I'm joined Now by pod safe America's John favro thanks for joining me what's up man so right now we're watching as Elon Musk has just taken kind of an AXS to the entirety of the federal government he's going from agency to agency we're also seeing how all of these agencies that he's taking an acts to are agencies that were investigating him agencies that were providing oversight against him regulatory action against him the inspector generals were looking into him and so it's not just you know while he'll present this as like some attack against waste Fraud
and Abuse in fact Elon has derived some benefit every single step of the way so to what extent do you think that Trump has political exposure by really offering a handout to the richest guy in the world given that Elon is really the one that's benefiting the most from all of this I think and there's a bunch of polls out today and they're consistent with polls from the last week or so that Elon is unpopular the idea of Elon having too much power in the federal government is something um people believe to be true or
majority of Voters believe to be true majority of Independents believe to be true and they also you know I think an Echelon poll gave people two statements you know is Elon and Doge cutting waste Fraud and Abuse the right thing to do or are you worried that uh they're going to cut programs that people really depend on and more people said they're worried about them cutting programs that they depend on so I think that the most exposure that Trump and Elon both have have and Republicans in general because don't forget not a single Republican in
Congress has really spoken up in any real way against this is how how could they have nestled in the protective warmth of Trump's colon you know exactly exactly and so um if if people see Services cut if people hear that safety is at risk whether it's the people who are supposed to secure our nukes or the people who are uh working at the FAA to keep our planes in the sky keep our planes in the sky which is something I'm that's a one I'm a one-issue voter on that uh you know if they see that
if they see a whole bunch of people fired for no reason veterans who are Manning a Veterans Crisis Line all this kind of stuff then I think there's a lot of political exposure and um look I don't I don't know elon's motivations Trump motivations it's hard to get in their head but one thing that seems clear about the two of them and I think why they're getting along and what's going on here is they're both have authoritarian personality right they don't like to be told what to do they don't like criticism when they want something
done they want to get it done and so I think you know we saw them on on Hannity Show together like I really see Elon as like Trump's enforcer here and Trump wants things done and elon's like if I have to you know break the law then we'll let the court sort it out uh if I have to fire the wrong people whatever if I have to uh you know put some services at risk benefits at risk whatever we'll figure it out later it's just it's like move fast break things but it's the government and
he also doesn't know a lot about the federal government right like I'm smart guy can you know build some rockets and cars but when it comes to the federal government he clearly hasn't taken the time to learn anything nor has his team so they keep screwing up um they are showing signs of incompetence already all over the place firing the people who working for uh working on bird flu stuff hire them back so it's not like any of this is some grand plan and I think the more people see chaos incompetence and they see a
risk to themselves then yeah there's going to be poit political exposure for the Republican Party well obviously loss aversion is is a big thing and we're already seeing the effects of that I mean from Medicaid people getting blocked out of out of these Medicaid portals we're seeing planes crashing colliding falling out of the sky on a daily basis at the same time that we're seeing the FAA firing hundreds of of employees and of course they're they're coming out and trying to do whatever damage control they can and saying that you know these are these are
non-essential Personnel but like not great Optics when planes can't stop crashing on a daily basis and you keep gutting the agency that's responsible for Aviation Security and so I'm I'm wondering whether you think that we are already at the point where where we are seeing what would be enough to to Really to really be The Logical conclusion of what they're trying to do I mean like how much worse can you get than than slashing Medicaid how much worse can you get than than cutting cancer research how much worse can you get than cutting education funding
I mean now you're getting into the stuff that that is going to transcend just the regular red meat for the base right like now it's stuff that actually impacts people Republicans have have have family members who who deal with cancer Republicans have family members who rely on education funding Republicans have family members who need Medicaid and so all of these issues are now going to touch the very people who who they rely on who compose their base and so well I mean and Republicans and the ones who are up for election again yeah which is
not Donald Trump but all the republicans in Congress um they're heading into this budget fight now um with this backdrop of Doge incompetency Cuts all the things you were just talking about affecting people now they're heading into this budget fight where their proposal is just a $4.5 trillion tax cut that mostly is for is going to benefit people like Elon and Trump and they're going to try to find all these Cuts where you know Trump says we're not going to touch Medicaid Medicare and Social Security I don't know where else you're going to find the
money yeah the defense department but they said they also want to add funding to the defense defense department too so like I I don't know what they're planning on doing here and if the other only other option is to cut all other spending which is like now we're talking food safety Transportation all the things people count on so I think that the what Trump and Elon are doing they're setting up the republicans in Congress to be extremely unpopular because they're about to pass a bill that even if there was no Doge would probably be unpopular
with people because it's a huge tax cut for the rich and and cuts to healthcare and education that people count on and so so in an environment where where Republicans enjoy the benefit of a huge megaphone of unlimited money to really push any messages through any any campaign they want to to put money behind Elon himself can fund the whole thing just out of his own you know on the interest that he made on his Investments that day and and so in an environment like this where they are doing the most unpopular things where they're
