A Trump rally clip has Los Angeles and San Diego in the crosshairs, and the most shocking part is that the crowd was cheering. Cara, Shawn, and Ethan break down what he actually said, what got cut from the viral version, and why both sides keep weaponizing clips like this to deepen the divide.
The hosts open with the Iran bombing comment controversy, unpacking the full context (it came during a riff on oil prices) and whether the media's selective editing is just as corrosive as the original remark.
From there they dig into IVP's new California survey, where Prop. 39's voter ID measure sits at a razor-thin 43% to 40% with Democrats making up most of the undecided 17%.
Additionally, a framing experiment in the insurance commissioner race found that telling voters a candidate is DSA-backed cuts undecideds from 65% down to 32% and flips the outcome dramatically among Republicans and independents.
In other news, a new report says 35 million Americans now live in a different congressional district than two years ago, including millions of Californians after the state's districts were redrawn under Prop 50.
Rep. David Valadao's redrawn district cut out his own hometown of Hanford, including his family's farm, removing 60,000 people from the seat he's won five times.
The hosts talk about all of this more in the latest episode of the Independent Voter Podcast.
This episode is sponsored by the Independent Voter Project and produced by Olas Media. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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Independent Voter Podcast