Okay so I'm back with Brian Tyler Cohen and you know look my brother is Brian Cohen spelled differently he spells it with a Y but it's nice talking to you Brian it's been a while um I want to jum good talking to you too yeah the same it's been a while my brother so well not really my brother but my brother anyway so I you know I've gotten so many I've gotten more emails than I can than I could possibly explain asking uh the Ways in which we're related so it's it's all good it's by
by association there we'll just there you there you go so let me start by asking you have 3 million YouTube subscribers and over 2 and2 billion views I mean you've built an incredibly influential platform what do you think has been the key to resonating with such a large and an Engaged audience particularly in a highly competitive media landscape I mean you've really done Great I think honestly a a big key to building the audience that I've built is just that there was a hunger for Progressive content there was such a dir in Progressive content in
YouTube when I first started back in 2019 I mean that that is why I started making political content in the first place because I would go on to Facebook and YouTube and back then Facebook was basically the principal platform that people would get their news from and all I would get was Was served right-wing content over and over and over and there was no way to even train your algorithm to give you leftwing content or Progressive content or even or even neutral content because it wasn't even on the platform and so I just started making
my content Progressive content on a consistent basis and you know the the followers came but then you know there were a bunch of tricks that I had to to learn for myself in terms of you have to be Consistent you have to you have to be honest I mean our currency is is trust and so I I don't have the luxury of being able to hide behind a News Network for example if I screw up so I had to make sure that and there would and there would be screw-ups over the years but I had
to make sure that I was as honest as possible because you know once you lose people's trust it's hard to gain that back yeah you know I because I started my YouTube channel exactly 36 days ago Today and I have about 135,000 subscribers in 35 36 days and well you got there you got there a lot quicker than I did you know and it's funny I'm still waiting for my for my silver plaque you know as I'm on my journey to at least a million you know subscribers but you know I find it um much
more difficult than I thought it was going to be simply because I have the other platforms as well you know um I mean I and I I hear you every day I'm Posting on the Michael Cohen Show and with me like with this podcast that we've done over 400 plus million downloads since I started I got to tell you keeping up with the content is difficult it really is so my question to you is how do you balance creating content that's both informative and engaging because you really do have to be engaging but at the
same time maintaining the Integrity of your Progressive Values yeah I think I think it's just a matter of first of all balancing balancing all of this stuff is is a struggle I mean for a long time I worked alone for years I worked alone and I just recently started expanding my team and giving myself some help so that was the first thing was just teaching myself as a human being that it's okay to delegate and that's that's been really helpful um just having some support but I think I think you know look there There has
to be people are going to be able to see the authenticity if you look just to have like that link to to to what's happening in politics today you can see people like JD Vance are total phonies and frauds you can see someone like Donald Trump is a total fraud when we when we create our content it's going to be obvious through the content that we're making and what we're saying and for people getting to know who we are whether we're being true to you know our Values whether we're being honest in the content that
we're creating or whether you know it's just it's whether you're just being phony and so and so that's going to shine through and and I think the more that you can keep on to that authenticity the more it's going to show yes so let's just stay with YouTube for a second because your YouTube channel has really become and I and I say this with a slight Touch of jealousy here but I'm extremely impressed it's really a Go-to source for Progressive commentary and there's not a lot of progressive commentary it's like even this podcast you start
to see the right-wing media ecosphere that they really sort of dominate for whatever the reason is Republicans and especially the ultra conservative they seem to have so many people maybe because they don't work or they don't do that they just have all day long to listen to these podcast but the real question I want to ask you Is how do you see the role of independent Creator like like yourself in shaping public opinion compared comparing that to the traditional media Outlets that so many of us have become not just disenchanted with but like no the
ated by yeah it's a great question the first part of your question which was about the proliferation of of right-wingers on this site and every site uh look the right has done a really good job at Embracing Independent Media and the reason for that is because they knew that the mainstream media wouldn't be any anything close to an adequate partner for them and so immediately they knew that they had to go to AM radio for the days of Rush Limba they had to start embracing the daily wire the daily collar all of these alternative Outlets
because they wanted to get their message across um I even write in my book which I know we're going to speak about in a While about about the the als's memo and and Roger Al saw what happened to Richard Nixon in 1974 and recognized that there was no support for a president like that and so that's why he was forced to resign and of course the natural conclusion of that is looking at somebody like Donald Trump today who has plenty of support and so far from being excommunicated from his party he's actually been been embraced
and is now again the Republican nominee for President so that's that's the difference in the right-wing media ecosystem and so I think that that's been especially important for them uh that that's been especially important for them in terms of building up this Independent Media you know infrastructure and the left is at a disadvantage because a lot of people on the left view the mainstream media as our voice and in fact it's not our voice and they bend over backwards to prove That they're not the liberal media but for so long they we all viewed that
