A break down with Don Samuels with an update on his campaign against Rep. Ilhan Omar

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Break Down with Brodkorb and Becky, a weekly podcast that breaks down politics, policy and current affairs. I'm Becky Scherr. And I'm Michael Brodkorb. Today we are joined again by former Minneapolis City Council member

[00:00:23] Don Samuels who was running in the DFL primary election against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Samuels served in the Minneapolis City Council from 2003 to 2014 and it is an extensive community service record in the Twin Cities. This is a rematch between Samuels and Omar.

[00:00:39] He challenged Omar in the 2022 DFL primary election coming up less than 2,500 votes behind Omar. We spoke with Samuels last November when he announced his campaign. Today we'll get an update on his campaign ahead of the DFL primary which is coming up on August

[00:00:56] 13th. Thank you for joining us and we hope you enjoy this show. We are excited to be joined again by former Minneapolis City Council member and DFL congressional candidate Don Samuels. Thank you for joining us again today.

[00:01:11] It is my pleasure, Michael and great to be with you too, Becky. How is the campaign going? It's going great. We have about 700 volunteers which is phenomenal for our disrace. It reflects the enthusiasm that's out there. People are moving from just hoping to believing to participating.

[00:01:34] Great. I want to ask you a question from the onset. We interviewed you. You were so kind of come on last November. We interviewed you on our podcast and it was a great interview. We've wanted to disclose that we've extended multiple invitations to Congressman Omar and

[00:01:49] her office to come on. We interviewed Sarah Gad who was also running in the race for a short period of time. What a fantastic candidate she was and I know she dropped out. We've done a lot of interviews with candidates on both sides now and something

[00:02:02] interesting that happened when we had you on is that Congresswoman Omar's office pounced after the interview. I want to get your take on the interview because I have to be honest, I listened to it in real time. Becky listened to it in real time and I listened

[00:02:16] to it pretty extensively. I didn't draw the interpretation that she did about your comments but I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond. Yeah. I was non-plus by her response. I think it's consistent though with her

[00:02:31] approach which is to beat the bushes for offenses and to weaponize those as to create a sense of vulnerability which then stimulates passionate or hopefully passionate kind of defense by the voters and getting a sympathy vote instead of a vote that is

[00:02:53] going to be lead to accountable leadership. Becky, Dom was responding to your question and I wanted to get your take too. Your perspective on the comments, did you perceive them that way and your just thoughts? Yeah. Like Michael said in the moment,

[00:03:09] I didn't get any ill will or any thought that there was any more context to what you were saying than what you were saying and I was also surprised when I saw that coming out that because Michael and I chatted a little bit as well and said

[00:03:22] that's not what we got for it but I guess opponents like to sling mud and attack where they can find opportunities and it appears maybe there was she felt there was an opportunity there that I guess the three of us agreed there was not.

[00:03:37] Yeah, I believe it was a disingenuous manipulation of phrasing in order to again as I said build on her huge storehouse of offenses that then replace real issues oriented campaigning. I just want to pause for one second.

[00:03:56] We are recording this on Riverside. Sometimes the audio in the video will take a second to lapse but just stick with it and again, we're not recording live so we'll get rid of some of these little things. So just allow that to happen

[00:04:08] and you might see that on my end and it's just the way the program works but everything's fine. I want to just pivot for a second because you did an interview and this happened in November and I thought it was a

[00:04:20] campaigns are all about theater and she obviously was engaging in Congress woman Omar's office was engaging in a bit of theater but you did an interview just a few weeks ago on WCCO and Esme Murphy I think dedicated a disproportionate amount of time in that interview. Relitigating what

[00:04:38] Congresswoman Omar's perspective was on that interview and her accusations. It seems to me that there's some tension between Esme Murphy and your campaign. Am I misreading that and can you offer some insight into that? Yeah, I've been interviewed by her for both campaigns and I always walk away

[00:04:58] feeling as if I've debated a proxy for Congresswoman Omar and that I was under pressure and that the questions were not objective but critical and in a way from Congresswoman Omar's perspective. And this question, a

[00:05:16] line of questioning was consistent in that it did not refer to the actual podcast but to Congresswoman Omar's wording and interpretation that she phrased to benefit her victimhood. And to me I was freshened. Esme Murphy was one of the first reporters to

