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Try Odoo for free at Odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O.com. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Box Media Podcast Network.
I'm Karis Fisher. And I'm Jack Dalloway. Hello, Scott. How are you doing?
You're still in Germany, correct? Last night, I was an American living in London, watching Team England at a beer garden in Munich, and I had one of those moments where I thought, well, just how much the world has changed, right? And I think about just not that long ago in terms of time, Germany was literally our, they were the enemy. And now they're one of our strongest allies.
And then I went to the BMW Museum with my 13-year-old desk. My dad does with his 13-year-old after buying the new Jude Bellingham Adidas cleats. So we go to the BMW Museum. BMW owns Mini.
Louis has a Mini. Does he? He loves it. He loves his Mini.
They're great cars. They're fun cars, I should say. And then I think you have one. I think I've driven in a Mini with you.
You have one. One Louis has, yeah. Oh, got it. But I took a picture of this thing.
I'll post it online. But the original Austin Mini Metro, it's essentially a lawnmower with doors. I mean, it is tiny. And my mother and father met in Toronto.
They immigrated first to Toronto. They met, got married, so the story goes. And then they got pregnant. And after a brutal Toronto winner, they decided they wanted to move.
And America was Land of Opportunity. And they finally got their visa or whatever it was. And they read in the Toronto Globe and Mail that the city with the best weather in North America was San Diego. So they decided to set out for San Diego.
And they drove from Toronto to San Diego in an Austin Mini Metro when my mother was seven months pregnant with me. Yeah, that's exciting. You have no, you would have to drive in one. You complained when you were in the Mini, as I recall.
So small, if you remember. No, but that thing was a Cadillac compared to the original Mini Metro. And I was just sitting there thinking, looking at this thing. I mean, I was quote unquote a viable fetus, and if my mom had done premature labor, they decided to stay in Canada or whatever it is.
So much of our success and our failure is just not our fault. It's just random. Life is freaking random. If there's a lot of things I would impress on young people, but when things are going well for you, be humble.
A lot of it isn't your fault. And also when things are going really poorly for you, forgive yourself. But I was thinking so much of everything about my blessings and challenges is just not my fault. This has to do with the Mini.
This has to do with the Mini Metro. Mini Metro. They got your little Scott fetus to California. What if it broke down in Oklahoma?
Would I be an oil wall cutter now? Interesting. But think about it. I ended up in San Diego.
So what was my life? University of California, Los Angeles. University of California, Berkeley. Technology.
All of these things were not my fault. I shall interject. My brother just sent me the passage that my grandfather came over on as a child from Italy on the Galea or whatever. His name wasn't the name I thought it was.
It was Rosario his name was Henry later, but his real name was Rosario, which is interesting. We were thinking about getting Italian passports. I'll be honest with you. That's the new rich thing.
Rich people are getting second and third passports. Well, you know, it's kind of cool. I thought we'd call for my mom. She's older.
It'd be kind of interesting. But we have to figure out if we can because we're not clear. I think my brother said my great grandfather renounced his allegiance to the king. So we have to figure out what the plans are.
Anyway, it's kind of interesting. Yeah, it is. It's random. My grandfather's family came over and other family members didn't.
And here we are, right? They just the same family. We went back to that village. It's called Fileto in Italy.
And there are a lot of people who look like us over there. And it's a relatively poor town. And it's just randomness. Randomness.
But what you just said is really interesting and profound in the sense that people are constantly asking me what's the difference? What difference is their distinctions really stand out in terms of the UK in terms of culture and business in the US? And I think it all comes back to what you just said. And that is throughout the 20th century, tens of thousands and then I think a few hundred thousand people said in the UK, including my father when he was 17 in Glasgow.
My mother when she was 19 in London said, I'm going to get on a ship with almost no money and go to a place I've never been and try something new. And tens of millions decided not to and stay put. And that is the biggest difference between the culture in Britain and the US. Interestingly, speaking of Germany, I did an interview.
A great lesbian moment happened. It was sort of like sort of the... Was it on Snowmax? I really got to stop that.
I interviewed Rachel Maddow yesterday about her. Oh, you're kidding? Yes, it was so good. That's huge because I heard she doesn't like anybody.
She doesn't, but she and I got along like piece and carrots. We'd never spoken. It's the weirdest lesbian non-meeting because you think we would. We have the same haircut and everything.
And in media... Did you guys cry for three hours and hug and watch Riverdale? We did not. I have a Riverdale situation with you in a second.
