Dana Bash

Episode 125: The AHM crew is joined by CNN's Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash. Check out her new book, "America's Deadliest Election: A Cautionary Tale Of The Most Violent Election In American History".

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Transcript

Leo 0:19

Welcome to and here's Modi. And anchor and host of Sunday Morning's State of the Union. She serves as the network's lead reporter, covering campaigns and Congress, regularly acting as the moderator for CNN's political town hall specials and debates, including CNN's first debate of the 2020 election cycle and, more recently, the Trump-Biden debate in June. She is the author of a new book America's Deadliest Election the cautionaryionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History. I had an amazing time reading it and I hope you all have an amazing time listening to this episode.

Modi 0:53

We are in the studio. Did we miss a week? We missed several weeks. We missed several weeks. We've been on tour. We've been in Australia, israel, monaco, new Jersey. So we are sorry if we missed a week at Too Fair with our fans, but we're back in the office and we have a guest for you.

Periel 1:13

Wait a second.

Modi 1:14

Don't you do the intros.

Periel 1:15

I will do the intro, but what were you doing in Monaco? Hi, it's Perrielle.

Modi 1:19

Hi, could you introduce our guest?

Periel 1:20

Yes, we have a hush of a guest.

Modi 1:21

We have a hush of a guest.

Dana Bash 1:23

We have a huge. I want to know about Monaco too, though.

Leo 1:25

We have an amazing guest.

Periel 1:27

Hi, I'm Perrielle. Welcome to and here's Modi. I'm here with Modi, of course, and Leo, and we have a very special guest Dana Bash who took the day off from the View and CNN when me and Leo say come I say okay.

Dana Bash 1:46

Oh my God, I'm there. No to the depth.

Modi 1:48

She's coming from the View, yeah.

Periel 1:50

I know.

Modi 1:51

This poor thing. Had a look at Joy Behar and now come to me.

Dana Bash 1:55

She doesn't work on Mondays.

Modi 1:56

She doesn't work on Mondays. You got lucky. Okay, so I'm kidding, I love Joy. Just, we just posted a picture with jordan harr. Um, we, we met dana at uh at the west hampton uh performing center. Uh, she came to the meet and greet. Leo, took her to take a picture with me and goes.

Leo 2:18

You look very familiar and I'd only been staring at your face on our TV screen For several years.

Modi 2:27

And we actually were following you before. We don't do news.

Dana Bash 2:32

That's why you're so happy we don't do news.

Modi 2:34

We don't do news and we don't do politics either. How do you describe us? We're politically asexual, we even know, I just watch the headlines and we have you because you're easy, it's like here, here's what's happening, good, and we're moving on. It's very, very simple, and to have you on the show is an honor, it's my honor, and the fact that you came to the West Hampton show is so great and it makes me want to ask you right away what makes you laugh.

Dana Bash 3:06

Well, obviously you. That's the obvious. Okay, so the person I laugh the most with is Allie Weisberg-Zelenko, who may or may not be sitting over here.

Modi 3:20

She came in. This is her friend. And she came in with a surprise look. She did the Prada hat mission look with the watch and the shoes.

Leo 3:28

If you know, you know.

Modi 3:28

If you know, you know If you don't go on my Instagram and see the mission, the women on the mission. She came in on a mission. She's on 39th Street on mission.

Dana Bash 3:39

Yes, and so she said I was staying with Allie in the hamptons and she said we're gonna go to modi and I was like, okay, and have you heard of me? I'd heard of you, but I wasn't, honestly, like so familiar with your stuff as she was okay and I became like an instant addict.

Leo 4:03

Oh no it's true.

Dana Bash 4:04

First of all because it's like like you know, you know.

Modi 4:07

Yeah.

Dana Bash 4:08

There's so much of what you say and the reason why we laugh is because it's like so many layers deep in our culture and in our religion and in our families and all of that. I mean it's just side-splittingly funny.

Modi 4:25

I'm so happy that's it. That's the episode. Our sponsors are A&E, but can I tell?

Dana Bash 4:33

you something else that I've done since, because it's been a rough month for lots of reasons. I literally go on your Instagram and I'll just like play Really. I do often play the mission part one and two. It just makes me laugh. It takes me to a happy place.

Leo 4:50

So nice to hear so you were the friend who brought the friend to the comedy show yes, yes, because she followed your rules amazing last night.

Modi 4:58

I was at my friend's Upshornen, which is another thing. I'm sorry I know it's when you cut the child's hair at the age of three, three right, you know so.

Periel 5:09

I have thoughts about it, so I'm going to keep it to myself stop cutting these kids what do you?

Dana Bash 5:15

mean it's just hair. Leave the kids alone. You mean because of the bris, right? Yeah?

Modi 5:20

we have to bring in many religious in many homes, sometimes not religious. They let the child, the boy's hair grow till he's three years old.

Periel 5:29

I did that too, you did.

Modi 5:31

But I just kept letting it grow, oh it's just because you wanted your kid to be a punk.

Periel 5:37

No, I was going to do it. I mean, I don't know, is it like a religious thing?

Modi 5:40

It's a religious thing. And then on the third birthday you cut the hair and it's like this very cute, it's um. Do you know what the reason is for that? There's a few reasons that there's. Kabbalistically, the hair has a whole thing and you're, you're, you're bringing the child into. Then he gets his hair cut. It's like a boy and and you also on that, you give him his tzitzit, yeah, and yet you give him the abc, the aleph Bet of the Hebrew, and they make a thing with it. It's a big traditional thing to let the kid know you're going to go to school now and learn to be.

Dana Bash 6:10

Did you have that?

Modi 6:11

No, no, no. I had cute hair and I had lice, so they kept their heads. You had lice.

Leo 6:16

I have a picture of you Not you being a licey kid. Everybody in Israel has lice lice.

Dana Bash 6:25

All the kids in israel have lice.

Leo 6:26

You are here to talk about your book, really, no, I'd like to hear more about lice. Okay, well, I'll let you say, but why was I?

Modi 6:29

even on that. Why was I even on that? On that uh the upshorton yeah, it's like a sheep?

Leo 6:35

well, because she was talking about things that are layered within the culture and you and you said yesterday at my friends okay yeah, all right, go ahead.

Modi 6:43

The book, the book, the, the book. Leo read the book. I can't read. Leo read the book. He read the book in between Australia and Israel and Monaco.

Leo 6:53

Oh my gosh, that was the yeah, it was a refresher in American history.

Dana Bash 6:59

A refresher To me. It was a newer.

Periel 7:02

Okay to me it was a newer. Okay, yeah, no, I mean wait, the book is called america's deadliest election, the cautionary tale of the most violent election in american history.

Leo 7:13

Wow, which is not 2020 no, could you want to walk us through it in broad strokes?

Dana Bash 7:18

a little bit broad strokes, you're it's go back to um, the 1870s. Civil War is over, reconstruction begins. They're trying to rebuild the South. There is the first election in this. This happened all over the South, but this particular book takes place in Louisiana. The first election after Louisiana got its constitution post-Civil War, was 1868. And they elected. It was the first time black men, only men, could vote. They elected a slew of Republicans because, remember, back then the Republicans were the party of Lincoln and the.

