EVERY SPOKEN WORD
60 min read · 12,112 words- 0:00 – 7:57
Intro
- AMAdam Mockler
There's a bunch of photos of Natalie Harp smiling at him, like that new movie Obsession.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. [laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
You know the new horror movie that's coming out? She's standing in the corner, like smiling at him, I swear to God.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
If you look at these photos.
- KSKara Swisher
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher, and I'm kicking off another week of... [upbeat music] Scott-Free August. [air horn] Oh, I never get sick of that. Yeah, Scott is still away. I don't know where he is. He has not been in touch, which is a, a good sign or a bad sign. So, uh, I think he's on some island. He might be-- Who knows where he is? In some expensive place. Um, so I brought on a co-host Scott would approve of, a young man. It's Adam. I- I- I... I know that sounds weird. Okay.
- AMAdam Mockler
It didn't sound weird till you said it sounds weird. It was fine. [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
Anyway, it's Adam Mockler, Gen Z commentator and host of "The Adam Mockler Show". Talk a little bit about your background for people who don't know.
- AMAdam Mockler
First of all, I just wanna say thanks for having me on. I'm excited to co-host. I really appreciate how you guys do put attention on young male issues, which is obviously what you were getting towards. You guys talk about it in a very unique way, and that means a lot. I'm 23 years old, and I'm building a, a media company in Chicago. I've got a team of five to six scrappy people. I do a lot of debates and a lot of political content online, and I've just built this over the past two to three years, but also over the past decade or, or so. I, I made my YouTube channel when I was nine years old.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay.
- AMAdam Mockler
And I used to make Call of Duty videos.
- KSKara Swisher
That's a decade. You're 23, okay. [laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
Well, I used to make these Call of Duty and Minecraft videos.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay.
- AMAdam Mockler
Many young people have experiences where they would make, like, these gaming videos, and that kind of s- sprouted into me doing political videos when I graduated high school. I would go to Trump rallies and debate the supporters there, and now it's turned into this. Now I speak to some young male issues, political issues.
- KSKara Swisher
So where did you go to college? Did you go-- You went to college, correct?
- AMAdam Mockler
Yes, in, in, in Indiana for one year, and then I dropped out after going to college for a year. It just, it was too much of a balance between doing work-
- KSKara Swisher
Mark Zuckerberg. A little Mark Zuckerberg action.
- AMAdam Mockler
Something like that, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- AMAdam Mockler
People always say Charlie Kirk 'cause he dropped out too-
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, did he?
- AMAdam Mockler
... and did politics, but I, I don't know. I think Zuckerberg, I like that a little bit more.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay.
- AMAdam Mockler
I like as, as like-
- KSKara Swisher
I'll use that one. What, what is your hopes and dreams of what you wanna make?
- AMAdam Mockler
I just wanna make politics accessible for a younger generation by, you know, using the vehicles to my advantage, such as short-form content. Short-form content's a really powerful vehicle for posting debate content and clips, and I, I just wanna keep building my own show, my own apparatus. I worked with MeidasTouch, uh, for a while, and now I'm building my own sort of machine on my side. So my goal is to just keep scaling and expanding and making politics accessible.
- KSKara Swisher
Right, 'cause it's been a lot, it was expensive. I mean-
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah
- KSKara Swisher
... I hate to tell you, but I happen to be the OG of this me- te- a decade, two decades ago, really, when we left The Wall Street Journal, and it's very exciting. It is... You know, one of the things, a lot of people who are doing this, like you, are always like, "Oh, should I leave?" I'm like, "Yes." Like, it's such an, an, an interesting time to do this.
- 7:57 – 16:02
USS Abraham Lincoln Fallout
- KSKara Swisher
there's a growing concern about the 5,000 sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which has now been deployed for more than 250 days and hasn't made a port call in at least 200 days. Military families and lawmakers are sounding the alarm about the food shortages, contaminated water, and mental health struggles. There's reports of multiple attempts of, by, uh, crew members to jump overboard. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said concern about conditions on board have been completely misrepresented. An acting Navy secretary notes that Lincoln's deployment was extended because the mission demanded it. The ship will soon be replaced by the USS George Washington. Obviously, it's complex and, and, and, uh, people push back against Hegseth and President Donald Trump. Let's hear what he said about the Lincoln.
- AMAdam Mockler
Family members of US service members are concerned about the conditions on board the USS Lincoln.
- SPSpeaker
Well, no, that ship is moving. No, they're not.
- AMAdam Mockler
But-
- SPSpeaker
Uh, that ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it's being replaced with another very similar ship.
- AMAdam Mockler
But the deployment's gone on too long and shores leave are having mental health concerns.
