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Hi, I'm Tara Palmieri. I'm Puck's senior political correspondent, and this is Somebody's Gotta Win.
Today was a really big day in court for the prosecution in the hush money trial against Donald Trump. They had their star witness on the stand, Michael Cohen, for the first day. And, you know, Michael Cohen claims that Donald Trump knew that the money that they paid Stormy Daniels to not share her story about the affair was really...
an election contribution and not a business expense that it was mislabeled. It's interesting to hear how Cohen described himself and how he would even be a bully for Trump. And I remember when I was covering Trump, talking to Michael Cohen at times, and one time he screamed at me like I'd never been screamed at before. And he was really devoted to Trump. You could just
tell. He admitted that he wanted to be Trump's chief of staff at one time, and he was disappointed that he didn't get the job. But he really went into how he knew how to deal with problems for Trump and that he tried to keep him abreast of everything that he was up to, including paying off women who were coming forward ahead of the election. He was trying to prove that it was
not merely a business expense. Of course, the defense will tear down Michael Cohen when they get their chance, question his credibility, how he was held in contempt of Congress. He went to jail. He asked for a pardon from Trump and was denied and why he was motivated to come out against his former boss and frankly, idle the way that he used to talk about Trump. And there was an interesting dynamic apparently playing out in the court with Trump with his eyes closed and
as Cohen testified about him without looking at him. And one time they were like thick as thieves. And now clearly no love is lost between those two. We'll see how the defense does, but we're going to have Ellie Honig, our somebody who's got to win legal eagle that we just so happened to share with CNN. He's a former prosecutor in New York.
and he'll come on the show to really examine how Michael Cohen did, how strong this case is. He at one point called it middling on the show. So we'll see if he thinks the prosecution did a good job in proving its point. And that'll be on Thursday. But before that, I've got
Teddy Schleifer, my colleague from Puck on the Line. We're going to talk about the Nikki Haley trial balloon that was floated this weekend. The idea that Trump was considering her for VP. He subsequently popped it. And we're going to go into the baby games behind that. You know, the political machinations, who floated it and why at this point in the game.
We'll also talk about my latest reporting on TikTok that there is actually two to one more positive Trump content than Biden content. I know. Can you believe it? On an app that Gen Z uses, there are way more views of hashtag Trump 2024 content than hashtag Biden 2024 content. You can look yourself. It's like...
12 to 1. And then I break it down by battleground state. My stats come from TikTok officials. It's a really interesting story that you should check out at puck.news. And it's all going on the backdrop of the Biden administration essentially banning this app
and the app really fighting for its life and perhaps seeing a future only in a future Trump administration. We also talk about how Melinda Gates has left the Gates Foundation. This is a big deal. And how she wants to spend her money to influence 2024. She's got about $13 billion she left with. And then we go into the bromance between Donald Trump and David Sachs. So hang on, Teddy's on the line.
So I've got Teddy Schleifer with me, the best voice in print news. Low bar. Best voice in print news. I really, I do think you have a great voice. Best single, single, you know, slugger right here.
No, I'm happy to have you as always, Teddy. I just want to catch up on the big news from the weekend with you because I want to play a game of who is the source. Okay. Wait, so does this involve me guessing who the source is for a story? Yeah, yeah, we'll do it. Nikki Haley reportedly was being considered by the Trump team for the vice presidency, right? They were giving her a look, which we always kind of knew in the background was the thing, right? A
Apparently, 4 million votes have been cast for her so far. That's 20% of the GOP primary voters to date. She's got a huge following and they keep voting for her in protest to Donald Trump. She's got a ton of donors we know attached to her. She represents the anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party and Trump needs them, right? He doesn't want those voters going over to Biden. Biden's obviously trying to court them as well. That...