Dana Bash 7:55

Democrats were the segregationists. They elected a lot of black legislators and the white racists were like whoa Got scared whoa, we can't allow this to happen.

Modi 8:09

Right.

Dana Bash 8:09

Like first we lost our slaves and now they're going to have equal rights, like forget it. So they learned in 1872, which is where this book mostly takes place that the best way to keep blacks from getting equal rights is to stop them at the ballot box, stop them from voting. And so they manipulated the vote, they disenfranchised a lot of black voters, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. They manipulated the way the votes were counted and there was total chaos, fraud and violence. And it ended up it was impossible to know who won the election. So there were two governors sworn in and two capitals.

Dana Bash 8:52

Two capitals which I thought was very interesting.

Dana Bash 8:54

Shreveport and New Orleans right New Orleans yeah, two legislatures sworn in and nobody would give it up and it was just a total bedlam and there was also a lot of violence. People blacks were brutally murdered in cold blood and in fact there was one massacre that was so bad that there was a prosecution. The prosecution was put into the federal court because the state court. They realized there was no way that these white people who killed black men were going to. There's no way that would be a fair trial. They would just get off, went all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said federal law, federal courts should not be involved, federal government should not be involved in civil rights and election law. So it left it up to the state. So you hear like states' rights.

Leo 9:41

Which led up to kind of the Jim Crow and that led to Jim Crow. Yeah.

Dana Bash 9:44

That led to Jim Crow, and for 100 years, for a century. Wow, and it all started with Louisiana in 1872.

Modi 9:52

So obviously you are an unbelievable investigative journalist, am I right?

Dana Bash 9:56

I wouldn't say investigative, I'm not an investigative journalist per se.

Leo 9:59

That's investigation. This is research.

Dana Bash 10:02

Yeah, and I want to give a shout out to my co-author who totally, totally candid. He did like all of the research, he did a lot of it.

Periel 10:12

How long did it take to research? I mean like a year, yeah.

Dana Bash 10:16

But you know what's really interesting, which I didn't know, which now I'm glad I know. Much of this comes from newspapers at the time, so I know, and you know where you can find it Newspaperscom, who knew All of the newspapers from like forever, including the 1860s and 70s, are all on newspaperscom.

Leo 10:36

Yeah, most of the citations on here are from newspapers.

Dana Bash 10:39

Yeah, because the newspapers they came out like multiple times a day.

Periel 10:42

And they were partisan.

Dana Bash 10:43

They were all partisan newspapers.

Periel 10:45

I have news for you. They're still partisan, well, I know, but that's what's so interesting, is that you know you think that it's like a new phenomenon that you have the partisan media, but it's not. But they used to say at least like we're partisan, right Like they identified, it was really.

Dana Bash 11:06

I don't know that openly identified, but it was very like everybody knew if they were buying the times picayune in in new orleans.

Leo 11:10

They knew it was like the democrats paper. So I want to talk to you or just ask you about warmoth oh yeah because, um, he's a major player in the book apparently he was very handsome yes, there's several descriptions of he had his having a very nice face, um, but also I'm going to read a quick paragraph.

Leo 11:28

Okay, that I thought was interesting. His words were as smooth and reassuring as his appearance. Supporters admired him for his refreshing candor. Opponents found him loud and abrasive. His strength as a politician lay in his claim that he was not a politician. He successfully forged an image as the honest representative of the common man, which was why, he contended, powerful politicians continually attacked him. As he told a Chicago Tribune reporter. Quote I don't pretend to be honest, I only pretend to be as honest as anybody in politics, and more so than those fellows who are opposing me now. Sure, sounds a whole lot like a certain someone.

Leo 12:09

I mean what was going through your head while you were learning about this character from history, or putting that paragraph together.

Dana Bash 12:16

Yeah, I mean, the similarities are striking and it just is a reminder when you have somebody who is charismatic, who captures the attention and the love of people, even people who and this is true now and that was true then people who support him even though he is not pushing for your interests, Right. Because you just are drawn to him. He has like a magnetic pull.

Periel 12:43

Absolutely.

Dana Bash 12:46

I mean, people loved to love him and they loved to hate him.

Leo 12:50

And again it's like it's but the people who hated him seem to make the ones who love him love him more. Yes, which is what I thought was so interesting and such a parallel to what we're similar there. Also similar there's a backlash Right.

Debate Fact-Checking and Poker Faces

Dana Bash 13:02

Yeah, and that included, which is so when I said that even people liked him, even though he was not looking out for their interests, when he first ran. Wormuth first ran in 1868, he ran as a Republican and he ran and won by getting a lot of black votes.

Leo 13:23

But he turned his back on them.

Dana Bash 13:24

And then he turned his back on them. And then he turned his back on them and the only reason is because he was a Republican. The Republican Party was fractured. They turned on him so he didn't have a future in the Republican Party.

Dana Bash 13:35

So he just bolted from the Republican Party and became was known as a fusionist and wasn't a full Democrat but linked up with the segregationists with the racists, and that's what he was pushing in 1872, when there was all this chaos, and yet there were still a lot of black voters who supported him because of what he had said way back before in 1868 and that sounds like a lot of misinformation and fake news to me, not knowing who to believe and living in a bit of an echo chamber or just a connection that people find to a person and that is true I mean, that's been true historically in the United States.

Dana Bash 14:13

It's definitely been true in Europe and elsewhere that there is just a thing about a charismatic figure and that charismatic figure isn't always out for good.

Periel 14:23

Right, I have a question. Yeah, For everything that you've seen, which is probably close to everything, is there anything that happens that like will still shock you, that you can talk about on air, Like, is there anything that's happened that you have to like, really like, take a moment and be like?

Dana Bash 14:44

Yeah, I mean, yes, guess I am. I'm still I'm. I'm shocked, but not as surprised anymore. I'm telling you, when I was sitting in the studio I wasn't on capitol hill on january 6th when I was in the studio and I was watching that I I literally couldn't breathe like I couldn't believe what I was saying. I covered congress on and off for 20 years right so I walked through those halls.

Dana Bash 15:08

I know those halls, I know exactly what and and my friends were in there never my members of congress. My friends and my colleagues were in the building and I was like, oh my god, I cannot believe this is happening in the united. I still can't believe it right, I still cannot believe it. And then now, here we are, at a time and a place where there's a whitewash, like, oh, that didn't really happen, they were just for us, so they were just protesting.

Modi 15:36

And they'll be free in a certain situation. It's like I'm sorry.

Dana Bash 15:40

Did you?

Leo 15:40

not see it with your eyes, do you want?

Dana Bash 15:41

me to roll the tape.

Leo 15:43

The part for me that's so frustrating about that, about January 6th, is that it came from these people who harped on and on about law and order and flipping the script into Blue Lives Matter. Meanwhile there were police officers who died on that day.

Dana Bash 15:56

So there's a little and I know a lot of the officers and even those who didn't lose their lives. They are traumatized, yes.

Modi 16:06

Yeah, a didn't lose their lives. They are traumatized. Yeah, a lot of them are traumatized. But what she was asking, like that nothing shocks. You was with a question I was. I was wondering, uh, with your poker face, that you have to have when you're doing these, these interviews I'm not always so great at the poker face I think. So I said there you are, I think you are really I see I think you are okay because we watched.