- SPSpeaker
No, no, no. Not nearly long enough.
- KSKara Swisher
So, uh [laughs] the... Well, that was something to say. I think the families are very upset. Now, also, Georgia Democratic Jon Ossoff this week had some thoughts on all of this, and Trump in general. Let's listen to what he said at a rally on Sunday night.
- SPSpeaker
And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. [crowd cheering] He golfs and trades stocks. [crowd cheering] See, he doesn't want to do the job. [crowd cheering] He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace [crowd cheering] gifted by the Emir of Qatar.
- KSKara Swisher
I just want to explain to listeners, Natalie is Natalie Harp, Trump's personal aide, kno- also known as the human printer. She's sort of his binky or comfort blanket, as Maggie Haberman, you speaking of which, recently put it. Natalie was even with him in the catering cart during his plane decoy operation last month. Uh, talk a little bit about these stories. These are all, like, merging into one story. Um, and also, by the way, Maggie talked about the, the Secret Service being nervous about Natalie Harp and her love notes she leaves for Trump all around his private spaces. Um, talk a little about these stories. This is bizarre o- on all levels, Adam.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah. First of all, Jon Ossoff did a really good job of weaving everything together there.
- KSKara Swisher
Yes.
- AMAdam Mockler
I think he's a really talented communicator. Natalie Harp has been leaving a lot of these weird notes for Donald Trump saying, "You are all that matters to me," and she's inseparable from him at a time when Melania has kind of been missing from all these public events. Honestly, uh, putting that aside for one second, I just want to return to the, the USS Abraham Lincoln, because this is wild to me. The war has been going on for 170 days. These sailors, many of whom are in their 20s, like early 20s, have been trapped there for hundreds and hundreds of days with deteriorating conditions. It reminds me a lot of the prior wars. When I was, uh, really, really young, in the mid-2000s, the same leaders, many of the same people would go on TV and say that this will make America more safe and protected in the long term, and we had to watch as these wars turned into grinding counterinsurgencies, whether it's Iraq or Afghanistan. We were told that we were winning. They went out there and they said, "We're winning. We killed the bad guy. Saddam Hussein's dead." Then it turned into a grinding counterinsurgency that cost us trillions of dollars. We are seeing the same thing repeat. We have these leaders going out on television claiming that this war is being won, that their military is destroyed. That's obviously not true. If the military were destroyed from Iran, then why is Trump still in danger? Why are Trump and Natalie Harp in this, uh, catering cart? Why is the Strait of Hormuz closed? It's very clear that Iran still has a chokehold over the region. They still have enough of a military to close the Strait of Hormuz, and it's not making us safer. I think there's a really strong parallel to be drawn that a lot of millennials or a lot of people in my generation, especially people of your generation, have seen play out over the years. Being in the Middle East doesn't just make us more safe because we're in the Middle East. We have to be getting political concessions from the country. So, sorry, all this is to say that we're not getting any political concessions out of this war. Trump is more focused on hanging out with Natalie Harp, and Americans are struggling right now. It's bad. The USS Abraham Lincoln has 20-year-olds.
- KSKara Swisher
Do young people think about this ship and what's... Do, do these stories break through?
- AMAdam Mockler
The war is absolutely breaking through. It's a pretty big promise that you can't ignore or avoid. It's a complete 180 from what he said on the campaign, which was no new wars, and that really bothers a lot of young people. You can see it in the way that it manifests on, like, Joe Rogan's podcast or Theo Von. Theo Von's a comedian who's not even MAGA. People always try to ascribe these beliefs. He's just a dude who kind of pays attention to the news when, when it's there. And when it comes to Iran, he keeps saying that this is a illegal war, it's a war of aggression, that it's not right. Joe Rogan has echoed similar thoughts about us being stuck. I think the broad populace of young people and these figures don't like the same war because of what I just said. The, the- echoes of the prior wars in the mid-2000s.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. One of the things that's really interesting is I've noticed both my sons very much focused on it, and they're between your age. One is 21, one is 24. Um, and this is at the top of mind for them.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
But this seems to have resonated in a way that a lot of news stories haven't. I don't... I'm not s- they're aware of the Natalie Harp of it all, but I think they were super offended by the way they talked about these families. Uh, my dad was in the military, and was in, in the Navy, and I was offended for these families. What has to occur here, and what do, why do you imagine this is the way Trump is handling it?
