Neera Tanden
Appearances
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
So if you don't mind.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Last fall during that campaign, I was the domestic policy advisor doing domestic policy work. And when the hurricane hit North Carolina, it took out this plant. It's called the Baxter plant. That plant produced 60% of the IV bags in America. So All of a sudden, we could have been facing a massive shortage of IV bags.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And, you know, just to say, IV bags are pretty important in the whole surgery thing, okay? So I and others start working kind of around the clock with people at FDA and this agency no one's ever heard of.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
called ASPR at HHS, and you have career professionals who are working around the clock to ensure that we're bringing in the right kind of IV bags from around the world, from safe suppliers, so that, you know, there's a little disruption, but you never heard of anyone dying from the lack of an IV bag in the United States.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Now, a couple of weeks ago, most of those people were terminated on a Saturday night.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
The ASPR people and some of the FDA people. And we have drug shortages all the time. A year ago, we had drug shortages of pediatric cancer drugs. So we have a drug shortage, and I genuinely don't know who is going to protect us from that. right? Who in the federal government is actually going to work on that problem? This is a whole issue with HHS. You know, they're playing with lives.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
So I think that's the job of all of us. We're going to do a lot of this work at the Center for American Progress to really drive the stories of how a person who's terminated, what it means for your protection, your safety, your health, your economic well-being. And You know, I personally believe that when people, when you have the amalgamation of these harms, that that's the story we need to tell.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Absolutely. And look, they're now going after, they're going to shut down a range of Social Security offices around the country. Those Social Security offices are about how you get the benefits you're supposed to get, your earned benefits of Social Security. So, you know, I think the truth of this is that Trump's crazy, you know, his antics, his sort of everyday antics, can't let us fight.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And so they used my nomination as a way to show that they were still Republicans. And the rationale, the rationalization was obviously ridiculous since each one of them just voted for some insane lunatic. Their mean tweets were like the nicest things about them, right? They were just... Wrong, scoundrels, corrupt, ridiculous people who don't care about policy.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
forget the real harm to people. And again, you know, we have had some successes beating this guy. Things are different. They are dramatically worse than his first term. But I am really proud of the fact that the Center for American Progress was a real leader of the effort to defend the Affordable Care Act from Trump's assaults, his effort to repeal it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And just to remind everyone, and I think this is a hugely important lesson for us as well, the Affordable Care Act, unfortunately, was not popular when it passed. It was not popular from the day it passed until Donald Trump tried to get rid of it. And when he tried to get rid of it, we as an opposition were able to communicate to the country how many people will lose health care.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Twenty three million people across the country would lose health care. And it became much more popular and it actually cleavaged Republicans. And, you know, everyone talks about John McCain. But the reason, you know, people forget 10, 11, 12 Republicans voted against that bill, even in the House.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And that happened because it was massively unpopular, even amongst 50 percent of Republicans wanted to keep the ACA by the end of that debate. And that is the job in front of us. It is to show the consequences. It is to demonstrate the real harms. And it is to say, you know, none of you have like magic boots around here. You have to deal with political constraints just like the rest of us.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Donald Trump is not some magician. He cannot just make everything change. Republican House members, Republican senators are going to face voters. And it is up to us to show those voters the consequences of their actions. It is not hard.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
You're right. Okay.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
saying this to like make you seem cool or anything because I definitely know you're not cool but my son who's like online all the time I was like I'm gonna do this podcast and he was like oh oh he's cool you know he's 19
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
this is what's cool about you. He's actually not a nerd. He doesn't like, he's not like, you know, he doesn't like watch political podcasts. He actually, you know, whatever. So this is what actually leans into what I think, which is like our tactics, which is we have to figure out how we get these stories of harms to people, everyday Americans, working class Americans, you know, people are like,
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Who's our best Democratic leader to fight channel triumph? And, you know, I understand people are really scared and want leaders and are anxious and gnashing their teeth all the time. But I actually think our best voices to fight
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
be clear about what Trump is doing is not another politician, but actually an everyday American who's victimized by what Trump is doing, who is scared about what Trump is doing, who's harmed by what Trump is doing. And that can be, you know, a working class person. It can be people who look like your friends and neighbors. They are the best messengers.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And those are the messengers we need to work on getting out through all our channels. And and try to get onto channels where people aren't watching news every day.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
In fact, really just want to use the government to hurt people. So, I mean, I think it just caused a charade, you know, but I knew it was a charade at the time. Like, it was ridiculous that people who were defending Trump and all of his tweets for the last four years before that somehow were able to read all of my tweets when they could never have read. Right, it is.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
That's a lot of the work that Center for American Progress Action Fund, headed by Naveen Naik, will be doing a lot of that work to ensure that we are spreading the word of how people are impacted by Trump, everyday Americans, across all of social media platforms we can. But really, you know, the most important thing, people are always like, what can we do?
