Vibes Only
The polls are broken, the stakes are unprecedented, and vibes drive the future of American politics.
Every Thursday, political strategist Brian Derrick (founder of Oath) and new media strategist Glennis Meagher (co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the biggest stories in American politics, elections, and culture.
This isn't your standard cable news commentary. Get an insider's look at the US political machine, current news of the week, and the digital strategy shaping our world - delivered with the honesty, insight, and humor of two people who've actually worked in the trenches of US politics.
Hit follow and stay ahead of the news cycle every Thursday.
Vibes Only
Jon Ossoff's Guide to Winning Georgia?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Jon Ossoff's 2020 interview is going viral again. Brian Derrick says Ossoff could win over median voters and that the internet's response right now is bananas, while Glennis Meagher is watching for a different problem entirely.
The clip is from a November 2020 Axios on HBO interview and features a rapid round of yes or no questions: Green New Deal, Medicare for All, defunding the police, abolishing ICE, expanding the Supreme Court. Ossoff answered no to a lot of it. Nearly six years later it is circulating as a gotcha, and Brian's read is the opposite: this is how you win Georgia. Georgia is where the median voter lives, and Brian says Jon's clarity matters more than his answers. Glennis takes on the part of this convo few in the mainstream seem to be talking about, which is what happens to a candidate when a video from six years ago resurfaces mid campaign and they lose control of their own virality.
This week we also get into the recently announced voting calendar for 2028. The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee signed off on the 2028 primary order: South Carolina January 22, Nevada February 1, New Hampshire February 8, New Mexico February 15, Michigan February 22, Virginia February 29, Super Tuesday March 7. Iowa is out. The full DNC votes on it in Austin next month. Brian explains why one national primary day would be a disaster for anyone who is not already rich, why going first is really about proving viability to donors before you spend down to zero, and what putting South Carolina at the front tells you about which voters the party is betting on.
Plus what the Senate is actually trying to move in the two weeks before August recess: the NDAA and Trump's $1.5 trillion military ask, Reconciliation 3.0 and the attempt to bolt the SAVE Act onto it, and Jay Clayton's confirmation as Director of National Intelligence, replacing Trump's temporary pick Bill Pulte. Meanwhile John Cornyn and Thom Tillis have Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination stuck in committee until the Justice Department kills off Trump's $1.776 billion anti weaponization slush fund in writing. Brian Poindexter, the union ironworker and Brook Park councilman running in Ohio's 7th, is your Oath Candidate of the Week, and we explain how you can help him flip a seat that got a lot more competitive the day Max Miller's divorce filings went public.
Also this week for Clickbait or Double-Click: the New York Times story about Ken Martin, the DNC's finances and a whole lot of phone throwing, the Campus Guardian Angel drones that spray pepper gel now heading into nine schools this fall, and Trump's Correspondents' Dinner bit about Kaitlan Collins that landed about as well as the plane in LOST. Then we send you off with a Good Vibe Goodbye involving Kathy Hochul, your kid's phone, and the end of the algorithmic feed that has been pumping AI slop into their brains.
UPDATE: This episode was recorded Wednesday morning, July 29, 2026. Late that night the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed its vote on Todd Blanche, with Cornyn and Tillis still holding out for written assurances from the Justice Department.
New episodes drop every Thursday morning! Hit FOLLOW and we’ll help you stay informed for the midterms.
EPISODE LINKS
Welcome back to Vibes Only. This week we're diving into what the Senate needs to get done before they go on recess, the newly announced DNC primary dates, and why South Carolina gets to go first.
BRIAN:We're also talking about Jon Ossoff and his 2020 interview that's going super viral right now. Brian Poindexter, Oath's Candidate of the Week, a real manly man, and a solid round of clickbait or double-click talking about the DNC school shooter drones, question mark, and the Kaitlan Collins versus Trump fight. We have a lot to cover, and we're glad you're here. Let's get into it. Glennis, are you locked in? To what? The election.
GLENNIS:Oh.
BRIAN:People are locked in. Let me tell you, it is less than 100 days to go, and we are feeling the crunch.
GLENNIS:We are feeling the crunch, and I need you to help me out because I feel a little wayward. I'm not as locked in as I typically am. I saw all over my feed two days ago,"100 days," and it's like, "Okay, cool. What's up?" So should we get into it?
BRIAN:We gotta get into it. I am dialed-
GLENNIS:To 11?
BRIAN: 2:11. I have my sleeping bag in my office. It's midterm season, baby.
GLENNIS:Wait, I was catching up with my friend this weekend who also worked on the Hill at the same time as me. She used to have to wake up her congressman. He slept in the office, and part of her job was to wake him up.
BRIAN:There was a period of time where that was considered-
GLENNIS:Normal… BRIAN: trendy. Like, that you were ultra thrifty because you were gonna sleep in your office or whatever, and then it was on either The West Wing or Veep. I'm not doing that. Anyway. Yeah.