- AMAdam Mockler
I think that he's kind of cornered right now. He's trapped himself, and he's trying to negotiate with the carrot. He's trying to entice them via negotiations and use the carrot. It's not working. And then he's trying to use the stick and bomb them over and over, and that's not working. So he's cornered himself to a point. He's entirely trying to reject this idea that he's cornered, and it does break through to young people. It's just such a brazen, broken promise. I also want to point out, we're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this. We already spend $1 trillion per year on the interest of our national debt. Just to service our debt, we spend $1 trillion per year. It's one of the most expensive line items that we, that we have in our country. Like my generation, your sons' generation, we're going to have to bear the brunt of all of this debt that is accumulating right now. And I, again, I think the most offensive part is the way that Trump and the people around him are lying about it so brazenly, acting like it's not existing, trying to blind themselves. They have people like Karoline Leavitt, even the Scott Jennings of it all, going out there and trying to say that, that there's nothing wrong, that we're winning this war. It- it's a really sickening lie.
- KSKara Swisher
Is it an out-of-touch thing? Is it an age thing? What do you... H- When you listen to them, or is it just, they're just good at lying?
- AMAdam Mockler
They're just trying to toe the party line. You know how when we ask any Republican who won the 2020 election, they have that line that they run?
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- AMAdam Mockler
They're like-
- KSKara Swisher
Some of them, not all.
- AMAdam Mockler
They're like, almost most of them, uh, that-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm, yes
- AMAdam Mockler
... are trying to be, uh, become a cabinet member say this. They're like, "Joe Biden was... right, was certified." They have this weird way they go around it. I think they have to toe the party line, and they have to hold faith in the Iran war. But one more time, this started 170 days ago. What did they say, four to six weeks at the beginning of this?
- KSKara Swisher
Yes, they did. And I was with, actually, a pretty prominent Republican senator. He goes, "If this is more than two weeks, Kara, everything's fucked." And I was like [laughs] I just, I text him. I'm like, "It's more than two weeks." Pretty-
- AMAdam Mockler
It's really bad now. Did you see the Chris Christie clip where he said that Trump is, is going to be Jimmy Cartered? That Iran-
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, yeah. Yeah
- 16:02 – 19:03
Spotlight on Natalie Harp
- KSKara Swisher
get a lot of resonance? It seems a little prurient, but at the same time, it's weird. And she's right there, like all the time.
- AMAdam Mockler
Um, yeah, people find it very interesting, combined with the fact that Melania is also gone. I mean, listen, Melania's clearly not enjoying this. And I'm not going to speculate on like what Trump and Natalie Harp are doing, but Natalie Harp has been obsessed with him for years. I found this, uh, thread from Decoding Fox News, a Twitter account, and they point out that Natalie Harp on OAN used to sign off her show by quoting the Bible, and sometimes she would quote Trump in lieu of the Bible. So she would either quote Trump or quote the Bible back in 2020, 2021. She's been obsessed with him for a while, and the more I cover it, the more people are rather interested in this weird note-passing that's happening back and forth. Apparently, the Secret Service, as you mentioned out, said this was sort of a security concern. There's a bunch of photos of Natalie Harp smiling at him, like that new movie, Obsession.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. [laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
You know the new horror movie that's coming out? She's standing in the corner, like smiling at him. I swear to God.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
If you look at these photos.
- KSKara Swisher
Explain Obsession to... Explain Obsession.
- AMAdam Mockler
It's like a, it's like a curse. It's like a horror movie where a guy wishes that his girlfriend is obsessed with him, and then it turns into a curse where she's really creepily obsessed with him.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- AMAdam Mockler
And that's Natalie Harp all the time.
- KSKara Swisher
Doesn't end well.
- AMAdam Mockler
[laughs] Doesn't end well.
- KSKara Swisher
That movie doesn't end well. Anyway, Adam, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt steps down.
- KSKara Swisher
[upbeat music] This is advertiser content from Harvey AI. We have a choice over who we work with and who we don't, specifically who we allow to advertise and who we don't. And for those of you who watch my content, I am not an AI catastrophist, and I'm an AI optimist, and I think it's going to create more jobs than it destroys. And I think our job as professionals is to figure out how to leverage these, these tools. AI, uh, more than almost anything I do in terms of what I could point to for real economic leverage and savings, is 100% in the legal fields. Harvey is the AI designed specifically for legal work, trusted by leading law firms and enterprise legal teams. All right, so now I'm looking at their demo. It plugs into tools that lawyers already work with, LexisNexis, Microsoft. And this is a key, and I do this internally with my LLMs. With permissions, it lets you look at the firm's own files and databases. So here it's answering a question, reads the complaint, pulls the relevant terms, checks the web, weighs the evidence, and drafts a response. But it also can do this in a shared workspace between the firm and the client, so they both have visibility into the work being done and can both add value to it. I, I think this space is clearly sort of hand in glove for AI, right? So there's no doubt about it. This, I think, is, uh, is going to be super helpful, not only for law firms themselves, but internally for general counsels at companies. Harvey is AI tailored for law. You can learn more at harvey.ai
- KSKara Swisher
Adam, we're back.