trial balloon was popped subsequently by Trump saying, I
I think he said something crazy on Truth saying, no way, I'd never have her as a, I'm not considering her as a vice president, but I wish her well. Yeah, I mean, it was mere hours after the initial story was written that the trial balloon was plopped. So I don't think I really even got to enjoy the trial balloon. The viewing party was pretty brief. It was from our friend, Alex Thompson, friend of the pod. He's been on to talk about the debates. And now that I think about it,
I think that Trump's team may have leaked it.
ahead of her donor retreat today. So she's got a big donor retreat. Yeah, tell me about that. So you know about this more than I do, but it's in South Carolina. She's got big donors like Ken Griffin of Citadel, who said that, you know, he's not even going to play in the presidential. He'll only be donating to Senate candidates this cycle, which is pretty surprising. And she has some big names, heavy hitters still attached to her, still dreaming of the Nikki Haley ticket.
And they're all meeting in South Carolina. And I think that Trump's team wanted to put it out there that she was in contention so that she might endorse him at the retreat and that those donors would come over to Team Trump.
That's my feeling. What do you think? Yeah, sure. I mean, look, I mean, the Haley voter constituency is small because she lost, but not that small because, you know, they'll keep voting for her in states months after she dropped out of the race entirely. Pretty extraordinary. Right. And that's that's a problem for Trump. Not that he's going to lose the, you know, Indiana Republican primary. But, you know, the fact that there is this
consistent blob of people who keep showing up again and again saying they're not voting for a Republican nominee even when he's the presumptive candidate. You know, those are people that Joe Biden can target consistently
you know, all the way to November. And for donors, I mean, it's more of the same. I mean, yes, Trump has made, I would say, tremendous progress with major donors over the last six to eight weeks since the primary ended. But there are still a lot of people like Ken Griffin who have no interest in being involved. And that's bad for Trump. And the fact that
Haley has kind of left this primary in the pole position for the I told you so's makes her kind of the
natural or maybe unnatural leader of the non-Trump or anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party. So all the Bulwark subscribers out there can worship Nikki Haley because she finished in second place and she has more influence in the Republican Party than she had when the race began. So good for her. So I also have a flip side on this.
Hit me. Nikki Haley's team leaks it because it keeps her, it makes her relevant for 2028. Well, I'll just say this as a general matter and Tara, I'm sure you get plenty of this too from nosy sources or subjects of reporting and newsflash to any ringer listeners who read a story and think they know how it emerges.
These guessing games are usually wrong, right? No, but it was one of the two camps. It was either Trump's camp or it was her camp. I don't know. Sometimes, sometimes people just get out. Who's the third camp? No, no. But like, like, like things, things get out that are not logical leaks. Um,
Like the people who always try to 3D chess the leaks, as much as I love this game. We're just playing political baby games, okay? I know, I know, I know. But the leak guesses are usually wrong. So, okay, okay. Now with that poo-pooing aside. The timing is interesting, though, around her donor poo-ba.
I guess I disagree because I think Haley already is relevant for all the reasons I just said that I don't think that she needs to maintain her relevance. I mean, I mean, like, I mean, she has positioned herself as the leader of the anti-Trump Republican Party. I mean, let's be, you know, she still has not endorsed him for president United States. That's pretty extraordinary. She also has it not endorsed him. And she's also attacking Biden often on Twitter. I don't know if you notice that over Israel. She says that he's helping Iran. I just feel like to be considered as the Republican president.
presidential vice presidential nominee, you should endorse the president. That's the bar. Like you should want that guy to win if you want to be his VP. And it's not even clear she wants him to win at this point. OK, so Kellyanne Conway said on Bill Maher that Trump will view 2020 as his third term. OK, and so he'll want a hand in who he picks and who will be the next nominee. So that is why she needs to curry favor with him, basically. Yeah.
So the idea would be that Haley would be magified over the next four years and then be a good person to run in 2028. Yeah. What do you think, Tara, about the theory? This is a little bit of a tangent, but why not? There is a type of kind of anti-Trump Democrat who genuinely believes that Trump in 2028, if he's elected in 2024, will try to argue that constitutionally,
I'm not saying this is accurate or certainly not conventional wisdom. I've heard this.
