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

Election Day is Tuesday, and the polls are literally all over the place. So make sure that you have a plan to actually vote, and then follow oath.vote to get election results as they come in on Election Day.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:17

Brian, did you vote yet?

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:18

I have not, but I plan to vote in person early on Thursday.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:23

Great. Today, we're discussing the races to watch, the polls you truly can't trust right now, and the Ramaswamy ad on Amy Acton that is still dividing Republicans.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:32

We've also got some impeachment ideas for our next Congress, new allegations about Jared Kushner's insane corruption, taking billions of dollars from foreign leaders, and a GOP running on billionaires instead of grassroots support.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:50

Let's get into it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:52

Do you know that meme that's like," GLENNIS MEAGHER: Just do it. Just do it already. It's fine." Do you know what I'm talking about? No. It's a millennial driving behind- I'm ready … a truck with all the logs. Let's do it. Oh, yeah. It's carrying a bunch

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:05

of- Let's do it. It's okay… BRIAN DERRICK: logs, It's okay. I do

MILLENNIAL MEME: 1:08

not care if you- I've been through enough Just do it

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:17

And that's how I feel with the election. That's where we're at, is Final Destination stage of the midterm cycle. Less than one week to go. How are we feeling?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:29

I feel good, tired. You know… Okay, I've been having this conversation a lot, which is especially with people who are in politics, not in politics. Your world is your algorithm. You're convinced that what's happening is what you're seeing on your for you page. So if you're seeing just video after video after video of people saying,"I'm voting early, I'm voting blue," the algorithm is tricking you. You have played a starring role in this film in 2024 with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Do not think that everyone has a voting plan and that everyone is voting the way you think they are. So we have one week left. Text everyone you know and make sure they have a voting plan, are actually going to go vote. That's how I feel.

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:13

It's true. Yeah, 100%. Nope, that's, that's right. I think we all live in digital bubbles that tell us what we want to hear for the most part, or tell us what the algorithm knows we'll react to. Couldn't agree more. I think a lot of people are drinking the Kool-Aid. It's genuinely wild to see so many people just feeling great because of the polls and pointing at the polls after the last few election cycles. I'm like, "Have we learned nothing?"

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 2:40

Have we learned nothing? And I was just in Michigan last weekend, go Blue, and the amount of people who were giddy about voting for Mike Rogers was-

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:52

Yeah, I'm sure

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 2:53

astounding. And then you look at the Democratic primary where El-Sayed only won by, you know, 1%, 2%. It's gonna be close. Everything's gonna be close. So-

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:05

Yeah… GLENNIS MEAGHER: please, door knock, donate to Oath. Do something. We have six days. Five when this comes out. Yeah. Lay it all on the line, baby.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:21

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:22

Okay, should we get into the news of the week?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:24

Yes. As I'm- Okay … chugging my coffee, yes.

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:27

Yeah, I mean, just to start with an overall snapshot, what are you watching for on election night? Because this is the last time people will hear from us pre-election day. So-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:41

Yeah… BRIAN DERRICK: what, what races are As you know, I'm on this, like, Senate swing, so I'm gonna be tracking these seats that me and, and, and the team I'm working with felt that we could win by doing these huge activations in states. So Iowa, Georgia, of course, Michigan, Ohio, Texas. I'll be in Texas this weekend. That's a personal thing, right? When you put like blood, sweat, and tears into a specific race, you're looking to see if there's any return on your, on your physical and personal investment there. But of course, like- The House, I'm very, very keen to see how that plays out and how quickly it plays out. You know, election nights are always a bit traumatic. You see these numbers come in, and you're like, "Okay, okay, okay." I'm also gonna be looking out for, like, any weird things happening. I don't know if you've been following, and I- we debunked this, I think, last week with what was happening in Tennessee, but Trump is up to some bullshit, and I'm just gonna be kind of tracking to see how the states are responding.

BRIAN DERRICK: 4:45

For sure. That makes a lot of sense. I think that those are the races that people are most keyed in on. So I think a lot of people are gonna be watching Steve Kornacki- Yeah … looking for news about Abdul El-Sayed, Troy Jackson, obviously Ossoff, fricking James Talarico, man. James Tala-freak-o, definitely gonna be the, the one to watch.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:09

Both of- Troy Jackson, of course, Maine. I didn't say Maine, but that's Maine.

BRIAN DERRICK: 5:13

Yeah, 'cause they don't have a f- football. Like- I know … who's playing football in Maine?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:16

Go for a hockey game.

BRIAN DERRICK: 5:18

Yeah. You're like, "I'm not going there." I-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:20

Freezing outside… BRIAN DERRICK: only will-- college football stadiums. Like, what are we talking about? Well, speaking of cold, Alaska.