It was a great interview. You have to listen to Ultra. It's all about the influence of Germany and probably on the US. I mean, her prequel.
Prequel is great, but the two podcasts are... I gotta tell you, I know she's a great broadcaster. She's an excellent podcaster. The story is so great.
You would love it, Scott Galloway. I was thinking of you the whole time. I'm listening to season two and I listened to part of season one, but I'm going to go back and re-listen to season one. It's all about Germans, America first, fascism.
It's a lot. It takes place a lot in Germany. But speaking of Riverdale and conspiracy theories, I went to the show in Flying to the Moon with Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson. They were not there, but the director, Greg Berlanti, was there.
And he did Riverdale. And I gotta tell you, it's all about the moon landing and also a fake moon landing. It's so funny. The reviewers have been really mixed, but I gotta tell you, it was charming.
I mean, the Manicats have a high level for popular movies, like doesn't like them. And she loved it. It was great. It was amazing.
I think we went up and Greg on to talk about conspiracy theories and how he managed to thread the needle. And he did Riverdale. He did Dawson's Creek. He did all kinds of shows.
They're both kind of rated actors. Scarlett Johansson was really good in her. She was really good. And that movie was about divorce.
It was just so devastating and awful. And also Channing Tatum was outstanding in that movie about the wrestler who Stephen Corral played the kind of billionaire who ended up murdering his brother. Yes. Oh, I loved it.
This is most useful. Scott, if you want to feel good, watch that movie. It was wonderful. And there was a line in it.
You know, it's about conspiracy theories. It's about lying. It's about, you know, so much. I thought it had a lot of resonance, as charming as it was.
And one of the lines she says, it's a throwaway line, but it's not, where she says, the truth is the truth, even if nobody believes it. And the lie is a lie, even if everybody does. And it was a great line. And I don't know how they made conspiracy theory of landing on the moon funny, but they, and profound.
It was really good. I wouldn't recommend it highly. But just back to Rachel Maddow for a second. Yeah.
I think Rachel Maddow defines, you always hear this, this term, and she perfectly embodies it. Be so talented. They can't ignore you. That's correct.
Because I find Rachel Maddow, quite frankly, unlikable. I think she comes across as indignant. She's hysterical. I think her public persona is not very likable.
I think there's still not as much now. But when she started in media, I think there was tremendous homophobia. I don't think there were a lot of people rooting for her. If you watch that MSNBC lineup for the last 10, 15 years, where they basically have progressives saying the same fucking thing over and over for 30 minutes or 60 minutes, and then they go into the next person.
There's everyone. And there's Rachel Maddow. That's correct. Because you can watch her show.
And you're like, okay, she worked harder today. She did more fact checking. She did more research. She came up with better economy of words.
She came up with more apt, insightful analogies. She is so ridiculously fucking talented. I need you to listen to the podcast. She'll be like blown.
She's such a wonk. She's a history wonk. Her book on fascism prequel? She's talking about 20s and 30s Germany.
Not just that. It's insightful. It's your insights to today. We talk a lot about that.
We talk about a lot of things. She's very funny, actually. You know what I mean? I enjoyed the interviewer because she was a little looser.
And she's very funny in a different way from what I am. But anyway, it was great. I also interviewed Gretchen Whitmer, too, by the way. I got this badass lady week month and year.
Well, you know what I like is it's I really appreciate that you don't sequester all this serious talent for your other podcast. Up next week, the head of DEI from the National Forestry Service on Pivot. Seriously. I have a lot of people here.
Oh, my God. Oh, come on. We Gretchen Whitmer and Rachel Maddow. We're going to get the environmental reporter from Mother Jones next week.
I'm going to put Gretchen here next week. I dare you. I literally dare you. Bring Governor Newsom on.
Do you want Shapiro? I'll bring Shapiro. Who do you want? I would love to have Shapiro on.
Pick one. Newsom. Newsom. Newsom.
All right. I will get him to do it. I will get him to come on Pivot. A hundred fucking percent.
Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today, including a growing number of calls for Biden to step aside. What a surprise. And Trump's spelling out plans for his second term in the GOP's new platform. But first, the last time we talked, this is interesting because you noted this.
Apple and Microsoft are planning to participate in opening his board as non-observers. You said that was nonsense. They would have a lot of influence. But that's not the case anymore, Scott.
I think you had influence. Microsoft has ditched its observer status on the board. Apple dropped its plans to join in antitrust scrutiny. So Kaplan's pressure.
