Beto O'Rourke
Appearances
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We're still running this group called Powered by People in Texas that you and your viewers and many others have been so helpful in supporting. Basically, we're registering likely Democrats where we can find them, typically on college campuses. And something that we've innovated around that I'm really excited about is after we register people, we stay in touch with them.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So we'll say, you know, can I get your cell phone number? I'm going to help you through the voter ID process, which is incredibly important. complicated in the state of Texas. I'm going to give you a heads up when early voting starts. I know you care about women making their own choices about their own bodies or raising the minimum wage or these other issues that we just talked about.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I'm going to tell you who the candidates are that reflect your values when they're on the ballot. So it's really labor intensive. We become these voting Sherpas for people in Texas that it's a state that's harder to vote in and harder to register in than any other So that's a long term power building project. We're doing that.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And then in meeting the moment and the urgency of this crisis that we're in as a country, I'm holding these town halls all over Texas. And we just had one in Amarillo. We're about to have one in East Dallas County, Wichita Falls, Mansfield. Did one with Tim Walls in Fort Bend, just outside of Houston.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And I've got to tell you, on a personal level, it just feels so good to be with people and to know you're not alone and to realize other people are seeing and feeling exactly what you're seeing and feeling.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And it may be even better to listen and learn from people who are going through things that I'll never experience, but the ways in which this administration is hitting them or hurting them, something you can make up. I'm in Amarillo. And this woman comes up to me at the end of the town hall and she said, I'm a 30-year owner of a toy store here in Amarillo. I think it's called Unique Toys.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We were struck by lightning. Place burned down. And I'm trying to rebuild this place. And I'm now also negotiating, is it 145% tariffs? Is it 30% tariffs? I would love to buy American-made toys. They don't exist. 90%. of the production in the world comes out of China. And I'm going to have to close this shop. I'm going to have to look for another line of business.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I'm going to have to fire my employees. And I don't know if she's a Republican or a Democrat. This is a county that voted for Trump 80% in the last election. But it takes... these stories out of the headlines or the aggregate data. And now I've met this woman who's going through this hell because of this president. And then I can go share her story to other people so that they don't feel as alone.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And they realize there are other people out there like me, not just in Austin or Dallas or New York or LA, but in Amarillo, Texas too.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I need to do something. I'm gonna go fucking crazy if I stay at home, if I'm just reading the news or scrolling through Twitter or trying to do this at distance. So I know just personally, I'm gonna feel better. And I've learned that when we went to the Wichita Falls Town Hall in Wichita County, again, 72% for Trump in the last election,
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
What's wild is the look of surprise on people's faces, not to see me, but to see 449 of their neighbors, many of them complete strangers. Again, we never screen for partisanship. We don't know who voted for whom in the last election. And their ability to hear and listen to one another and out of that to go take action. I'll give you an example.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We're in Wichita Falls and somebody stands up and says, I'm going to hold a protest tomorrow, Sunday in Sanger, Texas. Anybody live near Sanger, you join me tomorrow. There are going to be more people at that protest. In Amarillo, a woman said, you know, I live in a neighboring town, Canyon, Texas.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
My 12-year-old daughter with disabilities, when they cut the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which Trump is going to do, when they slash Title I funding, when you add to that the vouchers that Governor Abbott has imposed that take millions, almost a billion dollars out of our public schools, what's going to happen to my kid? She's going to get warehoused
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
somewhere like we used to do with people with disabilities before. Who's going to fight with me? And so I said, can you tell me when the Canyon Independent School District Board of Trustees meets? Next Monday at 7 p.m. Okay, everyone, if you live anywhere near Canyon, Texas, you have this lady's back Monday. And so I need to follow up with her. to see how that school board meeting went.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
But there's real power in people coming together. It's not as some fear an empty gesture or virtue signaling or, God, I feel great after doing that, but did it really change anything? It absolutely does. It gives us encouragement. It gives us faith. It stokes the optimism and hope that we need to then take action to go register people to vote or run for office or support that candidate.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Or for my fellow Texans who've had their hearts broken one election cycle after another to hold off despair and actually take a chance and vote in this next one in 2026. So there's real good that comes out of this. I'm going to just keep doing it because it's better than nothing. And it's better than waiting for somebody else to step up.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Something that's so interesting to me about going to these places that Democrats have almost always, well, at least for the last 30, 40 years, written off like Wichita County, is you hear some of what you would expect.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
A veteran stands up and says, well, Beto, can you tell me how cutting 83,000 positions at the VA, most of those positions held by veterans, by the way, how that's going to help me with my service-connected disability claim or my six-month wait time to see a behavioral health specialist? That's an important question.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
A woman who stands up and asks about cuts to Medicaid in a state that is the least insured already in the union. But then what perhaps you don't expect is the young mother to stand up and say, what are you doing about due process? And the fact that they just sent this guy to this hellhole torture chamber prison in El Salvador, and he had an order to protect him from deportation. They did it anyhow.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And then she goes on to make the point, look, they come for these people that we don't want to stand next to right now. Do you want to stand next to the alleged terrorist gang member thug with the tattoos on his neck? But if you don't stand next to him and stand up for the Constitution, rule of law and due process, well, they're going to come for the next vulnerable population after that.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And then pretty soon it's going to be us. And she was saying this prior to all of us learning that we're now actually deporting U.S. citizen children. some of whom have stage four cancer and are leaving this country without their medications. So our temptation sometimes to write whole sections of the country off or to write people off based on who they voted for last time is so dead wrong.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And the only way you really learn that is by showing up and meeting people where they are. And I think what's missing right now from... leadership in opposition to Trump and leadership that wants to replace him with something better is more of this, more showing up for people and showing up everywhere, fighting on every front, every one of the 254 counties, every one of the 50 states.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We were just in Tuscaloosa with Doug Jones. The students at University of Alabama many were pissed that Trump was imposing himself on their graduation. He announced he was gonna give the commencement address, though he had not been invited. Typical Trump, he's gonna overshadow and try to outshine their achievement and their day of celebration. So they invited a few of us to come down and speak.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And what I thought was so cool about it is no one from the DNC gave them marching orders. No one said, you should do this. Their state is not supposed to matter to our party. There's zero investment that I can discern in places like Alabama. But they know that they matter. and they want to be heard. And so they're going to get it done. 1,500 people showed up at this public park on that day.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And it was just, it was fantastic. It was absolutely beautiful. And out of that, I stayed afterwards and folks were like, you know what? I think I'm going to run for office. I'm probably going to lose. But if I run and somebody follows me or I run again next time, ultimately we're going to get there. And maybe the DNC will come to help us out, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I'm going to do what I can with what I have where I am. I think that's the spirit of the moment. And Those who want to lead better get with it.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
The solace I can take in this moment is that we've been through this before. 249 years into this deal, there's this great speech that I know you're super familiar with. Johnson gives it. eight days after Bloody Sunday. I think it's March 15th, 1965. And he's putting John Lewis and those 600 marchers in the pantheon of great Americans who've answered the call at these moments of truth.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So he says, as it was at Lexington and Concord, a hundred years ago at that courthouse in Appomattox. And I've always... wondered why he didn't add, you know, on the beaches of Normandy in 44, where Americans were bravely fighting off fascism to defend democracy at home.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
He says, here is John Lewis in 1965, willing to give his life so that this country can fulfill its promise to itself and to the world. It's just one of the most beautiful moments in American history that the power flowed, not from the president on down, but from 24 year old John Lewis on up to the White House.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Absolutely. You probably know this story too of prior to that, Andrew Young and Dr. King are meeting with Johnson. This is the end of 64. And they're like, great job on civil rights, Mr. President. Now we'd like to vote. And Johnson at the end of the meeting says, I'd love to help you, but I just don't have the power.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And King turns to Young as they're leaving, and he says, we got to go out there and get this guy some power. And I just love that conception of America, government of, by, and for the people. The power always, when it really works, flows up. And so, yes, Trump has a concentration of political power in his hands. Elon Musk and the other oligarchs, a concentration of economic power.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
The billionaire masters of algorithm and influence, they've got some cultural power in their hands. But, you know, this great Lincoln line, public sentiment is everything. That's what Lewis was shaping and catalyzing in 1965 and countless others before and after him. My faith is in the American people and that we are going to come through.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And though it's just anecdote that meeting in Tuscaloosa with those students was so damn inspiring. Like I needed to see that. The country needs to see that. And then one last example, John. You remember in 18 when Trump was imposing this family separation policy and people were just spontaneously rising up against it. It's unjust. It's immoral. How in the hell can this be happening in our name?
