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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... NOVEMBER 8TH 2025 with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse ... Inequality Media Civic Action Is America Over Trump? PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIm_JPnd9M
Is America Over Trump? \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich and Inequality Media Civic Action Premiered Nov 8, 2025 211,976 views ... 10K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich From coast to coast, Democrats scored huge blowout wins against Trump and the GOP this week. What does this mean for next year's midterms — and has Trump's failure to tackle affordability doomed him for good? Let's break it all down. The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:02 And it is the Saturday coffee clutch with yours truly, Robert Rich and Heather Loft House. Heather, how are you today? How are you? Actually, this has been quite a momentous week. How are you feeling? I mean, what a difference an election makes. Usually, we meet for coffee and I I think this has been a brutal week. Now, this is still a very hard time for a lot of people. I don't want to be dismissive of that. However, this election on Tuesday night and the stuff that's happening around it has boooied me. I'm in a better place than I was last coffee. Well, it's I my temptation, you know, I'm a cup half full guy or even even an eighth full guy. And my temptation is to is to have a celebration, you know, to say, you know, this is the beginning of the new the new era. This is a a major turnaround. Uh, I've used the metaphor of the sleeping giant awakening. Um, but I may be overly overdoing it. I mean, 1:00 you know, this is just remember this is New York City, New Jersey, Virginia. Um, we're going to hear about more a little bit uh in a few minutes. Uh, but this this does feel different. It feels like the 2024 election. Those results are now over. We're into a new period of time politically. Uh but Heather, let me just make one comparison if you'll forgive me. This was also the week in which the Tesla board of directors gave decided to give Elon Musk a trillion pay package. I'm sorry. Again, a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars. Most people have no idea how to even envision a trillion dollars. This was also the week in which you had a person in who calls himself a democratic socialist who wants to get rid of billionaire, thinks billionaires should not exist, uh elected mayor of New York City. I mean, think of the split screen. Think of of the grotescery of capitalism that Elon Musk represents. 2:03 the kind of extreme bizarre bonkers of comp of capitalism uh next to what the people a huge number of people in New York decided to do uh in terms of their leadership in New York City. I mean I just I just find it amazing. I find it amazing. If you spent one $1 million a day every day, it would take you 2700 years to spend a trillion dollars. Right. Or another another way of putting it is if this pay package actually and you know by the way I don't want to get into the intricacy of the intricacies of this pay package but the point is that it's equal to a trillion dollars is equal to $274 million every single day uh for 10 years. I think it's 10 years. I mean, this is this is a grotesque distortion of what we mean or have ever meant by capitalism. I don't know what is. It's unfathomable, but I want to try to 3:04 actually depict it for people. So, we'll keep working on that. So, the great news is we have our colleague who is our elections correspondent, Vishal Shanker. He is going to be joining us from the regional desk or just where he works. You mean our regional desk Madison, Wisconsin. Vish, it's so nice to see you. Thank you for joining us. So, I want to get into So, as soon as you were talking about Mumdani won versus Elon, I mean, Mumdani, what a politician. What an incredible win. What can we learn from it? Not only that, let's look at all the elections because there were a lot of things that not all of them are at the top of the newspaper. So, let's get into it, you two. Well, Vic, I I I specifically I mean, the the headlines over the last few days have given us kind of the overview with regard to New Jersey and Virginia and certainly New York City. Uh, but let's get under the headline. Is there anything you can tell us that sort 4:02 of really reveals the extent to which this is or is not a blue wave? Uh, well, I mean, I think there's a couple of things we could learn from all of the races. Uh, I'll start with New York because it's the one everyone wants to talk about. Uh I think this Mandani's amazing uh victory, I mean crushed Andrew Cuomo by eight points, sending him back to the suburbs. Uh fingers crossed, we hope forever. Um it's a victory of the many versus the money. I mean, there were there were billionaires like Bill Aman and Michael Bloomberg spending so much money. I I