This is how regulatory works is it causes scrutiny that causes them to rethink things. But OpenAI's new plan would be to host regular stakeholder meetings to share progress. EU and UK regulators are looking at Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, by the way, and so are others. So why didn't anyone see this but you and I?
I got a call from someone in one of these agencies, and they said, with respect to observer versus board seat, what exactly are you talking about? And I told them this. It makes absolutely no difference. And then I said, you've seen the map, all roads around AI, the most seminal, influential technology probably since the handheld, all lead back to the same players and an increasingly narrow group of players.
And this person barely even responded, said thank you, and then hung up the phone. We can't take credit for this, but he basically, this person basically said, just so you know, Scott, we're not stupid. And the lobbyists and the FTC and the DOJ called the lobbyists or Apple and said, guys, we're not stupid. And even if you're trying to create a sub-brand called OpenAI, I mean, I had Reid Hoffman on my podcast yesterday, and I said, Reid, you started a company, you started Inflection, you're on the board of Microsoft.
Inflection just basically did an acquihire into OpenAI. Oh, good, I'm glad you asked him. I mean, isn't this not only going to the same players, but going to, I mean, Apple and Microsoft. What did he say?
He's such a lovable guy. He's like, oh, you can't help it like that guy. By the way, I think he's turned into the conscience of technology. I agree.
He is so thoughtful, so smart. He is so committed to democracy. And by the way, he pays billions of taxes in California and Washington. He isn't peacing out and saying he needs to spend more time with his parents in low-tax states.
Yeah, he does. He is the tech leader we want. I know. Did you see you want to attack him?
Tried to link him with Epstein. Of course. Anyways, I said to him straight up, I'm like, do you really think people are being fooled here? So what was his answer?
Well, he said, well, I said, basically, it was an inflection essentially. I was like, no, we just had a board meeting. I'm like, boss, the hearts and lungs, all the key people, including the person who runs this, is now at Microsoft. Anyways, he had somewhat of a thoughtful response, but be clear, the FTC and the DOJ, the next thing up, and this is not my prediction, they're going to announce a formal review here.
It is so obvious. And I'm saying, just kidding, we're not going on these boards at the same time. That didn't happen accidentally. No, they're trying to save that off.
I think it's going to happen. Speaking of which, we should have Cantor on this show. Yeah, I'd like that. I will get Cantor, and I will get news in force, okay?
All right, you feel good. All right, speaking of which, a group of bipartisan centers have announced a proposed ban on congressional stock trading to prevent members from profiting, obviously, still hasn't passed from insider knowledge, legislation will ban lawmakers from buying and selling stocks and other covered investments. Lawmakers will also be required to invest from all covered investments starting in 2027. Penalties for violations would be the official's monthly salary or 10% of the assets in violation, whichever is higher.
That's pretty substantive. The main example of this who would affect is Nancy Pelosi, whose husband, Paul, is a multimillionaire investor. Nancy opposed this type of legislation, obviously, until about 2022, when she did an about phase. I don't know if this is ever in the past.
This is a complex topic, by the way, but it's very clear that something has to happen here. They do know stuff. There's all kinds of insider information spinning around the Congress all the time. Thoughts?
This is ground zero for what is the most obvious example of corruption in government. Nancy Pelosi can be in a room with the head of the CDC, with the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and all of a sudden find out that they're thinking about a mandate or massive multibillion-dollar subsidies of vaccines. And, oh, wait, the next thing you know, and I don't know if this specifically happened, but it can happen, her husband decides to buy Moderna before the public knows. Away from just assuming evil corruption, you can't help but create conflicts of interest, right?
Like, even if you're assuming the very best from these people, it's too good, right? It's too hard not to say something to your spouse. It's too hard. When I was married to Megan at Google, it was difficult, and we never spoke about Google or anything she knew inside.
But, you know, it was hard because I was covering some of that, and it's just the opportunity to cheat is so broad and large. We're not even specific companies. You think, okay, there's whatever. You get information on, there's this incredible new technology on keeping submarines quiet, and we just had these really smart people in from General Dynamics.
What do you know? It's a public company. They seem so smart. Hey, Paul, do you think maybe we should buy General Dynamics stock?
I mean, this is ground zero. This is corruption and all like that. This legislation doesn't go far enough because the way I read it is they can lose 10% of the value of General Dynamics stock. So you think there should be more?