BRIAN DERRICK: 5:29

Alaska. I know for sure you're not going up there, girl.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:33

No. Did you see the New York Times post this morning about maybe South Carolina?

BRIAN DERRICK: 5:41

Um

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 5:42

I know you're gonna say absolutely not, but the Times is doing some clickbait there and saying that Darline's not doing a good job GOTVing for South Carolina.

BRIAN DERRICK: 5:51

Yeah, totally. I, I think that there's all of these races that polling is currently telling us are on the edge that are really unexpected. I got a call yesterday from someone who's very deep in pollster world, and they're like, "I have one really solid poll showing that X race. I'm like, I don't know how much of this I can say. Showing that- Oh … X race is within one, and then I have another really excellent poll showing that it's a 10-point margin. Same race. So-- Same race. Same race. So they're like, "I don't know what the fuck is going on." Um, which is a reality of, of this cycle. Again, we've ta- I think we've talked about this before. It's all about who the pollsters think are going to show up on election day. Because when you have input from 1,000 people for a poll- Right … you have to estimate how well those people represent different parts of the electorate, and you have to know who the electorate is in order to do that. So with, with turnout being so high, in many states we're seeing turnout numbers of the early vote above 2024, above a presidential. Yeah. It throws a lot of assumptions about what a midterm electorate looks like out the window. And so the more different the, the turnout is from expectation, the worse the polling is going to be.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 7:19

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 7:20

I think that people often think of polling as like,"Oh, it's a random sample," and therefore you just, like, extrapolate that essentially the entire electorate or state or country or whatever feels the same way that these random 1,500 people felt. That is not how polling works. Yeah, there's a real chance that we have a systemic count- like nationwide polling miss. That is an actual possibility. Of course. I mean- And it goes to your earlier point.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 7:50

Yeah. We've seen it before. We can see it again. And I guess also we're looking to see if Republicans sit out too. They're not impressed with the candidates. I think some of these Republican candidates are historically bad, hyperbolically bad, hyperbolically corrupt. And we'll see if people… You know, Donald Trump is literally saying to Republican voters, "Pretend I'm on the ballot as a proxy or replacement for the, you know, Ken Paxtons that are on the ballot." So let's see if we can just keep doing the work that we do. What are you, what are you looking for specifically on election night? Um- In your, your war room. Are you gonna have a little war room set up at the office?

BRIAN DERRICK: 8:30

Oh, we're gonna have a war floor, baby. War floor. The whole office, the whole thing back there. We're gonna have boards and sheets. We, we have the timing of exactly when polls drop in, in every place, how quickly they're expected to count, um, so that we're looking at exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. Uh, we have all this stuff prepped for how we're releasing news. We're doing an election night bingo board, so it will help our audience follow along and like know what to look for at what time that actually means something, not just whatever the news is sort of putting out as a, a major projection.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:08

So can people just follow, if they follow you, they can follow-

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:11

Yeah, diva. Follow me, follow the Oath account. You need to follow Oath on- Okay … on Instagram.@, @. And-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:17

What's the @ so people

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:18

know?@oath.vote. Y'all better fucking know by now, TBH. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna be watching Amy Acton's race. We have to talk about that race has blown up- Blown up in the last week and a half or so since Vivek Ramaswamy released what is widely being described as the worst political ad of all time, featuring Amy Acton's mom. I'm-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:44

Yeah, we talked

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:45

about it last week… birth mother, I should clarify.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:46

Yeah. We talked about it last week.

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:47

Right, right, right.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:47

It's a vile, evil ad that even Republicans are like, "Why did you do that?"

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:53

Totally. There were some focus groups in Ohio where they took voters who had not seen the ad, played the ad for them, and they asked them who they were gonna vote for before and after. It's a focus group, so you cannot extrapolate to everyone. It is just- Yeah … one data point, but 7 out of the 10 Vivek voters switched their vote after seeing the ad to Amy Acton. Yeah. So- Yeah, it's just, like,

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 10:19

deeply un-Christian. It's deeply unkind. Like, yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 10:24

Yeah. I have a zillion House candidates that I feel really personally invested in. I don't think we've talked about this much, but Oath has directed well over $100 million this cycle. A lot of that, we haven't announced a number yet, but we will soon. Uh, a lot of that has gone to flipping the House, 'cause we've known the whole cycle that that's where- Mm-hmm … races were gonna be the most underfunded. It was the must, must, must win for the midterms. And so as much as we want to get people to invest further down the ballot in state leg races, um, a lot has been invested in the House. It- for good reason, for good reason. And so that will definitely be a focal point. I'm talking about people like Sam Forstag, Paige Cognetti, Janelle Stelson- … Joanna Mendoza, Rebecca Cooke, Randy Villegas, Matt Dunlap, Denise Powell. So many. Literally so, so many. Yeah. Jake Johnson, that's, like, a really tough reach one. Jonathan Nez, also a really big reach. Bobby Pulido, Johnny Garcia. Like, those are almost-- Almost every single one of those is a seat that we could flip. Those are all challengers. Those are all seats that we can flip, which is really major and very exciting. And then last thing that I'll say for election night, you know, I'm gonna be down in the weeds. I'm gonna be in, in the dirt with the worms. Like, l- I'm look- I'm looking at county-level election-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 11:44