[00:05:36] jump on this in November, made the accusation in querying as to whether I'd manipulated your audio in some way and seemed very vested and then to see that exchange on television it seems to me that there is there's

[00:05:50] I've long held the position that there's some advocacy on her part that's independent of her just being a journalist. There's some pure advocacy on behalf of Congresswoman Omar. Yeah, the word she of course didn't factor into my statement. It was

[00:06:05] independent of the section on directly addressing Congresswoman Omar and Esme just chose to ignore that. I asked her if she had listened to it. She said she had and then she proceeded to quote Congresswoman Omar instead of the podcast and then she played the dissected section of the

[00:06:28] podcast that then affirmed her warped interpretation. So it was just so unfair. It was like, boy politics is ugly. I just felt that I was engaging with the press, the mainstream press in a prejudicial kind of approach context. I felt a little vulnerable, I must say.

[00:06:51] The accusation and I want to give you a full opportunity to respond. The accusation is of course that the comments were sexist and it's been spiraled out. I want to give you an opportunity because one of things that Becky and I are really interested in is having thoughtful

[00:07:04] discussions and we're not interested in gotcha games or questions. And I just want to give you a full opportunity to talk about your support on the campaign policies, your record of supporting women in office, your record on issues, how your campaign is just focus on

[00:07:22] that and just put this to bed if we could. Yeah, I certainly have a long track record. The record is clear on my approach to women and female issues, women's issues. I'm a strong advocate have always been for a woman's right to

[00:07:40] equal pay for equal work. My life and my track record demonstrates my approach to women in my own personal life, whether it be my wife or my high achieving daughters. And so the track record, my life

[00:07:57] speaks for itself and any attempt to smear me can the deeper you go into my history. I'm not a woman, I'm a woman. The deeper you go into my history is the more authentic my record becomes and have no scandal around women's issues or

[00:08:17] women in my life. So it speaks for itself. And can you talk a little bit to why that is a priority for you? We speak a lot about women voters and the importance of bringing them to the table and having good honest conversations,

[00:08:31] obviously with men and women. But why, why is this something that you've made a priority and is important to you? And how do you believe that impacts the women in your district? It's women, but it's actually bigger than that. It's the

[00:08:44] issue of you yourself as ethnic, racial, sexual person of origin, various origins becoming a leader of diverse community. And how do you lead in an equitable way that does not prefer your group, your even your party in terms of

[00:09:04] serving your constituents? How do you lead in that way that is devoid of prejudice, personal benefit, family benefit, ethnic benefit, regional benefit. That is really important to me because in my whole life, I've been part of a minority community,

[00:09:22] whether it be in my homeland in Jamaica as a low income kid, or a part of my pledge to live in a low income community and no matter what city I live in, and to see people preferring or even getting engaged in politics because of and to

[00:09:39] benefit their group is objectionable to me. You have to work hard to demonstrate and to serve equitably. Otherwise people in the margins will always be left behind. We did a pretty extensive deep dive with Don Samuels when we interviewed him last November, we're going to link to

[00:09:59] that episode. So we're going to go through some rapid issues here, some other issues that have come up in the race. I want to talk to you for a second about the former Somali Prime Minister who is in town, we have four Congresswoman Omar and

[00:10:11] he made some comments that were translated to say that he would encourage people to not vote for a black man or a white person in the fifth district race. What is your response to those comments? Coming from someone, first of all, he is a former Prime

[00:10:27] Minister. He is contributing to as a foreign leader to Congresswoman Omar's it adds the Somali independence today, which has a huge crowd. And so he is basically using his influence as a foreign agent to sway that crowd that by

[00:10:50] the way, I have talked to several Somali leaders and imams and their concerns are around the the fentanyl crisis and the impact of that on their children and their children's vulnerability to crime in a context in which there are still relative strangers. And they say that Congresswoman

[00:11:12] Omar has shown no empathy or priority out to their issues in lieu of correcting that to bring in someone who is a foreign leader to use his influence over the crowd of a large the largest ensemble assembly of Somalis in the

[00:11:32] year to to persuade them to support her out of ethnic loyalty rather than out of her performance in their service is manipulative unfair, possibly illegal and racist. And to do it in such a way with her standing right there, not to

[00:11:52] correct even if you remember John McCain when that woman accused President Obama of being Muslim, whatever. And and he said, I'm sorry, man, that's not true. It's not fair. He's a fine man. And this was his opponent. Correct. And so for

[00:12:10] someone who would scariots Republicans to not show the same kind of grace to discourage that kind of prejudice that puts her opponent squarely in the sights for dismissal is unfair, unethical and consistent with her self serving and and and unfair as style of campaigning.