Modi 16:23

We watched to make sure that we're prepared for today. Okay, she has a poker face. These people are saying insane things and she is just like I'd be like hello, what are you saying? And you're completely poker. And I was telling before. I was saying they say that the hardest emotion to hide is not happiness or sadness, it's boredom. I think it's shock, like when someone just says something like today is Thursday and saying it even though it's Friday, and you're sitting there and you have to listen to them and you can't say no, today is you know, and those interviews don't you? What's going through you? How do you control yourself?

Dana Bash 17:07

Well, I mean, when things are that blatant yeah, and even when they're not that blatant and that is our job to be like no, it's actually thursday, it's friday. I mean, it's not friday, it's thursday, it's that's. That's the fact. And if they're not going to accept it, I say it and then, and then put a button on it and then move on, move on um, but sometimes and I don't do this intentionally, but sometimes I've been told that my face actually is a tell that's why I didn't think I have that much of a poker face when somebody is saying something that is like.

Dana Bash 17:40

I mean, I had a very spirited exchange with jd vance a couple of weeks ago and he said well, we, maybe sometimes we have to create stories. This is about the eating of the cats and dogs.

Periel 17:51

I saw that.

Dana Bash 17:52

Yes, oh wow and I and I did go back and look at it.

Leo 17:55

I was like it was, like you know, the scooby-doo like I had a scooby-doo face, so I listened to the interview you did with sarah longfellow, um and longwell sorry apology, sarah um and you touched on how um cnn handled the debate debate versus abc handling debate with live fact checking and you said something really interesting about where you decide to draw the line, because you said, if you're gonna fact check live, you better sure as hell be right. Yeah is what you said, yeah, um. So you and then you made some comments that I would like to hear from you again, maybe, like how you start drawing, uh, the line of like what to fact check and what not to fact check when there's so many different versions of the truth, because, for example, that story of the people eating the cats and the dogs was based in some story where they were eating a goose in a park or something like that I don't even know if that's true.

Dana Bash 18:52

I mean, that's the thing. I'm not saying, that what you're saying is true, like we don't even have evidence of that right.

Leo 18:57

But so, in terms of just live fact checking during a debate like your experience, versus what you saw on abc, what was going through your head when they were doing that, when abc was doing it?

Dana Bash 19:06

yeah, um, I was like, okay, they're taking a different approach. Uh, and look, I mean the way that we came at it. It was the first first debate, obviously, and it was, um, the first time that a network had in decades, a network had done its own debate, because it was there was a commission on presidential debates that kind of set the rules and then they picked the moderators and every single network just took it live and nobody wanted that. So they got rid of that and they chose us. In conjunction with it was really the Biden campaign that was driving it, because they wanted to do an early debate and we came at it as a that. We were going to approach it like a traditional debate, which is pretty much since Nixon Kennedy in 1960. It was we are the facilitators. We ask the question If we don't get an answer.

Dana Bash 20:08

We have time if the rules allow it and in this case it did for a follow up. But if and when a candidate says something that is just not true, that's what the opponent is there for. We just approached it very differently from what I was just talking about with you, about like any interview that I'll do with JD Vance or even a Democrat, where they'll say something. That's just not right. I'm prepared with a follow-up and fact-checking. Okay, and because I'm the person there.

Modi 20:38

Right, I'm the only person there.

Dana Bash 20:39

Their opponent isn't there, but when their opponent is there our approach was right. It's up to them right. Abc did it differently. They took a different approach. I will say if you just go back to our debate for one second, the the joe biden to the joe biden um trump debate on june 27th. I'll just give you a little yeah a little scoop here that if trump had said the election is stolen, the 2020 election was stolen, we would have fact-checked him okay but he didn't that was the one no prep that you had.

Dana Bash 21:11

So we were, yeah, like like something that is just so rooted and just danger to democracy um not to say that a politician lying 30 times like he did, which we did fact check real time online right and afterwards. Uh, with our fact checkers is not great right um not great, it's not great, but um, but also like imagine if we jumped in, given the debate that occurred.

Modi 21:44

Yeah, it would have given him more ammunition. We would have been accused of doing joe biden's job for him, right right, so look it's a fine line really really hard

Dana Bash 21:54

yeah um, I don't think that it's so in the moment.

Modi 21:57

It's so in the moment there's no, there's no real right answer right and I don't regret jbc for doing it the way they did it.

The Impact of Political Campaigns

Dana Bash 22:01

They just took a different approach and I think we might jbc for doing it the way they did it, they just took a different approach and I think we might see a different um approach with, and I'm not complete.

Modi 22:09

Uh, that is a debate that changed so much it did in harvard government school and in whatever government schools that they have. That debate's gonna be like a uh, you're in it yeah, it was insane, it was wild, is it you're?

Dana Bash 22:22

you're, you're in the debate?

Modi 22:23

we were. Is that insane? It was wild. You're in the debate.

Dana Bash 22:25

We were like can I curse on this? Yeah, I was like holy shit. Yeah, we were both like holy shit, what is happening? We spent days and days and tens of hours preparing and we do mock debates and we're like okay, if this, then that.

Modi 22:40

If that, then this he's not allowed to say it.

Periel 22:47

We he's not allowed to say it, we have producers who play, who play the role we do that too. Here I play Modi.

Modi 22:51

Yeah, I want to hear your Modi impression Are they dressed up like the characters too, or is it just like no?

Periel 22:57

No, I'm trying to think there's no orange face involved.

Modi 23:01

It's something that, in years from now, people will be like. You were the moderator of the debate that like that that a president popped out of, so I'm it's wild.

Periel 23:12

Well, what I was gonna say is why?

Dana Bash 23:13

yeah, so we prepared for so many different scenarios, because it was actually also complicated, because the rules were that the microphone was turned off when the other person was speaking, which is something that the Biden people wanted Turned out to have really helped Trump.

Periel 23:29

Yeah.

Dana Bash 23:30

In retrospect.

Periel 23:31

It'd be fun if, like Alec Baldwin, came and played Trump or something.

Modi 23:35

Yeah, listen, we are asexually political.

Periel 23:43

Politically asexual, we're going to use it.

Modi 23:46

Okay, so that's a hypoleo here, um, and he reads nice, um, uh, there were like lines that were lobbied to, to, to to joe biden, when, when he, when donald trump said the most embarrassing day in our life was when we pulled out of Afghanistan, I mean, it was set up for him, it was set up to go. I'm almost sure that the insurrection was the. That's all he had to say, and he didn't hit those lines. Yeah, and that's when he, that's when I guess the world realized, or his. He can't handle this. So that brings me and I'm not going to, I'm going to say something to Moshiach Energy. Joe Biden is an example to the world of do not give up. This man has been in politics since the age of six with his eye on the presidency and, right when you think he could never make president, he still is the president of the United States of America. Whatever happened to get him there, he got there. He never quit. It's an unbelievable story. So I've just again we are not giving you.

Leo 24:54

Something else you said that I thought was very interesting on Sarah's podcast was that I'm forgetting the name, but you spoke about the person who basically acted as like the creative director for Trump's initial campaign, or ran his digital ads.

Dana Bash 25:07

Yeah, right on scale.