as adequate and so we never invested enough time and energy and resources into building up Independent Media until now until we're recognizing the importance that it's going to have as people have declining trust in mainstream media and mainstream media is just losing eyeballs because people are cutting the cord because people get their news more from the internet and so now at this point It's it's a mad dash to continue to build up our Independent Media infrastructure and the onus is not just on us to do it it's on it's on politicians for example to embrace
it on the left the same way that the right-wing politicians have embraced it I mean to Trump's credit he was very good at embracing uh right-wing media figures as Fringe as they were but he would he would put he would you know put arms around them and and and and confer A degree of legitimacy onto these people that I think that that our thought leaders on the left should do as well so that we can be able to compete because this right here the Independent Media space is the next Frontier of of of media yeah
you see for me when I first started Maya Copa I did it while I was on home confinement I did it so that I can actually build a community of like-minded people that are concerned about the Constitution of the United States to be concerned about a guy who sitting at the highest level in America who is inherently an author Aran that had no qualms about unconstitutionally remanding a United States citizen meaning myself making me the first political prisoner held by my own country because I wouldn't wave my first amendment constitutional right that I wouldn't agree
not to publish my first book disloyal and so on and with that I want to ask you because again for Me including not just Maya Cula but my YouTube channel the Michael con show or when I go on uh my Tik Tok Channel I do it in order to build a community you have a massive reach massive all right and you should be really proud of that but the question I really want to ask you is do you feel the responsibility to use your platform not only to inform the public but also to mobilize your
audience because one of the things that I want to do not just With my mayor Co with Ben melis of Midas Touch I have a second podcast called political Beatdown we call them our brigaders I want to have like a massive March in DC bring everybody together from all of the mest touch platforms people like yourself on you know the Brian Tyler Cohen podcasts and and shows and I want to bring Lincoln project and Sena project I want to bring everybody together why in order to show the right that we're bigger than you we're smarter
Than you and we're stronger than you and I want to do this believe it or not before the November election I think that we have not only not I think that we not only should do that we have an obligation to to make sure that we include activism in in what we do I mean that that is a central part of what I do I we have this rare opportunity right now where we are able to reach a ton of people and so to just use that solely to inform which don't Get me wrong is
absolutely important and I think in large part why the progressive media ecosystem is taken off the way it the way it has just by virtue of people needing this information but also look I I I've I've said it before and I will maintain this I am not a journalist I'm an activist and so that doesn't mean that I can't be honest because I have an obligation to be honest to people and they can see through that and I will get called out If I'm not but we also have an opportunity in protecting democracy to actively
protect democracy and right now we have one party that's seeking to tear it down so if we're not using our voice and our platform right now to try to elicit some change and make sure that people know that they should be registered and how they should be registered and that they're not uh going out and finding people in their circles to to get them registered if we're not Using our voices for activism at the same time then then we are then then we're dropping the ball in terms of this moment that we have uh here
and the audience that we're able to reach y i i listen I agree with you it's why I started and it's why I do I it's exactly why I do this look you everybody says to me you're a schmuck Michael what you should have done is you should have kept your mouth shut you should have done your time right and stay on side with Donald Trump because if you did you'd probably be working at the RNC alongside with Lara Trump which would have made me vomit every day you'd probably you want to listen to her
uh to her new album on a on repeat Jesus that didn't seem too appealing to you God also by the way for anybody that says you should have stayed stayed among like the the lawyer class on the Republican Party how many of them have been disbarred at this point right how many of them have been in imprisoned At incarcerated at this point it's it's not like that's like some uh some meal ticket if you're a lawyer in the Trump orbit you know no but what he does what they do is they put you with the
RNC you know because of my um my voice and because of my ability within which to be raw and unfiltered chances are I'd be on Newsmax o or Fox News the same way like um Kaye mcenany you know ended up with his show or you know or Jason Miller or whoever the hell I mean no no I value The Constitution I value our rights and I value I value America which gave my family the ability to come here my father a holocaust Survivor gave him the opportunity to come to this country all right and to
succeed and to have children here and so and even though we were four lawyers now three lawyers and a felon right I'm pretty I still know my father and my mom are very you know proud of this country and the fact that Donald Trump is tearing tearing down This country as you said making us I think we all have this massive obligation if you have the voice to do it to do so and that brings me to the segue into your book Shameless and in your book Shameless you discuss the erosion of political Norms that
has led to the current state of American politics so the question I really want to ask you Brian is how do you see this playing out in the current political environment especially with the Harris Walls campaign gaining massive momentum against a backdrop of dis information malformation misinformation and Division I mean that that is the strategy right and so I think that they're going to continue to ramp it up because they see that the Harris walls ticket is is promoting a sense of optimism and hope and that is a lot stronger than the fear and demagoguery
that's pedal by Republicans by Trump and JD Vance on a daily basis and so they're Going to feel more and more desperate their backs are going to be up against the wall Donald Trump as you know better than anybody when he gets put up against the wall is going to lash out unlike ever before and so we're going to see the misinformation and the disinformation ramp up to a degree that we haven't seen before and they'll figure out how they're going to do it you can see already Donald Trump getting desperate and figuring out how
