Brian Derrick: [00:00:00] No forecasts, 

Glennis Meagher: no pundits, 

Brian Derrick: just vibes. This is Vibes Only, the podcast that checks the vibes of American politics every week. And the vibes this week. 

MSNBC: We are just a little more than three weeks away until Election Day, and as of today, the race has become a dead heat. 

CNN: A new national poll shows the candidates in a dead heat.

ABC: This race was close. It is getting even closer now. 

Glennis Meagher: We'll talk about the vibes, the freakouts, and the campaign strategies in the last three weeks before Election Day. 

Brian Derrick: Then we'll get to Trump's fascist threats in an It's Giving, pull up our group chat, and leave you with a good vibe. Let's get into it.

Hi, Glennis. 

Glennis Meagher: Hi, Brian. How are you? 

Brian Derrick: Um, we are at the point in the cycle where I'm either dancing and getting out the vote and making calls and knocking on doors or I'm horizontal on the floor. 

Glennis Meagher: I know 

Brian Derrick: somebody said, 

Glennis Meagher: I needed about like five more hours. [00:01:00] That's why I texted you and our producer saying I need five minutes because I am like, Ooh, I'm tired.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I, I'm with you, but the end is in sight. We are less than three weeks out. This is the crunch time of crunch time. 

Glennis Meagher: That's right. 

Brian Derrick: It's a full sprint now. How would you characterize your overall vibe of the election as a whole in this moment? 

Glennis Meagher: Well, I was in Pittsburgh this weekend, which is obviously a very important city and a very important state.

And I would say my vibe is still, we got a lot of work to do in these next three weeks. We talked to a lot of voters and for every Harris voter, there was a Trump voter. Okay. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. 

Glennis Meagher: So that's how I feel. 

Brian Derrick: And that's how, that's how we should feel. There is a lot of work to do. The race is. Basically frozen at a tie.

We're not going to get any new reliable data between now and election day that shows [00:02:00] some gargantuan shift in Harris's favor. So everyone needs to just like strap in because this is where it's at and we just have to move. I hate using sports metaphors, but we have to move the ball an inch forward at a time to make it across the finish line with more than 270 electoral votes.

Period. Um. I would 

Glennis Meagher: make a football analogy if I could, if I knew how long a football field was, but we are at, actually, no, we're at the 40 yard. 

Brian Derrick: There we go. I was like, Oh girl, if there's one thing you know about 

Glennis Meagher: football, it's the size of the field. It's the 40 yard, whatever, whatever. And we just got to keep going.

getting that football one, one yard forward. Absolutely. Yeah. It's, I'm feeling like, okay, I am, even though I'm so exhausted and I'm on the road for the next three weeks, I am going to do everything I can in my power to get Kamala Harris elected because I don't want to wake up on November 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, [00:03:00] whenever it's called thinking I could have done more.

And I want, again, this is my profession, but even if you're not a democratic strategist or a digital strategist, you can be doing that as well. You can be texting friends and family, you can be signing up to phone bank, you can be knocking doors, you can be writing letters, you can be using your digital media platform, whatever that may be to get out the vote, because it is get out the vote season.

Brian Derrick: And it's also the part of election season where vibes become their own storyline. Um, there's only so much polling data available to run headlines on, and so the media definitely has zeroed in on vibes as being an, an important narrative there. And it's a little bit tired in my, in my opinion, to, to describe this narrative of Democrats panicking.

Right. And to sort of, it's almost like victim blaming in a way, sorry that I don't want democracy to [00:04:00] end, but there definitely is this panic or this anxiety going on in democratic circles that it is as close as it is, that it's not more decisive in Harris's favor or in Harris's favor right now, depending on what polls you're looking at at all.

And there's been, again, if you're buying into the polls, there's been some erosion, particularly in the national popular vote. Between September and October. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And so 

Brian Derrick: it's creating this narrative around Dems like panicking or, um, bedwetting. 

Glennis Meagher: Right. Right. I'm seeing some headlines here in New York times.