What would you just, you think they should just gorge the whole profit? That's what I would say, right? It's a criminal violation. Okay.
Anyone elected to federal office has to put all of their publicly traded stocks in a blind trust, and someone else manages it. Because as long as you have access to this, even more obvious, if Nancy Pelosi calls the CEO of Reddit, Stephen Huffman, and says, I love Reddit. I love you, Stephen. Is there any way you can give me allocation on the IPO?
IPOs are priced below the price they're traditionally going to trade out on the first trade. What is he going to say? I'm sorry, Speaker Pelosi, I can't continue. If she did that, that would get out.
That's really a step too far. It's not illegal? No, but it's interesting because when Megan went to the White House, she had to put everything in a blind trust, which was interesting. The White House, the disclosure stuff was so massive.
It was crazy. I was sort of surprised. And we were divorced by that time, and they were even asking me. I was like, well, I'm not married.
You know what I mean? It was really interesting. I remember thinking how massive the amount of information just the White House wanted, and the fact that the Congress doesn't do this seems ridiculous. It gives people the sense that the game is rigged.
And either Nancy and Paul Pelosi are just genius investors, where her access to information, non-public material information that would be considered insider information for any private citizen, have resulted in her ability to amass tens of millions of dollars. And quite frankly, that's part of the reason we don't have enough churn. People should do service, and then they should leave. And make money.
And go make money, or pay them more in salaries so they're not tempted to engage in this type of corruption. Yeah, it's interesting how close the husband and wife should be, because there's a lot of that. There was a Republican senator who was very clear. His wife, he sold his stock after a briefing, or whatever.
You know, I think they should, just like other people inside of trading, they should be investigated in the same exact manner. And whatever regular people have to put up with in that case, they should put up with. It's very hard not to accuse them of cronyism, and to feel like the game isn't rigged against the little guy. When our elected officials can treat, they have more access to sensitive information than any individuals in the world.
That's true, that's true. Interesting, here's an interesting piece of fact. Tesla's market share of EVs in the U.S. has dropped below 50% to the first time.
Oh, right again, we are. Yeah, that it was going to. Tesla accounted for 49.7% of EV sales a quarter, down from 59% last year. Companies' global sales fell almost 5% in the second quarter.
The U.S. electric vehicle sales were all grew by 11%, so it's a Tesla problem. It's not going to catch up again. It's only going down.
Their market share is only everybody. I'm sorry to tell you, this is what happens to the competition. Thank you, Tesla, for seeding the market, but it's going to happen to you. It's what happens to every other first product.
Oh, except maybe the iPhone, I guess. But there's a lot of really good competitors offering products that are new and fresh, except for that stupid fucking Cybertruck, which apparently now wants to ride on Mars, but that's another story. So this is no surprise to us at all. Yeah, but to be fair, the market declines more than compensated by the growth of the overall market in the firm.
It took a real dive. It took a real dive there for a minute, correct? Yeah, it had gone down for a while. It was one of the worst performers, but it has made up a ton of ground in the last 30 days.
And why is that? Explain Mr. Stock Uber. The market is a prediction machine, and it attempts to discern a ton of signals around how the company's doing, and then basically the value of the stock is based on its current cash flow and then the present value of its growth opportunity.
And so the market is trying to guess what that growth opportunity is, and it sets a series of expectations, including analysts and the company itself will say, we expect to sell, deliver this many cars at this margin. And the last time, a few weeks ago, they announced what they'd actually done, they had exceeded those expectations. Yeah, they weren't as bad. Yes, that's right.
But the company, I mean, a lot of people are saying that the product's getting tired, they have some charger problems, maintenance problems, but the reality is the company has blown away expectations, and the stock has been on an absolute tear in the last 30 or 60 days. Yeah, in May, the low was 142, which was quite low, and now it's at 265. That is a tear. People are not baking that in that they're going to be, but I'm talking about their global market share, even as the area's growing.
Tesla's going to get smaller and smaller because there's going to be more and more competitors. Well, it would be impossible in that market to maintain 50% share. And the place that is really just, the EV market is just incredible is China. And they expect that a third of the cars on the road by 2030, which isn't that far away, would be EVs.
I mean, the reason why Tesla will probably continue to perform is it's really a branding thing. China makes a better EV than Tesla or the US on a value basis. But Tesla's a global brand that means I'm concerned about the environment and I'm rich, which is very sexy. And the strangest thing about China I've always found is that it's the second largest economy.