wrote this down, close to $40 million in these outside super PACs running really nasty attack ads uh against Mumani and and he still prevailed. Uh, so I think this is a testament to what the power of organized people can do against organized money. I like that. I like your phrase, the many versus the money. Uh, yep. It's a it's a Vish original. Don't fact check me on that. Do you remember Al Gore at at one point 5:03 during the 2000 campaign, he said, 'This is really about the people versus the powerful.' I thought that was I remember it like yesterday. I I may have been three years old, but it's seared in my brain. But that the money factor is incredible. The money factor I mean there was what 5.7 million went into Mumani or anti-Quomo um expenditures but then over 40 million on the Cuomo side and Mumdani swept. Well, it's also an indication that he had uh he had really an army of of volunteers, 92 actually closer to 100,000 volunteers in New York City. Uh and you know, my granddaughter, 17-year-old, among them, but huge numbers of young people going doortodoor. Uh I haven't seen anything like this since what? Since when? Have when have we seen this before? I mean, we didn't have this degree of volunteer door-to-doorism uh even in the Barack 6:05 Obama uh campaign in 2016. I have to go back in my mind to Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 uh to come up with anything this dramatic. I just wish he stuck a little more to the middle, you know, that moderate middle. It feels like if he had just done that. Well, interestingly, Vish, what what what what about the moderate middle? I mean, some people are interpreting New Jersey uh in the gubanatorial race there and also the gubanatorial race in Virginia as being exemplars of Democrats moving to the moderate middle. Is that how you read it? Yeah. Yes. Well, I mean, the neoliberal chattering class is added again. I mean, they certainly have their own incentives for wanting to downplay Mandani and and upplay these the Virginia New Jersey, but I would caution them because I mean, I actually went back like any political sicko and watched some of the ads that uh Spamberger and Cheryl were running and what was on their campaign materials and their websites. Uh this was the 7:06 affordability election and a lot of the the themes and topics that these two moderates talked about in the campaign, I mean, they sound pretty populous to me. You you take Spanberger, she spent the campaign talking about the Doge cuts and the reduction in force layoffs that have devastated Virginia. I mean, remember, so many federal workers uh live in Virginia and commute to their jobs uh in DC from there. They're now standing in in literal bread lines uh in Virginia because of the devastation that that Trump and by extension uh the Republicans that have been attached to the hip uh with Trump have wrought. So you you have the layoffs there. She also campaigned against rising utility costs. I mean, I think this is a pretty sleeper populist issue. How much energy costs are going up because of these AI data centers. I know Bob, you've written a lot about the AI bubble. I think this is an issue that we're going to see a lot of Democrats across the country. Uh 8:02 Cheryl talked about this as well in New Jersey campaigning against uh going into the midterms. And and speaking of Cheryl, I mean, she uh went after a few, this I thought was smart, naming corporate villains and taking sort of a corporate crackdown approach to her economic messaging. Uh real estate investors and predatory landlords who are driving up the cost of housing. Uh the utility companies and the energy companies who are raising uh energy bills. So again, this is moderates, but they're not campaigning on moderate issues. This is fascinating because if again the press uh the the mainstream press what they are saying saying is that yes you know you have mamani uh doing something that looks very very radical. He sounded radical, but uh it's actually if you look across the country, it's the moderate Democrats who are winning. But what you're saying, Vish, is that the affordability issue is also an economic populist issue. That if the Democrats really run with this, it means inevitably that they are going to be criticizing the power of big 9:06 corporations and the power of maybe the very very wealthy in terms of their political power. I don't know if you want to go that far, but I certainly wonder whether Democrats are going to get this cue across the country. uh and whether the I don't think the Democratic National Committee is going to get this, but if Democrats at the grassroots across the country, Democrats running in to in the midterms are going to understand the implications of all of this for the Democratic party for the message for really the kind of economic populism that seems to be popular with the country. What people need, people don't want the status quo. I wish we could rebrand our lexicon, though. I'm this