Rick Wilson & Daniel Biss

**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 House Democrats have added 12 safe Republican seats to their red to blue list. We have such a great show for you today. The Lincoln Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to talk about how Trump still controls elected officials despite the fact that he cannot control Republican primaries. Then we'll talk to Democratic Congressman Daniel Biss about being an anti-APAC Jew.
But first the news.

**Jesse Cannon** (0:39)
So Molly, the Senate passed a stopgap to avert the shutdown of the government that would have happened before the election. But Trump, I think he soiled his diaper because the SAVE Act didn't get passed.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:51)
The top line here is the Senate has gone back on vacation because it's August. And why should they be at work? They've gone, they're done, they're out, they will not be back until September. And until then, there will be no SAVE Act, which means Donald Trump will not get the SAVE Act passed. Here's what was never going to happen. Donald Trump was going to pass the SAVE Act. Here's why. It was a math problem, right? He needed 60 votes to pass the SAVE Act. He couldn't get 60 votes, so he would have had to have killed the filibuster for an act that was... By the way, if you're going to kill the filibuster, which eventually someone will kill the filibuster, you're not going to kill it for a piece of legislation that's poorly written, that's ultimately probably not going to get enacted. I mean, the whole situation is just a complete shitshow for Trump anyway. And by the way, had they even passed the SAVE Act, there's a question of whether or not it was even legal, right? I mean, it's basically federalizing elections. So it's taking state elections and making the federal government in charge of them, which technically, I mean, I know Republicans hate the Constitution, but if they liked it, they would see that technically you can't do that. They're separated. And by the way, they're separated for good reason, because they're safer when the states run them and they're decentralized and they're less likely to be interfered with. So here we are, bipartisan vote to push government funding past election day deadline. I love that they can get a 90 to 6 vote, but only when it's for punting. Another great part of this, number of people did not vote, including, you'll remember, Mitch McConnell. Though I do think at some point, Mitch McConnell was having his votes put in for him, right, by Roger Wicker?

**Jesse Cannon** (2:35)
Yep.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (2:35)
Certainly a sign that everything is going great, in case you're wondering. Supposedly, though, Mitch McConnell did check out of rehab, maybe. Who knows, because there are no pictures and no real reporting. So we just have to take Mitch McConnell at his word, which why wouldn't you, right?

**Jesse Cannon** (2:51)
Oh, of course. What an honest zombie. Man, I mean, man, I'm sorry.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (2:55)
Mitch McConnell at his word, I'm sure he's completely healthy and totally fine. What's happening here? They confirmed Todd Blanch. They failed a voter ID measure, and now they will go and have a recess.
Well, Republicans will try to keep the house and Democrats will try to flip.

**Jesse Cannon** (3:14)
So let's talk about the Republicans trying to keep the house, because we have learned that they're going to have a little convention that's going to be a little film festival. Now, Molly, allow me to log a prediction here. I think we're going to see AI Trans-Talrico. I think we're going to probably see some of the most Islamophobic things about Dr. Abdul El-Sayed we've ever seen, and probably a lot of other things. My imagination is not stupid enough to conceive.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:40)
Here's what's happening. GOP decided that we'd have a midterm convention, which I actually don't think is a terrible idea. If you had a policy to sell people, that could be very helpful, but you don't, right? What's the policy of the Republican Party? What is the Republican policy? What is the Republican Party's meaning? Do they want health care for all?
Do they want to... What do they want? They want Trump, right? I mean, Trump. The party is the party of Trump, and they support what Trump likes, and so they support seizing the means of production by taking stakes in public companies. They largely buy a blackmail. I mean, what do they support? So they support getting mad at people for making jokes about Charlie Kirk. I don't know that you can run on that stuff. I don't know that somebody who can't afford to fill their car up with gas is going to really care about culture war issues. And that will be the big question. So this first ever midterm convention in September will feature a lot of clips of leftists saying crazy stuff. What will that look like? I don't know.