And so how many calls are on the roll? Is it like a hundred? There's a lot

of calls because calls lead to calls.

But here's the great thing about how I conduct my business.

So I'm rolling calls.

And it is a jigsaw puzzle for me, and I'll give you a perfect example.

I read an article about Mark Andreessen, and this is just one example.

Early on, he had just started his firm.

Seems like he's running.

Do you think this kind of purchase is a smart look just ahead of the midterms?

[laughs] Wolf, is that a trick question? It's not a smart move any time.

And, uh, as reported, I think just two weeks ago, the President of the United States has made more trades in the stock and bond market than every member of the House and every member of the Senate of both parties.

And this is why when I think there's gonna be a change this November, the first order of business is a total complete power wash of Washington.

Ban on all stock trading, ban on all participation, uh, in the prediction markets, mandatory blind trust, a mandatory retirement age at the age of 75, and the Jared Kushner rule.

Two years after leaving public service, no sovereign wealth money, no foreign money, so you can lobby against or work against the United States of America and their interest.

And a- you know, this is, uh, just a tip of the iceberg, and I also put part of the blame here at s- uh, the Supreme Court Justice Roberts.

What do you think?

Okay.

And we, Amy and I, during the transition, were at a party for Jim Crown, who unfortunately passed away.

No, n- rather for, uh, somebody else, but Jim Crown's there.

He and I are sharing a moment.

We're talking about things from the Crown family in Chicago, and he says something to me in, in a conversation, and it triggers this, you know, oppor- crises are an opportunity.

And on the car ride home that night, I'm...

President Obama hadn't been sworn in.

Mm

Mm-hmm.

Across the country, Kansas, now a toss-up, he used to be a Republican.

Arizona, the gov- Democratic governor picked a Republican as her running mate.

Rob Sand in Iowa running for governor has p- said, "I'm gonna have Republicans in my cabinet." Amy Acton in Ohio where I was, she was r- worked for Republican Governor DeWine.

The Romney Republicans are leaving the Republican Party.

They're up for grabs, and the road from 2026 to 2028 runs exactly through that.

That is the biggest story of this election is the fact is there's a segment of the Republican Party who are no longer identifying as Republicans.

Talk, talk about public education in this context.

Do Democrats have a brand problem, Ambassador?

Well, yes, in short order, but, uh, it's more important than that.

One, this election is a referendum election on President Trump, and the Republicans have given the president a get out of jail card pretty clearly, and all the corruption and affordability issues are all come together.

But we have to prove as a party, which is what happens in, I think, after the election when we win, that we can bring the change that the voters have asked for, they asked for.

Not just a referendum, but setting up, uh, actually what happens in 2028 by bringing change.

Take the issue of corruption.

I've laid out a five-point plan, a ban on s- stock trading for all three branches of government.

Do you see what is happening in Gaza as a genocide?

Um, but, but it does seem like this DSA issue is an issue.

Right.

So one is just, let's take the first part of that question.

This, every midterm in which one party controls both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue is the law of physics.

Massive turnout by the voters out of power, massive decline by the voters in power, and independents break two to one for the party out of power.

All that has stayed at play.

Democrats in the primary, 12.6 million versus 8.6 million for Republicans, showing the energy difference.

Where, where are you on this, Rahm?

Mm-hmm.

Unbelievable candidates.

A minister, two Navy, uh, uh, uh, recruits, and, uh, people that served our Navy.

It's just ...

And a, a community organizer, a woman who grew up on a farm.

Spectacular candidates who are flipping districts.

That's what this election's about.

Mm-hmm.

So is that why you think Donald Trump got elected?

Well, I think when Donald Trump says, I'm going to be the instrument of your rage, He kind of caught the zeitgeist of the moment because people were furious of having been left on the back end of a real bad disruptive period.

And you know it from people you obviously, I assume you do.

You know people that can't afford their home.

Their kids went to, they struggled, they sacrificed.

Their kids went to college education.

They get a diploma on the backside.

What is the what is the base platform for Rahm Emanuel, whether it be pushing Democrats to win in November or if you do decide? And I know you've said you're thinking about it to run for president.

[laughs]

... uh, not the Mississippi Miracle.

And Mississippi, for those who don't know, has gone from 49th in the s- country on reading to ninth.