State of the race. A close race gets closer. Okay. Who wrote that one? NBC dead heat. Trump pulls even with Harris and NBC news poll. I'll say like, I'd rather this than what we had in 2016. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. We were all 

Glennis Meagher: like, yippity doo dah, yippity day. It's hers. It's in the bag. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, right. Uh, David Plouffe, who's an advisor to Kamala Harris and former Obama person, went on Pod Save basically telling people [00:05:00] polls are bullshit.

David Plouffe: I really can't speak to the public polls. Most of them are horseshit. You know, some of them may be close, but generally I'd say any poll that shows Kamala Harris up four to five points in one of these seven states, ignore it. Any point that shows Donald Trump up like that, ignore it. This thing's very close.

It's a margin of error race. Uh, but again, I'd rather be us than him because I think we. Uh, have the ability to get to 49 or, and a half or 50, uh, I'm much more confident about that than Donald Trump, but it's going to be close all the way in. 

Brian Derrick: At this point in the cycle, makes sense. I have said throughout this entire year, polls are a tool for campaigns, not something that should guide media narrative or, Your vibes for the day.

You shouldn't be basing your entire energy from now through November 5th on a poll that you didn't read the cross tabs of, you know, 

Glennis Meagher: right. And also we've been saying this vibes aren't votes. So no matter what the vibe is, good, bad in between, nothing is more powerful than voting. [00:06:00] 

Brian Derrick: This is the first election presidential election since.

Roe versus Wade was overturned. And when you think about it, which is like obvious and simultaneously kind of 

Glennis Meagher: not obvious, because it feels like it's been this narrative for a decade now, but it really, yeah, 

Brian Derrick: exactly. I was thinking about this. It really does feel like we've been having these same conversations forever.

We haven't. Dobbs was 2022. We had the midterms Dems overperformed. 

Glennis Meagher: We've 

Brian Derrick: overperformed in every special election since then. And it's we've been on top of our shit and we've Uh, reached out to voters where it mattered the most. 

Glennis Meagher: This is how it feels to be three weeks out, by the way. It's so exhausting.

That's right, Brian. We meet, we reach voters where they're at. We get to work. 

Brian Derrick: Exactly. Um, and that's exactly what Harris is doing this week. I think that we're seeing if the last two weeks were, as Tim Walls would [00:07:00] say, Preaching to the choir to get the choir to sing. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: Now Harris is going on offense.

Yeah. This week that she's going on, on Fox News, she's going, it sounds like she's going on the Joe Rogan podcast. What? UN confirmed. Which 

Glennis Meagher: is also crazy that Joe Rogan's like, yeah. Come, because I just felt like, but I guess 

Brian Derrick: of course he wants, yeah, he wants 

Glennis Meagher: the views. Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: That's gonna be a like. A whole new audience for him.

I would listen to that episode and I literally never listened to Joe Rogan. So it's, it feels like a slam dunk for him. And for her, that's exactly what she needs to be doing. We are hearing a lot about the strategy of the two campaigns and what Harris is trying to do is cut into the margins of the demographics and geographies that she's going to lose.

We know that white men are going to vote for Trump more than Harris. 

Glennis Meagher: Are they always voting? Do white men always vote? 

Brian Derrick: Well, not as much as women, men always vote less than women. But I just mean like for the white men who [00:08:00] do vote, they're going to, they're going to, there's going to be a large margin for Trump.

They're, they're breaking in his direction. But if she can just eat away at that of like a couple of points there, then that can sort of, you know, Compensate or put her over the line where there are some other demographic changes that have happened among the Latino community or others 

Glennis Meagher: or the 

Brian Derrick: left or the left.

And so I don't know. What do you think of this strategy? Do you feel like she's prepared to go into these hostile spaces? 

Glennis Meagher: Yes, I do. I think leave no stone unturned. Any voter that she can reach in these last three weeks, even like a Joe Rogan. Like I know a ton of guys. Who listened to Joe Rogan and just like, he is the validator for that.

