hands.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he does a lot of speeches from behind the resolute desk instead of end podiums instead of just randomly standing up or, um, you know, the, the times where he has foreign leaders come to the United States, that's always when you can see the hand, you know, what's going on with the hand and if his legs are swollen.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, um, and there haven't been a lot of those lately.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's been traveling out of the country more.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, which you would think would make his legs swell.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like if I'm on a 10-hour flight, my legs are going to swell, and I'm perfectly healthy.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, but, um, yeah, so there's, there's something going on with him, and I wish that we could really have a national conversation about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: and if we're going to be talking about like obviously Pelosi decided that she's going to step down and but if we're going to have this conversation about leaders being too old yeah then we need to include Trump in that conversation oh hell yes I mean yes and I feel like you know obviously the mainstream media [SPEAKER_00]: for every little thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in some cases, sure, they had reason to because he's a president of the United States.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's clear that they're just afraid to go after Donald Trump.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're dealing with.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's upsetting.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's interesting because I think as a result, we saw right after the election, there was this huge, first of all, a lot of people went over to Blue Sky.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was almost immediate, like it started building up really quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then sub-stack has also become, you know, this major thing and all these people, whether they, somebody like Jim Acosta, who started out over there because he got kicked off CNN or did he get kicked off or did he leave on his own?

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember.

[SPEAKER_02]: Honestly, I don't think we ever found out because he, I think he probably was asked to leave and really made a deal because he's not talking about it and if he's not talking about that means he can't talk about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, we're seeing all these people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's like this rise in independent media.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's unsettling right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of freakish because it's like, where does this go?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think if you're going to just look at history, it'll work itself out.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to figure this out somehow.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just going to take a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: But going back to Trump's health, Keith Edwards on YouTube has interviewed a doctor.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is somebody who specializes in congestive heart failure and he absolutely thinks that's what Donald Trump has and then you know I mean everybody has to only speculate right because we don't know the truth they don't tell us the truth so even you know the doctors who are speculating have to say look that I don't know for sure that this is true because I can't see him [SPEAKER_00]: So but from what it looks like and from what the you know what I experienced with my patients and what this guy's going through yeah it looks like he's got congestive heart failure and then he's probably got other problems.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think somebody mentioned something like that the medication that he might have to be taking for congestive heart failure could.

[SPEAKER_00]: cause something else and I think it had something to do with his kidneys, but either way all you have to do is look at the man, he's not healthy and we knew he wasn't healthy I'm just going to keep reminding everybody that before the election [SPEAKER_00]: He was obsessed with penises because he was jerking off the record phone and he was talking about Arnold Palmer's big dick.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, that's one of the things, I mean Trump has always been an appropriate, but that was really inappropriate.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was like weirdly inappropriate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that happens to people who have dementia.

[SPEAKER_00]: They get like older, I don't know about women, maybe women, but I know for sure like older man can get sexually, they'll see inappropriate things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's happening to him and it's like you said, I don't think we would have heard him talking about the size of honor Arnold Palmer's penis in 2015, I just don't think he would have done that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very obvious that that's happening, which brings me to the next little conspiracy theory, which I, you know, it's funny.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got to give myself credit on this one because when I first saw that embrace between Eric or Kirk and JD bands, I started thinking about it and I was like, all right, there's something funky.

[SPEAKER_00]: going on with that whole Charlie Kirk situation and I don't I don't claim to know anything I don't know it's just weird how it was all handled but the conspiracy that I have is you know let's just go with the Charlie Kirk assassination [SPEAKER_00]: was not planned, right, by anybody that we would know, and like, you know, in any administration or whatever, so I don't know that it was somebody from inside, but regardless, a lot of people are wondering about that because there's so many weird questions, but, you know, now that it's happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see this very unpopular, unpopular, vice president who might be looking at being the president because Trump's not doing very well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of a sudden, she's screaming about how he's kind of like Charlie, and then he's publicly saying that he wishes his Hindu wife would switch over to Catholicism, add a Charlie Kirk event, and then like she's pressing her, they're pressing their bodies against each [SPEAKER_00]: our hand on his head.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was just like, yeah, if my boyfriend stood on stage with, you know, some woman and did that, I would be fucking pissed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I have this theory that, you know, and I don't, I think a lot of people are thinking this, that he's probably going to be the president.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not going to, it's not going to work.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already on popular, and if he has a [SPEAKER_00]: We can't have that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that, you know, in Erica, I think has her own agenda.

[SPEAKER_00]: And her, I think she has her eyes on the White House.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that they're starting this like, manufactured fascist romance so that he can have the right kind of woman when it comes time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, have you thought of that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that's far out?

[SPEAKER_02]: No, I do think that you're spot on about something is clearly going on between them.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, I've heard people talking about JD's wife, you know, isn't happy and that she's going to file for divorce any time now.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the people, you know, the rumor mill that you can say, ah, this is hit or miss.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I mean, it's something that folks around the district kind of gossip about.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then the Erica Kirk thing happened and folks were just like, oh, I see what's going on here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you're saying that there was gossip prior to the Erica Kirk thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because I've got a JD Vance in his wife because one of the big things that happened whenever they first got in is they were taking a vacation like once a month.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like once a month they were not in Washington as a family doing something together.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that just, that screamed to me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm trying to save my marriage.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, and then, you know, that has calmed down quite a bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I don't think that J.D.

[SPEAKER_02]: U.N.

says necessarily is thinking about, I need an Erica Kirk beside me to look better.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's more that Erica Kirk, I think you're right, she has her own political aspirations.

[SPEAKER_02]: It may not be president.

[SPEAKER_02]: It may very well be, you know, Congress, the U.S.

Senate, or a governor's race, like go the Sarah Huckabee Sanders pass.

[UNKNOWN]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but it's definitely something that is that is on in her eyes.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, um, and it may be that they, you know, have always had this very close relationship because of Janie Manson's relationship with Charlie Kirk.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just an opportune time and his marriage is on the rocks and it's just sort of happening.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it we may just be seeing something unfold right before our eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's pretty gross.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they're gross.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's just, I, it's so weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I don't know how Magga would react to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how the Republican party.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they really wouldn't care and they would just, you know, I know that he's not popular.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's not going to make a more popular.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, you know, it might, in some people's eyes, it might make him a slightly more appealing, but regardless, he's not popular.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then if that's the case, if we have a, if a president, JB Vance, well, we'll just have to deal with that if that happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I know you got to go, and I want to, I want to wrap this up, but what's I just going to say?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's I just going to say?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think, let me, let me look at my notes, let me look at my notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I think I asked you everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, then that's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I asked you everything on my topic list, so I thought there was one more thing, but there isn't, because I asked you about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're gendered, gendered, and I genuinely believe there is a shift.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like I was saying earlier, yeah, we're not out of the woods or anything like that, but I think that people are starting to really feel uncomfortable and when people are uncomfortable, they usually vote.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But tell your friends in Tennessee, go vote because this could make a huge big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think are they going to keep the government close forever if this guy loses.

[SPEAKER_00]: So go, go tell your friends in Tennessee to vote and December 2nd.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if you want the Epstein files.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we want the Epstein files.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, tell everyone where to find you.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I am Sarah Burris, B-U-R-R-I-S.

You can find me anywhere with that name, because I got all of my social media the second that they started.

[SPEAKER_02]: So Blue Sky, the old Twitter, the Facebook, all of me, above.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you write for salon and you write for raw story and alternate.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she's out there everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's got all kinds of awesome articles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go follow her, read her stuff, and share it, and Sarah, thank you so much for talking to me today.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're a such a great conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, talk to you next time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.