Yeah… BRIAN DERRICK: results. I'm looking at state leg races. I think the biggest prize of the cycle for me is gonna be the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly, that I wanna see a trifecta in Wisconsin. Yeah. That would be huge for so many reasons, including that we would redistrict the state ahead of 2028, which would be additional Democratic pickups, 'cause it's currently gerrymandered for Republicans. Pennsylvania Senate Probably the biggest reach. I'm not gonna say it's the biggest prize because I can't get my hopes up like that. Right. Um, but really, really tough for the first half of this cycle, m- more-- probably two-thirds of the cycle, people didn't believe that the Pennsylvania Senate would be in play at all, and there's like a narrow path for us to flip and get a trifecta in Pennsylvania ahead of 2028, which would also be huge. Would be huge. Let's see. And then, you know, I'm seeing a lot of, of this like hopecore that I'm seeing on my social media, and people are saying, you know, effectively after November 3rd, the Trump administration could, could be lame ducked, right? Snip, snip. And it's like- Snip, snip… BRIAN DERRICK: snip, snip. You're done. You're done. You're done.

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:52

Spayed. Neutered.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:53

What?

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:54

Spayed or neutered?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:56

Well, it depends on the sex of the animal.

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:58

No, that's what I'm asking. Spayed.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:00

Uh, neutered. Neu- uh, men are neutered.

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:04

I said what I said.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:07

Okay.

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:08

Yeah!

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:09

Um, now this is becoming like vet tech all of a sudden. Um, if and when we flip the House, we're impeaching your asses left, right, and center.

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:18

Oh.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:19

Or at least we better be. I want this to be two years of straight up… I don't care if they're performative impeach- impeaches. I wanna see im- performative impeaches- Impeachments LOL. We're recording 30 minutes earlier today, and it's really funny. I know, it's

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:35

very early.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:36

But we both wake up early. I don't know why today I'm, I'm just like-

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:40

Because it's the end of the cycle performative and behave … and we're cooked, and we're fucking cooked, man. This is literally the end of the rope and then a little bit further, and we're clinging on by fingernails, and we just have to, like, collapse on the other side of polls closing. That's it.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:53

Yeah. Performative impeachments is the name of the game.

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:59

Period.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:00

So we should celebrate that. I mean, that'll be a, a flip of the house. I'll take it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:05

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. What? The person most likely to get impeached, already a vote scheduled because of some shenanigans, whatever, in, in Congress this term.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:16

Hegseth.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:17

Hegseth. Pete motherfucking Hegseth is getting, is going to get an impeachment vote when Congress returns in November. His might not actually be all that performative because-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:30

Right… BRIAN DERRICK: there's real risk. No, yeah, it's a good dis- good distinction. There's- Like, there are people that are, are worthy of impeachments because of their

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:39

actions. And conviction and removal.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:41

Yes. Yes.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:43

Like, Thom Tillis is out here roasting Hegseth alive. You know what I mean? There, there are Republicans, especially if a bunch of them lose, right? Like, if Susan Collins loses reelection in Maine, she is gonna blame Trump and be more likely to go against the party and the administration. Dan Sullivan in Alaska might be in the same boat if he loses- Mm-hmm … to Mary Peltola.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:10

Who else do you want to be impeached?

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:12

Who else?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:13

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:14

Oh, the whole gang. Kool & the Gang. Let's have a celebration. Wait.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:20

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:20

Celebrate… Wait, what's that song called?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:23

Celebrate good times, come on. Good times. Come on. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. It's a celebration.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:29

Yeah, there it is. Yeah. Okay. Pretty much all of them have warranted it. RFK, if you just look at public polling, is the one that people hate the most, even more than Hegseth, which shocked me, but there was new polling out that showed RFK with worse favorables. It's

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:43

more tangible, especially against the MAHA movement. What he's done is, is treason to them. So yeah, that, that tracks.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:52

Totally. Okay. Well, we have to talk about Hegseth. Sorry. Because- Uh-huh … did you see the shenanigans that they're potentially trying to pull because of this upcoming impeachment vote?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:02

No.