- 19:03 – 27:03
Press Secretary Succession
- KSKara Swisher
Uh, who will replace Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt? As of this recording, we don't know. Trump announced last week that Leavitt is stepping down at the end of the month to spend more time with her family. She just had her second kid. Some of the rumored candidates to replace Leavitt include Trump's former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, who was with him at his dancing to YMCA at the club in New Jersey recently, his daughter-in-law, uh, Lara Trump, and political commentator Scott Jennings, your best friend. Um, uh, I, I'll mention that after, but Scott was asked about this on CNN. Let's listen to what he said.
- SPSpeaker
Scott, who should replace Karoline Leavitt? Obviously, she is, uh, stepping down. Scott Jennings. And, uh- Are you throwing your hat in the ring? Do you think, who do you think... Who do you... Yeah. Well, first of all, are you throwing your hat in the ring, and- Will you serve, Scott? Answer the question. [laughs] Now, look. Answer the question.
- SPSpeaker
I, I, I don't know, but I'll tell you this. Karoline Leavitt has been maybe the greatest White House press secretary in the last 30 years at least. She's been nothing short of brilliant. She's done it while raising a young family. I think it's great that she's gonna go spend time with her family, but I don't know a single Republican in the country who isn't in awe of and in appreciation of of Karoline tonight. So Godspeed on your journey back to your family. You've done great service.
- SPSpeaker
Let me, let me help you. So do you want the job or not? Let me help Scott. Democrats are afraid of Scott Jennings becoming press secretary.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] There we go.
- KSKara Swisher
Ah. Okay. So explain, um... I, I, l- I want to remind people before we get into this. You have a little history with Scott Jennings. This was so sweet. Let's listen to a clip.
- AMAdam Mockler
Scott Jennings is more than happy to defend a war with a country that starts with the letters I-R-A-
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
... that we are currently failing, that is gonna put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt. I was only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless wars. Now, this war is failing.
- SPSpeaker
Eight weeks is endless to you?
- AMAdam Mockler
Okay, you said it was gonna be four to six weeks.
- SPSpeaker
Is that, is that your, do you have the attention span of a gnat?
- AMAdam Mockler
Wait a minute.
- SPSpeaker
Is that what you have?
- AMAdam Mockler
Cody, I debated you on TV four to six weeks ago-
- SPSpeaker
Okay [laughs]
- AMAdam Mockler
... and you said we were weeks away from it. Now you're making condescending remarks because you can't defend the fact that this war is not going your way. Wait, one more time.
- SPSpeaker
Not going, not going your way?
- AMAdam Mockler
Name one political concession.
- SPSpeaker
Get your fucking hand out of my face.
- AMAdam Mockler
Name one political concession.
- KSKara Swisher
Hey, hey, whoa, whoa, guys. Yeah, "Get your fucking hand out of my..." So, uh, that got a lot of attention. So, uh, talk a little bit about that first, and then the press secretary's job. Is it, does it matter, uh, one way or the other if Scott Jennings goes there or any of these other names we've mentioned?
- AMAdam Mockler
I mean, I think that Scott Jennings would make a perfect press secretary from all of my past interactions with him.
- KSKara Swisher
Tell me why.
- AMAdam Mockler
Unfortunately, it's, it's probably too much of a pay cut, uh, because he likes doing the media stuff where he's always toeing the line, but he's really built up a unique talent that I respect in constantly groveling at Donald Trump's feet, constantly making sure he's toeing the party line, and kind of pivoting around questions. Even in that clip that you just played right there, you see how he very quickly brushes off the actual question and goes into trying to sane wash and whitewash all of Karoline Leavitt's history. If she was doing such a good job over the past 16 months, Donald Trump's approval rating wouldn't be underwater across every-
- KSKara Swisher
Correct
- AMAdam Mockler
... single sector.
- KSKara Swisher
Thank you.
- AMAdam Mockler
Both immigration domestically, immigration at the border, immigration overall with ICE, the economy, everything. When it comes to Scott Jennings, I mean, I, I, I can explain how that clip came to be. It was the Iran war putting so much pressure on him. Let me reword that. Him putting pressure on himself because he kept lying about the Iran war week after week after week, and we blew through the timeline. I was sitting next to him on these panels, and he was saying this was gonna be a four to six-week timeline, right? Four to six-week war. We blew through that, and then it was seven to eight weeks, then nine to 10 weeks, then we were 12 weeks in, and I would probably feel a lot of pressure too if I were the one who had to keep lying about this war. So as I point out, he'll lie about any war that starts with the letters I-R-A, and I really do think he had cornered himself and felt the pressure in that moment. There's like... There's something weirdly fragile and not masculine about constantly trying to dish it out and be condescending on these panels, but then the moment someone tries to reciprocate and at least, like, press you on something, you freak the hell out. There's something really fragile and, like, hypocritical about that, in my opinion.