he's Going to how he's going to grab back eyeballs from the American people because now what now his whole shtick is tired right and so and and more people are showing up to KLA Harris's rallies and more people are donating to their campaign more people are signing up to volunteer and so the energy and the momentum is clearly only on one side and so Trump is figuring out ways where he can claw back some attention and and thus far he's failed at actually helping Himself do that even though he is getting eyeballs now I mean
he he does his his show with with Elon Musk where he trashes unions he does the National Association of black journalists where he denies the biracial of kamla Harris he does the maralago press conference where he brags about this idea that his January 6 insurrection was bigger than Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech crowd so he's figuring out ways to to claw back some attention right now Out of desperation and he's going to ramp that up to a 10 because I mean you'd be able to speak speak to this better than anybody
but when he feels desperate that's when uh that's when he will seek to get more and more extreme but there's absolutely no positivity in anything that he's doing correct but that's all he knows but that's all he knows when when when when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail Donald Trump only knows how to do Negativity and fear porn and demagoguery yeah it's it so here let's just use for example the Elon Musk interview a total nothing burger at all and then you turn around and you see you know what got
the most attention over the course of the last 10 days or so um in the we'll call it Trump Vance right or the Von shiten pans Shady Vance ticket it's Shady Vance or I should call him lady Vance's uh drag queen photos when he was at Yale law school that got more Eyeballs than anything but that's not the positive eyeballs that's going to bring people or voters to your campaign kamla Harris and Tim walz they brought in now over what $350 million actually I think the number is more like 311 over just the month of
July they brought in over 200,000 volunteers that's sick numbers that is absolutely sick sick numbers for a period of one month Trump needs to reverse this Somehow and I don't see it happening not with the upcoming Chicago convention that both you and I are going to be at that helps to give the party the DNC a major boost where all the momentum is already with um with Harris walz so then after that you have the debate the September 4th I believe the debate between Trump and Harris on Fox News and that's going to be a
show in fact here's a prediction Brian I think after that September 4th inter um debate I don't think he does the other two as promised I'm telling you I think that it's AED yeah I think it's a boy on his behalf but I find it very very interesting that the biggest eyeball getter so far has been the leaked photos of Lady Vance yeah I think that's just a testament to you know look the the the rank hypocrisy on the right where they will attack people for for for living however they want to live and yet
you Know there is I and and look it's not like it's not a big deal and nobody's against anybody dressing however they want to to dress it's just the hypocrisy of somebody who decides that has right toct Brian I stop your first that's not true all right the entire right-wing evangelico U Evangelical ecosphere they have a problem with people oh of course of course I'm just saying I'm just saying from from our side like on the left nobody nobody on The left actually cares if JD Vance drags up dresses up however he wants to dress
up what our beef is is with the hypocrisy somebody like him telling other people how they can and can't live their lives only to then realize that oh looks like that person lived his life uh you know even in just a moment even having fun whatever it was but like but like that's where the hypocrisy lies yeah by the way I don't believe that it was having fun he looked too comfortable In those photos now I'm serious like you know if when I was in my fraternity at zbt at American University I remember we made
pledges where there girlfriend's dress one night and or one afternoon and go to class all of them wearing dresses and high heels it was funny all right and it it really was and of course there are photos of them out there but they're fraternity pranks there's no fraternity prank when you're in Yale law School it's not as right I mean you know that doesn't happen so I'm I would love to ask and I hope Tim Walls brings this out during the vice presidential debate as you are the biggest hypocrite and talk about things like trying
to discuss how other people should live their lives when you clearly you know have your own specific set of rules that only apply to you right right I mean look I mean this is this is the guy who's the running mate of somebody who He himself called America's Hitler this is the guy who has who has done apologia for Donald Trump tr's uh denial of kamla Harris's bir raciality while he himself has three biracial kids I think I think the the ship is sailed in terms of JD van showing us that he's fine being a
hypocrite yeah absolutely so let me go back to Shameless for a second and ask you a question a lot of people asked me with my two books what do you hope that readers take away from Shameless about Combating disinformation and media manipulation in an era where traditional journalism is under constant attack and the constant attack is by the head of one of the two political parties in our country the reason that I wrote it initially and and it morphed into something bigger but the reason I wrote it in so what is lummen Lumen is the
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and improving your metabolic health so let me also tell you why metabolic Health matters it matters because your metabolism is your body's engine it's how your body turns the food that you eat into fuel that keeps you going because your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does Optimum metabolic Health translates to a bunch Of benefits including including easier weight management improved energy levels better Fitness results and better sleep Lumen gives you recommendations to improve your metabolic Health it can also track your cycle as well as the onset of menopause and adjust your