If Joe Rogan says something, they're like, Oh, okay, that is powerful. And sometimes many, many times, most people are not going knee deep into project 2025. They're not going knee deep into the inflation reduction act. They just want to know if the people that they trust are hat tipping a [00:09:00] candidate or validating a candidate.

And if she can do that with, you know, 10 percent or less. 2%, 1 percent of Joe Rogan's listeners. That's a win. And Fox News, she can handle Fox News. They just like, they're, they're comically bad. And she being, we've talked about this a lot on the podcast about her career as a prosecutor. Like she knows how to form and deliver an argument and debate.

So I'm not worried about her on Fox News for a minute. Are you? 

Brian Derrick: I'm not worried. I think it's really important that she speaks to the concerns of the audience more than tries to appease the base. And we, unfortunately, as a, let's just say like movement left of center, not just Democrats, but like everyone who identifies on the left side of the political spectrum, have a tendency to demand.

Purity, essentially, in how people deliver messages about the policies that we want. Where it's not just, it's not [00:10:00] enough to sort of have the right goals in mind. You also need to say it the way that we want you to say it. And I think that that's actually counterproductive. And so, when she goes on Fox News, And they press her on the border, and on immigration, and on inflation, and crime.

Are we going to give her the space to make an argument that could appeal more to her? Yeah, to the audience that's going to see her on that platform, because it won't sound the same. And it shouldn't sound the same. I'm not saying she should change her viewpoint or her stance on the issues, but it's about, maybe it's more about making the economic case for immigration and the national security case.

For border security and some of these other pieces that are going to resonate with voters where other parts of the coalition behind her might not be on board with how she's speaking about those [00:11:00] particular issues. But if we want to build a coalition that can win, I think that's important to be expansive in how we talk about our position on those issues.

Glennis Meagher: Totally agree. And that coalition has to understand that we need to do everything we can to get as many voters into our coalition so that we win. So I think that. What you just said isn't directed necessarily the people who are motivated to win understanding that she will have to speak about topics in a way that maybe we're not familiar with or used to for a democratic candidate.

But I have some pockets of the internet that should hear that, Brian. 

Brian Derrick: I know. Yeah, same. At me. Send this to your friend. You

Glennis Meagher: know who's also on the road? 

Brian Derrick: Tell me. 

Glennis Meagher: Kamala Harris. Tim Walz. Barack Obama. It's actually been funny. My little swing state tour, there's always been someone. So like when I landed in Pittsburgh, I was stuck in gridlock traffic. You know why? Obama had just landed. 

Brian Derrick: Let's jump there. Um, it has been an interesting [00:12:00] development that the number of surrogates for Harris has expanded, as has the settings in which those surrogates and audiences that those surrogates can put themselves in front of.

One, as you mentioned, was Obama. He just had a speech that I think went pretty viral, at least in part, from his Pennsylvania stop. 

Barack Obama: You're thinking about sitting out? Or even supporting somebody

who has a history of denigrating you

because you think that's a sign of strength because that's what being a man is? Putting women down? That's not acceptable. 

Brian Derrick: You can tell that he is being very measured. 

Barack Obama: Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: I would be too. I think he's upset and I think he [00:13:00] sees the risk of his entire legacy being washed away by the erosion of democracy under Trump and is turning on the burners, right?

Like he's not fucking around. There has been a lot of conversation around. Black men 

Glennis Meagher: supporting 

Brian Derrick: Harris or not. And I think the very first thing I want to say as we talk about this is that we should always start these conversations, whether we're talking about like the Latino vote, black men, black women, especially when we're talking about people of color, also the LGBT community, that if we're talking about erosion, we're still talking about the vast majority of these groups supporting Kamala Harris.

But we're talking about like a couple of points. Change or like a 10 point change from 80 percent to 70 percent or something like that. We're not talking about Trump winning over these groups, but just eroding the historically large margins that can create a problem in specific states where you are.

[00:14:00] Reliant on a really wide gap in, in, in those, in, in a really wide lead in those communities. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And I would say that's also coupled with like, you know, Republicans trying to disenfranchise black voters. You look at what's happening in Georgia and it was like, I think 189, 000 voters in the last like two years have been purged from the voter rolls.