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I've called my member of Congress five times. I actually think what the right did over the last decade is they made their activist kind of news amplifiers. They'll take an article, they'll send it to all their friends and neighbors. And as you know, when someone sends you an article, you know, you tend to believe it more because you trust that person.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
So we're like really trying to engage in telling all your friends and family, your neighbors, your cousins and those in North Carolina. Yeah. You know, spread information. That's like spread information, not on how outrageous Trump is and what a jerky is and what a bad guy is, but like actually what he's doing to bad shit that's happening.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
You know, because I do think people are like, oh, yeah, he was bad and we still elected him.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
To an actual person. And tell a story. You know, there's this veteran who worked in, you know, there's a story about a veteran. Who was in Iraq and he's working, you know, he worked at the VA. He's basically helping patients. He's worried about losing his job. And, you know, I mean, do we really think that that's the person that like we really want victimized today?
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Well, we're going to have one of them, J.B. Pritzker, a cap in a few weeks. I'm very excited to have him here because I think he is channeling people's anger and candor and honesty about what's happening. Trump is lying to you. He is hurting people. He's very clear in his language.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I think like really every Republican who lectured a Democrat about norms and proper behavior. You know, I might be a little bit focused on that.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
These people who are like. you know, Biden didn't call us about something and that's like socialism. And then they're just on a dime willing to basically bend the needle.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Okay, but now you're basically saying, will you please say Susan Collins so that I can reaffirm this?
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Let's go with Tom Tillis because he has a Senate race and right now he's acting like there's no general election. He only has to worry about a primary, which means he's actually thinking every Democrat in North Carolina is a sucker.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And my view of that is you should prove him wrong by actually trying to engage your friends and neighbors and telling them there is actually a Senate race and he actually is accountable to the entire state, not just the Republican base.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I mean, they're not in my top three because, you know, I honestly believe many people were anxious about the war. I just wish they would be a little bit more vocal. I mean, I do think people should be protesting against
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I know. That's why now I'm like, hey, I'm tweeting. Maybe a Republican senator will see it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I am very worried about this administration coming after political folks. But I really want to separate this out because I do think their fear and intimidation is a tactic to silence people. And I do think there are Democratic leaders who say, oh, maybe we shouldn't protest because it'll be an excuse for them to use martial law. And we cannot have pre-cowering, pre-obayance.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
So, you know, I'm a little worried that the more effective we are, the more they'll come after us. But I think, you know, you cannot be scared. If you let them get into your head that they will... scare you, you will, you know, you'll come back a little bit from your criticism. You'll not protest instead of protest. You'll take actions. And, like, this is exactly how democracies fail.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
So my view is I'm going to fight like hell. I'm going to act like this is still a democracy and I can fight like hell. And if they come at, you know, I'm not going to be insane, but if they come after me, then, you know, I'm going to expect...
