BRIAN DERRICK: 0:00

I'm Brian Derrick.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:00

And I'm Glennis Meagher. Welcome back to Vibes Only.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:03

This week, what would Lina Khan do? We're gonna talk about Paramount Skydance's merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, and how one Trump-loving family of billionaires is about to own basically all of our media.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:17

We get into ProPublica's bombshell reporting about Susan Collins and some shady government contracts.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:23

How Trump banned some major news outlets from the White House, which he thinks belongs to him.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:29

The Senate is about to go to recess, and we talk about why Trump and his cronies haven't gotten that much done.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:34

Also, Alyssa Edwards and James Talarico are going viral, and Republicans are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try to save Ken Paxton in Texas.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:44

A quick midterm update, and we've got another Oath Candidate of the Week that you might wanna Google Brian, I feel like we match. Like, we kind of just know what days we're gonna wear black- and what days- we're gonna wear a little pop of color.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:59

We kinda do… It's true. Good morning, Glennis. How's that coffee doing?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:06

Good morning, Brian. As, as discussed pre-recording, it tastes like shit. But here we are. I will say, when I took my walk this morning, early morning, there was a breeze, a chill in the air. Fall is upon us. Spooky season is here. It is midterms time, baby. Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:25

There are a few trends that I think we see as the, as the elections approach. Up and to the right, we have cash flow, right? So much money pouring into these races, which we're gonna talk about. And political staffers' caffeine intake is up and to the right. I'm on, like, at least four cups of cold brew a day at this point. And then down and to the right, we have the temperature, and I walked out this morning and I was like, "It's literally 47 degrees in New York. What the-" I

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:51

love it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:52

No. I

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:53

love it. It gives me energy, and it just, like, it, it smells like elections, and I'm ready to go. Yeah. I'm ready to start my swing state tour, and off to the races.

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:04

Well, the other thing that's gonna be up and to the right is winning and good vibes because we're crushing this midterm season. Let's get into it and talk about all the good news for the week.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 2:17

Great. I didn't realize it was all good,

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:21

but- Well, it's not all good. But we can start- Okay … with good stuff. Let's start with Susan Collins. Let's cook her ass first.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 2:27

This is a, a reporting from less than 48 hours ago from ProPublica.

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:33

Can we just fangirl on ProPublica for a moment? Because they're really having a moment. Every couple of years, I feel like they drop bombs. All of their, like, multi-year investigations get published at once, kind of like, remember the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court stuff? RV. Like, that was a- Yeah … banger year for ProPublica, and we're having another banger year for ProPublica. They recently, they were the ones who broke the story about a Russian oligarch who's BFFs with Putin- Mm-hmm paying for the red wedding, and now we get the Susan Collins September surprise. Tell us about it.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:05

I have to just state, for the record, she has not been charged with any crime. Her office vehemently denies all of this, et cetera. And-

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:15

If you're running for US Senate or any statewide office, needing to start a disclaimer about you that you haven't yet been charged with a federal crime is not a great place to be.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:28

100%. And I will also say, the guy who has now, like, gone on the record against Susan Collins and other elected officials, federal officials, is serving time in federal prison for fraud. But two things can be true. I'll leave it at that.

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:46

Our star witness here is a criminal, but also, he's in jail because he was a party to the crime that she is being alleged to have been involved in, which is selling government contracts for campaign contributions. That this guy admitted guilt and went to prison for directing money through a shell company into a super PAC for Susan Collins, working directly with her, I believe it's her finance director, maybe it was the campaign manager, and then he got millions and millions of dollars of government contracts as a result of that. So- Y- yeah … extremely illegal, and the DOJ was investigating this and investigating Collins until Trump came in and killed the investigation. That is the bombshell report.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 4:38

Yeah. And we, there is no direct smoking gun to Donald Trump looking at this file and saying, "Kill this," but what he did do was he completely wiped out the department of the FBI that was responsible for investigating fraud and corruption with our elected officials. So Thanks, Trump

BRIAN DERRICK: 4:59

Look over there. It's, it's very that. No It's very that

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:02

It's, it's very that. This shell company contributed$150,000 to Susan Collins' super PAC, and it's actually the chairman of Collins' super PAC when this guy Martin Kao. When this criminal emailed saying,"I'm gonna route this money through a shell company," the chairman of the super PAC responded, and I quote, "Very smart.""Very smart." Like what? And did you know that, did you see the name of what the shell company was called?