And if you account for demographics, Mississippi now is number one in America for reading gains.

Uh, and a day from now, uh, I'm gonna be going to Louisiana because they are the only state whose both math and reading scores are above pre-COVID.

Uh, I don't wanna prejudge it, but there's a lot of similarities, so I'll start with Mississippi.

One, it's not an option.

You donated some money

Or it just came pouring out of you?

You know, when we started Endeavor, which was the agency after we l- left ICM.

We couldn't compete financially, 'cause there was four big agencies: United Talent, ICM, William Morris, and CAA.

So we couldn't compete on price.

They didn't want a newcomer.

We had to c- compete on ideas, aggressiveness, and hard work.

And when somebody tried to bully us and say no, I was okay.

Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.

Ron?

I thought he said Stephanie, but I'll take that.

It's a great question in two parts.

One is, look, New York City, I just left Holland, Benton Harbor, Michigan.

That's not how they measure themselves.

It's not against Manhattan.

In Michigan, they're measuring themselves against the fact that their kids, they worked hard, they did everything right, their kids went to school, and now they're in the basement, not on their way.

IA, it's the new AI.

Well, they

are their own party.

Tell us about the state and what's happening.

First of all, I do, but one family note, I mean, my grandfather, when he came to this country, was a socialist, but Roosevelt made us, he basically, the family, became Democrats.

And as I used to joke, I said, in my family, a Democrat was one of the ten lost tribes, and that's what we believe in.

Now, look, I've challenged the party when I think it goes wrong, historically, on different policies, etc., Look, the Democratic Socialists, six weeks ago, had a convention in Chicago as a party.

Okay, you want to defund the police, which is not our position.

two congressional races, Democratic Socialists went down.

... how will you address it?

Well, look, I mean, I think you gotta get to the question, where are the American people? And right now they feel AI, we're basically at night, no headlights on, wet pavement, 100 miles an hour around the curves, and nobody's in control of something.

That for two years the leaders of it said, "Well, it's gonna wipe out half the jobs." The next thing they say is, "Well, it's also gonna wipe out half of civilization." Well, guess what? When you say that to people, they react.

Okay, that's number one.

Number two, I start with the approach that AI is both, it's gonna be a double-edged sword.

There's gonna be some affirmative things that come out of it and some really bad risk and, uh, destruction that's gonna come of it.

And, you know, China, that is catching up to us, they have heavy regulation.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

On the political side at least, let me start there.

You go...

Look, Jack Kennedy went to Texas at a Baptist conference to prove, to say that he would not be a Catholic president, but a president who's Catholic.

I can't tell you enough about during the primary how Bill Clinton's speech here in Chicago down at Operation PUSH on z- what is known as the Sister Souljah moment made him versus Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis, three presidential losers, a different Democrat.

President Obama also, at a key moment in his campaign, took on Pastor Wright, his own pastor, given some of the ugly comments the pastor had made.

On all three presidents, they proved c- on the cultural writ large that they were different Democrats that understood middle-class values.

That's right.

Democratic primaries is the thing.

No, let's just finish.

No, and they're also losing them, which you also have to cover.

They are also losing them, and they are losing them across the country.

And the fact is that they had a separate party.

You're going to run in November.

That's where you should run.

How do you see this picture coming together? How will it be formed by what candidates did in this midterm cycle as well in terms of working for other Democrats or not working with them in the case of Harris, who we understand has been asked to step away in some cases or not get involved?

Democratic primaries is the thing.

No, let's just finish.

No, and they're also losing them, which you also have to cover.

They are also losing them, and they are losing them across the country.

And the fact is that they had a separate party.

You're going to run in November.

That's where you should run.

what candidates did in this midterm cycle as well in terms of working for other Democrats or not working with them in the case of Harris, who we understand has been asked to step away in some cases or not get involved.

wanted to be an early childhood

educator.

So there's a personal connection to the profession.

I think it's very, very important.

I wouldn't be sitting here.

You would be sitting here if it wasn't a for family raised with the value of the importance of education.

And then to the schools we went to to accomplish and realize that kind of value.

So I would ask you first, why do you feel like it's necessary as a Democrat considering running for Congress to focus on higher education and then maybe talk about what your plan entails? Let

That profile, almost 20 years old, does that accurately describe you still, do you think?