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
that there are other fighters in this army that we're in, and they will use that as an argument for the rest of the country that we've gone off the deep end.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I feel like you'll channel many of my questions.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Well, It was worth the embarrassment of being called a nerd.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Yeah, it was fun. All right. Great to see you.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
That was a mistake for me. I know. Sorry.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I mean, you know, I mean, do we have seven hours? I feel like I need some therapy for this. I feel a range of emotions. I feel, you know, we tried to do a lot of important things. I do worry that perhaps we didn't solve enough problems. There were issues that we should have taken on or we took on too late. You know, I think we took on immigration too late.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And I think we should be self-critical about that. I don't think it's an excuse for the insanity we're seeing right now. But I also think that we should, you know, we have to be clear eyed about what went wrong, what went right. You know, the president did deliver on a lot of things. And we have to understand why some of that resonated and some of that didn't.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I mean, I'm really struggling on the economy, for example. And just, you know, you know me, I'm 100 percent candid. You know, we had a message for working class people yesterday. That message was we have a trillion dollars investments. Most of those most of those investments are translating into jobs for working class people.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Seventy five percent of the jobs were for people who don't need a college degree. But that didn't resonate, you know. And why didn't it? I think, you know, this probably gets into the future of the Democratic Party, but I think we have to really. Like, you know, think through why some of the things we did didn't work, didn't resonate. You know, obviously, we had some messaging challenges.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Well, we got a lot of problems. That's what's up. That's what's up.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I will say messaging. You can say messenger. That's up to you. I will say messaging.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Well, I think it was hard for us to break through. You know, I mean, this is just a huge thing. Like in America, Ezra Klein has written and talked about this. Like I do think politics today is about everything is about eyeballs.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And being able to attract eyeballs. Like, you know, just to step back, I think we think of politics as like ideology and biography. We look at politicians through the lens of those like traditional dynamics. And I think those are important dynamics. But the ability to attract attention and keep attention is another thing. important facet of political leadership today.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And I just think President Biden was a, you know, he would have been in politics a long time. He's done a great, you know, I believe he's done great service to the country, was heroic in the legislation he passed, but we could not figure out how to break through the media cycle in the same way that, you know, obviously Trump does like, you know, every day before 8 a.m.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I'm just going to be like 100% honest. I mean, I don't know the answer to these questions. Like, I wasn't in the political strategy meetings. I was domestic policy advisor. I was doing my domestic policy work.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I don't know. I mean, I think genuinely they thought Like what I was told is they thought that one of the reasons why the race was where it was, was because people were not actually thinking Trump was going to be the nominee or they weren't really identifying that he could actually be president. So it was important to join the race. Right. And like, this is what I was told inside.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Like a reason to do this was to show, put them both on stage, have a debate. Then you think the kind, then you really think of Trump as possibly president. So they were definitely like, not thinking that it would go, you know, like I think they thought the debate would go well. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I'm going to learn. I'm going to learn a lot in these processes.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I know. I'm like, you know, I, I, I consider it a badge of honor.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I think this is the... most sort of disgusting display of American weakness in my lifetime. And, you know, I think the thing that Trump is doing is he has like a lot of bluster and he yells a lot of people. But when you just ignore the bluster, what he is actually doing is breaking the transatlantic relationship so that we can kowtow to Russia, right? There's no demands of Russia.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
He just wants to normalize relations with Russia. I mean, this is just a bonanza for Russia and they give up nothing. And I think this is like one of the challenges with the media is that they are hyper-focused on the optics of like the meeting with Zelensky and whether he was wearing a suit or not. But what was fundamentally-
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Who had a temper tantrum first? Was it all? I mean, this is the whole challenge with a lot of the media, which is obviously just theater criticism instead of like political analysis or even substance. But the truth of it is that the Trump administration.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
The goal of the Trump administration is not to demonstrate the United States' supremacy over Russia, and it's our general opponents, but actually to... you know, kind of be a subservient partner. And I think that we should step back and just recognize that, again, for all his bluster, this is weakness. This is cowering. This is against America's interests, of course.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
But I think fundamentally that Donald Trump has met the bully that he cowers to, and it is Vladimir Putin.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
That the nuclear umbrella of France would actually protect other European countries, which means that essentially they do not believe the United States will defend other NATO countries, other European countries.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
A rational decision, but also really horrifying. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember, or actually for all of us to really try to focus on not just it's important that we have these alliances, but why these alliances matter, right? So why does it matter that we have this really strong relationship with Europe to people? And just as a reminder, we have intelligence sharing with many of our allies in Europe, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Americans' lives have been saved because we share intelligence. They have shared intelligence with us that have disrupted terrorist attacks that have protected American lives overseas.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