- 27:03 – 30:50
Dems Reshape 2028 Primary Calendar
- KSKara Swisher
They've officially signed off on a new presidential primary calendar for 2028. South Carolina and Nevada are now first, replacing Iowa and New Hampshire as the top two. The change moves more racially diverse states to the front of the calendar. DNC Chair Ken Martin says the new calendar "will battle test our nominee, putting them in the strongest possible position to win back the White House." Talk about the calendar. I've heard a lot about this, uh, and which candidates it helps and it hurts. It probably helps Kamala Harris, um, in some ways and, and others. But talk a little bit about... 'Cause she's a known quantity down there. Talk a little bit about this shift.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah, so obviously folks in Iowa will be disappointed. That was a huge state in the, in the process for a while. Even in the Obama race, that Iowa was like a huge turn, so people there are gonna be upset. I went to a lot of the Iowa primary rallies and the Iowa State Fair a few years back. I'll miss it myself, but from my understanding it's pretty simple. It's meant to empower and give more weight to Black and Latino voters. There's a very big labor presence in the state of Nevada, which will be one of the earliest states, and I think the Democratic Party is really trying to move in that direction. And overall, there's just a lot of distrust in the current establishment. You have to remember in tw- of course you remember, I'm just saying. You have to remember in 2020, the Iowa caucuses didn't really go too smoothly, and Pete Buttigieg's campaign had a lot of problems. The app had a lot of problems. This comes at a time when you see, uh, the DNC not bringing in a lot of money, which is interestingly because individual candidates are bringing in a lot of money. If you look at the DNC, it's really struggling as an apparatus, but people like James Talarico and John Ossoff are outraising their opponent.
- KSKara Swisher
They are indeed.
- AMAdam Mockler
Talarico has raised $72 million or something.
- KSKara Swisher
Incredible
- AMAdam Mockler
So there is energy, but not for the establishment, if that makes sense.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, and so what... who does this put in a position for the, for the nominees? Stack rank them.
- AMAdam Mockler
You rightfully pointed out that Kamala Harris will do well. Um, again, there's a strong labor presence in Nevada, so it, it might not be the candidates that people think. When I think of a strong labor presence and who people like that vote for, it's not always inherently the more progressive candidate, which kinda breaks the archetype of what a lot of people think. So I could see Kamala doing well. I could see if somebody like Jon Ossoff ran doing very, very well. I'm a big fan of him lately. Like, you played that clip of him. He's just so good at communicating.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, Hotlanta. They call him Hotlanta.
- AMAdam Mockler
But he, he's vehemently rejecting the idea that he's gonna run. Is that, is, is that like a game? Like, do they just say-
- KSKara Swisher
I don't know
- AMAdam Mockler
... that they're not gonna run or?
- KSKara Swisher
I don't know. I don't know. I think he can't say anything because he's running for his office.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course.
- KSKara Swisher
So if he's like, "Of course I am," then the citizens of Georgia are like, "Fuck you." Like-
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah
- KSKara Swisher
... well, you know, he can't. He's gotta be vehement, and then he's like, "Oh, as, as I began to hear people, I understood that my, my future has to be with helping Americans."
- AMAdam Mockler
Is that what he sounds like? What does he- [chuckles]
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, something like that.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah. [chuckles]
- KSKara Swisher
This is in the head. This is in these... These people wake up every morning and s- as Scott says, saying, "Hello, Mr. President."
- AMAdam Mockler
[chuckles]
- KSKara Swisher
They just do. Come on. Like, stop it. Um, but is, I, I, I don't know who would do well in Nevada. I mean, there... It'd be interesting if AOC runs. There's all manner of people who have appealing in different states.
- AMAdam Mockler
I think it also goes to show where the Democratic Party is trying to move back to. We lost a lot of ground with the Latino vote in 2024, like a surprising amount of ground, and now it's immediately shifted back, very much so like a rubber band where Trump's ICE, uh, raids... Like, he sur- he sends ICE surgically and intentionally into these majority Latino communities in order to intimidate and terrorize them, and then wonders why Latino communities are moving far away from him again. So I think Democrats could really make a move, realign a lot of the demographics again. Uh, we just need a strong candidate. It's gonna be a really interesting ideological primary.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. All right, speaking of ideological,
- 30:50 – 39:51
Midterm Predictions
- KSKara Swisher
before we get to 2028, we've gotta get through the midterms. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is trailing Republican Mike Rogers by four points in the first poll, although it's up and down. Like, Polymarket is a different thing.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
Kallshi is a... I, I don't always rely on them, by the way. You've re-shared some polling numbers the other day on the Senate race in Kansas showing Democrat, uh, Adam Hamilton just one point behind Republican incumbent Roger Marshall, which is a big deal, and you said, uh, "The blue wave is here." Careful with the waves, as they say. So what's your latest prediction on the midterm s- Senate and House and how the Democratic anti-establishment aggressive movements factor in?