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:03

If Marsha Blackburn wins the seat for governor in Tennessee Which seems likely. Then her seat will become vacant, and apparently Hegseth is making a play-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:18

I

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:18

saw this to be appointed to the seat because he, quote-unquote,"lives in Nashville," which I don't know if that's completely imaginary or just, like, a stretch. I'm not really sure. Mm-hmm. But now they're, they're making a play to have him appointed to the Senate to avoid being impeached as a cabinet member.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:35

What a loser. What a loser.

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:38

Insane. Either way, it's good to remember he's going to jail. Either way, prison, and everyone's like, "But he's gonna get a pardon." No. No. We have so many tools at our dis- disposal. We don't have to get into it right now. It's not what today's episode is about.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:52

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:53

But I know at least three ways that Hegseth ends up in a jail cell regardless of what paper Trump wants to sign on his way out of office or whatever he decides to do that. So Hegseth is going to jail, and it won't matter if he's in the Senate, um- Yeah … at the time. So he needs to, like, really soak up the next two years, go get the new, uh, Shake Shack shake. I don't know if you saw that. No. But, like, he needs to go to the beach and just, like, vibe because that's gonna be over real soon.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:26

Well, he needs to work out 'cause he's still not very strong, if you've seen him trying to do those bench presses, and it's like, "Ooh."

BRIAN DERRICK: 17:32

No, he can do that in prison. Right. That's perfect for- In- … for jail. They'll get him- In the

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:37

yard… BRIAN DERRICK: in shape. Yep. Mm-hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 17:39

Yep, yep.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:40

Yeah. Okay, yeah. I mean, this is like, this is, this is when I get really excited 'cause each, each win, each Democratic win at the federal level, and to some degree at the state level, is one step closer to accountability.

BRIAN DERRICK: 17:54

Totally. I mean, the subpoenas are about to come out of the House like, like, uh, Harry Potter with the, with the chimney.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:06

Oh, yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:07

That is gonna be- Or no, in the

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:08

Ministry of Magic.

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:10

Yeah, exactly. That is gonna be the Democratic House issuing subpoenas. All these motherfuckers are coming straight to Congress to testify about their brazen corruption. Did you see the latest on Jared Kushner?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:26

I c- I don't even have the mental capacity to hold that… But which, by the way, also, this was the smokiest of guns. This was a grenade launcher on fire of, like, how corrupt and insane this is. Jared Kushner, who does not have an official government position but is, is negotiating on behalf of American citizens globally, particularly in the Middle East because Jared has a personal interest in the results of what happens in the Middle East. So for those who missed it The Russians hacked Kushner's phone and then, or the Dutch hacked Kushner's phone. One, one of them hacked the phone and then gave each other the information.

BRIAN DERRICK: 19:11

Correct. It, it's, it's a long story there, but the, the short is that the intelligence services in the Netherlands had real time access- Screen mirroring to Jared Kushner's phone. They could see every single thing he typed in, everything. And watching that exposed bank accounts that he had that had received billion-dollar transfers, payments from-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 19:40

From?… BRIAN DERRICK: MBS and, whatever in the Middle East. These are two personal Jared Kushner offshore hidden accounts straight to jail. Where is Interpol? The

BRIAN DERRICK: 19:56

fuck?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 19:57

Like, no, it is crazy. It is crazy what, like, the blatant corruption that Jared Kushner, who again, is not a government official but is negotiating on behalf of the American people for all of these international conflicts and solutions, is getting paid by Saudi Arabia to do what

BRIAN DERRICK: 20:19

I mean, one of the things that he got paid for that was just linked in reporting within the last, I think, 14 hours, is that he was paid to get Rex Tillerson pushed out as Secretary of State in the first Trump administration. That it was MBS connected, who he didn't, what, for, for whatever reason, and whatever conflicts were going on at the time, didn't want Tillerson as Secretary of State. And so there's now reporting that shows he was paid, that Kushner was paid to lobby to get Tillerson out internally. That is like, that is-- I, I think that meets the definition of treason, right? Like-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 21:04

Spy. No, no, no. It's-- He's 100% a spy on behalf of Saudi Arabia because he's getting paid to directly influence key government decisions in the United States of America. Mind you, he's also independent of this corruption, a high net worth individual. His family owns so much real estate in the city of New York. Like, they are multi, multi, multi, multi-millionaires, if not billionaires. You. The American people are paying more at the gas tank, or if you drive diesel, God bless you, but that's, you know, six, seven dollars a gallon, and Jared Kushner is just getting paid millions and millions of dollars to push people out of office.

BRIAN DERRICK: 21:46

They are billionaires AF, just to clarify. Yeah, so Josh, the brother, purchased the Lakers with former Disney CEO Bob Iger.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 21:59

Yeah, Josh married to Karlie Kloss, the infamous Project Runway line. Not even to dinner with the Kushners?