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And those protests culminated in one that we were a part of in Tornillo, Texas. It's this small town in the lower valley of El Paso County. And this government contractor had constructed this tent city that was housing all of these separated kids. And we put out the call, many of us, days before. And 1,000 people show up. Folks drove down from Alaska. People flew in from Massachusetts.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And folks came in from other parts of Texas. And we wanted to make sure those kids... knew that we knew they were there, and we also wanted to bear witness and testify to the rest of the country, hey, this is happening and we gotta do something about it. That's on June 18th. June 20th, Trump rescinds family separation. He could be moved and he will be moved, by public sentiment.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So yeah, the constitutional crisis, the undermining of the rule of law, it has never been more dire, certainly in our lives. But my faith is in the American people rising up and stopping this, certainly I hope in 2026, but we should not wait until that year. We have to do everything we can right now in this moment. We can move him.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And we can move the politics of this country, but it's going to take everybody doing everything they can.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Yeah. So this is the great opportunity for the Democratic Party to step up. And this is where we're completely failing the country right now. So three of the last seven or eight town halls I've had have all been in Ronny Jackson's district. He's a far-right congressman in Texas. So I mentioned Amarillo. Doctor I've dealt with before. Doctor. Amarillo, Denton, and Wichita Falls.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
In Amarillo, they're talking about the fact that they had to turn around 13 trucks, 18 wheelers full of food for their food bank because Trump cut the USDA supplemental that was passed under Biden. People are going to go hungry in Amarillo. They're shutting down three of the public schools in the Amarillo ISD because of cuts to Title I and what's happening at the state level.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Up in Dalhart, Texas, further north, they care about their local schools. They care about unions because it's a big rail hub. And they care about immigration, and they want more immigrants because they're an agricultural community. And no matter what they pay there to anybody born in Dalhart, Texas, they're not taking the jobs. If we cannot figure out immigration...
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
better than what Trump is doing right now. That town will wither and die on the vine. There is no Democrat, no Democrat on the ballot making the other side of the argument on issues that we should absolutely fucking own every single day. And so if we continue to concentrate the presidential election in seven battleground states, and leave Alabama and Texas to their own devices.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
If in Texas, we only focus on the top of the ticket against John Cornyn or Ken Paxson, which is important, but neglect the state house races or the US congressional races like the one against Ronnie Jackson, we're going to keep getting this.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And we can never blame the people in Amarillo for either voting for Ronnie Jackson because he has no opponent or just not voting at all because they don't really have And so I recognize, John, that just saying this, that the proposition is extraordinarily expensive and it will force us to use muscles that we have not employed since Lyndon Johnson was crisscrossing the state.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
But if we don't become a truly national party – and a party that can talk and listen to people, I think more importantly, in rural Texas as well as urban Texas, then we will be consigned to irrelevancy and we will fuck up this moment. And this is, you know, in that litany that Johnson described, you know, as it was in Lexington and Concord all the way up to Selma, so it is today in 2025.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And we have got to come through because if we don't, I think you really do lose the last best hope of earth. I think this thing is gone.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And the outright corruption and criminality and total disregard for the law that we're seeing from Donald Trump himself and from those around him leads me to believe that they think this thing is already gone, that they're not going to face accountability or voters or free and fair elections. And I don't think that's...
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
wrong logic for them to employ given where we are and given how feckless so far and weak the opposition has been. So I sure hope that those who have the positions of power within our party, the money, the the titles, the influence.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We'll follow the lead of those students in Tuscaloosa, of the people that we're listening to in Amarillo and get after it and fight and dispense with this false choice of, do we need to be more progressive or more centrist and moderate? It's just, are we going to fight or are we going to surrender? And if we fail to fight, this thing's over.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Yeah. You know, I just don't know, just to be honest in my ignorance, just how much those policy positions and your place on the political spectrum really matter for some of the reasons you set up earlier. The lack of information that many voters have, not because they're dumb or uninterested, but because we don't have common facts that we share.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
They're delivered on three broadcast news channels or one daily newspaper or whatever The Evening Paper, if you lived in a town like El Paso 40 years ago that had both. And so folks are getting information culturally or anecdotally or incidentally if they're getting it at all. And I further agree with your point that people are complex. They voted for Obama and they voted for Trump.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And they're not inconsistent. It's not hypocritical for them. Each man was speaking to them in that moment where they really needed to see that change that Obama was promising, that change that Trump was heralding. And to further make my point, look at the shit that Trump is doing.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Like what poll test would return the results like you need to advocate invading Greenland or taking on Canada as a 51st state or your HHS secretary after two kids have died of measles in a country that hadn't lost a child to that virus in 20 years is saying you shouldn't take medical advice from him or just take more vitamin A or just tough it out. Yeah. Deeply unpopular stuff.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
That woman who owns the toy store in Amarillo, she's absolutely getting screwed by this guy and his total ineptitude. What he does have, what he does have is what seems and appears and is sold to people as the courage of his convictions. No one's cooking this stuff up for him. The shit that's coming out of his mouth is the shit that was generated in his brain.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And there's something in today's overly controlled, sanitized corporate politics that's just really exciting about someone who speaks their mind. It just almost never, ever happens. Like we can name the people on one hand. I think Bernie Sanders is that way. I think AOC has that going for her. I mean, there's some people who really stand out. And so I guess from everything I just said,
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Have the courage of your convictions. I think strength appeals to people far more than policy precision or your 10-point plan or just how far you've moderated your views to anticipate where they're going to be in November of 2026. You know, when I was running for Senate,
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
in 2018, and we got so close to Ted Cruz, and perhaps more importantly, helped 12 insurgent Democrats defeat 12 incumbent Republicans in the state house. Colin Allred defeats Pete Sessions. Lizzie Panel Fletcher wins in Southeast Texas. It was transformative for the state. That was not one on policy. They were like, this guy fucking shows up everywhere. He's working his ass off.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
He listens to me, whether I'm wearing a Trump hat or a Hillary hat, he just does not care. He's going to fight for me. He knows where I live. He understands what's happening here in Sweetwater or Roscoe or Dallas for that matter. Nobody's written off. Nobody's taken for granted. So I, Of course, I'm biased based on experience, but I think that is the path forward.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So whatever you believe, whatever you feel, let it show, let it come through in real honest to God human terms. And I guarantee you, you're gonna have a better chance of connecting with that voter than using the message tested approved line that came out of DC or Austin for that matter. People want to connect with people. So be a person.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
You know, so plenty of exceptions to this. And Bernie's a great exception. He's just getting out there and he's being with people. Tim Walz, getting out there, being with people. AOC. Chris Murphy, I just saw. Ro Khanna. A lot of really, really great leaders right now. You know, to...
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
To show the other side of the party, you know, Chuck Schumer saying, well, we just got to wait till this guy's approval numbers go below 40. We did it before and we're going to do it again. So we'll kind of rope a dope him. We'll vote for this CR, which essentially gave Trump and Musk a free hand with our tax dollars to do whatever they wished with them at this moment of constitutional crisis.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
That certainly cannot be the answer. And unfortunately, I think it appears, and who knows what's in their heads, there are too many Democrats who are waiting and watching to find out which way the wind is going to blow. Like, what is the message of this moment? And I can sympathize with those Democrats who don't want to hold a town hall because they're asking themselves, well, what do I say?