It's crazy redistricting happening. So it's just like a perfect storm. And I thought you were going to say, which I'll say is that we're two white people. So to speak to the black experience or why a vote might change, uh, either way is something that while I can't speak to the experience, what I can speak to is like what these candidates are doing or not doing for that community.

I'm seeing here in the notes that Kamala Harris, I did not know this. Is doing like several campaign events that and introducing policy proposals that are specifically designed to appeal to black men. It's called the opportunity agenda for black men and some of the points here are providing 1, 000, 000 small business loans that are forgivable up to 20, 000 [00:15:00] training and mentorship programs that would help get black men alike up and jumping into high demand industries.

Launching an initiative focused on health issues that disproportionately impact black men and more. So that's the first time I've seen a candidate outline policy proposals specifically for black men. I could be wrong, I just haven't seen them. But now the challenge is getting that information to as many people as possible in the next three weeks.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I was excited to see this platform roll out and I think that's exactly what Kamala should be doing at this point. I also want to highlight that she's doing a town hall with Charlemagne the God. 

Glennis Meagher: Ah. 

Brian Derrick: If you don't know who that is, he's a co host of a really popular program called The Breakfast Club.

And he has made a lot of news over the past year with his comments on, uh, Trump and Biden and Harris and others. He is a really major thought leader in the space. He had an [00:16:00] interesting quote come out that I wanted to respond to directly this past weekend. He said, we don't have any data to show that black men won't vote for women, but we do have data that shows they will because 82 percent of black men voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

He also noted that more white women voted for Trump than for Democrats in 2016 and 2020. Quote, nobody's ever scolded white women. Nobody's ever gone out there and said, white women, why are you voting against your interests? Essentially saying, why are we trying to like pick on black men? Overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

When white women, a majority of white women supported in 16 and 20. And so where, where are we pointing fingers and talking about who's to blame? 

Glennis Meagher: Totally valid. I will say Ilana Glazer, my co founder and I, we had, we have done, uh, like skits of white women. We are the problem. Get it together. Like white women are the problem.

And it's a very, very, very [00:17:00] valid point that should be highlighted that we're having this conversation on the pod. Maybe next week we'll have Alana on and we can talk about the issue with white women, like get a grip. I see it in my comments on social media all the time. All of these white women who have lost the plot.

Yeah. And want to vote against their reproductive rights. It's unhinged. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. I mean, they're, they're interested in many ways. I agree with his math. Like the math is correct, right? A majority of white women did, did support Trump in, in both. I disagree that no one's out here saying. White women, what's the tea?

Like, I do think that's happening. The pro Harris call that was designated or targeted at white women was literally called white women answer the call, meaning like, and yeah, and it was a heavy topic of the call itself was sort of white women's role voting behavior and role in Trump's election in the past.

And so I do think that that narrative does exist, but I always [00:18:00] Have to, or we, we should always question when we're targeting really specific groups. Like black men or Yeah. Oh, the, the erosion among Latinos when in reality, Democrats are still winning a majority of these communities and we're not winning a majority of white men.

We're not winning a majority of white women. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Suburban white women need to get it together, 

Brian Derrick: and I do think. That the party as a whole, the Democratic Party, is, has failed to come up with a compelling message for many white voters, many white working class voters, and young people in particular, that makes them feel included in the work that we're trying to do.

Because I do think that we have more specific messaging around some of these other issues. demographic groups, particularly around race, but not exclusively, right? LGBT, different religious minorities, et cetera. For example, like we do have the opportunity agenda for black [00:19:00] men. We won't put out something called the opportunity agenda for white men, nor am I saying we But what we have to do is come up with a way to speak to those voters to make inroads.

And I think that what we have seen with Tim Walz and a lot of the sort of fanfare around Tim Walz is that he is a messenger that can reach young men, white men, especially in a way that Democrats haven't. In a long time 

Glennis Meagher: and he 

Brian Derrick: can speak their language. He's this football coach character. He spent this past weekend hunting pheasants.