BRIAN DERRICK: 22:08

And his net worth has also gone up suspiciously fast during the second Trump administration. So I really just can't wait to tear these people open like a tin can, and I wanna look at every account. I want everything published. I wanna know where every dollar came from, and the people deserve to know what this administration has been up to. So that is what we have in store for us. First, I would say justice light for the next- Okay two years. Democrats can definitely do stuff with subpoena power in the House, but it will be limited in our ability to enforce that and pursue charges of any kind. Like, it, it won't really be an option. They'll just be able to, like, refer people for, for criminal prosecution. It's really still 2029. I wanna set that expectation for people. It's still- Yeah … 2029 when President Comes into office, guns a-blazing, that these people are just gonna be on the chain gang. Like, I want handcuffs all around-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 23:16

Mm-hmm… BRIAN DERRICK: straight to jail. Straight to jail. But for President Beep in 2029, the onus is a little bit on us, not you and me, Brian, but everyone who supports Democrats to make sure that our candidate is going to have an accountability administration. Oh, it's- Like, none of this, none of this, like, peace and reconciliation.

BRIAN DERRICK: 23:39

Mm-mm.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 23:39

Like, the only way our country can heal and move forward, if people are held accountable for the straight up robbing of American people and the dismantling of A- America's reputation and impact globally.

BRIAN DERRICK: 23:56

100%. It's a non-starter for me, and I think for a lot of people who were pro turn the other cheek in the Biden era have been totally radicalized by the complete and total failure of that approach to move the country forward. We tried it. We learned the lesson. Merrick Garland-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:16

Thank

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:16

you. I was about to say that … probably single-handedly responsible- Yep… for second Trump administration. And now to quote everyone's favorite Senate candidate, "We want heads on pikes." Like, we want- Who said that? Abdul El-Sayed. Didn't he get in trouble- Oh for saying that? Something about-- He was talking about, like, ogres.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:37

Oh.

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:38

It's the Leslie Knope line. Cut in the Leslie Knope line from Parks and Recreation. Adam Scott's like, "Time to start waving a white flag, Leslie." And she's like- No … "The only thing I will be waving is your decapitated head in front of your weeping mother." Like, so fucking crazy. That is what people wanna see.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:57

You know what I also wanna see? You know how, like, Trump has that stupid wall of, like- Yes … president and then, like, the autopen for Biden, which is just like, Trump, you're an idiot. You can't even stand up straight without whatever.

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:10

An exoskeleton.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:11

The exoskeleton. We're

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:11

leaning into-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:12

I, I refrained from saying the exoskeleton 'cause I didn't wanna bring it up again.

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:16

Glennis is so conspiracy theory-pilled, I can't even deal.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:19

I know. Someone said that I sound like being at the DNC in '24, where I, like, single-handedly pushed the rumor that Beyoncé was performing.

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:28

You did. But- You did fuck that up. You

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:30

did fuck that up. I did, and then it-

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:31

You really-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:31

Whatever. But it just-- It, it was a, it was-- I was testing the- … the gossip ecosystem. I want that to all be mugshots

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:39

Oh, hundo, completely agree

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:43

Okay. Wait, there's one thing I want, I wanna criticize Obama for one second. Can I do it?

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:49

Yeah, ju- you just have to whisper while you do it

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:52

No, so it's actually not impactful, but you know he made that joke about Trump's White House being like the Cheesecake Factory- Yeah … meets whatever?

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:59

Like Saddam Hussein launched a Cheesecake Factory, opened a Cheesecake Factory? Yes.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 26:04

Right. I- and we can cut that in

BARACK OBAMA: 26:05

Let's be honest. Does anybody really think this guy in the White House right now is spending all that time thinking about these issues? No. I, I, I mean, I, I don't know if you've noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations He should be on HGTV Guy's building a, a ballroom that's bigger than the White House. He's paved over the Rose Garden, put a hel- helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and, and there's gold everywhere. What's up with the gold? I, I, everything, uh, the more gold. He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 26:55

And then Trump came out and put out this AI slop video about the Cheesecake Factory to like show his base that he actually stands with those who like go to the Cheesecake Factory I go to the Cheesecake Factory. Like what? Like, like Obama, no. Like Cheesecake Factory, we are loyalists. Like don't make fun of the Cheesecake Factory. Also, it's expensive. The Cheesecake Factory is expensive.

BRIAN DERRICK: 27:19

But- Well, everything's expensive. We live in Trump's America

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 27:21

It's true, but The Cheesecake Factory is up there. So I need to talk to Obama's speechwriter for that one because you missed the mark. You missed the mark making fun of The Cheesecake Factory. I won't tolerate slander against the Factory, as I call it. Okay, Brian. Yeah. Did you see the Politico article about GOP small dollar donations?