[00:12:37] Obviously, you believe that representative Omar should have denounced these comments. What's your take on her refusal to do that and how that impacts the members, the constituent she serves? First of all, it calls into question. If she entertains

[00:12:54] those kinds of statements in public, which are going to be publicly observed, recorded and repeated. What does she do in private? What is her approach to sex and race in private? And what is she made of fundamentally as a leader? And these

[00:13:14] are the questions that the public deserve to answers to. And these are sensitive issues. The African American community made incredible tremendous sacrifice. This is not about Don Samuels. The African American community has made tremendous sacrifice. Children have gone to jail. Women pregnant women

[00:13:36] beaten for the rights that we as immigrants walk into without any of those sacrifices. And to then use your ethnicity to dismiss that entire community is is so ungrateful, unfair and reflects either deep character deficiency or a total lack of

[00:14:00] understanding of history and the context in which she benefits. What I found so surprising about it was having been on the receiving end of an interview where she was making all of these claims about sexism and stuff that was going to see her

[00:14:17] not speak out. I've seen the video that happening and to see her not speak out just in the moment. Contemporaneously, I think shows a disconnect. Yes, it truly shows a disconnect. And I do believe in that kind of candid moment of the video,

[00:14:30] we saw who she was. Yes, because she didn't speak out. And this is some, yes, and this is someone who I think and Becky had been on the receiving end of this last November with your previous appearance, someone who will look

[00:14:44] for every opportunity to construct an agenda that someone is being sexist or inappropriate or disrespectful in some way. And then to not call that out I think shows a disconnect. Well, yeah, this is a passionate advocate, activist around sexism, racism, classism. And those two of

[00:15:07] those isms sexism against the black against the male and racism against the black or ethnocentricism came out loud and clear on mitigated in her presence for her support. She had an incredible opportunity to make an elegant response that would authenticate her claim of being an advocate for equality.

[00:15:35] It's worth noting that the appearance drew an ethics complaint from the American Accountability Foundation over the potential coordinating of the campaign with the visit. There's some ethics concerns about that. I want to talk about a transition for a moment again, encourage our

[00:15:52] listeners to listen to our interview in November where we discussed a whole bevy of issues. I want to talk a little bit about ethics for a second because that's come out front and center in this rate is ethics. And there

[00:16:04] Minnesota reformer a progressive outlet in the Twin Cities did an article that detailed that Congresswoman Omar's husband Tim Annette and his business partner Will Heller were being sued in are currently being sued in the state of California allegations of fraud and

[00:16:21] fiscal mismanagement. There have been a number of allegations that have been raised around how Congresswoman Omar runs her campaigns, the contributions that have been directed to her husband's business entities consulting. I want to give you just a general, I want to ask you broadly about your

[00:16:40] thoughts about the ethical issues that continue to surround her and just one coming up just recently, just an ethics complaint filed just against Congresswoman Omar, how your position on ethics transparency conflicts of interest, how you would do things different and also a bit about how these

[00:16:57] issues can become distractions from elected officials doing the work that they need to do. Yeah, of course, we are really in a period where we're 30 3435 allegations that have been confirmed by prosecution against Congress President Trump as a felon. We as Democrats have been

[00:17:21] writing a requirement for accountability and honest leadership. And Congresswoman Omar is chief among them. And and we now are at a point where people are distrusting of government and are losing whether it be the Supreme Court, the parties and and even the media. And so it becomes

[00:17:44] important if they're the only option we have is to rebuild that trust and it's not going to be a quick fix. It's going to be by people who have deep long histories of trust and reliable and ethical behavior that are going to be able

[00:18:02] to rebuild that trust. And I am exposing myself to my constituency. I have lived a very public life and and the only reason I'm running that I the only reason I believe that my neighbors have studied the options and decided

[00:18:19] that I would be a right candidate to take on Ilhan Omar in her unethical leadership is they've studied my life and my history and believe that I am someone whose reputation can stand up to scrutiny and and become a trustworthy proponent for ethical change in Congress.