Name one global brand that's come out of China. I mean, the global brands have come out of France. Amazing brands. Japan, South Korea, Samsung.
There's amazing brands that come out of every single market. But the second largest economy in the world for the life of it has not been able to make global brands. Well, the only thing I would say is this investor, Bill Gross, not the tech Bill Gross. The tech guy.
The tech guy, right. He says Tesla's acting like a meme stock, sagging fundamental straight up price action. But then there seems to be a new meme stock every day now, more pump and dump. So, buy or beware is what I'm saying.
I mean, it's just, it trades a PE of 68. And I think most car companies rate it like single digit views. Yeah, he's definitely, he wants to keep these things up. Okay, let's get to our first big story.
President Biden has made clear that he's not ending his campaign, but the pressure on him to drop out continues. Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, man, she's one deaf politician. I'll tell you that. She opened that door up again as it was subsiding, it was closing, giving Biden more breathing room.
And she said the time is running short for Biden to make a decision during an appearance on Morning Joe, which is what the show Joe Biden watches. He's like, we're waiting for him to make a decision even though he's made a decision. It was just, she carefully calibrated that. And essentially, what I understand is giving the green light to people to come out after NATO is over to oppose Biden in the Democratic Party.
Democratic Senator Pete Welch became the first senator to call for Biden to exit the race into Washington. I thought Bennett was before him, no? No, Bennett is being in the middle. He was on Caitlyn Collins.
He didn't quite say it. I'd like him to make a decision is what Bennett's saying. Didn't he also say that if he stays in the race, we lose the Senate and the House? He did, but he will not tell him this.
It's so funny to watch them pretzel themselves. Yes, he said we're going to lose, but then he didn't follow it with so he should leave. It's the silent so he should leave. But this guy said he should leave.
Now, speaking of the most famous person who said he should leave, George Clooney, who hosted a huge fundraiser for Biden last month, is asking the president to end his candidacy in a New York Times essay writing, one battle he cannot win is a fight against time. He sounds like Scott Galloway. You know, Father Time has no time for you. He wrote this piece in the New York Times which I thought was very good and I think the most devastating part of it is not so much.
He's a big fundraiser for the Democrats. A lot of people agree with him. Michael Douglas, who was a big Biden person who raised a lot of money, said George has a valid point. Everyone is sort of scooching up to the line that Nancy Pelosi has allowed them to do, essentially.
Apparently, Jeff Kassenberg tried to get him not to do it. Obama and he talked, but Obama didn't ask him not to do it, which is interesting. In any case, it was a huge slash. You know, it's two weeks since the debate and these calls have not gone away.
So, by the way, we're recording this ahead of Biden giving a news conference at the NATO summit on Thursday evening. We'll come back if he falls down and breaks the hip. The Big Boy Press Conference? By the way, that's the worst branding in history.
That's the White House. I thought it was a joke. Yeah, no, it's the White House calling it the Big Boy Presser. It was Kareem Jean-Pierre.
I was like, Kareem, don't say Big Boy. Don't say Big Boy. It sounds like you're teaching him how to pee. You know?
Anyway, he's also set to sit down with NBC's Lester Hulse on Monday for an interview. NBC is also reporting that the Biden campaign has suffered a major slowdown in donations so the campaign has pushed back on it. Also, George Stephanopoulos caught on the street walking around one day and after the interview was like, he can't make it four more years. He shouldn't have said that probably, but he did.
And got caught on tape. I mean, Scott, what do you think? What do you think? It's unfortunately tragically comic, but when all these Democrats keep asking Biden, urging him to make a decision, he makes it and then they ask him to make it again.
It's not that decision. No, is there any way you could go back and think some more and come back with a different decision? I think so much of it is core to our flaw as a party and that is the wonderful thing about Democrats is they're incredibly optimistic and they have this vision of what the world should be like. They want a better tomorrow.
Progressive ideology or woke, whatever you want to call it, it's rooted in aspiration and hopeful things of the right to make your own decisions, to be happy. The side order of shaming people. To embrace who you are. But then it's like, okay, we decided biology should adopt our views on ageism and biology has said, hold my beer.
And if it was anything, if it was a sex scandal, a crime scandal, a huge, oh, that would boost the strains unfortunately. If it was anything, a failed invasion, they could probably handle anything. But here's the thing, the only thing we know about this problem is that every minute of every hour of every day, this problem gets worse. And what they're not focusing on and I thought was the most damaging thing in my view was in the Stephanopoulos interview, he refused to agree to take a cognitive test.