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
What's the answer? What's the silver bullet? People want the message, and I don't know what it is. You can be forgiven for not knowing what it is. I mean, this is ahistorical, unprecedented. We've never seen this before. But all the more reason for you to be with the people that you purportedly serve and represent and listen to them. They're going to have the answer.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
They're going to have the message. I guarantee you. Listen to them, not the consultants, not the pollsters, not the data scientists. Those folks are important too, but really more at the margins than anywhere else. So and that's what I'm hearing from folks. You know, one of the questions I get no matter where I travel in the state or outside of the state is where is the Democratic Party?
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Where are people? What the hell are you guys going to do? Who's fighting for me right now? You know, it's you know this because you're an expert in messaging the message. is we fight for you. But the trick is you can't say that. You have to show that.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Just to be clear, Biden should not have run again. And to be even more clear, he failed this country in the most important job that he had. In fact, the entire rationale for his presidency the first time and the rationale he tried to sell us on for his attempt to run for reelection. Only I can stop Biden. And he failed to do that.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And it's not just you and me, but our kids and grandkids and the generations that follow that might have to pay the price for this. We might very well lose the greatest country that this world has ever known. And it might be in part because of the decision that Biden and those around him made.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
to run for reelection instead of having an open primary where the greatest talent that the Democratic Party can muster could be on that stage to have a competition of ideas and track record and vision and really excite not just Democrats, but the people of this country who did want change. I mean, if anything was clear coming out of 2024, they wanted change.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And to literally run the oldest guy who many people accurately, to your point, said, I just don't think he is capable of doing this. And I know that I saw the congresswoman and the congressman on CNN saying he's running circles around us in the briefing rooms behind closed doors. It just it doesn't add up with what I'm seeing with my own lying eyes. Yeah.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I think that credibility problem is going to persist up until when Democrats say we fucked up and we made a terrible mistake and it didn't just hurt our ability to win election in a political campaign, it deeply and gravely, and perhaps we'll see irrevocably harmed this country. And so, you know, you, and many others got out there and told the truth.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And I don't think you did it in a crass or brazen or mean way. I think you said, hey, Maybe we should have this conversation. And we're absolutely trashed for doing it. Others, I think, saw that, were concerned, but worried that Biden's already out there. He's going. Am I going to hurt him and his chances and our ability to defeat Trump if I further weaken him?
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I was definitely hearing stuff like that. I supported folks who were behind the uncommitted movement in Michigan, not because I wanted to hurt Biden or Kamala Harris, but because I was... I just couldn't stand what was happening in Gaza. I didn't like America's complicity in that. I knew President Biden had the power to do something.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And here were people, speaking of the civil rights and voting rights movement, who were peacefully, democratically, nonviolently protesting to get the president's attention, to give him the power to do the right thing.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And when I spoke on behalf of those who were doing that in Michigan, and in the same breath saying, you know, I wanna defeat Donald Trump, and if Biden is our nominee, we should vote for him. You know, the attacks were, you know, you're undermining the president. You're weakening him in front of this election. Why don't you just shut up and stand with him?
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And if we're the world's greatest democracy, you never shut up and stand with anybody when they're wrong. And you always have to speak the truth. So grateful to you and others who did do that. I wish more of us had done more at that time. But the last thing that we can do is fail to learn from that and not be honest about Chuck Schumer right now.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
not be honest about other Democratic leaders who are failing us in this moment. The time to be polite and kind and respectful is over. Democrats, it seems, care far too much about being right and being polite than being in power. Republicans under Trump care about power and nothing else. not the constitution, not the rule of law, not being nice to one another.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We don't have to be so immoral or illegal or corrupt, but I think we have to be far more ruthless and real about power or we'll never have it again.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
It's much worse in England and Europe. It's not so bad here in America. Right. Here's the comparative example that you need to pay attention to.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I spent a lot of time on the border in, well, forever. I lived there. But going to other border communities like Eagle Pass in Maverick County, this is where Abbott has put these border buoys that are in the river that have razor wire. It's just like medieval torture death device that has led to far too many migrants losing their lives, mothers and young children.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
That's obviously the wrong way to do it. But when I listen to people in Maverick County, they're like, where's the president? Where is the party? Like, Beto, would you be okay if at 2 a.m. 20 people are walking through your backyard? You don't know who they are or where they came from or what they might do to you and your family. Is that cool with you? No, I wouldn't like that either.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
It sounds like you have a real problem here. Well, then where the hell are you guys? Quit telling us that everything is okay or that we're managing this through the asylum process or we just need to get comprehensive immigration reform done. So vote for me in the next election until we have a majority.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And they know that we had a majority in both houses and a Democrat in the White House in 2009 and the same in 2021. And I don't begrudge Obama or Biden for the priorities they chose instead of immigration. They were both very, very, very important. but that's not lost on the voter. You guys talk a good game. You never fix this shit.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So I may not like walls and family separation and kids in cages and all the other crazy shit that Trump does, but if he's the only guy offering change and taking us seriously and showing up and visiting the border, okay, I guess I'm going to vote for him. So should not be a surprise to us. that we lost so many voters in Maverick County and the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, Texas, my hometown.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
El Paso, Texas, which saw a Trump-inspired shooter come and murder 23 people and said he was coming to repel the invasion of Hispanics who were taking over our country. Trump still won more voters in 2024 than he did in 2020 or 2016. So You're absolutely right.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
We got to listen to people and we can't tell them not to trust their lying eyes on price increases on a border that that is out of control. Or one of the things I learned is somebody who often talks about democracy. is I know what I'm talking about when I talk about democracy. It's the right to vote and to freely and fairly choose a person who represents you.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And my love of this country and 249 years of history, and are we really going to fucking blow it? But for someone for whom this country has not been working, they're making $7.25 an hour, or they're a young person who has heard us talk about school shootings and more than two years after Uvalde, nothing has changed, or you name it, it's not working out for them in their lives.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Are you, the Democrats, defending everything as it exists, these institutions, including quote unquote democracy? So people still want change. I know that from visiting all these communities. Democrats better offer it. And to your point, it better reflect what they are hearing in these town hall meetings. Let the people define the message.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
It doesn't mean you change your core convictions or what you believe necessarily. It just means that you reflect those people that you want to serve. And the only way you're going to do that is by showing up. And man, it is hard. Texas is a big state. It took me two years to cover 254 counties. But if you're serious about winning places like that, I think it's the only way to do it.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
You know, I mentioned some of those transformative changes that took place in 2018, including at the local level. Houston, Texas, most diverse city in the country, 17 black women in that year won election to judicial positions. That was not lost on Republicans in power in the state legislature and in the governor's mansion.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
They almost immediately began changing the voting laws to make it harder and harder for people to cast a ballot, closing hundreds of polling places, almost all of them in the fastest growing black and brown districts, changing the rules on mail-in voting. So when I ran for governor in 2022 during the primary, 13%.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