[00:18:43] This is a hugely important issue because ethics are basically the things we see. The things we don't see is how do you compromise the interests of your constituents for your own personal benefit when it is convenient, when it is outside of observation, when you

[00:19:05] are under pressure, when you getting support from someone and you don't want to shut them down because it's it's too beneficial and you don't want to you can't take risks. And so what happens when you have that kind of character is that you compromise the

[00:19:23] service you give, especially to the folks who are most vulnerable, who are less able to observe your behavior or to interpret them, etc. And so everything gets compromised. Trust is compromised and we're on a downward spiral by both parties. And it's time for a change.

[00:19:45] Unlike President Trump, who leans right in and talks about his convictions all the time. We haven't heard from Representative Omer about the allegations surrounding her husband and do you think we will hear anything from them or what are you hearing from constituents about the silence

[00:20:04] from Omar on the matter? I don't think you'll hear anything. And I think if you hear anything, it's going to be a canned statement. Carefully parsed, but she will not submit herself to tough questions. As you said, she's not come on this show

[00:20:19] even when she had the perceived upper hand of a victim of a statement that I have made. She wouldn't even put herself to the test for that, let alone something in which is culpability. And we know that in fact, Esme Murphy is one of the very few people

[00:20:37] she will submit herself to for softball questions. And the Star Tribune hardly gets an interview. Other mainstream media hardly get an interview. And that also reflects on ethical willingness to put one's ethics to the test. I really have to agree with you on that.

[00:20:57] And one of the things I have to say, we've never met in person, I don't believe, but your campaign has been so willing to come on and have questions. Becky and I are Republicans and the discussion here is so important.

[00:21:08] And this is as apple pie as it can get. This is as good as it can get is we have a Democrat who I would venture to say Becky and I probably don't agree with you on a lot of issues. Here we are having a conversation.

[00:21:20] And this is as American as apple pie and these types of conversations are exactly the reason why I love to do this podcast. And I'm so appreciative of you coming on and we're going to continue to discuss, but I just wanted to pause

[00:21:33] for a second, just acknowledge how important that is obviously from a transparency standpoint that people have discussions, but it's also good for people from different political parties to have conversations. It's what's missing right now. It's so important. And I just wanted to just pause for a

[00:21:48] second and just say thank you. I'll probably say it again in this interview too, but it's just so great to have these types of discussions because this is truly why Becky and I wanted to do this podcast and doesn't mean we're going to agree

[00:21:59] on everything, but we can have conversations and that's what's so important. And that's what I think is missing in the fifth right now as some of these discussions. I don't believe there have been any debates of any substance, correct? None at all.

[00:22:13] And we have hoped for, wished for, asked for and received a blank response. And part of my even going back to be interviewed by ASMR, even though I felt that there was unfairness in the past is because I'm willing to put myself through the fire

[00:22:32] and to submit myself to even even slanted questions so that I can prove in the toughest of circumstances the integrity of my thoughts, answers and service. So I think it's totally important to be available and to as many questions as possible. And that's why you'll see

[00:22:55] Congressman Omar having very controlled town halls where you have to register. You it can be sold out even though it's virtual. They get sold out. The questions are all vetted and they're timed and short and sweet. And I'm going to be constantly living, continuing to live

[00:23:16] where I live. I'm going to be in the supermarket around the river on the lake. I'm going to have town hall meetings. You can ask any question. They won't be vetted. And I think that's kind of leadership the district needs, especially the parts of the

[00:23:32] district that feel unheard and ignored. I appreciate that approach. I do want to acknowledge that we, of course, offered a host of debate between you and Congresswoman Omar and your campaign agreed to participate of Sarah Gad. When she was a candidate, she agreed. But Congresswoman Omar's office

[00:23:52] did not agree to participate in the debate in order they even respond to the request. So it's important that happens. I just wanted to jump into and say to your point about the town halls. I've worked for a variety of campaigns, candidates, the Republican Party of Minnesota.