Right, although Gretchen Whitmer yesterday in another interview was like, couldn't hurt if he did it. Like they're all like stepping around old man Biden. But if you're running for president and you're going to literally have your finger on the button and you're the front line against a global trend towards extremism and anti-Semitism and gender apartheid and there are real serious doubts amongst your internal, your inner circle about your cognitive ability and you're so confident that this isn't a problem, why on earth would you or your advisors not say, of course, end this, take a cognitive test. But here's the thing, the people who know him and the people around him and him is that don't get near a fucking cognitive test.
That's correct. I don't think that's a cognitive test. But let's talk about that. Which is, tell your friend Michael that.
Like, come on, Michael. Yeah, but come on, to be clear, Senator Bennett, think of the situation here. This is an absolutely no-win situation because if you come out, if you come out against him and he wins, you're persona non grata in the White House. Maybe he's too old to do anything about it.
No, no, no. You're persona non grata, the Democratic Party, you were that turncoat. If you say nothing, right, and he wins or he loses, you're fine. It's nothing but downside other than fidelity to the country right now.
So what they're all doing is they're all trying to have their cake and eat it too. I would urge the president to speak to some outsiders and experts. Jesus Christ, grow a fucking pair. I'll tell you, the Emanuel brother, Zeke Emanuel especially too.
His brother's been very loud and loud, but Zeke Emanuel's making a cognate case, which is interesting. He's a doctor. He's a very famous doctor. Very close to Biden.
What did he say? I'm not familiar with that. Oh, he did a whole thing saying he needs to step down. He needs to step down.
So interestingly, Biden has gone on the offense defiant in interviews, lashing out what he calls the elites in the Democratic Party. I don't like this, Biden. I don't like angry old man Biden. Honestly, anyone who's dealt with an elderly parent, it sucks to go up against someone who wants to do things that can't anymore.
It is the worst feeling. It's the worst thing to do. They're terrible to you. And I'm not talking about anyone specifically, but yes, I am.
But I got to tell you, I don't like this, how they're going on the offense, including big white interview. It's just astonishing how badly I think they're messaging this. Talk about it from a marketing point of view. From a marketing point of view, there would be, or a brand strategy point of view, there's two major messages or two major pieces of advice you want to get the Biden campaign right now.
And one they're doing, and the other they need to do if they survive this. The first is, it's actually quite smart to position that the people calling for him to step down are all these white elites. That is smart because he can say, I'm for you. I'm for non-whites.
I'm fighting every day for regular people. I have continued to win for you. I will continue to fight for you. And despite the fact that a bunch of blowhard podcasters and rich white people are saying I should stand down to cultural elites, I'm going to continue to fight for you.
I think that is a smart positioning. But the voters are way ahead of Washington on this issue a long time ago, but go ahead. But that's the right, to position, if you will, us as these elites trying to tell other voters what to do and him what to do. That is a good positioning.
Now, the biggest and most obvious and strongest piece of advice we give the Biden campaign, should they survive this? And I don't think they will, but should they? They can no longer ever say Biden or White House. Any communication, any messages, any labels has to come from one brand only.
Team Biden. Team Biden. This is not Joseph Biden. This is Team Biden.
So it's AIDS. So it's healthcare AIDS. He's got a position as, I have assembled the most thoughtful, talented group of people. I'm not firing them.
They're not going to end up in jail. I'm not going to call them dumb as a rock. They're not going to start talking about conspiracy theory and end up in prison. I have the presidency.
Having said that, I still, Cara, I still don't think, I mean, I'm biased. I'm too close to it. I'm curious what you think. But I think the pressure is only mounting.
Despite all the attempts to shame everybody back into sticking their head up their ass, I don't think it's working. Well, one of the things, you know, I was just thinking this morning, of course, we're waiting for this press conference. It's like turning on whether he can do a press conference. Like, that's where, like, let's see if he has the press conference as well.
Are you kidding me? Like, that's amazing. Get out of the bar. That's like, the bar is lower than the ground.
It's like, and you're losing, and you're losing. You keep losing until it's selling. Like, what? What's really interesting to me, let me actually read the Zeke manual things.
I think you'll really like it. For those 75 years or older, it's time to retire from public office. Dare I say, I agree with my brother Ari. We need a mandatory age limit for all federal elected officials and all federal judges.