you've said this Bob so many times but the middle versus the left versus the right I mean it's not helpful that's not the reality we're living in so can we work on changing our dictionary 10:02 well let's I would like to I mean I don't know whether we want to vish talk about this with you but maybe we do but there is some fundamental economic shifts going on uh and uh we we we need to talk about it because it's all from a 30,000 ft view of what this election that we just had really is all about. There is some very dramatic change going on at the ground. Well, I think let's do a little more on the non um New York, Virginia, New Jersey races because I want to talk about some wins there and also the fact that Trump says quote I don't want to hear about the affordability. I mean, he's acting like affordability is a new term like groceries just really floored him the other year when he was like, 'What this we keep using groceries, groer ger groceries.' I mean, so he doesn't want to talk about affordability. And you know what? It's obvious he doesn't want to talk about affordability. And I think that's why a 11:02 lot of people came out and said, 'Hi, you're not seeing me. You're not seeing what I'm going through.' Right. Well, it's it's all it's obviously I mean it's you know his tariffs and his economy uh and again we'll talk about this in a moment but a lot of people are struggling. I mean, most Americans are struggling right now. Uh, they are. And then you have the shutdown. You have what's happening to food stamps, what's happening to a lot of people with regard to health care costs soaring and are likely they're seeing what's going to happen to health care costs. A lot of people are saying, you know, the Trump administration and the Republicans don't get it. They they don't they are not seeing what we are actually going through. But I think and the severity of the pain is significant. It is federal workers who are having to take out loans with interest rates. It is children who can't eat. And then you've seen all the latest USAID reports that are coming out. 600,000 deaths, twothirds of which are 12:00 children. And this is going to be there was I think his name is Roads, but a a scholar who's basically saying this is one of the biggest manmade pushes of death that we've seen. Um I mean it's really around the world around the world. It is a horrific time and I think the voters are realizing it. I just want to talk about a few other of these wins that I think are so important. So, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I mean, I loved reading all the all the, you know, takeaways and all the tweets and all the articles because it was things like ousted um and took over and kicked out, you know. So, in Bucks County, for example, a sheriff who had been collaborating with ICE out, right? new sheriff in. We had their whole school board has now been revamped. And that infamously was a school board that was anti-LGBTQ and was coming in so hard after um you know cancelling books and all of it. And so those wins wins in Georgia where we 13:01 haven't seen Dems in years and years. What does this mean for Mississippi? What does it mean for the midterms? I mean we're we're kind of burying the lead here. California Prop 50, uh, I believe called the minute that the polls close. I mean, that's going to be huge for redistricting going into 2026 and a lot of the Democratic efforts, I think in Virginia and Illinois, they're kind of heating up now to to counteract what Trump and the Republicans are doing to to redraw the maps. Vic, on that redistricting issue, can I just ask you a question? Because a lot of the a lot of the maps that were that the Republicans have redrawn or want to redraw right now, the redistricting maps uh in Texas, for example, assume that the Latino vote is basically going to the Republicans, but after what we saw Tuesday, is that a fair assumption? I think this is a catastrophic miscalculation by the Republicans. uh thinking that the swings in 2024 to Trump, which we should underscore were mainly because of cost of living, that people thought he could shake up uh the 14:06 status quo and deliver more affordability. Obviously, a year in he's failed to do that. That's why you saw on Tuesday night in Virginia, in New Jersey, uh even in the New York City mayoral race uh huge swings of Latino voters back to the Democrats. Uh this is true among Asian-American voters as well. uh especially among young voters who I remember there was a lot of panic after the election. What can we do to to win back young men a and the key is is not only talking about affordability, it's about delivering on affordability. Uh and I think that's going to be a key thing to watch in the races that just happened is can these Democratic candidates who were just elected actually deliver this agenda and convince voters that they are the better choice going into the midterms uh to to provide relief on this cost of living crisis. I think immigrants are scared and then I also think that these incumbents where all this gerrymandering is happening are shaken in their boots. 