He just like vibes in a different way and speaks in a different way that could resonate with that community. And so over the next couple of years, this is not a three week project, but this is like a five year, 10 year project is we have to figure out who are the messengers that can sort of pull some of that group that's currently moving away from us.

[00:20:00] back into the fold and make them feel included and show them that what happens to women's reproductive rights or to LGBT equality or in racial equity or criminal justice or like all these other pieces. Actually also impacts them and like in in a specific way, not in a way of like you should just care about your neighbor, but you should care about yourself and why we're better for you as well.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Well, Joe Rogan get to work. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I I think it will be really interesting to see. Well, no, I think that will be interesting to see how Harris tries to thread that needle on the pod, right? Because I think that if she goes on Joe Rogan and makes the entire thing about it. Yeah. Reproductive rights.

We're not actually going to in the same way that she would make that case on call her daddy. Yeah, we're not going to resonate with the people that she needs to reach the most. 

Glennis Meagher: Let's see. 

Brian Derrick: And Trump is in conversations [00:21:00] to do an appearance on Rogan as well. So this could be the 60 minutes that never happened where we could have back to back Harris and Trump.

Glennis Meagher: Who would have thought the former host of Fear Factor, people were eating eyeballs. 

Brian Derrick: I think a lot of people don't know that. But like millennials, you need, if you are like an illiberal bubble online, you might not actually know that Joe Rogan is the guy who hosted Fear Factor. I will say that I'm not a Joe Rogan listener.

Shocker. 

Glennis Meagher: No. 

Brian Derrick: The clips that I see go viral. He has an almost Trumpian stream of consciousness. Yeah. Where he does weave together. A lot of unrelated topics into the same conversation, 

Glennis Meagher: weaving 

Brian Derrick: and a lot of weaving and a lot of conspiratorial thinking from, again, from the non representative sample of clips I've seen go viral online.

And that is 

Glennis Meagher: verbalizes exactly the [00:22:00] conspiratorial. He there's no like inner monologue. He says it all. 

Brian Derrick: Right. 

Glennis Meagher: No matter if it's harmful or not. 

Brian Derrick: And I feel like that lends itself to a great platform for Trump. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: Because, like, we're in, like, upside down world, nothing's being questioned in real time. And.

There's too much. You're, you're drinking from a fire hose trying to individually address each problematic statement or assertion with facts the same way that it's really hard to debate or have an even remotely realistic conversation with Donald Trump. I do think that there's something similar about Rogan where it all just sort of like flies at you too fast.

And so that will be. One of my concerns or something that I'll be watching for in a Harris versus Trump appearance on Rogaine is Do Trump and him just drama dump over like conspiracy dump over all of us about [00:23:00] all the things that we know not to be true around inflation, crime, immigration, white supremacy, and like related conspiracy theories and COVID vaccines.

And like, is it literally just going to become like crazy, crazy nonsense? And will Harris's appearance be bogged down in her trying to be the adult? In the room, because it's really hard to do that when the other person's not really that interested in, 

Glennis Meagher: in talking about facts 

Brian Derrick: In talking about facts, 

Glennis Meagher: I guess only time will tell.

And then, uh, it's incumbent on the campaign and others to immediately fact check a Trump Rogan interview and just use it as an opportunity to just delegitimize as much as we can. But once the damage is done, it's done. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah, that's the crazy thing is in this. decentralized media ecosystem that we inhabit, you don't really have the opportunity to reach most of the people who will hear it.

Joe Rogan's podcast is the most popular podcast in the country. And no matter how much money the Harris campaign puts [00:24:00] behind ads, we actually won't substantively reach a majority of the people who listen to it. And so it creates this really Wild power structure for these podcast hosts that historically only massive institutions like The New York Times or CNN or something have had with entire newsrooms and accountability structures and all these things where it's just like, Oh, I'm just a guy.

I'm a guy who has a production staff, right? But ultimate creative control. And accountable to no one with as much influence as an entire media network. It's

Glennis Meagher: how many people do you think I just I have the number right here. How many people do you think listen to Joe Rogan weekly? 