BRIAN DERRICK: 5:32

No.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:33

So this is how they got caught actually by this, like, watchdog group that was checking, like, the contributions to the super PAC was there was, like, a misspelling in the check or that, like, the filing was, was one name and the check had, like, an S at the end of something. It was called The Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers. So okay. So they moved $150,000 to Susan Collins' super PAC and oh, how much did his firm get in government contracts? 32 million.

BRIAN DERRICK: 6:05

Insane. Insane. Literally so crazy. It is wild. I mean, I-- We're, we're both in the campaign space. I focus specifically on campaign finance. You know the space too. It's crazy what the, these corrupt electeds will do to get money into super PACs, into the soft-- what we would refer to as soft side. So directly into the campaign, you could only give $3,500 is the current FEC limit per election, so 7,000 per cycle, 3,500 for primary, 3,500 for general. Super PACs can take unlimited sums, but candidates are not legally permitted to fundraise directly for the super PAC in unlimited amounts because they're not allowed to be coordinating activity. That's like part of Citizens United. And

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 6:52

so- We call it a, a firewall. There- There's supposed to be a wall of fire in between That's, I mean, that's what I think in my head when I'm thinking about, oh, there's supposed to be a wall of fire in between official campaign actions, messaging, strategy- Right and the, I'm using air quotes here, "independent super PAC" that might be working to get that person elected, but there's not supposed to be any coordination.

BRIAN DERRICK: 7:21

Right.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 7:22

With a wall of fire is- And- … is what it's called… BRIAN DERRICK: sketchy, So this is bad news for Susan Collins. Just to, to tie it back into the midterms, like the reason that I think this is resonating at this moment and it's such a big story and Collins' team is freaking out- Mm-hmm over it is that corruption is the word of the day every day around here. It's the most motivating issue for a huge chunk of voters, for a big portion of voters even more so than affordability in the midterms. But without a doubt, those are sort of the, the two issues defining the, the midterm elections. And so even though Collins has had some scandals in the past, I think this is resonating in a different way because it lumps her in with all the rest of the swampy shit going on with the Trump administration that has drawn more attention to DC corruption than any other time in modern history because we have the most corrupt president in American history. So that is uniquely potent as a line of attack against her, and actually I think is going to move the needle in this race, which I would be sort of hard-pressed to say for most, like, scandals of this nature. I also want to add that the corruption is directly tied to people's cost of living. So it's not just that elected officials are wildly corrupt, and now we have the receipts to prove it. It's also that people's cost of living is dramatically higher, thanks to decisions made by aforementioned corrupt elected officials. I want to take one step back because I don't know if you saw this Trump line, it definitely was in a speech, where he was talking about his super PAC or one of the super PACs that is associated with MAGA or Trump. And he straight up said, "I am going to be controlling how that money is spent." Did you see this?

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:19

No, wait, I did not see this. Tell me more.

DONALD TRUMP: 9:21

When does that money start to go out? Whatever amount of money necessary to try and help us. Uh, and this is money from MAGA Inc. This is my money that I control. Now, this is, uh, separate from the RNC. It's separate from people having money. I could use it for 28, yes, if I want. Mr.-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:37

"Trump claims that he controls MAGA super PAC draws watchdog complaint". So Trump has $400 million sitting in a war chest-

