My podcast interview with Andrew Sullivan is now up, and it’s a doozy. We get into just about everything, from why he thinks Donald Trump should be removed from office, to his criticism of the #MeToo movement, to a rather heated conversation about his view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
No matter your ideology, I suspect there are points you will be nodding in agreement with Sullivan and points where you will be screaming at the podcast in rage at him.
Sullivan says, for example, that though he wants President Trump removed from office, he is fine with Mike Pence taking over.
“I’m desperate for Mike Pence to take over,” he exclaimed.
Though Joe Biden might be his preferred 2020 presidential candidate, he doesn’t think Biden could survive the scrutiny of the current #MeToo moment.
“In this climate with men with their hands over everything, I mean the man is straight out of the 1950s,” Sullivan explains. “He’s grabbed more boobs and cupped more butts than I think anybody could imagine. It’s part of his charm, of course, that he’s so unreconstructed, and I would still vote for him.”
He also thinks the #MeToo movement has gone too far.
“I just don’t think that Al Franken did anything that required him resigning from office,” he said. “I just think that was a disproportionate punishment for what seemed to be rather petty, if tawdry and kind of pathetic and not that admirable. But I don’t think it’s, ‘I have to resign from the US Senate for those reasons,’ especially not when we have a president who’s done far, far worse, bragged about it, and he’s still president.”
As for the gay rights movement, of which Sullivan has been on the forefront for decades, he thinks it’s almost outlived its purpose.
“Generally speaking, my point of view is the whole point of a civil rights movement is to end. You’ve achieved certain things. You’re done. Now get on with your lives, ” he argued. “And I think it was one of the most controversial things I ever said in the gay community early on was my goal was to shut the gay rights movement down because we’ve succeeded. And I think we almost have, and I want to shut it down after that.”
Sullivan also discussed his friendship with Matt Drudge, whom he considers a “crazy genius.” And in case you are wondering, Sullivan is still a Trig Truther. “I do not believe her story about that [Sarah Palin’s] pregnancy,” he said. “I don’t. I defy anybody to believe it.”
There is so much more in the podcast. Give it a listen.