[00:24:08] And while town halls virtual are still a great way to talk to folks, like you said, it is very largely manufactured of being able to make sure you control pulling the levers behind the curtain. And in person debates, I think are instrumental to any

[00:24:26] whether it's a primary or general election. I think every voter deserves to see the two candidates who are vying for their support, two, three, whatever, side by side, answering questions from a non biased as we hope moderators are whoever is putting on. And it's a really

[00:24:43] important way to have that very frank side by side, hear from one from the other and have the candidates poke those holes back and forth and really get to the basis of who they are, why they deserve a vote and why they should be sent to office.

[00:24:58] And here we are. This is not just measly little issues we're talking about. This is there's a lot of really important things going on in the world and the country and voters in the fifth deserve to hear from the candidates. And so I encourage you to push

[00:25:13] on. We're hopefully see one debates are crucially important. Earlier today, your campaign issued a statement in support of President Biden. Talk about why your campaign did that and where you think this that race is right now. Yeah, I think President Biden's competency has been proven

[00:25:31] by four years of incredible restoration of the American reputation in the international community or the strong economy and reduction of inflation, fulfilling a promise to forgive student loans and and having inherited a very difficult legacy after COVID as a leader. So I think that he's proven

[00:25:55] himself. I think that he is been in Congress for a long time. He's objective and has proven to be a bipartisan kind of leadership leader. And I think that we can trust President Biden at this point in his assessment of himself and in the people closest to

[00:26:13] him, unlike President Trump, whose closest allies, I think it's 40 of his closest staff people are no longer supporting him. President Biden's most inner circle and those closest to him continue to give him high marks on his competency and his performance. So I support him and I believe

[00:26:33] that he's the best best poised to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming race. He's done it before and he can do it again. You are running a very active campaign, engaging with a lot of groups. What are you hearing out on the campaign trail from people about issues?

[00:26:50] And I also want to ask you a follow up based on that. But what are you hearing from various groups, the issues that are most important to them in this primary and then the upcoming election? Yeah, there of course, there's a strong reaction from the Jewish

[00:27:02] community about concern about existential threat. We live in the historically what was just a few decades ago called the most anti-Semitic region in the United States. And so anti-Semitism tends to reemerge. And so that community is very concerned. We've heard from the Somali community a concern for their

[00:27:28] children, a concern for the addiction crisis and that their children after leaving Somalia, violent community might end up becoming again vulnerable to and even possibly perpetuating themselves violence. So that that community is in great anguish. Remember now, these are the people who left everything behind that was fraught

[00:27:57] with violence and dysfunction to come to a country that was a city on a hill. And it's turning out that their children are failing to thrive in many cases. Congresswoman Omar, they say is ignoring those issues. And then of course the African American community is feeling ignored.

[00:28:17] 70 percent of the African American community did not want to defund the police, which was Congresswoman Omar's signature issue during the last campaign for a municipal campaign. And and she's out of touch. And I don't know if you heard or saw her interview with Al Flowers yesterday on KMOJ,

[00:28:37] but there was a definite disconnect. She didn't hear could not hear what he was saying and wouldn't and failed to address what he said were the primary issues for the community. And so the community, especially older folks who are looking for the long haul, who have a sense

[00:28:57] of history where we've been, where we're coming from and the threats that bloom potentially in the future. She is not addressing or conscious of those long term issues and historical issues. You one of the issues that we discussed the last time you were

[00:29:15] on was it was in the aftermath, of course, the initial weeks of the October 7th attacks in Israel by Hamas. You've been you've taken some criticism from some of Congress woman Omar and her supporters because you have proposed a two state solution to resolve this conflict. Give your

[00:29:31] perspective on what your perspective on where that conflict is at, what you would like to see done and how are you listening to people in your community? She's going to represent in Congress if you make it to the primary on how you want to

[00:29:44] lead in Washington on that issue. Yeah, again, I believe that this event was a terrorist act by a terrorist organization pretending to be political leaders and that it's weren't to the destruction of Israel. I believe that Israel had a right to defend itself

[00:30:01] and to do so in a strong and strident manner. I think everybody agreed with that. We're all appalled. I think the degree to which Israel did does and didn't does that and the point at which they have violated our sensibilities has been on a spectrum.