But not poll Mike Bloomberg because you wouldn't really be changing anything. You would just be interpreting it differently. Obviously, that would set off, you know, a whole host of constitutional questions, yada, yada, yada. I've actually heard that he can serve two extra years, not exactly two terms. Like the president is the maximum amount of time the president can serve is 10 years. Because it would be two terms. Wait, I don't get that. It's weird. It's 10 years is the maximum amount of time they can spend in total as president. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I guess I don't – I mean, I hear this, I would say not infrequently. People are talking about it. But from Democrats. I hear this from, like, concerned anti-Trump Democrats who, you know, worry about us backsliding into authoritarianism, who worry that Trump would try it. I'm asking you if you've heard anyone in the Republican universe, anyone in the Trump universe talk about that as something that they should consider doing. I mean, obviously, that would be –
huge story. And we're not saying that Trump is actively considering doing that. You know, now that I think about it, I should pay attention to who is voting that because, okay, here it is. It is possible for an individual to serve up to 10 years as president. Yeah, this was passed in by Congress in 1947. According to the 22nd Amendment, you
You can serve two terms a total of eight years. However, it is possible for an individual to serve up to 10 years as president. Right. If, if not to get you, you know, in the weeds here, if you are, um, a vice president who is then elevated to the presidency, but not elected, um, then you could serve. Oh,
So then it would be like, well, if you know, you know, you're the vice president and you serve the last two years of the president's term and you can be elected to other terms. That's the possibility. It doesn't say that, but I guess that's the thing. That's my understanding of it. Anyway, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just saying like, when we talk about 2028 and you talk about Trump,
Trump as an extension. Yeah. But this all goes to like, what is Trump's legacy, right? This all goes to, you know, is there an inheritor of the Trump mantle? You know, if it's not Nikki Haley, is it Barron Trump or is it J.D. Vance or whomever?
Or is it just Donald Trump for a third or fourth and a fifth term? No, it was interesting. Apparently, Don Jr. said the other day, there is no more GOP. It's the MAGA party. And maybe he's right. And when I talk to people actually who were party poobahs back in the day when it really was the GOP, they don't think the 2028 is going to be any different than 2024 in that they don't think that the party is the Nikki Haley party.
And that she doesn't have a shot unless she cozies up to Trump. I mean, didn't she just get trounced in a one-on-one race for, you know, state after state after state? I mean, I mean, I do not think she will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States. Right. But why would four years from now change? I mean, I think the only thing that would change would be Trump not being eligible to run again. Right. Like, I don't think those people, I don't think, you know, Trump Jr. is saying anything, you know, that surprising or that much against the conventional wisdom when, you know, you know,
This is not the party of Romney-Ryan in 2012. The question of, is there some sort of Trump-lite
you know, approach that DeSantis maybe tried to carve out for a period of time in 2023 that is a post-Trump GOP. I don't know, but we're a ways away from that. And, you know, Trump is obviously competitive enough right now that it's not clear that there's really any desire for Trump to leave the Republican Party because he's still pretty competitive in general elections. Okay.
Any last thoughts on Nikki Haley? I do not think she'll be the vice president of the United States. That's my last thought. Let's move on. Let's talk about Melinda Gates. You had a story. Was it your scoop or were you just putting it out there the fastest? Can I tell you, can I give you the, uh, the inside tea on, uh, how I knew this would be newsworthy as soon as I saw it on my phone. Well, can you first tell us what was newsworthy? He, she was leaving the Gates foundation to do her own political work. Kind of, sort of, um, Melinda.
Melinda Gates got divorced from Bill Gates in 2021. It was a shocking moment for, you know, the power couple of all power couples. I remember where I was when I saw that news. You felt the earthquake. I felt the earthquake. Yeah.