Leo 25:08

You said that he used the iPod commercials as an example of like, where he his sort of genesis of, and if you think about it, the iPod commercials were what you said. It was kind of like a man in silhouette, just kind of dancing to music. It didn't tell you anything about how the ipod actually worked it just told you how it made you feel, can you?

Dana Bash 25:31

yeah, and that was the way that they approached the entire trump campaign in 2016. Hillary clinton, because, um, you know, she's hillary clinton and she's also a woman and people hate women, women have to come to the table with a lot more prep than men still.

Periel 25:50

Or apparently that doesn't matter at all.

Dana Bash 25:52

Well and she wanted to. So she came to the table, to the campaign and she had like 17 point plans for all of her 25 point plans, I mean she had detailed policy plans on everything that she would do if she was president, donald Trump did not. We knew he well. We thought he would build a wall and he said he would repeal Obamacare and something about trade deals and that was kind of it and nobody really cared. No, I mean, I didn't say say nobody, a lot of people cared, but not enough.

Dana Bash 26:27

He won because he made people feel and he made people feel angry but he also made people feel seen, who felt like they weren't seen before, and so I actually think it's interesting, if you go to this election, she's now. Kamala Harris is now making people feel Her whole thing is like the joy campaign and the brat summer and all of that. And yet there's definitely a bit of a double standard For sure, for sure.

Dana Bash 27:00

And it's not us in the media, like you talk to voters and they say, well, what does she stand for? It's like, well, what does Trump stand for? What is he going to do? I think, to be fair, the difference is that he was president and people were like, okay, well, I had more money in my pocket back then, for whatever reason.

Modi 27:18

Right.

Leo 27:20

But it is an interesting dynamic that's going on and the um yeah, it's like it's not how it works, it's how you make it, it's how you make it feel it's not, uh, it's, it's the vibe they give out.

Modi 27:30

So some people look you, look around the world and majority of the leaders of countries are absolute lunatic maniacs. And some americans are like we want a maniac, we want some guy who's crazy too, we'll show you crazy. Or hey, we need someone who's like, speaking like she just took a xanax and and maybe that's the vibe and maybe that'll cool everybody else down. So it's, it's all in their head.

Leo 28:00

It's just for for trump, where it just feels like everything just works out for him, including, you know, grazing a bullet, I know oh, it's not even that it works out for him.

Periel 28:11

It's like it works to his benefit, right, yeah?

Leo 28:14

so that's where I feel like hen Clay Warmoth.

Dana Bash 28:18

Yeah.

Leo 28:18

I feel like Trump is the reincarnation of him, because there are some very vivid details in this book.

Modi 28:25

He's such a good boy.

Leo 28:26

I mean, there's a story about how he beats someone back from New York. He needs to get from New York back to Louisiana to make sure that he can rig this election the way it needs to be rigged. Make sure that he can rig this election the way it needs to be rigged. Um, and he beats someone by, uh, interfering with railroad lines, um, sabotage um, and sets a record for time travel between new york and louisiana.

Leo 28:50

It's like he bends time and space and things work out for him yeah I mean you had to think the same thing when you were doing some of the research for this.

Dana Bash 28:58

It really is like a movie.

Modi 29:02

We're on a flight, he's reading the book, I'm listening to cantorial music and he puts the book down and I go to him. No, so he goes nothing's changed, nothing's changed. We're a mess. We're a hot mess. Nothing's changed. That's literally the book.

Leo 29:19

I also thought it was very the details you went into in terms of, like, how far they went to disenfranchise voters and to prevent people from registering to vote and then, once they were registered to vote, hiding ballot boxes. You mentioned they were putting ballot boxes on islands in chicken coops like in the middle of nowhere. What do you feel about the parallels of like how that is happening today in terms of voter registration?

Modi 29:49

You said that from the research I'm able to do, I can't read. Stop saying that you said that this election, there's no way we're going to have the results on election day.

Dana Bash 29:58

We're not.

Modi 29:59

We're not, but that's not because of fraud.

Dana Bash 30:01

I think that there's something that is important to say the big difference between and we haven't had this election yet, so 2020 and 1872 is that there was actual, real fraud and corruption then like real fraud and corruption.

Dana Bash 30:16

In 2020, there were allegations and no evidence was shown to many, many judges, many, many courts of law. Even Donald Trump's own Attorney General, bill Barr, said that's not a thing, and so that's a really big difference. And I listen. Are there things that go haywire? Sometimes Absolutely, but when it comes to the security of elections, I feel like we're in pretty good hands when it comes to the voting and making sure that all that stuff is locked down.

Periel 30:54

That's encouraging.

Modi 30:55

It's encouraging. I didn't think I thought you were going to go the other way.

Dana Bash 30:57

No, but here's okay, Okay.

Modi 31:00

Don't worry, don't get so excited.

Dana Bash 31:03

But the question is, before they get to the voting, I mean, there's like counting the votes but then there's pre-voting.

Modi 31:10

Right.

Cooping, Drag Queens, and Anti-Semitism

Dana Bash 31:11

And I just hope that the election workers who feel intimidated, these poor people who are many of them, are just volunteering, right, because it's a public service. Yeah, and all the people who are in and around the process of getting people ballots, allowing people to vote, manning the stations that is the one area where I really hope that there is not Well, thankfully it's not 1872, yeah, 1872.

Leo 31:40

And you know because you speak about how analog the system was and how it was a physical coupon and people were, you know, distributing fraudulent ones.

Dana Bash 31:49

Um how about when they used to get people drunk?

Leo 31:52

cooping cooping.

Dana Bash 31:53

Yes, did you know about cooping?

Leo 31:55

I did not know about cooping. Would you like to tell edgar?

Dana Bash 31:57

allen poe apparently was cooped.

Modi 31:59

Right. So they would get people I think I was cooped in my 20s. What is this? What is this? I may have been cooped.

Dana Bash 32:06

It's like a roofie.

Modi 32:08

Politically roofied. Yeah, do you want to tell people what cooping is?

Dana Bash 32:13

What they would do is they would get people, that somebody would go vote.

Modi 32:17

Yeah.

Dana Bash 32:18

And then they would go to a bar and then people that you know, people who are trying to rig the election, would get those people drunk and dress them up and get them to go vote again. And then other times they would get them drunk and just keep them in and then get them arrested so they couldn't vote.

Modi 32:38

Oh my God, yeah, how can you go?

Periel 32:40

back if you're a new outfit.

Leo 32:42

You just put on a new outfit yeah, there's no, there's no biometric scanning like getting on a delta flight. It's like, um, when you get into drag or something, okay, well, that was another thing, you said, because men would, men would vote, and then they would get dressed up as women and vote again, and then they they were like all right, no more women voting.

Dana Bash 33:00

No more women voting. In a couple of states they allowed women to vote. Yeah, and because the men pretended to be women.

Periel 33:06

So crazy.

Dana Bash 33:08

They took the right to vote away from women, I'm going to switch gears.

Leo 33:11

The war on drag queens really started.

Dana Bash 33:13

Are you guys always this serious?

Modi 33:15

No, never.

Leo 33:19

Oh, is always this serious? No, oh my god, that's only because Leo read your book. No, I feel like we usually just sit here and putz around.

Modi 33:22

I was ready to putz around with you. Did you use?

Dana Bash 33:24

the word putz around, the term putz around before you met him that's a great question.