BRIAN:But-
GLENNIS:But-
BRIAN:A lot's going on and-
GLENNIS:I was gonna say, shouldn't they be sleeping in their office? There is T minus two weeks until they go to August recess, which I was thinking about this, Brian. I don't think it should be called recess. This isn't foreplay. This isn't a time out. Get to work, stay at work. No recess for you.
BRIAN:District time, DC time- Yeah … is, I think, how most electeds think about it, but yeah, people hear recess and they're always like,"You get so much paid time off."
GLENNIS:They should be working. They should be hosting town halls. They should be talking to their constituents, but let's talk about what's on the agenda for the next two weeks. What are the Republicans trying to get done? What's gonna get done? What's not gonna get done? Who's a thorn in Trump's side and who's not?
BRIAN:Yeah, we have a crazy busy agenda that Republicans are trying to get through. They haven't been able to pass much of anything. I like to remind people that this is the first administration in many years that has no signature piece of legislation. They passed the ugly bill, which was a reconciliation bill, and they've passed no other major legislation because the Republican caucus agrees on nothing, and we have seen that come to a head in the last few weeks. Some of the things that they are trying to get passed through the Senate before recess include the NDAA, which is how we fund our military. It's the National Defense Authorization Act. Trump asking for $1.5 trillion. We've talked about this on the pod a lot. It's a 50% increase of the military budget, tons of that going to defense contractors where his sons may or may not sit on the board. Mm-hmm. And basically Americans getting robbed blind.
GLENNIS:Mm-hmm. For wars that no one signed up for.
BRIAN:Correct. I did some quick back of the envelope math and-
GLENNIS:Mm… BRIAN: the US is spending woman, and child to bomb Iran. And Iraq. Did you s- hear the news this morning?
BRIAN:That we bombed Iraq?
GLENNIS:In the sh- Okay, I heard it in the shower this morning that Iran did a sneak attack on some military bases, and then we decided- Okay to then engage with warfare with Iraq.
BRIAN:I knew the first part of that. So Iran did launch an attempt at a surprise attack at US air bases in Jordan. It was not successful. We intercepted all of the missiles, but I have not heard that there was some sort of counter strike in Iraq.
GLENNIS:Yeah, US, Saudi bomb Iran-backed militant bases in Iraq after drone attacks. Okay. All right. So I'm, I'm in the shower and I'm like, "What? Is this like Fallujah 2004? Like, what is going on?"
BRIAN:I'm just imagining you're in the shower and your husband is, like, whispering, "We bombed Iraq." Like, who's telling you that while you're in the shower? You're listening to the radio? Oh, I have a- What's happening? I--
GLENNIS:My morning routine is I wake up, this is why I'm so butt clenched all the time, the first thing I put on, NPR.
BRIAN:Okay. Okay.
GLENNIS:That's
BRIAN:why. Like live or the podcast?
GLENNIS:Live. I put on the radio
BRIAN:Whoa. Oh my God, boomer. I had no idea. But it's-- No, it
GLENNIS:starts with, like, a, a briefing at the top of every hour
BRIAN:Welcome to NPR News Hour. I don't, I don't listen, listen to that, so- It's
GLENNIS:actually Scarlett Johansson
BRIAN:No,
GLENNIS:it's not NPR One. I listen to, I listen to NPR One, and then it, like, will go into-
BRIAN:It's not, it's not Scarlett Johansson
GLENNIS:I s- I pr- I assure you, it is
BRIAN:Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Johansson hosts NPR every day?
GLENNIS:She's the voice of the kickoff of NPR One. This morning, I found out that we were now adding another country to the list
BRIAN:All of this to say Republicans are trying to pass more money for military spending, truly insane amounts. We're talking in the sixty-plus billion additional dollars for Iran, and then warmongers of the GOP are saying that's not nearly enough. So they're changing the process to try to go above and beyond that. On top of that, we have Reconciliation 3.0. So 1.0, big ugly bill, 2.0, funding ICE forever, 3.0 is this new bill that they're trying to get done that they wanna attach the SAVE Act to to do voter suppression for the midterms and beyond. That seems incredibly unlikely to pass at this point. There just doesn't seem to be the votes for it, but they might refinagle what's included in order to get it done. Then they're also trying to confirm the new Attorney General, Todd Blanche, Epstein's- Trump's- … protector in chief- Yeah … as we've talked about.
GLENNIS:Epstein protector in chief, Trump's personal lawyer, which he even said, Freudian slip, at one point in his hearing. He called himself Trump's personal lawyer. I think that's all we need to know. Who was confirmed yesterday?