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:46

Yeah… GLENNIS MEAGHER: that he That's very illegal. Yeah, 100-- it, it is. It's, it's also-- I mean, don't get me started on MAGA Inc. But it ties into, and I don't want us to drift too far, but it ties into another sort of thought that I've been having recently about how Trump really believes that all money in the federal government is his to spend as he pleases unless he decides otherwise. It's- Mm-hmm … the tariff money, for example, where he has assessed these unconstitutional tariffs on American companies and consumers, raised prices for everyone, collected billions and billions of dollars for the federal government. The way that it works is that goes into the federal government, and Congress decides how to appropriate every dollar that the federal government takes in. Trump sees that as, "I made that money by charging American citizens extra, so now that's my money to spend. If I wanna cut $5,000 checks," which the math there doesn't even close to work out, but whatever."If I wanna cut checks to everyone, then I can just do it because I raise that money."

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 10:59

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 10:59

Completely not how our system of government works at all. Another quick example there being the Venezuelan oil money, where- Oh … we went into Venezuela. We captured all this shit. It was, it was, of course, about the oil. They said that f- I think it was $13 billion flowed out of Venezuela through the, the oil tankers and whatnot that we captured during that whole debacle, and no one knows where that money is now. Money is. Like, not, not only is Trump saying that he can spend it as he pleases through the government, but he also just believes that it's his money personally.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 11:34

Personally, period. It's insane.

BRIAN DERRICK: 11:36

No, no,

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 11:36

it's literally insane. I don't think people are aware that that money just went, like, straight up missing.

BRIAN DERRICK: 11:41

Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 11:41

Like, it's, it's not accounted for. I wanna segue us, but I'm catalyzed by the Trump narcissism, which there was another gaffe that he had, I think it was yesterday or the day before. Unless you're living under a rock, I have to say that you may have missed that Trump banned MSNBC, CNN-

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:01

Yeah… GLENNIS MEAGHER: and one other When he was asked about- Politico. Politico, right, Politico. When he was asked about this, he said… Did you hear this clip?

DONALD TRUMP: 12:12

There's something wrong with that a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories. Now, if they wanna write them, that's fine, but I don't have to let them into my-- into the people's house.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:25

He was like, "Well, it's, you know, these people are unfair and they're not covering." You know, "And I didn't want them in my house, the people's house." He said my house, like the White House is his, and then he corrected himself to be-- to realize, ooh, that's actually… The White House is famously the people's house, that he was like,"My house. I don't want them in my house." Like he genuinely thinks when he like has branded the, the Oval Office with all of this grotesque gold ornaments, that that's like his living room and it's looking like his apartment in Trump Tower up on, you know, 60th Street or whatever it's on. So let's touch base briefly on this- Yeah … unprecedented banning of these three outlets, which then collectively had the entire press pool said, "We're not playing ball here, Trump. We're not gonna cover you."

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:19

Right. So yeah, basically all press stopped, at least temporarily, covering any audio or video feeds for White House events. At the same time, they were trying to do this ribbon cutting for the helipad that Trump- Oh, it was- … built, then demolished, then built again. It is a little eerie how committed he seems to be to blowing up Republicans' midterm chances. Like this is a bad move immediately before the election to remind people of the way that you abuse the power of the presidency to silence media. Like is mainstream media popular? No. Do people want to see individual outlets targeted because you don't like their coverage of you? Of course not. Like that's crazy. Right. And it reminds us that Fox News should be counting down the days until they lose access to the White House, all Democrats, and maybe their broadcast license once a Democrat takes over in 2029. Like you're cooked. Why w- Cooked … why would any Democratic president allow Fox News into the White House? Or New- Well- Or for that matter, like Newsmax, OAN, all of the even faker bullshit-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:39

Yeah… BRIAN DERRICK: outlets. I mean, it, it should also be stated that when, uh, Trump banned these three outlets, the pool included ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. Fox said, "Okay, we're not playing ball here either." Uh-

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:51

Of course not. They know that- Yeah … it's an existential threat to them.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:55

Mm-hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:55

And I mean, we've talked about it before. I'm not like- I'm not in my forgiveness era. No. I'm not in my-- I'm in my, which was the mean one? Reputation?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:09