And I just want to say, when we get to a place when European countries do not want to share intelligence with us because they are worried that we could possibly share it with Russia, that will mean Americans are less safe. When defense contractors in Europe, their stock is tripling because Europeans are going to buy from defense contractors in Europe.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I just want to remind senators from Alabama and Mississippi, that those defense contractors are going to be, you know, basically less profitable in the United States. Now, it's not like liberals love every defense contractor.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
But I think someone should raise these issues with senators, Republican senators. You know, the breaking up of these alliances is also is, you know, I think we have to digest it and understand it will have consequences for American security, for for Americans, the price of goods, trade, the American dollar. There's a whole range of impacts from the assaults on our allies.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Well, if I had actually known that the cabinet nomination problem, that whole fiasco was actually contributing to your radicalization, I would have actually thought it was worth it maybe.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I mean, the whole world is crazy when you're angrier at Canada and England and France than you are at Putin, who's a terrorist killer who invaded a country. And I just think we have to make the consequences of those decisions clearer.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Oh, yeah. I mean, I definitely thought for all these people on Wall Street and elsewhere who were like, oh, it's going to be fine because he's going to be reined in by the market and he'll never want the stock markets to crash. It's like nobody is safe.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
If you think that he's not going to, you know, do what he wants in his second term because he's concerned about the market, you know, which I think he described these gigantic crashes as a little bit of an adjustment. Yeah. You know, I mean, that little bit of an adjustment or people losing their jobs, people having to pay a lot more.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
So I think this is a crucial issue about what, you know, a lot of people are talking about, which what does the Democratic Party need to do? And I think the most important thing an opposition party needs to do is to drive the connection between the policies and the impact on people's lives. I think we could have a long debate about the American Rescue Plan. And I know there were critics of it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
It was trying to save the economy. But one of the challenges of it is that we passed the American Rescue Plan. And again, I think it did really crucial work to save the American people. But we took an act early in the administration, and then we had inflation, and Republicans were able to make an argument about how AARP was actually driving inflation.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Now, again, you know, the Fed did a lot more than the AARP, etc. But here you have Trump's actual actions on tariffs driving prices up and also threatening a lot of chaos. And ultimately, you know, people will lose their jobs in a range of sectors because prices are too high. And this is the number one job of an opposition party, to draw the connection between what Trump is doing
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
and how it affects you as a person. And I think that the challenge for everybody is that he's doing so many things, he's violating the constitution, et cetera. But I think a very simple frame is what is the action he is taking today? that makes your life harder, that makes a working class person's life harder, that makes any American's life harder.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Because as you know, just to get into narrative, what the right has done over the last four years with Joe Biden was develop this whole archetype of, you know, there's this government, this giant Goliath that is using the Justice Department. I mean, I was always confused because, you know, You know, either Joe Biden was like a puppet or he was a socialist mastermind. But either way.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
I mean, you kind of did. So I really appreciate it. My actual take on all of this when it actually happened was that it was kind of bullshit. Right. So what was really happening at that time is a bunch of Republicans who had just voted against Trump by voting for impeachment were scared shitless of the Republican base and
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
But there was a nefarious big government effort to harm this person, you know, take away the rights of this person. Now, sometimes it was the Justice Department prosecuting a person who. invaded the Capitol on January 6th. But, you know, they had this kind of David versus Goliath narrative. And my view is every day we have David versus Goliath.
The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
Every day Donald Trump is hurting the American people, individual American people, like veterans who are really trying to help address veteran suicide, who he fires and then rehires. And, you know, even when it comes to Doge, I think we really have to be hyper-focused on the impact on the public. what it means for people. And I'll just give you an example that just scares the shit out of me.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
Well, I think with the regrets with Donald Trump and his election, you see a thing we've seen in the past, which is there are groups of people. He puts together a coalition of people who take him seriously and people who take him kind of figuratively.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
And there are people who vote for him who don't think he's going to raise prices because he said inflation was the number one problem and he's going to lower prices. lower costs and they kind of ignore the tariffs or don't really know what the tariffs will do. And then we live to today where he's raising costs and cutting services to people
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
And I think a lot of people are really surprised, and you see that in his numbers. People are actually more concerned about the cuts in the federal government to services. They see cutting veterans or firefighters or police or nurses or doctors who are carrying for them or their neighbors or their family members as, you know, actually a terrible thing.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
But, you know, I think there's a big debate in the party. Your last point of, you know, I don't like Trump, but I also don't like the Democrats, I think really gets to this big debate in the party. And I think that debate is whether Democrats should, you know, roll over and play dead, as some have suggested. Just wait, you know, as others have suggested, just wait for Republicans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