recommendations to keep your metabolism healthy through hormonal shifts so that you can keep up your energy and Stave off Cravings so if you want to take the next step to improving your health go Right now to lumen.me Cohen to get 15% off your Lumen that's len. Meen for 15% off your purchase and thank you Lumen for sponsoring this episode is that we are heading toward another election cycle where yet again we're already seeing polling showing that Republicans are more trusted on the economy they're more trusted on National Security they're more trusted to be the Pro-
family values party and they enjoy they enjoy all of this branding Pro Constitution the party of family values of fiscal responsibility of states rights of the military they enjoy all this branding but they actually don't behave in a way that bolsters any of that branding their behavior suggests a complete denial of all of that branding and so my my goal here was to expose who the Republican Party actually is not the Republican Party with the glossy veneer of like the Reagan days but to who the Republican party is today and in fact all of their
behavior is completely antithetical to that branding and then beyond that how the media in large part has helped them perpetuate this farce by by you know conferring all of these these benefits onto them giving them the benefit of the doubt pretending that in fact they're still good on the economy and and failing to question them adequately when The facts are are are don't support that thesis whatsoever so that that's why I wrote the book that's what I hoped to do um by virtue of uh of putting Shameless together because that's really kind of the theme
of your book right it's exposing also amongst other things media's role in either enabling [Music] or promoting or propagating the lies and the conspiracy theories by figures like Donald Trump I mean that's really kind Of like the main theme the way I took it from the book um and I'm sort of the question I really want to get out of you there is then what's the path forward what does it even look like for the media to regain public trust great question I I think at this point there are two things that that has to
happen with regards to the media the first is that we have to we have to lose this bothsidesism that pervades the entire mainstream Media ecosystem this bothsidesism is is what is killing the media where you where where they feel like they have to equate everything that the Republicans do with everything that the Democrats do and so Donald Trump can can you know inight an Insurrection at the US capital but now the Republicans are also saying that there's a 100 Biden scandal so we have to give that equal coverage even though there's no there there even
though the whole thing for example was Based on some bogus 1023 form where where the Smoking Gun witness was actually a Russian agent who'd been who then would go on to be indicted by the FBI so there is this false equivalency that the media feels like has to happen because if you talk about Republicans then you have to talk about Democrats so long as we have that bothsidesism pervading the media pervading our political coverage then people will continue to lose trust in the media Because they can see through that they know that we don't have
to bend over backwards to to give Goodwill to a Republican party that doesn't that doesn't deserve it the second thing is that I think it's going to be more and more important to to make sure that we bolster Independent Media like what you're doing like what I'm doing like what what your uh your you know our friends are doing it might as touch and and on and on I think That's going to be uh especially important too in terms of regaining trust from from Americans right now and and making sure that there are sources that
people know that they can believe in know that they can trust moving forward yeah see I I see it just a tiny bit different than that I see the media and I'm talking about the mainstream media and cable news I see a lot of the um I don't even moderators some of them Aren't even journalists and I'm GNA use Ari melber as an example because I like to on Ari he's an anyway when when they're more concerned about their ratings than they are about the truth when they're more concerned about you know um increasing their
own visibility than they are about about again uh destroying or debunking lies and conspiracy theories that's where I have the problem and I'm referring to Like for example when I was a witness the key witness at the Manhattan district attorney case AR melv brings on who Michael avanatti seriously that motherfucker's time came and went because he is a scumbag extreme extraordinaire this is a guy who stole money from his clients including stormmy Daniels this is a this is a guy who has lied to the American people he's no different really than Donald he's a narcissistic
sociopath that's what he is So he brings him on television via phone from terminal Island FCI Federal Correctional Institution in California terminal Island and he's sitting there and he's talking about how this case has no legs it's going to be a mistrial Michael Cohen can't be trusted he's a liar he's this I never took a dollar from anyone I'm the only guy who goes to jail for giving money to somebody right for another guy meaning Donald to get his mushroom dick pulled By a porn star I mean that's what's crazy and Ari was sitting there
shaking his head like the putts that he is just shaking his head yeah yeah you know it's really funny meanwhile nine hours of deliberation nine hours after five six weeks 22 Witnesses nine hours of deliberation by 12 independent jurors and a guilty conviction on all 34 counts do you think that arri came out and said you Know I up all right I up I'm an idiot I brought this schmuck on television who's tried to all over Michael and you know it did raise some eyeballs and so on because they put in the bottom box of
the Chiron all afternoon Michael avanatti right you know big the guy's of dirt bag he's a thief he's a con man and so on just like Donald just like Donald that's where I have a problem and I think that your book Shameless really talks very Very well to figuring out how to combat the media's role in enabling these lies and these conspiracy theories yeah I mean look I I I think that it's going to be more and more important right now uh to do exactly that because we've seen what the media did in 2016 and
right now we're seeing them fail to learn the lessons that they clearly didn't learn back in 2016 again in the 2024 election in terms of being able to hold uh Donald Trump himself Accountable for the lies that he spews I mean recently I've started live streaming Donald Trump's press conferences and making sure to Li to live fact check them and and that's been a big issue with with with mainstream media because they'll put on some some semblance of of the press conference and some will pull away some will will stop their coverage to to cut