Literally, I was like, it's a-- Is it Red or Reputation? I'm not a

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:12

Swiftie. I don't, I don't

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:12

know. But the Swifties can let us know.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:14

Yeah. Well, yeah, let us know. I'm in that era. I'm in vengeance era. Mm-hmm. So 100%, Fox News should go spend their money on lawyers after we ban them from the White House after this. Like, goodbye.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:27

Yeah. I was also thinking, like, some inside baseball here, like we've both been to the White House a few times, and you know, you go through kind of multiple levels of security. And like to hear this announcement, or I think Trump tweeted it, and then for these three outlets to go to the White House the next day to get into like their little like press corner and to just be denied. Like, you know, the, the Secret Service or the Marines are like checking your information in the backend, and they're like, "Yeah, you can't come in. It's so crazy. But now, of course, there's lawsuits. It's both a First and a Fifth Amendment case. So-

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:00

Yeah, it looks like it's moving pretty quick, so my guess is that it'll be reinstated pretty fast, and they're gonna say you can't target individual outlets in this particular way.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:11

Brian, should we talk about one more media thing before we move on?

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:15

Which?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:16

The merger that went through thanks to 12 Democratic AGs.

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:21

Yeah, while we're on the end of free speech and, uh, and of free press, let's, let's get into that one. So we have Skydance Paramount, giant media company owned by the Ellison family. Mm-hmm. Trump MAGA goofballs. They are trying to merge with Warner Bros. Studio, one of the largest, like, owners of IP and additional media brands in the space. It would create the largest media company in the world by merging these two things. Huge antitrust concerns about this deal that would consolidate power over a huge chunk of our digital and television, like, bandwidth me- media under- Yeah … c- the control of a single individual, Larry Ellison.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:17

He was one of the major stakeholders in the TikTok deal.

BRIAN DERRICK: 17:20

Who is also one of the major stakeholders of TikTok. So just massive consolidation of, of power over what we get to see and hear and the information that flows through our screens to all of us. There was a lawsuit because the federal government under Trump refuses to do anything about this. They're like- Right. Yeah … "Sure," and then they allowed it to go through. Like, Larry Ellison has given money to, to MAGA, et cetera. Yes. Yeah. And so it was Democratic state attorneys general that led the fight to sue to block the merger. Mm-hmm. And what happened this week was they settled, and they've come to a settlement agreement that looks like it will clear the path for this merger to go through.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:08

Yeah, there was an antitrust case that was scheduled for March of next year that's now off the table. Ugh, I, I'm kind of like- Yeah… we, we saw a microdose of this with Bari Weiss and CBS and kind of that takeover and what that looked like of-- in terms of who took over the leadership, et cetera. It should be concerning to every s- single American that the screens and the phones and what are, what are being produced and published on those screens and phones for, you know, hundreds of millions of people are controlled by essentially one family that backs Donald Trump.

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:47

WWLKD.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:52

What would Lina Khan do?

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:55

What would Lina Khan do? Lina Khan, where are you? We need you, please. Lina Khan, Glennis's hero, is the former, is like a former FTC chair under- Correct … Biden, and is an antitrust warrior. Like, has led a lot of the antitrust cases against Google, Meta, and all of these big tech companies- Kroger and Amazon. Yeah, like-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 19:21

Like, this is like, you know, one of my group chats was blowing up this weekend about dynamic pricing in grocery stores. How grocery stores now are like, you know how you can do, like, control your own cart? Like, you get one of those scanners, and that's how you shop. I guess it's, it's big in Europe. I see it in Europe, and I guess it's coming here. But in Europe, they're not charging people different things for fruit based on your spending habits or how much money you have. And the fact that Lina Khan was able to break up this merger with Kroger, who could have controlled, like, how much your groceries cost, and here we are, you know, less than three years later, and the government's allowing these, like, huge monopolies to have carte blanche over how much our things cost. It literally should keep every American up at night. Like, antitrust is so, so deeply important to, like, preserving your right as an American to, like, engage fairly in the capitalist system. Right now, it's, it's not fair.