passing a tax cut where the vast majority of the benefits are going to be conferred to Millionaires and billionaires where they're cutting education cutting healthare cutting earned benefits cutting Social Security all so that they can fund basically a gift to Elon and his donors how would you message that I mean your your you know your whole background is in in speech writing and so in an environment where we have the the the deck stacked against us um with you know the the size and scope of of the right-wing media machine how do you get our
message to break through I think that we have so many stories right now of people who are have been hurt who've lost their jobs who are scared and I think we need to tell those stories and I think we need to be fighting for those people and fighting for everyone and I don't I don't actually think it's I mean we I know we have been dissecting messaging and strategizing over it for the last several years this to me is just like be a human yeah like you uh we're you know the there's a veteran who
served 20 years four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan disabled works at the Bronx VA Hospital goes into his job and logs onto his computer and finds out he's fir got four kids at home like what what are we doing right this is supposed to be like the big evil diabolical like government waste and like these are regular people who are by the way also Republicans who just work regular jobs jobs that that aren't just important so that people can feed their families but that are beneficial to the country that keep us safe that make sure
that our nukes for example are are watched over that make sure our food supply is safe like I don't know I mean we're the Democrats um we think that our job is to fight for people who are paying taxes into the government so that they can have safe roads and safe uh skies and that they can get government services when they need them that there's going to be schools for their kids that they're going to be able to retire and get their social security and that they're going to be able to get health care when
they need it just basic stuff yeah that they're going to be able to like when they work really hard that they're going to be able to like not live in poverty put food on the table and we want to have have a government that is on the side of those people and not a government that is hollowed out so that people who don't need a tax cut and some of them weren't even asking for it um can get more money from the government I'm I'm I'm really glad that you said the point that we can
just talk to regular people who who this is all impacting because I think we fall into this trap of wanting to talk about these issues in like a theoretical sense and it's hard for people to really connect with that stuff because it's just part of like the political banter in the Zeitgeist right but but to your exact point and and this is what was especially effective during during the campaign is like people don't have trust in in politicians they they they trust even the commentators who are on their side they'll trust those people more than
they would the politicians but but you're going to have you know partisan affiliations clouding how people perceive even the political commentators but when you have regular people and this is something that Sarah Longwell has has talked about at Republican voters against Trump those are the people who kind of Garner the most trust among the vast majority Americans those people who aren't overtly political who just have a story to share and and by the way that was a strategy that Democrats leaned on ahead of 2018 those midterms when really it was a referendum on trying to
undo the ACA and when you can hear about the regular people across the country who that would impact that's what really resonated and of course that election was was you know a huge backlash against Trump and Republicans who were trying to strip Obamacare um funding away and and trying to to do that repeal and replace um even though there's nothing to replace it with but but really the benefits by by virtue of making those people front and center really presented themselves in a way that we hadn't seen before yeah and again I I I really
think at this point um I've seen a lot of Democrats and strategists and everyone else and pundits like everyone's just overthinking everything like what I would say to a democratic politician is like just you know go to the Washington Post New York Times are doing some great reporting on this go read some of the stories from these people yeah and then walk away don't look at your phone don't talk to your advisers how does it make you feel how did that how did reading about that story make you feel and then go talk to people
about that and go tell people what you want to do about that now we don't have a lot of options right now we can make a lot of noise we can start organizing in advance of Elections we can sue and and and fight in court which Democrats are doing they can talk about some of those and they're being and they're being largely successful at temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions can slow things down in Congress as much as possible don't have a ton of power to do that but you know we we can be creative
there um creative and trying to communicate to people and get out in the country I do think that like you know I saw B Ro tweet this today but he was like you know everyone should say they're going to go have town halls and and maybe you don't have the all the answers for when you go to the town halls and people are like what are you going to do about it but I just think like going out there meeting people listening to people trying to get their ideas like we just need to start rebuilding
the muscle of organizing and like yes no one's perfect and some of the democratic politicians are too old for all of this and and their stuff's not Landing that I get that right but at some point we all got to come together and fight this and some people are going to be good some people aren't going to be good some people are going to emerge as new leaders hopefully some people aren't but the most important thing right now is to start making these connections for people who are in an information environment where everything's just hitting
them at once and be like no no no let's focus on the actual people who are getting hurt by this and forget about the like we're trying to drive a wedge between Trump and Elon like all this stuff there's just like feifer said this Dan feifer said this the other couple weeks ago and it's like stuck with me ever since is that Democrats are um we're like reading the stage directions a lot yeah you know and you can hear that in some of the messaging it's like he's not he's he's using the Gulf of Mexico