15:02 I think they're thinking, 'Wow, it is going to be much harder than we thought and is this going to be a disaster?' Well, uh again, we're dealing with such small margins for the Republicans in the House and the Senate. Uh and this is why if there is a little bit of a blue wave, even a small blue wave, uh this is huge. This is the I don't want to predict the end of you know Trump's ability to uh destroy democracy but it certainly is going to be much much harder. So Vish while we have you tell us what are some of the surprising things we're seeing at the local level that people are talking less about? Uh I mean there were a couple of big uh mayors races besides New York City. I think the the most fun one was in Cincinnati where JD Vance's half brother uh lost his longshot bid to be the mayor to the Democratic incumbent. Uh but I also want to flag in Boston. This one is very interesting. Incumbent progressive mayor Michelle Woo won re-election 16:03 completely uncontested uh because she crushed her only real opponent in the first round of voting by something like 70 points. Uh and maybe Andrew Cuomo should take a notes here. He was so embarrassed he dropped out before the November general election despite qualifying for the ballot. And and remember, Woo, that is somebody who Mandani has said he wants to model his uh term as mayor on. So I I think she's a a big face to watch for the future of the Democratic party. What about Mississippi? Yes. I mean, this one this is a testament to just how much of a shellacking the Republican party took across the board, right? Isn't that an Obama turn term? Who says shellacking? That's that's the great irony of it, isn't it? Uh well the the Democrats in Mississippi which is not a state Democratic party you would assume to be very strong uh for the first time in 13 years they have broken the supermajority of the Republican party in the state senate. So I mean it's not it's not a huge victory but it is enough to probably gum up the works of some really horrible thing that the Mississippi Republican party might try 17:04 to do and again underscores just how bad things are for Trump and the Republicans across the board. So uh you know I I want to I want to just pause for a second. Vish thank you so much. I I also I have some more questions for you if we have time but I want to pause and just talk about for a moment what the what the overall lesson here is for the Democrats but also for the country. Where are we going? Where are we heading? What do we what can we learn from all of this? It's not just affordability. I don't think I think it's also that people have had it with the techniques that that Trump is using. I mean, all the exit polls show that people are are they just think Trump is out of his mind that he's losing it. Uh that there's an extremism uh in the administration that scares people. Not just scares immigrants or the children of immigrants, but scares the whole 18:01 country. And and I mean we should mention the juxiposition of as the affordability crisis getting worse. I mean what is Trump doing? He is building this gilded ballroom taking a wrecking ball to the white house for his uh billionaire donors. So I mean the contrast alone couldn't be clearer. Um but I I I alluded to this earlier and I want to underscore it again. The key here for Democrats being not only campaigning on affordability but delivering it. I think in Virginia and New Jersey, there's a real test case now. This is unified Democratic governance. Huge majority in the Virginia state legislature for them. Can they deliver things like a higher minimum wage, uh, paid family leave, uh, repealing the right to work law in Virginia, which I think is going to be huge. And the same for for New York City. I mean, I thought one thing Manny did that was very very smart this week after he won the election, well, two things. One, he appointed Lena Khan to run his transition. The other is he said, 'I'm going to keep the campaign infrastructure that I built, the huge volunteer army that brought me to Gracie 19:02 Mansion. I'm going to keep that infrastructure while I'm in office so that I have an army of volunteers to draw upon when I need to enact my agenda, when I need to pressure city hall, state legislators, Governor Kathy Hochel.' I mean, this is this was the big blunder of Obama was that he mostly discarded the campaign apparatus that he built in 2008 that of course led to the Tea Party, the down ballot carnage for the Democrats. So, so I'm very optimistic. Obama Obama doesn't want to. I mean, he Obama said he was going to try to keep that structure, those that army uh together, but you're right, he failed to do that. It'll be interesting to see on the city level with Manny whether he is able to. It seems to me it's it's going to be much easier for him