BRIAN DERRICK: 27:41

Oh, yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 27:42

This is a little bit like looking into '27, '28, and beyond. MAGA has a problem that a huge chunk of their donations, the Republican donations, come from huge donors. There's limited grassroots support for their movement and their candidates, which is very, very, very telling of the power of the party.

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:06

100%. Yeah. I think the Republican money problems are stacking up, but they are hidden under headlines of"Republicans have so much goddamn money." That's like all- Yeah anyone can really talk about, myself included, because- 'Cause they do… they literally have so much money.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:25

But it's about who's giving that money.

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:27

100%. And so two problems on the Republican side, one big problem on the Democratic side. Two problems on the Republican side. They are, as you exactly said, reliant on a handful of billionaires to prop up the entire ecosystem. Oath has been talking about and writing about this for a long time because there's huge risk in that strategy. There's benefits when it works because it's really easy to, to allocate money efficiently when one person or one team is doling out all of it, like Elon Musk spending $500 million. But it's also risky because right now all these billionaires are incentivized to write gigantic checks, and all these companies and individuals in AI and crypto and all these things because-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:10

Mm-hmm

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:10

they're in power and because they want favors. Oh, yeah. They want policy in exchange for their money. That is a harder strategy to effect as a transaction when you're not in power, when you can no longer offer those things, those tax breaks, that exemption from the tariffs, whatever it is that someone's getting. That's true. Those pardons.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:33

Mm-hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:33

And that's how they're raising all this money. So that's gonna go away. Number two, the other big problem facing Republicans is that all of their grassroots money, all of the money that's not being directly handed to them by billionaires Is tied to Donald Trump.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:48

Mm-hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:48

It's 40% of-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:50

Yeah

… BRIAN DERRICK: 29:50

donors are giving to Trump. Yeah. And he's not ever running for election again. So it's an extraordinary thing. You might be like, "Oh yeah, sure, Donald Trump's the leader of the party. That makes sense." No. An outgoing president who's term limited does not have that kind of fundraising power except for in a cult. And so when Trump goes away, that money is going away, too. He's already shown through his PAC, that he's technically not supposed to control, as a reminder.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:24

Right.

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:25

MAGA

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:25

Inc. Um,

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:26

that he's not willing to spend his money. He sees it as his personal piggy bank.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:32

Mm-hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:32

And he's not willing to spend it for other people except in ways that benefit him. And so the idea that he's gonna suddenly, like, turn over or turn on this fundraising machine to benefit all Republicans is a joke. So Republicans actually have a huge problem on their hand heading into '28 and '30, that the billionaire money could dry up if just a handful of people decide this wasn't really worth it, I didn't get what I was paying for. Fine. And number two, Trump is no longer a motivating factor for people to give.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 31:04

Yeah. I also saw a stat this morning. Elon Musk, in the last two years, has given more politically than George Soros ever has.

BRIAN DERRICK: 31:12

His whole lifetime combined.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 31:13

His whole lifetime.

BRIAN DERRICK: 31:15

Disgusting.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 31:16

Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Yeah, I just thought- And then- that was worth noting.

BRIAN DERRICK: 31:21

No, it is. It is. And then on the Democratic side, I just have to comment James Talarico has more donors to his campaign than all Republican campaigns this cycle combined.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 31:36

I know.

BRIAN DERRICK: 31:37

And at first that's like such a flex. That's like so cool. Like wow, people are really on the side of democracy and Democrats. Like we should just say it. And as someone who's in these campaign finance reports and like looks at it every single day, I'm like, "What a fucking waste, man." I know. Yeah. I know. Do you know how much money has been spent reaching those millions of donors? Every single one of those names was bought on a list that's very expensive, and then they spent millions and millions-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:10

Voters

BRIAN DERRICK: 32:10

and millions… Yeah, donor, donor lists. Oh, yeah. Right. They're like going to data brokers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The campaign is spending millions of dollars buying lists, and then tens of millions of dollars spamming the shit out of those people to get- Yeah … them to give that money. The text messages that I get three times a day from James Talarico- Mm-hmm saying, "I'm gonna lose if I don't get 10 more dollars by midnight." I know, and it's

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:31

like my t- Okay.