No one should surpass 75. Sure, some people will be capable of serving past 75, but just as FBI agents, pilots, foreign service officers, and board members of some corporations have a mandatory retirement ages, so should federal elected officials and judges. In a country of $330 million, there are certainly plenty of competent people for these jobs. And practically speaking, a mandatory retirement age is administratively easy and fair.
With an age minimum in the Constitution, the framers should have added an age maximum as well. Let's fix that deficiency. Perfect. We need age dating on the lower end and the higher end.
We need more ages in this country. Yeah, right, right. So, you know, I just, I think it's going to mount. It's going to mount.
Is that your claw? I'm in Germany watching football. Like, what is your, you're in D.C. What is your sense of the momentum?
Everyone is sort of like trying to look away. You know, I sent you that Desi Lydic thing from the show. It's like, you know, someone should have been going to the Paltrow's house. Everyone is pretending.
They're not pretending. They're saying he should leave. Then no one will say it, right? None of the big dogs will say it.
They'll say it to you. So do Boche. It's a lot of, what the fuck are we going to do, right? That's what it is.
What the fuck are we going to do? And then they get pushed back by people like, well, that's the plan. There's a lot of, I'll tell you the never-Trumpers are very much on Biden's side saying this is a big mistake. Like Mike Madrid, who I respect a lot, or Rick Wilson.
We both know. Stuart Stevens. All the Republicans are like dope. At the same time, there's been a lot of reporting that the Trump people really want Biden to be his phone.
Oh, yeah. So it's interesting. I need to talk to them because I like Mike Madrid, but he's doing too much shaming. Like, oh, you're a bedwetter.
I don't like that. Like, have a good argument. And a lot of people who I think are smart are like, well, what are we going to do? I know in a room they have figured out what to do, right?
There are things to do. And I think the question is whether it's worth the risk or not. But at this point, it's just not going to go away. Everyone's waiting for him to fall.
That's a really bad situation. And no matter, it's not the media's fault. Or Jon Stewart or anyone else. I get it.
It's all white guys. But boy, if white guys are saying it. You know, I do get it. You know, the Congressional Black Caucus is backing Biden.
Hispanic Caucus is backing him. But then some of the members don't like it. If you're not 100% behind him at this point, it means you want him to step down. I see it.
What about the other decisions? Nancy Pelosi, let me tell you, she can serve until she's 103. She's one clever. You know, what she did is, since she's not running the place, and she was so good at running the fucking place, she let the members think about it and cogitate.
But once it had to happen, she brought down the hammer. What she's doing here and I know she probably tested it with all of them. They all agreed on it, which I'd love to be in that meeting where they all decide how to do it, like, as a group. That would have been hysterical.
I mean, Schumer's apparently, even though he goes, I'm with Joe, is apparently, like, maybe not so much with Joe. And he's a little less deaf than she is. Yeah, but also, don't you think these people are also worried about people starting to question their own age? Yes, they will.
Schumer's 73, Pelosi's 83. At some point, do people say, now do Pelosi? Yes, except that literally, I wouldn't turn my back on that lady. But I agree, yes.
A comment and a question to you. I had Anthony Scaramucci on the Prop G pod yesterday. Yeah. And I said, I asked him a bunch of questions about the inner workings of the White House for the 11 days he was there and I said, who is Trump most scared of?
And he said, the candidate that scares the shit out of Trump because he's such a narcissist and he's so focused on appearances, his nightmare is Newsom. That's the call of the message he doesn't want to get is that the Democrats have chosen Newsom because he said he's very looksist and he's really worried about how he would appear standing next to Governor Newsom. He looked like a job of the fucking hut. That's what he looked like.
My question to you is, who is, and maybe it's they, it's not one person to say, but who could march up to the White House or go public with you've got to step down and actually move the needle right now? We know it's not George Clooney. We know it's not Michael Bennett and who could do it? Pelosi and Schumer went up there and said, just like the Barry Goldwater thing, saying they're not voting for anything.
That includes me. We're going to say something public. That could be one thing. I think Obama and Clinton, Bush all together, something like that.
Obviously, Taylor Swift. I haven't talked about that. That's where we are. That's where we are.
Oh my God. Not in that order. Not in that order. The presidents, the presidents, you know, I think one of the problems that seems to be happening is Hunter Biden's in there, right?
Pushing him. That's the worrisome. I've heard that from a lot of people. Like, you know, I think you don't need family members with their own self-interest in there.