of the ballots cast by mail in the wake of the deadliest pandemic this country has ever seen. 13% were rejected. 13 out of every 100. That's a banana republic. That's not a modern democracy. Guess what happens when 13 out of every 100 ballots are rejected? People stop voting come November. 9 million registered voters
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
voters in Texas with Uvalde and the most obscene abortion ban in America and a power failure in the energy capital of the world that killed 700 Texans didn't vote. It's not that they didn't care. It's not that they don't love this democracy. It's just that they didn't think that this thing worked anymore. So I'm kind of laying the groundwork for the answer.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
It is a very challenging environment exacerbated by the ratio of what Republicans can spend. I raised $80 million in the governor's race, a record for a gubernatorial candidate on the Democratic side. Greg Abbott spent $130 million plus what Dan Patrick, plus what Ken Paxton, plus what every other statewide elected Republican, plus the independent expenditures that come in.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So, you know, this party cannot be won by the people of Texas alone. We are doing a mighty job with what we have, but we need the party and the country as a whole to see its future in our state and to invest appropriately. In 2032, which will be on us before we know it, Texas will likely have 44 electoral college votes.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Its population continues to move from other parts of the country to our state. You, the Democratic nominee, could win every one of the blue wall states in that year, and you will still lose the White House if you cannot pick up Texas. So investing now is important for whoever the nominee is against Ken Paxton or John Cornyn.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
But it's also important to continue to build the infrastructure, the bench, and the wherewithal to win elections down the road, especially when the only path to the White House is going to run through Texas.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I don't know. I really like what I'm doing right now. It's nice not to be a candidate, to be at these town hall meetings and not say, you know, at the end of it, now I need you to vote for me or sign up for my campaign.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
But really to hold this conversation and for everyone to listen to one another and then with Powered by People, our group, to recruit volunteers to do the voter registration and voter organizing and voter turnout work. But but I'm also not afraid of, you know, serving as a candidate.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
But but I only want to do it if it's the right thing to do, if it's right for the people of Texas, if it's the best way for us to win political power and then to be able to deliver on that. And that's a question I can't answer right now, perhaps as I continue to travel the state. I'll know more, but we don't suffer from a lack of talent in the state.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And we've got extraordinary leaders in and out of office right now. So I'm not too concerned about that. And the filing deadline is not until December. So we've got a lot of time.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
Well, you know, you got to show up. Yeah. And we did it in 2017 when we first ran. You know, we had a snowball's chance and no one had ever heard of me. And Ted Cruz was the runner up against Donald Trump for the Republican presidential primary, had more money than God. Name recognition was at 100%. I couldn't get a professional political person in Texas to return my phone call. Seriously.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I mean, I can't tell you how many messages I left. It was just a lost cause. And everyone was also dispirited because Trump had just won in 16. The few folks who did call me back said, hey, I'm out of gas. I gave it all for Hillary. I just, I can't do another heartbreaker. So I'm sorry. We turned a necessity, no money, no name ID, no path into a virtue. And that begat the 254 county campaign.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
I learned so much as a candidate. I grew so much as a human being. We got so close. And John, some part of me still thinks we won. On the eve of that thing, I just felt it. I am a... I'm not the kind of person who counts my chickens before they're hatched. I just knew it.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And it was one of the hardest calls I've ever made to call Senator Cruz on election night and to concede to him, but it was the right thing to do. He and Trump and others might learn something from that. But showing up is what got us there. And being honest with people, again, virtue out of a necessity, no money to poll test or to focus group or to get pointers from a consultant.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
You just, you had to listen from people, learn from them, reflect that back on the campaign trail. And there was a real magic in that. And it is how I won my election for Congress in the first place. It's how I won my election for city council. So all those lessons hold true.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
But I think when we're talking about power and being honest with ourselves and actually winning and not just feeling good about the way that we run, it cannot just be a Colin Allred or a Beto O'Rourke or a Wendy Davis just to pick three of the last statewide candidates. nominees. You need a full ticket for every position statewide.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
You need every state house seat contested because those votes will flow up just the same way that they flow down. You need county commissioners and justices of the peace. You really need to be doing this everywhere all at once. And I really believe if we do that in Texas, we're going to win those positions up and down the ballot.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And who knows what will happen in 2026, but given the crises that you and I just discussed that are hitting people in Texas probably harder than almost any other part of the country, there is an opening.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
And if it's Ken Paxton, twice indicted, recently under FBI investigation, impeached by a Republican majority state house in the state of Texas, he's wildly popular with the most extreme element of the Republican Party and not a whole bunch else. Golden opportunity. But we have to hit on all cylinders in every county, on every position of the ballot.
Pod Save America
Trump's Petro-Fascist Sugar Daddies
So I learned that from the races that I have run internationally. and lost. You can't just have one person out there. You can't have a few people out there. It's got to be everyone, everywhere, in every county.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Ich habe gestern den Daily gelesen und sie interviewten einen anderen Farmer in Iowa, der absolut getötet wird. by these Trump tariffs and the reciprocal Chinese tariffs that I think are at 120% on what she's trying to sell. And it was unclear at the end of the interview whether she held Trump responsible. It kind of gets back to what you and I were talking about earlier. She wanted change.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
She wants action. You know, she says, I wish Trump would understand what's happening to me right now, but I know he's trying to do something. He's trying to change something. It's amazing the goodwill und der Glauben, die er erzeugt hat.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und vielleicht ist es das Kult der Persönlichkeit, aber es ist vielleicht auch nur eine Reflexion darauf, wie schlimm unsere Institutionen, unser Regierung, unser System, unsere Gesellschaft für so viele Leute sind, die so besorglich sind für Veränderung, dass sie sagen, weißt du was, ich nehme den Schlag auf die Zwiebeln. Vielleicht verliere ich den Farm. Ich schalte ein blindes Auge auf die
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Mass Deportations and the loss of due process and this absolute attack on the Constitution. Because this shit has been going on for decades and Democrats and Republicans both say they're going to do something and no one ever does. This fucker is doing something at least. I may not like every part of it, but he's doing it. So I think there's that dynamic at these town halls.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You know, I hear from people, a veteran in Wichita Falls who stood up. und sagte, hey, Beto, erzähl mir über die 83.000 Menschen, die sie von der VAT zahlen werden, die meisten von denen, übrigens, selbst Veteranen sind. Wie wird das die Wartezeiten verbessern oder die Aufmerksamkeit oder die Service, die ich bekomme? Und ich weiß nicht, ob dieser Kerl ein Republikaner oder ein Demokrat war.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Wir schreien nicht für die Städte. Eine andere Frau steht auf, fragt über Medicaid. Wir sind bereits das least insured state. in the country. You know, we lead the nation in childhood diabetes deaths. We're at the epicenter of this maternal mortality crisis. If they cut Medicaid further, what is going to happen and who is it going to hurt? So people see the train wreck playing out in real time.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
They're really concerned about it. They ask these questions. But Tim, they also ask a lot of questions about the Democratic Party. Where are the Democrats? Why aren't they fighting? What's going on here? You know, back when the CR, the government funding debate was taking place and almost every Democratic member of the House but one stood strong and together.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Anyone who has anything they want to say is able to do that. And from those conversations, not only am I learning a lot about what's on the minds of people in Wichita Falls, where we just held one, or Rice University in Houston, where we just had one, but everyone else in the room is listening to their neighbors and folks in the community. And they may find common cause. They may