BRIAN DERRICK: 32:32

When you have $200 million, is like it's so wasteful. And so that is what I find frustrating and literally why Oath exists, is there has to be… There is a better way- There is a better way … to, to do this, but it's gonna take some heavy lifting.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:50

Well, we have 27 to evangelize people to be giving early and often to, to smaller candidates, and not just throwing money at a candidate who quite frankly doesn't need any more of it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 33:02

Right. The fact that James Talarico has already raised $200 million points to why it's so important for people to give to down-ballot races. And so for our Oath candidate of the week, I'm going to direct people to Oath's max impact slate. It's last-minute money that matters. If you have not donated this cycle, today, when you're listening to this, is really your last shot to do so.$5 can make an actual difference in a handful of races where they're just trying to keep their, like, digital ads that are super targeted to voters who have never heard of the candidate before up and, and like to reach every voter at least once before they go to election day, unlike Talarico or Ossoff, who have tens of millions of dollars and have already completely saturated the market with TV. So there are still races where it can matter at the last minute, but today is essentially the deadline for that. But if everyone who listens to the pod gave $5, we could actually- Yeah … put an entire campaign above their target for fundraising for the re- for the remainder of the cycle. So go to Oath Vote, look at the max impact slate, or pick another t- one of our top issue areas and give that $5 today.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 34:26

Period. Period. Okay, Brian, let's do some clickbait double-click. We're gonna run through some headlines from the past week, and we're gonna decide if it's worth caring about. President Trump makes surprising admission about AOC, quote, "Somehow I don't mind AOC that much," end quote.

BRIAN DERRICK: 34:43

This is a double click. I found this so interesting. Mm-hmm. I was posting about this. Like I mean, I was joking that Trump is a 20-year-long psyop from Democrats. Wait,

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 34:56

I saw you, I saw you post that, and I was like, honestly, I think Trump would be anything to anyone if he knew he was gonna get as much money as he's gotten from the MAGA movement.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:06

Totally.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:06

Like, if we were gonna make him the most corrupt president in the history of the world, not, not even like the United States, of the world. If Dems would have done that, he would've been the head of like Dem heads or whatever.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:19

In retrospect, it makes sense. Like that trade-off makes sense. Trump has completely destroyed the Republican Party for all the reasons that we talked about, and if Democrats have the best possible night that they could based on where polling is at, it will really signal the end of the modern, like Trump movement in a way. Like, like coming back from that will be something different. It will not be Trump's MAGA coalition. It'll-- That will be dead. And so that trade of, "Hey, you're gonna get a couple billion dollars by stealing from the American people in office."

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 36:00

Mm-hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 36:00

And y- for-- in exchange, you're gonna destroy the entire Republican Party. I j- I just think it's kind of funny. But yeah, him, him loving AOC just feels like, damn, he has no actual values or worldview at all.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 36:15

And if you look at what he originally ran on, it's, it's like this populist platform of- Right. Right, right, right … everything's too expensive, and I wanna make everything, your life better, more affordable. Mm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 36:27

I do just wanna clarify that-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 36:28

Mm… BRIAN DERRICK: the original argue, was not affordability. It was build the wall and drain the swamp. Well-

BRIAN DERRICK: 36:44

And it--

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 36:45

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 36:45

And so- I mean- Yeah… GLENNIS MEAGHER: he was leveraging the economy too, but then bla- othering, uh, b- making a scapegoat- For sure … of current government officials and- Right immigrants. Totally. Right. And that was like the populist tie-in, so 100%. Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 37:02

Okay, this is not actually a headline. This is a clip I'm gonna play for you.

BRIAN DERRICK: 37:07

Uh-oh.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 37:07

The BBC was in Michigan interviewing folks about the election.

MICHIGAN VOTER: 37:12

Do you worry that he's a bit too left-wing to win in Michigan? At this point, what do we have to worry about? anything but what we have. We're on our way to hell. So at this point, socialist, socialized, social, don't matter to me. Lower my cost of living.

BRIAN DERRICK: 37:31

100%. Nailed… I think it really nails the, um, the sort of flip- Mm-hmm … on conventional wisdom that has taken place in the last year, where trigger words like socialism, like communism, whatever, have lost their power- Mm-hmm as people have really started to cling to people who- Mm-hmm … look like them, talk like them, and are talking about the things that they care about. Mamdani on childcare, buses, groceries, Abdul El-Sayed on money in your pocket. Like-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:15

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:16

Totally … it, it just loses its power.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:17

Yeah. The American people are just looking for elected officials who will fight for them and for their life and cost of living.

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:25

I thought you were gonna talk about the clip of the woman asking about Abdul El-Sayed's middle name.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:30

Oh, being in Michigan, that was all over my for you page this past weekend.

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:34

That was crazy.

VOTER: 38:37

Abdul's barely out there. Um, he doesn't even say his real name. Like, why can't you share your real name?

RICHARD GAISFORD: 38:44

What, wh- wh- what is his real name? His real name is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.

VOTER: 38:48

You didn't see where he said it's Mohammed? It's Abdul Mohammed El-Sayed.

RICHARD GAISFORD: 38:53

Yeah, but my name is Richard Paul Gaisford, but I always

VOTER: 38:55

introduce- But he's running for the Senate.