You were in Silicon Valley probably, right? I was actually in New Orleans on a vacation. And I saw the... I'll tell you the backstory in a second. But now, it was announced today, similarly kind of out of nowhere, that Melinda French Gates, which is her...
the name she now goes by, is leaving the Gates Foundation as one of the trustees of the institution, which is the largest philanthropy in the United States and has a power akin to foreign governments, I would say, in some parts of the world at some times. So it's huge news that Melinda, who is first name only required person in American life, is leaving not
not only bill, but the bill and Melinda Gates foundation, it will now just be renamed to the Gates foundation, no bill or Melinda. So that the story I was going to tell was just like, I have, I have tweet alerts on for her. Um, just because, you know, just to mind things that she's saying. I mean, I usually barely pay attention to them, um, because it's usually gobbledygook that I'm not that interested in, but, um, I remember in 2021, the tweet notification was just a photograph of,
And it was like a photograph of text. So in 2021, like when I saw that, I remember I was like,
I clicked on the link on the tweet because there's no text in the tweet. You immediately think this looks like a statement. I saw the tweet in 2021, and it was a tweeted image of a statement saying they were getting divorced. Then this time again, deja vu, this afternoon, I'm sitting at my desk here in DC, and I just see a Melinda tweet of a statement.
And I immediately think back to them getting divorced. So I'm like, this is going to be interesting. You had flashbacks. You had trauma flashbacks. How it ruined your vacation. So I knew it was going to be fun. So I clicked on it and it was like very similar. And it was...
Yeah. Whenever you're like tweeting the, like a notes app of your phone, you know, you know, it's going to be good. Yeah. She tweeted that she was leaving the foundation and we can talk about why and kind of the political angle here. Cause this is a politics show. Yeah. Why is she leaving the foundation to help Democrats? Right. In 2024. So she, let me, let me, let me read to you what she, what she wrote. And you can tell me what you think. She says after careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Yeah.
Blah, blah, blah, blah. He hung out with Jeffrey Epstein. It was a little uncomfortable. Yeah. Somehow not in the statement. Whoops. The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy. This is a critical moment for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world. And those fighting to protect and advance equality are in urgent need of support. And then if you look at...
Mark Sussman, who is the CEO of the Gates Foundation, let me tell you how he described this internally to Gates Foundation employees. He said, Melinda cares deeply about the foundation and is extremely proud of all of you, blah, blah, blah.
She made this decision after considerable reflection based on how she wants to spend the next chapter of her philanthropy. Melinda has new ideas about the role she wants to play in improving the lives of women and families in the US and around the world. After all,
And after a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the U.S., she wants to use this next chapter focus specifically on altering that trajectory. Like, that sounds like somebody who's going to be donating a lot of money to Planned Parenthood, to NARAL, to...
to maybe the Biden campaign. To these ballot initiatives to get them on. Yeah, but ballot initiatives, right, sure. I mean, and Melinda Gates, Melinda French Gates has increasingly gotten involved in politics over the last couple of years. And there's some interesting backstory here. I mean, she and Bill for decades, since they were sort of royalty, honestly, in American public life, they were knighted by the queen, or I think at least Bill was knighted by the queen at one point. They eschewed
personal partisan politics because their point was like, we need to work with George Bush on, you know, combating HIV and we need to work with Barack Obama and, you know, Ebola and we can't be these partisan political people because we need to be above politics. So as a couple, they never got engaged ever. But then recently, over the last couple of years,
especially since they finalized the divorce, Melinda has gotten very involved in politics. She has full-time political staff at her family office, Pivotal Ventures. She is in D.C. all the time talking about this issue about how to get more women elected to Congress, blah, blah, blah. She is making...
Six, seven figure political contributions to Emily's list and stuff like that. And it sounds like she's getting $13 billion as part of this settlement, so to speak. It sounds like some of that money could be coming to a television ad near you in Arizona. So welcome to the new player. Yeah. And she's got a lot of money. She took $13 billion with her. $12.5, right? Yeah.