to do that. But it also requires that he move forward with one of his with some of his more uh well, let's say controversial uh proposals. I mean, he wants to make the minimum wage in New York City. He wants to raise it to $20 an hour, moving 20:01 to $30 an hour. He also wants to raise taxes on the wealthy in New York City. I mean, I'm all in favor of this, but he wants to use that to pay for the free buses and uh other things that he has said he wants to deliver to people in terms of free child care. Uh I I he's got to move very very fast to keep the enthusiasm going and to get these things through. Right. That's it. Yep. That's it. Well, Vish, thank you for joining us. Elections correspondent Michelle Shanker. So, we're going to drag you back here, but it's good to get under the under the surface of the election with you. Thank you. My pleasure, guys. See you soon. See you soon. So, Bob, so let's continue. So, your big questions are what the heck does this mean? How is Trump going to respond? What does it mean for politics? What does it mean for the midterms? I think we need to talk a little bit about what is happening with the economy, right? I mean, we've talked about is the affordability stupid is what we've learned from Tuesday. Here's here's the 21:01 thing, Heather, that one of the big stories that I haven't seen covered nearly enough that underlies all of what has happened this past week and also the shift in politics is not just the affordability crisis, but what does that affordability crisis actually mean? It means uh you have number one, you have the tariffs that are driving up costs for millions of people. Uh number two, you also have wages that are absolutely stagnant for most Americans. You have jobs that are not growing. Now, we don't have the latest uh jobs report. We don't have it because obviously the Bureau of Labor Statistics is shut down. Uh but we know from private sources that are also following the jobs not quite as well as the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We know that there's been almost no job growth at all. uh we there are a lot of indications that the reason this economy continues to move forward is solely of 22:02 the strength of the richest 10% of Americans and they in turn are able to spend largely because the stock market they own the stock market their AI stock they are that's right their stocks whether it's AI or anything related to AI or the big high-tech companies are doing very well and that stock has pro you know those those shares of stock have helped the top 10% continue to spend but that's all very fragile. What happens if there is any kind of an economic uh well let's let's call it what it is a a bursting of the AI bubble or a bursting of the high-tech bubble or a bursting of the crypto bubble any of these speculative bubbles could burst. The stock market is riding a very very fragile wave right now. Uh so this is this was this is what worries me uh about uh you know the struggle that many 23:02 people are already in. Uh the bottom 90% of Americans are not doing well. The top 10% are doing well. The middle class of America and this is the big news to me. The middle class is actually more on the side of not doing well than it is on the side of doing well. The middle class, you know, 20, 30 years ago used to be doing very, very well. Uh, but now the middle class is in that old paradigm of the have mores and the half lesses. The middle class is mostly have less. They turned out to vote. A lot of them really are very upset. It's not just affordability. It's their standard of living is being threatened and this administration is making it worse for them. the cruelty as well. You know, uh, all of this, I mean, we've said it, but SNAP benefits are not being recharged, even though, you know, there's been lots of lawsuits and going back and forth. Also, healthc care coverage going up. 24:01 All of this is happening at once. And I think people are scared and hurting. I mean, I think they're angry and they're voting against Trump in many ways, but I think this it's really to you to to your point about America. It's this the giant is awakening. People are just saying this is not working for me. And I think there was a sense when so many people voted and it wasn't a mandate. It was, you know, not as many people as Trump likes to claim voted for him. I think it wasn't the whole country. It wasn't everyone coming in and saying this is a huge rightwing movement from all over the country. I think what we learned from Tuesday is that democracy is still alive. the people are saying, you know what, I voted in one way, but I am shifting my vote. And we can talk about it being, you know, for thermostatic reasons and all the political polling terms of why people vote and vibes and all that, but I think it's people are not happy. And this is the silver lining, as you would 25:04 say. Well, it's it's an awkward silver silver silver lining to say that people are