RICHARD GAISFORD: 38:56

No, but he wouldn't ne-

VOTER: 38:57

He should write his full name on there.

RICHARD GAISFORD: 38:59

Well, what is Mike Rogers' middle name?

VOTER: 39:01

But that's not, that's… Mohammed's not his middle name.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 39:04

Dumb as rocks.

BRIAN DERRICK: 39:05

I mean, not surprising, but crazy.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 39:08

Not surprising. Mohammed. Mohammed. And she keeps saying it. Like, one, first of all, the name Mohammed, we'll have to fact-check this. It is. I think it's the number one name-

BRIAN DERRICK: 39:19

It is… GLENNIS MEAGHER: in There are more people in the world named Mohammed than any other name. Okay, number one. Number two, it was giving Barack Hussein Obama, you know? Like… And then the reporter's like, "Well, what's Mike Rogers' middle name?" She's like,"That's not the point." I'm like, "Oh, okay, yeah, the point is that you're Islamophobic. That's the point." Right.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 39:44

But yeah, it wasn't surprising, but it was just… I mean, this is what I mean with all these conversations as I've been having on the ground or like, you know, I'm glad people are seeing that clip because there are a lot of people in the state of Michigan and in the United States of America who think that way and vote that way.

BRIAN DERRICK: 40:01

Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 40:01

And as of right now, they are voting. They are 100% voting. So don't be fooled by your algorithm that everything is coming up roses for Democrats.

BRIAN DERRICK: 40:12

T. Nailed it. In 42 of the 46 most competitive midterm House districts, incomes have been rising slower than inflation.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 40:27

Double-click. People can't afford to live. People can't afford to live. Costs are rising. Salaries are not rising. The federal minimum wage has been, has not been changed since 2009, I believe. It is $7.25. Many states in this country still have that as their minimum wage, $7.25. That's what it costs for one gallon of diesel

BRIAN DERRICK: 40:57

It's crazy. Wait, sorry, I have another one. Okay, so a new poll from New York Times Siena, our fave-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 41:06

Yeah,

BRIAN DERRICK: 41:06

I caught that shows that s- 70% of young voters now identify as Democrats or lean that way, which is a 15-point jump from just two years ago

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 41:18

Half, I mean, double-click, that's good news. But just because they're polling that way today, does that mean, does not mean they're gonna poll that way in six months. That's true. I think people are v- are very, like, fed up with the two-party system, and maybe in this moment right now, they're like, "I am going to vote with or align with Dem candidates." But we can't count our chickens before they hatch.

BRIAN DERRICK: 41:43

Correct. Yep. And who do you think is gonna be the one to fuck it up?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 41:48

Dems.

BRIAN DERRICK: 41:49

But who?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 41:50

Oh, wait, what do you mean?

BRIAN DERRICK: 41:52

Which Dem? Who's gonna be the one that- Fucking Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are gonna fuck- Uh-oh … it up. Like, the p- … the problem with being back in power is that we have to see their stupid faces all the time, and they're so incompetent.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 42:04

Well, when we talk about accountability, we mean most urgently with Dems in power in the next two years. Like, there's no accountability in '29 if we don't start holding Republicans' feet to the fire the minute we have some sort of influence and power in government.

BRIAN DERRICK: 42:25

100, 100%.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 42:26

Should we leave them with a good vibe, Brian?

BRIAN DERRICK: 42:30

I think we should. I have one for you.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 42:32

Let's hear it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 42:33

So there are over 60 ongoing cases in court right now about the midterm elections already, and the results, and the vote counting, and when ballots can arrive, and how they need to be marked, and all of these things. And Trump continues to be ragdolled in court because they are making claims that they cannot back up and pushing for policies that are completely unconstitutional, and they're failing. So recently, a panel of judges that were mostly appointed by Donald Trump slapped down their latest effort to sequester ballots in California because they feel like it. And the judges essentially are saying that the federal government has no role in how that works, that elections are administered by states, and they need to stay in your lane. So it's really good vibes on that front, particularly going into election day, that courts are going to continue to be guardrails against Trump's election attacks.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 43:41

States' rights. What's up? Hell yeah. I sound like a-

BRIAN DERRICK: 43:45

Yeah, yeah,

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 43:45

yeah. Yeah. States' rights, baby. Okay. Well, that's it for us this week. Thank you as always for listening and tuning in. You can find us on all platforms. Like, subscribe, drop a comment. Follow oath.vote on Instagram. Brian and his team are going to be keeping us all updated and abridged on election night Follow along. We're all gonna be tuned in to Steve Kornacki, watching those numbers come in.

BRIAN DERRICK: 44:12

Next time, we will be dancing to celebrate a good election night if you get out and vote. Go vote