And they'll, you know, it's interesting given I'm an elderly parent, my mom, and we're all together on how we want to keep her safe, right? And even though we get slings and arrows over it from her. And I think it's really, we're doing it because we love her and it's in our interest. And in this case, it seems flipped, right?
They're just like putting up with it or pressuring him in a weird way. I don't know. I have to get in there. I mean, they're very proud people and some of the Biden people I know are...
Kara, you've got to, you know, support our president. I go, I can't. I just can't. I'm sorry.
Like, oof. I mean, again, I think your four quadrants are correct. If he leaves and they win, he's the biggest here in history. And if he leaves and they don't win, he's okay.
If he stays and loses, it's the end of his legacy. And he has a wonderful legacy. So anyway, I think that's the story right now, at least in Washington. All right, let's go in a quick break.
When we come back, we'll talk about the JVP's new platform, what it means for tech, and take a listener mail question on choosing colleges. Ooh, that's a good one. Support for this show comes from Ojo. Running a business is hard enough.
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So why not you? Try Odo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. I'm Maria Sharapova, and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough.
Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Follow Pretty Tough wherever you get your podcasts. So we are 250 years into this American experiment, and I say it's going okay.
I give us like a C+. There is no perfect past, but there is also no exclusively negative past. Because humans are gonna human. That's what we do.
I think the story of America is the struggle of people who have not been included in the promise of America to expand those principles to include more people. What's gonna determine the next 250 years of America? And how do we write a new social contract that can give us the democracy we deserve? Okay, so I'm just gonna be a jerk here because I'm a historian.
So we have to have a prologue explaining, you know, we the people. Okay, you know, I just can't remember it from Schoolhouse Rock. We the people are going to the former perfect union. If that was justice, what is it?
Insurance domestic, frankly. So you're talking about a foundational document. So I'm building a document that will protect American democracy. That's this week on America Actually.
Scott, we're back with our second big story. The Republican National Convention gets underway next week. The party approved its 2024 platform on Monday, giving us a glimpse of what a Trump second term might look like. It sounds awful in every single way.
The platform reads like a Trump rally speech and feeds your list of 20 promises, including stop the migrant invasion, which we're still waiting for that caravan. Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and prevent World War III. Okay. The language on abortion is saying that marriage has also been pared down and softened.
Gays can stay married apparently, according to Donald Trump. Thanks, Donald, you fucking asshole. You know, he had a rally recently where he was as loony as a, you know, it's all baked in, but he was loonier than ever. Still talking about sharks and Hannibal Lecter and all kinds of this and that.
Speaking of cognitive disabilities. And I know people say we should say more about it. He is crazy, everybody. We've said it over and over again, and he's vicious.
He's crazy and vicious and corrupt and a criminal. So there, I hope that's enough. What do you think about this vision that they've laid out? They're certainly trying to soften.
We've been hearing a lot, thankfully, about Project 2025 in recent weeks, a proposal for massive overhaul of the federal government. Which is nonsense. He also was like, I wish them good luck. It was very similar to a statement he gave about Ghislaine Maxwell of the famous Epstein, saying, I don't really know her, but I wish her good luck.
And, of course, there's 90 pictures of him with her. So what do you think about this? So as frightening as Biden's performance has been, we don't want to talk about this, but Trump has actually been very on message. He's been much more disciplined this time.
And he realizes that he's basically said, if we just pivot a little bit to the middle and we're not as terribly frightening. What's going on here is we've seen before, and that's Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett in their Senate testimony confirmation hearings pretending to be reasonable. And then once they're on the court, they decide to overturn Roe v. Wade, which they said under oath in front of the Senate was established precedent.
My sense is Trump is very on message. I forget the name of the woman. Scaramucci says it. He said she's the most powerful woman in Washington right now.
But think about it. He's gone totally quiet around the debate. He's softening the stuff around bodily autonomy. But be clear, folks.
It's now one in five women have to leave the state to terminate a pregnancy. It's going to go to two in five, three in five, and maybe more. And this whole 20, whatever they're calling it, 20, 25. I mean, you read through it.
Oh, it's a handmaiden's tale booklet. Okay, be clear, folks. The thing about these things is we make them say they're believing they're so fucking crazy they can never happen. No, they can happen.
They can happen. So from a messaging standpoint, Trump's trying to distance himself. But it is a looking glass into what some of the most powerful people who will have the greatest audience voice and sway on the White House are thinking. Yeah, absolutely.