BRIAN:Clayton, as the Director of National Intelligence, DNI. This is Tulsi Gabbard's old slot. Trump had put in Bill Pulte, who's commonly referred to as his attack dog- Mm … who has no qualifications, has never worked in national security, knows nothing about the subject matters that pertain to DNI. It's interesting, Trump seems to be pursuing this new strategy where he puts in temporary people as, like, interim or acting cabinet slot or appointment. That person comes in with a sledgehammer. When normally- Mm … someone in an interim or acting role is just trying to, like, keep the train on the tracks, make sure nothing crazy goes on until someone's confirmed. No. He came in, he's done three rounds of mass layoffs, and he's trying to gut everyone in the department who could potentially be a roadblock to extreme partisan attacks and activity in the department. As we know, Trump has used this position to advance his own personal agenda, raiding the Fulton County Elections Office- Mm-hmm changing interpretations of foreign intelligence reports Like- Yeah … trying to point at China as interfering in the election that he lost and things like that.
GLENNIS:Which by the way, if you actually read the report, it's Russia. Russia. It's
BRIAN:Russia.
GLENNIS:I don't know if you, if you, if you read any, like he did that whole big speech about China, China, China, and then they released these files and it's like, "Hey, you didn't read this, bro. This is all Russia."
BRIAN:Yeah. There's- But
GLENNIS:you're not bringing that up.
BRIAN:Right. So we have this two-week window. The House is not in session, so anything that the Senate passes, other than things like confirmations which don't require House approval, are just kind of DOA. They're DOA or at minimum punted for like many weeks until the House- Mm is back and can do anything. This is the time of year where the least happens legislatively- Mm-hmm … because they're so afraid to take votes that they're gonna be called out on in two months, right? At, at, at the ballot box. So Republicans are in a horrible position right now. It's really a shit show. They're kinda staring down the barrel of a midterm election that's gonna be very bad for them.
GLENNIS:Very, very bad. I know you say that they don't wanna do votes right now 'cause it's gonna make them look bad, but almost every single vote that's happened since Trump got back in office makes them look horrible. When you look at the SNAP numbers of how many people in their district have lost access to SNAP, it's diabolical. So that they could give the 1% more tax breaks. Crazy.
BRIAN:No, you're right. The thing that Republicans have learned from Trump is that by doing so much bad shit in a row, you- Yeah … ignore 80% of it because your brain literally cannot interpret and analyze and hold that much- Totally information. And that is why time is not their friend right now. What they need is a window of time long enough- Yeah … that more crazy, global, terrifying shit will happen to make you forget about all the things that they've taken away from you. When I look back at the headlines that I was posting about and commenting on a year ago, it is mind-boggling how much stuff we have forgotten that was the biggest thing to ever happen at the time. And that- Like what? Oh, God. I mean, honestly, I've been reviewing a lot of the ICE stuff. Mm-hmm. And most people don't even think about Minnesota anymore. Right? Like- Yeah … for most people, that's like ancient history now.
GLENNIS:You know what I think about sometimes? Signalgate, Pete Hegseth. Signalgate,
BRIAN:wow. Totally. The amount of career-ending scandals we have forgotten.
GLENNIS:Yeah.
BRIAN:Is bananas
GLENNIS:Like, Howard Dean got excited one time, and it ended a presidential career. Who was the VP candidate who spelled, like, potato wrong or something? It was career-ending. And now you have Pete Hegseth running the Department of War, as he calls it, leaking war plans on Signal and also asking for billions and billions of dollars for an unconstitutional war that we shouldn't be in.
BRIAN:Regardless of whether or not they can spell- Mm-hmm… Republicans are in a real pickle. So the latest update is that Thune, who's the majority leader in the Senate, is fighting with Donald Trump because Donald Trump doesn't want anything to be done- Yeah … until the SAVE Act is passed. There's no way to pass it because you either have to fire the parliamentarian or nuke the filibuster'cause they don't have the votes. Thune says they don't have the votes either way. They can't even get to 50 votes on the SAVE Act. So people should feel really secure about that one, but I know that Dems just love to shit themselves over everything.
GLENNIS:Yeah.
BRIAN:So they probably
GLENNIS:won't. Yeah, what's the play? What's the play? What do we do? You've been pretty correct with the last two votes of, like, what was going to happen and that, you know, what's a win, what's a loss. What's a win here for Dems? Is there one?
BRIAN:Thin silver linings all around, right? So you gotta be squinting to look for it, but the win that we have available to us right now is that Cornyn and Tillis are demanding a change in writing, signed by the Department of Justice, amending Trump's immunity deal for his tax fraud and killing permanently the bullshit January 6th fund. And so that's the one thing- Oh, 'cause
GLENNIS:that's not dead yet?
