>> Speaker 2: [SOUND] I'm really struck by the ballot initiatives that your voters will be facing in November. I'm struck because they're so very different from the politics that I covered for the bulk of my life. I'm 54, been covering this stuff since I was 22. Most of that time, the debates that we had in the political sphere were over [00:00:18] competing visions for how to improve people's lives. But when you wind up in an election where the two top valid initiatives are, one, encouraging people to kill their own kids, and two, encourage their kids to do drugs, who's benefiting here? [00:00:33] I'm serious, the one unalloyed source of joy in your life is your children. The point of life is to have children and to watch them have grandchildren. Nothing will bring you joy like that will, nothing comes close. [00:00:49] Would you trade your job for your children? Would you trade anything for your children, of course not. >> Speaker 1: Wow, wow. >> Speaker 3: I've never regretted having a child more in this moment than ever. Like Tucker Carlson getting behind kids I'm like, maybe kids are bad. [00:01:09] So what you just saw was an advertisement put out by the forces in Ohio that they want voters to vote no on issue one that would allow the reproductive rights for [00:01:25] all people to be enshrined in that state's constitution. So at stake is that issue one, it's a proposed amendment that would insert language in the state constitution codifying the right to one's own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion, and [00:01:42] barring the state from burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting those rights. The proposed measure specifies that abortion would remain prohibited after fetal viability but includes exceptions to protect the mother's life or health. This sounds like Roe v wade codified into a state's constitution. [00:02:00] This is a massive vote, and there's been a lot of money on both sides. Abortion is legal in the state up to 22 weeks. A six-week abortion ban previously passed in the state and is on hold, and it awaits a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, [00:02:16] so the writing is on the wall here. The state became a flashpoint in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v wade. As you all remember, when a ten-year-old rape victim was forced to travel out of Ohio to get an abortion. Just giving a sense of the money behind this. Since August, the date after the special election, [00:02:36] which punted this to this vote here on next Tuesday. Groups supporting the November issue one measure have spent $18.3 million, compared with $7 million spent by the antiabortion groups against it. According to Ad Impact, a firm that tracks political ad spending public polling from July shows that 58% of [00:02:54] registered Ohio voters support enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. So it's a comfortable majority, but people have to get out and vote next week. Republicans are scared, they're trying to stop this however they can. [00:03:10] They've used their state positions to try and influence the vote, first calling that special election like we just talked about, to try and raise the threshold for passing ballot amendments which failed. And then now let's jump down to this. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has ordered the purge of [00:03:27] 26,666 voters in late September but didn't announce the move. So quietly purging voters, about 4700 of them are from Franklin County, which includes the democratic stronghold of Columbus. People who are purged can re-register, but importantly, [00:03:43] not in time to vote on that ballot measure the deadline was October 10. So again, they've tried everything, raising the threshold for whether this will pass because they see that 58% and they are freaked out. And I hope and I know that the electorate is active but Ray, your thoughts on this? [00:04:01] >> Speaker 1: They should be scared, they should be terrified because there was massive turnout for that special election, and it was obviously not at the same time as midterm election or a general election. It was at a time where people don't usually have to go to the polls again, [00:04:16] it was a special election and there was massive turnout to thwart that that would have raised the threshold needed to pass ballot initiatives. Which is something we have in the state of Illinois it's horrible. We were able, fortunately, to codify abortion protections in our state [00:04:33] constitution, but that higher threshold has thwarted so much progressive ballot initiatives from passing even in a very blue state like Illinois. I also add that if you were disgusted to hear Tucker Carlson's voice, [00:04:48] then see his face same. But I will say that to anybody who says deplatforming doesn't work, when was the last time you heard Tucker Carlson's voice? When was the last time you saw his repugnant face, it's been a while, hasn't it? And that's because he doesn't have a show on Fox News that he gets [00:05:03] to do every night. He doesn't have the white supremacist power hour in the prime-time slot on Fox News, so you don't hear him as much. >> Speaker 1: Thats a good point. >> That's significantly less reach. >> Speaker 3: I mean, that's such a good point, obviously. And getting rid of Trump on Twitter was huge, even though he's invited back whenever he wants. [00:05:19] But you're totally right, I mean, we almost did a segment on Jesse Waters talking about Halloween and how dads shouldn't leave work early to go help their kids trick or treating. Sorry, that doesn't have the same great replacement theory that Tucker Carlson has but it is a desperate move to pull him out of the archives for [00:05:36] these Ohio Republicans who want to stop this measure from going forward. Look, I don't put it past Ohio Republicans even if this issue one is passed and they enshrine this in the Constitution, we will see more shenanigans. [00:05:52] We've always seen more shenanigans from republican state legislators. They always try and overturn the will of the people, no matter what the issue is. So, I think there's still a fight but for now, we gotta get through next Tuesday.