Leo 33:28

He speaks fluent Yiddish. It's amazing.

Modi 33:31

Leo speaks the best Yiddish in the world.

Leo 33:33

We usually have the most dumb conversations here we have like a leading political journalist here.

Modi 33:39

Our audience is nothing political. They come, you're wrong. Okay, yeah, our audience is not a politically asexual. Our audience has, and it is down the line.

Dana Bash 33:52

Yeah.

Modi 33:53

When you say, hey, I would never say about who hears Trump or who hears Biden Harris, it would be 50-50. Who here is going to go get vaccinated?

Dana Bash 34:02

Who here is not 50-50. So your audience is the country.

Modi 34:06

My audience is the country Because that's where the country is and Jewish within that country. It's so split in the middle. I need to know. You know you're Jewish.

Dana Bash 34:16

I'm Jewish.

Modi 34:17

You're Jewish. People know that? Yeah, probably so, and like when they watch you, do they think?

Dana Bash 34:22

like when we watch Anderson Cooper, we know he's gay and like okay, I thought you were going to say we know he's a wasp that too, that too but like does that?

Leo 34:32

but we also know that Wolf Blitzer is Jewish but like I thought you were going to say gay, I was like what? No, he's just nervous. That's called a bear, not a wolf folks he's the funny one.

Modi 34:46

He's the funny one, I'm the hot one, I'm the hot one, I don't know if you know that he's the funny one, but like does it um shkoyach? The peep is good right, very good shkoy.

Periel 34:57

Are you Jewish?

Modi 34:58

Okay, hilarious. She just asked you if you were Jewish. She does.

Dana Bash 35:08

Actually, you don't have to be Jewish. Have you been taking?

Modi 35:11

heat for being Jewish, and the world sees you. They know who you are. Have you been taking heat? Yes, okay.

Periel 35:19

Even though you're blonde.

Modi 35:21

Yes, I know, we can't fool them with our products that we use.

Periel 35:33

How does that feel it sucks.

Modi 35:34

It sucks right.

Periel 35:36

Is it shocking Kind?

Dana Bash 35:38

of. I think the thing is that's really disappointing is that my coverage is not any different from you mentioned Anderson. I don't want to put a target on him.

Modi 35:49

No no.

Dana Bash 35:50

He and other colleagues, and the only difference is that I'm Jewish.

Modi 35:56

Jake.

Dana Bash 35:57

Tapper also has gotten a lot of shit.

Modi 35:59

He's Jewish too. We didn't know. We didn't know if he was Jewish or not.

Leo 36:02

We could have just Googled it, but we were just talking about it Too lazy.

Dana Bash 36:06

Sorry, that's what I'm here for.

Modi 36:07

But when you just had that a few posts back, like maybe six posts back, you had you covering anti-Semitism like the different parties are.

Dana Bash 36:19

But you did it as a reporter, a reporter right, there was not like an, I think right, it wasn't like no, I don't do, and I think, obviously, obviously, yeah, some people do, but again in the back of your head.

Modi 36:29

What's the, what's the inner dialogue you're having in your head?

Dana Bash 36:33

um, that we need to call things out when we see it, but I also know that you can't say it. No, no, I also know that there's going to be a lot of I mean, the internet is very, very ugly.

Modi 36:46

Oh, it's bleak, I heard. It is a dark place, I heard.

Dana Bash 36:50

But it's sad, Listen, I mean, I spent my whole life hearing like we all did, never again, and how bad it was. And my grandparents came here in 41. They escaped Nazi Europe.

Leo 37:06

Wow.

Dana Bash 37:07

And my great-grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz. My great-aunt, we think, died on the death march, but we're not sure, and it always seemed so foreign to me, even though it was two generations, a generation and a half like that must have been. Europe must have been really backwards. Of course we know it wasn't. Germany was like the most sophisticated correct, yeah, democratic democratic, cultured place in all of europe yeah, yeah. And then they devolved.

Modi 37:39

Right.

Dana Bash 37:40

And it is like I mean, I genuinely don't think we're anywhere near there, but you can see the alleys like eh.

Modi 37:48

Just like your book shows where you know.

Dana Bash 37:50

But you can see, you can see the parallels.

Modi 37:53

Of course, but it's again. I have a lot of Holocaust survivors On the way here. I spoke to a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, dina's father called in to check in how the Upshawing was and it always gives me a blessing and I always bless him and we bless each other. And before shows I do shows and when you say to them never again. They knew it was going to happen again.

Periel 38:19

Right. That's why they kept saying it.

Dana Bash 38:20

That's the thing is that like that's exactly right? Is that I kind of growing up I was like, okay already, never again, like I didn't get it they knew it was going to be once. You have once you're far enough away the you know generationally from it right mean a lot of the young people today. They don't know from it.

Dana Bash 38:38

Holocaust education has just dropped off oh completely, and now we of course we have, like social media and algorithms and pushing horrible things to people and being taught things that are not even handed in schools, especially at universities, and it's scary but, but, but I've said it before on the podcast but the never again is they're going to keep coming at us and trying to kill us and attack us and ruin uh, good things.

Modi 39:12

But the never again is that they, they will not not feel punishment for it. They, they came in Gaza and now there is no Gaza. That never again. It's not like you just get away with killing Jews and Hezbollah. This is all happening right now. I mean I'm not sure when this is going to be airing, but this is, I mean on the tales of Hezbollah and Iran now is hiding all their leaders underground. So the never again is that. The never again is you're gonna feel it if you come for us.

Leo 39:43

Um to speak about what you said about um, you know, holocaust, education and and there's a lot of noise in the media like I have family members who will not watch cnn, are only watching fox news, are will vote for trump, no matter, even if he does go on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, like he said, I guess. What would you like people to know about? As, like a broadcast journalist? Like, what do you think is important in terms of, like, teaching students, media literacy? When they are on their phones all day. He's good.

Dana Bash 40:15

He's good.

Modi 40:15

You should keep him, no, we can't.

Periel 40:18

He is locked down.

Dana Bash 40:18

I was a journalism major I mean, I think that, uh, I think it's really easy, especially since look kids today now I sound like, you know, like my grandparents, but they don't sit and watch the news.

Modi 40:36

Right.

Dana Bash 40:37

They don't read the newspaper.

Modi 40:39

Correct.

Dana Bash 40:40

I mean obviously no way in print that you feel with your hands. But even online, they'll look at a clip, they'll look at TikTok, they'll look at reels. These people are where they're coming from and have to also have in your brain that if you watch something and then your phone or your social media platform starts sending you a bunch of stuff, that's just like that, there's a reason for it, and so try to outsmart the algorithm. Read something or watch something that has a different point of view, or just make yourself do that. And it takes a lot more time and energy to do that, um, especially when the phone is just feeding you stuff that it wants you to.

Modi 41:27

I have again. We do, we.

Leo 41:29

We do not watch the news unless we are on tour I read the news and I do make it a point to see what all sides are saying about a particular story.