- AMAdam Mockler
A lot of my tweets are just formulated to be as simple as possible-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- AMAdam Mockler
... so that's usually why I'm-
- KSKara Swisher
I get it. I-
- AMAdam Mockler
... very reductive on Twitter.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- AMAdam Mockler
But, um, listen-
- KSKara Swisher
It's the best way to be
- AMAdam Mockler
... it's... Yeah. [chuckles] Listen, so I think that at the end of the day- People want change in the Democratic Party. It's that simple. Like, Democratic voters aren't reading Marx and turning far left. People want change. They don't want the establishment, and that's leading to more and more, um, you know, progressive candidates winning that can use social media in a more savvy and nimble way and have these newer platforms. I think that we're in a good spot to take over the House come the midterms. Uh, Kalshi and Polymarket, like you said, it's not the best indicator, but there's a lot of-- there's millions of dollars-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, they kind of fucked up on Francesca Hong.
- AMAdam Mockler
I mean, it's bad. It's bad sometimes. There's millions of dollars flowing into some of these markets, and right now it seems like Democrats have a good shot at winning the House in the midterms, and the Senate is up for grabs. I wanna point out, with the House, we're already at a five-point inherent disadvantage due to the redistricting that Republicans did. This radical mid-cycle redistricting put us at a five-point disadvantage, so we have to fight back there. But I think Democrats are in a really good position. We have a lot of strong candidates. I, I'm not really trustworthy of the pol- I'm, I'm not trusting the polling right now, nor the betting markets because they F'd up with Hong really badly. At the end of the day, Democrats are in a good position for the midterms. Democrats want change, and Abdul El-Sayed is a really strong candidate, in my opinion. Like, people keep saying that he's an example of these, like, lefty progressive DSA members, but he's not even DSA. He's a self-described free market guy who likes entrepreneurialism. He likes small businesses. I think there's a really strong, accessible version of, you know, liberalism there.
- KSKara Swisher
Well, it's interesting 'cause y- there's two... I've a friend who's from Michigan, and he said all his relatives, and he's a, uh, he's not progressive. He's a Democrat. He's a solid Democrat. Uh, can't vote for him. Like, he w- they... These are sort of suburban kind of people, and they're gonna vote with their noses held for Rogers, which I cannot believe they would do that.
- AMAdam Mockler
Wow.
- KSKara Swisher
Uh, I know, and I was... This is a longtime Michigander. Uh, and I was like, "Huh, interesting." Then again, my son, who lives in Michigan, and all his frat bro friends are voting for El-Sayed, and, and they did in, uh, in the, in the, in the election over Haley Stevens. And, uh, w- war was the issue, issues of the, uh, uh, AIPAC was certainly an issue for them. Um, there was a bunch of others, and I'm like, "Which one is going to win here?" Like, it was re- But they're very committed to him, and I wouldn't call my son even slightly liberal. [laughs] Like, he's not. It's a really interesting thing. I think people don't know. It's a question of how well this guy can... 'Cause if he, if he chokes and doesn't win, he'll-- and it costs the Senate by one seat, that'll make him sort of widely reviled. And if he does, then it's what? What does it say?
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah, well, first of all, uh, I think that there's still a few months left of the campaign, and we just got out of a primary where there were $60 million spent against Abdul, like negative spending against his character and his past and his policy. So right now, uh, Mike Rogers on the other side didn't really have a very competitive primary where there were negative ads against him. I hope at this point, a lot of money begins to flow into the negative advertising against Mike Rogers, and Abdul El-Sayed is able to consolidate some of the base. But I've heard similar concerns out of people that are voting in Michigan. People are concerned about him. I hope that as the general goes on, he's able to make a stronger case and able to continue to captivate Michigan voters.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. They're sort of attacking him, the Trump terrorist communists.