in and but there is there is a specific way that you have to cover Donald Trump that I think the media has failed to iterate in terms of in terms of how to actually rebut his lies in real time and so look what I think what we do on on YouTube is is a platform that's way more conducive to being able to do live fact checks while we do live streams for example but the onus is absolutely on us while more people are migrating from mainstream media over to Independent Media to to to know how
to navigate this correctly and to learn the lessons uh from the media's Failures in 2016 and and moving forward so let me ask you this because this is another question that I think it was Tom Hartman that asked me he's a he a great guy he does all those book reviews um you know yeah he asked me if you could add an additional chapter to Shameless based upon recent events because I remember you know writing mine the first book disloyal you know was number one for me in New York Times bestseller but I wrote that
while I had a lot of time While I was sitting in Otisville um you know the second one I had a lot of time even though it took me like 11 months to write when I wrote Revenge um I was on home confinement but the question I would ask you is if you could write an additional chapter to Shameless based upon recent events what would it focus on and why that's a great question that's why this podcast is so popular we ask the tough questions Here so I think look I wrote I wrote the book
while we were obviously you know advocating for for Joe Biden to win this election he was still the president he was still the candidate in in 2024 and I think what I didn't realize at the time and that I'm seeing now is the importance that having a degree of Hope and optimism play in our politics just by virtue of I think what I didn't take into account is that a lot of times people don't want to be so mired in in In the negativity and cynicism of politics even if it's fighting for our side and
and I think that while I was advocating for for you know fighting for the truth and and bolstering Independent Media and letting people know how important it was to to know their own agency and to speak to your Circles of people to make sure that they are able to come out and vote I I think that what I didn't realize in terms of messaging for Democrats and I spoke a lot about That in in the book was that the sense of hope and optimism is actually unto itself a more powerful tool than just the demagoguery
and fear porn that's being pedal by Republicans and so and so that's an important thing to imbue into our campaigns and by the way it's not like we didn't know that already because you look at Barack Obama's election in 2008 that was the hope election and there was no Republican candidate even John mcain was a good candidate and There was but there was no Republican who could overcome that and yes Donald Trump was able to harness a lot of negativity in uh in 2016 but he was running against Hillary Clinton who wasn't able to Galvanize
the left and didn't con confer a strong enough sense of hope or at least one that people actually believed in because they viewed her as such as such an establishment figure as such you know just like like a political a machine exactly so it was Hard to let really capture that hope but we're seeing it again right now with KLA Harris and Tim Walls and so I'm recognizing in that that intangible just the idea of Hope the idea of some optimism is going to just is going to help get Democrats over that hump and put
us over the edge in terms of drawing in more people and and that intangible is so important it's not just fighting for the truth it's not just having the infrastructure of an independent media Ecosystem it's not just knowing that we have agency and being armed with the facts and being able to go out and talk to our Circles of people that's a lot and that's a big part of it but it's also that little bit of just of just optimism that we should be sprinkling in there because we are the party of the future we
are the party of progress we are the party of how to bring more people in of protecting the future for young people of making sure that we have Expanded health care of making sure that that you know schools are safer for kids and that women have Reproductive Rights we are that party where where and kids have something to eat you know that's could you imagine we're talking about this in the United States of America the greatest superow in the world where food is plentiful you want to eat something you don't have to go find it
and pick it off of a tree right you don't have to go a day without without eating and here Here what did they want to do they wanted to expand food for children no child breakfast and lunch should ever go hungry you know it stops them from thinking and and if you think the right they're fighting this oh you know uh they should figure it out on their own really seriously yeah so I think I think that was a big part is just understanding that hope is a big part of our messaging that optimism plays
a role and it and And in in large part I mean we we wouldn't normally think about this but but Vibes are important Good Vibes are important and that's not one of those tangibles that you would immediately think of it's not like that's part of our messaging apparatus or or or arming people with facts but it is important we saw it in 2008 we're seeing it again in 2020 and I really do hope that Democrats take that lesson moving forward and recognize that there is a lot of power In Hope and and that hope as
a political tool is a lot more potent than than fear and demagogy and cynicism my only concern is I look uh you know I've been a Democrat basically my entire life and I can tell you being on the other side and watching as the Republicans don't forget you know I was also made the vice chair of the RNC finance committee I understand the distinction between the way Republicans and Democrats open up their arms and so on while the Republicans they're opening up their arms to everyone so long as that you continue this promotion of misinformation
disinformation malformation divisiveness and hate they're still willing to bring you in the Democratic party it is very difficult you know they have themselves locked in as a Ironclad group like um Robert with the circle of trust and meet the and it's very hard to break in They don't want to listen to anything you know I give you an example so I have a lawsuit against the United States government for my foyer documents in those documents it will show Donald Trump's unconstitutional remand of me you I don't care what anybody says other than the magam Maniacs