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And Chuck Schumer signaled that he and the Senate Democrats were going to do the same. Und dann hat er sich am Ende des Tages gegräbt und von jeder Druck, die er fühlte, gefeuert. Mann, das war wie ein Steak im Herzen von so vielen Leuten, die sich gerade schmerzen und von Trump schmerzen und wollen, dass jemand zurückkämpft.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und ich denke, es gibt eine echte Verzweiflung, nicht nur von 2024, sondern auch von dem, was in 2025 passiert oder nicht passiert. Und eine echte Leidenschaft für diejenigen, die aufstehen und den Kampf gegen Trump nehmen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Zwei Dinge. Du musst physisch gehen, wo die Leute sind. Ich habe Wichita Falls vorhin erwähnt. Es ist etwa eine Stunde und 45 Minuten Fahrt nach Nordwesten von Dallas. Nicht einfach zu erreichen, nicht besonders nah an einer großen Stadt.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und so, als wir da waren, habe ich mich mit dem Wichita-Kreis-Demokratischen Partei, dem Wichita-Kreis-Republikanischen Partei, dem Republikanischen Frauen-Studienclub, dem VFD, jedem getroffen. Die ISD-Booster-Club, das ist ein Townhall, es ist nicht partizan, ich werde keine politische Botschaft nach Hause bringen, ich will nur von allen hören, komm raus. Wir hatten 450 Leute, die aufstehen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
understand from someone who's drawn a different conclusion on an issue that they care about, how they got there. There's something really powerful in that. And then we also, for our group Powered by People, which does voter registration and uses relational organizing to stay in touch with newly registered voters, we also recruit volunteers from those meetings.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Das war für Wichita Falls, für jeden Ort, das war wirklich wichtig. Und Tim, viele dieser Leute sind Leute, die sonst nicht sind. In Texas, when I ran for governor in 22, 9 million voters. Registered, ready to go voters in Texas didn't cast a ballot. Abortion, you know, the most obscene, restrictive abortion law in the country.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Uvalde, you know, 19 kids, two beautiful teachers shot down, murdered in that year. The most pressing, urgent issues were on the line in that election. Nine million people didn't show up. It's not that they're lazy. It's not that they don't care about those things. It's to your point that there hasn't been the work done to connect with them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und um die Punkte zu verbinden, was ihnen in ihren Leben und den Leuten, die diese Kampagnen runten, und die Wahlsitzungen sind, die die Ergebnisse entscheiden. Also müssen wir wo sie sind, wie literally knocken auf ihre Türen, was wir tun. Wir zeigen auch, wenn ich dir sage, wir trainieren unsere Volunteure, wir trainieren sie und dann deployieren wir sie, wo es unregisterte
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
likely Democrats, including on college campuses, engage with them in conversations, bring them on to the roles. And this is a really important step that I don't know that many others are doing. We then say after we register the person, hey, would you mind if I stayed in touch with you? And it's not going to come from the Democratic Party or even powered by people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
It'll just be me, the guy that just registered you. We just met eyeball to eyeball. Can I have your cell phone number? I'm going to text you in 30 days and see if your voter registration card has come in the mail. und ich werde dein persönlicher Votingsherpa sein.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Wenn du eine Frage hast über Voter-ID oder Voting-Lokation oder weil ich eine partizane Organisation bin, wenn du eine Frage hast über die Kandidaten und ihre Werte und ob sie mit dir verbunden sind, bin ich dein Kerl. Und so sind mehr als 1.300 Volunteure Vielen Dank. Du musst da sein.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
254 Städte. Es sind diese, es sind diese Volunteuren, die aufstehen, die sind. Fucking amazing. Full time jobs, you know, taking care of their kids, whatever they've got in their lives. They find the time to go out there in August when it's just sweltering in Houston, probably not unlike what it's like in New Orleans. And they're at the TSU campus or University of Houston campus.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
We say, hey, we've had a great conversation today and we learned a lot. If you want to now take action, which I believe is the antidote to despair and the key to victory and fundamental to building long-term political power, then sign up with us. We'll train you to become a volunteer deputy registrar to register voters.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And they're out there talking to voters and registering them and staying in touch with them. It's it's really time consuming. It's not easy, but it is a really powerful connection that they make with these voters. So we have the numbers and we're continuing to grow them. And again, these town halls also are a recruiting field for bringing on new volunteers. We're not going to do it Online, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You got to do it in person. I really think that's the secret. And I think everyone today is enamored of money and technology and those have a place, but they can't. They're just a poor substitute for the real thing. People with people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
I think just the full frontal assault on the Constitution and the rule of law. all the kind of hand-wringing before he took office about whether he would precipitate a constitutional crisis, whether it would happen, what it would look like when it did. And now we are in it. And I think it's really hard to I don't know, Tim, if it seems like an abstraction to people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
I don't know what folks at the Jazz Fest were saying about the constitutional crisis that we're in or, you know, if it's too distant from people's lives. I feel like that itself is kind of a patronizing dickish way to think about our fellow Americans. I fully have faith in them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
that they get or soon will get exactly what is happening, that he's disregarding a co-equal branch of government, that it is only going to get worse. At some point there will be a clash between Trump and some majority party. on the United States Supreme Court. And so, you know, you may or one might feel powerless in that. You know, he's got a 6-3 majority there. He has both houses of Congress.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
He has a White House. He has the world's richest man. He has all of the social media platforms. Who the fuck am I to be able to do anything against that? And I just, I've got to invoke Lincoln again and that idea of public sentiment. You know, 1965, Also, was ist das? 60 Jahre her. Es ist nicht ein Wahljahr. Die Leute haben seit 75 Jahren an Votingrechten gearbeitet.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
We'll train you in our program and then we'll send you out there with other volunteers and you can do the work right now. No waiting for 2026 or, you know, 2028, wenn jemand das tatsächlich macht. Du kannst das jetzt tun. Also, ich denke, das ist essentiell die Formel, zumindest wie ich es verstehe, ist, du musst den Moment treffen, in dem Moment. Du musst da rauskommen, was auch immer es ist.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
1890 hatte der Kongress ein Votingrechtsgesetz davor. Und die Pro-Demokratie-Partei damals, die Republikaner, hat es verdammt. Sie hatten das Haus, sie hatten den Senat. Sie haben es in das Haus gepasst. Es ist auf den Hörnern eines Filibusters im Senat gestorben. Und der Präsident war die andere Zeit so, weißt du was? Ich habe mehr wichtige Kämpfe zu kämpfen. Verdammt das.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Also für 75 Jahre, für 75 fucking Jahre, You disenfranchised and basically de-citizenized so many millions of our fellow Americans. In 1965, that march by John Lewis so galvanized the country. It was this catalytic shock to the conscience. And within eight days, LBJ ist able to bring the country together. And by that summer, he passes the Voting Rights Act.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
75 years in the making creates the first true multiracial democracy in American history. More recently, in 2018, you had family separation. It was this quote unquote zero tolerance policy by the first Trump administration. You make it 2000 miles to this point. Wir hatten dieses Event in Tornillo, Texas. Frau Präsidentin Veronica Escobar und ich haben das organisiert.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Eine Tausend Leute kamen aus dem ganzen Land. Das war, glaube ich, am 18. Juni, Vater's Day 2018. Die nächste Woche versandte Trump die Familienverbrechungspolitik. Es war nicht nur wegen der Proteste in Torneo, sondern auch wegen der Proteste und anderen und der Einfluss auf die öffentliche Meinung und das Gefühl des Landes. Er konnte das einfach nicht unterhalten.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
So when I mention these town halls or these rallies, you know, I think some people dismiss them as virtue signaling or empty gestures or I'm glad that made you feel good, Beto, but what the fuck does that do? It actually does something. It begins to shape how other people see what is happening. And we don't have control of Fox News. We don't have control of the Manosphere.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
We don't have control of a lot of the levers of power, but we do have one another. And if we do everything we can with what we have, where we are, I want to talk about the immigration side of things and whether there's a catalytic relationship.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Wenn es ein Hands-off-Rallye ist, Wenn es um die Schule geht und über die öffentlichen Kommentare spricht, wenn es um einen dieser Stadthallen geht oder um eine Stadthalle selbst zu halten, wenn es um all diese Dinge geht, dann tun wir es. Wir brauchen das gerade. Es gibt echte Macht, um zusammenzukommen. Und wie Lincoln gesagt hat, öffentliches Sentiment ist alles.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