Brian Derrick: I have heard it before.

So I'm not completely guessing blind, but I'm trying to remember. I think that it's in like the 12 to 14 million range. 

Glennis Meagher: 14. 5. Wow. 

Brian Derrick: Okay. Nailed that. 

Glennis Meagher: That's a lot of people

Brian Derrick: , a [00:25:00] lot of people. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. It's like Rush Limbaugh, who like Joe Rogan is like, Ooh, 14. 5 million. That is a lot of people. So let's see what happens.

Brian Derrick: We also have to mention that there is developing news this week coming from Omarosa's book who served in the Trump administration that she personally heard the audio of Trump using the n word.

That broke last night, I believe. And the, the audio is not out. So we are just reliant on Omarosa saying that she heard it.

Glennis Meagher: But would 

she lie about that though? You know, 

Brian Derrick: I don't know. I don't have a, I don't know. 

Glennis Meagher: That's what I mean. 

I'm like, it's not sure she wants to sell some books, but she also was like a loyalist.

And then I think probably felt so disrespected by him that she obviously left the administration. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. She spent. [00:26:00] A couple of years tracking down this tape and said she got the person to play it for her. It was back in his apprentice days and he went on a very Trump like tirade and used the n word. And she says that someone's planning on releasing it as an October surprise.

She claims that like it, the audio itself might come out in the next couple of weeks, but it is worth noting as we are talking about Trump's, Trump improving his position among black voters marginally, that this could play a role in how he is seen by not all, but some black voters. 

Glennis Meagher: I mean, some people are going to 

celebrate that because I mean, we've known Trump has been a racist.

He used to not allow. Black people to live in his apartment buildings. Like it's not like a new development, but you know, to hear him say that maybe for some people it will shock them enough that they will not vote for him. [00:27:00] But I don't know if you saw some of the images coming out of, uh, there was, you know, how Trump has these boat rallies, which are like, so quite frankly, pathetic where people drive around their lakes with their make America great.

There was a, I don't know the exact location. Uh, I need to look this up. 

Brian Derrick: Jupiter, 

Glennis Meagher: Florida. 

Brian Derrick: Yeah. 

Glennis Meagher: And they had full blown swastikas. 

Brian Derrick: Yep. 

Glennis Meagher: It was not just Make America Great Again flags and Trump 2024 flags. It was Nazi flags. 

Brian Derrick: As they say, if you are at a rally, and there are Nazi flags, and they are not asked to leave, you are at a Nazi rally.

Glennis Meagher: Period. 

Brian Derrick: Like, full stop. 

Transition: It's giving. It's giving. It's giving. 

Brian Derrick: So, Trump has injected himself back into headlines with a lot of really just unrestrained, totally anti American, totally authoritarian types of remarks and he's over the last [00:28:00] like week or so gone farther. Then he has in the past talking about, quote, the enemies within, are 

Maria Bartiromo: you expecting chaos on election day?

Donald Trump: No, I don't know. Thanks. Not from the side that votes for Trump, 

Maria Bartiromo: but I'm just wondering if these outside agitators will start up on election day. Let's say you win. I mean, let's not, let's, let's remember you've got 50, 000 Chinese nationals in this country in the last couple of years, there are people on the terrorist watch list, 350 in the last couple of years.

You've got, uh, like you said, 13, 000. Murderers and 15, 000 rapists. 

Donald Trump: Right. I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people that have come in and destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country. The towns, the villages, they're being inundated. But, I don't think they're the problem in terms of election day.

I think the bigger problem are the People from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the, and, and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, [00:29:00] by national guard or if really necessary, by the military. 

Glennis Meagher: Well, he said it folks. 

Brian Derrick: It's giving Putin.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: Like threatening. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: Threatening your political enemies on election day with the military. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. 

Brian Derrick: Is not an allusion to authoritarianism or sort of like a stepping stone towards it. That's it. Like, like, like that's, that's how you. rig an election. That's how you suppress the popular vote of the people.

And thank God he's not in charge of the military right now. 