not happy as a silver lining. But I think you're absolutely right, um, Heather, that people don't define themselves, if they ever did, they're no longer defining themselves primarily as Democrats or Trump Republicans. Uh, they are defining themselves as people who really uh are are just trying to survive, trying to get by, trying to make enough money to support their families in very trying circumstances. uh and they are seeing that the Trump Republicans who run the entire government, all three branches, including arguably the Supreme Court, uh they have resulted in prices going up and also a government that is totally dysfunctional. I mean, the shutdown is being blamed clearly on the Republicans. Even Donald Trump in his reactions to what happened Tuesday night, Tuesday night, he says, 'Well, one of the 26:02 biggest factors is the shutdown.' Well, for Trump to admit that the shump shutdown is being blamed on the Republican party is to me a well, that's a gamecher right there. And he's still talking about cancelling the filibuster, abolishing it. Well, it's not going to happen. I mean, the the Senate Republicans know that if they tried to cancel the filibuster, uh if the Senate swings to the Democrats and the Dem and the independents who caucus with the Democrats uh in the midterms, well, that's a very dangerous position for the Republicans to be in because that means the Democrats could do things like give statehood to the District of Columbia. That's two senators. I know. But I like it whenever he's on Truth Social shouting about abolishing the filibuster. I mean, if I were on it, I would like it, but I'm not actually on the platform. I am actually um happy sad about something, which is Cuomo is now officially out. I mean, there's no way. But we have this clip of you that I we 27:04 have to play, but I think this is the last time we're going to be able to play it. Well, can we depend it? Depends on what the clip is. Well, you'll see. Can we just watch it? Come on, Chief. That's it, O'Brien. I need your seal and your peace right now. You too, Rice. Oh, yeah. Where you going to find somebody with my skills? Huh? We already have. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo. Oh gosh. Well, well, now that I don't I don't exactly remember when that was made. That was a That was something that I did years ago. Early as probably. That was the early as that was the early ought not have ought not have done it. No ought you ought but it was um you know Mario Cuomo can I just say yes that there are some greats to me in American politics. Uh Mario Cuomo was 28:00 one of my dear friends. He he came up to campaign for me when I was running for governor in Massachusetts in 2002. Uh but that's not why he's a great man. He did some wonderful things. uh he was the one who came up with the phrase that camp we we campaign in poetry and we actually manage and administer and run the country in pros. Uh and Mamdani used that phrase uh in his closing his his in his in his actually his speech to his followers accepting uh the election victory and it's a very very real uh real thing. uh that idea I'm sorry of poetry and politicians now that I this regime we're looking at it almost is hard for me to process but the mumani as a politician I mean he is pretty phenomenal it it is remarkable um I mean what he managed to do it's not just his the poetry of his words I mean he has an 29:01 extraordinary capacity uh to connect with people uh you know that old word charisma uh he certainly has re is what the kids call it today. Charis also he also uh did something that Paul Wellstone the late Paul Wellstone did in Minnesota and that is uh you know you you you organize you mobilize you energize great numbers of people. You rely on the people. You create a a a campaign that is really emblematic of what democracy ought to be. That is a campaign of people going doortodoor. people getting out the boat, people who are really on your side, uh, and you empower them. That empowerment is something that Democrats, well, the Democrats used to do. There are a few Democrats that have done it. I mean, Paul Wellstone is a good example, but it is very, very rare in today's politics with all the political consultants. Uh, you know, uh, Heather, we haven't really talked about this very much, but the 30:01 minute you declare that you are running, what happens? And I know this because it happened to me is you are descended upon by all of these people who are known as political consultants who buy advertising and advise you on what to do and manage your campaign and essentially take your campaign away from you if you let them and make a lot of money off of your campaign and all of the donations to your campaign. Uh this is something Democrats really really have got to get away from. Uh it's as bad as the domination of the corporate Democrats in many of these campaigns. And I think we saw so many institutions and corporations and firms um preemptively