BRIAN:It's dead in verbiage-
GLENNIS:Politically dead, yeah… BRIAN: that Blanche has gone on the We're not doing that." And they said, "We don't trust you because the administration lies all the time." This is a Republican saying this. Mm-hmm."We want it in writing, signed, done deal." We will find out by the time this airs whether that happens because they have made clear- Mm… BRIAN: that they will not vote get that in writing, and he cannot advance to a full vote in the Senate without their Votes in committee. That would be like the one benefit. Other than that, it's basically kill everything. Block all legislation possible. Which isn't possible, like Republicans will get some stuff through, but Democrats don't have much incentive to work with them on- No… BRIAN: any of it. Yeah. My last question before I wanna talk about Dems. Does it matter that Mitch McConnell's in a rehab facility for use of his body or do we not need him? Is he literally dead wood?
BRIAN:That's popped off a little bit in the last couple of days with Andy Beshear making more public statements- Pushing hard … about it. Yeah. Yeah, and trying to get a actual public statement from McConnell. Beshear went on a podcast and clarified for people why he hasn't been even more aggressive to date. There is not a path for a Democrat to take McConnell's seat. Mm. And so the next best thing is to have no one in the seat. Yeah. To deprive Republicans of that vote. McConnell being replaced tomorrow by like Daniel Cameron or some- Young nut bag Republican- Yeah … from Kentucky is n- a worse situation than having McConnell be half dead in God knows where doing nothing. That's Beshear's stance. He's made that clear that he would rather have Republicans down a vote. A lot of delulu people online think that a Democrat can win in Kentucky because of this environment. I'm telling you that's not true. And then people say- Mm … "We have a Democratic governor of Kentucky. What about that?" Andy Beshear is Kentucky royalty. His father was a governor. Their family name goes back in Kentucky millennia. Right. I'm from near there.
GLENNIS:They're like eighth generation Kentucky.
BRIAN:So he is a unique case. Once he loses that seat, we don't have another Democrat to run. If- Mm-hmm … another Beshear is gonna step up and run for the Senate seat, I think that his daughters are like 12. Right. If we can put one of them in, then I'm down. Let's do that. But until that time- Is there a cousin? Right.
GLENNIS:I wanna see, I know the one Mitch McConnell photo we have is like- the newspaper is to the side. I wanna see an, he's holding the newspaper up to his face.
BRIAN:No, FaceTime him. I guess it doesn't matter. Get this m- mofo on video. Like there's no reason that if you can't make a statement, then you shouldn't be in office. Like I said- Right … politically that's not my position. Politically-
GLENNIS:Mm-hmm… BRIAN: keep Republicans I mean just from principle, if you cannot make a statement to camera Tom Kean Jr., then you should resign your seat immediately. Mm-hmm.
BRIAN:Bye.
GLENNIS:Bye. Okay, let's pivot to Democrats, shall we? Yeah. What I wanna talk about first is the new calendar that we're going to have. We started to, like, microdose a conversation of '28, the presidential primary, what that's gonna look like, and what that means for our base. But the DNC has just made some formal decision on who votes first. We have a new calendar. Shall I read it to you? Buckle up. Well, we have time. We have over a year, obviously. But the presidential's gonna start next year because people are gonna start doing the media circuit, the podcasts, the op-eds- Right … the whatever. So January 22nd, the first state is, drum roll please South Carolina. Then Nevada, February 1st. New Hampshire, live free or die, February 8th. New Mexico, February 15th. Michigan, February 22nd. Virginia, February 29th. Super Tuesday, March 7th. Iowa, sorry.
BRIAN:Iowa, yeah. That caucus going wrong really fucked them over in the end. Oops! This has been bubbling for a long time, and it actually really does matter for a few reasons. Let's address a few things off the top. Number one, every time we talk about primary calendar, I get questions,"Why don't we just vote all of-- at the same time and just pick our person?" That's a bad idea.
GLENNIS:Why?
BRIAN:You want candidates that are lesser known, like Obama '08, to be able to lean into retail politics, meaning hanging out in local communities, going literally door to door, business to business, shaking hands, kissing babies, and to build their profile in a specific place rather than give it to whoever has the most money- Mm-hmm to campaign in 50 states at a time. It costs 100 million plus dollars to run a 50-state campaign. Badly. By doing that, you say if you can't raise $100 million today, then you have no shot at the presidency. Mm-hmm. That's silly. We shouldn't do that. So you have to give people a more narrow target audience that they can go and connect with, even if they aren't a billionaire.
GLENNIS:That's a very good point that I think we should reiterate over the next year and a half, which is they need to go to these states where there is a strong base to show that they can win in these states.
BRIAN:For sure.
GLENNIS:Just wanna double-click that.
BRIAN:Yeah. Right. And it matters who goes first, again, because it's about viability. You need to be able to prove early on that you're doing well for people to continue funding your campaign. The number one threat to a campaign similar to a startup is running out of money. Mm-hmm. That's what most of the time will end a candidacy. Sometimes it's horrible performance. Someone will just quit with money in the bank. But usually, you'll spend down to nothing. And so it comes down to your performance translating into the case that you can make to voters and donors about why you should continue. So early states have a lot of power in deciding who has momentum, who has viability, and who's gonna have to end their campaign before it really begins.