- AMAdam Mockler
Yeah, no, I mean, they're, they're overstepping. Listen, like, a, a really hard, divisive Democratic primary is always going to splinter part of the base. I'm sure people got some crazy ads about Abdul coming from Haley Stevens' campaign, but now we're gonna consolidate. Mike Rogers is gonna have so many ads going against him, and this guy's got a wild past that they're gonna keep highlighting. If Abdul wins... First of all, if Abdul loses, it's gonna broadly be a rebuke of not him personally, but this more progressive strand of politics. He's not even DSA, but he does represent a new wave of insurgent candidates. If he wins, I think it'll only further embolden that sort of movement. I, I personally hope it's not the DSA taking over with their candidates. I hope it's a more progressive, pragmatic, liberal view of people who wanna redistribute wealth. That's fine. Uh, a higher minimum wage and more healthcare is fine. I'm not for some of the more farther left DSA ideas.
- KSKara Swisher
Well, he is not, as you point out, he's not in the DSA. Should he-
- AMAdam Mockler
He's not either, yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
There's, there's been a call for him to not, uh, stick with the Hasan Piker, another, you know, political pundit, who, by the way, may be suing Scott Jennings for defamation, and correctly so, because those clips were really, uh, manipulative, I would say. Uh, he said a lot of-- He says... Look, he's clearly narcissistic and says a lot of, like, inflammatory things, but that he, he should go r- move forward with anything that he feels was manipulated. But should, should, uh, El-Sayed, um, separate from him?
- AMAdam Mockler
Listen, Hasan says things I disagree with too, but that Scott Jennings clip was over the pale. It was, like, the most maliciously clipped up series-
- KSKara Swisher
It was
- AMAdam Mockler
... of events ever.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, I went back-
- AMAdam Mockler
When it comes-
- KSKara Swisher
... and watched all the real thing, and I was like, "This is really funny."
- AMAdam Mockler
I'm, I mean, he's, like, reading comments out of chat or whatever-
- 39:51 – 45:42
Will Trump Help the Tates?
- KSKara Swisher
and Tristan Tate want t- want them freed. Many gathered outside the Miami Federal Detention Center, chanting for their release and even doing group push-ups. The brothers have been in federal custody since July 18th as they fight extradition in the UK, uh, where they face charges including rape and sex trafficking. Tate's attorney has said that if the judge doesn't agree the brothers are innocent, they will go straight to President Trump's office. Um, uh, what is the groups doing push-ups? I don't even begin to understand, but I, I actually don't want to understand. Um, w- will Trump end up intervening here?
- AMAdam Mockler
I don't think he'll intervene in this case because he already did in February of 2025, January, February, and it didn't really go too well for them. I've been doing a lot of coverage on this, but back in 2025, early 2025, uh, the Tate brothers were being investigated by the UK and by Romania. There was a travel ban. They weren't allowed to leave Romania during this investigation, and members of the Trump administration specifically asked Romania to lift this travel ban so the Tate brothers could leave during this investigation. Barron Trump is reportedly very good friends with Andrew Tate and talks to him on the phone, and Paul Ingrassia was one of Tate's lawyers, and he now works in the Trump admin and has been lobbying for the Tate brothers to be freed, for the investigation to be dropped. You might remember Paul Ingrassia from his leaked texts about a year ago. He's the one that said he has a Nazi streak in him. So just some, some real great gems in the Trump administration advocating for some real great people. The Tate brothers, they very insidiously would manipulate and abuse and basically traffic women-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- AMAdam Mockler
... who were in very bad positions in their lives, coerce them into doing webcam modeling by acting like he was in love with them, then intensely, intentionally isolating them from their family members and from their hometown and making sure they had nowhere to go.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, this is an extensive law and order special visions unit story.
- AMAdam Mockler
It's wild.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- AMAdam Mockler
It's wild. And like they allegedly would skim 95% of the profits off the top and just pay the women nothing, and then spread rumors about them and their family and their hometown, so the women had nowhere to go. It was awful. Then he would go brag about this and poison the minds of young men in my generation. Sorry, that's a lot right there, but I'm passionate about this case right here.
- KSKara Swisher
No, I know. I... Listen, my sons, uh, both, uh, we both had long discussions about Andrew Tate, and, uh, initially it was attractive. It absolutely was to a lot of people, the, the, you know, the be your own man, that kind of stuff, but soon turned them off pretty quickly. But I remember early I was like, "I think these guys are really toxic pieces of shit, kids," but you watch them and you, you make your own decisions here, but this is my take as your mom.
- AMAdam Mockler
It's like attractive in the way that some of Nick Fuentes clips are attractive.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm. I know.
- AMAdam Mockler
And I know that sounds controversial, but like-
- KSKara Swisher
I- it's not. I get your point
- AMAdam Mockler
... it's like a guilty pleasure for a lot of people. It's like I'm not supposed to be playing this video game. I'm not supposed to be playing this at midnight. I'm g- it's even more fun because I... So whenever I see a Nick Fuentes clip pop up-
- KSKara Swisher
It's like agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene. You're like, "Ugh"-
- AMAdam Mockler
Exactly
- KSKara Swisher
... "she's still terrible." Right?