that 28 30% that no matter what you do they will you will never reach them because they are so embedded into this dumpster Cult of trump the other 70% I think would really Care if there were documents that show that Trump was behind the unconstitutional remand which is what I break down in my book Revenge it is yeah it is confounding to me that we have a Democratic president who can turn around and demand the Department of Justice release what they originally said that they had no documents there are 486,000 documents first they said there
were none then we sued and they were like oh Yeah you're right we found this out there's 486,000 documents I promise you the documents that you want are there but I want to move on and I want to ask you this because we we talked about it Trump and Elon Musk that interview on X yeah and given the increasing influence of social media like your show my show mest touch Network Lincoln project and so on it's our goal is to help to shape public opinion what do you believe are the broader implications of something Like
Trump and Elon Musk choosing and going on X as their platform for a live interview now forgetting about the fact that it was a total disaster right literally from inception to the end with his slurring and his and this and the questions and so on there's still something that needs to be discussed here yeah it's it's it's a sad commentary on what Twitter has become uh there there are there is going to be a Proliferation of of of right-wing billionaires basically Christo fashist who are looking to basically seize our our our town squares and and
we've seen it happen with Twitter right here there are a lot of platforms that are moving to the right that help right Wingers our job is is to continue you know look we're not going to be able to combat that kind of thing I I I think at some point it's going to just be like we're not going to be able To win over win over Twitter um and and and prevent these right-wing billionaires from buying up buying up platforms for example but our job is to just double redouble our efforts on the plat but
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where they are are we it's a problem look it's like I'm not going to lie that that having somebody like Elon buy a platform like Twitter doesn't make our lives more difficult doesn't allow for the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation Elon himself perpetuates disinformation uh but I I I think just the onus is on us to know that this is happening it's always happened we've been contending With with right-wing for spreading disinformation for long time from the days of Rush limbo and we have it in Fox News oan Newsmax uh Dan Bonino show Steve you
know we've been here before our job Remains the Same that means that we have to redouble our efforts grow the progressive media ecosystem grow the left of wi ecosystem bring more people in and just make sure that our arguments are more persuasive than theirs are more Effective than theirs and I think if we're able to do that then then you know elon's best efforts to give blue checks to a bunch of like Elon Fanboys who are going to Spread spread right-wing lies is only going to be so impactful um I I think that at the
end of the day the cream Rises to the top and if we're able to make it more effective and persuasive argument then that's going to be you know more effective in terms of overcoming Elon throwing his money at Platforms to help Republicans win elections so that ultimately they can help his bottom line and give him a lower it's funny that you say that because you know a lot of the people that are supporting Trump the Uber Uber Rich you know many are you know close to a billion they have a billion or like the Elon
musks with several hundred billion dollars uh they're not kristo they're not Christian nor are they uh really fascist they're just um Opportunists who see Donald as a useful idiot in becoming even richer despite the fact that they couldn't spend their money in a hundred lifetimes and that's really the truth and they see Donald as a useful idiot in terms of getting what they want because you're never going to get that from a standard politician but here's the here's a prediction that I want to make another one for you and mark my words on it and
Elon Musk who is clearly right a very interesting and a Very intelligent guy when it comes to sciences and development and so on he's really an idot in the fact that he doesn't see what's right underneath his nose Donald Trump is a jealous dirt bag who it drives him crazy that he is not the richest guy in the room let alone when he's comparing himself to somebody like Elon Musk on the day that Donald Trump becomes president the first thing that he's going to do he's going to pull a Muhammad Ben Salman he's going to
pull A Vladimir Putin with the oligarchs he's going to bring them to Mara Lago and he's going to take Elon musk's money and he's going to claim that they fraudulently acquired this money from the United States right for example Elon Musk got what $7,500 as a credit for Ev on each and every one of his Vehicles Trump will say and he'll have the right to say it you stole this money from America I want it and he'll do what Muhammad Ben Salon did He'll put him on the floor at maral Lardo in his conference room
or in his ballroom and he'll just take their money and there's nothing not a thing that any of them could do about it so while they think that he's the useful idiot he's using them I don't even think we'll get that far to be perfectly honest KLA Harris and Tim Walls are going to win this race so we won't be at a position where Donald Trump is going to take anything Well I agree with you on that but my point is if he does mock my word mark my words Elon Musk Mark Zuckerberg John Paulson
right lutnick all of these people that think Trump is an idiot and that you know he's gonna help them to make even more billions nah nah he's gonna them up just as he's up everybody that has been in this guy's path so I want to ask you this because right I mean you no go ahead go ahead go ahead yeah no no I I Was just going to agree and say that like you know when you look at the people who Don Donald Trump has mowed down who've been in his path everybody from Kaye McAn
to Ron McDaniel Romney Ry juliani you Giuliani Gordon sonland I mean the list goes on and on the people who he who he's thrown under the bus because uh because they've become politically inconvenient for him yeah so you you brought up something about Elon Musk and you know because he has he's Often positioned himself as a free speech Absolut all right yet his platform is regularly and routinely criticized for amplifying disinformation I mean it's it's it's incredible they have this massive massive platform of of Lies so how does musk's amplification of Trump's voice on X