And another thing I'm interested in is her kids. Obviously, you sort of think about the parents influencing the kids and we're all influenced by the people that raise us, blah, blah, blah. Melinda, interestingly, I think has been influenced by her kids to get involved in politics. Both Rory Gates and Phoebe Gates, who are two of her 20-something-year-old
children have gotten very involved in politics over the last couple of years and have both pushed her into getting more and more involved in politics on her own. So you can blame the Gen Zers. Yeah, Gen Z, mixing it up for everyone. Well, so that was some big news, the earthquake, the second earthquake for you, and you are not on vacation. I'm going to move on to a story that I reported recently.
Yeah. About TikTok. So it looks like TikTok has become a hotbed of MAGA activity. In fact, TikTok officials tell me that since November, there has been two to one pro-Trump to pro-Biden content on the app. I can give you some more specifics. Yeah. There has been 1.29 million positive Trumps
Trump videos or images with 9.1 billion views compared to 651,000 positive Biden posts with 6 billion views. And that's just been since November. And then from January 2023 to May 2024, videos tagged hashtag Trump 2024 have generated 472 million likes with 6.5 billion views compared to
to Biden, hashtag Biden 2024 videos, which just got 50 million likes and 558 million views. That's like a 10 to 1 ratio Trump likes to Biden likes, then a 12 to 1 ratio in terms of views. So clearly TikTok has become way more Trumpy. And this just so happens to come around the same time where TikTok
Biden is signing a ban, right, on TikTok. And the company just feels like they have lost their way with Democrats. They have no way of repealing this law that was passed overwhelmingly.
by both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate. And Trump, he tried to ban TikTok back in 2020, and everyone thought it was like a cynical political ploy because at the time there was just so much anti-Trump content on the app and people thought it was his way of like disconnecting these younger voters to Biden during COVID. But
But I don't know. It sounds like Trumpy content is becoming even more popular. Charlie Kirk has a million followers. Johnny McEntee, who worked for Trump, has two million. Ben Shapiro, two million. And then you look at like AOC and she doesn't even have a million. She has nine hundred eighty eight thousand. Another big liberal commentator, David Pakman, has nine hundred thousand. And the Biden campaign is.
That launched on Super Bowl Sunday with that weird, you know, video about cookies has 300,000 followers. RFK Jr. has 1.2 million. So clearly it's just Gen Z's. They're not that into Biden. And there are some of them are angry about the ban. Like when I look at comments, they comment on Biden's ban.
on the HQ videos, his videos, and they're like angry about the ban. And I don't know, it could be a problem for him. Why do you think this is happening? Could it be the algorithm? Could the company be playing to Trump right now? Like clearly they see him as their savior. And if he's elected-
I mean, that's a very cynical reason. Maybe Biden is just not as popular as Trump is what we're seeing in the polls right now anyway, right? It could just be a reflection of the polls. We know that people are not enthusiastic about Biden. We know that Democrats are not that enthusiastic about Biden. We know that Republicans are very enthusiastic about Trump. Maybe that's just reflected in the content. There are a lot of different reasons, I guess, but it could have a really big impact on the election. Here's some more stats. I hope I don't lose everyone with these stats, but there are...
10 million TikTok users in, I'm going to go through the battleground states. 10 million TikTok users in Pennsylvania, 3.4 million in Nevada, 2.4 million in Arizona, 5.4 million in Georgia, and 3.7 million in Michigan. So if just 1% of these users are fed more pro-Trump content or anti-Biden content by angry TikTok creators who are upset about the ban, it could have a real impact on the election because we know this election could be decided by...
maybe a few hundred thousand voters in a number of battleground states. So I think this is actually a significant story. I've seen some pickup on it. And the Wall Street Journal wrote about it as well, about these Gen Z voters and their anger against Biden on TikTok. They didn't go into the actual numbers and the engagement, but I just think it's interesting if you have an app that is not truth social, that is churning out
way more pro-Trump content than pro-Biden content. And they can't buy political ads on TikTok. They can buy political ads on Snapchat. I think they can buy them on Meta, right? I don't remember. The policies have changed so many times now where it's hard to follow. This tech reporter pleads ignorance. But yes, I mean, TikTok...
