It's legitimate fear. You see Lisa murkowski right there making really what was a stunning admission. She's a sitting Republican senator, and she's admitting that she and her colleagues are full of fear because of this Trump administration. She took a 45 minute leadership summit in and really poured her heart out to [00:00:19] the people who were in attendance there. They asked some tough questions and she gave some really raw answers. So listen to her first discussion here where she admitted that, she has a lot of anxiety. [00:00:35] We're in a time in a place where I don't know. I certainly have not. I have not been here before. And I'll tell you, I, I'm, oftentimes very [00:00:50] anxious myself about about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that's not right. [00:01:06] But that's what you've asked me to do. And so I'm going to use my voice to the best of my ability. And sometimes it will be viewed in a way that will that's pretty confrontational. [00:01:22] And other times it's going to be using my mother's charm that I, I learned as a young girl. And in direct communication with those that I have made relationships with and, and able to affect some, some change that way. [00:01:42] Yeah. So, like we said, raw, honest murkowski didn't mention, you know, her other Republican colleagues. She knew better than to do that. But they're obviously talking, obviously afraid. But I guess for me, I'm not a body language expert, obviously, [00:01:57] but I just noted some things. She looks, beaten, you know, and members of Congress, I'm not saying they work harder than other people, but they're traveling, they're doing this. They're getting beaten up a little bit. But just the body language alone makes me feel like she's. [00:02:13] It was like a therapy session. - What did you see? - Yeah. So look, this goes to a familiar theme that's been around for almost a decade now where, Republican politicians absolutely despise Donald Trump. And some for good reason and some for the wrong reasons. [00:02:29] And so, but they're scared to death of him, and they're scared to death of calling him out. And so I actually think that Lisa murkowski saying this out loud is part of Trump losing his power, because if he wasn't losing his power, [00:02:46] then she'd be afraid to even say that she's afraid of him, because then she's definitely going to get attacked by Trump supporters for even saying that, right? And so, and she's not the only one. There's a lot of cracks in the wall here. John Kennedy has been kissing, Trump's ass for the last, two, three, 4 or 5 years. [00:03:07] In the beginning, he had resisted Trump a little bit. He's a Republican senator from Louisiana. He's actually a very bright guy. And then he went on this, you know, long stretch where he said the dumbest things. He's all over our soundboard. Bart plays his clips all the time because he's. [00:03:22] He thought the strategy is be dumb. Just support Donald Trump, etc.. And now he's saying, like, I don't know about this tariff thing. I don't know about the taking people off the streets for Israel. I don't know about a lot of this. Right. Rand Paul saying definitely wrong. Trump's definitely wrong on the tariffs. [00:03:41] Murkowski's saying this because Trump is doing a whole bunch of things that are very unpopular. And that is giving them the strength to be able to meekly criticize Trump. See. And and and to okay. Now two sides here. Sharon. [00:03:58] So one is on the one hand, I get their concern. Trump has eliminated a whole bunch of people politically, and there's nothing wrong with that. He just said, hey, primary them. Now I think he does it for the wrong purposes, for his own gain, and not [00:04:15] to actually pursue any policy goals or like that, but it is politics, etc. But illegitimately, a lot of their members apparently voted against convicting Trump after January 6th, after he was impeached, [00:04:31] because they were literally afraid for their lives because a lot of MAGA guys had openly threatened them. So I think that that's a tough situation to be in. On the other hand, well, brother, you're supposed to be a leader in this country. [00:04:46] If you're in the Senate and you're or you're in Congress. So this is not exactly Profiles in Courage. And Sharon, this is what this is why I'm not a politician. Because I would think so. What if I lose and and you know, you're not and you're going to threaten me. [00:05:03] Okay. I'll get protection to the best of my abilities. And then if something happens, it happens. But I came here to represent people. And I came here to have my actual own thoughts, and not to be some sort of servant of Donald Trump, some a butler, a pathetic butler of Donald Trump. [00:05:21] Then what's the point? What? So you can hang on to your status and fake power? It's not even real power. Trump has the power. You're just a servant, right? So just to hold on to your fame and your status. That's why I find politicians so often to be really utterly pathetic. [00:05:37] Yeah. And if I were to start at January 6th and the death threats, I get it. I get exactly what you're saying. I can understand that. Right? Families and fear. But it didn't start there. They had so many opportunities along the way to get this thing under control, [00:05:54] to