GLENNIS:Hmm.
BRIAN:There's been this debate bubbling for years around which states should go first for Democrats. Yeah. It's a minefield. It's really tricky because you have to n-deal with state laws also. Mm-hmm That set when elections are and, and how they happen because PSA to Donald Trump, elections are run by states, not the federal government. Yeah. Federal government cannot decide. Of course, it's like a infighting issue now. So which states you pick could give an advantage to more moderate candidates or to more progressive candidates, and that is what has been fought out online and in the DNC for the last couple months.
GLENNIS:With South Carolina coming, coming out on top, it's pretty clear who the DNC is betting on for our most loyal base, which is Black voters and Latino voters. I think one in four voters in South Carolina are Black, and they consistently show up for Democratic candidates. So-
BRIAN:That is correct. I think it's South Carolina. I just went to a conference there, and they told me all these stats about primary voters in South Carolina. It is a more moderate voting bloc overall. Black voters in the Democratic Party tend to be more towards the center than white voters on the whole. I'm sorry, like, people will be mad when I say something like that, but when you look at the data, that is what is reflected. Self-reporting, when you ask voters, "Do you identify as progressive, liberal, moderate, centrist, conservative?" More Black voters will answer moderate than white voters in the Democratic Party. Having South Carolina go first could end up giving a leg up to a candidate- A more mod … that appeals to the middle.
GLENNIS:Yeah. Let's see. Only time will tell.
BRIAN:The first states matter a lot, but remember that we're right now more than 18 months away from the first primary ballot being cast in the 2028 primary. Next year's shadow primary will matter a lot more. The podcast circuit- Mm … of what candidates are up and down and how it impacts their fundraising for all of calendar year 2027 also matters a lot. Their ability to build a platform for themselves in a new media environment where the ability to generate news is more important than your ability to react To the news.
GLENNIS:Mm-hmm.
BRIAN:That is going to really set apart who are the front runners and who people consider versus who lasts for three months and flames out, like we saw in 2020.
GLENNIS:Yeah. S- to take South Carolina, to your point, like, they have to be working the coffee shops, they have to be going to the town halls, the church meetings, et cetera. And the candidates w- are going to have to have a very robust communications arm that is filming those conversations, that is putting that online, that is putting them at a microphone with one of the more prominent Southern podcasters. So it's gonna be a whole new media environment for this presidential. I think we, we definitely saw a huge chunk of that for the last presidential. Everyone came off of that saying, "Who's the Joe Biden of the left?" I think we've talked about this quite a bit. I don't think there is one. But yeah, buckle up.
BRIAN:Candidates going in and considering a run in '28, you should accept that virality is part of the gig. Mm-hmm. And the question is whether you're gonna be in the driver's seat- Mm-hmm … of your own virality. Mm-hmm. I think back to 2020, and even 2024, right? Your virality can either be you didn't fall out of a coconut tree, which is what the internet is choosing to be viral, or I would say the king of it is Mamdani- Mm-hmm who is always in control of his virality. Mm-hmm. He is always on his front foot controlling the message of what people are seeing about him, which is really hard to do and incredibly impressive, and will be more important in '28 than it h- ever has been before.
GLENNIS:Yeah. And I wanna talk about Jon Ossoff and a video that is going viral online. But this is partly the internet not caring, and I would say a, a media literacy issue. The video is from an interview in 2020, and his views in 2020 are being applied to him current day, and potentially for his policy positions if he were to run for president.
BRIAN:Play the clip.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support the Green New Deal?
JON OSSOFF:No.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support Medicare for all?
JON OSSOFF:No.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support DC statehood?
JON OSSOFF:Yes.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support Puerto Rican statehood?
JON OSSOFF:Yes.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support defunding the police?
JON OSSOFF:No.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support abolishing ICE?
JON OSSOFF:No.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support expanding the Supreme Court?
JON OSSOFF:No.
INTERVIEWER:Do you support ending the filibuster?
JON OSSOFF:Maybe
INTERVIEWER:Okay. Tell me more.
BRIAN:I love it. I know the internet is, like, trying to make this a negative thing for him. That is how you win Georgia. That is where the median voter of the country is, and whoever wins the median voter in the country wins The White House, period, full stop. That is how math works. I'm hyped by that, and I hope that our 2028 candidate can answer with such clarity about their positions because I actually think that that matters to people potentially more than the answer to at least some of those is the fact that he has no equivocation. He doesn't need to say, "Oh, well, in 10% of cases, like, actually w- it's more complicated." He's so direct with it. Oh, I'm, I'm here for it. I think that the Internet's bananas.