I do. And it's all the more impressive because of the way that this has been set up. Should you stand with any of these purported gangbangers or terrorists, then the Trump administration, and Marco Rubio has done this, will say to the American public, well, whose side is Tim on?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Is he on the side of the American families who have borne the brunt of these rapists and criminals and killers and animals? That's the language that they use. Or is he on your side? Und der Fakt, dass so viele Leute so weit über diesen falschen Rahmen gelaufen sind und gesagt haben, weißt du was, wer weiß, weil wir nicht wissen, weil du keine Informationen mit dem Publikum geteilt hast.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Es gab keinen durchschnittlichen Prozess. Es gab keine konstitutionelle Befreiung, die jemandem ermöglicht, sich zu verteidigen und den Publikum zu ermöglichen, die Details des sogenannten Krimis zu verstehen. Wir wissen es einfach nicht. Und noch weiter.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
When you were able to bridge what is happening to that young man, or to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, or we just learned today about a young man named Christian, who was brought here as a child, and we now find, thanks to one of these great federal judges, that he's also been wrongfully deported.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Wrongfully deported, and there was a standing court order that said explicitly, you cannot deport this guy, and the administration did it anyhow.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Die sie sehen, was ist, du weißt, du tust das zu den wenigsten von uns und es gibt einen Grund, warum du die tattoosierte Quote-unquote Gangbanger oder es gibt einen Grund, warum du die Transperson oder es gibt einen Grund, warum du diesen vulnerablen oder marginalisierten Teil der Gesellschaft wählst, weil wer will, dass er neben ihnen steht, wer will, dass sie unpopular sind, wer will, dass er neben ihnen steht?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
But people are able to understand that this is the way this shit works. This is how authoritarians build power. They find that group on the margins and they exclude them and they make them the scapegoat. And then they take the next group and then they take the next group. And pretty soon they come for you.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And what's amazing, you mentioned just like the bizarre blundering behavior of Donald Trump personally and the administration is that they say this shit out loud. I'm going to go after the homegrown ones next. What does that mean? It means you were born here. You are a US citizen under the Constitution and any interpretation of the law.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And you, too, are vulnerable to deportation without due process to a hellhole prison, the largest on the planet. which you will go into and from which you will never, ever emerge. We have to make sure that every American understands that. Whether you voted for Trump or not, whether you would vote for him again, if he somehow were able to run again. You've got to know just what's on the line.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And when you get people coming together in numbers larger and larger, they begin to influence and shape public sentiment on the things that we care most about. And I think that gives us ultimately the power to overcome these challenges. But at the same time, you've got to be patiently and persistently building that political power. Democrats, at least in Texas, have sucked at this forever.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And I just, I know you may think I'm naive, Tim, but I just think if people in America know the truth, I believe in them, they're going to do the right thing. I mentioned every test we've come through before. Look, it took us a long fucking time. We came through. And so are we going to be the generation, 250 fucking years into this thing, that fucks it up and loses it forever?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
No, it just cannot be. And so, I mean, that's what you asked me earlier, like, do you ever just want to give up and move to Spain? I mean... Do I get down sometimes? Absolutely. But fuck no, man. I want to be in this fight with every fiber of my being. And I know that there are millions, tens of millions out there who feel the same way that I do. Let's just keep doing what we can.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Let's find ways to come together in this fight and let's never lose hope because you lose hope. That's exactly what they want you to do. So I am encouraged that those federal judges And I do think the shaping of public sentiment is beginning to place a check on the out of control, unlawful Trump administration. But it's not enough. We've got to do more.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Wir sind zu einem Film mit einem Freund gestern Abend gegangen. Ich habe Pink Floyd in Pompeji gesehen, was einfach unglaublich war. Ich bin kein großer Pink Floyd Fan. Ich kenne nicht ihren Katalog, aber die Musik war einfach unglaublich. Und es war dunkel. Und es war bedrohlich.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und mein Freund und ich sprachen über Musik, die wir mit Punkrock oder der schmerzhaften, schmutzigen Sachen wie den Smiths. Und ich sagte, weißt du was, ich habe eine wirklich schwierige Zeit mit schmerzhaften Musik, weil ich einfach, ich nehme einfach das Slide all the way through. Also ja, ich meine, wir alle handeln mit Dunkelheit. Wir alle sind enttäuscht.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
All of us have to find ways, though, to overcome it. For me, I don't listen to sad music so much. I get out there with my body. I hike, I run. I get out there and I'm with people. You know, when I do a town hall or when I spend all day at the University of Texas at El Paso Campus registering voters, and as you know, Tim, some people are like, hey, great, I'd love to get registered.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And others are like, go fuck yourself. And some people just don't respond to the entreaty. Despite all that, and maybe because of all of that, and I'm sweating through my shirt because it's so damn hot here, I feel so good at the end of the day. I am so up. I'm so optimistic. I believe and I know that we can do this.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
If I stay at home or I'm in my office and I'm online too much and I'm reading the headlines, I'm like, Jesus fucking Christ, are we going to make it? Maybe not. So you've got to be with people. I know you're a fan, but Joe Strummer, I love that. I'm trying to break, you're unbreakable, Beto.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You know, Colin Allred's running. Let's get excited. Wendy Davis is running. That's O'Rourke's running. That's great. But even better is doing the work year in, year out to register voters, stay in touch with them, make sure they turn out. Republicans have been excellent at this in Texas and in other parts of the country. And the outcomes show just how effective they've been.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Yeah, I believe that Vergangenes Verhalten ist immer der beste Überzeuger der zukünftigen Leistung.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Am Ende seines letzten Termins hat er alles getan, was er in seinem Machtvermögen tun konnte, um illegal in diesem Büro zu halten, trotz dessen, dass er bei den Wahlsitzungen verurteilt wurde, trotz dessen, dass sein Home-Security-Departement und alle, die sich über diese Wahl beobachtet haben, gesagt haben, dass es das cleanste, das sicherste, das fairste war. in American history.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And not only did he incite violence, as we know from the reporting now, he also tried to get his generals and the United States military and any other source of power in this country to work at his behest to overturn that election and illegally restore him to power. Who the fuck thinks that he's not going to do the exact same thing at the end of this administration?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You know, when the history books are written about us, if we fail this test, the kids in 2100 are just not going to believe their eyes. They're like, wait, hold on a second. So this guy during the campaign said he was going to be a dictator on day one. And those motherfuckers elected him anyhow. And then he told them that he was going to seek a third term. And people laughed it off.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And they said, don't pay attention or that's a distraction. And then he fucking did it. What the fuck were they thinking? You know, this proud 250 year heritage. You guys blew it. So we absolutely have to. And I do take this threat very, very seriously. And to mount... The response in 2028 is to fail. It has to be mounted today. And it's why I've been talking about it. I know others are as well.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And again, why I'm encouraged by what the federal courts are doing, not all of them, but many of them. Not only are the decisions important and not only have we been surprised in some cases by the Supreme Court's validation of those decisions, but back to public sentiment, it really begins to shape the story that people tell one another about what is happening in this country at this time.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
So it is a very, very real threat and we should take it seriously.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