uh, clearly is, is having a moment with, with, with the right. What do you think after having covered tech for so long, what do you think is happening? Do you think they're playing up to Trump? I mean, that's a very, uh, it's very conspiratorial. Um, I love it. Um, no, I mean, you know, the TikTok as a, uh, you know, power user, um, uh, has, uh, cult is, is really organized around personalities, right? Whether it's,
someone making you uh showing you a new recipe or uh someone playing games where they find find you on a map based on a photograph or you know whether you love ben shapiro and ben shapiro is you know going to show you all the ben shapiro things and introduce you into ben shapiro culture right um and clearly like there's personalities who are taking off more uh
on the right. I don't really know why, though. Like, I mean, it's not like there aren't lefty personalities that exist. Those people can easily be on TikTok, but
Clearly, the right is doing well. And I'll tell you, there are lots of, sticking a little bit closer to the world I know of donors, I mean, there are lots of major Democratic donors who are very concerned about TikTok, specifically, who think that the left has gotten beat on the content creation game and where are the Biden influencers cultivating their stands and putting them on TikTok? I know that's a cause for some concern among people
major progressive donors. Right. And Trump has some major Republican donors talking in his ear, like Jeff Yass, who has a substantial stake in TikTok. And they met and after their meeting, Trump suddenly says Biden's TikTok ban is going to bite him with the Gen Z. And I'm the one who's trying to save it. Yada, yada, yada. Plus, you know, TikTok is
They have Kellyanne Conway and David Urban and some very close Trump aides working on the cause to keep it alive without having to divest. And like Steve Mnuchin was talking about getting his former treasury secretary was talking about creating a consortium of buyers. Sure. But all for naught. I mean, like there's all that, you know, there's all this, you know, energy spent by TikTok, you know, maybe belatedly, but, you know, an effort to, uh,
cultivate Trump allies. And, you know, I guess they did successfully get Trump to come out against it. But to be clear, like the TikTok campaign
influence effort in Washington was an abject failure, right? I mean, the thing got banned. They were clearly blindsided. And who cares if they hired Kellyanne Conway? It didn't work. I mean, I think they're trying now in the appeals court. Well, sure. We'll see what, yeah. But that's not a Washington. Yeah, exactly. But also, like, if Trump is elected and his Justice Department, will they, like, really enforce the ban? You know what I mean? I think that's the thinking right now. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Okay.
Okay. Yeah. So that's, that's sort of the next level. Well, I thought that was great. I thought it was a great story. Thanks. It happened so quickly though, the passing of that bill. If you think about it, like has anything passed that quickly? Maybe not since after 9-11. Has anything ever passed that quickly? I think things have passed quickly. I mean, major legislation. Sure. Yeah. Big deal. It was a big deal. It was a big deal. I agree.
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Okay, Teddy, let's talk about your story. Let's talk about David Sachs. What's the latest in the bromance between Trump and David Sachs? So Donald Trump is heading to San Francisco on June 6th, 2024. He will be there.
for a live taping of the All In podcast. That's not true, but like it could be true. He could, honestly, honestly, I would not rule out. Are you planting that? You're planting that. No, but I mean, I'm joking, but I'm not really joking. I mean, David Sachs and Shamath Palaiapatiya, the two co-hosts of the All In podcast are indeed hosting a Trump fundraiser on June 6th in San Francisco. If someone pulled out a microphone and started recording it and, you know, David,
Honestly, I would say there's a 20% chance it's on the All In podcast. I don't know. I'm just throwing... I'm making things up. But it is... Sacks is a fundraiser who is also a media personality. And what is... What would he be if he didn't just blend those two roles into one and just start recording fundraisers? It's not like people say anything. It's not like Trump's going to say anything at a fundraiser that he wouldn't say publicly anyway. Right. But...