GLENNIS:I agree with you that candidates need to have a very strong spine. We saw it with Mallory McMorrow. She didn't stand for a single thing really firmly, and therefore she was pushed out of the Michigan primary. My bigger issue or my eye on that video is more around this is a video from 2020. So if you're on his team, you're thinking, "Oh, are his answers the exact same right now? And if not, how do we contextualize any change?" Say we were in the presidential. He was a candidate, and that video was viral right in that day. All of a sudden, people online, whether or not to your point they fully matter as voters, I mean everyone, if you're a voter, you matter, but about who really shows up to vote are causing a huge stink and you lose control of that virality. You as a candidate have to stitch yourself, right? Or you have to say, "Okay, here's where I stand on these issues today. My answers are exactly the same, and here's why." It's a real thing.
BRIAN:Yes, and I think that they would be-- My guess is that he would answer exactly the same way to all of those questions today. I think that that's correct for winning Georgia. He's laser-focused on his election in Georgia. It is a must-win for Dems if we wanna even pick up any seats in the Senate really.
GLENNIS:Right. Before we even talk about a presidential, he needs to win his Senate seat
BRIAN:Right. But- Yeah … Dems also need to win Georgia in 2028. Right. And that's sort of my point. I'm all for people being hyped by the policies that they support, but also you have to crack the code of how you elect someone in a Georgia, a Nevada, an Arizona, a North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, who says yes to all of those questions, if that is where you stand.
GLENNIS:Mm-hmm.
BRIAN:And that is what has yet to really be proven out, is that a Democrat can say yes to all of those things and win where we have to win. Fetterman is most frequently referenced as the example. Obviously, we know that he completely fell off and is a disaster. Abdul El-Sayed, if he wins the primary in a week, will be the n- next real test case. If he wins the primary and loses the general, I'm sorry, but it is a disaster for progressives. It will be a huge blow to any populist progressive candidate running in 2028, because if you can't win in the blue wall, you absolutely cannot win in the Sun Belt or the South. Show me. Show me the money. If you want our presidential candidate to say yes to those things, you better be booking a ticket to fly to Michigan to campaign for Abdul, who just came back in a new poll more than 10 points up over- Hmm Haley Stevens this morning.
GLENNIS:Well, she's not doing herself any favors. Yeah, it is-- I mean, we are about to learn a lot, see a lot, and I'm laser focused on the digital strategies. As we know, the internet is forever. The oppo shops will find that. I do think Democrats have a different standard than Republicans because Republicans just do not care if you have any moral compass or are a horrible person who are in the Epstein files. It's just something that I think every candidate, to your point about being on the podcast circuit, having a strong media strategy, you're gonna have to be able to stand up and support the receipts that you have of yourself online as a candidate.
BRIAN:Well, let's talk really quick about some Republicans that have really proven that there is no rock bottom. Have you heard about Max Miller and Cory Mills lately?
GLENNIS:Is this the Ohio guy, Max Miller?
BRIAN:Yes.
GLENNIS:Yeah, he's a horrible abuser who held a, trigger warning, domestic violence gun to his ex-wife's head. His ex-wife also happens to be the daughter of a senator, I believe. Not that that matters. Not that being a daughter of a senator should make you immune to violence. But horrible man, horrible person He should draw it now.
BRIAN:His divorce court filings have become public. It's pretty shocking stuff, like abusive towards his wife and daughter. That race just got a lot more competitive. We have a great candidate there, Brian Poindexter, running as a Democrat. And then Cory Mills, representative from Florida, is now under investigation by the DOJ and the House Ethics Committee for allegations of financial and sexual misconduct. He threatened to release nude photos of his ex when they broke up. His ego was bruised. He threatened to release intimate photos of her, which is illegal. There's, like, other allegations of both harassment and, I believe, assault against other exes. Just a lot piling up there. We also have a good Democrat running in that district, Bale Dalton, the former chief of staff for NASA, which could make that race ultra-competitive if he emerges from that primary.
GLENNIS:Yeah, I'm, uh, disappointed but not surprised. This is the party that is protecting the Epstein class, save for a few outliers who are actually fighting for the files to be fully released and for all in files to be prosecuted accordingly. We also live in a patriarchal society that ignores, often, violence against and towards women, and this is a product of that, that these men are elevated into these positions of power with little to no accountability. I also have to mention, like, this isn't just a Republican problem. The former lieutenant governor, Democratic lieutenant governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax Killed his wife and then killed himself. Like, the violence against women is pervasive in this country, and we need leaders who aren't killing their wives or holding guns to their wives' heads. I'm sure there's so much more that we don't even know about. It's despicable.