Modi 41:39

I'll do CNN headlines, I'll do Fox headlines because I enjoy a good laugh, but we're not going to sit and watch Because, basically, I grew up 70s, 80s, 90s where 10 o'clock you put the news on, the guy gave you the news. The president today went to here and here this happened, that and that storm over there, and the fireman saved the cat from a roof. Tomorrow's gonna be rainy. Yeah, done, yeah, that was it. Now it's like today, trump said this and this and that, and now we have, uh, the chief anchor of this, the doorman that was in the building next door, the gardener of the guy he was talking about, and this woman who serves coffee to the, and those four people now are going to give their opinion of what this guy just said. Who has time for that?

Dana Bash 42:33

A lot of people are really into it. It's like I call it infotainment.

Periel 42:37

Yeah, perfect, not on CNN, no.

Dana Bash 42:38

But we know people who have this in their lot. Of people are really into it. It's like I call it infotainment. Yeah, perfect, not, not on cnn no, but in other places.

Modi 42:41

We know people who have this in their house running 24 7.

Periel 42:44

No, it's a nightmare seven.

Modi 42:46

I said, I said to my friend I go, what are you doing? But besides the fact that that's all happening, that this guy's yelling his opinion out, the guy, the doorman from the, whoever he's, he, he was there in between. That is the commercials for the most horrific diseases ever heard of in the world. Truizia, do you have plexus psoriasis and arthritis?

Leo 43:11

listen, we're not sponsored by big pharma do you have all of this?

Modi 43:16

tell your doctor are you? You can't that. That that. Do you have all of this?

Periel 43:20

Tell your doctor, that's in the walls of your house, not in my house For people.

Modi 43:23

You have to sage your homes, especially not before Yom Tov, before the Rosh Hashanah. Sage your homes, make sure you have rituals to get that energy out of the house. Those televisions bring in crazy energy, not your show. Your show brings and, and a sense of uh, and a sense of, of calm so how are?

Leo 43:42

you feeling optimistic, pessimistic. What's the vibe for november? I mean just in general what's your new year's resolution?

Dana Bash 43:49

yeah, my new year, my, my, rosh hashanah rosh hashanah is the jewish new year's to survive is survive to survive through the through the christian new year Year's on December 31st.

Modi 44:01

On December 31st. No, you're doing more than surviving, no, no.

Dana Bash 44:06

I'm kidding, no, I mean honestly. I just we just have to. I have been out of the prediction business since 2016.

Periel 44:18

The prediction business. Yeah, like I'm out of the prediction business since 2016. The prediction business.

Dana Bash 44:21

Yeah, like I'm out of it, so we just have to follow the voters.

Leo 44:22

No, not in terms of prediction.

Dana Bash 44:24

How am I going to Go?

Leo 44:26

ahead, I guess, is there going to be?

Dana Bash 44:31

I hope not.

Leo 44:32

A repeat.

Dana Bash 44:33

I hope not. I mean, that was really ugly in 1872.

Periel 44:36

We're not doing that amazing right now, just saying no, but it's not. It's not that. It's not that.

Dana Bash 44:43

If you want to be optimistic.

Periel 44:45

Yes.

Dana Bash 44:45

Which let's try to be optimistic it was really ugly in the Civil War. And it continued to be ugly in the 10 years following the Civil War as the country tried to get back together, and very violent and you know, the country almost got ripped back apart a lot worse than it is now. Now we have everything travels at warp speed with social media. Then it was like they had the telegraph, which was like the biggest technology in the world back then, and things could move a lot faster. Imagine if that happened now.

Periel 45:22

I think that's a really good way to think about it. It's like we don't want to break up as a country. We want to stay together.

Leo 45:28

Well yeah, I think you want to find.

Periel 45:31

I think, yes, I think we have to.

Leo 45:33

I think some of the states can go.

Modi 45:35

I think we have an unbelievable guest on the podcast. Some of the states can go. I think we have. I think we have an unbelievable guest on the podcast. I want to ask you personal questions, okay. So so I saw when you came to see me after, like we realized who you were. It was a hot, can I just?

Leo 45:46

add color to that situation. You came to the meet and greet after the show. I usually stand there, I take people's phones, I snap the pictures. They walk away. What happens in those situations usually is like like or a lot of times people come up to me and say you remember me because they're at a different show or something.

Dana Bash 46:00

It's so hard.

Leo 46:01

And you have that face because you're on TV where you just trigger something in my brain. So I was trying to get ahead of the ball and I was like, oh, I know you. And you were like, no, you don't.

Modi 46:11

And then I was like oh my God, I felt so stupid. Yeah, when we do the things that we hate people do to us, um, but, but what?

Dana Bash 46:22

but people did then recognize you and we saw that and like what's the nicest compliment somebody ever gave you um, thank you for standing up for the truth okay I that goes a long, long way yeah um, because I'm here, I will say that when people say that they, I know people are like oh, jews in the media, like everybody, there are a lot of Jews in the media. That's not necessarily true when it comes to a lot of things, but mostly when it comes to sort of representation. And I'm not afraid to not when I cover the news but I'm not afraid to talk about the fact that I'm Jewish on the air.

Dana Bash 47:02

I mean I went, I got to go with Wolf Blitzer a year and a half ago to Poland.

Periel 47:08

We went to.

Dana Bash 47:09

Auschwitz and very open about our families and people appreciate that and so that, for sure, that makes me. That makes me feel like I do it.

Modi 47:21

It's like a doctor that goes in to work on a patient. Your religion is out of it when you're showing the news. Here's what I have to do. I have to tell you what happened today. I have to tell you what this person's thoughts are before you elect them, and that's your job.

Periel 47:41

Am I right? Yes, yes, yes. Do you have a dream guest like? Is there somebody who you'd be so excited to?

Dana Bash 47:46

besides me I was gonna say modi and leo and you guys um we're available, it'd be fun. Uh, do I have a dream guest?

Leo 47:54

well, we could play dead or alive, if you want. No, no, we can put.

Dana Bash 47:58

It's funny, you say that because it was always the queen really interesting wow always the queen.

Periel 48:05

You have walked into the correct room today we have two queens.

Modi 48:08

If you want two queens, two for the price of one I'll take it wait, but your game that you play. Hit it or.

Dana Bash 48:17

Oh, that was fun I love it, had it or Hit it.

Modi 48:20

Had it or.

Dana Bash 48:20

Hit.

Leo 48:20

It.

Dana Bash 48:21

Yeah, that was from the. I've had it podcast.

Leo 48:23

Yeah, that's from a different podcast, I know, but I, they're great.

Dana Bash 48:25

But they wanted to catch on, so we can do it.

Modi 48:27

It's so good, hit it or had.

Leo 48:30

It, so the queen was your dream.

Dana Bash 48:32

Oh my gosh, I have so many questions for her.

Modi 48:35

Interesting. We just did a show in Toronto and we stayed at the Fairmont and she stayed there 1,000 years ago and there's a book which she signed in and they have it on display. Could you imagine being that huge? Yeah, your signature in a book that you stayed in. She probably doesn't remember any of it happening. It's just that huge. That's the electric energy of a person. Definitely when you were talking about Bill Clinton. Oh, yeah, Bill Clinton, you know what it is.

Dana Bash 49:08

Somebody. I don't know if you guys you have it, but it's either a celebrity or a politician. They walk into a room and the molecules in the room change.

Periel 49:20

Bill Clinton was like that in fact.

Modi 49:25

I never was in a room with Obama. I was in a room with Trump.