keep it under control. And they didn't do it. And it's like it felt like a therapy session, like I said, where she's. And it's unfair because a constituent asked her the question, how do you, you know, speak truth to power or something to that effect. And that was her part of her response there. But you're we expect you to be there and fight the good fight [00:06:14] and you're not doing it. It reminds me of that show intervention where you have this intervention specialist who's often, you know, a former addict, right? Once an addict, always an addict. They'll tell you, but they say usually to the mother, right. Not stereotyping, but they'll say, oh, well, you know, my baby, he's coming to me [00:06:32] and she gives the money and this and that. And then he says to her, he's going to die either way. Like the only chance he has is if you stop enabling this behavior. And like, a light bulb goes off. So I just I don't know. [00:06:49] Murkowski was referring to, sweeping federal cuts, of course, causing her the most anxiety. She blasted the Trump administration's unlawful she called it approach, slashing programs, USAID, Medicaid tariffs that could devastate. [00:07:05] She's really feeling this Alaska's fishing industry. Because she's hearing from people there. She described her her staff constantly scrambling to To mitigate abrupt changes. The chaos, little warning. And then she also described these real emotions she's had with her constituents. [00:07:24] And the common denominator of those meetings has been, of course, fear. These are unscripted moments where I am not soliciting them and people are not planning on sharing them with me. Almost serendipitous in an airport. [00:07:39] And so these are real emotions. These are real people. These are real fears. And they need to be heard. To me, that that must be traumatic. And I think it needs to be for her to every day have people coming up to her and crying and pouring their heart out. [00:07:56] But this is what they're living. And I'm wondering if you think that this is now nearing a point where all hands will be on deck. You know, like you're saying, like maybe this is her saying it out loud, a wake up call to these other Republicans, people taking to the streets. [00:08:12] The one judge boasberg standing up and saying, I'm going to have criminal contempt, even if I have to appoint an attorney to prosecute here. Could this be. - Are we nearing something? - Yeah. So, look, I think that, this is the point where you fight. [00:08:31] And so I've, said in the past, don't fight on on, issues where we don't have the advantage. Right? So don't go to, positions where the American people are 80, 20 against us. [00:08:50] This is not one of those. Okay. And so for me, on the Democratic side, I get so frustrated. The politicians are like, when do we find I don't know, I don't know when to do the strategy. No, guys, when he's taken away due process rights and he's not listening [00:09:08] to courts, what else is there? Right. So him not listening to the courts is not yet definitive. But this is when you need to do the pushback. Because if you don't do the pushback, as Democrats or even Republicans like murkowski. Well, then, if he doesn't have to listen to the courts, it's already too late. [00:09:26] Then when you go to do the pushback, you won't have any power or leverage to do it with. Because if an executive can ignore the courts, then we have anarchy. We have no law at all in this country. And that means the president is basically an authoritarian leader. So yeah, this is the time. This is the time. [00:09:44] And there are different ways to fight. And there's different and smarter and more strategic ways to fight. And you don't have to die on every hill. Right. But you do have to die on this hill. And hopefully we don't die. And hopefully we do win. And I do believe that the American people are on our side. [00:09:59] And I believe that a lot of these folks like murkowski, look, some of the reasons that some of the corporate Democrat corporate Republicans fight against Trump is because they don't agree with him on some of the donor issues or the corporate issues, etc. But mainly they don't fight him because they're afraid of him. [00:10:14] Right. And, and, and some of those guys as, as as much as I loathe them, they don't hate our Constitution and they don't hate our democracy. And so they're made uncomfortable by all this. But uncomfortable isn't going to matter if he goes another step and he [00:10:32] ignores the courts and gets away with it. So by all means, fight now. Fight on this ground and this is winning ground. And lastly, I'm give word to voice to one of our members on Titcomb. Pseudodragon said, if you're afraid of losing your voice, [00:10:50] don't run or hold elected office. That's exactly right. That's the whole point. If you're not ready to do that, then please step aside and let people with courage do it. Yeah. And I think we saw, name's escaping me. [00:11:05] A couple Republicans do that, even during Trump's first term, threatened, bullied and said, I can't fight. I'm done with this. And so they left Congress and started their life after Congress. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. [00:11:21] Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.