BRIAN:It really is. Okay, so running against Max Miller, abuser and dirtbag, is Brian Poindexter, who is from Ohio. Go Bucks. He's a union ironworker, a labor guy. He was identified to Oath by the League of Labor Voters way back during the primary, and we've been watching the race really closely as it's gotten more and more competitive. He's a guy's guy. There's a whole profile on him that people can go look up, the return of masculinity to the Democratic Party and how he can be a guy that breaks the mold of the manosphere, and how you can still be pro-women and pro-human rights and a dude, a straight guy, a bro. He's, like, a leader in his union. He's been working hourly wage jobs as an ironworker since he was 18 years old. He gets it, and I think will really resonate with a lot of people who traditionally vote Republican. Then he also stepped up during the first Trump administration to run for city council, and has served on his local city council in a place that is deep Trump country. He's a really great candidate. He is our Oath Candidate of the Week, if you're not picking up on that yet. Okay. Brian Poindexter has an awesome profile to flip that district and get a literal abuser out of office.
GLENNIS:Check him out on Oath. Whenever I hear these stories about these abusers, these people in office, we can't forget, we're also-- we, the American people, are paying for their life, so.
BRIAN:Yep.
GLENNIS:Should we do some clickbait or double-click, Brian? There's, like, a lot in the, in the news. Yeah. And I think a lot of it is kinda worth talking about. I'm gonna start with a doozy. A doozy- All right … that made the rounds, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this one. New York Times."Inside the phone-throwing drama at the troubled, broke Democratic Party."
BRIAN:Troubled clickbait broke double-click. So the piece that you're referencing, I have read. Yeah. And the drama around Ken Martin is mostly clickbait. Everybody has an opinion about the DNC. It's like an asshole. So it doesn't really matter what your opinions of the DNC are at the end of the day. What does matter is whether the DNC can write checks. The DNC currently being ultimately two million dollars in debt rather than having the $127 million cash on hand that Republicans have in the RNC- Mm-hmm… is a big deal and is going to impact Senate races and House races that would ordinarily rely on some money coming from the DNC to the D trip- That's correct or DS or, or whatever.
GLENNIS:Mm-hmm.
BRIAN:So half and half. What do you say?
GLENNIS:Yeah. The drama mama. Ken Martin has been riddled with drama since he was elected. It was a pretty big split over who people wanted as DNC chair. I, for one, supported someone else. It's a tough job, and I don't think he was the guy for it. But to your point about the money of it all, we started the episode talking about the importance of having real money in order to be a candidate, and the DNC is a huge part of that infrastructure. And if you're not raising the money, where is it? Who's raising it? Oath?
BRIAN:Yeah. Oath. We're here to fill in the gap, dude. We've given anywhere from a 15 to 35% boost to competitive house races this cycle for the most competitive seats. And so it's even higher for some of the ones that are more of a reach where they've not raised- Mm-hmm as much. But in the top, top targets, we are really turning it up to a 12. So yeah, if the DNC's not gonna do it, we're gonna step in and do it.
GLENNIS:Great.
BRIAN:Next one. Holy shit, I know you saw this. It's been- Mm … ultra viral in the last 24 hours. Schools are adding pepper spraying drones to combat active shooters.
GLENNIS:Yeah. This-
BRIAN:Roll clip. Holy shit. Did you see the- did- have you seen the clips?
GLENNIS:Yeah, and then the drone, like, hits the dummy and knocks it over. Because it's so viral, it's kinda clickbait 'cause it's just so insane. The main talking point here is what about gun control? It is not easy to operate a drone. The fact that you're gonna put pepper spray on it to try and stop a shooter when a shooter could probably just shoot the drone, the whole thing makes no sense to me. And I'm just like, why don't we take that $500,000 and give kids free school lunches?
BRIAN:Oh, it's definitely more than that.
GLENNIS:Florida and Georgia are putting $500,000 towards it.
BRIAN:Ugh. Okay, what I will say is that that's how it starts. And- Right … these predatory companies are literally preying on the fear of parents of their- Mm kids being murdered in school to sell outrageously expensive tech. I'm sure you've also seen older footage of the whiteboard that turns into a safe room when you pull it- Yeah … out of the wall, of desks that are bulletproof, of backpacks that are bulletproof, of crazy inventions to lock down doors and lock windows. There's all kinds of things to harden our schools. I see a difference between things that are defensive and putting more weapons into schools.
GLENNIS:Yeah. Mm-hmm.
BRIAN:There should be a clear delineation there. Is this gonna be autonomous? Are we gonna have autonomous drones with- Well, this
GLENNIS:is great… BRIAN: weapons, like- It's one mistake
BRIAN:policing children?
GLENNIS:Yeah, where it, it pepper sprays a six-year-old because they have a water gun. Like-
BRIAN:Right. Right… GLENNIS: remember when we A lot of them still do. Anything but gun control is the bottom line. Anything but not selling- weapons of war to 18-year-olds. I don't even know what I'm talking about. So clickbait.