to dest ract you from he wants to give his billionaire buddies a tax break and it's like yeah it's a lot it's a lot of talking about what we should be talking about instead just talking about it just talk about it that's exactly right that's exactly right and I do think that we just need to like you know get in touch with your own feelings about this yeah just and go from there I I I've noticed I've noticed that too is that there is a lot of like the and even I was I'm I'm guilty
of this where I'll say like why isn't the media talking about this and like look at the asymmetry in the media if if this was happening you know if if we saw planes falling out of the sky under people jedge you know right-wing media would be talking about this on an endless loop and they would but it in in a way it kind of actually exacerbates our our weakness because it shows that like these people are going to be like yeah you're right and like we don't care like that's our superpower we are we are
past the point of Shame and so you can say this and we know full well that if the shoe was on the other foot we would throw a stink about this for 72 straight hours and with you we're not going to say a word cuz we don't care and and and deal with it and so instead of talking about how that asymmetry is is is frustrating just instead like the the way I thought about it is like be the change you want to see and instead talk about it and and and flood the Zone with
the fact that you know they would they would be saying if planes were falling out of the air under under P Budaj they would be talking about over and over so we talk about it over and over Le less less complaining about the situation in which we find ourselves and more yelling at the people who are causing the problems right and so I do want to talk about that for a minute because I think you you you had a front row seat unlike any other by virtue of working with Barack Obama and seeing how the
right-wing media ecosystem was like trained against him was was propped up in order to destroy everything that he did and so um with with the Shawn Duffy of it all I mean look Trump came out and and did all of these big actions uh with regard to Aviation he he disbanded the aviation you know Security Council he fired the FAA administrator he even released a statement on his website saying Donald J Trump restor you ends Dei Madness and restores excellence and safety in Federal Aviation and so that was him basically basically taking full ownership of
every thought everything that that would happen henceforth in aviation only to then watch as we've you know seen planes Collide and crash and fall out of the sky on a daily basis that now you have Shawn Duffy who's trying his level best to to deflect blame Any Which Way and so how do you think about this where where they've put their stamp of ownership on everything only to then say actually now that this bad stuff is happening even after We've Ended Dei um we're just going to go back and blame everything on Budaj jedge and
the Democrats and and it's always their fault we can only take acceptance for successes and we shoulder none of the blame so on this one I think that we have to offer people an alternative and we have to be the alternative right and so our accusation is that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are like playing politics with air safety right and so if we want to be the opposition then I think what we need to do is look at the actual facts and demand answers right and by that I mean there's an air traffic controller
shortage and there has been for some time what are they going to do about it they said that they didn't lay off anyone that was critical to air safety okay fine what does critical mean because you laid off um maintenance people technicians um story of a guy who another veteran who've been working for years and years and years uh in as part of a group that was also understaffed to help planes avoid new hazards like cranes and buildings like why did you lay those people off Elon Musk says he's going to like send in his
SpaceX Engineers great I'm sure they can build rocket ships but like now they're just going to run into the FAA like what what are you doing and I think it's it's not even necessar because like look is it Trump's fault that the planes were falling out of the sky we have no idea probably not in most cases um but what is true is that our safety is at risk and has been at risk for some time because the FAA is under staffed and Air Traffic Control in particular is under staffed and now we have an
Administration who doesn't give a about government oversight um or safety and wants everything to be you know as efficient and business-like as possible where it's like well that's great if you're running a company where the goal is to make a bunch of profit but we're not trying to make a bunch of profit and run the FAA as Slim and efficient as possible we want redundancy in the FAA fatten up the FAA because we want safety right which is why we want redundancy at the uh group that looks at our nukes right you want extra people
there you want extra people in food safety right there's some functions where yeah we do want a little bit bigger government because our safety is at risk and the goal is not to just turn a profit and I do think like making that argument which is grounded in truth and facts then tells people okay these are talking about Dei and then this plane crashed and then they're cutting F like what is going on and I think we have to be like no there is a problem with Aviation that Pete budy judge and Joe Biden identified
that problem work working on it and then these guys came in and they're just trying to break everything and that's going to put people at risk it's going to put people at risk you know how does it make you feel given your um given your you're already uh strong disdain for flying that this is the issue overtaking the country right now just I mean I'm getting just my Xanax filled up for next flight when when is when is the next travel honestly I think I'm not flying until mid-march yeah um but yeah I'm getting on
that plane and I I I'm going to have to be comos yeah have you considered travel by boat get like a John Madden style bus and cheap enough because now that we own the Panama Canal I don't think there's any fees to go through that's yeah that's so uh well thank you for joining uh for everybody watching right now please go ahead and subscribe to pod safe America's YouTube channel I'll put the link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video Fabs thanks so much for joining thanks for having
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