BRIAN DERRICK: 20:19

One of the most popular, air quotes, institutions left in American society are small businesses. People love small businesses and the concept of small businesses. One of the most popular candidate profiles that you can recruit to run for office is a small business owner. Mm. And Democrats need to make, like s- like center the fight for small businesses in 2028 and even in 2026 because these are the types of moves that kill the ability for anyone to launch a, a- Mm-hmm business that can actually, like, grow. Exactly what you're talking about. If all the food chains merge into one giant company- Yeah … no small business can compete with that. And then it's a different but related concern when it comes to the control of information. The ability for people to get out independent, e- whether it's nonfiction and we're talking about- Mm-hmm I mean, nonfiction, LOL, that's a funny way to put that. But, like, whether it's the news- Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 21:29

Right… BRIAN DERRICK: or whether like, narrative fiction. Do you watch the show Lioness? No, but should I?

BRIAN DERRICK: 21:39

First of all, it's amazing because- Okay … I just love Zoe Saldaña, but it is literal MAGA propaganda. It is the- Totally best example that I've ever seen of how you can use a show that is seemingly about, like, CIA agents, and there are car chase scenes, and, like, shit like that, that is actually advancing the most aggressive anti-Ukraine, anti-democratic- No… anti-mainstream media agenda I've ever seen in scripted television. That is what happens when you let ideologues like Larry Ellison control-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 22:18

Totally… BRIAN DERRICK: all the media it drips into the culture. Yeah, this is an important part of the deal. There are production commitments in this merger that 30 films a year for two years have to be made, uh, plus 300 million a year in extra US production spending, which is all well and good to make sure that the jobs stay in California or Georgia or wherever these huge production shops are. But what really matters is who's writing the scripts, what scripts are getting approved, and what is the worldview that those scripts are building. Like, you could just watch all of Clint Eastwood's directed films back to back, and you, you would become a MAGA warrior. Like- Right … you know what I mean? Like-

BRIAN DERRICK: 22:54

Totally

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 22:55

that really does matter. For what it's worth, TikTok, ever since Larry Ellison bought the controlling stake, it's, it's horrible. I'm like, "Give it back to China." "Give it back to China." Like, it's so bad now. It's literally, it's so bad, and everyone would say that. But- … you know, the concern also with, with digital media and with TikTok, it's like if, if, you know, MAGA warriors are controlling that algorithm, who's, who's to say what worldview they're pushing?

BRIAN DERRICK: 23:22

Right. Right. Let's bring it back to some good news because we do have- Okay … a little bit more good news for, for people, and that is that the Senate is wrapping up the end of their session, likely to go in, uh, into recess in the next 48 hours. Through election day, and that will be the end of any Senate or House voting through the election. We officially made it through the first two years of the Trump presidency with a Republican trifecta and blocked almost everything.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:01

Yeah. Yeah, he didn't pass anything of, of… Only a budget bill was passed. Right. And yes, of course, that had, uh, damaging, uh, consequences. But I'm cracking up as you're talking about this 'cause in my mind's eye, all I'm seeing is this TikTok I saw last night of Mitch McConnell getting wheeled back into his house and a reporter yelling, "Mitch, are you here against your will?" And he, like, can't respond, and he's just like… And it's, like, to me that's-

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:31

Are you here against your will

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:33

is dark … Yeah, are you being held against your will?

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:35

Very

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:35

dark. And it's so dark. Like, straight up elder abuse, right? And he, he doesn't even have the mental and physical capacity to be able to just say, "I'm happy to be here." He's literally like-

REPORTER: 24:46

Are you here against your own will? He's senator Have a good night, sir Have a good night, sir

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:53

It symbolizes this, this two years.