align with or contradict his stated principles of free speech and platform neutrality because that in and of itself is a lie Yeah I mean you know I'm actually less concerned about about his I I I don't think it's necessarily a problem that he allows Donald Trump onto the platform I think that actually does to a degree align with his stated you know goal of of of of free speech I think what makes him a hypocrite is for example if somebody tries to write the word cisgender or CIS on on Twitter then you'll be censored and
so when it's something that Elon Musk is personally Against he'll be perfectly content to censor that but otherwise you know he's he's he's fine allowing Nazis and and and right-wing bigots to spew any kind of language that they want so so you know I have my qualms with him about that I actually think that with regard to allowing Donald Trump onto the platform look I'm I'm fine to allow him onto the platform I actually think he hurts himself by virtue of coming onto the platform because the bigger audience That Donald Trump has Trump thinks that
more that the answer is always more Trump and yet that's not the reality of the situation the more Donald Trump puts himself in front of the American people the more he reminds everybody of the chaos and the lunacy and the stupidity that surrounds him that enveloped this nation when he was president so I'm fine with him coming out in front of the American people getting a bigger platform because every time he does that Whether it's the National Association of black journalists whether it's the marago press conference whether it's this Twitter space every time he talks
he just reminds people who may have forgotten because we have short attention spans how insane he actually was but that insanity is what brought him to the president in 2016 there was a group there was a group of morons that Were running the campaign and it was like Corey lowski when he said let Trump be Trump and that's true the more that Trump says stupid the more he does stupid the more he ends up you now have a group of people Brian this is not you have a group of people that show up in the
r to his rallies wearing diapers wearing diapers because of the allegation that Trump is incontinent and wears diapers they wear with t-shirts that say real men wear diapers that's How crazy this has gotten you have people showing up with those maxi pads on their left ear or their right ear as if the same thing that Donald had after he got clipped by some shrapnel from probably the teleprompter I mean that's the craziest part but can I but you know what but we're we're not going to we're not going to win over those people and those
people aren't our audience anyway they're not in the universe of persuadables and again to to My earlier Point those people don't actually help Trump because those are the Looney Tunes that push people away the the regular people out there The Independents the Suburban moms the young people people of color aren't going to look at somebody wearing a diaper and think you know what I want to be part of that cult that seems like it's a good group of people for me I don't know I'm I'm kind of like visualized maybe we'll get you to put
on one of those diapers At the DNC and walk around and write real men do not wear diapers right yeah let's let's see how the let's see how the Trump cultism works at the DNC yeah that's for sure so let me ask you this then how do we as progressives and people with a platform how do we respond to this new axis between technology and trumpism especially considering the role of X which is a massive platform in spreading disinformation during past elections yeah it's it look Disinformation is the biggest it's why I do what I
do I think our job the onus on us is to is to make sure that we're rebutting it quickly and effectively and persuasively but but disinformation isn't going to become less of a problem it is the biggest problem that we face at least in the media ecosystem so so it's going to get worse we have to be prepared for it to get worse our job is to make sure that we're building up enough of an audience of people who Trust in what we say so that when this stuff SP come pops up inevitably that they
know to come to us for accurate information to immediately SWAT it down and to not allow a vacuum to be filled that that by virtue of our absence our ABS or an absence of push back where this stuff actually sticks we've seen that happen before where Republicans didn't I'm sorry where Democrats didn't adequately push back and then that vacuum is just filled with Disinformation happened with the ACA for ObamaCare Democrats didn't have a strong enough messaging apparatus an were saying that it was going to be death panels and we let that lie sit and simmer
and people started to believe it and look what happened Democrats were completely routed in 2010 in that election in in not in full part but in in in in large part because of the Republicans lies about the ACA and so there's danger in allowing these lies to Simmer but I think our job is to immediately swiftly and effectively rebut these lies when they pop up yeah I I agree okay let's go back for a second to Lady Vance and those leaked pictures of him in drag all right as we all know I mean Vance and
the GOP they are strong uh opponents to the they anti-lgbtq plus and they have a very strong anti-lgbtq plus um stance uh let me ask you this do you think that these leaked Images of Vance and dreg will impact his credibility amongst the base or do you think that they'll just brush it aside as just another distraction oh you know you know that they come up with answers for everything Bingo that's it look if JD Van's hypocrisy was disqualifying they wouldn't have nominated him in the first place knowing that he called Donald Trump America's Hitler
if JD Vance's hypocrisy was disqualifying They they wouldn't they wouldn't watch him do apologia for Donald Trump attacking the biracial of KLA Harris while he himself has three biracial children the the hypocrisy doesn't matter for them they will always explain it away it it never matters look if hypocrisy was disqualifying Mitch McConnell when he when he prevented Merrick garland from getting a supreme court seat only to then allow Amy Cony Barrett to get one with eight days Before an election that would have been disqualifying they will always explain it away it doesn't matter there are
no Scruples there are no principles long-standing principles or morals or values it is about the consolidation of Power by any means necessary so then how do you see this incident if any at all influencing the broader conversation about gender expression within the Republican party I mean particularly as it relates to their you know legislative Attacks on for example drag performances and transgender rights it won't it won't they're they're they're they're not going to budge their position just because they see somebody in drag from their own side is not going to is not going to have