[00:30:20] And Congresswoman Omar's began to be offended immediately after saw Israel as a bad guy. I have I now believe that Israel that we can no longer tolerate the kind of death and destruction that we've seen, especially of women and children. And it's time to call a halt

[00:30:42] to the violence to demand the return of the hostages and to provide to create a new Israeli Palestinian leadership that is democratic and respects its own people and doesn't put them in harm's way for its own agendas. And then we can lead to what might be considered

[00:31:03] improbable, but the only the only acceptable future, which is a two state solution or the only workable solution to duly democratically elected governments living side by side with equal respect and mutual interests. And that this can be achieved with a collaboration of the neighboring states, NATO,

[00:31:26] Israel itself and Palestinian people and and of course with the facilitation of the United States. That's why we have to continue to be a trusted broker and not be seen as my opponent as picking a side, but being willing to stand in the middle and take the heat

[00:31:43] of being misunderstood by extremists like my opponent and her and take the heat and preserve your neutrality for the future negotiations. What's the reception from constituents when they hear where you stand on this versus your opponent? Do you are voters receptive to your views on this or

[00:32:10] is it or do you get some pushback from being open, more open obviously than Congressman Omer? Yes, I do. People appreciate more neutral stance because people see the likelihood of a no end to violence. They see that this could go on forever and that wars

[00:32:30] are not the ultimate solution. And so they're looking first of all, we have like a political war in our hands at home with rival parties and rival interests within Tartals and people are tired of conflict, whether it be local or national and they want someone who is

[00:32:51] going to have as a vision that ultimately leads to peace. Every leader has a moral accountability to have a philosophy or a position that ultimately leads to a sustainable outcome and to tell our advocate for solutions that are going to lead to more violence, more much understanding

[00:33:17] down into the future is irresponsible and unsustainable. The primary is coming up on August 13th. What's your campaigns plan between now and then to get out your voters and try to win the primary? We have 700 volunteers by the way, let me just be

[00:33:35] clear, I'm not asking for any top secret plans. So I'm just gonna know nothing top secret. OK. OK, so we have 700 volunteers. These people are going to be knocking on doors, making phone calls. I believe we made 9000 phone calls last or personal contacts last week.

[00:33:54] And that's because we have a trove of workers and volunteers who are manning phones, knocking on doors and neighbors who are putting up the art signs who are sending out communication emails to their neighbors and fellow district residents, telling them why they support my campaign

[00:34:18] and my candidacy and encouraging them to vote for me. You're going to find that there is a deficiency in take, even though Congresswoman Omar is blaming me for taking billions from millions from billionaires and having fat coffers. You'll find that in fact, she is the one with

[00:34:38] the superior take from advocate activist type folks from around the country. Over 90 percent of her income comes from blood size of state consistently. And that means that she has an obligation to those interests and those approaches to leadership, not to her constituents. On the other hand, my

[00:34:59] race is people intense, people driven and and it is responding to the needs of the people of the fifth district. We appreciate you being on today. We are going to keep trying to get a debate between now and the August primary. But if it works in your

[00:35:16] schedule, we'd love to have you back on again, independent of a debate. And just thank you for for running for office. We say that to everyone, Democrat, Republican, everyone, we say thank you to run in. Be safe out on the campaign trail. And we appreciate you

[00:35:29] taking some time with us today. OK. Thank you. And thanks for your objective interviews and and you help your guests to feel safe even while you have tough questions. So I appreciate it. Thank you as well. Becky, we just interviewed again Don Samuels, who's

[00:35:46] running for Congress in the fifth congressional district. You're taking an interview, but I want to offer something in, but I want to get your take first. I was surprised the first time. And I guess I don't know what I expected anything to change, but it's just a really

[00:36:03] obviously it should be obvious. I don't know that Don Samuels and I have a lot of policy positions that that overlap. I would warrant to bet that we are pretty far apart on a lot of different things. But I like his style. I like his approach.

[00:36:17] I feel like it is transparent and honest and open. And like you said, we're we have some confusions with our party. We are Republicans. And for the fact that he saw a benefit or an interest in chatting with us not once but twice, I think is

[00:36:32] goes to show that he really, truly is wanting to have conversations and get his dialogue in his positions envision for the future out there and something that we've heard from multiple people, not just him, that is missing from his district. And so I it was another great conversation.

[00:36:48] And I appreciate him taking the time to come chat with us. I love doing this podcast and I so thoroughly enjoyed and those are the types of interviews that as I say in social media, every time we do a podcast, it becomes my new favorite.