Glennis Meagher: And it's how you, you embolden people like that man in North Carolina who, who called up the militia to go attack FEMA. Like people listen to this and they hear it. And it's worth noting that that interviewer just blatantly lying about You know, 130, 000, 13, 000 murderers and rapists in the country.

Like, what are you talking about, Fox News? Get a grip. [00:30:00] 

Brian Derrick: They're pulling that number from a report that includes people in prison for, for the record. 

Glennis Meagher: Oh, incarcerated individuals were like tried in a court of law 

Brian Derrick: over the past 40 years. 

Glennis Meagher: Oh, 40 years. 

Brian Derrick: It's wild. Like, like the, the distortion of, of those numbers is crazy.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, it's giving the calls coming from inside the house because he is the enemy of the state. 

Brian Derrick: It is also worth noting that while the military is not going to show up at polling places on election day, while the the left or like enemies within whatever he's alluding to, it is not going to cause violence on election day.

None of that is going to happen. There have been documented cases. Of far right groups and militias like the anti FEMA action attackers that you're talking about showing up in Arizona where they had to go to court to get these heard about this. People show they were showing up outside of Dropbox locations with guns and just [00:31:00] sitting there to try to intimidate people from dropping off ballots.

Imagine that that's the kind of thing that Trump is Directly appeal. Those are the people that Trump is directly appealing to with this type of rhetoric. And God forbid if there is any type of violence between election day and inauguration day, we will be playing this clip again and others like it because he repeats it.

Again, and again, and again, especially at his rallies, where, as we've noted, you have people who are part of these militias and openly carrying Nazi flags around. He knows, he knows what he's, what he's doing when he says it. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Bob Woodward, good old Bob, he came out with a new book. He had, for those who don't know, he's like the Watergate reporter.

For him and, uh Who's the other guy? It's like Simon and Garfunkel, but for the Washington Post. Carl 

Brian Derrick: Bernstein. 

Glennis Meagher: Bernstein. Carl. Sorry, Carl. Anyway, Bob Woodward. He [00:32:00] interviewed, uh, Army General Mark Milley. Remember that guy? I do. Uh, and General Milley said that President Trump is a fascist to the core and that he is the most dangerous person in the country.

Why would, Mark Milley has nothing to gain by saying that about Trump. And as a U. S. Army General. General. I, I do believe that he understands the threat. 

Brian Derrick: Absolutely.

We have a bit of a special group chat today because we had so many people writing in with their thoughts about what is currently happening in the election. And there are, we requested a bit of a vibe check. So let's just run through some of the texts that we got from our listeners. 

Glennis Meagher: Pittsburgh, my new second favorite city.

Today, my father in law needed to talk down off the ledge about Kamala not campaigning in public enough. So this podcast was perfect [00:33:00] timing. I sent it to him to listen to, and I hope he feels better afterwards. I hope you did too. 

Brian Derrick: Me too. That's what we're here for. Send this pod to somebody who is stressed about the election and has tuned out because it's all too overwhelming.

We also got one from somebody in Iowa saying they were feeling hopeful, excited, and energized, but also scared and nervous. I'm with you. They're knocking on doors, joining zoom meetings, canvassing for local Dems. We'd love to see that. We've made progress in Iowa and I'm seeing so many more Harris wall signs in my conservative town, hoping to flip some seats in the house.

Amazing. There are some really important congressional seats in Iowa, Lenon, Bauckham. And Christina Bohannon, especially, and also some important Iowa state legislative races. Last cycle, we beat Jake Chapman, who was the president of the Iowa Senate and one of the biggest homophobes in America. And we said, See ya!

Glennis Meagher: See ya! Homophobes, you don't have a place here. Oh, here's [00:34:00] one. Someone sent a voice memo. People do do this. 

Brian Derrick: Oh my God. Let's discuss. Wait, do we have 

Listener: the voice memo? Hi Brian and Glennis, Aidan here, and I just finished listening to your episode about non traditional media, and I just wanted to say, I was in North Carolina last week for work, and I decided instead of canvassing, which I've done in Pennsylvania, to hop on Grindr and get people engaged and registered to vote there instead.