to kind of implode, or do we need to fight back and fight back hard? And I really think the challenge here is that we need to provide an alternative, not just an opposition. And I think it's not that hard to develop ideas that,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
uh capture you know our the base of our party and the broad middle trump is has an extreme agenda again there are a bunch of people who he has a mega base who took him literally but there are other voters who took him figuratively and for those voters we have to say you know of course what he's doing is wrong but we offer a better alternative you know you can actually have a government
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
that puts the consumer first, that improves services to people, that makes it easier, not harder to get Social Security, get the benefits you deserve. Not of a government that's kind of run by a ketamine adult person who is essentially, you know, just firing people in charge of the nuclear stockpile, firing veterans willy-nilly. You know, there's a choice between two visions of change.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
Democrats are offering a vision that improves your lives, not so chaotic. And then there's the Trump wrecking ball.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
Yeah, so I think the real challenge for us is if we are just saying Trump is wrong, you know, we're not offering any alternatives. We're just saying this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. He can say to the country, at least I'm trying. The status quo is terrible, and at least I'm trying. They like the status quo. I think this is very dangerous.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
I think it's very dangerous for us to be in a posture of, where we are just criticizing what he's doing and not offering an alternative so um you know when he tries to destroy the department of education we should be clear about why department of education is important for improving schools improving your child's education and how we would
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
you know, we would take additional steps because your children's education is our top priority. When he's talking about, you know, government reform, we should offer ideas like, for example, the place where the federal government spends the most money $1.9 trillion annually is on tax expenditures. What is that? Like special tax giveaways we give to companies, sometimes special interests, others.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
Elon Musk doesn't look at those because he's benefited from tax expenditures in the past. So I think we need to offer ideas across the board. We will be developing our own ideas and how to keep our borders safe, to have an immigration system that works, that fixes the broken immigration system, but doesn't say you can just pick up
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
migrants off the street, people who are actually in the legal who have legal status in the United States and deport them. You know, I think we need to have our own alternative in order to best critique Trump. And CAP will be developing that across the board on every on every issue.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
The economy, immigration, education, crime, criminal justice like these are these are legitimate issues that the country has. concerns about. And it's up to us to offer an alternative. But my view is like he is so extreme that we can capture, as I said, the broad middle of the country as well as energize our base by fighting, having a vision that really fights against Trump's extremism.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
I think that's super smart. And I think what we need to recognize is that the right wing has a really honed message machine. So glad to be on Midas Touch because you are one of our most effective counters. They have a whole infrastructure devoted to getting the message out, not just their affirmative message. They have a whole infrastructure devoted to basically mocking
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
providing caricatures of Democrats as sort of the most extreme voices. It will take a single person sort of saying a kind of crazy thing and make that seem like every Democrat supports that. So that's why it's really important for us to get out the message everywhere. You know, I think it's human nature. Someone says something extreme about you. Trump says something crazy about Democrats.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
People expect them to counter it. If someone says something crazy about me, people will believe it unless I say it's wrong. And that's why it's important to go out to red states, purple states, speak directly to voters, say, here's my vision, here's his vision. You make the choice. But I think if we worry about engaging voters who have different views, people will You know, smell that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
And also, honestly, a two way feedback loop is really important. If people are really concerned about particular issues, you know, crime, the cost of housing, we should address those issues. We should be unafraid to address those issues. When you are when you believe in government solving problems, you have to solve everyone.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
You have to solve everyone's problems and the problems that they're raising to you. That is what democracy is. It is listening to people. They get to choose what path they want. And I think it's important for us to listen as well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
Like go and make the case. And, you know, I think – You know, I think people are really scared about what the president is doing.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
I think they're really scared that Donald Trump is not hemmed in by any institutions, that he is, you know, willy nilly breaking, you know, social contracts with seniors, social contracts with veterans, like basically our responsibility to each other, the transatlantic relationship. He's deporting people who have legal process. You know, he is acting and is an authoritarian bully.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
And, you know, people are scared. A lot of Democrats are scared. And when people are scared, they look to leaders. And that is why I think it is crucial for our leaders to think about not just what they say, but what they do, how they fight against what is happening. Chris Murphy said yesterday, these are not normal times. They are not.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
And it is vital for our leaders to recognize that and think about strategies they can deploy to stop Trump. It may not always work, but at least when you're fighting, people see that you were trying. And it is impossible to win a fight if you do not actually have it. You actually have some possibility if you start the fight. So, you know, that's what I'd say to all leaders right now.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Neera Tanden on Beating Back Trump & MAGA
It's important that we demonstrate that we are not scared, that we, unlike a lot of institutions that have started pre-obeying, that we do not pre-obey, that we recognize that our Constitution, our democracy, A country that is for all of us is at stake and we fight like hell to protect it.