So we've got to learn from that. So meet it in the moment, but also do the long-term work that we're going to need to win and hold political power over the long term.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Ich denke, du hast es richtig gesagt. Ich meine, du schaust dich an, Und dann sind sie in Kraft. Und du siehst andere Tyranten. Sie haben die Macht gewählt und waren absolut zerstört und unkompetent, um ihr Land zu managen, lediglich den Toden durch die Zerstörung von Millionen in Russland, zum Beispiel, um nur einen zu benutzen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Also, du schreibst diese Clowns aus, aber es ist nichts falsch, mit dem Hinweis, wie dumm sie sind. und dumm und lachlich verlieren. Sie sind in allem, was sie tun wollen. Ich meine, der eine Signal-Gate-Skandal nach dem anderen von Pete Hegseth, der private Make-up-Raum, bevor er auf TV-Ausstellungen geht, Hier sind wir in Texas.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Zwei Kinder sind von Mezelschmerzen gestorben und es ist seit zwei Jahrhunderten, seit ein Kind das Virus in Amerika verloren hat. Und die RFK? Was für ein verdammter Idiot. Eine gefährliche, tödliche Person. Du kannst über die Bühne gehen. Sean Duffy, Kristi Noem. Sie sind alle Clowns. Aber zu deinem anderen Punkt.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Sie sind Clowns, die die Todesfälle und die echte Schmerzen unserer Vereinigten Amerikaner verursachen. Ich habe es zu Ihnen erwähnt, ich war am Reis am letzten Tag. Und einer der Schüler kam und sagte, Beto, so viele meiner Vereinigten Schüler haben ihre Visas verabschiedet. Ich weiß, dass Sie es hören, dass es in Columbia und diesen Ostküsten passiert. Es passiert hier in Texas.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Wer wird für sie kämpfen? Eine junge Frau kam und sagte, hey, meine Eltern kamen hier undokumentiert. I don't know what's gonna happen to them. I don't know what's gonna happen to me. I don't know if we end up in that hell hole in El Salvador. What's gonna happen to me? Again, these town halls and that person being able to tell their story
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Nicht nur für mich, sondern für jede andere Person, insbesondere für diejenigen, wie du es beschrieben hast, die in diesem Land riesige Privilegien genießen. Und in der langen Reihe von Leuten, die getarget werden, getötet werden und, weißt du, schreckliche Dinge zu ihnen getan werden, sind sie wahrscheinlich die Letzte auf der Liste.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Aber die Letzte auf der Liste ist, die Leute zu hören, die erst in der Reihe sind und die die Brunnen davon haben, gerade jetzt. Und ich denke, das bildet Solidarität. Und aus dieser Solidarität gibt es echte Kraft. Und das ist das, was wir in diesem Moment brauchen. Also wiederum, Real power in sharing these stories.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And you asked about what will catalyze on immigration or any other number of issues. I think it is exactly it is exactly that. You know, John Lewis crossing the bridge. You know, why did people know about it? The TV cameras were there. They beamed it across the country and around the world. It created so much pressure on Johnson. He had no choice but to move forward. We've got to.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And I know I know we haven't found it yet. And I can't tell you what it looks like. But we have got to find whatever version of that exists. And God bless the people who are out there doing it right now, whether that's Bernie Sanders or AOC or Tim Walz or anybody who's out busting their ass. And maybe a certain path or route doesn't bring us to where we want to be.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
But at least they have gone out there and tried to figure it out and brought people along, you know, during during the past. So. Ich denke, wir müssen alle nur das tun, was wir können. Das ist gerade die M.O.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
It's so disgusting to prey upon the families of autistic Americans and offer them and hold out this false hope, whether it's through the registry or I read some headline that he's committed to finding the source of autism, the cause of autism by the end of the year, you know, disregard all the thousands of studies and scientists and doctors and frankly, parents of autistic children who have devoted their lives to this, you know,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Just get out of the way, RFK Junior is on top of this. How cruel and careless to these families who really are struggling, who really want answers and they deserve them, but they certainly don't deserve this. It is the greatest show of disrespect that I can imagine. And I understand and don't judge people who feel hope at what RFK Jr. is doing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
But finally, we talked about institutions and government and things that were supposed to work for people that failed them. Maybe this guy is going to break through because nothing else has worked so far. So I'm going to give him every ounce of hope I have. And you just know that that is going to be crushed at the end of the day. It's what all of them are doing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Tariffs are going to bring back your jobs in Michigan or Indiana or Ohio. Sending people without due process to concentration camps in El Salvador is going to fix our immigration system. These are all... You know, presentations of false hope that people who are understandably desperate, given how badly this country has failed them, are holding on to right now.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
So we have to show them that not only does this stuff not work, but that there is something better on offer from those who believe in Constitution, Rule of Law and our democracy. Democrats and the largest possible coalition around them possible.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Ja, und ich muss sagen, es hilft nicht, wenn die Demokraten oder diejenigen, die sich dieser Politik und der tiefen Schmerzen und Schmerzen, die er den Leuten um uns herum verursacht, auf dieses oder nicht klar darüber sind, dass diese Tarife schmerzen. Sie werden die amerikanische Wirtschaft zerstören. Die Preise, die Sie in 2024 interessiert haben, werden nur immer höher und höher werden.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Das ist wirklich, wirklich schlecht. Ich denke, man muss das sagen. Und ich denke, man muss auch die Stimmen der Menschen erhöhen. who are being hurt by this in real time. You mentioned the woman at the tchotchke shop in New Orleans. I mean, what does she do next? She's going to go out of business. The soybean farmer in Iowa, what does she do next?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
She's going to lose that farm and is not going to be able to pass it on to her kids. You know, the folks who can't afford things that they used to be able to depend on, what are they going to do next? As we become more isolated economically, and through our alliances around the rest of the world, life in every single way is going to become more expensive.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
The way we engage with the rest of the world, whether militarily or diplomatically or economically, we're just going to bear a much heavier and more painful brunt because we don't have the rest of the world with us. The fact that Trump
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
single-handedly has turned America's back on the planet, has switched sides in a war for democracy in Europe, openly inviting Putin to do exactly what he just did yesterday in the attack on Kyiv that belatedly Trump, who looks so fucking weak, Er sagt, du musst das stoppen, Wladimir. Oh, bitte. Just destroyed itself and the people that it happened. Now, that's one version of the story.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
If we don't get it right, we just can't allow it to happen. Deep, deep damage is being done every single day and it will continue until we stop it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
As I mentioned earlier, I'm happiest when I'm holding these town halls, when I'm registering people to vote, when I'm gathering with our volunteers. So whatever form that takes, possibly as a candidate, potentially just continuing to run, not just continuing to run, it's just an amazing organization, running powered by people, helping, being useful in whatever way I can.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You didn't have that for a minute? No, I didn't. And I don't think you do. And I listen to your show.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
I just think every other consideration has to fall by the wayside. Now, for all of us, your country, Ich nehme das als ein Vielleicht.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You know what? I just put on Bob Dylan's New Morning last night and that got me to a really, really, really good place. That whole album, including the song New Morning or The Man in Me. Yeah, I love that one.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
So, number one, the ACLU. We talked about kind of the bulwark that the federal courts have become for our country. The reason these cases are making it to these courts are the attorneys, many of them with the ACLU, who are bringing them to public attention and to trial. So the ACLU, which is operating in all 50 states, get behind them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Locally on the border, there's an organization called Las Américas. They are the ones who engage with many of these migrant families, mixed immigration status families, folks who live in our neighborhoods who are under attack by Trump right now. And again, if we fail to stand up for the least of us right now, they will come for the rest of us pretty soon. So Las Américas is a great organization.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And the last one, if you're in the North Texas area, Come join us in Denton on Saturday. We'll be there at four at Anderson's Brewery. And all comers welcome. Republican, Democrat, Independent. And everyone gets a shot at the microphone. So come be part of it. It's really something special when you see people come together this way. And it'll give you some hope.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