And I found that it was actually super effective, um, I had more success doing that than I did with in person canvassing. So I thought that maybe if you have, you know, LGBTQ listeners. In swing states that this could be a great way for people to get engaged and meet people where they're at. Love the podcast.

Always a great time listening to it. Keep up the great work. 

Glennis Meagher: Uh, I love a voice memo. Thank you, Aiden. I love a voice memo. 

Brian Derrick: Wow, girls, you heard it here first. Get on Grindr [00:35:00] right now and get out the vote. I do have a friend named Michael who organizes. a group of gays in New York to do this every election.

And then he called, he calls a grinder out the vote and comes up with like a script for people. It's pretty epic. And like, it's, it's kind of funny if, if you don't know, I can't imagine our listeners don't, but grinder is a gay, let's call it a dating, dating app. 

Glennis Meagher: It's a gay hookup 

Brian Derrick: app 

Glennis Meagher: location specific.

Brian Derrick: Exactly. So you can like target exactly where people are and It's more so about reaching people where they are, that a lot of us have tuned out the text messages that maybe people Don't want to talk to somebody at the door. They don't answer the phone. It's hard to reach voters sometimes, especially the voters that we need to talk to the most.

And so coming up with creative ways to do it, I'm all for grinder. We need to be like on Snapchat, right? Like where 

Glennis Meagher: the young people 

Brian Derrick: are. 

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, there's [00:36:00] group that organizes on Tinder, um, video 

Brian Derrick: games, pe young people are communicating on, like these, these Twitch video t Twitch. We're 

Glennis Meagher: on Twitch. We're all over Snapchat.

Twitch. Yeah. But that you, you have to be, yeah, you have to be, we have to every single person, like I even like asked my barista, I'm like, do you have a voting plan? Are you ready? Ready to, ready to rumble? Like, 

Brian Derrick: okay, let's do, let's do this for our question of the week. What is the most creative channel you have used or heard of someone using to talk to a voter and get somebody to register to vote or get someone to turn out on election day?

I want to hear some creative ideas. 

Glennis Meagher: What's your answer? 

Brian Derrick: I'll tell you next week.

Glennis Meagher: Joe Biden was in Milwaukee to make an announcement that the EPA environmental protection agency is issuing a final rule, the EPA, which by the way, Trump wants to get rid of in project 2025, it issued a final rule that will [00:37:00] require drinking water systems nationwide to replace lead service lines within 10 years, these lead pipes, the lead poisoning that is caused by these lead pipes can cause like very, very serious.

health impacts, slow learning, it damages the kidneys, cognitive development, cardiovascular disease, and all of this, calcipres. impacts black and brown communities first and worst. So this is something that will begin to repair the damage that has been done for the last, how many decades? So lead pipes, get rid of the lead pipes.

You have 10 years to do it. Go. The EPA is also investing again, the EPA that Donald Trump and conservatives would get rid of an additional 2. 6 billion for drinking water upgrades and lead pipe replacements, which is all funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law. 

Brian Derrick: Absolutely. And the way that we can make this good vibe keep on going is to elect Vice President Kamala Harris to ensure that all of these policies and [00:38:00] more that we've talked about during this segment all year long are fully enacted through completion because it takes time to do things right.

That really help people and we have to give them that time by electing Kamala.

Those are all the Vibes this week. Thank you for all the notes and voice messages you sent in. Do you have creative ways of organizing and campaigning? Text us by clicking the link in the description or send us a voice memo at Vibes. org. Thanks for listening. Catch you next week. 

Glennis Meagher: Vibes Only is a production of Courier, a civic media company that protects and strengthens our democracy through credible, fact based journalism and seeks to create a more informed, engaged, and representative America.

Vibes Only is produced by Devin Maroney with support from Courier's Kyle Farb, Arsi Demezo, Daniel Strasburger, and Lucy Ritzman. Video editing is by Shane Burkist. Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of [00:39:00] Courier.