- AMAdam Mockler
And then there's some sort of allure to it. But the reality is, Andrew Tate is somebody who's uniquely awful because he's like living the worst stuff that he's speaking out loud. Some of these people are just fakers. They, they're playing, they're role-playing. They're acting like they're these big, tough guys who, like, do this sh- Th- th- they don't actually do anything. Andrew and Tristan Tate built an empire based off of manipulating and allegedly trafficking women in multiple different countries, and now I have friends, like, reposting their reels because they're slightly funny or whatever. It's... Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
So, so what happens? Trump is not g- there's no plus for Trump-
- AMAdam Mockler
Nah
- KSKara Swisher
... to do anything.
- AMAdam Mockler
No, it's... No, especially after-
- KSKara Swisher
Though he might
- AMAdam Mockler
... the Epstein stuff.
- KSKara Swisher
I, yeah, it's l- related to Epstein. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's all related to each other. But my, I, I have... He might. That's my feeling. He might.
- AMAdam Mockler
He could. So the Tate brothers' lawyer, Joe McBride, has been trying to get ahold of Trump or Marco Rubio because Marco Rubio is the one that's in charge of extraditions. Marco Rubio said he wants nothing to do with it, but at the end of the day, [chuckles] I don't know. I think that Donald Trump did it in the first time in an attempt to court these younger male voters. Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate's lawyer has been saying that if Trump doesn't allow them to be released, he's going to tell all their young fans never to vote for Republicans again. So they're kind of like dangling it as leverage over Trump and the Republican Party. I think he would have to be pretty dumb to do it. Like, after all the Epstein saga, this would be very bad PR, but Yeah, he, he does stuff like that all the time. Then Scott Jennings has to defend it. Imagine that-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, I know, right?
- AMAdam Mockler
On the podio.
- KSKara Swisher
I, I-- Even, even he did not defend it. I don't-- I recall that he didn't.
- AMAdam Mockler
[chuckles] No, he didn't. No, I'm saying imagine he's the press-
- 45:42 – 55:33
Wins and Fails
- KSKara Swisher
let's hear some wins and fails. Why don't you go first?
- AMAdam Mockler
Okay. So I, I'll start with the fail. I got-- I did a seven-day trip to a few different cities, multiple different hotels, and I lost my car keys at some point in that seven-day trip, and I flew back to O'Hare Airport and my car was stuck in the parking garage. No keys, nothing.
- KSKara Swisher
You sound like my son.
- AMAdam Mockler
Really bad situation. Really bad situation to be in.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- AMAdam Mockler
You know? I'm only human, and yes, I am like a young-- I'm in early twenties. I'm just like your son.
- KSKara Swisher
I know. I just-
- AMAdam Mockler
I can be aloof.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- AMAdam Mockler
I can be aloof.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- AMAdam Mockler
The win is that we've just been hiring and training our new assistant over the past month, and I asked him if he could do a favor for me. So he drove to O'Hare Airport, found a locksmith, got the key, and my car is now back.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh my God.
- AMAdam Mockler
So the win and the fail are a bit connected. Um, yeah. That's-
- KSKara Swisher
What kind of car do you have, Adam?
- AMAdam Mockler
It's a Buick. It's-
- KSKara Swisher
You know, some of these cars you can open with an app. May, may, may I help you? As, as-
- AMAdam Mockler
Oh, really?
- KSKara Swisher
Yes. When I lose my keys or leave them in the car, you can open them with an app. I believe-
- AMAdam Mockler
Thank you
- KSKara Swisher
... all new cars you can do that with just now.
- AMAdam Mockler
That's actually a really good... That's a really good tip.
- KSKara Swisher
Just-
- AMAdam Mockler
Did your son teach you that?
- KSKara Swisher
No, I taught... Are you kidding?
- AMAdam Mockler
Okay.
- KSKara Swisher
Hello.
- AMAdam Mockler
Sorry. No, I, I wasn't supposed-
- KSKara Swisher
I don't need help with tech, my friend. I just-- I teach my sons that. No, my son dropped his credit card out of his pocket when he was ice climbing. I could've killed him. And like it went down to the canyon and I-- I've had to replace so many credit cards from my son who drops credit cards. I'm not giving him anymore. I'm like, "Get it on your phone," and that's the end of it.
- AMAdam Mockler
No, I drop them too. They make them too easy to replace. It almost incentivizes you to be like-
Episode duration: 55:33
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Transcript of episode WO-xdVo1lAE