fold to Donald Trump. We've been watching this. And you know who's not folding? The people. And the people are not folding because people like Mumani, politicians like Mumani are looking and saying, 'You don't have to fold. I have your back and we are going to win.' And then it happens. And that is extremely buoying at a time 31:04 again that is so rough for so many. Um also we had big news this week and that is that Nancy Pelosi chair ammerida is not going to run again. What did you think about that? You well let me let me just say well she's a dear friend. I think that she is one of the great heroes of America right now, but certainly over the last 30 years, she has been the person who almost single-handedly uh passed Obamacare, got Barack Obama to actually have the courage he needed uh to pass or to seek Obamacare and to get it done. She was the one she is the one who who did that. Uh she also is is the one who uh did something that we don't really talk very much about although Donald Trump has tried as much as he could to get rid of it and that is the inflation reduction act. uh all of that uh that is one of the greatest the 32:03 greatest greatest uh achievements of the Biden administration and that is all of the uh work that has that went into uh the environment uh and all of the rules and regulations that came out of that. all of the subsidies to wind and solar uh and all of the ways in which we began to do what we should have done years and years ago. Uh that was Nancy Pelosi. Uh she has been a a a terrific politician, a backroom politician, a front room politician. We will miss her and her leadership enormously. Uh but this is part of what's happening, Heather. This is a a passing the torch to a new generation of young democratic progressive leaders. Uh and it's not just Mam Dani, it's also AOC. Uh it's 33:01 also across the really across America. You can see in in state after state uh some of them are not yet at the level of you know very very visible positions but I know many of them they are coming up and it's great to see the power that they represent and they are all saying very similar things about you know they're on the side of the people not the powerful. They are taking a very progressive and a very populist progressive position with regard to big corporations and getting money out of politics. Uh I am uh I'm proud of them here here and it is it's I mean and they're saying I will fight for you which is what Donald Trump pretended to say or said but didn't mean it. And then he had this big big tax cut for his friends, for the wealthy, and a big ballroom for his friends, the billionaires. Uh, and a big shutdown for his a big shutdown. That's right. For everyone else. Listen, um, Heather, we we've got to get 34:02 we've got to get moving. We've got to uh sort of say goodbye today. But it's nice to see you and you and it was good to have Vish on here. And Vish, thank you for your political insights. Uh and let me just say uh to all of you uh this is a very big and important week. Um you know it's it's easy to over interpret this and to say uh this is you know we're going to change everything is changing from now on. But I think this was the kind of of change that we we we weren't 100% sure we could achieve. I mean this is a it's not just a blowout for the Democratic party obviously. Uh, and it's not just great for progressives in terms of politics. It's a great tonic for all of us because hopelessness and despair and the kind of uh feelings of fear and intimidation that so many of us had and have had over the last nine and a half months. Feels like years, but it's really been n and a half months really 35:03 have now been proven to be something that we choose rather than we have imposed on us. And I think Heather, as you said, uh, Mamani and some of the winds across America, not just in New York City, but really across, uh, the counties, uh, and the districts and the state level governance structures, state legislatures. What we are seeing is a resurgence of well, I think I'd like to say and I hope history will show the resurgence of the ideals that made America what it is. It made America stronger. The ideals that Donald Trump uh and his ilk are trying to destroy. uh the ideals that really embody the very best of democracy which is the people the people having the power the people actually deciding what self-government is all about and that is something 36:03 Heather I think we all can toast and it's something that I hope all of you watching us today all of you participating and you are part of the answer you're part of the reason this has happened all of You can celebrate yourselves for really right now, this day, this week. Congratulations. We'll see you next week. Experience the drama. Former Secretary of Labor Rice. No. Experience the action. And even more drama. Late night with Conan O'Brien's. Conan O'Brien. No. No. This summer.

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