Leo 49:30

I was in a room with Trump, but I will tell you that I was in a room with Mike Johnson and I hated every second of it. That's all I have to say about that that's like a creepy energy.

Modi 49:40

Yeah, but that was a different creepy. That's not like a wow. Molecules are changing. There is and I don't think you've met the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe when you were anywhere near him the molecules, as you said, the room, the energy was in a completely different energy who's someone you experienced that with yes john lewis, congressman lewis which is

Periel 50:05

also on the book oh yeah, a civil rights icon.

Dana Bash 50:09

Yeah, there was something about him. He just also he don't. It wasn't even just an it factor with him, it was a a little bit different. He just had this calming energy, wow Like everything Mine is Mikhail Baryshnikov. Oh yeah, did he have that?

Periel 50:23

Oh, my God, yes.

Modi 50:25

Really.

Gefilte Fish and Community Connections

Periel 50:25

Yes, yes. What was your favorite Moody joke at the show in the Hamptons?

Leo 50:34

Obviously the mission we talked about.

Modi 50:36

It was definitely no, that wasn't. Was that yes?

Dana Bash 50:38

yes, it was the mission. The mission was so funny. The product and the looks, the looks now Spencer, my boyfriend, I put something on.

Leo 50:46

He's like that's a look you're pulling a look if you get dressed and you look at him like you're pulling a look today.

Modi 50:52

Oh my god, I love it so you can use that, and there's no reason to never pull a look, always pull a look.

Dana Bash 50:56

No matter where you are.

Modi 50:58

Yeah, and it doesn't have to be a whole thing, just like just bring your Birkin, so okay, bring with a Birkin, bring a nice Rolex, bring a nice, just something. There doesn't have to be a whole up-to-do outfit, you know.

Periel 51:09

Just elevate it.

Modi 51:11

Yeah. Yeah, here's a blessing from my audience.

Dana Bash 51:16

Oh, I mean it's so lame, but peace that we can all just take a breath. I mean everybody is in our community, we're so on edge yeah. We're so on edge and watching what happens obviously abroad in Israel, and it's like you get close to the ceasefire in Gaza and then you don't get it. And you're close and you don't get it, and then you see what's happening in the north and it's all-consuming. Obviously also, it should have been the first thing I said that those hostages come home, that the hostages come home.

Periel 51:55

Speaking of which we are doing an event october 7th oh, this will air before.

Modi 52:01

Yeah, I think so, oh would you like to we? On october 7th, we were not sure what to do. So we in our synagogue, strict sixth street synagogue, we're doing seventh. On sixth, um, we're going to have Ellie Levin, an amazing singer who was on the podcast a few episodes ago, and he'll be singing. It's not like singing a concert, it's more like sing along type of music, karl Bach type of music, just to feel good and just to be together, not to be alone in your house.

Periel 52:34

That's great and Liat Korin is going to come, omer Shemtov's cousin, who has been relentlessly alone in your house. Sing, that's great, yeah. And Liat Korin is going to come, omer Shemtov's cousin, who has been relentlessly active.

Modi 52:44

Yes, trying to, I'm going to sing Kel Muley Rachmim, the memorial prayer. We'll be singing Hatikvah together, which I've been doing since you were there.

Dana Bash 52:56

Did you do it before? October 7th Never October 7th.

Leo 53:00

You started it on October your first show after October 7th was October 9th, and you've been doing it every show since then, ever since, yeah and Paris.

Modi 53:08

And Rabbi Gal Balino has been a guest. He'll be there, and it's just so you're not alone, and Perry L will be there. You're also co-hosting this thing, and just so you're. You're also co-hosting this thing, and uh, just so you're not alone. Sitting in your house like thinking how sad is this. You're in a community. It's gonna be a vibe. Um, it's very jewish it's very jewish, yeah, but you have to register.

Periel 53:28

If you want to come, you have to register and just which is on where uh, go to your instagram go to my instagram and it'll be there we

Leo 53:37

are going to be out of the country on November 6th. We will be On accident slash on purpose. I didn't bring my sheet. Do you think we should extend our stay?

Dana Bash 53:45

Are you going to vote? Before you go, are you absentee voting?

Periel 53:47

Yes, are you voting? No, I'm not kidding.

Leo 53:52

No, we're going to be, performing in London For Goldwater.

Dana Bash 53:58

Can I ask you so what do you guys do, Because this is like sooner. What do?

Modi 54:01

you guys do for Roche Roche Shana, yeah, so it's so funny. We usually have in our house. I go to synagogue, we go to Sixth Street Synagogue and those of you who don't have a place to go, this is in Manhattan on the East Village, super casual. You don't need a suit, you don't need anything, just need you to come. But just register, go to the website first and tell them Modi sent you. I used to do the Kol Nidra services. Wow, yeah, I used to do the Kol Nidra, but we've now hired a guy ever since COVID and he's doing it and he's wonderful. We sing along.

Periel 54:38

It's an easy vibe. It's a huge synagogue Amazing If you need a corner to go hang with your friend. It's beautiful too.

Modi 54:40

It's just easy. We always do the meal in our house, but my mom's going to be at my sister's and Leo and I are off this crazy traveling, so I'm going to actually go eat there.

Dana Bash 54:53

Eat at your mom's.

Modi 54:55

No at the synagogue, oh nice, yeah, we usually do it in our house. We usually have 20-something people in our house and in our apartment and we do that Are you pro gefilte fish or anti? I love and he loves my mom's gefilte fish.

Dana Bash 55:07

Does your mom make? Because I make a special gefilte fish.

Modi 55:09

Oh you do. What do you do?

Leo 55:14

What's the secret?

Dana Bash 55:14

recipe. Well, it's secret recipe, it's. It's different, I mean. So there are people who just do it in the jar right right, I don't do like the carp in the bathtub or anything like that no, of course not but somebody did because and then when they are done with it, they there's like this frozen loaf you could get at the kosher butcher or the kosher market and it says do not defrost, right, I defrost it, okay.

Dana Bash 55:37

And then I put um carrot like I uh great carrot and I and I put spinach in there and then I bake it yeah, wow, but you have to make sure not to get the sugar-free kind. The sugar-free kind is terrible.

Periel 55:51

Sugar-free kind, what, what they have sugar-free gefilte fish now, which is not good, you guys, but the sugar is a lot, but the sugar and the gefilte fish is very minimal.

Modi 55:59

Very minimal.

Dana Bash 56:00

So you bake it and then you put it in the fridge. Yeah, that's a thing that gefilte fish has to be cold it has to be cold and you need the purple horseradish stuff. You like purple, not white.

Leo 56:10

No, no, no the red.

Periel 56:18

The, I like the red one. I feel like this should be like something that like, if you want to really like, become like part of the tribe, you have to eat gefilte fish it's not that bad.

Modi 56:24

Jake Cohen was cooking with Katie Couric. I want to cook with you. Can we go cook somewhere together?

Dana Bash 56:31

okay, I want you to know that I Allie's laughing.

Modi 56:33

Allie's laughing. She's like she doesn't cook. I don't cook. Allie's laughing.

Dana Bash 56:35

She's like she doesn't cook, but you guys could make a filter fish. I make two things in my life. I make two things.

Modi 56:38

Okay, so you'll come over. And what are they? You do the filter fish.

