Jim Acosta, Rep. Brendan Boyle & Bobby Pulido

Molly Jong-Fast (0:00)

Hi, I'm Molly Jong-Fast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And Donald Trump has given Natalie Harp and three other aides a cash gift of $45,000.

We have such a great show for you today, The Jim Acosta Show's Jim Acosta stops by to talk about Trump's aides giving up on trying to persuade him to be normal. Then we'll talk to Representative Brendan Boyle about how the Dems can fight back against an unpopular president. Plus, we have a bonus, very exciting congressional candidate and singer, Bobby Pulido about his tight race to flip a red district in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. But first, the news.

Jacob Soboroff (0:51)

Somali had New Hampshire at a primary last night. We now have seen what seemed like logical conclusions of what was going to happen in this races has come through. A lot of people were getting a little scared that some dark horse candidates were going to pull ahead.

Molly Jong-Fast (1:08)

In New Hampshire?

Jacob Soboroff (1:09)

Yeah, there was some scare that the farther left candidate was going to win the Senate seat for a while. I mean, this has turned out to be a more of a Francesca Hong situation, if you ask me, but I didn't have much faith in this.

Molly Jong-Fast (1:20)

Okay, so it's going to be John Sununu versus Chris Pappas. We are like, what, a week from early voting, two weeks from early voting, but we're done with the fucking primaries. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. New Hampshire ends with a whimper by confirming everything we thought we would happen. Look, here's a problem with this race, and we should talk about it for a minute. Sununu is popular. This is a Democratic seat. If this flips, this is not good.

There are a lot of people who listen to this podcast who care a lot about flipping the Senate. And so I say to you, New Hampshire, not far away, filled with persuadable voters, drive up there, man. Go knock on some doors. New Hampshire matters. It's a small-er state. But more importantly, this is a seat Democrats, a Senate seat Democrats, we really need to hold. Chris Pappas is a totally reasonable candidate, member of Congress, used to hold. A congressional seat has been on this podcast before. We will vote the way that is needed in order to pass the legislation that is needed. And so I say to you, real important that Democrats get out here and vote for Chris Pappas and against John Sununu Jr. You know, this guy, he's just going to vote like a Republican. He's just going to be a Trump. He's just going to rubber stamp them. And this is a moment where you really need to have a referendum on the incumbent, who is a complete and utter lunatic, even loonier than he was 10 years ago, if that's possible.

All of us have gotten much, much older. And for that, we say, please, let's not lose this seat, people.

Jacob Soboroff (3:06)

Well, you know who was a loser, though? Former Senator Scott Brown, who terrorized the political coverage for two whole years until Elizabeth Warren unseated him.

Molly Jong-Fast (3:17)

Yes, he can head to the casino now.

Jacob Soboroff (3:20)

All right, Molly, let's talk about a bright subject, the end of the world.

So a bunch of, by a bunch, I mean three, anthropic engineers are blowing the whistle saying that open AI and anthropic are not taking it seriously enough. The threats, they say that we have a 10% chance of ending humanity with AI. I, for one, wish that we had a thing we were talking about yesterday, which is anyone who understood how to regulate tech. This is one of my pet subjects and I really think if there's any subject we are not taking seriously enough right now, climate change and this are just about right there equally.

Molly Jong-Fast (4:00)

It's funny when I saw this yesterday, I thought to myself, I've been so worried about climate change, I completely forgot about AI killing us all. Jacob is correct here. We do honestly believe AI could kill all humans. And the explanation point, I personally think it is less than 10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not have a plan to solve alignment for super intelligence. Okay, guys, I mean, look, people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all. Full stop. Why are we building something that could kill us all? Because the Chinese, we think, are going to build it if we don't. This is so stupid. There is clearly a way to figure this out, a way to talk to the Chinese, a way to sanction the chips, a way to put some oversight here. You know, the idea that everyone's like, it's too hard, we'll just give up and maybe we'll all die.