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:57

Yeah, January 3rd or whenever they swear in the new, uh, senators, he- someone's just gonna wheel him down a flight of stairs. Like, they, they- Yeah. He's gonna have this- Like, he's truly a prop at this point.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:08

Yeah, or they'll do, like, a Showgirls moment where they'll put some, like, beads under his wheelchair, and it'll just, like… But- It's really, it is elder abuse. Like, I am an empath- It is … at the end, at the end of the day, and I'm just like, "Let that man go in pe-" Well, just I don't wanna see him on my screen, okay?

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:23

Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:24

Like, I don't want my-- I don't wanna see that as the manifestat- manifestation of my tax dollars.

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:28

Right. So I just wanna give props to the Democratic caucus in both the Senate and House, because if you think all the way back to when the Trump administration first started in 2025, first 100 days, most brutal three months I think most of us have experienced in the last two-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:53

Yeah

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:53

whatever, decades. Democrats had no idea what to do. Democrats were totally lost. You had Democrats crossing the aisle to vote for Trump appointees- Mm-hmm… because they felt like they had been backhanded by America, and they were trying to find a way back into the g- like, good graces of voters. They didn't know what to do. They were like, "Okay, putting Trump back in office a second time, like, did we get it wrong the f- the first time?" Right."Should we be trying to work with him on stuff instead of hating on him?" Like, they were so lost, and a lot of them, honestly, are, are still like that. But where it mattered most, for the most part, they got their shit together, recognized the seriousness of the threat, the unprecedented nature of what Trump was trying to dismantle in, in the country, and blocked a lot of things that had never been blocked before, withheld their participation from processes to slow things down in unprecedented ways. We're not gonna go into, like, Senate rules here as to how that works. Mm-hmm. I think that people would fall asleep immediately. But, like, they escalated fights that never got covered, never got the credit, but that effectively prevented this administration from passing any meaningful regulatory bills, including the latest attempt, which was the crypto bill that would have green lit more Trump crypto bullshit- Yeah last week. The only major thing getting done was the one big ugly bill, which as you said- Yeah … was reconciliation and passed with Republican only votes. Yeah. So at least we- Yeah … made it this far. And I was wrong again. I love being wrong. Oh. I do.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 27:41

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 27:41

I was wrong about a SCOTUS appointment. No Supreme Court retirements, which means if we flip the Senate, Trump will get no Supreme Court appointments. Yeah. Unless they try and do something in the lame duck, which would be kooky bananas. But huge. Yeah. Those are things worth celebrating.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 27:58

Okay, I'll take it. And I just am like, okay, and if we can get the House and the Senate I'm gonna feel much stronger in the next two years.

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:09

Some strong signs of our likelihood of taking the Senate. Should we talk a little bit about our midterms update?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:16

Yeah. Can we-- I wanna-- This is, like, unrelated but related. Have you seen all of the discourse about Alyssa Edwards in Texas?

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:24

Wait, I'm terrified already, but no, tell me.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:26

Oh my God, it's insane. So James Talarico went slightly viral last week when he was, like, coming off a, like, town hall or something, and a reporter was like, "James, James, who's your favorite Texas drag queen?" And, like, without skipping a beat, he's like, "Alyssa Edwards."

JAMES TALARICO: 28:40

Mr. Talarico, who's your favorite drag queen in Texas? Oh my God, probably Alyssa Edwards. Alyssa

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:44

Edwards? Iconic. For anyone who, like… If you wanna get introduced to, like, Drag Race or a drag queen, like, Alyssa Edwards I think is, like, one of the best. Like, an iconic- … drag queen."Back rolls." "You, you look fucking orange." Like, there's so many quotes from her. And this was then taken by Ken Paxton, and now he's, like, attacking Alyssa Edwards. He was, like, tweeting, like,"The sick and twisted Alyssa Edwards." Wait, that's really funny. And Alyssa's just like, "What?" And if-- But if anything, I'm like, "Oh, good job, James. That makes you more, um, culturally topical, just to be able to answer that-" Yeah … "so quickly."