GLENNIS:It's clickbait, but it-
BRIAN:I'm, I'm, it, it's working. It's successful because I'm enraged. I'm- Yeah … successfully rage baited, but it is clickbait.
GLENNIS:I'm just actually reading a little bit more on it. They're activated via teacher panic buttons, and then they're flown by remote pilots. The drones can smash windows, flash strobes, blare sirens, spray pepper spray gel, and ram targets at 60 miles per hour. So to your point, that is a weapon that- Yeah … people are gonna let loose in schools.
BRIAN:Yeah.
GLENNIS:Speaking of violence and weapons, "ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family court records say."
BRIAN:Double-click. Double-click. It matters a lot that we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars expanding, tripling, quadrupling the size of ICE, letting completely unqualified people in, and then giving them broad mandates to conduct violence against American citizens and immigrants and visitors to this country. Double-click all day long.
GLENNIS:Agree.
BRIAN:Okay, our last one, "Kaitlan Collins responds to Trump attacking her and his weird comments about Dylan Mulvaney at the White House Correspondents' Dinner."
GLENNIS:I think it's clickbait. But I do wanna say, I mean, I don't know if you saw, it was a, a joke that Trump tried to do. It didn't land. It was, like, awkwardly quiet, wildly offensive to Kaitlan, wildly offensive to Dylan, although not offensive because they were both like,"Thank you for the compliment." And Dylan had an excellent video on it. I don't know if you saw it. Oh, I did. But it was great. Everyone should watch it. It was such- Yeah … a great response. She's amazing, and Kaitlan just posted a Roosevelt quote. Like, I, I don't know the exact quote, but- Yeah … Trump is such a fucking loser. This was that, and he prides himself off of attacking other people, and it didn't land. He looks so weak and feeble, and- Yeah… BRIAN: yeah. She's un-baitable It's incredible. Name a more patient human in the world. I cannot Than Kaitlan?
BRIAN:She's, she's … Than Kaitlan Collins. She's amazing. Understandably, anybody would be ready to pop off about all of the crazy, nasty shit that he says to her, a very highly credentialed award-winning journalist. Mm-hmm. And she doesn't. And she gave a great interview about it. In, in her response, she said, "I'm gonna let the work speak for itself."
GLENNIS:For sure.
BRIAN:"Me reacting makes that the story, and I want my questions answered. So I'm not going to react, and I'm gonna ask the question again." And I respect it so much. I also respect Dylan's response, as you said, remarkable. Dylan's young. I mean, to have the president repeatedly bashing you- Repeatedly … for absolutely nothing. And Dylan's like-
GLENNIS:For existing… BRIAN: "i'm trying to keep a low profile. I'm dancing and singing on Broadway. I'm not-" Mm-hmm … "provoking this in any way." The, what he's talking about happened years ago, and he- Mm-hmm … is just trying to disrupt her peace, and she's not gonna let it happen. And I, I respect her so much for it. Same. Should we send them off with a good vibe?
BRIAN:What is our good vibe?
GLENNIS:I have one. I have a good vibe. Oh. Okay. I heard this on NPR this morning. This was after I heard about- Thank you,
BRIAN:Scarlett Johansson.
GLENNIS:No, it's Scarlett Johansson. Anyone who listens to NPR One, if you're listening, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's the intro, and she's like,"And here on NPR One," is Scarlett. Anyway, I hate to bring up Kathy Hochul again, but the State of New York has just passed a first of its kind social media bill. You need parental consent, or you have to show your ID, and it's banning use of social media overnight.
So from midnight to 6:00 AM- Oh notifications on your cellphone for under 18s without parental consent is banned. So you can't get alerted, 'cause I guess kids are waking up in the middle of the night, getting alerts, and that's, like, so bad for your mental health. Their development,
BRIAN:yeah.
GLENNIS:And the algorithm is now not on their feeds anymore. So if you're a kid and you have a cellphone, you still keep full access to the content that you subscribe to, your chronological feed. But this law, I don't know how the tech does it, it's, like, banning the algorithm on your phone under the age of 18. I've seen it on kids' phones, the AI slop that is in their algorithm. It is crazy. It is- Yeah … literally crazy AI microdrama slop talking about fake news.
BRIAN:I like this. This is a good vibe.
GLENNIS:Yeah. It comes into effect January 25th, 2027, so there's some time to, like, I think, work it all out. But I- Figure it out … heard it this morning, and I was like, "You know what? This is really good, really good."
BRIAN:If you are getting notifications through the night on your phone, y- there is something wrong with you, let me tell you.
GLENNIS:But the, these kids don't know better.
BRIAN:With that, make sure that you do have notifications on for Vibes Only, because we will be- Yes … back with another episode next week.
GLENNIS:Yeah, hit that subscribe follow button wherever you get your podcasts.
BRIAN:Have a good one, y'all