any impact they there's a cognitive dissonance at play where they will see that and recognize what he's doing and yet that won't have the slightest bit of impact on their willingness to move forward and continue To impose as great a restriction as they can on the ability of people to express themselves there there is that cognitive dissonance at play and so it won't matter it'll have no impact yeah you know when we would talking before about you know how well um kamla Harris and Tim um walls The Surge and the momentum that they have I
was reading an article the other day about Florida and the fact that Harrison walls are even doing really Well in Florida which especially Donald thought that he has Florida in the bag and Florida is an important state which to me was particularly surprising so what strategies would you advise the wals Harris campaign or I should say the Harris wals campaign to continue or to change to help continue to build the momentum that they have right now as we're approaching the election I would just say to keep on doing what they're doing to keep Searching for
more endorsements I think that if they can get that Taylor Swift endorsement that'll have a big impact but to to continue reaching these thought leaders whose whose audiences include Jen Z I think that's going to be especially important right now because um the these people these people don't necessarily have their political opinions calcified right now and so in terms of bringing those people into the political process finding their thought Leaders whether they're in music or TV or art or or Sports whatever it is and making sure that those people serving tribunes for their audiences so
that we can broaden our Coalition expand our tent that's going to be key heading into uh heading into November look Harrison walz have at least two of the top 10 biggest names that are out there as far as celebrity endorsements Taylor Swift and queen be herself or queen Bay right Beyonce uh I mean she has their Endorsement lock stuck in barrel and rightfully so that's certainly part of the momentum but you know I really do believe that the Republicans especially Donald's constant patting himself on the back talking about how he is responsible for the overturning
of Row versus Wade and all of the other nonsense that is going on I really believe that that is what is promoting this massive Grassroots mobilization I mean when you have 300 or 250,000 new supporters that are coming in and they are out there you know knocking on doors for you each one just does 10 right I mean you're talking about just that alone is over two and a half million two and a half the entire 2016 uh the 2020 election was lost by Trump by like 85,000 people and you know there are no Democrats
that no matter what are going to switch especially now there's no Democrats that are switching to Republicans The Independents I think are definitively right now leaning much more to Harrison walls but I think based on that 30% of never trumpers we call them the Nicki Haley voters that yeah their momentum that this Grassroots mobilization is what is really going to be the ultimate decid here especially as this mobilization amongst minority communities and younger voters genz um that's what I believe is guiding the recent poll Surges uh Michael real quick I gotta I gotta run in
like a minute is that okay okay um do you want to uh I just answer that question and I have one question left yeah yeah I I think you're absolutely right I think I think to that exact point whether it's finding those gen Z those young people who aren't yet into the political process or reaching out to giving a permission structure to those Republicans for Harris for example That's going to be especially important right now in terms of you know building up this Coalition broadening our tent the anti-trump Coalition is bigger than anything that Donald
Trump has and so the campaign is very smartly reaching out to these people giving them a permission structure to come on board we just saw the Harris uh the har the Republicans for Harris uh Zoom happened just yesterday as of this recording and so you know I think giving these Different groups a permission structure to come over to this campaign and be part of this Coalition is going to be key in November yeah and just a final question is the hour goes by very quickly here on mayor Cula there's so many things that we talked
about which what Shameless really talks about I was actually hoping when I asked you about what would you do and what would be an additional chapter that you would write about and the thing I was actually Hoping that you would have said call the chapter artificial intelligence because one of the things about artif this AI is that its role in politics my opinion is being deliberately weaponized by the Republican Party by trumpism to so additional distrust in legitimate campaign strategies especially especially given the Public's growing concerns about technology and privacy so what do you and
I do in order to ensure Transparency in usage of technology so that we don't continue to fall into these traps like the allegations that her in that you know her rallies are AI generated in terms of crow size it's it's a great question and one that's going to become more and more important um as we as as that technology continues to advance I think that our goal is twofold we need legislation for example to prevent this type of manipulation uh from happening like Legislation that would that would criminalize uh the manipulation of of of I
guess images or videos or deep fakes uh in our election process so that's the first thing the second is that we need to make sure that people have better media literacy and can spot this stuff and that we also to my earlier Point don't allow this disinformation to simmer without pushing back on it immediately and effectively And create and allow them to create that void that can that that will then um you know be filled with that kind of disinformation where people start to believe it so the onus is is on us to move quickly
uh to rebut this kind of stuff just like it's always on us to to move quickly to rebut disinformation so that it doesn't simmer and people start to believe it um but but you know this is definitely going to be uh this is definitely going to be a frontier on Which on which Democrats have to fight really effectively because we've already seen how Republicans are willing to wield it without without any uh without any Scruples yeah so Brian Tyler Cohen great to see you again my brother be seeing you in Chicago congrats on the book
I recommend Shameless it's it's fascinating um and I look forward to speaking and seeing you very very soon thanks for joining me again and thanks for making us just a little bit smarter Today Michael thank you so much and congrats on the explosive growth of your channel excited to to see where it goes thank you my brother [Music]