So I hope to see people out this weekend.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Right. We all have our moments for sure. Aber ich denke, wenn es um den Druck kommt, werden wir alle aufstehen. Wir stehen auf, um zu werden. Wir alle wissen, dass dies ein Moment der Wahrheit ist. Und wir können nicht gefunden werden, was wir wollen. Jede Generation vor uns. hat das irgendwie ausgelöst. Wir sind 249 Jahre in diesem Experiment. Und Mann, wir haben getestet.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Von Anfang an, die Revolution und das Verbrechen des mächtigsten Empires auf der Welt an dem Zeitpunkt. Du gehst in die Geräte in Appomattox in 1865. Hunderttausende von Tausenden von Menschen haben sich über viele Jahre verliebt, um die Institution der Slaverie zu beenden und das Land wieder zusammenzubringen. Du hast Leute aus New Orleans und El Paso, die in den 2.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Weltkrieg eingeladen sind und am Juni 1944 in Normandie landeten, um den Faschismus in der Hälfte der Welt zu kämpfen, um Demokratie hier zu verteidigen. 1964 und 1965, Zivilrechte und Votingrechte. Also kommt es jetzt zu uns.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und wir befinden uns mit den größten Tests, nicht unserer Generation oder unserer Zeit, aber wahrscheinlich jeder Zeit in dieser Landeshistorie, vielleicht zurück in die Civil War. Und wenn du es so anschaust, bist du so verdammt glücklich, gerade noch lebendig zu sein und die Chance zu kommen. Es gab sehr wenige präzise Generationen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Es gibt dieses tolle Gespräch, das LBJ in 1965 gibt, nachdem John Lewis fast tot wurde, über den Edmund Pettus-Bridge. Acht Tage später Johnson convenes this joint session of Congress and he says, as it was at Lexington and Concord, as it was at Appomattox, so it is today. These brave Americans willing to lay down their lives so that we can realize our promise to one another. That's us, man.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And I'm not saying you or I are John Lewis.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Du kannst die Opposition anschauen und dumm werden, weil sie so unkompetent ist. Sie sind so korrupt. Sie sind so gezwungen. Sie sind umgekehrt von diesen Quislings, die ihre separaten Teile und Ziele mit der Regierung machen, egal ob es Rechtsfirmen oder Universitäten oder die Powerbroker und die Billionäre sind.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Aber wir müssen uns auch anschauen, und ich meine nicht nur die Demokraten, aber vor allem die Demokraten, die pro Demokratie, pro Gesetzesordnung, pro US-Konstitutionsseite. Was gab es für Verteidigte im Jahr 2024? Ich weiß, dass jede Wahl eine Wechselwahl ist, aber je nachdem, was die Leute wollten und für Wechselwahl schreien wollten, war es im Jahr 2024.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And there was one side that offered change. But if you knew nothing else, and if you could be forgiven for being so busy because you're working so hard and you're raising your kids and you're taking care of your folks and you know, fuck politics, I just don't pay attention. All I know is that guy represents change. And those folks look like more of the same.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And this country is not working for me right now. And I don't need any more of the same. I need some fucking change in my life. And so I think we have to look in the mirror and accept that Where we have failed and we failed. We had one job, one job in 2024 and we failed. And that's not on Donald Trump. It's not on the voters who voted for Donald Trump.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Hier in El Paso. Es ist ein... Absolutely gorgeous day out there. And soon headed to Denton, Texas. We're doing these town halls all over the state of Texas. And we're going to be at this place called Anderson's. It's a brewery on Saturday. So I'm excited to be getting out there and to be with people right now.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
It's on those who are offering the alternative. And so we have to learn from that. Right. And we have to both stop him and then we have to overcome him and replace him in elections peacefully, democratically and nonviolently with the change that people are looking for in this country.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Ich denke, die einzige Art, es zu finden, ist, mit Menschen zu sein. Als ich für den Kongress fuhr, war es ein langer Wettbewerb im Jahr 2012 gegen einen 8-Term-Inkumbent. Es war eine 5-Person-Primärin. Und ich habe es gewonnen, ohne einen Ausgang. Und ich habe es gewonnen, indem ich die Türen geschlagen habe.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und die Türen geschlagen, das sind nicht nur die Zahlen, es ist nicht nur der Eindruck, es ist nicht nur der Voter, der dich trifft und dein Name lernt. Es geht auch darum, von ihnen zu lernen, was für sie am wichtigsten ist. Kein Polster, kein Konsultantengruppe, kein Fokusgruppe hätte mir gesagt, was ein Veteran mir gesagt hätte.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Ich habe ihn auf die Tür gesetzt und gesagt, ich kann nicht in die VA gehen. Sie haben mich nächstes Jahr zurückgesucht. Und das war im Januar 2012 für seine PTSD-Treatment. Dieser Kerl hat uns in Vietnam geholfen. Er kam zurück, wurde verletzt und verletzt. Er braucht jetzt Hilfe. Und wir waren absolut verfehlt an unserem Ende der Verteidigung. Nebenan eine ähnliche Geschichte.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Nebenan ist eine Schwester, die mir erzählt hat, dass ihr Mann, der sein eigenes Leben verletzt hat, I made fixing the VA the number one issue. And not everyone in El Paso is a veteran. Not everyone in El Paso has a family member who's a veteran. But people care about veterans. I cared about veterans.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And I think people more broadly understood, man, if this guy is going to fight this hard for these people who've gotten this fucked by their government, I know he's going to fight for me on the issue that I care about. Und wir haben das Rennen gewonnen. Als ich für den Stadtkanzler kam, war ich auf der Westseite und auf der ersten Tür.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Ich habe meinen Pitch gegeben und die Frau sagt, das ist großartig, Beto, aber es gibt diesen Canyon hinter meinem Haus, den Wrestler Canyon. Sie wollen es entwickeln. Ich will es nicht entwickeln. Der zweite Haus sagt mir das gleiche. Der dritte Haus, ich knallte auf die Tür und sagte, hey, mein Name ist Beto O'Rourke und ich bin hier, um den Wrestler Canyon zu retten.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You've got to listen to people. And that's why these town halls are so important.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Okay, we'll have to talk about that. Let me finish this point, though. These town halls that we're holding... I just think are fundamental. You know, democracy, what the fuck does it mean? Democracy is people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And bringing people together in this deeply divided, isolated, polarized digital age, where we're just consumed by our devices and the feeds that we're getting on them, that is some profoundly powerful stuff. And the other power there is that Republican members of Congress right now Fear Donald Trump more than they fear anything else.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
You have to introduce the fear of their constituents and their reelection. And Democrats, Democrats fear being in front of people right now because to the question you just posed, what's the answer? What's the solution? I don't know what the fuck. How are we going to do this? People are going to show up. They're going to be mad. They're going to want me to fight back against Trump.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
I'm just one member of Congress. I don't want to face that. I think all the more reason that you go in front of your constituents, because no matter how brilliant you are, You don't have all the answers.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And if you really believe in this democracy, if you really believe in people, you'll bring them together, you'll listen to them, you'll learn from them, and you will form common cause and go out and do the work and fight together. So I think... bringing people together, having these town halls is absolutely essential.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
And I think from that, Tim, we are going to learn and hear and even know the language, the exact words that people are feeling right now and need to be reflected back in the campaigns that are run in 26 and 28. You don't ever lose your core convictions, your purpose for being and wanting to serve. But that's part of it. The other part of it is just being there
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
exquisitely attuned to the people that you want to represent and fight for. And there's no shortcut. You can't hire somebody. You can't spend enough money. You can't put enough time on social media to get there. You've got to be there physically with people and hear them out. And so that's why we're doing what we're doing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Not to be watching or waiting or hoping or praying, but to be out there with people. And, you know, there's certainly something cathartic and therapeutic about it, right? For everyone concerned, because I'll talk for 10 or 15 minutes and then the microphone goes around the room and anyone, you know, We don't screen for party affiliation. We don't check the questions ahead of time.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Es erinnert mich an das Jahr 2019, als ich in Iowa war und viel Zeit mit Bäuerinnen und Bäckern und Leuten in der Agrargemeinschaft verbrachte. Ich besuchte diese eine Familienfarm und die beiden Brüder nahmen mich zu diesem riesigen roten Pile von Zwiebeln heraus.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
Und was mich im Hören zu ihnen und im Verständnis von der Schmerzen und der Ehrfurcht, die sie verursacht haben, was sie tun, und sie können es nicht, die ökonomische Verlust, die Threat zu ihrem Zukunft, die Möglichkeit, auf dieser Farm zu halten, war der Fakt, dass es nicht so aussah, als hätte Trump viel von einem politischen Schlag für die Schmerzen, die er ihnen gemacht hat.
The Dan Bongino Show
White House Correspondent Reagan Reese Joins The Show | Ep. 10 - 03/28/25
We have been soaked every single day since 2013. Texas, the worst voter ID law in the country. Texas closed 700 polling places. Where did they close them? In the fastest growing black and brown neighborhoods in the state of Texas. Texas. 13% rejection on mail-in ballots. You see that in banana republics. You do not see it in modern democracies, but you see it in Texas.
The Dan Bongino Show
White House Correspondent Reagan Reese Joins The Show | Ep. 10 - 03/28/25
So listen, this is the question of the hour, because if we do not save our democracy, if we do not get one back in the state of Texas, every other thing that we care about becomes impossible.