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:23

We have news on that front. It's not shocking, but I think it's good for people to know that we just got news this morning that Republicans are putting an additional 35 million in super PAC ad buys behind Ken Paxton, bringing the total to over 100 million to date, and the projected spend right now to 200 million in super PAC- Just in

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:48

Texas

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:49

in Republicans trying to save Ken Paxton in Texas, $200 million. It is very telling for where they think they are- They're worried… in this midterm- Yeah … cycle that they're spending 200 million to try to rescue that, uh, what should be a slam dunk Trump win.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:10

Yeah, I mean, I think it's worth doubling down that, like, Ken Paxton is a hyperbolically corrupt politician and hyperbolically bad candidate. Uh, his own party-

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:21

Impeached his ass… GLENNIS MEAGHER: impeached He also, you know, the, you know, the price of beef, you know. Texas has an, a huge, huge ranching population. The Texas, like, Ag Commissioner, uh, uh, he was the one who went viral on TikTok talking about where his beef, where your beef was coming from and how the administration's lying to you. Also the, I believe the AG commissioner who just went viral for posting a photo of Texas stu- uh, uh, of what? I don't know these fucking schools. Maybe UT Austin. The Longhorns won some game and- UT Austin is

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:56

Longhorns. Yeah

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:57

Okay. Well, they, they were celebrating and there was a photo posted on Twitter, and it included some, I believe, like Latino or Asian students. Mm-hmm. And he was like posting like they were infiltrating Texas. It was, it was really racist, extremely racist tweet that went super viral.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 31:16

Texas has a huge AAPI population. That's insane.

BRIAN DERRICK: 31:19

Right. But it is also not only Texas, because let me hit you with some facts. Hit me. Yesterday, Sabato, one of the most popular raters, prognosticators of elections, made a bunch of changes to their ratings. Are you ready? US Senate races. US Senate in Iowa went from lean Republican to toss-up. That is Josh Turek. In Kansas, went from likely Republican to lean Republican. In Michigan, went from toss-up to lean Democrat. That's Abdul. For governor races, Florida went from likely Republican to lean Republican. That's David Jolly. Uh- Mm … in Nevada, from lean Republican to toss-up. That's Aaron Ford. In Ohio, from lean Republican to toss-up. That's Amy Acton. In Texas, from likely Republican to lean Republican. That's Gina Hinojosa. In Florida's 27th house district, from likely Republican to lean Republican. In Iowa's 1st Congressional District, toss-up to lean D. In Texas' 9th Congressional District, safe Republican to likely Republican. Every single change that they made went in favor of Democrats. All of these races that we thought were completely unwinnable, completely not competitive in some cases, are now on the map, and Republicans are at risk. It's a huge tidal wave coming right now. It's, it's-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:44

Yeah… BRIAN DERRICK: great. And that may seem like a nerdy rundown to folks, like the, the likely to lean, the, the back and forth. It's, those are real changes to the polling- It's a big deal… and real… It's a big deal. Um- It's a big deal. It's, it's a really big deal. So I cannot, again, overstress the importance of, like, relational organizing, of if there's a race that you're really interested in or you've heard about online, or that you really like the candidate, see if there's a phone banking opportunity. See if you know anyone who lives in that state. See if there's a way to help. It, maybe they need some more money. Go to oath.vote.

BRIAN DERRICK: 33:19

That's right.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 33:20

Oath.vote. That's right. Yeah. We, we talk about this all the time, but I feel like everyone has woken up after an election and thought,"Oh, I could have done more." Don't do that this cycle.

BRIAN DERRICK: 33:32

Exactly.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 33:32

Don't do that this cycle. Do more. Do more. I promise you, you will feel better for it. Even if the, the race doesn't go the way you want it to, if you did as much as you could in your personal capacity to help that candidate, you're still gonna feel better than if you did nothing.