Dana Bash 56:42

I do the filter fish and I make really good challah French toast.

Leo 56:46

That's a good thing to have up your sleeve. That's a thing, that's a.

Periel 56:49

Thing.

Leo 56:59

Even I can cook. I just wait a second.

Periel 57:01

I want you guys to make a filter fish.

Modi 57:04

Let's do it let's do it, I'm into it. I'm into a filter fish moment. Absolutely, that would be really cute.

Periel 57:09

I'm in for that.

Dana Bash 57:10

So how does your mom make it? Do you know?

Modi 57:12

I don't know, but she makes it amazing.

Dana Bash 57:13

She probably does like the carpet in the bathtub. She does that. She has the loaf.

Modi 57:17

My mom calls them stink bombs because the house stinks. It does yeah.

Periel 57:22

Nobody is allowed to make food in the bathtub.

Dana Bash 57:25

That is non-hygienic. No, it's the live fish. You have to grind the fish. Allie's like going to puke.

Modi 57:31

My grandmother had the fish in the bathtub. Do you remember that? Do you have a memory of that? And then she put it in this paper and smashed it and killed it. Yes, oh that was my.

Dana Bash 57:37

My father has memories of his grandmother doing that.

Modi 57:40

Yeah.

Dana Bash 57:40

So you actually saw that.

Modi 57:42

I saw the fish. Wow, my mom bought live. I actually prefer the fish to the bathtub.

Leo 57:45

It sounds less processed, it's more farm to table.

Periel 57:48

Yeah.

Leo 57:49

You've heard of farm to table. Here's bathtub to table.

Periel 57:58

Yes, nivea in the fish's mouth. If it tastes like Old Spice, it's because that's my body wash and there's like little hairs in there, stop Nasty.

Leo 58:04

I wrote some really serious questions that we didn't get to Go ahead.

Modi 58:07

Let's just give us another flame. Now they're lame because Go ahead, because we went off the.

Leo 58:12

My sister is a journalist. She works for a watchdog group that covers New York City public schools.

Modi 58:21

Shout out to Christina.

Dana Bash 58:22

And shout out to Christina what's the name of her group. I'm going to have to insert that here because it's changed, I think.

Leo 58:30

As a leading woman in political journalism, what advice do you have for young women aspiring to work in media, especially political reporting? Young women aspiring to work in media especially political reporting.

Dana Bash 58:45

Um, try to turn off or tune out the noise, because there's a lot of it. And um, it's much better than it used to be for women, but we still have to work like a tick or 10 times harder than men do to get the same recognition. But don't let that distract you. And the other thing that I would say is and I feel so lucky that I have fantastic female colleagues and mentors in a way that, like my mom started out in TV news, she was in it for like a nanosecond.

Leo 59:18

Oh really.

Dana Bash 59:19

Nanosecond and she was in the 60s. She graduated from journalism school and there was like a spot for a woman. It was like the quota. So, all the women would fight each other to get the spot, and so it was a total snake pit. It's the opposite now, and we really support each other. So I think that is like look at the other women who do what you do as your colleagues and your friends and your mentors, and we have like a sisterhood and it's really nice and it helps a lot very nice, that's very nice very nice

Leo 59:50

a side note, I'm obsessed with caitlin collins not the whole focus from.

Periel 59:53

You but, he also go ahead. I'm sorry, that's all. That's all I have to say no but we, I would you are the, the brand you dana bash you.

Modi 1:00:04

You're it, but obviously there's a team yeah and we okay. So when you do this is not like some comic that we have on.

Dana Bash 1:00:12

This is cnn senior correspondent although I think I'm the funniest person I know.

Modi 1:00:17

Okay.

Dana Bash 1:00:19

Which we'll give it to you. A lot of people don't agree with.

Modi 1:00:22

I'm in on that, but like we, so we had to do a Zoom with your publicist, leo Fell, in Love.

Dana Bash 1:00:28

With Dylan. Should we give her a shout out Dylan, Dylan.

Leo 1:00:30

if you want to come on open invite. Oh my God. Or if you just want to get a drink, girl, the.

Modi 1:00:35

Zoom began, the Zoom began. She's there with this hair. How's her hair? Almost a little Bobby, jennifer, aniston-y, whatever, and the Oxford shirt kind of loose, and in the background you see her sofa with the CNN throw pillow. Leo was done.

Periel 1:00:53

Leo was.

Modi 1:00:54

I'm in love with this woman. Leo loves any woman that's in control, with a clipboard and an earpiece.

Leo 1:01:00

That's all he wants. I want to vote for a party. I would vote for a party planner to be president 100% A wedding planner. They should be the ones running for office and running the government.

Dana Bash 1:01:11

It's a variation of this. I always say that if I had not been a producer, I could never be a mom, Like I don't understand how people are parents without working in our business.

Leo 1:01:21

Oh my.

Dana Bash 1:01:23

Because you have to produce your life. You have to produce the partner, you have to produce the kids, you have to produce the. You know the pickups and the drop-offs and the sign-ups and the da-da-da-da-da, and the Ubers and everything.

Modi 1:01:33

It's so amazing.

Dana Bash 1:01:34

It's the same kind of deal like you have to be on it we have to finish.

Modi 1:01:36

Oh, my god, we have to finish. I cannot thank you enough, I know, yeah, I wish you. I wish you a happy, healthy new year full of Moshiach energy. Everything you do should bring unity and happiness and peace, and we should just all be happy. That's my blessing to you and everybody that's listening to this right after or before Rosh Hashanah. And the best way to create Moshiach energy is to get tickets. And it's not just for you, but for your friends, and we are in.

Dana Bash 1:02:05

Yes.

Modi 1:02:05

Everywhere the tour is released. It's online modilivecom. We have Buffalo, toronto, houston, hartford, austin. There's a lot. There's a lot. Find a show near you, find a show near your friends, send it to them and let them know and get tickets for them and all that. And if you're not like a crazy political person, but you know someone who is, this is an amazing read. Leo loved it. Leo, there we go, hi.

Leo 1:02:35

America's Deadly Election. A cautionary tale of the most violent election in American history.

Modi 1:02:40

That's right a great read for people who who understand and can read.

Leo 1:02:46

Yeah, and for everyone. How about that? You just leave it at that thank you so so much thank you, shanah Tovah, shanah Tovah.

Modi 1:02:55

Happy, healthy New Year and thank you for for sitting on the sidelines. Thank you.

Dana Bash 1:03:00

Bye everybody. She led me to the promised land of movie.

Podcast Sponsorship and New Year Wishes

Modi 1:03:08

She's the friend that brought a friend to the comedy show. I'm saying, when you see tickets on sale, don't just buy two for you and your spouse or your significant other. Get four. I bought six. You will not regret it. You and your spouse or your significant other get four. I bought six.

Periel 1:03:18

People will be looking. Yes, you will not regret it.

Modi 1:03:19

You will not regret it. I might regret it. On that note, we want to also thank our sponsors A&H Provisions, best glut kosher meats that there is out there, best number one hot dogs, all at kosherdognet and Weitz. And Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well, they do good. Super philanthropic Arthur Luxembourg, a big fan and been on the podcast, and his wife, Randy, who listens to it and advises him as to what is said on the podcast. Happy New Year everybody, Thank you.