[00:37:01] But in all honesty, if I'm being a bit more direct, having conversations with people from different parties that I would normally not come across with and travel in that circle is just so much fun. And it probably, you know, it takes some time out of his

[00:37:16] schedule, but his willingness to come on and talk, I just think is so refreshing. And I hope that there's more of that in politics that people are willing to just sit down and talk to. I know you and I have worked on campaigns. We've worked. We've done communications.

[00:37:31] There's a whole factor of issues that go in. But I just have to tell you that it's incredibly refreshing to have someone like Don Samuels, who's so willing to come on the podcast, sitting down with a couple of Republicans who agree with him on no issues.

[00:37:43] But our perspective is just to hear him talk and just to give listeners an understanding as to what we think the issues are and what's going on. And I think that's missing. And I just wish that people did that more. I would say again, we would welcome Congressman

[00:37:57] Omar to come on the podcast. We would treat her with the exact same respect that we treat every single guest that comes on and they would and it would not be any type of gotcha situation. But I again, I don't agree with Don Samuels on probably

[00:38:10] any issue, except one maybe issue that I would agree with him on, which is I think his approach to just reaching out and talking to people is what's needed more than ever. And I like it and I'm very proud of the fact we've created a space where we're

[00:38:26] rewarding people who are willing to just have conversations. And again, we're not trying to push an agenda. We're just having a conversation. I think that's so much fun. So I'm sure there might be listeners who think that we treated him or other guests with kid gloves,

[00:38:41] but I think that's never been our style of doing gotcha journalism, making people uncomfortable and trying to unearth some big scandal or get somebody caught off guard. It's about the conversation. And I think that's something that there are journalists out there who do this all day,

[00:38:58] every day, 90 hours a week and spend their time trying to do that and really pull things out. We're here for the conversation. We're here to give our listeners and have them ourselves conversations, access to conversations with folks from left, right, center and everything in between.

[00:39:14] And it was like you said, very refreshing. Becky, the only other subject I thought we just make it take a second or two to comment on is what's the status with Biden and what's been going on? I'm throwing a little bit of a curveball here, but there's

[00:39:27] been some news that's developed as we were prepping for this. And this is a subject Don Samuels campaign issued a statement calling for his support of Biden. I believe Congresswoman Omar has done the same. So both candidates are backing backing Biden at this point. Any thoughts and perspectives

[00:39:43] as we close us this episode, because I think this is a subject we're going to be coming back to more and more over the coming days. Absolutely. I think every time we've spoke, the floodgates are breaking. It's it's breaking a little bit more and more.

[00:39:57] Angie Craig came out asking Biden to step back. I think more members will. Matt Klein also did state legislature legislator. And so I expect that to continue to come. I think it's I think it also there is obviously a political play for this.

[00:40:12] I saw a tweet that said if this was just about the governance and everything, folks would have done this before. But now it's about the down ballot impact and how it the political ramifications that it might have. And I think that is true. I think that we might

[00:40:26] see some of these more targeted battleground districts be some of those members who are maybe a little bit more forthcoming and stepping up about that. Like Angie Craig, I think we got more coming. But he seems pretty resolved to stay in. Yes, he sent a communication

[00:40:41] today and email communication that's more definitive and it's continuing to happen. And I think the challenge and we'll talk about this more in an episode here's future episodes and over the coming days and into next week. But I think the challenge for

[00:40:54] Biden is that what he needs to do, he can't do. He sadly can't do. He can come out and give that type. And so it's going to have to be it's going to have to be some baby steps. I'm not trying to be disrespectful,

[00:41:07] but he's going to have to win people over moment by moment. And there's a lot of challenges I think he's going to face. And I think you're right. I think I still think he stays in. I still think he's a nominee. But I do think it's going

[00:41:18] to continue. And there's a lot I want to discuss more about that on future episodes. But I want to thank you so much for doing this. It was just great to just speak with Don Samuels again. And again, disagree with them, but it was just great to have

[00:41:31] those conversations. Thank you so much for helping create that space. Absolutely. Have a good one. We want to thank you for listening to the breakdown with Broadcore Rebeccae before we go show some love for your favorite podcast by leaving us review on Apple Podcasts

[00:41:46] or in the platform where you listen. You can also leave your viewer give us a shout out on our website or across all social media platforms at BB Breakpod. The breakdown with Broadcore Rebeccae will return next week. Thank you for listening.