BRIAN DERRICK: 33:49

Tea. When she's right, she's right, y'all.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 33:53

It's not often. But when I am-

BRIAN DERRICK: 33:57

When it hits, it hits. And that is a perfect segue, Glennis, into our Oath Candidate of the Week So where can people make an impact right now? I'm bringing you the stuff of Democratic wet dreams. I'm telling you that a race is winnable in a state that hasn't been winnable in a long time, and we're trying to send a shot across the bow, if you know what I mean.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 34:23

Okay.

BRIAN DERRICK: 34:24

Beau Bayh is running for Secretary of State in Indiana. We've talked- Beau Bayh … many times on the pod about why Secretaries of State races matter. They run elections and make sure that we all have the right and ability to vote. Beau has made a statewide race in Indiana competitive for the first time in over a decade for Democrats. Mm. And he's in a toss-up race right now. Actually really needs additional funding. Okay. And is one of our top-rated races of the week, and he happens to be very good-looking. I swear to God- Oh … I'm not just picking the hotties, but-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:05

I was gonna say he happens to be legacy. I was like, Bayh, and of course his, his father was the former governor of Indiana and US senator- Right Evan Bayh.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:15

Exactly.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:15

Uh, and the f- grandson of former US Senator Birch Bayh. So we don't always love nepotism in this house, but- No,

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:21

we hate

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:21

it,

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:21

but

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:22

I- … in this situation-

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:23

I wanna win in Indiana. I wanna turn Indiana purple. That's crazy. Let's take the opportunity, press our advantage. Go to oath.vote, and you'll see Beau Bayh listed at the top of the list.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:38

I'm looking at him right now.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:41

All right. Should we send them off with a good vibe?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:43

Yes, I have a good vibe coming out of the city of New York. So Brian, how many times a month do you think you, you DoorDash or Uber Eats or…?

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:53

Do you want my actual answer?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:55

Yeah, I'm curious.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:56

Probably once.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:58

Once. A month. I know, 'cause you're like meal prepping. You're like- Yeah … hitting your macros. Um- Yeah. Well, if you live in New York, you know that you order food. I actually right now, my elevator's still out. I'm on the sixth floor, so I am, uh, if I order food, I have to really, really think about it, and then I tip- … a ton 'cause I'm like, "I feel bad." I'm like, "That person's gonna have to climb six flights of stairs." Like, I just think like our, our delivery workers like are so hardworking and in the worst- Sure … weather. Like they are out on their bikes or they're delivering food, and it's just like such a thankless job, but also such a part of New York City living. This week, uh, it was the largest settlement for food delivery workers in US history. DoorDash agreed to pay $131.5 million to delivery workers in New York City. There was about 260,000 workers who were potentially underpaid, not paid, not given their tips for work they had already done, and DoorDash said, "We messed up." Like, "We're gonna, we're gonna make this right." That is great news, and I was happy when I saw it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 37:04

Wage theft is theft. Undercounting hours, charging crazy fees, not paying things on time, not paying out is theft, and these companies need to be held accountable. It goes all the way back to the antitrust conversation that we were having, that when you have a handful of companies amassing way too much power over the market or over the job market, then they have the ability- Mm-hmm to really abuse us as consumers and employees. So I'm thrilled- Yeah … to see that they are being forced to be accountable for the bullshit that they stole from these workers who deserve, as you said, every single dime. That's a very hard job.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 37:42

Yeah. And-

BRIAN DERRICK: 37:43

And dangerous, too … we

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 37:44

rarely-- And dangerous. And we rarely see companies say, "Okay, we were wrong." So WWLKD, what would Lina Khan do? Just think about that, people.

BRIAN DERRICK: 37:57

Somebody get me… I need a bra- I need a bracelet.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 37:59

I need a bracelet. I know.

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:01

Should we get

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:02

a what would you do-… BRIAN DERRICK: I need a WWLKD. Yeah. Have an awesome week. We will be back next week to check the vibes of the midterms and fill you in on everything you need to know about politics for the week. See you then. See you.