Yeah. I mean, Trump is going on a fundraising tour. He has an event also in Southern California being hosted by Palmer Lucky, who's another character from my universe, who is the founder of Anderle, the defense tech company, and is married to Matt Gaetz's sister and is sort of a- Brother-in-law of Matt Gaetz. Conservative influencer in his own right. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, Trump right now, obviously, is spending four days a week in Manhattan courtroom. But on the weekends, he parties and he goes to fundraisers. And on Wednesdays. Wednesdays, too. Has he ever been this thirsty? For money? Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, he wasn't well funded in 2016 either. Yeah. But, I mean, he's doing well right now because the...
He's starting from a low base. The rate of change can be high and he can have a lot of positive slope to the line because he is raising money at a fast clip because there's few other people who have maxed out. There's lots of people who are coming home to Trump.
including people who support Nikki Haley in 2020, 2024. And he's making everyone dance for it, making all his potential VP nominees like The Apprentice go out and get him money. Yeah. What's the latest on that? What are you hearing about the Veepstakes, Tara? There's a Tim Scott fundraiser with all of his big donors, right? Yeah. I think it's a donor briefing, but donor maintenance is the term of art.
Mm-hmm. Mark Andreessen's going to be at that? That was interesting to me. Oh, yeah. Why? Well, Andreessen is... I've written a lot about Mark Andreessen. I have a story that came out earlier this year called Mark Andreessen Eats Washington for any Puck subscribers out there. The fact that Andreessen is going to a donor summit for a Republican senator is interesting to me. That's kind of it. Just the fact that he would...
People in that stratosphere of wealth manage their time carefully, and the fact that he would choose to spend his time hobnobbing with a bunch of politicians and people like that is notable on the Marc Andreessen side.
political appetite thermometer. Right. Why not just send one of your people? Yeah, sure. So, or not. No one's making him go. Here's something that I have heard, even though you keep hearing like Doug Burgum, yada, yada, yada. Trump really doesn't want anyone from a heartbeat state.
He doesn't want to have to deal with that. Interesting. Tell people what that means. A heartbeat state is a state where the ban on abortion, there are no exceptions, maybe for rape, maybe for the life of the mother, but like, it's just such an extreme ban that
There's no exception at all. And Trump is so just terrified about abortion, what it will do and how it's such a motivating factor for Democrats literally calls it the A word. He just doesn't want to have to be accountable for governors who preside over states, govern over states that have these kind of, you know, no exception abortion rules. So that means Kristi Noem, who was already out for killing her dog, but at one time was in contention, Sarah Sanders and Doug Burgum, unless he wants to change the law.
I mean, he's a billionaire, so that's appealing for Trump. But I think Trump will not pick any of these people until maybe a week before the convention, and he'll pick the guy or woman that he needs at that time for what he needs at that time. So, dream time. We can just fill our columns with the chatter around it.
No, I'm kidding. But Tara, it's only, it's only, it's only May 13. Like, you know, we got, we got, we got eight more weeks of board reporters speculating on V6. Maybe, maybe 10 more weeks. I don't want, how many more trial balloons? I mean, I just read, I read the, I read, I read these stories as entertainment, not as news. I stand by my reporting on this heartbeat stuff. I really do. I've got good sources on this and it makes sense. And it really does.
Okay. Teddy, thank you for your time. Teddy's another reason to sign up for Puck because we both write for puck.news and you can get our great insider reporting. We can't get anywhere else. Well, you can get it somewhere else, but a month and a half later, usually in the times. All right. All right. Talk soon. You bet.
That was another episode of Somebody's Gotta Win. I'm your host, Tara Palmieri. I want to thank my producers, Christopher Sutton and Connor Nevins. If you like this show, please share it with your friends, rate it and subscribe. If you like my reporting, go to puck.news slash Tara Palmieri and sign up for my newsletter, The Best and the Brightest. You can use the discount code Tara20. I'll be back on Thursday.