Yeah, I mean, look, I am, I mean, there's two parts and a person can be more than one dimension.

I do believe, I mean, as a person who helped the last, you know, President Clinton and President Obama get elected and get reelected and then helped make Nancy Pelosi speaker, I believe in winning elections.

It gives you the power to see your policies through.

But when it comes to the governing part, and I'm editing a piece right now, so I'll use this as an illustration.

It's around the 30-year anniversary of welfare reform.

There were things that were, Democrats did not agree on the principle of making work, rather, Republicans didn't agree on the principle of making work pay, that all you needed was a good, poor people just needed a good swift kick in the butt to get going.

who

But what do you think of what we're seeing in the Pentagon right now?

Well, the key word you used is purge.

And you are right about war.

But you're also if I can add the dimension.

We have a critical role both in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific of projecting deterrence.

If anything, and so you don't have a war or another military conflict, if anything, what is going on is degrading that deterrence, stopping a conflict.

Specifically in the Indo-Pacific, we can go on a little longer, how China right now, while we're distracted not only in Iran, but involved, as you said, Jen, in this purge, They are aggressive against Japan, our key ally, the long pole of our Indo-Pacific strategy in the Senkaku Islands, pressuring Philippines, a treaty ally in the Spratly Islands, just signed a military agreement with Indonesia, fired a capacity of a weapon to carry a nuclear weapon in and around the ocean towards Australia, and then the President of the United States to further degrade our deterrence, is actually canceling exercises with South Korea where we have 38,000 troops.

Did you mean that?

How are you viewing this contest?

Look, I think if you step back and look at all, not just this context, but I'll put them all into context.

You have a kind of a flywheel.

You have kind of inside, outside Washington.

That's not a case here in Massachusetts.

You have progressive versus pragmatic.

You have a generational piece.

Does she have a point?

Would you still say yes today? And why?

So I can give him a two by four upside his head because of what he said.

You have an attorney general in Michigan that cannot show up at their own party.

because she's Jewish and fares for her safety.

Even paranoid people have enemies.

You have 2% of the population is Jewish, and 75% of all hate crimes are directed at Jews, religious hate crimes.

Now, if this was any other constituency, the party would deal with this.

Do you think that Jewish Americans are starting to feel not at home in the Democratic Party?

And it really had a lot of reverberations, too.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, we're going to be here for a couple hours, so clear the dark.

We'll try to do it here.

Well, as you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu and I go – I mean, 2009 publicly accused me of being a self-loathing Jew for opposing, in 2009, what he was doing on the West Bank and the settlements.

I said, then this will lead to Israel's isolation and constant war.

If there was a prediction I wanted to be wrong on, that was it.

in one answer.

the role of a teacher's union be today?

Yeah, but so one of...

Let me say a couple things on that.

I made my own mistakes.

I own 'em.

I learned a lot in this process, but in the end of the day, when I ran first, Chicago had the shortest school day and the shortest school year in the United States of America.

The shortest.

Uh, it's moving forward with socialism." Your response?

the role of a teacher's union be today?

Yeah, but so one of...

Let me say a couple things on that.

I made my own mistakes.

I own 'em.

I learned a lot in this process, but in the end of the day when I ran first, Chicago had the shortest school day and the shortest school year in the United States of America, the shortest.

So we lengthened the day by an hour and 15 minutes.

Uh, it's moving forward with socialism." Your response?

and so i'm wondering what we as americans kind of watching this from afar and watching what happens next what do we need to know about right now when we're kind of this is

this is in real time look deterrence is a psychological state of mind of your opponent and china has seen america in iran They've now seen Donald Trump do what he recently done with South Korea, where we have thousands upon thousands of Marines and other branches of the armed forces, but Marines are a leadership there, an army.

They have witnessed China intimidate Japan, the long pole of our Indo-Pacific policy, in and around the Senkaku Islands.

They fired a missile that could be nuclear-armed from a submarine.

They have just signed a military pact with Indonesia.

And they're being more aggressive, not only against Taiwan, but Philippines, which is a treaty ally, and the Spratly Islands and the other islands in the South China Sea.

There is not a single ally of the United States in and around the Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific that they are not taking aggressive action.

let's say